Lives Between the Dimensions

T he five men stood beside their horses, reins in hand, staring without spoken word down the rock rubble of the road. Puddles in potholes were frozen with a crisp, hollow layer of ice. The road disappeared from their intense study a few hundred yards up around a curve among the sturdy trunks of a dense stand of hickory and oak. But, they stared intently nevertheless. As if the forests and hillsides did not impede their view at all of the community and homesteads a mile or so up the way. It was just after daylight and a bitter cold morning. There had been a heavy frost the night before and every mile they had covered since leaving the relative security of Mingo Swamp seemed to drain their bodies of what precious little warmth they had left. Their breaths exhaled through the woolen scarves tied around their heads, over their ears and mouths leaving clouds of steam in the stillness of the December morning in Wayne County, Missouri. Actually they weren’t scarves at all. Not anym...

GEORGE WASHINGTON TARLTON by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN · OUR TARLTON STORY--PART FOUR The middle son of General Azion Tarlton was George Washington Tarlton, the third great grandfather for reference for all the children of Ann, Bessie, and Ted Moore , born in South Carolina in 1804. And, of the three sons remaining in the county after Azion’s death , George Tarlton I am certain was the father of the Tarlton that we know best. The 1830 and 1840 censuses confirm a son of the right age for George to be the father of our Alexander C. Tarlton, my second great grandfather. Alexander is remembered by most family as the victim of a ruthless assassination in 1864 as the great Civil War drew to a conclusion. Of the other two sons of Azion, John SR does not have a son of correct birth age to be Alexander, and James has a son of the right age, but is living on land in 1840 that that is not centrally located next to the remaining Tarlton families. James and Ann, his wife, are fo...

OUR TARLTON GRANDPARENTS IN WAYNE COUNTY, MISSOURI by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN · Abandoned Estate in nearby Ralls County, Missouri OUR TARLTON STORY--PART THREE So leaving behind the rawness and danger to his growing family in Gallatin County, Illinois, between the years 1820 - 1825 General Azion Tarlton had a good part of his family in Wayne County, Missouri. There was probably another voyage down the Ohio between those years of 1820 – 1825, to its confluence with the Mississippi, then up the Mississippi to Cape Girardeau, Missouri, one of the most utilized river ports of the day. Or just possibly, but the least likely, the family may have went to the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in New Madrid, Missouri and came overland on what was to be called in later years the New Madrid to Greenville Road. I still believe the former, and the family may have stayed in that vicinity for a year or two and one son, James Tarlton definitely did, as he married Miss...

AZION TARLTON IN SHAWNEETOWN, ILLINOIS by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN · Flatboats on the Ohio by Deborah Heal OUR TARLTON STORY--PART TWO The hardships of this little band can only be imagined as they made their way along roads not much more than paths and game trails through dense virgin forests, steep mountains, swift and deep streams of every size, at a time when hostile bands of Indians still lived over much of the land. Indeed the Shawnee chief Tecumseh aligned himself with the British during the War of 1812 and Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Missouri and Illinois were dangerous places to travel or live. Tecumseh had rallied most of the remaining local tribes to join in the cause as well. And yet, our Tarltons made their way eventually to a riverbank in Gallatin County, Illinois prior to 1820. A good part of this sojourn would have necessarily been accomplished by flatboats down the Ohio River. Almost assuredly, their point of departure from the river would have been at ...

GENERAL AZION TARLTON IN YORK, SOUTH CAROLINA by KEITH WAYNE RAGAN The Battle of King's Mountain OUR TARLTON STORY--PART ONE In our direct line , General Azion Tarlton is the earliest that can be positively identified. It may be that his first name of General is a given name and not reference to military rank., but if so, may relate to a former family member of that rank--his namesake if you will. Cletis Ellinghouse in his book regarding Wayne County, MINGO , does cover quite a bit, at least generally, in recognition of the Tarltons entrance to Wayne County, but he believed General Tarlton and Azion Tarlton brothers. There is nowhere- -in any census or probate document-- that refers to General Tarlton. That’s is because General and Azion Tarlton were one and the same individual. He preferred to be called Zion based on researched census transcriptions, and he was probably born between the years of 1771 – 1776. Our country was engaged in a full-blown war against Gr...