Lives Between the Dimensions

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...

For Our Courageous Grandmother, Mahala If you had asked me who Mahala Ward Tarlton was 20 years ago, I would have had no idea.  Once, when we had a family reunion in the Old Greenville, Missouri historic park, I remember my brother and I walking through the old cemetery by the St. Francis River and one of my aunts mentioning we had some Carltons or something similar in our family tree, and that we might find one of their headstones as we strolled through the repository of remains of Wayne County's early citizenry.  It was not to be, of course. My mother had told me, several times, the story of one of one of my grandfathers being murdered during the Civil War.  The story and the details of the cowardly act upon my ancestor remained vivid throughout all the years of my adolescence  but a busy career and a family that included three sons kept the name in obscurity until well into my late 40's when my fascination began with with my ancestry in earnest.. B...

INTRODUCTION:  I remember Uncle "Doad", as he was called by family, only in the infirmity and decline of his senior years.  Theodore Roosevelt Moore was the last male heir born to Civil War and Plains Wars soldier Daniel Moore, by his last marriage to Susan Ann Tarlton.  Ted Moore had two sisters by this marriage, Bessie Edith Moore Wilson and Essie Anna Moore Dees. He recalls a pretty thorough list of all the families living in the general Rucker and Moore Communities in the early 1900's.  But of special interest to the reader might be the anecdotes he recalls of Rucker School, working a cowhide for shoestrings, and meeting at a neighbors house to make tasty treats. His contributions to the Rucker Cemetery and improvements he personally undertook are recalled but in no measure reflect the weeks, days, and hours he personally devoted, the sweat and manual labor, that were expended, to improve the cemetery in large part to what we know today.  It was a l...

 Jacob William Ragan (1894 - 1972) Jacob William "Poppa" Ragan 1963 I remember my grandfather as "Poppa" and grandmother as "Momma". Poppa was born July 21, 1894 in Toone, Hardeman County, Tennessee to Nathaniel Francis Ragan and "Nannie" Nancy Catherine McClendon Ragan, the fifth child of the ten children of this union. After his mother's death in 1906, his father remarried to Maggie Loney McCoy, and he was to share biscuits with yet another six half-brothers and one half-sister.  He was named for his maternal great-grandfather, Jacob McClendon, believed to have been properly Jacob William McClendon. His father Nathaniel was a very successful man, owning vast acreage of farm and timber, and substantial numbers of beef cattle.  Hundreds of acres were always in cotton.  He owned meat markets and grocery stores in Hardeman and Madison County, Tennessee to market his own as well as neighboring farms produce.   Unlike his ow...