In my recent post on the case of Harris Melton, Native American ancestry was something to deny and be ashamed of, circa 1850's. Fast forward half a century, and for some, that perception began to change.
It started with the Dawes Act of 1887, also called The General Allotment, which allowed the President to subdivide tribal lands into "allotments", or a sort of grant given to heads of families, or single people. This was contrary to the native people's way of doing things, or their historical view of land as owned by the whole, and just territories belonging to various tribes. Now, they were being brought into capitalism, and the notion of private property. Because of this, and by the time of this, there had developed a growing group of people of mixed heritage, Native American and whatever else, especially those of European mix. The government had a job of determining who was eligible for these lands and who were not.
At first, the Five Civilized Tribes were exempt from the Dawes Act. These consisted of the Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Muscogee and Seminole. The Curtis Act of 1898 included these tribes and basically shutdown their methods of self-governance. I will not go into the devastating effects these acts had on the tribes, or the loss of land, only the side effect that infiltered Stanly County, and my own family tree.
The commission had to determine blood quantum's, and as there was a lack of records to prove or disprove what level of "Indianness" someone possessed, it was a very random procedure. Because there was financial gain of land, and sometime small pensions.
On August 23, 1907, Mary M. Hatley of Stanly County, North Carolina applied to the Court of Claims of the Eastern Cherokee for membership. She was not the only one.
Mary Miranda Sanders was the daughter of Stephen J. Sanders and Dicy Morton Sanders. She was born September 26, 1849, and was the first of their three children. She was the granddaughter of Aaron and Nancy Sanders and Hezekiah and Susanna Hathcock Morton. She married James Ruffian Hatley, and that is where the Hately name came into the picture.
On her application, 56-year-old Mary listed her tribe as the Eastern Cherokee and gave her "Indian Name" as Morton. She also listed the names, ages and year of birth of her children; Alexander Hatley, 40, Fronia Holland, 37, Sarah J Hatley, 35, Auvasia Kirk ( A.H.) Hatley, 25, Mittle Lightfoot, 21, Emma Hatley, 18 and Martin Luther "ML" Hatley, 16.
On the next page, she listed her parents, Stephen Sanders and Dicy Bowers, as her mother, Dicy Morton Sanders had married her second husband, Moses Bowers by then. She listed the year of her father's death as 1863, and that her mother's status was living, in Albemarle, NC. She listed her two siblings as Sallie Sanders Whitley, born in 1858, of Whitley, NC and her brother, William E. Sanders, 185?, age 52, of New London, NC, (both in Stanly County).
Her grandparents were listed again, Aaron and Nancy Sanders and Hezekiah Morton and Susan Ann Morton. Why the Morton's names were repeated with dashes on the first line under them, I don't know. She stated they were born in Montgomery County, now Stanly, NC and that she was born in Stanly, NC. She then listed her siblings:
James Morton - Dead
Ezekial Morton - Dead
Joseph Morton of Albemarle
Jesse Morton of Whitley, NC
Mary Fesperman of Albemarle, NC
William G Morton - Dead
In the remarks of her application, Mary wrote, "My mother is Dicy Bowers, daughter of Hezekiah Morton, whose mother was Elizabeth Morton, wife of Ezekial Morton and where name was Elizabeth Brumbelow a member of the Eastern Cherokee Indians before her intermarriage with my great grandfather, Ezekial Morton".
There were several of these, applications for membership to the tribe by descendants of Elizabeth Brumbalow. The question is, where did these Great Grandchildren and Grand Children get the idea that she was Cherokee? And was she?
Rev. Ezekial Morton and Elizabeth Brumbalow Morton were among my 5th Great Grandparents. That far back, I would carry only a small fraction of their DNA, if any at all. However, these closer generations seemed sure of it. Elizabeth B. Morton was born January 7, 1775, and died on July 26, 1856, in Oakboro, NC. Her parents were Edward and Elizabeth Brumbalow, who died around 1810. She lived long enough for most of her Grandchildren and perhaps some of her Great Grandchildren, to have known her personally. The rumor of Cherokee ancestry had to have come from somewhere, and I believe it is the source of the rumor passed down to this day, of several western Stanly oriented families with surnames like Morton, Almond, Burris, Burleyson, Hatley, Whitley, Honeycutt and others, that they have Native American ancestry.
One young lady among this stock of names asked me a few years ago asked me to look into her family tree to find her Indian ancestor. While she looked no part indigenous, her father is indeed a dark-skinned, dusky looking fellow. The only possible link back to any possibility of indigenous heritage I found for her in five generations was the Mortons.
J. R. Price, an attorney took the Morton claims to Washington in 1907. Their proof was vague, just family lore that perhaps had stemmed from Elizabeth Brumbalow, herself, but from whatever the source, it was exiguous, and not enough to secure the family membership to the tribe. Again, it was claimed, not proven and not accepted. This does not mean it was not true, but yet again, it doesn't prove that it was.
An article came out about the time, that a grandson, Rev. D. S. Morton, and claimed that he denied the heritage, then he went on to contradict himself.
Stanly News and Press
Albemarle, North Carolina •
Thu, Aug 29, 1907
Page 3
"I remember Grand-mama very well. She was a devout Christian. her maiden name was Bromblo, but she was not the only one of that name who lived in this country."
"Grand-mama was dark complected but no darker than many other people whom I have seen. She possibly might have been related to the Indians. I do not know."
He goes on to state that if he is related to Indians, he is not ashamed but hopes people would not be misled by such a legendary story.
Over a decade ago, I started a project called, "The Indians of Stanly County". The object of this project was to trace the lineage of some Stanly County families known to me who were visibly dark-skinned and try to find where their duskiness may have originated.
The Chandlers had one member who had migrated west into the mountains from their Davidson County origins and returned back home with an "Indian" bride by the surname of Bell. This family would move afterwards to Stanly County from the upper Badin Lake region of the Davidson and Montgomery County border. Later research shows the Bell family may have actually been Melungeon, as that name exists in their midst and DNA shows a healthy trace of both Amerindian and African ancestry.
A branch of the Almond family had a fairly recent ancestor who was part of a small remnant group of Native Americans who lived in the upper South Carolina counties of Marlboro and Chesterfield.
Two families had recent ancestors that were part of the Lumbee tribes.
Several others had no clear Native American ancestors, but led back to, wait for it...the Morton family.
Some had one particular ancestor in common, a man named William Riley Morton.
One Underwood family descended from William R. Morton (18 Jan 1902 - 20 Apr 1967), who was a son of William Riley Morton (13 Jul 1860 - 22 Mar 1950). He would have been the living generations' Great Grandfather, those in their 60's now.
A Bowers family descended from Nara Lee Poplin (24 Feb 1916- 25 Dec. 1977), who was the daughter of Jonah Lee Poplin (1896-1959) and Selma Morton Poplin (3 March 1896- 3 Feb 1975).
Selma Morton Poplin was a daughter of the same William Riley Morton (1860-1950). In this case, he would have been the Great, Great-Grandfather of the living generation in their 50's and 60's now.
William Riley Morton must have been a dark featured, olive-skinned fellow. He also enjoyed a long life of nearly 90's years, born early enough to have had vague memories of the Civil War as a small boy and living through both World Wars and into the age of the riveting 1950's. He and his wife, Nancy Winfred Dick were a very philoprogenitive couple, producing a family of 9 children:
1893-1974 Cevilla Morton Talbert
1896-1975 Selma Morton Poplin
1897-1962 Benjamin Franklin Morton
1900-1896 David Hasten Morton
1902-1967 William R. Morton Jr.
1904-1982 John Floyd Morton
1906-1971 Albert Kirk Morton
1909-1994 Raymond Alexander Morton
1912-1989 Nancy Magnolia Curlee
This William R. Morton was the son of John Wesley Morton (1829-1870) and Lydia Adeline Ledbetter Morton, (1833-1909), daughter of Albert Ledbetter and Temperance Jane Tucker Ledbetter, whom I have touched on in my Big Lick posts.
John Wesley Morton was the son of Joseph Calvin Morton (1801-1889) and Margaret Ann Hatley (1807-1889).
Joseph Calvin Morton was the son of Rev. Ezekial John Morton (1770-1834) and Elizabeth Betsy Brumbalow (1775-1856).
There was an Efird family with the same circumstances, dark, swarthy complexion, indigenous features, considered white and stemming from known white families. Where did the dark genes come from? Again, I found Mortons in their line, and no clear lineage other than that of anything but European heritage.
This line stems from Walter Haywood Morton (1895-1951) who married Mary Lucy Honeycutt (1903-1998).
Walter was the son of Adam Archie Morton (1859-1946) and Arwelder Magdalene (Crisco, Honeycutt or Hinson) (1865-1930).
Adam was the son of Allen Green Morton, Sr. (1827-1894) and Elizabeth Burris (1827-1912).
Allen G. Morton was the son of ...well we're back to Ezekial Morton and Betsy Brumbalow again.
Anyone seeing a pattern here?
And the Honeycutt's? They descended from an entirely different William Riley Morton. This William R. Morton (1879-1933) married Rebecca Cagle (1882-1967) and also fathered a large family.
W. R. was the son of Enoch Willis Morton (1850-1927) who married Francis Springer (1852-1923).
Enoch was the son of Allen Green Morton and Elizabeth Burris, mentioned above, who of course leads back to the same couple, Ezekial and Betsy Brumbalow Morton.
Genetics are a crap shoot. A red head can pop up from nowhere. One kid can be short like his mother's dad and his brother tall like his own father. You never know, despite some being recessive and others dominate. Darker genes tend to dominate, brown eyes over blue ones, brunette over blonde, dark skin over fair, but there are exceptions. Could the darker skin of an indigenous heritage have made its way down the generations from Betsy Brumbalow to certain of her descendants, but not others? It's certainly possible, that's the way things work. We carry tiny pieces of those who came before us, and at some point, pieces of others that came before us fall off as we can't hold them all, but that doesn't mean they are not our predecessors, we are.
Could what Betsy's grandchildren believed of her be true? I think it could be.
I've found that all are in agreement that Ezekial Morton and his wife, Betsy (Elizabeth Brumbelow Morton), had at a minimum a dozen children. Some family trees add a 13th child and others, even add a 14th. I'm here today to explore one of them, to which my DNA gives a little creedence. The paper trail of the descendants of Ezekial Morton and Elizabeth Brumbelow Morton is a little rusty.
Ezekial and Betsy frist show up in the census records of North Carolina as a young married couple living in Anson County with one young son under 10, and both of them were under 25 years of age.
Name:
Ezekiel Morton
Home in 1800 (City, County, State):
Fayetteville, Anson, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 10:
1 John D.
Free White Persons - Males - 16 thru 25:
1 Ezekial
Free White Persons - Females - 16 thru 25:
1 Betsy
Number of Household Members Under 16:
1
Number of Household Members:
3
That son should be John D. Morton, born in 1799.
Name:
Ezekiel Morton
Home in 1810 (City, County, State):
Palmer, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 10:
2 William & Hezekiah
Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 15:
2 John & Joseph
Free White Persons - Males - 26 thru 44:
1 Ezekial
Free White Persons - Females - Under 10:
1 Hannah
Free White Persons - Females - 26 thru 44:
1 Betsy
Number of Household Members Under 16:
5
Number of Household Members Over 25:
2
Number of Household Members:
7
Ten years later, in 1810, the young family has moved to the area of Palmer in what was then Montgomery County, NC, and is now Stanly County, NC. Listed on that same page of families living in "Palmer" were John Burrows, Solomon Burrow (Burris), Ambrose Huneycutt, Henry Underwood, Dempsey Hathcock, Edward Almond, Malichi Harwood, Hardy Hatley, William Hatley, Martin Almond, Isaac Burleson, Jacob Greene, Demarcus Palmer, and Thomas Castles, all very familiar names to anyone who has done any research at all on the families living in the western part of the county, around the present communities of Red Cross, Endy, Frog Pond or Big Lick.
The family size is now 7, they have 2 sons between 10 and 15 and two under 10, and just one daughter under 10. We can easily presume these 5 to be John (1799) and Joseph (1801) as the 10 to 15, Betsy probably being pregnant with Joseph at the time of the last census, William (1802) and Hezekiah (1803) as the under 10 year old sons, and Hannah (1810) as the only daughter, keeping in mind that record and age-keeping in those days was not always an exact science, although certain old tombstones had age down to nearly the minute.
Name:
Egeril Morton[Ezekiel Morton]
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):
West Side Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 5:
2 Levi C. and Allen G. (1825 & 1827)
Free White Persons - Males - 5 thru 9:
1 Ezekial John (1822)
Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19:
1 Jesse (1811)
Free White Persons - Males - 50 thru 59:
1 Ezekial
Free White Persons - Females - 10 thru 14:
2 Susanna & Nancy (1818 & 1816)
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19:
1 Dicey (1813)
Free White Persons - Females - 40 thru 49:
1 Betsy
Free White Persons - Under 20:
7
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:
1
Total Free White Persons:
9
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored):
9
The 1820 census for Montgomery is missing, so there is a 20 year jump to the 1830 census. In 20 years, a child could have been born, married and out on there own, especially if that child was a girl. I've borne witness to that in my own family tree, especially in between the 1880 and 1900 census's as most of the 1890 census was lost to fire.
The Ezekial Morton family in 1830 was a family of 9, but this was not complete as the older children were in their 20's and 30's and out on their own, starrting their own families. He is now noted as living on the West Side of the Pee Dee River, the area we now call Stanly County. There are 3 young females and 4 males.
There are a total of 14 Morton families in Montgomery County in 1830. They are divided into "East Pee Dee", the side that remained Montgomery County, and "West Pee Dee", the side that would become Stanly County.
East Pee Dee boasted the households of David Jr., Dominick, Edward, Jincy, and Thomas.
West Pee Dee contained the households of Ezekial, George, James, 2 Johns, Joseph, Samuel P. and two Williams.
I must mention here that Samuel P. Morton was none other than the Rev. Samuel Parsons Morton, and another ancestor of mine on my mother's side of the family. While he was buried at Red Hill Church in Anson County, he was born and grew up around Ebenezer Church in Stanly. Ebnezer is now Badin Baptist and slap dab in the middle of the town of Badin, which was not in existence when GGGGGrandpa 'Crying Sammy' was born.
With this knowledge, I can divide the Stanly County Mortons into two basic groups, the Badin area/ Eastern Stanly Mortons and the Red Cross/ Big Lick Western Stanly Mortons.
For instance, James Morton and Samuel P. Morton were listed within a few households of each other. So was one of the John's and one of the Wills.
Joseph, was of course, my line to Ezekial, his second born son.
Name:
Joseph Morton
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):
West Side Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 5:
2
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29:
1
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5:
1
Free White Persons - Females - 20 thru 29:
1
Free White Persons - Under 20:
3
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:
2
Total Free White Persons:
5
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored):
5
So we have Joseph as a young man in his 20's and he and his wife have 3 little children under 5.
Name:
John Marton[]
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):
West Side Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 5:
1 Joseoph Calvin 3 (1827) named for Johns' brother.
Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19:
1 Unknown, maybe a hired hand, maybe a family member hired to help with the farm.
Free White Persons - Males - 30 thru 39:
1 John D.
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5:
2 Minty 4 (1826) Sarah 1 (1829)
Free White Persons - Females - 5 thru 9:
2 Betsy 6 (1824)
Free White Persons - Females - 20 thru 29:
1 Sarah, his wife
Free White Persons - Under 20:
6
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:
2
Total Free White Persons:
8
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored):
8
Of the two John Mortons, one has a household of 6 and lives two homesteads from Samuel P. Morton, the other has a household of 8 and lives among Western Stanly names and one page over from Ezekial. My bets are on the family of 8 John being John D. Morton, Ezekial's oldest son. The age of the children work, with just one out of place.
Name:
Will Morton[]
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):
Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 5:
1 Alexander
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29:
1 William
Free White Persons - Females - Under 5:
3 Unknown
Free White Persons - Females - 20 thru 29:
1 Frances
Free White Persons - Under 20:
4
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:
2
Total Free White Persons:
6
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored):
6
Of the two Will Morton's, one lives two households from Sammy, the other lives actually in Tyson community. I would place my bets on this Will being the son of Ezekial. The problem with this, is that the census shows 3 little girls under 5. If this is the right William, those little girls are unknown.
Name:
John Folks
Home in 1830 (City, County, State):
Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - Under 5:
1
Free White Persons - Males - 20 thru 29:
1 John Fowlkes
Free White Persons - Females - 15 thru 19:
1 Hannah
Free White Persons - Under 20:
2
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:
1
Total Free White Persons:
3
Total - All Persons (Free White, Slaves, Free Colored):
3
The last of Ezekial's older children to be found on their own is his oldest daughter, Hannah. She married with a small son, and not yet 20.
The one known child of Ezekial not accounted for in this census was Hezekiah. Perhaps he was the additional young man in John's household, however, he should have been a bit older.
This brings up the subject of the George Morton in the 1830 census. This George is between 40 and 50 years old. This is definitely NOT George C. Morton.
By 1840, Ezekial Morton has passed away and Betsy is listed as the Head of Household.
Name:
Betsy Martin[Betsy Morton]
Home in 1840 (City, County, State):
West Pee Dee River, Montgomery, North Carolina
Free White Persons - Males - 10 thru 14:
1 Allen G.
Free White Persons - Males - 15 thru 19:
2 Ezekial J. & Levi C.
Free White Persons - Females - 20 thru 29:
1 Susannah
Free White Persons - Females - 60 thru 69:
1 Betsy
Persons Employed in Agriculture:
2
No. White Persons over 20 Who Cannot Read and Write:
1
Free White Persons - Under 20:
3
Free White Persons - 20 thru 49:
1
Total Free White Persons:
5
Total All Persons - Free White, Free Colored, Slaves:
5
There are now 11 Morton household listed in Montgomery County. We can break them down into West Pee Dee and East Pee Dee, as they were enumerated separately. The ones listed in West Pee Dee were: Betsy, David Jr. (another David was in East Pee Dee), Hezekiah, Jessee, John, Joseph, Samuel P., William and William Sr. No sign of a George. Hezekiah, Jessee, John and Joseph were of course, sons of Ezekial and Betsy. Of the two Williams, one was living fairly close to Joseph and very close to Green D. Morgan, who married his sister, Dicey, and Mark Morgan, who married his sister Nancy. The other William, by virture of his neighbors, John Melton, G. W. Thompson, Kirks and others, seemed to be living around the Swift Island area, so we'll peg him as being the East Stanly William Morton. The other two Mortons on the Eastern side of West Pee Dee were GGGGGrandpa Samuel P. Morton and David Jr.
By 1850, the Mortons had expanded all over the county as sons and grandsons struck out on their own. Hezekiah was no more, but left his widow, Susannah, with their children. Betsy was still alive and living with her son, Allen Green (or Green Allen, it was interchangeble) Morton and his young family. They were right next door to her son, ( my line), Joseph and Margaret Almond, and oldest son John's son, (Joseph) Calvin Morton (Jr.), named for his uncle.
I don't see where George Crogan Pemberton "Pem" Morton fits in. We do find George for the first time in a census in 1850, where he is living with his wife, Mary, and their little girl in Harris Township, which is the Northeastern section of the county.
This is probably the land he bought on December 14 1849, just months before this census was taken, from David Safely. In Book 3, Page 6, of the Stanly County Deed Books, we see where George bought 82 acres for $82 from David Safely that was located on both sides of the Salisbury Road and on the waters of Grassy Creek, meeting the property line of Wiley Safely.
Just two years later, on February 11, 1851, he bought 40 acres for $100 from Noah Thompson and his wife, Tabitha, that seems to have adjoined the previously purchased property. This lot, obviously much more valueable due to the purchase price for half the size, was also located on both sides of the Salisbury Road and both sides of Grassy Creek and also ran with Wiley Safely's line.
But the 1849 deed was not the first record I find for George Morton in Stanly County, instead, he is first found in the Minutes of the Pleas and Quarters Court in the February 1846 Session on a charge of Bastardy. George C. P. Morton, about 26 years old, had fathered a child out of wedlock with one Polly Kirk, about 18. He was ordered to pay $30 at the May 1846 term of court, $15 at the May 1847 term of court and $15 at the May 1848 term of court.
The child was a little girl that Polly Kirk named Eliza Sophronia Kirk (Morton).
In 1850, she and her mother, Mary "Polly" Smith Kirk, were living with Polly's family in a home headed by her younger brother, Parham, with their mother, Sarah Stone Kirk, and their youngest brother, William Deberry Kirk.
Mary Smith Kirk did not stay single, Smith being her middle name, and not her maiden name, by the way. On February 25, 1853, Mary S. Kirk, now 25, married Rev. John Wesley Middleton, son of John Littlleton and Betsy Carter Littleton.
In 1860, Eliza was still living with her Grandmother and Uncle Parham, while her mother had started a family with Rev. Littleton.
Eliza ended up getting married, herself, on September 8, 1869 to John M. Jenkins. She was 23. Eliza named her parents as G. C. Morton and Mary S. Littleton.
Eliza Sophronia Kirk Morton Jenkins lived a long and productive life. She and John Jenkins raised a family of 7 children in the New London area, where Eliza died at the age of 84 on June 16, 1830. They were: Parham (1870), Sarah Elizabeth (1873),Mary Ada (1875),Sophronia Tommie (1878), Dora Kron (1872), William M. (1876), and Charles E. (1887).
She, and her family, fully knew who her parents were, even though her father had left for Missouri in 1855. We last (and first) saw George in 1850 with a wife, Mary and a daughter, Sarah. Somewhere around 1848, after his bond payments, or court-ordered child support, for Eliza Sophronia Kirk stopped, he married another Mary Kirk.
Mary Smith Kirk Littleton was born on February 27, 1828 and died on July 4, 1886 in Stanly County.
She was the daughter of Parham Kirk (1782-1854) and Sarah Elizabeth Stone Kirk (1802-1884).
The Mary "Polly" Kirk he married was born November 12, 1826 in Stanly County, NC and died Oct 17, 1887 in Webster County, Missouri.
She was the daughter of Alexander Kirk (1797 - 1858) and Louisa Forrest Kirk (1802-1881).
Since Parham Kirk Sr. and Alexander Kirk were brothers, sons of John Lewis Kirak and wife, Sarah Mary Steele, Kirk, that made the two Polly Kirk's first cousins. So to wrap all of that up, in 1846, George C. Morton had a relationship with Polly Kirk, daughter of Parham that resulted in the birth of a little girl, Eliza. He then married her older cousin, Polly Kirk, daughter of Alexander. Both girls even had brothers named Parham. Got that?
So, lets go back to 1850 for a minute. George and family lived in Harris Township. The previous December, he had purchased land on Grassy Creek along the Salisbury Road, from David Safely. His closest neighbors were Parkers, Carters, Calloways, Millers, Kirks and Crowells. That helps to place whereabouts he lived.
Name:
George C Merton
Residence Date:
1850
Residence Place:
Harris and Ridenhour, Stanly, North Carolina, USA
Number of Enslaved People:
2
There was another detail about George C. Morton that set him apart from the Ezekial Morton family, he owned 2 slaves. Ezekial and his family did not. I do not know if the two enslaved people came to him through his wife, Polly, as some of the Kirks were slave owners, but in 1850, George is listed with a 35 year man and a 15 year old boy.
So here begins a bit of mystery, between 1851 and 1860, George and family moved to Missouri. The mystery is that there is no record of him selling his land before he moved. What happed to the land?
The 1860 census shows him in Marshfield, Webster County, Missouri, working as a House Carpenter, with Mary and 5 children. The older 3 children, Sarah, Martha and Adam, were born in North Carolina, and the younger two, Nancy and Robert, were born in Missouri.
George Morton was registered for the draft in Missouri as a Mechanic and birth year of 1819. Also from North Carolina was a David Melton. They likely had traveled together.
George died in Webster County, Missouri on February 28, 1864. I can not determine if his death was the result of anything having to do with the Civil War or not, for cetiain, but there are hints that it was. He was 44 years old. All I can find is that he served in a Civilian capacity and credited with providing supplies. Missouri was a hotbed of division in those years.
The Mortons had settled in Marshville, the county seat of Webster County, Missouri, about the time it was founded, in 1855. Webster County is located "on the summit of the Ozark Range", and noted for being well-watered and of pleasant climate.
During the Civil War, the area was divided by persons supporting both sides and others attempting to stay out of the melee altogether. George Morton died near the end of the War, at the age of 44, so I don't know what his level of participation was in it. He has no record of serving as a soldier, but in this area of neighbor against neighbor, it appears he might have gotten caught up in it as a civilian casualty. He was briefly mentioned in the 1889 book , "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas, Pulaski, Phelps, and Dent Counties, Missouri" published by The Goodspeed Publishing Company, in a paragraph concerning his future son-in-law, William A. Martin.
William A. Martin. Among the men of Webster county, Mo., who have
attained prominence as tillers of the soil and stock men, may be men-
tioned Mr. Martin, who was born in Marion county, Tenn., March 19, 1841
but was reared to manhood in Webster county, Mo., whither he came with
his parents, James D. and Catherine (Thompson) Martin, in 1852. The
father was born in Virginia, and after attaining manhood went to Tenn.,
where he was married, and after a few years' residence in that state,
moved to St. Louis county, Mo. In August, 1861 he joined Company B,
Twenty-fourth Missouri Infantry, and served until his death in May,
1864 at Pleasant Hill, La. William A. Martin enlisted at the same time
in the same company as his father, and was at the battle of Pleasant
Hill, and in a great many skirmishes, and was severely wounded in the
right shoulder by a gunshot at the former engagement, being in the
hospital at New Orleans and Memphis for about five months. He received
his discharge at St. Louis, January 11, 1865, homesteading the same
year the farm of 200 acres where he now lives. He has about 150 acres
under cultivation and well improved, and his farm is situated about
eight miles from Marshfield. He has always supported the measures of
the Republican party, and in the fall of 1884 was nominated and elected
sheriff of Webster county, and ably filled the duties of that office
for two years. Since then he has resided on his farm. February 19,
1865 he was married to Miss Mary L. Turner, who died in Webster county,
on the 16th of April, 1868, and he took for his second wife Miss Sarah
L. Morton, a native of North Carolina, and daughter of George Morton,
who died during the war. Two children were born to his first marriage,
Laura M. and Charles F. The following are the children of his last
marriage: Mary S., and James P. and Matilda C. (twins). Mrs. Martin
is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and he belongs to the
A. O. U. W. and G. A. R.
From "History of Laclede, Camden, Dallas, Webster, Wright, Texas,
Pulaski, Phelps and Dent Counties, Missouri" The Goodspeed Publishing
Company, 1889.
"Miss Sarah L. Morton, a native of North Carolina, and daughter of George Morton, who died during the war."
From the 'Ozarks Civil War' Collection, I found the following information at the following link:
When the Civil War began, most residents did not want to get involved in the conflict. There were very few slaveholders in the county, so there were few strong feelings on the slavery issue. However, after the Confederate victory at Battle of Wilson’s Creek, residents began to choose sides. The Confederate troops began to victimize the residents who supported the Union, and by August of 1861, most pro-Union residents fled to Rolla. They did not return to the area until it was back in Union control.
And after the War, the citizens went into a veil of silence, wanting to forget the terror and tragedy of War, and to return to an era of peace and to rebuild and reestablish their quiet and solemn existence.
With George gone, the story moves on with his widow, Mary and their children, some who had been born since the 1960 census.
Mary 'Polly' Kirk, daughter of Alexander and Ludie Forrest Kirk and wife of George C. Morton
1870
Mary Kirk Morton had been joined in a community of women by her mother, Louisa Forrest Kirk and her younger sister, Francis.
Her older daughter, Sarah Louisa Morton, had already married William A. Martin and started her own family. Son Robert, an infant in 1860, is not in the household, so he evidentally died as a child. She still has Martha Jane, Adam S, Nancy Paralee and her two sons, Isaham Pemberton and George Parham Morton, who were born after the census. In fact, Mary was pregnant with George Parham, who was born on July 1, 1864, when George C. Morton, his father, died on February 28, 1864. My heart goes out to this strong pioneer woman.
Marshfield, Webster County, Missouri
These families were caught in the crossfire of warring factions in an area that was of primarily Union sympathies and occupation, with sizeble pockets of Confederate Guerrillas, and marauding bands of deserters, bushwhackers and jayhawks, all raiding and robbing the local citizens for supplies.
But Polly was not alone. Not only was she joined by her mother and sister, Francis "Franky" Kirk, a closer look at the 1870 census reveals she was living right next door to Nancy Calloway from North Carolina.
Nancy was also a sister of Mary and a daughter of Louisa Forrest Kirk.
Nancy had married Parham Calloway, also from the Eastern side of Stanly County, NC. You might notice the name "Parham" was quite common in these families, hailing back to an earlier family name of perhaps a common female ancestor.
Add to that, Sarah L. Morton Martin, George and Polly's oldest girl, is living in High Prairie, Webster County, just east of Marshfeild, and right next door to Isaac Calloway.
All in all, I found 3 Calloway brothers who had migrated at the same time as George Morton to Webster County; Parham, his brother-in-law, Robert Smith Calloway and Isaac Freeman Calloway. Add David F. Melton to that and one can begin to envison a Wagon Train from Stanly County, NC to Webster County, MO.
Wagon Train by R. G. Williams
It's worth a mention that Mary's sister Martha, had married Henry Harrison Melton, a probable cousin of David.
The Calloway brothers were the sons of Col. John M. Calloway and his wife , Elizabeth Smith. Col. John M. Calloway was the brother of my ancestor, Job Calloway. They lived roughly in the area we know call Badin, in Stanly County. Job's daughter, Vashti, married Rev. Samuel Parsons Morton and became my 4th Great Grandparents, as I have previously mentioned. Remember that.
Isaac Freeman Calloway and wife Louisa Shook
Finding Nancy Kirk Calloway opened up a narrative that also opens a window to the life and death of George Morton and family.
Parham Calloway served in the Webster County Home Guard, along with his brother, Isaac Freeman Calloway, aka "Freeman", and their nephew, Newton M. Calloway, son of their older brother, Robert Smith Calloway, who seems to have arrived in Webster County, first, via Tennesee, where Newton was born.
Freeman survived, but Parham was killed the same year as George Morton, 1864, just a few months later, later, in June. So Mary and her sister Nancy were widowed about the same time, and both Civil War widows. It seems all of the Webster County Home Guard with Stanly and Montgomery County origins that I can find, were on the Union side.
Name:
P... Callaway
Side:
Union
Regiment State/Origin:
Missouri
Regiment:
Webster County Regiment, Missouri Home Guard
Company:
C
Rank In:
Private
Rank Out:
Private
Film Number:
M390 roll 8
It is unknown what skirmish or incidents took the lives of Parham Calloway and George C. Morton, but breif synopses of the families experiences exists within family stories kept alive through papers and memories passed on through the generations.
Restored Calloway Cabin, Webster County, Missouri
The cabin of Parham and Nacy Calloway still exists and has been lovingly restored by the county of Webster.
Some history of the cabin and its restoration can be found in the link below.
A story passed down through the family is breifly mentioned in the link, but is told in more detail below, posted by Earlene Price on July 22, 2011 as recounted from the papers of Mary Calloway Downer.
During the Civil War, Parham and Nancy Callaway lost most of their livestock to marauding parties. Not long after Parham's death and a short time before the Battle of Hartville, a number of Confederate troops were camped at the springs along the Marshfield-Hartville road. They somehow found out about two bay mares that Nancy had hidden and sent a detachment to get them. Nancy would not tell them where the mares were, so the troops searched the premises. When they could not find them, they went back to the house and told Nancy if she didn't tell where the horses were hiddden they would take the daughter (Mary Ann) who was about 16 years old. Nancy then relented and told them where the horses were hidden. After they found the horses, they went back to the house and told Nancy that if she would send her "little boy," (James P. aged 14) to the camp with them, they would give him some horses. He was given two very poor horses with harness and saddle sores so bad they were useless to the army. James took them home, healed the sores and put some flesh on their bones. They made a good team for a number of years.
(This story was found among the effects of Mary Callaway Downer.)
It is not hard to imagine the Mortons livng in a similar cabin and Mary Kirk Morton experiencing similar horrors as her sister during the war years.
1880 and beyond
The restoration years of the 1880's find Polly living in High Prairie with her two youngest sons, George and Isham.
The family seems to have made themselves a little community in the high meadows of the North Ozark hills. Son Adam and his young family lived next door and oldest daughter , Sarah Martin and her family lived nearby.
This would be Mary's last census. She outlived George, but did not live a long life. Mary "Polly" Kirk Morton died on October 17, 1887, at the age of 60. She was buried in the Moore Family Cemetery in Webster County, Missouri.
This brings me back to the begining, to the reason for this post, an answer to the question: Was George Crogin Pemberton Morton a son of Ezekial Morton and Besty Brumbalow Morton?
My guess would be No.
I don't find anything that connects him to that family or their circle. One thing you find out in genealogy is that certian connected families seemed to run in circles, even from one state to another. Families that were connected in Virginia, stayed connected and intermarried in the Carolinas, then the same on to Arkansas or Alabama, then on to Texas and further west.
But this begs a further question; if George was not a son of Ezekial and Betsy, why am I related to, or share DNA with, several of his descendants, as they show up in my Thru-Lines?
I believe I have an answer to that.
George C. Morton did have a circle of his own. He was connected to the Kirk and Calloway families. He was not a West Stanly Morton. He was an East Stanly/ Badin area Morton. It is my belief that I share DNA with his descendants because he was related to my other Morton ancestor; Rev. Samuel Parsons Morton.
Now, I don't know how he was related, but I believe the relationship was a close one. Sammy Morton married a Calloway, Vashti Calloway, a cousin of the Calloway brothers that the George C. Morton family migrated to Missouri with. George C. Morton was born around 1819 or 1820. Samuel P Morton was born in 1805, 14 or 15 years older.
And then , I came upon this clipping:
Written by Mrs. G. D. Reynolds and published in the Stanly News and Press on Dec. 12, 1953.
This gives the information that George C. Morton had been a Deputy Clerk in the early years of this county, but also names Rev. S. P. Morton as his father. While people did marry early sometimes in those days, I still believe this was a tad too early. Right off the bat, I can see that it is wrought with several errors, the writer even contradicting herself in the same article.
Consider the following excerpt; "History says his only son, George went to Texas after the death of his mother, Vashti, who was the daughter of Isaac Calloway."
A) George went to Missouri, not Texas.
B) Vashti died in 1846, George left for Missouri in 1855, nearly a decade later.
C) Vashti was born in 1812. George was born in 1819 or 1820. There is no way she could have been his mother.
D) Vashti was the granddaughter of Isaac Calloway, not his daughter. She was the daughter of Job Calloway.
The article then goes on to mention a daughter who married G. W. Turner of Anson, which is my line, that daughter being Elizabeth Wincy Morton Turner, and another who married Thomas Hall.
Wincy Elizabeth Morton Turner
She then goes on to mention a second son, Stephen Ferninand L. Morton, who moved to Van Buren County, Arkansas. and gave power of Attorney to John Freeman to settle his part of the Calloway estate, after naming George as the only son. Sammy actually had 5 daughters with Vasthi: Adaline, Susan Jane, Wincy Elizabeth, Mary and Sarah Ann. He had two sons with her, the afore mentined Stephen Ferdinand, who married Nancy Pennigton, and George Arnold Morton, born in 1841, whom the article may have mixed up with George C. Morton. George Arnold Morton DID go to Texas, but not after his mother died, as he was only 5 years old, more like 30 years after his mother died., but I see where the confusion could come in .
Rev. S. P. Morton remarried after his first wife died, to Lucy Ingram, and had two more sons , James and Lewis, making a total of 4 known sons and 5 daughters.
As in all things , I have a theory, derived from an obituary from the Biblical Recorder, which was written at the time of his death, not 70 years later. This obituary states that his father died when he was 18 years old (around 1823) and that as the oldest son (indicating more sons), he assumed his fathers place in the family and raised his siblings. My theory is that George Crogin Morton was the brother of Rev. Samuel P. Morton and that Sammy raised him. George would have been 4 or 5 in 1823. It works.
To further test my theory, I went back to Thru-Lines on ancestry.com and took a closer look at his descendants that I am a match with genetically. I looked at the shared matches. The first thing I noticed was that the shared matches were on my mothers side of the family, not my Dad's side, which the Ezekial Morton line was. While many of them have no definite connection, many of the shared matches had the notation "common ancestor". A few of the common ancestors were William Carr Morton and Lucy Taylor, who are supposedly the parents of Ezekial Morton. That would show on anyone who has them as the grandparetns of George C. Morton. But overwhelmingly, I kept finding the common ancestors to be Samuel P. Morton or either his daughter, Elizabeth Wincy Morton Turner and her husband, G. W. Turner, my 3rd Great Grandparents. This supports my theory that the relation is through a connection to Rev. Sammy P. Morton.
The children of George Crogin Pemberton Morton were:
With Mary Smith Kirk Littleton:
- Eliza Sophronia Kirk Jenkins 1846-1930 both in Stanly County, NC. Married John M. Jenkins.
With Mary "Polly" Kirk Morton:
1) Sarah Louisa Morton Martin b 1849 Stanly County, NC - Died 1931 Marshfield, Webster County, MO.
Married William A. Martin.
2)Martha Jane Morton b 1850 Stanly Co., NC d 1852 Marshfield, Webster Co. NC. Married Joseph T. Moore.
3) Adam Samuel Morton b 1853 NC d 1931 Marshfiled, Webster Co. MO.
Married Matilda Margaret Martin.
4) Nancy Paralee Morton b 1858 Webster Co. MO d 1947 San Joaquin, California.
Married William Henry Yandle.
Nancy Parlee Morton Yandle and grandchildren.
5) Robert C. Morton b 1859 d before 1870.
6) Isham or Isom Pemberton Morton b 1862 Marshfield, Webster Co. MO d 1848 Jaspar County, MO.
7) George Parham Morton b 1864 posthumously 4 months after his father's death in Marshfield, Webster County, MO d 1944 Amarillo, TX.
