The Dalton Journal: January 2003 A monthly forum for assembling families or solving problems George Dalton Who Was His Father? written by Melanie D. Crain, HCRAIN@nc.rr.com Potential Dalton Lines The earliest known ancestor in my family line was George Dalton (spelled all ways on various occasions--dalton, Dolton, and Daulton) who was born about 1789 in Pittsylvania County Virginia. A sizeable contingent of Daltons lived in Pittsylvania County then, and descendants are numerous even today. Although we do not have a confirmed link for George back to his parents, we do know that he descended from one of the four branches who resided in the area: 1. Timothy Dalton Jr. lived in Albemarle Co. Va between 1736 and 1745. He owned 800 acres of patent land there between 1736 and 1745. Timothy then moved to the region which became Bedford Co. VA, the county north of the Stanton River. Pittsylvania Co. is the land south of the same river. Timothy's wife was Elizabeth; we do not know her maiden name. Only one son can be documented for Timothy and Elizabeth, the eldest son James. But we know that other children were born to them because they were mentioned anonymously in Timothy's Will of 1775 and later were provided corn by the executor. In 1759 Timothy purchased two tracts of land, one over 1000 acres, on Frying Pan Creek in Pittsylvania Co; but he apparently never lived on this land and sold it within a decade to various people. 2. David Dalton accompanied Timothy Jr to Bedford-Pittsylvania Counties. David first lived in Bedford Co. before Pittsylvania Co. was formed in 1767. From that time forward, David was on the tax lists of Pittsylvania Co. David's year of birth has been estimated at 1725 or before. Timothy Jr. was born in 1715, according to his own testimony in a deposition. David, therefore, was probably Tim's brother; and their joint activities support this possibility. Timothy stepped in to help David's finances on a couple of occasions. David lived many years after Timothy; and before he died in The Dalton Journal January 2003 Page 1
1801/2, David was supported by the parish church. The vestry records of the church provide us with David's wife s name: Hannah. Again we do not know what her maiden name was. The tax records of Pittsylvania Co. supply us with the name of one son of David: James. There were many James Daltons in the area in the 18th century, but with circumstantial evidence it appears that James, son of David, was married to Agnes Dyer in 1782. We don't have deed records to pinpoint where David lived, but he was on the southern edge--around Potter's Creek-- of the area where most Daltons lived in Pittsylvania at that time. James and Agnes probably lived near the settlement of Dyers. The Dyers lived on Sandy River, a section of the county which is west and slightly south of the county seat of Chatham. James and Agnes lived on Bearskin Creek. Since a few other Daltons also married into the Dyer neighborhood, those are likely siblings of James: Rachel, married George Dyer 1775; Sarah, married Daniel McKenzie; Nancy, married Nathan Dyer abt 1788. 3. John Dalton also lived first in Albemarle Co. then later in Pittsylvania Co. His wife was Patience (no maiden name), and he has been tracked easily because he fathered two blind children who, by the habits of the time, were financially supported by the parish church. It appears that John was with David and Timothy off and on during the 1750s in the general area of Bedford County. John moved permanently to Pittsylvania Co. in 1770 or not long before--again, the church records of the handicapped children tell us about this move. John was regularly on the tax list from 1770 until 1778. We think he died in 1779 because from that time on only his wife Patience was listed on the parish rolls when the care of the blind children is mentioned. Those two children, by the way, were named Samuel and Mary and they lived until 1814. 4. Robert Dalton was the fourth but not necessarily the last or the youngest of this "Dalton gang" who interacted very much as though they were closely related-- possibly brothers or cousins. Robert married Mary Key back in Albemarle Co. VA. They had several children: Agatha was likely the oldest; she married a James Mitchell in 1768. They lived in Pittsylvania Co. until the late 1780s when they sold their land then disappeared. John, apparently the oldest son of Robert and Mary, married Mary Ann Flanagan. Mary Ann may have been born in Albemarle Co. (like John) because her father James Flanagan lived there and lived right in the Dalton neighborhood there. In the 1770s in Pittsylvania County, there were enough John Daltons to be confusing, even to the tax collector. So the tax collectors listed the John Daltons in ways which would identify them one from the other. John, husband of Mary Ann Flanagan, was given the name of John "Flan" which then stuck throughout his entire residency in VA. When John was quite an old man, he sold everything and followed his children to The Dalton Journal January 2003 Page 2
Sumner Co. TN where he later died. Robert Jr was also a son of Robert, and the only Dalton from Pittsylvania Co. to serve as an officer in the Revolutionary War. Other children of Robert and Mary were mentioned in Robert's Will of 1779: Solomon and Nancy. These two married after their father had died and with a possible older sister Martha (who married a Benjamin Tarrant), moved to South Carolina as a family group. Two George Daltons Infrequently, the two George Daltons in Pittsylvania County are confused, switched, or merged into one. To avoid that problem, here is a synopsis intended to clarify the two of them: English George The descriptive name "English George" is given to this 18th c. Virginia resident who married a Winnie Wigginton. Family lore about George's service as an English Redcoat during the Revolutionary War or his marriage in Pennsylvania has not been documented. But for the purpose of this discussion, the term English George will suffice to distinguish him. In the Bedford County Personal Property Tax Lists, a George Dalton was listed from 1787 to 1793; then he was listed in Pittsylvania Co. from 1794 to 1797. How do we know that this man was the older of the two George Daltons? Land tax schedules listed him for 50 acres of land by 1796 (when the younger George was a mere seven years old) and marriage records show that he was the surety for his daughter Betsy's 1802 marriage. George's land on Strawberry Creek also placed him outside the Albemarle Dalton group in the county and into the vicinity of Betsy's in-laws, the Holley family, who lived on Strawberry Creek. Nothing in the records yet tells when George moved his family to Kentucky, but he did appear on the 1810 Warren Co. KY Census record and thereafter his extended family can be found in Allen Co. KY for decades. Young George There was no George Dalton on the Pittsylvania Personal Property Tax Lists between 1798 and 1805. My patriarch George was born in 1789, according to the 1850 Pulaski Co. KY census; and like clockwork, this 1805 tax record could be Young George who would have reached the age of 16 that year. The strange slant to George being on the tax list at 16 is that usually young men stayed with their family and weren't The Dalton Journal January 2003 Page 3
independent at this early age. In fact, a law in Virginia, required fathers to pay their sons' taxes until the adult age of 21, regardless of whether the son lived in the parents' household. George, however, continued to pay his own taxes thereafter (which, by the way, was after English George disappeared from the tax rolls). At no time in Pittsylvania Co. were there ever two George Daltons on a single tax list. George's Lineage In the past, Young George has been listed in David and Hannah's line through their son James (who married Agnes Dyer). The rationale used to support this connection was the middle name of George's eighth child and seventh son: George Dyer Daulton. This was rather late to honor his own mother if that was what George intended to do. There are, however, other pieces of a puzzle to consider which now suggests both an old and a new version of George's potential parents. Old Version: James & Agnes? 1. James and Agnes (Dyer) Dalton lived on Bearskin Creek, owned land there, and lived among the Dyer clan who eventually moved to Henry County. 2. By a court deposition in 1819, we know that Rachel Dalton who married George Dyer (and lived around Bearskin Cr) had a sister Sarah who married Alexander McKenzie. Eventually, some of that McKenzie family moved to Pulaski Co. KY (Rachel and Sarah may be sisters to James) 3. James Dalton (husband of Agnes) was on the Pittsylvania Co. Tax list until 1795. He never appeared on the list again. 4. In the Pittsylvania Co. Court records, John Dyer sued James Dalton (that was common daily practice back then). The suit abated due to the death of the defendant [James Dalton] in 1797. 5. It was the custom for a widow to appear on the tax records for the first year of her widowhood, after which time her eldest son was then listed. The gap is a bit long, but an Agness Dalton was listed in 1803, in that year only. 6. Once George Dalton, b. 1789, became sixteen and was listed for taxes, he moved The Dalton Journal January 2003 Page 4
about each year and was located in various places in the county--as though he did not have a permanent home. New Version: Joseph? While naming patterns were once the weak support for the old version, names may play a significant role in supporting the new version of Joseph Dalton as father of George. Joseph and his wife (her name has never been found) lived in the hotbed of Daltons in the northwest quadrant of Pittsylvania County. Tithable records prove that Joseph was the son of John and Patience. The following pieces of data skew the weight of evidence for George's father towards Joseph: 1. Joseph was a healthy man until 1787; and after that, Joseph was always exempt from the tax records. He probably had an accident or a sudden change in his health between 1787 and 1788. Even though Joseph himself was exempt from head tax, he still had to pay for his emerging sons, which he did. The one son named on tax records was James in 1805. 2. Jim Klumpp's research in the microfilm of Pittsylvania County Judgment Papers at the Library of Virginia revealed names for a couple of other sons of Joseph: William, b. 1784 and married in 1806 to Rachel Bennett (microfilm #157 Patterson vs Crider); and Caleb, b. before 1792 and died 1814, according to Winston. Caleb was named as Joseph's son in microfilm #163, Commonwealth vs Caleb Dalton. 3. Joseph's daughters may have been Polly who married William Willis; Agnes who was the mother of Willis Dalton, mentioned by Winston in his Register; Clary who married Thomas Bennett in 1820 since William Dalton was her surety. 4. Other possible sons of Joseph, who can be attached only by association, were Elijah who married Nancy Brogin and Coleman who married Dolly Shelton. Along with George, these two Daltons have gone fatherless in the annals of Pittsylvania County. 5. Finally, how the naming patterns support Joseph as father of George: George and Nancy (Keesee)'s children were, in birth order: Willis, Joseph, William, Polly, Thomas, Sarah, James, George Dyer, and Burrel. Six of nine children carry names from Joseph's family. In the next generation--of George's grandchildren-- the name of Coleman was used as well as a generous repetition of most of the names The Dalton Journal January 2003 Page 5
found in Joseph's children. 6. George's early independence on the tax records can be justified in this case by Joseph's health (and probably "wealth") problems. 7. The names of Willis and Coleman are unique and not found in other Dalton lines. Which Version? Determining the father of George is neither simple nor clear. But working out this problem is important because the solution provides new answers for other Dalton lines. What's your opinion? -- Old Version or New Version and why? Send me an email and let me know. Better yet, if you can add logic or data beyond what I've presented, I'll share it in the next newsletter. All family histories are full of problems; ours is no exception! ********************************************************************************************* The Dalton Journal is an appendage of the Dalton Gang Letter. If you have a topic you would like to write about for the Journal, please contact me (below). Distributed by hcrain@nc.rr.com 2003 Melanie Dalton Crain The Dalton Journal January 2003 Page 6