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Biography William Dalton11 Carroll 1765-1815: The Settlements, By John Perry Alderman; Published by Alderman Books, 1985, p. 102-103. William was the first of the family to settle permanently in the county. He was no doubt from the Bedford/Pittsylvania area and is thought to have been a son of old Timothy Dalton who died in Bedford in 1775. It may never be known who his parents were. No known record exists of his age, but the middle 1740s will do for an estimate since his children were born between 1770 and 1790. His wife was named Elizabeth as shown by one of the deeds and the personal property tax lists. Some of his descendents have thought that she was Elizabeth Sturman, but she has not been identified with any satisfactory evidence. Williams death date is approximately known: 1810. He was taxed with five horses in 1810 and the next year the tax was assessed against his widow. He came to Burks Fork in 1772, so he claimed ten years later before the Lord Commissioners (Kegley, Adventurers, II, p. 117). The date is likely right for he was listed for tax in 1773, although the sheriff did not find him and the tax went uncollected. He was in the county militia during the Revolution, being a Lieutenant in Capt. Jonathan Ishams company. William Bobbitt was the earlier commander of the company and Bobbitts muster roll indicates that Dalton was not fit, meaning not able to participate. By 1782 William was very much established, being taxed with two horses and four cattle. Samuel, Timothy and Reuben Dalton were also in Montgomery County in 1782 and they are thought to have been his brothers. That year William perfected his land claim; the farm was described as being on Burks Fork and the Indian Ridge; it was actually in the neighborhood of the old Nester School and was surveyed for 140 acres. The grand was issued in 1784 (Grants K-533). In 1785 he had another survey for 400 acres, but no grant seems to have been issued for it. In 1793 Grayson County was formed and the court records show that William was twice called upon to view the road from Jennings Ford; in other words he was called upon to act as the Courts Commissioner to recommend improvements and alterations in the route. He was also appointed overseer of the road, meaning that he was charged with the maintenance of it from Jennings Ford to the county line (Grayson, Orders 1793-1794, p. 13). In 1793 he bought Stephen Coles farm, 200 acres on the east bank of Big Reed Island, where U. S. Highway 221 now crosses that stream. He probably moved to It about that time. The deed was not recorded in the Grayson deed books, but was partly proved before the Grayson Court. A little later he bought Aaron Colliers 200 acre entry on Big Reed and had it surveyed, receiving the grant in 1802 (Grants, 48-477). In 1802 he sold his old Burks Fork farm to the Quaker, William Coffin (Grayson, D. B. 1-481), and he bought James Bennetts farm of 240 acres on Bobbitts Creek. The Bennett farm lay east of the Cole farm and the present highway runs through it along Bobbitts Creek. The Cole tract had a mill on it which William apparently operated for the old deeds refer to William Daltons old mill pond, which seems to have been on Bobbitts Creek, near its mouth. After he bought the Bennett place, he owned 650 acres. William needed a lot of land for he had ten children and apparently after the fashion of his time he intended to give a farm to each of his sons. In 1807 he gave or sold 98 acres of the Bennett tract to his son Timothy and 49 acres of the same tract to his son- in-law William Largen (Grayson, D. B. 2-254; D. B. 2-254; D. B. 2-253). Likely he intended to endow the rest of his boys, but death intervened about 1810. He left no will, and in 1811 his children executed five deeds dividing the rest of his land. His sons William and Lewis took the 1802 grant, Reuben took most of the Cole farm, and John took the rest of the Cole farm and the remainder of the Bennett place (Grayson, D. B> 3-39, et seq.). The son James received none of the land in the division, but it is suspected that he sold his share to John who took two of the tracts. Neither did the daughters take any of the land, but the custom of the day was for the boys to take the land and the daughters, when they married, to receive a cow, a calf and a bed, or some equivalent. Fortunately the 1811 deeds provide us with a list of the ten children: (1) James Dalton, born about 1770, probably died in the 1850s, married a girl named Sarah, (2) John Dalton, born in 1772 according to his monument and died in 1850 (despite the monument which gives 1851 as the death date). He married Eleanor Edwards, (3) Nancy Dalton, born about 1778, died in the 1850s, married Aaron Goad, (5) Patience Dalton, born about 1780, died in the 1830s, married Spencer Goad, (6) Timothy Dalton, born about 1783, died Dec. 15, 1872, married Elizabeth Phillips, (7) Lewis Dalton, born about 1788, died Jan. 14, 1869, and married Frances Phillips in Patrick County in 1807, (8) William Dalton, born about 1789, died in the 1870s, married Frances Sturman, (9) Reuben Dalton, born about 1790, died in the 1840s, married Catherine Worrell, (10) Susannah Dalton, dates uncertain, was not married at the time of the 1811 deeds were done, so it is not known who she married, or indeed, if she married. There is some reason to believe that she was the wife of Isaac Mabry. To point up the frustrations occasioned by the missing marriage records in old Grayson, it will be noted that while most of the these children must have married in Grayson, the only record preserved is that of Lewis who eloped to Patrick County. References
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