The Carltons of Cass County
The early Carltons were in Virginia “by 1642 in Albemarle County, until ten years before the Revolutionary War, when they moved to the newly opened area of North Carolina. They lived in Wilkes County, N.C. for a time and then moved to Jackson Co., Alabama, which was their home almost twenty years before moving to Texas in 1849.
In 1849, Wm. Elias Carlton, son of Henry Carlton and Prudence Brookshire, and his son by his first wife, Mary Hastings, along with his new wife, Callens ?Shumate? and their baby, Amanda S. (1849-1878) moved to Texas. Amanda married James Richard Story in Cass County and they moved to Dalton Community in Cass County.
The children born to this union: John Wood (18551886), married E. Julia Lee; Margaret Elizabeth (18551924), married Timothy Franklin Davis; and Thomas Christopher (1859-1889), married Eliza Jane Elliot. The son by his first wife, Wm. Hastings Carlton (1838, Jackson Co., Ala., died 1902, Bowie County, Texas, but buried in Creekmore Cemetery, near Dalton, Cass County, Texas.
Wm. Hastings Carlton was about ten years of age when his father brought the family to Texas. He grew up at Dalton, and married (1) Jane Hass Cryssup, a widow with two children, Mary Jane born 1855, and Henry born 1857. To this union was born: Margaret Frances (1860-1939) married John McConnell, they lived at Hobart, Okla.; Wm. Hastings, Jr. (1863-1946) married Eliza Bass, they lived at Hobart, Okla. (He was a “Sooner” who rode in that wild ride when free land was given away to the first arrivals; Dr. Elias E (1866-1935) married Laura Hutchison of Springtown, Texas. He practiced medicine at Bryan’s Mill and then moved to Ringgold, Texas, where he was a beloved “County Doctor” for many years; Amanda L. (1869-?) married Wm. Henry Davis in Cass County and they moved to Lone Wolf, Okla.; Guy (1873-1873, infant death), at his birth the mother, Jane, also died. On 2 Sept. 1874, Wm. Hastings remarried Sarah A. Moreland in Cass County. Their children were: Ada Elizabeth (1878-1970), married Ennis Bryan, moved to Texarkana where he was sheriff at one time; John Thomas (18801956) married Era Verona Bryan of Bryan’s Mill. He was a pharmacist and owned a drugstore for forty years in Idalou, Texas. He died in 1956 and was buried at Resthaven, Lubbock, Texas. At this writing, his wife, age 91, lives Montgomery, Alabama with daughter, Marie (Carlton) Wilkerson; James Elan (1881-1935), died unmarried at Terrell, Texas; Mary Emily (1884-1901) died unmarried at Dalton, Texas. The mother, Sarah A., died when Mary Emily was born in 1884. On 26 .”arch 1886, Wm. H again married Lou Elizabeth Smith, who died a short time after their marriage, then he married her sister, Missouri Ann Smith, who bore him a son, Samuel Arthur (1889-1929), who married Ezzie Willis. Wm. Hastings Carlton was buried at Creekmore Cemetery in Cass County, Texas. He fought with “Hoods Texas Brigade” in the Civil War and was wounded in the Battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi.