Burke County NcArchives Obituaries.....Walton, Col. T. George 1905 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/nc/ncfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Guy Potts http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004214 February 27, 2008, 5:08 am Charlotte Daily Observer 4 Jul 1905 In Memoriam - Col. T. George Walton In the death of this gentleman our community loses its oldest and one of its most distinguished citizens. He was born here, spent his whole life here and was intimately connected with every movement of importance, agricultural, political, social and religious, which affected Burke County during more than three score eventful years. The War of 1812 had barely closed when he first saw the light, he was a grown man when the Indians were shoved beyond the Mississippi, the Mexican War saw him an active Whig politician in opposition to it, and in the great Civil War he was a soldier of approved capacity and courage besides contributing two sons to that service. Yet he survived the Appomattox surrender more than forty years, dying in his 89th year, his birthday being October 5th, 1816. He was the last of a noteworthy class of men, who gave to Morganton a certain distinct character which it has never quite lost. He was the contemporary of and intimate with Gov. Caldwell, Col. Gaither, Esq. R.C. Pearson, Col. J.J. Erwin, Jas. C. McDowell, John Collet, W.A. Avery, Gen. C.M. Avery, W.F. McKesson, Wm. C. Erwin, Col. W.W. Walton, Sheriff Brittain, Dr. W.C. Tate and others of that generation famous as it was for the production of men of mark. Col. Walton held many trusts of importance during his long life and discharged all with integrity and ability. He was a large slave-holder in the old days and devoted to agriculture, of which he loved to talk and in the literature of which he was well versed. His real estate was valuable and productive and to its development and improvement he gave much of his time and thought. By his wife, Eliza M. Murphy, daughter of John Murphy and Margaret Avery, he acquired a large estate in money, and from his father, Thomas Walton, a leading merchant in the early days, he inherited valuable property in land and slaves. He was a prudent manager of business, conservative in a high degree, exacting both in what was due him as well as what he owed. As a collector he was unsurpassed, having realized more than sixty thousand dollars from the notes of his father's estate in the years succeeding the war, when it was thought the country was bankrupt. His marriage took place at Willow Hill, the residence of James Murphy, December 28th, 1837, the Rev. Jas. S. McCuthan, a Presbyterian divine, performing the ceremony. Mrs. Walton died Feb. 3, 1886, leaving surviving her a large family of children of whom there now remains two sons, Mr. J.T. Walton of Morganton, and Mr. Herbert Walton of "Creekside," and of the daughters, Mrs. C.F. McKesson, Mrs. Charles Smith and Mrs. J.H. Pearson of Morganton, with Mrs. Neilson Falls of Washington, D.C. Another sister of Mrs. Walton married Col. Wm. M. Walton, of Brookwood and Gen. Wm. Gaston married the third one, who, left a widow, became the wife of Wm. C. Erwin, Esq. As a popular orator, Col. Walton was, in his prime, distinguished in this section of the State. He represented Burke in the House of Commons of 1850 and signed the Western Address, a notable State paper of that day, which tended to free the West from the long domination of the East, led to free white suffrage, the charter of the Western North Carolina Railroad and the beneficial measures of value incalculable to the piedmont country. He was an earnest Whig in antebellum days and a staunch Republican after reconstruction. He never held public office by election after his one term in the legislature, but was a director in the Western North Carolina Railroad, a director of the State Asylum at Raleigh, one of the organizing directors of the fine hospital at Morganton and secretary of the board for a time. In religion, Col. Walton was a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and for fifty years a vestryman and the greater part of that period senior warden of Grace Church, Morganton. He entertained and was on intimate terms with the bishops, and his home was a home for the clergy. As a host he was chairman. Dignity and grace combined in his welcome. He was fond of a good story and was apt in reminiscence and repartee. To know the man as he was it was needful that you should know him at his own home. This writer can recall no more delightful hospitality than was measured out at his board. One of the last occasions when, his faculties as yet undimmed by extreme age, he was the host of the olden time was his reception of the entire local chapter of the Brotherhood of Saint Andrew led by the lamented Satterlee. With Col. Walton's death perishes a vast mass of family history and tradition relating to Burke and its neighbor counties, some of which he preserved in series of papers published in the local pager and which shall now be rescued and put in permanent form. He had no inconsiderable skill as a writer of memories, expressing himself always in clear, vigorous English and gifted by nature with a tenacious and retentive memory. He was for many years a lay reader in his church and doubtless owned to this circumstance the readiness and ease of his speech whether on the stump or in familiar conversation. Till within a very few years of his decease which occurred on June 15th, 1905, Col. Walton retained his vigor and mind and body in a wonderful degree, being prompt in his church duties and having arranged all his business affairs with death in view and for this he waited in calm, undisturbed expectancy, he quietly conversing of its coming with his friends as a thing neither to be dreaded nor wished for. He sleeps in Grace churchyard near the wife of 40 years companionship, in earth dear to him by hallowed associations of baptism and bridal and buried among those he loved. Peace, gentle peace to the courteous gentleman and upright citizen. W.S.P. 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