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.


File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/nc/burke/obits/w/walton1064nob.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ncfiles/

File size: 6.5 Kb