ZDUTTON – Messy messages!

Hello cousins,

Whew! What a week! Work has been very busy--I've had a hard time sitting
down long enough to send any e-mail, but I sure do have a lot to say!
First of all, I've about decided I'm going to do what I should have done
in the first place: turn the list over to the ROOTS-L server and get it
automated. It seems no one in the group (least of all me) has a
"complete and correct" (if there is indeed such a thing!) copy of the
mailing list. We've outgrown our training pants, which is what I
predicted might happen when I started the list. I feel that this will be
the best thing for everyone; it will ensure that everyone will get all
of the mail they want (and not miss anything important; sorry Eula and
James and Judy and Charles and probably others, too) and stop receiving
it when they don't want it anymore (I've noticed several names still on
most everyone's lists that actually asked "out" several months ago!)
Also, all messages will be archived and available on the ROOTS-L web
site. I'll be looking into all of this pretty soon.

(By the way, for all of you missed my Homecoming message, I will resend
it.)

Now, to straighten out some confusion (I hope):


ITEM #1: John Dutton the Elder, James Dutton of Walker County, and too
many Thomas Duttons!

When I first started researching the Duttons, the first thing I heard
from all the older relatives was that there were "three" of them that
came down from North Carolina--some said "three brothers", some said
"three cousins", some said "three" not related at all. Even after I
finally got a hold of Zachariah Dutton's will and showed them there were
in fact more than three, some of them still say, "No, that's not
right--there were three of them." The names of "the three", as told
differently by different relatives, were either William, Johnny, and
Tommy; or William, Edmund, and Tommy. Needless to say, until I did find
Zachariah's will, I was pretty confused.

In the very beginning, it was easy to believe that there were three.
William Dutton we knew about. My Great-Grandfather Dan Dutton knew he
was the grandson of William Dutton--Dan's father was James Zachary
Dutton, and his father was William Dutton, "who came down from North
Carolina." Granddaddy Dan was born, raised, and raised his own children
in the house that William Dutton built; naturally, this part of his
history was all around him. But in the years since the Duttons came to
Alabama, the various groups of them had grown further and further apart;
only the families of a handful had remained in the Danville area, where
Dan Dutton spent his entire life. He was the sole survivor of the clan
of William Dutton; aside from himself, he knew only of his close cousins
in the families of Edmund Dutton and Thomas Dutton (both of whom he was
almost old enough to remember). There were three. It was clear to him
that his Grandfather William Dutton and Edmund Dutton were brothers, but
the third, Thomas, didn't quite fit in. The name of John Dutton was
nearly forgotten...

Until I found him on the 1850 census--the first census I looked at,
since I knew it was the earliest to include the names of the entire
families. I was busy trying to connect "the three" I knew of--as
brothers, cousins, or whatever--and I quickly learned that it wasn't
quite that simple. In Morgan County, I found my William Dutton--a great
bit older than I expected him to be--and next door to him, Thomas
Dutton. Still a beginner at reading archaic script, I actually returned
to the library several times to look up this one census record, totally
unconvinced by what I seemed to have found--especially the ages of the
people involved:

1850 Federal Census - Morgan County, Alabama - page 204B (stamped) - 14
Oct 1850

120-120    DUTTON,  Thomas               41   M  Farmer      400  NC    
I   
                    Elizabeth            32   F                   AL    
I   
                    John                 72   M                   MD    
I   
                    Omah                 60   F                   NC    
I   
                    George               13   M                   AL    
S
                    Sarah                12   F                   AL    
S
                    Mary F.               9   F                   AL    
S   
                    James H.              3   M                  
AL         
121-121    DUTTON,  William              73   M  Farmer      300 
MD         
                    Mary                 54   F                  
TN         
                    Mary J.              16   F                  
AL         
                    James                14   M                  
AL         
           HOGAN, William                10   M                   AL 

What confused me the most was the older couple, John and Omah Dutton,
who seemed to be listed right in the middle of Thomas Dutton's
household. It was customary for the census taker to list other relatives
besides children--fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, etc.--at the end
of the record, after the head of household's own children. So I was for
a while uncertain if what I was seeing was correct: Thomas Dutton's
parents. If Thomas Dutton's father was John Dutton, who was about the
same age as William Dutton, it destroyed immediately the theory that it
was as simple as "there were three brothers". But one thing was clear:
William Dutton and John Dutton were brothers, and Thomas Dutton was the
son of John Dutton.

After several months of very successful research in Morgan County, I
decided to "expand my search". I went to the library and looked up
Duttons on the census in other counties of Alabama--and that's when I
discovered James Dutton in Walker County. It excited me that he was born
in North Carolina--and that he was close to the age of Thomas Dutton,
who I knew to be the son of John Dutton. I was still very reluctant to
declare he was a relative--but the evidence kept mounting up. By this
time, I had traced back to Zachariah Dutton in North Carolina--and the
next exciting piece of information about James Dutton of Walker County
was this: living in the household with him was a man named Zachariah
Dutton (who I soon determined to be the son of Jarrott Dutton, based on
the research of Darlene Cole.) I now had a definite tie to my Dutton
family--but more was to come. I discovered a marriage record in Lawrence
County for a James Dutton to a Mary Irwin, dated 18 Jul 1832--about the
time the James and Mary in Walker County would have been married--and to
top it off, there was an Elizabeth Irwin living in the household with
them in 1860! I soon found out that there was a great migration of
families during the 1830's from Lawrence and Morgan Counties to the
Walker County area--it seemed this James Dutton was a part of it. This
migration also included a number of other families tied in with the
Duttons in Morgan and Lawrence Counties--and then tied in again with
James Dutton's family in Walker County: Kitchens, Sparks, Brown, and
Irwin, to name a few. I was now firmly convinced that this James Dutton
was a relative, but I wasn't exactly sure how until I sat down and
thought about it.

It was a simple proof. It was already all but proven that James Dutton
of Walker County was a descendant of Zachariah Dutton; he was born in
North Carolina at a time when Zachariah was the only Dutton in North
Carolina, and he was married in Lawrence County, Alabama, at a time when
only Zachariah's family was in the area. The only thing to determine was
which of Zachariah's sons was his father. I made out a proof sheet much
like this:

Parents of James Dutton, born ca. 1807 in N.C.?
1. William - born ca. 1777 - married Mary Hogan ca. 1833 AL - couldn't
be parents.
2. John - born ca. 1778 - married Omah Parrish in 1806 in NC - COULD be
parents.
3. Zachariah Jr. - born ca. 1781? - nothing known - did not come to Ala.
- probably not.
4. Alexander - born ca. 1784 - married Rachel Feazel in 1810 AL - 
couldn't be parents.
5. Jarrett - born ca. 1790 - married Charity McDaniel in 1820 AL -
couldn't be parents.
6. Stephen - born ca. 1792 - married Sarah O'Briant in 1818 NC -
couldn't be parents.
7. Edmund - born 1793 - married Margaret Barnett Ross in 1821 AL -
couldn't be parents.
8. Samuel - born ca. 1797 - married Elizabeth Robinson Threadgill in
1822 NC - not a chance.
9. Matilda and Elizabeth - always the chance of illegitimate children,
but unlikely, as neither came to Alabama (as far as I know).

That doesn't leave many options open at all. Now, by no means is it
PROVEN that John and Omah are the parents of James Dutton of Walker
County, but it seems to fit the bill quite nicely, in a situation in
which nothing else does. John Dutton had two sons on the 1810 N.C.
census--presumably, Thomas and James. (Also a daughter, by the way, who
hasn't been accounted for.) I'm convinced.

Now, to the point where most researchers get confused (including
me)--the OTHER Samuel Dutton in Lawrence County--where "the Thomas, son
of Samuel" Eula's researcher friend was referring to comes from. After
much time, research, and groaning on the subject, I decided that he
doesn't fit in at all. He gets here too early, he leaves too early, and
his children have no contact with any of Zachariah's descendants.
Initially, (and quite naturally), we had assumed that he was Zachariah's
son Samuel mentioned in his will, but that was before we found Samuel
Sneed Dutton in Anson County, N.C. (ancestor of James and Judy), who has
been proven to be Zachariah's son. Samuel Dutton in Lawrence County in
fact did not come from North Carolina at all, or even Maryland--from the
looks of it, Pennsylvania. This Samuel Dutton lived in Kentucky before
he came to Alabama about 1818--he was married in Washington Co., Ky. on
5 Nov 1798 to Ellender Owens. His will and many estate and land records
are on file in Lawrence County, Alabama, where he died in 1823, and he
did in fact have a son named Thomas--it is this Thomas who we believe is
the ancestor of our Sonya Mims here. But I've studied all of the estate
records, and the following is very clear: Thomas Dutton, son of Samuel
Dutton, was born ca. 1799 in Kentucky--NOT North Carolina; he married in
Kentucky about 1818/19 to Mary Brooks--NOT Elizabeth Kitchens; he had
one son, Thomas Jr., born ca. 1820/21 in Lawrence Co., Ala. (that would
be 5 May 1821 if this is Sonya's ancestor--he died 18 Mar 1876 in Brady,
Texas)--NOT the nine listed on the census with our Thomas, all very
documented; and lastly, Thomas Dutton, Sr., son of Samuel Dutton of
Lawrence County, died in his twenties, ca. 1827, leaving a vast fortune
to his only son; his widow Mary remarried to Samuel White in 1829, who
became guardian of her son Thomas Dutton Jr. -- while OUR Thomas Dutton,
clearly the son of John Dutton and the brother of James, lived into his
seventies, and was widely known and remembered by many. The following
sketch, a little humorous, paints a portrait of "Tom" Dutton, a lovable,
unforgettable old man. It appeared in The Alabama Enquirer (much later
known as The Hartselle Enquirer, out of Hartselle, Morgan County, Ala.)
on 12 Dec 1889:

"MR. TOM DUTTON lived near Basham's Gap at the home of his father, who
was a pioneer of the country. Tom was a good economist, and a successful
man. He was a peculiar and eccentric man. Never was a member of the
church, but once every year, he would get happy and shout at church.
Many of you readers will call to mind how, often they have heard his
sudden, shrill voice of rapture, just as the preacher was earnest in the
preservation of a live sermon. How he would go to the pulpit, then along
the pews and shake hands and call on all to help him praise the Lord.
The old man has long ago crossed the river, and met under the "shade of
the trees" his sainted wife who went before him."

[Betty Dutton Woodworth, of our group, by the way, is a descendant of
Thomas Dutton, through his daughter Mary Frances Dutton, who married her
second cousin (actually, her father's first cousin) Stephen Penn Dutton,
son of Edmund Dutton.]

As far as the rumors of James Dutton of Walker County being "James Tommy
Dutton", I've heard many of the same from a lot of different
researchers. I find that unlikely. It seems to me that somewhere along
the line, someone got confused. Having heard of both James Dutton and
Tommy Dutton, but not being able to "explain" where the Tommy Dutton
came from, the two were merged somehow; or someone just plain forgot.
With very little written record of James Dutton for more than a hundred
years, it would not be hard. James Dutton has no tombstone by which to
remember him by; as far as I know, there was no family Bible; census
records weren't readily available until the 1940's, at best, and weren't
of much interest to most people anyway; and land records and estate
records were few, as the Walker County Courthouse was burned a number of
times during and after the Civil War--the ones that survived were a
little sketchy, and again, pretty boring stuff to the common man. All
people had to go on, as far as James Dutton was concerned, was oral
tradition, which as we know, is easily distorted. Still, I'd be
interested to hear what people have to say about "James Tommy Dutton". 

Oh, no--it looks as if I've written another book. Hope none of you are
asleep. 



ITEM #2: The IRWIN Family, the IRWIN-BROWN-KITCHENS-DUTTON-SPARKS-etc.
Connection, and Dizzy, Endless Spirals

Eula, I'm so pleased to hear you got some information on the Irwin
family. You have the names of Mary Irwin's parents? The past couple of
months I've been working extremely hard at the Lawrence County Archives,
trying to piece together this family, without much luck at at all.
During one of my recent visits to Walker County, I had a revelation
about this and a number of the other families connected to it and to the
Duttons: they're all related to each other, in kind of an endless
spiral. It makes me dizzy just thinking about it. Here's a brief sample:

James Matlock KITCHENS married Sarah BROWN.
Thomas BROWN, the brother of Sarah BROWN, married Lovey IRWIN.
Mary IRWIN, (who is suspect may be) the sister of Lovey IRWIN, married
James DUTTON.
Thomas DUTTON, the brother of James DUTTON, married Elizabeth KITCHENS,
the daughter of James Matlock KITCHENS.

Care for some more? There's plenty of it, and it gets deeper:

Mary "Polly" KITCHENS, the sister of Elizabeth KITCHENS and the daughter
of James Matlock KITCHENS, married Harvey William HAMILTON.
Christopher Columbus HAMILTON, their son, married Elizabeth Ann DUTTON,
the son of James DUTTON and Mary IRWIN.
Thomas F. DUTTON, brother of Elizabeth Ann DUTTON and son of James
DUTTON and Mary IRWIN, married Louisa E. CARMICHAEL, whose father was
Francis Marion CARMICHAEL and whose mother was Sarah HAMILTON, the
daughter of Harvey William HAMILTON and Mary "Polly" KITCHENS.
Frances KITCHENS, the sister of Elizabeth KITCHENS and Mary "Polly"
KITCHENS, married Samuel SPARKS.
Elijah SPARKS, the brother of Samuel SPARKS, married Elizabeth BROWN,
the daughter of Thomas BROWN (brother of Sarah BROWN, who married James
Matlock KITCHENS) and Lovey IRWIN.
William SPARKS, the brother of Samuel and Elijah SPARKS, married Eliza
Elvira HOGAN, the daughter of Richard HOGAN and Rachel KELSO.
Mary Hogan, the brother of Richard HOGAN, married William DUTTON, the
brother of John DUTTON, who was the father of Thomas DUTTON who married
Elizabeth KITCHENS and James Dutton who married Mary IRWIN.

Are you dizzy yet?

Anyway, all the families in the area of Morgan and Lawrence Counties,
and even more so in Walker County, are related and inter-related and
inter-woven, and it's a mess-- although, a very fun mess-- to untangle.
I would be very happy to hear what you have found on the IRWIN family,
Eula; perhaps I can either prove or disprove some of my endless
assumptions and speculations.

Also, along this same line: I believe the BROWN family which keeps
fitting in here is the very same Brown family from which Margaret's John
B. BROWN (who married Mary DUTTON, daughter of Jarrett) descends. In
John Dombhart's HISTORY OF WALKER COUNTY, ALA., it is stated that Sarah
BROWN, who married James Matlock KITCHENS, had at least two siblings:
Thomas BROWN who married Lovey IRWIN, and Frances BROWN who married John
Daniel RANDOLPH. I will call this "Group 1". In the book ITAWAMBA
SETTLERS, an article on the BROWN family which Margaret sent me states
that John B. BROWN had at least three siblings: William BROWN (who the
article was actually about), who by the way married a Sarah KITCHENS,
perhaps a sister (or maybe a niece) of James Matlock KITCHENS; LaFayette
BROWN, and Ellen BROWN, who married Alex IRWIN (spelled ERWIN here, but
it's all the same.) Ah, the plot thickens... This is "Group 2" -- but
they may actually be one and the same. I looked up BROWN at the Lawrence
County Archives, and found a lot more than I could deal with; still,
there are a lot of apparent connections. I found a Samuel BROWN who
married in 1825 to a Hannah ALLEY--the bondsman was Barton HAMILTON (am
I right in assuming the father of Harvey William HAMILTON?), and the
marriage was performed by James KITCHENS. There is also a Levi BROWN on
the census in Itawamba Co., Miss. close to William BROWN, who ought to
be a brother of that group. "Group 3" is a group of BROWNS closely
related to the Samuel IRWIN family (the one branch of the IRWIN family
I've managed to document). Samuel BROWN, born 12 Aug 1771, died 31 Jan
1848, very well could be the father or grandfather of all of the BROWNs
I just mentioned above. He, and many relatives of both the Brown and
Irwin families, are buried in the Brown Cemetery in Moulton, Lawrence
County, Alabama.

Okay, okay, I've think I've written enough for one day. But one more
thing... :)



ITEM #3: The Search for Stephen Penn Dutton Continues

As most of you know, Betty Woodworth is descended from Stephen Penn
Dutton, born Oct 1834, the son of Edmund Dutton. He, his 2nd wife, and a
number of children moved ca. 1881 from Morgan County, Alabama to Wise
County, Texas. There are six children of Stephen and his 1st wife, Mary
Frances, listed on the census in Morgan County: (1) George, born ca.
1864, (2) Martin Luther, born ca. 1866, (3) Margaret E. born. ca. 1868,
(4) John C., born 1870, (5) James A., born 1873, and (6) William W.
Dutton, born ca. 1875. Mary Frances died in 1877, and in 1878 Stephen
remarried to her sister, Mrs. Sarah Jane (Dutton) Witt-Turrentine (as I
said above, Mary Frances and Sarah Jane were the daughters of Thomas
Dutton and Elizabeth Kitchens.) Stephen and Sarah are listed on the 1880
census in Morgan County, presumably a short time before they left for
Texas. Between the 1870 and 1880 censuses, one child, the oldest,
George, disappears from the census; it is assumed that he died young.
The others, though, should have gone with their father to Texas--but
nothing is known of any of them except James Arthur, who is Betty
Woodworth's great-grandfather. It is only he that appears on the 1900
Texas census with his father. Also, Sarah Jane had a son from her 2nd
marriage to Mr. Richard J. Turrentine: Stephen Henry Turrentine, born
ca. 1867; I assume he would have gone to Texas also. Stephen and Sarah
Dutton had one child together, also: Mary L. Dutton, born Sep 1881 in
Arkansas, according to the 1900 census. 

Stephen Penn Dutton went to Texas with his brother, Alexander D. Dutton,
and sister, Margaret Elizabeth (DUTTON) Hughes, who married George S.
Hughes (they are the ancestors of Janice Roper and Charles van Bebber).
George and Margaret Hughes are buried in the Cottondale Cemetery in Wise
County, Texas. Since we met, Woody and Betty Woodworth and I have been
frantically trying to find the grave sites of Stephen Penn Dutton and
his family, and Alexander D. Dutton and his family. Stephen Penn Dutton
appears on the 1910 census soundex in Parker County, Texas, living with
a Witt family (Sarah Jane Dutton's 1st husband was a Witt).
Unfortunately, I don't have access to the complete 1910 Parker County
Census, so that's all I know. James Arthur Dutton had moved to Oklahoma
by the early 1910's, where much of his family still resides.

I sent off late last year to the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics to
receive the death certificates of Stephen Penn Dutton, Sarah Jane
Dutton, Alexander D. Dutton, and Martha Jane Dutton (Alexander's wife).
Not one of them came back to me; none of them were on file. I did get a
certificate for a Sarah Jane Dutton from Louisiana, but that's not
really what I wanted. I had assumed that they all would have died in
Texas, but more and more I'm beginning to think otherwise. What am I
saying? What if they went to Oklahoma with their children? It's a likely
possibility, and a very logical assumption in the first place; I don't
know why it never occurred to me before.

So, the night before last, I got online and surfed for information,
something I haven't had time to do in a long while. To my great delight,
a lot more information is coming online than was there just a short year
ago. I was searching the USGenWeb FTP Archives, and I searched Oklahoma
for DUTTON. Turned up a handful of hits; I didn't really expect to find
anything. But I did--and what a rush. I couldn't believe what I was
seeing--I nearly shouted for joy, even though it was 2 o' clock in the
morning. It was a dream come true--really. I have actually dreamed about
this. In the cemetery index of Love County, Oklahoma, right on the Texas
border, I found the graves of Alexander and Martha Jane Dutton. No, no
sign of Stephen Penn Dutton yet, but I feel that we're closer than ever
before.

Alexander Dutton was born 28 Dec 1823, and died 21 Jun 1904--I did not
have these dates before. Martha Jane was born 1841, and died 1931. They
are buried in the Leon Cemetery, at a community called Leon in Love
County. Their son Dallas Dutton and his family is buried not far away in
the Lakeview Cemetery. Alexander died before death certificates were
instituted in Oklahoma in October 1908, but Martha, at the ripe old age
of nearly 90, would surely have one. Even more importantly: if Stephen
Penn Dutton was still alive after 1910, and did eventually die in
Oklahoma as I suspect he did, there is a great chance that he would have
one as well. It would give his date of death, place of death, and
possibly place of burial. I have all the information I need to send off
to for a death record search, and I'm ready to do it. But it occurred to
me, with Woody and Betty being right in the middle of Oklahoma, they
would have a lot easier time get a hold of them. According to the
information I got online, copies of death certificates are available at
the Oklahoma State Department of Health Vital Records Service. They're
$10 a shot, but at least in person, ya'll, you'd have the luxury of
knowing if they're on file before you have to pay. 

Here's the address:

Vital Records Service
Oklahoma State Dept. of Health
1000 Northeast Tenth, Room 117
Oklahoma City, OK 73117
(405) 271-4040

Check out these web sites for more information:

http://vitalrec.com/ok.html
http://www.health.state.ok.us/program/vital/dform.html

Well, I've really said about all I have to say in a day. I've been at
this most of the morning; I hope it doesn't take you as long to read it
as it took me to write it. It's time for me to get ready for work.

I hope to hear from all of you soon,

Love,
Cousin Joseph