ZDUTTON – Another new cousin

Cousins,
I received this from another of our cousins, Dale Brown:

> I was glad to recieve your recent letter in which you described your
>genealogical pursuits. Yes I am a grandson of Sol, Solomon, Solomon P. or
>Solomon Peter Dutton. I think he was originally named for his uncle Solomon
>P., but over his ninety years he changed his name from time to time.  Yes,
>I am interested in sharing information and receiving information from you
>about the Duttons. Although I have compiled some research back to Zachariah
>in Maryland, my main focus has been on my grandfather's descendants. He had
>eight children from three wives, my cousins, like myself, have gone in all
>directions and I have made it my goal to contact all of them and to compile
>genealogical data received from them.  My son and I use Family Tree Maker
>to store our data and will be glad to send you a disc with our Dutton data.
>I also have some materials on Edmund Dutton that I received from a person
>from California who researched Zachariah with interests in Edmund. This
>information is not in our computer, but I will dig it out.  Please send me
>whatever information you think will be helpful to me. Also, I am interested
>in other family lines you may follow from the North Alabama area.  Your
>Cousin, 
>Dale Brown 
>bbrown31@bellsouth.net

Dale,

Wow! It is so great to have so many of our kin on e-mail now! I have since
I mailed you last begun an online discussion group via e-mail regarding the
descendants of Zachariah Dutton. We have currently 17 or 18 (I'm losing
count!) people who are writing each other using a mailing list. There are
so far 2 descendants of your Stephen Dutton, Myra Borden and Kaye Shirah;
you may have met them. I would love to have you join us. It doesn't involve
much at all--the group is a place to discuss current research, present new
data, ask questions, make comments, and just to work together in trying to
put together this puzzle. We're having a good ole' time in the process, too.

So the "P" in Sol P. stands for Peter? I've been wondering about that. I
would love to be able to record the full names of everybody, but a lot of
times that information gets lost. 

Something interesting that I found out just as I was beginning to research
my genealogy: in Chesnut Grove Cemetery (now in Decatur), less than a mile
>from my house, there is a Dutton lady buried. For months and months I
worried because I couldn't figure out who she was; I worked and worked on
it, and now I think I know. I think it's your grandfather Sol's second wife:

Sallie M. Dutton
Wife of S. P. Dutton
Born Sep. 18, 1871
Died Jan. 8, 1899

I know that Sol lived in Decatur for a while; this cemetery is on the south
side of Decatur, and has only been inside the city limits for a few years.
Sol lived in the part of present-day Decatur once known as New Decatur--at
one time, it was a separate city. I've heard that he ran a store. 

Do you have any data on Sol's daughter by his second marriage? I found
something on her quite by accident--I'm afraid that I might have overlooked
this otherwise. I think I found her buried in Decatur City Cemetery--she
had apparently died in childbirth in 1919. I couldn't find a marriage
record for her in Morgan County, so I probably would not have thought to
look for her married name in the cemetery index if I hadn't bumped right
into her:

Viola Dutton Speake, Wife of H. R. Speake; 1890-1919
Henry Russell Speake; 1890-1956
Allie Dekle Speake; 6 Aug 1893-18 Dec 1985 (apparently Russell's second wife)
Russell Speake, Jr.; 9 Nov 1919-20 Nov 1919 (I assume that this is Viola's
child)
John Dekle Speake; 1926-1927

This listing is from the Morgan County Genealogical Society transcription
of Decatur City Cemetery.

Who have you contacted in California? More and more contacts are springing
up every day! I've added three or four people to my list in the past week.
Edmund Dutton seems to have the most populous descendants, as far as this
mailing group goes--there are four of his descendants currently on it. I am
hoping to unify all of the descendants of Zachariah Dutton that are
interested in genealogy, and pool our efforts and resources, working
together to better the cause of the memory of our families and ancestors. 

It won't be hard at all to get you hooked up to the list. In fact, I think
I'll do it right now. Right now, the group has been pretty busy, but I
assure you, for all the mail that you'll receive over the list, there won't
be one article that you won't find interesting. To reply to the list,
simply copy the "To" list of this e-mail and put it in a "Mailing Group" or
"Mailing List" or "Recipient List", usually in your "Address Book", and
then direct the e-mail to that group. If you have any trouble, let me know. 

I am looking forward to hearing from you soon,

Cousin Joseph