MARION COUNTY BIOGRAPHIES
"S"
SLAYTON, Augusta
Catherine
Daughter of Sanford Gustavous. & Mary Annabell Slayton,
"Gusta" married William Jefferson FERGUSSON in
Jefferson, Texas on February 3, 1867. Gusta's father,
Sanford G. Slayton, was a planter who settled in Marion County,
Texas in 1839 while Texas was a Republic. Both Sanford
Gustasovous SLAYTON and his mother, Lucy SHELTON SLAYTON,
received Class 3 Headright Land grants from the Republic of Texas.
Lucy was the daughter of Thomas SHELTON, whose family settled in Virigina in the early 1600s. Her husband, Arthur SLAYDON, and his father Daniel SLAYDON, were surveyors and planters in Pittsylvania County, VA. Authur was a descendants of John SLADDING, an immigrant who who arrived in Virigina in 1695.
Gusta and her siblings were the first generation of Slayton/Shelton descendants born in Texas. Two branches of Slaydon descendants migrated to Texas during the Texas Republic. Lucy Shelton Slayton, widow of Daniel Slaydon's son Arthur, came west to Texas with her grown sons, Sanford G. SLAYTON and Hickmond SLAYTON. Her husband Arthur died in Virginia in 1811. A cousin of Arthur's, who was also named Aurthur SLAYDON, came to Texas during the Texas Republic. He settled in South Texas near Jasper. Lucy, Sanford, and Hickmon settled in the deep piney woods region of the Red River District of East Texas.
Lucy and her children and grandchildren lived in Marion and Morris counties. They also had landholdings in Cass, Upshur, and Collin Counties. Their children married descendants of Wm. C. Hays and Jethro Chattom of Mongtomery County, Alabama and the Lawrence and Chatham families of Coryell County, Texas and the Ormes and Goodman families of Harrison County, Texas.
Hickmond and his wife, Caroline Clark died while their children were young. Sanford became their guardian and their grandmother, Lucy Shelton Slayton, helped to raise them. Sanford and Lucy had died a few years before Gusta Fergusson's death. W.J. kept the family together. Gusta gave birth to a baby boy a few weeks before she died. The baby lived nine months. Four years after Gusta's death, W. J. caught pneumonia and died. Gusta's sister's husband, John Dorgan placed the three youngest children in Buckner's Children's Home in Dallas. They "cared for" the family's livestock, but felt that it was too much to take on to raise their nieces and nephew. Two older children remained in the community. One sister ran away when her parents died. The brother did not live long after his parents death either. Molly married on the day of her father's death. With both Lucy and Sanford gone, the famly had lost its matriarch and its patriarch.
In Virginia, Lucy fought to get her sons released from the orphan's indentures after her husband's death. She was the heiress in an estate of considerable size. It was 15 years before she recieved her inheritance. Her sons knew first-hand what it meant to be from an affluent family but not to have access to or be in control of the money. There weren't many social nets to catch children on the American frontier in 1885. Most orphans lived with relatives, or neighbors took them in to have an extra hand around the place. This was the era of the "orphan trains." The Sisters of Charity and other groups in New York and Chicago would take orphans from the cities and head west on trains, visiting with people along the way until a family agreed to accept a chid. There wasn't an orphan's train coming through Jefferson at that time, but Rev. Buckner was in Jefferson preaching a revival. One of the women in Jefferson was helping him with publicity and he was starting a children's home in Dallas. The Dorgans heard of the Orphanage and the Chatham girls were among the first children in the home.
(Taken from Texas Legacy, courtesy of Jimmie F Chatham).
SLAYTON, Hickmond
Hickmond left Virginia with his mother, Lucy Shelton Slayton, and
brother, Sanford Gustasov Slayton. The two brothers and their
mother were together in Madison Couunty, Jackson, Tennessee for
about a decade. Sanford probably moved to Jackson a few years
before Lucy. She was still settling up estate business in
Virginia in the late 1820s. Sanford purchased land in Jackson in
1825.
Hickmond and wife Caroline left Tennessee a few years before Sanford and Lucy moved to Texas. He and Caroline moved to Lousiana. Sanford and his wife Mary, Lucy and the Clark's arrived in Texas in December 1839. Hickmond and Caroline came a year or so later.
They purchased a brick
plant in Jefferson in the late 1847s. Both Hickmond and Caroline
died while their children were young. Hickmonds brother Sanford G.
became the children's guardian. Hickmond's mother, Lucy SHELTON
SLAYTON helped Sanford rear Caroline and Hickmond's children. The
census shows that Caroline and Mary Annabell Clark's brother John
L. Clark also helped with the children. The Children are:
1. Thomas Augusta SLAYTON, b. September 30, 1833, TN d.
Oct. 13, 1842, TX
2. Charles Edward SLAYTON, called Charley b.August
31, 1836 Madison, TN d. December 26, 1883, Morris
Co. TX, Married in Morris Co. Texas on Oct. 22,
1865 to Mary Frances (Molly) WILLIAMS. b. Oct. 17,
1848 Dallas, Al, d. Jan. 13, 1900 Charles
Edward (called Charley) is buried in the SLATON cemetery near
Daingerfield. Charles Edward named one
of his son CHARLES Edwin SLAYTON. The son was called
Eddy, was born in 1872. Eddy married Lou
Barnard and Josie Minor. Other children of Charles Edward
Slayton (Charley) I, included: A daughter
named Augusta Caroline SLAYTON TRICE, called Gussie.
b. 1870, who married Tom Trice. A son born
November 15, 1897 in Morris Co. Texas named Henry Walter
SLAYTON. Henry married Susan Elizabeth TRUITT
in Morris Co. Texas on February 25, 1897. He died July
18, 1933 in Slidell (Wise Co) TX. Buried at
Greenwood Cemetery in Wise County, Texas. Susan TRUITT
SLAYTON was born Oct. 8, 1880 at Daingerfield, TX;
Died Feb. 18, 1970 Slidell, Wise Co. TX. Daughter of
Wingate H. TRUITT and Susan Elizabeth CLARK. A
daughter named Virginia Gertrude (Jennie) SLAYTON
b. July 3, 1876 in Morris Co. TX;
Married James Calvin THOMAS in Morris Co. TX on May 13, 1891.
Died in Floydada TX March 13, 1950. Charles
Edward also was the father of an infant girl born Oct. 7, 1866
who died that same day.
3. Eliza Jane SLAYTON, daughter of Hickmond and Caroline
Clark Slayton born 1839 and died Jan. 10, 1855.
4. Henry SLAYTON, b.1840 in St. Landry Parish, LA, never
married, died near Abilente Texas.
5. Robert L. SLAYTON, b. Dec. 14, 1843, married Martha
Choate
6. Thaddeus.SLAYTON, b. d. Feb. 18, 1849.
(Taken from Texas Legacy, courtesy of Jimmie F Chatham).
SLAYTON, Sanford
Gustasov (1802-1868)
Sanford was the second son of Arthur SLAYDON and Lucy SHELTON
SLAYTON of Pittsylvania County, Virginia. Both of Sanford's
parents were from pre-revolutionary colonial Virginia planter
families. His mother was the daughter of Thomas Shelton,
whose family settled in Virginia in the mid-1600s. Arthur was the
son of Daniel Slaydon, a tobacco planter and surveyor, whose
great-great grandfather, John Sladding, was transported to
Virginia c.1695, as an indentured servant of John Hinton.
It is proven that Sanford Slayton had two brothers and at least
one sister.
Sanford Gustasov Slayton was born Nov 1, 1802 in Pittsylvania County, Va. and died Mar 6, 1868. His wife, Mary Annabell Clark Slayton, was born in Va. on Aug 16, 1806. She died in Marion County, TX on Jan 3, 1862. They were buried in the family cemetery on his plantation in Marion County, TX. In Texas, Sanford Gustasvous Slayton, had traded his Texas Republic 3rd Class Landgrant Certificate for acreage high on a hill overlooking the Cypress Bayou in the Red River District in the piney woods of East Texas. He cleared land and built a house high on the hill. He cleared enough land so that from his plantation house he had a clear view of the Cypress bottoms two miles away. n Virginia, the Shelton's and Slaydon's were tobacco planters; in Texas, Sanford planted cotton.
Census, probate, deed and court records show at Sanford was born in Pittsylvania County, VA and was a surveyor and planter in Marion County, Texas and a businessman in Madison County, Tennessee. Numerous sources showed that he was born c, 1801 and died c.1868. From census records we determined that Mary and Sanford G. Slayton married c. 1824-25. Transcripts of Lawrence Famliy Bible Records shared by Rosella Lawrence Mount, conveyed to her by Lucy Clark SLAYTON LAWRENCE , (her grandmother), have provided actual birth and death dates and the full names of Sanford and his wife, Mary Annabell CLARK. At the time of Sanford's death, his estate shows he owned land in Cass, Marion, Upshur, Morris, and and Camp Counties.
(Taken from Texas Legacy, courtesy of Jimmie F Chatham).
Stringer, W. B.
Stringer, Hon. John B.
W. B.
Stringer has been a man of some public note, a minister of the
Primitive Baptist church for forty years, representative of Pike
County, Alabama, in the State legislature for two terms, and
commissioner of that county for a number of terms. He was
born in Darlington District of South Carolina, and reared
there and in Pike county Alabama, where his parents moved when he
was young. In 1868 he moved to Texas, and, after a
residence of one year in Marion County, he settled in Franklin
County, where he now lives, and has been treasurer of that county
since its organization. His wife, Mrs. Margaret Ann
Stringer was a daughter of Robert Williamson of Pike County,
Alabama; her people came originally from Darlington District,
South Carolina, where she was born. She was reared in Pike
County, Alabama, and died in Marion County, Texas in 1869.
Hon. John B. Stringer, Mount Vernon,
Franklin County, Texas, was born in Pike County, Alabama, January
23 1845, son of W. B. and Margaret Ann (Williamson) Stringer.
John B. Stringer is the third of four children born to his
parents, the others being Dr. James M. (deceased); Mary, now
widow of Madison L. Beck; and Joseph W. He was reared in
Pike County, Alabama. After coming to Texas in 1868 he read
law with Turner & Turner of Mount Vernon, and was admitted to
the bar in 1875. His legal ability was soon recognized, and
the following year he was elected county attorney, serving in
that capacity two terms, from 1876 to 1881. He was elected
to the Eighteenth and Twentieth legislatures and was a useful
member of that body. With these exceptions he has devoted
himself exclusively to his profession.
Mr. Stringer served as a private in the
Confederate army, first in Company B., Twenty-fifth Alabama, and
afterward in Company D, Fifteenth Confederate Cavalry. He
was on the coast defense from Pensacola, Florida, to the
Mississippi river in an independent command under Colonel Harry
Maurey.
In November 1876, Mr. Stringer married
Miss Emma, daughter of S.Y.L. Ray of Marion County, Texas.
Mrs. Stringer is a descendant of an Alabama family and is herself
a native of that State.
Source:
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