My Genealogy Hound

W. H. Tipton, blacksmith and farmer of Little Black Township, Randolph County, Ark., was born in Boone County, Mo., June 26, 1832, and is one of nine surviving members of a family of ten children born to Samuel and Sarah (Lynch) Tipton, whose native States were Kentucky and Virginia, respectively. The father removed to Missouri about 1828, and was a successful farmer of Boone County for six or seven years, but the most of his attention was given to the trade of blacksmithing. In 1837 he moved to Macon County, and settled in Bloomington, where he worked at blacksmithing for several years, and then bought a farm on which he settled. From 1846 until the breaking out of the war he resided in Schuyler County, Mo., but in the first year of the Rebellion he was taken prisoner by the Union army, and since that time no knowledge of him has ever come to the family. He was a member of the Baptist Church, and his marriage occurred in 1827. His widow resides in Iowa, and their children are as follows: W. H., John T. (in Virginia), Samuel (in Iowa), James (in Nebraska), Harrison (deceased, whose family reside in Montana), Elizabeth (the deceased wife of Ezariah Padgett, of Texas), Mary F. (wife of H. C. Grimes, a traveling salesman, who resides in Plattsmouth, Mo.) and Sarah (wife of James Van Cleve, a farmer). W. H. Tipton started out to struggle with the world at the age of eighteen years, and although his early education was neglected he is accounted one of the intelligent and well-posted men of the county. He first went to California, where he was engaged in mining three years, but returned in 1854 via the Gulf of Mexico, and landed in New York City. From there he proceeded to Schuyler County, Mo., and began assisting his father in the blacksmith shop, continuing this until the breaking out of the Rebellion, when he joined the Confederate army under Capt. McCullough, but was on detail the most of the time, being engaged in shoeing horses. After the close of hostilities he went to Illinois with Judge J. H. Richardson of this county, and remained there until 1866, when he moved to Randolph County and settled in Little Black Township, where he went to farming and blacksmithing, and has continued these occupations up to the present time. He owns 240 acres of land, and has given two of his sons eighty acres each, besides much personal property. May 31, 1855, he was married to Miss Harriet E. Wadsworth, of Illinois, and their nine children were as follows: three died in infancy; Mary E., deceased wife of B. J. Norris, of Texas; Claiborne W., who was accidentally killed, being fatally crushed by a log while he was working in a saw-mill, his death occurring January 30, 1888, in his twenty-fourth year; S. C., residing in Pocahontas; Robert E. S., at home; B. S. and Antoinette. Mr. and Mrs. Tipton are members of the Baptist Church, and he is a member of the A. F. & A. M., his children, S. C., B. S. and Antoinette, also being members of the Baptist Church. He is a Democrat. Robert E. S. Tipton was born in Randolph County, Ark., September 26, 1867, and married, November 8, 1888, Miss Amelia A. Smith, whose birth occurred in Marshall County, Ky., December 11, 1867.