My Genealogy Hound

Geo. L. Walton, of Walton & Haley, merchants, was born near La Fayette in 1822, and is one of nine children of Edward M. and Agnes (Turner) Walton. The father, of English origin, was born in Virginia in 1797, a son of T. Walton, native of England, who came when a boy to Virginia and in 1807 located in Smith County, Tenn., and in 1814 finally settled four miles northwest of La Fayette, the birthplace of our subject. In 1818 the father, Edward, was married and spent the remainder of his life on the above mentioned farm, and died in 1869. The mother, born in Bedford County, Va., in 1795, died in 1874, a member of the Christian Church. Our subject remained at home until twenty-six years of age, received the most of his education from his father, an intelligent and well informed man. June 2, 1850, he married Maria, daughter of Jonas Griffith. Their three children are Maria, wife of W. H. Carter; Rebecca M., wife of Hon. J. S. Wootten and Laura, wife of Hon. A. R. Harlin. Beginning life as clerk at La Fayette when twenty-six, two years later he entered partnership with M. B. Johnson and J. C. Marshall with whom he remained until 1859. An able man, he has served as Register of Macon County for eight years from 1850, after which he was county clerk until 1874. After a year as county assessor, he was elected county trustee in 1876, serving four years. In 1884 he resumed mercantile life, abandoned at the beginning of his county clerkship, with his present partner, Capt. William Haley. Their stock of about $4,500 is the most complete in La Fayette. In politics he was a Whig, voting for Gen. Taylor, but since the war has been a Republican. He is a prominent Mason, and was formerly an Odd Fellow. He and his wife are members of the Christian Church.