My Genealogy Hound

Samuel N. Welton, farmer and notary public, was born September 22, 1839, in Madison County, and is a son of Bartley and Nancy J. (Shustied) Welton. The father was born October 10, 1784, in Amherst County, Va. He passed his youth in that State, and during the War of 1812 served as an artilleryman. In 1815 he went to Kentucky, where he married and lived several years. He then went to Illinois, and in 1836 came to Arkansas by ox wagon, locating near St. Paul, buying land upon which he lived nine years. He then entered land and improved a farm in Franklin County, where he died September 18, 1860. He was actively interested in politics, and was a firm adherent of Stephen A. Douglas. The grandfather of our subject was of Welsh descent, and a member of the Free Will Baptist Church. Nancy J. Welton was born in Jackson County, Tenn., in 1800, on November 12, and was reared in Madison County, Ark. Her death occurred in 1861. Of her thirteen children, ten grew to maturity, and two are now living, viz.: our subject and Sarah McMillian, a resident of Franklin County, Ark. The names of the others are Polly, William, John, Bartley, James, Martha Rachel, Rebecca, Lindsey, Elizabeth and Starlin. The latter and our subject were twins. Samuel N. grew to maturity in Franklin County, Ark., living with his parents and receiving but a limited education. During the war he served in Gibson’s battalion under W. L. Cabbel, and participated in several engagements, and upon the close of hostilities worked for the Government, as his parents had died and all the property had been lost. Mr. Welton married Celia Marrs, daughter of James and Celia Marrs, and a native of this county. His marriage has been blessed with ten children: Mary J., James, Bartley, Celia, Nannie, Martha, Willie, Daisy, Dennis and Elizabeth. Mary J. died when seven years of age. Our subject and wife belong to the Primitive Methodist Church, and the former to the A. F. & A. M., and he is a Knight of the Horse. He served as justice of the peace in 1874 and 1876 and is now notary public. Mrs. Welton’s parents were born in Tennessee, and the mother Celia (Stokes) Marrs, lived in North Carolina until eleven years of age, and then accompanied her parents to Tennessee. After their death she came with a brother-in-law to Arkansas, where she married in 1846. Her husband died in 1851, and she now lives with our subject.