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While working on the early church history of the Malesus ``Ebenezer'' Methodist Church we encountered the names of many Harton, Shelton, and McKnight families. In trying to identify the various persons we needed some genealogical study. Mr. Malone McDaniel worked on genealogy so we asked him to help us, which he very kindly did. The result is that we now have some data on the early settlers with these names, and we have a relatively complete list of the early Hartons associated with the church.
One John Peter Harton, (ca. 1790-1836) and his family were early settlers here and secured land along both sides of the Meridian Creek, east of Malesus. One of his sons, John L. Harton (1822-1898), married Christina B. McKnight and reared a family on what is known as the Robley Place, where Steve and Jane Watlington have built their new home. He had about a thousand acres of land and in his will distributed it to his children, one of whom was Andrew Jackson Harton (1854-1937), a long-time Sunday School Superintendent at the Malesus Church. His son, James Leven (Lev) Harton married O. W. Hammond's second daughter, Clara Matilda Hammond.
John L. Harton had been a trustee at the time of the purchase of the first property where the cemetery is now located. John Peter Harton was known as a ``Methodist Preacher'' when he came into Madison Co. about 1820. He evidently performed a marriage in 1815 in Robertson Co., Tennessee, and was in the 1820 Census in Sumner Co., Tenn., before coming to Madison County. Therefore, the Peter Harton family was connected with Methodism before coming to the county as an early settler.
John Peter Harton was in the 1830 census in Madison Co., along with another Thomas Harton that settled near Medon, which could have been an older son or a brother to Peter. He also had family in Alabama and near Richmond, Va. Peter's wife died in Madison Co., Aug. 31, 1830. He died about 1836 and they are presumed to have been buried in an unmarked grave in the Harton Cemetery on the Parksburg Road. It is likely that his home was not far from this early family cemetery. His son John L. married Christina B. McKnight, whose brother, Richard T. McKnight, was an important landowner nearby.
John L. later married the widow of George T. Shelton, a Mrs. Sara Wiggs Shelton. John L's son, Andrew Jackson, (A.J.--Uncle Andrew) married a Miss Lucy F. Shelton, thus we see bonds of marriage as well as religion in these early families.
Thus the known lineage for the Hartons at Malesus U.M.C. is:
| John Peter Harton (ca. 1790-1836) m. Mary Harris (Powell) |
| John L. Harton, (1822-1898) m. Christina B. McKnight |
| Andrew J. Harton, (1854-1937) m. Lucy F. Shelton |
| James Leven Harton m. Clara Matilda Hammond |
| Leland Wesley Harton m. Elizabeth Harton |
Through internet contacts we have had help in learning the ancestry of John Peter Harton, who came to Madison Co., Tenn., before 1826, and is the ancestor of the Hartons of Malesus. One Thomas Harton, of Warren Co., N.C., died in January 1795. He was married to Mary Bell, daughter of Thomas Bell and Mary Thompson. Mary Bell was from Charles Parish, Surry Co., Virginia. Thomas is believed to be the son of one Thomas Harton of Goochland Co., Va., whose will was probated in 1751: Will Book, 6, p. 140. He had immigrated with William Sheapard and Richard Baker, on May 2nd, 1713.
Before 1751, Thomas Harton (II) was on a 1749 tax list in Bute Co., N.C. He worked as a chain carrier for a surveyor. He was also listed as a sergeant in the Militia in 1749. In 1753, after the death of the Thomas Harton of Goochland Co., he bought 600 acres of land in Bute Co., N.C.
This Thomas Harton II and Mary Bell had five known sons and two daughters. His son Burwell Harton, who died before 1833, in Huntsville, Ala., and Eliza Champion Edgerton had: James Harton; John Peter Harton (ca. 1791-1836) who functioned as a minister of the Gospel and performed a number of weddings in Northern Alabama in the early 1800's and William Harton, who married Nicy Power, daughter of Major Nathaniel Power.
As we have learned from other sources, John Peter Harton performed weddings in Robertson Co., Tenn., north of Nashville before coming to Madison Co. by 1826. He served as administrator of the estate of a brother, Daniel Harton, who had been some years in business in Jackson, Tenn. About this time other related Hartons also migrated to West Tenn., including, Benjamin Thomas Harton, oldest son of John Peter and Mary Harris Powell of Huntsville, Ala. Benjamin reared a family and died in Dyersburg, Tenn., about 1878. He and several others of his family are buried in the Old Dyersburg City Cemetery.