The Hartons of Malesus

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.      

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 1830. 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:

   

This represents five generations of Hartons associated with the Methodist faith at Malesus.

-- Dec. 6, 1990