"Many of the Horton Family of North Carolina have lived to old age. They are generally regarded as a clever, honest, liberal, and charitable people. They possess good social qualities, and are generally very popular, and these characteristics, capability being added, account for so many of them holding public positions. Many of them are public professors of Christianity, and belong to the Baptist and Methodist denominations.
"In politics they were formerly Whigs,—were all faithful to, though not fully approving, the cause of the late Southern Confederacy. They are now all conservative, and acting with the Democratic party. Though generally intelligent, educated, and talkative, there has never yet one of them been a preacher or a lawyer, and but one a physician. They are nearly all engaged in agricultural pursuits, and generally fond of amusements, such as hunting, fishing, etc."—Letter of Hon. William Horton, of Boone, N. C., Dec., 1874.
II. Nathan, son of [Phineas Horton and Rebecca Councill], born on New River, 22 Oct., 1829. He was a Captain in the militia before the war, and also held the office of county processioner for several years.
He volunteered in Capt. T. V. Crumpter's Co. A., 1st Reg't, N. C. Troops (cavalry), and was promoted to a Lieutenancy in Capt. Jonathan Horton's Co. (B.), 37 Reg't, N. C. Troops (infantry), in the Fall of 1863. He was in the battle of Chancellorsville, Va., and others which followed, until he reached Gettysburg, where he was severely wounded by a minnie ball, which he yet carries under his shoulder. He was captured and taken to the hospital near Chester, Pa., I think, where he remained about two months. He was then taken to Johnson's Island, Ohio, where he says, that the suffering from hunger was so great that rats were freely eaten by the prisoners. After remaining there about twenty months, he was released on parole, and got home in March, 1865. Soon after his return home he was elected County Surveyor, and he has been re-elected several times, and he still holds the office. He was married 27 May, 1875, by Rev. Dr. Wogg, to Juliett Gentry, daughter of W. H. Gentry, of Jefferson, N. C.
III. Jonathan Fillmore, son of [Phineas Horton and Rebecca Councill], born 3 March, 1836. He was a Capt. in the militia before the war. When the war broke out he also volunteered, with his brother Nathan, in Capt. Crumpter's Co. He died from relapse of fever, at Moore's Hospital, Manassas Junction, Va., 2 March, 1862.
IV. James Harrison, son of [Phineas Horton and Rebecca Councill], born 27 May, 1841. He was an officer in the militia, and like his brothers, volunteered in Capt. Miller's Co. I., 58th Reg't, N. C., Troops (infantry), and was chosen Lieutenant. He was slightly wounded at the battle of Chickamauga. He acted as Adjutant for Col. J. B. Palmer at the battle of Missionary Ridge. He died from brain-fever at Dalton, Ga., 22 Dec., 1863. His body was brought home and interred on the hill in front of his father's house.
James Theodore, son of [David Eagles Horton and Sarah Dula] (Col. Nathan, Nathan, Caleb, Barnabas, Caleb I.), born in Caldwell Co., N. C., 16 Oct., 1829; married in Yadkin Co., N. C., 12 Oct., 1859, by John Williams, Esq., to Sarah Rosa Lynch, daughter of Larkin Lynch and Elizabeth Hunter. Moved to Yadkin Co., N. C., in Oct., 1863, and in Dec., 1866, removed to the old homestead again in Caldwell Co. He is a well-to-do farmer, and respected by those who know him.
Children:
1. Alice Conrad, born in Yadkin Co., 22 Aug., 1860. 2. Ida Lynch, born in Yadkin Co., 2 Jan., 1863. 3. Rosa Virginia, born in Yadkin, Co., 3 Dec., 1864. 4. James Walter, born in Yadkin Co., 26 Jan., 1867. 5. Harriet Augusta, born in Caldwell Co., 30 April, 1869. 6. Lillie Gertrude, born in Caldwell Co., 2 May, 1872.
I. Edmund Burke, son of [Edmund Bani Horton and Matilda Devoy] (Jonathan Bani, Barnabas, Jonathan, Jonathan, Caleb I.), born in New York City, 14 April, 1845; married 25 Oct., 1866, by Rev. F. Rallston Smith, D. D., to Harriet Moores, daughter of Charles W. Moores and Susan Ann Mallory.