Horton Genealogy / or Chronicles of the Descendants of Barnabas Horton, of Southold, L. I., 1640.

by Geo. F. Horton

My Dear Sir: I have received several copies of the "San Diego Union," the last No., April 30, also a copy of the "World," March 20th, which contains a picture of San Diego. Also a sketch of the city on a small sheet, which gives an account of the origin of the new city, and of your relation to it as the founder and the source of its enterprise.

For these favors I desire to express my cordial thanks. The growth of your new city is indeed wonderful, and a brilliant future is certain to come. Were I a young man, the temptation would be strong to cross the continent and join in your great enterprise. But my future is short, and must be devoted to the commemoration of the past.

It has so happened that in my work as the genealogist of my native town of Union, I have recently devoted special efforts to the two families of Horton and Burleigh. Dr. Horton, of Terrytown, Pa., proposes to publish the annals of the Horton family in this country, nearly all of whom are the posterity of Barnabas, who came from England.

I have in charge the genealogy of Rev. Ezra Horton, your grandfather, and have nearly completed the collection of nearly all his descendants of the fourth generation (to which you belong), from Rev. Ezra, of Union. I have the names, with dates of birth, of three of your father's children who (including yourself) were born in Union. The rest of your father's family I have not. I desire very much to obtain a complete list of all the children of your father's family, with date of births, marriages, and deaths, so far as possible. I understand that your father is still living, though at an advanced age. I have an obituary notice of your mother, published in a San Diego paper soon after her death, a year ago last March.

Rev. Lucien Burleigh, the son of Rinaldo Burleigh, of Plainfield, Conn., is endeavoring to obtain a complete record of all the descendants of John Burleigh, the first comer of the name to which your mother belonged. Your mother was first cousin to Rinaldo Burleigh, who was a long time Principal of Plainfield Academy, and the father of a number of sons who are well known as writers, and as editors.

I visited Union last week, and saw my uncle, Capt. Chauncey Paul, and his wife, whose name before marriage was Polly Armour, daughter of John Armour. They both recollect your father and mother. John Armour was a near neighbor of Mr. Jacob Burleigh, and the children of the families grew up together.

The effort of Rev. Lucien Burleigh will result in obtaining full accounts of all branches of his family. I was able to give him a full account of the children of the first comer, John, and his wife, Meriam Fuller, whose ancestry I have traced far back among the early settlers of Willington and Ashford, in Conn., and in Rehoboth, Mass.

My interest in the two families of Horton and Burleigh, arises not from the recent efforts to procure genealogies of those two families by parties specially interested. I have long been engaged in collecting facts pertaining to the history of Union, my native town. I have made it a point to study the history of all the early settlers and long residents. I have traced the ancestry of very many back to England and Scotland, through the Scotch-Irish emigration, which took place nearly one hundred and sixty years ago. Very many of the early settlers of Union were Scotch-Irish—as the Pauls, the Lawlors, the Moores, the Armours, the Crawfords, the McNalls, and others who, like all the race, were genuine Scotch in their character, and were among the best of the emigrants of the olden times. They were not connected at all with the modern or ancient Irish race.

The Hortons, Burleighs, and Laflins were genuine Englishmen in their ancestry. So were the Fosters, the Badgers, the Sessions, the Newells, the Loomises, the Abbotts, and the Waleses.

From that little town, a great many enterprising emigrants have gone forth to people the mighty West. The people of Union, in respect to enterprise and education, are higher than the average emigration of towns in Connecticut and Massachusetts. My long and patient explorations into the history of Union, has led me to such results as that I am not ashamed of the fame or the name of my native town.