Hatton / Stith

Material provided by Jim Stith, May 2011.
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Dear cousins,

I had hoped to write each of you a letter but have to settle for a form letter with a personal note on the back,.  We have so many things coming up this summer that I think I will not get time to write and there are some things I want to alert you to.

The annual Hatten reunion will be at Huntington, W. Va. in Mad Anthony Wayne Park August 4th.  We plan to attend.  We expect to spend considerable time checking records in Frankfort, Ky.  We don't know yet if this will be before or after the reunion.  Huntington is served by and airport between Huntington and Ashland Ky.   Amtrack stops at Huntington.  We would like to see you there.  If you haven't been down there we can show you some of the points of interest relating to the Stiths and Hattens.

Recently, Dolores Emerson called us in regards to a Stith reunion in Okla.   Dolores is the daughter of Ob's daughter Margaret and lives in a suburb of Akron, Ohio.  She got the information from a Stith in Calif.  She will be sending more detailed information which I will pass on to you.  Our Jesse's brother Eli (Elias) had some of his children settle in Okla.  I am sure that some of this family will be there.  This reunion is too close to the Hatten reunion for us to attend.  I hope that some of you can make it.  In any case I will get in touch with some of these Stiths and hopefully pick up more information about out relatives.  The reunion will be at a United Methodist campground near Tahlequah, Okla.  June 21-23.

The weekend of June 21st, Inez has a class reunion at Madison, Minn.  The next weekend we will be in Moorhead, Minn.  for a meeting of a Norwegian organization we both belong to.  Inez's sister will be with us for both meetings.  She is from Portland, Ore.  They are the only ones left of twelve children.

I will be enclosing some new material on the Stiths.  Most of it we picked up in 1983.  Some I received from a Baisden relative and some will be revisions I had to make on old charts etc.

Love,

Inez & Jack

Dear Ann,

You can pass these materials on to whichever of your children are interested in the family tree.  Almost every month I get new material from someone.  When I get more organized I will send it along.  I have as much if not more on the other families.  Grandpa Stith's mother was a Hatten. Bazilla's father was Jeremiah Cox and her mother was Elvira Baisden.  The Stiths, Coxes, Hattens & Baisdens all lived on one side or other of the Big Sandy River which runs between Ky. & W. Va.  If any of your children ever get to Louisa, Ky. they should see the historical marker on the court house lawn about the two steamers that were burned and sunk by the rebels in 1864.   One belonged to Flyn, Stan and my great grandfather Jesse Stith.  General Garfield (later Pres.) rode on the boat many times.  The loss of the boat was the reason they left for Minn.

If anyone decides to come to the Hatton reunion have them contact me and I can send them more specific information .  So far I haven't found any of our ancestors on the Stith side that came here after the 1700s.  The first of our Hatton (Hatten)ancestors was Samuel he came in 1761 and worked on the Washington Plantation .  He fought in the Revolutionary war and was at Yorktown.  It is thought that the first Baisden ancestor was John Smith Baisden.  He was a Belgian and his name was Jean Schmidt Baisden. He supposedly came with Lafayette.  I haven't found the first Stith or Cox.

Last summer, when we were in Swanville for the 50th anniversary of my graduation we checked with the Nelson girl and they got the film O.K. No thank you or anything.   Did they write you?  I sent them your address and suggested they write and thank you.  Did you hear from them?

Over the years as teachers, school administrators we have observed that with small towns, like Swanville, half or more of their high school graduates leave and what is left runs things.  Swanville has lost about 1/4 of its population since I graduated.

Keep in touch,

Love

Inez & Jack

The Hatton Family of the Big Sandy Valley

Samuel Hatton, the early progenitor of the Sandy Valley Branch, was born in London, England.  On the day he was 11 yrs. old George III was crowned King of Great Britain.   Samuel received a number of presents on his natal day which caused him to be quit hilarious.  Under the excitement he made some disparaging remarks and criticisements of the new King which came to his master's ears, he being apprenticed to a paper hanger, who gave the little rebel a flogging for his temerity.  Smarting under the blows he ran away leaving his widowed mother, his brothers and sisters and went to Ireland where boy as he was he obtained work at his trade of a ship owner in one of the seaports of that place.

After remaining one yr.  his employer prevailed upon him to take passage on one of the vessels bound for America.  He landed in Alexandria Va., three months after leaving Ireland.  Landed in 1761.  He drifted about until the Revolutionary war or struggle commenced.  True to the instincts of his boyhood he enlisted in the army and fought all thru until the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown.

He married Hozannah Queen of London County, Virginia.  Sons and daughters were born unto them.  Of these sons Samuel and Jonah came to the lower Sandy Valley in 1790 and settled near what is known as Tormans Ferry in West Virginia, just below Round Bottom.  Phillip, another son, came out one year later.  These brothers were single men when they came West, but each soon after arriving, finding it not good to be alone, took a wife and established a home.

Samuel Hatton married Nancy Campbell, whose family came to the county from Kedstone. Campbell's branch, a streamlet entering into the Sandy River five miles above Catlettsburg, was named in honor of Nancy Campbell, whose father lived upon the stream and gave his daughter a farm on its banks.

Jonah Hatton married Margaret Wallace and Phillip married Jane Cardwell.  In a few years after Phillip arrived another son of Samuel, Sr., Elijah, came, and soon after married Elizabeth McGinness.  David, a twin brother of Elijah came soon after and married Sally Pregett in Virginia.  The last named twin brother settled near where Samuel, Jonah and Phillip located and from these five brothers have sprung all the Hattons of Boyd County, Kentucky and Wayne County, West Va., and many have moved west, a numerous host numbering more than four hundred souls.

The Hattons have ever maintained a reputation for industry and honesty and integrity.   In searching the records of crimes no Hatton's name is found on the black catalogue.  They are generally farmers altho numbers of them are engaged in commercial pursuits.  Joseph Hatton, a grandson of Johan Hatton, is a noted merchant in Rushville Ky.  Strothers Hatton, is known as the Egyptian corn merchant and farmer of Elijah's Creek, West Va., and is a man of wealth.  Samuel R. is a bright business man lately gone to Illinois.  Wiley Hatton is one of the wealthiest farmers in Sandy Valley living three miles from the mouth of the Big Sandy River in W. Va. Allen Hatton now a venerable old man is carefully attended by his nephew, Joseph Hatton at Rushville and is one of the best informed men living on the Big Sandy River.

Allen is a son of Jonah Hatton.  Allen in his young days was a steamboat man.   In 1843 he piloted the first steamer that ever went above Louisa (or Lovisa) Ky.   Mothers rushed to the banks on hearing the steam escape, bringing their children along to see the wonder of their lives.  Chickens and geese ran from the barn yards on the banks in great fright.  Horses and cattle were seized with fear and rushed to the hills to escape.

The Hattons were nearly all Union people during the Civil strife.  Since then most of them have acted with the Republican party.  Some are strong in church relations and are mostly Methodists, altho a few are Baptist faith.

Jonah Hatton was a soldier of the war of 1812 and served in the same company with Cyrus an uncle of Abraham and Ross Cyrus.  He married Agnes Abrahams.

Great, Great, Great Grandparents .... Samuel Hatton and Hozannah Queen
           Great, Great Grandparents.....Samuel Hatton and Nancy Campbell
                     Great Grandparents......Johnson Hatton and Cynthia Spurlock
                               Grandparents......Eliza Jane Hatton and Jesse Stith

Samuel Hatton I born 1760
King George III crowned in 1760

Grandfather Stith owned a steam boat and his boys were practically raised on it on the Big Sandy River in Ky.