Otis Barton 1864-1949
Otis Barton was born on 21 February 1864 in Posey County, Indiana, USA, the son of William Barton and Nancy Green Duckworth Barton.
He married Delia Downen (1869-1905) on 6 November 1890 in Posey County. They had the following child:
Ruth E. Barton (1893-1968)
After Delia's death Otis married Georgia Ethel Matherly (1884-1973) on 8 May 1905 in Gallatin County, Illinois. They had the following children:
Irma Barton (1906-1992)
Jean Barton (1908-1993)
Flora Barton (1910-1973)
Otis first showed up with his family in the 1870 census in Robinson Township, Posey County, Indiana, USA. I have found something interesting after spending a bit of time with these census records. Otis's future wife Delia was one of the Barton family's neighbors in this census, showing up with her parents William and Rutha Gwaltney Downen in the family immediately below the Bartons in the census records. Even more interesting is that it turns out Otis and Delia were second cousins. (census image here) (View neighbors in HTML)
As of the 1880 census, Otis and his father and stepmother were still in Robinson Township, but all of his siblings and half-siblings had moved out except for his older brother Anson. (census image here)
Otis married Delia Downen in 1890 and the two of them were found in the 1900 census in Gallatin County along with their daughter Ruth. In addition to the family, a young man named John Williams was living with them who was either 17 or 20 years old depending on which number you believe, it looks like he was helping Otis with the farm.(census image here)
Delia died in January 1905 and was buried at Old Cottonwood Cemetery in Gallatin County. Otis didn't waste much time getting remarried, and in May of the same year he married Georgia Ethel Matherly (1884-1973). In the 1910 census the couple is there along with Delia's daughter Ruth and the three daughters that Otis and Georgia were the parents of. (census image here)
Between 1910 and 1920 the family moved from Illinois to Arkansas, where they are found in the 1920 census living in Madison County. Ruth had married Harrison Francis and stayed in Illinois, but the three other daughters showed up in the census. (census image here)
Irma married LeRoy John Sheppard in 1926 and they can be found in the 1930 census in Madison County, but for some reason I have not been able to find her parents or two sisters in that census, it seems as if they were missed. In any event, it looks as if Otis lived the rest of his life in Arkansas, where he died on 26 October 1949 in Hindsville in Madison County. He is buried in Buckeye Cemetery in Hindsville.
Georgia remarried five years after Otis's death, to Jim Williams, the widower of her older sister Annie Elizabeth Matherly Williams. She is, however, buried next to Otis in Buckeye Cemetery, and her headstone reads "Georgia Ethel Barton" without a mention of her last married name, Williams. Jim Williams died three years after her in 1976 and is buried in North Dakota.
Other Links
Otis Barton page at Find A Grave
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