6.6) George Hooper Morton (1810-1855/59), the third son of Samuel Morton and Rebecca Broome was born in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. He was usually called “George H. Morton”, but we know his middle name from his father’s will. His mother’s father was John Hooper Broome.
Because of the rarity of the name, he is very likely the George H. Morton who took out a marriage license with Elizabeth Loveless in the District of Columbia on 28 January 1830. Elizabeth was probably from Prince George’s County, Md., home to several Loveless families. Within a year or so, they had their first child Ellen (who the 1850 census records as born in Indiana, although the circumstantial evidence suggests George H. Morton was still in Maryland until 1835). Elizabeth Loveless Morton then died sometime in the 1830s.
By 1840, George, his brother Samuel and his sister Arabella were living in Daviess County, Kentucky. George H. Morton had recently married Mary Ann Townes on 18 April 1839 in Muhlenberg Co., KY (she was born in 1818 in VA). The 1840 federal census for Daviess County, KY records George and his wife, a son under 5 years of age (the newborn James), and another white female in her twenties, and 14 slaves. Possibly, the other female is his sister Arabella — although she was actually 32 at the time, she must have been living in the county then because she married Thomas Field (a neighbor of Samuel) in December 1840.
A few years later, by the mid-1840s, George’s family had moved on to Arkansas where his brothers John H. B. Morton and Henry Edwin Morton had already bought land. An 1843 Kentucky deed records the sale of land from George H. and wife Mary Ann Morton to his brother Henry E. Morton and wife. Probably this land sale is connected with the family’s move.
This family is found on the 1850 census in North Fork Township, Izard County, Arkansas:
- George H. Morton 40 farmer, born in Maryland
- Mary Ann 32, born Virginia
- Ellen 19, born Indiana
- James 10, born in Kentucky
- Rebecca L. 6 born in Kentucky
- Mary Ann 4, born in Arkansas
- George A. 1, born in Arkansas
- Thomas Morton 20 farmer, born in Maryland
- Mary Johnson 20, born in Arkansas
The placement of Thomas Morton at the end of the list suggests that he was not one of the children of George Morton. Rather, he is apparently a nephew, the son of Samuel Morton, whose family was still living in Daviess County KY but would later move to Arkansas. Whether Mary Johnson was a relative, friend or boarder is unknown. Arkansas genealogists say that George H. Morton owned what was the Matthew Adams farm, diagonally across the White River from the Wolf House. The Izard County courthouse burned in 1889, destroying all the early records and complicating research in that county.
But sometime in the 1850s, George Morton died and then in 1868 his wife Mary Ann died in Jefferson, Kentucky and then the children dispersed to live with relatives. In the 1870 census, George A. Morton (aged 20) and Alice B. Morton (aged 18) are found in the household of their well-off uncle Henry Edwin Morton who had returned to Maryland. They remained in Maryland the rest of their lives and were eventually joined by their sister Rebecca.
An 1865? listing of slaveholders for Izard County includes the George H. Morton estate. An 1877 deed mentions the following heirs, all of whom were then stated as living in Maryland: George A. Morton, Rebecca L. Townes (but transcribed as Throwns), Arthur W. Thomas & Alice B. Thomas.
Children of George Hooper Morton and Elizabeth Loveless:
6.6.1) Ellen Morton (1831 – )
Known only from the 1850 census, which records her as aged 19, born in Indiana.
Children of George Hooper Morton and Mary Ann Townes:
6.6.2) James Morton
Known only from the 1850 census, which records him as aged 10, born in Kentucky.
6.6.3) Rebecca L. Morton, marr. — Townes
She was born in 1844 in Kentucky. After the death of her father, she must have returned to Kentucky where she is recorded in the 1870 census in McLean County (Livermore district) as “Rebecka L. Morton”, aged 25, born in Kentucky. She had married Henry Willis Townes (a relative of her mother’s and the brother-in-law of her sister Mary Ann) for his third marriage but he died within a year. In the 1880 census, she is found as “Rebecca Townes, Sister-in-law, widowed, aged 36, born in Kentucky” in the Maryland household of Arthur and Alice Thomas, her brother-in-law and sister (see below).
6.6.4) Mary Ann Morton, marr. James Townes
She was born in 1846 in AR. Mary A. Morton’s marriage to James Paschal Townes on 29 May 1867 was recorded in McLean County, Kentucky (obviously, her husband was some relative of her mother). They soon had a child Nelly and moved near her family in North Fork, Izard County AR, where the 1870 census records James 26 (with $1100 real estate and $255 personal property), Mary 23, Nelly 2. On the same property was the family of Wythe W. Adams. James Townes died in 1874 in Kentucky, but nothing further is known of Mary Ann.
6.6.5) George A. Morton
He was born in Izard County, Arkansas in 1849 and then moved to Maryland in the 1860s, after the death of his father. First, he lived with his uncle Henry E. Morton (1870 census) and then in the 1880 census (after his uncle’s death), he is listed as head of his own household, which also included a 21-year-old laborer David Robinson and the aged Alexander Burch (a family friend who had lived with another Morton relative in the 1850s). His dates are known from his tombstone in St Johns Chapel Cemetery, Pomonkey, Charles County, Maryland: born 14 Jul 1849, died 8 Apr 1910.
6.6.6) Alice B. Morton, marr. Arthur W. Thomas
She was born in Feb. 1852 (1900 census) in Arkansas, then moved to Maryland in the 1860s to live with her uncle Henry E. Morton (1870 census). On 22 Oct. 1874, Alice B. Morton married Arthur W. Thomas (b. 1852) at St. Paul’s Church, Prince Frederick, Maryland. Their 1880 household in Pomonkey, Charles County, MD included her widowed sister “Rebecca Townes”. In the 1930 census they were living with their daughter Mary Blackford in Fairfax County, Virginia. Their children: Mary (Blackford), Webb Arthur, Henry E., Alen M., John B., Hugh R., and one child who died in infancy.