Summer 2012 Newsletter # 7

The Tipton Family Singers have been performing successfully for years throughout the Southeast United States. The Group was started by Virginia and her late husband Jack Tipton. The Tiptons are based in Evening Shade, Arkansas.
Visit them online at www.thetiptonfamilysingers.com
Coincidentally, The Tiptons will be performing at Dollywood on October 6th as the Tipton Family Association meets. For any who would wish to see them at Dollywood, they are performing at 10am, 11:30, 1pm and 2:30 in the Valley Theater. Dollywood is in Pigeon Forge twenty miles east of Townsend.

Dan Tipton stated “they wished they could join us at the TFAA meeting but the performance schedule does not allow for them to be with us”.
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In preparation for our meeting on October 6th, I want to furnish some biographical information on three of Colonel John Tipton’s sons who were closely associated with the area that is today Blount County, Tennessee and the Great Smoky Mountain National Park’s Cades Cove. The bios will be of varying length as a different amount of information
is available for each son. All were born in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and sons of Colonel John and Mary Butler. All three migrated to the mountains of North Carolina as or after Colonel John in 1783; this area became East Tennessee when Tennessee became a state in 1796.
Benjamin Tipton (1755-1807)
Benjamin was the second child of Colonel John and Mary Butler. He was a revolutionary war veteran who served five months in 1775 before being enlisted 23 February 1778 as an ensign in the Shenandoah Militia; on 29 April 1779 he took the oath as a lieutenant.
Benjamin was married three times. First to a woman named Starret but the date and details of the union remain unknown; it appears they had two sons: Benjamin and Joseph. Second, he married Rebecca Ray in Rockbridge County, Virginia in 1780 with whom he had five children. Third, he married Rebecca Cusick 19 December 1795 and they had six children.
Benjamin died in Blount County, Tennessee and is buried in Ellejoy Cemetery. There was litigation over his will and the case is recorded in county records. Information for Benjamin’s life is sketchy and confused confounding genealogists and family researchers.
Thomas Tipton (1771-1840/50)
Thomas was the eighth son of Colonel John and Mary Butler. He served in the Carter County Militia and may have been a Captain which would indicate military service.
In 1791, he married Rebecca Lacy in Washington County, North Carolina which became East Tennessee when Tennessee became a state in 1796. They had nine children.
Thomas and Rebecca lived in Washington County and the evidence supports the idea that they moved to Blount County between 1816 and 1821. He later moved to Walker County, Georgia about 1831. Thomas’ date of death is not recorded but he was on the 1840 census in Walker County and not on the 1850 census however Rebecca was on that census. A history including Walker County states Thomas and his son Samuel had a mill built southeast of Ringgold in 1835. So, his death is postulated as between 1840 and 1850.
Thomas was an early settler in Cades Cove. Publications on Cades Cove indicate Thomas purchased 640 acres of land from his brother William in 1830. Thomas and William recorded a land grant for 1255 acres on 16 Jan 1835. Often, a land grant was issued and the land settled well in advance of the title being recorded. As early as 1821, William recorded grants of 1280 acres and Thomas could well have been farming in Cades Cove at this time. Thomas’ first son, Jacob, was killed in the Cove about 1821.

William Tipton (1761-1849) will be discussed in the next TFAA newsletter

Jane A. Clark Klein is the great granddaughter of Isabella C. Tipton who Jane believes to be from Blount County, Tennessee and is a descendant of Meshac Tipton, a Revolutionary War Veteran.
Jane would like to get in touch with any Tipton family or descendants living in the Waco, Texas area. If interested, please call Jane at (254) 485-9770 or email her at jj1sugarcat@our-town.com

Community of Tipton, California
is in Tulare County in the heart of the San Joaquin Valley west of Sequoia National Forest. The 2010 census recorded a population of 2,543 in a county of about 450,000 people. Tipton is halfway between Fresno to the north and Bakersfield to the south.
The following information was furnished by Ryan T., Tipton Community Council Historian:
~How Tipton, Ca Got It’s Name ~
Originally dubbed “Tips End”, as it was located at the end of the railroad line of the Southern Pacific Railroad, which officially named the town in 1872.
Among a few tales of how the town got its name, one story states town’s name came as a result of a war that broke out between local cattlemen and settlers arriving via the newly built railroad. A local attorney, Tipton Lindsey, championed the cause of homesteaders by introducing legislation requiring stockmen restrain their livestock from trespassing on farmer’s crops.
Tipton Lindsey was later elected to the Senate Seat and also served as mayor of Visalia, Ca and as a county supervisor.
Another tale is that some living historians have claimed that references were made in county newspapers to Tipton in 1870. It may be that the Central Pacific, now the Southern Pacific, had designated its station stops-all which became towns- as early as 1870 and had named them. But apparently no one has found printed evidence that Tipton actually existed or that there was anything there before 1872.

 


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Please share this newsletter with everyone you know that could be interested in our family’s history and association. If you are receiving this newsletter by snail mail, please let me know your email address so you can get the newsletter electronically and in color.  My email is parrrish968@aol.com.

Previous newsletters are archived on the TFAA website.

The TFAA and President thank the many TFAA members and friends who support our Association financially.  That support makes our family’s association prosper and achieve its goal to preserve Tipton family history in the present!

Please support the Tipton Family Association by making your membership donation to the Tipton Family Association of America on the TFAA website: www.tiptonfamilyassociationofamerica.com

Many Thanks to All Who Make Their Membership Donations to
The Tipton Family Association of America

Tipton Family Membership donations make the TFAA able to accomplish the goals of the membership. In recent years, the TFAA has re-established meetings and newsletters, made the book We Tipton and Our Kin available on CD, provided a plaque in honor of William “Fightin’ Billy” Tipton in Savannah, assisted research in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia on the farmland of Colonel John Tipton and the successful quest to find the burial place of Major Jonathan Tipton. With your financial support, we can continue to succeed and do more!

Visit Us at www.tiptonfamilyassociationofamerica.com

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About TFAA President

John Parrish served as president for many years and stepped down at the October 2018 meeting. We thank John for the fine work he has done and thank you all for the opportunity to serve as your TFAA president. I’m Kathryn (Kathy) Hoffmann, I was born in Savannah Ga and raised by my Tipton grandparents in North Florida and around my teenage years I moved to Naples and Fort Myers Florida where I raised my family and worked for the State of Florida Division of Forestry as their public information and education specialist until budget cuts and I was laid off, but God blessed me with a career at Fort Myers Police Department where I became a Crime Prevention Practitioner thru the Florida Attorney General’s office. During my career I’ve served on many boards: President of Southwest Florida fire prevention association, Fire Marshals association, Regional Director of Fire Prevention, SW Florida Crime Prevention Association, Crime Stoppers board member, State of Florida Crime Prevention Regional Director. I am looking forward to serving as your TFAA president/coordinator. Please feel free to call, text or email me. peachyrose56@gmail.com Let’s move forward! Tipton Teamwork