We Tipton and Our Kin
Pictured are the Tiptons and Tipton descendants gathered in Bristol, Virginia for the 2014 Tipton Family Association of America Meeting on the 11th of October.
The group was enthusiastic and engaged in everything Tipton for this day!
Group picture was taken and provided by Winnie Haley of Navarre, Florida.
This year, the TFAA had a dinner on Friday night to enjoy conversation and a meal among the cousins. The first time event was a tremendous success attended by twenty-two members.
Judge David Tipton had a wonderful idea to hold the dinner. A new tradition has begun for the TFAA and its membership.
At the business meeting on Saturday, President John Parrish presented the Treasury Report for the year which was accepted by the membership.
He also presented a status report on the projects the TFAA has adopted which are: A Fund honoring William “Fighting Billy” Tipton at the Savannah, Georgia Revolutionary War Battlefield. This fund currently has $ 140.00
A Fund to place a historical sign honoring the Tipton Family in the Sycamore Shoals State Park on the Watauga River in Elizabethton, Carter County, Tennessee. No funds have been donated.
A project to digitize Ervin Charles Tipton’s book We Tipton and Our Kin and make the book available in CD format. This project cannot go forward without permission of the owners of the book’s copyright. Efforts to locate the owners have been unsuccessful but are ongoing.
Much discussion was held regarding the William Tipton Memorial Fund and why it is not being funded given that “Fighting Billy” is so widely known and has so many descendants. To honor William in the Battlefield Memorial Park will cost $ 1,779.00. The Memorial is managed by Savannah’s Coastal Heritage Society.
It was agreed that William’s descendants and We Tiptons would want to see this accomplished.
Give consideration to donating to the Fund so our heroic ancestor can be memorialized.
Donations should be sent to the TFAA, 314 Oak Place, Asheville, North Carolina 28803 The membership voted to hold the 2015 TFAA meeting in Ringgold, Georgia. Ringgold is in Catoosa County in the Chattanooga, Tn.-Ga. Metropolitan Area.
The President updated the membership on the TFAA website. Recently, the website had 700 persons send messages to the TFAA thru the website on a variety of subjects. Some were simple compliments and gestures of appreciation for the website’s existence. Some sought information about the TFAA and others posted questions to the Queries Section. Certainly the website has been our most successful project to date. It does constitute our greatest expense and at times depletes our Treasury but none would question its value.
Following the business and information segment of the day were the programs.
Judge David Tipton presented the biography of John Tipton, Jr. (1767-1831). John moved from the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia first settling in Sullivan County, Tennessee. When his father, Colonel John Tipton (1730-1813) died, John moved to Washington County and resided in his father’s home which is now the Tipton-Haynes Historic Site. John was a long time Tennessee legislator and upon his death, his funeral was the largest held to date in Nashville.
Colonel John Tipton (1730-1813) attended the meeting in the person of historical interpreter Tom Turner.
Colonel John shared the details of his life and accomplishments then answered a variety of questions from his many descendants present.
John Parrish presented the results of his recent research on the Tipton Family in England. He informed the group of the Tiptons in Tipton, Staffordshire, England and about the death of Welsh Prince Llewellyn during King Edward I’s wars to conquer Wales. Tipton Family lore tells the story of Llewellyn being slain by Anthony Tipton who was then knighted to become Sir Anthony de Tipton.
President John Parrish was in England during the English celebrations of both the WWII D-day landings and the oncoming of World War I. It was a time in England of continual honoring of the country’s veterans.
In keeping with that spirit, the Friends of the Tipton Library in Tipton, England gave President Parrish a commemorative Poppy and asked that it be placed at the grave of a Tipton in America.
On 20th September, the Elizabethton, Tennessee Sons of Confederate Veterans ceremonially placed the Poppy at the grave of Lt. Robert Tipton in the Carter County, Tennessee Tipton Family Cemetery, now known as Greenhill Cemetery.
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!