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According to family tradition, Charles Nathan Tilton was a cabin boy and boatswain's mate for the pirate Jean Laffite. Records show that Tilton came to Texas about 1829. He married Anna Barber, the 15-year-old daughter of Samuel and Elizabeth Barrow Barber, in 1831. They made their home in this area. Tilton fought in the Texas revolution, returning home during the "Runaway Scrape" to ensure the safety of his family. In 1838 he was granted a headright including 1,496 acres of land near this site. The Tilton family lived for a time on Matagorda Peninsula, where they named their home Tiltona and Charles engaged in shipping and cattle ventures. The land speculator and Congressman Samuel Maverick adapted his brand from Tilton's when he bought Tiltona and 400 heard of cattle in 1847. The Tilton family returned to Chambers County that same year. Between 1853 and 1860, Michael Chavenoe, a veteran of the Battle of San Jacinto and a Tilton family friend, died while visiting the family. Charles and Anna Tilton set aside an acre of land for a family cemetery at that time. Charles Tilton died in 1861 while in Galveston attending to his freight hauling business. He was interred here on Christmas Day. Anna Tilton died in 1883 and was buried beside her husband. Charles and Anna's nine children and their descendants continued to use the family graveyard. Veterans of the Texas revolution, the Civil War, World War I, World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War are interred here. Cared for by Tilton descendants, the cemetery remains as a chronicle of early Texas pioneers. (1999) |
