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Thomas Kelton [1652]
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James Kelton

Robert Kelton [1724]
   William Kelton
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   Robert Kelton
   David Kelton

Robert Kelton [1786]
   O.P. Kelton
   Mark A. Kelton
   Robert F. Kelton
   Benjamin F. Kelton

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The Keltons and Lindleys

It is possible the Kelton and the Lindley families had known each other in Pennsylvania.[1] It is probable that Robert and Samuel Washington Lindley had known each other 30 years earlier in South Carolina. Samuel was born in South Carolina in 1788,[2] two years after Robert's birth. They both left South Carolina in search of land and a new life -- Samuel for Kentucky in about 1806 and then Illinois in 1810 and Robert for Georgia in about 1816. That search for land brought them together in Montgomery County, Texas.

Samuel Lindley and several family members moved from Illinois to the Mexican state of Coahuila y Tejas in November 1833. Samuel and his son-in-law, John Sadler, received land grants from the Coahuila y Tejas government issued in Nacogdoches on November 7, 1834.[3] These grants were later recognized by the Republic of Texas.

Jonathan Lindley and the Alamo

One of Samuel's sons, 21-year-old Jonathan, started a small farm and was a surveyor. In the fall of 1835 while on business at San Felipe de Austin, Jonathan heard news of the battle of Gonzales and responded to the call for armed volunteers. In early October, Jonathan joined the volunteer force under Austin. He was with Bowie's men at Mission Concepcion and followed Milam into San Antonio de Bexar.[4] After Texas forces took San Antonio, Jonathan took a leave of absence and returned home for Christmas. A family story says that Jonathan, as he prepared to return to the war, rode to his father's house and took his eight-year-old sister Rachel on a short horseback ride before he kissed her goodbye and rode off.[5] When grown, Rachel married Benjamin F. Kelton.

Jonathan was among 32 men who volunteered at Gonzales in response to Travis' call for help at the Alamo, in which he said, "I shall never surrender or retreat." These few reinforcements arrived under cover of darkness on March 2, bringing the number of Texans to 186 against 4,000 Mexican soldiers under the command of General Santa Ana. On March 6, Santa Ana's troops stormed the Alamo in a bloody assault and killed the Texans. Ironically, Jonathan Lindley's name was not included among the Alamo heroes when a memorial shaft was erected by the State of Texas in Austin. In 1936, Jonathan's name was included on memorial pools erected by the Gonzales Historical Museum and on the marble monument in the Alamo Plaza in San Antonio.[6] Samuel's son-in-law, John Sadler, fought as a member of Captain William Ware's Company at the Battle of San Jacinto where Texas independence was won on April 21, 1836. Sadler received an additional donation of land from the republic because he was a veteran of San Jacinto.

The Collards and Tolberts

The Collards and Tolberts had known each other in Missouri. The Collard and Tolbert names are prominent on maps of the early land grants for Montgomery Land District -- including Montgomery, Walker and Madison counties. The Collards had come from the northeast by way of Kentucky and Missouri. Elijah Collard was active politically, being elected to the Consultation of San Felipe in 1835 that later led to the Texas Declaration of Independence. He was president of the Montgomery County Board of Land Commissioners from 1836 to 1839.[7] His land grant was patented on April 29, 1838. His sons, James H. Collard and Lemuel M. Collard, also received First Class Certificates for land, indicating they arrived before the Declaration of Independence. Elijah and Mary Collard's sons, Jonathan S., Lemuel M., Job S. and James H., fought in the Texas war for independence. Elijah was elected as a commissioner when Walker County was created in 1846.[8]

Elijah Collard's oldest daughter, Margaret, married John Tolbert in Missouri in about 1818. The youngest of their seven children, Eliza, who was born in Missouri in about 1831, married Robert and Catherine Kelton's son, Robert F. After Robert F. died, Eliza married Elijah Lindley, the 13th of Samuel's children. Eliza's father, John Tolbert, received a land grant in what would become Madison County.

Sources

[2] Based on Lindley family information by Clarence Roberson. Founders and Patriots of the Republic of Texas, p. 394-396. Samuel Lindley's grandparents, Thomas and Ruth Hadley Lindley, came from Ireland in about 1710 to 1713 to settle in Chester County, Pa., suggesting the possibility that Robert's ancestors and Samuel's had known each other in Pennsylvania before moving to South Carolina. History of Montgomery County, p. 378.

[3] Originals of the land grant certificates are contained in the Spanish Land Grant Collection in the Texas General Land Office in Austin.

[4] This story is adapted from a report on Jonathan Lindley that was a Supplement to a Report on Illinois in Texas, prepared by the Illinois Living History Association in the Daughters of the Republic of Texas Library at the Alamo in San Antonio. Kevin R. Young, "Johnathan L. Lindley: Illinois' Participant of The Alamo," undated, typewritten report.

[5] Ed Kelton, The Descendents of Robert and Catherine Kelton (Plano, Texas: Ed Kelton, 1989), p. A-1.

[6] Kevin R. Young, "Johnathan L. Lindley."

[7] Compiled Index to Elected and Appointed Officials of the Republic of Texas: 1835-1846 (Austin: State Archives Division, Texas State Library, 1981).

[8] Johnnie Jo Dickenson,"Elijah Collard" in History of Montgomery County, p. 279.