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Escambia County, FL Obituaries


BY JOHN H. CROSS.
Probably few people in Florida are aware of the fact that in old Saint Michaels cemetery in Pensacola reposes all that is mortal of Mrs. Dorothy Walton, wife and widow of Governor George Walton of Georgia and one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence from that State.
Surrounded by a whitewashed brick wall in the old part of the cemetery near the South Alcaniz Street gateway
the old grave may be seen. It is covered with a flat slab of marble and has upon it the following inscription:


“Died in Pensacola
September 12, 1832
MRS. DOROTHY WALTON
a native of The State of Georgia
A Matron of the Revolution
Consort and relict of GEORGE WALTON
A signer of The Declaration of American Independence.”


George Walton was a native of Prince Edward County, Virginia and his fine character and mental gifts soon placed him in the front rank at the bar in Georgia to which State he moved from Virginia early in life ; born 1740, he died full of years and honors in 1804 and is buried at Augusta, Georgia. He was governor-general of Georgia before the Revolutionary War and was a colonel in the American army during the Revolution and received a wound at the siege of Savannah while leading his regiment. A member of the first congress at. Philadelphia, he was afterward chosen governor of Georgia on two occasions and also filled the high offices of United States Senator and Judge of the SupremeCourt of Georgia. Sometime before the Revolutionary War he married Miss Dorothy Camber, who was the daughter of an Englishman to whom the crown had given large tracts of land in the Colony of Georgia; and when the war broke out her father insisted upon her returning to England, but she positively refused to leave her rebel husband and with true womanly heroism followed him through the perilous days which succeeded.

Soon after the siege of Savannah she was taken prisoner by the British and sent as a prisoner of war to one of the West India Islands where she remained some time until an exchange of prisoners was effected. Young, gifted and beautiful and reared as an English heiress, her devotion to her adopted country should give her name a foremost place among the heroines of the Revolution.

In 1804 George Walton died at “Meadow Grove,” his country seat near Augusta, Georgia, and his body rests under the monument there on Green street, erected to the signers of the Declaration of Independence, three of whom, Walton, Hall and Gwinnett, were originally from the city of Augusta. Hall’s body is also buried under this monument, but Gwinnett’s burial place is unknown, as he fought a duel and his body was buried in the woods where he fell and there is no trace of his resting place.

During the administration of Andrew Jackson, seventh president of the United States, a son of Governor and Mrs. Walton was Secretary of State for West Florida and at the time of Mrs. Walton’s death in 1832 she was living in Pensacola with a daughter, Mrs. Le Vert, who was the wife of a physician.

Dr. and Mrs. Le Vert afterward removed to Mobile, Alabama, in which city I believe they both died and where Madame Le Vert, as she-was called, who outlived her husband many years, entertained in her hospitable home many of the foremost statesmen and authors and authoresses of the country.

During the Revolutionary War our State of Florida was held by England as a colony and as it was very sparsely settled, and mostly by people of Spanish extraction, it did not revolt as did the thirteen colonies to the north of it. In 1783 England gave Florida back to Spain, who held it until we acquired it by treaty, February 22,1519, although not finally ratified by Spain until 1821.

Thus it happens that Florida did not come into the Union as a State until 1845, and has no signers of the Declaration of Independence but can claim them all and the Florida Society of the Sons of the American Revolution whose headquarters are in Pensacola is glad to have the privilege of keeping Mrs. Walton’s grave in good order and herself and husband in grateful memory.
Source: Vol II., 1909, No. 2., Florida Historical Society Quarterly

Submitted by K. Torp



Eligitus Fromentin

Gettysburg Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
November 20 1822 Page 4
By a letter received by a gentleman in the city, we learn the death of Eligitus Fromentin, Esq., formerly a Senator in Congress from the State of Louisiana, and not long since a Judge for the western part of the territory of Florida. A few days ago we announced the death of his lady, and we understand that Mr. Fromentin departed this wife in 24 hours after her decease. – Washington Gaz.
Submitted by Nancy Piper


James B. Kimball, U.S.N., died, Pensacola Navy Yard, Fla., May 18, 1879, aged 43¾
[Source: 1843 Chicago City Directory, reprinted in 1896 with updated death information.
Submitted by K. Torp

At Jacksonville, Fla.,
Aug 16.
Acting Assistant Surgeon John M Whitney, of US steamer Norwich, son of Marshall Whitney, Esq. of Harvard, formerly of this city, 22
.Submitted by K. Torp
At Barrancas, Fla, at the Hospital, of chronic diarrhea, Theodore Sedgwick Sprague, a member of Co F, 2d Maine Cavalry, and son of Samuel Sprague, formerly of Dedham, Mass, 18 years 10 months.
Submitted by K. Torp
Source: National Intelligencer, as pub. in the NGSQ, vol 55, No. 1,
March 1967

These are all 1831. "This city" refers to Washington D.C. where the National Intelligencer was published


DALLAS, Henrietta M., consort of Alexander J. DALLAS, commandant of the U. S. Navy Yard at Pensacola, Fla., and daughter of the late Richard W. MEADE, formerly of Philadelphia, but late of this city, died in Pensacola, Fla., July 22. (Aug. 10) submitted by K. Torp
Source: National Intelligencer, as pub. in the NGSQ, vol 55, No. 1,
March 1967
DUNLAP, Col. James A., U. S. Attorney for the Middle Dist. of Fla., died in N.Y., Oct. 6. (Nov. 15)
submitted by K. Torp

 

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