Christiana Frances Carlton (1837-1920)

My Maternal 2nd Great Grandmother, married Simpson Columbus Hearne

Christiana Frances (“Fannie”) Carlton, the daughter of John Maud Blakely Carlton and Nancy Mary Kelley was born January 1, 1837, in Campbell County Georgia.  Her mother died in 1853 when Fannie was only 16 years old. Her father remarried in less than a month to Sisley Griffith who was one year younger than Fannie, ultimately resulting in the addition of a half dozen half siblings into the household. In 1861 the Civil War brought terror and heartache to the family. Their family home was located in Palmetto Georgia, 25 miles from Atlanta where General Sherman, in his infamous march to the sea, released the full fury of his troops. Palmetto was the headquarters of General Hood who commanded the Confederate Army of Tennessee.  At one point 28,000 Confederate soldiers were camped in this small town that in 1860 had only 1,526 residents. Hood launched a series of offensive attacks on Union troops who were hell bent on destroying Atlanta but was not successful in stopping them.

[Photo: Sherman’s March to the Sea]

Fannie’s father fought in the war and died in 1865 which potentially could have been the result of his experience in the Civil War. Two of her brothers suffered in Union POW camps and the third brother had the misfortune and emotional trauma of being assigned as a guard at the Confederate Andersonville Prison. Fannie was engaged to a young man who also had enlisted in the Confederate army.

In April of 1864, the Reverend Simpson Columbus Hearne of the 5th Tennessee Army appeared at her doorstep in Palmetto, Georgia while he was on furlough from the bloody Battle of Chickamauga. He was there to deliver the terrible news that her fiancé had been killed in battle.   Despite her grief for her fiancé, Fannie fell under the spell of the Reverend (who had a reputation of being quite the eloquent speaker) and the couple were married on 22 April 1864. Nine months later she gave birth to their child, Anna Leticia Hearne, who was my great grandmother. Anna’s story is told in a separate blog. After the war Simpson returned to Palmetto where Fannie was anxiously waiting.

[Photo: Simpson Columbus Hearne]

Fannie and Simpson’s second child, Effie Judson Hearne, was born in 1868.  Effie married William Rufus Lasater in Paris Tennessee in 1886, and they had four children: Samuel Barstow (born 1887), Katie (1890), Frances C. (1893 who died eight years later), and William Calvin (1900).   Rufus was the well-to- do owner of a lumber company that he founded in 1912. My mother recalls that he was known for his punctual stroll to his business every morning with an ornate diamond stick pin in his lapel. Rufus’ brothers, John Porter and Hafford Lasater, co-owned a soft drink bottling company in town that bottled their own brand, Electro-Cola, and eventually merged successfully with a Coca-Cola plant. 

When Effie and William married, Paris had only 1,800 residents. John Wesley Crockett, son of the famous Davy Crocket, had a law practice in Paris and served as a Representative in the House of Representative between 1837 and 1841. In the 1990’s students at the Christian Brothers University constructed a 65-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris France in the town of Paris Tennessee which has become quite the offbeat tourist attraction.  Today the town boasts about 10,000 residents. Effie died of infection due to Pellagra in 1944. Rufus died 6 years later in 1950. 

[Photo: Effie Judson Hearne]

Fannie and Simpson’s fourth child, Rosa Charlton Hearne, was born in 1873 in Paris Tennessee. She graduated from Clinton College in Kentucky in 1892 and won a scholarship for graduate studies at Wellesley.  In 1894 she got a job as a teacher at Brownsville Female College.  The following year she married William Henry Harrison, who was a distant relative of the US President of the same name (William’s great, great, great grandfather was the brother of President William Henry Harrison). President Harrison is known for having the longest inaugural speech in history and also the shortest term in office – he died of pneumonia after serving 34 days in office.  William was employed as a life insurance agent and was promoted to Vice President of the company.  Their first child, Katherine, was born in 1896 in Tennessee.  The family moved to Kentucky where Rosa gave birth to three sons: Edmond Randolph (1901), William Henry (1907), and Benjamin H. (1916).  Rosa died of pancreatic cancer in 1934 and was buried in Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond with her husband’s family. In the same cemetery are such notables as James Monroe, John Tyler, John Randolph, Jefferson Davis, General JEB Stuart and General George Pickett.  In the 1940 census Katherine, who never married, lived with her father in Richmond and worked as a schoolteacher.  William died in 1944 of heart problems.

[Photo: James Monroe Memorial at the Hollywood Cemetery in Richmond, Virginia]

Fannie and Simpson’s fifth child Alice C who was born in 1877 and tragically died of congestive fever three years later.

Their sixth and last child and only son, John Robert, was born in 1880.  He worked for the NC and St Louis Railroad in Nashville Tennessee.   He married Mary Gertrude Lindy in 1907 and had two children Howard (1909) and Jane (1914).  The family moved to Kentucky and John continued to work for the railroad company until the great depression in 1929 when he lost his job. His daughter Jane moved to Alabama and became a beautician, and his son Howard married a professional dancer named Emily Van Arsdale.  They divorced and Howard married again, moved to Chicago and had four children. In the 1940 census John and his wife Mary lived with their daughter and son-in-law in Nashville Tennessee and John worked as a clerk for an amusement company.  John died of pneumonia in 1957.

[Photo: The NC and St Louis Railroad circa 1904]

Simpson died in 1918 of kidney failure at the age of 79 in Louisville, Kentucky. In the 1920 census Fannie was living with her daughter Effie’s family.  She died at the age of 84 of tuberculosis on September 25, 1920, in the home of her son-in-law Dr Charles W Rodgers.  Her obituary reported she was a woman of “marked intelligence and innate refinement and was endowed with a splendid education. Her life was well spent in useful service. Her eighty-six years were a blessing to her family and acquaintances.”

[Photo: Fannie Carlton’s headstone in Maplewood Cemetery in Paris, Tennessee]