DALTON, G. L.
The worthy son of one of the earliest and most successful cattlemen of Palo Pinto County, Texas, G. L. Dalton is nobly upholding the name and fame of his renowned father, Marcus L. Dalton, who was a son of the State of Tennessee. His mother was Miss Lucinda Gamble before her marriage, and was a native of Kentucky. In the biography of Mrs. M. L. Dalton, found elsewhere in this book, the toilings, the struggles, the hardships, the rewards and successes and the final cruel death of the father at the hands of the savages are related, and they form a page of the lights and shadows of pioneer life in Texas of which but few in these piping times of quiet settlement even dream.
Leaving the narrative of the lives of the hardy and progressive parents to another page, we will go directly into the peaceful exploits of the son. He was born in Palo Pinto County on August 6, 1863, and, being a child of not over-strong constitution, it was deemed imprudent by the parents to permit him to attend school to great length, fearing his strength would not be equal to the strain. Believing that his frail health would be benefited to a greater degree by outdoor exercise, by riding, running and climbing, he was given free range of the open air, and learned to ride when but seven years of age, and while but a child became an expert horseman and herder.
So well had he learned the business that at the age of sixteen he was thought well fitted to engage in the trade for himself, and in 1879, having 600 cattle of his own, he took them with herds belonging to his mother and brothers to Crosby County, where they were permitted to feed and increase until 1884, when he sold his own holdings, on range delivery, to the Espuela Land & Cattle Company for the good round sum of $30,000. This was a large capital for a young man who was only one year past his majority to have accumulated. Immediately following this transaction he returned to Palo Pinto County and purchased a body of land known as the "Shut-in Ranch"on the Brazos River, consisting of 3,500 acres, paying for it the handsome sum of $11,200. This he stocked with 500 head of cattle, and conducted it very successfully until 1888, when, believing he saw a good business opening, he moved to Weatherford, and engaged in the wholesale and retail butcher business, using his own cattle as a basis from which to start. In connection with this and in partnership with his brother, William, he opened a grocery at about the same time, and both ventures would have prospered were it not for the extensive credit which they were forced to give. Their inability to collect from parties who were largely in their debt was the means of their losing considerable sums of money, and they were compelled to give up the business after the lapse of three years. This was the only transaction in which our subject has embarked and suffered pecuniary loss.
After the unsatisfactory termination of this venture, he returned to the familiar old "Shut-in Ranch," which he had retained, and made that his home and headquarters until his removal later to the city of Palo Pinto. In the second year of his business career in Weatherford he had bought some 600 head of cattle from Captain McAdams, paying for them $6,400. These he run for a time upon his ranch and sold at a good profit, and has since handled about that number yearly.
He has not confined his efforts to cattle raising alone, but has been engaged in diversified farming, finding by actual experience that it is more profitable than one single line of agriculture. He cultivates each season 150 acres of his best land, producing all kinds of grain in abundance, and also markets from $500 to $1,000 worth of hogs each year. His total holdings consist at the present time of 2,000 acres of land, 300 head of cattle (this number not representing, of course, all he handles during the year), seventy-five good horses, and in the neighborhood of one hundred hogs.
Mr. Dalton was married early in life, at the age of twenty, and his domestic affairs have run as smoothly as have those of business. His wife's maiden name was Miss Lavinia Tennyson, she being a daughter of one of the earliest and best-known settlers of Texas, J. W. Tennyson, who is still living at Palo Pinto. Texas. Their marriage took place on January 25, 1882, and has been blessed with six children, three boys and three girls. The eldest, Lucinda, named for her grandmother, is twelve; R. S. is ten, Elbert eight, Amy Lee five, Richard three, and Maggie Virginia, the baby, is one year old. (Source: Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the Cattlemen of Texas by James Cox, Published by Woodward & Tiernan Printing Co, St Louis, 1895 -∼Mrs. Lee Dalton
wife of General Lee Dalton, I feel this has the wrong cemetery as her husband 15339089 is buried in LuQueen cemetery and headstone there has both of their names.
The headstone photo is from the LuQueen Cemetery