Individual Details

In Charles Baley's wonderful book, "Disaster at the Colorado," our ancestor William Garton is listed as an employee of the Hedgepeth family (members of the 1857 Wagontrain, bound for California, from Missouri.) William (Bill?) was only 21 years of age, unmarried, and his widowed father John Bunyan Garton had married Sarah Hedgepeth, when William was just three years old. So he knew her family well. William was a young hired-hand, and perhaps this is the reason his signature is not to be found at El Morro (Signature Rock) in Cibola Co. NM, just south of Grants, along with other wagon-train members. Either that, or his signature has been eroded by time and weather, as have other signatures. (The question could also be posed, "Was he illiterate?" However, since his grandfather was a Judge and County Assessor in MO, I don't think that's a possibility. The family valued education.)

William Z. Garton was hired on to help build Route 66 (currently I-40) through NM and Arizona, while still a young man working for the Rose-Baley Wagontrain. So he worked on the route and later joined the family members who made it all the way to California. (A long, amazing story which concludes with many of the Wagontrain families returning to their old homes in the Midwest!)

Once established out in CA, at the age of 33-34 Wm. Z. Garton met his wife, Margaret Elizabeth Hart (a direct descendant of John Hart, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence.) They had six children from 1871 through 1885. The youngest, George Henry Garton, was my great-Grandfather.

Bill Garton died May 7, 1912 at the age of 76.

Birth	2 Apr 1836
Marriage	9 Sep 1870	Margaret Elizabeth Hart
Death	7 May 1912

Spouse	Margaret Elizabeth Hart (1856 - 1940)
Child	John Michael Garton (1871 - 1944)
Child	James West Garton (1873 - 1876)
Child	Sarah Garton (1875 - )
Child	Missouri Emaline Garton (1877 - 1967)
Child	Albert Garton (1884 - )
Child	George Henry Garton (1885 - 1939)