I remember dad (b. 1915) talking about his grandma's sister's husband. He used to say Tarlton was a great big man, nearly 7 feet tall. well I got a copy of his Oklahoma and texas pension applications, and he was 5' 8". I think Dad actually meant he was impressed by him. I got the impression Tarlton Bull was a good story teller (so was Dad). Tarlton married Sarah Ann Brown, sister to my great grandma, Josephine [Brown] Richey. Well I have found several things about him since I last wrote yall
Tarlton Bull's Two Pension Applications
In Tarlton's Texas pension papers one witness said Tarlton was in the 29th Tx Cav and it only casually mentioned he was at the battles of Elk Creek and Cabin Creek, and said he served in Texas, Indian Trritory, and Arkansas.
I finally found another record of where he fought. There is a second record written by his sister and parts of it were published in a Denton, Texas newspaper.
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/dws/drc/localnews/stories/DRC_Thurman_Column_0103.3219b08.html.
These excerpts are from an article that was published in the Denton Record-Chronicle, on Wednesday, January third, 2007.
Nita Thurman / Denton County
Pioneer letters attest to tough times on the frontier
07:15 AM CST on Wednesday, January 3, 2007
. . . Lizzie Bull dated her letter Nov. 2, 1859, Denton, Denton County, Texas:
She traveled for 10 weeks after leaving Iowa, a trip she describes as the “hardest time I ever expect to have.” The trip might have been pleasant, she wrote, except for an unidentified illness that apparently struck down most of her family in Indian Territory.
She apparently nursed her father, mother and at least one relative, Tarlton, probably a brother, as well as the doctor who was traveling with them and succumbed to the same illness. A heavy September storm raging around their tent added to the misery.
Her father died Sept. 28 on Horse Creek in the Cherokee Nation, Lizzie wrote, and asked her sister to put a notice in the Herald, a local newspaper.
“Think of my feeling when father was a corpse and Mother and Tarlton so low that they didn’t know anything of it,” she wrote, “and not a woman to come in to see me.”
After burying her father, she sat all night with her critically ill mother. The doctor traveling with them had “given up” on mother, Lizzie continued, and by now was also very ill. A man named George — probably a relative — went about 15 miles for a half-Indian doctor to treat the gravely ill travelers.
“It was coming up a storm, and I think we had as hard a storm that night as I ever saw,” she continued. She sat in the tent that night with her mother, Tarlton and the first doctor, who was so sick that he could not sit up. The doctor died four days later.
After giving all the bad news, Lizzie changed subjects without even a comma or a period:
“This is a very pretty country,” she continued, “but not what we call good watered country at all.” Her mother was still weak from the illness, but was “on the mend” and hopefully would soon be well.
Lizzie ended her letter with a request that word of her father’s death also be sent on to “the boys” and sent her love to all her friends.
So what happened to the Bull family? In his History and Rem¬i¬niscences of Denton County, Ed Bates gave a roll call of the pioneers in each of the early settlements. He lists George and Tarleton Bull as two of the first people in the Denton Settlement.
end of quote from newspaper.
Now for the other reference --
In “Genealogy of the Jackson Family” © 1890, by Hugh Park Jackson, Hugh Hogue Thompson, and James R. Jackson (apparently one of Tarlton's ancestors was a Jackson)
P 114
8. Tarlton D. Bull, born March 1, 1845, in Wisconsin; married first April 29th, 1869 in Denton County, Texas to Mary Montgomery, She was a member of the M. E. Church, and died January 27th, 1871 leaving an infant; Sarah A, Bull born January 11th, 1871 in Eastland, Texas, and resides at home with her father,
T. D. Bull married second time, Feb, 2. 1879 to Sarah A. Brown [Vance's note -- she is sister to my great grandma Josey Brown Richey]. He is engaged in the livery business in Desdemona, Eastland County, Texas; he is a non-church member and a Democrat. He was a confederate soldier for three years and nine months. He enlisted first in the 18th Texas Cavalry, March 17th 1861, and was dismounted at Little Rock, Arkansas. At Pine Bluff Arkansas, his unit was nearly all captured.
P115
And afterwards was transferred to the 29th Texas Cavalry Regiment, Company E, Colonel Demorses, Gano’s Brigade, Maxey’s Division, General Price’s Army of Cavalry, and remained in that regiment til the close of the war, west of the Mississippi River. He was in 37 engagements, and was not wounded or captured. The following are some of the battles in which he took part: In Arkansas, Pine Bluff, Elk Horne, Saline river and Poison River. In Louisiana; Mansfield. In Indian Territory; Cherokee Nation. While engaged in this last named cavalry conflict his horse stood on his father’s grave. There his brother George was captured and was a prisoner two years. His company went into war with one hundred eleven men, and came out of the war with seventeen men. T. D. Bull rode the same horse all through the war, and brought him home with him. When he arrived at home he was penniless, having suffered untold hardships and privations
They have four children:
1. Walter T. Bull born May 19th, 1880, died May 14th 1882.
2. Nancy A. Bull, born February 11, 1883.
3. Alta D. Bull, born May 5th, 1886.
4. William Cleveland Bull. Born November 19th, 1888.
Vance's note -- on 1920 census they are living in Murray County, Oklahoma. I don't know where this Jackson researcher got his information, but since it was written in 1890 Tarlton was still living -- perhaps he got it from Tarlton himself. I thought it interesting that tarlton's horse survived the war, and also that his horse stood in Tarlton'f father's grave, as well. I suspect it is an unmarked grave, and I wonder if it could still be found -- probably not. Becqause of the grave remarks, I included the letter from Tarlton's older sister that someone in Denton Tx., had a copy of. Also does this conflict descrtibed match a known historic battle? I think it is Cabin Creek or Honey Creek -- maybe Honey Creek as he mentions his brother was POW for 2 years and it was in 1863. Thanks --
Vance Hawkins