Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/376

 316 HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST MISSOURI Miss Summerville Tomlin and moved to Gayoso, Pemiscot county, in January, 1855. Here he rented a farm and began to cultivate it. However, in the same year he was aj)- pointed clerlv of the eoimty court of Pemiscot county and later ia the same year was elected county surveyor. Again in 1860 he was made clerk of the county court and served for six years. He was a Union man at the breaking out of the war but was not in favor of aboli- tion and when Captain Lyon seized Camp Jackson, Mr. Carleton decided to east in his lot with the south. When the Federal forces took possession of New Madrid and Pemiscot counties Mr. Carleton put the records of the county in a dug-out and carried them across the Mississippi river and turned them over to the commander of the Confederate gun- boats. The records were afterwai-ds carried to Memphis, Tennessee, where they remained until the close of the war in 1865. He was appointed to a position in the Confed- erate States navy and entered upon active service. During the war he was at Yazoo, ilississippi and Charleston, South Carolina; in 1864 he was transferred to the engineering department with the rank and pay of major. AVhen Macon, Georgia, was surrendered to the Federal forces lie was made a prisoner and paroled April 26th. He returned home July 1, 1865, and at once took part in the reorgani- zation of the government in Pemiscot county. During this time he acquired a knowledge of law but could not be admitted to the bar owing to his inability to take the test oath. In spite of this fact he was allowed to prac- tice law before the courts of Pemiscot coimty and when the test oath was striken from the constitution of the state he was admitted to the bar and regularly enrolled as a practi- tioner. In 1875 he was a member of the constitu- tional convention from the 23rd senatorial district in connection with General N. W. Watkins. He was a representative from Pem- iscot coimty in four of the general assemblies of tlie state and was the author of several important bills, especially one creating drain- age districts in the state. He was also in charge of the Hunter bill to indemnify the counties of Southeast Missouri for dam- ages caused by the overflow of the Mississippi river, In 1870 Major Carleton began the making of ab.stract of land titles in Pemiscot county. This abstract, which was brought up to date, proved to be of very great value owing to the destruction of the court house. The general assembly passed an act in 1885 making the Carleton abstracts legal evidence in all courts of record. In addition to his other activities Major Carleton at times controlled the publi- cation of the Gayoso Democrat, and during all his life was interested in farming. Iron County The organization of Iron county dates from an act of the legislature approved February 17, 1857. It was created from parts of the counties of St. Francois, Madison, Washing- ton, Dent, Reynolds and W^ayne. It owes its peculiar shape to the fact that it was made up of parts of so many counties. This was necessary in order to avoid reducing any county below its constitutional limits. The first county court was composed of J. V. Logan. Jolm W. IMiller and Moses Edmonds. John F. T. Edwards was the clerk, and Jolm Cole was sheriff. The first meeting of the court was on August 4, 1857. At that time the county was divided into seven townships : Dent, Kaolin, Iron, Pilot Knob, Arcadia, Lib- erty and Union. At this meeting of the court Theodore F. Tong was made school commis-