Silas Ransom Barton, son of Silas Ransom Barton and Harriet Wolcott, was born July 21, 1844 in Allegheny County, New York. The family moved to Pennsylvania when he was three. He had eight brothers and sisters. They lived in Pennsylvania until 1852 when they moved to Clinton, Iowa and Fulton, Illinois.
Silas enlisted in the Union Army on February 22, 1865 as a private in Company K, 156th Regiment of Illinois Volunteers. After his discharge, he went to Kent County, Michigan where he married Lydia Ann Peasley on July 21, 1867. Lydia was born April 21, 1854 at Coudersport, Potter County, Pennsylvania, the daughter of John Peasley and Mary Ann Gerney. She was one of eight children. Silas and Lydia moved to St Louis, Missouri in 1876 with three small sons to Nebraska and their first home was west of Norfolk.
They moved to Antelope County in 1880 and settled northeast of Royal. They lived here a few years and then moved to their tree claim. They grew to a family of seven children: Henry, William, Alfred, Leonard, Edmund, George and Carrie.
Three of Silas’s brothers also came to Antelope County, Elliott and wife, Lizzie, two children, Eldridge and Mary. They later moved to Missouri. John who died early and George and his wife, Harriet and two children, Wesley and Ida.
Silas and Lydia moved into Royal about
1917. Silas died on April 24, 1926
and on October 29, 1939. Henry
married Edith LaBranch, nine children.
Source Unknown: Originally submitted for this website in June 2007