(COMMUNICATED: Salt Lake Herald and Tribune)
Judge Joseph Alma Barton

At Greenville, Utah, February 26, from a compilation of diseases, Joseph Alma Barton, Probate Judge of Beaver County, after a short but severe illness of eight days, passed away peacefully and calmly at two o’clock p.m. Though suffering intense pain at times, he bore his afflictions patiently to the last. He frequently called upon the Elders to administer to him, and everything that kind friends and loving hands could do for him was done.

He leaves a grief-stricken wife and three sons, father and mother, brothers and sisters, and a host of friends who morn his loss. In fact, the whole community are heart-stricken. He was a leading character among the people, a good neighbor, kind and affable to all, an affectionate father and a kind and loving husband. The community will miss him greatly.

Joseph Alma Barton was the son of William Barton and Sarah Esther West, born on February 1, 1848 at Seebanon, St. Clair, Illinois. He was blessed when he was eight days old by Johnathan C. Wright and he came to Utah with his parents in 1851 and settled in Parowan, Utah. When eight years old he was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

His father with six other brethren, was called by President Brigham Young to go to Minersville, Utah to produce lead. From thence the family moved to Beaver, Utah where he grew up to manhood. In 1866 he performed a mission to the Missouri River, after the emigration in Captain Sam White’s train.

He was an officer in the Utah militia and took an active part in the Blackhawk Indian War. He was a student of the B Y Academy and had a practical education.

He was appointed Deputy Marshall by U. S. Marshall Maxwell and served two years after which he married and settled in Greenville, where he held various offices of trust in the precinct. He was County Selectman for two years and Probate Judge at the time of his death.

Not considering himself a member of the Church, he took no interest in Church matters until lately, but he did not oppose. He frequently attended and was a member of the Y. M. M. I. A. in which he took an active part. About ten days before his death he delivered a lecture to the public from the Book of Mormon.

Some fifteen months before his demise, he buried his one and only daughter, a beautiful girl sixteen years of age which seemed to work a change in his heart and turn him to the Lord, which was manifested by the fact that his whole family was baptized, and he himself expressed his intentions shortly before his death of renewing his covenants with the Lord in the waters of baptism.

Joseph Alma Barton is a cousin of mine on my Father's side of the family. Richard Easton -> (1938) -> Ray Easton (1911) -> Eva Jane Barton (1879) -> John Hunter Barton (1858) -> William John Barton (1821)

Joseph Alma Barton was the first born of William Barton and Sarah Esther West. He had 12 brothers and sisters: William P. Barton (1853 - 1853), Daniel King Barton (1854 - 1934), Esther Jane Barton (1856 - 192), John Hunter Barton (1858 - 1934), Stephen Rollins Barton (1860 - 1944), Sarah Estella Barton (1862 - 1896), Rachel Barton (1863 - 1865), Phillip Jackson Barton (1864 - 1947) and Stonewall Jackson Barton (1864 - 1864), Lewis Barton (1867 - 1870), Hugh Jones Barton (1868 - 1946) and Lydia Barton (1873 - 1873).

William Barton, Sarah Esther West Barton and a son, Joseph Alma Barton, left Lebanon, Illinois, for Utah in the late summer of 1850. They were almost three months crossing the plains by ox team. They remained in Salt Lake until the early spring of 1851, arriving in Parowan April the seventh or eighth.

Joseph's Father William Barton and Mother Sarah Esther West

William Barton Born 30 January 1821 at Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois. Entered Salt Lake Valley September 1851. William Barton, originally from Lebanon, St. Clair County, Illinois, was born to John Barton of Orange County, North Carolina, and Sally Penn of Elbert County, Georgia, on January 30, 1821. The oldest boy and the second child in a family of ten, he had four brothers and five sisters. Elizabeth was the oldest child. John Wesley, one of William's brothers, died when he was eighteen years old. Elizabeth Sarah Penn and Eliza Ann lived less than five years each and were buried in the Barton cemetery in Lebanon.

Sarah Esther West was born 8 November 1829, in Chalk Level Township, Benton County, Tennessee. She was the first child of Samuel Walker and Margaret Cooper West. At the time of her birth, Sarah Esther's parents were living on a 1,000-acre estate inherited by Margaret's maternal grandmother, Esther Fletcher, from her (Mrs. Fletcher's) uncle William's estate. Chalk Level, Benton County, Tennessee, does not now exist, but the burial place of Margaret Cooper's father and mother in Montgomery is still intact. Benton County is southwest of this place. This would be less than twenty miles northwest of Nashville.