A good friend, Garwood Linton, entrusted some of the Linton information from his family into my keeping for awhile. This is the information gathered by Adelaide Linton Cartier, daughter of Hugh Walter Linton and Eliza Belfield Garnett. You have heard me speak of the letters written by my great-grandmother, Frances Barber Linton Montgomery, to Hugh Linton. They loved genealogy and family!
In the files in my possession I found a poem written by Maurice Ragland Linton, Sr. Maurice was the son of Benjamin Linton and Florence Vitula Ragland, born in 1898 and died in 1980 at the age of 82. The older I get, the more I realize life is indeed short. This isn’t meant to be a sorrowful post, but one to incite us to live life to the fullest and enjoy our family members while they are here!
Father’s Day
By Maurice Linton, Sr.
I sit in the shade on a summer’s day;
Perhaps I start dreaming the hours away,
For it seems I hear voices loud and clear;
And the children are gathering from far and near
To play beneath the trees.
Where are those children of yesteryear?
Who played and sang with voices clear;
I must be dreaming for it seems just a day.
How can it be, they have all gone away,
And left our lives lonely,
In the shade of the trees.
But again I hear voices of children at play.
Can they be echoes from a bygone day?
Games, I remember in a wistful way;
Childish things they used to say.
I wake from my dream voices draw near;
Thank God, we have our grandchildren here,
To play beneath the trees
Categories: Family Stories
What a lovely poem!!!! written by a distant Linton relative. Colette Davis
Sent from my iPhone
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Love it…
Beautiful!
Yes, how great and beautiful it is. I plan to send a copy to my family. Richard Linton, Katy, TX
Dear cousin Phyllis,
Dear cousin Phyllis,
In posting this 2d thought about your blog today regarding the topic: A Father’s Day Poem By Maurice Linton, I’m using the list of Capt John’s descendants that you sent to me in April 2006 (with a later revision of the number of Capt John’s children that you emailed to me that July) in conjunction with the ancestry work you were doing for my family.
Today I wondered in what line down from Capt John do we find the author of the Father’s Day poem that you posted on your blog today. And so I reviewed your list (which others might like to know that I think you have copies for sale if they contact you) showing the descendants of Capt John and his wife Ann Nancy Mason. Thus, of the 10 children of Capt John Hancock and his wife, whereas I descend from Capt John’s 2d child – his son Moses Linton and wife Ann Nancy Pead – cousin Maurice Ragland Linton descended from Capt John’s 4th child – son Benjamin Franklin Linton and wife Lucy Crewdson. And if I have counted correctly, they had 12 children, with #8 being Benjamin Burkett Linton who, with wife Nancy Jane Newman, had as their oldest of 12 children, son John Wesley Linton who, with his wife Emma Adelaide Proctor, produced 8 children, the oldest being our Linton poet – Maurice Ragland Linton (born in 1898, and died in 1980) who, with his wife Cleo Balance (also born in 1898, and she died in 1985), had 3 children and 2 grandchildren – the latter apparently being two girls, one, Samra Leigh Linton, born in 1961 and the second, Tracy Lane Linton, born in 1962. Their parents, Maurice Ragland Linton Jr and wife Paula Ann Pillow, were born, respectively, in 1932 and 1938. So now we know that the inspiration for the poem was the two granddaughters, Samra and Tracy.
Best wishes,
cousin Dick Linton
Katy, TX
Phyllis, Thanks for posing this poem, by Maurice Linton,