From the Declaration of Independence to Walton County: The Walton Family’s Road to Florida

When Walton County was created in 1824, lawmakers gave the new county a name with a remarkable connection to the American Revolution.

That connection began nearly fifty years earlier and hundreds of miles away, when a Georgia delegate named George Walton placed his name on the Declaration of Independence.

But George Walton Sr. never lived in Florida.

The connection came through the next generation. His widow, Dorothy Camber Walton, and their son, Colonel George Walton Jr., came to Pensacola just as Florida was passing from Spanish to American control. George Jr. became a key official in the new territorial government under Andrew Jackson.

Three years later, the newly created Walton County would bear his name.

It is a family story that stretches from the Revolution itself to the beginning of American government in Florida—and provides an especially fitting conclusion to Walton County Heritage Association's Road to Revolution.

George Walton: A Georgia Revolutionary

George Walton's beginnings gave little indication that his name would one day appear on one of the most important documents in American history.

Born in Virginia, probably around 1749, Walton was orphaned when he was young and raised by an uncle. He apprenticed as a carpenter but educated himself, eventually moving to Savannah in 1769 to study law. By the eve of the Revolution, he had established himself as a successful Georgia attorney. New Georgia Encyclopedia

As tensions with Britain intensified, Walton became active in Georgia's revolutionary movement. He served in the Provincial Congress and Council of Safety and, in 1776, was chosen as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress.

There, alongside fellow Georgians Button Gwinnett and Lyman Hall, Walton signed the Declaration of Independence. War.gov

His contribution to the Revolution did not end with his signature.

Walton served as a colonel in the Georgia militia. During the British capture of Savannah in 1778, he was wounded and taken prisoner. After his release in a prisoner exchange, he continued a long public career that included service as governor of Georgia, chief justice of the state, member of Congress and United States senator. The White House

But the Walton County connection would come through his family.

Dorothy Camber Walton

George Walton married Dorothy Camber in 1775, on the eve of the Revolution.

Dorothy experienced the Revolution not as a name in a history book, but as a wife whose husband was involved directly in rebellion, military service, battle and imprisonment.

George Walton died in 1804.

Dorothy lived for nearly three more decades—and eventually followed their son south to a place that had not even belonged to the United States during her husband's lifetime.

Pensacola.

Florida had been British territory during much of the Revolutionary era before returning to Spain in 1783. Spain finally ceded Florida to the United States under the Adams-Onís Treaty, and the formal transfer occurred in 1821.

That same year, George and Dorothy's son received an appointment in the government being established in the newly acquired territory.

Dorothy went with him.

The widow of a signer of the Declaration of Independence had arrived in what had once been British West Florida.

Another George Walton

George Walton Jr. was born in 1786, three years after the American Revolution formally ended.

Unlike his father, his public career would become closely connected with Florida.

When the United States took possession of Florida in 1821, President James Monroe appointed Andrew Jackson to govern the newly acquired territory. George Walton Jr. became secretary of West Florida under Jackson's provisional government.

Florida Memory records his service as Secretary of West Florida from 1821 to 1822 and then as secretary of the combined Florida Territory from 1822 until 1826. Florida Memory

The appointment placed the son of a Revolutionary founder directly inside the process of transforming former Spanish Florida into an American territory.

And we have an unusually personal account of those days from George Jr.'s own daughter.

A Child Remembers Andrew Jackson's Pensacola

George Jr. brought his family to Pensacola as well.

His daughter, Octavia Walton, would eventually become the celebrated nineteenth-century writer and social figure Octavia Walton Le Vert.

Decades later, in an 1872 letter now preserved by the State Archives of Florida, Octavia recalled her family's early days in Pensacola. She described her father as lieutenant governor while General Jackson and his wife were there and said that he assumed greater responsibility after Jackson departed.

Her memories were admittedly limited. She explained that she had been a young child when the family came to Pensacola. Florida Memory

Still, the letter gives us something official government records cannot: the voice of someone who actually lived through the transition.

The Walton family had moved into a place undergoing an enormous change of identity.

Spanish flags were coming down.

American officials were arriving.

Spanish and French documents had to be translated.

New laws and institutions had to be established.

Even young Octavia reportedly helped her father by using her knowledge of French and Spanish to translate documents into English. Encyclopedia of Alabama

The American Revolution had ended nearly forty years earlier.

Its consequences were still unfolding.

The Dorothy Walton House

Dorothy Walton remained in Pensacola.

A historic Gulf Coast cottage there continues to bear her name: the Dorothy Walton House, also known as the Walton Cottage.

Pensacola historical sources report that Dorothy lived in the house during the 1820s, probably from about 1825 until her death in 1832. The building itself predates her occupancy and had previously been owned by Euphrasine Hinnard, a wealthy free woman of color. Visit Pensacola

That earlier history is worth remembering. Historic buildings often carry the stories of more than one family and more than one community.

Dorothy died in Pensacola in 1832 and was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery. 1821 Sampler

She had lived long enough to see something her husband never did:

Florida become part of the country whose independence he had helped declare.

And Then Came Walton County

The connection becomes ours in 1824.

On December 29 of that year, the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida created a new county from part of Escambia County.

It needed a name.

The county was named for Colonel George Walton Jr., secretary of West Florida under Andrew Jackson's provisional government. Both Florida Memory's historical records and Walton County's official history identify him as the county's namesake. Florida Memory

That distinction is important.

Walton County was not directly named for George Walton Sr., the signer of the Declaration of Independence.

It was named for his son.

But that makes the family connection to the Revolution no less remarkable.

The man honored by the county was the son of a Revolutionary patriot and Declaration signer. His mother, who had lived through the Revolution, came with the family to Pensacola. And George Jr. helped administer Florida during the first years after it became American territory.

One generation helped create the United States.

The next helped extend its government into Florida.

A Family Across Two Eras

There is something especially fitting about the Walton family's story.

George Walton Sr.'s generation fought over whether thirteen British colonies would become an independent nation.

His son's generation confronted a different question:

How far would that new nation extend?

Florida had stood outside the United States throughout the Revolution. Indeed, during much of the war the land that would become Walton County belonged to British West Florida and remained loyal to the Crown.

After the Revolution, it returned to Spanish control.

Then came decades of pressure along the border, American settlement, Native resistance, Andrew Jackson's military campaigns and finally Spain's cession of Florida to the United States.

George Walton Jr. arrived at the end of that long process.

The connection between the two George Waltons therefore reaches beyond genealogy.

Their lives mark two different stages in the growth of the United States.

The father participated in its creation.

The son participated in bringing American government to Florida.

And between them stood Dorothy Walton, who lived through both worlds.

The Road Reaches Walton County

Throughout our Road to Revolution series, we have tried to tell a part of the American Revolution that can easily disappear from the familiar national story.

The land that became Walton County was not one of the thirteen colonies.

It was Native country claimed by competing European empires.

During the Revolution, it belonged to British West Florida.

Creek and Yuchi people navigated alliances intended to protect their own lands and sovereignty.

Patriot forces under James Willing brought the Revolution into West Florida.

Spain entered the war and Bernardo de Gálvez destroyed British power along the Gulf Coast.

Afterward, Florida returned to Spain.

Then came another generation: Sam Story and the Euchee, Andrew Jackson and the old Red Ground Trail, American settlers, and eventually the transfer of Florida to the United States.

And finally, in 1824, came Walton County.

There is a wonderful symmetry to where that story ends.

In 1776, George Walton placed his name beneath the words declaring thirteen colonies independent from Great Britain.

Forty-five years later, his widow and son came to a Florida that had only just become part of the United States. His son helped establish American territorial government here under Andrew Jackson.

Three years after that, a new county was created in the Florida Panhandle.

It was given his son's name.

Walton.

The Road to Revolution had finally reached home.

Sources and Further Reading

Florida Memory preserves an approximately 1821 portrait of George Walton Jr. and documents his service as secretary under Andrew Jackson and subsequently as secretary of the Florida Territory. Florida Memory Its historical account of Walton County likewise identifies George Jr. as the county's namesake. Florida Memory

The State Archives of Florida also preserves Octavia Walton Le Vert's 1872 letter recalling her father, grandfather and childhood in territorial Pensacola. Florida Memory

The New Georgia Encyclopedia and federal historical resources provide biographical information on George Walton Sr., including his Revolutionary service and role as one of Georgia's three signers of the Declaration of Independence. New Georgia Encyclopedia

Pensacola historical resources preserve the history of the Dorothy Walton House/Walton Cottage and Dorothy Walton's years in Pensacola. Visit Pensacola

Walton County's official history confirms that the county was created in 1824 and named for Colonel George Walton, secretary of West Florida during Andrew Jackson's territorial governorship.