Grave for Two cont.
I might add to the story that the Carter boys bodies were carried a short distance to the home of their parents, George W. and Cynthia Conn Carter, natives of Scott County, Va.  A low knoll just a short distance south of the home was to become the final resting spot for Tom and Alex. And it was there that a grave wide enough for two homemade coffins was opened.
   At that time, coffins were placed inside a wooden box and both were covered with two layers of thick slabs of wood (usually native chestnut) to prevent the weight of the dirt from breaking-in the box and coffin lids.
But this method of burial was not exactly adhered to for the Carter brothers. Local men went a short distance down to a stream and located a large flat rock just the right size to go down into the grave. This rock was hauled up to the gravesite and when the coffins and boxes were lowered into the grave, instead of wood, the rock was used to protect them. As the wood in a grave gradually decayed and weakened, the heavy load of dirt caused it to collapse many years later. But not so with this particular
grave. Elderly folks of some forty or fifty years ago told me that this grave did not collapse.
   Today, Tom and Alex Carter's grave is identified by two large
triangular-shaped rocks placed side-by-side near each other, and undoubtedly from the same creek bed that the large vault rock had come from.
Several years ago, I wrote a series of articles dealing with the Carter family of Elliott County, and one such article "A Grave For Two" appeared in the Elliott County News.

I had never heard or read anything that indicated Gordon and Lydia Hylton had
children, but the information provided by Mr. Cox indicated that there were six children. 
On son, Mastin Bottom Hylton was of special interest.  In fact, I think his name was a
vital bit of evidence in proving Lydia Hylton's ancestry.  Her father was Mastin Steagall;
her grandfather was Bottom Steagall, therefore the name of her son, Mastin Bottom, was
easily explained.  (Bottom Steagall's mother was Agnes Bottom, which explains his
unusual name.)  It was also further proof that I had correctly identified Lydia Hylton.
Evidence indicated that the Cox and Hylton families were near neighbors, but I
had a strong suspicion that there was also a close kinship between the two families. 
Sometime during my research, I had discovered proof that Tobias Cox had married
Fannie Steagall, probably a daughter of Mastin and Fannin Dickson Steagall.  Fannie had
sisters named Lavinia and Susannah.  She and Tobias named three of their daughters
Lydia, Lavinia, and Susannah.  They named a son Gordon, undoubtedly after Gordon