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REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIER NATHAN CLIFTON



BURIAL SITE:

Clifton Cemetery, 5 miles south of Marshfield, Webster County, Missouri.

The cemetery is located in Section 5, Township 29, Range 18 of East Dallas Township.

From Marshfield, go south on County Road KK about 4˝ miles to Crown. Cross a bridge and turn left (east) on a gravel road and go about 1 mile to the cemetery. The cemetery is on the left (north) side of the road. It is fenced and well kept.

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Nathan Clifton was born in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina on December 26, 1758. According to family records, Nathan served in the Revolutionary War, enlisting at Wake County, North Carolina, at the age of 17. Nathan Clifton was married twice. He was married first to Elizabeth Wilson in about 1794. He married second to Elizabeth Davis on July 17, 1811 (Wake Co., NC Marriage Bond 09901095). Both marriages took place before he left North Carolina, and he was the father of twelve (some say fourteen) children.

By 1816 he moved to Tennessee where all of his children by his second marriage were born. There he cleared a large tract of land where the family lived for the next 20 years.

In 1838 Nathan and Elizabeth and nine children moved further west. They traveled by way of Batesville, Arkansas with one ox-drawn cart and one wagon pulled by three horses. They settled six miles south of where Marshfield now stands in Webster County, Missouri. Nathan deeded an acre of ground to the county for burial purposes, and it is still in use today as the Clifton Cemetery.

Nathan Clifton was a skilled marksman, and he spent much of his time hunting the wild game of which there was a great abundance near his home. There were many deer and wild turkey as well as quail. He lived to be over 100 years of age and never had to use glasses for reading nor needed treatment by a doctor. He lived in the same house in Missouri for 21 years. His second wife preceded him in death.

When Nathan was over 100 years of age, a company of Union Soldiers on their way to the Battle of Wilson's Creek passed near his farm. The soldiers had rested at the ford of the river and one of the group told the captain that a veteran of the Revolution lived on the next farm. The captain said, "Let's have music." They had a fife and drum. So the company of men marched by with drum and fife playing and colors flying. The old veteran stood in his door yard at attention with his old flint lock musket and the Flag of the 13 Colonies for which he had fought in his youth.

Nathan died in 1864 at the age of 105 (some records say 107) and was buried in the Clifton Cemetery with a gun salute and full military honors.


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Last updated May 15, 2005.


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