Walter Hylton

WALTER HYLTON. The farming and stock raising interests of Carroll County have perhaps their most prominent representative in Walter Hylton, of Laurel Fork. Mr. Hylton is also a banker, and has rendered creditable service to his section of Virginia as a member of the House of Delegates.

He was born near Dugspur in Carroll County, May 14, 1874. The Hyltons are an old English family and have been in Virginia since Colonial times. His grandfather, Bryant Hylton, was a lifelong resident of Floyd County, owning and operating a large farm with slave labor, and died near Indian Valley. James M. Hylton, father of Walter, was born in Floyd County in 1839, was reared there, and was one of the Floyd County men in the Confederate army. He served all through the war and subsequently located near Dugspur in Carroll County, and established the old Hylton homestead a mile northeast of that village. He was a farmer and stock raiser and a man of influence in his community. He always voted as a democrat and was a member of the Primitive Baptist Church. James M. Hylton, who died January 1, 1921, married Mahala Agnes Burnett, who is still living. She was born in Patrick County in 1848, daughter of Austin Burnett. Austin Burnett was born in Patrick County in 1830, and died near Dugspur in 1908. After the Civil war he was a farmer in Floyd County. His wife was a Miss Slaughter, also a native of Patrick County. The children of James M. Hylton and wife were: Laura, who died near Dugspur in 1921, was the wife of John Collier, a farmer near Dugspur; Emma, who died near Dugspur at the age of twenty-eight, was the wife of Thomas Harris, now a merchant and farmer in the State of Washington; Alice, who died at the old Hylton homestead aged twenty-seven, married Robert L. Branscome, who for a number of years has been a passenger conductor on the Norfolk Western Railroad, living at Pulaski; Lula L., of Galax, widow of Stephen Wright, a farmer who died at Star in Carroll County; Abraham Walker, a stock dealer and farmer at Dublin, Virginia; Walter Hylton; Posey Cabell, a farmer and stock dealer a Ocala in Carroll County.

Walter Hylton attended public and private schools in Carroll County, and he received excellent training for his chosen business career under his father a the old homestead. He helped operate that place until he was twenty-five, and since then has been a independent farmer. Mr. Hylton’s main farm comprises 1,000 acres, located near Laurel Fork. H has a large body of land under cultivation and hi chief revenue comes from live stock. He and his brother, Abraham W., own another farm of over 60 acres near Dublin, and 475 acres on Burkes Fork it Carroll County. He and his brother, Posey Cabell, have ninety-five acres of the old homestead near Dugspur. Thus Mr. Hylton is one of the largest land owners of Carroll County. For some years he has also been interested in banking in his home community, and is president of the Laurel Fork Bank.

In politics Mr. Hylton has always been a democrat, and for ten years he was school trustee of Laurel Fork District. In November, 1921, he was elected a member of the House of Delegates, serving in the session of 1922 and the special session of 1923 as representative of Carroll County. He served on the committees on counties, cities and towns, on agriculture, on mining, and on. labor and the poor. His chief interest in legislation was in behalf of good roads and good schools. Mr. Hylton is affiliated with Pulaski Lodge No. 1067, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and Laurel Fork Camp, Modern Woodmen of America.

On January 1, 1899, he married Miss Susan C. Hurst near Dugspur. She is a daughter of Jesse T. and Ketura (Smith) Hurst, farming people living near Ocala. Mr. and Mrs. Hylton are the parents of seven children: Frank Cabell, a lumber manufacturer and dealer at Stuart, Virginia; Claud Swanson, who graduated from the Woodlawn High School in 1923; Hesse Thompson, a junior in the Woodlawn High School; Emma Alice, a sophomore in high school; James Walter, in the seventh grade of the public schools; William Abraham and Kitty Sue.