MRS. WARNIE HOOPER DAYTON

    One of the prominent women of Chattanooga is Mrs. Warnie Hooper Dayton, the widow of Jonathan Dayton.  Mrs. Dayton claims distinctive ancestry.  On both paternal and maternal sides she has the best of American blood in her veins and she is eligible to membership in all patriotic societies from the Colonial Dames and the Huguenots to the Daughters of the Confederacy.  The name Hooper is one of the best known in American History.  Three brothers of that name came to America in the early colonial days.  Two settled in Massachusetts and one, Mathew, in the Carolinas.  William Hooper, who is a direct ancestor of Mrs. Dayton, signed the Declaration of Independence as one of the three delegates from North Carolina.  He died at Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1790.  William Hooper's grandson, Richard Hooper, was born in 1809 and married Louisa Shivers of Georgia.  They were the parents of Warren Franklin Hooper, the father of Mrs. Dayton.  Mrs. Dayton's great-great-grandfather, Charles Word, came to America from Wales before the Revolution and his son, Charles, served in that struggle and was killed at the battle of King's Mountain.  He was a member of the famous Virginia Blues, of which George Washington was the colonel.  Elizabeth married, in Pendleton county, South Carolina, in 1794, Samuel Brooks Hooper and their son was Richard, mention of whom is made above.  Mary P. Halliburton, the mother of Mrs. Dayton, was the daughter of William and Frances (Weatherly) Halliburton.  William Halliburton, born in Virginia in 1809, was the son of Richard and Susanne (Pickett) Halliburton and is the founder of the Tennessee family.  The Pickett family, one of whom was the distinguished general of that name, is of French origin.  The name was originally spelled Picot and members of the family accompanied William the Conqueror to England.  They came to America early in the seventeenth century and scattered throughout the south.

    Warnie Hooper Dayton was born in Murfreesboro and her early education was acquired in the Scoby Institute of that place.  Subsequently she became a student at Mary Sharp College and was graduated from that institution in 1889 with the A. B. degree.  For five years she taught in Chattanooga College and won considerable prominence as an educator.

    On the 11th of November, 1896, at Chattanooga, was celebrated the marriage of Warnie Hooper to Jonathan Dayton, a prominent merchant in this city.  He was a son of Dr. Amos Cooper and Lucinda H (Harrison) Dayton.  Dr. A. C. Dayton was a leading physician and a distinguished author.  He lived in Basking Ridge, New Jersey.  The Daytons are also an old and honored American Family.  Ther progenitor of the family in America was Ralph Dayton, who came from England and settled in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1638.  He moved to Long Island, New York, in 1639.  His son, Robert, had a son, Samuel, who fought in the Revolutionary War as a member of the Second Company, Second Battalion, Mulford County Minute Men.  Samuel's son, Jonathan, was a member of congress and speaker of the house.  He signed the United States Constitution as one of the New Jersey's representatives.  This Jonathan was the father of Robert Dayton, whose son, Dr. Amos Cooper Dayton, physician and author, was the father of Jonathan Dayton of Tennessee.  On the maternal side Mr. Dayton was descended from Welsh ancestry, John Williams, the progenitor of the family in this country, having come to America in the seventeenth century.  His son, John, had a son, Nathaniel, who had a son, John C., who served in the Revolutionary wasr as a colonel of the Ninth North Carolina Troops.  Colonel Marmaduke was a son of John C., and his daughter, Elizabeth (Betsy) married Robert Payne Harrison.  Their daughter Lucy H. Harrison, married Dr. Amos Cooper Dayton and they became the parents of Jonathan Dayton.  John Sharp Williams of Mississippi belonged to this family.  For many years Mr. Dayton was active in the mercantile circles of Chattanooga and he was held in high confidence and esteem by all who knew him.  His demise occurred on the 17th of June, 1904.  To Mr. and Mrs. Dayton three children were born:  Ruth Hooper Dayton, an alumnus of the University of Chattanooga, is a journalist of more than ordinary merit and is now engaged as a space writer of signed articles for the New York American; John Hooper Dayton, was a student in the Baylor School, and during the World War was engaged in compounding chemicals for the Aetna Chemical Company in Oakdale, Pennsylvania, sixteen miles from Pittsburgh, where he was killed in an explosion in May 1918, at the age of eighteen years; William Hooper Dayton is a graduate of the Baylor School and is an alumnus of the University of Tennessee.

    In her political views Mrs. Warnie Hooper Dayton is a stanch democrat and she is well informed on all important questions and issues of the day.  Her religious faith is that of the Baptist church and she is a zealous worker in its behalf.  Mrs. Dayton is very active in club and social circles.  She is ex-president of the A. P. Stewart Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, in which organization she has held all offices, and she is chaplain of the Chickamauga Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

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