CHAPTER 16: TN-AL HYDENs WHO BECAME HITENs

The HYTEN families had a branch, that of Samuel Gwinn Hyten, that sprung from the HYDEN family. So, too, does the HITEN family. Joseph Claborne Hiten was identified by Gene Hyden to be the son of Anderson Henry Hyden. While it appears that Samuel intentionally changed his name, I don't think that was the case with Joseph. Over a period of thirty years in the same city and county Anderson Hyden's name was spelled Hyden, Highton, and Hiton. By the time his son Joseph settled in Tennessee the spelling of the family name had begun settling in on HITEN.

PAGE 16-0 HYDEN FAMILY TREE to JOSEPH CLABOURNE HITEN

 

  Anderson Henry Hyden (1805-1878) seems to appear in the 1840 Bradley County, TN, census with a wife and three daughters. I say 'seems to' because, if this is in fact he, he has an 'older' family here. By the 1860 and 1870 censuses these three daughers are replaced by a family of four children. I suspect the 1840 family was a first marriage. Unfortunately the 1840 census was the last to not name family members so it leaves me with questions rather than answers.
Apparently Anderson Hyden fought on the Union side in the Civil War.
In both 1860 and 1870 censuses the ages of Anderson and his wife, first named Peggy and then Margaret (1818-ca.1888), are about the same, i.e., 53 and 43, then 55 and 45. Their children seem to age at something near the proper rate though out. Salina, Benjamin, and George increase in age from 1, 3, and six months to 11, 9, and 7. Unfortunately we haven't located any of them in later censuses to determine their exact birth dates.
The eldest son, Joseph was listed as 4 and 13 in 1860 and 1870. We know from the 1900 census of Fayette, AL, that he was born in Dec., 1851. So much for the reliability of census ages.

PAGE 16-1 RICHARD HYDEN  TO JOSEPH CLABORNE HITEN

I identify Joseph Claborne Hiten (1851-1941) as the head of the ALABAMA HITENs because despite the fact that in the 1900 census his name is spelled Heiton, it is with him that the HITEN spelling becomes prevalent. He and his wife, Mary Hinkle (1865-by 1910), had eight children over 17 years.

I'm not sure what happened to four of them. Sallie Ida (E.) (1887- ), James D. (1889-1910), Mollie B. (1891-1966), and Charles M. or E. (1898-1962) faded from the public records. I don't think any of them married.
By 1910 Minnie B. (1894-1906) had married Gordon Rollins. They were to have three children. (Willie) William Nathan (1896-1976) had a son, Eugene (1924-1939), who died at age 16 and a daughter, Edith (1922), who married Cleburn Hollingsworth.
Since Sallie was born in TN and James in Al, it was somewhere between 1887 and 1889 that Joseph moved his family from Tennessee to Alabama.

It was Joseph Claborne Hiten's oldest, John Raymond Hiten (1880-1949), that kept the HITEN name alive in Alabama. He and Ida Virginia Anthony-Hiten (1884-1967) had seven children, the last of whom, Ina Wynelle (1922), never married. Four older daughters, (Irene) Alma Irene (1903-1993), Vera Pearl (1904-1990), Leota (1908-1983), and Ilah Elene (1918), married and had children.

The older son, (Hollis) Clarence Hollis (1906-1997), married twice. There were two daughters from the first marriage, Martha Virginia (1936) and Helen Karen (1938).
John Raymond's second son, Jessie Wayne Hiten (1911-1985), produced two more generations of HITENs. His only child, Eric Neal (1942-1999), had a son, Geoffrey Neal (1965), and a daughter, (Heather) Leslie Heather (1971). Geoffrey, the last of the ALABAMA HITENs, has three daughters. Heather has two sons, one from each of her marriages.

Primary resources for in-formation on the ALABAMA HITENs has been Sammie Morris, a son-in-law of Ilah Elene Hiten-Litton, Ina Wynelle Hiten, Geoffery Neal Hiten, and, of course, Helen Hiten-Hamrick who helped so much with editing.