Page 168 - Family History

Letters, Postcards, Clippings

Ray Gorton Letter

[Note: This letter was sent to Laura Poulsen (Schmidt), date unknown. This letter was typed
on a typewriter.]

Dear Lori & family,

Your mother called and said you needed information on our
ancestry. I don’t have much, but I hope the following will help
you.

GORTON is a unique English surname, it came from ancestors
who lived in the town of GORTON in Lancashire, England. This old
place name is based on the words “Gore-Turn” interpreted as
“Wedge shaped farm”. The Gorton coat-of-arms has ten golden
rectangles below an indented-edy gold stripe on a red shield.
Gorton is also traced to the Scotch-Gaelic word Goirtean,
meaning “Qwner of a small field of Grain”. Gorton is a prominent
name in England. The Gorton’s settled in New England in the time
of William Penn and helped to frame and promote religious
freedom there.

My father Fred Milton Gorton was born June 29, 1895 in
Corning, New York. My mother Minnie Laura Martin was born
November 19, 1900 in Hamilton, Montana.

My fathers, father was Charles Fremont Gorton of English
and Scotch descent; he was born in Rose Hill, New York. Charles’
Aunt was said to have married John D. Rockefeller (Too bad we
don’t have some of their money).

My fathers mother was born in Caton Center, New York. She
was of Irish and French descent and was remotely related to John
Quincy Adams who was the third president of the United States.

My grandfather moved his family in 1904 to Rose Lodge,
Oregon and took up a homestead on the north fork of Slick Rock
Creek.

My father had two brothers, Arland and Clarence and two
sisters, Grace and Florence.

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