Son of Joseph Melton and Patience Hargrove

An old story that has been passed down through the ages was that Joseph's son Sion was an indian that he either picked up when he crossed the mountains of North Carolina or that he was his son by an indian woman. None of this can be proven or disproven, although Joseph raised Sion as his son, Sion was known to be part indian and is buried in an unmarked grave at the head of Woody Hollow on Harmon's Creek. Joseph is believed to have been on the west side of the Tennessee River before the Jackson Purchase in 1818. If he was, he was here illegally, as it was still the land of the Chickasaw Indians. It is speculated than Joseph fit right in with the indians as he had this indian son and he was allowed to "squat" on the land. When the land was opened up to the white man in 1818, old Joseph was one of the first to file a land claim for 159 acres on the north side of the creek that would later become named for Adam Harmon and forever be known as Harmon's Creek.

The 1836 tax records of Benton County show that 159 acres of land on Harmon's Creek under the ownership of Etheldred and Sion Melton. Etheldred eventually gained sole title to this track. The same 159 acres of land that Joseph Melton
claimed in 1836 has remained in the Melton family even to this day and some of it is still being used as farm land for corn and soy beans.

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Etheldred Melton was born in TN and died in Benton County 1813 - 1885. Son of Joesph (1770/75-1835) and Patience Hargroves Melton (177_ - 1850/60). He married Mary Ann Arnold (1816 - 1863), daughter of Willie and Sarah Arnold. They had ten children: William H. (1838-1907), Joseph "Joe" W. (1839 - 1876), Elizabeth (1842 - 1927), Isabella (1845 - 1860/1870), Sarah (1848 - 1940), John (1850-1882), Pridgeon (1853-1932), Mary Ann (1855-1941), Matthew (1857- d. young) and Andrew Jackson Melton (1860-1945).

He was a successful Benton County farmer, owning several hundred acres of land and lived on the farm that his father, Joseph had homesteaded in 1820, which was at that time in Humphrey's County as Benton County was not established until 1835. This farm was located in the seventh district, Harmons Creek Community.

After the death of Mary Ann, he later married in 1865, Creasy Melton (d. 1884). They had no children. The property on which the Harmons Creek Methodist Church is erected was given by him. Etheldred, his two wives, Mary Ann and Creasy, along with four of his children, Joseph "Joe" W., Isabella, John and Matthew are buried in the "Melton" family cemetery, located on this farm in the Harmons Creek Community which his father homesteaded.

His children: William H. in 1858 married Martha Pafford (1842 - 1867). In 1867, eight months after the death of Martha, he married Mary Ann Melton (1848 - 1923). In 1861, Joseph "Joe" W. married Amanda Belyew (1842). Elizabeth married Alvy Melton (1835-1906). In 1866, Sarah married John Pafford (1847-1928). In 1873, John married Lavina Melton (1855-1905). In 1879, Pridgeon married Mary Phifer Sullivan (1855-1909). In 1871, Mary ann married Alexander Lafayette Phifer (1850-1925). Andrew Jackson, in 1883, married Martha Beatrice Lowry (1861-1953).