Was born in Princeton, New Jersey, in 1760. He entered the army of the American Revolution when he was sixteen years old, in 1776. He served in a regiment commanded by Colonel Kalon. He was in the battles of Princeton, January 3, 1777; Germantown, October 4, 1777; Monmouth, June 28, 1778; Sander's Creek, August 16, 1780; Jamestown, July 9, 1781; at the surrender Lord Cornwallis, October 19, 1781, and in a number of heavy skirmishes and retreats. He was in the service nearly five years, during which he experienced all the privations and hardships incident to the Revolutionary war. At the expiration of his service he returned to New Jersey, and married.
In 1787 he removed to Washington County, Pennsylvania. His family, at that time, consisted of himself, his wife, and two children Elizabeth and Ira. In August 1812, he removed to Stark County, Ohio. In 1814 he removed to Wayne County, where he remained until May 1831, when he located on section thirty-five, in Orange Township, Ashland County. He purchased the farm of Robert Crawford, upon which had been erected, by its owner, a noted horse-mill of the pioneer period. Mr. Tilton, enlisted, for a tour of three months, in the brigade of Colonel Robert Crooks, in the war of 1812, in the northwest, while residing in Stark County, and accompanied the Pennsylvania troops, under General Robert Crooks, from Pittsburgh to Jerome's place and Mansfield, late in the fall of 1812.
He possessed great bodily vigor, which he retained to an advanced age. He was inflexible in his purposes, and retained a clear intellect until the time of his death. He expired, after a brief illness, at his farm in Orange Township, August 12, 1849, aged nearly ninety years. He was accompanied to his final rest, in the cemetery at Orange, by volunteer military companies under the command of the late Colonel Alexander Miller, Major R.B. Fulkerson, and Captain John S. Fulton, and hundreds of his old neighbors. Mr. Tilton was regarded as an upright and valuable citizen. His services in the war of independence, and of 1812, with Great Britain, won for him the esteem of all his patriotic neighbors. Mrs. Tilton preceded him to the grave about four months, at the age of eighty-four years. The family consisted of Elizabeth, Ira, Sarah, Amy, Phebe, Deborah, Aaron, and James A. Of these, only two survive, Mrs. Phebe Campbell, aged eighty-five, and James Albert aged sixty-five. The latter resides on the old homestead, and is remarkable for his extraordinary physical force and mental determination. He is a successful farmer and businessman.
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