View source for A. J. Hylton

ALLEN Jackson Hylton (1862-1946) was a reform school director and a physician in Indiana, Montana and Colorado. 

==Early life==
Allen J. Hylton was born in Hendricks County, Indiana, in the year 1862, and is a son of Abraham and Minerva (Powers) Hylton, the former of whom was born in North Carolina, and the latter of whom was a daughter of Allen Powers, who came from North Carolina and became a pioneer farmer in Indiana, where he passed the remainder of his life. Abraham Hylton became a stationary engineer by vocation, and both he and his wife were still young at the time of their death.

Doctor Hylton was an infant at the time of the death of his parents, and was taken into the home of William Conn, a substantial farmer near Danville, Hendricks County, where he was reared to the age of fifteen years, he having assisted in the work of the farm during the summer seasons and having attended the local schools during the winter terms. His ambition for higher education was not to be denied, and in obtaining the same he depended mainly upon his own resources. At the age of twenty-one years he was graduated in the Indiana State Normal School at Danville.

==Reform schools==

===Indiana Reform School for Boys===
Hylton worked as an officer for the Indiana Reform School for Boys, Plainfield, Indiana for 9.5 years, the last seven years as the Assistant Superintendent. While there his projects included having boys make bricks, and he was favorably reported by the director in his report to the state.

===Montana State Reform School===
In 1893, the newly formed state of Montana awarded Miles City the state's institution for troublesome youths, the [[State Reform School]]. Hylton was hired in 1894 to be the director and to build the facility (with the help of a three person board). For four years, he and his wife engaged in the endevour, but ran over budget most of the time. Late in 1896, a committee of the state legislature investigated complaints of abuse towards some inmates and in March 1897, he resigned.

==Physician==
Hylton returned to Indiana and in its capital city completed a course in the Medical College of Indiana, graduating in April 1901. From this institution he received in 1901 his degree of Doctor of Medicine, and he then engaged in the practice of his profession at Mooresville. In 1905 he went to Colorado, where he served fourteen months as superintendent of the Telluride Hospital, and he then resumed his residence at Mooresville, Indiana, where he has since continued in the active general practice of medicine with an office at 43 West Main Street, and his home at 63 West Main Street.

Doctor Hylton had membership in the Morgan County Medical Society, Indiana State Medical Society and American Medical Association, his political allegiance is given to the Democratic party, and he was affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias and the Modern Woodmen of America.

==Family life==
On 13 Jun 1894, he married [[Helen R. Hylton|Helen E. Rankin]] (an assistant clerk that he worked with at the Indiana Reform School) a few months after he started his job in Miles City. Newspapers report that he took four days off work to run to Minneapolis "to take unto himself the idol of his heart and returned to his duties accompanied by his bride". They were married in Minneapolis, MN. Helen was about 8 years older (40 vs his 32 yrs). While she continued to use his name and was listed as a widow when she died in 1925. Presumably, they separated or divorced shortly after leaving Miles City. Helen was the superintendent of an orphanage circa 1910, in southern Indiana, where she grew up.

In 1907, Doctor Hylton married 23 year old (b. abt '84, she was class of 1902 @ Mooresville High School) local girl Mabel Mills (Allen was 45). She was the daughter of Amos and Eliza (Bowman) Mills, the former a native of Indiana and the latter of North Carolina. Their son William Madison was born about 1909. Mabel died in Nov 1927 when William was about 18 and Allen was 65. In the 1930 census, Mabel's mother Eliza was living with them.

Allen remarried an even younger woman before the 1940 census. Francis Ringo Clark was born while Allen was in Miles City (1895 or 1897), so he was about 34 years older. Francis had two older children from a previous marriage, Charles B Clark (b. abt 1920) and Erma Dean Clark (b. abt 1922).

Allen died in 1946. Francis died 27 years later in 1973 and was buried with Allen.

==Raw notes==
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=78313883
White Lick Cemetery, Mooresville (Morgan County), Indiana, USA

A farewell reception was given to him [[31 Jan 1894]] where he was given a gold watch, chain and charm. The local paper reports that all were moved to tears, including all 515 inmates. He was said to have been there 10.5 years. Remarks were made by the supervisor, chaplain, officers of the other houses, some boys in his house (#11), members of the board and the head of the female office staff.

In 1894, the Montana State College, Agricultural Experiment Station reported:
Director A. J. Hylton, of the State Reform School at 
Miles City, considers a sandy loam, plowed eight inches 
deep in the spring, and pulverized as deeply as plowed, best 
for a good yield. He plants two seed pieces of one or two 
eyes per hill, twenty inches apart, and covers them six 
inches deep. For most of the cultivation he uses a double- 
shovel plow, giving final hilling just before they begin to 
bloom, with a turning plow. All irrigating is also done 
before the bloom appears. Earh' Rose and Beauty of 
Hebron are the kinds grown, and these have not been affected by scab, nor has the seed rotted in the ground after 
planting. 

On Friday, [[27 Dec 1895]], he and his wife stayed at the Montana Hotel in Anaconda.

Saturday, March 27, 1897
Supt Hylton Resigns v TRIBUNE Helena March Smith was officially notified today that Super intendent A J Hylton of the Milea City Reform school who was accused by of a committee of the last Legislature of various abuses had re The board elected to succeed Mr Hylton B C White of Ubet Fer gus county who now a stockman and lawyer but who was formerly em in a high capacity in the re 4 Elmira N Y

Supt Hylton Resigns. v , [TRIBUNE SPECIAL.] Helena, Mont., March 2G.~Gov'. Smith was officially notified today that Superintendent A. J. Hylton of the Milea City 'Reform school, who was accused by the-report of a committee of the last Legislature ! of various abuses, had re- slfrneu; The board elected to succeed Mr Hylton, B: C. White of Ubet, Fergus county, who i» now a stockman and lawyer, but who was formerly employed in a high capacity in the re- 4 >*t Elmira, N. Y.

4 / 10 	Montana State Reform School (re investigation of Superintendent Hylton for alleged cruelty to inmates) 
http://nwda.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv20526