Harriet Isabel "Hattie Belle" Clopton of Georgia and Florida

Harriet Isabel "Hattie Belle" Clopton was the eldest of eight children born to William Henry Harrison Clopton and Martha Isabel "Mattie" Lancaster Clopton. She was born in Putnam County (Eatonton) Georgia December 7, 1860. In December 1888, she married William Horner Girtman at Kissimmee, Florida. Will was born August 15, 1867 in Eufaula, Alabama, and was the son of John W. D. Girtman and Sarah Elizabeth Zelma Guilford Girtman. She is a direct descendant of the first William Clopton, Gentleman, and his wife, Ann (Booth) Dennett Clopton. Both died in Miami, Florida; Hattie Belle, October 21, 1891, and Will, died December 18, 1904. She is buried in Concord United Methodist Church Cemetery in Putnam County. They had one child, Zelma Bell "Rosebud" Girtman Jones.

Hattie Belle was the first of the Putnam County Cloptons to move to Florida. She was a "school marm," in Kissimmee. It was there she met and married Will Girtman in 1888. He took her on to Miami, where he operated a saloon. The family was absolutely horrified when Hattie married Will Girtman. It was bad enough she had to sashay down to Florida to teach school, but it was just about the last stray when she married a man who owned a saloon, my dear! The Pea Ridge folk were tee totaling Methodist, at least, officially. That is, they didn't drink whiskey for fun. Whiskey did have it's place. It ranked supreme for medicinal purposes, which was good because some people were sick a lot. Some of the best 'shine in the country was produced right there in Putnam County, and somebody had to drink it, but nobody admitted it. And what kind of a name was Girtman? Putnam County folk married Americans, Americans with real American names. The Girtman's were Germans, for goodness sakes. He probably wasn't even a Methodist!

It isn't known whether the folk back home knew Will Girtman traded with the Seminole Indians. When they came to town to trade, his establishment was one of their first stops. They would trade feathers, hides, baby alligators, and fruits for his whiskey. In the first Official Directory of the City of Miami and Nearby Towns, 1904, Will was listed as a wine merchant, Avenue D and Boundary.

Despite the Clopton family's dire predictions, the Girtman family became bonified members of Miami Society. Will became a member of the Miami Board of Trade, and most of his family was active in Miami city's affairs. By 1945, his family was listed in Leaders and Pioneers of South Florida. Hattie Belle's brother, Gabe, married another Girtman, Will's sister, but by then the Clopton's were used to their children marrying people with suspicious sounding names and didn't kick up as much fuss.

Their only child, Zelma Belle "Rosebud," was two when her mother died, and had just celebrated her fifth birthday, three days before her father's death. Rosebud's Uncle Gabe and Aunt Bet raised her.

Contributed by :

Suellen Clopton Blanton, bblanton@fast.net,
and Isabel Lancaster (Clopton) Steiner