dee_burris: (Default)
I have often wondered about the life of Margaret Jane Burris.

I think she was much loved, my great grandaunt.

In the birth order of her siblings, Margaret was the seventh of ten children, sandwiched in between her brothers, George Washington Burris and Jefferson William Burris.

I think her brothers may have looked after her during the times she was widowed. They made sure to include her in the photo they had taken of themselves and their wives.


seated, l to r: George Washington Burris, Sr, Jefferson William Burris.
Standing, l to r: Mary Mathilda Wharton Burris, Margaret Malinda Wharton Burris, Margaret Jane Burris Jones Moore.

Margaret married for the first time when she was 16 years old. She married Abraham "Cass" Jones, the son of Shadrach Jones and Mary George. (Margaret's older sister, Nancy Elizabeth, married Cass' older brother, William Calvin Jones nine years earlier.)

Cass and Margaret farmed in Griffin Township, Conway County. They had two children - daughter Florrie, born in 1875, and Robert Lee, born in 1889.

That fourteen year age gap between Florrie and Lee made me wonder if Margaret had lost children. But in the 1900 census, taken when Margaret had been a widow for three years, she said she had borne two children, and both were living at the time of the census. She said the same thing in the 1910 census.
Margaret was widowed the first time when Cass Jones died in 1897 at the age of 44. Three years later, Margaret remarried to a widower named George Washington Moore, who had several children at home.

G W Moore died in 1936. Margaret was a widow for the remainder of her life. But she was still involved with her family, and for a period of time up to and including her death, lived with her son Lee in Fort Smith.

This photo, of my father as a four year old, was taken just prior to his Uncle Jeff's death in 1941. Uncle Jeff, Dad and Aunt Margaret - who was 83 at the time - posed for someone's camera, probably in Uncle Jeff's yard. (George Washington Burris, Sr. died in 1929, and Dad never knew his grandfather.)


Jefferson William Burris, William Frank Burris, and Margaret Jane Burris

Margaret Jane Burris Jones Moore died on 15 Jun 1944 of congestive heart failure at the home of her son, Lee Jones.

She was buried two days later at St. Joe Cemetery in Pope County, just as her parents and many of her siblings were.

You can leave a virtual flower on her Find a Grave memorial by clicking here.
dee_burris: (Default)

Isabelle Jane "Belle" Herrington, and older brother, Benjamin Thomas Herrington.
Photo circa 1945.

During the last four or five years of her life, my Aunt Jean was a tremendous source of information about some of the folks in our family tree.

It was when she and I were looking at my copy of the photo above, shared by my Aunt Mary Ann, that Aunt Jean told me about Belle Herrington's first marriage. She said her grandaunt Belle - her mother's paternal aunt - had been married first to a man named Boyd Thomason. She said it was a brief marriage, and then, Aunt Belle married Smith Lochridge.

I dutifully made the notes, and later, set out to find out about Aunt Belle's first, brief marriage.
I never could find a record of that first marriage.

And to complicate things, I found Aunt Belle in the 1920 census in Sparkman, in Dallas County, working as a "servant in a hotel." I thought that was odd, because most of the rest of her family lived in Malvern, in Hot Spring County, with the exception of her oldest brother, Jasper, who lived in Clark County.

Aunt Belle was a widow with two children.

And her last name was Jones. I scoured all the usual places to find the departed Mr. Jones, to no avail.

And concluded that Aunt Belle was married to Mr. Jones no later than age 21, so how could there have been an earlier marriage to anyone named Boyd Thomason?
In the fall of 2013, I published this entry, stating that Aunt Belle had not been married to anyone named Boyd Thomason, and if anyone reading the entry could tell me who Mr. Jones was, to please contact me.

I got that contact last week, by email.

From a descendant of the Thomason family, who knew quite a lot about Aaron Boyd Thomason.

Aaron Boyd Thomason was born on 26 Nov 1878 in Butler Co., KY to Thomas Lindsey Thomason and Mary E Langford. He was nearly ten years older than Aunt Belle.

According to my Thomason correspondent, Boyd (he was called by his middle name) and his brother Vivian, traveled multiple times in the early 1900s to Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma to work the oil fields and the timber industry. He surmises that it must have been on one of those trips to Arkansas that Boyd met and married Belle. He also said that Boyd owned a hotel and some stores in Arkansas and Oklahoma.

And he sent photos of the family that span a period roughly between 1910 (shortly after their daughter Eythel's birth) to about 1913, shortly after their son Thomas Boyd Thomason's birth.


Boyd, Eythel and Belle Thomason, photo circa 1910-1911


Boyd and Eythel


Thomas Boyd Thomason, born 16 Feb 1912

So then, I wondered...what happened to the marriage?

By 1920, Belle was calling herself a widow. That was a very common occurrence for women who were divorced, a shameful marital status in those days.

Both the children were born in Kentucky, Boyd's family home. I found a birth record for Thomas, and he was born in Paducah, McCracken Co., KY.

And I wondered about that. Why would Belle have been in Kentucky? Could her bridegroom have wanted to get her away from her own family? Was Belle's family disapproving of her choice in a mate?

But even more curious - why did Belle change her last name?
The Thomason descendant who emailed me had other information that caused me to think of some possible reasons why Belle Herrington was not simply content to be Belle Thomason.

In 1926, Boyd Thomason returned to Kentucky. To Logan County, where he robbed the Auburn bank. Although the bank robbery took place long after Belle and Boyd split (I keep remembering Aunt Jean saying it was a brief first marriage), what if Belle had become aware of some shady business dealings? Or some outright crimes?

I think it is possible that Belle and Boyd split up before he registered for the draft during World War I, in 1918. He did not list a wife as his nearest living relative.



What if Belle did not want to be connected in any way, shape or form to Boyd Thomason - and didn't want her kids connected to him either?

Or what if it was dangerous to be known as the ex-wife of Boyd Thomason?
Belle changed her surname and that of her children at a time when people could do that with no legal messiness. You just started using your new name, and that was that.

Her children retained Jones as their legal surnames - Eythel until her marriage to Orvel James Jones, and Thomas Boyd for the rest of his life, which included a stint in the United States Navy during World War II.

Belle remarried, to Smith Lochridge in 1927. They were living with Belle's daughter and son-in-law in the 1940 census, in Weleetka, Okfuskee Co., OK. Smith Lochridge died in 1941, and Belle spent her later years living in Weleetka, close to her daughter. Belle died in 1973 and is buried in Hillcrest Cemetery in Weleetka.

But Boyd Thomason lost the care and comfort of his family.
The 1930 census found Boyd doing time in the Kentucky Branch Penitentiary in Eddyville, KY.

I couldn't find him in the 1940 census. But I found him on 28 Apr 1943, in Terre Haute IN when he had to register for the old men's draft for World War II.



He was 64 years old, homeless, unemployed, and no one would know how to get in touch with him.

From my Thomason email correspondent:
His family here in Kentucky didn't want anything to do with him because he almost took them down with him. After the bank robbery, my grandfather rode him across the river in his wagon (not knowing he was on the run) and he hid the money under a fence post on my great-grandfather's farm (his brother). They were both mentioned in the newspaper articles and just barely avoided arrest. Nobody trusted him after that. I've heard a great aunt of mine who remembered him say he abandoned his family out west.
Aaron Boyd Thomason died on 24 Nov 1945 in Mount Vernon, Jefferson Co., IL. He was buried three days later in Oakwood Cemetery in Mount Vernon.

I understand he had cousins there.


Aaron Boyd Thomason

If any of the descendants of Eythel Jones (nee Thomason) Jones or Thomas Boyd Jones (nee Thomason) find this entry, you are welcome to right click and save on any of these photos.
dee_burris: (Default)
What a hellish December of 1921 it must have been for Wahannes Bevelis Kindrick and his wife, Maud Helena Bridges.

Diphtheria raged through their home, taking two of their children.

The United States recorded 206,000 cases of diphtheria in 1921, resulting in 15,520 deaths. Symptoms include sore throat, loss of appetite, and fever. The most notable feature of diphtheria infection, however, is the formation of a thick gray substance called a pseudomembrane over the nasal tissues, tonsils, larynx, and/or pharynx. (Sourced to this website.)

Four year old W B Kindrick, Jr. was the first to die on December 5, after being ill since November 27. He was buried the following day.

 photo WahannesBKindrickdeathcert.jpg


Eighteen year old Mary Estella died on December 20, after being ill since December 10. She too was buried the day after her death.

 photo MaryEstellaKindrickdeathcert.jpg


Once having contracted diphtheria, a person is infectious for two to three weeks. Did Mary Estella Kindrick help her mother nurse her little brother? Frequently caregivers caught diphtheria from their patients.


Descendancy for this family is:
Wahannes Bevelis Kindrick, son of Samuel Kindrick (1834-1875) and Matilda Jones (1833-1904). Parents of Samuel Kindrick were Jacob Fauby Kindrick (1802-1854) and Margaret "Polly" McPherson/MacPherson (1806-1875).
dee_burris: (Default)
I was going back through some photos to link to my GEDCOM when I ran across this one.

.

.

 photo IsabelleHerringtonLockridgeandBenjaminThomasHerrington.jpg
Isabelle Jane Herrington and brother, Benjamin Thomas Herrington. Photo circa 1945


I looked to see what I knew about this great grand aunt of mine. Not much. I figured I needed to try and flesh her out - make her more real to me.

The photo was a decent beginning.
Several frustrating hours of internet searches gave me more on Isabelle Jane Herrington.

Like she hardly ever - not even in legal documents - was called either Isabelle or Jane.

She was Belle.

The hours of searching also blew up part of the oral family history. Belle Herrington was not married first to a man named Boyd Thomason in 1909.

Because in the 1920 census (I could not find the 1910), Belle Herrington was Belle Jones, and she had two children living with her - a daughter named Ethel and a son named Thomas. Belle said she was a widow, working as a servant in a hotel. The family lived in Sparkman in Dallas Co., AR.

Given Belle's son's name - Thomas Jones, I began to wonder if his father's name was Boyd Thomas Jones, or Thomas Boyd Jones.

In the 1930 census, that hunch got stronger.
Part of the oral family history had it that Belle married in 1927 for a second time to S L Lockridge.

That was closer. Her new husband's name was Smith Louisa Lochridge (with an H not a K), and Belle and her son, Thomas B Jones (shown as Smith's step-son) were living in Seminole, Seminole Co., OK.

In 1940, I found Smith and Belle Lochridge living with Eythel Jones Jones and her husband, Orvel James Jones, along with their three children in Weleetka, Okfuskee Co., OK, where Belle Herrington died and was buried in 1973.

Smith Louisa Jones died in Miller Co., AR in 1941, and was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Fordyce, Dallas Co., AR. That may have been to have his grave closer to his children from his first marriage.
I never heard anything about great grand aunt Belle Herrington as I was growing up.

But I also never heard my maternal grandmother, Addie Louise Herrington, say anything about the Herringtons who stayed in Grant County, either - the children of Hardy Holmes Herrington and Martha J Cummings. These were Belle's paternal aunts and uncles, like Mary Emeline Herrington, married to Uriah Poss. Or Belle's paternal uncle, Jasper Lee Herrington, who married Sarah Elizabeth Frances Poss.

The only Herringtons I heard about as a child were the ones who lived in and around Malvern (Hot Spring Co.) and Arkadelphia (Clark Co.).

So now, I wonder why.
Anyone with information about the father of Eythel and Thomas B Jones, please contact me, either by commenting to this entry, or you can email me at:
sharpchick13 at hotmail dot com.
dee_burris: (Default)
This is a death certificate for Sarah "Sallie" Pettit Jones.

I cannot make out the name of the cemetery, shown in the lower right-hand corner of the document.

Photobucket

I've thought J A R something Graveyard...

Any thoughts?
dee_burris: (Default)
It was a cold January morning earlier this year when I finally connected the dots on Robert Lee Jones, and realized he was my grandfather's first cousin.

When I wrote that entry, I was curious about whether he married and had children.

He was married - twice.

The first time to Lutie J Lyster/Lister.

Photobucket


They married in Pope County on 12 Jul 1914.

Although the marriage record clearly spells Lutie's surname as Lyster, her death record in the Arkansas Death Index spells it Lister. That could be a misspelling by whomever created the death certificate or the informant.

I can't find her before her marriage to Lee. She died on 11 Jun 1942 in Sebastian County, where Lee was a supervisor at the Ft Smith Post Office.
Lee married again, on 13 Sep 1942 to Grace I Schoeffe. She was 42, so I would not be surprised if her surname was from a previous marriage.

Photobucket
At the time of my January post, I wondered if there were descendants of Robert Lee Jones who would be interested in exchanging information.

I haven't found any kids for him. I found Lee and Lutie in the 1920 census in Fort Smith, and there were no children living with them then. I haven't yet found him in the 1930 census.

Lee died on 28 Jul 1957 in Sebastian County, and he and Lutie are buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Fort Smith. I did not find a Find A Grave entry for Grace in that cemetery.

So now I am even more intensely curious about the man who obviously had such a close relationship with my grandfather, his first cousin, but who seems to have not had a family of his own...

Ordering the death records will be next...
dee_burris: (Default)
I love it when little details come together. They start to knit together that third dimension of my ancestors and other family members.

See, that third dimension is important to me.

Genealogy purists would say that I am not a genealogist. There's much more to my family tree than just who married and begat whom, and what year they did that, in what location, and which piece of paper I have to back that up.

Check.

But dead people don't have to be - and were not in life - two dimensional.

Flat, ya know.
A very neat thing happened this morning.

I slept until I woke up (I love those days), and then I got coffee, a cigarette, fed the cats, and fired up the laptop.

I had the coolest email from my cousin. (I know, I am dating myself by saying something was cool, but go with it, okay...)

She scanned a bunch of the things her mother had given her related to our family history, in particular, our grandfather, George W Burris, and sent them to me.

They are *way* cool, and help to flesh out our (respective) third dimension of our grandfather.

Both of us knew Granddaddy when he was still living, and each of us has detailed remembrances of him. And naturally, both of us are pumping our own parents for their remembrances of their father.

And so we are seeing the evidence of the stories that Granddaddy was a licensed school teacher, and a licensed attorney in Pope County.

He was.

He was licensed to teach for 1912-1913.
Photobucket


He got his license to practice law in 1917.
Photobucket


I don't think he ever used either one to make his living.

But still.

I had always heard that, but only that he was licensed to practice law. Not about the teaching.

Our grandfather evidently placed a high degree of emphasis in acquiring knowledge.

Maybe he viewed both of these licenses as opening the door to other possible careers if necessary.

Maybe not. Maybe he just liked learning and wanted to see if he could get the licenses. I know people like that.

Whatever the case, he valued education. According to one of his daughters, the reason he decided to live in Arkadelphia when he returned from Panama was education.

He hoped to marry and raise a family. If they lived in Arkadelphia, his children would have easy access to either of two colleges in the town, Henderson State College, and Ouachita Baptist.

So Granddaddy was also very much a big picture guy...
Part of my delight in receiving the email from my cousin was a two page letter to Granddaddy from Lee, written in 1950, and talking about their time they worked together at the Post Office in Russellville. In 1910.

Lee was writing the letter to help Granddaddy gather information to complete an application for retirement from the United States Postal Service.

Granddaddy was trying to get credit for the time he worked at the Post Office before it became a civil service job. Lee was supplying him with an affidavit, saying he worked with George also in 1910 at the Russellville Post Office.

Page 2 of the letter...
Photobucket


So I am sitting here, at my grandma's table, thoughtfully sipping coffee, and thinking about Lee.

Who has to be Lee Jones.

Who appears in at least two of my family photographs, one at the Russellville Post Office, and one family photo of a bunch of Burris men at the G W Burris, Sr home in Russellville about 1915.

Lee's the guy to the far left, wearing the dark suit.
Photobucket


So Lee must have been important to my family. He had a connection with Granddaddy that lasted at least 40 years.

Kinda like part of the family.
Yep.

Just like family.

Robert Lee Jones was Granddaddy's first cousin.

Lee's mother was Margaret Jane Burris, sister of George Washington Burris, Sr. Margaret married Cass Jones on 20 Dec 1874 in Pope County. Robert Lee Jones was born 29 Jan 1889 in Appleton, a little community in Pope County. (He must have preferred his middle name - I've never heard him referred to as anything other than Lee.)

Lee died in Sebastian County on 28 Jul 1957, seven years after he wrote his 1950 letter to Granddaddy. He is buried in Forest Park Cemetery in Fort Smith, AR.
Now I have to try and figure out if he married and had kids. If there are descendants, they may want some photos.

And they may have some, too...
The journey is good.
dee_burris: (Default)
Photobucket


I took photos of 55 Confederate soldiers' gravestones while I was at the cemetery.

That is just a fraction of the more than 1,300 Confederate soldiers and veterans buried in the cemetery, with over 1,000 of those graves in the Fowler section of the cemetery known as Confederate Soldiers Rest.

Many of those graves remain without a military marker, but 945 do have a numbered concrete markers placed there by the Confederate Historical Association in 1886.

Included in this entry are the 55 photos I took, along with a brief transcription of the information on the stone, so that people searching for any of these soldiers might be able to find them when using Google or other search engines.

If your relative is among these 55 men, and you want the photo of the gravestone for your own personal genealogy or family records, I am expressly waiving copyright on the photos used for that purpose. Just right click and save the photo to your computer. I retain copyright for any photos that someone might want to use for a commercial purpose.

In other words, if you want to make money off the deal, we will have to get all formal with a written agreement about that.

While I was at Elmwood, I purchased a copy of John W Cothern's book, Confederates of Elmwood, which was carefully researched over a number of years. It has additional information about each of the soldiers, and I can do look-ups for anyone who thinks his or her Confederate soldier relative may be buried at Elmwood. Leave a comment with your request and I will reply to your comment here.

Click here for photos... )
dee_burris: (Default)
Photobucket
30 Jan 1823 - 21 Jun 1919


This photo of my great great grandmother was taken when she was 92 years old, five years before her death.

Adeline was the daughter of Andrew Sawyer and Elizabeth (McCarley) Ashmore. She was born in Giles Co., TN, and married James Littleton Burris on 12 Nov 1840 in Pope Co., AR.

Adeline was the mother of 10 children:
  • Infant son Burris was born and died in 1841 in Pope Co., AR. His was the first grave in Old Baptist Cemetery in Center Valley.
  • Nancy Elizabeth Burris was born on 1 Apr 1845 in Pope Co., AR. She died on 26 Jun 1926 in Collingsworth County, TX. Nancy married William Calvin Jones on 2 Nov 1865. William was born on 8 Sep 1837 in Conway County, AR. He died on 31 Jul 1879 in Conway County, AR. He was buried in Cedar Grove Cemetery, Conway County, AR.
  • John Thomas Burris was born on 22 Jan 1849 in Pope Co., AR. He died on 18 Mar 1919 in Pope County, AR. He was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Pope County, AR. John married Margaret E Burris daughter of Franklin Marion Burris and Sally Charlotte T Osburn in 1870 in Pope County, AR. Margaret was born on 11 Jul 1850 in Tennessee. She died on 1 Nov 1915 in Pulaski County, AR. She was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Pope County, AR.
  • James Franklin Burris was born on 4 Feb 1851 in Pope Co., AR. He died on 21 Apr 1918 in Pope County, AR. He was buried in Atkins City Cemetery, Pope Co., AR. James married (1) Malinda J Moore, daughter of William N Moore and Mary Ann Riggs on 10 Feb 1876 in Pope Co., AR. Malinda was born in 1854 in Tennessee. She died on 30 Jul 1904. She was buried in Atkins City Cemetery, Pope Co., AR. James married (2) Mattie J Sibley daughter of William L Sibley and Margaret C Graves on 30 Jan 1906 in Pope Co., AR. Mattie was born in 1866 in Louisiana. She died in 1917 in Pope Co., AR. She was buried in Atkins City Cemetery, Pope Co., AR.
  • William Andrew "Bill" Burris was born on 13 Oct 1853 in Pope Co., AR. He died on 20 Nov 1943 in Mountain View, Kiowa County, OK. William married Maria Isabelle Wharton, daughter of John Poudin Wharton and Sarah Emaline Cochran on 10 Mar 1878 in Pope County, AR. Maria was born on 10 Aug 1853 in Springfield, St. Charles County, AL. She died on 20 Oct 1939 in Mountain View, Kiowa County, OK. She was buried in Mountain View Cem, Mountain View, Kiowa Co., OK.
  • George Washington Burris Sr was born on 18 Jan 1856 in Isabel Creek, Pope County AR. He died on 9 Mar 1929 in Pope County AR. He was buried in St Joe Cemetery, Pope Co AR. George married Mary Mathilda Wharton, daughter of Thomas Jefferson Wharton II and Ruth(ie) Evaline Coleman on 7 Oct 1877 in Pope County AR. Mary was born on 5 Oct 1859 in Alabama. She died on 26 May 1938 in Pope County AR. She was buried in St Joe Cemetery, Pope Co AR.
  • Margaret Jane Burris was born on 27 Mar 1858 in Pope Co., AR. She died on 15 Jun 1944 in Sebastian County, AR. Margaret married Abraham "Cass" Jones on 20 Dec 1874.
  • Jefferson William "Jeff" Burris was born on 13 Mar 1860 in Pope Co., AR. He died on 15 Jan 1941 in Pope County, AR. Jefferson married Margaret Malinda Wharton daughter of Thomas Jefferson Wharton II and Ruth(ie) Evaline Coleman (and younger sister of Mary Mathilda Wharton Burris) on 13 Mar 1881 in Pope County, AR.  He was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Russellville, Pope Co., AR.  Margaret was born on 14 Jan 1862 in Huntsville, Madison County, AL. She died on 14 Aug 1927 in Russellville, Pope County, AR. She was buried in Oakland Cemetery, Russellville, Pope County, AR.
  • Lucinda Adeline Burris was born on 27 Sep 1866 in Pope Co., AR. She died on 26 Jun 1954 in Reydon, Roger Mills County, OK. Lucinda married William Middleton Easterling, on 16 Nov 1884 in Pope Co., AR. William was born in Jul 1863 in Arkansas. He died in Reydon, OK.
  • Richard B Burris was born on 9 Apr 1868 in Pope Co., AR. He died on 14 Aug 1875 in Pope Co., AR. He was buried in Old Baptist Cemetery, Center Valley, Pope Co., AR.
Elizabeth Adeline (Ashmore) Burris is buried in St. Joe Cemetery, Pope County, AR.

Profile

dee_burris: (Default)
Dee Burris Blakley

January 2024

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031   

Shakin' the Family Tree on Facebook

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 13th, 2025 10:25 am
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios