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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.
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Yesterday at the reunion, my cousin Doug Burris hauled out his box of old photographs to see if I could help him ID any of them. (I was pretty useless on his unknown photos.)

In that box were some real gems, not the least of which was an old tintype photo of Uncle Jeff (Jefferson William Burris, 1860-1941).
 photo Jefferson William Burris.jpg


When I got home and started trying to date it, it reminded me of the one of GW Burris Sr., Uncle Jeff's older brother.
 photo GeoWBurrisSr enhanced_1.jpg

I think they sat for their photos at or around the same time. I always thought great granddad looked awful young in his tintype photo, so I hauled out my book, "Dressed for the Photographer," by Joan Severa) and had a look at men's clothing styles in the 1870s.

Based on coat length (a shortened version of what was known during the 1860s as a "sack coat"), type of tie, GW Sr.'s hat, and the pose the photographer had them both using, I'm going to date both photos from 1874-1877 (when GW Sr. got married).

Tintype photographs had their heyday during the Civil War, but were produced for up to 40 years after that. These photos were the type and size that would have been purchased during a carnival or fair. Perhaps the Pope County Fair?

Cousins, right click and save as you wish.
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I saw cousins I hadn't seen since I was a kid.

I counted 44 people. Some of them were in the shadows in the group photo.
 photo group1.jpg


It's a shame we didn't have enough to eat. (The dessert table was around the corner in the dining room.)
 photo 4.jpg


 photo 6.jpg

 photo 10.jpg

 photo 9.jpg

 photo 8.jpg

 photo Norma Jean Burris Jones Cupit.jpg

 photo 13.jpg

 photo McKayla rings the church bell at St Joe.jpg

 photo Beth Neumann Lee.jpg

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Dee Burris Blakley

January 2024

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