Table of Contents -Volume II


CHAPTER 9


LYDIA EWING (1793-1872)

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      John-James


FOREWORD:


          John BURRIS shared with Nancy his Burris family history. Since Nancy's death in 1987, John, along with Betty Burrus SWARINGGEN, Mary Nelle RICHARDS RACZ, and Edwin WILKINSON have researched and documented the Burris name, and the various spellings of Burris, in the records of Virginia for two hundred years, from 1608 - 1808. Their work has been compiled into a research book, published in 1993 by John Burris. For those researching their Burris lineage, this book is an important tool. Copies of the BURRIS/BURRUS book can be obtained by contacting John. John's address is: 37813 Road 197, Woodlake, CA 93286-9762.

          With the recent research done by Lydia's descendants, many errors in the original material and the family's history were uncovered. John, along with Elizabeth Ann WRAMPE and Edwin WILKINSON edited Nancy's chapter on Lydia for me and made corrections based on their latest research findings. John also found that some family traditions, handed down through the years, were untrue, and he corrected those. As the chapter on Lydia covers over 100 pages, every correction may not have been made. Because of Nancy's format, changes were made in the most major areas with John commenting throughout the chapter, and initialing his additions to the work - (JWB).

          My personal thanks to John and his cousins for their assistance with "Lydia". Special thanks also go to John, because if it were not for him, and his contact with Nancy's daughter, Barbara, Nancy's drafts might still be stored away waiting for "someone" to put JAMES EWING - PIONEER into print.

          John is not only a "special" cousin, but a dear friend. BP.

          Lydia founded a large family - larger than all the rest of Indian John's children put together. This information is known only because a great deal of concentrated research has been done on this branch of the family in recent years.

          John and Ann's ninth was born 6 March 1793. A year before Lydia's birth, the area around Stony Creek had been in Augusta County, Virginia. When Lydia was born Stony Creek was in the new county of Bath when it was form. Greater Bath, that is, for when Pocahontas County came into being in 1812, Bath was reduced to its present size. It is quite a long way from today's Bath County, Virginia, to the site where the Ewing cabin stood alongside Stony Creek in now West Virginia.

          But to be absolutely correct, we do have to say that Lydia was born in Bath County, Virginia, even though the actual spot on which that birth occurred is today in Pocahontas County, West Virginia.

          Lydia had just celebrated her 9th birthday when the Ewings closed the door on the Stony Creek cabin in 1801 and headed west over the western Virginia mountains to the "plains" of Ohio. Gallia and Jackson Counties are actually in very hilly country, but it is a rolling terrain rather than mountainous as West Virginia.

          As one of the few children still unmarried and at home, Lydia was Ann's helper in establishing the new home on George's Creek in Addison Township, Gallia County, Ohio.

          Lydia was married the year her mother died, 1809 - on the 27th of July. Lydia's brother-in-law, Samuel R. HOLCOMB, J.P., (found in Chapter No. 5) did the honors. She was 16 years old. The bridegroom was 19 year old George BURRIS.

          The Burris family, especially George, later appeared very big on the scene in Jackson County, but on their arrival in Ohio in 1802 from Virginia, they settled in Gallia County. George's father, was William BURRIS, who, before going to Ohio, lived in Patrick County, Virginia, where George was born 12 February 1790.

          After George and Lydia were married they lived in a cabin on land owned by George's father, in Section 35 of Huntington Township, Gallia County, Ohio. In 1812, William and Martha

(PATSY) sold the east one half of their 160 acres for $200 to George. It is doubtful if any money changed hands, for when William sold the full 160 acres George's name was not mentioned.

On 15 March 1817, George and William Burris bought, from the United States, 160 acres of land in Milton Township, Jackson County, Ohio. They were the original owners, certificate #2655, signed by President MONROE. In 1821 George paid William $500 for his share in the 160 acres, it is again doubtful that any money changed hands, as that was a large sum of money in those days. It was here George and Lydia lived for the next 40 years. Having moved when they did, they were proclaimed one of the first settlers in Jackson County, Ohio.

          Life was not easy for George and Lydia in those early years. About their only possessions were an ax, a hoe, a rifle and an iron kettle, some beans and corn, possibly a yolk of oxen. They had one other possession in abundance, "self reliance." Their first two homes were log cabins, possibly with a dirt floor. Lydia cooked over a fireplace and all their food was either raised or gathered. A staple diet was corn and beans, but the land had to be cleared by hand before crops could be planted.

          An absolute must was to get a hog which multiplied and got fat on mash or acorns. When butchered it was not how much meat but how much fat they got. This was rendered into lard which was their only cooking oil. The iron kettle was used to heat water in for the family laundry, to render lard and to make soap. Usually it hung over the fireplace, simmering away with a stew of whatever was available. Soap was made by using ashes to make lye and grease was added, nothing was wasted.

          No clothing was bought, it had to be raised or made by hand. A field of flax was a necessity and it was quite a process to separate the seed and stalk from the flax fibers so it could be used. It was helpful to have some wool and this had to be washed and carded. The next process was to spin these fibers into yarn on the spinning wheel. After spinning it was woven into garments. The Burris' eventually had seven children and it is possible that number seven wore clothing fashioned for number one.

          The country in early Ohio was full of wild game, wild blackberries, raspberries and strawberries, also walnut and hickory nuts and some plums. There was also a supply of wild honey free to anyone who had the skill to take it. The wild honey almost was their undoing and was almost the end of the George Burris dynasty.

          While cutting trees for their first log cabin in Milton Township, Jackson County, either by accident or on purpose they cut a bee tree, full of honey. This was stored in a wooden cask in their new cabin. As soon as the family was settled, George made a trip back to their old home to help his father, William, move a distance of about 40 miles, leaving Lydia alone with two young children. One night a hungry bear got a whiff of the honey stored in the cabin. Bears have a fondness for honey and at that time had very little fear of humans. The bear started ripping the door open and as it was hung on leather hinges offered very little resistance. There was no escape for Lydia and her two children as the cabin only had one entrance. Lydia grabbed the children and a rifle and climbed into a loft of the cabin. As a frontier woman she knew how to use a rifle, but she also knew the danger of a wounded bear. She watched as the bear gorged itself on honey and then left. We can only imagine what went through her mind trapped in the loft of a cabin with her children and a dangerous animal on the loose. Later after getting everything back in order in her home, Lydia discovered the bear asleep in the sun next to a shed they had built some distance from the cabin. With one well placed shot, with the rifle to its head, the bear slept on. That bear skin was the first rug in their new home and a great addition to the dirt floor.

          The above story was handed down as a true legend told by the family. Like all legends it may have grown somewhat each time it was told (JWB).

          George served in the War of 1812, probably in the same outfit as the others, the one under General TUPPER which quelled the Maumees of Northwest Ohio in August of 1813. He is listed as an Ensign in Captain NEWSOME's Company of mounted riflemen.

          While serving he gave a Power of Attorney to Moses GALLESPIE, who lived nearby and had married George's Aunt, Susannah BURRIS. While serving he furnished his own horse, saddle, bridle and rifle. His military career was short lived - about 30 days for which he received $34.23. Years later, about 1855, he received 40 acres of land in Jackson County, Ohio for this service.

          Jackson County became a political entity in 1916. On April 1st, that year, the first order of business for each township in the new county was to vote itself into existence. For this election in Milton Township, 42 votes were cast, the 11th being George's and he was one of the judges overseeing the election. The story of that 1816 election is spelled out in "THE HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY" by Williams.

          George's other claim to fame in Jackson County history comes on Page 181. Up for discussion were representatives from Jackson to the Ohio State Legislature. From 1820 to 1828 Meigs, Gallia and Jackson Counties formed one legislative district entitled to two representatives. In 1827, George was one of the two representatives elected. In 1828, Jackson and Pike counties were put together as one district with one representative, and George was that representative for 1832.

          George's obituary has it that he was appointed Associate Judge of the Court in 1833, in which office he was to continue for 14 years. There is no mention in the history of Jackson County that George held the office of "Justice of the Peace" for Milton township. Several documents have been found where he signed his name as Associate Judge.

          George prospered in Jackson County. First he and William, his father, bought land and sold at a good profit. George bought and sold a good number of parcels always at a good profit. By the time he left Jackson County, he was considered a wealthy man.

          George received something of an education, we are not sure where or how. One possibility, Lydia taught him to read and write. Several documents have been found that he prepared as Associate Judge, all well written. Very few men of that day and time could read or write. Lydia was an educated person, she always signed her name on their land transactions. Other people who knew her in Harrison County, Missouri, said she read the Bible daily and any secular book available.

          George probably built a large home on their land in Milton Township, however we have no record. With seven children a one room log cabin would become quite crowded. In the 1850 census we found listed in the household, Melissa MC GHEE 22 and Elizabeth HENRY 22. They were from neighborhood families and were considered house servants.

          In 1842, George and Lydia's eldest son, William Ewing BURRIS had gone to Missouri to be one of the first settlers of Harrison County. In 1855 their youngest son, Milton, followed suit. In 1857 two other children, Martha MC CRAY and George Jr. and their families made plans to go. For some reason George and Lydia at 67 and 65 years of age, after 44 years in Jackson County decided to go also. Three children remained in Jackson, two of those following to Missouri later.

          George and Lydia sold some of their property and in June of 1857 joined the wagon train for Harrison County, Missouri. There is a possibility that George and Lydia planned to return to Jackson County, Ohio, as some of their property was sold after they had settled in Harrison County, Missouri.

          Their first home was in Butter Township, Harrison County - probably Happy Valley, as that is where they were in the 1860 census. By 1870 they were in Bethany Township, the seat of Burrisdom for years to come.

          A neighbor, Milton Prose MC NAMEE, then a young boy, wrote about George and Lydia in Harrison County: "They were the nicest old people I ever knew, I doubt if they ever had a cross word or a misunderstanding between them. George was considerate and took great pains in building their new home to make everything as comfortable as he could for Lydia. Lydia was a woman with a fine intellect and a great reader, she read the Bible extensively as well as many secular books. George always kept a jug of whiskey handy but no one ever saw him drunk or under the influence. When George died, Lydia was devastated, there was nothing wrong with her, healthy as ever, but just didn't want to live any more, she died two months later."

          George's obituary tells us, "When his country's flag was threatened in the dark hours of 1861, he was chosen Lieutenant Colonel of the Home Guards, and when Missouri called for six-month troops, he served his state as Major, but his age would not admit his continuation in the service and he retired from the field of strife." He was forever after referred to as Major George Burris.    "He was man," we are told, "with a great constitution, but had some severe attacks of fever." "In the 80th year of his age, his left arm was amputated from the effects of a cancer on his hand."

          1870 George and Lydia were still on their own land in Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri, but before long they closed out and went to live with son Milton. "There he had all care and attention possible for his comfort."

          George died 2 August 1872, when he was 82 years old. It was not long before Lydia followed. She died 10 October 1872, two months later. Lydia and George are buried side by side at the Burris Cemetery near Bethany, Missouri.

          ISSUE:

9-1           1     William BURRIS       b. 1811         d. 1854

9-2           2     Martha BURRIS b. 1813         d. 1894

9-3           3     Ann BURRIS             b. 1818         d. 1893

9-4           4.    Cynthia BURRIS        b. 1819         d. 1888

9-5           5.    John BURRIS             b. 1822         d. 1894

9-6           6.    George BURRIS        b. 1825         d. 1893

9-7           7.    Milton BURRIS         b. 1827         d. 1874

          A sketch on George Jr., said George Sr. and Lydia had five sons and four daughters. We have found no trace of any others than the above seven (JWB).


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(9-1)         WILLIAM EWING BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage       Lydia-John-James


          William Ewing BURRIS married Lydia MORRIS who was born 7 October 1810 in Jackson County, Ohio. They were married 1 July 1831 in Jackson County. Ohio.

          ISSUE:

9-1-1        1. Matthew Moses BURRIS     b. 1832         d. 1910

9-1-2        2. Lucinda BURRIS                  b. 1835

9-1-3        3. Nancy Jane BURRIS            b. 1839         d. 1914

9-1-4        4. Milton BURRIS                    b. 1840         d. 1915

9-1-5        5. William EWING BURRIS   b. 1843         d. 1882

9-1-6        6. George Washington BURRIS b. 1844      d. 1929

9-1-7        7. Lydia Margaret BURRIS      b. 1847


(JWB)


          The following pages contain biographical sketches on BURRIS FAMILY members, taken from the drafts written by Nancy Hanks EWING


 

9-1    WILLIAM EWING BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


William did not leave much in the way of biographical material about him. He died relatively young (43 years old) and his wife as well. His orphaned children scattered and it has been hard to get the William Ewing Burris story together.

          He was George and Lydia's first child, born in 1811 while the parents were still in Gallia County, Ohio. He grew up in Jackson County, Ohio, where he was married 21 July 1831. His bride was Lydia MORRIS, born in 1814 in Ohio.

          William and his Lydia stayed around Jackson for about 10 years and their first four children were born there. But early in the 1840s they heard of new land opening up in a place that would come to be called Harrison County, Missouri.

          The trip out to Missouri in 1842 was by wagon. At night the tongue of the wagon became a tent pole for shelter. The Burris family arrived in Harrison County early enough to have been counted among the county's first settlers. There on

1 January 1843, William Jr. put in his appearance and there were two more children after him.

          The country was new and wild - and lonely. No churches, no schools, no towns for miles. The great event of the year was when the men of the countryside went to the river, many miles away, to exchange honey, beeswax, hides and tallow for the necessities of life.

          Indians were quite numerous in the country at that time and the children often had playmates from the Pottawatomie and Sac tribes.

          Sadly, William and Lydia only had 12 years together in their new home. Their youngest, Lydia, was only 5 when both parents, ill with the fever, died by 1854. This left the seven children, under Matthew, who was 19, on their own. Apparently Matthew and the eldest sister, Lucinda, were able to handle things and when Lucinda was married about 1855 to a near neighbor, John W. WHITNEY, the next eldest, Nancy, took over - even though she was only 16. Son, William, who was only 9 when his parents died, had a son who remembered hearing only that it was "Aunt Nan" who looked after his father.

          The arrival of their Uncle Milton BURRIS in 1855 probably helped considerably. Two years later their grandparents, George and Lydia, and other relatives arrived, their problems were over.

          Apparently Matthew and young Milton left Harrison County, at least they were not listed in the 1860 census. Neither was William, though his Civil War pension papers say he was working for his Uncle George BURRIS that year. The only brother found in the 1860 census was George W., 13, living with his Burris grandparents.

          It is unknown where William and Lydia were buried, probably in The Burris Cemetery near Mitchelville, Missouri, where so many of their kin are buried.

          ISSUE:

9-1-1        1.    Matthew Moses BURRIS, b. Nov 1832, Jackson County, Ohio.

9-1-2        2.    Lucinda BURRIS, b. 1835, Jackson County, Ohio

9-1-3        3.    Nancy Jane BURRIS, b. 1839, Jackson County, Ohio

9-1-4        4.    Milton BURRIS, b. 7 July 1840, Jackson County, Ohio

9-1-5        5.    William Ewing BURRIS, Jr., b. 1 Jan 1843, Harrison County, Missouri

9-1-6        6.    George Washington BURRIS, b. 2 Nov 1844, Harrison County, Missouri

                 7.    Lydia Margaret BURRIS, b. 1847, Harrison County, Missouri, appears to have died young.


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9-1-1        MATTHEW MOSES BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-Lydia-John-James 


          Matthew, born in 1833 in Jackson County, Ohio was 10 years old when his family moved to Missouri and 19 years old when his parents died. With their deaths he became the head of the household. He and his next younger sister, Lucinda, managed to keep the family together.

          Matthew could not be found in the 1860 nor 1870 Missouri census. He was back in Harrison County in 1873. At the age of 41 years, he married Martha Elizabeth GILLESPIE in Harrison County on 5 August 1873.

          Martha was born in Jackson County, Ohio in either 1836 or 1838 and was the daughter of Joseph GILLESPIE and his first wife. Joseph is mentioned in another branch of my family, the BUZZARD side, as the second husband of Elizabeth (TRAVIS) FIELDS, mother of the Melissa FIELDS who married my Buzzard cousin.

          Martha was found with Joseph and Elizabeth in the 1870 census in Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Elizabeth lived to be 100 years old and it was a newspaper article on her 100th birthday, recounting some of her remembrances of early Harrison Township, that provided the descriptions of how it was in the 1840s.

          Matthew and Martha settled in the village of Lorraine in Jefferson Township, north of the city of Bethany. Matthew was a wagon-maker by trade. At some time between 1880 and 1900 they moved to North Choctaw Township, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Martha died there prior to 1900. Matthew was in Lincoln County in the 1900 census, two of his three sons with him, the third buried back in Harrison County, Missouri.

          ISSUE:

9-1-1        1.    Matthew Moses BURRIS, b. 1832, Jackson County, Ohio, d. about 1900. Married: 5 Aug 1873, Martha Elizabeth GILLESPIE, b. 1837, Jackson County, Ohio, daughter of Joseph GILLESPIE, d. pre-1900.

                        Issue:

                               1.    Joseph M. BURRIS, b. 28 Oct 1877, Lorraine, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Oklahoma, Callie Ann REED daughter of John H. REED & Rhoda Francis BYRD, d. 28 Dec 1964, Havana, Texas.

                                      Issue:

                                      1.    Myrtle BURRIS

                                      2.    James BURRIS

                                      3.    George William BURRIS

                                      4.    John Franklin BURRIS

                               2.    William Ewing BURRIS III, b. 1879 d. 1890

                               3.    James BURRIS, b. 1880


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9-1-2        LUCINDA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-Lydia-John-James 


          Though Lucinda, born in Jackson County, Ohio in 1835, was only 17 years old when her parents died, she took over the household and the care of her younger siblings on the death of her parents. She and her brother Matthew were able to keep the farm going until their Uncle Milton BURRIS arrived in Harrison County in 1855.

          Lucinda was married in 1855 to John W. WHITNEY. John was born in Kentucky in 1830 and in the 1860 census was a Bethany Township farm laborer worth -/$50. The Whitneys apparently left Harrison County, Missouri in the 1860s and all contact with them was lost.

          ISSUE:

                  1.    John B. WHITNEY, b. 1860


 

9-1-3        NANCY JANE BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-Lydia-John-James 


          Nancy, born in 1839 in Jackson County, Ohio was about

3 years old when the Burris wagontrain left for the West, so she did most of her growing up in Harrison County, Missouri. Although only 13 years old at the time of her parents death, she helped her older sister Lucinda with the household and upon Lucinda's marriage in 1855, Nancy became the "mother" of the family.

          Nancy Jane and Washington W. WATSON, born in Kentucky, were married about 1859.

          In the 1850 census, William and Lydia and the children were Family No. 334. Family No 329 - five families away, was the household of Richard and Lucy WATSON, Washington's family. Washington was listed as being only 11 years old in that census.

          The newlyweds went to Butter Township to make their home, and they were listed there in the 1860 and 1870 census, Washington a farmer. They had six children when Washington died about 1874 at the age of 35.

          Nancy then married Lewis MUSICK, a widower with at least five children. Among them, by his first wife, Mary A., was William S. MUSICK, born in March of 1868, who later married Nancy's niece, Lillie May BURRIS (9-1-6-1).

          Lewis was born in 1830 in Illinois. He and Nancy lived in Butter Township where he was a farmer. Nancy had three more children by him. In 1880 their family consisted of four of her six, two of their three and three of his five.

          Lewis died in Harrison County 30 August 1916. Nancy's death is unknown.

          ISSUE:

                 1     George WATSON, b. Jan 1860, Missouri.

                 2.    Cynthia WATSON, b. 1864, Missouri

                 3.    Andrew J. WATSON, b. 1866, Missouri

                 4.    Richard H. WATSON, b. 1868, Missouri

                 5.    Allen WATSON, b. 1871, Missouri

                 6.    Manford WATSON, b. 1873, Missouri

                 7.    Lydia L. MUSICK, b. 15 Feb 1876, Missouri Married: Robert Mitchell MC DANIEL.

                 8.    Almeda J. MUSICK, b. 1879, Missouri. Married: Walter CHRISTIE

                 9.    Walter MUSICK, b. after 1880, Missouri


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9-1-4        MILTON BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-Lydia-John-James


          Milton, named for his father's brother, who was only 12 or 13 years older than he, was born 7 July 1840 in Jackson County, Ohio. He was just a toddler when his parents moved to Harrison County, Missouri and was 12 years old when orphaned by the death of his parents in 1852. He was not found in the 1860 or 1870 Harrison County census, but thanks to his Civil War service and his pension papers we know a little of his life from then on.

          Milton enlisted 27 February 1866 at Gallatin, Missouri in Company I of the Missouri State Militia Cavalry. The unit was held in reserve, but went into Federal service as Company M of the 13th Missouri Regular Volunteers at reenlistment. Company M was under Captain Fred W. BECKER. At enlistment, Milton was a farmer, stood 5 foot, 5 inches and had a light complexion, hazel eyes and hazel(?) hair. He was a corporal when he was discharged 11 January 1866 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

          Eventually Milton returned to Harrison County, but it was not until 1877 when he was 37 years old that he married Mary Ellen BUTCHER. Mary Ellen was born in June of 1847 in Ohio, the daughter of Adam and Elizabeth BUTCHER of Cypress Township. She and Milton were married 27 December 1877.

          Shortly after their marriage the two departed Harrison County in favor of Lerado, Reno County, Kansas. They were located in the 1880 census, living in Bell Township, Milton a sawyer.

          It appears that by 1880, Milton, though only 40 years old was suffering from the effects of his Civil War service. he was deaf, cathartic and bronchial and had poor teeth, rheumatism and scurvy. He and Mary Ellen remained in Reno County at least through the 1900 census. Mary Ellen died 15 July 1912, either there or five miles south in Kingman County at the home of their daughter, Serena, who had married a man named SHIPLEY. That's where Milton was when he had a stroke in 1913 that left him paralyzed and helpless. He died 15 January 1915 at the age of 74 years. He is buried in the Lerado Cemetery, Lerado, Reno County, Kansas - and it is assumed that Mary Ellen is too.

          KNOWN ISSUE:

                 1.    Edgar E. BURRIS, b. Nov 1880. Married: 21 July 1902, Kingman County, Kansas, Anna Cordelia DEMARTEAN.

                        Issue:

                         1.    Noah Edgar BURRIS DEMARTEAU

                 2.    Serena BURRIS, b. Mar 1883, Kansas. Married: William C. SHIPLEY. 1915: Penalosa, Kingman County, Kansas.

                 3.    Sadie BURRIS, b. July 1884, Kansas. Married: Arthur M. DIX


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9-1-5                                                           WILLIAM EWING BURRIS JR.

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-Lydia-John-James


          William bore the same name as his father and was destined to have the same short life his father had - two years shorter. Disabilities as a result of his service during the Civil War caused his demise at only 39, leaving a wife and seven children.

          William was born 1 January 1843 in Harrison County, Missouri and was only 9 when orphaned. He was not found in the 1860 census but according to his pension papers he was working for his uncle George BURRIS Jr. in Cypress Township at that time.

          William enlisted in the Civil War on the 22nd of September 1861 in the 23rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry, and served in both E and A companies. On his transfer to Company A he was made corporal. On 6 April 1862 he was taken prisoner, then exchanged. It is unknown where he was taken prisoner.

          On 1 January 1864 he was at McMinnville, Tennessee to reenlist as a veteran. In action on the 3rd of August 1864, his unit was charging the Rebel lines. The men had to "double-quick" in support of a skirmish charge and William became overheated to the point of insensibility, which resulted in "permanent affliction." He was sent to the 3rd Division, 14th Corps, hospital.

          William's brother, George BURRIS III, was in Company E of the 23rd and pension papers indicate that the two brothers served together. ("We were messmates," said George) But George's and William's enlistments do not coincide with each others. However, both were mustered out with their companies at the war's end, 18 July 1865 at Louisville, Kentucky.

          In the Spring of 1864, William was back in Harrison County on furlough, he was visiting his Uncle George. George and his wife, Elizabeth, had Sarah, a niece of Elizabeths, working for them as a house servant. Sarah Elizabeth MC NAMEE was born 1 March 1849 in Liberty Township, Jackson County, Ohio. Her parents were Hiram and Mary (HENRY) MC NAMEE of Mitchelville.

          At the time, Uncle George was a Justice of the Peace, and it was he who performed the ceremony that made William and Sarah one, and he and Elizabeth gave the wedding dinner. The date of this event was 3 May 1864.

          Then it was back to the war. After his discharge, William and Sarah set up home in Harrison County on 145 acres in Section 22 of Cypress Township. This is where their seven children were born. But William's health was very bad. Among other things he had "misery of the heart." On 2 January 1877 he applied for a pension, saying, "I don't know whether I shall be able to hold onto my little home, as I am now almost entirely unfit to perform any labor"...and he was only 33 years old!

          He and Sarah did lose their Cypress Township farm. They made plans to try homesteading in Kansas. On 12 January 1880, he wrote the pension board: "If my claim lays until I go to Kansas, it will be very unhandy both for me and the government." (The government was not sure his disabilities were service-connected)

          By the 1880 census, a few months later, he and his family were in Newby, Ness County, Kansas. On 8 April 1880 he wrote from Newby, "I've been four years in my attempt to get a pension. I've gone down in health and property. I was compelled to let my home sell and I've come to Kansas and taken claims. My family here is a wife and seven children and nothing to support them on longer than one month. I have taken Kansas land under the homestead act which requires I shall be on the claim within six months of homesteading, which expires April 20, and if proof is needed, I'd like to get it in the community I've lived in since the war and, second, I need the money very bad."

          The Burris' did go home, but not thanks to the government. Somehow they managed it on their own. In spite of all his hardships and poverty, William never did get his pension.

          Less than a year after their return to Harrison, William died. "He died in a chair in a smothering spell," recalled his brother George. He died 19 April 1881 and is buried in the Burris Cemetery.

          Sarah was only 32 at the time of William's death and had seven youngsters ages 2 to 13 to support. Sarah applied for a widow's pension, but it was denied on the grounds that it had not been proved that William's death was war-related. Sarah wrote back that there was no proof because his brother and sister had refused to allow an autopsy, and therefore had made her miss out on the pension.

          Descendants are not quite sure why the McNamees and Burris' did not come to her aid, especially her father, Hiram. A daughter of William wrote, "Sarah's father visited her and saw the condition, but could not help."

          Finally in desperation Sarah turned to the next county south. A few miles from the Burris farm was Daviess County, and there in Pattonsburg, Benton Township, lived a family of EPPERSONS. The Eppersons were from Tennessee and were a large, prolific and important family in their home county of Schuyler, Missouri. Silas EPPERSON produced some fine citizens, one of whom, Col. Glenn Irwin EPPERSON, U.S. Cavalry, retired, is a neighbor of mine here in Del Mar, California.

          The Daviess County branch of the family was headed by James EPPERSON, apparently a nephew of Silas. In the 1880 census, James and his wife, Minerva, were living near Pattonsburg. Minerva was James' second wife and not the mother of the two sons about to enter the picture.

          Those sons were John S. EPPERSON and Elifus EPPERSON, 17 and 12 in the 1880 census.

          Sarah Elizabeth (McNamee) Burris married John S. Epperson in 1883. She was 35 and John was 20 - It is said that John was a cripple, a hunch-back, and that he was difficult to deal with. He and his stepsons (not much younger than he was) didn't get on at all well, and before long all of Sarah's sons, and a daughter had left the household.

          One daughter stuck close, it was the eldest of Sarah's seven children, Mary Lydia, 17. Mary Lydia married John's 16 year old brother, Elifus, the following year. Those two families stayed near each other through the years.

          Within the next four years, Sarah had two more sons by John, Isaac EPPERSON, born in March of 1885 and James EPPERSON, born 1 February 1887. These sons were the only ones with John and Sarah in the 1900 census. At that time they were living in Osage Township, Henry County, Missouri. Listed next to them in the census were Mary Lydia and her family.

          In 1897 Sarah revitalized her pension claim. In spite of much testimony from friends and relatives - including some back in Harrison County, the claim was turned down.

          Sarah died in June 1908 in Osage Township, and is buried at the Deepwater Cemetery there. She was 59 years old.

          ISSUE:

9-1-5-1     1.    Mary Lydia BURRIS, b. 4 Nov 1866, Missouri

9-1-5-2     2.    William Hiram BURRIS, b. 25 Feb 1868, Missouri

                 3.    John Elmer BURRIS, b. 26 Aug 1869, Missouri, d. Meriden, Kansas. No issue

                 4.    Lily Anna BURRIS, b. 24 July 1871, Missouri, d. 1902. Married: Charles SIMS.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Earl SIMS, Mar: Hazel Culbertson

                               Issue:

                               1.     Earl SIMS Jr.

                 5.    Thomas Sherman BURRIS, b. 16 July 1873, MO, d. 18 Mar 1897, Henry Co. Missouri,, age 24 of pneumonia.

9-1-5-6     6.    Milton Frank BURRIS, b. 11 Aug 1875, Missouri

                 7.    Warren Pentice BURRIS, b. 4 Jan 1879, Missouri, d. 1 Nov 1961 Buried: Civil Bend, Missouri. Married: Minnie Stapp FRAZIER, d. 7 Apr 1861.


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9-1-5-1     MARY LYDIA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-William-Lydia-John-James


          Mary Lydia's early life was not an easy one. She was born 4 November 1866 in Harrison County, Missouri and was the eldest of the seven children. She was 14 when her Civil War veteran father died and 15 when her mother married John EPPERSON in 1883. A year later 17 year old Mary Lydia married John's younger brother Elifus EPPERSON, (Lith he was called) then 16.

          Apparently their youth and age was no handicap. Their marriage appears to have been satisfactory. They started right in to have a family and did not stop until just prior to "Lith's" death about 1897. By that time they were in Osage Township, Henry County, Missouri.

          In 1899, Mary Lydia married again. Her second husband was William Archie BURKE, born 26 December 1867. He was a widower and had three children, one of whom had died young. The two remaining, Alva Golda and Myrtle BURKE, were with Mary Lydia and William in the 1900 census. The Burkes were listed in Osage Township, Henry County, next to Mary Lydia's mother and family. Also with them were four of her five and their first, William Henry BURKE, born 2 February 1900. The Burkes had five more children after William Henry. 10 all told for Mary Lydia.

          William died 22 January 1947 and Mary Lydia died 1 September 1955 at the age of 88. They are buried at Mc Fall, Gentry County, Missouri

          ISSUE:

                        1.     Effie EPPERSON, b. 30 May 1885, Missouri. Married: Frank PEARL

                               Known issue:

                               1.    Alma PEARL

9-1-5-1-2         2.    Levi EPPERSON, b. 5 Feb 1886

9-1-5-1-3         3.    Elizabeth EPPERSON, b. 6 Apr 1891

                        4.     Polly EPPERSON, b. 24 Aug 1895. Married: Ed CARAWAY.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Vernon CARAWAY. 1983: Lived in Albany, Gentry Co., MO.

                               2.    Fay CARAWAY. Married: Dale MANN. 1983: Lived in Missouri.

                        5.    John EPPERSON, d. at age 4 of spider bite.

                        6.    William Henry BURKE, b. 2 Feb 1900, Henry County, Missouri, d. 7 Feb 1980. Married: Lucy MC CULICK, b. 1899.

                               Known Issue:

                               1.    Virginia BURKE, b. Glendale, Arizona. Married: Robert Aurther BERRY. Divorced.

9-1-5-1-7         7.    Margaret Sally BURKE, b. 14 April 1903

                        8.    Theodore Frank BURKE, b. 16 July 1905, Mc Fall, Gentry County, Missouri.

                               Married: Henrietta _____

                               Issue:

                               1.    Milton Henry BURKE, lives Arizona

                               2.    Darlene BURKE, lives Arizona

                        9.    Bertha Beatrice BURKE, b. 13 Jan 1907, Mc Fall, Gentry County, Missouri. Married: Wright CHRISTIAN.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Patricia CHRISTIAN

                               2.    Luella CHRISTIAN Married: William David LOGUE. 1983: Lived in Tempe, Arizona.

                               3.    John CHRISTIAN 1983: Lived in Arizona.

9-1-5-1-10       10.  Charles Lewis BURKE, b. 2 June 1909, Mc Fall, Gentry County, Missouri


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9-1-5-1-2         LEVI EPPERSON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mary-William-William-Lydia-John-James


          Levi, who was always called Doc, was born 5 February 1886. In the 1900 census he was with his mother and stepfather in Osage Township, Henry County, Missouri. He was married about 1905 to Emma MARTIN, born 10 March 1887. Levi died 26 October 1970 at the age of 83 years.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Helen EPPERSON, b. 20 Mar 1909. Married: Richard J. SALCIDO. 1983: Lived in California.

                 2.    Mary Lea EPPERSON, b. 30 Oct 1910. Married: Henry DE CESSER. 1983: Lived in Los Angeles, California.

                 3.    Lila EPPERSON, b. 11 June 1912. Married: Lee Emry MACRANDER. 1983: Lived in Pattonsburg, Daviess County, Missouri.

                 4.    Pauline EPPERSON, b. 3 Aug 1917. Married: John Dudley BRATCHER. 1983: Lived in California


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9-1-5-1-3         ELIZABETH EPPERSON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mary-William-William-Lydia-John-James


          Elizabeth was born 6 April 1891 and died 11 March 1975 at the age of 83 years. She was married to Willis Alfred HUFF who was born 3 October 1888 and died 7 March 1970.

          KNOWN ISSUE:

                 1.    Vernie HUFF, b. 1 Mar 1913. Married: Russell Nelson SALMON. 1983: Lived in Westherly, Missouri.

                 2.    Ruby HUFF, b. 9 Sept 1919. Married: Henry Mason Carter. 1936: Lived in Coffey, Missouri.

                 3.    Ernest HUFF, b. 21 Mar 1918. Married: Mary Ellen Summers.


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9-1-5-1-7         MARGARET SALLY BURKE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mary-William-William-Lydia-John-James


          Margaret was born 14 April 1903 and was only 26 years old when she died October 1929. She married Joe BAXTER and they had four children.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Carl BAXTER, b. Buckeye, Arizona

                 2.    Leota BAXTER, b. Buckeye, Arizona

                 3.    Raymond BAXTER, b. Buckeye, Arizona

                 4.    Claude BAXTER, b. Buckeye, Arizona


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9-1-5-1-10       CHARLES LEWIS BURKE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mary-William-William-Lydia-John-James 


          Charles was born 2 June 1909 in Mc Fall, Gentry County, Missouri, the youngest of Mary Lydia's 10 children. He and his wife, Juanita Frances GARDNER, born 28 November 1921, in Daviess County, Missouri lived at Winston, Daviess County in 1983. It was Charles who supplied much of the data for the Epperson-Burke families.


 

9-1-5-2     WILLIAM HIRAM BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-William-Lydia-John-James


          William was a very special fellow, at least to his son, John. John thought enough of him, and his mother to submit biographical material on both of them, which material was used for the following sketch.

          Born 25 February 1868, in Harrison County, Missouri, William's first years were not happy ones. As the eldest son in a household of seven children, he was more aware than the others of the trials his war-disabled father underwent in trying to provide for his family, and the hardships his mother endured.

          Wililam was 12 when his parents lost their home at Mitchelville, Harrison County, Missouri and were forced to go to Kansas to homestead. Even at that age he was keenly aware that his father's health was very bad, and every day he saw it getting worse. It was impossible for the father to make a living in Kansas and they returned to Mitchelville.

          And then one day in 1881, when William was only 13, the father was gone, and William was suddenly the "man" of the house. Five younger children, a farm and a worried mother needed him. He did the best he could.

          But he didn't have the care of the family for long - less than two years, actually. When he was 15, the situation was so bad that his desperate 35-year-old mother married the 20-year-old John EPPERSON.

          It's not had to imagine the feeling the youth must have had in knowing that he had a stepfather only five years older than he was. The two didn't hit it off at all, and it wasn't long before William left to go out on his own - his brothers soon doing the same.

          William went to Kansas, where he worked for a German family in a German settlement. He got so that he could speak, read and write German, and was very proud of this accomplishment all through his life. In later years he subscribed to a German newspaper and wrote many letters in German.

          About 1886, several of his mother's brothers and sisters, the McNamees, left Missouri to try homesteading along the Niobrara River near Valentine in Cherry County, Nebraska. That may have been what made William head there and try a little homesteading himself, though the word from his descendants is that he wasn't overly fond of his McNamee kin. "Too pious" is the way he described them.

          Nevertheless he seems to have joined his kin there, and was in that area of Northern Nebraska and Southern South Dakota for several years. During that time he had occasion to live with a Sioux Indian tribe. He could speak the Sioux language and he knew their ways. Furthermore he came to understand them, and to sympathize with them.

          "They were free before the white man came, " he often said.

          Even so, when the great Sioux uprising of 1891 came along, he became a civilian scout for the U.S. Army. That was the last Indian war and he was one of the last Indian scouts.

          William's Uncle Milton Prose MCNAMEE taught at the Rockford School in Cherry County, Nebraska and it may have been his influence that prompted William to have his hand at being a teacher too. Though he'd only gone through the seventh grade at No. 7 School in Cypress Township, Missouri (in Section 22, on the BALLARD property) he was quite an intelligent fellow. In 1894 he took a teacher's examination before the Nebraska Superintendent of Schools and passed with flying colors. His grades were: Arithmetic, 87; English composition, 75; English Grammar, 75; Geography, 66; Orthography, 80; Penmanship, 68; Physiology, 94; Reading, 71; Theory and Art of Teaching, 70; Bookkeeping, 59, and Civil Government, 63.

          He received a third-grade teaching certificate. But his teaching career was short lived. He liked books well enough, but had some personality clashes with various people. And it was back to the range.

          One day in about 1898, when he was about 30, he made a deal involving one of his horses. He swapped it for title to 40 acres of land in Cedar County, Missouri.

          William figured to mosey down to Missouri and have a look at his land. His plan was to, maybe, spend the winter there, fix the place up and sell it and move on. He figured he could probably get a good price for it.

          He arrived in Stockton, Cedar County, about 1899 with a horse and saddle, a .44 Winchester, a .44 Colt pistol and little else.

          His property included a little log cabin. He moved in and began to make himself at home. He began to make the acquaintance of near neighbors, the Stephens family. He visited there many times. It was a happy place. He hadn't experienced anything like it for many years, and a change came over him.

          Rev. Isaac Daniel STEPHEN and his wife Eliza Adeline FOX hailed from Ooltaweah, Tennessee. They had arrived in Cedar County in 1890 by way of Scott County, Arkansas and the Territory of Oklahoma. They bought a quarter section (160 acres) of land in Cedar and Isaac, a skilled carpenter, built a large log home for his family of wife and eight children.

          Besides being a farmer, Isaac was a Baptist minister. His home was always filled with warmth and music (mostly gospel hymns).

          The fifth of his and Eliza's children was Lillie Maude STEPHEN, born 7 January 1875 in Ooltaweah, Tennessee. At the age of 7 months, Lillie was attacked by a disease known as "white swelling' in her left leg. Doctors advised amputation and even at that they wouldn't promise she would live. Isaac, with his Civil War experience said, "No." The leg was lanced to relieve the pressure and over a period of months, bits and pieces of bone were removed - all this without anesthetics or antibiotics.

          Lillie lived, but for all of her walking life she knew only her friend, the crutch.

          Lillie's schooling was a brief session in Scott County, Arkansas plus what she taught herself from the Bible, from some books left behind in one of the houses the Stephens had lived in, and from the dictionary. Lillie not only read the books, she memorized them. She learned to spell by syllables, and even at the age of 95, if you asked her to spell a word, she would pronounce it, spell it out by syllables, then pronounce the word again - just like in the spelling bee. In those old-fashioned bees, Lillie was usually the winner.

          On her 16th birthday, her father bought her an organ, the kind with bellows and foot pump. (Cost: $60) Without any instruction, Lillie learned to play, and to read music. People came from miles around to hear her play. The Stephens home became a place to go for old-fashioned singing - and for love and caring.

          And into this home came William Hiram BURRIS

          No two more unlikely people ever consummated a union - the rough-edged, 34-year-old William, the diminutive (never weighed more than 100 pounds) refined, sheltered, 27-year-old Lillie Maude. They were married 19 November 1902.

          History proved they each made a wise choice. They celebrated a 56th wedding anniversary in 1958.

          Immediately on their marriage William became a total abstainer, and there were other changes from the way of life he had known. Lillie saw to that. William had only one fear in his life and that was what he called "that Baptist look" from Lillie.

          William and Lillie built a log hut on William's 40 acres for their home. Then they turned an old barn on the place into a house. It was one big room, 18 x 20, with a loft over. There was a lean-to, with rafters of hand-hewn red oak, for a kitchen, and a cellar under-neath. In that house, seven children were born.

          In 1920 the family moved to a larger, more productive farm of 80 acres in Cedar County.

          Lillie had a few prized possessions, among them her organ, a sewing machine and an iron kettle. The sewing machine, the old treadle type called "Sweet Home," was purchased shortly after her marriage, and it was used to make all the clothing for a growing family. Abut twice a year material was ordered from a mail order house and Lillie fashioned it into clothing. No ready-made clothing was ever bought in the early years. Out of necessity Lillie became an expert seamstress.

          The iron kettle was set up in the back yard, weather permitting, and became a most versatile utensil. It was used to heat water for the family laundry, to make soap, to render lard, to cook vegetables for canning and to take care of the whole canning process. It took a lot of work, management and planning to raise, prepare and preserve all the food necessary for a family of that size. But Lillie was a good gardener and liked the work of growing things outside.

          In spite of her size and her crutch, Lillie always carried herself with style. No one ever saw her back touch the back of a chair. She sat upright and looked at people directly and commanded respect. She became known throughout the community, to both relatives and friends, as Aunt Lillie, and was an authority on almost everything. If it was a sickness, ask Aunt Lillie what to do. If the correct word or phrase was needed, ask Aunt Lillie. If you wanted to know who was related to whom, ask Aunt Lillie.

          She had a great sense of humor and a quick and ready wit, right up through her 90s. With failing eyesight and confined to a wheelchair, she would engage children and grandchildren in games of wit. (She considered anyone under the age of 50 "children") She would throw out "trivia" questions, like "How many presidents have we had?" "Now let me hear you name them in their correct order?" and "Who served the shortest length of time?" "The longest?" and she could usually stump her audience. Everyone who knew her marveled at how this wisp of a woman, more the size of a sparrow, could retain so much knowledge.

          William learned to drive a car after he was 60. First he bought a Model T Ford, then a Model A. Just before World War II he bought a new light truck. During the war with a new truck and an unlimited ration of gas, he was in great demand to haul livestock to the market in Springfield, Missouri, about 60 miles distant. He always said to a customer, "I like to leave early and get home early." Everyone soon learned "early" meant break of daylight. He wanted to be home before the mail came so he could read the daily paper before lunch. When he was 80 he was still driving that little truck to market for his neighbors.

          William read a lot and was well versed on almost any subject. Most of the time he was over the heads of his neighbors when he talked abut the gold standard or the history of Europe and the U.S.

          In their later years, William and Lillie gave up their beloved farm and went to live with their daughter, Sarah Maude HEANY, in Primrose, Nebraska. That is where William died two days before his 91st birthday, 27 February 1959. He was buried back in Stockton, Cedar County, at Gum Springs Cemetery.

          During the next 13 years, Lillie divided her time at the homes of daughters, Sarah Maude, Goldie Edith and Mildred, who lived in Independence, Missouri. It was there at Mildred's that Lillie died on 26 March 1972. She was 97 years, 2 months and 19 days old.

          ISSUE:

9-1-5-2-1         1.    Sarah Maude Lucile BURRIS, b. 27 Aug 1903, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri.

9-1-5-2-2         2.     William Tilden BURRIS, b. 27 Feb 1906, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri.

                        3.    Corlie Katherine BURRIS, b. 11 June 1908, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri, d. 21 Oct 1961. Buried: Gum Springs Cemetery, Stockton,Cedar County, Missouri. Married: 13 May 1921, Lloyd Elbert COLLINS, b. 22 Sept 1900, d. 1980. Buried: Gum Springs Cemetery, Stockton, Cedar County, MO. No issue.

                        4.    Mildred Adeline BURRIS, b. 15 Sept 1910, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri, d. 13 July 1981, cremated, ashes scattered at Independence, Missouri. Married: 1 June 1940, John Alfred SWANSON b. 28 Oct 1901, Sweden. No issue.

                        5.    Goldie Edith BURRIS, b. 15 Mar 1912, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri. Married: 1st Edward HUBBARD, divorced. Married 2nd Fredrick BYRD, deceased. Married 3rd Frank MONCHAMP.

                               1983: Diamond Springs, California near Placerville, CA. No issue.

9-1-5-2-6         6.    John Warren BURRIS, b. 24 Nov 1915, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri.

                        7.    Marjorie Josephine BURRIS, b. 19 Jan 1919, Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri, d. 14 July 1951, 32 years. Married: Franklin Clay LOWRY, b. 25 Nov 1910.

                               Issue:

                               1.    David Warren LOWRY, b. 22 Nov 1942, Arcala, Missouri.

                               2.    Elaine LOWRY, b. 22 Oct 1944, Arcola, Missouri.


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9-1-5-2-1         SARAH MAUDE LUCILLE BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-William-William-Lydia-John-James



          Sarah, or Maude as she is called, was born 27 August 1903 at Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri. Her first husband was Francis Marion DRIVER, born 9 November 1884 in Tolono, Illinois. They were married 25 April 1926 and had three children. After his death 19 January 1945, she married Perry Edward HEANY on 4 August 1948.

          The Heanys lived in Primrose, Boone County, Nebraska. Perry, who went by the name of Edward, died 16 October 1961. It was at their home that Sarah Maude's father, William died in 1959.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Donna Adeline DRIVER, b. 1 Nov 1928, Montrose, Henry County, Missouri.

                 2.    Marjorie Marian DRIVER, b. 12 Nov 1934, Montrose, Henry County, Missouri.

                 3.    William Burris DRIVER, b. 20 Feb 1941, Butler, Bates County, Missouri.


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9-1-5-2-2         WILLIAM TILDEN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-William-William-Lydia-John-James 


          William was born at Stockton, Missouri 27 February 1906. He was married about 1930 to Marie COLEMAN, born 26 September 1911 at Jessieville, Garland County, Arkansas. During their years together they lived in Stockton and in Virginia, Jessieville and in Lebanon and Eugene, Oregon.

          Eugene is where their youngest child was born in 1950 and it is where William died three years later on 16 October 1953. There was an accident in the woods where he worked. The third William Burris to die young, each leaving a family of seven young children. He was 47 years old. Marie died in July of 1979.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    William Denzil BURRIS, b. 20 Dec 1932, (the fifth Wililam Burris in a row, spanning 121 years. Sadly this William did not live past 6 June 1933, to give us a sixth William)

                 2.    Joseph Wayne BURRIS, b. 13 Apr 1935, Dilwyn, Buckingham County, Virginia.

                 3.    Wilma Dee BURRIS, b. 23 June 1937, Jessieville, Garland County, Arkansas.

                 4.    Bobby Dale BURRIS, b. 23 Feb 1940, Jessieville, Garland County, Arkansas.

                 5.    Janice Marie BURRIS, b. 4 Nov 1941, Eugene, Oregon.

                 6.    Dennis Warren BURRIS, b. 25 Apr 1945, Lebanon, Oregon.

                 7.    Michael Lee BURRIS, b. 8 Oct 1947, Eugene, Oregon.

                 8.    Lyndel Neal BURRIS, b. 1950, Eugene, Oregon.


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9-1-5-2-6         JOHN WARREN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-William-William-Lydia-John-James 


          It is people like John Warren Burris that make this labor of love of mine very much worth it after all.

          I only met John (on the telephone) three weeks ago (as of this writing) but I feel as if I have known him always. Eleven days after that first call to him at his home in Woodlake, California, I had a bushel of material on the Burris' and particularly the William Burris line. Four days after a second call to him I had some additional material. A person like that touches a genealogist's heart.

          Not only that, but John's just a great guy, period. Anyone who has lectured over 300 times throughout the United States on the subject "No One Needs to be a Bum" has got to be.

          I am going to quote from the flyer his booking agent sends out to interested organizations all over the country about his talk. But a bit of background first.

          John was born in Stockton, Cedar County, Missouri on 24 November 1915. At the age of 16 he struck out on his own to "seek his fortune." In those days, people like John - only males then, carried their worldly goods in bundles tied to sticks which they carried over their shoulders. They usually followed railroad tracks and were called hobos. Nowadays similar types carry their belongings in knapsacks on their backs, they hitchhike a lot or ride bikes or motorcycles, they're called backpackers - and it's a normal way of life for thousands of young Americans - of both sexes! And a lot of them are PhDs!

          But back when John was a backpacker it was 1931 and you were not just a hobo, you were a bum. I have not heard John's lecture so I do not know how he did it, but somehow he did make his "fortune." He became a cattle rancher, a business manager and financier and now is "retired" at a fine country home at Woodlake (near Fresno, California) that has, according to his invitation to me to visit the family, "an extra bedroom, a locker full of meat, a cellar full of wine and a hot tub."

          His booking agent's flyer tells it this way: "John Burris is a living example of America's great opportunities and freedom. At age 16, John left home as a 'hobo' to seek his fortune in a time when there were no jobs and very little money. His candid observations of the people he met in those years and the lessons he learned about how to survive and how to keep one's self-respect are of interest and value to everyone."

          John is a member of the International Platform Association and Toastmasters International. He is past president of the Cattleman's Association and Past Master of his Masonic Lodge. He was a Marine for three years, 11 months and four days, during World War II, serving in the Pacific.

          John and a lovely lady named Carolyn Hope AINLEY, born

13 May 1928, were married in Woodlake, California 20 April 1957. They have two daughters, Melodee and Carolyn.

          Retired? Not by a long shot. John says he has more to do now than he can keep up with. In June he and Carolyn are off to Tahiti, and in August they go to Alaska.


          Shortly after the above was written, I had the occasion to meet and spend the day with John Warren and his Carolyn. They drove down from Woodlake and met me at Laguna Niguel and we spent the day at the Federal Archives there, going over the Federal census. John had never worked with the census on microfilm before, but he caught on quickly, and was finding kin all over the place, much to his enjoyment. It was a delightful day and they are delightful people.

          Before we parted that evening, John handed me a paper he had prepared which is used when he is being introduced for one of his talks. The paper gives a little more background.

          "John was born in a log cabin in Missouri and by the age of 16 was out on his own. He traveled as a hobo (or the then, Army of the Unemployed) all over the Western states. He became a skilled worker in the lumber industry, worked in an airplane factory, served in the Marines in World War II, worked for the Department of Weights and Measures, and owned a dry-cleaning plant, a manufacturing plant and a cattle ranch.

          "Self-educated he has written a book and numerous newspaper articles. He was president of the Cattlemen's Association, chairman of the University Extension Council, a member of the governor's Agriculture Committee, Past Master of a Masonic Lodge and president of the Toastmaster's Club."

          John is a Burris all Burris' can be proud of!

 

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9-1-5-6     MILTON FRANK BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-William-Lydia-John-James 


          Milton hardly knew his father. Born 11 April 1875 in Harrison County, he was 6 years old when William died and

8 years old when his mother married John Epperson. Like his brothers, he got out of the household as soon as he could. When that time came he headed out on his own for Oklahoma. In the 1900 census he was found here, living alone in Vernon Township, Kay County.

          He was married about 1903 to Mamie MC CALL, born 1886 in Arkansas. In the 1910 census they were in Jefferson County, Oklahoma with the first four of their eventual eight children. Also with them was Mamie's sister, Agnes MC CALL, 14, born in Arkansas.

          Mamie died in 1922. Milton spent his last days in Wilson, Carter County, Oklahoma, about 15 miles west of Ardmore. He died there in January of 1950 and is buried there.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Esther BURRIS, b. 1904, Oklahoma

                 2.    Alice BURRIS, b. 1906, Oklahoma

                 3.    Maud Lillian BURRIS, b. 1907, Oklahoma, single, taught in school in Japan . Took care of her uncle John Elmer BURRIS, a recluse when her uncle died in Meriden Kansas, she inherited his estate.

                 4.    Rosa BURRIS, b. 1909, Oklahoma

                 5.    Thomas BURRIS

                 6.    Elva BURRIS

                 7.    Alford BURRIS

                 8.    John BURRIS


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9-1-6        GEORGE WASHINGTON BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      William-Lydia-John-James 


          George, who was born on 2 November 1844, in Harrison County, Missouri, was left an orphan when he was 8, and was looked after at first by older siblings. When his grandparents arrived in Harrison County in 1857, he went to live with them in Butter Township. He was the only one of William and Lydia's sons I found in the 1860 Harrison County census.

          George followed his next older brother, William, into Company E of the 23rd Missouri Volunteer Infantry. William enlisted on 22 September 1861 and George on 1 December 1861. The two brothers served together until William was transferred as a corporal to Company A.

          After his discharge on 18 July 1865, George returned to Harrison County. He was married there on 29 April 1866 to Samantha Minerva POINTER. Samantha was born on 3 May 1849 in Lick Township, Jackson County, Ohio and was the daughter of William and Prudence (HENRY) POINTER. The mother, Prudence, has entered into the Burris story before. She was a sister of Elizabeth HENRY who married George's uncle, George BURRIS, Jr., and an aunt of Sarah MC NAMEE, who married William Ewing BURRIS Jr.

          George and Samantha were not in the 1870 Harrison County census, yet G.W. BURRIS shows up in the 1876 atlas as owning 30 acres on Big Creek, Section 29, Bethany Township, and it is said a son Alfred, born in 1878, was born at Bethany. But in the 1880 census they were in Liberty Township, Elk County, Kansas. Children: Charles, 9; Lilly, 7; Oliver, 5 and Alfred, 2 were with them. They must not have been there long, as a daughter, Effie Maud, born in September 1881, was also born back at Bethany. In the special veterans and widows schedule of the 1890 census, George's address is given as Happy Valley.

          In July, 1892, George decided to try his luck in the new Sooner territory of Oklahoma. He packed up the family in a covered wagon and headed out over the miles from Harrison County, Missouri to Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Alfred and Oliver walked all the way, driving the cows, and the girls and youngest son, Manford, 4, rode with George and Samantha in the wagon. They homesteaded a 160-acre farm, 4 miles south and 1 1/2 miles west of Chandler, Lincoln County, seat.

          The only member of the family who did not join in the trek was Lillie May, the oldest then living, who was by then married to William S. MUSICK and firmly ensconced in Harrison County. George's brother Matthew and his family may have been with the group when it set out, for he is known to have gone to Lincoln County also, and at about the same time.

          Samantha had at least one visit back to Harrison County to see Lillie, and that was in 1900. Samantha was listed that year in both Harrison County, with Lillie and her husband, and down in Lincoln County with George and their five youngest.

          After 29 years on the farm near Chandler, Samantha died on 13 October 1921 at the age of 72. George died 6 October 1929, when he was 84 years old.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Charles BURRIS, b. 1871. 1880: 9 years, apparently died soon after, for no one in the family has mentioned him and he was not found in any other census .

9-1-6-2     2.    Lillie May BURRIS, b. 26 Sept 1873, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 3.    Oliver J. BURRIS, b. Dec 1875, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri, d. 7 Aug 1901, Chandler, Lincoln Co. Oklahoma - a brain tumor. No issue.

9-1-6-4     4.    Alfred Henry BURRIS, b. 6 May 1878, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

9-1-6-5     5.    Effie Maud BURRIS, b. 19 Sept 1881, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

9-1-6-6     6.    Mary Elvaretta BURRIS, b. 26 Aug 1883, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 7.    Manford Ewing BURRIS, b. July 1888, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri , d. 1962; wife's name unknown.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Thelma BURRIS Married: Floyd GROOM, b. 1911, owned restaurant in Bristow, Oklahoma.

                        2.    Dewey BURRIS, b. 1917; d. Sept 1985, Lived: Eufaula, Oklahoma.

                        3.    Lloyd BURRIS, b. 1921; d. 1980, worked for Oklahoma Highway Patrol.


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9-1-6-2     LILLIE MAY BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-William-Lydia-John-James


          Lillie May was the only one of George and Samantha's family to remain in Missouri. When the rest of the family moved to Oklahoma, she and her husband, William S. MUSICK, were already settled in Butter Township and that is where they stayed.

          Lillie was born 26 September 1873 and her husband in

March of 1868. William was the son of Lewis and Mary A. MUSICK. The father, Lewis, married as his second wife Lillie's Aunt Nancy Jane (BURRIS) WATSON (9-1).

          Lillie and William were married about 1892. They were found in the 1900 and 1910 census in Butter Township, Missouri. In 1900, Lillie's mother, Samantha, was listed with them, apparently on a visit, as she was also listed that year at home in Chandler, Oklahoma.

          Lillie May died on 19 August 1914, age 41 years, in Harrison County, Missouri.


          ISSUE:

                 1.    Edith A. MUSICK, b. Jan 1892

                 2.    George MUSICK, b. June 1893

Known Issue:

                        1.    Carole MUSICK Married: Donald REESE, a Korean War Vet. 1983: Lived in Marysville, Mo.

                 3.    Alice Edna MUSICK, b. Aug 1899

                 4.    Lewis MUSICK, b. about 1907. 1983: lives near Bethany, Missouri.


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9-1-6-4     ALFRED HENRY BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-William-Lydia-John-James


          Alfred, who usually went by his initials, A.H., was born near Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri, 6 May 1978. He was about 14 when the move to Oklahoma was made and it was his job to drive the cows, with the assistance of his brother Oliver.

          After his own education was complete, Alfred became a teacher and went on to become principal and superintendent of schools. He also served as president of Southwestern State Teachers College at Weatherford, Oklahoma from 1921 to 1923 and as head of the History Department at Oklahoma A & M College, Stillwater (now Oklahoma State University) from 1923 to 1925.

          On 28 November 1901, he and Amanda Elvira CANSLER were married on the Cansler farm near Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. They lived a nomad life as they moved from place to place to keep up with Alfred's teaching jobs at Prague, Okemah, Clinton, Hobart, Temple, Mangum, Watonga and Holdensville public schools in Oklahoma. In 1910 they were in the Prague census, her mother Mary CANSLER with them. Alfred was only 56 when he died in 1934. Amanda lived 38 years without him. She died in 1972, age 88.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Crystal Maude BURRIS, b. 4 Sept 1902, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, d. 1971, cancer. Married: about 1928, Ralph FOUST of Miami, OK.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Doris FOUST, b. 24 Jan 1930, Stillwater, Oklahoma. 1986: Lives in California.

                 2.    Oliver Ewing BURRIS, b. 8 Sept 1903, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, d. Aug 1904, diphtheria.

                 3.    Edward Cansler BURRIS, b. 21 Feb 1906, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Married: 19 Aug 1926, Gladys TOLER; he was a professor of economics at Oklahoma A & M for about 40 years.

                 4.    Clara May BURRIS, b. 3 Oct 1908, Prague, OK. Married: 1925, Bernard EVANHOE, d. 1985. 1986: Lived in Topeka, KS. 4 children, including:

                        1.    Patricia EVANHOE, b. 1928, Apperson, OK. Married: about 1960 , Don (?) STEPHENSON.

9-1-6-4-5  5.    George William BURRIS, b. 7 Jan 1915, Temple, Oklahoma.


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9-1-6-4-5         GEORGE WILLIAM BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Alfred-George-William-Lydia-John-James


          George, an ardent family historian, supplied much of the material for this line, especially as it regards his father and family. He heard of my work long after I had thought myself done with the Burris Chapter, and although it meant redoing this part, I was grateful for his additions.

          George followed in his father's footsteps and became a teacher, too, and a writer as well. He taught in Oklahoma and Texas high schools and at Oklahoma A & M, Okmulgee Branch; Amarillo College and Henderson County Junior College in Terrell. For 22 years he was an instructor and technical writer for the U.S. Air Force, retiring at Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, Illinois in 1972. He has written for the Amarillo News, Ada News, Terrell Tribune and the Tupelo Journal and Jackson Daily News in Mississippi.

          George was born on 7 January 1915 in Temple, Oklahoma. His first wife and the mother of his children was Hazel THOMPSON, who he married in Kendrick, Oklahoma on 5 April 1934. She died in 1967 and he married Margaret DAVIS on 30 March 1973.

          George and Margaret lived in Terrell, Texas.

 

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9-1-6-5     EFFIE MAUD BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-William-Lydia-John-James



          Effie, born 19 September 1881 at Bethany, Missouri, was 11 years old when the trip was made from Bethany to Lincoln County, Oklahoma. She was married there on 1 January 1906 to Clark Winfield WILKINSON, born 19 January 1880 at Cherryville, Crawford County, Missouri. He was the son of William and Louisa Jane (EATON) WILKINSON.

          They had been married eight years and had four children when Clark died on 16 May 1914 at the age of 34 years. He is buried at Forest Cemetery in Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma.

          Effie married again in 1923. Her second husband was James O. WARD, a widower with six children, by whom she had two more children. The son of Jasper Newton WARD, James was born

27 December 1876 in Arkansas and he died 24 December 1944 in Cherokee County, Oklahoma. He is buried in Vernon Cemetery, Coweta, Wagoner County, Oklahoma. Effie died in Tulsa, Oklahoma on 3 September 1963, 16 days before her 82nd birthday, she is buried in the Vernon Cemetery also.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    William Burris WILKINSON, b. 18 Oct 1906, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma, d. 25 Feb 1986, Tucson, Arizona, bone cancer. Married: Ruby RIDGEWAY. 1986: Lived in Tucson, Arizona.

9-1-6-5-2         2.    Gladys Merle WILKINSON, b. 9 Jan 1908, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma,

                        3.    Olin Maynard WILKINSON, b. 10 Jan 1910, d. 18 Feb 1928, Coweta, Wagoner Co. OK. Buried: Vernon Cemetery.

                        4.    Alta May WILKINSON, b. 18 Dec 1911. Married: 17 Mar 1930, Wagoner Co. OK, Babe EGNOR.

9-1-6-5-5         5.    Cecil Edgar WILKINSON, b. 16 Nov 1913, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma.

                        6.    J.O. WARD, b. Jun 1924, Wagoner Co. OK, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Married: Shirley _____

9-1-6-5-7         7.    Beula Dee WARD, b. 17 Feb 1926, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma.


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9-1-6-5-2         GLADYS MERLE WILKINSON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Effie-George-William-Lydia-John-James


          Not much in the way of places here, just names and dates, Gladys lived at Broken Arrow, Oklahoma in 1985. Gladys was born in Chandler, Oklahoma on 9 January 1908 and was married in Wagoner County, Oklahoma to Luther Alire KEEL on 3 March 1927. Luther was born on 4 July 1902 and he died 12 May 1970.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Freda Estell KEEL, b. 20 Aug 1927. Married: John Willis BATES.


 

9-1-6-5-5         CECIL EDGAR WILKINSON

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Effie-George-William-Lydia-John-James


          Cecil was born 16 November 1913 at Chandler, and was married on 19 October 1940 at Tahlequah, Cherokee County, Oklahoma, to Ruby Marie WILLIS. They were still living in Tahlequah in 1987.

 

 

9-1-6-5-7         BEULA DEE WARD

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Effie-George-William-Lydia-John-James


          Beula was born in Wagoner County to Effie and her second husband James WARD. Beula was married to Walter Eugene COMBS, who was born 1 November 1920. They lived in 1987 on Route 3 in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, 74464, near her half-brother Cecil WILKINSON.


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9-1-6-6     MARY ELVARETTA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-William-Lydia-John-James


          Mary went by the name Elva all her life, and most of her life was was spent in Lincoln County, Oklahoma. However, her first nine years were spent in her native Harrison County, Missouri. She was born 26 August 1883 and was married on

16 November 1903 to Arthur ASHLEY. Arthur, son of Charles W. and Sarah (COCHRAN) ASHLEY. Arthur was born 23 December 1878 in Logan, Dearborn County, Indiana. Mary and Arthur lived on a part of the George Burris homestead near Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma and raised their 10 children there.

          Mary died on 6 October 1937 of cancer at the age of 54 years. Arthur lived 21 more years. He died in Seminole, Oklahoma on 18 July 1958. They are both buried in Oak Park Cemetery, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Edna Lenore ASHLEY, b. 2 Aug 1904, Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma. Married: Floyd CARDWELL.

                 2.    Flossie Imogene ASHLEY, b. 29 Aug 1906, d. Mar 1942. Married: Charles POTTER, b. 1906.

                 3.    Bessie ASHLEY, b. 1908, d. 1908.

                 4.    Charles Vernon ASHLEY, b. 27 June 1910, deceased by 1987. Married: 17 Nov 1945, Helen ERFMAN. 1986: lived in Denver, Colorado.

                 5.    Ora Marshall ASHLEY, b. 13 May 1912, d. 1975. Married: Anna Mae WINKLEMAN.

                 6.    Allen Dale ASHLEY, b. 9 July 1914. Married: Bertha WINKLEMAN. 1986: Lived in Moore, OK. Allen was a teacher and later an accountant.

                 7.    Leona Irene ASHLEY, b. 15 May 1916. Married: Opla Elbert RAGSDALE. 1986: Lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

                 8.    Lily Enid ASHLEY, b. 20 May 1918. Married: Donald E. BEARDEN.

                 9.    Viola Ethel ASHLEY, b. 20 Oct 1920. Married: 1st 1936, Norman SELCER. Married 2nd _____ HODECKER.

              10.      Norma Louise ASHLEY, b. 18 July 1922. Married: 1st Walter Edwin COLLINS. Married 2nd _____ SAUL. 1986: Lived in Edgewater, CO.


            Norma Louise and her son-in-law Robert COOK have corresponded with me about the Burris'. "Cook" as he is called, lives at 1137 Hillslope Place, Los Altos, CA 94022. He is writing about the Cook Family, and will of course call his genealogy when it is done, "THE COOK BOOK."


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9-2     MARTHA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


          Sad that so little is known about this branch of Lydia's family. They seem to have disappeared from the face of the earth, and have defied all efforts to search them out.

          Martha was born in 1814, Jackson County, Ohio and she was very young, only 15 or 16 when she and William A. MC CRAY were married in Jackson County on 3 September 1829. William, a native of Virginia, was 24 years old at the time. His father was probably the Archibald MC CRAY, the only MC CRAY on the early Jackson County tax lists, and his mother was probably the Jane MC CRAY for whose estate William was appointed the administrator for, on 1 February 1855 in Jackson County, Ohio.

          The newlyweds settled in Bloomfield Township, where William was a farmer and a Justice of the Peace. In 1850 he was worth $1,200. The couple had 11 children, all born in Bloomfield, Jackson County, Ohio.

          The McCrays are said to have gone to Harrison County, Missouri in June of 1857 when George and Lydia and the others did, but I wasn't able to find them there in the 1860 census. The only McCray I found in Harrison County that year was their daughter, Martha, who was 21 and living with her Burris grandparents, George and Lydia, in Butter Township.

          The family was found in Harrison County, Missouri in the 1870 census. Martha was a widow by then, 57, living in Bethany Township and worth $1,000/$700, with only her three youngest sons at home. In the 1876 Harrison County atlas no land was found in her name in Bethany Township, but 13 acres were found for her in Cypress Township. This was a little plot of land in Section 5 adjoining George Burris' 424.67 acres. Almost the entire east and south boundary of her plot was Big Creek.

          The only McCray landowner in Bethany in 1876 was

S. MC CRAY. There probably was two S. McCrays. There was one plot of 20 acres for S. McCray in Section 32 just east of Mitchelville and another 14-acre plot for S. McCray, same section, south of Mitchelville. It is known Samuel had his sawmill at Mitchelville. It is also known that Shannon, an attorney, was living in Bethany Township at Mitchelville in the 1880 census, Martha with him. Those two plots on the Bethany map are most likely one each for Samuel and Shannon.

          Martha lived to be 80 years old. She died in 1894 and is probably buried at the Mitchelville Cemetery.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Lydia MC CRAY, b. 1831, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

9-2-2        2.    Samuel MC CRAY, b. 1834, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

9-2-3        3.    George MC CRAY, b. 1836, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

                 4.    Martha MC CRAY, 1838, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio. Married: William JOYCE, b. 1827, Ohio. 1860: Martha, 21 living with grandparents. George and Lydia, the only MC CRAY in Harrison Co., Missouri. 1880: she and William, Cypress Township, MO. niece, Winnie MC CRAY, 9, born Missouri

                           1876 atlas: W.W. JOYCE, W. JOYCE, WM. JOYCE, down as owners of several hundred scattered

                           acres in Cypress Township. Apparently no issue.

                 5.    Elvira MC CRAY, b. 1840, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio, d. 23 Apr 1861/1864.

                 6.    Lacentia MC CRAY, b. 1843, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

                 7.    Lucretia MC CRAY, b. 1845, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

                 8.    William MC CRAY, b. 1848, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

9-2-9        9.    Legrand MC CRAY, b. June 1850, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio.

                 10.  Archelaus Benton MC CRAY, b. 14 Mar 1853, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio, d. 30 Sept 1855, Jackson Co., Ohio 2/6/16

                 11.  Wilson Shannon MC CRAY, b. 1855, Bloomfield Township, Jackson Co., Ohio. Married: about 1879, Elizabeth JOHNSON, b. 1856, Missouri.


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9-2-2        SAMUEL MC CRAY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Martha-Lydia-John-James


          Samuel probably got his name from Martha's uncle, Samuel Ewing. He was born 1 March 1834 in Bloomfield Township, Jackson County, Ohio and was the second of 11 children that would be born in the McCray cabin.

          He was about 23 when the McCrays left Bloomfield for Harrison County, Missouri and about 27 years old when he took a wife. Ellen MC KIBBEN was born in 15 April 1838. Her father was born in Ireland and her mother was born in Ohio.

          Samuel and Ellen were one of the nine couples who organized the Methodist class at Mitchelville which became the Methodist Church. Harrison NOBLE having deeded land for the church, a building committee of Milton BURRIS, Clinton EVANS and Isaac HARRISON was appointed in the fall of 1869.

          A contract was made with local men to build a church 30 by 40 feet. The cost of this was to be $250, with $30 of it donated by the carpenters and the other $200 to be paid upon completion. The committee specified good walnut for the pews, pulpits and baseboards. The wood and the sawing of it was Samuel MC CRAY'S donation.

          The original contract for the carpentry work was in the hands of Samuel's granddaughter, Ile, Mrs. Willie RICKETS of Mitchelville in 1970 when the church observed it centennial. At that time the original building was still in use and in good condition. In 1920 when Highway 69 was built, the church was turned completely around to face west.

          In the 1876 HARRISON COUNTY ATLAS, Samuel is down in the Patrons List as a lumber dealer in the city of Bethany. He appears in the 1880 and 1900 Bethany Township census. the 1910 Harrison County census is a complete "white out," meaning the faded ink is about the same shade as the paper and completely unreadable. It is being refilmed, however, as modern techniques make it possible to bring out the faded ink.

          Samuel died 6 December 1911 and Ellen died 6 May 1922.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Venetia Filina MC CRAY, "Nish" b. 14, Nov 1861, MO. Married: James Frank TILLEY, b. 1856, Missouri, son of Luther and Martha J. TILLEY.

                        Known issue:

                        1.    Ile TILLEY, d. by 1983. Married: Willie RICKETTS

                        1970: Mitchelville, Harrison County, Missouri (had the original church contract)

                        2.    Hazel TILLEY. Married: Dick LINCH of Bethany or Mitchelville suffered a heart attack, 1983, d. winter of 1983.

                               Issue:

                               1. Helen LINCH Married: _____ EASTON

                 2.    James O. MC CRAY, b. 27 Aug 1863, Missouri. 3 children

                 3.    Mary A. MC CRAY, b. 1 Jan 1866, Missouri. 11 children

                 4.    Milton G. MC CRAY, b. 27 Oct 1868, Missouri. 6 children, not in 1900 Missouri census index.

                 5.    Sheppard MC CRAY, b. 7 Aug 1870, Missouri. Married: Daisy FRANCIS, b. Jun 1876, Missouri.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Earl MC CRAY, b. Aug 1898

                        2.    Loran MC CRAY, (son), b. Feb 1900

                        3.    _____ MC CRAY

                 6.    Charles MC CRAY, b. 12 Oct 1872, Missouri.

                 7.    Lena MC CRAY - TWIN, b. 27 Jan 1875, d. Feb 1875.

                 8.    Maggie MC CRAY - TWIN, b. 27 Jan 1875, d. Feb 1875.

                 9.    Josephine MC CRAY, b. 20 Feb 1876, Missouri, d. Dilke, Saskatchewan, Canada.. Married: Rolla V. CHAPMAN

                        Issue:

                        1.     adopted daughter: Katie CHAPMAN


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9-2-3        GEORGE MC CRAY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Martha-Lydia-John-James


          George was born in Bloomfield Township, Jackson County, Ohio in 1836 and was married in Harrison County, Missouri about 1863 to Martha REVILL, born in 1848 in Ohio. In 1870 he was a Cypress Township farmer worth -/$500, listed next to his brother Samuel. At that time only Bertha was at home. It isn't known where Flora might have been. Apparently both George and Martha died in the 1870s and in the 1880 census, three of their four children were living with relatives scattered all over Harrison County, Missouri.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Flora MC CRAY, b. 1864, Cypress Township, MO. 1880: 16 years, living with Uncle John REVILL and family at White Oak Township, New Hampton, MO.

                 2.    Bertha C. MC CRAY, b. Oct 1869, Cypress Township, Missouri.

                 3.    Winnie MC CRAY, b. 1872, Cypress Township, MO. 1880: with Aunt Martha McCray JOYCE and Husband in Cypress Township, Missouri.

                 4.    Merty Jane MC CRAY, b. 1873, Cypress Township, MO. 1880: with Uncle John REVILL and wife, Abigail White Oak Township, Missouri.


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9-2-9        LEGRAND MC CRAY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Martha-Lydia-John-James


          Martha and William's ninth was born in June 1850 in Bloomfield Township, Jackson County, Ohio. At the time of the 1870 census he was 20 years old and at home in Harrison County, Missouri. In 1876 he married Mary R. NORTHCOTT, born in October 1855

          Legrand and Mary lived in Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri at first, then they lived in Nebraska for a time. By the 1900 census they had moved to Roubidaux Township, Texas County, Missouri. Mary was down as having nine children, all then living, but only eight can be accounted for. There was no sign of Legrand or the family in the 1910 Missouri index.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Austin L. MC CRAY, b. 24 Oct 1876, Missouri. Married: BOMAR, Norma, b. 17 Nov 1874, Iowa.

                 2.    William Jepthia MC CRAY, b. 17 Mar 1878, Missouri. Married: TAGGART, Theresa

                 3.    Elvetta MC CRAY, b. 8 Jun 1883, Missouri. Married: DAHLGREN, Andrew.

                 4.    Benton Daily MC CRAY, b. 13 Mar 1885, Missouri.

                 5.    Estella MC CRAY, b. 16 Apr 1887, Nebraska. Married: DAHLGRIN, Alfred .

                 6.    Bessie Byington MC CRAY, b. 15 Jun 1889, Nebraska. Married: Henry Ludolph Schmidt.

                 7.    Warner Dalton MC CRAY, b. 31 Oct 1891, Nebraska. Married: Mildred MC NAMEE.

                 8.    Edith/Cora MC CRAY, b. 2 Mar 1900, Nebraska.

                 9.    Elbert Leonard MC CRAY, b. 29 July 1880, Missouri. Married: Jessie


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9-3    ANN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


          Ann, named for her Ewing grandmother, was the only one of these Burris' who was born, lived and died in Jackson County, Ohio. The date of Ann's birth was 1 September 1818.

          A month after Ann turned 16, she was married on 7 October 1834 in Jackson County by Joseph WESTFALL, J.P., to Tyrus John HANNA.

          The Hannas bear some telling about. They were a pretty illustrious family in Jackson County, Ohio, and in Greenbrier County, West Virginia, and in Scotland before that and in America ever after.

          Rev. James Arthur MacClannahan HANNA of Oak Hill in Jackson County, Ohio has written and published a well-done genealogy of the Hanna family called "HANNA OF CASTLE SORBIE, SCOTLAND, AND DESCENDANTS." Sadly it does not say too much about the Tyrus Johns but it does cover background of the Hannas and other lines in the family for those direct descendants interested.

          Tyrus was the son of Robert Graham and Mary (WILSON) HANNA, who hailed from Greenbrier County, West Virginia, where Tyrus was born 25 June 1812. The Hannas were in Jackson County by 1816 and settled in Bloomfield Township, east of Jackson Town, Jackson County, Ohio. They had land in Section 6 and in Section 4 where Pattonsville came into being. That was Burris country also. Robert was clerk of the first election in Jackson County, and was a member of the first County Commission. In 1817 he was elected to represent Jackson and Pike Counties in the state legislature. He died in 1824.

          The land on which Tyrus and Ann settled was far removed from Pattonsville. They were in Scioto Township, which is southwest of Jackson Town, almost to Scioto County. Though Tyrus was essentially a farmer, he also managed to acquire much property. This shows up in the 1875 JACKSON COUNTY ATLAS, in his name and in the name of his heirs (he had been dead 13 years) as being 161 acres in Sections 4 and 5 of Scioto, 42 acres in Section 23, Liberty Township, and several large blocks of prime real estate in the town of Jackson itself. And then there were many acres Widow Ann had given away by then. Her great-granddaughter writes, "She was very generous, giving away many acres to folks she felt sorry for." This included 61 acres to her daughter, Lydia KELLY, and 40 acres to another daughter, Josephine HOUSE. The original Scioto Township parcel, according to the 1860 tax list, was 518 acres near today's little village of Cove. Sixty of the original acres are lived on by descendants today.

          The Hanna home was in Section 5, well back from the main road into Jackson Town. Tyrus and Ann raised their family of nine on this prosperous farm. A daughter died in 1855 and three sons went in the space of 18 days, Dec. 31, 1859 to Jan 18, 1860. (probably an epidemic, diphtheria perhaps.)

          In 1850, Tyrus was worth $4,000 and in 1860 he was worth $23,00/$2,600.

          Tyrus was only 50 years, 5 months and 13 days when he died 8 December 1862. He was buried in the Hanna Cemetery at Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

          Ann outlived him by more than 30 years. In 1870, at 54 years, she was still in Scioto, worth $10,000/$2,000. Either with her or in a separate house next to her, were her daughter and son-in-law, Joseph and Elvira SWAN. In 1880 Joseph was the head of the household in which she lived.

          In her day, Ann was a well known mid-wife in her area. In later years she developed skin cancer. She died 7 April in 1893 or 1895, age 75 or 77 years and is buried next to Tyrus in the Hanna Cemetery, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Cynthia HANNA, b. 8 Oct 1835, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio. Married: 30 Aug 1855, Jackson Co., OH, Vincent CRABTREE ... went west.

                 2.    Mary HANNA, b. 18 Jan 1838; d. 2 Jan 1855

                 3.    Andrew HANNA, b. 23 June 1840, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 13 May 1888, Kansas. Married: 27 June 1861, Jackson Co., OH, Mary Jane KELLER. Hanna Genealogy states: to Kansas in 1864

9-3-4        4.    Lydia HANNA, b. 28 Nov 1842, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio.

9-3-5        5.    Elvira HANNA, b. 7 July 1845, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio.

                 6.    Robert G. (Graham?) HANNA, b. 6 June 1848, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 18 Jan 1860, 11 years, 7 months, 12 days.

                 7.    Nathan W. HANNA - TWIN, b. 28 Sept 1851, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 16 Jan 1860, 8/3/18

                 8.    George Burris HANNA -TWIN, b. 28 Sept 1851, Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 31 Dec 1859, 8/3/3

9-3-9        9.    Josephine HANNA, b. 16 June 1866.


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9-3-4        LYDIA HANNA

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Lydia was born on the Hannas' Scioto Township farm on 28 November 1842. On her marriage to James M. KELLY on 23 February 1865, she was presented 61 acres by her mother, the generous Widow Ann. The land was in Section 5 of Scioto Township and adjoined Ann's farm.

          James, born in 1840, enlisted 10 August 1861 in Company K of the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry to serve three years. Signing up in the same outfit at the same time was his brother, John S. KELLY and their buddy, Joseph SWAN. The adventures of this outfit are covered under the section on Elvira HANNA, who married Joseph Swan (9-3-5). James was mustered out with the company on the expiration of his term of service on 3 September 1864.

          James died at some time before 1875. His death may have been war related. Lydia died before 1875 also, apparently childless. Her sister, Elvira Swan, named a daughter born

7 April 1873, Lydia Kelly SWAN, which leads to the conclusion that Lydia had died just prior to that date. In the 1875

JACKSON COUNTY ATLAS, her 61 acres show up in the names of "Heirs of Lydia Kelly." It is presumed she is buried in the Hanna Cemetery, located in Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

          No known issue


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9-3-5        ELVIRA HANNA

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Elvira was born in Scioto Township, Jackson County and did not stir very far from there in all her 79 years. The date of her birth was 7 July 1845.

          When it came time for marriage she chose a Civil War Veteran, Joseph SWAN. They were married in Jackson County on 17 January 1867, by D.W. WINFOUGH, J.P.

          Joseph was born 15 November 1838 in Carroll County, Ohio, the son of Zaphaniah and Elizabeth (BARRETT) SWAN. At the age of 23, he was 5 feet and 11 inches tall, had dark complexion, dark hair and gray eyes. By then the Civil War had started and he and two buddies, brothers James M. and John S. KELLY, decided to enlist in a regiment being raised in Marietta, the 36th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The three enlisted on 10 August 1861 and were mustered in within three weeks at Camp Putnam in Marietta. Joseph, James M. and John S. were in Captain Levi M. STEVENSON's Company K. Joseph and James were privates and John was a first sergeant.

          The 36th saw much action in its three years. They went to Virginia, then Maryland, then Tennessee, next Georgia, back to Tennessee, then Virginia again, back to Georgia (a general assault on Kenesaw Mountain, 24 June 1864) and finally to Virginia.

          Their battles included Bull Run, Virginia (second battle), Antietam, Maryland, Chickamauga Creek, Georgia and finally the disastrous affair at Kernstown and Winchester, Virginia. It was there on 24 July 1864 that Company K and other units of the 36th were taken prisoner.

          Their unit was confined at first at Libby Prison in Richmond and then in the hell hole at Danville on the River Dan in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. This was a series of old tobacco warehouses, each three stories tall. The first floor was military, the second was hospital and the third was for prisoners. During that awful war, 1,172 men died there, and many who had been confined were to die not long afterwards.

          The place is indescribable. But one tried. He wrote, "The room we were confined in was about 8 or 9 feet in length and contained about that many prisoners. The room contained an old stove, but we had little or no fuel, consequently we suffered intensely with cold, especially at night. Our food consisted of a piece of corn bread about 2 inches square, and a small cup of what they called cabbage soup, but I failed to discover anything like cabbage about it. Neither bread nor soup contained a particle of salt.

          "Tubs that were placed in our room for private purposes filled the dismal place with such a stench that is was almost suffocating. Added to the horrors, graybacks by the countless thousands swarmed over everything. The very dust of the floor seemed to be alive with them. We were almost wild with despair."

          John KELLY commented in 1890, "What we suffered there no one who has not passed through a like experience can conceive."

          In Joseph's pension papers it was reported that while imprisoned he "unavoidably" contacted severe bronchitis and was not treated.

          On 22 February 1865, Joseph and the others were exchanged. They were paroled at James River and reported to Camp Parole, Maryland.

          John later wrote, "It was all Joseph could do to walk the short distance from one boat to another. He was a mere skeleton." Joseph was given a 30-day furlough on a surgeon's certificate. He was mustered out 19 June 1865 and discharged the following day.

          Joseph returned to Jackson County, Ohio and after his marriage in 1867, he and Elvira settled in Scioto Township. He received a pension ($8 a month) beginning 1869 but in 1877 applied for more saying he had given up all hope of being cured. He suffered greatly with pain of throat and lungs. "Throat ulcerated," doctors reported. "I don't think he has been one hour without pain," said Kelly.

          At one point doctors noted that Joseph was 6 feet tall, but weighed only 140 pounds. "Emaciated," they said. "Compare height to weight."

          In all this pain and misery Elvira and Joseph managed to bring eight children into the world on their farm in Scioto Township. It is not certain the exact location of that farm. It appears that at first, they may have been living with Ann, either in her home or in a house right next to her. According to the 1870 census, Joseph did not own property. He was down as a farm agent, worth -/$2,000. And he does not appear as the owner of land in the 1875 atlas.

          Ann had given Lydia and her husband, James Kelly, 61 acres of the Hanna land on their marriage in 1865, and she gave Josephine and her husband, Richard Edwin HOUSE, 40 acres on their marriage in 1871. Surely she would have done likewise for Elvira and Joseph if they had not been living with her.

          Lydia died about 1873 and her 61 acres show up in the 1875 atlas in the name of the heirs of Lydia Kelly. It is possible that Elvira and Joseph became the owners of this land, adjoining Ann's on the north and Josephine's on the south.

          If so - that is where, it is said to be, one of the first of two frame houses in all Jackson County went up soon after the marriage of Josephine and her husband in 1871. The two houses were originally one - a huge residence built some years before in Cincinnati. It was torn down, shipped up the Ohio River to Gallipolis and brought overland by ox teams, and became two houses. One was for Elvira and Joseph on the Swan land (wherever it was) and the other was the House home. This is where Joseph and Elvira lived out their lives.

          Joseph was listed in the 1890 special veterans schedule, the only part of the entire 1890 Federal Census which survived a fire in the U.S. Commerce Department Building, Washington, D.C. in January of 1921. Strangely, it said he had been wounded in the right thigh during the war - no mention of his bronchial problems, and there is no reference to any wounds in his pension papers - and even more strangely he is not listed in the published roster of Company K of the 36th. The only Swans listed are Thomas SWAN and William SWAN, one of whom was missing in action, the other killed in battle.

          When Joseph died at Cove, 8 April 1891 at the age of 52 years, 4 months and 23 days, the cause of death was given as disease of lungs and sever bronchial and rheumatic disease.

          Elvira survived him by over a quarter of a century. She died 15 May 1924 - another source says 1921, and is buried in the Hanna Graveyard there in Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    George Elmer SWAN, b. 12 Oct 1870, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio. Married: Ida LYONS, b. Feb 1882 a farmer at Cove all his life.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Zehra SWAN, daughter, b. Aug 1897

                        2.    Clara SWAN, b. Nov 1899

                        3.    Miles Aven SWAN, b. 26 Nov 1902

                        4.    Ralph SWAN, living in 1979

                        5.    Joseph SWAN, living in 1979

                 2.    Lydia Kelly SWAN, b. 7 Apr 1873, d. 1891

                 3.    William James SWAN, b. 11 Feb 1876, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio, d. about 1911.

Married: 1st Rosa _____ Married 2nd 16 June 1906, Jackson Co., Nellie DENNEY, daughter of Aaron and Mary (ROUSH) DENNY, b. Vinton Co., OH. 1900: Scioto Township farmer. 1906: railroader at Cove.

                        Issue by Rosa:

                        1.    Zaphaniah SWAN, b. Nov 1898.

                        Issue by Nellie:

                        2.    Garnett Odell SWAN, b. 22 Nov 1906, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

                 4.    Cynthia Ann SWAN, b. 13 Dec 1878, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 15 Mar 1891 - three weeks before her father died.

                 5.    Robert Newton SWAN, b. 17 Aug 1881, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 1971.

                 6.    Julie Adeline SWAN, b. 14 Apr 1884, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio, d. Dec 1947.

                 7.    Viola M. SWAN, b. 12 Feb 1891, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio, born two months before father died.


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9-3-9        JOSEPHINE HANNA

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Josephine was the baby of the family. There were almost 20 years between her and sister, Cynthia. The date of Josephine's birth was 16 June 1855 and the place was of course, the Hanna farm in Scioto Township, Jackson County, Ohio.

          Josephine did not get to know her father very well, she was only 7 years old when he died in 1862. A lot of her "bringing up" came as much from her elder sisters as from Mother Ann.                                                         A week after her 16th birthday there was a wedding - and it was hers. She and Richard Edwin HOUSE were married 22 June 1871, by Rev. G.W. CULP. Richard was just two years and one day older than Josephine, having been born 15 June 1853. His parents were Edwin Schaffer and Mary (GRAFTON) HOUSE. The father was a cooper at Peterborough in Scioto Township, and advertised in the 1875 atlas as a "manufacturer of all kinds of cooperage in the way of flour and meat barrels and everything in that line."

          Josephine and Richard started right in to have a family and did not stop until 1892 when the eleventh came along. Sadly, they lost four children along the way.

          Their farm was the 40 acres Josephine's mother had given them, and their home was the south half of the once-proud Cincinnati mansion described under Elvira.

          The marriage of a 16 and 18 year old would not stand much of a chance today. Here's one that did not back then. At some time after the birth of Roscoe in 1892, after 21 years of marriage, Josephine and Richard separated and were subsequently divorced.

          Richard, a sale crier, farmer and music teacher, later married Jennie TIDD and lived in Beaver, Pike County, Ohio.

          Josephine remained on at their home near Cove and raised the younger children still at home the best she could. Eventually even they were gone. About 1911, Josephine developed heart trouble and Tyrus Edwin, her eldest son, came home with his family to care for her. She died 24 January 1929 and was buried in the Wesley Church, Hanna Cemetery.

          Nine months later on 7 November 1929, Richard died in Beaver. He too is buried at the Hanna Cemetery.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Mary Louetta HOUSE, b. 1873, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio. Married: Frank JONES. Moved to Kansas City, Kansas "after she died we lost all track of the boys".

                        Issue:

                        1. Miles JONES

                        2. Ralph JONES

                        3. Floyd JONES

                        4. Ivan JONES

                        5. Harold JONES

                        6. Robert JONES

                        7. daughter JONES, died in infancy

9-3-9-2     2.    Tyrus Edwin HOUSE, b. 1874, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

                 3.    Anna L. HOUSE, b. 1876, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio. Married: Oscar TOPE.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Bessie TOPE Married: _____ MERRIMAN

                        2.    Ora TOPE

                        3.    Earl TOPE, d. young of blood poisoning

                        4.    Charles TOPE

                        5.    Florence TOPE

                 4.    Jennie Estella HOUSE, b. 1879, d. 1885

9-3-9-5     5.    Emma Josephine HOUSE, b. about 1881

                 6.    Lillie or Lily HOUSE, b. about 1883, d. young

                 7.    Denver HOUSE, b. about 1885, d. young

                 8.    Ashbury HOUSE, b. about 1887, d. young

                 9.    Wyatt HOUSE, b. about 1889, d. about 1975. Married: Clara COLLINS, lived California.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Alan HOUSE

                        2.    Helen HOUSE Married: _____ CONNORS

                        3. Audrey HOUSE Married: _____ MEUTH

                        4. Mary HOUSE, deceased by 1890

                 10.  Chester Arthur HOUSE, b. about 1890, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio. Married: Sarah Delvin HOY.

                        Issue:

                        1. Lester HOUSE Married: Lela DUNKLEY, 4 children.

                        2.    Eileen HOUSE Married: Alford BELL, 3 children.

                        3.    Emma Josephine HOUSE Married: Russel HAUCROFT, 5 children.

                        4.    Martha HOUSE Married: Wayne KESSLER, 5 children.

                        5.    Marilyn HOUSE Married: Otto HAWKINS, no issue.

9-3-9-11   11.  Roscoe E. HOUSE, b. April 1892, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.


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9-3-9-2     TYRUS EDWIN HOUSE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Josephine and Richard's first son received the names of his two grandfathers. He was born in 1874 and was married about 1900 to Mary Emma DUHL. It is unknown where they lived the first decade of their marriage, but in 1911 they went back to the old place near Cove, Jackson County, Ohio to care for Tyrus' mother, Josephine. Hence their two youngest children, Sarah Leona and Donald Edward, were born in the old home which had started out life as a Cincinnati mansion.

          After Josephine's death in 1929, Tyrus tore the old place down and built a new home to house his wife and their six children. That has been a source of much regret in recent years. When Tyrus and Mary Emma died - 14 days apart, the dates are unknown, Sarah Leona (Mrs. William Virgil DAVIS by then) and her brother Donald HOUSE bought the place, and Sarah and her husband live on it now. (1980). Sarah wishes the historical old home was still there. After all - the first (with its twin) frame house in the county! It is believed that Tyrus and Mary Emma are buried in Hanna (Wesley Church) Cemetery, Cove, Jackson County, Ohio.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    Jennie Estella HOUSE, b. 7 Sept 1901, d. 17 Aug 1978. Married: Delbert Everett FOUT, b. 14 May 1900,d. 2 Aug 1979 - cancer, Jackson, Ohio.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Mary Lucille FOUT, b. 5 Oct 1923. Married: Joseph ROBERTS.

                                      Issue:

                                      1.    Terry Joe ROBERTS, b. 5 Oct 1964

                        2.    Blanche Mildred HOUSE, b. 19 Aug 1904

9-3-9-2-3         3.    Mary Josephine HOUSE, b. 14 Feb 1907

                        4.    Thelma Ruth HOUSE, b. 18 Nov 1909. Married: William John ACHATZ.

9-3-9-2-5         5.    Sarah Leona HOUSE, b. 23 March 1915, on old Hanna farm near Cove, Jackson Co., OH.

                        6.    Donald Edwin HOUSE, b. 11 Sept 1918, on old Hanna farm near Cove, Jackson Co., OH. Married: Mary Frances THOMAS, b. 5 Jan 1916.

                               Issue:

                               1.    John Edward HOUSE Married: Joan _____

                               2.    Rebecca HOUSE Married: Stephen LEE

                               3.     Donna Mary HOUSE Married: Michael FISHER

                                      Issue:

                                              1.    Jason FISHER


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9-3-9-2-3         MARY JOSEPHINE HOUSE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Tyrus-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Mary was born 14 February 1907 and was married around 1927 to Ora Delbert RHEA.


 

9-3-9-2-5         SARAH LEONA HOUSE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Tyrus-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Sarah was born 23 March 1915 in the historic old House home at Cove, Jackson County, Ohio. She was married to William Virgil DAVIS who was born the 12th of February 1908. After the deaths of her mother and father, Sarah and her brother, Donald, bought the farm and Sarah and William moved into the home. Sarah sent me much information for this chapter.

 

 

9-3-9-5     EMMA JOSEPHINE HOUSE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Emma was born about 1881. She was twice married. Her first husband was Edward OVERLY and her second husband was a man named BRYANT.

          ISSUE:

9-3-9-5-1         1.    George Edward OVERLY. He changed his name to: Jackson Clinton OWENS


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9-3-9-5-1  GEORGE EDWARD OVERLY/JACKSON CLINTON OWENS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Emma-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          No dates were given for George, but it is known that he was born in Plankinton, South Dakota. It is also unknown as to why or when he changed his name.

          His wife was Iva Annie Elizabeth CLIBURN, born 5 January 1905 at Neshoba County, Mississippi. Her parents were John Marshall and Ella (STRICKLAND) CLIBURN. Iva died 17 January 1934 at Philadelphia, Mississippi

          ISSUE:

9-3-9-5-1-1     1.    Dorothy Josephine OWENS, b. Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MS.

9-3-9-5-1-2     2.    Jack Marshall OWENS, b. 20 Dec 1925, Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MS.

9-3-9-5-1-3     3.    Vivian Vae OWENS, b. July 1927, Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MS.

9-3-9-5-1-4     4.    Charles Andrew OWENS, b. 24 Apr 1929, Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MS.

                        5.    Grace OWENS, b. April 1931, Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MS. Married: Thomas DUNNIGAN.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Daughter DUNNIGAN Married to a medical student.

                               2.     Son DUNNIGAN Had many children.

                        6.    Bobbie OWENS, b&d 20 Apr 1933, Philadelphia, Neshoba County, MS.


          There was possibly another child, Iva Elizabeth OWENS born before Grace.


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9-3-9-5-1-1             DOROTHY JOSEPHINE OWENS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Jackson-Emma-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Dorothy was born in Philadelphia, Neshoba County, Mississippi and was married on 17 October 1924 at Brandon, Mississippi to Joseph Prince THORNTON, son of Cora Lee (RICHARDSON) THORNTON. Joseph's father's name was unknown. Joseph was born 29 November 1921 in Polkville, South County, Mississippi.

 

 

9-3-9-5-1-2     JACK MARSHALL OWENS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Jackson-Emma-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Jack was born 20 December 1925 at Philadelphia, Mississippi. His marriage to Betty Murle KEENY, took place on 27 January 1949 at the home of her parents, John and Maida (COLE) KEENY of New Orleans, Louisiana. Betty was born in New Orleans on the 11th of July 1926.

          Jack is interested in his forbearer and shared with me information and papers he had found regarding them. It was he who sent the charts of the Owens family. In 1980, he and Betty lived in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

 

9-3-9-5-1-3     VIVIAN VAE OWENS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Jackson-Emma-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Vivian was born in Philadelphia, Mississippi 1 July 1927. She was married on 1 November 1943 at Chalmette, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana to Howard A. BROWN. Howard was born on the 11th of October 1921 at Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.

          Vivian died at the Crownsville State Hospital in Crownsville, Maryland on 18 November 1970, age 43 years. She was buried at Glen Burnie, Maryland.

          Howard subsequently married Stella _____

 

9-3-9-5-1-4     CHARLES ANDREW OWENS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Jackson-Emma-Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Charles was born 24 April 1929 at Philadelphia, Mississippi and was married in Falls Church, Virginia in 1950 to Joanne THOMPSON. They were divorced in 1958.


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9-3-9-11   ROSCOE E. HOUSE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Josephine-Ann-Lydia-John-James


          Roscoe was born in Jackson County, Ohio in April of 1892. He served during World War I, enlisting at Jackson Barracks in the Regular Army on 14 December 1914. He served in Company K, 9th Infantry from enlistment to 12 July 1916 and in Company K, 37th Infantry to discharge. His record as it appears in the Roster of Ohio Soldiers, bears repeating:


                 Pfc. May 24, 1917

                 Corp. July 12, 1917

                 Sgt. Dec. 1, 1917

                 Pvt. Dec. 21, 1917

                 Pfc. April 1, 1918

                 Corp. July 16, 1918

                 Sgt. Oct. 26, 1918

                 Discharge May 12, 1919


          After the war he married a French girl and moved to Battle Creek, Michigan, where he died in December 1934. "After he died we never heard from her."

          Issue, if any, not known.


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9-4    CYNTHIA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


          Not much is known about Cynthia and her Hawk family. They seem to have died off or scattered and had it not been that one of her descendants married a Burris cousin, we might not know much at all.

          Cynthia was born in 1819 in Jackson County, Ohio. Her husband was John HAWK, born in 1817 in Ohio, his parents were born in West Virginia. There were a vast number of Hawks in early Gallia and Jackson Counties. Many of the Hawks came from Greenbrier River country. The Hawk name is a familiar one in this book, but not much is known about John's family. Isaac HAWK's wife was a daughter of the other Pocahontas County Ewing, Joshua.

          Cynthia and John's marriage was not on record in Jackson County, Ohio, but it was found in the Family Bible - dated:

3 September 1838.

          In 1850 they were living in Scioto Township, John was a farmer worth $1,300. In 1860 they were in Scioto Township also, John worth $4,000/$2,000.

          In 1862 the Hawks uprooted themselves and joined a large caravan heading for Harrison County, Missouri. They settled in Cypress Township where they were listed in the 1870 and 1880 census. In 1870 John was a farmer worth $11,000/$2,000. In 1870 and 1880 they had an unexplained granddaughter living with them - Viola HAWK, born April 1870 in Missouri.

          In the 1876 atlas, John had 380 acres in Section 30 on Noble Spring Creek next to Turner SLAUGHTER's 280 acres in Section 29.

          Cynthia and John had nine children, but little is known about any of them except the one whose descendant married Martha BURRIS, the Burris cousin; the one whose Civil War records were found, George Burris HAWK and the only one found in the 1900 Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri census, James Kenton HAWK. There were no Hawks in Bethany in information listings in 1983.

          John died in 1885 and Cynthia in 1888.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Malissa HAWK, b. 1839, Scioto Township, Ohio. 1870: 30, at home, Cypress Township. 1880: not with family.

9-4-2        2.    Martha A. HAWK, b. 8 Aug 1841, Scioto Township, Ohio.

                 3.    Virginia HAWK, b. 1843, Scioto Township, Ohio.

9-4-4        4.    George Burris HAWK, 17 Nov 1844, Scioto Township, Ohio.

                 5.    Abraham HAWK, b. 1847, Scioto Township, Ohio.

                 6.    John M. HAWK, b. June 1850, Scioto Township, Ohio.

                 7.    William HAWK, b. 1853, Scioto Township, Ohio. Married: 2 Sept 1880, Daviess County, Missouri Catherine YOST.

                 8.    Cynthia J. HAWK, b. 1859, Scioto Township, Ohio.

9-4-9        9.    James Kenton HAWK, b. 1861, Scioto Township, Ohio.


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9-4-2        MARTHA A. HAWK

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          Thanks to the research work of a great-grandson, Ralph DAILY, we can carry Martha's line down to a certain point - and Martha is the only Hawk where this is possible.

          Martha was born 8 August 1841 back in Scioto Township. The man who was to be her life mate, Milton Beverage SLAUGHTER, was not a Jackson County man. He was from Pike County, next door neighbor to Jackson County, born 13 December 1834. Milton's father was Robert Turner SLAUGHTER, born in Patrick County, Virginia and his mother was born Nancy MILLER, also in Virginia.

          Martha and Milton were married in 1860 in either Jackson or Pike Counties. They lived at first in Pike County. In 1861, their parents, the Slaughters and the Hawks, were heading west and the young couple would be going too. A daughter, Ida, is recorded in the census, as having been born in 1862 in Illinois, but her son insists she was born in Missouri.

          The couple settled in Harrison County, first in Cypress Township, where they were listed in the 1870 census. They then moved to Bethany Township, where they had 225 acres - 200 in Section 33, a mile east of Mitchelville, and a 25-acre plot in Section 29 on Big Creek.

          Milton served in the Missouri State Militia during the Civil War. Martha and Milton spent most of their lives on their Bethany Township farm, and are recorded there in the 1870, 1880 and 1900 census. In the 1900 census, they had a grandson living with them, recorded as Frank W. MYLES, born in May of 1891 in Missouri. I would imagine that's suppose to be Frank W. MAIZE, except that informants in this line mention only an Irlen MAIZE as a son of their daughter, Effie, and her husband, Silas MAIZE, no Frank. But there were not any Myles marriages among their daughters listed either.

          Milton died 12 April 1923, and Martha not too long after, on 2 November 1923. She was 82/2/25. Both are buried at the Mitchelville Cemetery, Harrison County, Missouri.

          ISSUE:

9-4-2-1     1.    Wesley Frank SLAUGHTER, b. 7 Mar 1861, Pike County, Ohio.

9-4-2-2     2.    Ida M. SLAUGHTER, b. 1863, Illinois or Missouri.

                 3.    Effie J. SLAUGHTER, b. 1865, Missouri, d. 1932. Married: Silas MAIZE, b. 1859, Missouri, son of John and Rachel MAIZE of Mitchelville. John born in Jackson County, Alabama.

                        Known issue:

                        1.     Irlen MAIZE (son)

                        Possibly, Frank W. above

                  4.    John SLAUGHTER, b. 5 Sept 1868, Missouri, d. 21 June 1888, drowned at a racetrack. Buried: Burris Cemetery.


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9-4-2-1     WESLEY FRANK SLAUGHTER

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Martha-Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          Fortunately Wesley, or W.F. as he was called, was a prominent citizen of Harrison County, and as he spent most of his 81 years there, a good deal is known about him.

          Wesley was born in Pike County, Ohio 7 March 1861 and was only 2 or so when his family arrived at what was to be their home for many, many years, Harrison County, Missouri.

          He attended Bethany schools and taught for awhile afterwards, but farming was really where it was at and after his marriage on 25 September 1887, to Laura Sabina WILLIAMS, that is what he settled down to.

          Laura is an old friend of mine - or relative, I should say. I have come on her in two separate branches of my family tree - the HANKS and MC NEILLS. She was born in 1869 in Gallia

(or Jackson) County, Ohio and was the daughter of John and Phoebe (HARRISON) WILLIAMS. Phoebe was a Hank-Cherrington, daughter of Nelson and Margaret (BUCK) HARRISON and the step-daughter of a McNeill because her father married Naomi MC NEILL after her mother died.

          The interesting thing is that John and Phoebe names a son (Laura's brother) Stanley Ewing WILLIAMS. I can't make any Ewing connection at all, but it is a nice name.

          After their marriage, Wesley and Laura settled in on their farm of 85 acres in Bethany Township. They lived there three years and then sold, buying another farm of 160 acres, to which they added another 80 acre tract.

          And then they became owners of Copeland Farm.

          The year was 1900. Copeland Farm, Section 21 on Big Creek, was 400 acres. 250 acres of which Wesley eventually sold. This land was of historical interest. On this ground, under a basswood tree, the first Harrison County court session convened, giving their farm a place in the Harrison County history books.

          In the 1920s, Wesley and Laura built a magnificent home on the farm. Let another writer describe it: "Mr. Slaughter is now building a new home, located on the Jefferson Highway three miles south of the town of Bethany. The house has a 10-room concrete basement, containing a laundry, cold storage room, furnace, wood room, fruit room and a glass-covered playroom. On the first floor of the house there are 10 rooms and as many on the second floor. The house is built of stucco, is modern in every way. On the west side is a large porch which makes an excellent resting place for the many friends of Mr. Slaughter when they come to visit him. In addition to the residence

Mr. Slaughter is building a 32x50 foot barn and two modern poultry houses in which to care for his White Wyandotte chickens."

          Here Wesley and Laura lived out their lives. Wesley died in April of 1942 at the age of 81. Laura died in 1949, age 80 years. They are buried side by side at the Burris Cemetery.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    John Milton SLAUGHTER, b. 30 July 1888, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri, d. 6 Jan 1966. Married: 15 Jan 1913, Ruth HOLT.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Anna SLAUGHTER

                               2.    Amy SLAUGHTER

                               3.    Fern SLAUGHTER

                               4.    Naomi SLAUGHTER

                        2.    Frona Naomi SLAUGHTER, b. 8 Nov 1889, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri. SEE 9-6-5-2

                        3.    Wesley Irl SLAUGHTER, b. 15 Mar 1891, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri, d. 17 Nov 1892.

                        4.    Frank Lee SLAUGHTER, b. 28 Sept 1892, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri, d. 5 June 1910, 17 years.

                        5.    Martha Irlene SLAUGHTER, b. 2 Apr 1894, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri. Married: 19 Dec 1919, Jess H. WRIGHT. Lived: Haigler, Nebraska.

                               Issue:

                               1.    William WRIGHT

9-4-2-1-6         6.    Ivan Stanton SLAUGHTER, b. 19 Jan 1896, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri.

                        7.    Bina Hawk SLAUGHTER, b. 13 Nov 1901, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri. Married: 3 Sept 1927, Cecil DAVIS.

                        8.    Josie May SLAUGHTER, b. 9 Nov 1903, d. Dec 1966, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri. Married: 3 Sept 1927 (same day as sister, Bina) Charles Davis PETERMAN.

                        9.    Olin Fletcher SLAUGHTER, b. 26 Mar 1906. Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri, d. 31 Jan 1967. Married: Ruth BACON.

                        10.  Dewey Ross SLAUGHTER, b. 11 Apr 1898, Bethany Township, Harrison Co., Missouri, d. 15 July 1899.


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9-4-2-1-6         IVAN STANTON SLAUGHTER

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Wesley-Martha-Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          Ivan was born in Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri, 1 January 1896. He attended the local grade school and then Bethany High School. After he graduated in 1914, he enrolled at Missouri State University. While he was a student, the United States entered World War I. Ivan enlisted at once in the Air Service. He was sent to Urbana, Illinois for flight instruction. On completion of training he was commissioned a Second Lieutenant and was sent to Rockwell Field, San Diego, California.

          He remained at Rockwell until the Armistice was signed on 11 November 1918 and then was discharged 7 January 1919.

          Home once again, he returned to the University to complete his studies. A student there at the time was a young lady from Carrollton, Missouri, Jo SQUIRES. About the time of her graduation in 1920, she and Ivan were married - on the 20th of April 1920.

          Information on all of the above Slaughters was taken from a sketch of them in a HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, published about 1920 or 1921.

          ...and right there the story of Ivan Stanton Slaughter stops.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Ivan Stanton SLAUGHTER, JR., b. 12 Feb 1920.


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9-4-2-2     IDA MAY SLAUGHTER

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Martha-Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          The census records state that Ida May's older brother was born in Ohio and that her younger siblings were born in Missouri, but that she was born in Illinois. As the date of that birth 22 December 1862, was about the time the Slaughters were on their way from Ohio to Missouri, Ida May may have been born en route. One of Ida May's sons, H. Ray MC DANIEL, says he is pretty sure she was born in Missouri.

          For sure, Missouri is where she grew up, on the Slaughter farm near Mitchelville in Harrison County.

          One of their neighbor families was that of Horatio and Clarissa (JOYCE) MC DANIEL. Horatio had the 105 acre farm just south of George BURRIS JR., in Cypress Township. The McDaniels had arrived in Harrison County from Ohio in 1859, and one of the sons in their large family was Franklin Pierce MC DANIEL, born

10 May 1855 in Ohio.

          About 1880, Ida May and Franklin were married. They had an even dozen children, all born and raised on the farm their grandfather, Horatio MC DANIEL, had settled in 1859. To the original 105 acres another 120 acres were added. All 225 acres eventually fell to Ida May and Franklin's son, H. Ray McDaniel who still owns them. A Centennial Farm, for sure.

          Franklin died 8 November 1923 and Ida May died in March of 1933.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    Martha MC DANIEL, b. 30 May 1881, d. 1973. Married: _____ BUTLER

                        2.    J. Orley MC DANIEL, b. 7 Aug 1883, d. 7 Nov 1959 .

                        3.    Effie May MC DANIEL, b. 7 Oct 1885, d. 25 Jan 1980. Married: _____ TAYLOR.

                        4.    Charley MC DANIEL, b. 7 July 1887, d. 24 Sept 1901.

                        5.    Clifford MC DANIEL, b. 1 Feb 1889, d. 7 Feb 1893.

                        6.    George MC DANIEL, b. 1 Jan 1891, d. 7 Feb 1893 (same date as brother, Clifford).

9-4-2-2-7         7.    H. Ray MC DANIEL, b. 24 Sept 1892.

                        8.    M.B. MC DANIEL, b. 12 July 1894, d. Sept 1973.

                        9.    Zola A. MC DANIEL, b. 1 Sept 1895, d. 20 July 1977. Married: _____ GARD

                        10.  Otto MC DANIEL, b. 19 Nov 1896, d. 22 Aug 1977.

                        11.  Dewey MC DANIEL, b. 27 Feb 1899, d. 13 Feb 1968.

                        12.  Grace MC DANIEL, b. 7 Mar 1902, d. 1 Jan 1904.


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9-4-2-2-7         H. RAY MC DANIEL

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Ida May-Martha-Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          Ray turned 91 years old 24 September 1983, but that didn't stop him from going out every so often to the old Burris Cemetery to look after things as he had been doing for a good many years. He owns the next farm south of where the Burris Cemetery is, the old farm started by his grandfather, Horatio McDaniel in 1859. The land Ray farmed until about March of 1980, when he and his wife, Velma Gladys CUNIFF, moved into The Crestwood retirement home in Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

          Ray and Velma have nine grandchildren and eight great-grand-children. Ray supplied the McDaniel data for this history.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    Daughter MC DANIEL, died at birth.

                        2.    Betty E. MC DANIEL. Married: _____ GROLL Lived: Leawood, Kansas.

                        3.    Bobby Gene or Lynn MC DANIEL Lived: Bethany, Missouri.

                        4.    Jimmy Ray MC DANIEL Lived: Bethany, Missouri


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9-4-4        GEORGE BURRIS HAWK

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          Except for Martha, George is the only other Hawk about whom anything much is known. We might not even have this about him had it not been for his pension files and sharp-eyed Lois Luann HOWELL who found him in those files under Illinois when I had told her to look in Missouri.

          George was born 17 November 1844 in Jackson County, Ohio.

He was only 17 years old when he enlisted at Jackson as a private in Company K of the 91st Ohio Volunteers Infantry on

31 July 1862. (He gave his age as 18) His First Lieutenant was a cousin Elmore E. EWING (Chapter 21) and he had lots of other cousins for buddies, including William EWING III.

          The 91st had three years of action, all of it in Virginia and West Virginia. One of their engagements was on the Cowpasture River in Virginia. The Cowpasture was George's great-grandfather James EWING'S old stamping grounds.

          The Cowpasture incident was on 5 June 1864. That month the regiment moved up the Shenandoah Valley to Lynchburg. In July they were in the Winchester area. There were engagements at Stevenson's Depot and Winchester itself, and in August at Halltown near Charlestown. On September 18 the regiment was at Martinsburg and on September 19 at Opequan.

          It was in the Battle of Opequan on 19 September 1864 that 19 year old George was severely wounded. He was shot in his right leg at the ankle joint, the shot going entirely through the leg. He was taken to the Frederick County Hospital. The wound never really healed, causing swelling, numbness, running sores and lack of circulation on his entire right side.

          He was discharged at Cumberland, Maryland on 25 May 1865 on a surgeon's certificate of disability.

          By that time George's parents had moved from Jackson County to Harrison County and that is where he joined them.

          The years after that are sketchy. In 1870 he was at home in Harrison County. Then around 1876 he married Margaret A. _____ born in 1850 in Ohio. George and Margaret went to Illinois, and that is where they lived and died. He moved about, but always stayed within 25 - 30 mile radius of the city of Effingham, Illinois. Effingham is a modern-day "crossroads" town - two interstate highways intersect there. In 1880 he was at Wheeler, North Muddy Township, Jasper County. Later he moved about 25 miles west into Effingham County to Altamont. And in his last years he went to Herrick which is northwest of Effingham in Shelby County. That is where his daughter lived and that is where he died 9/10 January 1923 at the age of 79 years.

          KNOWN ISSUE:

                 1.    Nora or Cora HAWK, b. 1876 Married: _____ REIS. 1923: Lived in Herrick, Shelby County, Illinois.


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9-4-9        JAMES KENTON HAWK

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Cynthia-Lydia-John-James


          James was born in August of 1861 to Cynthia and William when they were still living in Jackson County, Scioto Township, Ohio. James was married in 1887 in Harrison County, Missouri to Cora Belle RAY, born in April 1869, in Missouri. In 1900 they were in Cypress Township, James a farmer, she was recorded as having had five children, four then living.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Reuben HAWK, b. 11 Aug 1888, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 2.    Mabel Jane HAWK, b. 18 May 1891, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 3.    Susie HAWK, b. 2 Oct 1895, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 4.    John Kenton HAWK, b. 4 Apr 1898, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 5.    _____ HAWK, b&d prior to 1900.


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9-5    JOHN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


          Into the log cabin of George and Lydia Burris in Milton Township, Jackson County, Ohio, came their fifth, whom they named John for Lydia's father. The date was 28 November 1822.

          For 21 years John helped on the farm, attended school when it was available and did what was expected of every young man back then. Somewhere in those 21 years he became aware of one Lucinda POOR. The Poor family was very large on the Jackson County scene. Lucinda's grandfather, Judge Hugh POOR, was one of the county's earliest and most illustrious citizens. His name is rampant in Williams' "HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY." Lucinda's father was George POOR, a hotelkeeper in Winchester, Bloomfield Township, who had married Mary BILLUPS. Mary was from another important family in those early Jackson County days.

          Lucinda was born in Section 29, Bloomfield Township, near Winchester, 27 October 1827. She and John were married on 14 February 1847 when she was not quite 19 and John was 24.

An enterprising young man, John went into business and became a shopkeeper in Winchester. In the 1850 census he was listed as such, worth $5,000. They were listed next to her parents. In 1860 it was exactly the same.

          In the 1840s and 1850s, most of John's family, his parents included, had departed the Jackson County scene in favor of Missouri. John and Lucinda resisted the temptation as long as they could, but in 1863, at the height of the Civil War, they too succumbed.

          However, where his family had chosen Harrison County, John and Lucinda went to Livingston County. Perhaps Lucinda's mother's family was the influence. There were many Billups living in Livingston County in the 1870 census.

          Actually Livingston County is not all that far from Harrison County. John, who settled at first in Chillicothe Township, was never more than 30 miles from his parents.

          The family was found in Chillicothe Township in the 1870 census, John a farmer worth $7,000/$600. By 1880 they had removed to Section 36 of Rich Hill Township, near Wheeling, and that is where they remained for a good many years. John was a farmer and stock-raiser. He had 400 acres "admirably adapted to the raising of stock on account of its splendid water facilities and the abundance of grass pastures here seen," as the LIVINGSTON COUNTY HISTORY tell us.

          John and Lucinda had four children over a 16 year period - the last, Frederick, coming along in 1864, eight years after George. There may have been others who died in infancy but only these four are mentioned in the historical sketch.

          John was 40 when the move to Missouri was made in 1863 and Lucinda was 35. After 27 years in Livingston County, farming, raising their brood and being typical Show-Me State inhabitants - Lucinda died. The date was 14 May 1890 when she was 62 years old.

          John was 67 and retirement years were upon him. His daughter had died, his sons had moved away. John gave up the farm and headed out himself - it is said to Beebe, White County, Arkansas, a few miles north of Little Rock. He is supposed to have died there on 13 December 1894, at the home of a nephew, but I am at a loss to know who that nephew might have been. All of John's known nephews were deceased by 1894 or accounted for elsewhere.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Mary Josephine BURRIS, b. 5 May 1848, Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio, d. Winter of 1885. Married: _____ GORDON.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Lucy May GORDON. Lucy was named in Lucinda's will.

9-5-2        2.    Augustus Ewing BURRIS, b. 9 April 1852, Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio.

9-5-3        3.    George John BURRIS, b. 20 Mar 1856, Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio.

                 4.    Frederick J. BURRIS, b. 1 Mar 1864, Missouri. Married: about 1888, Mary _____, b. Mar 1867, Indiana. 1900: Chicago Street, Trenton, Grundy Co., MO. At a later date, moved to Norton, Norton County Kansas became a superintendent of a TB sanitorium - his daughter had TB.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Barry B. BURRIS, b. Apr 1890, Missouri.

                        2.    Lucinda A. BURRIS, b. Jan 1893, Oklahoma.


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9-5-2        AUGUSTUS EWING BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      John-Lydia-John-James


          Augustus Ewing always went by the initials A.E. Augustus was born 9 April 1852 in Keystone, Bloomfield Township, Jackson County, Ohio. He attended what schools were available until 1863 when his family removed to Livingston County, Missouri. Augustus continued his education there in Livingston County,, graduating from the high school in Chillicothe. He attended Missouri State University at Columbia and became one of the first persons in this Ewing History to be an "agriculturist" instead of a farmer.

          After leaving school he began farming on a part of his father's 400 acres, but in 1873 he purchased his own farm in Wheeling Township. Still a bachelor, he built a fine home and "to the original improvements which had been made, he added from time to time numerous others until this now (1886) constitutes one of the best places in the township."

          In 1881 he invited Miss Susan Emma SIDEBOTTOM to share it with him. Susan was a native of Meadville, in Linn County, Missouri, about 10 miles from Wheeling. Born 18 June 1859, she was the daughter of a Methodist minister, Rev. Robinson Evans SIDEBOTTOM, and his wife, Nancy BURTON, both born in Kentucky. Susan always went by her middle name, Emma - a confusing situation for family historians in that Emma (Emmarette) was the name of Augustus' second wife, too.

          Augustus and Susan were married 15 September 1881 and started housekeeping in the farm home Augustus had prepared for his bride. Don BURRIS joined them in 1882, then Lucretia, then Dwight and then Mary Electa, born 15 July 1887.

          A year and half later there was another birth, but this one was not successful. On 3 December 1888, both mother and daughter died. They are buried at Meadville, Linn County, Missouri.

          Within a short time Augustus married again. His second wife had been a school chum of his first. She was Emmarette SMITH, born 18 December 1858 in Wayne County, Iowa. She was the daughter of Michael and Sarah (HENDRICKS) SMITH from North Carolina. She and Augustus were married 22 September 1890.

          To his four youngsters Augustus and Emmarette added James, Ruth and Lulu.

          The next years were moving ones for Augustus and it has been difficult for this chronicler to keep up with them. It is known that he and Emmarette set out for Texas and stopped for a bit in Parsons, Labette County, Kansas. Emmarette's brother, George SMITH and his wife, Martha were educators and kept moving west. They stayed for a few years at Weiser, Idaho. Being impressed with the possibilities there, they persuaded Augustus and Emmarette to move there.

          Augustus and Emmarette did move to Weiser, but they did not stay long. Augustus got Rocky Mountain tick fever. He survived but was left with a weak heart. They left and went to Claremore, Oklahoma. Eventually George and Martha SMITH left Weiser too. They went to Washington D.C. and got law degrees.

          Emmarette died in Claremore, Oklahoma on the 23rd of April 1923 and Augustus on either 14/27 March 1924 at the age of 71.

          ISSUE by Susan Emma:

9-5-2-1            1.    Don BURRIS, b. 3 Oct 1882, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

9-5-2-2            2.    Lucretia Burton BURRIS, b. 29 Nov 1883, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

                        3.    Dwight Moody BURRIS, b. 8/9 April 1885, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri, d. 3 Aug 1904, Meadville, Linn County, Missouri.

9-5-2-4            4.    Mary Electa BURRIS, b. 15 July 1887, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

                        5.    Daughter BURRIS, b&d 3 Dec 1888, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

          ISSUE by Emmarette:

9-5-2-6            6.    James Paul BURRIS, b. 1 Mar 1892.

9-5-2-7            7.    Lulu BURRIS, b. 5 Jan 1896.

                        8.    Ruth BURRIS, b. 18 Oct 1897, d. 19 Nov 1930, 33 years. Married: _____ STARK.


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9-5-2-1     DON BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Originally Dons' name was Don TRIMBLE BURRIS. He was named for Augustus' roommate at the University, medical student John Warren TRIMBLE. But one night, in later years, Augustus saw his friend, Dr. Trimble, in Chillicothe - inebriated! - and had the Trimble dropped from his son's name.

          Don was born 3 October 1882 at Wheeling, Rich Hill Township, Livingston County, Missouri. He was 6 when his mother died, so was mostly brought up by his stepmother, Emmarette.

          Don was married on 30 November 1907 in Vinita, Oklahoma to Stella Leona PERKINS, daughter of Samuel and Sallie (COLLINS) PERKINS, from England and Indiana respectively. Stella was born 26 December 1884 at St. Clair, Missouri and had worked in a millinery and clothing store before their marriage. She had also worked in a newspaper office in Oklahoma and wrote the local society column.

          Don was a stockman and a farmer and manufacturer of brooms, but he was also a teacher and spent several years as an instructor at the Intermediate Institute (now Weiser Academy and Accredited College in Weiser, Idaho. During their time in Weiser, Stella operated a grocery store.

          In 1920 they moved to Denver, Colorado, actually Cannon City, where they stayed for ll years. Don was in business there. When they returned to Weiser their daughter, Margaret, went with them, but their other daughter, Mildred, remained in Denver to make use of a scholarship she had received.

          Stella died at Weiser on 16 November 1971 of a stroke at the age of 86. Don died nearby, at Grangeville, Idaho on 9 December 1977 of a heart condition. He was 95. Both are buried at Weiser, Idaho.

          ISSUE:

9-5-2-1-1         1.    Margaret Helen BURRIS, b. 18 Feb 1911, Weiser, Idaho.

9-5-2-1-2         2.    Mildred BURRIS, b. 21 Dec 1912, Weiser, Idaho.


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9-5-2-1-1         MARGARET HELEN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Don-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Margaret, born 18 February 1911 in Weiser, Idaho is a neighbor of mine here in the San Diego area. She and her husband, John OLAR lived at 3651 First Avenue, San Diego, California. We have talked on the phone and have had lunch together.

          John is Margaret's third husband. She was previously married to Calvin POULSON and Dallas KIME, and had a son by each. Neither husband was able to support Margaret and the boys, so Margaret went to live with her parents, who helped Margaret raise them. They had the boys' names officially changed to Burris

          Margaret has lived in San Diego since the war years, and was in San Diego that she met John. They were married on Margaret's 39th birthday, 18 February 1950.

          John was born 16 December 1910 in Montreal, Quebec. His parents were Rumanian refugees, Alex and Rose (PASCAR) OLAR. John grew up in Minneapolis, Minnesota and came to the West Coast during the 1940s. About the time of their marriage, John started working for General Dynamics and retired in 1972 after 21 years, at the age of 62 years.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Donald Leroy POULSON-BURRIS b. 27 May 1932, Boise, Idaho. Married: 1st Gloria FEINEGER, divorced. Married 2nd Marilyn (THORSON) EISENBARTH. 1982: engineer with U.S. Forest Service. Resided: Grangeville, Idaho

Issue by Gloria:

                        1.    Margaret Helen BURRIS, b. 3 Apr 1952, Weiser, Idaho. Married: June 1970, Russell NIDA.

                        2.    Dawn Irene BURRIS, b. 2 Mar 1961, Grangeville, Idaho. Married: Marcus KIENER.

                        3.    John Cole BURRIS, b. 18 July 1963, Grangeville, Idaho.

                 2.    Dwight KIME-BURRIS, b. 9 June 1936, National City, California. Married: Jacqueline JOHNSON, who had daughter, Denise.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Linnea Charlene BURRIS, b. 5 Oct 1959, San Diego, California. Married: 14 June 1980, Michael Scott SANDLER.

                        2.    James Dee BURRIS, Albuquerque, New Mexico.


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9-5-2-1-2         MILDRED BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Don-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Mildred and her husband, Ralph Moody EASLEY, have recently become very interested in family history and are fortunate indeed to be able to quench their thirst for family knowledge. They are retired and do a lot of traveling all over the country - all over the world too, but that's not genealogy related. They have been able to visit many spots on the United States map where the roots of their forbearers go deep.

          Mildred was born 21 December 1912 in Weiser, Idaho. She grew up in Weiser and in Canon City, Colorado, near Denver were her parents moved in 1920. Upon graduation from high school in 1931, Mildred received an excellent scholarship which she could use at the college of her choice, and she chose Northern Colorado University at Greeley, Colorado. Her parents and sister returned to Weiser, Idaho.

          Ralph EASLEY was a fellow student at NCU. Born 14 March 1911 in Fort Worth, Texas, he had graduated from North Texas University at Arlington, Texas, a junior college in 1931. He went on to Northern Colorado University to get his degree in 1933. He and Mildred were married 28 December 1934 in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

          Ralph's parents were Levi and Della May (KERR) EASLEY.

          Ralph and Mildred lived in Denver and Mildred got her degree in 1935. She taught school off and on for many years.

          When World War II came along, Ralph became a pilot in the Army Air Corps Training Command in 1942 - and flew "The Hump" (China, Burma and India) 1944 to 1946.

          He had taken leave from his teaching job in Denver Public Schools and after the war he returned to that job, teaching aeronautics. He retired about 1973, after many years with the school system. At the time of his retirement he was in charge of the Instructional Materials Center.

          On retirement Ralph and Mildred moved to Aurora, Colorado. In the years since they have toured Europe, U.S.S.R., the Orient and the People's Republic of China (in 1978, before the Recognition), Mexico many times and Canada frequently.

          Also in those retirement years they have taken much delight as previously noted, in family history. It was Mildred who was instrumental in seeing that I got the material on the John and Lucinda Burris family.

 

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9-5-2-1-2-1     JUDITH MAY EASLEY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mildred-Don-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Judith was born 23 June 1942 in Denver, Colorado. After graduation from high school in Denver, she went to the University of Northern Colorado for a year, then she went to the University of Missouri at Kansas City, where she studied to be a dental hygienist. She worked at that profession for a few years before her marriage and on a part time basis since.

          The marriage was to Allen Claude KEENAN and it took place on 16 June 1962. Allen, son of John and Ruby (THOMPSON) KEENAN, is the grandson of an early Oklahoma Indian Territory judge. Allen went to schools in Tulsa and then went to Northeastern Oklahoma University, Westminster College at Fulton, Missouri, and finally to the University of Missouri at Kansas City, being a 1963 graduate of its Dental School. After graduation Allen signed up for two years in the Air Force and served that time at McCord Air Force Base in Washington.

          Then he and Judith decided they would like to go overseas, so he signed up for another three-year tour of duty and was assigned to Athens, Greece. He was offered a permanent commission, but he chose not to accept it, and went into private dental practice instead. He opened an office in Tulsa, where the Keenans were living in 1983 and where they are active in community and church organizations.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Katherine Jane KEENAN, b. 29 Oct 1968, Denver, Colorado.

                 2.    Jennifer Lea KEENAN, b. 5 May 1971, Tulsa, Oklahoma .


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9-5-2-2     LUCRETIA BURTON BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Lucretia, born 29 November 1883 in Livingston County, Missouri was 5 years old when her mother died and almost 7 when her father married again. Eventually the family ended up in Weiser, Idaho and Lucretia got a job there teaching school. Before too many years her father and step-mother moved to Claremore, Oklahoma, but by that time Lucretia was married and she remained in Weiser.

          Lucretia's husband was Timothy Austin HEMENWAY of a fine old Weiser family. Timothy had previously been married to a daughter of Judge FULLER of Shoshone, Idaho and had two daughter, Helen and Lela and a son, Paul.

          Timothy worked for the Railway Mail Service on the Pacific Idaho Northern and other railway lines in the Idaho area. One day, on a day off, he was helping one of his brothers harvest grain and suffered a barley beard in his eye. The next day he went to see a doctor to have it removed, and was late getting to work. His supervisor gave him a blackmark for unauthorized leave. That made Timothy angry and he quit the service and went into farming with his brother, Justin.

          Soon after that episode the family moved to Addy, Washington. About 1926 the family moved to King Hill, Idaho, to a farm in Pasadena or Paradise Valley.

          But Timothy was apparently not born to be a farmer, and he went to work for King Hill Irrigation District and stayed with them for about nine years. In 1931, they sold the farm and moved into the town of King Hill and rented a house until about February 1941. That year they bought the stock and "blue sky" of a service station and took over the management of that and a tourist court, as motels were called then. Timothy and Lucretia stayed there until 1946, when they purchased a rooming house in Parma, Idaho, which they operated until Timothy's death in December 1947. After Timothy's death Lucretia moved to Pine Grove, California to live with a son, James Wallace HEMENWAY.

Lucretia died 1 December 1972 in Stockton, California, but is buried at Weiser, Idaho.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    Dwight HEMENWAY, b. 1917, Weiser, Idaho, d. Sept 1921, Addy, Washington. Buried: Colville, Washington.

                        2.    Son HEMENWAY, b&d about 1919, Addy, Washington. Buried: Colville, Washington .

                        3.    James Wallace HEMENWAY, b. 16 Dec 1921, Addy, Washington. Married.

9-5-2-2-4         4.    Dale Ewing HEMENWAY, b. 9 Feb 1923, Abby, Washington.


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9-5-2-2-4         DALE EWING HEMENWAY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lucretia-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Dale started his letter to me with "I am a licensed dope peddler." Right off I knew this was going to be a beautiful friendship - actually what he meant was that he was a druggist.

          Dale was writing to send me material for a sketch about him and his parents. He was born 9 February 1923 after his parents had moved to Addy, Washington, and he grew up there, King Hill and Parma, Idaho.

          After completing a correspondence course in riveting airplanes in 1941, he went to Glendale, California for hands-on instruction in airplanes for two or three months. That was in December of 1941, just prior to Pearl Harbor. He got a job with Consolidated Aircraft - now Convair Division, General Dynamics, in San Diego, California. And there was (as he put it) "the country boy in a pretty big city." By good fortune he was able to locate his older cousin, Margaret Burris OLAR, and she pretty much mothered him.

          Dale stayed in San Diego until February of 1943 and then he returned to King Hill, but only long enough to say "Hi" and then he was off to the Army. After basic training he went to England, by way of Labrador, Iceland and Ireland. "Traveled by B-17 one way and Queen Mary the return trip. Two and a half month vacation during 1944 at Army expense. Glad I came home intact. Many of my friends did not."

          After his discharge in March of 1946, Dale went to college at Pocatello, Idaho - Idaho State University Southern Branch, Idaho State College, Idaho State University. From 1946 to 1951 at College of Pharmacy.

          On 3 September 1955, Dale was married to Salli Claudine (ARRIGHI) CAPPS at Eugene, Oregon. Salli had two chidden by her first marriage, Thomas CAPPS and Claudine CAPPS. Salli died in October of 1973.

          Dale met Lois Myrtle (PACKER) VAN HISE in Burns, Oregon in September of 1974 and they were married in Ontario, Oregon on 11 July 1975. Lois, born in Stiles, Idaho, is the daughter of Manley and Matilda (REYNOLDS) PACKER, and was previously married to Harley VAN HISE. Lois has two sons, Charles VAN HISE and David VAN HISE, and four grandchildren. "We were in luck on the youngest, " writes Dale, "and got a granddaughter."

          Dale and Lois were living at 1068 N. Buena Vista, Burns, Oregon, 97720

          NO ISSUE


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9-5-2-4     MARY ELECTA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James 


          Mary Electa was born 15 July 1887 and was married in Weiser, Idaho to Earl BRAITHWAITE. Mary died 15 December 1958 in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Earl died 8 April 1968, also in Tulsa. Both are buried at Rose Hill Cemetery, Tulsa, Oklahoma

          ISSUE:

9-5-2-4-1         1.    Gladys BRAITHWAITE, b. 11 Feb 1911, Weiser, Idaho.

                        2.    James BRAITHWAITE, b. Dec 1912, d. 1939.

                        3.    Earl BRAITHWAITE JR., b. 1914. Married: Violet ROLLO

                               Issue:

                               1.    Earline BRAITHWAITE Married: 1st _____ PRUITT Married 2nd _____ LEWIS

                        4.    Jay BRAITHWAITE


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9-5-2-4-1         GLADYS BRAITHWAITE

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mary Electa-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Gladys was born 11 February 1911 in Weiser, Idaho and is a neighbor of mine here in San Diego, California. She and her son lived together at 2128 Erie Street, until his death in January of 1984. Gladys was three times married. Her first husband was the father of her son, her only child. After her marriage to a HENSLEY, he adopted the boy. She and her third husband, Bob PERRY, had been married 17 years prior to his death.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Robert Eugene HENSLEY, b. 1934. Married three times, had two daughters by the first marriage, and grandchildren. Died January, 1984, of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.



9-5-2-6                                                               JAMES PAUL BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          James was the first of Augustus' "second family." He was born 1 March 1892, presumably in Livingston County, Missouri. James was married about 1919 to Myrtle Ann PEIRCE, who was born in 1898. James died the 19th of December of 1974 in Muskogee, Oklahoma and is buried in Claremore. Myrtle continued to live in Muskogee, Oklahoma.

          ISSUE:

                        1.     Martha Ann BURRIS, b. 17 Nov 1921. Married: J.K. REED.

                        2.    James Paul BURRIS, JR., b. 20 Jan 1923. Was All-American at Oklahoma University.

                        3.    Pauline BURRIS, b. 4 Dec 1924. Married: _____ STAVLEY

                        4.    Robbie Nell BURRIS, b. 7 Oct 1926

9-5-2-6-5         5.    Donald James BURRIS, b. 27 Sept 1928, Nowata, Oklahoma.

                        6.    Vera BURRIS, b. 26 Sept 1930, Nowata, Oklahoma.

9-5-2-6-7         7.    Kurt Bane BURRIS, b. 27 June 1932, Nowata, Oklahoma.

                        8.    Robert BURRIS, b. 24 Sept 1934. Football or Basketball coach, Muskogee, OK.

                        9.    Lyle BURRIS - TWIN, b. 5 Jan 1936/1937. District Judge in Oklahoma.

                        10.  Lynn BURRIS - TWIN, b. 5 Jan 1936/1937. District Judge in Oklahoma.

                        11.  Patricia BURRIS, b. 24 November 1939.


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9-5-2-6-5         DONALD JAMES BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      James Paul-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Donald was born 27 September 1928 at Nowata, Oklahoma and was married on 27 March 1948 at Muskogee to Shirley Lou COLLINS. Shirley is the daughter of George and Minnie (SHIELDS) COLLINS. They lived at No. 9, Ward Drive, Greeley, Colorado, 80634.


 

9-5-2-6-7         KURT BANE BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      James Paul-Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Kurt, born 27 June 1932 at Nowata, Oklahoma, was graduated in 1951 from Muskogee Central High School and received his Bachelor's in 1956 from Oklahoma University, where he wa a member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity.

          Kurt, a big man, made it big in football. In 1954 he was voted All-American Center and Linebacker! Not only that, he was runner-up for the coveted Heisman Trophy! He was also on the All-Pro Canadian Football League, offense and defense.

          Kurt was married about 1956 to Rosemary MAJOR. Rosemary, born 27 May 1933 in Oklahoma to Horace and Rose (GRIMMETT) MAJOR, also graduated from Muskogee High School in 1951, and received her Bachelor's from Oklahoma University in 1956. Rosemary was affiliated with Delta Gamma Sorority, and was a member of the Junior League.

          Kurt is president of Burris Drilling Company of Denver, Colorado which operates oil and gas drilling rigs in the Rockies and in Texas. He and Rosemary lived at 8740 Hilltop, Parker, Colorado 80134. They are both active in the Hilltop Church, Kurt as past deacon and moderator and Rosemary as head of several committees including Refugee Resettlement.


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9-5-2-8     LULU BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Augustus-John-Lydia-John-James


          Lulu was born about 1900 and died 23 December 1979 at Jenks, Oklahoma. Lulu is buried at Tallalla, Oklahoma. She was a school teacher. Her husband, John GILBREATH died in April of 1976.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    Burk Burris GILBREATH, d. 17 June 1984, Mounds, Oklahoma.

                        2.    Marjorie GILBREATH Married: Walter W. HARRIS


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9-5-3        GEORGE JOHN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      John-Lydia-John-James 


          Through the years descendants of Augustus lost tract of the children and grandchildren of his two brothers and sister, and not much is known about them. Augustus' next younger brother was George, born 20 March 1856 in Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio. He was married on 25 December 1879 to Elizabeth Lansing WALLACE. The wedding took place at the home of the bride's parents, 6 miles east of Chillicothe, Missouri with Rev. H.G. KEERAN presiding. Elizabeth was born in August of 1857 in Minnesota.

          In 1880 the newlyweds were living with George's parents in Rich Hill Township, Livingston County, Missouri. About 1890 they left Missouri in favor of the Golden State - California. They moved to Los Angeles and were found there in both the 1900 and 1910 census. Augustus went out to visit his brother about 1902.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    John Wallace BURRIS, b. 14 Nov 1880, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

                 2.    Georgia L. BURRIS, b. Sept 1882, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

                 3.    Charles W. BURRIS, b. Aug 1885, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri. Married: Addie _____, b. 1891, Indiana.

                 4.    Oscar V. BURRIS, b. Mar 1887, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri. Married: Verna _____, b. 1889, Kansas.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Bingham E. BURRIS, b. 1907, California.

                 5.    Arthur F. BURRIS, b. Dec 1889, Wheeling, Livingston County, Missouri.

                 6.     Earl R. BURRIS, b. Oct 1893, California.


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9-5-4        FREDERIC J. BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      John-Lydia-John-James


          Frederic, too, is mostly lost to us. He was born 1 March 1864, after the move to Missouri. His wife was Mary _____, born in March of 1867 in Indiana. Frederic and Mary were found in the 1900 Missouri Index, living on Chicago Street in Trenton, Grundy County, Missouri. Later they moved to Norton, Norton County, Kansas, where Frederic was superintendent of a TB sanitorium. Their daughter had TB.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Barry B. BURRIS, b. Apr 1890, Missouri.

                 2.    Lucinda A. BURRIS, b. Jan 1893, Oklahoma.


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9-6    GEORGE BURRIS JR.

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


          George, named for his illustrious father, appears to have been as much of a doer and leader as the first George Burris.

          He was born 22 March 1825 in Jackson County, Ohio - where he did his growing up and where he received whatever schooling was available in that time and place.

          On 4 February 1847 at the age of 21, he took a bride. She was Weltha Filena DURKEE, daughter of Thomas and Hannah (POOR) DURKEE and great-aunt of Will F. DURKEE who married 20-4-2-1. Weltha was born in Vermont about 1827.

          "She survived the marriage but a few months," says a biographical sketch on George. She died in 1847, about 20 years old, probably in childbirth as so many did than.

          After her death, George went home to live. He was found with his parents in the 1850 census, in Milton Township, age 25. Also in the household was Melissa MC GHEE, 22, and a young lady of 18 by the name of Elizabeth HENRY.

          Elizabeth was the daughter of George and May (HOUSTON) HENRY, and thus was an aunt of Sarah MC NAMEE who married William Ewing BURRIS (9-1-5). Elizabeth was born 7 June 1831 in Carroll County, Ohio. Elizabeth became George's bride on Christmas Day in 1851.

          The newlyweds set up housekeeping in Jackson County. Soon Franklin Pierce and then Weltha E. entered their lives. Lydia Ann was on the way when George and Elizabeth decided to be part of the same mass exodus of 1857, from Jackson County, Ohio - George's parents included. Their destination - Harrison County, Missouri.

          They arrived at their new home in June of 1857, and in October, Lydia Ann put in her appearance, only to die two years later. Seven more came after her to make George and Elizabeth's family complete.

          In the years ahead, George acquired a great deal of property, most of it in Cypress Township. In the 1876 atlas his main farm shows up as 424.67 acres in Cypress Township, plus 80 acres adjoining in Bethany Township, 504.67 acres all told. Through this lovely farm flowed both Big and Crab Apple Creeks. It was choice property. The Burris home stood on the east side of the road, less than 1/4 mile south of Mitchelville and not far from the banks of Crab Apple Creek. (A handwritten notation was made in this paragraph that George was involved with starting the Mitchelville Church, possibly on this property).

          Across the road and well back from the home was the little plot George set aside as a burial ground, which became known as the Burris Cemetery. His parents were the first to be buried there in 1872.

          George's other property, all of it in Cypress Township, consisted of 213.22 acres in Section 6, 120 acres in Section 9 and 17 acres in Section 8. According to the various census, that property was worth $5,500 in 1860 and $15,00 in 1880.

          A sketch about George Jr. appears in the 1888 HARRISON COUNTY HISTORY. There is no mention of any Civil War service (though there is for his father). The sketch does say that he was "a well-known Democrat in this section of the county and for about 12 years he served as a justice of the peace and was twice appointed and twice elected county judge. In 1883-84 he was elected representative of his county by the Democratic party against Governor PRENTISS and in a county strongly Republican.

          George was 68 years, one month and 16 days old when he died 8 May 1893. He is buried at the Burris Cemetery. For awhile his widow lived on at Bethany, and she is recorded there in 1900. Family records have it that she died 22 February 1904 in Oklahoma City. Her youngest child, Susie RUCKER, was known to have lived in Oklahoma City. Perhaps Elizabeth went there with her.

          ISSUE:

9-6-1        1.    Franklin Pierce BURRIS, b. 27 Oct 1852, Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio.

9-6-2        2.    Weltha E. BURRIS, b. Oct 1855, Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio.

                 3.    Lydia Ann BURRIS, b. 27 Oct 1857, Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio, d. 3 Nov 1859, Missouri.

9-6-4        4.    Sarah Cornelia BURRIS, b. 12 Mar 1860, Missouri.

                 5.    Lydia E. BURRIS, b. 1861/62. Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Lawrence HUGHES, Lived: Bethany. No issue .

9-6-6        6.    Mary Ann BURRIS, b. 10 Jan 1864, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                  7.    Cora BURRIS, b. Oct 1867, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: William WELLER.

                 8.    George Elwell BURRIS, b. 1868, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri, d. 1869 Buried: Burris Cemetery, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 9.    Warren BURRIS, b. 1871 d. 1869. Buried: Burris Cemetery, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

              10.      Susie BURRIS, b. Dec 1872, Bethany Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: 1893, William RUCKER. 1900: Lived in Bethany, he stock dealer - later moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Robert RUCKER, b. May 1895, Missouri. Resided: Tulsa, Oklahoma.

                         2.    Ralph RUCKER, b. May 1900, Missouri. Resided: Norman, Oklahoma.

                        3.    Truman RUCKER

                         4.     Sara Sue RUCKER

                         5.    Wayne N. RUCKER


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9-6-1        FRANKLIN PIERCE BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-Lydia-John-James


          Franklin was a big man around Cypress Township - mighty big! 7 foot 2 inches as a matter of fact.

          He was born 27 october 1852 in Keystone, Jackson County, Ohio and was 5 years old when the trip to Missouri was made. Growing up on his dad's farm in Cypress Township, he became acquainted with neighbor, James and Cordelia BARLOW - and their daughter, mma Cordelia, who had the farm right next to Franklin's Uncle Milton BURRIS. Emma was born 20 September 1857 in Ohio. The friendship became romance and Emma and Franklin were married around the 4th or 10th of October 1878.

          On their farm in Cypress Township, Franklin and Emma raised an even dozen children. They were listed in Cypress Township in both the 1880 and 1900 census. In the 1900 census they were listed right next to Rev. Charles BURRIS, who was a cousin, a son of William Allen and Ann (HILDEBRAND) BURRIS. William was a brother of "our" George Sr. William and Ann and their large family were also residents of Harrison County, but of course their descendants are not Ewings, so are not included in this book.

          Franklin died in 1911 at the age of 59 years old. Emma outlived him by 24 years, dying in 1935. Both are buried at Burris Cemetery, near Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    George R. BURRIS, b. 18 July 1879, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri, d. 7 Mar 1957. Married: 1st Josie BUSH Married. 2nd Etta Brown CLINKENBEARD.

                        Issue by Josie:

                        1.    Clarence BURRIS

Issue by Etta:

                        1.    George Roscoe BURRIS, b. 17 Apr 1917. Married: his cousin, Joan BURRIS, daughter of John and Jhett BURRIS.

                 2.    James Harvey BURRIS, b. 2 Sept 1881, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Gertrude ROLEKE, b. 7 Feb 1887, d. 1970.

                 3.    Clay Warren BURRIS, b. 14 June 1884, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri, d. 10 Nov 1962. Married: Abigail ENGLAND, d. 7 Mar 1958.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Lucille BURRIS

                        2.    Elizabeth BURRIS

                               Issue:

                               1.    Lucille _____

                               2.    Warren _____

                 4.    Frank Edward BURRIS, b. 6 Sept 1887, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri, d. 1916, Buried: Burris Cemetery, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 5.    King Cliff BURRIS, b. 4 Mar 1890, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Myra Beatrice BROWN, b. 2 Sept 1891, d. 10 Oct 1966.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Winifred Claire BURRIS, b. 14 Mar 1934

                 6.    Don Cabot BURRIS, b. 17 Jan 1892 d. 1893. Buried: Burris Cemetery, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri.

                 7.    Ruth Lucinda BURRIS, b. 28 Sept 1893, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Raymond Henry CARTER, b. 25 Sept 1895, d. 1 July 1966.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Garland Burris CARTER, b. 15 Feb 1916

                        2.    Edward Frank CARTER, b. 26 June 1917

                 8.    Joseph BURRIS, b. 4 Dec 1895, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri, d. 28 Dec 1929. Married: Zola MYERS, b. 22 Jan 1895, d. 6 Dec 1965.

                        Issue:

                        1.    Anna Lee BURRIS, Married: Russell SHANNON

                 9.    Mary Elizabeth BURRIS, b. 1 Apr 1897, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Shelton Manley CLAYTOR/CLAYTON, b. 18 Aug 1894.

                 10.  John Jhett BURRIS b. 26 Nov 1899, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Opel _____ Issue:

                        1.    Joan BURRIS, Married: George Rosco BURRIS, cousin, son of George R. BURRIS.

                 11.  Robert Bruce BURRIS, b. 24 Mar 1903


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9-6-2        WELTHA E. BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-Lydia-John-James


          Weltha was born in October 1855 when George and Elizabeth were still in Jackson County, Ohio. She was married about 1876 to Wesley MITCHUM. Wesley was born in July of 1853 in Ohio where his parents, James and Rebecca MITCHUM were also born. They went to Missouri somewhere between 1855 to 1859.

          Wesley and Weltha went to Kansas after their marriage, but they did not remain there long. They returned to Harrison County, Missouri by 1880 and in the census that year, they were in Bethany Township - Wesley a farmer. Wesley's sister, Jennie, age 21 years, born in Missouri was living with them. By the time of the 1900 census, Wesley and Weltha were in the city of Bethany itself, in the first ward, Wesley a carpenter. Weltha had eight children, only five then living.

          This family disappears from the Harrison County scene after that, and word has not been passed down through the years as to where they disappeared to.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Charles W. MITCHUM, b. Dec 1878, Kansas.

                 2.    Cora MITCHUM, b. Mar 1880. Missouri

                 3.    Jennie MITCHUM, b. Jan 1884, Missouri

                 4.    Nellie MITCHUM, b. Apr 1892, Missouri

                 5.    Harvey MITCHUM, b. Apr 1895, Missouri

                 6.    _____ MITCHUM

                 7.    _____ MITCHUM

                 8.    _____ MITCHUM


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9-6-4        SARAH CORNELIA BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-Lydia-John-James


          Sarah Cornelia was "Nealy" on A. E. EWING'S list - and I guess on everyone else's too. It took me a long time to find out what her real name was.

          Sarah was born 12 March 1860 on the Burris farm in Cypress Township, south of Mitchelville, Harrison County, Missouri - but she spent most of her 91 years in Davis City, New Buda Township, Decatur County, Iowa. That is where the Sylvesters in the Andrew Ewing Chapter 7 were. Davis City is actually only about 30 miles from Mitchelville - but across a state line.

          Growing up in Mitchelville, Sarah had the opportunity to attend the little school nearby - Schoolhouse No. 7. One of her teachers was John Marshall HOWELL, who was from the family of Marshall K. and America HOWELL, natives of Hopkins County, Kentucky, whose farm was in the northern part of Bethany Township. John was born in Missouri in February 1854. He and Sarah were married 10 October 1878.

          The newlyweds began married life in Harrison County, but in the mid-1880s moved across the state line to Davis City and that was their home for the rest of their lives.

          John went on to become principal of one of the schools in Decatur County - it is believed to have been in Weldon. In 1915, when he was co-author and supervising editor of "HISTORY OF DECATUR COUNTY," he was Prof. John Marshall Howell.

          The two-volume history is an excellent look at life and people in Decatur County, but sadly Professor Howell did not tell us very much about himself or Sarah.

          Sarah died 13 March 1931. John's death date is unknown.

          ISSUE:

9-6-4-1            1.    Myrta HOWELL, b. July 1879, Harrison County, Missouri.

                        2.    George K. HOWELL, b. Mar 1881, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Afton HEMBRY. No issue.

                        3.    John Burt HOWELL, b. Aug 1883, Harrison County, Missouri; single.

                        4.    Leigh R. HOWELL, b. Mar/ May 1889, Decatur County, Iowa. Married: prior to 1915, Hazel FRAZIER, daughter of S.R. and Melvina (SEVERE) FRAZIER, sister to Orvill who married his sister Myrta. Lived: Omaha, Nebraska. No issue.

9-6-4-5            5.    Burris HOWELL, b. July 1892, Decatur County, Iowa.

9-6-4-6            6.    Betty Near HOWELL, b. Aug 1898, Decatur County, Iowa.

9-6-4-7            7.    Lucia M. HOWELL, b. 24 Jan 1900, Decatur County, Iowa.

                        8.    _____ HOWELL, b. probably between 1883 and 1889 died prior to 1900 census - Sarah down as

                           8 and 7 (meaning that Sarah had eight children, seven children were living in 1900).


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9-6-4-1     MYRTA HOWELL

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Sarah-George-Lydia-John-James


          Thanks to a sketch in her father's DECATUR COUNTY HISTORY, we know a good deal about the man Myrta married. Not much about Myrta except that she married him and gave him three children, but enough about Orville L. FRAZIER's life to give us a little peek into the life Myrta must have lived too.

          Myrta was born 5 July 1879 in Harrison County, but did most of her growing up in Davis City, Iowa. That is where she met Orville, the son of a merchant and flour mill operator of Davis City, S.R. FRAZIER and his wife, Melvina SEVERE. Orville was born 1 January 1869, in Akron, Harrison County, Missouri, but like Myrta grew up in Davis City.

          After attending local schools he went on to business college in Des Moines, Iowa. Returning to Davis City he entered his father's general merchandise store. In 1902, he and his uncle, J.A. FRAZIER of nearby Leon, Iowa, and two others bought out the interest of E.D. DORN and Son in the Farmers Bank of Davis City. The uncle became vice-president of the institution and Orville, cashier.

          By 1905 he felt ready to take a wife, and he and Myrta were married on the 23rd of August of that year.

          Orville was clerk of New Buda Township for five years.

          ISSUE:

                        1.    Orville L. FRAZIER, b. 3 Oct 1906, Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa. 1970: In Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

                               Issue:

                               1.    Vince FRAZIER

                        2.    Marjorie FRAZIER, b. 27 Aug 1909, Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa. Married: Charles Kenneth REGER. 1982: Lived in Long Beach, California.

                        3.    Mildred FRAZIER, b. 3 Aug 1911, Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa, d. 23 Mar 1913.


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9-6-4-5     BURRIS HOWELL

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Sarah-George-Lydia-John-James


          Burris was born in 1892 at Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa. He was married to Ida LUGLAND

          ISSUE:

                 1.    John Marshall HOWELL II Married: Lavonne _____

                        Issue:

                        1.    Cynthia HOWELL

                        2.    Timothy HOWELL

                        3.    John Marshall HOWELL III

                        4.    Joseph HOWELL


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9-6-4-6     BETTY NEAL HOWELL

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Sarah-George-Lydia-John-James 


          Betty was born in August of 1898 at Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa. Her husband was Glenn B. ANDREWS.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Margaret ANDREWS

                 2.    Howell ANDREWS Married: Lavonne _____.

                        Adopted children:

                        1.    Michael ANDREWS

                        2.    Mary K. ANDREWS


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9-6-4-7     LUCIA M. HOWELL

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Sarah-George-Lydia-John-James


          Lucia was born at Davis City, Decatur County, Iowa on 24 January 1900. She was married 4 November 1921 to Arthur M. LANDIS who was born 12 May 1894.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Sarah Joan LANDIS Married: 1 June 1949, Howard Lee STROHN. No issue.

                 2.    Jerry Judith LANDIS, b. 12 Dec 1929. Married: 27 Nov 1949, Cleo C. CORY.

                 3.    Nancy Sue LANDIS, b. 29 Oct 1931. Married: 8 Mar 1951, Wayne E. HENDRICKSON.


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9-6-6        MARY ANN BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      George-Lydia-John-James 


          Much of the story of Mary Ann BURRIS and her husband, Charles Martin DAILY, was told by a daughter, Nelly Dot MC VAY in a letter to a nephew, Ralph DAILY, in 1971.

          Mary Ann was born 10 January 1864 on the Burris farm in Cypress Township, and Charles was born 30 November 1858 in White Oak Township, also in Harrison County. Charles' parents were William and Sarah Ann (STURDEVANT) DAILY, natives of Tennessee and Indiana respectively. Mary Ann and Charles were married in Harrison County on the 20th of November 1881. They had eight children, Nelly Dot being the last, born in 1903.

          She writes of a time when she was not even around - 1901. The Dailys were leaving Harrison County and were on their way to Stafford, Kansas.

          "Our Mother and Father were always farm people. On the trip to Kansas, when Pearl was about 13 years old, our father and three oldest boys, Ernest, Fred and Frank, fixed up two covered wagons and got some good horses. The Dailys were on their way from Harrison County, Missouri to Stafford, Kansas. Somewhere along the way when they were camping one night, all were sound asleep, or supposedly so - when Mother called out, "The baby is gone! He has fallen out of the wagon!" That was George, age 1. They found him on the ground, close to the horses' feet, but he wasn't hurt.

           "Their trip to Kansas was of short duration. They only stayed about one year. It was so dry and dusty, they had scarcely no rain, and everybody there was about starved out because no crops were raised. So the Daily family left by train to go back to Harrison County, where we stayed until about 1905. (I was there by then.) In the late fall of that year we left Bethany again, going by train to Inavale, Nebraska, all except father, who shipped our cows and horses by railway, and rode along on the freight train so he could feed and water the stock. It was pretty cold one morning and he was hurrying to get the feeding done and slipped and fell and got cinders in his knee and got infection in his leg. By the time we got to Inavale and to Uncle Linc DAILY'S - dad's brother. Father took blood poison in his leg. He was in bed for about six months with it. The doctors wanted to take his left leg off, but he wouldn't let them. It finally got well, but left him crippled the rest of his life.

          "Mother's health got much worse, and she began to get paralyzed. They took her to a doctor in Kansas City. He thought the climate for her would be better in South Missouri, so we moved to South Missouri in 1906, arriving February 14. It was very cold there then, with a big snow still on the ground. Mother got worse all the time, with creeping paralysis, couldn't even talk the last few months she lived, and she died 25 July 1908 in Laquey, Missouri."

          Charles had eight youngsters to raise, the youngest 5. It is believed the family returned to Harrison County, Missouri after Mary Ann's death, and that is where Charles died on 1 July 1944.

          ISSUE:

                 1.    Ernest W. DAILY, b. 15 April 1883, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO.

9-6-6-2     2.    Fred Burris DAILY, b. 20 Oct 1884, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO.

                 3.    Charles Frank DAILY, b. 30 Sept 1886, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO. Called: Frank. Married: Nellie PARROT.

                 4.    Pearl Roberta DAILY, b. 18 Dec 1888, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO. Married: Clarence MOSIER.

                 5.    Bessie DAILY, b. 27 Dec 1890, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO, d. 12 Jan 1891.

                 6.    Nora May DAILY, b. 15 Mar 1894, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. Mo. Married: Carl CLARKE.

                 7.    George William DAILY, b. 6 Aug 1900, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO.

                 8.    Nelly Dot DAILY, b. 4 June 1903, Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison Co. MO. Married: Clarence MC VAY.


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9-6-6-2     FRED BURRIS DAILY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Mary Ann-George-Lydia-John-James


          Ralph Dale DAILY will tell his father's story.

          "Fred Daily was born 20 October 1884, on a farm north of Bethany, Missouri. When he was about 15 the family moved to Hutchinson, Kansas in a covered wagon. His brother, George, was a baby at the time and fell out of the wagon on the trip. Fred also remembered men still wearing guns on their hips in those days, and cap and ball rifles were still fairly common.

          "A few years later they moved to South Missouri where they farmed and ran a canning factory, canning and selling tomatoes.

          "In the early 20s, Fred moved to Katy, Texas, where he worked as a foreman on a farm raising rice.

          "At the age of 26 he returned to Bethany and married Frona Naomi SLAUGHTER (his second cousin, once removed, 9-4-2-1-2) daughter of Frank and Laura (WILLIAMS) SLAUGHTER. (Frona was born 8 November 1889 at Bethany) They lived on a farm 3 1/2 miles west of Bethany. In about 1929 their house burned and they built a new house. They used the native oak trees for lumber, sawing them at a sawmill and hauling the lumber with a team and wagon. The house had a full basement and was two stories high with three upstairs bedrooms, one being the full width of the house.

          "This was a very trying time as they lost three children and their house in a very few years. In 1935 Frona died from hemorrhage after childbirth. Times were very hard in 1935 as the country was in the middle of a depression. Many farms were being lost because no one could make enough money to pay the taxes, even though they butchered their own meat, canned all their vegetables and fruit, made sauerkraut, pickles, lye soap and sold their cream and eggs for enough money to buy the few staples needed. Pigs were so plentiful that the government was paying farmers to kill them to try and raise the price of pork, but this Fred never would do, as many people didn't have enough to eat.

          "Our clothes were washed by boiling them in a large iron kettle over an open fire, and then scrubbing them on a washboard. The water was hauled 1/4 mile on a sled with a team as there was no well at the house that had water in it. The heating of the house was done with a large cast iron stove in the front room, and in the winter everyone sat very close around it and kept it supplied with wood. The light was supplied by kerosene lamp, but this was much improved with lamps came out with mantles.

          "Ice was provided by sawing large blocks of ice out of the pond in winter and hauled out over the pond dam by a team of horses. Behind the dam was an ice house where the ice was packed in deep sawdust many feel high. In this way the family was supplied with ice far into the summer.

          "In 1938 our farm went for taxes like many others, and in April of that year we moved one mile east in a wagon. In 1940, Fred ran for sheriff of Harrison County - and won.

          "This was a completely new world for the Daily family as the county had built a new courthouse the year before and the third or top floor was the jail cells and a complete living quarters for the sheriff and his family. The lower floors of the courthouse had marble walls and terrazzo floors.

          "Fred took office on New Year's Eve, which was a very rowdy affair at the three taverns north of town, where the local drinking, dancing and much fighting took place. By morning,

1 January 1941, Fred's first official day in office, the jail was filled to overflowing. One of the first jobs he did as sheriff was to confiscate all slot machines and put a stop to gambling in the county which was against the law, but had been allowed to flourish for many years. This made the owners of the machines pretty bitter when they found he could not be bought off, but it also earned him great respect from the honest citizens. Fred seldom carried a gun unless he was dealing with a very dangerous man. When he took office he was a man over

6 feet tall, weighing 215 pounds and very hard of muscle from the long years on the farm.

          "In 1952 Fred ended his career as sheriff and moved to California to be closer to most of his family. He lived for several years on a two-acre place east of Fallbrook, San Diego County. He had a large garden and may fruit trees. In about 1960 he moved to Temecula to another place where he owned his home and kept busy with his garden and helping his son, Ross, on his avocado ranch. He resided there until his death 9 October 1969. As of December 1970, his second wife, Roberta, is still living there."

          Fred is buried in the Burris Cemetery back in Harrison County, Missouri. Roberta died in 1979 and is buried at Fallbrook, San Diego County, California.

          ISSUE by Frona:

                        1.    Lee Franklin DAILY, b. 8 Apr 1912, Katy, Texas, d. 1961, age 49, at Mayo Clinic. Married: Sarah BLESSING.

Known issue:

                               1.    Fred DAILY Possibly - Jim Daily who in 1978 was in New Hampton, Missouri .

                        2.    Glenn Burris DAILY, b. 7 Mar 1914, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Helen BELK.

9-6-6-1-3         3.    Ross William DAILY, b. 17 Oct 1915, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

                        4.    Roberta Maxine DAILY, b. 6 Oct 1917, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Wendall CULP.

                        5.    Fred Burris DAILY JR., b. 1919, d. 1920, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

                        6.    Bina Mae DAILY, b. 2 July 1921, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: 1st Jack SLOANE. Married 2nd Robert KIRKLAND

                        7.    George Robert DAILY, b. 15 May 1923, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Betty PETTIGREW, Southgate, California, started Daily's Saw Service with brother Ross.

                        8.    Betty K. DAILY, b. 1925 d. 1927, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri .

                        9.    Charles S. DAILY, b. 1927 d. 1929, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

                        10.  Thornton Ned DAILY, b. 8 Oct 1929, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Mary Jo MYERS. Lived in Fallbrook, San Diego County, California.

9-6-6-2-11       11.  Ralph Dale DAILY, b. 22 Jan 1932, Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri.

                        12.  Frona Naomi DAILY, b. 26 Jan 1935, (the day her mother died), Bethany, Harrison County, Missouri. Married: Roscoe Williams WALL.

                        13.  (adopted) William Martin DAILY, b. 4 Jan 1943


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9-6-6-2-3         ROSS WILLIAM DAILY

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Frona-Wesley-Martha-Cynthia-Lydia-John-James

                                              Fred-Mary Ann-George-Lydia-John-James


          Ross was born in Bethany, Cypress Township, Harrison County, Missouri 17 October 1915. He was married about 1937 in Bethany to Helen CRABTREE, born 1 July 1918 in Harrison County, the daughter of Henry CRABTREE. At some time after their marriage, Ross and Helen, along with Ross' brother, George, moved to California. The brothers opened Daily Saw Service in Southgate, near Los Angeles.

          In 1979, Ross was still owner of the business but had retired from actively participating and had moved to Fallbrook, where he runs an avocado grove. In 1979, Ross and Helen's address was - 400055 Ross Road, Fallbrook, San Diego County, California.

 

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9-6-6-2-11       RALPH DALE DAILY


Ewing Family Lineage:      Frona-Wesley-Martha-Cynthia-Lydia-John-James

                                              Fred-Mary Ann-George-Lydia-John-James


          Making contact with Ralph was a turning point in my early search for the Burris family. He had collected much material on his family, the junior George Burris', and was able to supply information on early Burris relatives, as well.

          In the family book he put together after the death of his father in 1969, Ralph included a sketch about himself. So Ralph will tell you his own story:

          "I was born (22 January 1932) on a farm 3 1/2 miles west of the town of Bethany. The earliest event I recall in this life was my mother returning from a visit to Kansas to see her brother, the summer or fall of 1934. I was about 2 1/2 years old at the time. I remember my mother passing away when my sister was born, but I remember very little afterwards until I started school in 1937.

          "I attended Burton, a small country school where all eight grades were in the same room. Each grade was a row in the classroom, and the teacher would teach one class awhile and then move onto the next while that class studied. There was a coal stove at one end of the room for heat, and a well with a hand pump for drinking and washing hands.

          "Each pupil took his or her lunch in a paper sack or wrapped in newspapers with a string around it. It seemed mine was always peanut butter and crackers or peanut butter and homemade bread, with an apple.

          "During the third grade we moved 1/2 mile east during March, which seemed to be the month everyone moved. We moved in a box wagon, pulled by a pair of mules.

          "Few people who didn't live in a rural area during the 1930s can realize the way things were then. We had an outdoor toilet, which made the Sears catalog famous before toilet tissue was heard of. When I was about 6, a cyclone blew this facility away along with some other buildings and our chicken house roof, leaving us with the whole outdoors for bathroom facilities! We hauled our water in 5 and 10 gallon cream cans from about 1/4 mile away on a sled pulled by a mule or horse. We made pickles and sauerkraut in 10 gallon fruit jars. Our meat was smoked, covered with salt and hung up in the smokehouse until used. Turnips and carrots were kept by digging a deep hole and lining it with straw, putting them in and covering them with first straw and then dirt, deep enough so they wouldn't freeze. In this manner, they would keep all winter.

          "Water for washing clothes was heated in a large, round cast iron kettle outside, over a wood fire. We churned our butter in a fruit jar by shaking it, made cottage cheese by letting milk clabber, then straining off the liquid, and churned our ice cream from fresh cream in a hand crank freezer,

          "We made our mattresses from feathers and slept under many quilts in the winter, as the wood stove would burn out at night, and water would freeze up in the house.

          "Not being old enough to do a lot of the hard work, life did not seem so bad to kids my age in the 1930s. To grown-ups it couldn't have been worse.

          "In 1940 my dad was elected sheriff of Harrison County. It seemed we moved from rags to riches in one day. The sheriff's living quarters were on the top floor of the new courthouse the county had built the previous year.

          "I attended grade school at Bethany Public School and finished in Bethany High School. I was an average student as far as grades were concerned, with history being my favorite subject. I played football and basketball and went out for track, was on the staff of the school paper in my senior year, and played in the band all four years. I was class treasurer my first two years, class president in my third and president of the student body as a senior. I worked most of the time I was growing up. Starting at the age 12, I worked for Noll's Grocery Store on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. for $1.50. Then I worked at the Corner Drug Store after schools and Saturdays until I graduated, receiving $9 a week for 38 hours.

          "I left Bethany the day after I graduated and came to California to work for my brothers Bob and Ross, who had started the Daily Saw Service. I started out driving a route making deliveries, then I learned every job in the shop. As of this date I am superintendent, responsible for all the work that goes out of the shop.

          "A year after I came to California, in 1950, the Korean War started. My brother Ned and I had joined the Marine Reserves, so we went overseas as soon as we could be processed. We were both assigned to S-2, the Intelligence section of our battalion. We landed at Wonson on the East Coast of Korea, and later took part in the Chosin Reservoir campaign, in which the whole Marine division was trapped.

          "Our unit was the farthest inland when the high command decided to fight its way to the sea, 75 miles away. My first real taste of combat occurred during this withdrawal. We had moved in trucks from the east side of the reservoir all day long, arriving at Yudam-Ni at almost dark. The ground was frozen hard, which made digging in an almost impossible task. There was light snow on the ground and the temperature was around 30 degrees below zero. The wind was blowing down from Manchuria, and it was so cold it hurt your lungs to breathe. A defense perimeter was set up hurriedly, with no one thinking nearly as much of the enemy as how to keep from freezing during the night. Our sleeping bags were supposedly to keep us warm to 30 degrees below zero, but we had some nights down to 35 degrees below, with some men not surviving. We had seven men freeze to death one cold night.

          "One night I did not have to go on the main line, as we were unloading a truck load of our dead men. This was a grisly business when it was night, as many of them were dismembered. They were wrapped in ponchos, but some were headless and now and then a whole leg would fall out by itself. Ned and I had volunteered to do this, as no one wanted the job, but someone had to do it. However, this put Ned and me on the secondary line of defense when the big attack came that night.

          "This night was a particularly rough night for Ned, as he was also suffering from the flu. When the attack came, the enemy overran some companies killing most of our men, some had five or six survivors. This whole night was a nightmare with artillery flashes, shells exploding, the enemy blowing bugles and screaming. We survived that night and shored up our defense the next day, with many of our units not existing anymore. This type of combat cannot be explained to someone who has not experienced it personally, and I shall not try, as many books have been written on this Chosin Reservoir campaign alone.

          "Our prisoners kept telling us we were hopelessly trapped and there was no possible way out. Even the news on the radio said it looked like we had been annihilated. By this time the Air Force had started dropping us more ammo and hand grenades, as we were OUT! At this time another Marine named LANDOWSKI and I were sent through our lines and forward approximately 1/2 mile on a scouting mission to the top of a mountain. From this point we could see the enemy coming over the hills like ants. We knew that this was no place for two guys to be by themselves, so we reported our findings back to headquarters.

          "After two or three days of holding our positions, we started our break out toward Hagaru-Ri, which was 17 miles down a very narrow mountain road. By the time this ordeal was finished, and our link-up was completed, many of us had gone five days and four nights without sleep, except the few winks we could get standing up. Many men simply fell over in the snow. By now it had warmed slightly, and started to snow. Some men would fall over in the snow and it would soon cover them over completely if someone didn't seem them and kick them until they started moving again.

          "During this time we had no water, as it would freeze, but we could press snow in a ball and use it for water without freezing our throat, as snow is supposed to do. We had no food, as it was frozen so hard that you couldn't chisel out a bean from a can with your bayonet. To me, this first 17 miles was the worst part of the whole break-out, although we still had 60 move miles to go. We had linked up with more Marines, some tanks, and were now a fairly good-sized fighting force. Before this ordeal was over, we were to find out the enemy was suffering as bad or worse from the cold, as they had only tennis shoes (cotton padded, quilted type) and when they once got wet, these men were as good as dead, as once their feet froze, they couldn't keep moving and there was no survival. Many of them had their feet turn black from freezing and some of the soles of their feet would slough away leaving the whole bottom of the foot an open sore. Possibly this was one of the main factors in our successful withdrawal, as we were outnumbered so heavily.

          "I could write a book on my experiences in this conflict, but a million other guys have been through the same thing. I was a very average Marine, no better and no worse than the bulk of the troops. I served 14 months in the combat zone, the rest of my time being in the rear or the States. Out of our company of 200 men who went over together, six came back without an injury, my brother Ned and I being two of them.

          "In all, I took part in five major campaigns, for which our regiment received two Presidential Unit Citations, and we also received the Korean Service medal, American Defense Medal, United Nations Medal, the Good Conduct Award, the Navy Unit Citation and medals for Marine Reserve and Japanese Occupation.

          "When I was discharged in 1952 I went back to work for my brothers, whose shop had certainly grown. When I first came to California to work for them, they had approximately six employees, and we now have about 100.

          "I married Marily JAMESON, the girl I had gone with before I went into the service. We were married in South Gate, California (5 September 1952) in the Presbyterian Church. A better wife no man could have found.

          "We have five children; Cindy, Terry and Donna, and John and Danny whom we adopted by proxy from Korea in 1960, sight unseen.

          Now, in 1970, we have a 16 acre avocado and lime ranch, with 1,350 trees planted. All the work has been done by my family and me on weekends. We have approximately 40,000 feet of pipe underground in our sprinkler system, which is controlled by automatic electric valves.

          "We are members of Grace Baptist Church in Downey. We were most active in church activities earlier in our married life, before we started weekend farming, Marilyn serving as Chairwoman of the Deaconesses, and I as Chairman of the Trustees."

          Ralph has told it well.......All that can be added is that Marilyn was born 3 May 1934, in Erie, Pennsylvania and that she is the daughter of Harold and Alice (CLAUSSON) JAMESON, and the Daileys live in LaHabra Heights, California .

 

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9-7    MILTON BURRIS

 

Ewing Family Lineage:      Lydia-John-James


          (...handwritten on the face of Milton's first sheet is "whole new ballgame here..see record." Unable to find record referred to, so will print what Nancy has down. But, for those researching Milton's descendancy, be aware that after Nancy wrote the following, other information on Milton came to light. BP)

          Milton was born in Milton Township, Jackson County, Ohio in 1828. As the "baby" of the family, he stuck around home past the normal marrying age. He was 27 years old before he found Rosa "Rosey" MC KIBBEN. Rosa was born in 1834 in Columbiana County, Ohio. They were married in Jackson County, 7 May 1855.

          Milton's brother, William, had gone to Missouri in 1842 and died there along with his wife by 1854, leaving seven offspring to fend for themselves. Did Milton decide it behooved him to go out to Missouri and look after things? Is that what prompted him and Rosa to head for the "Show Me State" right after their marriage?

          Whatever the reason, Harrison County is where the newlyweds decided to cast their lot, and they were the next of the Burris family to head west.

          Of course, Milton's sisters and families, the McCrays and the Hawks, his brother, George Jr. and even Milton's parents, George Sr and Lydia, themselves were not far behind, and before long Harrison County was swarming with Burris'

          But because he was among the early arrivals, Milton had a chance to establish himself and he acquired much property in Cypress Township during his years there. He had 340 acres in Section 16, 160 acres in Section 15 and 80 acres in Section 21... 580 acres all told, all contiguous. The Burris home was in Section 15. In the 1876 ATLAS, all this property was under "Estate of M. Burris."

          Milton and Rosa were among those who helped establish the Mitchelville Church in 1869 and Milton was on the church's building committee.

          It was at their home that Milton's parents spent their last days, dying there in 1872. Milton himself, was not far behind them. He died in 1874, when he was only 46 years old and he is buried in the Burris Cemetery.

          When the HARRISON COUNTY ATLAS came out in 1876, one of the patrons listed was "Mrs. Rose Burris, Pleasant Ridge, Cypress Township." She died in 1879, at only 45 years of age and is buried with Milton in the Burris Cemetery.

          ISSUE:

                 1.     George Kenton BURRIS, b. June 1857, Missouri. Married: about 1878, Fannie C. Bourt, b. 1859, Ohio, d. 1890-1900. 1880: Cypress farmer, his sister Effie with them. 1900: Bethany Township farmer, his widowed cousin, Clinton B. BURRIS, b. 1856, Ohio, son of William A. BURRIS (not of our descendancy) with them.

Issue:

                        1.    Milton BURRIS, b. 1879, Missouri.

                        2.    Jessie BURRIS, b. Nov 1880

                        3.    Gary B. BURRIS, b. Feb 1885

                        4.    Samuel J. BURRIS, b. May 1887 d. 1906. Buried: Burris Cemetery.

                        5.    Nora M. BURRIS, b. July 1890

                        6.     Mabel BURRIS, b. 1893 d. 1895. Buried: Burris Cemetery.

                 2.    James Benton BURRIS, b. 1858, Missouri, d. 1902, Buried: Burris Cemetery. Married: about 1879, Sarah M. Meloney, b. 1862, Ohio, d. 1897, Buried: Burris Cemetery. 1880: Cypress farmer, his brother Stephen, 18 with them.

                        Known issue:

                        1.    Infant daughter Burris, b&d 1896. Buried with parents, Burris Cemetery.


           * another handwritten notation...(BP)

              a granddaughter is Doris Jane SMITH, born 1916, cousin also of William C. BURRIS of Alexandria, Virginia.

 

                 3.    Lewis Kosciusco BURRIS, b. 1859 d. 1888, Missouri. Buried: Burris Cemetery, next to mother. 1880: with family of William and Jane ALLEN.

                 4.    Stephen Douglas BURRIS, b. Nov 1860, Missouri, d. 1914 Buried: Burris Cemetery. Married: 1885, Fannie M. Scott, b. Apr 1866, Missouri, parents from Pennsylvania

                        Known issue:

                        1.    Fred D. BURRIS, b. Jan 1886, Missouri, d. 1967, Buried: Burris Cemetery with parents, no wife.

                        2.    Effie M. BURRIS, b. 1866, Missouri. 13 years old when mother died. 1880: 14, with brother George.


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