The Burden Family

Transcribed from "Ye Old Ancestors", Written By Frances Poer Fox
This column originally appeared in the Bowie County Citizens Tribune, on November 12, 1992

For a number of years John MEADOWS has been collecting information about the BURDEN family and now he is allowing the New Boston Gen. Society to copy his work and put it on our shelf. Mr. and Mrs. MEADOWS have made trips and written many letters and enjoyed making this collection. It is very generous of them to put all this material on the library shelf but is also insures that their work will not be destroyed and that their family will have free access to the correct information that they have found in old Bibles and documents and from older family members.

The earliest members of the family mentioned are Absalom Abram Abraham BURDEN, born 1802 probably in Abbeville District, South Carolina and his wife Elizabeth HUGHEY born 1801. At some point they moved to Bankstow in Choctaw County, Mississippi. Their sixth child, John BURDEN 1820-1860 was born in South Carolina and died at Bankstow, Miss. John BURDEN married Mary Elizabeth McMILLEN in 1834 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. They had two daughters, Permillia Ann and Sarah Ann, and then Mary Elizabeth McMILLEN BURDEN died in 1850. John BURDEN married again to Nancy Caroline BUTLER about 1851. There were six children in the second family and four of these children moved to Red River County and Bowie County, Texas. The six children of John BURDEN and Nancy Caroline BUTLER BURDEN were: (1) William Louis "Will" BURDEN, 1852-1939, married Mattie BEARDEN, buried at Avery, Texas; (2) Nancy Elizabeth BURDEN, 1852-1859, born and died at Bankstow, in Choctaw County, Miss.; (3) Virginia Caroline BURDEN, 1855-1931, buried at Sand Hill Cemetery in Bowie County, Texas; (4) Thomas Pleasant "Pleas{ BURDEN, 1857-1907, married first Martha Elizabeth MELTON, second Tennessee GOATS, buried at Sand Hill Cemetery in Bowie County, Texas; (5) Charles Wesley BURDEN, 1859-1916, married Samantha Ardelia MELTON, buried at Center Hill Cemetery in Red River County, Texas. John MEADOWS is a descendant of Virginia Caroline BURDEN and John Franklin ORR who were the original owners of the big country store at Siloam. Their family is recorded in the ORR FAMILY BOOK that was also compiled by John MEADOWS and is on the library shelf. An article has been written about this family.

** We will take up the family of Thomas Pleasant BURDEN since he had fourteen children and many of them lived here in Bowie County. His first wife, Mary Elizabeth MELTON, 1859-1885m was born in Homes County, Mississippi and was the mother of the first four children: (1) L. A. BURDEN, 1878-1879, in Searcy County, Arkansas; (2) John Thomas BURDEN, 1880-1949, married Myrtle BARNES; (3) Walter G. BURDEN, 1882-1916, married Nora S. POUNCEY, buried at Sand Hill Cemetery; (4) Charles Franklin BURDEN, born 1884.

The second wife of Thomas Pleasant BURDEN was Tennessee Jane GOATS, 170-1949, daughter of David GOATS and Sarah BENTON. They were married in Van Buren County, Arkansas and she was the mother of ten children: (1) William David BURDEN, 1890-1954, married Ila J. ATCHLEY; (2) Joseph Ansil BURDEN, 1892-1961, married Nancy NUNN, buried in Memorial Gardens in Miller County, Arkansas; (3) John B. BURDEN, 1889-1894, born in Van Buren County, Arkansas; (4) Pleas Madison BURDEN, born in 1895 in Trace Ridge Community, in Van Buren County, Ark.; (5) Harley Calvin BURDEN, 1897-1979; (6) Martin A. BURDEN, 1899-1903; (7) George B. BURDEN, born in 1902; (8) Nancy A. BURDEN, born and died in 1904; (9) Sallie Caroline BURDEN, born in 1905, married Henry Newton GRANBERRY; (10) Bessie Lee Wilma BURDEN, 1907-1912, in Bowie County, Texas.

These are just a few of the records on the BURDEN family that has lived here in Bowie County compiled by John MEADOWS. He has many pictures of family members and documents in his book. If you have kept records on your family, please consider preserving your work by putting copies of it in the genealogical department of a public library. If you would like for us to make the copies, we will be happy to do that.