Joshua Jonathan BURKS (son of William & Lucinda (NORMAN) BURKS) was
born Oct 10, 1847 in Arkansas. His mother died in Arkansas and William returned
to Georgia with J.J. and his sister Mary E. According to family tradition,
William soon remarried, but the wife (name unknown) was so cruel to the
children that the marriage soon ended. J.J.'s father then married a kind,
loving woman (Unity) who was very good to the children. William and Unity
left Henry County and went to Coosa County, Alabama. The 1860 Census of
Coosa County lists Unity as a widow and head of a household. After William's
death, Unity had her own children, plus the two stepchildren and had no
way of supporting them. J.J. wa sent back to Clayton County, Georgia to
live with his uncle Dave NORMAN. During his early years, J.J. went to school
only long enough to learn to read, but not to write. After he was living
with the NORMAN family, he went to a writing school with the help of his
cousin Yancy BARTON. (Yancy's mother was a sister to Lucinda (NORMAN) BURKS)
On Dec 24, 1871 in Clayton County GA, J.J. married Elmina MITCHELL (daughter
of Thomas & Elizabeth (RUFF) MITCHELL) in a civil ceremony conducted
by A.P. Adamson, Justice of the Peace. Elmina wa born Aug 17, 1851 in Clayton
County GA. J.J. and Elmina lived in Clayton County for approximately six
years, then moved to the Brachfield Community of Rusk County TX in the early
months of 1877. There they began farming and raising their family. They
joined the Zion Hill Baptist Church in July 1877. Being active and faithful
members of that church, J.J. was ordained as a deacon on July 31, 1886.
According to church records, on Sep 2, 1893 he was recognized as "having
the gift of exhortation." On Jan 4, 1901 he was ordained as a minister
and began pastoring churches all over Rusk County.
For a time he was a circuit riding missionary, serving churches as far away
as the Flatwoods Community in the extreme southeastern portion of neighboring
Panola County. J.J. loved to sing religious music. His daughter Lee (BURKS)
CRAWFORD remembered his favorites as being some of the Sacred Harp songs
such as #288 "White", #418 "Rees" and #470 "There
We Our Jesus Shall Adore". On Aug 28 1913 the family was gathered so
the men could help Dr. Tim Deason cut hay. After lunch J.J. suddenly felt
ill. Someone fixed him a pallet on the porch of his house so the afternoon
breeze could help him stay cool. He laid down and requested that the women
and girls go on singing hymns as they had been doing to amuse themselves.
Suddenly he turned very blue and said simply, "I'm gone!" and
he died. He was buried in Zion Hill Baptist Church Cemetery near him home.
Elmina then became the strong head of the family, continuing to live on
in the home J.J. had built upon their arrival in Texas. A quiet, unassuming
woman, Elmina loved her family and worked hard at keeping the family unit
strong. Elmina died June 21, 1940 at her home and was also buried in Zion
Hill Cemetery. Two months after her death, her children, remembering how
they had always gathered to celebrate her birthday, decided the most fitting
memorial to their mother would be to hold a family reunion each year on
the Sunday closest to her birthday. That tradition, begun in 1940, continues
today with the 57th Burks Reunion being held on Sunday, Aug 10, 1997, over
a half century after Elmina's death, reinforcing the family ties she felt
were so important.
Children of J.J. and Elmina (MITCHELL) BURKS: 12
Lydia Florence Burks 1872-1951
Georgia Ann Russ Burks 1874-1902
William Clifford Burks 1876-1954
Tommie Elizabeth Burks 1878-1936
Martin Edward Burks 1880-1959
Wyatt Alden Burks 1882-1942
Lexie Jane Burks 1885-1963
Eddie Ollie Lee Burks 1888-1973
Rufus Columbus Burleson Burks 1892-1975
Stewart Joshua Burks 1892-1975
Infant son Burks 1894-1894
Emma Odessa Burks 1896-1975
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Here is another installment of my BURKS stuff. But, first, a little personal
note. I began genealogical research about 25 years ago when research was
so very difficult unless you lived near the few metropolitan areas where
there were good research libraries. I remember well how quickly the jubilation
of finding a new scrap of information was replaced with the gloom of knowing
that now you had to retype many pages of data just to put the new tidbit
in it's proper place. Of course, the natural offshoot of that is that I
have file folders chock full of scraps of paper with scraps of information
that never got dovetailed into place. Early on, I assigned my research the
umbrella
title of "How Did We Get From Here to There?" because that is
the fascination to me - the converging and diverging of families and locations
made all the more interesting by the melody of the "old-timey"
names and the harmonious flow of the same names repeated generation
after generation.
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The following is a piece my grandmother Lee (BURKS) CRWAFORD wrote for me
in 1966. Lee (1888-1973) was the daughter of Joshua Jonathan and Elmina
(METCHELL) BURKS.
The head of the Bruks family as we know it in Ruck County TX was born in
Arkansas where his mother passed away from this life when he was nine weeks
old. When his father, witha little sister and Joshua, returned to Georgia
where he remarried. Not ever having heard Papa say, I don't know how soon,
nor how long they lived together, but she treated them badly. Papa remembered
that well enough. He said that once when his father was away on business
(I suppose) he left the house and went into a corn field that was in roasting
ear and crawled into a hollow log and spent the night while bears came to
eat the corn. He said he was more afraid to return to the house and his
stepmother than of the growling bears. His father separated from this wife
and later married another who was very kind and good to him. After a few
years his father passed away. Joshua was nine years old at this time.
The kind stepmother had little children of her own, so she had to let the
larger stepchildren go for she could not care for them all. Joshua went
to his Uncle Dave Norman, who was his mother's brother. Only once did the
kind stepmother have to scold Joshua. He was near her when she hit him once
with a wet cloth which was in her hand. He said it did not hurt him other
than to hurt his feelings badly. When he was having to leave her to do to
another place to live, he said she washed his face and hands, combed his
hair and then gave him a goodby kiss. I don't recall ever hearing Papa say
what her name was, or even what his own father's name was. Isn't it pitiful
we don't know that?
Our Father went to school only enough to barely learn to read and could
not write. He said a writing school was beginning near by and he wanted
to go, but Uncle Dave said, "No, you must plow." So as he was
plowing a cousin of his came along and, seeing him, stopped and asked why
he wasn't going to the school. This cousin was Yancy Barton. Yancy said,
"Well, you are going. I will pay your expenses and see that the plowing
gets done." Except for the goodness of that cousin, Papa would not
have known how to write.
Cousin Yancy Barton's sister, Elizabeth, became the wife of Joshua Crow.
I remember them. Some of their descendants are living near and most of our
family knows them. R.E. Rogers is their grandson. Maud Crow is their grandson.
Rev. T.A. Crow who taught science in Beckville High School is a great grandson.
Dr. John Rousseau's children are great grandchildren of Joshua and Elizabeth
Crow.
Levi Crow married Ollie Burks, she was a sister of our Father's father.
Will Jones who lives in Henderson and his sisters are grandchildren of Aunt
Ollie and Uncle Levi.
Our Father married Elmina Mitchell near Christmas of 1871. She was a true
Christian young lady and I have often said that she preached the Gospel
as much (if not more) than he did. He being a proud man and having a large
family which he was proud of and he wanted them to be well cared for, thought
that he must stay at home to make a living for them. Mama said that he left
Georgia and came to Texas running from the call to preach. But the Lord
had laid his hand on him and sent one chastisement after another on him
until he was middle age. Mama told him to go and preach, that she and the
children could do the farming, the two older sons (or should I say three)
being almost men, so he surrendered to preach and was ordained by the Missionary
Baptist Church of Zion Hill in Rusk County.
So, the Rev. J.J. Burks began to pastor churches, to name a few of them:
Pleasant Hill, north of Henderson; County Line, 4 or 5 miles east of Kilgore;
Sulphur Springs, west of Mt. Enterprise; Sweet Gum Grove, some miles west
of Minden and many others.
To the best of my memory he was elected missionary for the Mt. Zion Association
for 1907-1908. This included Panola County also. His work was mostly east
of the Sabine River in what is now the Deadwood Community of Panola County.
Often times he would be gone from home six or eight weeks without us hearing
from him. Let's call to memory here that in those days travel was by horse
power, which is different. If the minutes of this association could be found,
they would probably yield more information.
Papa loved good milk cows for his family to have at home. This needed and
succulent food was always the best that could be had back then in those
days so many years ago. He also usually raised horses and mules and kept
the best for the use of his family. The stock was well cared for and always
ready when called on for service. As each daughter married, or became mature,
they were given a heifer or milk cow of their choice from whatever was in
the herd. Of course, since farming was the general occupation back then,
as each son became about 18 years of age, Papa began to look around for
a work animal - horse or mule - to give that son. Also, on the morning of
each son's twenty-first birthday, Father would have a special talk with
them about what they might do in the future and whether or not they desired
to further their education, if so he would help them financially as far
as he was able.
I remember Mama saying that Papa had half brothers that were fine looking
men, large men, who were good singers.
When our father was home, at a certain time every day, he would walk off,
crossing the road that was in front of the house and go down a cow trail
that led through the forest and into the cow pasture. Many times I wondered
why he was going or where he went. Oft times he asked Mama to accompany
him. Years later I learned that he went to a large tree where he knelt to
commune with our heavenly Father.
Father loved singing, especially church hymns. He said, "When you sing
these, do so in rememberance of me." He loved children and to play
and joke with them. He also loved company. Often, while sitting on the front
porch near noon, he would see some friend going down the road. Papa would
call and stop them and invite them to eat with us, knowing that Mama most
always had plenty cooked.
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The following is a piece written in 1978 by Allen (CRAWFORD) WATSON describing
her parents Chester Cortez and Lee (BURKS) CRAWFORD:
Eddie Ollie Lee Burks, eighth child of the Rev. J.J. Burks and Elmina Mitchell
Burks married Chester Cortez Crawford on December 22, 1909. Lee's father,
the Rev. J.J. Burks performed the ceremony in the open hall of his home
in the Brachfield Community of Rusk County, Texas.
Lee was born, raised and married all in the same house. She was a good reader
even in her early years, often reading from the Bibly for her father when
he was tired from working so hard in the fields. When she finished the school
at Patrick Community, she spent six weeks in Henderson at a summer Normal.
That enabled her to get her teacher's certificate so she could teach school.
The taught at Liberty School in the eastern edge of Rusk County for two
years. Tehn she taught at Brooks School in the western edge of Panola County.
After teaching one year there she married and devoted her time to rearing
her family that eventually grew to include four boys and three girls. She
was well known for being and excellent cook and a talented seamstress.
Lee's love of reading was a constant thing and her knowledge of the Bible
and her school teaching experience made her a valuable member of her church.
She did not give up teaching Sunday School classes or holding women's Bible
Study lessons until forced to by declining health and failing eyesight after
she was past eighty years of age.
Chester was born and reared on a farm the was located along the Panola-Rusk
county line. He quit school when he was in the fourth grade, but continued
his education by a life-long habit of constant reading. In 1914 he left
his wife and two children with her parents in Brachfield while he went to
barber college in Houston. He and his brother Sam Crawford had a shop together
for several years in the Pine Hill Community in Rusk County. Then Chester,
with a growing family, began to work his farm for five days a week and cut
hair with Sam on Saturdays. In 1920 Chester opened his own barber shop in
Beckville in Panola County and soon moved his family there. In his later
years he worked in a barber shop in Carthage and, having never owned a car
or learned to drive, he hitch-hiked to and from work regardless of the weather.
Chester and Lee lived out the balance of their lives in Beckville. They
were devoted to each other, to their expanding family and to their church.
Although both have now passed on, they are still remembered by their family
and by a host of friends.
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When Elmina (MITCHELL) BURKS (1851-1940) and her husband, J.J., came to
TX in 1877, she brought with her a notebook in which she had written
down receipes given to her by her mother and other women in Clayton Co,
GA. The following is her receipe for Old Fashion Tea Cakes. In later
years, Elmina's daughter Lee (BURKS) CRAWFORD (1887-1973) adjusted the
receipe to conform to moderm measurements.
OLD FASHION TEA CAKES
1/2 cup butter 1-1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs 2 cups flour
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla
Cream butter and sugar until smooth, add eggs and beat well. Add
vanilla and beat well. Sift one cup of the flour together with the
baking powder and add to mixture, beat well. Add remaining cup of flour
and beat well. Knead on a well-floured surface, roll very thin and cut
with cookie cutter. Bake in a hot oven just until edges of cookies
start to brown. Immediately upon removal from the oven, sprinkle tops
of cookies with sugar.