A word before I introduce my next subject..
Beginners in Genealogy quickly discover common ancestors for many people in the small communities of Western Kentucky. Families in this part of the country are intertwined, intermarried and jokingly will say, (but sometimes true) inbreed, in many ways and through many generations our roots run very deep indeed. While researching connected families to my own tree and families connected through marriage, its not uncommon to find that our small communities are the result of a small group of families that first came to this area for many reasons such as to settle on Revolutionary Land Grants and the promise of fertile land and land full of wild game to sustain a family. These early pioneers came by oxen carts and wagons with supplies, families and livestock through the Cumberland Gap. The rivers that surround the area provided food resources and alternative transportation for migration into the region using Flatboats from The Falls at Louisville. Early settlers came from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina migrating into Tennessee and Kentucky. With that said, I am discovering the life of a woman who is a part of a family that is one of those "inter-connected" to my family.
I dedicate this Blog post to my niece Madison Case and my precious little baby angel nephew Lucas, who never lost his wings or suffered the burdens of this world. This is for you both...
Bessie F. "Mammie" Burden - Atherton - Rowen
I met Bessie's Great Grandson when he was 17 years old the winter of 1994. I had moved to Livermore after I divorced and was living with my sister and her family until I could get settled.
One winter day while listen to local chatter on the home base CB radio of my brother-in-laws I heard this young man who sounded very near and very loud. I asked him who he was and in this big voice he said, "Well they call me Big D!" he quickly figured out where I was and told me we were neighbors and I lived next door to his Dad. At any rate to make a long story short, I made friends with this young man. He married my little sister and the rest is history. I could not ask for a better brother and he is loved dearly by the whole family. So, while preparing for this blog I wondered what interesting ancestor should we expose this time? I have been working on Dwayne;s (Big D) family tree for a number of years and I remembered Bessie. Aha! What a wonderful and colorful life the records tell me about Bessie. I contacted Dwayne's Mother and asked her if she would mind if I wrote about Bessie...
Bessie's Grand Daughter, Marilyn Smith Huckleberry gave me her blessings by telling me some quick memories of her Grandmother whom she called, "Mammie"
"I called her Mammie, she was my second Mother. She had a hard life. I remember her freezing in the mornings and there was ice on the Kitchen walls where it was so cold. She would build fires in her coal stoves, she had one in every room."
Memories that first came to her mind of her Mammie do indeed describe a hard life and she understood Mammie had a hard life not just at the end but through-out her entire life. One thing about Mammie that I have learned by listening to her family talk about her and through pictures is that she knew how to make the best out of what little she had and enjoyed life.
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| Map of McLean County, Kentucky |
Bessie Burden was born on the 30th of September 1908 in Livermore, Kentucky to Richard or Henry Ellis Burden and Ora Ann Taylor.
To understand Bessie I studied the census records of her parents. Ora Taylor Burden and Ellis Burden worked very hard in Livermore all of their lives to care for their family.
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| Ora Taylor Burden, Ellis Burden and Grandson Melvin Howard |
Picture from the Linda Anderson Genealogy collection, Granddaughter of Melvin Howard.