PROTECTED CONTENT

If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.

Lost your password?

Username and Password Help

Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.

← Back

Scott County Chronicle

Vol. 15 No. 2 September/October, 2024 – Published by the Scott County Historical Society, Editor; David Jeffers

The History Of The Burke Family

As Told By W.H. Blevins (1869-1964)

The name Burke is of German origin, which means stronghold or castle. The first Burkes to settle in Scott Co., Tenn. were Jonathan, Huts, Allen and Peter. Four brothers that came from North Carolina and settled on the banks of the Big South Fork River near Nobusiness and Station Camp.
Allen and Peter settled down on Rock Creek where they lived and died. Allen’s wife, Aunt Betsy, was the only doctor they had. She would take a ham, meat, or a bushel of potatoes for her pay.
Huts Burke settled on Nobusiness where he married Mary Harden and they had no children. He helped Capt. Joe Newport cut the Monticello trail through from Dry Branch in Rock Creek, Ky. to the mouth of Nobusiness on the Big South Fork in Tenn. in the year 1868.
Huts made and sold gun powder to the hunters. It was said that Huts Burke was buried on Nobsuiness Creek. Dry Branch Creek was often referred to as Huts Branch because he cut the trail through here in 1868. There is no known record of his birth and death.
Jonathan Burke, the ancestor of all the Burkes in Scott County, married Nancy McCoy. He built a large log house west of the river between Parchcorn and Nobusiness Creeks at what is known as the Duck Shoals, and was living there when that battle was fought in 1863. The slain were buried on the river bank near the home of Jonathan Burke. Capt. LaRue ran into the river. His body was found four miles from the scene of the conflict at the mouth of Nobusiness Creek and was buried in the Big Island of the river on Nobusiness.
Jonathan Burke was buried on Station Camp Creek where the present home site of the late Kirk Phillips now stands. It was said that Jonathan Burke died in 1875. His wife, Nancy, left Tenn. with her son, Peter, en route to Oklahoma in 1889. She was buried somewhere in the state of Texas. (Texas joins Oklahoma).
They were the parents of nine children, six boys and three girls. The boys were Peter, Lewis, Granville, Hayden (born May 7, 1828, died March 1903 ), Johnny and Harmon. Peter, Hayden, Johnny and Harmon died in Oklahoma. The girls were Elizabeth (Betty), Polly and Susan (or Sally).
Susan (or Sally) married Bill Miller. (The Millers were better known as Milligans). Their children were Bill Hade, Jack, Fred, Veda and Ida. Bill Hade married Ganzeda Slaven.
Veda married W.I. Belt. Their children were Inez, Johnnie, Willie and May. Ida married Grant Pullum. Their children were May and Willie. Jack and Fred never married. Jack lost an arm in the cotton gin of Lawrence Burke, son of John Burke, in Oklahoma. Inez Belt married Oca Kelso and Johnnie married Mr. H. V. Uri.
Polly Burke married Rene Carson. She had three boys, John, Bill and Peter. Her oldest son was known as fiddler John Carson. He erected a shelter over the grave of Jonathan Burke on Station Camp Creek. John was never married. Bill Carson married a daughter of James Smith or Shafter Slaven … (Hattie Smith, daughter of James).
Polly Burke Carson died about the year 1900. Lewis, Johnny and Harmon fought through the Civil War. Johnny was a captain. His son, John, was a doctor in Oklahoma. They went to Oklahoma in the 1870s and was living there at the timeof their death.
Peter Carson married Lurania Owens, their children were: John:, married Myrtle Lambert and had two sons, Howard and Lawrence; John, born June 9, 1883 died Nov. 23, 1968. He had four grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Mrs. Shafter, Frona Slaven and Mrs. Ezra Slaven.
Jonathan Burke was born Aug. 28, 1797, died Aug. 14, 1875. Buried on Station Camp Creek. Age 78.
Betty Burke married William R. (Riley) Hatfield and had five boys and three girls. The boys were Granville, Willilam Clay, Harmon L. (known as Unc.), Lewis, Johnson B. The girls were Nancy Ellen, born Dec. 26, 1849, died June 23, 1917; Telitha (known as Lizzie Ann); and Dood.
Granville married Susie Kidd, daughter of Bily and Etta Smith Kidd. Their children were Lewis, Cal, Isaac, Bill, Martha, Nancy and Betty.
Martha married John Davis. Nancy married Grady King. Betty married Bill Cabrich. Bill (n ‘68’ in his 80s)married Lucy McCoslin.
Harmon L. married Lizzie Smith. Their children were Bell, Lizzie and Nevada.
Johnson B. married Mary Roysden. Lewis married ___ Slaven. William Clay married ___ Roysden, and Telitha and Dood married brothers. Telitha married Phil Davis and Dood married Tom Davis.
Other Hatfields, Jack and Dick, believed to be William R. Hatifield’s sons. Dick’s second wife was Poppy Litton Blevins, daughter of John and Elvira Doss Litton, and widow of the late Harvey Blevins (1879-1939). They had no children.
Wiliam R. Hatfield was buried on Station Camp Creek. His wife, Betty, and four or five of their children were members of the New Zion Church at Station Camp. The church met at their home in 1878. A number of Hatfields joined the group of Burkes en route to Oklahoma in 1878 and 1889.
William R. (Riley) Hatifield was buried on Station Camp Creek. His wife, Betty, and her mother, Nancy McCoy.
Burke, and three of her brothers, Peter, Johnny and Hayden Burke, were buried in the Massey Cemetery about 20 miles north of McAlexter, Okla. in Pittsburg Co. Hayden’s wife, Nancy Lewallen Burke, was buried in the Community Cemetery near the fork of Gaines Creek near Canadian, Okla., which is now under the waters of Lake Eufaula.
W.R. Hatfield – born June 24, 1824, died Feb. 16, 1892.
Nancy Ellen Hatifield married Kirby King, born June 4, 1846, died May 15, 1935. A veteran of the Civil War. Their children were John, Isaac ( 1887- l957), Josiah, Joe, Calvin, Millie, Susannah, Martha and Mary Gordan died in infancy. Kirby’s second wife was Linnie __ They had two sons, Moses Aaron and Paul Kenneth, killed in action. John married Betty Griffith. They had Violet, Viola, Ethel and Henry. Joe King married Vicy Phillips. Their children were Gertrude, Ruby, Edmund, Corbett and Edgard, Calvin married Kissy Phillips. They had Cora, Mary, Mossy, Litha, Kirby and Virginia. Vicy and Kissy Phillips King were sisters.
Millie King married Isaac Thomas, brother of John Henry, Morris, Nancy, Sally, etc. Their children were Nancy, Kissy, Newbury and John F. Kissy married Ben H. Burke, son of Isaac and Mary Pennington Burke, and had no children. Her second husband was Ted Clark. Their children were Duff, .
Susannah died in 1954. Married John W. West, they had Edgard, A.Y., Woodrow, Fed. Rilda (Mrs. Clay Marcum), and Elaine. Nancy married George Watson, son of Jimmy and Poppy Hatfield Watson. George Watson died 6-61.
Martha King married William West, brother of John W. Their children were Willie, Woodrow, Ruby, Pearl, Estel and Espee.
Isaac M. King, born Jan. 1887, died July 9, 1957, married Hattie Bell Hatfield, born 1880, d. 1969. Isaac was the last of Nancy’s children. He was buried in the Coffey Cemetery. Hattie was daughter of Richard and Artema West Hatfield. Their children were Louella, died in infancy; Ethel; Kirby S.; Corene; Geneva; Edward; Joyce Jo; Martha; and Mary.
Ethel married Benton Stanley and had two girls. Doris and Althea. Benton died in 1967. Doris married Harold Duncan and had no children. Ethel’s second husband was Howard Wilhite. They had one boy, William.
Corene married Herman White. They had about five children. Martha married Joe Kunizer and had one boy, Wayne, and one girl, Marietta. Mary married Edd Bowling. She had two boys, Charles and Tony, and two girls, Pam and Kay … Joyce Jo married Walter Burke, son of Mitchelle and Frona Litton Burke. Her children were Phillip and Wanda. Geneva married John Billings. Their children were Ruth, Ruby and Johnny. Ruth married a Greene, and Johnny married Virginia Thomas, daughter of Maynard and Viola Blevins Thomas. Their children were Linda and Johnnie.

Edward, born May I, 1919, died Dec. 1, 1960, married Flossie Crouch, daughter of Denton and Maggie Crouch. They had three girls, and two boys; Kendall and Eddie. Their daughter, Loretta, was killed in March 1965.

The Burke Family will continue in next’s week isse of SCN.