Cornelius Burns

Cornelius Burns, son of David and Margaret (Franks) Webster Burns, was born about 1827 in Fayette County, Kentucky. He married Melissa Wilson March 12, 1856 in Grant County, Kentucky. Melissa was born August 12, 1840 in Grant County, the daughter of James Wilson and Sarah Odor. Between 1867 and 1870, Cornelius and family migrated to Missouri, settling in Lewis County, Salem Township. Cornelius died August 5, 1892 in LaBelle, Lewis County, Missouri, and his wife, Melissa, died in the same county on May 19, 1894. They are buried in LaBelle Cemetery in Lewis County, Missouri. They were the parents of the following children:

1. Sarah Louisa Burns was born in 1857 in Grant County, Kentucky and died in 1900 in Shelbina, Shelby County, Missouri. She married William Octavus Poague February 20, 1872 in LaBelle, Lewis County, Missouri. William was born December 18, 1850 in LaBelle, son of Allen Poague and Anne Judy. He died February 23, 1936 in Clarence, Shelby County, Missouri. William and Sarah Burns Poague were the parents of the following children:

(a) Ida May Poague was born November 19, 1872 in Lewis County, Missouri and died in Lewis County November 1903. She married William Levengood in Lewis County November 11, 1890. He was born August 23, 1864 in Scotland County, Missouri and died October 8, 1937 in Lewis County, Missouri.

(b) Everett Allen Poague - no information.

(c) Evalina Ellen Poague was born August 25, 1885 in LaBelle, Lewis County, Missouri and died March 3, 1965 in Clarence, Shelby County, Missouri. She married first, Edward Stauss; she married second, Ode Farrel; she married third, Matthew Richardson; and her fourth husband was James King.

(d) James Oscar Poague was born September 4, 1887 in Missouri.

(e) Lillian Gertrude Poague was born April 8, 1892 in LaBelle, Lewis, Missouri and died December 19, 1972 in Macon, Macon County, Missouri. She married first, Luis Erastus Johnston in Macon, Macon County, Missouri. He was born September 28, 1879 and died December 18, 1918 in Macon County. She married her second husband, Roy Lunsford, who was born January 17, 1891 and died December 26, 1987.

(f) William Elmore Poague was born May 11, Shelbina, Shelby County, Missouri, and died May 5, 1974 in Garden Grove, California. He married Viola Blanche Nirk on July 29, 1917 in Rhodes, Marshall County, Iowa. She died May 29, 1982 in Garden Grove.

(g) Leslie Louis Poague was born July 15, 1898 in Shelbina, Shelby County, Missouri and died March 4, 1975 in Grants Pass, Josephine County, Oregon. He married Thelma May James on December 25, 1925 in Foster, Bates County, Missouri, daughter of John James and Louisa Murdock.

2. Newton Jasper Burns was born about 1858 in Grant County, Kentucky and died about 1938 in Randolph County, Missouri. He married Martha Jane Oliver in Lewis County, Missouri on February 4, 1878. Martha Jane is buried in New Providence Cemetery Northwest of Columbia, Missouri. Newton Jasper and Martha Oliver Burns were the parents of these children:

(a) Nealus Burns was born after 1879 in Lewis County, Missouri.

(b) Newton Sylvester Burns, who claimed the body of his Aunt Mary Burns, story below, was born April 11, 1895 in Missouri and died September 3, 1983 in Holts Summit, Callaway County, Missouri. He married Pauline Ann Bax. She was born September 7, 1913 in St. Elizabeth, Miller County, Missouri and died August 31, 1980, also in Holts Summit. Newton and Pauline were the parents of eleven children.

(c) Maymie May Burns was born April 26, 1898 near Labelle, Lewis County Missouri and died January 2, 1959 in Huntsdale, Boone County. Missouri. She married John C. Burks on December 27, 1917 in Huntsdale. He was born April 9, 1891 in Boone County, Missouri and died February 21, 1981 in Columbia, Boone County, Missouri. John and Maymie were the parents of three children.

3. Mary E. Burns was born in Grant County, Kentucky in 1860 and died November 1962 in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri in the State Hospital. The tragic story about Mary was reported in the Chronicle-Herald, Macon, Missouri, November 30, 1962.

St. Joseph, Missouri - The story of tragedy that sent Miss Mary Burns to the Missouri State Hospital here for 72 years was disclosed this week by relatives who thought the 102-year-old woman had been dead for twenty-one years. Miss Burns died last week at the hospital which she never had left since her commitment in 1890. Among those who read the story of her death was N. S. Burns of Jerico Springs, Missouri. He recognized the name as that of his aunt, whom he had thought dead, and acted quickly to save her from a paupers burial.

Burns and other relatives told the story of her illness. Miss Burns was to have been married on a Sunday in 1882. Her fiancee was to come to the wedding on horseback. He did not show up and a search party was organized. His body, ripped by a bullet, was found beside a road, his horse grazing nearby. The grief put Miss Burns in shock and caused her mental illness. She stayed at her father's home near LaBelle for eight years and then was committed to the state hospital. Burns said he had visited his aunt at the hospital until 1937, but when he wrote the hospital in 1942 to inquire about her, he was told she had been dead for a year and a half. He said he believed his informant had given him information based on the records of another patient by the same name. Burns claimed the body of his aunt and it was taken to Jerico Springs for services, and she was buried in Anna Edna Cemetery in Jerico Springs, Cedar County, Missouri.

Note: What a blessing it was that Mary became well enough to leave the institution, but since death had taken her mother and father, a sister, and a brother, only a few short years after her commitment, there was no close family remaining. Most nieces and nephews never knew her, so there was no one to take her in and no one to give her a home. Mary, however, had spent so many years in the environment of the hospital that she was well adjusted, happy and counted it as her home. She spent her time helping with work at the hospital.

4. Vada Burns was born after 1870 and died in 1901.

Researched by B. J. Smith.

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