Hi all. While transcibing Jay Co. newspaper clippings tonight, I found the
following article interesting. This applies to Jay, Randolph, and Van Wert
counties. I hope someone finds it useful, and other enjoy it anyway...
The Portland Commercial, Thurs., Jan., 20, 1887.
While Al. J. BURDEN, of Dunkirk, was in Van Wert, Ohio, a few weeks since,
he engaged in conversation with an old colored gentleman of that place, who
finally proved to be his uncle. Al. is the brother of our own William
BURDEN, the barber, and Marshal BURDEN, of Randolph county, is the father of
Al. and William. It appears that nothing had been heard of the Van wert
BURden, whose first name is Earle, since he left home in South Carolina,
when a young man, just after arriving at his majority. This long separation
- over half a century - and accidental discovery, reminds one of the Bible
story, where there was more joy over the return of "one lost sheep than the
ninety and nine that went not astray," but continued to lick salt, nibble
the grass, and bleat in the meadow beyond the garden and truck patch. Every
now and then similar instances are brought to light among members of the
same family of this peculiar race, the causes of which are generally
traceable to the heathenish system of bondage and slavery that bound them as
with a vise for over two hundred years. The BURDEN family, however, were
not slaves, but free, and Earle, it is supposed, came north, like many
others, to live where school houses were as popular as the slave pens in the
south. Correspondence is now being carried on between Van Wert, Randolph,
and Jay county BURDEN's, and a family reunion, no doubt, will soon be held -
probably in Portland, as it is the most central point, and accessable to all
by railroad.
Rex Bertram
PO Box 651
Redkey, IN 47373
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