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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 21 | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/William_S._Burroughs | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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] | null | [] | null | William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, made many appearances in films, and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks, including his celebrated "shotgun art". | en | Wikiwand | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/William_S._Burroughs | For other people named William Burroughs, see William Burroughs (disambiguation).
William Seward Burroughs II ( ; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature.[2][3][4] Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, made many appearances in films, and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks, including his celebrated "shotgun art".[5]
Quick Facts Born, Died ...
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Burroughs was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a grandson of inventor William Seward Burroughs I, who founded the Burroughs Corporation, and a nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs attended Harvard University, studied English, studied anthropology as a postgraduate, and attended medical school in Vienna. In 1942, Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve during World War II. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and the Navy, he developed a heroin addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, initially beginning with morphine. In 1943, while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Their mutual influence became the foundation of the Beat Generation, which was later a defining influence on the 1960s counterculture. Burroughs found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), but is perhaps best known for his third novel, Naked Lunch (1959). Naked Lunch became the subject of one of the last major literary censorship cases in the United States after its US publisher, Grove Press, was sued for violating a Massachusetts obscenity statute.
Burroughs killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs initially claimed that he shot Vollmer while drunkenly attempting a "William Tell" stunt.[6] He later told investigators that he had been showing his pistol to friends when it fell and hit the table, firing the bullet that killed Vollmer.[7] After Burroughs fled back to the United States, he was convicted of manslaughter in absentia and received a two-year suspended sentence.
While heavily experimental and featuring unreliable narrators, much of Burroughs' work is semiautobiographical, and was often drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict. He lived variously in Mexico City, London, Paris and the Tangier International Zone near Morocco, and traveled in the Amazon rainforest, with these locations featuring in many of his novels and stories. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique, featuring heavily in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–1964). Burroughs' work also features frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, which were a constant preoccupation for Burroughs, both in fiction and in real life.[4][8] | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 8 | https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/R._H._Barlow | en | R. H. Barlow | https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lovecraft/images/5/5f/43-Robert-Barlow-02_copy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151023155130 | https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lovecraft/images/5/5f/43-Robert-Barlow-02_copy.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20151023155130 | [
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] | null | Robert Hayward Barlow (May 18, 1918 – January 1 or 2, 1951[1]) was an American author, avant-garde poet, anthropologist and historian of early Mexico, and expert in the Nahuatl language. He was a correspondent and friend of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, and was appointed by Lovecraft the... | en | https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/lovecraft/images/4/4a/Site-favicon.ico/revision/latest?cb=20210601133329 | The H.P. Lovecraft Wiki | https://lovecraft.fandom.com/wiki/R._H._Barlow | Robert Hayward Barlow (May 18, 1918 – January 1 or 2, 1951[1]) was an American author, avant-garde poet, anthropologist and historian of early Mexico, and expert in the Nahuatl language. He was a correspondent and friend of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft, and was appointed by Lovecraft the executor of his literary estate.
Born at a time when his father, Lieutenant Colonel Everett Darius Barlow, was serving with the American Forces in France, Barlow spent much of his youth at Fort Benning, Georgia, where his father was stationed. Around 1932, Col. Barlow received a medical discharge and settled his wife (Sarah Barlow) and son in the small town of DeLand, Florida. Family difficulties later forced Robert H. Barlow to move to Washington, D.C., and Kansas. He received training at the Kansas City Art Institute, and subsequently at San Francisco Junior College.
He went to Mexico in 1940-41, studied at the Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas, and upon his return to California received the B.A. degree at the University of California in 1942. Returning to Mexico as a permanent resident, he joined the staff of the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. In 1944, he received a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship, and in 1946-48 a Guggenheim Fellowship. He became head of the Department of Anthropology at Mexico City College, a position he held at the time of his death by suicide on January 2, 1951.
According to fellow anthropologist Charles E. Dibble, "In the brief span of a decade, Barlow gave Middle American research an impetus and perspective of enduring consequence. His contributions in Mexican archaeology, classical and modern Nahuatl, Mexican colonial history, and what he preferred to call "Bilderhandschriften" are of lasting importance." Dibble compared Barlow's zeal for searching for and deciphering little known or dimly recalled codices and colonial manuscripts to that of Zelia Nuttall.[2]
Life and career[]
Lovecraft associate[]
Barlow had been a friend of writers H. P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard since he was 13. He collaborated with Lovecraft on six stories (among them "The Battle that Ended the Century", "The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast", "Till A' the Seas" and "The Night Ocean"), and Lovecraft made several extended visits to the young Barlow at his home in DeLand, Florida.
Barlow attempted to bind and distribute Lovecraft's story The Shunned House (1928) but bound only a few copies. (Arkham House distributed some bound versions of the original Barlow project as late as the 1970s.)
Barlow aided significantly in the preservation of Lovecraft's manuscripts by typing texts in exchange for autograph manuscripts.
At his death, Lovecraft's will named Barlow his literary executor. Barlow came to Providence, Rhode Island, shortly thereafter, donating most of the manuscripts and some printed matter to the John Hay Library of Brown University.
Barlow transcribed Lovecraft's novella The Shadow Out of Time and had the manuscript still in his possession when he secured a teaching position at Mexico City College. When he later became Chairman of the Department of Anthropology, he met June Ripley, a post-graduate student studying the Nahuatl language, Barlow's specialty. The two apparently became friends, and Barlow entrusted the manuscript to Ripley before his suicide. She remained in Mexico for seven more years, then taught at several places in the United States before retiring in 1993. She died December 28, 1994, and the long-lost Lovecraft manuscript was found by Ripley's sister-in-law Lucille Shreve. The manuscript, written in pencil in a child's notebook, was donated by Nelson and Lucille Shreve to the Lovecraft collection of John Hay Library.[3]
Author, publisher[]
Barlow was interested in printing, and after he became involved in the early fan scene for fantasy and science fiction, published several important journals: The Dragon-Fly (two issues - Oct 15, 1935 and May 15, 1936); and Leaves (two issues - Summer 1937; Winter 1938/39)[1]. He was also proprietor of his imprint, the Dragon-Fly Press (Cassia, Florida), and under that imprint published two important works by members of the Lovecraft Circle: The Goblin Tower (the first verse collection by Frank Belknap Long; Lovecraft helped Barlow set the type for this), and "The Cats of Ulthar", a story by Lovecraft. [2]
Barlow's fiction career was interrupted in 1937 by a variety of circumstances, including the death of his friend and mentor Lovecraft, and his own uprooting from Florida because of family troubles. In 1938, he edited Lovecraft's Notes and Commonplace Book, and in 1939 edited After Sunset (John Howell, 1939), a collection of the best poems written by George Sterling in the last years before Sterling's suicide in 1926.
In 1943, Barlow lent assistance to the first bibliography of Lovecraft (by Francis T. Laney and William H. Evans). His poignant memoir of Lovecraft, "The Wind That Is in the Grass", can be found in Marginalia (Arkham House, 1944). Barlow also contributed the introduction for the 1944 Arkham House volume Jumbee and Other Uncanny Tales, by his fellow Floridian and Weird Tales author Henry S. Whitehead.
Sculptor[]
Barlow was highly regarded as a sculptor, before his move into anthropology, and in one letter (to Clark Ashton Smith, 16 May 1937), he complained that people took it more seriously than his writings. But it appears that none of his sculptural work has survived.
Anthropologist[]
Barlow moved permanently to Mexico around 1943, where he taught at several colleges, and in 1948 became chairman of the anthropology department at Mexico City College and a distinguished anthropologist of Indigenous Mesoamerican culture. He taught classes at Mexico City College, mostly American students funded by the post-war G.I. Bill. The famous writer William S. Burroughs studied the Mayan Codices under Barlow in the first half of 1950, and went on at least one field trip with him to the Temple of Quetzalcoatl in Teotihuacan. The Mayan symbolism and political structure he found there later featured heavily in Burroughs' fiction.
At the same time, Barlow cooperated with Prof. Salvador Mateos Higuera in a descriptive study of Mexican codices. Within a brief three years, he had cooperated with George T. Smisor to plan and edit Tlalocan, a journal of source materials on native cultures of Mexico. Beginning in 1943 with the appearance of Tlalocan, his productivity attained added momentum and his articles appeared with increasing frequency in the scholarly journals of Mexico, the United States, and Europe. Concern for minutiae led to such works of detail as "The 18th Century Relaciones Geograficas".[2]
In 1950, he published Mexihkatl itonalama ("The Mexican's calendar"), a Nahuatl-language newspaper. His work in Mesoamerican anthropology is of pioneering significance, and his collected anthropological papers are in the process of publication in Mexico. At this time Barlow was also continuing his work a poet, writing both formalist verse and experimental verse of the Activist school pioneered by Lawrence Hart.
Suicide[]
Barlow had written as early as 1944 that he had "a subtle feeling that my curious and uneasy life is not destined to prolong itself".[4] He killed himself at his home in Azcapotzalco, D.F, Mexico, on the first or second of January, 1951, apparently fearing the exposure of his homosexuality by a disgruntled student.[5][6] On that afternoon, he locked himself in his room, took twenty-six capsules of seconal, leaving pinned upon his door in Mayan pictographs, "Do not disturb me. I want to sleep a long time." [7]
William S. Burroughs, then studying Spanish, the Mexican codices and the Mayan language under Barlow, briefly described his death in a letter to Allen Ginsberg, dated January 11: "A queer Professor from K.C., Mo., head of the Anthropology dept. here at M.C.C. [Mexico City College] where I collect my $75 per month, knocked himself off a few days ago with overdose of goof balls. Vomit all over the bed. I can't see this suicide kick."[8]
Bibliography[]
Books by Barlow[]
Poems for a Competition. Sacramento, CA: The Fugitive Press, 1942. (verse). For these poems Barlow received the 26th award of the Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in Poetry. Note: the entire contents of the volume are reprinted in Eyes of the God (2002).
View from a Hill. Azcapotzalco [no publisher given], 1947 (verse). Note: the entire contents of the volume are reprinted in Eyes of the God (2002).
The Extent of the Empire of the Culhua Mexico. [Ibero-Americana 28]. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1949.
Posthumous publications[]
Collapsing Cosmoses (with H. P. Lovecraft). West Warwick RI: Necronomicon Press, 1977. F&SF Fragments series; 500 copies only. This piece is reprinted in The Battle That Ended the Century and Collapsing Cosmoses (1992) and also collected in Eyes of the God (2002).
Annals of the Jinns. Original series of stories in The Fantasy Fan (1933–35) and The Phantagraph; collected, West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1978. Foreword "Robert H. Barlow and H.P. Lovecraft: A Reflection", by Kenneth W. Faig, Jr. Contains 10 of the tales. (The 11th Annal, "An Episode in the Jungle", was unpublished until collected in Eyes of the God (2002)). Note: A rewritten version of 'Annal' V, "The Tomb of the God", appears in Lin Carter, ed. Kingdoms of Sorcery; Carter rewrote it from a half-legible copy, all he could find at the time.
A Dim-Remembered Story West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1980. Preface by H. P. Lovecraft. The tale is included in Eyes of the God (2002)
The Night Ocean (with H.P. Lovecraft). West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1978, 1982; 3rd pr 1989. The tale is included in Eyes of the God (2002).
Crypt of Cthulhu No. 60 (1988) is a special issue devoted to Robert H. Barlow. It contains nine stories by Barlow (all save "A Fragment" collected later in Eyes of the God (2002)), together with two essays: "R.H. Barlow and the Recognition of Lovecraft" by S. T. Joshi, and "Robert H. Barlow as H.P. Lovecraft's Literary executor: An Appreciation" by Kenneth W. Faig. Faig's essay is reprinted in his The Unknown Lovecraft. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2009.
The Battle That Ended the Century & Collapsing Cosmoses (with H. P. Lovecraft) West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1992. This edition includes a corrected glossary of names. Both pieces are collected in The Eyes of the God (2002), where Battle is now footnoted with full annotations identifying the persons parodied.
On Lovecraft and Life. West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1992. Intro by S. T. Joshi. Contains two texts - firstly, a restored text of Barlow's journal of Lovecraft's 1934 visit as "Memories of Lovecraft" (originally published as "The Barlow Journal" in August Derleth's Some Notes on H.P. Lovecraft (1959) and subsequently in the Derleth-edited Lovecraft compilation The Dark Brotherhood & Other Pieces (1966); both Derleth printings were heavily abridged). Secondly, Barlow's fragmentary "Autobiography" (approx 1938- Summer 1940).
The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast and One Other (with H. P. Lovecraft). West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Press, 1994. Intro by S. T. Joshi. The 'other' is the story "The Slaying of the Monster". Includes the facsmile manuscripts of both stories, showing Lovecraft's hand in each. Both tales are included (text only, not facsimile mss) in The Eyes of the God (2002).
Eyes of the God: The Weird Fiction and Poetry of Robert H. Barlow. Edited by S. T. Joshi, Douglas A. Anderson and David E. Schultz. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2002. A comprehensive collection which excludes only Barlow's non-fiction (such as published letters, essays etc). It includes two previously unpublished tales, "The Bright Valley" and "The Fidelity of Ghu"; and also the previously unpublished 11th tale of Annals of the Jinns ("An Episode in the Jungle").
Books edited by Barlow[]
H. P. Lovecraft. The Notes & Commonplace Book Employed by the Late H.P. Lovecraft Including His Suggestions for Story-Writing, Analyses of the Weird Story, and a List of Certain Basic Underlying Horrors, &c, &c, Designed to Stimulate the Imagination. Lakeport, CA: The Futile Press, 1938; rpt West Warwick, RI: Necronomicon Ppress, 1978.
George Sterling. After Sunset (verse). San Francisco: John Howell, Publisher, 1939.
Books and journals about Barlow (see references for articles and further reading)[]
Hart, Lawrence (ed). Accent on Barlow: A Comemmorative [sic] Anthology. San Rafael, CA: Lawrence Hart, 1962. Includes 39 poems by Barlow, one translation by Barlow of a poem by B. Ortiz de Montellano; together with poems by 15 other writers, and an appreciation of Barlow by Rosalie Moore and Lawrence Hart.
Connors, Scott (ed). The Journal of the H.P. Lovecraft Society No 2 (1979). Entire issue devoted to Kenneth W. Faig's essay "R.H. Barlow". (The essay is reprinted in Faig's The Unknown Lovecraft. NY: Hippocampus Press, 2009).
Berruti, Massimo. Dim-Remembered Stories: A Critical Study of R.H. Barlow NY: Hippocampus Press, 2012.
Notes[]
References[]
Abrams, H. Leon (1983). Insights Into the Creative Genius of Robert Hayward Barlow Universidad de las Americas, A.C., p. 17–23.
Abrams, H. Leon (1981). Robert Hayward Barlow: An Annotated Bibliography with Commentary Museum of Anthropology, Univ of Northern Colorado, p. 32 in all.
Hart, Lawrence (May 1951). A Note on Robert Barlow unspecified pub., p. 115–16.
Smisor, George T. (1952). R. H. Barlow and Tlalocan unspecified pub., p. 97–102.
Burroughs, William S. (1993). The Letters of William S. Burroughs: Volume I, 1945–1959 Penguin Books.
Dibble, Charles E. (April 1951). Robert Hayward Barlow - 1918–1951 unspecified pub.
Joshi, S. T. & Schultz, David E. "Robert H. Barlow". An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia Wesport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, p. 15–16.
Joshi, S. T. & Schultz, David E. (2007) O Fortunate Floridian: H. P. Lovecraft's Letters to Robert H. Barlow Tampa, Florida: University of Tampa Press.
McQuown, Norman A. (1951). Robert Hamilton [sic] Barlow, 1918–1951 unspecified pub.
Mooser, Claire (1968). A Study of Robert Barlow: The T. E. Lawrence of Mexico unspecified pub., p. 5–12.
Ramos, Cesar Lizardi (1951). El Historiador Robert H. Barlow unspecified pub., p. 223–224.
Students and faculty mourn passing of Professor Barlow (January 18, 1951)
Wetzel, George (1976). Lovecraft's Literary Executor unspecified pub., p. 3–41. Rpt. Fantasy Commentator 4, No 1 (Winter 1978-79): 34-43.
Jordan, Stephen J. (Fall 2001) (Fall 2001). H. P. Lovecraft in Florida unspecified pub., p. 14–21.
[] | ||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 82 | https://www.addall.com/books-in-order/william-s-burroughs/ | en | William S Burroughs Books In Order | [
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] | 2022-03-24T20:23:12-07:00 | In Naked Lunch, William S. Burroughs revealed his genius. In The Soft Machine he begins an adventure that will take us even further into the dark recesses of | en | Books In Order | https://www.addall.com/books-in-order/william-s-burroughs/ | Nova Trilogy Books In Order
Cities of the Night Books In Order
Novels
Collections
Plays
Novellas
Non fiction
Nova Trilogy Book Covers
Cities of the Night Book Covers
Novels Book Covers
Collections Book Covers
Plays Book Covers
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William S Burroughs Books Overview
Related Authors | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 57 | https://www.softschools.com/facts/authors/william_s_burroughs_facts/1494/ | en | William S. Burroughs Facts | [
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] | null | [] | null | William S. Burroughs was an American Beat Generation writer best known for his novel Naked Lunch, a look at the drug culture he was often involved in. He was born William Seward Burroughs II on February 5<sup>th</sup>, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri to Laura Hammon Lee and Mortimer Perry Burroughs. William attended John Burroughs High School where his first published piece, an essay titled "Personal Magnetism" appeared in the <i>John Burrows Review</i>. He went on to a boarding school for children of wealthy parents, but soon left to finish high school in Missouri, and then he went on to Harvard University and graduated in 1936. | en | null | Interesting William S. Burroughs Facts: William S. Burroughs enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 but was released after being deemed unfit due to mental issues. William S. Burroughs moved to New York in 1944 and shared an apartment with Joan Vollmer Adams, Jack Kerouac and his wife Edie Parker. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac wrote a book together in 1945 titled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. The book went unpublished until 2008 when Grove Press and Penguin Books released it. While living in New York William S. Burroughs became addicted to drugs and sold heroin to support his habit. He was arrested in 1946 for forging a prescription for narcotics. In 1947 William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer Adams had a son together which they named William S. Burroughs Jr. William S. Burroughs moved to Mexico with Joan, their son William, and Joan's daughter from a previous marriage. While living in Mexico William killed Joan, his common-law wife, with a gun. He was arrested and charged. William wrote the book Queer while awaiting trial in Mexico but fled to the U.S. before it occurred, resulting in a suspended two-year sentence. William S. Burroughs' novel Junkie was almost complete when Joan was killed. It was published in 1953 by Ace Books. In 1953 William S. Burroughs went to Rome, then on to Tangier, Morocco, where he began to write Interzone. After returning to the U.S. briefly William returned to Tangier for four years, and he wrote his most famous book Naked Lunch during his time there. William S. Burroughs often said that Joan's death was pivotal in his writing career. Had she not been killed by his gun he thought he would not have been so compelled to write. He had used his first gun when he was eight years old. Joan died because they were drinking and playing a game with the gun. William Burroughs moved to various countries during his life, including England, Morocco, France, the United States. Italy, and Mexico. William S. Burroughs published writing included novels, long fiction, non-fiction, letters, short stories, novellas, collections, collaborations, as well as recordings. Movies and documentaries have been made about Burroughs' life. William also played the character Opium Jones in the 1966 film Chappaqua. | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 19 | https://history.lplks.org/items/browse%3Fcollection%3D2%26sort_field%3DDublin%2BCore%252CTitle%26sort_dir%3Da%26page%3D4%26output%3Domeka-xml | en | Log In · Digital Douglas County History | [] | [] | [] | [
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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 20 | https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/01/william-burroughs-junky-will-self | en | William Burroughs - the original Junkie | [
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"Will Self",
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] | 2014-02-01T00:00:00 | On the centenary of William Burroughs' birth, <strong>Will Self</strong> on why he was the perfect incarnation of late 20th‑century western angst – self-deluded, narcissistic yet perceptive about the sickness of the world | en | the Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/feb/01/william-burroughs-junky-will-self | Entitled Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict and authored pseudonymously by "William Lee" (Burroughs' mother's maiden name – he didn't look too far for a nom de plume), the Ace original retailed for 35 cents, and as a "Double Book" was bound back-to-back with Narcotic Agent by Maurice Helbrant. The two-books-in-one format was not uncommon in 1950s America, but besides the obvious similarity in subject matter, AA Wyn, Burroughs' publisher, felt that he had to balance such an unapologetic account of drug addiction with an abridgement of the memoirs of a Federal Bureau of Narcotics agent, which originally appeared in 1941.
Since, in the hysterical, anti-drug culture of postwar America, potential censure could easily induce self-censorship, it's remarkable that Junky (as it was published under his own name) found a publisher at all. Despite its subhead, Wyn did think the book had a redemptive capability, as the protagonist made efforts to free himself of his addiction, but he also insisted that Burroughs preface the work with an autobiographical sketch that would explain to the reader how it was that someone such as himself – a Harvard graduate from a Social Register family – came to be a drug addict. Both Junkie and Narcotic Agent have covers of beautiful garishness, featuring 1950s damsels in distress. On the cover of Junkie a craggy-browed man is grabbing a blond lovely from behind; one of his arms is around her neck, while the other grasps her hand, within which is a paper package. The table beside them has been knocked in the fray, propelling a spoon, a hypodermic, and even a gas ring, into inner space.
This cover illustration is, in fact, just that: an illustration of a scene described by Burroughs in the book. "When my wife saw I was getting the habit again, she did something she had never done before. I was cooking up a shot two days after I'd connected with Old Ike. My wife grabbed the spoon and threw the junk on the floor. I slapped her twice across the face and she threw herself on the bed, sobbing … " That this uncredited and now forgotten hack artist should have chosen one of the few episodes featuring the protagonist's wife to use for the cover illustration represents one of those nastily serendipitous ironies that Burroughs himself almost always chose to view as evidence of the magical universe.
From double book to stand alone; from Ace Original to Penguin Modern Classic; from unredeemed confession to cult novel; from a cheap shocker to a refined taste – the history of this text in a strange way acts as an allegory of the way the heroin subculture Burroughs depicted has mutated, spread and engrafted itself with the corpus of the wider society, in the process irretrievably altering that on which it parasitises. Just as – if you turn to his glossary of junk lingo and jive talk – you will see how many arcane drug terms have metastasised into the vigorous language.
Burroughs wrote Junky on the very brink of a transformation in western culture. His junkies were creatures of the depression, many of whose addictions predated even the Harrison Act of 1922, which outlawed the sale of heroin and cocaine in the US. Burroughs viewed the postwar era as a Götterdämmerung and a convulsive re-evaluation of values. With his anomic inclinations and his Mandarin intellect, he was in a paradoxical position vis a vis the coming cultural revolution of the 1960s. An open homosexual and a drug addict, his quintessentially Midwestern libertarianism led him to eschew any command economy of ethics, while his personal inclinations meant he had to travel with distastefully socialist and liberal fellows. For Burroughs, the re-evaluation was both discount and markup, and perhaps it was this that made him such a great avatar of the emergent counterculture.
Janus-faced, and like some terminally cadaverous butler, Burroughs ushers in the new society of kicks for insight as well as kicks' sake. In the final paragraph of Junky he writes: "Kick is seeing things from a special angle. Kick is momentary freedom from the claims of the ageing, cautious, nagging, frightened flesh."
Let's return to that cover illustration with its portrayal of "William Lee" as Rock Hudson and his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, as Kim Novak. When I say Burroughs himself must have regarded the illustration – if he thought of it at all – as evidence of the magical universe he conceived of as underpinning and interpenetrating our own, it is because the first draft of the book was completed in the months immediately preceding his killing of Vollmer on 6 September 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs wrote in his 1985 foreword to Queer (which was completed in the year after Vollmer's death, but remained unpublished until 34 years later), "I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realisation of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing."
Much has been written and even more conjectured about the killing. Burroughs himself described it as "the accidental shooting death"; and although he jumped bail, he was only convicted – in absentia by the Mexican court – of homicide. However, to my mind this rings false with the way he characterised his life, and his writing, thereafter: "I live with the constant threat of possession and the constant need to escape from possession, from Control." Burroughs saw the agent of possession implicated in the killing as external to him, "a definite entity". He went further, hypothesising that such an entity might devise the modern, psychological conception of possession as a function of the subject's own psyche: "since nothing is more dangerous to a possessor than being seen as a separate invading creature by the host it has invaded".
Personally, I think Burroughs' definition of "possession" was tantamount to an admission of intent. Certainly, the hypothesis of murderous impulsiveness squares better with the impromptu "William Tell act" (whereby he called upon Vollmer to place a glass upon her head, which he would then shoot off) than his own bewilderment in the face of an act of such cruel stupidity and fatal rashness. (He knew the gun to shoot low, and what would have happened to the glass shards even if he had succeeded? There were others in the room.)
I belabour these events for two reasons. First, because I think an understanding of the milieu within which Burroughs and Vollmer operated, and the nature of their life together, is essential in disentangling the post hoc mythologising of the writer and his life from the very grim reality of active drug addiction that constitutes the action of Junky. When Burroughs was off heroin he was a bad, blackout drunk (for evidence you need look no further than his own confirmation in Junky). However much he cared for Vollmer, their life together was clearly at an impasse (their sexuality was incompatible and she was even beginning to object to his drug use); and what could be more natural – if only momentarily – than to conceive of ridding himself of an obvious blockage?
Second, although the bulk of Junky was in place before the killing, Burroughs continued to revise the text at least as late as July 1952, including current events such as the arrival from New York of his old heroin-dealing partner Bill Garver (whose name is changed to "Bill Gains" in the text). The meat of the text of Junky is as close as Burroughs could get to a factual account of his own experience of heroin. In a letter to Allen Ginsberg (who had worried that the book constituted a justification of Burroughs' addiction), he inveighed: "As a matter of fact the book is the only accurate account I ever read of the real horror of junk. But I don't mean it as justification or deterrent or anything but an accurate account of what I experienced while I was on the junk. You might say it was a travel book more than anything else. It starts where I first make contact with junk, and it ends where no more contact is possible." All of which is by way of saying: Junky is not a novel at all, it is a memoir; "William Lee" and William Burroughs are one and the same person. Burroughs' own conception of himself was essentially fictional, and it's not superfluous to observe that before he began to write with any fixity he had already become a character in other writers' works, most notably in Jack Kerouac's On the Road. He also signed his letters to Ginsberg, Kerouac et al with his nom de plume, as well as using his correspondence as a form of work in progress, peppering his epistles to the Beats with his trademark riffs and routines. By the time Burroughs was living in Tangier in the late 1950s, his sense of being little more than a cipher, or a fictional construct, had become so plangent that he practised the art of insubstantiality with true zeal, revelling in the moniker "El Hombre Invisible".
Burroughs was the perfect incarnation of late 20th-century western angst precisely because he was an addict. Self-deluding, vain, narcissistic, self-obsessed, and yet curiously perceptive about the sickness of the world if not his own malaise, Burroughs both offered up and was compelled to provide his psyche as a form of Petri dish, within which were cultured the obsessive and compulsive viruses of modernity.
Burroughs never managed to recover from his addiction at all, and died in 1997 physically dependent on the synthetic opiate methadone. I find this a delicious irony: the great hero of freedom from social restraint, himself in bondage to a drug originally synthesised by Nazi chemists, and dubbed "Dolophine" in honour of the Fuhrer; the fearless libertarian expiring in the arms of an ersatz Morpheus, actively promoted by the federal government as a "cure" for heroin addiction. In the prologue to Junky and the introduction to The Naked Lunch, Burroughs writes of his own addiction as if it were a thing of the past, but this was never the case. In a thin-as-a-rake's progress that saw him move from America to Mexico, to Morocco, to France, to Britain, back to New York, and eventually to small-town Kansas, Burroughs was in flight either from the consequences of his chemical dependency, or seeking to avoid the drugs he craved.
As for the text itself, it reads today as fresh and unvarnished as it ever has. Burroughs' deadpan reportage owes as much to the hard-boiled style of the detective thriller writer Dashiell Hammett as it does to his more elevated philosophical inclinations. In eschewing rhetorical flourish or adjectival excess, Burroughs sought to remain silent about what could not be said, just like the drug subculture he was so enchanted by: "She shoved the package of weed at me. 'Take this and get out,' she said. 'You're both mother fuckers.' She was half asleep. Her voice was matter-of-fact as if referring to actual incest."
What it isn't is any kind of true analysis of the nature of addiction itself. Burroughs' own view – that "you become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in any other direction. Junk wins by default" – is a deceptively thin, Pandora's portfolio of an idea that raises the question: for what kind of person could drug addiction represent a "strong motivation"? Surely only one for whom alienation, and a lack of either moral or spiritual direction, was inbuilt.
Indeed, this is the great sadness of Junky (and Burroughs himself) as I conceive it. You can reread this entire text, assuming the hypothesis of addiction as a latent pathology, present in the individual prior to his having any direct experience of chemical dependency, and everything that Burroughs says about habitual heroin use begins to make perfect sense. But taking him at his own, self-justifying estimation (predicated on a renunciation of drugs that never came), Burroughs' Junky becomes the very archetype of the romanticisation of excess that has so typified our era: "I loosened the tie, and the dropper emptied into my vein. Coke hit my head, a pleasant dizziness and tension, while the morphine spread through my body in relaxing waves. 'Was that alright?' asked Ike, smiling. 'If God made anything better, he kept it for himself,' I said."
It is Burroughs' own denial of the nature of his addiction that makes this book capable of being read as a fiendish parable of modern alienation. For, in describing addiction as "a way of life", Burroughs makes of the hypodermic a microscope, through which he can examine the soul of man under late 20th-century capitalism. His descriptions of the "junk territories" his alter ego inhabits are, in fact, depictions of urban alienation itself. And just as in these areas junk is "a ghost in daylight on a crowded street", so his junkie characters - who are invariably described as "invisible", "dematerialized" and "boneless" - are, like the pseudonymous "William Lee" himself, the sentient residue left behind when the soul has been cooked up and injected into space. | |||||
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] | null | [] | null | American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter and spoken word performer. Born: 5th February 1914, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Died: 2nd August 1997, Lawrence, Kansas, USA. Burroughs initially drew acclaim as a one of the leaders of the 50s Beat movement, alongside friends and peers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His acclaimed publications, notably ‘The Naked Lunch’, ‘The Soft Machine’, ‘The Ticket That Exploded’ and ‘Nova Express’, exhibited the “cut-up” technique first espoused by fellow-writer Brion Gysin, in which passages and texts were cut and reassembled to create unconscious writing. The pair subsequently brought the same method to recording during their stay at the “Beat Hotel’ in Paris. Burroughs’ experimental nature and his espousal of drug use made him an attractive figure of the 60’s counter-culture. His phrase “heavy metal’ became the term for a musical genre, while several acts – notably “Soft Machine” and “Steely Dan” – took their names from his trilogy of works. His first album, “Call Me Burroughs”, was comprised of readings from ‘The Naked Lunch’ and ‘Nova Express’. It was initially issued in France prior to appearing on the US avant garde label, ESP. “Ali’s Smile”, a one-side 12-inch released via Brighton’s Unicorn Bookshop, was Burroughs’ only other 60s release, although it can be heard on the film soundtrack Chappaqua, and his distinctive voice was sampled in 1971 for Dashiell Hedayat’s Obselete. Burroughs was lauded at the Entermedia Theater in 1978 with “The Nova Convention”, a collective of publishers, writers, academics, artists, punk personalities and counterculture followers. The event was released as an eponymously titled album and included pieces by Sanders [‘Fuck You’ magazine & The Fugs], Patti Smith, Anderson, Glass, Cage, Ginsberg, Gysin, Leary and others. Zappa was called in to replace the drug-busted Keith Richards and, after discussion with the writer, did “The Talking Asshole”, which Burroughs had derived from the ventriloquist scene in “The Dead Of Night”. In 1982 “Throbbing Gristle”‘s Genesis P. Orridge issued “Nothing Here But The Recordings”, a fascinating cross-section of 50s and 60s archive recordings. Ten Years later Sub-Rosa issued a similarly structured set, “Break Through In Grey Room”. The avant garde maintained its links with Burroughs during the 80s; he surfaced on several releases by poet John Giorno, notably “You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With” (1981), “Old Man Bickford” (You’re A Hook 1986) and “Like A Girl I Want To Keep Coming” (1989) and he enjoyed a cameo appearance on Laurie Anderson’s “Mr. Heartbreak” (1984). “Dead City Radio”, Burroughs’ first full-length album in over two decades, paired the writer with producer Hal Willner. John Cale, Donald Fagen and Sonic Youth were among the cast assembled on what was arguably his most accessible release. “Spare Ass Annie And Other Tales”, a collaboration with the “Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy”, was much less satisfying, compromising the contributors’ individual strengths. Despite advancing years, Burroughs contributed to Tom Waits’ “The Black Rider” and appeared on singles by Gus Van Sant (“The Elvis Of Letters”) and Ministry (“Just One Fix”). In 1993 he recorded a version of “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him” with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. Like Ginsberg, Burroughs was openly bisexual. He was also an opiate addict, almost acting out a characterization of his first novel “Junky” and his second “Queer”, whilst being a ‘loose cannon’ in both his writing and social confrontations. He managed to avoid a jail sentence when he killed his second wife after shooting her in a drunken stupor. When Burroughs died of a heart-attack in 1997 his passing was mourned with the Internet message: “William Burroughs has finally figured out how to leave the flesh behind and assimilate with it all”. | en | Matrix Music | https://matrix-music.com/artist/william-s-burroughs/ | Biography
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter and spoken word performer.
Born: 5th February 1914, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Died: 2nd August 1997, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Burroughs initially drew acclaim as a one of the leaders of the 50s Beat movement, alongside friends and peers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His acclaimed publications, notably ‘The Naked Lunch’, ‘The Soft Machine’, ‘The Ticket That Exploded’ and ‘Nova Express’, exhibited the “cut-up” technique first espoused by fellow-writer Brion Gysin, in which passages and texts were cut and reassembled to create unconscious writing. The pair subsequently brought the same method to recording during their stay at the “Beat Hotel’ in Paris. Burroughs’ experimental nature and his espousal of drug use made him an attractive figure of the 60’s counter-culture.
His phrase “heavy metal’ became the term for a musical genre, while several acts – notably “Soft Machine” and “Steely Dan” – took their names from his trilogy of works. His first album, “Call Me Burroughs”, was comprised of readings from ‘The Naked Lunch’ and ‘Nova Express’. It was initially issued in France prior to appearing on the US avant garde label, ESP. “Ali’s Smile”, a one-side 12-inch released via Brighton’s Unicorn Bookshop, was Burroughs’ only other 60s release, although it can be heard on the film soundtrack Chappaqua, and his distinctive voice was sampled in 1971 for Dashiell Hedayat’s Obselete.
Burroughs was lauded at the Entermedia Theater in 1978 with “The Nova Convention”, a collective of publishers, writers, academics, artists, punk personalities and counterculture followers. The event was released as an eponymously titled album and included pieces by Sanders [‘Fuck You’ magazine & The Fugs], Patti Smith, Anderson, Glass, Cage, Ginsberg, Gysin, Leary and others. Zappa was called in to replace the drug-busted Keith Richards and, after discussion with the writer, did “The Talking Asshole”, which Burroughs had derived from the ventriloquist scene in “The Dead Of Night”.
In 1982 “Throbbing Gristle”‘s Genesis P. Orridge issued “Nothing Here But The Recordings”, a fascinating cross-section of 50s and 60s archive recordings. Ten Years later Sub-Rosa issued a similarly structured set, “Break Through In Grey Room”. The avant garde maintained its links with Burroughs during the 80s; he surfaced on several releases by poet John Giorno, notably “You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With” (1981), “Old Man Bickford” (You’re A Hook 1986) and “Like A Girl I Want To Keep Coming” (1989) and he enjoyed a cameo appearance on Laurie Anderson’s “Mr. Heartbreak” (1984).
“Dead City Radio”, Burroughs’ first full-length album in over two decades, paired the writer with producer Hal Willner. John Cale, Donald Fagen and Sonic Youth were among the cast assembled on what was arguably his most accessible release. “Spare Ass Annie And Other Tales”, a collaboration with the “Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy”, was much less satisfying, compromising the contributors’ individual strengths. Despite advancing years, Burroughs contributed to Tom Waits’ “The Black Rider” and appeared on singles by Gus Van Sant (“The Elvis Of Letters”) and Ministry (“Just One Fix”). In 1993 he recorded a version of “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him” with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.
Like Ginsberg, Burroughs was openly bisexual. He was also an opiate addict, almost acting out a characterization of his first novel “Junky” and his second “Queer”, whilst being a ‘loose cannon’ in both his writing and social confrontations. He managed to avoid a jail sentence when he killed his second wife after shooting her in a drunken stupor. When Burroughs died of a heart-attack in 1997 his passing was mourned with the Internet message: “William Burroughs has finally figured out how to leave the flesh behind and assimilate with it all”. | |||||
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Burroughs studied English literature at Harvard, which was a calving ground for many of the writers who took their place in the Beat hall of fame. He did graduate work in ethnology and archaeology and worked a variety of jobs during World War II. He was a plain-clothes detective, exterminator, advertising copywriter, factory worker, bar attendant, and waiter.
While drifting from job to job, he met Lucien Carr, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg in New York City around Christmas 1943, shortly after Ginsberg began studying at Columbia. Burroughs impressed them with his scholarship, as well as his sardonic sense of humor and the reserved poise that often comes with a wealthy birthright.
Older than the others in the group, Burroughs took on the role of father figure and mentor, encouraging Kerouac and Ginsberg in their attempts to write fiction and poetry. He felt a special affinity toward them because they were kindred spirits, dreamers, fantasizers. He said, "There couldn't be a society of people who didn't dream. They'd be dead in two weeks."
Early in his writing career, Burroughs collaborated on a humorous sketch with a Harvard classmate, Kells Elvins, and on a short Dashiell Hammett-style novel with Kerouac, but publishers rejected both works, and Burroughs began to doubt his own literary talents. His continuing search for an identity led him to seek out the criminal elements in society.
Hoping to fit in with a "community of outlaws," he began buying stolen goods, including morphine, and in 1944, he became addicted to the drug. In 1947, he moved in with Joan Vollmer, another member of the group around the Columbia campus, and she gave birth to their son, William S. Burroughs, Jr. Joan, too was an addict, making Benzedrine her drug of choice. The couple moved to New Orleans, Texas, and Mexico City in order to obtain their drugs more easily.
In the spring of 1950, Elvins visited Burroughs in Mexico City and talked him into writing a factual book about his drug experience as a "memory exercise." Burroughs set a daily schedule and mostly kept to it with the help of daily injections of morphine. He finished the project in December and titled his book Junky. He sent the manuscript to Lucien Carr in New York. Finally, Ginsberg obtained a copy and was able to get the book published as a pulp paperback in 1953 under the pseudonym "William Lee." The cover sported the lurid subtitle, Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict.
On September 6, 1951, Burroughs accidentally killed his wife at a party while attempting to shoot a martini off her head with a pistol. He was stoned, and the bullet penetrated her forehead, killing her instantly. He was taken into custody and charged in Mexico City with criminal imprudence. His parents took over the care of William Junior and brought him to their home in Florida.
Released on bail, Burroughs left Mexico and traveled throughout South America looking for a drug called yage. His letters to Ginsberg describing his experiences in the cities, jungles, and mountains of Ecuador and Peru were collected in a volume later published by City Lights as The Yage Letters (1963). Burroughs thought the pieces would interest the same readers who had made Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception (1954) so successful.
After Burroughs left South America, he settled in Tangier, where he found he could live cheaply and obtain the drugs he needed for his very survival. His wife's death created in him a type of literary urgency. He felt that he had been possessed by an invader, "the Ugly Spirit," who controlled him at the time of the accident and maneuvered him into a lifelong struggle, "in which I have had no choice except to write my way out."
In 1957, Kerouac visited Burroughs in Tangier and began to type the hundreds of handwritten pages of Burroughs' new book, which Kerouac titled Naked Lunch. Afterwards, Burroughs said he was "shitting out my educated Middlewestern background once and for all. It's a matter of catharsis, where I say the most horrible things I can think of. Realize that--the most horrible dirty smelly awful niggardliest posture possible...."
Burroughs continued to work on the book until its publication in 1959, thinking of it as a picaresque novel narrated by his alter ego, "William Lee." His biographer, Ted Morgan, understood that Burroughs shared the "New Vision" of the writer as an outlaw, creating a "literature of risk." The compression and urgency of Naked Lunch in "the fragmentation of the text is like the discontinuity of the addict's life between fixes....For Burroughs sees addiction as a general condition not limited to drugs. Politics, religion, the family, love, are all forms of addiction. In the post-Bomb society, all the mainstays of the social order have lost their meaning, and bankrupt nation-states are run by 'control addicts.'"
After leaving Tangier in 1957, Burroughs traveled to London to enroll in apomorphine treatment--still banned in the U.S.--for his drug addiction. The treatment failed, and he slipped back into his more familiar ways.
Burroughs found the English literary scene to be terminally depressing. "England has the most sordid literary scene..." he said. "They all meet in the same pub. This guy's writing a foreword for this person. They all have to give radio programs, they have to do all this just in order to scrape by. They're all scratching each other's backs."
Burroughs published several more novels, including Queer, which he wrote in 1951 but wasn't able to get published until 1985. The book shared the same protagonist as Junky, but the homosexual subject matter--although handled honestly--was considered in poor taste and kept the book from being published at the time.
Burroughs kept a daily journal with three separate columns in it. In one, he wrote what he was doing. In the second, he wrote what he was thinking. And in the third, he wrote what he was reading. He carried with him notebooks, news clippings, and photographs, as well as scissors, paste, and a tape recorder--all of which he considered part of his writing tools.
"In my writing," he said, "I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas...a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed."
In his later life, Burroughs moved to a small two-bedroom cottage in Lawrence, KS, where he lived with his cats. He took up painting and collage, turning out abstract works of art characterized as expressive surrealism.
Devoted to truth in all the arts, Burroughs said, "So cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal."
William S. Burroughs died in Lawrence at 6:50 p.m. on August 2, 1997, from complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day.
Discover William S. Burroughs
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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 4 | https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/12/20/173419/- | en | Merry Fetus! The latest dispatch from the War on Christmas | [
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] | null | [] | 2005-12-20T00:00:00 | Daily Kos is a progressive news site that fights for democracy by giving our audience information and resources to win elections and impact government. Our coverage is assiduously factual, ethical, and unapologetically liberal. We amplify what we think is important, with the proper context—not just what is happening, but how it's happening and why people should care. We give you news you can do something about. | en | Daily Kos | https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2005/12/20/173419/- | Dateline Lawrence, Kansas. Home of the Chesty Lions, an 1863 pro-slavery massacre and arson that nearly wiped out the city, and the deathplace of William S. Burroughs.
It's also a sea of Democratic blue in a very red state.
So, that oughta tell you something right there. We're not dealing with just any two-bit Kansas town.
But those Jayhawk fundies mean business. If they're not laughably arguing that Intelligent Design, is, well... intelligent, then by golly they're gonna make darn sure that we all know the true meaning of Christmas--saving babies from evil abortionists one aerobics class at a time.
In a bad idea gone even worse, Birthright of Lawrence thought it would be a good idea to decorate minature Christmas trees adorned with plastic fetuses and place them in area businesses as a fundraising promotion. Three local women cancelled their fitness club memberships after the owner of Body Boutique displayed one of the trees in the lobby.
Yeah, nothing says Happy Holidays Merry Christmas like a "tree [that] contained a dozen blue and pink stockings, each stuffed with a plastic figure and attached card that labeled the dolls as being "between 11 and 12 weeks old."
According to the Lawrence Journal-World:
The tree also held coupons for Birthright videos, pamphlets and children's clothes. Other coupons included savings on a video titled "After the Choice," another video showing abortion procedures, a brochure on the morning-after pill and a card that offered quart-size, press-and-seal plastic bags.
Birthright of Lawrence intended that people take a figure home in exchange for a $5 donation.
Yeppers, can you imagine the look of joy on little Cindy's face on Christmas morning tearing into festively-wrapped boxes to find brochures on the terrifying descent into hell that awaits the lusty Lolitas who uncross their legs nevermind the righteous Christian free pass for the boys? Now, that's family values!
Plus, those quart-size press-and-seal plastic bags can always come in handy in the back alley. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 56 | https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2020/12/james-grauerholz-burroughs-and-the-dharma.html | en | ‘Burroughs and the Dharma’ | [
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] | 2020-12-17T17:19:13+00:00 | William S. Burroughs was not a Buddhist: he never sought or found a “Teacher,” he never took Refuge, and he never undertook any Bodhisattva vows nor—for that matter—did he ever declare himself a fo… | en | http://www.artsjournal.com/herman/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/favicon-51.ico | Straight Up | Jan Herman | https://www.artsjournal.com/herman/2020/12/james-grauerholz-burroughs-and-the-dharma.html | James Grauerholz presented this essay in Boulder, Colorado, at the Naropa Institute’s Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics in 1999 on the 25th anniversary of its founding. He describes the role that Eastern philosophy played in the life and work of William S. Burroughs. The essay was first published in the 2004 anthology “Civil Disobediences” (Anne Waldman and Lisa Birman, eds.) and has been illustrated and edited for posting here.
By JAMES GRAUERHOLZ
I was William Burroughs’s companion and collaborator for the last twenty-three years of his life, beginning soon after he moved back to the United States in early 1974 until he died peacefully at age 83 on Aug. 2nd, 1997. William was not a Buddhist: he never sought or found a “Teacher,” he never took Refuge, and he never undertook any Bodhisattva vows. He did not consider himself a Buddhist, nor—for that matter—did he ever declare himself a follower of any one faith or practice.
But he did have an awareness of the essentials of Buddhism, and in his own way, he was affected by bodhidharma. Because of this, and because many of his closest friends were Buddhists (see: Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who often considered him one of their Teachers), Burroughs and his work can be explored within a Buddhist setting. So, since we are all here at a learning institution founded by Buddhists, this is perhaps an interesting way for us to approach his life and work.
William spent a great deal of time in Boulder and was effectively a resident of the town for two years, during 1976 to 1978. His first visit was for two weeks in 1975, and after he set himself up in “The Bunker” (his New York loft) in late 1978, he continued to make annual visits to Naropa until 1989. There are many people in Boulder who knew William during those years.
Let me apologize in advance for any doctrinal or nomenclatural errors I may make. I am by no means an “expert” on Buddhism. But before I talk about William’s life, I would like to say a few things about my own, in particular the years before I met William, so that you will have some context for my observations
My first awareness of Buddhism came from Schopenhauer.
I was born in southeast Kansas in 1952, and my first awareness of the existence of something called “Buddhism” was in my grade school days, when—reading selections from the work of Arthur Schopenhauer in the “Great Books” series—I encountered his remarks on Buddhism, as found in his 1818 work, The World as Will and Idea. Like Schopenhauer (and everybody else, probably), I had an unhappy childhood, and I gravitated naturally towards the work of classic writers and philosophers whose view of human nature and human existence was essentially pessimistic: Swift, Voltaire, de Sade, Sterne, the Book of Ecclesiastes … and Burroughs, of course. I was fourteen when I stumbled onto his best-known novel, Naked Lunch.
Schopenhauer’s intellectual embrace of Buddhist principles was based primarily on his impressions of the First Noble Truth, as Buddhists call it: the idea that the essence of life itself is suffering, dukha, or “unsatisfactoriness”—the First Mark of all conditioned dharmas (the other two being impermanence and egolessness). If you will indulge me I’d like to quote from the Buddha’s Sermon at Deer Park in Benares: “Now this, monks, is the noble truth of pain: birth is painful, old age is painful, sickness is painful, death is painful, sorrow, lamentation, dejection, and despair are painful. Contact with unpleasant things is painful, not getting what one wishes is painful. In short the five skandhas [the five “heaps” of human personality] are painful.” My first contact with this scripture was decisive for me; it had, as William would put it, the aspect of “surprised recognition.”
I went to the University of Kansas in Lawrence at age 16, and by my sophomore year I had begun taking Eastern Philosophy classes from Dr. Alfonso Verdu. Dr. Verdu was a very interesting Catalonian who had studied in Germany under Hüsserl, the phenomenologist and a student of the dialectical materialism of Hegel. Verdu went on to study the history of Eastern philosophy at various places in Asia. He was also a friend of the late Dr. Agehananda Bharati, a German-born Tibetanist whom Verdu brought to KU for a one-semester class, which I was also fortunate to attend in 1971.
I was not drawn to the Dharma by any predisposition towards finding a Buddhist Teacher.
At KU Dr. Verdu was teaching a staged series of classes covering the development of Eastern thought from Hinduism to Zen, emphasizing the evolution of these beliefs according to the Hegelian dialectical model of “thesis—antithesis—synthesis.” I followed Dr. Verdu’s course of classes through my last three years at KU, but I dropped out of college just before the end of his class on Zen Buddhism. By that time I personally had become “too Zen” to stay in school any longer—or so I thought, at that tender age. I considered myself then a pratyeka buddha, or “lone-wolf boddhisattva,” with no Teacher and no sitting practice, as such.
I hung around Lawrence for another year or so, playing guitar in local bands, and so forth; then I went to New York and met William Burroughs. That meeting set the stage for the rest of my life.
So as you see, I was not drawn to the Dharma by any predisposition towards finding a Buddhist Teacher whom I could follow, and with whom I could take Refuge, nor by any fascination with Buddhist symbology or ritual … my inclination basically originated in an artistic and intellectual attraction to any doctrine that could explain why I was so unhappy and so disgusted by the world of the so-called “adults” all around me. Of course, in a broader sense you could say that at age 21 I found my “teacher” in William himself, and I could not deny that.
From his earliest childhood in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1920s, Burroughs was alienated and repulsed by the personal and social hypocrisy that he could not help but perceive around him, even at the age of 8 or 10. He was terribly shy, and frightened of the other children, but at the same time defiant in his own beliefs and inclinations—including his homosexual attraction to some of his classmates. A sense of being fundamentally “different” from the others marked his childhood, and never left him all his life.
From earliest childhood William was alienated and
repulsed by personal and social hypocrisy.
The Burroughs family’s economic circumstances—while never approaching the kind of wealth that is often wrongly associated with his family (thanks to Jack Kerouac’s pseudo-biographical inventions about him)—were certainly comfortable, and he grew up surrounded by the children of the upper classes of old St. Louis and their parents. A bit like Gautama Sakyamuni, Burroughs was in childhood somewhat insulated from the phenomena of “old age, sickness and death”—but his parents’ domestic servants at that time showed him his first glimpses of the not-so-perfect world that lay beyond his family circle. An Irish nanny and a Welsh governess taught him how to throw curses and how to “call the toads.” The servants also exposed him to sordid scenes from their own personal lives as lower-class emigrés to America. Burroughs’s governess had a veterinarian boyfriend, and she and the boyfriend took little Willy along on a picnic date one day when he was about four years old. Apparently there occurred a sexual situation involving little Willy, which traumatized him.
In his twenties Burroughs saw a series of psychoanalysts in the hope that recouping this early trauma would allow him to break free of the psychic constraints and self-defeating reflexes that he felt as a lifelong curse. Then when he was thirty, in New York, Burroughs met Kerouac and Ginsberg, and after a period of several months in which he was conducting his own “lay analyses” of his new friends, his addiction to morphine, which had been recently developed, began to take the place of his analytic efforts. He had abandoned all faith in psychiatry by the age of 45, but long before that, he had concluded that the Freudian model of “cure of neurosis through recuperation of primordial trauma” was overrated.
Burroughs was also troubled by philosophical questions about the significance of language; in 1939 he had gone to Chicago to attend a series of lectures by Count Alfred Korzybski, the founder of a school of thought that he called “General Semantics.” From these lectures Burroughs took away the insight that a word is not its referent—the word has no tangible existence—and that what William called “dualistic,” or “either/or” thinking is an intellectual trap. Like Nagarjuna, Korzybski had postulated the solution: “both/and.” It was an article of faith with William that the “either/or” concept was completely mistaken, and he very often cited the “both/and” concept in conversation and interviews.
William did have in some ways—as his friend Lucien Carr put it—
‘the morals of a Boy Scout, although he’d never want you to know that.’
Although William seems to have had an intuitive grasp of the First Noble Truth (in so many words), it was only towards the end of his life that he seemed to embrace the Second Noble Truth: that the cause of suffering is ignorance. That is, William always perceived suffering—and gross forms of ignorance—all around him, but his reaction was rooted in a strong sense of self, and self-preservation … so that whatever natural compassion he may have felt was usually over-balanced by his contempt for the stupidity of Mankind, and his hatred of everything that he took as personal oppression or anything threatening his self-control.
Jean-Paul Sartre said; “Hell is other people;” the young William Burroughs said: “Other people are different from me and I don’t like them.” His response was to develop an obsession with weapons and self-defense, which lasted all his life. William sometimes affected a self-image exemplified by the lyrics of a blues song of the 1920s, which he often quoted in later years: “I’m evil, evil as a man can be / I’m evil, evil-hearted me.” But his heart wasn’t really in it, all this evilness; there was within him some strain of bedrock decency that always stopped him from elaborating himself fully in that direction.
And this fertile inner ground for the growth of compassion is shown by his youthful embrace of the “alternative decency”—so to speak—of “the Johnson Family.” This was a turn-of-the-century term among hobos and the criminal underworld, referring to their code of honor: a Johnson minds his own business, his word is his bond, he gives help when help is needed, and he never offers information to the police. (Etcetera.) William encountered this alternative ethics in the memoirs of a reformed safecracker and highwayman of the old American West named Jack Black. Called You Can’t Win, it was published in 1927, when William was 13. Again, this was a decisive and formative encounter for him.
So William really did have, in some ways—as his friend Lucien Carr put it—”the morals of a Boy Scout, although he’d never want you to know that.” It’s just that William’s “Boy Scout” was the flipside of Lord Baden-Powell’s goody-goody English Scout boy: a “Revised Boy Scout”—that is to say, a “Wild Boy.” As Burroughs wrote: “A wild boy is filthy, dreamy, treacherous, vicious and lustful.” This wistful formulation confirms at least the second part of Carr’s remark. But Burroughs himself, in person, impressed most people who knew him fairly well as a gentleman: well mannered and well turned out. He could be wild and crazy in private, like most of us, but his social front was genteel and courtly. And this tension—between upper-class social manners and a thoroughly democratic, can I say Whitmanic, impulse within intimate (particularly underclass or “underground”) society—is a defining faultline through all of his life and work.
What distinguishes William’s writing in Wild Boys—after Naked Lunch and the Cut-Up Trilogy—is the emergence of hope: for the first time, Burroughs is not just ridiculing the world he has observed, but going on to fantasize another world in which he thinks he might like to live. Then the Red Night trilogy, which he wrote in his old age (1974-1987), moves steadily from the self-absorbed, sexually obsessed adolescent flights of the Wild Boys‘ narrator’s persona towards an always-older and wiser protagonist’s viewpoint; Burroughs was reverting at the end of his writing career to the self-description with which he had begun it, in Junky and Queer. And like Siddhartha he was growing into an ever-deeper sense of compassion for the suffering of others.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to William’s early life. I’m going to quote from his letters to Kerouac and Ginsberg during 1953-1955, because they contain a clue as to where he first encountered any notion of Yoga, Zen and Tibetan Buddhism: we know that, while still living with his parents, he loved to read the boys’-adventure and science-fiction magazines of the 1920s, and Sax Rohmer’s “Dr. Fu-Manchu” novels. These goofy pop images of “yoga” etc., presented as an exotic form of self-control for the attainment of mystical “powers,” must have prompted him to send away for booklets promising to convey these “ancient secrets of the East” to young men. And we know that in his mid-twenties, in New York, he took courses from an instructor in “Jiu-Jitsu,” which was popularized as a self-defense technique in those days; no doubt these courses also carried a simplified dose of so-called “Eastern wisdom.”
Burroughs graduated Harvard in 1936 and pursued his fascination
with the criminal underworld over the next eight years. He
was probably almost always armed with a pistol.
Burroughs graduated Harvard in 1936 and was in Vienna, Chicago, St. Louis and New York during the next eight years. He pursued his fascination with the criminal underworld during that time, and was probably almost always armed with a pistol. He volunteered for service during the early years of World War II, but was repeatedly turned down; then after Pearl Harbor, he was drafted, but was given a psychological discharge. In 1944 Burroughs was back in New York, and he met Kerouac and Ginsberg through a Columbia University student from St. Louis named Lucien Carr. He also became addicted to morphine around this time.
By 1949 Burroughs was living in Mexico City with Joan Vollmer, a bright young woman with whom he felt a deep kinship despite his essential homosexuality. But as is widely known, he killed Joan accidentally in 1951 while firing one shot from a pistol at a glass she had placed on her head. Within three years he was living a life of squalid excess in Tangier, still struggling to understand how this had happened. Burroughs felt he was defending his Self not only from outer opponents, but also from an inner enemy: the Ugly Spirit, as he called it. He felt that he was literally “possessed” by an inimical, invading personality with its own will that was quite contrary to his best interests. He claimed to have felt this sense of “possession” from his early years. And in his efforts to understand his shooting of Joan, he could proceed no further than to see an eruption of the Ugly Spirit in that rash, drunken act.
His letters from Tangier to Kerouac and Ginsberg were a lifeline for Burroughs. Meanwhile, Ginsberg had been inspired to look into Zen Buddhism after seeing some Chinese paintings in the New York Public Library in April 1953, and Kerouac had found Dwight Goddard’s A Buddhist Bible in the San Jose, California, library while he was staying with Neal and Carolyn Cassady in February 1954. Although their letters to Burroughs are lost, we can see that his friends were enthusing about these Eastern beliefs as they wrote to him. (Kerouac was also going through a phase of ascetic celibacy.)
‘I picked up on Yoga many years ago. Tibetan Buddhism, and Zen you should look into. Also Tao. Skip Confucius.’ — Burroughs to Kerouac
To Kerouac, May 24, 1954, from Lima, Peru:
As you know I picked up on Yoga many years ago. Tibetan Buddhism, and Zen you should look into. Also Tao. Skip Confucius. He is sententious old bore. Most of his sayings are about on the “Confucius say” level. My present orientation is diametrically opposed [to], therefore perhaps progression from, Buddhism. I say we are here in human form to learn by the human hieroglyphics of love and suffering. There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve. I speak only for myself. Your needs may be different. However, I am dubious of the wisdom of side-stepping sex.
To Ginsberg, July 15, 1954, from Tangier:
Tibetan Buddhism is extremely interesting. Dig it if you have not done so. I had some mystic experiences and convictions when I was practicing Yoga. That was 15 years ago. Before I knew you.
My final decision was that Yoga is no solution for a Westerner and I disapprove of all practice of Neo-Buddhism. […] Yoga should be practiced, yes, but not as final, a solution, but rather as we study history and comparative cultures.
The metaphysics of Jiu-Jitsu is interesting, and derives from Zen. If there is [a] Jiu-Jitsu club in Frisco, join. It is worthwhile and one of the best forms of exercise, because it is predicated on relaxation rather than straining.
To Kerouac, Aug. 18, 1954, from Tangier:
[M]y conclusion was that Buddhism is only for the West to study as history, that is a subject for understanding, and Yoga can profitably be practiced to that end. But it is not, for the West, An Answer, not A Solution. We must learn by acting, experiencing, and living; that is, above all, by Love and Suffering. A man who uses Buddhism or any other instrument to remove love from his being in order to avoid suffering, has committed, in my mind, a sacrilege comparable to castration. You were given the power to love in order to use it, no matter what pain it may cause you. Buddhism frequently amounts to a form of psychic junk …
I can not ally myself with such a purely negative goal as avoidance of suffering. Suffering is a chance you have to take by the fact of being alive.
I repeat, Buddhism is not for the West. We must evolve our own solutions.
‘I say we are here in human form to learn by the human hieroglyphics of
love and suffering. There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt.’ — Burroughs to Kerouac
To Ginsberg and Kerouac, Oct. 23, 1955, from Tangier:
The metaphysic of interpersonal combat: Zen Buddhist straight-aheadedness applied to fencing and knife fighting; Jiu-Jitsu principle of “winning by giving in” and “Turning your opponent’s strength against him,” various techniques of knife fighting, a knife fight as a mystic contest, a discipline like Yoga— You must eliminate fear and anger—and see the fight as impersonal process.
“Suffering is a chance you have to take by the fact of being alive.” Here we see a glimpse of the First Noble Truth, but from a distinctly Romantic / Heroic standpoint: for Burroughs, it is our duty to suffer, and to learn from suffering. But he was referring primarily to sexual or romantic love, in which he had suffered much; for example, in New York at age 26 he was overcome by jealousy and heartache over a boyfriend’s infidelity and neglect, and he cut off the end of his own left little finger; in Mexico 10 years later he fell painfully for a young American who never came close to mirroring the depth of his feelings; and after Joan’s death he realized that he was in love with Ginsberg, but when they were reunited in New York in late 1953, Ginsberg rejected him as a lover.
But at the same time that Burroughs wore this emotional hairshirt, he also showed (in writings sent to Ginsberg) some insight into the self-inflicted quality of his suffering:
[Lee’s] face had the look of a superimposed photo, reflecting a fractured spirit that could never love man or woman with complete wholeness. Yet he was driven by an intense need to make his love real, to change fact. Usually he selected someone who could not reciprocate, so that he was able […] to shift the burden of not loving, of being unable to love, onto the partner. […] Basically the loved one was always and forever an Outsider, a Bystander, an Audience.”
‘Suffering is a chance you take by being alive.’ — Burroughs to Ginsberg
As for the notion of Buddhism as “psychic junk,” here is an irresistibly funny bit from Naked Lunch, the novel he was writing in Tangier:
[“a vicious, fruity old Saint applying pancake from an alabaster bowl”]:
“Buddha? A notorious metabolic junky … Makes his own you dig. In India, where they got no sense of time, The Man is often a month late. … ‘Now let me see, is that the second or the third monsoon? I got like a meet in Ketchupore about more or less.’
“And all them junkies sitting around in the lotus position spitting on the ground and waiting on The Man.
“So Buddha says: ‘I don’t hafta take this sound. I’ll by God metabolize my own junk.’
“‘Man, you can’t do that. The Revenooers will swarm all over you.’
“‘Over me they won’t swarm. I gotta gimmick, see? I’m a fuckin’ Holy Man as of right now.’
“‘Jeez, boss, what an angle.'”
These writings indicate that Burroughs misunderstood Buddhism. A straightforward motivation of “avoiding suffering” is merely another form of craving, after all. And in Mahayana Buddhism the bodhisattva vows not to seek the extinction of Nirvana, but to be reborn for as long as other sentient beings remain unliberated by enlightenment.
In Tangier in the late 1950s Burroughs had sunk into an abject stasis of severe addiction. As he wrote in a 1962 forward to Naked Lunch:
I lived in one room in the Native Quarter of Tangier. I had not taken a bath in a year nor changed my clothes or removed them except to stick a needle every hour in the fibrous grey wooden flesh of terminal addiction. I never cleaned or dusted the room. Empty ampule boxes and garbage piled to the ceiling. Light and water long since turned off for non-payment. I did absolutely nothing. I could look at the end of my shoe for eight hours.
In Tangier in the late 1950s William sank into an abject stasis of addiction.
I am not trying to minimize the misguidedness of mistaking an opiate stupor for a transcendental state, but it is undeniable that narcosis facilitates detachment, and Burroughs saw a rough equivalence between the cellular apathy of the stoned junky and the transcendental stillness of the meditator. And in a way, he was sort of on target: “emptying the mind,” which is a preliminary stage in sitting practice, was the goal he was eternally seeking. But the subjective effect of junk is more like “emptying the heart,” that is, numbing painful emotions such as unrequited love, self-loathing and remorse. So again there is a misunderstanding, and a serious contradiction: Burroughs claimed to reject the “purely negative goal” of avoidance of suffering—but what else was he doing by using narcotics?
In Tangier and Paris in the late 1950s, Burroughs’ great friend, the painter Brion Gysin, introduced him to some of L. Ron Hubbard’s earliest disciples: John and Mary Cook, and John McMasters. Later, living in London in the mid-1960s, Burroughs stayed at Hubbard’s Scientology headquarters in East Grinstead; he was trying to “go Clear.” (He was a card-carrying Church member for less than one year). Also at this time Burroughs was impressed by a cognitive system which its proponents called Vipassana, using the Sanskrit word for “mindfulness.” This he understood not just in its simplest form, awareness of one’s own mind, but also with his old tendency to approach enlightenment from his starting-place of self-defense techniques.
From his impressions of this “Vipassana technique” Burroughs evolved a mindfulness methodology of his own, tailored to his solitary life in London during those years: the “Discipline of D.E.,” or “Do Easy.” This was an elaborate (and unintentionally humorous) system for carrying out household chores with a minimum of physical effort. For example:
Colonel Sutton-Smith 65, retired not uncomfortably on a supplementary private income … flat in Bury Street St James … cottage in Wales …
The Colonel Issues Beginners DE
DE is a way of doing. It is a way of doing everything you do. DE simply means doing whatever you do in the easiest most relaxed way you can manage which is also the quickest and most efficient way as you will find as you advance in DE. […]
Never let a poorly executed sequence pass. If you throw a match at a wastebasket and miss get right up and put that match in the wastebasket. If you have time repeat the cast that failed. There is always a reason for missing an easy toss. Repeat toss and you will find it.
Burroughs often wrote about his belief in a ‘magical universe.’ He developed a view of the world that was based primarily on Will: nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. Curses are real, possession is real.
Burroughs often wrote about his belief in a “magical universe.” He studied anthropology and comparative religions, at Harvard and at Mexico City College, and he developed a view of the world that was based primarily on Will: nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. Curses are real, possession is real. This struck him in the end as a better model for human experience and psychology than the neurosis theories of Freud. But it also fit neatly into his personal experience of “Self and Other.” For him, the Other was a deadly challenge to the Self, and never worse than when it manifested as “the Other Half,” an Other inside. Eventually he identified the invading entity as “the Word,” and rather than try to explain the rest of that theory, I will just refer you to his books, in particular the Cut-Up trilogy, The Job, and The Adding Machine.
As a self-described “Astronaut of Inner Space,” Burroughs cannot be considered a purely spiritual seeker. He was busy with the world of imagination, of scenes and characters and voices and action. But he did pursue a lifelong quest for spiritual techniques by which to master his unruly thoughts and feelings, to gain a feeling of safety from oppression and assault from without, and from within. The list of liberational systems that he took up and tried is a long one, including: General Semantics; Freudian psychoanalysis, hypnoanalysis, and narcoanalysis; Reich’s orgone box and vegetotherapy; Alexander’s Posture Method; Scientology; est; Silva Mind Control; Robert Monroe’s astral projection; Peter Valentine’s Psychic Self-Defense; etc. (Trungpa Rinpoche wrote about “cutting through spiritual materialism,” critiquing the American tendency to go on a shopping spree in the supermarket of spirituality, and in some ways this applies to William’s quest.)
William Burroughs was an early and longstanding adjunct faculty member with the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, founded in 1975 by Allen Ginsberg and Anne Waldman. In 1975, at age 61, William was asked by Allen and Anne to come to Naropa and give some classes and readings. William had encountered Trungpa in London in the 1960s, but it was in the summer of 1975 that he became personally acquainted with him. Burroughs had already met a number of advanced spiritual leaders of one kind or another, and I think he already saw himself as one of them, a “holy man” of sorts. So William’s stance towards Trungpa was collegial, with the mutual professional respect accorded by one showman to another—a kind of show-biz camaraderie. And I saw that Trungpa seemed to regard William in a similar light.
Now, you should know that a lot of controversy was caused by some of Trungpa’s behavior, and a lot of American poets and writers were offended by Ginsberg’s embrace of Trungpa as his teacher and his establishment of the Kerouac School under the aegis of Naropa Institute and the Nalanda Foundation in Boulder. The fact that Trungpa smoked cigarettes and drank a lot of alcohol, that he created a force of personal bodyguards called “Vajra Guards” and outfitted them in special quasi-military uniforms, etc., didn’t sit well with some people’s idea of how a spiritual teacher should behave—at least, in America. There were some incidents of confrontation and misunderstandings, such as the notorious Snowmass episode; that story is not worth telling again, but it involved excesses of zealotry by some young “Vajra Guards,” and a stubborn contest of wills between Trungpa and an American poet and his girlfriend, who were perhaps spiritual tourists. “Mistakes were made,” as the saying goes.
But none of these things perturbed William in the slightest. He understood that holy men are eccentric by definition, and that showmanship and personal flair are standard tools in the shaman’s medicine bag. He also had a sort of Taoist feeling that everything happens for its own reasons and one ought not to take such things personally. Trungpa’s “crazy wisdom” appealed to Burroughs, and so did the concept of the “Shambhala Warrior”—after all, Burroughs’ own path since childhood had been the way of the warrior. At this same time, the mid-1970s, William was drawn to the “Don Juan” books of Carlos Castaneda, with their emphasis on the “impeccable warrior” tradition. So there was a natural meeting-ground for the life-history and karma of William and the vajradharma of Tibet.
William understood that holy men are eccentric by definition, and that show-
manship and personal flair are standard tools in the shaman’s medicine bag.
Trungpa invited William to spend a few weeks in solitary retreat at his facility in Barnet, Vermont, called “Tail of the Tiger” (now Karme Choling). But when Trungpa told William he should leave his typewriter at home and do no writing while he was living alone in the little cabin, William rebelled and said that as a writer he could not afford to lose any ideas that might come to him during his retreat, and he would take along at least a notepad. This he did, and his notes from that period were published in 1976 as The Retreat Diaries. This decision shows that William did not subordinate himself in a teacher-student relationship with Trungpa; it also suggests that William did not understand the meditation purpose of a retreat, at least not in the Buddhist sense. Here is what he wrote in his introduction to The Retreat Diaries:
… I am more concerned with writing than I am with any sort of enlightenment, which is often an ever-retreating mirage like the fully analyzed or fully liberated person. I use meditation to get material for writing. I am not concerned with some abstract nirvana. It is exactly the visions and fireworks that are useful for me, exactly what all the masters tell us we should pay as little attention to as possible. […] I sense an underlying dogma here to which I am not willing to submit. The purposes of a Boddhisattva and an artist are different and perhaps not reconcilable. Show me a good Buddhist novelist.
[…] As far as any system goes, I prefer the open-ended, dangerous and unpredictable universe of Don Juan to the closed, predictable karma universe of the Buddhists.
Indeed existence is the cause of suffering, and suffering may be good copy. Don Juan says he is an impeccable warrior and not a master; anyone who is looking for a master should look elsewhere. I am not looking for a master; I am looking for the books.
(William permitted Allen Ginsberg to add a footnote to this: “‘Outside the wheel of conditional karmic existence’ would be the Buddhist equivalent of ‘unpredictable, open-ended.'” William was guilty of “either/or thinking” here, of seeing a false dichotomy between determinism and free will. The concept of karma unifies both views, erasing the superficial contradiction between them.)
“As I have said, William was quite at home in the solitary state, and he spent countless hours alone, meditating in his own way as a matter of course. Perhaps his two weeks in the Vermont cabin were more a change of scene than anything else. The simple life of a cabin retreat appealed to him in another way, too: his childhood memories of summertime visits with his family to primitive resort cabins at Harbor Beach, Michigan and Missoula, Montana stayed with him all his life, and you can find many scenes based on these experiences in his work, particularly in the Red Night trilogy.
In Cities of the Red Night, which he wrote between 1974 and 1980, there is a chapter called “I Can Take the Hut Set Anywhere,” set in the 19th-century American West. It depicts Burroughs’ teen-aged protagonist and a friend setting up house in a remote location, going to the nearby General Store and stocking up on basic survival goods, etc. This “Hut Set” chapter is the doorway to the next book in the trilogy, The Place of Dead Roads, written between 1977 and 1982. Dead Roads was originally called “The Gay Gun” and it is primarily set in the Old West. The Way of the Gunfighter is a chief preoccupation of the book, and when you know that William did read Herrigel’s Zen in the Art of Archery and similar books in the 1960s, you can see how this examination of the dhyana of marksmanship was a natural evolution of his lifelong study of warriorship, and an organic refinement of his effort to attain “one-pointedness.”
Dead Roads is also very influenced by William’s experiences in Colorado during 1976-1978. For example, the book opens with a pistol duel at the Boulder Cemetery. Now, one of the things that William preferred about Boulder over New York City was that he could go just a little ways out of town and target-practice with pistols to his heart’s content. He could—and did—buy pistols over the counter at a gun store near Pearl Street. William liked to go shooting at our friend Steven Lowe’s cabin in Eldora, in the Foothills, and he was living with Cabell Lee Hardy at Apt. 415 in the old Varsity Manor (which he always called “the Varsity Ma-nór,” at Marine Street and Broadway.
William’s 29-year-old son Billy came to town for Naropa in the summer
of 1976 and immediately collapsed: his liver gave out.
William resided in Boulder from June 1976 through October 1978, although he was only scheduled to spend a week or two in June at the outset. He stayed on because his 29-year-old son, Billy, came to town for Naropa in the summer of 1976 and immediately collapsed: his liver gave out, and this life-and-death crisis worsened for several weeks until Billy was given a new liver in a transplant operation at Denver General Hospital in August 1976. William was very close to everything happening to Billy, and he was with him through many horrific experiences. Anyone who thinks William Burroughs got away scot-free after Joan’s death should have been around Boulder in the summer and fall of 1976, when Billy’s physical, psychological, and spiritual collapse came down hard and right in William’s 62-year-old face.
After fall 1978 William began to divide his time more between Boulder and New York, and in August 1980 he gave up the Varsity Manor apartment and went back to the Bunker in New York. Billy, with his new liver failing, went to Florida in January, and he died there on March 3, 1981. William stayed in New York until Christmas 1981, when he moved to Kansas. He had built up a new heroin habit sometime in 1979 but now he was on methadone. William had visited my Kansas outpost several times, and he decided to retire to Lawrence, a midwestern college town that was much like Boulder in the “golden age,” when there were poetry readings at “Le Bar” in the Boulderado Hotel (where William and I lived in Fall 1976) … the magical days of the mid-1970s in Boulder, before a tsunami of money swept most of that away and turned the town into Colorado’s Santa Fe.
(Even Trungpa left Boulder, in 1986, for Halifax, Nova Scotia—and in the Shambhala website biography of Trungpa, no less, it says he did this “based on his desire to establish the centre of his organization in a less agressive and materialistic atmosphere”—! So I’m not alone in seeing a disadvantageous change in Boulder since the mid-1970s. But we were all much younger then, too. And since Boulder is the home of Naropa, that in itself is auspicious, and we must make the most of it.)
When Billy Burroughs died, it was just as Cities of the Red Night was being published. William had begun writing scenes as early as 1977 that would end up in Dead Roads, but that novel took on a more somber tone as he worked on it after Billy’s death. He finished it during his first year in Lawrence, and once again, there was a long doorway passage letting onto the next and final novel, The Western Lands, which he was inspired to write after reading Norman Mailer’s Ancient Evenings in the early 1980s.
Billy died just as Cities of the Red Night was being published.
In a two-story, 19th-century stone house south of Lawrence, Kansas, William put the finishing touches on Dead Roads. He could shoot targets in the old barn right behind his house, and he began to make his first “shotgun paintings.” But literarily he had already “done the gunslinger thing” in Dead Roads, and now he focused directly on the question of immortality. Of course he made great sport of the “Egyptian immortality blueprint,” as he called it—the Mummy Road:
“The most arbitrary, precarious and bureaucratic immortality blueprint was drafted by the ancient Egyptians. First you had to get yourself mummified, and that was very expensive, making immortality a monopoly of the truly rich. Then your continued immortality in the Western Lands was entirely dependent on the continued existence of your mummy. That is why they had their mummies guarded by demons and hid good.”
Burroughs’ fascination with his personalized version of the Egyptian concept of “the Seven Souls” demonstrates his deep-seated theism (a universe not of One God but many Gods) and the literalness with which he imagined these deities. His “many gods” have meta-human motivations, like the Lords and Ladies of Mount Olympus—and a similar kind of control over the actions of mortals. One of William’s favorite quotes was from Fitzgerald’s translation of Khayyam: “On this checkerboard of nights and days / Hither and thither moves and checks and slays / And one by one back in the closet lays.”
The “he” in these lines is Death himself, whom William studied as one of the gods—and one with particularly inscrutable motives. “Why does Death want to kill me?” he asked himself. One of William’s great strengths as a writer was closely allied to one of his spiritual weaknesses: a deep strain of solipsism. By taking Death’s onslaught personally, he was distracted from considering the broader approach, that all things pass away—lakshana, the Second Mark of all conditioned dharmas. That is, William understood this phenomenon intellectually, but not in his heart; at least, not until his final years.
Burroughs did instinctively believe in reincarnation.
(Just as a side note, it would be interesting to compare-and-contrast Burroughs’ interpretation of the Egyptian Seven Souls to various Buddhist models. As an animist, seeing will and intention in all living entities, William did not take to the concept of anatman, or the essential voidness of Self (i.e., the Third Mark). But his Seven Souls can be compared to the five Skandhas of personality, and his concept of the departure of the Souls, one by one at the moment of death, can be considered in parallel with the descriptions found in the Bardo Thodol, the Tibetan Book of the Dead, which he read and referred to at times.)
Burroughs did instinctively believe in reincarnation; as he wrote in a key passage of Dead Roads: “Kim has never doubted the possibility of an afterlife or the existence of gods. In fact he intends to become a god, to shoot his way to immortality, to invent his way, to write his way.”
In Cities William wrote about the “Transmigrants,” adepts who underwent ritual suicide at a young age after careful training so they could select their next incarnation at will. “Death is a landing field,” as he wrote in 1975 in the introduction to his novella, Ah Pook Is Here (Ah Pook incidentally being the Mayan God of Death):
If you see reincarnation as a fact then the question arises: how does one orient oneself with regard to future lives? Consider death as a dangerous journey in which all past mistakes will count against you. If you are not orienting yourself on sound factual data, you will not arrive at your destination or in some cases you may arrive in fragments. What basic principles can be set forth? Perhaps the most important is relaxed alertness, and this is the point of the martial arts and other systems of spiritual training—to inculcate a psychic and physical stance of alert passivity and focused attention. Suspicion, fear, self-assertion, rigid preconceptions of right and wrong, shrinking and flinching from what may seem monstrous in human terms—such attitudes of mind and body are disastrous. See yourself as the pilot of an elaborate spacecraft in unfamiliar territory. If you freeze, tense up, refuse to look at what is in front of you, you will crack up the ship. On the other hand, credulity and uncritical receptivity are almost as dangerous.
Your death is an organism which you yourself create. If you fear it or prostrate yourself before it, the organism becomes your master. Death is also a protean organism that never repeats itself word for word. It must always present the face of surprised recognition. For this reason I consider the Egyptian and Tibetan books of the dead, with their emphasis on ritual and knowing the right words, totally inadequate. There are no right words. Death is a forced landing, in many cases a parachute jump.
‘There are no right words. Death is a forced landing, in many cases a parachute jump.’ — Burroughs, Ah Pook
But at that time, the 1970s, William visualized rebirth as a challenge, not a threat. His Transmigrants wanted to be reborn, so they could re-experience the magical period of childhood and the sexual intensity of adolescence. These youths are not exactly held up as a model, however, and we may observe that William had already spent a decade working with that sexual material in his writing, in Wild Boys for example—re-running sexually potent scenes over and over, as in a film loop or a Scientology auditing session, in an effort to neutralize the power he felt these scenes had over him. So again he was—after all—seeking the “cessation of suffering” (Third Noble Truth) by way of the extinction of craving. And in the 1980s he had the assistance of old age and methadone maintenance to help him leave behind the first of the Three Fires that are obstacles to enlightenment, i.e., lust.
Billy’s death and William’s move to the Midwest prepared the ground for William Burroughs’ bodhi, the awakening of his tender heart to the limitless field of compassion, and the vector of this awakening in his life arrived in the form of … cats. By the time Western Lands was published in 1987, William had become a dedicated cat-lover, with a household full of animals. His cat-inspired meditations can be found in the last part of Western Lands and, of course, in The Cat Inside, where he wrote:
My relationship with my cats has saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance. […]
I have said that cats serve as Familiars, psychic companions. […] The Familiars of an old writer are his memories, scenes and characters from his past, real or imaginary. A psychoanalyst would say I am simply projecting these fantasies onto my cats. Yes, quite simply and quite literally cats serve as sensitive screens for quite precise attitudes when cast in appropriate roles. The roles can shift and one cat may take various parts: my mother; my wife, Joan; Jane Bowles; my son, Billy; my father; Kiki and other amigos; Denton Welch, who has influenced me more than any other writer, though we never met. Cats may be my last living link to a dying species. […]
This cat book is an allegory, in which the writer’s past life is presented to him in a cat charade. Not that the cats are puppets. Far from it. They are living, breathing creatures, and when any other being is contacted, it is sad: because you see the limitations, the pain and fear and the final death. That is what contact means. That is what I see when I touch a cat and find that tears are flowing down my face.
In Western Lands, and even more so in My Education: A Book of Dreams, William encounters most of his old friends in the “L.O.D.”—the Land of the Dead, which is coterminous with the world of his dreams.
In the mid-1980s William went through a period of deep sadness and depression, reviewing a life’s catalog of mistakes and regrets, and this seems to have resulted in a kind of spiritual awakening, because by the end of his life ten years later he really had become enormously sweet and tender-hearted. I don’t mean saccharine-sweet—William was salty and irreverent and funny to the end—but he was more patient, more kindly, more considerate, more grateful, and more gracious. I would say he was trying to extinguish the Second Fire, ill-will, and to stave off the onset of the Third, mental dullness or boredom. In Western Lands, and even more so in My Education: A Book of Dreams (which he assembled in the early 1990s), he encounters most of his old friends in the “L.O.D.”—the Land of the Dead, which in turn is coterminous with the world of his dreams, meaning that his view of the afterlife is a life in dreams, or a bardo state, between lives.
As death approached, William was writing in what he knew would be his final journals. In these he wrestled with his anger at man’s bottomless ignorance, and seems to have overcome it to a large extent, by the end. I think he never stopped believing that, in the words of Sri Aurobindo, which he often quoted: “This is a War Universe”—and he always saw himself in the warrior’s role. But by some dispensation of his own curious karma, including all the social and historical baggage he was born with, and all the passions he felt and violent actions he took in his life, William Burroughs was given a final decade of old age in which to look back upon that life and study its lessons—and in this time, with the help of his beloved cats, he attained a state of ahimsa, compassion for the suffering that is everywhere.
I’d like to close with these lines from The Place of Dead Roads:
“‘Whenever you use this bow I will be there,’ the Zen archery master tells his students. And he means there quite literally. He lives in his students and thus achieves a measure of immortality. And the immortality of a writer is to be taken literally. Whenever anyone reads his words the writer is there. He lives in his readers.” •
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] | null | [] | null | Brief descriptions of each Registry title can be found here, and expanded essays are available for select titles. The authors of these essays are experts in film history, and their works appear in books, newspapers, magazines and online. Some of these essays originated in other publications and are reprinted here by permission of the author. Other essays have been written specifically for this website. The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress. | en | The Library of Congress | null | Brief descriptions of each Registry title can be found here, and expanded essays are available for select titles. The authors of these essays are experts in film history, and their works appear in books, newspapers, magazines and online. Some of these essays originated in other publications and are reprinted here by permission of the author. Other essays have been written specifically for this website. The views expressed in these essays are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Library of Congress.
In most cases, the images linked to Registry titles listed below were selected from the Library's Prints & Photographs Online Catalog, however some are drawn from other Library collections.
View a list of all expanded essays
7th Heaven (1927)
"Seventh Heaven" (also referred to as "7th Heaven"), directed by Frank Borzage and based on the play by Austin Strong, tells the story of Chico (Charles Farrell), the Parisian sewer worker-turned-street cleaner, and his wife Diane (Janet Gaynor), who are separated during World War I, yet whose love manages to keep them connected. "Seventh Heaven" was initially released as a silent film but proved so popular with audiences that it was re-released with a synchronized soundtrack later that same year. The popularity of the film resulted in it becoming one of the most commercially successful silent films as well as one of the first films to be nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award. Janet Gaynor, Frank Borzage, and Benjamin Glazer won Oscars for their work on the film, specifically awards for Best Actress, Best Directing (Dramatic Picture), and Best Writing (Adaptation), respectively. "Seventh Heaven" also marked the first time often-paired stars Janet Gaynor and Charles Farrell worked together. Added to the National Film Registry in 1995.
Expanded essay by Aubrey Solomon (PDF, 694KB)
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Special-effects master Ray Harryhausen provides the hero (Kerwin Mathews) with a villanous magician (Torin Thatcher) and fantastic antagonists, including a genie, giant cyclops, fire-breathing dragons, and a sword-wielding animated skeleton, all in glorious Technicolor. And of course no mythological tale would be complete without the rescue of a damsel in distress, here a princess (Kathryn Grant) that the evil magician shrinks down to a mere few inches. Harryhausen's stunning Dynamation process, which blended stop-motion animation and live-actions sequences, and a thrilling score by Bernard Herrmann ("Psycho," "The Day the Earth Stood Still") makes this one of the finest fantasy films of all time. Added to the National Film Registry in 2008.
Expanded essay by Tony Dalton (PDF, 900KB)
3:10 to Yuma (1957)
Considered to be one of the best westerns of the 1950s, "3:10 to Yuma" has gained in stature since its original release as audiences have recognized the progressive insight the film provides into the psychology of its two main characters that becomes vividly exposed during scenes of heightened tension. Frankie Laine sang the film's popular theme song, also titled "3:10 to Yuma." Often compared favorably with "High Noon," this innovative western from director Delmer Daves starred Glenn Ford and Van Heflin in roles cast against type and was based on a short story by Elmore Leonard. Added to the National Film Registry in 2012.
12 Angry Men (1957)
In the 1950s, several television dramas acted live over the airways won such critical acclaim that they were also produced as motion pictures; among those already honored by the National Film Registry is "Marty" (1955). Reginald Rose had adapted his original stage play "12 Angry Men" for Studio One in 1954, and Henry Fonda decided to produce a screen version, taking the lead role and hiring director Sidney Lumet, who had been directing for television since 1950. The result is a classic. Filmed in a spare, claustrophobic style—largely set in one jury room—the play relates a single juror's refusal to conform to peer pressure in a murder trial and follows his conversion of one juror after another to his point of view. The story is often viewed as a commentary on McCarthyism, Fascism, or Communism. Added to the National Film Registry in 2007.
Expanded essay by Joanna E. Rapf (PDF, 258KB)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
This biographical drama directed by Sir Steve McQueen, and produced by Brad Pitt’s production company, is based on the 1853 slave memoir “Twelve Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup, an African-American free man who was kidnapped in Washington, D.C. by two conmen in 1841, and sold into slavery. He was put to work on plantations in the state of Louisiana for 12 years before being released. The film received nine Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for John Ridley, and Best Supporting Actress for Lupita Nyong’o. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
13 Lakes (2004)
James Benning's feature-length film can be seen as a series of moving landscape paintings with artistry and scope that might be compared to Claude Monet's series of water-lily paintings. Embracing the concept of "landscape as a function of time," Benning shot his film at 13 different American lakes in identical 10-minute takes. Each is a static composition: a balance of sky and water in each frame with only the very briefest suggestion of human existence. At each lake, Benning prepared a single shot, selected a single camera position and a specific moment. The climate, the weather and the season deliver a level of variation to the film, a unique play of light, despite its singularity of composition. Curators of the Rotterdam Film Festival noted, "The power of the film is that the filmmaker teaches the viewer to look better and learn to distinguish the great varieties in the landscape alongside him. [The list of lakes] alone is enough to encompass a treatise on America and its history. A treatise the film certainly encourages, but emphatically does not take part in." Benning, who studied mathematics and then film at the University of Wisconsin, currently is on the faculty at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). Added to the National Film Registry in 2014.
Expanded essay by Scott MacDonald (PDF, 316KB)
20 Feet from Stardom (2013)
Directed by Morgan Neville and produced by Gil Friesen, “20 Feet from Stardom” uses archival footage and interviews sharing behind-the-scenes experiences, and shining the spotlight on backup singers, including Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Jo Lawry, Claudia Lennear, and Tata Vega. Archival footage includes performances with Sting, David Bowie, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Elton John, Tom Jones, Ike & Tina Turner, Luther Vandross, and more. A highlight of the film includes an interview with Mick Jagger telling the story of how Merry Clayton came to sing the iconic background vocals on “Gimme Shelter.” Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
42nd Street (1933)
At a little less than 90 minutes, "42nd Street" is a fast-moving picture that crackles with great dialogue and snappily plays up Busby Berkeley's dance routines and and the bouncy Al Dubin-Harry Warren ditties that include the irrepressably cheerful "Young and Healthy" (featuring the adorable Toby Wing), "Shuffle Off to Buffalo" and the title number. A famous Broadway director (Warner Baxter) takes on a new show despite his ill health, then faces disaster at every turn, including the loss of his leading lady on opening night. The film features Bebe Daniels as the star of the show and Berkeley regulars Guy Kibbee, Ginger Rogers, Dick Powell, and Ruby Keeler, whom Baxter implores, "You're going out a youngster, but you've got to come back a star!" Added to the National Film Registry in 1998.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick's landmark epic pushed the envelope of narrative and special effects to create an introspective look at technology and humanity. Arthur C. Clarke adapted his story "The Sentinel" for the screen version and his odyssey follows two astronauts, played by Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, on a voyage to Jupiter accompanied by HAL 9000, an unnervingly humanesque computer running the entire ship. With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent more than two years creating his vision of outer space. Despite some initial critical misgivings, "2001" became one of the most popular films of 1968. Billed as "the ultimate trip," the film quickly caught on with a counterculture audience that embraced the contemplative experience that many older audiences found tedious and lacking substance. Added to the National Film Registry in 1991.
Expanded essay by James Verniere (PDF, 691KB)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1916)
Directed by Stuart Paton, the film was touted as "the first submarine photoplay." Universal spent freely on location, shooting in the Bahamas and building life-size props, including the submarine, and taking two years to film. J. E. Williamson's "photosphere," an underwater chamber connected to an iron tube on the surface of the water, enabled Paton to film underwater scenes up to depths of 150 feet. The film is based on Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea" and to a lesser extent, "The Mysterious Island." The real star of the film is its special effects. Although they may seem primitive by today's standards, 100 years ago they dazzled contemporary audiences. It was the first time the public had an opportunity to see reefs, various types of marine life and men mingling with sharks. It was also World War I, and submarine warfare was very much in the public consciousness, so the life-size submarine gave the film an added dimension of reality. The film was immensely popular with audiences and critics. Added to the National Film Registry in 2016.
Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
Freight handlers Bud Abbott and Lou Costello encounter Dracula and Frankenstein's monster when they arrive from Europe for a house of horrors exhibit. After the monsters outwit the hapless duo and escape, Dracula returns for Costello whose brain he intends to transplant into the monster. Lon Chaney Jr. as the lycanthropic Lawrence Talbot, Bela Lugosi in his final appearance as Dracula and Glenn Strange as the Monster all play their roles perfectly straight as Bud and Lou stumble around them. Throughout the film, Dracula and the Monster cavort in plain view of the quivering Costello who is unable to convince the ever-poised and dubious Abbott that the monsters exist. until the wild climax in Dracula's castle, where the duo are pursued by all three of the film's monstrosities.
Expanded essay by Ron Palumbo (PDF, 424KB)
Ace in the Hole (aka Big Carnival) (1951)
Based on the infamous 1925 case of Kentucky cave explorer Floyd Collins, who became trapped underground and whose gripping saga created a national sensation lasting two weeks before Collins died. A deeply cynical look at journalism, "Ace in the Hole" features Kirk Douglas as a once-famous New York reporter, now a down-and-out has-been in Albuquerque. Douglas plots a return to national prominence by milking the story of a man trapped in a Native American cave dwelling as a riveting human-interest story, complete with a tourist-laden, carnival atmosphere outside the rescue scene. The callously indifferent wife of the stricken miner is no more sympathetic: "I don't go to church. Kneeling bags my nylons." Providing a rare moral contrast is Porter Hall, who plays Douglas' ethical editor appalled at his reporter's actions. Such a scathing tale of media manipulation might have helped turn this brilliant film into a critical and commercial failure, which later led Paramount to reissue the film under a new title, "The Big Carnival."
Expanded essay by Molly Haskell (PDF, 330KB)
Adam's Rib (1949)
With an Oscar-nominated script by Ruth Gordon and Garson Kanin, "Adam's Rib" pokes fun at the double standard between the sexes. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn play husband and wife attorneys, each drawn to the same case of attempted murder. Judy Holliday, defending the sanctity of her marriage and family, intends only to frighten her philandering husband (Tom Ewell) and his mistress (Jean Hagen) but tearfully ends up shooting and injuring the husband. Tracy argues that the case is open and shut, but Hepburn asserts that, if the defendant were a man, he'd be set free on the basis of "the unwritten law." As the trial turns into a media circus, the couple's relationship is put to the test. Holliday's first screen triumph propelled her onto bigger roles, including "Born Yesterday," for which she won an Academy Award. The film is also the debut of Ewell, who would become best known for his role opposite Marilyn Monroe in "The Seven Year Itch", and Hagen, who would floor audiences as the ditzy blonde movie star with the shrill voice in "Singin' in the Rain."
The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)
When Richard the Lion-Hearted is captured and held for ransom, evil Prince John (Claude Rains) declares himself ruler of England and makes no attempt to secure Richard's safe return. A lone knight, Robin Hood (Errol Flynn), sets out to raise Richard's ransom by hijacking wealthy caravans traveling through Sherwood Forest. Aided by his lady love, Maid Marian (Olivia de Havilland), and band of merry men (including Alan Hale and Eugene Pallette) Robin battles the usurper John and wicked Sheriff of Nottingham to return the throne to its rightful owner. Dashing, athletic and witty, Flynn is everything that Robin Hood should be, and his adversaries are memorably villainous, particularly Basil Rathbone with whom Flynn crosses swords in the climactic duel. One of the most spectacular adventure films of all time, and features a terrific performance by the perfectly cast Flynn. Only a spirited and extravagant production could do justice to the Robin Hood legend; this film is more than equal to the task. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's score won an Oscar, as did the editing and art direction.
The African Queen (1951)
Adapted from a novel by C.S. Forester, the film stars Humphrey Bogart in an Oscar-winning portrayal of a slovenly, gin-swilling captain of the African Queen, a tramp steamer carrying supplies to small African villages during World War I. Katharine Hepburn plays a prim spinster missionary stranded when the Germans invade her settlement. Bogart agrees to transport Hepburn back to civilization despite their opposite temperaments. Before long, their tense animosity turns to love, and together they navigate treacherous rapids and devise an ingenious way to destroy a German gunboat. The difficulties inherent in filming on location in Africa are documented in numerous books, including one by Hepburn.
Airplane! (1980)
"Airplane!" emerged as a sharply perceptive parody of the big-budget disaster films that dominated Hollywood during the 1970s. Written and directed by David Zucker, Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams, the film is characterized by a freewheeling style and skewered Hollywood's tendency to push successful formulaic movie conventions beyond the point of logic. One of the film's most noteworthy achievements was to cast actors best known for their dramatic careers, such as Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges, and provide them with opportunities to showcase their comic talents.The central premise is one giant cliche: a pilot (Robert Hays), who's developed a fear of flying, tries to win back his stewardess girlfriend (Julie Hagerty), boarding her flight so he can coax her around. Due to an outbreak of food poisoning, Hays must land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller (Bridges) and and his tyranical former captain (Stack). Supporting the stars is a wacky assemblage of stock characters from every disaster movie ever made.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 477KB)
“¡Alambrista! (1977)
“¡Alambrista!” is the powerfully emotional story of Roberto, a Mexican national working as a migrant laborer in the United States to send money back to his wife and newborn. Director Robert M. Young’s sensitive screenplay refuses to indulge in simplistic pieties, presenting us with a world in which exploitation and compassion coexist in equal measure. The film immerses us in Roberto’s world as he moves across vast landscapes, meeting people he can’t be sure are friend or threat, staying one step ahead of immigration officials. “¡Alambrista!” is as relevant today as it was on its 1977 release, a testament to its enduring humanity. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Expanded essay by Charles Ramírez Berg (PDF, 556KB)
Interview with Edward James Olmos (PDF, 2MB)
Alien (1979)
This film's appeal may lie in its reputation as "a haunted house movie in space." Though not particularly original, "Alien" is distinguished by director Ridley Scott's innovative ability to wring every ounce of suspense out of the B-movie staples he employs within the film's hi-tech setting. Art designer H.R. Giger creates what has become one of cinema's scariest monsters: a nightmarish hybrid of humanoid-insect-machine that Scott makes even more effective by obscuring it from view for much of the film. The cast, including Tom Skerritt and John Hurt, brings an appealing quality to their characters, and one character in particular, Sigourney Weaver's warrant officer Ripley, became the model for the next generation of hardboiled heroines and solidified the prototype in subsequent sequels. Rounding out the cast and crew, cameraman Derek Vanlint and composer Jerry Goldsmith propel the emotions relentlessly from one visual horror to the next.
All About Eve (1950)
Scheming ingénue Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) ingratiates herself with aging Broadway star Margo Channing (Bette Davis) moving in on her acting roles, her friends and her stage director beau. The dialog is often too bitingly perfect with its sarcastic barbs and clever comebacks, but it's still entertaining and quote-worthy. The film took home Academy Awards for best picture, best director (Joseph L. Mankiewicz), best screenplay (Mankiewicz) and costume design (Edith Head and Charles Le Maire). George Sanders won a best supporting actor Oscar for his performance as the acid-tongued theater critic Addison DeWitt. Thelma Ritter as Margo's maid, Celeste Holm as Margo's best friend, and Marilyn Monroe, in a small role as an aspiring actress, give memorable performances.
Movie poster
All My Babies (1953)
Written and directed by George Stoney, this landmark educational film was used to educate midwives throughout the South. Produced by the Georgia Department of Public Health, profiles the life and work of "Miss Mary" Coley, an African-American midwife living in rural Georgia. In documenting the preparation for and delivery of healthy babies in rural conditions ranging from decent to deplorable, the filmmakers inadvertently captured a telling snapshot at the socioeconomic conditions of the era that would prove fascinating to future generations. Added to the National Film Registry in 2002.
Expanded essay by Joshua Glick (PDF, 391KB)
Watch it here
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
This faithful adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's classic pacifist novel is among the greatest antiwar films ever made, remaining powerful more than 80 years later, thanks to Lewis Milestone's inventive direction. Told from the perspective of a sensitive young German soldier (Lew Ayres) during WWI, recruited by a hawkish professor advocating "glory for the fatherland." The young soldier comes under the protective wing of an old veteran (Louis Wolheim) who teaches him how to survive the horrors of war. The film is emotionally draining, and so realistic that it will be forever etched in the mind of any viewer. Milestone's direction is frequently inspired, most notably during the battle scenes. In one such scene, the camera serves as a kind of machine gun, shooting down the oncoming troops as it glides along the trenches. Universal spared no expense during production, converting more than 20 acres of a large California ranch into battlefields occupied by more than 2,000 ex-servicemen extras. After its initial release, some foreign countries refused to run the film. Poland banned it for being pro-German, while the Nazis labeled it anti-German. Joseph Goebbels, later propaganda minister, publicly denounced the film. It received an Academy Award as Best Picture and Milestone was honored as Best Director.
Expanded essay by Garry Wills (PDF, 713KB)
Lobby card
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
The rich visual texture, using glorious Technicolor, and a soaring emotional score lend what is essentially a thin story a kind of epic tension. A movie unheralded by critics and largely ignored by the public at the time of its release, All That Heaven Allows is now considered Douglas Sirk's masterpiece. The story concerns a romance between a middle-aged, middle-class widow (Jane Wyman) and a brawny young gardener (Rock Hudson)—the stuff of a standard weepie, you might think, until Sirk's camera begins to draw a deeply disturbing, deeply compassionate portrait of a woman trapped by stifling moral and social codes. Sirk's meaning is conveyed almost entirely by his mise-en-scene—a world of glistening, treacherous surfaces, of objects that take on a terrifying life of their own; he is one of those rare filmmakers who insist that you read the image.
Expanded essay by John Wills (PDF, 187KB)
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All That Jazz (1979)
Director/choreographer Bob Fosse takes a Felliniesque look at the life of a driven entertainer. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider, channeling Fosse) is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, an ex-wife Audrey, girlfriend Kate, young daughter, and various conquests. Reminiscent of Fellini's "8 1/2 ," Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. Fosse shows the stiff price that entertaining exacts on entertainers (among other things, he intercuts graphic footage of open-heart surgery with a song and dance), mercilessly reversing the feel-good mood of classical movie musicals.
All the King's Men (1949)
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Robert Penn Warren and directed by Robert Rossen, "All the King's Men" was inspired by the career of Louisiana governor Huey Long. Broderick Crawford won an Academy Award for his portrayal of Willie Stark, a backwoods Southern lawyer who wins the hearts of his constituents by bucking the corrupt state government. The thesis is basically that power corrupts, with Stark presented as a man who starts out with a burning sense of purpose and a defiant honesty. Rossen, however, injects a note of ambiguity early on (a scene where Willie impatiently shrugs off his wife's dream of the great and good things he is destined to accomplish); and the doubt as to what he is really after is beautifully orchestrated by being filtered through the eyes of the press agent (Ireland) who serves as the film's narrator, and whose admiration for Stark gradually becomes tempered by understanding. In addition to its Oscars for Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, the film won the Best Picture prize.
All the President's Men (1976)
Based on the memoir by "Washington Post" reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein about uncovering the Watergate break-in and cover up, "All the President's Men" is a rare example of a best-selling book transformed into a hit film and a cultural phenomenon in its own right. Directed by Alan J. Pakula, the film stars Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein, and features an Oscar-winning performance by Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee. Nominated for numerous awards, it took home an Oscar for best screenplay by William Goldman (known prior to this for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and after for "The Princess Bride"). Pakula's taut directing plays up the emotional roller coaster of exhilaration, paranoia, self-doubt, and courage, without ignoring the tedium and tireless digging, and elevating it to noble determination.
Expanded essay by Mike Canning (PDF, 72KB)
Allures (1961)
Called the master of "cosmic cinema," Jordan Belson excelled in creating abstract imagery with a spiritual dimension that featured dazzling displays of color, light, and ever-moving patterns and objects. Trained as a painter and influenced by the films of Oskar Fischinger, Norman McLaren, and Hans Richter, Belson collaborated in the late 1950s with electronic music composer Henry Jacobs to create elaborate sound and light shows in the San Francisco Morrison Planetarium, an experience that informed his subsequent films. The film, Belson has stated, "was probably the space-iest film that had been done until then. It creates a feeling of moving into the void." Inspired by Eastern spiritual thought, "Allures" (which took a year and a half to make) is, Belson suggests, a "mathematically precise" work intended to express the process of becoming that the philosopher Teilhard de Chardin has named "cosmogenesis."
Amadeus (1984)
Milos Forman directed this deeply absorbing, visually sumptuous film based on the lives and rivalry of two great classical composers — the brash, youthful Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and the good, if not truly exceptional, Antonio Salieri. Based upon Peter Shaffer's highly successful play, which Shaffer personally rewrote for the screen, "Amadeus," though ostensibly about classical music, instead shines as a remarkable examination of the concept of genius (Mozart) as well as the jealous obsession from less-talented rivals (Salieri). In an Oscar-winning performance, F. Murray Abraham skillfully lays bare the tortured emotions (admiration and covetous envy) Salieri feels for Mozart's work: "This was the music I had never heard...It seemed to me that I was hearing the voice of God. Why would God choose an obscene child to be his instrument?"
America, America (1963)
"My name is Elia Kazan. I am a Greek by blood, Turk by birth, American because my uncle made a journey." So begins the film directed, produced and written by Elia Kazan, and the one he frequently cited as his personal favorite. Based loosely on Kazan's uncle, Stavros dreams of going to America in the late 1890s. Kazan, who often hired locals as extras, cast in the lead role a complete novice, Stathis Giallelis, whom he discovered sweeping the floor in a Greek producer's office. Shot almost entirely in Greece and Turkey, Haskell Wexler's cinematography evokes scale and authenticity that combines with Gene Callahan's Oscar-winning art direction to give the film a distinctly European feel. Intended as the first chapter of a trilogy, the epically ambitious "America, America" also earned Oscar nominations for best director, best screenplay and best picture.
American Graffiti (1973)
Fresh off the success of "The Godfather," producer Francis Ford Coppola weilded the clout to tackle a project pitched to him by his friend, George Lucas. The film captured the flavor of the 1950s with ironic candor and a latent foreboding that helped spark a nostalgia craze. Despite technical obstacles, and having to shoot at night, cinematographer Haskell Wexler gave the film a neon glare to match its rock-n-roll soundscape. Lucas' period detail, co-writers Willard Huyck's and Gloria Katz's realistic dialogue, and the film's wistfulness for pre-Vietnam simplicity appealed to audiences amidst cultural upheaval. The film also established the reputations of Lucas (whose next film would be "Star Wars") and his young cast, and furthered the onset of soundtrack-driven, youth-oriented movies.
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An American in Paris (1951)
Gene Kelly, Leslie Caron, Georges Guetary, (The film was supposed to make Guetary into "the New Chevalier." It didn't.) The thinnish plot is held together by the superlative production numbers and by the recycling of several vintage George Gershwin tunes, including "I Got Rhythm," "'S Wonderful," and "Our Love Is Here to Stay." Highlights include Guetary's rendition of "Stairway to Paradise"; Oscar Levant's fantasy of conducting and performing Gershwin's "Concerto in F" (Levant also appears as every member of the orchestra). "An American in Paris," directed by Vincente Minnelli, cleaned up at the Academy Awards, with Oscars for best picture, screenplay, score, cinematography, art direction, set design, and even a special award for the choreography of its 18-minute closing ballet in which Kelly and Caron dance before lavish backgrounds resembling French masterpieces.
Interview with Leslie Caron (PDF, 1.36MB)
Anatomy of a Murder (1959)
Director Otto Preminger brought a new cinematic frankness to film with this gripping crime-and-trial movie shot on location in Michigan's Upper Peninsula where the incident on which it was based had occurred. Based on the best-selling novel by Robert Traver, Preminger imbues his film with daring dialogue and edgy pacing. Controversial in its day due to its blunt language and willingness to openly discuss adult themes, "Anatomy" endures today for its first-rate drama and suspense, and its informed perspective on the legal system. Starring James Stewart, Ben Gazzara and Lee Remick, it also features strong supporting performances by George C. Scott as the prosecuting attorney, and Eve Arden and Arthur O'Connell. The film includes an innovative jazz score by Duke Ellington and one of Saul Bass's most memorable opening title sequences.
Animal House (1978)
(see "National Lampoon's Animal House")
Annie Hall (1977)
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. "Annie Hall" blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as "Sleeper" and "Bananas" with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, "Annie Hall" beat out "Star Wars" for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. Added to the National Film Registry in 2001.
Expanded essay by Jay Carr (PDF, 302KB)
Antonia: A Portrait of the Woman (1974)
Directed by Jill Godmilow and Judy Collins, this Oscar-nominated documentary chronicles the life of musician-conductor Antonia Brico and her struggle to become a symphony director despite her gender. Told by many that it was ridiculous for a woman to think of conducting, she admits, "I felt that I'd never forgive myself if I didn't try." And the pain and deprivation which she has known all her life are over-shadowed in this film by her ebullient, forthright warmth. The narrative of her life alternates with glimpses of her at work—rehearsing or teaching. She also reflects on the emotional experience of conducting— including the acute separation pangs that follow a concert.
Expanded essay by Diane Worthey (PDF, 458KB)
The Apartment (1960)
Billy Wilder is purported to have hung a sign in his office that read, "How Would Lubitsch Do It?" Here, that Lubitsch touch seems to hover over each scene, lending a lightness to even the most nefarious of deeds. One of the opening shots in the movie shows Baxter as one of a vast horde of wage slaves, working in a room where the desks line up in parallel rows almost to the vanishing point. This shot is quoted from King Vidor's silent film "The Crowd" (1928), which is also about a faceless employee in a heartless corporation. Cubicles would have come as revolutionary progress in this world. By the time he made this film, Wilder had become a master at a kind of sardonic, satiric comedy that had sadness at its center. Wilder was fresh off the enormous hit "Some Like it Hot," his first collaboration with Lemmon, and with "The Apartment" Lemmon showed that he could move from light comedian to tragic everyman. This movie was the summation of what Wilder had done to date, and the key transition in Lemmon's career. It was also a key film for Shirley MacLaine, who had been around for five years in light comedies, but here emerged as a serious actress who would flower in the 1960s.
Expanded essay by Kyle Westphal (PDF, 428KB)
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The chaotic production also experienced shut-downs when a typhoon destroyed the set and star Sheen suffered a heart attack; the budget ballooned and Coppola covered the overages himself. These production headaches, which Coppola characterized as being like the Vietnam War itself, have been superbly captured in the documentary, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. Despite the studio's fears and mixed reviews of the film's ending, Apocalypse Now became a substantial hit and was nominated for eight Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Duvall's psychotic Kilgore, and Best Screenplay. It won Oscars for sound and for Vittorio Storaro's cinematography. This hallucinatory, Wagnerian project has produced admirers and detractors of equal ardor; it resembles no other film ever made, and its nightmarish aura and polarized reception aptly reflect the tensions and confusions of the Vietnam era.
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Applause (1929)
This early sound-era masterpiece was the first film of both stage/director Rouben Mamoulian and cabaret/star Helen Morgan. Many have compared Mamoulian's debut to that of Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" because of his flamboyant use of cinematic innovation to test technical boundaries. The tear-jerking plot boasts top performances from Morgan as the fading burlesque queen, Fuller Mellish Jr. as her slimy paramour and Joan Peters as her cultured daughter. However, the film is remembered today chiefly for Mamoulian's audacious style. While most films of the era were static and stage-bound, Mamoulian's camera reinvigorated the melodramatic plot by prowling relentlessly through sordid backstage life.
Apollo 13 (1995)
The extreme challenges involved in space travel present compelling cinema storylines, and one cannot imagine a more harrowing scenario than the near tragic Apollo 13 space mission. Director Ron Howard’s retelling is equally meticulous and emotional, a master class in enveloping the audience into a complicated technological exercise in life-and-death problem-solving. Based on the 1994 book “Lost Moon: The Perilous Voyage of Apollo 13” by astronaut Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger, “Apollo 13” blends skillful editing, crafty special effects, a James Horner score, and a well-paced script to detail the quick-thinking heroics of both the astronaut crew and NASA technicians as they improvise and work through unprecedented situations. The talented cast includes Tom Hanks, Bill Paxton, Kevin Bacon, Gary Sinise, Ed Harris and Kathleen Quinlan. Howard went to great lengths to create a technically accurate movie, employing NASA's assistance in astronaut and flight-controller training for his cast, and obtaining permission to film scenes aboard a reduced-gravity aircraft for realistic depiction of the weightlessness experienced by the astronauts in space. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
John Huston's brilliant crime drama contains the recipe for a meticulously planned robbery, but the cast of criminal characters features one too many bad apples. Sam Jaffe, as the twisted mastermind, uses cash from corrupt attorney Emmerich (Louis Calhern) to assemble a group of skilled thugs to pull off a jewel heist. All goes as planned — until an alert night watchman and a corrupt cop enter the picture. Marilyn Monroe has a memorable bit part as Emmerich's "niece."
Atlantic City (1980)
Aided by a taut script from playwright John Guare, director Louis Malle celebrates his wounded characters even as he mercilessly reveals their dreams for the hopeless illusions they really are. Malle reveals the rich portraits he paints of wasted American lives, through the filter of his European sensibilities. He is exceptionally well served by his cast and his location--a seedy resort town supported, like the principal characters, by memories of glories past. Burt Lancaster, in a masterful performance, plays an aging small-time criminal who hangs around Atlantic City doing odd jobs and taking care of the broken-down moll of the deceased gangster for whom Lou was a gofer. Living in an invented past, Lou identifies with yesteryear's notorious gangsters and gets involved with sexy would-be croupier (Susan Sarandon) and her drug-dealing estranged husband.
The Atomic Café (1982)
Produced and directed by Kevin Rafferty, Jayne Loader and Pierce Rafferty, the influential film compilation "The Atomic Cafe" provocatively documents the post-World War II threat of nuclear war as depicted in a wide assortment of archival footage from the period (newsreels, statements from politicians, advertisements, training, civil defense and military films). This vast, yet entertaining, collage of clips serves as a unique document of the 1940s-1960s era and illustrates how these films—some of which today seem propagandistic or even patently absurd ("The House in the Middle")—were used to inform the public on how to cope in the nuclear age.
Expanded essay by John Willis (PDF, 45KB)
Attica (1974)
The September 1971 Attica prison uprising is the deadliest prison riot in U.S. history. To protest living conditions, inmates took over the facility, held hostages, issued a manifesto demanding better treatment, and then engaged in four days of fruitless negotiations. On Day 5, state troopers and prison authorities retook the prison in a brutal assault, leaving 43 inmates and hostages dead. Cinda Firestone’s outstanding investigation of the tragedy takes us through the event, what caused it, and the aftermath. She uses first-hand interviews with prisoners, families and guards, assembled surveillance and news camera footage, and video from the McKay Commission hearings on the massacre. An ex-inmate ends the film with a quote hoping to shake public lethargy on the need for prison reform: “Wake up, because nothing comes to a sleeper, but a dream.”
The Augustas (1930s-1950s)
Scott Nixon, a traveling salesman based in Augusta, Ga., was an avid member of the Amateur Cinema League who enjoyed recording his travels on film. In this 16-minute silent film, Nixon documents some 38 streets, storefronts and cities named Augusta in such far-flung locales as Montana and Maine. Arranged with no apparent rhyme or reason, the film strings together brief snapshots of these Augustas, many of which are indicated at pencil-point on a train timetable or roadmap. Nixon photographed his odyssey using both 8mm and 16mm cameras loaded with black-and-white and color film, amassing 26,000 feet of film that now resides at the University of South Carolina. While Nixon's film does not illuminate the historical or present-day significance of these towns, it binds them together under the umbrella of Americana. Whether intentionally or coincidentally, this amateur auteur seems to juxtapose the name's lofty origin—'august,' meaning great or venerable—with the unspectacular nature of everyday life in small-town America.
View this film at Moving Image Research Collections, University of South Carolina External
The Awful Truth (1937)
Leo McCarey's largely improvised film is one of the funniest of the screwball comedies, and also one of the most serious at heart. Cary Grant and Irene Dunne are a pair of world-weary socialites who each believe the other has been unfaithful, and consequently enter into a trial divorce. The story began life as a 1922 stage hit and was filmed twice previously. McCarey maintained the basic premise of the play but improved it greatly, adding sophisticated dialogue and encouraging his actors to improvise around anything they thought funny. "The Awful Truth" was in the can in six weeks, and was such a success that Grant and Dunne were teamed again in another comedy, "My Favorite Wife" and in a touching tearjerker, "Penny Serenade." The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
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Baby Face (1933)
Smart and sultry Barbara Stanwyck uses her feminine wiles to scale the corporate ladder, amassing male admirers who are only too willing to help a poor working girl. One of the more notorious melodramas of the pre-Code era, a period when the movie industry relaxed its censorship standards, films such as this one led to the imposition of the Production Code in 1934. This relative freedom resulted in a cycle of gritty, audacious films that resonated with Depression-battered audiences.
Expanded essay by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster (PDF, 819KB)
Back to the Future (1985)
Writer/director Robert Zemeckis explored the possibilities of special effects with the 1985 box-office smash "Back to the Future." With his writing partner Bob Gale, Zemeckis tells the tale of accidental time-tourist Marty McFly. Stranded in the year 1955, Marty (Michael J. Fox)—with the help of his friend eccentric scientist Dr. Emmett Brown (played masterfully over-the-top by Christopher Lloyd)—must not only find a way home, but also teach his father (Crispin Glover) how to become a man, repair the space/time continuum and save his family from being erased from existence. All this, while fighting off the advances of his then-teenaged mother (Lea Thompson). The film generated a popular soundtrack and two enjoyable sequels.
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
Vincente Minnelli directed this captivating Hollywood story of an ambitious producer (Kirk Douglas)as told in flashback by those whose lives he's impacted: an actress (Lana Turner), a writer (Dick Powell) and a director (Barry Sullivan). Insightful and liberally sprinkled with characters modeled after various Hollywood royalty from David O. Selznick to Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, witty, with one of Turner's best performances. Five Oscars include Supporting Actress (Gloria Grahame), Screenplay (Charles Schnee). David Raksin's score is another asset.
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Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Though only 81 minutes in length, "Bad Day" packs a punch. Spencer Tracy stars as Macreedy, a one-armed man who arrives unexpectedly one day at the sleepy desert town of Black Rock. He is just as tight-lipped at first about the reason for his visit as the residents of Black Rock are about the details of their town. However, when Macreedy announces that he is looking for a former Japanese-American Black Rock resident named Komoko, town skeletons suddenly burst into the open. In addition to Tracy, the standout cast includes Robert Ryan, Anne Francis, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Dean Jagger. Director John Sturges displays the western landscape to great advantage in this CinemaScope production.
Badlands (1973)
Stark, brutal story based on the Charles Starkweather-Carol Fugate murder spree through the Midwest in 1958, with Martin Sheen as the killer lashing out against a society that ignores his existence and Sissy Spacek as his naive teenage consort. Sheen is forceful and properly weird as the mass murderer, strutting around pretending to be James Dean, while Spacek doesn't quite understand what he's all about, but goes along anyway. Director Terrence Malick neither romanticizes nor condemns his subjects, maintaining a low-key approach to the story that results in a fascinating character study. The film did scant box office business, but it remains one of the most impressive of directorial debuts.
Ball of Fire (1941)
In this Howard Hawks-directed screwball comedy, showgirl and gangster's moll Sugarpuss O'Shea (Barbara Stanwyck) hides from the law among a group of scholars compiling an encyclopedia. Cooling her heels until the heat lets up, Sugarpuss charms the elderly academics and bewitches the young professor in charge (Gary Cooper). Hawks deftly shapes an effervescent, innuendo-packed Billy Wilder-Charles Brackett script into a swing-era version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or "squirrely cherubs," as Sugarpuss christens them. Filled with colorful period slang and boogie-woogie tunes and highlighted by an energetic performance from legendary drummer Gene Krupa, the film captures a pre-World War II lightheartedness.
The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez (1982)
Directed by Robert M. Young, produced by Moctesuma Esparza, and co-produced by Edward James Olmos, who stars as Gregorio, some of the film’s most beautiful scenes come from acclaimed cinematography Reynoldo Villalobos. “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” is one of the key feature films from the 1980s Chicano film movement. Edward James Olmos was a working actor but not yet a star when he and several friends, meeting at what would become the Sundance Film Festival, decided to make a film about a true story of injustice from the Texas frontier days.
Shot on a tiny budget for PBS, “The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez” accurately tells the story of a Mexican-American farmer who in 1901 was falsely accused of stealing a horse. Cortez killed the sheriff who tried to arrest him, outran a huge posse for more than a week, barely escaped lynching and was eventually sentenced to more than a decade in prison. The incident became a famous corrido, or story-song, that is still sung in Mexico and Texas. While some characters speak in Spanish and others in English, the filmmakers decided not to use subtitles to give audiences the same experience as those caught up in the unfolding tragedy.
“This film is being seen more today than it was the day we finished it,” Olmos said in a 2022 interview with the Library of Congress. “‘The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez’ is truly the best film I’ve ever been a part of in my lifetime.”
Interview with Edward James Olmos (PDF, 2MB)
Bambi (1942)
One of Walt Disney's timeless classics (and his own personal favorite), this animated coming-of-age tale of a wide-eyed fawn's life in the forest has enchanted generations since its debut nearly 70 years ago. Filled with iconic characters and moments, the film features beautiful images that were the result of extensive nature studies by Disney's animators. Its realistic characters capture human and animal qualities in the time-honored tradition of folklore and fable, which enhance the movie's resonating, emotional power. Treasured as one of film's most heart-rending stories of parental love, "Bambi" also has come to be recognized for its eloquent message of nature conservation.
Expanded essay by John Wills (PDF, 360KB)
Expanded essay by Gail Alexander (wife of Stan Alexander - “Flower”) (PDF, 371KB)
Original drawing of Bambi
Bamboozled (2000)
Mixing elements of “A Face in the Crowd,” “The Producers,” “Network” and “Putney Swope,” Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled” showcases his unique talents, here blending dark comedy and satire exposing hypocrisy. An African American TV executive (Damon Wayans) grows tired of his ideas being rejected by his insincere white boss, who touts himself with an “I am Black People” type of vibe. To get out of this untenable situation, Wayans proposes an idea he feels will surely get him fired: a racist minstrel show featuring African American performers donning blackface. The show becomes a smash hit while at the same time sparking outrage, including militant groups leading to violence. As with the best satire, the focus is not on believable plot but rather how the story reveals the ills of society, in this case how Hollywood and television have mistreated African Americans over the decades. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
The Band Wagon (1953)
Fred Astaire, Cyd Charisse, Oscar Levant, Nanette Fabray and Jack Buchanan star in this sophisticated backstage toe-tapper directed by Vincente Minnelli, widely considered one of the greatest movie musicals of all time. Astaire plays a washed-up movie star (in reality he'd been a succesful performer for nearly 30 years) who tries his luck on Broadway, under the direction of irrepressible mad genius Buchanan. Musical highlights include "Dancing in the Dark" and "That's Entertainment" (written for the film by Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz) and Astaire's sexy Mickey Spillane spoof "The Girl Hunt" danced to perfection by Charisse. Fred Astaire would only make three more musicals after "The Band Wagon," before turning to a film and television career that included the occasional turn as a dramatic actor.
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The Bank Dick (1940)
Perhaps more than any other film comedian in the early days of movies, W.C. Fields is an acquired taste. His absurdist brand of humor, at once dry and surreal, endures for the simple reason that the movies bear up under repeated viewings; in fact, it's almost a necessity to watch them over and over, if only to figure out why they're so funny. In his second-to-last feature, The Bank Dick (which he wrote under the moniker "Mahatma Kane Jeeves"), Fields as unemployed layabout Egbert Souse -- Soosay, if you don't mind -- replaces drunk movie director A. Pismo Clam on a location shoot in his hometown of Lompoc, California before chance lands him in the job of bank detective -- after which the movie becomes a riff on the comic possibilities of his new-found notoriety. The stellar comic supporting cast includes future Stooge Shemp Howard as the bartender at Fields' regular haunt, The Black Pussy, and Preston Sturges regular Franklin Pangborn as bank examiner J. Pinkerton Snoopington.
Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 401KB)
The Bargain (1914)
After beginning his career on the stage (where he originated the role of Messala in "Ben-Hur" in 1899), William S. Hart found his greatest fame as the silent screen's most popular cowboy. His 1914 "The Bargain," directed by Reginald Barker, was Hart's first film and made him a star. The second Hart Western to be named to the National Film Registry, the film was selected because of Hart's charisma, the film's authenticity and realistic portrayal of the Western genre and the star's good/bad man role as an outlaw attempting to go straight. Added to the National Film Registry 2010.
Expanded essay by Brian Taves (PDF, 1692KB)
Watch it here
The Battle of the Century (1927)
"Battle of the Century" is a classic Laurel and Hardy silent short comedy (2 reels, ca. 20 minutes) unseen in its entirety since its original release. The comic bits include a renowned pie-fighting sequence where the principle of "reciprocal destruction" escalates to epic proportions. "Battle" offers a stark illustration of the detective work (and luck) required to locate and preserve films from the silent era. Only excerpts from reel two of the film had survived for many years. Critic Leonard Maltin discovered a mostly complete nitrate copy of reel one at the Museum of Modern Art in the 1970s. Then in 2015, film collector and silent film accompanist Jon Mirsalis located a complete version of reel two as part of a film collection he purchased from the Estate of Gordon Berkow. The film still lacks brief scenes from reel one, but the film is now almost complete, comprising elements from MoMA, the Library of Congress, UCLA and other sources. It was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in conjunction with Jeff Joseph/SabuCat. The nearly complete film was preserved from one reel of 35mm nitrate print, one reel of a 35mm acetate dupe negative and a 16mm acetate print. Laboratory Services: The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory, Deluxe Entertainment Services Group, Cineaste Restoration/Thad Komorowksi, Point 360/Joe Alloy. Special Thanks: Jon Mirsalis, Paramount Pictures Archives, Richard W. Bann, Ray Faiola, David Gerstein.
The Battle of San Pietro (1945)
John Huston's documentary about the WW II Battle of San Pietro Infine was considered too controversial by the U.S. military to be seen in its original form, and was cut from five reels to its released 33 minute-length. powerful viewing, vivid and gritty. Some 1,100 men died in the battle. scenes of grateful Italian peasants serve as a fascinating ethnographic time capsule. Filmed by Jules Buck. Unlike many other military documentaries, Huston's cameramen filmed alongside the Army's 143rd regiment, 36th division infantrymen, placing themselves within feet of mortar and shell fire. The film is unflinching in its realism and was held up from being shown to the public by the United States Army. Huston quickly became unpopular with the Army, not only for the film but also for his response to the accusation that the film was anti-war. Huston responded that if he ever made a pro-war film, he should be shot. Because it showed dead GIs wrapped in mattress covers, some officers tried to prevent troopers in training from seeing it, for fear of morale. General George Marshall came to the film's defense, stating that because of the film's gritty realism, it would make a good training film. The depiction of death would inspire them to take their training seriously. Subsequently the film was used for that purpose. Huston was no longer considered a pariah; he was decorated and made an honorary major.
Expanded essay by Ed Carter (PDF, 423KB)
View this film at National Film Preservation Foundation External
The Beau Brummels (1928)
Al Shaw and Sam Lee were an eccentrically popular vaudeville act of the 1920s. In 1928 they made this eight-minute Vitaphone short for Warner Bros. The duo later appeared in more than a dozen other films, though none possessed the wacky charm of "The Beau Brummels." As Jim Knipfel has observed: "If Samuel Beckett had written a vaudeville routine, he would have created Shaw and Lee." Often considered one of the quintessential vaudeville comedy shorts, the film has a simple set-up—Shaw and Lee stand side by side with deadpan expressions in non-tailored suits and bowler hats as they deliver their comic routine of corny nonsense songs and gags with a bit of soft shoe and their renowned hat-swapping routine. Shaw's and Lee's reputation has enjoyed a recent renaissance and their brand of dry, offbeat humor is seen by some as well ahead of its time. The film has been preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" is an animated, musical retelling of the fairy tale by Jeanne-Marie Leprince du Beaumont. The film follows Belle (voiced by Paige O'Hara), an intelligent and rebellious young French woman, who is forced to live with a hideous monster, the Beast (voiced by Robby Benson), after offering to take her father's place as the Beast's prisoner. Unaware that the Beast is actually an enchanted prince, Belle falls in love with him. "Beauty and the Beast" was the first animated film nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Picture category. Alan Menken won an Oscar for his original score, and he and lyricist Howard Ashman (posthumously) earned Oscars for the film's theme song "Beauty and the Beast."
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Becky Sharp (1935)
Actress Miriam Hopkins had a long and successful movie career, appearing in many classics, including "Trouble in Paradise" and "Design for Living." However, it is as this film's titular heroine that she received her only Academy Award best-actress nomination. Based upon Thackeray's novel "Vanity Fair," "Becky" is the story of a socially ambitious woman and her destructive climb up the class system. "Becky Sharp" merits historical note as the first feature-length film to utilize the three-strip Technicolor process, which, even today, gives the film a shimmering visual appeal. The lengthy, complicated restoration process of "Becky Sharp" by the UCLA Film and Television Archive marked one of the earliest archival restorations to garner widespread public attention. Partners in this painstaking effort included the National Telefilm Associates Inc., Fondazione Scuola Nazionale di Cinema, Cineteca Nazionale (Rome), British Film Institute, The Film Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, Paramount and YCM Laboratories. More information can be found at https://cinema.ucla.edu/restoration/becky-sharp-restoration External.
Before Stonewall (1984)
In 1969, New York City police raided the Stonewall Inn, a gay bar in Greenwich Village. After years of harassment, this infamous act proved a tipping point and led to three days of riots. The Stonewall riots are credited with launching the modern gay civil rights movement in the U.S. Narrated by Rita Mae Brown, "Before Stonewall" provides a detailed look at the history and making of the LGBTQ community in 20th-century America through archival footage and interviews with those who felt compelled to live secret lives during that period. Elements, prints and a new 2016 digital cinema package are held in the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project Collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive.
Behind Every Good Man (1967)
This pre-Stonewall UCLA student short by Nikolai Ursin offers a stunning early portrait of Black, gender fluidity in Los Angeles and the quest for love and acceptance. Following playful street scene vignettes accompanied by a wistful, baritone voice-over narration, the film lingers tenderly on our protagonist preparing for a date who never arrives. The film is preserved by the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preservation funded by the National Film Preservation Foundation on behalf of the Outfest UCLA Legacy Project. Special thanks to John Campbell, Stephen Parr and Norman Yonemoto.
Being There (1979)
Chance, a simple-minded gardener (Peter Sellers) whose only contact with the outside world is through television, becomes the toast of the town following a series of misunderstandings. Forced outside his protected environment by the death of his wealthy boss, Chance subsumes his late employer's persona, including the man's cultured walk, talk and even his expensive clothes, and is mistaken as "Chauncey Gardner," whose simple adages are interpreted as profound insights. He becomes the confidant of a dying billionaire industrialist (Melvyn Douglas, in an Academy Award-winning performance) who happens to be a close adviser to the U.S. president (Jack Warden). Chance's gardening advice is interpreted as metaphors for political policy and life in general. Jerzy Kosinski, assisted by award-winning screenwriter Robert C. Jones, adapted his 1971 novel for the screenplay which Hal Ashby directed with an understatement to match the subtlety and precision of Sellers' Academy Award-nominated performance. Shirley MacLaine also stars as Douglas's wife, then widow, who sees Chauncey as a romantic prospect. Film critic Robert Ebert said he admired the film for "having the guts to take this totally weird conceit and push it to its ultimate comic conclusion." That conclusion is a philosophically complex film that has remained fresh and relevant.
Expanded essay by Jerry Dean Roberts (PDF, 118KB)
Ben-Hur (1925)
Adapted from General Lew Wallace's popular novel "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ" published in 1880, this epic featured one of the most exciting spectacles in silent film: the chariot race that was shot with 40 cameras on a Circus Maximus set costing a staggering (for the day) $300,000. In addition to the grandeur of the chariot scene, a number of sequences shot in Technicolor also contributed to the epic status of "Ben-Hur," which was directed by Fred Niblo and starred Ramon Novarro as Judah Ben-Hur and Francis X. Bushman as Messala. While the film did not initially recoup its investment, it did help to establish its studio, MGM, as one of the major players in the industry.
Expanded essay by Fritzi Kramer (PDF, 254KB)
Lobby card
Ben-Hur (1959)
This epic blockbuster stars Charlton Heston in the title role of a rebellious Israelite who takes on the Roman Empire during the time of Christ. Featuring one of the most famous action sequences of all time -- the breathtaking chariot race -- the film was a remake of the impressive silent version released in 1925. Co-starring Stephen Boyd as Judah Ben-Hur's onetime best friend and later rival, it also featured notable performances by Hugh Griffith and Jack Hawkins. Directed by Oscar-winner William Wyler, who found success with "Mrs. Miniver" "The Best Years of Our Lives" and others, "Ben-Hur" broke awards records, winning 11 Oscars, including best picture, director, actor, supporting actor, and score. Famed stuntman Yakima Canutt was brought in to coordinate all the chariot race stunt work and train the driver The race scene alone cost is reported to have cost about $4 million, or about a fourth of the entire budget, and took 10 weeks to shoot.
Expanded essay by Gabriel Miller (PDF, 499KB)
Bert Williams Lime Kiln Club Field Day (1913)
In 1913, a stellar cast of African-American performers gathered in the Bronx, New York, to make a feature-length motion picture. The troupe starred vaudevillian Bert Williams, the first African-American to headline on Broadway and the most popular recording artist prior to 1920. After considerable footage was shot, the film was abandoned. One hundred years later, the seven reels of untitled and unassembled footage were discovered in the film vaults of the Museum of Modern Art, and are now believed to constitute the earliest surviving feature film starring black actors. Modeled after a popular collection of stories known as "Brother Gardener's Lime Kiln Club," the plot features three suitors vying to win the hand of the local beauty, portrayed by Odessa Warren Grey. The production also included members of the Harlem stage show known as J. Leubrie Hill's "Darktown Follies." Providing insight into early silent-film production (Williams can be seen applying his blackface makeup), these outtakes or rushes show white and black cast and crew working together, enjoying themselves in unguarded moments. Even in fragments of footage, Williams proves himself among the most gifted of screen comedians.
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
A moving and personal story directed by real-life veteran William Wyler, the film depicts the return to civilian life by three World War II servicemen, portrayed by Dana Andrews, Fredric March and Harold Russell. Adapted by Robert Sherwood from MacKinlay Kantor's novel "Glory for Me," Gregg Toland's deep-focus cinematography is memorable for emotionally evokative long dolly shots. It also starred Myrna Loy, Teresa Wright, Cathy O'Donnell, and Virginia Mayo. The film won nine Oscars including Best Picture, as well as two awards for Russell, who lost his hands in the war.
Expanded essay by Gabriel Miller (PDF, 319KB)
Betty Tells Her Story (1972)
Liane Brandon’s classic documentary explores the layers of storytelling and memory - how telling a story again can reveal previously hidden details and context. In this poignant tale of beauty, identity and a dress, the filmmaker turns the storytelling power over to the subject. Deceptively simple in its approach, the director in two separate takes films Betty recalling her search for the perfect dress for an upcoming special occasion. During the first take, Betty describes in delightful detail how she found just the right one, spent more than she could afford, felt absolutely transformed … and never got to wear it. Brandon then asks her to tell the story again, and this time her account becomes more nuanced, personal and emotional, revealing her underlying feelings. Though the facts remain the same, the story is strikingly different. “Betty Tells Her Story” was the first independent documentary of the Women’s Movement to explore the ways in which clothing and appearance affect a woman’s identity. It is used in film studies, psychology, sociology, women’s studies, and many other academic disciplines as a perceptive look at how our culture views women in the context of body image, self-worth and beauty in American culture. The film was restored with a grant from New York Women in Film & Television’s Women's Film Preservation Fund.
Inductees' Gallery - Liane Brandon, producer and director
Big Business (1929)
As gifted in their repartee as they were in their physical antics, Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy were the perfect team for the transition from silent film comedy to sound. Their legendary career spanned from 1921 to 1951 and included more than 100 films. This two-reeler finds the duo attempting to sell Christmas trees in sunny California. Their run-in with an unsatisfied customer (played by James Finlayson) lays the groundwork for a slapstick melee eventually involving a dismantled car, a wrecked house and an exploding cigar. The film was produced by the team's long-time collaborator, Hal Roach, the king of no-holds-barred comedy.
Expanded essay by Randy Skretvedt (PDF, 308KB)
The Big Heat (1953)
One of the great post-war noir films, "The Big Heat" stars Glenn Ford, Lee Marvin and Gloria Grahame. Set in a fictional American town, the film tells the story of a tough cop (Ford) who takes on a local crime syndicate, exposing tensions within his own corrupt police department as well as insecurities and hypocrisies of domestic life in the 1950s. Filled with atmosphere, fascinating female characters, and a jolting—yet not gratuitous—degree of violence, "The Big Heat," through its subtly expressive technique and resistance to formulaic denouement, manages to be both stylized and brutally realistic, a signature of its director Fritz Lang.
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The Big Lebowski (1998)
From the unconventional visionaries Joel and Ethan Coen (the filmmakers behind "Fargo" and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?") came this 1998 tale of kidnapping, mistaken identity and bowling. As they would again in the 2008 "Burn After Reading," the Coens explore themes of alienation, inequality and class structure via a group of hard-luck, off-beat characters suddenly drawn into each other's orbits. Jeff Bridges, in a career-defining role, stars as "The Dude," an LA-based slacker who shares a last name with a rich man whose arm-candy wife is indebted to shady figures. Joining Bridges are John Goodman, Tara Reid, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and, in a now-legendary cameo, John Turturro. Stuffed with vignettes—each staged through the Coens' trademark absurdist, innovative visual style—that are alternately funny and disturbing, "Lebowski" was only middling successful at the box office during its initial release. However, television, the Internet, home video and considerable word-of-mouth have made the film a highly quoted cult classic.
Expanded essay by J.M. Tyree & Ben Walters (PDF, 354KB)
The Big Parade (1925)
One of the first films to deglamorize war with its startling realism, "The Big Parade" became the largest grossing film of the silent era. From a story by Laurence Stallings, director King Vidor crafted what "New York Times" critic Mordaunt Hall called "an eloquent pictorial epic." The film, which Hall said displayed "all the artistry of which the camera is capable," depicts a privileged young man (John Gilbert) who goes to war seeking adventure and finds camaraderie, love, humility and maturity amid the horrors of war. Along the way he befriends two amiable doughboys (Karl Dane and Tom O'Brien) and falls for a beautiful French farm girl (Renée Adorée). Vidor tempered the film's serious subject matter with a kind of simple, light humor that flows naturally from new friendships and new loves. A five-time nominee for Best Director, Vidor was eventually recognized by the Academy in 1979 with an honorary lifetime achievement award. Both stars continued to reign until the transition to talking pictures, which neither Gilbert nor Adorée weathered successfully. Their careers plummeted and both died prematurely.
The Big Sleep (1946)
Howard Hawks directed this Raymond Chandler story featuring private eye Philip Marlowe, played by Humphrey Bogart. Appearing opposite him in only her second film was a former model named Lauren Bacall, with whom Bogart had fallen in love (and vice versa) during filming of "To Have and Have Not" earlier that year. Hawks and his writers attempted to untangle the threads of Chandler's complicated plot which caused frequent production delays. More than a month behind schedule and about $50,000 over budget, the film was ready in mid-summer1945, and that version was distributed to servicemen overseas. Shortly thereafter "To Have and Have Not" was released, and audiences loved the Bogart-Bacall chemistry, so the wide release of "The Big Sleep" was further delayed the wide release by rewriting scenes to heighten the chemistry and bring out Bacall's "insolent" quality that audiences found so appealing the pair's earlier film. The pre-release cut is only two minutes longer, but contains 18 minutes of scenes missing from the final picture. The first "draft" was discovered at the UCLA Film and Television Archive where both versions have since been preserved.
The Big Trail (1930)
This taming of the Oregon Trail saga comes alive thanks to the majestic sweep afforded by the experimental Grandeur wide-screen process developed by the Fox Film Corporation. Audiences marveled at the sheer scope of the panoramic scenes before them and delighted in the beauty of the vast landscapes. Hollywood legend has it that director Raoul Walsh was seeking a male lead for a new Western and asked his friend John Ford for advice. Ford recommended an unknown actor named John Wayne because he "liked the looks of this new kid with a funny walk -- like he owned the world." When Wayne professed inexperience, Walsh told him to just "sit good on a horse and point."Wayne's starring role in "The Big Trail" did not catapult him to stardom, and he languished in low-budget pictures until John Ford cast him in the 1939 classic "Stagecoach."
Expanded essay by Marilyn Ann Moss (PDF, 375KB)
The Birds (1963)
"The Birds" was the fourth suspense hit by Alfred Hitchcock—following "Vertigo," "North by Northwest" and "Psycho"—revealing his mastery of his craft. Hitchcock transfixed both critics and mass audiences by deftly moving from anxiety-inducing horror to glossy entertainment and suspense, with bold forays into psychological terrain. Marked by a foreboding sense of an unending terror no one can escape, the film concludes with its famous, final scene, which only adds to the emotional impact of "The Birds."
The Birth of a Nation (1915)
This landmark of American motion pictures is the story of two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Director D.W. Griffith's depiction of the Ku Klux Klan as heroes stirred controversy that continues to the present day. But the director's groundbreaking camera technique and narrative style advanced the art of filmmaking by leaps and bounds. Profoundly impacted by the novel "The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan," Griffith hired its author Thomas F. Dixon Jr. to adapt it as a screenplay. At the heart of the story are two pairs of star-crossed lovers on either side of the conflict: Southerner Henry B. Walthall courts Northerner Lillian Gish, and the couple's siblings, played by Elmer Clifton and Miriam Cooper, are also in love. The ravages of war and the chaos of reconstruction take their toll on both families. The racist and simplistic depictions of blacks in the film is difficult to overlook, but underneath the distasteful sentiment lies visual genius.
Expanded essay by Dave Kehr (PDF, 599KB)
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Black and Tan (1929)
In one of the first short musical films to showcase African-American jazz musicians, Duke Ellington portrays a struggling musician whose dancer wife (Fredi Washington in her film debut) secures him a gig for his orchestra at the famous Cotton Club where she's been hired to perform, at a risk to her health. Directed by Dudley Murphy, who earned his reputation with "Ballet mécanique," which is considered a masterpiece of early experimental filmmaking, the film reflects the cultural, social and artistic explosion of the 1920s that became known as the Harlem Renaissance. Ellington and Washington personify that movement, and Murphy—who also directed registry titles "St. Louis Blues" (1929), another musical short, and the feature "The Emperor Jones" (1933) starring Paul Robeson—cements it in celluloid to inspire future generations. Washington, who appeared with Robeson in "Emperor Jones," is best known as "Peola" in the 1934 version of "Imitation of Life."
The Black Pirate (1926)
This swashbuckling tour-de-force by Douglas Fairbanks, king of silent action adventure pictures, is most significant for having been filmed entirely in two-strip Technicolor, a process still being perfected at the time, and the precursor to Technicolor processes that would become commonplace by the 1950s. Fairbanks plays a nobleman who has vowed to avenge the death of his father at the hands of pirates, and once upon the pirates' vessel, protects a damsel in distress (Bessie Love)taken hostage by the band of thieves. Fairbanks wrote the original story under a pseudonym, and Albert Parker directed.
Expanded essay by Tracey Goessel (PDF, 356 KB)
The Black Stallion (1979)
When a ship carrying young Alec Ramsey (Kelly Reno) and a black Arabian stallion sinks off the coast of Africa, Alec and the horse find themselves stranded on a deserted island. Upon their rescue, Alec and horse trainer/former jockey Henry Dailey (Mickey Rooney) begin training the horse to become a formidable racer. Directed by Carroll Ballard and based on the Walter Farley novel of the same name, the film was executive produced by Francis Ford Coppola who finally persuaded United Artists to release the film after shelving it for two years. The film's supervising sound editor, Alan Splet, received a Special Achievement Award for his innovations including affixing microphones around the horse's midsection to pick up the sound of its hoof beats and breathing during race sequences. "The Black Stallion" was nominated for two Academy Awards, one for Best Supporting Actor for Mickey Rooney and one for Best Film Editing for Robert Dalva.
Expanded essay by Keith Phipps (PDF, 375 KB)
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
In a 1983 interview, writer-director Richard Brooks claimed that hearing Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock" in 1954 inspired him to make a rock & roll-themed picture. The result was "Blackboard Jungle," an adaptation of the controversial novel by Evan Hunter about an inner-city schoolteacher (played in the film by Glenn Ford) tackling juvenile delinquency and the lamentable state of public education— common bugaboos of the Eisenhower era. Retaining much of the novel's gritty realism, the film effectively dramatizes the social issues at hand, and features outstanding early performances by Sidney Poitier and Vic Morrow. The film, however, packs its biggest wallop even before a word of dialog is spoken. As the opening credits roll, Brooks' original inspiration for the film – the pulsating strains of "Rock Around the Clock" – blasts across theater speakers, bringing the devil's music to Main Street and epitomizing American culture worldwide.
Blacksmith Scene (1893)
Not blacksmiths but employees of the Edison Manufacturing Company, Charles Kayser, John Ott and another unidentified man are likely the first screen actors in history, and "Blacksmith Scene" is thought to be the first film of more than a few feet to be publicly exhibited. The 30-second film was photographed in late April 1893 by Edison's key employee, W.K.L. Dickson, at the new Edison studio in New Jersey. On May 9, audiences lined up single file at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences to peer through a viewing machine called a kinetoscope where glowed images of a blacksmith and two helpers forging a piece of iron, but only after they'd first passed around a bottle of beer. A Brooklyn newspaper reported the next day, "It shows living subjects portrayed in a manner to excite wonderment."
First Motion Picture Copyright Found
National Film Preservation Foundation - Blacksmithing Scene External
Blade Runner (1982)
A blend of science fiction and film noir, "Blade Runner" was a box office and critical flop when first released, but its unique postmodern production design became hugely influential within the sci-fi genre, and the film gained a significant cult following that increased its stature. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a retired cop in Los Angeles circa 2019. L.A. has become a pan-cultural dystopia of corporate advertising, pollution and flying automobiles, as well as replicants, human-like androids with short life spans built for use in dangerous off-world colonization. Deckard, a onetime blade runner – a detective that hunts down rogue replicants – is forced back into active duty to assassinate a band of rogues out to attack earth. Along the way he encounters Sean Young, a replicant who's unaware of her true identity, and faces a violent confrontation atop a skyscraper high above the city.
Expanded essay by David Morgan (PDF, 358 KB)
Blazing Saddles (1974)
This riotously funny, raunchy, no-holds-barred Western spoof by Mel Brooks is universally considered one of the funniest American films of all time. The movie features a civil-rights theme (the man in the white hat (Cleavon Little ) turns out to be an African-American who has to defend a bigoted town), and its furiously paced gags and rapid-fire dialogue were scripted by Brooks, Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg and Alan Unger. Little as the sheriff and Gene Wilder as his recovering alcoholic deputy have great chemistry, and the delightful supporting cast includes Harvey Korman, Slim Pickens, and Madeline Kahn as a chanteuse modelled on Marlene Dietrich. As in "Young Frankenstein," "Silent Movie," and "High Anxiety," director/writer Brooks gives a burlesque spin to a classic Hollywood movie genre.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 662 KB)
Bless Their Little Hearts (1984)
Part of the vibrant New Wave of independent African-American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s, Billy Woodberry became a key figure in the movement known as the L.A. Rebellion. Woodberry crafted his UCLA thesis film, "Bless Their Little Hearts," which was theatrically released in 1984. The film features a script and cinematography by Charles Burnett. This spare, emotionally resonant portrait of family life during times of struggle blends grinding, daily-life sadness with scenes of deft humor. Jim Ridley of the "Village Voice" aptly summed up the film's understated-but- real virtues: "Its poetry lies in the exaltation of ordinary detail."
The Blood of Jesus (1941)
Also known as "The Glory Road," this was among the approximately 500 "race movies" produced between 1915 and 1950 for African-American audiences and featuring all-black casts. In this film, a deeply devout woman (Cathryn Caviness) faces a spiritual crossroads after being accidentally shot, and is forced to choose between heaven and hell. Spencer Williams, who wrote, directed and starred in the film, produced the film in response to a need for spiritually-based films that spoke directly to black audiences. Long thought lost, prints were discovered in a warehouse in Tyler, Texas, in the mid-1980s.
Expanded essay by Mark S. Giles (PDF, 256 KB)
View this film at Southern Methodist University Central University Libraries External
The Blue Bird (1918)
Maurice Tourneur's beautiful expressionist adaptation of Maurice Maeterlink's play remains one of the most aesthetically pleasing films. The film is a sumptuously composed pictorial entrance into a fantasy world, which tries to teach us not to overlook the beauty of what is close and familiar.
Expanded essay by Kaveh Askari (PDF, 445 KB)
The Blues Brothers (1980)
Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, then both best known for their star-turns as part of the "Not Ready for Prime-Time Players" troupe on TV's "Saturday Night Live," took their recurring "Blues Brothers" SNL sketch to the big screen in this loving and madcap musical misadventures of Jake and Elwood Blues on a mission from God. An homage of sorts to various classic movie genres — from screwball comedy to road movie — "The Blues Brothers" serves as a tribute to the lead duo's favorite city (Chicago) as well as a lovely paean to great soul and R&B music. In musical cameos, such legends as Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, James Brown, Aretha Franklin and John Lee Hooker all ignite the screen. Added to the National Film Registry in 2020.
Interview with Dan Aykroyd (PDF, 2MB)
Interview with John Landis (PDF, 2MB)
Body and Soul (1925)
One of the truly unique pioneers of cinema, African-American producer/director/writer/distributor Oscar Micheaux somehow managed to get nearly 40 films made and seen despite facing racism, lack of funding, the capricious whims of local film censors and the independent nature of his work. Most of Micheaux's films are lost to time or available only in incomplete versions, with the only extant copies of some having been located in foreign archives. Nevertheless, what remains shows a fearless director with an original, daring and creative vision. Film historian Jacqueline Stewart says Micheaux's films, though sometimes unpolished and rough in terms of acting, pacing and editing, brought relevant issues to the black community including "the politics of skin color within the black community, gender differences, class differences, regional differences especially during this period of the Great Migration." For "Body and Soul," renaissance man Paul Robeson, who had gained some fame on the stage, makes his film debut displaying a blazing screen presence in dual roles as a charismatic escaped convict masquerading as a preacher and his pious brother. The George Eastman Museum has restored the film from a nitrate print, producing black-and-white-preservation elements and later restoring color tinting using the Desmet method.
Bohulano Family Film Collection (1950s-1970s)
Delfin Paderes Bohulano and Concepcion Moreno Bohulano recorded their family life for more than 20 years. Shot primarily in Stockton, California, their collection documents the history of the Filipinx community (once the largest in the country) during a period of significant immigration. The couple moved to the United States following American military service during World War II. They were involved in the local Filipino American community, including the building of Stockton's new Filipino Center in the early 1970s. The movies record community events, family gatherings, trips to New York, Atlantic City, and Washington, DC, as well as the family's 1967 visit to the Philippines. The 15-reel collection is shot on Super 8mm, 8mm, and 16mm, and in color and silent. Preserved by the Center for Asian American Media. Added to the National Film Registry in 2023.
Bonnie and Clyde (1967)
Setting filmmaking and style trends that linger today, "Bonnie and Clyde" veered from comedy to social commentary to melodrama and caught audiences unaware, especially with its graphic ending. The violence spawned many detractors, but others saw the artistry beyond the blood and it earned not only critical succes which eventually showed at thebox office. Arthur Penn deftly directs David Newman and Robert Benton's script, aided by the film's star and producer Warren Beatty, who was always eager to push the envelope. Faye Dunaway captures the Depression-era yearning for glamour and escape from poverty and hopelessness.
Expanded essay by Richard Schickel (PDF, 530KB)
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Born Yesterday (1950)
Judy Holliday's sparkling lead performance as not-so-dumb "dumb blonde" Billie Dawn anchors this comedy classic based on Garson Kanin's play and directed for the screen by George Cukor. Kanin's satire on corruption in Washington, D.C., adapted for the screen by Albert Mannheimer, is full of charm and wit while subtly addressing issues of class, gender, social standing and American politics. Holliday's work in the film (a role she had previously played on Broadway) was honored with the Academy Award for Best Actress and has endured as one of the era's most finely realized comedy performances.
Expanded essay by Ariel Schudson (PDF, 394KB)
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Boulevard Nights (1979)
"Boulevard Nights" had its genesis in a screenplay by UCLA student Desmond Nakano about Mexican-American youth and the lowrider culture. Director Michael Pressman and cinematographer John Bailey shot the film in the barrios of East Los Angeles with the active participation of the local community (including car clubs and gang members). This street-level strategy using mostly non-professional actors produced a documentary-style depiction of the tough choices faced by Chicano youth as they come of age and try to escape or navigate gang life ("Two brothers...the street was their playground and their battleground"). In addition to "Boulevard Nights," this era featured several films chronicling youth gangs and rebellion — "The Warriors" (1979), "Over the Edge" (1979), "Walk Proud" (1979) and "The Outsiders" (1983). The film faced protests and criticism from some Latinos who saw outsider filmmakers, albeit well-intentioned, adopting an anthropological perspective with an excessive focus on gangs and violent neighborhoods. Nevertheless, "Boulevard Nights" stands out as a pioneering snapshot of East L.A. and enjoys semi-cult status in the lowrider community.
Boys Don't Cry (1999)
Director Kimberly Peirce made a stunning debut with this searing docudrama based on the infamous 1993 case of a young Nebraska transgender man who is brutally raped and murdered (along with two other people) in a small Nebraska town. Released a year after the killing of Matthew Shepard, a gay student at the University of Wyoming, the film brought the issue of hate crimes clearly into the American public spotlight. Sometimes compared to Theodore Dreiser's "An American Tragedy," "Boys" raised issues that are still relevant 20 years later: intolerance, prejudice, the lack of opportunity in small towns, conceptions of self, sexual identity, diversity and cultural, sexual and social mores. New York Times' critic Janet Maslin lauded the film for not taking the usual plot routes: "Unlike most films about mind-numbing tragedy, this one manages to be full of hope." Several things helped create that result, particularly the performance of 22-year-old Hilary Swank, who won an Oscar as Brandon.
Boyz N the Hood (1991)
In his film debut, John Singleton wrote and directed this thought-provoking look at South Central L.A.'s black community. A divorced father (Larry Fishburne) struggles to raise his son, Tre (Cuba Gooding, Jr.) in a world where violence is a fact of life. Tre is torn by his desire to live up to his father's expectations and pressure from friends pushing him toward the gang culture. Roger Ebert praised the film for its "maturity and emotional depth," calling it "an American film of enormous importance." The lead players are backed by strong supporting performances from Ice Cube, Morris Chestnut, Tyre Ferrell, Angela Bassett and Nia Long.
Brandy in the Wilderness (1969)
This introspective "contrived diary" film by Stanton Kaye features vignettes from the relationship of a real-life couple, in this case the director and his girlfriend. An evocative 1960s time capsule—reminiscent of Jim McBride's "David Holzman's Diary"—this simulated autobiography, as in many experimental films, often blurs the lines between reality and illusion, moving in non-linear arcs through the ever-evolving and unpredictable interactions of relationships, time and place. As Paul Schrader notes, "it is probably quite impossible (and useless) to make a distinction between the point at which the film reflects their lives, and the point at which their lives reflect the film." "Brandy in the Wilderness" remains a little-known yet key work of American indie filmmaking.
This article by director Paul Schrader originally appeared in the Fall 1971 issue of "Cinema Magazine." (PDF, 1764KB)
Bread (1918)
Billed as a "sociological photodrama, "Bread" tells the story of a naïve young woman in a narrow-minded town who journeys to New York to become a star but faces disillusionment when she learns that sex is demanded as the price for fame. Ida May Park, director and scenarist of "Bread," was among more than a half-dozen prolific women directors working at the Universal Film Manufacturing Company during the period in which Los Angeles became the home of America's movie industry. Park directed 14 feature-length films between 1917 and 1920, and her career as a scenarist lasted until 1931. She reasoned that because the majority of movie fans were women, "it follows that a member of the sex is best able to gauge their wants in the form of stories and plays." In an essay Park contributed to the book "Careers for Women," she stated that women were advantaged as motion picture directors because of "the superiority of their emotional and imaginative faculties." In the two surviving reels of "Bread," one of only three films Park directed that are currently known to exist, she displays an accomplished ability to knowingly vivify her protagonist's plight as she fends off an attacker and places her frail hopes in a misshapen loaf of bread that has come to symbolize for her the good things in life.
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Truman Capote's acclaimed novella—the bitter story of self-invented Manhattan call girl Holly Golightly—arrived on the big screen purged of its risqué dialogue and unhappy ending. George Axelrod's screenplay excised explicit references to Holly's livelihood and added an emotionally moving romance, resulting, in Capote's view, in "a mawkish valentine to New York City." Capote believed that Marilyn Monroe would have been perfect for the film and judged Audrey Hepburn, who landed the lead, "just wrong for the part." Critics and audiences, however, have disagreed. The Los Angeles Times stated, "Miss Hepburn makes the complex Holly a vivid, intriguing figure." Feminist critics in recent times have valued Hepburn's portrayals of the period as providing a welcome alternative female role model to the dominant sultry siren of the 1950s. Hepburn conveyed intelligent curiosity, exuberant impetuosity, delicacy combined with strength, and authenticity that often emerged behind a knowingly false facade. Critics also have lauded the movie's director Blake Edwards for his creative visual gags and facility at navigating the film's abrupt changes in tone. Composer Henry Mancini's classic "Moon River," featuring lyrics by Johnny Mercer, also received critical acclaim. Mancini considered Hepburn's wistful rendition of the song on guitar the best he had heard.
The Breakfast Club (1985)
John Hughes, who had previously given gravitas to the angst of adolescence in his 1984 film, "Sixteen Candles," further explored the social politics of high school in this comedy/character study produced one year later. Set in a day-long Saturday detention hall, the film offers an assortment of American teen-age archetypes such as the "nerd," "jock," and "weirdo." Over the course of the day, labels and default personas slip away as members of this motley group actually talk to each other and learn about each other and themselves. "The Breakfast Club" is a comedy that delivers a message with laughs. Thirty years later, the movie's message is still vivid. Written and directed by Hughes, the film's cast includes Molly Ringwald, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez and Ally Sheedy.
The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)
Director James Whale took his success with "Frankenstein," added humor and thus created a cinematic hybrid that perplexed audiences at first glance but captivated them by picture's end. Joined eventually by a mate (Elsa Lanchester), the Frankenstein monster (Boris Karloff reprising his role and investing the character with emotional subtlety) evolves into a touchingly sympathetic character as he gradually becomes more human. Ernest Thesiger as Dr. Pretorious is captivatingly bizarre. Many film historians consider "Bride," with its surreal visuals, superior to the original.
Expanded essay by Richard T. Jameson, (PDF, 672KB) examines "Frankenstein" and "Bride of Frankenstein" in a single entry.
Movie poster
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
At the heart of David Lean's antiheroic war epic about a band of British POWs forced to build a bridge in the wilds of Burma is the notion of men clinging to their sanity by clinging to military tradition. The film's cast, which reflects a broad spectrum of acting styles, includes Alec Guinness as the British commanding officer and Sessue Hayakawa as his Japanese counterpart, and William Holden as an American soldier who escapes from the camp and Jack Hawkins as the British major who convinces him to return and help blow up the bridge. Lean elects to keep the musical score to a minimum and instead plays up tension with nature sounds punctuating the action. For many film critics and historians, "Bridge on the River Kwai" signals a shift in Lean's directorial style from simpler storytelling toward the more bloated epics that characterized his later career.
Sessue Hayakawa and Alec Guinness in a scene from "The Bridge On The River Kwai"
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
In this fast-paced screwball comedy from director Howard Hawks, Susan Vance (Katharine Hepburn), an eccentric heiress with a pet leopard named Baby, proves a constant irritant to paleontologist David Huxley (Cary Grant), who is trying to raise $1 million to complete his dinosaur skeleton reconstruction project. Based on a short story by Hagar Wilde, Hawks worked closely with Wilde and screenwriter Dudley Nichols to perfect the script, in which the role of Susan Vance was written specifically with Hepburn in mind. Although now considered a cinematic classic, "Bringing Up Baby" received mixed critical reviews upon release and performed well in only certain areas of the United States, thus reaffirming the film industry's then-current view of Hepburn as "box office poison." Significantly, "Bringing Up Baby" is possibly the first American film to use the term "gay" as a reference to homosexuality.
Expanded essay by Michael Schlesinger (PDF, 25KB)
Broadcast News (1987)
James L. Brooks wrote, produced and directed this comedy set in the fast-paced, tumultuous world of television news. Shot mostly in dozens of locations around the Washington, D.C. area, the film stars Holly Hunter, William Hurt and Albert Brooks. Brooks makes the most of his everyman persona serving as Holly Hunter's romantic back-up plan while she pursues the handsome but vacuous Hurt. Against the backdrop of broadcast journalism (and various debates about journalist ethics), a grown-up romantic comedy plays out in a smart, savvy and fluff-free story whose humor is matched only by its honesty.
Expanded essay by Brian Scott Mednick (PDF, 432KB)
Brokeback Mountain (2005)
"Brokeback Mountain," a contemporary Western drama that won the Academy Award for best screenplay (by Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana) and Golden Globe awards for best drama, director (Ang Lee) and screenplay, depicts a secret and tragic love affair between two closeted gay ranch hands. They furtively pursue a 20-year relationship despite marriages and parenthood until one of them dies violently, reportedly by accident, but possibly, as the surviving lover fears, in a brutal attack. Annie Proulx, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the short story upon which the film was based, described it as "a story of destructive rural homophobia." Haunting in its unsentimental depiction of longing, lonesomeness, pretense, sexual repression and ultimately love, "Brokeback Mountain" features Heath Ledger's remarkable performance that conveys a lifetime of self-torment through a pained demeanor, near inarticulate speech and constricted, lugubrious movements. In his review, Newsweek's David Ansen wrotes that the film was "a watershed in mainstream movies, the first gay love story with A-list Hollywood stars." "Brokeback Mountain" has become an enduring classic.
Broken Blossoms (1919)
Most associated with epics such as "Intolerance" and "The Birth of a Nation," D.W. Griffith also helmed smaller films that struck a chord with silent era audiences. "Broken Blossoms," Griffith's first title for his newly formed United Artists, is one example. Set in the slums of London, it concerns an abused 15-year-old girl, Lucy, portrayed by Lillian Gish and the former missionary turned shopkeeper Cheng Huan (Richard Barthelmess) who rescues her from her brutal father. More than a tender but chaste love story, "Broken Blossoms" entreats audiences to denounce racism and poverty.
Expanded essay by Ed Gonzalez (PDF, 495KB)
Lobby card
Additional image
A Bronx Morning (1931)
Part documentary and part avant-garde, this renowned city symphony was filmed by Jay Leyda when he was 21. It features sensational and stylish use of European filmmaking styles The images movingly show the resilience of people persevering with style and enthusiasm during the early years of the depression. "A Bronx Morning" won Leyda a scholarship to study with the renowned Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein. Added to the National Film Registry in 2004.
Expanded essay by Scott Simmon for the National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) (PDF, 284KB)
Watch it here
Buena Vista Social Club (1999)
"The best Wim Wenders documentary to date and an uncommonly self-effacing one, this 1999 concert movie about performance and lifestyle is comparable in some ways to "Latcho Drom," the great Gypsy documentary/musical. In 1996, musician Ry Cooder traveled to Havana to reunite some of the greatest stars of Cuban pop music from the Batista era (who were virtually forgotten after Castro came to power) with the aim of making a record, a highly successful venture that led to concerts in Amsterdam and New York. The players and their stories are as wonderful as the music, and the filmmaking is uncommonly sensitive and alert," wrote film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum.
The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975)
This powerful documentary by the Kentucky-based arts and education center Appalshop represents the finest in regional filmmaking, providing important understanding of the environmental and cultural history of the Appalachian region. The 1972 Buffalo Creek Flood Disaster, caused by the failure of a coal waste dam, killed more than 100 people and left thousands in West Virginia homeless. Local citizens invited Appalshop to come to the area and to film a historical record, fearing that the Pittston Coal Co.'s powerful influence in the state would lead to a whitewash investigation and absolve it of any corporate culpability. Newsweek hailed the film as "a devastating expose of the collusion between state officials and coal executives."
Expanded essay by the film's director Mimi Pickering (PDF, 793KB)
Bullitt (1968)
The winding streets and stunning vistas of San Francisco, backed by a superb Lalo Schifrin score, play a central role in British director Peter Yates' film renowned for its exhilarating 11-minute car chase, arguably the finest in cinema history. In one of his most famous roles, Steve McQueen stars as tough-guy police detective Frank Bullitt. The story, based on Robert L. Pike's cr | |||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 17 | https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/william-s-burroughs-dead-at-83-97951/ | en | William S. Burroughs Dead At 83 | [
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"Isaac Josephson"
] | 1997-08-05T04:00:00+00:00 | One of the last links to the beat generation has been broken. William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch and Junkie died Saturday at age 83 after suffering a heart attack. The son of a successful St. | en | Rolling Stone | https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/william-s-burroughs-dead-at-83-97951/ | One of the last links to the beat generation has been broken.
William S. Burroughs, author of Naked
Lunch and Junkie died Saturday at age 83 after
suffering a heart attack.
The son of a successful St. Louis businessman, Burroughs
graduated from Harvard University in 1938 and eventually made his
way to New York City where he befriended a circle of drifters and
students that included Allen Ginsberg, Jack
Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Burroughs,
first immortalized as Old Bull Lee in Kerouac’s On the
Road, moved to Texas with his wife, Joan, in 1946.
After accidentally shooting and killing his wife in a
drug-addled stage, Burroughs penned Junkie, then
disappeared to Tangier, Morocco where he wrote Naked
Lunch. Originally published in 1959, but banned in the United
States until 1962, Naked Lunch, with its offbeat monikers
and cut-up aesthetic, has since become a primary inspiration for
later literary and musical movements such as cyberpunk, punk rock
and hip-hop.
Burroughs bounced around for the next two decades, battling
heroin addiction and publishing sporadically. He briefly found a
home back in New York City during the punk era of the late ’70s. In
1981, Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kan., where he lived out the
rest of his life.
Trending
By now a cultural icon, Burroughs appeared in a number of films,
including the award-winning Drugstore Cowboy and the big
screen version of Naked Lunch. He produced several
spoken-word albums, collaborated with popular musicians including
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and the late
Kurt Cobain.
Burroughs’ only son, William, died in 1981. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 15 | https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/10767898 | en | Bibliography of William S. Burroughs | [
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] | null | [] | null | This is a bibliography of the works of William S. Burroughs.Novels and other long fiction* Junkie (1953) (ISBN 0 14 200316 6) * Queer (written 1951 3; published 1985) (ISBN 0 14 008389 8) * Naked Lunch (1959) (ISBN 0 8021 3295 2) * The Soft… | en | https://en-academic.com/favicon.ico | Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias | https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/10767898 | This is a bibliography of the works of William S. Burroughs.
Novels and other long fiction
* "Junkie" (1953) (ISBN 0-14-200316-6)
* "Queer" (written 1951-3; published 1985) (ISBN 0-14-008389-8)
* "Naked Lunch" (1959) (ISBN 0-8021-3295-2)
* "The Soft Machine" (1961) (ISBN 0-8021-3329-0)
* "The Ticket That Exploded" (1962) (ISBN 0-8021-5150-7)
* "Dead Fingers Talk" (1963) - excerpts from "Naked Lunch", "The Soft Machine" and "The Ticket That Exploded" combined together to create a new narrative
* "Nova Express" (1964) (ISBN 0-8021-3330-4)
* "The Last Words of Dutch Schultz" (1969) (ISBN 1-55970-211-7)
* "The Wild Boys: A Book Of The Dead" (1971) (ISBN 0-8021-3331-2)
* "Port of Saints" (1973) (ISBN 0-912652-64-0)
* "Cities of the Red Night" (1981) (ISBN 0-03-053976-5)
* "The Place of Dead Roads" (1983) (ISBN 0-312-27865-9)
* "The Western Lands" (1987) (ISBN 0-14-009456-3)
* "" (1995) (ISBN 0-14-009454-7)
Non-fiction
* "" (1969) (ISBN 0-14-011882-9) (with Daniel Odier)
* "Jack Kerouac" (1970) (with Claude Pelieu)
* "The Electronic Revolution" (1971)
* "The Retreat Diaries" (1976) - later included in "The Burroughs File"
* "Letters to Allen Ginsberg" 1953-1957 (1976)
* "" (2000; ISBN 0-8021-3778-4)
* "" (2007; ISBN 978-0814210802)
tories and novellas
* "Valentine's Day Reading" (1965)
* "Time" (1965)
* "APO-33" (1966)
* "The Dead Star" (1969)
* "Ali's Smile" (1971)
* "Mayfair Academy Series More or Less" (1973)
* "White Subway" (1973) - later included in "The Burroughs File"
* "Exterminator!" (1973) (ISBN 0-14-005003-5) (a different book from the 1960 collaboration with Brion Gysin)
* "The Book of Breething (aka "Ah Pook Is Here")" (1974)
* "Snack..." (ISBN 0-85652-014-4) (1975)
* "Cobble Stone Gardens" (1976) - later included in "The Burroughs File"
* "Blade Runner (a movie)" (1979) (ISBN 0-912652-46-2)
* "Dr. Benway" (1979)
* "Die Alten Filme" ("The Old Movies") (1979) - later included in "The Burroughs File"
* "Streets of Chance" (1981)
* "Early Routines" (1981)
* "Sinki's Sauna" (1982)
* "Ruski" (1984)
* "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" (1984)
* "The Cat Inside" (1986)
* "The Whole Tamale" (c.1987-88)
* "Interzone" (1987) (ISBN 0-14-009451-2)
* "Tornado Alley" (1989)
* "Ghost of Chance" (1991) (ISBN 1-85242-457-5)
* "Seven Deadly Sins" (1992)
* "Paper Cloud; Thick Pages" (1992)
Collections
* "Roosevelt After Inauguration and Other Atrocities" (1965)
* "Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology" (1978)
* "Ah Pook is Here, Nova Express, Cities of the Red Night" (1981) (ISBN 0-312-27846-2)
* "The Burroughs File" (1984)
* "" (1985) (ISBN 1-55970-210-9)
* "Uncommon Quotes Vol. 1" (1989)
* "Selected Letters" (1993)
* "" (2000) (ISBN 1-58435-010-5)
* "The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959"
* "" (1998) (ISBN 0-00-655214-5)
Collaborations
* "And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks" (1945 - scheduled for publication November 2008) (with Jack Kerouac)
* "Minutes To Go" (1960) (with Sinclair Beilles, Gregory Corso and Brion Gysin)
* "The Exterminator" (1960) (with Brion Gysin)
* "The Yage Letters" (1963) (with Allen Ginsberg)
* "So Who Owns Death TV?" (1967) (with Claude Pelieu and Carl Weissner)
* "Brion Gysin Let the Mice In" (1973) (with Brion Gysin)
* "Sidetripping" (1975) (with Charles Gatewood)
* "Colloque de Tangier" (1976) (with Brion Gysin)
* "The Third Mind" (1977) (with Brion Gysin)
* "Colloque de Tangier Vol. 2" (1979) (with Brion Gysin and Gérard-Georges Lemaire)
* "Apocalypse" (1988) (with Keith Haring)
Film collaborations
* "The Final Academy Documents" – (with various experimental film collaborations of "Brion Gyson", "Antony Balch", "John Giorno" and others)"The Final Academy" - a 1982 tour in Britain, organized by David Dawson, Roger Ely and Genesis P-Orridge. The project was based on, featuring works of and was inspired by William S Burroughs. A DVD, "The Final Academy Documents" is a DVD of edited highlights from the tour, including Burroughs's public appearance in 1982 and reading from his work at Manchester's Haçienda club, a performance by John Giorno and includes the experimental film collaborations with Anthony Balch, Brion Gysin, and others - "Towers Open Fire" and "Ghosts at No. 9". [http://www.ubu.com/sound/burroughs.html] [http://www.ubu.com/film/burroughs.html] [http://www.ubu.com/historical/burroughs/index.html]
Many of Burroughs's works were later republished with revisions made by the author, and/or censored material restored. Both "Junkie"/"Junky" and "Naked Lunch" were published in "restored" editions following Burroughs's death. An expanded edition of "Yage Letters" entitled "Yage Letters Redux" was published in April 2006.
Burroughs also played a cameo part in the motion picture "Drugstore Cowboy". He also collaborated on the documentary "" eventually released in 2007.
Recordings (partial list) | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 40 | https://gwern.net/doc/rotten.com/library/bio/authors/william-s-burroughs/index.html | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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As a young man, William S. Burroughs already had a reputation as a brilliant, rather strange, and slightly sinister character. Although he'd been born into a well to do family of some distinction (his grandfather had founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company), and had been exceedingly well educated (including Harvard University), the young Bill Burroughs had tossed it all aside and moved to New York where he involved himself with the criminal underworld—apparently just for the kicks. While most families might have kicked up a fuss and cut off his generous allowance, Bill's family seemed to accept it and just let him get on with being Bill. At some point he did manage to go to Vienna to study medicine, though only for six months—scampering home just ahead of the Nazis.
In 1940, he spent a month in a mental hospital, after cutting off the end of his pinky finger to impress his male lover. Two years later, he was drafted to serve in World War II. But apparently the United States Army didn't want former mental patients—let alone former gay mental patients—fighting and dying for the Red, White, and Blue. Bill was given a civilian disability discharge and sent on his way.
Dismissed by his country, Burroughs remained in New York, once again hanging out with criminals and taking assorted dead end jobs (exterminator, factory worker, copywriter, and bartender) for kicks and experience. In addition to petty criminals his circle of friends included junkies (like Herbert Huncke), homosexuals, and young intellectuals—including Columbia University students/dropouts Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, John Clellon Holmes, Hal Chase, and Lucien Carr. Eventually Bill also made the acquaintance of benzedrine, morphine, and heroin. He was also introduced to brilliant and beautiful Joan Vollmer, for whom he made an exception to his usual homosexual preferences. Together they hosted Carr, Kerouac, Huncke, Ginsberg, and some of Bill's gay friends in frequent orgies of drugs, sex, and all night intellectual banter. (Thanks to Huncke, the group's core members were interviewed for the famed Kinsey sex reports.)
When they weren't rolling in the sheets together, the friends would entertain each other with complicated skits. Bill, for example would act out the role of a prissy English Governess. He would call out in a high falsetto, "My dear, your just in time for tea!" Or, rapping the offender on the knuckles shriek, "Don't say those dirty words in front of everybody!" He would also don a skirt and wig and play a "sinister old lesbian" contessa/art dealer with Jack Kerouac as his bumpkin shill. Another of Bill's favorite roles was Old Luke, the Southern sharecropper, rocking on the front porch with his shotgun over his knees (in real life Burroughs was obsessed with guns). It was a seemingly happy time for Bill Burroughs and company. But the fun hit a speed bump when Bill was arrested for forging prescriptions in order to get drugs.
Soon after, Joan was carted off to Bellevue as the stress of Bill's arrest and her prolonged, excessive Benzedrine use drove her over the edge into psychosis. But, as soon as Joan got out of the loony bin and Bill's legal problems were cleared up, the two picked right up with their heavy drug habits again and left New York in search of better places to score. They moved to East Texas and went in as partners in an orange farm with a friend of Bill's. Here heavily addicted Joan gave birth to Bill Burroughs Jr. (she already had a 4 year old daughter, Julie, in tow from an earlier marriage). Bill settled down to a life as a gentleman pot farmer, complete with coat and tie. Having a large piece of property meant he was free to shoot off his guns. The frequent target practice worried neighbors. Had mobsters moved in? (Bill had learned to shoot as a youngster while game hunting with family.) Before long, Herbert Huncke joined them again, cooking the steaks and fetching firewood. Together the group emptied the neighboring small towns of booze and Benzedrine inhalers.
Thus far there had been a great deal of colorful living but very little indication that Bill Burroughs would ever amount to anything. Meanwhile friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were zinging about the countryside, sometimes with Neal Cassady, searching for a New Vision, and a new way to write the great American poem or novel.
Still, back in '44, there had once been a brief foreshadowing of the influence Bill would some day have on scores of writers, musicians, film makers, and painters. It occurred when Ginsberg and Carr asked Burroughs to settle an argument—an intellectual argument—they'd been having for weeks: Did art need an audience in order to be art? Or would it still be art just the same, if it was done only for one's own satisfaction, with no one else ever viewing it. Eagerly they awaited his opinion, wondering which side he would take.
"That's the stupidest question I ever heard of," Burroughs informed them. "It depends on how you want to define the word 'art'. Words don't have a built in definition." The two were stunned. This was a perspective they hadn't considered. But Burroughs, 10 years older and already a Harvard graduate, possessed a background in literature and anthropology. He'd also studied in Chicago with Count Korzybski, the founder of the theory of general semantics. Burroughs' understanding of words, their associated meanings, and their power to influence and control the human psyche would one day become an important obsession. But first would come two critical events that would change his life forever.
First, circa 1948 the Burroughs family had left Texas for New Orleans and from there moved on to Mexico. And it was here in Mexico City in 1950, that Burroughs, at the urging of old Harvard chum Elvin Kells, began writing a book about his drug experiences. He set himself a regular daily schedule (Bill was very into routines), and took daily injections of morphine to help him along in the project. The finished the manuscript, his first major (solo) writing project, was titled Junkie. Pleased with his efforts Burroughs would also write another book based on personal experience called Queer. But although Junkie would find a publisher among the pulp paperbacks by 1953, Queer would not find a publishing company bold enough to stamp their name on it until 1986.
Then, on September 7, 1951 it was time for the next big event. Bill was to recall that he'd felt an inexplicable depression that day, and that as he was walking down the street, tears had begun streaming down his face. He was mystified, sensing only that something awful was going to happen. Later, while he and Joan were visiting friends, he guzzled down 8 or 10 drinks, just to fight back the unrelenting blues overwhelming him. Suddenly he told Joan, "It's time for our William Tell act. Joan placed a glass of water on her head. Bill took out his gun, took aim, and missed the glass, shooting Joan in the head. An hour or so later she was dead.
A devastated Bill was charged with criminal imprudence and imprisoned to await trial. But wait there's more! The lawyer that got Bill out on bail ended up killing someone himself and fled the country. As Bill's hopes of a successful trial began to dwindle, he jumped bail and left Mexico. He eventually traveled through South America bent on finding the legendary hallucinogenic concoction known as yage or ayahuasca. More powerful than LSD, it was used by native shamans for spiritual journeys and healing rituals. Exploring ever deeper into the frontiers of the mind, Burroughs would later write, "There is nothing to fear. Your ayahuasca consciousness is more valid than Normal consciousness."
Next, Burroughs travelled to North Africa, where he settled in Tangier, still reeling from Joan's death. Drugs were easy to find in Tangier, and so were attractive young men. Bill's landlady assured him, "You understand, you can be free here." He could drink, drug, suck cock, play with his Orgone Box, and shoot his guns without harassment. It was here that he again began to write, tearing through sheet after sheet, and—finished—flinging them wildly aside only to begin again. It was like this, in 1957 that Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg found William Buroughs—writing madly, eating marijuana candy and boozing, and keeping to his fastidious daily routine. They were impressed by the obvious genius within his stray pages and confused piles and helped him assemble them into a manuscript. Published in 1959, it was called The Naked Lunch. It seethed with bizarre scenes, disturbing images (some of which gave Kerouac nightmares) as well as hilarious ironies.
Burroughs described his purpose in writing it as "shitting out my educated Middlewest background once and for all. It's a matter of catharsis, where I say the most horrible things I can think of. Realize that--the most horrible dirty smily awful niggardliest posture possible. . .?" This stream-of-consciousness spewing was apparently an attempt to free himself from the social and familial conditioning that controlled him, that hemmed him in, that ultimately drove him—in desperation or rebellion—to self-limiting and self-destructive choices (like playing William Tell with Joan).
Although Burroughs would continue to call upon this spew approach to writing throughout most of his life, he was soon to add a new method into his tool kit. It came in September of 1959, when Burroughs was living in Paris. One day close friend Brion Gysin accidentally sliced through a stack of newspapers and some back issues of Time and Life magazines. (He had been using them to buffer some cutting he was doing with a utility blade.) Gysin noticed that where the cut up strips had rearranged and overlapped, they created new texts. He realized that gluing the resultant texts onto a blank page generated a new kind of text, with strange new ideas, words images, and connections.
Burroughs became obsessed with his friend's new "cut ups" technique. He cut up his own texts and those of poet friends, revelling in the startling new meanings and insights that resulted from these chaos infused texts. The approach even prompted the reader to see words themselves—their actual meanings—in a fresh, creative light. He soon began to believe that "the only way to find out what people were really saying was to cut up their words and get at the meanings hidden inside" (Barry Miles).
Burroughs became convinced that everyone was so conditioned by language that even that which they believed to be straight perception (via sight, sound, touch) was in fact an illusion—a filtered version of reality, with the filters embedded in our language. Because of this awareness, he became obsessed with issues of social control, thought control-- at a level much more subtle, and thus more pernicious, than the outward laws and regulations challenged by Ginsberg and others (as they battled "anti-obscenity" laws and other free speech issues). The kind of social control Burroughs saw wasn't even encoded in the law. It was programmed into your own brain—through assumptions and associations—just as it had been for Carr and Ginsberg in '44 when they were unable to see that they could choose to define (and pursue) art in any way they saw fit.
From here Burroughs moved on to applying the "cut up" technique to the spoken word, utilizing tape recorders, and then on to visual representations—taking endless photographs of the same subject, cutting them up and collaging them together. (He also played with the idea that human speech was the result of a virus, contracted by our ancestors—"the word virus".)
Along the way Burroughs experimented with yet another technique for going deeper into one's mental filters: Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard, creator of Scientology, was teaching that memories of events, or of words overheard while sleeping, and even of past life events were stored in a person's unconscious mental record. By bringing this information out into the open, the emotional charge on this baggage could be "cleared". What so impressed Burroughs was the effectiveness of the Scientology techniques. He once wrote that one could accomplish more with 10 hours of Scientology techniques than with 10 years of psychotherapy. He felt he accomplished a great deal of self healing through applying their methods, and for a time he was obsessed with "audits" and "E-meters".
But as he penetrated more deeply into the church he discovered that the visionary Hubbard was also an eccentric fascist and that his "church" used appallingly effective mind control techniques to assure a steady supply of loyalty, secrecy, and cash. Burroughs found it sickening and ironic that a tool effective for setting people free was being used to enslave them in other ways. He broke with Scientology and went on to blab all that he knew. (Note that a man with fewer guns might not have been so brave! Scientology had a strong policy of punishing those who broke the silence or pissed them off.)
Although Burroughs continued to look for other ways to explore the mind and set it free from conditioned controls (with drugs, with writing, and with the Dream Machine developed by Brion Gysin), he was also beginning to explore his role as underground celebrity. Meeting new people led to new ways to branch out and express himself. He began giving readings of his work. He also continued to play, obsessively, with tape recordings—of himself and of others. He even got in on some experimental film projects—both documentary and short features. One such project was Chappaqua in 1966. Directed by Conrad Rooks, it features Burroughs (as "Opium Jones"), along with poet Allen Ginsberg, and musician Ravi Shankar. Much later there was considerable collaboration with film director Gus van Sant, Jr: Discipline of D.E. , Thanksgiving Prayer, Drugstore Cowboy,and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Burroughs even had a cameo role in the cult film Twister (not to be confused with the movie about tornado chasers).
Musicians were discovering Burroughs too. Even as Beat/Hippie poet Allen Ginsberg was becoming less well known among young people (though still held in high regard by some, such as The Clash, into the '80s) and Jack Kerouac was being relegated to college literature classes, Burroughs was becoming a major new influence on the artistic edge. His words, his face, and his voice were finding their way into albums and music videos. He collaborated with a diversity of edgey groups including Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Laurie Anderson, and the Disposable Heroes.
None of this seemed to slow down his writing. After Junkie and Naked Lunch he went on to publish:
The Soft Machine
The Ticket That Exploded
Nova Express
The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead
Exterminator
Port of Saints
Cities of the Red Night
The Place of Dead Roads
Queer
The Western Lands
My Education: A Book of Dreams
Then,after the death of long time painter friend, Brion Gysin, Burroughs began to venture further into visual art. No longer limiting himself to photo montage, he began to paint as well (something he refused to do while Gysin was alive).
One day, after blasting at some plywood with his shotgun, he noticed how intricate and beautiful the resultant designs were—it was like looking into clouds or abstract art. All sorts of mentally teasing images suggested themselves. Thus began his shotgun art phase. He blasted cans of paint onto plywood and then detailed the splatters. Burroughs continued to develop and expand upon a host of other interests as well, including:
Viennese waltzes
Mayan codices
Surrealism
Egyptian burial rituals
Space Travel
Cats
Popular fiction, especially Frederick Forsyth and Robin Cook
Daily routines
Doing ordinary everyday things with great care and attention to detail.
Obviously, William Burroughs was not a man to be easily pigeon-holed. As a result, he presents the inspiring image of a man who managed to live life on his own terms—a revolutionary artist, whose life demonstrates how the expression of a unique inner vision requires integrity, audacity, tenacity, and a complete disregard for the conditioned expectations of self and society. Such was Burroughs' emphasis on overcoming "control" that for some he has become a symbol of anti-authoritarianism, inspiring them to jeer at the establishment and the powers that be, and to find ways to get around them. For some of these he even appears to represent a kind of alternative power and machismo—the pale, effete misfit powered by technological gizmos (guns, dream machines, tape recorders...computers) and by artistic but violent words and images.
Significantly, Burroughs himself sought freedom, and shunned conflict. His travels always took him in search of places where the police, neighbors, landlords turned a blind eye, left him alone, minded their own business. When his life or his work attracted negative official attention he was invariably polite and cooperative. The prototypical slacker(Burroughs was 40 or 50 old years old before it to become obvious he was doing anything more significant that screwing off), William Burroughs just wanted to be left alone to do his own thing without a lot of hassles.
The final irony is that the man so vividly remembered by the public for a truly disturbing body of work, is invariably recalled by those who knew him as kind, gracious, and impeccably well-mannered. But though the contrast may seem stark, it is worth remembering that Burroughs identified the real struggle in life, the real conflict for control, as being within the self. (Hence his obsession with daily routines and attention to detail.) Rather than supress the darkness in his soul, he vented it, through writing. Rather than repress and deny his unconventional desires, he indulged them within measure (in later life). In short, he did not seek, as people often do, to be someone else. But he sought instead to free himself from beliefs which limit, control, and imprison the invidual in mediocrity and dull repetition.
Cut word lines
Cut music lines
Smash the control images
Smash the control machine.
---William S. Burroughs
Related Trivia
Was Bill Burroughs' 1951 shooting of Joan Vollmer Burroughs really an accident? The accepted answer is "yes". Intriguingly however, Lawrence, Kansas resident George Laughead Jr. records a visit with Burroughs where the famous author makes the following remark/advice: "Shoot the bitch and write a book! That's what I did." Other witnesses to the remark, including Bill's "boy" James Grauerholz, later claimed they never heard a thing. "Addicts are as boring a bunch of people as I ever encountered.
They've got this one track mind.''—Bill Burroughs
Timeline
5 Feb 1914 William Seward Burroughs born, St. Louis, MO. 1936 Graduates Harvard University, B.A. Literature. Postgrad work in anthropology, goes to Vienna to study medicine. 1938 Marries Ilse Herzfeld Klapper. 1940 Spends time in mental hospitals after cutting off part of his pinky finger. 1942 Drafted into U.S. Army. 1943 Meets Allen Ginsberg. 1946 Divorces Ilse. 1946 Arrested in New York after forging prescriptions. 21 Jul 1947 William Burroughs III born, Conroe TX. 1950 Begins writing about his life as an addict. 6 Sep 1951 In Mexico, William Burroughs accidentally kills common law wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs during the "William Tell" incident and is charged with criminal imprudence. 1953 Junkie. 1959 Naked Lunch. 1985 Queer. 1989 Burroughs appears in the film Drugstore Cowboy. 1991 Film version of Naked Lunch released. Directed by David Cronenberg. 1993 Appears in Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. 2 Aug 1997 William Seward Burroughs dies of heart attack at age 83. Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence KS. | |||||||
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"Tom Vitale"
] | 2014-02-05T00:00:00 | The Beat Generation icon was a magnet for artists, musicians and wannabe hipsters. In a 1985 interview, the author credited his most groundbreaking work to the fallout from his wife's accidental death at his own hands, saying, "It was an event that ... made me into a writer." Burroughs died in 1997. | en | NPR | https://www.npr.org/2014/02/05/271558637/possessed-by-genius-a-centennial-tribute-to-william-s-burroughs | William S. Burroughs was a counterculture icon: In more than two dozen books, including the landmark novel Naked Lunch, he laid down an original vision that influenced everyone from political activists to punk rockers, filmmakers to sci-fi writers.
In 1962, writer Norman Mailer described him as "the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius."
Burroughs was born 100 years ago Wednesday.
'Life Is A Cut-Up'
Burroughs believed words took on new meaning if you could see them or hear them in a new way. So beginning in 1959, he made his "cut-up" recordings: Using reel-to-reel tape, Burroughs recorded snippets of everything from readings to TV and radio clips, then rewound, randomly stopped and recorded over the original sounds.
It's the same technique Burroughs used in his masterpiece novel Naked Lunch — he shuffled the sections of that manuscript before submitting it to the publisher. The result is a story that jumps from scene to scene, idea to idea, narrator to narrator, in a random, disjointed manner.
As Burroughs told me in 1987 — in the New York apartment he called "The Bunker" — the idea for the cut-ups came from his friend and collaborator, the late avant-garde artist Brion Gysin.
"He was, of course, the inventor of the cut-up method, which did introduce an element of chance into selection of material for writing," Burroughs said. "And of course then he realized that life is a cut-up. Every time you walk down the street or look out the window, you're conscious is being cut by these random factors. So it's really closer to the actual facts of perception."
Burroughs' perception while writing Naked Lunch was affected by heroin — and withdrawal from it. In a commercial recording, he extrapolated the terror of that withdrawal into a vivid scene of horrible creatures drinking in a dark cafe:
"On stools covered in white satin sit naked Mugwumps sucking translucent, colored syrups through alabaster straws. Mugwumps have no liver and nourish themselves exclusively on sweets. Thin, purple-blue lips cover a razor sharp beak of black bone, with which they frequently tear each other to shreds in fights over clients."
The vivid language and erotic fantasies in Naked Lunch led to an obscenity trial, which the writer and his publisher won.
Three Beats And One 'New Vision'
Barry Miles, author of the new, 600-page biography Call Me Burroughs, says the central theme of much of what Burroughs wrote is the attempt of those in power to control those who aren't.
"I think his main role has been to look for control systems," he says. "Find out who you really are rather than who other people want you to be or what circumstances have made you. And [that] I think we need [more] than ever, quite honestly. I mean, this society becomes more and more a surveillance society and less and less a democratic society."
Yet Burroughs still came from society. He was named for his grandfather, the inventor of the adding machine and founder of the Burroughs Corp. He went to Harvard and studied English, but had no intention of writing until he met 17-year-old poet Allen Ginsberg and 21-year-old novelist Jack Kerouac. They shared an apartment, and what they called "a new vision."
"Artistically, we were doing completely different things," Burroughs said in 1987. "It comes down to the fact that we did have quite a lot in common: being interested in expanded awareness and being completely disillusioned with all the old answers."
A Pivotal Moment In Mexico City
It was the beginning of what came to be known as the Beat Generation, and in its circle Burroughs found a soul mate. Joan Vollmer became his common-law wife of six years, even though he himself was gay (he preferred the word "queer").
In 1951, they were living in Mexico City when they found themselves drunk at a party.
"It was during this party that at one point he just told Joan, 'Let's do our William Tell act,' " Miles says. "And she put this shot glass on her head and he whipped out his gun, and he missed. He shot low and got her in the forehead. It was quite clearly an accident, but he felt that some bad part of him, some evil spirit in him, had motivated him."
In 1985, Burroughs told me he spent the rest of his life trying to write his way out of Joan's death.
"It was an event that made me see, or, made me into a writer," he said. "And of course, a writer often has — all his work will pivot around some simple idea, like Poe, the fear of being buried alive, which happened in those days. But it was a sort of a pivotal event."
Before that, in novels like Queer and Junky, Burroughs' writing was more or less straightforward autobiography. Afterward, he began to write the denser, visionary prose of Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine and Nova Express. Even autobiographical characters, like Kim Carsons of 1984's The Place Of Dead Roads, became more fantastic. Here's how Burroughs describes Carsons in the book:
"Kim is a slimy, morbid youth of unwholesome proclivities with an insatiable appetite for the extreme and the sensational. His mother had been into table-tapping and Kim adores ectoplasms, crystal balls, spirit guides and auras. He wallows in abominations, unspeakable rites, diseased demon lovers ..."
'We've Barely Started To Touch Him'
Burroughs became a magnet for artists, musicians and wannabe hipsters, but biographer Miles says the writer's influence is yet to be completely understood.
"I think the Beats have now, they've all died — all the main ones except Lawrence Ferlinghetti. And we're now starting to be able to see them from a distance and appreciate who was really important and who wasn't," he says. "And I think Burroughs is possibly now the leader, really the lead contender. [He's] someone whose work is so deep and on so many levels ... that we've barely started to touch him."
William S. Burroughs died in 1997 at the age of 83. | |||||
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"Andrew Marzoni"
] | 2015-12-08T14:30:50+00:00 | Few humans maintained a courtship with death as intimate and prolonged as that of William S. Burroughs. Despite a decades-long addiction to heroin, numerous run-ins with the law, and an unabashed love of gunplay, the author of Naked Lunch (1959) died in 1997, at the age of 83, outliving his wife, Jo... | en | ARTnews.com | https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/precarious-immortality-william-s-burroughs-on-film-5473/ | Few humans maintained a courtship with death as intimate and prolonged as that of William S. Burroughs. Despite a decades-long addiction to heroin, numerous run-ins with the law, and an unabashed love of gunplay, the author of Naked Lunch (1959) died in 1997, at the age of 83, outliving his wife, Joan Vollmer; his son William S. “Billy” Burroughs Jr.; and his fellow Beats Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, though they were more than a decade younger. Add to that list Howard Brookner, filmmaker and fellow denizen of the Lower East Side, who died of AIDS in 1989, at the age of 34, after completing only three films. Brookner’s first film, Burroughs: The Movie (1983), is the only documentary about the 20th century’s most literary junky produced during the writer’s lifetime. After having been presumed lost for almost 30 years, the film was recently discovered in MoMA’s archives and restored by the filmmaker’s nephew Aaron Brookner, receiving a screening at last year’s New York Film Festival for the Burroughs centennial and now a proper release by the Criterion Collection.
Burroughs’s former lover, adopted son, and literary executor, James Grauerholz, recalled in an interview at the NYFF that the idea for the film came about in 1978 when Brookner, a student at NYU, walked into Phebe’s, a bar on the Bowery, having lost his keys, and told Grauerholz that he wanted to make his senior thesis film about Burroughs; Grauerholz suggested that he document the upcoming Nova Convention, a three-day conference on Burroughs’s work and ideas held at the Entermedia Theater that December. The convention was an assemblage of downtown New York figures. The event was organized by the founder of Semiotext(e), Sylvère Lotringer, along with Grauerholz and poet John Giorno, and featured performances by Ginsberg, Patti Smith, Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and Frank Zappa, readings from Peter Orlovsky, Anne Waldman, and Burroughs himself, and panel discussions with Timothy Leary and Brion Gysin. The Nova Convention could have filled an entire documentary on its own. Brookner filmed the event, but most of the footage was left on the cutting-room floor. (Thankfully, Criterion has included much of it in the DVD’s outtakes.) It was Burroughs—the man, and not the scene he engendered—that interested Brookner, and it is a human being, first and foremost, that his film portrays.
In interviews Brookner and his collaborators insist that they were lucky that Burroughs, who was good at being difficult, cooperated with them as fully as he did. The same could be said of the writer, who was fortunate enough to be filmed by a director as skilled as Brookner, have his words recorded by Jim Jarmusch, Brookner’s sound man, and have his image captured by Tom DiCillo, Jarmusch’s cinematographer on Permanent Vacation (1980), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), and Coffee and Cigarettes (2003), not to mention Bette Gordon’s Variety (1983) and Brookner’s second film, Robert Wilson and the Civil Wars (1987). DiCillo’s camera did much to define Jarmusch’s aesthetic of hip, urban malaise, a carefully exaggerated realism that has since been universalized by Instagram. That such an aesthetic was honed on the first floor of 222 Bowery, Burroughs’s apartment in a former YMCA locker room now known as the Bunker, with Brookner, DiCillo, and Jarmusch shooting a group of men in their 60s getting drunk, playing with weapons, and talking about the good old days, is no stranger than anything that happens in any of Burroughs’s novels.
Burroughs moved into the Bunker in 1975, having returned to the United States a year prior, after more than two decades overseas: in Mexico, South America, Tangier, Paris, and London. He rented the apartment from Giorno, who still owns and resides in the building, and stayed there until 1981, when Burroughs and Grauerholz moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where Burroughs spent his final years. Brookner’s film preserves a crucial chapter in Burroughs’s life: when the author in his three-piece suit began doing readings at rock clubs and became the godfather of punk, and the Bunker became a Mecca for the junkies of the Lower East Side. Toward the beginning of the film Patti Smith, tuning a clarinet backstage at the Entermedia, tells Brookner that Burroughs is “a hard guy to get into bed. That’s why I like him, I guess.” By the end of the film Burroughs is in Kansas, staring across the flat landscape with one of his beloved cats, playing the role of gentleman farmer.
Burroughs tells Brookner that before he became a writer he wanted to be a doctor (he briefly attended medical school in prewar Vienna) and then a spy (he blames an old Harvard rival for curtailing his career with the CIA), but more than anything Brookner’s film showcases Burroughs’s talents as an actor. Burroughs was no novice to film when Brookner came knocking: during his London years Burroughs collaborated on a series of experimental short films with British director Antony Balch, and he played a prominent role as Opium Jones in Conrad Rooks’s psychedelic elegy to addiction, Chappaqua (1966). Brookner’s film begins with Burroughs’s 1981 appearance on Saturday Night Live, the first of several notable onscreen appearances in the next decade, including his roles as a butler in Brookner’s final film, Bloodhounds of Broadway (1989), and as Tom the Priest in Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy (1989).
Despite his flirtations with cinema, Burroughs’s own writing proved difficult to film. A screenplay of his first novel, Junky (1953), that Dennis Hopper commissioned Burroughs to write with Terry Southern (who appears in the documentary) was never produced due to disagreements with Hopper and an excess of cocaine. David Cronenberg’s 1991 adaptation of Naked Lunch tries to work around the unrepresentability of Burroughs’s fictional world by literalizing some of his metaphors, but ultimately fails to tap the filmic source of Burroughs’s style: the cut-up, that technique of textual mutilation that Gysin invented in 1959, leading the artist to declare that “writing is 50 years behind painting.” Burroughs took this as his mantra in the early 1960s, advancing the method in his “Nova Trilogy,” cutting, pasting, and reconfiguring the 1,000-page-long mass of text Burroughs called “The Word Hoard” into the sci-fi universe of the novels The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964). In his cut-ups, Burroughs used language like film negatives, rearranging and disfiguring in the service of “The Electronic Revolution,” as he titled a 1970 essay, his most sustained elaboration of a militant theory of media that attempts to reconcile and revise the ideas of L. Ron Hubbard and Marshall McLuhan.
In Brookner’s film, though, Burroughs comes off as less of a political agitator than a sweet old man with mischievous tendencies. At one point Burroughs and Jackie Curtis reenact a scene from Naked Lunch, the author in the role of Dr. Benway, his most famous character, performing a ridiculous surgical procedure that leaves the actors soaked in obviously fake blood. But Burroughs’s most compelling performance is in the role of William S. Burroughs, his air of sophistication disguising his penchant for madness, his Burberry raincoat concealing a revolver, his cane a deadly blade. Brookner portrays Burroughs as a man of endless contradictions. As the filmmaker tells Burroughs’s biographer Ted Morgan in a 1985 conversation included in the Criterion DVD, “With William, you’ll know he’ll say things that he never did.” Burroughs “talks best when he’s had a few drinks in him,” Brookner says, “but then he sounds like a raving lunatic.”
Jarmusch and Grauerholz credit the film’s success to Brookner’s unique adeptness at convincing the notoriously paranoid Burroughs to trust him. Although it probably didn’t hurt that Brookner was charming, attractive, and only 23 years old when filming began (Burroughs’s predilection for younger men is well documented), it is the filmmaker’s gentle, sensitive touch that allows for such an intimate portrait. References to drug addiction, though inescapable in Burroughs’s writing, are subdued here: aside from a brief mention of “the methadone clinic,” which Burroughs asked Brookner to cut, the filmmaker tells Morgan, Burroughs’s battles with addiction are merely implied.
Most remarkable are the scenes featuring Burroughs and his son Billy, semi-estranged since Burroughs shot his wife, Joan, Billy’s mother, in an ill-fated game of William Tell in 1951. In the introduction to Queer (1985), Burroughs attributes his writing career to Joan’s death: “the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.” Like his father, Billy was haunted by the Ugly Spirit, and he wrote about it in the novels Speed (1970) and Kentucky Ham (1973). Adolescent abuse of amphetamines gave way to chronic alcoholism, and “the last beatnik,” as Giorno calls Billy in the film, died in 1981, at the age of 33. Brookner’s footage of father and son together documents the end of a relationship that never really began, their tentative camaraderie revealing a familial resemblance that is ultimately tragic.
Even sadder, perhaps, is Brookner’s stated intention, as expressed to Morgan, to return to his subject, filming Burroughs again every few years until the writer’s funeral, which Brookner never lived to see. Brookner battled AIDS secretly, going off of his meds in order to complete Bloodhounds of Broadway, which was released after his own funeral—a story that will doubtless be told in Aaron Brookner’s forthcoming documentary, Uncle Howard.
In Burroughs: The Movie, Ginsberg, staring straight into Brookner’s camera, recites from memory his famous opening lines to “Howl” (1955): “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, / dragging themselves through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix, / angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night…” Though those lines were written when Brookner was still an infant, they could not be more applicable to his own generation, an unfortunate through line connecting the two New Yorks which Burroughs’s life bookends.
Andrew Marzoni is a Marion L. Brittain Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at the Georgia Institute of Technology. | |||||
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"James Campbell",
"www.theguardian.com",
"james-campbell"
] | 1997-08-04T00:00:00 | <p>Obituary: William S Burroughs</p> | en | the Guardian | https://www.theguardian.com/books/1997/aug/04/fiction.williamburroughs | William S Burroughs, who has died aged 83, was the hard man of Hip. His aims as a writer were traditional, to entertain and instruct, but the means he chose to express them were unclassifiable, sometimes indescribable, occasionally unspeakable.
Some of Burroughs's books, his first, Junkie, and Cities of the Red Night, are recognisable as novels in the ordinary sense; but his most original work came in the form of what he called 'routines': short, surreal sketches which sometimes include real characters, but more often involve the products of Burroughs's weird imagination, such as Spare Ass Annie (who 'had an auxiliary asshole in the middle of her forehead') or the Lobotomy Kid.
All his energy went into a battle with the agents of 'control' - call it 'police' in every form, including the thought police - and his strategies ranged from drugs to the notorious cut-up technique. Norman Mailer said of Burroughs that he was 'the only American writer who may conceivably be possessed by genius', but the compliment which he treasured above all others was an austere remark of Samuel Beckett's: 'He's a writer.'
Burroughs was born in St Louis, Missouri, into a family that was well off but, as he repeatedly insisted, 'not rich'. His grandfather, after whom he was named, invented the adding machine, but the family had lost its connections to the company by the time of the Depression. None the less, Burroughs senior was sufficiently comfortable to allow his wayward son a monthly stipend of $200 from 1938 onwards.
Burroughs read English at Harvard but his real studies began when he reached New York in the early 1940s and met the young men who would later be grouped as the Beat Generation: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. Other members of this circle were David Kammerer and Lucien Carr, old friends from St Louis. Kammerer was stabbed to death by Carr in 1944, and Burroughs, as the first person to whom Carr turned, was held as a material witness to the crime - neither his first nor last encounter with the law.
Another close friend of those days was Herbert Huncke, an old-time crook who later became a writer, under Burroughs's influence. From Huncke's circles Burroughs learned the art of rolling drunks and picking pockets in the New York subway.
Burroughs was extremely sober in manner and appearance; his dress typically consisted of a grey three-piece suit, tie, and fedora hat. 'His whole person seemed at a glance completely anonymous,' he wrote about himself. 'Sometimes his face looked blurred...' When Huncke first met him, he mistook Burroughs for an FBI agent, but was soon turning him on to hard drugs. As reported by Huncke, Burroughs's response to his first shot of morphine was, 'That's very interesting... that's very interesting indeed.'
In the late 1940s, he tried his hand at farming in Texas and Louisiana, growing tomatoes as a useful cover for his marijuana and opium crops. By this time he had met Joan Vollmer who, though he was homosexual and she was not, became 'Mrs Burroughs' (they were never formally married). Burroughs had previously wed a German Jewish woman, Ilse Klapper, in Europe, so that she could emigrate to the US and escape the Nazis. They divorced amicably some years later.
The bond with Joan was close, but troubled. From her he received a sympathetic understanding probably never reproduced in a relationship with a man. She was a highly intelligent, attractive woman, brought low by a dependence on Benzedrine and drink. She had a daughter by a previous marriage and a son with Burroughs, William Burroughs III, also a writer, who died in 1981.
Joan's life ended on a September afternoon in Mexico City in 1951. The couple had joined a drunken party in a flat above a bar. Burroughs was carrying a gun, and at some point said to Joan: 'It's time for our William Tell act. Put that glass on your head.' She did, and Burroughs fired an inch too low, killing her. He was bailed after a week in jail and when his Mexican lawyer skipped the country, having killed someone himself, Burroughs followed.
He was never tried for the shooting but according to his biographer Ted Morgan, entered 'a nightmare that he would live for the rest of his days'. Ostensibly, Joan's death was an accident, but Burroughs was harried by the dreadful thought that, subconsciously, he had meant to kill her. In the introduction to the novel Queer, written in the 1950s but not published until 1985, he wrote with candour about his feelings:
'I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realisation of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing... The death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and manoeuvred me into a life-long struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out.'
Burroughs began writing much later than Kerouac and Ginsberg. He was 39 when his autobiographical account of being a drug addict in New York and New Orleans, Junkies, was published in 1953 under the pseudonym 'William Lee' (a name he retained when referring to himself in his later work).
Junkie is written in a straightforward prose reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett. Its first edition counts as one of the great curios of modern literature. Aimed at the popular markets the book came out back to back with another, Narcotic Agent, whose moral tone the publisher hoped would offset the scandalous Junkie. The law took no notice and neither did the reviewers, but it sold more than 100,000 copies. (It was later retitled Junky.)
After two expeditions into the jungles of South America in search of the vegetable drug Yage, which he had heard bestowed telepathic powers on the user (it didn't), Burroughs moved to Tangier, intending to stay only a few weeks but remaining for several years. Drugs and sex were cheap. Burroughs met Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin, with whom he would later form an uncompromising avant-garde partnership in Paris.
Skulking through the back alleys of Tangier, seeking a connection, Burroughs became known to locals as 'el hombre invisible'. His most famous book, Naked Lunch, was written there, fuelled by heroin and kif; but anyone who believes Burroughs glamorised drugs should be persuaded otherwise by reading the introductory 'Testimony concerning a sickness': 'I had not taken a bath in a year nor changed my clothes or removed them except to stick a needle every hour in the fibrous grey wooden flesh of heroin addiction... I did absolutely nothing. I could look at the end of my shoe for eight hours.'
Burroughs told Kerouac that the writing he was doing in Tangier - apocalyptic, absurdly pornographic, comically violent - represented the act of 'shitting out my past'. Some of the routines are horribly funny, such as 'Displaced Fuzz', which features a pair of redundant policemen repossessing people's artificial kidneys.
Naked Lunch is something of a cooperative enterprise: many of the routines emerged from letters to Ginsberg; Kerouac supplied the title; the manuscript was typed by these two and other visiting Beats, while the order of chapters came about by random selection. For Burroughs, the extreme edge of art, as of life, was the only place to be. 'The only way I can write narrative is to get right outside my body and experience it,' he told Ginsberg. 'This can be exhausting and at times dangerous. One cannot be sure of redemption.'
Sections of the 'dangerous' book were published in the Chicago Review in 1958, leading to the suppression of the magazine by the university which sponsored it, and to a prosecution on the grounds of obscenity (the last major case of its type in the US).
Meanwhile, the Olympia Press in Paris had published the entire novel. Olympia's rascally owner, Maurice Girodias, later admitted failing to pay Burroughs his royalties, but the author typically forgave him, pointing out that Girodias had published Naked Lunch at a time when no other firm would touch it.
The book was published in Britain in 1964 by John Calder. Shortly before that, a protracted correspondence took place in the Times Literary Supplement, following a review of the Olympia edition under the headline 'Ugh...' Calder and the critic Eric Mottram defended the novel, but they were outnumbered by the disgusted, including Dame Edith Sitwell: 'I do not wish to spend the rest of my life with my nose nailed to other people's lavatories. I prefer Chanel Number 5.'
By this time, Burroughs had moved even further out. He had discovered a new method of writing, which, he told Ginsberg imperiously, could not be explained 'until you have necessary training'. Gysin had stumbled on the cut-up technique while playing around with old newspapers and a pair of scissors in his room at the Hotel Rachou in rue Git-le-coeur in Paris, thereafter known as 'the Beat Hotel'. Burroughs, also a resident, extended the experiment, and soon the Olympia Press had published two cut-up novels, The Soft Machine (1961) and The Ticket That Exploded (1962). The trilogy was completed by Nova Express in 1964.
As entertainment, the cut-ups are hard going, but seen in the context of Burroughs's obsessive desire to free his mind from 'control' - in this case, the control of 'word locks', or rigid conceptual structures governed by language - the experiments make more sense.
Burroughs was off hard drugs by then (though still using cannabis and hallucinogens). He had been trying to kick the habit since the late 1940s. With the help of Dr John Dent in London, who administered an apomorphine cure, Burroughs finally freed himself from the biggest control agent of the lot.
New experiments included the use of a dream machine, invented by Gysin, and Scientology, which Burroughs discussed in a book-length interview with Daniel Odier, The Job (1970).
In the 1960s, Burroughs moved to London, where he lived in Duke Street, St James, central London. He contributed to publications as uncool as Mayfair and the hippy magazine International Times. He was prolific and generous.
Another drug addict and Beat, Alexander Trocchi, gave me a copy of a short unpublished piece by Burroughs circa 1972 and suggested I call the author and ask for permission to use it in a little magazine I edited in Glasgow. Burroughs agreed readily, without mention of payment. The only word he spoke was 'Yeah,' which he drawled in response to everything I said.
He returned to the US in 1974, living first in New York, in 'the Bunker', a disused locker room without windows on the Bowery, and then, from 1982 on, in Lawrence, Kansas. The books continued to flow - Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads, My Education, Ghost of Chance - mixing science fiction, the western, the travel book, the dream journal and other genres. His publisher, Grove Press, has just completed a manuscript of Burroughs's previously unpublished writings to be released in 1998.
Burroughs was also a painter, and his efforts in that medium are as idiosyncratic as in any other. He held several exhibitions of paintings on wood riddled with bullet holes ('shotgun art', he called it; he was also a member of the National Rifle Association). In 1996 a catalogue of his involvement with the visual arts was published, Ports of Entry: William Burroughs and the Arts.
In Lawrence he was looked after by his long-term secretary James Grauerholz and a team of assistants. There was no other woman in his life after Joan. Her death continued to haunt him, and in 1992, with Ginsberg present, he underwent an exorcism ceremony at the hands of a Sioux medicine man to evict the Ugly Spirit which he believed had entered him at the time of Joan's death. His main affection in later life was reserved for his cats, and he published a small homage to his feline friends, The Cat Inside.
Like many artistic revolutionaries, Burroughs became an icon late in life. Among rock stars, it became fashionable to seek him out. David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Frank Zappa and Patti Smith all sang for their supper at the Burroughs table in the Bunker, and he became an honorary godfather to the New York wave of punk.
Less accessible than that of his Beat colleagues, the work of William Burroughs is likely to prove at least as enduring. He was modern man in extremis, an exemplar of alienation, constantly subverting his targets with satire. His extreme individualism never wavered. His first piece of writing, as a child, was called Autobiography of a Wolf. When grown-ups pointed out that the correct word was 'biography', Burroughs replied: 'No, I meant 'autobiography'.' And, he told his own biographer 75 years later, 'I still do.'
William Seward Burroughs II, writer, born February 5, 1914; died August 2, 1997 | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 73 | https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~eazier1/genealogy/Young/Biography08.htm | en | Biography#08 | [] | [] | [] | [
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] | null | [] | null | null | Charles Richard Peterson [Y2d4e2a1], son of Marjorie Ann Young and Charles Peterson Jr, was born 11 November 1949 at San Antonio, TX, and died two days later at San Antonio. He was buried in IOOF Cemetery at San Antonio. (111bd)
Debra Sue Peterson [Y2d4e2a4], daughter of Marjorie Ann Young and Charles Peterson Jr, was born 3 December 1957 at San Antonio, TX. She married Gary D Klatt and lived at Alice, Jim Wells Co in the 1980s, and at San Antonio in the 1990s. Gary was born 7 May 1957. (N,111bP)
Linda Kay Peterson [Y2d4e2a2], daughter of Marjorie Ann Young and Charles Peterson Jr, was born 7 January 1951 at San Antonio, TX. She married a Mr Reed and lived at San Antonio in the 1980s. (N,111b)
Lou Ann Peterson [Y2d4e2a3], daughter of Marjorie Ann Young and Charles Peterson Jr, was born 17 December 1954 at San Antonio, TX. She married a Mr Riske and lived at San Antonio in the 1980s. (N,111b)
Ann Emma Petty [Y6c1c], daughter of Margaret Jane English and William F Petty, was born about 1852 in Giles or in Henry Co TN, and grew up in Henry Co. (22qr)
Anne M Petty [Y12a5b1], daughter of William Ellis Petty and Henrietta H Rainer, was born 25 November 1900 in Bell Co TX. She was shown on the 1920 census in Taylor Co with her family, then her name was crossed out. She had recently married Wilbur Lide Frizzell in 1919; they lived at Merkel in 1920, two doors from his father. Wilbur was born 8 March 1898 in Titus Co TX, son of John Henry Frizzell and Mollie D Parker, and died 15 July 1983 in Eastland Co TX. Wilbur was a PFC in the US Army during WW1. Anne died 16 March 2002 at Graham, Young Co. They lived at Merkel in 1920, and in Collin Co in 1930. They were buried in Blake Cemetery at Cross Out, Brown Co. They had four children, all in TX-
a. Henrietta Maxine Frizzell, b 1921 at Merkel, Taylor Co. (150f)
b. Wilbur Frizzell, b 1923 (150f)
c. Vera Louise Frizzell, b 15 Jan 1926
d. Odis Vernon Frizzell, b 17 Mar 1928
John Henry Frizzell was born 30 Nov 1874 in TX, and died 11 Jan 1947 at Dallas. He had married Mollie D Parker about 1891; she was born in Nov 1875 in TX, and died about 1909. (W,477u,219v, 85v,58w,99c, 56d)
Austin Wrennon "Pete" Petty [Y12a5b6], son of William Ellis Petty and Henrietta H Rainer, was born 24 April 1913 in Taylor Co TX, and died at Merkel, Taylor Co on 2 November 1977. He married Mattie Lue Austin. She was born 27 September 1914 at Cross Plains, Callahan Co, daughter of Joseph Emerson Austin (2 Apr 1882 TX, died 21 May 1936 in Taylor Co) and Ollie Jane Swafford (12 May 1878 TN, married 1901, died 15 Jun 1947 at Cisco, Eastland Co TX), and died 4 March 2008 at Kerrville. Pete and Mattie were buried in Rose Hill Cemetery at Merkel. They had two children-
a. Glenda Lou Petty, b 9 Apr 1937
b. Jack Wrennon Petty, b 14 Sep 1942 (Z,N,M, TXd,434w, 58bwf)
Brian Scott Petty [Y12a5b6b2], son of Jack Wrennon Petty and Barbara Joy McWilliams, was born 16 March 1966 in Taylor Co TX. He married Carrie Lynn Coffey and had a son, then they divorced in Taylor Co on 6 October 1993. Brian then married Misty Dawn Fannin and had another son. Carrie was born 2 September 1969 in Taylor Co, daughter of William Donald Coffey and Dorothy Carol Gooding. Misty was born 5 January 1974 in Taylor Co, daughter of David Russell Fannin and Angela Ruth Basso. Both sons were born in Taylor Co-
a. Justin Scott Petty, 22 Jul 1988 (58b)
b. Austin Wrennon Petty, 3 Feb 1997 (58b) (58b) (N,58b)
Dana Renee Petty [Y12a5h1a2], daughter of James Emery Petty and Cletis Colene Knox, was born 27 July 1961 at Fort Worth, TX. (42b)
Gladys Verna Petty [Y12a5b5], daughter of William Ellis Petty and Henrietta H Rainer, was born 4 September 1911 in Taylor Co TX. She married Leonard Edison Turner, and died 11 July 1997 at Big Lake, Reagan Co. Leonard was born 22 August 1915 and died at Big Lake on 17 September 1994. They had a son-
a. Oral Edison Turner, b 25 Oct 1940 (TXd,Z, 58bwf, 192b)
Glenda Lou Petty [Y12a5b6a], daughter of Austin Wrennon Petty and Mattie Lue Austin, was born 9 April 1937 in Taylor Co TX. She married William Roy Sanders and they had two children. He was born in Runnels Co on 30 March 1935, son of Roy Howard Sanders and Ruby Thelma Roberts, and died in Taylor Co on 10 October 1992. Glenda later married Ronald K Wheeler on 12 November 1999 in Gillespie Co; he was born in 1932. They lived at Harper, Gillespie Co in 2008. Glenda’s children were born in Taylor Co-
1. Cynthia Lue Sanders, b 7 Feb 1958
2. Roy Wrennon Sanders, b 11 Feb 1961 (TXd, N,155b,58b)
Hattie Elizabeth Petty [Y12a5e], daughter of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born 28 August 1885 in Searcy Co AR, and lived in Bell Co TX in 1900. She married John Wesley Hardy Jr in late 1908 and in 1910 they lived in Taylor Co next door to his father. John Jr was born at Clifton, Bosque Co TX on 31 October 1887, son of John Wesley Hardy (Sr) and Lottie Ann Vancleave. John and Hattie moved to Callahan Co about 1915. She died at home of cancer on 27 October 1959 at Clyde, Callahan Co, and was a widow when she died. Her husband John died at Clyde on 2 June 1959. They were both buried at Clyde. Their daughter "Virgie Hardy" was the informant for their death certificates. John and Hattie had four children, all born in Taylor Co-
1. Virgie Viola Hardy, b 4 Apr 1910
2. Weldon Burris Hardy, b 19 Jul 1911
3. Ward James Hardy, b 20 Jul 1911
4. Houston Alto Vee Hardy, b 25 Jun 1913
John W Jr’s father lived with John Jr and Hattie in 1930. John Wesley Hardy (Sr) was born 18 Nov 1854 at Jackson, Rankin Co MS, and died 31 Jan 1953 at Monument, Lea Co NM. He first married Lottie Ann Vancleave, had four children, then when she died he married Mollie Catherine Ward on 14 Dec 1896 in Bosque Co TX. John and Mollie had four more children. Lottie was born in 1860 in MS, and died in 1890; Mollie was born 14 Jun 1867 in TX, and died in Feb 1929 at Roswell, Chaves Co NM. (W,M, 85u,58v, 434wfd)
Henrietta Petty [Y6c1f], daughter of Margaret Jane English and William F Petty, was born about 1863 in Henry Co TN. She married Edward S Emerson in Henry Co on 30 September 1877, and in 1880 they lived in Henry Co next to her widowed mother. Edward was born in Henry Co in 1857, son of Horatio Emerson and Elizabeth _____. They had a son-
1. Gerrard (General?) G Emerson, b Aug 1879 in Henry Co KY. (22s) (22qrms)
Henry J Petty [Y12a5c], son of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born in Sep 1879 in Searcy Co AR, and died by 1900. (581s, 85u)
Howard Palma Petty Jr [Y1f5n3a2], son of Edith Ann Winford and Howard Palma
Petty, was born 6 May 1956 at Munich, Germany while his father was stationed there in the U.S. Army. Howard married Rhoda Watkins on 4 September 1977, and died at Knoxville, TN on 8 August 1979. (GW)
Jack Wrennon Petty [Y12a5b6b], son of Austin Wrennon Petty and Mattie Lue Austin, was born 14 September 1942 in Taylor Co TX. He married Barbara Joy McWilliams and they lived at Abilene in 2008. She was born in Taylor Co on 8 December 1943, daughter of Chester McWilliams and Leona Buchanan. They had two sons, both in Taylor Co-
1. Mickey Lynn Petty, b 29 Mar 1963
2. Brian Scott Petty, b 16 Mar 1966 (N,58b)
James Emery Petty [Y12a5h], son of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born in 29 March 1892 at Troy, Bell Co TX. In 1910 he lived in Taylor Co with his parents. Most of the time, James was known by his middle name. In June 1917 he lived at Merkel, Taylor Co, was married, and had a child. In 1920 he lived in Callahan Co, next door to John W Hardy, father-in-law of Emery’s sister Hattie Elizabeth Petty [Y12a5e]. Emery’s wife was Letha J Harvell. She was born 24 March 1891 in AR. Emery died in the 1920s, probably in Callahan Co, and in 1930 Letha and her son lived in Jones Co next door to her brother Thomas and their parents George William Harvell and Mary Jane Reeves. Letha died 27 May 1935 at Merkel, Taylor Co and was buried at Clyde, Callahan Co. Emery and Letha has a son-
1. Porter Harvell Petty, b 9 Oct 1912 (M,85u, 58v, 434w)
James Emery Petty [Y12a5h1a], son of Porter Harvell Petty and Ora Lee Parks, was born 7 May 1933 in Jones Co TX (date and place per birth record). He died on 4 January 1971 of meningitis at Parkland Hospital at Dallas, but lived at Fort Worth. James was buried in Laurel Land Cemetery at Fort Worth. His death record said he was born at Merkel, Taylor Co; his wife "Mrs James E Petty" was the informant for his death certificate. She also misspelled / misnamed the names of James’ parents as being "Porter Harwell Petty" and "Ora Lee Veazey." The name Veazey was probably one of Ora’s prior married names. James had married Cletis Colene Knox. James served in the US Military between 1952 and 1954. He and Cletis had two daughters at Fort Worth-
1. Paula Kay Petty, b 2 Dec 1953
2. Dana Renee Petty, b 27 Jul 1961 (Z,53b, 42b)
Jeff C Petty [Y12a5b3], son of William Ellis Petty and Henrietta H Rainer, was born 8 December 1904 in Bell Co TX, and died in Taylor Co on 18 October 1996. He was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery at Merkel. Jeff married Mary Elizabeth McElroy. and they had a daughter-
a. Mary Josephine Petty, b 23 Dec 1935 in Taylor Co TX. (58b) (TXd,Z, 85v, 58wc)
John Rees Petty [Y6c1b], son of Margaret Jane English and William F Petty, was born in January 1850 in Giles Co TN and grew up in Henry Co. He died in Henry Co on 31 January 1881 and was buried in McCall Cemetery. (15n, 22qrsc)
Lorie Anne Petty [Y1f5n3a3a], daughter of Phillip Rade Petty and Betty Jane Watson, was born 2 November 1979. (GW)
Margaret E Petty [Y6c1a], daughter of Margaret Jane English and William F Petty, was born in May 1844 in Giles Co TN and grew up in Henry Co. She married Francis M Ray in Henry Co on 31 October 1867. He was born in October 1845 in Henry Co TN, son of Hosea Ray (1812 TN) and Sarah _____. They lived in Henry Co and in Calloway Co KY. Francis died at Hazel, Calloway Co on 17 March 1912. Margaret died in Calloway Co on 10 November 1924 at age 80. Her death certificate said her mother was "Margret Eglish" and both parents were born in TN. Margaret and William were both buried in Lamb Cemetery. John Mathis of Hazel was the informant for their death certificates. They had five children. Four were alive in 1900 and two alive in 1910-
1. Robert Ray, b 1869
2. William H Ray, b Aug 1871
3. child Ray, b & d by 1900. (28uv)
4. Ella A Ray, b Aug 1876
5. Lena L Ray, b Jun 1879
Living a few doors away in 1870 was the William F Lamb family. Since Francis and Margaret were buried in the Lamb Cemetery, this Cemetery may have been a family Cemetery belonging to this Lamb family. (22nqm,15n, 28uvd)
Marilyn Petty [Y12a5b2a], daughter of William Byers Petty and Mary Evelyn Hamm, was born 7 October 1930 in Taylor Co TX. (58b)
Martha Anne Petty [Y12a5d], daughter of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born 20 May 1883 in Searcy Co AR, and lived in Bell Co TX in 1900. She married William Lemuel Law in 1902, and they moved to Coleman Co TX by 1910, but were back in Bell Co in 1920. This was William’s second marriage. Martha died at Temple, Bell Co on 11 January 1947 of cancer and was buried at Belton, where she had lived for the prior nine years. She was a widow when she died. William was born 11 June 1876 in TN, son of Coleman Law and Rebecca Jane Harwell (both from TN), and died at Belton on 8 December 1944. He was buried at Belton. William was a service station operator. They had at least four children-
1. Coren Larkin Law, b 20 Feb 1902
2. J C Law, b 9 April 1904
3. Willie Oleta Law, b 20 Jun 1908
4. Major Quentin Law, b 21 Feb 1920
William L Law and his first wife, Starett _____, were married about 1897; she died about 1901 in Bell Co, after one daughter: Eula Law, born in Sep 1897 in Bell Co TX.
Two nieces lived with Martha and William in 1920: Ruby Law and Evelyn Law, born in TX in 1906 and 1912. (85uw,445v)
Mary L Petty [Y6c1e], daughter of Margaret Jane English and William F Petty, was born in 1861 in Henry Co TN (age 9 in 1870, 19 in 1880, 37 in 1900, 45 in 1910 and in 1920, 67 in 1930). She married William Allen Loyd in Henry Co on 13 April 1890, and died in 1944. She was buried in Walker Cemetery at Cottage Grove, Henry Co. Her gravestone has her name as "Mary Petty Loyd." William was also buried there, but the dates on his gravestone cannot be read. He was born in NC in August 1840, and this was his second marriage. He was still alive in 1930 at Cottage Grove, Henry Co. They had four children, all in Henry Co TN-
1. Hester Loyd, b Jan 1891
2. Joe David Loyd, b 7 Jun 1894
3. Gussie Bryant Loyd, b 10 May 1896
4. Willie M Loyd, b 1900
William first married Rebecca Spikes from Raleigh, NC, and she died in the late 1880s in Henry Co. Children from that marriage were: William Thomas Loyd, born 22 Mar 1878, died in 1957; Henry Loyd, born 18 Nov 1880; Clemmie L Loyd, born 12 Jan 1884, married William Alexander Cox on 9 Sep 1903 in Henry Co, died 17 Nov 1972 at Cottage Grove; and Sudie Loyd, born Sep 1886, died young. (M,W, 22rsmuvwfc)
Mickey Lynn Petty [Y12a5b6b1], son of Jack Wrennon Petty and Barbara Joy McWilliams, was born 29 March 1963, married Kathy Sherri Sutphen in Taylor Co on 17 September 1988. She was born in Dallas Co on 25 September 1969, daughter of Kerwin Spencer Sutphen and Flora Mae Thomas. They had two daughters, both in Taylor Co-
a. Heather Sherri Petty, b 13 Jun 1989 (58b)
b. Shannon Nicole Petty, b 5 Dec 1991 (58b) (58bm)
Mickie Petty [Y1f5n3a3b], daughter of Phillip Rade Petty and Betty Jane Watson, was born between 1980 and 1985. (MA)
Nina Tennessee Petty [Y12a5a], daughter of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born 20 December 1875 at Russellville, Searcy Co AR, and moved to Bell Co TX when she was age 13. She married Henry Elijah Johnson about 1890 when she was age 14 at Temple, Bell Co. He was born 5 March 1867 in MS, son of W E Johnson and Clara _____. In 1900 and 1910 they lived in Bell Co. In the late 1910s they moved to the Corpus Christi area. Nina died at home at Flour Bluff (15 miles southeast of Corpus Christi) on 14 April 1967 of a stroke, age over 91, and was already a widow. She was buried in Seaside Memorial Park. Her son Jesse E Johnson was the informant for her death certificate. Henry died at Corpus Christi on 9 August 1944 of a stroke. He was buried in Aberdeen Cemetery at Corpus Christi. Mrs W A Powell (a daughter) was the informant for his death certificate. They had five children by 1900 with four still alive; by 1910 they had twelve children with nine still alive. Eventually they had fifteen children, all but one in Bell Co TX, and ten still lived in 1960-
1. child Johnson, b & d about 1890 in Bell Co. (85u)
2. Roy Walter Johnson, b 15 Dec 1891
3. Clara Mable Johnson, b 5 Apr 1893
4. Ida Elizabeth Johnson, b Mar 1896
5. Otto Melvin Johnson, b 19 Aug 1898
6. child Johnson, b & d about 1900 in Bell Co, after May. (85v)
7. Luther Henry Johnson, b 17 Oct 1901
8. James Eual Johnson, b 21 Aug 1903
9. Jesse Ellis Johnson, b 2 Jan 1905
10. child Johnson, b & d about 1907 (85v)
11. Lula Pearl Johnson, b 30 Apr 1909
12. Lola Muriel Johnson, b 30 Apr 1909
13. Erma Deletha Johnson, b 1911
14. Henry Elijah Johnson Jr, b 3 Mar 1913
15. Mark Johnson, b 1915
Henry’s mother Clara was born in 1849 in MS, and was a widow living with Henry and Nina in 1910. (W,N,Z,581s,85uv,107wd)
Oral Ellis Petty [Y12a5b4], son of William Ellis Petty and Henrietta H Rainer, was born 31 October 1906 in Bell Co TX, and died on 25 August 1917 at Merkel, Taylor Co. He was buried at Merkel in Rose Hill Cemetery. (85u,58c)
Pamela Anne Petty [Y1f5n3a1], daughter of Edith Ann Winford and Howard Palma Petty, was born 16 May 1953 at Fort Benning, GA while her father was based there as a soldier. She married Clarence Ira Parsons Jr on 27 December 1974 in Giles Co TN, but in 1977 they divorced. She remarried on 6 February 1982 to Jerry W Saint; they lived at Nashville, TN. (GW, 15m)
Patricia Ellen Petty [Y1f5n3a4], daughter of Edith Ann Winford and Howard Palma Petty, was born 12 February 1959 at Fort Benning, GA, and married Robert Willis Bryant on 12 June 1982 in Giles Co TN. They lived at Pulaski, TN. Robert was born about 1955, son of Willis O Bryant and Joan Redding. (GW,15m)
Paula Kay Petty [Y12a5h1a1], daughter of James Emery Petty and Cletis Colene Knox, was born 2 December 1953 at Fort Worth, TX. She married Nicky D Wells at Fort Worth on 3 April 1970 (at age 16), divorced him at Fort Worth on 28 January 1972, then married Mark A Thatcher at Fort Worth on 20 June 1976. Mark was born about 1948 and Nicky was born about 1951. After Nicky and Paula divorced, he Nicky married twice more in the Fort Worth area. (42bm)
Phillip Rade Petty [Y1f5n3a3], son of Edith Ann Winford and Howard Palma Petty, was born 28 July 1957 at Columbus, GA. He married Betty Jane Watson on 4 November 1978 in Giles Co TN. They lived at Pulaski, TN. She was born in 1959, daughter of William Darius Watson and Avarene West. They had three children-
a. Lorie Anne Petty, b 2 Nov 1979
b. Mickie Petty
c. Tyler Petty, b 1985 (GW,MA)
Porter Harvell Petty [Y12a5h1], son of James Emery Petty and Letha J Harvell, was born 9 October 1912 in Taylor Co TX, and died at home a few days before 16 November 1966 at Fort Worth. He was found on that date, well decomposed, dead from a hemorrhage and cirrhosis of the liver. Porter worked as a heavy equipment operator for the city of Fort Worth, and was divorced. James E Petty (son) was the informant for his death certificate. Porter was buried in Laurel Land Cemetery. His wife and mother of their son James was Ora Lee Parks. She was born in Taylor Co on 1910, daughter of Mrs Addie Parks (1877 AR). Ora’s and Porter’s son was-
a. James Emery Petty, b 7 May 1933
Ora Lee Parks had married and divorced before she married Porter. (434w,58wf, 53f, 42d)
Robert Petty [Y1j4a3a1] is a son of Carolyn Young and William H Petty. (MA)
Tyler Petty [Y1f5n3a3c], son of Phillip Rade Petty and Betty Jane Watson, was born in 1985. (MA)
Virginia Etta Petty [Y12a5f], daughter of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born 15 March 1888 in Searcy Co AR, and lived in Bell Co TX in 1900. She married Grover Guy Gunn at Troy on 5 January 1908, and died 14 October 1970 at Corpus Christi. She was buried in Roberts Cemetery at Troy, Bell Co; her death certificate said she was to be buried in Temple Cemetery in Bell Co. Etta was a widow when she died, and Glenn G Gunn, the informant for her death certificate, didn’t know the name of her parents. But he gave her name as "Etta Petty Gunn" and said she was born in AR. Her birth date and name matches that of the daughter of James Porter Petty and Ida L Robertson from the 1900 census. In 1930 Etta and Grover lived in Bell Co. He was born at Oxford, MS on 27 October 1884, son of James Robert Gunn and Mary Elvira Mills, and lived in Bell Co. They had married in 1908. Grover was a farmer in 1930 and before, but sometime after then he became a house painter. He died at Temple, Bell Co of cancer and heart failure on 11 December 1967 and was buried in Roberts Cemetery near Troy. Etta was the informant for his death certificate. About 1969 she moved to Corpus Christi TX where she died (her daughter Ferol had moved there in 1946). By 1930 Etta had six children, all in Bell Co TX-
1. Lala Ferol Gunn, b 27 Nov 1908
2. Geraldine Gunn, b 7 Jan 1911
3. Glenn Grover Gunn, b 4 Oct 1914
4. Vardell Petty Gunn, b 2 Sep 1918
5. Lanoy Tadd Gunn, b 12 May 1922
6. Beth Celeste Gunn, b 7 Oct 1925 (Z,W, 85ufdc)
William Byers Petty Jr [Y12a5b2b], son of William Byers Petty and Mary Evelyn Hamm, was born 26 March 1940 in Tarrant Co TX. He married Kathleen Starbird King and they had two sons-
1. John Scott Petty, b 12 Jul 1966 in Dallas Co TX. (56b)
2. William Byers Petty III, b 28 Aug 1970 in Travis Co TX. (80b) (42b)
William Byers Petty [Y12a5b2], son of William Ellis Petty and Henrietta H Rainer, was born 9 August 1902 in Bell Co TX. He was age about 17 when he married Mary Evelyn Hamm. She was born 2 September 1903, and died at Abilene, Taylor Co on 18 February 1992, William died in Kerr Co on 27 February 1998, but lived at Abilene. They had two children-
a. Marilyn Petty, b 7 Oct 1930
b. William Byers Petty Jr, b 26 Mar 1940 (TXd, Z,85v, 58wb)
William Ellis Petty [Y12a5b], son of Ida L Robertson and James Porter Petty, was born 12 April 1877 in Searcy Co AR. He married Henrietta H Rainer on 15 November 1899 at Dublin, Erath Co, and in 1900 they lived in Bell Co TX. She was born in MS on 18 September 1880. In 1910 they were in Taylor Co, next door to his uncle William B Robertson. They lived near Merkel, Taylor Co in 1918. William died 11 August 1954 at Merkel and was buried in Rose Hill Cemetery at Merkel. He was still married when he died. Henrietta died 9 April 1977 at Abilene, Taylor Co and was also buried in Rose Hill Cemetery. They had six children-
1. Anne M Petty, b 25 Oct 1900
2. William Byers Petty, b 9 Aug 1902
3. Jeff C Petty, b 8 Dec 1904
4. Oral Ellis Petty, b 31 Oct 1906
5 Gladys Verna Petty, b 4 Sep 1911
6. Austin Wrennon Petty, b 24 Apr 1913 (M,W, 581s, 85uv,58fdc)
William T Petty [Y6c1d], son of Margaret Jane English and William F Petty, was born about 1858 in either Giles or Henry Co TN. (22qrs)
G D Peyton [Y8g8a], son of Lucille Angeline Young and David Givens Peyton, was born 16 September 1911 at Austin, TX. He married Ruby Edna West. G D apparently had no given name, just the two initials; all his life he was known as G D. He served in WW2 and afterwards was an insurance agent. G D died at Houston on 16 May 1967 and was buried in South Park Cemetery at Pearland in Brazoria Co. Mary Peyton was the informant for his death certificate. He and Ruby had two children born at Houston-
1. Gilbert David Peyton, b 7 Mar 1939
2. Margaret Lucille Peyton, b 26 Mar 1940 (83wfbd,176c)
Gilbert David Peyton [Y8g8a1], son of G D Peyton and Ruby Edna West, was born 7 March 1939 at Houston, TX. He married Linda Joye Holder and lived at Houston. They had four children there-
a. Steven David Peyton, b 11 Nov 1958 (83b)
b. Lydia Renee Peyton, b 29 Jun 1960 (83b)
c. Bradley Jay Peyton, b 1 Aug 1968 (83b)
d. David Wayne Peyton, b 23 Jan 1970 (83b) (83b)
Lee D Peyton [Y8g8b], son of Lucille Angeline Young and David Givens Peyton, was born 31 July 1916 in TX, and died at Houston on 30 December 1989. His home was at Alvin, Brazoria Co then. (Z,TXd, 83wf)
Margaret Lucille Peyton [Y8g8a], daughter of G D Peyton and Ruby Edna West, was born 26 March 1940 at Houston, TX. She married Robert Grove Heffner and lived at Houston. They had three daughters there-
a. Robin Elizabeth Heffner, b 23 Jan 1960 (83b)
b. Rhonda Gayle Heffner, b 12 Dec 1961 (83b)
c. Margaret Elizabeth Heffner, b 2 Jul 1964 (83b) (83b)
Thelma Peyton [Y8g8c], daughter of Lucille Angeline Young and David Givens Peyton, was born 27 November 1920 at Houston, TX. She married Freddie Arthur Tupper and they lived at Houston. He was born 4 March 1920, and died at Houston on 27 March 1987. Thelma died at Porter, Montgomery Co on 9 January 1992. They had two children-
1. David Otis Tupper, b 17 Jul 1946
2. Diana Lynn Tupper, b 14 Sep 1948 (TXd,Z, 83f)
Daphne Ruth Pharris [Y3a7d12a] is a daughter of Erma Bearden and Van Pharris. (JM)
Janis Maurine Pharris [Y3a7d1d1], daughter of Lois Evelyn Bearden and Sam Pharris, was born 6 August 1944 at Houston, TX. She married John Wayne Poston at Houston on 15 July 1966. He was born 5 October 1944 in Harris Co, son of Charlie Willie Poston and Ellen Little. They had two children at Houston-
a. Lisa Anne Poston, b 1 May 1967 (83b)
b. David Michael Poston, b 26 Jul 1974 (83b) (N,83bm)
June Pharris [Y3a7d12c] is a daughter of Erma Bearden Erma Bearden and Van Pharris. (JM)
Michael Sam Pharris [Y3a7d1d2], son of Lois Evelyn Bearden and Sam Pharris, was born 3 December 1952 at Houston, Harris Co TX. He married Linda Ann Wolff on 4 April 1975 at Houston. She was born 25 July 1954 at Houston, daughter of Willie F Wolff and Mary Warnke. Their three children were born at Houston-
a. Sean Christopher Pharris, b 16 Oct 1970 (83b)
b. Megan Alicia Pharris, b 28 Mar 1977 (83b)
c. Deban Lachele Pharris, b 20 Sep 1980 (83b) (N,83bm)
Shirley Pharris [Y3a7d12b] is a daughter of Erma Bearden and Van Pharris. (JM)
Arah Maude Phillips [Y4d5h1b], daughter of Arah G Gray and Claude C Phillips, was born 22 June 1938 at Mission, Hidalgo Co TX, and lived at Brenham, Washington Co in the 1990s. Arah died 12 February 2007 at Victoria, TX. She married James Lane Thomas Barnett Jr and had five children; three were-
1. James Lane Thomas Barnett III, b 13 Jun 1957
2. Michael Kevin Barnett, b 28 Apr 1962
3. Laurie Allison Barnett, b 31 Aug 1971
4. son Barnett (W)
5. son Barnett (W) (W,Z,161b, 533P,96P)
Bradley Stuart Phillips [Y7f3f1a3], son of Joe Don Phillips and Zelma Faye Harris, was born 3 June 1968. He married Michelle Renee Richardson in Lubbock Co on 12 January 1991. She was born in Dallas Co on 14 June 1971, daughter of Jimmy Lavaughn Richardson and Sherry Ann Braswell. Bradley and Michelle divorced in Hockley Co on 1 July 1997 after two children. He soon after married Misty Michelle Johnson in Lubbock Co on 8 August 1997. She was born 22 December 1973 in Lubbock Co, daughter of Allen Sexton Johnson and Leatrice Lucille Justice. Bradley and Michelle R had two children in Lubbock Co-
a. Dillon Cole Phillips, b 1 Mar 1992 (89b)
b. Nicole Denea Phillips, b 19 Dec 1997 (89b) (89bm)
Brenda Colleen Phillips [Y7f3f3b], is a daughter of Willie Carl Phillips and Barbara Colleen Bledsoe, was born 27 August 1951 in Ellis Co TX. She married Johnny Marion Orr and they had two sons at Dallas-
1. Joshua Matthew Orr, b 6 Jan 1977 (56b)
2. Nathan Paul Orr, b 16 Jan 1980 (56b) (JB, 54b,56b)
Claude C Phillips [Y4d5h1a], son of Arah G Gray and Claude C Phillips, was born 23 September 1934 at Mission, Hidalgo Co TX, and died in March 1986 at Scott, Lafayette Par LA. He married Barbara Jo Potter and they first lived in Hidalgo Co. They had four children in TX-
1. Sheri Lynn Phillips, b 9 Jan 1954 in Hidalgo Co TX. (161b)
2. Patricia Lynette Phillips, b 6 Dec 1955 in Hidalgo Co TX. (161b)
3. Carolyn Jo Phillips, b 17 Jul 1957 in Hidalgo Co TX. (161b)
4. Claude C Phillips, b 3 Apr 1960 in Cameron Co TX. (162b) (W,Z, 161b)
Gregory Don Phillips [Y7f3f1a1], son of Joe Don Phillips and Zelma Faye Harris, was born 25 July 1961 in Lubbock Co TX. He married Roxann Pierce in Hockley Co on 7 August 1981. She was born in Deaf Smith Co on 13 October 1963, daughter of Tommy Gene Pierce and Claudine Stewart. They had a son-
a. Gregory Shawn Phillips, b 21 May 1984 in Lamb Co TX. (348b) (89b, 284m)
James Edward Phillips [Y7f3f1], son of Mattie Virginia Tenery and John Edward Phillips, was born 27 October 1915 in TX and lived in Navarro Co in 1920. He normally used his middle name. Edward married Ernestine Dickson, and in the early 1940s moved to Levelland, Hockley Co. He died in Ellis Co on 16 December 2001. Ernestine was still living in 2009 at Frisco, Collin Co (her daughter Tina also lived in Collin Co then). They had three children-
a. Joe Don Phillips, b 20 Nov 1936
b. John Ernest Phillips, b 10 Apr 1939
c. Tina Faye Phillips, b 2 Jan 1946 (JB,Z,N, 235w, 54b,284b)
James Keith Phillips [Y7f3f1a2], son of Joe Don Phillips and Zelma Faye Harris, was born 23 December 1963 in Lubbock Co TX. He married Tialisa Lynn Brymer in Brazoria Co on 29 June 1985. She was born in Brazoria Co on 23 July 1968, daughter of Kenneth Lynn Brymer and Dianna Lynn Hutchins. (89b,176mb)
Jay Russell Phillips [Y7d5b1c3], son of Ella Gertrude Robertson and Jack Campbell Phillips, was born 29 March 1962 in Tarrant Co TX. He married Karen Leigh Vanderpool and they had two daughters in Tarrant Co-
a. Marie Ashleigh Phillips, b 4 Sep 1988 (42b)
b. Christina Joy Phillips, 19 Apr 1994 (42b) (42b)
Jeffrey Jack Phillips [Y7d5b1c1], son of Ella Gertrude Robertson and Jack Campbell Phillips, was born 27 June 1956 in Collin Co TX. (150b)
Joe Don Phillips [Y7f3f1a], son of James Edward Phillips and Ernestine Dickson, was born 20 November 1936 in Ellis Co TX. He lived at Levelland, Hockley Co in 2009. He married Zelma Faye Harris about 1960. She was born in Lamb Co on 19 October 1937, daughter of Lewis George Harris and Lois Edna Norton. Joe and Zelma had three sons, all born in Lubbock Co TX-
1. Gregory Don Phillips, b 25 Jul 1961
2. James Keith Phillips, b 23 Dec 1963
3. Bradley Stuart Phillips, b 3 Jun 1968 (JB,N, 54b,284P)
John Ernest Phillips [Y7f3f1b], son of James Edward Phillips and Ernestine Dickson, was born 10 April 1939 near Italy, Ellis Co TX. He died at Dallas on 20 March 2009 and was buried in Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery. His name was spelled Earnest on his birth record, but was actually spelled without the A. John was a graduate of Hardin Simmons University, Baylor University Law School, SMU Law School for a master’s degree, and got another degree from TCU in ranch management. He was a First Lieutenant in the US Army, earned an Army Commendation medal, and served for three and a half years of active duty. He practiced law at Dallas for 33 years, then retired to his ranch at Italy where he raised cattle. He married Barbara June Anderson in 1960, and had 2 children at Dallas-
1. John Edd Phillips, b 17 Mar 1968, married Lisa _____. (N,56b)
2. Jan Elizabeth Phillips, b 30 May 1976 (N,56b) (JB,N,54b,56b)
Linda Sue Phillips [Y7f3f3a], is a daughter of Willie Carl Phillips and Barbara Colleen Bledsoe, was born 9 October 1947 in Ellis Co TX. (JB,54b)
Lisa J Phillips [Y7d4d4d1] is a daughter of Barbara Jane Lancaster and Larry W Phillips. In 1993 she lived at Arlington, Tarrant Co TX. (JB,42P)
Madalyn Virginia Phillips [Y7f3f2], daughter of Mattie Virginia Tenery and John Edward Phillips, was born in March 1919 in Navarro Co TX. She married Charles Marvin Savage and they had two children-
a. Charles Eddie Savage, b 9 Mar 1944
b. Charlese Savage, b 3 Oct 1949 (JB,235w, 54b, 56b)
Robert Lee Phillips [Y7d5b1c2], son of Ella Gertrude Robertson and Jack Campbell Phillips, was born 26 December 1957 in Dallas Co TX. He married Catherine Ann Sornsen on 20 June 1981 in Denton Co. She was born 11 September 1959. They had two daughters in Denton Co-
a. Holley Marie Phillips, b 10 Jun 1982 (165b)
b. Lindsey Leigh Phillips, b 24 Nov 1985 (165b) (56b, 165mP)
Sheron Gray Phillips [Y4d5h1c], daughter of Arah G Gray and Claude C Phillips, was born 11 March 1944 at Mission, Hidalgo Co TX. (W,161b)
Tina Faye Phillips [Y7f3f1c], daughter of James Edward Phillips and Ernestine Dickson, was born 2 January 1946 at Levelland, Hockley Co TX. She married Craig A Swenson in Collin Co on 20 January 1996 and lived at Plano, Collin Co in 2009. Craig was born in November 1948. In the 1990s, before he married Tina, he lived at Denton. (JB,N,284b, 150m,165P)
William Eric Phillips [Y7d4d4d2] is a son of Barbary Jane Lancaster and Larry W Phillips, was born in July 1970. In 1993 he lived at Arlington, Tarrant Co TX. (JB,42P)
Willie Carl Phillips [Y7f3f3], son of Mattie Virginia Tenery and John Edward Phillips, was born in November 1929 in TX, probably in Navarro Co. He married Barbara Colleen Bledsoe. They lived at Lancaster, Dallas Co in 1993. Barbara was born in Ellis Co on 6 November 1929, daughter of Jimmie Dan Bledsoe and Nina Bell Loftis. Willie and Barbara had two daughters, both in Ellis Co-
a. Linda Sue Phillips, b 9 Oct 1947 (54b)
b. Brenda Colleen Phillips, b 27 Aug 1951 (54b)
Jimmie Dan Bledsoe was born 27 Jul 1888 at Petersburg, Lincoln Co TN, son of William R Bledsoe (born 8 Jun 1852 in TN, died 24 Feb 1926 at Italy, Ellis Co), and Mattie Bettie Heflin (born 7 May 1857 in TN, daughter of J D Heflin and Hester _____, and died 18 Nov 1915 at Italy, Ellis Co. She and William R married in Lincoln Co TN on 16 Oct 1884).
Jimmie D Bledsoe lived in Ellis Co in 1910 or before. He died at Dallas on 19 Dec 1966 but his home was near Midlothian. He was buried at Italy. Jimmy D Bledsoe Jr was the informant for his death certificate. Nina Bell Loftis was born 18 Mar 1900 in TN, daughter of Samuel Smith Loftis and Frances E Butler. Nina died at Waxahachie, Ellis Co on 19 May 1971 in the W C Tenery Hospital, and was buried in Red Oak Cemetery in Ellis Co. Her son J D Bledsoe Jr was the informant for her death certificate. The W C Tenery Hospital was started at Waxahachie in Sep 1913, largely because of Dr William C Tenery [Y7d5a], a cousin of W C Phillips. (JB, TXd, Z,M, 16m, 54fbvdG)
Clay Young Phipps [Y4d1d5c], son of Angie Vera Young and Vernest Vaudie Phipps, was born 1 April 1934 in Red River Co TX, and died 1 April 1994 in Lamar Co. (W,43b)
Dorris Phipps [Y4d1d5e], daughter of Angie Vera Young and Vernest Vaudie Phipps, was born 31 August 1938 in Lamar Co TX, and died in 1983 at Paris, Lamar Co. (W,43b)
Eleanor Jeanne Phipps [Y4d1d5b], daughter of Angie Vera Young and Vaudie Vernest Phipps, was born 29 January 1932 in Lamar Co TX, and died in 2007 in TX. (W,45b)
Geraldine Phipps [Y4d1d5d], daughter of Angie Vera Young and Vaudie Vernest Phipps, was born 1 May 1936 in Lamar Co TX, and died at Paris, Lamar Co. (W,43b)
Kenneth Harold Phipps [Y4d1d5a], son of Angie Vera Young and Vaudie Vernest Phipps, was born 4 August 1930 in Lamar Co TX, and died 23 May 2004 at Texarkana, Bowie Co TX. He married Peggy Ann Ewings and they had two children-
1. Judy Kay Phipps, b 6 May 1950 in Red River Co TX. (43b)
2. Bryant Dale Phipps, b 17 Nov 1953 in Bowie Co TX. (W,45b,43b)
Norris Phipps [Y4d1d5f], son of Angie Vera Young and Vaudie Vernest Phipps, was born 31 August 1938 in Lamar Co TX, and died 20 June 2003 at Tenaha, Shelby Co TX. (W,43b)
Claude Anderson Pierce III [Y9a1f8e1], son of Mary Jane Davis and Claude Anderson Pierce II, was born on 8 June 1960 at West Memphis, AR. He married Elizabeth Manning on 9 September 1980. (BD)
Edith E Pierce [Y10c1a3a], daughter of Amanda Emaline Young and a Mr Pierce, was born in 1885 in AR. In 1900 she lived in Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory with her mother and grandfather Young. (FG,591u)
George D Pierce [Y10c1a3b], son of Amanda Emaline Young and a Mr Pierce, was born in September 1890 in AR. In 1900 he lived in Choctaw Nation, Indian Territory with his mother and grandfather Young. (FG)
Samuel Kent Pierce [Y9a1f8e2], son of Mary Jane Davis and Claude Anderson Pierce II, was born 4 August 1964 at West Memphis, AR. (BD)
Robert Clyde Pike [Y9c2k1a], son of Vivian Louise Cramton and Maurice Raymond Pike, was born on 28 August 1931 at Indianapolis, IN. He died at Ventura, CA on 8 December 1992. (CC, CAd)
Clarence F Pippin [Y5c4b1a1a], son of Mary Doris Beard and William Henry Pippin, was born 6 May 1926 in Johnson Co TX, and died that year. (W)
Jackie Lynn Pippin [Y5c4b1a1b], son of Mary Doris Beard and William Henry Pippin, was born 17 February 1939 at Cleburne, Johnson Co TX, died 21 October 1955 at Grandview and was buried in Grandview Cemetery. He burned to death in a farm fire west of Grandview. (112bdC)
Mary Sue Pippin [Y5c4b1a1c], daughter of Mary Doris Beard and William Henry Pippin, was born 19 May 1940 in Johnson Co TX. She married Thomas Dick Tackett and they had two children, then divorced. He was born in November 1939. Mary then married Lonnie Culwell Martin in Johnson Co on 7 December 1979. He was born in Ellis Co on 3 March 1933, son of Plummer C Martin and Kate May Edwards, and died at Grandview on 30 July 1995. Mary Sue’s two sons were-
1. Thomas Richard Tackett, b 8 Aug 1960
2. John Ralph Tackett, b 25 Apr 1963 (42P,Z, 112bmc)
Barbara Pitzer [Y7f8b1d], daughter of Paul William Pitzer and Nancy Lenoir Darden, was born 21 January 1953 in Tarrant Co TX. She married Michael Dean Thornton at Dallas on 18 November 1978. He was born about 1952. They had a daughter-
1. Sara Elizabeth Thornton, b 27 May 1982 in Taylor Co TX. (58b) (42b, 58b)
Nancy Susan Pitzer [Y7f8b1a], daughter of Paul William Pitzer and Nancy Lenoir Darden, was born 24 May 1943 in Wichita Co TX. She married Charles Richard Stasney in Stephens Co on 15 June 1968. He was born about 1942. They had three children in Harris Co-
1. Kathryn Gage Stasney, b 15 Nov 1970 (83b)
2. Elizabeth Darden Stasney, b 8 May 1973 (83b)
3. William Spencer Stasney, b 4 Jan 1977 (83b) (5b,285m)
Pamela Pitzer [Y7f8b1c], daughter of Paul William Pitzer and Nancy Lenoir Darden, was born 3 March 1950 in Tarrant Co TX. She married George I Willeford III. He was born in December 1948. They lived at Austin in 1993 and they had two daughters-
1. Emily Ann Willeford, b 26 Apr 1977 at Dallas, TX. (56b)
2. Nancy Kathryn Willeford, b 16 Jul 1980 in Tarrant Co TX. (42b) (42b, 56b,80P)
Patsy Jo Pitzer [Y7f8b2a], daughter of Robert Ainsworth Pitzer and Thelma Jo Koonsen, was born 29 November 1938 in Tarrant Co TX. She married Fred Ray Wade and they lived in Nueces Co where they had three children. In 2004 they lived at Wimberley, Hays Co-
1. Kristie Kay Wade, b 15 Jan 1965
2. Kimberly Jo Wade, b 18 Oct 1967
3. Patrick Ray Wade, b 26 Feb 1976 (N,42b, 107b)
Paul William "Billie" Pitzer [Y7f8b1], son of Ethel Virginia Moore and Paul Wood Pitzer, was born 6 May 1916 at Floydada, Floyd Co TX, and died 17 January 1994 in Taylor Co but lived at Breckenridge, Stephens Co when he died. He married Nancy Lenoir Darden. She was born in McLennan Co on 21 October 1916, daughter of Deburnia Maynard Darden and Eva Threet. Nancy grew up in McLennan Co. She died in Stephens Co on 1 August 1880. She and Paul had four children, all born in TX-
a. Nancy Susan Pitzer, b 24 May 1943
b. Paul William Pitzer III, b 2 May 1945
c. Pamela Pitzer, b 3 Mar 1950
d. Barbara Pitzer, b 21 Jan 1953 (42b, 58b)
Deburnia Maynard Darden was born 8 Aug 1888 in NC, and died 17 Nov 1964 in McLennan Co TX; he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery at Waco. Eva Threet was born 22 Dec 1892 at McGregor, McLennan Co, and died 20 Feb 1972 at Breckenridge, Stephens Co. She was also buried in Oakwood Cemetery. Her daughter "Nancy Pitzer" was the informant for her death certificate. (Z,TXd, 285wd, 154bwfd)
Paul William Pitzer III [Y7f8b1b], son of Paul William Pitzer and Nancy Lenoir Darden, was born 2 May 1945 in Tarrant Co TX. (42b)
Robert Ainsworth Pitzer [Y7f8b2], son of Ethel Virginia Moore and Paul Wood Pitzer, was born 22 October 1918 in TX, and died 5 December 1991 at Breckinridge, Stephens Co TX. He married Thelma Jo Koonsen. She was born 26 March 1919 at Cleburne, Johnson Co TX, daughter of Henry Koonsen and Ollie Jo Gilmer, and died 21 July 2004. She was buried in Wimberly Cemetery. She and Robert had two children, both born in Tarrant Co-
a. Patsy Jo Pitzer, b 29 Nov 1938
b. Robert Ainsworth Pitzer Jr, b 24 Sep 1945 (Z,TXd, 285w)
Robert Ainsworth Pitzer Jr [Y7f8b2b], son of Robert Ainsworth Pitzer and Thelma Jo Koonsen, was born 24 September 1945 in Tarrant Co TX. He married Pamela Isabel Chafin on 10 August 1968 in Brazos Co. She was born in Brazos Co on 10 May 1947, daughter of Nolen Chafin and Ferdella Lucille Archer. Robert was married to Lynda _____ and lived at Carmel, CA when his mother died in 2004. He and Pam had two sons in Tarrant Co-
1. Robert Ainsworth Pitzer III, b 18 Mar 1974. He married Crystal _____ and in 2004 they lived at Katy near Houston. (N,42b)
2. Tyson Bradley Pitzer, b 9 May 1976, lived at Washington D.C. in 2004. (N,42b) (N,42b, 103m)
Addie Plumley [Y8g1e], daughter of Louisa Jane Young and Lee P Plumley, was born in 1912 in Travis Co TX. (80w)
Betty Lou Plumley [Y8g1c1], daughter of Wesley Lee Plumley and Ella Mae McCoy, was born 20 Mar 1929 at Austin, TX. She married Leo Francis Scott and they lived at Houston. Their four children were born there-
a. William Vernon Scott, b 23 Nov 1955
b. Carrie Frances Scott, b 23 Nov 1956
c. Judy Ann Scott, b 7 Nov 1959
d. Jimmy Leo Scott, b 28 Apr 1961 (80bf, 83b)
Delpha D Plumley [Y8g1d], daughter of Louisa Jane Young and Lee P Plumley, was born 26 September 1909 in Travis Co TX. (80bvw)
Erwin / Irwin Plumley [Y8g1f], son of Louisa Jane Young and Lee P Plumley, was born in 1914 in Travis Co TX. (80w,83f)
Wesley Lee Plumley [Y8g1c], son of Louisa Jane Young and Lee P Plumley, was born 15 March 1907 in Travis Co TX. He married Ella Mae McCoy about 1925 and divorced by 1930. She then moved in with her brother Willie M McCoy at Austin, and worked as a book binder (her brother worked for a printing company). Ella Mae was born in 1908 in Dallas Co, daughter of Finis P McCoy and Carrie Myrtle Smith. Wesley also married Wilma A Beaty on 15 June 1974 at Galveston. She was born 9 July 1925. They moved to Cove, Polk Co AR where Wesley died on 11 October 1989. Wilma died 22 May 1990. Wesley and Ella Mae had a daughter-
1. Betty Lou Plumley, b 20 Mar 1929 (80bf, 83b)
Angella Marie Poarch [Y4a3m2b4a], daughter of William Day Poarch and Linda Marie Jones, was probably born in the 1960s in Lincoln Co TN since her parents married there in 1961. (58,16m)
Charles Edward Poarch [Y4a3m2b5] is a son of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 3 October 1943 in TN. He married Brenda C McCoy of Fayetteville in Lincoln Co on 1 November 1985. In the marriage record, Charles’ parents were named as "Garland Poarch (dec’d)" and "Ethel Holley." Brenda was born 6 June 1948, daughter of Roy E Eddy and Mattie Sue Clark. This was apparently a second marriage for Brenda since her name was McCoy when she married Charles. He lived at Fayetteville just before he married Brenda, and was still there in October 2006 when his half-brother James died. (58,N, 16m)
Cleta Jean Poarch [Y4a3m2b1], daughter of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 3 August 1934 in TN. She first married J W Faulkner, then Aurbon Eli Jones. Aurbon was born 26 November 1934, son of Elmer Andrew Jones and Vera Pauline Smith, and died 8 March 2005 at Fayetteville, Lincoln Co. He was buried in Shady Grove Cemetery at Fayetteville. Cleta’s third husband was William Patrick Sheehan Jr, married in Bedford Co on 20 October 1979 when she was age 45. They lived at Fayetteville just after they married. He was born 31 January 1945. Cleta lived at Murfreesboro, Rutherford Co TN in October 2006 and had five children-
a. Gary Wade Faulkner, b 1954
b. Richard J Faulkner
c. Scarlet Teresa Faulkner
d. Lisa Sharon Jones, b about 1964
e.Tammy Lee Jones, lived at Athens, AL in 2005 (was she from a prior marriage of Eli?). (N)
e. Willis Sheehan (58,N,Z,237m)
Janice Faye Poarch [Y4a3m2b6], daughter of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 17 December 1950 in TN. She married Danny B Gentry in Lincoln Co on 28 June 1969. He was born 31 October 1950 in TN, son of William Bernard Gentry and Wilma Lewter. They lived at Fayetteville just before they married. Both mothers gave permission for the marriage. They lived at Fayetteville in October 2006 when her half-brother James died. Janice and Danny had three children-
a. Danica Faye Gentry, married a Mr Wiser and had three children. (W)
b. Brad Gentry, married Kimberly Jewan Locker, and married a Ms Morrow. With Ms Morrow there were three children. (W)
c. Dayron Gentry, married a Ms Smith and had two children. (W) (58,N,16m)
Joan Poarch [Y4a3m2b2], daughter of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 31 July 1937 at Fayetteville, Lincoln Co TN. She married Jimmy D Leatherwood in August 1955 at Iuka, MS, and died 28 April 1980 at Leighton, Colbert Co AL. He was born in July 1936. They had two children-
a. Sherry Dale Leatherwood, b Feb 1956
b. Jeffrey Neal Leatherwood, b Aug 1957 (58,W, Z,66P)
Linda Kay Poarch [Y4a3m2b7], daughter of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 11 October 1952. She married Kerry Slayton in Lincoln Co on 21 July 1971, married Don Wilcox, and married a Mr Sparks by 2006 and lived at Huntsville, AL. Kerry was born in TN on 3 May 1952, son of Ray Slayton and Mary Fulgum. Both Linda and Kerry lived at Fayetteville just before they married. With Don she had two children-
a. Holley Leigh Wilcox
b. Michael Wayne Wilcox (58,N,16m)
Michael Day Poarch [Y4a3m2b4b], son of William Day Poarch and Linda Marie Jones, was probably born in the 1960s in Lincoln Co TN since his parents married there in 1961. (58,16m)
Rosa Sue Poarch [Y4a3m2b3], daughter of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 24 February 1939 at Fayetteville, TN, and died 30 August 2000 at Fayetteville. She married John Calvin Hobbs Jr at Iuka, MS on 20 April 1957 and they lived at Fayetteville. He was born about 1935, son of John Calvin Hobbs and Addie Louise Fite. They had two children-
a. Karen Lynne Hobbs, b 29 Apr 1959
b. Aaren Darryl Hobbs, b 7 Mar 1961
John Calvin Hobbs (Sr) and Addie Louise Fite were married in Lincoln Co on 18 Apr 1930. (58, W,Z, 16m)
William Day Poarch [Y4a3m2b4], son of Ethel Holley and Levi Garland Poarch, was born 21 June 1942 in TN. He married Linda Marie Jones in Lincoln Co on 11 November 1961. She was born 3 June 1942, daughter of Elmer A Jones and Pauline Smith. On the marriage record, William’s parents were named as "Ethel Holley" and "L G Poarch." William lived at Fayetteville in October 2006. They had two children-
a. Angela Marie Poarch
b. Michael Day Poarch (58,N,16m)
Alberta Christine Poe [Y3a7h1a3], daughter of Cora Christine Moore and Grady Ralph Poe, was born 16 January 1951 in Reeves Co TX. She married Howell Earl Scull in Reeves Co on 26 May 1969. He was born 24 January 1951 in Nueces Co, son of William Robert Scull and Peggy Lou Senf. They had three children, all born in Reeves Co TX-
a. Beverly Christine Scull, b9 Sep 1971 (278b)
b. Bruce Earl Scull, b 23 Sep 1975 (278b)
c. Brenda Cathleen Scull, b 23 Jan 1979 (278b) (278bm,107b)
Bennie Elizabeth Poe [Y10c1k4a], daughter of Tennie Young and Benjamin Hampton Poe, was born 4 May 1902 at Garrett, Ellis Co TX. She married Earl Grizzard on 22 April 1941, and died at Ennis, Ellis Co on 23 July 1987. She was buried in Myrtle Cemetery at Ennis. Earl was born in 1904 in TX, son of Hugh Emory Grizzard and May Smith, and died 8 February 1987 at Ennis. He was also buried in Myrtle Cemetery. This was Earl's second marriage; the first was with Avy Viola Clark at Alma, Ellis Co on 1 March 1923. Bennie had no children. Avy was born 16 Nov 1904, and died 26 Jan 1937; she was buried in Myrtle Cemetery. They had two children. (TXd,W, Z,54bvfc)
Cindy Fay Poe [Y1j9d3a1], daughter of Archie Ann Johnston and Joe C Poe, was born about 1958. She married Steven Patrick Bailey in Giles Co on 4 June 1976. He was born about 1954, son of Paris Sims Bailey Jr and Helen Lucille Hahn. Both the bride and groom lived at Pulaski just before they married. Paris Sims Bailey Jr was born 12 Oct 1928 in Lawrence Co TN, and died 10 Aug 1998 in Lawrence Co. He and Helen Lucille Hahn married in 1949 at Davenport, IA. (MA, W,15m)
Cora Edna Poe [Y3a7h1a2], daughter of Cora Christine Moore and Grady Ralph Poe, was born 20 October 1948 in Reeves Co TX. She married Herschel Case McDonald Jr in Reeves Co on 3 October 1970. He was born in Bexar Co on 25 May 1941, son of Herschel Case McDonald and Maida Estelle Harrison. Cora and Herschel had three children, all in TX-
a. Scott Harrison McDonald, b 1 Jul 1971 in Reeves Co. (278b)
b. Herschel Case McDonald III, b 18 Jan 1973 in Victoria Co. (96b)
c. Kelli Cora McDonald, b 14 Jun 1975 in Jones Co. (53b) (278bm, 111b)
Curtis Poe [Y1j9d3a2], son of Archie Ann Johnston and Joe C Poe, was probably born in the early 1960s in Giles Co TN. (MA)
George Hampton Poe [Y10c1k4e], son of Tennie Young and Benjamin Hampton Poe, was born 15 January 1915 in Ellis Co TX, and died 31 March 1995 at Waxahachie, Ellis Co. He was buried in Smith Cemetery at Palmer, Ellis Co with his wife. His gravestone has his birth year in 1913; birth records and census say 1915. He married Annie Florine Fugett. She was born 18 March 1915 in Ellis Co, daughter of Hugh Davlin Fugett and Etta Mae Smith, and died 18 October 1995. They had a son-
1. Michael Allen Poe, b 13 Aug 1943 in Wichita Co TX. (5b)
Hugh Davlin Fugett was born 18 Dec 1879 in AR, and died 28 Aug 1930 in Ellis Co TX. He was buried in Elm Branch Cemetery at Bardwell, Ellis Co. His wife Etta Mae Smith was born 9 May 1884 in TX, married Hugh on 26 May 1905 in Ellis Co, and died in Ellis Co on 1 May 1922. She was buried in Elm Branch Cemetery. (TXd,Z, 54wfcd, 5b)
Grady Ralph Poe Jr [Y3a7h1a1], son of Cora Christine Moore and Grady Ralph Poe, was born 31 October 1946 in Reeves Co TX. He married Deborah Lois Pruitt in Reeves Co on 30 December 1969. She was born in Howard Co on 11 January 1950, daughter of Benjamin Luther Pruitt and Hattie Muriel Alderman. They divorced in Terrell Co on 3 October 2000. Grady died in TC on 5 January 2008. They had two children-
a. James Timothy Poe, b 11 Sep 1974 in Brewster Co TX. (480b)
b. Julie Beth Poe, b 7 Jul 1982 in Pecos Co TX. (315b) (Z,278bm, 192b,406m)
Jeff Poe [Y14d1c3f2], son of Ester Estelle Abernathy and Vernon Edward Poe, was born 26 December 1930 in TX. He lived at Crosby, Harris Co in 1985, and died 3 March 1998 at Angelina. He was buried in Sterling White Chapel and Cemetery at Highlands, Harris Co. Jeff was a Sergeant in the US Army during the Korean War. He married Ella D Harrison. (N,Z, 83Pc)
Jewel Poe [Y14d1c3f3], daughter of Ester Estelle Abernathy and Vernon Edward Poe, was born 13 February 1935 in TX. She married a Mr Baxley, and married a Mr Thompson. Jewel died 9 April 1989 in Polk Co TX and was buried in Glenwood Cemetery at Groveton, next to her maternal grandmother. (W,TXd,717c)
Lauren Poe [Y1f6a3a3], daughter of Sarah Janine Smith and Wendel Poe, was born 15 August 1965. She married John Robert Lockey Jr on 27 June 1981 in Giles Co. He was born about 1960, son of John R Lackey and Dorothy Thompson. (58,GW, 15m)
Linden Poe [Y1f6a3a2], son of Sarah Janine Smith and Wendel Poe, was born on 27 May 1962, and died 15 July 2003 in TN. (58,GW,Z)
Marc Alan Poe [Y1f6a3a1], son of Sarah Janine Smith and Wendel Poe, was born and died in 1959 in Giles Co TN. He was buried in Maplewood Cemetery at Pulaski. (58)
Nina Mae Poe [Y10c1k4d], daughter of Tennie Young and Benjamin Hampton Poe, was born 23 June 1909 in Ellis Co TX. She married Lois Alvis Vandygriff, and died at Austin on 1 April 2001. He was born 11 October 1910, and also died at Austin on 23 June 1999. They had a son-
1. Lois Alvis Vandygriff Jr, b 22 Aug 1935 in Ellis Co. He married Barbara Lee and lived at Travis. They had two sons there-
a. John Alvis Vandygriff, b 29 Mar 1960 (80b)
b. David Lee Vandygriff, b 5 Apr 1962 (80b) (54b,80b) (Z,54bvf)
Robert Lynn Poe [Y10c1k4c], son of Tennie Young and Benjamin Hampton Poe, was born 25 June 1907 in Ellis Co TX, and died 14 August 1985 at Dallas. (TXd,Z, 54bvf)
William Arthur Poe [Y10c1k4b], son of Tennie Young and Benjamin Hampton Poe, was born 8 March 1905 in Ellis Co TX. He lived at Ennis, Ellis Co in the 1990s, and died 11 January 1999 at Ennis. He enlisted in the US Army on 19 June 1942 at Dallas, and was not married then. (Z,M,54bvfP)
Billy Dale Polly Jr [Y7c2c2c1], son of Patricia Marie Minatra and Billy Dale Polly Jr, was born in 1967. He married Sherry Ann Douthit in Giles Co TN on 1 June 1991. She was born about 1972, daughter of Charles Thomas Douthit and Janice Ann Smith. (W,15m)
Wendy Renee Polly [Y7c2c2c2], daughter of Patricia Marie Minatra and Billy Dale Polly Jr, was born in April 1969. She married Joel Neal Robison in Giles Co TN on 19 October 1994. He was born in 1963, son of Bobby Joe Robison and Mary E Hargrove. (15Pm)
Linda Sue Polson [Y3a7e4a1], daughter of Mary Frances Moore and Everett Laverne Polson, was born 17 October 1947 in Red River Co TX. She lived at Garland, Dallas Co in 1987. (43b,56P)
Patsy Ann Polson [Y3a7e4a2], daughter of Mary Frances Moore and Everett Laverne Polson, was born 7 March 1952 in Red River Co TX. She married David Ray Zimmerman at Dallas on 3 August 1974. He was born in 1947. They had a daughter-
a. Amy Dawn Zimmerman, b 27 Jan 1980 at Dallas, TX. (56b) (43b, 56b)
Barbara Alice Pool [Y6b1a1f4], daughter of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 22 September 1938 at Denison, Grayson Co TX. She died 22 December 1953 at Denison, Grayson Co from a cerebral hemorrhage (from a concussion?). Her father was the informant for her death certificate. She was buried in Cedarlawn Memorial Park at Sherman. (E,W,52bdc)
Carolyn Sue Pool [Y6b1a1f7], daughter of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 21 January 1946 Grayson Co TX. She married Joel Lee Isom. He was born 7 August 1944. They had three children in Grayson Co-
a. Jody Lynn Isom, b 30 Aug 1969 (52b)
b. Anissa Michele Isom, b 9 Aug 1972 (52b)
c. Krista Kaye Isom, b 4 Feb 1976 (52b) (52b, 188P)
Don Ray Pool [Y6b1a1f6], son of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 1 June 1943 in Grayson Co TX. He married Andra Ruth Cottrell in Grayson Co on 22 May 1970. She was born 7 July 1948. They lived at Denison and had two sons in Grayson Co-
a. Gary Don Pool, b 24 Aug 1971 (52b)
b. Mark Alan Pool, b 27 Oct 1979 (52b) (52bmP)
James Allen Pool [Y1j12a2a], son of Gladys Wilson Hayes and Guy Dalton Pettypool, was born 10 January 1932 at Dallas, TX. See James Allen Ppool [Y1j12a2a].
Lavonia May Pool [Y6b1a1f2], daughter of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 28 May 1933 in Grayson Co TX. (52b)
Rena Catherine Pool [Y6b1a1f1], daughter of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 16 February 1930 in Grayson Co TX. (52b)
Shirley Ann Pool [Y6b1a1f3], daughter of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 22 September 1935 in Grayson Co TX. (52b)
Thurman Oliver Pool [Y6b1a1f5], son of Rena Katherine Alsup and Sherman Oliver Pool, was born 3 February 1941 in Grayson Co TX. He married Bonnie Jean Spear in Tarrant Co on 22 July 1966. She was born about 1936. They divorced in Tarrant Co on 13 November 1985 but had a son-
a. Keith Alan Pool, b 7 Jan 1968 in Tarrant Co TX. (42b) (52b,42mb)
Annie Bee Poore [Y6b8c5], daughter of Alice Oliver and James Robert Poore, was born in 1910 in Dallas Co TX, had not married by 1955 when she was the informant for her father’s death certificate. (25w,89f,91)
Augustus James Poore [Y6b8c2a], son of Bryant Herbert Poore and Ruth Lucretia Poovey, was born 30 August 1916 in Dallas Co TX. He married Lorena Mildred Holford, and died at Garland, Dallas Co on 24 May 1984. Lorena was born 17 February 1912, and died 20 October 1993 in Dallas Co. They had three children in Dallas Co-
1. Gena Poore, b 28 Sep 1945 (56b)
2. James Roland Poore, b 16 Jan 1947 (56b)
3. Roger Alan Poore, b 14 Nov 1948 (56b) (TXd, Z,56wfb)
Bryant Herbert Poore [Y6b8c2], son of Alice Oliver and James Robert Poore, was born 28 April 1897 in Giles Co TN, and died at home at Garland, Dallas Co TX on 28 August 1973 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound into the neck. His wife Ruth Lucretia Poovey was the informant for his death certificate. Bryant was buried in Restland Memorial Park. Bryant and Ruth married in 1915. She was born 15 December 1897 in Dallas Co, daughter of Augustus Frazier Poovey and May Ann Newman. Ruth died 16 March 1992 at Garland. They had three sons, all born in Dallas Co-
a. Augustus James Poore, b 30 Aug 1916
b. Bryant Herbert Poore Jr, b 30 Oct 1917
c. Lawrence Franklin Poore, b 3 Jan 1920 (TXd, W,M,15u, 56vwfd)
Bryant Herbert Poore Jr [Y6b8c2b], son of Bryant Herbert Poore and Ruth Lucretia Poovey, was born 30 October 1917 in Dallas Co TX. and died 2 June 1975 of cancer at Dallas in the Veterans Hospital. He was a painter and was in building construction. Bryant was buried in Restland Memorial Park at Dallas. He married Wilda Etois Ferguson and they had a daughter in Dallas Co-
1. Nita Poore, b 21 Apr 1950 (56b) (56wfb)
Cora B Poore [Y6b8c3], daughter of Alice Oliver and James Robert Poore, was born in 1902 in Dallas Co TX. (56v)
Hellen Poore [Y6b8c6], daughter of Alice Oliver and James Robert Poore, was born in 1912 in Dallas Co TX. (W,25w,89f)
James Duncan Poore [Y6b8c4], daughter of Alice Oliver and James Robert Poore, was born 20 October 1907 in Dallas Co TX, and died 12 May 1996 at Fort Worth, Tarrant Co. James married Theo Isabell Githens. She was born 26 March 1913, and died at Fort Worth in October 1981. They had a son at Fort Worth-
a. Terry Kent Poore, b 3 Dec 1944. (42b) (Z,56v, 25w,89f,42b)
Larry Carney Poore [Y6b8c2c1], son of Lawrence Franklin Poore and Dorothy Louise Carney, was born 5 October 1946 in Dallas Co TX. He married Diane Elaine Parker on 25 April 1981 in Dallas Co. She was born 29 March 1948 in Tarrant Co, daughter of George Acie Parker and Mary Louise McCord. (56bm,42b)
Lawrence Franklin Poore [Y6b8c2c], son of Bryant Herbert Poore and Ruth Lucretia Poovey, was born 3 January 1920 in Dallas Co TX. He married Dorothy Louise Carney, and died at Garland, Dallas Co on 5 October 2000. Dorothy was born 16 January 1919, and died 14 October 2007 in Parker Co. They had two children, both in Dallas Co-
1. Larry Carney Poore, b 5 Oct 1946
2. Patrice Annette Poore, b 11 Dec 1952 (Z,56fb)
Luther Franklin Poore [Y6b8c1], daughter of Alice Oliver and James Robert Poore, was born 29 May 1895 at Pulaski, Giles Co TN. He was not married by 1930 and lived with his parents in Lubbock Co TX then. He enlisted (or was drafted?) in the US Army on 10 October 1917 and was discharged as a Private. Sometime in the 1930s he married Rita _____, and died 4 November 1939 of tuberculosis in the veteran’s hospital at Kerrville, Kerr Co TX. He was buried the next day in Kerrville National Cemetery in Kerr Co. Luther had no children. (M,15u, 56v,89f,120d)
Patrice Annette Poore [Y6b8c2c2], daughter of Lawrence Franklin Poore and Dorothy Louise Carney, was born 11 December 1952 in Dallas Co TX. She married Edward Eugene Stewart on 5 January 1974 in Dallas Co. He was born 30 December 1952 in Harris Co, son of Lucious Stewart and Pollie Ann Randle. They had two sons, both in Dallas Co-
a. Shawn Michael Stewart, b 27 Feb 1979 (56b)
b. Jeffrey Neil Stewart, b 14 Mar 1984 (56b) (56bm,83b) (Z,56fb) (TXd, W,M,15u, 56vwfd)
Alene Pope [y16e7], daughter of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born in June 1916 in Giles Co TN. (15wf)
Bob Dean Pope Jr [Y3a7c11b1], son of Norma Jean Wood and Bobby Dean Pope, was born 8 October 1965 in Gregg Co TX. He married Sheri Lynn Brantley on 7 June 1986 in Gregg Co. She was born in Harris Co on 25 February 1965, daughter of Kennon Brantley and Helen Ruth Craft. They had a son-
a. Travis Dean Pope, b 26 Jan 1991 in Gregg Co TX. (55b) (JM, 55bm,83b)
Foster H Pope [y16e4], son of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born 20 November 1908 in Giles Co TN. He married Virgie Mae Massey in Giles Co on 19 March 1927 and lived next to his parents near Elkton, Giles Co. Virgie was born in TN on 11 July 1909, daughter of Robert William Massey (1878-1966) and Hallie Laverta Teeters (1881-1943), and died 20 June 1986 at Prospect, Giles Co. She was buried in Elkton Cemetery. Foster died 1 November 1992 and was also buried in Elkton Cemetery. They had a child-
a. Foster Pope, b & d 3 Dec 1928, was buried in Elkton Cemetery. (15c) (Z,15vwfc)
Frances Pope [y16e2], daughter of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born in 1905 in Giles Co TN, and was not living with her parents in 1920. (15v)
Gilbert Pope [y16e1], son of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born 19 July 1901 in Giles Co TN. He married Lucille _____ about 1919 and lived next to his parents in 1920 in District 9, Giles Co. Lucille was born in TN on 17 July 1903. Gilbert died 28 July 1966 and was buried in Elkton Cemetery next to his parents. "Lucill Pope" was buried next to Gilbert. She died 19 November 1990. The Gilbert Pope and wife Lucille who lived at Pulaski in 1930 were Negroes; they were about two years younger than the White couple of Elkton. (15vwc)
Herbert Bryan Pope [Y3a7i2], son of Lula Estell Moore and Joseph Reed Pope, was born 1 August 1905 at Clarksville, Red River Co TX, and died at Houston on 9 October 1966. He was buried in Fairview Cemetery at Clarksville. His wife Dorothy Virginia Hays was the informant for his death certificate. They married on 12 March 1930 at Idabel, McCurtain Co OK Herbert was a household appliance salesman. Dorothy was born 16 September 1909 in Red River Co, daughter of Elbert Lee Hays and Martha Walker, and died 1 November 1994 at Webster, Harris Co TX. She was buried next to Herbert. They had a daughter-
a. Gloria Ann Pope, b 22 Aug 1937 in Red River Co TX. (43b)
Elbert Lee Hays was born 27 Dec 1860 in TN, and died 23 Oct 1941 at Clarksville, Red River Co. He was buried there in Louis Chapel Cemetery. Mrs J K Cooper was the informant for his death certificate. Martha Walker was born 13 Dec 1868 in Red River Co, daughter of Wolf Walker and Martha O Johnson, and died 6 Apr 1946 at Clarksville; she was also buried in Louis Chapel Cemetery. Walker Hays was the informant for her death certificate. Martha and Elbert married in 1888. they lived in Red River Co from before 1900 and until they died. Their living children, by 1910, were: Fannie, born Dec 1888; Elbert L, born Feb 1892; William Walker, born 31 Jan 1894 at Clarksville; Annie, born 1901; and Dorothy, born 1909. They had six children by 1900, three had died; and nine by 1910, five had died. All were born in Red River Co. (JM,Z,M,90, 43uvwfbd)
Joe Upshaw Pope [y16e5], son of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born 15 November 1911 in Giles Co TN. He died 23 July 1970 and was buried in Elkton Cemetery. The grave next to his is Leslie B Pope, born 1 August 1916, but with no death date. There was a marriage for Joe Pope in Giles Co with Louise Bowen on 11 August 1934. She was age 19 then (born 1915), daughter of William Erwin Bowen (1888 TN) and Elsie May Bowen (1897 TN). Joe was age 22 when they married. His gravestone says "California PVT US Marine Corp World War II." (Z,15wfmc)
John Robert Pope [Y3a7i3a], son of Robert Leroy Pope and Virginia M Lewis, was born 2 Jun 1947 in Smith Co TX. In 1992 he lived at Clarksville, Red River Co. John married Deborah Kay Whitney in Red River Co on 14 August 1981. She was born in Lamar Co on 29 February 1952, daughter of John Buford Whitney and Claudia Doris Norwood. They divorced in Red River Co on 19 August 1991 without children, and soon after he married Linda G Wolf in Red River Co on 26 October 1991. She was born in Red River Co on 2 April 1945, daughter of Benjamin Earl Wolf and Zera Jane Tisdale. (100b,43mbP,45b)
Joseph Reed Pope [Y3a7i1a], son of Marshall Louis Pope and Bessie Florence Soward, was born 7 January 1933 at Clarksville, Red River Co TX, and died at Clarksville on 6 January 1942. He was buried in Fairview Cemetery at Clarksville. (43dc)
Laura E Pope [y16e6], daughter of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born 9 October 1914 in Giles Co TN. She married Elton Thomas and died on 26 February 1942 in Giles Co. She was buried at Elkton. (15wfd)
Maggie Lou Pope [y16e3], daughter of Fannie Young and Arthur Peranda Pope, was born 29 December 1906 in Giles Co TN. She grew up in southeast Giles Co and married Vilas L Rogers in Giles Co on 29 October 1923. T Y Willeford helped with the marriage bond. He was probably Thomas Y Willeford [Y6b4c] (born 1883) who lived near Ardmore in southeast Giles Co. Vilas and Maggie lived at Pulaski in 1930 where he worked in an ice plant. He was born in TN on 23 March 1901 and died 16 July 1976 at Elkton. Maggie died 29 November 2001 at Elkton and was buried with Vilas in Elkton Cemetery. They had at least two children in Giles Co-
a. Frances M Rogers, b 1926
b. Perry Pope Rogers, b 2 Apr 1929 (Z,15vwmfc)
Marshall Lewis Pope [Y3a7i1], son of Lula Estell Moore and Joseph Reed Pope, was born 10 July 1901 in Red River Co TX. He married Bessie Florence Soward and lived at Marshall, TX in the 1980s. In 1930 they lived with his parents at Clarksville. Marshall died at Marshall, Harrison Co on 4 May 1995 and was buried in Colonial Gardens Cemetery at Marshall. Bessie was born 14 March 1904 in Red River Co, daughter of James Ezekiel Soward and Cora Teasley, and died in Red River Co on 8 October 1982. She was buried in Fairview Cemetery at Clarksville. They had a son-
a. Joseph Reed Pope, b 7 Jan 1933
James Ezekiel Soward, born 8 Aug 1874 in AR, died 25 Jan 1952 at Kilgore, Gregg Co TX. He was buried in Lanes Chapel Cemetery at Clarksville. Cora Teasley was born 22 Feb 1877 at Atlanta, GA, and died 18 Aug 1956 at Marshall, Harrison Co TX. She was buried in Fairview Cemetery at Clarksville, Red River Co. (JM,TXd, Z,M,43wfdc, 229dc,55d)
Robert Leroy "Roy" Pope [Y3a7i3], son of Lula Estell Moore and Joseph Reed Pope, was born at Clarksville, Red River Co TX on 11 June 1913. He married Virginia M Lewis at Paris, Lamar Co on 31 October 1933, and died at Clarksville on 23 February 1983. He was buried in Fairview Cemetery in Red River Co. Virginia was born 14 May 1917 at Avery, Red River Co, daughter of Charlie Cleveland Lewis and Emma Thornsberry (both born at Sedalia, MO), and died 18 May 1978 at Clarksville. She was also buried in Fairview Cemetery. They had a son-
a. John Robert Pope, b 2 Jun 1947
Virginia’s family name was spelled Louis on her son’s birth record, but was Lewis on her obituary. Her parents’ names were also Lewis on their death records. Emma died 14 Jan 1971, and Charlie on 3 Jun 1951. Both died at Clarksville and were buried in Fairview Cemetery. (JM,Z,M, TXd,90, 43wfdc)
Ann Louise Porter [Y9c2k], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 24 September 1886 at Williamsport, Maury Co TN. She married Henry Cyrus Cramton at Columbia on 25 January 1906. They lived there in 1910 with her parents. He was born 30 December 1878 at Shoreham, VT, son of Henry Arthur Cramton and Carrie Mae Williams. Henry C Cramton was a district manager of several insurance companies, including Metropolitan Life. This marriage with Annie Louise was his second marriage. In 1942 he and Louise lived at Rutland, VT; he died there on 22 September 1942 and was buried at Rutland. Annie died at Los Angeles, CA on 28 January 1955. Their children were-
1. Vivian Louise Cramton, b 13 Mar 1907
2. Beverly Claire Cramton, b 7 Aug 1909
3. Irma Elizabeth Cramton, b 4 Apr 1912
4. Harry Clyde Cramton, b 5 Mar 1915
5. Dorothy Porter Cramton, b 5 Jul 1917
A daughter Mildred Cramton from Henry C’s first marriage lived with Henry and Louise in 1920. Mildred was born in VT in 1899. (CC, M,CAd, 10umv, 200w)
Beulah Burton Porter [Y9c2d], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 25 January 1873 at Williamsport, Maury Co TN. She married Jesse Strong Worley, and in 1920 they lived at Dayton, Eddy Co. He was born 8 February 1869 in Maury Co TN, son of Samuel Alonzo Worley and Martha M Strong, and died at Knoxville on 21 September 1969. Jesse was buried back in Maury Co in Worley Cemetery (also called Whiteside Cemetery). Beulah died about 1970 at Knoxville. Samuel A Worley and Martha M Strong married in Maury Co on 15 Dec 1865. He was born 6 Nov 1841 in TN, and died 26 Mar 1916. She was born 2 Jul 1849 in TN and died 2 Jane 1931. Both were buried in Worley Cemetery in Maury Co. They had twelve children. (CC,Z,W,303w, 10msuvc)
Elizabeth J Porter [Y9c2a], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 16 September 1868 at Williamsport, Maury Co TN, and died there on 12 August 1878. She was buried in the Williamsport Cemetery next to her brother Henry. Her gravestone has no dates. (CC, 53,10rsc)
Henry Cecil Porter [Y9c2f], son of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 6 March 1877 at Williamsport, Maury Co TN, and died there on 12 August 1879, one year to the day following the death of his sister Elizabeth. Henry was buried in the Williamsport Cemetery, but his gravestone has no dates. (CC, 53,10c)
Jennie May Porter [Y9c2j], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 27 May 1884 at Williamsport, TN, and died the same day. She was buried in the Williamsport Cemetery next to two siblings and her parents. Jennie’s gravestone has no dates. (CC,53,10c)
Jeremiah Porter [Y9c2i], son of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 27 May 1884 at Williamsport, TN. He was named after his mother's brother Jeremiah Cherry Young [Y9c3]. Young Jerry only lived a few weeks; he died at Williamsport on 20 August 1884 and was buried with his twin sister Jennie Mae in Williamsport Cemetery. (CC, 53,10c)
Katheryne Winslow Porter [Y9c2g], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 6 March 1880 at Williamsport, Maury Co TN, and grew up in Maury Co. There she married William Thomas Palmer on 18 November 1903. They remained in TN for about six years, then moved to Los Angeles, CA with Katheryne’s brother William A. William Palmer was born in VA in 1873. He was a superintendent of an insurance company at Los Angeles. Katheryne died at Pasadena, CA on 28 February 1913; her husband may have also died in the 1910s because in 1920 their two children were living with Katheryne’s sister Laura at Greenville, AL, and William was not found. Katherine and her husband had two children-
1. Mary Winslow Palmer, b 14 Sep 1904
2. William Thomas Palmer Jr, b 22 Jun 1906 (CC,10sum,304w)
Laura Samuel Porter [Y9c2c], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 18 August 1871 at Williamsport, TN. She married Franklin M Boutwell on 27 May 1913 in Maury Co, and in 1920 they lived at Greenville, Butler Co AL with her parents, and with her nephew and niece, children of her late sister Katherine. Frank was born in AL on 14 February 1857, son of Burton A Boutwell and Virginia Lester. His marriage with Laura was his third. Laura and Frank were still at Greenville in 1930, and Laura’s widowed mother lived with them. Laura had no children. She died in 1951 and was buried in Williamsport Cemetery in Maury Co. She was the only Boutwell name in that Cemetery, so Frank must have been buried at Greenville. Frank’s first wife was Ida R Lock, born 3 January 1872 in Lowndes Co AL, and they had three children; the second wife was Emma Robinson, married 5 March 1884 in Butler Co AL, and they had eight children in Butler Co, born between 1883 and 1900. Emma died at Greenville on 13 Jun 1910. Frank had a daughter and probably two sons from his first marriage. (CC, W,10sumc, 304vwf)
Lloyd Latta Porter [Y9c2h], son of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born on 20 February 1882 at Williamsport, TN. He married Lenora Wolfe about 1911. In 1920 and 1930 they lived at Ferris, Ellis Co TX. He was a hardware store salesman in 1920 and Lenora worked in a woman’s dress shop. By 1930 Lloyd was the proprietor of a dress shop. Lenora was born in AL in 1893, daughter of Mrs Mattie J Wolfe (born in 1871 in AL). Lenora had no children. She and her widowed mother lived at Birmingham, AL in 1910. Both were seamstresses. (CC, 10u, 67v,54wf)
Mary Y "Minnie" Porter [Y9c2b], daughter of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 13 March 1870 at Williamsport, TN, and died 18 July 1876. (53, CC,10rs)
William Amaziah Porter [Y9c2e], son of Adoline A Young and Samuel Shaw Porter Jr, was born 24 February 1875 at Williamsport, TN. His middle name was for his maternal grandfather Amaziah Young [Y9c], who by this time was living at Collierville, TN. William moved with his sister Katherine to Los Angeles, CA about 1909 and he married Mrs Zoe A (Brown) May in the 1910s. They lived at Los Angeles where he was a real estate salesman. Zoe was born in MN on 25 September 1873, grew up in Cass Co ND, and died at Los Angeles on 16 December 1961. Her parents were Joshua Denny Brown from PA and Harriet McLaughlin from ME. William died at Los Angeles on 1 August 1954. Zoe had a daughter Frances Eloise May from her first marriage to Charles L May about 1894. Frances was born at Casselton, Cass Co ND on 13 May 1897, and died at Huntington Beach, Orange Co CA on 30 May 1997. She had married Samuel R Howell about 1918 and they had children, all in southern CA. In 1920 they lived about 10 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles; her mother at that time lived just southwest of downtown Los Angeles. Charles L May was born at Menasha, Winnebago Co WI in Oct 1972, son of Charles May (from NY) and Catherine _____ (from Canada). Joshua D Brown was born 23 Jan 1829 at Chester, Delaware Co PA. His wife Harriet McLaughlin was born in Sep 1833 at Weld, Franklin Co ME. They married late in 1851 and had six children; Zoe was the youngest. Her first husband died by 1910 and Zoe and her daughter moved back with her parents; they lived at Los Angeles in 1910. Zoe’s five siblings were Charles H, born Sep 1852 IL; Samantha, born 1855 IL; Carrie Elizabeth, born 15 Jan 1859 at Mendota, La Salle Co IL, and died at French Camp, San Joaquin Co CA; Edwin L, born 1867 at Maiden Rock, Pierce Co WI; and William A, born 1871 at Maiden Rock, Pierce Co WI. In 1900 Joshua and Harriet, and their eldest son lived at Billings, MT. Joshua and Harriet lived at Los Angeles, CA in 1910, where Harriet died on 18 Dec 1918. In 1920 Joshua was still at Los Angeles, living with his daughter Carrie and her husband Almon Butters Russell. Joshua died at Los Angeles on 8 Aug 1926. They were buried in Evergreen Memorial Park at Los Angeles. (CC, CAd, W,499qr, 501r, 10su, 498su, 50vwf, 500u)
Cynthia Potts [Y7d4j1a], daughter of Mary Ann Hardy and Joseph B Potts Jr, was born 15 April 1958, probably in TN. (JB)
Jeffery Mahlon Potts [Y7d4j1b], son of Mary Ann Hardy and Joseph B Potts Jr, was born 26 June 1959, probably in TN. (JB)
Joe B Potts [Y7d4j1d], son of Mary Ann Hardy and Joseph B Potts Jr, was born 2 April 1968 in TN. In the 1990s he lived at Pulaski. (JB,15P)
Mary Lisa Potts [Y7d4j1c], daughter of Mary Ann Hardy and Joseph B Potts Jr, was born 15 July 1964, probably in TN. She married James Henry Patterson in Giles Co TN on 6 May 1989. He was a son of Fletcher Patterson and Mildred _____. Lisa and James had a son-
1. Henry Patterson, b Feb 1991 (JB,15m)
Della Mae Powell [Y14d1c2h], daughter of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born and died in the 1900s in Trinity Co TX. (KB,154v)
Elizabeth Jean Ann Powell [Y14d1c2d4], daughter of Vincent Rutherford Powell and Ora Belcher Wood, was born 4 July 1931 in Robertson Co TX. (246b)
Glenda Sue Powell [Y12a5a12c], daughter of Lola Muriel Johnson and William Arthur Powell, was born 25 January 1936 in Cameron Co. She married Jay Ray Larson and lived in Nueces Co. They had two daughters there-
1. Sherry Jean Larson, 7 Jan 1954 (107b)
2. Carrie Lee Larson, 28 Jul 1957 (107b) (162b,108b)
Gordon Powell [Y14d1c2j], son of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born 4 August 1912 in McLennan Co TX, and died 18 April 1917 at Waco from measles and complications. "J C McMillan of West" was the informant for his death certificate. Gordon was buried in Bold Springs Cemetery at West, McLennan Co. (717u, 154vdc)
Jessie Addie Powell [Y14d1c2e], daughter of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born and died in the 1890s in Trinity Co TX. (KB,717u,154v)
Leroy Powell [Y14d1c2g], son of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born 2 September 1902 in Trinity Co TX, and died 2 August 1910. He was buried in Bold Springs Cemetery at West, McLennan Co TX. (KB,154vc)
Louis Kyle Powell [Y14d1c2f], son of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born and died in the 1890s in Trinity Co TX. (717u, 154v)
Luella Powell [Y14d1c2b], daughter of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born 18 September 1891 in Trinity Co TX. She married George Oscar Wright in 1907 and died at Waco on 26 December 1911 at age 20. "J J Powell of Waco" was the informant for her death certificate. She was buried in Bold Springs Cemetery at West, McLennan Co. In 1910 they lived in Clay Co. George was born in TX on 6 September 1881, son of Henry Wright and Fannie Jones. After Luella died, Oscar then married Grady _____ and lived in Hill Co and had more children. He died of a fractured skull when he fell off a train just north of Waco on 19 April 1941. George was buried in Itasca Cemetery in Hill Co. He and Luella had two children-
1. John Aubrey Wright, b 19 Oct 1908
2. Frances Wright, b 25 Aug 1911
Clay Co is at north central edge of TX, next to OK, and about seven counties to the northwest from Houston Co. (KB,717u, 247v, 154dc,44w)
Marjorie F Powell [Y14d1c2d1], daughter of Vincent Rutherford Powell and Ora Belcher Wood, was born 21 May 1920 at Waco, TX. She married Herman Blair. He was born 15 October 1907 in Robertson Co, son of Thomas E Blair and Mary Frances Hall, and died 29 July 1983 in Robertson Co TX. Marjorie died on 27 March 2008 in TX and was buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery at Franklin, Robertson Co with her husband. They had a son-
a. Jimmie Marvin Blair, b 12 Oct 1936 in Robertson Co TX. (246b) (KB,Z, 246wfbd, TXd)
Mary Alice Powell [Y14d1c2d3], daughter of Vincent Rutherford Powell and Ora Belcher Wood, was born 9 December 1927 in McLennan Co TX. She married George Norman Clark and lived at Waco in 1993. They had a daughter-
a. Wanda Kay Clark, b 12 Sep 1951 in Robertson Co TX. (246b) (154bP, 246b)
Mary Lee Powell [Y12a5a12], daughter of Lola Muriel Johnson and William Arthur Powell, was born 5 April 1942 in Nueces Co. She married Gerald George Fisher and they had a son in Nueces Co-
1. Karl Wayne Fisher, b 5 Mar 1974 (107b) (107b
Nina Cristine Powell [Y12a5a12b], daughter of Lola Muriel Johnson and William Arthur Powell, was born 21 October 1933 in Cameron Co TX. (162b)
Nora Lillie Powell [Y14d1c2a], daughter of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born 10 November 1888 at Lovelady, Houston Co TX. She was a saleslady in a department store. Nora died of cancer at Waco on 23 July 1966 and was buried in Bold Springs Cemetery at West, McLennan Co. "Mrs Mary Clark" was the informant for her death certificate. Nora never married. (717u, 154vwfd)
Norman Turner Powell [Y14d1c2d2], son of Vincent Rutherford Powell and Ora Belcher Wood, was born 1 September 1923 in McLennan Co TX, and lived in Robertson Co in 1930. He died 20 November 2009 at Waco, McLennan Co. He lived at Waco in the 1990s. There is no evidence that he married. (Z,154bP, 246f)
Paul Powell [Y14d1c2i], son of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born 22 November 1908 in McLennan Co TX. He worked for the railroad in 1930. He died 10 March 1961 and was buried in Bold Springs Cemetery at West, McLennan Co. (154vwfc)
Phyllis Ann Powell [Y12a5a12a], daughter of Lola Muriel Johnson and William Arthur Powell, was born 13 March 1931 in Nueces Co TX. (107b)
Shirley Nell Powell [Y14d1c2d5], daughter of Vincent Rutherford Powell and Ora Belcher Wood, was born 25 August 1940 at Franklin, Robertson Co TX, and died 17 February 2005 at Franklin. She had married Billy Joe Green on 27 December 1957 at New Baden, Robertson Co, then divorced in Falls Co on 20 May 1982. They had two dependant children still at home when they divorced. Billy was born in Robertson Co on 26 October 1935, son of C R Green and Lillie Mae Shook. They had three children, all in McLennan Co-
a. Mark Dwayne Green, b 11 Oct 1963 (154b)
b. Melanie Kaye Green, b 1 Sep 1965 (154b)
c. Melissa Dawn Green, b 20 Feb1972. She married Gregory Ballard Johnson on 28 September 2002 in McLennan Co. He was born in McLennan Co on 23 May 1965, son of Nelson Dale Johnson and Trudie Frances Ballard. (154bm) (KB,246b, 230m)
Vincent Rutherford Powell [Y14d1c2d], son of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born 12 February 1896 in Trinity Co TX. He married Ora Belcher Wood in 1918 and they lived at Waco in 1920. Vince died of pancreatic cancer on 27 May 1966 at Waco. "Mrs Herman Blair" was the informant for his death certificate. He was buried in Petteway Cemetery in Robertson Co. Vince served in the US Army during WW1. Ora was born 9 December 1897 in Tyler Co TX and grew up in Smith Co. She was a daughter of Thomas Anderson Wood and Viola Alice Crook, and died 18 December 1968 at Waco. She was also buried in Petteway Cemetery. Mrs Herman Blair (daughter Marjorie) was the informant for her death certificate. They had at least five children-
1. Marjorie F Powell, b 21 May 1920
2. Norman Turner Powell, b 1 Oct 1923
3. Mary Alice Powell, b 9 Dec 1927
4. Elizabeth Jean Ann Powell, b 4 Jul 1931
5. Shirley Nell Powell, b 25 Aug 1940
Thomas Anderson Wood was born 12 Jan 1850 in GA, and died 27 Feb 1924. Viola Alice Crook was born 9 Apr 1860 in GA, married Thomas in 1879 or early 1880, and lived in Smith Co TX from 1880. She died 11 Jan 1939 and was buried in Pleasant Retreat Cemetery at Tyler, Smith Co TX. (Z,717u, 154uvd, 100vwc,246c)
William Alexander Powell [Y14d1c2c], son of Mattie Elizabeth Kyle and John Jerome Powell, was born and died in the 1890s in Trinity Co TX. He was no doubt named after his mother's oldest brother who died when he was a boy. (717u,154v)
Bryan Edward Power [Y3a9j4a1], son of Sandra Gail Chiles and Donald Steve Power, was born 23 May 1964 in Cameron Co TX. He lived at La Feria, Cameron Co in 2003. (N,162b)
Rebecca Shawn Power [Y3a9j4a2], daughter of Sandra Gail Chiles and Donald Steve Power, was born 21 April 1969 in Cameron Co TX. She married Bob Rach and lived at Robstown, Nueces Co in 2003. (N,162b)
Joshua D "Jack" Powers [Y1f1e3], son of Elizabeth Lee Young Joshua Dever Powers Jr, was born 19 November 1919 (age 3/12 in 1920) in Ohio Co KY. He died 2 March 1980 and was buried in Maplewood Cemetery at Pulaski, TN. He lived with his mother and maternal grandmother at Pulaski in 1930. (407bw, 15c)
Josie Powers [Y1f1e3a], daughter of Elizabeth Lee Young Joshua Dever Powers Jr, was born in November 1909 in San Patricio Co TX (age 5/12 in 1910). She grew up in KY. (153v, 407w)
Ona Katrina Powers [Y7d5b1e2], daughter of Barbara Yvonne Robertson and William Lorena Powers Jr, was born 15 July 1975 in Nueces Co TX. She lived at Hurst, Tarrant Co and at Dallas when she was an adult. (107b,42P)
James Allen Ppool [Y1j12a2a], son of Gladys Wilson Hayes and Guy Dalton Pettypool, was born 10 January 1932 at Dallas, TX. He lived at Orange, TX in 1985. He married Linda Tom Speights in Jefferson Co on 3 February 1975 and in 1992 she lived at Orange. Linda was born 23 March 1935 in Jasper Co, daughter of Otha Arlia Speights and Doris Vallie Jones. (VS,56b,503b, 234P)
Brian Owen Prachyl [Y7f2j1c3], son of Mildred Lee Cryer and Jimmy Wayne Prachyl, was born 18 March 1977 in Navarro Co TX. (235b)
Kristine Marie Prachyl [Y7f2j1c2], daughter of Mildred Lee Cryer and Jimmy Wayne Prachyl, was born 10 June 1975 in Navarro Co TX. (235b)
Stacy LeAnn Prachyl [Y7f2j1c1], daughter of Mildred Lee Cryer and Jimmy Wayne Prachyl, was born 7 January 1973 in Navarro Co TX. (235b)
Betty Lou Pratt [Y3a1b3c3b], daughter of Elvira Bell Gordon and Louis Newton Pratt, was born 23 May 1958 in Lamar Co TX. She married twice, both at Dallas. The first husband was Kenneth Edward Brown, married on 12 November 1976, and the second was Kenneth David Netterville on 3 April 1988. Kenneth E was born 30 July 1952 in Lamar Co, son of William Wesley Jess Brown and Dorothy Estelle Wortham. Kenneth D was born 6 April 1961 in Harris Co, son of David Walter Netterville and Morean Elizabeth Studdert. Betty had three children, all at Dallas-
1. William Cody Brown, b 16 May 1979 (56b)
2. Edward Cory Brown 3 Sep 1980 (56b)
3. Kennon Emery Netterville 25 Jun 1988 (56b) (45b,56m,83b)
Candace Ann Pratt [Y3a1b3c3c], daughter of Elvira Bell Gordon and Louis Newton Pratt, was born 11 March 1961 at Dallas, TX. She married Elmer Dale Walker at Dallas on 10 December 1981. He was born in Fannin Co on 10 January 1930, son of Thomas Windfield Walker and Minnie Sheffield. (M,56b, 188b)
Penni K Pratt [Y3a1b3c3a], daughter of Elvira Bell Gordon and Louis Newton Pratt, was born 14 July 1955 in Lamar Co TX. She married Ronnie William Luton on 25 January 1974 at Dallas. He was born in 1950. They had two sons, both at Dallas-
1. Ronnie Dustin Luton, b 23 Jan 1975 (56b)
2. Erin William Luton, b 10 Jul 1977 (56b) (45b, 56bm)
Ray Jennings Preston [Y12a5a11c2], son of Lou Anna Duncan and Virl Dennis Preston, was born 15 February 1961 in Nueces Co TX. He married Melba Garza in Jim Wells Co on 30 August 1980. She was born about 1960. Ray also married Tina Renae Higgins in Nueces Co on 16 December 1988; she was born in 1964. Ray had two sons with each wife-
a. Waylon Jennings Preston, b 1 Apr 1981 (107b)
b. Derek Virl Preston, b 6 Nov 1982 (107b)
c. James Ray Preston, b 25 Jul 1989 (107b)
d. Daniel Dean Preston, b 4 Oct 1990 (107b) (107bm,109m)
George Washington Eli Price [y17a5d1], son of Margret A Young and Albert C Price, was born 22 June 1854 at Winchester, Franklin Co TN. He married Martha Elizabeth Holder in 1878, probably at Nashville, and in 1880 they lived with his parents at Nashville. Like his father, George was a carpenter. In all the census records, his name was always George or George W, never Eli. But his death record showed his name as "Eli Price" with the same birth date as George, Eli was a carpenter, and his parents were "Albert C Price" and "Margaret Young." Martha was born in October 1858 in TN. In 1900 they lived in Marion Co, as did his father. George was living in Marion Co in 1910, and was a widower. He was still in Marion Co in 1918, at Monteagle, when his son William named him as William’s nearest relative, for the WW1 draft, and was at Jasper, Marion Co in 1920 and 1930. George died at Jasper on 5 May 1932. They had two sons-
a. William Albert Price, b 25 Jan 1879
b. Walter Scott Price, b 6 Apr 1881 (227q, 18s, 568uv)
James Price [y17a5d2], son of Margret A Young and Albert C Price, was born in 1859 in Franklin Co TN, and probably died by 1880. He was not found in 1870. (227q)
Walter Scott Price [y17a5d1b], son of George Washington Eli Price and Martha Elizabeth Holder, was born 6 April 1881 at Nashville, TN, lived in Marion Co in 1900, and was still there in 1910 with his brother William, living with their paternal grandfather. In 1918 Walter lived at Jasper, Marion Co. Walter and his brother William were both bachelors in 1920, living together in Marion Co. Walter was a machinist then. He finally married, in 1920, to Burt _____. She was born in TN in 1894. Walter was a highway inspector in 1930. He died at Chattanooga, TN on 3 January 1951. Nephew Neil Coppinger, age 8, lived with them in 1930. (M,568uvwf,181d)
William Albert Price [y17a5d1a], son of George Washington Eli Price and Martha Elizabeth Holder, was born 25 January 1879 at Nashville, TN. He lived in Marion Co in 1900, and was still there in 1910 with his brother Walter, living with their paternal grandfather. In 1918, William lived at Jasper, Marion Co. William was a carpenter. He and his brother Walter were both bachelors in 1920, living together in Marion Co. William was still a carpenter. He was a farmer in 1930 and his father lived with him. William never married. (M,18s, 568uvwf)
Bonnie Rose Provenzano [Y4a10c4b1], daughter of Iwona Theresa Brady and William Charles Provenzano, was born 3 August 1944 at Houston, TX. She married Charles Richard Martin and they had a son in Harris Co-
a. Charles Richard Martin II, b 16 Jun 1969 (83b) (83b)
Iwona Theresa Provenzano [Y4a10c4b3], daughter of Iwona Theresa Brady and William Charles Provenzano, was born 3 March 1954 at Houston, TX. She married Ricky L Burk in Harris Co on 20 March 1972, then divorce him on 7 November 1973 in Harris Co. He was born in 1952. On 11 February 1975 in Harris Co she married Joseph V Depositario. He was born in 1950. They divorced on 8 November 1976 in Harris Co. Iwona then married Fredrick R Bolig in Harris Co on 19 September 1980, and divorced on 7 January 1983 in Harris Co. He was born in 1952, Marriage number four was with Steven Joe Artz in Harris Co on 8 April 1983. He was born in 1956. That marriage ended in Harris Co on 2 October 1990 after one child-
a. Steven Zachary Artz, b 3 Oct 1984 in Harris Co TX. (83b) (83bm)
Linda Ann Provenzano [Y4a10c4b2], daughter of Iwona Theresa Brady and William Charles Provenzano, was born 7 December 1946 at Houston, TX. She married Richard Raymond Rogers and had two children, both in Dallas Co-
a. Terri Katherine Rogers, b 21 Dec 1964 (56b)
b. Richard Raymond Rogers II, b 30 Mar 1969 (56b) (83b)
Nola Jane Provine [Y6c12b1], daughter of Mary Eula Hannah and John Marshall Provine, was born 29 September 1905 in Taylor Co TX. She married Lewis Spratlen, and died at Merkel, Taylor Co on 20 December 1973. Lewis was born 28 September 1910 in Jones Co. son of Stonewall Jackson Spratlen and Addie D Scott, and died at Abilene, Taylor Co on 4 January 1994. Both were buried in Rose Hill Cemetery at Merkel. Stonewall Jackson Spratlen was born 31 Dec 1865 in AL, and died 31 May 1947 at Abilene; he was buried at Lenders, Jones Co. Addie D Scott was born 20 Jul 1874 in MS, and died 19 May 1926 at Lenders. She was buried in Phantom Hill Cemetery at Lenders. (53d, TXd, 58vwfc)
Una Provine [Y6c12b2], daughter of Mary Eula Hannah and John Marshall Provine, was born in April 1909 in Taylor Co TX. (58vw)
Andrew William Prude [Y4d1b5a3], son of John Robert Prude and Bettiann Hicks, was born 2 July 1954 in Ector Co TX. He married Evin Ann Squires in Jeff Davis Co on 16 August 1975. She was born about 1956. They had two children in Brewster Co TX-
a. Kelly Ann Prude, b 1 May 1977 (480b)
b. Andrew Phillip Prude, b 13 Oct 1982 (480b) (118b,551m)
Charles David Prude [Y4d1b5a4], son of John Robert Prude and Bettiann Hicks, was born 20 December 1959 in Jeff Davis Co TX. He married Kelly Stecker on 8 August 1981 in Jeff Davis Co. She was born about 1959. They had two children, both in Brewster Co TX-
a. Cora Evelyn Prude, b 24 Jan 1985 (480b)
b. Charles Hunter Prude, b 3 Nov 1986 (480b) (551bm)
James Phillips Prude [Y4d1b5a1], son of John Robert Prude and Bettiann Hicks, was born 9 July 1951 in Ector Co TX. (118b)
Jaynellen Prude [Y4d1b5a5], daughter of John Robert Prude and Bettiann Hicks, was born 10 July 1962 in Jeff Davis Co TX. She married Stacy Bob Wylie in Gregg Co TX on 27 December 1986. He was born in Harris Co on 31 March 1962, son of Hugh Bob Wylie and Gay Nell Taylor. They had three children-
a. Alyssa Catherine Wylie, b 23 Oct 1989 in Gregg Co TX. (55b)
b. Robert Tanner Wylie, b 11 Jun 1992 in Dallas Co TX. (56b)
c. Andrew Grayson Wylie, b 29 Apr 1996 in Gregg Co TX. (55b) (551b,55m) (551f, 118b)
John Robert Prude [Y4d1b5a], son of Ruth Fryar and John Govy Prude, was born in October 1927 in Jeff Davis Co TX. He married Bettiann Hicks. When she was young, she would spell her name as Bettiann, then as Betty Ann when she was older. John and Betty had four sons and a daughter-
1. James Phillips Prude, b 9 Jul 1951
2. John Robert Prude Jr, b 18 Jul 1952
3. Andrew William Prude, b 2 Jul 1954
4. Charles David Prude, b 20 Dec 1959
5. Jaynellen Prude, b 10 Jul 1962 (551f, 118b)
John Robert Prude Jr [Y4d1b5a2], son of John Robert Prude and Bettiann Hicks, was born 18 July 1952 in Ector Co TX. He married Carrie Ann Frost and they had three daughters in Brewster Co TX-
a. Victoria Ruth Prude, b 30 May 1984 (480b)
b. Jayne Bets Prude, b 18 Dec 1987 (480b)
c. Heidi Lynn Prude, b 1 Sep 1992 (480b) (118b)
Donna Sue Pugh [Y4a1a2f2a], daughter of Elna Marcine Ballard and C G Pugh, was born 22 February 1952 in Johnson Co TX. She married Gary Alan Johnson on 5 August 1978 in Tarrant Co. He was born about 1951. They had a daughter-
1. Brittany Nichole Johnson, b 21 Oct 1985 in Tarrant Co TX. (112b) (193bf, 112b, 42m)
James Robert Puryear Jr [Y1j1a6c], son of Mamie Madry and James Robert Puryear, was born 30 July 1922 in District 22 in Giles Co TN. He married Barbara Ann Hardy in Giles Co on 19 October 1962. Just before they married, they both lived at Pulaski. Barbara was born 7 July 1939, daughter of Clyde Beckum Hardy and Wilma Cobb. James and Barbara were still living near Pulaski in 1990. Barbara Ann Hardy's parents married in Giles Co on 20 Dec 1934. Clyde was born 28 Jun 1909, and died 16 May 1956. He was buried in Maplewood Cemetery at Pulaski. Wilma was born 26 Dec 1914, and died 28 Feb 1998 at Pulaski. (GE,MA,Z,15fmPc)
Mamie N Puryear [Y1j1a6b], daughter of Mamie Madry and James Robert Puryear, was born in District 22 in Giles Co TN in 1920. (GE,MA,15f)
Sarah J Puryear [Y1j1a6a], daughter of Mamie Madry and James Robert Puryear, was born in District 22 in Giles Co TN in October 1916. (GE,MA, 15wf)
Charles Bennett Pylant [Y1d4b], son of Drucilla Ann Young and William Gilford Pylant, was born 21 February 1864 in Lincoln Co TN. He married Nola Elizabeth Gammill in Moore Co on 25 December 1888, and continued to live in Moore Co into the 1890s. In 1910 and 1920 they were living at Nashville, Davidson Co where Charles was a machinist in a phosphate mine. Nora was born in TN on 9 May 1871, and died at Nashville on 4 December 1962. Charles died 18 April 1946 at Murfreeboro, Rutherford Co and was buried at Nashville. They had nine children by 1920, all in TN-
1. James Carl Pylant, b 7 Nov 1889
2. Nina C Pylant, b 1892
3. William O Pylant, b 1894
4. Mittie A Pylant, b 1896
5. Charles Elsie Pylant, b 1900
6. Hallie V Pylant, b 1902
7. Lollie Marjorie Pylant, b 1906
8. Easther G Pylant, b 1908
9. Eugenia E Pylant, b Dec 1909 (18vw,8d)
Charles Elsie Pylant [Y1d4b5], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1900 at Nashville, TN. (18v)
Easther G Pylant [Y1d4b8], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1908 at Nashville, TN. (18vw)
Eugenia E Pylant [Y1d4b9], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in Dec 1909 at Nashville, TN. (18vw)
Hallie V Pylant [Y1d4b6], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1902 at Nashville, TN. (18v)
James Carl Pylant [Y1d4b1], son of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born 7 November 1889 at Nashville, TN. In 1910 he was a railroad fireman, He married Bernice Malinda Morris and in June 1917 they lived at El Paso, TX. He was a plumber there. In 1920 they lived at Nashville. Bernice was born 17 January 1898 in MO, daughter of Joseph Washington Morris (1871-1963) and Rosa Ann Stevens (1874-1964). In 1930 James and Bernice lived at Inglewood, Los Angeles Co CA and he was still a plumber. James died at Santa Cruz, CA on 23 October 1975. Bernice died 22 June 1975 at Santa Cruz. They had three children-
a. Morris B Pylant, b 26 Nov 1917
b. William Otis Pylant, b 22 Jul 1919
c. Mildred Mae Pylant, b 30 Apr 1927 (CAd, M,18vw,50f)
Lollie Marjorie Pylant [Y1d4b7], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1906 at Nashville, TN. (18vw)
Mildred Mae Pylant [Y1d4b1c], daughter of James Carl Pylant and Bernice Malinda Morris, was born 30 April 1927 at Inglewood, CA. (50bf
Mittie A Pylant [Y1d4b4], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1896 at Nashville, TN. (18v)
Morris B Pylant [Y1d4b1a], son of James Carl Pylant and Bernice Malinda Morris, was born 26 November 1917 at El Paso, TX, and grew up in CA. Morris died in Los Angeles Co on 21 August 1956. (W,CAd, 50f)
Nina C Pylant [Y1d4b2], daughter of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1892 at Nashville, TN. She married a Mr Lenbough about 1914 in Davidson Co, then was a widow by 1920. She had a daughter-
a. Rubie Lenbough, b Jun 1915 at Nashville, TN. (18w) (18vw)
Sarah A Pylant [Y1d4a], daughter of Drucilla Ann Young and William Gilford Pylant, was born in 1858 in TN, probably in Lincoln Co (age 12 in 1870). Note: The Sarah A Pylant who married Ben S Coggins was born about 1866 and was a daughter of William G Pylant's brother John Pylant. That Sarah and Ben lived and died in Limestone Co AL after 1910. (16r,46wfc)
William O Pylant [Y1d4b3], son of Charles Bennett Pylant and Nola Elizabeth Gammill, was born in 1894 at Nashville, TN. He married Marthie Mae _____ in the 1910s in Davidson Co, then died before 1918. In 1920 his widow lived with his parents. Marthie Mae was born in TN in 1898. (18v)
William Otis Pylant [Y1d4b1b], son of James Carl Pylant and Bernice Malinda Morris, was born 22 July 1919 at El Paso, TX, and died in Santa Cruz Co CA on 3 October 1997. (W,CAd,50f)
Annie Ruth Pyrdom [Y1d1i2], daughter of Alia Annette Young and Charles J Pyrdom, was born in 1904 at Shelbyville, Bedford Co TN and moved to Tullahoma, Coffee Co in the 1910s. (W 237v,301w)
Charlie Mildred Pyrdom [Y1d1i3], daughter of Alia Annette Young and Charles J Pyrdom, was born 19 May 1911 at Tullahoma, Coffee Co TN. "Mildred Pyrdom" married "Ulysees Brown" on 30 June 1931 in Coffee Co. Ulysses Floyd Brown was born 29 March 1897 at Shelbyville, TN, son of Jesse Blackman Brown (1872-1930) and Martha J Haggard (1870-1940), and died 27 August 1950 at Louisville. He was a machinist, and his home was at Valley Station in Jefferson Co. He served in the US Navy during WW1 as a fireman, and was buried in Zachary Taylor National Cemetery at Louisville. Charlie died 24 December 1996 at Louisville, KY and was buried with Ulysses. They had six children-
a. James Boyd Brown, b 6 Nov 1932 in Jefferson Co IN, and died 24 November 1997 at Louisville, KY. He married a Ms Wheeler and they had a daughter. (W)
b. Myrtle Ruth Brown, b 26 Nov 1935 at Chicago, IL, and died 6 August 1999 at Louisville, KY. (W)
c. Robert Michael Brown, b 12 Feb 1938, died 23 May 2007 at Wichita Falls, TX. (W)
d. dau Brown (W)
e. Patricia A Brown, b 1 May 1943 in Jefferson Co KY. (W,113b)
f. Joan M Brown, b 24 May 1945 in Jefferson Co KY. (W,113b) (W,Z,M, KYd, 301fm, 113d)
Myrtle Pyrdom [Y1d1i1], daughter of Alia Annette Young and Charles J Pyrdom, was born in 1900 at Shelbyville, Bedford Co TN and moved to Tullahoma, Coffee Co in the 1910s. She married Garland G Oaks in Coffee Co on 21 June 1919 and in 1920 they lived with her mother at Tullahoma. Garland was born in IN on 6 September 1899, son of Harvey Oaks and Annie _____. Myrtle's name was spelled Pyrdom on her marriage record. In the 1920s they moved to Jeffersonville, Clark Co IN. He was a food grader for Campbells Food Company at Jeffersonville. They had two sons by 1930-
a. Garland G Oaks Jr, b 26 Mar 1920 at Tullahoma, TN, died at Jeffersonville, IN on 2 January 2000. (Z,26f)
b. Billie Oaks, b 1927 at Jeffersonville, IN in 1927. (26f) (W,M,237v,301mw, 26f)
Barbara Legate Railey [Y1f5a11a2], daughter of Edna Ruth Wilson and Russell Legate Railey, was born 10 June 1947 in Grayson Co TX. She married Walter Sterle Buckner in Grayson Co on 20 November 1976. He was born in July 1946. In the 1990s they lived at Omaha, NE. They had two children, both in Grayson Co TX-
a. Steven Mitchell Buckner, b 8 Dec 1965 (52b)
b. Jennifer Legate Buckner, b 27 Feb 1972 (52b) (52bm,372P) (TXd, 52wb)
Linda Ruth Railey [Y1f5a11a1], daughter of Edna Ruth Wilson and Russell Legate Railey, was born 18 September 1940 in Grayson Co TX. She married Warren Eugene Bosworth at Dallas on 7 August 1969. He was born 5 February 1949. In the 1990s they lived at DeSoto, Dallas Co. They had a daughter-
a. Christy Elizabeth Bosworth, b 14 Jun 1972 at Dallas. (56b) (52b,56mbP)
Arel Carroll Rainer [Y12a6d1], daughter of Ida May Robertson and Earl Rainer, was born 10 July 1908 in Taylor Co TX, and died 10 April 1994 in Floyd Co. | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 26 | http://www.levity.com/corduroy/burroughs.htm | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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"William Seward Burroughs",
"Burroughs Death",
"Died",
"Call Me Burroughs",
"Naked Lunch",
"Junkie",
"Interzone",
"Bohemian Ink",
"Jack Kerouac",
"Beat Generation",
"Brion Gysin"
] | null | [
"christopher d. ritter"
] | null | The Last Words of Dr. Benway in Memorium to William S. Burroughs | en | null | (1914-1997)
William Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri, the grandson of the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. After his graduation from Harvard, he lived in Chicago and New York on an income of two hundred dollars a month from his parents. He met Lucien Carr and Allen Ginsberg in New York City around Christmas 1943 shortly after Ginsberg began studying at Columbia, and Burroughs impressed them with his erudition, as well as his sardonic humor and reserved poise. Older than the others in the group, he took on the role of teacher, encouraging Kerouac and Ginsberg in their attempts to write fiction and poetry.
Although Burroughs collaborated on a humorous sketch with a classmate, Kells Elvins, at Harvard and completed a short novel written in the style of Dashiell Hammett with Kerouac, both works were rejected by publishers, and Burroughs did not think of himself as a writer. Instead, his search for an identity led him to deliberately seek out a criminal life.
In the hope that he would feel at home in a "community of outlaws," Burroughs began buying stolen goods, including morphine Syrettes, and became addicted to morphine. In 1947 he began to live with Joan Vollmer, another member of the group around the Columbia campus, and they had a son William S. Burroughs, Jr. Joan was addicted to Benzedrine, and they moved to New Orleans, Texas, and Mexico City where drugs were more easily obtainable.
In the spring of 1950 Burroughs' old Harvard friend Kells Elvins visited him in Mexico City and talked him into writing a factual book about his drug experience as a "memory exercise." Burroughs set himself on a daily schedule, helped by injections of morphine. He finished the project in December, titled his book Junk, and set the manuscript to Lucien Carr in New York. Acting as an agent for both Burroughs and Kerouac. Ginsberg was able to get the book published as a pulp paperback in 1953 under the pseudonym "William Lee" with the lurid subtitle Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict."
On September 6, 1951, Burroughs accidentally killed his wife and was charged in Mexico City with criminal imprudence. His parents took over the care of Billy Junior and brought him to their home in Florida. Released on bail, Burroughs left Mexico and traveled in South America looking for a drug called yage. His letters to Ginsberg describing his experiences in the cities, jungles, and mountains of Ecuador and Peru were collected in his volume later published by City Lights as The Yage Letters (1963), which Burroughs thought would interest readers after the success of Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception in 1954.
After Burroughs left South America, he settled in Tangier, where he could live cheaply and obtain the drugs he needed. Burroughs has said that the death of his wife gave him a literary vocation. He felt that he had been possessed by an invader, "the Ugly Spirit," who controlled him at the time of the accident and maneuvered him into a lifelong struggle, "in which I have had no choise except to write my way out."
In February 1957 Kerouac came to visit him in Tangier and began to type the hundreds of handwritten pages of Burroughs' new book that Kerouac titled Naked Lunch. Writing it, Burroughs said he was "shitting out my educated Middlewest background once and for all. It's a matter of catharsis, where I say the most horrible things I can think of. Realize that--the most horrible dirty smily awful niggardliest posture possible. . . ." | ||||||
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] | null | [] | null | (1914–97). U.S. author and icon of popular culture William S. Burroughs was associated with the beat generation. His controversial and often satirical writings described a… | en | /resources/icons/favicons/bkids/bkids-favicon-57c.png | Britannica Kids | https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/William-S-Burroughs/310475 | (1914–97). U.S. author and icon of popular culture William S. Burroughs was associated with the beat generation. His controversial and often satirical writings described a modern underworld of drugs and disillusionment.
William Seward Burroughs was born on February 5, 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which later merged with Sperry Univac to form Unisys. He dreamed of becoming a writer as a young boy. His first literary endeavor was called The Autobiography of a Wolf, which he wrote after reading The Biography of a Grizzly Bear.
From there, Burroughs’ interests and writing experiments ranged from gangster stories to tales of English high society. When he was 15 years old he was sent to the Los Alamos Ranch School, an activity-based camp and school, which he did not enjoy. Burroughs found Harvard University to be more to his liking, and while doing graduate work there in anthropology he wrote several unconventional short stories with his friends. He was married for the first time in 1937, to Ilse Herzfeld Klapper. They divorced in 1946.
In his early 30s Burroughs decided to join the gangster underground of New York City, where he became addicted to heroin and was befriended by Herbert Huncke. In 1943 Burroughs met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who were then students at Columbia University. Huncke, Kerouac, and Ginsberg were leading figures of the beat generation—the name for a group of young literary nonconformists who experimented with alternative lifestyles and drugs in the 1950s. Although Burroughs was older than they, he was greatly influenced by their ideas, as they were by his. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on a novel that they chose not to publish.
From New York Burroughs moved to eastern Texas, where he lived with Huncke and Joan Vollmer Adams, who became his wife. Together with two children, one from Adams’ first marriage and one the child of Adams and Burroughs, they lived on a farm where they fed their drug habits and grew oranges, cotton, and marijuana. Kerouac visited the farm and described his outlandish experiences there in On the Road. Burroughs himself did not produce any writing during this period.
From 1948 to 1951 Burroughs attended Mexico City College. During this time he wrote a hard-edged look at his life as a drug addict, Junkie (subtitled Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict). Ginsberg arranged for the publication of Junkie as a pulp paperback in 1953 under Burroughs’ pseudonym of William Lee; in 1964 it was reissued as Junky under Burroughs’ name. He also wrote Queer, an autobiographical study of his homosexuality. Queer was not published until 1985.
Burroughs was fascinated with guns. He once shot a mouse in a bar with a pistol. At a drunken party in Mexico City in 1951, Burroughs proclaimed to his wife that it was time for their “William Tell” act. He pulled out a gun and attempted to shoot a cocktail glass off the top of Adams’ head. He missed and shot her in the head from 6 feet (1.8 meters) away, killing her. The authorities punished him with a fine and a few weeks in jail.
This killing propelled Burroughs into a writing career; in his later years he said that he might never have become an author if he had not killed his wife. In 1959, two years after leaving a drug rehabilitation program, he published what many considered to be his masterpiece, Naked Lunch. The book was assembled in two weeks using what Burroughs called the “cut-up” technique. Similar to the montage method in painting, it consisted of him cutting random paragraphs and pages from his writings and gluing them together on a separate page. The result was a book without traditional form or structure, linked by images and recurring general themes.
Naked Lunch was nontraditional in content as well. Burroughs wrote about everything from bodily functions to political oppression to media manipulation. His topics were so controversial, in fact, that in 1965 the state of Massachusetts attempted to ban Naked Lunch on charges of obscenity. Authors Norman Mailer and Allen Ginsberg testified on behalf of the book, and the state lost its case. Naked Lunch was one of the last books of the period to lead to an obscenity trial.
Burroughs spent much of the 1960s traveling the world, living and writing in Morocco, South America, and other locations. Books published during that decade included The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964). In much of his fiction, Burroughs used his addiction to drugs as a metaphor for other addictions he believed plagued society at that time, such as addictions to sex, money, and power.
Along with writing fiction, Burroughs recorded audio tapes of himself reading his work, often in combination with music. In Call Me Burroughs (1965), You’re the Man I Want to Share My Money With (1981), and The “Priest” They Called Him (1992, with Kurt Cobain) and other recordings, Burroughs blurred the lines between poetry and narrative fiction. The rhythm and tone in which the words were spoken, as well as the words themselves, conveyed meaning.
Another novel, The Wild Boys, was published in 1971. Burroughs returned to the United States in 1974 and wrote his first straight narrative, Cities of the Red Night (1981). Along with it, two other books, The Place of Dead Roads (1984) and The Western Lands (1987), complete a thematic trilogy. In these books Burroughs examined humanity’s ability to adapt to its future, which he believed inevitably included space and time travel. A volume of his correspondence, Letters 1945–59, was published in 1993, and a memoir called My Education: A Book of Dreams followed in 1994.
In 1991 David Cronenberg directed a film entitled Naked Lunch, which depicted Burroughs’ real life and also incorporated aspects of the book. The film, extensive Internet exposure, and Burroughs’ own life and work all contributed to his status as a cultural icon. Burroughs was appealing to many people looking for an alternative to the political and cultural status quo. He was an antihero and an underground curiosity, all the more interesting for his incongruous grandfatherly appearance and bizarre life experiences.
Burroughs struggled with drug addiction his entire adult life, repeatedly going through cures only to relapse months or years later. He died on August 2, 1997, in Lawrence, Kansas, at the age of 83. | ||||
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] | null | [] | null | American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter and spoken word performer. Born: 5th February 1914, St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Died: 2nd August 1997, Lawrence, Kansas, USA. Burroughs initially drew acclaim as a one of the leaders of the 50s Beat movement, alongside friends and peers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His acclaimed publications, notably ‘The Naked Lunch’, ‘The Soft Machine’, ‘The Ticket That Exploded’ and ‘Nova Express’, exhibited the “cut-up” technique first espoused by fellow-writer Brion Gysin, in which passages and texts were cut and reassembled to create unconscious writing. The pair subsequently brought the same method to recording during their stay at the “Beat Hotel’ in Paris. Burroughs’ experimental nature and his espousal of drug use made him an attractive figure of the 60’s counter-culture. His phrase “heavy metal’ became the term for a musical genre, while several acts – notably “Soft Machine” and “Steely Dan” – took their names from his trilogy of works. His first album, “Call Me Burroughs”, was comprised of readings from ‘The Naked Lunch’ and ‘Nova Express’. It was initially issued in France prior to appearing on the US avant garde label, ESP. “Ali’s Smile”, a one-side 12-inch released via Brighton’s Unicorn Bookshop, was Burroughs’ only other 60s release, although it can be heard on the film soundtrack Chappaqua, and his distinctive voice was sampled in 1971 for Dashiell Hedayat’s Obselete. Burroughs was lauded at the Entermedia Theater in 1978 with “The Nova Convention”, a collective of publishers, writers, academics, artists, punk personalities and counterculture followers. The event was released as an eponymously titled album and included pieces by Sanders [‘Fuck You’ magazine & The Fugs], Patti Smith, Anderson, Glass, Cage, Ginsberg, Gysin, Leary and others. Zappa was called in to replace the drug-busted Keith Richards and, after discussion with the writer, did “The Talking Asshole”, which Burroughs had derived from the ventriloquist scene in “The Dead Of Night”. In 1982 “Throbbing Gristle”‘s Genesis P. Orridge issued “Nothing Here But The Recordings”, a fascinating cross-section of 50s and 60s archive recordings. Ten Years later Sub-Rosa issued a similarly structured set, “Break Through In Grey Room”. The avant garde maintained its links with Burroughs during the 80s; he surfaced on several releases by poet John Giorno, notably “You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With” (1981), “Old Man Bickford” (You’re A Hook 1986) and “Like A Girl I Want To Keep Coming” (1989) and he enjoyed a cameo appearance on Laurie Anderson’s “Mr. Heartbreak” (1984). “Dead City Radio”, Burroughs’ first full-length album in over two decades, paired the writer with producer Hal Willner. John Cale, Donald Fagen and Sonic Youth were among the cast assembled on what was arguably his most accessible release. “Spare Ass Annie And Other Tales”, a collaboration with the “Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy”, was much less satisfying, compromising the contributors’ individual strengths. Despite advancing years, Burroughs contributed to Tom Waits’ “The Black Rider” and appeared on singles by Gus Van Sant (“The Elvis Of Letters”) and Ministry (“Just One Fix”). In 1993 he recorded a version of “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him” with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain. Like Ginsberg, Burroughs was openly bisexual. He was also an opiate addict, almost acting out a characterization of his first novel “Junky” and his second “Queer”, whilst being a ‘loose cannon’ in both his writing and social confrontations. He managed to avoid a jail sentence when he killed his second wife after shooting her in a drunken stupor. When Burroughs died of a heart-attack in 1997 his passing was mourned with the Internet message: “William Burroughs has finally figured out how to leave the flesh behind and assimilate with it all”. | en | Matrix Music | https://matrix-music.com/artist/william-s-burroughs/ | Biography
American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter and spoken word performer.
Born: 5th February 1914, St. Louis, Missouri, USA.
Died: 2nd August 1997, Lawrence, Kansas, USA.
Burroughs initially drew acclaim as a one of the leaders of the 50s Beat movement, alongside friends and peers Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His acclaimed publications, notably ‘The Naked Lunch’, ‘The Soft Machine’, ‘The Ticket That Exploded’ and ‘Nova Express’, exhibited the “cut-up” technique first espoused by fellow-writer Brion Gysin, in which passages and texts were cut and reassembled to create unconscious writing. The pair subsequently brought the same method to recording during their stay at the “Beat Hotel’ in Paris. Burroughs’ experimental nature and his espousal of drug use made him an attractive figure of the 60’s counter-culture.
His phrase “heavy metal’ became the term for a musical genre, while several acts – notably “Soft Machine” and “Steely Dan” – took their names from his trilogy of works. His first album, “Call Me Burroughs”, was comprised of readings from ‘The Naked Lunch’ and ‘Nova Express’. It was initially issued in France prior to appearing on the US avant garde label, ESP. “Ali’s Smile”, a one-side 12-inch released via Brighton’s Unicorn Bookshop, was Burroughs’ only other 60s release, although it can be heard on the film soundtrack Chappaqua, and his distinctive voice was sampled in 1971 for Dashiell Hedayat’s Obselete.
Burroughs was lauded at the Entermedia Theater in 1978 with “The Nova Convention”, a collective of publishers, writers, academics, artists, punk personalities and counterculture followers. The event was released as an eponymously titled album and included pieces by Sanders [‘Fuck You’ magazine & The Fugs], Patti Smith, Anderson, Glass, Cage, Ginsberg, Gysin, Leary and others. Zappa was called in to replace the drug-busted Keith Richards and, after discussion with the writer, did “The Talking Asshole”, which Burroughs had derived from the ventriloquist scene in “The Dead Of Night”.
In 1982 “Throbbing Gristle”‘s Genesis P. Orridge issued “Nothing Here But The Recordings”, a fascinating cross-section of 50s and 60s archive recordings. Ten Years later Sub-Rosa issued a similarly structured set, “Break Through In Grey Room”. The avant garde maintained its links with Burroughs during the 80s; he surfaced on several releases by poet John Giorno, notably “You’re The Guy I Want To Share My Money With” (1981), “Old Man Bickford” (You’re A Hook 1986) and “Like A Girl I Want To Keep Coming” (1989) and he enjoyed a cameo appearance on Laurie Anderson’s “Mr. Heartbreak” (1984).
“Dead City Radio”, Burroughs’ first full-length album in over two decades, paired the writer with producer Hal Willner. John Cale, Donald Fagen and Sonic Youth were among the cast assembled on what was arguably his most accessible release. “Spare Ass Annie And Other Tales”, a collaboration with the “Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy”, was much less satisfying, compromising the contributors’ individual strengths. Despite advancing years, Burroughs contributed to Tom Waits’ “The Black Rider” and appeared on singles by Gus Van Sant (“The Elvis Of Letters”) and Ministry (“Just One Fix”). In 1993 he recorded a version of “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him” with Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain.
Like Ginsberg, Burroughs was openly bisexual. He was also an opiate addict, almost acting out a characterization of his first novel “Junky” and his second “Queer”, whilst being a ‘loose cannon’ in both his writing and social confrontations. He managed to avoid a jail sentence when he killed his second wife after shooting her in a drunken stupor. When Burroughs died of a heart-attack in 1997 his passing was mourned with the Internet message: “William Burroughs has finally figured out how to leave the flesh behind and assimilate with it all”. | |||||
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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 93 | https://www.beaconcollege.edu/how-death-begat-life-for-a-beat-genius-beacon-professor-explores-uxoricide-and-william-s-burroughs/ | en | How Death Begat Life for a Beat Genius: Beacon Professor Explores Uxoricide and William S. Burroughs | [
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] | 2016-09-22T04:32:42+00:00 | William S. Burroughs is famous for his paranoid novels such as Naked Lunch and being a seminal face on the Mt. | en | Beacon College | https://www.beaconcollege.edu/how-death-begat-life-for-a-beat-genius-beacon-professor-explores-uxoricide-and-william-s-burroughs/ | William S. Burroughs is famous for his paranoid novels such as Naked Lunch and being a seminal face on the Mt. Rushmore of the Beat Generation.
Yet, Burroughs is infamous for murdering his 28-year-old wife, Joan Vollmer Adams Burroughs, brilliant in her own right and a muse to the Beats.
The details of Vollmer’s death 65 years ago this month are jumbled — complicated by her common-law husband’s contradictory accounts. The prevailing version, however, puts a pistol in Burroughs’ hand and a bullet in Vollmer’s head after he trained the gun on a highball glass resting on her head and aimed too low in a drunken episode of William Tell.
Debate over whether Vollmer’s death was indeed murder or tragic boozy theater rages still nearly a decade after Burroughs’ death. Dr. William C. Nesbitt, an English professor and chair of the humanities department at Beacon College explores that puzzle within the context of drama and performance in his essay, “William S. Burroughs and the Shooting of Joan Vollmer Burroughs as Performance,” collected in the volume, Beat Drama: Playwrights and Performances of the ‘Howl’ Generation (Bloomsbury Methuen Drama (July 2016).
“Burroughs was always conscious of the performance,” Nesbitt writes. “… he asks: ‘Can any actor fill the living role?’ After all, being oneself is a tough act (to follow). … Despite the publicity and media attention given to Burroughs, his life demonstrates that the hardest performance is the one required by our own lives, the personal performance. And so, he plays his part.”
Nesbitt had appeared on a conference panel where he delivered a different paper on Burroughs. Intrigued with the subject, another panelist recommended Nesbitt to the book’s editor, who asked Nesbitt to contribute to the volume.
Though certainly not as celebrated as Burroughs and other luminaries in the Beat galaxy, Vollmer was a force in her own right.
As Brenda Knight writes in The Women of the Beat Generation:
“Joan Vollmer Adams Burroughs was seminal in the creation of the Beat revolution; indeed the fires that stoked the Beat engine were started with Joan as patron and muse. … Brilliant and well versed in philosophy and literature, Joan was the whetstone against which the main Beat writers — Allen, Jack, and Bill — sharpened their intellect.”
In the introduction to his novel Queer, published 32 years after he finished it in 1953, Burroughs called the shooting — for which he was convicted in absentia of homicide — the launchpad for his writing career:
“I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan’s death …. [S]o the death of Joan brought me into contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out.”
Yet, Burroughs was not always so forthcoming, introspective and reflective, Nesbitt observed.
“Shortly before his death, Burroughs wrote in his journal, ‘Mother, Dad, Mort, Billy — I failed them all — …. However, it is striking that Burroughs acknowledges failing his mother, father, brother and son, but not Joan. He places more emotional emphasis on and directs more feelings of regret to a cat he gave away than to the wife he shot and killed. … By not acknowledging Joan, he does not bring her into being on the page. He strikes her from the record and coverts her from death to non-existence and erases her.”
Two years after the centennial of Burroughs’ birth, renewed interested in is work abounds, including the album, “Let Me Hang You,” which collected overlooked tapes of featuring the author reading the raunchiest parts of Naked Lunch over works by musicians such as King Khan, Bill Frisell, and Wayne Horvitz.
As Nesbitt notes, “people are still investing, exploring, and interpreting his work. His personal life bled into (almost literally) and affected his work to a greater degree than that of many other writers.” | |||||
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] | 2024-07-03T16:38:30+00:00 | William Seward Burroughs II (/ˈbʌroʊz/; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer, visual artist, spoken word performer and chaos magician[2] credited as a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs... | en | /skins-ucp/mw139/common/favicon.ico | Military Wiki | https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/William_S._Burroughs | For other people named William Burroughs, see William Burroughs (disambiguation).
William Seward Burroughs II (//; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer, visual artist, spoken word performer and chaos magician[2] credited as a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians and made many appearances in films. He was also briefly known by the pen name William Lee. Burroughs created and exhibited thousands of paintings and other visual artworks, including his celebrated 'Shotgun Art'.[3]
Burroughs was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a grandson of inventor William Seward Burroughs I, who founded the Burroughs Corporation, and a nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs attended Harvard University, studied English, studied anthropology as a postgraduate, and attended medical school in Vienna. In 1942, Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve during World War II. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and the Navy, he picked up the drug addiction that affected him for the rest of his life. In 1943, while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Their mutual influence became the foundation of the Beat Generation, which was later a defining influence on the 1960s counterculture.
Burroughs killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs initially claimed that he shot Vollmer while drunkenly attempting a "William Tell" stunt.[4] He later told investigators that he had been showing his pistol to friends when it fell and hit the table, firing the bullet that killed Vollmer.[5] After Burroughs returned to the United States, he was convicted of manslaughter in absentia and received a two-year suspended sentence.
Much of Burroughs' work is semiautobiographical, and is primarily drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict. He lived in Mexico City, London, Paris and the Tangier International Zone near Morocco, and also traveled in the South American Amazon rainforest. His work features frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes – a constant preoccupation for Burroughs, both in fiction and in real life.[2][6] Burroughs found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), but is perhaps best known for his third novel, Naked Lunch (1959). Naked Lunch became the subject of one of the last major literary censorship cases in the United States after its US publisher, Grove Press, was sued for violating a Massachusetts obscenity statute. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–1964).
In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1984, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France.[7] Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift";[8] he owed this reputation to his "lifelong subversion"[9] of the moral, political, and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".[8]
Early life and education[]
Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs (June 16, 1885 – January 5, 1965) and Laura Hammon Lee (August 5, 1888 – October 20, 1970). His was a prominent family of English ancestry in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughs' mother was Laura Hammond Lee Burroughs, whose brother, Ivy Lee, was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens in St. Louis; and later in Palm Beach, Florida when they relocated.
It was during his childhood that Burroughs' developed a lifelong interest in magic and the occult – topics which would find their way into his work repeatedly across the years.[lower-alpha 1] Burroughs later described how he saw an apparition of a green reindeer in the woods as a child, which he identified as a totem animal,[lower-alpha 2] as well as a vision of ghostly grey figures at play in his bedroom.[lower-alpha 3]
As a boy, Burroughs lived on Pershing Avenue (now Pershing Place) in St. Louis' Central West End. He attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism" – which revolved around telepathic mind-control – was printed in the John Burroughs Review in 1929.[13] He then attended the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens".[6](p44) Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. According to his own account, he destroyed these later, ashamed of their content.[14] He kept his sexual orientation concealed from his family well into adulthood, due to the context in which he grew up and from which he fled – that is, a "family where displays of affection were considered embarrassing".[6](p26) He became a well-known homosexual writer after the publication of Naked Lunch in 1959. A common story says [15] that he was expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student. Yet, according to his own account, he left voluntarily: "During the Easter vacation of my second year I persuaded my family to let me stay in St. Louis."[14]
Harvard University[]
Burroughs finished high school at Taylor School in Clayton, Missouri, and in 1932 left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House. During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events, like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in an East St. Louis, Illinois brothel that summer with a female prostitute whom he regularly patronized.[6](papers, p.62) While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with Richard Stern, a wealthy friend from Kansas City. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so badly that he asked to be let out of the vehicle.[6](p611)
Burroughs graduated from Harvard in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's Literary Outlaw,[6]
His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a substantial sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment.[6](pp69–70)
Burroughs' parents sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation. Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash, they sold their stock for $200,000 (equivalent to approximately $2,746,899 in today's funds[16]).[17]
Europe[]
After Burroughs graduated from Harvard, his formal education ended, except for brief flirtations with graduate study of anthropology at Columbia and medicine in Vienna, Austria. He traveled to Europe and became involved in Austrian and Hungarian Weimar-era LGBT culture; he picked up young men in steam baths in Vienna and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, née Herzfeld (1900–1982), a Jewish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government.[1] The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, in Croatia, against the wishes of his parents, to allow her to gain a visa to the United States. She made her way to New York City, and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years.[6](pp65–68) After returning to the United States, he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his mental health became a concern for his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger at the knuckle to impress a man with whom he was infatuated.[18] This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger."
Beginning of the Beats[]
Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge – a release from duty based on the premise that he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis – University of Chicago student Lucien Carr and his admirer, David Kammerer – left for New York City, Burroughs followed.
Joan Vollmer[]
In 1944, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife.[19] Vollmer Adams was married to a G.I. with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks, completed in 1945. The two fledgling authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was eventually published in November 2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books.
During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit. Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was Benzedrine, an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. With urging from Allen Ginsberg, and also perhaps Kerouac, Burroughs became intellectually and emotionally linked with Vollmer and by summer 1945, had moved in with Vollmer and her daughter. In spring 1946, Burroughs was arrested for forging a narcotics prescription. Vollmer asked her psychiatrist, a Dr. Wollberg, to sign a surety bond for Burroughs' release. As part of his release, Burroughs returned to St. Louis under his parents' care, after which he left for Mexico to get a divorce from Ilse Klapper. Meanwhile, Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis that resulted in her admission to Bellevue Hospital, which endangered the custody of her child. Upon hearing this, Burroughs immediately returned to New York City to gain her release, asking her to marry him. Their marriage was never formalized, but she lived as his common-law wife. They returned to St. Louis to visit Burroughs' parents and then moved with her daughter to Texas.[20] Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs' child. Their son, William S. Burroughs Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.[21]
Mexico and South America (1950–1952)[]
Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola state prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at the Mexico City College in 1950, studying Spanish, as well as "Mexican picture writing" (codices) and the Mayan language with R. H. Barlow.
Vollmer's death[]
Their life in Mexico was by all accounts an unhappy one.[22] Without heroin and suffering from Benzedrine abuse, Burroughs began to pursue other men as his libido returned, while Vollmer, feeling abandoned, started to drink heavily and mock Burroughs openly.[20] One night while drinking with friends at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar in Mexico City,[23] a drunk Burroughs allegedly took his handgun from his travel bag and told his wife, "It's time for our William Tell act." There is no indication that they had performed such an action previously.[22] Vollmer, who was also drinking heavily and undergoing amphetamine withdrawal, allegedly obliged him by putting a highball glass on her head. Burroughs shot Vollmer in the head, killing her almost immediately.[24]
Soon after the incident, Burroughs changed his account, claiming that he had dropped his gun and it had accidentally fired.[25] Burroughs spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials to release Burroughs on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled culpable homicide. Vollmer's daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According to James Grauerholz, two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had fired accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, with ballistics experts bribed to support this story.[6](p202) Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel Queer while awaiting his trial. Upon Burroughs' attorney fleeing Mexico in light of his own legal problems, Burroughs decided, according to Ted Morgan, to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and was given a two-year suspended sentence.[6](p214)
Although Burroughs was writing before the shooting of Joan Vollmer, this event marked him and, biographers argue, his work for the rest of his life.[6](pp197–198) Vollmer's death also resonated with Allen Ginsberg, who wrote of her in Dream Record: June 8, 1955, "Joan, what kind of knowledge have the dead? Can you still love your mortal acquaintances? What do you remember of us?" In Burroughs: the Movie, Ginsberg said that Vollmer had seemed possibly suicidal in the weeks leading up to her death, and he suggested that this may have been a factor in her willingness to take part in the risky William Tell stunt.[26]
The Yage Letters[]
After leaving Mexico, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, seeking out a drug called yagé, which promised to give the user telepathic abilities. A book composed of letters between Burroughs and Ginsberg, The Yage Letters, was published in 1963 by City Lights Books. In 2006, a re-edited version, The Yage Letters Redux, showed that the letters were largely fictionalised from Burroughs' notes.
Beginning of literary career[]
Burroughs described Vollmer's death as a pivotal event in his life, and one which provoked his writing by exposing him to the risk of possession by a malevolent entity he called "the Ugly Spirit":
I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. I live with the constant threat of possession, and a constant need to escape from possession, from Control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.[27]
As Burroughs makes clear, he meant this reference to "possession" to be taken absolutely literally, stating: "My concept of possession is closer to the medieval model than to modern psychological explanations ... I mean a definite possessing entity."[27] Burroughs' writing was intended as a form of "sorcery", in his own words[28] – to disrupt language via methods such as the cut-up technique, and thus protect himself from possession.[lower-alpha 4][lower-alpha 5][lower-alpha 6][lower-alpha 7] Later in life, Burroughs described the Ugly Spirit as "Monopolistic, acquisitive evil. Ugly evil. The ugly American", and took part in a shamanic ceremony with the explicit aim of exorcising the Ugly Spirit.[33]
Oliver Harris has questioned Burroughs' claim that Vollmer's death catalysed his writing, highlighting the importance for Queer of Burroughs' traumatic relationship with the boyfriend fictionalized in the story as Eugene Allerton, rather than the shooting of Vollmer. In any case, he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr–Kammerer situation and that at the time remained unpublished. Years later, in the documentary What Happened to Kerouac?, Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work". An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in Word Virus,[34] a compendium of William Burroughs' writing that was published by his biographer after his death in 1997.
Before killing Vollmer, Burroughs had largely completed his first novel, Junkie, which was written at the urging of Allen Ginsberg, who was instrumental in getting the work published, even as a cheap mass-market paperback.[35] Ace Books published the novel in 1953 as part of an Ace Double under the pen name William Lee, retitling it Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict (it was later republished as Junkie, then in 1977 as Junky, and finally in 2003 as Junky: the definitive text of 'Junk', edited by Oliver Harris').[35]
Overseas[]
During 1953, Burroughs was at a loose end. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities toward which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances,[36] Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed from his parents' continuing support. He found Rome and Ansen's company dreary and, inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for the Tangier International Zone,[6](pp232–234) where he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as Interzone.[37]
To Burroughs, all signs directed a return to Tangier, a city where drugs were freely available and where financial support from his family would continue. He realized that in the Moroccan culture he had found an environment that synchronized with his temperament and afforded no hindrances to pursuing his interests and indulging in his chosen activities. He left for Tangier in November 1954 and spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become Naked Lunch, as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier. He sent these writings to Ginsberg, his literary agent for Junkie, but none was published until 1989 when Interzone, a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of a marijuana confection known as majoun and a German-made opioid called Eukodol, Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs type, edit, and arrange these episodes into Naked Lunch.[6](pp238–242)
Naked Lunch[]
Further information: Naked Lunch
Whereas Junkie and Queer were conventional in style, Naked Lunch was his first venture into a nonlinear style. After the publication of Naked Lunch, a book whose creation was to a certain extent the result of a series of contingencies, Burroughs was exposed to Brion Gysin's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in October 1959. He began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences.[38] At the Beat Hotel Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases: "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin."[39] The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative. Perhaps thinking of his crazed physician, Dr. Benway, he described Naked Lunch as a book that could be cut into at any point. Although not considered science fiction, the book does seem to forecast AIDS, liposuction, and the crack pandemic.[6](p355)
Excerpts from Naked Lunch were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was initially rejected by City Lights Books, the publisher of Ginsberg's Howl; and Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, who had published English-language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and antisocial characters. But Allen Ginsberg managed to get excerpts published in Black Mountain Review and Chicago Review in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of Chicago Review, a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from Naked Lunch, but he was fired from his position in 1958 after Chicago Daily News columnist Jack Mabley called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal Big Table No. 1; however, the United States Postmaster General ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers on the basis of obscenity laws. John Ciardi did get a copy and wrote a positive review of the work, prompting a telegram from Allen Ginsberg praising the review.[40] This controversy made Naked Lunch interesting to Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959.[41]
After the novel was published, it slowly became notorious across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s, but also literary critics such as Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, Naked Lunch was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, followed by other states. In 1966, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs' novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature – that is, a work consisting of words only, and not including illustrations or photographs – prosecuted in the United States.
The Word Hoard, the collection of manuscripts that produced Naked Lunch, also produced parts of the later works The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964). These novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique that influenced all of Burroughs' subsequent fiction to a degree. During Burroughs' friendship and artistic collaborations with Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville, the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, via Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method that he often defended his use of the technique before editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver at Grove Press in the 1960s[6](p425) and Holt, Rinehart & Winston in the 1980s. The cut-up method, because of its random or mechanical basis for text generation, combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers, deemphasizes the traditional role of the writer as creator or originator of a string of words, while simultaneously exalting the importance of the writer's sensibility as an editor. In this sense, the cut-up method may be considered as analogous to the collage method in the visual arts. New restored editions of The Nova Trilogy (or Cut-Up Trilogy), edited by Oliver Harris (President of the European Beat Studies Network) and published in 2014, included notes and materials to reveal the care with which Burroughs used his methods and the complex histories of his manuscripts.
Paris and the "Beat Hotel"[]
Burroughs moved into a rundown hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1959 when Naked Lunch was still looking for a publisher. Tangier, with its political unrest, and criminals with whom he had become involved, became dangerous to Burroughs.[42] He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with Olympia Press. He left behind a criminal charge which eventually caught up with him in Paris. Paul Lund, a British former career criminal and cigarette smuggler whom Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France. Lund gave up Burroughs, and evidence implicated Burroughs in the importation of narcotics into France. When the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials, Burroughs faced criminal charges in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates. It was during this impending case that Maurice Girodias published Naked Lunch; its appearance helped to get Burroughs a suspended sentence, since a literary career, according to Ted Morgan, is a respected profession in France.
The "Beat Hotel" was a typical European-style boarding house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated by Gregory Corso, Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for several months after Naked Lunch first appeared.
Burroughs' time at the Beat Hotel was dominated by occult experiments – "mirror-gazing, scrying, trance and telepathy, all fuelled by a wide variety of mind-altering drugs".[43] Later, Burroughs would describe "visions" obtained by staring into the mirror for hours at a time – his hands transformed into tentacles,[lower-alpha 8] or his whole image transforming into some strange entity,[lower-alpha 9] or visions of far-off places,[45] or of other people rapidly undergoing metamorphosis.[lower-alpha 10] It was from this febrile atmosphere that the famous cut-up technique emerged.
The actual process by which Naked Lunch was published was partly a function of its "cut-up" presentation to the printer. Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically random manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance from Grove Press to buy drugs (equivalent to approximately $24,000 in today's funds[16]).[6](pp316–326) Naked Lunch was featured in a 1959 Life magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement. During this time Burroughs found an outlet for material otherwise rendered unpublishable in Jeff Nuttall's My Own Mag.[46] Also, poetry by Burroughs' appeared in the avant garde little magazine Nomad at the beginning of the 1960s.
The London years[]
Burroughs left Paris for London in 1960 to visit Dr. Dent, a well-known English medical doctor who spearheaded a reputedly painless heroin withdrawal treatment using the drug apomorphine.[47] Dent's apomorphine cure was also used to treat alcoholism, although it was held by several people who undertook it to be no more than straightforward aversion therapy. Burroughs however was convinced. Following his first cure, he wrote a detailed appreciation of apomorphine and other cures, which he submitted to The British Journal of Addiction (Vol. 53, 1956) under the title "Letter From A Master Addict To Dangerous Drugs"; this letter is appended to many editions of Naked Lunch.
Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several occasions, including one time escorting his son to the Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in Florida. In the "Afterword" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels Speed and Kentucky Ham, Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him very thoroughly on arrival. He claims he went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, traveling with Billy to Lexington, Kentucky from Miami to ensure that his son entered the hospital that he had once spent time in as a volunteer admission.[48] Earlier, Burroughs revisited St. Louis, Missouri, taking a large advance from Playboy to write an article about his trip back to St. Louis, one that was eventually published in The Paris Review, after Burroughs refused to alter the style for Playboy’s publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joined Jean Genet, John Sack, and Terry Southern in covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention for Esquire magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who had first become acquainted in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt Naked Lunch for the screen in conjunction with American game-show producer Chuck Barris.[49]
Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant-garde reputation grew internationally as hippies and college students discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Antony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite Burroughs' protestations. In the midst of this personal turmoil, Burroughs managed to complete two works: a novel written in screenplay format, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel The Wild Boys (1971).
It was during his time in London that Burroughs began using his "playback" technique in an attempt to place curses on various people and places who had drawn his ire, including the Moka coffee bar[50][lower-alpha 11] and the London HQ of Scientology.[lower-alpha 12] Burroughs himself related the Moka coffee bar incident:
Here is a sample operation carried out against the Moka Bar at 29 Frith Street, London, W1, beginning on August 3, 1972. Reverse Thursday. Reason for operation was outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake. Now to close in on the Moka Bar. Record. Take pictures. Stand around outside. Let them see me. They are seething around in there ... Playback would come later with more pictures ... Playback was carried out a number of times with more pictures. Their business fell off. They kept shorter and shorter hours. October 30, 1972, the Moka Bar closed. The location was taken over by the Queen's Snack Bar.[53]
In the 1960s, Burroughs joined and then left the Church of Scientology. In talking about the experience, he claimed that the techniques and philosophy of Scientology helped him and that he felt that further study of Scientology would produce great results.[54] He was skeptical of the organization itself, and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion.[55] His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.
Return to United States[]
In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg gained for Burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the City College of New York. Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin use and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed "The Bunker", on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at 222 Bowery.[56] The dwelling was a partially converted YMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York City rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed, doubling the rent overnight.[57] Burroughs added "teacher" to the list of jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester as a professor; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he turned down a teaching position at the University at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back."[6](p477) His savior was the newly arrived twenty-one-year-old bookseller and Beat Generation devotee James Grauerholz, who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in a bookstore. Grauerholz suggested the idea of reading tours. Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking for Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile, eventually aiding in his obtaining new publishing contracts. Through Grauerholz, Burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine Crawdaddy, for which he interviewed Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in 1975. Burroughs decided to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural players such as Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Susan Sontag, frequently entertaining them at the Bunker; he also visited venues like CBGB to watch the likes of Patti Smith perform.[58] Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern and Dennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of Junky. It was reported in The New York Times that Burroughs himself would appear in the film. Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.[59][60]
In 1976 he appeared in Rosa von Praunheims New York documentary Underground & Emigrants.
Organized by Columbia professor Sylvère Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs' work held from November 30 to December 2, 1978, at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem), in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52's, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Debbie Harry and Chris Stein.
In 1976, Burroughs was having dinner with his son, William S. "Billy" Burroughs Jr., and Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, Colorado, at Ginsberg's Buddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) at Chogyam Trungpa's Naropa University when Billy began to vomit blood. Burroughs Sr. had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg's apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s and was deemed by literary critics like Ann Charters as a bona fide "second generation beat writer",[61] his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had disintegrated. Billy was a constant drinker, and there were long periods when he was out of contact with any of his family or friends. The diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete that the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Billy underwent the procedure and beat the thirty-percent survival odds. His father spent time in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through additional surgeries and complications. Ted Morgan's biography asserts that their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. Allen Ginsberg was supportive to both Burroughs and his son throughout the long period of recovery.[6](pp495–536)
In London, Burroughs had begun to write what would become the first novel of a trilogy, published as Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983), and The Western Lands (1987). Grauerholz helped edit Cities when it was first rejected by Burroughs' long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. The novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern, leaving the reader to sort through the characters and events. This technique differed from the author's earlier cut-up methods, which were accidental from the start. Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The trilogy featured time-travel adventures in which Burroughs' narrators rewrote episodes from history to reform mankind.[6](p565) Reviews were mixed for Cities. Novelist and critic Anthony Burgess panned the work in Saturday Review, saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible world view or theology; other reviewers, like J. G. Ballard, argued that Burroughs was shaping a new literary "mythography".[6](p565)
In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in Esquire magazine claiming his father had poisoned his life and revealing that he had been molested as a fourteen-year-old by one of his father's friends while visiting Tangier. The liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink, and Billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. After he had stopped taking his transplant rejection drugs, he was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterward. Burroughs was in New York when he heard from Allen Ginsberg of Billy's death.
Burroughs, by 1979, was once again addicted to heroin. The cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside his door on the Lower East Side "made its way" into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from the overzealous if well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. Although Burroughs would have episodes of being free from heroin, from this point until his death he was regularly addicted to the drug. In an introduction to Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs, James Grauerholz (who managed Burroughs' reading tours in the 1980s and 1990s) mentions that part of his job was to deal with the "underworld" in each city to secure the author's drugs.[62]
Later years in Kansas[]
Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas in 1981, taking up residence at 1927 Learnard Avenue where he would spend the rest of his life. He once told a Wichita Eagle reporter that he was content to live in Kansas, saying, "The thing I like about Kansas is that it's not nearly as violent, and it's a helluva lot cheaper. And I can get out in the country and fish and shoot and whatnot."[63] In 1984, he signed a seven-book deal with Viking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the unpublished 1952 novel Queer. With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000.[6](p596) He was finally inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 after several attempts by Allen Ginsberg to get him accepted. He attended the induction ceremony in May 1983. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy proved Herbert Marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.[6](p577)
By this point, Burroughs was a counterculture icon. In his final years, he cultivated an entourage of young friends who replaced his aging contemporaries. He inspired 1970s proto-punk rock band Doctors of Madness. In the 1980s he collaborated with performers ranging from Bill Laswell's Material and Laurie Anderson to Throbbing Gristle, The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Ministry, and in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy, playing a character based on a short story he published in Exterminator!, "The "Priest" They Called Him", featuring a guitar track supplied by Kurt Cobain of Nirvana. Burroughs and R.E.M. collaborated on the song "Star Me Kitten" on the Songs in the Key of X: Music From and Inspired By The X-Files album. A collaboration with musicians Nick Cave and Tom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, Smack My Crack, later released as a spoken word album in 1987. In 1990, he released the spoken word album Dead City Radio, with musical back-up from producers Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. He collaborated with Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson on The Black Rider, a play which opened at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990 to critical acclaim, and that was later performed all over Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs' approval, director David Cronenberg adapted Naked Lunch into a feature film, which opened to critical acclaim.
During 1982, Burroughs developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of blank surfaces, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shotgun. These splattered and shot panels and canvasses were first exhibited in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York City in 1987. By this time he had developed a comprehensive visual art practice, using ink, spray paint, collage and unusual things such as mushrooms and plungers to apply the paint. He created file-folder paintings featuring these mediums as well as "automatic calligraphy" inspired by Brion Gysin. He originally used the folders to mix pigments before observing that they could be viewed as art in themselves. He also used many of these painted folders to store manuscripts and correspondence in his personal archive[64] Until his last years, he prolifically created visual art. Burroughs' work has since been featured in more than fifty international galleries and museums including Royal Academy of the Arts, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, ZKM Karlsruhe, Sammlung Falckenberg, New Museum, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art.[65]
According to Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen, "We hung out at Burroughs's house one time in '93. So he decides to shoot up heroin and he takes out this utility belt full of syringes. Huge, old-fashioned ones from the '50s or something. Now, I have no idea how an 80 year old guy finds a vein, but he knew what he was doing. So we're all laying around high and stuff and then I notice in the pile of mail on the coffee table that there's a letter from the White House. I said 'Hey, this looks important.' and he replies 'Nah, it's probably just junk mail.' Well, I open the letter and it's from President Clinton inviting Burroughs to the White House for a poetry reading. I said 'Wow, do you have any idea how big this is!?' So he says 'What? Who's president nowadays?' and it floored me. He didn't even know who our current president was."[66]
In 1990, Burroughs was honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[67]
In June 1991, Burroughs underwent triple bypass surgery.[68]
He became a member of a chaos magic organization, the Illuminates of Thanateros, in 1993.[69]
Burroughs' last filmed performance was in the music video for "Last Night on Earth" by Irish rock band U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.[70]
Political beliefs[]
The only newspaper columnist Burroughs admired was Westbrook Pegler, a right-wing opinion shaper for the William Randolph Hearst newspaper chain.[6](p170) Burroughs believed in frontier individualism, which he championed as "our glorious frontier heritage on minding your own business." Burroughs came to equate liberalism with bureaucratic tyranny, viewing government authority as a collective of meddlesome forces legislating the curtailment of personal freedom. According to his biographer Ted Morgan, his philosophy for living one's life was to adhere to a laissez-faire path, one without encumbrances – in essence a credo shared with the capitalist business world.[6](p55) His abhorrence of the government did not prevent Burroughs from using its programs to his own advantage. In 1949 he enrolled in Mexico City College under the GI Bill, which paid for part of his tuition and books and provided him with a seventy-five-dollar-per-month stipend. He maintained, "I always say, keep your snout in the public trough."[6](p173)
Burroughs was a gun enthusiast and owned several shotguns, a Colt .45 and a .38 special. Sonic Youth vocalist Thurston Moore recounted meeting Burroughs: "he had a number of Guns and Ammo magazines laying about, and he was only very interested in talking about shooting and knifing ... I asked him if he had a Beretta and he said: 'Ah, that's a ladies' pocket-purse gun. I like guns that shoot and knives that cut." Hunter S. Thompson gave him a one-of-a-kind .454 caliber pistol.[71]
Despite being a fan of a right-wing columnist, many in his entourage such as Genesis P-Orridge and Al Jourgensen are notable for far-left, anti-capitalist, and anti-fascist politics. He was also a fan of the left-wing Dadaist movement. His overall views can generally be seen as anti-establishment, anti-conditioning, and anti-control.
Magical beliefs[]
Burroughs had a longstanding preoccupation with magic and the occult, dating from his earliest childhood, and was insistent throughout his life that we live in a "magical universe".[72] As he himself explained:
In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. The dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces, and I think that's just ridiculous. It's as bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I believe that if you run into somebody in the street it's for a reason. Among primitive people they say that if someone was bitten by a snake he was murdered. I believe that.[73]
Or, speaking in the 1970s:
Since the word "magic" tends to cause confused thinking, I would like to say exactly what I mean by "magic" and the magical interpretation of so-called reality. The underlying assumption of magic is the assertion of "will" as the primary moving force in this universe – the deep conviction that nothing happens unless somebody or some being wills it to happen. To me this has always seemed self evident ... From the viewpoint of magic, no death, no illness, no misfortune, accident, war or riot is accidental. There are no accidents in the world of magic.[74]
This was no idle passing interest – Burroughs also actively practiced magic in his everyday life: seeking out mystical visions through practices like scrying,[45][75][76] taking measures to protect himself from possession,[32][33][77][78] and attempting to lay curses on those who had crossed him.[50][51][79] Burroughs spoke openly about his magical practices, and his engagement with the occult is attested from a multitude of interviews,[lower-alpha 13][lower-alpha 14][81] as well as personal accounts from those who knew him.[32][50][51]
Biographer Ted Morgan has argued that: "As the single most important thing about Graham Greene was his viewpoint as a lapsed Catholic, the single most important thing about Burroughs was his belief in the magical universe. The same impulse that led him to put out curses was, as he saw it, the source of his writing ... To Burroughs behind everyday reality there was the reality of the spirit world, of psychic visitations, of curses, of possession and phantom beings."[6][82]
Burroughs was unwavering in his insistence that his writing itself had a magical purpose.[lower-alpha 15][lower-alpha 16][lower-alpha 17][lower-alpha 18][87] This was particularly true when it came to his use of the cut-up technique. Burroughs was adamant that the technique had a magical function, stating "the cut ups are not for artistic purposes".[88] Burroughs used his cut-ups for "political warfare, scientific research, personal therapy, magical divination, and conjuration"[88] – the essential idea being that the cut-ups allowed the user to "break down the barriers that surround consciousness".[89] As Burroughs himself stated:
I would say that my most interesting experience with the earlier techniques was the realization that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words, that they do mean something, and often that these meanings refer to some future event. I've made many cut-ups and then later recognized that the cut-up referred to something that I read later in a newspaper or a book, or something that happened ... Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out.[89]
In the final decade of his life, Burroughs became heavily involved in the chaos magic movement. Burroughs' magical techniques – the cut-up, playback, etc. – had been incorporated into chaos magic by such practitioners as Phil Hine,[90][91][92] Dave Lee[93] and Genesis P-Orridge.[50][94] P-Orridge in particular had known and studied under Burroughs and Brion Gysin for over a decade.[50] This led to Burroughs contributing material to the book Between Spaces: Selected Rituals & Essays From The Archives Of Templum Nigri Solis[95] Through this connection, Burroughs came to personally know many of the leading lights of the chaos magic movement, including Hine, Lee, Peter J. Carroll, Ian Read and Ingrid Fischer, as well as Douglas Grant, head of the North American section of chaos magic group The Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT).[72][96] Burroughs' involvement with the movement further deepened, as he contributed artwork and other material to chaos magic books,[97] addressed an IOT gathering in Austria,[98] and was eventually fully initiated into The Illuminates of Thanateros.[lower-alpha 19][72][99] As Burroughs' close friend James Grauerholz states: "William was very serious about his studies in, and initiation into the IOT ... Our longtime friend, Douglas Grant, was a prime mover."[96]
Death[]
Burroughs died August 2, 1997 in Lawrence, Kansas, from complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day.[17] He was interred in the family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri,[101] with a marker bearing his full name and the epitaph "American Writer". His grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk of William Seward Burroughs I (1857–1898).
Posthumous works[]
Since 1997, several posthumous collections of Burroughs' work have been published. A few months after his death, a collection of writings spanning his entire career, Word Virus, was published (according to the book's introduction, Burroughs himself approved its contents prior to his death).[34] Aside from numerous previously released pieces, Word Virus also included what was promoted as one of the few surviving fragments of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a novel by Burroughs and Kerouac (later published in 2008). A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burroughs' life was published as the book Last Words in 2000. Publication of a memoir by Burroughs entitled Evil River by Viking Press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release, online booksellers indicated a 2007 release, complete with an ISBN number (ISBN 0670813516), but it remains unpublished.[102] In December 2007, Ohio State University Press released Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs. Edited by Oliver Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing Queer and The Yage Letters, with cover art and review information. In addition, restored editions of numerous texts have been published in recent years, all containing additional material and essays on the works. The complete Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks was published for the first time in November 2008.[103] Several of Burroughs early novels, including Junky and Naked Lunch, have been republished in posthumous "Restored Text" editions, incorporating material edited out of previous versions.
Literary style and periods[]
Burroughs' major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later:
Early work (early 1950s)
Junkie, Queer and The Yage Letters are relatively straightforward linear narratives, written in and about Burroughs' time in Mexico City and South America.
The cut-up period (mid-1950s to mid-1960s)
Although published before Burroughs discovered the cut-up technique, Naked Lunch is a fragmentary collection of "routines" from The Word Hoard – manuscripts written in Tangier, Paris, London, as well as of other texts written in South America such as "The Composite City", blending into the cut-up and fold-in fiction also partly drawn from The Word Hoard: The Soft Machine, Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, also referred to as "The Nova Trilogy" or "The Cut-Up Trilogy", self-described by Burroughs as an attempt to create "a mythology for the space age". Interzone also derives from the mid-1950s.
Experiment and subversion (mid-1960s to mid-1970s)
This period saw Burroughs continue experimental writing with increased political content and branching into multimedia such as film and sound recording. The only major novel written in this period was The Wild Boys, but he also wrote dozens of published articles, short stories, scrap books and other works, several in collaboration with Brion Gysin. The major anthologies representing work from this period are The Burroughs File, The Adding Machine and Exterminator!.
The Red Night trilogy (mid-1970s to mid-1980s)
The books Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands came from Burroughs in a final, mature stage, creating a complete mythology.
Burroughs also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material, including a book with a detailed account of his own dreams (My Education: A Book of Dreams).
Reaction to critics and view on criticism[]
Several literary critics treated Burroughs' work harshly. For example, Anatole Broyard and Philip Toynbee wrote devastating reviews of some of his most important books. In a short essay entitled "A Review of the Reviewers", Burroughs answers his critics in this way:
Critics constantly complain that writers are lacking in standards, yet they themselves seem to have no standards other than personal prejudice for literary criticism. ... such standards do exist. Matthew Arnold set up three criteria for criticism: 1. What is the writer trying to do? 2. How well does he succeed in doing it? ... 3. Does the work exhibit "high seriousness"? That is, does it touch on basic issues of good and evil, life and death and the human condition. I would also apply a fourth criterion ... Write about what you know. More writers fail because they try to write about things they don't know than for any other reason.
—William S. Burroughs, "A Review of the Reviewers"[104]
Burroughs clearly indicates here that he prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. Always a contradictory figure, Burroughs nevertheless criticized Anatole Broyard for reading authorial intent into his works where there is none, which sets him at odds both with New Criticism and the old school as represented by Matthew Arnold.
Photography[]
Burroughs used photography extensively throughout his career, both as a recording medium in planning his writings, and as a significant dimension of his own artistic practice, in which photographs and other images feature as significant elements in cut-ups. With Ian Sommerville, he experimented with photography's potential as a form of memory-device, photographing and rephotographing his own pictures in increasingly complex time-image arrangements.[105]
Legacy[]
Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the 20th century, most notably by Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius", appears on many Burroughs publications. Others consider his concepts and attitude more influential than his prose. Prominent admirers of Burroughs' work have included British critic and biographer Peter Ackroyd, the rock critic Lester Bangs, the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the authors J. G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Jean Genet, William Gibson, Alan Moore, Kathy Acker and Ken Kesey. Burroughs had an influence on the German writer Carl Weissner, who in addition to being his German translator was a novelist in his own right and frequently wrote cut-up texts in a manner reminiscent of Burroughs.[106]
Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to him. Admirers from the late 1970s – early 1980s milieu of this subgenre include William Gibson and John Shirley, to name only two. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine Interzone (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) paid tribute to him with its choice of name. He is also cited as a major influence by musicians Roger Waters, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis P-Orridge, Ian Curtis, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits and Kurt Cobain.[107]
Drugs, homosexuality, and death, common among Burroughs' themes, have been taken up by Dennis Cooper, of whom Burroughs said, "Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer".[108] Cooper, in return, wrote, in his essay 'King Junk', "along with Jean Genet, John Rechy, and Ginsberg, [Burroughs] helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow, providing gay liberation with a delicious edge". Splatterpunk writer Poppy Z. Brite has frequently referenced this aspect of Burroughs' work. Burroughs' writing continues to be referenced years after his death; for example, a November 2004 episode of the TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation included an evil character named Dr. Benway (named for an amoral physician who appears in a number of Burroughs' works.) This is an echo of the hospital scene in the movie Repo Man, made during Burroughs' life-time, in which both Dr. Benway and Mr. Lee (a Burroughs pen name) are paged.
Burroughs had an impact on twentieth-century esotericism and occultism as well, most notably through disciples like Peter Lamborn Wilson and Genesis P-Orridge. Burroughs is also cited by Robert Anton Wilson as the first person to notice the "23 Enigma":
I first heard of the '23 Enigma' from William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark's ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another Captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.
—Robert Anton Wilson, Fortean Times[109]
Some research[110] suggests that Burroughs is arguably the progenitor of the 2012 phenomenon, a belief of New Age Mayanism that an apocalyptic shift in human consciousness would occur at the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 2012. Although never directly focusing on the year 2012 himself, Burroughs had an influence on early 2012 proponents such as Terence McKenna and Jose Argüelles, and as well had written about an apocalyptic shift of human consciousness at the end of the Long Count as early as 1960's The Exterminator.[111]
Appearances in media[]
In music[]
Burroughs appears on the cover of The Beatles' eighth studio album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Burroughs participated on numerous album releases by Giorno Poetry Systems, including The Nova Convention (featuring Frank Zappa, John Cage, and Philip Glass) and You're the Guy I Want to Share My Money With (with John Giorno and Laurie Anderson).
He is featured in a spoken word piece entitled "Sharkey's Night" on Laurie Anderson's 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, but the longer version of this track, with additional dialogue from Burroughs, was released only on a promotional 4-track 12" Ep (Warner Bros PRO-A-2123). In addition, Burroughs provided vocal samples for the soundtrack of Anderson's 1986 concert film, Home of the Brave, and made a cameo appearance in it.
Burroughs reads a passage from his novel Nova Express during the bridge of the title song from Todd Tamanend Clark's 1984 album Into The Vision, which also features Cheetah Chrome from The Dead Boys on guitar.
Bill Laswell's Material collaborated with Burroughs to produce the 1989 album Seven Souls, wherein Burroughs recites passages from his book The Western Lands to musical accompaniment. The album was reissued in 1997 with 3 bonus remixes. In 1998, an additional unreleased six remixes (plus one previously released) were introduced on the album The Road To The Western Lands. Spring Heel Jack's remix of the track '"The Road to the Western Lands" from this album was also included on their Oddities album from 2000.
In 1990, Island Records released Dead City Radio, a collection of readings set to a broad range of musical compositions. It was produced by Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, with musical accompaniment from John Cale, Donald Fagen, Lenny Pickett, Chris Stein, Sonic Youth, and others. The remastered edition of Sonic Youth's album Goo includes a longer version of "Dr. Benway's House", which had appeared, in shorter form, on Dead City Radio.
In 1992 he recorded "Quick Fix" with Ministry, which appeared on their single for "Just One Fix". The single featured cover art by Burroughs and a remix of the song dubbed the "W.S.B. mix". Burroughs also made an appearance in the video for "Just One Fix". The same year he also recorded the EP The "Priest" They Called Him; Burroughs reads the short story of the same name, while Kurt Cobain creates layers of guitar feedback and distortion. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic is featured on the cover as the titular "Priest". The track on the 13th Ministry album "Thanx but No Thanx" makes use of William S. Burroughs' poem "A Thanksgiving Prayer", as read by Sgt. Major.
In 1992 Burroughs worked with The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy on Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales, with the duo providing musical background and accompaniment to Burroughs' spoken readings from several of his books. A 12" EP was released with five different remixes of the Spare Ass Annie track "Words of Advice for Young People", all done by Bill Laswell.
Burroughs appears on two songs from Technodon, the 1993 reunion album by the Japanese electronic group Yellow Magic Orchestra. The opening track, "Be a Superman", begins with a sample of Burroughs proclaiming, "Be a man! Be a human animal... be a superman! Be a superman." The latter part of the sample reappears throughout. "I Tre Merli" features a longer reading taken from The Job.
Burroughs recites the lyrics of R.E.M.'s "Star Me Kitten" for a special version of the song on the Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files soundtrack.
Burroughs appears in a seven-second scene of the Arcadia's music video "Election Day",[112] sitting in the dark near a stairway and throwing a double-numbered crystal on the pavement. And also appears near the end of U2's music video "Last Night on Earth", pushing a shopping cart with a large spotlight positioned inside it. The video ends with a close up of his eyes.
Burroughs is featured on the 2000 compilation tribute album, Stoned Immaculate, on the track "Is Everybody In?" which pairs Jim Morrison yelping and groaning with Burroughs reading Morrison's poetry. The music was recorded by the surviving Doors members in 2000 specifically for this album.[113]
A Burroughs quote from a visualisation exercise called 'Take Nirvana'[114] was used by director Shane Meadows in the final scene of The Stone Roses' 2013 concert DVD, Made of Stone.[115]
Band names[]
Numerous bands have found their names in Burroughs' work. The most widely known of these is Steely Dan, a group named after a dildo in Naked Lunch.[116] Also from Naked Lunch came the names Clarknova, The Mugwumps and The Insect Trust. The novel Nova Express inspired the names of Grant Hart's post-Hüsker Dü band Nova Mob, as well as Australian 1960s R&B band Nova Express.[117] British band Soft Machine took its moniker from the Burroughs novel of the same name. Alt-country band Clem Snide is named for a Burroughs character. Thin White Rope took their name from Burroughs' euphemism for ejaculation.[118]
The American extreme metal band Success Will Write Apocalypse Across the Sky took their name from the 1989 text "Apocalypse",[119] in which Burroughs describes "art and creative expression taking a literal and physical form".[120]
In film and television[]
Burroughs played Opium Jones in the 1966 Conrad Rooks cult film Chappaqua, which also featured cameo roles by Allen Ginsberg, Moondog, and others.
In 1968, an abbreviated – 77 minutes as opposed to the original's 104 minute – version of Benjamin Christensen's 1922 film Häxan was released, subtitled Witchcraft Through The Ages. This version, produced by Antony Balch, featured an eclectic jazz score by Daniel Humair and expressionist narration by Burroughs.[121] He also appeared alongside Brion Gysin in a number of short films in the 1960s directed by Balch.[122] Jack Sargeant's book Naked Lens: Beat Cinema details Burroughs' film work at length, covering his collaborations with Balch and Burroughs' theories of film.
Burroughs narrated part of the 1980 documentary Shamans of the Blind Country by anthropologist and filmmaker Michael Oppitz.[123] He gave a reading on Saturday Night Live on November 7, 1981, in an episode hosted by Lauren Hutton.
In 1983 director Howard Brookner released Burroughs: the Movie. The film is perhaps the definitive account of Burroughs' life, and Brookner and Burroughs maintained a very close collaboration during the shooting process. The film features interviews with many of Burroughs' friends and collaborators including Allen Ginsberg, Brion Gysin, Francis Bacon, Herbert Huncke, Patti Smith and Terry Southern.
Burroughs subsequently made cameo appearances in a number of other films and videos, such as David Blair's Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees, an elliptic story about the first Gulf War in which Burroughs plays a beekeeper, and Decoder by Klaus Maeck. He played an aging junkie priest in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy. He also appears briefly at the beginning of Van Sant's Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (based on the Tom Robbins novel), in which he is seen crossing a city street; as the noise of the city rises around him he pauses in the middle of the intersection and speaks the single word "ominous". Van Sant's short film "Thanksgiving Prayer" features Burroughs reading the poem "Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 28, 1986", from Tornado Alley, intercut with a collage of black and white images.
Burroughs was portrayed by Kiefer Sutherland in the 2000 film Beat, written and directed by Gary Walkow. Loosely biographical, the plot involves a car trip to Mexico City with Vollmer, Kerouac, Ginsberg, and Lucien Carr, and includes a scene of Vollmer's shooting.
Burroughs is portrayed by Ben Foster in the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings, directed by John Krokidas and written by Krokidas and Austin Bunn. The film tells the story of Lucien Carr (Dane DeHaan) and David Kammerer (Michael C. Hall), with appearances by actors playing Ginsberg (Daniel Radcliffe) and Kerouac (Jack Huston).[124]
Near the end of his life, recordings of Burroughs reading his short stories "A Junky's Christmas" and "Ah Pook is Here" were used on the soundtracks of two highly acclaimed animated films.[125]
Filmmakers Lars Movin and Steen Moller Rasmussen used footage of Burroughs taken during a 1983 tour of Scandinavia in the documentary Words of Advice: William S. Burroughs on the Road. A 2010 documentary, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, was made for Independent Lens on PBS.
Good Will Hunting (released in December 1997) was dedicated to Burroughs, as well as Ginsberg, who died four months earlier.[126]
Burroughs was played by Viggo Mortensen as the character 'Old Bill Lee' from Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road in the 2012 movie adaptation of the novel, On the Road (2012 film)
As a fictional character[]
Burroughs was fictionalized in Jack Kerouac's autobiographical novel On the Road as "Old Bull Lee". He also makes an appearance in J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical 1991 novel The Kindness of Women. In the 2004 novel Move Under Ground, Burroughs, Kerouac, and Neal Cassady team up to defeat Cthulhu.
Burroughs appears in the first part of The Illuminatus! Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson during the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots and is described as a person devoid of anger, passion, indignation, hope, or any other recognizable human emotion. He is presented as a polar opposite of Allen Ginsberg, as Ginsberg believed in everything and Burroughs believed in nothing. Wilson would recount in his Cosmic Trigger II: Down to Earth having interviewed both Burroughs and Ginsberg for Playboy the day the riots began, as well as his experiences with Shea during the riots, providing details on the creation of the fictional sequence.[127]
[]
References[]
Sources[]
Burroughs, William S. (2012). The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs. Penguin UK. ISBN 9780141903583. https://books.google.com/books?id=DivGjW-qEv8C.
Grant, Douglas (2015). "Magick and Photography". http://ashejournal.com/2015/03/16/magick-and-photography/.
Belletto, Steven, ed (2017). "William S. Burroughs: Beating postmodernism". The Cambridge Companion to the Beats. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781107184459. https://books.google.com/books?id=NYXuDQAAQBAJ.
Grauerholz, James; Silverberg, Ira; Douglas, Ann, eds (2000). Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs reader. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3694-X. OCLC 57590795, ISBN 9780802136947.
Lee, Dave Republic of Égyptien Q42 user:mgbtrust0 ®™✓©§∆∆∆€¢£ (1989). "Cut up and collage in magic". https://chaotopia.co.uk/cutupcoll.html.
Morgan, Ted (1988). Literary Outlaw: The life and times of William S. Burroughs. New York: Avon. ISBN 0-8050-0901-9.
P-Orridge, Genesis Breyer (2003). "Magick Squares and Future Beats". In Metzger, Richard. Book of Lies: The disinformation guide to Magick and the Occult. Red Wheel Weiser. ISBN 9780971394278. https://books.google.com/books?id=1zMENGdUSoEC.
P-Orridge, Genesis Breyer (2010). Thee Psychick Bible: Thee apocryphal scriptures ov Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and thee Third Mind ov thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. Feral House. ISBN 9781932595949. https://books.google.com/books?id=X1FjCwAAQBAJ.
Wason, Thomas (February 15, 1951). "William Burroughs". Mexico City Collegian. p. 6. http://catarina.udlap.mx/u_dl_a/acervos/mcc/volumen_04/1951_02_15.pdf.
Burroughs, William S. (2001). Burroughs Live: The collected interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997. Zone Books. ISBN 9781584350101. https://books.google.com/books?id=qUhaAAAAMAAJ.
Stevens, Matthew Levi (2014). The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN 978-1906958640.
Published materials[]
Allmer, Patricia and John Sears (ed.) Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs, London: Prestel and The Photographers' Gallery, 2014.
Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk).
Gilmore, John. Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip. Searching for Rimbaud. Amok Books, 1997.
Harris, Oliver. William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003.
Johnson, Robert Earl. The Lost Years of William S. Burroughs: Beats in South Texas. Texas A&M University Press, 2006.
Kashner, Sam, When I Was Cool, My Life at the Jack Kerouac School, New York: HarperCollins Perennial, 2005.
Miles, Barry. William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible, A Portrait. New York: Hyperion, 1992.
Sargeant, Jack. "Naked Lens: Beat Cinema" New York: Soft Skull Press, 2009 (third edition).
Schneiderman, Davis and Philip Walsh. Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization. London: Pluto Press, 2004.
Stevens, Mathew Levi. The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford, 2014.
Stevens, Michael. The Road to Interzone: Reading William S. Burroughs Reading. suicide press, Archer City, Texas, 2009.
Weidner, Chad. The Green Ghost: William Burroughs and the Ecological Mind. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016.
Wills, David S. Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the Weird Cult. Beatdom Books, London, 2013.
Archival sources[]
William S. Burroughs papers (17 linear feet – 94 boxes) are held by the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library.
William Seward Burroughs Papers, 1957–1976 (2 linear feet) are held in the Columbia University Libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.40 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 55 boxes plus additions) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.85 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 6 boxes) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.87 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 58 boxes) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.90 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 29 boxes) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs collection (3 linear feet) are held in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.
William S. Burroughs Collection, MS 63 and James Grauerholz Collection of William S. Burroughs, MS 319, are held at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas
William S. Burroughs Internet Database, edited by postmodern American scholar Michael Gurnow, hosted on the servers of Southeast Missouri State University from 2000 to 2012.
[1], Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs, The Photographers' Gallery exhibition website.
[2], William S. Burroughs and Photography Lecture Series
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] | null | [] | null | en | https://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/favicon.ico | https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/William_S._Burroughs | William Seward Burroughs II (February 5 1914(1914-02-05)—August 2 1997; pronounced /ˈbʌroʊz/), more commonly known as William S. Burroughs was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer. Much of Burroughs' work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last 50 years of his life. A primary member of the Beat Generation, he was an avant-garde author who affected popular culture as well as literature, helping to popularize themes of drugs and homosexuality during the countercultural period of the 1960s. In 1984, he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Early life and education
Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons of a prominent family in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughs' mother, Laura Hammon Lee (1888-1970), was the daughter of a minister whose family claimed to be related to Robert E. Lee. His maternal uncle, Ivy Lee, was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father, Mortimer Perry Burroughs, ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens; first in St. Louis, then in Palm Beach, Florida.
Burroughs attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism," was published in the John Burroughs Review in 1929.[1] He then attended The Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens." [2]. Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. These remained undiscovered, and in fact he kept his sexual orientation concealed well into adulthood. He was soon expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student.
Harvard University
He finished high school at Taylor School in St. Louis and, in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University. During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, even covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in an East St. Louis brothel that summer with a female prostitute he regularly patronized.[3] While at Harvard Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with a wealthy friend from Kansas City, Richard Stern. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so much, he asked to be let out of the vehicle.[4]
Burroughs graduated from Harvard University in 1936.
His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a tidy sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forego employment. -Ted Morgan, Literary Outlaw.[5]
Burroughs's parents were not overly wealthy; they had sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation. Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash Burroughs's parents sold their stock in the Burroughs Corporation for $200,000.[6]
Europe
After leaving Harvard, Burroughs' formal education ended, except for brief flirtations as a graduate student of anthropology at Harvard and as a medical student in Vienna, Austria. He traveled to Europe, which proved a window into Austrian and Hungarian Weimar-Era homosexuality; he picked up boys in steam baths in Vienna, and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, a Jewish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government. The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, in Croatia, against the wishes of his parents, in order to allow her to gain a visa to the United States. She made her way to New York City, and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years.[7] After returning to the U.S., he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his emotional health became a concern for his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger to impress a man with whom he was infatuated.[8] This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger."
Beginning of The Beats
Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the Attack on Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge—a release from duty based on the premise he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis, Lucien Carr, a University of Chicago student, and David Kammerer, Carr's homosexual admirer, left for New York City, Burroughs followed.
Joan Vollmer
In 1944, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife. Vollmer Adams was married to a GI with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder. The murder involved Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and quickly became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit.
Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was an amphetamine, Benzedrine, which was sold over the counter as a decongestant inhalant at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. Vollmer would become Burroughs’ common law wife. Burroughs was soon arrested for forging a narcotics prescription and was sentenced to return to his parents' care in St. Louis. Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis, which resulted in her admission to a hospital, and the custody of her child was endangered. Yet after Burroughs completed his "house arrest" in St. Louis, he returned to New York, released Vollmer from the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital, and moved with her and her daughter to Texas. Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs' child. Their son, William S. Burroughs, Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.
Burroughs was arrested after police searched his home and found letters between him and Allen Ginsberg referring to a possible delivery of marijuana. Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola state prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at Mexico City College in 1950 in Spanish, "Mexican picture writing" and codices, and the Mayan language.
In 1951, Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer in a drunken game of "William Tell" at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar in Mexico City. He spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials, which allowed Burroughs to be released on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled culpable homicide.[9] Vollmer’s daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs, Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According to James Grauerholz two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had gone off accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, and the ballistics experts were bribed to support this story.[10] Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel Queer while awaiting his trial. However, when his attorney fled Mexico after his own legal problems involving a car accident and altercation with the son of a government official, Burroughs decided, according to Ted Morgan, to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and sentenced to two years, which was suspended.[11]
Birth of a writer
Burroughs later said that shooting Vollmer was a pivotal event in his life, and one which provoked his writing:
I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan's death…. I live with the constant threat of possession, for control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invador [sic], the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out[12].
Yet he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr/Kammerer situation that was left unpublished. Years later, in the documentary What Happened to Kerouac?, Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work." An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in "Word Virus," a compendium of William Burroughs' writing that was published after his death in 1997.
Before Vollmer died, Burroughs had largely completed his first two novels in Mexico, although Queer would not be published until 1985. His first novel was adapted from letters he originally wrote to Ginsberg who encouraged him to think of writing a novel. Junkie was written at the urging of Allen Ginsberg, who was instrumental in getting the work published, even as a cheap mass market paperback. Ace Books published the novel in 1953 as part of an Ace Double under the pen name William Lee, retitling it Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict. (it was later republished as Junkie or Junky). After Vollmer's death, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, looking for a drug called Yage, which promised the user an ability for telepathy. A book resulted from this time, The Yage Letters, published in 1963 by San Francisco's City Lights Books which comprised the letters between Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
Naked Lunch
During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities towards which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances, Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed by his parents' continuing support. When he found Rome and Ansen’s company dreary, inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for Tangier, Morocco.[13] In a home owned by a known procurer of homosexual prostitutes for visiting American and English men, he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as Interzone Burroughs lived in Tangier for several months, before returning to the United States where he suffered several personal indignities; Ginsberg was in California and refused to see him, A. A. Wyn, the publisher of Junkie, was not forthcoming with his royalties and his parents were threatening to cut off his allowance. All signs pointed him back to Tangier, a place where his parents would have to continue the support and one where drugs were freely available; he spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become Naked Lunch, as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier, but none were published until 1989 when Interzone, a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of a marijuana confection known as majoun and a German-made opioid called Eukodol (oxycodone), Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs edit these episodes into Naked Lunch.[14]
Whereas Junkie and Queer were conventional in style, Naked Lunch was his first venture into a non-linear style. At around the time he was composing Naked Lunch, Burroughs was also exposed to Brion Gysin's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in September 1959, he began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences.[15] At the Beat Hotel Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases saying, "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin."[16] The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative. Perhaps thinking of his crazed physician, Dr Benway, he described Naked Lunch as a book that could be cut into at any point. Although not science fiction, the book does seem to forecast—with eerie prescience—such later phenomena as AIDS, liposuction, autoerotic fatalities and the crack pandemic.[17]
Burroughs's "Interzone" could be seen as a metaphorical stateless city, but the term probably was derived from the "International Zone" in Tangier, a city occupied after World War II by French, English, Spanish, and American expatriate communities, each with its own courts and administration. During this time in its history, Tangier was an international refuge for criminals, artists, drug smugglers and tax-evading tycoons. It was not an exaggeration to say everything could be had for a price. When in Tangier, Burroughs's son Billy, now a teenager, came to live with him at the insistence of his parents. It was Burroughs' lover, Ian Sommerville, who recognized that the boy was homesick and urged Burroughs to send him back to the U.S. and the surroundings he had grown up in. After several months with his father, Billy returned to Palm Beach to live with his grandparents again.
Excerpts from Naked Lunch were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was rejected initially by City Lights Books, the publisher of Ginsberg's Howl, and Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, who had published English language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and anti-social characters. But Allen Ginsberg worked to get excerpts published in Black Mountain Review and Chicago Review in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of Chicago Review, a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from Naked Lunch, when he was fired from his position in 1958 after Chicago Daily News columnist Jack Mabley called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal Big Table No. 1; however, these copies elicited such contempt, the editors were accused of sending obscene material through the United States Mail by the United States Postmaster General, who ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers. This controversy made Naked Lunch interesting to Maurice Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959. After the novel was published, it slowly became notorious across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s, but literary critics like Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, Naked Lunch was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, followed by other states. In 1966 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs's novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature—a work consisting solely of words—prosecuted in the United States.
The manuscripts that produced Naked Lunch also produced the later works The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1963). These novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique, which influenced all of Burroughs subsequent fiction to a degree. During his friendship and artistic collaborations with Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, via Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method that he often defended his use of the technique to editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver[18] at Grove Press in the 1960s and Holt, Rinehart & Winston in 1980s. The cut-up method, because of its seemingly random or mechanical basis for text generation, combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers without descending to plagiarism, to some extent de-emphasizes the traditional role of the writer as creator or originator of a string of words while simultaneously exalting the importance of the writer's sensibility as an editor. In this sense the cut-up method may be considered as analogous to the collage method in visual art.
Paris and the ‘Beat Hotel’
Burroughs moved to a run down hotel in Paris' Latin Quarter neighborhood in 1959 when Naked Lunch was still looking for a publisher. Tangier with its easy access to drugs, small cliques of homosexuals, growing political unrest and odd collection of criminals became increasingly unhealthy for Burroughs.[19] He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with Olympia Press. In so doing, he left a brewing legal problem, which eventually transferred itself to Paris. Paul Lund, a former British career criminal and cigarette smuggler Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France. Lund gave up Burroughs and some evidence implicated Burroughs in the possible importation into France of narcotics. Once again, the man faced criminal charges, this time in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates, when the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials. Yet it was under this impending threat of criminal sanction that Maurice Girodias published Naked Lunch, and it was helpful in getting Burroughs a suspended sentence, as a literary career, according to Ted Morgan, is a respected profession in France.
The ‘Beat Hotel’ was a typical European style rooming house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated by Gregory Corso, Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for several months after Naked Lunch first appeared. The actual process of publication was partly a function of its 'cut-up' presentation to the printer. Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically ‘random’ manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance from Grove Press to buy drugs.[20] Naked Lunch was featured in a 1959 LIFE magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement.
The London years
Burroughs left Paris for London in 1966 to take the cure again with Dr. Dent, a well known English medical doctor who spearheaded a painless heroin withdrawal treatment which utilized an electronic box affixed to the patient's temple. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg would take this same cure over a decade later from Dr. Dent's nurse, Smitty.[21]. Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several notable occasions, including one time escorting his son to Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in Florida. In the "Afterward" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels Speed and Kentucky Ham, Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him well upon arrival. He claims he went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, actually traveling with Billy to Lexington, Kentucky from Miami to ensure his son entered the hospital he once spent time in as a volunteer admission. This confession, published in 1981, might strike many readers as proof of Burroughs poor parenting and example, but read in full light of the difficult circumstances he found himself in, it seems like some stubborn proof that Burroughs did care enough about his son to return and see him through the criminal process, even though it caused him much personal pain.[22] Earlier Burroughs revisited St. Louis, Missouri taking a large advance from Playboy to write an article about his trip back to St. Louis that eventually was published in the Paris Review, after Burroughs refused to alter the style for Playboy publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joined Jean Genet, John Sack, and Terry Southern in covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention for Esquire magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who first became acquainted with one another in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt Naked Lunch for the screen in conjunction with American game show producer Chuck Barris.[23]
Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant garde reputation grew internationally as the hippie counterculture discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Anthony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite protestations from Burroughs. In the midst of this personal turmoil, he managed to complete two works: a novel written in screen play format, The Last Words of Dutch Schulz (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel The Wild Boys (1971).
In the 1960s Burroughs also joined and left the Church of Scientology. In talking about the experience, he claimed that the techniques and philosophy of Scientology helped him and that he felt that further study into Scientology would produce great results. However he was skeptical of the organization itself, and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion.[24] His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of a book entitled Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters in the pages of Rolling Stone.
Exile returns
In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg got Burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the City College of New York. Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed 'The Bunker', on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The dwelling was partially a converted YMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York City rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; in fact, it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed doubling the rent overnight.[25]. Burroughs chalked up 'teacher' to another one of the jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester teaching; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he even turned down a teaching position at the University at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back."[26]. His savior was the newly arrived, 21-year-old bookseller and beat generation devotee James Grauerholz, who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary. It was Grauerholz who floated the idea of reading tours, something similar to rock and roll touring, or stand-up comedian dates in clubs across the country. Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile which eventually aided in new publishing contracts. Through Grauerholz, Burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine Crawdaddy, for which he interviewed Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in 1975. Thus Burroughs capitalized on the emerging American celebrity culture, deciding to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural players Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Susan Sontag, frequently entertaining them at the Bunker. Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern and Dennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of Junky. Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.
Organized by Columbia professor Sylvere Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs' work held from November 30-December 2, 1978 at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem) in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary & Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52s, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Deborah Harry & Chris Stein.
In 1976, Billy Burroughs was eating dinner with his father and Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, Colorado at Ginsberg’s Buddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) at Chogyam Trungpa's Naropa University when he began to vomit blood. William had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg’s apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s, and was deemed by literary critics like Ann Charters as a bona fide “second generation beat writer”[27], his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had fallen apart. Under his constant drinking, there were long periods where Billy was out of contact with any family or friends. The diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Billy underwent the procedure and beat the 30-percent-survival odds. His father spent many months in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through many additional surgeries and complications. Their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy.[28]
In London, he had begun to write what would become the first novel of a three book trilogy. Between 1981 and 1987 he published Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). Grauerholz helped edit Cities when it was first rejected by Burroughs’ long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. Interestingly, the novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern leaving the reader to sort through the hip-hop of characters and events. This technique was definitely different than earlier cut-up methods which were organically accidental from the start. Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The back and forth sway of the read replicated the theme of the trilogy, time travel adventures where Burroughs’ narrators re-write episodes in history and thus reform mankind.[29]. Although reviews were not generally favorable for Cities—Anthony Burgess panned the work in Saturday Review saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible worldview or theology—the novel proved Burroughs was still a creative force worth noting. Emerging writers, like J. G. Ballard, argued Burroughs was shaping a new literary “mythography”.[30].
In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in Esquire claiming his father had poisoned his life; revealing that he had been molested by one of his father's friends as a 14-year-old while visiting his dad in Tangiers, which he had previously kept to himself. The liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink; he suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. He had stopped taking his transplant rejection drugs, and was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterwards. Burroughs was in New York when he heard of the tragedy; by 1979 Burroughs himself was addicted to heroin again. The cheap heroin easily purchased outside his door in the Lower East Side "made its way" into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. From this point until his death, he was regularly addicted to heroin; he died in 1997 on a methadone maintenance program. In an introduction to Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs Grauerholz states that it was part of his job, while managing reading tours in the 1980s and 1990s, to deal with the “underworld” in each city to secure the author’s needed drugs.[31]
Later years in Kansas
Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1981 and lived the remainder of his life there. In 1984 he signed a seven book deal with Viking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the 1953 unpublished novel Queer. With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000.[32] He was finally inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy proved Herbert Marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.[33]
By late 1980s, Burroughs had become a counterculture figure and collaborated with performers ranging from Bill Laswell's Material and Laurie Anderson to Throbbing Gristle, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Ministry, and in the 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy, playing a character based on a short story he published in Exterminator!, "the "Priest" they called him." In 1990, he released the spoken word album Dead City Radio, with musical back-up from producers Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. A collaboration with musicians Nick Cave and Tom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, "Smack my Crack," later released as a spoken word album in 1987. He also collaborated with Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson to create The Black Rider, a play which opened at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990, to critical acclaim, and was later performed all over Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs's sanction, director David Cronenberg took on the seemingly impossible task of adapting Naked Lunch into a full-length feature film. The film opened to critical acclaim. He became a member of a chaos magic organization, the Illuminates of Thanateros in 1993,[34] a group whose very existence would not have been possible without Burroughs' works.
During his later years in Kansas, Burroughs also developed a painting technique, creating abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of, and some distance from, blank canvasses, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shotgun. These splattered canvasses were shown in at least one New York City gallery in the early 1990s.
Burroughs' final filmed performance was in the video for "Last Night on Earth" by Irish rock band U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.[35]
Burroughs died at the age of 83 in Lawrence, August 2, 1997, from complications of the previous day's heart attack. He is interred in the family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri. As of November 18, 2007, the grave has a marker bearing his full name and the epitaph "American Writer." The grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk of William Seward Burroughs I (1857-1898).
After his death
Since 1997, several postumous collections of Burroughs' work have been published. A collection of writings spanning his entire career, Word Virus, was published (according to the book's introduction, Burroughs himself approved its contents prior to his death). Aside from numerous previously released pieces, Word Virus also included one of the few surviving fragments of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. an unpublished novel by Burroughs and Kerouac. A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burrough's life was published as the book Last Words in 2000. Publication of a memoir by Burroughs entitled Evil River by Viking Press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release, Web retailers such as Amazon.com indicated a 2007 release, complete with an ISBN number (ISBN 0670813516), but no such release occurred. In December 2007, Ohio State University Press released Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs, Edited by Oliver Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing Queer and The Yage Letters.[36] In addition, special editions of The Yage Letters, Naked Lunch and Junkie/Junky have been published in recent years, all containing additional material and essays on the works.
In March 2008, Penguin Books announced that the Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript, And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks will be published for the first time in November 2008. (Previously, a fragment of the manuscript had been published in the compendium, Word Virus).[37]
Literary style and periods
Burroughs's major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later:
Early Work (early 1950s): Junkie, Queer and The Yage Letters are relatively straightforward linear narratives, written in and about Burrough's time in Mexico City and South America.
The Cut-Up Period (mid-1950s to mid-1960s): Naked Lunch is a fragmentary collection of "routines" from The Word Hoardndash;manuscripts written in Tangier, Paris, and London, blending into the cut-up and fold-in fiction also heavily drawn from The Word Hoard: The Soft Machine, Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, also referred to as "The Nova Trilogy" described by Burroughs as an attempt to create "a mythology for the space age." Interzone derives from this period.
Experiment & Subversion (mid-1960s to mid-1970s): Burroughs continued experimental writing with increased political content, branching into film and sound recording. The only major novel written in this period was The Wild Boys, but he also wrote dozens of published articles, short stories, scrap books and other works, several in collaboration with Brion Gyson. Anthologies representing work from this period are The Burroughs File, The Adding Machine and Exterminator!.
The Red Night Trilogy (mid-1970s to mid-1980s): Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands came from this final, mature stage, creating a complete mythology.
Burroughs has also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material, including a book with a detailed account of his own dreams My Education: A Book of Dreams.
Legacy
Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the twentieth century, most notably by Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius," appears on many Burroughs publications. Others, however, consider him overrated. Others still consider his concepts and attitude more influential than his prose. Prominent admirers of Burroughs's work have included British critic and biographer Peter Ackroyd, the rock critic Lester Bangs and the authors J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Jean Genet, William Gibson, Charles Bukowski, Alan Moore and Ken Kesey.
Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to him, admirers from the late 1970s, early 1980s milieu of this sub-genre including William Gibson and John Shirley. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) Interzone paid tribute to him with its choice of name. He is cited as a major influence by musicians Patti Smith, Genesis P-Orridge, Ian Curtis, Laurie Anderson, and Kurt Cobain.
The themes of drugs, homosexuality and death, common to Burroughs's routines, are taken up by Dennis Cooper, of whom Burroughs said, "Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer." Cooper, in return, wrote, in his essay 'King Junk',
"along with Jean Genet, John Rechy, and Ginsberg, [Burroughs] helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow, providing gay liberation with a delicious edge."
Splatterpunk writer Poppy Z. Brite continuously references this aspect of Burroughs' work.
Burroughs was cited by Robert Anton Wilson as being the first person to notice the 23 numerological phenomena, or "23 enigma," as it sometimes called:[38]
I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.[39]
—Robert Anton Wilson, Fortean Times
The best known pictures of Burroughs were taken by photographer John Minihan, who photographed him between 1963 and 1991 and developed such a good relationship with the writer that he became, in effect, his official photographer. Burroughs was inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri.
Bibliography
Non-fiction
Stories and novellas
Valentine's Day Reading (1965)
Time (1965)
APO-33 (1966)
So Who Owns Death TV? (1967)
The Dead Star (1969)
Ali's Smile (1971)
Mayfair Academy Series More or Less (1973)
White Subway (1973) - later included in The Burroughs File
Exterminator! (1973) (ISBN 0-14-005003-5) (a different book from the 1960 collaboration with Brion Gysin)
The Book of Breething (aka "Ah Pook Is Here") (1974)
Snack... ISBN 0856520144 (1975)
Cobble Stone Gardens (1976) - later included in The Burroughs File
Blade Runner (a movie) (1979) ISBN 0912652462
Dr. Benway (1979)
Die Alten Filme (The Old Movies) (1979) - later included in The Burroughs File
Streets of Chance (1981)
Early Routines (1981)
Sinki's Sauna (1982)
Ruski (1984)
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1984)
The Cat Inside (1986)
The Whole Tamale (c.1987-88)
Interzone (1987) ISBN 0140094512
Tornado Alley (1989)
Ghost of Chance (1991) ISBN 1852424575
Seven Deadly Sins (1992)
Paper Cloud; Thick Pages (1992)
Collections
Roosevelt After Inauguration and Other Atrocities (1965)
Ali's Smile/Naked Scientology (1978)
Ah Pook is Here, Nova Express, Cities of the Red Night (1981) ISBN 0312278462
The Burroughs File (1984)
The Adding Machine: Collected Essays (1985) ISBN 1559702109
Uncommon Quotes Vol. 1 (1989)
Selected Letters (1993)
Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960-1997 (2000) ISBN 1584350105
The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945-1959
Word Virus: The William Burroughs Reader (1998) ISBN 0006552145
Collaborations
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (1945 - scheduled for publication November 2008) (with Jack Kerouac)
Minutes To Go (1960) (with Sinclair Beilles, Gregory Corso and Brion Gysin)
The Exterminator (1960) (with Brion Gysin)
The Yage Letters (1963) (with Allen Ginsberg)
Brion Gysin Let the Mice In (1973) (with Brion Gysin)
Sidetripping (1975) (with Charles Gatewood)
Colloque de Tangier (1976) (with Brion Gysin)
The Third Mind (1977) (with Brion Gysin)
Colloque de Tangier Vol. 2 (1979) (with Brion Gysin and Gérard-Georges Lemaire)
Apocalypse (1988) (with Keith Haring)
Notes
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
Ambrose, Joe, Terry Wilson, Frank Rynne. Man From Nowhere; Storming the Citadels of Enlightenment with William Burroughs and Brion Gysin. Autonomedia, 1992. ISBN 9780952021704.
Bockris, Victor. With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 1996.
Burroughs, William. Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs, ed. by James Grauerholz. New York: Grove Press: 2001. ISBN 0802137784
Charters, Ann, ed. The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. ISBN 0670838853.
Gilmore, John. Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywod Death Trip. Searching for Rimbaud. Amok Books, 1997. ISBN 9781878923080.
Grauerholz, James. Word Virus. New York: Grove, 1998. ISBN 9780802116291.
Miles, Barry. William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible, A Portrait. New York: Hyperion, 1992. ISBN 9781562828486.
Morgan, Ted. Literary Outlaw. New York: Avon, 1988. ISBN 9780370315867.
All links retrieved May 12, 2023. | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 12 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Abraham_Lincoln | en | Assassination of Abraham Lincoln | [
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Assassination of Abraham LincolnPart of the conclusion of the American Civil WarLocationFord's Theatre, Washington, D.C., U.S.DateApril 14, 1865; 159 years ago ( )
10:15 PMTarget
Attack type
Political assassination
shooting
stabbing
Weapons
Philadelphia Deringer pistol
dagger
Deaths
Abraham Lincoln (died April 15, 1865, at 7:22 AM)
John Wilkes Booth (perpetrator, killed on April 26, 1865)
InjuredPerpetratorsJohn Wilkes Booth and co-conspiratorsMotiveRevenge for the Confederate States
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was shot by John Wilkes Booth while attending the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. Shot in the head as he watched the play,[2] Lincoln died of his wounds the following day at 7:22 am in the Petersen House opposite the theater.[3] He was the first U.S. president to be assassinated.[4] His funeral and burial were marked by an extended period of national mourning.
Near the end of the American Civil War, Lincoln's assassination was part of a larger political conspiracy intended by Booth to revive the Confederate cause by eliminating the three most important officials of the federal government. Conspirators Lewis Powell and David Herold were assigned to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward, and George Atzerodt was tasked with killing Vice President Andrew Johnson.
Beyond Lincoln's death, the plot failed: Seward was only wounded, and Johnson's would-be attacker became drunk instead of killing the vice president. After a dramatic initial escape, Booth was killed at the end of a 12-day chase. Powell, Herold, Atzerodt, and Mary Surratt were later hanged for their roles in the conspiracy.
Background
Abandoned plan to kidnap Lincoln
John Wilkes Booth, born in Maryland into a family of prominent stage actors, had by the time of the assassination become a famous actor and national celebrity in his own right. He was also an outspoken Confederate sympathizer; in late 1860 he was initiated in the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle in Baltimore, Maryland.[5]: 67
In May 1863, the Confederate States Congress passed a law prohibiting the exchange of black soldiers, following a previous decree by President Jefferson Davis in December 1862 that neither black soldiers nor their white officers would be exchanged. This became a reality in mid-July 1863 after some soldiers of the 54th Massachusetts were not exchanged following their assault on Fort Wagner. On July 30, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln issued General Order 252 to stop prisoner exchanges with the South until all Northern soldiers would be exchanged without regard for their skin color. Stopping the prisoner exchanges is often wrongly attributed to General Grant, even though he was commanding an army in the west in mid-1863 and became overall commander in early 1864.[6]
Booth conceived a plan to kidnap Lincoln in order to blackmail the Union into resuming prisoner exchanges,[7]: 130–34 and he recruited Samuel Arnold, George Atzerodt, David Herold, Michael O'Laughlen, Lewis Powell (also known as "Lewis Paine"), and John Surratt to help him. Surratt's mother, Mary Surratt, left her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland, and moved to a house in Washington, D.C., where Booth became a frequent visitor.
Booth and Lincoln were not personally acquainted, but Lincoln had seen Booth at Ford's Theatre in 1863.[8]: 419 [9][10] After the assassination, actor Frank Mordaunt wrote that Lincoln, who apparently harbored no suspicions about Booth, admired the actor and had repeatedly but unsuccessfully invited him to visit the White House.[11]: 325–26 Booth attended Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865, writing in his diary afterwards: "What an excellent chance I had, if I wished, to kill the President on Inauguration day!"[7]: 174, 437n41
On March 17, Booth and the other conspirators planned to abduct Lincoln as he returned from a play at Campbell General Hospital in northwest Washington. Lincoln did not go to the play, however, instead attending a ceremony at the National Hotel.[7]: 185 Booth was living at the National Hotel at the time and, had he not gone to the hospital for the abortive kidnap attempt, might have been able to attack Lincoln at the hotel.[7]: 185–86, 439n17 [12]: 25
Meanwhile, the Confederacy was collapsing. On April 3, Richmond, Virginia, the Confederate capital, fell to the Union Army. On April 9, General Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant and his Army of the Potomac after the Battle of Appomattox Court House. Confederate President Jefferson Davis and other Confederate officials had fled. Nevertheless, Booth continued to believe in the Confederate cause and sought a way to salvage it; he soon decided to assassinate Lincoln.[13]: 728
Motive
There are various theories about Booth's motivations. In a letter to his mother, he wrote of his desire to avenge the South.[14] Doris Kearns Goodwin has endorsed the idea that another factor was Booth's rivalry with his well-known older brother, actor Edwin Booth, who was a loyal Unionist.[15] David S. Reynolds believes that, though disagreeing with his cause, Booth greatly admired the daring of abolitionist John Brown;[16] Booth's sister Asia Booth Clarke quoted him as saying, "John Brown was a man inspired, the grandest character of the century!"[16][17]
On April 11, Booth attended Lincoln's last speech, in which Lincoln promoted voting rights for emancipated slaves;[18] Booth said, "That means nigger citizenship. ... That is the last speech he will ever give."[19] Enraged, Booth urged Powell to shoot Lincoln on the spot. Whether Booth made this request because he was not armed or considered Powell a better shot than himself (Powell, unlike Booth, had served in the Confederate Army and thus had military experience) is unknown. In any event, Powell refused for fear of the crowd, and Booth was either unable or unwilling to personally attempt to kill the president. However, Booth said to David Herold, "By God, I'll put him through."[20][8]: 91
Lincoln's premonitions
According to Ward Hill Lamon, three days before his death, Lincoln related a dream in which he wandered the White House searching for the source of mournful sounds:
I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. "Who is dead in the White House?" I demanded of one of the soldiers, "The President," was his answer; "he was killed by an assassin."[21]
However, Lincoln later told Lamon that "In this dream it was not me, but some other fellow, that was killed. It seems that this ghostly assassin tried his hand on someone else."[22][23] Paranormal investigator Joe Nickell wrote that dreams of assassination would not be unexpected, considering the Baltimore Plot and an additional assassination attempt in which a hole was shot through Lincoln's hat.[22]
For months, Lincoln had looked pale and haggard, but on the morning of the assassination he told people how happy he was. First Lady Mary Lincoln felt such talk could bring bad luck.[24]: 346 Lincoln told his cabinet that he had dreamed of being on a "singular and indescribable vessel that was moving with great rapidity toward a dark and indefinite shore", and that he had had the same dream before "nearly every great and important event of the War" such as the Union victories at Antietam, Murfreesboro, Gettysburg, and Vicksburg.[25]
Preparations
On April 14, Booth's morning started at midnight. He wrote his mother that all was well but that he was "in haste". In his diary, he wrote that "Our cause being almost lost, something decisive and great must be done".[13]: 728 [24]: 346
While visiting Ford's Theatre around noon to pick up his mail, Booth learned that Lincoln and Grant were to visit the theater that evening for a performance of Our American Cousin. This provided him with an especially good opportunity to attack Lincoln since, having performed there several times, he knew the theater's layout and was familiar to its staff.[12]: 12 [8]: 108–09 Booth went to Mary Surratt's boarding house in Washington, D.C., and asked her to deliver a package to her tavern in Surrattsville, Maryland. He also asked her to tell her tenant Louis J. Weichmann to ready the guns and ammunition that Booth had previously stored at the tavern.[12]: 19
The conspirators met for the final time at 8:45 pm. Booth assigned Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward at his home, Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson at the Kirkwood Hotel, and Herold to guide Powell (who was unfamiliar with Washington) to the Seward house and then to a rendezvous with Booth in Maryland.
Booth was the only well-known member of the conspiracy. Access to the theater's upper floor containing the Presidential Box was restricted, and Booth was the only plotter who could have realistically expected to be admitted there without difficulty. Furthermore, it would have been reasonable (but ultimately incorrect) for the plotters to have assumed that the entrance of the box would be guarded. Had it been, Booth would have been the only plotter with a plausible chance of gaining access to the President, or at least to gain entry to the box without being searched for weapons first. Booth planned to shoot Lincoln at point-blank range with his single-shot Philadelphia Deringer pistol and then stab Grant at the theater. They were all to strike simultaneously shortly after ten o'clock.[8]: 112 Atzerodt tried to withdraw from the plot, which to this point had involved only kidnapping, not murder, but Booth pressured him to continue.[7]: 212
Assassination
Lincoln arrives at the theater
Despite what Booth had heard earlier in the day, Grant and his wife, Julia Grant, had declined to accompany the Lincolns, as Mary Lincoln and Julia Grant were not on good terms.[26]: 45 [b] Others in succession also declined the Lincolns' invitation, until finally Major Henry Rathbone and his fiancée Clara Harris (daughter of U.S. Senator Ira Harris of New York) accepted.[12]: 32 At one point, Mary developed a headache and was inclined to stay home, but Lincoln told her he must attend because newspapers had announced that he would.[28] William H. Crook, one of Lincoln's bodyguards, advised him not to go, but Lincoln said he had promised his wife.[29] Lincoln told Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, "I suppose it's time to go though I would rather stay" before assisting Mary into the carriage.
The presidential party arrived late and settled into their box, made from two adjoining boxes with a dividing partition removed. The play was interrupted, and the orchestra played "Hail to the Chief" as the full house of about 1,700 rose in applause.[30] Lincoln sat in a rocking chair that had been selected for him from among the Ford family's personal furnishings.[31][32]
The cast modified a line of the play in honor of Lincoln: when the heroine asked for a seat protected from the draft, the reply – scripted as, "Well, you're not the only one that wants to escape the draft" – was delivered instead as, "The draft has already been stopped by order of the President!"[33] A member of the audience observed that Mary Lincoln often called her husband's attention to aspects of the action onstage, and "seemed to take great pleasure in witnessing his enjoyment".[34]
At one point, Mary whispered to Lincoln, who was holding her hand, "What will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" Lincoln replied, "She won't think anything about it".[12]: 39 In following years, these words were traditionally considered Lincoln's last, though N.W. Miner, a family friend, claimed in 1882 that Mary Lincoln told him that Lincoln's last words expressed a wish to visit Jerusalem.[35]
Booth shoots Lincoln
Lincoln's usual protections were not in place that night at Ford's. Crook was on a second shift at the White House,[36] and Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln's personal bodyguard, was away in Richmond on assignment from Lincoln. John Frederick Parker was assigned to guard the Presidential Box.[37] At intermission he went to a nearby tavern along with Lincoln's valet, Charles Forbes, and Coachman Francis Burke. Booth had several drinks while waiting for his planned time. It is unclear whether Parker returned to the theater, but he was certainly not at his post when Booth entered the box.[38] In any event, there is no certainty that entry would have been denied to a celebrity such as Booth. Booth had prepared a brace to bar the door after entering the box, indicating that he expected a guard. After spending time at the tavern, Booth entered Ford's Theatre one last time at about 10:10 pm, this time through the theater's front entrance. He passed through the dress circle and went to the door that led to the Presidential Box after showing Charles Forbes his calling card. Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd saw Booth arrive:[39]
About 10:25 pm, a man came in and walked slowly along the side on which the "Pres" box was and I heard a man say, "There's Booth" and I turned my head to look at him. He was still walking very slow and was near the box door when he stopped, took a card from his pocket, wrote something on it, and gave it to the usher who took it to the box. In a minute the door was opened and he walked in.
Once inside the hallway, Booth barricaded the door by wedging a stick between it and the wall. From here, a second door led to Lincoln's box. Evidence shows that, earlier in the day, Booth had bored a peephole in this second door.[40][41]: 173
Booth knew the play Our American Cousin, and waited to time his shot at about 10:15 pm, with the laughter at one of the hilarious lines of the play, delivered by actor Harry Hawk: "Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal; you sockdologizing old man-trap!". Lincoln was laughing at this line[42]: 96 when Booth opened the door, stepped forward, and shot him from behind with his pistol.[2]
The bullet entered Lincoln's skull behind his left ear, passed through his brain, and came to rest near the front of the skull after fracturing both orbital plates.[c][45] Lincoln slumped over in his chair and then fell backward.[47][48] Rathbone turned to see Booth standing in gunsmoke less than four feet behind Lincoln; Booth shouted a word that Rathbone thought sounded like "Freedom!"[49]
Booth escapes
Rathbone jumped from his seat and struggled with Booth, who dropped the pistol and drew a dagger with which he stabbed Rathbone in the left forearm. Rathbone again grabbed at Booth as he prepared to jump from the box to the stage, a twelve-foot drop;[50] Booth's riding spur became entangled on the Treasury flag decorating the box, and he landed awkwardly on his left foot. As he began crossing the stage, many in the audience thought he was part of the play.
Booth held his bloody knife over his head and yelled something to the audience. While it is traditionally held that Booth shouted the Virginia state motto, Sic semper tyrannis! ("Thus always to tyrants") either from the box or the stage, witness accounts conflict.[13]: 739 Most recalled hearing Sic semper tyrannis! but others – including Booth himself – said he yelled only Sic semper![51][52] Some did not recall Booth saying anything in Latin. There is similar uncertainty about what Booth shouted next, in English: either "The South is avenged!",[12]: 48 "Revenge for the South!", or "The South shall be free!" Two witnesses remembered Booth's words as: "I have done it!"
Immediately after Booth landed on the stage, Major Joseph B. Stewart climbed over the orchestra pit and footlights and pursued Booth across the stage.[50] The screams of Mary Lincoln and Clara Harris, and Rathbone's cries of, "Stop that man!"[12]: 49 prompted others to join the chase as pandemonium broke out.
Booth exited the theater through a side door, and on the way stabbing orchestra leader William Withers, Jr.[53][54] As he leapt into the saddle of his getaway horse Booth pushed away Joseph Burroughs,[a] who had been holding the horse, striking Burroughs with the handle of his knife.[55][56][57][1]
Death of Lincoln
Charles Leale, a young Union Army surgeon, pushed through the crowd to the door of the Presidential Box, but could not open it until Rathbone, inside, noticed and removed the wooden brace with which Booth had jammed the door shut.[8]: 120
Leale found Lincoln seated with his head leaning to his right[44] as Mary held him and sobbed: "His eyes were closed and he was in a profoundly comatose condition, while his breathing was intermittent and exceedingly stertorous."[58][59] Thinking Lincoln had been stabbed, Leale shifted him to the floor. Meanwhile, another physician, Charles Sabin Taft, was lifted into the box from the stage.
After Leale and bystander William Kent cut away Lincoln's collar while unbuttoning his coat and shirt and found no stab wound, Leale located the gunshot wound behind the left ear. He found the bullet too deep to be removed but dislodged a blood clot, after which Lincoln's breathing improved;[8]: 121–22 he learned that regularly removing new clots maintained Lincoln's breathing. After giving Lincoln artificial respiration, Leale allowed actress Laura Keene to cradle the President's head in her lap. He pronounced the wound mortal.[12]: 78
Leale, Taft, and another doctor, Albert King, decided that Lincoln must be moved to the nearest house on Tenth Street because a carriage ride to the White House was too dangerous. Carefully, seven men picked up Lincoln and slowly carried him out of the theater, which was packed with an angry mob. After considering Peter Taltavull's Star Saloon next door, they concluded that they would take Lincoln to one of the houses across the way. It was raining as soldiers carried Lincoln into the street,[60] where a man urged them toward the house of tailor William Petersen.[61] In Petersen's first-floor bedroom, the exceptionally tall Lincoln was laid diagonally on a small bed.[8]: 123–24
After clearing everyone out of the room, including Mrs. Lincoln, the doctors cut away Lincoln's clothes but discovered no other wounds. Finding that Lincoln was cold, they applied hot water bottles and mustard plasters while covering him with blankets. Later, more physicians arrived: Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes, Charles Henry Crane, Anderson Ruffin Abbott, and Robert K. Stone (Lincoln's personal physician).
All agreed Lincoln could not survive. Barnes probed the wound, locating the bullet and some bone fragments. Throughout the night, as the hemorrhage continued, they removed blood clots to relieve pressure on the brain,[62] and Leale held the comatose president's hand with a firm grip, "to let him know that he was in touch with humanity and had a friend".[8]: 14 [63]
Lincoln's older son Robert Todd Lincoln arrived at about 11 pm, but twelve-year-old Tad Lincoln, who was watching a play of Aladdin at Grover's Theater when he learned of his father's assassination, was kept away. Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton arrived. Stanton insisted that the sobbing Mrs. Lincoln leave the sick room, then for the rest of the night he essentially ran the United States government from the house, including directing the hunt for Booth and the other conspirators.[8]: 127–28 Guards kept the public away, but numerous officials and physicians were admitted to pay their respects.[62]
Initially, Lincoln's features were calm and his breathing slow and steady. Later, one of his eyes became swollen and the right side of his face discolored.[66] Maunsell Bradhurst Field wrote in a letter to The New York Times that Lincoln then started "breathing regularly, but with effort, and did not seem to be struggling or suffering."[67][68]
As he neared death, Lincoln's appearance became "perfectly natural"[67] (except for the discoloration around his eyes).[70] Shortly before 7 am Mary was allowed to return to Lincoln's side,[71] and, as Dixon reported, "she again seated herself by the President, kissing him and calling him every endearing name."[72]
Lincoln died at 7:22 am on April 15.[3] Mary Lincoln was not present.[73][74] In his last moments, Lincoln's face became calm and his breathing quieter.[75] Field wrote there was "no apparent suffering, no convulsive action, no rattling of the throat ... [only] a mere cessation of breathing".[67][68] According to Lincoln's secretary John Hay, at the moment of Lincoln's death, "a look of unspeakable peace came upon his worn features".[76] The assembly knelt for a prayer, after which Stanton said either, "Now he belongs to the ages" or, "Now he belongs to the angels."[8]: 134 [77]
On Lincoln's death, Vice President Johnson became the 17th president of the United States. The presidential oath of office was administered to Johnson by Chief Justice Salmon Chase sometime between 10 and 11 am.[78]
Powell attacks Seward
Booth had assigned Lewis Powell to kill Secretary of State William H. Seward. On the night of the assassination, Seward was at his home on Lafayette Square, confined to bed and recovering from injuries sustained on April 5 from being thrown from his carriage. Herold guided Powell to Seward's house. Powell carried an 1858 Whitney revolver (a large, heavy, and popular gun during the Civil War) and a Bowie knife.
William Bell, Seward's maître d', answered the door when Powell knocked at 10:10 pm, as Booth made his way to the Presidential Box at Ford's Theater. Powell told Bell that he had medicine from Seward's physician and that his instructions were to personally show Seward how to take it. Overcoming Bell's skepticism, Powell made his way up the stairs to Seward's third-floor bedroom.[12]: 54 [13]: 736 [79] At the top of the staircase he was stopped by Seward's son, Assistant Secretary of State Frederick W. Seward, to whom he repeated the medicine story; Frederick, suspicious, said his father was asleep.
Hearing voices, Seward's daughter Fanny emerged from Seward's room and said, "Fred, Father is awake now" – thus revealing to Powell where Seward was. Powell turned as if to start downstairs but suddenly turned again and drew his revolver. He aimed at Frederick's forehead and pulled the trigger, but the gun misfired, so he bludgeoned Frederick unconscious with it. Bell, yelling "Murder! Murder!", ran outside for help.
Fanny opened the door again, and Powell shoved past her to Seward's bed. He stabbed at Seward's face and neck, slicing open his cheek.[12]: 58 However, the splint (often mistakenly described as a neck brace) that doctors had fitted to Seward's broken jaw prevented the blade from penetrating his jugular vein.[13]: 737 Seward eventually recovered, though with serious scars on his face.
Seward's son Augustus and Sergeant George F. Robinson, a soldier assigned to Seward, were alerted by Fanny's screams and received stab wounds in struggling with Powell. As Augustus went for a pistol, Powell ran downstairs toward the door,[80]: 275 where he encountered Emerick Hansell, a State Department messenger.[81][82] Powell stabbed Hansell in the back, then ran outside exclaiming, "I'm mad! I'm mad!" Screams from the house had frightened Herold, who ran off, leaving Powell to find his own way in an unfamiliar city.[12]: 59
Atzerodt fails to attack Johnson
Booth had assigned George Atzerodt to kill Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was staying at the Kirkwood House in Washington. Atzerodt was to go to Johnson's room at 10:15 pm and shoot him.[13]: 735 On April 14, Atzerodt rented the room directly above Johnson's; the next day, he arrived there at the appointed time and, carrying a gun and knife, went to the bar downstairs, where he asked the bartender about Johnson's character and behavior. He eventually became drunk and wandered off through the streets, tossing his knife away at some point. He made his way to the Pennsylvania House Hotel by 2 am, where he obtained a room and went to sleep.[8]: 166–67 [80]: 335
Earlier in the day, Booth had stopped by the Kirkwood House and left a note for Johnson: "I don't wish to disturb you. Are you at home? J. Wilkes Booth."[79] One theory is that Booth was trying to find out whether Johnson was expected at the Kirkwood that night;[8]: 111 another holds that Booth, concerned that Atzerodt would fail to kill Johnson, intended the note to implicate Johnson in the conspiracy.[83]
Reactions
Lincoln was mourned in both the North and South,[80]: 350 and indeed around the world.[84] Numerous foreign governments issued proclamations and declared periods of mourning on April 15.[85][86] Lincoln was praised in sermons on Easter Sunday, which fell on the day after his death.[80]: 357
On April 18, mourners lined up seven deep for a mile to view Lincoln in his walnut casket in the White House's black-draped East Room. Special trains brought thousands from other cities, some of whom slept on the Capitol's lawn.[87]: 120–23 Hundreds of thousands watched the funeral procession on April 19,[12]: 213 and millions more lined the 1,700-mile (2,700 km) route of the train which took Lincoln's remains through New York to Springfield, Illinois, often passing trackside tributes in the form of bands, bonfires, and hymn-singing.[88]: 31–58 [42]: 231–38
Poet Walt Whitman composed "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd", "O Captain! My Captain!", and two other poems, to eulogize Lincoln.[89][90]
Ulysses S. Grant called Lincoln "incontestably the greatest man I ever knew".[13]: 747 Robert E. Lee expressed sadness.[91] Southern-born Elizabeth Blair said that "Those of Southern born sympathies know now they have lost a friend willing and more powerful to protect and serve them than they can now ever hope to find again."[13]: 744 African-American orator Frederick Douglass called the assassination an "unspeakable calamity".[91]
British Foreign Secretary Lord Russell called Lincoln's death a "sad calamity".[86] China's chief secretary of state for foreign affairs, Prince Gong, described himself as "inexpressibly shocked and startled".[85] Ecuadorian president Gabriel García Moreno said, "Never should I have thought that the noble country of Washington would be humiliated by such a black and horrible crime; nor should I ever have thought that Mr. Lincoln would come to such a horrible end, after having served his country with such wisdom and glory under so critical circumstances."[85][86] The government of Liberia issued a proclamation calling Lincoln "not only the ruler of his own people, but a father to millions of a race stricken and oppressed". The government of Haiti condemned the assassination as a "horrid crime".[86]
Flight and capture of the conspirators
Booth and Herold
Within half an hour of fleeing Ford's Theatre, Booth crossed the Navy Yard Bridge into Maryland.[12]: 67–68 A Union Army sentry named Silas Cobb questioned him about his late-night travel; Booth said that he was going home to the nearby town of Charles. Although it was forbidden for civilians to cross the bridge after 9 pm, the sentry let him through.[92] Herold made it across the same bridge less than one hour later[12]: 81–82 and rendezvoused with Booth.[12]: 87 After retrieving weapons and supplies previously stored at Surattsville, Herold and Booth rode to the home of Samuel A. Mudd, a local doctor, who splinted the leg[12]: 131, 153 Booth had broken in his escape and later made a pair of crutches for Booth.[12]: 131, 153
After one day at Mudd's house, Booth and Herold hired a local man to guide them to Samuel Cox's house.[12]: 163 Cox, in turn, took them to Thomas Jones, a Confederate sympathizer who hid Booth and Herold in Zekiah Swamp for five days until they could cross the Potomac River.[12]: 224 On the afternoon of April 24, they arrived at the farm of Richard H. Garrett, a tobacco farmer, in King George County, Virginia. Booth told Garrett he was a wounded Confederate soldier.
An April 15 letter to Navy Surgeon George Brainerd Todd from his brother tells of the rumors in Washington about Booth:
Today all the city is in mourning nearly every house being in black and I have not seen a smile, no business, and many a strong man I have seen in tears – Some reports say Booth is a prisoner, others that he has made his escape – but from orders received here, I believe he is taken, and during the night will be put on a Monitor for safe keeping – as a mob once raised now would know no end.[39]
The hunt for the conspirators quickly became the largest in U.S. history, involving thousands of federal troops and countless civilians. Edwin M. Stanton personally directed the operation,[93] authorizing rewards of US$50,000 (equivalent to $995,217 in 2023) for Booth and $25,000 each for Herold and John Surratt.[94]
Booth and Herold were sleeping at Garrett's farm on April 26 when soldiers from the 16th New York Cavalry arrived, surrounded the barn, and threatened to set fire to it. Herold surrendered, but Booth cried out, "I will not be taken alive!"[12]: 326 The soldiers set fire to the barn[12]: 331 and Booth scrambled for the back door with a rifle and pistol.
Sergeant Boston Corbett crept up behind the barn and shot Booth in "the back of the head about an inch below the spot where his [Booth's] shot had entered the head of Mr. Lincoln",[95] severing his spinal cord.[12]: 335 Booth was carried out onto the steps of the barn. A soldier poured water into his mouth, which he spat out, unable to swallow. Booth told the soldier, "Tell my mother I die for my country." Unable to move his limbs, he asked a soldier to lift his hands before his face and whispered his last words as he gazed at them: "Useless ... useless." He died on the porch of the Garrett farm three hours later.[12]: 336–40 [79] Corbett was initially arrested for disobeying orders from Stanton that Booth be taken alive if possible, but was later released and was largely considered a hero by the media and the public.[42]: 228
Others
Without Herold to guide him, Powell did not find his way back to the Surratt house until April 17. He told detectives waiting there that he was a ditch-digger hired by Mary Surratt, but she denied knowing him. Both were arrested.[8]: 174–79 George Atzerodt hid at his cousin's farm in Germantown, Maryland, about 25 miles (40 km) northwest of Washington, where he was arrested April 20.[8]: 169
The remaining conspirators were arrested by month's end – except for John Surratt, who fled to Quebec where Roman Catholic priests hid him. In September, he boarded a ship to Liverpool, England, staying in the Catholic Church of the Holy Cross there. From there, he moved furtively through Europe until joining the Pontifical Zouaves in the Papal States. A friend from his school days recognized him there in early 1866 and alerted the U.S. government. Surratt was arrested by the Papal authorities but managed to escape under suspicious circumstances. He was finally captured by an agent of the United States in Egypt in November 1866.[96]
Conspirators' trial and execution
Scores of persons were arrested, including many tangential associates of the conspirators and anyone having had even the slightest contact with Booth or Herold during their flight. These included Louis J. Weichmann, a boarder in Mrs. Surratt's house; Booth's brother Junius (in Cincinnati at the time of the assassination); theater owner John T. Ford; James Pumphrey, from whom Booth hired his horse; John M. Lloyd, the innkeeper who rented Mrs. Surratt's Maryland tavern and gave Booth and Herold weapons and supplies the night of April 14; and Samuel Cox and Thomas A. Jones, who helped Booth and Herold cross the Potomac.[87]: 186–88 All were eventually released except:[87]: 188
The accused were tried by a military tribunal ordered by Johnson, who had succeeded to the presidency on Lincoln's death:
The prosecution was led by U.S. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt, assisted by Congressman John A. Bingham and Major Henry Lawrence Burnett.[97] Lew Wallace was the only lawyer on the tribunal.[citation needed]
The use of a military tribunal provoked criticism from former Attorney General Edward Bates and Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, who believed that a civil court should have presided, but Attorney General James Speed pointed to the military nature of the conspiracy and the facts that the defendants acted as enemy combatants and that martial law was in force at the time in the District of Columbia. (In 1866, in Ex parte Milligan, the United States Supreme Court banned the use of military tribunals in places where civil courts were operational.)[8]: 213–14 Only a simple majority of the tribunal members was required for a guilty verdict, and a two-thirds for a death sentence. There was no route for appeal other than to President Johnson.[8]: 222–23
The seven-week trial included the testimony of 366 witnesses. All of the defendants were found guilty on June 30. Mary Surratt, Lewis Powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt were sentenced to death by hanging; Samuel Mudd, Samuel Arnold, and Michael O'Laughlen were sentenced to life in prison.[98] Edmund Spangler was sentenced to six years. After sentencing Mary Surratt to hang, five members of the tribunal signed a letter recommending clemency, but Johnson did not stop the execution; he later claimed he never saw the letter.[8]: 227
Mary Surratt, Powell, Herold, and Atzerodt were hanged in the Old Arsenal Penitentiary on July 7.[12]: 362, 365 Mary Surratt was the first woman executed by the United States government.[99] O'Laughlen died in prison in 1867. Mudd, Arnold, and Spangler were pardoned in February 1869 by Johnson.[12]: 367 Spangler, who died in 1875, always insisted his sole connection to the plot was that Booth asked him to hold his horse.[citation needed]
John Surratt stood trial in a civil court in Washington in 1867. Four residents of Elmira, New York,[12]: 27 [100]: 125, 132, 136–37 [101]: 112–15 claimed they had seen him there between April 13 and 15; fifteen others testified they either saw him or someone who resembled him, in Washington (or traveling to or from Washington) on the day of the assassination. The jury could not reach a verdict, and John Surratt was released.[8]: 178 [100]: 132–33, 138 [102]: 227
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
Hodes, Martha. Mourning Lincoln, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2015. ISBN 9780300195804
Holzer, Harold (compiled and introduced by). President Lincoln Assassinated!!: The Firsthand Story of the Murder, Manhunt, Trial, and Mourning. Library of America/Penguin Random House Inc. 2014. ISBN 978-1-59853-373-6
Holzer, Harold; Symonds, Craig L.; Williams, Frank J., eds., The Lincoln Assassination: Crime and Punishment, Myth and Memory, New York: Fordham University Press, 2010. ISBN 9780823232260 Review
King, Benjamin. A Bullet for Lincoln, Pelican Publishing, 1993. ISBN 0-88289-927-9
Lattimer, John. Kennedy and Lincoln, Medical & Ballistic Comparisons of Their Assassinations. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, New York. 1980. ISBN 978-0-15-152281-1 [includes description and pictures of Seward's jaw splint, not a neck brace]
Steers Jr., Edward, and Holzer, Harold, eds. The Lincoln Assassination Conspirators: Their Confinement and Execution, as Recorded in the Letterbook of John Frederick Hartranft. Louisiana State University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-8071-3396-5
Donald E. Wilkes, Jr., Lincoln Assassinated!, Lincoln Assassinated!, Part 2.
Bagehot, Walter, ed. (April 29, 1865). "The assassination of Mr Lincoln". The Economist. Vol. XXIII, no. 1, 131.
The Lincoln Memorial: A Record of the Life, Assassination, and Obsequies of the Martyred President, New York: Bunce & Huntington, 1865. This is a collection of essays, accounts, sermons, newspaper reports, poems, and more, with no editor or authors named, except Richard Henry Stoddard, whose poem "Abraham Lincoln—An Horatian Ode" is included at pages 273–278. | ||||||
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Information appears in the following order:
Name (Company)--Date of Birth; Place of Birth;
Date of Death; Place of Death;
Burial Site.
Abbey, Orange J. (H)--ca. 1841; Randolph, New York;
June 15, 1864; Andersonville, Georgia;
Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave # 2038.
Abell, Charles W. (E)--ca. 1844; Westfield, New York;
July 2, 1917; Westfield, New York;
Westfield Cemetery, Westfield, New York.
Abelles, Byron (F)--February 22, 1838; Charlotte, New York;
September 16, 1913; Cassadaga, New York;
Cassadaga Cemetery, Cassadaga, New York.
Ackley, Gustavus J. (K); March 20, 1840; Jefferson County, New York;
September 2, 1866; Cattaraugus, New York;
East Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Adams, Oziah F. (D)--October 9, 1841; Warren County, Pennsylvania;
March 18, 1871; Lyndon, New York;
Rawson Cemetery, Lyndon, New York.
Adams, Jr., William P. (E)--ca. 1840; Chautauqua County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Akers, George W. (I)--ca. 1841; Great Valley, New York;
July 2, 1880; Salamanca, New York;
Crawford Cemetery, Salamanca, New York.
Akers, Isaac D. (A)--ca. 1836; Great Valley, New York;
September 15, 1863; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Akers, William A. (A)--ca. 1844; Great Valley, New York;
March 25, 1930; Veterans Home, California;
?
Aldrich, Thomas R. (B)--October 6, 1840; Quaker Springs, Saratoga Co., N.Y.;
April 30, 1908 ; Ellicottville, New York;
Sunset Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville, New York.
Allen, Charles F. (B)--ca. 1844; New Albion, New York;
October 7, 1864; Savannah, Georgia;
?
Allen, Daniel B. (B, F&S)--April 7, 1839; Otto, New York;
October 9, 1934; Buffalo, New York;
East Hill Cemetery, Otto, New York.
Photo courtesy of U.S. Army Military History Institute (hereafter USAMHI).
Allen Timothy A. (I, F&S)--ca. 1835, ?;
February 24, 1899; ?
?
Allen, William H. (H)--ca. 1841; Schoharie, New York;
July 21, 1924; Jackson, Michigan;
Jackson, Michigan.
Allen, William J. (F)--December 22, 1840; Gerry, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Cenotaph, Evergreen Cemetery, Sinclairville, New York.
Ames, Edson D. (F)--October 14, 1840; Charlotte, New York;
May 6, 1915; Ellicottville, New York;
Little Valley Rural Cemetery, Little Valley, New York.
Ames, Homer A. (F, A)--July 3, 1842; Charlotte, New York;
August 10, 1918; San Rafael, California;
Cremated, remains in National Vault, The Presidio, San Francisco, California.
Ames, Jonathan M. (un)--September 1, 1846; Charlotte, New York;
October 16, 1937; Bath, New York;
Cassadaga Cemetery, Cassadaga, New York.
Photo courtesy of David Ames.
Ammon, Jerry (I)--?; ?;
December 16, 1902; ?;
?
Anderson, Charles (E)--September 15, 1829; Sweden;
April 5, 1885; ?
Portland Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, New York.
Andrews, Benjamin F. H. (D)--ca. 1843; Machias, New York;
January 27, 1864; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Andrews, Horatio E. (D)--ca. 1833; Machias, New York;
March 11, 1913; Cadillac, Michigan;
Maple Hill Cemetery, Cadillac, Michigan.
Andrews, Joseph H. (I)--ca. 1844; Blossburgh, Pennsylvania;
February 7, 1900; Olean, New York;
Pleasant Valley Cemetery, Olean, New York.
Anthony, John (K) --ca. 1844; ?;
?; ?:
?
Archer, Frederick B. (E)--May 11, 1838; Ripley, New York;
August ?, 1911; ?;
?
Arnold, Ambrose F. (D)--June 12, 1831 ; Cayuga County, New York;
May 8, 1864; Rocky Face Ridge, Georgia;
?
Photo courtesy of Fredonia (New York) Historical Society.
Ash, Clark (E)--ca. 1830; Kingston, Canada;
January 1, 1865; Pleasantville, Pennsylvania;
Volusia Cemetery, Westfield, New York.
Ash, David (E)--ca. 1838; Canada;
?; ?;
?
Ash, Jr., John (E); ca. 1836; Canada;
March 13, 1919; Washington, D.C.;
?
Ash, Wesley (E)--ca. 1841; Washington County, Pennsylvania;
March 14, 1910: ?;
Southside Cemetery, Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania.
Ashworth, George (E)--ca. 1830; Addison, Vermont;
February 26?, 1864; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Austin, Charles (I)--ca. 1844; New York State;
?; ?;
?
Averill, Jerome (K) --April 5, 1827; Persia, New York;
October 29, 1898; Gowanda, New York;
Pine Hill Cemetery, Gowanda, New York.
Avery, Orlando W. (E)--ca. 1830; ?;
September 13, 1901; Buffalo, New York;
Section 14, Grave 191, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.
Babcock, Alfred D. (B)--January 1, 1842; Brookfield, New York;
March 3, 1908; ?;
Bath National Cemetery, Bath, New York.
Babcock, John (A)--ca. 1841; Stockbridge, Connecticut;
?; ?;
?
Bacon, Earl Z. (E)--March 17, 1843; Colebrook, Connecticut;
?; ?;
?
Bacon, Eseck P. (B)--ca. 1841; Dayton, New York;
April 26, 1864 ; Andersonville, Georgia;
Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave # 754.
Cenotaph in Park Lawn Cemetery, Dayton, New York.
Bacon, James (I)--May 24, 1843; Allegany, New York;
September 17, 1912; Allegany, New York;
?
Bacon, James F. (E)--ca. 1844; Chautauqua County, New York;
September 18, 1864; Andersonville, Georgia;
Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave # 9101.
Bacon, William S. (G)--October 8, 1843; Springville, New York;
July 2, 1927; Ellington, Missouri;
?
Badgero, John (K, A)--1823; Vermont;
June 2, 1863; Stafford Court House, Virginia;
Jolls Cemetery, Perrysburg, New York.
Bailey, George (K)--ca. 1838; Cattaraugus County, New York;
December 24, 1917; ?;
?
Bailey, George W. (D)--July 3, 1826; Groveland, New York;
1901; ?;
Delevan Cemetery, Yorkshire, New York.
Bailey, George W. (G)--ca. 1831; ?;
August 15, 1864; Andersonville, Georgia;
Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave # 5697.
Bailey, Levi D. (A) --1833; Exeter, Pennsylvania;
April 5, 1906; ?;
Humphrey Center Cemetery, Humphrey, New York.
Bailey, Stuart (I)--April 18, 1830; Richfield, New York;
February 10, 1905; Salamanca, New York;
Crawford Cemetery, Salamanca, New York.
Bailey, William (E)--ca. 1829; Ireland;
?; ?;
Porter Cemetery, Lyons Road, Westfield, New York.
Baillet, Eugene (A)--ca. 1842; Farmersville, New York;
February 15, 1864; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Baker, George W. (A)--ca. 1839; Sullivan County, New York;
February 13, 1881, age 40 yr, 4 mo, 22 da; ?;
Limestone Cemetery, Carrollton, New York.
Baldwin, George T. (C)--ca. 1841; East Livermore, Maine;
May 26, 1864; Andersonville, Georgia;
Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave # 6853.
Ball, Ezra D. (G)--1838; Ohio;
1868; ?;
Eddyville Cemetery, Mansfield, New York.
Ball, George M. (G)--March 14, 1840; Mansfield, New York;
January 3, 1887; Morristown, Minnesota;
Warsaw Cemetery, Warsaw, Minnesota.
Ball, Lucius D. (G)--January 6, 1838; Mansfield, New York;
September 16, 1914; ?;
North Otto Cemetery, Otto, New York.
Bambrick, Thomas K. (E)--February 20, 1822; Ireland;
October 31, 1895; Brocton, New York;
Portland Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, New York.
Barber, Benjamin (I)--ca. 1818; Onondaga County, New York;
February 27, 1889; Harmony, New York;
?
Barber, Ira G. (E)--ca. 1829; ?;
July 15, 1906; Warren, Pennslyvania;
Warren, Pennslyvania.
Barber, Levant F. (I)--ca. 1844; Cattaraugus County, New York;
January 10, 1863; Falmouth, Virginia;
Div. D-A, Fredericksburg National Cemetery.
Barber, Mervin P. (E)--February 2, 1825; Bridgeport, Pennsylvania;
November 30, 1902; Dows, Iowa;
Portland Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, New York.
Barbour, Henry (A, K)--1830; Oneida County, New York;
1894; ?;
Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, N.Y.? Maple Grove Cemetery, N.Y.?
Bard, Samuel P. (D)--1832; Franklinville, New York;
February 11, 1901; ?;
?
Bargar, Lowree D. (F)--ca. 1837; ?;
?; ?;
?
Bargy, Jacob M. (G)--May 16, 1835; Ashford, New York;
1882; ?;
Crawford Cemetery, Salamanca, New York.
Barlow, Russell L. (K)--October 9, 1843; Conewango, New York;
July 13, 1894; ?;
Treat Memorial Cemetery, Leon, New York.
Barnes, Artemus (C)--October 24, 1844; Portville, New York;
1888; ?;
Oakley Hill Cemetery, Portville, New York.
Barnhart, Clinton L. (E, A)--September 1, 1842; Hartfield, New York;
April 5, 1926; Coldwater, Michigan;
Greenwood Cemetery, Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Bartlett, Nelson H. (G)--June 8, 1840; Otto, New York;
?; ?;
?
Bassett, George (D)--September 18 1836; Alexander, New York;
June 4, 1895; Middleville, Michigan;
Mt. Hope Cemetery, Barry, Michigan.
Baxter, Henry (I)--February 12, 1842; Humphrey, New York;
July 10, 1919; Branson, Missouri;
?
Baxter, James W. (I)--April 26, 1838; Great Valley, New York;
March 30, 1926; Clearwater, Minnesota;
?
Baxter, Perry (I)--February 13, 1841; Humphrey, New York;
1910; ?;
?
Beach, Ormel G. (A)--July 5, 1843; Eagle, New York;
November 26, 1914; Claremont, California;
Dowagiac, Michigan.
Beach, William F. (D)--September 11, 1827; Wyoming County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Beadle, Dudley H. (E)--October 15, 1844; Westfield, New York;
November 8, 1921; Barcelona, New York;
Westfield Cemetery, Westfield, New York.
Beardsley, Salmon W. (K, A, E)--ca. 1829; ?;
January 19, 1901; ?;
?
Bechtle, John (G)--ca. 1838; ?;
?; ?;
?
Beebe, Jeptha (D)--1840; Lyndon, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Beebe, Lucius (D)--ca. 1841; Cattaraugus County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Beech, William A. (H)--June 13, 1821; Boston, Massachusetts;
June 19, 1899; Duke Center, Pennsylvania;
Duke Center Cemetery, Duke Center, Pennsylvania.
Beels, Daniel (C)--ca. 1844; Allegany, New York;
?; ?;
?
Beers, Smith (G)--ca. 1819 ; ?;
1872 or 1873; Elmira, New York;
?
Behan, Edward (G) --ca. 1836; Ireland;
?; ?;
?
Belden, Eldridge (E)--ca. 1835; Portland, New York;
?; ?;
?
Belden, Theodore C. (A)--ca. 1829; Norwich, New York;
November 14, 1862; Alexandria, Virginia;
?
Belknap, John S. (G)--September 4, 1840; Havana, New York;
April 15, 1926 ; Duluth, Minnesota;
Cremated, ashes buried in Paw Paw, Michigan.
Bemis, Albert (F)--ca. 1844; French Creek, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Benedict, David (H)--March 6, 1806; Canada;
January 21, 1887; Waldo, Illinois;
Gridley Cemetery, Gridley, Illinois.
Benjamin, George W. (I)--ca. 1821; Cattaraugus County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Bennett, William D. (B)--August 9, 1846; Leon, New York;
1871; ?;
Treat Memorial Cemetery, Leon, New York.
Benson, Alfred W. (H, K, D)--July 15, 1843; Jamestown, New York;
January 1, 1916; Topeka, Kansas;
Highland Cemetery, Ottawa, Kansas.
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Bently, Benjamin S. (D)--October 19, 1833; Yorkshire, New York;
November 8, 1900; ?;
?
Berron, George (I)--ca. 1841; Cattaraugus County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Berry, Robert (G)--October 26, 1840; Washington, Massachusetts;
July 27, 1902; Buffalo, New York;
?
Besecker, Zeno (I)--1839; Pennsylvania;
1909; ?;
Pleasant Valley Cemetery, Olean, New York.
Betts, Dudley (K)--ca. 1843; Buffalo, New York;
April 30, 1923 ; Freeland, Washington;
?
Bickford, George W. (C)--ca. 1834; New York, New York;
September 25, 1916; Hornell, New York;
Rural Cemetery, Hornell, New York.
Biglor, William J. (A)--ca. 1836; Cattaraugus County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Bird, Alexander (G, F)--July 21, 1842; Montgomery County, New York;
January 11, 1927; Soldiers' Home, Bath, New York;
Sunset Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville, New York.
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Bird, James W. (G, B)--ca. 1841; ?;
August 7, 1924; Anacortes, Washington;
Cremated.
Bisbee, Alvan (A)--ca. 1825; Chesterfield, Massachusetts;
1906; ?;
?
Bishop, Buel (B)--ca. 1835; Cattaraugus County, New York;
February 1, 1864; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Bishop, George (C)--ca. 1830; Germany;
May 8, 1864; Rocky Face Ridge, Georgia;
?
Bishop, Lewis (C)--August 9, 1839; Lancaster, New York;
July 31, 1863; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania;
Gettysburg National Cemetery, New York State Section A, Grave # 109.
Bishop, Orville (A, F&S)--August 6, 1823; Boston, New York;
February 15, 1904; Ripley, New York;
Forest Hill Cemetery, Fredonia, New York.
Bishop, William (K)--January 4, 1843; Victor, New York;
April 3, 1922; Medina, New York;
Boxwood Cemetery, Medina, New York.
Blair, William W. (K)--ca. 1818; Dayton, New York;
?; ?;
?
Blasiar, John (C)--June 24, 1824 ; France;
July 1, 1902; ?;
?
Bliss, Jr., Asher (I)--October 15, 1834; Collins, New York;
March 5, 1899 ; ?;
East Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Bliton, Henry (I)--1840; Machias, New York;
February 25, 1919; Delevan, New York;
Delevan Cemetery, Yorkshire, New York.
Bliton, Thomas N. (D)--January 16, 1835; Warsaw, New York;
February 12, 1910; ?;
Delevan Cemetery, Yorkshire, New York.
Blood, Andrew D. (A)--June 7, 1837; Carroll, New York;
October 9, 1910; Steamburg, New York;
Steamburg Cemetery, Coldspring, New York.
Blowers, Truman D. (G)--August 31, 1836; Oneida County, New York;
February 27, 1920; Salamanca, New York;
Mt. Hope Cemetery, Ashford, New York.
Blue, William (I)--ca. 1841; Farmington, Pennsylvania;
September 2, 1915; Covington, Iowa;
?
Bollow, Frederick (B)--February 6, 1842; Mecklenburg, Germany;
November 13, 1912; West Valley, New York;
Mt. Hope Cemetery, Ashford, New York.
Bond, Marshall O. (D)--June 26, 1828; Farmersville, New York;
March 18, 1894; Franklinville, New York;
Mt. Prospect Cemetery, Franklinville, New York.
Bookman, Charles (D)--March 20, 1845; New York, New York;
November 8, 1927; Fillmore, California;
?
Booth, John (E)--April 8, 1838; Westfield, New York;
February 15, 1930; Westfield, New York;
?
Bosley, George H. (F&S)--October 31, 1841; Lakeville, New York;
December 3, 1892; New York, New York;
?
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Bouton, Joel M. (C)--ca. 1839; Greene County, New York;
July 1, 1863; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania;
Gettysburg National Cemetery, New York State Section C, Grave # 94.
Bowen, Jr., Elias (G)--March 8, 1818; Collins, New York;
?; ?;
Brooklyn Cemetery, East Otto, New York.
Bowen, Francis M. (I)--August 21, 1838; Mansfield, New York;
September 10, 1914; McKean County, Pennsylvania;
North Girard, Pennsylvania.
Bowen, Jr., Moses (B)--December 11, 1843; Mansfield, New York;
May 4, 1920; Apopka, Florida;
Orlando (aka Bowen) Cemetery, Mansfield, New York.
Bozard, Ashbel L. (C)--1841; Humphrey, New York;
March 27, 1926; Allegany, New York;
Allegany Cemetery, Allegany, New York.
Bradley, Charles (G)--ca. 1832; ?;
September 28, 1863; Annapolis, Maryland;
Grave # 2333, Section G, Annapolis National Cemtery, Annapolis, Maryland.
Bradley, Warren (G)--ca. 1837; ?;
January 2, 1863; Falmouth, Virginia;
?
Brainard, Asa (F)--May 5, 1823; Portland, New York;
April 29, 1917; Buffalo, New York;
Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.
Brainard, Calvin (F)--August 8,1846; Arkwright, New York;
January 12, 1936; Buffalo, New York;
Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo, New York.
Brand, Dennis A. (D)--February 19, 1837; Otsego County, New York;
June 16, 1864; Pine Knob, Georgia;
Section C, Grave # 2214, Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, Georgia.
Brooks, Nelson (F)--ca. 1843; Chautauqua County, New York;
?; ?;?
Brown, Albert (I)--ca. 1844; Cattaraugus County, New York;
February 3, 1874; Ottawa, Michigan;
?
Brown, Amon A. (D)--October 14, 1844; Centerville, New York;
July 28, 1920; Pike, New York;
Pike Cemetery, Telegraph Road, Pike, New York.
Brown, Charles H. (F)--August 13, 1842; Charlotte, New York;
December 7, 1864; Springfield, Georgia;
?
Brown, Charles R. (D)--ca. 1832; Allegany County, New York;
July 29, 1909; ?;
Brewer Cemetery, Machias, New York.
Brown, Edward (I)--1815; Ireland;
February 10, 1888; ?;
St. Bonaventure Cemetery, Allegany, New York.
Brown, George P. (A)--August 14, 1839; Cold Spring, New York;
?; ?;
Crawford Cemetery, Salamanca, New York.
Brown, James Byron (B)--June 20, 1837; Middletown, Vermont;
November 26, 1872; Grand Rapids, Michigan;
?
Photo courtesy of Charles Markham.
Brown, Nathaniel S. (D)--December 27, 1834; Austerlitz, New York;
June 17, 1892; ?;
McKinstry Hollow Cemetery, Yorkshire, New York.
Brown, Oscar W. (F)--ca. 1839; Clymer, New York;
November 12, 1862; Washington, D.C.;
Grave # 661 Section F, Soldiers' Home National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Brown, Spaulding R. (A)--ca. 1838; Orange County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Brown, Jr., William (H)--1838; Farmington, Pennsylvania;
December 20, 1884; ?;
Mount View Cemetery, Olean, New York.
Brunson, Oliver (F)--ca. 1839; Chautauqua County, New York;
December 31, 1888? January 1, 1900?; Guys Mills, Pennsylvania;
Red Bird Cemetery, Ellery, New York.
Bryant, Colby M. (A)--ca. 1836; Cattaraugus County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Bryant, Isaac (H)--ca. 1839; England;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Bryant, Levi D. (G)--November 26, 1822; Sweden, New York;
September 5, 1905; Ellicottville, New York;
Sunset Hill Cemetery, Ellicottville, New York.
Bryant, Samuel (H)--December 26, 1832; Bristol, England;
January 14, 1913; Randolph, New York;
Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Buchanan, James H. (H)--June 7, 1830 ; ?;
September 11, 1906; Hinsdale, New York;
Hinsdale Cemetery, Hinsdale, New York.
Buck, William H. (A)--November 8, 1840; Bath, New Hampshire;
1906; Randolph, New York;
East Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Bull, Eason W. (D)--March 20, 1837; Cattaraugus County, New York;
February 19, 1863; Brooks Station, Virginia;
Div. D-A, Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Photo courtesy of Frances Ortwein.
Bunce, Silas W. (B, F&S)--April 8, 1845; Franklinville, New York;
June 17, 1899; Hanover Center, New York;
Versailles Cemetery, Perrysburg, New York.
Burch, Newell (E)--January 16, 1842; Portland, New York;
May 17, 1908; Menomonie, Wisconsin;
Evergreen Cemetery, Menomonie, Wisconsin.
Burdick, John R. (I, G)--ca. 1833; ?;
February 10, 1921; Howell, Michigan;
Lakeview Cemetery, Howell, Michigan.
Burdick, Milton P. (D)--April 14, 1834; Wyoming County, New York;
January 20, 1919; Delevan, New York;
Delevan Cemetery, Yorkshire, New York.
Burke, William C. (G)--ca. 1837; ?;
October 13, 1890; ?;
Maple Hill Cemetery, LeRoy, Michigan.
Burley, Isaac L. (F)--ca. 1843; French Creek, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Burlingame, Victor M. (A)--July 2, 1807; Oxford, New York;
December 11, 1888; Salamanca, New York;
Wildwood Cemetery, Salamanca, New York.
Burnham, Augustus (F)--August 22, 1835; Arkwright, New York;
July 11, 1908; ?;
Burnham Hollow Cemetery, Cassadaga, New York.
Burroughs, Daniel L. (B)--ca. 1831; Cattaraugus County, New York;
May 26, 1910; ?;
?
Burroughs, George W. (B)--ca. 1838; Cattaraugus County, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Burroughs, Ira F. (E)--ca. 1840; Napoli, New York;
1912; ?;
?
Bush, John A. (D)--May 19, 1832; Farmersville, New York;
February 19, 1912; Machias, New York;
Maple Grove Cemetery, Machias, New York.
Bush, Lorenzo F. (I)--February 17, 1832; Barker, New York;
June 7, 1914; Hinsdale, New York;
Hinsdale Cemetery, Hinsdale, New York.
Bush, Milton H. (K)--May 5, 1841; Conewango, New York;
July 7, 1864; Nashville, Tennessee;
Section J, Grave # 13580, Nashville National Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee.
Rutledge Cemetery (cenotaph), Conewango, New York.
Bushnell, Martin D. (H)--February 15, 1842; Napoli, New York;
June 5, 1866; Warren, Ohio;
South Napoli Cemetery, Napoli, New York.
Photo courtesy of Frank Bushnell.
Buson, A. W. (H)--ca. 1843; ?;
?; ?;
?
Butler, Ezekiel (K)--January 12, 1815; Scriba, Monroe County, New York;
February 16, 1898; ?;
Treat Memorial Cemetery, Leon, New York.
Butler, Newel (K)--ca. 1823; Otto, New York;
September 17, 1901; Erie, Pennsylvania;
?
Butler, Oscar (B)--March 1840; Mansfield, New York;
October 12?, 1863; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Buttles, Henry (F)--December 3, 1824; Candor, New York;
January 28, 1909; Gainesville, New York;
?
Butts, William C. (A)--ca. 1838; Wayne County, New York;
June 3, 1863; ?;
?
Cady, John (H)--ca. 1821; ?;
February 22, 1865; Evansville, Indiana;
?
Calkins, James (B)--November 25, 1842; Ashford, New York;
August 24, 1863; Annapolis, Maryland;
Grave # 2133, Section F, Annapolis National Cemetery, Annapolis, Maryland.
Callahan, William (E)--ca. 1841; Chautauqua, New York;
February 12, 1924; Jamestown, New York;
?
Cameron, Winfield S. (H, B, G)--June 5, 1838; Ellicott, New York;
November 13, 1918; Jamestown, New York;
Lake View Cemetery, Jamestown, New York.
Photo from Mark H. Dunkelman collection.
Campbell, Jesse D. (D)--December 30, 1839; Willet, New York;
December 7, 1864; near Springfield, Georgia;
near Springfield, Georgia.
Campbell, John D. (A)--February 8, 1841; Cattaraugus County, New York;
July 8, 1893; Des Moines, Iowa;
Woodland Cemetery, Des Moines, Iowa.
Campbell, William H. H. (A)--August 31, 1837; Carroll, New York;
December 5, 1901; Steamburg, New York;
Steamburg Cemetery, Coldspring, New York.
Canning, William (G)--ca. 1833; ?;
?; ?;
?
Carpenter, James Monroe (K)--ca. 1836; Leon, New York;
July 20, 1864; Chattanooga, Tennessee;
Chattanooga National Cemetery, Section F, Grave # 1770.
Carter, Bryan M. (B)--ca. 1835; Erie County, New York;
1905; ?;
?
Case, William O. (E)--January 26, 1828; North East, Pennsylvania;
June 24, 1890; Ripley, New York;
Quincy Cemetery, Ripley, New York.
Casler, Alonzo (A, G)--February 6, 1841; Cold Spring, New York;
August 24, 1917; Loudonville, Ohio;
Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Casler, Benjamin Giles (A)--January 12, 1837; Cold Spring, New York;
December 14, 1883; Great Bridge, Virginia.
Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Photo courtesy of USAMHI.
Casten, William H. (B)--1840; Collins, New York;
July 4, 1865; ?;
Treat Memorial Cemetery, Leon, New York.
Chaffee, Newton A. (B, F&S)--August 31, 1841; Gowanda, New York;
March 11, 1916; Gowanda, New York;Pine Hill Cemetery, Gowanda, New York.
Chamberlain II, Benjamin (H)--ca. 1818; Sandusky, Ohio;
?; ?;
?
Chamberlain, Calvin T. (H)--March 29, 1843; Great Valley, New York;
August 18, 1864; Andersonville, Georgia;
Andersonville National Cemetery, Grave # 5860.
Chamberlain, Frank (B)--ca. 1833; China, New York;
?; ?;
?
Chamberlain, Philip S. (A)--ca. 1844; Venango County, Pennsylvania;
December 18, 1863; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Chambers, William H. (E)--ca. 1835; ?;
July 5, 1902; South Dakota;
Catholic Cemetery, Redfield, South Dakota.
Photo courtesy of Susan J. Ober. Click on image to enlarge.
Champlain, Delos W. (H)--ca. 1841; ?;
?; ?;
?
Champlin, George (B)--ca. 1838; Washington County, New York;
December 31, 1899; ?;
?
Champlin, Martin V. B. (C)--September 9, 1841; Genesee, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Obi Cemetery (cenotaph), Obi, New York.
Photo courtesy of Richard D. Champlin.
Chanley, Thomas (K)--ca. 1837; ?;?; ?;
?
Chapman, Eugene (K)--1844; Cattaraugus County, New York;
1895; ?;
Versailles Cemetery, Perrysburg, New York.
Chapman, Perry (E)--ca. 1836; Cayuga, New York;
?; ?;
?
Chapman, William F. (K)--June 5, 1843; ?;
June 30, 1875; ?;
Versailles Cemetery, Perrysburg, New York.
Charles, William (F)--April 14, 1831; Aberystwyth, Wales;
December 19, 1896; Farmersville Station, New York;
Freedom (Welsh) Cemetery, Freedom, New York.
Chase, Charles M. (I)--April 9, 1824; Nelson, New York;
1903; ?;
Maple Grove Cemetery, Machias, New York.
Chase, James F. (D)--November 5, 1838; Franklin County, New York;
July 20, 1863; Gettysburg, Pennsylvania;
Gettysburg National Cemetery, New York State Section C, Grave # 75.
Chase, Orren A. (H)--July 9, 1847; Humphrey, New York;
May 19, 1928; Franklinville, New York;
Sugartown Cemetery, Great Valley, New York.
Chase, Wallace W. (A)--ca. 1841; Lockport, New York;
July 2, 1864; Annapolis, Maryland;
?
Cheney, Harrison (D, F&S)--January 3, 1830; Freedom, New York;
March 10, 1921; Sandusky, New York;
Sandusky Cemetery, Freedom, New York.
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Cheney, Matthew B. (G)--May 20, 1839; Kiantone, New York;
July 5, 1915; Lincoln, Nebraska;
Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln, Nebraska.
Childs, John M. (B)--September 17, 1843; Conewango, New York;
February 24, 1879; ?;
?
Chittenden, William F. (D)--September 5, 1835; Yorkshire, New York;
June 2, 1923; Lansing, Michigan;
Mt. Hope Cemetery, Lansing, Michigan.
Church, Charles W. (A, D, H, I)--ca. 1829; Great Valley, New York;
May 13, 1879; ?;
?
Clark, Duane (D)--ca. 1843; ?;
?; ?;
?
Clark, Francis C. (E)--ca. 1831; Ireland;
April 9, 1895; ?;
Oak Hill Cemetery, Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Clark, Henry (D)--September 3, 1830; Franklin, New York;
March 10, 1909; Allegany, New York;
Allegany Cemetery, Allegany, New York
Clark, Henry S. (A)--December 8, 1830; Great Valley, New York;
December 12, 1898; ?;
Sugartown Cemetery, Great Valley.
Clark, Horace T. (G)--1826; Groton, New York;
May, 1893; Carnegie, Pennsylvania;
Chartiers Cemetery, Carnegie, Pennsylvania.
Clark, Salmon J. (D)--1833; Erie County, New York;
May 15, 1905; Machias, New York;
Maple Grove Cemetery, Machias, New York.
Clark, Warner F. (G)--ca. 1836; ?;
?; ?;
?
Clark, William (B, F&S, I)--ca. 1842; ?;
December 5, 1923; Fredonia, New York;
?
Clarke, Denzil J. (B)--ca. 1843; New Albion, New York;
September 21, 1898; Sac City, Iowa;
Sac City, Iowa.
Clarke, George W. (G)--January 14, 1823; Herkimer County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Clement, Duane (D)--ca. 1843; Wyoming County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Clements, James W. (F)--April 24, 1831; Herkimer County, New York;
1901; Pomfret, New York;
Greenwood Cemetery, Stockton, New York.
Clifford, George (E)--ca. 1837; Oneida, New York;
July 19, 1864; Nashville, Tennessee;
Section H, Grave # 9758, Nashville National Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee.
Cobbet, Sheldon A. (D)--1844; Albany, New York;
1897; ?;
Sandusky Cemetery, Freedom, New York.
Cochran, Augustus G. (A)--July 1, 1825; Concord, New York;
September 29, 1894; Ipswich, South Dakota;
Ipswich Cemetery, Ipswich, South Dakota.
Coe, Edward D. (F)--ca. 1832; French Creek, New York;
July 20, 1912; French Creek, New York;
Clymer Cemetery, Clymer, New York.
Coe, Harrison (F)--ca. 1839; French Creek, New York;
March 26, 1865; near Snow Hill, North Carolina;
?
Cole, Charles Wesley (C)--November 18, 1844; Windham, Pennsylvania;
?; ?;
?
Cole, James Henry (E)--ca. 1843; Chautauqua, New York;
?; ?;
?
Cole, Wallace (I)--November 8, 1845; Corning, New York
September 12, 1933; Tioga, Pennsylvania;
Evergreen Cemetery, Tioga, Pennsylvania.
Colivan, Peter (I)--1833; Ireland;
August 14, 1898; Humphrey Center, New York;
Humphrey Center Cemetery, Humphrey, New York.
Colt, Sidney (E)--ca. 1839; Busti, New York;
November 18, 1862; Washington, D.C.;
Grave # 873, Section F, Soldiers' Home National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Conant, John (E)--ca. 1822; Chautauqua, New York;
1870; ?;
East Ripley Cemetery, Ripley, New York.
Cone, William (I)--ca. 1822; Pennsylvania;
March 10, 1880; Killbuck, New York;
Killbuck Cemetery, Great Valley, New York.
Congden, George B. (B)--ca. 1841; Oneida County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Congden, George W. (A)--August 11, 1807; Washington County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Connell, Michael (C)--ca. 1840; Hornersville, New York;
?; ?;
?
Connelly, David S. (E)--ca. 1834; Sardinia, New York;
November 18?, 1863; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Cook, Adam (I)--1841; Germany;
March 31, 1867; Olean, New York;
Veterans Section, Mountview Cemetery, Olean, New York.
Cook, Nicholas (G)--April 28, 1827; Otto, New York;
May 21, 1901; ?;
Pine Hill Cemetery, Gowanda, New York.
Cook, Roswell (H)--May 31, 1821; Litchfield, Connecticut;
May 18, 1905; Wrights Corner, Pennsylvania;
Fairmont Cemetery, Farmers Valley, Pennsylvania.
Cooley, Charles H. (G)--ca. 1843; ?;
November 15, 1862; Washington, D.C.;
Grave # 665, Section F, Soldiers' Home National Cemetery, Washington, D.C.
Cooley, Ebenezer M. (G)--1819; ?;
June 14, 1894; ?;
Chamberlain Cemetery, Great Valley, New York.
Coon, Charles (A)--ca. 1839; Franklin County, Vermont;
?; ?;
?
Coon, John C. (I)--ca. 1826; Delaware County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Cooper, Andrew (G)--ca. 1829; ?;
?; ?;
Mountview Cemetery, Olean, New York.
Copeland, James (D)--March 9, 1844; Scotland;
May 2, 1920; Lawrence, Michigan;
Hamilton Cemetery, Van Buren, Michigan.
Copp, James O. (F)--April 14, 1841; Charlotte, New York;
February 15, 1915; ?;
?
Corcoran, Richard (C)--ca. 1831; Ireland;
November 13, 1883; ?;
?
Corthell, Barzilla H. (D)--ca. 1834 ; Cattaraugus County, New York;
November 4, 1862; Fairfax, Virginia;
Maple Grove Cemetery, Machias, New York.
Corthell, Lewis S. (C)--February 27, 1837; Warren, Pennsylvania;
July 13, 1898; ?;
Maple Grove Cemetery, Ischua, New York.
Covell, Harrison (H)--January 25, 1832; Carroll, New York;
December 11, 1915; Usk, Washington;
Newport Cemetery, Newport, Washington.
Covell, Seth W. (H)--ca. 1840; Carroll, New York;
1912; Seattle, Washington;
GAR Cemetery, Snohomish, Washington.
Covey, George (E)--ca. 1841; Westfield, New York;
May 15, 1864; Westfield, New York;
?
Covey, William (E) --ca. 1844; Westfield, New York;
July 17, 1911; ?;
Westfield Cemetery, Westfield, New York.
Cradler, Augustus (D)--June 26, 1840; Germany;
June 26, 1897; Machias, New York;
Maple Grove Cemetery, Machias, New York.
Crandall, William W. (D)--November 16, 1840; Freedom, New York;
October 18, 1892; ?;
?
Crawford, Calvin (C)--June 10, 1821; Sandy Hill, New York;
March 27, 1869; near Chebanse, Illinois;
Sugar Island, Iroquois County, Illinois.
Crick, Franklin I. (A)--ca. 1841; Chautauqua County, New York;
1927; ?;
Green Cemetery, Great Valley, New York.
Crook, Byron (A)--ca. 1839; Cold Spring, New York;
September 3, 1914; Bradford, Pennsylvania;
?
Crosby, Alanson (A, F&S, D)--April 2, 1836; Franklinville, New York;
July 9, 1864; Nashville, Tennessee;
Mt. Prospect Cemetery, Franklinville, New York.
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Crosby, Willard H. (D)--ca. 1834; Ashford, New York;
March 11, 1865; Beaufort, North Carolina;
?
Crosgrove, Hugh N. (E)--September 7, 1838; Westfield, New York;
December 9, 1922; Denver, Colorado;
Fairmont Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.
Cross, Albert (H)--ca. 1821; Carlton, New York;
?; ?;
?
Cross, Isaiah (A)--October 18, 1841; Randolph, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Sample Hill Cemetery (cenotaph?), Randolph, New York.
Cross, Justice (E)--March 5, 1833; Bloomfield, Massachusetts;
August 15, 1883; Brocton, New York;
Portland Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, New York.
Cross, Levi (H)--August 6, 1841; Carrollton, New York;
January 4, 1904; ?;
?
Crowell, Joseph R. (D)--March 21, 1844; Cattaraugus County, New York;
April 13, 1891 ; Clark, South Dakota;
?
Cullen, John (H)--ca. 1840 ; England;
November 20, 1863; Annapolis, Maryland;
Grave # 2318, Section F, Annapolis National Cemetery.
Annis (Rural) Cemetery (cenotaph?), Little Valley, New York.
Cullen, Joseph (B)--May 16, 1838; Upton, Nottinghamshire, England;
November 3, 1921; Little Valley, New York;
Little Valley Rural Cemetery, Little Valley, New York.
Photo courtesy of Michael J. Winey.
Cummings, Judson (B)--ca. 1844; New Albion, New York;
March 3, 1903 ; St. Louis, Michigan;
Oak Grove Cemetery, St. Louis, Michigan.
Cunningham, Henry (K)--May 24, 1843; Conewango, New York;
July 8, 1926; ?;
Rutledge Cemetery, Conewango, New York.
Curtis, Andrew (B)--March 31, 1843; Schoharie County, New York;
1908; ?;
?
Daley, Almon (D)--ca. 1839; Cattaraugus County, New York;
March 16, 1911; ?;
?
Dallas, James (B)--1836; Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania;
May 20, 1917; National Military Home, Ohio;
Cherry Hill Cemetery, Sugar Grove, Pennsylvania.
Dalrymple, Orrin (F)--January 15, 1843; Arkwright, New York;
August 25, 1904; Stockton, New York;
Christian Cemetery, Cassadaga, New York.
Darbee, Horace N. (K)--ca. 1843; Cattaraugus County, New York;
July 4, 1886; ?;
?
Darling, Charles (H)--September 10, 1835; Napoli, New York;
November 15, 1914; ?;
Rutledge Cemetery, Conewango, New York.
Darling, Delos (K)--May 9, 1835; Leon, New York;
January 16, 1865; Annapolis, Maryland;
Treat Memorial Cemetery (cenotaph?), Leon, New York.
Darling, Marcellus W. (K)--March 9, 1844; Leon, New York;
February 8, 1913; Chicago, Illinois;
Logan Park Cemetery, Sioux City, Iowa.
Davidson, George H. (D)--February 22, 1843; Lyndon, New York;
April 26, 1911 ; ?;
Cuba Cemetery, Cuba, New York.
Davis, Robert (B)--ca. 1818; Ireland;
?; ?;
?
Davis, William M. (F)--April 26, 1831; South Trenton, Oneida County, N.Y.
October 11, 1917; Salamanca, New York;
Freedom (Welsh) Cemetery, Freedom, New York.
Dawley, Job B. (K)--ca. 1844; Cattaraugus County, New York;
March 25, 1865, age 20 yr, 2 mo, 10 da; near Kinston, North Carolina;
Ruggtown Cemetery (cenotaph?), Perrysburg, New York.
Dawley, John M. (K)--June 30, 1837; Perrysburg, New York;
November 4, 1904; Gowanda, New York;
Ruggtown Cemetery, Perrysburg, New York.
Dawley, Russell B. (K)--August 21, 1835; Perrysburg, New York;
January 2, 1913; ?;
Ruggtown Cemetery, Perrysburg, New York.
Day, Dwight W. (F&S)--May 14, 1841; Eagle, New York;
November 17, 1901; Eau Claire, Wisconsin;
Forest Hill Cemetery, Eau Claire, Wisconsin.
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Day, Ellis W. (D)--August 21, 1842; Colebrook, Ohio;
June 16, 1903; ?;
Little Valley Rural Cemetery, Little Valley, New York.
Day, Harland B. (K)--December 23, 1840; Ellington, New York;
September 1, 1931; Sawyer City, Pennsylvania;
Oak Hill Cemetery, Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Day, Marvin G. (D)--1828; Montgomery County, New York;
August 29, 1888; ?;
Mt. Prospect Cemetery, Franklinville, New York.
Degeir, James (I)--ca. 1834 ; Oneida County, New York;
November 24, 1863; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Dejean, Francis M. (H)--November 28, 1831; Gerry, New York;
March 7, 1915 ; Randolph, New York;
Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Demming, Chester (G)--1837; Watertown, New York;
September 27, 1909; Ellicottville, New York;
Maples Cemetery, Mansfield, New York.
Dennison, William A. (D)--March 25, 1846; Black Rock, New York;
?; ?;
?
Depuy, Charles V. (I)--ca. 1834; Tioga, Pennsylvania;
?; ?;
?
Dicher, John (B)--February 1, 1837; Germany;
June 1, 1885; Ashford, New York;
Franktown Cemetery, Ashford, New York.
Dickinson, Eugene (K)--ca. 1835; Genesee, New York;
January 22, 1890; Chamberlain, South Dakota;
Riverview Cemetery, Chamberlain, South Dakoka.
Dilley, Richard (E)--ca. 1844; Chautauqua, New York;
?; ?;
?
Dillingham, Alexander R. (D)--ca. 1836; Chester, New York;
June 6, 1884; Arcade, New York;
?
Dillingham, Benjamin (F)--ca. 1830; Chester, New York;
1907; ?;
?
Dillon, Patrick (G)--ca. 1827; Ireland;
January 26, 1864; New York, New York;
?
Diltse, Gilbert (D)--ca. 1827; Seneca County, New York;
May 8, 1864; Rocky Face Ridge, Georgia;
?
Photo courtesy of Dorothy Morrison.
Dingley, Willis L. (F)--January 25, 1846; Gerry, New York;
April 17, 1916 ; Albany, New York;
?
Dodge, Almon B. (C)--ca. 1834; Addison, New York;
November 22, 1903; ?;
Wineconne Town Cemetery, Wineconne, Wisconsin.
Dolph, David Wesley (G)--ca. 1837; Franklinville, New York;
March 23, 1863; Annapolis, Maryland;
Grave # 2470, Section G, Annapolis National Cemetery.
Donegan, James (I)--ca. 1828; Ireland;
November 2?, 1863; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Donley, John (K)--January 1, 1845; Albany, New York;
January 6, 1922; Jamestown, New York;
?
Donnelly, Thomas (F)--December 17, 1822; Vermont;
?; ?;
?
Doty, John M. (G) --ca. 1844; ?;
?; ?;
?
Douglass, John (E)--ca. 1841; Ireland;
1905; ?;
?
Drake, Asaph (I)--September 14, 1830; Middlebury, Vermont;
June 24, 1886; Humphrey, New York;
Hinsdale Cemetery, Hinsdale, New York.
Drayton, Thomas (unassigned)--March 23, 1831; Carroll, New York;
April 19, 1919 ; Arkwright, New York;
Cowens Corners Cemetery, Rt. 83 and Miller Road, Arkwright, New York.
Drayton, Washington (G)--June 3, 1843; Carroll, New York;
?; ?;
Veterans Hospital Cemetery, Bath, New York.
Drayton, William (C)--August 12, 1837; Poland, New York;
?; ?;
?
Dunbar, Sylvester V. (I)--ca. 1832 ; Lebanon, New York;
1908; ?;
Steamburg Cemetery, Cold Spring, New York.
Dutcher, Fayette (B)--February 23, 1842; Rutland County, Vermont;
May 29, 1863; near Stafford Court House, Virginia;
Div. B-B, Fredericksburg National Cemetery,Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Earl, Harvey I. (H)--ca. 1840; Napoli, New York;June 25, 1864; Andersonville, Georgia;
Grave # 2443, Andersonville National Cemetery.
Easterly, Freeman (I)--ca. 1836; Cattaraugus County, New York;
February 24, 1913; Machias, New York;
?
Edgerton, Rodolphus P. (E)--September, 1838; Ellery, New York;
1909; Erie, Pennsylvania;
?
Eggleston, Reuben R. (C)--June 12, 1813; Whitehall, New York;
September 29, 1864; Atlanta, Georgia;
Section B, Grave # 1146, Marietta National Cemetery, Marietta, Georgia.
Ellis, Henry (H)--ca. 1844; Little Valley, New York;
May 2, 1863; Chancellorsville, Virginia;
Battlefield grave.
Ellsworth, Stiles B. (K)--February 6, 1832; Ellington, New York;
October 6, 1887; Conewango, New York;
Rutledge Cemetery, Conewango, New York.
Ely, Eben S. (E)--ca. 1837; Ripley, New York;
December 7, 1893; Rollins County, Kansas;
East Ripley Cemetery, Ripley, New York.
Emery, Isaac (D)--February 28, 1831; Lyndon, New York;
February 8, 1904; Elroy, Wisconsin;
Elroy, Wisconsin.
Emmons, James D. (F)--ca. 1841; Arkwright, New York;
ca. March 1864?; Richmond, Virginia?;
?
Erwin, Blythe (F)--September 28, 1841; Charlotte, New York;
May 29, 1926; Sinclairville, New York;
Evergreen Cemetery, Sinclairville, New York.
Erwin, Hugh (F)--December 25, 1831; Ireland;
June 4, 1864; Acworth, Georgia;
?
Evans, Evander (C) --ca. 1829; Livonia, New York;
October 17, 1862; Alexandria, Virginia;
Grave # 375, Section A, Alexandria National Cemetery.
Fairbanks, Danforth (A)--April 3, 1839; Leon, New York;
?; ?;
?
Fales, Nonon (C)--August 26, 1843; Painted Post, New York;
March 22, 1864; Richmond, Virginia;
Unknown grave, Richmond National Cemetery.
Fales, Zadock H. (I)--August 26, 1845; Painted Post, New York;
February 1, 1914; ?;
?
Farlee, William A. (H, F&S)--ca. 1844; Conewango, New York;
March 11, 1887; Los Angeles, California;
?
Photo courtesy of Mazomanie (Wisconsin) Historical Society.
Farnham, John A. (F)--September 22, 1841; Wayne, Pennsylvania;
January 24, 1929; Columbus, Pennsylvania'
Pine Grove Cemetery, Corry, Pennsylvania.
Farrington, Harvey A. (E)--ca. 1840; Westfield, New York;
April 15, 1922 ; Napanoch, New York;
?
Fay, Alonzo (I)--ca. 1836; Hinsdale, New York;
?; ?;
?
Fay, Joseph B. (E)--May 17, 1817; Brocton, New York;
January 20, 1886; Chicago, Illinois;
Portland Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, New York.
Photo courtesy of William C. Welch.
Felch, John (D)--ca. 1843; Cattaraugus County, New York;
October 17, 1864; Savannah, Georgia;
?
Felton, Banardus A. (E)--ca. 1822; Holland'
1891; ?;
Clymer Hill Cemetery, Clymer, New York.
Field, Charles H. (B)--August 5, 1840; Little Valley, New York;
December 22, 1932; Little Valley, New York;
Little Valley Rural Cemetery, Little Valley, New York.
Finley, Edmund J. (H)--1831; Pennsylvania;
1868; ?;
East Randolph Cemetery, Randolph, New York.
Fisher, Harmon J. (H)--March 5, 1838; Napoli, New York;
1892; ?;
Little Valley Rural Cemetery, Little Valley, New York.
Fisk, Nelson H. (G)--ca. 1844; ?;
February 22, 1922; Wauchula, Florida;
?
Fitch, Blackmon B. (E)--ca. 1834; Burlington, Vermont;
1911; ?;
?
Fitch, John O. (D)--ca. 1829; Cattaraugus County, New York;
1909; ?;
?
Foley, Patrick (K)--August 31, 1839; Ireland;
December 24, 1922; Gowanda, New York;
Treat Memorial Cemetery, Leon, New York.
Foley, Richard (I)--ca. 1841; Ireland;
1907; ?;
?
Photo from Mark H. Dunkelman collection.
Forbush, W. Devillo (F)--July 27, 1836 ; Charlotte, New York;
March 9, 1899; Marshalltown, Iowa;
Riverside Cemetery, Marshalltown, Iowa.
Foster, Melvin (B)--July 1, 1846; Little Valley, New York;
August 10, 1917; Bradford, Pennsylvania;
Oak Hill Cemetery, Bradford, Pennsylvania.
Francis, Frederick (H)--ca. 1842; New York, New York;
?; ?;
?
Frank, David A. (G)--October 5, 1828; Ashford, New York;
?; ?;
?
Frary, James E. (H)--April 3, 1843; Napoli, New York;
December 16, 1925; Prophetstown, Illinois;
Riverside, Illinois.
Frary, William (H)--ca. 1829; Cattaraugus County, New York;
?; ?;
?
Freeman, Loyal C. (D)--July 22 1810; Cortland County, New York;
December 26, 1892, age 82 yr, 5 mo; ?;
Java Village Cemetery, Java, New York.
Freeman, William A. (I)--September 25, 1832; Franklinville, New York;
April 30, 1912 ; Machias, New York;
Mountview Cemetery, Olean, New York.
Frink, James D. (I)--May 11, 1845; Freedom, New York;
April 25, 1893 ; Red House, New York;
Steamburg Cemetery, Cold Spring, New York.
Fuller, Charles C. (F)--ca. 1829; Orwell, Vermont;
1881; ?;
Pine Grove Cemetery, Corry, Pennsylvania.
Furman, Charles O. (E)--June 13, 1841; Brocton, New York;
June 14, 1919; Portland, New York;
Portland Evergreen Cemetery, Portland, New York.
Furman, Gale (H)—ca. 1812; Avon, New York;
January 18, 1892; Lakeview, Montcalm County, Michigan;
Lakeview Cemetery, Lakeview, Michigan.
Click below to view surnames beginning:
G-O
P-Z
PLACES TO GO:
A Brief History of the 154th New York
Books
Other Publications
Summaries of the Annual Reunions
Presentations on the 154th New York
Newsletter Archive
Links to Related Web sites
Return to the Hardtack Regiment Home Page | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 51 | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/William_S._Burroughs_Jr. | en | William S. Burroughs Jr. | [
"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/William_S_Burroughs_Jr.jpg"
] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | William Seward Burroughs III, also known as William S. Burroughs Jr. and Billy Burroughs, was an American novelist. He bears the name of his father, William S. Burroughs, as well as his great-grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. He wrote three novels, two of which were published as Speed (1970) and Kentucky Ham (1973). His third novel, Prakriti Junction, begun in 1977, was never completed, although extracts from it were included in his third and final published work Cursed From Birth. | en | Wikiwand | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/William_S._Burroughs_Jr. | William Seward Burroughs III (July 21, 1947 – March 3, 1981), also known as William S. Burroughs Jr. and Billy Burroughs, was an American novelist. He bears the name of his father, William S. Burroughs, as well as his great-grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. He wrote three novels, two of which were published as Speed (1970) and Kentucky Ham (1973). His third novel, Prakriti Junction, begun in 1977, was never completed, although extracts from it were included in his third and final published work Cursed From Birth.
Burroughs Jr. underwent a liver transplant in 1976 after developing cirrhosis. He died in 1981, at the age of 33, from alcoholism and liver failure. Burroughs Jr. appears briefly in the 1983 documentary Burroughs, about his father, in which he discusses his childhood, his liver problems, and his relationship with his family. In the documentary, John Giorno called him "the last beatnik." | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 90 | https://popturf.com/sitemap/ | en | sitemap | https://popturf.com/favicon.ico | https://popturf.com/favicon.ico | [
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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 66 | https://www.nndb.com/people/096/000030006/ | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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] | null | [] | null | /silly-nndb-icon.png | null | [1] Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence, KS.
Father: Mortimer P. Burroughs (b. 16-Jun-1885, d. Jan-1965)
Mother: Laura Hammond Lee (b. 5-Aug-1888, d. 20-Oct-1970)
Brother: Mortimer P. Burroughs (b. 16-Feb-1911, d. 27-Feb-1983)
Wife: Ilse Klapper (div. 1946)
Wife: Joan Vollmer Adams (m. 1946, d. 6-Sep-1951 accidental gunshot)
Son: William S. Burroughs, Jr. (b. 1947, d. 1981 cirrhosis)
Slept with: Allen Ginsberg
High School: Los Alamos Ranch School, Otowi, NM (expelled)
University: BA English Literature, Harvard University (1936)
University: Vienna, Austria
University: Mexico City College, Mexico City, Mexico (1949-52, fled country)
Teacher: City College of New York
American Academy of Arts and Letters 1983
Scientology
Expelled from School
Forgery (Apr-1946)
Institutionalized
Lost Child Custody
unknown detox facility (1948)
Unlawful Possession of a Firearm New Orleans
Drug Possession: Marijuana New Orleans
Drug Possession: Heroin New Orleans
Failure to Appear New Orleans (27-Oct-1949), no charges filed
Driving While Intoxicated Texas
Sex in Public
Drug Smuggling
Involuntary Manslaughter
Heart Bypass Operation triple (1991)
Heart Attack 1-Aug-1997
Endorsement of Gap (1993)
Endorsement of Nike (1994)
Material Vocalist
St. Louis Walk of Fame
Sgt. Pepper Lonely Heart
Risk Factors: Heroin, Morphine, LSD, Psilocybin, Peyote, Orgone, Syphilis, Malaria, Amputee
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Source (23-Jan-1999) · Himself
The Book of Life (22-Aug-1998) [VOICE]
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (18-Feb-1994) · Himself
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (13-Sep-1993) · Himself
Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991)
Twister (8-Aug-1990) · Man in Barn
Bloodhounds of Broadway (3-Nov-1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (6-Oct-1989) · Tom the Priest
Heavy Petting (7-Sep-1989) · Himself
Home of the Brave (25-Apr-1986) · Himself
What Happened to Kerouac? (16-Apr-1986) · Himself
Chappaqua (1966)
Häxan (18-Sep-1922) [VOICE]
Rotten Library Page:
William S. Burroughs
Is the subject of books:
William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Throbbing Gristle, 1982, BY: V. Vale and Andrea Juno (RE/Search) | |||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 3 | https://www.myheritage.com/names/william_burroughs | en | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | ||||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 89 | https://uscpress.com/Understanding-William-S-Burroughs | en | Understanding William S. Burroughs | http://uscpress.com/get/files/image/galleries/6081.jpg | http://uscpress.com/get/files/image/galleries/6081.jpg | [
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] | null | [] | null | Through critical readings Gerald Alva Miller, Jr., examines the life of William S. Burroughs and the evolution of his various radical styles not just in writing but also in audio, film, and pa… | en | /images/favicon.png | http://uscpress.com/book-post/Understanding-William-S-Burroughs | Gerald Alva Miller, Jr., earned his doctorate in English from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of Exploring the Limits of the Human through Science Fiction and Understanding William Gibson. He teaches at Alamance Community College in Graham, North Carolina.
"Understanding William S. Burroughs provides an ideal point of entry for readers intimidated at the prospect of delving into the life and work of this challenging, sometimes outrageous author. Dexterously moving through Burroughs's novels as well as an impressive array of secondary sources, Gerald Miller makes a compelling case for Burroughs's centrality to postmodern literature and poststructuralist philosophy."—Nathaniel Cadle, Florida International University
"In Understanding William Burroughs, Gerald Miller conjures a welcome, timely vision of the writer's art. Combining literary history, philosophy and biography, Miller offers uncompromising accounts of an important American artist, drawing him out from the shadow of literary myth to illuminate the kaleidoscopic individual works and career."—Henry Veggian, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill | |||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 8 | https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/8/8/writer-beat-icon-burroughs-dead-at/ | en | Writer, Beat Icon Burroughs Dead at 83 | [
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] | null | [] | 1997-08-08T00:00:00 | Beat Generation novelist and icon William S. Burroughs '36 died Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas of a heart attack. He was | /favicon.ico | https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1997/8/8/writer-beat-icon-burroughs-dead-at/ | Beat Generation novelist and icon William S. Burroughs '36 died Saturday in Lawrence, Kansas of a heart attack. He was 83.
"The passing of William Burroughs leaves us with few great American writers," said Burroughs' long-time publicist Ira Silverberg. "His presence in the American literary landscape was unparalleled."
The 1959 publication of Burroughs' experimental novel Naked Lunch challenged conventional literary forms in depicting an underground world fighting a self-destructing technological society.
Written while he was living in Tangiers and first published in Paris, Naked Lunch was the subject of a precedent setting obscenity trial in the United States because of its violent and explicitly sexual content. Publishers won an appeal in Boston and the book was published in the U.S. in 1962.
His writing, which drew on such techniques as cut-ups--in which the author inserted random cutting and pasting into his own text--remained outside the mainstream, and later works never drew as much attention as Naked Lunch.
Burroughs' compulsion to write stemmed from a personal tragedy, he said in his 1982 biography. In Mexico in 1951, Burroughs--drunk and on drugs--accidentally shot and killed his wife of five years, Joan Vollmer, in an attempt to shoot a glass off her head. Burroughs served a short sentence for an involuntary manslaughter charge.
"I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing," he said in his biography:
Later in his life, Burroughs acknowledged that he was homosexual and said Vollmer was the only woman with whom he had ever had a serious relationship.
Burroughs ended 15 years of heroin addiction by taking apomorphine and went on to write his first book Junky, published in 1953, about his years as an addict.
Although critics have diverged greatly in their estimations of the literary merit of Burroughs' non-traditional work, the author was an important influence for fellow beats Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, who met Burroughs while he was living in New York in the 1940s.
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In his later years, Burroughs moved to Kansas with secretary and companion James Grauerholz and began writing more conventional narratives. He also dabbled in the visual arts and appeared in several films including "Drugstore Cowboy" and "Twister" as well as a Nike commercial.
Burroughs, who was born Feb. 5, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri, graduated the College with a degree in English. After graduation he began a period of what he would later call "aimless drifting and boredom." After being dismissed from the Army for physical reasons after only three months, he spent the early 1940s in Chicago and New York working as a private detective, bartender, exterminator and newspaper reporter.
Burroughs' and Vollmer's son, William Burroughs, died in 1981 of cirrhosis of the liver after years of drug and alcohol addiction. | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 31 | https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/american-literature/william-s-burroughs/ | en | William S. Burroughs: Biography & Famous Work | [
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] | null | [] | null | William S. Burroughs: ✓ Biography ✓ Achievements ✓ Famous Work ✓ Quotes ✓ Characters ✓ Writings ✓ StudySmarter Original | en | StudySmarter UK | https://www.studysmarter.co.uk/explanations/english-literature/american-literature/william-s-burroughs/ | William S. Burroughs's Biography
William Seward Burroughs was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1914. His grandfather founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, and his father owned a store called Cobblestone Gardens. Money was never an issue for Burroughs, who attended private school and was given a monthly salary from his parents well into adulthood.
In 1932, Burroughs left home to continue his education at Harvard University. After graduating in 1936, he traveled to Europe, where he experienced homosexual relationships for the first time. He married a Jewish woman in order to help her escape the Nazis. The two later divorced. When the United States entered World War II after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, Burroughs enlisted in the army but was later released due to concerns about his mental health. The rejection caused him to turn to drugs, eventually becoming addicted to morphine and heroin.
In 1943, Burroughs moved to New York City. There, he met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, who would become two of Burroughs's closest friends and, along with Burroughs, principle figures in the Beat Generation. A year late, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams. Although they never had an official marriage, Vollmer lived with Burroughs as his common-law wife.
Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg are considered the founding members of the Beat Generation. The Beat Generation was a literary movement situated in post-war America that rejected traditional values, social norms, and economic materialism.
Beat writers celebrated sexual liberation and resistance to conformity. The Beat Generation was largely influenced by jazz music and argued that one could find heightened awareness through jazz music, sex, and drug usage.
Burroughs' Naked Lunch (1959), Ginsberg's Howl (1956), and Kerouac's On the Road (1957) encompass some of the major literature of the Beat Generation.
Burroughs was often in trouble with the law for misdemeanors, causing him to flee to Mexico with his family in 1949. They intended to stay in Mexico for five years, but their time was cut short when Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer after a drunken prank gone wrong. He awaited trial in Mexico for a while before returning to the United States, where he was given a two-year suspended sentence.
Burroughs then spent time wandering through the Amazon searching for a drug called yagé; this experience is recorded in his book The Yage Letters (1963). Facing legal issues and the loss of his family, Burroughs spent the next several years traveling to Rome, London,Paris, andTangier.
He published his first novel, Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict (later republished as Junky in 1977), under the pseudonym William Lee in 1953. This novel is considered confessional, as it delves into drug ("junky") culture and is influenced by Burroughs's own struggle with drug use. Junky was followed by the highly-controversial Naked Lunch, published in Paris in 1959 but not published in the United States until 1962 due to obscenity laws.
Naked Lunch became notorious for its controversial depiction of sexuality (especially homosexuality). The Commonwealth of Massachusetts actually prosecuted the novel in a court case, claiming that the book violated obscenity laws. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared that the book was not obscene in 1966. Naked Lunch is still banned in many schools today.
Around the same time as the novel's release, Burroughs began experimenting with the cut-up literary technique, which he popularized with British writer and artist Brion Gysin. In this literary technique, a written text is cut up and rearranged to create an entirely new text. It was intended to promote new ways of thinking, free readers from conventional limitations, and give new life to language.
The cut-up technique is the literary equivalent of a collage in the visual arts.
Burroughs's later novels used the cut-up technique extensively. A few of these works include The Soft Machine (1961), Exterminator! (1973), Cities of the Red Night (1981), Queer (1985), The Western Lands (1987), and My Education: A Book of Dreams (1995). Burroughs's experimentation with traditional structures of the novel situates him firmly in the postmodernist movement.
Burroughs settled in Kansas in 1981. His novel Queer, written in 1952, was finally published in 1985. Burroughs was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983. He continued using heroin until the end of his life and died at the age of 83 from a heart attack.
Junky
Junky, Burroughs's first novel, also follows the character William Lee and his experiences in the world of "junk" (or drugs). Lee is addicted to heroin and becomes increasingly more dependent on it as the novel progresses. He lives in New York City, and the novel opens with him shooting morphine for the first time. Lee has a wife and kids, but his relationship with drugs takes center stage in his life and the novel. He becomes involved in the underground world of New York City, selling drugs to make enough money to fuel his own habit.
Lee's life soon centers entirely around drugs. When he gets in trouble with a group of police informants, he escapes New York and travels to Texas, where he is sober for a few months. Lee becomes bored with life and starts having sex with men to entertain himself. This doesn't work for long, and he soon starts shooting heroin again to avoid his boredom. Throughout the novel, Lee falls into a cycle of sobriety followed by boredom and drug use. At the end of the novel, he travels to South America in order to find a new mind-altering drug.
William S. Burroughs's Quotes and Writing
Below are some of Burroughs's most famous quotes.
Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing."
Burroughs originally said this quote in an interview in the 1960s, and it was printed in the collection The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs (1969). Burroughs valued silence and was especially weary of politicians who spoke just to hear themselves speak. Like many Beat writers, Burroughs was a non-conformist and did not particularly trust the government or traditional values.
[Most drug addicts] did not start using drugs for any reason they can remember. They just drifted along until they got hooked. If you have never been addicted, you can have no clear idea what it means to need junk with the addict’s special need. You don’t decide to be an addict. One morning you wake up sick and you’re an addict."
This quote is included in the prologue of Burroughs's Junky. As mentioned above, Burroughs explores much of his own relationship with drugs in this novel. Drugs and their effects are a central theme in much of Burroughs's work, and many rebels in the Beat Generation romanticized drug use. In this quote, Burroughs reveals the complicated mind of a drug addict—it's not that they want to get addicted to drugs, it's that they were running from something else, and now they can't stop.
The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client. (Introduction)”
Coming from Naked Lunch, this quote once again reveals the gritty world of drugs. The narrator implies that drug addicts are dehumanized by the supplier, who only cares about making money. The more the consumer buys, the more addicted they become and the more money the "merchant" makes.
William S. Burroughs - Key takeaways
William S. Burroughs was born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1914.
He was a famous writer in the Beat Generation, along with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac.
Burroughs was addicted to heroin for most of his life and recorded his experiences in drug culture in many of his novels and short stories.
Burroughs is most famous for his 1959 novel Naked Lunch, which was the subject of an obscenity trial for its lurid, taboo content.
Burroughs died in 1997 from a heart attack. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 28 | https://www.famousquotes123.com/william-s-burroughs-quotes.html | en | William S. Burroughs Quotes on Work, Change, Comparisons and Space | [
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] | null | [] | null | A collection of quotes by William S. Burroughs on work, change, comparisons and space. | en | ../gifs/famousquotes123.ico | //www.famousquotes123.com/william-s-burroughs-quotes.html | Home: William S. Burroughs Quotes
William S. Burroughs Quotes
Novelist, Short Story Writer
Born On
1914-02-05
Died On
1997-08-02
Birth Place
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.
Death Place
Lawrence, Kansas, U.S.
Birth Sign
aquarius
Father
Mortimer Perry Burroughs
Mother
Laura Hammon Lee
Spouse
Ilse von Klapper, Joan Vollmer
Nationality
American
Education
John Burroughs School Los Alamos Ranch School
The purpose of technology is not to confuse the brain but to serve the body.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Smash the control images. Smash the control machine.
William S. Burroughs
0
1
Silence is only frightening to people who are compulsively verbalizing.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Happiness is a byproduct of function, purpose, and conflict; those who seek happiness for itself seek victory without war.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Sometimes paranoia's just having all the facts.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
No one owns life, but anyone who can pick up a frying pan owns death.
William S. Burroughs
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0
Language is a virus from outer space.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.
William S. Burroughs
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0
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
William S. Burroughs
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A paranoid is someone who knows a little of what's going on.
William S. Burroughs
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After one look at this planet any visitor from outer space would say 'I want to see the manager.'
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Changes... can only be effected by alterations in the original. The only thing not prerecorded in a prerecorded universe are the prerecordings themselves. The copies can only repeat themselves word for word. A virus is a copy. You can pretty it up, cut it up, scramble it - it will reassemble in the same form.
William S. Burroughs
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0
The cat does not offer services. The cat offers itself. Of course he wants care and shelter. You don't buy love for nothing.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Artists to my mind are the real architects of change, and not the political legislators who implement change after the fact.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
Like all pure creatures, cats are practical.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games.
William S. Burroughs
0
0
The way to kill a man or a nation is to cut off his dreams, the way the whites are taking care of the Indians: killing their dreams, their magic, their familiar spirits.
William S. Burroughs
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0
A functioning police state needs no police.
William S. Burroughs
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0
Most of the trouble in this world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has.
William S. Burroughs
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Every man has inside himself a parasitic being who is acting not at all to his advantage.
William S. Burroughs
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Junk is the ideal product... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy.
William S. Burroughs
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Nothing is true, everything is permitted.
William S. Burroughs
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I am getting so far out one day I won't come back at all.
William S. Burroughs
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You must learn to exist with no religion, no country, no allies. You must learn to live alone in silence.
William S. Burroughs
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Perhaps all pleasure is only relief.
William S. Burroughs
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Hustlers of the world, there is one mark you cannot beat: the mark inside.
William S. Burroughs
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In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality.
William S. Burroughs
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You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.
William S. Burroughs
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Be just and if you can't be just, be arbitrary.
William S. Burroughs
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How I hate those who are dedicated to producing conformity.
William S. Burroughs
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Black magic operates most effectively in preconscious, marginal areas. Casual curses are the most effective.
William S. Burroughs
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My relationships with my cats has saved me from a deadly, pervasive ignorance.
William S. Burroughs
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Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller.
William S. Burroughs
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Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use any other drug with special horror.
William S. Burroughs
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The face of evil is always the face of total need.
William S. Burroughs
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The world wasn't a more tolerant place when I was a young man. Rather, they simply sidestepped all the issues.
William S. Burroughs
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I see no reason why the artistic world can't absolutely merge with Madison Avenue. Pop art is a move in that direction. Why can't we have advertisements with beautiful words and beautiful images?
William S. Burroughs
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In the U.S., you have to be a deviant or die of boredom.
William S. Burroughs
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Gentle reader, the Fountain of Youth is radioactive, and those who imbibe its poisonous heavy waters will suffer the hideous fate of decaying metal. Yet almost without exception, the wretched idiot inhabitants of our benighted planet would gulp down this radioactive excrement if it were offered.
William S. Burroughs
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A cat's rage is beautiful, burning with pure cat flame, all its hair standing up and crackling blue sparks, eyes blazing and sputtering.
William S. Burroughs
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The only possible ethic is to do what one wants to do.
William S. Burroughs
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In my writing I am acting as a map maker, an explorer of psychic areas, a cosmonaut of inner space, and I see no point in exploring areas that have already been thoroughly surveyed.
William S. Burroughs
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Some people like neat suburbs. I always am attracted to the rundown and the old and the offbeat.
William S. Burroughs
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I started to write in about 1950; I was thirty-five at the time; there didn't seem to be any strong motivation. I simply was endeavoring to put down in a more or less straightforward journalistic style something about my experiences with addiction and addicts.
William S. Burroughs
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Virtue is simply happiness, and happiness is a by-product of function. You are happy when you are functioning.
William S. Burroughs
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Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference.
William S. Burroughs
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Thinking is not enough. There is no final enough of wisdom, experience - any... thing.
William S. Burroughs
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Visual art and writing don't exist on an aesthetic hierarchy that positions one above the other, because each is capable of things the other can't do at all. Sometimes one picture is equal to 30 pages of discourse, just as there are things images are completely incapable of communicating.
William S. Burroughs
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Most people don't see what's going on around them. That's my principal message to writers: 'For God's sake, keep your eyes open. Notice what's going on around you.'
William S. Burroughs
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Man is an artifact designed for space travel. He is not designed to remain in his present biologic state any more than a tadpole is designed to remain a tadpole.
William S. Burroughs
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An addict never stops growing. Stupider.
William S. Burroughs
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Speaking for myself, art differs from writing in that I never know what I'm going to paint until I paint it, so it's almost like automatic writing. A writer, on the other hand, can't help but know what he's going to write, because the activity demands a degree of premeditation.
William S. Burroughs
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If everyone is to be made responsible for everything they do, you must extend responsibility beyond the level of conscious intention.
William S. Burroughs
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It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer, and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other trade.
William S. Burroughs
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Hemingway was a prisoner of his style. No one can talk like the characters in Hemingway except the characters in Hemingway. His style in the wildest sense finally killed him.
William S. Burroughs
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Scientology is a model control system, a state in fact with its own courts, police, rewards and penalties.
William S. Burroughs
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Anything that can be done chemically can be done by other means.
William S. Burroughs
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Which came first the intestine or the tapeworm?
William S. Burroughs
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"William Burroughs genealogy"
] | null | [] | 1914-02-05T00:00:00 | Is this your ancestor? Explore genealogy for William Burroughs II born 1914 St. Louis, Missouri, United States died 1997 Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas, United States including ancestors + children + 1 photos + questions + more in the free family tree community. | en | /favicon.ico | https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Burroughs-836 | Ancestors
Profile last modified 23 Apr 2024 | Created 25 Nov 2014
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Biography
William Burroughs II is Notable.
William was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist. He was the younger of two sons born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs and Laura Hammon Lee. He frequently wrote under the pen name William Lee. Though he graduated from Harvard, he never held a steady job, and subsisted primarily on an allowance from his wealthy parents. Negative events in his life, such as his heroin addiction and the accidental shooting of his wife, inspired his writing.
He was associated in New York with other characters of the Beat generation such as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady. He lived for a time in Tangier with Paul Bowles and Brion Gysin.
Finding success with his confessional first novel, Junkie in 1953, he is perhaps best known for his third novel Naked Lunch in 1959, a controversial and fraught work that underwent a court case under the U.S. sodomy laws. With Brion Gysin, he also popularized the literary cut-up technique in works such as The Nova Trilogy. In 1983, William was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and in 1984 was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France. William would face family tragedy again as his only child, William Seward Burroughs III, also a writer, succumbed to substance addiction and died from alcohol-related trauma in 1981. William died at his home In Kansas at the age of 83.[1] He is buried at Bellefontaine Cemetery in Saint Louis, Missouri.
1930 US Census for St. Louis Missouri:
Mortimer P Burroughs Head M 44 Missouri
Laura Burroughs Wife F 41 Georgia
Mortimer Burroughs Son M 19 Michigan
William S Burroughs Son M 16 Missouri
Through his grandmother Ida Selover, Burroughs is related to John D. Rockefeller. {3rd cousins, 3x removed}.
His paternal grandfather invented the adding machine which was a precursor to the computer.
Sources
↑ https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6201607/william-s.-burroughs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs
United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M884-B78 : accessed 18 August 2020), Wm Barroughs in household of Mortimer Barroughs, St Louis Ward 25, St Louis (Independent City), Missouri, United States; citing ED 500, sheet 4A, line 48, family 82, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1992), roll 961; FHL microfilm 1,820,961.
"United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XHN5-1WK : accessed 8 January 2018), William S Burroughs in household of Mortimer P Burroughs, Central, St Louis, Missouri, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 39, sheet 2B, line 95, family 44, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 1224; FHL microfilm 2,340,959.
United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JK5M-7Y8 : 20 May 2014), William S Burroughs, 02 Aug 1997; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing). | |||||
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] | null | [] | 2016-09-20T20:20:36+00:00 | Chapter 3: Generation 5 John Bramlett and Mary Peak More than sixty family members from the Palmetto State served as soldiers in the Civil War/War Between the States, and at least eighteen died while defending Confederate and Southern principles. One particular family from Greenville County headed by Sarah Dacus and Rev. Reuben Bramlett in John and Mary's… | en | https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/a9787a8f9063fff80fe0ba9a254bd5feb80699b0b864ee092cac0c3d28531bea?s=32 | Bramblette Family in America | https://bramblettefamilyinamerica.wordpress.com/home/children-and-descendants-of-john-and-mary-peak-bramlett/ | Chapter 3:
Generation 5
John Bramlett and Mary Peak
More than sixty family members from the Palmetto State served as soldiers in the Civil War/War Between the States, and at least eighteen died while defending Confederate and Southern principles. One particular family from Greenville County headed by Sarah Dacus and Rev. Reuben Bramlett in John and Mary’s line boasted twenty sons and grandsons serving in a variety of units at various times during the conflict.
South Carolina State Seal and Motto: While I Breathe I Hope
Father John Bramlett, child of Margaret “Peggy” Unknown and Henry Bramlett Jr., was born May 15, 1764, on the family plantation in Fauquier Co., Va. He married Mary Peak there circa 1785. Their first child was born in 1786 in South Carolina. John and Mary first lived in Laurens County, where he was a co-founder and early charter member of Bramlett Methodist Church with his mother, Margaret, and brothers Henry III and Nathan.
John’s full birth and death dates are inscribed in a Bramlett Bible owned by his descendants and on his tombstone at Bethel United Methodist Church, Simpsonville, Greenville Co., S.C. The monument indicates he was born in Virginia. He died at age 91 on July 28, 1855, at home on his farm south of Greenville, S.C., next to his church, and rests beside his wife, Mary Peak, there, at Bethel Methodist Episcopal (now Bethel United Methodist) Church Cemetery. One side of John’s tombstone is inscribed “John Bramlett Born Virginia May 15, 1764. Died July 28, 1855. Mary Peak His wife May 16, 1763 June 23, 1853.” The other side of the monument memorializes “Susan His Daughter” and praises “John Bramlett For 73 Years A Leader in Christian Work” and “The founder Of Bethel Church. He Had The Witness That He Pleased God.”
Bethel United Methodist Church circa 1900
Forty three names signed on an undated petition to request state incorporation of Bethel Methodist Church, Arbor, and Campground in Greenville County, South Carolina, including Bramletts, Burdetts, Austins, Hollands. The church served several thousand members annually.
Bramlett United Methodist Church
2043 Bramlett Church Road
Gray Court 29645
Laurens County
South Carolina USA
Bramlett United Methodist Church was co-founded in 1780 or 1781, according to Father John Bramlett, by him, his mother, Margaret Bramlett, and one or two of her other sons, “Nathan and or Henry” (III). The church still holds services on the property deeded by Nathan Bramlett and George Sims and sold to the trustees for $5 in 1807.
John and Mary moved their family from Laurens County where his mother, Margaret, and siblings Marianne and Nathan were living, to about nine miles from Bramlett Methodist Episcopal Church, across the boundary line into Greenville County, in 1797, the year their daughter Mildred was born there at Bethel Camp Ground. There they donated land John owned for the construction of Bethel Arbor and Church and for establishment of the Cemetery, which dates back to the the first death in the Bramlett, Holland or Yeargin families after they all settled in the same location. John’s home was next to the Church and the Arbor, an outdoor shelter used for early religious meetings and special occasions, including revivals and weddings. Bethel honors John each year by laying a wreath on his grave during its Founder’s Day celebrations. Co-founders Solomon Holland and Devereaux Yeargin with their family members also played important roles in the establishment and early development of the Arbor, Church, and Cemetery.
John also co-founded with his mother, Margaret, and siblings Henry III and Nathan, the mother church of Bethel –Bramlett Methodist Episcopal (now United Methodist) Church– near Gray Court, Laurens Co., S.C., in 1780-1781 or earlier. Obituaries of John and Nathan document their early membership in the Methodist Church at age 16 in and age 14, respectfully. They formed the core religious group of Bramlett Methodist Church with their mother, Margaret, and elder brother Henry III, who was about age 25, in 1780-1781 at their widowed mother Margaret’s home, on the Bramlett Plantation in Fauquier Co., Va. No religious affiliation has been identified for their brother Reuben Bramlett, 1757-1844, who was born in Virginia, lived there in 1780-85, and then moved to South Carolina, Western Kentucky, and Southern Illinois where he died and is buried. His wife, Elizabeth Brown, and several of their family members, including sons Henry and Coleman; however, were devoted to the Baptist Church in Gallatin and Saline counties in Illinois. Elizabeth is listed as a member on the rolls of one early Baptist Church there that notes her death in 1830. Family tradition holds she and her son Ben both died of measles at about the same time. One Laurens County, South Carolina, historian dated the founding of Bramlett Methodist Church at Gray Court, S.C., back to 1774-1776, around the time of the Declaration of Independence. John and Nathan were revered lay ministers given the title “Father” by their adoring congregants in South Carolina and, with their elder brother Henry III, were deeply devoted to God, Church, Country, and Family. Henry III’s descendants on the West Coast some years ago claimed they had documentary written evidence, perhaps a copy of his license to preach, church documents, or letters, indicating he was an ordained Methodist Minister; and they had possession of and had preserved his very valuable and historically important Revolutionary War Discharge Papers. Although many of Henry III’s descendants are interested in joining military and history groups to celebrate their family patriotic affiliations, the owner of the preserved items declined to share copies of them or give permission to quote written history that describes them. However, those descendants may use Henry III’s identification as a Revolutionary soldier in Georgia Land Lottery records and in a Virginia deed that names him as a resident of Virginia and South Carolina in 1780, during the war, for proof of their ancestor’s military service. Henry III’s daughter Margaret joined Bramlett Methodist Church when the family still lived in South Carolina, and his sister Marianne Bramlett and her husband, Frederick Burdette, were no doubt also affiliated with Bramlett Methodist Church as early members. Frederick served as a trustee there in 1807, and they lived nearby and close to Marianne’s paternal uncle William Bramblett and family. They are named as early church members in Rev. Frederick Reuben Burdette’s precious family Diary, provided by direct descendant Martha Anne Curry Duke. The document records names of the church’s founders in 1780 or 1781 as brothers Henry III, John, Nathan Bramlett, and their Mother, who is identified as Margaret in recorded Virginia deeds that name Henry III, John, and Reuben together on the Fauquier Co., Va., plantation, after their father, Henry II/Jr., died.
Bramlett United Methodist Church, founded 1780-1781
John Bramlett’s Tombstone, Bethel United Methodist Church Cemetery, Simpsonville, S.C.
“B”
“John Bramlett Born Virginia May 15, 1764. Died July 28, 1855.”
“Mary Peak His Wife May 16, 1763 June 23, 1853.”
“Bramlett”
“John Bramlett For 73 Years A Leader in Christian Work”
“The founder Of Bethel Church. He Had The Witness That He Pleased God.”
Susan His Daughter
Jan. 11, 1804 Dec. 21, 1892
Susannah “Susan” Bramlett’s tombstone inscription, Bethel UMC Cemetery,
Photo by Bramlett Historian Deborah G. Dennis
Bethel United Methodist Church, Simpsonville, S.C.
John and Mary’s Thirteen Children
The names and birth dates of John and Mary and their thirteen children are inscribed in their son Elias Bramlett’s Bible and their son Reuben Bramlett’s Bible, the latter which was once in the possession of Robert Hulet/Hugh Bramlett, grandson of John and Mary, and later was passed down to Robert’s son H. Marvin Bramlett and then to his son Robert Austin Bramlett. John and Mary’s thirteen children are William, Margaret, Nathan, Nancy, Reuben, Alcey, John Wesley, Mildred (“Milley”), Rosanah (“Rosey” “Rosa”), Mary, Henry, Susannah (“Susan”) and Elias Bramlett. Several of the children appear to be namesakes of John’s extended family members: William, named after John’s brother? and/or uncle; Margaret, named after John’s mother; Nathan and Reuben and Henry, named after John’s brothers Nathan, Reuben and Henry; and perhaps Nancy, named after a probable sister of John. John Wesley Bramlett was named in part after John and after the famous Methodist leader John Wesley. Mary was named after her mother. The other daughters–Alcey, Milley, Rosanah “Rosey” “Rosa” and Susannah “Susan”–may have been named after some of John’s sisters who have not been documented and/or after some of Mary’s family.
John and Mary’s Thirteen Children are: William, Margaret, Nathan, Nancy, Reuben, Alcey, John Wesley, Mildred (“Milley”), Rosanah (“Rosey” “Rosa”), Mary, Henry, Susannah (“Susan”), Elias Bramlett.
Rev. William Bramlett, Son of John and Mary Peak Bramlett
Descendant James T. Hammond of Columbia and Greenville, S.C., pictured below, provides much of the following about Rev. William and Nancy S. Dacus Bramlett.
Rev. William Bramlett, first child of John and Mary (Peak) Bramlett, was born July 2, 1786, in Laurens Co., S.C. William’s birth and death dates are inscribed in a Bramlett Bible originally owned by William’s brother Reuben. William died July 29, 1870, at home in Jackson Grove, Greenville Co., S.C., and was buried in Jackson Grove Methodist Church Cemetery. William’s son-in-law Willis Rogers petitioned to be administrator of William’s estate on Jan. 28, 1871 (Apt. 32, File 56). William’s son John Wesley Irvin Bramlett and William’s widow, Nancy, bought most of William’s property at the estate sale, according to descendant James T. Hammond.
William was appointed trustee of Jackson Grove Methodist Church in 1835. He previously was a charter member and trustee of Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church near Simpsonville, S.C. J. C. Crisp identifies William as a Methodist Minister in an obituary published in the Sept. 23, 1870, issue of The Southern Christian Advocate:
Bramlett descendant Julien Potter Wooten in his 1886 brief family history named William as a son of John and Mary. Julien described William as “a Methodist preacher” who “lived and died in Greenville, S.C.” (See the entire typescript/transcript below in Mildred Bramlett Potter’s history.) William is the brother of Mildred Bramlett Potter, who is the grandmother of Julien.)
Methodist Church historian Samuel M. Green in An Historical Outline of Greenville Circuit writes about William Bramlett who lived in the upper part of Greenville County near Batesville and preached at Ebenezer Methodist Church. He indicates William assisted the Rev. Thomas Hutchings, “a Methodist local preacher…who was the original proprietor of the Batesville cotton factory. Through their efforts, church meetings were held for workers and proprietors of the Batesville and Pelham cotton factories” (10). (Batesville and Pelham originally were known as Buena Vista.) Buried in the cemetery at Ebenezer Methodist Church, where William H. Bramlett preached, are Arthur Bramlett (1), and Lilla Mae Bramlett (2), according to Beverly T. Whitmire in Presence of The Past. Their graves apparently are not marked or the markers have no dates. Their connection to William is unknown.
William married Nancy S. Dacus in 1803 in Greenville County, according to descendant Louise (Hutchings) Galway, deceased. She reported Nancy was born May 16, 1788, in Virginia. Nancy is the daughter of Nathaniel Dacus and his first wife, Martha Dupree, who married in Lunenburg Co., Va. Family tradition holds that Nancy is Nathaniel’s step-daughter, the child of Martha Dupree and a different father; however, recent DNA results contributed by direct descendant James T. Hammond indicate Nancy is genetically and biologically related to Sarah D. Dacus Bramlett, her sister, who also is a known daughter of Martha Dupree and Nathaniel Dacus. Nancy died in Jackson Grove, S.C., on March 13, 1874. Her grave marker in Jackson Grove Methodist Church Cemetery identifies her as the wife of Rev. William Bramlett.
“William Bramblet,” 26-44, is listed in the 1810 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., as head of a family that includes a female 26-44 (wife, Nancy) and two children: a female under 10, born 1800-10 (Mary?), and a male under 10, born 1800-10 (Nathan Robert/Josiah?) (NARA Film M252:62:118). “Wm. Bramlet,” white male 26-44, born between 1776 and 1794, employed in agriculture, is listed in the 1820 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., with a female 26-44 (wife, Nancy) and six children: one female 10-16, born between 1804 and 1810 (Mary); two males under 10, born between 1810 and 1820 (Nathan Robert/Josiah? and/or Abner G., Tolliver Robert); and three females under 10, born between 1810 and 1820 (Margaret/Anna? and Elizabeth and Melanie “Mellie” “Milly”?) (NARA Film M33:120:169). One of the sons may have been missed by the census taker or may have been living with other relatives. Four young children, probably grandchildren–children of William and Nancy–are enumerated with William’s parents, John and Mary, in the 1820 census. Another son of William and Nancy, Elbert S., had died in 1819. William lived near his parents, John and Mary (Peak/e) Bramlett, in Greenville County in 1830. “William Bramlet,” 40-50, is listed in the 1830 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., as head of a family that includes a female 40-50 (wife, Nancy) and nine children: a female 20-30, born 800-10 (Mary); two females 15-20, born 1811-15 (Elizabeth “Betsy” and Melanie “Mellie” “Milly”?); one female 10-15, born 1815-20 (Margaret/Anna?); one male 10-15, born 1815-20 (Tolliver Robert); one female 5-10, born 1820-25 (Martha); one male 5-10, born 1820-25 (William H.); one female under 5, born 1825-30 (Eliza W.); and one male under 5, born between 1825 and 1830 (John Wesley Ervin) (NARA Film M19:172:284). Sons Nathan Robert/Josiah and Abner G. may have been living with relatives: their grandparents John and Mary (Peak) Bramlett have one male 15-20, born between 1810 and 1815 (Nathan?); and one male 10-15, born between 1815 and 1820 (Abner G.?) in their house in the 1830 census.
Nathan Bramlett married Mary Margaret Miles by 1835, and Abner G. Bramlett married Elizabeth Rosa Hawkins in 1843. Two of Nancy and William’s three older daughters (Mary and/or Margaret/Anna and Melanie “Mellie” “Milly”?) married before 1840. William and Nancy’s son Tolliver Robert Bramlett married before 1840 and lived next to them.
“Rev. Wm. Bramblett,” 50-60, born 1780-90, is listed in the 1840 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., as head of a family that includes a female 50-60 (wife, Nancy) and eight children: one male 20-30, born 1810-20 (Abner G.); two females 20-30, born 1810-20 (Margaret/Anna? or Melanie “Mellie” “Milly”? and Elizabeth “Betsy”); one female 15-20, born 1820-25 (Martha); one male 15-20, born 1820-25 (William H.); one female 10-15, born 1825-30 (Eliza W.); one male 10-15, born 1825-30 (John Wesley Ervin); and one female 5-10, born 1830-35 (Malinda Caroline) (NARA Film M704:512:205). (Nathan does not appear with his parents and siblings in 1840 because he married by 1835 and lived elsewhere. Abner did not marry until 1843.) “William Bramblett,” 64, born in South Carolina, farmer, $300 real estate, and wife, Nancy, 62, born in Virginia, are listed in the 1850 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., with six grown children: Elizabeth (“Betsy”), 30; Martha, 28; William (H.), 25, laborer; Eliza (W.), 23; John (Wesley Ervin), 21, laborer; and (Malinda) Caroline, 18 (NARA Film M432:853:367A). “Wm. Bramblett” is listed in the Sept. 6, 1850, Agricultural Census for Greenville Co., S.C., with fifty improved acres and fifty-five unimproved acres worth $300 and $200 worth of livestock (SCDAH Film M2:1:734-735). William Bramlett circa 1855 signed a petition to erect a gate on the road from Greenville Courthouse (SCDAH Series S165015, Item 31). Other signers include William H. Bramlett Jr., John W. Bramlett, William Few. “William Bramlett,” 74, born in South Carolina, Methodist clergyman, $1,000 real estate, $200 personal estate, and wife, Nancy, 72, born in Virginia, housekeeper, are listed in the 1860 U.S. Census for Mush Creek P.O., Head of Tyger Div., Greenville Co., S.C., with three grown children born in South Carolina: Elizabeth Bramlett, 48, seamstress; Martha Bramlett, 41, seamstress; and Eliza Miles, 32, housekeeper, $1,600 personal estate (NARA Film M653:1220:506). Also listed is Eliza’s son John T. Miles, 5. “W. [William] Bramlett,” 84, and wife, Nancy, 82, keeping house, both born in South Carolina, are listed in the 1870 U.S. Census for Mush Creek P.O., Highland Twp., Greenville Co., S.C. (NARA Film M593:1498:675B).
Headstone of Mary Bramlett Few, Few Family Cemetery, courtesy Robin Farley Dixson
Elizabeth R. Bramlett made a motion to the chancellor through her solicitor to admit the will to probate, which was granted, and was named Executrix on Jan. 29, 1873.
Abner named his wife, Elizabeth R., and four daughters as his only heirs: Emily Dacus (Bramlett) Dacus, Louisa Josephine Bramlett, Nancy R. Bramlett and Mary E. Bramlett.
William H. (Henry?) Bramlett, tenth child of Rev. William and Nancy S. (Dacus) Bramlett, was born April 19, 1824, in Greenville Co., S.C. An entry in his Bramlett Bible, once in the possession of descendant Boyce Bramlett, indicates “W. H. Bramlett Departed this life Oct. 6th 1863 at 1/2 past 6 o’clock in the evening at the Ropers hospital in Charleston, S.C.” He died while serving as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War/War Between the States, reportedly of typhoid fever. A soldier in his unit indicated in a letter the captain sent William back to Greenville County to be buried in Jackson Grove Methodist Church Cemetery where a grave is marked for him. (Victims of typhoid and other communicable diseases usually were buried right away in their uniforms at the place of death; however, there is no inscribed tombstone or burial record for him at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston where deceased soldiers were interred.) A neighbor, James Irvin Willis, who served in William’s unit, Company H, Third Palmetto Battalion, South Carolina Light Artillery, mentions William in two letters he wrote to his father, Daniel Willis, and to his father and mother in 1863. The first letter, written March 6, 1863, from Camp James Island, S.C., contains a brief reference: “…Wm. Bramlett has come to our Co….” William had enlisted in February. Willis identifies their company at the bottom of the letter. He tells his father, “You directed your letter to Co. A. That was a mistake. Ours is Co. H.” An earlier reference near the top of the letter indicates the company had four artillery guns. William subsequently became ill and was hospitalized June 12, 1863. A second Willis letter, written Oct. 19, 1863, also from James Island, S.C., contains the news of William’s death: “There was one of my mess died of typhoid…his name was Wm. Bramlett…a neighbor of mine. Left a wife and five little children. He said before he died he was prepared…” and Captain McKendrick sent him home. The letters were preserved by Willis descendant Rev. J. Earnest Willis and published. The excerpts here are shared by Bramblette-Burdette-Willis descendant Franklin Donald Burdette of Florida.
William married Rebecca Arvine Roe on Dec. 8, 1853, according to the Bramlett Bible. Rebecca was born Dec. 6, 1830, in Greenville District, the daughter of Ann Wheeler (1795-1846) and Thomas Roe (1791-1847). Rebecca died March 28, 1907, in Greenville County and was buried in Jackson Grove Methodist Church Cemetery. Her maternal grandparents are Phillis Biden and William Wheeler and her paternal grandparents are Elizabeth Daish (1769-1848) and James Roe Jr. (1766-1826). Rebecca Bramlett of Locust Hill, S.C., in 1901 is listed by Mann Batson in Upper Part of Greenville County, South Carolina, as one of the “Widows Of Soldiers Who Lost Their Lives In Service Of The Confederate States” (453).
William wrote his last will and testament on Nov. 22, 1862, in Greenville District:
In the name of God Amen. I William H. Bramlett of the State of South Carolina, Greenville dist, being of sound and disposing mind and memory but knowing that it is appointed once for man to die and being desirous to dispose of the worldy goods wherewith it has pleased God to bless me do make and ordain this to be my last will in manner following–To wit–after the payment of my Just debts I will & bequeath unto my beloved wife Rebecca Bramlett all my estate both real and personal let it consist of whatsoever it may during her natural life or widowhood in case my wife shall marry I desire my estate divid[ed] between my wife & children that is to say I give to my wife one third part of my whole estate both real & personal to her & her heirs forever & the other two thirds I wish equally divided between my five children–Elbert Bramlett, John Bramlett, Nancy Bramlett, Charles Bramlett & William Bramlett all share & share alike to them & their heirs forever. I also desire that if my wife shall give birth to any other child or children by me I desire that such child or children shall share equally in my estate with my five children above named. I do hereby nominate & appoint my beloved wife Rebecca Bramlett Executrix of this my last will & testament in testimony whereof I do hereunto set my hand & affix my seal the 22nd day of November 1862–signed sealed published & declared as the last will & testament of the above named William Bramlett the day & date above written in the presence of J. L. Westmoreland, James W. Green, Martha V. Westmoreland. W. H. Bramlett.
The witnesses and Rebecca (Roe) Bramlett appeared in court to prove the will on Nov. 16, 1863 (Apt. 22, File 26). Rebecca made a request to finalize a settlement of the estate on Feb. 2, 1870. The inventory of William’s estate, signed by his brothers-in-law Ignatius Few and Benjamin Few, indicates William had property valued at $1,833 and $67.74 in cash with $1,600.84 worth of “notes” at the time of his death. The county court was involved in settling the estate for about eight years after William died. Rebecca did not have any other children after William died: the five children named in his will–Elbert, John, Nancy, Charles and William–also are named as his heirs in Rebecca’s final report. The court set a date for a final hearing on the estate on March 3, 1870. At that time, the court appointed P. B. Benson guardian of the children.
William H. and Rebecca are mentioned in Lou Alice F. Turner’s 1981 book Jackson Grove Methodist Church History as members of the church in 1835 (72).
William is enumerated in his parents’ house in the 1830-1840 U.S. Census records for Greenville County. “William Bramblett,” 25, born in South Carolina, is listed there in the 1850 U.S. Census with his parents, William, 64, born South Carolina, and Nancy, 62, born in Virginia, and siblings (NARA Film M432:853:367B). William H. Bramlett was appointed guardian of his nephew, John Thomas Miles, son of Eliza Miles and minor heir of Thomas Miles, deceased, on Jan. 2, 1860, in Greenville District. Eliza Miles petitioned the court to appoint William guardian of her son. William lived near his parents close to Mush Creek in 1860: “William Bramlett Jr.,” 37, farmer, and wife, Rebecca (Arvine Roe), 28, both born in South Carolina, are listed in the 1860 U.S. Census for Tyger Division, Mush Creek P.O., Greenville Co., S.C., with four children born in South Carolina: Elbert (Sevier), 5; John (James), 4; Nancy (Arvine), 1/12; and Infant (Charles Proctor), 1/12 (NARA Film M653:1220:507A). Also listed is Samuel Singleton, 21, born in South Carolina, farmer. Another child, William H., was born in 1862 after the census.
William enlisted as a private in Company H, 3rd (Palmetto) (White’s) Battalion, South Carolina Light Artillery, later known as Capt. William E. Earle’s Company, Horse Artillery, Butler’s Cavalry Division, on Feb. 13, 1863, in Greenville, S.C. The May-June company muster roll lists him as absent and in the hospital since June 12, 1863; and the September-October roll indicates he died Oct. 6, 1863, at Roper Hospital, Charleston, S.C., shown below.
“Wm. H. Bramlett, Pvt. Co. H. P.B.L.A. Vols. S.C.,” who died in a Charleston, S.C., hospital “appears on a Register of Claims of Deceased Officers and Soldiers from South Carolina which were filed for settlement in the Office of the Confederate States Auditor for the War Department.” The claim was presented by Rebecca Bramlett, his widow, on Jan. 23, 1864 (Confederate Archives, Chap. 10, File No. 33, p. 11). Rebecca claimed William’s personal effects and $55.50 in back pay on that day.
Rebecca took courage and cared for her children, no doubt struggling to keep the farm and feed the family on her own in an economically and spiritually struggling war-torn region for the next 44 years. Rebecca Bramlett, 48, born in South Carolina to parents born in England, widowed, keeping house, is listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for Bates Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with two grown children born in South Carolina: Charles P. (Proctor), 20, farmer, and William H., 18, works on farm (NARA Film T9:1231:381B). Rebecca Bramlett, 69, born in December 1830 in South Carolina to parents born in England, widowed, is listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for Bates Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., living with her son, W. H. Bramlett, 38, born in March 1862, widowed, farmer, and his son, Walter, 8, born in August 1891, both born in South Carolina to parents born there (NARA Film T623:1529:55A).
Elbert Sevier “E. S.” Bramlett, first child of William H. and Rebecca Arvin (Roe) Bramlett, was born Sept. 1, 1854, in Greenville Co., S.C. He is a namesake of his Uncle Elbert S. Bramlett (1816-1819). Elbert died in Greenville County on May 12, 1918, and was buried in Lima Baptist Church Cemetery, north of Greenville, S.C. Elbert’s probate records indicate his son Willie C. Bramlett served as executor of his estate in 1918. Elbert was a farmer. He married Mary Elizabeth Trammell circa 1878. She was born July 22, 1846. She died April 18, 1907, and was buried in Lima Baptist Church Cemetery. “Elbert Bramlett,” 26, farmer, and wife, Lizzie, 34, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for Saluda Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with one child: William, 1 (NARA Film T9:1231:352A). All were born in South Carolina. “Elbert S. Bramlett,” 45, born in September 1854 in South Carolina, farmer, owner of a mortgage-free farm, married 22 years, and wife, Elizziebeath, 42, born in July 1847 in South Carolina, mother of five living children, are listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for Saluda Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with five children born in South Carolina: William C., 20, born in July 1879, farm laborer; Mary E., 19, April 1881; Charley H., 16, July 1883, farm laborer; Emma E., 14, September 1885; and Lewis E., 12, October 1887, farm laborer (NARA Film T623:1530:267A). “Elbert S. Bramlett,” 56, salesman, general merchandise, widowed, and four children are listed in the 1910 U.S. Census for Saluda Twp., Greenville Co., S.C.: William C., 30, farmer, general farm; Mary E., 28; Emer E., 24, daughter; and Louis E., 22, farmer, general farm (NARA Film T624:1461:148A). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. Elbert and Elizabeth’s children are William Claybourne (“Willie”), Mary Elizabeth, Charles Henry, Emmie Estill and Lewis Ervin Bramlett.
Graves of John James Bramlette and Lucinda, courtesy James T. Hammond
John was a farmer and worked in or owned a cotton mill in O’Neal Township. He was a member of Mountain View United Methodist Church. “John J. Bramlett,” 24, farmer, and wife, Lucindy, 24, keeping house, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with two children: Nancy, 4, and Elizabeth, 2/12 (NARA Film T9:1231:286A). All were born in South Carolina. “John J. Bramlet,” 43, born in August 1856, cotton mill, widowed, is listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for Piedmont, Grove Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., as head of a family with five children born in South Carolina: Nannie, 22, born in August 1878, cotton mill; Clarence, 16, July 1884; Walter, 13, July 1886, cotton mill; Clara Belle, 4, February 1896; and Bettie (Bramlett) Gillespie, 20, April 1880, mother of one child, none living (NARA Film T623:1530:149A). Also listed: Bettie’s husband, William Gillespie, 31, born in June 1868, cotton mill, married two years. “John J. Bramlett,” 63, father, widowed, farmer, is listed in the 1920 U.S. Census for Highland Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., living with his son James C. (Clarence) Bramlett, 35, farmer, general farm, head of the family, and his wife, Allie, 20, and their two children (NARA Film T625:1698:297A). Also listed: John’s daughter Clara B. Bramlett, 24, sister.
John and Lucinda’s children include Nancy (“Nannie”), Elizabeth (“Bettie”), James Clarence, George Walter and Clara Bell Bramlette.
Clara Bell and husband, Claude Tandy Barnette, courtesy James T. Hammond
Nancy Arvine Bramlette, third child of William H. and Rebecca Arvine (Roe) Bramlett, was born Sept. 13, 1858, in Greenville Co., S.C. She died there on May 28, 1925, and was buried at Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery. Her grave marker lists her birth and death dates and identifies her as Nancy Bramlett, wife of G. Walker Gilreath. Her daughter Brinnie Gilreath, April 12, 1886—March 1, 1972, and husband, Walker, are buried beside her.
Rev. John Dill performed the marriage ceremony for Nancy and G. Walker Gilreath on Jan. 17, 1878, in Travelers Rest, S.C.
Walker was born April 20, 1857, the son of Martha Few and William Henry Gilreath. He died Dec. 17, 1925, and was buried beside Nancy at Mountain View Cemetery. “Nancy Gilreath,” 21, and husband, Walker, 23, farmer, head of the family, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with one child: Nora, 10/12, born in August (NARA Film T9:1231:281B). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. “Nancy E. Gilreath,” 41, born in September 1858, mother of six living children, married 22 years, and husband, George W., 43, born in April 1857, farmer, owner of a mortgaged farm, head of the family, are listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with six children: Norah R., 20, August 1879; William H., 18, September 1881; Ida M., 16, September 1883; Brannard, 14, April 1886; Brinnie, 14, April 1886; and Lula B., 2, June 1897 (NARA Film T623:1530:219A). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. “Nancy A. Gilreath,” 51, married 32 years, and husband, George W., 56, farmer, general farm, head of the family, are listed in the 1910 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with three children: Brinnie, 24; Lula B., 12; and Fannie/Thannie V., 8 (NARA Film T624:1461:103B). Their son William H. and wife, Lura Nora, lived next door. All were born in South Carolina. Walker and Nancy’s children include Nora Rebecca, William Henry, Ida Mae, twins Brannard and Brinnie, Lula Beatrice and Thannie/Fannie Vannoy Gilreath.
Charles Proctor Bramlett, fourth child of William H. and Rebecca (Roe) Bramlett, was born May 6, 1860, in Jackson Grove, S.C. He died Oct. 2, 1912, in Locust Hill, Greenville Co., S.C., and was buried in Mush Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. Charles was a farmer, carpenter, deacon and church historian. He built Mush Creek Baptist Church before his marriage and constructed several houses in upper Greenville County, including one for his own family circa 1900. He worked at Shumate’s Cabinet shop in Greenville in the early 1900s and later operated a sawmill at the foot of Paris Mountain, according to his granddaughter Elizabeth E. Nicholl. Charles married Mary Elizabeth “Lizzie” Neves on Dec. 26, 1889, in Mush Creek community. She was born there Feb. 28, 1871, the daughter of Frances E. Boswell and William Perry Zachariah Franklin Neves. Lizzie died March 24, 1967, in Greenville and was buried in Mush Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. She worked as a supervisor for Nuckasee Manufacturing in Greenville. “Charlie Bramlett,” 40, born in May 1860, married ten years, and wife, Lizzie, 28, born in February 1872, mother of two living children, are listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with two children: Alice, 9, born September 1890, and Cora, 7, born April 1893 (NARA Film T623:1530:225A). “Charles P. Bramlette,” 49, first marriage, married 20 years, farmer, rents farm, and wife, Mary E., 38, born in February 1872, mother of two living children, are listed in the 1910 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with two grown children: Alice, 19, and Cora, 17 (NARA Film T624:1461:104B). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. “Lizzie Bramlett,” 48, is listed in the 1920 U.S. Census for San Soucie Village, Greenville, Greenville Co., S.C., with daughter Cora Nicoll, 28, and son-in-law Earnest E., 33, and their two children (NARA Film T625:1698:162B). All were born in South Carolina. Charles and Elizabeth’s children are Alice Irene and Cora Pauline Bramlett.
John Wesley Ervin Bramlett, twelfth child of Rev. William and Nancy S. (Dacus) Bramlett, was born Aug. 24, 1829, in Simpsonville, Greenville Dist., S.C. He died May 16, 1915, in Liberty, Greenville Co., S.C., and was buried the next day at Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery, Taylors, S.C. John’s South Carolina Death Certificate 9661 names his parents as Nancy Dacus born Greenville Co., S.C. and William Bramblet born Virginia (sic).
His grave marker identifies him as Capt. John W. Bramlett. John’s obituary in the May 18, 1915, Greenville News is headlined: “Major Bramlette Died on Sunday; Funeral at Greer”:
Greer, May 17. — (Special) — Major John W. Bramlette, of the 18th South Carolina regiment, Confederate States of America, died at his home in Liberty, on Sunday, aged 86 years. Before becoming a major, he was captain of Company D of the same regiment. Death came to Major Bramlette at the home of his daughter, Mrs. John [Eliza C.] Hutchings, who with Mrs. Ben [daughter Mary Anna] Neves, Campobello; Mrs. J. [John] J. [daughter Tallulah “Lula”] McMakin and Mrs. W. S. [Waddie Spartan] [niece by marriage] Corrie Wilson] Barnett, of O’Neal, survive him.
The body of major Bramlette was brought to Greer this morning on train No. 42, and this afternoon at one o’clock the interment was held at the Mountain View Methodist church. The services were conducted by his pastor, the Rev. L. E. Wiggins, and by Rev. A. Q. Rice. The floral offerings were very beautiful, and among them were tributes from the Keowee Chapter and the Hampton-Lee Chapter Daughters of the Confederacy. Major Bramlette was preceded to the grave by his wife, who, before marriage, was Miss Sarah Wilson.
On last Saturday night Mrs. Sarah Bramlett, wife of Capt. J. W. Bramlett, of Sandy Flat, died of typhoid fever. She was about 68 years of age, the daughter of Hon. John Wilson, who represented this congressional district during Jackson’s time, and was the mother of a large family of children, five of whom survive her. She was a member of Mountain View Methodist Church, and her funeral services were held there on last Sunday afternoon and were conducted by Rev. Mr. Earle. Drs. W. J. and J. W. Bramlett, of this county, are sons of the deceased.
Sarah’s husband, John, a native of Greenville County, was a teacher and a farmer in Anderson County. He was a member and trustee of Jackson Grove Methodist Episcopal Church in nearby Greenville County in 1896. John is enumerated in his parents’ household in the 1830 and 1840 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C. “John Bramlett,” 21, born in South Carolina, is listed in the 1850 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., with his parents, William, 64, born in South Carolina, farmer, $300 real estate, and Nancy, 62, born (illegible–Virginia?), and five siblings born in South Carolina (Elizabeth, 30; Martha, 28; William, 25, laborer; Eliza, 23; Caroline, 18) (NARA Film M432:853:367). “J. W. Bramlett,” 35, C. S. (country school) teacher, $1,000 real estate and $2,000 personal estate, and (first) wife, Sarah, 30, are listed in the 1860 U.S. Census for Brushy Creek, 42nd Regiment Militia Dist., Anderson Co., S.C., with three children: William (Jasper), 6, who had attended school within the year; Francis (Martha), 4, female; and John (Wilson), 6/12. Also listed: James Kelly, 14. The record indicates all were born in South Carolina (NARA Film M653:1212:323A). J. W. Bramlett on Dec. 20, 1860, served on the South Carolina Legislative Committee on Privileges and Elections, which gave a report and appointed poll and election managers for Abbeville, Ninety-Six, Cedar Springs, Bordeaux, All Saints Parish, White Plains, Williamston, Five Forks and Anderson districts (SCDAH Series S165005, Item 260, p. 1).
John served as a Confederate officer during the Civil War/War Between the States. He raised a company, Capt. J. W. Bramlett’s Company, later Company D, Eighteenth Regiment, South Carolina Infantry, and enlisted himself on Dec. 4, 1861, for 12 months at Mountain Spring, Anderson Co., S.C. One roster states the regiment, attached to Evans’ Brigade, was organized for state service Jan. 2, 1862, and mustered into Confederate service Jan. 5, 1862. The regiment was organized for 12 months but re-organized May 5, 1862, under the conscript act for three years of service from enlistment. The captain’s NARA Compiled Military Service Records indicate he was age 32 and a resident of Anderson County when he joined and that Col. Martin also enlisted him (Film M267 Roll 297). He was elected captain of his company Dec. 4, 1861, and appointed captain on Dec. 20, 1861, at Camp Hampton, S.C., and was mustered in Dec. 30, 1861. Pay accounts indicate his monthly pay as captain amounted to $130. His re-enlistment, dated April 9, 1862, at Charleston, S.C., describes him as 6 feet tall with a fair complexion, black hair and blue eyes. He received a bounty payment of $50 for enlisting three years the following day. He served two years, eight months unofficially as major from April 1, 1863, until honorably discharged in December. He was recommended for promotion to major Dec. 6, 1863; but his military records do not clearly indicate he actually was promoted. He apparently resigned before the recommendation was made. He requested a 15-day leave of absence on Nov. 1, 1863, to take care of “business of great importance that requires my presence at home” in Anderson, S.C. His request indicates he had not been home in eight months. He returned and tendered his resignation Nov. 26, 1863, from Camp at Christ Church Parish, S.C., and was discharged Dec. 8, 1863. After the war John was a member of Camp Manning Austin of Confederate Veterans, which was organized Nov. 18, 1893, in Greenville County.
“John Bramlett,” 40, farmer, $300 real estate, $200 personal estate, and (first) wife, Sarah, 40, are listed in the 1870 U.S. Census for Mush Creek P.O., Highland Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with six children: Wm. (Jasper) 15; (Frances) Martha, 13; John (Wilson), 10; Mary A. (Anna), 8; Talula, 5; and Eliza (C.), 3 (NARA Film M593:1498:675B). All were born in South Carolina. “John Bramlette,” 50, farmer, and (first) wife, Sarah, 50, keeping house, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for Highland Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with six grown and minor children: William (Jasper), 24, physician; Mattie (Frances Martha), 21; John W. (Wilson), 20, farm laborer; Mary (Anna), 17; Loula, 15, at school; Eliza (C.), 13 (NARA Film T9:1231:304A). Also listed is Sarah’s niece Carrie (Corrie) Wilson, 6, boarder. All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. John and Sarah’s children are William Jasper, Frances Martha (“Mattie”), John Wilson, Mary Anna, Tallulah (“Lula”) and Eliza C. Bramlett. Sarah and John also reared Sarah’s niece, Corrie Wilson, daughter of Sarah’s brother Jasper Wilson after Corrie’s mother, Cornelia Townsend Wilson, died about a week after her birth in 1874. James T. Hammond suggests his grandmother Corrie may have been formally named Cornelia after her mother and affectionately called “Corrie” and/or “Carrie.”
John’s second wife, Susan Jane Chastain, lived in Greenville and Richland counties.
After Sarah died, John second married Susan Jane Chastain circa 1898. She was born circa 1865 in Greenville Co., S.C., the daughter of Caroline and Thomas F. Chastain. She died of heart disease and diabetes at age 89 on Nov. 6, 1955, in South Carolina State Hospital, Columbia, Richland Co., S.C., and was buried at Locust Hill Baptist Church Cemetery, Traveler’s Rest, S.C. “John W. Bramlett,” 70, born in August 1829 in South Carolina to a mother born in Virginia, father born in South Carolina, farmer, owner of a mortgaged farm, married 47 years, and (second) wife, Susan J. (Chastain), 37, born in June or January 1862 in South Carolina to parents born there, married two years, no children, are listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for Highland, Greenville Co., S.C. (NARA Film T623:1530:184A). They lived at 10 22nd Street. After John died Susan lived with her mother and siblings. “Susan Bramlett,” 39, born in South Carolina, widowed, sister, seamstress, is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census for Ward 1, Greenville, Greenville Co., S.C., living with Henry T. Chistine, 35, studio photographer, head of the family, which also includes their mother, Mrs. Caroline Chistine, 70, and sister Mary E., 42, all born South Carolina (NARA Film T624:1461:9B). “Susan J. Bramlett,” 51, born in South Carolina, widowed, sister, seamstress, is listed in the 1920 U.S. Census for Ward 4, Greenville, Greenville Co., S.C., living with H. T. Chistine, 48, studio photographer, head of the family, which also includes Lizzie Chistine, 52, and three unrelated teenage boarders, all born South Carolina (NARA Film T625:1698:146B).
William Jasper Bramlett, first child of John Wesley Ervin and Sarah (Wilson) Bramlett, was born Nov. 10, 1854, in Greenville Co., S.C. He died Sept. 8, 1909, at home in Campobello, S.C., and was buried two days later in Campobello Methodist Church Cemetery. William’s obituary appears in the Spartanburg Herald dated Friday, Sept. 10, 1909:
Campobello, S.C., Sept. 9. — Our town and community has been saddened by the death of Dr. W. J. [William Jasper] Bramlett, who died at his home last night at ten o’clock. Dr. Bramlett had been sick only a week, and his death has caused much sorrow over the entire community. Dr. Bramlett was liked by all who knew him, and his place will be hard to fill. He leaves a wife and four children, a father and three sisters. He will be buried beside his brother, Dr. John W. Bramlett, who died two years ago, tomorrow at the Methodist Church at eleven o’clock. Rev. E. Z. James will conduct the funeral services.
Dr. William Jasper Bramlett married Elizabeth C. “Eliza” Howell in or shortly before 1880. She was born Feb. 17, 1860, in Greenville County, the daughter of Mary A. Gilreath and John H. Howell. Eliza died May 20, 1945, in Asheville, N.C., and was buried two days later in Jackson Grove Methodist Church Cemetery. Her grave marker identifies her as Eliza C. Bramlett. Her obituary appears in the May 21, 1945, edition of the Greenville News:
Mrs. Eliza Howell Bramlett, widow of Dr. W. J. Bramlett of Greenville, S.C., died at an Asheville Hospital today following a brief illness. She was born in Greenville County, S.C., February 16, 1860, the daughter of John H. and Mary G. Howell. She moved here [Asheville] from Greenville in 1922 where she has resided with her children. Surviving are three sons and one daughter, John H. [Pat], George H. [W–Washington], W. Arthur, and Miss Bertha Bramlett, all of Asheville. Funeral services will be conducted from Jackson Grove Methodist church near Greenville, S.C. Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. by Rev. Lee F. Tuttle, pastor of Central Methodist church of which she was a member, and Rev. Peden Gene Curry. The following nephews will serve as pallbearers: Associate Justice G. Dewey Oxner of Greenville, Lawrence G. Vannoy, C. G. Washington, J. Carlisle and Vannoy C. Oxner, Jr., Spart J. McKinney and Hovey Smith.
“William W. [J.] Bramlett,” 26, physician, and wife, Eliza, 20, keeping house, both born in South Carolina, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for O’Neal Twp., Greenville Co., S.C. (NARA Film T9:1231:281A). “William Bramlett,” 24, also is listed with his father in 1880 in Highland Township: He must have married that year after the census was taken for Highland Township and before the census was taken in O’Neal Township where he lived after his marriage. William was a physician who practiced medicine in Greenville and Spartanburg counties. He attended medical school in Kentucky and in 1894 studied at the New York Post-Graduate School and Hospital in New York City (Bellevue). The People’s Paper reported that Dr. W. J. Bramlette moved his family to Charleston in November 1895. They moved to Campobello circa 1904. At the time of his death, he had a medical practice there. “Dr. William J. Bramlett,” 40, born in November 1860, physician, married 18 years, and wife, Eliza, 38, born February 1862, mother of nine children, four living, are listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for Greenville Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with four children: George, 16, born February 1884; Bertha, 13, born June 1890; Arthur, 7, born August 1892; and John H., 4, born February 1896 (NARA Film T623:1529:22). Also listed with the family: Emily C. Gilreath, 82, born in January 1818, aunt, widowed, and N. Harriet Anderson, 68, born January 1832, aunt, single. “Eliza Bramlett,” 50, rents home, is listed in the 1910 U.S. Census for Campobello Twp., Spartanburg Co., S.C., with four children: George, 26, undertaker; Bertha, 22; Arthur, 18, street railway conductor; and John, 14 (NARA Film T624:1472:195A). Harriet Anderson, 78, aunt, widowed ten years, no children, also is listed with the family. All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. “Eliza C. Bramlett,” 59, is listed in the 1920 U.S. Census for Greenville Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with three children: Bertha, 29; William A., 26, law office; and John H., 23, salesman (NARA Film T625:1698:125B). All were born in South Carolina. Eliza and William’s children are George Washington, Bertha Mae, William Arthur and John H. “Pat” Bramlett.
Martha “Mattie” Bramlett, second child of John Wesley Ervin and Sarah (Wilson) Bramlett, was born circa 1857-58 in Greenville District. Martha lived with her parents in Greenville County in 1870 and 1880.
Dr. John Wilson Bramlett, third child of John Wesley Ervin and Sarah (Wilson) Bramlett, was born Nov. 17, 1859, in Anderson Co., S.C. He died April 3, 1907, at home in Campobello, Spartanburg Co., S.C., and was buried the next day in Campobello Methodist Church Cemetery. In mid-March 1907, he became ill with influenza and subsequently developed pneumonia which caused his death. He died seven months before his 48th birthday. John’s obituary appears in the Chester Lantern dated Friday, April 12, 1907:
Dr. Bramlett of Campobello Married to Miss Wilkes of Chester Here. An interesting marriage took place in this city yesterday, the contracting parties being prominent people of this section of the state. The groom is Dr. J. W. [John Wilson] Bramlett, a leading physician of Campobello, and the bride, Miss Wilkes, a well known and popular young lady of Chester. The bridal party arrived here Sunday morning and stopped at the Spartan Inn. At once a flurry was created in the hotel and everybody was asking, “Who’s going to be married?” The party was accompanied by Dr. W. J. Bramlett and Geo. H. [W.?] Bramlett of Greenville, relatives of the groom. At 12 o’clock, the party went to the residence of Bishop W. W. Duncan on North Church street, where the marriage ceremony was performed by Bishop Duncan. After the ceremony they returned to the hotel, remaining until their train arrived. They departed Sunday afternoon. The bride is an attractive young woman of Chester, who is teaching at Campobello. It was the desire of the young couple that Bishop Duncan unite them in marriage. The bride was stylishly attired in a blue broadcloth suit, tailor-made with a becoming hat to match.
Eva was born July 1, 1878, in Chester Co., S.C., the daughter of Eliza Walker and John Wesley Wilkes. Eva died Oct. 22, 1952, in Chester. Her obituary, which appears in the Oct. 23, 1952, edition of The State in Columbia, is headlined “Mrs. Bramlett, Chester Civic Leader, Dies”:
Mrs. Eva Wilkes Bramlett, 74, widow of Dr. John Wilson Bramlett of the Baton Rouge community of western Chester county, died at 12:30 this morning at the Chester County Hospital [Pryor Hospital] of heart trouble. She was a former postmistress of Leeds for 20 years and a widely known former public school teacher. She was an outstanding civic leader of Chester county and a charter member of the Chester County Council of Farm Women. As a member of that council, along with another member, Mrs. J. C. Shannon of Blackstock, she was instrumental in the organization of the Chester County home demonstration department which has been such a great asset to the county since that day. She was graduated from the Chester county schools and from Asheville (N.C.) College and Columbia College. Following graduation she taught school for approximately 20 years at Conway, Baton Rouge and Campobello. She married Doctor Bramlett, prominent physician of Campobello who died in 1906 [1907]. Mrs. Bramlett was a member of New Hope Methodist Church where she took a great interest in all departments. She was president of its missionary society for a quarter of a century. Then she was made honorary president. Mrs. Bramlett was a daughter of the late Capt. John Wesley [Wilkes], an officer of the Confederate army, and the late Mrs. Eliza Walker Wilkes. After having retired as postmistress at Leeds following 20 years service, she had made her home for the past two years with her son, John Wesley Bramlett at Baton Rouge. Mrs. Bramlett is survived by her son, John Wesley Bramlett of Baton Rouge; a daughter, Mrs. Thomas [Sarah] Lake of Silverstreet; seven grandchildren, one great-grandchild; two brothers, B. Frank Wilkes of Chester and Robert W. Wilkes of Baton Rouge, and two sisters, Mrs. W. M. Harley [Blanche] of Jamison, Orangeburg County, and Miss Nelle Wilkes of Baton Rouge. Funeral services will be conducted at 3 o’clock Thursday afternoon from Calvary Baptist Church, Chester county, by the Rev. Francis V. Robertson of Armenia, the Rev. E. W. Buckner of Chester and the Rev. S. B. White of Union. Interment will follow in the family plot in the historic church cemetery.
Eva was “the eldest and favorite child of her father, Captain John Wesley Wilkes (also known as Judge Wilkes since he was a longtime local magistrate), and his wife, Eliza Walker Harden,” according to Ellen Bramlett Clarke. Eva “attended Columbia Female College in Columbia, S.C., for two years and received teacher training at Asheville Normal School, Asheville, N.C. She was awarded a First Grade Teacher’s Certificate the highest level. At age 18, she was teaching grades one through eight in a one-room school in the Baton Rouge Section of Chester Co., S.C. She taught at Campobello Graded School during the spring term of 1901 and in Conway in 1901-1902 at the Burroughs Graded School. In the fall of 1902, Eva returned to teach at Campobello. She met Dr. John Wilson Bramlett, a local druggist and physician, and they were married in January 1903.” When her husband died from complications of pneumonia, Eva “was left with the burdens of two very young children to rear and heavy debts left by her husband, a hard-working doctor who had not pressed patients to pay,” Ellen Bramlett Clarke explains. “A note circa March 1908 penned on a copy of the statement of one former patient’s account reveals the widow’s desperate financial straits: ‘I do need this money so much. I would be more than thankful if you will kindly hand it to Mr. Walter Jackson [at the bank] for me. I have two little helpless babies to raise, surely you can arrange to pay me this amount [25.00]. Mrs. J. W. Bramlett.’” Dr. Bramlett’s ledger book for 1901-1903 lists payments in both cash and goods, including one dog $4.00; one turkey $1.00; one gallon of syrup $0.40; fodder $10.00; two pigs $5.00; one bushel of potatoes $0.60; three hens $0.75; 10 bushels of corn $8.50; one ham $2.50; and firewood $5.00. Ellen Bramblett Clarke indicates that “Of the almost 300 patient accounts in this ledger, less than half had paid their bills when Dr. Bramlett died in 1907 and indeed, never paid them.” Eva was forced to sell the drug store and their house and land in Campobello. Subsequently, “After two years of trying to settle her husband’s business affairs, Eva found it necessary to move back to her family’s home in Chester County. In Baton Rouge Township again, in the fall of 1909, Eva returned to teaching and her parents took care of the children. She taught school for the next 20 years and in 1933, became postmistress of the post office at Leeds, S.C. Eva was widely known in Chester county for her work in church and community affairs and for her extensive knowledge of family history.” “Eva W. Bramlett,” 31, widowed, public school teacher, mother of two living children, and two children–John W. (Wesley), 5, and Sarah W., 3–are listed with Eva’s parents, John W. Wilkes, 69, farmer, general farm, owner of a mortgaged farm, married 33 years, and Eliza W., 57, mother of five living children, in the 1910 U.S. Census for Baton Rouge Twp., Chester Co., S.C. (NARA Film T624:1455:2B). Other Wilkes family members listed: Robert W., 26, farm manager, home farm; Nellie H., 27, teacher, public school; and Benjamin F., 14. All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. “Eva W. Bramlett,” 41, high school teacher, and children, John Wesley, 15, farmer, general farm, and Sarah (Cynthia), 13, are listed with her father, John Wesley Wilks, 78, farmer, and three siblings (Nellie H., 36, high school teacher; Robert W., 35, farmer; and B. Frank, 23, farmer) in the 1920 U.S. Census for Baton Rouge Twp., Calhoun Co., S.C. (NARA Film T625:1689:206B). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there.
Mary Anna Bramlett, fourth child of John Wesley Ervin and Sarah (Wilson) Bramlett, was born April 4, 1866, in Greenville County. She died at age 90 on July 29, 1956, at home in Campobello and was buried two days later in Campobello United Methodist Church Cemetery. Anna’s obituary in the Monday, July 30, 1956, edition of the Spartanburg Herald indicates she was born and reared in Greenville County:
Anna married Benjamin Franklin Neves, one of twelve children born to Nancy Jane Chastain and George Washington Neves. Benjamin was born April 27, 1870, in Greenville County where he grew up. He died Jan. 23, 1942, at home in Campobello, S.C., and was buried two days later in Campobello United Methodist Church Cemetery. His obituary in the Jan. 24, 1942, edition of the Spartanburg Herald indicates he was born in upper Greenville County:
Ben sawed the timber and built a house on farmland in Spartanburg County in 1896. He was a farmer who grew cotton, cane and peaches. For years he budded peach trees and sold them at the farm. His grandson, Maurice Collins, remembers Ben as a jack-of-all-trades: a carpenter, handyman and farmer. He and Anna lived on their farm until they moved to Campobello in 1928. Ben served as mayor of Campobello in 1930-34. Ben and Anna were members of Campobello Methodist Church. Their children are Mamie and Flora Cornelia Neves. At the time of her death, Anna had five Grandchildren and eight Great-Grandchildren.
Tallulah “Lula” Bramlett, fifth child of John Wesley Ervin and Sarah (Wilson) Bramlett, was born Dec. 10, 1864, in Greenville County. She died June 14, 1927, at home in Greenville, S.C., and was buried the next day in Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery, Tigerville, S.C. Lula’s obituary in the Wednesday, June 15, 1927, edition of the Greenville News indicates she was a life-long resident of Greenville County:
Lula married John James McMakin, the son of Elizabeth Zimmerman and Peter C. McMakin. John was born Dec. 11, 1852, in Greenville County. His obituary in the Monday, Nov. 6, 1933, edition of the Greenville News indicates he died Nov. 5, 1933, in Charlotte, N.C.:
John and Lula lived in Greer where they attended Concord Methodist Church, before moving to Greenville. “Lula McMakin,” 32, born in December 1867, mother of four living children, married nine years, and husband, John J., 46, born in December 1853, laborer, cotton mill, rents home, head of the family, are listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for O’Neal Township, Greenville Co., S.C., with four children: Hugh L., 7, July 1892; Bessie, 4, September 1895; Willie, 5, February 1899; and Samuel A., 10/12, born in July 1899 (NARA Film T623:1529:102A). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. “Tallulah T. McMakin,” 40, mother of six children, five living, first marriage, married 20 years, and husband, John J., 56, farmer, head of the family, are listed in the 1910 U.S. Census for Chick Springs Township, Greenville Co., S.C., with five children: Bessie, 14, farm laborer, home farm; William F., 13, farm laborer, home farm; Samuel A., 10; John C., 6; and James E., 1 9/12 (NARA Film T624:1461:100A). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there. After Lula died John lived with a daughter in Charlotte, N.C. John and Lula’s children are Bess, William F., John E., James C., Samuel A. and Hugh L. McMakin.
Eliza C. “Lydie” Bramlett, sixth child of John Wesley Ervin and Sarah (Wilson) Bramlett, was born March 19, 1871, in Greenville County. She died there Oct. 18, 1950, and was buried two days later in Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery. Her grave marker identifies her as the wife of “John T. Hutchins.” Eliza’s obituary appears in the Greenville News dated Oct. 19, 1950:
Mrs. Eliza (Lydie) Bramlett Hutchings, wife of the late John T. Hutchings, died Wednesday morning at 5:10 o’clock, at te home of her daughter, Mrs. Alex W. [Louise] Galway of 16 East Mountain View Avenue, following an illness of one day. Mrs. Hutchings was a native of Greenville County, where she had spent her entire life. She was born March 19, 1871, a daughter of the late Captain J. W. [John Wesley Ervin] Bramlett and Sara (Wilson) Bramlett. Mrs. Hutchings was a member of St. Mark’s Methodist Church. Mr. Hutchings died December 17, 1948. In addition to Mrs. Galway, Mrs. Hutchings is survived by another daughter, Mrs. M. D. [Grace] Chastain of Easley, two sons, J. M. Hutchings of Cincinnati, O., and Paul T. Hutchings of Charleston; one sister, Mrs. B. F. Neves of Campobello, seven grandchildren and seven great grandchildren. Services will be conducted at 11 o’clock Friday morning at the Mackey Mortuary. The body will remain at the mortuary. The family will be at the home of Mrs. Alex W. Galway, 16 East Mountain View Avenue.
Eliza married John Thomas Hutchings on Jan. 19, 1892. He was born Sept. 9, 1871, in Greenville County, the son of Nan Snow and J. Dexter Hutchings of Batesville. John died Dec. 17, 1948, and was buried the next day in Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery. His obituary was published in the Greenville News on Friday, Dec. 18, 1948:
Funeral services for John T. Hutchings, retired mechanic, occurred at a local hospital yesterday morning at 2:20 o’clock following one week of illness, will be held at St. Marks Methodist Church Saturday afternoon at 2 o’clock. Services will be conducted by the Rev. R. W. Sammeth and Dr. R. W. Turnipseed and interment will be in the family plot in the Mountain View Methodist Church Cemetery. The following will serve as pallbearers and meet at the church at 1:30 o’clock: Tom Morgan, James Shedd, G. C. Cloninger, S. J. Bailey, M. A. Duncan and C. A. Tucker. The members of the building committee and the board of stewards of the church, with W. H. Ferguson, J. T. Hays, E. L. Johns, I. H. Ambrose, Paul Knight, Toy Duncan, J. L. Freeman, W. F. West, Dr. Fred Robertson and H. M. Rogers, will compose the escort of honor and also meet at the church at 1:30. Mr. Hutchings was the son of the late J. Dexter Hutchings and Mrs. Nan (Snow) Hutchings, residents of the Batesville community of Greenville county and was 77 years. For some years before moving to this city 30 years ago, he had lived in Pickens. Mr. Hutchings was a member of St. Marks Methodist church and had held offices as steward, superintendent of the Sunday School and trustee, and was serving as a member of the building committee of the church at the time of his death. His wife, Mrs. Eliza Bramlett Hutchings, survives at the home being at 129 Bailey Street, Sans Souci, with two sons, J. Marvin Hutchings of Cincinnati and Paul T. Hutchings of Charleston and two daughters, Mrs. A. W. [Louise] Galway of this city and Mrs. M. D. [Grace] Chastain of Easley. One brother, S. B. Hutchings of Greer, and three sisters, Miss Florence Hutchings, Mrs. Edgar Wright and Mrs. R. D. Dobson, all of Greer, also survive. In addition, he is survived by seven grandchildren and by five great-grandchildren. The body will remain at the Mackey Mortuary until 1 o’clock Saturday afternoon, when it will be placed in the church to lie in state until the hour of the service.
John Hutchings’s grandfather, Rev. John Thomas Hutchings who preached in upper Greenville County and died in Georgia in 1869, was a local Methodist minister and the original proprietor of the Batesville cotton factory.) John Hutchings was a mechanic and machinist at Monagan Mill in Greenville. His father operated a store on the road to Ceaser’s Head in the mountains of Northern Greenville County. Eliza expressed her grief for John in a letter written to her sister-in-law Eva Bramlett nine months after his death: “It seems to me I can’t ever live without John. He was such a good man and was so good to me; we were so happy together. This winter will be so lonesome for me.” She died the following year. John and Eliza lived in Greenville in 1927. Their children are Triplets Infant Son (died at birth), Grace and Louis Hutchings; John Marvin; and Paul Thomas Hutchings. Eliza and John had seven Grandchildren and seven Great-grandchildren at the time of Eliza’s death.
Cornelia Rogers, first child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born circa 1856 in Greenville or Spartanburg Co., S.C. She married a man named Ross circa 1880.
Catherine “Kate” Rogers, second child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born circa 1857 in Greenville or Spartanburg Co., S.C. Her grave marker in Salem United Methodist Church Cemetery in Gantt, Greenville Co., S.C., indicates she died in 1935. She married Pinkney D. Pollard. He was born circa 1848-50. He died in 1889 and was buried in Salem United Methodist Church Cemetery. “Kate Pollard,” 25, keeping house, and husband, Pink, 30, laborer, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for Gantt Township, Greenville Co., S.C., with three children: William, 6; John, 3; and Mary, 1 (NARA Film T9:1230:107B). All were born in South Carolina to parents born there.
Adaline Rogers, child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born circa 1872 in Greenville Co., S.C. She married a Rhodes.
Mary Rogers, child of Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born circa 1859 in Greenville Co., S.C.
Ella Rogers, child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born circa 1865 in Greenville Co., S.C. She married a Westmoreland.
Franklin Rogers, child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born circa 1867-1869 in Greenville Co., S.C.
Bramlett Rogers, child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born April 29, 1870, in Greenville Co., S .C. He died March 20, 1927, and was buried in Rehobeth Baptist Church Cemetery, Old Pelzer Road, near Piedmont, Anderson Co., S.C. Bramlett first married a woman named Wilson. She died and was buried in Rehobeth Baptist Church Cemetery. Their children are Annie, Jack and Samuel “Pete” Rogers. Bramlett second married Pearl Whitt. She died and was buried in Rehobeth Baptist Church Cemetery. Their child is Walter Herbert Rogers. Bramlett third married Hassie Jordan. She died and was buried in Rehobeth Baptist Church Cemetery. They did not have children, but Hassie raised Bramlett’s children from his other marriages.
Eliza Rogers, child of Malinda Caroline Bramlett and Willis R. Rogers, was born Aug. 14, 1875, in Greenville Co., S.C. She died Nov. 6, 1957, in Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C., and was buried at Rehobeth Baptist Church Cemetery, Piedmont, S.C. Her daughter Hattie Wilson, who lived at 3 Old Paris Road, Greenville, S.C., signed the South Carolina Death Certificate 30127 as informant. Eliza married William Jasper Wilson.
Rev. Reuben Bramlett, fifh child of John and Mary (Peak) Bramlett, was born Oct. 30, 1791, according to his Bramlett Bible, in Laurens Co., S.C. He died at age 93 on Nov. 30, 1884, at the home of his son Robert, in Greenville Co., S.C., and was buried there near his parents in Bethel Methodist Church Cemetery, Simpsonville. His grave marker is inscribed with his birth and death dates. His obituary was published in the Southern Christian Advocate on March 25, 1885:
“Bramlett.—Died, Nov. 30, 1884, Father Reuben Bramlett, at the residence of his son, Robert, who had removed his father to his house some weeks before his death. Not that Father Bramlett had not a comfortable and abundant home of his own, where he resided with a most affectionate daughter, but that affection prompted to do all that might be done—by varying the scene around him—to prolong his life. He was 93 years old, Oct. 30, one month before his death. He enjoyed the greatest Christian serenity I have have ever known one to possess. For years before his death, meet him where you would, in reply to the usual salutation, “How do you do?” he would answer “Feeble in body, but as happy as a man can be.” He united with the church after he attained to manhood and was married [in 1814]. He was ever much devoted to Sabbath-schools, and gave, as a teacher, constant attention until 1880, when he became so deaf he could no longer teach a class. He then sat as a scholar in a class until within a few weeks of his death. His wife preceded him to the grave about 11 years ago, full of faith and hope. His residence was near Bethel Church, Greenville Ct. He was a son of sainted Father John Bramlett, of precious memory to Bethel Church. A very large concourse attended the burial at Bethel.” (Vol. 48, No. 12, p. 7, col. 2)
Reuben’s tombstone indicates “He joined M. E. Church in his youth.” He was a Methodist preacher, farmer and the first mail carrier in the county. Sunday School records at Bethel Methodist Episcopal Church indicate Reuben and some of his family were still members in 1882. He married Sarah D. Dacus on Dec. 15, 1814. Sarah was born Nov. 15, 1796, in Virginia, the sister of Nathaniel G. Dacus and daughter of Elizabeth Glenn Thackston and Nathaniel Dacus, born 1759 and died 1935. Sarah died of cancer at age 77, on July 8, 1873, according to the Bible record. Her grave marker in Bethel Methodist Church Cemetery lists her birth and death dates and indicates “She joined M. E. Church 1821.” She died in Greenville County. Sarah’s obituary was published in the Southern Christian Advocate in 1873:
“…Died, on the 8th of June, 1873, Mrs. Sarah D. Bramlett, wife of Rev. Reuben Bramlett, in the 77th year of her age. The deceased was a native of Virginia, and came with her parents to South Carolina in her childhood, and settled and married in Greenville County; where she has lived for over 70 years, and raised a large family—having at her death some 68 grandchildren, 11 children—9 sons and 2 daughters—and the majority of them have large families living in this county. At one time during the late war, 20 of her sons and grandsons were in the army, fighting for the principles they believed to be right. The Indians had scarcely left their hunting grounds in our county, and the echo of their war songs had barely ceased, when she adopted it as her home. The people of her generation have nearly all passed away. Her husband, Rev. Reuben Bramlett, still survives her, at the advanced age of 83 years, having lived together for over a half century in the enjoyment of a domestic felicity and contentment that few of the present or past generation have ever experienced. Mrs. Bramlett was a consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over 50 years, and her influence was like that of a true mother’s love—like the silent dews of heaven, it was ever cheering and refreshing around the family circle, and will transmit its religious power to her latest posterity; for one of the grand aims of her life was to teach her household in the faith that “There is a land of pure delight, / Where saints immortal reign; / Infinite day excludes the night, / And pleasures banish pain.” For months before her death, she daily and hourly expected the dread summons, and although suffering the most excruciating agony from Cancer, she was resigned to her fate, and could say, with the patriarch Job, “All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” And thus has she left to her numerous friends and relatives a consolation that is sweeter than life and stronger than death; for above the bloom of the grave will arise the light of a pure and honest life.”
“Mauldin SC Sept 28 / 09 Dear Nephew, Your note received and also the record. I will try to answer your questions. Yes, I guess you know pretty much where they all lived and when they died. Josiah died at his old home place Feb 19, [sic 20] 1884. William also died at his old home May the 29, 1875. Nat died in Indiana. I don’t know the date of his death. James was wounded at the Battle of Franklin, Tennessee and lived ten days afterward and died in the hospital sometime about the first of December in 1864. Andy died at his home near Gadsden, Ala. Feb 27, 1901. They all went to the war. Joe didn’t stay but two or three months down on the coast about Port Royal. William was in service about two years. Andy went through the war and never carried a gun, drove a comissary wagon and had a good time. Bob [Robert Hugh/Hulett] went at the beginning of the war and stayed till the ending and never was wounded. He belonged to the Butler Guards. I went down to the grave yard last Sunday and drove up an iron pin at the foot of Grandfather’s [John’s] grave, yes his feet is right at the old stump. This leaves us all very well at present. Hope you are all well. Write and come to see us when you can. Loving your aunt, Margaret Hyde”
Reuben and Sarah’s children are Thomas W., Josiah (“Joe”), William D., Nathaniel D., John, Allen Turner, Margaret J., James W., Elias Andrew, Mary A. Elizabeth and Robert Hugh/Hulett Bramlett.
Thomas W. Bramlett, child of Reuben and Sarah D. Dacus Bramlett, was born between 1815 and 1816 in Greenville Co., S.C.
Joseph N. “Josiah” Bramlett, child of Lucinda Garrett and Josiah Bramlett, was born circa 1846 in Greenville Co., S.C.
One descendant of George Washington Bramlett, George Warren Bramlett, provided some of the following information.
George Washington Bramlett, child of Allen Turner and Ann H. Gary Brsmlett, was born circa 1847 in Greenville Co., S.C. He died there July 5, 1911, and was buried at Rocky Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. “George [Washington] Bramblett,” 3, born in South Carolina, is listed in the 1850 U.S. Census for Greenville Co., S.C., living with parents, A. T., 24, and Ann, 30, all born South Carolina. “George W. [Washington] Bramblett,” 13, is listed in the 1860 U.S. Census for Plano P.O., Standing Springs Div., Greenville Co., S.C., with parents, A. T., 34, and S. Ann, 32, all born South Carolina (NARA Film M653:1220:495B).
George served as a Confederate soldier during the Civil War/War Between the States. He joined for duty and enrolled as a private in Capt. James Knight’s Company, later Company E, Sixth Regiment, Col. Hugh K. Aiken’s Regiment Partisan Rangers, Dixie Rangers, on May 1, 1862, at Laurens Court House. The unit previously was known as Sixteenth Battalion, South Carolina Partisan Rangers, South Carolina Cavalry. Capt.. James P. Knight and Lt. R. S. Cobb enlisted George “for the war.” George was age 15, with a horse valued at $250. He is listed as a teamster on the November-December 1863 company muster roll. He appears on a Register of C.S.A. General Hospital No. 11, Charlotte, N.C., with a complaint of “contusis” (coughing), admitted May 15, 1864, and returned to duty May 20, 1864. He was present but sick on the July-August 1864 company muster roll. He served at least until September-October 1864. his last reference in his compiled military service record notes he was last paid to June 30, 1864 (NARA Film M267 Roll 39). George married Sarah Ann “Sallie” Walker circa 1870. She was born circa 1848 in South Carolina. She died before 1900. “George W. Bramlett,” 33, farmer, and wife, Sarah, 32, are listed in the 1880 U.S. Census for Butler Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., with three children: Jesse W., 9; Mary L. (“Mamie”), 7; George O., 2, and a niece (Fannie M. Roe, 19), all born South Carolina to parents born there (NARA Film T9:1230:234A). “George W. Bramlett,” 53, born in March 1847, father, widowed, is listed in the 1900 U.S. Census for Butler Twp., Greenville Co., S.C., living with son Clifford R. (Raymond) Bramlett and family, all born South Carolina (NARA Film T623:1529:60B). George was a magistrate in Greenville Co., S.C., and Clifford served there some time as sheriff. George and Sarah’s children include Jesse W., Mary L. (“Mamie”), George Osgood and Clifford Raymond Bramlett.
Margaret J. Bramlett, child of Reuben and Sarah D. Dacus Bramlett, was born in South Carolina.
James W. Bramlett, child of Reuben and Sarah D. Dacus Bramlett, was born in South Carolina. He served as Confederate soldier during the Civil War/War Between the States.
A Bramlett family member died in Erath Co., Tex., and rests at Poor Farm Cemetery, according to the memorial pictured below..
“I know very little of my father’s family except the following: my paternal grandfather, Richard H. [Hardy] Wooten, [born 1802 Beaufort, S.C., died after 1860] [married Elizabeth Jone Johnston, born April 19, 1805, Beaufort Co., S.C., to Elizabeth Daniel and Amos Johnston, died 1848, buried Wooten Cemetery, Seminole Co., Ga.] was a rice planter in Beaufort District, S.C., on Beach Branch, near Lawtonville, and moved to Decatur County, Georgia, buying a plantation on the Chattahoochee River near the town of that name some time near 1845. The following were his children: Richard and Shade, who went to California in 1849, since then the family has heard nothing of them; Laura, married to Christopher Tscharner] Teschane C. DeGraffenreid, a planter of Mitchell County, Ga. now living in Camilla. She died about 1865 leaving three children, Regina, Florence and Teschane. I have not seen them since they were children but hear they are married and living in Mitchell County, Ga., near Camilla; and my father, Josiah Daniel Wooten [born 1826, died 1886].
“Father was raised on the plantation in Decatur County, Ga. until he was grown, attending only such poor schools as they had at Bainbridge, the county seat. When of age, Grandfather Wooten set him up in Business as a merchant in Bainbridge. He was such when Mother, about 18 years of age, was on a visit in Bainbridge in 1858, when they met, fell in love and were married in August 1863 at the Methodist Church in that place. Mother died January 1877, leaving six children: George F., married to Katie King in 1879, living at Bainbridge, Ga., now has four children, Florence, Victor, Garfield, Mildred, and one boy whose name I have not learned (Roscoe); Martha Ermina (Minnie) married to Daniel W. Mitchell September, 1883, now living in Bainbridge, has one boy Julien McRae [Mitchell], named after yours truly; Julien Potter, nothing and unmarried, living nowhere; Josiah D., Jr., Ditto; Hattie Cornelia, now at Andrew Female Academy with Aunt Sue in Cuthbert, Ga.; Sweet little Ida Bettie, still a child.
“Information from my great aunt Charlotte Nicholson, nee Johnson, informs me that Great Grandfather Levi Wooten and his wife, Memima, nee Breeland, were born and reared on Beach Branch near Lawtonville, not far from the railroad station now of Allendale or Brunson on the Port Royal Augusta Railway; grandmother Elizabeth Wooten, nee Johnson (“Betsey”) from same place. Shade and Joe were brothers of Grandfather Wooten – also William.
“The old Wooten plantation is now (1886) owned by Dr. Wm. Breeland and is two miles from Beach Branch Church, the family graves are there. Dr. Breeland is a relative of ours on the side of my paternal great-grandmother.
“Grandmother Wooten died in November 1847, aged about 50 years and her grave is on the old Smart Place in Georgia opposite Haywood’s Landing on the Chattahoochee River.
Sheet # 4
“C. Beattie Johnson, an insurance agent in Shreveport, La., is a second cousin of mine; his father Ben (?) Johnson was a brother of my grandmother Wooten.
Aunt Matt Allday, sister to my mother, is a widow, now living at Round Mountain, Blanco County, Texas.
Aunt Mary White is now living at Leon, Kansas.
Aunt Rosa Hunt, Dardenelle, Arkansas.
Mrs. Gould, Uncle Elias’ daughter…Jersey City….
Robert P. Franks, Cheraw, S.C.
Dr. Bramlet, Easley, S.C.
Beverly Potter, Spartanburg, S.C.
Miss Lilla Collins, Beaufort, S.C.
Uncle Jones Wooten, Lawtonville, S.C.
*In checking up this item, learned from the Librarian of Public Library in Denver, who is an Indianian and has made a study of Indiana history, that he found no Bramlette who has been governor of Indiana but one Bramlette who had been governor of Kentucky. This perhaps is due to some inaccuracy of memory. [HWD]
Mary Eliza Bramlett, child of John Wesley and Malinda Isha Bramlett, was born Jan. 30, 1853. She died June 9, 1939, in Choctaw Co., Miss., and rests there at Dacus Cemetery. She married William Harrison Jeffcoat Sr. He was born June 30, 1843, in Alabama, the son of Nancy Clair Dendy and Henry John Jeffcoat. William died Dec. 20, 1911, and rests at Dacus Cemetery. Their children include William Harrison Jr., Beulah, Mary Ella, Emma Donie, Mattie C. Jeffcoat.
William Henry Bramlett, child of Henry and Martha “Patsy” (Gober) Bramlett, was born Dec. 12, 1833. He rests at Old Free Will Methodist Church Cemetery. He married Almeda Medra Box in 1853 in Choctaw Co., Miss. Their children include Robert Hillard, Sarah Ann, Frances R., Martha, Henry Hollis, Mildred, Marietta, Oly, William, Mary E. Bramlett. | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 69 | https://geniuses.club/genius/harold-urey | en | Harold Urey | [
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"Harold Urey genius Biography"
] | null | [] | null | Harold Urey genius Biography | en | https://geniuses.club/genius/harold-urey | Life is not a miracle. It is a natural phenomenon, and can be expected to appear whenever there is a planet whose conditions duplicate those of the earth.
Harold Clayton Urey was an American physical chemist whose pioneering work on isotopes earned him the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 for the discovery of deuterium. He played a significant role in the development of the atom bomb, as well as contributing to theories on the development of organic life from non-living matter.
Born in Walkerton, Indiana, Urey studied thermodynamics under Gilbert N. Lewis at the University of California, Berkeley. After he received his PhD in 1923, he was awarded a fellowship by the American-Scandinavian Foundation to study at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen. He was a research associate at Johns Hopkins University before becoming an associate professor of Chemistry at Columbia University. In 1931, he began work with the separation of isotopes that resulted in the discovery of deuterium.
During World War II, Urey turned his knowledge of isotope separation to the problem of uranium enrichment. He headed the group located at Columbia University that developed isotope separation using gaseous diffusion. The method was successfully developed, becoming the sole method used in the early post-war period. After the war, Urey became professor of chemistry at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, and later Ryerson professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago.
Urey speculated that the early terrestrial atmosphere was composed of ammonia, methane, and hydrogen. One of his Chicago graduate students was Stanley L. Miller, who showed in the Miller–Urey experiment that, if such a mixture were exposed to electric sparks and water, it can interact to produce amino acids, commonly considered the building blocks of life. Work with isotopes of oxygen led to pioneering the new field of paleoclimatic research. In 1958, he accepted a post as a professor at large at the new University of California, San Diego UCSD, where he helped create the science faculty. He was one of the founding members of UCSD's school of chemistry, which was created in 1960. He became increasingly interested in space science, and when Apollo 11 returned moon rock samples from the moon, Urey examined them at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. Lunar astronaut Harrison Schmitt said that Urey approached him as a volunteer for a one-way mission to the Moon, stating "I will go, and I don't care if I don't come back."
Early life
Harold Clayton Urey was born on April 29, 1893, in Walkerton, Indiana, the son of Samuel Clayton Urey, a school teacher and a minister in the Church of the Brethren, and his wife Cora Rebecca née Reinoehl. He had a younger brother, Clarence, and a younger sister, Martha. The family moved to Glendora, California after Samuel became seriously ill with tuberculosis, in hopes that the climate would improve his health. When it became clear that he would die, the family moved back to Indiana to live with Cora's widowed mother. Samuel died when Harold Urey was six years old.
Urey was educated in an Amish grade school, from which he graduated at the age of 14. He then attended high school in Kendallville, Indiana. After graduating in 1911, he obtained a teacher's certificate from Earlham College, and taught in a small school house in Indiana. He later moved to Montana, where his mother was then living, and he continued to teach there.
Urey entered the University of Montana in Missoula in the autumn of 1914. Unlike Eastern universities of the time, the University of Montana was co-educational in both students and teachers. There Urey earned a Bachelor of Science BS degree in zoology in 1917.
As a result of the United States entry into World War I that year, there was strong pressure to support the war effort. Urey had been raised in a religious sect that opposed war. One of his professors suggested that he support the wartime effort by working as a chemist. Urey took a job with the Barrett Chemical Company in Philadelphia, making TNT, rather than joining the army as a soldier. After the war, he returned to the University of Montana as an instructor in Chemistry.
An academic career required a doctorate, so in 1921 Urey enrolled in a PhD program at the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied thermodynamics under Gilbert N. Lewis. His initial attempt at a thesis was on the ionization of cesium vapor. He ran into difficulties, and Meghnad Saha published a better paper on the same subject. Urey then wrote his thesis on the ionization states of an ideal gas, which was subsequently published in the Astrophysical Journal. After he received his PhD in 1923, Urey was awarded a fellowship by the American-Scandinavian Foundation to study at the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, where he met Werner Heisenberg, Hans Kramers, Wolfgang Pauli, Georg von Hevesy, and John Slater. At the conclusion of his stay, he traveled to Germany, where he met Albert Einstein and James Franck.
On returning to the United States, Urey received an offer of a National Research Council fellowship to Harvard University, and also received an offer to be a research associate at Johns Hopkins University. He chose the latter. Before taking up the job, he traveled to Seattle, Washington, to visit his mother. On the way, he stopped by Everett, Washington, where he knew a woman called Kate Daum. Kate introduced Urey to her sister, Frieda. Urey and Frieda soon became engaged. They were married at her father's house in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1926. The couple had four children: Gertrude Bessie Elisabeth, born in 1927; Frieda Rebecca, born in 1929; Mary Alice, born in 1934; and John Clayton Urey, born in 1939.
At Johns Hopkins, Urey and Arthur Ruark wrote Atoms, Quanta and Molecules 1930, one of the first English texts on quantum mechanics and its applications to atomic and molecular systems. In 1929, Urey became an associate professor of Chemistry at Columbia University, where his colleagues included Rudolph Schoenheimer, David Rittenberg, and T. I. Taylor.
Deuterium
In the 1920s, William Giauque and Herrick L. Johnston discovered the stable isotopes of oxygen. Isotopes were not well understood at the time; James Chadwick would not discover the neutron until 1932. Two systems were in use for classifying them, based on chemical and physical properties. The latter was determined using the mass spectrograph. Since it was known that the atomic weight of oxygen was almost exactly 16 times as heavy as hydrogen, Raymond Birge, and Donald Menzel hypothesized that hydrogen had more than one isotope as well. Based upon the difference between the results of the two methods, they predicted that only one hydrogen atom in 4,500 was of the heavy isotope.
In 1931, Urey set out to find it. Urey and George Murphy calculated from the Balmer series that the heavy isotope should have lines redshifted by 1.1 to 1.8 ångströms 1.1×10−10 to 1.8×10−10 metres. Urey had access to a 21-foot 6.4 m grating spectrograph, a sensitive device that had been recently installed at Columbia and was capable of resolving the Balmer series. With a resolution of 1 Å per millimetre, the machine should have produced a difference of about 1 millimetre. However, since only one atom in 4,500 was heavy, the line on the spectrograph was very faint. Urey therefore decided to delay publishing their results until he had more conclusive evidence that it was heavy hydrogen.
Urey and Murphy calculated from the Debye model that the heavy isotope would have a slightly higher boiling point than the light one. By carefully warming liquid hydrogen, 5 litres of liquid hydrogen could be distilled to 1 millilitre, which would be enriched in the heavy isotope by 100 to 200 times. To obtain five litres of liquid hydrogen, they traveled to the cryogenics laboratory at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington, D.C., where they obtained the help of Ferdinand Brickwedde, whom Urey had known at Johns Hopkins.
The first sample that Brickwedde sent was evaporated at 20 K −253.2 °C; −423.7 °F at a pressure of 1 standard atmosphere 100 kPa. To their surprise, this showed no evidence of enrichment. Brickwedde then prepared a second sample evaporated at 14 K −259.1 °C; −434.5 °F at a pressure of 53 mmHg 7.1 kPa. On this sample, the Balmer lines for heavy hydrogen were seven times as intense. The paper announcing the discovery of heavy hydrogen, later named deuterium, was jointly published by Urey, Murphy, and Brickwedde in 1932. Urey was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934 "for his discovery of heavy hydrogen". He declined to attend the ceremony in Stockholm, so that he could be present at the birth of his daughter Mary Alice.
Working with Edward W. Washburn from the Bureau of Standards, Urey subsequently discovered the reason for the anomalous sample. Brickwedde's hydrogen had been separated from water by electrolysis, resulting in depleted sample. Moreover, Francis William Aston now reported that his calculated value for the atomic weight of hydrogen was wrong, thereby invalidating Birge and Menzel's original reasoning. The discovery of deuterium stood, however.
Urey and Washburn attempted to use electrolysis to create pure heavy water. Their technique was sound, but they were beaten to it in 1933 by Lewis, who had the resources of the University of California at his disposal. Using the Born–Oppenheimer approximation, Urey and David Rittenberg calculated the properties of gases containing hydrogen and deuterium. They extended this to enriching compounds of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen. These could be used as tracers in biochemistry, resulting in a whole new way of examining chemical reactions. He founded the Journal of Chemical Physics in 1932, and was its first editor, serving in that capacity until 1940.
At Columbia, Urey chaired the University Federation for Democracy and Intellectual Freedom. He supported Atlanticist Clarence Streit's proposal for a federal union of the world's major democracies, and the republican cause during the Spanish Civil War. He was an early opponent of German Nazism and assisted refugee scientists, including Enrico Fermi, by helping them find work in the United States, and to adjust to life in a new country.
Manhattan Project
By the time World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, Urey was recognized as a world expert on isotope separation. Thus far, separation had involved only the light elements. In 1939 and 1940, Urey published two papers on the separation of heavier isotopes in which he proposed centrifugal separation. This assumed great importance due to speculation by Niels Bohr that uranium 235 was fissile. Because it was considered "very doubtful whether a chain reaction can be established without separating 235 from the rest of the uranium," Urey began intensive studies of how uranium enrichment might be achieved. Apart from centrifugal separation, George Kistiakowsky suggested that gaseous diffusion might be a possible method. A third possibility was thermal diffusion. Urey coordinated all isotope separation research efforts, including the effort to produce heavy water, which could be used as a neutron moderator in nuclear reactors.
In May 1941, Urey was appointed to the Committee on Uranium, which oversaw the uranium project as part of the National Defense Research Committee NDRC. In 1941, Urey and George B. Pegram led a diplomatic mission to England to establish co-operation on development of the atomic bomb. The British were optimistic about gaseous diffusion, but it was clear that both gaseous and centrifugal methods faced formidable technical obstacles. In May 1943, as the Manhattan Project gained momentum. Urey became head of the wartime Substitute Alloy Materials Laboratories SAM Laboratories at Columbia, which was responsible for the heavy water and all the isotope enrichment processes except Ernest Lawrence's electromagnetic process.
Early reports on the centrifugal method indicated that it was not as efficient as predicted. Urey suggested that a more efficient but technically more complicated countercurrent system be used instead of the previous flow-through method. By November 1941, technical obstacles seemed formidable enough for the process to be abandoned. Countercurrent centrifuges were developed after the war, and today are the favored method in many countries.
The gaseous diffusion process remained more encouraging, although it too had technical obstacles to overcome. By the end of 1943, Urey had over 700 people working for him on gaseous diffusion. The process involved hundreds of cascades, in which corrosive uranium hexafluoride diffused through gaseous barriers, becoming progressively more enriched at every stage. A major problem was finding proper seals for the pumps, but by far the greatest difficulty lay in constructing an appropriate diffusion barrier. Construction of the huge K-25 gaseous diffusion plant was well under way before a suitable barrier became available in quantity in 1944. As a backup, Urey championed thermal diffusion.
Worn out by the effort, Urey left the project in February 1945, handing over his responsibilities to R. H. Crist. The K-25 plant commenced operation in March 1945, and as the bugs were worked out, the plant operated with remarkable efficiency and economy. For a time, uranium was fed into the S50 liquid thermal diffusion plant, then the K-25 gaseous, and finally the Y-12 electromagnetic separation plant; but soon after the war ended the thermal and electromagnetic separation plants were closed down, and separation was performed by K-25 alone. Along with its twin, K-27, constructed in 1946, it became the principal isotope separation plant in the early post-war period. For his work on the Manhattan Project, Urey was awarded the Medal for Merit by the Project director, Major General Leslie R. Groves, Jr.
Post-war years
After the war, Urey became professor of chemistry at the Institute for Nuclear Studies, and then became Ryerson professor of chemistry at the University of Chicago in 1952. He did not continue his pre-war research with isotopes. However, applying the knowledge gained with hydrogen to oxygen, he realized that the fractionation between carbonate and water for oxygen-18 and oxygen-16 would decrease by a factor of 1.04 between 0 and 25 °C 32 and 77 °F. The ratio of the isotopes could then be used to determine average temperatures, assuming that the measurement equipment was sufficiently sensitive. The team included his colleague Ralph Buchsbaum. Examination of a 100-million-year-old belemnite then indicated the summer and winter temperatures that it had lived through over a period of four years. For this pioneering paleoclimatic research, Urey was awarded the Arthur L. Day Medal by the Geological Society of America, and the Goldschmidt Medal of the Geochemical Society.
Urey actively campaigned against the 1946 May-Johnson bill because he feared that it would lead to military control of nuclear energy, but supported and fought for the McMahon bill that replaced it, and ultimately created the Atomic Energy Commission. Urey's commitment to the ideal of world government dated from before the war, but the possibility of nuclear war made it only more urgent in his mind. He went on lecture tours against war, and became involved in Congressional debates regarding nuclear issues. He argued publicly on behalf of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, and was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee.
Cosmochemistry and the Miller–Urey experiment
In later life, Urey helped develop the field of cosmochemistry and is credited with coining the term. His work on oxygen-18 led him to develop theories about the abundance of the chemical elements on earth, and of their abundance and evolution in the stars. Urey summarized his work in The Planets: Their Origin and Development 1952. Urey speculated that the early terrestrial atmosphere was composed of ammonia, methane, and hydrogen. One of his Chicago graduate students, Stanley L. Miller, showed in the Miller–Urey experiment that, if such a mixture be exposed to electric sparks and to water, it can interact to produce amino acids, commonly considered the building blocks of life.
Urey spent a year in the United Kingdom as a visiting professor at Oxford University in 1956 and 1957. In 1958, he reached the University of Chicago's retirement age of 65, but he accepted a post as a professor at large at the new University of California, San Diego UCSD, and moved to La Jolla, California. He was subsequently made a professor emeritus there from 1970 to 1981. Urey helped build up the science faculty there. He was one of the founding members of UCSD's school of chemistry, which was created in 1960, along with Stanley Miller, Hans Suess, and Jim Arnold.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, space science became a topic of research in the wake of the launch of Sputnik I. Urey helped persuade NASA to make unmanned probes to the moon a priority. When Apollo 11 returned moon rock samples from the moon, Urey examined them at the Lunar Receiving Laboratory. The samples supported Urey's contention that the moon and the Earth shared a common origin. While at UCSD, Urey published 105 scientific papers, 47 of them about lunar topics. When asked why he continued to work so hard, he joked, "Well, you know I'm not on tenure anymore."
Death and legacy
Urey enjoyed Gardening, and raising cattleya, cymbidium and other orchids. He died at La Jolla, California, and is buried in the Fairfield Cemetery in DeKalb County, Indiana.
Apart from his Nobel Prize, he also won the Franklin Medal in 1943, the J. Lawrence Smith Medal in 1962, the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1966, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1966, and the Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society in 1973. In 1964 he received the National Medal of Science. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1947. Named after him are lunar impact crater Urey, asteroid 4716 Urey, and the H. C. Urey Prize, awarded for achievement in planetary sciences by the American Astronomical Society. The Harold C. Urey Middle School in Walkerton, Indiana, is also named for him, as is Urey Hall, the chemistry building at Revelle College, UCSD, in La Jolla. UCSD has also established a Harold C. Urey chair whose first holder is Jim Arnold. | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 68 | http://ingenweb.org/inobits/Images/2021-11-05.html | en | 2021 | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2021-11-05T00:00:00 | en | null | Gladys Irene (Kirkendall) Abbott
Gladys Irene Abbott, 92, of Goshen, formerly of Elkhart, died at 10:00 pm, on Thursday, February 13, at the Maples at Waterford Crossing, Goshen. She was born on July 11, 1921, in Camden, DE, to William C. and Lillian Mae (Melvin) Kirkendall. On July 11, 1943 in Dover, DE she married John Abbott, he died March 6, 2010. Surviving are two sons, John (LeAnn) Abbott Jr. of Indianapolis, Kenneth (JoAnn) Abbott of Bristol; eight grandchildren, two step grandchildren, six great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her husband, parents, step-father (daddy), Charles Downham, and a brother, Robert Downham. Gladys was a member of the Wesleyan Church, Easton, MD and attended Middlebury Church of the Brethren with her son. She was a homemaker, bookkeeper, church and office secretary and a wonderful companion in ministry with her husband. Burial will be in Grace Lawn Cemetery, Middlebury.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana, February 14, 2014
Contributed by Karin King
John P. Amstutz
LANCASTER - Services for John Pritchard Amstutz, 86, of Wilmore, will be 11 a.m. Thursday at Ramsey Funeral Home by the Revs. Richard Kriesch, Blanchard Amstutz and Tillman Amstutz. Burial will be in Lancaster Cemetery. He died Monday at his home. Born Feb. 14, 1917, in Gas City, Ind., he was the son of the late Menno N. and Jessie Pritchard Amstutz. He was a retired minister with Missionary Church Association, former chaplain of Modesto Memorial Hospital, and a former teacher at Modesto High School in Modesto, Calif., and Fort Wayne Bible College in Fort Wayne, Ind. He was preceded in death by his first wife, Dorothy Naylor Amstutz. Memorials may go to Gideons International Bible Fund or Wilmore Community Missionary Church, 702 E. Main St., Wilmore 40390.
The Advocate-Messenger (Danville, KY); Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Contributed by Karin King
Virginia M. (Lyons) Anderson
Virginia M. Anderson, 81, of Jackson Township, died at 9:03 a.m. Monday, Jan. 3, 2011, at Parkview Hospital in Fort Wayne. Mrs. Anderson was born in Gas City on Feb. 21, 1929, to Lyman and Bessie Bernice Lyons. She married Gene Anderson; he preceded her in death. Surviving relatives include two sons, Philip Anderson of Auburn and Douglas Anderson of Marion; one daughter, Cynthia (James) Miller of Leesburg; one brother, Donald Lyons of Marion; and three grandchildren. Mrs. Anderson was also preceded in death by one daughter, Cheryl Medler. Calling hours are from 4 to 7 today, Jan. 5, and from 10 to 11 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 6, at Glancy H. Brown and Son Funeral Home, 203 N. Matilda St., Warren. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday, at the funeral home. Burial will be at Van Buren Cemetery.
News-Banner, Wells County, Indiana; January 5, 2011
Contributed by Karin King
Willis Armantrout
Handwritten-April 22, 1957
Willis Armantrout, 65, formerly of Geneva, died suddenly April 7, at the home of his sister, Mrs. Mina Armantrout Derrough, of George West, Texas. He is survived by three sisters, Mrs. Derrough, Miss Grace Armantrout, of George West, Tex., and Mrs. Anna Ely, of Three Rivers, Mich. [Buried Three Rivers Cemetery, Three Rivers, Live Oak County, Texas]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 90
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Kenton K. Baker
KENTON K. BAKER, 60, of Stroh, died Tuesday, March 20, 2007, in Indianapolis. He was a Stroh resident and formed many lifelong friends in the area. Visitation is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Wednesday at Thomas Funeral Home. Military graveside service is 2 p.m. Wednesday at Reed Cemetery, Stroh.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Revised Service Information BAKER, KENTON K.: Visitation is from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today at Thomas Funeral Home, Garrett. Military graveside service is 2 p.m. today at Mt. Pisgah Cemetery, Stroh.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers from 3/27/2007 - 3/28/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Jerry David Ball
Jerry David Ball, 60, passed away Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at St. Vincent's Hospital in Indianapolis. Born in North Carolina, but lived most of his life in Florida. Surviving are his loving companion Lori Beneke of Fort Wayne, IN: brother, Greg Ball of Pensacola, FL and many nieces and nephews. Jerry was preceded in death by his parents and wife Vicki (Dettmer) Ball. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association or the Church at Jacob's Well.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 28, 2016
Contributed by JC
William Carl Bauserman
Handwritten-Wed. Feb. 6, 1957
Carl Bauserman, 46, of Geneva Dies Suddenly
William Carl Bauserman, 46, prominent Geneva man and lineman for the Indiana and Michigan Electric Company for 27 years, died suddenly Monday afternoon while on top of a 20-foot utility pole at the west edge of Poneto, on State Highway 118, 14 miles west of Berne. Death was attributed to a coronary occlusion. Dr. Joy Buckner, Wells County Coroner conducted an autopsy of the body and announced the verdict. First reports were that Bauserman had been electrocuted but no burns were found on the body and the autopsy disclosed the coronary occlusion. Mr. Bauserman was known to have a heart ailment and he was asked by his physician to curtail some of his activities. However, the ailment had not been believed serious. Bauserman had been in Berne shortly before his death. While here he received word to go to Poneto to help on a project there. Another electrical company workman, Robert Rose, 4306 Anthony Wayne Drive, was with Bauserman at the time. Rose had been installing capacitor control equipment at the base of the pole when he experienced difficulty. He called for assistance and Bauserman ws sent to assist. While Rose remained on the ground, Bauserman climbed the pole. When the climber was near the pole top, Rose turned away and walked to his truck. Suddenly, he heard a groan and turned. He saw Bauserman, supported by his safety belt, slumped over a cross bar of the pole. Rose dashed to a nearby farm home and called for help (rest is missing) [Buried Monroeville Memorial Cemetery; Monroeville, Allen County, Indiana]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 91
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Keith Stuart Beltz
Keith Stuart Beltz, 58, passed away Saturday September 24, 2016 at Lutheran Hospital in Ft Wayne, IN. Surviving are sister Judith Beltz of LaPorte, IN, brothers Glen Beltz of Las Vegas NV, David (Susan Clayton)Beltz of Waco, GA,and niece Lauren (Zane) Bitter of Asheville, NC. Keith was preceded in death by his parents LeRoy Duane Beltz and Glenda Marie Beltz. Per Keith's request no public service will be held.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 27, 2016
Contributed by JC
Miss Matie Bishoff
Miss Matie Bishoff, the twelve year old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Christ Bishoff of Huntington died Friday morning at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Thieme in Union Township. She had been ill for some time, death being due to dropsy. The remains were taken to Huntington Saturday morning for burial. [Buried Pilgrims Rest Cemetery; Huntington, Huntington County, Indiana - Dec. 27, 1889 - June 6, 1902]
Decatur Democrat; Adams County, Indiana (a weekly newspaper); Thursday, June 12, 1902
Contributed by Karin King
Viola M. Blair
VIOLA M. BLAIR, 91, of Warren, died Saturday, March 24, 2007. Arrangements by Glancy Funeral Homes-H. Brown & Son Chapel, Warren.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Bonnie J. (Kaylor) Bloom
Bonnie J. Bloom, 83, passed away Wednesday, September 14, 2016 in Fort Wayne. Born in Fort Wayne, Bonnie worked many years as a bookbinder with several local businesses and most recently at Doty Lithograph for 13 years. She was a member of Faith Lutheran Church of Churubusco, IN, American Legion Auxiliary Post 82; and the Indiana State "600" Bowling Club. Surviving are children, Dennis (Kimberly) Bloom of Delaware, OH; Denise Connell of Fort Wayne; Stanley Bloom of Fort Wayne; and daughter Teresa McKinney of Findley, OH; 8 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren. Bonnie was preceded in death by her parents, Glenn and Clara Kaylor; brother, Dale Kaylor; and her former husband, Jimmy Bloom. Service is 10:30 am, Monday, September 19, 2016 at D. O. McComb & Sons Maplewood Park Funeral Home, 4017 Maplecrest Rd with calling 1 hour prior. Calling also Sunday, September 18, 2016 from 2:00 pm - 4:00 pm & 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana or Heartland Hospice.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 15, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mary (Parr) Blowers
Handwritten-Fri. March 22, 1957
FORMER RESIDENT OF BERNE IS DEAD - MRS. JOHN BLOWERS, 83, DIES AT CENTRALIA, ILLINOIS
Word has been received here of the death Wednesday night of Mrs. John Parr Blowers, 83, a former Berne resident. She died at Centralia, Illinois where she had resided for some time. Death followed a long illness. She was an invalid for about 10 years after suffering a stroke. Mrs. Blowers lived in the home of her son, Rufus Blowers, also formerly of this community. The son is the only close survivor. Mrs. Blowers was the former Mary Parr and has numerous relatives in this community. Her husband preceded in death about 15 years ago. Mrs. Blowers will be buried at Owensburg, Ky., Saturday, where the family formerly resided. [Buried Rosehill Elmwood Cemetery, Owensboro, Daviess County, Kentucky]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 91
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Mrs. Bertha M. Bohde
Mother of city resident dies
Mrs. Bertha M. Bohde, 79, of Fort Wayne, mother of Mrs. Betty Rash of Decatur, died at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday in McCray memorial hospital, Kendallville, where she had been a patient one week. Surviving are two sons, Richard of Fort Wayne, and Donald of Kendallville; and three daughters, Mrs. Betty Rash, of Decatur and Mrs. Eileen Ambler and Mrs. Gloria Sparks, both of Fort Wayne. Services will be Friday at the Hockemeyer funeral home with burial in St. John's Lutheran cemetery. Friends may call at the funeral home from 7 to 9 p.m. today and 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; May 15, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Darrell Lee Borkholder
Darrell Lee Borkholder, 47, of Middlebury, died Saturday evening at IU Health Goshen Hospital from an apparent heart attack. He was born on October 25, 1966, in Bremen, to Eli and Velma (Stutzman) Borkholder, they survive in Bremen. On September 4, 1989 in Nappanee he married Lorene Kuhns, she survives. Surviving in addition to his wife and parents are four daughters - Irene Kay Borkholder, Marilyn Renae Borkholder, Loretta Ann (special friend Richard Yoder) Borkholder, Sharon Rose Borkholder; three sons - Calvin Jay Borkholder, Galen Lee Borkholder, Stephen Dale Borkholder, all living at home; four sisters - Christina (Norman) Borkholder of New Paris, Norma Borkholder, Rose (Lamoine) Miller, both of Bremen, Anita (Dale) Yoder of Millersburg; a sister-in-law, Arlene Borkholder of Nappanee; two brothers - Dannie (Rosanna) Borkholder of Nappanee, Alvin (Amy) Borkholder of Bremen. He was preceded in death by a son, Adam Borkholder; a brother, Lavon Borkholder and two nephews. Darrell was currently working at Keystone RV, Goshen and was a member of the Old Order Amish Church. Burial will be in Miller Cemetery, Goshen. Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, Middlebury is in charge of arrangements.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana; March 2, 2014
Contributed by JC
Rosa F. (Nyffeler) Bracht
Handwritten-Fri. March 15, 1957
ROSA F. BRACHT, 72, DIES AT FORT WAYNE - SISTER OF BERNE, MONROE MEN DIES LATE YESTERDAY
Mrs. Rosa F. Bracht, 72, (missing) been a patient for two weeks. She had been ill for three months. She had lived in Fort Wayne for the past 42 years after going there from Switzerland, where she was born. She was a member of St. John's Evangelical Reformed Church, and the Women's Bible class, and sewing circle of the church. Surviving are her husband, Charles F. Bracht, three daughters, Miss Doris Bracht, Miss Eileen Bracht, at home, and Mrs. Calton Hilterbrandt, Upland, Calif.; five brothers, Louis and Otto Nyffeler of Fort Wayne; Edwin, Berne, William and Oswald, Monroe. The body was taken to the D. O. McComb and Sons Funeral Home. Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Monday at the funeral home. [Buried Greenlawn Memorial Park; Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 91
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
William L. Bracht
Handwritten-Wed. Feb. 6, 1957
WILLIAM BRACHT DIES AT FORT WAYNE - FUNERAL TODAY FOR HUSBAND OF FORMER MARY ZURCHER
William L. Bracht, 75, 1719 Andres St., Ft. Wayne, died at 8:25 p.m. Sunday at St. Joseph's Hospital where he had been a patient the past four days. He was a retired custodian of the Bloomingdale School and was a member of St. John's Evangelical and Reformed Church in Ft. Wayne. Surviving are his wife, Mary' three daughters, Mrs. Harvey Habegger, Mrs. Wayne Fortmeyer, and Mrs. Herman Sinemus, all of Fort Wayne; two sons, Ralph and Paul, Ft. Wayne; four brothers, Charles, Edward, Marcus and Vernon, all of Fort Wayne, three sisters, Mrs. Otto Hildebrand, Magley, Ind., Mrs. Ray Foltz and Mrs. Lawrence Diller, both of Ft. Wayne, and nine grandchildren. Mr. Bracht was the husband of the former Mary Zurcher, a sister of John, Fred and Chris Zurcher. Services were held at 11:00 a.m. today at the D.O. McComb and Sons Funeral Home, the Rev. Charles Hartman officiating. Burial was in Greenlawn Memorial Park, Fort Wayne.
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 89
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Mrs. Fannie Brandt
Services are held for Fannie Brandt
Funeral services for Mrs. Fannie Brandt of Indianapolis, former resident of Decatur were held Monday in Indianapolis, it was learned today.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; April 26, 1974
Contributed by JC
Dick Bronson
Dick Bronson, a sawyer from Hanson, KY died in St. Mary's hospital, Evansville, the other morning in great agony, the result of poison from a spider's bite.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Mrs. Caroline C. Brown
Mother of Ohio Resident Dies
CAROLINE C BROWN, 81, of Fort Wayne, mother of Berneice Wright of Willshire, Ohio, died at 12:35 pm Sunday in Parkview Memorial Hospital. A lifelong resident of Allen County Mrs. Brown is survived by two sons, Donald Chester and Ervin Chester both of Fort Wayne; five daughters, Mrs. Wilma Schaper of Woodburn, Mrs. Berneice Wright of Willshire Ohio, and Mrs. Ellen Ullstrom, Mrs. Violet Mann, and Mrs. Irene Kitzmiller all of Fort Wayne; and a sister Mrs. Stella Chester of Avon Ohio. Services were held at 2 pm today in DO McComb & Sons funeral home with burial in Covington Cemetery.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; May 15, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Ivan Burgin
IVAN BURGIN, 56, DIES THIS MORNING
Ivan Burgin, 56, of 245 1/2 West Monroe St., a Gilpin employee, was found dead at 4 a.m. this morning after apparently falling down his apartment stairs. Tom Sefton, Adams County Coroner, said the body will be taken to Fort Wayne Lutheran Hospital, where an autopsy will be performed. Survivors include one brother, Jim, of Decatur. Mr. Burgin was a native of Virginia.
Decatur Daily Democrat; Adams County, Indiana; Saturday, May 18, 1974
RITES ARE TUESDAY FOR IVAN BURGIN
Ivan P. Burgin, 56, of 245 1/2 West Monroe St., who was found dead at his home at 4 a.m. Saturday, died of natural causes. Mr. Burgin, who was an employee of Gilpin, Inc., fell down the apartment stairs after suffering a heart attack. The body has been removed from the Gillig, Doan and Sefton Funeral Home to Pennington Gap, Va. for services at 2 p.m. Tuesday. He is survived by his mother, Mrs. May C. Burgin, and three brothers including Jim Burgin of Decatur.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; May 20, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Leon Burrey, Jr
Leon Burrey Jr., 89, passed away Monday, September 26, 2016. Surviving are his wife, Carolyn Burrey; children, Paul (Cindy) Burrey, Cindi (Bill) Richhart and Douglas (Lois) Burrey; step-daughter, Sherry Morgan; grandchildren, Jillian (Mike) DePew, Julie (Scott) Boyd, Jason Crismore, Jennifer Hobrock, and Erin Morgan; great-grandchildren, Trevor Boyd, Alec Boyd, and Lylla Lackey; and sister, Arlene Henry.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 27, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mrs. Blanche Butler
BUTLER FUNERAL ON MONDAY AFTERNOON
Funeral services will be held Monday afternoon for Mrs. Blanche Butler, of New Haven, who died Wednesday night at her home. There are a number of relatives residing in Decatur and vicinity. Services will be held at 1:45 p.m. Monday at the E. Harper & Son Funeral Home in New Haven, and at 2 p.m. at the New Haven Methodist Church, the Rev. John M. Sayre officiating. Burial will be in the New Haven IOOF Cemetery.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; December 31, 1954
Contributed by Karin King
Stephen Carroll
Stephen Carroll, 69, passed away September 19, 2016. He was the son of the late Sanford and Mattie Carroll. Stephen was born in Chattanooga, TN on December 4, 1946. He graduated high school from Chattanooga Central and went on to play football at the University of Tennessee. While he was there they won the SEC championship twice as well as the National Championship. After his college career he was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers, where he played for a short time before injuring himself. Stephen worked as a trouble shooter for FoodPlex in Indiana for a number of years. He then went on to become an Iron Worker for about 30 years and helped construct several buildings in Fort Wayne, including Summit Square, Lincoln Life, and GM, before retiring. Stephen was inducted into the University of Tennessee Hall of Fame. Recently he was inducted in to the Chattanooga Central High School's Hall of Fame, before losing his battle to lung cancer. Surviving are his wife of 43 years, Patty Carroll; children; Todd (Rhonda) Wetzel, Bryce (Malissa) Wetzel, Lisa (Jeff) Johnson, Kimberly (Eric) Lehman, Stephen Carroll, Shayne Carroll, and Coreenia Carroll; 17 grandchildren; sister, Debbie (Robert) Strahley; brother, Danny (Alieen) Carroll; brother-in-law Tim (Donna) Cramer; and sister-in-law, Marsha Cramer. Funeral service will be Monday, September 26, 2016 at 10 AM at D.O. McComb & Sons Lakeside Park location 4011 Lake Ave. Ft. Wayne, IN 46805, with calling 1 hour prior. Visitation will be Sunday, September 25, 2016 also at the funeral home from 2-4 and 6-8pm. Memorial contributions may be made to the American Lung Association.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 21, 2016
Contributed by JC
Velma M. (Smuts) Cavitt
VELMA M. CAVITT, of Zanesville, died Saturday, March 24, 2007. She had a long life of nearly 100 years. Born in the family's Zanesville home, she was the daughter of the late John and Nancy Smuts. She married Aubrey B. Cavitt on Sept. 27, 1927. She was a member of Zanesville Rebecca Lodge which consolidated to Bluffton Rebecca Lodge for 82 years. She also was a member of the Ladies Auxiliary Patriarch's Militant and Ladies Encampment Auxiliary. She served as State President of LAPM in 1965. She moved to Duncan-ville, Texas, in 2003, to live with her son and daughter-in-law, Alan B. and Deborah K. Cavitt; who survive. Also surviving are her grandsons, Jeffrey A. (Sharon) Cavitt and Jonathan M. Cavitt; and great-grandson, Ty Jacob Cavitt. Funeral service is 11 a.m. Wednesday at Elzey-Patterson-Rodak Funeral Home, 120 West Mill St., Ossian. Calling is from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home, with Rebecca Lodge service at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. She will be buried next to her husband, in Hoverstock Cemetery, Zanesville.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
C. B. Clancy
C. B. Clancy, a journeyman blacksmith, fell between cars at Logansport while stealing a ride and was run over and killed. He has a brother in Whiting.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Nancy Clevenger, Rosalie Rhinehart & Geraldine Bradley
Handwritten-Tues. April 16, 1957
Three High School Girls Are Drowned - Auto Plunges Into River, One Escapes
LIBERTY MILLS, Ind. - (UP) Three high school girls were drowned Monday night when an automobile plunged over an embankment into the Eel River of Wabash County Road near here. Dead were Rosalie Rhinehart, 17, R. R. 2, North Manchester, and Nancy Clevenger, 17, and Geraldine Bradley, 16, both of Liberty Mills. A fourth girl, Janie Robinson 17, Liberty Mills, swam to safety. Miss Robinson and Miss Bradley climbed out of the car and swam to a tree about 450 feet away. Miss Robinson was able to hold on despite the swift current, but she said Miss Bradley was washed away. A passing motorist heard the screams of Miss Robinson. Bystanders held a rope which was fastened around the motorist's waist and he swam out to rescue the girl. Miss Rhinehart was driving car when it went over the embankment. The bodies of Miss Rhinehart and Miss Clevenger were recovered from the submerged car. Miss Bradley's body had not been found hours after the accident. Miss Robinson was taken to Wabash County Hospital for treatment for shock and exposure. [Nancy Clevenger buried Swank Cemetery, Wabash County, IN; Geraldine Bradley at South Whitley Cemetery, Whitley County, Ind.; unknown burial place for Rosalie Rhinehart]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 99
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
John J. Coblentz
JOHN J. COBLENTZ, 90, of Jeffersonville, formerly of Richmond, Ind., passed away peacefully Thursday, March 22, 2007, 3:25 a.m., at Clark memorial Hospital. Born Sept. 2, 1916, in Campbellsburg, Ohio, he was the son of the late C.R. Coblentz and Daisy (Barnet) Coblentz. He retired from Standard oil Company (Richmond and Fort Wayne Terminals) and he was former Mayor of New Paris, Ohio. Surviving are his daughters, Lynne Devers of Jeffersonville, Pamela Hess of Miamisburg, Ohio, and Annette (Jim) Ehresman of Kendallville; two nephews; two nieces; 12 grandchildren; 28 great-grandchildren; and five great-great-grandchildren. He was also preceded in death by his wives, Marcella Raney Coblentz and Helen Ford Coblentz. Graveside service is 1 p.m. Monday at Earlham Cemetery, Richmond, Ind., with the Rev. Dale Kulp officiating. Online condolences at pykefuneral.com.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Tasha Nicole Comment
Tasha Nicole Comment, 33 years old of Van Wert, Ohio, passed away on Saturday, September 24, 2016 at her residence. She was born on Saturday, June 4, 1983 in Van Wert, Ohio the daughter Anthony P. Comment and Linda K. (Wisener) Blue. Tasha was a graduate of Van Wert High School. She was very family oriented and the glue that kept the family together. Tasha will be remembered for her gentle heart and gentle spirit. Surviving are her mother, Linda Blue of Van Wert, OH; father, Tony Comment of Decatur, IN; son, Landen Pratt of Van Wert, OH; daughter, Taylor Pratt of Van Wert, OH; fiance, Luke Reinhart of Van Wert, OH; brother, Brian Blue of Phoenix, AZ; brother, Christopher Blue of Van Wert, OH; brother, Nicholas Comment of Decatur, IN; sister, Samantha Comment of Decatur, IN; step-mother, Peggy Comment-Huntley of Preble, IN; and four nieces and nephews, Jacey Taylor; Ryver Blue; Savannah Comment; and Nevaeh Comment. Preceding Tasha in death were a nephew, Brandon Mohr-Snodgrass; a maternal grandmother, Alice Mantie; a paternal grandfather, Wallace Comment; a paternal grandmother, Julia Farlow; and a step-mother, Hollie Strickler. Funeral services will be held at 4:00 p.m. Saturday, October 1, 2016 in the Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Jacobs Chapel in Monroeville with Dave McIntire officiating. Friends will be received from 1 to 4 p.m., Saturday, October 1 in the Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Jacobs Chapel in Monroeville. Preferred memorials are to Tasha's children (checks can be payable to Tony Comment).
Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Adams County, Indiana, September 26, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mike Connor
Mike Connor, a conductor of Richmond, was fatally injured by the cars at Winchester.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Jane Carol (Marquardt) Creed
JANE CAROL MARQUARDT CREED, 74, of Walkerton, Ind., passed away suddenly Wednesday, March 21, 2007, of a massive heart attack at her home. Born Aug. 20, 1932, in Bronx, N.Y., along with twin sister Janet, she was a daughter of the late Florence and Dallas Marquardt. In the late 30's, the family moved back to their parent's family state of Indiana and settled in Gary. She and Janet attended Lew Wallace High School and were one set of five twins in their graduating class of 1950! Both twins attended and graduated from Purdue University. She then began a teaching career working with special education students. Later, she married Milford Creed, a U.S. Steel design engineer, and together they had four children. She was a "professional mom" in every way, making her family the most important priority of her life. In 1970, she and her family moved to Walkerton. She enjoyed flower gardening and fine art, among so many things. She was always thankful for the little things the most, like a good cup of coffee and a phone call from a friend. After her children were all out of the house, she provided home care services to many in the Northern Indiana community. Her sincere compassion for others in need was endless. Twenty years after her youngest child had graduated high school, she was still getting hugs from grown-ups that would see her in the local grocery store and would stop to say that they remembered coming over to her house as kids. She would always sweetly put her arm around their shoulders and ask them "If they had had enough to eat today". Her kitchen was always open and well stocked! She is survived by her loving family: twin sister, Janet McCarty of Dunlap, Ill.; daughter, Lisa Creed Much of Dallas, Texas; son, Stuart Creed of San Diego, Calif.; daughter, Amy Creed of Dallas, Texas; son, David Creed of Chicago, Ill.; ex-husband of 42 years, Milford Creed of Kerrville, Texas; and one loving and handsome grandson, William Creed, who fondly called her "Grandma Jane". Of course, there are many kind in-laws and dear lifelong friends all over the world that will miss her big smile and big heart. She will be buried next to her parents in Monroeville at 2 p.m. (EST) today, with a short service beforehand. Arrangements by Nusbaum-Elkin Funeral Home, 408 Roosevelt St., Walkerton.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Rosa (Schmucker) Cross
Rosa Cross, 99, formerly of Middlebury, died at 3:40 am, on Saturday, March 1, at her daughter's residence in Goshen. She was born on September 4, 1914 in Goshen to Noah and Ida (Miller) Schmucker. On April 5, 1936 she married George G Cross, he died March 11, 1986. Surviving are son, 2 daughters, 8 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, 3 great great-grandchildren & a sister-in-law - Dorothy Schmucker of Goshen. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband; 3 sisters - Kathryn Hoover, Edna Mast, Esther Schmucker; 2 brothers - Willard and William Schmucker. Rosa was a homemaker and helped her husband on the family farm. She was a seamstress and was well known for making ladies prayer coverings. She was a member of Griner Mennonite Church where she was active as a Sunday School teacher and in the ladies sewing circles. Visitation will be from 2 - 4 pm and 6 - 8 pm Wednesday, March 5, at Griner Mennonite Church, Middlebury. Funeral services will be at 10 am on Thursday, March 6, also at the church. Services will be conducted by Pastors Harley Troyer, Robert Riegsecker and Duane Yoder. Burial will be in Miller Cemetery, Goshen. Memorials may be given to IU Health Goshen Home Care and Hospice.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana, March 1, 2014
Contributed by JC
Jonathan Marler Dalby
Jonathan Marler Dalby, 70, passed away Wednesday, September 14, 2016 at Lutheran Hospital. Born on September 3, 1946 in San Diego, CA, Jonathan was the son of the late Max and Betty Dalby. Surviving are his sisters, Diana Edvalson, Rebecca (Ron) Nelson, Victoria (Mike) Sweet, Cynthia (Paul) Watson, Mariann Lucy; brothers, Kim (Christine) Dalby, Christopher Dalby and brother, Bruce (Mirle) Dalby. Private Family Services.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 15, 2016
Contributed by JC
Thomas B. Davidson
Mrs. Dick's father dies at Bluffton
Funeral services were held today for Thomas B. Davidson, 68, of Poneto route 1, father of Mrs. Edward (Peggy) Dick of Decatur, route 2, who died at 8:50 p.m. Saturday at Wells community hospital where he had been a patient two days. He had been in failing health for two years. The Rev. James Hall conducted the services at the Thoma-Rich Funeral Home in Bluffton at 1:30 p.m. today. Burial was in the IOOF cemetery. A son of William and Nancy (Jones) Davidson, he was born April 25, 1906 and was married on April 1, 1930 at Crown Point to Nondus Cain, who survives. Two daughters and three sons surviving are Mrs. Floyd (Joanne) Wentz of Marion; Mrs. Edward (Peggy) Dick of Decatur Route 2, James R., of Warren Route 2; Richard E. of Keystone Route 1 and William J. of Poneto Route 1. Joseph Davidson of Chicago is a brother and Mrs. Ethel White of Terre Haute a sister. There are 13 grandchildren.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; April 30, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Marvin L. Day
MARVIN L. DAY, 77, of Bluffton, died Friday, March 23, 2007, 8:23 p.m., at Bluffton Regional Medical Center. Born Dec. 3, 1929, in Wells County, he was the son of the late Frank Day and Carrie (Gordon) Day. He was a 1947 graduate of Bluffton High School. He served his country in the U.S. Navy. He retired from Panhandle Eastern Pipeline after 30 years of service. He was a member of Masonic Lodge 145, Bluffton, Scottish Rite, Mizpah Shrine and American Legion Post 111, Bluffton. He married Betty (Bayless) Day on June 20, 1952, in Glendale, Calif.; she survives in Bluffton. Also surviving are his daughters, Susan Day of Lafayette, Sally Day of Carmel and Sarah (David) Seligman of Zionsville; sons, Scott (Pandy) Day of Sturgis, Mich. and Steve Day of Bluffton; three grandchildren; and two great grandchildren. Funeral service is 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Thoma/Rich, Hewitt & Chaney Funeral Home, Bluffton. Dr. Gene Bell of the First Reformed Church officiating. Calling is from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Masonic service is 8 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home performed by Bluffton Masonic Lodge 145. Burial in Elm Grove Cemetery, Bluffton, with Military graveside honors by American Legion Post 111 of Bluffton and the United States Navy Honors Guard. Memorials to American Heart Association or Riley Hospital For Children. Online condolences may be made at www.thomarich.com
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Evelyn A. (Harrison) Dillman
Evelyn A. Dillman, 83, passed away Saturday, September 24, 2016. She was born to Leo and Jesse (Bryne) Harrison at Byrneville near New Albany, IN on December 22, 1932. Evelyn loved her family, was an accomplished organist loved I U Basketball and sewing. She was a member of the Community of Christ Church. She is survived by 3 children, 6 grandchildren 1 great grandchild, 2 brothers and a sister. Evelyn was preceded in death by her husband, Larry Lee Dillman and two brother.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana, September 26, 2016
Contributed by JC
Miss Ellen Ditlinger
ELLEN DITLINGER DIES AT HOSPITAL
Ellen Ditlinger, 63, of route 1, Monroeville, died at 10 a.m. Thursday in Lutheran Hospital, where she had been a patient since Jan. 29. Miss Ditlinger was a native of Monroe Township and retired from the General Electric Co. Surviving are three sisters, Agnes Ditlinger, Monroeville; Mrs. Mary Bohn, Waynedale, and Sr. M. Julia, Campbellsville, Wis. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Rose Catholic Church, Monroeville, with burial in the church cemetery. Friends may call at the Marquart Funeral Home, Monroeville, after 3 p.m. today. Rosary services will be at 8 p.m. tonight at the funeral home.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; March 15, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Frank Dlug
Frank Dlug, 90, passed away Wednesday, September 21, 2016. He was a U.S. Army veteran, and retired from Dana, after 24 years of employment. He will be dearly missed. Surviving are his longtime companion, Janean Phillips and her daughter, Kathryn (Jeffrey) Marshall, and her grandchildren, Bailey and Mackenize. He is also survived by his daughter, Kim Mott; son Mark (Beth) Dlug; half-sister, Donna (Bob) Wagner, 3 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. Private graveside service.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana, September 23, 2016
Contributed by JC
James E. Dumas
James E. Dumas, DDS, 77, passed away Thursday, September 22, 2016 at his home in Fort Wayne. Born in Mansfield, OH, Jim graduated from St. Edwards High School of Lakewood, OH. He completed his Bachelor's degree from Purdue University, and later completed dental training from Indiana University School of Dentistry. Jim devoted his life to caring for others as an oral surgeon for 50 years. He was a member of St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church. Jim was also a member of the American Association Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, the Isaac Knapp District Dental Society, and a lifetime member of the Indiana Dental Association. Jim was an avid golfer and was proud to have completed 6 marathons during his lifetime. He enjoyed spending time with his family in Northern Michigan. Surviving are his wife of 52 years, Patsy Dumas of Fort Wayne; daughter, Jenny (Mike) Dahm of Cincinnati, OH; daughter, Julie (Brian) Knorr of Bloomington, IN; son, David (Linda) Dumas of Fort Wayne; daughter, Beth (Jason) Horn of Minneapolis, MN; son, Steve (Wendy) Dumas of Fort Wayne; daughter, Sarah (Shaun) Blake of Fort Wayne; 21 grandchildren; brother, Bob Dumas of Auburn, IN; sister, Mary Ann (Kent) Habermeyer of Littleton, CO; sister, Martha (Bob) Barry of Fort Wayne; brother, Tom (Darla) Dumas of Fort Wayne; and 5 nieces and nephews. Jim was preceded in death by his parents, R. Wayne and Beany Dumas, and brother-in-law, Kurt Bundgaard. Mass of Christian Burial is 10:30 am Tuesday, September 27, 2016 at St. Vincent De Paul Catholic Church, 1502 E. Wallen Rd, with calling 1 hour prior. Calling also at D.O. McComb & Sons Pine Valley Park Funeral Home, 1320 East Dupont Rd on Monday, September 26, 2016 from 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm & 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm with a Rosary Service at 4:30 pm. Burial in Catholic Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Isaac Knapp Dental Education Foundation or The Carriage House.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 23, 2016
Contributed by JC
Otto Eshram
The body found in a wheat field near Huntington has been identified as that of Otto Eshram by a grocer's memorandum book found near the corpse. It is thought that he was murdered.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Albert T. Everett
Handwritten-Tues. April 23, 1957
Albert T. Everett Is Taken By Death - Former Resident Of County Dies Monday
Albert T. Everett, 43, former Adams County resident, died Monday at the Elmhurst Hospital at Angola, where he had been a patient three days. He had been ill a year, and underwent brain surgery four weeks ago at the University Hospital, Ann Arbor, Mich. He was born in Wren, O., April 4, 1914, a son of Mr. and Mrs. Lester Everett, and was married to Dahlia Gross in 1941. He was a real estate dealer at Hudson and until recently owned the Ever-ette Furniture Store at Hudson. He also was employed at International Harvester in Fort Wayne. Mr. Everett was a member of the Hudson Methodist Church and Hiawatha Lodge 528, F. & A.M. Surviving in addition to the widow are his father, Lester Everett, of Ashley; three daughters, Shirley, Joan and Bonnie, and a son, Albert, Jr., all at home; seven sisters, Mrs. Winona Steinhoff of Fort Wayne, Mrs. Verdella Souder, Mrs. Florence Hudson and Mrs. Evangeline Gephart, all of Decatur, Mrs. Francetta Gould of Geneva, and Mrs. Alice LeRoy and Miss Betty Everett of Los Angeles, Calif., and one brother, Arthur Everett of Fort Wayne. One brother preceded him in death. Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Thursday at the Methodist Church at Hudson, the Rev. Jay Morris officiating. Burial will be in Circle Cemetery, with graveside rites by the Masonic Lodge. Friends may call at eh Kistler Funeral Home in Hudson until time of the services. [buried Circle Cemetery, Hudson, Steuben County, Indiana]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 97
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Mrs. B. Mae Fager
MOTHER OF CITY RESIDENT DIES B. Mae Fager, 86, a former resident of Kunkirk and mother of Ray Fager of Decatur, died at 10:15 p.m. Friday at the Jay County Hospital extensive care unit, where she resided two years. The body was taken to the Jones Mortuary in Dunkirk, where arrangements are incomplete. Burial will be in the Strong Cemetery in Albany.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; March 16, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Mary M. Fairchild
FAIRCHILD, MARY M.: Service is 10:30 a.m. today at the funeral home. Arrangements by Roanoke Memorial Chapel of Deal-Rice Funeral Homes.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana from 3/25/2007 - 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
James Joseph Fast
James Joseph "JJ" Fast, 41, departed Saturday, September 17, 2016. Born in Fort Wayne, IN, James "JJ" worked as a Roofer with Dahm Brothers. Surviving are his children; Diana, Joe, Jazlyn, Jersie, and Brooklyn Fast all of Fort Wayne; brothers, Robin Porter and Rick Fast Jr. of Fort Wayne. James "JJ" was preceded in death by parents, Rick and Diane (Sparkman) Fast. Service is 6:00 pm, Thursday September 22, 2016 at - D.O. McComb & Sons Lakeside Park Funeral Home with calling an hour prior.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 20, 2016
Contributed by JC
Clinton Ferris
Clinton Ferris of Portland, aged 70, died of blood poisoning contracted while nursing John Logan.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Terry Fields
Handwritten-Friday March 22, 1957
GENEVA NATIVE, 17, IS INJURED FATALLY - TERRY FIELDS FATALLY HURT IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT
A telephone message was received by Raymond Fields of Geneva at about 1:30 last Friday morning stating that his nephew, Terry Fields, 17, had died at 7:00 p.m. Thursday, March 14, from injuries received in an automobile accident in Oklahoma City, Okla., where he had been making his home. The accident occurred at 4 o'clock Thursday evening on a arrow Oklahoma City street, and there were no eye witnesses found except a youth accompanying Terry who was driving the car. Tire marks, however, showed that the machine had swerved over the curbing, then back onto the street, sideswiping a panel truck and turning over. The boy with Terry had a broken leg and suffered severe shock. Terry Fields, son of Robert Fields and Mrs. Ruth Newby, was born at Geneva in June, 1939. The family moved to Oklahoma while he was still a baby, came back to Geneva, then left again when Terry was about four years old. He spent several months at the home of his aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Hugh David Mosser when he was about eight years old. He was a senior in the Oklahoma City High School. Surviving in addition to the parents, Robert Fields of Shawnee, Okla., and Mrs. Ruth Newby of Oklahoma City, are a sister, Janice Fields, two half-brothers, Jackie and Jimmie Newby, and his grandmother, Mrs. Etta Fields, of Geneva.Funeral services were held at 1:00 p.m. Monday at an Oklahoma City funeral home, after which the remains were taken to Shawnee, Okla., where another service took place. Burial was in Resthaven Memorial Park. [Shawnee, Pottawatomie County, Oklahoma]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 90
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Sandra Lu (Hoewischer) Fosnaugh
Sandra Lu Fosnaugh, 79, passed away September 21, 2016. Surviving are her daughters, Neenah (Tony) Mentzer, Cara (Larry) Kimmel; brother, William (Judy) Hoewischer; grandchildren, Lance (Kassandra) Kimmel, Brittney (Michael) Haneline; step-grandchildren, Karma, Julia, and Don; great-grandchildren, Jake and Cori Kimmel. She was preceded in death by her parents, Wilbur and Mildred Hoewischer, first husband, Thomas Wagner, and second husband, Arthur Fosnaugh. Private Family Services.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 23, 2016
Contributed by JC
Effie M. (Clayton) Fox
Effie M. Fox, 90, passed away Saturday, September 17, 2016 at her home in Fort Wayne. Surviving are her daughters, Paula Linman of Albion, IN; Marsha (Don) Thornburg of Aberdeen, WA; granddaughter, Amanda (Cory) Traxler of Elkhart, IN; grandson, Jacob Linman of Fort Wayne, IN; 3 great-grandchildren, Paige, Mason and Savanna Traxler. Effie was preceded in death by husband, Olos Fox; Father, E. C. Clayton; mother, Viola Clayton; 3 sisters and a brother.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 19, 2016
Contributed by JC
Earl H. Friar
Earl H. Friar, 74, died at 10:28 a.m. Wednesday in Lutheran Hospital. Mr. Friar, born in Muncie, retired in 1977 from Essex Wire after 31 years. Surviving are his wife, Ann E.; a daughter, Shirley A. Deschler of Schaumburg, Ill.; three sons, Jack L. of Greenville, S.C., and Gene C. and Wayne L., both of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and a step-sister, Marceil Kener of Fort Wayne. Services will be at 1:30 p.m. Friday in Klaehn's South Anthony Chapel. Friends may call there from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today. Burial will be in Greenlawn Memorial Park. Preferred memorials are gifts to Trier Ridge Community Church.
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Allen County, Indiana; April 21, 1983
Indiana, U.S., Death Certificates, 1899-2011
Name: Earl H. Friar; Gender: Male; Race: White; Age: 74; Marital status: Married
Birth Date: 8 Jul 1908; Birth Place: Indiana; Death Date: 20 Apr 1983; Death Place: Fort Wayne, Allen, Indiana, USA
Father: Homer Friar; Mother: Myrl Eley; Spouse: Ann E. Balmer; Informant: Ann E. Friar; wife; Fort Wayne, Indiana
Burial: April 22, 1983; Greenlawn Memorial Park; Fort Wayne, Indiana
Contributed by Karin King
Noah H. Frye
Noah H. Frye, 93, loving husband, father, grandfather and uncle, passed away at 8:33 am on Tuesday, March 23, Waterford Crossing Health Center, Goshen. He had been in declining health the past nine days as a result of a fall. He was born on November 22, 1927 in Topeka to Henry and Lydia Ann (Troyer) Frye and was the fifth out of 10 children. He had lived most of his life in Middlebury, until recently moving to Goshen. On May 31, 1958 at First Mennonite Church, Middlebury he married Mary Alice Miller, who was the love of his life that he had met while "cruising" Main Street in Goshen. Survivors who will miss him dearly include his wife; two sons, Keith Grant (Peggy) Frye and Kerry Wayne (Tina) Frye all of Middlebury; and his five grandchildren, Jenson, Brenna, Steven, Grant and Nicole Frye, who he enjoyed building toys for, giving rides on the lawn mower to and going on hikes with. He was preceded in death by his parents; five sisters, Susan Yoder, Katy Yoder, Edna Miller, Ella Wingard and Lovina Frye; four brothers, Elvie, Sam, Calvin and Joas Frye. Noah had been an active member of First Mennonite Church, Middlebury and was known for his willingness to always help others; this was also evident as he volunteered for several mission trips. Visitation will be from 9:00 - 10:30 am on Friday, March 26, at First Mennonite Church, 203 E. Lawrence Middlebury. Funeral services will follow visitation, beginning at 10:30 am also at the church. Services will be conducted by Pastor Phil Yoder. Burial will be in Grace Lawn Cemetery, Middlebury.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana, March 24, 2021
Contributed by Karin King
Andrew J. Funich
Andrew J. Funich, 87, passed away Tuesday, September 20, 2016 at his home in Fort Wayne. Born in Clinchco, Virginia, Andrew was the son of the late Tony and Bessie Funich. He earned his bachelors degree from Tri State College. Andrew was a WWII Marine Veteran. He was co-owner of Funich and Funich Insurance Agency for over 50 years. Andrew was a member of Phi Kappa Theta and served on their Board of Trustees, along with serving as Past President of the Alumni Association. He enjoyed hunting, and fishing, but his favorite hobby was taking care of all the animals in his back yard. Surviving are his wife, Mary Alice Funich of Fort Wayne; children, Hal (Dee) Shaw of Saint Charles, MO, Tom (Rita) Shaw of Omaha, NB, Robert Shaw of Fort Wayne, Stephen (Sharon) Shaw of St. Charles, MO, Barb (Constantine) Chinoporos of Belmont, MA; brother, Sam Funich Sr. of Fort Wayne; nephew, Sam Funich Jr of Fort Wayne; 12 grandchildren and 7 great-grandchildren. Andrew was preceded in death by his grandson, Jason Shaw, and nephew, Gregory Funich. Mass of Christian Burial is 10:00 am, Monday, September 26, 2016 at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception with calling one hour prior, Msgr. Robert Schulte officiating. Calling at D.O. McComb and Sons Covington Knolls Funeral Home, 8325 Covington Rd, Sunday, September 25, 2016, from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. Burial with Military Honors will be at 1:00 pm, Monday at Marion National Cemetery, Marion, Indiana. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the American Cancer Society.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 21, 2016
Contributed by JC
Delbert M. Gallmeyer
Delbert M. Gallmeyer, 88 years old of Hoagland, Indiana, passed away on Sunday, September 25, 2016 at Adams in Monroeville. He was born on August 7, 1928 in Adams County the son of the late Conrad Gallmeyer and the late Martha (Buuck) Gallmeyer. He married Selma Louise Neff on July 7, 1951 at St. John Lutheran Church, Flatrock. He served his country in the United States Air Force. Delbert was a member of Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Soest in Fort Wayne and volunteered with the Carpenter's Helpers Group of the church. He was also a member of the Heritage Lions Club in Hoagland. He was a 1947 graduate of Monmouth High School and retired from Tokheim in Fort Wayne, Indiana with 40 years of service. Delbert always enjoyed tinkering in his machine shop. He also enjoyed gardening and canning with Selma. Surviving are his wife, Selma Gallmeyer of Hoagland; son, Stanley (Patti) Gallmeyer of Woodburn; son, Roger Gallmeyer of Angola; son, Byron (Susan) Gallmeyer of Hoagland; son, Jeff (Brenda) Gallmeyer of Roanoke; son, Kurt (Tammy) Gallmeyer of Springfield, Ohio; brother, Donald (Mary Ann) Gallmeyer of New Haven; sister, Delores (Dave) Nahrwold of Woodburn; brother, Jerry (Bonnie) Gallmeyer of Ossian; sister, Julaine (Larry) Hockemeyer of New Haven; nine grandchildren, Jennifer (Roy) Sorg; Staci (Jeremy) Frick; Michael Gallmeyer; Matt (Brittney) Gallmeyer; Kristen Gallmeyer; Rachel Gallmeyer; Tom Gallmeyer; Joe Gallmeyer; & Jack Gallmeyer and four great-grandchildren, Emily Sorg; Erica Sorg; Gabriella Frick; & Isabella Frick. Preceding Delbert in death was a sister, Erna Koenemann and a brother, Robert Gallmeyer. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday September 29, 2016 in the Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Jacobs Chapel Monroeville with Rev. Shayne Jonker officiating. Interment will follow in the Concordia Cemetery Gardens in Fort Wayne. Friends will be received from 2-5 and 6-8 p.m. Wednesday September 28, 2016 in the Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Jacobs Chapel, Monroeville and one hour prior to services Thursday at the funeral home. Preferred memorials are to Emmanuel Lutheran Church, Soest; Worship for Shut-Ins; or Promise Ministries.
Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Adams County, Indiana; September 26, 2016
Contributed by JC
Charles Neil Garriott
Charles Neil Garriott, 84, passed away September 4, 2016. Arrangements by D.O. McComb & Sons Lakeside Park Funeral Home, 1140 Lake Ave.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 8, 2016
Contributed by JC
E. K. "Jim" "Kenny" Gilb
E.K. "JIM" "KENNY" GILB, 80, of Fort Wayne, died Saturday, March 24, 2007, at Covington Manor Nursing Home. He retired from Essex Wire Corporation, in 1994, after a record 51 years of service. He was a member of Essex Quarter Century Club and a charter member of Aldersgate United Methodist Church. He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Virginia of Fort Wayne; son, James of Monterrey, Mexico; daughter, Karen of Fort Wayne; grandsons, Samuel of Aptos, Calif., Jonathan of Oxford, Ga. and Stephen of Monterrey, Mexico; and great-granddaughter, Shannon of Santa Rosa, Calif. He was preceded in death by his daughter-in-law, Aniceta "Joy", in 2004. Funeral service is 1 p.m. Wednesday at D.O. McComb & Sons Covington Knolls Funeral Home, 8325 Covington Road, with visitation one hour prior. Visitation also from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at the funeral home. Burial in Lindenwood Cemetery. Preferred memorials to Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, 383 Main Ave., 5th floor, Norwalk, CT 06851 or visit multiplemyeloma.org.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Janet E. Glenwith
Janet E. Glenwith, 81, passed away Friday, September 9, 2016 at Lutheran Life Villages. Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Janet was the daughter of the late Edward and Florence Glenwith. She graduated from Central Catholic High School and attended International Business College for 2 years. She is survived by her friends and extended family members. Memorials may be made to the Cancer Services of Northeast Indiana or Masses.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 15, 2016
Contributed by JC
Tony Dean Graber
Tony Dean Graber, 49, of Phoenix, AZ, died at 5:00 pm on Thursday, April 3 at Banner Good Samaritan Hospital, Phoenix, after complications from a second liver transplant. He was born on June 2, 1964 in Middlebury, to Tobe D. and Theora (Lambright) Graber. On November 24, 2001 he married Julie Careau, she survives. Survivors in addition to his wife are son, Christopher (Kristin) Lilies of Mayview, MO; mother, Theora Ohaneson and step-father, David Ohaneson; sister, Tina (Bill) Etter of Flint, MI; two nieces, Tia and Tania Etter; two nephews, RJ and Daniel Etter. He was preceded in death by his father; brother, Timm Graber; and grandparents John and Irene Lambright and Daniel and Katie Graber. He was a graduate of Northridge High School in 1982, Indiana University in 1988, Ohio Northern Law School in 1991 and he received a John Marshal LLM tax law degree in 1993. He was an Attorney and Editor of Legal Publications at Commerce Clearing House, Chicago, IL.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana; April 6, 2014
Contributed by Karin King
Helen V. (Pepe) Green
Helen V. Green, 90, passed away Sunday, September 25, 2016 at Ashton Creek Health and Rehab in Ft. Wayne. Born in Rural Allen County, Indiana, Helen was the daughter of the late Bernard and Vivian Pepe. She was an executive secretary with GTE for 22 years before working with St. Joe Medical Center for 10 years before retiring in 1997. She was a member of St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church. Helen enjoyed painting, traveling, cooking, socializing, playing cards, and listening to music. Surviving are her children Bradford (Francie) Dawson of Calabasas, CA, Eric (Leanna) Dawson of Rome City, Craig (Cheryl) Dawson of Harlan, Lori (Neil) McElroy of Lima, OH; 10 grandchildren; and 21 great-grandchildren. Helen was preceded in death by her husband, Roger Green; siblings, Donald and Louis Pepe, Virginia Oberley, and Catherine Heck. Mass of Christian Burial is 10:30 am Saturday, October 1, 2016 at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church with calling one hour prior. Calling at D. O. McComb & Sons Maplewood Park Funeral Home, 4017 Maplecrest Road Friday, September 30, 2016, 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm with a rosary service at 5:30 pm. Memorials may be made to St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 26, 2016
Contributed by JC
Dan Harley
DAN HARLEY, 62, of Kendallville, died Friday, March 23, 2007. Arrangements by Hite Funeral Home, Kendallville.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana from 3/25/2007 - 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
James M. Harrington
James M. Harrington, 66 years old of Hoagland, Indiana, passed away on Sunday, September 25, 2016 at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. He was born on Thursday, February 9, 1950 in Fort Wayne, Indiana the son of the late Clarence D. Harrington and the late Helen L. (Rauner) Harrington. He married Sheila Gromeaux on October 11, 1975. Jim was a 1968 graduate of Bishop Dwenger High School in Fort Wayne. He was a member of St. Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel and the Knights of Columbus Council #12379 where he was a 4th Degree Member. Notre Dame Football was a passion for Jim. He lived it by being an usher for football games for ten years at the Notre Dame Stadium. Jim was a purchasing director for F. McConnell & Sons in New Haven. He had also been a sales manager for Sales Force, a division of Brach Candy and was also a former store manager for SuperValu in Fort Wayne. Surviving are his wife of 40 years, Sheila Harrington of Hoagland; son, Ryann Harrington of Fort Wayne; daughter, Tarah (Jeremy) Altevogt of Surprise, AZ; son, Brett (Kimberly) Harrington of Auburn; son, Matt Klug of Hoagland; brother, Michael (Theresa) Harrington of St. Joseph, MI; five sisters, Linda Harrington; Ellen Harrington; Patricia Harrington; Lisa Harrington; & Eileen Ames all of Fort Wayne; and eight grandchildren, Hannah Harrington, Whitney Harrington, Paislee Harrington, Gabriel Harrington, Grace Harrington, Charlotte Harrington, Blake Altevogt, and Aiden Altevogt. Preceding James in death were two sisters, Kathleen Riley and Maggie Reavis. A Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11:00 a.m. Saturday, October 1, 2016 in the St. Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel with Father William Kummer officiating. Interment will follow in the St. Joseph Catholic Cemetery-Hessen Cassel. Friends will be received from 2 to 4 & 5 to 8 p.m., Friday, September 30 in the Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Jacobs Chapel in Monroeville and one hour prior to the service at the church on Saturday. Preferred memorials are to St. Joseph Catholic Church-Hessen Cassel or Knights of Columbus Council #12379..
Zwick & Jahn Funeral Home, Adams County, Indiana, September 26, 2016
Contributed by JC
Barbara Nell (Grandlinard) Hayden
Barbara Nell Hayden, 88, of Bluffton, died at 5:05 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2011 at Meadowvale Health and Rehabilitation Center. Mrs. Hayden was born in Adams County on July 8, 1922 to William and Ica (French) Grandlinard. She married John Hayden in Wells County on June 9, 1946 and he preceded her in death on Oct. 16, 1997. A graduate of Hartford High School, Mrs. Hayden was a housewife and a member of the Eden First Church of Christ. Surviving relatives include three brothers, the Rev. Don (LaVerta) Grandlindard of Argos, William Grandlinard of Superior, Wis., and Glen (Beverly) Grandlinard of Bluffton; and one sister, Joyce (Clarren) Gehring of Bluffton. Mrs. Hayden was also preceded in death by four brothers, Leonard, Dale, Max and Richard Grandlinard; and three sisters, Ruth Vyain, Joan Robertson and Betty Meshberger. Private family services will be held. Burial will be at Gardens of Memory in Muncie. Preferred memorials are to the charity of the donor's choice. The Goodwin Memorial Chapel in Bluffton is in charge of arrangements.
News Banner, Wells County, Indiana; February 4, 2011
Contributed by Karin King
Lawrence E. Heidelberg
Lawrence E. "Larry" Heidelberg, 72, was ushered into his new home with Jesus September 11, 2016 at Ashton Creek Health and Rehab in Ft. Wayne. Born in Ashtabula, OH, living most of his life in Fort Wayne, IN, he graduated from Jefferson High School, Jefferson Ohio in 1962, Fort Wayne Bible College in 1966 with a B S in Education; and Saint Francis College in 1970 with a M S in Education and post graduate work at Ball State University. Larry spent his life in the service of caring for others working in the field of social services for 41 years. He served as Director of the Sol Wood Detention Center in Fort Wayne, IN from 1967 to 1973; Superintendent of the Children's Home Madison County, Anderson IN from 1974 to 1978, Social Worker for East Allen County Schools from 1978 to 1980, and taught part time at Taylor University for two years in the Social Services Dept. The remaining years of his career were spent working for the Fort Wayne State Developmental Center, State Board of Health and finally retiring from Vocational Rehabilitation Services in 2008. Larry always had a song in his heart and used his musical talents to serve the Lord singing in choirs, quartets and playing French Horn in bands, brass ensemble, community musical productions and was a past member of the Taylor University Community Brass. He was a past board member for Fort Wayne Youth for Christ and Fort Wayne Bible College Alumni Council. He was a member of the Pine Hills Church, F.E.C. where he served on the Love in Action Ministry Team. Surviving are his wife, Naomi R Heidelberg of Fort Wayne, IN; sisters, Marilyn Heidelberg of Jefferson, OH, Louise E. (Aaron) Zeikle of Topeka, KS. Lynda Heidelberg of Fort Wayne and Roberta A. McNeilly of Williamsfield, OH; brothers in law Steve (Sharon) Creutz of Groose Ile, MI and Jonathan Buckels of Fort Wayne; nieces and nephews, Kristina Salvato of Plant City, FL, Kami Heidelberg of Fort Wayne, IN, Philip Zeikle of Lawrence, KS, Jennifer Myer of Fort Levenworth, KS, Sherilyn Marshall of Hobart, IN, Stephan Creutz of Ann Arbor, MI and Jovannah (Andrew) Nester-Bowles of Sunbury, PA. Larry was preceded in death by his parents Jacob Earl and V. Emily Heidelberg and brother Ronald P. Heidelberg. A Celebration Service of life well lived in his Savior, Jesus Christ, will be held Sunday, 5:00 pm, September 25, 2016 at Pine Hills Church, 4704 Carroll Road with calling one hour prior. Memorials may be made to: Pine Hills Church Heidelberg Scholarship Fund or Fort Wayne Alumni Center, 915 W. Rudisill Blvd. Fort Wayne, IN 46807.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 19, 2016
Contributed by JC
Liliana Rene Hernandez & Renee Xavior Pasztor
Rene Xavior Pasztor, 6, and Liliana Rene Hernandez, 7, passed away Monday, September 26, 2016. They were born in Fort Wayne, IN. Liliana on September 30, 2008 and Rene on January 31, 2010. Surviving are their grandparents, Emily and Rick Green, Severo and Ana Hernandez, and Leanne (Jeff) Pasztor; brother, Juelz Aguirre; aunts and uncles, Angela Pasztor, Joshua Pasztor, Whitney (Carlos) Green-Deras, Britney Pasztor, Cody Pasztor, Katelynne Pasztor, Briana Pasztor, Alex (Mayra Hernandez) Vigil, Belen Beltran, Memo Hernandez; Rene's Godparents, Francisco and Blanca Navarro; they leave behind numerous cousins, friends and family members to cherish their memory. They were preceded in death by their father, Rene Hernandez; and grandmother, Jeanne Lasko. Services will be scheduled at a later date.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 28, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mrs. Augusta Hirschy
Handwritten-Fri. March 8, 1957
Widow of N.C. Hirschy Succumbs Last Night
Word was received here today of the death at 9:40 p.m. yesterday of Mrs. Augusta Hirschy, of Lexington, Ky. She was the widow of the late Dr. N.C. Hirschy, former resident of Berne and one-time president of Bluffton College. He has been dead for many years. Mrs. Hirschy was in her 90's and died at the home of her daughter and son-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Green Trimble of Lexington. Mrs. Trimble is the former Lois Hirschy and is the only surviving child. [Buried Berea Cemetery; Berea, Madison County, Kentucky]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 89
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Ruth Elda (Stillson) Hontz
RUTH ELDA HONTZ, 92, of Kimmell, died Friday, March 23, 2007, 9:53 p.m., at The Oak Nursing Home, Columbia City. Born March 29, 1914, in Cass County, Mich., she was the daughter of the late Floyd Stillson and Chloe (Blanchard) Stillson. She married Dale Hontz on Nov. 17, 1940, in Ormas; he preceded her in death. She was a homemaker and a member of Ormas Baptist Church, where she had served as Sunday School and VBS Teacher. Surviving are two daughters, Reva (Richard) Edwards of Kimmell, Cyrena (Ray) Hoffeditz of Pittsboro; one son, Stephen Hontz of Kimmell; one son-in-law, Lew Wolfe of Ligonier; one sister, Marge Miller of Michigan; and one brother, Ward Stillson of Michigan; 11 grandchildren; and 16 great-grandchildren. She was also preceded in death by one daughter, Claire; two grandsons; one great-grandson; and four brothers. Service is noon Tuesday at Ormas Baptist Church. Visitation is from 9 a.m. to noon Tuesday at Ormas Baptist Church. Burial in Thorn Cemetery, Ormas. Memorials to Ormas Baptist Church. Arrangements by J.A. Brazzell-Renner Funeral Home, Ligonier.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
William A. Hoover
WILLIAM A. HOOVER DIES AT MONTPELIER
William A. Hoover, trustee of Harrison Township, Montpelier, died this morning at his home. Survivors include a daughter, Mrs. Bernard Meyer of Montpelier. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the First Baptist Church at Montpelier.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; December 26, 1953
Contributed by Karin King
Christine M. (Campbell) Horn
Christine M. (Campbell) Horn, 58, passed away at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, after a sudden illness while traveling home from vacation. She was born May 30, 1958, in Fort Wayne but spent most of her childhood in Auburn. She worked for many years in dietary and housekeeping at the State School, Coventry Meadows, and Byron Health Center, all in Fort Wayne, and was currently working as a driver for DART. She leaves behind her fiancé, Lou Chastian; a son, Robert Lechko; her mother, Barbara Campbell; two brothers, Duane (Connie) Campbell, and Bennie (Brenda) Campbell; two nephews, Shane (Crystal) Campbell, and Michail (Danellie) Campbell; two nieces, Shawnna (Matt) Hilkey, and Heather Campbell; four grandchildren, Robin, Trevor, Brysten, and Tyler Iziah; a great-grandson, Benjamin; and her beloved companion, Beethoven. She was preceded in death by her father, Richard Campbell; and a second husband. A private family burial will take place in Butler Cemetery.
Feller & Clark Funeral Home, DeKalb County, Indiana; September 12, 2016
Contributed by JC
Joan Desmonds Houser
Joan Desmonds Houser, 85, died peacefully on Wednesday September 14, 2016. Surviving are her two daughters, Sue (Mike) Moorhead and Diane Phillips (Tony Christensen); two sons, Steve (Kacy) Desmonds; and Dave (Dawn) Desmonds; grandchildren, Lisa Voss, Lori (Bobby) Wilson, Joleen (Phillip) Maxwell, Bobby (Nikki) Phillips, Shelley (Jason) Ulmer, Caren (Kyle) Dudgeon, Connor (Abby) Desmonds, Andy (Beth) Desmonds, Aaron Desmonds, Megan Desmonds.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 15, 2016
Contributed by JC
Michael Dennis Hull
Michael Dennis Hull, 68, formerly of Janesville, Wisconsin, died Wednesday, September 21, 2016, in his home, in Fort Wayne where he had lived for the past 30 years. He was born on Feb. 8, 1948, the son of Maurice Hull and Margaret "Peggy" Sullivan Hull Olson. He married Nancy (Benish) Schroeder in 1973. He is survived by his two sisters, Maureen (Mark) Anderson and Jacqueline Bailey? his former wife and friend Nancy (Perry) Schroeder? four children, Dayne (Michelle) Hull, Robert Hull, Melanie (Ryan) Danielsen, and Kristin (Bill) Krogstie? six grandchildren, Maddysen and Michael Hull, Dylan and Devan Danielsen, and Addisyn and William Krogstie, who know him affectionately as Gramps. His beloved rescue dog Buddy has been his companion for the last five years. He was preceded in death by his parents, and brother Steve Hull. Mike was a proud United States Marine, from 1969 - 1971, reaching the rank of Corporal as a military policeman. He served in the Philippines during the Vietnam War, where he had many adventures. He was a member of the Ironworkers Union Local 498. He was later employed at Stran Construction as a construction consultant. Mike went on to own his own steel construction company, Concord Construction. Mike was an avid and very successful gardener and cook, as well as an incredibly knowledgeable hunter and fisherman. He was a lifelong Green Bay Packer fan. He was a loving father and grandfather, and was most proud of his children and grandchildren. Mass of Christian Burial is 11:00 am Monday, September 26, 2016 at Queen of Angels Catholic Church, 1500 W. State Blvd., with calling 1 hour prior. Calling also Sunday, September 25, 2016 from 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm at D.O. McComb and Sons Pine Valley Park Funeral Home, 1320 E. Dupont Rd, with a military service at 5:00 pm. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Fort Wayne Animal Care and Control.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 22, 2016
Contributed by JC
Robert Keith Hullinger
ROBERT KEITH HULLINGER, 81
Former Bluffton teacher, Robert "Bob" Hullinger, 81, of Webster Lake, died peacefully Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2011, at his home. He was born in Huntington on Jan. 16, 1929, to Mahlon Henry and Josie Mae (Cloud) Hullinger. He graduated from Huntington High School in 1947 and was a member of the basketball team that played in the Final Four of the Indiana High School Basketball Tournament. He was awarded a basketball scholarship in 1948 to attend Tulane University in New Orleans. He graduated in 1952 from Tulane with a bachelor's degree in physical education. He began his teaching career at Wayne Township High School in Lafontaine, and then taught for three years at Jefferson Township School near Warren. He joined the Bluffton school system in 1956 and in 1962 completed work on his master's degree in school administration at Ball State University. He coached tennis at Bluffton for 10 years and served as assistant principal for one year before becoming the Junior High School principal in July 1966. In 1981 he became administrative assistant to the superintendent and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1990. He married Jane Ann Jacobs in Huntington on June 19, 1948; his wife survives. Also surviving are three sons, Robert K. Hullinger of Marion, John M. (Julie) Hullinger of Angola, and Thomas A. Hullinger of Corpus Christi, Texas; a daughter, Rebecca Kaye (Stanley) Worthman of Ossian; a sister, Roberta (Milton) Rupley of South Whitley; and 10 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by a son, William J. Hullinger in 1992. There will be no viewing or services per his request. He will be cremated and his ashes will be interred in the Pilgrim's Rest Cemetery in Huntington at a later date. Memorial bequest may be given to the Dixie Sternwheelers, Ind., P.O. Box 674, North Webster, IN 46555. The Owen Family Funeral Home of North Webster is in charge of the arrangements.
News-Banner, Wells County, Indiana; January 6, 2011
Contributed by Karin King
S. Kathryn Hutson
S. KATHRYN HUTSON, 88, of Portland, died Saturday, March 24, 2007. Arrangements by Williamson & Spencer Funeral Homes, Portland Chapel.
Published in the Fort Wayne Newspapers, Allen County, Indiana on 3/26/2007.
Contributed by Rick Berkheiser
Mildred Laura (Hambrock) Iannucilli
Mildred L. "Mickie" Iannucilli, 94, passed away Monday, February 18, 2013 at The Hearth at Sycamore Village in Fort Wayne. Born in Fort Wayne, IN, Mildred worked as a Supervisor with Magnavox for 6 years, retiring in 1942. Surviving are her son, Steve C. (Trudy) Iannucilli of Waxahachie, TX; brother, Earl (MaryEllen) Hambrock; daughter in law, Susan Iannucilli both of Fort Wayne; grandchildren, Jennifer (John) Glasgow of Mt. Pleasant, Angela (Josh) Capps and Leslie (Brian) Iannucilli both of Ft. Wayne, IN; great grandchildren, John Steven Glasgow, Michael Capps, Baliee Capps and Thomas Capps, and many cherished nieces and nephews. Mildred was preceded in death by her husband of 65 years, Louis M. Iannucilli and son, Jon M. Iannucilli. Funeral Service is 11:00 am, Saturday February 23, 2013 at - D.O. McComb and Sons Foster Park Funeral Home, 6301 Fairfield Avenue with calling one hour prior. Rev. David Mitchell officiating. Calling will also be Friday, February 22, 2013 from 2:00 to 5:00 and 7:00 to 9:00 at the funeral home. burial in Concordia Lutheran Cemetery, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Memorials may be made to the Donor's choice.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana, February 19, 2013
Contributed by JC
James Jackson
James Jackson, 86, passed away Tuesday, September 13, 2016 in Fort Wayne. James was married to Augusta Boone-Jackson, his lifelong companion and beloved wife of 65 years who preceded him in death in 2015. Surviving are his children, Tina Louise (Joe) Jackson, Deloris Jackson, Georgiann (Larry) Miller, Carolyn (Chester) Jackson-Ware, Bobby Randall Jackson, Conella (Dean) Menefee; 21 grandchildren; a host of great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren; and two sisters.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 19, 2016
Contributed by JC
William D. Johns
William D. Johns, of Martinsville, aged 64, hanged himself.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Ray Johnson
Ray, 12-year-old son of Emmett Johnson of this city, while riding his bicycle dashed into a street car. His body was almost cut in two, and his death was instantaneous.
Richmond Daily Palladium, Wayne County, Indiana; April 16, 1900
Contributed by JC
James R. Karlin
James R. Karlin, 86, passed away Monday, September 19, 2016 at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. Born in Chicago, IL, James worked as an Operations Manager with Sunoco for 34 years, retiring in 1992 and volunteered as a greeter at the Fort Wayne International Airport. He was a member of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church and was a U S Air Force Korean War veteran and an avid Chicago sports fan, most especially his White Sox. He was a connoisseur of chili, and often said, "Never had a bad bowl chili, some were better than others". Surviving are his son, Kenneth Karlin of Indianapolis, IN; daughter, Kathy (Randy Bricker) Karlin of Woodland Hills, CA; grandchildren Hayley and Jace Brickers, Summer and Willow Karlins; brother, Edward (Gerri) Karlinski of Aurora, IL. James was preceded in death by his parents James and Harriet Karlinski, beloved wife of 48 years, Renetta Karlin. Mass of Christian Burial is 11:00 am, Monday, September 26, 2016 at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 10700 Aboite Center Road with calling one hour prior. Calling will also be Sunday, September 25, 2016, from 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm & 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm at D.O. McComb & Sons Covington Knolls Funeral Home, 8325 Covington Rd. Fort Wayne, IN. Burial in Resurrection Cemetery, Justice, Illinois. Memorials may be made to the American Heart Association, Habitat For Humanity, Leukemia and Lymphoma Society or Special Olympics.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 21, 2016
Contributed by JC
Joe A. Kauffman
Joe A. Kauffman, 86, of Goshen, died at 10:15 am on Sunday, April 6, at IU Health Goshen Hospital. He was born on August 30, 1927 in Arthur, IL, to Alfred J. and Clara (Miller) Kauffman. On October 5, 1956 in Middlebury he married Lydia Mae Bontrager, she survives. Survivors in addition to his wife are three sons, Gary (Jill) Kauffman of North Augusta, SC, Richard (Betsy) Kauffman and Dennis (Marsha) Kauffman both of Goshen; nine grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren; brother, David Kauffman of Saint Ignatius, MT. He was preceded in death by his parents, a sister, Katie Plank, six brothers, Menno, George, Steve, Jacob, Harvey and Ben Kauffman. He was a member of Clinton Brick Mennonite Church and had worked for Starcraft and Smoker Craft. He had served in the CPS service in 1946 and the 1W service in 1951. Burial will be in Miller Cemetery, Goshen.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana; April 7, 2019
Contributed by Karin King
Shirley (Kopp) Kearney
Shirley Kopp Kearney, 95, passed away peacefully on September 7, 2016. Born in Kent, OH, Shirley worked as a Registered Dietician with Veteran's Administration Hospital for 20 years. Surviving are her son, Timothy R. (Virginia) Kearney of Fort Wayne, IN; son, Kevin R. (Mary Mullaney) Kearney of Worcester, MA; 12 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren. Shirley was preceded in death by her husband, Robert E. Kearney; parents, Lucy and Francis Kopp, and son, Sean R. (Sheila) Kearney.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 8, 2016
Contributed by JC
John C. Keller
JOHN C. KELLER, 32, of Fort Wayne died Monday at St. Joseph Medical Center. The Fort Wayne native was a bricklayer for Keller Masonry for 12 years. He also was an Army veteran. Surviving are his son, John of Fort Wayne; daughters, Brandi and Valerie, both of Fort Wayne; his parents, Everett and Janice Keller of Fort Wayne; brothers, Rick and Lyle, both of Fort Wayne; sisters, Diana Parent of Pennsylvania, Karen Keller, Patricia Kirkpatrick and Nancy Cardin, all of Fort Wayne. Services are at 11 a.m. Friday at D.O. McComb & Sons Lakeside Park Funeral Home, 1140 Lake Ave., with burial in Concordia Cemetery. Calling is from 2 to 5 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. tomorrow at the funeral home.
News-Sentinel, Allen County, Indiana; June 1, 1994
Contributed by JC
Angelene (Burroughs) Kiser
Angelene Kiser, 78, of Ossian, died at 4:25 p.m. Monday, Dec. 26, 2011, at Ossian Health Care. Mrs. Kiser was born in Chidester, Ark., on Aug. 17, 1933, to John E. Burroughs and Willie L. Cubage Burroughs. She married Richard Kiser, who preceded her in death. Surviving relatives include on son, Harvey (Tina) Swift of Conway, Ark.; six daughters, Chrystal (Gary) Beckman of Bluffton, Carman Thinnes of New York, Melanie Murray of Alexandria, La., Allison Ones of Texas, Merry (Bill Valdez of Texas and Jennifer (Johnnie) Mason of Hot Springs, Ark.; three brothers, Eugene, Bill and Johnny Burroughs, all of Arkansas; and 17 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren. Mrs. Kiser was also preceded in death by two sisters, Mary Massey and Jenney Brown. Calling hours will be from 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 30, at the Goodwin Memorial Chapel in Bluffton. Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. Friday at the funeral home.
News-Banner, Wells County, Indiana; December 29, 2011
Contributed by Karin King
Joan Butler Koehl
Joan "Jody" Butler Koehl, 86, passed away Saturday, September 17, 2016 in Fort Wayne. Jody will be remembered as a gifted painter, writer, and a lifelong learner. Surviving are her husband, Thomas Koehl; son, Brian (Kathy) Butler; daughter, Mary (John) Deetz; grandchildren, Holly (Scott) Phillips Blomeke, Daniel Phillips, Jessica Phillips, Scott Butler, and Kevin Butler; 8 great-grandchildren; 15 children by marriage; many grandchildren by marriage and great-grandchildren by marriage.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County; Indiana, September 20, 2016
Contributed by JC
Ann E. (Sunderland) Kramer
Ann E. (Sunderland) Kramer, 72, passed away Saturday, September 17, 2016 at Grey Stone Health and Rehabilitation in Fort Wayne. Born in Fort Wayne, IN, Ann was the owner of Corner Florist for 20 years. She was a member of Bethel United Methodist Church, The NCHA-Indiana Red Birds Chapter; Tri-State Allied Florist Assoc,; FTD - IN Board; Red Hats Society; PTA long time member; Girl Scout Leader for 9 years; Sunday School Teacher and the United Methodist Women. She enjoyed quilting, traveling and loved to attend sports & events of the grandchildren and great grandchildren. Surviving are her husband of 56 years, Herbert "Herb" Kramer; daughters, Kathy (Greg) Friend and Debra Hall; son, Daniel Kramer; grandchildren, Jared (Sarah Sienko) Meeks, Laura Friend, Elizabeth (Steven) Smith, Cassandra (Zach) Goldsberry, Eric (Krista Schwartz) Hall, Tyler Hall, Johnathan, Andrew and Caden Kramer; great-grandchildren, Kristofer, Kaleb & Keegan Smith, Elijah & Hannah Goldsberry and Isaiah Kramer; step-mother, Katie Moody; brother, Phillip Sunderland; sisters, Suzan (Dave) Prescott, Mildred "Jane" Tracey and Jana Chambers. Ann was preceded in death by her father David Sunderland, mother, Evelyn Moody, step-father, Carl Moody, great-granddaughter, Rebekkah Grace Goldsberry, brother, Richard David Sunderland. A Memorial Service will be held 11:00 am, Wednesday, September 21, 2016 at Bethel United Methodist Church, 8405 Lima Rd with calling one hour prior. Rev. Brian Campbell officiating. Memorial Calling will also be Tuesday, September 20, 2016, from 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm & 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm at D O McComb Pine Valley Chapel, 1320 E Dupont Rd. Memorials may be made to the Bethel United Methodist Church.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 19, 2016
Contributed by JC
Howard Levin
Howard Levin passed away September 16, 2016 in Chicago, IL. He was the son of the late Myer and Rosa Levin. Howard was the President of a family owned business, Myer Levin & Sons Scrap Iron and Metal, Warsaw IN for over 60 years. He served in the U.S. Army, Secret Service, achieving the rank of captain attached to the headquarters of the 10th Army in WWII. He was the past president of the Rotary Club of Warsaw, IN, an Elk's member and past scout's leader. He was a member of the American Legion, and a 32 degree Mason. Howard received a lifetime achievement award from the Warsaw Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of Congregation Achduth Vesholom, Ft. Wayne, IN. Left to mourn his loss is his loving wife of 68 years, Saralee Levin; children, Rhonda Kurtis, Dr. Kerry Levin, Jason Levin; 5 grandchildren; and 2 great-grandchildren. Howard was preceded in death by his sister, Pearl Marks. In Lieu of flowers, Preferred memorials may be sent to Warsaw Biblical Gardens at 347 N. Buffalo St. Warsaw,IN 46580.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 19, 2016
Contributed by JC
James Clifford Levine
James Clifford Levine, 60, passed away Sunday, September 25, 2016 at Parkview Regional Medical Center. Born in Bridgeport, Conn., he was the son of the late Henry "Hank" and Margaret (Fiore) Levine. James serviced his country in the US Marine Corp. and enjoyed fishing, golfing, horseshoes, surfing, playing the harmonica and his dog, Winston. He was the owner of Jim's Cutting Edge Painting. He is survived by his wife of 27 years, Mary; children, Jeffery (Jennifer) Wynn of Gainesville, FL, Amanda (Kyle) Millikan of Russiaville, and Hollie (Jake McWilliams) Levine of Phoenix, AZ; siblings, Carl (John) Levine of Palm Springs, CA, Chris (Christen) Levine of Fruita, CO, and Laurel Levine of Thousand Oaks, CA; and nine grandchildren. He was also preceded in death by his brother, David Levine and granddaughter Emma Millikan. Funeral Service is 6:00 pm, September 29, 2016 at - D.O. McComb & Sons Covington Knolls Funeral Home, 8325 Covington Road with visitation from 3:00pm to 6:00pm prior to service. Memorials may be made to the HOPE for Animals.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 27, 2016
Contributed by JC
Sgt. William Logan
The remains of Sergeant William Logan of Company M, 28th Infantry, U.S.A. were transferred from the Wells Fargo to the Adams express company here Saturday, on the way to his former home at Michigantown, Indiana. Logan was located in the Phillippines and committed suicide April 22nd, last.
Decatur Democrat; Adams County, Indiana (a weekly newspaper); Thursday, July 3, 1902
Contributed by Karin King
C. F. Long
C. F. Long was kicked by a horse and fatally injured at Butler.
Nappanee-Advance-News, Elkhart County, Indiana; 21 July 1897, p. 6
Contributed by Karen Zach
Peter H. Martin
RITES ARE SATURDAY FOR PETER MARTIN
Peter H. Martin, 88, of route 1, Monroeville, died at 12 noon Wednesday at his home. Mr. Martin, a retired farmer, was a lifelong Allen County resident. Surviving are his wife, Mayme; a son, Norbert of New Haven; a daughter [sic], Mrs. Nola Converset, Monroeville, and Mrs. Jane Panyard, Mrs. Helena Kimmel and Mrs. Rosa Meredith, all of Fort Wayne. Funeral services will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday in St. Rose Catholic Church, Monroeville, with burial in the church cemetery. Friends may call at the Marquart Funeral Home, Monroeville, from 2 to 5 and 7 to 9 p.m. Friday. Rosary services will be at 8 p.m. Friday.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; March 21, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Ed McAlhaney
Handwritten-Mon. March 11, 1957
FATHER OF RALPH MCALHANEY SUCCUMBS - FUNERAL HELD AT BEDFORD FOR FORMER LOCAL MAN
Ed McAlhaney, 72, a former resident of this community, died last Tuesday at his home in Avoca, in Lawrence County. Death followed an extended illness. Mr. McAlhaney had been seriously ill for three weeks. He had lived in Avoca for the past 35 years and left this community about 50 years ago. He formerly resided northeast of Berne. He was a retired farmer. Surviving are the wife, Jennie; two sons, Ralph, Berne R.R. 1 and Darrel, of Avoca and a daughter, Mrs. Robert Davis, Avoca; eight grandchildren and two brothers, Arlie of Fort Wayne and Raymond, Kansas City, Mo. Services were held Thursday at Bedford and burial was at Owensburg. [Buried Owensburg Cem., Owensburg, Greene County, Indiana]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 91
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Richard D. Miller
Richard D. Miller, former superintendent of the Elkhart Community Schools, passed away in February of 2019 and will be interred on May 18, 2019 in Middlebury, Indiana. One of the Middlebury Miller boys, Rich and his three brothers (Amzie, Jr., Jim and Tom) played basketball and baseball at Middlebury High School in the 1940s cheered on by his father Amzie, mother Josephine and sister Marcia. Rich attended Indiana and Purdue Universities receiving his Ph.D. from Purdue in 1963. A former English teacher and basketball coach in Shipshewana, Rich went on to serve as the superintendent in Richmond, Logansport, East Allen and Elkhart and capped off his career as the head of the American Association of School Administrators in Washington D.C. In retirement he and his wife, Phyllis Ann (Pease), who passed in 2017, moved to Florida from where they traveled and spent twenty-five years hosting old friends and making new ones, actively participating in weekly poker games, golfing, serving on various community and church boards and cherishing their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Rich is survived by his daughters Rebecca Miller Shanahan and Susie Miller Carello, Susie's husband Salvatore, Rich's grandchildren Maureen Shanahan, her fiancé Benton Atchison, Rory Shanahan, his wife Sarah and three great grandchildren. A graveside internment and memorial service will be held on Saturday, May 18, 2019 at 11:30 a.m. at the Grace Lawn Cemetery, Middlebury followed by a reception at Das Essen Haus in Middlebury, Indiana.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana, February, 2019
Contributed by Karin King
Noah D. Minnix
The father of a Markle woman, Noah D. "Bo", Minnix, 66 of Marion died Thursday morning, Dec. 30, 2010, at his residence. He was born on Sept. 3, 1944, in Poodle Point, Kentucky, to Weldon and Edith (Burton) Minnix. He married Portia Bayman on June 21, 1963 in South Whitley, Indiana; she survives. Mr. Minnix was a truck driver for 48 years, including 12 years as the owner-operator of Noah's Transport, retiring in 2005. He attended Community Chapel Church in Fairmount and was a member of the Teamsters Union Local 414 in Fort Wayne where he served as a union representative for several years. He loved to fish and will be greatly missed by his pal, Bandit. Other survivors include four daughters: Darlene (John) Brunner of Warsaw; Donni (Kurt) Gray of Markle; Lisa (Tracy) Miskovich of Huntington; Tammy (Larry) Jeffries of Marion; a son: Kevin (Darla) Minnix of Larwill; two brothers: Lowell (Audrey) Minnix of Pierceton; Ralph (Pam) Minnix of Pierceton; four sisters: Faye (Ed) Owens of Claypool; Carol (Barry) Sapp of Silver Lake; Freda (Kenny) Boggs of South Whitley; Brenda Norris of Oklahoma; thirteen grandchildren and three great grandchildren. There was no visitation or funeral services. Memorials are to American Cancer Society in care of Myers Funeral Home, 2901 Guilford St., Huntington IN, 46750.
News-Banner, Wells County, Indiana; January 3, 2011
Contributed by Karin King
James A. Morrison
James A. Morrison, 92, was called home by our Lord Jesus Christ on September 26, 2016 at Canterbury Nursing and Rehab in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was born in Grover Hill, Ohio, on November 3, 1923, to the late Alva and Delta (Sherry) Morrison. He served his country during WWII in the Army June 1943 through February 1946, in the 125th AAA Battalion. After the war he became a field engineer for IBM retiring after 33 years in 1985. He used his retirement years volunteering with the Red Cross helping with disaster relief across the United States. He loved his family and cherished the time spent with them. His is survived by his wife Carmelita (Sheely) whom he married 70 years ago on August 18, 1946, and their four children: Delores Francine (Bill) Lorenz of Fort Wayne, IN; Suzanne (Bob) Shaw of Indianapolis, IN; Judy (John) Overman of Fruitland, FL; and Dennis Morrison of Citrus Height, CA; 11 grandchildren; 25 great-grandchildren; 3 great-great-grandchildren; his brother George Morrison of Ohio; along with numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his 3 sisters, 1 grandson, and 1 great-grandson. Service will be 11:00 am, Saturday, October 1, 2016 at North Park Community Church with calling one hour prior, Rev. Scott Qualls officiating. Calling at D.O. McComb and Sons Maplewood Park Funeral Home, 4017 Maplecrest Rd, Friday, September 30, 2016 from 4:00 pm to 7:00 pm. Burial with military honors in Middle Creek Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the North Park Community Church, Disabled American Veterans or Visiting Nurse Hospice.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 27, 2016
Contributed by JC
Nettie M. (Terrell) Mounsey
Mother of city resident dies
Nettie M. Mounsey, 79, formerly of the Somerdale Mobile Home Park in Yoder, and mother of Earl Mounsey of Decatur, died at 10:05 a.m. Wednesday in the Allen County Health Center, where she had been a patient two months. She was a native of Wells County and was the widow of William H. Mounsey, a former assistant Allen county surveyor who had farmed in Wells County. Surviving are a son, Earl of Decatur; four daughters, Mrs. Delvia Strickler of Markle; Mrs. Richard Woodward of Zanesville; Anna Pearl Mounsey of Richmond and Mrs. Robert Fredericks of Yoder; and a brother, Robert Terrell of Mooresville. Services will be at 2 p.m. Friday in the Elzey Home for Funerals, Waynedale. Friends may call after 2 p.m. today. Burial will be in Nine Mile cemetery. Preferred memorials are gifts to Nine Mile United Methodist Church memorial fund.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; May 16, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Patrick James Muhler
Patrick James Muhler, 27, passed away Wednesday, September 7, 2016 at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis, IN of an auto-immune liver disease. Born October 13, 1988, Patrick was a lifelong resident of Fort Wayne. He graduated from Homestead High School, attended Ball State University and was employed by 14/69 Auto Body Group in Fort Wayne. Patrick was an avid Notre Dame, Chicago White Sox, and Blackhawks fan. He enjoyed playing golf, watching movies, cooking for his family and the company of friends and family. Patrick was a devoted son, brother, husband, and father whose greatest passion in life was loving and caring for his family. He is survived by the love of his life Francesca Muhler nee Schmidt of Fort Wayne; daughters, Annabel Mei and Emilia Charlotte-Gray; his parents, Jim and Dee Muhler of Fort Wayne, a brother Brian S. (Monika) Muhler; grandparents, Dean and Jane Ulery of LaGrange, and Majetta Muhler of Fort Wayne. Mass of Christian Burial is 3:00 pm, Sunday, September 11, 2016 at St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Arcola, 12305 Arcola Rd, with calling 1 hour prior. Calling also at D.O. McComb & Sons Covington Knolls Funeral Home, 8325 Covington Rd on Saturday, September 10, 2016 from 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm & 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm with a Rosary service at 7:00 pm. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Annabel and Emilia trust fund.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 8, 2016
Contributed by JC
Albert J. Nussbaum
Handwritten-Wed. April 24, 1957
ALBERT J. NUSSBAUM DIES AT KIDRON, OHIO - NATIVE OF THIS COMMUNITY DEIS SUDDENLY ON MONDAY
Word was received here Monday evening of the sudden death on Monday of Albert J. Nussbaum, 68, of Kidron, Ohio, a native and former resident of this community. He was born northwest of Berne Sept. 15, 1888, the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jacob J. Nussbaum March 8, 1913 he was married to Olive Badertscher at Kidron. She died Sept. 2, 1956. Surviving are a son, Millen; three daughters, Mrs. Richard Olsen, Mrs. Ray Lowe, Jr., and Mrs. Harold Eggeman; 14 grandchildren; five brothers, Eli, Levi, Noah, Amos and Lewis, and four sisters, Mrs. Theophil Flueckiger, Mrs. Moses Amstutz, Mrs. Leonard Amstutz and Mrs. Sylvan Hofstetter, all of Wayne County, Ohio. Many cousins reside in this community. His parents, two sisters and a brother preceded in death. [Buried Kidron Mennonite Church Cemetery, Kidron, Wayne, County, Ohio]
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 98
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Hazel L. Overton
Hazel L. Overton, 96, passed away September 14, 2016. Arrangements by D.O. McComb & Sons Covington Knolls Funeral Home, 8325 Covington Rd.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana, September 15, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mary Margaret (Davis) Planck
Mary Margaret "Mick" Planck, 93, of Millersburg, died peacefully surrounded by family and friends at 9:27 pm on Thursday, February 6, at Courtyard Of Goshen. She was born on February 7, 1920 in Pulaski County, to Paul and Margaret (Grabner) Davis. On April 4, 1950 in Omaha, NE she married Vern V. Planck, he survives. Surviving in addition to her husband is a sister, Joan Davis of Haddonfield, NJ. Mary Margaret was preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, Homer, William and Robert Davis; two sisters, Pauline Thompson and Dorothy Cunningham. She was a member of St. John's Evangelist Catholic Church in Goshen and had worked for 33 years in the education department of the Natural Resources Office at Higgins Lake Conservation School. Burial will be in St. Peter's Catholic Cemetery, Winamac.
Miller-Stewart Funeral Home, LaGrange County, Indiana; February 7, 2014
Contributed by Karin King
Donald Edmun Porter
Auburn - Donald Edmun Porter, 91 formerly of rural Auburn passed away Sunday September 11, 2016 at Lutheran Life Villages in Fort Wayne. He was born May 4, 1925 in Auburn to George V. and Esther L. (Freeman) Porter. Don was a lifetime Farmer and drove School Bus for 43 years for East Allen County Schools out of Leo. Surviving are 4 daughters, Diana S. (Ron) Bookmiller of Fort Wayne, Donna J (Mark) Reichert of Columbia City, Debra F. (Larry) Helmsing of Angola, Darla M. (Rex) Johnson of Columbia City; Grandchildren, Brandon (Brandi) Bookmiller, Dannielle (Sean) Smith, Allison (Logan) Leichty, Dan Helmsing, Ben Helmsing, Heather (Matthew) Linn, Travis Johnson, 7 Great Grandchildren and his longtime friend Pauline Troyer of LaOtto. He was preceded in death by his Parents and an infant brother Robert Porter. Services are 11 am Friday September 16, 2016 at Feller and Clark Funeral Home, 1860 Center Street, Auburn, IN with Rev Wayne Goldsmith and Rev Dennis Beckner officiating. Burial will be in Leo Memorial Park Cemetery in Leo. Calling is Thursday from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 PM at the funeral home. Memorials can be directed to Columbia City Church of the Brethren.
Feller & Clark Funeral Home, DeKalb County, Indiana; September 12, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mack Reece
Handwritten-Sat. May 25, 1957
Mack Reece Dies At Home In Mansfield
Mack Reece, a native and former resident of Willshire, O., died suddenly at 6 o'clock Saturday morning at his home in Mansfield, O. No details were received as to the cause of death. Survivors include his wife, the former Emma Reinking; two daughters and one son, all of Mansfield; three sisters, Mrs. Dorothy Hurless of Willshire, Mrs. Kenneth Baney of Findlay, O., and Mrs. Fay Scheartz of Decatur; and two brothers, Frank Reece of Willshire, and George Reece of Mansfield. Funeral services will be held Tuesday at 2 p.m. at the Geiger-Herlihy Funeral Home in Mansfield, O. Burial was in Mansfield Memorial Park. Mr. Reece was a member of the St. John's Evangelical and Reformed Church and the Westinghouse 25-year club.
Adams County (IN) Historical Museum 1955 March-April 1958 Scrapbook, image 91
Contributed by Janice Vasilovski
Rodney Wayne Resac
Rodney Wayne Resac, 62, passed away Wednesday, September 21, 2016 in Huntington County. Born in Fort Wayne, IN, Rodney worked at Fleetwood Homes for many years, retiring in 2014. He was a member of the American Motorcycle Association. He loved to ride and enjoyed motorcycle drag racing. Rodney especially loved spending time with his nieces and nephews. Surviving are his brothers, Richard (Dawn) Resac of Fort Wayne, IN and Ronald Resac of Rockford, IL; sister in law Pat Resac of Fort Wayne and several nieces and nephews. Rodney was preceded in death by his parents Carl E. and Mildred O. Resac and brother, Raymond Resac. Funeral Service is 10:00 am, Wednesday, September 28, 2016 at D.O. McComb & Sons Lakeside Park Funeral Home, 1140 Lake Avenue with calling one hour prior. Calling will also be Tuesday, September 27, 2016, from 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm at the funeral home. Memorials may be made to the St Jude Children's Hospital.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana, September 23, 2016
Contributed by JC
Viola M. (Sonafrank) Sargent
Viola M. (Sonafrank) Sargent, 86, passed away Thursday, September 22, 2016 at Bethlehem Woods Rehab Center in Fort Wayne. Born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Viola was the daughter of the late Carl and Hazel Sonafrank. She was a member of Fort Wayne Baptist Church. Viola enjoyed sewing, interior design, making crafts, and flowers. Surviving are her husband of 68 years, Roger Sargent of Fort Wayne; children, Dale (Carolyn) Sargent of Chandler, AZ, Ricky (Suzanne) Sargent of Lutz, FL, Carl (Diane) Sargent of Woodburn; five grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren. Viola was preceded in death by her sisters, Norma Genevieve, and Dolly Joan. Service is 11:00 am, Monday, October 3, 2016 at D. O. McComb & Sons Maplewood Park Funeral Home, 4017 Maplecrest Road with calling one hour prior, Rev. William J. Allan officiating. Calling at the funeral home Sunday, October 2, 2016, 2:00 pm - 6:00 pm. Entombment in Greenlawn Memorial Park, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Memorials may be made to the ASPCA or Alzheimer's Association.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 24, 2016
Contributed by JC
Agnes (Beauchot) Savieo
MONROEVILLE LADY DIES AT FORT WAYNE
Mrs. Agnes Savieo, 81, 304 Prospect Ave., Monroeville, died Sunday afternoon at St. Anne home, where she had been a patient since May 1. A native of the Monroeville area, she was a member of the St. Rose Catholic Church in Monroeville. Surviving are two sisters, Mrs. Marie Neasel and Mrs. Rose Hogan, both of Ft. Wayne; three brothers, Maurice Beauchot, Leo Beauchot and Bernard Beauchot, all of Monroeville. Services are tentatively scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Rose Catholic Church with burial in the church cemetery. Calling after 3 p.m. Tuesday at Marquart Funeral Home in Monroeville.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana, May 20, 1974
Contributed by Karin King
Mrs. Louise Scherer
MRS. LOUISE SCHERER DIES EARLY SUNDAY
Mrs. Louise Scherer, 78, of Monroeville, died at 3 a.m. Sunday at the Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne. She was a member of Zion Lutheran Church. Surviving are four sons, Albert F. of Monroeville, Edwin F., Louis Z. and Carl M. Scherer, all of Fort Wayne, and two sisters, Mrs. Caroline Lehrman and Mrs. Charles Lehrman of Decatur. Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Wellman Funeral Home and at 2 p.m. at the Zion Lutheran Church at Fort Wayne, Dr. Paul L. Dannenfeldt officiating. Burial will be in Concordia Lutheran Cemetery.
Decatur Daily Democrat, Adams County, Indiana; April 18, 1955
Contributed by Karin King
Margaret A. (Voigt) Schrein
Margaret "Maggie" A. Schrein, 85, passed away Friday, September 23, 2016 at The Cedars in Leo-Cedarville. Born in Toledo, Ohio, Maggie was the daughter of the late Eldon and Miriam Voigt. She was a member of Queen of Angels Catholic Church. Maggie enjoyed painting, golfing, bowling, reading, playing cards and walking the mall. She loved her family and cherished her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Surviving are her husband, Ronald Schrein of Fort Wayne; children, Janis (Jack) Woodruff of Fort Wayne, Patty (Jeff Neal) Schrein of Silver Spring, MD, Ronald Schrein Jr. of Boulder, CO, Mary (Greg) Hoff, Marcia (Andy) Garringer, Nancy (Dave) Wisel all of Fort Wayne; 8 grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren. Maggie was preceded in death by her brother, James Voigt. Mass of Christian Burial is 11:00 am, Thursday, September 29, 2016 at Queen of Angels Catholic Church with calling one hour prior, Fr. Ajay Tiru officiating. Calling at D.O. McComb & Sons Pine Valley Park Funeral Home, 1320 East Dupont Road Wednesday, September 28, 2016, 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm & 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm with a rosary service at 4:30 pm. Memorials may be made to Queen of Angels Catholic Church.
D.O. McComb & Sons Funeral Home, Allen County, Indiana; September 24, 2016
Contributed by JC
Mark N. Senseny
Handwritten-Tuesday, March 5, 1957
Inquiry Slated In Death of Senseny Boy - Po | |||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 26 | https://gwern.net/doc/rotten.com/library/bio/authors/william-s-burroughs/index.html | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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] | null | [] | null | /doc/rotten.com/favicon.ico | null | 1914—1997
As a young man, William S. Burroughs already had a reputation as a brilliant, rather strange, and slightly sinister character. Although he'd been born into a well to do family of some distinction (his grandfather had founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company), and had been exceedingly well educated (including Harvard University), the young Bill Burroughs had tossed it all aside and moved to New York where he involved himself with the criminal underworld—apparently just for the kicks. While most families might have kicked up a fuss and cut off his generous allowance, Bill's family seemed to accept it and just let him get on with being Bill. At some point he did manage to go to Vienna to study medicine, though only for six months—scampering home just ahead of the Nazis.
In 1940, he spent a month in a mental hospital, after cutting off the end of his pinky finger to impress his male lover. Two years later, he was drafted to serve in World War II. But apparently the United States Army didn't want former mental patients—let alone former gay mental patients—fighting and dying for the Red, White, and Blue. Bill was given a civilian disability discharge and sent on his way.
Dismissed by his country, Burroughs remained in New York, once again hanging out with criminals and taking assorted dead end jobs (exterminator, factory worker, copywriter, and bartender) for kicks and experience. In addition to petty criminals his circle of friends included junkies (like Herbert Huncke), homosexuals, and young intellectuals—including Columbia University students/dropouts Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, John Clellon Holmes, Hal Chase, and Lucien Carr. Eventually Bill also made the acquaintance of benzedrine, morphine, and heroin. He was also introduced to brilliant and beautiful Joan Vollmer, for whom he made an exception to his usual homosexual preferences. Together they hosted Carr, Kerouac, Huncke, Ginsberg, and some of Bill's gay friends in frequent orgies of drugs, sex, and all night intellectual banter. (Thanks to Huncke, the group's core members were interviewed for the famed Kinsey sex reports.)
When they weren't rolling in the sheets together, the friends would entertain each other with complicated skits. Bill, for example would act out the role of a prissy English Governess. He would call out in a high falsetto, "My dear, your just in time for tea!" Or, rapping the offender on the knuckles shriek, "Don't say those dirty words in front of everybody!" He would also don a skirt and wig and play a "sinister old lesbian" contessa/art dealer with Jack Kerouac as his bumpkin shill. Another of Bill's favorite roles was Old Luke, the Southern sharecropper, rocking on the front porch with his shotgun over his knees (in real life Burroughs was obsessed with guns). It was a seemingly happy time for Bill Burroughs and company. But the fun hit a speed bump when Bill was arrested for forging prescriptions in order to get drugs.
Soon after, Joan was carted off to Bellevue as the stress of Bill's arrest and her prolonged, excessive Benzedrine use drove her over the edge into psychosis. But, as soon as Joan got out of the loony bin and Bill's legal problems were cleared up, the two picked right up with their heavy drug habits again and left New York in search of better places to score. They moved to East Texas and went in as partners in an orange farm with a friend of Bill's. Here heavily addicted Joan gave birth to Bill Burroughs Jr. (she already had a 4 year old daughter, Julie, in tow from an earlier marriage). Bill settled down to a life as a gentleman pot farmer, complete with coat and tie. Having a large piece of property meant he was free to shoot off his guns. The frequent target practice worried neighbors. Had mobsters moved in? (Bill had learned to shoot as a youngster while game hunting with family.) Before long, Herbert Huncke joined them again, cooking the steaks and fetching firewood. Together the group emptied the neighboring small towns of booze and Benzedrine inhalers.
Thus far there had been a great deal of colorful living but very little indication that Bill Burroughs would ever amount to anything. Meanwhile friends Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac were zinging about the countryside, sometimes with Neal Cassady, searching for a New Vision, and a new way to write the great American poem or novel.
Still, back in '44, there had once been a brief foreshadowing of the influence Bill would some day have on scores of writers, musicians, film makers, and painters. It occurred when Ginsberg and Carr asked Burroughs to settle an argument—an intellectual argument—they'd been having for weeks: Did art need an audience in order to be art? Or would it still be art just the same, if it was done only for one's own satisfaction, with no one else ever viewing it. Eagerly they awaited his opinion, wondering which side he would take.
"That's the stupidest question I ever heard of," Burroughs informed them. "It depends on how you want to define the word 'art'. Words don't have a built in definition." The two were stunned. This was a perspective they hadn't considered. But Burroughs, 10 years older and already a Harvard graduate, possessed a background in literature and anthropology. He'd also studied in Chicago with Count Korzybski, the founder of the theory of general semantics. Burroughs' understanding of words, their associated meanings, and their power to influence and control the human psyche would one day become an important obsession. But first would come two critical events that would change his life forever.
First, circa 1948 the Burroughs family had left Texas for New Orleans and from there moved on to Mexico. And it was here in Mexico City in 1950, that Burroughs, at the urging of old Harvard chum Elvin Kells, began writing a book about his drug experiences. He set himself a regular daily schedule (Bill was very into routines), and took daily injections of morphine to help him along in the project. The finished the manuscript, his first major (solo) writing project, was titled Junkie. Pleased with his efforts Burroughs would also write another book based on personal experience called Queer. But although Junkie would find a publisher among the pulp paperbacks by 1953, Queer would not find a publishing company bold enough to stamp their name on it until 1986.
Then, on September 7, 1951 it was time for the next big event. Bill was to recall that he'd felt an inexplicable depression that day, and that as he was walking down the street, tears had begun streaming down his face. He was mystified, sensing only that something awful was going to happen. Later, while he and Joan were visiting friends, he guzzled down 8 or 10 drinks, just to fight back the unrelenting blues overwhelming him. Suddenly he told Joan, "It's time for our William Tell act. Joan placed a glass of water on her head. Bill took out his gun, took aim, and missed the glass, shooting Joan in the head. An hour or so later she was dead.
A devastated Bill was charged with criminal imprudence and imprisoned to await trial. But wait there's more! The lawyer that got Bill out on bail ended up killing someone himself and fled the country. As Bill's hopes of a successful trial began to dwindle, he jumped bail and left Mexico. He eventually traveled through South America bent on finding the legendary hallucinogenic concoction known as yage or ayahuasca. More powerful than LSD, it was used by native shamans for spiritual journeys and healing rituals. Exploring ever deeper into the frontiers of the mind, Burroughs would later write, "There is nothing to fear. Your ayahuasca consciousness is more valid than Normal consciousness."
Next, Burroughs travelled to North Africa, where he settled in Tangier, still reeling from Joan's death. Drugs were easy to find in Tangier, and so were attractive young men. Bill's landlady assured him, "You understand, you can be free here." He could drink, drug, suck cock, play with his Orgone Box, and shoot his guns without harassment. It was here that he again began to write, tearing through sheet after sheet, and—finished—flinging them wildly aside only to begin again. It was like this, in 1957 that Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg found William Buroughs—writing madly, eating marijuana candy and boozing, and keeping to his fastidious daily routine. They were impressed by the obvious genius within his stray pages and confused piles and helped him assemble them into a manuscript. Published in 1959, it was called The Naked Lunch. It seethed with bizarre scenes, disturbing images (some of which gave Kerouac nightmares) as well as hilarious ironies.
Burroughs described his purpose in writing it as "shitting out my educated Middlewest background once and for all. It's a matter of catharsis, where I say the most horrible things I can think of. Realize that--the most horrible dirty smily awful niggardliest posture possible. . .?" This stream-of-consciousness spewing was apparently an attempt to free himself from the social and familial conditioning that controlled him, that hemmed him in, that ultimately drove him—in desperation or rebellion—to self-limiting and self-destructive choices (like playing William Tell with Joan).
Although Burroughs would continue to call upon this spew approach to writing throughout most of his life, he was soon to add a new method into his tool kit. It came in September of 1959, when Burroughs was living in Paris. One day close friend Brion Gysin accidentally sliced through a stack of newspapers and some back issues of Time and Life magazines. (He had been using them to buffer some cutting he was doing with a utility blade.) Gysin noticed that where the cut up strips had rearranged and overlapped, they created new texts. He realized that gluing the resultant texts onto a blank page generated a new kind of text, with strange new ideas, words images, and connections.
Burroughs became obsessed with his friend's new "cut ups" technique. He cut up his own texts and those of poet friends, revelling in the startling new meanings and insights that resulted from these chaos infused texts. The approach even prompted the reader to see words themselves—their actual meanings—in a fresh, creative light. He soon began to believe that "the only way to find out what people were really saying was to cut up their words and get at the meanings hidden inside" (Barry Miles).
Burroughs became convinced that everyone was so conditioned by language that even that which they believed to be straight perception (via sight, sound, touch) was in fact an illusion—a filtered version of reality, with the filters embedded in our language. Because of this awareness, he became obsessed with issues of social control, thought control-- at a level much more subtle, and thus more pernicious, than the outward laws and regulations challenged by Ginsberg and others (as they battled "anti-obscenity" laws and other free speech issues). The kind of social control Burroughs saw wasn't even encoded in the law. It was programmed into your own brain—through assumptions and associations—just as it had been for Carr and Ginsberg in '44 when they were unable to see that they could choose to define (and pursue) art in any way they saw fit.
From here Burroughs moved on to applying the "cut up" technique to the spoken word, utilizing tape recorders, and then on to visual representations—taking endless photographs of the same subject, cutting them up and collaging them together. (He also played with the idea that human speech was the result of a virus, contracted by our ancestors—"the word virus".)
Along the way Burroughs experimented with yet another technique for going deeper into one's mental filters: Scientology. L. Ron Hubbard, creator of Scientology, was teaching that memories of events, or of words overheard while sleeping, and even of past life events were stored in a person's unconscious mental record. By bringing this information out into the open, the emotional charge on this baggage could be "cleared". What so impressed Burroughs was the effectiveness of the Scientology techniques. He once wrote that one could accomplish more with 10 hours of Scientology techniques than with 10 years of psychotherapy. He felt he accomplished a great deal of self healing through applying their methods, and for a time he was obsessed with "audits" and "E-meters".
But as he penetrated more deeply into the church he discovered that the visionary Hubbard was also an eccentric fascist and that his "church" used appallingly effective mind control techniques to assure a steady supply of loyalty, secrecy, and cash. Burroughs found it sickening and ironic that a tool effective for setting people free was being used to enslave them in other ways. He broke with Scientology and went on to blab all that he knew. (Note that a man with fewer guns might not have been so brave! Scientology had a strong policy of punishing those who broke the silence or pissed them off.)
Although Burroughs continued to look for other ways to explore the mind and set it free from conditioned controls (with drugs, with writing, and with the Dream Machine developed by Brion Gysin), he was also beginning to explore his role as underground celebrity. Meeting new people led to new ways to branch out and express himself. He began giving readings of his work. He also continued to play, obsessively, with tape recordings—of himself and of others. He even got in on some experimental film projects—both documentary and short features. One such project was Chappaqua in 1966. Directed by Conrad Rooks, it features Burroughs (as "Opium Jones"), along with poet Allen Ginsberg, and musician Ravi Shankar. Much later there was considerable collaboration with film director Gus van Sant, Jr: Discipline of D.E. , Thanksgiving Prayer, Drugstore Cowboy,and Even Cowgirls Get the Blues. Burroughs even had a cameo role in the cult film Twister (not to be confused with the movie about tornado chasers).
Musicians were discovering Burroughs too. Even as Beat/Hippie poet Allen Ginsberg was becoming less well known among young people (though still held in high regard by some, such as The Clash, into the '80s) and Jack Kerouac was being relegated to college literature classes, Burroughs was becoming a major new influence on the artistic edge. His words, his face, and his voice were finding their way into albums and music videos. He collaborated with a diversity of edgey groups including Ministry, Skinny Puppy, Laurie Anderson, and the Disposable Heroes.
None of this seemed to slow down his writing. After Junkie and Naked Lunch he went on to publish:
The Soft Machine
The Ticket That Exploded
Nova Express
The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead
Exterminator
Port of Saints
Cities of the Red Night
The Place of Dead Roads
Queer
The Western Lands
My Education: A Book of Dreams
Then,after the death of long time painter friend, Brion Gysin, Burroughs began to venture further into visual art. No longer limiting himself to photo montage, he began to paint as well (something he refused to do while Gysin was alive).
One day, after blasting at some plywood with his shotgun, he noticed how intricate and beautiful the resultant designs were—it was like looking into clouds or abstract art. All sorts of mentally teasing images suggested themselves. Thus began his shotgun art phase. He blasted cans of paint onto plywood and then detailed the splatters. Burroughs continued to develop and expand upon a host of other interests as well, including:
Viennese waltzes
Mayan codices
Surrealism
Egyptian burial rituals
Space Travel
Cats
Popular fiction, especially Frederick Forsyth and Robin Cook
Daily routines
Doing ordinary everyday things with great care and attention to detail.
Obviously, William Burroughs was not a man to be easily pigeon-holed. As a result, he presents the inspiring image of a man who managed to live life on his own terms—a revolutionary artist, whose life demonstrates how the expression of a unique inner vision requires integrity, audacity, tenacity, and a complete disregard for the conditioned expectations of self and society. Such was Burroughs' emphasis on overcoming "control" that for some he has become a symbol of anti-authoritarianism, inspiring them to jeer at the establishment and the powers that be, and to find ways to get around them. For some of these he even appears to represent a kind of alternative power and machismo—the pale, effete misfit powered by technological gizmos (guns, dream machines, tape recorders...computers) and by artistic but violent words and images.
Significantly, Burroughs himself sought freedom, and shunned conflict. His travels always took him in search of places where the police, neighbors, landlords turned a blind eye, left him alone, minded their own business. When his life or his work attracted negative official attention he was invariably polite and cooperative. The prototypical slacker(Burroughs was 40 or 50 old years old before it to become obvious he was doing anything more significant that screwing off), William Burroughs just wanted to be left alone to do his own thing without a lot of hassles.
The final irony is that the man so vividly remembered by the public for a truly disturbing body of work, is invariably recalled by those who knew him as kind, gracious, and impeccably well-mannered. But though the contrast may seem stark, it is worth remembering that Burroughs identified the real struggle in life, the real conflict for control, as being within the self. (Hence his obsession with daily routines and attention to detail.) Rather than supress the darkness in his soul, he vented it, through writing. Rather than repress and deny his unconventional desires, he indulged them within measure (in later life). In short, he did not seek, as people often do, to be someone else. But he sought instead to free himself from beliefs which limit, control, and imprison the invidual in mediocrity and dull repetition.
Cut word lines
Cut music lines
Smash the control images
Smash the control machine.
---William S. Burroughs
Related Trivia
Was Bill Burroughs' 1951 shooting of Joan Vollmer Burroughs really an accident? The accepted answer is "yes". Intriguingly however, Lawrence, Kansas resident George Laughead Jr. records a visit with Burroughs where the famous author makes the following remark/advice: "Shoot the bitch and write a book! That's what I did." Other witnesses to the remark, including Bill's "boy" James Grauerholz, later claimed they never heard a thing. "Addicts are as boring a bunch of people as I ever encountered.
They've got this one track mind.''—Bill Burroughs
Timeline
5 Feb 1914 William Seward Burroughs born, St. Louis, MO. 1936 Graduates Harvard University, B.A. Literature. Postgrad work in anthropology, goes to Vienna to study medicine. 1938 Marries Ilse Herzfeld Klapper. 1940 Spends time in mental hospitals after cutting off part of his pinky finger. 1942 Drafted into U.S. Army. 1943 Meets Allen Ginsberg. 1946 Divorces Ilse. 1946 Arrested in New York after forging prescriptions. 21 Jul 1947 William Burroughs III born, Conroe TX. 1950 Begins writing about his life as an addict. 6 Sep 1951 In Mexico, William Burroughs accidentally kills common law wife Joan Vollmer Burroughs during the "William Tell" incident and is charged with criminal imprudence. 1953 Junkie. 1959 Naked Lunch. 1985 Queer. 1989 Burroughs appears in the film Drugstore Cowboy. 1991 Film version of Naked Lunch released. Directed by David Cronenberg. 1993 Appears in Even Cowgirls Get The Blues. 2 Aug 1997 William Seward Burroughs dies of heart attack at age 83. Lawrence Memorial Hospital, Lawrence KS. | |||||||
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] | null | [] | 2019-05-10T16:13:22+00:00 | by Tim Gilmore, 5/10/2019 1. Disembodied Voice Reciting the Sunflower in a Room in Springfield In 1952, while the Beat novelist William S. Burroughs awaited trial for killing his “common law” wife, Joan Vollmer, in Mexico City, he wrote most of the novel Queer, in which a fictionalized Burroughs named William Lee pursues a fictionalized Adelbert Lewis… | en | https://jaxpsychogeo.com/north/springfield-lewis-marker-william-s-burroughs-and-allen-ginsberg/ | by Tim Gilmore, 5/10/2019
1. Disembodied Voice Reciting the Sunflower in a Room in Springfield
In 1952, while the Beat novelist William S. Burroughs awaited trial for killing his “common law” wife, Joan Vollmer, in Mexico City, he wrote most of the novel Queer, in which a fictionalized Burroughs named William Lee pursues a fictionalized Adelbert Lewis Marker named Eugene Allerton with undisguised lustful aggression through Mexico City.
Lewis Marker, who grew up in Jacksonville and lived in several houses in the historic neighborhood of Springfield, was present with Eddie Woods, another Jax native, when Burroughs killed Joan Vollmer. Burroughs suppressed the publication of Queer for more than three decades, until in 1985, he wrote an introduction in which he claimed, “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death.” He says otherwise elsewhere.
Since, by New Year’s, 1954, Burroughs’s fellow Beat writers and comrades Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg still didn’t understand if Joan’s death were murder, suicide or accident, Ginsberg hitchhiked from Washington State to Florida, where he got out in Jacksonville to hang out with Marker.
Ginsberg had fashioned himself Burroughs’s amateur literary agent. Burroughs had published his 1951 first novel Junky in ’53, but was already writing Queer in 1952. When Ginsberg came to Jacksonville, it was still nearly two years before his legendary reading of the long poem “Howl” at the Six Gallery in San Francisco, where publisher and fellow poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti heard it and decided he had to publish it. Kerouac’s On the Road wouldn’t appear until ’57 and the Beats were not yet the most infamous writers in America.
In his mammoth 2006 biography I Celebrate Myself: The Somewhat Private Life of Allen Ginsberg, Bill Morgan describes how Ginsberg hitchhiked 3,000 miles from the Pacific Northwest to the Deep South. Hitchhiking was still an easy thing to do in the mid-1950s. “It was the Christmas season and people were friendly.” So Ginsberg “jumped out at Jacksonville,” made his way through the city to a dilapidated boarding house in Springfield, just north of downtown, to drink rum with Lewis Marker and ascertain “the circumstances surrounding Joan’s death.”
Ginsberg wrote Kerouac, “Saw Marker in Jacksonville—a sweet fellow who donated $12 to my trip on his own hook, very simpatico.” He stayed with Marker “in big moldy apartment in slums house that he owns,” where the two got drunk and had a “great long talk about mystical ignu’s personality.”
Ginsberg would publish a poem called “Ignu” in Kaddish and Other Poems: 1958-1960, in which Ignu appears as a great comedic mystical force: “Ignu has sought you out he’s the seeker of God / and God breaks down the world for him every ten years / he sees lightning flash in empty daylight when the sky is blue / he hears Blake’s disembodied Voice recite the Sunflower in a room in Harlem.”
2. Sickly Scarecrow
Ginsberg probably stayed with Marker in the boarding house at 118 East 4th Street where city directories listed “A. Lewis Marker,” roomer and student, in 1950, though it’s doubtful his family owned the building. Later biographical profiles referred to Marker as being from “a good family,” but if that designation were meant to infer wealth, as usual, it wasn’t accurate.
Marker was a student on the newly established G.I. Bill, having left the Army after three years working counter-intelligence in Germany. From 1955 into the early 1960s, Lew Marker roomed at 331 East 10th Street, the other side of Main Street from where his mother, in a rare position for a single woman, now owned her own home.
In 1937, Marker had lived with his parents, rooming at 111 East 6th Street. Though the reasons have blurred into time, Marker’s mother Edna filed for divorce in 1940, when few women made such claims and fewer still were granted them. The divorce finalized in 1945, Lewis’s father Leo moved south, and Lew stayed with his mother in Springfield. The year prior, he’d roomed with her at 516 West 10th Street. The year after, Edna bought the handsome little woodframe house where Lew lived at 117 East 11th Street.
In the 1940s, to be a teenage boy living with a single mother who’d entered a suit of divorce and won was to be a freak. It was a time when mothers were blamed for everything that might go wrong with a child, and when, most garishly, mothers too flagrantly independent were thought to put their sons in danger of homosexuality, then a recognized mental illness. By 1950, Lew lived in his own apartment on East 4th, having served the United States Counter-Intelligence Corps for a short stint in post-Hitler Germany.
Burrough’s early writing, Ginsberg’s too, stakes an outlaw morality, rebelling wildly against the conservative postwar culture. Marker’s childhood history, combined with a wanderlust enabled by the U.S. military, led him to assume Burroughs, 16 years older, knew his sexuality better than he himself did. He acquiesced to Burroughs sexually when the older writer hounded, harassed and stalked him. Then Ginsberg arrived in the center of this Southern’s city’s midcentury decay, its grand houses moldering, wanting to know the truth, but already defensive of Burroughs and of himself.
Though Marker gave Ginsberg twelve bucks toward his further travels (more than $100 in today’s money), Ginsberg described his looks viciously in his letter to Kerouac. Whereas Ginsberg calls Marker “starved-looking and rickety,” with bad skin, and “pursey-mouthed,” Burroughs writes, in Queer, “Allerton was tall and very thin, with high cheekbones, a small bright-red mouth, and amber-colored eyes that took on a faint violet flush when he was drunk.”
“The first sight of him was a shock,” Ginsberg wrote Kerouac. “Poor poor Bill! To be in love with that sickly myopic pebblemouthed scarecrow!”
3. “Never Write Again”
In his 2002 thesis for the University of Kansas, “The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened?” James Grauerholz mentions Lewis Marker 93 times. Grauerholz, heir to and executor of Burroughs’s estate, never answers definitively the question in his title.
“It was at the Bounty Bar, in May 1951,” Grauerholz writes, “that Burroughs met Adelbert Lewis Marker and began to woo the owlish-looking 21-year-old American boy from Jacksonville, Florida. Lewis Marker was a veteran of postwar service […] and an indifferent student at Mexico City College.” Burroughs dedicated his first novel, Junky, “To A.L.M.,” Adelbert Lewis Marker.
Marker testified in Burroughs’s trial in Mexico that he’d heard the writer tell his wife, “It’s about time for our William Tell act. Put a glass on your head, Joan.” The trial entertained questions about whether this “act” were something Burroughs and Vollmer had done before. Everyone who testified said it was not. Supposedly the glass fell from Joan’s head without breaking, though four recently emptied gin bottles banged about beneath.
Friends said Joan was always drunk and frequently suicidal. One story had a suicidal Joan mocking Burroughs, who was almost as fascinated with guns as he was with younger men, and making fun of his marksmanship. In New York, however, before moving to Mexico City to support Burroughs’s flight from drug charges, Joan had written poetry and turned her apartment into an impromptu literary salon.
Meanwhile, Burroughs, later associated with the down-and-out counterculture of the Beat Generation, loafed the world as the wealthy heir of the Burroughs Corporation, his grandfather’s business machine company. Headlines referred to him not as some subversive street novelist, but as affluent business heir.
Furthermore, Burroughs’s tone in Queer toward the Latin American countries he wanders is unrelentingly racist, smug, entitled and elitist. The “William Lee” of Queer isn’t rebellious, he’s just irresponsible, and his supposed counterculture is paternalistically conservative: toward Latin America, toward Adelbert Lewis Marker, and toward Joan Vollmer.
Whatever Vollmer might later have written and created, she became background for Burroughs’s biography. Burroughs turned her death into the reason he became a writer, though he was already writing, wrote a novel about Lewis Marker that fails to mention Joan at all while awaiting trial for killing her, and in late summer 1952 told Allen Ginsberg that Marker, not Joan, was his reason for writing, even saying that if Marker didn’t like the novel Queer, Burroughs would never write again.
Neither, he failed to mention, would Joan.
4. Suppression and Suspension in Absentia
Joan knew about her husband’s insatiable and predatory lust for young men and his unrequited obsession with Lewis Marker. In Queer, Burroughs, awaiting trial for Joan’s murder, writes of William Lee reading aloud to Allerton [Marker] from a newspaper “a story about a man who murders his wife and children.” Meanwhile, something about Lee always “put Allerton on guard,” since when Lee talked, “He seemed to mean more than what he said.” Though Lee finds easy assignations in fiendish bars, he always botches his interactions with Allerton, over whom he runs “ectoplasmic fingers” as the two drink deep into the night.
Ostensibly fiction, Queer reads more like a memoir. Reading the novel alongside Burroughs’s letters and diaries shows that he made up almost nothing in Queer except for names.
All of which brings us back to the fact that Burroughs suppressed Queer for 33 years. Ginsberg, Kerouac and Burroughs knew that writing about sex in the 1950s often led to arrest. In 1957, Lawrence Ferlinghetti was briefly jailed for publishing Ginsberg’s Howl. Queer is crass, but it contains no explicit sex scenes and plots a much more straightforward narrative than Burroughs’s later work. Never not controversial, Burroughs infamously wrote, in 1959’s The Naked Lunch, of “the man who taught his asshole to talk,” until the “asshole” grew teeth and told “the man who taught” it, “It’s you who will shut up in the end. Not me. Because we don’t need you around here anymore. I can talk and eat and shit.”
Burroughs wrote Queer as his trial encountered repeated delays. Finally Burroughs “skipped,” re-entering the United States through Louisiana. He’d first fled to Mexico City after being arrested in New Orleans for possession of heroin, but upon his reentry, Louisiana hadn’t issued a new warrant. In Mexico, he received a suspended sentence of two years for manslaughter in absentia.
5. “As Far as I Know, It Was All Nice and Quiet”
In 1985, when Ted Morgan interviewed Lewis Marker in Jacksonville one late Sunday night, January 27th, and into the early hours of the 28th, he noted, “Lewis Marker becomes very noticeably drunk and slurred, and his recollections are progressively less and less clear.”
Morgan’s book Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs was published in October 1988. Contrary to newspaper reports of Marker’s testimony, he doesn’t recall his Jacksonville friend Eddie Woods at the death scene at all. Instead, he remembers Eddie’s sister Betty. Here’s the stream-of-consciousness Cliff Notes version:
“I think he probably had a three-room, I don’t remember. Must have been about five stories high. Joan was a little withdrawn from the scene downstairs. Crippled, as I recall, probably polio or something like that. Attractive, in a low-keyed sort of way. It wasn’t unusual for people down there to have guns. As a matter of fact, it wasn’t extraordinary for people to get shot. One of them right there in the Bounty. Above the Bounty, it was his apartment. Betty Jones and I were up there for a couple of drinks. Just the four of us, me and Betty and Bill and Joan. Betty Jones, she was married but she was not all that close to Glenn.
“I always had the hots for Betty. For the only reason that she happened to be handy. But we were never all that close. At the time, it didn’t occur to anybody that there was anything especially alarming. Whatever conversation there was previous was the usual sort of drivel. Then some mention of William Tell. Probably even mentioned the glass on the head, since they didn’t have an apple. You could ascribe it to confidence in his marksmanship, or anything you want to ascribe it to, but there was no particular indication that I could see.
“As to why she was agreeable to the little act. It was a little different than how it came out in the court. It was a little William Tell act, but the shot was three inches low. All of us sat around completely stunned. I was the first to move. I don’t even think Betty had the presence of mind to scream. As far as I know, it was all nice and quiet. Everybody sitting there, staring. Once you see the red trickle, you’re past the disbelief point, you know what happened.”
6. The Last Sex Dream
After wandering together through Ecuadorian rain forests in search of the hallucinogenic plant ayahuasca, Marker had finally had enough of Burroughs and gone back to Jacksonville.
Burroughs, who’d visited Marker at least twice in Springfield, wrote him letter after letter. Marker did not respond. In March 1952, Burroughs wrote Ginsberg, “Marker is in Florida, and plans no trip North. He is short of $ and hates cold weather. He has bought a boat, and we may sail back to Ecuador.” In August 1953, Burroughs wrote Ginsberg, “I never heard from Marker after I left Mexico, though I wrote ten letters to his home address in Florida.” In other letters Burroughs wrote Ginsberg fantasies about starting a hog farm with Marker in Panama, then wrote that he was “deeply hurt and disappointed” that Marker wanted “to take Army Exchange civilian job in China or Europe.”
Burroughs sent Ginsberg a poem called “To M.,” which ends, “I let it happen like I let the habit happen. / I knew it would hurt. / I didn’t care. / O.K. So you won’t. / So you can’t. / Nothing to come down with. / Kick it cold. / I won’t be sick forever. / Muscles twitch to rest. / The gut unknots and turns over.”
In another letter, Burroughs wrote Ginsberg that he’d written Marker another “five or six letters,” with “fantasies and routines in my best vein but he doesn’t answer.” Burroughs crossed out “and I feel I am making a nuisance of myself.” Later, he mentions a book he sent Marker for his birthday, several “clippings from newspapers and magazines I think might interest him,” even a life insurance policy for which he’d make Marker beneficiary.
In October 1952, Burroughs wrote Ginsberg, “I don’t see myself writing a sequel to Queer or writing anything more at all at this point. I wrote Queer for Marker. I guess he doesn’t think much of it or of me.”
On November 5, 1952, just more than a year since Burroughs killed Joan Vollmer, he wrote Ginsberg, “Marker and I are reconciled.” Burroughs had visited Marker in Jacksonville where, once again, he clumsily and aggressively seduced him, and now wrote, “He likes me well enough in his way. I know how far his way is from my way.” He scratched out lines saying that Marker agreed to sex, “even if he doesn’t like it, and just does it to oblige once in a while.” Burroughs then bought Marker’s “way back to Mexico City for a few days.”
After that last stay in Mexico, it’s unclear whether Marker and Burroughs ever met again, and if so, when, how often, and under what circumstances. When Marker’s mother, remarried as Edna Rehberg, died in Jacksonville in 1975, Lew Marker was living in Isfahan, Iran, working as accountant supervisor for Bell Helicopter International. Throughout his life, Lew Marker made a pattern of moving abroad from Jax, then moving back to Jax. In the 1990s, he ran Jacksonville Maytag Homestyle Laundromat.
Burroughs wrote Marker into cameo appearances as Allerton in several more novels, the last of which was The Western Lands in 1987. Allerton appears twice in Burroughs’s 1997 My Education: A Book of Dreams. On April 15, 1997, Burroughs wrote, in his personal diary, “Last night sex dream of Marker.” Not four months later, Burroughs was dead. He suffered a heart attack on the first of August and died the next day.
Adelbert Lewis Marker died a year and 10 days after Burroughs recorded his last dream of him. When he died on Saturday, April 25, 1998, he left behind his Vietnamese wife, with whom he’d raised two sons with Vietnamese names, and two grandsons. He’d worked for years supervising accounts for Philco-Ford Corp. in Vietnam before moving back to Jacksonville. Whether or not he really had plans to sail to Ecuador with Burroughs when he bought a boat in the early 1950s, his obituary 45 years later called him a “sailing enthusiast.”
Nobody wrote Joan an obit. In one scene in Queer, Burroughs writes, “The busboy had caught a mouse and was holding it up by the tail. Lee pulled out an old-fashioned .22 revolver he sometimes carried. ‘Hold the son of a bitch out and I’ll blast it,’ he said, striking a Napoleonic pose. The boy tied a string to the mouse’s tail and held it out at arm’s length. Lee fired from a distance of three feet. His bullet tore the mouse’s head off.”
Burroughs wrote this scene just months after shooting his wife in the head and killing her. Joan, who liked to taunt Burroughs’s manhood, was no mouse. If her death was an accident, Burroughs, as Lee, this time, was a sure shot.
Whether or not this scene serves as some roman à clef confession, Joan should write the next chapter. Somebody resurrect her. Somebody start the séance. Somebody bring her back to life, age 28, and let her launch a career. So what that Joan entered Bellevue after psychotic episodes during amphetamine use in 1946. Burroughs always looked like a corpse, so stand his up, and let Joan fire the next shot. We’ll pretend it’s an old-fashioned duel. Joan’s next move might just be the truest, most beautiful thing anyone’s ever written. | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 67 | https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/beat-visions-and-the-counterculture/home/burroughs/ | en | William S. Burroughs – Beat Visions and the Counterculture | [
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] | null | [] | null | en | https://exhibitions.lib.udel.edu/beat-visions-and-the-counterculture/home/burroughs/ | Allen Ginsberg
[Paul Bowles, Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Michael Portman, Tangier], 1961. Paul Bowles’s framed copy. Paul Bowles Papers
Writer Paul Bowles kept this original framed print on his bedside in Tangier, Morocco, for many years. Later prints of related images, made and inscribed by Allen Ginsberg for Bowles, are on view on the wall nearby.
William S. Burroughs
The Exterminator, 1960
Auerhahn Press, San Francisco.
Cover design by Brion Gysin
William S. Burroughs
Soft Machine, 1961
Olympia Press, Paris.
Dustjacket design by Brion Gysin
William Burroughs
Time, 1965
C Press, New York
In 1965, Ted Berrigan’s C Press published Burroughs’s Time, a verbal/ visual collage based on a 1963 issue of Time magazine. To the original Time cover, which addressed the Indo-Chinese War and featured a dual portrait of Mao and Nehru, Burroughs added a bleak landscape painting and his own name to the bottom half of the image– thereby effacing half of Mao and all but Nehru’s hat. The contents of Burroughs’s Time critically deconstructed the language and imagery of the mainstream American press.
Sinclair Beiles, William S. Burroughs, Gregory Corso, Brion Gysin
Minutes to Go, 1960
Two Cities Editions, Paris
Minutes to Go from 1960 was the first stand-alone publication to use the cut-up technique, with contributions by William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin, Gregory Corso, and the South African poet Sinclair Beiles.
William S. Burroughs
The Dead Star, 1969
Nova Broadcast Press, San Francisco
In 1965 William S. Burroughs produced a cut-up rendition of the news concerning gangster Dutch Schultz’s death combined with other disasters. He called it Dead Star, for Jeff Nuttall’s My Own Mag. Four years later Burroughs issued the same story as an independent broadside through the Nova Press. In the 1969 version, Dead Star uses a three-column newspaper format interspersed with news images, a format graphically related to word-image experiments with the grid format undertaken with artist Brion Gysin.
My Own Mag, ed. Jeff Nuttall, issue 13 (“The Dutch Schultz Special”), August 1965
Paul Bowles Papers
The “Cut-Up” Method
Artist and poet Brion Gysin is credited with developing the “cutup” method. It involved physically slicing existing pages of text and arranging the fragments to form a new text. The “cut-up” was a way to escape the tyranny of linear language and mundane meaning and to attain a more authentic truth. William S. Burroughs felt that rearranging words was at the core of the authorial act itself, and that the techniques opened endless possibilities for collaborations across time and space. The “cut-up” technique has an extensive legacy not only in literature but in music and the visual arts. | |||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 2 | https://pantheon.world/profile/place/lawrence-kansas | en | Lawrence, Kansas | http://localhost:3000/api/screenshot/place?id=lawrence-kansas | http://localhost:3000/api/screenshot/place?id=lawrence-kansas | [
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] | null | [] | null | en | /images/favicon.ico | null | Lawrence, Kansas ranks 2,219th in number of biographies on Pantheon, behind Vic, Esch-sur-Alzette, and Narashino. Memorable people born in Lawrence, Kansas include Delbert Mann, Erin Brockovich, and Bart D. Ehrman. Memorable people who died in Lawrence, Kansas include James Naismith, William S. Burroughs, and Fritz Heider. Lawrence, Kansas has been the birth place of many actors, and film directors and the death place of many writers, and basketball players. Lawrence, Kansas is located in United States. | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 88 | https://www.openculture.com/2018/07/joan-vollmer-wife-william-burroughs-allegedly-shot-playing-william-tell.html | en | Who Was Joan Vollmer, the Wife William Burroughs Allegedly Shot While Playing William Tell? | [
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"Colin Marshall",
"in History"
] | 2018-07-26T08:00:29+00:00 | Popular culture knows William S. Burroughs primarily for three of the things he did in life: using drugs, writing Naked Lunch, and killing his wife. Open Culture, openculture.com | en | https://www.openculture.com/wp-content/themes/openculture_v4a/images/favicon.ico | Open Culture | https://www.openculture.com/2018/07/joan-vollmer-wife-william-burroughs-allegedly-shot-playing-william-tell.html | Popular culture knows William S. Burroughs primarily for three of the things he did in life: using drugs, writing Naked Lunch, and killing his wife. If popular culture remembers that wife, Joan Vollmer, it mostly remembers her for the manner of her death: shot, they say, as a result of Burroughs’ drunken imitation of William Tell. But in life she played an important role in the intellectual development of not just Burroughs but other major Beat writers as well, including Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. As Brenda Knight writes in Women of the Beat Generation, Vollmer “was seminal in the creation of the Beat revolution; indeed the fires that stoked the Beat engine were started with Joan as patron and muse.”
When her first husband Paul Adams was drafted into World War II, Vollmer moved in with her fellow future woman of the Beat Generation, and future wife of Jack Kerouac, Edie Parker. Into their series of Upper West Side apartments came a wide variety of substance-abusing artists, Burroughs, Kerouac, and Ginsberg included. Vollmer’s new coterie, as well as her own amphetamine addiction, so appalled Adams that he left her upon his return from the military. She took up with Burroughs in 1946, later becoming his common-law wife and the mother of their child, William Burroughs, Jr.. In seemingly constant flight from the law, they moved from New York to Texas to New Orleans to Mexico City, where the fateful game of William Tell would happen in 1951.
But did that game of William Tell happen? History has recorded that Vollmer did indeed die by gunshot, but as to exactly how or why it happened, nobody quite knows. Hence the investigations that academics, Beat Generation enthusiasts, and others have conducted since. The Burroughs-themed site RealityStudio has one page on Burroughs and the William Tell Legend and another gathering documents on the death of Joan Vollmer. You can get further in depth by reading “The Death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs: What Really Happened?”, a 70-page research paper by James Grauerholz, Burroughs’ biographer and the executor of his literary estate.
Despite his considerable interest in Burroughs, Grauerholz doesn’t show an outsized interest in absolving the writer of his crime. But he does know more than enough to cast doubt on, or at least add nuance to, the simple story everyone “knows.” Burroughs himself, though he gave contradictory accounts of the event at different times, never denied shooting Vollmer. He did, however, blame a kind of demonic possession for it: “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan’s death,” he wrote in the introduction to a 1985 edition of his novel Queer. “I live with the constant threat of possession, and a constant need to escape from possession, from Control.”
Vollmer’s death, in Burroughs’ view, “brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.” Sound like self-justification though that may, the fact remains that Burroughs’ life freighted him with plenty of conditions to write his way out of. It also went on for 46 years after the end of Vollmer’s which, though short, saw her become, as Knight writes, “the whetstone against which the main Beat writers — Allen, Jack, and Bill — sharpened their intellect. Widely considered one of the most perceptive people in the group, her strong mind and independent nature helped bulldoze the Beats toward a new sensibility.”
Related Content:
William S. Burroughs Reads & Sings His Experimental Prose in a Big, Free 7‑Hour Playlist
How William S. Burroughs Embraced, Then Rejected Scientology, Forcing L. Ron Hubbard to Come to Its Defense (1959–1970)
How William S. Burroughs Used the Cut-Up Technique to Shut Down London’s First Espresso Bar (1972)
How to Jumpstart Your Creative Process with William S. Burroughs’ Cut-Up Technique
Hear a Great Radio Documentary on William S. Burroughs Narrated by Iggy Pop
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities and culture. His projects include the book The Stateless City: a Walk through 21st-Century Los Angeles and the video series The City in Cinema. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook. | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 11 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs_Jr. | en | William S. Burroughs Jr. | [
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] | 2005-01-05T05:34:43+00:00 | en | /static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs_Jr. | American novelist
William Seward Burroughs III (July 21, 1947 – March 3, 1981), also known as William S. Burroughs Jr. and Billy Burroughs, was an American novelist. He bears the name of his father, William S. Burroughs, as well as his great-grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. He wrote three novels, two of which were published as Speed (1970) and Kentucky Ham (1973). His third novel, Prakriti Junction, begun in 1977, was never completed, although extracts from it were included in his third and final published work Cursed From Birth.
Burroughs Jr. underwent a liver transplant in 1976 after developing cirrhosis. He died in 1981, at the age of 33, from alcoholism and liver failure. Burroughs Jr. appears briefly in the 1983 documentary Burroughs, about his father, in which he discusses his childhood, his liver problems, and his relationship with his family. In the documentary, John Giorno called him "the last beatnik."
Childhood
[edit]
In 1947, Burroughs was born in Conroe, Texas, to William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer. His mother was addicted to amphetamines, and his father was a heroin addict. Herbert Huncke, a friend of his parents, relates that when Joan was pregnant he would drive into Houston to obtain Benzedrine, an inhaled amphetamine, for her.
On September 6, 1951, Billy's father shot and killed his mother in Mexico City in what he claimed, and later denied, was a drunken game of 'William Tell'. In chapter three of his second novel, Kentucky Ham, Burroughs relates his memory of the day his mother was shot dead, as well as the subsequent reunion with his father after he was freed from a Mexico City prison. While his father stayed in Mexico, Billy went to live with his paternal grandparents, Mortimer and Laura Lee Burroughs, in St. Louis, Missouri. In spring 1952, when Billy was nearly 5, he moved with his grandparents to Palm Beach, Florida, where they relocated their store, Cobblestone Gardens. By his own account, Billy said his grandparents were kind and reassuring; yet as they grew older, and he grew into adolescence, they were unable to relate.
When Billy was 13, his grandparents asked William S. Burroughs to take Billy back. He agreed, and Billy was sent alone by air to Tangiers, Morocco, to live with his father. In Tangiers, Billy was introduced to marijuana, and men attempted to rape him. By his father's own admission, the visit was a failed attempt to rehabilitate their relationship. After Burroughs' lover, Ian Sommerville, convinced William that his son was irrevocably homesick, Billy returned to Palm Beach.
When Billy was fifteen, he accidentally shot his best friend in the neck with a rifle, causing an almost fatal wound. This event caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown. According to Kentucky Ham, Billy thought his friend was dead and ran away from home to seek refuge in a girlfriend's family fallout shelter. He planned to flee to California, convinced that he was a murderer. Yet his friend lived, and the police ruled the wounding unintentional. Still, this act did not go unnoticed in the exclusive Palm Beach community, and the story of the manner in which his mother had perished at the hands of his father again gained wide circulation[clarification needed]. Billy was sent to a mental hospital in St. Louis for help, but threats to run away caused Mortimer and Laura to bring their grandson home. Bill then attended Green Valley, an alternative school based on the principles of English educator A. S. Neill, in Orange City, Florida, from 1965 to 1966.
Drug addiction
[edit]
Living in a wealthy section of Palm Beach, Billy Burroughs began to spend more time out of his grandparents' care and beyond the reach of local authorities. Burroughs became addicted to amphetamines and resorted to criminal behavior to obtain them, forging prescriptions and visiting doctors' offices to steal prescription pads. He was soon arrested, but he was not an adult and had the tragic story of his parents' life to temper criminal proceedings against him. Nevertheless, his second novel begins with his condemnation to a four-year suspended sentence and required admission to the Federal Narcotics Farm at Lexington in Kentucky. This prison was one of two U.S. Federal prison hospitals treating persons convicted of federal drug crimes in the United States from 1935 until 1973.
After being released on parole in 1968, he quit his addiction to amphetamines and returned to The Green Valley School, a private institution run by Reverend Von Hilsheimer in Orange City, Florida. The Green Valley School was where Burroughs met his future wife, a 17-year-old Jewish girl from Savannah, Georgia, named Karen Perry, who came from a privileged background. The two formed a romantic relationship and were married in 1969, settling in Savannah. Burroughs began to write; Perry worked as a waitress.
Alcoholism
[edit]
The marriage disintegrated in 1974 when Karen left Burroughs because of his chronic alcoholism. Despite the publication of his novels, he was increasingly alienated from friends and family, and there were long periods when his whereabouts were unknown. When he showed up in Boulder, Colorado, to visit his father and Allen Ginsberg at Ginsberg's Buddhist institute at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, he had the appearance of a "derelict."
In 1976, during a dinner with Ginsberg and his father, Burroughs began vomiting blood. When the heaving would not stop, he was admitted to Colorado General Hospital, where it was discovered that he was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. The hospital was one of only two institutions in 1976 that performed liver transplants. Thomas Starzl had performed over 100 transplants, with a survival rate of less than 30%. Nevertheless, Billy profited from Starzl's care. Although Burroughs spent months in and out of the hospital, and there were many serious complications, the operation was successful. However, despite the obvious risks, Burroughs kept drinking. Many people, notably Ginsberg, tried to encourage him to quit, but Burroughs's self-destructive behavior continued.[citation needed]
Eventually, Burroughs began to express hostility and anger towards his father. He published a damning article in Esquire, explaining how his life was "ruined" by his father's actions. The estrangement between father and son was never reconciled.
Death
[edit]
In 1981, Burroughs stopped taking his anti-rejection drugs. Allen Ginsberg was notified that Burroughs had returned to Florida to reconnect with the founder of the Green Valley School. Shortly after, Burroughs was found lying chilled, drunk, and exhausted in a shallow ditch at the side of a DeLand, Florida, highway on March 2. A passerby took him to a local hospital, where he died the following day at 6:35 a.m. of acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage associated with micronodular cirrhosis. He was 33 years old. Burroughs was cremated and his ashes buried in Boulder, Colorado.[1]
Writing style
[edit]
William S. Burroughs Jr. wrote two autobiographical novels, and was working on a third. He began writing poetry at the Green Valley School when he was 21 in 1968 and completed his first novel Speed in 1970. The novels relate the experiences of a teenage runaway in the early 1960s, and are comparable in style and content to both Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and his father's Junkie. Some time after the death of Burroughs Jr., his father invited David Ohle to edit the manuscript of his late son's unfinished novel Prakriti Junction. The manuscript was unpublishable so, instead, Ohle compiled a work from the manuscript, the last journals and poems of Burroughs Jr., and correspondence and interviews with those who knew him.[2]
Bibliography
[edit]
Speed (1970)
Kentucky Ham (1973)
Prakriti Junction (1977–1978, unfinished)
Speed and Kentucky Ham: Two Novels (1993, novel compilation)
Cursed from Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs Jr. (2006, compiled by David Ohle)[3]
References
[edit] | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 13 | http://iagenweb.org/civilwar/burials_cemeteries/burials7thiacav.htm | en | 7thcavdeaths | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | 2007-01-31T00:00:00 | null | LISTING OF 7th IOWA CAVALRY VETERAN
DEATH AND BURIAL SITES FROM PENSION FILE
MICROFILMS AND OTHER SOURCES
Of the 1,660 soldiers whose names appear on the roster of the 7th Iowa Cavalry, 1,145 death and
burial sites have been located. The soldier’s name is as it appears in the Roster & Record of Iowa Volunteers. Spelling
differences and an occasional alias appear on the actual burial listings. The city in which the soldier died follows
immediately after the date of death, while the italicized word after the place of death is the name of the cemetery.
Additional information such as nation, township, county and state appear in the far right column. Names and
information in red indicates a soldier who died while in the service. Names highlighted in yellow indicate people for
whom obituaries (328 to date) have been obtained. Page numbers refer to specific maps of particular states. Bulleted
names are grave sites that have been visited and photographed (442 to date). UPDATED 1/24/2007.
FOREIGN COUNTRIES
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY NATION
Mobley, George G. Co. B Died 9/9/1919 at Tappan Unknown BC, Canada
Gross, William H. Co. K Died 3/8/1918 at Lindsay Unknown Ontario, Canada
Larson, James Co. F Died 11/12/1916 at OsloUnknown Norway
·Heath, Herman H. STAFF Died 11/14/1874 Lima Old British Peru
Mobley, Seth Co. B Died 7/10/1911 at Manila Veteran Army of the Philippines Philippines
ARIZONA – (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Tannehill, John M. Co. G Died 3/5/1923 at PhoenixGreenwood Memory Lawn Maricopa p.14
Jones, William W. Co. K Died 2/6/1911 at BuckeyeLibertyMaricopa p.14
Moore, William M. Co. M Died 5/30/1915 at Copper Creek Prescott Nat CemYavapai p.14
ARKANSAS – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Rice, George L. Co. A Died 2/14/1909 at Gentry Gentry Benton p.18
Doty, Napoleon B. Co. E Died 7/30/1930 at Heber Springs Unknown Cleburne p.18
Iliff, Henry J. Co. G Died 9/19/1925 at ? Unknown Independence p.20
Killough, Augustus Co. M Died 11/13/1919 at Evansville Unknown Washington p.18
Waggoner, William H. Co. B Died 1/27/1918 at Rose Bud Bethesda Washington p.18
Hunt, Francis A. Co. C Died 4/25/1917 at JudsoniaEvergreenWhite p.20
CALIFORNIA – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Bristol, Edward C. Co. K Died 11/19/1912 at Berkeley UnknownAlameda p.23
[Bristol was living near Seattle, Washington Co., WA in 1910]
Williams, Wm. H. H. Co. C Died [no date] at OaklandMountain View Alameda p.30
Noe, Samuel Co. E Died [no date] at ChicoChico Butte p.22
O’Hair, Michael Co. K Died 9/28/1912 at San Francisco Calusa Community Calusa p.22
Jordan, Isaac R. Co. G Died 7/16/1908 at Covina Oakdale Covina p.32
Livermore, Wilson Co. F Died 4/30/1886 at SelmaUnknown Fresno p.26
(may be buried in Fayette Co., IA)
Walker, Stephen Co. G Died 3/28/1928 at Beaumont LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Powell, Ancil Co. A Died 11/29/1922 at Long Beach Unknown Los Angeles p.31
[1910 census shows he was then living in Van Buren County, IA. Check for obit]
Reed, Robert Co. L Died 4/7/1932 at Long Beach Unknown Los Angeles p.31
Spangler, John M. Co. C Died 11/12/1913 at Los Angeles Unknown Los Angeles p.30
Lindley, John W. Co. K Died 2/24/1920 at Los Angeles Unknown Los Angeles p.30
Parker, Andrew E. Co. F Died 5/22/1922 at Los Angeles Unknown Los Angeles p.30
Smith, Isaac A. Co. K Died 9/16/1926 at Los AngelesUnknown Los Angeles p.30
Hazelgrove, Isaac B. Co. B Died 7/7/1930 at Los Angeles LA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Monroe, Felix M. Co. C Died 8/17/1932 at Monrovia Unknown Los Angeles p.30
Jepson, Isaiah C. Co. L Died 4/18/1918 at Altadena Mountain View Los Angeles p.30
Hunter, James H. Co. L Died 12/1/1904 at AltadenaMountain View Los Angeles p.30
Shaw, Samuel J. Co. L Died 12/28/1921 at AltadenaMountain View Los Angeles p.30
Eason, Robert Co. L Died 7/7/1923 at Pasadena Unknown Los Angeles p.29
Call, Henry Co. L Died 11/19/1892 at CentervilleRosedale Los Angeles p.32
White, Benjamin Co. L Died 8/13/1909 at Los AngelesRosedale Los Angeles p.32
Sheffield, Eugene STAFF Died 1/6/1905 at Santa BarbaraUnknown Los Angeles p.26
Dement, John Co. B Died 3/23/1928 at Sawtelle LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Russell, McCollum Co. M Died 1/12/1913 at Sawtelle LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Stewart, Joseph Co. C Died 6/17/1927 at Sawtelle LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Johnson, George W. Co. F Died 12/11/1922 at Sawtelle LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Gleason, N. B. Co. E Died 8/14/1898 at Sawtelle LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Oakes (Ochs), Charles Co. E Died 2/1/1926 at Sawtelle LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Bliss, William P. Co. K Died 10/13/1893 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Beals, Thomas B. Co. G Died 5/10/1926 at Napa Napa Veterans HomeLos Angeles p.23
Brain, Byron B. Co. H Died 3/28/1920 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Kennedy, James H. Co. A Died 3/8/1923 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
McMillin, Legrand Co. B Died 9/2/1924 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Parks, Charles Co. G Died 4/15/1924 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Smith, Orrin Co. K Died 12/1/1923 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Stine, Asbury Co. L Died 3/5/1929 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat CemLos Angeles p.32
Van Oelden, Frank Co. E Died 2/20/1914 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Payn, John Co. C Died 1/30/1926 at Soldier’s Home LA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Brittingham, Joseph Co. I Died 12/11/1911 at Soldier’s HomeLA Nat Cem Los Angeles p.32
Charles, Barclay J. Co. D Died 11/6/1926 at Whittier Unknown Los Angeles p.30
Knapp, James W. Co. C Died [no date] at Point ArenaIOOF Mendocino p.23
Maclin (McFaul), Charles Co. C Died 4/30/1923 at Point ArenaPoint Arena Mendocino p.23
Beck, Isaac Co. C Died 3/14/1908 at Yountville Veterans Memorial Napa p.23
Heil, Lewis Co. G Died 5/18/1909 at Santa Ana Santa AnaOrange p.33
Martin, Reuben J. Co. A Died 11/20/1908 or 7/28/1909 at Santa Ana Santa Ana Orange p.33
Hutching, Ephraim M. Co. H Died 6/26/1890 at SacramentoCity Cemetery Sacramento p.23
Roberts, Daniel Co. L Died 6/25/1882 at SacramentoCity Cemetery Sacramento p.23
Kilian, Joseph Co. E Died 1/7/1919 at San Bernardino UnknownSan Bernardino p.29
McNamara, James Patrick Co. K Died 6/23/1914 at San Bernardino Unknown San Bernardino p.29
Heck, Samuel Co. M Died 4/1/1909 at Unknown Unknown San Bernardino p.29
White, Austin E. Co. E Died 3/9/1916 at Fallbrook Unknown San Diego p.29
Woodward, Simon B. Co. D Died 12/12/1920 at Ramona Nuevo Memory Gardens San Diego p.32
Doud, Malcom P. Co. G Died 8/14/1895 at San FranciscoCypress Lawn San Francisco p.23
McCan, Francis A. Co. F Died 8/24/1919 at Stockton Unknown San Joaquin p.23
Cooper, Francis H. Co. K Died 4/30/1900 at San Luis ObispoIOOF San Luis Obispo p.26
Baker, Charles A. Co. E Died 2/12/1925 at Sunnyvale Oak Hill Santa Clara p.23
Donley, Adolphus Co. F Died 9/30/1899 at San JoseOak Hill Santa Clara p.23
O'Hair, John J. Co. K Died 4/29/1910 at Unknown Unknown Santa Clara p.23
May, James H. Co. D Died 6/7/1922 at Santa Cruz Unknown Santa Cruz p.23
Powers, Thomas F. Co. A Died 5/20/1921 at Sebastopol Unknown Sonoma p.23
Fisher, John J. Co. E Died 5/8/1906 at Forestville Unknown Sonoma p.23
Crosby, Squire E. Co. M Died 11/30/1926 at Ceres Old Chapin Stanislaus p.23
Zion, Isaac Co. K Died 5/25/1928 at Modesto Unknown Stanislaus p.23
Wilson, William Co. L Died 10/5/1915 at VenturaVentura City Ventura p.27
Dale, David (Phillip) Co. D Died 1/13/1922 at Des Moines, IA[Originally buried in Westlawn Cemetery,
in Des Moines, IA and later re-buried at unknown site in CA] p.33
COLORADO – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Baker, David Co. E Died 11/15/1934 at DenverFairmount Adams p.40
Wilson, Clay Co. F Died 8/27/1932 at Bristol, Prowers Co. Ft. Lyon Nat Cem Bent p.41
Nash, James D. Co. F Died 4/24/1898 at Buena VistaCenterville Chaffee p.40
Vance, Eddie D. Co. B Died 5/6/1867 at DumontUnknown Clear Creek p.40
Henderson, Robert Co. I Died 1907 at ?Delta Delta p.
Wade, Samuel Co. I Died 3/16/1904 at Blaine, WACedar HillPaonia, Delta Co. CO
Woodruff, Samuel F. Co. F Died 2/11/1866 at Denver UnknownDenver p.40
Guernsey, Byron Co. M Died 11/18/1880 at Colorado Springs Evergreen El Paso p.40
Tindell, Samuel H. Co. G Died 11/16/1929 at Colorado Springs Evergreen El Paso p.40
[or Unknown Atwood, KS]
Ramsell, Moses S. Co. C Died 6/9/1913 at Colorado Springs Fairview El Paso p.40
Roper, John E. Co. D Died [no date] at Colorado Springs Fairview El Paso p.40
Moore, Thomas B. Co. H Died 3/2/1910 at Walsenburg MasonicHuerfano p.41
·Shirkey, Hiram Co. C Died 12/24/1926 at Loveland Grand View Ft. Collins, Larimer p.40
Stephens, James A. Co. G Died [no date] at Larimer CountyLakeside Larimer p.40
Snyder, Edson Co. D Died 1/29/1924 at Lamar Riverside Prowers p.41
Snyder, John Co. D Died 2/2/1890 at BeulahBeulah Pueblo p.41
·Mobley, John C. Co. B Died 2/28/1906 at AngoraThree Springs Rio Blanco p.38
Lewis, John D. Co. A Died 1901 at Monte VistaHomelake Rio Grande p.41
Allen, Edgar Co. A Died 2/10/1865 at Smith’s Fork, CO Possibly reburied at Ft. McPherson p.
Van Kirk, Henry Co. F Died 5/14/1865 at Valley Station, CO Probably reburied at Ft. McPhersonp.
Barnett, George Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Brundage, Hiram Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Gray, William H. Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Hall, Henry H. Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Hanchett, Alanson Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Ishman, David Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Jordan, James Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Koons, Anthony Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Lippincott, Davis Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
McArthur, Amos Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Moore, Edson D. Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Pierce, John M. Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Scott, Thomas Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Stebbins, Joel Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Talcott, Walter B. Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Starr, Hiram Co. F Died 6/21/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
Murphy, John Co. F Died 8/14/1865 at * Julesburg reburied at Ft. McPherson Sedgwick p.40
[* - these soldiers were probably moved from the old Fort Sedgwick Post
Cemetery and reburied in the Fort McPherson National Cemetery
as UNKNOWNS]
·Sanborn, Edwin B. Co. F Died 7/13/1908 at GreeleyLinn Grove Weld p.40
Ware, Eugene F. Co. A Died 7/2/1911 at Colorado Springs, CO Ft. Scott Nat. Cemetery Bourbon, KS p.40
·O’Brien, Nicholas J. Co. F Died 7/29/1916 at Denver, CO Lakeview Cheyenne, WY p.40
FLORIDA - grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
LeGro, James A. Co. K Died 5/15/1933 at Hawthorn Unknown Alachua p.52
Forney, Alexander Co. L Died 5/29/1922 at S. Jacksonville Unknown Duval p.52
Reynolds, Corydon Co. H Died 2/10/1928 at St. Cloud Mt. Peace Osceola p.53
IDAHO – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Anthony, William Co. B Died 6/24/1920 at BoiseUnknown Ada p.65
Ewan, Wilford Co. D Died 5/15/1924 at BoiseUnknown Ada p.65
Fackler, Henry H. Co. M Died 4/7/1927 at BoiseUnknown Ada p.65
Ivens (Ivers), Thomas H. Co. G Died 3/1/1919 at BoiseMorris Hill Ada p.65
Harris, Robert M. Co. G Died 10/7/1920 at Indian Valley Unknown Adams p.65
·Hammond, Orville H. Co. E Died 7/3/1916 at Coeur d’ Alene Forest Kootenai p.64
Irvin, Jacob Co. D Died 2/21/1908 Genesee, Unknown Latah p.64
Hanks, Peter Co. C Died 10/8/1918 at BuhlUnknown Twin Falls p.65
[see possible burial listing in Nebraska]
ILLINOIS – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Leffler, Godfrey Co. K Died 8/28/1919 at Soldier’s Home Unknown Quincy,Adams p.66
Phillips, John M. Co. B Died [no date] at Mount SterlingUnknown Brown p.66
·Valentine, Edward Co. C Died 4/11/1916 at ChicagoUnion Ridge Cook p.66
Welling, James M. Co. L Died 8/18/1916 at ChicagoUnknown Cook p.66
Crane, James Co. B Died 3/13/1927 at ChicagoUnknown Cook p.66
Welch, Wesley C. Co. M Died 3/20/1915 at Harvey Hazelwood Cook p.66
Hendee, William H. Co. K Died 5/10/1890 at Cook CountyOakwoods Cookp.67
Kane, Thomas Co. F Died [no date] at ElginBluff City Cook p.67
Mullen, Levi H. Co. G? Died 6/24/1924 at St. Joseph, MO Oakridge Forest Park, Cook Co. p.66
·Peterman, John M. Co. G Died [no date] at ?Elvaston Hancock p.66
Powell, Joseph W. Co. D Died 2/1/1898 at West Frankfort Denning Franklin p.69
·Jennings, Henry H. Co. H Died 8/24/1926 at Yates City Henderson Fulton p.66
Coleman, John W. Co. M Died 4/13/1923 at Murphysboro Tower Grove Jackson p.68
Wear, Thomas Co. F Died 10/19/1909 at Warren Unknown Jo Daviess p.66
Collins, Jesse L. Co. A Died 3/14/1885 at BushnellBushnell McDonough p.66
Bangness, Richard Co. D Died 3/28/1927 at New Boston New Boston Mercer p.66
Shirkey, John B. Co. A Died 8/3/1895 at ? Liter Morgan p.68
McCristal, George Co. C Died [no date] at ?Springdale Peoria p.66
Studer, Alloweis Co. L Died 11/13/1929 at Rock Island Unknown Rock Island p.66
·Oliver, Isaac S. Co. B Died 3/21/1864 at Camp Butler Camp Butler Nat CemSangamon p.68
Cammell, William Co. E Died 2/16/1917 at Sears Unknown ? p.71
INDIANA – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Platt, William Co. G Died 4/10/1914 at FowlerUnknown Benton p.74
Bates, William E. Co. H Died 2/11/1927 at Kirklin, Clinton Co. Bethel near Lebanon, Boone p.74
Pearsley, William Co. D Died 2/7/1916 at Lafayette, IN Crown Point Kokomo, Howard p.75
Hanner, Francis B. Co. L Died 9/14/1902 at Kurtz Cummins Jackson p.77
Richards, Augustus Co. F Died 3/2/1931 at Riverdale Unknown Putnam p.76
IOWA – grouped by county (refer to Iowa Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme, 1st Edition, 1998.)
# indicates a date for which newspapers are not available at the Iowa State Historical Society
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
·Pattee, Wallis Co. K Died 3/10/1887 at # Corning Oakland Adams p.58
Collins, Oscar Co. L Died 8/31/1920 at Luana Hardin Allamakee p.22
Pieper, John Co. F Died [no date] at Dorchester Dorchester Methodist Allamakee p.22
·Swearingen, William Co. H Died 3/31/1905 at CentervilleOakland Appanoose p.61
Martin, Stephen A. Co. A Died [no date] at Centerville Oakland Appanoose p.61
[This is probably an error, as a Stephen Martin died and is supposedly buried in Grand Island, NE]
·Sleeth, Caleb Co. E Died [no date] at CentervilleZoar Appanoose p.61
McKim, John D. Co. B Died 1925 at CentervilleSales Appanoose p.61
·Robley, John W. Co. E Died 1/1/1900 at Centerville Dale Appanoose p.61
·Salter, Ezra Co. C Died 8/28/1917 at Centerville Haines Appanoose p.61
Forsythe, Thomas J. Co. E Died 10/19/1927 at Dean Hilltown Appanoose p.61
·McDonald, John C. Co. E Died 1/31/1920 at CincinnatiEvergreen Appanoose p.61
·Albertson, John P. Co. E Died 11/4/1925 at Moulton Oakland Appanoose p.61
·Swartz, Carey Co. E Died 8/18/1916 at # Moulton Oakland Appanoose p.61
·Wight, John M. Co. C Died 2/18/1918 at # Moulton Oakland Appanoose p.61
Stearns (Stevens), Elisha Co. A Died 3/18/1911 at Mystic Philadelphia Garfield, Appanoose p.61
·Hoover (Houser), Moses Co. BDied 2/25 or 4/1/1902 at Unionville Taylor Appanoose p.61
·Anderson, David B. Co. D Died 7/3/1901 at Audubon Exira Audubon p.48
·Anderson, John A. Co. D Died 1/3/1888 at Exira Exira Audubon p.48
·Pitts, William Co. H Died 3/5/1931 at Vinton EvergreenBenton p.43
·Bristol, William H. STAFF Died 3/1/1911 at # Vinton Evergreen Benton p.43
·Randall, John Co. G Died 12/15/1916 at Marshalltown EvergreenBenton p.43
·Wright, Enos Co. H Died 4/30/1905 at MarshalltownWright Benton p.42
·Babcock, Daniel Co. K Died 6/15/1906 Cedar Falls Fairview Black Hawk p.31
·Leland, Henry P. Co. K Died 6/6/1909 at # Cedar Falls Fairview Black Hawk p.31
·Stilson, Chester B. Co. K Died 8/13/1911 at # Cedar Falls Fairview Black Hawk p.31
·Clark, Wilson M. Co. K Died 8/14/1870 at Seneca, IL Greenwood Cedar Falls, Black Hawk p.31
Hodgdon, John M. Co. K Died [no date] at ? Greenwood Cedar Falls, Black Hawk p.31
Truesdell, William Co. K Died [no date] at Waterloo Waterloo Black Hawk p.31
Hill, James D. Co. E Died 4/9/1885 at WaterlooWaterloo Twp. Black Hawk p.31
·Bartlett, William Co. H Died 4/8/1896 at # WaterlooFairview Black Hawk p.31
·Starr, William Co. F Died 9/19/1915 at Waterloo Fairview Black Hawk p.31
Hall, Henry H. Co. F Died 1/7/1865 at Waterloo Fairview Black Hawk p.31
Hurst, Henry Co. E Died 8/20/1924 at WaterlooFairview Black Hawk p.31
Fenstermaker, Steven Co. F Died 8/7/1881 at ?Fairview Black Hawk p.31
·Cotton, Isaac Co. G Died 2/24/1886 at La Porte City Westview Black Hawk p.31
·Henry, Alpheus Co. K Died 11/30/1911 at New York, NY Mt. Vernon Evangelical Black Hawk p.31
Hamilton, William Co. E Died 12/17/1912 at # Waterloo Spring Creek Chapel Black Hawk p.31
Turner, Michael V.B. Co. H Died 6/2/1910 at # Waterloo Elmwood Black Hawk p.31
Wells, Rollin R. Co. F Died 1/5/1902 at Spring Creek Spring Creek Black Hawk p.31
·Bentley, Layton B. Co. H Died 10/28/1919 at BooneLinwood Park Boone p.39
·Bentley, Marquis Co. H Died 8/6/1925 at BooneLinwood Park Boone p.39
Schuneman, John H. Co. H Died 8/4/1908 at BooneLinwood Park Boone p.39
·Young, Lewis Co. K Died 4/18/1913 at BooneLinwood Park Boone p.39
·Enfield, William Co. G Died 3/26/1879 at Moingona Quincy Boone p.39
Williams, John Co. D Died 1/20/1888 at MadridMadrid Boone p.39
·Shanewise, Frederick Co. F Died 8/25/1869 at # ReadlynGrove Hill Bremer p.31
·Barnhouse, John Co. K Died 6/1/1900 at Janesville Oakland Bremer p.31
·Baskins, Martin B. Co. K Died 9/25/1902 at Janesville Oakland Bremer p.31
Kyler, Jacob Co. K Died 10/28/1897 at JanesvilleOakland Bremer p.31
·Brown, Quincy H. Co. M Died 2/17/1876 at # Irma Spring Lake Waverly, Bremer p.31
Diamond, Henry Co. K Died 8/10/1897 at WaverlyHarlington Bremer p.31
Godfrey, William Co. I,L Died 6/7/1895 at WaverlyHarlington Bremer p.31
·Betts, Isacc Co. C Died 4/15/1933 at Wymore, NE Fairbank Fairbank, Buchanan p.31
·Dewald, Charles Co. F Died 3/25/1915 at Fairbank Fairbank Buchanan p.31
Rice, William Co. E Died 4/25/1923 at Brandon Prairie Hill Buchanan p.32
Cowles, Hiram Co. G Died [no date] at LamontCampton Buchanan p.32
Cowles, Ethan Co. G Died 7/6/1918 at LamontCampton Buchanan p.32
Grooms, William. W. Co. A Died 11/6/1907 at Independence Littleton Littleton, Buchanan p.32
Wilcox, John M. Co. D Died 2/26/1911 at Storm Lake Storm Lake Buena Vista p.26
Yountt, Abraham Co. F Died [no date] at ?Harlan Butler p.37
Wemple, Philip Co. K Died 11/15/1906 at ParkersburgOak Hill Butler p.30
Wilson, William H. Co. B Died 4/2/1936 at WaterlooOak Hill Butler p.30
Randall, John or Co. M Died [no date] at PomeroyUnion Calhoun p.27
Randall, Henry
·Churchill, Justin Co. L Died 1/19/1913 at Coon Rapids Coon RapidsCarroll p.38
·Rodgers, Thomas H. Co. L Died 7/27/1918 at Anita Evergreen Cass p.48
·Hinchliffe, Robert L. Co. L Died 3/18/1908 at MassenaMassena Center Cass p.48
·Adair, Samuel Co. L Died 8/19/1920 at Regan, ND West Branch Cedar p.44
·Bryson, Joseph Co. L Died [no date] at ? MasonicCedar p.44
Emerson, William H. Co. M Died [no date] at ?Massillon Center Cedar p.44
Reamer, Ralph Co. M Died 5/8/1916 at Oxford Mills Dayton Township Cedar p.44
Smith, Harrison Co. M Died 9/29/1934 at ClarenceDayton Valley Cedar p.44
Cornwall, George Co. H Died 7/27/1925 at SpringdaleDowney Cedar p.44
·Russell, John J. Co. M Died 10/3/1911 at Mason City Elmwood Cerro Gordo p.20
·Stevens, Seth Co. M Died 10/19/1904 at Mason City Elmwood Cerro Gordo p.20
McNany, Charles Co. M Died [no date] at Mason City Elmwood Cerro Gordo p.20
Williams, Ira Co. M Died 5/3/1877 at Mason City Elmwood Cerro Gordo p.20
Palmer, Eber Co. K Died 11/20/1920 at Clear Lake Clear Lake Cerro Gordo p.19
·Washington, Martin Co. L Died 12/13/1879 at Dougherty St. Patrick’s Cerro Gordo p.30
Glidden, John Co. F Died 12/1/1912 at Cherokee Oak Hill Cherokee p.25
Phipps, Luther Co. L Died 5/1/1924 at Cherokee Oak Hill Cherokee p.25
Funk, George W. Co. L Died 1936 at AftonAfton Cherokee p.25
Gibson, James Co. A Died 9/9/1869 at NashuaOak Hill Chickasaw p.21
Dickerson, Robert Co. F Died 5/1/1906 at Mount CarrollMount Carroll Chickasaw p.21
Clark, David [Daniel] Co. E Died 12/10/1899 at Osceola Maple Hill Clarke NEW
Dodd, Thomas C. Co. F Died 2/8/1907 at Gettysburg, SDRiverside Clay p.16
Jones, George C. Co. L Died 2/1/1913 at McGregor Pleasant Grove Clayton p.23
Buck, Orville M. Co. F Died 4/1/1922 at Sioux Falls, SD Pleasant Grove Clayton p.23
Ellis, Joseph Co. H Died [no date] at McGregor Pleasant Grove Clayton p.23
·Judy, John Henry Co. L Died 1/20/1917 at ElkaderEastside Clayton p.33
Butts, Leroy A. Co. K Died 11/8/1916 at Monona Monona City Clayton p.23
Dill, William Co. H Died 1/29/1899 at VolgaHill Crest Clayton p.32
Morse, Salem Co. F Died 11/19/1903 at VolgaHill Crest Clayton p.32
Foster, Homer Co. F Died 1909 at Giard.Council Hill Clayton
Hazen, Robert S., Jr. Co. G Died 4/26/1906 at # ClintonSpringdale Clinton p.55
Saxton, George W. Co. M Died 1/10/1931 at ClintonSpringfield Clinton p.55
·Chamberlain, Wm. S. Co. F Died 11/29/1908 at CharlotteRossiter Clinton p.45
Saxton, James P. Co. M Died [no date] at De WittElmwood Clinton p.45
Schieffer, Abraham Co. M Died 11/28/1908 at Olive Twp. UnknownClinton
Eaton, Samuel R. Co. B Died [no date] at DenisonOakland Crawford p.37
·Armstrong, Samuel Co. G Died 8/6/1923 at Woodward Woodward Dallas p.39
·Stevens, Edward J Co. L Died 12/30/1922 at Des Moines, IA MasonicDallas p.39
·Smock, Abraham Co. C Died 6/3/1863 at Davenport Mars Hill Floris, Davis p.62
·Smock, Felix T. Co. C Died 3/21/1870 at Wapello Mars HillFloris,Davis p.62
·Wilkinson, Isam E. Co. A Died 5/20/1916 at Floris Floris Davis p.62
·Wilkinson, Richard J. Co. A Died 2/24/1912 at FlorisIOOF Lick Twp.,Davis p.62
·Gabelmann, Alex Co. C Died 11/15/1925 at Bloomfield Bloomfield South Davis p.62
·Herod, Coleman B. Co. G Died 2/9/1930 at Bloomfield Bloomfield SouthDavis p.62
·Varner, James Co. D Died 7/24/1909 at Bloomfield Lester Davis p.62
·Campbell, John W. Co. C Died 1/5/1916 at Rapid City, SD IOOF Bloomfield, Davis p.62
·Haywood, Dudley Co. D Died 5/23/1906 at BloomfieldIOOF Davis p.62
·Monroe, Wesley Co. C Died 5/23/1894 at FlorisIOOF Davis p.62
·Miller, William H. Co. C Died 10/3/1917 at Bloomfield IOOF Davis p.62
·Glassburner, David Co. B Died 5/30/1908 at DrakesvilleDrakesville Davis p.62
·Lemmon, John A. Co. A Died 2/14/1929 at Troy Troy Davis p.62
·Russell, William Co. L Died 11/29/1909 at Troy Troy Davis p.62
·Romick, Winfield Co. A Died 8/19/1865 at Philadelphia, PATroy Davis p.62
·Shields, William H. Co. C Died 5/3/1936 at OttumwaRouch Troy, Davis p.62
·Brown, William Co. D Died 7/22/1863 at Davenport Iowaville Davis p.62
·Breckinridge, George Co. D Died 10/1/1922 at Salt CreekBethlehem Davis p.62
·Lewis, Samuel Co. D Died 1/3/1917 at Salt CreekHem Davis p.62
·Hart, George Co. C Died 10/31/1887 at Salt Creek Pierce Davis p.62
·Hunt, Thomas Co. L Died 10/4/1899 at Salt CreekHeidlebaugh Davis p.62
·Perry. John T. Co. C Died 6/15/1935 at Salt CreekHeidlebaugh Davis p.62
·Swaim, George M. Co. C Died 5/26/1915 at White Elm Heidlebaugh Davis p.62
·Gandy, Samuel Co. C Died 1/20/1867 at Salt CreekJackson Davis p.62
·Forsythe, Thomas Co. E Died 3/4/1912 at Davis CountyHorn Davis p.62
·Coop, Philip M. Co. D Died 11/18/1932 at LamoniRose Hill Decatur p.59
Michael, John D. Co. H Died 12/18/1909 at Greeley Grant View Delaware p.33
Merton, John Co. H Died 3/18/1932 at Colesburg Zion Delaware p.33
Chambers, Henry Co. H Died 9/9/1905 at Colesburg Oak Hill Delaware p.33
Colston, Isaac Co. G Died 2/5/1919 at ManchesterOakland Delaware p.33
·Bridges, John D. Co. C Died 3/27/1925 at Mediapolis Kossuth Des Moines p.64
·Dodds, John H. Co. K Died 5/24/1924 at Danville Jagger Des Moines p.64
·Elliott, William J. Co. M Died 12/20/1918 at Burlington Chandler Des Moines p.64
·Hennings, Samuel Co. G Died 3/18/1916 at Burlington Aspen Grove Des Moines p.64
·Potter, Thomas J. Co. A Died 3/9/1888 at Washington, DC Aspen Grove Des Moines p.64
·Franklin, Robinson Co. D Died 2/21/1888 at BurlingtonAspen Grove Des Moines p.64
Arthur, Homer D. Co. I Died 2/26/1909 at Spirit Lake Lake View Dickinson p.16
Crosby, Norton Co. I Died 5/20/1863 at # Spirit Lake Lake View Dickinson p.16
Owen, Hiram C. Co. I Died 5/15/1924 at Spirit Lake Lake View Dickinson p.16
Francis, John Co. I Died 4/10/1907 at Spirit Lake Lake View Dickinson p.16
Ellis, Ethial Co. I Died 4/18/1890 at Spirit Lake Lake View Dickinson p.16
Hetherington, Thomas Co. K Died 3/10/1865 at # Spirit Lake Lake View Dickinson p.16
Shepherd, Andrew Co. K Died 3/10/1865 at Spirit Lake Unknown Dickinson p.16
Snyder, Jacob Co. I Died 11/26/1914 at Okoboji Unknown Dickinson p.16
Ring, Lafayette Co. G Died 10/11/1928 at Cherokee OkobojiDickinson p.16
Smith, Milton J. Co. I Died 11/26/1914 at Okoboji OkobojiDickinson p.53
Mathison, Gunder Co. I Died 5/10/1926 at Milford Little Sioux Lutheran Dickinson p.16
Hunter, Isaac P. Co. F Died 12/10/1930 at Cascade Cascade Protestant Dubuque p.33
Kane, Stephen H. Co. C Died 3/27/1900 at CascadeCascade Dubuque
Billings, Sylvester Co. B Died 9/13/1884 at Alpha Bethel Fayette p.22
Bond, Hiram Co. D Died 6/7/1933 at ArlingtonArlington Fayette p.32
Horch, Nicholas Co. E Died 4/30/1903 Arlington ?UnknownFayette p.32
Burroughs, George Co. F Died 7/9/1931 at # Hawkeye Oak Ridge Fayette p.22
Hathaway, Charles R. Co. F Died 8/13/1866 at Auburn Twp. Oakridge Fayette
·Brown, Jay W. Co. M Died 10/27/1918 at Chicago, IL West Union Fayette p.22
·Osgood, Lemuel Co. F Died [no date] at West UnionWest UnionFayette p.22
·Nicoll, Joseph Co. F Died 11/26/1878 at West UnionWest UnionFayette p.22
·Green, Thomas Co. Died 1/21/1904 at Hollywood, CAWest UnionFayette p.22
·Lacey, Milo Co. F Died 6/25/1869 at West Union West UnionFayette p.22
·Heald, Amos S. Co. A Died 10/23/1902 at West Union West Union Fayette p.22
·Brewer, John Co. F Died 7/27/1891 at West Union West Union Fayette p.22
Hopkins, Ormand N. Co. I Died 12/11/1923 at West Union Elgin Fayette p.22
·Harris, Lord M. Co. K Died 4/1/1913 at Rockford Riverside Floyd p.20
·Thatcher, George R. Co. A Died 12/9/1927 at Sidney SidneyFremont p.56
·Smith, Chauncey Co. I Died [no date] at RivertonRiverton Fremont p.56
·Ferguson, Luther D. Co. M Died 2/22/1920 at Dana Paton Twp. Greene p.39
·Ferguson, Charles Co. M Died 3/28/1938 at Churdan Highland Twp. Greene p.38
·Wherry, Mathew Co. M Died 2/21/1930 at ChurdanHighland Twp. Greene p.38
·Wherry, Samuel S. Co. M Died 7/27/1911 at JeffersonJefferson Greene p.39
·Jones, Moses E. Co. G Died [no date] at JeffersonJefferson Greene p.39
Good, Joseph Co. F Died 9/11/1886 at Grundy CenterFairview Grundy p.30
Jameson, Samuel A. Co. G Died 2/4/1910 at Webster City Graceland Hamilton p.28
·Landreth, Zachariah Co. M Died 2/3/1929 at Stratford Oak Grove Hamilton p.39
Anderson, Henry Co. H Died [no date] at ?Unknown Hardin ? p.30
·Kenney, John #2 Co. M Died 11/20/1879 at AckleySt. Mary’s Hardin p.30
Hayden, James Co. G Died 5/16/1937 at EldoraBerlin Berlin, Hardin p.30
Lee, Corwin Co. I Died 11/17, 1888 at EldoraEldora Hardin p.30
Mowder, James Co. M Died 8/18/1894 at UnionOak Hill Hardin p.41
·Rowe, George R. Co. G Died 7/21/1915 at # LoganBethel Harrison p.46
Witcher, Jackson W. Co. L Died 2/22/1900 at LoganLogan Harrison p.46
Davis, Friend Co. E Died 12/25/1875 at DunlapPleasant Hill Harrison p.36
Fix, William T. Co. A Died 8/1/1913 at # Winfield Winfield/Scott Twp. Henry p.54
·Coad, Thomas Co. K Died 5/18/1900 at New London Trinity Mt. Union, Henry p.54
Miller, Charles H. Co. F Died 12/23/1930 at Cresco Oak Lawn Howard p.21
Howe, Jesse Co. F Died 6/28/1865 at AlbionForreston Twp. Lime Springs, Howard p.21
Turner, Andrew J. Co. D Died [no date] at CrescoNew Oregon Howard p.21
·Bucher, Richard Co. E Died 2/7/1908 at North English Piersol’s Iowa p.52
Brady, William Co. M Died 1/8/1929 at Emeline Hickory Grove Emeline, Jackson p.45
·Brady, Joseph Co. M Died 4/2/1925 at Maquoketa Mount Hope Jackson p.45
Stafford, William Co. I Died 1891 at Maquoketa Mount Hope Jackson p.45
Suthers, Abraham Co. M Died 11/8/1918 at Maquoketa Mount Hope Jackson p.45
·Baker, John M. Co. G Died 10/23/1868 at Greencastle Greencastle Jasper p.40
·Adamson, Abraham Co. G Died 11/28/1917 at Newton Union Jasper p.41
·Allen, James T. Co. G Died 8/21/1883 at Hastings, NE Union Jasper p.41
·Hinsdale, Charles Co. C Died 11/26/1907 at Newton Union Jasper p.41
·Chenoweth, Andrew J.Co. G Died 3/19/1932 at Newton Mount Zion Jasper p.41
·Kenedy, William Co. G Died 7/9/1920 at Newton Sugar Grove Jasper p.41
·Hammer, Ira L. Co. G Died 9/18/1919 at Kellogg Our Silent City Jasper p.41
Shumaker, James Co. M Died 4/1913 at # Lynnville Unknown Jasper p.51
Barkenhoultz, Andrew (Peter) Co. D Died after 1910 at Fairview Twp.Unknown Jasper p.51
·Estle, William Co. G Died 3/15/1928 at Monroe Monroe Jasper p.51
·Hammer, Elisha Co. G Died 5/22/1907 at Marshalltown Friends-Center Jasper p.41
·Hammer, John H. Co. G Died 4/7/1928 at Des Moines Friends-Center Jasper p.41
·Hammer, Aaron T. Co. G Died 5/2/1898 at ?Friends-Center Jasper p.41
·Sego, John W. Co. G Died 7/31/1929 at Des Moines Restland Baxter, Jasper p.41
·Coleman, David G. Co. D Died 4/7/1863 at Libertyville Fell Jefferson p.62
Coleman, David Co. D Died 4/17/1866 at LibertyvilleUnknown Jefferson p.62
·Fry, James M. Co. C Died 6/29/1926 at Des Moines Twp.Fell Jefferson p.62
·Glenn, William Co. C Died 4/26/1869 at Des Moines Twp.Cominger Jefferson p.62
·Davis, William F. Co. A Died 12/1/1893 at Abingdon Abingdon Jefferson p.52
·Huddleston, Nathen Co. A Died [no date] at Abingdon Abingdon Jefferson p.52
·McVay, William Co. H Died 8/16/1864 at Cow Creek, KSAbingdon Jefferson p.52
·Liming, Christopher Co. C Died 4/16/1915 at Fairfield Evergreen Jefferson p.63
·Hunt, William T. Co. A Died 3/23/1885 at Fairfield Old FairfieldJefferson p.63
·Cherry, Amos R. Co. L Died 12/3/1904 at Iowa City Oakland Johnson p.53
·Luse, Marvin R. Co. L Died 7/7/1892 at Des Moines Oakland Johnson p.53
·Poland, James H. Co. L Died 5/26/1912 at Iowa City Oakland Johnson p.53
Matthews, James M. Co. F Died 7/8/1917 at Lorena, OKOakland Johnson p.53
Elliott, Robert Co. K Died 8/3/1871 at Iowa City Oakland Johnson p.53
·Garrett, Elisha Jr. Co. L Died 3/13/1877 at Iowa CityOakland Johnson p.53
·Johnson, Thomas V. Co. K Died 11/23/1880 at Iowa CityOakland Johnson p.53
·Mahana, Bradley Co. L Died 9/11/1874 at Iowa City Oakland Johnson p.53
·Mahana, William B. Co. L Died 8/7/1900 at Mt. PleasantOakland Johnson p.53
·Wieneke, Henry Co. L Died 2/20/1923 at Iowa City Oakland Johnson p.53
·Ruth, Alexander Co. L Died 1/28/1911 at Winterset Sandtown Johnson p.53
Cambridge, James A. Co. L Died 8/3/1904 at Iowa City Morse Johnson p.53
Cannon, Edward Co. L Died 2/18/1867 at Iowa City St. Joseph’s Johnson p.53
Hills, John Co. K Died [no date] at ?St. Joseph’s Johnson p.53
·Davis, Josiah W. Co. K Died 12/29/1869 at ? Unity Johnson p.53
Howlett, James [alias] Co. K Died 1/3/1909 at Iowa City Oak Hill ?? Johnson p.53
(real name was James Cropley)
Reynolds, John Co. K Died [no date] at ?Oak Hill Johnson p.53
·Amlong, George Co. L Died [no date] at ?Walker Tiffin, Johnson p.54
·Clearman, Albert R. Co. L Died 9/14/1880 at OxfordOxford Johnson p.43
·Summerhays, Wm. Co. D Died 9/3/1927 at OxfordOxford Johnson p.43
·Page, Horace Co. L Died 12/14/1914 at Lone Tree Lone Tree Johnson p.54
·Riley, Robert Co. L Died 6/9/1879 at ?Lone Tree Johnson p.54
·Slaight, Charles P. Co. K Died 8/17/1904 at North LibertyRidgewood Johnson p.43
Cooper, Samuel Co. H Died 3/18/1900 at Oxford Mills Mayflower Jones p.44
Zeller, Joseph Co. M Died 1899 at Oxford Mills Mayflower Jones p.44
Courtright, Anthony Co. M Died 2/10/1900 at Oxford Mills Mayflower/Spads Jones p.44
Shover, John Co. K Died 8/17/1904 at Monticello Oakwood Jones p.44
Ronan, John Co. F Died 12/28/1915 at Stone City Holy Cross Jones
Harwood, Edmond Co. L Died 9/3/1936 at Monmouth Canton Jones p.44
Yule, George W. Co. M Died 1895 at AnamosaRiverside Jones p.44
Wolf, George H. Co. M Died 8/11/1889 at Hale Twp.Diamond Jones p.44
Greene, John B. Co. M Died 1876 at WyomingWyoming Jones p.44
Cox, James H. Co. M Died 4/1/1910 at Richland Friends Keokuk p.53
·Moore, Daniel D. Co. D Died 11/27/1904 at Sigourney Pleasant Grove Keokuk p.52
·Smith, James G. Co. A Died 2/25/1891 at Sigourney Pleasant Grove Keokuk p.52
·Smith, George Co. A Died 1/3/1929 at Kansas City, KSPleasant Grove Keokuk p.52
·Beatty, William Co. M Died 4/21/1913 at Los Angeles, CA Pleasant GroveKeokuk p.52
·Corpron, George W. Co. D Died 8/7/1902 at Mount Pleasant Pleasant GroveKeokuk p.52
·Kauble, William Co. A Died 8/24/1913 at Mount Pleasant Pleasant GroveKeokuk p.63
Cox, David UN Died [no date] at Sigourney Pleasant Grove Keokuk p.52
·Collins, Alexander H. Co. A Died 10/6/1881 at # Sigourney deArmond Ollie, Keokuk p.52
1.McMickle, Wm. H. Co. C Died 8/14/1927 at Marshalltown Abel Hedrick, Keokuk p.52
2.Collins, John W. Co. A Died 4/13/1863 Ollie Ollie Keokuk p.52
Collins, George W. Co. A Died 10/6/1912 at Ollie Ollie Keokuk p.52
Brant, Horatio Co. K Died 6/17/1930 at Ollie OllieKeokuk p.52
3.Quick, James Co. A Died 9/24/1880 at OllieRock Creek Keokuk p.52
4.Hardy, Alfred Co. K Died 3/24/1878 at WashingtonSpringfield Keokuk p.52
Alvord, Charles M. Co. K Died 11/7/1876 at Burt Unknown Kossuth p.18
[a second source says he may be buried at Madison, Greenwood County, KS]
Bartlett, Michael Co. H Died 3/1/1876 at Burt Portland Twp.Burt, Kossuth p.18
Wheeler, Horace Co. E Died 1896 at AlgonaRiverview Kossuth p.18
5.Dailey, Anthony Co. K Died 1/9/1899 at # Sheffield Hillside? Franklin, Lee p.30
Fouts, Thomas D. Co. D Died 7/7/1895 Warsaw, IL Unknown Burlington Lee p.64
6.Rodgers, Thomas J. Co. M Died 1/11/1890 at Leavenworth, KS Fairview Denmark, Lee p.64
Swem, Edward L. Co. K Died 5/4/1918 at Cedar Rapids Oak Hill Linn p.43
Payn, Isaac Co. L Died 1904 at Cedar RapidsLinwood Linn p.43
Plummer, Amos Co. L Died March 1928 at Springville Springville Linn p.44
7.Brown, Edwin B.Co. L Died 1/28/1905 at Walker Walker Linn p.43
Hull, William Co. L Died circa 1905 at Soldiers HomeUnknown Linn p.43
Thornton, Francis M. Co. F Died 8/8/1920 at Letts Letts/Lettsville Louisa p.54
Clark, James Co. M Died [no date] at Morning SunElmwood Louisa p.54
8.Wanzer, Henry Co. M Died 1/13/1887 at Bradford, ARK Newport Bethel Louisa p.54
9.Clark, Curtis Co. H Died 4/16/1896 at Chariton Chariton Lucas p.50
Tuttle, Harvey Co. B Died 1885 at Chariton Freedom Lucas p.50
Smith, Phillip Co. B Died 1/12/1875 at CharitonCalvary Lucas p.50
or Smith, Philip Co. K
10.Rhodes, Joshua (John)Co. B Died 5/22/1913 at Winterset Winterset Madison p.49
Stafford, William Co. I Died 1/24/1911 at Winterset Winterset Madison p.49
1.Buchanan, Joseph Co. M Died 2/18/1903 at Winterset Winterset Madison p.49
2.Stephenson, (Stinson) John Co. F Died 1/7/1929 at Winterset Primitive Baptist Madison p.48
1.Rowe, David G. Co. B Died 9/29/1908 at Macksburg Moon Madison p.48
2.Rowe, Marth. Co. L Died 12/30/1917 at Macksburg Moon Madison p.48
3.Waggoner, DavidCo. B Died 4/21/1863 at # Oskaloosa Forest Mahaska p.51
4.Vance, Oliver H. Co. E Died 6/4/1927 at Oskaloosa Forest Mahaska p.51
McPherson, John Co. C Died 10/3/1898 at OskaloosaForest Mahaska
Galer, George W. Co. B Died 3/16/1863 at Davenport Unknown Oskaloosa, Mahaska p.51
5.Martin, William Co. D Died 6/23/1914 at Iowa Soldiers Home Friends-Lincoln Twp Mahaska p.51
6.Wimer, Sylvester Co. D Died 8/13/1919 at New Sharon Friends Mahaska p.51
7.Wagoner, Frederick Co. H Died 1/8/1922 at Fremont White Oak Grove Mahaska p.52
8.Sumner, Washington Co. B Died 8/18/1880 at Mahaska Co.White Oak Grove Mahaska p.52
Ayers, Franklin Co. C Died 6/19/1863 at Rose HillWhite Oak Grove Mahaska p.52
Hill, Andrew J. Co. C Died 11/23/1896 at FremontFremont Mahaska p.52
Terrell, Leander Co. B Died 8/8/1926 at Harrison HighlandMahaska
1.Crozier, George Co. A Died 5/20/1929 at Clinton Graceland Knoxville, Marion p.51
2.Kersey, Samuel Co. B Died 7/1/1919 at Knoxville Breckenridge Marion p.51
3.Beltzell, George C. Co. E Died 10/16/1900 at Swan Swan Marion p.50
4.Hartshorn, Edward Co. A Died [no date] at Bussey Greenlawn Marion p.51
Smith, Philip Co. K Died [no date] at AtticaIndiana Chapel Marion p.51
or Smith, Phillip Co. B
Gray, Amos Co. C Died 8/11/1865 at PleasantvillePleasantville Marion
1.King, Jeremiah Co. F Died 6/20/1938 at HarveyEureka Marion p.51
2.Anderson, Sanford Co. H Died 6/9/1907 LiscombLiscombMarshall p.41
3.Shoemaker, James W. Co. H Died 2/12/1911 at MarshalltownGAR Marshall p.41
4.Amlong, Ransom D. Co. L Died 10/5/1919 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
5.Barney, Hiram D. Co. G Died 1/25/1929 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
6.Davis, Alfred W. Co. F Died 7/4/1896 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
7.Hopkins, David Co. M Died 8/26/1914 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
8.Kirk, Samuel M. Co. L Died 6/15/1926 at Marshalltown GARMarshall p.41
1.Belle, Andres Co. E Died Oct/Nov 1896 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
2.Campbell, John Co. L Died 8/21/1897 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
3.Clark, Alexander Co. B Died 7/12/1892 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
4.Clark, Joel Co. B Died 8/30/1929 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
5.Kerr, Thomas Co. G Died 4/19/1910 at Marshalltown GARMarshall p.41
6.Mann, Isaac B. Co. K Died 4/28/1917 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
7.Mayberry, Calvin Co. M Died 7/14/1925 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
8.Miller, Elias M. Co. H Died 9/10/1919 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
9.Morrow, David Co. A Died 4/16/1900 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
10.Smith, Franzce A. Co. M Died 2/3/1901 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
11.Warner, William Co. F Died 6/6/1908 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
12.Yeomans, Stephen STAFF Died 9/8/1903 at Marshalltown GARMarshall p.41
1.Florer, George Co. E Died 12/15/1913 at Marshalltown GAR Marshall p.41
2.Davis, Preston Co. M Died 10/3/1908 at Marshalltown Riverside Marshall p.41
1.Dugan, James Co. M Died [no date] at Marshalltown Riverside Marshall p.41
2.Rhodes, Daniel Co. B Died 6/21/1916 at Emerson Emerson Mills p.47
3.Cross, Alfred H. Co. A Died 5/15/1904 at Council Bluffs Hillsdale Malvern, Mills p.46
Pinkerton, Mervin Co. I Died 12/20/1897 at TaborTabor Mills p.56
Engle, Henry Co. C Died 3/16/1891 at TaborWausbonsie Mills p.56
Jones, Andrew J. Co. D Died 12/23/1901 at South CreekEast Liberty Mills p.56
Holbrook, A. Newcomb Co. M Died 4/11/1914 at # Riceville Riverside Mitchell p.21
McBeath, James R. Co. M Died [no date] at WhitingUnknown Monona p.
4.Irish, Omar Co. M Died 8/28/1924 at Hot Springs, SD Hite Whiting, Monona p.35
5.Sanford, Abraham Co. D Died 1/2/1909 at # Mapleton Mt. Hope Monona p.36
Miller, Chalmers A. Co. G Died 2/22/1926 at Mapleton Mt. Hope Monona p.36
6.Anderson, William Co. L Died 2/3/1908 at Onowa Onowa Monona p.36
7.Burgess, Walter Co. I Died 7/20/1921 at Onowa Onowa Monona p.36
Mead, Frank H. Co. I Died 2/13/1914 at Onawa Onowa Monona p.36
8.Nye, John W. Co. L Died 12/26/1908 at Des Moines Woodlawn Lovilla, Monroe p.51
9.Coppel, David Co. I Died 4/23/1864 at Des Moines Osborn Monroe p.51
10.Foster, James Co. B Died 10/23/1897 at Eddyville BridgeportMonroe p.51
11.Billings, Levi W. Co. B Died 3/2/1927 at AlbiaOak View Monroe p.51
12. Howard, Paris Co. D Died 12/15/1924 at AlbiaOak View Monroe p.51
13.Gray, Seth Co. L Died 4/24/1926 at AlbiaPringleMonroe p.51
14.Martin, Samuel Co. D Died 2/12/1863 at Ottumwa Service Chapel Monroe p.51
Redman, William Co. A Died 1916 at Red Oak Evergreen Montgomery p.47
1.Waldron, Samuel J. Co. L Died 8/15/1911 at Red Oak Evergreen Montgomery p.47
2.Kimpson, Hugh Co. C Died 4/29/1911 at GrantEast Grant Montgomery p.47
Taylor, John Co. E Died 5/12/1914 at Muscatine UnknownMuscatine p.54
1.Wright, Robert Co. K Died [no date] at West LibertyOak Ridge Muscatine p.54
2.Ulrick, Fredrick Co. I Died 5/8/1914 at Muscatine GreenwoodMuscatine p.54
Lewis, James M. Co. L Died 2/19/1930 at Marshalltown Pleasant Hill O’Brien p.15
Wood, Samuel C. Co. F Died 3/12/1932 at Primghar Pleasant Hill O’Brien p.15
3.Beals, Job S. Co. G Died 6/24/1930 at Loveland, CO Maple Hill College Springs, Page p.57
4.Harper, James Co. A Died 1/9/1900 at Shenandoah Rose Hill Page p.57
Tompkins, James H. Co. C Died 3/4/1921 at Hepburn North Grove Page p.57
Kilse (Klise), John W. Co. M Died 10/11/1914 at Le MarsCity Plymouth
White, Thomas S. Co. I Died 10/3/1879 at Le MarsCity Plymouth p.24
Henderson, George Co. M Died 10/22/1927 at Pocohantas Clinton & Garfield Rolfe, Pocohantas p.27
Whitman, Mark Co. G Died 5/23/1894 at Clinton Clinton & Garfield Rolfe, Pocohantas p.27
5.Deford, Franklin Co. A Died 11/18/1923 at Des Moines Jordan Polk p.50
6.Dysart, Gideon S. Co. G Died 5/27/1928 at Des Moines Glendale Polk p.50
7.Moore, Leman Co. D Died 12/22/1914 at Des Moines Glendale Polk p.50
8.Steel, George W. Co. M Died 3/4/1929 at MarshalltownGlendale Polk p.50
1.Waldron, William O. Co. L Died 4/17/1907 at Des Moines Glendale Polk p.50
2.Hurt, Shubael Co. E Died 11/23/1928 at Des Moines Glendale/Masonic Polk p.50
Hardin, Thomas I. Co. D Died [no date] at Des MoinesWoodland Polk p.50
Hamilton, Archibald STAFF Died 12/27/1908 at UNKNOWN Unknown [in Des Moines in 1900] p.50
3.Tuttle, Lewis Co. B Died 11/18/1898 at Des MoinesWoodland Polk p.50
4.Corning, Charles Co. L Died 10/17/1894 at Des MoinesWoodland Polk p.50
5.Burrows, William Co. G Died 2/23/1926 at Des MoinesWoodland Polk p.50
1.Haines, Joseph Co. G Died [no date] at AltoonaOld Altoona Polk p.50
2.Thompson, John Co. L Died 1901 at ?Greenwood Polk p.50
3.Babb, William S. Co. D Died 5/22/1914 at Leavenworth , KSOak Grove Polk p.50
Biggs, Amos Co. D Died after 1910 at Des Moines ?Unknown Polk p.50
4.Casady, Samuel H. Co. I Died 12/24/1873 at Council Bluffs Fairview Pottawatamie p.46
5.Rohner, Christian Co. I Died 10/29/1915 at Council Bluffs Walnut Hill Pottawatamie p.46
Cavett, Andrew J. Co. K Died 10/14/1919 at Council Bluffs Walnut Hill ? Pottawatamie p.46
6.Ayers, William C. Co. D Died 8/26/1932 at Rosslyn, VA Walnut Hill Pottawatamie p.46
7.Bolton, John H. Co. A Died 7/30/1919 at Council Bluffs Walnut Hill Pottawatamie p.46
8.Lunkly, Charles Co. A Died 4/15/1905 at Council Bluffs Walnut Hill Pottawatamie p.46
9.Rapp, Peter Co. L Died 12/9/1917 at Council Bluffs Walnut Hill Pottawatamie p.46
Story, James E. Co. E Died 1899 at Council Bluffs Unknown Pottawatamie p.46
Smith, William Co. F Died 8/10/1925 at MindenMinden Pottawattamie p.47
1.White, Lewis J. Co. D Died 3/3/1897 at MontezumaIOOF Poweshiek p.52
Dixson, Isaac Co. L Died 8/31/1911 at Moberly Unknown Randolph
2.Willey, Andrew J. STAFF Died 10/16/1891 at McCook, NE Rose Hill Mt. Ayr, Ringgold p.59
3.Houdyshell, Andrew Co. H Died 6/28/1907 at Mt. AyrRose Hill Ringgold p.59
4.Jones, Samuel Co. H Died 1/16/1881 at Mt. AyrOak Ridge Ringgold p.59
Bach, William Co. D Died 6/25/1921 at Auburn Oaklawn Grant City, Sac p.26
5.Corderman, Daniel Co. L Died 2/18/1929 at Sac City Oakland Sac p.26
Hallett, David E. Co. H Died 10/24/1936 at Sac City Oakland Sac p.26
Cory, Hugh M. Co. K Died 1/17/1921 at Sac City Cory Grove Sac p.26
McQuirk, Edward Co. B Died 1906 at EarlySacred Heart Sac p.26
Clark, Joseph H. Co. D Died 6/9/1931 at Davenport Oakdale Scott p.55
Guy, John A. Co. A Died 11/24/1890 at # Davenport Oakdale Scott p.55
Smith, Robert Co. L Died 11/6/1907 at DavenportOakdale Scott p.55
Anderson, Charles Co. L Died 4/13/1864 at Davenport Unknown Scott p.55
Cackley, Benjamin Co. C Died 4/23/1863 at Davenport Unknown Scott p.55
McClintock, John Co. C Died 8/1/1863 at Davenport Unknown (check Ashland, IA) p.55
Thornburgh, Amos Co. D Died 6/13/1863 at Davenport Unknown Scott p.55
Torrence, Thomas Co. C Died 9/10/1863 at Davenport Unknown Scott p.55
Hizey, (Heiser) Joseph Co. B Died 3/19/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
Burk, Thomas Co. F Died 8/31/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
Lawrence, Robert P. Co. G Died 6/7/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
6.Anway, Andrew Co. F Died 5/6/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
7.Brohard, John T. Co. E Died 7/6/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
1.Currier, George W. Co. G Died 5/26/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
2.Hardesty, Joseph Co. F Died 8/21/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
1.Kessler, Jacob Co. E Died 8/1/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
2.Rounds, Joseph W. Co. F Died 6/22/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
3.Train, Smith H. Co. E Died 6/6/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
4.Wickham, John S. Co. F Died 7/28/1863 at Davenport Oakdale reburied Rock Island Nat Cem p.55
5.Jamison, Jacob B. Co. G Died 5/6/1863 at Davenport Rock Island Nat CemScott p.55
Shumaker, George H. Co. M Died 1921 at Harlan Unknown Shelby p.37
West, Samuel M. Co. M Died 11/5/1891 at IrwinOak Hill Shelby p.37
McElhaney, Thomas Co. I Died 11/10/1914 at Hot Springs, SD Riverside Akron, Sioux p.14
Akins, Jesse Co. B Died 6/22/1921 at Hawarden Grace Hill Sioux p.14
1.Adams, George W. Co. G Died 9/13/1872 at NevadaNevada Story p.40
2.Tetwiler, Henry Co. G Died 12/20/1924 at NevadaNevada Story p.40
3.Holland, Edward C. Co. G Died 9/28/1921at Maxwell Maxwell Story p.40
4.Boyd, Henry R. Co. H Died 3/2/1914 at Lacy [Pierce], SD Fairview Story City, Story p.40
5.Thatcher, Charles N. Co. D Died 2/9/1925 at Daphne, AL Zearing Zearing, IA Story p.40
6.Poland, Shepard Co. L Died 4/24/1915 at Gladbrook Union Grove Tama p.41
7.Harrison, Andrew Co. H Died 12/16/1932 at Tama Oak Hill Tama p.42
1.Duke, Patrick Co. E Died 1872 at Tama CountyBuckingham Tama p.42
2.Heak, Philip Co. L Died 3/17/1915 at Toledo St. Patrick’sTama p.42
Adams, William H. Co. A Died 1/23/1918 at GravityWashington Taylor p.58
Dennis, George W. Co. L Died 7/7/1909 at Villisca Guss Taylor p.58
1.DeLay, Jacob B. Co. D Died 3/31/1905 at Creston Graceland Union p.49
Trumbo, George Co. K Died 5/5/1907 at CrestonGraceland Union p.49
2.Woodward, Henry D. Co. K Died 7/19/1905 at Lorimor LorimorUnion p.49
Davis, Josiah C. Co. B Died 5/10/1875 at Kent Bruning Union
1.Morrison, William H. Co. D Died 3/12/1933 at Douds Zion Lutheran Van Buren p.62
2.Stokes, Jasper Co. C Died 3/23/1892 at DoudsMt. Moriah Van Buren p.62
3.Sperbeck, William E. Co. C Died 5/16/1929 at Douds LeandoLeando, Van Buren p.62
4.Smith, John F. Co. C Died 5/15/1914 at LeandoLeando Van Buren p.62
5.Vickers, Harvey D. Co. E Died 6/7/1918 at Farmington Farmington Van Buren p.63
6.Bales, Noah J. Co. D Died 11/11/1868 at Birmingham Bethel Van Buren p.63
1.Harrel, Peter Co. A Died 2/15/1901 at Milton Sunnyside Van Buren p.62
Rhoads, John J. Co. A Died 5/19/1919 at Milton Prairie Chapel Van Buren p.62
2.Frazee, John Co. E Died 5/6/1899 at KeosauquaPurdom Van Buren p.63
3.Bonner, John M. Co. G Died 3/26/1907 at MoultonPurdom Van Buren p.63
4.Houk, Jacob Co. C Died 5/29/1891 at KeosauquaForbes Van Buren p.63
Mathias, Thomas J. Co. C Died 1868 at Van Buren Co.Unknown Van Buren p.63
1.Robinson, James Co. A Died 11/9/1908 at Vernon Vernon Van Buren p.63
2.Torrence, Thomas Co. C Died 9/10/1863 at Davenport PassmoreVan Buren p.62
3.Tannehill, John Co. C Died 4/13/1873 at SelmaPassmoreVan Buren p.62
4.Tannehill, Henry Co. C Died 12/8/1864 at Ft. CottonwoodPassmoreVan Buren p.62
1.Dawson, John Q. A. Co. A Died 2/26/1892 at AgencyAgency Wapello p.62
2.Nye, George L. Co. B Died 11/14/1922 at AgencyAgency Wapello p.62
3.LaForce, James STAFF Died 5/4/1914 at Monrovia, CA Agency Wapello p.62
4.Albertson, Noah Co. B Died 4/13/1936 at Ottumwa Agency Wapello p.62
1.Mace, Henry Co. B Died 9/17/1894 at AgencyAgency Wapello p.62
2.Kees, David Co. D Died 5/1/1895 at AgencyAgency Wapello p.62
3.Monroe, John V. Co. C Died 11/30/1899 at AgencyAgency Wapello p.62
4.McGee, William J. Co. E Died 2/29/1896 at AgencyRound Point Wapello p.62
1.Carback, Cyrus Co. B Died 3/9/1863 at Chillicothe Chillicothe? Wapello p.52
2.Pinnegar, John A. Co. B Died 4/11/1916 at Chillicothe Chillicothe Wapello p.52
3.Butin, George N. Co. B Died 3/4/1924 at Chillicothe Chillicothe Wapello p.52
4.Smith, William P. Co. D Died 7/19/1911 at Eddyville Highland/IOOF Wapello p.52
1.Noe, William Co. E Died 4/23/1909 at Eddyville Highland/IOOF Wapello p.52
2.Doll, Leander Co. E Died [no date] at ?Highland/IOOF Wapello p.52
3.Turner, Lewis G. Co. L Died 4/29/1917 at Eddyville Eldon Eldon, Wapello p.52
4.Friend, Charles W. Co. G Died 3/16/1914 at Eldon Eldon Wapello p.62
5.Kimes, Lebanon Co. G Died 5/29/1916 at Eldon Eldon Wapello p.62
6.Johnson, Isaac L. Co. C Died 6/26/1931 at Eldon Eldon Wapello p.62
7.Lynch, John W. Co. A Died 5/12/1908 at EldonSioc Wapello p.62
8.Williams, Lewis Co. B Died 7/19/1929 at Kirkville Westview Wapello p.52
Howser (Houser), James Co. B Died 3/31/1910 at Kirkville WestviewWapello
9.Blackstone, John W. Co. B Died 9/22/1911 at Omaha, NE Westview Wapello p.52
10.Spurlock, Casander H.Co. D Died 1905 at Kirkville Westview Wapello p.52
11.Crowley, Patrick Co. L Died [no date] at Ottumwa Calvary Wapello p.52
12.Cooper, Lorenzo Co. D Died [no date] at Ottumwa Dahlonega Wapello p.52
13.Thompson, Jonathan Co. E Died 6/12/1882 at DahlonegaDahlonega Wapello p.52
1.Deford, James K. Co. C Died 2/8/1911 at Ottumwa Fiedler Wapello p.52
2.Wheaton, David (Daniel) Co. E Died 3/2/1886 at Ottumwa McIntire Wapello p.52
3.Coffin, Thomas C. Co. A Died 5/1/1866 at Ottumwa Ottumwa City Wapello p.52
4.McFarland, John D. Co. B Died 5/29/1904 at Wapello Co. Hosp. Ottumwa City Wapello p.52
5.Neill, Daniel Co. A Died 3/12/1887 at Fairfield, IA Ottumwa City Wapello p.52
6.Gallaher, Calvin Co. A Died 3/5/1863 at Ottumwa Ottumwa City Wapello p.52
7.Gallaher, William Co. A Died 3/9/1863 at Ottumwa Ottumwa City Wapello p.52
Morgan, David Co. A Died 3/10/1863 at Ottumwa Ottumwa City ? Wapello p.52
1.Summers, Samuel W. STAFF Died 4/12/1900 at Ottumwa Ottumwa City Wapello p.52
2.Wood, John S. Co. A Died 7/4/1912 at Omaha, NE (Memorial in Ottumwa City, buried at Livingston, MT)
1.Buchanan, Evans Co. A Died 3/9/1900 at Ottumwa Shaul Wapello p.52
2.Cloyd, Benjamin Co. A Died 3/16/1916 at Ottumwa Shaul Wapello p.52
3.Allison, James Co. D Died [No date] at OttumwaShaul Wapello p.52
Tutwiler, Joseph N. Co. C Died 11/2/1908 at OttumwaShaul Wapello p.52
Culbertson, George Co. B Died 3/26/1929 at Ottumwa Shaul Wapello p.52
Halsey, Sanderson Co. D Died 2/9/1863 at Ottumwa Unknown Wapello p.52
McClintock, John Co. C Died 8/1/1863 at Davenport Unknown Wapello p.62
1.Simmons, Thomas P. Co. E Died [no date] at Highland CenterMcCormick Wapello p.62
2.Johnston, Charles H. Co. A Died 9/6/1916 at Ottumwa Chisman Wapello p.62
3.Grooms, James Co. A Died 8/1/1929 at Blakesburg Chisman Wapello p.62
1.Wellman, John S. Co. D Died 6/23/1876 at BlakesburgWellman Wapello p.62
2.Glenn, John [?] Co. C Died 5/8/1920 BladensburgBladensburg Wapello p.62
Munro, Nathan F. Co. H Died 9/27/1923 at Unknown UnknownWapello p.62
3.Surbers, Isaac Co. L Died 4/30/1905 at IndianolaNorth River Warren p.50
4.Surbers, Jesse C. Co. E Died 5/7/1924 at Clarinda North River Warren p.50
5.Ball, John W. Co. D Died 6/30/1931 or 1937 at New Virginia New Virginia Warren p.50
6.Petree, Samuel Co. A Died 9/11/1885 at CarlisleAllen Twp. Warren p.50
1.Wakelee, Charles L. Co. L Died 1/16/1916 at Wellman Wellman Washington p.53
Woods, William L. Co. H Died [no date] at Woodlawn Twp.Woodlawn Washington p.53
Jones, Samuel Co. H Died 4/25/1918 at # Lineville Evergreen Wayne p.60
Tuttle, Lewis A. Co. B Died 7/18/1915 at Warren Twp. Sharon Wayne p.60
Ormsby, Levi Co. H Died 11/18/1892 at AllertonAllerton Wayne p.60
Johnson, Albert STAFF Died 2/18/1916 at Monrovia, CA Oakland Fort Dodge, Webster p.28
Pratt, Elvin L. Co. F Died 2/22/1910 at Ft. Dodge Washington Twp. Webster p.28
Paul, George Co. K Died 7/1/1924 at Lehigh Hooks Point Webster p.28
McCloskey, William H. Co. C Died 9/7/1897 at Otho Otho Webster p.28
Williams, Job C. Co. M Died 3/14/1898 at GowrieGowrie Twp. Webster p.28
Price, James Co. M Died 4/14/1913 at Lake Mills Park Winnebago p.19
Decker, Stephen Co. H Died 8/9/1890 at # Decorah Phelps Winneshiek p.22
Wagle, Christian Co. F Died 11/25/1906 at OssianStone Church Winneshiek p.22
Collins, Thomas Co. I Died 1/3/1923 at DanburySt. Patrick’sWoodbury p.36
Trego, Alexander Co. I Died 11/1/1918 at Marshalltown Oto Woodbury p.36
2.Edwards, William. S. Co. I Died 3/28/1907 at SloanSloan Woodbury p.35
Dunagan, Thomas A. Co. M Died 3/21/1918 at Sloan Sloan Woodbury p.35
Gregg, Samuel Co. L Died [no date] at Sloan Sloan Woodbury p.35
Porter, James F. Co. I Died 1/16/1915 at Beaver Crossing, NE Unknown Sloan, Woodbury p.35
(or Seward Co., NE)
Kingsnorth, Jesse Co. I Died 9/20/1909 at Holly Springs Willow Woodbury p.36
Harris, Benjamin Co. K Died 3/26/1896 at Sioux CityUnknown Woodbury p.24
Rogers, Levi Co. I Died 4/9/1896 at Sioux CityUnknown Woodbury p.24
3.Irwin, James Co. K Died 3/30/1910 at Sioux City Calvary Woodbury p.24
4.Junk, James Co. K Died 9/8/1915 at Sioux City Calvary Woodbury p.24
5.Fisher, John Co. L Died 11/24/1900 at Sioux City Calvary Woodbury p.24
1.Beck, Henry R. Co. M Died 1917 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
Stevens, Joseph Co. I Died 3/15/1910 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
Williams, William Co. M Died 10/27/1905 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
2.Brooks, John H. Co. H Died 5/11/1904 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
3.Bruckner, Charles M. Co. I Died 10/6/1872 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
4.Launsbach, Charles Co. I Died 10/22/1917 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
5.McElhaney, William Co. I Died 1902 at ?Floyd Woodbury p.24
6.Schlawig, John J. Co. I Died 10/11/1919 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
7.Elliott, Alexander Co. I Died 9/10/1905 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
8.Krudwig, William Co. I Died 9/9/1917 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
9.Pritchard, Porter Co. I Died 6/27/1897 at Sioux City Floyd Woodbury p.24
10.Reese, William H. Co. H Died 3/26/1925 at Long Beach, CA Graceland Woodbury p.24
1.Pilgrim, Alfred P. Co. B Died 10/31/1921 at South Sioux City Graceland Woodbury p.24
2.Yeoman, Benjamin P.Co. L Died 11/9/1912 at Sioux City Graceland Woodbury p.24
3.Houser, Daniel H. Co. I Died 1/6/1929 at Sioux City Graceland Woodbury p.24
1.Millard, Andrew J. Co. I Died 10/4/1894 at Sioux City Logan Park Woodbury p.24
2.Hungerford, Lewis B. Co. I Died 2/25/1918 at Sioux City Logan Park Woodbury p.24
Nichols, Martin Co. L Died 10/3/1865 at Sioux City Unknown Woodbury p.24
Magee, John Co. L Died 3/11/1865 at Sioux City Unknown Woodbury p.24
Kenney, John #1 Co. M Died 10/30/1876 at Sioux City UnknownWoodbury p.24
Parrott, Thomas J. Co. I Died [no date] at Sergeant BluffWoodbury Twp. Woodbury p.24
Mather, John W. Co. M Died 12/16/1899 at Sergeant BluffWoodbury Twp Woodbury p.24
Brower, Robert Co. M Died 6/25/1872 at Sergeant BluffWoodbury Twp Woodbury p.24
Woodford, Eli Co. M Died 1936 at Sergeant BluffWoodbury Twp Woodbury p.24
Adams, William H. Co. K Died 1/29/1915 at Smithland Smithland Woodbury p.36
1.Turman, Charles Co. I Died 6/9/1910 at Smithland Smithland Woodbury p.36
Shepherd, William H. Co. K Died 6/24/1905 at Climbing HillClimbing Hill Woodbury p.24
2.Abbey, Alonzo C. Co. B Died 4/5/1910 at Northwood Sunset Rest Worth p.19
3.Wright, Chester Co. H Died 2/11/1909 at Northwood Sunset Rest Worth p.19
4.Perkins, Myron S. Co. F Died 1/19/1934 at Northwood Sunset Rest Worth p.19
Wadsworth, Dwight A. Co. M Died 2/15/1891 at Lake MillsBristol Worth p.19
1.Collins, Alfred B. Co. K Died 2/18/1916 at ClarionEvergreen Wright p.29
2.Morton, Robert Co. K Died 12/17/1934 at ClarionEvergreen Wright p.29
UNKNOWN IOWA LOCATIONS
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Gray, Stephen Co. A Died 12/18/1881 at UNKNOWN Unknown
Hastings, Benjamin Co. C Died 2/17/1863 at UNKNOWN Unknown
Higgins, Edwin Co. M Died 4/2/1927 at Forsythe [?] Unknown
Coleman, Stephen Co. L Died 3/25/1911 at UNKNOWN Unknown
Walker, Isaac Co. L Died 8/15/1911 at UNKNOWN Unknown
Kelly, William Co. K Died circa 1908 at UNKNOWN Unknown
KANSAS – grouped by county (refer to Kansas Atlas & Gazetteer, DeLorme, 1st Edition, 1997)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
[Post cemeteries at Ft, Harker, Ft. Riley and Ft. Zarah were supposedly reburied in the Fort Leavenworth
National Cemetery but none of these soldiers are listed among burials at that cemetery.]
Graham, James L. Co. G Died 9/8/1865 at Ft. Zarah (Great Bend)Unknown Barton p.46
Ware, Eugene F. Co. A Died 7/2/1911 at Colorado Springs, CO Ft. Scott Nat. Cem., Bourbon p.66
Butler, George Co. F Died [no date] at ?Iola Allen p.65
1.Holcomb, Stephen A. Co. E Died 10/6/1929 at Powhatten PowhattenBrown p.26
Gaugh, Christian F. Co. I Died 9/10/1898 at St. JosephMount Mora Buchanan
Jones, Aaron Co. M Died 7/9/1925 at Saffordville Toledo Chase p.50
Moyer, Richard J. Co. A Died 10/5/1914 at Columbus McKee Hallowell, Cherokee p.79
Thurston, William H. Co. M Died 5/6/1929 at Bird City Sunny Side Cheyenne p.15
Martin, George W. Co. E Died [no date] at Clay CenterCity Cemetery Clay p.36
Tittle, George W. Co. G Died 12/21/1915 at Concordia Unknown Cloud p.22
Spurlock, Lewis B. Co. A Died 4/29/1921 at Concordia Unknown Cloud p.22
Bivin, George W. Co. B Died 1/6/1900 at ClydePleasant View Cloud p.23
Brassfield, John D. Co. M Died 9/2/1885 at GlasgoUnknown Cloud p.35
Wood, Absalom Co. K Died 2/28/1911 at Burlington Gill Twp.Coffey p.64
Butler, Washington Co. L Died 11/24/1901 at LeboLincoln Coffey p.51
Mousey, John M. Co. I, L Died 1899 at Arkansas CityRiverview Cowley p.76
Trout, John W. Co. D Died 11/24/1915 at GirardGirard Crawford p.79
2.Hix, Robert (Ratliff) Co. C Died 9/5/1916 at Norcatur Norcatur Decatur p.18
Wolf, Wilson W. Co. L Died 6/6/1901 at Harlan TownshipSherman Decatur p.18
Lockhart, Benjamin F. Co. G Died 9/18/1916 at ?Unknown Dekalb p.1
Bowen, John W. Co. H Died 8/16/1864 at Smoky Hill Ft. Harker? Ellsworth p.47
McVay, William Co. H Died 8/16/1864 at Smoky Hill Ft. Harker Abingdon Davis, IA p.47
Stewart, William Co. H Died 8/16/1864 at Smoky Hill Ft. Harker ?Ellsworth p.47
Turner, Thomas Co. H Died 8/16/1864 at Smoky Hill Ft. Harker ?Ellsworth p.47
Henderson, George Co. H Died 6/18/1865 at Plum Creek Ft. Harker ? Ellsworth p.47
Bones, Zephaniah Co. H Died 10/23/1923 ?Quaker Franklin or Lane Co., KS p.52
Evans, John T. Co. B Died 10/16/1930 at Wellsville Walnut Creek Franklin p.53
Alvord, Charles M. Co. K Died 11/7/1876 at Madison Unknown Greenwood p.64
[a second source says he may be buried at Burt, Kossuth County, IA]
Cooper, Casper Co. L Died 4/26/1909 at ? Stohrville-Singer Harper p.74
3.Conn, James J. Co. E Died 9/17/1914 near Mankato Mt. Hope Jewell p.21
McKown, Francis M. Co. A Died 8/8/1910 at Labette UnknownLabette p.78
Barber, Joseph T. Co. B Died 4/15/1903 at ParsonsOakwood Labette p.78
Piper, John C. Co. G Died 9/11/1919 at Lansing Unknown Leavenworth p.40
Kuhlman, Herman Co. K Died 4/5/1905 at Leavenworth Unknown Leavenworth p.40
4.Babb, William S. Co. D Died 5/22/1914 at LeavenworthOak Grove Polk County, IA p.40
Ryan, Charles Co. C Died 10/5/1930 at Nat’l Mil Home Unknown Leavenworth p.40
Kline, George W. Co. M Died 10/22/1916 at Nat’l Mil Home Unknown Leavenworth p.40
Meeker, Thaddeus Co. G Died 1/4/1907 at Nat’l Mil Home Unknown Leavenworth p.40
Butler, William F. Co. F Died 3/16/1889 at Nat’l Mil Home Unknown Leavenworth p.40
Langan, William P. Co. M Died 12/12/1895 at Nat’l Mil Home Leavenworth National Cemetery p.40
Hipkins, John H. Co. I Died 2/2/1903 at Nat’l Mil Home Leavenworth National Cemetery p.40
Pattee, John W. Co. K Died 9/30/1916 at Nat’l Mil Home Leavenworth National Cemetery p.40
5.Twombly, Frederick Co. E Died 11/22/1925 at Nat’l Mil Home Leavenworth National Cemeteryp.40
6.Ellsworth, Allen Co. H Died 1/6/1902 at Nat’l Mil HomeLeavenworth National Cemeteryp.40
7.Wolf, Abner C. Co. L Died 6/14/1864 at Ft. Sully, SD Ft. Leavenworth Nat Cem p.40
8.Trask, Eugene F. Co. L Died 9/3/1863 at Sacket’s Sta. SD Ft. Leavenworth Nat Cem p.40
Betts, Asha Co. H Died 8/8/1920 at Admire Ivy Lyon p.51
Lewallen, John M. Co. G Died 2/12/1917 at Hillsdale Unknown Miami p.39
Herod, Robert W. Co. C Died 11/3/1921 at Erie East Hill Neosho p.78
Avery, Eli Co. B Died 1/3/1923 at Lead, SD Fairview, Goff Nemaha p.30
Underwood, James N.Co. G Died 4/23/1915 at ?Unknown Norton p.18
Parnell, Edward Co. A Died 12/1/1928 at Burlingame Unknown Osage p.51
Porter, Rezin Co. D Died 11/14/1914 at Quenemo Unknown Osage p.52
9.True, Solon Co. H Died 9/28/1928 at NatomaNatoma Osborne p.53
Duer, Josiah Co. L Died 3/22/1911 at ? Lawrence Creek Osborne p.53
Houdyshell, Smith H. Co. C Died 5/16/1915 at Caldwell, ID Garfield, Garfield Pawnee p.58
10.Conquest, James R. Co. A Died 1/27/1915 at Phillipsburg Fairview Phillips p.19
11.Wyatt, Samuel C Co. C Died 4/13/1920 at Phillipsburg Alcona Phillips p.19
12.Roosa, Tunis Co. H Died 11/17/1904 at LouisvilleLouisville Pottawatomie p.37
Whitman, Robert W. Co. E Died 4/3/1913 at Pratt Unknown Pratt p.59
Tindell, Samuel H. Co. G Died 11/16/1929 at Colorado Springs, COUnknown Atwood, Rawlins p.16
13.Collicott, Seth Co. G Died 6/4/1930 at Luray Luray Russell p.33
14.Harper, Marimon H. Co. G Died 8/4/1912 at Agenda Willoughby Cuba, Republic p.22
Jamison, Charles M. Co. G Died 5/24/1864 at Ft. Riley Unknown Riley p.37
Jones, Benjamin R. Co. G Died 8/12/1865 at Ft. Riley Unknown Riley p.37
Borton, Henry Co. G Died 4/15/1874 at SalinaUnknown Saline p.48
Smith, John H. Co. G Died 4/10/1895 at SalinaGypsum Hill Saline p.48
Wood, Clifford Co. A Died 12/31/1915 at WichitaMaple Grove Sedgwick p.62
Hammer, Enos Co. G Died 7/17/1864 at Topeka Unknown Shawnee p.38
Tomlinson, Charles E.Co. M Died 3/9/1923 at TopekaUnknown Shawnee p.38
Boyd, Joseph H. Co. H Died 1/1/1917 at TopekaUnknown Shawnee p.38
Hillman, Charles Co. H Died 8/30/1889 at SeveryTwin Groves Greenwood p.30
Hand, Lemuel Co. A Died 1/17/1883 at GaylordLawrence Creek Smith p.20
Botkin, John Co. G Died 1/10/1892 at WellingtonPrairie Lawn Sumner p.75
Sowers, Hamilton Co. A Died 12/28/1921 at Rexford Beulah Colby, KS Thomas p.30
Henry, Thomas B. Co. B Died 7/25/1919 at LevantUnknown Thomas p.29
Rhoads, Cicero Co. A Died [no date] at FredoniaFredoniaWilson p.
Israel, Ambrose A. Co. L Died 1/21/1929 at Yates Center Big Creek Coffey p.64
Smith, Francis G. Co. D Died 1/3/1907 at Yates Center Yates Center Woodson p.64
Holloway, Riley E. Co. L Died 9/25/1917 at Orantomie State Hosp. [?]Unknown ?p.1
Rowley, Jesse Co. H Died 1/26/1866 at Black Water Creek Unknown ? p.1
LOUISIANA - (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
15.Cutting, Henry C. Co. G Died 1/15/1927 at Lake CharlesGraceland Calcasieu Parish p.
Downey, Cornelius A.Co. F Died 9/25/1924 at Monroe Saint MatthewsOuachita Parish NEW
MASSACHUSETTS - (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
David, James B. Co. E Died 6/4/1913 at Somerville Unknown Middlesex p.104
Payne, William M. Co. I Died [no date] at BostonForest Hills Suffolk p.108
MICHIGAN – (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Foster, John W. Co. C Died 11/9/1925 at Newberry Forest Home Luce p.110
16.Denning, John Co. L Died 1/9/1933 at Grand Rapids Soldiers’ Home Kent p.112
17.Griffin, Anthony B. Co. L Died 1904 at Three RiversRiverside St. Joseph p.112
MINNESOTA – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Owen, Ezra Co. L Died 2/14/1915 at Minneapolis Lakewood Hennipen p.121
DeLay, William Co. E Died 6/21/1925 at Minneapolis Lakewood Hennipen p.121
Jefferson Addison Co. F Died 8/24/1916 at MinneapolisLakewood Hennipen p.121
Kohlhapp, William Co. G Died 7/29/1917 at Minneapolis Unknown Hennipen p.121
Ostenson, Knud Co. H Died 11/19/1913 at MinneapolisUnknown Hennipen p.121
Jacobs, Daniel Co. F Died 2/14/1929 at Grand Rapids Unknown Itasca p.118
Baker, Samuel J. Co. H Died [no date] at LitchfieldUnknown Meeker p.120
Parker, Thomas S. Co. B Died 7/11/1917 at Rochester Unknown Olmstead p.121
1.Anderson, Arne Co. F Died 3/18/1927 at Hitterdal Hitterdal Polk p.118
Summerfield, Fred. Co. E Died 2/25/1910 at St. PaulUnknown Ramsey p.121
Suthers, Abraham Co. M Died 11/8/1918 at St. PaulUnknown Ramsey p.121
Pepper, Charles A. Co. H Died 12/3/1919 at St. PaulUnknown Ramsey p.121
Smith, Benjamin Co. K Died 11/4/1926 at Virginia Unknown St. Louis p.119
Harder, Parker C. Co. G Died 6/4/1914 at Lauk Center [Sauk Centre?]Unknown Stearns p.120
(or Unknown Annin, McKean County, PA)
Manning, Nathan Co. F Died 9/24/1906 at Todd County UnknownTodd
Garfield, Henry W. Co. H Died 4/10/1925 at Wadena Unknown Wadena p.120
Scott, Ceborn O. Co. F Died 9/26/1928 at St. James Unknown Watonwan p.120
MISSISSIPPI - (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Fitzpatrick, James Co. E Died 8/15/1896 at MeadvilleUnknown Franklin p.123
MISSOURI – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Bishop, John Co. K Died 2/18/1922 at Nashville Unknown Barton p.127
Boyd, William T. Co. L Died [no date] at Golden City Unknown Barton p.127
Langford, James Co. L Died 1/13/1892 at HumeUnknown Bates p.126
Veraguth, Henry Co. I Died 3/25/1916 at St. Joseph Mt. Mora Buchanan p.126
2.Skinner, Henry Co. E Died 6/3/1926 at St. Joseph Ashland Buchanan p.126
McKennon, David (Daniel) Co. H Died 2/9/1914 at Kansas City Unknown Clay p.124
Merrill, Benjamin A. Co. K Died 6/25/1917 at Kansas CityUnknown Clay p.126
(or died 1917 at Woodward Unknown, Woodward, OK)
Trimble, Theodore W. Co. L Died 8/26/1924 at Kansas City Unknown Clay p.124
Bennett, Lycurges C. Co. E Died 12/19/1930 at Kansas City Unknown Clay p.124
Harling, Paul D. Co. E Died 9/20/1919 at Randolph UnknownClay p.126
Allen, John H. Co. H Died 7/3/1910 at TrembleHighland Park Clinton p.126
Miller, Hiram Co. C Died 1931 at ?New Hope Dallas p.127
Bedwell, Henry Co. K Died 10/10/1915 at Springfield Unknown Greene p.127
Bernard, Charles W. Co. D Died 9/22/1918 at Unknown Bratton Grundy p.126
Alder, William Co. B Died 9/27/1885 at BethanyAntioch Harrison p.
Winkler, Andrew Co. C Died 12/18/1873 at Clinton Unknown Henry p.126
Norris, George P. Co. E Died 5/30/1899 at CantonUnknown Henry p.126
McIntire, James Co. D Died 7/27/1912 at Carthage Unknown Jasper p.127
Bryan, William Co. D Died 6/23/1914 at Waco Unknown Jasper p.127
Smith, John C. Co. A Died 5/16/1914 at Centerview Unknown Johnson p.126
Wade, Peter Co. C Died 2/4/1917 at Leeton Unknown Johnson p.126
Stearns, Lewis Co. A Died 1/29/1892 at ?Ozark Prairie Lawrence p.127
Climie, Robert Co. C Died [no date] at LaCledeLaClede Linn p.126
Dodd, William Co. B Died 10/25/1906 at Harrison Co. MOHampton Mercer p.
Crandall, Hampton L. Co. C Died 6/25/1915 at Fairview Dice Newton p.127
Sisk, Jesse A. Co. M Died 2/25/1934 at Hopkins Unknown Nodaway p.126
Swan, Avery Co. M Died 8/6/1929 at Nodaway CountyUnknownNodaway p.126
Smith, Daniel B. Co. A Died 6/26/1909 at PalmyraGreenwood Palmyra p.126
Comstock, Francis Co. B Died 8/17/1916 at St. James Unknown Phelps p.126
3.Foley, William Co. L Died 3/31/1910 at St. James Old Soldiers Phelps p.126
Story, William H. Co. F Died 2/18/1923 at New London Unknown Ralls p.126
McCormick, Asa B. Co. F Died 9/26/1916 at Queen City Unknown Schuyler p.126
Sias, John C. Co. M Died 4/3/1900 at St. Louis UnknownSt. Louis p.128
Ahearn, John Co. I Died 11/26/1916 at Jefferson Barracks Jefferson Barracks Nat. Cem. St. Louis p.128
Godat, Charles W. Co. F Died 9/23/1931 at St. Louis Jefferson Barracks Nat. Cem. St. Louis p.128
Iliff, Henry J. Co. G Died 9/19/1925 at Independence Co., AR Jefferson Barracks St. Louis p.128
Staley, Fleming Co. B Died 5/7/1893 at ShelbinaShelbina Shelby p.126
George, Lewis Co. E Died 11/17/1886 at MilanUnknown Sullivan p.126
Robinson, James Co. A Died 11/9/1908 at Vernon Vernon Van Buren p.127
[Pension file list says he died 1/17/1905 at Springfield, MO]
Cackley, Chas. (alias John Beck) Co. C Died 11/19/1914 at Irondale Unknown Washington p.129
MONTANA – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Kline, Theodore Co. M Died 2/25/1921 at Kalispell C. E.Conrad MemorialFlathead p.130
Friend, James C. Co. G Died 4/6/1916 at Columbia Falls Soldiers HomeFlathead p.131
Adamson, Ferdinand Co. G Died 12/14/1933 at Columbia Falls Soldiers HomeFlathead p.131
Pearson, Augustus Co. L Died 12/27/1887 at New Chicago Unknown Granite p.130
4.Wood, John S. Co. A, STAFF Died 7/4/1912 at Omaha, NE Mountain View Livingston, Park p.131
Sawyer, Edmund Co. K Died 10/20/1908 at UNKNOWN Unknown ?
Higgins, Edward Co. H Died [no date] at RosebudUnknown ? NEW
NEBRASKA – grouped by county (refer to Nebraska Atlas and Gazetteer, DeLorme, 1st Edition, 1996)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Grubb, Newton J. Co. E Died 6/3/1865 at Boyd’s Station Unknown p.
Coon, John Co. C Died 11/25/1865 at Elbow Station Unknown p.
1.Schell, Joseph F. Co. L Died 4/15/1916 at Hastings Parkview Adams p.63
2.DeCamp, Marshall A. Co. L Died 7/11/1925 at San Diego, CA Clearwater Clearwater, Antelope p.38
3.Sheldon, George N. Co. F Died 1/1/1917 at Ainsworth Ainsworth Brown p.22
Lotspeich. Lyman Co. K Died 10/13/1909 at Alliance Unknown Box Butte p.
4.Powers, Wilson S. Co. E Died 11/1887 at Kearney Kearney City Buffalo p.62
Rupe, John M. Co. A Died 12/19/1863 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Adair, Hugh Co. H Died 1/26/1864 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Sommerfield, William Co. H Died 2/3/1864 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Donley, Levi Co. F Died 2/4/1864 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Crowner, Irvin Co. D Died 6/11/1864 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Tefft, Seneca M. Co. D Died 12/14/1864 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Bennett, Lyman Co. E Died 8/26/1865 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Barron, James Co. E Died 9/11/1865 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
Simmers, Peter Co. E Died 9/22/1865 at * Ft. Kearny Ft. McPherson Nat Cem Buffalo p.62
[* - these soldiers were probably moved from the old Fort Kearny Post Cemetery
and reburied in the Fort McPherson National Cemetery as UNKNOWNS]
5.Niff, Columbus Co. F Died 5/20/1922 at Plattsmouth Holy Sepulchre Cass p.67
6.West, Joseph W. Co. B Died 3/27/1914 at Marshalltown, IA Oak Hill Plattesmouth, Cass p.67
7.Muck, Joseph Co. I Died 7/21/1897 at Plattsmouth Oak Hill Cass p.67
Slagle, Richard C. Co. B Died 2/1871 at Cass CountyUnknown Cass p.67
8.Winterringer, Wm. R. Co. I Died 8/16/1916 at Sioux City Hartington Cedar p.26
9.Winterringer, James F. Co. I Died 6/23/1928 at Hartington Hartington Cedar p.26
10.Winterringer, Moses Co. I Died 7/7/1885 at Hartington Hartington Cedar p.26
Williams, Henry Co. I Died 3/29/1891 at St. HelenaUnknown Cedar p.26
11.Nelson, Joseph W. Co. C Died 7/24/1911 at SidneyGreenwoodCheyenne p.43
Ellsworth, George W. Co. A Died 8/20/1919 at Belmont Unknown Dawes? p.66
12.Anderson, John A. Co. C Died 10/15/1922 at Cozad Stop Table Dawson p.48
13.Brown, Marquis Co. M Died 6/10/1912 at PoncaPonca Dixon p.27
14.Thompson, William Co. L Died 08/26/1920 at VerdigreWakefield Wakefield, Dixon p.40
Rodgers, Martin Co. A Died 4/26/1865 at Fremont Unknown Dodge p.54
15.Bonner, Crawford Co. H Died 5/11/1903 at Omaha Forest Lawn Douglas p.55
16.Roberts, Stephen Co. B Died 6/11/1907 at OmahaForest Lawn Douglas p.55
17.Jones, Marquis Co. D Died 4/7/1909 at OmahaForest Lawn Douglas p.55
1.Edward, Mathias Co. B Died 12/18/1898 at OmahaForest Lawn Douglas p.55
2.O’Brien, George M. STAFF Died 1/9/1887 at Omaha Holy Sepulchre Douglas p.55
3.Cremer, Harrison Co. C Died 6/3/1896 at OmahaProspect Hill Douglas p.55
4.Beall, Francis M. Co. L Died 1/19/1928 at OmahaWest Lawn Douglas p.55
Knapp, Vincent Co. F Died 3/24/1924 at OmahaUnknown Douglas p.55
Morrow, James W. Co. C Died 10/13/1863 at Omaha UnknownDouglas p.55
Morris, John H. Co. B Died 5/6/1907 at Elk City Unknown Douglas p.55
5.Angstead, William F. Co. M Died 10/4/1916 at Ohiowa Pleasant Ridge Fillmore p.76
6.Thompson, Roger Co. L Died 6/5/1925 at Maywood Maywood Frontier p.59
7.Simmons, David Co. L Died 3/18/1903 at Beaver City Mount Hope Furnas p.72
8.Winter, John Co. I Died 10/13/1901 at Beaver City Mount Hope Furnas p.72
Wyatt, Eliphalet A. Co. F Died 1901 Furnas CountySpring Grove Furnas p.72
9.Murphy, Edward B. Co. A Died 1/25/1899 at Arapahoe Arapahoe Furnas p.72
1.Dodds, Joseph R. Co. K Died 4/6/1907 at Wymore Wymore Gage p.77
Reynolds, Joseph Co. H Died 4/7/1927 at BeatriceUnknown Gage p.77
2.Sanders, Samuel S. Co. D Died 11/18/1890 at Adams Highland Gage p.77
3.Roudebush, Jacob H. Co. A Died 3/25/1930 at Oshkosh Oshkosh Garden p.44
4.Wilson, Erastus Co. B Died 7/12/1919 at Grand Island City Cemetery Hall p.63
5.Kannow, Theodore Co. E Died 2/22/1918 at Grand Island City alias Theodore Hoen p.63
6.Clarke, George B. Co. G Died 7/4/1898 at Grand Island City Cemetery Hall p.63
7.Kuypers. James Co. B Died 2/27/1893 at Grand Island Nebraska Veterans Hall p.63
8.Culbertson, Archa Co. B Died 9/17/1933 at Grand Island Nebraska Veterans Hall p.63
9.Martin, Stephen Co. A Died 9/10/1904 at Grand Island Nebraska Veterans Hall p.63
10.Stevenson, John Co. A Died 7/29/1896 at Grand Island Nebraska Veterans Hall p.63
11.Steward, (Stewart) Thomas Co. L Died 7/6/1900 at Grand Island Nebraska Veterans Hall p.63
1.Taylor, Chesley Co. H Died 4/25/1920 at GiltnerGiltner Hamilton p.64
2.McGuire, DudleyCo. G Died 3/14/1921 at Grand Island Greenwood Hamilton p.64
Hanks, Peter Co. C Died [No date] at StrattonRose Hill Hitchcock p.69
3.Reinhart, John M. Co. C Died 3/29/1904 at Tecumsah TecumsahJohnson p.78
4.Pattison, John Co. B Died 12/2/1877 at Mt. Pleasant, IA Minden Kearney p.73
Gilbert, James M. Co. K Died 3/9/1914 at Creighton Greenwood Knox p.25
5.Fox, Cyrus Co. C Died 6/12/1942 at Stapleton, NE Ft. McPherson Lincoln p.60
6.Fouts, William Co. D Died 6/14/1865 at Horse Creek Ft. McPherson Lincoln p.60
7.Lyon, Benjamin M. Co. C Died 7/18/1864 at Ft. Cottonwood Ft McPherson Lincoln p.60
8.Anderson, John Co. C Died 9/18/1864 at Ft. Cottonwood Ft McPherson Lincoln p.60
9.Grooms, Benjamin Co. A Died 6/20/1865 at Ft. Cottonwood Ft McPherson Lincoln p.60
10.Heath, George W. Co. G Died 3/21/1864 at Ft. Cottonwood Ft McPherson Lincoln p.60
Hakel, William Co. F Died 10/14/1863 at * Ft. CottonwoodUnknown Lincoln p.60
Fought, Ophir C. Co. G Died 10/22/1863 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Keltner, William Co. G Died 11/12/1863 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Mosier, William R. Co. C Died 9/18/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Starkey, Bluford Co. F Died 9/18/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Harmel, Gotfer Co. B Died 9/14/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Millisack, William Co. C Died 10/12/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Conner, James Co. F Died 10/25/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Tannehill, Henry Co. C Died 12/8/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Putman, Jesse Co. A Died 12/10/1864 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Sampere, Joseph Co. F Died 1/17/1865 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Good, Edward Co. B Died 2/10/1865 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
Johnson, Lever Co. UN Died 4/30/1865 at * Ft. Cottonwood Unknown Lincoln p.60
[* - these soldiers were probably moved from the old Fort Cottonwood Post
Cemetery and reburied in the Fort McPherson National Cemetery
as UNKNOWNS]
Blanchard, Horace Co. B Died 10/29/1865 at Post Alkali Unknown Lincoln p.59
Clark, Robert E. Co. B Died 1/18/1866 at Ft. Heath Unknown Lincoln p.59
11.Garesche, Herman Co. C Died 6/9/1936 at NorfolkProspect HillMadison p.38
12.Campbell, Eldridge Co. A Died 10/8/1901 at GenoaValley View Nance p.52
13.Jackson, Andrew Co. C Died 8/17/1906 at Fullerton Fullerton Nance p.52
Moore, William Co. D Died [No date] at BrockUnknown Nemaha p.78
14.Botsford, William Co. F Died 12/1/1891 at Palmyra Rosewood Otoe p.67
15.Martin, John H. Co. A Died 3/20/1914 at Pawnee City Pawnee City Pawnee p.78
16.Crawley, Samuel W. Co. B Died 5/24/1922 at Burchard BurchardPawnee p.78
Patterson, Ira Co. E Died 10/3/1863 at Pawnee Agency/Columbus Unknown Platte p.76
Gibson, Israel Co. E Died 5/20/1864 at Pawnee Agency/Columbus Unknown Platte p.76
Herrington, William Co. E Died 11/7/1864 at Pawnee Agency/Columbus Unknown Platte p.76
17.Hanshew, William Co. B Died 7/10/1922 at Shelby Union Polk p.53
Edwards, James D. Co. M Died 11/17/1927 at Stromsburg Stromsburg Polk
Korn, Lewis B. Co. E Died 8/26/1927 at West Plains, Howell Co.Unknown Indianola, Red Willow p.71
18.Feasel, Thomas J.Co. D Died 1/10/1925 at HumboldtHumboldt Richardson p.78
19.Oldfield, Farmer Co. G Died 11/20/1926 at OmahaRulo Rulo, Richardson p.79
20.Maddock, Joseph Co. E Died 1/11/1909 at Fremont Bellevue Bellevue, Sarpy p.68
21.Guttery, Jesse Co. C Died 2/23/1902 at Valparaiso Valparaiso Saunders p.66
Alder, Phillip Co. B Died 6/14/1865 at Horse Creek Horse Creek Site Scotts Bluff p.28
Groger, Richard Co. D Died 6/14/1865 at Horse Creek Horse Creek Site Scotts Bluff p.28
McMahon, Edward Co. F Died 6/14/1865 at Horse Creek Horse Creek Site Scotts Bluff p.28
Porter, James F. Co. I Died 1/16/1915 at Beaver Crossing, Unknown Seward p.65
(or Sloan, IA)
22.Edwards, John N.Co. M Died 1/191891 at Seward Greenwood Seward p.59
23.Craig, Lewis Co. D Died 12/3/1919 at Reynolds Rose Creek Thayer p.76
24.Shields, Frank Co. F Died 3/19/1891at Alexandria AlexandriaThayer p.76
25.Forsha, James Co. F Died 3/31/1894 at Alexandria Alexandria Thayer p.76
26.Holes, George Co. F Died 3/3/1916 at Independence, MO Alexandria Thayer p.76
Huddleston, David Co. A Died 10/16/1865 at Pawnee Ranch Unknown? p.1
1.Perkins, Lorenzo Co. B Died 5/15/1901 at BlairBlair Washington
2.Williams, Robert P. Co. A Died 8/1/1937 at WayneGreenwood Wayne p.40
3.Reed, Alvah T. Co. K Died 5/20/1901 at Red CloudRed Cloud Webster p.74
4.Ellsworth, Allen Co. H Died 1/6/1902 at Nat’l Mil HomeLeavenworth Nat Cem
[check Hebron, NE newspapers]
NEW JERSEY – grouped by city (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Michael, James R. Co. K Died 12/13/1908 at Bloomfield Unknown Essex p.143
NEW MEXICO – grouped by city (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
Starr, Samuel B. Co. B Died before 1889 at UNKNOWN Unknown ?
Picken, Michael C. Co. B Died [no date] at Farmington,Greenlawn San Juan p.146
NEW YORK – grouped by city (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Davenport, Joel H. Co. I Died 3/24/1920 at Brushton Unknown Franklin p.152
NORTH DAKOTA – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Persons, Phineas P. Co. A Died 7/5/1913 at Valley City Unknown Barnes p.169
Welch, Thomas Co. M Died 3/13/1923 at Bismarck Unknown Burleigh p.168
Boyce, William Co. F Died 12/15/1916 at Sentinel Butte Unknown Golden Valley p.168
OHIO – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Meeks, David Co. B Died 10/27/1904 at WestervilleUnknownFranklin p.171
Luckey, George S. Co. C Died 12/31/1924 at DaytonUnknown Montgomery p.175
McKinney, John Co. A Died 9/17/1918 at DaytonUnknownMontgomery p.175
1.Wilcox, John Co. B Died 6/30/1881at Dayton Dayton Nat Cem Montgomery p.175
Alspaugh, James Co. M Died 3/7/1932 at Paulding Unknown Paulding p.170
2.Vallance, Adam Co. K Died 10/29/1914 at Gibsonburg West Union-Gibsonburg Sandusky p.170
OKLAHOMA – grouped by city (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Matthews, James M. Co. F Died 7/8/1917 at Lorena Unknown Beaver p.
Moffatt, Richard Co. I Died 1/1/1910 at CaddoGethsemaneBryan p.181
Trusdell, Otis Co. K Died 3/20/1927 at Man [Manard?]UnknownCherokee p.
Myers, Francis H. Co. E Died 5/3/1922 at Kenton KentonCimarron p.178
Muck, Joseph * Co. I Died 1917 at Cleveland Co.Holsenbake Cleveland p.180
Webb, Jeremiah Robert Co. A Died 1/25/1925 at Arnett Debolt Ellis p.178
Gordy, Franklin UN Died 9/15/1910 at Paul’s Valley UnknownGarvin p.180
McClintock, Thomas Co. E Died 1/16/1911 at ?Unknown Harper p.178
Spangler, Ferdinand Co. K Died 4/21/1915 at Newkirk NewkirkKay p.180
Rupe, Israel Co. A Died 5/1/1910 at Tonkawa Riverside or Riverview Kay p.180
Hubbard, John Co. G Died 10/19/1912 at Kingfisher Co.Sheridan Kingfisher p.180
Lewis, James M. Co. A Died 6/3/1909 at TryonTryon Lincoln p.180
Morris, Abner Co. B Died [no date] at BethelBethel Lincoln p.180
Weeks, Daniel E. Co. M Died [no date] at SparksWhite Dove Lincoln p.180
Koch, Abraham Co. C Died 10/25/1918 at Orlando Bocox Logan p.180
Boyd, William H. Co. A Died 9/19/1930 at Guthrie Summit View Logan p.180
Oliver, Thomas P. Co. E Died 1/17/1890 at 1/17/1890Crescent Logan p.180
Clingan, Gustavus A. Co. C Died 9/19/1932 at Oklahoma City Rose Hill Oklahoma p.180
Brower, Edward D. Co. L Died 4/11/1916 at Oklahoma City Unknown Oklahoma p.180
Tremain, Cyrus Co. H Died 5/28/1924 at Oklahoma City Unknown Oklahoma p.180
Collins, Harvey W. Co. G Died 3/19/1910 at StillwaterFairlawn Payne p.180
Barker, James Taylor Co. G Died 9/10/1929 at Rankin White RoseRoger Mills p.178
Woodruff, Matthias Co. F Died 4/2/1895 at ?Buck Creek Washington p.180
Daniels, Orlando Co. D Died 6/29/1930 at Fort Supply Unknown Woodward p.178
Merrill, Benjamin A. Co. K Died 1917 at WoodwardUnknown Woodward p.178
(or 6/25/1917 at Kansas CityUnknown Clay Co., MO)
OREGON – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Small, William T. Co. D Died 1938 at CorvalisCrystal Lake Benton p.182
Tucker, William Co. F Died 3/24/1908 at Roseburg Roseburg Nat Cem Douglas p.183
Fought, James P. Co. G Died 9/14/1910 at Medford IOOFJackson p.183
Ford, Albert A. Co. K Died 5/5/1909 at Eugene Unknown Lane p.182
Sutters, Benjamin F. Co. D Died 9/30/1919 at BrooksUnknown Marion p.183
McLain, Daniel Co. B Died 9/7/1920 at Silverton Unknown Marion p.182
Sperry, John Co. B Died 9/4/1906 at Aumsville Unknown Marion p.182
Vinson, George Co. C Died 7/1/1923 at New Pine Creek Unknown Modoc p.183
Hawley, Wallace Co. A Died 2/28/1928 at Portland UnknownMultomah p.182
Schwab, William Co. L Died 4/1/1916 at Portland Unknown Multomah p.182
Berry, Thomas J. Co. H Died 4/8/1920 at Monmouth UnknownPolk p.182
Kline, John Co. C Died 7/22/1914 at Airlie Unknown Polk p.182
Doughty, William T. Co. I Died 6/26/1912 at Bay City Idaville, IOOF Tillamook p.182
March, Jacob Co. E Died 9/16/1920 at La Grande Unknown Union p.184
Grattan, Simon LuciusCo. C Died 5/16/1913 at Pendleton UnknownUmatilla p.184
West, Peter Co. F Died 8/18/1909 at Pendleton Unknown Umatilla p.184
Doughty, Franklin Co. I Died 4/9/1930 at Hillsboro IOOF Washington p.182
Bennett, Elisha W. Co. H Died 8/28/1926 at Forest Grove Forest View Washington p.182
PENNSYLVANIA (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Hutton, William Co. H Died 7/9/1871 at PittsburgUnknown Allegheny p.188
Crouse, Joseph T. Co. L Died 4/13/1899 at MuncyMuncy Lyoming p.190
Harder, Parker C. Co. G Died 6/4/1914 at AnninAnnin McKean p.190
(or Lauk Center [Sauk Centre?]Unknown Stearns Co., MN ?)
Giger, Benjamin STAFF Died 7/2/1895 at La TrobeUnknown Westmoreland . p.188
Bliss, Thomas Co. H Died prior to 9/30/1903 at ?Unknown Westmoreland . p.188
RHODE ISLAND (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
O’Brien, James Co. F Died 1/9/1898 at PawtucketMt. St. Mary’s Providence p.196
SOUTH DAKOTA – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
[* South Dakota Military Post Cemeteries were supposed to have been reburied
at Ft. Leavenworth, but names with # do not appear in the National Cemetery.]
Posey, Henry M. Co. L Died 11/4/1922 at Tyndall UnknownBon Homme p.201
Johnston, George A. Co. H Died 8/30/1925 at Mitchell UnknownDavison p.201
1.Graham, Watson Co. M Died 7/14/1918 at Hot Springs Soldier’s Home Fall River p.200
2.Pattee, John STAFF Died 11/30/1901 at Hot Springs Soldiers’ Home Fall River p.200
3.Trask, Alvah D. Co. M Died 12/19/1914 at Hot Springs Hot Springs Nat Cem Fall River p.200
4.Bates, Alexander C. Co. B Died 6/23/1917 at Hot Springs Hot Springs Nat Cem Fall River p.200
Thompson, James A. Co. B Died [no date] at UnknownUnknown Highmore/Hyde p.
Junk, William Co. L Died 10/8/1863 at Farm Island Ft. Sully * Hughes p.200
Martin, Lambert A. Co. L Died 10/14/1863 at Farm Island Ft. Sully * Hughes p.200
Turkle, George Co. M Died 4/30/1864 at Ft. Sully Ft. Sully *Hughes p.200
Burrington, William Co. M Died 3/20/1864 at Ft. Sully Unknown * Hughes p.200
Can, John Co. K Died 3/20/1864 at Ft. Sully Unknown * Hughes p.200
Carr, John H. Co. K Died [no date] at Ft. Sully Unknown* Hughes p.200
(or another source says he is buried in Oakwoods Cemetery Cook Co., IL)
Pattee, Adam C. Co. K Died 1/3/1925 at Lake Preston Lake Preston Kingsbury p.201
Rice, Orson Jr. Co. K Died 8/21/1912 at Hudson EdenLincoln p.201
Fox, James B. Co. M Died 7/5/1915 at Sioux Falls Unknown Minnehaha p.201
Mansfield, Ezra Co. E Died 2/16/1921 at Rapid City UnknownPennington p.200
Samuel, John C. Co. C Died 12/26/1894 at CastletonCastleton Pennington p.200
Bartlett, Russell Co. L Died 7/2/1863 at Ft. Pierre Unknown * Stanley p.200
Buckley, William Co. L Died 9/11/1863 at Ft. Pierre Unknown * Stanley p.200
Pinney, Edward L. Co. L Died 6/23/1863 at Ft. Pierre Unknown *Stanley p.200
Dopp, Charles Co. C Died 6/4/1916 at Parker Unknown Turner p.201
Miller, George Co. I Died 4/25/1911 at McCookUnknownUnion p.201
Edwards, John T. Co. I Died 5/10/1927 at Jefferson UnknownUnion p.201
Keevil, Thomas Co. I Died 11/15/1870 at Sioux City, IA St. Peter’s Catholic Union p.201
McLoud, Aaron Co. L Died 7/22/1929 at Vennington Twp.Unknown? p.201
TENNESSEE (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Miller, John H. Co. A Died 7/25/1864 at MemphisUnknown Shelby p.203
Wellman, John H. Co. G Died 9/14/1878 at MemphisUnknownShelby p.203
TEXAS – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Gipe, Asa W. Co. E Died 1/17/1913 at San Antonio UnknownBexar p.212
Shoemaker, John F. Co. L Died 8/27/1923 at San Antonio UnknownBexar p.212
Crawford, George (alias) Co. I Died 9/2/1917 at ClydeUnknown Calahan p.210
real name was George Foster
Votaw, Levi Co. H Died 6/6/1912 at BunceSheppard Jasper p.211
Wilson, James A. Co. F Died 12/26/1923 at Tyler UnknownSmith p.211
VERMONT (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Cook, John B. Co. K Died 9/2/1919 at Greensboro Unknown Orleans p.218
1.Roberts, Benjamin K. Co. A Died 7/16/1921 at Ossining, NY Dellwood Manchester,Westchester p.219
VIRGINIA (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Furbur, Isaac C. Co. I Died 5/16/1914 at ? Unknown Elizabeth City p.225
WASHINGTON – grouped by county (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Cox (Reynolds), James Co. C Died 7/12/1937 at Port AngelesOcean View Clallam p.226
Roland, William Co. A Died 5/23/1917 at Greenwood Twp.Unknown Clark p.227
Bone, Joseph Co. G Died 8/11/1907 at Vancouver Brush Prairie Clark p.227
Rowan, George W. Co. D Died 5/28/1917 at Castle Rock Unknown Cowlitz p.227
Adamson, Thomas A. Co. G Died 9/25/1924 at Castle Rock IOOF Cowlitz p.227
Jenkins, George Co. I Died 2/19/1918 at Kalama UnknownCowlitz p.227
Smith, George R. Co. A Died 3/3/1914 at Markham UnknownGray’s Harbor p.226
Glenn, John T. Co. C Died [no date] at ElmaIOOF Gray’s Harbor p.226
Guptill, Levi Co. I Died 1/21/1921 at Seattle Unknown King p.226
Wortman, Daniel D. Co. D Died 4/13/1926 at Bremerton Unknown Kitsap p.226
Tuttle, William Co. B Died 5/9/1924 at Goldendale UnknownKlickitat p.229
Gregory, Elba S. Co. M Died 1/8/1918 at Okanogan UnknownOkanogan p.228
Mercer, Jacob N. Co. D Died 12/24/1928 at Orting UnknownPierce p.226
Berry, John P. Co. L Died 3/23/1915 at Orting Orting Pierce p.226
Ridoot, Isaac Co. F Died 6/2/1934 at Orting Soldiers Home Pierce p.226
Tallman, Freeling Co. L Died 10/3/1913 at Orting Soldiers Home Pierce p.226
2.Moody, Alexander Co. L Died 5/11/1912 at Orting Soldiers Home Pierce p.226
Springle, Charles Co. C Died 3/7/1904 at TacomaOakwood Pierce p.226
Stuart, James Co. C Died 8/13/1930 at Tacoma Unknown Pierce p.226
Iverson, Peter (alias) Co. H Died 11/25/1915 at Tacoma Unknown Pierce p.226
(real name was Peter Peterson)
Ridley, Albion Co. I Died 12/7/1928 at Friday Harbor Unknown San Juan p.226
Stevens, Edwin Co. G Died [no date] at Samish Unknown Skagit p.226
Blair, Aaron Co. C Died 9/17/1913 at Arlington Unknown Snohomish p.226
Mathews, Archibald Co. M Died 8/8/1919 at Olympia Masonic MemorialThurston p.226
Hardin, John Co. I Died 4/15/1905 at Ferndale WoodlawnWhatcom p.226
Cain, James Co. K Died 2/5/1914 at Blaine Blaine Whatcom p.226
Hughes, Sampson P. Co. L Died 8/5/1920 at Blaine BlaineWhatcom p.226
Pinckney, William Co. L Died 1/31/1928 at Blaine Unknown Whatcom p.226
Warford, William W. Co. L Died 3/16/1904 at Blaine UnknownWhatcom p.226
Woody, Levi Co. B Died 1/12/1890 at Lynden Lynden Whatcom p.226
Hoskins, Alva R. Co. M Died 4/13/1922 at Mud Lake Hospital Unknown? p.227
Ogburn, William B. Co. K Died 12/8/1908 at UNKNOWN Unknown ?
Potts, Josiah D. Co. B Died 8/1/1909 at Daisy Fairview Stevens
WASHINGTON, DC (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY
3.McMullen, Ross Co. H Died 2/24/1927 DCArlington National Cemetery p.230
WISCONSIN – grouped by city (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
Stiles, Nathan P. Co. C Died [no date] at CumberlandLakeside Barron
Hand, Cyrus G. Co. A Died 9/1/1922 at Lynxville Unknown Crawford p.236
Hubbell, Melvin D. Co. H Died 6/9/1915 at BrunswickUnknown Eau Claire p.234
Potts, John A. Co. B Died 4/2/1914 at Blue River UnknownGrant p.236
Block, Joseph Co. L Died 3/22/1877 at Glen Haven Unknown Grant p.236
Davis, David C. Co. A Died 1/23/1914 at La Crosse Oak Grove La Crosse p.236
Quinn, Robert Co. L Died 1/14/1909 at La Crosse Oak Grove La Crosse p.236
Striegel, Charles Co. I Died 4/10/1916 at Tomah Unknown Monroe p.236
Dowdna, John M. Co. K Died 5/6/1920 at Richland Center Unknown Richland p.236
(alias John Mackle)
Priest, Kinder F. Co. M Died 11/3/1869 at ReedsburgGreenwood Sauk p.236
Zhe, Frederick D. Co. K Died 7/31/1930 at Osseo Unknown Trempealeau p.234
Braga, Arsa J. Co. E Died 10/10/1912 at Lake Geneva Unknown Walworth p.237
WYOMING – (refer to Road Atlas, American Map Corporation, 2002)
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY COUNTY
4.O’Brien, Nicholas J. Co. F Died 7/29/1916 at Denver, CO Lakeview Laramie p.239
Artist, Andrew Co. G Died 1905 at CheyenneLakeview Laramie p.239
1.Aggart, [Eggert] Wm. Co. G Died 12/11/1918 at Sheridan Municipal Sheridan p.239
Harris, John Co. D Died 2/8/1865 at Mud Springs Old Fort Laramie Cem p.239
UNKNOWN PLACE OF DEATH OR BURIAL
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY
Brace, William Co. F Died 3/30/1899 at UNKNOWN Unknown
Davis, William C. Co. F Died 5/16/1910 at UNKNOWN Unknown
Priest, William M. Co. M Died 9/18/1910 at UNKNOWN Unknown
NO RECORD OF BURIALS
NAME CO. DATE OF DEATH PLACE CEMETERY STATE
Gardner, Jonathan Co. A Died 5/21/1864 at Ponca [body not recovered] NE
Alloway, Nelson Co. B Died 10/2/1863 at Dakotah City [body not recovered] NE
Cooper, Joseph Co. F Died 12/26/1865 at Ft. Laramie [body not recovered] WY
McCardle, German Co. L Died 8/17/1864 at Ft. Union [body not recovered] ND
Dulin, James Co. L Died 2/20/1865 at Sioux City [body not recovered] IA
Hollinsworth, Ashberry Co. M Died 9/21/1864 [on the steamer "Alone"] no record of burial | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 0 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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For other people named William Burroughs, see William Burroughs (disambiguation).
William Seward Burroughs II ( ; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature.[2][3][4] Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, made many appearances in films, and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks, including his celebrated "shotgun art".[5]
Burroughs was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a grandson of inventor William Seward Burroughs I, who founded the Burroughs Corporation, and a nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs attended Harvard University, studied English, studied anthropology as a postgraduate, and attended medical school in Vienna. In 1942, Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve during World War II. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and the Navy, he developed a heroin addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, initially beginning with morphine. In 1943, while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Their mutual influence became the foundation of the Beat Generation, which was later a defining influence on the 1960s counterculture. Burroughs found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), but is perhaps best known for his third novel, Naked Lunch (1959). Naked Lunch became the subject of one of the last major literary censorship cases in the United States after its US publisher, Grove Press, was sued for violating a Massachusetts obscenity statute.
Burroughs killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs initially claimed that he shot Vollmer while drunkenly attempting a "William Tell" stunt.[6] He later told investigators that he had been showing his pistol to friends when it fell and hit the table, firing the bullet that killed Vollmer.[7] After Burroughs fled back to the United States, he was convicted of manslaughter in absentia and received a two-year suspended sentence.
While heavily experimental and featuring unreliable narrators, much of Burroughs' work is semiautobiographical, and was often drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict. He lived variously in Mexico City, London, Paris and the Tangier International Zone near Morocco, and traveled in the Amazon rainforest, with these locations featuring in many of his novels and stories. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique, featuring heavily in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–1964). Burroughs' work also features frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, which were a constant preoccupation for Burroughs, both in fiction and in real life.[4][8]
In 1983, Burroughs was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1984, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France.[9] Jack Kerouac called Burroughs the "greatest satirical writer since Jonathan Swift";[10] he owed this reputation to his "lifelong subversion"[11] of the moral, political, and economic systems of modern American society, articulated in often darkly humorous sardonicism. J. G. Ballard considered Burroughs to be "the most important writer to emerge since the Second World War", while Norman Mailer declared him "the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius".[10]
Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs (June 16, 1885 – January 5, 1965) and Laura Hammon Lee (August 5, 1888 – October 20, 1970). His family was of prominent English ancestry in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughs' mother was Laura Hammond Lee Burroughs, whose brother, Ivy Lee, was an advertising pioneer later employed as a publicist for the Rockefellers. His father ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens in St. Louis, and later in Palm Beach, Florida, when they relocated. Burroughs would later write of growing up in a "family where displays of affection were considered embarrassing".[8]: 26
It was during his childhood that Burroughs' developed a lifelong interest in magic and the occult – topics which would find their way into his work repeatedly across the years.[a] Burroughs later described how he saw an apparition of a green reindeer in the woods as a child, which he identified as a totem animal,[b] as well as a vision of ghostly grey figures at play in his bedroom.[c]
As a boy, Burroughs lived on Pershing Avenue (now Pershing Place) in St. Louis' Central West End. He attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis, where his first published essay – "Personal Magnetism", which revolved around telepathic mind-control – was printed in the John Burroughs Review in 1929.[15] He then attended the Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens".[8]: 44 Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. According to his own account, he destroyed these later, ashamed of their content.[16] He kept his sexual orientation concealed from his family well into adulthood. A common story says[17] that he was expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student. Yet, according to his own account, he left voluntarily: "During the Easter vacation of my second year I persuaded my family to let me stay in St. Louis."[16]
Burroughs finished high school at Taylor School in Clayton, Missouri, and in 1932 left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University, where he was affiliated with Adams House. During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events, like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in an East St. Louis, Illinois, brothel that summer with a female prostitute whom he regularly patronized.[8]: papers, p.62 While at Harvard, Burroughs made trips to New York City and was introduced to the gay subculture there. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with Richard Stern, a wealthy friend from Kansas City. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so badly that he asked to be let out of the vehicle.[8]: 611
Burroughs graduated from Harvard in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's Literary Outlaw,[8]
His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a substantial sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment.[8]: 69–70
Burroughs' parents sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation. Shortly before the 1929 stock market crash, they sold their stock for $200,000 (equivalent to approximately $3,500,000 in today's funds[18]).[19]
After Burroughs graduated from Harvard, his formal education ended, except for brief flirtations with graduate study of anthropology at Columbia and medicine in Vienna, Austria. He traveled to Europe and became involved in Austrian and Hungarian Weimar-era LGBT culture; he picked up young men in steam baths in Vienna and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, born Herzfeld (1900–1982), a Jewish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government.[1] The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, in Croatia, against the wishes of his parents, to allow her to gain a visa to the United States. She made her way to New York City, and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years.[8]: 65–68
After returning to the United States, he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his mental health became a concern for his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger at the knuckle to impress a man with whom he was infatuated.[20] This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger".
Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge – a release from duty based on the premise that he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis – University of Chicago student Lucien Carr and his admirer, David Kammerer – left for New York City, Burroughs followed.
In 1945, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife.[21] Vollmer Adams was married to a G.I. with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams.
Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, completed in 1945. The two fledgling authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was eventually published in November 2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books.
During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit. Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was Benzedrine, an amphetamine sold over the counter at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. With urging from Allen Ginsberg, and also perhaps Kerouac, Burroughs became intellectually and emotionally linked with Vollmer and by summer 1945, had moved in with Vollmer and her daughter. In spring 1946, Burroughs was arrested for forging a narcotics prescription. Vollmer asked her psychiatrist, Lewis Wolberg, to sign a surety bond for Burroughs' release. As part of his release, Burroughs returned to St. Louis under his parents' care, after which he left for Mexico to get a divorce from Ilse Klapper. Meanwhile, Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis that resulted in her admission to Bellevue Hospital, which endangered the custody of her child. Upon hearing this, Burroughs immediately returned to New York City to gain her release, asking her to marry him. Their marriage was never formalized, but she lived as his common-law wife.
They returned to St. Louis to visit Burroughs' parents and then moved with her daughter to Texas.[22] Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs' child. Their son, William S. Burroughs Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.[23]
In New Orleans, police stopped Burroughs' car one evening. They found an unregistered handgun belonging to him as well as a letter from Ginsberg that contained details about the sale of marijuana. The police then searched Burroughs’s home, where they discovered his stash of drugs and half a dozen or more firearms.[24] Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola State Prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at the Mexico City College in 1950, studying Spanish, as well as Mesoamerican manuscripts (codices) and the Mayan language with R. H. Barlow.
Their life in Mexico was by all accounts an unhappy one.[25] Without heroin and suffering from Benzedrine abuse, Burroughs began to pursue other men as his libido returned, while Vollmer, feeling abandoned, started to drink heavily and mock Burroughs openly.[22]
One night, while drinking with friends at a party above the Bounty Bar in Mexico City,[26] a drunk Burroughs allegedly took his handgun from his travel bag and told his wife, "It's time for our William Tell act." There is no indication that they had performed such an action previously.[25] Vollmer, who was also drinking heavily and undergoing amphetamine withdrawal, allegedly obliged him by putting a highball glass on her head. Burroughs shot Vollmer in the head, killing her almost immediately.[27]
Soon after the incident, Burroughs changed his account, claiming that he had dropped his gun and it had accidentally fired.[28] Burroughs spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and bribed Mexican lawyers and officials to release Burroughs on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled culpable homicide.
Vollmer's daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case. According to James Grauerholz, two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had fired accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, with ballistics experts bribed to support this story.[8]: 202 Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel Queer while awaiting his trial. Upon Burroughs' attorney fleeing Mexico in light of his own legal problems, Burroughs decided, according to Ted Morgan, to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and was given a two-year suspended sentence.[8]: 214
Although Burroughs was writing before his murder of Joan Vollmer, this event marked him and, biographers argue, his work for the rest of his life.[8]: 197–198 Vollmer's death also resonated with Allen Ginsberg, who wrote of her in Dream Record: June 8, 1955, "Joan, what kind of knowledge have the dead? Can you still love your mortal acquaintances? What do you remember of us?" In Burroughs: The Movie, Ginsberg claimed that Vollmer had seemed possibly suicidal in the weeks leading up to her death, and he suggested that this may have been a factor in her willingness to take part in the risky William Tell stunt.[29]
After leaving Mexico, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, seeking out a drug called yagé, which promised to give the user telepathic abilities. A book composed of letters between Burroughs and Ginsberg, The Yage Letters, was published in 1963 by City Lights Books. In 2006, a re-edited version, The Yage Letters Redux, showed that the letters were largely fictionalised from Burroughs' notes.
Burroughs described Vollmer's death as a pivotal event in his life, and one that provoked his writing by exposing him to the risk of possession by a malevolent entity he called "the Ugly Spirit":
I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. I live with the constant threat of possession, and a constant need to escape from possession, from Control. So the death of Joan brought me in contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a life long struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.[30]
As Burroughs makes clear, he meant this reference to "possession" to be taken absolutely literally, stating: "My concept of possession is closer to the medieval model than to modern psychological explanations ... I mean a definite possessing entity."[30] Burroughs' writing was intended as a form of "sorcery", in his own words[31] – to disrupt language via methods such as the cut-up technique, and thus protect himself from possession.[d][e][f][g] Later in life, Burroughs described the Ugly Spirit as "Monopolistic, acquisitive evil. Ugly evil. The ugly American", and took part in a shamanic ceremony with the explicit aim of exorcising the Ugly Spirit.[36]
Oliver Harris has questioned Burroughs' claim that Vollmer's death catalysed his writing, highlighting the importance for Queer of Burroughs' traumatic relationship with the boyfriend fictionalized in the story as Eugene Allerton, rather than Burroughs' shooting of Vollmer. In any case, he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr–Kammerer situation and that at the time remained unpublished. Years later, in the documentary What Happened to Kerouac?, Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work". An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in Word Virus,[37] a compendium of William Burroughs' writing that was published by his biographer after his death in 1997. The complete novel was finally published by Grove Press in 2008.
Before killing Vollmer, Burroughs had largely completed his first novel, Junkie, which he wrote at the urging of Allen Ginsberg, who was instrumental in getting the work published as a cheap mass-market paperback.[38] Ace Books published the novel in 1953 as part of an Ace Double under the pen name William Lee, retitling it Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict (it was later republished as Junkie, then in 1977 as Junky, and finally in 2003 as Junky: the definitive text of 'Junk', edited by Oliver Harris).[38]
During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities toward which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and in New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advances,[39] Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed from his parents' continuing support. He found Rome and Ansen's company dreary and, inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for the Tangier International Zone,[8]: 232–234 where he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as Interzone.[40]
To Burroughs, all signs directed a return to Tangier, a city where drugs were freely available and where financial support from his family would continue. He realized that in the Moroccan culture he had found an environment that synchronized with his temperament and afforded no hindrances to pursuing his interests and indulging in his chosen activities. He left for Tangier in November 1954 and spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become Naked Lunch, as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier. He sent these writings to Ginsberg, his literary agent for Junkie, but none were published until 1989 when Interzone, a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of a marijuana confection known as majoun and a German-made opioid called Eukodol, Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs type, edit, and arrange these episodes into Naked Lunch.[8]: 238–242
Further information: Naked Lunch
Whereas Junkie and Queer were conventional in style, Naked Lunch was his first venture into a nonlinear style. After the publication of Naked Lunch, a book whose creation was to a certain extent the result of a series of contingencies, Burroughs was exposed to Brion Gysin's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in October 1959. He began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences.[41] At the Beat Hotel, Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases: "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin."[42] The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative.
Excerpts from Naked Lunch were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was initially rejected by City Lights Books, the publisher of Ginsberg's Howl; and Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, who had published English-language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and antisocial characters. Nevertheless, Ginsberg managed to get excerpts published in Black Mountain Review and Chicago Review in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of Chicago Review, a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from Naked Lunch, but he was fired from his position in 1958 after Chicago Daily News columnist Jack Mabley called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal Big Table No. 1; however, the United States Postmaster General ruled that copies could not be mailed to subscribers on the basis of obscenity laws. John Ciardi did get a copy and wrote a positive review of the work, prompting a telegram from Allen Ginsberg praising the review.[43] This controversy made Naked Lunch interesting to Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959.[44]
After the novel was published, it became notorious across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s, but also literary critics such as Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, Naked Lunch was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, followed by other states. In 1966, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" on the basis of criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs' novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature – that is, a work consisting of words only, and not including illustrations or photographs – prosecuted in the United States.
The Word Hoard, the collection of manuscripts that produced Naked Lunch, also produced parts of the later works The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964). These novels feature extensive use of the cut-up technique that influenced all of Burroughs' subsequent fiction to a degree. During Burroughs' friendship and artistic collaborations with Gysin and Ian Sommerville, the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, via Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method that he often defended his use of the technique before editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver at Grove Press in the 1960s[8]: 425 and Holt, Rinehart & Winston in the 1980s. The cut-up method, because of its random or mechanical basis for text generation, combined with the possibilities of mixing in text written by other writers, deemphasizes the traditional role of the writer as creator or originator of a string of words, while simultaneously exalting the importance of the writer's sensibility as an editor.[citation needed] In this sense, the cut-up method may be considered as analogous to the collage method in the visual arts.[citation needed] New restored editions of The Nova Trilogy (or Cut-Up Trilogy), edited by Oliver Harris (President of the European Beat Studies Network) and published in 2014, included notes and materials to reveal the care with which Burroughs used his methods and the complex histories of his manuscripts.
Burroughs moved into a rundown hotel in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1959 when Naked Lunch was still looking for a publisher. Tangier, with its political unrest, and criminals with whom he had become involved, became dangerous to Burroughs.[45] He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with Olympia Press. He left behind a criminal charge which eventually caught up with him in Paris. Paul Lund, a British former career criminal and cigarette smuggler whom Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France. Lund gave up Burroughs, and evidence implicated Burroughs in the importation of narcotics into France. When the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials, Burroughs faced criminal charges in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates. It was during this impending case that Maurice Girodias published Naked Lunch; its appearance helped to get Burroughs a suspended sentence, since a literary career, according to Ted Morgan, is a respected profession in France.
The "Beat Hotel" was a typical European-style boarding house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated by Gregory Corso, Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for several months after Naked Lunch first appeared.
Burroughs' time at the Beat Hotel was dominated by occult experiments – "mirror-gazing, scrying, trance and telepathy, all fuelled by a wide variety of mind-altering drugs".[46] Later, Burroughs would describe "visions" obtained by staring into the mirror for hours at a time – his hands transformed into tentacles,[h] or his whole image transforming into some strange entity,[i] or visions of far-off places,[48] or of other people rapidly undergoing metamorphosis.[j] It was from this febrile atmosphere that the famous cut-up technique emerged.
The actual process by which Naked Lunch was published was partly a function of its "cut-up" presentation to the printer. Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically random manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance from Grove Press to buy drugs (equivalent to approximately $31,000 in today's funds[18]).[8]: 316–326 Naked Lunch was featured in a 1959 Life magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement. During this time Burroughs found an outlet for material otherwise rendered unpublishable in Jeff Nuttall's My Own Mag.[49] Also, poetry by Burroughs' appeared in the avant garde little magazine Nomad at the beginning of the 1960s.
Burroughs left Paris for London in 1960 to visit Dr. Dent, a well-known English medical doctor who spearheaded a reputedly painless heroin withdrawal treatment using the drug apomorphine.[50] Dent's apomorphine cure was also used to treat alcoholism, although it was held by several people who undertook it to be no more than straightforward aversion therapy. Burroughs, however, was convinced. Following his first cure, he wrote a detailed appreciation of apomorphine and other cures, which he submitted to The British Journal of Addiction (Vol. 53, 1956) under the title "Letter From A Master Addict To Dangerous Drugs"; this letter is appended to many editions of Naked Lunch.
Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several occasions, including one time escorting his son to the Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in Florida. In the "Afterword" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels Speed and Kentucky Ham, Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him very thoroughly on arrival. He claims he went through the most excruciating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, traveling with Billy to Lexington, Kentucky from Miami to ensure that his son entered the hospital that he had once spent time in as a volunteer admission.[51] Earlier, Burroughs revisited St. Louis, Missouri, taking a large advance from Playboy to write an article about his trip back to St. Louis, one that was eventually published in The Paris Review, after Burroughs refused to alter the style for Playboy’s publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joined Jean Genet, John Sack, and Terry Southern in covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention for Esquire magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who had first become acquainted in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt Naked Lunch for the screen in conjunction with American game-show producer Chuck Barris.[52]
Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant-garde reputation grew internationally as hippies and college students discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Antony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite Burroughs' protestations. In the midst of this personal turmoil, Burroughs managed to complete two works: a novel written in screenplay format, The Last Words of Dutch Schultz (1969); and the traditional prose-format novel The Wild Boys (1971).
It was during his time in London that Burroughs began using his "playback" technique in an attempt to place curses on various people and places who had drawn his ire, including the Moka coffee bar[53][k] and the London HQ of Scientology.[l] Burroughs himself related the Moka coffee bar incident:
Here is a sample operation carried out against the Moka Bar at 29 Frith Street, London, W1, beginning on August 3, 1972. Reverse Thursday. Reason for operation was outrageous and unprovoked discourtesy and poisonous cheesecake. Now to close in on the Moka Bar. Record. Take pictures. Stand around outside. Let them see me. They are seething around in there ... Playback would come later with more pictures ... Playback was carried out a number of times with more pictures. Their business fell off. They kept shorter and shorter hours. October 30, 1972, the Moka Bar closed. The location was taken over by the Queen's Snack Bar.[56]
In the 1960s, Burroughs joined and then left the Church of Scientology. In talking about the experience, he claimed that the techniques and philosophy of Scientology helped him and that he felt that further study of Scientology would produce great results.[57] He was skeptical of the organization itself, and felt that it fostered an environment that did not accept critical discussion.[58] His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters in the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.
In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg gained for Burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the City College of New York. Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin use and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed "The Bunker", on the Lower East Side of Manhattan at 222 Bowery.[59] The dwelling was a partially converted YMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York City rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed, doubling the rent overnight.[60] Burroughs added "teacher" to the list of jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester as a professor; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he turned down a teaching position at the University at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back."[8]: 477 His savior was the newly arrived twenty-one-year-old bookseller and Beat Generation devotee James Grauerholz, who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in a bookstore. Grauerholz suggested the idea of reading tours. Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking for Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile, eventually aiding in his obtaining new publishing contracts. Through Grauerholz, Burroughs became a monthly columnist for the noted popular culture magazine Crawdaddy, for which he interviewed Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in 1975. Burroughs decided to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural players such as Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Susan Sontag, frequently entertaining them at the Bunker; he also visited venues like CBGB to watch the likes of Patti Smith perform.[61] Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern and Dennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of Junky. It was reported in The New York Times that Burroughs himself would appear in the film. Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.[62][63]
In 1976, he appeared in Rosa von Praunheim's New York documentary Underground & Emigrants.
Organized by Columbia professor Sylvère Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs' work held from November 30 to December 2, 1978, at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem), in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52's, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Debbie Harry and Chris Stein.
In 1976, Burroughs was having dinner with his son, William S. "Billy" Burroughs Jr., and Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, Colorado, at Ginsberg's Buddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) at Chogyam Trungpa's Naropa University when Billy began to vomit blood. Burroughs Sr. had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg's apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s and was deemed by literary critics like Ann Charters as a bona fide "second generation beat writer",[64] his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had disintegrated. Billy was a constant drinker, and there were long periods when he was out of contact with any of his family or friends. The diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete that the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Billy underwent the procedure and beat the thirty-percent survival odds. His father spent time in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through additional surgeries and complications. Ted Morgan's biography asserts that their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. Allen Ginsberg was supportive to both Burroughs and his son throughout the long period of recovery.[8]: 495–536
In London, Burroughs had begun to write what would become the first novel of a trilogy, published as Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983), and The Western Lands (1987). Grauerholz helped edit Cities when it was first rejected by Burroughs' long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. The novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern, leaving the reader to sort through the characters and events. This technique differed from the author's earlier cut-up methods, which were accidental from the start. Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The trilogy featured time-travel adventures in which Burroughs' narrators rewrote episodes from history to reform mankind.[8]: 565 Reviews were mixed for Cities. Novelist and critic Anthony Burgess panned the work in Saturday Review, saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible world view or theology; other reviewers, like J. G. Ballard, argued that Burroughs was shaping a new literary "mythography".[8]: 565
In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in Esquire magazine claiming his father had poisoned his life and claiming that he had been molested as a fourteen-year-old by one of his father's friends while visiting Tangier. The liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink, and Billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. After he had stopped taking his transplant rejection drugs, he was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterward. Burroughs was in New York when he heard from Allen Ginsberg of Billy's death.
Burroughs, by 1979, was once again addicted to heroin. The cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside his door on the Lower East Side "made its way" into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from the overzealous if well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. Although Burroughs would have episodes of being free from heroin, from this point until his death he was regularly addicted to the drug. In an introduction to Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs, James Grauerholz (who managed Burroughs' reading tours in the 1980s and 1990s) mentions that part of his job was to deal with the "underworld" in each city to secure the author's drugs.[65]
Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1981, taking up residence at 1927 Learnard Avenue where he would spend the rest of his life. He once told a Wichita Eagle reporter that he was content to live in Kansas, saying, "The thing I like about Kansas is that it's not nearly as violent, and it's a helluva lot cheaper. And I can get out in the country and fish and shoot and whatnot."[66] In 1984, he signed a seven-book deal with Viking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the unpublished 1952 novel Queer. With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000.[8]: 596 He was finally inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 after several attempts by Allen Ginsberg to get him accepted. He attended the induction ceremony in May 1983. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy proved Herbert Marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.[8]: 577
By this point, Burroughs was a counterculture icon. In his final years, he cultivated an entourage of young friends who replaced his aging contemporaries. In the 1980s he collaborated with performers ranging from Bill Laswell's Material and Laurie Anderson to Throbbing Gristle. Burroughs and R.E.M. collaborated on the song "Star Me Kitten" on the Songs in the Key of X: Music from and Inspired by the X-Files album. A collaboration with musicians Nick Cave and Tom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, Smack My Crack, later released as a spoken-word album in 1987. In 1989, he appeared with Matt Dillon in Gus Van Sant's film, Drugstore Cowboy. In 1990, he released the spoken word album Dead City Radio, with musical backup from producers Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. He collaborated with Tom Waits and director Robert Wilson on The Black Rider, a play that opened at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990 to critical acclaim, one that was later performed across Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs' approval, director David Cronenberg adapted Naked Lunch into a feature film, which opened to critical acclaim.
During 1982, Burroughs developed a painting technique whereby he created abstract compositions by placing spray paint cans in front of blank surfaces, and then shooting at the paint cans with a shotgun. These splattered and shot panels and canvasses were first exhibited in the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York City in 1987. By this time he had developed a comprehensive visual art practice, using ink, spray paint, collage and unusual things such as mushrooms and plungers to apply the paint. He created file-folder paintings featuring these mediums as well as "automatic calligraphy" inspired by Brion Gysin. He originally used the folders to mix pigments before observing that they could be viewed as art in themselves. He also used many of these painted folders to store manuscripts and correspondence in his personal archive[67] Until his last years, he prolifically created visual art. Burroughs' work has since been featured in more than fifty international galleries and museums including Royal Academy of the Arts, Centre Pompidou, Guggenheim Museum, ZKM Karlsruhe, Sammlung Falckenberg, New Museum, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Los Angeles County Museum, and Whitney Museum of American Art.[68]
According to Ministry frontman Al Jourgensen, "We hung out at Burroughs's house one time in '93. So he decides to shoot up heroin and he takes out this utility belt full of syringes. Huge, old-fashioned ones from the '50s or something. Now, I have no idea how an 80 year old guy finds a vein, but he knew what he was doing. So we're all laying around high and stuff and then I notice in the pile of mail on the coffee table that there's a letter from the White House. I said 'Hey, this looks important.' and he replies 'Nah, it's probably just junk mail.' Well, I open the letter and it's from President Clinton inviting Burroughs to the White House for a poetry reading. I said 'Wow, do you have any idea how big this is!?' So he says 'What? Who's president nowadays?' and it floored me. He didn't even know who our current president was."[69]
In 1990, Burroughs was honored with a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.[70]
In June 1991, Burroughs underwent triple bypass surgery.[71]
He became a member of a chaos magic organization, the Illuminates of Thanateros, in 1993.[72]
He was a voice actor in the 1995 video game The Dark Eye based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe, in which he recites "Annabel Lee".
Burroughs' last filmed performance was in the music video for "Last Night on Earth" by Irish rock band U2, filmed in Kansas City, Missouri, directed by Richie Smyth and also featuring Sophie Dahl.[73]
The only newspaper columnist Burroughs admired was Westbrook Pegler, a right-wing opinion shaper for the William Randolph Hearst newspaper chain.[8]: 170 Burroughs believed in frontier individualism, which he championed as "our glorious frontier heritage on minding your own business." Burroughs came to equate liberalism with bureaucratic tyranny, viewing government authority as a collective of meddlesome forces legislating the curtailment of personal freedom. According to his biographer Ted Morgan, his philosophy for living one's life was to adhere to a laissez-faire path, one without encumbrances – in essence a credo shared with the capitalist business world.[8]: 55 His abhorrence of the government did not prevent Burroughs from using its programs to his own advantage. In 1949 he enrolled in Mexico City College under the GI Bill, which paid for part of his tuition and books and provided him with a seventy-five-dollar-per-month stipend. He maintained, "I always say, keep your snout in the public trough."[8]: 173
Burroughs was a gun enthusiast and owned several shotguns, a Colt .45 and a .38 Special. Sonic Youth vocalist Thurston Moore recounted meeting Burroughs: "he had a number of Guns and Ammo magazines laying about, and he was only very interested in talking about shooting and knifing ... I asked him if he had a Beretta and he said: 'Ah, that's a ladies' pocket-purse gun. I like guns that shoot and knives that cut.'" Hunter S. Thompson gave him a one-of-a-kind .454 caliber pistol.[74] Burroughs was also a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment, being quoted as saying: "I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military."[75]
Burroughs had a longstanding preoccupation with magic and the occult, dating from his earliest childhood, and was insistent throughout his life that we live in a "magical universe".[76] As he himself explained:
In the magical universe there are no coincidences and there are no accidents. Nothing happens unless someone wills it to happen. The dogma of science is that the will cannot possibly affect external forces, and I think that's just ridiculous. It's as bad as the church. My viewpoint is the exact contrary of the scientific viewpoint. I believe that if you run into somebody in the street it's for a reason. Among primitive people they say that if someone was bitten by a snake he was murdered. I believe that.[77]
Or, speaking in the 1970s:
Since the word "magic" tends to cause confused thinking, I would like to say exactly what I mean by "magic" and the magical interpretation of so-called reality. The underlying assumption of magic is the assertion of "will" as the primary moving force in this universe – the deep conviction that nothing happens unless somebody or some being wills it to happen. To me this has always seemed self evident ... From the viewpoint of magic, no death, no illness, no misfortune, accident, war or riot is accidental. There are no accidents in the world of magic.[78]
This was no idle passing interest – Burroughs also actively practiced magic in his everyday life: seeking out mystical visions through practices like scrying,[79][80][48] taking measures to protect himself from possession,[81][82][35][36] and attempting to lay curses on those who had crossed him.[53][54][83] Burroughs spoke openly about his magical practices, and his engagement with the occult is attested from a multitude of interviews,[m][n][85] as well as personal accounts from those who knew him.[53][54][35]
Biographer Ted Morgan has argued that: "As the single most important thing about Graham Greene was his viewpoint as a lapsed Catholic, the single most important thing about Burroughs was his belief in the magical universe. The same impulse that led him to put out curses was, as he saw it, the source of his writing ... To Burroughs behind everyday reality there was the reality of the spirit world, of psychic visitations, of curses, of possession and phantom beings."[8][86]
Burroughs was unwavering in his insistence that his writing itself had a magical purpose.[o][p][q][r][91] This was particularly true when it came to his use of the cut-up technique. Burroughs was adamant that the technique had a magical function, stating "the cut ups are not for artistic purposes".[92] Burroughs used his cut-ups for "political warfare, scientific research, personal therapy, magical divination, and conjuration"[92] – the essential idea being that the cut-ups allowed the user to "break down the barriers that surround consciousness".[93] As Burroughs himself stated:
I would say that my most interesting experience with the earlier techniques was the realization that when you make cut-ups you do not get simply random juxtapositions of words, that they do mean something, and often that these meanings refer to some future event. I've made many cut-ups and then later recognized that the cut-up referred to something that I read later in a newspaper or a book, or something that happened ... Perhaps events are pre-written and pre-recorded and when you cut word lines the future leaks out.[93]
In the final decade of his life, Burroughs became heavily involved in the chaos magic movement. Burroughs' magical techniques – the cut-up, playback, etc. – had been incorporated into chaos magic by such practitioners as Phil Hine,[94][95][96] Dave Lee[97] and Genesis P-Orridge.[98][53] P-Orridge in particular had known and studied under Burroughs and Brion Gysin for over a decade.[53] This led to Burroughs contributing material to the book Between Spaces: Selected Rituals & Essays From The Archives Of Templum Nigri Solis[99] Through this connection, Burroughs came to personally know many of the leading lights of the chaos magic movement, including Hine, Lee, Peter J. Carroll, Ian Read and Ingrid Fischer, as well as Douglas Grant, head of the North American section of chaos magic group the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT).[76][100] Burroughs' involvement with the movement further deepened, as he contributed artwork and other material to chaos magic books,[101] addressed an IOT gathering in Austria,[102] and was eventually fully initiated into the Illuminates of Thanateros.[s][103][76] As Burroughs' close friend James Grauerholz states: "William was very serious about his studies in, and initiation into the IOT ... Our longtime friend, Douglas Grant, was a prime mover."[100]
Burroughs died August 2, 1997, at age 83, in Lawrence, Kansas, from complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day.[19] He was interred in the family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri,[105] with a marker bearing his full name and the epitaph "American Writer". His grave lies to the right of the white granite obelisk of William Seward Burroughs I (1857–1898).
Since 1997, several posthumous collections of Burroughs' work have been published. A few months after his death, a collection of writings spanning his entire career, Word Virus, was published (according to the book's introduction, Burroughs himself approved its contents prior to his death). Aside from numerous previously released pieces, Word Virus also included what was promoted as one of the few surviving fragments of And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a novel by Burroughs and Kerouac. The complete Kerouac/Burroughs manuscript And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks was published for the first time in November 2008.[106]
A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burroughs' life was published as the book Last Words in 2000. Publication of a memoir by Burroughs entitled Evil River by Viking Press has been delayed several times; after initially being announced for a 2005 release, online booksellers indicated a 2007 release, complete with an ISBN (ISBN 0-670-81351-6), but it remains unpublished.[107]
New enlarged or unexpurgated editions of numerous texts have been published in recent years as "Restored Text" or "Redux" editions all containing additional material and essays on the works or incorporating material edited out of previous versions. Beginning with Barry Miles and James Grauerholz's 2003 edition of Naked Lunch, followed by Oliver Harris's reconstructions of three trilogies of writings. The first of these are the early writings: Junky:the definitive text of "Junk" (2003), Queer: 25th-Anniversary Edition (2010) and The Yage Letters Redux (2006). Following the publication of the latter in December 2007, Ohio State University Press released Everything Lost: The Latin American Journals of William S. Burroughs also edited by Harris, the book contains transcriptions of journal entries made by Burroughs during the time of composing Queer and The Yage Letters, with cover art and review information. There followed "restored text" versions of some of Burroughs' best known novels The Soft Machine, The Ticket that Exploded and Nova Express (styled "the Cut Up Trilogy" officially here for the first time) from Penguin in 2014, and of Burroughs' more obscure collaborative poetic experiments of 1960 Minutes to Go: Redux and The Exterminator: Redux by Moloko Press in 2020. These books, originally pamphlets, are bulked out to three times their original size and the "trilogy" is complete with the completely new BATTLE INSTRUCTIONS an allied experimental collaboration, composited by Harris from unpublished drafts and recordings of the same period.
Burroughs' major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later:
Early work (early 1950s)
Junkie, Queer and The Yage Letters are relatively straightforward linear narratives, written in and about Burroughs' time in Mexico City and South America.
The cut-up period (mid-1950s to mid-1960s)
Although published before Burroughs discovered the cut-up technique, Naked Lunch is a fragmentary collection of "routines" from The Word Hoard – manuscripts written in Tangier, Paris, London, as well as of other texts written in South America such as "The Composite City", blending into the cut-up and fold-in fiction also partly drawn from The Word Hoard: The Soft Machine, Nova Express, The Ticket That Exploded, also referred to as "The Nova Trilogy" or "The Cut-Up Trilogy", self-described by Burroughs as an attempt to create "a mythology for the space age". Interzone also derives from the mid-1950s.
Experiment and subversion (mid-1960s to mid-1970s)
This period saw Burroughs continue experimental writing with increased political content and branching into multimedia such as film and sound recording. Perhaps the defining and most important of which works is The Third Mind (with Brion Gysin) announced in 1966 and not published until the late '70s. The only major novels written in this period are The Wild Boys, and Port of Saints (republished in a different rewritten form in 1980, in the style Burroughs would adopt at that time). However, he also wrote dozens of published articles, short stories, scrap books and other works, several in collaboration with Brion Gysin. The major anthologies representing work from this period are The Burroughs File, The Adding Machine and Exterminator!.
The Red Night trilogy (mid-1970s to mid-1980s)
The books Cities of the Red Night, The Place of Dead Roads and The Western Lands came from Burroughs in a final, mature stage, creating a complete mythology.
Burroughs also produced numerous essays and a large body of autobiographical material, including a book with a detailed account of his own dreams (My Education: A Book of Dreams).
Several literary critics treated Burroughs' work harshly. For example, Anatole Broyard and Philip Toynbee wrote devastating reviews of some of his most important books. In a short essay entitled "A Review of the Reviewers", Burroughs answers his critics in this way:
Critics constantly complain that writers are lacking in standards, yet they themselves seem to have no standards other than personal prejudice for literary criticism. ... such standards do exist. Matthew Arnold set up three criteria for criticism: 1. What is the writer trying to do? 2. How well does he succeed in doing it? ... 3. Does the work exhibit "high seriousness"? That is, does it touch on basic issues of good and evil, life and death and the human condition. I would also apply a fourth criterion ... Write about what you know. More writers fail because they try to write about things they don't know than for any other reason.
— William S. Burroughs, "A Review of the Reviewers"[108]
[unreliable source?]
Burroughs clearly indicates here that he prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. Always a contradictory figure, Burroughs nevertheless criticized Anatole Broyard for reading authorial intent into his works where there is none, which sets him at odds both with New Criticism and the old school as represented by Matthew Arnold.
Burroughs used photography extensively throughout his career, both as a recording medium in planning his writings, and as a significant dimension of his own artistic practice, in which photographs and other images feature as significant elements in cut-ups. With Ian Sommerville, he experimented with photography's potential as a form of memory-device, photographing and rephotographing his own pictures in increasingly complex time-image arrangements.[109]
Burroughs is often called one of the greatest and most influential writers of the 20th century, most notably by Norman Mailer whose quote on Burroughs, "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius", appears on many Burroughs publications. Others consider his concepts and attitude more influential than his prose. Prominent admirers of Burroughs' work have included British critic and biographer Peter Ackroyd, the rock critic Lester Bangs, the philosopher Gilles Deleuze and the authors Michael Moorcock. J. G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Jean Genet, William Gibson, Alan Moore, Kathy Acker and Ken Kesey. Burroughs had an influence on the German writer Carl Weissner, who in addition to being his German translator was a novelist in his own right and frequently wrote cut-up texts in a manner reminiscent of Burroughs.[110]
Burroughs continues to be named as an influence by contemporary writers of fiction. Both the New Wave and, especially, the cyberpunk schools of science fiction are indebted to him. Admirers from the late 1970s – early 1980s milieu of this subgenre include William Gibson and John Shirley, to name only two. First published in 1982, the British slipstream fiction magazine Interzone (which later evolved into a more traditional science fiction magazine) paid tribute to him with its choice of name. He is also cited as a major influence by musicians Roger Waters, David Bowie, Patti Smith, Genesis P-Orridge,[111] Ian Curtis, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, Todd Tamanend Clark, John Zorn, Tom Waits, Gary Numan and Kurt Cobain.[112]
In the film William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, Ira Silverberg commented on Burroughs' development as a writer:
Usually, the most radical work tends to come from the upper classes, because they're trying so hard to shop so hard to get away from their roots. So he's a fascinating character uniquely American in that regard. I don't think that work could have existed had he not been breaking away from an incredibly patrician Midwestern background.
Drugs, homosexuality, and death, common among Burroughs' themes, have been taken up by Dennis Cooper, of whom Burroughs said, "Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer".[113] Cooper, in return, wrote, in his essay 'King Junk', "along with Jean Genet, John Rechy, and Ginsberg, [Burroughs] helped make homosexuality seem cool and highbrow, providing gay liberation with a delicious edge". Splatterpunk writer Poppy Z. Brite has frequently referenced this aspect of Burroughs' work. Burroughs' writing continues to be referenced years after his death; for example, a November 2004 episode of the TV series CSI: Crime Scene Investigation included an evil character named Dr. Benway (named for an amoral physician who appears in a number of Burroughs' works.) This is an echo of the hospital scene in the movie Repo Man, made during Burroughs' life-time, in which both Dr. Benway and Mr. Lee (a Burroughs pen name) are paged.
Burroughs had an impact on twentieth-century esotericism and occultism as well, most notably through disciples like Peter Lamborn Wilson and Genesis P-Orridge. Burroughs is also cited by Robert Anton Wilson as the first person to notice the "23 Enigma":
I first heard of the '23 Enigma' from William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark's ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another Captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.
— Robert Anton Wilson, Fortean Times[114]
Some research[115] suggests that Burroughs is arguably the progenitor of the 2012 phenomenon, a belief of New Age Mayanism that an apocalyptic shift in human consciousness would occur at the end of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 2012. Although never directly focusing on the year 2012 himself, Burroughs had an influence on early 2012 proponents such as Terence McKenna and Jose Argüelles, and as well had written about an apocalyptic shift of human consciousness at the end of the Long Count as early as 1960's The Exterminator.[116]
Main article: William S. Burroughs bibliography
Burroughs, William S. (2012). The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0-14-190358-3.
Grant, Douglas (2015). "Magick and Photography". Ashé Journal .
Harris, Oliver (2017). "William S. Burroughs: Beating Postmodernism". In Belletto, Steven (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Beats. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-18445-9.
Grauerholz, James; Silverberg, Ira; Douglas, Ann, eds. (2000). Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader. New York: Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3694-X. OCLC 57590795, ISBN 978-0-8021-3694-7.
Lee, Dave (1989). "Cut Up and Collage in Magic". Chaotopia!. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018 .
Morgan, Ted (1988). Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs. New York: Avon. ISBN 0-8050-0901-9.
P-Orridge, Genesis Breyer (2003). "Magick Squares and Future Beats". In Metzger, Richard (ed.). Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult. Red Wheel Weiser. ISBN 978-0-9713942-7-8.
P-Orridge, Genesis Breyer (2010). Thee Psychick Bible: Thee Apocryphal Scriptures ov Genesis Breyer P-Orridge and Thee Third Mind ov Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. Feral House. ISBN 978-1-932595-94-9.
Wason, Thomas (February 15, 1951). "William Burroughs" (PDF). Mexico City Collegian. Vol. 4. p. 6.
Burroughs, William S. (2001). Burroughs Live: The Collected Interviews of William S. Burroughs, 1960–1997. Zone Books. ISBN 978-1-58435-010-1.
Stevens, Matthew Levi (2014). The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford. ISBN 978-1-906958-64-0.
Allmer, Patricia and John Sears (ed.) Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs, London: Prestel and The Photographers' Gallery, 2014.
Charters, Ann (ed.). The Portable Beat Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1992. ISBN 0-670-83885-3 (hc); ISBN 0-14-015102-8 (pbk).
Gilmore, John. Laid Bare: A Memoir of Wrecked Lives and the Hollywood Death Trip. Searching for Rimbaud. Amok Books, 1997.
Harris, Oliver. William Burroughs and the Secret of Fascination. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2003.
Johnson, Robert Earl. The Lost Years of William S. Burroughs: Beats in South Texas. Texas A&M University Press, 2006.
Kashner, Sam, When I Was Cool, My Life at the Jack Kerouac School. New York: HarperCollins Perennial, 2005.
Miles, Barry. William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible: A Portrait. New York: Hyperion, 1993.
Sargeant, Jack. Naked Lens: Beat Cinema. New York: Soft Skull Press, 2008 [1997] [2001].
Schneiderman, Davis and Philip Walsh. Retaking the Universe: William S. Burroughs in the Age of Globalization. London: Pluto Press, 2004.
Stevens, Mathew Levi. The Magical Universe of William S. Burroughs. Mandrake of Oxford, 2014.
Stevens, Michael. The Road to Interzone: Reading William S. Burroughs Reading. Suicide Press, Archer City, Texas, 2009.
Weidner, Chad. The Green Ghost: William Burroughs and the Ecological Mind. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2016.
Wills, David S. Scientologist! William S. Burroughs and the Weird Cult. Beatdom Books, London, 2013.
Bernhard Valentinitsch, Hoch hinauf strebend und doch geerdet - über den Schriftsteller Harald Sommer, den steirischen William S. Burroughs. In: Denken und Glauben.Nr.199.Graz 2021.Nr.199, p. 22-24.
William S. Burroughs papers (17 linear feet – 94 boxes) are held by the Berg Collection of the New York Public Library.
William Seward Burroughs Papers, 1957–1976 (2 linear feet) are held in the Columbia University Libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.40 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 55 boxes plus additions) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.85 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 6 boxes) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.87 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 58 boxes) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs Papers, SPEC.CMS.90 (ca. 1945-ca. 1984, 29 boxes) are held in the Ohio State University libraries.
William S. Burroughs collection (3 linear feet) are held in the Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library at Emory University.
William S. Burroughs Collection, MS 63 and James Grauerholz Collection of William S. Burroughs, MS 319, are held at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas
William S. Burroughs Internet Database, edited by postmodern American scholar Michael Gurnow, hosted on the servers of Southeast Missouri State University from 2000 to 2012.
[1], Taking Shots: The Photography of William S. Burroughs, The Photographers' Gallery exhibition website.
[2], William S. Burroughs and Photography Lecture Series
William S. Burroughs at IMDb
William S. Burroughs at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
William S. Burroughs audio documentary narrated by Iggy Pop [3]
William S. Burroughs Internet Database at Southeast Missouri State University
International festivities for 50th anniversary of Naked Lunch
A gallery of Burroughs book cover designs
William Burroughs and Tom Waits
Allen Ginsberg & William S. Burroughs, Last Public Appearance November 2, 1996, Lawrence, KS
European Beat Studies Network
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within site for Independent Lens on PBS
William S. Burroughs: A Man Within at IMDb
Anything but Routine: A Selectively Annotated Bibliography of William S. Burroughs v 2.0 by Brian E.C. Schottlaender, UC San Diego, 2010
Burroughs 101 by This American Life, January 30, 2015
A finding aid to the William Burroughs and Brion Gysin writings, 1963–1973, 1997 in the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
Interviews | ||||||
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] | 2004-02-29T10:29:24+00:00 | en | /static/favicon/wikiquote.ico | https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs | William Seward Burroughs II (5 February 1914 – 2 August 1997), more commonly known as William S. Burroughs, was an American novelist, essayist, social critic, painter and spoken word performer. Much of Burroughs' work is semi-autobiographical, drawn from his experiences as an opiate addict, a condition that marked the last fifty years of his life. He was a central member of the Beat Generation and an avant-garde author who influenced popular culture as well as literature. In 1984 he was elected to the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
Quotes
[edit]
The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client.
"Letter from a Master Addict to Dangerous Drugs", written in 1956, first published in The British Journal of Addiction, Vol. 52, No. 2 (January 1957), p. 1 and later used as footnotes in Naked Lunch
Communication must become total and conscious before we can stop it.
The Ticket That Exploded (1962)
The 'Other Half' is the word. The 'Other Half' is an organism. Word is an organism. The presence of the 'Other Half' is a separate organism attached to your nervous system on an air line of words can now be demonstrated experimentally. One of the most common 'hallucinations' of subject during sense withdrawal is the feeling of another body sprawled through the subject's body at an angle...yes quite an angle it is the 'Other Half' worked quite some years on a symbiotic basis. From symbiosis to parasitism is a short step. The word is now a virus. The flu virus may have once been a healthy lung cell. It is now a parasitic organism that invades and damages the central nervous system. Modern man has lost the option of silence. Try halting sub-vocal speech. Try to achieve even ten seconds of inner silence. You will encounter a resisting organism that forces you to talk. That organism is the word.
The Ticket That Exploded (1962)
1. Never give anything away for nothing. 2. Never give more than you have to (always catch the buyer hungry and always make him wait). 3. Always take back everything if you possibly can.
On drug dealing, quoted in The Daily Telegraph (1964)
You know, they ask me if I were on a desert island and I knew nobody would ever see what I wrote, would I go on writing. My answer is most emphatically yes. I would go on writing for company. Because I'm creating an imaginary — it's always imaginary — world in which I would like to live.
Quoted in interview, The Paris Review (Fall 1965)
The hallucinogens produce visionary states, sort of, but morphine and its derivatives decrease awareness of inner processes, thoughts and feelings. They are pain killers; pure and simple. They are absolutely contraindicated for creative work, and I include in the lot alcohol, morphine, barbiturates, tranquilizers — the whole spectrum of sedative drugs.
Quoted in interview, The Paris Review (Fall 1965), in response to "The visions of drugs and the visions of art don't mix?"
When a certain stage of responsibility and awareness has been reached by a young banker he is taken to a room lined with family portraits in the middle of which is an ornate gilded toilet. Here he comes every day to defecate surrounded by the family portraits until he realizes that money is shit. And what does the money machine eat to shit it out? It eats youth, spontaneity, life, beauty and above all it eats creativity. It eats quality and shits out quantity. There was a time when the machine ate in moderation from a plentiful larder and what it ate was replaced. Now the machine is eating faster.
The Job: Interviews with William S. Burroughs (1966) by Burroughs with Daniel Odier, p. 73; as quoted in Word cultures : radical theory and practice in William S. Burroughs' fiction (1987) by Robin Lydenberg, p. 146
A paranoid man is a man who knows a little about what's going on.
Quoted in Friend magazine (1970)
Faced by the actual practice of freedom, the French and American revolutions would be forced to stand by their words.
Cities of the Red Night (1981)
There is simply no room left for 'freedom from the tyranny of government' since city dwellers depend on it for food, power, water, transportation, protection, and welfare. Your right to live where you want, with companions of your choosing, under laws to which you agree, died in the eighteenth century with Captain Mission. Only a miracle or a disaster could restore it.
Cities of the Red Night (1981)
You are a Shit Spotter. It's satisfying work. ... We have observed that most of the trouble in the world has been caused by ten to twenty percent of folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus. Now your virus is an obligate cellular parasite and my contention is that evil is quite literally a virus parasite occupying a certain brain area which we may term the RIGHT center. The mark of a basic shit is that he has to be right. And right here we must make a diagnostic distinction between the hard-core virus-occupied shit and a plain, ordinary, mean no-good son of a bitch. Some of these sons of bitches don't cause any trouble at all, just want to be left alone.
The Place Of Dead Roads (1983), p. 155
Variant, using much of this passage in a later essay:
Most of the trouble in the world has been caused by folks who can't mind their own business, because they have no business of their own to mind, any more than a smallpox virus has. Now your virus is an obligate cellular parasite and my contention is that evil is quite literally a virus parasite occupying a certain brain area which we may term the RIGHT center. The mark of a basic shit is that he has to be right. And right here we must make a distinction between the hard-core virus-occupied shit and a plain, ordinary, mean no-good son of a bitch. Some of these sons of bitches don't cause any trouble at all, just want to be left alone and are only dangerous when molested, like the Brown Recluse.
"My Own Business" in The Adding Machine : Selected Essays (1985), p. 16
Victimless crimes are the lifeline of the RIGHT virus. And there is a growing recognition, even in official quarters, that victimless crimes should be removed from the books or subject to minimal penalties. Those individuals who cannot or will not mind their business cling to the victimless-crime concept, equating drug use and private sexual behavior with robbery and murder. If the right to mind one's own business is recognized, the whole shit disposition is untenable and Hell hath no vociferous fury than an endangered parasite.
The Place Of Dead Roads (1983), p. 155
Last night I encountered a dream cat with a very long neck and a body like a human fetus, gray and transluscent. I don't know what it needs or how to provide for it. Another dream years ago of a human child with eyes on stalks. It is very small, but can walk and talk "Don't you want me?" Again, I don't know how to care for the child. But I am dedicated to protecting and nurturing him at any cost! It is the function of the Guardian to protect hybrids and mutants in the vulnerable stage of infancy.
The Cat Inside (1986)
This is a war universe. War all the time. That is its nature. There may be other universes based on all sorts of other principles, but ours seems to be based on war and games. All games are basically hostile. Winners and losers. We see them all around us: the winners and the losers. The losers can oftentimes become winners, and the winners can very easily become losers.
"The War Universe", taped conversation, first published in Grand Street, No. 37 (1991)
After a shooting spree, they always want to take the guns away from the people who didn't do it. I sure as hell wouldn't want to live in a society where the only people allowed guns are the police and the military.
Grand Street, no. 37 & The War Universe (1992)
England has the most sordid literary scene I've ever seen. They all meet in the same pub. This guy's writing a foreword for this person. They all have to give radio programs, they have to do all this just to scrape by. They're all scratching each other's backs.
Forbes (2 April 2001), p. 172
Love? What is it? Most natural painkiller what there is. LOVE.
Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs (2000)
Build a good name. Keep your name clean. Don't make compromises, don't worry about making a bunch of money or being successful — be concerned with doing good work and make the right choices and protect your work. And if you build a good name, eventually, that name will be its own currency.
Recounted by Patti Smith in an Interview by Christian Lund, the Louisiana Literature festival August 24, 2012, at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Junkie (1953)
[edit]
The questions, of course, could be asked: Why did you ever try narcotics? Why did you continue using it long enough to become an addict? You become a narcotics addict because you do not have strong motivations in the other direction. Junk wins by default. I tried it as a matter of curiosity.
Prologue
When you stop growing you start dying.
Prologue
I have learned the junk equation. Junk is not, like alcohol or weed, a means to increased enjoyment of life. Junk is not a kick. It is a way of life.
Prologue
Tea heads are not like junkies. A junky hands you the money, takes his junk and cuts. But tea heads don't do things that way. They expect the peddler to light them up and sit around talking for half an hour to sell two dollars' worth of weed. If you come right to the point, they say you are a "bring down." In fact, a peddler should not come right out and say he is a peddler.
Tea heads are gregarious, they are sensitive, and they are paranoiac. If you get to be known as a "drag" or a "bring down," you can't do business with them.
I can say definitely that weed is an aphrodisiac and that sex is more enjoyable under the influence of weed than without it. Anyone who has used good weed will verify this statement.
The American uppermiddle-class citizen is a composite of negatives. He is largely delineated by what he is not.
You need a good bedside manner with doctors or you will get nowhere.
I lay down and tried to sleep. When I closed my eyes I saw an Oriental face, the lips and nose eaten by disease. The disease spread, melting the face into an amoeboid mass in which the eyes floated, dull crustacean eyes. Slowly, a new face formed around the eyes. A series of faces, hieroglyphs, distorted and leading to the final place where the human road ends, where the human form can no longer contain the crustacean horror that has grown inside it.
Coke is pure kick. It lifts you straight up, a mechanical lift that starts leaving you as soon as you feel it
A ghost in daylight on a crowded street.
A junky runs on junk time. When his junk is cut off, the clock runs down and stops. All he can do is hang on and wait for non-junk time to start. A sick junkie has no escape from external time, no place to go. He can only wait.
When people start talking about their bowel movements, they are inexorable as the processes of which they speak.
A lot of people made quick easy money during the War and for several years after. Any business was good, just as any stock is good on a rising market. People thought they were sharp operators, when actually they were just riding a lucky streak. Now the Valley is in a losing streak and only the big operators can ride it out. In the Valley economic laws work out like a formula in high school algebra, since there is no human element to interfere. The very rich are getting richer and all the others are going broke. The big holders are not shrewd or ruthless or enterprising. They don't have to say or think anything. All they have to do is sit and the money comes pouring in. You have to get up with the Big Holders or drop out and take any job they hand you. The middle class is getting the squeeze, and only one in a thousand will go up. The Big Holders are the house, and the small farmers are the players. The player goes broke if he keeps on playing, and the farmer has to play or lose to the Government by default.
Sodomy is as old as the human species.
Why does an addict get a new habit so much quicker than a junk virgin, even after the addict has been clean for years? I do not accept the theory that junk is lurking in the body all that time - the spine is where it supposedly holes up - and I disagree with all psychological answers. I think the use of junk causes permanent cellular alteration. Once a junky, always a junky. You can stop using junk, but you are never off after the first habit.
Junk short-circuits sex. The drive to non-sexual sociability comes from the same place sex comes from, so when I have an H or M shooting habit I am non-sociable. If someone wants to talk, O.K. But there is no drive to get acquainted. When I come off the junk, I often run through a period of uncontrolled sociability and talk to anyone who will listen.
Junk takes everything and gives nothing but insurance against junk sickness.
Junk is an inoculation of death that keeps the body in a condition of emergency
You sometimes wake up from a dream and think, "Thank God, I didn't really do that!" Reconstructing a period of blackout you think, "My God, did I really do that?" The line between saying and thinking is blurred. Did you say it or just think it?
When you give up junk, you give up a way of life. I have seen junkies kick and hit the lush and wind up dead in a few years. Suicide is frequent among ex-junkies. Why does a junky quit junk of his own will? You never know the answer to that question. No conscious tabulation of the disadvantages and horrors of junk gives you the emotional drive to kick. The decision to quit junk is a cellular decision, and once you have decided to quit you cannot go back to junk permanently any more than you could stay away from it before.
Kick is seeing things from a special angle. Kick is momentary freedom from the claims of the aging, cautious, nagging, frightened flesh. Maybe I will find in yage what I was looking for in junk and weed and coke.
Grove Press, 2003, ISBN 0-802-11639-6, 289 pages
The face of "evil" is always the face of total need. A dope fiend is a man in total need of dope. Beyond a certain frequency need knows absolutely no limit or control. In the words of total need: "Wouldn't you?" Yes you would. You would lie, cheat, inform on your friends, steal, do anything to satisfy total need. Because you would be in a state of total sickness, total possession, and not in a position to act in any other way. Dope fiends are sick people who cannot act other than they do. A rabid dog cannot choose but bite.
Introduction
The junk merchant doesn't sell his product to the consumer, he sells the consumer to his product. He does not improve and simplify his merchandise. He degrades and simplifies the client
Introduction
If you wish to alter or annihilate a pyramid of numbers in a serial relation, you alter or remove the bottom number. If we wish to annihilate the junk pyramid, we must start with the bottom of the pyramid: the Addict in the Street, and stop tilting quixotically for the "higher ups" so called, all of whom are immediately replaceable. The addict in the street who must have junk to live is the one irreplaceable factor in the junk equation. When there are no more addicts to buy junk there will be no junk traffic. As long as junk need exists, someone will service it.
Introduction
I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves, setting up their devil doll stool pigeons, crooning over my spoon and dropper I throw away at Washington Square Station, vault a turnstile and two flights down the iron stairs, catch an uptown A train...
Opening Chapter
Junk is surrounded by magic and taboos, curses and amulets.
Opening Chapter
Shooting PG is a terrible hassle, you have to burn out the alcohol first, then freeze out the camphor and draw this brown liquid off with a dropper—have to shoot it in the vein or you get an abscess, and usually end up with an abscess no matter where you shoot it. Best deal is to drink it with goof balls ... So we pour it in a Pernod bottle and start for New Orleans past iridescent lakes and orange gas flares, and swamps and garbage heaps, alligators crawling around in broken bottles and tin cans, neon arabesques of motels, marooned pimps scream obscenities at passing cars from islands of rubbish ... New Orleans is a dead museum. We walk around Exchange Place breathing PG and find The Man right away. It's a small place and the fuzz always knows who is pushing so he figures what the hell does it matter and sells to anybody. We stock up on H and backtrack for Mexico. Back through Lake Charles and the dead slot-machine country, south end of Texas, nigger-killing sheriffs look us over and check the car papers. Something falls off you when you cross the border into Mexico, and suddenly the landscape hits you straight with nothing between you and it, desert and mountains and vultures; little wheeling specks and others so close you can hear wings cut the air (a dry husking sound), and when they spot something they pour out of the blue sky, that shattering bloody blue sky of Mexico, down in a black funnel ... Drove all night, came at dawn to a warm misty place, barking dogs and the sound of running water.
Opening Chapter
"I was standing outside myself trying to stop those hangings with ghost fingers. . . . I am a ghost wanting what every ghost wants—a body—after the Long Time moving through odorless alleys of space where no life is only the colorless no smell of death. . . . Nobody can breathe and smell it through pink convulsions of gristle laced with crystal snot, time shit and black blood filters of flesh"
Opening Chapter
Ever see a hot shot hit, kid? I saw the Gimp catch one in Philly. We rigged his room with a one-way whorehouse mirror and charged a sawski to watch it. He never got the needle out of his arm. They don't if the shot is right. That's the way they find them, dropper full of clotted blood hanging out of a blue arm. The look in his eyes when it hit --- Kid, it was tasty.
Opening Chapter
America is not a young land: it is old and dirty and evil before the settlers, before the Indians. The evil is there waiting.
Opening Chapter
Well as, one judge said to the other, 'Be just and if you can't be just be arbitrary.' Regret cannot observe customary obscenities.
From the chapter entitled "And Start West," p. 5
From the chapter entitled "Lazarus Go Home," p. 62
Hustlers of the world, there is one Mark you cannot beat: The Mark Inside.
From the chapter entitled "Rube", p. 11
A functioning police state needs no police.
From the chapter entitled "Benway", p. 31
The study of thinking machines teaches us more about the brain than we can learn by introspective methods. Western man is externalizing himself in the form of gadgets.
Benway
“Squatting on old bones and excrement and rusty iron, in a white blaze of heat, a panorama of naked idiots stretches to the horizon. Complete silence - their speech centres are destroyed - except for the crackle of sparks and the popping of singed flesh as they apply electrodes up and down the spine. White smoke of burning flesh hangs in the motionless air. A group of children have tied an idiot to a post with barbed wire and built a fire between his legs and stand watching with bestial curiosity as the flames lick his thighs. His flesh jerks in the fire with insect agony.
Benway
Rock and Roll adolescent hoodlums storm the streets of all nations. They rush into the Louvre and throw acid in the Mona Lisa’s face.
Benway
The relation between an O.A. (Oblique Addict) and his R.C. (Recharge Connection) is so intense that they can only endure each other’s company for brief and infrequent intervals—I mean aside from recharge meets, when all personal contact is eclipsed by recharge process.
Habit Notes continued
Last night I woke up with someone squeezing my hand. It was my other hand.
Habit Notes continued
I awoke from The Sickness at the age of forty-five, calm and sane, and in reasonably good health except for a weakened liver and the look of borrowed flesh common to all who survive The Sickness... When I speak of drug addiction I do not refer to keif, marijuana or any preparation of hashish, mescaline, Banisteriopsis caapi, LSD6, Sacred Mushrooms or any other drugs of the hallucinogen group... There is no evidence that the use of any hallucinogen results in physical dependence.
From "Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness," the introduction to the 1960 edition, pp. 199-201
Our national drug is alcohol. We tend to regard the use of any other drug with special horror.
From "Deposition: Testimony Concerning a Sickness", p. 201
The end result of complete cellular representation is cancer. Democracy is cancerous, and bureaus are its cancer. A bureau takes root anywhere in the state, turns malignant like the Narcotic Bureau, and grows and grows, always reproducing more of its own kind, until it chokes the host if not controlled or excised. Bureaus cannot live without a host, being true parasitic organisms. (A cooperative on the other hand can live without the state. That is the road to follow. The building up of independent units to meet needs of the people who participate in the functioning of the unit. A bureau operates on opposite principles of inventing needs to justify its existence.) Bureaucracy is wrong as a cancer, a turning away from the human evolutionary direction of infinite potentials and differentiation and independent spontaneous action to the complete parasitism of a virus. (It is thought that the virus is a degeneration from more complex life-form. It may at one time have been capable of independent life. Now has fallen to the borderline between living and dead matter. It can exhibit living qualities only in a host, by using the life of another — the renunciation of life itself, a falling towards inorganic, inflexible machine, towards dead matter.) Bureaus die when the structure of the state collapse. They are as helpless and unfit for independent existence as a displaced tapeworm, or a virus that has killed the host.
Ordinary Men and Women
Benway: Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk? His whole abdomen would move up and down you dig farting out the words. It was unlike anything I ever heard. This ass talk had sort of a gut frequency. It hit you right down there like you gotta go. You know when the old colon gives you the elbow and it feels sorta cold inside, and you know all you have to do is turn loose? Well this talking hit you right down there, a bubbly, thick stagnant sound, a sound you could smell. This man worked for a carnival you dig, and to start with it was like a novelty ventriliquist act. Real funny, too, at first. He had a number he called “The Better ‘Ole” that was a scream, I tell you. I forget most of it but it was clever. Like, “Oh I say, are you still down there, old thing?” “Nah I had to go relieve myself.” After a while the ass start talking on its own. He would go in without anything prepared and his ass would ad-lib and toss the gags back at him every time. Then it developed sort of teeth-like little raspy in-curving hooks and started eating. He thought this was cute at first and built an act around it, but the asshole would eat its way through his pants and start talking on the street, shouting out it wanted equal rights. It would get drunk, too, and have crying jags nobody loved it and it wanted to be kissed same as any other mouth. Finally it talked all the time day and night, you could hear him for blocks screaming at it to shut up, and beating it with his fist, and sticking candles up it, but nothing did any good and the asshole said to him: “It’s you who will shut up in the end. Not me. Because we don't need you around here any more. I can talk and eat and shit.” After that he began waking up in the morning with a transparent jelly like a tadpole's tail all over his mouth. This jelly was what the scientists call un-D.T., Undifferentiated Tissue, which can grow into any kind of flesh on the human body. He would tear it off his mouth and the pieces would stick to his hands like burning gasoline jelly and grow there, grow anywhere on him a glob of it fell. So finally his mouth sealed over, and the whole head would have have amputated spontaneous — (did you know there is a condition occurs in parts of Africa and only among Negroes where the little toe amputates spontaneously?) — except for the eyes you dig. That's one thing the asshole couldn’t do was see. It needed the eyes. But nerve connections were blocked and infiltrated and atrophied so the brain couldn't give orders any more. It was trapped in the skull, sealed off. For a while you could see the silent, helpless suffering of the brain behind the eyes, then finally the brain must have died, because the eyes went out, and there was no more feeling in them than a crab's eyes on the end of a stalk.
Ordinary Men and Women
You see control can never be a means to any practical end. ... Control can never be a means to anything but more control ... like Junk.
Islam Incorporated and the Parties of Interzone
The broken image of Man moves in minute by minute and cell by cell.... Poverty, hatred, war, police-criminals, bureaucracy, insanity, all symptoms of The Human Virus. 'The Human Virus can now be isolated and treated.'
Islam Incorporated and the Parties of Interzone
Americans have a special horror of giving up control, of letting things happen in their own way without interference. They would like to jump down into their stomachs and digest the food and shovel the shit out.
Hauser and O'Brien
At all levels the drug trade operates without without schedule. Nobody delivers on time except by accident. The addict runs on junk time. His body is his clock, and junk runs through it like an hour-glass. Time has meaning for him only with reference to his need. Then he make his abrupt intrusion into the time of others, and, like all Outsiders, all Petitioners, he must wait, unless he happens to mesh with non-junk time.
Hauser and O'Brien
There is only one thing a writer can write about: what is in front of his senses at the moment of writing... I am a recording instrument... I do not presume to impose "story "plot" "continuity"... Insofar as I succeed in Direct recording of certain areas of psychic process I may have limited function... I am not an entertainer.
Atrophied Preface
Senators leap up and bray for the Death Penalty with inflexible authority of virus yen... Death for dope fiends, death for sex queens (I mean friends) death for the psychopath who offends the cowed and graceless flesh with broken animal innocence of lithe movements. The black wind of death undulates over the land, feeling, smelling for the crime of separate life, movers of the fear-frozen flesh shivering under a vast probability curve... Populations blocks disappear in a checker game of genocide... Any number can play...
Atrophied Preface
You were not there for the beginning. You will not be there for the end. Your knowledge of what is going on can only be superficial and relative
Atrophied Preface
So he imports this special breed of scorpions and feeds them on metal meal and the scorpions turned a phosphorescent blue color and sort of hummed. “Now we must find a worthy vessel,” he said. So we flush out this old goof ball artist and put the scorpion to him and he turned sort of blue and you could see he was fixed right to metal. These scorpions could travel on a radar beam and service the clients after Doc copped for the bread. It was a good thing while it lasted and the heat couldn't touch us. However all these scorpion junkies began to glow in the dark and if they didn't score on the hour metamorphosed into scorpions straight away. So there was a spot of bother and we had to move on disguised as young junkies on the way to Lexington. Bill and Johnny we sorted out the names but they keep changing like one day I would wake up as Bill the next day as Johnny. So there we are in the train compartment shivering junk sick our eyes watering and burning.
Chapter One: "Dead on Arrival"
Cut word lines — Cut music lines — Smash the control images — Smash the control machine — Burn the books — Kill the priests — Kill! Kill! Kill!
The Soft Machine (1961)
Listen to my last words anywhere. Listen to my last words any world. Listen all you board syndicates and governments of the earth. And you powers behind what filth deals consumated in what lavatory to take what is not yours. To sell the ground from unborn forever-
Chapter One
I will tell you: "'the word.'" Alien Word 'the.' "'The word'" of Alien Enemy imprisons "'thee'" in Time. In Body. In Shit. Prisoner, come out. The great skies are open. I Hassan i Sabbah 'rub out the word forever' If you I cancel all your words forever. And the of Hassan i Sabbah as also cancel. Cross all your skies see the silent writing of Brion Gysin Hassan i Sabbah: drew September 16, 1899 over New York.
'Peoples of the earth, you have all been poisoned.' Convert all available stocks of morphine to apomorphine. Chemists, work round the clock on variation and synthesis of the apomorphine formulae.
The purpose of my writing is to expose and arrest Nova Criminals. In 'Naked Lunch', 'Soft Machine' and 'Nova Express' I show who they are and what they are doing and what they will do if they are not arrested. Minutes to go. Souls rotten from their orgasm drugs, flesh shuddering from their nova ovens, prisoners of the earth to 'come out'. With your help we can occupy The Reality Studio and retake their universe of Fear Death and Monopoly-
Chapter One, Prisoners, Come Out
\
I am not a person and I am not an animal. There is something I am here for something I must do before I can go.
Home is where your ass is and if you want to move you move your ass the first step is learning to change homes with someone else and have someone else's ass.
His magic exists from a hypnotic, inadvertant demand of attention as he interrupts the Parade of Death and takes the stage, to unashamedly seize the higher pleasures they fear to reach. Dead and unborn onlookers wallow in their weakness, as the shame they emit fails to penetrate him and rebounds with force as he shoves it down their throats and they choke, vomiting up a jealous mess of many made up morals purely to justify their cowardliness and they sink back down to worthlessness. Rats of submission gnaw on his ankles but they fail to make him buckle and bow to necessity.
‘In the fields workers are planting maize seeds under the direction of an overseer with staff and headdress. Close-up of a worker’s face. Whatever it is that makes a man a man, all feeling and all soul has gone out in that face. Nothing is left but body needs and body pleasures. I have seen faces like that in the back wards of state hospitals for the insane. Faces that live to eat, shit and masturbate.’
Before my father started using morphine again he sent me to a Japanese person to learn something called Karate. I learn these things fast because I am blank inside, and I have no special way of moving or doing things so one way is the same to me as another. ‘
I saw the Colonel empty his revolver and go down under ten wild boys. A moment later they tossed his bleeding head into the air and started a ball game. Just at dusk the wild boys got up and padded away. They left the bodies stripped to the skin many with genitals cut off. The wild boys make little testicles in which they carry their hasish and khat.
The rudeness of many Americans depressed him, a rudeness based on a solid ignorance of the whole concept of manners, and on the proposition that for social purposes, all people are more or less equal and interchangeable.
Chapter One
Lola's was not exactly a bar. It was a small beer-and-soda joint. There was a Coca-Cola box full of beer and soda and ice at the left of the door as you came in. A counter with tube-metal stools covered in yellow glazed leather ran down one side of the room as far as the jukebox. Tables were lined along the wall opposite the counter. The stools had long since lost the rubber caps for the legs and made horrible screeching noises when the maid pushed them around to sweep. There was a kitchen in back, where a slovenly cook fried everything in rancid fat. There was neither a past nor future in Lola's. The place was a waiting room, where certain people checked in a certain times.
Chapter Two
Lee watched the thin hands, the beautiful violet eyes, the flush of excitement on the boy's face. An imaginary hand projected with such force it seemed Allerton must feel the touch of ectoplasmic fingers caressing his ear, phantom thumbs smoothing his eyebrows, pushing the hair back from his face. Now Lee's hands were running down his ribs, the stomach. Lee felt the aching pain of desire in his lungs.
Chapter Two
"A curse," said Lee. "Been in our family for generations. The Lees have always been perverts. I shall never forget the unspeakable horror that froze the lymph in my glands when the baneful word seared my reeling brain: 'homosexual'. I was a homosexual. I thought of the painted simpering female impersonators I'd seen in a Baltimore nightclub. Could it be possible I was one of those subhuman things? I walked the streets in a daze like a man with a light concussion- just a minute, Doctore Kildare, this isn't your script. I might as well have destroyed myself, ending an existence which seemed to offer nothing but grotesque misery and humiliation. Nobler, I thought to die a man than life on, a sex monster. It was a wise old queen - Bob, we called her- who taught me that I had a duty to live and to bear my burden proudly for all to see, to conquer prejudice and ignorance and hate with knowledge and sincerity and love. Whenever you are threatened by a hostile presence, you emit a thick cloud of love like an octopus squirts out ink."
Chapter Three
He forced himself to look at the facts. Allerton was not queer enough to make a reciprocal relation possible. Lee's affection irritated him. Like many people who have nothing to do, he was very resentful of any claims on his time. He had no close friends. He disliked definite appointments. He did not like to feel that anybody expected anything from him. He wanted, so far as possible, to live without external pressure.
Chapter Five
He felt a killing hate for the stupid, ordinary, disapproving people who kept him from doing what he wanted to do. "Someday I am going to have things just like I want," he said to himself. "And if any moralizing son of a bitch gives me any static, they will fish him out of the river.
Chapter Nine
Every time I hit Panama, the place is exactly one month, two months, six months more nowhere, like the progress of a degenerative illness. A shift from arithmetic to geometric progressive seems to have occurred. Something ugly and ignoble and subhuman is cooking in this mongrel town of pimps and whores and recessive genes, this degraded leech on the Canal.
Two Years Later: Mexico City Return
Stupid people can learn a language quiet and easy because there is nothing going on in there to keep it out.
Two Years Later: Mexico City Return
Many so called primitives are afraid of cameras. They think it can capture their soul and take it away. There is in fact something obscene and sinister about photography, a desire to imprison, to incorporate, sexual intensity, a sexual intensity of pursuit.
Two Years Later: Mexico City Return
Mexico city is a terminal of space-time travel, a waiting room where you grab a quick drink while you wait for your train. That is why I can stand to be in Mexico City for your train. That is why I can stand to be in Mexico City or New York. You are not struck; by the fact of being there at all, you are traveling. But in Panama, crossroads of the world, you are exactly so much aging tissue. You have to make arrangements with Pan Am or the Dutch Line for removal of your body. Otherwise, it would stay there and rot in muggy heat, under a galvanized iron roof.
Two Years Later: Mexico City Return
In deep sadness there is no place for sentimentality. It is as final as the mountains: a fact. There it is. When you realize it you cannot complain.
"Sit down on your ass, or what's left of it after four years in the navy."
Youth rebellion is a world wide phenomenon that has not been seen before in history. I don't believe they will calm down and be ad execs at thirty as the establishment would like to believe. Millions of young people all over the world are fed up with shallow unworthy authority running on a platform of bullshit.
"The Coming of the Purple Better One"
As a young child Audrey Carsons wanted to be writers because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee silk suit. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.
"The Lemon Kid"
According to legend the white race results from a nuclear explosion in what is now the Gobi desert some 30,000 years ago. The civilization and techniques which made the explosion possible were wiped out. The only survivors were slaves marginal to the area who had no knowledge of its science or techniques. They became albinos as a result of radiation and scattered in different directions. Some of them went into Persia northern India Greece and Turkey. Others moved westward and settled in the caves of Europe. The descendants of the cave-dwelling albinos are the present inhabitants of America and western Europe. In these caves the white settlers contracted a virus passed down along their cursed generations that was to make them what they are today a hideous threat to life on the planet. This virus this ancient parasite is what Freud calls the unconscious spawned in the caves of Europe on flesh already diseased from radiation. Anyone descended from this line is basically different from those who have not had the cave experience and contracted this deadly sickness that lives in your blood and bones and nerves that lives where you used to live before your ancestors crawled into their filthy caves. When they came out of the caves they couldn't mind their own business. They had no business of their own to mind because they didn't belong to themselves any more. They belonged to the virus. They had to kill torture conquer enslave degrade as a mad dog has to bite. At Hiroshima all was lost.
"Astronaut's Return"
Viking Press, 1987, ISBN 0-670-81352-4, 258 pages
Remember the Italian steward who put on women's clothes and so filched a seat in a lifeboat? "A cur in human shape, certainly he was born and saved to set a new standard by which to judge infamy and shame.
p. 6
No job too dirty for a fucking scientist.
p. 8
Cheat your landlord if you can and must, but do not try to shortchange the Muse. It cannot be done. You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.
ch. 2
Consider the impasse of a one-God universe. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. He can't go anywhere, since He is already everywhere. He can't do anything, since the act of doing presupposes opposition. His universe is irrevocably thermodynamic, having no friction by definition. So, He has to create friction: War, Fear, Sickness, Death, to keep his dying show on the road.
lyric from spoken-word recording "A One God Universe," featured on Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales, paraphrased by Burroughs from The Western Lands, p. 113
Now what sort of man or woman or monster would stroke a centipede I have ever seen? "And here is my good big centipede!" If such a man exists, I say kill him without more ado. He is a traitor to the human race.
ch. 4
Desperation is the raw material of drastic change. Only those who can leave behind everything they have ever believed in can hope to escape.
ch. 5, as cited in The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), pg. 234
After teaching a class in Creative Writing a few years back, my own creative powers fell to an all-time low. I really had a case of writer's block, and my idealistic young assistant complained that I simply sat around the loft doing absolutely nothing; which was absolutely true. This gave me time to think (as the French say): Can creative writing be taught?
"A Word to the Wise Guy"
My advice is to get a good agent and a good tax accountant if you ever make any money, and remember, you can't eat fame. And you can't write unless you want to write, and you can't want to unless you feel like it.
"A Word to the Wise Guy"
Brainwashing, psychotropic drugs, lobotomy, and other more subtle form of psychosurgery; the technocratic control apparatus of the United States has at its fingertips new techniques if which fully exploited could make Orwell's 1984 seem like a benevolent utopia.
"The Limits of Control"
All modern systems are riddled with contradictions.
"The Limits of Control"
Concession is another control bind. History shows that once a government starts to make concessions it is on a one-way street.
"The Limits of Control"
Any imposition of government censorship on the media is a step in the direction of State control, a step which big money is most reluctant to take.
"The Limits of Control"
A government is never more dangerous than when embarking on a self-defeating or downright suicidal course.
"The Limits of Control"
Quotes about Burroughs
[edit]
William S. Burroughs is one of the most pathetic figures in modern literature, his sadness made more poignant because it has been drawn out for so long. His cadaverous presence gave a hollow echo to a key scene in “Drugstore Cowboy,” in which he was a junkie ex-priest who has long decades of pain in his eyes. It didn't seem like acting. And in a recent documentary about his life, Burroughs came across as a man who walks around with something wounded inside, something that hurts so much that his spirit simply shut down.
Roger Ebert, Review of the cinematic adaptation of The Naked Lunch (1992)
It would take me all night to tell about Old Bull Lee; let's just say now, he was a teacher, and it may be said that he had every right to teach because he spent all his time learning; and the things he learned were what he considered to be and called "the facts of life," which he learned, not only out of necessity but because he wanted to. He dragged his long, thin body around the entire United States and most of Europe and North Africa in his time, only to see what was going on.... there are pictures of him with the international cocaine set of the thirties — gangs with wild hair, leaning on one another, there are other pictures of him in a Panama hat, surveying the streets of Algiers.... He was an exterminator in Chicago, a bartender in New York, a summons-server in Newark. In Paris he sat at cafe tables, watching the sullen French faces go by. In Athens he looked up from his ouzo at what he called the ugliest people in the world. In Istanbul he threaded his way through crowds of opium addicts and rug-sellers, looking for the facts. In Chicago he planned to hold up a Turkish bath, hesitated just for two minutes too long for a drink, and, wound up with two dollars and had to make a run for it. He did all these things merely for the experience....
Jack Kerouac, about a character said to be based upon Burroughs, in On the Road (1957)
There's another book called The Naked Lunch which I couldn't even finish reading, but it's published, and I think the author should be in jail ...
Dorothy Kilgallen, in court testimony defending Lenny Bruce, (1964)
Of the Beat triumvirate, Kerouac was probably both the most pathetic and least noxious. Psychologically, he was a mess—as indeed were Ginsberg and Burroughs. But, unlike them, Kerouac lacked the knack of sanctifying his pathologies and inducing others to bow down in obeisance.
Roger Kimball, "A gospel of emancipation", The New Criterion, October 1997
William Burroughs also believed in taking Vitamin/C.
Naomi Shihab Nye Voices in the Air (2018)
(“Did you ever look for women writers, in particular, or look to find your own experience in your reading?”) No, not when I was very young. It's not so much that I looked for women writers, but I had sense enough to know that, like Henry Miller, he wasn't writing for me. That's as far as I went. I knew that these guys, even the Beats-I thought they were nice, nice to see all those boys, and nice to see all the sexual feelings, but I knew it really wasn't written for me at all. It's not so much that I looked for women writers, as that I understood certain much admired writers, like Burroughs, weren't talking to me. There was nothing to get from them. Though at the same time I did get stuff from Proust. That talked to me, but all those ballsy American heroes had nothing to say to me, though my friends thought they were just hot shit, excuse me.
1981 interview in Conversations with Grace Paley (1997)
Burroughs doesn't interest me at all as a novelist; his experimental, psychedelic stories have always bored me, so much that I don't think I've ever been able to read one. But Junky, the first book he wrote, a factual and autobiographical account of how he became a drug addict and how his addiction to drugs -- free choice augmenting what was already doubtless a certain proclivity -- made him a willing slave, furnishes an accurate description of what I believe to be the literary vocation, of the utter interdependence of the writer and his work and the way the latter feeds on the former, on all he is and all he does or does not do.
Mario Vargas Llosa, Letters to A Young Novelist (Farrar, Strauss & Giroux), transl. Natasha Wimmer (1997, translation 2002)
I first heard of the 23 Enigma from William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch, Nova Express, etc. According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark's ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another Captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.
Robert Anton Wilson, in "The 23 Phenomenon" in Fortean Times No. 23 (1977), published online (May 2007)
Wikipedia has an article about:
Wikipedia has an article about:
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
RealityStudio.org — A Burroughs community featuring a moderated forum, Burroughs texts, exclusive interviews, news, and more.
William S. Burroughs — A French website dedicated to William S. Burroughs featuring news, Burroughs texts and quotations, a gallery and more.
Beat — A film (2000) based on his and Joan Burroughs's life leading up to her death.
William S. Burroughs at Literary Kicks
Interzone.org 5 linked websites on William Burroughs and Brion Gysin.
William S. Burroughs Internet Database
Master Musicians of JoujoukaPhotos Gysin '56, Burroughs 50s, Hamri 50s, 71, Master of Joujouka, Paintings Hamri]
The Western Lands
Link to 1973 Oui article by William Burroughs on visiting Joujouka with Ornette Coleman, Hamri, Brion Gysin and Robert Palmer
Brion Gysin, Tangier Beat Generation, Joe Ambrose, Joujouka
Reporters Redacteurs d'Interzone
Other Minds Archive: William Burroughs Press Conference at Berkeley Museum of Art on November 12, 1974 Streaming audio.
Naropa Audio Archives: William S. Burroughs class on the technology and ethic of wishing (June twenty fifth, 1986) Streaming audio and 64 kbit/s MP3 ZIP file.
Naropa Audio Archives: William S. Burroughs lecture on public discourse. (August eleventh, 1980) Streaming audio and 64 kbit/s MP3 ZIP file.
Interzone Creations Creations inspired by Burroughs & Gysin's work.
The death of Joan Vollmer Burroughs Research by James W. Grauerholz concerning the shooting of Joan Burroughs
Shooting Joan Burroughs at Beats In Kansas.
Essay on Junky by Will Self.
Article on Counterculture and Burroughs by Jonathan Leyser
Zed TV: "Ah Pook is Here" Animated film by Philip Hunt, inspired by Burroughs's text.
Studio AKA: "Ah Pook is Here" Excerpt from animated film by Philip Hunt.
Language Is A Virus Online Cut-Up Machine, the cut-up writing technique
1984 and 1985 audio interviews of William Burroughs by Don Swaim of CBS Radio, RealAudio
Blue Neon Alley - William S. Burroughs directory
Ubuweb arts website contains authorized MP3s of many Burroughs recordings, as well as online video of The Cut Ups short film and other works
Official Site of Underwires -- French band inspired by the work of William S. Burroughs.
John Gilmore on William S Burroughs
Burroughs Book Covers A selection of worldwide front covers of books by William S. Burroughs
Pictorial Map of The East Village — Featuring William Burroughs and other luminaries
Kathy Acker interviews William S. Burroughs at the October Gallery, London (1988) Part 1 Part 2 · Part 3 | ||||||
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"They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee suit," wrote Burroughs in a 1985 essay. "They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle."
View an illustrated map of Burroughs' St. Louis.
It's unclear if Burroughs ever accomplished the latter — owning an antelope. But as for the drugs, fame and adventure? He had those in spades. The Beat writer spent nearly two decades as a heroin addict, traveling the world on his parents' dime while filling notebooks with what would become his controversial 1959 masterpiece, Naked Lunch, in which Burroughs ripped apart the conventions of linear narrative and dared to write openly — disturbingly so, at times — about his fantasies and homosexuality.
From there he would go to stand alongside the likes of fellow Beat luminaries Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, influencing generations of disillusioned outcasts, hippies and punks alike. Burroughs is that guy in a tie sandwiched between Marilyn Monroe and the guru Sri Mahavatar Babaji on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Decades later the author would collaborate on spoken-word projects with Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits and many other musicians.
"He was the first person who was famous for things you were supposed to hide," explained boundary-pushing director John Waters in the 2010 documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within. "He was gay, he was a junkie, he didn't look handsome, he shot his wife, he wrote poetry about assholes and heroin. He was not easy to like."
Burroughs, who died in 1997 at the age of 83, would have turned 100 this month. (February 5, to be exact.) And although he left St. Louis as a young man, he remained tied to the prewar city of his childhood, a place he called "a different world" in a 1982 interview with the counterculture and conspiracy-theory magazine Steamshovel Press. It's here in St. Louis that Burroughs first expanded his mind as a hallucinating and fevered child, first dabbled in the underground scene and had his first clumsy forays as a writer. And it's here, too, that he came to rest for eternity in the Burroughs' family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
In the novella The Wild Boys, Burroughs refers to St. Louis as the "the old broken point of origin." Barry Miles, a British counterculture historian who first met Burroughs in London in 1965, says the city of Burroughs' youth exerted powerful influence on his work.
"The magical kingdom of his childhood was something he always tried to preserve and always tried to bring back," says Miles. "You could read his books with St. Louis in mind, and it is right there in most of them. The city runs right through."
But what besides his grave remains of Burroughs' time in St. Louis? And is anything left of that "magical kingdom" of his childhood?
Pershing Avenue St. Louis Missouri in the 1920s.... Red brick three-story houses. Lawns in front, large back yards with gardens separated by high wooden fences overgrown with morning glory and rose vines and at the back of the yard an ash pit and no one from Sanitation sniffing around in those days. — Cobble Stone Gardens (1976)
William S. Burroughs II arrived in the dead of winter 1914, born in the master bedroom of his family's well-appointed home in the Central West End. The Burroughs manor, designed and built by Burroughs' father, Mortimer, is still there — a three-story brick home on stately Pershing Avenue. Scott Duellman, a 36-year-old accounting professor at Saint Louis University, purchased the house just six months ago. He is well aware of its literary significance.
"I read Naked Lunch when I was sixteen or seventeen years old," says Duellman, who keeps a copy of Burroughs' most famous work in his living room. It's right there, perched on a mahogany bookcase beneath a row of Kurt Vonnegut and Jonathan Franzen novels.
"I think a lot of the Beat Generation writers speak to us at a certain time, usually between the ages of fifteen and twenty. This house hearkens me back to a time when I felt those things. It's like the house's past and my own past, they're just boiling together."
Across town, on Price Road in Ladue, the woman who opens the door of the home Burroughs moved into at the age of seven (in order for his family "to get away from people" the author would later write) has no idea about its former occupant. Carol Hager thought her home was once owned by that other Burroughs family — the ones behind John Burroughs School. Nope, although there is somewhat of a connection. The teenage William S. Burroughs attended the prestigious John Burroughs School, just a three-minute walk down the street. As a student there, Burroughs was something of an outcast. Though still unsure of his sexuality at the time, he became obsessed with a male classmate, to the point where his fawning devotion became embarrassingly obvious to his peers. They mocked him.
Like many lonely teenagers, Burroughs escaped to fantasy. He consumed crime novels, nickel paperbacks with stories of wild adventure, detective tales and Westerns. He began writing his own stories, the "first set" of his literary production, as Burroughs would later describe it.
The Burroughs' family wealth derived from William's paternal grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, who invented an adding machine in the 1880s that would eventually be worth millions of dollars. Just before the stock-market crash of 1929, Burroughs' father cashed in his shares of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company for $276,000. The sum was serious money for the time, in the neighborhood of $4 million today. By the late 1930s, however, the family fortune had dwindled to the point where Burroughs' parents made ends meet by running a landscaping service and gift shop in Ladue called Cobblestone Gardens.
In Burroughs' 1953 semi-autobiographical novel, Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict, he describes his formative years spent in a "comfortable capsule" of suburban affluence, mostly under the care of a nanny and various domestic servants.
Miles, who corresponded regularly with Burroughs throughout his life, says that the author expressed "a tremendous amount of nostalgia" for those early days in St. Louis.
For instance, while bedridden with fever at the age of four, Burroughs began experiencing visions — shadow animals scurrying on his bedroom walls, little gray men playing in his block houses. One day during a walk in Forest Park, little Billy Burroughs spotted what he thought were tiny green reindeer, according to Miles' just-released biography, Call Me Burroughs: A Life. The image of the delicate green reindeer, "about the size of a cat," echoes through many of Burroughs' later stories, poems and novels.
And an adolescent Burroughs began to rebel against his privileged upbringing by seeking out another side of St. Louis.
In the opening paragraphs of Cobble Stone Gardens, a memoir he named after his parents' gift shop, Burroughs recalls walking with his young cousin to the nearby bank of River des Peres (then a free-flowing open sewer) and "watching as turds shot out into the yellow water from vents along the sides." In another essay Burroughs describes a childhood ambition to become Commissioner of Sewers for the City of St. Louis — so that he could enjoy the benefits of corruption, just as the city officials who turned the river into a latrine had done.
In the early 1930s, during his summers home from Harvard, Burroughs would head over to Market Street between Union Station and the river. The area then was a skid row of sorts, full of bars, pawn shops and seedy rooming houses. He also spent a couple of weeks as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch but apparently got fed up with the assignments; he particularly hated the task of obtaining photos of recently drowned and poisoned children from grieving parents.
"He one time referred to St. Louis as a 'malignant matriarchy,'" recalls Kenn Thomas, a senior manuscript specialist with the State Historical Society of Missouri. Thomas struck up a friendship with Burroughs in the early '80s and later founded Steamshovel Press, which published works and interviews with Beat writers.
In 1935, during the summer of his junior year in college, a 21-year-old Burroughs lost his virginity to a bosomy prostitute in an East St. Louis, Illinois, brothel. It cost $5 per half-hour. He admitted in a 1974 interview that, "It wasn't what I wanted, but it was better than nothing." Even so, Burroughs became a repeat customer, and after the act he would drive to Culpeppers in the Central West End for after-whore drinks with his buddies.
"Burroughs' nostalgia for the rough parts of St. Louis, that's kind of a junkie thing, but it's also kind of a Buddhist thing," his old friend Thomas says. "There's a Buddhist principle to meditate on the most repulsive things that are out there. It's a reflection of what's real."
But what has happened to Market Street the skid row of my adolescent years? Where are the tattoo parlors, novelty stores, hock shops — brass knucks in a dusty window — the seedy pitchmen...the old junkies hawking and spitting on street corners under the gas lights? — distant 1920 wind and dust... —"St. Louis Return," published in The Paris Review (1965)
Burroughs tried very hard to enlist in the military even before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He applied to become an ambulance driver for the American Field Service and then as a pilot with the Glider Corps. Both rejected him. He then hoped to become an officer in the newly formed Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence and espionage agency that preceded the CIA, but that didn't pan out either. Five weeks after Pearl Harbor, Burroughs showed up at Jefferson Barracks, resigned that he would serve his country as just another officer.
Instead, Burroughs was classified 1-A Infantry. He went AWOL with a buddy, got caught and was tossed in the brig at Jefferson Barracks, where he spent the next five months. His mother would make frequent trips to visit, bringing along steam tables filled with gourmet meals. Though the process was slow, it wasn't difficult to convince the military that Burroughs wasn't mentally fit for the infantry: A psychiatrist confirmed that while living in New York in 1940, Burroughs cut off part of his left pinkie out of jealous anguish. The object of his obsession, a bisexual young man named Jack Anderson, would bring men and women back to the apartment he and Burroughs shared. Burroughs did not handle the competition well, so out came the poultry shears and off went the pinkie. (He was on a "Van Gogh kick" at the time, he would later write.)
After escaping the military, Burroughs moved to Chicago, finding work as an exterminator. In September 1943 he moved back to New York City, ending up in an apartment with future Beat Generation idol and On the Road author Jack Kerouac. Also living in the apartment was his future common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, a spirited Barnard College graduate and an intellectual driving force in her own right during the early years of the Beat movement.
While in New York, Burroughs became addicted to morphine, sparking an almost lifelong affair with drugs, especially heroin. He learned to rob drunks, or "roll lushes," on subway cars and sold heroin in Greenwich Village. Later, he and Vollmer (who was addicted to amphetamines) relocated to Texas to start a pot farm. Their only child, William S. Burroughs Jr., was raised by Burroughs' parents in St. Louis and died in 1981 due to complications related to alcoholism.
Burroughs had frequent run-ins with the law, but his parents bailed him out every time. They also gave him a $300-per-month allowance (a "livable sum," as he put it), allowing Burroughs the freedom to travel.
"It's very much an American tradition, to be an outsider and to remake yourself in a new form," Miles says of Burroughs' exploits. "He did that time and time again. After he shot his wife, for instance."
The killing occurred in Mexico City in 1951. According to James Grauerholz, Burroughs' editor, literary executor and close companion, the author boasted to those present "what kind of shot old Bill is," before taking aim at a glass of water balanced atop Vollmer's head. The bullet struck Vollmer in forehead. All involved were drunk and likely high. Yet again, Burroughs' family money and legal connections allowed him to avoid a two-year prison term for manslaughter.
While awaiting trial, Burroughs did spend a couple of weeks in a Mexican jail. There he began writing what would become the novel Queer, though it wasn't published until 1985.
"Everything was different after the killing," says Miles, who will be at Left Bank Books in the Central West End on Thursday, February 6, to discuss his latest Burroughs biography. "He went off into the Amazon jungle for six months and tried to take drugs that were so powerful that they would change him into a person who could not do that kind of thing," he says. "He thought that he was being occupied by something spiritual that he wanted to get rid of."
Burroughs directly confronts this occupying force in the introduction to Queer: "[T]he death of Joan brought me into contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out."
So I make these last entries in the log book of my St. Louis return — luggage stacked in the lobby — back through the ruins of Market Street to the Union Station nudes waiting there in the dry fountain of an empty square. I have returned to pick up a few pieces of sunlight and shadow — silver paper in the wind-frayed sounds of a distant city. — "St. Louis Return," published in The Paris Review (1965)
Burroughs returned to St. Louis in 1965 when Playboy commissioned him to write a story about his hometown. He stayed in the Chase Park Plaza during the visit. By then he had kicked his hard-drug habit (he relapsed later in life, however) and enjoyed cultural and literary notoriety for Naked Lunch.
The story produced from that homecoming, "St. Louis Return," would prove too weird and disjointed for Playboy, but The Paris Review happily picked it up.
In the article Burroughs expresses dismay over the urbanized, cleaned-up city before him. He describes the under-construction Arch grounds as having "an ominous look like the only landmark to survive an atomic blast."
Burroughs only made a handful of visits to St. Louis after that. In 1989, Robert Lococo, a St. Louis gallery owner trying to make a name for himself in the industry, reached out to Burroughs to commission a series of prints based on the seven deadly sins.
"I did some research on him and I thought, 'Wow, this guy's a real sinner,'" Lococo explains today.
In 1981 Burroughs followed Grauerholz, who essentially managed Burroughs' personal life from the 1970s until his death, to Lawrence, Kansas. There the writer developed into a full-fledged visual artist. His preferred technique involved setting up spray-paint cans near a flat surface, then blasting the cans with a shotgun to create an abstract explosion of color.
Lococo traveled to Lawrence in 1990, and Burroughs shot up seven plywood panels with shotguns and pistols. After treating them with Mylar, Burroughs drew and stenciled the panels to create the templates for the final prints. Lococo keeps the originals safely stored in his Olive Boulevard gallery, but the prints — as well as accompanying panels with Burroughs' authored text — have been shown in galleries around the world.
Burroughs traveled sparingly in his final years. After visiting St. Louis to attend his brother's funeral in 1983, he returned just a few more times for a gallery show and for an appearance at Left Bank Books. He stayed with Lococo during his visits.
Lococo remembers him as a man you didn't want to cross but who had a sweet and grandfatherly side.
"I saw the best side of Burroughs. He wasn't doing drugs except smoking pot after 4 p.m.," he says. "At 4 p.m. he would have a Ritz cracker, cheddar cheese and a joint. That was it."
(Well, not really: Burroughs was also on a doctor-prescribed methadone regimen from the time he moved to Kansas until his death.)
In 1990 Burroughs received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, but a heart attack and broken hip prevented him from accepting it in person. Thomas accepted the honor on his behalf.
Burroughs' final return to St. Louis came in a hearse, as part of his funeral procession from Lawrence to Bellefontaine Cemetery. Lococo was there, along with punk-rock goddess Patti Smith, poet John Giorno and others. At a rest stop along Interstate 70, a group of traveling Phish fans recognized Giorno and Smith and joined the motorcade all the way to St. Louis.
In the end, Burroughs returned to the city that bore him, though it was probably too clean (and certainly too conventional) for his liking.
Sixteen years after his death, his fans still make pilgrimages to Bellefontaine Cemetery to pay their respects and leave tokens — poems, bottle caps, pens, pennies — on his tombstone. No, not the towering obelisk erected for his inventor grandfather of the same name. The other one, the modest headstone a few feet to the right. The one with the simple epigraph "American Writer." | ||||
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] | null | [] | null | null | 20. Lewis Wilford HUNT (John Thomas?5, Gershom4, Daniel3, John2, Samuel1) . Born on 30 Mar 1822 in Smith County, Tennessee, USA. Lewis Wilford died in Greenfield, Missouri, USA, on 6 Sep 1862; he was 40. Buried in 1862 in west of Round Grove Baptist Church, Lawrence County, Missouri,USA.
- 1850 US Federal census, District 47, Lawrence, Missouri, Roll M432_404, page 311, image 88, recorded 9 Apr[?] 1950: living beside brothers Daniel and Jonathon...
- 1862 memorial for Lewis Wilford Hunt
Birth: Mar. 30, 1822 Smith County, Tennessee, USA
Death: Sep. 6, 1862 Dade County, Missouri, USA
Lewis, a Union dispatcher, was killed by 'friendly fire' in Dade Co., MO.
Place of burial of daughter, Mary, b. and d. 1852, is unknown. Daughter, Atlanta Hunt Allen, 1861-1909, is buried in the Hillcrest Cemetery in Benton Co., Arkansas.
Parents:
John Hunt (1798 - 1884)
Elizabeth Allen Hunt (1795 - 1865)
Spouse:
Evaline Allen Hunt (1823 - 1894)*
Children:
Juliette Elizabeth Hunt Lollar (1842 - 1916)*
Martha Jane Hunt Poland (1843 - 1886)*
Susan Malviney Hunt Hunt (1846 - 1897)*
John Lafayette Hunt (1848 - 1928)*
Daniel James Hunt (1850 - 1921)*
Virginia Eveline Hunt Trower (1853 - 1930)*
Jonathan Wiseman Hunt (1856 - 1925)*
William Allen Hunt (1858 - 1935)*
Siblings:
Daniel Hunt (1821 - 1905)*
Lewis Wilford Hunt (1822 - 1862)
Jonathan Hunt (1823 - 1905)*
Lucinda Allison (1824 - 1894)*
Susannah Hunt Skeen (1826 - 1866)*
Atlanta Hunt Patterson (1827 - 1892)*
Elizabeth Hunt Preston (1828 - 1886)*
Nathan Hunt (1833 - 1907)*
Martha Hunt Preston (1833 - 1912)*
Wyatt Lafayette Hunt (1867 - 1945)**
Sarah Bell Hunt Hunt (1869 - 1916)**
Josiah Johnson Hunt (1871 - 1940)**
Isaac Young Hunt (1878 - 1922)**
*Calculated relationship
**Half-sibling
Burial: Round Grove Cemetery, Round Grove, Lawrence County, Missouri, USA
Created by: Lynda West Hahn
Record added: Aug 31, 2011
Find A Grave Memorial# 75773606
- Photo posted on finagrave.com:
CHILDREN of Lewis Wilford Hunt ABT. 1915
Front row: William Allen Hunt; Jonathan Wiseman Hunt; Daniel James Hunt
Back row: Virginia Hunt Trower; John Lafayette Hunt; Juliet Hunt
From other researchers:
- 2. Lewis, 1822-1862, married Evalin Allen, their children were: A. Juliet, 1842. B. Martha J., 1845. C. Susanah, 1845. D. John ?, 1848. E. Daniel James, 1850. F. Virginia, 1852. G. Jonathan Wiseman, 1856. H. William A., 1858. I. Atlanta, 1862.
- Lewis Wilford was the one killed by friendly fire, not too far north of Round Grove, during the Civil War. The family story is that his horse returned to his unit in Mt. Vernon, Lawrence Co. seat, and then the Hunts were notified and Daniel and Jonathan went north to Dade Co. to retrieve his body from a cornfield and he was reburied in what became the Round Grove Cem. Obviously someone found out the details of his shooting and where.
- Lewis W. Hunt, the Civil War casualty, and family attended Mt. Pisgah, I understand. Lewis was killed by "friendly fire" by the 6th Mo. Cav. near Greenfield on Sept. 6, 1862. His body was retrieved by brothers Jonathan and Daniel and buried on their father's property. His mother was buried next to him when she died in August 1865. I have always understood that Lewis's grave was the first burial in what is now Round Grove Cemetery, but there has been some mention of an earlier grave. However, I have not seen any definitive proof of an earlier grave. Records research by Willie Washam revealed that the first Round Grove Church building was just west of these graves on the then road whiich angled from the SE to the NW at that time across the John Hunt, Sr. property. The road was straightened and relocated to its present route sometime after 1879 and before 1900. The church building constructed by our Grandad Marion Dee Hunt was located to the east of the cemetery next to the new road location.
From the Lawrence County Missouri History, pub. by Lawrence County Historical Society (no date), pp 480-481.
- "Lewis Hunt"
"by Reva (Hunt) West"
"Private Lewis Hunt, was born in Tennessee March 30, 1822. During the Civil War, he served in Company C., 76 Regiment. He enrolled in the MIssouri Militia, commanded by Samuel E. Roberts and was ordered into active service August 15, 1862. Private Hunt was killed September 6, 1862, near Greenfield, Mo., from pistol or gun shot, by Captain Montgomery's men of the 6th Regiment M. S. Private Lewis Hunt, of the Union Army, was carrying dispatches to Greenfield (Dade County), from Mt. Vernon (Lawrence County), by horse back. While being overtaken by Captain Montgomery's men, Hunt sought refuge in a corn shock. He was buried in a shallow grave, covered with brush and poles, in Dade County. Private Hunt's horse was led into Mt. Vernon; it was there the horse and saddle were recognized as belonging to him. Word was then received by his two brothers, Daniel and Jonathan Hunt, who went to the cornfiield where he was buried, dug up their brother from his shallow grave, and buried him west of Round Grove Baptist Church in Lawrence County. He was the first person buried in the Round Grove Cemetery. John Hunt, father of Lewis, Jonathan, and Daniel, donated the land for Round Grove Church and Cemetery. The amount of pay due Private Lewis Hunt was paid to his widow, Evaline (Allen) Hunt, who was married to him May 22, 1841, in Smith County Tenn. This information was supplied by William Cullens, Jr., ??rayton Plains, Michigan, and by Marion Dee Hunt (Nephew of Lewis Hunt and father of Reva (Hunt) West, Miller, Missouri.)"
21. Jonathan HUNT (John Thomas?5, Gershom4, Daniel3, John2, Samuel1). Born on 14 Mar 1823 in Smith County, Tennessee, USA. Jonathan died in Round Grove, Lawrence, Missouri, USA, on 8 Mar 1905; he was 81. Buried in 1905 in Round Grove Cemetery, Round Grove, Lawrence, Missouri, USA. Occupation: farmer, Baptist minister. Religion: Baptist.
- 1850 US Federal census, District 47, Lawrence, Missouri, Roll M432_404, page 311, image 88, recorded 9 Apr[?] 1950:
Jonathan Hunt, 27 [indexed 29], male, farmer, born Tenn
Elizabeth, 26, female, born hetto [sic - perhaps ditto]
James, 8, male, born MO
Mary, 6, female, born MO
Melissa, 3, female, born MO
(Note - next door lives the Daniel Hunt family; 2 doors down is the Lewis Hunt family)
- 1858 marriage: Johnathan Hunt married Melinday E Poland in Lawrence County, Missouri 20 May 1858:
“I, S. L. Beckley, a regular ordained minister of the Gospel of the United Baptist denomination do hereby certify that I did on the 20th of May AD 1858, solemnize the rites of matrimony between Jonathan Hunt - Melinday E Poland, all of Lawrence County, Mo.
Simpson L. Beckley, Minister of the Gospel.
Filed for & recorded June 17th, 1858, Wm W Gay, Recorder” [all in his hand]
- 1860 census, Green, Lawrence, Missouri, Phelps Post Office, Roll M653_628, page 0 (111?), image 472: (no relationships listed, dated 25 Jun 1860):
Jonathan Hunt, 37, born Tenn
Melinda C Hunt, 18, born Ky
James M Hunt, 18, born Mo, attended school this year
Mary Hunt, 17, born Mo
Isabel Hunt, 9, born Mo, attended school this year
Martha E Hunt, 7, born Mo, attended school this year
Wm B Hunt, 6, born Mo, attended school this year
Nancy Hunt, 3, born Mo
Joseph A Hunt, 2.12, born Mo
- 1870 census, Green, Lawrence, Missouri, Roll M593_787, page 436, image 42 (relationships not stated, dated 8 Aug 1870):
Dwelling 2:
Jonathan Hunt, 46, farmer, Tenn
Malindy S Hunt, 26, keeping house, Tenn,
Nancy E Hunt, 15, Mo,
Alexandrew Hunt, 10, Mo,
Julia A Hunt, 8, Mo,
Susan L Hunt, 6, Mo,
America Hunt, 4, Mo,
Allen Hunt, 3, Mo,
Rubin Hunt, 2
Tabitha Hunt, 1/12
William T Crouch, 19, farmer, born Tenn, married this year in May
Martha Crouch, 18, keeping house, born Mo, married this year in May
Dwelling 3: [don’t know how related]
James M Hunt, 27, farmer, 4000, 4000, born Missouri, US citizen
Susan M Hunt, 25, keeping house, born Missouri
Elizabeth J Hunt, 6, born Bissouri
Frances R Hunt, 4, born Missouri
Emma J Hunt, 1, born Missouri
- 1880 census: Greene, Lawrence, Missouri, USA, Roll T9_698, FHF 1254698, pg 410.3000, Enum Dist 82, image 0301, taken 15 Jun 1880:
Jonathan Hunt, 56, farmer, born Tennesee, father born N Carolina, mother born Tennesee
Malinda S. Hunt, 37, wife, keeping house, born Kentucky, father born N Carolina, mother born Tennesee
Joseph A Hunt, 20, son, works on farm, born Missouri
Julia A Hunt, 18, daughter, at home, born Missouri
Susan L Hunt, 17, daughter, at home, born Missouri
America Hunt, 15, daughter, at home, born Missouri
Henry E. Hunt, 14, son, at home, born Missouri
Ruben W Hunt, 12, son, at home, born Missouri
Abatha E Hunt, 10, daughter, at home, born Missouri
Charles D Hunt, 5, son, at home, born Missouri
Minie E Hunt, 2, daughter, at home, born Missouri
All children born in Missouri, father born Tennesee, mother born Kentucky, and could read and write (except the youngest 2).
- 1900 United States Federal Census
Name: Johnathan Hunt
Age: 76
Birth Date: Aug 1823
Birthplace: Tennessee
Home in 1900: Green, Lawrence, Missouri
Race: White
Gender: Male
Relation to Head of House: Father
Marital Status: Married
Spouse's Name: Malinda S Hunt
Marriage Year: 1858
Years Married: 42
Father's Birthplace: North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace: Tennessee
Household Members:
Name Age
Charles D Hunt 25 - head, W, M, Jun 1860, 39, married 1yr, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, farmer, owns free farm
Eva K Hunt 25 - wife, W, F, Feb 1875, 25, married 1yr, 0children, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee
Johnathan Hunt 76 - father, W, M, Aug 1823, 76, married 42yr, Tennessee, North Carolina, KTennessee
Malinda S Hunt 57 - mother, W, F, Oct 1842, 57, married 42yr, 10 children 8 living, Kentuckyx3
- 1905 Find A Grave Memorial# 75774030 for Jonathan Hunt [no image]
Burial: Round Grove Cemetery, Round Grove, Lawrence County, Missouri, USA
In an unmarked grave. Possibly in the same row as oldest son, James M. Hunt.
First wife was Elizabeth Woodson, daughter of Tucker and Mary Weeks Woodson and sister of Mary Woodson Hunt and Lucinda Woodson Breeden Gilley. Place of burial for Elizabeth is unknown. Elizabeth probably died about 1857.
Married second wife, Malinda Sarah Poland, daughter of Joseph and America Calender Poland, in 1858.
CHILDREN OF JONATHAN AND MALINDA/MALINDIA POLAND HUNT:
Son, Joseph Alex Hunt, 1860-1928, is buried in Boyle, Alberta Canada.
Daughter, Julia, b. abt. 1862, was married to Benjamin F. Scott. Last known place of residence was in 1887 in Spokane, Washington. Place of Julia's burial unknown. Husband, Benjamine Franklin Scott is buried in the Fairmount Memorial Park Cemetery in Spokane, Spokane Co., Washington. Also buried there is Benjamine's second wife, Mary Maud and Myrtle Irene Scott, daughter of Benjamine and Julia.
Parents:
John Hunt (1798 - 1884)
Elizabeth Allen Hunt (1795 - 1865)
Spouse:
Malendia S Poland Hunt (1842 - 1924)
Children:
James M. Hunt (1842 - 1909)*
Mary Hunt Tarter (1843 - 1925)*
Martha Elizabeth Hunt Crouch (1852 - 1925)*
William B. Hunt (1854 - 1869)*
Nancy E. Hunt Cannady (1856 - 1884)*
Susan Livinia Hunt Guss (1863 - 1943)*
America E. Hunt Hoagland (1864 - 1907)*
Henry Allen Hunt (1866 - 1941)*
Reuben W. Hunt (1868 - 1945)*
Alice Tabitha Hunt Pennebaker (1870 - 1925)*
Charles D Hunt (1875 - 1908)*
Minnie E Hunt Kimball (1878 - 1943)*
Siblings:
Daniel Hunt (1821 - 1905)*
Lewis Wilford Hunt (1822 - 1862)*
Jonathan Hunt (1823 - 1905)
Lucinda Allison (1824 - 1894)*
Susannah Hunt Skeen (1826 - 1866)*
Atlanta Hunt Patterson (1827 - 1892)*
Elizabeth Hunt Preston (1828 - 1886)*
Nathan Hunt (1833 - 1907)*
Martha Hunt Preston (1833 - 1912)*
Wyatt Lafayette Hunt (1867 - 1945)**
Sarah Bell Hunt Hunt (1869 - 1916)**
Josiah Johnson Hunt (1871 - 1940)**
Isaac Young Hunt (1878 - 1922)**
*Calculated relationship
**Half-sibling
- From “A Brief History of Lawrence County Missouri”, page 122 and 123 about Round Grove pioneers, and mentions Jonathan Hunt three times [image from ancestry tree Unfolding Mysteries by Jennifer Venar] :
“The town of Round Grove located fourteen miles north and west of Mount Vernon in the northwest part of Lawrence County, in Section 5, Township 29, Range 27, was surveyed June 12, 1872, by William J Ruark, deputy surveyer, for Jonathan Hunt. The village site contained 52 lots.”
“Those who first settled at the Round Grove area were J. Hunt from Smith County Kentucky, [should say Tennessee] coming here in 1841, F.J. Shaffer from Washington County Virginia in 1868, and in 1867 W.P. Robinson from Liberson County, New York.”
“The Baptist Church which was organized in September, 1865, held their first meetings in the Ozark school house which was a log building and on the farm of Jonathan Hunt near North Whiteoak.” etc.
A correction from another resercher:
“That should be Smith Co., Tennessee as to where our Hunt ancestors were before migrating to southwest Missouri. From what I have seen Jonathan Hunt did some preaching and in looking at the marriage records from Lawrence Co., MO in the second half of the 1800s, Jonathan married several couples in the Round Grove area. Round Grove originally was known as Huntsville.”
“The Hunts moved into southwest Missouri in the 1840's. At first their area was a part of Dade Co., MO before the formation of Lawrence Co. New info that I heard recently from Willie Washam who has put together two publications on the history of northern Lawrence Co. including the schools, is that originally 17 year old Jonathan Hunt, your ancestor, was the one who first went to southwest MO to claim some land. Evidently he returned to Smith Co., TN as he married there Elizabeth Woodson, daughter of Tucker and Mary Weeks Woodson, and sister of my g-grandmother, Mary Woodson Hunt. After Elizabeth died Jonathan married Malinda Poland. The entire family of our common ancestors, John and Elizabeth Allen Hunt, migrated to Missouri. After Elizabeth died in 1865 John went to Crittenden Co., KY to visit relatives and ended up marrying a Civil War widow, Sarah Paris Swansey/Swancey, stayed there and had 4 more children. An interesting note is what a descendant of John's nephew who still lives in Crittenden Co. says and that is that the local story was that John and Sarah's neighbor was probably the actual father of the last child who was named for the neighbor.”
RESEARCH NOTES
- Another tree on ancestry lists him as Jonathan W Hunt born 14 Mar 1823 Smith or Sumner Co, Tennessee, died 14 Mar 1905 Lawrence Co Missouri - sourced from the Harris Family Tree which adds that he was the son of John Thomas Hunt (1798-1884) and Elizabeth Jane Moore (1797-1865)
- Jonathan was either married before (yes), or was looking after brothers/sisters/cousins - there were many other children in his household in the 1860 census, and perhaps Nancy in the 1870 census that were too old to be the children of Melinday, who was much younger than Jonathan. No relationships were listed in these census’. I have tentatively entered all but the youngest child from 1860 census as children of a first marriage (as are the older children in 1870).
- appears to be married twice - 1850 census. Can’t find marriage between Jonathan and Elzabeth in MO marriage index. Perhaps in Tennessee? Records aren’t complete or available online in this timeframe.
- 1870 census, other Hunt and Poland families of interest also in Green, Lawrence, Missouri - M593_787, see page 441, image 53:
Dwelling 80:
Evaline Hunt, 47, farmer, 3000, 800, born Tenn
Virginia E Hunt, 16, born Missouri, attended school this year
Jonathan W Hunt, 14, works on farm, born Missouri, attended school this year, cannot write
William A Hunt, 12, works on farm, born Missouri, attended school this year, cannot write
Atlanta Hunt, 8, born Missouri, attended school this year
[Note - Evaline was widow of Lewis, who may have been Jonathan’s brother? Also found this family in the 1850 and 1860 census]
Dwelling 81:
James Crouch, 22, saw miller, 0, 2000, born Ky, US citizen
Isabell Crouch, 20, keeping house, born Missouri
Savina[?] V Crouch, 1, born Missouri
[Note- Isabell is likely Jonathan Hunt’s daughter by first marriage]
Dwelling 82:
Isaac A Poland, 26, farmer, 1500, 800, born Ky, US citizen
Martha A Poland, 26, keeping house, born Missouri
Henry C Poland, 2, born Missouri
Joseph S Poland, 1/12, born Apr 1870, Missouri
Utisha U [?] Poland, 1/12, born Apr 1870, Missouri
Matilda Yocum, 28, keeping house, born Missouri
Dwelling 83:
Daniel J Hunt, 20, farmer, 0, 700, born Missouri
Manda Hunt, 21, keeping house, born Missouri
William E Hunt, 1, born Missouri
Nancy Trower, 63, retired, born Ky, cannot write
Thomas J[?] Trower, 19, farmer, born Missouri
From other researchers:
- 4. Jonathan, 1823-1905, Baptist Minister, married Elizabeth Poland [should say Elizabeth Woodson], they had eight children. Second wife was Malinda S. Poland, who was a sister to Elizabeth and Isaac Poland. Malinda and Jonathan had seven children. [Children from both marriages]:
A. James M., 1842. B. Mary, 1844. ?? Melissa, 1847. D. Mabel, 1851. E. Martha E., 1852-1925, married Wiliam Crouch. F. William B., 1854. G. Nancy E., 1857.
H. Joseph A., 1860. Jonathan and Malinda's children were: I. Alexander, 1860, married Mary Crow. J. Julie A., 1862. K. Susan L., 1864. L. America, 1866. M. Allen, 1867. N. Rubin, 1868. O. Tabitha, 1870.
- I'm attaching another page connected to the ones I sent in the last email. [new page from the Lawrence County Historical Society Bulletin - Oct 2015, pg 43 - Issue of Allen and Jane (Hickman) Crouch; Issue of Allen and Atlanta (Hunt) Crouch - Compiled by Mrs L M Crouch Jr (1976). ](I now see a typo on the name of the pate [page].)
A note at the bottom of the information I sent on Joseph Poland says that Jonathan Hunt was married to Elizabeth Poland who was believed to have been a sister of Joseph. That is an error and my mom was probably the one who passed that on. I think the confusion was in sisters being involved but the sisters actually involved here were Elizabeth WOODSON who was married to Jonathan and that came from the will of Tucker Woodson, father, and Mary Woodson who was the wife of Daniel. I finally got the Lawrence Co. Historical Society to correct the Elizabeth Poland thing when I sent them a copy of the death certificate of Martha Hunt Crouch, wife of William Crouch, son of Allen. That dc lists Elizabeth Woodson as Martha's mother and Martha's father as Jonathan Hunt.
NOTE: But Jonathan Hunt’s second wife was Malinda Sarah Poland, daughter of Joseph and America (Calendar) Poland, so no wonder it’s extra confusing!
24. Atlanta “Attie” HUNT (John Thomas?5, Gershom4, Daniel3, John2, Samuel1) . Born in 1827 in Tennessee, USA. Atlanta “Attie” died in Lawrence County, Missouri, USA, in 1892; she was 65. Buried in 1892 in Round Grove Cemetery, Round Grove, Lawrence County, Missouri, USA.
- 1845 Barry County, Missouri, Marriage Index, 1837-1856
Name: Wilson Henson
Gender: Male
Marriage Date: 17 Apr 1845
Marriage Place: Barry, Missouri, USA
Spouse: Atlanta Hunt
OR
- 1845 Missouri Marriages to 1850
Name: Wilson Henson
Spouse: Attalantee Hunt
Marriage Date: 17 Apr 1845
Marriage County: Lawrence
- 1850 US census, living in Green? Township, District 47, Lawrence, Missouri,
Name Age
John Hunt 53 - 53, M, Farmer, $500 real estate, NC
Elizabeth Hunt 53 - 53, F, Va
Martha Hunt 17 - 17, F, Tenn
Nathan Hunt 18 - 18, F [sic], farmer, Tenn
John B Hunt 15 - 15, M, farmer, Tenn
Attalan [sic] Hunt 23 - F, Tenn
Year: 1850; Census Place: District 47, Lawrence, Missouri; Roll: M432_404; Page: 289A; Image: 48
- 1860 US census, living in Green, Lawrence, Missouri (4 Hunt families on same page)
Allen Crouch, 45, M, farmer, 600? RE, 2100 personal, Tenn
Atlantha Crouch, 33, F, Tenn
Stephen E Crouch, 14, M, Tenn
James E Crouch, 11, M, Tenn
Wm T Crouch, 9, M, Tenn
J Martin Crouch, 7, M, Tenn
Johnathan F Crouch, 2, M, Mo
Milton Tartar, 22, M, farmer inmate, 130 personal, Ky
Year: 1860; Census Place: Green, Lawrence, Missouri; Roll: M653_628; Page: 824; Image: 470; Family History Library Film: 803628
NOTE: Atlanta would have been the step-mother for most of these children.
- 1892 memorial for Atlanta "Attie" Hunt Patterson
Birth: 1827 Tennessee, USA
Death: 1892 Lawrence County, Missouri, USA
Probably born in Smith Co., Tennessee.
Atlanta and first husband, Wilson Henson, divorced.
Parents:
John Hunt (1798 - 1884)
Elizabeth Allen Hunt (1795 - 1865)
Spouses:
Wilson Henson (1816 - 1888) [divorced]
Allen Crouch (1818 - 1863) [his second marriage; 1st wife Jane Hickman]
Thomas Patterson (1813 - 1901) [ ]
Children:
Jonathan F. Crouch (1858 - 1892)*
Nancy Jane Patterson Payne (1867 - 1946)*
Siblings:
Daniel Hunt (1821 - 1905)*
Lewis Wilford Hunt (1822 - 1862)*
Jonathan Hunt (1823 - 1905)*
Lucinda Hunt Allison (1824 - 1894)*
Susannah Hunt Skeen (1826 - 1866)*
Atlanta Hunt Patterson (1827 - 1892)
Elizabeth Hunt Preston (1828 - 1886)*
Nathan Hunt (1833 - 1907)*
Martha Hunt Preston (1833 - 1912)*
John Bethel Hunt (1835 - 1923)*
Wyatt Lafayette Hunt (1867 - 1945)**
Sarah Bell Hunt Hunt (1869 - 1916)**
Josiah Johnson Hunt (1871 - 1940)**
Isaac Young Hunt (1878 - 1922)**
*Calculated relationship
**Half-sibling
Burial: Round Grove Cemetery, Round Grove, Lawrence County, Missouri, USA
Created by: Lynda West Hahn
Record added: Aug 31, 2011
Find A Grave Memorial# 75774301
From other researchers:
- 5. Atlanta, 1827-1892. 1st married Allen Crouch; 2nd married Thomas Patterson.
- In thinking of the 1845 marriage of Atlanta 'Attie' Hunt to Wilson Henson, I'm wondering if they might have met in the old Mt. Pisgah Church which was 3 miles northwest of Mt. Vernon according to the history of churches book published by the Lawrence Co. Historical Society, which was probably close to where the Hensons lived several miles SSE of Round Grove. I've seen this church mentioned in some of the Hunt information I've collected from old newspapers, etc. and assume from this that it must have been where at least some of the Round Grove Hunts attended. 1845 was in the time frame that they migrated from Smith Co., TN.
- Based on a recent comment in the LCHS BULLETIN, or another source, Mt. Pisgah Church was in or very near Truitt Creek just east of the Mt. Vernon / Greenfield Road (present day Mo. Hwy. 39). Truitt Creek was for some time referred to as "Henson Creek" in the mid-20th Century. The Henson Cemetery is just north of Truitt Creek by the old MV / Greenfield Road to the east of Hwy. 39. (Mo. Hwy 39 diverges west from the old MV / Greenfield Road at the Truitt Creek crossing.
[From Google Maps: Truitt Creek is less than 10km NE of Mt Vernon and roughly E of Carthage, W of Springfield and S of Greenfield Dade Co. Truitt Creek (community) is said to be located on the N/S road “M” (an extension of “Lawrence 1163”) and just north of the Summit Baptist Church and Summit Cemetery located on the E/W ross road “Lawrence 2100”. The actual Truitt Creek flows under “M” its journey NW. The creek follows a long “upside down U” route, eventually crossing Hwy 39 before it merges with Williams Creek just west of Mt Vernon between roads “Lawrence 1117 and 1105” .]
RESEARCH NOTES
Whose children were whose? Attie married 3 times (reportedly), and her husband may have married more than once. Did step-children go by step-surnames at times? | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 27 | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/03/the-outlaw | en | William S. Burroughs, Outlaw and Beat | [
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] | 2014-02-03T00:00:00 | Peter Schjeldahl on the unorthodox life and work of the Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs. | en | https://www.newyorker.com/verso/static/the-new-yorker/assets/favicon.ico | The New Yorker | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/03/the-outlaw | “I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves.” So starts “Naked Lunch,” the touchstone novel by William S. Burroughs. That hardboiled riff, spoken by a junkie on the run, introduces a mélange of “episodes, misfortunes, and adventures,” which, the author said, have “no real plot, no beginning, no end.” It is worth recalling on the occasion of “Call Me Burroughs” (Twelve), a biography by Barry Miles, an English author of books on popular culture, including several on the Beats. “I can feel the heat” sounded a new, jolting note in American letters, like Allen Ginsberg’s “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” or, for that matter, like T. S. Eliot’s “April is the cruellest month.” (Ginsberg was a close friend; Eliot hailed from Burroughs’s home town of St. Louis and his poetry influenced Burroughs’s style.) In Burroughs’s case, that note was the voice of an outlaw revelling in wickedness. It bragged of occult power: “I can feel,” rather than “I feel.” He always wrote in tones of spooky authority—a comic effect, given that most of his characters are, in addition to being gaudily depraved, more or less conspicuously insane.
“Naked Lunch” is less a novel than a grab bag of friskily obscene comedy routines—least forgettably, an operating-room Grand Guignol conducted by an insouciant quack, Dr. Benway. “Well, it’s all in a day’s work,” Benway says, with a sigh, after a patient fails to survive heart massage with a toilet plunger. Some early reviewers spluttered in horror. Charles Poore, in the Times, calmed down just enough to be forthright in his closing line: “I advise avoiding the book.” “Naked Lunch” was five years in the writing and editing, mostly in Tangier, and aided by friends, including Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. It first appeared in 1959, in Paris, as “The Naked Lunch” (with the definite article), in an Olympia Press paperback edition, in company with “Lolita,” “The Ginger Man,” and “Sexus.” Its plain green-and-black cover, like the covers of those books, bore the alluring caveat “Not to be sold in U.S.A. or U.K.” (A first edition can be yours, from one online bookseller, for twenty thousand dollars.) The same year, Big Table, a Chicago literary magazine, printed an excerpt, and was barred from the mails by the U.S. Postal Service. Fears of suppression delayed a stateside publication of the book until 1962, when Grove Press brought out an expanded and revised edition. It sold so well that Grove didn’t issue a paperback until 1966.
As late as 1965, however, a Boston court confirmed a local ban, despite testimony from Norman Mailer arguing the book’s literary merit. (Another supporter was Mary McCarthy, who, in the New York Review of Books, praised Burroughs’s “crankish courage” and compared “Naked Lunch” to “a worm that you can chop up into sections each of which wriggles off as an independent worm. Or a nine-lived cat. Or a cancer.”) A year later, the Massachusetts Supreme Court reversed the ban, on the ground of “redeeming social value,” a wobbly legal standard in censorship cases then and after. Thus anointed, Burroughs’s ragged masterpiece brought to social notice themes of drug use, homosexuality, hyperbolic violence, and anti-authoritarian paranoia. Those temerities and his disarmingly starchy public mien—he was ever the gent, dressed in suits, with patrician manners and a sepulchral, Missouri-bred and foreign-seasoned voice—assured him a celebrity status that is apt to flare anew whenever another cohort of properly disaffected young readers discovers him. The centenary of Burroughs’s birth, on February 5th, promises much organized attention; an excellent documentary by Howard Brookner, “Burroughs: The Movie” (1983), is about to be re-released.
Contrary to Kerouac’s mythmaking portrayal of him—as Old Bull Lee, in “On the Road”—Burroughs was not a wealthy heir, although his parents paid him an allowance until he was fifty. His namesake grandfather, William Seward Burroughs, perfected the adding machine and left his four children blocks of stock in what later became the Burroughs Corporation. His son Mortimer—the father of William and another, older son—sold his remaining share, shortly before the 1929 crash, for two hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars. Mortimer’s wife, born Laura Lee, never ceased to dote on William; Mortimer deferred to her.
Burroughs started writing at the age of eight, imitating adventure and crime stories. He attended a John Dewey-influenced progressive elementary school in St. Louis and played on the banks of the nearby, sewage-polluted River des Peres. Miles quotes him recalling, in a nice example of his gloatingly dire adjectival style, “During the summer months the smell of shit and coal gas permeated the city, bubbling up from the river’s murky depths to cover the oily iridescent surface with miasmal mists.” When Burroughs was fourteen, some chemicals he was tinkering with exploded, severely injuring his hand; treatment for the pain alerted him to the charms of morphine. He then spent two unhappy years at the exclusive Los Alamos Ranch School for boys, in New Mexico, memories of which informed his late novel “The Wild Boys” and other fantasies of all-male societies.
Burroughs was a brilliant student, graduating from Harvard with honors, in English, in 1936. He sojourned often in Europe; in Vienna, he briefly studied medicine and frequented the gay demimonde. He had become aware at puberty of an attraction to boys, and had been so embarrassed by a diary he kept of a futile passion for a fellow-student that he destroyed it and stopped writing anything not school-required for several years. Later, in psychoanalysis, he traced his sexual anxiety to a repressed memory: when he was four years old, his nanny forced him to perform oral sex on her boyfriend. The tumultuous experience of having his first serious boyfriend—in New York, in 1940—triggered what he laconically called a “Van Gogh kick”: he cut off the end joint of his left pinkie.
After a short hitch in the Army, in 1942, Burroughs received a psychiatric discharge. He then worked briefly as a private detective, in Chicago, where, however, he enjoyed his longest period of regular employment—nine months—as a pest exterminator. His delectable memoir of the job, “Exterminator!,” the title story of a collection published in 1973, employs a tone, typical of him, that begs to be called bleak nostalgia: “From a great distance I see a cool remote naborhood blue windy day in April sun cold on your exterminator there climbing the grey wooden outside stairs.”
The creation story of the Beats is by now literary boilerplate. Burroughs moved to New York in 1943, along with David Kammerer, a childhood friend who had travelled with him in Europe, and Lucien Carr, an angelically handsome Columbia University student whom Kammerer was stalking. Ginsberg, a fellow-student, was enthralled by Carr, and later dedicated “Howl” to him. Kerouac, who had dropped out of Columbia and served in the Navy, returned to the neighborhood in 1944. With Carr as the catalyst, and Burroughs, whom Kerouac goaded to resume writing, a charismatic presence, the Beat fellowship was complete.
Carr ended Kammerer’s pursuit of him late on the night of August 13, 1944, by stabbing him and dumping his body in the Hudson River. (The new movie “Kill Your Darlings” tells the tale in only somewhat embellished fashion.) Burroughs then replaced Carr as the group’s mentor. According to Miles, Kerouac and Ginsberg didn’t yet know that Burroughs was gay, and played matchmaker by introducing him to Joan Vollmer, an erudite, twice-married free spirit with a baby daughter, Julie, of uncertain paternity. Burroughs and Vollmer became inseparable and, they believed, telepathic soul mates, but he continued to have sexual encounters with men. In 1946, he started on heroin. (An uncle, Horace Burroughs, whom he idealized but never met, was a morphine addict who committed suicide in 1915, when the drug was legally restricted.) Vollmer favored Benzedrine.
Postwar New York updated Burroughs’s trove of criminal argot. He saw a lot of Herbert Huncke, a junkie and a jack-of-all-scams—whom Ginsberg called “the basic originator of the ethos of Beat and the conceptions of Beat and Square”—and other habitués of Times Square, whose doppelgängers roam the fiction that he had not yet begun to write. In 1946, Vollmer became pregnant. Burroughs, who could be startlingly moralistic, abhorred abortion; and so a son, Billy, joined the family. Envisioning himself as a gentleman farmer, Burroughs had acquired a spread in East Texas, where he cultivated marijuana, though not very well. He drove a harvest to New York with Kerouac’s “On the Road” icon, Neal Cassady—whom he disdained as, in Miles’s words, “a cheap con man”—but it was too green to turn a profit. After a drug bust in New Orleans, Burroughs jumped bail and settled in Mexico City. For three years, he took drugs, drank, picked up boys, hosted friends, and cut a sorry figure as a father. (With Vollmer also drinking heavily, the children’s lot was grim.) A Mexican scholar of the Beats, Jorge García-Robles, details the louche milieu in another new book, “The Stray Bullet: William S. Burroughs in Mexico” (Minnesota). He writes that Burroughs found the country “grotesque, sordid, and malodorous, but he liked it.”
During those years, Burroughs also wrote his first book, “Junky.” A pulp paperback published in 1953, under the pen name William Lee, it recounts his adventures through underworlds from New York to Mexico City. It features terse, crackling reportage, with echoes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The narrator’s first meeting with “Herman” (a pseudonym for Huncke) isn’t auspicious: “Waves of hostility and suspicion flowed out from his large brown eyes like some sort of television broadcast.” “Junky” attracted no critical notice. Burroughs wrote two other books in the early fifties that weren’t published until after “Naked Lunch.” “Queer”—centering, in Mexico City, on one of his arduous opiate withdrawals and a frustrating romance with a young man—saw print only in 1985. The most emotional work in a generally icy œuvre, it was written around the time, in 1951, of the most notorious event in Burroughs’s life: his fatal shooting of Vollmer, in a drunken game of “William Tell.”
García-Robles and Miles agree in their accounts of Vollmer’s death. At a friend’s apartment, she balanced a glass on her head, at Burroughs’s behest. He had contracted a lifelong mania for guns from duck-hunting excursions with his father, and was never unarmed if he could help it. He fired a pistol from about nine feet away. The bullet struck Vollmer in the forehead, at the hairline. She was twenty-eight. He was devastated, but readily parroted a story supplied by his lawyer, a flamboyant character named Bernabé Jurado: the gun went off accidentally. Released on bail, Burroughs might have faced trial had not Jurado, in a fit of road rage, shot a socially prominent young man and, when his victim died of septicemia, fled the country. Burroughs did the same, and a Mexican court convicted him in absentia of manslaughter, sentencing him to two years. In the introduction to “Queer,” Burroughs disparages his earlier work and adds, “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death,” because it initiated a spiritual “lifelong struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.” García-Robles avidly endorses this indeed appalling consolation, casting Vollmer as a sainted martyr to literature.
Miles relates that Burroughs had told Carr, after he killed Kammerer, “You shouldn’t blame yourself at all, because he asked for it, he demanded it.” Some of Burroughs’s friends, including Ginsberg, opted for an analogous understanding of Vollmer’s death as an indirect suicide, which she had willed to happen. Burroughs’s craving for exculpation eventually settled on the certainty that an “Ugly Spirit” had deflected his aim. As a child, Burroughs had been infused with superstitions by his mother and by the family’s Irish maid, and all his life he believed fervently in almost anything except conventional religion: telepathy, demons, alien abductions, and all manner of magic, including crystal-ball prophecy and efficacious curses. For several years in the nineteen-sixties, he enthusiastically espoused Scientology, in which he attained the lofty rank of “Clear,” before being excommunicated for questioning the organization’s Draconian discipline. And he furnished any place he lived in for long with an “orgone accumulator”—the metal-lined wooden booth invented by the rogue psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich for capturing and imparting cosmic energy. Miles begins “Call Me Burroughs” with a scene of a sweat-lodge ceremony conducted by a Navajo shaman to finally expel the Ugly Spirit, in Kansas, in 1992. The heat and smoke caused Burroughs to ask to truncate the proceedings.
Vollmer’s parents took Julie into their home, in Albany, and she dropped out of her stepfather’s life. Burroughs sent Billy to be raised by Laura and Mortimer, in St. Louis, and joined them, in 1952, after they moved to Palm Beach, Florida. But he didn’t stay long; he set out to work on his third book, “The Yage Letters,” a quest through the jungles of Colombia for a fabled hallucinogen that, he had written in the last sentence of “Junky,” “may be the final fix.” He found and duly lauded the drug, but the journey seems its own reward, making for fine low-down travel writing. He needs a motorboat to take him upriver:
Sure you think it’s romantic at first but wait til you sit there five days onna sore ass sleeping in Indian shacks and eating hoka and some hunka nameless meat like the smoked pancreas of a two-toed sloth and all night you hear them fiddle-fucking with the motor—they got it bolted to the porch—“buuuuurt spluuuu . . . ut . . . spluuuu . . . ut,” and you can’t sleep hearing the motor start and die all night and then it starts to rain. Tomorrow the river will be higher.
The book wasn’t published until 1963. In the meantime, two volumes of a trilogy, “The Soft Machine” and “The Ticket That Exploded,” came out, soon followed by the third, “Nova Express.” These were written largely in London and Paris, between trips to Tangier, where Burroughs had lived for several years, starting in 1954. They advanced his claim (with some precedents in Dadaism and Surrealism) to literary innovation: the “cut-up” technique of assembling texts from scissored fragments of his own and others’ prose. The trilogy is a sort of fractured science fiction, telling of underground struggles against forces of “Control”—the shape-shifting, all-purpose bête noire of Burroughs’s world view. It is easier to read than, say, “Finnegans Wake,” but hard going between such bursts of dazzle as the “resistance message”:
Calling partisans of all nations—Cut word lines—Shift linguals—Vibrate tourists—Free doorways—Word falling—Photo falling—Break through in Grey Room.
A second trilogy—“The Cities of the Red Night,” “The Place of Dead Roads,” and “The Western Lands”—published between 1981 and 1987, reverts to fairly normal narration, filled with scenes of sexual and military atrocity in a succession of mythic cities. Its heroes include Hassan-i Sabbah, the historical leader of a sometimes homicidal sect in eleventh- and twelfth-century Persia. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” Sabbah is supposed to have said (and was so quoted by Nietzsche). The prose is nimble and often ravishing, but marred by the author’s monotonous obsessions and gross tics—notably, a descent into ferocious misogyny, casting women as “the Sex Enemy.”
The biography, after its eventful start, becomes rather like an odyssey by subway in the confines of Burroughs’s self-absorption, with connecting stops in New York, where he lived, in the late nineteen-seventies, on the Bowery, in the locker room of a former Y.M.C.A., and, returning to the Midwest, in the congenial university town of Lawrence, Kansas, where he spent his last sixteen years, and where he died, of a heart attack, in 1997, at the age of eighty-three. Miles’s always efficient, often elegant prose eases the ride, but a reader’s attention may grow wan for want of sun. Most of the characters run to type: dissolute quasi-aristocratic friends, interchangeable boys, sycophants in steadily increasing numbers. Names parade, from Paul Bowles and Samuel Beckett (who, meeting Burroughs at a party in Paris, denounced the cut-up method as “plumbing”), through Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol, to Laurie Anderson and Kurt Cobain. Most prominent is Brion Gysin, a mediocre artist of calligraphic abstractions. Burroughs met him in Tangier, in 1955, and bonded with him in Paris at a dump in the Latin Quarter, known as the Beat Hotel, whose motherly owner adored literary wanderers.
Gysin and Burroughs deemed each other clairvoyant geniuses. They collaborated on cut-ups, extending the technique to audiotape, and foresaw commercial gold for Gysin’s “Dreamachine,” a gizmo that emitted flickering light to mildly hypnotic effect. It flopped. Burroughs took to making art himself, especially after Gysin’s death, in 1986: he created hundreds of pictures, on wood, by shooting at containers of paint. These have been widely exhibited and sold. They are terrible. Burroughs had no visual equivalent of the second-nature formality that buoys even his most chaotic writing.
Ginsberg comes off radiantly well in Miles’s telling, as a loyally forgiving friend. He tolerated Burroughs’s amatory passion for him, which developed in the fifties, as long as it lasted. Much of Burroughs’s best writing originated in letters to the poet, who took a guiding editorial hand in it. It was Ginsberg who hatched the title “Naked Lunch,” by a lucky mistake, having misread the phrase “naked lust” in a Burroughs manuscript. (I think of Ezra Pound’s editorial overhaul of “He Do the Police in Different Voices”—Eliot’s first title for “The Waste Land.”) Ginsberg effectively sacrificed his own literary development, which sagged after “Kaddish” (1961), to publicizing his friends and, of course, himself. Burroughs disparaged his puppylike attendance in Bob Dylan’s entourage. (Burroughs’s aloofness, like his obsession with mind control, reflected memories of a reviled uncle, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, a pioneering public-relations expert whose clients included John D. Rockefeller and the Nazi Party.) But Burroughs liked his own growing fame. He gave readings to full houses. Appearances on “Saturday Night Live,” in 1981, and in Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy,” in 1989, spread the popularity of his gentleman-junkie cool.
The biography’s most painful passages involve Billy, who both idolized and, for excellent reasons, resented Burroughs. What might you be like, had your father killed your mother and then abandoned you? In 1963, when Billy was sixteen, Burroughs, bowing to his parents’ insistence, briefly took charge of the troubled lad in Tangier. The main event of the visit was Billy’s introduction to drugs, condoned by Burroughs. In and out of hospitals and rehabs, Billy wrote three novels, of which the first, “Speed” (1970), detailing the ordeal of amphetamine addiction, showed literary promise. In 1976, father and son reunited at the Naropa Institute, in Boulder, where Ginsberg and other poets had initiated a program in experimental writing, and where Burroughs was teaching, with crotchety flair. Billy, who had received a liver transplant for cirrhosis, engaged in spectacular self-destruction. Miles writes, “Billy wanted Bill to witness the mess he was in; he was paying him back.” Billy died in 1981, at the age of thirty-three. Burroughs seemed to regret only that he had not sufficiently explained the Ugly Spirit to him. He responded to his son’s death by varying his current methadone habit with a return to heroin.
“Virtually all of Burroughs’s writing was done when he was high on something,” Miles writes. The drugs help account for the hollowness of his voices, which jabber, joke, and rant like ghosts in a cave. He had no voice of his own, but a fantastic ear and verbal recall. His prose is a palimpsest of echoes, ranging from Eliot’s “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” (lines like “Midnight shakes the memory / As a madman shakes a dead geranium” are Burroughsian before the fact) to Raymond Chandler’s marmoreal wisecracks and Herbert Huncke’s jive. I suspect that few readers have made it all the way through the cut-up novels, but anyone dipping into them may come away humming phrases. His palpable influence on J. G. Ballard, William Gibson, and Kathy Acker is only the most obvious effect of the kind of inspiration that makes a young writer drop a book and grab a pen, wishing to emulate so sensational a sound. It’s a cold thrill. While always comic, Burroughs is rarely funny, unless you’re as tickled as he was by such recurrent delights as boys in orgasm as they are executed by hanging.
Some critics, including Miles, have tried to gussy up Burroughs’s antinomian morality as Swiftian satire. Burroughs, however, wages literary war not on perceptible real-world targets but against suggestions that anyone is responsible for anything. Though never cruel in his personal conduct, he was, in principle, exasperated with values of constraint. A little of “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” goes a long way for many readers, including me. But there’s no gainsaying a splendor as berserk as that of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. When you have read Burroughs, at whatever length suffices for you, one flank of your imagination of human possibility will be covered for good and all. ♦ | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 72 | https://littlecalamity.tripod.com/Genealogy/LeavellFam10.html | en | Leavell Descendants Generation 9, Part 1 | [
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by Jane A. Leavell
The numbering is a bit off, because I tried to delete anyone who might be alive now!
1628. IDA MAY CRUMP (S. ELVIRA GREGORY, JAMES THOMPSON, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born July 04, 1871, and died October 08, 1953. She married THOMAS STOVALL DAVIS. He was born July 10, 1866, and died December 15, 1936.
Children of IDA CRUMP and THOMAS DAVIS are:
.....i.....RUBY MAE DAVIS, b. August 22, 1889; d. November 11, 1890.
.....ii.....HUGH A. DAVIS, b. January 05, 1891; d. October 01, 1904.
.....iii.....ORA KATE DAVIS, b. November 06, 1892; m. AMOS JARMON WORD.
.....iv.....PEARL DAVIS, b. January 23, 1894; d. January 20, 1968; m. THADDEUS WILLARD WATSON.
.....v.....SIDNEY IRENE DAVIS, b. August 04, 1898; m. J. B. BUTTS.
.....vi.....THOMAS EUGENE DAVIS, b. June 08, 1902; d. October 29, 1902.
.....vii.....JAMES ALVIS DAVIS, b. October 05, 1907; m. WAVA ESTELLE LEE.
.....viii.....FRANCES JEWELL DAVIS, b. October 19, 1915; m. LEM PITTMAN.
1629. CLARENCE EUGENE CRUMP (S. ELVIRA GREGORY, JAMES THOMPSON, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 26, 1874, and died March 20, 1951. He married MARGARET JANE MCNUTT December 01, 1895, daughter of OLIVER MCNUTT and RUTHA STRAIN. She was born September 08, 1874, and died March 22, 1954.
Children of CLARENCE CRUMP and MARGARET MCNUTT are:
.....i.....OLIVER DOYLE CRUMP, b. September 28, 1897.
.....ii.....NINA OPAL CRUMP, b. March 06, 1900; m. JAMES TROY MCNUTT, May 28, 1916, Lee County, South Carolina.
.....iii.....CLARENCE TALMEDGE CRUMP, b. June 20, 1903; m. AUDRA ESTELLE WHITE; b. December 01, 1905; d. April 10, 1984, Tupelo, South Carolina.
More About AUDRA ESTELLE WHITE: Burial: Memorial Cemetery, Verona
.....iv.....HERMAN EARNEST JAMES CRUMP, b. February 06, 1905, Union County, South Carolina; d. February 17, 1961, Baptist Hospital, Memphis; m. WINNIE CHRISTINE ROGERS, December 10, 1930; b. December 28, 1910, Union County, South Carolina.
.....v.....THOMAS GILMORE CRUMP, b. January 14, 1910, Union County, Mississippi; m. ROSEZINE COLVIN; b. December 02, 1912.
1630. WILLIAM THOMPSON GREGORY (BENJAMIN PICKENS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born 1866 in Chester County, South Carolina, and died January 1913 in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama. He married ETTA MEADOR March 15, 1896 in Chester County, South Carolina. She died July 10, 1958.
Children of WILLIAM GREGORY and ETTA MEADOR are:
.....i.....BERNARD GREGORY, b. August 20, 1897.
.....ii.....B. P. GREGORY, b. 1899.
.....iii.....LEAH ELIZABETH GREGORY, b. August 04, 1901.
.....iv.....AUBURN MENTOR GREGORY, b. February 1903.
.....v.....VIVIAN ELMIRA GREGORY, b. July 12, 1905.
.....vi.....JANIE MAE GREGORY, b. January 16, 1907.
.....vii.....MARGUERITE GREGORY, b. May 06, 1908.
1631. EUGENE HOWE GREGORY (BENJAMIN PICKENS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born April 13, 1868 in Baton Rouge Township, Chester, South Carolina, and died February 20, 1936 in Lowrys, Chester, South Carolina. He married MINNIE ALICE SANDERS November 19, 1891.
More About EUGENE HOWE GREGORY: Burial: Calvary Baptist Church near Baton Rouge
Children of EUGENE GREGORY and MINNIE SANDERS are:
.....i.....B. HOWE GREGORY, b. October 03, 1892.
.....ii.....GILL MEANS GREGORY, b. February 24, 1894.
.....iii.....KATE GREGORY, b. January 19, 1896.
.....iv.....INEZ GREGORY, b. January 01, 1898.
.....v.....WILKES GREGORY, b. November 01, 1900.
.....vi.....GUSS E. GREGORY, b. December 08, 1902.
.....vii.....GLENN GREGORY, b. April 17, 1904.
.....viii.....VIVIAN M. GREGORY, b. May 30, 1908.
.....ix.....EUGENIA GREGORY, b. July 05, 1913.
1632. LEILA BELLE GREGORY (BENJAMIN PICKENS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born December 18, 1869 in Baton Rouge Township, Chestercx, South Carolina, and died August 21, 1942. She married (1) GILL CORNWELL November 20, 1887. She married (2) LEJA FARIS WESTERLUND April 17, 1895 in Chester County, South Carolina.
Children of LEILA GREGORY and GILL CORNWELL are:
.....i..... CURTIS PICKENS CORNWELL.
.....ii.....MAGGIE MAY CORNWELL.
.....iii.....ZEMP WESLEY CORNWELL.
Children of LEILA GREGORY and LEJA WESTERLUND are:
.....iv.....AUGUSTUS EARL WESTERLUND.
.....v.....LOUISE WESTERLUND.
1633. EDWARD T. GREGORY (BENJAMIN PICKENS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born December 09, 1871, and died June 06, 1946. He married MARGARET J. WORTHY 1893. She was born July 05, 1872, and died November 1930.
More About EDWARD T. GREGORY: Burial: Evergreen Cemetery
Children of EDWARD GREGORY and MARGARET WORTHY are:
.....i..... PORTER WORTHY GREGORY, b. August 08, 1896.
.....ii.....DOLLY GREGORY, b. March 29, 1899.
.....iii.....MARGARET ANN GREGORY, b. August 22, 1902.
.....iv.....LEILA BELLE GREGORY, b. September 18, 1905.
1634. AUGUSTUS MOBLEY GREGORY (BENJAMIN PICKENS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 08, 1877 in Baton Rouge Township, Chester, South Carolina, and died August 05, 1922 in Chester County, South Carolina. He married MARTHA ELIZABETH BANKS in Chalkville, Chester, South Carolina, USA. She died July 30, 1958. They are buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
Children of AUGUSTUS GREGORY and MARTHA BANKS are:
.....i.....ANNIE LEE GREGORY, b. September 17, 1897; d. December 30, 1897.
.....ii.....STEWART LEMIRA GREGORY, b. April 03, 1903.
.....iii.....MIRIAM JENETTE GREGORY, b. March 07, 1905.
.....iv.....AUGUSTUS MOBLEY GREGORY.
.....v.....BENJAMIN PICKENS GREGORY, b. January 16, 1910.
.....vi.....MARTHA ELIZABETH GREGORY, b. September 02, 1912.
.....vii.....WILLIAM THOMAS GREGORY, b. October 07, 1914.
1635. WILLIAM THOMAS WOODS (LYDIA ELIZABETH GREGORY, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 03, 1868, and died December 28, 1921. He married GEORGIA MELTON. More About WILLIAM THOMAS WOODS: Burial: Evergreen Cemetery
Child of WILLIAM WOODS and GEORGIA MELTON is:
.....i.....MELTON WOODS.
1636. FRANK JOHNSON WOODS (LYDIA ELIZABETH GREGORY, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ELIZABETH CREWS JETER, JAMES, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 20, 1876, and died May 28, 1927. He married LUCY WALTON WADE. More About FRANK JOHNSON WOODS: Burial: Brushy Fork Cemetery
Children of FRANK WOODS and LUCY WADE are:
.....i.....JAMES PERRY WOODS, b. June 12, 1898.
.....ii.....LETHA HENRIETTA WOODS, b. October 27, 1899.
.....iii.....PATSY ELIZABETH WOODS, b. October 11, 1901.
.....iv.....CLARA LUCILLE WOODS, b. July 22, 1903.
.....v.....MATTHEW MCCARLEY WOODS, b. November 12, 1905.
.....vi.....WILLIAM FRANK WOODS, b. March 11, 1908.
.....vii.....ANNIE GENEVA WOODS, b. December 08, 1910.
.....viii.....MARTHA IONA WOODS, b. July 23, 1913.
.....ix. .
1637. LOUELLA COCKERHAM (SARAH CROSBY, JESTER, LEONARD, SARAH JETER, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born October 04, 1872 in Monroe County, Mississippi, and died August 07, 1944 in Texas. She married NEEDHAM LUCIAN MURFF September 13, 1892 in Monroe County, Mississippi, son of JAMES MURFF and MARY SMITH. He died July 24, 1954. Burial: Citizen Cemtery, Clarendon, TX
1638. WALTER WADE RHODES (DELIA GILCREASE, BARTLETT ENOS, BARTLETT G., MARGARET JETER, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born August 29, 1891 in Vowell Mills, Natchitoches, Louisiana, USA, and died November 07, 1974 in Eufaula, Mcintosh, Oklahoma, USA. He married LILIAN MAY SANDERS October 10, 1914 in Fame, Mcintosh, Oklahoma, USA, daughter of WILLIAM SANDERS and MARTHA CRISP. She was born November 28, 1895 in Brush Hill, Mcintosh County, Oklahoma, USA, and died February 25, 1988 in Eufaula, Mcintosh, Oklahoma, USA.
Children of WALTER RHODES and LILIAN SANDERS are:
.....i.....WAYNE PRICE RHODES, b. August 15, 1915, Eufaula, Mcintosh, Oklahoma, USA; d. March 15, 1979, Eufaula, Mcintosh, Oklahoma, USA; m. MELBALENE NELSON; d. November 02, 1964, Eufaula, Mcintosh, Oklahoma, USA.
.....ii.....WALTER WILLIAM RHODES, b. December 11, 1917, Eufaula, Mcintosh County, Oklahoma; d. June 20, 1985, Eufaula, Mcintosh County, Oklahoma.
.....iii.....HOMER CLYDE RHODES, b. July 15, 1920, Fame, McIntosh, Oklahoma; d. August 30, 1991, Muskogee, Oklahoma; m. BILLIE LOUISE HOYST, April 29, 1947, Fame, Mcintosh, Oklahoma; b. October 11, 1922, Eufaula, Mcintosh County, Oklahoma. More About HOMER CLYDE RHODES: Burial: Lenna, Mcintosh Co. Oklahoma
1639. WILLIAM THOMAS GILCREASE (WILLIAM LEE, BARTLETT ENOS, BARTLETT G., MARGARET JETER, MARGARET VAUGHN, ELIZABETH FRANCES LEAVELL, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 08, 1890 in Vowells Mill, Natchitoches, Louisiana, and died May 06, 1962 in Tulsa County, Oklahoma. He married BELLE M. HARLOW.
Child of WILLIAM GILCREASE and BELLE HARLOW is:
.....i.....WILLIAM THOMAS GILCREASE, d. March 16, 1967; m. GRACE FOLSOM.
1640. RAE BYRD LEAVELL (THOMAS OWEN LEAVEL, THOMAS TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born January 03, 1877 in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, USA, and died October 15, 1946 in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana, USA. He married ELIZABETH HADLEY November 25, 1900, daughter of WILLIAM HADLEY and ELIZA JONES. She was born February 02, 1880 Louisiana, and died July 19, 1933 in Bastrop, Morehouse, Louisiana, USA.
Notes for RAE BYRD LEAVELL:
1910, San Angelo, Tom Green, Texas
Rea B. Leavell...33...Louisiana...Tennessee...Louisiana
Elizabeth W. Leavell...Louisiana...Arkansas...Louisiana
Rea B. Leavell...6...Louisiana... ouisiana...Louisiana
Hadley Leavell...3...New Mexico...Louisiana...Louisiana
WWI DRAFT REGISTRATION (9-12-1918)
Name: Dr. Rae Byrd Leavell
City: Gallion
County: Morehouse
State: Louisiana
Birth Date: 3 Jan 1877
Race: White
Roll: 1684812
DraftBoard: 0
Notify: Mrs. R. B. Leavell
medium height/build, blue eyes, black hair
1920 - Police Jury Ward 7, Morehouse, Louisiana
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Police Jury Ward 7, Morehouse, Louisiana; Roll: T625_617; Page: 6B; Enumeration District: 79; Image: 822.
Ray B Leavell...43....LA, MS, LA...physician, own office
Elizabeth Leavell...39...LA, Ark, LA
Ray Leavell...16...LA, LA, LA
Hadley Leavell...13...New Mexico, LA, LA
Charles Keymard...75...B...servant...Ark, Ark, Ark
1930 - Bastrop, Morehouse, Louisiana
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Bastrop, Morehouse, Louisiana; Roll: 799; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 21; Image: 238.0.
Rae B Leavell...53...LA, KY, LA...MD, medicine
Elizabeth G Leavell...50...Arkansas, Arkansas, LA
William H Leavell...23...New Mexico, LA, Arkansas...clerk, filling station
John F Leavell...23...Mississippi, Mississippi, Mississippi...daughter-in-law
Eliza L Hadley...71...LA, NC, Alabama...mother-in-law
!1. b & d date, marr from: "A Hadley Genealogy" Vol I, pub by the Hadley Genealogical Soc. of So. Calif.; 1974, page 89 & 113.
Elizabeth was the most beloved lady in Morehouse Parish, LA. She took great pleasure in extending kindness and assistance to others. She was an accomplished musician and was considered very beautiful. She died 19 Jul 1933. Her grave is marked with a bronze plaque, placed there by the D.A.R. of which she was a member. Her mother is still living (1935) and makes her home with her son in law, Dr. Rea Leavell, at Bastrop, LA.
Name: Elizabeth Hadley Leavell
Death date: 19 Jul 1933
Death place: Bastrop, , Morehouse, Louisiana
Gender: Female
Race or color (on document): White
Race or color (expanded): White
Age in years: 53
Estimated birth date: 1880
Birthplace: Louisiana
Marital status: Married
Spouse's name: R B Leavell
Father's name: W H Hadley
Mother's name: Dollie Jones
Film number: 2392758
Image number: 00515
Reference number: 8149
Collection: Louisiana Deaths, 1850-1875; 1894-1954
jama.ama-assn.org/content/132/16/1022.full.pdf
Dec. 21, 1946; page 1024
Rae Byrd Leavell, Bastrop, La. ; Medical Department of Tulane University of Louisiana, New Orleans, 1899 ; member of the American Medical Association; for many years county coroner; died October 15, aged 69.
DOWNTOWN OFFICES CONTAIN MEMORIES
By Wes Helbling
Bastrop Daily Enterprise
Posted Mar 30, 2010
...Every old building has a story to tell, and the Jax Building on South Franklin Street is no exception. Current renovation to the upstairs has brought to light long-vacant offices and doors bearing the names of doctors, dentists and attorneys who once practiced there.
...Among the professionals associated with the Jax Building is that of Dr. Rae Byrd Leavell, whose office door still bears his name in painted lettering.
...Betty Amy Moeller of Bastrop said she remembers when her grandfather practiced medicine in the Jax Building. I remember going up there to get an iron shot when I was about five or six years old, she said.
...Moeller said her grandfather was born near Jones in 1877, earned his medical degree from Tulane University circa 1900 and married her grandmother in 1901.
...Leavell first practiced medicine in Jones, but contracted tuberculosis and so moved to the dry air of Silver City, N.M. some time before Moellers father was born there in 1906. Leavell practiced in Silver City and in San Angelo, Texas before returning to Morehouse Parish.
...He was what was known as a physician and surgeon in those days, said Moeller.
...Leavell practiced medicine in the former community of Plantersville on the Old Bonita Road. He is mentioned as one of six physicians in Plantersville in Rebecca DeArmond-Huskeys Bartholomews Song: A Bayou History (Heritage Books Inc.: 2001).
...Moeller said she is uncertain when her grandfather moved into the Jax Building office, but that he was practicing in Bastrop as early as 1933. I remember going with him on house calls in his Plymouth, she said. He would let me sit in the car and hold his black bag.
...During his long career, Leavell was on staff at Bastrop City Hospital and served in the Selective Service during World War II, from 1942-47. He was a member of First Methodist Church and passed away in 1946.
...Moeller also recalls childhood visits to Dr. Gilliand, a dentist who practiced in the same building. I have vivid memories of that. Theyd didnt have anesthesia back then.
...Moeller said a later owner of the Jax Building let her keep a transom with her grandfathers name on it that once hung above his office door. The transom was lit by an electric bulb.
...Doug Higginbotham of Bastrop said he remembers Dr. Leavell, as well as several other professionals who had offices in the Jax Building.
...Higginbotham said he was born here in 1918 and has lived in Bastrop his entire life, with the exception of time in the service during World War II. His uncle, Fred Higginbotham, operated Freds Cafe for many years below the Jax Building offices.
...Higginbotham said as a student at Central Grammar School, he used to walk to the cafe after school where his father -- Bastrop Police Chief J.D. Higginbotham -- would meet him for dinner.
...Higginbotham said his childhood dentist, Dr. Reitzell, had an office in the building. He also remembers Dr. Larche, Dr. Johnston and Dr. Gilliand in addition to Dr. Leavell.
...Higginbotham said he played football and basketball as a student at the old Bastrop High School, and the young athletes came to Leavells office for treatment of injuries. Leavell delivered his younger brother in 1926.
...Higginbotham said he remembers attorney W.B. Limerick, whose name can also be found on an office door. Attorney Joe Rolfe White also had an office in the building, he recalls.
...The precise age of the Jax Building remains unknown. However, Higginbotham said he believes it was built by the construction company of A.G. McBride, who served as Bastrop mayor in the mid-1920s.
Rae B. Leavell, born 1877, Negro, died 15 Oct 1946, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana (Rae Byrd Leavell)
Children of RAE LEAVELL and ELIZABETH HADLEY are:
.....i.....RAE BYRD LEAVELL, b. May 29, 1904, Louisiana, USA; d. 5 February 1970, Missouri, USA. Buried Christ Church Cemetery, Bastrop, Morehouse Parish, Louisiana.
Notes for RAE BYRD LEAVELL:
Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.
Name: Rae B Leavell
Age: 39
Birth Date: abt 1903
Marriage Date: 6 Jul 1942
Marriage Location: Jackson, Missouri
Marriage County: Jackson
Spouse Name: Lois De Klyn
Spouse Age: 32
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: Rae Leavell
SSN: 437-20-3650
Last Residence: 63103 Saint Louis, Saint Louis City, Missouri, United States of America
Born: 29 May 1903
Died: Feb 1970
State (Year) SSN issued: Louisiana (Before 1951 )
.....ii.....WILLIAM HADLEY LEAVELL, b. October 29, 1906, New Mexico, USA; m. ELIZABETH LITTLEJOHN. She was a member of the National Society Magna Charta Dames, born 15 May 1907, died 27 Jul 1989.
Sewanee News, February 1965, volume 31, page 85 .....WILLIAM HADLEY LEAVELL, '28, KS, died February 13, 1965, after suffering a heart attack. His home was Bastrop, Louisiana, where he was a Studebaker dealer. "He always so enjoyed receiving news about his college friends at...."
1641. LELA FRAZER (JOHN LEAVEL, CATHERINE TURNER LEAVEL, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born April 01, 1872 in Schulenburg, Fayette, Texas, USA, and died December 27, 1949 in Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA. She married TATE ABNER GRIFFITH November 21, 1894, son of LEWIS GRIFFITH and ANNA MCKAY. He was born February 27, 1871 in Hackberry, Lavaca, Texas, USA, and died April 28, 1915 in Bronte, Coke, Texas, USA.
Children of LELA FRAZER and TATE GRIFFITH are:
.....i.....LOIS GRIFFITH, b. September 01, 1895; m. ODEN H. WILLOUGHBY; d. September 12, 1979, Bronte, Coke, Texas, USA.
.....ii.....GEORGE MILTON GRIFFITH, b. May 02, 1898, Wiemar, Colorado, Texas; d. March 09, 1952, Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia; m. GEORGIA LONG; b. March 01, 1904, Dallas, Dallas, Texas; d. March 19, 1986, East Point, Fulton, Georgia.
.....iii.....BERNICE GRIFFITH, b. April 22, 1904, Runge, Karnes, Texas; d. May 03, 1993, Eastland, Eastland, Texas; m. HAROLD H. DURHAM; b. July 22, 1900, Sterling City, Sterling, Texas; d. October 07, 1988, Eastland, Eastland, Texas.
.....iv.....LELA KATE GRIFFITH, b. July 05, 1907, Texas; d. March 29, 1987, Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA; m. CURTIS ELI RAMBIN; b. September 23, 1902; d. April 04, 1979, Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA.
1642. CARRIE JULIA LEAVEL (GEORGE CARSON, HAYDEN, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born August 06, 1873 in Ocala, Marion, Florida, USA, and died January 17, 1966 in Jacksonville, Duval, Florida, USA. She married JAMES ORSON FLEECE December 29, 1891 in Waycross, Ware, Georgia, USA, son of EDWARD FLEECE and MARIAH AMES. He was born July 05, 1869 in Lebanon, Marion, Kentucky, USA, and died September 21, 1936 in Wildwood, Sumter, Florida, USA.
Notes for CARRIE JULIA LEAVEL:
WARE CO. GEORGIA MARRIAGES
FLEECE, J. O. m. LEAVEL, Carrie J., 29 Dec 1891
More About CARRIE JULIA LEAVEL: Burial: Greenwood Cem in Wildwood, Sumpter Co, FL
Child of CARRIE LEAVEL and JAMES FLEECE is:
.....i.....LOULIE LEAVEL FLEECE, b. April 05, 1895, Wildwood, Sumter, Florida, USA; d. May 02, 1994, Melbourne, Brevard, Florida, USA; m. WILLIAM ALBERT FUSSELL.
1643. TILDA LEAVEL (GEORGE CARSON, HAYDEN, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born Abt. 1879, and died December 29, 1910 in Atlanta, Fulton, Georgia, USA. She married JAMES WILLIAM BARWICK July 12, 1899, son of JOHN BARWICK and OCTAVIA JACKSON. He was born May 27, 1872 in Ochlocknee, Thomas, Georgia, USA, and died June 05, 1951 in Thomasville, Thomas, Georgia, USA.
Notes for TILDA LEAVEL:
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~barwickfamily/j_barwick.htm
has a picture of Tilda Leavel Barwick
Notes for JAMES WILLIAM BARWICK:
...He established and was president of Peninsular Telephone Co, Tampa, FL. Later sold the business to the Bell Telephone Co. He returned to Georgia where he served many years in the State House of Representatives. He was involved in promoting out of state sales of watermelons and cane syrup. After serving as legislator, he served as advisor to the State Dept. of Agriculture. Was involved in designing and selling farm tools and implements. He was an originator of the farmer's market movement in GA.-He developed a farm to market system which was the first such merchandising method adopted in the state of GA and in the US. He sold out his interest in these markets and organized the "Barwick Hoe and Cane Stripper Co" . He then sold this out and organized a wholesale soft drink business and became active in the merchandising of syrup in GA. He was offered a position with Bell Telephone System to go to Washington, DC as their representative, but he refused. He was deeply interested in the Confederate History and went around the state placing markers on the graves of Confederate soldiers.. During the final period of his career, he was associated with the Dept of Agriculture. He also worked at getting the monthly pension of widows of the veterans of the War Between the States, raised from $30 to $50 /monthly.
Information taken from "Atlanta and Environs - Family and Personal History"
Another very interesting note--James was business partners for a time with Isaac E Barwick of Wildwood, Sumpter Co, Fl. Though they shared the same name, there was no awareness of how they were related. See Isacc E Barwick in these files...He created the town of Wildwood, FL..purchased the land and designed the town.
Issac E was James third cousin once removed AND uncle to James's wife, Tilly.
James appears in the 1920 Grady Co Census as living with his mother..occupation given as Salesman and something unreadable follows...
His son Lavelle is also listed in Octavia's household.
James William Barwick married, first, July 12, 1899, Tilda Leavel, daughter of John Leavel , a Baptist minister and a volunteer in the Confederate Army from Georgia. She died in 1910 . James was the father of two children by his first marriage: 1. Jackson Leavel 2. Marguetitte. There are two grandchildren: 1. Jackson Leavel, JR 2. Tillie Ann. Jackson, JR is the father of two sons: Jackson Leavel, III and Larry Barwick.
Children of TILDA LEAVEL and JAMES BARWICK are:
.....i.....JACKSON LAVELLE BARWICK, b. June 14, 1900, Thomas County, Georgia, USA; d. November 11, 1970, Milledgeville, Baldwin, Georgia, USA; m. ELYM L. ?. Notes for JACKSON LAVELLE BARWICK: Jackson served as Flight Officer in US AAF and received his wings at Tyndall Field, Panama City, Florida. More About JACKSON LAVELLE BARWICK: Burial: Laurel Hill Cemetery, Thomasville, Thomas, Georgia
.....ii.....MARY MARGUERITE BARWICK, b. August 11, 1903, Thomas County, Georgia, USA.
.....iii.....MARION L. BARWICK.
1644. JAMES WOOLFOLK SPEARS (SALLY ANN BRYANT, ZERELDA CATHERINE LEAVELL, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born July 11, 1868 in Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky, USA, and died September 03, 1949 in Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA. He married HARRIET EVALYNE BOWERMAN November 13, 1901 in St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA. She was born August 22, 1874 in Bringhurst, Carroll, Indiana, USA, and died August 08, 1943 in Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA.
Notes for JAMES WOOLFOLK SPEARS:
1910 - St Joseph Ward 7, Buchanan, Missouri
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: St Joseph Ward 7, Buchanan, Missouri; Roll: T624_772; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 89; Image: 583.
James M. Spears...44...KY, KY, KY
Harriett E Spears...35...IN
Carrie E Spears...7...MO, KY, IN
Louis B Spears...5...MO, KY, IN
Veda A Spears...3...MO, KY, IN
1920 - St Joseph Ward 5, Buchanan, Missouri
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: St Joseph Ward 5, Buchanan, Missouri; Roll: T625_908; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 94; Image: 165.
James Spears...51...KY, KY, KY...locomotive engineer, railroad
Harriet E Spears...45...IN, OH, OH
Carrie E Spears...17...MO, KY, IN
Louis B Spears...15...MO, KY, IN
Veta A Spears...13...MO, KY, IN
Sallie B Spears...74... KY, KY, KY
Children of JAMES SPEARS and HARRIET BOWERMAN are:
.....i.....CARRIE ELLEN SPEARS, b. October 08, 1902, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA; d. March 12, 1958, Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA; m. JAMES BRASSFIELD SNAIL, October 14, 1923, St. Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, USA; b. January 12, 1895, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA; d. May 17, 1966, Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas, USA.
.....ii.....LOUIS BOWERMAN SPEARS, b. July 13, 1904, St. Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, USA; d. December 16, 1991, Denver, Denver, Colorado, USA; m. (1) HELEN STALLMAN, Lawrence, Douglas, Kansas, USA; b. March 02, 1909, Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas, USA; d. November 15, 1987, Wildwood Care Center, Puyallup, Pierce, Washington, USA; m. (2) MARY SPRING; m. (3) ADA MAE YATES.
.....iii.....VETA ANNA SPEARS, b. August 15, 1906, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA; d. September 12, 1991; m. WILLIAM RAY HOWARD, March 06, 1929, Leavenworth, Leavenworth County, Kansas, USA; b. July 09, 1905, St. Joseph, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA; d. December 27, 1981, Augusta, Butler, Kansas, USA.
1645. SUSAN MORTAN BRYANT (ZERELDA CATHERINE, ZERELDA CATHERINE LEAVELL, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 24, 1881 in New Market, Platte, Missouri, USA, and died March 02, 1968 in Buchanan County, Missouri, USA. She married LOUIS F. LANGENER.
Children of SUSAN BRYANT and LOUIS LANGENER are:
.....i.....SARAH CATHERINE LANGENER, m. ELMER PATTEN.
.....ii.....WALLACE S. LANGENER.
.....iii.....VICTOR B. LANGENER.
1646. CHARLES LELAND BRYANT (ZERELDA CATHERINE, ZERELDA CATHERINE LEAVELL, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born August 30, 1882, and died August 24, 1937 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, USA. He married EFFIE STEWART.
Children of CHARLES BRYANT and EFFIE STEWART are:
.....i.....MACK BRYANT.
.....ii.....LA VELL BRYANT.
.....iii.....JOHN BRYANT.
.....iv.....MARY BRYANT.
.....v.....ZERELDA BRYANT.
1647. MOLLIE HAYDEN BRYANT (ZERELDA CATHERINE, ZERELDA CATHERINE LEAVELL, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born November 03, 1883 in New Market, Platte, Missouri, and died August 25, 1970 in Des Moines, Polk, Iowa, USA. She married WILLIAM ROSE HON.
Children of MOLLIE BRYANT and WILLIAM HON are:
.....i.....BRYANT HON.
.....ii.....WILLIARD HON.
.....iii.....ZERELDA HON.
.....iv.....MARTHA HON.
.....v.....CHRIS LEAVEL HON.
.....vi.....MILDRED HON.
.....vii.....PAUL ARTHUR HON.
1648. MATTIE MAE LEAVELL (JAMES BRYANT, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born Abt. 1881 Kentucky, died about 1928 Arkansas. She married MICHAEL ROBERT SMITH. He was born abt 1878 in London, Laurel, Kentucky, USA, married (2) ESTHER MURRAY, and died in Pulaski County, Arkansas, on 23 July 1950.
The Central Record, Friday, December 13, 1907
Leavell-Smith
..One of the prettiest and most beautifully appointed weddings that has ever occurred here was the marriage of Miss Mattie Mae Leavell to Mr. Michael Robert Smith, of London Ky., which was celebrated Wednesday, December the eleventh at high noon in the Pleasant Grove Christian church. Rev. Homer Carpenter was the officiating minister. Miss Stella Brown, of Danville, presided at the organ, assisted by Mr. Robert McKee, of London, on the violin, who rendered several beautiful selections during the assembling of the guests. The wedding was very brilliant and beautiful and an interesting event in Central Kentucky as both bride and groom are well known and very popular. Miss Leavell is a graduate of Hamilton College and one of our most talented, popular girls. She is an artist of ability and is also possessed with a beautiful voice.
..The church was handsomely decorated with holly, mistletoe and laurel, the pulpit being filled with palms, ferns and other plants and bordered with ferns, making a high tropical bank of green, back of the wedding party. Just in front of this was a semi circle made of several columns which were covered with laurel, holly and mistletoe, lighted by many candles. From the two middle columns was suspended a large ball under which the bride and groom stood during the ceremony.
..The bridal chorus from Lohengrin was played for the entrance of the wedding procession. First came Miss Tevla Carpenter, of Stanford, down the left aisle with Dr. John McKee, of London, down the right. They were followed alternately by Miss Ollie Smith and Mr. Roy Brown, of London. Then came the bride with her sister, Miss Lillian Leavell, who was maid of honor. At the same time, the bridegroom with his best man, Mr. George Smith, of London, entered from the rear of the church. The couple, joining, stood before the minister, with maid of honor and best man on each side and the bridesmaids and groomsmen forming a semi circle and making a very attractive picture. During the ceremony Mr. Robert McKee played a violin solo, "Call Me Thine Own."
..The bride was beautiful in her exquisite robe of white chiffon, over silk and trimmed with Duchess lace. Her tulle veil was artistically arranged and she carried a large bouquet of white carocations and bride roses.
..The maid of honor, Miss Lillian Leavell, was beautifully gowned in pale yellow and carried yellow chrysanthemums. The bridesmaids looked charming in white net over white silk with yellow sashes, made into chrysanthemums, and carried yellow chrysanthemums.
..For the departure from the church, the Mendelssohn's wedding march sounded joyful notes. Immediately Mr. and Mrs. Smith left for their bridal tour and the happy couple were accompanied by many loving wishes for success and happiness.
Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Prairie, Washington, Arkansas; Roll: T625_84; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 147; Image: 616. Jan. 9, 1920
Michael R Smith...40...KY, KY, KY...state agent, fire insurance
Mattie M Smith...37...KY, KY, KY
Leavell R Smith...10...KY, KY, KY
William R Smith...7...Ark, KY, KY
Mattie M Smith...4 3/12...Ark, KY, KY
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Little Rock, Pulaski, Arkansas; Roll: 91; Page: 9B; Image: 19.0; Family History Library Film: 2339826.
Michael R Smith...50...KY, KY, KY...married at 30...agent, insurance
Esther Smith...36...IN, KY, IN...married at 32
Leavelle Smith...20...KY, KY, KY...insurance
Melvin Smith...17...Ark, KY, KY
Mattie M Smith...15...Ark, KY, KY
Lillian Smith...6...Ark, KY, KY
Murray Smith...1 4/12...Ark, KY, KY
J A Murray...74...KY, KY, KY...father-in-law
Mary B Harris...60...Ark, Ark, Ark...lodger
Lena White...35...Negro...Ark, TN, TN...divorced...servant
Children of MATTIE LEAVELL and MICHAEL SMITH are:
.....i.....LEAVELL R. SMITH, born about 1910 Kentucky.
.....ii.....WILLIAM R. SMITH, born about 1913 Arkansas.
.....iii.....MATTIE MAE SMITH, born about 1915 Arkansas.
.....iv.....LILLIE B. SMITH, born about 1924 Arkansas.
1649. HUGH LEAVELL (ISAAC ARNOLD, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 10, 1877 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA, and died February 1963 in Indiana, USA. He married SUSIE SARD February 19, 1902 in Francesville, Pulaski, Indiana, USA. She was born 3 Nov 1880 in Francesville, Pulaski, Indiana, USA and died 17 May 1944 in Wabash, Wabash, Indiana, USA.
Notes for HUGH LEAVELL:
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD
Name: Hugh Leavel
City: Wabash
County: Wabash
State: Indiana
Birth Date: 10 Feb 1877
Race: White
medium height/build, brown eyes, black hair
railroad
Isaac A. Leavell of North Vernon, IN will know his address
Roll: 1653170
DraftBoard: 0
1920 - Noble, Wabash, Indiana
Hugh Level...48...1878...KY, KY, KY...rents, reads, writes...carpenter, bridge gang
Susie Level...29...IN, Germany, Germany
Myrtle Level...16...Indiana, KY, IN
1930 - Wabash, Wabash, Indiana
Hugh Level...53...married at 25...KY, KY, KY...bridge carpenter, steam railroad
Susie D. Level...49...married at 21...Indiana, Germany, Germany...private milliner
Plain Dealer, Wabash (IN)
FIND LIFELESS BODY OF WABASH WOMAN IN HOMNE GARAGE.
.....Opening the garage doors at 638 Erie Street after returning home from work at the Minnepolis-Honeywell Regulator Co. early Thursday, Hugh Leavel discovered the lifeless body of his wife, Mrs. Susie B. Leavel, 63 years old, dangling from the rafters. Mr. Leavel cut down the body, went to the home of a neighbor, Glenn Bennett, 630 Erie street, and summoned police.
.....Assistant Chief Zenno Mallot and Patrolman Fred Aukerman investigated the call, finding that Mrs. Leavel had hanged herself by a clothes line attached to the rafters of the garage, apparently using a stepladder which stood nearby. How long she had been dead when found was not immediately established. Coroner Todd B. Bender also was notified of the case by long-distance telephone, and ordered the body taken to an undertaking establishment. He was scheduled to personally check on the facts Thursday afternoon. No motive for the death was mentioned in the police report.
.....Mrs. Leavel was born in Francesville, Nov. 30, 1880 to Fred and Marie Sard. She was married to Mr. Leavel in Francesville Feb. 19, 1902. They have one daughter, Mrs. Myrtle Hipskind, South Bend. Other survivors are three brothers and one sister living in Francesville, Indianapolis and Lafayette, respectively, and one grandson.
.....The body has been taken to the Jones Funeral home and funeral arrangements will be made after the arrival of the daughter from South Bend.
Hugh LEAVEL
Birth Date: 10 Feb 1877
Death Date: Feb 1963
Social Security Number: 713-01-3133
State or Territory Where Number Was Issued: Railroad Board (long-time or retired railroad worker)
Actual Death Residence: Indiana
For both: Falls Memorial Gardens, Wabash, Wabash County, Indiana, USA
Plot: Sec L, lot 24, sp 5
Child of HUGH LEAVELL and SUSIE SARD is:
.....i.....MYRTLE LEAVELL, b. January 16, 1903, Jasper County, Indiana, USA.
1650. JAMES ROBINSON LEAVELL (ISAAC ARNOLD, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born July 14, 1881 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA. He married BERTHA B. ?. She was born Abt. 1878 in Kentucky, USA.
Notes for JAMES ROBINSON LEAVELL:
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD
Name: James Robison Leavel
City: Montpelier
County: Blackford
State: Indiana
Birth Date: 14 Jul 1881
Race: White
medium height/build, sandy hair, brown eyes
self-employed
wife Bertha B.
Roll: 1439780
DraftBoard: 0
1920 - Harrison, Blackford, Indiana
James Level...38...KY, KY, KY...rents...reads/writes...taxi driver
Bertha Level...41...IN, IN, IN
Lucy I Level...11...IN
Mary Louise Level...5...IN
1930 census - Montpelier, Blackford, Indiana
James Leavel...48...KY, KY, KY...$1200...salesman, Ford
Bertha Leavel...51...IN, IN, IN...
LA Faun Leavel...22...IN, KY, IN...bookkeeper
Mary Louise Leavel...15...IN, KY, IN
Kate Leavel...78...KY, KY, KY...
WWII DRAFT REGISTRATION, 1942
Name: James Robinson Leavel
Birth Date: 14 Jul 1881
Residence: 523 S. Main, Montpelier, Blackford, Indiana
Birth: Garrett County, Kentucky
Race: White
Bertha B. will always know his address
Roll: WW2_2283032
A Jim Leavell was born 31 Jan 1882 KY and died Dec 1968 Madisonville, Hopkins, KY per SSDI. Any connection?
Children of JAMES LEAVELL and BERTHA ? are:
.....i.....LAFAUN LEAVELL, b. Abt. 1908, Kentucky, USA.
.....ii.....MARY LOUISE LEAVELL, b. Abt. 1915.
1651. CHARLIE HOWARD LEAVELL or CHARLIE HOWARD LEAVEL (ISAAC ARNOLD, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born May 22, 1883 in Bryantsville, Garrard, Kentucky, USA, and died July 17, 1944 in Jasper County, Indiana, USA. He married DOROTHEA MAE NORMAN December 24, 1904 in Barkley Township, Jasper, Indiana, USA, daughter of JOHN NORMAN and LOUISA DAY. She was born April 08, 1884 in Barkley Township, Jasper, Indiana, USA, and died June 23, 1975 in Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA.
Notes for CHARLIE HOWARD LEAVEL:
Surname...Given Name...Sex..Death Date...Age...Father's Name...Mother's Name...Book...Page
Leavel...Charlie Howard...M...7/17/44...61...Leavel, Isaac...Robinson, Kate...CD-5...116
The son of Isaac Leavel and Kate Robinson, Charlie was born 22 MAY 1883 in Bryantsville, Kentucky and died 20 JUL 1944 Weston Cemetery, near Rensselaer, Indiana. He was a grocery store owner. He married Dorotha "Mae" NORMAN (b: 08 APR 1884 in Barkley Township, Jasper County, Indiana) on 24 DEC 1904 in Barkley Township, Jasper, Indiana. Their children were: Albert Norman LEAVEL b: 01 OCT 1906 in Jasper County, Indiana; and Lynn Byron LEAVEL b: 07 SEP 1913 in Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana.
Name: Charlie H. Leavel
Spouse Name: Doratha M. Norman
Marriage Date: 24 Dec 1904
Marriage County: Jasper
Source Title 1: Jasper County, Indiana
Source Title 2: Index to Marriage Record 1865 - 1920 Inclusive Let
Source Title 3: W. P. A. Original Record Located: County Clerk's O
Book: 4
OS Page: 280
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana; Roll: 594; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 10; Image: 714.0; FHL microfilm: 2340329.
Charlie H Leavel...46...KY, KY, KY...married at 21...salesman...worth $3000
Dorotha M Leavel...45...IN, OH, IN...married at 20
Albert N Leavel...23...IN, KY, IN...son
Lynn B Leavel...16...IN, KY, IN...son
John W Norman...75...OH, OH, OH...father-in-law
WWII DRAFT REGISTRATION, 1942
Name: Charlie Howard Leavel
Birth Date: 22 May 1883
Residence: 503 Clark St., Renssalaer, Jasper, Indiana
Birth: Garrard, Kentucky
Race: White
wife: Dorothe Mae
Roll: WW2_2283032
JASPER CO. IN DEATHS
Given Name: Charlie Howard
Surname: Leavel
Sex: M (Male)
Death Date: 17 Jul 1944
Age: 61
Father's Name: Leavel, Isaac
Mother's Name: Robinson, Kate
Book: CD-5
Page: 116
WESTON CEMETERY RECORDS
http://www.lanewood.com/weston.pdf
Leavel Charlie H
Burial Jul 20 1944
Book 3 p 88
Sec H Lot 45 Sp 1
(Charlie H Leavel)
Leavel Dorthea Mae
Age 91 Burial Jun 26 1975
Book 3 p 88
Sec H Lot 45 Sp 2
106
(Charlie Leavel)
Children of CHARLIE LEAVEL and DOROTHEA NORMAN are:
.....i.....ALBERT NORMAN LEAVELL or ALBERT NORMAN LEAVEL, b. October 01, 1906, Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA; d. May 31, 1998, Winston Salem, Forsyth, North Carolina, USA; m. ESTHER MCCOLLY, June 14, 1931, Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA; b. March 27, 1907, Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, USA; d. January 10, 1987, Clearwater, Pinellas, Florida, USA. Albert was in Wholesale Apparel Sales.
Jasper County IN Obituaries, Index
- June 1998 -
Leavel, Albert N - b Oct 1 1906 Rensselaer; d May 31 1998 N Carolina
Name: Albert Norman Leavel
Gender: Male
Race: White
Hispanic Origin: Non-Hispanic
Marital Status: Widowed
Social Security Number: 310053542
Father's Last Name: Leavel
Age: 91 Years
Date of Birth: 1 Oct 1906
Birth State: Indiana
Residence City: Other
Residence State: Florida
Residence Zip Code: 33764
Education: 12th grade
Occupation: Sales representatives, mining, manufacturing, and wholesale
Industry: Apparel, fabrics, and notions
Date of Death: 31 May 1998
Death City: Winston-Salem
Death County: Forsyth
Death State: North Carolina
Place of Injury: Unspecified Place
Cause of Death: Crushing injury of lower limb: Unspecified site
Other Cause of Death: Subarachnoid, subdural, and extradural hemorrhage, following injury
Autopsy: Autopsy Not Performed
Autopsy Findings: Autopsy findings were not considered in determining cause of death
Institution: Hospital Inpatient
Hospital Name: "NC BAPTIST HOSP, INC"
Attendant: Physician
Burial Location: Cremation in-state
Recorded Date: 2 Jun 1998
Source Vendor: North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics
.....ii.....LYNN BYRON LEAVELL or LYNN BYRON LEAVEL, b. September 07, 1913, Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA; d. January 24, 1991, Safety Harbor, Pineallis, Florida, USA; m. MARJORIE HELEN BLAIR, June 1939, Morris, Grundy, Illinois, USA.
1652. NORA MAUD LEAVELL (ISAAC ARNOLD, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born April 14, 1886 in Jasper County, Indiana, USA, and died Abt. 1980. She married CARL ERWIN HOWENSTINE March 12, 1911 in Jasper County, Indiana, USA. He was born 1883, and died 1955.
Notes for NORA MAUD LEAVELL:
Bride / Groom Spouse Age Color Date of License Date of Marriage Book Page
Howenstine Carl E Nora M. Leavel 27 W March 11, 1911 March 12, 1911 5 30
Child of NORA LEAVELL and CARL HOWENSTINE is:
.....i.....JAMES ROBERT HOWENSTINE.
1653. JOHN RICHARD MERRITT (MARGARET ELLEN LEAVELL, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born June 02, 1875 in Kentucky, USA, and died June 23, 1961 in Jasper County, Indiana, USA. He married EVALINE HICKMAN. She was born March 06, 1884, and died April 12, 1940.
Notes for JOHN RICHARD MERRITT:
Jasper County, Indiana Deaths, 1921-77
about John Richard Merritt
Given Name: John Richard
Surname: Merritt
Sex: M (Male)
Death Date: 23 Jun 1961
Age: 86
Father's Name: Merritt, Uriah T.
Mother's Name: Leavel, Margaret E.
Book: C-7
Page: 67
WESTON CEMETERY RECORDS, RENSSELAER, JASPER COUNTY, INDIANA
Merritt Delos Dean
Age 68 Burial Jun 15 1974
Book 4 p 58
Sec M Lot 50 Sp 5
(John Merritt)
Merritt Elizabeth
Age 88 Burial Oct 1 1991
Book 4 p 58
Sec M Lot 50 Sp 6
(John, Delos, Elizabeth Merritt)
Merritt Eva
Burial Apr 14 1940
Book 4 p 58
Sec M Lot 50 Sp 3
(John Merritt)
Merritt John Richard
Age 86 Burial Jun 26 1961
Book 4 p 58
Sec M Lot 50 Sp 4
(John,Delos & Eliz Merritt)
Merritt Margaret Agnes
Age 65 Burial Nov 13 1978
Book 6 p 46
Sec J Lot 184 Sp 2
(Willard Merritt)
Merritt Willard E
Age 87 Burial Apr 27 1990
Book 6 p 46
Sec J Lot 184 Sp 1
(Willard Merritt)
Child of JOHN MERRITT and EVALINE HICKMAN is:
.....i.....WILLARD MERRITT, b. Abt. 1904.
1654. COLEMAN WILLIAM MERRITT (MARGARET ELLEN LEAVELL, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 01, 1879 in Kentucky, USA, and died February 15, 1965 in Indiana, USA. He married DAISY DEAN CANINE October 27, 1902. She was born September 25, 1879 in Indiana, USA, and died August 1972 in Oxford, Benton, Indiana, USA.
Child of COLEMAN MERRITT and DAISY CANINE is:
.....i.....MILDRED F. MERRITT, b. Abt. 1908.
1655. AUGUSTUS RAY MERRITT (MARGARET ELLEN LEAVELL, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 18, 1886 in Indiana, USA. He married ELDA ?. She was born Abt. 1891.
1656. PETER WESLEY MERRITT (MARGARET ELLEN LEAVELL, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 02, 1891 in Indiana, USA, and died September 1976 in Remington, Jasper, Indiana, USA. He married MYRTLE J. ?. She was born Abt. 1892 in Indiana, USA.
Children of PETER MERRITT and MYRTLE ? include:
.....iii.....WESLEY B. MERRITT, b. June 15, 1926, Remington, Jasper County, Indiana, USA; d. April 01, 2008, Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA; m. PATRICIA MCELFRESH, October 08, 1949; b. October 23, 1931, Rensselaer, Jasper, Indiana, USA; d. June 25, 2002, Rensselaer, Jasper County, Indiana, USA.
Notes for WESLEY B. MERRITT:
http://www.lanewood.com/2008obits.txt
Merritt Wesley B "Herk" - b Jun 15 1926 Remington; d Apr 1 2008 Rensselaer
http://www.lanewood.com/areadeaths2002-2004.pdf
Merritt Patricia J
b Oct 23 1931 Rensselaer
d Jun 25 2002 Rensselaer (also listed as Jun 26
2002)
sp W. B. Herk Merritt
w Oct 8 1949
f William McElfresh
m Alean (Lakin) McElfresh
ch Diane Merritt Gilbert, Denice (Ron) Wilken
sib Thelma McElfresh Bryant
cem Remington Cemetery
fh Stitz Funeral Home, Remington
1657. HARRY PALMER LEAVELL (SQUIRE HAYDEN, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 22, 1888 in Abilene, Taylor, Texas, USA, and died September 20, 1970 in Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA. He married (1) GRACE C. JENNINGS 23 Nov 1909 in Robertson County, Texas, USA, daughter of THOMAS JENNINGS and JENNIE CHITTIM. She was born May 1894 in Missouri, USA. Marriage per "Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973" at familysearch.org . Grace was an operatic soprano. She left her husband and two boys (5 & 7 yrs old) to go to St. Louis to sing in the renowned St. Louis Opera. She divorced Pete. He married (2) TOMMYE DEWEY BATES December 18, 1920 in Stanford, Texas, daughter of GIDEON BATES and JEANNIE KIMBRO. She was born October 13, 1889 in Stephenville, Erath, Texas, and died March 03, 1996 in Dallas County, Texas. Harry and Tommye are buried in Rose Hill Cemetery, Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA.
Notes for HARRY PALMER LEAVELL:
1910 census Justice Precinct 3, Houston Co. TX (26 April 1910)
Thomas Jennings...41...MO...married 17 years
Jennie C. Jennings...wife...35...MO
Marguerite Jennings...dau...11...MO
Palmer Leavell...son-in-law...22...married 7/12...TX
Grace Leavell...daughter...16...Missouri
WW I DRAFT CARDS
Name: Harry Palmer Leavell
City: near Cemetery, Lowell, AZ
County: Cochise
State: Arizona
Birthplace: Abilene, Texas
Birth Date: 22 Mar 1888
Roll: 1522202
DraftBoard: 0
miner
2 kids and wife
medium height, slender, brown eyes, black hair, partially bald
"United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942" at familysearch.org
Name: Harry Palmer Leavell
Event Type: Draft Registration
Event Date: 1942
Event Place: 410 W. 10th St., Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 22 Mar 1888 Abilene
Person Who Knows His Whereabouts: Mrs. H. J. Farragh, 3559 Lime, Long Beach, California
Employer: WPA Music Project
Affiliate Publication Title: World War II Draft Cards (4th Registration) for the State of Texas
Affiliate Publication Number:
Affiliate ARC Identifier: 576252
GS Film number: 4150788
Digital Folder Number: 004150788
Image Number: 01127
Also in Rose Hill Cemetery:
LEAVELL_Joshua_Lucas_1990-1992
LEAVELL_Tommye_D_1898-1996
LEAVELL Enda Mate 1908-1957
March 4, 1996
Source: The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Page: 15, Region: Dallas-Ft. Worth Metro, Texas
Brown, Gause-Ware, Owens & Brumley
425 S. Henderson, 335-4557
Tommye D. Leavell
GARLAND - Tommye D. Leavell, 97, a retired salesperson, died Sunday in Garland.
.....Graveside service: 2:30 p.m. today in Shannon Rose Hill Memorial Park.
.....Tommye Leavell was born Oct. 13, 1898, in Stephenville. Survivors: Brother, Jack Bates of Ridgecrest, Calif.; sister, Ovee Blessing of Hurst; granddaughter, Joyce Sturdevant of Garland; grandson, Buster Leavell of Wills Point; five great-grandchildren; nine great-great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. Shannon Rose Hill Funeral Chapel
DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS DEATHS
Name...Date of Death...Sex...Marital Status
Leavell, Reba ...12-Jun-1971 ... F... Single
Leavell, Holman P ... 05-Oct-1971... M... Single
Per http://www.cousins-family.com/GEDTREE/gp52.html
Alias: /Pete/
Occupation: Leading Man in Theater
Date: 9 JAN 1920
Place:
Occupation: Musician
Date: 25 APR 1910
Place:
Occupation: Actor
Date: 26 APR 1910
Place:
Occupation: Coal Miner
Date: 5 JUN 1917
Place:
Retirement: Retired from Show business and ran various dry cleaning establishments
Date: 1939
Place:
Children of HARRY LEAVELL and GRACE JENNINGS are:
.....i.....HAYDEN HENDERSON LEAVELL, b. September 18, 1910, Henderson, Rusk, Texas, USA; d. June 14, 1940, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA; m. GRACE GIBSON, 1933, Los Angeles County, California, USA. Her maiden name was GRACE WALLACE; she was b. 21 Jun 1912 in Texas to Arthur G. Wallace and Eva Dera Cannon, and d. 15 Sep 1963 in Los Angeles County, California, USA. His nickname was "Buster."
Notes for HAYDEN HENDERSON LEAVELL:
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Azusa, Los Angeles, California; Roll: 123; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0813; Image: 615.0; FHL microfilm: 2339858.
Hayden H. Lavelle, 19, TX, TX, MO, single, white, was a prisoner.
Intention to marry:
Hayden H. Leavell, 22; Grace Gibson, 21.
ancestry.com > Historical Newspapers > Historical Newspapers, Birth, Marriage, & Death Announcements, 1851-2003 > Marriage > Los Angeles, California > 1933
Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: San Antonio, Los Angeles, California; Roll: T627_248; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 19-599. Address: 10214 Virginia Ave. (up)
Hayden Leavell...27...Texas...1 yr. high school...rents home for $16/month...carpenter, house
Grace Leavell...25...Texas...3 yrs. high school...married
Ancestry.com. California, Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
Name: Hayden H. Leavell
DOB: 18 Sept 1910 Texas
Death date/Place: 13 Jun 1940 Los Angeles
Mother's Maiden Name: Jennings
Father's Name: Leavell
.....ii.....HOLMAN PALMER LEAVELL, b. February 28, 1914, Fort Worth, Tarrant, Texas, USA; d. October 05, 1971, Dallas County, Texas, USA; m. NETELDA LOIS BAKER, March 18, 1932, Durant, Bryan, Oklahoma, USA; b. June 05, 1915, Brixton, London County, England; d. January 26, 1987, Dallas County, Texas, USA. Lois and her family came to America when she was 6 weeks old on the SS Aribic. Her father had a job in vaudeville. He was the original "Happy Hooligan" of legitimate stage.
Name: Holman Palmer Leavell
Death date: 05 Oct 1971
Death place: Dallas, Dallas, Texas
Gender: Male
Age at death: 57 years
Estimated birth year: 1914
Father's name: Harry Palmer Leavell
Mother's name: Thomas Dewey Bates
Film number: 2223317
Digital GS number: 4169351
Image number: 3114
Reference number: 70518
Collection: Texas Deaths, 1890-1976
1658. THOMAS ROY LEAVELL (SQUIRE HAYDEN, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born May 14, 1891 in New Mexico, USA, and died May 23, 1972 in Dallas, Dallas, Texas, USA. He married (1) ROSE CHAPLIN. She was born Abt. 1895 in Wisconsin, USA. He married (2) ROSA IDA BRODNAX, daughter of THOMAS BRODNAX and MISSOURI PERKINS. She was born August 10, 1896 in Honest Ridge, Limestone, Texas, USA, and died February 15, 1989 in Dallas, Texas, USA. A Thomas R. Leavell, single, died in Dallas Co. TX--were they divorced? (Leavell, Thomas R ...23-May-1972...M...Single). Perhaps divorced 1942 Decatur, Macon, Illinois? There's a MEXIA DAILY NEWS obituary: Leavell, Rosa Brodnax...15-Feb-1989, but I haven't seen it yet.
Notes for THOMAS ROY LEAVELL:
THE MEXIA DAILY NEWS
Thursday, December 1, 1925
WEDDING BELLS
...Friends of Miss Rosa Brodnax were greatly surprised to learn of her marriage while on a recent visit to Chicago.
...On the evening of November 23 at the Church Federation Club in Chicago the solemn words were spoken uniting in the holy bonds of wedlock this popular young Mexia lady and Mr. T. R. Leavell of that city.
...The bride was handsomely gowned in Biege Crepe, Romaine hat and gloves of corresponding shade.
...The altar was decorated in cut flowers by a few close friends who were present joining them afterward at a dinner at the Morrison Hotel followed by a dance in the Terrace Garden.
...Mrs. Leavell is the daughter of one of our most esteemed citizens T. W. Brodnax. She has grown to young womanhood in our midst. Her friends are legion.
...Mr. Leavell was formerly a citizen of Mexia was well known and well liked. He has invented and copyrighted the Leavell auditing system for hotels which has already been installed in a score or more leading hostelries in the United States including the Adolphus at Dallas, the Morrison of Chicago, with prospects of its eventual adoption by all large hotels . The News joins hosts of friends in good wishes for this happy couple.
1930 census for Precinct 8, Washington D.C.
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Washington, Washington, District of Columbia; Roll 297; Page: 29A; Enumeration District: 192; Image: 477.0.
Thomas R. Leavell...$250...38...married at 33...TX...KY...TX
Rosa Leavell...31...married at 26...TX...Louisiana...AL
THE MEXIA WEEKLY HERALD, page 3
Friday, Dec. 25, 1931
Mr. and Mrs. Roy Leavell of Chicago are visiting with Cox Brodnax, Mrs. Jerry Ward, and other relatives here during the holidays. Mrs. Leavell is a sister to Mr. Brodnax and Mrs. Ward.
LIMESTONE COUNTY, TEXAS, BIRTHS
Leavell, Sallye Lou...Rosa Ida Brodnax...Thomas Roy Leavell...21 JAN 1932...f
Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Dallas, Dallas, Texas; Roll: T627_4174; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 255-68. Address: 1421 Bennett Street
Thomas R. Leavell...48...TX...TX...college, 2nd year...auditor, government...income 2066...rents home for $30/month
Rosa Leavell...42...TX...high school, 4th year...
Salllye Leavell...8...TX...elementary, 2nd grade
THE MEXIA WEEKLY HERALD, 2 January 1942
Sally Leavell of Dallas is visiting in the home of her uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. Jerry Ward.
Name: Thomas Roy Leavell
Death date: 23 May 1972
Death place: Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States
Gender: Male
Race or color (on document): White
Age at death: 81 years
Estimated birth year:
Birth date: 14 May 1891
Birthplace: Abilene, Texas
Father's name: S H Leavell
Mother's name: Sally Kindred
Film number: 2223769
Digital GS number: 4005477
Image number: 03048
Reference number: 34245
Collection: Texas Deaths, 1890-1976
Child of THOMAS LEAVELL and ROSA BRODNAX is:
.....i.....SALLYE LUCINDA LEAVELL, b. January 21, 1932, Limestone County, Texas, USA; d. October 04, 1977, Mart, McLennan, Texas, USA; m. (1) JAMES FRANKLIN SMITH, 2 daughters; m. (2) TOMMY GENE JOHNSTON, one daughter; he was b. October 04, 1928; d. December 24, 1998.
1659. SETH HOLMAN LEAVELL (SQUIRE HAYDEN, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born November 27, 1896 in California, USA, and died July 10, 1977 in Dallas County, Texas, USA. He married REBA W. ?. She was born September 30, 1917, and died June 12, 1971. More About SETH HOLMAN LEAVELL & REBA: Burial: Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery, Mount Pleasant, Titus, Texas.
Notes for SETH HOLMAN LEAVELL:
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD
Name: Seth Holman Leavell
City: 810 North Pearl, Dallas
County: Dallas
State: Texas
Birthplace: Texas
Birth Date: 27 Nov 1896
FHL Roll Number: 1952763
DraftBoard: 1
medium height/build, blue eyes, light hair
Father born Bryantsville, KY
relative: Squire H. Leavell
works at Federal Reserve Bank
Source Citation: Year: 1940; Census Place: Enfield, White, Illinois; Roll: T627_904; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 97-8. April 16, 1940
previously lived Fayette, Ramsey, Illinois
Seth Leavell...43...TX...auditor
Reba Leavell...22...IL
Lucerne Leavell...8/12...IL...dau
"United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942" at familysearch.org
Name: Seth Holman Leavell
Event Type: Draft Registration
Event Date: 1942
Event Place: Waco, McLennan, Texas
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 27 Nov 1896 Abilene, Texas
Employer: Isadore J. Tex Cohn
Affiliate Publication Title: World War II Draft Cards (4th Registration) for the State of Texas
Affiliate Publication Number:
Affiliate ARC Identifier: 576252
GS Film number: 4150788
Digital Folder Number: 004150788
Image Number: 01137
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: Seth Leavell
SSN: 567-07-6304
Last Residence: 75204 Dallas, Dallas, Texas, United States of America
Born: 27 Nov 1896
Last Benefit: 75455 Mount Pleasant, Titus, Texas, United States of America
Died: Jul 1977
State (Year) SSN issued: California (Before 1951)
Texas Death Index, 1903-2000
Name: Seth Leavell
Death Date: 10 Jul 1977
Death County: Dallas
Gender: Male
1660. ALLIE MAE LEAVELL (JOHN TURNER, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 11, 1878 in Mackville, Washington, Kentucky, USA, and died June 22, 1959. She married (1) HIRAM MAHAFFEY POWELL January 06, 1897 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA, son of CARTER POWELL and RACHEL MAHAFFEY. He was born January 1876 in Lincoln County, Kentucky, USA, and died October 01, 1900, shot by an unknown assailant. She married (2) WILLIAM B. DUERSON. He was born March 14, 1876 in Kirksville, Madison, Kentucky, USA and died 12 Apr 1936. Findagrave.com has photo of the shared tombstone for Allie and William from Prairie Lawn Cemetery, Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas, USA.
Notes for ALLIE MAE LEAVELL:
1900 - Stanford, Lincoln, Kentucky
Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Stanford, Lincoln, Kentucky; Roll: T623 538; Page: 17A; Enumeration District: 31
Hiram M Powell...24...Jan 1876...KY, KY, KY...merchant
Allie M Powell...22...Mar 1878...KY, KY, KY
Mary Powell...2...Feb 1898...KY, KY, KY
Annie Powell...1...Apr 1899...KY, KY, KY
Matilda Smithers...34...Dec 1865...TN, TN, TN...W...servant
Mary Smithers...9...May 1891...KY, KY, TN...W
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Wellington Ward 4, Sumner, Kansas; Roll: T624_459; Page: 11B; Enumeration District: 0175; Image: 179; FHL Number: 1374472.
Willie B Duerson...34...KY, KY, KY...married 5 years...carpenter, house
Allie M Duerson...32...KY, KY, KY...married 5 years...4 children, 4 living
J C . Powell...9...KY, KY, KY...son
A T . Powell...4...KY, KY, KY...son
Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Wellington, Sumner, Kansas; Roll: T625_553; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 191; Image: 530.
Willie B Duerson...43...KY, KY, KY
Allie M Duerson...41...KY, KY, KY
William D Duerson...14...KS, KY, KY...son
John C Powell...19...KY, KY, KY...stepson...trucker
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Wellington, Sumner, Kansas; Roll: 4584480; Page: 11B; Image: 1017.0; Family History Library Film: 2340459.
William B. Duerson...54...KY, KY, KY...contractor, house...$4000
Allie M. Duerson...52...KY, KY, KY
next door to:
William T. Duerson...24...KS, KY, KY...married at 22...carpenter, houses...$5000
Edythe Duerson...25...KS, KS, SD...married at 16
Betty Ann Duerson...4 9/12CO, KS, KS
Children of ALLIE LEAVELL and HIRAM POWELL include:
.....i.....RACHEL MAE POWELL, b. February 06, 1898, Gilberts Creek, Lincoln, Kentucky, USA; d. December 1973, Richmond, Madison, Kentucky, USA; m. WILLIAM LEE KEENE, May 29, 1929; b. April 03, 1896, Macon, Tennessee; d. October 1975, Richmond, Madison, Kentucky, USA. Buried (she as Mae Powell) in Plot: Section U, Lot 59, Richmond Cemetery, Richmond, Madison, Kentucky, USA.
.....ii.....ANNIE LEE POWELL, b. 16 Apr 1899, Gilberts Creek, Lincoln, Kentucky, USA; d. 18 Aug 1990 Albuquerque, Bernalillo, New Mexico, USA. She married WALTER GILLESPIE SMITH, born 29 Nov 1891 Tennessee and died 06 Feb 1958. Walter Gillespie Smith is buried in Plot: Sec 14, lot 44, Sunset Memorial Park, Albuquerque, Bernalillo, New Mexico, USA. Two daughters.
.....iii.....JOHN C. POWELL, b. 10 Jun 1900, Gilberts Creek, Lincoln, Kentucky, USA; d. 14 Nov 1994 Winfield, Cowley, Kansas, USA. He married BETHEL NICHOLSON on 10 May 1922. She was born 04 Nov 1902.
Child of ALLIE LEAVELL and WILLIAM DUERSON is:
.....iv.....WILLIAM T. DUERSON, b. Abt. 1905, Wellington, Sumner, Kansas, USA.
1661. TILLIE BADGER LEAVELL (JOHN TURNER, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born July 11, 1879 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA, and died September 08, 1944 in Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky, USA. Burial: section 11, Lancaster Cemetery, Garrard Co., KY. She married ROBERT LEE HAGAN November 27, 1895 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA. He was born January 24, 1872 in Madison County, Kentucky, USA, and died October 13, 1955 in Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky, USA.
Notes for TILLIE BADGER LEAVELL:
. 1910 - Lancaster Ward 3, Garrard, Kentucky
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Lancaster Ward 3, Garrard, Kentucky; Roll: T624_471; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 30; Image: 406
Robert L Hagan...38...KY, KY, KY...married 15 years...merchant, general
Tillie B Hagan...30...KY, KY, KY...6 kids, 6 living
Elermay Hagan...13...KY, KY, KY
Nannie Del Hagan...11...KY, KY, KY
Robert Hagan...8...KY, KY, KY
Elizabeth Hagan...5...KY, KY, KY
Dora Hagan...3...KY, KY, KY
1930 - Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky; Roll: 746; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 1; Image: 346.0.
Robert L Hagan...58...KY, KY, KY...$2300...manager, produce house
Tillie Hagan 51...KY, KY, KY
Elizabeth Hagan...24...KY, KY, KY...bookkeeper, bank
Gertrude Hagan...14...KY, KY, KY
KENTUCKY DEATH RECORDS, 1852-1953
Name: Tillie Lavell Hagan [Tillie Lavell Leavell]
Death Date: 8 Sep 1944
Death Location: Garrard
Residence Location: Garrard
Age: 65
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: White
Birth Date: 11 Jul 1879
Birth Location: MacHville Washington, Kentucky
Spouse's Name: R L Hagan
Spouse's Age: 71
Father's Name: John T Leavell
Father's Birth Location: Garrard, Kentucky
Mother's Name: Ella Ballard
Mother's Birth Location: Garrard, Kentucky
KENTUCKY DEATH INDEX
Name: Robert L Hagan
Death Date: 13 Oct 1955
Death Place: Garrd
Age: 083
Residence: Garrard
Volume: 41
Certificate: 20017
Children of TILLIE LEAVELL and ROBERT HAGAN are:
.....i.....ELLA MAE HAGAN, b. October 09, 1896, Kirksville, Madison, Kentucky; d. September 02, 1984, Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky; m. WALTER TRIBBLE ARNOLD, July 21, 1915, Danville, Boyle, Kentucky; b. August 16, 1886, Bryantsville, Garrard, Kentucky; d. May 27, 1952, Bryantsville, Garrard, Kentucky. Notes for ELLA MAE HAGAN: See http://www.gencircles.com/users/cbarnold/1/data/185 for children.
.....ii.....NANCY LEE HAGAN, b. July 25, 1899; d. July 14, 1980, Illinois; m. HOMER JENNINGS, May 24, 1919, Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky.
.....iii.....ROBERT BALLARD HAGAN, b. April 20, 1901, Garrard County, Kentucky, USA; d. November 10, 1982, Stanford, Lincoln County, Kentucky, USA; m. on 24 Oct 1923 in Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky to NANCY ELIZABETH PALMER, Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky, USA; b. April 09, 1904, Kentucky, USA; d. September 18, 1992, Stanford, Lincoln, Kentucky, USA. One daughter.
Notes for ROBERT BALLARD HAGAN:
KENTUCKY DEATH INDEX 1911--2000
Name: Robert B Hagan
Death Date: 10 Nov 1982
Death Place: Lincoln
Age: 081
Residence: Lincoln
Volume: 56
Certificate: 27755
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: Robert Hagan
SSN: 401-01-9659
Last Residence: 40484 Stanford, Lincoln, Kentucky, United States of America
Born: 20 Apr 1901
Died: Nov 1982
State (Year) SSN issued: Kentucky (Before 1951
.....iv.....ELIZABETH HIGGINBOTHAM HAGAN, b. May 02, 1904, Garrard County, Kentucky; d. May 1997; m. HENRY BAUGHMAN PHILLIPS, b. 10 Aug 1898 Lincoln County, Kentucky, died 14 Oct 1991 Lancaster, Garrard, Kentucky, USA.
Notes for ELIZABETH HIGGINBOTHAM HAGAN:
May 9, 1997
LANCASTER--Services for Elizabeth Hagan Phillips, 93, Hagan Court, will be 2 PM Saturday at Ramsey Funeral Home by the Revs. Walter Lee Arnold and Rev. Howard Coop. Burial will be in Lancaster Cemetery.
....She died Wednesday at Garrard County Memorial Hospital.
.....Born May 2, 1904, in Garrard County, she was a daughter of the late Robert Lee and Tillie Leavell Hagan. She was a retired teller and bookkeeper of Garrard Bank and Trust for over 50 years, a member of United Methodist Women and Garrard County Historical Society. She was a 1923 graduate of Lancaster High School and of Fugazzi Business College, Lexington. She the widow of Henry Baughman Phillips.
.....Survivors include three sisters, Emma Bourne and Gertrude Huffman, both of Lancaster and Dora Deck of Stanford.
.....Pallbearers will be Kenny, Larry and Bobby Duerson, Jerry Huffman, Charles Jennings and Cecil Arnold.
.....Honorary pallbearers are Drennan, A.T., and Hogan Arnold, Kelly and Bill Meadows, Russell Ball, Ronnie Barners and O'Neal Murphy.
.....Visitation is 4-9 PM today.
.....v.....DORA MAGGIE HAGAN, m. WILLIAM CLIFTON BECK, b. 10 Sep 1904, died 02 Dec 1995 Stanford, Lincoln, Kentucky, USA.
.....vi.....GEORGE HAGAN, b. July 02, 1909, Kentucky; d. September 15, 1978, Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky; m. VIRGINIA SUE DILLION, August 20, 1933, Richmond, Henrico, Virginia, USA. She was b. 17 Oct 1916 Liberty, Casey, Kentucky and died 22 Apr 1984 Lexington, Fayette, Kentucky.
.....vii.....EMMA LEAVELL HAGAN, b. March 05, 1912, Boyle County, Kentucky; m. ? BOURNE.
.....viii.....HATTIE GERTRUDE HAGAN, b. 14 Jun 1915, d. 01 Oct 2009, m. HORACE CLAY HUFFMAN, b. 01 Nov 1913 Garrard County, Kentucky, died 02 Feb 1958 Jefferson County, Kentucky, USA.
1662. ELLA HUSTON LEAVELL (JOHN TURNER, JOHN TURNER, JAMES LEAVEL, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 21, 1884, and died March 02, 1963 in Missouri, USA. She married WILLIAM BURNETTE STONE Abt. 1902 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA, son of THOMAS STONE and MARGARET RUNYON. He was born 07 Apr 1880 in Garrard County, Kentucky, USA, and died 02 Mar 1963 in Missouri, USA. Burial: Kidder Cemetery, Kidder, Caldwell, Missouri, USA. See shared tombstone photo at findagrave.com
Notes for ELLA HUSTON LEAVELL:
William B. Stone was b. April 1880 in Garrard Co., KY. He m. 1902 to Ella H. Leavell in Garrard Co., KY. He was a son of Thomas Smith Stone. Thomas Stone, the son of Smith Thomas Stone and Mary "Polly" Montgomery, was calculated to have been born in 1832 in Garrard County, Kentucky. He was later married in Garrard County to a woman named Margaret K. "Maggie" Runyon on 6 August 1863. Margaret, who was also a native of Kentucky, was born there on 1 April 1841. She was the daughter of Asa Runyon and Mary Arthur. Thomas subsequently died in Garrard County in about 1908.
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Lathrop, Clinton, Missouri; Roll: T624_777; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0038; Image: 775; FHL Number: 1374790.
William B Stone...30...KY, KY, KY...farmer, general
Ella Stone...26...KY, KY, KY...
Viviam L Stone...7...MO, KY, KY...son
Bannett Stone...6...MO, KY, KY...son
Francis Stone...3...MO, KY, KY...dau
Olive G Stone...1...MO, KY, KY...dau
Living next to George Rhea family--maybe census taker confused the names partway through? Source Citation: Year: 1920; Census Place: Sheridan, Daviess, Missouri; Roll: T625_913; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 64; Image: 1052.
William B Stone...39...KY, KY, KY...farmer, general
Ella Stone...34...KY, KY, KY...
Vivien Stone...16...KY, KY, KY...son...farm laborer, home farm
Guy B Rhea...15...KY, KY, KY...son
Francis Rhea...13...IL, KY, KY...dau
Olive G Rhea...10...KY, KY, KY...dau
Daisy Viola Rhea...8...MO, KY, KY...dau
Frank Rhea...6...Ark, KY, KY...son
Valera Rhea...4 0/12...MO, KY, KY...dau
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: South Sugar Creek, Randolph, Missouri; Roll: 4660812; Page: 11B; Image: 290.0; Family History Library Film: 2340955
William B Stone...52...KY, VA, VA...pipefitter, steam railroad
Ella H Stone...45...KY, KY, KY
Daisy V Stone...18...MO, KY, KY
Frank F Stone...16...Ark, KY, KY
Valeria L Stone...14...MO, KY, KY
Children of ELLA LEAVELL and WILLIAM STONE are:
.....i.....VIVIAN STONE, b. Abt. 1904, Garrard County, Kentucky, USA.
.....ii.....GUY B. STONE, b. Abt. 1905, Garrard County, Kentucky, USA.
.....iii.....FRANCES STONE, b. Abt. 1907, Illinois, USA.
.....iv.....DAISY VIOLA STONE, b. Abt. 1912, Missouri, USA.
.....v.....FRANK STONE, b. Abt. 1914, Arkansas, USA.
.....vi.....VALERA L. STONE, b. Abt. 1916, Missouri, USA.
1663. JOHN LOGAN LEAVELL (JAMES LOGAN, ARCHIBALD TURNER LEAVEL, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born January 08, 1876 in New Market, Platte, Missouri, USA, and died October 19, 1963 in Prescott, Yavapai, Arizona, USA. Buried in I.O.O.F., aka Odd Fellows Cemetery, Prescott, Yavapai County, AZ. Picture of John's tombstone: http://arizonagravestones.org/view.php?id=5989. He married BESSIE ISABELL PRIDE May 08, 1901 in Bosburg, Stevens, Washington, USA, daughter of JOHN W. PRIDE. She was born September 03, 1875 in Brooklyn Township, Anoka, Minnesota, USA, and died October 19, 1946 in Prescott, Yavapai, Arizona, USA. Bessie died of cirhosis of the liver. Death certificate at http://genealogy.az.gov/azdeath/078/10781158.pdf. Picture of Bessie's tombstone: http://arizonagravestones.org/view.php?id=5991. John Logan Leavell worked for the Santa Fe Rail Road in Prescott, Arizona.
Notes for JOHN LOGAN LEAVELL:
Last Name: Leavell
First Name: John
Middle Name: Logan
Groom's Age: 25
Groom's Profession: Rancher
Groom's Birthplace: MO
Father of the Groom: Leavell, James, (Dr.)
Mother of the Groom: Cook, Bettie
Name of Bride: Pride, Bess Isabel
Bride's Age: 26
Bride's Profession:
Bride's Birthplace: MN
Father of the Bride: Pride, Jno.W.
Mother of the Bride: McConnell, Annie
Date of Marriage: 8-May-01
Place of Marriage: Spokane
Record Number: 3211
Original Page Number: 90
Page Number: 0
To order a copy of a record or for questions about this database, contact the Eastern Washington Genealogical Society at 509.444.5336 or email Charles Hansen at charles_hansen at prodigy.net.
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION
Name: John Logan Leavell
City: Not Stated
County: Yavapai
State: Arizona
Birth Date: 8 Jan 1876
Race: White
Roll: 1522651
DraftBoard: 0
farmer for self
notify Mrs. Bessie Pride Leavell
1920 - Simmons, Yavapai, Arizona
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Simmons, Yavapai, Arizona; Roll: T625_52; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 99; Image: 7.
John L Leavell...44...MO, KY, KY...owns home...read/write...general farmer
Bess P Leavell...45...Minnesota, Maine, Nova Scotia...
Marjory Leavell...13...Washington, MO, MN
John S Leavell...10....Washington, MO, MN
George E Leavell...8...Arizona, MO, MN
John H Richardson...28...hired man...NM, TX, Tx
Linden Nard...22...hired man...TX, TX, TX
Prescott Courier, 21 October 1963
John Logan Leavell was a cattle rancher in Big Chino for about 15 years. He worked for the government and was employed by the railroad. He is survived by a daughter, Marjorie Jones, of Walnut Grove, Arizona and two sons, Stuart of Auburn, California and George E. (Ned) of Long Beach, two grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.
Children of JOHN LEAVELL and BESSIE PRIDE are:
.....i.....MARGARIE LEAVELL, b. February 16, 1906, Bosburg, Stevens, Washington, USA.
Notes for MARGARIE LEAVELL:
Was she named for Marjorie Louise Leavell, born September 17, 1891? That Marjorie married Roland Henry Parsons and died December 29, 1919 in Maricopa County, Arizona.
.....ii.....JOHN STUART LEAVELL, b. November 13, 1909, Bosburg, Stevens, Washington, USA; d. March 05, 1964, Auburn, Placer, California, USA. More About JOHN STUART LEAVELL: Burial: Prescott, Arizona
Notes for JOHN STUART LEAVELL:
Source Information:
Ancestry.com. Washington Births, 1907-1919 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2002. Original data: Washington State Department of Health. Washington State Births 1907-1919. Washington, USA: Department of Health.
Name: John Stuart Leavell
Birth Date: 13 Nov 1909
Location: Stevens
Sex: Male
Race: White
Father's Name: John Logan Leavell
Mother's Name: Bose Isabel Pride
Image Filename: 0451
.....iii.....GEORGE EDGAR LEAVELL, b. April 06, 1911, Yavapai County, Arizona, USA; d. September 23, 2001, Granville, Putnam, Illinois, USA. Wife MABEL ISABELLE ? born 27 Jun 1912, died 11 Jul 2008.
Notes for GEORGE EDGAR LEAVELL:
Name: Leavell, George E
Serial Number: 39592396
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Enlistment Place: Los Angeles, California
Enlistment Date: 06 July 1944
Grade Alpha: Pvt
Grade Code: Private
Branch Alpha: No
Branch Code: No Branch Assignment
Enlistment Term: Enlistment For The Duration of The War or Other Emergency, Plus Six Months, Subject To The Discretion of The President or Otherwise According To Law
Longevity:
Source: Civil Life
Nativity: Arizona
Birth Year: 1911
Race and Citizenship: White, Citizen
Education: 4 Years of College
Civil Occupation: General Industry Clerks
Marital Status: Married
Army Component: Selectees (Enlisted Men)
Card Number:
Box Number: 1455
Reel Number: 7.26
Nearby Cemeteries:
Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Los Angeles, California
Both buried Granville Cemetery, Granville, Putnam County, Illinois, USA--Plot: Block 54, Lot 3, Grave 6
1664. CLARENCE DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born December 13, 1866 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, and died August 05, 1939. He married HELEN BEALL June 29, 1904 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, USA, daughter of CHARLES BEALL and CATHERINE MILES. She was born February 23, 1867 in Hagerstown, Montgomery, Maryland, USA, and died February 20, 1930. For both, burial: Dearborn, Platte, Missouri.
Children of CLARENCE DEAN and HELEN BEALL are:
.....i.....SIDNEY BEALL DEAN, b. September 24, 1905, Missouri, USA; d. September 11, 1976, Long Beach, Long Beach, California, USA; m. ZETTIE ARMELDY DAVAULT. More About SIDNEY BEALL DEAN: Burial: Little Lake Cemetery
.....ii.....CHARLES MILES DEAN, b. November 11, 1907, Missouri, USA; d. June 28, 1974, St. Joseph, Buchanan, Missouri, USA; m. EMMA BERNICE JONES, October 12, 1935, Troy, Doniphan, Kansas, USA; b. October 24, 1912.
.....iii.....MARY CATHERINE DEAN, b. August 20, 1909, Missouri, USA; m. ALBERT EDWARD GOEHRING; b. May 17, 1905, Rankin, Roger Mills, Oklahoma, USA.
.....iv.....MERLIN FRANKLIN DEAN, b. August 20, 1912; d. April 20, 1991, San Antonio, Bexar, Texas, USA; m. (1) MARY WAGGONER MCFADDEN; m. (2) LOIS MOORE, June 24, 1942; b. September 25, 1908.
1665. ELIZABETH JANE DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born October 12, 1867, and died May 15, 1948. She married JOHN SINGLETON WILLIAMS October 12, 1887 in Platte County, Missouri. He was born December 21, 1857, and died September 15, 1942. Notes for JOHN SINGLETON WILLIAMS: buried New Market Cem., Platte County, MO
Children of ELIZABETH DEAN and JOHN WILLIAMS are:
.....i.....WILLIAM WILLIAM WILLIAMS, b. July 16, 1888.
.....ii.....KATIE WILLIAMS, b. August 05, 1889.
.....iii.....SIDNEY HOUSTON WILLIAMS, b. January 21, 1891.
.....iv.....JOHN SINGLETON WILLIAMS, b. January 21, 1894.
.....v.....EARL WAYNE WILLIAMS, b. January 30, 1896.
.....vi.....ORVENTA VEY WILLIAMS, b. April 24, 1898.
.....vii.....MILDRED LOUISA WILLIAMS, b. July 24, 1900.
.....viii.....NORA AILENE WILLIAMS, b. January 03, 1902.
1666. ARCHIBALD BARTLESON DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born August 29, 1870, and died December 30, 1963. He married (1) BIRDIE HAMILTON September 24, 1899 in New Market, Platte, Missouri, USA, daughter of RICHARD HAMILTON. She was born Abt. 1878 in Dearborn, Platte, Missouri, USA, and died September 30, 1931. He married (2) FLORENCE MITCHELL LOBER August 31, 1941, daughter of JOHN LOBER and LYDIA MITCHELL. She was born December 08, 1893 in Weston, PLatte, Missouri, USA.
Children of ARCHIBALD DEAN and BIRDIE HAMILTON are:
.....i.....FOREST LAVOYD DEAN, b. April 21, 1901.
.....ii.....DONALD CORCORAN DEAN, b. May 25, 1903.
.....iii.....LAURA GENEVIEVE DEAN, b. October 14, 1905.
1667. MELINDA HAYDEN DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born November 06, 1875 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, and died July 18, 1963. She married WILLIAM WALLINGFORD December 21, 1898.
More About MELINDA HAYDEN DEAN: Burial: Dearborn Cemetery, Dearborn, Platte County, Missouri, USA
Children of MELINDA DEAN and WILLIAM WALLINGFORD are:
.....i.....CECIL CARR WALLINGFORD, b. August 31, 1899, Buchanan County, Missouri, USA.
.....ii.....VELMA LEE WALLINGFORD, b. March 31, 1906, Buchanan County, Missouri.
.....iii.....DARYS VEY WALLINGFORD, b. December 04, 1913, Buchanan County, Missouri.
1668. MARY CHRISTOPHER DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born November 07, 1877, and died February 04, 1976. She married SAMUEL ABNER BURGESS October 21, 1903, son of JOHN BURGESS and ELIZABETH DEAN. He died 1945.
Children of MARY DEAN and SAMUEL BURGESS are:
.....i.....HILDA JOSEPHINE BURGESS, b. July 17, 1904.
.....ii.....IRIS FERN BURGESS, b. December 10, 1908.
1669. SIDNEY HOUSTON DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 03, 1883 in Green Township, Platte, Missouri, and died March 19, 1963. He married ALLYN PEARL MURPHY February 24, 1909.
More About SIDNEY HOUSTON DEAN: Burial: Dearborn, Platte, Missouri, USA
1670. ALBERT DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 12, 1885 in Green Township, Platte, Missouri, and died September 24, 1974. He married ORA LEE STAFFORD November 24, 1907.
1671. ANDREW JACKSON DEAN (MARY CATHARINE LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 19, 1887 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, and died June 30, 1966. He married AMANDA EARL ROGERS January 01, 1908 in Dearborn, Platte, Missouri, USA. She was born August 25, 1886, and died 1966. More About ANDREW JACKSON DEAN: Burial: Dearborn Cemetery, Dearborn, Platte County, Missouri, USA
1672. WILLIAM GEORGE LEAVEL (JOHN LOGAN, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born May 07, 1876 in New Market, Platte, Missouri, USA, and died September 08, 1955 in Leavenworth County, Kansas, USA. He married MINNIE BELL NAYLOR October 06, 1897 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, daughter of NEWTON NAYLOR and ANNIE ?. She was born September 12, 1876 in Missouri, USA, and died June 23, 1968.
Notes for WILLIAM GEORGE LEAVEL:
1900 - Pettis, Platte, Missouri
Wm G Leavel...24...May 1876...MO, MO, MO...farmer
Minnie B Leavel...23...Sept 1876...MO, MO, PA
Armand Leavel...2...Aug 1898...MO, MO, MO
Albert Naylor...17...Jan 1883...MO, MO, MO...boarder
1910 - Parkville Ward 2, Platte, Missouri
William G Leavel...33...MO, KY, MO...farmer
Minnie P Leavel...35...MO, MO, PA
Ormand W Leavel...11...MO, MO, MO
1920 - Leavenworth Ward 2, Leavenworth, Kansas
William G Leavel...43...MO, KY, MO...rents...reads/writes... automobile
Minnie B Leavel...43...MO, MO, PA
Ormand W Leavel...21...MO, MO, MO
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD, Sept. 12, 1918
Name: William George Leavel
City: 209 Vine, Leavenworth
County: Leavenworth
State: Kansas
Birth Date: 7 May (no year, but age 42 on card)
Race: White
tall, slender, blue eyes, dark hair
Minnie B. Leavel, same address, knows his whereabouts
self-employed, automobile
Roll: 1643588
DraftBoard: 0
1930 census - Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas
William G Leavel...53...MO, KY, MO...automobile agency
Mennie B Leavel...53...MO, KY, PA
Annie Naylor...75...PA, NY, PA...mother-in-law
Leavenworth Times (Kansas) Obituaries, 1987-98
about Ormand Leavel Sr.
Name: Ormand Leavel Sr.
Date Published: 2 Jun 1991
LEAVENWORTH COUNTY, KS BURIALS 1854-58
Name: William G. * Leavel
Death Place: Leavenworth, Ks.
Death Date: 8 Sep 1955
Sex: M (Male)
Cemetery: Leavenworth, Ks.
Slip #: 66
Child of WILLIAM LEAVEL and MINNIE NAYLOR is:
.....i.....ORMAND WARD LEAVEL, b. August 27, 1898, Missouri, USA; d. May 07, 1991, San Diego, San Diego County, California, USA; m. FLOY TERRY; b. July 18, 1903, Kansas, USA; d. January 30, 1985, San Diego, San Diego, California, USA.
Notes for ORMAND WARD LEAVEL:
WWI DRAFT REGISTRATION, Sept. 12, 1918
Name: Ormand Ward Leavel
City: 209 Vine, Leavenworth
County: Leavenworth
State: Kansas
Birth Date: 23 Aug 1898
Race: White
medium height, slender build, blue eyes, brown hair
student
Minnie Leavel, same address, knows his whereabouts
Roll: 1643588
DraftBoard: 0
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Leavenworth, Leavenworth, Kansas; Roll 708; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 27; Image: 304.0.
Ormand W Leavel...31...MO, MO, MO...$5500...asst. mgr., motor co.
Floy A Leavel...26...KS, KY, IA... wife
1940 household of Ormond W Leavel, Ward 6, Leavenworth, Leavenworth City, Leavenworth, Kansas, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 52-27B, sheet 2B, family 46, NARA digital publication of T627, roll 1240.
Ormond W. Leavel...41...Missouri...sales manager, garage
Floy Leavel...36...Kansas
Ormond Leavel...8...Kansas
Name: Ormand W. Leavel
SSN: 511-03-4341
Last Residence: 92106 San Diego, San Diego, California, United States of America
Born: 23 Aug 1898
Died: Jun 1991
State (Year) SSN issued: Kansas (Before 1951 )
1673. ARA DEAN LEAVEL (JOHN LOGAN, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born February 19, 1878 in New Market, Platte, MO, USA, and died December 05, 1974. She married HARRY CLIFTON NOLAND July 14, 1897 in Parkeville, Platte, Missouri, USA, son of OBED NOLAND and ELIZABETH HIGGINS. He was born July 03, 1877 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, and died May 28, 1929 in Parkeville, Platte, Missouri, USA.
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Parkville Ward 1, Platte, Missouri; Roll: T624_805; Page: 1B; Enumeration District: 157; Image: 717.
Harry C Noland...31...MO, KY, MO...merchant, furniture store
Ara Noland...30...MO, KY, MO
Jaona M Noland...9...MO, MO, MO
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD
Name: Harry Clifton Noland
Parkville
County: Platte
State: Missouri
Birth Date: 3 Jul 1878
Race: White
tall, slender, brown eyes, dark brown hair
merchant
relative: Mrs. Harry C. Noland, same address
FHL Roll Number: 1683500
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Pettis, Platte, Missouri; Roll: T625_942; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 199; Image: 803. Feb. 9, 1920
Hary Noland...41...MO, MO, MO... own home...can read/write...dealer, furniture
Ara Noland...MO, MO, MO...40...wife
Leona Noland...MO, MO, MO...19...dau
? Noland...11/12...MO, MO, MO...dau
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Pettis, Platte, Missouri; Roll: 1217; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 14; Image: 428.0.
Ara Noland...51...MO, KY, MO...undertaker? Hard to read
Marjorie D Noland...11... MO, MO, MO...daughter
Ellen D Leavel...74...MO, KY, MO...mother
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: Ara Noland
SSN: 489-50-0093
Last Residence: 64150 Kansas City, Platte, Missouri, United States of America v Born: 19 Feb 1879 v Died: Dec 1974
State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (1962)
Children of ARA LEAVEL and HARRY NOLAND are:
.....i.....TEMPLE LACROY NOLAND, b. September 18, 1900, Parkeville, Platte, Missouri, USA; d. November 08, 1900, Parkeville, Platte, Missouri, USA.
.....ii.....LEONA MADGE NOLAND, b. September 18, 1900, Platte County, Missouri, USA; d. March 13, 1978, Buchanan, Missouri, USA; m. JOHN LLOYD KLAMM, Abt. 1923, Leavenworth County, KS, USA. He was b. 21 Oct 1896 Parkville, Platte County, Missouri, and died 09 Mar 1973 Buchanan County, Missouri.
.....iii.....MARJORIE DEAN NOLAND.
1674. DEAN LEAVEL (JOHN LOGAN, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born June 25, 1883 in New Market, Platte, MO, USA, and died May 1964 in Parkeville, Platte, Missouri, USA. He married MARY FRANCES BORDEN, daughter of DANIEL BORDEN and ? FORD. She was born September 08, 1882 in Missouri, and died January 01, 1922 in Platte County, Missouri. Frankie died of diptheria in Parkville, Platte, MO and was buried 1/3/1922 in Walnut Grove by Harry Noland, undertaker. She was age 39 yrs 3 mos. 22 days, house Wife. He married GENEVIEVE DUCRET on 11 Apr 1925.
Source Information: Ancestry.com. Missouri Marriage Records, 1805-2002 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007. Original data: Missouri Marriage Records. Jefferson City, MO, USA: Missouri State Archives. Microfilm.
Name: Dean Leavel
Marriage Date: 6 May 1908
Marriage Location: Platte City, Platte, Missouri
Marriage County: Platte
Spouse Name: Mary F Borden
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Pettis, Platte, Missouri; Roll: T624_805; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 158; Image: 753. April 27, 1910
Dean Leavel...26...MO, KY, MO...farmer, general
Frank Leavel...26...MO, MO, MO...one child, one living
John L Leavel...1 1/12...MO, MO, MO
WWI draft registration
Leavel, Dean
Platte City, Platte, MO
June 25, 1883
white, medium ht and build, auburn hair, blue eyes
farmer
notify Mrs. Frankie Leavel
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Carroll, Platte, Missouri; Roll: T625_942; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 182; Image: 619.
Dean Leavel...37...MO, MO, MO...farmer, general
Frances Leavel...37...MO, MO, MO
John Logan Leavel...10...MO, MO, MO
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: May, Platte, Missouri; Roll: 1217; Page: 8A; Enumeration District: 13; Image: 416.0.
Dean Levell...47...MO, KY, MO...farmer, general
Geneve Levell...42...MO, France, USA
John Logan Levell...21...MO, MO, MO...farm laborer
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: Dean Leavel
SSN: 495-42-5930
Last Residence: 64153 Kansas City, Platte, Missouri, United States of America
Born: 25 Jun 1883
Died: May 1966
State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (1956)
Name: Genevieve Leavel
SSN: 487-68-5044
Last Residence: 64153 Kansas City, Platte, Missouri, United States of America
Born: 23 Sep 1886
Died: Apr 1974
State (Year) SSN issued: Missouri (1973)
Child of DEAN LEAVEL and MARY BORDEN is:
.....i.....JOHN LOGAN LEAVEL, b. February 27, 1909, Platte County, Missouri; m. MILDRED DELORES ADAMS, April 20, 1935, Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, USA; b. September 06, 1912, St. Charles County, Missouri.
http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Donald-Leavel&lc=2376&pid=149164779&mid=4589407
.....Donald D. Leavel, 62, Kansas City, died March 8, 2011 at NorthCare Hospice House after a heroic battle with cancer. He was born September 7, 1948, to John Logan and Mildred Delores (Adams) Leavel in Kansas City. He was a 1966 graduate of Park Hill High School and a veteran of the United States Army from 1968 to 1971, serving a one-year tour of duty in Vietnam from 1969-1970. He was a member of Park Hill Christian Church. He retired in 1993 from Kansas City Power Light after 21 years of service. He was preceded in death by his parents, John and Mildred Leavel. He is survived by one son, Bill (Julie) Leavel, Kansas City, his companion, Tom Twilling, of the home, one sister, Barbara (Dick) Runge, Topeka; one grandson, Logan D. Leavel, Kansas City, and one niece, Heather (Chris) Bieker, Topeka, as well as many friends.
.....The family will receive friends from 1:00-2:00 PM Friday at Mount Moriah Terrace Park Funeral Home. Memorial services will follow at 2:00 PM with the Rev. Neil Engle officiating. Cremation has taken place. A private family inurnment will take place later. In lieu of flowers, memorials have been established with the American Cancer Society.
.....Arrangements under the direction of Mount Moriah Terrace Park Funeral Home; 801 N.W. 108th Street Kansas City, MO. (816) 734-5500
1675. ANDREW DEAN LEAVELL (DAVID CHRISTOPHER LEAVEL, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born October 14, 1881 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, and died June 03, 1973 in Mcallen, Hidalgo, Texas, USA. He married NELLIE PAULINE COX November 04, 1903 in Platte County, Missouri, USA, daughter of HARRY COX and KATIE NELSON. She was born August 11, 1880 in Kansas, USA, and died November 02, 1963 in Austin, Travis, Texas, USA. Burial: November 02, 1963, Sunset Memorial Park, San Antonio, Bexas County, Texas. He is buried in Roselawn Cemetery and Mausoleum, McAllen, Hidalgo, Texas. See photo of shared tombstone (with Ruby Goodwin) at BillionGraves.com . She's listed as 1898--1987. Is this a second wife?
Notes for ANDREW DEAN LEAVELL:
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Green, Platte, Missouri; Roll: T624_805; Page: 18B; Enumeration District: 152; Image: 639
A D Leavel...28...married 6 yrs...MO, MO, MO...farmer
Nell C Leavel...29...3 kids, 3 living...KS, MO, MO
David C Leavel...5...MO, MO, KS
Dorothy M Leavel...3...MO, MO, KS
Harold N Leavel...1 2/12...MO, MO, KS
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Justice Precinct 5, Hidalgo, Texas; Roll: T625_1811; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 81; Image: 849.
Andrew D Leavell...38...MO, MO, MO...farmer, general
Nell P Leavell...39...KS, MO, MO
David C Leavell...15...MO, MO, KS
Dorathy Leavell...13...MO, MO, KS
Harold Leavell...10...MO, MO, KS
Hester A Leavell...8...MO, MO, KS
Charles Leavell...6...MO, MO, KS
Enger Leavell...4...dau...TX, MO, KS
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: McAllen, Hidalgo, Texas; Roll: 2356; Page: 40A; Enumeration District: 23; Image: 369.0.
A D Leavell...unknown...MO, US, US
David Leavell...25...MO, MO, KS...journalist, newspaper
Dorothdy Leavell...23...MO, MO, KS
Hester Leavell...18...MO, MO, KS...student, college
Harold Leavell...22...MO, MO, KS...student, college
Andrew LEAVELL
Birth Date: 14 Oct 1881
Death Date: Jun 1973
Social Security Number: 463-50-4678
State or Territory Where Number Was Issued: Texas
Death Residence Localities
ZIP Code: 78501
Localities: Bonner, Hidalgo, Texas
Kane, Hidalgo, Texas
Mc Allen, Hidalgo, Texas
Mcallen, Hidalgo, Texas
Mccoll, Hidalgo, Texas
Name: Nellie Cox Leavell
Death date: 02 Nov 1963
Death place: Austin, Travis, Texas
Gender: Female
Race or color (on document): w
Age at death: 83 years
Estimated birth year:
Birth date: 11 Aug 1880
Birthplace: Kansas
Marital status: Married
Spouse's name: A D Leavell
Father's name: Harry A Cox
Father's birthplace:
Mother's name: Kate S Nelson
Mother's birthplace:
Occupation: Housewife
Residence: Austin, Travis, Texas
Cemetery name: Sunset Memorial Park
Burial place: San Antonio, Bexar, Texas
Burial date: 02 Nov 1963
Additional relatives: X
Film number: 2117354
Digital GS number: 4028335
Image number: 1806
Reference number: 73154
Collection: Texas Deaths, 1890-1976
Children of ANDREW LEAVELL and NELLIE COX are:
.....i.....PORTER AMOS LEAVELL.
.....ii.....DAVID COX LEAVELL, b. August 18, 1905, New Market, Platte, Missouri, USA; d. July 24, 1989, Galveston County, Texas, USA; m. (1) PAULINE PATRICIA POWERS; m. (2) VELMA SMITH, April 08, 1970, Galveston County, Texas, USA; b. Abt. 1916.
Notes for DAVID COX LEAVELL:
.....David C. Leavell, 79th president, was born Aug. 18, 1904 at New Market, Mo., and began learning the newspaper business as a printer's devil on the McAllen Monitor in 1917-1923 and then the McAllen Evening Monitor from 1918-1923 in advertising sales.
.....From 1923-1926 he attended Texas Christian University and worked at nights as an advertising man and news reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Then he attended the University of Missouri where he graduated in 1927 with honors in journalism.
.....He then worked for one year on the Marshall News-Messenger and then as ad salesman and reporter at the Longview Daily News.
.....In 1929 he joined the news department of the Fort Worth Press, a job he held until 1946 when he went to Galveston to become vice president and manager of the News Tribune.
.....Leavell bought the Texas City Sun in 1948.
.....He retired from Galveston Aug. 26, 1969.
.....He also served as treasurer of Texas Daily Newspaper Association and president of the Southwest School of Printing.
---Texas Press Association, http://www.texaspress.com/pastpresidents/1950_70/DCLeavell1956_57.htm
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: David C. Leavell
SSN: 453-09-1066
Last Residence: 77550 Galveston, Galveston, Texas, United States of America
Born: 18 Aug 1904
Died: 24 Jul 1989
State (Year) SSN issued: Texas (Before 1951)
Mrs. Enda Maie Leavell, wife of David C. Leavell, publisher of The Galveston News and Tribune, died of a heart ailment today. She was 48 years old. (NY TIMES, Aug 27, 1957)
.....iii.....DOROTHY MARIE LEAVELL, b. December 13, 1907; m. ? WHITAKER.
HIDALGO CO. TX BIRTHS
HUGHES, JANELLE...DOROTHY MARIE LEAVELL...GUY HUGHES ...26 JUL 1932 f
.....iv.....HAROLD NELSON LEAVELL, b. February 19, 1909, Missouri, USA; m. MAXINE ELIZABETH PRICE; b. Stuttgart, Arkansas, Arkansas.
SOCIAL SECURITY DEATH INDEX
Name: Harold N. Leavell
SSN: 467-03-7277
Last Residence: 77083 Houston, Harris, Texas, United States of America
Born: 19 Feb 1909
Died: 15 Oct 2002
State (Year) SSN issued: Texas (Before 1951)
.....v.....HESTER DEAN LEAVELL, b. Abt. 1912, Missouri, USA; m. LAWRENCE ELBERT THRASHER, JR..
.....vi.....INGER PAULINE LEAVELL, b. Abt. 1916, Texas, USA.
1676. GEORGIA BELLE LEAVEL (DAVID CHRISTOPHER, ARCHIBALD TURNER, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born September 22, 1883 in New Market, Platte, Missouri, USA, and died May 18, 1973 in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, USA. She married (1) HARRY E. BAGBY. He was born September 14, 1884 in Oklahoma, USA. She married (2) FRANK TUCKER October 04, 1904. She married (3) WILLIAM ANDERSON February 14, 1954 in Tulsa County, Oklahoma, USA. He was born July 04, 1881.
Notes for GEORGIA BELLE LEAVEL:
nmoss
rootsweb.com on the Tulsa, OK message board 30 Aug 2004
I'm looking for any information on Georgia Belle Leavell born in 1884 in Camden, Missouri area. Married to Harry E. Bagby in Oklahoma, probably Tulsa, but I have no date. They had two children, Mary Elizabeth born, 2 Feb 1924 and Virginia born 1926. I believe they were divorced, because on 14 Feb 1954 Georgia married William Anderson, born 4 July 1881, in Tulsa. I have no death date for Georgia and no information on who her parents were.
Tulsa, OK board at Rootsweb
Nichols - Hawkins - Bagby - Harris
Author: Pat Wynn Date: 17 Dec 2001 6:59 AM GMT
Surnames: Nichols - Hawkins - Bagby - Harris
Classification: Query
I am looking for descendants of my great aunt, Dora Josephine NICHOLS b.4/17/1870 in Franklin County, Arkansas who married Samuel Wesley HAWKINS on Nov. 1, 1885. They had two daughters, Jeffa who never married, and Grace b.9/27/1895. Grace married a Harry E.BAGBY b. 9/14/1884. Both died in Tulsa, OK. Dora's obit refers to a grandson, J.W.HARRIS. Another clipping of a family reunion lists J.W. Harris of Tulsa, OK and his daughter Sherrill. This clipping was about 1937 or thereabouts.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
1677. CHRISTOPHER BRYANT LEAVELL (HAYDEN LEWIS, CHRISTOPHER T. LEAVEL, JAMES, EDWARD L. LEAVELL, BENJAMIN, EDWARD, EDWARD, ? LAVELLE) was born March 12, 1871 in Missouri, USA. He married IDA MERYL WINNER June 26, 1895 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri, USA. He was buried in Washington Cemetery, Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri. She was born January 1874 in Missouri, USA and died 16 September 1941 in Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri. Ida Meryl Leavel, who was senile, died of coronary occlusion while living at 3332 South Benton, Kansas City, Missouri
Notes for CHRISTOPHER BRYANT LEAVELL:
MISSOURI MARRIAGE RECORDS 1805-2002
Name: Christopher B Leavel
Marriage Date: 26 Jun 1895
Marriage Location: Jackson, Kansas City, Missouri
Marriage County: Jackson
Spouse Name: Ida M Winner
Source Citation: Year: 1900; Census Place: Kansas City Ward 8, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: T623 863; Page: 5A; .
Christopher Leavel...29...Mar 1871...MO, KY, MO...married 5 years...dentist
Ida Leavel...26...Jan 1874...MO, IA, TN
Merrill Leavel...3...June 1896...MO, MO, MO...dau
Willard Leavel...2.12...Sept 1899...MO, MO, MO...son
Susan Bennett...19...Feb 1881...MO, VA, VA...servant...white...
Source Citation: Year: 1910; Census Place: Kansas Ward 10, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: T624_788; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 0147; Image: 211; FHL microfilm: 1374801.
Christopher B. Level...39...MO, MO, MO...married 15 years...lawyer
Ida M Level...34...MO, MO, MO...married 15 years...2 children, 2 living
Laurn W Level...13...MO, MO, MO...dau
Williard H Level...10...MO, MO, MO...son
Source Citation: Year: 1920;Census Place: Kansas City Ward 12, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: T625_924; Page: 12A; Enumeration District: 192; Image: 382.
Christopher B Leavel...48...MO, KY, MO...rent...can read/write...lawyer, general practicde
Ida M Leavel...45...MO, IA, TN
Willard H Leavel...20...MO, MO, MO...student, at college
Source Citation: Year: 1930; Census Place: Kansas City, Jackson, Missouri; Roll: 1201; Page: 45A; Enumeration District: 214; Image: 930.0.
Christopher B Leavel...59...MO, KY, MO...lawyer
Ida M Leavel...55...MO, IA, TN
At http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=miller2849&id=I1853,
Judge.
Is this he?
Name: C. Leavell
SSN: 224-40-3306
Last Residence: 24401 Staunton, Staunton City, Virginia, United States of America
Born: 8 Jul 1887
Died: Jul 1969
State (Year) SSN issued: Virginia (1951 )
http://www.vintagekansascity.com/menwhomadekc/leavel_christopher_b.html
Web adaptation of the book "Men Who Are Making Kansas City"
© 1902 George Creel & John Slavens
Christopher B. Leavel
.....Christopher B. Leavel was born in Newmarket, Platte County, Missouri, March 18, 1871. His boyhood was spent in Platte County, his early education being secured in the public schools of Newmarket, with a later course in the Daughters' College in Platte City, from which he graduated in 1888.
.....Deciding upon dentistry as a profession, he came to Kansas City, and entered the Western Dental College, taking the degree in 1892. He located here, and has risen to a position of enviable prominence in his profession.
.....In addition to his practice, Mr. Leavel is a secretary of the Leavenworth Construction Company, and also secretary of the Winner Real Estate Company.
.....A life-long Democrat, Dr. Leavel has identified himself prominently with the local organization, and in 1901 served as a member of the County Central Committee.
.....Dr. Leavel was married June 26, 1895, to Miss Ida Winner, daughter of Willard E. Winner, and they have two children, a girl and a boy.
Children of CHRISTOPHER LEAVELL and IDA WINNER are:
.....i.....LAUREN MERYL LEAVELL, b. 11 June 1896, Jackson County, Missouri, USA; married ROBERT INGALLS SIMPSON, born abt. 1893 Missouri.
.....ii.....WILLARD HAYDEN LEAVELL, b. September 29, 1899, Jackson County, Missouri, USA and d. 25 Sep 1943 Rockford, Winnebago County, Illinois; m. BEATRICE ALICE TETSON 29 May 1926 Jefferson City, Cole County, Missouri; she was b. 11 April 1904, Missouri, USA. Willard Levell is buried in Plot: 19 008 09 of Cedar Bluff Cemetery, Rockford, Winnebago, Illinois, USA, no DOB but aged 44 years 13 days and died 12 October 1943, per findagrave.com.
WORLD WAR I DRAFT REGISTRATION CARD
Name: Willard Hayden Leavel
City: 3311 Flora, Kansas City
County: Jackson
State: Missouri
Birth Date: 29 Sep 1899
Race: White
Roll: 1683385
DraftBoard: 12
bank clerk, Missouri Savings Bank
mother: Ida Meryl Leavel, same address
medium height, slender build | |||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 10 | https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2014-02-05/william-s-burroughs-and-lawrence-kansas-linked-inexorably | en | William S. Burroughs And Lawrence, Kansas: Linked Inexorably | https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/80c1b26/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x538+0+397/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkcur%2Ffiles%2F201402%2Fburroughs_44.jpg | https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/80c1b26/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1024x538+0+397/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkcur%2Ffiles%2F201402%2Fburroughs_44.jpg | [
"https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/e26accc/2147483647/strip/true/crop/364x60+0+0/resize/534x88!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnpr.brightspotcdn.com%2Fdims4%2Fdefault%2F3b5d169%2F2147483647%2Fresize%2Fx60%2Fquality%2F90%2F%3Furl%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Flegacy%2Fsites%2Fkcur%2Ffiles... | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [
"Frank Morris",
"www.kcur.org",
"frank-morris"
] | 2014-02-05T00:00:00 | Wednesday, February 5, marked what would have been the 100th birthday of one of the 20th century’s most important and notorious writers: William S.… | en | /apple-touch-icon.png | KCUR - Kansas City news and NPR | https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2014-02-05/william-s-burroughs-and-lawrence-kansas-linked-inexorably | Wednesday, February 5, marked what would have been the 100th birthday of one of the 20th century’s most important and notorious writers: William S. Burroughs.
Burroughs was one of the original Beat poets, and helped spark a cultural revolution. He wrote like no one had before, about topics considered impolite, if not obscene, at the time.
Burroughs was openly gay, and wrestled with heroin addiction much of his life. He lived, famously, in New York, Paris, Mexico City and Tangiers, but he spent the last years of his life in Kansas. In fact, Burroughs lived longer in Lawrence, Kan., than anywhere else.
That may seem a strange fit for the groundbreaking author of Naked Lunch, Queer and Junky, but Burroughs and Lawrence formed a warm and enduring relationship.
Lawrence still has a personal connection to Burroughs
In Lawrence, Kan., you can still get a haircut from William Burroughs’ barber. Marty Olsen runs Do’s Deluxe, a few blocks east of the main drag.
“I cut William’s hair for 13 years,” remembers Olsen. “I cooked dinner for him a few times and went to a few parties over at his house.”
Burroughs moved to Lawrence in 1981.
“He needed to get out of New York,” says Olsen. “There was some backsliding going on in his world there.”
Burroughs had been living in a very gritty part of lower Manhattan. A fresh-faced guy from Kansas named James Grauerholz had gone to find him there. Grauerholz became, briefly, Burroughs’ lover, then his agent, editor, and his link to Lawrence.
“I mean he voluntarily came here, but I lured him,” admits Grauerholz. “And it was a plan to get him away from New York - the fame, the media, the thrill seekers.”
And to get him away from the heroin those “thrill seekers” regularly brought by, and the high rents. Grauerholz had already introduced Burroughs to his circle of outlaw writers, artists and musicians back in Lawrence, and that group took to Burroughs right off, and he took to them.
“There’s something called the genius loci, which means the spirit of a place,” says Grauerholz. “And he, within a year or two, became the spirit of the place.”
Burroughs jumps in
Burroughs got involved in the Lawrence underground right away. He quickly launched collaborations with Lawrence artists like Phillip Heying, a photographer who was a freshman at the University of Kansas when William S. Burroughs came to town.
“On the one hand, it was very normal...just this guy I knew that was kind of eccentric,” recalls Heying. “And in other ways it was like all of a sudden having a volcano erupt, in your backyard.”
Heying and Burroughs worked closely on visual art pieces, using Heying’s photography. It was a partnership that lasted until Burroughs’ death 17 years later.
Burroughs also attracted some of the most influential and creative countercultural figures of the 20th century to rub elbows with locals.
“It was just stunning,” says Heying. “It was like this direct pipeline to a world of people and ideas that had radically changed culture.”
It would be hard to develop a complete list, but Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, Jello Biafra, Norman Mailer, and Kurt Cobain, came to visit Burroughs.
“I spent a fair amount of time and got acquainted with Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary,” says Heying. “I had a brief interaction with Hunter Thompson, just kind of got a good look at him and saw him in action.”
All of them came to a small bungalow in east Lawrence that William Burroughs had picked up for $29,000.
The town that let Burroughs be
Sitting at Burroughs' dining room table, Jim McCrary, a poet in Lawrence, recalls countless evenings spent here with “the old man.”
“I would come in and sit down over there,” says McCrary. "He’d say, ‘Jim, roll me a joint.’ I’d roll him a joint, light it, and hand it to him. He would take three hits and hand me back like an 1/8 inch of a roach. That was the funny old guy that I just could not help but love.”
A lot of people loved Burroughs here. Well, enough anyway. And McCrary says, he gave them good reason.
“He was a nice guy,” remembers McCrary. "You know like, if you came to his house, and you hung around and you left. He would always walk out on the porch, and wait until you got into your car. If he drove you home, he would wait, until you got into your door.
“He may have written or said or done some ungodly horrible things. But the things that stuck with people were things like that.”
McCrary says Burroughs was very comfortable because the rest of the town just let him be. Heying says the atmosphere in Lawrence allowed Burroughs to be very productive.
“Right up until the end of his life he was scribbling, at least, if not really working on something full on. And then the mountain of his visual art that he was working on every day with tremendous joy,” says Heying.
This is something, McCrary says, that the East Coast artists and writers have a hard time wrapping their minds around. Burroughs wasn’t “out to pasture” in Lawrence; he wasn’t a recluse.
“A lot of people, particularly on the East Coast, particularly in New York, think that he was taken away, and sequestered in this small, craphole Midwest town … and maybe that’s true. But, maybe that’s what he wanted,” says McCrary.
Since Burroughs’ death in 1997, Lawrence officials have dedicated a creek, a nature trail, and even a playground to him.
“The fact that there’s a Burroughs trail is really cool. That fact that there’s a Burroughs playground, is a little bit ironic,” says McCrary.
After all, Burroughs wrote about sexual encounters with young boys, accidently shot and killed his wife, and took lots of drugs.
Not everyone here is so proud to of Lawrence’s association with William Burroughs. Jere McElhaney, was on the Douglas County Commission when the park, creek and trail were named. He spoke out stridently against honoring Burroughs over any number of local sports and business success stories. He’s softened his opposition, in the meantime.
“You know, the guy admitted he was a habitual drug user, some problems with alcohol, shot and killed his wife, I guess by accident, but something like that happened,” says McElhaney.
“I think we just have to be very careful sometimes who we hold up on the pedestal, even though their talents might be great,” he says.
Burroughs’ talents are the talk of Lawrence these days. His work is on display at the Lawrence Arts Center, and at the Spencer Museum, on the University of Kansas campus. Stephen Goddard, the Associate Director and Senior Curator at the Spencer says it’s only right.
“He was a very important and influential member of our community for many years, and it’s reasonable to acknowledge him on an occasion like this,” says Goddard.
Goddard says Lawrence, Kan., was instrumental to Burroughs’ visual art.
“One reason he was drawn to Lawrence was he could go in the country and shoot stuff, without getting in trouble. So the gunshot works, the doors, and all that kind of material, was specific to Lawrence,” says Goddard.
And James Grauerholz says that the qualities of Lawrence that made Burroughs at home still hold.
“And now,” says Grauerholz. “It is my hope that the fact of his association with Lawrence, will shine brightly, as a beacon, to indeed attract the different, and the strange and the alien and the intelligent and the daring, to this town, lest it turn into Topeka, or Overland Park.”
No offense to the good people living in the state capital, or the prosperous Kansas City suburb, but Grauerholz wants it understood that, in Kansas, Lawrence is the capital of weird, and William S. Burroughs still represents the genius loci. | ||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 32 | https://groveatlantic.com/author/william-s-burroughs/ | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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"Naked Lunch",
"after having traveled",
"lived in such places"
] | 2017-03-16T21:11:29+00:00 | One of the most innovative and controversial writers of the twentieth century and a founding father of the Beat Generation. | en | https://groveatlantic.com/core/wp-content/themes/groveatlantic/images/favicon.ico?ver=1713989674 | Grove Atlantic | https://groveatlantic.com/author/william-s-burroughs/ | Born into a prominent St. Louis family, in 1914, William S. Burroughs would go on to be one of the most innovative and controversial writers of the twentieth century. He was a founding father of the Beat Generation, whose companions included Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, and Jack Kerouac.
In 1936, Burroughs graduated from Harvard, where he earned an arts degree. In 1944, Burroughs took an apartment with Jack Kerouac in New York City, where they both became involved in a murder case, from which the work And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (1945) is based. In 1959, Burroughs published his best-known work, Naked Lunch, which consists of a series of psychotropic encounters involving a character named, William Lee.
In 1974, after having traveled and lived in such places and Tangiers, Paris, and London, Burroughs moved back to New York City where he obtained a position at the City College of New York teaching creative writing. He soon left the position, though, in order to write for the counter-culture periodical Crawdaddy. Burroughs moved to Kansas in 1981, where he spent the remainder of his life. He died in 1997. | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 91 | https://www.dispatch.com/story/entertainment/books/2014/02/02/biography-paints-dark-portrait-influential/24204611007/ | en | Biography paints dark portrait of influential writer William S. Burroughs | [
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"Staff , The Columbus Dispatch"
] | 2014-02-02T00:00:00 | \ | en | The Columbus Dispatch | https://www.dispatch.com/story/entertainment/books/2014/02/02/biography-paints-dark-portrait-influential/24204611007/ | "Be regular and orderly in your life, like a bourgeois,” said Gustave Flaubert, “so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
Many writers have heeded the French novelist’s counsel that an unadventurous life can bear artistic fruit.
But, as depicted in a new biography, William S. Burroughs, a prime figure of the beat generation, wasn’t one of them.
Burroughs, who lived from 1914 to 1997 and is considered one of the most influential literary figures of the 20th century, not only ignored Flaubert’s advice but set out to defy it. In the new biography Call Me Burroughs, author Barry Miles spends hundreds of pages documenting how the acclaimed author of Naked Lunch and Junky flouted accepted behavior.
A son of the Midwest, Burroughs behaved in a fashion that rarely jelled with that of his socially elite St. Louis family, which made a fortune from the invention of an adding machine.
Even among his fellow beats, the particulars of Burroughs’ life are shocking.
While in Mexico in 1951, he proposed that his second wife, Joan Vollmer, set a glass atop her head. Burroughs assumed the role of William Tell and fired a gun, missing the glass and striking and killing her.
Evading significant punishment, Burroughs later perversely implied that some good came of the incident.
“I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing,” he wrote in 1985.
Burroughs’ friend, poet Allen Ginsberg, even obliquely blamed the victim: “I always thought that she had kind of challenged him into it.”
To his credit, Burroughs disagreed.
The death of his wife isn’t the only disturbing event in a biography that is almost encyclopedic in its documentation of its subject’s flaws.
Burroughs and Vollmer’s only child, William S. Burroughs Jr., died at age 33 of cirrhosis. “His drinking and drug taking,” Miles writes, “were all pathetic attempts to be cool, to show Bill that he was continuing the bohemian tradition.”
When the elder Burroughs’ parents threatened to cut off his allowance, he was faced with “the awful possibility, at 40 years of age, of having to find a job.”
“The only thing he could think of was dealing heroin with his old friend ‘Ritchie,’?” Miles adds.
He also claims that everything Burroughs wrote after his return from Europe to the United States in 1974 was done under the influence of opiates.
For readers more bewildered than bewitched by Burroughs’ literary style, such revelations offer some
explanation.
In his later days, Burroughs lived in Lawrence, Kan. — a far less exotic locale than Tangier or Paris, where he had spent much of the 1950s and early ’60s.
He enjoyed renewed currency thanks to an acting role in Gus Van Sant’s 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy, as well as appearances in a Nike TV commercial and a U2 promotional video in the mid-’90s.
But troublesome habits remained.
“He always carried a handgun in a holster in his belt,” Miles writes. And vodka “steadied his hand.”
Although Miles clearly appreciates Burroughs’ contributions to contemporary literature, his book succeeds less as a tour of an innovative mind than as a definitive but depressing account of a misspent life. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 88 | http://jtenlen.drizzlehosting.com/Register/RR_SRC/SRC006.HTML | en | Descendants of John McAfee I | [
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2501. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 80, 1st Ward, Knoxville, Knox Co., Tennessee, enumerated the 15th of April, 1910 by W. C. Layman, Microfilm series T624; Roll 1507, pg 20, sheet 1A.
Address: 924 East Hill Ave.
Dwelling/Family#8
Line 12-Macgowan, David B., Head, M, W, 39, M1 16 yrs, TN TN TN, Editorial write, "The Sentinel", rents home
Line 13-Macgowan, Emma B., Wife, F, W, 43, M1 16 yrs, 6 children/5 living, IN KY KY
Line 14-Macgowan, Birkhead, Son, M, W, 14, S, MO TN IN
Line 15-Macgowan, Everett W., Son, M, W, 12, S, IL TN IN
Line 16-Macgowan, Mary L., Daughter, F, W, 10, S, IL TN IN
Line 17-Macgowan, Vasily F., Son, M, W, 8, S, Russia TN IN
Line 18-Macgowan, Carrick B., Son, M, W, 6, S, Germany TN IN
2502. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 417.
2503. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 205, 15th Ward, Memphis, Shelby Co., Tennessee, enumerated the 16th and 18th of April, 1910 by James M. Cormture(?), Microfilm series T624; Roll 1520, pg 102, sheet 1A.
Address: 633 Rozelle St.
Dwelling/Family#2
Line 6-Wade, Henry H., Head, M, W, 40, M1 13 yrs, TN NH CT, music house dealer, owns home (mortgaged)
Line 7-Wade, Florence W., Wife, F, W, 37, M1 13 yrs, VA KY KY
Line 8-Wade, Neander, Son, M, W, 11, S, TN TN VA
Line 9-Wade, Henry Jr., Son, M, W, 8, S, TN TN VA
Line 10-Wade, Munson, Son, M, W, 6, S, TN TN VA
Line 11-Wade, Dan A., Son, M, W, 3, S, TN TN VA
Line 12-Wade, Susiebell, Daughter, F, W, 10 mo., S, TN TN VA
Line 13-Malone, Richard, servant, M, B, 43, M1 25 yrs, MS GA GA, laborer
Line 14-Malone, Fannie, servant, F, B, 43, M1 25 yrs, 15 children/9 living, MS MS MS, cook
2504. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 419.
2505. Ibid. pg. 410; Died at age 4 yrs.
2506. Ibid. pg. 410; Of Auburn, Alabama.
2507. Ibid. pg. 421.
2508. "Death Records Certificates: James Richard Bohon". Filed 15 Nov 1918, Lewistown, Lewis Co., Missouri, File No. 40638, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2509. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 83, Corvallis Twp., Ravalli Co., Montana, enumerated 4 Jun 1900 by Wm. R. Burroughs, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 914, p. 53, sheet 2A.
Dwelling#32/Family#33
Line 32-Bohon, Howard, boarder, w, m, b. Apr 1879, age 21, single, MO MO MO; farm laborer
(boarder in househol of James and Almira Roffins)
Dwelling#33/Family#34
Line 33-Bohon, Homer, head, w, m, b. Mar 1867, age 33, marr. 11 yrs, MO MO MO; farmer; owns farm freely
Line 34-Bohon, Effie M., wife, w, f, b. Feb 1872, age 28, marr. 11 yrs, 4 children, all living; MO MO MO
Line 35-Bohon, Stanley, son, w, m, b. Apr 1890, age 10, single, MO MO MO
Line 36-Bohon, Roy, son, w, m, b. Oct 1892, age 7, single, MO MO MO
Line 37-Bohon, Fay, daughter, w, f, b. Oct 1892, age 7, single, MO MO MO
Line 38-Bohon, Paul, son, w, m, b. Oct 1899, age 7 mo., single, MT MO MO
2510. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 85, Ward Twp., Ravalli Co., Montana, Enumerated 17-18 May 1910 by William S. Jones, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 833, pg.255, sheet 20B.
Dwelling#355/Family#365
Line 77-Bohon, Homer W., head, m, w, 46, marr (1st) 22 yrs, MO MO MO; farmer; owns farm freely
Line 78-Bohon, Effie M., wife, f, w, 38, marr (1st) 22 yrs, 4 children, all living; MO PA MO
Line 79-Bohon, Stanley C., son, m, w, 20, single, MO MO MO; farm laborer
Line 80-Bohon, Roy L., son, m,w, 17, single, MO MO MO; farm laborer
Line 81-Bohon, Fay M., daughter, f, w, 17, single, MO MO MO
Line 82-Bohon, Paul, son, m, w, 9, single, MO MO MO
2511. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 110, Ward 5, Hannibal, Mason Twp,. Marion Co., Missouri, Enumerated 28-29 Apr 1910 by George W. Rendlen, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 798, pg. 199, sheet 21b.
Address: 1224 Church St.
Dwelling#387/Family#407
Line 54-Terrill, John, head, m, w, 65, wd., MO KY KY; faller, shoe factory; rents home
Line 55-Terrill, Harry, son, m, w, 18, single, MO MO MO; chemist, cement factory
Line 56-McElroy, Price, nephew, m, w, 48, wd., MO MO MO; carpenter
Line 57-McElroy, Charles V., (blank), m, w, 11, single, MO MO MO
Line 58-Bohon, Annie, niece, f, w, 36, wd., 1 child, living; MO MO MO; dressmaker
Line 59-Bohon, Wade, granson?, m, w, 10, sinlge, MO MO MO
2512. "Death Records Certificates". Filed 20 Feb 1936, Warren Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, File No. 40302, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2513. "Death Records Certificates: George Walter Bohon". Filed 21 May 1929, Round Grove Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, File No. 18798, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2514. "Register of Still Births, Missouri Birth & Death Records Database, Missouri State Archives," 7 Apr 1884, Benbow, Round Grove Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, Roll C4362, page 161, number 4.
Name of Mother: Bohon, Louisa Maria
Name of Father: Bohon, Joseph
Period of uterio gestation: 9 mo.
Date of this birth: 3/22/1884
Sex: Female
Color: White
Cause of death: Pressure on umbilical cord
Medical attendant: Wm. Kemble, Benbow
Place of Burial: New Providence Cem, Benbow
2515. "Death Records Certificates: Ira V. Bohon". Filed 18 May 1953, Rural Greeneburg, Knox Co., Missouri, File No. 18533, PDF, Missouri State Archives, In 1900 census, year of birth listed as 1887.
2516. Ibid.
2517. "Death Records Certificates: Woodford Woods Sheley". Filed 24 Nov 1910, Cedar Twp., Callaway Co., Missouri, File No. 33509, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2518. "Ninth Census of the United States - 1870 Population Schedule," Mauckport P.O., Boone Twp., Harrison Co., Indiana, enumerated 16 Jul 1870 by George M. McCarty, Asst. Marshal, National Archives Film Number M593, Roll 321, pg. 25B.
Dwelling#136/Family#135
Line 39-Rice, Henry, 29, m, w, farm laborer, perosnal estate $200; PA
Line 40-Rice, Catharine, 24, f, w, keeping house, IN
Line 1-Rice, Maggie S., 2, f, w, at home, iN
Line 2-Rice, unnamed, 1, m, w, at home, IN
2519. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," ED 104, Webster Twp., Harrison Co., Indiana, Enumerated 22-23 Jun 1880 by W. S. Hottell, National Archives Film Number T9, Roll 283, pg. 411D-412A.
Dwelling#183/Family#183
Line 50-Rice, Henry, w, m, 30, head, marr., farmer, PA PA PA
Line 1-Rice, Kattie, w, f, 34, wife, marr., IN IN IN
Line 2-Rice, Maggie, w, f, 12, daughter, single, IN IN IN
Line 3-Rice, Charles, w, m, 10, son, single, IN IN IN
Line 4-Rice, Walter, w, m, 8, son, single, IN IN IN
Line 5-Rice, Alford, w, m, 5, son, single, IN IN IN
Line 6-Rice, Doan, w, m, 3, son, single, IN IN IN
Line 7-Rice, Anna E., w, f, 1, daughter, single, IN IN IN
2520. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 40, Black Twp., Posey Co., Indiana, enumerated 8 Jun 1900 by W. L. Buchanan, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 398, pg. 23, sheet 4B.
Dwelling#65/Family#65
Line 52-Rice, Henry, head,w, m, b. Nov 1841, age 59, marr. 34 yrs, PA PA PA; Farmer; rents farm
Line 53-Rice, Anna, wife, w, f, b. Dec 1845, age 54, marr. 34 yrs, 8 children, 7 living; IN IN IN
Line 54-Rice, Walter, son, w, m, b. Jan 1871, age 29, single, IN PA IN; machine salesman
Line 55-Rice, Howard, son, w, m, b. Aug 1881, age 18, single, IN PA IN; farm laborer
Line 56-Rice, H. Doan, son, w, m, b. Sep 1876, age 23, single, IN PA IN; farm laborer
Line 57-Rice, Kattie M., daughter, w, f, b. Aug 1887, age 12, single, IN PA IN; servant
2521. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 221, Ward 2, Mt. Carmel, Wabash Co., Illinois, Enumerated 9 Jan 1920 by W. A. Seitz, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 410, pg. 206, sheet 9B.
Address: 203 Main St.
Dwelling#219/Family#225
Line 57-Cotner, William G., head, rents home, m, w, 52, marr., IN IN IN; hotel proprietor
Line 58-Cotner, Maggie C., wife, f, w, 51, marr., KY PA IN
Line 59-Cotner, Cora A., daughter, f, w, 20, single, IN IN KY; clerk, lawyer office
Line 60-Cotner, William, son, m, w, 18, single, IL IN KY
Line 61-Rice, Kate, mother-in-law, f, w, 73, wd., IN IN IN
Line 62-Bradshaw, Carlton, roomer, m, w, 64, div., IL IL IN; night clerk, hotel
2522. "Funeral Will Be Held Wednesday for Mrs. Rice," Mt. Carmel Newspaper, Mt. Carmel, Wabash Co., Illinois, Tues., March 10, 1936, pg. 2.
Body of Aged Woman to Be Laid to Rest At Fairfield
"Funeral services for Mrs. Katherine Ann Rice, whose death was announced yesterday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Margaret C. Cotner, 222 East Eighth street, will be held from the residence on Wednesday morning, March 11, at ten o'clock, in charge of Rev. J. W. A. Kinison, and burial will be made in Maple Hill cemetery at Fairfield, Ill. Mrs. Rice was a native of Bridgeport, Ind., where she was born on December 12, 1845, a daughter of James E. and Elizabeth McAfee Jones. At the time of death she was aged 90 years, 2 months and 27 days. She was married to Henry Rice at Louisville, Ky., on October 6, 1866. Surviving her are six children, Margaret C. Cotner, Mount Carmel; Anna Elizabeth Newton, Evansville; Katie Mildred Carter, Sioux Falls, S. D.; Howard Doane Rice, Evansville; A. M. Rice, Wisconsin; H. G. Rice, Wadesville, Indiana. There is also one brother, James E. Jones, Mount Vernon, Ind. Her husband died 21 years ago, and she was also preceded in deather by two sons, Chas. A. Rice and W. L. Rice. Mrs. Rice was a member of the Methodist Church at Mount Vernon, Ind. Her death was the result of a stroke. Her illness extended over a period of three and a half years. She had for the past five years been making her home with her daughter here."
2523. "Eighth Census of the United States - 1860 Population Schedule," 4th Ward, New Albany, Floyd Co., Indiana, enumerated 11 Jun 1860 by Saml. H. Owen, Asst. Marshal, National Archives Film Number M653, Roll 257, pg. 336.
Dwelling#123/Family#127
Line 8-Cruse?, John P., 39, m, bricklayer, personal estate $250; PA
Line 9-Cruse?, Ann M., 24, f, real estate $2500; personal estate $200; VA
LIne 10-Cruse?, James S., 1, m, IN
Line 11-Jones, Sarah, 12, f, confectioner?, IN
Line 12-Buckhardt, Andrew, 21, m, confectioner, Prussia
2524. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 48, Black Twp., Posey Co., Indiana, enumerated the 10th and 12th of Jan., 1920 by Geo. McFadin, Microfilm series T625; Roll 458, pg. 99, sheet 4A.
Farm on Grafton Road
Dwelling#67/Family#68
Line 24-Jones, James E., Head, O/M, M, W, 66, marr., IN IN IN, farmer
Line 25-Jones, Elizabeth A., Wife, F, W, 61, marr., IN IN IN
Line 26-Jones, Thomas N., son, M, W, 35, single, IN IN IN, farm laborer
Line 27-Jones, Rachel F., dau., F, W, 26, single, IN IN IN, school teacher
Line 28-Jones, Anna E., dau., F, W, 21, single, IN IN IN, school teacher
2525. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 78, 5th Ward, New Albany, Floyd Co., Indiana, enumerated the 29th of April, 1910 by Alfred M. Young, Microfilm series T624; Roll 349, pg 138, sheet 15B.
Address: 1109 Griffin St.
Dwelling#283/Family#311
Line 60-Hilt, Lulu C., Head, F, W, 45, Divorced, 4/4 children, IN MA IN, music teacher, rents home
Line 61-Hilt, Effie A., daughter, F, W, 22, S, IN IN IN, public school teacher
Line 62-Hilt, Orpha L., daughter, F, W, 19, S, IN IN IN
Line 63-Hilt, Charles H., son, M, W, 17, S, IN IN IN, rail road fireman
2526. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," E.D. 76, New Albany Twp., Floyd Co., Indiana, enumerated 5th day of June, 1880 by W. P. C----?, National Archives Film Number T9-0277, pg 381D.
enumerated on Main Street
Dwelling#167/Family#194
Line 26-Hilt, Charles, W, M, 39, Head, Boiler maker, IN Germany Germany
Line 27-Hilt, Mary A., W, F, 37, Wife, Keeping house, IN IN IN
Line 28-Hilt, Charles, W, M, 15, Son, At home, IN IN IN
Line 29-Hilt, Stephen, W, M, 13, Son, At home, IN IN IN
LIne 30-Hilt, Mattie Luella, W, F, 11, Daughter, At home, IN IN IN
2527. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 227, Fort Robinson, Dawes Co., Nebraska, enumerated the 23rd, 25th, 30th of April, 1910 by L. S. Carson, Microfilm series T624; Roll 841 pg 206, sheet 6B.
Dwelling/Family#72
Line 74-Hilt, Charles, Lodger, M, W, 45, S, IN IN IN, teamster - US Army
2528. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 99-8, Lead Mines Magisterial District, Wythe Co., Virginia, enumerated 7 Apr 1930 by Charles F. Tarter, Microfilm T626, Roll 2465, pg. 102, sheet 2B.
Dwelling#41/Family#41
Line 77-Hilt, Charles H., head, owns farm, m, w, 64, wd., KY KY KY; farmer
2529. FamilySearch.org, "Indiana Marriages 1780-1992,".
2530. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 79, Ward 7, New Albany City, New Albany Twp., Floyd Co., Indiana, Enumerated ___ Jan 1920 by A. L. Somdry, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 429, pg. 210, sheet 12A.
Address: 1314 Elkin Ave
Dwelling#279/Family#293
Line 2-Austin, Lillie, head, owns home freely, f, w, 46, wd., KY VA IN; stenographer
Line 3-Austin, Earl F., son, m, w, 12, single, IN IN KY
Line 4-Austin, Grace J., daughter, f, w, 10, single, IN IN KY
Line 5-Austin, Roy T., son, m, w, 8, single, IN IN KY
Line 6-Austin, Edna E., daughter, f, w, 7, single, IN IN KY
Line 7-Austin, Glen W., son, m, w, 5, single, IN IN KY
Line 8-Brown, Ida, f, w, 62, wd., KY VA IN
2531. Linda Dickson <ldickson -at- clarkco.lib.in.us>, "McAfee Research," email received 4 Oct 2007. Linda is a granddaughter of Lillian Edna McAfee.
2532. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 22, Wood Twp., Clark Co., Indiana, enumerated 8 Jun 1900 by Thos. Hallett, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 363, p. 325, sheet 7B.
Dwelling#139/Family#144
Line 84-McAFee, Lawrence E., head, w, m, b. Nov 1864, age 35, marr. 16 yrs; IN IN IN; carpenter; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 85-McAfee, Ida B., wife, w, f, b. Nov 1862, age 37, marr. 16 yrs, 7 children, all living; IN IN IN
Line 86-McAfee, G. Ellsworth, son, w, m, b. Jul 1885, age 14, single; IN IN IN; at school
Line 87-McAfee, J. Robert, son, w, m, b. Jul 1887, age 12, single; IN IN IN; at school
Line 88-McAfee, Cornelius M., son, w, m, b. Aug 1891, age 8, single; IN IN IN; at school
Line 89-McAfee, Eugene, son, w, m, b. Nov 1892, age 7, single; IN IN IN; at school
Line 90-McAfee, S. Homer, son, w, m, b. June 1887 [sic] age 2, single; IN IN IN
Line 91-McAfee, Mary, daughter, w, f, b. May 1895, age 5, single; IN IN IN
Line 92-McAfee, Henry, son, w, m, b. Dec 1899, age 5/12, single; IN IN IN
2533. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 25, Wood Twp., Clark Co., Indiana, enumerated the 23rd & 25th of April, 1910 by Benjamin F. Stalker, Microfilm series T624; Roll 342, pg. 151, sheet 7A.
Dwelling#145/Family#150
Line 25-McAfee, Lawrence E., head, M, W, 45, marr. 1x, 26 yrs, IN IN IN, farmer, owns home freely
Line 26-McAfee, Ida J., wife, F, W, 47, marr. 1x, 26 yrs, 9 children, all living; IN GER IN, no occupation
Line 27-McAfee, George E., son, M, W, 24, single, IN IN IN, house carpenter
Line 28-McAfee, Cornelius M., son, M, W, 17, single, IN IN IN, farm laborer
Line 29-McAfee, Mary E., dau., F, W, 14, single, IN IN IN
Line 30-McAfee, Homer S., son, M, W, 12, single, IN IN IN
Line 31-McAfee, Henry W., son, M, W, 10, single, IN IN IN
Line 32-McAfee, Harold, son, M, W, 7, single, IN IN IN
Line 33-McAfee, Lillian E., dau., F, W, 5, single, IN IN IN
2534. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 13-2, Carr Twp., Clark Co., Indiana, enumerated May 8, 1930 by Archie V. Lott, Microfilm T626, Roll 580, Sheet 8A.
House#162/Family#162
Line 6-McCAFEE, Lawrence, Head, owns home, value $2500, owns radio, not a farm. M, W, 66, marr. age 20, able to read and write. b. IN, father b. IN, mother b. IN. Retail merchant, General Store. Not a veteran of the US military.
Line 7-McCAFEE, Ida, Wife, F, W, 68, marr. age 22, able to read and write. b. IN, father b. IN, mother b. IN
2535. Find-A-Grave, "Mount Tabor Cemetery, New Albany, Floyd Co., Indiana".
2536. Find-A-Grave, "Mount Tabor Cemetery, New Albany, Floyd Co., Indiana".
2537. Linda Dickson <ldickson -at- clarkco.lib.in.us>, "McAfee Research," emailed received 4 Oct 2007. Linda's grandmother.
2538. Find-A-Grave, "Mount Tabor Cemetery, New Albany, Floyd Co., Indiana".
2539. Find-A-Grave, "Mount Tabor Cemetery, New Albany, Floyd Co., Indiana".
2540. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 157, Polk Twp., Washington Co., Indiana, Enumerated 27-28 Apr 1910 by Oscar W. Mead, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 387, pg. 120, sheet 5B.
Dwelling#108/Family#108
Line 82-McAfee, Edgar, head, m, w, 34, div., IN IN IN; house carpenter; rents home
Line 83-McAfee, Maud, sister, f, w, 36, single, IN IN IN; housekeeper, private family
2541. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 24, Wood Twp., Clark Co., Indiana, Enumerated 15 Jan 1920 by Jens E. Johnson, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 425, pg.262, sheet 5B.
Farm; Mull Lane
Dwelling#107/Family#107
Line 68-McAfee, Edgar E., head, owns farm freely; m, w, 46, div., IN IN IN; farmer, general farm
2542. FamilySearch.org, "Indiana Marriages 1780-1992,".
Groom's Name: Oliver S. Mcafee
Groom's Birth Date: 06 Jul 1880
Groom's Birthplace: Indiana
Bride's Name: Retta M. Mason
Bride's Birth Date: 06 Sep 1893
Bride's Birthplace: Indiana
Marriage Date: 22 Nov 1919
Marriage Place: Jeffersonville, Clark County, Indiana
Groom's Father's Name: James L. Mcafee
Groom's Mother's Name: Mary Embry
Bride's Father's Name: Frank Mason
Bride's Mother's Name: Mary Martin
Groom's Race: White
Groom's Marital Status: Divorced
Bride's Race: White
Bride's Marital Status: Single
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M00817-4
System Origin: Indiana-EASy
Source Film Number: 1415931
Reference Number: 13
2543. Centre College (Danville, Boyle Co., Kentucky), "Centre College Alumni," published 1890; transcribed by Sandi Gorin for KY Biographies project. 1880 graduate. Charles McAfee Lewis. Entered coll. from Harrodsburg, KY. Pharmacy. P.O., Louisville, KY.
2544. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 80, ward 1, Shelbyville, Shelby Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 5 Jun 1900 by Alexander C. Long, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 551, pg.139, sheet 5A.
Dwelling#95/Family#102
Line 5-Lewis, Charles M., head, w, m, b. Oct 1862, age 37, marr. 12 yrs, KY KY KY; editor; rents home
Line 6-Lewis, Nellie T., wife, w, f, b. Aug 1867, age 32, marr. 12 yrs, KY KY KY
Line 7-Evans, Henry G., brother-in-law, w, m, b. June 1883, age 16, single, KY KY KY
2545. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 110, Precinct 3, Ward 6, Shelbyville, Shelby Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 29 Apr 1910 by Claude A. Banta, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 502, pg. 263, sheet 17A.
Dwelling#127/Family#132
Line 43-Lewis, Charles M., boarder, m, w, 48, marr., KY KY KY; traveling salesman
Line 44-Lewis, Nellie, boarder, f, w, 41, marr., KY KY KY
2546. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 250, Scotts Bluff City, Winters Creek Precinct, Scotts Bluff Co., Nebraska, Enumerated 1 Jun 1910 by Frank E. Cowen, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 854, pg. 191, sheet 14B.
Address: Miller Place
Dwelling#303/Family#326
Line 80-Bottom, Theodore, head, m, w, 48, marr. 15 yrs, KY KY KY; potato buyer; rents home
Line 81-Bottom, Marguerete, wife, f, w, 39, marr. 15 yrs, 4 children, 3 living; KY KY KY
Line 82-Bottom, Lewis F., son, m, w, 15, single, KY KY KY
Line 83-Bottom, Nellie M., daughter, f, w, 13, single, MO KY KY
Line 84-Bottom, Margurete, daughter, f, w, 8, single, MO KY KY
2547. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 262, Precinct 7, Ward 15, Kansas City, Kaw Twp., Jackson Co., Missouri, Enumerated 2 Jan 1920 by Mrs. Louise Tanner, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 928, pg.130, sheet 2A.
Address: 4125 St. Johns Ave.
Dwelling#27/Family#24
Line 43-Bottoms, Theodore C., head, owns home freely; m, w, 55, marr., KY KY KY; commercial merchant
Line 44-Bottoms, Margaret, wife, f, w, 52, marr., KY KY KY
2548. "Register of Births," Date of Return: 30 Apr 1898, Tyler Co., West Virginia, p. 317, Register No. 124.
Strickling, George Lewis, male. 2nd child of this mother.
Length of gestation: 9 mo.
Race: white
Date of Birth: April 13, 1897
Place of Birth: Middlebourne
Nationality of father: American
Place of birth: Doddridge Co., W. Va.
Age: 31
Nationality of mother: American
Place of birth: Louisville, KY
Age: 27
Full name of mother: Rosa C. Strickling
Maiden name of mother: Lewis
Residence of mother: Middlebourne
Full name of father: James H. Strickling
Occupation: lawyer
Name and address of medica attendant: M. M. Reppard, Middlebourne
2549. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 83, Middlebourne, Ellsworth District, Tyler Co., West Virginia, Enumerated 4 Jun 1900 by G. W. Smith, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 1774, pg.52, sheet 4A.
Dwelling#66/Family#66
Line 20-Strekling, James H., head, w, m, b. Feb 1865, age 35, marr. 7 yrs; WV OH OH: lawyer; owns home freely
Line 21-Strekling, Rosa L., wife, w, f, b. June 1868, age 31, marr. 7 yrs; 2 children, both living; KY KY KY
Line 22-Strekling, Charles W., son, w, m, b. Jan 1894, age 6, single, WV KY WV
Line 23-George L., son, w, m, b. Apr 1897, age 3, single, WV KY WV
2550. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 18, Ward 1, Huntington, Guyandotte District, Cabell Co., West Virginia, Enumerated 19 Apr 1910 by Harry G. Russell, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 1678, pg. 34, sheet 5A.
Address: 538 Washington Avenue
Dwelling#99/Family#103
Line 36-Strickling, James, head, m, w, 42, marr. 18 yrs, OH OH OH; lawyer; owns home freely
Line 37-Stricking, Rosa, wife, f, w, 38, marr. 18 yrs, 2 children, living; KY KY KY
Line 38-Strickling, William, son, m, w, 17, single, WV OH KY
Line 39-Strickling, George, son, m, w, 13, single, WV OH KY
2551. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 15, Ward 2, Huntington, Cabell Co., West Virginia, Enumerated 12 Jan 1920 by Edw. F. Reasen?, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 1950, pg.145, sheet 7A.
Address: 430 Sixth Avenue
Dwelling#128/Family#153
Line 41-Strickling, J. H., head, owns home freely, m, w, 54, marr., WV OH OH; lawyer
Line 42-Strickling, Rose, wife, f, w, 52, marr., KY KY KY
Line 43-Strickling, C. W., son, m, w, 26, single, WV WV KY; lawyer
Line 44-Stickling, Geo. L., son, m, w, 22, single, WV WV KY; musician
2552. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 6-13, Ward 3, Huntington, Kyle District, Cabell Co., West Virginia, enumerated 5 Apr 1930 by Mrs. A. G. Dillon, Microfilm T626, Roll 2528, pg. 1798, sheet 5A.
Address: 420 Sixth Avenue
Dwelling#99/Family#130
Line 20-Strickling, James H., head, owns home $40,000; no radio; not a farm; m, w, 65, marr. age 27, WV VA OH; lawyer, law office
Line 21-Strickling, Rose, wife, f, w, 60, marr. age 22, KY KY KY
Line 22-Strickling, William C., son, m, w, 35, single, WV WV KY; lawyer, law office; served in WWI
Line 23-Strickling, George L., son, m, w, 32, single, WV WV KY; musician; served in WWI
2553. "Register of Deaths," Cabell Co., West Virginia, p. 14-S.
Kyle District
Strickling, Rose Lewis
white female
died 12 Jan 1943
place of birth: Louisville, Ky.
cause of death: heart and other complication, influenza
age: 73 yrs, 6 mo, 29 days
occupation: none
marital status: widowed
informant: w. M. York, Physician
2554. Find-A-Grave, "Woodmere Memorial Park, Huntington, Cabell Co., West Virginia", gravestone says "Rose Lewis Strickling, 1869-1943".
2555. "Register of Deaths," Cabell Co., West Virginia, p. 241.
Kyle District
Strickling, James Henry
white male
died 11 Mar 1934
place of birth: Doddridge Co., W. Va.
cause of death: coronary occulusion
age: 69 years, 15 days
occupation: lawyer
marital status: married
informant: R. M. Wylie, Phys.
2556. Find-A-Grave, "Woodmere Memorial Park, Huntington, Cabell Co., West Virginia".
2557. Candie Freeman, Cabell Co., WV GenWeb project, "Woodmere Memorial Park, Washington Blvd., Huntington, WV".
Strickling, Bonnelle Aaron 1909 1978 1978 M s w/o Charles William
Strickling, Charles William 1894 1952 16 Jun 1952 M s s/o James H. Strickling & Rose Lewis
Strickling, George Lewis 1897 1966 1966 M s d. 17 May, w/ James H. & Rose, single
Strickling, James H. 1865 1934 13 Mar 1934 M s h/o Rose Lewis
Strickling, Rose Lewis 1869 1943 Jan 1943 M s d. 12 Jan, w/o James Henry
2558. West Virginia Legislative Hand Book and Manual and Official Register, edited by John T. Harris, Clerk of the Senate, Charleston, WV: Tribune Printing Co., 1917, pp. 371-372.
Representative from Tyler County. Speaker of the House during the Twenty-ninth Legislature (Jan. 13 - Feb. 26, 1909).
2559. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 82, Precinct 10, Ward 12, Birmingham, Jefferson Co., Alabama, Enumerated 25 Apr 1910 by John E. Sime, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 19, pg. 133, sheet 13A.
Address: 8006 Walker Avenue
Dwelling#246/Family#267
Line 39-Guthrie, John M., head, m, w, 43, marr.(1st) 3 yrs, KY KY KY; house carpenter; owns home, mortgaged
Line 40-Guthrie, Tina, wife, f, w, 26, marr(1st) 3 yrs, 2 children, both living; KY KY KY
Line 41-Guthrie, James, son, m, w, 3, single, AL KY KY
Line 42-Guthrie, Percy L., son, m, w, 1 11/12, single, AL KY KY
2560. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 2-1, Scottsville, Allen Co., Kentucky, enumerated 8 Apr 1930 by Grace Hunt-----, Microfilm T626, Roll 731, pg. 4, sheet 4B.
Address: Market Street
Dwelling#86/Family#100
Line 68-Guthrie, John M., roomer, m, w, 59, div., KY KY KY; plumber, water works
2561. LDS, "IGI Record (North America)" FamilySearch.org. Vol. 1, Certificate#12.
2562. Find-A-Grave, "Crescent Hill Cemetery, Scottsville, Allen Co., Kentucky".
2563. FamilySearch.org, "Alabama Marriages, 1816-1957,".
Groom's Name: J.M. Gutherie
Groom's Birth Date: 1871
Groom's Age: 35
Bride's Name: Tiny Mccoy
Bride's Birth Date: 1884
Bride's Age: 22
Marriage Date: 31 May 1906
Marriage Place: East Lake, Jefferson, Alabama
Groom's Race: White
Groom's Marital Status: Single
Bride's Race: White
Bride's Marital Status: Single
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M74683-2
System Origin: Alabama-EASy
Source Film Number: 1064384
Reference Number: p 108
2564. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 37-25, Block 44, Precinct 21, Birmingham, Jefferson Co., Alabama, enumerated 8 Apr 1930 by James S. Martin, Microfilm T626, Roll 25, pg. 77, sheet 14A.
Address: 1233 33rd St. N.
Dwelling#147/Family#209
Line 33-Guthrie, Percy L., head, owns home $10,000; radio; not a farm; m, w, 21, single, AL KY KY; civil engineer, railroad
Line 34-Guthrie, James B., brother, m, w, 22, single, AL AL AL, shipping clerk, perfumer
Line 35-Lillien, Tiny, mother, f, w, 42, div., KY KY KY; proprietor, hotel
Line 26-McCoy, Nanine, grandmother, f, w, 68, wd., KY KY KY
Line 27-Williams, Dan A., lodger, m, w, 68, marr., PA MD VA; gardener, private family
2565. Find-A-Grave, "Perryville Cemetery, Perryville, Boyle Co., Kentucky".
Obituary
Harrodsburg Herald
Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky
Thu. Sept. 6, 1906
Miss Lizzie Guthrie, of East Lake, Alabama, died Sunday at McAfee, Mercer Co, where she had been visiting her aunt, Mrs. I. C. Riker, for several weeks. Her remains were taken to Perryville for interment. Miss Guthrie was the daughter of Mr. J. B. Guthrie, formerly of Perryville, but who has been living in Alabama for some time. The deceased was a trained nurse and a most excellent young lady. She suffered injuries in a street car accident in Birmingham several months ago and gradually grew worse until death came. She was about 25 years of age.
2566. Find-A-Grave, "Perryville Cemetery, Perryville, Boyle Co., Kentucky".
2567. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 181, Birmingham, Jefferson Co., Alabama, Enumerated 14-15 Jan 1920 by Elizabeth A. Madden, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 23, pg.206, sheet 5B.
Dwelling#41/Family#109
Line 59-Guthrie, Sam B., lodger, m, w, 41, single, KY KY KY; letter carrier, US Post Office
2568. FamilySearch.org, "Alabama Deaths, 1908-1974,".
Name: Sam Berry Guthrie
Death Date: 17 Dec 1935
Death Place: Birmingham, Jefferson, Alabama
Gender: Male
Age at Death: 57y
Estimated Birth Date: 1878
Father's Name: J. B. Guthrie
Mother's Name: Emma Mcafee
Film Number: 1908536
Reference Number: 26539
2569. Find-A-Grave, "Perryville Cemetery, Perryville, Boyle Co., Kentucky".
2570. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 55, Atlanta, Fulton Co., Georgia, Enumerated 15 Jan 1920 by (blank), Microfilm Series T625, Roll 251, pg.108, sheet 15B.
Dwelling#238/Family#353
Line 57-Miller, Lee P., head, rents home, m, w, 40, marr., AL GA GA; Bookkeeper, laundry
Line 58-Miller, Emmag G., wife, f, w, 35, marr., KY KY KY
Line 59-Guthrie, James B., nephew, m, w, 12, single, AL KY KY
Line 60-Guthrie, Percy Lee, nephew, m, w, 11, single, AL KY KY
2571. FamilySearch.org, "Alabama Marriages, 1816-1957,".
Groom's Name: Lee P. Miller
Groom's Birth Date: 1882
Groom's Age: 21
Bride's Name: Emma Guthrie
Bride's Birth Date: 1885
Bride's Age: 18
Marriage Date: 22 Feb 1903
Marriage Place: East Lake, Jefferson, Alabama
Groom's Race: White
Groom's Marital Status: Single
Bride's Race: White
Bride's Marital Status: Single
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M74680-9
System Origin: Alabama-EASy
Source Film Number: 1064381
Reference Number: p 137
2572. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", Vol. 57, Cert. #28221.
2573. Ewing Family Association, "Notebook 1: McAfee Genealogy and History (compiled by Charles Hilt)".
2574. "Certificate of Death, Missouri State Board of Health". Filed 6 Feb1948, Levering Hospital, Hannibal, Marion Co., Missouri, File No. 5479, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2575. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 176, Elm Twp., Pratt Co., Kansas, Enumerated 14 Jun 1900 by James W. Wilmot, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 495, pg.223, sheet 5B.
Dwelling#98/Family#101
Line 62-McElroy, William P., head, w, m, b. Feb 1865, age 35, marr. 8 yrs; MO MO MO; farmer; rents farm
Line 63-McElroy, Hattie, wife, w, f, b. Oct 1867, age 32, marr. 8 yrs, MO MO MO; 1 child, living
Line 64-McElroy, Charles V., son, w, m, b. Oct 1898, age 1, single, MO MO MO
Line 65-McElroy, John V., brother, w, m, b. Jun 1876, age 23, single, MO MO MO; farmer; rents farm
2576. "Death Records Certificates". Filed 23 Jun 1936, Levering Hospital, Hannibal, Mason Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, File No.20050, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2577. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 119, Warren Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, enumerated 25-26 Apr 1910 by Columbus V. Davis, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 798, pg. 27, sheet 5A.
Dwelling#98/Family#98
Line 22-McElroy, Hugh, head, m, w, 40, marr1 3 yrs, MO MO MO, farmer, owns farm, mortgaged
Line 23-McElroy, Emma K., wife, f, w, 27, marr1 3 yrs, MO Germany Germany
2578. "Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920 Population Schedule," ED 121, Warren Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, Enumerated 15 Jan 1920 by Herbert L. Foster, NARA Microfilm Series T625, Roll 934, p. 310, sheet 5B.
Dwelling#114/Family#115 (farm)
Line 85-McElroy, Hugh, head, owns farm, mortgaged; m, w, 50, marr., MO MO MO; farmer
Line 86-McElroy, Emma K., wife, f, w, 37, marr., MO Germany Germany
2579. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 64-20, Warren Twp., Marion Co., Missouri, enumerated 3 Apr 1930 by David U. Davis, Microfilm T626, Roll 1212, pg. 62, sheet 2A.
Dwelling#25/Family#25
Line 40-McElroy, Hugh, head, owns farm, m, w, 60, marr. age 37?, MO KY KY; farmer
Line 41-McElroy, Emma K., wife, f, w, 46, marr. age 23, MO Germany Germany
Line 42-McElroy, Harold S., son, m, w, 12, single, NY NY NY
2580. Find-A-Grave, "Andrew Chapel Cemetery, Marion Co., Missouri".
2581. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 22, Kearney City, Kearney Twp., Clay Co., Missouri, Enumerated 6 Jun 1900 by Willie B. Massey, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 849, pg.102, sheet 6B.
Dwelling#158/Family#159
Line 77-Swann, Edward C., head, w, m, b. Dec 1865, age 34, marr. 3 yrs; IN IN IN; clergyman; rents home
Line 78-Swann, Susie E., wife, w, f, b. Aug 1874, age 25, marr. 3 yrs, 2 children, both living; MO MO MO;
Line 79-Swann, Frances A., daughter, w, f, b. June 1898, age 1, single, MO IN MO
Line 80-Swann, Eunice, daughter, w, f, b. Nov 1899, age 6/12, single, MO IN MO
Line 81-Kessinger, Ina M., niece, w, f, b. Feb 1886, age 14, single, MO MO IN; at school
2582. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 81, New Franklin City, Franklin Twp., Howard Co., Missouri, enumerated the 12th of May, 1910 by Wm. Humfeld, Microfilm series T624; Roll 784, pg 242, sheet 13B.
Dwelling#129/Family#135
Line 84-Swann, Edward, Head, M, W, 44, M2 13 yrs, IN IN IN, Methodist preacher
LIne 85-Swann, Susie, Wife, F, W, 34, M1 13 yrs, 6 children, 4 living, MO MO MO
Line 86-Swann, Frances, Daughter, F, W, 12, S, MO IN MO
Line 87-Swann, Eunice, Daughter, F, W, 13, S, MO IN MO
Line 88-Swann, Miriam, Daughter, F, W, 9, S, MO IN MO
LIne 89-Swann, James, Son, M, W, 3, S, MO IN MO
Line 90-Kissinger, Ina, Niece, F, W, 24, S, MO MO IN, public school teacher
2583. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 20, Precinct 22, Los Fresnos, Justice Precinct No. 2, Cameron Co., Texas, Enumerated 2 Jan 1920 by J. P. Cottingham, Jr., Microfilm Series T625, Roll 1784, pg.47, sheet 1A.
Dwelling#6/Family#6
Line 27-Gobar, Charles H., head, rents farm, m, w, 39, marr., MO NY NY; farmer
Line 28-Gobar, Cerial(?), wife, f, w, 34, marr., MO Canada MO
Line 29-Gobar, Bernard, son, m, w, 8, single, KS MO MO
Line 30-Gobar, Emily Jane, daughter, f, w, 5, single, MO MO MO
Line 31-Chatelle, Napoleon, nephew, m, w, 29, single, MO WI MO; farmer
Dwelling#8/Family#8
Line 39-Swann, E. C., head, rents farm, m, w, 54, marr., IN IN IN; farmer, general farm
Line 40-Swann, Susie E., wife, f, w, 46, marr., MO KY MO
Line 41-Swann, Miriam, daughter, f, w, 19, single, MO IN MO; school teacher
Line 42-Swann, James E., son, m, w, 12, single, MO IN MO
2584. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 150-2, Justice Precinct No. 1, Llano Co., Texas, enumerated 15 Apr 1930 by Marion Clyme, Microfilm T626, Roll 2370, pg. 240, sheet 5A.
Dwelling#106/Family#106
Line 17-Swann, E. C., head, owns farm, m, w, 63, marr. age 22, IN US US; farmer
Line 18-Swann, Susie, wife, f, w, 54, marr. age 22, MO VA VA
Line 19-Baskin, Eunice, daughter, f, w, 30, marr. age 18, MO IN MO; stenographer, office
Line 20-Baskin, Ben F., Jr., grandson, m, w, 9, single, TX PA MO
Line 21-Baskin, Ed Swann, grandson, m, w, 7, single, TX PA MO
Line 22-Baskin, Ben F., son-in-law, m, w, 33, marr. age 21, PA PA PA; mechanical engineer, oil wells; WWI veteran
2585. "Ninth Census of the United States: 1870 Population Schedule," Harrison Twp., Daviess Co., Missouri, enumerated 20 Jun 1870 by W. T. Foster, Ass't Marshal, Microfilm #M593, roll 773, pg 285A.
Dwelling#120/Family#123
Line 14-Swan, Job, 42, m, w, farmer, $0, $140, IN
Line 15-Swan, America, 35, f, w, keeping house, IN
Line 16-Sean, Ellen, 15, f, w, IN
Line 17-Swan, Arvilla, 14, f, w, IN
Line 18-Swan, William, 10, m, w, IN
Line 19-Swan, Martha, 6, f, w, IN
Line 20-Swan, Edwin, 4, m, w, IN
Line 21-Swan, Lenna, 2, f, w, IN
Line 22-Swan, America, 3/12, f, w, MO, b. Feb
2586. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," ED 171, Mooresville Twp., Livingston Co., Missouri, enumerated 3 Jun 1880 by John H. H. Nelson, National Archives Film Number T9, Roll 700, pg. 151D.
Dwelling#30/Family#30
Line 28-Swan, Jobe, w, m, 51, head, marr., farmer, IN NC TN
Line 29-Swan, America, w, f, 44, wife, marr., keeping house, IN VA VA
Line 30-Swan, William E., w, m, 20, son, single, work on a farm, IN IN IN
Line 31-Swan, Edward C., w, m, 14, son, single, at home, IN IN IN
Line 32-Swan, Lennie C., w, m, 12, son, single, at home, IN IN IN
Line 33-Swan, Alma A., w, f, 10, daughter, single, MO IN IN
Line 34-Swan, Davy(?) C., w, m, 5, son, MO IN IN
Line 35-Swan, Ernest, M., w, m, 2, son, MO IN IN
Line 26-Swan, Osker E., w, m, 5/12, b. March, son, MO IN IN
2587. "Shelby Co., Missouri Register of Births 1883-1887," File No. C 6526, Missouri State Archives.
2588. "Death Records Certificates: Myra E. McClintic". Filed 1 Nov 1949, Perry, Ralls Co., Missouri, File No. 34750, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2589. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 105, Ward 1, Perry City, Salt River Twp., Ralls Co., Missouri, enumerated 1 Jun 1900 by Uriel C. Hayes, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 884, pg. 256, sheet 2A.
Dwelling#29/Family#29
Line 27-McClintic, John A., head, w, m, b. Oct 1865, age 34, marr. 2 mo., VA VA VA; ferry man; rents home
Line 28-McClintic, Myra E., wife, w, f, b. May 1869, age 31, marr. 2 mo., MO TN KY
Line 29-Pettitt, Florence, niece, w, f, b. Jul 1895, age 4, single, MO MO MO
2590. "Death Records Certificates: John A. McClintic". Filed 7 Jan 1952, Perry, Ralls Co., Missouri, File No. 42570, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2591. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County (KY) and Surrounding Counties, July, 1969; 2nd Printing 1989, Vol. 1, pg. 42.
2592. Ibid. pg. 17; died at the age of 1 yr.
2593. Ibid. pg. 17; died in infancy; buried with twin brother Eddie.
2594. Ibid. pg. 17; died in infancy; buried with twin sister Edna.
2595. Ibid. pg. 17; died in infancy.
2596. "Death Records Certificates: George M. Buchanan". Filed 25 Apr 1935, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri, File No.10272, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2597. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 126, Hardin, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, enumerated 11 Jun 1900 by James H. Lenz, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 885, pg. 42, sheet 5A.
Dwelling#83/Family#83
Line 30-Buchanan, George, head, w, m, b. Jul 1862, age 37, marr. 15 yrs; MO KY MO; farmer; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 31-Buchanan, Nancy C., wife, w, f, b. Dec 1863, age 36, marr. 15 yrs, 4 children, all living; MO KY KY
Line 32-Buchanan, Frank A., son, w, m, b. Mar 1886, age 14, single, MO MO MO, at school
Line 33-Buchanan, Susie, daughter, w, f, b. Jun 1888, age 12, single, MO MO MO, at school
Line 34-Buchanan, Butler B., son, w, m, b. Oct 1889, age 10, single, MO MO MO, at school
Line 35-Buchanan, Neal C., son, w, m, b. Apr 1892, age 8, single, MO MO MO, at school
2598. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 129, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, Enumerated 27 Apr 1910 by Cordell ?, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 806, pg. 178, sheet 12B.
Dwelling#223/Family#228
Line 59-Buchanan, George M., head, m, w, 47, marr. 25 yrs, MO KY MO; farmer; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 60-Buchanan, Nancy, wife, f, w, 47, marr. 25 yrs, 5 children, all living; MO KY KY
Line 61-Buchanan, Susie, daughter, f, w, 22, single, MO MO MO
Line 62-Buchanan, Butler, son, m, w, 19, single, MO MO MO; farm laborer
Line 63-Buchanan, Neil, son, m, w, 17, single, MO MO MO; farm laborer
Line 64-Buchanan, Grace, daughter, f, w, 7, single, MO MO MO
2599. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 132, Hardin, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, Enumerated 6 Jan 1920 by Everett G. Stith, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 941, pg. 254, sheet 7A.
Dwelling#161/Family#172
Line 49-Buchanan, George, head, owns home freely; m, w, 57, Wd., MO KY MO; farmer
Line 50-Buchanan, Susie, daughter, f, w, 31, single, MO MO MO
Line 51-Buchanan, Butler, son, m, w, 30, single, MO MO MO; farm laborer
Line 52-Buchanan, Laura G., daughter, f, w, 17, single, MO MO MO
2600. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," Hardin City, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, enumerated 7 Apr 1930 by Temple Wilson, Microfilm T626, Roll 1220, pg. 22, sheet 5A.
Dwelling#129/Family#135
Line 41-Buchanan, George M., head, owns home $6000; radio; not a farm; m, w, 67, wd., marr. age 22; MO KY MO; no occupation
Line 42-Buchanan, Susan M., daughter, f, w, 42, single, MO MO MO; no occupation
Line 43-Buchanan, Butler B., son, m, w, 39, single, MO MO MO; farmer
2601. Find-A-Grave, "Hardin Cemetery, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri".
2602. "Death Records Certificates: Nancy Katherine Buchanan". Filed 17 Feb 1919, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, File No.6975, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2603. Find-A-Grave, "Hardin Cemetery, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri".
2604. "Death Records Certificates: William A. Buchanan". Filed 14 Aug 1945, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri, File No.24796, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2605. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 132, Hardin, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, Enumerated 7 Jan 1920 by Everett G. Stith, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 941, pg. 254, sheet 7B.
Dwelling#168/Family#180
Line 76-Buchanan, William A., head, owns home freely; m, w, 51, marr., MO KY MO; farmer
Line 77-Buchanan, Lula, wife, f, w, 47, marr., MO KY MO
Line 78-Buchanan, Mary O., daughter, f, w, 13, single, MO MO MO
Line 79-Buchanan, Laura, mother, f, w, 79, Wd., MO KY KY
2606. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," Hardin City, Crooked River Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, enumerated 12 Apr 1930 by Temple Wilson, Microfilm T626, Roll 1220, pg. 26, sheet 9A.
Dwelling#232/Family#239
Line 4-Buchanan, William A., head, owns home $3500; radio; not a farm; m, w, 61, Wd., marr. age 22; MO KY MO; farmer
Line 5-Buchanan, Mary, daughter, f, w, 23, single, MO MO MO; teacher, public schools
2607. Find-A-Grave, "Hardin Cemetery, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri".
2608. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 239; "of Jackson Co., Missouri".
2609. "Death Records Certificates: Lula Buchanan". Filed 23 Feb 1928, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri, File No.2223, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2610. Find-A-Grave, "Hardin Cemetery, Hardin, Ray Co., Missouri".
2611. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, p. 239-40 (picture on p. 241).
2612. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2613. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2614. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2615. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2616. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2617. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 60, Ward 3, Beat No. 1, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi, Enumerated 29 Jun 1900 by Perle Strickland, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 820, pg.78, sheet 19B.
Fenelon Hall (school on Market St.)
Dwelling#347/Household#385
Line 95-Buchanan, George, pupil, w, m, b. Aug 1889, age 11, single, MS IL MS; at school
Line 96-Buchanan, Victoria, pupil, w, f, b. Feb 1890, age 10, single, MS IL MS; at school
2618. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 129, Ward 4, Shelbyville, Shelby Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 14 Jan 1920 by Sam P. ?, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 598, pg. 29, sheet 2A.
Address: 213 Eighth Street
Dwelling#19/Family#30
Line 7-Buchanan, George Jr., head, owns farm, m, w, 31, marr.; MS KY KY; salesman
Line 8-Buchanan, Ellen H., wife, f, w, 27, marr., KY KY KY
Line 9-Buchanan, George M., son, m, w, 6, single, KY KY KY
Line 10-Buchanan, James Bright, son, m, w, 4, single, KY KY KY
2619. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 47-1, Beat No. 1, Ward 2, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi, enumerated 7 Apr 1930 by Mrs. Luke L. Wheeler, Microfilm T626, Roll 1158, pg. 7, sheet 7A.
Address: 290 Craft St.
Dwelling#167/Family#190
Line 38-Buchanan, George M., head, owns home $5000; radio; m, w, 41, marr. age 24; MS IL MS; dealer, Buick automobile
Line 39-Buchanan, Helen, wife, f, w, 36, marr. age 19; KY KY KY
Line 40-Buchanan, George M., son, m, w, 16, single, KY MS KY
Line 41-Buchanan, James B., son, m, w, 15, single, KY MS KY
2620. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2621. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2622. "Victoria May" <vbmay -at- fuse.net>.
2623. Find-A-Grave, "Hillcrest Cemetery, Holly Springs, Marshall Co., Mississippi" .
2624. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 65, Magisterial District No. 5, Scott Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 11 Jun 1900 by Howard K. Bell, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 550, pg. 281, sheet 10A.
Dwelling#180/Family#185
Line 23-Coleman, Charles, head, w, m, b. Nov 1863, age 31, marr. 4 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; rents farm
Line 24-Coleman, Sallie, wife w, f, b. May 1872, age 28, marr. 4 yrs, 1 child, living; KY OH KY
Line 25-Coleman, William H., w, m, b. Dec 1897, age 2, single, KY KY KY
2625. Find-A-Grave, "Coleman Cemetery, Bedford, Trimble Co., Kentucky" .
2626. Cathi <cathiclorefrost -at- comcast.net>, "Descendants of Michael Clore and Nicholas Yager", viewed 1 Apr 2011.
2627. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 74, West Milton Precinct, Milton Town, Magisterial District No. 1, Trimble Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 7 Jun 1900 by William B. Snyder, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 552, pg. 202, sheet 4B.
Dwelling#81/Family#89
Line 78-Snyder, William B., head, w, m, b. Jan 1871, age 29, marr. 1 yr; KY VA KY; farmer; rents farm
Line 79-Snyder, America C., wife, w, f, b. Aug 1872, age 27, marr. 1 yr; 1 child, living; KY KY KY
Line 80-Snyder, William O., son, w, m, b. Apr 1899, age 1, single, KY KY KY
Line 81-Snyder, Hubert S., brother, w, m, b. May 1873, age 27, single, KY VA KY; clergyman
Line 82-Ramsey, Lee D., cousin, w, m, b. Oct 1883, age 16, single, KY KY KY; farm laborer
Line 83-Davis, Dora, servant, w, f, b. Mar 1882, age 18, marr. 1 yr, 0 children; KY IN IN; cook
2628. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 116, Ward 3, Odessa City, Sni-A-Bar Twp., Lafayette Co., Missouri, Enumerated 25 Apr 1910 by M. J. Riley, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 794, pg.64, sheet 18B.
Dwelling#293/Family#294
Line 51-Snyder, William, head, m, w, 39, marr. 12 yrs, KY VA VA; minister of Christian Church; rents home
Line 52-Snyder, America, f, w, 37, marr. 12 yrs, 5 children, 4 living; KY KY KY
Line 53-Snyder, William Oscar, son, m, w, 11, KY KY KY
Line 54-Snyder, James C., son, m, w, 8, KY KY KY
Line 55-Snyder, Delia H., daughter, f, w, 6, KY KY KY
Line 56-Snyder, Mary E., daughter, f, w, 2, KY KY KY
2629. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 158, West Milton Precinct, Trimble Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 4 Jan 1920 by William F. Butler, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 600, pg.11, sheet 2A.
Dwelling#28/Family#28
Line 17-Snyder, William, head, rents, m, w, 49, marr., KY KY KY; minister, church
Line 18-Snyder, America, wife, f, w, 47, marr., KY KY KY; house keeper, at home
Line 19-Snyder, James, son, m, w, 18, single, KY KY KY; cashier, bank
Line 20-Snyder, Delia, daughter, f, w, 15, single, KY KY KY
Line 21-Snyder, George M., m, w, 4, single, MO KY KY
2630. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", Vol. 50, Cert. #24823; Residence at time of death was Trimble Co.
2631. Find-A-Grave, "Moffett Cemetery, Milton, Trimble Co., Kentucky".
2632. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", Vol. 10, Certificate#4957.
2633. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 243; married by 1904.
2634. Zee Porter, ZeePorter -at- aol.com.
2635. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 243; unmarried and living with parents in 1904.
2636. Find-A-Grave, "Red Banks Cemetery, Red Banks, Marshall Co., Mississippi".
2637. Find-A-Grave, "Red Banks Cemetery, Red Banks, Marshall Co., Mississippi".
2638. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 45, Kingston Precinct, Madison Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 5 Jun 1900 by Luther Todd, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 541, pg.123, sheet 3B.
Dwelling#55/Household#55
Line 68-Gregory, William D., head, w, m, b. May 1863, marr. 11 yrs; KY KY KY; farmer; rents farm
Line 69-Gregory, Susie B., wife, w, f, b. Jun 1868, age 31, marr. 11 yrs; 4 children, 3 living; KY KY KY
Line 70-Gregory, Elizabeth B., daughter, w, f, b. Jul 1889, age 10, single, KY KY KY
Line 71-Gregory, James W., son, w, m, b. Nov 1895, age 4, single, KY KY KY
Line 72-Gregory, Catherine C., daughter, w, f, b. Apr 1898, age 2, single, KY KY KY
2639. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 32, T2N 1E, Mora Precinct, Ada Co., Idaho, Enumerated 10-11 Feb 1920 by Metta J. Powell, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 287, pg. 73, sheet 18B.
Address: Farm, Mora School District
Dwelling#19/Family#19
Line 92-Gregory, Wm. D., head, rents farm, m, w, 57, marr., KY KY KY; farmer
Line 93-Gregory, Susan B., wife, f, w, 52, marr., KY KY KY
Line 94-Gregory, James W., son, m, w, 23, single, MO KY KY
Line 95-Gregory, Cathryn C., daughter, f, w, 21, single, KY KY KY
2640. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 1-50, Whitney Precinct, Ada Co., Idaho, enumerated 18 Apr 1930 by Myer Jackson, Microfilm T626, Roll 395, pg. 147, sheet 6A.
Dwelling#140/Family#140
Line 16-Garrison, Floyd, head, owns home $2000; not a farm; m, w, 42, marr. age 33, WA IN OH; mill worker, lumber mill; veteran of WWI
Line 17-Garrison, Kathryn, f, w, 32, marr. age 23, KY KY KY
Line 18-Gregory, Susan, mother-in-law, f, w, 61, Wd., marr. age 20, KY KY KY
Line 19-Gregory, James W., brother-in-law, m, w, 34, single, MO KY KY; postal clerk, R.M.S.; WWI veteran
2641. FamilySearch.org, "Idaho Death Certificates 1911-1937".
2642. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 245; unmarried and living with parents in 1904.
2643. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 187, Ward 11, Seattle, King Co., Washington, Enumerated 29 Apr 1910 by Rafe Spray, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 1662, pg. 49, sheet 12B.
Address: 2214 No. 60th
Dwelling#268/Family#273
Line 70-Buchanan, Sallie, head, f, w, 35, single, MO KY KY; seamstress, working out; rents home
Line 71-Jamison, N-----, partner, f, w, 30, single, MO MA WI; saleswoman, dept store
Line 72-Gibeel, Eva, partner, f, w, 20, single, PA PA PA; stenographer, factory
2644. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," Center Twp., Doniphan Co., Kansas, National Archives Film Number T9-0379, pg 588A, 1880 U.S. census database.
2645. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 31, Colorado Springs, El Paso Co., Colorado, Enumerated 18 Jun 1900 by Mae Yates, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 124, pg.328, sheet 32B.
Dwelling#729/Family#783
Line 74-Zimmerman, Louisa J., head, w, f, b. July 1845, age 54, wd., 4 children, 3 living; MI England MA
Line 75-Buchanan, Cora, daughter, w, f, b. Jul 1868, age 31, wd., 1 child, living; KS MD MI; dry goods clerk
Line 76-Buchanan, Terry, grandson, w, m, b. Oct 1888, age 11, single, KS MO KS; at school
Line 77-Zimmerman, Pearl, daughter, w, f, b. Apr 1883, age 17, single, KS MD KS; dry goods clerk
2646. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 205, 13th Ward, Seattle, King Co., Washington, enumerated the 22nd day of April, 1910 by ?, Microfilm series T624; Roll 1660, sheet 12B.
Address: 3055 W. 57th St.
Dwelling#293/Family#300
Line 89-Buchanan, Terry M., Head, M, W, 21, M1 0 yrs, KS MO KS, civil engineer - railway (Burlington Northern?)
Line 90-Buchanan, Florence A., Wife, F, W, 19, M1 0 yrs, 0 children, WI WI WI
Line 91-Pilcher, Cora, Mother, F, W, 40, M2 3 yrs, 1/1 child, KS MD MI
2647. Washington State Digital Archives, "Washington State Death Records".
Image No. 2504
Document No. 81
Name: Cora May Pilcher
Date of Death: 2 Oct 1950
Age: 82
Gender: Female
Father name: Jacob N. Zimmerman
Mother name: Louisa J. Maynard
Death place: Tacoma, Pierce, Washington
2648. "Death Records Certificates: George Watkins Buchannan". Filed 27 Aug 1943, Richmond, Ray Co., Missouri, File No.29147, PDF, Missouri State Archives, gravestone lists year of birth as 1875.
2649. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 145, Richmond Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, Enumerated 2 Feb 1920 by George E. Rider, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 942, pg. 84, sheet 3B.
Address: farm on Richmond Road
Dwelling#66/Family#66
Line 57-Buchanan, George W., head, rents farm, m, w, 44, marr., MOKY MO; farmer
Line 58-Buchanan, Lenore, wife, f, w, 36, marr., MO MO MO
Line 59-Buchanan, Henrietta E., daughter, f, w, 8, single, MO MO MO
Line 60-Buchanan, George W. Jr., son, m, w, 6, single, MO MO MO
Line 61-Buchanan, Lenore H., daughter, f, w, 3 7/12, single, MO MO MO
2650. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 89-22, Ward 4, Richmond City, Richmond Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, enumerated 17 Apr 1930 by Gayle G. Brown, Microfilm T626, Roll 1220, pg. 182, sheet 9A.
Address: 469 South Shaw Street
Dwelling#221/Family#227
Line 6-Buchanan, George W., head, rents home $25; not a farm; m, w, 55, marr. age 35, MO KY MO; farmer
Line 7-Buchanan, Lenore, wife, f, w, 48, marr. age 27, MO MO MO
Line 8-Buchanan, Nettie E., daughter, f, w, 18, single, MO MO MO
Line 9-Buchanan, George, son, m, w, 16, single, MO MO MO
Line 10-Buchanan, Lenore, daughter, f, w, 13, single, MO MO MO
2651. "Death Records Certificates: George Watkins Buchannan". Filed 27 Aug 1943, Richmond, Ray Co., Missouri, File No.29147, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2652. "Death Records Certificates: Lenore Buchannan". Filed 14 Dec 1944, Richmond, Ray Co., Missouri, File No. 38616, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2653. "Death Records Certificates: James McAfee Buchannan". Filed 11 Nov 1927, Richmond, Ray Co., Missouri, File No. 34440, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2654. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 398, Ward 25, St. Louis, St. Louis Co., Missouri, Enumerated 27 Apr 1910 by Emil A. Scheurle, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 822, pg. 163, sheet 15B.
Address: 4487 Washington Boulevard
Dwelling#225/Family#235
Line 98-Buchanan, James M., boarder, m, w, 29, single, MO KY MO; physician, general practice
2655. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 150, Ward 4, Richmond City, Richmond Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, Enumerated 7 Jan 1920 by Mrs. Irene g. Buckley, Microfilm Series T625, Roll 942, pg. 156, sheet 5A.
Address: 313 South Thornton
Dwelling#101/Family#108
Line 8-Hamacher, Oliver N., head, owns home freely; m, w, 63, marr., IN IN IN; miller, flour mill
Line 9-Hamacher, Sarah F., wife, f, w, 57 marr., MO MO MO
Line 10-Buchanan, Helen V., daughter, f, w, 26, Wd., MO IN IN
Line 11-Buchanan, Oliver H., grandson, m, w, 5, single, MO MO MO
Line 12-Hamacher, Milton S., son, m, w, 19, single, MO IN MO
2656. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 89-22, Ward 4, Richmond City, Richmond Twp., Ray Co., Missouri, enumerated 11 Apr 1930 by Gayle G. Brown, Microfilm T626, Roll 1220, pg. 182, sheet 2B.
Address: 304 South Shaw Street
Dwelling#45/Family#47
Line 53-Watkins, Albert, head, owns hom $4500; radio; not a farm; m, w, 36, marr. age 27, MO MO MO; farmer; WWI veteran
Line 54-Watkins, Helen, wife, f, w, 37, marr. age 20, MO IN MO
Line 55-Watkins, John A., son, m, w, 7, single, MO MO MO
Line 56-Watkins, Leslie, son, m, w, 5, single, MO MO MO
Line 57-Watkins, Angela, daughter, f, w, 4 3/12, single, MO MO MO
Line 58-Buchanan, Oliver, step-son, m, w, 14, single, MO MO MO
2657. Faye Sea Sanders, transcriber, 1860 Census, Mercer County, Kentucky, self-published, 1988.
2658. Dianna Sims Rose, <drose -at- searnet.com>, "KYMERCER-L digest," 21 Jun 2004, Lee Davenport was her great-grandmother.
2659. Faye Sea Sanders, transcriber, 1860 Census, Mercer County, Kentucky, self-published, 1988, Dist. #2, Family#793; age 6.
2660. Ibid. Dist. #2, Family#793; age 4.
2661. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 57, 2nd Magisterial District, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 19 Jun 1900 by John Ewin Trower, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 544, p. 225, sheet 14A.
Dwelling#278/Family#284
Line 5-Self, Robert, head, w, m, b. May 1855, age 45, marr. 17 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; owns farm freely
Line 6-Self, Susan P., wife, w, f, b. Aug 1855, age 44, marr. 17 yrs, 3 children, 1 living; KY KY KY
Line 7-Self, Dottie, daughter, w, f, b. May 1888, age 12, single, KY KY KY
2662. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County (KY) and Surrounding Counties, July, 1969; 2nd Printing 1989, Vol. 1, p. 76.
2663. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", cert#25-04716.
2664. Faye Sea Sanders, transcriber, 1860 Census, Mercer County, Kentucky, self-published, 1988, Dist. #2, Family#793; age 1.
2665. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 57, 2nd Magisterial District, Duncan Town, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 28 Jun 1900 by John Ewin Trower, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 544, p. 232, sheet 21A.
Dwelling#429/Family#442
Line 31-Voorhies, Elzie, head, w, m, b. Mar 1865, age 35, marr. 9 yrs, KY KY KY; blacksmith; owns farm freely
Line 32-Voorhies, Maggie A., wife, w, f, b. Dec 1859, age 40, marr. 9 yrs, 0 children; KY KY KY
Dwelling#430/Family#443
Line 33-Reed, Alonzo, head, w, m, b. June 1872, age 27, marr. 4 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 34-Reed, Laura A., wife, w, f, b. May 1870, age 29, marr. 4 yrs, 2 children, both living; KY KY KY
Line 35-Reed, Beatrice, daughter, w, f, b. June 1896, age 4, single, KY KY KY
Line 36-Reed, Birtnar(?), daughter, w, f, b. Sept 1897, age 2, single, KY KY KY
2666. "Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 Population Schedule," ED 87, Magisterial District 2, Precinct 4, Bohon, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 26 Apr 1910 by Amnie Teater, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 495, pg. 39, sheet 6A.
Dwelling#77/Family#78
Line 33-Vorhies, Elzie, head, m, w, 45, marr. 19 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 34-Vorhies, Maggie, wife, f, w, 50, marr. 19 yrs, 0 children, KY KY KY
Line 35-Reed, Beatrice, niece, f, w, 15, single, KY KY KY
2667. "Mercer Co., KY Deaths 1911-1999," transcribed by Pam Carey Ison, Mercer Co., KY GenWeb project, cert.#31-25208.
2668. "Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 Population Schedule," ED 87, Magisterial District 2, Precinct 4, Bohon, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 26 Apr 1910 by Amnie Teater, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 495, pg. 39, sheet 6B.
Dwelling#67/Family#68
Line 67-Reed, Alozo B., head, m, w, 38, marr. 13 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 68-Reed, Laura A., wife, f, w, 39, marr. 13 yrs, 2 children, both living; KY KY KY
Line 69-Reed, Vertner, daughter, f, w, 12, single, KY KY KY
2669. "Mercer Co., KY Deaths 1911-1999," transcribed by Pam Carey Ison, Mercer Co., KY GenWeb project, cert#41-25143.
2670. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County (KY) and Surrounding Counties, July, 1969; 2nd Printing 1989, Vol. 1, p. 75; lists date of birth as 2 May 1869, but in the 1870 census, she was one month old.
2671. "Mercer Co., KY Deaths 1911-1999," transcribed by Pam Carey Ison, Mercer Co., KY GenWeb project, cert#43-16499.
2672. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County (KY) and Surrounding Counties, July, 1969; 2nd Printing 1989, Vol. 1, p. 75.
2673. Faye Sea Sanders, transcriber, 1860 Census, Mercer County, Kentucky, self-published, 1988, District 2, Family 54; age 10, b. KY.
2674. Ibid. District 2, Family 54; age 8, b. KY.
2675. Ibid. District 2, Family 54; age 6, b. KY; middle initial recorded as "V.".
2676. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County (KY) and Surrounding Counties, July, 1969; 2nd Printing 1989, Vol. 1, pg. 78; "third dau. of A. J. and M.E.".
2677. Faye Sea Sanders, transcriber, 1860 Census, Mercer County, Kentucky, self-published, 1988, District 2, Family 54; age 4, b. KY, female.
2678. Ibid. District 2, Family 54; age 2, b. KY.
2679. Ibid. District 2, family 120; age 3, b. KY.
2680. Ibid. District 2, family 120; age 1, b. KY.
2681. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County (KY) and Surrounding Counties, July, 1969; 2nd Printing 1989, Vol. 1, p. 70.
2682. Luther Davenport <saltriverhistory -at- yahoo.com>, email received 18 Mar 2003. Originally buried at Hopewell Church Cemetery in Mercer Co., KY, but was later moved to Lawrenceburg Cemetery.
2685. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 58, Dugansville precinct, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 18 Jun 1900 by Leslie L. Bryant, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 544, p. 243, sheet 9B-10A.
Dwelling#174/Family#174
Line 94-Devenport, David, head, w, m, b. June 1854, age 45, marr. 20 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; owns farm, mortgaged
Line 95-Devenport, Nannie, wife, w, f, b. Jan 1862, age 38, marr. 20 yrs, 11 children, 8 living; KY KY KY
Line 96-Devenport, Homer L. son, w, m, b. July 1883, age 16, single, KY KY KY
Line 97-Devenport, Virga L., daughter, w, f, b. Apr 1887, age 13, single, KY KY KY
Line 98-Devenport, Claudie L., son, w, m, b. Oct 1889, age 10, single, KY KY KY
Line 99-Devenport, Ora M., daughter, w, f, b. Feb 1890, age 10, single, KY KY KY
Line 100-Devenport, Eddie, daughter, w, f, b. Apr 1892, age 8, single, KY KY KY
Line 1-Devenport, Fred, son, w, m, b. Apr 1892, age 8, single, KY KY KY
Line 2-Devenport, Isabel, daughter, w, f, b. Apr 1898, age 2, single, KY KY KY
Line 3-Devenport, Georgia, daughter, w, f, b. Feb 1900, age 3 mo., single, KY KY KY
2686. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 84-7, Magisterial District No. 3, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 16 Apr 1930 by Gabe Gill, Microfilm T626, Roll 770, pg. 52, sheet 1A.
Dwelling#7/Family#7
Line 31-Davenport, David, head, owns farm, m, w, 75, wd., KY KY KY; farmer
Line 32-Davenport, Virgie, daughter, f, w, 43, single, KY KY KY
Dwelling#8/Family#8
Line 33-Davenport, Fred, head, owns farm, m, w, 38, marr. age 24, KY KY KY; farmer
Line 34-Davenport, Sarah, wife, f, w, 32, marr. age 19, KY KY KY
Line 35-Davenport, Roy, son, w, m, 12, single, KY KY KY
Line 36-Davenport, Robert, son, m, w, 10, single, KY KY KY
Line 37-Davenport, Lucile, daughter, f, w, 6, single, KY KY KY
Line 38-Davenport, Mary, daughter, f, w, 6/12, single, KY KY KY
2687. "Mercer Co., KY Deaths 1911-1999," transcribed by Pam Carey Ison, Mercer Co., KY GenWeb project, cert#34-28794.
2688. New Providence Presbyterian Cemetery, McAfee, Mercer County, Kentucky, Trustees of New Providence Presbyterian Cemetery, 2003, Area G, Monument#436.
2689. "Davenport Bible," Bible Records of Mercer County, Kentucky Families, Harrodsburg Historical Society, 1973, pg. 48-49, Bible record gives date of birth as 5 Jan 1862; gravestone gives birthdate as 15 Jan 1862.
"The following records were taken from loose pages of a Davenport family Bible given to Gladys Davenport Alexander by Eliza Shifflet Davenport, second wife of James B. Clay, in whose possession they were in 1938."
2690. "Mercer Co., KY Deaths 1911-1999," transcribed by Pam Carey Ison, Mercer Co., KY GenWeb project, cert#27-19032.
2691. "Davenport Bible," Bible Records of Mercer County, Kentucky Families, Harrodsburg Historical Society, 1973, pg. 48-49, gives date of death as 30 Aug 1927.
"The following records were taken from loose pages of a Davenport family Bible given to Gladys Davenport Alexander by Eliza Shifflet Davenport, second wife of James B. Clay, in whose possession they were in 1938."
2692. New Providence Presbyterian Cemetery, McAfee, Mercer County, Kentucky, Trustees of New Providence Presbyterian Cemetery, 2003.
2693. Ibid. Area I, Monument#808; "Davenport, Little Jimmy, b. 31 Aug 1855, d. 15 Sep 1856".
2694. Ibid. Monument #732, Area I; "Son of W. C. & Sue".
2695. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 59, Magisterial District No. 4, Mercer Co., Kentucky, Enumerated 4 - 5 Jun 1900 by Will A. Sharp, Jr., Microfilm Series T623, Roll 544, pg.260, sheet 2B.
Dwelling#36/Family#36
Line 69-Davenport, Alonzo, head, w, m, b. June 1856, age 43, marr. 18 years; KY KY KY; blacksmith; owns home freely
Line 70-Davenport, Minerva, wife, w, f, b. Feb 1850, age 50, marr. 18 yrs, 3 children, 2 living; KY KY KY
Line 71-Davenport, Bessie L., daughter, w, f, b. July 1882, age 17, single, KY KY KY
Line 72-Davenport, Dora D., daughter, w, f, b. April 1888, age 12, single; KY KY KY
Line 73-Riley, Thomas, servant, b, m, b. April 1875, single, KY KY KY; servant
2696. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", vol. 57, cert#28337.
2697. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County, Kentucky and Surrounding Areas, Volume 2, Published July 1969; Reprinted Feb., 1990, p. 80; buried in same plot as Sleet P. Robinson.
2698. Ibid. p. 80; buried in same plot as wife Elizabeth.
2699. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 58, Dugansville precinct, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 4 Jun 1900 by Leslie L. Bryant, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 544, p. 236, sheet 2B.
Dwelling#38/Family#38
Line 94-Debenport, Edgar, head, w, m, b. mar 1867, age 33, marr. 11 yrs, KY KY KY; blacksmith; rents home
Line 95-Debenport, Liza Kate, wife, w, f, b. Nov 1870, age 29, marr. 11 yrs, 5 children, all living; KY KY KY
Line 96-Debenport, Doran, son, w, m, b. Oct 1884, age 10, single, KY KY KY
Line 97-Debenport, Clarence, son, w, m, b. Jan 1891, age 9, single, KY KY KY
Line 98-Debenport, Nora, daughter, w, f, b. Dec 1892, age 7, single, KY KY KY
Line 99-Debenport, Alice, daughter, w, f, b. Nov 1894, age 5, single, KY KY KY
Line 100-Debenport, Katherine, w, f, b. Nov 1898, age 1, single, KY KY KY
2700. "Thirteenth Census of the United States: 1910 Population Schedule," ED 40, Precinct 4, Wilmore, Jessamine Co., Kentucky, enumerated 19-20 Apr 1910 by Robert Harrison(?), Microfilm Series T624, Roll 482, pg. 161, sheet 5A.
Dwelling#89/Family#90
Line 47-Davenport, Edward E., head, m, w, 43, marr 21 yrs, KY KY KY; blacksmith; rents home
Line 48-Davenport, Elizabeth C., wife, f, w, 41, marr. 21 yrs, 10 children, 8 living; KY KY KY
Line 49-Davenport, Doran C., son, m, w, 20, single, KY KY KY; farm laborer
Line 50-Davenport, James C., son, m, w, 19, single, KY KY KY; lineman, telephone
Line 1-Davenport, Nora E., daughter, f, w, 17, single, KY KY KY
Line 2-Davenport, Margarett C., daughter, f, w, 11, single, KY KY KY
Line 3-Davenport, Willie E., son, m, w, 9, single, KY KY KY
Line 4-Davenport, Henry L., son, m, w, 5, single, KY KY KY
Line 5-Davenport, Lucy M., daughter, f, w, 3, single, KY KY KY
Line 6-Davenport, Rosey L., daughter, f, w, 1 7/12, single, KY KY KY
2701. "Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920 Population Schedule," ED 117, Precinct 4, Bohon, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 21-22 Jan 1920 by John H. Coslow, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 591, pg. 38, sheet 7A.
Dwelling#134/Family#137
Line 2-Davenport, Edward E., head, rents home, m, w, 52, marr., KY KY KY; telephone
Line 3-Davenport, Cate, wife, f, w, 50, marr., KY KY KY
Line 4-Davenport, Henry L., son, m, w, 15, single, KY KY KY
Line 5-Davenport, Lucy M., daughter, f, w, 13, single, KY KY KY
Line 6-Davenport, Rosie A., daughter, f, w, 12, single, KY KY KY
Line 7-Davenport, Bessie D., daughter, f, w, 10, single, KY KY KY
Line 8-Davenport, Dudley, son, m, w, 7, single, KY KY KY
Line 9-Dunn, Phillip, grandson, m w, 4, single, VA VA KY
2702. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 84-8, Magisterial District No. 3, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 9 Apr 1930 by J. C. Edwards, Microfilm T626, Roll 770, pg. 61, sheet 3B.
Dwelling#68/Family#68
Line 74-Davenport, Adis, head, owns farm, m, w, 48, marr. age 38, KY KY KY; farmer
Line 75-Davenport, May S., wife, f, w, 38, marr. age 20, KY KY KY
Line 76-Davenport, Elizabeth A., daughter, f, w, 16, single, KY KY KY
Line 77-Davenport, Gilbert G., son, m, w, 15, single, KY KY KY
Line 78-Davenport, Robert A., son, m, w, 11, single, KY KY KY
2703. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", vol. 24, cert.#11695.
2704. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County, Kentucky and Surrounding Areas, Volume 2, Published July 1969; Reprinted Feb., 1990, p. 75 "Davenport, Edd, 1869-1944".
2705. "Kentucky Death Records 1911-2000", vol. 61, cert.# 30474.
2706. Harrodsburg Historical Society, Cemetery Records of Mercer County, Kentucky and Surrounding Areas, Volume 2, Published July 1969; Reprinted Feb., 1990, p. 75; "Davenport, Kate, 1869-1935".
2707. Anderson County, Ky., Turner Publishing Co., 1991, pp. 104-105.
"Doran Kavanaugh and Bertha Mae Davenport were residents of the southeastern part of Anderson County. Doran was born October 6, 1889 in Mercer County to Edward and Katherine Baker Davenport. He was the eldest of 13 children. He died April 17, 1969, and was buried in Hebron Cemetery in Anderson County. Bertha McCoy was born September 2, 1892 in Anderson County to Zackary Taylor and Mary Alice Robertson McCoy. She was the youngest of four children. She lived from birth until her death, September 23, 1984, in the same house. She too was buried in the Hebron Cemetery. The homeplace and about 190 acres of land was purchased by Zackary McCoy and his bride Mary Alice Robertson around 1874. It was a two-story, one room structure used as a council house, similar to the courthouse, and over the years has been added to and remodeled. Zackary McCoy died December 23, 1922 and Mary Alice McCoy died November 29, 1949, at the age of 92. They were both buried in the Hebron Cemetery.
Doran and Bertha were married July 20, 1919, by the Reverend Baker of Salvisa, Kentucky. They were members of the Claylick United Methodist Church. They were the parents of six children, all living in Anderson County. Delbert B., born July 17, 1922, died July 7, 1988, and buried in the Lawrenceburg Cemetery. He was married to Edna Disponett of Versailles. They have two sons Richard Dale and John Kavanaugh. Cecil McCoy, born January 11, 1924 is married to Marie Wayne of Anderson County. They have one daughter, Beverly Dianne. Elgather, born July 23, 1928, is married to Clarence Sharp, Jr. from Taylorsville, Kentucky. They have one son, Wesley Doran, and one daughter, Patricia Lynn. Elgather graduated from Kavanaugh High School in 1948. J. T. born June 11, 1930, is married to Shirley Hyatt of Anderson County. They have two sons, James Dudley and Luther Allen. Aubrey D., born May 17, 1932, died November 4, 1936, and was buried in Hebron Cemetery. Mary Anna, born November 23, 1933, was married to the late Oscar Drury of Anderson County. They have one daughter, Barbara Ann. Mary Anna was a member of the first graduating class of Anderson High School in 1953.
Doran and Bertha continued the farming of the land, after the death of Zackary. To supplement the income, Doran was a black-smith and carpenter, both trades learned from his father. He was a World War I veteran. Delbert and Cecil were World War II veterans. J. T. served in the Korean War. Delbert, until his death, and J. T. tend their farmland on the Bonds Mill Road. Elgather and Mary Anna work for the State Government in Frankfort. Submitted by Elgather Sharp and Mary Anna Drury."
2708. "Fourteenth Census of the United States: 1920 Population Schedule," ED 126, Ward D, Harrodsburg, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 9 Jan 1920 by Carolyn Grimes, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 591, pg. 149, sheet 4B.
Dwelling#256/Family#109 (living on farm)
Line 91-Davenport, Nelson, head, owns farm freely, m, w, 40, marr., KY KY KY; farmer
Line 92-Davenport, Hattie, wife, f, w, 34, marr., KY KY KY
Line 93-Davenport, Sarah Jane, daughter, f, w, 9, single, KY KY KY
Line 94-Davenport, Christine, daughter, f, w, 8, single, KY KY KY
Line 95-Davenport, Samuel, son, m, w, 5, single, KY KY KY
Line 96-Davenport, George, son, m, w, 4, single, KY KY KY
Line 97-Davenport, Elizabeth, daughter, f, w, 2, single, KY KY KY
Line 98-Davenport, Susan, daughter, f, w, 3/12, single, KY KY KY
2709. New Providence Presbyterian Cemetery, McAfee, Mercer County, Kentucky, Trustees of New Providence Presbyterian Cemetery, 2003, Area I, Monument#734.
2710. Find-A-Grave, "Presbyterian Cemetery, Ellettsville, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana", "Copenhaver, Sarah E., d. November 20, 1851".
2711. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," ED 280, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana, enumerated 21st day of June, 1880 by George W. Farrell, National Archives Film Number T9, Roll 299, pg 48D.
Dwelling#310/Family#315
Line 25-Copenhaver, William H., M, W, 30, head, marr., blacksmith, IN VA KY
Line 26-Copenhaver, Emily, F, W, 29, wife, marr., keeping house, KY VA KY
Line 27-Copenhaver, Florence, F, W, 7, daughter, IN IN KY
Line 28-Copenhaver, Cory H., F, W, 3, daughter, IN IN KY
Line 29-Copenhaver, Lola, W, F, 1, daughter, IN IN KY
2712. Find-A-Grave, "Presbyterian Cemetery, Ellettsville, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana", "Copenhaver, William H., January 22, 1850 - August 29, 1890".
2713. "Death of Mrs. Copenhaver," Ellettsville (IN) The Farm, Ellettsville, Monroe Co., Indiana, 23 Mar 1911, pg. 1, transcribed by Randi Richardson.
"On March 14th Mrs. Margaret Emily Copenhaver, widow of the late Harrison Copenhaver, died after a brief illness at the home of her daughter, Mrs. Lola Hunter, at Oak Grove, Louisiana. The remains were brought to Ellettsville Friday, and taken to the home of F. F. Corder.
Saturday moring funeral services were conducted at the Christian Church in charge of Eld. H. H. Adamson.
The deceased was a daughter of the late David Corder. She was born in Wayne County, Kentucky, December 26, 1849.
At the age of 13 she came to Ellettsville with the family. August 16, 1871, she was married to W. H. Copenhaver. To them were born six children, all of whom are living, as follows, except Ida May, who died in infancy: Mrs. Florence C. Neeld, Decatur, Illinois; Mrs. Cora H. Mitchell, Stephenson, Alabama; Mrs. Lola C.Hunter, Oak Grove, Louisiana; and Misses Mae and Nellie Copenhaver of Chattanooga, Tennessee. All of whom with Mr. Neeld, Mr. Mitchell and Mr. Hunter were here to attend the funeral, also Clarence Eakin and wife.
The following sisters and brothers survive: Mrs. Elizabeth Corder of Ellettsville; Mrs. George Johnson of Mill Springs, Kentucky; Mrs. Joe Johnson of Somerset, Kentucky; and William Corder of Kansas."
2714. Find-A-Grave, "Presbyterian Cemetery, Ellettsville, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana", "Copenhaver (Corder), Margrette E., December 26, 1849 - March 14, 1911".
2715. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana, National Archives Film Number T9-0299, pg 48C, 1880 U.S. census database.
2716. Find-A-Grave, "Presbyterian Cemetery, Ellettsville, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana", "Copenhaver, Jonah W. August 24, 1854 - February 12, 1887".
2717. Ibid. "Copenhaver, Joseph M., d. September 1, 1863".
2718. "Mercer Co., KY Deaths 1911-1999," transcribed by Pam Carey Ison, Mercer Co., KY GenWeb project, cert#15-25338.
2719. Find-A-Grave, "Presbyterian Cemetery, Ellettsville, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana", "Davenport, Infant January 25, 1869 - July 25, 1869".
2720. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 102, Ellettsville, Richland Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana, enumerated 6 Jun 1900 by Frank C. Stephenson, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 392, pg. 329, sheet 6B.
Dwelling/Family#135
Line 54-Hansford, William, head, w, m, b. Feb 1876, age 24, marr. 3 yrs; IN IN IN; day laborer; rents home
Line 55-Hansford, Eva, wife, w, f, b. Sep 1879, age 20, marr 3 yrs, 1 child, not living; IN IN IN
2721. "Death Records Certificates: William Thomas Goodnight". Filed 16 June 1942, Moberly, Randolph Co., Missouri, File No. 22078, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2722. Transcribed by Janis for the USGenWeb archives, "Miscellaneous Monroe County, Missouri Marriages", "Wm. T. Goodnight/ Laura F. Huber 4/7/1880".
2723. "Death Records Certificates: Laura Frances Goodnight". Filed 13 Jun 1945, Monroe Co., Missouri, File No. 24504, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2724. "Death Records Certificates: Margaret Ann Swartz". Filed 25 Apr 1941, Madison, Monroe Co., Missouri, File No.15237, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2725. "Death Records Certificates: William C. Swartz". Filed 22 Sep 1922, Union Twp., Monroe Co., Missouri, File No.26717, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2726. "Death Records Certificates: Kenten C. Goodnight". Filed 25 May 1927, 127 Bedford, Moberly, Randolph Co., Missouri, File No.16048, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2727. "Death Records Certificates: Annie Goodnight". Filed 18 Jul 1931, 127 Bedford, Moberly, Randolph Co., Missouri, File No.25964, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2728. "Death Records Certificates: Mattie Sterling Van Winkle". Filed 23 Sep 1933, Union Twp., Monroe Co., Missouri, File No.30314, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2729. Transcribed by Janis for the USGenWeb archives, "Miscellaneous Monroe County, Missouri Marriages".
2730. "Death Records Certificates: Jacob Van Winkle". Filed 27 May 1921, Union Twp., Monroe Co., Missouri, File No.12701, PDF, Missouri State Archives.
2731. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 58, Dugansville precinct, Mercer Co., Kentucky, enumerated 15 Jun 1900 by Leslie L. Bryant, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 544, p. 242, sheet 8B.
Dwelling#147/Family#147
Line 3-Springate, Abrahm, head, W, M, b. Nov 1861, 38, marr. 14 yrs, KY KY KY; farmer; rents farm
Line 4-Springate, Luisa, wife, W, F, b. Apr 1867, 31, marr. 14 yrs, 3 children, all living; KY KY KY
Line 5-Springate, Lenord, son, W, M, b. July 1887, 12, single, KY KY KY
Line 6-Springate, Alva, daughter, W, F, b. Ma 1889, 11, single, KY KY KY
Line 7-Springate, Harris, son, W, M, b. Sep 1894, 5, single, KY KY KY
2732. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," ED 30, Precinct No. 5, Caldwell Co., Texas, enumerated 11th day of June, 1880 by B. R. Carpenter, National Archives Film Number T9, Roll 1294, pg 292A.
Dwelling#143/Family#143
Line 45-Story, J. N., white, male, age 25, head, marr., farmer, b. AL, father b. AL, mother b. TN
Line 46-Story, Mary A., white, female, age 18, wife, marr., keeping house, b. TX, father b. VA, mother b. VA
2733. "Caldwell Co., Texas Marriages, 1848-1886", Marriage Book F, Vol. 71.
2734. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 52, Justice Precinct 1, Lockhart, Caldwell Co., Texas, enumerated 22 Jan 1920 by Walter E. McDowell, Microfilm series T625; Roll 1783, sheet 20A.
Address: Main Street
Dwelling#444/Family#473
Line 39-McDannald, Charles E., head, owns home freely, male, white, age 53, marr., b. TX, father b. VA, mother b. KY; retail druggist, drugs and stationary
Line 40-McDannald, Ada, wife, female, white, age 42, marr., b. TX, father b. GA, mother b. GA
Line 41-McDannald, Malcolm, son, male, white, age 16, single, b. TX, father b. TX, mother b. TX
Line 42-Tooke, Martha A., mother-in-law, female, white, age, 84, widowed, b. GA, father b. GA, mother b. GA
2735. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 28-1, Lockhart, Caldwell Co., Texas, enumerated 2 Apr 1930 by Clarence E. Laney, Microfilm T626, Roll 2303, Sheet 1A.
Address: Main Street
Dwelling#13/Family#18
Line 48-McDannald, C. E., head, owns home, valued $12,000; no radio; not a farm; male, white, age 62, marr. at age 25, b. TX, father b. VA, mother b. KY; druggist, drug store
Line 49-McDannald, Ada, wife, female, white, age 57, marr. age 19, b. TX, father b. GA, mother b. GA; music teacher
2736. Ancestry.com, "Texas Death Index, 1903-2000," Certificate #15940.
2737. Ibid. Certificate #33070.
2738. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," Fulton, Callaway Co., Missouri, National Archives Film Number T9-0677, pg 581B, 1880 U.S. census database, FamilySearch.org. living with maternal grandmother.
2739. "Tenth Census of the United States - 1880 Population Schedule," 3rd Ward, Lexington, Fayette Co., Kentucky, National Archives Film Number T9-, 1880 U.S. census database, FamilySearch.org. Student.
2740. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Edwin Edmunds Ratcliffe," 7 May 2009.
Sent photo of Edwin Edmunds Ratcliffe's gravestone at Riverside Cemetery, Hopkinsville, KY: "Edwin E., Infant Son of Dr. C. T. & Georgie Ratcliffe, Born Aug. 28, 1859. Died Sept. 5, 1860."
2741. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009.
Obituary taken from the Louisiana Democrat of 02 September 1891:
"DIED -- In this town, on Thursday, August 27th, 1891, Miss Annie Ratcliffe, aged 26 years [sic]. Deceased was born in Hopkinsville, Ky.; her remains were interred in the Pineville Cemetery."
2742. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, 16 Sep 2008.
2743. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009.
Copies of letters taken from the Alex. Weekly Town Talk of 25 May 1907:
The following letters from Mr. G. M. Ratcliffe, a former Rapidian, now a planter in Natchitoches Parish, and another from Mr. J. A. Evans of the United States Agricultural Bureau should be perused by all our cotton planters and farmers:
Natchitoches, La., May 21, 1907
Alexandria Town Talk,
Mr. Editor: - I herewith inclose you a letter from Mr. J. A. Evans who is connected with the U. S. Agricultural Bureau, which, if published in your paper, may be of advantage to the planters of Rapides, that is, if they have boll weevil there, which I trust is not the case.
Respectfully yours,
G. M. Ratcliffe
-------------------------------------------------------
United States Department of Agriculture
Bureau of Plant Industry
Washington, D. C.
Farmers' Cooperative Cotton Demonstration Work
Lake Charles, La., May 13, 1907
Mr. G. M. Ratcliffe
Allen, La.
Dear Sir: - We have just received a letter from our Special Agent, Mr. E. J. Gigleux, who writes that you are having the weevil picked from the cotton on your plantation and have so far captured 13,000 weevils, for which you are paying at the rate of one cent each, and asks us to write you and him what we think of this method. There can be no question that the plan of picking the weevil from young cotton is entirely feasible and will pay if the labor can be secured cheap enough. As the weevil get more numerous on the cotton you should be able to secure children to do this work for considerable less money. In the spring of 1904, I had under my observation a farm in the Brazos river bottom of Texas where this plan was carried out thoroughly. The planter secured all the negro children in his neighborhood and kept them in his fields day after day, paying them at the rate of fifteen cents per hundred for all weevils caught. They took it systematically and went over the field row by row just as they would in cultivating. He did this three times securing on 75 acres a total of nearly 60,000 weevil. After the cotton began to square it of course became difficult to find the weevil, and he then employed the same chidren paying them seventy-five cents per day to go through the field and pick up all the punctured squares and to pick off the cotton stalks all squares that had been punctured. He continued this until the cotton was nearly waist high, and in that time they picked up and burned over 75 bushels of the punctured squares. The total cost of all this work did not greatly exceed $2 per acre. He made an average of three-fourths of a bale of cotton per acre, and this, too, in spite of the fact that there was a long wet spell the latter part of June and the first of July that caused the cotton to grow rank and prevented cultivation at this critical time. It was his opinion, and mine also, that but for this unfavorable spell of weather at the critical time he would have made from 1 1-4 to 1 1-2 bales per acre. His neighbors who did not take these precautions and did not follow the cultural methods in the cultivation of their crop only made one bale to five or six acres. I doubt if you can continue to pay one cent each for the weevils as they become more numerous, but if you can scale down the price paid so as to get the work done at a reasonable cost, there is nothing you can do that will be of more benefit than this. I would much rather risk picking the weevil from young cotton than attempt killing them by poison. Of course, if you are unable to secure labor to continue this work at a reasonable expense, and the weevil should get very numerous on the young cotton before it begins to square, you would be justified in trying Paris green. There is no question in the world but that Paris green will kill weevil on the young cotton, but there is a great deal of question as to whether it can be applied on a large scale in such a manner that it will do the work effectively, at a cost that will justify it. The question of cost is one each planter must decide for himself.
We are,
Very truly yours,
J. A. Evans, Gen. Asst.
2744. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009.
Article taken from the Alexandria Weekly Town Talk of 06 July 1889:
"DIFFICULTY AND HOMICIDE
It has been nearly five years since the TOWN TALK was called upon to chronicle a homicide within the corporate limits of Alexandria.
On last Monday afternoon, the 1st inst., at about 2:20 o'clock, the report of a gun was heard from the direction of Fourth street. It was heard by a number of people, many of whom thought that the City Marshall had shot a dog. Soon a crowd had collected at the scene of the shooting, on Fourth street, in the rear of Mrs. Ratcliffe's residence, and M. W. Cockerille was found lying on the ground, suffering from a gun shot wound in the small of his back, near the termination of the spine.
It was soon generally known that Henry Ratcliffe had done the shooting, the weapon used being a shotgun loaded with buck-shot, and his brother George Ratcliffe was accused of being a party to the killing.
Montfort Cockerille was taken to his home on lower 4th street on a cot, and after about 1 1/2 hours of intense suffering, passed away. Three physicians were in attendance, but the wound was necessarily fatal, and their skill was of no avail.
Henry Ratcliffe surrendered immediately to the Sheriff, and as soon as an affidavit was made against George Ratcliffe, he also surrendered.
Judge Blackman being related to the deceased young man by marriage he recused himself, and Judge Coco was summoned from Marksville to hold the preliminary examination.
The preliminary trial commenced about 3 o'clock p.m. on Wednesday and continued till 8 1/2 o'clock that night. It was resumed on Thursday morning, the 4th, by consent of the State and defense, and was concluded about 10 o'clock a.m. Judge Coco allowed the accused bond in the sum of $2500 each, which they readily furnished.
About 40 witnesses were summoned. The principle witnesses for the State were Dr. John Casson, coroner; W. J. Calvit, S. L. Cockerille, Miss Eliza Holt, Oliver Bassett, Francis Carr and Mrs. Richardson.
The principle witnesses examined for the defense were Mrs. E. B. Price, Miss Jennie Ratcliffe and Joseph Smith.
Knowing that all our readers are interested in this sad affair, we give below some of the evidence of important witnesses at the preliminary trial:
S. L. Cockerille testified that as he and his brother Montfort were passing along Fourth street, in the rear of the residence of Mrs. Ratcliffe, that George Ratcliffe opened [several words illegible here] toward him, and said: "I received your letter." Cockerille then says he made a reply, whereupon George Ratcliffe struck him on the head with a walking cane, simultaneously Henry Ratcliffe fired the gun which killed his brother. That his brother did not have even a stick in his hand, and that both of them were in their shirt sleeves. That Henry Ratcliffe was just within his mother's back gate, when the gun fired. That George Ratcliffe ran him (Lee Cockerille) some distance striking him with a stick, and that after George Ratcliffe had ceased striking him that he returned to where his brother was lying on the ground, and that he did not touch him. He believes the only person he saw when he returned to his brother was Henry Ratcliffe. That the reason he, S. L. Cockerille, ran was because he thought Henry Ratcliffe was going to shoot him with the other barrel of the gun.
In the evidence the following was brought out: It seemed that a few days previous to the homicide S. L. Cockerille sent a colored boy to Geo. Ratcliffe, and that the boy returned to Cockerille with a verbal message from George Ratcliffe. S. L. Cockerille when he received that verbal message wrote a letter and sent it to George Ratcliffe. Cockerille admitted in his evidence that he had said in his letter that, if he, George Ratcliffe, had made certain assertions that the colored boy said he had, that he, George Ratcliffe, "was a willful, malicious liar and the truth was not in him: I (Cockerille) throw down the gauntlet and if you choose you can pick it up."
One of the principle witnesses for the defense was a man named Joseph Smith, who lives on the Heyman place. He says he saw the entire difficulty. He admitted having gone out of town hurriedly to keep from being a witness. That he had only told one person, confidentally, he had seen the killing. His testimony reduced was that he had seen Montfort Cockerille change a stick from his right hand to his left hand and then put his hand behind him as if to pull a weapon. Just at that moment, and before the gun was fired, he heard some one say: "Don't shoot my brother."
It was brought out in the testimony of Wm. Hill that George Ratcliffe had recently bought a new shot-gun, that he had told him (Hill) and other friends that he intended to try it with buckshot to see if it acted well. Also by other witnesses that Henry Ratcliffe and A. L. Miller were to leave for White Sulphur Springs on Monday evening, and that Henry Ratcliffe was to borrow the shot-gun, and at the time the difficulty took place George and Henry Ratcliffe were on their way to the back of town to try the gun with buckshot before Henry left for the Springs, the hour for leaving being about 8 o'clock, p.m.
The dying statements of Montfort Cockerille to his mother and Mrs. Nettie Calvit were to the effect that he had been shot for nothing, that he had done nothing nor said nothing [sic] to be killed for.
Mr. E. G. Hunter is counsel for the accused; and District Attorney Andrews looked after the State.
Montfort and S. L. Cockerille are the sons of the late Dr. A. Cockerille. Montfort at the time of his death was about 30 years old and was keeping a grocery store on upper Third street. His brother kieeps a saloon on the same street.
George and Henry Ratcliffe keep a grocery on Second street. They are the sons of the late Dr. Ratcliffe who practiced medicine in this parish for several years, but came here with his family about eight years ago from Hopkinsville, Ky."
2745. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009, no grave marker.
2746. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009.
Obituary taken from the Alexandria Weekly Town Talk of 20 April 1907:
DEATH OF MRS. GEO. M. RATCLIFFE.
From Thursday's Daily
Mr. A. Albert received a telegram from El Paso, Texas, today, giving the sad intelligence of the death there last night of Mrs. Geo. M. Ratcliffe, a native of Alexandria, and a sister of Mrs. John Laney, Mrs. A. Albert, Mrs. Newt. Laney, and Miss Roberta Hetherwick of this city and Mr. Henry Hetherwick of New Orleans. She also leaves a husband and several children.
Before her marriage she was Miss Susie Hetherwick, and one of the sweetest of Rapides' fair girls, both in disposition and person.
Mr. and Mrs. Ratcliffe have been residing in Natchitoches for a number of years.
Her father for a number of years was a leading merchant of Alexandria.
The remains will be brought here for interment. The funeral will take place on Saturday.
To the bereaved husband, children and relatives, we extend condolence.
_____________________________________________________________
Note taken from the Alexandria Weekly Town Talk of 26 April 1907:
(with reference to the Daily of 26 April 1907)
The remains of Mrs. Susie Hetherwick Ratcliffe arrived in this city this morning from El Paso, Texas, and were taken to the home of her sister, Mrs. A. Albert on South Front Street. The funeral took place at 2 p.m., proceeding from there to the Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Pineville, for interment.
2747. "Robert Ratcliffe Dies in Cheyenne," The Denver Post, Denver, Denver Co., Colorado, 18 August 1945, transcription sent by Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>.
"Robert C. Ratcliffe, formerly of Denver, and well-known here among engineers, died in Cheyenne, Wyo., Thursday.
Mr. Ratcliffe came to Denver in 1911 from Natchitoches, La., his native city. He was graduated from North high school and from the Colorado university school of engineering. At the time of his death he was employed by the U.S. bureau of reclamation at Cheyenne. He was a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Water Works association and the American Public Works association.
Surviving are his wife, Mrs. Charlotte Ratcliffe; son, Peter G., and two sisters, Marguerite and Dorothy Ratcliffe of 3837 West Twenty-ninth avenue, Denver. Funeral services will be held in Denver at a time to be announced."
2748. Rona O'Regan <ronao -at- comcast.net>, email received 5 Sep 2006. "I know for sure that Georgia Ann's daughter America, my grandmother, was always called Mec, not Mee nor Mae, as you have recorded first on the 224 entry and then on the census. Granny even signed the name Mec on her marriage license - I don't think she was too thrilled with her name America, but she was stuck because it was already in the family!"
2749. Marion Winbom <MarionWi217 -at- aol.com> or <txmammy2 -at- hotmail.com>, email received 5 Aug 2007. America was her great-grandmother.
2750. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 169, Ward 10, New Orlean, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, enumerated 3 Jan 1920 by Elizabeth Clew, Microfilm series T625; Roll 622, pg. 105, sheet 5A.
2751. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009.
Notice in the Alexandria Weekly Town Talk of 10 August 1889:
"MARRIED:
SIMONIN -- RATCLIFFE. At the residence of the bride's mother, in Alexandria, La., on Monday evening, August 5, 1889, MR. ARTHUR SIMONIN and MISS MEC RATCLIFFE, Rev. B. F. White officiating.
The wedding was a very quiet one, only the witnesses and members of the family being present. The TOWN TALK wishes the couple every happiness, and begs to return thanks for the delicious refreshments so kindly sent."
2752. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 23 Jan 2009.
Obituary taken from the Alexandria Daily Town Talk of 22 October 1906:
"DEATHS:
RATCLIFFE - In New Orleans, La., on Saturday, Oct. 20th, 1906, at 1 p.m., Henry Edmunds Ratcliffe, aged 37 years. The remains were brought to this city on the afternoon train of the Texas and Pacific railroad on Sunday and interment was made in the Methodist Cemetery, Pineville, the Rev. B. L. Price of the First Presbyterian Church officiating. The deceased was the son of Mrs. C. T. Ratcliffe, formerly of this city, but now residing in New Orleans. He leaves three sisters and a brother to mourn his demise. They are Mrs. A. F. Simonin of New Orleans, Mrs. Henry Geiger and Miss Jennie Ratcliffe of this city, and Mr. George M. Ratcliffe of Natchitoches. The bereaved family have the sympathy of a large circle of friends here. The deceased was for a number of years in the drug business here, being the proprietor of the City Drug Store and afterwards of the Red Cross Drug Store."
2753. Dick Geiger <DickGeiger -at- googlemail.com>, "Ratcliffe-Geiger," 24 Nov 2005, * Mary was Dick's grandmother.
2754. Woods, Rev. Neander, Woods-McAfee Memorial, 1905; Reprint 1998, Higginson Book Company, pg. 272; lived in Alexandria, LA in 1904.
2755. Dick Geiger <dickgeiger -at- aol.com>, "Descendants of George Ann McAfee & Charles Theodore Ratcliffe," 20 Jun 2009.
2756. "Twelfth Census of the United States - 1900 Population Schedule," ED 123, 3rd Ward, Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, enumerated 23 June, 1900 by Geo. P. Whittington, Microfilm Series T623, Roll 577, pg. 322B, Sheet 2B.
Dwelling#383/Family#389
Line 72-Geiger, Henry, head, M, W, b. Jul 1872, age 27, marr. 9 yrs, LA unk. unk., Druggist, rents home
Line 73-Geiger, Mary, wife, F, W, b. Jul 1872, age 27, marr. 9 yrs, 2 children, both living, KY VA VA
Line 74-Geiger, Charles, son, M, W, b. Oct 1891, age 8, single, LA LA KY
Line 75-Geiger, Henry, son, M, W, b Sep 1892, age 2, single, LA LA KY
Line 76-Snowden, Maria, servant, F, B, b Apr 1887, age 13, single, LA LA LA, nurse
Line 77-Snowden, John, servant, M, B, b. Apr 1887, age 13, single, LA LA LA, boy at drug store
2757. "Thirteenth Census of the United States - 1910 Population Schedule," ED 80, Precinct 1, 3rd Ward, Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, enumerated 19 Apr, 1910 by Bertha M. Pierce, Microfilm Series T624, Roll 527, pg. 83A, Sheet 6A.
Address: 623 Jackson Street
Dwelling#92/Family#98
Line 19-Geiger, Mary, head, F, W, 35, Wd., 4 children, all surviving, LA KY KY, Keeper, boarding house; owns home - mortgaged
Line 20-Geiger, Charles, son, M, W, 17, single, LA LA LA
Line 21-Geiger, Henry, son, M, W, 12, single, LA LA LA
Line 22-Geiger, Robert, son, M, W, 9, single, LA LA LA
Line 23-Geiger, Casson, son, M, W, 7, single, LA LA LA
(*Henry is also enumerated with his aunt America (Ratcliffe) Simonin in the 1910 New Oreleans census)
2758. "Fourteenth Census of the United States - 1920 Population Schedule," ED 58, Ward 3, Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, enumerated 3 Jan 1920 by Mrs. Daisy K. Converse, Microfilm series T625; Roll 626, pg. 113, sheet 2B.
2759. "Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930 Population Schedule," ED 40-2, Ward 1, Alexandria, Rapides Parish, Louisiana, enumerated 15 Apr 1930 by Helen A. Hunter, Microfilm T626, Roll 816, Sheet 6B-7A.
623 Jackson St.
Dwelling#123/Family#135
Line 99-Zoder, Mary, head, owns ho | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 65 | https://www.grunge.com/601464/the-strange-things-william-s-burroughs-is-buried-with/ | en | The Strange Things William S. Burroughs Is Buried With | [
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"Frank F"
] | 2021-09-11T19:01:57+00:00 | With fellow Beats such as Jack Kerouac, William S. Burroughs roamed the bars and coffeehouses of New York City's Greenwich Village in the mid-20th century. | en | Grunge | https://www.grunge.com/601464/the-strange-things-william-s-burroughs-is-buried-with/ | William S. Burroughs was one of the major influential artists and thinkers of the Beat generation. Along with fellow Beats such as Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, Burroughs roamed the bars and coffeehouses of New York City's Greenwich Village in the mid-20th century, basking in sex, drugs, and the Beat version of rock 'n' roll — art of the visual and literary varieties. Together, the Beats influenced 1960s counterculture and shaped what came afterwards.
One of Burroughs' most influential works is "Junky," a 1953 semi-autobiographical novel based on his experiences as a user and dealer of heroin, per Biography. His 1959 novel "Naked Lunch" is similarly influential, delving into his feverish experiences with heroin and other opioids. Another significant element of Burroughs' legacy is his 1951 manslaughter conviction for the death of his second wife, Joan Vollmer, after he shot her with a pistol — though he claimed the shot was accidental, per Bitch Media.
Burroughs' death on August 2, 1997 was, perhaps surprisingly, not a direct result of a large dose of heroin or an accidental or intentional gunshot. The writer, then 83, died of complications of a heart attack he had suffered the previous day, per The New York Times. He is buried in his family plot at the Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri, per the cemetery's website. Of course, the details of Burroughs' final state of rest proves he is as eccentric and illicit in death as he was in life.
The most complete picture of Burroughs' coffin was offered by the writer's close friend, poet John Giorno. Giorno's poem "The Death of William Burroughs" (posted at Lyrik Line) details the process of choosing what to send with Burroughs into his grave. Giorno, along with his and Burroughs' editors James Grauerholz and Ira Silverberg, even chose Burroughs' final clothes. They picked a white shirt and blue jeans, classed up with a green velvet and gold brocade vest and dark sports jacket. The selected accessories included a blue necktie Burroughs had painted himself, a red bandanna ("He always kept one in his back pocket," Giorno noted), eyeglasses "in his outside breast pocket," and two honorary rosettes Burroughs had received for his writing.
Some of Burroughs' other "accessories" were more unorthodox. According to Giorno, Burroughs was laid to rest with his trademark ballpoint pen and his "favorite cane, a sword cane made of hickory with a light rosewood finish." In his pants pocket was a symbolic gold coin ("William would have enough money to buy his way in the underworld," Giorno explained). And, of course, Burroughs' loot would be incomplete without drugs: a "joint of really good grass," as well as a small packet of heroin. Last but not least, Giorno and the editors sent Burroughs with "his most favorite gun," a .38 caliber revolver nicknamed "The Snubby." "William, bejeweled with all his adornments, was traveling in the underworld," Giorno wrote. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 30 | https://history.lplks.org/items/browse%3Fcollection%3D2%26page%3D2%26sort_field%3DDublin%2BCore%252CCreator%26sort_dir%3Dd%26output%3Domeka-xml | en | Log In · Digital Douglas County History | [] | [] | [] | [
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] | null | [] | null | A history portal for Douglas County, Kansas brought to you by The Watkins Museum of History and Lawrence Public Library | en | null | Menu
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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 29 | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/William_S._Burroughs | en | William S. Burroughs | [
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] | null | [] | null | William Seward Burroughs II was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, made many appearances in films, and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks, including his celebrated "shotgun art". | en | Wikiwand | https://www.wikiwand.com/en/William_S._Burroughs | For other people named William Burroughs, see William Burroughs (disambiguation).
William Seward Burroughs II ( ; February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American writer and visual artist. He is widely considered a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodern author who influenced popular culture and literature.[2][3][4] Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays, and five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences; he was initially briefly known by the pen name William Lee. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, made many appearances in films, and created and exhibited thousands of visual artworks, including his celebrated "shotgun art".[5]
Quick Facts Born, Died ...
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Burroughs was born into a wealthy family in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a grandson of inventor William Seward Burroughs I, who founded the Burroughs Corporation, and a nephew of public relations manager Ivy Lee. Burroughs attended Harvard University, studied English, studied anthropology as a postgraduate, and attended medical school in Vienna. In 1942, Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army to serve during World War II. After being turned down by the Office of Strategic Services and the Navy, he developed a heroin addiction that affected him for the rest of his life, initially beginning with morphine. In 1943, while living in New York City, he befriended Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. Their mutual influence became the foundation of the Beat Generation, which was later a defining influence on the 1960s counterculture. Burroughs found success with his confessional first novel, Junkie (1953), but is perhaps best known for his third novel, Naked Lunch (1959). Naked Lunch became the subject of one of the last major literary censorship cases in the United States after its US publisher, Grove Press, was sued for violating a Massachusetts obscenity statute.
Burroughs killed his second wife, Joan Vollmer, in 1951 in Mexico City. Burroughs initially claimed that he shot Vollmer while drunkenly attempting a "William Tell" stunt.[6] He later told investigators that he had been showing his pistol to friends when it fell and hit the table, firing the bullet that killed Vollmer.[7] After Burroughs fled back to the United States, he was convicted of manslaughter in absentia and received a two-year suspended sentence.
While heavily experimental and featuring unreliable narrators, much of Burroughs' work is semiautobiographical, and was often drawn from his experiences as a heroin addict. He lived variously in Mexico City, London, Paris and the Tangier International Zone near Morocco, and traveled in the Amazon rainforest, with these locations featuring in many of his novels and stories. With Brion Gysin, Burroughs popularized the cut-up, an aleatory literary technique, featuring heavily in works such as The Nova Trilogy (1961–1964). Burroughs' work also features frequent mystical, occult, or otherwise magical themes, which were a constant preoccupation for Burroughs, both in fiction and in real life.[4][8] | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 26 | https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/The_Manchester_Genealogist | en | [] | [] | [] | [
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correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 24 | https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/burroughs-william-seward | en | Burroughs, William S(eward) | [
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"BURROUGHS",
"William S(eward)(b. 5 February 1914 in St. Louis",
"Missouri; d. 2 August 1997 in Lawrence",
"Kansas)",
"Beat generation novelist who authored Naked Lunch (1959) and served as a counterculture icon for the hippie and punk-rock movements."
] | null | [] | null | BURROUGHS, William S(eward)(b. 5 February 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri; d. 2 August 1997 in Lawrence, Kansas), Beat generation novelist who authored Naked Lunch (1959) and served as a counterculture icon for the hippie and punk-rock movements. Source for information on Burroughs, William S(eward): Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives, Thematic Series: The 1960s dictionary. | en | /sites/default/files/favicon.ico | https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/burroughs-william-seward | (b. 5 February 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri; d. 2 August 1997 in Lawrence, Kansas), Beat generation novelist who authored Naked Lunch (1959) and served as a counterculture icon for the hippie and punk-rock movements.
The second of two sons born to Mortimer Perry Burroughs, a businessman, and Laura Lee, a descendent of Confederate general Robert E. Lee, William was named after his paternal grandfather, the man who perfected the adding machine and set up the Burroughs Corporation. Raised in an affluent household, Burroughs attended private schools in St. Louis and Los Alamos, New Mexico, before entering Harvard University in 1932. After receiving his B.A. in English in 1936, Burroughs studied medicine briefly at the University of Vienna. There he met Ilse Klapper, a German-Jewish refugee, whom he married in 1937 in order to help her escape from Nazi Germany. Although Klapper immigrated to the United States, she and Burroughs never lived together as man and wife and divorced in 1946.
After his return to the United States, Burroughs took courses in psychology and anthropology at Harvard and Columbia. In the summer of 1942 he was drafted, but he was honorably discharged in September after the Army reviewed his psychiatric history because of his mother's influence. Back in New York City in 1944, he met Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. Together they launched the "Beat generation," the most significant literary movement in the second half of the twentieth century. With their rejection of middle-class America's 1950s conformist values and their stress on the importance of individual freedom and expanded consciousness, Ginsberg's "Howl" (1956), Kerouac's On The Road (1957), and Burroughs's Naked Lunch (1959), inspired a generation of 1960s rebels bent on political, social, and spiritual reform.
Like the 1960s, however, the Beat movement had its dark side. In August 1944 Burroughs and Kerouac were arrested as material witnesses in a murder case involving two friends, Lucien Carr and David Kammerer. Carr had fatally stabbed Kammerer, a homosexual stalker who had relentlessly pursued him. Around this time Burroughs became addicted to morphine.
Living at 119 West 115th Street in 1945, in a large apartment he shared with Kerouac and his new bride Edie Parker, Burroughs met Parker's roommate Joan Vollmer Adams. Although Burroughs's orientation was homosexual, he and Joan entered into a common-law marriage and she bore him a son, William Burroughs, Jr., in 1947 (he died in 1981). Burroughs and Adams remained together, both heavily abusing drugs, until September 1951 in Mexico City. At a drinking party, Adams challenged Burroughs to shoot a glass off her head in imitation of the legendary William Tell, and he shot her dead.
After Adams's death, Burroughs explored South America in search of the hallucinogenic drug Yage, before settling in Tangier in 1954. For the next few years he struggled with his drug habit and the writing of Naked Lunch, which was published first by Olympia Press in Paris in 1959, and then by Grove Press in the United States in 1962. A savage attack on all forms of power and control, the widely reviewed book was both lavishly praised and roundly condemned. Poet Karl Shapiro declared it to be "one of the most important pieces of literature in our time," while novelist John Wain viewed it as "the merest trash.…" To Norman Mailer, Burroughs was "the only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed of genius," but to the state of Massachusetts he was a pornographer. The obscenity trial that followed the publication of the book made Naked Lunch a best-seller. The Massachusetts Supreme Court decision on 7 July 1966, clearing the novel of the obscenity charge, marked a watershed in the history of literary censorship in the United States.
During the early 1960s Burroughs lived mostly in Paris and London. Working with the artist Brion Gysin, he discovered a new method of composition he called the "cutup." This involved cutting up his own texts as well as others and randomly pasting them together. The process yielded interesting, sometimes startling results. With the cut-up method, Burroughs believed he had found a way to bypass the ultimate source of control—language itself. He used the cut-up heavily in The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1964), a trilogy devoted to an alien Nova mob and their plan to conquer planet Earth. By the end of the decade the United States was to land a man on the Moon. Burroughs sought to create a new mythology commensurate with America's quest for a "New Frontier": "This is the space age," he proclaimed, "we are here to go.…"
In the late 1960s London was a mecca for experimental arts. Burroughs took a flat at 8 Duke Street and remained there for the next eight years. Through his friend Ian Sommerville, he met Paul McCartney, and in 1967 he appeared on the album cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
In August 1968 Esquire magazine asked Burroughs to cover the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, along with Terry Southern and Jean Genet. The delegates were meeting at the Conrad Hilton Hotel to choose between Hubert H. Humphrey and Eugene McCarthy, but the real drama took place in Chicago's streets, as 20,000 police and National Guard troops clashed with Yippie (Youth International Party) demonstrators, led by Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, who had come to protest the Vietnam War and celebrate a "festival of life." The confrontation turned into a nationally televised bloodbath. Burroughs joined his friend Allen Ginsberg in the front lines of the march from Lincoln Park, although he had little faith in either the Yippie's provocative theatrics or Ginsberg's "flower power" as effective agents of political change. Before returning to London, Burroughs saw Jack Kerouac one last time. The "king of the Beats" died on 21 October 1969.
Burroughs remained productive throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Following The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (1971), he began work on the Red Night trilogy, which included Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of the Dead Roads (1984), and The Western Lands (1987). He returned to New York City in 1973 and taught writing in the master of fine arts program at City College in fall 1974. From 1975 to 1981 Burroughs lived at "the Bunker" at 222 Bowery. His proximity to the music club CBGB's put him in close touch with the punk-rock scene. In 1981, at the urging of his secretary, James Grauerholz, Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, where he lived quietly until his death of heart failure. He is buried in Bellfontaine Cemetery in St. Louis.
Writing in the New York Times Book Review, critic Perry Meisel remarked, "By the time the counterculture of the 1960s succeeded the Beats, license had become law, and Mr. Burroughs had become a principal avatar of the liberationist esthetic he helped create." Burroughs's contempt for authority, combined with his surreal treatment of violence, homosexuality, and drug addiction, appealed to young people, particularly musicians. The bands Soft Machine, the Mugwumps, and Steely Dan all derived their names from his books. He collaborated with a host of rock stars including Laurie Anderson, Kurt Cobain, U2, and Tom Waits, and is credited with coining the term "heavy metal" to describe this subgenre of rock music. Burroughs's pervasive influence on popular culture, however, was not without its price. Ironically, his growing popularity, which led to television and film appearances, even a Nike commercial, helped turn a literary outlaw into a pop icon.
Manuscripts and papers relating to Burroughs are in the libraries of Ohio State University, Columbia University, and Arizona State University. Biographies include Ted Morgan, Literary Outlaw: The Life and Times of William S. Burroughs (1988), a detailed, well-researched work written with Burroughs's cooperation; and Barry Miles, William Burroughs: El Hombre Invisible (1993). Jennie Skerl, William S. Burroughs (1985), also contains biographical material. Published correspondence includes The Yage Letters, with Allen Ginsberg (1963); Letters to Allen Ginsberg 1953–1957 (1982); and The Letters of William S. Burroughs 1945–1959 (1993). The Job (1970, revised and enlarged edition 1974), interviews with Daniel Odier, is a good source on Burroughs's life and art through the 1960s. Conversations with William S. Burroughs (1999), and Burroughs Live 1960–1999 (2001), contain the collected interviews from 1960 onward. The latter is more extensive and includes Conrad Knickerbocker, Paris Review (fall 1965) interview. Victor Bockris, With William Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker (1981), contains interviews and dinner conversations with literary and artistic friends including Allen Ginsberg, Andy Warhol, and Mick Jagger. Last Words (2000), is a journal recording Burroughs's final thoughts between 14 November 1996 and 29 July 1997. Word Virus: The William S. Burroughs Reader (1999), excerpts from a lifetime's work, includes valuable biographical introductions for each section by Burroughs's longtime companion and literary executor James Grauerholz, as well as an accompanying compact disc of Burroughs reading from his work. His unique voice, a cross between T. S. Eliot and W. C. Fields, is preserved on numerous other recordings, including Call Me Burroughs (1965), Dead City Radio (1990), and Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales (1993). Howard Brookner, Burroughs: The Movie (1983), is an informative and entertaining documentary film. Obituaries are in the New York Times, (London) Guardian, and Washington Post (all 4 Aug. 1997).
William M. Gargan | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 87 | https://allenginsberg.org/2021/08/m-a2-william-burroughs/ | en | The Allen Ginsberg Project | [
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] | 2021-08-02T02:20:40+00:00 | William S Burroughs – Lawrence, Kansas, November 4, 1996 – Photo by Allen Ginsberg -among the last images of Burroughs that Allen recorded. Burroughs died the following year – photo – courtesy Stanford University Libraries / Allen Ginsberg Estate The great William Seward Burroughs II died on this day, August 2nd, 1997 Unforgettable Bill Here’s […] | en | /favicons/apple-icon-57x57.png | The Allen Ginsberg Project | https://allenginsberg.org/2021/08/m-a2-william-burroughs/ | The great William Seward Burroughs II died on this day, August 2nd, 1997
Unforgettable Bill
Here’s his friend, John Giorno, in Antonello Faretta‘s 2007 film, declaiming his poem/remembrance, “The Death of William Burroughs”
The man himself gone but his vision and his words live on (his dystopia prophetic) with ever-increasing relevance. | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 68 | https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/william-s-burroughs-why-hes-worth-the-trouble | en | William S. Burroughs: A Writer on the Margins | [
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] | 2015-02-04T14:00:00+00:00 | William S. Burroughs' unusual writing style and controversial content may make him inaccessible to some readers, but no less important. | en | //blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/hubfs/file-21251103-ico.ico | https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/william-s-burroughs-why-hes-worth-the-trouble | William S. Burroughs is the kind of author whose life often upstages his writing. His style is challenging, his subject matter unusual, and to many, he is easier to read about than to read. Those who do read his books are often of differing opinions. To some he is a genius, while to others he is a literary madman, possessed by drugs and misguided avante-garde ambitions. Yet beyond the larger-than-life character, the contentions and the clamorous criticism, there’s an oeuvre worth a serious reader’s attention.
While it is best to avoid being distracted by the life of an author like Burroughs, his is impossible to ignore. Gustave Flaubert said of artists, “Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you may be violent and original in your work.” This approach may work superbly for many writers, but it was not a method for Burroughs, whose very career began out of anguish.
A Troubled Life
Burroughs had a decades-long relationship with drugs and addiction, a struggle he shared with his wife, Joan. One night in Mexico City, after many drinks, the couple decided to play a round of William Tell. Burroughs was behind the gun, and Joan’s head was beneath the fruit when Burroughs’ gun missed its mark. In that moment, he made a terrible, fatal mistake. In the preface to his book Queer, he wrote, "I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan’s death...the death of Joan brought me into contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out."
Although he killed his wife, he was able to evade the law by bribing Mexican officials. This legal pressure, in addition to his many run-ins with the law as a drug addict, coupled well with Burroughs’ already restless spirit. With the help of an allowance from his family, Burroughs spent his life drifting all around the world; he moved through numerous cities in the U.S. and to places like Paris, South America, and Morocco.
In addition to exile, Burroughs rarely belonged, and embodied many contradictions. He married women, but was distrustful of them and seemed to have preferred men. Few fiction writers had a love of guns like Burroughs, despite the tragedy they introduced to his life.
So, how do you look past his life when his identity on the wild margins was essential to the creation of his distinct fiction?
Burrough’s Stylistic Innovation
Burroughs is well known for being a pioneer of the cut-up technique. He borrowed the principle for the method from other art forms, such as the collage of the visual arts as well as rapid camera shots from cinema. By placing faith in the accidental nature of art, that one’s best creations often happen in defiance of deliberation, he used the cut-up technique to introduce the “unpredictable spontaneous factor” into his work. Any text, original or written by someone else, could be cut up and transformed to a new text.
Burroughs worked with painter and writer Brion Gysin to realize this ambitious style. The pair hypothesized that by cutting up and rearranging a text, a hidden and profound meaning could be uncovered. Burroughs claimed some ancestors in this method, such as John Dos Passos and T.S. Eliot who incorporated real newspaper headlines in their work. Despite a group of practitioners before him, Burroughs didn’t exactly inspire droves of disciples, and the cut-up style of writing reached apotheosis and more or less ended with his work. Even in literature, Burroughs occupies a space on the margins.
Though it may seem like cheating, the act of composing a book of cut-ups is no easier than writing. For his Naked Lunch and Nova Trilogy, Burroughs cut up his own writing, using bits and pieces from The Word Hoard, a 1,000 page text of manuscripts he had penned in the 1950s. He also used works by Joyce, Shakespeare, and Rimbaud, in addition to other texts. Out of 100 constructed sentenced, Burroughs would select about one to include. He would then pick from a collection of dozens more, and finally choose the sequence in which these many sentences would follow each other. In his writing, he sought to reconcile cognitive deliberation with the hope of somehow harnessing the mysterious powers of the unconscious and the hidden. It was a bold effort, and one that helped him become, in Norman Mailer’s eyes, “the only American writer who may be conceivably possessed by genius.”
Burroughs the Outsider
Burroughs lived madly, and wrote of a world gone mad. His novels are obscene, filled with vivid sexual imagery and violence. His novel The Soft Machine underwent obscenity trials in Turkey as recently as 2011. It’s a dizzying dystopian and science fiction-style endeavor about Mayan priests who control the bodies of slaves. The book also deals with time-travel and a protagonist who shape-shifts. Burroughs includes as the appendix to the book a confessional appendix about his own struggles with heroin addiction. His difficulties in getting treatment point to a major theme of the book—the way our own bodies can be controlled by an external force and the politics of such exploitation. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 52 | https://friendsofkerouac.com/person/william-s-burroughs/ | en | William S. Burroughs — Friends of Kerouac | [
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] | null | [] | null | Learn about the people who made up the Beat Generation in Kerouac's The Duluoz Legend. | en | /icons/icon-48x48.png | null | William Seward Burroughs II (February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997) was an American novelist, short story writer, satirist, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer. Burroughs was a primary figure of the Beat Generation and a major postmodernist author who wrote in the paranoid fiction genre, and his influence is considered to have affected a range of popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs wrote eighteen novels and novellas, six collections of short stories and four collections of essays. Five books have been published of his interviews and correspondences. He also collaborated on projects and recordings with numerous performers and musicians, and made many appearances in films. He was also known by the pen name William Lee.
Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the United States into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge —a release from duty based on the premise that he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis, Lucien Carr, a University of Chicago student, and David Kammerer, Carr's admirer, left for New York City, Burroughs followed.
In 1944, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife. Vollmer Adams was married to a G.I. with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder involving Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. This incident inspired Burroughs and Kerouac to collaborate on a novel titled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, completed in 1945. The two fledgling authors were unable to get it published, but the manuscript was eventually published in November 2008 by Grove Press and Penguin Books. | |||||
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... | null | [] | 2014-04-02T09:56:12 | William S. Burroughs was a Beat Generation writer known for his startling, nontraditional accounts of drug culture, most famously in the book 'Naked Lunch.' | en | /_assets/design-tokens/biography/static/images/favicon.3635572.ico | Biography | https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/william-s-burroughs | (1914-1997)
Who Was William S. Burroughs?
William S. Burroughs became one of the founding figures of the Beat Movement. An addict for years, he crafted books like Junky and Naked Lunch, which were harrowing, often grotesque looks at drug culture. He is cited as a major influence on countercultural figures in the world of music as well and worked on several recording projects.
School and Travels
Born on February 5, 1914, in St. Louis, Missouri, Burroughs was born to Laura Lee and Mortimer Burroughs. Burroughs was named after his famous grandfather, an inventor who was a pioneer in adding-machine technology.
Burroughs attended prep schools and later studied English literature at Harvard University, where he graduated in 1936. He traveled to Europe and met and married Ilse Klapper for the purpose of allowing her entry into the United States. The two ended the union upon their entry into the states.
Meeting Fellow Beats Ginsberg and Kerouac
Trying different career paths to no avail, Burroughs eventually traveled to New York and met writers Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac in the mid-1940s. The three would be heralded as starting the Beat Movement, an artistic outpouring of nontraditional, free expression.
During the mid-1940s, Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on a novel about the murder of a friend—And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks—that was published decades later posthumously. Burroughs developed a relationship with Joan Vollmer during this time as well and they would live together as husband and wife starting in 1945. Burroughs was also open about his attraction to men, and he and Ginsberg had been lovers.
Burroughs had started to use opiates and descended into heroin addiction. He was also a gun enthusiast and, while living with his family in Mexico City in 1951, played a drunken game of target practice with Vollmer and accidentally shot her to death. He did not receive major prison time, yet would struggle with demons for years to come as a result of the killing.
Writing 'Junky' and 'Naked Lunch'
Burroughs published his first novel, Junky, in 1953 under the name William Lee. The work featured an unflinching, semi-autobiographical look at drug, or "junk," culture. He continued to travel and eventually ended up in Tangiers, strung out and running out of financial resources. He realized he would perish if he didn’t change his path and so traveled to London to receive apomorphine treatments, which he credits as curing his addiction.
With the help of Ginsberg and Kerouac, Burroughs wrote the novel Naked Lunch in Tangiers, which continued to follow the exploits of William Lee in a disturbing drug culture journey. The book featured nonlinear narrative forms with elements of sadomasochism, metamorphoses and satire. Published in 1959, the book wouldn’t be released in the United States until the 1960s due to a highly publicized governmental ban over its content, which pushed Burroughs into the spotlight. He became a figure both acclaimed and spurned.
Around the time of Lunch's release, inspired by artist Brion Gysin, Burroughs began to experiment with the cut-up technique, where random lines of text were cut from a page and rearranged to form new sentences, with the intention of freeing reader's minds from conventional, linear modes of thought. Using this technique with elements of satire and sci-fi, the 1960s saw Burroughs releasing novels like The Soft Machine (1961) and Nova Express (1964), which indicted consumerism and social repression, and the nonfiction work The Yage Letters (1963).
Musical Influence
Burroughs played with audio cut-ups as well via tape recordings. He released his first album in 1965, Call Me Burroughs, which featured his readings of text from Naked Lunch and The Soft Machine. Burroughs not only made waves in the literary world but became a huge influence for many musical artists of the day. The acts Soft Machine and Steely Dan took their names from the writer’s work and Burroughs went on to collaborate with artists of the avant-garde like Laurie Anderson, Sonic Youth and Genesis P-Orridge.
Burroughs continued his literary pursuits as well in the early 1970s, publishing The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (1971) and Exterminator! (1973) and penning a screenplay, The Last Words of Dutch Schulz. By the end of the decade, he worked on a book with Gysin that delved into their cut-up philosophy—The Third Mind (1978).
Burroughs would face family tragedy yet again as his son Billy Burroughs Jr., also a writer, succumbed to substance addiction and died from alcohol-related trauma in 1981.
Death
Burroughs died in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1997.
QUICK FACTS
Name: William Seward Burroughs
Birth Year: 1914
Birth date: February 5, 1914
Birth State: Missouri
Birth City: St. Louis
Birth Country: United States
Gender: Male
Best Known For: William S. Burroughs was a Beat Generation writer known for his startling, nontraditional accounts of drug culture, most famously in the book 'Naked Lunch.'
Industries
Fiction and Poetry
Astrological Sign: Aquarius
Schools
Harvard University
Death Year: 1997
Death date: August 2, 1997
Death State: Kansas
Death City: Lawrence
Death Country: United States
Fact Check
We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us!
CITATION INFORMATION
Article Title: William S. Burroughs Biography
Author: Biography.com Editors
Website Name: The Biography.com website
Url: https://www.biography.com/authors-writers/william-s-burroughs
Access Date:
Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
Last Updated: May 5, 2021
Original Published Date: April 2, 2014
QUOTES | ||||
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Navigation Menu | |||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 25 | https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-american-author-who-got-his-start-after-killing-his-wife-74279c9853df | en | The American Author Who Got His Start After Killing His Wife | [
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] | 2020-10-02T02:42:20.771000+00:00 | In Mexico on September 6, 1951, William Seward Burroughs II shot his wife Joan Vollmer in the head. His wife’s death inspired Burroughs to become a writer. Queer was the twelfth of fourteen novels… | en | Medium | https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-american-author-who-got-his-start-after-killing-his-wife-74279c9853df | In Mexico on September 6, 1951, William Seward Burroughs II shot his wife Joan Vollmer in the head. His wife’s death inspired Burroughs to become a writer.
In the introduction of his book Queer, Burroughs wrote,
“I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing.”
Queer was the twelfth of fourteen novels published in Burroughs’s lifetime, but notably, it was the first he wrote. He started writing Queer the same year Vollmer died, but it was not published until 1985.
Burroughs was an influential writer, visual artist, and a primary figure of the Beat Generation.
The Beginning | |||||
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] | null | [] | 2022-04-25T08:53:38+00:00 | After William Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollmer, he threw away all her possessions. Their son, Bill Jr., never saw a photograph of her. When Bill Jr. was 32, he begged his father to send him a… | en | https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/favicon.ico | Literary Hub | https://lithub.com/on-the-disappearing-of-joan-vollmer-burroughs/ | After William Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollmer, he threw away all her possessions. Their son, Bill Jr., never saw a photograph of her. When Bill Jr. was 32, he begged his father to send him a photo but he didn’t. Allen Ginsberg tried to show him a photo of her dead face, though. Several times.
I’ve only been able to find a handful of photos of Joan Vollmer on the internet, and in half of them she is dead.
But Joan was once so vibrantly alive her “electricity seemed almost palpable,” as Joyce Johnson wrote. Joan sat right next to the men of the Beat Generation, co-creating its ideology. She laughed and breathed and liked to pick blueberries with her baby daughter Julie. Her teenage dream was to live in New York City.
Now she is only remembered as a footnote to William Burroughs’ mythology. On the internet, and in all the libraries I scoured, no one has tried to correct the narrative of her erasure.
Last year, I tried. After lack of interest from many other outlets, my pitch to write about her was accepted by a reputable literary magazine. But several scholars questioned the purpose of my project and my editor tried to get me to dramatize Joan’s promiscuity, while cutting out sections on her childhood and her dreams. Eventually, my story was killed. Simultaneously, my life imploded.
*
In September 2019 I moved from Philadelphia to a small and fairly conservative town in upstate New York. I was so lonely I did things like join an online women’s circle and drive forty-five minutes to Albany just to glance approvingly at anyone who wore black jeans or dressed the least bit alternative. I had one friend other than my partner. I worked a part-time office job at an elementary school and otherwise had nothing to do. I was isolated, and it’s what I had thought I wanted, or needed, to be a writer.
The desire for “proof” of Joan’s significance came up again and again as I spoke to writers and scholars about my work.
I began researching Joan Vollmer in my living room upstate on New Year’s morning, 2020. I’d woken at dawn, used to being jolted awake by my work alarm. Bleary-eyed and hungover, I made green tea and slunk into the living room couch as my partner slept for hours. We’d celebrated the night before with champagne, Jenga, and our radio tuned to a local station that played old Christmas songs. I’d felt warm and safe and in love—all I could have asked for from the holiday.
But beneath the glowing evening was, and always will be, a private anniversary I observe every New Year’s Eve: a body-memory of being 19 in New York City, a shadowy man on a rooftop and what he took from me. That memory coursed through me as I read Kate Zambreno’s Heroines, golden light illuminating the living room windows.
I came across the part where she quotes William Burroughs’ advice to a young writer: SHOOT THE BITCH AND WRITE A BOOK. I circled the line furiously, drawing dozens of exclamation marks down the margin of the page.
How had I not heard more about this?
I decided to research Joan, his wife, the “bitch” he was referencing. I wanted to uncover the ghost-woman, her dreams and her humanity. I did not yet realize how connected my mission was to the anniversary of my assault.
I pulled out my phone and searched her name. I learned she was 28 when she died. I was 28.
William shot Joan in the head.
*
For a year I learned everything I could about Joan, getting up at 5 am before work to read through stacks of library books, gleaning anecdotes and scraps from William’s biographies and texts on Beat history. During that time, my partner and I got married. We also began to fight regularly, and the pandemic magnified our isolation and tensions. I blamed him for our isolation, because we lived near where he grew up, where he had community and I didn’t. Like Joan, who, I learned, was dragged to small, isolated towns on William’s whim, I wanted to move. Also like Joan, I had no money. I could barely pay my half of the rent, whereas my husband, while still earning a modest salary, made three times more than me and paid most of our bills. One day I was struck by the realization that I’d fallen into the archetype of the disempowered wife.
Researching Joan made me feel important. I spent more and more time in the large, converted closet I used as a studio, reading about her and taking extensive notes.
As the months passed, I wasn’t surprised to discover she was much more than a mere footnote to William’s story. She was a vibrant, creative spirit. In the 1940s, she curated community in her Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan and led all-night discussions that laid the groundwork for the Beat Generation’s hallmark characteristics: social freedom and spontaneous literary composition. She introduced Jack Kerouac to Marcel Proust and William Burroughs to the Mayan Codices, and, through her eventual descent into addiction, partially inspired Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. The Beat Generation was as much a cultural movement as a literary one, and through her sexual fluidity and refusal to submit to socially prescribed female timidity, Joan inspired women to become “Beat.”
Again and again, I wondered why no one had bothered to write about her, beyond her relationship to William or the mythology of her death.
*
I came to care for her, almost as a friend. After learning her half-dozen letters were stored at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, I requested them. An archivist sent me scanned copies, and as I read through them, I laughed as she called her estranged husband Paul a “poor little soul” for assuming they’d get back together, and I felt furious on her behalf as she wrote about her plight to convince doctors she “wasn’t completely mad” after being institutionalized for being high on Benzedrine. I pictured Joan doing her favorite thing: sitting in the river by her and William’s shack in Texas, water up to her belly, her daughter Julie splashing at her feet. Her best friend Edie said she’d skip classes at Barnard to sit in the bath all day, bubbles up to her chin, reading every newspaper in New York City.
Joan’s face was like a “little heart.” She had large, curious eyes and a tight, serious mouth. Lips always painted red. She wore her brown hair bobbed, parted in the middle. It fanned out in soft, sculpted waves. She reminded everyone of Greta Garbo.
When I looked at a photo of Joan, I felt as Siri Hustvedt did, looking at Pablo Picasso’s Weeping Woman: “She is of me while I look and, later, she is of me when I remember her.”
And I discovered many parallels between her life and my own. She grew up in Loudonville, New York, half an hour from where I lived. She took care of her two small children all day while I worked in the service of small children at an elementary school. We had both experienced deep loneliness: Joan alone in small towns far from anyone she knew as William traveled the world, me upstate during a pandemic, far from friends and my creative community in West Philly. And, like Joan, I hadn’t yet created a body of work that would deem me worthy of literary recognition. In defending Joan, I was defending myself and my own creative potential.
When a magazine accepted my pitch to write about her, I was ecstatic. Finally, I thought. After 70 years of having her life and legacy stomped on, Joan Vollmer would begin to be known. And, after years of scribbling in isolation, sometimes posting on my Tumblr or interviewing bands for small blogs, I would be seen as a “real” writer.
*
With the magazine behind my name, I reached back out to scholars and writers who hadn’t responded to my earlier inquiries. It was bittersweet to see their names suddenly in my inbox.
I thought of Kate Zambreno and her account of how T.S. Eliot’s estate denied her access to Viv Eliot’s papers because she hadn’t proved she was researching for publication rather than “private study.” How only a select few hoard information, dole it out sparingly, and control the narrative, usually in a way that favors white men.
One of the scholars who responded to my second request was Nancy M. Grace. I was thrilled. Nancy was one of the first, and remains one of the only, scholars to acknowledge that Beat history existed outside the trio of William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg; that women were writing and working alongside them, but had been dismissed as second-class, if acknowledged at all.
Over the phone, Nancy was kind and generous with her time. She agreed that Joan wasn’t just a “muse” and that the common narrative surrounding her death—and the way it is used to bolster William’s outlaw persona—undermines the seriousness of the act and contributes to our culture’s permissiveness toward violence against women. She told me I was doing important work, and it meant everything to receive her validation so early into my project.
Yet I also felt Nancy’s hesitation and wariness. She cautioned me not to project too much onto Joan’s life for lack of documentation. I understood she was speaking as an academic, where documentation is an essential component of crafting an argument, but academia had failed Joan. Its methods, as I understood them, didn’t leave room for questioning what gets valued as “proof.”
In The Gender of History, historian Bonnie Smith writes about the subjectiveness of “proof” and how the ephemera of women’s lives (scrapbooks, cross-stitch, diaries, letters) are often intentionally discarded as insignificant. Doireann Ní Ghríofa, in her recent book, A Ghost in the Throat, laments that Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s letters and journals were discarded after her death, whereas her husband and brothers’ were kept. In Joan’s obituary, more space is given to her husband and father’s occupations than to her own life or achievements.
It’s true that Joan is only famous because of her relation to the Beat men. William Burroughs directed this narrative—through killing Joan, he ensured she wouldn’t live to create a body of work.
This dynamic, of academia—and our larger culture—devaluing facts and documents related to women’s lives, was perpetuated in my conversation with Nancy. For example, she believed Joan had been addicted to benzedrine, which has been documented in hospital records. Yet she didn’t think there was enough evidence to definitively claim Joan was intelligent or had a vibrant spirit. When I told her about Joan’s letters, and their humor and wit, she said she didn’t know they existed.
*
The desire for “proof” of Joan’s significance came up again and again as I spoke to writers and scholars about my work. After I handed in my first draft to my editor, he said my essay was well-researched, but he wanted to see more evidence of how she informed the literary output of the Beats. He supported my idea of giving Joan more agency in the formation of the Beat Generation, but only in relation to the men.
It’s true that Joan is only famous because of her relation to the Beat men. I know that when speaking about her I must honor that connection, how much more famous they were, and their significant, culture-shifting literary output. I still bristle at this, though, because William directed this narrative—through killing Joan, he ensured she wouldn’t live to create a body of work or transcend her addictions. She may never have, but she also may have joined the ranks of Beat women who, later in their lives, wrote memoirs as correctives to their previous erasure. Women like Carolyn Cassady, Diane di Prima, and Hettie Jones.
There are so many women like Joan, unable to tell their stories. There are also devoted writers, across academic fields, who are engaged with the complicated, and often exhausting, work of recovering them. These writers are also navigating a relatively new, and continuously evolving, approach to scholarship, piecing together lives from scraps they’ve exhumed from the depths of the dominant cultural narrative.
After I handed in my first draft, my editor commented, “the narrative starts going once she gets to NYC and sleeps around and meets the Beats, so get there as soon as possible.” He wanted me to cut my discovery of a promising story Joan wrote when she was a teenager, the prizes she received in high school, and her journalism scholarship to Barnard—all evidence of her literary ambitions and intelligence. I thought of the famous Angela Carter quote: “Picasso liked cutting up women.”
And I felt the violence of these men’s incisions. In my closet-studio I felt myself shrinking, like Sibyl in her jar. Laughed at, taunted. My papers dispersed in the wind.
My husband and I separated. I cried openly at work. I drank and wandered around our apartment in a ratty nightdress, a specter, haunting myself. I dreamed of shit and death. I stopped speaking to my family.
Reality is not a tall tale or legend. Reality is not always the “gripping scenes full of action” my editor said my piece was sorely lacking. Reality is dailiness, small pleasures, and boredom. It is a wife alone in her apartment, unsure how to move her body through the world. It is Joan begging William for affection. It is the everyday coping mechanisms women employ to survive a world that treats them brutally.
*
After her death, Joan continued to be brutalized, dissected.
William’s literary executor James Grauerholz wrote a 70-page document about Joan’s death in which he deconstructed the events surrounding her murder. He writes about what kind of gun William may have used, how many people were in the room, and how long William spent in jail (only two weeks). He puts William “on trial” and asks the readers to act as “judge and jury.” He turns her death into a spectacle, a murder-mystery. It’s the longest piece of writing on Joan, by far, but it obscures Joan the woman almost completely.
Still, I reached out to Grauerholz for information, figuring if anyone knew more, he would. Plus, he seemed sympathetic to her situation; in his paper he mentioned being responsible for getting William to write an inscription for the unmarked cemetery niche where Joan’s remains were stored. This was after her bones had been dug up from their original grave—due to William and her family not paying the plot fees.
Grauerholz’s response was short and vague. He referred me to various archives I’d already looked at. He said William never talked about Joan. That’s it. Tight-lipped. William’s self-identified “best friend” for dozens of years, his literary executor, his sometimes-lover (according to Burroughs: The Movie), had nothing to say about Joan.
When I reached out again several months later, Grauerholz told me about two other researchers, one with a PhD, who had already submitted a final draft of their book-length biography on Joan for publication. He said they had “very far outstripped” my efforts, and that it was unclear what options I had moving forward—but that I needed to speak to the other researchers to find out. His language was patronizing, even threatening. It reflected the attitude I’d continuously encountered in academia, which insisted that without significant documentation on her life, Joan wasn’t worthy of attention—certainly not multiple books.
That night I dreamt I came across a family burial ground that had been abandoned. I couldn’t believe the recent generations of family members had let it go to seed, when it contained beautifully engraved tombstones and rows of leather-bound books full of valuable information, now entangled in weeds. I resolved to be the keeper and librarian of the gravesite, to not let it sink into dirt and obscurity.
*
A few months ago, I moved back to West Philly, shedding the stale narrative of being an artist-in-isolation. Once I made the decision to change my life, I unlocked hidden stores of energy that propelled me forward, rapturously. Surrounded by moving boxes, I recorded an entire albums-worth of songs onto my laptop. I quit my job. I turned thirty and felt younger than I’d ever felt in my life.
My husband and I reconciled and hosted a house-warming party at our new apartment, full of friends and acquaintances we hadn’t seen for two years. My virtual women’s circle, the one I’d been so skeptical of joining, provided crucial support for my life changes. My friends, mostly women and nonbinary feminist artists in their late twenties and early thirties, understood, unquestioningly, what I was calling my “Joan project.” They were also, like me, “emerging” in their creative fields, and they also worked outside the structures of academia.
I put my Joan project aside. I told my therapist about all the pushback, and how my stress manifested in headaches and neck pain, but how I was determined to forge ahead regardless. She told me about two kinds of grief: there’s the grief of living in the space of unrealized potential and dreams, which is, in many ways, where Joan existed. And where my grandmothers, immigrants who struggled with the loneliness of their displacement, existed. Where so many women exist. Then there’s the grief of honoring these women and working through difficulty, which is the privileged position I am in now.
There is so much more to say about Joan. I am working on a book, not a straightforward biography of her life, but a story that begins to explore who she was while also placing her in the context of a male-dominated art world—an art world that has, for too long, turned a blind eye to the harm done—included, in some cases, murder or alleged murder—by supposed male “geniuses” (e.g. Carl Andre, Norman Mailer, Sid Vicious, Louis Althusser, Bertrand Cantat, Robert Blake, Harry Horse, and Spade Cooley). Within this story is my own story, too: myself in upstate New York, making less money than my husband, my loneliness and isolation. And also, my ability to do what Joan could not: to move, to change my life, and to write and share that writing publicly. To walk through the city at night, alone, cheeks pinkening in the wind. | ||||
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Burroughs was born in 1914, the younger of two sons of a prominent family in St. Louis, Missouri. His grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company, which evolved into the Burroughs Corporation. Burroughs' mother, Laura Hammon Lee (1888-1970), was the daughter of a minister whose family claimed to be related to Robert E. Lee. His father, Mortimer Perry Burroughs, ran an antique and gift shop, Cobblestone Gardens, first in St. Louis, then in Palm Beach, Florida.
Burroughs attended John Burroughs School in St. Louis where his first published essay, "Personal Magnetism," was published in the John Burroughs Review in 1929. He then attended The Los Alamos Ranch School in New Mexico, which was stressful for him. The school was a boarding school for the wealthy, "where the spindly sons of the rich could be transformed into manly specimens." Burroughs kept journals documenting an erotic attachment to another boy. These remained undiscovered, and in fact he kept his sexual orientation concealed well into adulthood. He was soon expelled from Los Alamos after taking chloral hydrate in Santa Fe with a fellow student.
Harvard University
He finished high school at Taylor School in St. Louis and, in 1932, left home to pursue an arts degree at Harvard University. During the summers, he worked as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, even covering the police docket. He disliked the work, and refused to cover some events like the death of a drowned child. He lost his virginity in an East St. Louis whore house that summer with a female prostitute he regularly patronized. Back at Harvard, Burroughs was introduced to the gay subculture of New York City. He visited lesbian dives, piano bars, and the Harlem and Greenwich Village homosexual underground with a wealthy friend from Kansas City, Richard Stern. They would drive from Boston to New York in a reckless fashion. Once, Stern scared Burroughs so much, he asked that he be let out of the vehicle. Burroughs graduated from Harvard University in 1936. According to Ted Morgan's Literary Outlaw,
His parents, upon his graduation, had decided to give him a monthly allowance of $200 out of their earnings from Cobblestone Gardens, a tidy sum in those days. It was enough to keep him going, and indeed it guaranteed his survival for the next twenty-five years, arriving with welcome regularity. The allowance was a ticket to freedom; it allowed him to live where he wanted to and to forgo employment. However, Burroughs's parents never had a great fortune; they had sold the rights to his grandfather's invention and had no share in the Burroughs Corporation.
Europe
After leaving Harvard, Burroughs' formal education ended, except for brief flirtations as a graduate student of anthropology at Harvard and as a medical student in Vienna, Austria. He traveled to Europe, which proved a window into Austrian and Hungarian Weimar-Era homosexuality; he picked up boys in steam baths in Vienna, and moved in a circle of exiles, homosexuals, and runaways. There, he met Ilse Klapper, a Jewish woman fleeing the country's Nazi government. The two were never romantically involved, but Burroughs married her, against the wishes of his parents, in Croatia to allow her to gain a United States visa. She made her way to New York City, and eventually divorced Burroughs, although they remained friends for many years." After returning to the U.S., he held a string of uninteresting jobs. In 1939, his emotional health became a concern to his parents, especially after he deliberately severed the last joint of his left little finger to impress a man he was infatuated with. This event made its way into his early fiction as the short story "The Finger".
Beginning of The Beats
Burroughs enlisted in the U.S. Army early in 1942, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the U.S. into World War II. But when he was classified as a 1-A Infantry, not an officer, he became dejected. His mother recognized her son's depression and got Burroughs a civilian disability discharge — a release from duty based on the premise he should have not been allowed to enlist due to previous mental instability. After being evaluated by a family friend, who was also a neurologist at a psychiatric treatment center, Burroughs waited five months in limbo at Jefferson Barracks outside St. Louis before being discharged. During that time he met a Chicago soldier also awaiting release, and once Burroughs was free, he moved to Chicago and held a variety of jobs, including one as an exterminator. When two of his friends from St. Louis, Lucien Carr, a University of Chicago student, and David Kammerer, Carr's homosexual admirer, left for New York City, Burroughs followed.
Joan Vollmer
In 1944, Burroughs began living with Joan Vollmer Adams in an apartment they shared with Jack Kerouac and Edie Parker, Kerouac's first wife. Vollmer Adams was married to a GI with whom she had a young daughter, Julie Adams. Burroughs and Kerouac got into trouble with the law for failing to report a murder. The murder involved Lucien Carr, who had killed David Kammerer in a confrontation over Kammerer's incessant and unwanted advances. During this time, Burroughs began using morphine and quickly became addicted. He eventually sold heroin in Greenwich Village to support his habit.
Vollmer also became an addict, but her drug of choice was an amphetamine, Benzedrine, which was sold over-the-counter as a decongestant inhalant at that time. Because of her addiction and social circle, her husband immediately divorced her after returning from the war. Vollmer would become Burroughs’ common law wife. Burroughs was soon arrested for forging a narcotics prescription and was sentenced to return to his parents' care in St. Louis. Vollmer's addiction led to a temporary psychosis which resulted in her admission to hospital and the custody of her child was endangered. Yet after Burroughs completed his "house arrest" in St. Louis, he returned to New York, released Vollmer from the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital, and moved with her and her daughter to Texas. Vollmer soon became pregnant with Burroughs' child. Their son, William S. Burroughs, Jr., was born in 1947. The family moved briefly to New Orleans in 1948.
Burroughs was arrested after police searched his home and found letters between him and Allen Ginsberg referring to a possible delivery of marijuana. Burroughs fled to Mexico to escape possible detention in Louisiana's Angola state prison. Vollmer and their children followed him. Burroughs planned to stay in Mexico for at least five years, the length of his charge's statute of limitations. Burroughs also attended classes at the Mexico City College in 1950 in Spanish,"Mexican picture writing" and codices, and the Mayan language.
In 1951, Burroughs shot and killed Vollmer in a drunken game of "William Tell" at a party above the American-owned Bounty Bar in Mexico City. He spent 13 days in jail before his brother came to Mexico City and distributed funds to Mexican lawyers and officials which allowed Burroughs to be released on bail while he awaited trial for the killing, which was ruled culpable homicide. Vollmer’s daughter, Julie Adams, went to live with her grandmother, and William S. Burroughs, Jr. went to St. Louis to live with his grandparents. Burroughs reported every Monday morning to the jail in Mexico City while his prominent Mexican attorney worked to resolve the case.
According to James Grauerholz two witnesses had agreed to testify that the gun had gone off accidentally while he was checking to see if it was loaded, and the ballistics experts were bribed to support this story. Nevertheless, the trial was continuously delayed and Burroughs began to write what would eventually become the short novel Queer while awaiting his trial to start. However, when his attorney fled Mexico after his own legal problems involving a car accident and altercation with the son of a government official, Burroughs decided, according to Ted Morgan, to "skip" and return to the United States. He was convicted in absentia of homicide and sentenced to two years, which was suspended.
Birth of a writer
Burroughs later said that shooting Vollmer was a pivotal event in his life, and one which instigated his writing:
Yet he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr/Kammerer situation that was left unpublished. Years later, in the documentary What Happened to Kerouac?, Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work." An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in "Word Virus", a compendium of William Burroughs' writing that was published after his death in 1997.
Before Vollmer died, Burroughs had largely completed his first two novels in Mexico, although Queer would not be published until 1985. His first novel was adapted from letters he originally wrote to Ginsberg who encouraged him to think of writing a novel. Junkie was written at the urging of Allen Ginsberg, who was instrumental in getting the work published, even as a cheap mass market paperback. Ace Books published the novel in 1953 under the pen name William Lee, retitling it Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict. (it was later republished as Junkie or Junky). After Vollmer's death, Burroughs drifted through South America for several months, looking for a drug called Yage, which promised the user an ability for telepathy. A novel resulted from this time, The Yage Letters, published in 1963 by San Francisco's City Lights Books comprising the letters between Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg.
Naked Lunch
During 1953, Burroughs was at loose ends. Due to legal problems, he was unable to live in the cities towards which he was most inclined. He spent time with his parents in Palm Beach, Florida, and New York City with Allen Ginsberg. When Ginsberg refused his romantic advance, Burroughs went to Rome to meet Alan Ansen on a vacation financed by his parents' continuing support. When he found Rome and Ansen’s company dreary, inspired by Paul Bowles' fiction, he decided to head for Tangier, Morocco.
In a home owned by a known procurer of homosexual prostitutes for visiting American and English men, he rented a room and began to write a large body of text that he personally referred to as Interzone. He lived in Tangier for several months, before returning to the United States where he suffered several personal indignities- Ginsberg was in California and refused to see him, A. A. Wyn, the publisher of Junkie, was not forthcoming with his royalties and his parents were threatening to cut off his allowance. All signs pointed him back to Tangier, a place where his parents would have to continue the support and one where drugs were freely available.
He left in November 1954 and spent the next four years there working on the fiction that would later become Naked Lunch, as well as attempting to write commercial articles about Tangier. He sent these writings to Ginsberg, his literary agent for Junkie, but none were published until 1989 when Interzone, a collection of short stories, was published. Under the strong influence of marijuana and a German-made opiate called Eukodol (oxycodone), Burroughs settled in to write. Eventually, Ginsberg and Kerouac, who had traveled to Tangier in 1957, helped Burroughs edit these episodes into Naked Lunch.
Whereas Junkie and Queer were conventional in style, Naked Lunch was his first venture into a non-linear style which led him into slicing phrases and words up to create new sentences. In Tangier, he met Brion Gysin, a Swiss-Canadian painter who owned 1001 Nights, a popular bar. Burroughs initially found Gysin's paintings tedious and uninspiring, yet in time the two would cultivate a rich friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative. Perhaps thinking of his crazed physician, Dr. Benway, he described Naked Lunch as a book that could be cut into at any point. Although not science fiction, the book does seem to forecast — with eerie prescience — such later phenomena as AIDS, liposuction, autoerotic fatalities and the crack pandemic.
Burroughs's Interzone could be seen as a metaphorical stateless city, but the term probably was derived from the "International Zone" in Tangier, a city occupied after World War II by the French, English, Spanish, and Americans each with their own courts and administration. During this time in its history, Tangier was an international refuge for criminals, artists, drug smugglers and tax-evading tycoons. It was not an exaggeration to say everything could be had for a price. When in Tangier, Burroughs's son Billy, now a teenager, came to live with him at the insistence of his parents, but the young man returned to Florida after several months with his father. It was Burroughs' boyfriend, Ian Sommerville, who recognized the boy was homesick and urged Burroughs to send him back to the U.S. and the surroundings he had grown up in. A few months later Billy returned to Palm Beach to live with his grandparents again.
Excerpts from Naked Lunch were first published in the United States in 1958. The novel was rejected initially by City Lights Books, the publisher of Ginsberg's Howl, and Olympia Press publisher Maurice Girodias, who had published English language novels in France that were controversial for their subjective views of sex and anti-social characters. But Allen Ginsberg worked to get excerpts published in Black Mountain Review and Chicago Review in 1958. Irving Rosenthal, student editor of Chicago Review, a quarterly journal partially subsidized by the university, promised to publish more excerpts from Naked Lunch, when he was fired from his position in 1958 after Chicago Daily News columnist Jack Mabley called the first excerpt obscene. Rosenthal went on to publish more in his newly created literary journal Big Table No. 1; however, these copies elicited such contempt, the editors were convicted of sending obscene material through the United States Mail by the United States Postmaster General, meaning the copies could not be mailed to subscribers.
This controversy made Naked Lunch interesting to Maurice Girodias again, and he published the novel in 1959. After the novel was published, it slowly became infamous across Europe and the United States, garnering interest from not just members of the counterculture of the 1960s, but literary critics like Mary McCarthy. Once published in the United States, Naked Lunch was prosecuted as obscene by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, followed by other states. In 1966 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work "not obscene" based on criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs's novel still stands as the last obscenity trial against a work of literature prosecuted in the United States.
The manuscripts that produced Naked Lunch also produced the later works The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1963). These novels feature extensive use of cut-up technique, which influenced all of Burroughs subsequent fiction to a degree. During his friendship and artistic collaborations with Brion Gysin and Ian Sommerville the technique was combined with images, Gysin's paintings, and sound, Somerville's tape recorders. Burroughs was so dedicated to the cut-up method, he often defended his use of the technique to editors and publishers, most notably Dick Seaver - at Grove Press in the 1960s and Holt Rinehart in 1980s.
Paris and the ‘Beat Hotel’
Burroughs moved to a run down hotel in Paris' Latin Quarter neighborhood in 1959 when Naked Lunch was still looking for a publisher. Tangier with its easy access to drugs, small cliques of homosexuals, growing political unrest and odd collection of criminals grew heavy on Burroughs. He went to Paris to meet Ginsberg and talk with Olympia Press. In so doing, he left a brewing legal problem, which eventually transferred itself to Paris. Paul Lund, a former British career criminal and cigarette smuggler Burroughs met in Tangier, was arrested on suspicion of importing narcotics into France.
Lund gave up Burroughs and some evidence implicated Burroughs in the possible importation into France of narcotics. Once again, the man faced criminal charges, this time in Paris for conspiracy to import opiates, when the Moroccan authorities forwarded their investigation to French officials. Yet it was under this impending threat of criminal sanction that Maurice Girodias published Naked Lunch, and it was helpful in getting Burroughs a suspended sentence, as a literary career, according to Ted Morgan, is a respected profession in France.
The ‘Beat Hotel’ was a typical European style rooming house hotel, with common toilets on every floor, and a small place for personal cooking in the room. Life there was documented by the photographer Harold Chapman, who lived in the attic room. This shabby, inexpensive hotel was populated by Gregory Corso, Ginsberg and Peter Orlovsky for several months after Naked Lunch first appeared. The actual process of publication was partly a function of its 'cut-up' presentation to the printer.
Girodias had given Burroughs only ten days to prepare the manuscript for print galleys, and Burroughs sent over the manuscript in pieces, preparing the parts in no particular order. When it was published in this authentically ‘random’ manner, Burroughs liked it better than the initial plan. International rights to the work were sold soon after, and Burroughs used the $3,000 advance from Grove Press to buy drugs. Naked Lunch was featured in a 1959 Life magazine cover story, partly as an article that highlighted the growing Beat literary movement.
The London years
Burroughs left Paris for London in 1966 to take the cure again with Dr. Dent, a well known English medical doctor who spearheaded a painless heroin withdrawal treatment which utilized an electronic box affixed to the patient's temple. Keith Richards and Anita Pallenberg would take this same cure over a decade later from Dr. Dent's nurse, Smitty. Though he ultimately relapsed, Burroughs ended up working out of London for six years, traveling back to the United States on several notable occasions, including one time escorting his son to Lexington Narcotics Farm and Prison after the younger Burroughs had been convicted of prescription fraud in Florida.
In the "Afterward" to the compilation of his son's two previously published novels Speed and Kentucky Ham, Burroughs writes that he thought he had a "small habit" and left London quickly without any narcotics because he suspected the U.S. customs would search him well upon arrival. He claims he went through the most excrutiating two months of opiate withdrawal while seeing his son through his trial and sentencing, actually traveling with Billy to Lexington, Kentucky from Miami to ensure his son entered the hospital he once spent time in as a volunteer admission. This confession, published in 1981, might strike many readers as proof of Burroughs poor parenting and example, but read in full light of the difficult circumstances he found himself in, it seems like some stubborn proof that Burroughs did care enough about his son to return and see him through the criminal process, even though it caused him much personal pain.
Earlier Burroughs revisited St. Louis, Missouri taking a large advance from Playboy to write an article about his trip back to St.Louis that eventually was published in the Paris Review, after Burroughs refused to alter the style for Playboy publishers. In 1968 Burroughs joined Jean Genet, John Sack, and Terry Southern in covering the 1968 Democratic National Convention for Esquire magazine. Southern and Burroughs, who first became acquainted with one another in London, would remain lifelong friends and collaborators. In 1972, Burroughs and Southern unsuccessfully attempted to adapt Naked Lunch for the screen in conjunction with American game show producer Chuck Barris.
Burroughs supported himself and his addiction by publishing pieces in small literary presses. His avant garde reputation grew internationally as the hippie counterculture discovered his earlier works. He developed a close friendship with Anthony Balch and lived with a young hustler named John Brady who continuously brought home young women despite Burroughs protestations. In the midst of this personal turmoil, he managed to complete two works, a novel written in screen play format: The Last Words of Dutch Schulz (1969) and the traditional prose-format novel The Wild Boys (1971).
The 1960s also saw Burroughs join, then leave the Church of Scientology. His subsequent critical writings about the church and his review of a book entitled Inside Scientology by Robert Kaufman led to a battle of letters between Burroughs and Scientology supporters that played out in the pages of Rolling Stone.
Exile returns
In 1974, concerned about his friend's well-being, Allen Ginsberg got Burroughs a contract to teach creative writing at the City College of New York. Burroughs successfully withdrew from heroin and moved to New York. He eventually found an apartment, affectionately dubbed 'The Bunker', on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. The dwelling was partially a converted YMCA gym, complete with lockers and communal showers. The building fell within New York City rent control policies that made it extremely cheap; in fact, it was only about four hundred dollars a month until 1981 when the rent control rules changed doubling the rent overnight.
Burroughs chalked up 'teacher' to another one of the jobs he did not like, as he lasted only a semester teaching; he found the students uninteresting and without much creative talent. Although he needed income desperately, he even turned down a teaching position at the University at Buffalo for $15,000 a semester. "The teaching gig was a lesson in never again. You were giving out all this energy and nothing was coming back." His saviour was the newly arrived, twenty-one year old book seller and beat generation devotee James Grauerholz, who worked for Burroughs part-time as a secretary as well as in a book store. It was Grauerholz who floated the idea of reading tours, something similar to rock and roll touring, or stand-up comedian dates in clubs across the country.
Grauerholz had managed several rock bands in Kansas and took the lead in booking Burroughs reading tours that would help support him throughout the next two decades. It raised his public profile which eventually aided in new publishing contracts. Thus Burroughs capitalized on the emerging American celebrity culture, deciding to relocate back to the United States permanently in 1976. He then began to associate with New York cultural players Andy Warhol, John Giorno, Lou Reed, Patti Smith, and Susan Sontag, frequently entertaining them at the Bunker. Throughout early 1977, Burroughs collaborated with Southern and Dennis Hopper on a screen adaptation of Junky. Financed by a reclusive acquaintance of Burroughs, the project lost traction after financial problems and creative disagreements between Hopper and Burroughs.
Organized by Columbia professor Sylvere Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs' work held from November 30th-December 2nd 1978 at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem) in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary & Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52s, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Deborah Harry & Chris Stein.
In 1976, Billy Burroughs was eating dinner with his father and Allen Ginsberg in Boulder, Colorado at Ginsberg’s Buddhist poetry school (Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics) at Chogyam Trungpa's Naropa University when he began to vomit blood. William had not seen his son for over a year and was alarmed at his appearance when Billy arrived at Ginsberg’s apartment. Although Billy had successfully published two short novels in the 1970s, and was deemed by literary critics like Ann Charters as a bona fide “second generation beat writer”, his brief marriage to a teenage waitress had fallen apart. Under his constant drinking, there were long periods where Billy was out of contact with any family or friends.
The diagnosis was liver cirrhosis so complete the only treatment was a rarely performed liver transplant operation. Fortunately, the University of Colorado Medical Center was one of two places in the nation that performed transplants under the pioneering work of Dr. Thomas Starzl. Billy underwent the procedure and beat the thirty percent survival odds. His father spent many months in 1976 and 1977 in Colorado, helping Billy through many additional surgeries and complications. Ted Morgan’s biography asserts that their relationship was not spontaneous and lacked real warmth or intimacy. Allen Ginsberg was supportive to both Burroughs and his son throughout the long period of recovery.
In London, he had begun to write what would become the first novel of a three book trilogy. Between 1981 and 1987 he published Cities of the Red Night (1981), The Place of Dead Roads (1983) and The Western Lands (1987). Grauerholz helped edit Cities when it was first rejected by Burroughs’ long-time editor Dick Seaver at Holt Rinehart, after it was deemed too disjointed. Interestingly, the novel was written as a straight narrative and then chopped up into a more random pattern leaving the reader to sort through the hip-hop of characters and events. This technique was definitely different than earlier cut-up methods which were organically accidental from the start.
Nevertheless, the novel was reassembled and published, still without a straight linear form, but with fewer breaks in the story. The back and forth sway of the read replicated the theme of the trilogy, time travel adventures where Burroughs’ narrators re-write episodes in history and thus reform mankind. Although reviews were not generally favorable for Cities, Anthony Burgess panned the work in Saturday Review saying Burroughs was boring readers with repetitive episodes of pederast fantasy and sexual strangulation that lacked any comprehensible world view or theology, the novel proved Burroughs was still a creative force worth noting. Emerging writers, like J. G. Ballard, argued Burroughs was shaping a new literary “mythography”...
In 1981, Billy Burroughs died in Florida. He had cut off contact with his father several years before, even publishing an article in Esquire claiming the famous author had ruined his life and revealing that he had been molested by one of his father's friends as a fourteen year old while visiting his dad in Tangiers, something that he had previously kept to himself. The liver transplant had not cured his urge to drink and Billy suffered from serious health complications years after the operation. He had stopped taking his transplant rejection drugs, and was found near the side of a Florida highway by a stranger. He died shortly afterwards.
Burroughs was in New York when he heard from Allen Ginsberg of the tragedy. Burroughs himself, by 1979, was once again addicted to heroin. The cheap heroin that was easily purchased outside his door in the Lower East Side made its way into his veins, coupled with "gifts" from the overzealous if well-intentioned admirers who frequently visited the Bunker. Although Burroughs would have episodes of being free from heroin, from this point until his death, he was regularly addicted to the drug; he died in 1997 on a methadone maintenance program and James Grauerholz mentioned in an introduction to Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs that it was part of his job, while managing Burroughs reading tours in the 80s and 90s, to deal with the “underworld” in each city to secure the author’s needed drugs.
Later years in Kansas
Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kansas, in 1983 and lived the remainder of his life there. In 1984 he signed a seven-book deal with Viking Press after he signed with literary agent Andrew Wylie. This deal included the publication rights to the 1953 unpublished novel Queer. With this money he purchased a small bungalow for $29,000. He was finally inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters in 1983 after several attempts by Allen Ginsberg to get him accepted. He attended the induction ceremony in May 1983. Lawrence Ferlinghetti remarked the induction of Burroughs into the Academy proved Hebert Marcuse's point that capitalistic society had a great ability to incorporate its one-time outsiders.
By late 1980s, Burroughs had become a counterculture figure and collaborated with performers ranging from Bill Laswell's Material and Laurie Anderson to Throbbing Gristle, Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and Ministry, and in Gus Van Sant's 1989 film Drugstore Cowboy, playing a character based on a short story he published in Exterminator!, "the "Priest" they called him". In 1990, he released the spoken word album Dead City Radio, with musical back-up from producers Hal Willner and Nelson Lyon, and alternative rock band Sonic Youth. A collaboration with Nick Cave and Tom Waits resulted in a collection of short prose, "Smack my Crack", later released as a spoken word album in 1987.
He also collaborated with director Robert Wilson and musician Tom Waits to create The Black Rider, a play which opened at the Thalia Theatre in Hamburg in 1990, to critical acclaim, and was later performed all over Europe and the U.S. In 1991, with Burroughs's sanction, director David Cronenberg took on the seemingly impossible task of adapting Naked Lunch into a full-length feature film. The film opened to critical acclaim. He became a member of a chaos magic organization, the Illuminates of Thanateros in 1993, a group whose very existence would not have been possible without Burroughs' works.
Burroughs died at the age of 83 in Lawrence, at 6:50 p.m. on August 2, 1997 from complications of the previous day's heart attack. He is interred in the family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri at these coordinates: 38.690310° N 90.231720° W. The grave is unmarked as of March 26, 2007 and to the right of William S. Burroughs (1857-1898) white granite obelisk. A few months after his death, a collection of writings spanning his entire career, Word Virus, was published. A collection of journal entries written during the final months of Burrough's life were published as the book Last Words and a memoir by Burroughs entitled Evil River, after initially being announced for a 2005 release, is now scheduled for release by Viking Press in 2007.
Literary style and periods
Burroughs's major works can be divided into four different periods. The dates refer to the time of writing, not publication, which in some cases was not until decades later: | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 1 | https://zkm.de/en/person/william-s-burroughs | en | William S. Burroughs | https://zkm.de/themes/custom/zkm/favicon.ico | https://zkm.de/themes/custom/zkm/favicon.ico | [
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"William S. Burroughs"
] | 2024-07-11T14:42:21+02:00 | en | ZKM | https://zkm.de/en/person/william-s-burroughs | Year of birth, place
1914
United States
Year of death, place
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Artist of the Collection | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 0 | 92 | https://vitalrec.com/obitindexes/SeymourTribune.html | en | Obituaries for The Seymour Tribune in Jackson County,, IN | [] | [] | [] | [
""
] | null | [] | null | null | Below is an index of obituaries from The Seymour Tribune in Jackson County, IN since April 25, 2007. Obituaries can been useful when doing genealogy research. They can contain birth date and place, death place and date, other places the deceased has lived, maiden name, and names of close relatives.
If you would like to see the full obituary for any of the indexes listed below you can search the archives at tribtown.com for the last 30 days.
If you would like a copy of the full obituary and can't find it online, please e-mail me. | ||||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 28 | https://gulfnews.com/today-history/august-2-1997-beat-author-william-burroughs-dies-at-83-1.2067410 | en | August 2, 1997: Beat author William Burroughs dies at 83 | [
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] | 2017-08-01T16:36:39+04:00 | Counterculture author best known for the novel Naked Lunch based on his experiences as a drug addict | en | https://gulfnews.com/today-history/august-2-1997-beat-author-william-burroughs-dies-at-83-1.2067410 | Beat author William Burroughs dies at 83
1997 - Beat generation writer William S. Burroughs, the counterculture author best known for the novel Naked Lunch based on his experiences as a drug addict, died at the age of 83. Burroughs died at Lawrence Memorial Hospital a day after suffering a heart attack. Along with the poet Allen Ginsberg and other writers such as Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Burroughs came to embody the bohemian, anti-establishment beat generation literary movement. The controversial Burroughs spent years as a drug addict and accidentally killed his wife. In later years, he achieved cult status among a generation of disaffected middle-class youth.
August 2
1824 - Turkey captures island of Psara from the Greeks.
1847 - William A. Leidesdorff launches the first steam boat in San Francisco Bay.
1858 - British Parliament passes the India Bill, which transfers the government of India from the East India Company to the Crown.
1870 - The first tube railway opens in London.
1892 - Charles A Wheeler patents a prototype of the escalator.
1928 - Italy signs 20-year treaty of friendship with Ethiopia.
1932 - Carl Anderson discovers and photographs a positron, the first known antiparticle.
1934 - Germany’s President Paul von Hindenburg dies, and Adolf Hitler assumes the title of Der Fuehrer.
1959 - US military successfully tests heat-seeking missiles to be used by infantrymen.
1977 - North Korea creates a ‘military sea boundary’.
1980 - A bomb explodes at the train station in Bologna, Italy, killing 85.
1984 - The three hijackers of an Air France jet surrender at Tehran airport after releasing 45 hostages before an explosion blows a hole in the fuselage of the Boeing 737.
1993 - Serb gunners destroy a vital bridge in Croatia, severing the only land link between the southern Dalmatian coast and the rest of the country.
1997 - The US ends a 20-year-old ban on the sale of most advanced weapons to Latin America.
1999 - 226 people die in India when two trains collide head-on at Gaisal, north of Kolkata.
2001 - Former Bosnian Serb general Radislav Krstic is jailed and becomes the first person convicted of genocide by The Hague war crimes court.
2005 - An Air France A340 jet with 309 people aboard overshoots the runway at Toronto international airport and bursts into flames after plunging into a muddy ravine.
2005 - King Fahd is laid to rest in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.
2007 - An overnight train derails in central Congo after its brakes fail, killing about 100 people.
2011 - The main link on Africa’s fastest railway opens between Johannesburg and the South African capital Pretoria, with speeds of up to 160km/h.
2014 - An explosion kills at least 68 people at a factory that makes wheels in Kunshan city, China. | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 53 | https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-american-author-who-got-his-start-after-killing-his-wife-74279c9853df | en | The American Author Who Got His Start After Killing His Wife | [
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] | 2020-10-02T02:42:20.771000+00:00 | In Mexico on September 6, 1951, William Seward Burroughs II shot his wife Joan Vollmer in the head. His wife’s death inspired Burroughs to become a writer. Queer was the twelfth of fourteen novels… | en | Medium | https://medium.com/crimebeat/the-american-author-who-got-his-start-after-killing-his-wife-74279c9853df | In Mexico on September 6, 1951, William Seward Burroughs II shot his wife Joan Vollmer in the head. His wife’s death inspired Burroughs to become a writer.
In the introduction of his book Queer, Burroughs wrote,
“I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death, and to a realization of the extent to which this event has motivated and formulated my writing.”
Queer was the twelfth of fourteen novels published in Burroughs’s lifetime, but notably, it was the first he wrote. He started writing Queer the same year Vollmer died, but it was not published until 1985.
Burroughs was an influential writer, visual artist, and a primary figure of the Beat Generation.
The Beginning | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 48 | https://time.com/3878907/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | en | William S. Burroughs at 100: Rebel, Junkie, Exile, Genius | [
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"Ben Cosgrove"
] | 2014-02-04T22:00:39+00:00 | On the centenary of the American writer and spoken-word pioneer's birth, LIFE presents photos of the famed iconoclast in Paris in 1959. | en | /favicon.ico | TIME | https://time.com/3878907/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | The American writer, painter and spoken-word pioneer William S. Burroughs was born 100 years ago Wednesday, on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis. He died — after an improbably long life, considering the self-inflicted abuse he endured through the years — at 83 in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s somehow perversely appropriate that an iconoclast of Burroughs’ power and scope — an artist who so brutally skewered middle-class hypocrisy in so many of his works — lived a life that began and ended in the middle of middle America.
Born into a wealthy Missouri family, Burroughs attended Harvard (as well as medical school in Vienna) and was, seemingly, on track for a relatively unadventurous life and career. But in the 1940s — having been rejected by the U.S. Navy in the middle of World War II — he set a far different course for himself. He became a heroin addict. In New York, he met and influenced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and the biggest voices of the Beat generation. In 1951, in Mexico City, he shot and killed his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, in what was reportedly a drunken, catastrophic game of William Tell gone wrong. Ultimately convicted in absentia of homicide (he had fled back to the States by then) and given a two-year suspended sentence, the scarred Burroughs embarked on the journeys — London, Paris (where the photos in this gallery were made in 1959), the Amazon, Tangier and beyond — that would shape and define so much of the rest of his life.
And always, everywhere, he wrote. He wrote short stories, essays and hilarious, harrowing, difficult, indispensable novels. Junkie (later Junky), Naked Lunch, The Ticket That Exploded and other classics established him as a singular force in the postmodern cultural landscape. Other writers sang his praises, with some — like J.G. Ballard — arguing that Burroughs was the premier writer of the post-war age. (Many critics, on the other hand, weren’t quite so impressed, especially when the revolutionary cut-up technique Burroughs employed when constructing many of his books made their heads spin.)
Later in life, Burroughs became something of an éminence grise of the post-punk demimonde, collaborating with Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, the experimental English “noise” collective, Throbbing Gristle, and many others. Brian Eno once famously stated that, while the Velvet Underground’s first record sold only 30,000 copies in the first years after it was released, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” The same observation, slightly altered, might be made about Burroughs, as his influence on music, literature and the visual arts — during his lifetime and long after his death in 1997 — can’t be overstated.
Many artists are desperate to be seen as rebels; in Burroughs, we find the unlikely real deal: the born rebel who could never stop creating art. | ||||
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] | 2013-01-24T12:54:27+00:00 | It was a savage summer for famous writers. They were either being rolled by their former wives, dissed by their former publishers, or busy getting dead in the… | en | The Baffler | https://thebaffler.com/salvos/william-burroughs-my-part-in-his-downfall | It was a savage summer for famous writers. They were either being rolled by their former wives, dissed by their former publishers, or busy getting dead in the heat of Kansas. We had seen this kind of thing before: F. Scott Fitzgerald never went to Kansas, but Zelda was the roller-in-chief; the closest Hemingway got was Kansas City, where he learned to write and dreamed of being the youngest person ever to die. But believe me, the summer I’m talking about saw hot war break out between one kind of self-consciousness and another: Our minds were light and our hearts were dark in that August of 1997, those perfect weeks, that restless year, before Bill got impeached and Diana died.
I was in New York (writing and presenting a documentary film about Jack Kerouac) and I’d just found a large bloodstain on the carpet of Room 611 of the Gramercy Park Hotel. Never mind, I told myself, this is America, the maid is no doubt from a despotic country and will know what to do. So I put on a clean white T-shirt, stonewashed jeans, and spread cherry lip balm on my Scottish lips: It’s best to be prepared for sex in New York, not because you expect any but because people don’t trust you in New York if you don’t look as if you’re ready for sex at any time. I got in a taxi and went to see Adele Mailer. She looked like a cool Hispanic granny with a handbag and an unforgiving eye. “I’ve just come from the Actors Studio,” she said, and immediately I thought of Kim Stanley doing Bus Stop to a crowd of fully famous students and note-takers and Strasbergs. Adele had written a book about being married to Norman Mailer and she kept using the letters “O.J.” to describe her relationship with him, or, more accurately, her relation to the incident in 1960 when Norman stabbed her with a kitchen knife during one of their parties. I asked Adele if she felt better now that she’d written the book. “I’ll feel better when the money starts coming in,” she said. Then she started talking about her old flame Jack Kerouac and the Greenwich Village scene of the 1950s. “Jack,” she said, “was lousy in bed.” Then she said Kerouac didn’t like the taste of a certain spermicidal cream, a detail I’ve never quite forgotten, and then she said he wasn’t enough of a man for her. She added that Allen Ginsberg once told her that if he ever went straight she would be the woman for him. “Oh, Adele,” I said, “I bet he said that to all the girls.”
Robert Giroux was sitting in a sort of wooden throne at the American Arts Club. A lovely old man with a plume of white hair, I thought he showed the accumulated wisdom of a life spent getting the commas right, publishing Eliot and Lowell, and not giving up on the little things. He sat with a watery-eyed old-timer and a young editor from Farrar, Straus called Ethan. Giroux told me a story, off-camera, about Djuna Barnes and James Laughlin, the founder of New Directions. He said that Barnes was complaining about the lack of royalties from that novel of hers—what is it, Nightwood? “Anyway, she complained to Laughlin, and the publisher said to her that he had been taught at his mother’s knee to be a truthful person, and he had not held back a single penny from Djuna on her book. She went away. The next day Laughlin was walking down the street when he saw Barnes coming toward him. She came right up to him and stopped: ‘How’s your mother’s knee?’ she asked.” Giroux’s friend then told how when Ezra Pound was stuck in St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, some visitor asked him what he had thought of Djuna Barnes. He sat thinking for a long time. “Well,” he said finally, “she ain’t cuddly!”
People are always asking me nowadays what the essential difference is between fiction and non-fiction.
When I got to Lowell, Massachusetts, John Sampas was already waiting. He smoked long cigarettes and wore sunshades inside and out, like Hunter S. Thompson, which made you think he might be a little impressed with his current job running the Kerouac estate. The house used to be owned by an old lady who was the first person in the town to own a telephone. Her number was 4. Sampas said her ghost still comes rattling from room to room, nowhere to go. His sister Stella married Kerouac late in his life, and when Kerouac died she inherited everything, including his sick and controversial mother. That morning, Sampas had gone to the local bank to get some manuscripts (that’s where he stores them) and he showed them to me in the sitting room. One of them was just a note scribbled on the back of an envelope—Kerouac telling a friend he had gone out to play football.
When we were standing outside the Lowell high school a guy came up to talk. He had known Kerouac. The guy’s brother had been a star athlete—the street we stood on, Koumantzelis, was named after his brother. The guy spoke of a mad trip he had made with Kerouac down to New York one time. He said they were drunk and high the whole week; then there was “the black thing.” We asked him what he meant. He said that Kerouac was always getting into fights with black guys; he’d insult them or argue with them in bars and sometimes he’d get beaten up. Koumantzelis said he thought this was what got Kerouac killed in the end, down there in Florida in 1969. He said he thought a couple of those young rednecks Kerouac was hanging out with would have got him beaten up good and proper. He remembered Jack phoning him a few days before he died. He said he had gotten licked in a bar, and he couldn’t remember much, but he knew that his stomach was sore and that the whole of life was bad as hell. When I spoke to Carolyn Cassady (the wife of Kerouac’s hero, Neal), she said Kerouac had stopped being a writer when it came to those late-night calls. “It was too sad,” she said. “Just filth. That’s all he spoke.”
People are always asking me nowadays what the essential difference is between fiction and non-fiction, and I’m now ready to give a full and frank answer: In fiction, nothing is made up. There’s a truth at the end of every line and, sometimes too, in the curve and weight of every word. At the end of every line of reportage or memoir—if it’s any good—a doubt is raised and a question is left unanswered: Was it really like that? With good fiction we are never inclined to ask if it was really like that. Now, take this piece you are reading. If it was a short story, as many of you may imagine it to be—a tale rolled out by a fictioner, conjured on a group of days from the ambitious heart of some new voice in American fiction—would the piece you are reading satisfy you less, or more? If all of this was confected—Adele Mailer, the Gramercy Park Hotel, Scottish, Ezra Pound—would you feel cheated, or flattered? When I tell you that the speaker in this piece of memoir is real, that the events described here actually happened, are these useful or necessary pieces of information? Do they add anything? Let me tell you this is a problem not only for readers. Writers, too, begin to doubt their own relation to reality—and, for many of us, our talent begins its life with such doubtings. The summer I’ve described to you happened. It happened in the order I’ve described and included the spoken words I’ve given you.
The next and decisive part of the narrative involves my arrival in Kansas. I realized, when I started writing this, that I’d told the story so many times in so many bars that it might be worth checking that I hadn’t in fact made it up in the first place. My checks have proved decisive and gripping: I didn’t make the story up, but I have changed the story again and again in small ways over time. My journal entries from 1997 tell a more serious and alarmed story; my gleeful renderings of the narrative since then have added historical weight to the soul of the piece, as well as numerous comedy touches, more personal involvement, further absurdity, and the renowned literary agent Andrew Wylie. The story of the story is not better than the story itself, just truer, whatever that means, and it has the virtue of taking us further into the realm where the question of reliability provides its own theatrical narrative.
Lawrence, Kansas, on a hot day. After it was all over, when I first told the story back in London, I’m sure I said it was the hottest day since records began. There is no evidence for that—it was just a very hot day. I arrived with a BBC television crew at a motel on the outskirts of Lawrence that had no food except donuts. At the Brisbane Writers Festival two years ago, I’m sure I said no food except chewing gum, and at a comedy festival that took place in a boat on the River Thames, I said it had no food except boiled soap and bath towels. We were in Lawrence to interview the novelist William Burroughs. When I told the story during the Democratic National Convention in Boston (to the editor of this journal), it was quite late at night: We were in J.J. Foley’s Bar and Grill (or maybe the bar before that) and I told my interlocutors that I had spoken to William Burroughs several times before the interview was to take place in Lawrence. This has always been a crucial part of the story. It always gets sighs and laughs. “Kerouac’s mother was a witch,” I drawl. “She made him drink. And she drank herself,” I say, quoting what Burroughs said to me.
“Don’t say much more,” I said to him, “because I want you to be fresh for the cameras tomorrow.”
Now, despite being asked by everybody, I’ve never written the story you’re reading until now. I always said I was keeping it for something, but now I realize the reason I held back is because I thought I might perjure myself. The story is true—true-ish—but what had my enjoyment of the initial story added to its nature over time? A word to the wise: When you’re pitching a big story over whiskey, it helps to throw in a few pieces of self-deprecation. The implication of my conversation with William Burroughs is that he wanted to tell me everything I could handle about Kerouac and his mother, but I, silly thicko limey visitor and pro-forma etiquette bum, stopped him for the sake of a better performance next day. The full effectiveness of my technique will be witnessed shortly.
No one anymore is interested in the news that William Burroughs is dead.
William Burroughs was about to die, or, as a local sound-man attached to our crew preferred to put it, “the Beat god gone and died up on your ass.” At the Harbourfront Festival in Toronto one time I’m sure I added Burroughs saying, “You’re the boss” at the close of our telephone conversation. Well, I’ve checked the original journal. I’ve checked the television transcripts for references, but there’s nothing. I can hear Burroughs saying Kerouac’s mother was a witch in my head and I can imagine the telephone in my hand. But it didn’t happen. It couldn’t have happened or it would be in the journal and others would remember it. Over the years of telling the story it has become as real as air to me.
What happened was that Jim Grauerholz, who was Burroughs’s manager, had suggested on the phone that William thought Kerouac’s mother had made him drink. Then Wayne, a friend of Burroughs with an evil grin and a spanner in the back pocket of his dirty jeans, told me in the middle of a cornfield that Burroughs said how destructive Kerouac’s relationship with his mother had been. My journal from the time notes Wayne saying, “Burroughs said it was pure hell.” Wayne took us in a shed filled with smashed stuff and engine parts in order to get a beer (or, rather, we took our beers in there to get him) and I noticed a television screen that was smashed to smithereens. “Oh, that was William,” he said. “He shot it last Thursday.”
I add no spin to Wayne’s character. Paradoxically, that is often what we mean when we say someone is like a character in a novel—we mean that no embellishment is required; the person exists so completely that no effort need be expended in describing or rendering them real. They exist. Well, Wayne was not a character in a novel but he had the force of one; his actuality came as a bit of a surprise and I knew that journalism could only struggle to catch him.
I have a strange tic of the imagination that would doubtless have led me straight to reform school if I’d ever confessed it to a child psychologist: Every time I’ve got a lethal weapon in my hand I spend a second or two picturing what it would be like to mow everybody down with it. Wayne offered me his gun at the edge of a cornfield. He set up a tin can and invited me to shoot it down. Now, I’m a pussy, so there was no way I was coming out of this one well, and I briefly contemplated killing everyone before I began firing at the can and missed it four times before clipping it with the fifth shot.
The motel was bad and hot during the night. When I told the story at a New York dinner party, I think I said the air-conditioning was broken all night. I don’t think that’s right. The air-conditioning was doing its best. I was tossing and turning with the shame, no doubt, of using five bullets to hit a can only ten feet away. The phone rang. It rang in that way that only Americans telephones do—as if someone somewhere is having a breakdown. It was the film’s director. He said I should come to the foyer as something bad had happened. When I told the story to Patrice Hoffman, my French publisher, I’m sure I reminded him what film crews were like, and said I’d told the director to stop bullshitting and put down the phone. In fact, I got my shirt on and descended in the elevator immediately.
“Burroughs is dead,” said the director. A person was there from the Burroughs world, not Jim Grauerholz, but usually for the purposes of narrative ease I say it was Jim. “He died at the hospital. He was taken in a day or two ago.”
“So he was in there when we were with Wayne yesterday?” I think I asked.
“Yes,” the director said.
Then something happened which I know to be true. The Burroughs person began saying he thought we should come to “William’s house” and bring the cameras. Now, for my sins, and for everybody else’s sins too, I’m a Catholic, and I do not think it’s a good idea to poke cameras into the corners of the bereaved. My director, on the other hand, is a director: He knew there wasn’t another BBC crew within a thousand miles, and he didn’t want to pass up the chance to film Burroughs-in-death (as if anybody would have noticed the difference).
“No way,” I said.
“William loved the BBC,” said the man. “Come over to the house. He would’ve liked that.”
I sometimes forget to tell this part when I’m telling the story. For a start I don’t want the BBC to get too much credit, and secondly, when I’m telling the story I’m wary of things that—wait for it! wait for it!—seem made up. It just doesn’t seem very credible that William Burroughs should love the BBC. But that’s what the man said.
“I’ll bring some flowers,” I said, like Teresa of Avila, while Dave the director was semaphoring behind the Burroughs man for all he was worth. Every gesture Dave made was saying, “Don’t do this to me.”
“All of you come,” said the man.
I think I said okay or Dave said okay. Anyhow, one of us said okay and we made arrangements to come to the house in Learnard Avenue at one o’clock.
Reality is insufficiently itself to command the complacency of the imagination. Wallace Stevens didn’t say that, though he might have said it, give or take a few words. What we can be certain about is that he meant to say it. Reality is nothing without the imagination, like lungs without breath. The story about William Burroughs’s death in Kansas is the story of something that actually happened; it is also the story of something that actually happened to me. That actuality has been tampered with and yet the story is no less real. It is more real. It has gone from being the-day-Burroughs-died to the-day-Burroughs-died-with-me-hanging-around to me-telling-the-story-about-the-day-Burroughs-died-with-me-hanging-around and now we are here, perhaps finally, at the place where all our favorite narratives are due to find their most ringing version: the-story-of-me-telling-the-story-about-the-day-Burroughs-died-with-me-hanging-around. Storytelling depends on the idea that there is a hierarchy of interest: Burroughs being dead was news (it was already playing over the radio as we drove to his house at 12:45), but it is a hierarchy that changes. No one anymore is interested in the news that William Burroughs is dead. And no one I know is any longer interested in the story of Burroughs being dead with me hanging around. But I am desperate now, and my only hope, in this sad world of vanishing interest in my anecdote, is that this will be the final and most decisive telling: the über-version, in which the story of William Burroughs’s death at the age of eighty-three is nothing compared to the human business of me trying to tell the story of how I existed on the margins of this story and that I myself have become a margin on which stories fight for balance.
The house was definitely red. There was definitely a Merry Pranksters-style van painted with graffiti in the yard and a pond with fat goldfish swimming around. I asked the crew to hang back long enough to let me do my Catholic bit with the flowers. I laid them on the porch—there were three, four, already—and I pressed my face up against the flyscreen. There was a certain humming coming from inside the house; through the grayness I could see numberless cats flying in every direction. The humming was taking place at the other end of the room: chanting more than humming, moaning more than chanting. During an interview with a Stockholm newspaper I’m sure I once said the participants had their hands raised. They did not. Some of the people in the Buddhist circle have remained constant from the days when I first told the story: Jim Grauerholz and John Giorno, the New York poet who was also, unfamously, the man asleep in Andy Warhol’s film Sleep. Others have come and gone from the circle: The rock singer Patti Smith was there as far as my notes tell me, but I can’t picture her anymore, and in all subsequent versions, including one I related a couple of months ago in London to an aging dowager under a long screaming pope by Francis Bacon, the figure most uncomfortably present in the circle was the agent Andrew Wylie.
Now, I’ve never met Andrew Wylie. I’ve always remembered him because he has the same name as the protagonist of Sir Andrew Wylie of That Ilk, a novel by the nineteenth-century Scottish genius (and Coleridge’s favorite novelist) John Galt. A number of my friends are represented by Wylie, and one of them worked in his London office, but I have no relationship with him at all. I must have known that Wylie represented Burroughs, and known too that he had, in the days immediately after Burroughs’s death, sold some final writing of Burroughs’s to The New Yorker for a significant sum. That is just standard publishing gossip, but it must have entered my plan, because very soon after that I had Andrew Wylie sitting in the circle in Burroughs house while I stood at the flyscreen. Fiction had to somehow make up for a deficiency in the scene as it was being prepared for its distinguished career of retelling: Wylie was needed to bring the wonderful absurdity of the scene into its fullest dimensions: Somewhat gratuitously, I’d often have Wylie wearing a rather fat kipper tie during the ceremony that sent William Burroughs’s soul out of the house. I’ve become so convinced of Andrew Wylie’s presence in the scene that I can quite easily see his expression in the gloom; I can see him later standing on the porch in a white suit dabbing his brow, looking solemn. But Wylie seems to have been in New York that day. In fact, as any of my delighted listeners could have ascertained, Wylie could not have got to Lawrence, Kansas, by one o’clock the day after his client died because you are unlikely to make the journey in that time. But I refuse to give up on Andrew Wylie: He is there in my perfect version of the story and he will remain there.
Then a doubt enters about my doubts. My journal from the time suddenly tells me this: “I saw a guy through the flyscreen. I thought it was Andrew Wylie, the literary agent in New York. They were moaning.” So maybe Wylie was there after all. Maybe he came to see Burroughs before he died. Of course, as with all these things, I could, at any time during the last nine years, just have called Andrew Wylie to ask him, but that would have been, well, tactless, and not at all done in the spirit of my story. It is my story after all, and though I wouldn’t want to deny anyone their own account of their own experience, I feel quite possessive about Andrew Wylie’s whereabouts the day after William Burroughs died. He was in my story, humming or moaning or chanting.
The goldfish had a magic realist kind of life under the cool water of the pond and I wanted to join them. The crew stood around smoking cigarettes—in Spain I wanted to say they were joints, but I stopped short, recognizing how my thinking was drifting toward the teenage—and I spoke with one of the Burroughs people about the writing and the life that was over. He said one or two things about the hospitalization, then said that he had spoken to Gregory Corso that morning. Gregory wanted to come to Kansas for the funeral—Patti Smith was encouraging him—but he was worried about his methadone. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” someone chimed in, with a smile, “there’s a ton of it here. Bill used to hoard it up in the garage just in case there was a nuclear war.”
I’m afraid I’m not good enough to have made that up. Our summer had given itself to certain freedoms of mind, to an exhilaration that can come with freewheeling in and out of lives that were either going or gone, and we made hay. One seldom feels that same proximity of stories to the life of their telling, and sometimes I imagine that the whole summer was invented just for me to speak of it later, that there was no house and no TV crew and no Kansas either, just my own imagining of them. I promised myself a story, a factual one, when we set out on that journey in search of the storyteller’s friends. But I had no notion of how it would give rise, as it has done, to my own unreliable narrator, a voice who lives inside me and who suspects facts and is happy to parse the life around him to suit his narrative instincts. He’s my friend. I promised you a story and the promise never changes; it’s the story that changes and improves like wine. That is why I am a novelist. Driving out of Kansas that day we left clouds of dust and laughter over the mysterious fields and a lone train made its way from Kansas to the world. We all disappear in the face of the facts. As Virginia Woolf was fond of saying, “Nothing is simply one thing.” And so we drove out of Kansas without an inch of film.
Or did we fly? | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 45 | https://myeducationofagardener.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/good-egg-william-s-burroughs/ | en | Good Egg: William S. Burroughs | [
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] | null | [] | 2012-08-02T00:00:00 | William Seward Burroughs II, American writer. February 5, 1914 - August 2, 1997. "The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." - Norman Mailer, 1962 William S. Burroughs was 83 when he died in Lawrence, Kansas, 15 years ago today. He came to Kansas from New York City in 1981, finally… | en | https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/ea527446ba70c0ae8c40192c6a6c75a686f187db3da1306f76403f852b3208f9?s=32 | My Education of a Gardener | https://myeducationofagardener.wordpress.com/2012/08/02/good-egg-william-s-burroughs/ | William Seward Burroughs II, American writer. February 5, 1914 – August 2, 1997.
“The only American novelist living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius.” – Norman Mailer, 1962
William S. Burroughs was 83 when he died in Lawrence, Kansas, 15 years ago today. He came to Kansas from New York City in 1981, finally settling into an unassuming two-bedroom bungalow (a mail-order kit house built circa 1926-1929), in the peaceful Barker neighborhood south of downtown. Shortly after moving in, Burroughs had the house painted red, and so it remains. The house sits on nearly an acre of land, the property bordered on the south by Burroughs Creek (renamed in 2004, formerly the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe tributary). In 2005, the Lawrence Historic Resources Commission added Burroughs’ home to their Register of Historic Places.
For twelve years following his death, Burroughs’ house was a rental property, inhabited primarily by incurable hipsters and snake-wrangling Wild Boys, none of whom cared much for the work of gardening. Burroughs, too, was less a gardener than an aficionado of Nature, frequently bringing visitors outdoors to see his fish pond, and to sit and chat on an old couch in the shade.
Concerns about wear and tear on the now-historic property prompted James Grauerholz, Burroughs’ heir and executor of the estate, to take the house off the rental market in the summer of 2009.
I had worked with Grauerholz and William Burroughs Communications (WBC) in the past, transcribing And The Hippos Were Boiled In Their Tanks from the original typescript, helping in the office, working on local Burroughs art shows, catering the occasional WBC function and doing some woodlot management on Grauerholz’s three-acre property in East Lawrence. In June of 2009, Grauerholz asked me to be the resident caretaker of the Burroughs house.
Two things immediately caught my attention: the number of tourists visiting the house, and the tangle of plants that had claimed Burroughs’ yard as their own.
The front yard was overwhelmed by Vinca minor and trumpet creeper, Campsis radicans. The back yard had become a dense thicket of Lonicera maackii, various species of Euonymus, Clematis ligusticifolia, poison ivy, Virginia creeper, pokeweed and wild blackberries, and countless 10-foot saplings of hackberry, Catalpa, redbud, Koelreuteria, black walnut, elm and silver maple. Clearly, gardening at Burroughs House was to be a process of subtraction. Three years on, it still is. Over 100 trees have been cleared to date, half an acre opened up, and the battle against the Campsis, the Lonicera and the blackberries is never-ending.
To me, a garden is wildish and green. If there must be strict order, keep it at the front of the house to please the neighbors. First job in the front yard was to hack back the Campsis and Vinca , and lay in a boxwood hedge along the walkway under the front porch. A “Darlow’s Enigma” rose went behind the box and is now climbing up the porch railing. A single plant of a non-flowering cultivar of lambs ear, Stachys byzantina “Helene von Stein,” produced enough cuttings to carpet the ground under the box. Their big, white leaves help define the walkway at night. While the front yard is still far from formal, it does look a bit neater now, which is important because the front of the house is frequently photographed.
At least 150 tourists visit Burroughs House each year. Most of the time, visitors take quick pictures in front of the house and move on. About 20 percent of the tourists behave badly, trespassing deep into the yard, picking fruits and flowers, and stealing garden ornaments. One man rang the doorbell at 6am demanding a tour, and I’ve caught others in the backyard with flashlights after midnight. These people are summarily booted, often having to explain their behavior to the police.
I chat with many of the polite visitors, however, and am still surprised at how many of them have no idea that Burroughs was a writer, the younger ones especially. Celebrity (notoriety?) is the sole draw for most visitors, many of whom describe Burroughs as “that punk rock guy who hung around Kurt Cobain and made drug movies.” True enough, but that’s only an iota of Burroughs’ wild and remarkable life.
Burroughs is long gone from this place. None of his things are here; his famous friends no longer come around. But when he was here, it was perhaps the happiest time of his life. This was his home for 16 years, the longest he ever stayed in one place. He wrote seven books in this house, and produced over 2,000 artworks in a variety of media. He collaborated on several music and film projects, and wrote a musical play, The Black Rider, with Tom Waits and Robert Wilson. He found financial security, some ease and comfort, and the community of people who genuinely cared for his talent and his well-being. And, at long last, he found love. At one period, Burroughs was shepherd to 20 cats. | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 3 | https://www.life.com/people/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | en | William S. Burroughs: 100th Birthday of Famed 'Naked Lunch' Writer | [
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] | null | [] | 2014-02-04T17:00:39+00:00 | On the centenary of the American writer and spoken-word pioneer's birth, LIFE presents photos of the famed iconoclast in Paris in 1959. | en | LIFE | https://www.life.com/people/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | Written By: Ben Cosgrove
The American writer, painter and spoken-word pioneer William S. Burroughs on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis. He died — after an improbably long life, considering the self-inflicted abuse he endured through the years — at 83 in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s somehow perversely appropriate that an iconoclast of Burroughs’ power and scope, who so brutally skewered middle-class hypocrisy in so many of his works, lived a life that began and ended in the middle of middle America.
Born into a wealthy Missouri family, Burroughs attended Harvard (as well as medical school in Vienna) and was, seemingly, on track for a relatively unadventurous life and career. But in the 1940s—having been rejected by the U.S. Navy in the middle of World War II—he set a far different course for himself. He became a heroin addict. In New York, he met and influenced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and the biggest voices of the Beat generation. In 1951, in Mexico City, he shot and killed his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, in what was reportedly a drunken, catastrophic game of William Tell gone wrong. Ultimately convicted in absentia of homicide (he had fled back to the States by then) and given a two-year suspended sentence, the scarred Burroughs embarked on the journeys—London, Paris (where the photos in this gallery were made in 1959), the Amazon, Tangier and beyond—that would shape and define so much of the rest of his life.
And always, everywhere, he wrote. He wrote short stories, essays and hilarious, harrowing, difficult, indispensable novels. Junkie (later Junky), Naked Lunch, The Ticket That Exploded and other classics established him as a singular force in the postmodern cultural landscape. Other writers sang his praises, with some—like J.G. Ballard—arguing that Burroughs was the premier writer of the post-war age. (Many critics, on the other hand, weren’t quite so impressed, especially when the revolutionary cut-up technique Burroughs employed when constructing many of his books made their heads spin.)
Later in life, Burroughs became something of an éminence grise of the post-punk demimonde, collaborating with Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, the experimental English “noise” collective, Throbbing Gristle, and many others. His influence on music, literature and the visual arts can’t be overstated.
Many artists are desperate to be seen as rebels; in Burroughs, we find the unlikely real deal: the born rebel who could never stop creating art. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs_Jr. | en | William S. Burroughs Jr. | [
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] | 2005-01-05T05:34:43+00:00 | en | /static/apple-touch/wikipedia.png | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_S._Burroughs_Jr. | American novelist
William Seward Burroughs III (July 21, 1947 – March 3, 1981), also known as William S. Burroughs Jr. and Billy Burroughs, was an American novelist. He bears the name of his father, William S. Burroughs, as well as his great-grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine. He wrote three novels, two of which were published as Speed (1970) and Kentucky Ham (1973). His third novel, Prakriti Junction, begun in 1977, was never completed, although extracts from it were included in his third and final published work Cursed From Birth.
Burroughs Jr. underwent a liver transplant in 1976 after developing cirrhosis. He died in 1981, at the age of 33, from alcoholism and liver failure. Burroughs Jr. appears briefly in the 1983 documentary Burroughs, about his father, in which he discusses his childhood, his liver problems, and his relationship with his family. In the documentary, John Giorno called him "the last beatnik."
Childhood[edit]
In 1947, Burroughs was born in Conroe, Texas, to William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer. His mother was addicted to amphetamines, and his father was a heroin addict. Herbert Huncke, a friend of his parents, relates that when Joan was pregnant he would drive into Houston to obtain Benzedrine, an inhaled amphetamine, for her.
On September 6, 1951, Billy's father shot and killed his mother in Mexico City in what he claimed, and later denied, was a drunken game of 'William Tell'. In chapter three of his second novel, Kentucky Ham, Burroughs relates his memory of the day his mother was shot dead, as well as the subsequent reunion with his father after he was freed from a Mexico City prison. While his father stayed in Mexico, Billy went to live with his paternal grandparents, Mortimer and Laura Lee Burroughs, in St. Louis, Missouri. In spring 1952, when Billy was nearly 5, he moved with his grandparents to Palm Beach, Florida, where they relocated their store, Cobblestone Gardens. By his own account, Billy said his grandparents were kind and reassuring; yet as they grew older, and he grew into adolescence, they were unable to relate.
When Billy was 13, his grandparents asked William S. Burroughs to take Billy back. He agreed, and Billy was sent alone by air to Tangiers, Morocco, to live with his father. In Tangiers, Billy was introduced to marijuana, and men attempted to rape him. By his father's own admission, the visit was a failed attempt to rehabilitate their relationship. After Burroughs' lover, Ian Sommerville, convinced William that his son was irrevocably homesick, Billy returned to Palm Beach.
When Billy was fifteen, he accidentally shot his best friend in the neck with a rifle, causing an almost fatal wound. This event caused him to suffer a nervous breakdown. According to Kentucky Ham, Billy thought his friend was dead and ran away from home to seek refuge in a girlfriend's family fallout shelter. He planned to flee to California, convinced that he was a murderer. Yet his friend lived, and the police ruled the wounding unintentional. Still, this act did not go unnoticed in the exclusive Palm Beach community, and the story of the manner in which his mother had perished at the hands of his father again gained wide circulation[clarification needed]. Billy was sent to a mental hospital in St. Louis for help, but threats to run away caused Mortimer and Laura to bring their grandson home. Bill then attended Green Valley, an alternative school based on the principles of English educator A. S. Neill, in Orange City, Florida, from 1965 to 1966.
Drug addiction[edit]
Living in a wealthy section of Palm Beach, Billy Burroughs began to spend more time out of his grandparents' care and beyond the reach of local authorities. Burroughs became addicted to amphetamines and resorted to criminal behavior to obtain them, forging prescriptions and visiting doctors' offices to steal prescription pads. He was soon arrested, but he was not an adult and had the tragic story of his parents' life to temper criminal proceedings against him. Nevertheless, his second novel begins with his condemnation to a four-year suspended sentence and required admission to the Federal Narcotics Farm at Lexington in Kentucky. This prison was one of two U.S. Federal prison hospitals treating persons convicted of federal drug crimes in the United States from 1935 until 1973.
After being released on parole in 1968, he quit his addiction to amphetamines and returned to The Green Valley School, a private institution run by Reverend Von Hilsheimer in Orange City, Florida. The Green Valley School was where Burroughs met his future wife, a 17-year-old Jewish girl from Savannah, Georgia, named Karen Perry, who came from a privileged background. The two formed a romantic relationship and were married in 1969, settling in Savannah. Burroughs began to write; Perry worked as a waitress.
Alcoholism[edit]
The marriage disintegrated in 1974 when Karen left Burroughs because of his chronic alcoholism. Despite the publication of his novels, he was increasingly alienated from friends and family, and there were long periods when his whereabouts were unknown. When he showed up in Boulder, Colorado, to visit his father and Allen Ginsberg at Ginsberg's Buddhist institute at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, he had the appearance of a "derelict."
In 1976, during a dinner with Ginsberg and his father, Burroughs began vomiting blood. When the heaving would not stop, he was admitted to Colorado General Hospital, where it was discovered that he was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. The hospital was one of only two institutions in 1976 that performed liver transplants. Thomas Starzl had performed over 100 transplants, with a survival rate of less than 30%. Nevertheless, Billy profited from Starzl's care. Although Burroughs spent months in and out of the hospital, and there were many serious complications, the operation was successful. However, despite the obvious risks, Burroughs kept drinking. Many people, notably Ginsberg, tried to encourage him to quit, but Burroughs's self-destructive behavior continued.[citation needed]
Eventually, Burroughs began to express hostility and anger towards his father. He published a damning article in Esquire, explaining how his life was "ruined" by his father's actions. The estrangement between father and son was never reconciled.
Death[edit]
In 1981, Burroughs stopped taking his anti-rejection drugs. Allen Ginsberg was notified that Burroughs had returned to Florida to reconnect with the founder of the Green Valley School. Shortly after, Burroughs was found lying chilled, drunk, and exhausted in a shallow ditch at the side of a DeLand, Florida, highway on March 2. A passerby took him to a local hospital, where he died the following day at 6:35 a.m. of acute gastrointestinal hemorrhage associated with micronodular cirrhosis. He was 33 years old. Burroughs was cremated and his ashes buried in Boulder, Colorado.[1]
Writing style[edit]
William S. Burroughs Jr. wrote two autobiographical novels, and was working on a third. He began writing poetry at the Green Valley School when he was 21 in 1968 and completed his first novel Speed in 1970. The novels relate the experiences of a teenage runaway in the early 1960s, and are comparable in style and content to both Jack Kerouac’s On the Road and his father's Junkie. Some time after the death of Burroughs Jr., his father invited David Ohle to edit the manuscript of his late son's unfinished novel Prakriti Junction. The manuscript was unpublishable so, instead, Ohle compiled a work from the manuscript, the last journals and poems of Burroughs Jr., and correspondence and interviews with those who knew him.[2]
Bibliography[edit]
Speed (1970)
Kentucky Ham (1973)
Prakriti Junction (1977–1978, unfinished)
Speed and Kentucky Ham: Two Novels (1993, novel compilation)
Cursed from Birth: The Short, Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs Jr. (2006, compiled by David Ohle)[3]
References[edit]
[edit] | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 13 | https://time.com/3878907/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | en | William S. Burroughs at 100: Rebel, Junkie, Exile, Genius | [
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"Ben Cosgrove"
] | 2014-02-04T22:00:39+00:00 | On the centenary of the American writer and spoken-word pioneer's birth, LIFE presents photos of the famed iconoclast in Paris in 1959. | en | /favicon.ico | TIME | https://time.com/3878907/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | The American writer, painter and spoken-word pioneer William S. Burroughs was born 100 years ago Wednesday, on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis. He died — after an improbably long life, considering the self-inflicted abuse he endured through the years — at 83 in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s somehow perversely appropriate that an iconoclast of Burroughs’ power and scope — an artist who so brutally skewered middle-class hypocrisy in so many of his works — lived a life that began and ended in the middle of middle America.
Born into a wealthy Missouri family, Burroughs attended Harvard (as well as medical school in Vienna) and was, seemingly, on track for a relatively unadventurous life and career. But in the 1940s — having been rejected by the U.S. Navy in the middle of World War II — he set a far different course for himself. He became a heroin addict. In New York, he met and influenced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and the biggest voices of the Beat generation. In 1951, in Mexico City, he shot and killed his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, in what was reportedly a drunken, catastrophic game of William Tell gone wrong. Ultimately convicted in absentia of homicide (he had fled back to the States by then) and given a two-year suspended sentence, the scarred Burroughs embarked on the journeys — London, Paris (where the photos in this gallery were made in 1959), the Amazon, Tangier and beyond — that would shape and define so much of the rest of his life.
And always, everywhere, he wrote. He wrote short stories, essays and hilarious, harrowing, difficult, indispensable novels. Junkie (later Junky), Naked Lunch, The Ticket That Exploded and other classics established him as a singular force in the postmodern cultural landscape. Other writers sang his praises, with some — like J.G. Ballard — arguing that Burroughs was the premier writer of the post-war age. (Many critics, on the other hand, weren’t quite so impressed, especially when the revolutionary cut-up technique Burroughs employed when constructing many of his books made their heads spin.)
Later in life, Burroughs became something of an éminence grise of the post-punk demimonde, collaborating with Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, the experimental English “noise” collective, Throbbing Gristle, and many others. Brian Eno once famously stated that, while the Velvet Underground’s first record sold only 30,000 copies in the first years after it was released, “everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band.” The same observation, slightly altered, might be made about Burroughs, as his influence on music, literature and the visual arts — during his lifetime and long after his death in 1997 — can’t be overstated.
Many artists are desperate to be seen as rebels; in Burroughs, we find the unlikely real deal: the born rebel who could never stop creating art. | ||||
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] | null | [] | null | October Gallery presents works of art by William Burroughs. Browse artwork and art for sale by William S. Burroughs and discover exhibitions, biographical information and art career highlights. | null | William S. Burroughs, a primary figure of the Beat Generation, profoundly influenced literature, media and successive generations of youth movements. In his incisive essays, longer fictional works, multimedia and visual art, he worked to expose political, economic and cultural control systems. Burroughs graduated from Harvard in anthropology. He mentored Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg in New York, where jointly they made a pact to change the course of literature. Burroughs explored relationships between word and image and, parallel to his literary output, made photographs and collages. The artist Brion Gysin introduced him to the powerful ‘cut-up’ technique, leading to influential collaborations between the two. When Gysin died in 1986, Burroughs honoured his friend by producing hundreds of paintings, collages and pieces of "shotgun art."
In 1988, October Gallery held the first solo exhibition of Burroughs' work outside the United States and in 1990 presented Two Collaborations: Keith Haring and William S. Burroughs. In 2012, All out of time and into space featured his space age art. In 2015, Can you all hear me? curated by Kathelin Gray, also exhibited other artists inspired by Burroughs: Liliane Lijn, Genesis P. Orridge, Brion Gysin, Shezad Dawood and Cerith Wyn Evans. Burroughs’ work has been featured in major international galleries and museums including ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; Deichtorhallen Hamburg: Falckenberg Collection, Hamburg, Germany; Kunsthalle Wien (Vienna), Austria; Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA; New Museum, New York, USA; Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Photographers’ Gallery, London, UK; Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, USA; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA. His work is in many major collections, including the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA; the British Museum, London, UK; Kochi Museum of Art, Kochi, Japan; and ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany. On 2 August 1997, Burroughs passed away at home. at the age of 83. | |||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 29 | https://www.softschools.com/facts/authors/william_s_burroughs_facts/1494/ | en | William S. Burroughs Facts | [
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] | null | [] | null | William S. Burroughs was an American Beat Generation writer best known for his novel Naked Lunch, a look at the drug culture he was often involved in. He was born William Seward Burroughs II on February 5<sup>th</sup>, 1914 in St. Louis, Missouri to Laura Hammon Lee and Mortimer Perry Burroughs. William attended John Burroughs High School where his first published piece, an essay titled "Personal Magnetism" appeared in the <i>John Burrows Review</i>. He went on to a boarding school for children of wealthy parents, but soon left to finish high school in Missouri, and then he went on to Harvard University and graduated in 1936. | en | null | Interesting William S. Burroughs Facts: William S. Burroughs enlisted in the United States Army in 1942 but was released after being deemed unfit due to mental issues. William S. Burroughs moved to New York in 1944 and shared an apartment with Joan Vollmer Adams, Jack Kerouac and his wife Edie Parker. William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac wrote a book together in 1945 titled And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks. The book went unpublished until 2008 when Grove Press and Penguin Books released it. While living in New York William S. Burroughs became addicted to drugs and sold heroin to support his habit. He was arrested in 1946 for forging a prescription for narcotics. In 1947 William S. Burroughs and Joan Vollmer Adams had a son together which they named William S. Burroughs Jr. William S. Burroughs moved to Mexico with Joan, their son William, and Joan's daughter from a previous marriage. While living in Mexico William killed Joan, his common-law wife, with a gun. He was arrested and charged. William wrote the book Queer while awaiting trial in Mexico but fled to the U.S. before it occurred, resulting in a suspended two-year sentence. William S. Burroughs' novel Junkie was almost complete when Joan was killed. It was published in 1953 by Ace Books. In 1953 William S. Burroughs went to Rome, then on to Tangier, Morocco, where he began to write Interzone. After returning to the U.S. briefly William returned to Tangier for four years, and he wrote his most famous book Naked Lunch during his time there. William S. Burroughs often said that Joan's death was pivotal in his writing career. Had she not been killed by his gun he thought he would not have been so compelled to write. He had used his first gun when he was eight years old. Joan died because they were drinking and playing a game with the gun. William Burroughs moved to various countries during his life, including England, Morocco, France, the United States. Italy, and Mexico. William S. Burroughs published writing included novels, long fiction, non-fiction, letters, short stories, novellas, collections, collaborations, as well as recordings. Movies and documentaries have been made about Burroughs' life. William also played the character Opium Jones in the 1966 film Chappaqua. | ||||||
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] | null | [] | null | AllMusic provides comprehensive music info including reviews and biographies. Get recommendations for new music to listen to, stream or own. | en | AllMusic | https://www.allmusic.com/updated | ||||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 91 | https://expectingrain.com/dok/who/b/burroughswilliam.html | en | Bob Dylan Who's Who | [
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Influence. Died August 2, 1997.
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 1995 18:50:30 -0400 From: Robin Jatko (rjatko@UMABNET.AB.UMD.EDU) Subject: Burroughs Meets Dylan >From WITH WILLIAM BURROUGHS/A REPORT FROM THE BUNKER by Victor Bockris: BOCKRIS: When did you first meet Bob Dylan? BURROUGHS: In a small cafe in the Village, around 1965. A place where they only served wine and beer. Allen had brought me there. I had no idea who Dylan was, I knew he was a young singer just getting started. He was with his manager, Albert Grossman, who looked like a typical manager, heavy kind of man with a beard, and John Hammond, Jr. was there. We talked about music. I didn't know a lot about music-a lot less than I know now, which is still very little-but he struck me as someone who was obviously competent in his subject. If his subject had been something that I knew absolutely nothing about, such as mathematics, I would have still received the same impression of competence. Dylan said he had a knack for writing lyrics and expected to make a lot of money. He had a likeable direct approach in conversation, at the same time cool, reserved. He was very young, quite handsome in a sharp-featured way. he had on a black turtleneck sweater. Additional information if you are looking for Help for addicts Subject: William Burroughs Passes Away From: Aron Kay (pieman@queenbee.net) Date: Sun, 03 Aug 1997 07:04:08 -0400 Sunday August 3 3:42 AM EDT Beat Generation Icon Burroughs Dead at 83 LAWRENCE, Kan. (Reuter) - William S. Burroughs, the Beat Generation author best known for the novel "Naked Lunch" based on his experiences as a drug addict, died Saturday at the age of 83. Burroughs died in a hospital in Lawrence a day after suffering a heart attack, said Ira Silverberg, New York-based editor-in-chief of Grove Press, which published several of his books. Burroughs' death comes nearly four months after that poet Allen Ginsberg, another founding father of the Beat Generation. Along with Ginsberg and other writers such as Jack Kerouac, Gregory Corso and Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Burroughs came to embody the bohemian, anti-establishment, non-conformist Beat Generation literary movement. Ginsberg died in April in New York. Burroughs was admitted to the hospital Friday after suffering a heart attack, Silverberg said. "It was sudden. He was in fine health," Silverberg said. Burroughs was openly homosexual, spent years as a drug addict and accidentally killed his wife with a gunshot to the head in a "William Tell" incident in Mexico City. In later years, he achieved cult status among a generation of disaffected middle-class youth. Novelist Norman Mailer called Burroughs "the only American writer living today who may conceivably be possessed by genius." Burroughs had lived in with his cats in the college town of Lawrence since December 1981. He stopped smoking six years ago after triple-bypass heart surgery. Grove Press just last week completed an as-yet untitled manuscript of Burroughs's previously published writings. Silverberg said the collection was due to be released in 1998. Burrough's fame was built on the celebrated novel "Naked Lunch," written while he was living in Tangier, Morocco and first published in Paris in 1959. The book, a collection of writings about addiction, was banned in the United States until 1962, when it won a landmark anti-censorship Supreme Court decision. Among his other books were "The Wild Boys," "Cities of the Red Night," and "Tornado Alley." Burroughs also was a photographer, and had produced drawings, paintings and sculpture. Burroughs once commented that "my entire life has been a struggle to resist the dark force," which he defined as the worst aspects of himself. In an interview with The New York Times late last year, Burroughs said he made notes every day but no longer wrote formally. "I guess I've run out of things to say," he said. Burroughs enjoyed a revival in recent years, and collaborated with rock musicians. "Naked Lunch" was made into a film in 1991. A tribute to Burroughs was held last November at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, and featured appearances by rock artists Michael Stipe of R.E.M. and former Blondie lead singer Deborah Harry. More recently, Burroughs made a cameo appearance in the rock video for U2's "Last Night on Earth," which was shot in May in Kansas City, Mo. Last year, the Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence held a retrospective of Burroughs's artworks, called "Ports of Entry." Burroughs was born Feb. 5, 1914 in St. Louis and attended Harvard University. Subject: Old Bull Lee From: michael lenz (mlenz@bulldog.d.umn.edu) Date: 12 Aug 1997 20:42:38 GMT Organization: University of Minnesota, Duluth i'm not a regular reader of this newsgroup. this is my first visit since the death of mr. burroughs. i have to say i'm apalled at at the general brutality and ignorance that is reigning in here. you cannot place a value on literature. it is not quantitative. you cannot say that hemingway is better than burroughs or that burroughs is better than hemingway. you can like them both, one of them or neither. i think to fully appreciate burroughs you have to here the voice. burroughs voice is that of a withered shaman. his work is about culture's absurd attempt to keep up with the technological explosion. it reflects in dark humor the entropy and isolation that has come to earmark postmodern lioterature. for me he was among the best. i value cut-ups and other such experimental forms of writing. i put only pynchon before him and i hesitate to do that because as i said before, it's not a quantitative thing. i was planning a trip to lawrence next summer, maybe take in a few horde/furthur shows on the way and sit on the old mystic's porch for a while. (i know people who have done this. burroughs was always a gentleman to the wayfarers). i don't know who said what, nor do i care, but the person who said that he never wrote anything good after Junkie (it was origanally published "Junkie" then reprinted "Junky") and Naked Lunch is ignorant of that last triumphant trilogy (Cities of the Red Night, Place of Dead Roads, and The Western Lands) and the short, but beautiful "The Cat Inside". Burroughs caused me to question in my own thinking and writing such elemetary things as words and phrases. to discount his body of work as a "blight" is ignorant and short-sighted. i for one will miss the voice and am sorry that my plans were a summer too late. mike lenz p.s. Check out Ports of Entry. it's a book of Burroughs artwork. he was equally talented and equally inventive in that as an artist and a writer. | ||||||||
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] | null | [] | 2016-09-19T00:00:00 | Twenty years after his death William S Burroughs still has the power to keep media writing about him. This week The News Hub recounted how Burroughs was arrested in France in 1959 for importing opiates into the country but he was released after trial. The reason? "Burroughs was excused and given a suspended sentence because… | en | https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico | Woolly Days | https://woollydays.wordpress.com/2016/09/19/remembering-william-s-burroughs/ | Twenty years after his death William S Burroughs still has the power to keep media writing about him. This week The News Hub recounted how Burroughs was arrested in France in 1959 for importing opiates into the country but he was released after trial. The reason? “Burroughs was excused and given a suspended sentence because his work ‘The Naked Lunch’ was considered to have too much artistic value to leave the man rotting in a Paris prison.” The French appreciated Burrough’s debauched writings, while his native America was “too caught up in Protestant predispositions to appreciate a great artist.”
The story is true, but it underestimates Burroughs’ intrinsic American-ness. In his biography “The ‘Priest’ They Called Him” author Graham Caveny said Burroughs was “as American as the electric chair”. William Burroughs was the grandson of William Seward Burroughs I who founded the Burroughs Adding Machine company. In 1885 the elder Burroughs patented the first workable adding and listing machine in St. Louis. His grandson William Seward Burroughs II was born in St Louis 29 years later in 1914 just as Europe was about to go to war. His father Mortimer Perry had no desire to join the family business and ran an antique shop. But family wealth gave young William a good education.
He went to John Burroughs school in St Louis. There was no relation nor was there an affinity and Burroughs the boy left Burroughs the school without graduating. He was sent to the private Los Alamos Ranch School for boys in New Mexico. In this rustic scout-like setting, Burroughs discovered sex and drugs. He was gay but was expelled for taking chloral hydrate, a sedative drug used for insomnia. Disgraced and back in St Louis he kept his head down long enough to finish high school and enrolled for Harvard.
He arrived there in 1932 at the bottom of the depression. There were 25 million unemployed and the US was deep in debt. He buckled down and got an arts degree in four years. In 1936 he did the Grand Tour of Europe. There he found homosexual freedom he could not find in the US. Nonetheless, he married Austrian Jew Ilse Klapper who needed an American visa to flee the Nazis. Klapper was living in London and her visa was about to expire when Burroughs saved her life. They married in Athens and then separated. She lived in New York until the end of the war and divorced Burroughs before settling in Zurich. They remained friends.
Burroughs returned alone to St Louis. His parents were distraught he had treated his wife so shabbily but did not stop his sizeable allowance. Burroughs mooched around following boyfriends until Pearl Harbor. He was drafted but his mother had him declared mentally unsuitable for military service. The punishment was a six month stint in a psychiatric evaluation unit. On the advice of someone he met there, he travelled to Chicago where men were scarce and jobs were easy to get.
He became a “bugman” for AJ Cohen Exterminators, an experience that informed his writing. The thrill of killing cockroaches quickly died and he followed a lover to New York. He settled in Greenwich Village and was introduced to a shy young Jewish boy from New Jersey named Allen Ginsberg. Through Ginsberg he became friends with Jack Kerouac. Kerouac and Burroughs were arrested when Lucien Carr, another friend, killed his male lover. Carr told Kerouac and Burroughs he had stabbed him after a row and dumped the body in the Hudson river. Burroughs advised him to find a lawyer. Carr turned himself in after two days and after plea bargaining down to manslaughter he served two years at a reformatory. Burroughs and Kerouac were charged for a failure to report a crime but released.
Burroughs had written sporadically but the murder spurred him into action. Ginsberg and Kerouac helped on his manuscripts. Burroughs experimented heavily with drugs and persuaded doctors to write morphine prescriptions. As the war ended, he got involved with another woman. Joan Vollmer was a Beatnik, a smart lady and a match for Burroughs. She knew he was gay but said “he made love like a pimp”. She was addicted to benzedrine. Their house was raided and Burroughs was given a four month suspended sentence for forging prescriptions.
He returned to St Louis and Joan deteriorated. Burroughs came back to her when he found out how bad her condition was. In 1947 they moved to a ranch in Texas where they took drugs unmolested. Joan gave birth to William Burroughs III that year. The Burroughs left Texas after he was arrested and lost his licence for having sex with Joan in his car. They moved on from New Orleans after police there took an interest in his drug habits.
They went to Mexico where their mutual self-destruction took a sudden turn. When drunk in their apartment, they decided to play William Tell. He placed an apple on her head but missed the apple and shot a bullet through her head. Burroughs was released on bail after 13 days and was told the trial for her murder would be a year later. Burroughs fled to New York.
The incident was the catalyst for literary greatness. “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would have never become a writer but for Joan’s death,” he wrote. He quickly put out two novels about his main predilections: “Junky” and “Queer”. “Junky” was released in 1953 under the name of William Lee.
Burroughs travelled to Europe and settled in the Moroccan city of Tangier where he could indulge his taste in drugs and men. With Ginsberg’s help he published The Naked Lunch in 1959. It was banned in Britain (the Lady Chatterley’s Lover court case had yet to decide if it one could read it to one’s wife and servants). Burroughs said Jack Kerouac suggested the title. “The title means exactly what the words say: naked lunch, a frozen moment when everyone sees what is on the end of every fork.”
The non-linear story of sex and drugs was published in the US in 1962. Boston Police arrested a bookseller for obscenity when he tried to sell the book. It took two years for the trial to come to court. Norman Mailer defended the Naked Lunch speaking of “artistry… more deliberate and profound than I thought before”. In 1966 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court declared the work “not obscene” based on criteria developed largely to defend the book. The case against Burroughs’s novel remains the last US obscenity trial against a work of literature.
Burroughs moved to Paris, home from home for American intellectuals. In an intense period he produced The Soft Machine (1961), The Ticket That Exploded (1962), and Nova Express (1963). By 1967 he was famous enough to merit a spot on the album cover of Sergeant Pepper. He returned to New York where he was the darling of a set mixing with Warhol, Basquiat and Ginsberg. Ginsberg also looked after Burroughs’ son. Father and son never got on and young Billy Burroughs turned his hostility into autobiographical published works. He was also drug dependent (probably since birth) and died of liver cancer in 1981. By now Burroughs was a giant of counter-culture. He released voice albums and starred in movies. In Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy”, he played himself in the role of Father Tom a defrocked priest and junkie.
In 1983 he moved to St Lawrence, Kansas, where aged almost 70, he bought his first and only home. David Cronenberg filmed the unfilmable Naked Lunch and Burroughs returned to New York occasionally to meet old friends. There weren’t many left, dying off due to their extravagant lifestyles but Burroughs seemed to outlast them all. Allen Ginsberg died in April 1997 and that was enough for Burroughs; he finally threw in his chips four months later. He was 83 and an opiate addict for the last 40 years of his life. Through his life he kept another addiction; that of guns, sleeping with one every night. | ||||
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] | null | [] | 2016-04-27T10:24:22-04:00 | Introduction Who was William S. Burroughs? What was the Burroughs Registering Accountant? How did the American Arithmometer Company begin? What is the legacy of Burroughs, his science, and his rewards? Would you have purchased an Arithmometer? The Burroughs sales team would have tried to persuade you with their sales brochure. Below are the answers to these questions that also tell a fascinating story of how one man's idea revolutionized American industry. | en | /themes/custom/simplytheme/favicon.ico | The Franklin Institute | https://fi.edu/en/news/case-files-william-s-burroughs | Introduction
Who was William S. Burroughs? What was the Burroughs Registering Accountant? How did the American Arithmometer Company begin? What is the legacy of Burroughs, his science, and his rewards? Would you have purchased an Arithmometer? The Burroughs sales team would have tried to persuade you with their sales brochure.
Below are the answers to these questions that also tell a fascinating story of how one man's idea revolutionized American industry.
To Err is Human
William S. Burroughs was born on January 28, 1857 in the state of New York. He married Ida Selover in 1879, with whom he would have four children: Jennie, Horace, Mortimer, and Helen. In 1882, he was twenty-five and living with his family in the city of Auburn, NY. As a bank clerk, he was troubled by the long hours he spent pouring over bank ledgers in search of errors, and the equally long hours he devoted to guarding against such errors. He was convinced that many other clerks and bookkeepers must encounter the same difficulty. So, he started thinking about how the problem might be solved. In the meantime, Burroughs' failing health prompted his doctors to order him to find a warmer climate and a more active occupation. He obligingly moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, and took up engineering. His newly-acquired technical know-how, combined with his familiarity with banks and balance sheets, gave him the ability to produce the first office adding machine.
Here is an excerpt from a thank you letter sent to The Franklin Institute by Burroughs in the period following his receipt of the John Scott Legacy Medal. The text reads as follows:
"You will perhaps recall the fact, that, several times you had previously written to me requesting a description of my machine. So highly did I value the honor you were able to confer that I repeatedly declined the same, until such a time as I should be fully satisfied as to its perfect working and full establishment."
These words, written in Burroughs' own hand, offer a personal illustration of their author's anxiety over accuracy.
Getting Started
Burroughs was indeed capable of dreaming up an efficient adding machine. But he lacked one element necessary to turn his dream into a reality: money. He happened upon a financial source in 1884, when he was sent on a mechanical job to a local store in Saint Louis. He mentioned his plans for an adding machine to one of the store's employees, and the staff member was so enthused at the prospect of such an invention that he pronounced himself willing to invest in the idea. Moreover, he persuaded his friends to invest as well.
With the money he received from these men, Burroughs rented a few feet of bench space in a small, single-story brick workshop from a proprietor named Joseph Boyer. His chief assistance came from a young man who introduced himself as Alfred Doughty. By the time he got to working in this shop, Burroughs had amassed a capital of roughly $300.00, which he repaid with promised shares in the adding machine company he hoped to build.
An inventor himself, Joseph Boyer was busy developing a pneumatic hammer valve while Burroughs was working on his adding machine. The two paid little attention to each other in the cramped corners of the workshop, but Boyer’s name resurfaces in the history of the Burroughs Registering Accountant. A few years after Burroughs’ death in 1898, Boyer assumed the responsibility of directing the American Arithmometer Company, which was producing and selling Burroughs’ machine.
As director, he established a department called “Inventions,” instructing his employees to come up with inventions that would enhance the company’s product. Thanks to the enthusiastic efforts of Boyer and of company staff, American Arithmometer models were developed in a dizzying variety of directions. Alfred Doughty, Burrough’s assistant, would eventually take on the company's presidency.
Building the Machine
Burroughs exercised extreme caution while drawing out the plans for his adding machine. Still troubled by the amount of time he wasted as a result of errors, he was determined that his adding machine be as fool-proof as possible. So preoccupied with perfection was he that he engraved his master drawings onto copper plates under a magnifier. Burroughs’ quest to eradicate error is seen in the design he chose for the keyboard of his adding machine. He settled on a nine-column structure, allotting a separate column of keys for every decimal place.
Despite the possibility of a “ten-key” keyboard design, which would allow the place to shift automatically, Burroughs opted for his “full” keyboard model. He reasoned that such an arrangement would lessen the chance of the operator of the machine pressing a key twice, or not pressing down hard enough, and throwing off the whole calculation. He therefore installed a nine-column keyboard, each column being made up of nine keys representing digits one through nine.
Burroughs incorporated other safeguards into his design. He equipped the mechanism with a “locked keyboard,” which caused it to freeze if there was an attempt made to punch two keys in the same column. Furthermore, when a key was pressed down, it stayed down. This enabled the operator to verify the sum he had entered before pulling the handle on the side of the machine and entering that sum into the numerical index. Finally, the machine had the capacity to print, so as to prevent discrepancies between the correct sum and the number copied down by the clerk or bookkeeper operating the machine.
Leaving a Legacy
In 1897, The Franklin Institute presented its John Scott Legacy Medal to William S. Burroughs "for the ingenuity displayed in successfully combining a calculating machine with a printer so as to obtain a printed record of the operation of the machine."
The award-winning Burroughs Registering Accountant was an early model of what is today known as a calculator. This machine performed one simple function: addition. As a young inventor, Burroughs had realized that America was experiencing a rapid growth of industry and technology and had known there was a need for a machine that could add numbers quickly and accurately.
He was not the first to conceive of a device that would aid its user with the process of adding long columns of numbers: several of his contemporaries were working on ways to mechanize the process in 19th Century America. However, he was the first to transform current principles into a key-set, crank-operated adding-listing machine. He sat down to construct such a machine in 1884, unaware of the far-reaching effects his adding machine would have on America and the world.
How It Works
The Burroughs Registering Accountant was able to function largely because of a mechanism known as a pivoting sector. This pivoting sector was fundamental to the invention, crucial because it smoothed the process of carrying a 1. This mathematical procedure had previously posed a problem to other inventors of calculating machines. Below is an animation detailed the mechanism. Descriptions of each numbered process are provided.
The Forward Stroke
1. A bank clerk depresses key (a) and pulls the operating lever of the machine forward.
2. The action of pulling the lever causes a sector (b) to swivel round on a pivot at its center.
3. The projection (c) attached to the pivoting sector descends.
4. As the projection (c) descends, the rack (d) at its top descends as well.
5. The descent of rack (d) is brought to a stop by wire (e).
6. Wire (e) acts as the "depressor" because it is attached to key (a), which was pressed by the bank clerk using the adding machine in step 1.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the pivoting sector:
1. The other end of the pivoting sector (b) is equipped with typefaces, which correspond to the keys in the column under which the sector is operating.
2. When the movement of the sector (b) is halted by the wire (e), the typeface which corresponds to key (a) is opposite the printing space. In this case, it is typeface 6.
3. At the end of the handle's forward stroke the printing of the sum entered in step 1 takes place.
The Reverse Stroke
1. When the bank clerk pulled the machine's handle at the beginning of the operation, he caused a pinion bar to withdraw and take the recording pinion (g) out of gear with the rack (d), mentioned in step 4 of the "Forward Stroke" process.
2. The bank clerk now begins to return the operating lever to its original position, throwing the recording pinion (g) into gear with the rack (d).
3. As the rack (d) returns to its starting position, the recording pinion turns through just six spaces (in this case, it turns through 6 spaces because, as you remember from step 2 in the "Pivoting Sector" section above, the bank clerk initially pressed down on key number 6).
Carrying and Printing
Carrying a 1 from one column to another posed a problem not only for Burroughs, but for others struggling to create similar machines. In order to facilitate carrying, the Burroughs adding machine goes through the following process:
The movement of the recording pinion is affected by the pinion on its right. When the pinion to the right passes from nine to zero, a lug on that pinion releases a lever which holds a stop in place. This stop, when in place, restricts the movement of the rack. When the stop is removed, the corresponding rack will rise, turning one additional tooth in recording pinion in order to accomplish the carrying operation. The lug on the pinion to the right of our recording pinion returns to its normal position and resets the stop during the next forward motion of the operating lever.
By means of a hammer positioned at the rear of each one, the typefaces are banged against the spool of paper which has been threaded through the back of the machine. An ink ribbon stands between the typefaces and the paper, and the swinging motion of the hammers causes each typeface to leave ink imprints on the paper ribbon. The printing hammers are operated by springs whose movement is triggered at the last moment of the forward movement of the operating lever. The printing hammers are connected in such a manner that not only those that correspond to the depressed racks, but all those located to the right of the highest figure struck are released at this point.
This realizes Burroughs' goal of printing a zero to hold the place of each lower column not containing a depressed key and is necessary given that each column contains only digits one through nine. The printer spitting out each sum is located on the rear of the Burroughs Registering Accountant, making it difficult for our clerk to see what is printing. If he wants to view what is printed, he has to lift a carriage on the rear of the machine. For this reason, the Burroughs machines were called “blind” printers.
Final Total
The instruction booklet for the Burroughs Registering Accountant directs the operator requiring a total to “first execute one complete movement of the operating lever with no keys depressed. Then depress the total key and hold same depressed during a second complete movement of the operating lever.” The initial movement of the operating lever in this step returns the racks to their normal position. Due to the carrying process, some of the racks may be one tooth above their normal position. Pulling the operating lever without first depressing any of the keys accomplishes the racks’ return, so that a final total can be obtained.
Pressing the total key has the effect of reversing the mechanism which pushes and pulls the recording pinions into and out of gear with the racks.The act of pulling the machine’s operating lever causes the wheels to be pulled out of gear. Therefore, the “reversing effect” of the total key enables the recording pinions to remain in place as the racks descend, thus retaining the sums they have been “recording.” After the bank clerk operating our machine presses the total key and pulls the operating lever forward, the racks descend. During this descent, the racks turn their respective recording pinions back to zero. In doing so, each rack causes the sector attached to it to turn through the numerical distance corresponding to its own recording pinion. This makes the appropriate typeface come up and print. If the bank clerk first wants to clear his Burroughs Registering Accountant for the purpose of entering a new string of numbers and then printing their sum total, he must continue depressing the total key while returning the operating lever to its original position. This will cause the recording pinions to remain out of gear and in their zero positions during the descent of the racks. The retention of these zero positions enables the bank clerk to deem his Registering Accountant “clear.”
However, if he wants to continue adding figures to the sum total, the bank clerk must allow the machine to hold the sum in its mechanical memory. In that case, he releases the total key before returning the operating lever to its starting position. In doing so, he places the mechanism which throws the recording pinions in and out of gear in its original “unreversed” position, note that the recording pinions slip into gear when the operating lever is pushed back. The racks then return the pinions to their original positions, and thus the machine still retains the sum.
Wheels and Interchangable Parts
Watching the Wheels Go 'Round
Burroughs took a certain pride in his streamlined, accurate creation. In order to display the ingenious design of the Burroughs Registering Accountant, its inventor installed little glass panels. This addition enabled consumers to watch the inner joints of the machine as they made their carefully mechanized movements. The glass was eventually replaced by steel, as the company found that its clientele was interested only in the fact that the machine worked; they did not care to know why or how. Later, aesthetic improvements included setting the keyboard at an angle agreeable to the hands and selecting pleasing colors for the outer shell of the machine.
The excerpt shown here, taken from Burroughs' thank you letter to The Franklin Institute upon receipt of his award, speaks of the pride he derives from his ability to Watching the Wheels Go 'Round. The text remarks:
"You must know something too of the close kinship an inventor feels with the creation of his brain. It is to him a thing alive, a part of his very being and any recognition given to it, is as dear as life itself. Above all you must understand the crowning satisfaction of a well-earned success."
Interchangeable Parts
Burroughs championed the principle of complete interchangeability. The parts making up the infrastructure of his machine were fully interchangeable, which aided mechanics making repairs. It was also useful in the year 1898, when the American Arithmometer Company established a firm in Europe. Thanks to Burroughs’ principle of complete interchangeability, a British-made part could fit snugly into a machine produced in St. Louis.
Troubleshooting
In 1884, pressure from investors convinced Burroughs to exhibit his machine, despite its known imperfections. In 1885, the inventor made application for basic patents, and the following year saw the founding of the American Arithmometer Company. By 1888, pressure from stockholders had convinced Burroughs to start production of his machine. He had complied reluctantly with investors’ demands, unsure that the patterns he ordered would produce the foolproof machine he had endeavored to design. The initial shipment of machines in 1890 confirmed the inventor’s fears: the Burroughs Registering Accountant’s first consumers had complaints. The trouble centered around the main operating lever, which allowed the machine to accumulate numbers when it was pulled steadily forward and then released. However, the contraption’s inexperienced clientele misused the lever and then complained that the machines weren’t arriving at the correct totals.
Not one to be thwarted, Burroughs applied himself to investigating the problem. Seventy-two sleepless hours of work yielded a solution: an oil-filled dashpot. Incorporated in the machine's infrastructure, the dashpot would smooth its operations despite usage errors made by the handler. In 1891, 100 improved Registering Accountants left the company’s workshop, the failures having been recalled and stored away. To celebrate his success, Burroughs hurled these faulty models, one by one, from the window of the company’s storeroom. “I have ended the last of my troubles,” he proclaimed as the malfunctioning machines crashed to the ground.
Oil-Filled Dashpot
The importance attached to the oil-filled dashpot is seen in the records of the Burroughs case file, compiled while the Franklin Institute was considering recognizing this inventor with an award. Upon reviewing the report, which was released after the award had been presented, the American Arithmometer Company noticed an inaccuracy in the description of the dashpot's function. American Arithmometer secretary E. G. Langhorne wrote to the Franklin Institute, informing the awards committee of their mistake. The letter, along with the Franklin Institute's response, is a footnote of sorts, tucked into the report to indicate a modification of its description of Burroughs’ machine. Taken together, both documents indicate the significance of the oil-filled dashpot.
Expansion and Merger
The American Arithmometer Company struggled financially in its early days, unable to report the sale of significantly more than 5,000 machines by the end of 1900. From the mid-1800s to 1900, adding and calculating machines were met with opposition by bookkeepers and counting-house clerks, who feared that such machines would displace their services. Sales of Burroughs machines grew rapidly after 1900, outselling their primary competitor: Felt & Tarrant.
American Arithmometer experienced its first major expansion in 1898, when Sir John Turney of Nottingham acquired the rights to manufacture Burroughs machines for all the countries and continents of the Eastern hemisphere, including Britain and Europe. Having gotten its start in 1886 in Saint Louis selling only the Burroughs Registering Accountant, the expanding American parent company moved to Detroit in 1904 and changed its name to the Burroughs Adding Machine Company. The new name honored the machine's inventor, who had died in 1898. An expanding product line helped the company to flourish, and in 1953, it began to produce computer products and was renamed the Burroughs Corporation. That same year, the company factory, located in Strathleven, Scotland, was honored by a royal visit from Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who was accompanied by His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. Thirty-three years later, in September of 1986, Burroughs Corporation merged with Sperry Corporation to form Unisys Corporation.
The Scott Medal
The process of selecting William S. Burroughs as the recipient of the 1897 Scott Medal involved a full examination by the Committee on Science and the Arts, according to their rules.The archive of this process exists here as a legacy to the careful consideration of the scientist and his work.
A Scottish chemist named John Scott bequeathed the sum of $4,000.00 in funded 3% interest stock of the United States to the corporation of the city of Philadelphia. His will, written in the year 1816, stipulated that interest and dividends yielded by this stock were to be distributed in the form of premiums to men and women judged to have come up with ingenious inventions. Each premium was not to exceed the amount of $20.00, and was to be rewarded along with a copper medal bearing the inscription, “To the most deserving.” The Select and Common Councils of the city of Philadelphia passed an ordinance in February of 1834 that vested the award of the premium and medals in the Franklin Institute. In 1869, administration of the John Scott Legacy Premium and Medal was conferred on the “Board of Directors of City Trusts,”, In turn, this referred control of the aforementioned award to its own Committee on Wills’ Hospital and Minor Trusts. April of 1882 saw a resolution made by this Committee to “favorably receive the names of any persons whom The Franklin Institute may, from time to time, report to the Committee on Minor Trusts as worthy of receiving the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium.” Having accepted the above resolution, The Franklin Institute put its Committee on Science and the Arts in charge of making the necessary evaluations and recommendations.
The Committee on Science and the Arts (CSA) took care to compile a report on each invention or improvement its committee members judged worthy of the premium and accompanying medal. That report was then published three times in the Journal of The Franklin Institute, with the first publication occurring three months before the CSA would make an official recommendation to the Council on Minority Trusts. These publications allowed the public to review the inventions, and to raise objections as to their originality. If no such objections were made, the Secretary of the Institute certified the recommendation of the award to the Committee on Minor Trusts of the Board of City Trusts. Digitalized documents pulled from the Burroughs case file illustrate the process that resulted in his receipt of the John Scott Medal.
Taking Notice
In 1897, just a year before Burroughs’ death, The Franklin Institute recognized the achievement of this inventor with a John Scott Legacy Medal. This particular medal was presented by the city of Philadelphia, based on the advice of The Franklin Institute’s Committee on Science and the Arts (CSA). Appointed in 1824, the Institute's advising committee was originally called the “Board of Examiners.” For a brief time, the appellation was changed to “The Committee on Inventions,” and since 1834, the group has been referred to as “The Committee on Science and the Arts.” This group was formed by The Franklin Institute's Board of Managers in response to “the need felt by inventors and discoverers, for some competent, trustworthy and impartial body, on whom they could confidently rely for an opinion as to the usefulness of their inventions and discoveries.” The CSA provided this service through the examination and evaluation of inventions proffered during America’s age of industrial revolution, a time when the U.S. Patent Office was neither as well-organized nor as well-functioning as it is today.
At this point in history, the Institute judged that the investigation and encouragement of new technology was vital to the growth of the nation. Accordingly, its Committee on Science and the Arts approved, disproved, or offered advice concerning the improvement of a given invention. In special cases, the CSA honored the inventor or improver of technology with an award or premium in acknowledgement of his contribution to “the Mechanical and Useful Arts.”
Each invention undergoing evaluation by The Franklin Institute's Committee on Science and the Arts was given a case file, where documents prevalent to the study of that invention were kept. The Franklin Institute charged an application fee of $5.00 for the submission of inventions for evaluation. The Burroughs case file, pulled from Franklin Institute archives, records primarily the correspondence between Institute secretary W.H. Wahl and CSA committee member Hugo Bilgram, and American Arithmometer employees E.G. Langhorne and H.B. Wyeth. Numerous checks on the status of the award application by American Arithmometer reveal that the young company was anxious for prestigious recognition; furthermore, it was convinced that The Franklin Institute's respected position in 19th century society rendered the organization capable of offering such recognition.
Following are the rules generated by the Committee on Science and the Arts (CSA), governing the procedure for the selection of award candidates, particularly as they applied to the consideration of William S. Burroughs.
Rule 1
A recommendation for an award of the premium and medal shall be made only by the Committee on Science and the Arts, on a report of a sub-committee which shall have been appointed to examine such invention.
Rule 2
The invention or improvement to be examined shall be accompanied by a clear description and drawings of the same, together with a model, if required, and also a statement on the particulars of the inventor’s claim to originality.
Rule 3
When the invention is a composition of matter, specimens of the ingredients and of the compound sufficient for the purpose of experiments, and to preserve in the cabinet of the Franklin Institute, shall be furnished by the inventor.
Rule 4
Upon adoption by the Committee on Science and the Arts of a report setting forth that an invention or improvement is worthy of an award of the premium and medal, publication shall be made three times in the Journal of the Franklin Institute, stating that at the expiration of three months from the date of the first publication, the Committee on Science and the Arts will recommend to the Committee on Minor Trusts of the Board of the City of Trusts, the award of the said premium and medal to the inventor, unless within that time satisfactory evidence shall have been submitted to the Committee on Science and the Arts of the want of originality of the supposed invention and improvement. In case no such objections to the final award of the premium and medal shall have been made, the Secretary shall certify the recommendation of the award to the Committee on Minor Trusts of the Board of City Trusts.
Rule 5
All applications for the John Scott Legacy Premium and Medal must be made to the Secretary of the Institute, by whom the applications and accompanying descriptions, drawings, etc., shall be laid before the Committee on Science and the Arts, and by whom all publications ordered by said committee, in relation to said premiums and medals, shall be made.
Accepting the Award
Recognition from The Franklin Institute was appreciated by each of its award recipients.
The William S. Burroughs presentation was made possible by support from Unisys and The Barra Foundation. | ||||
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Father: Mortimer P. Burroughs (b. 16-Jun-1885, d. Jan-1965)
Mother: Laura Hammond Lee (b. 5-Aug-1888, d. 20-Oct-1970)
Brother: Mortimer P. Burroughs (b. 16-Feb-1911, d. 27-Feb-1983)
Wife: Ilse Klapper (div. 1946)
Wife: Joan Vollmer Adams (m. 1946, d. 6-Sep-1951 accidental gunshot)
Son: William S. Burroughs, Jr. (b. 1947, d. 1981 cirrhosis)
Slept with: Allen Ginsberg
High School: Los Alamos Ranch School, Otowi, NM (expelled)
University: BA English Literature, Harvard University (1936)
University: Vienna, Austria
University: Mexico City College, Mexico City, Mexico (1949-52, fled country)
Teacher: City College of New York
American Academy of Arts and Letters 1983
Scientology
Expelled from School
Forgery (Apr-1946)
Institutionalized
Lost Child Custody
unknown detox facility (1948)
Unlawful Possession of a Firearm New Orleans
Drug Possession: Marijuana New Orleans
Drug Possession: Heroin New Orleans
Failure to Appear New Orleans (27-Oct-1949), no charges filed
Driving While Intoxicated Texas
Sex in Public
Drug Smuggling
Involuntary Manslaughter
Heart Bypass Operation triple (1991)
Heart Attack 1-Aug-1997
Endorsement of Gap (1993)
Endorsement of Nike (1994)
Material Vocalist
St. Louis Walk of Fame
Sgt. Pepper Lonely Heart
Risk Factors: Heroin, Morphine, LSD, Psilocybin, Peyote, Orgone, Syphilis, Malaria, Amputee
FILMOGRAPHY AS ACTOR
The Source (23-Jan-1999) · Himself
The Book of Life (22-Aug-1998) [VOICE]
The Life and Times of Allen Ginsberg (18-Feb-1994) · Himself
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (13-Sep-1993) · Himself
Wax, or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees (1991)
Twister (8-Aug-1990) · Man in Barn
Bloodhounds of Broadway (3-Nov-1989)
Drugstore Cowboy (6-Oct-1989) · Tom the Priest
Heavy Petting (7-Sep-1989) · Himself
Home of the Brave (25-Apr-1986) · Himself
What Happened to Kerouac? (16-Apr-1986) · Himself
Chappaqua (1966)
Häxan (18-Sep-1922) [VOICE]
Rotten Library Page:
William S. Burroughs
Is the subject of books:
William S. Burroughs, Brion Gysin and Throbbing Gristle, 1982, BY: V. Vale and Andrea Juno (RE/Search) | |||||||
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] | 2014-02-03T00:00:00 | Peter Schjeldahl on the unorthodox life and work of the Beat Generation writer William S. Burroughs. | en | https://www.newyorker.com/verso/static/the-new-yorker/assets/favicon.ico | The New Yorker | https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/03/the-outlaw | “I can feel the heat closing in, feel them out there making their moves.” So starts “Naked Lunch,” the touchstone novel by William S. Burroughs. That hardboiled riff, spoken by a junkie on the run, introduces a mélange of “episodes, misfortunes, and adventures,” which, the author said, have “no real plot, no beginning, no end.” It is worth recalling on the occasion of “Call Me Burroughs” (Twelve), a biography by Barry Miles, an English author of books on popular culture, including several on the Beats. “I can feel the heat” sounded a new, jolting note in American letters, like Allen Ginsberg’s “I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness,” or, for that matter, like T. S. Eliot’s “April is the cruellest month.” (Ginsberg was a close friend; Eliot hailed from Burroughs’s home town of St. Louis and his poetry influenced Burroughs’s style.) In Burroughs’s case, that note was the voice of an outlaw revelling in wickedness. It bragged of occult power: “I can feel,” rather than “I feel.” He always wrote in tones of spooky authority—a comic effect, given that most of his characters are, in addition to being gaudily depraved, more or less conspicuously insane.
“Naked Lunch” is less a novel than a grab bag of friskily obscene comedy routines—least forgettably, an operating-room Grand Guignol conducted by an insouciant quack, Dr. Benway. “Well, it’s all in a day’s work,” Benway says, with a sigh, after a patient fails to survive heart massage with a toilet plunger. Some early reviewers spluttered in horror. Charles Poore, in the Times, calmed down just enough to be forthright in his closing line: “I advise avoiding the book.” “Naked Lunch” was five years in the writing and editing, mostly in Tangier, and aided by friends, including Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac. It first appeared in 1959, in Paris, as “The Naked Lunch” (with the definite article), in an Olympia Press paperback edition, in company with “Lolita,” “The Ginger Man,” and “Sexus.” Its plain green-and-black cover, like the covers of those books, bore the alluring caveat “Not to be sold in U.S.A. or U.K.” (A first edition can be yours, from one online bookseller, for twenty thousand dollars.) The same year, Big Table, a Chicago literary magazine, printed an excerpt, and was barred from the mails by the U.S. Postal Service. Fears of suppression delayed a stateside publication of the book until 1962, when Grove Press brought out an expanded and revised edition. It sold so well that Grove didn’t issue a paperback until 1966.
As late as 1965, however, a Boston court confirmed a local ban, despite testimony from Norman Mailer arguing the book’s literary merit. (Another supporter was Mary McCarthy, who, in the New York Review of Books, praised Burroughs’s “crankish courage” and compared “Naked Lunch” to “a worm that you can chop up into sections each of which wriggles off as an independent worm. Or a nine-lived cat. Or a cancer.”) A year later, the Massachusetts Supreme Court reversed the ban, on the ground of “redeeming social value,” a wobbly legal standard in censorship cases then and after. Thus anointed, Burroughs’s ragged masterpiece brought to social notice themes of drug use, homosexuality, hyperbolic violence, and anti-authoritarian paranoia. Those temerities and his disarmingly starchy public mien—he was ever the gent, dressed in suits, with patrician manners and a sepulchral, Missouri-bred and foreign-seasoned voice—assured him a celebrity status that is apt to flare anew whenever another cohort of properly disaffected young readers discovers him. The centenary of Burroughs’s birth, on February 5th, promises much organized attention; an excellent documentary by Howard Brookner, “Burroughs: The Movie” (1983), is about to be re-released.
Contrary to Kerouac’s mythmaking portrayal of him—as Old Bull Lee, in “On the Road”—Burroughs was not a wealthy heir, although his parents paid him an allowance until he was fifty. His namesake grandfather, William Seward Burroughs, perfected the adding machine and left his four children blocks of stock in what later became the Burroughs Corporation. His son Mortimer—the father of William and another, older son—sold his remaining share, shortly before the 1929 crash, for two hundred and seventy-six thousand dollars. Mortimer’s wife, born Laura Lee, never ceased to dote on William; Mortimer deferred to her.
Burroughs started writing at the age of eight, imitating adventure and crime stories. He attended a John Dewey-influenced progressive elementary school in St. Louis and played on the banks of the nearby, sewage-polluted River des Peres. Miles quotes him recalling, in a nice example of his gloatingly dire adjectival style, “During the summer months the smell of shit and coal gas permeated the city, bubbling up from the river’s murky depths to cover the oily iridescent surface with miasmal mists.” When Burroughs was fourteen, some chemicals he was tinkering with exploded, severely injuring his hand; treatment for the pain alerted him to the charms of morphine. He then spent two unhappy years at the exclusive Los Alamos Ranch School for boys, in New Mexico, memories of which informed his late novel “The Wild Boys” and other fantasies of all-male societies.
Burroughs was a brilliant student, graduating from Harvard with honors, in English, in 1936. He sojourned often in Europe; in Vienna, he briefly studied medicine and frequented the gay demimonde. He had become aware at puberty of an attraction to boys, and had been so embarrassed by a diary he kept of a futile passion for a fellow-student that he destroyed it and stopped writing anything not school-required for several years. Later, in psychoanalysis, he traced his sexual anxiety to a repressed memory: when he was four years old, his nanny forced him to perform oral sex on her boyfriend. The tumultuous experience of having his first serious boyfriend—in New York, in 1940—triggered what he laconically called a “Van Gogh kick”: he cut off the end joint of his left pinkie.
After a short hitch in the Army, in 1942, Burroughs received a psychiatric discharge. He then worked briefly as a private detective, in Chicago, where, however, he enjoyed his longest period of regular employment—nine months—as a pest exterminator. His delectable memoir of the job, “Exterminator!,” the title story of a collection published in 1973, employs a tone, typical of him, that begs to be called bleak nostalgia: “From a great distance I see a cool remote naborhood blue windy day in April sun cold on your exterminator there climbing the grey wooden outside stairs.”
The creation story of the Beats is by now literary boilerplate. Burroughs moved to New York in 1943, along with David Kammerer, a childhood friend who had travelled with him in Europe, and Lucien Carr, an angelically handsome Columbia University student whom Kammerer was stalking. Ginsberg, a fellow-student, was enthralled by Carr, and later dedicated “Howl” to him. Kerouac, who had dropped out of Columbia and served in the Navy, returned to the neighborhood in 1944. With Carr as the catalyst, and Burroughs, whom Kerouac goaded to resume writing, a charismatic presence, the Beat fellowship was complete.
Carr ended Kammerer’s pursuit of him late on the night of August 13, 1944, by stabbing him and dumping his body in the Hudson River. (The new movie “Kill Your Darlings” tells the tale in only somewhat embellished fashion.) Burroughs then replaced Carr as the group’s mentor. According to Miles, Kerouac and Ginsberg didn’t yet know that Burroughs was gay, and played matchmaker by introducing him to Joan Vollmer, an erudite, twice-married free spirit with a baby daughter, Julie, of uncertain paternity. Burroughs and Vollmer became inseparable and, they believed, telepathic soul mates, but he continued to have sexual encounters with men. In 1946, he started on heroin. (An uncle, Horace Burroughs, whom he idealized but never met, was a morphine addict who committed suicide in 1915, when the drug was legally restricted.) Vollmer favored Benzedrine.
Postwar New York updated Burroughs’s trove of criminal argot. He saw a lot of Herbert Huncke, a junkie and a jack-of-all-scams—whom Ginsberg called “the basic originator of the ethos of Beat and the conceptions of Beat and Square”—and other habitués of Times Square, whose doppelgängers roam the fiction that he had not yet begun to write. In 1946, Vollmer became pregnant. Burroughs, who could be startlingly moralistic, abhorred abortion; and so a son, Billy, joined the family. Envisioning himself as a gentleman farmer, Burroughs had acquired a spread in East Texas, where he cultivated marijuana, though not very well. He drove a harvest to New York with Kerouac’s “On the Road” icon, Neal Cassady—whom he disdained as, in Miles’s words, “a cheap con man”—but it was too green to turn a profit. After a drug bust in New Orleans, Burroughs jumped bail and settled in Mexico City. For three years, he took drugs, drank, picked up boys, hosted friends, and cut a sorry figure as a father. (With Vollmer also drinking heavily, the children’s lot was grim.) A Mexican scholar of the Beats, Jorge García-Robles, details the louche milieu in another new book, “The Stray Bullet: William S. Burroughs in Mexico” (Minnesota). He writes that Burroughs found the country “grotesque, sordid, and malodorous, but he liked it.”
During those years, Burroughs also wrote his first book, “Junky.” A pulp paperback published in 1953, under the pen name William Lee, it recounts his adventures through underworlds from New York to Mexico City. It features terse, crackling reportage, with echoes of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. The narrator’s first meeting with “Herman” (a pseudonym for Huncke) isn’t auspicious: “Waves of hostility and suspicion flowed out from his large brown eyes like some sort of television broadcast.” “Junky” attracted no critical notice. Burroughs wrote two other books in the early fifties that weren’t published until after “Naked Lunch.” “Queer”—centering, in Mexico City, on one of his arduous opiate withdrawals and a frustrating romance with a young man—saw print only in 1985. The most emotional work in a generally icy œuvre, it was written around the time, in 1951, of the most notorious event in Burroughs’s life: his fatal shooting of Vollmer, in a drunken game of “William Tell.”
García-Robles and Miles agree in their accounts of Vollmer’s death. At a friend’s apartment, she balanced a glass on her head, at Burroughs’s behest. He had contracted a lifelong mania for guns from duck-hunting excursions with his father, and was never unarmed if he could help it. He fired a pistol from about nine feet away. The bullet struck Vollmer in the forehead, at the hairline. She was twenty-eight. He was devastated, but readily parroted a story supplied by his lawyer, a flamboyant character named Bernabé Jurado: the gun went off accidentally. Released on bail, Burroughs might have faced trial had not Jurado, in a fit of road rage, shot a socially prominent young man and, when his victim died of septicemia, fled the country. Burroughs did the same, and a Mexican court convicted him in absentia of manslaughter, sentencing him to two years. In the introduction to “Queer,” Burroughs disparages his earlier work and adds, “I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death,” because it initiated a spiritual “lifelong struggle, in which I have had no choice except to write my way out.” García-Robles avidly endorses this indeed appalling consolation, casting Vollmer as a sainted martyr to literature.
Miles relates that Burroughs had told Carr, after he killed Kammerer, “You shouldn’t blame yourself at all, because he asked for it, he demanded it.” Some of Burroughs’s friends, including Ginsberg, opted for an analogous understanding of Vollmer’s death as an indirect suicide, which she had willed to happen. Burroughs’s craving for exculpation eventually settled on the certainty that an “Ugly Spirit” had deflected his aim. As a child, Burroughs had been infused with superstitions by his mother and by the family’s Irish maid, and all his life he believed fervently in almost anything except conventional religion: telepathy, demons, alien abductions, and all manner of magic, including crystal-ball prophecy and efficacious curses. For several years in the nineteen-sixties, he enthusiastically espoused Scientology, in which he attained the lofty rank of “Clear,” before being excommunicated for questioning the organization’s Draconian discipline. And he furnished any place he lived in for long with an “orgone accumulator”—the metal-lined wooden booth invented by the rogue psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich for capturing and imparting cosmic energy. Miles begins “Call Me Burroughs” with a scene of a sweat-lodge ceremony conducted by a Navajo shaman to finally expel the Ugly Spirit, in Kansas, in 1992. The heat and smoke caused Burroughs to ask to truncate the proceedings.
Vollmer’s parents took Julie into their home, in Albany, and she dropped out of her stepfather’s life. Burroughs sent Billy to be raised by Laura and Mortimer, in St. Louis, and joined them, in 1952, after they moved to Palm Beach, Florida. But he didn’t stay long; he set out to work on his third book, “The Yage Letters,” a quest through the jungles of Colombia for a fabled hallucinogen that, he had written in the last sentence of “Junky,” “may be the final fix.” He found and duly lauded the drug, but the journey seems its own reward, making for fine low-down travel writing. He needs a motorboat to take him upriver:
Sure you think it’s romantic at first but wait til you sit there five days onna sore ass sleeping in Indian shacks and eating hoka and some hunka nameless meat like the smoked pancreas of a two-toed sloth and all night you hear them fiddle-fucking with the motor—they got it bolted to the porch—“buuuuurt spluuuu . . . ut . . . spluuuu . . . ut,” and you can’t sleep hearing the motor start and die all night and then it starts to rain. Tomorrow the river will be higher.
The book wasn’t published until 1963. In the meantime, two volumes of a trilogy, “The Soft Machine” and “The Ticket That Exploded,” came out, soon followed by the third, “Nova Express.” These were written largely in London and Paris, between trips to Tangier, where Burroughs had lived for several years, starting in 1954. They advanced his claim (with some precedents in Dadaism and Surrealism) to literary innovation: the “cut-up” technique of assembling texts from scissored fragments of his own and others’ prose. The trilogy is a sort of fractured science fiction, telling of underground struggles against forces of “Control”—the shape-shifting, all-purpose bête noire of Burroughs’s world view. It is easier to read than, say, “Finnegans Wake,” but hard going between such bursts of dazzle as the “resistance message”:
Calling partisans of all nations—Cut word lines—Shift linguals—Vibrate tourists—Free doorways—Word falling—Photo falling—Break through in Grey Room.
A second trilogy—“The Cities of the Red Night,” “The Place of Dead Roads,” and “The Western Lands”—published between 1981 and 1987, reverts to fairly normal narration, filled with scenes of sexual and military atrocity in a succession of mythic cities. Its heroes include Hassan-i Sabbah, the historical leader of a sometimes homicidal sect in eleventh- and twelfth-century Persia. “Nothing is true, everything is permitted,” Sabbah is supposed to have said (and was so quoted by Nietzsche). The prose is nimble and often ravishing, but marred by the author’s monotonous obsessions and gross tics—notably, a descent into ferocious misogyny, casting women as “the Sex Enemy.”
The biography, after its eventful start, becomes rather like an odyssey by subway in the confines of Burroughs’s self-absorption, with connecting stops in New York, where he lived, in the late nineteen-seventies, on the Bowery, in the locker room of a former Y.M.C.A., and, returning to the Midwest, in the congenial university town of Lawrence, Kansas, where he spent his last sixteen years, and where he died, of a heart attack, in 1997, at the age of eighty-three. Miles’s always efficient, often elegant prose eases the ride, but a reader’s attention may grow wan for want of sun. Most of the characters run to type: dissolute quasi-aristocratic friends, interchangeable boys, sycophants in steadily increasing numbers. Names parade, from Paul Bowles and Samuel Beckett (who, meeting Burroughs at a party in Paris, denounced the cut-up method as “plumbing”), through Mick Jagger and Andy Warhol, to Laurie Anderson and Kurt Cobain. Most prominent is Brion Gysin, a mediocre artist of calligraphic abstractions. Burroughs met him in Tangier, in 1955, and bonded with him in Paris at a dump in the Latin Quarter, known as the Beat Hotel, whose motherly owner adored literary wanderers.
Gysin and Burroughs deemed each other clairvoyant geniuses. They collaborated on cut-ups, extending the technique to audiotape, and foresaw commercial gold for Gysin’s “Dreamachine,” a gizmo that emitted flickering light to mildly hypnotic effect. It flopped. Burroughs took to making art himself, especially after Gysin’s death, in 1986: he created hundreds of pictures, on wood, by shooting at containers of paint. These have been widely exhibited and sold. They are terrible. Burroughs had no visual equivalent of the second-nature formality that buoys even his most chaotic writing.
Ginsberg comes off radiantly well in Miles’s telling, as a loyally forgiving friend. He tolerated Burroughs’s amatory passion for him, which developed in the fifties, as long as it lasted. Much of Burroughs’s best writing originated in letters to the poet, who took a guiding editorial hand in it. It was Ginsberg who hatched the title “Naked Lunch,” by a lucky mistake, having misread the phrase “naked lust” in a Burroughs manuscript. (I think of Ezra Pound’s editorial overhaul of “He Do the Police in Different Voices”—Eliot’s first title for “The Waste Land.”) Ginsberg effectively sacrificed his own literary development, which sagged after “Kaddish” (1961), to publicizing his friends and, of course, himself. Burroughs disparaged his puppylike attendance in Bob Dylan’s entourage. (Burroughs’s aloofness, like his obsession with mind control, reflected memories of a reviled uncle, Ivy Ledbetter Lee, a pioneering public-relations expert whose clients included John D. Rockefeller and the Nazi Party.) But Burroughs liked his own growing fame. He gave readings to full houses. Appearances on “Saturday Night Live,” in 1981, and in Gus Van Sant’s “Drugstore Cowboy,” in 1989, spread the popularity of his gentleman-junkie cool.
The biography’s most painful passages involve Billy, who both idolized and, for excellent reasons, resented Burroughs. What might you be like, had your father killed your mother and then abandoned you? In 1963, when Billy was sixteen, Burroughs, bowing to his parents’ insistence, briefly took charge of the troubled lad in Tangier. The main event of the visit was Billy’s introduction to drugs, condoned by Burroughs. In and out of hospitals and rehabs, Billy wrote three novels, of which the first, “Speed” (1970), detailing the ordeal of amphetamine addiction, showed literary promise. In 1976, father and son reunited at the Naropa Institute, in Boulder, where Ginsberg and other poets had initiated a program in experimental writing, and where Burroughs was teaching, with crotchety flair. Billy, who had received a liver transplant for cirrhosis, engaged in spectacular self-destruction. Miles writes, “Billy wanted Bill to witness the mess he was in; he was paying him back.” Billy died in 1981, at the age of thirty-three. Burroughs seemed to regret only that he had not sufficiently explained the Ugly Spirit to him. He responded to his son’s death by varying his current methadone habit with a return to heroin.
“Virtually all of Burroughs’s writing was done when he was high on something,” Miles writes. The drugs help account for the hollowness of his voices, which jabber, joke, and rant like ghosts in a cave. He had no voice of his own, but a fantastic ear and verbal recall. His prose is a palimpsest of echoes, ranging from Eliot’s “Preludes” and “Rhapsody on a Windy Night” (lines like “Midnight shakes the memory / As a madman shakes a dead geranium” are Burroughsian before the fact) to Raymond Chandler’s marmoreal wisecracks and Herbert Huncke’s jive. I suspect that few readers have made it all the way through the cut-up novels, but anyone dipping into them may come away humming phrases. His palpable influence on J. G. Ballard, William Gibson, and Kathy Acker is only the most obvious effect of the kind of inspiration that makes a young writer drop a book and grab a pen, wishing to emulate so sensational a sound. It’s a cold thrill. While always comic, Burroughs is rarely funny, unless you’re as tickled as he was by such recurrent delights as boys in orgasm as they are executed by hanging.
Some critics, including Miles, have tried to gussy up Burroughs’s antinomian morality as Swiftian satire. Burroughs, however, wages literary war not on perceptible real-world targets but against suggestions that anyone is responsible for anything. Though never cruel in his personal conduct, he was, in principle, exasperated with values of constraint. A little of “Nothing is true, everything is permitted” goes a long way for many readers, including me. But there’s no gainsaying a splendor as berserk as that of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. When you have read Burroughs, at whatever length suffices for you, one flank of your imagination of human possibility will be covered for good and all. ♦ | ||||
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] | null | [] | 2022-04-25T08:53:38+00:00 | After William Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollmer, he threw away all her possessions. Their son, Bill Jr., never saw a photograph of her. When Bill Jr. was 32, he begged his father to send him a… | en | https://s26162.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/favicon.ico | Literary Hub | https://lithub.com/on-the-disappearing-of-joan-vollmer-burroughs/ | After William Burroughs killed his wife Joan Vollmer, he threw away all her possessions. Their son, Bill Jr., never saw a photograph of her. When Bill Jr. was 32, he begged his father to send him a photo but he didn’t. Allen Ginsberg tried to show him a photo of her dead face, though. Several times.
I’ve only been able to find a handful of photos of Joan Vollmer on the internet, and in half of them she is dead.
But Joan was once so vibrantly alive her “electricity seemed almost palpable,” as Joyce Johnson wrote. Joan sat right next to the men of the Beat Generation, co-creating its ideology. She laughed and breathed and liked to pick blueberries with her baby daughter Julie. Her teenage dream was to live in New York City.
Now she is only remembered as a footnote to William Burroughs’ mythology. On the internet, and in all the libraries I scoured, no one has tried to correct the narrative of her erasure.
Last year, I tried. After lack of interest from many other outlets, my pitch to write about her was accepted by a reputable literary magazine. But several scholars questioned the purpose of my project and my editor tried to get me to dramatize Joan’s promiscuity, while cutting out sections on her childhood and her dreams. Eventually, my story was killed. Simultaneously, my life imploded.
*
In September 2019 I moved from Philadelphia to a small and fairly conservative town in upstate New York. I was so lonely I did things like join an online women’s circle and drive forty-five minutes to Albany just to glance approvingly at anyone who wore black jeans or dressed the least bit alternative. I had one friend other than my partner. I worked a part-time office job at an elementary school and otherwise had nothing to do. I was isolated, and it’s what I had thought I wanted, or needed, to be a writer.
The desire for “proof” of Joan’s significance came up again and again as I spoke to writers and scholars about my work.
I began researching Joan Vollmer in my living room upstate on New Year’s morning, 2020. I’d woken at dawn, used to being jolted awake by my work alarm. Bleary-eyed and hungover, I made green tea and slunk into the living room couch as my partner slept for hours. We’d celebrated the night before with champagne, Jenga, and our radio tuned to a local station that played old Christmas songs. I’d felt warm and safe and in love—all I could have asked for from the holiday.
But beneath the glowing evening was, and always will be, a private anniversary I observe every New Year’s Eve: a body-memory of being 19 in New York City, a shadowy man on a rooftop and what he took from me. That memory coursed through me as I read Kate Zambreno’s Heroines, golden light illuminating the living room windows.
I came across the part where she quotes William Burroughs’ advice to a young writer: SHOOT THE BITCH AND WRITE A BOOK. I circled the line furiously, drawing dozens of exclamation marks down the margin of the page.
How had I not heard more about this?
I decided to research Joan, his wife, the “bitch” he was referencing. I wanted to uncover the ghost-woman, her dreams and her humanity. I did not yet realize how connected my mission was to the anniversary of my assault.
I pulled out my phone and searched her name. I learned she was 28 when she died. I was 28.
William shot Joan in the head.
*
For a year I learned everything I could about Joan, getting up at 5 am before work to read through stacks of library books, gleaning anecdotes and scraps from William’s biographies and texts on Beat history. During that time, my partner and I got married. We also began to fight regularly, and the pandemic magnified our isolation and tensions. I blamed him for our isolation, because we lived near where he grew up, where he had community and I didn’t. Like Joan, who, I learned, was dragged to small, isolated towns on William’s whim, I wanted to move. Also like Joan, I had no money. I could barely pay my half of the rent, whereas my husband, while still earning a modest salary, made three times more than me and paid most of our bills. One day I was struck by the realization that I’d fallen into the archetype of the disempowered wife.
Researching Joan made me feel important. I spent more and more time in the large, converted closet I used as a studio, reading about her and taking extensive notes.
As the months passed, I wasn’t surprised to discover she was much more than a mere footnote to William’s story. She was a vibrant, creative spirit. In the 1940s, she curated community in her Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan and led all-night discussions that laid the groundwork for the Beat Generation’s hallmark characteristics: social freedom and spontaneous literary composition. She introduced Jack Kerouac to Marcel Proust and William Burroughs to the Mayan Codices, and, through her eventual descent into addiction, partially inspired Allen Ginsberg’s Howl. The Beat Generation was as much a cultural movement as a literary one, and through her sexual fluidity and refusal to submit to socially prescribed female timidity, Joan inspired women to become “Beat.”
Again and again, I wondered why no one had bothered to write about her, beyond her relationship to William or the mythology of her death.
*
I came to care for her, almost as a friend. After learning her half-dozen letters were stored at Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library, I requested them. An archivist sent me scanned copies, and as I read through them, I laughed as she called her estranged husband Paul a “poor little soul” for assuming they’d get back together, and I felt furious on her behalf as she wrote about her plight to convince doctors she “wasn’t completely mad” after being institutionalized for being high on Benzedrine. I pictured Joan doing her favorite thing: sitting in the river by her and William’s shack in Texas, water up to her belly, her daughter Julie splashing at her feet. Her best friend Edie said she’d skip classes at Barnard to sit in the bath all day, bubbles up to her chin, reading every newspaper in New York City.
Joan’s face was like a “little heart.” She had large, curious eyes and a tight, serious mouth. Lips always painted red. She wore her brown hair bobbed, parted in the middle. It fanned out in soft, sculpted waves. She reminded everyone of Greta Garbo.
When I looked at a photo of Joan, I felt as Siri Hustvedt did, looking at Pablo Picasso’s Weeping Woman: “She is of me while I look and, later, she is of me when I remember her.”
And I discovered many parallels between her life and my own. She grew up in Loudonville, New York, half an hour from where I lived. She took care of her two small children all day while I worked in the service of small children at an elementary school. We had both experienced deep loneliness: Joan alone in small towns far from anyone she knew as William traveled the world, me upstate during a pandemic, far from friends and my creative community in West Philly. And, like Joan, I hadn’t yet created a body of work that would deem me worthy of literary recognition. In defending Joan, I was defending myself and my own creative potential.
When a magazine accepted my pitch to write about her, I was ecstatic. Finally, I thought. After 70 years of having her life and legacy stomped on, Joan Vollmer would begin to be known. And, after years of scribbling in isolation, sometimes posting on my Tumblr or interviewing bands for small blogs, I would be seen as a “real” writer.
*
With the magazine behind my name, I reached back out to scholars and writers who hadn’t responded to my earlier inquiries. It was bittersweet to see their names suddenly in my inbox.
I thought of Kate Zambreno and her account of how T.S. Eliot’s estate denied her access to Viv Eliot’s papers because she hadn’t proved she was researching for publication rather than “private study.” How only a select few hoard information, dole it out sparingly, and control the narrative, usually in a way that favors white men.
One of the scholars who responded to my second request was Nancy M. Grace. I was thrilled. Nancy was one of the first, and remains one of the only, scholars to acknowledge that Beat history existed outside the trio of William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg; that women were writing and working alongside them, but had been dismissed as second-class, if acknowledged at all.
Over the phone, Nancy was kind and generous with her time. She agreed that Joan wasn’t just a “muse” and that the common narrative surrounding her death—and the way it is used to bolster William’s outlaw persona—undermines the seriousness of the act and contributes to our culture’s permissiveness toward violence against women. She told me I was doing important work, and it meant everything to receive her validation so early into my project.
Yet I also felt Nancy’s hesitation and wariness. She cautioned me not to project too much onto Joan’s life for lack of documentation. I understood she was speaking as an academic, where documentation is an essential component of crafting an argument, but academia had failed Joan. Its methods, as I understood them, didn’t leave room for questioning what gets valued as “proof.”
In The Gender of History, historian Bonnie Smith writes about the subjectiveness of “proof” and how the ephemera of women’s lives (scrapbooks, cross-stitch, diaries, letters) are often intentionally discarded as insignificant. Doireann Ní Ghríofa, in her recent book, A Ghost in the Throat, laments that Irish poet Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill’s letters and journals were discarded after her death, whereas her husband and brothers’ were kept. In Joan’s obituary, more space is given to her husband and father’s occupations than to her own life or achievements.
It’s true that Joan is only famous because of her relation to the Beat men. William Burroughs directed this narrative—through killing Joan, he ensured she wouldn’t live to create a body of work.
This dynamic, of academia—and our larger culture—devaluing facts and documents related to women’s lives, was perpetuated in my conversation with Nancy. For example, she believed Joan had been addicted to benzedrine, which has been documented in hospital records. Yet she didn’t think there was enough evidence to definitively claim Joan was intelligent or had a vibrant spirit. When I told her about Joan’s letters, and their humor and wit, she said she didn’t know they existed.
*
The desire for “proof” of Joan’s significance came up again and again as I spoke to writers and scholars about my work. After I handed in my first draft to my editor, he said my essay was well-researched, but he wanted to see more evidence of how she informed the literary output of the Beats. He supported my idea of giving Joan more agency in the formation of the Beat Generation, but only in relation to the men.
It’s true that Joan is only famous because of her relation to the Beat men. I know that when speaking about her I must honor that connection, how much more famous they were, and their significant, culture-shifting literary output. I still bristle at this, though, because William directed this narrative—through killing Joan, he ensured she wouldn’t live to create a body of work or transcend her addictions. She may never have, but she also may have joined the ranks of Beat women who, later in their lives, wrote memoirs as correctives to their previous erasure. Women like Carolyn Cassady, Diane di Prima, and Hettie Jones.
There are so many women like Joan, unable to tell their stories. There are also devoted writers, across academic fields, who are engaged with the complicated, and often exhausting, work of recovering them. These writers are also navigating a relatively new, and continuously evolving, approach to scholarship, piecing together lives from scraps they’ve exhumed from the depths of the dominant cultural narrative.
After I handed in my first draft, my editor commented, “the narrative starts going once she gets to NYC and sleeps around and meets the Beats, so get there as soon as possible.” He wanted me to cut my discovery of a promising story Joan wrote when she was a teenager, the prizes she received in high school, and her journalism scholarship to Barnard—all evidence of her literary ambitions and intelligence. I thought of the famous Angela Carter quote: “Picasso liked cutting up women.”
And I felt the violence of these men’s incisions. In my closet-studio I felt myself shrinking, like Sibyl in her jar. Laughed at, taunted. My papers dispersed in the wind.
My husband and I separated. I cried openly at work. I drank and wandered around our apartment in a ratty nightdress, a specter, haunting myself. I dreamed of shit and death. I stopped speaking to my family.
Reality is not a tall tale or legend. Reality is not always the “gripping scenes full of action” my editor said my piece was sorely lacking. Reality is dailiness, small pleasures, and boredom. It is a wife alone in her apartment, unsure how to move her body through the world. It is Joan begging William for affection. It is the everyday coping mechanisms women employ to survive a world that treats them brutally.
*
After her death, Joan continued to be brutalized, dissected.
William’s literary executor James Grauerholz wrote a 70-page document about Joan’s death in which he deconstructed the events surrounding her murder. He writes about what kind of gun William may have used, how many people were in the room, and how long William spent in jail (only two weeks). He puts William “on trial” and asks the readers to act as “judge and jury.” He turns her death into a spectacle, a murder-mystery. It’s the longest piece of writing on Joan, by far, but it obscures Joan the woman almost completely.
Still, I reached out to Grauerholz for information, figuring if anyone knew more, he would. Plus, he seemed sympathetic to her situation; in his paper he mentioned being responsible for getting William to write an inscription for the unmarked cemetery niche where Joan’s remains were stored. This was after her bones had been dug up from their original grave—due to William and her family not paying the plot fees.
Grauerholz’s response was short and vague. He referred me to various archives I’d already looked at. He said William never talked about Joan. That’s it. Tight-lipped. William’s self-identified “best friend” for dozens of years, his literary executor, his sometimes-lover (according to Burroughs: The Movie), had nothing to say about Joan.
When I reached out again several months later, Grauerholz told me about two other researchers, one with a PhD, who had already submitted a final draft of their book-length biography on Joan for publication. He said they had “very far outstripped” my efforts, and that it was unclear what options I had moving forward—but that I needed to speak to the other researchers to find out. His language was patronizing, even threatening. It reflected the attitude I’d continuously encountered in academia, which insisted that without significant documentation on her life, Joan wasn’t worthy of attention—certainly not multiple books.
That night I dreamt I came across a family burial ground that had been abandoned. I couldn’t believe the recent generations of family members had let it go to seed, when it contained beautifully engraved tombstones and rows of leather-bound books full of valuable information, now entangled in weeds. I resolved to be the keeper and librarian of the gravesite, to not let it sink into dirt and obscurity.
*
A few months ago, I moved back to West Philly, shedding the stale narrative of being an artist-in-isolation. Once I made the decision to change my life, I unlocked hidden stores of energy that propelled me forward, rapturously. Surrounded by moving boxes, I recorded an entire albums-worth of songs onto my laptop. I quit my job. I turned thirty and felt younger than I’d ever felt in my life.
My husband and I reconciled and hosted a house-warming party at our new apartment, full of friends and acquaintances we hadn’t seen for two years. My virtual women’s circle, the one I’d been so skeptical of joining, provided crucial support for my life changes. My friends, mostly women and nonbinary feminist artists in their late twenties and early thirties, understood, unquestioningly, what I was calling my “Joan project.” They were also, like me, “emerging” in their creative fields, and they also worked outside the structures of academia.
I put my Joan project aside. I told my therapist about all the pushback, and how my stress manifested in headaches and neck pain, but how I was determined to forge ahead regardless. She told me about two kinds of grief: there’s the grief of living in the space of unrealized potential and dreams, which is, in many ways, where Joan existed. And where my grandmothers, immigrants who struggled with the loneliness of their displacement, existed. Where so many women exist. Then there’s the grief of honoring these women and working through difficulty, which is the privileged position I am in now.
There is so much more to say about Joan. I am working on a book, not a straightforward biography of her life, but a story that begins to explore who she was while also placing her in the context of a male-dominated art world—an art world that has, for too long, turned a blind eye to the harm done—included, in some cases, murder or alleged murder—by supposed male “geniuses” (e.g. Carl Andre, Norman Mailer, Sid Vicious, Louis Althusser, Bertrand Cantat, Robert Blake, Harry Horse, and Spade Cooley). Within this story is my own story, too: myself in upstate New York, making less money than my husband, my loneliness and isolation. And also, my ability to do what Joan could not: to move, to change my life, and to write and share that writing publicly. To walk through the city at night, alone, cheeks pinkening in the wind. | ||||
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] | 1997-08-05T04:00:00+00:00 | One of the last links to the beat generation has been broken. William S. Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch and Junkie died Saturday at age 83 after suffering a heart attack. The son of a successful St. | en | Rolling Stone | https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/william-s-burroughs-dead-at-83-97951/ | One of the last links to the beat generation has been broken.
William S. Burroughs, author of Naked
Lunch and Junkie died Saturday at age 83 after
suffering a heart attack.
The son of a successful St. Louis businessman, Burroughs
graduated from Harvard University in 1938 and eventually made his
way to New York City where he befriended a circle of drifters and
students that included Allen Ginsberg, Jack
Kerouac and Neal Cassady. Burroughs,
first immortalized as Old Bull Lee in Kerouac’s On the
Road, moved to Texas with his wife, Joan, in 1946.
After accidentally shooting and killing his wife in a
drug-addled stage, Burroughs penned Junkie, then
disappeared to Tangier, Morocco where he wrote Naked
Lunch. Originally published in 1959, but banned in the United
States until 1962, Naked Lunch, with its offbeat monikers
and cut-up aesthetic, has since become a primary inspiration for
later literary and musical movements such as cyberpunk, punk rock
and hip-hop.
Burroughs bounced around for the next two decades, battling
heroin addiction and publishing sporadically. He briefly found a
home back in New York City during the punk era of the late ’70s. In
1981, Burroughs moved to Lawrence, Kan., where he lived out the
rest of his life.
Trending
By now a cultural icon, Burroughs appeared in a number of films,
including the award-winning Drugstore Cowboy and the big
screen version of Naked Lunch. He produced several
spoken-word albums, collaborated with popular musicians including
The Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy and the late
Kurt Cobain.
Burroughs’ only son, William, died in 1981. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 1 | 5 | https://www.life.com/people/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | en | William S. Burroughs: 100th Birthday of Famed 'Naked Lunch' Writer | [
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] | null | [] | 2014-02-04T17:00:39+00:00 | On the centenary of the American writer and spoken-word pioneer's birth, LIFE presents photos of the famed iconoclast in Paris in 1959. | en | LIFE | https://www.life.com/people/william-s-burroughs-naked-lunch-author-100th-birthday/ | Written By: Ben Cosgrove
The American writer, painter and spoken-word pioneer William S. Burroughs on Feb. 5, 1914, in St. Louis. He died — after an improbably long life, considering the self-inflicted abuse he endured through the years — at 83 in Lawrence, Kansas. It’s somehow perversely appropriate that an iconoclast of Burroughs’ power and scope, who so brutally skewered middle-class hypocrisy in so many of his works, lived a life that began and ended in the middle of middle America.
Born into a wealthy Missouri family, Burroughs attended Harvard (as well as medical school in Vienna) and was, seemingly, on track for a relatively unadventurous life and career. But in the 1940s—having been rejected by the U.S. Navy in the middle of World War II—he set a far different course for himself. He became a heroin addict. In New York, he met and influenced Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and the biggest voices of the Beat generation. In 1951, in Mexico City, he shot and killed his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, in what was reportedly a drunken, catastrophic game of William Tell gone wrong. Ultimately convicted in absentia of homicide (he had fled back to the States by then) and given a two-year suspended sentence, the scarred Burroughs embarked on the journeys—London, Paris (where the photos in this gallery were made in 1959), the Amazon, Tangier and beyond—that would shape and define so much of the rest of his life.
And always, everywhere, he wrote. He wrote short stories, essays and hilarious, harrowing, difficult, indispensable novels. Junkie (later Junky), Naked Lunch, The Ticket That Exploded and other classics established him as a singular force in the postmodern cultural landscape. Other writers sang his praises, with some—like J.G. Ballard—arguing that Burroughs was the premier writer of the post-war age. (Many critics, on the other hand, weren’t quite so impressed, especially when the revolutionary cut-up technique Burroughs employed when constructing many of his books made their heads spin.)
Later in life, Burroughs became something of an éminence grise of the post-punk demimonde, collaborating with Sonic Youth, Nick Cave, the experimental English “noise” collective, Throbbing Gristle, and many others. His influence on music, literature and the visual arts can’t be overstated.
Many artists are desperate to be seen as rebels; in Burroughs, we find the unlikely real deal: the born rebel who could never stop creating art. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 45 | https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816680634/the-stray-bullet/ | en | The Stray Bullet | [
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] | null | [] | 2023-12-11T23:03:37+00:00 | William S. Burroughs arrived in Mexico City in 1949, having slipped out of New Orleans while awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges that would almost cer... | en | University of Minnesota Press | https://www.upress.umn.edu/9780816680634/the-stray-bullet/ | William S. Burroughs arrived in Mexico City in 1949, having slipped out of New Orleans while awaiting trial on drug and weapons charges that would almost certainly have resulted in a lengthy prison sentence. Still uncertain about being a writer, he had left behind a series of failed business ventures—including a scheme to grow marijuana in Texas and sell it in New York—and an already long history of drug use and arrests. He would remain in Mexico for three years, a period that culminated in the defining incident of his life: Burroughs shot his common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, while playing William Tell with a loaded pistol. (He would be tried and convicted of murder in absentia after fleeing Mexico.)
First published in 1995 in Mexico, where it received the Malcolm Lowry literary essay award, The Stray Bullet is an imaginative and riveting account of Burroughs’s formative experiences in Mexico, his fascination with Mexico City’s demimonde, his acquaintances and friendships there, and his contradictory attitudes toward the country and its culture. Mexico, Jorge García-Robles makes clear, was the place in which Burroughs embarked on his “fatal vocation as a writer.”
Through meticulous research and interviews with those who knew Burroughs and his circle in Mexico City, García-Robles brilliantly portrays a time in Burroughs’s life that has been overshadowed by the tragedy of Joan Vollmer’s death. He re-creates the bohemian Roma neighborhood where Burroughs resided with Joan and their children, the streets of postwar Mexico City that Burroughs explored, and such infamous figures as Lola la Chata, queen of the city’s drug trade. This compelling book also offers a contribution by Burroughs himself—an evocative sketch of his shady Mexican attorney, Bernabé Jurado.
Contents
Preface to the U.S. Edition
The Stray BulletPart I. The Road to HellBlame It on BrahmsWelcome to Your DestinyJourney of No ReturnFrom Psychiatric Hospital to FarmThe Farm Has VisitorsRisky Business in New YorkLast Stop, New Orleans
Part II. The Gods Know How to Run This World¡Viva México! Nation of CopycatsArrival in TenochtitlánFrom Veteran to StudentThe Devil’s AdvocateMy Most Unforgettable CharacterThe Devil’s AdvocateA Writer’s BeginningsThe Usual SuspectsLola la ChataExcitable JoanOn the RoadThe ScorpionNot So Lovely and Beloved MexicoThe Tortured CatThe BountyDrowning in DrinkVarious IncidentsThe Elusive LoverThere Goes the NeighborhoodJungle JourneyUnder the VolcanoThe Stray BulletThe TrialThe Ugly SpiritMonday, Signature DayQueerMan of LettersThe Return of JackAn Overcoat Thief in MexicoThe DepartureThe Parting ShotA Contribution from Mexico to the World
A Note on Sources | |||||
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] | null | [] | null | Posts about William S Burroughs written by Lee | en | https://s1.wp.com/i/favicon.ico | Lee Watkins | https://leewatkins.blog/tag/william-s-burroughs/ | Besides getting his toilet fixed by a man called “Dirty Dave,” William Burroughs spent the day reading Asylum by Patrick McGrath. It’s been a long time since I read that book. I remember I enjoyed it but little more. What … Continue reading →
I’ve been reading Jack Kerouac’s Vanity of Duluoz, towards the end of which he describes the way William Burroughs showed support for him in the early years, motivating him to write more as he experimented and found his voice and … Continue reading →
To be empty inside is to have “no special way of moving or doing things so one way is the same … as another.” You learn things fast and follow instructions well. You are useful to others. “The Dead Child” … Continue reading →
For William Burroughs, the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a dividing point in history, marking the moment that Western civilisation finally ended. Could you really call a people capable of such an atrocity “civilised”? And so without civilisation, … Continue reading →
And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks is an early work of the Beat Generation, written in the winter of 1944-45 by William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac together, or separately in that they take it in turns throughout the … Continue reading →
First sentence of William Burroughs’ The Wild Boys: “The camera is the eye of a cruising vulture flying over an area of scrub, rubble and unfinished buildings on the outskirts of Mexico City.” Burroughs thinks in pictures and his books … Continue reading →
William Burroughs tells Allen Ginsberg: “I am about to annunciate a philosophy called ‘factualism.’ All arguments, all nonsensical considerations as to what people ‘should do,’ are irrelevant. Ultimately there is only facts on all levels, and the more one argues, … Continue reading →
In a letter to Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs seems to be saying that he’s incapable of envy. Envy arises from a particular kind of ignorance, of which Burroughs has cured himself: “Envy and resentment is only possible when you can … Continue reading →
Identification, says Korzybski, is a blunt tool. Language is a box full of tools, all imperfect, none quite fit for purpose, their functioning performative and never exactly descriptive. Meaning: anything we can say about the world is never quite how … Continue reading →
This chapter is about Carl continuing his travels through space and time by finding a new body. He’s back in the city of catwalks and ladders and cable-cars in the middle of a jungle. Presumably he’s already changed bodies at … Continue reading → | ||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 69 | https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/william-s-burroughs-a-century-ago-st-louis-gave-birth-to-the-wildest-beat-writer-of-them-all-2505366 | en | William S. Burroughs: A century ago St. Louis gave birth to the wildest Beat writer of them all | [
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] | 2014-02-06T04:00:00 | As a child growing up in St. Louis, William S. Burroughs had ideas of what it would be like to be a writer. A writer,... | en | /favicon.ico | Riverfront Times | https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/william-s-burroughs-a-century-ago-st-louis-gave-birth-to-the-wildest-beat-writer-of-them-all-2505366 | As a child growing up in St. Louis, William S. Burroughs had ideas of what it would be like to be a writer. A writer, thought the young Burroughs, was rich and famous and possessed a powerful appetite for both debauchery and adventure.
"They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in a yellow pongee suit," wrote Burroughs in a 1985 essay. "They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle."
View an illustrated map of Burroughs' St. Louis.
It's unclear if Burroughs ever accomplished the latter — owning an antelope. But as for the drugs, fame and adventure? He had those in spades. The Beat writer spent nearly two decades as a heroin addict, traveling the world on his parents' dime while filling notebooks with what would become his controversial 1959 masterpiece, Naked Lunch, in which Burroughs ripped apart the conventions of linear narrative and dared to write openly — disturbingly so, at times — about his fantasies and homosexuality.
From there he would go to stand alongside the likes of fellow Beat luminaries Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, influencing generations of disillusioned outcasts, hippies and punks alike. Burroughs is that guy in a tie sandwiched between Marilyn Monroe and the guru Sri Mahavatar Babaji on the cover of the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Decades later the author would collaborate on spoken-word projects with Kurt Cobain, Tom Waits and many other musicians.
"He was the first person who was famous for things you were supposed to hide," explained boundary-pushing director John Waters in the 2010 documentary William S. Burroughs: A Man Within. "He was gay, he was a junkie, he didn't look handsome, he shot his wife, he wrote poetry about assholes and heroin. He was not easy to like."
Burroughs, who died in 1997 at the age of 83, would have turned 100 this month. (February 5, to be exact.) And although he left St. Louis as a young man, he remained tied to the prewar city of his childhood, a place he called "a different world" in a 1982 interview with the counterculture and conspiracy-theory magazine Steamshovel Press. It's here in St. Louis that Burroughs first expanded his mind as a hallucinating and fevered child, first dabbled in the underground scene and had his first clumsy forays as a writer. And it's here, too, that he came to rest for eternity in the Burroughs' family plot in Bellefontaine Cemetery.
In the novella The Wild Boys, Burroughs refers to St. Louis as the "the old broken point of origin." Barry Miles, a British counterculture historian who first met Burroughs in London in 1965, says the city of Burroughs' youth exerted powerful influence on his work.
"The magical kingdom of his childhood was something he always tried to preserve and always tried to bring back," says Miles. "You could read his books with St. Louis in mind, and it is right there in most of them. The city runs right through."
But what besides his grave remains of Burroughs' time in St. Louis? And is anything left of that "magical kingdom" of his childhood?
Pershing Avenue St. Louis Missouri in the 1920s.... Red brick three-story houses. Lawns in front, large back yards with gardens separated by high wooden fences overgrown with morning glory and rose vines and at the back of the yard an ash pit and no one from Sanitation sniffing around in those days. — Cobble Stone Gardens (1976)
William S. Burroughs II arrived in the dead of winter 1914, born in the master bedroom of his family's well-appointed home in the Central West End. The Burroughs manor, designed and built by Burroughs' father, Mortimer, is still there — a three-story brick home on stately Pershing Avenue. Scott Duellman, a 36-year-old accounting professor at Saint Louis University, purchased the house just six months ago. He is well aware of its literary significance.
"I read Naked Lunch when I was sixteen or seventeen years old," says Duellman, who keeps a copy of Burroughs' most famous work in his living room. It's right there, perched on a mahogany bookcase beneath a row of Kurt Vonnegut and Jonathan Franzen novels.
"I think a lot of the Beat Generation writers speak to us at a certain time, usually between the ages of fifteen and twenty. This house hearkens me back to a time when I felt those things. It's like the house's past and my own past, they're just boiling together."
Across town, on Price Road in Ladue, the woman who opens the door of the home Burroughs moved into at the age of seven (in order for his family "to get away from people" the author would later write) has no idea about its former occupant. Carol Hager thought her home was once owned by that other Burroughs family — the ones behind John Burroughs School. Nope, although there is somewhat of a connection. The teenage William S. Burroughs attended the prestigious John Burroughs School, just a three-minute walk down the street. As a student there, Burroughs was something of an outcast. Though still unsure of his sexuality at the time, he became obsessed with a male classmate, to the point where his fawning devotion became embarrassingly obvious to his peers. They mocked him.
Like many lonely teenagers, Burroughs escaped to fantasy. He consumed crime novels, nickel paperbacks with stories of wild adventure, detective tales and Westerns. He began writing his own stories, the "first set" of his literary production, as Burroughs would later describe it.
The Burroughs' family wealth derived from William's paternal grandfather, William Seward Burroughs I, who invented an adding machine in the 1880s that would eventually be worth millions of dollars. Just before the stock-market crash of 1929, Burroughs' father cashed in his shares of the Burroughs Adding Machine Company for $276,000. The sum was serious money for the time, in the neighborhood of $4 million today. By the late 1930s, however, the family fortune had dwindled to the point where Burroughs' parents made ends meet by running a landscaping service and gift shop in Ladue called Cobblestone Gardens.
In Burroughs' 1953 semi-autobiographical novel, Junkie: Confessions of an Unredeemed Drug Addict, he describes his formative years spent in a "comfortable capsule" of suburban affluence, mostly under the care of a nanny and various domestic servants.
Miles, who corresponded regularly with Burroughs throughout his life, says that the author expressed "a tremendous amount of nostalgia" for those early days in St. Louis.
For instance, while bedridden with fever at the age of four, Burroughs began experiencing visions — shadow animals scurrying on his bedroom walls, little gray men playing in his block houses. One day during a walk in Forest Park, little Billy Burroughs spotted what he thought were tiny green reindeer, according to Miles' just-released biography, Call Me Burroughs: A Life. The image of the delicate green reindeer, "about the size of a cat," echoes through many of Burroughs' later stories, poems and novels.
And an adolescent Burroughs began to rebel against his privileged upbringing by seeking out another side of St. Louis.
In the opening paragraphs of Cobble Stone Gardens, a memoir he named after his parents' gift shop, Burroughs recalls walking with his young cousin to the nearby bank of River des Peres (then a free-flowing open sewer) and "watching as turds shot out into the yellow water from vents along the sides." In another essay Burroughs describes a childhood ambition to become Commissioner of Sewers for the City of St. Louis — so that he could enjoy the benefits of corruption, just as the city officials who turned the river into a latrine had done.
In the early 1930s, during his summers home from Harvard, Burroughs would head over to Market Street between Union Station and the river. The area then was a skid row of sorts, full of bars, pawn shops and seedy rooming houses. He also spent a couple of weeks as a cub reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch but apparently got fed up with the assignments; he particularly hated the task of obtaining photos of recently drowned and poisoned children from grieving parents.
"He one time referred to St. Louis as a 'malignant matriarchy,'" recalls Kenn Thomas, a senior manuscript specialist with the State Historical Society of Missouri. Thomas struck up a friendship with Burroughs in the early '80s and later founded Steamshovel Press, which published works and interviews with Beat writers.
In 1935, during the summer of his junior year in college, a 21-year-old Burroughs lost his virginity to a bosomy prostitute in an East St. Louis, Illinois, brothel. It cost $5 per half-hour. He admitted in a 1974 interview that, "It wasn't what I wanted, but it was better than nothing." Even so, Burroughs became a repeat customer, and after the act he would drive to Culpeppers in the Central West End for after-whore drinks with his buddies.
"Burroughs' nostalgia for the rough parts of St. Louis, that's kind of a junkie thing, but it's also kind of a Buddhist thing," his old friend Thomas says. "There's a Buddhist principle to meditate on the most repulsive things that are out there. It's a reflection of what's real."
But what has happened to Market Street the skid row of my adolescent years? Where are the tattoo parlors, novelty stores, hock shops — brass knucks in a dusty window — the seedy pitchmen...the old junkies hawking and spitting on street corners under the gas lights? — distant 1920 wind and dust... —"St. Louis Return," published in The Paris Review (1965)
Burroughs tried very hard to enlist in the military even before Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He applied to become an ambulance driver for the American Field Service and then as a pilot with the Glider Corps. Both rejected him. He then hoped to become an officer in the newly formed Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence and espionage agency that preceded the CIA, but that didn't pan out either. Five weeks after Pearl Harbor, Burroughs showed up at Jefferson Barracks, resigned that he would serve his country as just another officer.
Instead, Burroughs was classified 1-A Infantry. He went AWOL with a buddy, got caught and was tossed in the brig at Jefferson Barracks, where he spent the next five months. His mother would make frequent trips to visit, bringing along steam tables filled with gourmet meals. Though the process was slow, it wasn't difficult to convince the military that Burroughs wasn't mentally fit for the infantry: A psychiatrist confirmed that while living in New York in 1940, Burroughs cut off part of his left pinkie out of jealous anguish. The object of his obsession, a bisexual young man named Jack Anderson, would bring men and women back to the apartment he and Burroughs shared. Burroughs did not handle the competition well, so out came the poultry shears and off went the pinkie. (He was on a "Van Gogh kick" at the time, he would later write.)
After escaping the military, Burroughs moved to Chicago, finding work as an exterminator. In September 1943 he moved back to New York City, ending up in an apartment with future Beat Generation idol and On the Road author Jack Kerouac. Also living in the apartment was his future common-law wife, Joan Vollmer, a spirited Barnard College graduate and an intellectual driving force in her own right during the early years of the Beat movement.
While in New York, Burroughs became addicted to morphine, sparking an almost lifelong affair with drugs, especially heroin. He learned to rob drunks, or "roll lushes," on subway cars and sold heroin in Greenwich Village. Later, he and Vollmer (who was addicted to amphetamines) relocated to Texas to start a pot farm. Their only child, William S. Burroughs Jr., was raised by Burroughs' parents in St. Louis and died in 1981 due to complications related to alcoholism.
Burroughs had frequent run-ins with the law, but his parents bailed him out every time. They also gave him a $300-per-month allowance (a "livable sum," as he put it), allowing Burroughs the freedom to travel.
"It's very much an American tradition, to be an outsider and to remake yourself in a new form," Miles says of Burroughs' exploits. "He did that time and time again. After he shot his wife, for instance."
The killing occurred in Mexico City in 1951. According to James Grauerholz, Burroughs' editor, literary executor and close companion, the author boasted to those present "what kind of shot old Bill is," before taking aim at a glass of water balanced atop Vollmer's head. The bullet struck Vollmer in forehead. All involved were drunk and likely high. Yet again, Burroughs' family money and legal connections allowed him to avoid a two-year prison term for manslaughter.
While awaiting trial, Burroughs did spend a couple of weeks in a Mexican jail. There he began writing what would become the novel Queer, though it wasn't published until 1985.
"Everything was different after the killing," says Miles, who will be at Left Bank Books in the Central West End on Thursday, February 6, to discuss his latest Burroughs biography. "He went off into the Amazon jungle for six months and tried to take drugs that were so powerful that they would change him into a person who could not do that kind of thing," he says. "He thought that he was being occupied by something spiritual that he wanted to get rid of."
Burroughs directly confronts this occupying force in the introduction to Queer: "[T]he death of Joan brought me into contact with the invader, the Ugly Spirit, and maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle, in which I had no choice except to write my way out."
So I make these last entries in the log book of my St. Louis return — luggage stacked in the lobby — back through the ruins of Market Street to the Union Station nudes waiting there in the dry fountain of an empty square. I have returned to pick up a few pieces of sunlight and shadow — silver paper in the wind-frayed sounds of a distant city. — "St. Louis Return," published in The Paris Review (1965)
Burroughs returned to St. Louis in 1965 when Playboy commissioned him to write a story about his hometown. He stayed in the Chase Park Plaza during the visit. By then he had kicked his hard-drug habit (he relapsed later in life, however) and enjoyed cultural and literary notoriety for Naked Lunch.
The story produced from that homecoming, "St. Louis Return," would prove too weird and disjointed for Playboy, but The Paris Review happily picked it up.
In the article Burroughs expresses dismay over the urbanized, cleaned-up city before him. He describes the under-construction Arch grounds as having "an ominous look like the only landmark to survive an atomic blast."
Burroughs only made a handful of visits to St. Louis after that. In 1989, Robert Lococo, a St. Louis gallery owner trying to make a name for himself in the industry, reached out to Burroughs to commission a series of prints based on the seven deadly sins.
"I did some research on him and I thought, 'Wow, this guy's a real sinner,'" Lococo explains today.
In 1981 Burroughs followed Grauerholz, who essentially managed Burroughs' personal life from the 1970s until his death, to Lawrence, Kansas. There the writer developed into a full-fledged visual artist. His preferred technique involved setting up spray-paint cans near a flat surface, then blasting the cans with a shotgun to create an abstract explosion of color.
Lococo traveled to Lawrence in 1990, and Burroughs shot up seven plywood panels with shotguns and pistols. After treating them with Mylar, Burroughs drew and stenciled the panels to create the templates for the final prints. Lococo keeps the originals safely stored in his Olive Boulevard gallery, but the prints — as well as accompanying panels with Burroughs' authored text — have been shown in galleries around the world.
Burroughs traveled sparingly in his final years. After visiting St. Louis to attend his brother's funeral in 1983, he returned just a few more times for a gallery show and for an appearance at Left Bank Books. He stayed with Lococo during his visits.
Lococo remembers him as a man you didn't want to cross but who had a sweet and grandfatherly side.
"I saw the best side of Burroughs. He wasn't doing drugs except smoking pot after 4 p.m.," he says. "At 4 p.m. he would have a Ritz cracker, cheddar cheese and a joint. That was it."
(Well, not really: Burroughs was also on a doctor-prescribed methadone regimen from the time he moved to Kansas until his death.)
In 1990 Burroughs received a star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame, but a heart attack and broken hip prevented him from accepting it in person. Thomas accepted the honor on his behalf.
Burroughs' final return to St. Louis came in a hearse, as part of his funeral procession from Lawrence to Bellefontaine Cemetery. Lococo was there, along with punk-rock goddess Patti Smith, poet John Giorno and others. At a rest stop along Interstate 70, a group of traveling Phish fans recognized Giorno and Smith and joined the motorcade all the way to St. Louis.
In the end, Burroughs returned to the city that bore him, though it was probably too clean (and certainly too conventional) for his liking.
Sixteen years after his death, his fans still make pilgrimages to Bellefontaine Cemetery to pay their respects and leave tokens — poems, bottle caps, pens, pennies — on his tombstone. No, not the towering obelisk erected for his inventor grandfather of the same name. The other one, the modest headstone a few feet to the right. The one with the simple epigraph "American Writer." | ||||
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] | null | [] | 2024-07-08T15:27:32+00:00 | Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker traces this cult writer's life – from the New York underworld of the 1940s to Mexico and the South American jungle, Tangier and the writing of Naked Lunch, Paris and […] | en | Reaktion Books | https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/william-s-burroughs | William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker investigates this cult writer's life and work, and his self-portrayal as an explorer of inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of experience.
Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker traces this cult writer's life - from the New York underworld of the 1940s to Mexico and the South American jungle, Tangier and the writing of Naked Lunch, Paris and the Beat Hotel, 1960s London, and small-town Kansas - in order to investigate his work as an autobiographical explorer of altered consciousness and inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of his experience.
After accidentally shooting his wife in 1951, Burroughs felt it was his destiny to struggle with the 'Ugly Spirit' that had possessed him. His early absorption in psychoanalysis gave way to Scientology and demonology, and he came to believe in an increasingly magical universe, sending curses and operating a 'wishing machine'. His paranoid vision and his lifelong preoccupation with freedom and its opposites - all forms of addiction and control - finally evolved into a concern with ecology and an all-out ethical conflict between good people who live and let live, or 'Johnsons', and those who impose themselves on others, wrecking the planet in the process.
Drawing on newly available material, and rooted in Burroughs's vulnerable emotional life and seminal friendships, this insightful book provides a lucid and powerful account of his career and significance.
William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker investigates this cult writer's life and work, and his self-portrayal as an explorer of inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of experience.
Along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) is an iconic figure of the Beat generation. In this revealing study Phil Baker traces this cult writer's life - from the New York underworld of the 1940s to Mexico and the South American jungle, Tangier and the writing of Naked Lunch, Paris and the Beat Hotel, 1960s London, and small-town Kansas - in order to investigate his work as an autobiographical explorer of altered consciousness and inner space, reporting back from the frontiers of his experience.
After accidentally shooting his wife in 1951, Burroughs felt it was his destiny to struggle with the 'Ugly Spirit' that had possessed him. His early absorption in psychoanalysis gave way to Scientology and demonology, and he came to believe in an increasingly magical universe, sending curses and operating a 'wishing machine'. His paranoid vision and his lifelong preoccupation with freedom and its opposites - all forms of addiction and control - finally evolved into a concern with ecology and an all-out ethical conflict between good people who live and let live, or 'Johnsons', and those who impose themselves on others, wrecking the planet in the process.
Drawing on newly available material, and rooted in Burroughs's vulnerable emotional life and seminal friendships, this insightful book provides a lucid and powerful account of his career and significance. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 3 | 64 | https://www.ourtownny.com/news/william-s-burroughs-goes-soft-EWNP1120000307303079973 | en | William S. Burroughs Goes Soft | [] | [] | [] | [
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] | null | [] | null | Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs Edited by James Grauerholz (Grove Press, 273 pages, $25) I always liked the idea of William Bur... | en | www.ourtownny.com | https://www.ourtownny.com/news/william-s-burroughs-goes-soft-EWNP1120000307303079973 | Last Words: The Final Journals of William S. Burroughs Edited by James Grauerholz (Grove Press, 273 pages, $25) I always liked the idea of William Burroughs much more than I liked actually reading him. Nevertheless, I have a reasonably complete library of his books, and most all the John Giorno recordings he made. I still think Burroughs was one of the greatest stand-up (or in his case, sit-down) comedians America has ever produced. And he certainly tried his damnedest to change the nature of literature, of painting, of the very landscape of American culture through his various experiments?philosophical, chemical, esthetic or otherwise. And in that, no one can honestly say that he failed. Burroughs was like an alien among us, who didn't think like other people, didn't write like other people, and for that he certainly deserves our respect.
But that's all been said too many times before. Might as well get the rest of the expected adjectives out of the way now, so we won't have to worry about them later?junkie saint, homosexual, wife-killer, paranoid, gun nut, grand old man. Nothing new in any of those, either.
What is new with Last Words, however, is the almost human William Burroughs who occasionally pokes his head out from behind the curtain?the Burroughs who dotes on his cats and writes gushing fan letters to author M. Scott Peck.
It's common knowledge that the last few books released during his lifetime?The Cat Inside, My Education?were essentially produced by his longtime friend and manager, James Grauerholz, who sifted through old pieces, unpublished works and a mountain of index cards upon which Burroughs had scribbled his thoughts, to create something "new" that could be attributed to WSB. While Grauerholz was certainly central to pulling this new volume together (he's the one who first suggested Burroughs write in a journal instead of on index cards), you get a sense that it's more Burroughs you're reading here than Grauerholz. And it's a Burroughs who, knowing that he's at the end, reveals himself more than he ever has before.
So while there are old-style routines here, and rants against the drug war, and dreams?dozens of dreams?you also see Burroughs going to the doctor for blood tests, taking his biweekly trips to the methadone clinic in Kansas City and eating in his favorite diner. He comments on the books he's reading (from Conrad to science fiction to medical thrillers) and ponders all the ancient imponderables?aging, death and God. He mourns the loss of his friends, like Ginsberg, and mourns the loss of his beloved cats. In fact, the journal begins on Nov. 14, 1996, with Burroughs mourning a cat who'd been hit by a car four days earlier.
Mostly, it seems, he putters around the house. Early on, on the eve of receiving some sort of award, he writes, "You just live long enough, and you will become the grand old man of letters a bit tired with his very tired old jokes. Some bordering on the risque."
And here in the journals, as he had since the late 50s, he plays the Old Man role to the hilt?intentionally or not. That, unfortunately, is one of the big problems with the first third of Last Words: he spends a lot of time repeating himself, retelling routines we've seen already in Naked Lunch, Junky, Exterminator! and other early works, and heard recited on the Giorno recordings. So here's the "walking corpse" bit three more times, and the dusty Oppenheimer sketch twice. Granted, Burroughs is 83 at the time of these journals?he is an Old Man, but by all accounts he was still very sharp. Too sharp, I'd say, to be repeating himself this much. As he himself writes, "Any place you can't get out of is jail."
Perhaps he takes that to heart, because as the weeks and months pass, he moves away from the repetition of tired old routines about the drug war and the atomic bomb into a kind of splintered autobiography, preliminary notes for a new novel and version after version of a new routine. He recounts vague memories about Brion Gysin and their time at the Beat Hotel, various drug treatments he'd been through, his rage at Scientology and scenes from his days at the Los Alamos school when he was a youngster. We learn about his final conversation with Timothy Leary and get a brief history of the Burroughs family.
In the midst of it all, he quotes Verlaine: "My past was an evil river." As far as his present life is concerned, he provides everything from the mundane ("The plumber, 'Dirty Dave' arrived finally, and fixed the toilet") to the surprising (his fixation on the lead characters in Mary McCarthy's short story "The Young Man" and Mario Puzo's The Last Don) to the sad (his own doubt and despair concerning what he has done, and what he's still doing). "I had high hopes," he writes at one point. "We all did." Later he comments, "What I am writing here is lifeless and flat as old mud-splattered snow... They have sucked my talent away. Why should I longer stay?" Later still, while frustrated with the slow development of the new novel he hopes to write, he notes, "I hope I can write something before I buy the farm."
He also passes along some friendly advice to Timothy McVeigh, and vents at the man who's been leaving crank messages on his answering machine.
Though he never did write that novel, he has created something here. Something as close to a Burroughs autobiography as we're likely to see. He reconstructs his life in the form of a long and tangled dream, mixing past and present, reality and fantasy. Though he has a hard time remembering names, and many of the entries?which range from two lines to several pages in length?are composed of sentence fragments, it all makes a strange kind of sense, even if he leaves plenty of holes behind, plenty of questions unanswered. Come to think of it, at times it was more than a little reminiscent of The Last Words of Dutch Schultz.
There were times when, I must admit, I found myself wishing he had died 15 years earlier. There's no denying that the endless repetition found in these pages can be extremely frustrating. Every once in a while, though, right when you think you know where he's going to be spending the next page or two, he'll pop up with something completely unexpected. On March 24, he confirms one of my long-held theories by announcing, pretty much out of the blue, "Perhaps I am a hybrid with an alien." He leaves it at that, never mentioning it again.
The tone and direction of the journal changes rather dramatically at the beginning of April, when Ginsberg is diagnosed with liver cancer. While doctors were telling him that he had two or three months left, he confesses to Burroughs over the phone, "I think less." He died the next morning. Over the following weeks, Burroughs returns to Ginsberg repeatedly in the journal (after barely mentioning him beforehand), focusing not on their friendship so much, but on Ginsberg's influence, his character, the role he played in changing the world. At the same time, he also returns to the old routines and old jokes he was telling at the beginning, as if in an attempt to convince himself that he's had some influence, too.
On April 13, less than two weeks after Ginsberg's death, Burroughs suffered a mild heart attack. In his journal that day, he wrote:
This may be it... Any case, no fear. I could die tonight. I had the real dying feeling an hour or two ago. It will return, and heavier?
He had also scribbled what he believed would be his "last words" at the bottom of that page. After realizing that he was going to survive, he went back and tore out what he had written.
Now, I don't know if it was the same thing he wrote at the bottom of the page on July 30, days before he died, his final entry?whether it was something he was saving up, knowing they would be his last words, but they're startling, and profound and sad and completely unexpected.
Love? What is it?
Most natural painkiller what there is.
LOVE.
After nine months (and a lifetime) of railing against his critics, The Man, the stoolies, the government and the shits, of arguing that opposition and conflict provide the friction and the energy necessary for life to exist, to see him, in the end, talking about the healing powers of love seems to come completely out of left field.
Though maybe that's what he was hiding behind the curtain all along. | |||||
correct_death_00083 | FactBench | 2 | 90 | https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/welcome-interzone-william-s-burroughss-centennial | en | Welcome to Interzone: On William S. Burroughs' Centennial | [
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] | null | [] | 2014-01-31T19:00:55+00:00 | /icons/favicon/favicon.ico | Los Angeles Review of Books | https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/welcome-interzone-william-s-burroughss-centennial | Gilt and red plush. Rococo bar backed by pink shell. The air is cloyed with a sweet evil substance like decayed honey. Men and women in evening dress sip pousse-cafés through alabaster tubes. A Near East Mugwump sit naked on a bar stool covered in pink silk. He licks warm honey from a crystal goblet with a long black tongue. His genitals are perfectly formed — circumcised cock, black shiny pubic hairs. His lips are thin and purple-blue like the lips of a penis, his eyes blank with insect calm.
— William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch
THE RECENT PASSING of Lou Reed resurrected the old quip by Brian Eno about the Velvet Underground — that hardly anyone bought their records, but everyone who did became a musician. William S. Burroughs, born 100 years ago today, may well be the Velvet Underground of American literature. A writer of vivid, hallucinatory prose works swimming with drug use, queer sex, and sci-fi viscera, Burroughs has always been an author whose name is dropped more often than his books are picked up. Still, in the second half of the 20th century, few figures had such a pervasive effect in virtually every field of culture from the most rarified avant-garde to the massively popular.
Writers stamped with his influence include J.G. Ballard, Angela Carter, Kathy Acker, Alan Moore, Lester Bangs, Dennis Cooper, and William Gibson, but his impact extends far beyond the literary. Burroughs collaborated with the painter Brion Gysin in Paris and London in the 1950s and 1960s, and in the 1980s embarked on his own painting career (the sneers of the art establishment deterred his painting roughly as much as the sneers of the literary establishment had deterred his writing; like the innumerable cultural icons devoted to his work, Burroughs was not the type to be impressed by the fussy incomprehension of the New Yorker set). With Robert Wilson and Tom Waits, he created the musical The Black Rider. His writing is a regular touchstone for the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, especially in his collaborations with Felix Guattari. His works include two experimental films co-directed with Antony Blach in the early ‘60s, and it’s hard to imagine the visceral visual language of filmmakers like David Cronenberg without Burroughs’ splattery corporeal imaginary; in 1991 Cronenberg attempted a bold cinematic adaptation of Naked Lunch, with the author’s blessing. Almost as remarkable as his literary influence is his lasting impact on popular and experimental music. During his life, he collaborated with or was referenced by Sonic Youth, Throbbing Gristle, Cabaret Voltaire, Coil, Joy Division, Laurie Anderson, R.E.M., Blondie’s Chris Stein, and Ministry, as well as, suitably, Lou Reed and John Cale of the Velvet Underground. Steely Dan are named after a remarkable dildo from Yokohama that features in one of the most explicit sections of Naked Lunch. The term “heavy metal music” is taken from that book, too. The Soft Machine was a Burroughs novel before it was a British band. The “Johnny” in Patti Smith’s “Land”? That’s a reference to Burroughs’ Wild Boys. And Burroughs’ last filmed appearance was in the video for U2’s “Last Night on Earth.”
In the range of his influence no less than in the idiosyncratic uniqueness of his creative production, Burroughs stands less with the Beats or the postmodernists than with the restless, endless production of Andy Warhol. The bitter irony with which Burroughs’ satiric eye surveyed the emergence of post-WWII consumer and media culture is the inverted complement to Warhol’s gushingly enthusiastic embrace of the same raw materials. In Burroughs as in Warhol, a distance in time allows us to see the relentless exploratory drift between modes and media as a prototype for contemporary creativity, the artist not as auteur but as signature, as a distinctive style that is its own substance, gaining coherence not in the unity of its form but in the consistency of its attitude. Biographies of Burroughs often speak of his explorations in mixed media during the late 1960s and early 1970s, noting that he “only produced one major novel” in this third phase of his career (The Wild Boys, 1971). Likewise, biographers of Warhol tend to note that during the later 1960s the artist produced hardly any paintings, turning his attention to film “instead.” Though referred to as a novelist, Burroughs left behind a noteworthy archive of audio, video, and visual artistic collaborations, and his influence extends across all of these fields and beyond. “Most serious writers,” he told the Paris Review’s Conrad Knickerbocker in 1965, “refuse to make themselves available to the things that technology is doing. I’ve never been able to understand that sort of fear.”
I often wonder what a Complete Works of William Burroughs would look like; it’s hard to think of a “novelist” prior to Burroughs whose complete works would feel incomplete without both audio and video appendices (consider for example The Revised Boy Scout Manual, a novel in the form of three 60-minute audio cassettes dating to the 1970s). As we edge into the 21st century, Burroughs’ multimedia explorations seem less a digression and more a prescient openness to the aesthetic possibilities of emerging modes of communication and documentation. “I think,” Burroughs told Daniel Odier in the 1960s, “that the novelistic form is probably outmoded and that we may look forward perhaps to a future in which people do not read at all or read only illustrated book and magazines or some abbreviated form of reading matter.”
Canonized alternately between the incantatory honesty of the Beat Generation and the weighty formal innovations of mid-20th-century American postmodernism, Burroughs belongs properly to neither literary moment. Neither association does justice to the formal distinctiveness of his oevure. Burroughs is, rather, an untimely prophet of cultural production as we have come to know it: constant, but inconsistent; intimate but de-personalized; sprawling across media and emerging clearly from a single distinct person without any commitment to the inherent integrity of an authentic personality.
A consummate icon of writerly solitude, Burroughs retained a persistently Groucho-Marxist resistance to being part of any movement that would embrace him (“I am not punk and I don’t know why anybody would consider me the Godfather of Punk. How do you define punk?”) But his aloofness is not the self-conscious aestheticism of a Pynchon or a Barth, whose postmodernism attempts to stake a place for the author’s voice outside his own writing. Burroughs stands apart from the world, not because he is above it, but because he is Over It. Burroughs may have invented Being Over It: even Sade’s most deliberately vile narrators masturbate while they speak, but Burroughs’ narrative voice sits in the corner and watches skeptically as younger men ejaculate. The real thrill of reading Burroughs comes not from the parade of grotesqueries that he relates but from the wry aloofness with which he relates them; everything is a routine, a cliché avant la lettre. “Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his asshole to talk?” Look at virtually any picture of the man — decades before McKayla, William S. Burroughs was resolutely Not Impressed.
The radical weirdness of Burroughs’ works is neither a deliberate provocation nor an artistic statement. It emerges directly from his irreducibly distinct vision of the world. “There is only one thing a writer can write about,” he states at the end of Naked Lunch, “what is in front of his senses at the moment of writing … I am a recording instrument … I do not presume to impose ‘story’ ‘plot’ ‘continuity’ … Insofaras I succeed in Direct recording of certain areas of psychic processes I may have a limited function … I am not an entertainer.” His goal was never stylistic. Burroughs understood his own labor as documentary, not aesthetic, and as with other writers whose writings express an irreducibly unique vision of the world — Sade, Nietzsche, Kafka — part of the mindfuck is a slowly creeping realization, as you keep reading, that you’re no longer sure which one of you is crazy.
Born in St. Louis in 1914, Burroughs was the grandson and namesake of William S. Burroughs, inventor of the Burroughs Adding Machine and founder of the Burroughs Corporation. By the time the author reached adulthood, the family had sold its interest in the company and the money was mostly gone, but a modest trust fund was Burroughs’ primary source of income for much of his life. His genteel Southern upbringing was evident to the end of his life, in a refined politeness that leavened even his most profane observations no less than in a persistent love of firearms. (Ted Morgan’s Literary Outlaw has been the definitive biography of Burroughs for years; I have not yet had the opportunity to read Barry Miles’ recent Call Me Burroughs).
In New York City, in the 1940s, he first encountered the group that would later be known as the Beats Ginsberg, in a 1976 interview with Victor Bockris, credits Burroughs with planting the first seeds of ideological restlessness in the poet’s young mind: “The thing I remember most that changed my 1940s mind and determined my own attitude was sitting around with Burroughs and his wife, Joan […] It was the first time I’d ever heard anyone presume to criticize the president of the United States on account of his mind; in those days it wasn’t done.” He soon moved on, first to New Orleans, then to Texas, and from there to Mexico City. But by the time he left New York he had acquired his addiction to opiates, which would trail him the rest of his life and take such a central place in his writing.
His first published work was the semi-autobiographical Junkie, written under the pseudonym William Lee and published as a two-book pulp in 1953; he followed it with a manuscript called Queer that remained unpublished until 1985. These two early texts established the graphic frankness about drug use and homosexuality for which Burroughs would quickly become notorious. Folded into what became Burroughs’ Word Hoard, entire passages from these texts were recycled for later works. “William Lee,” meanwhile, would serve as the author’s adult stand-in for the rest of his career, appearing in some form in almost all his works, along with a character usually named Kim, who stood for Burroughs’ sex-driven adolescence.
It was in Mexico City that a drunken accident with one of his numerous guns resulted in Joan’s death; most versions of the story report that the Burroughses were “playing William Tell” when he missed the glass on her head and shot Joan to death, instead. Family connections and judicious bribery kept him out of jail, but Joan’s death initiated two habits that effectively created William S. Burroughs, the author: a restless international exile, from Central and South America, to Tangiers and then to Paris and London, and the relentless, non-linear written production that would eventually encompass thousands of pages of material, sketches and collages and cut-ups and unfinished manuscripts, a suitcase full of raw words that Burroughs called the Word Hoard, which would become the source material for much of Burroughs’ published work. His books were assembled more than they were composed. Out of the Word Hoard, Allen Ginsberg constructed the non-linear prose machine that would be published as Naked Lunch.
Burroughs’ best-known novel is a wild ride, a disjointed trip that begins in Washington Square but soon shifts to the city of Interzone, a surreal pastiche of mid-century Tangiers in which obscure commercial interests and radical political entities with unclear agendas via for power for no discernable purpose other than to possess it. The ethos is simple – “Nothing is true, everything is permitted.” The text is composed of episodes that can be read in any order. In a letter to Ginsberg of September 20th, 1957, he writes that “The MS. In present form does not hold together as a novel for the simple reason that it is not a novel. It is a number of connected — by theme — but separate short pieces.” As Burroughs wrote at the end of the book in an “Atrophied Preface”:
The Word is divided into units which be all in one piece and should be so taken, but the pieces can be had in any order being tied up back and forth, in and out fore and aft like an innaresting sex arrangement. This book spill off the page in all directions, kaleidoscope of vistas, medley of tunes and street noises, farts and riot yipes and slamming steel shutters of commerce, screams of pain and pathos and screams plain pathic […] Now I, William Seward, will unlock my word horde.
The publication of Naked Lunch, and the attempts to censor it, first brought Burroughs national attention. In the winter of 1958–59, five of the Chicago Review’s editors left the magazine when their attempts to publish excerpts from novel met serious resistance. The complete novel was first published in Paris by the Olympia Press, in 1959, but it was the American publication by Grove Press in 1962 that led to a second, more significant wave of attention. The novel found vocal defenders in luminaries like Henry Miller and Mary McCarthy, the latter of whom published a staunch defense of the book in The New York Review while admitting that it wasn’t always entirely clear what Burroughs was up to.
An injunction against the novel issued by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts on grounds of obscenity, though, drew more attention than the book’s reviews. Several times deferred, the trial of “A book by the name of Naked Lunch” was finally held in 1965; among those testifying in court as to the work’s literary merit were Ginsberg and Norman Mailer. Mailer’s testimony especially maps both the aesthetic and the emotional force of Burroughs’ prose, and, like McCarthy, he locates the text’s power in the dry affective power of its satire:
What gives this vision a machine-gun-edged clarity is an utter lack of sentimentality […] it is the sort of humor which flourishes in prisons, in the Army, among junkies, race tracks and pool halls, a graffiti of cool, even livid wit, based on bodily functions and the frailties of the body, the slights, humiliations and tortures a body can undergo. It is a wild and deadly humor, as even and implacable as a sales tax […] Bitter as alkali, it pickles every serious subject in the caustic of the harshest experience; what is left untouched is as dry and silver as a bone. It is this sort of fine dry residue which is the emotional substance of Burroughs’ work for me.
This jaded constancy is the most remarkable aspect of Burroughs’ prose. His authorial voice emerges astoundingly complete in Naked Lunch, as do the central concerns that would dominate his work until his death. In an enthusiastic review in 1962, E.S. Seldon stated that Burroughs “is one contemporary writer who can drop dead tomorrow, confident not in promise, but in fulfillment.” The tone is not flat, but its crescendos correspond to the texture of the words, not to any element of plot or content. There is no passion, but there is genuine relish; once you’ve listened to Burroughs speak, it’s impossible to read his work without hearing an echo of his droll, drawling satisfaction. The paragraphs have a staccato rhythm that piles on clause after clause with relentless insistence, at once taut with energy and droningly detached:
In the City Market is the Meet Café. Followers of obsolete, unthinkable trades doodling in Etruscan, addicts of drugs not yet synthesized, pushers of souped-up Hermaline, junk reduced to pure habit offering precarious vegetable serenity, liquids to induce Latah, Tithonian longevity serums, black marketers of World War III, excisors of telepathic sensitivity, osteopaths of the spirit, investigators of infractions denounced by bland paranoid chess players, servers of fragmentary warrants taken down in hebephrenic shorthand charging unspeakable mutilations of the spirit.
The diction is an unlikely pastiche, the low-life lexicon of the addict and the criminal (“’Grassed on me he did,’ I say morosely”) filtered through the Harvard-educated sensibility of a reader of Eliot, rinsed through with a gleeful profanity. There is a wry, spare rhythm to Burroughs’ prose, consistent from his earliest letters to his very last diaries. Its closest reference point is Raymond Chandler, if Philip Marlowe were hired to investigate a cartel of protoplasmic, shapeshifting facists and was diverted by the orgiastic ministrations of perpetually ejaculating boys. Everything is draped in thick folds of drugs and sex. Heroin, cocaine, LSD, yage, mescaline — everything swims in a disjointed narcotic plasma. It’s hard to go more than a couple of pages without an erect cock impaling, spurting, glistening, or thrusting; like their creator, these wild boys love their guns. What makes the text so disturbing, though, is less the persistence of sexuality than the instability of the bodies that engage in it: “Some would be made of penis-like erectile tissue, others viscera barely covered over with skin, clusters of three and four eyes together, crisscross of mouth and assholes, human parts shaken around and poured out any way they fell.” A phallus becomes a tentacle mid-ejaculation; leafy vines spring from unpredictable orifices; the symbolic line between orgasm and death is impossibly thin. The fluid, visceral corporeality of Burroughs’ graphic imagery is a preemptive formulation of the anxious biological obsessions that would come to fruition in the work of David Cronenberg and Clive Barker: infection, virality, interpenetration, admixture.
This fervently graphic obscenity, the obsessive reiteration of the same gristly themes, has been the source of much criticism. In a harsh review of Cities of the Red Night (1981), Anthony Burgess, formerly a Burroughs drinking buddy, wrote:
I have read all of William Burroughs’s work with interest and, not infrequently, profound admiration. He is original […] Unfortunately, Burroughs’s cupboard of symbols is not well-stocked, and he becomes rather monotonous.
But the brilliance of this symbolic universe is precisely its endlessly permutating polyvalence. To say that he’s monotonous is, quite literally, to suggest that once you’ve experience your first orgasm you’ve experienced them all.
Repetition is not an accident here; recombination, not originality, is the motor of change. How many different chemicals can be synthesized, how many different orifices penetrated, many different bodies and materials combined in an endlessly proliferating Rube-Goldberg machine of techno-bio-matter? The essence of Burroughs’ works is iteration, the recognition that like consumer culture itself, sex and drugs are less about individual events than about organization of bodies and the flow of time between them, the emotional and psychic rhythm of buildup and discharge. The addict measures time in fixes and buys; hours are replaced by the space between shots and days are replaced by the gaps between twitching, itchy meetings with dealers: “A junky […] runs on junk Time and when he makes his importunate irruption into the Time of others, like all petitioners, he must wait. (How many coffees in an hour?).” A decade before the Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting For My Man” Burroughs noted that “Delay is a rule in the junk business. The Man is never on time. This is no accident.” In Burroughs, addiction is less a metaphor than an algorithm, relentlessly spinning out variations on the same operation with slightly varying inputs and outputs: “The pyramid of junk, one level eating the level below […] right up to the top or tops since there are many junk pyramids feeding on peoples of the world and all built on basic principles of monopoly.”
Burroughs’ output predicted the affective temporalities that social networks would make ubiquitous half a century after Naked Lunch appeared: a continuous stream of emissions less concerned with the definitiveness of any individual utterance than with the continued elaboration of a familiar presence. Either you want his ideas in your stream of consciousness, or you unfollow and hide his observations from your newsfeed. “Nothing here is more important than anything else,” stated Alfred Kazin about The Wild Boys (1971), but that is precisely the point.
This is not to say that Burroughs’ corpus lacks internal development or variety. In the early ‘60s, after he left Tangiers for Paris, Burroughs began his most resolutely experimental period, dominated by his concern with mechanisms of control, his interest in media and communication, and his increasingly developed theories of language. His most deliberate formal experiments, the Nova Trilogy (The Soft Machine, 1961; The Ticket That Exploded, 1962; and Nova Express, 1964), were created using two randomizing techniques, the Cut-Up and the Fold-In, developed with his frequent collaborator the painter Brion Gysin.
Naked Lunch is non-linear in form, but largely as an accident of the source material from which it was constructed: the sections of the book can be read in an arbitrary order, but retain, each within itself, a basic coherence that makes them more like vignettes or vaudeville sketches (“routines” was the word Burroughs himself most frequently used). In the experimental novels of his second phase, Burroughs strains not only against the integrity of the novelistic form but against the very coherence of words, against the enforced linearity not just of plot but of meaning itself. Signification and representation give way to intensity and texture: “Streets of idiot pleasure — obsidian palaces of the fish city, bubbles twisting slow linen to the floor, traced fossils of orgasm […] Smile of idiot death spasms — slow vegetable decay filmed his amber flesh — always there when the egg cracks and the white juice spurts from ruptured spines — From his mouth floated coal gas and violets.”
The restless experimentation of Burroughs’ prose, in this second period especially, is not a willful opaqueness but a relentless effort to explode the docile contempt bred by familiarity, the endlessly looping film that clouds our awareness of just how terrible things already are, the mechanisms of control that makes us feverish consumers seeking satiation rather than satisfaction. The “chief value” of Burroughs’ work, wrote the critic Ihab Hassan, “lies not in atomizing language but rather in disclosing the connections between the separate facts of outrage in our time.” The multiple functions performed by every key symbol in his arsenal reveals the density of connections: “shots” as fixes, as ejaculations, and as bullets; “works” as spoons and ties but also as publications; “junk” as heroin but also as the indiscriminate merchandise of Madison Avenue pushers.
Mary McCarthy called Naked Lunch the “first serious piece of science fiction,” and there’s a heavy shot of space opera in the cocktail of Burroughs’ mythology, but to Burroughs himself there was nothing fictional about the techno-logical apparatus he described. There’s an uncanny accuracy to the dystopian surreality that his works predict, from the dominance of the visual to the ubiquitous intermingingling of the corporeal and the electronic; from the overwhelming immediacy of information superhighway to the mass hysteria and mob thinking that it tends to produce. A quasi-manifesto titled “the invisible generation” appended to The Ticket That Exploded (1962) describes with eerie prescience the relentless echo chamber of a 24-hour news cycle:
look around you look at a control machine programmed to select the ugliest stupidest most vulgar and degraded sounds for recording and playback which provokes uglier stupider more vulgar and degraded sounds to be recorded and play back inexorable degradation […] what are newspapers doing but selecting the ugliest sounds for playback by and large if its ugly its news […] let’s bomb china now and let’s stay armed to the teeth for centuries this ugly vulgar bray put out for mass playback you want to spread hysteria record and play back the most stupid and hysterical reactions.
Burroughs’ work in the 1960s reveals a deep investment in the radical potential of the spoken word and the projected image, both to subvert and dominate. His theories of language and communication were developed in a series of interviews and non-fiction works from the same period, most strikingly in a long essay titled The Electronic Revolution (1970). Though much more directly stated and intuitive, these theories are astoundingly similar to those being developed at the same time by the poststructuralist strand of French philosophy. During his years in London, Burroughs’ output was largely focused on various forms of newer media, and many of his experiments in film and audio date to this period. Having exhausted the range of the narcotic spectrum several times over, Burroughs increasingly sought altered states of mind in technology, instead, and in what he saw as technology’s ability to break the cognitive stasis produced by the condition of language.
From London he returned to New York, where he lived in a converted YMCA gymnasium on the Bowery he called The Bunker. His years there are detailed by Victor Bockris in With William S. Burroughs: A Report From the Bunker. Living down the street from CBGBs, Burroughs is bemused to discover that he has become the hero of a new cultural movement. Bockris transcribes encounters with Warhol, Mick Jagger, Patti Smith, Lou Reed, Susan Sontag, Tennessee Williams, and others. In 1978, the counter-cultural canonization was set in high gear by the Nova Convention, a multi-day celebration of Burroughs in various parts of New York City. Towards the end of his time in New York, and with extensive help from his friend and editor James Grauerholz, Burroughs finally completed a text he had begun years earlier in London, which became Cities of the Red Night. But the same period also saw the return of Burroughs’ opiate addiction, for which he would spend the rest of his life on a methadone maintenance program. In 1981 William Burroughs relocated one last time, from New York to Lawrence, Kansas, where he would spend his remaining years.
With the move to Kansas began the final phase of his life, a less tumultuous period during which Burroughs embarked on a new career as a painter. The house in Lawrence became a minor pilgrimage site as Burroughs settled into his role as cult hero for the resurgent American counterculture of the late ‘80s and ‘90s. His indie cred continued to grow even as critical attention to his work faltered with the decline of literary postmodernism. He recorded with Sonic Youth and Kurt Cobain, and appeared in Gus Van Sant’s Drugstore Cowboy. This last period produced the Red Night trilogy (Cities of the Red Night, 1981; The Place of Dead Roads, 1983; The Western Lands, 1987) as well as a number of shorter, gentler works like My Education: A Book of Dreams (essentially a published version of Burroughs’ dream journal) and The Cat Inside, a book about the colony of felines that Burroughs adopted in his final years and which was, as Grauerholz later wrote, “the catalyst for the late-life opening of William’s tender emotions.”
These later texts are only marginally more linear or plot-driven than the cut-ups of the Nova Trilogy; it would be hard to call them a return to convention. But something has shifted, nonetheless. The words are less weaponized. Language reclaims its communicating function; the omnipresent urge to escape is joined by a more subtle one — to express. What makes Burroughs final novels different from his earlier works is the surprising and surprisingly powerful appearance of a previously unknown elegiac mode, still wry and perhaps no less cynical, but for the first time inclined to come to terms with the fragile, transient nature of the human experience rather than to mock and dismiss it. “The road to the Western Lands is the most dangerous of all roads and, in consequence, the most rewarding. To know the road exists violates the human covenant: you are not allowed to confront fear, pain and death, or to find out that the sacred human covenant was signed under pressure of fear, pain and death.” The stylistic reference points have shifted: the pulps of the 1930s and 1940s which provide the earlier novels their hardboiled stock are replaced by the dime novels of the late 19th and early 20th century; street hustlers and private investigators are replaced by cowboys, pirates, and highway robbers. The urban density of Interzone gives way to a vast and lawless wilderness: “It was as though a heavy weight were pressing down on us with a persistent malevolence. Several times the guide lost his way, and we had to retrace our steps.”
Control, the fundamental trope of Burroughs’ earlier work, is replaced by a different master symbol — Death. The fragmentary characters of Naked Lunch yearn to be free; the itinerant assemblages that populate the later novels yearn to make sense of their attempts at freedom. The Western Lands, a profoundly beautiful meditation on immortality and death, begins and ends with a solitary old writer. “Forty years ago the writer had published a novel which had made a stir, and a few short stories and some poems.” And on the last page: “The old writer couldn’t write anymore because he had reached the end of words, the end of what can be done with words.” Burroughs’ earliest works describe a surreal present; those of his second phase a disjointed technocratic future. The raw material of the final novels is the past. Naked Lunch is populated by hallucinations, the Nova Trilogy by anxieties; the final novels are populated by ghosts.
Burroughs’ last diary entry is dated 3 days prior to his passing on August 2, 1997, of a heart attack sustained the day before. Ultimately, Burroughs couldn’t escape words any more than he could escape narcotics, any more than the protagonists of his later novels could escape or master Death. “There is no final enough,” he wrote in that last entry, “of wisdom, experience – any fucking thing. No Holy Grail, No Final Satori, no final solution. Just conflict.” One hundred years after Burroughs was born and 17 years after his death, the idea of a Master Narrative or Ultimate Truth remains just as ludicrous, but the control society he warned of is more real than ever. The techniques he embraced and promoted — non-linearity, machine composition, fragmentary production, creative recycling — have become not only accepted but standardized, themselves folded into the ugly, looping bray he warned against. Burroughs’ undeniably crucial place in our literary and cultural history is not yet adequately attended to. What remains is a literary legend: a dry, sardonic grin and the Word Hoard in its infinite variations.
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