Murder Of John Burns

Texican Terms & Explanations, Yawyl Listen-Up:

Texican Terms & Explanations, Yawyl Listen-Up:

1. Sidewinders - Usually a rattlesnake that moves side to side, sneaky and deadly. ( Untrustworthy person, a liar, a cheat, a thief, & without honor) 2. Cattle rustlers - Sidewinders who gathers up another man’s cows for profit, without the permission of the owner. (One who steals branded & unbranded Doggies) 3. Doggies - Calves born after roundup and not marked with owners brand or crop mark. Considered ‘fair game’ to add to a herd, sometimes the correct owner can be found. (As the calf was on the owner’s land, or the mother cow had the owner’s brand?) (“You, dirty, rotten, rustling sidewinder, those are- My Doggies”) 4. Justice - Swift & Harsh, A rustling sidewinder was often tried & tied, executed quickly. The only crime worse than cattle stealing was a sidewinder horse thief. 5. Cowboys - Vaqueros who watched after the herds. Men of legend, hard working, honest & keeping their word was their honor. Those who cared for the herds of long-horned cattle from birth to market. Often, catching the rustlers & seeing to the neck-tie party. 6. Neck Tie Party - Prairie justice using a rope to hang the sidewinder entrepreneurs. 7. Shin-dig - Term usually accompanied with a loud WA-Hoo! As in: “ We are going to have a Shin-dig!” A Party-A Dance-A Good Time. Sometimes, used as a necktie party. Cowboys worked 24/7 for little pay and plain food. A shin-dig was an occasion. 8. Long Horned Cattle - Wild, long legged, mean, not domesticated but later mixed with the settler’s milch cows and with imported beef for breeding. Long Horned Cattle were a breed apart, their horns discouraged predators. They were famously able to survive harsh winters and could live on sparse grass. After the War Between the States, the nearly four war-ravaged years left the western ranches deprived of young workers to handle their cowboy tasks such as branding the cattle or driving the cattle to market. By the end of the conflict, great herds of unbranded cattle and thousands of doggies with no designated owners were populating the open ranges of the Texas ranchland. It has been estimated that at least four or five million unbranded cattle roamed the open ranges in Texas. All the small farms and ranches worked together forming herds for market and unfortunately lots of sidewinder rustlers took advantage of the longhorn population explosion by taking the rounded up herds off the hands of the new owners. I BECAME A TEXICAN. My father is Henry Kite and he was 16 when I was born on a frontier farm in Fayette County, Georgia. My young Mother, Sarah “Sally” Hassey died the day of my birth October 2, 1853. Caswell & Harriett Kite were my grandparents, including me in their growing family. Farming plus ranching was a part of my life and I was a happy kid and eagerly anticipated the wagon train that moved our large family and associated family into Butler County, Alabama. It was just a stop off place as all our menfolk had their sights set on the wild west. Poppa met and married my new Momma. Winafred Williams was born 11 March 1841, here in Greenville, Butler County and Poppa married “Winny” in her father’s house on 6 July 1858. She was just turned 17 and I was 5 years old. The family Kite/Williams grew when my Aunt Mary Francis Kite married James Jasper Williams, effectively giving me double cousins in the future. Grandpa Caswell gathered in his clan and set

before them the gamble to move again, this time they all packed up, lock, stock, and barrel, our faces set to the wild west after 1860. Just about the time we are all settled-in, the state of Texas just up left the Union and joined the war interrupting our lives, big time. Poppa Henry Kite signed up, right away and with him went my Uncle James Jasper Williams, then my Uncle Samuel (the one who married Sally Burns), Uncle Stephen who married Susan Matilda Johnson and last to join up was my Uncle David Kite who married Martha Angeline Rhymes. Grandma Harriett told me that I would be a real Texican and when I died, I would be a ‘planted Texican’. What a country! We breathed in the heady smell of sage and bluebonnets and land, such land, so different and new. Hard lessons and hard work around me, I had all my aunts and uncles and weddings and cousins. Those cousins came almost weekly, it seemed. Grandpa Caswell was expecting his family to populate Texas as they all spread out and made their own place. Texas is a land of emotions, fierce beauty, fierce heat, tempers and everything coated in dust. The high yellow grasses of the valleys give way to the smokey blue pines and red oaks, creating thickets to hide cows and Indians and outlaws. Don’t forget that it grows wild grapes and wild plums that make the very best jams and jellies. Momma told me that cattle eat mesquite beans and that people can eat them, too. Well, I gave it a try and all I can say about that is:” Leave them for the cows.” I wouldn’t cajole anyone into living in Texas. Its lonely, wild and the wind-well, that is another story. If you do not like the weather, stick around 30 minutes and it will change. One of the new “Aunts” was Sarah Sally Burns. She was a neighbor and the place we had settled was called: Blue Branch, Burleson County. All the settling and crops were in jeopardy with the men going to war. When, I was asked about how I felt about the war, my reply was,” WE LOST”. I know what it feels like to be hungry. All those cousins had to be fed and my Grandma Harriett and Grandpa Caswell rose to the task. Still some of our families had to ask for help when the Confederates/Texas offered aid to indigent families who had soldiers in service or dead. We had our own dead, too. My grandma’s sister, Susan Kite Mulligan had a couple of little girls and her husband, Frank died in the war. Aunt Susan was around when I was born and helped her sister Harriett birth lots of babies. Grandma Harriett gave birth to her last son and last child in 1860. They named that little boy: Caswell Leroy Kite. The man I had picked out to marry went to the war, also. His name is Thomas Jackson Yarborough. One of his kin married my oldest brother, George Kite. Her name was Dixie Yarborough and they had just one girl, named: Georgia Kite and she married a Cleveland. My brother George was killed in February of 1887. Killing, death and hanging, shoot-outs, rustlers, nothing romantic about that part of Texas. I did marry my fellow in 1873 in Milam County,Texas and birthed my children there. This is the story of my Aunt Sally Burns and her family and the reason my Grandparents pulled up stakes and moved out of Burleson County to Erath County for safety. Texas moved its counties around almost as much as it moved its people. The farm that once was in Burleson County became Falls County and in time Lee County. All these places at one time was Milam County. The BURNS family was in Texas before the KITE family and old man Burns was prosperous and “well thought of”. A man’s reputation was more valuable than what he owned. John H. Burns and his wife Eliza J. Burns buried a son by the name of John T.Burns, age 9, in Lee County, Beaukiss, Tx. in the BURNS CEMETERY. Children dying was far too often done. John H. Burnes was 52 years old in 1870 and born in Georgia. His wife was born in Ireland and also was 52 years old. They had three girls: Texana age 15 in 1870 and Hester age 21 and Sarah called Sally age 24 (the one who married my Uncle Samuel Kite).

(Note: A History of Lee County Vol.I, Blue Branch section-article in part below) Lexington near Giddings.) “John Burns was an early settler in Blue and purchased some land from the Jackson family The Jackson brothers were given a land grant, by the Republic of Texas for service during the Mexican War. The buffalo poor, hungry, Indians did raid the small farms on the edge of settlements taking cattle and horses but the war had put Union Troops in Texas and that problem was pretty much solved. There was a dark era in the early history of the Blue Branch Post Office when the escapades of lawbreaking sidewinders gave the good citizens much concern. The rustler’s reign was short-lived, but five men had given their lives before they were apprehended. One of these men was Sally Burns’s father, John H.Burns. Poppa gathered us all together in 1876 after the burial and talked to us about being careful and staying close to the house and not going out riding without some menfolk with us. The way the men were killed was just planned murder, cruel and sidewinder mean. There was a band of outlaws hanging around the community. The war taught men to fight and some men just wouldn’t give up the bloody thrill, bringing their evil into our lives. Our friends were waylaid , the cowards way of murder. They shot and killed John Burns, Pete Allen, Horace Alsup, John Bloodsworth, and Turk Turner. Some of their bodies were wrapped in newly skinned cowhides, a way of torture and killing used by renegade Indians in an attempt to put the blame on the Indians and hide the outlaw participation. The sheriff asked for help from the citizens to stop the murder and thieving. A citizen’s organization was created on the spot, later spreading to Lee County, Milam, Burleson and Bastrop. These men also war trained and determined to stop the men known by the name of THE KNOB-NOTCH CUTTER’S GANG.” After some deliberation a plan was formed. The “committee” announced to the communities that there was going to be a SHIN-DIG and it was for the public to attend. Poppa told all the family about the dance and it was decided to be at our neighbor’s house, Pete Airhardt’s place which was locally known as the old Scott place. Grandma Harriett and Sally thought it was too soon after burial of the 5 friends and all the women were in black mourning. Poppa said he wanted the older women to go-and dress for a party. The younger women and the kids had to stay home. At a given signal, the women were all to go to one room of the house and bar the door from the inside. He said they could mourn later. I wanted to go badly but John said, No. That was that. The liquor was put in the front of the house and all the men were there, drinking, smoking and hanging around. When the music started they all went in and the women went to their room and the front door was barred on the outside-shutting in the outlaws. The Committee had quietly surrounded the house, guarding every window and door. However, one of the outlaws: Ab Kaneman, escaped through a window. Another man, Sol Wheat was not at the dance. These two high-tailed it out of the country and never returned. Four of the bad boy outlaws were caught: Young Floyd, Wade Alsup, Bake Scott, and John Kirkendall. (note: I don’t know if Wade Alsup was kin to the murdered man, Horace Alsup?) Justice was swift. The Committee took the four bad boys and they were given a neck-tie-party and hung in the big oak tree that stands just outside our kitchen door. When, I went out the next morning to feed the calves, I was shocked to find the dead men hanging in our yard. Looking in the Lee County Cemetery Book, Vol I. The Burns Cemetery at Blue Branch, Post Office, Texas shows that the son of John H. Burns is buried there along with three of the murders: John Kuyendall, Beck Scott, and Wade Alsup all hung on June 27, 1877. The same land

holds their murdered neighbors. Young Floyd, is buried in Floyd Cemetery near the Bastrop-Lee County line. After the killings, the Samuel Kite/ Sallie Burns family, Grandma Harriett, the widow and children of John H. Burns, Aunt Susan Mulligan and her kids and others of our Kite clan moved again, Lock, Stock and Barrel to Erath County to get out of the way of the bad element in Burleson Co. Texas. I went to Floyd County with my husband and became a planted Texican.

1. Sidewinders - Usually a rattlesnake that moves side to side, sneaky and deadly. ( Untrustworthy person, a liar, a cheat, a thief, & without honor)

9. Cattle rustlers - Sidewinders who gathers up another man’s cows for profit, without the permission of the owner. (One who steals branded & unbranded Doggies)

10. Doggies - Calves born after roundup and not marked with owners brand or crop mark. Considered ‘fair game’ to add to a herd, sometimes the correct owner can be found. (As the calf was on the owner’s land, or the mother cow had the owner’s brand?) (“You, dirty, rotten, rustling sidewinder, those are- My Doggies”)

11. Justice - Swift & Harsh, A rustling sidewinder was often tried & tied, executed quickly. The only crime worse than cattle stealing was a sidewinder horse thief.

12. Cowboys - Vaqueros who watched after the herds. Men of legend, hard working, honest & keeping their word was their honor. Those who cared for the herds of long-horned cattle from birth to market. Often, catching the rustlers & seeing to the neck-tie party.

13. Neck Tie Party - Prairie justice using a rope to hang the sidewinder entrepreneurs. 14. Shin-dig - Term usually accompanied with a loud WA-Hoo! As in: “ We are going to have a Shin-dig!” A Party-A Dance-A Good Time. Sometimes, used as a necktie party. Cowboys worked 24/7 for little pay and plain food. A shin-dig was an occasion.

15. Long Horned Cattle - Wild, long legged, mean, not domesticated but later mixed with the settler’s milch cows and with imported beef for breeding. Long Horned Cattle were a breed apart, their horns discouraged predators. They were famously able to survive harsh winters and could live on sparse grass. After the War Between the States, the nearly four war-ravaged years left the western ranches deprived of young workers to handle their cowboy tasks such as branding the cattle or driving the cattle to market. By the end of the conflict, great herds of unbranded cattle and thousands of doggies with no designated owners were populating the open ranges of the Texas ranchland. It has been estimated that at least four or five million unbranded cattle roamed the open ranges in Texas. All the small farms and ranches worked together forming herds for market and unfortunately lots of sidewinder rustlers took advantage of the longhorn population explosion by taking the rounded up herds off the hands of the new owners. I BECAME A TEXICAN. My father is Henry Kite and he was 16 when I was born on

a frontier farm in Fayette County, Georgia. My young Mother, Sarah “Sally” Hassey died the day of my birth October 2, 1853. Caswell & Harriett Kite were my grandparents, including me in their growing family. Farming plus ranching was a part of my life and I was a happy kid and eagerly anticipated the wagon train that moved our large family and associated family into Butler County, Alabama. It was just a stop off place as all our menfolk had their sights set on the wild west. Poppa met and married my new Momma. Winafred Williams was born 11 March 1841, here in Greenville, Butler County and Poppa married “Winny” in her father’s house on 6 July 1858. She was just turned 17 and I was 5 years old. The family Kite/Williams grew when my Aunt Mary Francis Kite married James Jasper Williams, effectively giving me double cousins in the future. Grandpa Caswell gathered in his clan and set before them the gamble to move again, this time they all packed up, lock, stock, and barrel, our faces set to the wild west after 1860. Just about the time we are all settled-in, the state of Texas just up left the Union and joined the war interrupting our lives, big time. Poppa Henry Kite signed up, right away and with him went my Uncle James Jasper Williams, then my Uncle Samuel (the one who married Sally Burns), Uncle Stephen who married Susan Matilda Johnson and last to join up was my Uncle David Kite who married Martha Angeline Rhymes. Grandma Harriett told me that I would be a real Texican and when I died, I would be a ‘planted Texican’. What a country! We breathed in the heady smell of sage and bluebonnets and land, such land, so different and new. Hard lessons and hard work around me, I had all my aunts and uncles and weddings and cousins. Those cousins came almost weekly, it seemed. Grandpa Caswell was expecting his family to populate Texas as they all spread out and made their own place. Texas is a land of emotions, fierce beauty, fierce heat, tempers and everything coated in dust. The high yellow grasses of the valleys give way to the smokey blue pines and red oaks, creating thickets to hide cows and Indians and outlaws. Don’t forget that it grows wild grapes and wild plums that make the very best jams and jellies. Momma told me that cattle eat mesquite beans and that people can eat them, too. Well, I gave it a try and all I can say about that is:” Leave them for the cows.” I wouldn’t cajole anyone into living in Texas. Its lonely, wild and the wind-well, that is another story. If you do not like the weather, stick around 30 minutes and it will change. One of the new “Aunts” was Sarah Sally Burns. She was a neighbor and the place we had settled was called: Blue Branch, Burleson County. All the settling and crops were in jeopardy with the men going to war. When, I was asked about how I felt about the war, my reply was,” WE LOST”. I know what it feels like to be hungry. All those cousins had to be fed and my Grandma Harriett and Grandpa Caswell rose to the task. Still some of our families had to ask for help when the Confederates/Texas offered aid to indigent families who had soldiers in service or dead. We had our own dead, too. My grandma’s sister, Susan Kite Mulligan had a couple of little girls and her husband, Frank died in the war. Aunt Susan was around when I was born and helped her sister Harriett birth lots of babies. Grandma Harriett gave birth to her last son and last child in 1860. They named that little boy: Caswell Leroy Kite. The man I had picked out to marry went to the war, also. His name is Thomas Jackson Yarborough. One of his kin married my oldest brother, George Kite. Her name was Dixie Yarborough and they had just one girl, named: Georgia Kite and she married a Cleveland. My brother George was killed in February of 1887. Killing, death and hanging, shoot-outs, rustlers, nothing romantic about that part of Texas. I did marry my fellow in 1873 in Milam County,Texas and birthed my children there. This is the story of my Aunt Sally Burns and her family and the reason my Grandparents pulled up stakes and moved out of Burleson County to Erath County for safety.

Texas moved its counties around almost as much as it moved its people. The farm that once was in Burleson County became Falls County and in time Lee County. All these places at one time was Milam County. The BURNS family was in Texas before the KITE family and old man Burns was prosperous and “well thought of”. A man’s reputation was more valuable than what he owned. John H. Burns and his wife Eliza J. Burns buried a son by the name of John T.Burns, age 9, in Lee County, Beaukiss, Tx. in the BURNS CEMETERY. Children dying was far too often done. John H. Burnes was 52 years old in 1870 and born in Georgia. His wife was born in Ireland and also was 52 years old. They had three girls: Texana age 15 in 1870 and Hester age 21 and Sarah called Sally age 24 (the one who married my Uncle Samuel Kite). (Note: A History of Lee County Vol.I, Blue Branch section-article in part below) Lexington near Giddings.) “John Burns was an early settler in Blue and purchased some land from the Jackson family The Jackson brothers were given a land grant, by the Republic of Texas for service during the Mexican War. The buffalo poor, hungry, Indians did raid the small farms on the edge of settlements taking cattle and horses but the war had put Union Troops in Texas and that problem was pretty much solved. There was a dark era in the early history of the Blue Branch Post Office when the escapades of lawbreaking sidewinders gave the good citizens much concern. The rustler’s reign was short-lived, but five men had given their lives before they were apprehended. One of these men was Sally Burns’s father, John H.Burns. Poppa gathered us all together in 1876 after the burial and talked to us about being careful and staying close to the house and not going out riding without some menfolk with us. The way the men were killed was just planned murder, cruel and sidewinder mean. There was a band of outlaws hanging around the community. The war taught men to fight and some men just wouldn’t give up the bloody thrill, bringing their evil into our lives. Our friends were waylaid , the cowards way of murder. They shot and killed John Burns, Pete Allen, Horace Alsup, John Bloodsworth, and Turk Turner. Some of their bodies were wrapped in newly skinned cowhides, a way of torture and killing used by renegade Indians in an attempt to put the blame on the Indians and hide the outlaw participation. The sheriff asked for help from the citizens to stop the murder and thieving. A citizen’s organization was created on the spot, later spreading to Lee County, Milam, Burleson and Bastrop. These men also war trained and determined to stop the men known by the name of THE KNOB-NOTCH CUTTER’S GANG.” After some deliberation a plan was formed. The “committee” announced to the communities that there was going to be a SHIN-DIG and it was for the public to attend. Poppa told all the family about the dance and it was decided to be at our neighbor’s house, Pete Airhardt’s place which was locally known as the old Scott place. Grandma Harriett and Sally thought it was too soon after burial of the 5 friends and all the women were in black mourning. Poppa said he wanted the older women to go-and dress for a party. The younger women and the kids had to stay home. At a given signal, the women were all to go to one room of the house and bar the door from the inside. He said they could mourn later. I wanted to go badly but John said, No. That was that. The liquor was put in the front of the house and all the men were there, drinking, smoking and hanging around. When the music started they all went in and the women went to their room and the front door was barred on the outside-shutting in the outlaws. The Committee had quietly surrounded the house, guarding every window and door. However, one of the outlaws: Ab Kaneman, escaped through a window. Another man, Sol Wheat was not at the dance. These two

high-tailed it out of the country and never returned. Four of the bad boy outlaws were caught: Young Floyd, Wade Alsup, Bake Scott, and John Kirkendall. (note: I don’t know if Wade Alsup was kin to the murdered man, Horace Alsup?) Justice was swift. The Committee took the four bad boys and they were given a neck-tie-party and hung in the big oak tree that stands just outside our kitchen door. When, I went out the next morning to feed the calves, I was shocked to find the dead men hanging in our yard. Looking in the Lee County Cemetery Book, Vol I. The Burns Cemetery at Blue Branch, Post Office, Texas shows that the son of John H. Burns is buried there along with three of the murders: John Kuyendall, Beck Scott, and Wade Alsup all hung on June 27, 1877. The same land holds their murdered neighbors. Young Floyd, is buried in Floyd Cemetery near the Bastrop-Lee County line. After the killings, the Samuel Kite/ Sallie Burns family, Grandma Harriett, the widow and children of John H. Burns, Aunt Susan Mulligan and her kids and others of our Kite clan moved again, Lock, Stock and Barrel to Erath County to get out of the way of the bad element in Burleson Co. Texas. I went to Floyd County with my husband and became a planted Texican.