Fellowship Friday

Hugh Burdette and John Bean, Sr. [on right] holding son Edsel

Abt 1940

Who did your ancestors fellowship with?

Sentimental Sunday

In 1935, my Uncle, John Beane, Jr., was working with the C.C.C. camp in Alvon, West Virginia. [Greenbrier County]. On 4 June his grandmother, Annie Level Burdette, died. [John's mother, Ada had died in 1929, a few days after giving birth to her last child, Jack. So John felt especially close to his grandmother.]

Above is the pass that John received in order to return to his home and be with his family at the time of their mourning.

Annie Level was born 08 Jan 1866 in West Virginia to William Francis Level and Sarah Ruth Gibson. She married Hugh Burdette [1860-1944] in 1881. The couple went on to have at least 12 children:

Ada L. [John's mother] [1883-1929]

Sarah Ozella [1885-1966]

Edgar [1887-1957]

Susan M. [1889-1963]

Anderson L. [1891-1959]

Isabelle M. [1893-1970]

Charles C. [1895-1972]

George W. [1898-1983]

Dwight [1900-1980]

Fred H. [1902-1925]

Bessie [1904-1999]

Harry C. [1907 - 1972]

Ada's son John was born 08 Oct 1908 in Waiteville, Monroe, WV. He died in Jul 1972 in WV. He is buried in the New Zion union Church Cemetery in Waiteville. He married Mildred Tolley, and the couple had 4 children: Betty, Johnny, Cathy & Darrell.

Tombstone Tuesday - January 12, 2010

Ada Burdette Bean

15 Dec 1883 - 15 August 1929

Ada Burdette was born 15 December 1883 to Hugh H. Burdette and Annie S. Level in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. She was the eldest of twelve children born to the couple. The other children were: Sarah Ozella, Edgar, Susan, Anderson, Isabelle, Charles, George, Dwight, Fred, Bessie and Harry.

Ada married widower, John Monroe Bean [1866-1954] on 04 March 1907 in Greenbrier County. [John had three children from his first wife, who had died in 1902.] Ada became an “instant” mother to Rita, Lama, and Pauline [who was ill her entire life with tuberculosis].

Ada and John began having children the following year. The couple had nine: John Jr. [1908], Emmette [1910], Blanche “Audrey” [1912], Anna “Margaret” [1914], William “Bill” [1917, Samuel Maxwell “Max” [1919], Ada “Eleanor” [1921], Dorothy “Eloise” [1923] and Jack [1929].

The couple was faced with heartache, not once, but three times during their marriage. In 1923 little Max died from whooping cough. Then on 14 February 1925, little Eloise, who had slept with her big sister, Pauline, died from tuberculosis. Pauline died just 4 months later.

On 10 August 1929 Ada gave birth to Jack. She had not received any pre-natal care. She was 45 years old, and had developed toxemia. She died just five days after Jack’s birth.

Ada was laid to rest in front of the three children she had seen buried. Her tombstone a sentinel watching over their little graves. They are buried at Carmel Cemetery in Gap Mills, Monroe County, West Virginia.