Where are they now?

Family honors patriarch with search, stone

Courtesy photo Robert Christopher Burson (July 24, 1874 to July 1913) was a farmer in Goshen. At the time of his death, the family could not afford a grave marker, and the location of his grave was lost to time.
Courtesy photo Robert Christopher Burson (July 24, 1874 to July 1913) was a farmer in Goshen. At the time of his death, the family could not afford a grave marker, and the location of his grave was lost to time.

In the spring of 2017 the descendants of Robert Christopher and Laura Alice Burson held a family reunion in the Fayetteville area. They came from the states of Washington, California, Oklahoma, Kansas, Florida, Missouri and, of course, Arkansas.

Robert (July 24, 1874 to July 1913) and Laura Burson were farmers in the Goshen area back in the late 1800s and very early 1900s. They had eight children (2 boys and 6 girls) and were very poor. Robert died when their youngest child was only 13 months old. The only things family descendants knew about Robert Burson was: He was a farmer and a carpenter; hunted and fished; and worked very hard on the land to support his family.

During the reunion, family members talked about where their grandparents (Robert and Laura) were buried. It was known that Laura was buried in a cemetery in Downey, Calif. She moved there with her youngest son, Miles, in the 1930s. But there was only a little information about where their grandfather was buried.

Sharon George of Springdale, 0ne of Robert's granddaughters, shared that her mother said Robert was buried in the Goshen Cemetery, but because the family was so poor, they could not afford a grave marker. The grave was known to be near the outer edge of the cemetery by a large tree. Robert's descendants decided to research to find the grave and put a grave marker on it.

A grandson, Luke Burson of Laguna Niguel, Calif., began the search, but found no burial records exist for the Goshen Cemetery in 1913, nor could Robert Burson be found on websites dedicated to grave registry and genealogy. A poster on the Random Acts of Geneological Kindness website suggested checking local mortuary records, but only one mortuary operated in 1913 and it did not keep records. A representative of the mortuary recommended the family contact the caretaker at the Goshen Cemetery.

The family made contact with Charles Langham, the cemetery's caretaker. They shared their information about Robert's grave site. Langham, a long-time resident of Goshen, remembered a large tree, but said it had been gone for a number of years. He also shared, that some years back, the University of Arkansas representatives surveyed the cemetery to locate all the unmarked graves. They placed a large, white limestone rock on each grave they found to ensure the unmarked graves would not be disturbed by the digging of new graves.

Langham walked through the cemetery to find white rocks in the area where he remembered the big tree -- and, yes, the big tree was near the outer edge of the cemetery. George and Brenda McCall, also a granddaughter and also of Springdale, walked the cemetery with Langham and came to believe the white limestone rock he found marked their grandfather's grave.

The family ordered a grave marker for Robert Christopher Burson, matching the one of their grandmother in Downey. The marker is set, and the family held a memorial service Sunday at the grave site.

photo

Courtesy photo Descendants of Robert Christopher Burson found what they believe is his grave site and have placed a marker in his honor.

NAN Our Town on 11/23/2017

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