(1848-1881)
« return to database listVirginia was the second daughter and third child of a wealthy Person County planter. According to a 1965 letter from Bessie D. Beam – the granddaughter of Virginia’s sister Frances (Fannie) – to North Carolina historian Mary Claire Engstrom, Fannie and Virginia both attended the Burwell Female School for a brief time around 1856 and 1857. Fannie would have been around 12 years old, and Virginia only 7 or 8. Mrs. Beam’s letter also reports that Virginia eventually “moved to Texas and married a Mr. Bumpass.”
The U.S. Census of 1880 shows Virginia and her husband Thomas Bumpass living in Texas and having four children: Irene, 6; Horace, 5; Walter, 3; and Virginia 1. Another daughter, Florence, was born in April of 1881, and Virginia died just three months later at the age of 32-and-a-half.
Her first name on her gravestone is misspelled “Verginia,” but her name as one of the children listed on her mother’s gravestone is shown as “Virginia Elmira.”
Virginia’s husband Thomas Halliburton Bumpass died in 1892 and was buried beside her in the Abston Cemetery in Collin County, TX.
VIRGINIA ELMIRA LUNSFORD (Updated 2018 by a BSHS Researcher)
Virginia and her older sister Elizabeth Frances Lunsford both attended the Burwell School for what appears to be a short time, around 1856-1857. While her sister Fannie lived in Person County, NC, her entire life and died at the age of 75, Virginia made at least two major moves in her brief 32-year lifetime. Sometime between the 1860 and 1870 censuses, Virginia moved to Hopkins, KY, with her father Jesse and three brothers – George, age 17; Jesse J., age 14; and John C., age 7. Virginia’s mother had died in 1863 in Person County, NC, and it seems likely that the family would not have left North Carolina prior to that time.
In 1869 or in the early 1870s, Virginia and her father moved to Collin County, TX.
Virginia married Thomas Halliburton Bumpass in Collin County, TX, in January 1873, and her father Jesse was shown living with Virginia and Thomas in the 1880 census. Within eight-and-a-half years, Virginia had borne five children. She died in July 1881, just three months after the birth of her last child, a daughter named Florence.
Virginia and her husband Thomas share a common gravestone, which is also shared with two of their children: Irene Huntingdon Bumpass, born 1873 and died 1946; and Florence E. Bumpass, born 1881 and died 1889.
Of Virginia’s three brothers who had moved from North Carolina to Kentucky, we know that Jesse Jones (called “Jones” by the family) also ended up in Collin County, TX, and he is buried there. Virginia’s great, great granddaughter, who has shared family history with the Burwell School, says about Virginia’s brother Jesse Jones, “Uncle Jones Lunsford, the brother to Virginia Elmira Lunsford-Bumpass, stayed in Collin Co., TX, and is buried in the IOOF Cemetery, Farmersville, TX. He reminded me of Santa Claus with his little ole nose and his fat little belly. He would give us nieces and nephews Christmas-like candy, especially when he lived with us.”
SOURCES:
Letter from Bessie Beam to Mrs. Alfred G. Engstrom (copy in Burwell School files). Mrs. Beam was Bessie Glenn Daniel Beam, the daughter of Myrtle Glenn Daniel. Myrtle was the daughter of Elizabeth Frances Lunsford, sister of Virginia Elmira Lunsford.
The Book of Burwell Students, by Mary Claire Engstrom, 2007
US Census records
findagrave.com
Family genealogical records generously shared by Sue Howard Wilkerson, great granddaughter of Burwell student Virginia Elmira Lunsford Bumpass and great, great niece of Burwell student Elizabeth Frances “Fannie” Lunsford Glenn).
Virginia Elmira Lunsford was born on December 20, 1848, in Person County, NC. She died on July 28, 1881.
and Rebecca Ella Lunsford (b. 1858).