(1819-1893)
« return to database listAccording to census records, Jesse Anderson Lunsford, the father of Frances and her younger sister Virginia who also attended the Burwell Female School, was a man of more-than-average property, as were most of the Lunsfords. The 1854 tax list shows him owning 1382 acres of land, while the 1860 census indicated he owned 21 slaves. The 1860 census listed the value of his real estate property as $12,500 and personal property as $20,560.
Jesse fought for the Confederates in the Civil War, serving in Company H of the 24th Regiment, North Carolina Infantry (formerly the 14th North Carolina Infantry, Volunteers). His beginning military rank was private, and his final rank was Corporal.
Jesse’s wife Elmira – and the mother of Fannie and Virginia – died in 1863 at the age of 42.
Sometime between 1860 and 1870 – and likely after Elmira’s 1863 death since she is buried in Person County, NC – Jesse moved to Precinct 7, Hopkins, KY (Post Office was Madisonville). The 1870 census shows Jesse there with the occupation of “Farming” having personal property worth $500.*
On that 1870 census, Jesse was shown as 50 years old, and members of his household were four of his children: Virginia, age 21; George, age 17; Jesse Jones, age 14, and John, age 7. Because John was 7 years old in 1870, and his mother Elmira died in 1863, it appears that Elmira died close to the time her son John was born. Did Elmira die in childbirth? Was Elmira’s death a factor in Jesse’s decision to move? And why Kentucky? We do not have the answers to those questions.
Although the 1870 census reports that Jesse lived in Hopkins, KY, in 1870, his published death notice reports that he moved to Texas in 1869 (copy in Burwell files).
Jesse’s daughter Virginia married Thomas Bumpass on 22 Jan 1873 in Collin County, TX. The 1880 census shows Jesse living in Collin County with Virginia and Thomas and lists his relationship as “father in law” to the head of household.
According to the “Sketch of the Life of the Late J. A. Lunsford,” published 31 March 1893 in Roseville, NC, Jesse “returned to North Carolina in 1884. Died March 21st, 1893 at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Fannie Glenn.”
The published “Sketch” goes on to say:
“[Jesse] leaves three children and eleven grandchildren. The deceased was a kind and good neighbor. For the past twelve months his health failed him. The writer of this article often visited him during his affliction and frequently found him reading his Bible. A few hours before he died he remarked that death would be joyful, that God was good to him, and he would soon be where there was no more pain nor death. He was laid to rest March 22nd, by the side of his wife in the Lunsford grave yard, there to sleep until the resurrection morn. God bless his children and grand-children and may they all meet in the sweet bye-and-bye. - J. C. V.”
*Conjecture from the researcher:
Of note is the 1860 federal census in North Carolina showed that Jesse owned real estate property worth $12,500 and personal property worth $20,560. Ten years later in 1870, the federal census in Kentucky recorded his personal property as only $500.
Was Jesse the “kinsman” of Stephen Glenn’s wife from whom Stephen purchased or acquired some of the Lunsford land in 1868?
And with the end of slavery in 1865, the value of Jesse’s “property” (which included 21 slaves in 1860) would have plummeted. That loss and the sale/transfer of land to his son-in-law Stephen Glenn in 1863 might account for the dramatic decline in Jesse’s financial worth of $23,060 in North Carolina in 1860 to $500 in Kentucky in 1870.
SOURCES:
US Census Records
familysearch.org
United States Civil War Soldiers Index, 1861-1865
findagrave.com
ancestry.com
Family genealogical records generously shared by Minnie Sue Howard Wilkerson, great granddaughter of Burwell student Virginia Elmira Lunsford Bumpass and great, great niece of Burwell student Elizabeth Frances Lunsford Glenn. Sue shared family ahnentafel charts with the Burwell School as well as a copy of the 1893 newspaper article announcing the death and burial place of Jesse Anderson Lunsford. Sue also shared a copy of the Person County, NC, marriage license of Jesse A. Lunsford and Elmira Trotter (parents of Elizabeth Frances and Virginia Elmira Lunsford), and a copy of the Granville County, NC, marriage license of Joseph Lunsford and Betsey Howard (grandparents of Elizabeth Frances and Virginia Elmira Lunsford).
Jesse Anderson Lunsford was born on February 10, 1819, in Person County, NC. He died on March 21, 1893, and was buried in Joseph Lunsford Cemetery.
, Virginia Elmira Lunsford (1848-1881) and Rebecca Ella Lunsford (b. 1858).