Person:Charles Burkham (5)

Served in Capt. Hargrove's Co., Vol. Mtd. Rangers, Indiana Militia.

Established the Burkham Settlement by this date at the mouth of Mill Creek, near a Shawnee village. (One of the earliest settlements in Anglo-American Texas.) He spent the next decade and a half negotiating with authorities in Miller County, Arkansas, and Mexico, seeking clear title.

Also among the early settlers were Hudson Posey Benningfield, Henry B. Stout, and Isaac Bateman. Some of their descendants were still living in the immediate area in the 1930s.

Served as Sheriff of Miller County, Arkansas.

He signed a petition to the county court of Miller County for a "passable road" from Davis's Landing to the courthouse at Jonesboro.

He was one of the commissioners appointed by act of the Territorial Legislature to exactly define the boundaries of Miller County and to "best locate the seat of justice."

Charles and another man, perhaps Levi Davis, went after a runaway slave. They stopped at the Page house to make inquiries. There, they were murdered. Page mistook the chains and manacles in the saddlebags for gold. Some days later, Page's son-in-law was found riding Burkham's mule, and he recounted what had happened. The neighbors rode to Page's house, captured him, and took him to Clarksville where he was hanged from the limb of a blackjack oak -- by tradition, the same oak that still stands in Clarksville Cemetery.

Burkham Charles

Burkham, Charles

Males
under 10 = 2
26-44 = 1

Females
under 10 = 2
26-44 = 1

Bill S.70. in Senate of the United Sates, January 21, 1834.

Mr. Torres, from the Committee on Military Affairs, reported the following bill; which was read, and passed to a second reading.

A Bill, for the relief of Charles Burkham and others, employed as Spies on the frontier of Arkansas, in eighteen hundred and thirty.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is hereby authorized and required to pay, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to Charles Burkham, Josiah F. Little, James E. Hopkins, and Henry Stout, the sum of one hundred and ninety-six dollars each; and to James B. Anderson, John Roberts, William McCowen, and Thomas Moore, the sum of one hundred and fifty-six dollars each; being in full satisfaction for their respective services as spies to the detachment of Arkansas militia, ordered into service by Colonel John Clark, in the year one thousand eight hundred and thirty, on the frontier of the Territory of Arkansas.

"Charles Burkham & others" to receive "compensation as spies on frontier of Arkansas." 23d Congress, 1st Session, Senate Journal, p. 592. Reported by committee, 9 May 1834. Passed House & Senate, 24 Jun 1834.

Written to Sam Houston, 25 April 1836

Dear Sir,

When I wrote you last, I promised that I would continue to give you such information relative to the war in Texas as I might be possessed of. I now attempt the fulfillment of that promise, and regret exceedingly that it should of so melancholy a nature. An express from the lower end of this country, passed through this place last evening, warning the citizens of their imminenet danger, from a threatened attack of the Indians of Texas. The news which I gathered from him (the express) is about as follows; It is said, that on the 14th of the present month, about 1500 Indians of the Caddo, Kickapoo, Shawnee, and Cherokee nations, had emobided themselves about 60 miles west of Nacodoches, with a Spanish Colonel at their head, who was stimulating them to attack the settlements of Red River. Much alarm is felt by many for the safety of both persons and property, and an excitement, such as I ahve rarely ever witnessed before, pervaded the bosomos of all - an excitement which seems to bide them definace. It is true, that our numbers, comapratively speaking, are few, but every man is half a horse and half an alligator. By the same express, we learn that it is generally believed that Capt. Charles Burkham, of this country, who left here a few weeks since in command of a company of volunteers, bound for the seat of war, has been cut off between this and Nacogdoches, by the Indians, as sufficient time has elapsed since his departure to have reached Nacogdoches, at which place, up to this date of our news, he had not been heard of. We also learn, by the same express, that the town of Nacogdoches was burnt by the citizens, and that every man was endeavoring to place his family and property in a state of security, ere he turns to mingle in the bloody strife which most shortly ensue.

Stephen F. Austin