Burges-Jefferson Family

John R. Jefferson, Jr. (1804-1888), brigadier general in the Mississippi militia (1842-1846), tavern owner, and stage line operator, was born in Cumberland, Virginia in 1804. He moved to Nashville, Tennessee and then to New Orleans in 1829, where he worked as a stage line operator. He married Eliza A. Coorpender in 1841 and they had ten children. Jefferson moved to Seguin, Texas, in 1853, where he operated stage lines and owned a tavern. He became Confederate marshal for the Western District of Texas in 1862 and was granted amnesty in 1866.

William H. Burges (1838-1898) of Seguin, Texas, a lawyer and state senator (1880-1881), was married to Bettie Rust. Their children include Richard Fenner Burges (1873-1945), El Paso lawyer, state legislator (1913-1915), conservationist, and state and federal commissioner and counselor. After Bettie died, William H. Burges married Mary Lou (Mamie) Jefferson, one of the daughters of John R. Jefferson, Jr. and Eliza Coorpender.

Sources: Burges-Jefferson Family Papers, 1836 (1857-1892) 1960, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Jefferson, John R., http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/JJ/fje2.html (accessed August 6, 2010).

Handbook of Texas Online, s.v. Burges, Richard Fenner, http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/BB/fbu28.html (accessed August 6, 2010).