The Burgess family is woven directly into the early frontier history of Pocahontas County, West Virginia, with records establishing them as true pioneer settlers of the region before the turn of the 19th century.
The Pioneer Era: Pre-1800 Settlements
Historical land and court records place the earliest members of the Burgess family in the Hillsboro and Mill Point areas (historically known as the Little Levels of the Greenbrier).
Nathan Burgess: Documented on historical rolls as a pre-1800 pioneer settler of the Hillsboro/Mill Point area. He lived alongside other foundational families of the county, such as the McNeels and Kinnisons. On August 20, 1803, Nathan married Martha "Patsy" Kinnison in Bath County, Virginia (from which parts of Pocahontas were later formed). The Kinnisons were extensive landowners in the Little Levels; several branches of both families eventually migrated westward to Jackson County, Ohio, in the early 1800s.
John Burgess, Jr.: Appears alongside Nathan on early regional pioneer rosters for the same district, indicating multiple closely related households managing adjacent mountain homesteads.
The Civil War Era & Late 19th Century
As the county developed, the family line solidifies in census and marriage records through branches that remained deeply rooted in the rugged terrain of the Edray and Spruce Mountain districts.
The Line of David M. Burgess
David Matthew Burgess (b. ~1821/1832): A prominent figure in mid-to-late 19th-century Pocahontas County records. He married Mary Elizabeth Kellison (b. ~1852), connecting the Burgess line to another storied local family—the Kellisons (specifically the lineage of Jacob S. Kellison and Sarah Ann Morrison). David and Mary raised their family in the high-altitude lumber and farming zones of the county.
20th Century: The Edray and Marlinton Branches
The lineage moving into the modern era is heavily defined by the large family established by David's son in the Edray District.
The Line of William Downey Burgess
William Downey Burgess (1883–1961): Born in the historic community of Spruce in Pocahontas County. He spent his life as a resident of the Edray District and the Marlinton area.
Marriage and Descendants: In 1910, he married Jessie Charity McCune (1894–1976), who was originally from neighboring Webster County. Together, they raised a large family of fourteen children (at least six sons and eight daughters), making the Burgess name a staple of the local workforce, agricultural community, and civic life throughout the mid-20th century. Notable children from this generation included Henry Arnold Burgess (1918–2006) and Hannah Mae Burgess (1929–2011, later Critchfield).
Research Tip for Local Records: Because Pocahontas County was formed in 1821 from parts of Bath, Pendleton, and Randolph counties, genealogical records for the earliest generations (like Nathan and John Jr.) are frequently found in the Bath County, Virginia courthouse or within William T. Price's definitive text, Historical Sketches of Pocahontas County. Local vertical surname files and microfilm for later generations (1850 onward) are maintained in the Heritage Room at the McClintic Library in Marlinton.
To trace the deep roots of the Burgess family even further, we have to look closely at the earliest pioneer data preserved by regional oral histories, early tax lists, and the extensive cross-county land transactions before West Virginia became its own state.
Deep Pioneer Roots: The 18th-Century Connections
While Nathan Burgess and John Burgess, Jr. are listed on the foundational pre-1800 settler rolls for what became Pocahontas County, regional family logs—including detailed accounts compiled by David Burgess in the 19th century and preserved by local historians—reveal a tightly knit network of early familial alliances:
The Mayse and Young Alliances: The earliest generations of the Burgess family were deeply tied to the foundational settlements at Mill Point.
Mary Burgess married her cousin, James Young, settling originally in Augusta County. Their son, William Young, went on to serve as a soldier in the War of 1812.
Nancy Burgess married William Mayse and settled permanently at Mill Point. Mayse was historically recognized as one of the very first blacksmiths to operate in that part of the county, establishing an essential frontier trade that supported the local agricultural expansion.
Geographic Distribution & Local Land Ties
As the 1800s progressed, the family's presence branched out across specific geological and economic zones of the county:
| Era | Primary Districts | Associated Local Industries | Key Intermarriages |
| Late 1700s–Early 1800s | Little Levels, Mill Point, Hillsboro | Frontier Blacksmithing, Early Homesteading | Kinnison, Mayse, Young |
| Mid-1800s | Edray District, Frost, Green Bank | High-Altitude Farming, Early Timbering | Kellison, Morrison |
| Late 1800s–Mid-1900s | Spruce, Marlinton, Edray | Regional Logging, Railroad Workforce, Civic Trade | McCune, Critchfield |
Sorting the Early Records
If you are cross-referencing these lines in early Appalachian court documents, keep these specific historical boundary shifts in mind:
The Bath County Gap (1791–1821): Because Pocahontas County wasn't officially formed until 1821, early family actions—such as Nathan Burgess's 1803 marriage to Martha Kinnison—were recorded in Warm Springs, Virginia (the county seat of Bath County).
The Pendleton and Randolph Overlaps: Families living in the northern and eastern stretches of the county (near Green Bank, Dunmore, or Frost) often appear in early Pendleton or Randolph County land grants before 1821.
The Spruce Mountain Dispersal: By the time the timber boom hit communities like Spruce and Marlinton in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, branches like that of William Downey Burgess became heavily concentrated in the Edray district, shifting from traditional pioneer farming into the regional industrial workforce.
Archival Note: To trace the explicit land deeds or wills of the earliest frontier Burgesses, researchers typically consult the Greenbrier County Records (for entries predating 1791) and the Bath County Deed Books, before moving into the Pocahontas County Court Clerk's archives in Marlinton for the post-1821 generations.
To unpack the deeper branches and lesser-known historical footprints of the Burgess family in Pocahontas County, we have to look past general census listings and dig into specific homestead plots, military records, and the internal tracking of the Edray and Spruce Mountain lines.
The 19th-Century Civil War Micro-History
During the Civil War, the mountains of Pocahontas County were a heavily contested, dangerous borderland characterized by guerrilla skirmishes and shifting military occupations (especially around Huntersville, Marlinton, and the Greenbrier River bridge). The Burgess family, like many families in the Little Levels and Edray districts, found themselves split or directly impacted by the conflict.
David Matthew Burgess's Era: Born in the early 1830s, David came of age during a period when families were actively establishing deep-woods homesteads in the more rugged, high-altitude terrain north of Marlinton. His marriage to Mary Elizabeth Kellison solidified a network of kinship with families who managed the high gaps and ridges.
The Guerrilla Environment: Local court files from the post-war era reveal how families in the Edray and Elk districts had to continuously navigate property destruction, livestock raids, and the structural collapse of local government between 1861 and 1865, forcing many lines to temporarily retreat deeper into the ridges or western counties before returning to rebuild.
The Industrial Boom: The Transition to Spruce
By the late 1890s and early 1900s, the economic landscape of Pocahontas County shifted dramatically from isolated mountain farming to massive industrial logging operations, driven by the arrival of the West Virginia Pulp and Paper Company (WVP&P) and the Chesapeake and Ohio (C&O) Railroad.
The Community of Spruce: This is where William Downey Burgess (1883–1961) laid down deep roots. Located at an elevation of over 3,800 feet near the birthplace of the Cheat River, Spruce was a legendary, isolated logging town. It was completely dependent on the heavy rail lines that hauled spruce and hemlock logs off the mountainsides.
The Workforce Shift: William Downey Burgess and his sons transitioned into this rigorous industrial environment. Working in the woods or on the logging lines required immense physical endurance, navigating extreme winter weather and dangerous terrain.
The Fourteen Children of William Downey & Jessie McCune
The expansive family established by William Downey Burgess and Jessie Charity McCune in 1910 effectively populated several branches of the surname across the region. Tracing their fourteen children reveals a clear picture of mid-20th-century Appalachian migration and local legacy:
Henry Arnold Burgess (1918–2006): Born in Marlinton, Henry represents the generation that served in World War II. After his military service in the U.S. Army, like many young men from the timber counties during the post-war industrial shifts, he migrated up the industrial corridors to western Pennsylvania (settling near Mercer/Grove City), where he worked for decades in industrial manufacturing (Quality Tools Corp. and SATEC Systems) while remaining a passionate woodsman.
Paul Dorsey Burgess (1932–2019): Paul chose to remain deeply rooted in the home county. He lived out his life as a well-known face in Marlinton, preserving the immediate local presence of the family name.
The Sibling Network: The remaining brothers—Lloyd Salis, Ed, Asa, and Pat—alongside sisters like Bertha (Robinson), Alice (Ramp), and Hannah Mae (Critchfield)—created a family network that stretched from the home tracking in Marlinton and Pennsboro out into the industrial centers of Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Geographic Namesakes & Property Markers
For researchers trying to pin down physical land ties in the county's geography:
Cochran Cemetery (Onoto): Located rurally outside Marlinton/Edray, this historic cemetery serves as the final resting place for William Downey Burgess, Jessie, and several close kin. It stands as a primary physical focal point for the 20th-century branch of the family.
The Edray Property Lines: Throughout the 1930–1950 agricultural censuses, the Burgess holdings are consistently mapped adjacent to traditional Edray families (such as the Hammons, Cochran, and Sharp lines), marking their participation in the small-scale mountain farming that supplemented their primary income from timbering and civil trade.
Methodology Tip for Further Tracking: To bridge the gap between the pre-1800 Nathan Burgess line (who left for Ohio) and the mid-century David Matthew Burgess line, look directly into the Pocahontas County Land Grant Index (Chancery Court Records) under the Kellison and Morrison partition suits. These civil suits frequently map out exactly who inherited which high-ridge plots when a patriarch died without a formal will.
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