General Notes

[basham.ged]
Email Nelda Burton 1/12/2002 <burtonnk@@peoplescom.net>
On September 13, 2001, John and I took a genealogy research trip to At
ok a, OK.  We visited the library, court house, and the Historical Soc
ie ty / Confederate Museum.  Our main purpose was to obtain a marriage lic
en se for Thomas and Lizzy, which we did, and to find where Lizzy was bur
ie d.  Looking through the burial records at the library and the early fun
er al records recorded in Atoka Co., we found one Burton listed in the Str
ing town black cemetery and no Gaines listed.
When we obtained the marriage license we found that both Tom and Lizz
ie we re living in a small community called Rich, named for a store own
ed by a m an named Rich.  The community, which no longer exists, is pa
rt of Chocki e, pronounced like Chock-taw, a small town north of Atoka.
The ladies at the Historical Society, told us of an old abandoned ceme
te ry just south of Chockie, which someone had recently mowed.  In the cem
ete ry were the remains of an old church and many unmarked graves.  Of t
he f ew graves with markers, none were identified as Gaines nor Burto
n.  We al so looked in the Stringtown Cemetery, which is where we original
ly thoug ht Tom might be buried, to no avail.  It is our belief that we wi
ll nev er know exactly where in Atoka Tom is buried.  It would be a clo
se guess t hat Tom is buried somewhere in the Chockie or Stringtown Cemete
ry, since t here is no proof that the Burton or Gaines owned their lan
d.  The exact da te of his death is not known, possible between the bir
th of Johnie,
and the Lizzie marriage to Wm. Riley Lamon.