There were no children from the marriage to Burton or Papson. The material in the Stephen Burton papers consists primarily of a grouping of Civil War letters written to his wife Polly, between 1862 and 1863, while Burton was serving with Co. B, 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry. The Civil War correspondence is probably typical of the common soldier serving in the Union Army and is filled with misspellings and grammatical errors. Because of the peculiarities of Burton's style of writing it does take a while to get used to the correspondence, but once such features as his phonetic spelling is accounted for the writing itself is clear.
Punctuation is also erratic.
The handwriting in the letters written by J.S. Hendrickson, Burton's stepson, is much more difficult to read. The remaining letters to Polly from Reublin family members were all written after the death of Stephen Burton. In the letters from her brothers, John and Garrett, deal with arranging a visit with family for Christmas and other family news. Polly, written while serving in the Civil War, also in the 103rd O.V.I., Co.