Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1907-08-28
SECOND ANNUAL REUNION
OF the Burriss Family Held on Au-
gust IA Pleasant Day.

(Anderson Mail, August 14.)
At Old Salem church, four miles
above this oity, Wednesday a great
rennion of the descendants of Joshua
and Mary Burriss was held. Proba-
bly, 300 persons were present, repre-
senting four generations of this large
and well-known family. Prominent
visitors were on hand from Arkansas,
Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and
California, representing branches of
this fourishing kinship which have
gone estward, as 80 many of Caro-
lina's noblest sons and daughters
have done in the past, to enrich the
citizenship of the newer country.
The Carolina contingent of the
family were present in very large
numbers. They reside mostly in
Anderson and adjoining counties,
and make up considerable part of
the vast citizenship.
The place for the meeting was
ideal. The oi6 brick church, which
was founded by the Rurrisses long
ago, and half of the members of
which are now of that kin, stands
snugly and beautifully on an emi.
nence, surrounded by tho ver6ant
green of the original oak forest, sug-
gestive in its freshness of the old
days in which lived the forefaihers
who were to-day menorialized. 1t
is the religious center of prosper
ons people, and many of the anoes-
tors of those who were present to-
day lie buried not far from it, among
them being the Revs. Jacob and
Bryant Burriss. The breezes which
rustled the leaves OF the forest
brought from the fields the odor of
the fodder, suggestive of the agricul-
tural atmosphere in which the Bur-
rises originated and throve and in
which many of them yet live. 1t
was happy throng, and your re-
porter is tempted to essay fanciful
language in its description. The
exercises were semi-religious in char
scter, as all family reunions should
be, and such as this family would be
expected TO have, for reverence is an
Inherited Burriss characteristic. The
picnic dinner, which was served upon
the grounds, was abundant and ele-
CANT and served admirably in adding
to the good fellowship of the numer-
GUS kinship.
, After an hours greeting and social
intercourse in the yard beneathl the
spreading oak, the concourse assem-.
bled in the church, which G was
thronged and crowded, while many
were unable to get in. The audi
ence was made up not only of the
Carolina contingent, but with mem.
bers of the family from Mississippi,
Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Texas,
Oklahoma and California. The; lion
of the occasion with everybody was
the Rev. Jas. N. Burroughs, of Oak
land, Cal. MIR. Burroughs left South
Carolina in 1854, when lad of four
teen and rode horseback to Cali
fornia, he and his older brother,
Lewis, and Mat Stephenson, of this
county, driving drove of COWS
across the whole continent. The
performance was amazing and ro-
mantle. Mr.. Burroughs is now;sixty-
seven years old and this is his first
trip back to Carolina. He is the
only surviving child of 19 of the
Rev. Bryan Burriss, though there
are hundreds of the next generation
TO his in South Carolina. Mr.. Bur-
onghs is handsome and as.spirited as
a thirty-year-old young man in his
activity. He walks erect and wears
a long gray beard. He made one of
the principal addresses to-day, and
it was intensely enjoyed. Mr.. Bur
oughs, it will be observed, has
changed the spelling of the family
name in his family, though he stoutly
AYERS that his way--"B-u-r-o.u-g-h-s"
is the right way to spell the name
and that all the rest ought to come