Title: A history of the Brunson family
Description: My name is Raymond Burton Dale, son of Mary Elizabeth Patrick Dale,who the daughter of Minnie Anna Brunson Knight Patrick,who was the daughter of Anna Cooney Brunson Knight. Anna Brunson was born on 4 July, 1853 in Macon County Alabama. Anna Cooney Brunson Knight died on 11 September 1898 at Nine Mile Plantation from a fever. Water from the privy ran into the well after a flood from the Pea River that year. if you can get your hands on a copy, this book has some interesting stories to tell.

Marion B. Brunson wrote his Book, 'The Brunson Family,' in 1963. It contains our family history from the fifteenth century to 1963. As Anna Brunson was the grandaughter of Sylvia Pinckney, some coverage of the Pinckney contributions of that family to the founding of our Nation are also included. The Pinckney family originally came into England in the year 1066 at the time of the Conquest.

Marion spent endless hours over a period of more than ten years gathering all the documentation to write this book. His work covers the only Southern Branch of the Brunson Family and will prove interesting to read even if you are not a member of the Brunson Family.

For example: from the Family Bible Record of Sylvia Pinckney Brunson is recorded a death in the family on the night the stars fell on Alabama in 1833.

"Josiah Pinckney (Brunson) departed this life November the 13, 1833 at the rise of the sun he was 20 years 1 month and 13 days old. When he was dying the whole Heavens was in a blaze with shooting stars and meteors on kerd of sight that all-- all made and formed a center in every direction a little to the South East of the Zenith and not one crossed the track of another."

Marion speaks also of our family's peculiar belief that the dead should never be buried below the ground. Or if buried, the grave should remain unmarked. He attributes this belief to the Pinkney side of the family. And indeed, the burial spot of Eliza Lucas Pinckney is unknown to this very day in St. Peter's Churchyard in Philadelphia. Another, Charles Robert Pinckney, a signer of our Constitution, also remained unmarked in Charleston for nearly a century after his death.

Mathew Eugene, the first Brunson to move and settle in Alabama in the 1830's, died in 1877. Hard to believe, but he insisted his body be pickled in formaldehyde to be placed placed in a tomb on the third level of their home. He wanted members of the family once a year on the Sunday nearest his birthday to talk to him about the events of the previous year to him in his bronze casket made for him in Europe. As Marion states, "He had a supernatural belief the dead could perceive from the living... The family feeling uncomfortable,after some ten days decided to build a house in The Woodland Grove Cemetary and move his body from the third chamber of the house." Mathew's body there was last viewed in December of 1914 through the glass of the air tight casket. It is still above the ground in a vault, and when I visited in 1976, I missed the family reunion because I spent two and a half hours reading to Mathew from 'The Brunson Family' book written by Marion. It may have been silly, but I sought to honor the last wishes of a patriarch of my mother's side of the family.

Mathew's brother, Thaddeus, shared some his brother's beliefs as well. Dr. Thaddeus Warsaw Brunson's wife died in childbirth. His wife was buried, but he pickled his child in formaldehyde. He kept the still born infant in his office under a black velvet pall. At night he would talk to the child, and said, "The only thing remaining from a loving marriage was this infant." One night according to the story, this child spoke to him and advised Thaddeus that he would die within the year and the infant requested burial next to the mother. This was done, and within the year, Dr. Brunson also died and was buried with his family.

My grandmother, Minnie Anna Brunson Knight Patrick, believed that when she died, she also did not want to be buried, but in her words, "Take my body and kick it off the end of the dock on an outgoing tide at the Palm Beach inlet. I will not be in that body. Then I want you to throw a party, for the day of my death is better than the day of my birth." A party was given as requested, and her ashes scattered in her garden in Riviera Beach which is now The Port Of Palm Beach. Marion's book and her Bible were her two most cherished possessions.

As, stated earlier, 'The Brunson Family,' is a good read if you can find a copy. The book is paper bound on thick red paper with a black paper binding.
Subjects: Brunson, Pinckney, Marion B. Brunson, Hampton Plantation, Poetry
Places: Coffee County AL, Charleston SC, Augusta GA, Glen Allen Mississippi
People: Brownson family, Marion Bailey Brunson, Pinckney Family, Eliza Lucas Pinckney, Brunson Family, Daniel David Knight, Burton A. Patrick, Burton Knight Patrick, James Brunson Knight, Houff Plantation, Mabel Boyd Knight
Time periods: 1066-1963 The book records the history of an old Southern family from the research of Marion Bailey Brunson.