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a.
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Note: , albeit casually. My purpose in this effort was to determine if he was connected to my family and I've not yet found a connection.
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15125coll4/id/1917/rec/1
"Interview with Mrs. C. F . Gordon , 203 1/2 E . Edgefield , Longview , Texas (Step daughter of Reverend Burrell Cannon)
My name is Mrs. C. F. Gordon...I am the step daughter of Rev. B. Cannon. He married my mother when I was six....He was a minister when he married my mother....I had three step sisters and a half brother...all younger than I....He never introduced me as his step daughter, I was his oldest daughter....He finished the model and took it to Texarkana and was on the way to St . Louis....A storm came up and destroyed it so he had to go to work and my mother ran a boarding house. We moved to Longview and started another company. They sent him to Chicago to build the airplane. The plane was a success but they wouldn't let him take it up and someone else took L up. He ran into a telephone pole and destroyed it, so he didn't have any money to do anything with it. He started an invention on the cotton picker boll weevil destroyer. That's what he was working on when he died. He never failed in any of his inventions.
Where did he die?
Marshall, at my brothers home
Is he buried in Marshall?
No, he is buried here in Longview, in Gracehill Cemetery. He and my mother both are buried there.
When did he marry your mother? Do you remember the year?
1890.
You were around when he built the plane?
Yes. I was about sixteen years old and we lived in Pittsburg.
How long did he spend in he actual constructon of the plane?
He started it in 1901 and I don't know how long it took to complete it because I was married and had a family of my own.
Was it about a year?
Yes. Do you remember anything about him trying to fly. No. He just built a model in Pittsburg and built the real one in Chlcago, but it was destroyed.
When he built the plane in Pittsburg, he never intended for it to fly?
No. That was a model. He never put the engine in it there....
They put it on a flat car?
Yes. He was going to take it to St . Louis but got as far as Texarkana because my mother has a sister living there . The storm tore it up and we were all stranded there....
What did he do when it wrecked?
He had to go to work . He went to work for a saw mill, in Texarkana.
How long did you live in Texarkana? We lived there from 1903 to 1905.
Then where did you go?
We went to Mineola and he remained in the saw mill business. We went to West Texas and he cut ties for the railroad . We stayed there about a year and a half.
What year was it?
About 1907. Then we moved back to Longview in 1908. He started to work on the plane again.
When was the wreck in CHicago?
I don't know. I guess it was about 1908 or 1909....
Do you remember the name of the pilot who flew the plane?
I belive it was Wilder. I don't know the first name.
When he came back to Longview in 1910, when did he go to work for Guy McKay's machine shop?
I believe it was as soon as he came back. That's when he started making the cotton picker machine.
When did he go to Marhsall?
In 1921 or 1922. He went there about a year before he died....
Do you remember the date he was born in Coffeeville?
April 16 , 1848
Does he have any kinfolk in Coffeeville?
He had two nieces , one lived in California and the other in Mississippi. They are both dead . He didn't have any brothers or sisters.
He went to college in Clinton, Mississippi?
Yes.
When was he first married?
He was 21 when he first married.
Your mother was his fourth wife?
Yes, and he married her in 1890.
All the wives died. He never was divorced?
No. he never was.
When did your mother die?
In 1914, in Longview....
How big was you family? His sons and daughters ---how big was it eventually?
He had just two daughters and a son and a step-daughter, of course.
Did he have sons and daughters by a former marriage when he married your mother?
No, they were by my mother. You know, my father died when I was 5 years old.
Then your mother was the only one he had children by----are they still alive?
I'm the only one of the family alive, and they were all younger than I am.
There was one living in Marshall, wasn't there?
That was my brother; he died in 1955....
What about his other two children?...
My older sister died in California and the other one died here...You see, he lived with me after my mother died, until he went to live with his brother...
So you don't know what happened to his stuff at all?...
He went to west Texas---what town was it he went to?
Crawford. Well, they were out in the country cutting ties but it was in McLennan County.
He was a mechanic---why did he want to cut ties?
He was really a sawmill man, that's what he was....he stayed about a year and came back....
You say he ran a sawmill. When did he move to Pittsburg?
In 1900. We lived just seven miles from Pittsburg. That's where he had his sawmill.
He had a sawmill at Pine, Texas? You lived there about seven years, you say?
Yes, then we moved to Pittsburg and he decided to work on his airplane....
What part of the year was that?
Spring of 1901....
Did anybody try to get him to make a third one?
If they did, he never did mention it.
Did he think the effort just wasn 't worth it?
I think he felt that he was just too old.to try to start over again. Mary's health was bad and he just never said any more about it. He hadn't been back from Chicago too long until she got sick.
He died in Marshall, didn't he? What did he die of? A cerebal hemorrhage?
He had a brain hemorrhage but it was caused from high blood pressure. But we didn't know anything about blood pressure then, but the Dr. told my brother a long time after that--it was caused by high blood pressure.
Was it sudden?
Got sick Sunday and Tuesday he died....
This interview was given between 2 :00 and 3 :30 in the afternoon at Mrs . Gordon ' s address in Longview, Texas to John Fox on September 1, 1967."
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The full text of this interview has been retained in my files as "CannonBurrellInterview1.pdf"
The primary inconsistency is Anna Bell HINKLE said he had no brothers or sisters but later in the interview said he went to McLennan County to live with his brother.
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15125coll4/id/1918/rec/2
Interview with E.A. Stracener, circa 1967
The full text of this interview retained in my files as "CannonBurrellInterview2.pdf
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15125coll4/id/1916/rec/3
Interview with Aubrey Swaim, 1967
The full text of this interview retained in my files as "CannonBurrellInterview3.pdf"
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15125coll4/id/1915/rec/4
Interview with R.H. Heath, 1967
The full text of this interview retained in my files as "CannonBurrellInterview4.pdf"
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p9020coll008/id/6309/rec/5
Burrell Cannon
Photo & credits
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p9020coll008/id/10088/rec/6
Rev. Burrell Cannon and family
Photo & credits
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p9020coll008/id/7447/rec/7
Patent drawing for Cannon's Ezekiel Airship
Photo & credits
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p15125coll4/id/1919/rec/9
Interview with Morris Thorsell, circa 1967
The full text of this interview retained in my files as "CannonBurrellInterview9.pdf"
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p9020coll008/id/7445/rec/14
Patent drawing for Cannon's Ezekiel Airship
Photo & credits
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Excerpted from University of Texas, San Antonio, Digital Collections
http://digital.utsa.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/p9020coll008/id/7584/rec/15
Two pages of the Book of Ezekiel
Photo & credits
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Qeustion: Who then is the 4th wife?
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Excerpted from Family History Library Catalog
https://www.familysearch.org/eng/library/fhlcatalog/supermainframeset.asp?display=titledetails&titleno=1431386&disp=On+the+wings+of+Ezekiel
"...Burrell Cannon was born 16 April 1848 in Coffeeville, Mississippi. His parents were William Cannon and Marguarite Lamb. He married Amanda Elmina Haley Hinkle in 1890 in Gregg County, Texas. They had four children. He died in 1922 in Marshall, Texas...."
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Excerpted from Ancestry.com
http://boards.ancestrylibrary.com/surnames.cannon/2033.1/mb.ashx
"...Posted: 16 May 2008 12:50AM GMT...
William and Margaret were in Yalobusha Co. MS in the 1850 census. Margaret was daughter of John Shepherd Lamb and Susannah Methvin. When Susannah's father Levi Methvin passed away, Susannah was already dead so her father's will mentions her heirs and they appeared in court and deed records.
Madison County Alabama Deed Book Y. P. 503, 3 Jan. 1848 has:
“Isaac Merryman and wife Rhoda, son-in-law and daughter of Levi Methvin dec’d of Crofford Co. Ark., to James S. Methvin, land of said Levi Methvin. Acknowledged in Crawford Co. Ark. (Deeds from other Methvin heirs; Hiram Law [Lam] and wife Anna (dau.); William Campbell and wife Levinia (dau.); Lorenzo D. Towry and wife Elizabeth (dau.); Joseph Kirk and wife Polly, Samuel Kirk and wife Sarah (dau.); heirs at law of Susannah Lamb, a daughter: viz Joel Stinson and wife Martha Ann, John Lamb, Nancy Goodner, William Cannon and wife Margaret; and from Levi Methvin, son of Levi Methvin dec’d of Madison Co. AL.”
Deed Book Y, p. 504. 26 Jan. 1849 has:
"Hiram Lam and wife Anna who was the son in law and daughter and heir of Levi Methvin dec=d of Jackson County, Ala., to James S. Methvin of Madison Co., quit claim to all interest in 160 acres being S-1/2 SE 1/4 Sec. 11 and N 2 NE 1/4 Sec. 14 being the same of which Levi Methvin late of Madison Co., Ala., died siezed and possessed. Eli Woodward, witness; acknowledged before Wm. R. Fowler, J.P., Madison Co., Ala."
Madison County Alabama Deed Book Y. P. 511, 19 Feb. 1850 has:
"John Lamb, Joel Stinson and wife Martha Ann, Nancy Goodner, William Cannon and wife Margaret, who are the heirs of Susannah Lamb dec=d who was daughter and heir of Levi Methvin dec=d, to James S. Methvin: S-1/2 SE-1/4 Sec. 11 and N-1/2 NE-1/4 Sec. 14 T2 R2 E, of which said Levi Methvin died possessed. William R. Fowler, J.P., says >personally appeared John Lamb, and also Joel Stinson and wife Martha Ann, Nancy Goodner, William Cannon and wife Margaret by their attorney in fact Joseph Rice...= and made acknowledgement."
I have been told that the probate records for Levi Methvin show that Susannah's children Nancy and Margaret had their families in Yalobusha Co. MS at the time of the probate. I can't remember where I got the information that William and Margaret were married 9 Mar 1846 in Yalobusha Co. MS...."
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CONCLUSION: The 1850 census reveals the only age-approximate son of William and Margaret was named George M.
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M4LV-VS3
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Excerpted from CANNON-L Archives
http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/CANNON/1998-12/0913539501
From: CECILIE J GAZIANO
Date: Saturday, December 12, 1998 1:59 PM
Subject: [CANNON-L] Burrell Cannon in Yalobusha Co., MS
"...This a second note with data pertaining to previous note by Amy E. Garber RE: her ggg uncle George W. MELTON of Coffeeville (Yalobusha Co., MS), who taught school and had notes in a book naming Wm. CANNON and his children: Sary Ann, N. C., Martha, Burril, John. I would like to know who William's parents were. I cannot identify further the other names in Melton's book: Henry, John F., Samuel, all surnamed Cannon....
HUSBAND William CANNON
WIFE Emily Frances WOODALL
CHILDREN
Nancy Caroline CANNON
Burrell CANNON, BIRTH: Abt 1859 PLACE: ,Yalobusha Co.,MS
Martha Ann CANNON
James Willis CANNON
Annie Lee [perhaps Ann] CANNON
Leroy Emanuel CANNON..."
I've concluded the Burrell CANNON identified above is a coincidence and has no connection to Burrell-the-inventor.
**********
From RoadsideAmerica.com
http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/11610
Full-size Replica Ezekiel Airship, Pittsburg, Texas
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Excerpted from Texas Monthly
http://www.texasmonthly.com/content/two-wings-and-prayer
"Two Wings and a Prayer
...By the time the reverend, who was also a sawmill operator and an inventor, began building his Ezekiel Airship in a Pittsburg machine shop, in 1900, he had mapped out every spar, wheel, and wing that Ezekiel had revealed, and he had attracted dozens of investors, aiming to cash in on the most important invention of the impending modern age. Cannon finished the airship two years later, a giant flying machine with a 26-foot wingspan and wheels inside wheels, more Jules Verne than Old Testament.
And then, according to several witnesses, the thing flew. In 1922 a guy named Gus Stamps, who had worked on the airship, told the story of its flight just before he died to Morris Thorsell, the eldest son of the man who ran the machine shop. Fifty years after that, just before he died, Thorsell related the tale to Pittsburg historian Lacy Davis. Three decades later, one hundred years after that virgin flight, Davis told me what happened. It seems that in late 1902, a handful of men who had worked on the airship took it out for a test flight in a nearby pasture. "Stamps was elected to fly the thing," Davis said. "He got in, started it up. It lurched forward, rose up to about ten to twelve feet, then began to more or less drift toward a fence. Then the engine began vibrating and Stamps cut it off. The airship came to rest about one hundred sixty feet away." According to the Stamps account, Cannon wasn't there; it was apparently a Sunday, and he was off preaching...
...BURRELL CANNON WAS BORN APRIL 16, 1848, on a farm near Coffeeville, Mississippi, where he grew up working with wood, steel, and machines. Later, he studied mechanics at Mississippi College in Clinton and became a Baptist preacher. At age thirty, he left Mississippi for Longview to start a timber business, eventually moving all over northeast Texas, cutting trees and milling logs, preaching, and tinkering with small inventions. In 1896 he wrote to Mary Cannon, a niece in Mississippi whom he had never met, telling her that he'd been married four times and had two children;..."
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Much, much more to this story. Largely ignored. Scientifically dismissed as highly unlikely, perhaps impossible. Nevertheless, it's part of the movement of man into the air.
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Blues And Lamentations, an album by Kate Campbell
http://www.katecampbell.com/blues/
wheels within wheels
A song about Burrell Cannon, the man who saw wheels
kate campbell / walt aldridge, © 2004 large river music
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United States Census, 1880
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MFNX-F8C
Name: Burnel Cannon
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1880
Event Place: Precinct 3, Gregg, Texas, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 31
Marital Status: Widowed
Occupation: Works On Lumber Mill
Ethnicity: American
Relationship to Head of Household: Other
Birthplace: Mississippi, United States
Birth Date: 1849
Father's Birthplace: North Carolina, United States
Mother's Birthplace: Alabama, United States
Page: 465
Page Letter: C
Entry Number: 819
Affiliate Film Number: T9-1307
GS Film number: 1255307
Digital Folder Number: 004244727
Image Number: 00482
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Self Adam Dozier M 31 Alabama, United States
Wife Viola Dozier F 26 Georgia, United States
Daughter Eva Dozier F 10 Texas, United States
Daughter Mary E. Dozier F 6 Texas, United States
Son Clarence A. Dozier M 3 Texas, United States
Daughter Dixie Dozier F 1 Texas, United States
Other Burnel Cannon M 31 Mississippi, United States
Other William P. White M 48 England
Other John W. Foreman M 28 Missouri, United States
Other Abram H. Hardee M 22 Louisiana, United States
Other Pugh Allisson M 21 Texas, United States
Other Maggie Lawrence F 12 Mississippi, United States
Other Frank Stetsen M 32 Pennsylvania, United States
Other Alfred Woodruff M 31 Indiana, United States
Other Joseph W. Victory M 22 Texas, United States
Other Alexander Mclean M 21 Arkansas, United States
Other Emeline Smith F 19 Texas, United States
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1880 (June 11) Census for Precinct No. 3, Gregg County, Texas, digital copy retained in my files as "CannonBurrellCensus1880.jpg"
Those listed as "Other" actually were enumerated as "Boarder" in this 1880 census.
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Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FX37-TQ2
Name: Burrell Cannon
Spouse's Name: Mina Huling
Event Date: 29 Jun 1882
Event Place: , Gregg, Texas
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M59017-5
System Origin: Texas-VR
GS Film number: 1468352
Reference ID: 2:Z53B8D
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Texas, Marriages, 1837-1973
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/FX3W-3MQ
Name: Burrell Cannon
Spouse's Name: Amanda E. Hinkle
Event Date: 16 Jun 1890
Event Place: , Gregg, Texas
Indexing Project (Batch) Number: M59017-5
System Origin: Texas-VR
GS Film number: 1468352
Reference ID: 2:Z54C4X
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United States Census, 1900
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M35L-Z46
Name: Cannon
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1900
Event Place: ED 118 Justice Precinct 3, Upshur, Texas, United States
Birth Date: Apr 1849
Birthplace: Mississippi
Relationship to Head of Household: Head
Father's Birthplace: North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace: Alabama
Race: White
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Married
Years Married: 12
Marriage Year (Estimated): 1888
Page: 30
Sheet Letter: A
Family Number: 548
Reference ID: 35
GS Film number: 1241674
Digital Folder Number: 004118571
Image Number: 00672
Household Gender Age Birthplace
Head Cannon M 51 Mississippi
Wife Almina Cannon F 38 Louisiana
Daughter Margie Cannon F 8 Texas
Daughter Ethel Cannon F 6 Texas
Son Lawrence Cannon M 0 Texas
Stepdaughter Annie Hinkle F 16 Texas
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1900 (June 27th) Census for Justice Precinct No. 3, Upshur County, Texas, digital copy retained in my files as "CannonBurrellCensus1900.jpg"
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United States Census, 1910
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M299-2TS
Name: Burrell Cannon
Birthplace: Mississippi
Relationship to Head of Household: Self
Residence: Justice Precinct 1, Gregg, Texas
Marital Status: Married
Race : White
Gender: Male
Father's Birthplace: North Carolina
Mother's Birthplace: Alabama
Family Number: 139
Page Number: 7
Household Gender Age Birthplace
SELF Burrell Cannon M 61y Mississippi
WIFE Elmina Cannon F 46y Louisiana
DAU Margie B Cannon F 18y Texas
DAU Ethel M Cannon F 16y Texas
SON Lawrence G Cannon M 10y Texas
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1910 (April 27) Census for Justice Precinct No. 1, Gregg County, Texas, digital copy retained in my files as "CannonBurrellCensus1910.jpg"
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United States Census, 1920
https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MC98-SHL
Name: Burrell Canon
Residence: , Gregg, Texas
Estimated Birth Year: 1849
Age: 71
Birthplace: Mississippi
Relationship to Head of Household: Father-in-law
Gender: Male
Race: White
Marital Status: Widowed
Father's Birthplace: Mississippi
Mother's Birthplace: Mississippi
Film Number: 1821807
Digital Folder Number: 4391975
Image Number: 00326
Sheet Number: 10
Household Gender Age Birthplace
SELF Charlie F Gordon M 42y Alabama
WIFE Anna Gordon F 35y Texas
DAU Varna Gordon F 14y Texas
DAU Cleo Gordon F 12y Texas
SON J V Gordon M 8y Texas
DAU Lorene Gordon F 6y Texas
SON Charles Gordon M 4y3m Texas
SON W C Gordon M 2y8m Texas
MOTH Mary Gordon F 70y Tennessee
Father-in-law Burrell Canon M 71y Mississippi
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1920 (January 8th) Census for Longview City, Gregg County, Texas, digital copy retained in my files as "GordonCharlesFranklinCensus1920page1.jpg" and "GordonCharlesFranklinCensus1920page2.jpg"
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From Find a Grave, Grace Hill Cemetery, Longview, Gregg County, Texas
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=cannon&GSfn=burrell&GSbyrel=all&GSdyrel=all&GSst=46&GScnty=2611&GScntry=4&GSob=n&GRid=5635555&df=all&
Birth: Apr. 16, 1848
Death: Aug. 9, 1922
Before the Wright Brothers had their plane in the air over Kitty Hawk, N.C. in 1903, an East Texan had designed an Airship that could fly and had raised funds to build it. The Rev. Burrell Cannon (1848-1922), pastor of the Baptist Church in Pittsburg, Texas was the inventor of the Ezekiel Airship and in August of 1901, he convinced his acquaintances that his Airship would fly and that it could be maneuvered by a lever within the inner wheel. This allowed for vertical take-off.
Note: I was able to identify only three of Burrell's four wives. Still looking
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