Happy New Year! I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and that 2012 is being good to you. So, how many of you are still hanging in there with your New Year's Resolutions? I am happy to say that I began running again the week after Christmas. It's been almost 5 years since I quit and so far, so good.
Now, my clan of Suttons always liked to name their prodigy after family.
- I know my first cousin is named after both of her grandmothers
- and her grandson is named after his great, great grandfather
- and my dad, Burch Mitchell Sutton, gets his middle name from his grand dad, Mitchell Sutton
- and I am a "Jr."......so... with that case made, proven and closed, I've often wondered but never knew where my first name "Burch" came from. It's not a very common name and based on the aforementioned naming practices, I suspected it was a family name but I had never heard anything about a "Burch". I asked Dad about it a few years ago but he had already started showing some memory loss and told me he just couldn't remember where the name Burch came from. He laughed and said, "I guess mama and dad just liked it..."
Despite the to-do list I had planned to tackle over the holidays, I found some time to spend on Ancestry.com cleaning up those little green leaves they call "hints". I had not been on the site lately and when I logged on, I had so many of those green leaves that I needed a mulcher and a rake!! As I sat reviewing hint after hint, hour after hour, I came across a record that said "Burch Messer, son." It took me a while to figure it out but Burch Messer was my paternal grandfather's first cousin. Digging some more, I found that Burch was born and raised on Barkers Creek. Sadly, I also found that he died in 1915 at the age of 22 of pneumonia. My dad was born a few years later and now that all of the grandparents, aunts and uncles are gone there's no way to say for sure, but based on tradition, I'm confident Dad was named Burch after the young Mr. Messer. Initially, there wasn't much information on Burch Messer but I was able find a death certificate and a couple of federal census rolls. He apparently had aquired land on Forneys Creek in Swain County. He was a farmer as was his dad, Robert. I'm still surprised by the nuggets I find while researching my family tree. And....I'm very glad to have found our namesake.... Burch Messer.
In other news, my recently found "new" cousin that I met on Ancestry.com was digging around and found out that the name of the ship that carried John Sutton and his brothers to America was "The Favourite"."Cuz" also had mentioned two published volumes of work that she had a chance to see. Her mom as well as "Gene Hunter" are contributors. One is available for sale however the other volume is out of print. I forwarded all of this info on to 'Lucy' for her files so that when our researcher gets caught up and starts on my case, they can hit the ground running...
Lastly, there's the "discovery" on the Discovery Channel of a "notorious" Sutton! (no pun intended yet there it is) Some of us guys at work were talking about a new show we'd seen over the weekend called "Moonshiners". It's a so-called "reality" show about a family of moonshiners operating in the south-western Virginia high country. There's some doubt as to the "reality" aspect of the show but it is entertaining. My cohorts at work were more interested in one of the show's characters, Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton. A legend in his own time, Popcorn has run moonshine all of his life....first from Haywood County, North Carolina around Maggie Valley and later in Cocke County, Tennessee. After his last conviction and facing an 18 month prison stint and suffering from cancer, Popcorn committed suicide by carbon monoxide in 2009 at age 62. Well, the guys at work were asking if he was a relation. I told them no, as I had done a cursory look around on Ancestry.com. I still see no relation but I did find a very interesting quote from an an interview with Popcorn....
"My Grand Daddy, little Mitch Sutton, sold a man a case of likker on the credit. It went on and on and the man wouldn't pay Grand Daddy for the likker so Grand Daddy thought the debt was an honest debt. He went to the Waynesville Haywood County Courthouse and lawed the man for the debt. It went to court and the court made the man pay Grand Daddy for the likker and give Grand Daddy 30 days in jail for selling the likker to the other man. They put him in jail which was on the ground floor instead of the top story of the courthouse like the jail is now. Grand Daddy stayed 3 days in jail, then broke out and went home. So I guess the law felt sorry for him because he had small children and never went to bring him back."
Popcorn is quick to point out Little Mitch had a civic minded side: "My grand daddy helped build the first Baptist church that was built on Hemphill. He made likker all his life. I've been told this to be the truth, too. He took the likker and sold it and took the money and helped buy the materials to build the first Baptist church on Hemphill that was ever built."
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| Marvin "Popcorn" Sutton 1947-2009 |
To quote a famous comedian...."now that's just funny, I don't care who you are!! Some of you Suttons out there may be related to Popcorn...if you are, I need to see your family tree!
But just fer the record.... me.... nor any of my kin that I know of ever went by the name "little Mitch!"
Anyway, it was good coffee break fun! Check your local listings for the Discovery Channel.....the show is more re-enactment than reality but it is entertaining....and the tape is old.....Popcorn died in 2009!
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| "little Mitch Sutton" - 1972 |
Next time: I'll let you know ;-)
