Tribute to Lavinia B (Murfree) Burton

 ©  Kathy Duncan, 2020

One of the exciting items in the Harding/Dabbs Collection is this period tribute written to honor Lavinia B (Murfree) Burton, who died 24 January 1881 and is buried in Old City Cemetery in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. This tribute was written two months later on 23 March 1881 in Petersburg, Virginia. It seems reasonable to attribute the initials "tte" to baptist minister Rev. Thomas Treadwell Eaton, son of Dr. Joseph H. Eaton who ordained Lavinia Burton's son-in-law Rev. Duncan H. Selph. 

My guess is that Lillye Harding, daughter of Priscilla (Selph), copied this from its original source, and it was then copied by her nephew Hardy Dabbs in 1953 since it was folded together with other items from that date that were typed on the same type of paper, using the same typewriter. At this time, I don't know if it was copied from private papers or a newspaper clipping.

It reveals information that was gathered by one who obviously knew Lavinia (Murfree) Burton and provides some insight into her relationships with her children.

Transcript:

BURTON - Mrs. Lavinia B. Burton was born in Murfreesboro, N.C., April 3, 1795, and died at Smithfield, Ky., Jan. 24, 1881. Her father was Col. Hardy Murfree, who gave his name to her native town. When seven years old she lost her mother and was carried by her father to Salem, N.C., to be educated. After leaving school she made her home with Col. Hilliard, near Halifax, N.C., her father having died. On Feb. 23, 1814, she was married to Col. F.N.W. Burton, of Granville Co., N.C., and in 1823 they removed to Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They both there professed faith in Christ, and joined the Presbyterian church. But Mrs. Burton was a Baptist in sentiment, and so soon as a Baptist church was organized in the town she joined it. Along with four of her children she was baptised by Dr. R. B.C. Howell. 

Col. Burton died before the writer's recollection, but there are no more pleasant memories connected with his childhood, than those which cluster around that home of which Mrs. Burton was the soul and center. For years my father was her nearest neighbor, and one of the chief delights of his children was to go over to see "Auntie Burton," as she kindly allowed us to call her. It was a bright and gladsome home. She was fond of flowers and they grew in her yard as they grew nowhere else in town. She was never too busy to fill little hands with joy by filling little hands with flowers. And as we grew older and learned to appreciate other things than flowers and cakes, t at home lost none of its attractiveness to us. Everything about it was delightful. In its atmosphere the best in us expanded, care dropped away and friends enjoyed life to the utmost.

Affliction came often to that bright home. Mrs. Burton reared ten children to manhood and womanhood and there was not one mediocre mind among them all. They seemed to inherit the unusual ability of their gifted mother, but they did not all inherit her vigorous physical constitution; and she was often called to mourn over her early death. Her eldest son, named for his grandfather, after achieving most brilliant success as a lawyer, died at the early age of 32 years, in the island of St. Thomas, where he had been sent as United States consul. Scarcely had she recovered from that blow, when her oldest daughter, Mrs. Goodwin, died, leaving a family of small children to mourn her loss. Then passed away another daughter, Mrs. Dodson, so bright, so beautiful, and for so short a time a bride that the hearts of the whole community ached as they followed to the grave. Afterwards Mrs. Burton was called to mourn the loss of still another daughter, Mrs. Crosthwait, who died in her childhood's home after long and terrible suffering. But God had yet a heavier stroke in store for the child of his, when he was fitting for Heaven. The youngest daughter, Finie, was her earthly idol. Her other daughters were married and gone, some to distant homes, some awaiting her on the further shore, but her youngest, Benjamin, was with her mother. Miss Finie might well have been her mother's idol, with a man's clear brain and a child's sunny heart. She was a lovely woman and it seemed her mother's heart would break when the fell disease attacked her young life. In her affliction, Mrs. Burton drew nearer to the hand that smote her. She was a Christian before God took her idol, but from that h our she lived a deeper spiritual life, and a holier. For months after Miss Finie's death, it was feared that her mother would not survive the stroke; but she lived nearer and nearer to God for eighteen years longer, till she came to say of this severest of her trials, "O! that God's people could receive his stripes in her spirit!" Her mind retained its vigor unimpaired till within a year of her death. And while she enjoyed life and never murmured at her long pilgrimage, she yet often said on retiring at night, "How glad I would be to awake in heaven!"

Few mothers have been so loved by their children as was Mrs. Burton. As an illustration of this, when her husband died, one of her sons, a boy of sixteen, slept in the hall by her chamber door every night, and if she stirred, he was instantly by her side to see if he could do anything for her - trying to shield her as far as he could do, from the loneliness of her widowed life. Through boyhood, manhood, and middle-age her sons have loved her with a chivalrous devotion which proved exceptional qualities in a mother who could win and hold such love. She has awaked in Heaven at last, and none of the hearts that loved her can sorrow, as they think what that awaking was to the aged saint to whom God has given rest, after her long and faithful service. 

Petersburg, Va., March 23, 1881.                                            tte.