Burden "Bird" Brammer Edens was born 2 May 1813 in Bedford Co, VA. He died 5 September 1898 in Kanawha Co, WV.
He married Catherine Frances Wymer 23 April 1837 in Botetourt Co, VA. She was born 1814 in Botetourt Co, VA and died 15 September 1870 in Kanawha Co, WV. She was the daughter of Charles Wymer and Catherine.
He married 2nd Meche A. Shumaker Smith. He married 3rd Martha Keaton.
View a photograph of Bird Brammer Edens here.
The following article appeared in the Charleston Daily Mail, 1971:
byline: MARK PAXTON, the Daily Mail staff
"West Virginia was a section of Virginia when Burden Edens built his home in a hollow in north central Kanawha County. Abe Lincoln was an unknown rail-splitter, and gold rush of '49 was yet to take place
The Civil War has come and gone, a peanut farmer from Georgia is president and men have walked the moon. But Edens modest log cabin is still standing in a field north of Charleston.
Family members - including Burd Edens' grand children, great grandchildren, and great-great grandchildren - visited the old homestead this weekend to reminisce about the three generations of the Edens family.
Family historian Opal Edens of South Charleston, a retired Kanawha County school teacher, and other Edens family members say they don't know exactly how old the six-room house is. But they say it's been around at least 130 to 140 years.
Opal, after years of research through family records and state archives, has determined that Burd and his first wife, Catherine Wymer, migrated to Western Virginia in a mule-drawn wagon from Bedford County in the late 1830's or early 40's. Once he arrived in what was to become the Edens Fork area, he and a friend, Venton Copen, began to build the Edens house.
When he built the house, he put a rock foundation under it, Opal said. There was a row of logs on it, and Burd decided he wanted to move it. He told Venton, 'You know, I think I'd like it over in the next hollow.' Venton looked and said he'd do it for a dollar more. Burd said it was too damn much so he left it where it was.
Burd had three wives and 11 children. Their descendants have remained in the Charleston area throughout the years.
Marshall Edens, Opal's wife and the great-grandson of Burd, walked through the deteriorating house, about a mile-and-a-half from Interstate 77 at the Edens Fork exit. Heat for the house, with its oak roof and cedar and hemlock walls, came from a single fireplace, he explained.
'Back in the days when people lived like this, they didn't pay attention to 30' degrees,' said the 71 year old man.
Lula French, Marshall's 69 year old aunt, was the last Edens sill alive to have lived in the old structure. Since her father died in the early 1950's the cabin has remained empty.
Today, the ancient building, surrounded by chest-high weeds, is showing it's age. Large gaps have appeared between the logs where the orginial mortar has disappeared. Part of the living room floor is collapsing. The front door hangs open, its hinges broken and rusted.
Family members say they'd like to save the old house, but some are afraid it's too late.
'It's pretty well delapidated,' Lula said. 'My cousin says he's going to tear it down and move it over to his place, but I don't think he can do much. It's pretty well shot.'
Opal agreed that the building is in bad shape, and said she believes it can be saved.
'It could be restored,' she said. 'The windows, of course are broken.. An old screen door is swinging loose. There's a hole in the kitchen roof. It'd be right expensive. But you know, the logs are just like they were when they were put in --excellent condition.'
'You don't realize this when you're young,' she said. 'You don't pay attention. But then you wake up and all of a sudden you're old.'"
View a photo of the Edens log cabin here.
Their children were:
Angeline F. Edens (1838 - 1924); married John W. Caldwell, Jr.
Hester A. Edens (b. 1840); died in infancy
William Henry Edens (1842 - 1926); married Mary Elizabeth Milam
Mary Jane Edens (1844 - 1906); married Edmund Newhouse
Julia Ann Edens (1846 - 1889); married Squire Carnes
James Edward Edens (born 16 May 1848 in Kanawha Co, VA)
Bird Alexander Edens (1850 - 1929); married Millie Page
Christina Catherina Edens (1853 - 1886); married George Wallace Marion
Sarah Elizabeth "Sallie" Edens (1855 - 1943); married John Richard C. Marion
John Anderson Edens (1860 - 1944); married Harriet Layne, Lula D. Tully, Dillie M. Jarrett
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