The Balfour Family in Mississippi

Beginning with a look at the U. S. Census of 1850 (Madison County, MS) and continuing with a Google.com search, I quickly found a wealth of information about the Balfour family.  Links to some of these results are posted here today.  A special thanks goes to Bill Hays for kindly sharing some of his family's history with me.


The Issaquena Genealogy & History Project: The Balfour Family

Balfour (William L.) Papers, 1841–1863. Located at the Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

History of the Balfour Family of Richland Parish Louisiana, submitted by Rosemary Davis 

A House Under Siege: The Balfour House, Published on Southern Lagniappe on February 16, 2011

Balfour, Davis, and Gartley Families of Madison County, MS

One of my readers, Bill Hays, contacted me several months ago about a post I had written on Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek about Mound Bluff Cemetery in Madison County. In his email, Mr. Hays thanked me for posting photos of the old cemetery in which a number of his ancestors are buried.  According to my contact, many of those buried in the cemetery once lived in an area of Madison County that was referred to as the "Vernon Neighborhood," families that had migrated from Wilkinson County, Mississippi and from Bayou Sarah, Louisiana.  Mr. Hays explained that his great-great-grandfather, William Lovett Balfour and his wife, Elizabeth Davis Gartley Balfour are among those buried in the cemetery, as well as other members of the Balfour, Davis, and Gartley families who were part of the migration.  Proudly, he also related that he was in the process of replacing his great-great-grandparents' demolished grave marker with a "flat plaque."

Recently, Mr. Hays recontacted me and included photos of himself and his cousins from Woodville, Mississippi and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when the "flat plaque" was placed on the gravesite of William Lovett and his wife, Elizabeth Davis Gartley.  Interestingly, Dr. William Lovett Gartley was a Founder and President of the Board of Trustees of Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi.  A photo of the plaque can be viewed on my other blog, Cemeteries of Dancing Rabbit Creek.


In the weeks ahead, look for posts here about members of these three families and the area known as the "Vernon Neighborhood."