Information Sheet

 

 

R         Bird family.

170                  Papers, 1831-1959 (bulk 1844-1929).

                                    Five folders, photocopies.

 

 

 

This collection includes miscellaneous correspondence, estate papers, land papers, business records, and biographical material pertaining to the Bird, Byrd, Moore, and Hunter families of southeastern Missouri.  The papers concern business and estates in Mississippi, New Madrid, and Scott counties in Missouri, and the Bird estate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

 

The assorted personal and legal papers in this collection represent several of the old­est and most prominent families of southeastern Missouri.  Migrating from Virginia, Mary­land, and Ten­nessee, they settled in the Missouri Bootheel around the time of the Louisiana Purchase.  By virtue of making the initial land entries, and then through a series of marriages and resulting multiple in­heritances, the families became among the largest landholders in southeastern Mis­souri, owning several thousand acres of rich Mississippi delta farmlands.  Primarily farmers and stockmen, the families were leading citizens in their communities and furnished representatives to Missouri ter­ritorial councils and state legislatures.

 

This collection includes papers from several branches of the families, but most espe­cially from the Birds and the Moores.  The collection is organized into three sections: estate and busi­ness papers; personal correspondence; and miscellaneous biographical material.  The earliest pa­pers are estate documents concerning the partition of the large Bird estate at Baton Rouge, Lou­isiana.  In ad­dition to extensive land holdings in Missouri and Louisiana, the heirs also parti­tioned the house­hold property and over one hundred slaves.  Other estate papers in the collection concern the Moore and Hunter families.

 

The correspondence consists of miscellaneous personal letters and business corre­spondence.  There are Civil War items from Confederate officers serving in Tennessee; a group of letters from Missouri legislator Benjamin F. Hunter to his daughter Lucy, in school at Caledonia, 1889; and correspondence concerning the genealogy and history of the Bird family from Adelia Bird Laycock and W. Twyman Williams, 1928-1929.

 

 

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