Burris Daniel Young

Born 2 December 1865/66
Madisonville, Hopkins County, Kentucky.

Son of John Thomas Young and Martha Jane Givens also known as "Mattie".

John and Martha Jane, purportedly married 31 May 1858 in Hopkins County, Kentucky.

His paternal grandparents were Rev. Thomas Edwin Young and wife Malinda W. (Harvey), Young.
His maternal grandparents were James Kerr Givens and wife Elizabeth Richards (Christian), Givens.

It might appear that Burris' parents lived and farmed with his widowed grandmother Mrs. Elizabeth Givens as they are found enumerated prior to his birth at the Providence Post Office, Hopkins County, KY on the 1860 US Census, in Elizabeth Givens household with their first child, baby William Lilburn as well as some of Mattie's siblings and relatives. On the 1870 US Census, Mattie is seen again as a new widow in her mother's household in Nebo, Kentucky (about 9 miles from Madisonville) with young children William, age 11, Burris, age 5 and Helen, age 1. Probate records found via ancestry.com show Guardianship Bonds were filed on behalf of minors William, Burris and Helen at the time of their fathers death and their mothers Given's male relatives were appointed administrators. His grandmother Elizabeth Givens, also known by the nickname of "Betsey" died soon thereafter on 21 April 1871.
Per family tradition Mattie Jane had used proceeds from her mother's estate or inheritance to purchase tickets to California where she had relatives living. [edit note: This trip is detailed and found online in the 1937 publication "The Young Family of Bristol" genealogy of which Burris and his daughter Lilla Armstrong were contributors.]
Martha Jane left Kentucky for good with her three young children and settled near family in the Acampo/Lockeford/Stockton/Lodi/Elliott areas of San Joaquin County, California.

Upon arrival in California, Mattie shortly remarried to a cousin she had known back in Kentucky named James Laird Christian, also a native of Madisonville, on 13 November 1872 in San Joaquin County and had two more children, Lilla Jane Christian and James Tilden Christian.

On 1 July 1880 Burris is found per US Census living in the household of his step-father and mother Martha in Elliott Township, San Joaquin, California. He is listed as a 14 year old step-son and farm laborer. His siblings and half-siblings are all seen in the household as well. Mattie is by now 38 and her husband James is listed as 52. Step-father James Laird Christian died of tuberculosis at the family home stated per obituary as near Lodi, CA. on 14 January, 1885. Mattie has a San Joaquin County death record stating death took place at Lockeford, CA. on 7 January 1887.

Burris is next found about 1887/88 on Tulare, California Voters Registration records listed as 22 year old Burris Daniel Young. That record is very vague and does not give the year, but is estimated based upon his reported age on the record.

According to "The Young Family of Bristol, Burris moved to Spokane, Washington in 1889.

He is first found in the 1890 R.L. Polk - Spokane Falls City Directory listed as: B.D. Young, watchman for King & Stilp, resides at water near Division.
Nothing of his future bride was found in the area for two more years, when she first appears in 1892 still listed by her maiden name of Dittamore in the Spokane City Directory. The listing says: Dittamore, Miss Wealthy, clerk at V Bonner, boards ss 4th Avenue between Grant & Spokane. By today's Spokane , Wealtha's boarding room would have been situated basically under the freeway overpass between Cowley and Sherman, just north of where Rockwood Clinic and Inland Imaging stand as of 2018. In 1893 about a year after their purported marriage a listing is found for Burris that says he resides at 1226 Railroad Avenue, now called Railroad Alley of which that block in downtown Spokane is currently part of the Western Downtown Historic Preservation Corridor. It roughly sits between 1st & 2nd Avenue about four blocks west of Monroe St. at Jefferson Ave. and the block itself with its old buildings is as of 2018 much coveted for it's high end converted residential lofts. Whatever that building was Burris and Wealtha had lived in as newlyweds appears to have been replaced given what stands there today and is being converted into lofts was built much later in the 1920's. [Source: Some Information obtained from Preservation Board Staff]

On 4 March 1892, The Spokane Daily Chronicle Newspaper, page 8 reported that a marriage license had been issued to Barris D. Young and Wealthy Dittamore.

That 1892 date is consistent with the birth of their first child and later reference to marriage year on a census.

He and Wealtha soon became the parents of Lilla Margaret Young, Bernice Irene Young, Burris Lester Young, Ralph Thomas Young and Dorothy Arlene Young.

With regard to Burris' occupations, based upon his regular appearance in city directories and census records, his employers were King & Stilp, Cascade Steam Laundry, Hazelwood Dairy, Spokane Produce Co., North Star State Butter and Great Northern Railroad. He was employed for quite a few years with the Hazelwood Dairy and even longer with Great Northern. The Hazelwood Dairy was created by two brothers George and David Brown who owned Hazelwood Farms (named after their father's farm in Illinois) on the Hayford-Cheney Rd at Sunset Highway intersect. They operated the Hazelwood Dairy Shop (Milk Depot) next door to the famous Louis B. Davenport Restaurant on Post Street, just south of Sprague in Downtown Spokane. The cattle the Brown brothers bred later became the foundation for the Holstein herd used by The Carnation Milk Co per a Spokeman-Review article edition of 26 March 2012. While employed by Hazelwood Dairy Burris was mentioned firstly as a driver, then apprentice butter maker and finally a butter salesman. In 2018 a descendant of Clara Dittamore's (Burris' sister in-law) stated that she was in possession of an old Hazelwood Milk Bottle passed down to her from her mother that was said to have been from "Uncle Bud" of whom she associated as Wealtha's husband, so apparently Burris went by the nickname Bud to at least some relatives, which makes sense given his initials. On the 1900 US Census, Burris responded that he had been born in December of 1865, which does differ from his headstone which says 1866, but even his US Social Security Applications and Claims Index Record found on ancestry.com lists his birthdate as 2 December 1865.

By 1919 at the latest he had begun his employment with Great Northern. It appears he was employed there from about 1919 to 1938. Based upon a census he began as a supplyman there, shortly to become a carman in the Hillyard rail yard of which is listed as his employer through retirement. By the 1938 City Directory listing him as a carman and with the 1939 listing giving no mention of an employer it can be assumed he had retired sometime by 1939 at the latest and was approximately 73 years old then. He is clearly retired when the 1940 US Census is taken based upon information found on that record.

According to family tradition, Burris himself built the first family home at 419 W. Shannon (near the intersection of Washington and Indiana, close to North Central High School) in Spokane where he and Wealtha primarily raised their children. According to a website the home which still stands today was built in 1894, consistent with what several of their grandchildren have reported and how the city directory listings read. Son Lester's birth record shows he was born in the home itself and so had Ralph been according to his daughter. Contact with North Central High School and Whitman College provided records of their eldest children's attendance at those schools. Only Lester's college record is in question, but a descendant feels fairly confident he had gone to Whitman as well and was also known to be a teacher just as his sisters Lilla and Bernice were prior to their marriages. Burris was said to have been quite an avid gardener and one descendant recalls being shown a vacant lot that he apparently used to cultivate a larger garden in addition to that at his home. As found in a Masonic History, Burris had been raised to "Master Mason" at the Masonic Temple Blue Room in Spokane on 1 March 1915.

On the 1920 US Census Burris, Wealtha and all their children are found together for the last time at a new address of E.803 Ermina St. (Gonzaga University District), Spokane, Washington. He was 53, she 47, Lilla 25, Bernice 23, Lester 22, Ralph 15 and Dorothy 12. His occupation was stated as a supplyman in a steam railroad yard, presumably this is just after he began his career with the Great Northern. His wife Wealtha Jane (Dittamore), Young died just months later in Spokane on 14 May 1920 of stomach cancer. Her funeral was held from the Odd Fellows Temple on 17 May, officiated by Rev. Jonathan Edwards per her tiny found funeral notice published in the Spokesman-Review edition of 17 May 1920, page 8.

By 1925 according to city directories, Burris had moved again to his final home in the Morgan Acres neighborhood of northeast Spokane. The street was originally named Dixwell St. as seen evidenced in his daughter Dorothy's 1925 and 1926 St. Paul's Girl's School tuition ledgers housed at the Pemrose Library in Walla Walla, WA. and per a found "History of Morgan Acres Park & Additions" that stated: "one of the original north-south routes was Dixwell St. (later named Altamont)". That article is found online via HistoryLink.org Essay 9035, Morgan Acres (Spokane County), Thumbnail History by Stephen B. Emerson. The same article mentioned that Crestline, near the Young home was originally Martha St. The city directory records however even in the same 1925/1926 time period as Dorothy's tuition records initially came up as Morgan Acres Tract RD9. If recalled correctly, a granddaughter has mentioned she had something passed down from Burris in an original envelope with that Tract RD9 mailing address on it. Ironically, it is thought that she stated it was his "Young's of Bristol" genealogy booklet, complete with the receipt from the time he had purchased it around 1937 originally been published and mailed to Young lines across the country who paid for a copy. Burris was nearly a widowed empty nester at this point as eldest daughter Lilla had graduated from Whitman College, taught school briefly, married Albert James Armstrong in 1922 and was likely living in Yakima or Lewiston by then; daughter Bernice had graduated from Whitman, taught school briefly, married Warland Gore Cutler in 1920 and was living in Walla Walla; youngest daughter Dorothy was away attending the St. Paul's Girl's School in Walla Walla, had yet to attend one year at Kinman Business College and had not yet married Robert Eugene Casey; but son Lester was back again in his father's home, prior to marrying Ethel "Pearl" Fields and becoming a teacher and appears to have also been working as a carman for the Great Northern Railway briefly; lastly son Ralph was also found in his father's household in 1925, with no occupation or employer listed, presumably completing his education and/or traveling abroad in China in this time-frame prior to marriage to Lillian Freda Keene and later to be working as a chemist for the Forestry Service and the Millwood Pulp Mill before he and wife Lillian settled into long career's with the US Postal Service as letter carriers. While Burris was consistently found over the course of his lifetime in Spokane City Directories, there was a period during the early 1930's after being widowed and moving to the Morgan Acres home that he appeared several years running listed as Daniel B. Young. Soon he was once again back to being listed as Burris D. He had also been listed as Daniel on his earliest census record back in Kentucky. It is hard to solidly confirm what name he called himself or just which name family referred to him by, be it Burris, Bud or Daniel.

In 1930 the US Census found just son Ralph and Burris left in the household enumerated as being in Mead Township, Spokane County, but of which is most certainly the Morgan Acres, Altamont Street family home. Burris was by then 64 years old and still working as a carman in the steam railroad industry per listing. That record also helped to solidify his marriage year as the census asks what age at first marriage and he reported 26, which does indicate he and Wealtha married in 1892 as family had believed. The census record also indicated he owned his home free and clear. It states he did not attend school, [contributor edit: 1940 Census says highest grade completed 8th grade, the norm in this era other than the wealthy who studied law, medicine or religion], but does read and write and that he was a wage earner rather than a salaried employee. It also tells he was not a veteran of any war. On the 1930 Census one of the governments pressing supplemental questions asked if the household had a radio. It was answered No.

Finally, Burris is found on his last US Census of 1940. He is listed on that record as the respondent/informant. Again his home is enumerated as Mead Township, Spokane, Washington but this time it says North Side of East Francis, no physical street address listed. By now his married daughter Lilla, her husband Albert Armstrong and their four children ranging in age from 10 to 18 had moved into his household. He was 74 years old and retired, but stated he had additional sources of income. This is the era his grandchildren remember him best from and of which they spoke of often gathering with all of their cousins at his house, playing in his yard or traipsing through the neighborhoods between their homes and Grandpa Young's house; both before and after his death when Lilla continued to raise her family there. At some point following a cancer diagnosis, he stayed or lived with his daughter Dorothy and her husband Robert Eugene Casey so that they could help shuttle him to doctor appointments. It was said that son in-law Robert was working as an auditor for the Washington State Highway Department and so this worked out best as not everyone in the family had a car at that time.


Burris died 7 January 1942 at Sacred Heart Hospital following a two week stay there. Cause of death per the physical image of death certificate found via familysearch.org was Cardiovascular condition with chronic nephritis. His funeral services were held at Hennessy Funeral Chapel on January 10th per obituary. His small Spokane funeral notice printed in the Spokane Daily Chronicle referred to him as an early day pioneer of Spokane, a car man for the Great Northern Railroad and a member of the Tyrian Lodge. The second obituary was found to have been published in the Acampo, California area as he still had a sister living there. It also described him as a early day resident of Acampo and gave mention to his siblings. It told of his surviving half-sister Lilla Jane (Christian), Jack of Acampo; surviving full sister Helen M. (Young) Kennard lastly of Stockton; deceased full brother William Lilburn Young who died of tuberculosis, lastly of Lockeford and half-brother Dr. James Tilden Christian, a resident of Sacramento who it mentioned had died only a month earlier in San Francisco.

After their deaths in Spokane, both Burris and Wealtha's cremated remains were shipped back by train to the Lockeford, CA. burial place of his mother Martha Jane (buried under the name Mattie J. Christian) in the Harmony Grove Cemetery. Burris has several relatives buried there. They each have a California Cemetery Inscription Record online that clearly states that Smith Undertaking of Spokane had shipped their incinerated remains from Spokane to Lockeford, California.
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It should also be noted that the Harmony Grove Cemetery sexton, caretakers, volunteers and various descendants have done a wonderful job in preserving not only the cemetery and it's history, but also of the histories of the people buried there.

Burris Young's Family lineage is well documented and easily found online on websites such as ancestry.com and the free Find a Grave website for those interested.

The direct Young Lineage follows as such:

Burris Daniel Young (1865 KY-1942 WA) m. Wealtha Jane Dittamore, son of:

John Thomas Young (1838 KY-1870 KY) m. Martha Jane "Mattie" Givens, son of:

Rev. Thomas Edwin Young (1813 NC-1901 KY) m. Malinda W. Harvey, son of:

Thomas Cadet Young Jr. (1766 VA-1854 KY) m. Sarah "Sallie" Barnett Martin,son of:

Thomas Cadet Young Sr. (1732 VA-1829 NC) m. Judith Johnston, son of:

Michael Cadet aka Michael Cadet Young (b. circa 1694 England- 1769 VA) m. Temperance Saddler, son of:

François Cadet (b. circa 1673 Niort,France-d. 1712 Surrey, England) m. French-born Marie Marthe "Martha" LeGros, buried England.

*Contributor Note: While it can be a matter of opinion or personal belief, mention should be made that the accuracy of the genealogy publication "The Young's of Bristol Booklet" that many Young descendants have been in possession of for decades appears to now be in question. While it was likely the best intention of the descendant who paid to have it compiled circa 1930's there are now found inconsistencies according to The National Genealogy Society and sources such as Robert Young Clay, (now deceased) who was the Senior Archivist at the Library of Virginia and a well known genealogy lecturer and that of another independent researcher named J. McAlpine, a retired law professor whose husband is a Young descendant. She has been researching the Young's for decades and after independent study came to the same conclusion as aforementioned descendant Robert Young Clay. Her well sourced work can be found on rootsweb by simply doing a google search using the words rootsweb, Young Family, Janice McAlpin where several hits/options should pull up easily. She has multiple related documents found there. It is this contributors opinion that they are correct in their newer assertions.
With that in mind, I have listed Michael Cadet Young's father as Francois Cadet, a French born glove maker, rather than Francis Young, an Englishman. It is now learned that Michael's parents were French Huguenots (Reformed Church of France) exiled from France to England where they both died and were buried; and that his real last name was Cadet. It is thought that because Cadet roughly translates to Young in English, that upon his arrival to America he simply elected to retain his French surname as his middle name and took on the translated version as his last name, thus transitioning in America to Michael Cadet Young. Hence, if doing independent research, you may find his father listed elsewhere as Englishman Francis Young who married the French women Marie Marte "Martha" LeGros. Her name as Michael's mother has never been in dispute, just his fathers name and origin of birth.

More recent research also indicates that the Young's in early America were literate for their time. Some were slave owners and more likely than not were "land managers" rather than huge plantation owners as earlier reported. Michael Cadet likely came to America per the new researchers as an indentured servant. There are quite a lot of personal letters and Young Family research materials related to Thomas Cadet Young Jr. & Thomas Cadet Young Sr. and their families housed at University North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Wilson Library in the collection called, "The Mary Hunter Kennedy Papers" and more Young materials housed at The Library of Virginia in a collection called, "The Robert Young Clay Papers".