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Belote Family

Harvey Belote was a farmer living on the western edge of Bradley Prairie in the area that became Burke when the railroad arrived.

Belote owned 540 acres, which appears to include most of what became the town of Burke. The land was inherited by his wife Nannie Guinn from her parents, who at one time owned 5000 acress in Angelina County. Part of the land owned by the Guinns was at Ryan Chapel, which they had donated for the church.

The following locations are associated with Harvey Belote and give some idea of his land holdings:

• In 1886 he sold a lot to members of the pioneering Treadwell family. The Treadwell sawmill was reportedly located just west of the railroad tracks catercornered from the old post office.
• In 1894 he donated land for the Burke Methodist Church.
• He operated a drug store across the street from the post office. It was later taken over by Dr. Wood. He was still operating the drugstore in 1920.
• He built a home for his second mother-in-law, Mrs. Bloomfield, just north of the old post office.
• He operated a sawmill with a Mr. Eden just north of the Bloomfield house.
• His land extended north to where the Brannen family lived.
• His home was located on the site of what later became the Roy Treadwell home across U. S. 59 from the Burke Methodist Church. His land extended some distance east toward what became the Angelina County Airport and south nearly to Campbell's store.

According to the Belote genealogy, Belote was born in 1852 in Saulsbury, Hardeman Co., Tennessee, the son of George W. Belote and Rachel S. Glass. In 1854 his father died, and and his mother moved with all the children to Marion Co., Texas. Subsequently he moved to Angelina County. In 1877 he married a widow, Nancy Catherine Gann (Nannie) Guinn. She is buried at the Belote-Spivey Cemetery on the southeast edge of Burke, presumably on land owned by Belote. In 1904 he married Lena Lee Dougan, who appears to have been the daughter of Mrs. Bloomfield, who lived just north of the post office.

Belote died in 1938 in Houston and is buried at Ryan Chapel Cemetery.

© 2006-24 Burke History Project
M. Lee Murrah, Editor
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