Ebenezer "Eben" Burkhalter, 1827-1900 came to Bowie County, Texas about 1855.  In the 1860 Bowie County Census record, this family was living in Old Boston.  Their oldest child was four years old and was born in Texas, not necessarily in Bowie County, just somewhere in Texas.  The name "Ebenezer" is important here.

There is a very good article about this family, "Burkhalter Family of Georgia, Pioneers and Patriots" in the DAR Magazine.  Five brothers, Michel, Peter, Joshua, Abraham and John came to Savannah, Georgia from Alsace-Lorraine.  They arrived in March, 1734 and were greeted by General Oglethorpe who offered them Asylum in the Colony of Georgia.  Their first settlement was four miles below the present town of Springfield, in Effingham County and they called it "Ebenezer".  So we have many Burkhalters spread through out Georgia and South Carolina, and then to North Carolina and Tennessee.

I believe we have the descendents of Michel Burkhalter in Bowie County because that name is repeated in every family.  That connection is not recorded and the proof is not in the records we have here.  Eben Maxwell Burkhalter's father was Michael Burkhalter, but this one was born in 1795 and born in North Carolina many years after the first five brothers came into Georgia.  Eben Maxwell had two brothers who we know came to Texas also, John Mitchel and Davie Wit.  There may have been some of his sisters that also came here, but we do not know their married names.  John Mitchel Burkhalter was born in Marion County, Tennessee and married Martha ____ and where the parents of a daughter born in Cass County, texas in 1852.  David Wit Burkhalter, born in 1822 in Marion County, Tennessee, married Nancy Ann Louisa Walker.  David Wit died before 1870 and his wife remarried Lattie Tidwell.

Eben Maxwell Burkhalter married Sarah "Sallie" E Risher Tidwell, 1836-1912.  She was the daughter of William Riley Tidwell and Mary "Polly" Fountain Machette and was born in Mississippi.  They soon moved out to Simms, Old Union Community, to the Sanders Mayfield land.  They had nine children:
 1. T R, born about 1856 and died before 1870
 2. Edward B M, 1858-____, was living with the family in 1880
 3. Mary Isabel, born 1860, married first ___ Aldridge, second David J Morgan and moved away
 4. Sarah Ann J, born 1862, married Robert Hobbs and moved away
 5. Henry Machette, 1866-1922, married Lella May Jennings.  They lived at Old Union and are buried in that cemetery
 6. Margaret C, 1868-beofre 1880, died young
 7. Alice V, 1873-1918, married first Robert Lee Missildine, second James Henry Kruse.  She is buried at Old Union Cemetery
 8. William Lewis, 1874-1926, married Mattie Griffin.  They lived here and are buried at Old Union
 9. John Bryant, 1876-1926, married first Annie Morgan, second Myrta Lee Morgan.  They are buried at Old Union Cemetery

Sanders Mayfield came to Texas in 1836 and received grants of land at Old Union east of Simms.  When the Levi Tidwell family came, they came to these grants.  I am not clear about the family connection, but members of the Tidwell family came into possession of that land and I often wonder what happened to Sanders Mayfield.  Did he die or move on?