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Balkcom Origins and Migrations

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Ideas on the ancestors of James E. Balkcom

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... including the families Baldwin, Brannon, Galloway, Murphy, Mathews, Preston, Clark, McCann

Related Family Pages:         

•      Baldwin       (GA-AL-TX-OK)

•      Brannon      (SC-AL)

•      Galloway     (SC-AL)

•      Murphy        (NC-GA-AL)

•      Mathews     (GA-AL)

•      Preston       (Ire-Eng-GA-AL)

•      Clark           (Ire-Eng-GA-AL)

The Balkcom families of the towns of Sayre and Erick, Oklahoma are descendants of James E. Balkcom (born 1807 in North Carolina, died 1887 in Dale County, Alabama).  One of these descendants, John Ira Balkcom, migrated from Alabama to Van Zandt County Texas in around 1901 with wife Ida Lucinda Baldwin.  Between 1905 and 1909, near the time of Oklahoma statehood, they moved to Greer (later split into Greer and Harmon) County, Oklahoma near the town of Hollis, in the Dryden community.  They rented a farm there for several years before buying a farm in nearby Beckham County.  They and their four children and families lived most of their lives in and around Erick and Sayre, Oklahoma.

The families on this site are traced to North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama in the late 1700s.  They are for the most part of English, Irish, and Scottish descent.  Migration evidence has so far been found only for the Preston family, who migrated to America in 1832 from England.  The other families came to America earlier, and members of the Balkcom family came to America in the early to mid 1600s.

In the early 1800s almost all were farmers, or in a few cases "planters", the term used in a few states (notably Virginia, the Carolinas, and Georgia) for those who were a little more wealthy or aspired to the wealth and status associated with plantation ownership.  Most though were small farmers, probably engaged in a mix of subsistence farming along with sales of farm products locally where possible.  Some are likely to have had income from some of the American products that were in demand in Europe - pine tar, tobacco, cotton, and indigo for example.  Most owned land, livestock, and farm implements.  They had for the most part large families (seven or more children) and lived near others in the family.  When they married it was almost always to someone who lived close by.  They were among the early settlers of new land in the expansions south and west of European America.

Many were religious, shown by church records, obituaries, and wills, but some left no traces of religious activity.  Some were slave-holders, and many strongly supported the Confederacy in the Civil War, to the extent of fighting in the Army of the Confederacy.  None have been found so far to have fought on the Union side.  Several families had no one in the military, despite strong social pressure  to join.  The reasons would be only conjecture now, but may include political belief, unique family situations, or simply personal decisions.