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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 198
person who was questioned said Charles had passed away in Chicago. No one had heard of a book that he had written. It is probable that Charles Burns wrote more pages about his family. Further inquiry was not within the time scope of this manuscript. However, a recommendation for further research is locating the telephone numbers of his children in Chicago and asking for a copy of any additional material written or compiled by Charles. An Introduction to Charles Burns Charles Burns was the only child of John W. Burns and Clara Horton Burns. Clara's parents were Everett (“T.”) Horton and Francis Lacy Horton. The Horton family has been discussed at length in another section of this report; however, Charles will provide insight about the personal lives of Everett and Francis and his aunts and uncles in the account of his boyhood. Francis Horton was a Lacy??"her father was James Pensacola Lacy. According to an interview by Ed Peters in the July 8, 1987 issue of the Redstone Rocket, Charles lived in Silver Hill in the area along Dodd Road where the test stands were later located; however, he was born at the home of his Grandparents Horton. His paternal grandfather, James Peter Burns, whom Charles referred to in his writing as “Poppa P. Burns,” was a merchant and casket maker in the Mullins Flat community??"his businesses were situated near where Building 4488 stands today (that location of Building 4488 is shown as owned by William G. Balch at the time of government purchase). In his handwritten account, Charles stated that his Poppa P. Burns “had a big farm, but he did not do the farming himself.” Poppa P. ran a General Store, blacksmith shop and a cotton gin.” Tom Carney, editor of Old Huntsville magazine stated in August of 2005 (personal communication by telephone) that back in the era of the Pond Beat communities, people went to a blacksmith to get their stills made, and one blacksmith, who was very good at this was located near where Martin Road is today. Carney mentioned no name, but the location he described would match that of James P. Burns. During this conversation Carney noted that stills and moonshine did not have the stigma in those days that they do today. In the 1987 interview with Peters, Charles Burns said that around 1980 he decided to visit the gravesite of his Grandfather Burns, whose memory he obviously cherished. He said things had changed so much in the half-century since he'd been there that it had taken him five years of research to determine where the cemetery was, and once he did find it, “it was so grown up that you couldn't even walk around there.” He said the Army had designated the name for the cemetery as “Sam Moore Cemetery,” named after the man who donated the land for it. In further discussing his 1980 visit to the cemetery, Charles Burns said, “none of the graves have headstones, but some are marked with field stone.” He knew the general location of plots where his Grandfather and Grandmother Burns and a great aunt and 198 - (4231)