A History of Kentucky, Embracing Gleanings, Reminiscences, Antiquities,
Natural Curiosities, Statistics and Biographical Sketches of Pioneers,
Soldiers, Jurists, Lawyers, Statesmen, Divines, Mechanics, Farmers,
Merchants, and other leading men of all occupations and pursuits by William
B. Allen, Bradley & Gilbert, Louisville, KY, 1872. Reprinted 1967 by the
Green County Historical Society. p. 394. Green county.

Mr. Silas Burks was quite a noted man in the early history of Green County.
 He was more famed as a pugilist than for any other quality he possessed,
having had more fights than perhaps any other man in the county, and often
with the stoutest men.  He whipped, on one occasion, Jenkens Asten, a great
fighter, and much his superior in point of size.  Burks took, it is said, a
foul start upon him, which soon made him cry "enough."  Burks weighed, in
his best days, about one hundred and seventy-five pounds, and was one of
the best made men for strength and activity I ever saw.  He was a perfect
stranger to fear.  He was apt to get the start of any one with whom he
fought, and was generally the champion even with those of superior size. 
He was once badly whipped by Reuben Vaughn, the father of Fielding Vaughn,
Esq., a worthy and respectable citizen of this county, who yet survives, at
the age of about seventy years.  The last fight Burks had was about the
year 1814 or 1815, wityh Robert Barrett, a maternal uncle of the writer. 
Barrett, by an unfortunate blow, in the beginning of the fight, knocked out
the eye of Burks, or, rather, so injured it as to destroy the sight.  Burks
was the agressor in the affair, and the result seemed to have humbled his
pride and ambition in matters of the sort. Mr. Burks, though a farmer, paid
but little attention to that sort of business.  He was much given to the
sports very common at that day, horse-racing and gambling, and was a good
judge of horses and a successful jockey trader.  He died from home, some
thirty years ago, at the age of about seventy-five years.

Burks Asten Vaughn Barrett
=
none

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/green/burks.s.txt