Johnson County KS Archives Biographies.....Burke, W. F. 1855 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 March 5, 2009, 6:11 am

Author: Ed Blair (1915)

  W. F. Burke, a successful fruit grower of Mission township, belongs to one of
the representative pioneer families of Johnson county. He was born in Dubuque,
Iowa, July 17, 1855, and was only two years old when his parents settled in
Johnson county. He is a son of M. J. and Catherine (Martin) Burke, both natives
of Ireland, the former of the city of Dublin, and the latter of County Antrim.
M. J. Burke was a very highly educated man, being a graduate of Trinity College,
Dublin. He was born about 1810 and his wife was ten years his junior. M. J.
Burke came to America in 1848 and located at Dubuque where he met and married
Catherine Martin, about 1850. For the next eight years he was in the employ of
the Government as a civil engineer in the vicinity of Dubuque, Iowa, and in the
fall of 1858 came to Kansas City, Kan., with his family and spent the winter
there. In the spring of 1859 he came to Johnson county and shortly afterwards
bought a quarter section of school land in Shawnee township for which he paid
$11 per acre, near where Elmhurst is now located. The Santa Fe Trail passed
through the northern part of the place. The father built a log house which was
the family residence for about twenty years. The location of the Burke home on
the Santa Fe Trail was a convenient stopping place for the many travelers over
that famous highway in the early days, and during the stormy days of the Civil
war many soldiers, bushwhackers and others sought accommodation at the Burke
home. They kept everybody who wanted to stay over night, regardless of which
side of the conflict they were in sympathy with. Many interesting incidents took
place during that period of tense excitement. Mrs. Burke, the mother, related
that one night, two men came along and, as was the custom, asked if they could
get accommodations for the night. She told them they could if they would sleep
on the floor. They said that was satisfactory and when bed time came she
furnished them pillows upon which to rest their heads and when they proceeded to
retire they unbuckled their belts and placed their revolvers under the pillows.
At this juncture Mrs. Burke offered to take care of their revolvers, saying that
she would place them in a bureau drawer where they would be safe. One of the
visitors said, "No, thank you. We will keep them where they will be handy for we
may need them before morning." The next morning at daylight a detail of about
thirty men rode up to the door and leading with them two saddled horses. The two
men mounted the horses and they rode away. Mrs. Burke afterwards learned that
one of the men was Quantrill, the famous guerilla chief. At another time some
men were about to take their only team of horses and Mrs. Burke remonstrated
with them and they finally went their way without taking the horses. The Burke
family endured many hardships during their first few years in Kansas but were
never discouraged and always maintained their faith in the future of the new
country. The father followed his profession a great deal and did much surveying.
He surveyed for the Santa Fe railroad from Lawrence to Kansas City via Olathe
and also surveyed a State road when the question of its exact location was in
doubt. He was one of the pioneer surveyors of Johnson county and was elected
county surveyor in 1868. W. F. Burke was one of a family of six children, as
follows: W. F., the subject of this sketch; Mary Laura, born in Iowa, married J.
AY. Buckley, of Mission township, and is now deceased; Joseph, born in Shawnee
township, died at the age of thirty-two, unmarried; Anna, born in Shawnee
township, married Albert Nelson in 1904 and now resides on the home place;
Veronica, born in Shawnee township, married Robert Noll, of Mission township,
and now resides in California; and Christina, born in Shawnee township, married
Timothy Hare, and lives on a farm adjoining the home place. W. F. Burke attended
the public school in district No. 38 at Pleasant Prairie. This was one of the
first schools in Johnson county. The Doherty children, Shawnee Indians, attended
the same school. Mr. Burke has made farming the principal occupation of his life
and in recent years has devoted himself more particularly to fruit culture. He
has a farm of forty acres, well adapted to fruit raising, located at Elmhurst
and he is quite an extensive peach grower. In 1901 he sold 3,400 pecks of
peaches which were the product of 500 trees. He is one of the successful fruit
men of Johnson county and has prospered in that venture. Mr. Burke was married
in 1889 at Quincy, Ill., to Miss Mary Hare, of that place. They have six
children, as follows: Loretta, a successful Johnson county teacher, Catherine,
Edmond, William, James and Mary, all residing at home.

Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF Johnson County Kansas
BY
ED BLAIR

AUTHOR OF
Kansas Zephyrs, Sunflower Sittings and Other Poems and Sketches

IN ONE VOLUME

ILLUSTRATED
STANDARD PUBLISHING COMPANY
LAWRENCE, KANSAS
1915


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