Rev. M. J. Burkel Biography


	This biography appears on pages 284-287 in "History of Dakota 
	Territory" by George W. Kingsbury, Vol. V (1915) and was 
	scanned, OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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				REV. M. J. BURKEL. 

	Rev. M. J. Burkel, pastor of Holy Trinity church at Ethan, was 
born at Fredonia, Wisconsin, March 8, 1883, a son of John and Susanna 
(La Fontaine) Burkel. The father was a farmer by occupation but at the 
time of the Civil war put aside all business and personal 
considerations and in response to his country's call for aid enlisted 
in the Union army in 1862, becoming a member of the Wisconsin 
Volunteers, with which he served until 1864. After the war his 
attention was given to farming until death ended his labors on the 20th 
of October, 1912. He had for a number of years survived his wife, who 
passed away in 1900. 

	M. J. Burkel pursued his early education in the rural schools of 
his native county and subsequently entered the College of St. Lawrence 
at Mount Calvary, Wisconsin, where he pursued his studies for four 
years. He was afterward for six years a student in St. Paul's Seminary 
at St. Paul, Minnesota, and after having thus prepared for holy orders 
he was ordained to the priesthood on the 11th of June, 1908, at St. 
Paul, by Archbishop Ireland His first mission was as assistant at White 
Lake, South Dakota, where he remained for six months. Subsequently he 
spent nine months as assistant pastor of the church at Kimball and 
still later was assistant at the cathedral in Sioux Falls. He was next 
assigned as minister of the Catholic church at Orient, Faulk county, 
where he remained for four years, and while there he was instrumental 
in securing the erection of a parish house at a cost of six thousand 
dollars. On the 1st of September 1914, he came to Ethan, his duties to 
include pastoral work in connection with the mission at Emsley, nine 
miles west, having eighty families. 

	Until the year 1889 the Catholics of Ethan were members of Sts. 
Peter and Paul church at Starr, but in that year they erected a church, 
there being nineteen families in the parish. During the winter months 
services were held once a month on a week day and during the summer 
months once on a week day and once on a Sunday. The first resident 
priest was Father Stanton, who was succeeded by Father Lawrence Kerley, 
who remained until November, 1903. No service was then held from that 
time until August, 1904, when, on the 22d of August, Rev. L. G. Brones 
was sent to reorganize the parish. Soon after his arrival preparations 
were made for a new church and two acres of land were purchased April 
10, 1904, the new church being dedicated September 21, 1905, by the 
Right Rev. Bishop O'Gorman. Catholicism has since grown and developed 
rapidly in Ethan and the work is now being ably carried on by Father 
Burkel. 

	In his political views Father Burkel is a republican, while 
fraternally he is connected with the Knights of Columbus and the Mutual 
Brotherhood of Iowa. He is fond of outdoor life and in that way takes 
his recreation. He is much interested in South Dakota and its 
development, and endorses many measures and movements which tend to the 
upbuilding and progress of the section in which he lives.