Don’t you love a good obituary? I know that I love it when I find one that identifies many family members. My recent find doesn’t actually identify parents or siblings. However, it does provide clues!
My 3rd great grandfather, Henry F. Burke died in 1845 in Platte County, Missouri. His father’s probate case ties John Burke to Henry’s children. However, I don’t have much information about Henry’s mother. Thus, I celebrate when I find an obituary providing clues about Henry’s parents.
Clues in Franklin P. Burke’s obituary
- mother died when Franklin war 4 (or in 1832)
- father died when Franklin was 13 (or in 1841)
- moved to Platte county when 13 (1841) with older brother and other relatives
The older brother is likely my 3rd great grandfather, Henry F. Burke. At this time, I haven’t identified the ‘other relatives’.
Franklin P. Burke
Franklin P. Burke was born near Lebanon, Tennessee, September 12, 1828. He died at his home in Winslow, Mo., at 8:50 pm Sunday, Feb. 18, 1923, age 94 years, 5 months, 6 days.
His mother died when he was four years old, and his father passed away when Franklin P. was but thirteen years of age. At the age of thirteen, he came to Platte county, Missouri, with his older brother and other relatives. Being too young to enlist as a soldier, at the age of seventeen, he enlisted as a teamster in the government service of the Mexican War and served two years. In this service he drove a team of six yoke oxen from Leavenworth by way of Santa Fe trail and over the Rattoon mountains to Los Vegas, Mexico, where they spent the winter. In the spring he entered the regular soldier service and served during the war. After his two years of war service he returned and was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and he came home to his people who were then living on the farm which Mr. Burke has owned so many years near Winslow and still owned at the time of his death. He bought this part of the tract of land of his brother-in-law when Mr. Burke was about nineteen years of age. He received land warrants or patents from the government for part of the farm which has long been known as the Franklin P. Burke homestead. From this it may be seen that Mr. Burke had lived in the Winslow community about 80 years at the time of his call to the home above.
“Franklin P. Burke,” DeKalb County Herald (Maysville, Missouri), 1 March 1923, page 3; digital images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online 10 November 2023).
Franklin P. Burke was married to Miss Katharine Keener, October 2, 1851. To this union ten children were born, two sons and eight daughters — W. F. Burke, Mrs. Addie M. Noel of Kansas City, Mo; Mrs. Sarah A. Botts of Yale, Oklahoma; Mrs. Lilly M. Fly of Cashmere, California, Mrs. Mary N. Massie, Of Houston, Texas; Mrs. Lucy Philips, deceased; Mrs. Ella Grantz, of Kansas City; Marion I. Burke of Lewiston, Montana; Mrs. Rausa E. Severe of Childers, Texas, and Mrs. Fannie Lowery of Winslow. There are 43 living grandchildren, 52 living great grandchildren, and 2 living great great grandchildren.
In the passing away of Franklin P. Burke, the Winslow community and DeKalb county north west Missouri has lost one of its well known and most highly esteemed Christian men, whose life should be an inspiration to all whose good fortune it has been to know him. Early in life, at the age of nineteen, he was converted and united with the M. E. Church, South, and has ever lived an exemplary Christian life, always being liberal in the support of the church and all worthy enterprises of the place and community in which he lived. He will be very much missed and mourned, not only by his family, but by all who knew this good man. While he accepted the inevitable events of life and death without complaint, he looked into the future with the hope and assurance of a blessed eternity in that city whose builder and maker is God.
Oh, that all would so live that as the afternoon hours of life are passing and life’s setting sun is nearing the horizon, one could look back to a life so well rendered and look up and on to the great beyond with such hope and assurance of a peaceful eternity in the home with the blessed Master who is ever ready to say to the faithful, “Well don, thou good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy Lord.”
The funeral service, under the auspices of the Masonic Order, were held at the Methodist church in Winslow at 2 p.m. Thursday, February 22nd, and the remains, with the appropriate burial ceremonies of the order, were laid to rest in the Winslow cemetery.