Ancestry Things I Learned Lately

I learned three things recently researching the family tree for the Walkers-Burkhardts.
1. There was a Burkhardt ancestor who fought in the American Revolution and surprise surprise he was on the American's side. The Burkhardts are actually eligible to be in the DAR. Benjamin Schoonover was a captain in the Pennsylvania company and served several years. All of us grew up having heard they were in America but were probably Hessians.

2. Twins - There have been consecutive generations of twins on the Sharpe side since at least Betsy's mother. Betsy, Gussie's mother, appears to have had twin siblings. They were a girl and a boy and only the girl lived to adulthood. The boy twin died as a baby in Junction City during the family's immigration. Because he died they decided to stay in Kansas. Betsy had twins, Gussie and her twin. Then Betsy's daughter had twins, but as has been the trend only one lived to adulthood.

3. Baptism by a famous pastor. Although I believe the Sharpes were raised Methodists in England, having come to America at the suggestion of their local Methodist pastor, I found something I wasn't expecting. They had their oldest child, William Sharpe, Jr, baptized by a prominent Baptist minister in London when he was 18 and the year before they came to America. The pastor, C H Spauldling, was serving the Metropolitan Baptist Church in London, not far from Parliament. I have a copy of the Sharpe Bible with the handwritten note indicating the baptism. Lee had heard of C H Spaulding and the church is still there and his sermons are still published. Below is the picture identified as the Methodist church near Marehem le Fen that the Sharpes usually attended in England.

I'm not sure how this sign was used, but it does announce that E. A. Burkhart, [no d], depot electrician gets married today and leaves for Chicago on train, #10 with his bride. Give him a good farewell reception. Names are Edgar and Edna or more commonly known as the Missus. When I scanned it in, it fell apart a bit. I'm hoping that was mainly because it's nearly 100 years old. Chris and I with the help of Photo Shop were able to return it more or less to its original form. It was written on two sheets of ledger paper used to record fuel amounts for trains.

I had less success with the pictures from the honeymoon. Some of the pictures that appear to be taken with the same camera look good, so I'm assuming the ones from Lake Michigan were taken on overcast days. It looks like they're sitting in a sand storm, but that seems unlikely. The stories from the newspaper say that EA and Gussie traveled to Chicago and Lake Michigan. When they returned to Topeka they lived in the house on Polk while Ada and her mother spent time in Pueblo, CO. Ada Sharpe Johnson, was the younger sister of Betsy Sharpe Walker, Gussie's mother.

For Gussie and EA’s wedding on June 18, 1913 the Topeka papers carried both a story in the morning paper that there would be a wedding and then one in the evening paper saying that they did get married. Before the wedding there were two stories detailing the engagement. In one I learned that EA had attended KU to study electrical engineering.

In the picture at the left are from left to right: Bill Smith, later Ada's husband, EA's mother, Delphie Burkhardt, EA, Edna, Ada, Grace, Eula and Fred. Between Ada and Grace is Gussie's mother, Betsy. Gussie's father had died in 1911 so she was given away by her 14-year older brother, Fred. Two little girls are Fred's daughter, Lucille, and Lily's daughter, Dorothy. She's Laura's older sister. I'm assuming Lily is in the picture somewhere, but I'm still looking. Also not included in this photograph is her other brother, Percy. Although the woman with boy behind Gussie is Percy's wife and son, Jenny and Bud.

To quote from the articles: A very pretty home wedding will be that of Miss Edna Walker and Mr. Edgar Burkhart which will take place at 10 o’clock this morning at the home of the bride’s mother, Mrs. E B Walker, 1119 Polk street Rev Henry E Thayer [he’s Percy’s father-in-law] of Wichita, officiating. Mrs. Frank B Faust [Gussie’s sister, Eula] will play Mendelssohn’s’ wedding march as a processional for the bridal party and during the ceremony, “Flower Song” by Lang. the bride will enter with her brother, Mr. Fred T Walker, who will give her in marriage and will be attended by her sisters, Mrs. George W Bale [Gussie’s sister Grace] of Clay Center who will act as matron of honor and Miss Ada Walker who will be maid of honor.

Mr. Will Smith of Valley Falls will be the best man. Two little girls, Lucille Walker and Dorothy Lee [Leib] will carry a daisy chain to mark the path of the bridal party and the bride’s little nephew, Thayer Walker will be ring bearer. The gown which the bride will wear is of white duchess satin, made with draped skirt and bodice and trimmed in pearl ornaments. She will wear a bridal veil, caught in her hair with a circle of pearls and carry a shower bouquet of roses and lilies of the valley. Mrs. Bale will wear a silk veille with trimming of blue and white rosebuds and girdle of blue silk. She will carry pink sweet peas. Ada also wore an embroidered gown, but hers was trimmed in pink and a girdle The house will be decorated with palms, ferns and daisies. After the wedding a breakfast will be served on the lawn.

I'll try to put up the honeymoon pictures soon and if I can figure out how to scan in the sign that greeted them when they returned to Topeka, I'll post that.