Ray and Mary Grace Begin the Dance

Ray and Mary examine something while his mother, Vala,
and Aunt Helen watch from the windows.
March 1943

Ray Morgan and Mary Grace Burkhardt did get married - July 21, 1946, but it was not an easy course to get to that point. They knew of each other in high school, but didn't date until Washburn. Their first date was an arranged date that included a professor in the fall of 1942. The relationship picked up when Ray's reserve unit at Washburn was told to report to Fort Leavenworth in late March 1943. According to their letters, they became engaged sometime during March or April 1943.

But how did they happen to be in the same place to meet each other? That tale involves the whims and decisions of eight other people or the parents of these eight.

The Sharpe family
circa 1865

William Sharpe and Rebekah Hutton had been married nearly 20 years when they decided in 1869 to move their family of 10 children across the Atlantic in steerage, eventually arriving in Kansas when their youngest child died in Junction City, KS. According to family lore, William walked down the railroad tracks from Junction City until he found the land he wanted. The legend says 50 miles, but by my calculations it was more like 25 miles, still not an easy walk. The land was in Morris County where another young Englishman had recently arrived.

The Walker family
circa 1898
Edna on the right in the front row

Edna's father, Edward Walker, the second son of a dairyman-cheese-maker, walked out the door of his family home, Russia Hall, and headed to Liverpool, less than 50 miles away. There he began his ocean journey, eventually arriving in Morris County, too, by 1870. One family story is she caught his eye when she came into Parkerville to shop. Edward had trained as a druggist in England before he came to Kansas and he had a general store, Plant & Walker in Parkerville. He and Betsy were married in 1871. By the time Edna and her twin were born in 1888, he was principally a farmer. Shortly after the twins' birth, Edward and Betsy moved their family of seven to Topeka in for a chance at a better education.

Burkharts
circa 1900
Edgar is number 6

Mary Grace's father, Edgar, was the son of a first generation American and of a woman whose grandfather fought in the Revolutionary War. His grandfather, Johann Burkhardt, left Prussia in 1847 at a time of strife there and moved to Tazewell County, Illinois. His first wife died on the voyage leaving him a widower with an infant daughter. Not long after arriving in Illinois, he wed a widow, Lavina Hulsopple, with six children of her own. Over the years they had four more children, including Joseph who was Edgar's father. According to the 1860 census, the Burkhardts were still living in Illinois, but by 1870 when Joseph was 16, they were in Linn County in Kansas. After Lavina's death in 1880 they moved on to Osage County.

Edgar's mother, Philadelphia Schoonover, who went by Delphia was born in Beverly, Virginia in October 1862, a time of great upheaval in Virginia.  Her great grandfather, Benjamin Schoonover, served in the Revolutionary War,but her mother's uncles, John  and George Louk, joined Company F, Virginia 31st Infantry Regiment. This regiment provided support for Stonewall Jackson.

Delphia's uncles joined the Confederate Army
This is the way they were listed on a draft registration:
In Rebel Army

Delphia and her parents arrived in Kansas in 1880 and settled in Fairfax township in Osage County, Kansas. Fairfax was also the home of one Joseph Burkhart. Joseph and Delphia were married in April 1882 in her family home.




Edna had spent her life in Topeka eventually attending Washburn where she met Edgar. Like Edna's family, Edgar had moved to Topeka for the better chance of education, His uncle, Draper Schoonover,urged Edgar to go to the Washburn Academy in Topeka as a preparation for Washburn. Scranton where he grew up didn't have a high school. At the Academy he became a football star.

Topeka Daily Capital
Page 7
November 26, 1905

According to Mary Grace his path through high school and college was not a straight path due to circumstances beyond his control. One year he lost his tuition money in order to bail a brother out of jail.




Although he was a year older than Edna he graduated from Washburn a year after she did. Edna taught school for a year while he was finishing up, but when they were married in 1913 she was forced to resign. It seems married women weren't allowed to teach. So they lived on his lesser salary as a traveling salesman. After the birth of three children and a brief stint living in Osage City, Edgar put together the financing to open his shop in Topeka in 1921. Mary Grace was born in 1923 and by 1926 the Burkhardts built their new home on Jewell which is still in the family.

On the left Edna with her brother-in-law, George Bale,
and Edgar in 1911.

  Coming up next, how Ray ended up in Topeka to meet Mary Grace.

Women's--Sorry--Girls' Basketball at Washburn 1905

I ran across this article in the 1905 Topeka Daily Capital recently while looking for stories about EA's years of football at the Washburn Academy:

I thought of it again while watching the KU women play Creighton the other night. I can't imagine their reaction if some dean just showed up at practice and told them they were no longer going to play road games.

And I'm assuming the Washburn co-eds were playing that dumb game of girls' basketball where there were six on the court at a time for each team. But there was no crossing of the half line and no more than 3 dribbles before the player had to pass. I played it this way in the sixth grade and it was incredibly boring. Standing at the half line waiting for a pass or making a pass to the three on the other side of the line. Counting your dribbles, etc.

The Washburn faculty gave the Washburn basketball girls quite a surprise yesterday. The girls were practicing in the afternoon at the YWCA gymnasium when Dean McEachron of the Washburn faculty came in and announced on behalf of the faculty that the girls’ basketball team would not be allowed to play out of town games this season and that each girl would have to have the written consent of her parents before she would be allowed to play basketball. These two regulations were decided on at a faculty meeting several days ago but Dean McEachron’s announcement yesterday was the first intimation that the basketball players had of the new regulations.

Dean McEachron’s announcement almost broke up the afternoon’s practice. The girls received the announcement very submissively but as soon as Professor McEachron left the gymnasium they had an impromptu indignation meeting. Several of the players announced that they would quit playing then and there but were finally persuaded to continue the practice. 

It was all galling to the team, but they felt it was clear discrimination because at that time the 16 members of the football team were spending almost 10 days in Colorado to play not one, but two away games.

The players are very indignant. They think they are being discriminated against. The Washburn football and baseball teams are allowed to take strips of several days’ duration in the course of their seasons and the co-eds think they are not getting a square deal when they are not allowed to play out of town even when they do not miss any classes. 

The women had a manager, but not really a coach. Among his duties was to find a woman on the Washburn faculty to chaperon their trips away from the school. Pliny Snyder, the manager, said,

I tried to find a photo of the Washburn women, but
this was as close as I could come. It's a photograph of
women that was on the track page of the 1908 KU yearbook.

"Basketball is the only sport that the girls take any active part in. I cannot see the faculty’s object unless it be to entirely discourage basketball by the girls. It will naturally put a considerable damper on the girls’ interest in the game. I don’t know whether the team will play at all or not if it will not be allowed to play out of town games. I do not know of any provocation for such a ruling that has resulted from any of the trips. . ."

 The players also claimed to be in the dark concerning the cause of the faculty’s restrictions. One of the players suggested that it might have been due to one of the girls saying Doggone it in the game with the Haskell girls. Which was played here last winter. However this was a home game and this suggestion was voted improbable.

The ruling against playing outside of Topeka means that Washburn cannot be considered in the state college championship games. Last year the Washburn team was the champion college girls’ basketball team of Kansas, having defeated every team which had a show for the honors and losing but one game. This year the Washburn team will be out of the championship race unless the faculty reconsiders its decision.

I haven't found all the stories for the rest of the year, but they did retain enough members to play at least one home game. According to the current Washburn's Women Basketball web site, they began playing basketball in 1969. Probably best to go with that.

Some Walker-Burkhardt Potpourri

      This is a small assortment of items I've come across lately in my searches on newspapers.com.

      Edward Walker died in February of 1911 and I was able to find an obituary for him. The obituary says that the family requested no flowers at the behest of the deceased, but I'm not sure why as the photos of the house seemed to show flowers.

Edward Walker obituary-February 9, 1911

The Walker twins are born

     But the obituary did send me on a search in the Council Grove Republic to see if I could find a notice or something about the Walker family moving to Topeka. I didn't find that, but I did find this blurb about the Walker twins.Their father's name is wrong, but it seems highly unlikely there was another set of Walker twins born near Dwight in the same week as the Walker girls. As is often the case, the story is related from the father's point of view with no mention of Betsy who had with the birth of the twins given birth to eight children or the sex of the babies.

     I've included the link to the page because reading these newspapers from 1888 are fascinating. In this case there's a remarkable story about a runaway horse. To quote: The horse seemed to become perfectly frantic, and

Helen Louise_1921

run about the streets scattering dismay on all sides. But fortunately, no one was hurt. Then there are the railroad schedules - four different passenger trains served Council Grove on a daily basis, covering north, south, east and west.

    And now jumping ahead to 1921 is an article about Edna and EA's daughter, Helen, and her first birthday. Helen and Ada's son, Walker, were born on October 6, 1920 in Topeka so it was big news when they had their first birthday. Their cousin, Bernice, daughter of Ada and Edna's sister, Grace, was born in July of 1920, but was only an invited guest at the birthday party.

Helen and Walker's first birthday
Topeka Daily Capital, Oct 8, 1921

The Shop

     Last but maybe most interesting is this ad in the Capital announcing the opening of the Shop. For those of us who are grandchildren of EA and Edna, Gussie to us, knew what the Shop was. Unfortunately not many of us were old enough to know the Shop with EA in charge, but we knew what was meant when people said that.                                                                                                                      Mary Grace wrote about her dad:

     My father worked his way through school—both high school and college.  I think he threw the paper for the Topeka Daily Capital. His route was in North Topeka.  I remember him telling me how in 1903 when the Kansas (Kaw) River flooded that the only way to get to North Topeka to throw the paper was across a railroad bridge.  My mother said he used to go to sleep a lot in class.  . . One year he was ready to pay his tuition and two of his brothers got drunk and he had to pay his $50.00 tuition money to get them out of jail. 

 For a time after his marriage to Edna, EA worked for the Santa Fe Railroad as a fireman, but eventually he was offered a Willard Battery distributorship. And in 1921 with the help of three of his brothers-in-law, EA opened his shop. (This article ran after the shop had been opened for a year.) Edna's brother Percy, Ada's husband, Bill and Grace's husband, George, all were partners in the shop. Mary Grace said he paid everyone back, but he had a hard time convincing Bill, who eventually did allow him to pay him.

More England (Update)

     A couple of small corrections in the earlier post about Mary Cooke Walker. After receiving a copy of her will from a descendant of her daughter Margaret, I realized that her daughter Eliza probably had not died by 1897 as she's mentioned in Mary's will.

Mary Cooke Walker's will - 1898

    This small fact gets my imagination going - nunnery? -mental asylum? I really have no idea.

    Another error,obvious to me after a bit of research, is that Mary Walker had not lived at Russia Hall since sometime in the 1870's. She hadn't moved too far away as she was farming 65 acres near Milton Green. Mary is no longer listed on the census at Russia Hall after 1871. By the 1901 census, two of Mary's grandchildren had moved in with her. Below is a piece of a letter from Daisy Salmon, daughter of Sara Gray Walker Salmon.

Letter from Edward Walker's niece, Daisy Salmon ca 1900

     This is my attempt at transcribing Daisy's letter. Daisy's given name was Mary and from what I can tell Margaret or perhaps Mary is close to the French word for daisy.

The Cheshire Yeomanry have been camping out this . . . . They have had a very hot time of it. They went about the middle of harvest. I have not seen Aston since he has come back. I ask him all particulars about it. Now I think I have told you all the news that other all the other left out. With best love to all from Grandma, Charlie and myself. Your loving niece, Daisy Salmon

     A third error is that by the time of Mary's death, a third daughter, Louisa Goodwin nee Walker, had died in April 1903, about 18 months before her mother's death in 1904.

   

More England

The photos of Russia here will please you but it does seem as if I had seen nothing of you.

Mary Walker, August 1897 in a letter to Edward and Betsy

        

     Mary Walker, who turned 82 that summer, expressed her disappointment that Edward and Betsy had to cut short their trip because of Percy's illness. At this point in her life, Mary, who never lived more than 50 miles from where she was born, had seen two of her children leave the British Isles. Edward had made a prosperous life in Topeka, but his oldest sister and sibling, Mary, had perished abroad in the fall of 1874, Another daughter, Margaret, had died in 1888 and her second oldest child, Eliza, seems to also have died by this time.

     Mary Cooke Walker had been born in the summer of 1815 in Acton [Russia Hall is on Frog Ln] in Cheshire. When she married Thomas Bloor Walker in August of 1837, just weeks after her 23rd birthday, it was only about 8 miles from Acton. 

Russia Hall in 2009

        Of their eight children, all but the youngest, were born in Bradfield Green near Crewe as Thomas addressed his letter to Mary in 1846 when he was in London selling the cheese they'd made. For some reason their last child Sarah Gray Walker was born in Wales near Denbighshire, but even that was only about 35 miles from Mary's birthplace. Thomas died there in April of 1854 and Mary and her children by 1861 were living in Russia Hall where she lived until her death in 1904.

       When Edward and Betsy visited in 1897, she lived with her son, Thomas, and his family at Russia Hall, but her five surviving daughters all lived near by.

Thomas Walker - 1890s

      

Letter from Mary Walker
to Edward and Betsy
August 1897

My precious Children, Edward and Bessie –
Mr. Sharp is taking charge of this letter and wished me to say who sent the things. I send a pair of sheets, 1 pillow slip & 4 serviettes.
Julia sends a pair of sheets, 2 pillow slips and small salt cellars for Lilly. Sally sends a gold broach for Lilly and Emma sends a . . . [bible?]. I think Lilly will be pleased. Sally hopes Bessie will treasure the old china cups and saucers she sent&; Edward the cup like my china he asked me for. I . . . Bessie the sweet William seed and the gillyflower seed. Mr. Sharpe is to have some of it.
My dear Edward, I send you a very old silver spoon which was your Grandma Walker’s with my dear love hopes your dear Percy is better. The photos of Russia here will please you but it does seem as if I had seen nothing of you.

      In 1897 Lily Walker was 24 and didn't marry John Leib until 1903 but from this letter it appears they were sending items for a dowry. I guess maybe anyone of marrying age would have received such gifts. The next oldest girl was Eula and she was only 13 so that may explain why all the items were for Lily.

     Julia in the letter is Edward's sister who was married to Thomas Spencer and lived at Well House Farm, Handley about 10 miles or so from Russia Hall in Tattenhall. Sally could be Edward's youngest sister, Sarah Gray Salmon, who lived less than 5 miles from Russia Hall in Waverton. The only Emma I can find would have only been nine so I doubt that is her.

The plate shown here I've always assumed was bought by Edward and Betsy on this trip, but I don't know for sure. It was made not far from Tattenhall and dates between 1894 and 1895 so I don't think it's one of the items described above.

Edna Walker Burkhardt's 90th Birthday - May 22, 1978

    Edna Walker Burkhardt's 90th birthday was celebrated at the Topeka Holidome in May 1978. All four of her children, Allan, Ethel, Helen and Mary Grace attended along with their spouses. Unfortunately Helen's husband, Roy, passed away a few months prior to the birthday. Also attending were 10 of her 15 grandchildren, their spouses and 3 of her 9 great grandchildren plus two nieces, Dorothy and Laura Lieb. Below is the home movie Ray took that day. Harold Winter, husband of Edna's daughter, Ethel, appears first in the movie, enjoying his pipe on the porch of the Burkhardt home on Jewel in Topeka. Joining Harold are Helen, Ethel and Edna.

     Then the action moves to the Holidome where there is a lot of milling around. Edna and her four children are seated at the head table. To each side of the head table are the other tables seating everyone else.

     Enjoy and Happy Birthday to Edna on the 127th anniversary of her birth.

Edward and Betsy Walker Visit England in 1897

   

William Sharpe - 1927

Here I am in sight of the shores of old England and I will mail this in Liverpool after I land. We had a very disagreeable voyage and the most of us are heartily sick of the sea, continuous winds, rain and fog. South easterly winds nearly the entire distance accompanied by torrents of rain and a temperature of about 40 degrees every day. Nearly frozen out, I have wished for 100 in the shade several times. I have had all I want of the Atlantic Ocean, it is not what it is cracked up to 
be, not in a storm at least.
We got into fog and ice in the Strait of Belle Isle and had to wait fourteen hours; just stopped the engines and drifted around. When the fog cleared away we were just surrounded by immense bergs – it was a great sight. They were all shapes and sizes from the size of a town lot to a 40-acre field, but they were grand. 

William Sharpe aboard the State of California, the Allan Line in July 1897

      After 26 years of marriage, Edward took Betsy home to England to meet his family. Making the trip with them was Betsy's brother, William, who lived in Clay Center. Their plans included visiting the Walkers near Chester and touring the eastern side of England where William and Betsy had lived until moving to the United States in 1870.

     Before leaving Topeka for Montreal where they boarded the California, Edward and Betsy made arrangements for their seven children and Edward's drugstore. Lily, their oldest and 24 years old,  would be in charge of the home front and Fred at the age of 23 would tend the shop. Two of the girls, Eula, 13 and Grace, who would turn 12, while her parents were away, went to Clay Center to stay with their aunt, Jesse, William's wife. The others Percy, 17, Edna, 9 and Ada, 4 would remain in Topeka.

     William, like his brother-in-law Edward, had been a druggist, a president of a bank in Clay Center and now owned a shoe store there.
   

Walker Family c. 1896
Lily, Percy, Edward, Eula, Betsy, Fred and Grace
Ada and Edna

     A bit more from William about their trip that also included others from Topeka, Charles Adams, publisher; Frank Shellabarger, funeral director; and the Rev. A. S. Embree:

           Tatten Hall Eng.

It is only two days since I landed yet Dr. Embree, [the minister at First Methodist in Topeka] Mr. Walker and I have been around a great deal. We were met by Mr. Walker’s brother and taken to their fine old home, “Russia Hall,” built about 200 years ago. Thursday we went to Eaton Hall, the seat of the duke of Westminster, richest man in England. This place is one of marvelous beauty. From thence we went on into Wales, to Hawardan Castle the home of the grand old man, Gladstone. I must say I never enjoyed myself so much in my life. England is so inexpressibly beautiful and I am delighted with my native land, in fact I am wild over it. The weather is delightful. The natives were complaining of the heat so I looked at the thermometer and it was 82 in the sun. After sundown it gets so cold that I am compelled to stay in the house. Gossip from Wm. Sharpe

      The Walkers and William may have been enjoying their time in England, but back in Topeka, things were not well. Eventually Lily had to cable her parents with the news that Percy was dreadfully ill with typhoid fever.

Mary Cooke Walker

The suddenness of their departure from England comes through in this letter from Edward's mother, Mary, to Lily,
   

My dear Lilly.

Your telegram letter to me, has been read many times over and the finish that Percy was getting better was best of all. A trained nurse knows how to do in special cases. I know you feel the responsibility very keenly as father and mother were away.

I greatly regret I did not begin to put things together I wanted them to have when first they came but then it seemed plenty of time but it was a mistake.

Your mother endeared herself to us all by her kindly manners and I do not feel now as if I had loved her half enough. I am not very demonstrative with my love but my son [would know] how I feel. When . . . how suddenly your father and mother left us. Your uncle cheered me up with saying Percie would get better but I could take no comfort until I got your letter. [Fathers . . the New York telegram in .  .Sarah has been to her brother’s wedding the 25^th August and the bride wore white cashmere Irish lace. Sarah got a train to use with lace and to wear and brought me a piece of wedding cake. This morn I read a note of invitation to Denhull Hall from Mr. & Mrs. Goodwin to their daughter’s marriage on Sept 29 time enough for me to get a new dress but I shall.

Your loving grandma, Mary Walker

Your loving grandma, Mary Walker.

        There are parts I haven't quite deciphered, but I'm still working on it. I also haven't figured out the Sarah with a brother that married in 1897. There are other letters from that trip and time period that I will try to post soon.