VETERANS' DAY - WW I VETS

Walter Burkhardt and James Morgan are related to us through their brothers. Walter Burkahrdt was Edgar's younger brother. James Morgan was Ray Morgan, Sr.'s brother. James Morgan had the misfortune to be at ground zero for the great influenza. History says the Great Influenza of 1918 started at Camp Funston, part of Fort Riley. Morgan was stationed at that camp. He died there and was buried in the Valley Falls cemetery. I couldn't discover if Walter Burkhardt was ever deployed, but he did live through the war.

Bill Smith on the other hand is related to us through his wife, Ada. She was Gussie's younger sister. He also was best man at Gussie and EA's wedding. He did deploy and led at least a unit in France. He also survived and went on to the Kansas State Supreme Court.

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.

Letter from January 1846

This is a letter that I found in the documents and photos that Cindy shared with me. I believe Laura had collected the items over the years.

It's a letter that Edward Walker's father, Thomas, wrote to Edward's mother, Mary in 1846 - January 15 to be exact. It's written on heavy paper and no envelope. The letter was folded and apparently sealed with wax. Written in pencil is: E B Walkers. I'm assuming that Mary Walker was dividing up letters that she had saved and written E B Walkers on it so that it would go to Edward and his family. The following is what I think the letter says:

Bull KM London -14th 46

Dear Mary - We arrived here 10 minutes past five hungry and tired of rail way carriages. We think of going to Mr. Robinson's tonight. We have finished an excellent cup of tea in a splendid room. I wish you were well enough and here with us. You would enjoy it very much. I will send you another letter on Friday if I have not sold the cheese. I shall come home on Saturday at the farthest. I hope sooner for there is nowhere like home. I have no children here to play, no dear Mary to open my mind and ad. . . .with but I hope the ruler of the universe will direct and guide my steps. In true affection, T B Walker.

(I tried to update the punctuation, so it's not a direct transcription.)

Thomas is on a business trip and misses his wife and children. This letter was written more than 18 months before Edward, Gussie's father, was born. Thomas and Mary had three girls and one boy when Thomas made the journey of nearly 200 miles one-way from Bradfield Green to London to sell cheese. Thomas is identified in the 1851 English census as a farmer with 2 employees. After his death in 1854, Mary and the family moved to Russia Hall that we visited last year in Tattenhall near Chester England. Mary continued the dairy at Russia Hall. The barns from that dairy are still standing, but the farmland has been sold off from the manor house.

Belle or Lalla

When I last wrote, apparently quite some time ago, I teased you about the story of Lalla or Belle. Now I've come to complete the story. Lalla lived into at least the 1960s, but Belle perished in the London Blitz. As far as I can tell the Blitz was basically in 1940, but I haven't found anything that says exactly when Belle died.

Ada, Gussie's sister, corresponded with Lalla and in a letter explained to Laura Leib about Lalla and her family. The following is an excerpt from Ada's letter to Laura.

The lady who wrote of it is my first cousin her mother was father’s sister. This girl is the one who painted the picture of our fathers’ home which you saw in our dining room. Her husband is dead but she lives near another cousin of mine named Mary and her husband is living. The Joyce who she speaks of is the only child of their sister who was killed in a raid during the war. She and her husband were both killed. There were three girls in this Croston family and mother liked them so well when she met them while in Europe.

There's more correspondence that I'll post another time.