NEGenWeb Project
Hall County

 

JESSE C. BURKERD, a highly esteemed retired citizen of Wood River, has been identified with the development of Hall County for almost fifty years. He is the owner of a large amount of choice real estate in Wood River. He was born in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, August 7, 1849. His parents were John and Hannah (Siverly) Burkerd. Of their fourteen children but three are living: Mrs. Theresa Wise, Jesse C. and Julius W. The parents were natives of Germany. They settled in Milwaukee after reaching the United States, where the father was a carpenter and ship builder, and in 1852 removed to Appleton, Wisconsin, where he engage in farming until his death in 1862.

Jesse C. Burkerd was three years old when the family settled near Appleton and he remained at home until his father's death, when he joined his brother Nicholas, at Clinton, Illinois. while attending school near his brother's farm, he worked for board and clothes for two and a half years, and worked for other farmers in De Witt County for seven years, until he came to Hall County and took an eighty acre homestead inside the railroad limits. This was in 1871. Later he bought two hundred and twenty acres of adjoining railroad land, paying $5 an acre. This land Mr. Burkerd saill (sic) and it is a least worth $125 an acre today. He continued on the farm during many years but in 1888 secured a satisfactory tenant and moved into Wood River, where he owns the handsome residence in which he has lived since.

On March 18, 1873, Mr. Burkerd married Miss Achsah J. Guy, who had the following children: Wesley, Milton, Achsah, Aden and Mary. Mr. and Mrs. Burkerd have had three children: Nellie and Nettie, twins, and Frederick. Nellie, deceased, was the wife of Elmer Wiggin, of Wood River; and Alice and Lawrence Hooton, both of whom live with their grandparents in Wood River. They have two daughters. Frederick Burkerd is a graduate of the Wood River high school, and is also a graduate pharmacist. he is conducting a drug store in Scotia, Nebraska. He married Emma Shimmerman. They are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.

Mr. and Mrs. Burkerd are active workers in the Methodist Episcopal church in Wood River and are interested in many worthy charities and public welfare movements. They have a wide social circle both in town and country. Mr. Burkerd has been a very successful man in his business undertaking, and in his time has handled money in large amounts, but he has never forgotten the first twelve cents he ever earned, by directing a stranger through a belt of pine timber. To this first capital he kept gradually adding until it amounted to twenty-two cents and then he became the proud owner of what every boy longs for, a pocket knife. He relates a story of his early boyhood that has probably been retained in memory because of the impression a day of real enjoyment left to a little boy whose pleasures were neither varied nor numerous. It was on a memorable Fourth of July that his father gave Jesse and his brother Lewis five cents each, with which to celebrate the day in proper manner. The mere matter of walking four miles to the scene of patriotic goings on and with the certainty of having to walk the distance back, did not in the least interfere with their anticipations of pleasure. They sturdily trudged off and reached Bachelor's Hill warm and thirsty. Jesse immediately expended his fortune in a glass of cooling liquid which the brothers divided, while Lewis saved his for fire crackers that had to be exploded before dark because the lads remembered that the chores awaited their home coming, and they did not dare delay. At last two tired and happy boys reached the home farm and probably their day's adventures served them for conversation many months afterword. Mr. Burkerd laughs heartily as he tells this story and its pathos will be echoed in the heart of many another who reads it, remembering a boyhood that had more serious tasks than opportunity for healthy "fun."

Transcribed by Larry Coates