Person:William Burke (25)

WILLIAM BURKE (1800-1887)

He married when he was 36, had worked in London, and had traveled from Ireland by way of Boston and New Orleans. He was one of six thousand Irish miners working in the lead mines near Galena.

He obtained a large tract of land in Dubuque from the government prior to 1836, divided it into lots, sold some of them and built a grocery store on one. The store was on the corner of Jones and Locust streets in the heart of the business district. (In the 1970's, his grandsons operated a grocery store - Burke Brothers - on the opposite corner.) He and his family are listed in the July 1836 IA Census and again in the 1840 IA Census for Dubuque, District 1.

They moved to Garry Owen in 1844. His two cousins, David & Henry Burke, were the first settlers in Butler Township.

The family is listed in the 1870 IA Census for Garryowen, JACKSON County, BUTLER TWP Series: M593, Roll: 397, Part: 1, Page: 394A. On October 7, 1847 William and Mary received a patent from President James K. Polk for the "NE quarter of Section 22, Township 86, north of range one, east of the 5th Principal Meridian in the district of lands subject to sale at Dubuque, IA containing 160 acres." Another 40 acres was granted to Mary for the NE quarter of section 23 in 1848.

Because all of their children except Patrick migrated to LeMars in Plymouth County in quest of homesteads and better land, they movedthere about 1882.

A portrait of him at age 80 shows him to be a large man with white hair and a ruffle of sideburns around his face and under his chin. He had heavy eyebrows and one eye was brighter than the other.