| Other People | Frank J. Bradley | Olive Rambo Cook | Jerry Litton | | |||
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Past and Present of Livingston County Volume 2. Biographies by Major A. J. Roof. 1913 |
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Pages 357-359
A native son of Livingston county, Frank E. Burgess is prominent among the younger agriculturists of Jackson township, where he owns a valuable farm of one hundred and thirty acres located on section 5. Born in this township on September 2, 1871, he is a son of Dr. C. W. and Jennie F. (Price) Burgess, the father coming to this county in 1867, from Wayne, Kennebec county, Maine, and settling in Chillicothe. He here engaged in the real-estate business, following that occupation for about one year before coming to Jackson township, where he taught school for a period of four years. his duties connecting him for that whole time with the same school and district. He subsequently removed to Harrison county, Missouri, where he engaged in practice near Bethany, being located there since 1872, making his home on a farm seven miles from that place. The mother of our subject passed away shortly after his birth on December 12, 1871, finding her last resting place at Trenton, Grundy county. Her girlhood home was near Zanesville, Ohio, and for a number of years she followed the profession of teaching in parts of Grundy and Livingston counties. Her family was an old English one, coming to the United States among the first to settle here, in 1619, and the great-grandfather of our subject on the paternal side was one of those patriots who participated in the War of 1812 and defended Bunker Hill, holding rank as a commissioned officer at that time. Previous to the war he had been a sea captain and traveled around Cape Horn to the Pacific ocean. He was a remarkable man in many ways and reached an age of one hundred and one years.
Frank E. Burgess acquired his education in the district schools of Harrison county, subsequently rounding out his early learning by a course in Grand River College and the Missouri Wesleyan College, which institution he left at the age of twenty-one years. He then for one year rented a farm before acquiring eighty acres of land, which he still owns and, later adding another fifty acres, he now pursues thereon general farming, specializing in stock-raising and meeting with gratifying success along both lines of endeavor. He erected upon his farm a handsome residence, a substantial barn and made other improvements which have greatly enhanced the value of the property. Modern implements and machinery are to be found on his place, which facilitate the heavy farm work and improve the productivity of the soil. Scientific and progressive in his methods, he is a student of soil and climatic conditions and has by experiments become a factor in raising agricultural standards here.
On Christmas day of 1895, Mr. Burgess was married in Jackson township to Miss Nellie L. Gee, a daughter of S. M. and Eleanor (Robertson) Gee, both of whom are highly esteemed residents of Jackson township, where the father owns a valuable farm of three hundred acres. The parents only recently celebrated their golden wedding and the occasion was an occurrence of importance in Jackson township, no friend or neighbor failing to extend felicitations and good wishes on their day of honor. Mr. and Mrs. Burgess are the parents of three children: Lillian J., Charles W. and Wilbur H., all attending district school.
Mr. and Mrs. Burgess are members of the Baptist church, in the work of which they take an active and helpful interest and of which he serves as one of the deacons. In his political affiliations he is a republican and, believing in the efficacy of the principles this party represents, gives thereto his stanch support. An official honor has come to him in his election to the position of school trustee and this distinction is well merited, for he always has been a champion of the cause of education. Successful and prosperous, there is none who could grudge Mr. Burgess the position he holds as one of the substantial men of his neighborhood, more so, because he not only seeks to further his own interests but readily participates in those measures intended for the general benefit and advancement.