Burk, George W. died 1896

BURK, BILLS

Posted By: Reid R. Johnson (email)
Date: 2/20/2014 at 16:55:17

Elgin Echo, Thursday, 24 December 1896.

Monday morning while on the train going to West Union we met Rube Bills who is known to many of our citizens as the clarinet player with Carpenter's orchestra.

He informed us that his father-in-law, George W. Burk, who resided at Maynard had been burned to death in his house the Saturday previous but that he had none of the particulars. Monday's Cedar Rapids Gazette published the following dispatch from Maynard relative to the affair:

At eight o'clock Saturday evening George W. Burk, a farmer living two miles north of Maynard, set fire to his house, then went to his bedroom and shot himself. His body was found in the ruins at 11 o'clock that night. The family was absent when the deed was done. He was tired of life. Burk had been a resident of Fayette county for fifteen years.

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Submitter is not related.

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