Richard John Burdge (1882 - 1883)

Born 25 Nov 1882 in Chanute, Neosho, Kansas, United States

Ancestors

Died 22 May 1883 at age 0 in Chanute, Neosho, Kansas, United States

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Biography

Richard Burdge died young.

Richard Burdge was born in 1882 and died five months later as an infant in the rural Kansas town of Chanute. According to the Burdge family Bible, "Richard John Burdge Departed this life May 22, 1883 at 6 o'clock a.m. aged 5 months and 27 days."

He was born not in a hospital or delivered by a doctor, but in a house with the aid of his grandmother acting as the delivery nurse. He lived for only six months, not long enough to be covered in a census. To my knowledge, his family was not affiliated with any church in the Chanute area, which started out as a town named Burdgeville, established by his father in the middle of nowhere, Kansas. The family's first house was actually built with mud and stone because of the lack of trees for lumber. I never thought about it until now, but his father Henry probably traveled to the area in a covered wagon. It was considered remote.

The State of Kansas did not require births to be officially registered until after 1910. The only official record of Richard Burdge's existence is in a family Bible in my possession.

Sources

• Personal family records, including entries in Burdge family Bible, in the files of Julie Miller Mangano, Round Rock, Texas.