Fr. James - a life cut short by TB.

James Burke was baptised on December 4^th 1876. He received his secondary education at St. Munchin's College, Limerick (the diocesan college) and from there he moved to Carlow College to study for the priesthood. He was ordained a priest at Carlow College on June 14^th 1903 and celebrated his first Mass the following day. The souvenir card of his ordination is below.

 



 At this time Ireland was producing far more priests than it needed at home and many newly-ordained priests went abroad. Fr. James was one of these and he was dispatched to the Diocese of Wichita, Kansas. I’ve managed to find his emigration record. He sailed on the SS Campania on October 4^th 1903 from Queenstown (now Cobh) in Co. Cork arriving in New York on October 10^th. From the passenger lists we can see that he travelled with 4 other clergymen, one of whom was going with him to Kansas. He gives his homeplace as "Ballingarry" - the parish where Kilmacow is situated. He was carrying $50 with him and his sponsor is given as Bishop Hennessy of Wichita. A quick check on Wikipedia reveals that Bishop Hennessy was born in Co. Cork and emigrated to the US as a child after the Great Famine, settling in St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained a priest and became the first Bishop of the newly-created diocese of Wichita in 1888.

 

Amazingly, I also found his brother, Edward (Ed) on the same ship (more about him later) who was heading to Chicago to stay with their brother Bill.

The 1910 US Census shows Fr. James living with his housekeeper (Mary Roidan,  a widow from Iowa whose parents were Irish) at 412 East 8th Avenue, Winfield, Kansas (same address as Holy Name RC Church).

Unfortunately, Fr. James contracted tuberculosis and died on December 17^th 1910. The death notice below is interesting in that it doesn't mention any of his siblings in Ireland or his mother who was still alive.

 

The funeral notice shows that the funeral left from his brother Jack's (John) house for Corpus Christi Church and then was carried by horse-drawn carriage to the family plot in Mount Olivet Cemetery.

 

 

 

I have a large framed photoraph of Fr. James which came from the old farmhouse in Kilmacow. On the corner it is inscribed "Winfield, Kansas". There were obviously several copies made of this as many years ago one of Joe Burke's (Fr. Jame's brother) sons sent me some family photos, one of which was a copy of the same photo.