History of Hamilton County Ohio
Portraits, with biography, of Stephen Burk and wife
between pages 314 & 315
transcribed by Karen Klaene

Mr. Stephen BURK is the second son, and third child, of Ulick and Rachel (JONES) BURK, of Baltimore county, Maryland, both of them born and raised there. They had nine children, besides Stephen six daughters and three sons - John, Nancy, Elisha, Mary, Sarah (died in infancy), Elizabeth, Rachel, Susan, and Ulick. John, Stephen, and Elisha, the three oldest children, and Mary, now Mrs. George SWALES, a widow, residing four to five miles southwest of Harrison, in Indiana, and Rachel (Mrs. Joshua LEMON, widow of a farmer now deceased, of Fayette county, Indiana), are still living. The parents removed in 1809 from Maryland to the tract about one mile south of Harrison, on the State line, now owned by their son Stephen, where Mrs. BURK's father had already settled. Here they lived the rest of their lives, and both of them died here in a good old age - the father in his eighty-fifth year, January 16, 1864; and the mother in her eighty-third or eighty-fourth year, dying February 22, 1866.

Stephen BURK was two years old when his parents came to the Miami country, having been born September 24, 1807, at the old home in Baltimore county, Maryland. He is somewhat remotely of Irish stock, on the father's side. He was educated to the limited extent attainable in the schools of that day and neighborhood, and has acquitted himself through a long life as a man of intelligence and character. He remained a bachelor at the old home south of Harrison, devoting himself to the care of his parents and the labors of the farm except one year, when he took a partnership in a country store at Alquina, Fayette county, Indiana - until both his father and mother had gone to their long home. He staid some years longer upon the paternal estate, during which he was married, June 16, 1875, to Miss Martha Eliza PRUDEN, of Harrison village. In the February following he removed to the pleasant, elegant residence now occupied by him on the Cincinnati turnpike, one mile southeast of Harrison, where he is spending a tranquil old age, in quite tolerable health for his years, and with the remembrance of a life well spent to cheer him.

He has been no office-seeker, and on one occasion, when nominated for a local office, he electioneered vigorously against his own candidacy, and succeeded in defeating himself. He has been a life-long Democrat, however, and always goes to the polls to deposit his vote. His first vote was cast for General Andrew JACKSON for the Presidency of the United States. He never has been connected with any of the religious or secret societies, but has been satisfied to live a self-contained and independent life.

Mrs. BURK is the fifth child and third daughter of James and Sarah ( SWALES ) PRUDEN of Dearborn county, Indiana. She was born in that county, but in Harrison village, on the Indiana side, on the eighteenth of April, 1841. She remained at home during her girlhood and youth, receiving her education in the village schools, and for two terms in the Ohio Female College, at College Hill. For about twelve years, beginning with the year 1859, she taught in country suburbs, either on the public or subscription foundation; and her popularity in this work is · attested by the fact that her teaching was confined to three districts in the neighborhood of her old home, in one or the other of which she was ever sure of an engagement, and could always get a subscription school when the public money was exhausted. She is a lady of unusual culture and refinement, and remembers with pleasure her days of pedagogic life.

In 1871 she embarked in business in Harrison village, in a millinery and ladies' notion store, in which she remained about four years, until shortly before her marriage with Mr. BURK.

They have two children - Stephen James, who was born June 20, 1876, and Martha Estella, who was born November 20, 1879. She is a member of the Presbyterian church in Harrison, and has lived in the faith of that denomination since her childhood. It has been the faith of her father and his ancestors for several generations, and of most of her relatives. Her mother is English-born, coming with her parents to Dearborn county, Indiana, in June, in the year 1831, and is of the Church of England, or Episcopal faith. Both of her parents are still living.

Her father is of English and Irish stock, and came to this part of the country with his parents in 1816.