Lillian Burkhart Briscoe

BORN:  30 May 1867 • Burlington, Des Moines, Iowa
DIED:  25 Oct 1917 • Yuma, Yuma, Colorado
MARRIED: 17 Apr 1884 • James Richard Briscoe

Lillian (Lillie) Burkhart Briscoe was the 8th child of Charles and Lucinda Burkhart, born on May 30, 1869 in Burlington, Des Moines County, Iowa. Burlington is situated along the Mississippi River and was a busy river port in the steamboat era. The area was populated predominantly by German immigrants.

Des Moines County, Iowa

The BURKHART Family

Census records show that Charles Burkhart was born in Austria in 1820. Austria was a part of the Austro-Hungarian empire until after WWI. Very few Austrians immigrated to the United States during the first half of the nineteenth century; fewer than 1,000 were listed in census records by 1850. Those who did come settled in Illinois and Iowa. It's not known exactly when Charles came to America, but he was here by 1860 and living in Benton Township, Des Moines County, Iowa with his wife Lucinda (Edgerton) and 4 children:

• Charles Burkhart-32
• Lucinda Burkhart-33
• Mary Johnson-8
• Charles Johnson-6
• Jonathan Johnson-4
• Elizabeth Burkhart-1

Lucinda Edgerton was born in 1827 in Ohio. The surname Edgerton is English, originating in the counties of Cheshire, Kent, and West Yorkshire. I wasn't able to find any definitive records for her parents or siblings. She was probably married before, as there are three children with the surname of Johnson, indicating she may have been a widow at the time of her marriage to Charles.

The family owned a farm in Benton Township valued at $1720 and employed two farmhands who also lived on the property.

Map of Benton Township, 1885

Iowa Farm, 1875

By the 1870 Census, Charles and Jonathan were using Burkhart as a surname. Mary, who would have been 18, was not listed in the household in 1870:

• Charles-43
• Lucinda-43
• Charles J-16
• Jonathan-14
• Elizabeth-11
• Lavina-9
• Franklin-7
• Henry-5
• Lillie-1 (my great-great-grandmother)
• Sophia Lena (born after census in 1872)

By 1885, the widowed Lucinda Burkhart moved her family to Adams County, Iowa, the adjacent county to Montgomery, where the Briscoes lived in 1880.

The BRISCOE Family

John Briscoe was born in Yardley, Worcestershire, England in 1802. He married Susanna Lucas (b. 1801) in 1830 in Birmingham, England. They had three sons, all born in Yardley:

• Richard-1831
• William Thomas (my great-great grandfather)-1833
• Joseph-1838

William Thomas married Mary Doyle (born in Ireland) in Wales on June 19, 1853. Her occupation is listed as "spinster" which was a term used for un-married young women considered beyond the usual age of marriage. Mary was 22 when she married William. 

The Briscoe family immigrated to New York in 1854 on a ship named Isca.  

William and his wife Mary (Doyle) are not on this list, they may have traveled separately.
Their first son was born in New York in 1854.  

In the 1860 Census, the Briscoes are living and farming on 160 acres in Grant County, Wisconsin. 

Dwelling 1091:

• John-59
• Susanna-59
• Joseph-23

Dwelling 1092:

• William-27
• Mary (Doyle)-27 born in Ireland
• John-7-born in New York
• Susanna-5-born in Wisconsin
• James (my great-great grandfather)-4-born in Wisconsin
• Mary-3-born in Wisconsin
• William-3-born in Wisconsin
• Stephen Doyle-35-born in Ireland (probably Mary's brother)
• James Doyle-6-son of Stephen, born in England
• John Doyle-4-son of Stephen, born in England

Dwelling 1093:

• Richard Briscoe-28
• Maria (Anstey)-26
• Catherine-2
• Thomas-1

Briscoe Family farms, Little Grant, Wisconsin

Interesting side note: in the 1851 England Census, Richard Briscoe is listed as a "visitor" at the Anstey home:

 

Nine years later Richard and Maria are married with 2 children living in Wisconsin. 

By 1880, William and Mary Briscoe moved from Wisconsin to Cass County, Iowa, where they farmed:

• William-48
• Mary-50
• James-24
• Mary Ann-22
• William-21
• Joseph-17
• Charles-15
• Hannah-11

This is where James and Lucinda met and were married on April 17, 1884 in Grant City, Montgomery County, Iowa. Lillian was 16 and James was 27. The average age for marriage during that time was 22 so she was young even by the standard of the day. EXACTLY nine months later on January 17, 1885, their first child Lucinda was born in Red Oak, Montgomery County, Iowa. Over the next 24 years, Lillian had a total of ten children, three of whom preceded her in death:

• Lucinda-1885-1966 (my great grandmother)
• Mable Susanne-1886-1907
• Olive-1887-1908
• Gordon Leo-1889-1952
• Nellie Alberta-1892-1936
• Richard James-1893-1983
• Charles Edgerton-1895-1895
• Lillian Isabel-1900-1964
• Joseph Earl-1903-1964
• Maurice Edward-1909-1958

In 1895, the family was living in Cumberland, Cass County, Iowa. Matilda and William Ellenwood also lived in Montgomery County. This is where Lucinda Briscoe and Giles Henry Ellenwood would meet and eventually marry in 1911. 

Sometime around 1915, the Briscoes and the Ellenwoods left Iowa and moved to Yuma, Colorado where they continued to farm. Lucinda and Giles had three children:

• Doris Eileen-1912-Iowa
• James Henry-1913 Iowa (my grandfather)
• Jane was born in Colorado in 1919. 

Lillian Burkhart Briscoe died in Yuma, Colorado on October 25, 1917 at the age of 50. I'm not sure what the cause of death was, but her young age indicates an accident or serious illness. She still had 3 children under the age of 18. They continued to live with their father in Colorado and near to older sister Lucinda. Lillie is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Cumberland, Cass County, Iowa. 

James Briscoe died January 15, 1927 at the age of 69, he is buried near Lillie in Iowa.