“Lost Grove Township, Webster County, IA, 1869-1969,” p. 107.
John Alfred Burman was born in Sweden on July 28, 1849 and came to this country in 1869. He located at Altona, Knox County, Illinois, arriving there with only a few dollars in his pockets and handicapped with the necessity of learning the new language but with a determination of making a success in this new land.
His first employment was with the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad and later he became interested in agriculture, so for a time was employed on a farm. As he became more interested in this work, he rented some land and began farming there.
In 1876 he moved to Lost Grove Township in Webster County, Iowa, where he rented some land and continued farming until 1877, when he purchased 80 acres of land in Paton Township, Greene County. Later he bought 200 more acres of land. This was virgin soil, and water and prairie grass were problems they must work with – plus the severe winters and no roads convenient to travel for their supplies – such as fuel, food, and physical needs, such as doctors and medicine. Even the neighbors were far apart.
On March 26, 1876, he married Mathilda L. Johnson, who was born in Sweden on March 13, 1852. She came to the country in 1870 and located in Illinois. To this union were born – Hannah (Mrs. Theodore Ecklund), Sophie (Mrs. David E. Carlson), Alice, Edith (Mrs. Carl Roos), and Esther (Mrs. Albert Bjork). These are all deceased. Two surviving children [as of 1969] are Ruth (Mrs. Hjalmar Olson) of Pompano, Florida, and Paul of Lanyon, Iowa.
Mr. and Mrs. Burman were interested from their early years in the religious atmosphere for not only themselves, but for their children. They united with the Lost Grove Mission Church in Lost Grove Township in 1878, as among the founders of this church. It was organized on September 1, 1877, and is now the Evangelical Covenant Church of Lanyon. They were faithful members serving in various capacities, as Mr. Burman served on the Church board as Chairman, Deacon, and Trustee. Also, he was interested in community affairs, serving on the boards of the Farmers Elevator Company and the Lanyon Mutual Telephone Company.
The family retired from the farm in 1903 and moved to Lanyon, where they resided the rest of their lives. Mr. Burman died in March, 1931, and Mrs. Burman in November of the same year.
Note: John Burman’s father, Anders Magnus Johansson, changed his name to Burman when he came to America in the late 1860s. John Burman and Johanna Dorothea Andersdotter Burman were siblings. She married Johan Peter Göransson (“YUR-ahn-son”), who had changed his difficult surname to Johnson in the U.S.
Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bure_kinship.
The Bure kinship (Swedish: Bureätten) is a Scandinavian kinship, centered largely in the Skellefteå and Bureå areas in Northern Sweden….
Published by JLCoss 30 October 2020.