J. Kate Burgess

(1830 – 1902)

J. Kate Burgess was born in Mason County, KY on March 12, 1830 to John D. Burgess, a native of Maryland, and Lydia M. Wise of Virginia. His paternal grandfather, Joshua Burgess, had been a captain during the Revolutionary War.

Burgess began tilling the soil at a very young age and attended the common schools. He started a livery stable in Millersburg, Bourbon County, KY in 1853 but moved to St. Joseph, MO in 1855 to open a livery stable there. In 1856 he married Lucinda Holliday, niece of Ben Holliday, owner of the Stage Coach Line running from the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. By 1858 he had moved five miles south of St. Joseph and was engaged in agriculture for the next five years. Between 1863 and 1867, Burgess entered the stock trade in St. Joseph then returned to farming where he raised Berkshire hogs. In 1874 he went back to the livery business and continued until his retirement.

He and his wife, Lucinda, were the parents of seven children: William D., Mary M., Minnie N., Ward M., John E., Katie, and Guy. Unfortunately, their youngest child, Guy, passed away in June, 1881.

On February 10, 1902, Burgess died at the age of 77 at the Memorial Home for the Aged in St. Joseph, MO.

Death of J. K. Burgess at Memorial Home. (1902, February 11). The St. Joseph Gazette-Herald, p. 5.

History of Buchanan County, Missouri: A history of the county, its cities, towns, etc. (1881).

St. Joseph, MO: St. Joseph Steam Printing.

A Sore Loss. (1881, June 19). St. Joseph Daily Gazette, p. 4.