Merced County Biographies

HENRY F. BURKE

Transcribed by Kathy Sedler

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


        From early youth to the present day, Henry F. Burke, who has the agency 
of the Paige and Jewett cars at Merced, has always been interested in and 
operating some sort of instrument or appliance for locomotion. The son of Henry 
F. and Frances (Bittell) Burke, he was born in Cleveland, Ohio, February 11, 
1881, and attended the local public school until he was thirteen years of age, 
when he became a jockey for two years. He then served an apprenticeship as a 
machinist for three years, after which he went into the bicycle business, all in 
Cleveland. As an amateur rider he won two prizes, riding to Geneva and return, 
but when he sold these prizes he was rated as a professional, which he practiced 
for three years in connection with the bicycle business. He won a number of 
century medals for riding 100 miles a day. In 1889 he was engaged in working on 
the first Winton car built. After that he was in the Buick and the Packard 
factories, and in the Kissel factory in Wisconsin two years. Through the 
succeeding years he worked in various States, North and South. For a year and a 
half he was in business in Louisiana, and then went to Texas. From there he came 
to California and in 1920 located in Merced. He worked on a salary for a time 
and then engaged in business for himself. He started in a modest way on October 
20, 1921, and now employs five men in his present location at 345 Seventeenth 
Street, with the agency of the Paige and Jewett cars.
        Mr. Burke was united in marriage with Miss Emma Nelson, of Louisiana, 
who shares with him the high regard of many friends. Mr. Burke is not tied to 
any party; he votes for the men and measures which seem to be for the best 
interest to the greatest number. He is a member of the Moose fraternity. He is 
fond of outdoor life and motoring, and made the record from Merced to Yosemite 
Valley on June 1, 1923, driving in a blinding storm, in three hours and 
twenty-six minutes. Highly respected and public-spirited, he has won a place in 
the foremost ranks of representative citizens.
 
History of Merced County, California � Los Angeles, Historic Record Co., 1925
page 860-861