Alright, I won't leave you in suspense any longer! I will tell you who Bernice Tate Burwell is and how my daughter and I made our way to St. Louis to check out the Burwell-Tate Papers.
As part of my Burwell family research, I ran across this post by Michele Paplanus on a family tree site. I don't recall if I found the Burwell Tate Papers through her post or through my own google search, but regardless, it was starting to connect some dots for me. And, I was pretty confident that I had found a descendant of Moses Burwell!
I reached out to Michele via the KinsandKonnections website. It turns out Moses is her third great-grandfather (great-great-great grandfather). Moses' oldest son John William is her great-great grandfather. He met her great-great grandmother while living in Normal. As you can see from the marriage license entry, John William Burwell's occupation was listed as a fruit canner. He worked for his dad at the Canning Factory!
I shared with Michele what our association was doing. She was very excited to hear that we were trying to save a piece of her family's history. I shared our website and blogs, as well as, our Gibson City Restoration Association Facebook page, so she could follow along with our progress.
After my last blog about Moses T Burwell's life, Michele reached out to me again. It turns out that Moses did indeed live in Bloomington-Normal after starting the canning company. His obituary mentioned living in Bloomington, but I couldn't find any evidence of that. So, I incorrectly mentioned that the move to Bloomington never happened (which isn't wrong, but I incorrectly assumed he had stayed in Gibson City). Michele shared an image from the Normal directory showing that Moses lived on Fell Ave. How exciting!! If anyone knows what house this might be (this was before they numbered the houses), I would love to know if it is still there.
Michele also suggested that I check out the Burwell-Tate Papers since she knew there were family photos in this collection. So, I reached out to the State Historical Society of Missouri to see if I could get photocopies of some of the photos. I was also very interested in knowing if there were any photos of the inside of the Opera House in there (surely there has to be at least one photo of the inside, right!? Please!?). The nice lady at the Kansas City branch said that she couldn't wade through all the items in this collection. but she could send them to their St. Louis branch for me to take a look. So, you know what that means? Road trip!!
My daughter, Madison, has been helping me with the research of grants and the Burwell family, so she was equally excited as I was to see what the Burwell-Tate papers revealed. She offered to make the trip with me - girls road trip!! Yay!
We were pleasantly surprised to discover that Bernice Tate Burwell (who was married to Moses' youngest son Guy) was manager and later the owner of the Horner-Kansas City Conservatory of Music. She was also a writer and produced musical shows. She also had her own radio show at KCKN Radio. The picture below is of a transcript from her show. How cool is that?
I was also additionally surprised to find out that Guy and Bernice's daughter, Helen, was just as famous as her mother. She graduated from the Horner Institute of Fine Arts with a specialty in dance. Her mother and her would later partner on performances such as the President's Birthday Ball. As can be seen from the program below, Bernice was the Prologue Director and Helen was one of the Dance Directors. Helen also composed and directed the President's Birthday Waltz.
It appears that Moses wasn't the only Burwell who loved to entertain the people. The Burwell's have a history of providing arts and entertainment to their communities.
As my daughter and I were leaving the Historical Society of Missouri, we saw this beautiful stone archway with a quote inscribed on the face. As I started reading it, I caught my breath. The quote was by none other than Carl Sandburg (remember his ties to the Burwell Buidling? If not, go back and re-read the blog titled "Change are in store")!
This was a sign...a sign to stay the course and to realize our dreams of restoring the Burwell Building...
Nothing Happens Unless First a Dream ~Carl Sandburg~
Speaking of that dream. The Gibson City Restoration Association closed on the purchase of the Burwell Building this week!!! We are one step closer to that dream becoming reality!
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