William Burchill

William Burchill (1855-1924) was born in the Parish of Desert, County Cork, Ireland, the son of Samuel and Anna Damrey Burchill. As was the custom, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker to learn the trade. He joined the navy and served for some years. In 1875 he sailed for Australia and became interested in sugar plantations and gold mines. He returned to Ireland in 1880 and came to America to join his brother John who had come the year before. He filed on a claim in Baldwin Township, and received title to this land in 1885. Baldwin Township was named for Rev. Baldwin an early day minister of the Presbyterian Church. In 1883 Mr. Burchill returned to Ireland to bring his mother to live with him; she filed on a quarter of land and proved up on it. In 1893 Mr. Burchill went again to Ireland where he married Sarah Anna Burchill (1873-1955), a distant relative and daughter of Henry and Mary Ann (Spillane) Burchill. They were married in the Parish Church at Clonakilty, the church in which he was confirmed. Mrs. Sarah Anna Burchill filed on a quarter of land, thus making three quarters in the Burchill holdings. Thru purchase, the farm owned by Mr. Burchill at his death amounted to eighteen quarters. He hauled grain to Page, North Dakota, sometimes as many as twelve four-horse grain tanks made the thirty-two mile round trip each day. At times they had as many as a hundred horses on the farm. Mail was brought from Valley City three times a week to Ashtabula Crossing, three miles west of the Burchill farm. The carrier drove up one day and back the next. When the Great Northern Railroad Surrey cut-off created the towns of Pillsbury and Luverne they had post offices and rural free delivery came in. Mr. Burchill had an auction sale in 1919 and moved into Valley City leaving the farming operations to his four sons. At his death the land was divided between the members of his family. His son James received the Homestead and it is now owned by his son Richard J. Burchill.

Mr. and Mrs. William Burchill had eight children:

  1. John H.;

  2. Anna - Mrs. Erle Fouks;

  3. William R.;

  4. James S.;

  5. Cecelia -Mrs. Walter Downs;

  6. Herman A.;

  7. Gladys - Mrs. Gordon McCutcheon;

  8. Frances -Mrs. Mervyn Anderson.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 41