Civil War veteran. Private in the 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry; wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga.
Jasper Burge, the eldest child of Mary E. (née Payne) and blacksmith John S. Burge, was born on 19 November 1842 in Indiana, probably in Noblesville, Hamilton County, where his parents were married on 3 November 1842. The Burge family in 1850 and 1860 was enumerated in neighboring Clinton County's Michigan Township. In his youth, Jasper Burge was a farmer, blacksmith, and tanner.
President Abraham Lincoln on 3 May 1861 issued a call for volunteers to serve for 3 years in regiments being organized by state governments. Jasper Burge, then age 18, enrolled as a private for 3 years' service on 22 August 1861 in Michigantown, Michigan Township. On 18 September 1861 at Indianapolis, Indiana, Private Jasper Burge mustered in with Company C, 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. (Company C was composed of men from Clinton County.)
The 10th Indiana was a front-line combat unit that saw action in a dozen battles, sieges, and campaigns. Among these was the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 and 20 September 1863 in northwestern Georgia.
On 19 September, "By 9 o'clock the wounded began to arrive. Jasper Berge [sic ], Company C (Tenth Indiana) was the first man wounded in the battle and was the first at the hospital. Surgeon Sloat of the Fourteenth Ohio and the Hospital Steward of the Tenth Indiana, performed the operation of extracting the ball, which was flattened out as large as a silver dollar." The next day, the hospital tents came under Confederate bombardment. Private Burge and others were loaded onto an ambulance wagon, which fled just before Confederate troops entered the hospital.*
Private Burge and his regiment, upon expiration of their term of service, were mustered out on 19 September 1864 in Indianapolis. Returning home to Clinton County, he became a brick mason and plasterer. He filed for an invalid's pension on 7 November 1864.
Jasper Burge and "Annie" Higgins were married on 21 November 1872 in Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. Anna, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was born in New York City, and in childhood moved to Bloomington. The couple were the parents of four children—two daughters, two sons—all born in the 1870s in or near Bloomington. In 1880, Jasper Burge was a bar keeper in Bloomington.
Jasper and Anna Burge's family moved in 1881 to Fisher, Champaign County, Illinois, and he resumed working as a plasterer. (Jasper Burge's parents and siblings had moved in 1868 to Illinois, and his father about 1876 set up the first blacksmith shop in Fisher.) According to an 1883 Champaign County pensioners roll, Jasper Burge of Fisher was receiving $2 a month for a "g. s. w. r. hip"—a gun-shot wound to the right hip.
In the late 1890s, the couple's younger son John S. died in a hunting accident, and their younger, married daughter Mary E. Hummel, died following an appendectomy. Jasper and Anna "Birch" in 1900 were enumerated in Fisher (he was working as a plasterer). In 1910, the couple were living in Champaign, Champaign County (he was then a church janitor), and in 1912 returned to Fisher. In Fisher, he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) Van Wert Post No. 300.
Jasper Burge of Fisher was first admitted in April 1925 to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Danville Branch, in Danville, Illinois, suffering a list of ailments. According to the National Home's records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, had blue eyes and fair complexion, and—at age 82—gray hair. His occupation was plasterer. In July 1925, he was transferred to, and discharged from, the National Home's Central Branch in Dayton, Ohio. He was re-admitted four times to the Danville Branch; the last time in March 1928. He died there about a month later on 9 April 1928 from pneumonia and a fractured left hip.
Jasper Burge was survived by his wife Anna, and their two older children: Julia Davis (formerly Paulus), and Charles Franklin Burge. Anna died in 1941 at the age of 92.
Date and place of birth
"Jasper Burge of Fisher was a guest at the home of his son, Charles Burge [...] for the weekend. As Sunday [19 Nov 1916] was his seventy-fourth birthday anniversary, a number of his friends gave a surprise party for him." ("Jasper Burge is Surprised," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 20 Nov 1916, p. 2.)
In a 1925 profile of Civil War veterans (see below), Jasper Burge was reported to have been "born in Connersville, Ind." This seems doubtful. Jasper was born 16 days after his parents were married in Noblesville. Connersville (in Fayette County) and Noblesville are 54 miles apart (straight line; 83 miles on modern roads), and neither the Burge nor Payne family had any known connection with Fayette County.
Notes
Variant spellings of the surname include: Barge, Bearge, Berge (in some military records), Birch, and Burge.
1860 U.S. Census, Michigan Twp., Clinton Co., Indiana; dwelling 16, family 16, lines 38-40 & 1-4, pp. 2-3 (written), 1 Jun 1860. (Post Office: Michigantown)
38. John S. Burge, 45, Master Blacksmith ($500; $250), N. J.
39. Mary E. -----, 36, Ohio.
40. Jasper -----, 16, farmer, Ind.
1. Charlotte Burge, 10, Ind.
2. William -----, 8, Ind.
3. Francis M., 4, Ind.
4. John -----, 1, Ind.
"Michigan [Twp.] | 14 Barge Jasper | 18 | W | Blacksmith" (U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, Aug 1863.)
* James Birney Shaw, History of the Tenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: Three Months and Three Years Organizations (Lafayette, Indiana: Burt-Haywood Co., 1912), pp. 237-38. At Chickamauga, Company C's casualties were 1 killed, 5 wounded, and 1 captured. The regiment's colonel was killed in action.
1870 U.S. Census: not found. Future wife Annie Higgins in Bloomington, Indiana.
"BURGE Jasper | HIGGINS Annie | 21 Nov 1872 | [book] 5 [page] 403" (Genealogy Trails of Monroe County, "Indiana, Monroe County Indiana Marriage Records, 1851 - 1881.")
"—BURGE—HIGGINS—on the 21st inst., by Z. T. Coffin, Esq., Mr. Jasper Burge to Miss Annie Higgins." ("Married," The Bloomington Progress, Bloomington, Indiana, 27 Nov 1872, p. 3.) Zachariah Coffin was a Bloomington resident.
1880 U.S. Census, E.D. 283, Bloomington, Bloomington Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana; dwelling 273, family 313, lines 24-29, p. 75B (printed), p. 30 (written), 18 Jun 1880.
24. Burge, "Josher H," 30 [head], Bar Keeper; self and parents born in Ind.
25. ----- Annie, 24, wife, Keeping House; born in NY, parents in Ireland.
26. ----- Julia, 7, dau., Ind.
27. ----- Charles, 5, son, Ind.
28. ----- Mary, 3, dau., Ind.
29. ----- John, 1, son, Ind.
• Anna's father and step-mother in same enumeration district in dwelling 192 on p. 21 (written).
"Father Burge of Staley, aged eighty-seven years, died Tuesday [19 Feb 1895] [...] He [resided] with the family of his son, A. T. Burge […] He had lived for many years at Fisher where resides another son, Jasper Burge, who was with his father during the last illness." ("Death [of] an Aged Citizen [Father Burge]," The Champaign County News, Champaign, Illinois, 23 Feb 1895, p. 1.)
1900 U.S. Census, E.D. 13, East Bend Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 1, family 1, lines 1-3, p. 24 (printed), 2 Jun 1900. ("Fisher" lined through.)
1. "Birch," Jasper, head, Dec 1843, 56, married 30 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; plasterer.
2. ----- Anna, wife, May 1853, 47, married 30 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
3. ----- Charles F., son, Feb 1874, 26, single, Indiana, day laborer.
• Apparently lived just outside Fisher.
Elected township constable. ("East Bend," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 21 Mar 1902, p. 5.)
Local newspaper reported Jasper Burge suffering from heart and kidney ailments, and he received x-ray treatment for cancer.
1910 U.S. Census, E.D. 5, Ward 2, Champaign, Champaign Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 105, family 115, lines 75-78, p. 5B (written), 18 Apr 1910.
75. Burge, Jasper, head, "48," first marriage, married 37 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; janitor, church.
76. ----- Annie, wife, 58, first marriage, married 37 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
77. ----- Charles F., son, 36, widowed; self and father born in Indiana, mother in New York; laborer, odd jobs.
78. Hummel, Orpha, granddaughter, 15; born in Illinois, parents in Indiana.
"Jasper Burge" in: "Five Civil War Veterans Now Residing in Fisher, Had Interesting Careers," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 19 Feb 1927, p. 19.
• In the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses, Anna Burge reported to have had four children.
"Jasper Burge," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 11 Apr 1928, p. 2.
"Memory of Jasper Burge is Honored," The Urbana Daily Courier, Urbana, Illinois, 13 Apr 1928, p. 8.
According to an index of Illinois deaths, Jasper "Berge," age 85, married, was born on 10 Oct 1842 in Indiana; died on 9 Apr 1928 in Danville, Vermilion Co.; buried on 11 Apr 1928 at Fisher, Illinois. He was a plasterer.
"The will of Jasper Burge, Fisher, was filed yesterday [...] All of his property is being bequeathed to this wife, Anna Burge. Upon her death the estate is to be divided equally among this three children, Julia Davis, Orpha Hummel, and Charles F. Burge." ("Burge Will is Filed with County Clerk," The Daily Illini, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 14 Apr 1928, p. 3.)
• Orpha was a granddaughter; his late daughter Mary's child.
Research note
An Urbana Free Library index indicates Jasper Burge mentioned in several articles in the Champaign News-Gazette, which are not available online. These include: "Only a Few Civil War Veterans Survive Time," 31 May 1927; "Jasper Burge, Civil War Vet, Answers Call," 10 Apr 1928; and "Funeral Rites are Held for Jasper Burge," 12 Apr 1928.
Bio. by blueheron14, updated 18 November 2022.
Jasper Burge, the eldest child of Mary E. (née Payne) and blacksmith John S. Burge, was born on 19 November 1842 in Indiana, probably in Noblesville, Hamilton County, where his parents were married on 3 November 1842. The Burge family in 1850 and 1860 was enumerated in neighboring Clinton County's Michigan Township. In his youth, Jasper Burge was a farmer, blacksmith, and tanner.
President Abraham Lincoln on 3 May 1861 issued a call for volunteers to serve for 3 years in regiments being organized by state governments. Jasper Burge, then age 18, enrolled as a private for 3 years' service on 22 August 1861 in Michigantown, Michigan Township. On 18 September 1861 at Indianapolis, Indiana, Private Jasper Burge mustered in with Company C, 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. (Company C was composed of men from Clinton County.)
The 10th Indiana was a front-line combat unit that saw action in a dozen battles, sieges, and campaigns. Among these was the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 and 20 September 1863 in northwestern Georgia.
On 19 September, "By 9 o'clock the wounded began to arrive. Jasper Berge [sic ], Company C (Tenth Indiana) was the first man wounded in the battle and was the first at the hospital. Surgeon Sloat of the Fourteenth Ohio and the Hospital Steward of the Tenth Indiana, performed the operation of extracting the ball, which was flattened out as large as a silver dollar." The next day, the hospital tents came under Confederate bombardment. Private Burge and others were loaded onto an ambulance wagon, which fled just before Confederate troops entered the hospital.*
Private Burge and his regiment, upon expiration of their term of service, were mustered out on 19 September 1864 in Indianapolis. Returning home to Clinton County, he became a brick mason and plasterer. He filed for an invalid's pension on 7 November 1864.
Jasper Burge and "Annie" Higgins were married on 21 November 1872 in Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. Anna, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was born in New York City, and in childhood moved to Bloomington. The couple were the parents of four children—two daughters, two sons—all born in the 1870s in or near Bloomington. In 1880, Jasper Burge was a bar keeper in Bloomington.
Jasper and Anna Burge's family moved in 1881 to Fisher, Champaign County, Illinois, and he resumed working as a plasterer. (Jasper Burge's parents and siblings had moved in 1868 to Illinois, and his father about 1876 set up the first blacksmith shop in Fisher.) According to an 1883 Champaign County pensioners roll, Jasper Burge of Fisher was receiving $2 a month for a "g. s. w. r. hip"—a gun-shot wound to the right hip.
In the late 1890s, the couple's younger son John S. died in a hunting accident, and their younger, married daughter Mary E. Hummel, died following an appendectomy. Jasper and Anna "Birch" in 1900 were enumerated in Fisher (he was working as a plasterer). In 1910, the couple were living in Champaign, Champaign County (he was then a church janitor), and in 1912 returned to Fisher. In Fisher, he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) Van Wert Post No. 300.
Jasper Burge of Fisher was first admitted in April 1925 to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Danville Branch, in Danville, Illinois, suffering a list of ailments. According to the National Home's records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, had blue eyes and fair complexion, and—at age 82—gray hair. His occupation was plasterer. In July 1925, he was transferred to, and discharged from, the National Home's Central Branch in Dayton, Ohio. He was re-admitted four times to the Danville Branch; the last time in March 1928. He died there about a month later on 9 April 1928 from pneumonia and a fractured left hip.
Jasper Burge was survived by his wife Anna, and their two older children: Julia Davis (formerly Paulus), and Charles Franklin Burge. Anna died in 1941 at the age of 92.
Date and place of birth
"Jasper Burge of Fisher was a guest at the home of his son, Charles Burge [...] for the weekend. As Sunday [19 Nov 1916] was his seventy-fourth birthday anniversary, a number of his friends gave a surprise party for him." ("Jasper Burge is Surprised," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 20 Nov 1916, p. 2.)
In a 1925 profile of Civil War veterans (see below), Jasper Burge was reported to have been "born in Connersville, Ind." This seems doubtful. Jasper was born 16 days after his parents were married in Noblesville. Connersville (in Fayette County) and Noblesville are 54 miles apart (straight line; 83 miles on modern roads), and neither the Burge nor Payne family had any known connection with Fayette County.
Notes
Variant spellings of the surname include: Barge, Bearge, Berge (in some military records), Birch, and Burge.
1860 U.S. Census, Michigan Twp., Clinton Co., Indiana; dwelling 16, family 16, lines 38-40 & 1-4, pp. 2-3 (written), 1 Jun 1860. (Post Office: Michigantown)
38. John S. Burge, 45, Master Blacksmith ($500; $250), N. J.
39. Mary E. -----, 36, Ohio.
40. Jasper -----, 16, farmer, Ind.
1. Charlotte Burge, 10, Ind.
2. William -----, 8, Ind.
3. Francis M., 4, Ind.
4. John -----, 1, Ind.
"Michigan [Twp.] | 14 Barge Jasper | 18 | W | Blacksmith" (U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, Aug 1863.)
* James Birney Shaw, History of the Tenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: Three Months and Three Years Organizations (Lafayette, Indiana: Burt-Haywood Co., 1912), pp. 237-38. At Chickamauga, Company C's casualties were 1 killed, 5 wounded, and 1 captured. The regiment's colonel was killed in action.
1870 U.S. Census: not found. Future wife Annie Higgins in Bloomington, Indiana.
"BURGE Jasper | HIGGINS Annie | 21 Nov 1872 | [book] 5 [page] 403" (Genealogy Trails of Monroe County, "Indiana, Monroe County Indiana Marriage Records, 1851 - 1881.")
"—BURGE—HIGGINS—on the 21st inst., by Z. T. Coffin, Esq., Mr. Jasper Burge to Miss Annie Higgins." ("Married," The Bloomington Progress, Bloomington, Indiana, 27 Nov 1872, p. 3.) Zachariah Coffin was a Bloomington resident.
1880 U.S. Census, E.D. 283, Bloomington, Bloomington Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana; dwelling 273, family 313, lines 24-29, p. 75B (printed), p. 30 (written), 18 Jun 1880.
24. Burge, "Josher H," 30 [head], Bar Keeper; self and parents born in Ind.
25. ----- Annie, 24, wife, Keeping House; born in NY, parents in Ireland.
26. ----- Julia, 7, dau., Ind.
27. ----- Charles, 5, son, Ind.
28. ----- Mary, 3, dau., Ind.
29. ----- John, 1, son, Ind.
• Anna's father and step-mother in same enumeration district in dwelling 192 on p. 21 (written).
"Father Burge of Staley, aged eighty-seven years, died Tuesday [19 Feb 1895] [...] He [resided] with the family of his son, A. T. Burge […] He had lived for many years at Fisher where resides another son, Jasper Burge, who was with his father during the last illness." ("Death [of] an Aged Citizen [Father Burge]," The Champaign County News, Champaign, Illinois, 23 Feb 1895, p. 1.)
1900 U.S. Census, E.D. 13, East Bend Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 1, family 1, lines 1-3, p. 24 (printed), 2 Jun 1900. ("Fisher" lined through.)
1. "Birch," Jasper, head, Dec 1843, 56, married 30 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; plasterer.
2. ----- Anna, wife, May 1853, 47, married 30 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
3. ----- Charles F., son, Feb 1874, 26, single, Indiana, day laborer.
• Apparently lived just outside Fisher.
Elected township constable. ("East Bend," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 21 Mar 1902, p. 5.)
Local newspaper reported Jasper Burge suffering from heart and kidney ailments, and he received x-ray treatment for cancer.
1910 U.S. Census, E.D. 5, Ward 2, Champaign, Champaign Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 105, family 115, lines 75-78, p. 5B (written), 18 Apr 1910.
75. Burge, Jasper, head, "48," first marriage, married 37 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; janitor, church.
76. ----- Annie, wife, 58, first marriage, married 37 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
77. ----- Charles F., son, 36, widowed; self and father born in Indiana, mother in New York; laborer, odd jobs.
78. Hummel, Orpha, granddaughter, 15; born in Illinois, parents in Indiana.
"Jasper Burge" in: "Five Civil War Veterans Now Residing in Fisher, Had Interesting Careers," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 19 Feb 1927, p. 19.
• In the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses, Anna Burge reported to have had four children.
"Jasper Burge," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 11 Apr 1928, p. 2.
"Memory of Jasper Burge is Honored," The Urbana Daily Courier, Urbana, Illinois, 13 Apr 1928, p. 8.
According to an index of Illinois deaths, Jasper "Berge," age 85, married, was born on 10 Oct 1842 in Indiana; died on 9 Apr 1928 in Danville, Vermilion Co.; buried on 11 Apr 1928 at Fisher, Illinois. He was a plasterer.
"The will of Jasper Burge, Fisher, was filed yesterday [...] All of his property is being bequeathed to this wife, Anna Burge. Upon her death the estate is to be divided equally among this three children, Julia Davis, Orpha Hummel, and Charles F. Burge." ("Burge Will is Filed with County Clerk," The Daily Illini, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 14 Apr 1928, p. 3.)
• Orpha was a granddaughter; his late daughter Mary's child.
Research note
An Urbana Free Library index indicates Jasper Burge mentioned in several articles in the Champaign News-Gazette, which are not available online. These include: "Only a Few Civil War Veterans Survive Time," 31 May 1927; "Jasper Burge, Civil War Vet, Answers Call," 10 Apr 1928; and "Funeral Rites are Held for Jasper Burge," 12 Apr 1928.
Bio. by blueheron14, updated 18 November 2022.
Civil War veteran. Private in the 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry; wounded at the Battle of Chickamauga.
Jasper Burge, the eldest child of Mary E. (née Payne) and blacksmith John S. Burge, was born on 19 November 1842 in Indiana, probably in Noblesville, Hamilton County, where his parents were married on 3 November 1842. The Burge family in 1850 and 1860 was enumerated in neighboring Clinton County's Michigan Township. In his youth, Jasper Burge was a farmer, blacksmith, and tanner.
President Abraham Lincoln on 3 May 1861 issued a call for volunteers to serve for 3 years in regiments being organized by state governments. Jasper Burge, then age 18, enrolled as a private for 3 years' service on 22 August 1861 in Michigantown, Michigan Township. On 18 September 1861 at Indianapolis, Indiana, Private Jasper Burge mustered in with Company C, 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. (Company C was composed of men from Clinton County.)
The 10th Indiana was a front-line combat unit that saw action in a dozen battles, sieges, and campaigns. Among these was the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 and 20 September 1863 in northwestern Georgia.
On 19 September, "By 9 o'clock the wounded began to arrive. Jasper Berge [sic ], Company C (Tenth Indiana) was the first man wounded in the battle and was the first at the hospital. Surgeon Sloat of the Fourteenth Ohio and the Hospital Steward of the Tenth Indiana, performed the operation of extracting the ball, which was flattened out as large as a silver dollar." The next day, the hospital tents came under Confederate bombardment. Private Burge and others were loaded onto an ambulance wagon, which fled just before Confederate troops entered the hospital.*
Private Burge and his regiment, upon expiration of their term of service, were mustered out on 19 September 1864 in Indianapolis. Returning home to Clinton County, he became a brick mason and plasterer. He filed for an invalid's pension on 7 November 1864.
Jasper Burge and "Annie" Higgins were married on 21 November 1872 in Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. Anna, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was born in New York City, and in childhood moved to Bloomington. The couple were the parents of four children—two daughters, two sons—all born in the 1870s in or near Bloomington. In 1880, Jasper Burge was a bar keeper in Bloomington.
Jasper and Anna Burge's family moved in 1881 to Fisher, Champaign County, Illinois, and he resumed working as a plasterer. (Jasper Burge's parents and siblings had moved in 1868 to Illinois, and his father about 1876 set up the first blacksmith shop in Fisher.) According to an 1883 Champaign County pensioners roll, Jasper Burge of Fisher was receiving $2 a month for a "g. s. w. r. hip"—a gun-shot wound to the right hip.
In the late 1890s, the couple's younger son John S. died in a hunting accident, and their younger, married daughter Mary E. Hummel, died following an appendectomy. Jasper and Anna "Birch" in 1900 were enumerated in Fisher (he was working as a plasterer). In 1910, the couple were living in Champaign, Champaign County (he was then a church janitor), and in 1912 returned to Fisher. In Fisher, he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) Van Wert Post No. 300.
Jasper Burge of Fisher was first admitted in April 1925 to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Danville Branch, in Danville, Illinois, suffering a list of ailments. According to the National Home's records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, had blue eyes and fair complexion, and—at age 82—gray hair. His occupation was plasterer. In July 1925, he was transferred to, and discharged from, the National Home's Central Branch in Dayton, Ohio. He was re-admitted four times to the Danville Branch; the last time in March 1928. He died there about a month later on 9 April 1928 from pneumonia and a fractured left hip.
Jasper Burge was survived by his wife Anna, and their two older children: Julia Davis (formerly Paulus), and Charles Franklin Burge. Anna died in 1941 at the age of 92.
Date and place of birth
"Jasper Burge of Fisher was a guest at the home of his son, Charles Burge [...] for the weekend. As Sunday [19 Nov 1916] was his seventy-fourth birthday anniversary, a number of his friends gave a surprise party for him." ("Jasper Burge is Surprised," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 20 Nov 1916, p. 2.)
In a 1925 profile of Civil War veterans (see below), Jasper Burge was reported to have been "born in Connersville, Ind." This seems doubtful. Jasper was born 16 days after his parents were married in Noblesville. Connersville (in Fayette County) and Noblesville are 54 miles apart (straight line; 83 miles on modern roads), and neither the Burge nor Payne family had any known connection with Fayette County.
Notes
Variant spellings of the surname include: Barge, Bearge, Berge (in some military records), Birch, and Burge.
1860 U.S. Census, Michigan Twp., Clinton Co., Indiana; dwelling 16, family 16, lines 38-40 & 1-4, pp. 2-3 (written), 1 Jun 1860. (Post Office: Michigantown)
38. John S. Burge, 45, Master Blacksmith ($500; $250), N. J.
39. Mary E. -----, 36, Ohio.
40. Jasper -----, 16, farmer, Ind.
1. Charlotte Burge, 10, Ind.
2. William -----, 8, Ind.
3. Francis M., 4, Ind.
4. John -----, 1, Ind.
"Michigan [Twp.] | 14 Barge Jasper | 18 | W | Blacksmith" (U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, Aug 1863.)
* James Birney Shaw, History of the Tenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: Three Months and Three Years Organizations (Lafayette, Indiana: Burt-Haywood Co., 1912), pp. 237-38. At Chickamauga, Company C's casualties were 1 killed, 5 wounded, and 1 captured. The regiment's colonel was killed in action.
1870 U.S. Census: not found. Future wife Annie Higgins in Bloomington, Indiana.
"BURGE Jasper | HIGGINS Annie | 21 Nov 1872 | [book] 5 [page] 403" (Genealogy Trails of Monroe County, "Indiana, Monroe County Indiana Marriage Records, 1851 - 1881.")
"—BURGE—HIGGINS—on the 21st inst., by Z. T. Coffin, Esq., Mr. Jasper Burge to Miss Annie Higgins." ("Married," The Bloomington Progress, Bloomington, Indiana, 27 Nov 1872, p. 3.) Zachariah Coffin was a Bloomington resident.
1880 U.S. Census, E.D. 283, Bloomington, Bloomington Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana; dwelling 273, family 313, lines 24-29, p. 75B (printed), p. 30 (written), 18 Jun 1880.
24. Burge, "Josher H," 30 [head], Bar Keeper; self and parents born in Ind.
25. ----- Annie, 24, wife, Keeping House; born in NY, parents in Ireland.
26. ----- Julia, 7, dau., Ind.
27. ----- Charles, 5, son, Ind.
28. ----- Mary, 3, dau., Ind.
29. ----- John, 1, son, Ind.
• Anna's father and step-mother in same enumeration district in dwelling 192 on p. 21 (written).
"Father Burge of Staley, aged eighty-seven years, died Tuesday [19 Feb 1895] [...] He [resided] with the family of his son, A. T. Burge […] He had lived for many years at Fisher where resides another son, Jasper Burge, who was with his father during the last illness." ("Death [of] an Aged Citizen [Father Burge]," The Champaign County News, Champaign, Illinois, 23 Feb 1895, p. 1.)
1900 U.S. Census, E.D. 13, East Bend Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 1, family 1, lines 1-3, p. 24 (printed), 2 Jun 1900. ("Fisher" lined through.)
1. "Birch," Jasper, head, Dec 1843, 56, married 30 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; plasterer.
2. ----- Anna, wife, May 1853, 47, married 30 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
3. ----- Charles F., son, Feb 1874, 26, single, Indiana, day laborer.
• Apparently lived just outside Fisher.
Elected township constable. ("East Bend," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 21 Mar 1902, p. 5.)
Local newspaper reported Jasper Burge suffering from heart and kidney ailments, and he received x-ray treatment for cancer.
1910 U.S. Census, E.D. 5, Ward 2, Champaign, Champaign Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 105, family 115, lines 75-78, p. 5B (written), 18 Apr 1910.
75. Burge, Jasper, head, "48," first marriage, married 37 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; janitor, church.
76. ----- Annie, wife, 58, first marriage, married 37 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
77. ----- Charles F., son, 36, widowed; self and father born in Indiana, mother in New York; laborer, odd jobs.
78. Hummel, Orpha, granddaughter, 15; born in Illinois, parents in Indiana.
"Jasper Burge" in: "Five Civil War Veterans Now Residing in Fisher, Had Interesting Careers," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 19 Feb 1927, p. 19.
• In the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses, Anna Burge reported to have had four children.
"Jasper Burge," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 11 Apr 1928, p. 2.
"Memory of Jasper Burge is Honored," The Urbana Daily Courier, Urbana, Illinois, 13 Apr 1928, p. 8.
According to an index of Illinois deaths, Jasper "Berge," age 85, married, was born on 10 Oct 1842 in Indiana; died on 9 Apr 1928 in Danville, Vermilion Co.; buried on 11 Apr 1928 at Fisher, Illinois. He was a plasterer.
"The will of Jasper Burge, Fisher, was filed yesterday [...] All of his property is being bequeathed to this wife, Anna Burge. Upon her death the estate is to be divided equally among this three children, Julia Davis, Orpha Hummel, and Charles F. Burge." ("Burge Will is Filed with County Clerk," The Daily Illini, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 14 Apr 1928, p. 3.)
• Orpha was a granddaughter; his late daughter Mary's child.
Research note
An Urbana Free Library index indicates Jasper Burge mentioned in several articles in the Champaign News-Gazette, which are not available online. These include: "Only a Few Civil War Veterans Survive Time," 31 May 1927; "Jasper Burge, Civil War Vet, Answers Call," 10 Apr 1928; and "Funeral Rites are Held for Jasper Burge," 12 Apr 1928.
Bio. by blueheron14, updated 18 November 2022.
Jasper Burge, the eldest child of Mary E. (née Payne) and blacksmith John S. Burge, was born on 19 November 1842 in Indiana, probably in Noblesville, Hamilton County, where his parents were married on 3 November 1842. The Burge family in 1850 and 1860 was enumerated in neighboring Clinton County's Michigan Township. In his youth, Jasper Burge was a farmer, blacksmith, and tanner.
President Abraham Lincoln on 3 May 1861 issued a call for volunteers to serve for 3 years in regiments being organized by state governments. Jasper Burge, then age 18, enrolled as a private for 3 years' service on 22 August 1861 in Michigantown, Michigan Township. On 18 September 1861 at Indianapolis, Indiana, Private Jasper Burge mustered in with Company C, 10th Regiment, Indiana Volunteer Infantry. (Company C was composed of men from Clinton County.)
The 10th Indiana was a front-line combat unit that saw action in a dozen battles, sieges, and campaigns. Among these was the Battle of Chickamauga on 19 and 20 September 1863 in northwestern Georgia.
On 19 September, "By 9 o'clock the wounded began to arrive. Jasper Berge [sic ], Company C (Tenth Indiana) was the first man wounded in the battle and was the first at the hospital. Surgeon Sloat of the Fourteenth Ohio and the Hospital Steward of the Tenth Indiana, performed the operation of extracting the ball, which was flattened out as large as a silver dollar." The next day, the hospital tents came under Confederate bombardment. Private Burge and others were loaded onto an ambulance wagon, which fled just before Confederate troops entered the hospital.*
Private Burge and his regiment, upon expiration of their term of service, were mustered out on 19 September 1864 in Indianapolis. Returning home to Clinton County, he became a brick mason and plasterer. He filed for an invalid's pension on 7 November 1864.
Jasper Burge and "Annie" Higgins were married on 21 November 1872 in Bloomington, Monroe County, Indiana. Anna, the daughter of Irish immigrants, was born in New York City, and in childhood moved to Bloomington. The couple were the parents of four children—two daughters, two sons—all born in the 1870s in or near Bloomington. In 1880, Jasper Burge was a bar keeper in Bloomington.
Jasper and Anna Burge's family moved in 1881 to Fisher, Champaign County, Illinois, and he resumed working as a plasterer. (Jasper Burge's parents and siblings had moved in 1868 to Illinois, and his father about 1876 set up the first blacksmith shop in Fisher.) According to an 1883 Champaign County pensioners roll, Jasper Burge of Fisher was receiving $2 a month for a "g. s. w. r. hip"—a gun-shot wound to the right hip.
In the late 1890s, the couple's younger son John S. died in a hunting accident, and their younger, married daughter Mary E. Hummel, died following an appendectomy. Jasper and Anna "Birch" in 1900 were enumerated in Fisher (he was working as a plasterer). In 1910, the couple were living in Champaign, Champaign County (he was then a church janitor), and in 1912 returned to Fisher. In Fisher, he was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic (G. A. R.) Van Wert Post No. 300.
Jasper Burge of Fisher was first admitted in April 1925 to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Danville Branch, in Danville, Illinois, suffering a list of ailments. According to the National Home's records, he was 5 feet, 7 inches tall, had blue eyes and fair complexion, and—at age 82—gray hair. His occupation was plasterer. In July 1925, he was transferred to, and discharged from, the National Home's Central Branch in Dayton, Ohio. He was re-admitted four times to the Danville Branch; the last time in March 1928. He died there about a month later on 9 April 1928 from pneumonia and a fractured left hip.
Jasper Burge was survived by his wife Anna, and their two older children: Julia Davis (formerly Paulus), and Charles Franklin Burge. Anna died in 1941 at the age of 92.
Date and place of birth
"Jasper Burge of Fisher was a guest at the home of his son, Charles Burge [...] for the weekend. As Sunday [19 Nov 1916] was his seventy-fourth birthday anniversary, a number of his friends gave a surprise party for him." ("Jasper Burge is Surprised," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 20 Nov 1916, p. 2.)
In a 1925 profile of Civil War veterans (see below), Jasper Burge was reported to have been "born in Connersville, Ind." This seems doubtful. Jasper was born 16 days after his parents were married in Noblesville. Connersville (in Fayette County) and Noblesville are 54 miles apart (straight line; 83 miles on modern roads), and neither the Burge nor Payne family had any known connection with Fayette County.
Notes
Variant spellings of the surname include: Barge, Bearge, Berge (in some military records), Birch, and Burge.
1860 U.S. Census, Michigan Twp., Clinton Co., Indiana; dwelling 16, family 16, lines 38-40 & 1-4, pp. 2-3 (written), 1 Jun 1860. (Post Office: Michigantown)
38. John S. Burge, 45, Master Blacksmith ($500; $250), N. J.
39. Mary E. -----, 36, Ohio.
40. Jasper -----, 16, farmer, Ind.
1. Charlotte Burge, 10, Ind.
2. William -----, 8, Ind.
3. Francis M., 4, Ind.
4. John -----, 1, Ind.
"Michigan [Twp.] | 14 Barge Jasper | 18 | W | Blacksmith" (U.S., Civil War Draft Registrations Records, Aug 1863.)
* James Birney Shaw, History of the Tenth Regiment Indiana Volunteer Infantry: Three Months and Three Years Organizations (Lafayette, Indiana: Burt-Haywood Co., 1912), pp. 237-38. At Chickamauga, Company C's casualties were 1 killed, 5 wounded, and 1 captured. The regiment's colonel was killed in action.
1870 U.S. Census: not found. Future wife Annie Higgins in Bloomington, Indiana.
"BURGE Jasper | HIGGINS Annie | 21 Nov 1872 | [book] 5 [page] 403" (Genealogy Trails of Monroe County, "Indiana, Monroe County Indiana Marriage Records, 1851 - 1881.")
"—BURGE—HIGGINS—on the 21st inst., by Z. T. Coffin, Esq., Mr. Jasper Burge to Miss Annie Higgins." ("Married," The Bloomington Progress, Bloomington, Indiana, 27 Nov 1872, p. 3.) Zachariah Coffin was a Bloomington resident.
1880 U.S. Census, E.D. 283, Bloomington, Bloomington Twp., Monroe Co., Indiana; dwelling 273, family 313, lines 24-29, p. 75B (printed), p. 30 (written), 18 Jun 1880.
24. Burge, "Josher H," 30 [head], Bar Keeper; self and parents born in Ind.
25. ----- Annie, 24, wife, Keeping House; born in NY, parents in Ireland.
26. ----- Julia, 7, dau., Ind.
27. ----- Charles, 5, son, Ind.
28. ----- Mary, 3, dau., Ind.
29. ----- John, 1, son, Ind.
• Anna's father and step-mother in same enumeration district in dwelling 192 on p. 21 (written).
"Father Burge of Staley, aged eighty-seven years, died Tuesday [19 Feb 1895] [...] He [resided] with the family of his son, A. T. Burge […] He had lived for many years at Fisher where resides another son, Jasper Burge, who was with his father during the last illness." ("Death [of] an Aged Citizen [Father Burge]," The Champaign County News, Champaign, Illinois, 23 Feb 1895, p. 1.)
1900 U.S. Census, E.D. 13, East Bend Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 1, family 1, lines 1-3, p. 24 (printed), 2 Jun 1900. ("Fisher" lined through.)
1. "Birch," Jasper, head, Dec 1843, 56, married 30 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; plasterer.
2. ----- Anna, wife, May 1853, 47, married 30 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
3. ----- Charles F., son, Feb 1874, 26, single, Indiana, day laborer.
• Apparently lived just outside Fisher.
Elected township constable. ("East Bend," The Champaign Daily News, Champaign, Illinois, 21 Mar 1902, p. 5.)
Local newspaper reported Jasper Burge suffering from heart and kidney ailments, and he received x-ray treatment for cancer.
1910 U.S. Census, E.D. 5, Ward 2, Champaign, Champaign Twp., Champaign Co., Illinois; dwelling 105, family 115, lines 75-78, p. 5B (written), 18 Apr 1910.
75. Burge, Jasper, head, "48," first marriage, married 37 years; born in Indiana, father in New Jersey, mother in Ohio; janitor, church.
76. ----- Annie, wife, 58, first marriage, married 37 years, 4 children (2 living); born in New York, father in Ireland, mother in New York.
77. ----- Charles F., son, 36, widowed; self and father born in Indiana, mother in New York; laborer, odd jobs.
78. Hummel, Orpha, granddaughter, 15; born in Illinois, parents in Indiana.
"Jasper Burge" in: "Five Civil War Veterans Now Residing in Fisher, Had Interesting Careers," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 19 Feb 1927, p. 19.
• In the 1900 and 1910 U.S. Censuses, Anna Burge reported to have had four children.
"Jasper Burge," The Daily Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois, 11 Apr 1928, p. 2.
"Memory of Jasper Burge is Honored," The Urbana Daily Courier, Urbana, Illinois, 13 Apr 1928, p. 8.
According to an index of Illinois deaths, Jasper "Berge," age 85, married, was born on 10 Oct 1842 in Indiana; died on 9 Apr 1928 in Danville, Vermilion Co.; buried on 11 Apr 1928 at Fisher, Illinois. He was a plasterer.
"The will of Jasper Burge, Fisher, was filed yesterday [...] All of his property is being bequeathed to this wife, Anna Burge. Upon her death the estate is to be divided equally among this three children, Julia Davis, Orpha Hummel, and Charles F. Burge." ("Burge Will is Filed with County Clerk," The Daily Illini, Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, 14 Apr 1928, p. 3.)
• Orpha was a granddaughter; his late daughter Mary's child.
Research note
An Urbana Free Library index indicates Jasper Burge mentioned in several articles in the Champaign News-Gazette, which are not available online. These include: "Only a Few Civil War Veterans Survive Time," 31 May 1927; "Jasper Burge, Civil War Vet, Answers Call," 10 Apr 1928; and "Funeral Rites are Held for Jasper Burge," 12 Apr 1928.
Bio. by blueheron14, updated 18 November 2022.
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