HISTORY OF THE BURTNER FAMILY

                        1939 - August - Memorial Park, Lebanon, Indiana. President:Stella Tiffin.

1940 - August -Twin Lakes Park, Paris, Illinois. President: Fred Hurst.

1941 - August-Allerton Park, Allerton, Indiana. President: Charles Burtner

1942 - August-Washington Park, Michigan City, Indana. President: Dave Herring,

            FIRST BURTNER REUNION

The first Burtner reunion was held on a Sunday in October, 1898. The account of this reunion has been given me by my mother, Maude (Saiter) Burtner, who is now 80 years old. She remembers very well how they all came in wagons and buggies and on horseback, all bringing baskets of fruit and dinner. Mullins' and Wilsons' (grandmother Burtner was a Wilson) and relatives and neighbors all came. It was held 1 1/2 miles south of Paris in a shady, wooded area belonging to Mullins'. Wil Hursts also attended, and Fred Ennis and Sophie Montgomery, Stella and Dave Tiffin, Alice Burtner and Ed Rolison and Maude Saiter and Bert Burtner were some of the young people. George Burtner was elected president and made a long speech about how they should get together each. year. A secretary was elected, and it was decided no one should hold office who was not a blood relation. The dinner was sumptuous, with lots of fried chicken, ripe grapes, peaches and apples. Grandpa George Burtner prayed a long time in asking grace for the feast, and all cried, they were so overcome with joy at being together. After the dinner they covered the tables and all played games, baseball and horseshoes, and visited till supper time when they uncovered the tables and all ate supper before starting for home. They decided they would meet again the following year, maybe at the Lakes. However, they met again next year at the same place, and Uncle Bill and Aunt Ella Burtner came. Fred Ennis always furnished all the big white tablecloths each year. The number attending this reunion was about 100.

 

THE BURTNER CLAN

(The Burtner Clan as we know it is comprised of Pennsylvania Dutch settlers. Our grandparents always said: "I'm Pennsylvania Dutch and proud of it. II I have found that there were three Burtner soldiers, known as Hessians, who were given land grants in Pennsylvania. However, I have been unable to actually prove a generation in there, so we are just presuming we are descendants, since I have found our relatives' names in various United Brethern Church histories as having formed the United Brethern Church in America, along the same beliefs that they brought with them from Germany. All were great workers for Christ and the new Church in America. However, the actual (authenticated) history must begin in the year 1802 with the birth of George 0. Burtner in Richland County, Pennsylvania. --,Author's Note)

The Burtner Clan, we presume, is descended from three brothers Samial, Phillip and George Burtner, mercenary soldiers of Germany, hired out to the British Army by the provinces Cassel, Wassel and Hessee; under the general Baron von Stueben they were sent to America, and fought for the British in the War for Independence. They were known as the Hessians. They were good soldiers and fought with a military knowledge, none deserting. They were such good soldiers that only 57 out of 27,000 died in the war. After the war, they were deserted by the British. 

In 1778, these Hessian soldiers were given land grants in Pennsylvania and Newfoundland if they would marry within one year. Many sent back to Germany for wives who came to America by the boatload. Among these, we presume, was our great-great-great-grandmother, who came to marry her soldier husband.

In the years from 1780 to 1789 these German settlers who had been given land grants in Pennsylvania settled in Richland and York counties and became known as the Pennsylvania Dutch, because of their German dialect and to distinguish them from the Holland Dutch who were already established in Amsterdam and New York City.

The Pennsylvania Dutch, feeling the need of an American church in their own faith, began to get together and worship their Lord and Master and to teach their children the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Laborers and teachers were few, but all were willing and the work of the church spread through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Virginia. Among the neighbors and friends who were accepted as preachers were William Otterbein and Martin Boehm from Richland County, Pennsylvania. They were instrumental in establishing the church of the United Brethren in America, and held the first church conference in 1789 in Baltimore, Maryland.

George Otterbein Burtner (born in 1802, Richland County, Pennsylvania) was a faithful follower of the United Brethren church and worked long and tediously in the church in Pennsylvania and later in Dayton, Ohio. Then. in the year 1844, he moved with his family to Westfield, Illinois, and there established the first United Brethern church in Illinois, known as the Otterbein United Brethren Church, one-and-one-half miles northwest of Westfield. Ma family later moved to Champaign County, Illinois.

George 0. Burtner was a very prosperous man and influential in his community; he owned at one time 150 acres of land now in the heart of Dayton, Ohio. He was appointed president of a group of citizens who through public donations were building a bridge across the Ohio River. His brother-in-law forged some bogus papers and absconded with the donated money. This made Grandfather Burtner responsible for the entire debt. So he saw his home, his land, and all of his earthly possessions swept away in order to pay the debt.

So taking his faithful wife and eight children in a covered wagon (which was all he possessed) he started West and finally stopped to rest and live for a while on farm land near Westfield, Illinois, now known as the Old Burtner Farm. This was a long hard trip taking more than six weeks. Here again in this new land he started a nursery farm. Understanding the grafting and budding of fruit trees, he did all his own grafting, building and enlarging the fruit of several trees. He was very successful in this enterprise, and some of the best-known methods are credited to him. Adding to this trade, he also started up a tailoring shop, for he was a tailor by trade. He made all kinds of men's suits and employed several persons as helpers. Here again he became very successful. But in the year 1855 he took sick with the cholera and died at the age of 53. The cholera epidemic was bad that year, and caused many deaths. 

Grandmother Burtner was a frail little woman about five feet tall. She struggled on hard a faithfully to raise her large family of children. and grieved to see her boys one after another enter the Civil War--except the two older ones who were married and had families, and Simon, who was too young to serve. Simon Peter was five years old when his father died. Then Grandmother Burton took her two youngest children and moved to Tuscola to be near her married daughters; she lived the remainder of her life there. She passed away at 80 years of age.

These two loyal Christians taught their children to love and fear God, and all were members of the old Otterbein United Brethren Church of Westfield. From the years 1850 to 1920 several small churches were built by Burtner's, most of them simply called Burtner Chapel. These loyal pioneers never lost their faith in God’s helping hand, and now lie sleeping in the Otterbein Cemetery, one-and-one-half miles north and west of Westfield, Illinois, awaiting the Great Resurrection Day, as they have laid down their crosses and wait to receive their crown in Glory.

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