TAMPICO TORNADO
Dec. 3, 1909

    THOMAS BURDEN PASSES AWAY
Aged, Wealthy Land Owner and Stock Raiser of Fairfield Township Dies Monday

Thomas Burden one of the most extensive land owners of Bureau county and a pioneer settler of this vicinity died at his home four miles south of Tampico Monday afternoon at 1:56. Death was due to heart trouble and severe injuries sustained n being thrown from a rig in a runaway accident Nov. 6 on the road south of Tampico in which his hip and ribs were broken and he was bruised and badly shaken up. He rallied considerably after the accident and up to the Sunday evening preceeding his death he seemed to betting better when his aged constitution gave way and death relieved his sufferings.

The funeral services were held Wednesday morning at 10:30 o'clock at St. Mary's church requiem high  mass being sang with Rev. L. X. DuFour as celbnt and Rev. Father Flynn of Ohio as deacon and Rev. Schauff of Hooppole as sub-deacon. There was a very large concourse of relatives, neighbors and friends present completely filling the church. Rev. L. X. DuFour preached a very good sermon referring to the deceased in a very touching manner. Interment was in St. Mary's cemetery. The pall bearers were six grandsons, Asa, Edward, Thomas, Joseph, George and Vincent Burden.

Starting life as a poor Irish lad weith nothing but his willing hands an a bright mind, Mr. Burden has had a remarkable career achieving success by his own honest efforts and amassing a fortune estiated at $200,000, consisting principally of lands and live stock. He was born April 4, 1830 in Queens County, Ireland and emigrated to America in 1847.

He went to Quebec on arriving in America where he remained but a short time and then went to Oswego, New York, where he remained a year when he came to the then underdeveloped west locating first at Elgin for a year and then coming to this vicinity, working on both the Rock Island and Northwestern railroads which were at that time slowly building across Illinois to the Mississippi river. During one of his many trips overland north and south from the construction camps on the Rock Island to those of the Northwestern he picked, located his present large farm and afterward preempted in 1852 from the government. That his judgement on land and his location was good, time has amply proven although at the time he selected it much was wild and inimproved.

He was married May 1, 1853 to Elnor Fitzgerald at LaSalle and with his bride located on the home place south of  Tampico which has been his residence for nearly sixty continuous years. Mrs. Burden died in 1901. Ten children were born to the couple, eight of whom survived. They are: George, John, Charles, and Will all living at Tampico, the latter two being prominent merchants. Mrs. Mary Clyne, Mrs. Emma McCabe, Mrs. Nellie Kelley all of Tampico and Mrs. Wm. Graham of Chicago.

Starting with a meager capital earned by the sweat of his brow in hard railroad work, he built a small log house on the quarter cestion of land he pre-emptedand by careful management and saving he gradually added t his buildings until at the time of his death  he owned some 1860 acres of land in Fairfield township and 430 near Erie with property in Tampico. Most of the land he with the assistance of his children, has brought under a good state of cultivation and his horses and cattle were numbered by the hundreds. Practically all of the time up until the injury which resulted in his deth he managed his farm althogh he gave up the more active duties as  his age advanced. He never had interest in the management of the large farm and when things looked bad, prices were low, and enormous ditch taxes would have discouraged, disheartened and made others give up, he only grasped things with a firm hold and with that indomitable courage and perserverence tht was his marked characteristic, hung on until he won or conquered.

He has served as a road commissioner, school director and other local officers and was a faithful member of St. Mary's church attending services as his health permitted. In spite of his many years and crippled condition due to rheumatism he went about with a cheery smile and the same courage that marked his early career. Many will miss "Uncle Tom" but his life and what he did will be an inspiration to spur others on.