Schuyler County Missouri Biographies

An AHGP Project

Schuyler County Missouri

Charles Burkland

Charles Burkland, contractor and farmer, was born in Sweden June 14, 1851, and is a son of Andrew and Helen Burkland. The father was born in 1829 and died in 1878, and was a farmer by occupation. His wife was born in 1827 and is now a resident of her native country. She is the mother of six children, of whom our subject is the eldest.

He was educated in Sweden and attended school from the age of seven to fifteen. When twenty years old he left the parental roof and emigrated to the United States, locating in Keokuk, Iowa. In January of the following year he began working on the Missouri, Iowa & Nebraska Railroad, laying track. In 1873 he became section foreman, and remained as such for ten years, locating in Lancaster in 1878.

November 12, 1874, Mr. Burkland married Miss Christina Holstrand, who was born in Sweden in 1853, and came to America in 1873. By her he had three children, Fred William, Oscar, Leo Raymond and Charles Herbert.

In 1879 Mr. Burkland bought 750 acres of land in Liberty Township, and since 1883 has spent his time in looking after his real estate and dealing in railroad ties, lumber and wood for the Keokuk and Western Railroad. He is a self-made man and his property is the result of his ability and industry. For the past two years he has been president of the Scandinavian Coal Company, and a director of the Schuyler Company Bank. In politics he is a Democrat, and cast his first presidential vote for Hancock in 1880, and two years later was elected a member of the town council of Lancaster. He is a member of the A. O. U. W. of the second degree, and himself and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which he has been steward and trustee for seven years.

Source: History of Adair, Sullivan, Putnam and Schuyler Counties, Missouri, Volume 2, Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1888

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