Lewis Burk

Lewis Burk (Sept. 15, 1866 – July 4, 1909) was a resident of No Business Creek in what is now the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, and the first postmaster at Elva Post Office.

Biography

Born Sept. 15, 1866, Lewis Burk was the son of Haden Lowell Burk (1828-1903) and Nancy Lewallen (1845-1879). He had several siblings: Luvernia Reed (1863-1955), John Frederick Burke (1865-1949), Isaac S. Burke (1868-1948), William Anderson Burke (1870-1944), Lueller Roberts (1872-1944), Peter Burk (1876-1917) and Harmons Burk (1879-1954).

Burk’s paternal grandparents were Jonathan Burke (1797-1875) and Nancy Cooper (1803-1880), the first Burkes to settle in present-day Scott County. Jonathan Burke had a cabin near Duck Shoals on the Big South Fork River between Parch Corn Creek and No Business Creek. It was there that a Civil War skirmish, sometimes referred to as the Battle of No Business, was fought in 1863.

Burk’s maternal grandparents were John Columbus Lewallen (1812-1896) and Delilah Reed (1815-1865). John was the first sheriff of Scott County, and the son of early Glenmary settlers Anderson Grant Lewallen (1764-1829) and Lucy Rice (1766-1832). Delilah was the daughter of Isaac Reed and Phariba Hatfield.

Like other members of the Burke family, Lewis Burk’s parents — Haden and Nancy — moved to Oklahoma. However, Lewis remained in Scott County. He married Mary Ann Smith (163-1908), the widow of Jonathan “Juber” Blevins (1857-1885). Mary Ann was the daughter of Andrew Jackson Smith (1836-1905) and Malinda Terry (1839-1909). Her first husband was the son of Armstead Blevins and grandson of Jonathan Blevins.

Mary Ann had two children by her first husband: Harvey Blevins (1879-1919) and Crawford Blevins (1881-1973). She and Lewis had four more children: Mitchel Asbury Burk (1887-1970), William Haden Burke (1889-1970), Ellen Miller (1893-1996) and Ethel Florence Slaven (1897-1988).

Ellen married William J. Miller (1895-1980), the son of Francis Marion Miller (1856-1948) and Elizabeth Spradling (1854-1920). The Burk and Miller families lived on adjoining farms at No Business.

Adult Life

Lewis Burk was the postmaster at the short-lived Zena Post Office, which opened in November 1897 and closed in January 1898. Later, he was the first postmaster at Elva, which opened in September 1904. France Miller later served as postmaster at Elva, before it eventually moved from No Business to Station Camp. There, Ike King served as its last postmaster.

Death

Burk died on July 4, 1909, at the age of 42, when he was hit by a train on the Southern Railroad in Winfield. His wife, Mary Ann, had died on May 22, 1908, at the age of 44. They’re both buried on the bank above No Business Creek, on what was once their farm. The Lewis Burk Cemetery consists of only their graves.