Burke, Mrs. N. J., Beeville Bee, 23 Apr 1897:

Was an Old Citizen of Bee County.  Her Father a Pioneer.  

The death of Mrs. N. J. Burke in San Antonio on the 14th inst. removed from the 
citizenship of Beeville one of the oldest residents.  Her father, James Ryan, 
moved to Texas from Pennsylvania with the American colonists, and settled in 
Lavaca County, then the department of Gonzales. He was a soldier under Houston 
and participated in the battle of San Jacinto and took an active part in the early affairs 
of the republic of Texas.

Mrs. Burke was born in Lavaca County, April 9, 1841.  In 1852 her father moved from 
Lavaca county to Hines Bay, and after the organization of Bee County in 1859, he moved 
to the locality now known as the Clare settlement, ten or twelve miles southwest of Beeville, 
where he spent the remainder of his life. On the 14th day of April 1860, she married to Patrick 
Burke, by a coincidence living exactly thirty seven years, thereafter.  Another coincidence 
of her life was that she was born on Good Friday and buried on Good Friday.
The causes that led to her death is unusual, and from which she suffered six long and 
painful months with the fortitude born of a true Christian life.  A slight wound from a pin on 
the finger which at first passed unnoticed, developed into blood poisoning, and despite the 
best skill that could be procured, her vigorous constitution slowly succumbed to the 
insidious poison.

Her remains were interred Friday in St. Joseph’s cemetery according to the rites of the Catholic 
faith in which she had been reared and which she had consistently observed.  The deceased 
leaves her husband, one of the oldest and most highly esteemed citizens of the county, and a 
family of seven children to mourn her death, besides her sisters, Mrs. Vanderhider, and 
Mrs. Louis May of Yoakum, and Mr. Thomas Welder and Mrs. W. A. Clare of this county.