My Genealogy Hound

JOHN BURTCHET, one of the honored pioneers of Harlan county, is a native of Lawrence county, Ky., and was born May 27, 1847. He is a son of Oliver and Lurauid (Foster) Burtchet, both of whom were natives of Kentucky. The parents of our subject died in 1853, when he was only seven years old. He was therefore thrown upon his own, resources at a very early period of his life, but, it is said, “Where there is a will there is a way,” and John Burtchet found a way to get along. At fourteen years of age he crossed the plains to Salt Lake City and spent several years during the early period of his life in the mountains. He found employment at various occupations, and being of an industrious turn of mind was never in want of a good job at fair wages. He followed teaming mostly but was engaged in mining some of the time. He saw some tough times, but lived through them all. He mingled with Indians considerably, but always found them friendly.

Mr. Burtchet came to Harlan county, Nebr., April 22, 1871, and took a homestead at that date, on Spring Creek, north of the Republican River valley, on which he settled and began life in true pioneer style. There was no settlement at that time in that section of the country. The prairie was covered with great herds of buffalo, deer and antelope, and wolves made the night hideous with their yelp. Mr. Burtchet passed through the grasshopper famine and saw his crop disappear before the pesky warriors, and was a heavy looser, having one hundred and sixty acres of corn, almost in roasting ears, all destroyed. The following year he had eighty acres taken, a loss which he feels almost at the present time.

On April 20, 1874, he was married to Miss Emily Getty, a native of New York State. They have had seven children, as follows — Mariette, Rolson R., Harriet A., Annie L., Cecil, William and John R. Mr. Burtchet was appointed postmaster of the Grand View office in 1878, a position he held for nearly three years. He is a republican in whom there is no guile and an active worker in the interests of that organization. He owns one hundred and sixty acres of land lying along the Spring creek, and there is not a richer and more productive piece of land in the county. He is a clever, whole-souled man and ranks high in the estimation of all who know him.