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Note: N25 Charles Burgess was born at Green End, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, England on 14 Dec 1861 according to town records there. He was baptized in the Methodist Church of Newport Pagnell on 20 April 1862, according to their records. He came with his parents and older sister to NY in 1869.
Records from the Maine (New York) Methodist church indicate the following:
Charles Burgess was accepted by probation on 15 Feb 1875 and baptized in this church in 1876. Removed his membership by letter when, according to the church records, he had "gone to Constantinople."
Charles Burgess appears in the 1880 Maine NY census as a son, living with his father Joseph Burgess, a widowed [house] painter. Thomas Burgess' diary records in 1881: "Charles Burgess, a son of my brother Joseph, this year in March went to Constantinople, Turkey, as a missionary. The Lord made him useful."
How long Charles remained in Turkey is not known, nor is it known what group sponsored him. Neither the Methodists nor the Congregationalists have a record of his overseas service. Family lore has it that he served at the American University in Beirut.
According to his son John Burgess, Charles was working for the YMCA in Washington, DC, at the time of Garfield's assassination (1881). Garfield was shot in July and died in September of that year, which leads us to gather that Charles spent only a few months in Turkey in 1881.
Later Charles worked for the YMCA in Clifton Springs, NY, at which place he was married on 20 Feb 1885 to Anna Mary Hertz, daughter of Ludwig Ferdinand Hertz and Mary Ann Henderson.
According to the Congregational Church records, Charles was called provisionally to the Lisle Congregational Church in NY in 1885 and formally ordained there on 5 Feb 1886. In 1887-1888 he served a small Congregational Church in Richford, NY. In the fall of 1888 he enrolled at Oberlin College intending to take the three year seminary course, but remained there only two years.
In 1890, he was serving a small Congregational Church in Anthony KS.
In 1891, the Congregational Yearbook lists him as a resident of Wichita, KS, without a church, and this entry is repeated in the 1892 Yearbook.
After this he is no longer listed in the Congregational Yearbook.
In 1892, he pastored a Presbyterian church in Alamosa, CO. According to his son John Burgess, he went west for the sake of his failing health and pastored Presbyterian churches because no Congregational churches in those areas had openings.
Next he pastored churches in Canon City, CO, Denver, CO, and Albuquerque, NM. After this he returned to Canon City, CO, once more where he was connected with the Pueblo Presbytery but did not pastor a church.
Charles Burgess died of tuberculosis on 24 Apr 1895, age 33, in Canon City.
Buried in the Pioneer Greenwood Cemetery of Canon City: Lot 1, Block 1.
His widow noted in her devotional booklet: "April 24: On this day 1895 my beloved husband passed from this world to the eternal mansions."
A January 25, 1931 letter from Anna Hertz Burgess to her son Paul, states: "I wonder if I have made you feel how your father was loved. The people here and in Colorado Springs have shown their affection and appreciation for him in so many ways. He was so quiet that I sometimes think we did not let him know that we realized the beauty of his character. In the hurly burly of modern life it is good to stop and think of one who took Christ for his Master and Saviour and lived close to his Lord. If we could only help our youth to see that it is the one life worth living. It has been a privilege and inspiration to know him."
A May 30, 1939 letter from Anna Hertz Burgess to her son Paul, states: "Naturally when your birthday is in my mind I think of your father. How much you owe to his spirit of earnest consecration and devotion to His Master ... Truly we can praise God for all the saints who from their labors rest. They have left us a goodly heritage and in spite of so much to discourage at the present moment we can be refreshed by the memory of past achievement and thank God and take courage."
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