Burgess, Howard Kent (b. 7 AUG 1857, d. ?)

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Boston, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Boston Ward 9, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1900
Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Census: Date: 1910
Place: San Francisco, San Francisco, California

Census: Date: 1920
Place: San Francisco Assembly District 32, San Francisco, California

Note: The News (Frederick, Maryland) > 1896 > June > 8

The classes in elocution are under the direction of Prof. Clinton B. Burgess, of the Baltimore School of Oratory. Two gold medals are awarded each year for the best work in these classes, and the successful students are determined by their efforts in the final contest.

Occupation: Date: 1900
Place: Trader

Occupation: Date: 1910
Place: Christian Science - Physician

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Boston Ward 9, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1900
Place: Baltimore Ward 2, Baltimore City (Independent City), Maryland

Census: Date: 1910
Place: 3-Wd Erie, Erie, PA

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Boston, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Boston Ward 9, Suffolk, MA

Note: Born in Boston on January 30, 1866, Frank Gelett Burgess graduated from M.I.T. in 1887 with a B.Sc. and went to work as a draftsman, eventually becoming an instructor at the University of California at Berkeley. His gift was comic verse and fiction. In 1895-97 he edited The Lark in San Francisco and from then on contributed to magazines and published humorous novels, poems, and stories, including his elaborately illustrated The Burgess Nonsense Book (1901) and The Rubaiyat of Omar Cayenne (1904). He had moved to New York City in 1897 and married Estelle Loomis in 1914 but lived in Paris during the first world war. His main claim to fame was "The Purple Cow." He died on September 18, 1951, in Carmel, California. (The National Cyclopedia of American Biography. New York: James T. White, 1917.)

BURGESS, FRANK GELETT, illustrator, author, was born Jan. 30 1866, in Boston, Mass. He is an illustrator of San Francisco, Cal. He is the author of The Lark Almanac; and other works.


Centralia Chronicle Advertiser (Centralia, Washington) > 1936 > January > 17
Burgess Meredith and Gelett Burgess are going to toss a party and invite all the Burgesses and all the Merediths in the phone book. There are 46 Burgesses and 11 Merediths, the old 57 varieties, in all. The Queen of the Burgesses, a beauty shop proprietor, has been selected but Burges Johnson will not be invited unless he sticks another “s” in his front name.

Centralia Chronicle Advertiser (Centralia, Washington) > 1936 > November > 2
Gelett Burgess has solved the problem of carrying cigars, sans a cumbersome case, without breaking them or having them slip out of his pocket. He sticks them down in his sock. He is even thinking of patenting a sock with woven pockets in it. A sort of Sockpocket Company Limited. (Copyright, 1936, McNaught Syn.)

Gelett Burgess
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Frank Gelett Burgess (January 30, 1866 - September 18, 1951) was an artist, art critic, poet, author, and humorist. He was born in Boston, and graduated from Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a B.S., in 1887.

It is reported that he lost his job as a technical drawing instructor at the University of California, Berkeley (1891-1894) because of unmentionable alterations of statues (he deliberately toppled several of them that he considered an eyesore) of Henry Cogswell, a famous Bay Area dentist who had donated several statues of himself to the city of San Francisco, California. While the act was alleged (by Burgess) to have been cheered by students, the school's administration took a dimmer view, and he abruptly found himself unemployed. That's when he veered onto the career path that led to lasting fame. He later referred to his Berkeley period as one of "unseemly dignity". Today, the University is proud to claim him as one of its former instructors — but seldom if ever mentions the circumstances under which he left.

He is most famous for writing the poem Purple Cow (in 1895):

I never saw a purple cow,
I never hope to see one;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'd rather see than be one!

Having become inextricably linked with this verse, he wrote the following Confession: and a Portrait Too, Upon a Background that I Rue:

Ah yes, I wrote The Purple Cow,
I'm sorry now I wrote it;
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I'll kill you if you quote it!

He also wrote and illustrated several children's books about the habits of strange, baldheaded, idiosyncratic childlike creatures he called "The Goops" -- sort of a dark humor take on Miss Manners.

Of Queen Anne architecture he wrote:

"It should have a conical corner tower; it should be built of at least three incongruous materials or, better, imitations thereof; it should have its window openings absolutely haphazard; it should represent parts of every known and unknown order of architecture; it should be so plastered with ornament as to conceal the theory of its construction. It should be a restless, uncertain, frightful collection of details giving the effect of a nightmare about to explode."

An influential article by Burgess The Wild Men of Paris, (Architectural Record, May 1910), was the first introduction of cubist art in the United States. The article was drawn from interviews with Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Georges Braque.

The word "blurb", meaning a short description of a book, film, or other product written for promotional purposes, was coined by Burgess in 1907, when he attributed the effusively complimentary jacket copy of one of his books to a Miss Belinda Blurb.

He also founded the San Francisco Boys Club, the first of its kind in America.

New York Passenger Lists Record
Name: Gelett Burgess
Arrival Date: 29 Jul 1935
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1876
Age: 59
Gender: Male
Port of Departure: Le Havre, France
Ship Name: Normandie
Port of Arrival: New York, New York
Line: 25
Microfilm Serial: T715
Microfilm Roll: 5678
Page Number: 31
Port Arrival State: New York
Port Arrival Country: United States
Birth Location: Massachusetts
Birth Location Other: Boston
The Players Grammercy Park, NYC




California Death Index, 1940-1997 Record
Name: BURGESS, FRANK GELETT
Social Security #: 0
Sex: MALE
Birth Date: 30 Jan 1866
Birthplace: MASSACHUSETTS
Death Date: 18 Sep 1951
Death Place: MONTEREY
Mother's Maiden Name: BROOKS
Father's Surname: BURGESS

Occupation: Date: 1920
Place: Fiction Writer

Census: Date: 1920
Place: Manhattan Assembly District 9, New York, New York

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Boston Ward 9, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Boston, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Boston, Suffolk, MA

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Boston Ward 9, Suffolk, MA

Note: World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918
about Clarence Eugean Kratts
Name: Clarence Eugean Kratts
City: Not Stated
County: Allegany
State: New York
Birth Date: 10 Jul 1874
Race: White
Roll: 1711954
DraftBoard: 0

Event: Type: Directory
Date: BET 1893 AND 1894
Place: Windfall Road, Olean, New York

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Olean, Cattaraugus, New York

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Olean, Cattaraugus, New York

Census: Date: 1920
Place: Clarksville, Allegany, New York

Note: 1850: Census, Brother-in-law James Burgess, 23, living with them

1860: Census, Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island

1870: Bristol, Bristol, Rhode Island

Note: Census 1880 listed Abby as an invalid with Dropsy. (Swelling of soft tissues due to the accumulation of excess water, the person might have edema due to congestive heart failure.)

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Warren, Bristol, RI

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Warren, Bristol, RI

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Warren, Bristol, RI

Census: Date: 1910
Place: Olean, Cattaraugus, New York

Census: Date: 1920
Place: Clarksville, Allegany, New York

Census: Date: 1850
Place: Warren, Bristol, RI

Census: Date: 1870
Place: Warren, Bristol, RI

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Warren, Bristol, RI