Pictured below is the headstone of Mrs. Minnie Blundin (1863-1906) in Seattle’s Lake View cemetery.
Mrs. Blundin died in Seattle in 1906 at the young age of 43. The cause of her death at Providence Hospital was described as “shock following surgical operation.” She was married to James Blundin, who was an auditor for the Seattle Light Company. Their home was scarcely 700 feet from their gravesites in the cemetery, located just in the rear of today’s Lake View cemetery office.
Minnie and James were married in Chicago in 1887. Minnie was born in Chicago in 1863, right in the middle of the Civil War. Her father, William Burkhart, was a noteworthy man in Chicago at the time. He was an immigrant to the United States from Germany in 1847. He initially settled in Buffalo NY for less than a year before relocating to Chicago in the spring of 1848. His notoriety came from his prominence in Chicago music circles. In 1851, he formed the Chicago Light Huzzar Band and in 1853, the Chicago Light Guard Band. Later he was the leader of the Great Western Band, well known in that time of Chicago history.
In June 1861, 35-year-old Burkhart, along with many German Americans, answered President Lincoln’s call to arms in defense of the Union. The men of the Great Western Band entered service as the regimental band of the 24th Illinois Infantry. With Burkhart as leader, the band played rousing patriotic airs as the German men of the regiment departed Chicago for the war. Following an impressive public ceremony in June at which the regiment flag was presented, the “regiment was ready to go to the front, and under the strains of martial music by the Great Western band, and accompanied by a vast concourse of citizens, mounted and on foot, marched to the railway station to begin its military career.”
A month later, Burkhart again led the band, as “on July 16th the Great Western band, henceforth to be the regimental band, arrived in camp from Chicago, and contributed not a little in establishing a consciousness of duty and responsibility, and also in keeping the men in good spirits. Two days after the arrival of the band the long-looked-for signal to march was given, and to the strains of martial music we passed out of hospitable Alton to the shores of the Mississippi, where several large steamers were waiting to transport the troops. In the stillness of a star-lit night the small flotilla glided down the Father of Waters to the junction with the Missouri, and here we turned and steamed up the latter river.” Burkhart was discharged in December 1861 when “the Great Western band was mustered out, in obedience to a general order of the Secretary of War, which abolished all music bands in volunteer regiments.” Just weeks after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, in February 1863, Minnie was born to William and his wife Anna in Chicago.
Anna Burkhart’s obituary offers a look into the family’s life in Minnie’s childhood years. “The Burkhart homestead was destroyed by the Chicago Fire in 1871, and the family came to Austin to live and built stores on the Chicago property, which is still part of the estate. Mr. Burkhart and family located on what the older residents of Austin remember as "the Burkhart Farm," and lived for twenty years in the large square residence with an observatory located at 5747 Chicago Avenue. Twenty years ago the family moved to the property with half a block frontage on Superior Street, and later built the large homestead since occupied as a family residence.”
William Burkhart died in 1892. Minnie’s mother, Anna, survived her husband and her daughter and lived until 1912. James remarried in 1912 and lived until 1919. He died in Pierce County and was buried alongside Minnie in Lake View.
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