Archives West Finding Aid

Mary K. (Mary Katherine) Burk was a rural school teacher and administrator, dairy farmer, neighborhood chronicler, and tireless supporter of the grange movement in northwestern Washington State. Her father, Martin Burk, immigrated to the U. S. from Germany in 1880 and, in 1886, established a homestead in the Sunrise area of Whatcom County near the town of Lynden. In 1894, Martin married Marie Annette Mayer, and the couple went on to have five children. Mary Katherine was the third, born on November 13, 1898 in the log house on her family’s pioneer farm.

Mary attended the one-room Sunrise Grade School, followed by Lynden High School where she graduated in 1916. In 1918, she received an elementary teaching diploma from the Washington State Normal School at Bellingham (now Western Washington University). Over the next 23 years, Mary taught and served as principal in several rural Whatcom County schools including the North Star, Haynie Grange, and Sunshine schools.

After teaching, Mary began a 40-year career as a dairy farmer, independently managing a herd of Jersey cows. In 1920, she began submitting columns to the Lynden Tribune concerning happenings in the Sunrise/Delta area, an activity she continued for the next 57 years. She also contributed articles to the Bellingham Herald, the Ferndale Record, and the Blaine Journal. Much of her reporting focused on the Delta Grange, organized in 1926, which she served as secretary from 1929 to 1972. She also wrote about weddings, anniversaries, and the various activities of her family, friends, and neighbors.

In 1973, Mary Burk received the Gold Sheaf pin recognizing 50 years of continuous service to the Delta Grange. She was also a 50-year member of the Rebekah Lodge of Custer, Washington, a participant in activities of the Clam Diggers Association of descendants of county pioneers and the Whatcom County Old Settlers' Association, and a supporter of agricultural cooperatives such as the Western Farmers Association and Northwest Dairymen's Association.

Mary K. Burk, known to her extended family as "Aunt May," died in Bellingham, Wash., on June 7, 1979, at the age of 80.