TOQUERVILLE — When Fannie Burke arrived in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1881, she was immediately struck by the “glacier-sculptured peaks stretching along the eastern horizon” and the “city of lilacs, tulips, and many children.”
The people themselves, whom she had come from Ohio as a missionary to save from polygamy and theocracy, seemed to her like sheep that had strayed from the fold.
Fannie’s musings about Salt Lake City did not last long as she soon took the train south to establish a Presbyterian “mission school” in Toquerville, where she planned to teach Mormon children to become proper Christians.
She got off the train in Milford and took a southbound stage “through a region of plateaus, deep canyons, extinct volcanoes, desert sands and hot summer winds.” When she finally reached the little village perched on the lava ledges above Ash Creek, it must have seemed to her the furthest corner of God’s creation. Unable to find anyone willing to rent her a room in Toquerville, she traveled to St. George where she stayed for a time with a Presbyterian missionary.
Frances (Fannie) R. Burke was part of a small army of missionaries sent to Utah during the 1880s by the Presbyterian Women’s Board of Home Missions. Their goal was to turn people from Mormonism.
“It isn’t the sword, but the word that is needed to lead Brigham Young’s deluded followers back to the true fold,” Dr. Duncan J. McMillan told Fannie and other young missionaries who had been called to labor in Utah.
By 1887, 33 Presbyterian schools sprouted up in Utah, including St. George, Cedar City, and Parowan. Within them, 67 teachers taught more than 2,000 students as an alternative to the LDS-sponsored schools of the time.
Brigham Young considered the missionaries a threat to the faith of Utah’s children, calling McMillan “a wolf in sheep’s clothing, a serpent that charms only to devour.” He urged parents not to allow their children to attend the mission schools.
After a few weeks in St. George, Fannie received word from Ashton Nebeker, the sheriff in Toquerville, that he felt the duty to open his home to anyone who wanted to “come into our midst to do good.”
The St. George missionaries warned Fannie that Nebeker was a polygamist with three wives. But Fannie was undeterred and accepted the offer. With Nebeker’s help, the Presbyterian Board of Missions soon purchased a home on North Ash Street which they turned into a school, chapel and a residence for Fannie. Thus began Frances Burke’s mission to Toquerville, which would last for over four decades.
Fannie was an orphan, as a young woman she found a generous friend and mentor named Mary Kennedy. With Kennedy’s help, Fannie attended the National Normal University in Lebanon, Ohio where she studied education.
Inspired by the anti-Mormon and anti-polygamy crusades of the day, she felt the need to serve the children of Utah, hoping to teach them the Presbyterian version of the gospel. But Fannie found it slow going as most LDS families followed Brigham Young’s advice and kept their children away.
Within two weeks, however, 10 students were enrolled, mostly from non-LDS mining families in nearby Silver Reef. The ringing of a bronze bell suspended atop a pine pole tower greeted the students each morning. More children, and their families, came on Sundays for Sunday School lessons and sermons from visiting Presbyterian ministers.
George Q. Cannon and other visiting LDS leaders told the LDS faithful to boycott the school. As a consequence, Fannie was ostracized by many people in town, including youth who occasionally disrupted her classes. When the anti-polygamy Edmunds Act of 1882 was passed, some in Toquerville took out their anger at Congress by throwing stones at the mission school.
Nevertheless, she persisted And in the process won many hearts in the years to come as she helped nurse the sick, shared books with neighbors and took gifts of food to the needy. As her standing in the community rose, she was appointed Toquerville’s postmaster, a position she held for many years.
Three things happened in the late 1890s that resulted in the closing of the mission school. First, the mines in nearby Silver Reef played out which caused enrollment in the school to plummet. Second, LDS President Wilford Woodruff issued the Manifesto of 1890, which ended plural marriage — the primary target of Presbyterian missionaries.
Lastly, the new state constitution mandated the creation of a public school system to replace the LDS-sponsored education system. As a consequence, the Women’s Board of Home Missions decided to close the Toquerville school, along with most mission schools throughout Utah.
Fannie tried to keep the school going, but it was not meant to be. However, rather than leave Toquerville, which she had come to love, she decided to make a go of it on her own. She bought a house with a large yard, on which she planted fruit and walnut trees and a vegetable garden.
It was for her large flower garden that she soon became renowned in the area. Neighbors called her “the flower lady” and she was able to sustain herself on a postmaster’s salary, income from her orchard and garden and a bequest from her mentor, Mary Kennedy.
By now many neighbors had come to respect Fannie and called her “Sister” instead of “Miss” Burke. Some even supplemented her larder, or food storage, with eggs and milk. As she got older, the community members pitched in and helped to irrigate and harvest her crops.
As the years passed, the ravages of old age caught up with Fannie. By the 1920s she lost most of her sight to cataracts and much of her mobility to rheumatism.
Louisa Conklin, a Presbyterian missionary in St. George, came to her home in Toquerville to care for her for a time, but eventually moved her to St. George where she died in 1927.
Her funeral services in the Toquerville LDS meeting house were attended by Mormon and Presbyterian alike. Speakers from both faiths praised for her good deeds as a teacher, missionary, and loving neighbor. She was laid to rest in the Toquerville Cemetery.
Editor’s note: Sources for this story include the Spring 2004 issue of Utah Historical Quarterly, “Frances R. Burke: Toquerville Presbyterian Missionary,” by Sandra Dawn Brimhall and David A. Hales. Photographs and additional historical research come from the Washington County Historical Society and Memories in FamilySearch.org.
Photo Gallery
Frances (Fannie) Burke came from Ohio to Utah in 1881 as a Presbyterian missionary where she opened a school in Toquerville, Utah, date unspecified | Photo courtesy Giovale Library at Westminster College, St. George News
Ashton Nebeker, a polygamist with three wives, was the local sheriff who helped Fannie Burke find a place to live in Toquerville, Utah | Photo courtesy FamilySearch.org, St. George News
The Presbyterian Women’s Board of Home Missions purchased a residence on North Ash Street in Toquerville, Utah that became the church’s school and chapel and the residence for Fannie Burke, date unspecified | Photo courtesy Giovale Library at Westminster College, St. George News
After the Presbyterian school on North Ash Street was closed in the 1890s, Fannie Burke, standing in front of the house, purchased this home in Toquerville, Utah where she lived for the rest of her life, date unspecified | Photo courtesy Giovale Library of Westminster College, St. George News
Fannie Burke in her later years, date and location unspecified | Photo courtesy Giovale Library of Westminster College, St. George News
Fannie Burke’s headstone in the Toquerville Cemetery, Toquerville, Utah, date unspecified | Photo courtesy Giovale Library of Westminster College, St. George News
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