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John Stewart Burgess

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John Stewart Burgess

Birth	:	12 Jul 1883 Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey, USA
Death	:	16 Aug 1949 Claremont, Los Angeles County, California, USA
Burial	:	Oak Park Cemetery, Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate	:	34.0868400, -117.7104100
Description	:	(Researched and written by Susan Kimes Burgess, December 2001.) John Stewart Burgess was born 12th July, 1883 in Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey. His father was a manufacturer of pottery and china who served for a time as a United States consul to England. Stewart was educated at Lawrenceville and then Princeton. In 1905 he graduated from Princeton cum laude and went to work in Kyoto, Japan teaching English at a school of commerce. He also served as a volunteer in the YMCA Here, he met Stella Cornelia Fisher. William Burgess wanted his youngest son to go into the banking... Read More	(Researched and written by Susan Kimes Burgess, December 2001.) John Stewart Burgess was born 12th July, 1883 in Pennington, Mercer County, New Jersey. His father was a manufacturer of pottery and china who served for a time as a United States consul to England. Stewart was educated at Lawrenceville and then Princeton. In 1905 he graduated from Princeton cum laude and went to work in Kyoto, Japan teaching English at a school of commerce. He also served as a volunteer in the YMCA Here, he met Stella Cornelia Fisher. William Burgess wanted his youngest son to go into the banking business when he graduated from Princeton in 1905, but Stewart being influenced by John R. Nott and Sherwood Eddy at Princeton was literally converted and chose to become a missionary through the YMCA. According to David Stewart Burgess, William always considered Stewart the black sheep of the family, and never really forgave him for turning his back on a business career and becoming a political liberal. He never really understood why his son was foolish enough to devote his life to the missionary cause. Stella and Stewart both lived in Japan through the end of 1906. She remained in Japan while Stewart returned to the United States to get his Master's degree. He attended Oberlin College during the 1907-1908 school year and then studied at Union Theological Seminary the following year. In 1909 he received his Master's degree from Columbia University, New York City. Stewart and Stella married the 19th of June, 1909 in Morrisville, Bucks County, Pennsylvania at the Burgess estate known as Woodlands. A few months after their marriage Stewart left for Peking, China. Stella remained in Oberlin with her brother, Royal Fisher, and later joined Stewart in China in April of 1910. Their home was a large brick house within a walled compound just behind the YMCA building on one of the major thoroughfares in Peking. Stewart was working "under the auspices of Princeton University and soon became metropolitan secretary for the YMCA In that capacity he led in the establishment of modern social work and was instrumental in organizing a student social service club as well as a federation of community councils. He was also active in famine relief and established a maternity hospital." Stewart finished his first book, Peking Survey, describing various existing institutions in Peking: prisons, hospitals, prostitution centers, and labor guilds. He later wrote a book on the guilds of Peking which constituted his doctoral thesis. Stewart and Stella returned to the United States while Stewart did graduate work at Oberlin from 1915 to 1916. He worked trying to drum up interest in China at Princeton and as a fund raiser. They returned to China in August of 1917 after the birth of their third son, David Stewart Burgess in New York, New York. Stella doted upon him as "she prayed that death would not take him from her. " He was her "beloved" and "precious" child after the early deaths of their first two sons. Their fourth son, Vinton Douglas Burgess was born the 11th of March, 1919 in Peking, China. October 22, 1920, just after Vinton recovered from pneumonia, the family sailed for Kobe, Japan from Tientsin, China. After visiting Roy Fisher and his family in Yokohama they sailed on the S.S. Nanking to San Francisco with Stella's mother, Emma Haigh Fisher, who was retiring after 38 years of service in Japan. According to Stewart's journal they stayed in the United States until 1922. He and Stella did a lecture tour and fund raising for Princeton in Peking. They left their sons in an orphanage for three months while they did their lecture tour. He wrote about these years: The family returned to China sometime in 1922. They were in Peking for Christmas. They left the Peking compound and went to live in the small town of Tungchow some eighty-five miles from Peking in 1924. Stewart Burgess left the YMCA and became head of the sociology department at the newly established Yenching University on the outskirts of Peking. He lived at Yenching University during the week and came to Tungchow on weekends. During this time various Chinese war lords, and military generals, were competing for control of China. The Tungchow compound was caught in between warring generals. Shots were fired and cannon balls were shot over the compound. One warlord was beheaded in town. Eventually a company of U.S. Marines arrived and set up camp in Tungchow to protect the American citizens. Negley K. Teeters said of J. Stewart: In 1919 J. Stewart Burgess was called to become chairman of the first department of sociology at Yenching University, (He held this post until 1926.) and in 1928, (He returned to China alone) organized the university's College of Applied Sciences. His many years in China developed within him a great love for the Chinese people which he maintained throughout his later life. Hundreds of Chinese intellectuals have profound respect for his sympathetic warmth toward the struggling people of that great country. He was loved by his students some of whom, later became prominent in the Mao regime and others in the Taiwan regime. Stewart Burgess loved China and wanted to remain. The precarious health of his family, the lack of adequate health facilities in China, his desire to get his Ph.D. degree and the unstable political situation persuaded him that it was time to move his family back to the United States. On a cloudy morning in early June of 1926, when the army of Chiang Kai-Shek and a rival army were battling for control of Peking and lobbing shells over the city, all four members of the Burgess family left by train for the coastal city of Tientsin bound for Yokohama, Aomori, Japan. They then boarded a Dollar Line Steamship for Honolulu. After traversing the country by train they settled in White Plains, New York because the New York Central Railroad and the Boston and Westchester Railroad provided convenient commuting connections with New York City. For the next two years he attended classes and studied at Columbia University in New York City and eventually earned his Ph.D. degree in sociology in 1928. Against my mother's wishes he decided to return alone to Yenching University in Peking and to resume his teaching there as head of the sociology department. (John Stewart Burgess returned to the United States in 1930 after two years in China.) According to Negley K. Teeters, "The second episode in the professional career of Stewart Burgess began in 1930 when he went to Pomona College in California to accept an associate professorship in sociology" Dave Burgess continues his parent's story: Father was not only a popular college teacher and a guide and counselor to many of his students. He was also closely associated with political movements led by Frances Townsend and Upton Sinclair, who in those depression years demanded a greater measure of justice for the many poor and jobless. In the spring of 1933 Pomona College President Edmonds, who had recruited my father in 1930, informed him that he would be terminated in June." J. Stewart Burgess became chairman of the growing department of sociology at Temple University; a job that involved teaching as well as administration. He remained there for fifteen years where, in addition to his teaching, he took an active and dynamic part in student-faculty relations and community activities. He saw the department grow in numbers, introduced one of the first courses in the country in Marriage and Family Relations, in which he wrote an excellent syllabus which became widely used, and interested himself in community councils and other urban activities. In June of 1949 retired. He had suffered a near-fatal heart attack during the summer of 1940 and since then had a series of minor angina attacks. Except for one year of part-time teaching at Macalester College in Minneapolis soon after his heart attack, he continued his full-time work at Temple until June of 1949. They moved to Claremont, Los Angeles County, California. They had applied for entrance to Pilgrim Place, a retirement home for returned foreign missionaries, ministers and church-related professors and teachers who had devoted at least 20 years of their adult lives "to full-time Christian service." Upon moving to Claremont, he planned to complete his half completed autobiography by writing about his life during the last thirty-two years. He also intended to write articles on many subjects… He died in his sleep August 16, 1949.

frequently asked questions (FAQ):

Where is John Stewart Burgess's memorial?
John Stewart Burgess's memorial is located at: Oak Park Cemetery, Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA.
When did John Stewart Burgess death?
John Stewart Burgess death on 16 Aug 1949 in Claremont, Los Angeles County, California, USA
Where are the coordinates of the John Stewart Burgess's memorial?
Latitude: 34.0868400
Longitude: -117.7104100

Family Members:

Parent

William Burgess Sr.

(1857 - 1929)

Clara Dwight Goodman Burgess

(1858 - 1927)

Spouse

Stella Cornelia Fisher Burgess

(1881 - 1974)

Siblings

Children

David Stewart Burgess

(1917 - 2007)

Flowers:

Nearby Cemetories:

1. Oak Park Cemetery
Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0868400, -117.7104100

2. Claremont United Church of Christ Memorial Garden
Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0989700, -117.7168800

3. Pilgrim Place Penner Memorial Garden
Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1002300, -117.7234200

4. Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0961800, -117.7298900

5. Palomares Cemetery
Pomona, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0868400, -117.7375300

6. Claremont United Methodist Church Columbarium
Claremont, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1086700, -117.7178100

7. Bellevue Memorial Park
Ontario, San Bernardino County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0717010, -117.6727982

8. Saint Pauls Episcopal Church Columbarium
Pomona, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0676800, -117.7492730

9. Pomona Valley Memorial Park
Pomona, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0406000, -117.7450100

10. Christ Church Parish Memory Garden
Ontario, San Bernardino County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0633316, -117.6500015

11. La Verne Cemetery
La Verne, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1102300, -117.7710100

12. Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery
Pomona, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0363503, -117.7456284

13. Saint Marks Episcopal Parish Memorial Garden
Upland, San Bernardino County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1209080, -117.6469800

14. Spadra Cemetery
Pomona, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0514400, -117.8009200

15. Forest Lawn Memorial Park
Covina, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0628014, -117.8368988

16. Maloof Cemetery
Alta Loma, San Bernardino County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1613600, -117.6159400

17. Chapel of Saint Nektarios Reliquary
Covina, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0991400, -117.8554100

18. Grace Episcopal Church Columbarium
Glendora, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1382900, -117.8576000

19. Rubel Castle
Glendora, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1503340, -117.8546380

20. Oakdale Memorial Park
Glendora, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1121330, -117.8758698

21. Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Memorial Garden
Covina, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0865900, -117.8922300

22. Fairmount Cemetery
Glendora, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.1407661, -117.8892365

23. Saint Marthas Episcopal Church Columbarium
Covina, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 34.0655300, -117.9165200

24. Queen of Heaven Cemetery
Rowland Heights, Los Angeles County, USA
Coordinate: 33.9818993, -117.9092026