Kentucky: A History of the State, Battle, Perrin, & Kniffin, 7th ed., Campbell Co.

JOHN BURKE, a native of Lawrence County, Ohio, was born in 1848, and is a son of Samuel and Mary (Griffith) Burke. Samuel Burke, a son of William Burke, was born in 1807, emigrated from Greenbrier County, Va., to Ohio in 1809; he was a farmer and was commissioner of Lawrence many years; he
died in 1879. William Burke was an Irishman by birth, and was a leading citizen of the county in early times. Mr. Burke, the mother of our subject, was a daughter of Frederick and Ruth (Osborn) Griffith, of Pennsylvania but of German descent. Frederick Griffith was a farmer and
also a collier. Mrs. Burke was born in Lawrence County, Ohio, in 1816, and died in 1872, a member of the United Brethren Church. John Burke, the seventh in a family of eight children, was reared on the farm, and received his education at Lebanon, Ohio, having had but two months'
schooling a year until he was twenty-one years of age. He was graduated in 1871, since which time he has taught eight years in normal school, and also served as county examiner of Lawrence County. From the latter county he moved to Newport Ky., where for four years he was principal of the First District schools, and afterward superintendent of the public schools and principal of the high school. In 1872 he married Miss Lena M. Johnson, of Lawrence County, Ohio. Eight children blessed their union, six of whom are living: Blanche, Alma, Myrtle, Lena, Roxy and John V. Mr. Burke is a member of the I. O. O. F. and Masonic fraternity, is a Republican in politics, and, with his wife, is a member of the Baptist Church.