Robert and Kate Burling as they appeared in the 1880s.

Below:  A charcoal drawing of Robert and Catherine;
the images were taken from the photograph above.

The following story was written by Bill Burling, one of Robert Burling's descendants.

     The Robert Burling story, best as I can remember.  Robert and his stepmother did not get along at all.  So Robert left and hired on a ship as crew member.  He had to furnish his own eating utensils, and Clara Bell (Burling) Haworth has his small wooden bowl  that he eat out of while working on the ship.
     How he got to Chicago, Illinois but there was a Edward Burling living there at the time.  (Family?)  He worked on the Great Lakes for a while, then went to work for the railroad as a fireman throwing wood into the firebox, as the story goes this didn't last long.  Too much work.
     He got married and started farming down around Kankakee, Illinois.  They had several children there and buried one.  After the Civil War, he left with his son James.  He left his oldest son, John, home to take care of his mother and his brothers and sisters.  He then went to Kansas to homestead up around Russel, Kansas on the Smoky Hill River.  When he got there the Indians had an uprising and killed some people.  He was told that there was a homestead at Arlington, Kansas, that people had starved out and left and went back east.
     He then went to Arlington and found the property and took it over.  It was one and half miles east of town.  Robert and his son, James K. lived in a dugout cabin for one or two winters.
     There weren't any trees or fence posts to build a fence.  They had to guard their corn crop to keep out other people's cattle, or they would eat up the corn.  They used the corn for almost everything.  They ate it and used it as fuel to burn in the winter for warmth.  They finally had to haul corn out to Sun City and traded it for cedar fence posts, which was about 100 miles one way with a team and wagon.  They could make about 15-20 miles a day, if the load wasn't to heavy.
     Robert then built a house and moved his family to Arlington, Kansas.  He lived and died at Arlington.
     When the railroad came to Hutchinson, Kansas, it brought lumber and other things they needed.  In a book written by Joe Fair, about the history of Arlington, Kansas, gives Robert and his sons a lot of credit for hauling lumber and supplies from the train to Arlington, in order to build the town.
     Robert was 4 foot and 11 inches tall and as strong as an ox.  He also was a fair man in his dealings.
     They made several trips back to Illinois and wrote letters.  The address and the letters was kept in a large album type of book.  Samuel, his son, wanted the book after his father had passed away and was given the book.  But Robert told Catherine to tear out all of the pages that had names and addresses on them and the letters and burn them.  When Samuel got the book it was empty.
     Another chapter Robert's brother Samuel is said to have went to Australia after 1850.  No word whether he came to the US first or maybe he was sent?  The English Government was doing that at the time.

Written by Bill Burling 11/4/2000

From Robert Burling:

Mentioned in:

1. Leion lburling@aol.com

2. Louise wnance1@cox.net