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HENRY SIGMUND BURBES. A citizen who commands the unalloyed confidence and esteem of his fellow men in Randolph county, Illinois, is Henry Sigmund Burbes, sheriff of this county and a native of Chester, where his birth occurred on the 6th of September, 1859. The Burbes family was established at Chester in 1838 by Peter Burbes, father of the subject of this review and a native of Hanover, Germany. As a youth Peter Burbes familiarized himself with the brick-maker's trade and he continued to be identified with that particular line of enterprise during the greater portion of his active career. He had a plant at Pinckneyville, Illinois, for a number of years, having established himself there about the year 1868. He married Mina Kramma, a lady of German birth, who died in 1874. The issue of this union were: Tina, widow of Jasper McCollam, of Pinckneyville; Henry S., of this notice; Dora, who died unmarried; Carrie, wife of J. L. Davis, of Danville, Illinois; Lillie, who passed away at the age of fifteen years; and Charles Adolph, who left a family at his death, in 1904. The father was summoned to the great beyond in 1903, at the age of sixty-four years.
Henry S. Burbes passed the time from his ninth year until his majority in Pinckneyville, where he acquired a public-school education. After leaving school he learned the cooper's trade, following that line of occupation for a period of eight years at Chester. He was eventually won away from the shop by election as constable of the precinct and was chosen later on to be justice of the peace. He filled the latter office for some twelve years and was then elected city clerk of Chester. Not-
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withstanding the fact that his party was nearly always in the minority in his locality, the personal popularity of Mr. Burbes won him much support from Republicans. He was appointed deputy sheriff by Sheriff Frank Moore and served in that capacity for four years. In 1903 Sheriff Ebers appointed him deputy sheriff and jailer and he was thus occupied for the ensuing four years. He was then, in 1907, elected city marshal of Chester for a two-years' term and soon thereafter he began his preliminary work for his campaign for the office of sheriff.
In 1910 Mr. Burbes was nominated by the Democratic party as their candidate for sheriff of Randolph county and he won the election by a majority of four hundred and thirty-nine votes, in a Republican county, this being the largest majority ever given for that office in the county. He was sworn into office in December, 1910, for the term of four years, as the successor of Henry E. Burns.
Mr. Burbes was married in Chester, December 15, 1886, to Miss Hattie Hathaway, a daughter of John H. Hathaway, a representative of an old family in Randolph county. Mrs. Burbes was born near Chester, April 4, 1871, and she and Mr. Burbes are the parents of Edward J., the Prndential insurance man of Chester; Margaret H., a teacher in the Tilden, Illinois, schools; and Agnes J., who remains at the parental home. Charles S., the oldest child in the family, died at the age of fourteen years.
Mr. Burbes' career as a public officer has been a decidedly successful one. His service' has met the approval of his constituency whenever the opportunity for a public endorsement has presented itself and he began his official life as sheriff with the confidence of all. He was made an Odd Fellow in Pinckneyville in 1884, and he has passed all the official chairs of his home lodge. He and his wife are popular in connection with all classes of people and they are prominent factors in the best social activities of their home community.