(1849-1887)
« return to database listOn May 6, 1849, Robert and Anna Burwell welcomed a new baby into their household. Edmund Strudwick Burwell was their 10th child, and the first of their large family to be born after they enlarged their previously four room home on Churton Street in Hillsborough, NC.
Eddie as he was known to the family, would have been educated as a young boy by his mother. By the age of 15 he was attending school under Mr. Ralph Henry Graves in Granville County. It is likely that some of his older brothers had attended Mr. Graves school as well.
Eddie attended school through the Civil War and while the war ended before he was old enough to join, it was not always certain that he would avoid the fighting. His mother wrote to him in September 1864, “I see a marked improvement in your writing and spelling. In no one think have I to thank my heavenly Father for answer to prayer than you being at Mr. Grave’s. I trust my son you will improve every moment; from present appearances the war may last so long that you may have to go to the army and then all opportunities for improvement will be at an end, and these you now have wished for."
Unlike his older brothers, Eddie did not attend Davidson College. Anna was apparently not happy with the school at that time, and instead he headed north to his father’s alma mater, Hampden-Sidney College, where he attended from 1866-1867.
Eddie returned to Charlotte and eventually established a business there. In the late 1870s, he met his future wife, Martha Wilkinson, who was in town from New York visiting a friend. On October 16, 1879, they were married in New York in a double wedding with Mattie’s sister. Eddie was 30 and Mattie was 26 years old. The couple made their home in Charlotte, living first with Eddie’s brother Willie and his wife before establishing their own home and starting a family.
Eddie and Mattie had four children together, but Mattie was left to raise them when just a few years after their marriage Edmund died unexpectedly at the age of 38 from a bowel inflammation. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery near his mother and siblings. Eddie was held in high esteem by his community and described as “quiet and unassuming.” As a sign of respect for his life, all businesses in the city closed for his funeral [1] [2].
Edmund was called Eddie.
Edmund Strudwick Burwell was born on May 6, 1849, in Hillsborough, NC. He was born at the Burwell School [3]. He died on March 30, 1887.
, Frances Armistead Burwell (1838-1856) , Mary Susan Burwell (1832-1859) and Virginia Isabella Burwell (1851-1867). and Virginia Bridges (1832-1859) .