Sacramento County
Biographies
FREDERICK THEOBA BURKE
F. T. BURKE was born in the city of New
York, September 14, 1827, at which place he lived (with the exception of five
years when he lived on his father’s farm in New Jersey), until he came to
California, November 23, 1849. He sailed from New York for California on
the ship St. Mary (Captain Hill, commander), and arrived in San Francisco on
Sunday, April 27, 1850, after a pleasant voyage of 153 days, including one
week’s stop at Rio de Janeiro and two days at the Island of Juan Fernandez. He
came up the Sacramento River on the brig General Cobb, and arrived at Sacramento
May 6, 1850. After going to the mines he returned to Sacramento,
where he engaged in the brick-making business. In the spring of 1853,
after the fig fire of 1852, he went to San Francisco
and engaged in the brick business on Mission Creek. His brick-yard was
situated where Center street
crosses Mission Creek. In 1854 he returned to Sacramento,
and in the fall of 1859 he was elected an officer of the police force. He
sustained this relation until 1864, when he was elected Chief of Police to fill
an unexpired term. He was afterward elected Chief of Police four years in
succession. June 1, 1868, he entered the employ of the Central Pacific
Railroad (now the Southern Pacific Company), as detective, and has remained in
their employ ever since,—nearly twenty-three years. He has remained true
to Sacramento through all her
vicissitudes of fire and water. He took an active
part in capturing the Verdi train robbers in Nevada in
1870; also in the capture of the Cape Horn train robbers in 1883; the Popago train robbers near Mountain Springs,
Arizona, in 1887, and the gang of incendiaries in Sacramento
in 1860. Chief Burke belongs to the Exempt Firemen’s Association. He
was a member of Eureka Engine Company, No. 4, and a delegate to the Board of
Delegates of the Old Volunteer Firemen’s Association, and was vice-president of
the board, Hon. Grove L. Johnson being president. At the last meeting of
the board, before it adjourned sine die, in the absence of the
president, Mr. Burke occupied the chair at the final adjournment.
Transcribed 10-3-07 Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated
History of Sacramento County, California. Page 773.
Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.
© 2007 Marilyn R. Pankey.