Steeples Family History & Genealogy

After her first husband Francis died, Mary Ann Morison Steeples married George 'Samuel' Burns. The family story is that as George was really mean to Nellie and DJ, and they both left home. Many years later, Mary Ann and 'Sam' moved to Loveland, Colorado and opened a hotel. The family farm was left to DJ.

Children born to Mary Ann by Sam Burns verified by the book "Lest We Forget", a history of Rooks Co., KS. Article on the Steeples family submitted to the book by Mary Ann's granddaughter, Edith Whisman, stating the couple had 3 children; names and birth dates included.

Per the 1900 US Census, Plainville, Rooks Co., Kansas, George S. Burns is listed as 'head of household'...age 64 (born 8/1835), born in Kentucky, and married 17 years to "Emma M." (incorrectly recorded, should read "Mary Ann M") age 57, born in Scotland. Listed in household:

Ethel M. daughter age 13
Olive M. daughter age 11
Steeples, Helen step-daughter age 20
Also listed 6 boarders living in the house. Two of those boarders, Peter Peterson & Charles Holland, are listed in the household with George, Mary Ann, daughter Ethel and her family, in the 1920 US Census in Larimer Co., Colorado!
All children born in Kansas.

Per 1910 US Census, the couple were living in Plainville, Rooks Co., KS; Living in household:
George, age 75
Mary Ann 58
Nellie Steeples 25, divorced (dressmaker) (ACTUAL AGE SHOULD BE 30 or 31!)
Olive Burns 20, single, saleswoman
KRUTCH, "Wanita", 8 born in Idaho (name should read "Juanita")
Hollis 6 born in Idaho


Per 1920 census, George, age 84, and Mary Anne, age 71 (notice age discrepancy from 1910 census) were living with daughter Ethel (age 34) in Larimer Co., Precinct 31, Colorado. Roll T625-166, page 9A, ED 166, image 0476....Lliving in household:

Chamberlain, James 40 born in Iowa
Ethel (Burns) 34 Kansas
Dane 13 Kansas
Lowell 9 Kansas
Maxine 3 Colorado
Burns, George 84
Mary Ann 71
Peterson, Peter unk Denmark
Holland, Charles 64 England
both Peter and Charles listed as "friends" (were the same boarders that lived with the family in Plainville, Kansas in previous census).

Recv'd obit from Pueblo Co. Library on 7/20/04...from Pueblo newspaper dated 6/12/1929, page 15: "BURNS: Mrs. Mary, age 80 years, passed away at a local hospital early Tuesday morning following a long illness. She is survived by her husband, George S. Burns, of Loveland, and one daughter, Mrs. J.O. Chamberlain, of Denver. The body was forwarded Tuesday to Loveland for interment. George F. McCarthy service (the funeral home)".

Not mentioned in article:
At the time of her death, Mary Ann also had a living daughter and son by her marriage to Francis Steeples: Nell Steeples Kroetsch Abbott, living in Aberdeen, Washington and
David James Steeples, living in Palco, Kansas. It is unclear as to why these two children were not mentioned in Mary Ann's obit.

Per the book, "Lest We Forget", Vol 2, pgs 524-526;submitted by Edith Steeples Whisman, 1980:

Francis O Steeples:
Francis Oliphant (Frank) Steeples was born in Musselborough, Scotland, March 4, 1843. He grew to manhood, went to school and attended Oxford University for some time. While there he saved a schoolmate from drowning, and was awarded a medal for bravery, which had the head of a stag on it. He later had the stag's head made into a pin for his wife-to-be. This pin is still in the family.
The family were of the Protestant persuasion, and were members of the Christian Church.
He was a stonemason by trade, and came to America to work in 1871. He returned to Scotland, and married Mary Ann Morrison, April 5, 1872, in Edinburgh, sailing for America again that same evening. Mary Ann, born October 20, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland was the daughter of Andrew and Helen (Doig) Morrison.
Arriving back in America, they came west to settle in Chicago, where he had previously worked, arriving shortly before the great fire, after which he built the new post office building and also the government building.
David James was born there January 27, 1873, and on December 27, 1875 Helen Isabelle was born. She lived only two years, passing away on December 3, 1877.
The family then moved to Des Moines, Iowa, where he, being a stonemason, found work helping build the present state capitol building in Des Moines. He did much of the decorative stone work there. On March 31, 1878, Francis Oliphant, Jr. (Frankie) was born. In the winter time when work on the capitol was slack on account of cold and stormy weather, F.O. worked as end man with a minstrel show, much to the disgust of his wife.
Working with the stone so much, he took what the doctors then called "stone cutters consumption". He was advised to come to Kansas for his health, arriving in Rooks County in the spring of 1879, after coming to Fort Hays by train, purchasing a team and wagon there, and hauling all their worldly goods to the place he took as a homestead. They built a sod house on the southeast corner of the SE 1/4 of Section 25 in Northampton Township, Rooks County, Kansas.
Never having lived on a farm, he knew nothing about farming, so had to learn the best way he could, by trial and error, and from his neighbors. Farming became too much for him and in the early spring of 1881 he took pneumonia, and died April 29, 1881, leaving his wife and two little ones. Burial was in the Pleasant View Cemetery, Palco, Kansas. Frankie had died September 16, 1879 and that same year, just sixteen days later, Helen Isabelle (Nell) was born, September 27, 1879.
Not being able to keep farming and the household going, Mary Ann married again in 1882 to George Samuel Burns, a widower, who proved up on the claim.
They had three children, George Henry, born September 8, 1883, Mary Ethel, November 15, 1886, and Olive May on March 19, 1889.
Meanwhile David James Steeples had grown to manhood and had bought the south eighty acres of Section 36, the north eighty being, for some reason, called school land.
G.S. Burns acquired the north eighty acres some way, and they built a soddy on it, across the road from the other. They moved there and put up other buildings and lived there for a time. David James then bought the north eighty of Section 36 from G.S. Burns and they moved back to the original house.
David James then married Myrtle Fulcher, daughter of Franklin Douglas Fulcher, November 26, 1898 and they moved in with his mother and stepfather, while he was building a frame house on the north eighty acres of Section 36. Money being scarce and the laborers few, it took some time to get the house built, and their first child, a daughter, was born in the old sod house.
The original homestead land is still in the Steeples family and being farmed by the fourth and fifth generations of the family. David James later bought out his stepfather, and he and Mary Ann retired and moved to Plainville where they lived a good many years. Mary Ann died in June 1929 in Pueblo, Colorado. Burial was in Loveland, Colorado.
D.J. then bought the NW 1/4 of Section 25 which was mostly pasture land, and is now all pasture.