Nancy Jane Ledgerwood Burgess

(July 12, 1836 – May 12, 1902)

Wife of Otis Asa Burgess; benefactress of Eureka College.

Nancy Jane Ledgerwood (known as "Nannie" to her friends) married Otis Asa Burgess on October 17, 1854, and became actively involved in the history and life of Eureka College. Yet, indirectly she had been associated with the College before through the work of her maternal grandfather Henry G. Palmer. Palmer had become an active member of the Christian Church movement once it was established and he became one of the church's best-known circuit ministers in central Illinois. Incidentally, one of the young men whom Palmer was able to convert to the movement was a young Otis Asa Burgess.

Otis Asa Burgess served as solicitor in behalf of the Walnut Grove Academy when it sought a charter in 1855 from the Illinois State Assembly. In the years thereafter, Burgess served as a professor at Eureka College teaching natural science, philosophy, and sacred literature. When the U.S. Civil War began and the young men who gathered ‘neath the "Recruiting Elm" formed the nucleus of Company G of the 17th Illinois Infantry, they chose Professor Burgess to be the captain of the company. Thus, led by their venerable teacher, the young men of Eureka College went off to war. In the years following the Civil War, Burgess accepted the position as President of Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana, and "Nannie" fulfilled the duties of being a university president's wife.

In 1874, the Christian Women's Board of Missions (CWBM) was organized in Eureka, Illinois, by three women who had ties to Eureka College - Nancy Jane Ledgerwood Burgess, Elmira Jane Dickinson, and Caroline Neville Pearre. In time, all three of the Founders of this organization would serve in national leadership positions within the CWBM. This group became one of the largest and most successful foreign mission societies to be established in the U.S. in the late-nineteenth century. Missionaries from this group went forward to points across the globe including the Congo, Jamaica, China, the Philippines, Japan, and Cuba.

On December 12, 1890, Nancy Jane Ledgerwood Burgess informed the Trustees of Eureka College of her intent to offer a tract if land near Forrest, Illinois, the sale of which would provide start-up funds for constructing a memorial to her husband Otis Asa Burgess. The $10,000 that was acquired through the sale of this property provided nearly half of the $21,000 that was needed to construct Burgess Memorial Hall.

The following description of the new building’s dedication ceremony was reported in The Pegasus and noted in Harold Adams' The History of Eureka College (1982):

"October 14, 1891, will always be held in remembrance by the friends and students of Eureka College as the day when the birth of her new building was officially announced and celebrated. The magnificent gift of Mrs. Burgess, the conditions, the acceptance, the strenuous efforts of President Johann and Reverend Waggoner, the suspense and the final success, so heartily and thankfully celebrated, are familiar to you. Some weeks ago the Faculty set apart Wednesday, the 14th, as Cornerstone Day and granted the afternoon as a half-holiday. The students petitioned for the forenoon and after some deliberation the Faculty kindly granted it also, thus the whole of the 14th was made a glorious gala day, not only for the College but also for the town.

The day dawned cold, cloudy and cheerless . . . As prearranged, the school children, the Odd Fellows, the citizens, the students and Faculty convened at the square at 1:30 p.m. forming a line of march to the College grounds. Stumpf's Military Band led the town delegation, the College Band, and students. It was a magnificent procession of 500 souls, each eager and interested, that filed into the campus and took their seats in the Tabernacle . . . There were many distinguished visitors from a distance, and fully 1,600 people listened to the exercises . . . It was fitting, in the absence of Mrs. Burgess, that Uncle John Darst, the noble cornerstone of Eureka College, should officiate . . . In the evening a beautiful and varied display of fireworks illuminated the campus. The Old Recitation Building shone in a perfect blaze of light and its brightness seemed to smile a welcome to its new born sister. . . "

Both Otis Asa and Nancy Jane Ledgerwood Burgess are buried in the family plot in Forrest, Illinois.