Andrew H. Burke

Andrew Horace Burke (May 15, 1850 – November 17, 1918) was an American politician who was the second governor of North Dakota from 1891 to 1893.

Biography Burke was born in New York City in 1850. His mother died at his birth and his father died when Burke was four years old. He then became a ward of the Children's Aid Society. As a boy, Burke sold newspapers in the city before he was adopted in 1858 by a family of farmers near Noblesville, Indiana. He enlisted as a drummer boy at the age of 12 with an Indiana regiment on July 17, 1862, in the American Civil War. After returning to Indiana, he finished his education, attending what would become DePauw University for two years. In 1880, after marrying Caroline Cleveland, he moved to Casselton, North Dakota and became a general store bookkeeper. (Based on the popular vote in North Dakota – narrowly won by Populist candidate James Weaver – one Republican elector and two electors from a fusion Democratic-Populist slate were selected. The Republican elector voted for the Republican candidate, incumbent President Benjamin Harrison, while other two electors split, one voting for Cleveland and one voting for Weaver.)

Burke's political career ended when he lost the support of the state's farmers by vetoing a bill that would have forced railroads to lease sites near the tracks for building grain elevators and warehouses under terms that were unacceptable to the railroads. His remains are interred in in Roswell.