Guide to the Frances Rosilla Burke Papers

The fledgling Woman's Executive Committee of Home Missions (PCUSA) commissioned Frances Burke a missionary to the Mormons in 1881. Leaving her home in Lebanon, OH, she arrived in Toquerville, UT in time to open her school in September.

Burke served Toquerville as schoolteacher and postmistress, and conducted Sunday services (the village was seldom visited by ordained Presbyterian pastors) in her combined chapel, home and schoolhouse. Due to the sparseness of the population in that part of Utah, the Women's Board eventually had to withdraw its financial support of Burke, but she remained in the community, continuing her work on her own income until her health gave out in 1925. She moved to St. George, UT and lived out her remaining two years there.