Burke Historical Society General Meeting

Longtime Burke resident Bill Sheads will speak about his family’s former logging and lumbering business in the Burke area. **Note that we will meet on the 23rd rather than the customary last Sunday of the month in order to avoid potential conflicts with Halloween events.** Our October 23rd meeting will NOT be at the Silas Burke House. Instead, we will meet in the Fellowship Hall at Burke United Methodist Church, 6200 Burke Centre Parkway, Burke, VA 22015 (at the southwest corner of the intersection of Burke Centre Parkway and Burke Lake Road). You can enter the parking lot by turning onto Lucas Pond Court from Burke Lake Road, or by turning onto Wesley Pond Court from Burke Centre Parkway. If you have any questions about the meeting, please do NOT call the church office. The church has no affiliation with the BHS and is just kindly providing a meeting space for us. Please direct your questions to bhs1854@gmail.com. Delbert (Bill) Sheads was born in September 1923 in Burke. His father and uncle had founded a timbering business and operated a mobile saw mill at various sites within Fairfax, Fauquier, and Culpeper Counties, and it was in Fairfax that young Bill worked for the family business, scouting for, selecting, cutting, and hauling the timber from which much of the construction in Northern Virginia and Washington would be made. Mr. Sheads went on to serve in the Army in World War II, landing in Normandy in June 1944 after D-Day, and in later years worked as a firefighter and forester. Mr. Sheads continues to live in Burke, where he is active in local organizations and speaks regularly on his experiences.