OF ENGLISH ANCESTRY

DESCENDANT OF 5 MAYFLOWER PASSENGERS: MR. AND MRS. WILLIAM BREWSTER, RICHARD WARREN, FRANCIS COOKE AND HIS SON JOHN COOKE

SECOND COUSIN OF HON. ANSON BURLINGAME (1820-1870), PRESIDENT ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S MINISTER TO CHINA

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A BIOGRAPHY OF MELISSA BURLINGAME FAST (1847-1917) OF ASHLAND COUNTY, OHIO, by Laurence Overmire, genealogist and family historian (GG Grandson), updated June 2018:

Melissa was born in Steuben County, Indiana, on Feb. 9, 1947, one of two surviving children of Daniel Burlingame, but the identity of her mother has not been confirmed. Her death certificate says her mother was Elizabeth Wise (the informant was her daughter-in-law Mrs. Elvin Fast). However, the death certificate of Melissa's older brother Alonzo says his mother was Lucy Briscoe. Indeed, Lucy appears with Daniel Burlingame and his family in the 1850 census in Millgrove, Steuben County, Indiana, when Melissa was only three years old. Could it be, however, that Lucy was a second wife of Daniel's and the adoptive mother of the children? We simply don't know.

Jacob Fast met Melissa while visiting relatives in Angola, Steuben County, Indiana. They were married on July 20, 1865, in Ashland County, Ohio. (Jacob Fast's brother Christian's family moved to Angola. Christian's daughter married Melissa Burlingame's brother Alonzo, while Jacob Fast's sister Anna married Daniel Burlingame, Melissa's father, sometime before 1870.)

Jacob and Melissa had two children: Elvin and Cora Edna (who died at the age of 13).

On June 6, 1883, the first known Nicklaus Fast Family Reunion took place on the Christian Fast Farm in Orange Township, Ashland County. About 1200 people came from as far away as Illinois, Michigan, and Indiana. They ate together at huge tables about 225 feet long. Surely, Melissa was in attendance as her husband Judge Jacob Fast gave a speech about the Fast family history.

When Jacob died in 1902, Melissa inherited his house in Polk and lived in it as a widow. The 1910 federal census shows her living next door to John Hartsel and his wife Irene (Fast), a daughter of Jacob Fast by his first wife Mary Plice. Living with Melissa was 66-year-old Catherine Pence, who is listed as a companion.

During this period, Melissa's grandson Irl Fast, son of Elvin, was going to school in Polk. He stayed with Melissa during the week and then went back to the Fast farm on the weekends. He wrote in his memoirs:

"This was the beginning of a close relationship with my grandmother. My memory of her now is that she was kind to me, interested in what I was doing in school and outside. As time passed I grew larger and stronger and was able to walk the two miles from farm to school in Polk, through fields and woods and over fences... I saw Grandmother less... In 1915 my father who lived on the farm died at age 50. Now I was the only near relative my Grandmother had, and I was even more important to her than I had been. However in the meantime I had grown to be 22 years old and for several years had spent little time in Polk. I had been away teaching school in different places and between times going to college. Only on vacations could I see and visit with my grandmother. So added to her grief was loneliness. She died in 1917 when I was a Junior at Baldwin Wallace. When her will was read I first found out that she willed the house in Polk, in which she had lived, to me. Since then, the question came to me, 'Did I do everything I could have done to alleviate her loneliness?'"

Melissa was 70 years old when she died in Polk on Apr. 22, 1917. According to her death certificate, she was buried in the Polk Cemetery on Apr. 25, 1917, presumably alongside her husband Jacob, but her gravestone has not been found.

Sources:
1) "Genealogy of Fast, Shriver, Burns, Scott, McKibben, Including Descendants of Revolutionary War Hero Christian Fast," by Laurence Overmire, RootsWeb World Connect Project, 2000-2018.
2) "The Memoirs of Irl Fast," by Irl Fast, self-published, 1979.
3) Ohio, County Marriages, 1774-1993
4) Jacob Fast Bio from 1880 Biographical History of Ashland County, by George W. Hill, Biographical Sketches of Early Pioneers Who Settled in Ashland County Ohio, Project Coordinator: Russ Shopbell, Ashland County Chapter of the Ohio Genealogical Society, ashlandohiogenealogy.org
5) History of Ashland County, by George William Hill (Williams Bros, Cleveland, OH, 1880), p. 339, 383
6) 1850 federal census, Millgrove, Steuben, Indiana; Roll: M432_173; Page: 135A; Image: 34.
7) 1860 federal census, Millgrove, Steuben, Indiana, Roll: M653_298, Page: 686
8) 1870 federal census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio, Roll: M593_1169, Page: 650, Image: 155
9) 1880 federal census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio; Roll: T9_991; Family History Film: 1254991; Page: 76B; Enumeration District: 82; Image: 0155.
10) 1900 federal census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio; Roll: T623 1237; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 4.
11) 1910 federal census, Jackson, Ashland, Ohio; Roll: T624_1151; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0005
12) Deed for Cemetery Lot No. 87 in Polk Cemetery, paid for by Jacob Fast, 12 Dec 1901, James J. Berry, Justice of the Peace
13) Obituary of Melissa M. Fast, Ashland Times & Gazette, Ashland, OH, 25 Apr 1917
14) Death Certificate of Melissa Fast, #23268, from Ohio Deaths 1908-1953, FamilySearch Labs [Lists Daniel Burlingame and Elizabeth Wise, b. NY, as parents. Lists birthdate 9 Feb 1847 in Steuben Co., IN. Mary F. Fast (Mrs. Elvin Fast) was the informant.]