David Wallace Burkhart was one of ten children born to the farming family of Eli Emmanuel Burkhart (1815-1891) and Malinda (Sherrod) Burkhart (1821-1900) of Knox County, Tennessee. He was born June 13th, 1853. He attended school and helped his parents on the farm. On Oct 7, 1869, he married Sallie A. Burnett, a native of Tennessee, b.Oct 22, 1863. They moved into their own home near to both sets of parents and began farming there. By the time that the 1900 U.S.Census was taken on June 6, 1900 (by James Monroe Burkhart, enumerator) they had nine living children, the eldest married. They were:
Iva Magnolia, b.Aug 1880, who married Erastus Haun, b.Aug 1879, a laborer at the Quarry; they were newly weds in 1900.
Claiborne McDonald, b.Oct 1882, a farm laborer
George Harrison, b.Sep 1884, a farm laborer
Anna L., b.Dec 1886,
Malinda L., b.Aug 1889,
Ernest Monroe, b.June 1891,
Flora E., b.Oct 1891,
a son, S.W., b.Jan 1894 [he died July 1898]
William Hobart, b.June 1896, and
Verda R., b.Oct 1898.
By 1910, their road was named on the 1910 Census, taken Apr 21, 1910. They were living on Thompson Pike, which became Dandridge Road in Knox County. David and Sallie had been married 31 years. She stated she had given birth to 10 children and that nine were still living. The family name was listed as "Berkheart" in error. In addition to David and Sallie in their home on their farm, their daughter, Annie, now 23 and married to Edd Emmert, age 26, and a farmer, shared the house with her siblings:
Monroe, now 19 and listing himself as a Farmer of the home farm,
Flora E., now 18,
Hobart, now 14 and listed as working on the home farm,
Verda R., now 11, and
Ina G., age 6.
A grandson, Wilbern Emmert, age 8, Annie and Edd's son, also lived in the home. One last child, a son, would be born after the census was taken. He was named Rubel.
David died on March 9, 1919, at the age of 65 years and was buried at Asbury Cemetery in Knoxville, Knox County, Tennessee. Sallie was now a grieving widow with no plans to remarry. When the 1920 Census was taken on Jan 9, 1920, Sallie owned the farm and had six children living with her.
Her daughter, Lou, (Malinda L.) had returned home, a widow. Flora was now 25 and still single. Hobart, now 22, had returned home, divorced. "Birtie", now 20 (Verda?), was still in the home. Ina was now 15 yrs. and her youngest child, Rubel, b.1910, was now 9 yrs. of age and in the home. Her daughter, Iva, her husband, Erastus, and their eight children lived adjacent to Sallie; Annie, her husband, Edd, and their five children lived on the other side of Sallie.
Sallie died on November 11th, 1926, aged 63 yrs. and was laid to rest by her husband, David, at Asbury Cemetery, in Knoxville, Tennessee. At least 149 Burkharts are buried at Asbury Cemetery. May they all Rest, at Peace, forever.