Burgett-Irey family

Kenneth Monroe Irey was born in 1905 in Gerlaw, Illinois. Growing up, Kenneth’s family moved to a succession of farms until finally settling in Alpha, Illinois. Kenneth attended Alpha High School and after graduating Magna Cum Laude enrolled in Monmouth College. Around this time, Kenneth, then 19, met his future wife, 16 year old Katherine Willard Burgett. After graduating from Monmouth with a Bachelors of Science in 1928 Kenneth went on to pursue a Master’s Degree in Chemical Engineering from Carnegie University.
Katherine Willard Burgett was born in 1908 in Oquawka, Illinois to a large family who knew her as Katty. The second of seven children, Katherine grew up on the Burgett family farm. In 1923 her father, Louis Porter Burgett, moved the family from Oquawka to a smaller farm in Monmouth, Illinois. Although the Monmouth farm was smaller than the Burgett family farm, the new farmhouse had all of the modern conveniences, including running water and electricity. The new farm also gave the Burgett children the opportunity to attend better schools. Shortly after the move, Katherine enrolled in Monmouth High School. During the summer before her junior year Katherine met her future husband, Kenneth Irey. After graduating from high school Katherine enrolled in Monmouth College. She later left Monmouth after only one year of study in order to pursue a teaching career. For the next two years Katherine taught in a one-room school house and lived with a student’s family.
Once Kenneth received his Master’s Degree in 1929 he began working for the Commercial Solvents Corporation in Terre Haute, Indiana. Shortly thereafter, Kenneth and Katherine got married and left Illinois for Indiana. After moving out of state, Katherine had a difficult time adjusting to her new environment and wrote to her family frequently. Many of Katherine’s letters reflect her close relationship with her family and the difficulties she faced living away from them. During Katherine and Kenneth’s first years together they lived comfortably, having enough money to purchase a new car and a refrigerator. The newly married couple also experienced some difficulties, however, as the Depression of the 1930s strained finances. Katherine’s family in Illinois also experienced significant hardship as the bank foreclosed on their Monmouth farm, forcing them to return to Oquawka.
In 1931, Kenneth was transferred by Commercial Solvents Corporation to Resinox Corporation in Piscataway, New Jersey. Soon after receiving the new position, Kenneth and Katherine moved to New Brunswick, New Jersey. In September of that same year, Katherine gave birth to the couple’s first child, June Rebecca Irey. A second child, Richard Kenneth Irey, would come along in 1936. The Irey family moved once again for Kenneth’s company in 1939, this time to Springfield, Massachusetts. Disappointed with the constant moving and a lack of progress in his career, Kenneth took a job as plant manager with Hayden Chemicals in 1949 and settled with his family in Caldwell, New Jersey. Kenneth retired in 1970, and the couple relocated to Safety Harbor, Florida three years later.
The Irey’s retirement years were marked by the couple’s interest in bird-watching. Kenneth and Katty planned numerous birding excursions, traveling across the U.S. In 1980 Kenneth and Katherine were the first couple in the American Birding Association (ABA) to spot 700 species of birds as a pair. That same year Katherine was credited by the ABA as being the number one female birder in the nation and the first woman to reach 700. Kenneth and Katherine continued to pursue their passion for birding up until Kenneth’s death in 1994. After Kenneth’s passing, Katherine relocated to Massachusetts to be with family where she remained until her death in 2007.
June Irey Guild, born September 1931, is the eldest daughter of Katherine and Kenneth Irey. After graduating from Classical High School in 1949, June enrolled in the University of Vermont. June later left UVM after her sophomore year in order to attend secretarial school in Montclair, New Jersey. In October 1951 June married her first husband, Curt Guild, and relocated with him to Springfield, Massachusetts. June and Curt had six children together, but later divorced in 1968. Curt and June would remarry in 1972, but divorced once more in 1982. June married her second husband, Leonard Day, in 1989. That same year, Leonard and June bought a blueberry farm in Heath, Massachusetts. In 1998 June and Leonard separated and ultimately divorced. After selling the farm in 1999, June moved to Amherst, Massachusetts and retired. During her retirement June joined the Five College Learning in Retirement program and took several courses, one being an autobiographical writing seminar. June also spent her free time working as a guide at Historic Deerfield from 2001 to 2004. From approximately 2004-2008 June was a member of the Sunday Services Committee at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Amherst and led multiple services at the church.

The collection is divided into three series: Personal and Biographical, Correspondence, and Photographs. Personal and biographical information dates from 1803 to 2012 and consists of materials such as autobiographical and composition writing, remembrances, personal records from community and religious organizations, diaries, family genealogies, and newspaper clippings regarding the Burgett-Irey family. Correspondence is composed of letters written by members of the Burgett-Irey family and family friends between 1834 and 2012. One significant group of these letters were written between 1929 and 1933 by Katherine Irey and are addressed to her mother and other family members. Another large portion of the letters include those written between 1834 and 1936 to Louisa Gass Kessel from friends and family; more contemporary family letters between 2005 and 2012; and Christmas and birthday cards June Irey Guild received from family and friends. Finally, photographs include a portrait of Marion Weakly ca. 1880 and 35mm color slides dating from 1984 to 1987. The slides primarily document family vacations June Irey Guild took with her second husband, Leonard Day. In addition, the circa 1870s photo album, listed as the “Boden Family Album,” holds portraits of Boden family members, distant relatives of the Burgetts.