Annie Burns, Carroll County

Annie Burns came to Illinois in 1887 at the age of eleven. She was placed with Caroline Mark in Mt. Carroll. Mrs. Marks reported of Annie: "She goes to school nine months in the year, and is never absent or tardy. She likes to go to school but dislikes work, and is indolent in learning to sew. "

Annie may be the same girl who lived in New York with her parents in 1880, age 4. Her possible parents were Patrick and Elizabeth Burns, two Irish immigrants. Annie's Irish heritage was never acknowledged in her census reports, however.

Annie married Roscoe Tipton, a dentist in 1900. This marriage signaled a move up the social ladder for an orphan train rider. She used the name Annie Mark Burns when registering for her license, signaling a desire to associate herself with her guardian. Caroline Mark was an important benefactress in Mount Carroll who left a home for elderly ladies and was known to have sheltered orphans as a widow. The Caroline Mark Home sheltered women for over 100 years after Caroline Mark's death in 1900. Another report indicated that Mrs. Mark and her husband took in a trio of girls in 1866, but the 1870 census showed no hint of those girls. The establishment of this home was of course resisted strenuously by the daughter of Mrs. Mark's deceased husband, a resident of Minnesota, who had expected to inherit all of her father's wealth.

Roscoe Tipton had his practice in Mt. Carroll. Annie and Roscoe had two sons, David and William.

Annie Burns died in 1962 and her husband in 1943.