Macoupin County
ILGenWeb

Biography - WILLIAM D. MARBURGER

Of those who have recently become citizens of Bunker Hill none is held in higher esteem than the Rev. William D. Marburger, headmaster of Bunker Hill Military Academy. He was born in Hamburg, Pennsylvania, on the 4th of February, 1880, being the only child of M. L. and Lucy A. (Becker) Marburger. The father, who was a merchant, was also a native of Hamburg, of German extraction, his people having come from one of the Rhine provinces. He passed away in 1906, but the mother still survives.

Reared at home William D. Marburger acquired his elementary education in his native town, after which he was sent to private schools in different parts of the state, completing his education in Franklin and Marshall College at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, from which institution he was graduated with the degree of B. A. in 1902. He acquired his master’s degree in the same college, after which he pursued a theological course being graduated as a bachelor of divinity in 1908. Immediately thereafter he was made head of an educational institution at Dakota, Illinois. From there he went to Orangeville, Illinois, where he was pastor and principal of a school, and in 1910 he came to Bunker Hill, purchasing the interest of the former superintendent in the military academy. It is his ambition to make of this one of the finest private schools for boys in the United States. He is a man of progressive and high ideals, and it is his purpose to so correlate the mental, moral and physical training of his cadets that they will supplement each other. The motto of the school, “Knowledge is Power,” is to find its highest fulfillment in instilling noble purposes and high ideals which can only thrive and develop in a body with every muscle and nerve controlled by a mind whose every thought is directed along clean, pure channels, seeking the good, the noble and true. Mr. Marburger left his own boyhood such a short while ago, that he is able to fully understand and sympathize with those impulses of youth, whose mischievous pranks, oftentimes attributed to viciousness, are the result of superabundant vitality, which if rightly expended would have brought as great satisfaction to the instigator and at the same time have redounded to his benefit. During the brief period of his superintendency Mr. Marburger has given marked evidence of his fitness for the work he has so enthusiastically undertaken. He has made some extensive changes in the school and has largely added to the attendance. He has purchased for the new management an additional twenty acres of land adjoining the present campus and it is his intention in the near future to erect a fifty thousand dollar building there. The simple, regular, healthful life, government and supervision, together with the high standard of scholarship maintained make it an ideal place to send a youth to during the formative period. It fits him for life, the practical, upright, active life every American citizen is supposed to lead. It exacts courtesy to equals and respect to superiors and elders without subserviency or loss of dignity. The regular life quickly inculcates the fundamental principles of system and a recognition of the value of time; two most essential factors for success in any vocation, commercial or professional.

In 1902 Mr. Marburger was united in marriage to Miss Mary Swords of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and to them there have been born two children, the elder of whom died in infancy; but they have a little son, David, who is now two years of age. Mrs. Marburger is a musician of more than average ability and in this capacity very ably assists in the work of the school.

In matters of religious faith both Mr. Marburger and bis wife affiliate with the Reformed Church in the United States, of which organization he is secretary and treasurer in the state of Illinois. Fraternally he is identified with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and he also belongs to the Post Order Sons of America. His political support he accords to the republican party, to whose principles he is a stanch and enthusiastic adherent. During the period of his residence in Bunker Hill Mr. Marburger has won many friends and both he and Mrs. Marburger are held in high esteem and regard by all with whom they come in contact.


Extracted 15 Nov 2018 by Norma Hass from History of Macoupin County, Illinois: Biographical and Pictorial, by Charles A. Walker, published in 1911, Volume 2, pages 425-426.


Design by Templates in Time
This page was last updated 07/01/2022