Gereene Van Burger, son of William Gereene and Adeline Van Burger of Laingsburg, Shiawassee County, Michigan, was born in Victor Township, Clinton County, Michigan, on the 8th of August, 1886. He attended the country school known as the “Little Brick” until after the death of his father in 1901, when, with his mother and sisters, he moved to Laingsburg, Michigan, and entered the Laingsburg High School. There he remained until October, 1905, at which time he gave up his school work to go west with a friend who was seeking health in the western country. They spent much time in California, where Gereene worked in the orange groves, and in Arizona, where he gave his time to mining. From Arizona he returned to California, making San Francisco his home until 1908. In June of that year he went to Nevada to visit his uncle, Mr. William Perkins, and, after considerable time spent in prospecting, fishing and trapping, located in Jarbidge, Elko County, Nevada.

In February, 1918, the call to the Colors reached him in Jarbidge. He went to Elko immediately, passed the physical examination, and then, until he should receive his orders to report for duty, went to San Francisco to work in the shipyards. The call to report came in June. He at once left his work and reported for duty at the University of Nevada Training Detachment in Reno (June 20, 1918).

On the 13th of August he was sent to Camp Fremont, California, to report in Company E, 319th Engineers, 8th Division. He trained with them until September 11th, when the regiment started for Camp Upton. From that camp they sailed for England on the 25th of the month, but on the 5th of October, 1918, while at sea, Private Van Burger, died a victim of pneumonia, and was buried at sea with full military honors. The soldier is survived by his mother, Mrs. Adeline Van Burger; by two sisters, Mrs. Viola Schulze and Mrs. Adda McNab, and by a brother, Abe Van Burger, all of Laingsburg, Michigan. It was not his fate to be laid to rest like his brother soldiers on the field or in a plot of his home town, yet, though the waters of the Atlantic roll over his resting place, his name and memory are a shrine in themselves in the hearts of all Nevadans and of Americans for whom he died.