Mercer County PAGenWeb

William F. Burton


WILLIAM F. BURTON, farmer, civil engineer and surveyor, post-office Leech’s Corners, was born in Delaware Township, this county, in 1846. William Burton, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Tyrone County, Ireland, where he was reared and married to Jane Stinson in 1794. By this union they had five children: Mary A., Ellen, James, William and Henry. In the year 1824 the family immigrated to America and rented a farm of Gen. Scott, in what is now Sugar Grove Township, where they remained for two years, when they moved to Delaware Township and purchased a farm of 200 acres, in the Fourth Donation District, No. 698, issued to a soldier of the Revolutionary War, on which they resided until their deaths, he dying in 1851, at the age of ninety-seven, and she in 1854, at the age of eighty-four. Henry Burton, the father of our subject, was born in 1806, and was reared and educated at home. He was married November 3, 1843, to Amelia Tait,  daughter of Fergus and Agnes (Giffen) Smith,  of Cool Spring Township. They located on a portion of his father’s farm, where they remained until 1852, then rented the Byron Hull farm one year, and then bought a farm of ninety-five acres of  Asbury Leech, in Salem, now Sugar Grove, Township. There were five children born to them: W. F., Nancy J., Martha E.,  wife of W. Hardy; Mary A., deceased, and Elizabeth,  wife of F. D. Bary. Politically Henry is a Republican. He and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church. William F., our subject, was married December 26, 1876, to Clara C., daughter of John and Sarah Ellis,  of Jackson County, Iowa. They settled in Eastland County, Tex., where be followed surveying and stock raising on a farm of 600 acres, which he still owns. There was one child born to them, John McKean. His wife, Clarissa, died May 29, 1878. In the fall of 1878 he returned to Mercer County, and is now living on the old homestead. Politically he is a Democrat, and a member of the United Presbyterian Church.

Source: History of Mercer County, 1888, page 1136-1137


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