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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