Benton Co., AR - Biographies - John H. and James P. Burns

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SOURCE: History of Benton, Washington, Carroll, Madison, Crawford,
Franklin, and Sebastian Counties, Arkansas. Chicago: The Goodspeed 
Publishing Co., 1889.
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John H. and James P. Burns, grocery merchants of Bentonville. Ark., 
were born in Bedford County, Tenn., in 1830 and 1838, respectively. 
They are the sons of Thomas P. and Mary Ann (Knott) Burns, and the 
grandsons of John Burns, who was a native of Ireland, coming to the 
United States when a young man; was a soldier in the Revolutionary 
War, and drew a pension for services rendered. He located in North 
Carolina, but afterward located in Bedford County, Tenn., where he 
died about 1836. Thomas P. Burns was born in the State of North 
Carolina in 1793, and was of Irish descent. He died in 1838. Mary Ann 
(Knott) Burns was born in Bedford County, Tenn., and died in 1870 at 
the age of sixty-three. She was the mother of five children, three of 
whom are now living: William, who resides in Bell County, Tex., 
engaged in farming: John H. and James P. The father of these children 
died when they were quite small, and, after his death, the mother 
continued to keep house, and keep her children together on the farm. 
In 1860 she and her three children moved to Benton County, Ark., 
purchased a farm five miles southwest of the county seat, and here 
John H. and James P. remained with their mother until her death. They 
followed farming until 1881, when they established a grocery store in 
Bentonville, and this they have since continued. They carry a first-
class stock of goods, and are men of good business ability, are 
strictly honest, and are good citizens. In 1871 John H. married Miss 
Mary Elizabeth Simpson, a native of Alabama, born in 1838, and the 
daughter of James Simpson. Mrs. Burns died in 1875, and in 1877 he 
married Miss Harriet E. Campbell, who was born in Logan County, Ky., 
and who is the daughter of James M. Campbell. James P. married, in 
1878, Miss Sarah Emaline Jackson, daughter of Haley Jackson. They have 
five children: Mary E., Margaret G., Edna A., James H. and Ida. In 
politics the brothers are both Democrats. They are both Masons, and 
both are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, of which 
John H. is steward and James P. trustee. In 1862 the brothers enlisted 
in Company F. Confederate army, under Capt. Miser. John H. was in the 
battle of Helena. Jenkins' Ferry, and was captured and retained about 
twenty days. He was discharged at Washington, Ark., after the 
surrender. James P. was in the battle of Prairie Grove, and was 
afterward transferred to the commissary department, and was there from 
August, 1862, until the close of the war. He was wounded quite 
severely in the battle of Prairie Grove.