Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Burroughs, C W 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com March 25, 2006, 10:30 pm

Author: Bio/Gen Record LaSalle/Grundy 1900

C. W. BURROUGHS.
One of the large land-owners and prosperous business men of Grundy county, C. 
W. Burroughs, comes from sterling Irish and German stock, his paternal 
grandfather, John Burroughs, having been a native of the Emerald Isle, while 
his maternal grandfather, Captain J. B. Shurman, was born in Germany. The 
former was a farmer by occupation, both in his native land and in Washington 
county, New York, where he located after coming to America, residing there 
until his death. The seafaring life which the worthy German captain led came 
to a sudden and extremely unpleasant end, the story being as follows: He was 
the captain of a ship which plied between his native land and the United 
States, and on one of these voyages the vessel was sunk in a terrible storm. 
Only six persons, including the gallant captain, were saved, and they drifted 
on the ocean for six days, without food or anything to drink. When just on the 
verge of starvation one of the men, as a last resort, drew cuts to determine 
which of them should be killed in order to furnish food for the others! Fate 
showed the captain favor in this dreadful ordeal, and he was saved, but, 
needless to say, he had no further desire to follow the seas, and he was glad 
to settle quietly upon a farm in the Empire state. From that time until his 
death he carried on agricultural pursuits in the vicinity of Eagle Ridge, New 
York.

John Burroughs, father of our subject, was reared on a farm in the Empire 
state, and early embarked in farming and dealing in live stock. He was 
remarkably successful, accumulating what was then considered a great fortune, 
but in 1850 he was so unfortunate as to lose sixty thousand dollars, through a 
forgery, and was thus left penniless. Two years later he bravely determined to 
try to establish himself again in business, and this time in the west; so he 
removed to Belvidere, Boone county, Illinois. He continued to manage a farm 
there for a few years, but death put an end to his ambitious labors and plans, 
both he and his wife dying in 1860. He had married Sarah Shurman in New York 
state, and they had children.

C. W. Burroughs was born in Marshall county, New York, March 21, 1836. With 
his father he removed to the west, and it was not until 1865 that he came to 
Grundy county. Here he bought and located upon a part of his present farm in 
Norman township, and, in addition to raising a large variety of crops, he has 
made a specialty of feeding live stock. In these lines of business he has met 
with something of the success which his father formerly achieved, and by 
judicious investments he has further increased his wealth. He now owns seven 
hundred and eighty-one acres of finely improved land, and has other valuable 
investments.

In 1867 Mr. Burroughs married Mary E. McMurry, a daughter of Robert and Zada 
McMurry, natives of New York state. Their eldest child, Nellie M., is the wife 
of L. W. Claypool, and resides in Chicago. Dr. W. M. Burroughs, the only son, 
is engaged in the practice of his profession in Chicago, where he has built up 
a large practice. Delia, the second daughter of our subject, is the wife of J. 
H. Whitman, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Lillie, unmarried, now makes her 
home in Chicago.


Additional Comments:
Source:  Biographical and Genealogical Record of La Salle and Grundy County, 
Illinois, Volume 11, Chicago, 1900, p729-730

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