Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Burlingame, Harmon R 1828 - 
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Author: Portrait & Bio Album, 1890

HARMON R. BURLINGAME, contractor and builder in Joliet, has a business which 
is all that he can handle, his contracts sometimes running as high as $50,000 
a year. He makes a specialty of dwelling houses and has built a large number 
of the best homes in the city. He is himself a practical builder and therefore 
the more competent to take charge of work, and being a man of honor his 
business is conducted in a reliable and straightforward manner, and his word 
may be relied upon in matters pertaining to it. Ira Burlingame, father of our 
subject, was a professor of music in New England. He married Miss Mary 
Whipple, and to them on August 11, 1828, the son was born whose life it is our 
purpose to outline. As a boy the lad was handy with tools, and he early made 
choice of the trade of a carpenter, which he learned in his native Green 
Mountain State. In 1855, he came to Illinois, first locating at Lockport, 
where he worked at his trade until 1865, when he became foreman of an 
establishment for the manufacture of organs. In the fall of 1868 he removed to 
Sterling, Whiteside County, and four years later came to Joliet and entered 
upon his life work of contracting and building, with the result mentioned 
above. In Lockport Mr. Burlingame served as Town Clerk two terms. He has been 
urged to accept various nominations that at different times have been tendered 
him, but has never been an aspirant for office. His judgment concurs in the 
principles of the Republican party, which he therefore supports on all 
occasions. He is a man of more than ordinary intelligence, combining in his 
manners the energy of the Yankee and the good breeding of the cosmopolitan 
gentleman. In his domestic relations he is kindly and considerate, in society, 
a pleasing companion, and in all his dealings with mankind both just and 
generous. The marriage of Mr. Burlingame was celebrated June 17, 1850, his 
bride being Miss Olive Corlestia Ames, of the widely-known Ames family of New 
England. She is an educated and loveable woman, regarded with the most 
reverent affection in her own home and looked upon with deep respect far 
beyond the family circle. She has borne her husband two daughters—Mrs. Amy 
French, now of Channahan, this county, and Lettie L. Miss Lettie L. Burlingame 
enjoys the distinction of being the only female representative of the legal 
profession in Will County. She was graduated from the Joliet schools in 1879, 
after which she engaged in teaching three years, laboring in the intermediate 
and high school departments in this place. Choosing the law as her field of 
labor in life, she studied with the firm of Fithian & Avery, and then entered 
the law department of the Michigan University at Ann Arbor. She was graduated 
in the class of '86 and permission to practice her profession was granted by 
the Supreme Court of Michigan. She, however, did not at once assume her legal 
work, but remained at Ann Arbor a year, taking a special course in order that 
she might be still better prepared for her vocation. In May, 1888, she opened 
an office where she is still located, and is securing a fair practice. She has 
taken quite a prominent part in the cause of woman's suffrage of which she is 
an ardent advocate. She also manifests considerable interest in temperance 
work but declines to enter upon it as a party measure, believing that the 
cause can be best subserved when work is done independent of political 
affiliations. Were the right of suffrage hers, her ballot would be cast with 
the Republican party.

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890 

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