Albert Sidney Burns, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana Submitted by Mike Miller ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** Albert Sidney Burns. A well-known figure in the professional and social life of Ponchatoula, Albert Sidney Burns deserves the esteem he enjoys, for he is an able and successful attorney and good citizen. He was born near Madisonville, St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, April 2, 1892, a son of Edward Burns, and grandson of Freeman Burns, the latter born in St. Tammany Parish, now Tangipahoa Parish, where his entire life was spent. His death occurred at Covington, Louisiana. For many years he was an extensive operator in lumber, and owned and operated saw mills. During the war of the '60s he espoused the cause of the Confederacy, and served throughout that fiercely-contested conflict. He married Harriet Hornsby, also born in St. Tammany Parish, and she died near Madisonville. The Burns family is one of the very old ones of this part of Louisiana, the great-grandfather, Drosan A. Burns, having been a resident of St. Tammany Parish at a very early date. The great-great-grandfather, Ambrose Droson Borgne, as the name was then spelled, belonged, through his mother's family, to the Rousseau family. Edward Burns was born in 1860, in St. Tammany Parish, on the Tehefuncta River, and died at Covington, St. Tammany Parish, November 18, 1918. Reared and educated in his native parish, he became a steamboat captain on inland lakes and their tributaries, and followed this calling for twenty-eight years. In 1900 he moved to Covington, and there lived in practical retirement. He was a democrat. The fraternal order of the Woodmen of the World held his membership. He married Rosalie Elflein, who was born at New Orleans, in 1871. She survives him and resides at Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The following children were born to them: Robed H., who volunteered for service during the World war, went to France with the Thirty-ninth Division, was transferred to the Eighty-second Division, was wounded November 10, 1918, in the Argonne Forest, and died in a field hospital November 11, 1918; Albert Sidney, whose name heads this review; Clyde F., who resides at New Orleans, a marble worker; Frank G., who is mentioned below; Vandedor W., who is a chemist and registered pharmacist, now a pre-medical student in the Louisiana State University; and Ena E., who is a student of the Louisiana State University. Frank G. Burns, of the above family, was in time Naval Reserves for a short period during the World war, and then, at time age of eighteen years, he was released from this service and became a marine engineer. He financed himself through college and completes his four years course with the class of 1925 in the Louisiana State University, as a mechanical engineer. All of his expenses are being defrayed by him with money he has earned himself. He is specializing in efficiency and expects to become an efficiency expert. Albert Sidney Burns attended the Covington public schools, and was graduated from its high-school course in 1910. After studying stenography he read law in time offices of Benjamin M. Miller, of Covington, Louisiana, and was admitted to the bar June 8, 1914. From that date until January 1, 1922, he was engaged in a law practice at Covington, and then established himself at Ponchatoula and has since built up a general civil practice. His offices are in the Merchants and Farmers Bank and Trust Company. A democrat, he is city attorney of Ponchatoula. He is a member of the Ponchatoula Presbyterian Church, the Louisiana Bar Association, Tangipahoa Parish Bar Association, the Hammond Country Club and the Louisiana Kennel Club. He is a director, attorney and one of the largest stockholders of the Ponchatoula Homestead Association, and stockholder, director and attorney for the Merchants and Farmers Bank and Trust Company. He specializes in commercial law. He owns a very desirable residence, corner of Magnolia and Eighth streets, Ponchatoula, and other real estate in St. Tammany and Tangipahoa parishes. On August 26, 1915, Mr. Burns married, at New Orleans, Miss Linnie Mai Locke, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. William Locke. Mr. Locke is residing at Chattanooga, Tennessee, but his wife is deceased. Mrs. Burns was graduated from Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, and for three years prior to her marriage was engaged in teaching school in Louisiana. Mr. and Mrs. Burns have one child, Albert Sidney, Jr., who was born June 26, 1920. A History of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 168, by Henry E. Chambers. Published by The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, 1925.