Livingston County MI Archives Biographies.....Burnett, John September 14, 1830 - Aft 1891
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joyce Phillips phillmuell@charter.net May 11, 2010, 9:39 pm

Source: Portrait and biographical album of Ingham and Livingston Counties, Michigan
Author: Chapman Brothers

John Burnett.  It is with genuine pleasure that the biographer takes up the 
theme of a life which has blossomed into success and broad achievements, 
although the clouds of adversity and hardship gathered over its inception.  
when one sees a man of character and ability in possession of an elegant home 
and farm, enjoying a just meed of influence and standing in the community, and 
knows that he has reached this point from a boyhood which promised nothing 
except through his own right hand and sturdy heart, it is a pleasure also to 
record that that boyhood was marked by acts of unflinching industry and brave 
self denial  for the sake of a mother and sisters, and that his success is not 
due to having wronged others or disregarded the claims of a common humanity.
Our subject was born September 14, 1830, in Monroe County, N.Y.  His father, 
Nelson Burnett, a blacksmith by trade, who made his home in Dutchess County, 
N.Y. died in 1844, leaving the mother, whose maiden name was Jane Foreman, in 
destitute circumstances so that the boy of fourteen naturally became the main 
stay of the family.  She is now in her eighty-fourth year and having been a 
professing Christian since she was a girl of nineteen, can look back with 
gratitude over a long experience of the goodness of God who has carried her 
triumphantly through her days of trial.  Her early church connection was with 
the Free Presbyterians, but she is now a member of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church.  Eight of her nine children are still living  to cheer her later and 
declining years.  The ancestry of this family is of Holland stock and can be 
traced back for many generations.

Our subject had his birth in the village of East Rush, N.Y. and at the age of 
ten years went to live with an uncle who died about the same time that the 
father of the boy passed away, so that the little fellow was now really thrown 
upon his own resources and began to work for neighboring farmers, receiving $7 
per month for his work.  He continued thus for four years and then spent two 
years on the railroad, where he was foreman and received good pay.  He 
witnessed some pretty lively times during this period, as railroading always 
brings with it a rush and bustle of excitement which to a farmer boy opens a 
new vista.  During all this time he faithfully sent home his earnings for the 
support of his mother and sisters, except what he absolutely needed for clothes 
and schooling, which he considered equally the necessities of life.
The young man came to Michigan in 1854, and worked for five years at a good 
salary for Gov. Kingsley s. Bingham, who was a United States Senator at the 
time of his death, but was the Governor of Michigan during that period.  In 
1861, he purchased his present farm on section 6, Green Oak Township.  This was 
then all wild land, he had to cut down trees and grub out roots to make a spot 
for his garden, and it was necessary to build a fence around the entire farm 
before he could raise a crop, as the land all around him was vacant and wild 
game was too plentiful for crops to be left in safety to their tender mercies.  
He split every rail that was used upon his farm and built a log house and his 
only team for three years was a yoke of oxen.  But at the end of that time he 
was the proud possessor of a horse.  He paid $10 an acre for his land, for 
which he has since refused $60.
The happy marriage into which he entered on the 7th of January, 1861, united 
him with Miss Margaret Hawthorne, a native of County Down, Ireland, who came to 
America with her father, Edward Hawthorne, in 1857.  They made their home in 
Brighton.  the mother having previously died, in 1840, and the father, who was 
a linen weaver by trade lived until the year of 1884.
Our subject was reared a Whig but was one of the first to join the Republican 
ranks soon after the organization of the party, and trained under the banner of 
Gov. Bingham.  Both he and his excellent wife are active members of the 
Presbyterian Church at Brighton.  He raises excellent stock and makes a 
specialty of Shropshire lambs.  He has ninety-seven acres of land which he has 
himself cleared and improved. 
 

Additional Comments:
Pub 1891

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