BIO: John BOURNS, Franklin County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
William Remington Patterson, Jr.

Copyright 2006.  All rights reserved.
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Biography of John Bourns of Franklin County, Pennsylvania 


Family History typed July 26, 1986 by William Remington Patterson, Jr.
Burns & Patterson
from the WAYNESBORO RECORD, Waynesboro, Pa.
February 2, 1910
A COUSIN OF ROBERT BURNS


He Was John Bourns, a Franklin County Man, Who Lived on the Banks of 
the Antietam

Before the Kittochtinny historical society, which met at the home of 
Thos. B. Kennedy, Chambersburg, yesterday evening, Chas. W. Cremer, 
Waynesboro, read a paper on "A Franklin County Cousin of Robert Burns".  
Among the members of the society present was Rev. C. A. Eyler, 
Waynesboro, who tendered the society a photograph of the old house at 
the east end of Waynesboro, the timbers of which were fashioned by John 
Bourns, and who, upon the request of the society, will make a 
photograph of the graveyard on the the Willow Glen farm of Dr. A. H. 
Strickler, east of town, in which are the graves of John Bourns and 
some of his family. 


Mr. Cremer's paper was as follows: 


It had been my fancy, when I accepted your committee's kind invitation 
to prepare a paper for this occasion that I would try to sing "of arms 
and of men". It was of John Bourns, the honest, earnest son of a 
Scotchman; a sturdy, God-honoring man and a patriot who forged with his 
hammer the first cannon made in America and who served as a soldier in 
the ranks and then an artificer in the army of Washington, that ?? 
purposed writing; and of his son, James Burns, who fought as an officer 
in the war of 1812; and of Hugh Dinwiddie, who won such recognition for 
bravery and knowledge of warfare in the French and Indian war that he 
was made an officer in the forces of the colonies when the 
Revolutionary war was precipitated.

It was of these and some of their decendants I set out to tell, when 
there came, unexpectedly, the knowledge that the story of war heroes 
must be mellowed, in part, to the peaceful, lovefilled measures of a 
master among poets.


Cousin of Robert Burns

Within the past ten days there came to descendants of John Bourns in 
this county, a belated but richly appreciated message that there 
belonged to the family of their forebears the most graceful and the 
best loved of Scotch poets, Robert Burns.

Some time ago there was begun, in curiosity, rather than tradition or 
hope, an inquiry into a possible degree of relationship between 
Archibald Bourns, father of John Bourns, the cannon-maker of this 
county, and Robert Burns. The inquiry led to records in London and in 
Edinburgh and, after long waiting, established the fact that Archibald 
Bourns was a brother of William Burness, the father of Robert Burns; 
that John Bourns, in whose blacksmith shop along the Antietam creek, 
not far from Waynesboro, was made the first American piece of 
artillery, was a first cousin of the great Scotch poet, and that there 
flows in the veins of a number of Franklin county people the same blood 
that gave such vigorous life to the immortal "Bobby" Burns.

The work for the evening had new fascination then and there was added 
new interest to the story of men of action for a century and a-half in 
this country.


Brothers Came Here.

Two of the brothers of William Burness came to this country. Thomas 
Bourns emigrated from Scotland and found a new home for himself in 
Mifflin county, this state, in 1747.

Archibald Bourns, the second brother of William Burness, an uncle of 
Robert Burns, and the Bourns with whose descendants this sketch as to 
do, came to America from Lanark or Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1752. With 
him came his wife Janet Cuthbertson, and her brother, Rev. John 
Cuthbertson, and Mr. Bourns' nephew, Thomas. Archibald Bourns settled 
in what is now Adams county. He and his wife and her dominic brother 
were of the Covenanter faith. The latter was sent out by the Church of 
Scotland to act as the shepherd of a colony in this section of 
Pennsylvania.

To Archibald and Janet Bourns were born two sons, James and John. 
Archibald Bourns died while his sons were mere lads and his widow 
married Francis Meredith. James Bourns married a Miss Gabby and, after 
a brief residence in the eastern end of this county, moved to Ohio, 
settling on land now occupied by Cincinnati. Little is known to the 
Franklin county Burns descendants of his history.


Settled Along Antietam Creek.

John Bourns took to wife Esther Morrow, daughter of Jeremy Morrow, 
grandfather of a governor of Ohio. John Bourns and his wife left Adams 
county in 1773 and selected for their home a beautiful spot on the 
banks of the east branch of the Antietam creek, near what is now 
Roadside, in Washington township, this county.

Small wonder is it that a Scotchman should delight in a home there. To 
the north and east are mountain peaks. Between them, on the north, runs 
a curving gap, the gateway to the Old Forge section, where in years 
gone by the Mount Alto iron makers had their forge. On the east is 
another gap, through which the Mentzer gap road climbs easily and 
through beautiful scenery to the mountain top where is build the 
highway from Baltimore to Waynesboro and on to Fort Loudon to connect 
with the turnpike that stretches across the state from east to west.

Here were the reminders of Old Scotland, the hills and their rocks, and 
in these was a homelikeness. And here, too, was a bit of level land 
waiting for the plow and the hand of the husbandman to turn its glebe; 
and a rolicking stream filled with fishes and ready to use its strength 
to help the miller or the artificer. Amang thae wild mountains shall 
still be my path,Ill stream foaming down its ain green, narrow strath".

Rimmed by the hills, that with a little imagination, brought Scotland 
nearer, was such a garden spot as carried delight and peace to the 
immigrant.


A Home and An Industry.

Here John Bourns established his home and, thrifty Scot that he was, 
inaugurated at once an industry. Of the timbers of the forest he put up 
his house and along with it a sawmill and a blacksmith shop and then he 
was ready to rear a family and build up a business. In accord with 
strict accuracy it must be told that the sawmill was the first 
pretentious structure completed by the thrifty Scot. in it he sawed the 
lumber for his permanent home and his smithy. He must have been a 
resourceful man, for while he was a sicklesmith by trade, he could saw 
out the timbers for houses and barns, could fashion irons for wagons 
and hinges for doors and nails for all sorts of uses.

One of the buildings for which he sawed the timbers is still standing 
on the eastern edge of Waynesboro. It is not a large structure and 
externally it does not look much like the house that he built, but the 
logs that he fashioned are yet in its walls and under its floors. The 
building was purposed for a school house and it was used as such and as 
a place for religious services--of the strict Covenanter faith--during 
the revolutionary war and afterward. Not only did John Bourns provide 
the lumber for this building, that was to to be strong enough to resist 
the attacks of Indians, but he hammered out the door hinges and 
fastenings and all of the nails for it.


An Old Waynesboro House.

In this school house the children from a wide section of country--three 
miles toward every point of the compass--gathered to acquire knowledge. 
John Bourns' own children trudged three miles or rode horseback to 
recite their lessons to the teacher who, with gun close at hand, kept 
one eye on the pupils and one on the approaches to the building for a 
prompt glimpse of prowling Indians if such might see fit to loiter in 
the vicinity of the place of learning. There too, on Sunday came the 
men and women to engage in divine worship. Many of them carried their 
children with them in saddle pockets or in their arms and all the men 
had slung over their shoulders the guns which Indian cruelty made 
necessary. During the service the weapons were stacked near the door.

As a digression, it may be told that many years afterward one of the 
descendants of John Bourns wanted to purchase this old building because 
of its erection by his ancestor. The owner didn't know whether or not 
he wanted to sell. He agreed to dispose of it and he rued bargain time 
and again, until, finally, General James Burns laid out on his hand 
nine gold dollars. The bargain was closed in a minute. But, 
unfortunately for General Burns, the owner again rued bargain. He 
wouldn't leave the property and it has not yet come into the possession 
of John Bourns' descendants.


A Magnificent Character.

Old John Bourns must have been a magnificent character. His industry, 
his versatility, his esteem of education and his devotion to his church 
were all manifest to all men from his earliest entry into this country, 
but there was another attribute which was to be demonstrated in notable 
degree when the Revolutionary war began. He was a very sturdy patriot 
and did for his adopted country what no man had ever done before in 
America.

With his Scotch perspicacity he reasoned that what the American army 
needed as much as anything else was cannon and he set about to make 
one. He had none of the appliances for casting a cannon, so he 
determined to create one of wrought iron. He made all his preparations 
and then called in his neighbors. They came in goodly numbers and they 
came with enthusiasm for they were all patriots, too, and they wanted 
to help in this work of furnishing a big war-gun to the army of the 
colonies. It is suspected, too, that they had a fancy to see what this 
indomitable Scotchman would make of his hitherto unheard-of 
undertaking.

There were busy people about the Bourns place that day. There was to be 
no cessation of work and the women of the household, aided by some of 
the housewives of the vicinity, prepared huge and steaming meals for 
all who were to have a part in this strange venture.


Making the Cannon.

Everything was made ready. An extra pair of bellows was set up; a big 
lot of fuel was supplied; the neighbors were assigned their duties, and 
then the momentous work began. Under the leadership of James Bourns, 
brother of John, the men pumped the several pairs of bellows and kept 
up a continuous hot fire.

John Bourns had prepared a core of iron and as the neighbors heated 
iron bars to whiteness he took them from their beds of coal and welded 
them around the core. Never did his hammer ring out a lustier sound 
than was carried out from the blacksmith shop to the hills and sent 
back in ringing echoes, to penetrate in quivering waves the gaps in the 
mountains and to follow with increased intensity the rippling waters of 
the Antietam.

John Bourns worked without resting. His helpers at the bellows relieved 
each other so that all might gain new strength from the food which was 
always kept ready for them by Mrs. Bourns and her neighbors.  At last 
the cannon was made and there must have gone up a cheer from the 
patriots gathered in the little blacksmith shop on the Antietam as this 
contribution to the army of Washington was completed.


Captured at Brandywine.

With such tools as he had John Bourns fashioned the bore and it was 
smooth and round when he sent it forward to the troops. It was not a 
monster affair but it spoke with no uncertain sound when the primer was 
applied to it and nowhere was more execution asked of it than in the 
battle of the Brandywine, September 11, 1777. In this engagement it was 
captured by the British and there are records extant which indicate 
that it was taken to England and placed in the Tower of London. 
Possibly it was but, if so, it did not always remain there for Benjamin 
M. Mead, one of your society's most honored contributors, could find no 
trace of it there some years ago when he made inquiry for it.

Singularly enough John Bourns was one of the participants in the battle 
in which his cannon was captured. He had gone into the army some time 
before the battle of the Brandywine and fought there, it must be 
supposed, with as much determination as he exhibited when he made his 
wrought iron cannon. But his superior skill as a smith was soon 
recognized and he was detached from active service as a fighting man 
and detailed to repair gun locks and make bayonets for the soldiers.

When the colonists had gained their freedom John Bourns took up his old 
life at the home along the Antietam and there he lived almost a score 
of years, a useful citizen. He served for a long time as a magistrate 
and he was a leader among his fellows. He was a Scotch Covenanter in 
his religious belief and he was tenacious in the practise of its 
doctrines. Just the other day I had a verification of this from the 
lips of his great granddaughter, who told it as she heard it from her 
grandfather and his sister. These children of the old cannon-maker were 
taught a rigid observance of the Sabbath day.


Covenanter Sabbaths. 

They were not allowed to pick an apple from the ground or crack a nut 
on that day. These things were all made ready on Saturday and not later 
than six o'clock or "sun-down" of that day. The food to be eaten on the 
Sabbath day was all prepared on the preceding day and no cooking was 
allowed on Sunday, except a cup of coffee for breakfast. Assuredly some 
of our people of today who make a feast day of the Sabbath would not 
enjoy hospitality such as his must have been on that day nor would our 
good wives possess themselves in patience were they compelled to--as 
Ester Bourns was compelled to--let the washing of the dishes over until 
Monday.

The Sabbath day was not pre-eminently a day of rest in John Bourns' 
family, for he started a cavalcade from his home soon after the 
breakfast hour to some church, maybe in Greencastle or some other place 
equally as far away, and there from an hour and a-half to two hours in 
length. If the journey was to the Welsh Run church or to the one near 
Scotland, the trip was begun on Saturday. When the regular days for the 
celebration of the Sacrament came around there was longer absence from 
the home, for these services began on Thursday and continued until 
Monday evening. All these were sacred days and all unnecessary work was 
forbidden. When there was no preaching by the minister in one of the 
churches, the Covenanters frequently journeyed to each other's homes 
and held services there, laymen expounding the Scriptures and offering 
the prayers.


A Simile.

Each week day had its Bible reading and prayer. The day was begun with 
the singing of a Psalm, the reading and expounding of a passage of 
Scripture and a prayer, and there was a like ceremony at the closing of 
the day. Assuredly John Bourns kept bright the customs of his 
Covenanter ancestors in Scotland for this brief description of his 
family religious services is a homely telling of what Robert Burns, in 
"The Cotter's Saturday Night", so beautifully depicts as the rule in 
his father's daily life.

John Bourns died April 20, 1802, and was buried in a private graveyard 
not far from the banks of the Antietam, on the Willow Glen farm now 
owned by Dr. A. H. Strickler, about two miles southwest of his home and 
the shop where he had made his famous cannon. He was buried by the side 
of his wife, Esther, who had died June 8, 1797. Their tombstones still 
stand and the inscriptions on them are still legible. Others of their 
family are buried there, filling the small burial plot, except for two 
graves that are unmarked but contain the remains of the two Renfrew 
sisters, who mere murdered by Indians as they did the family washing at 
their humble home just a little distance away, across the creek.


John Bourns' Children.

John Bourns was father of eleven children. They were:

1. Margaret, born May, 1774; died in early youth.

2. Jeremy, born January 4, 1775; died February 1847. He married Sarah 
Renfrew, of near Fayetteville, and lived in the old Bourns   homestead. 

3. John, born August 24, 1776; died unmarried.

4. Sarah, born March 19, 1778; married David Bingham and moved to Ohio 
and afterward to La Grange, Indiana. 

5. Archibald, born March 19, 1780; died in his youth.

6. Thomas, born February 4, 1782; married a Miss Sewart and lived near 
Fort Loudon or Mercersburg. He had two children. One died in infancy; 
the other, Jane, never married; she died in Chambersburg in October 
1803. 

7. Elizabeth, born March 22, 1784; married Thomas Patterson, a first 
cousin. They made their home in the Big Cove, Fulton county, Penna. 
They had these children: Haddessa, married her cousin, Samuel Morrow; 
had two daughters, all of the family are dead.  Jane, married Samuel 
Stewart, no descendants. William Patterson, married, first Miss Hunter; 
second, Mrs. Scott; had two children: Hon. Hunter Patterson, Fulton 
county, and Mrs. Henrietta Carson, Baltimore. John Patterson, married 
first, Miss Hunter; second, ------- --------- (sic, but there were 
pencilled notes here); had four children; Hon. Elliott Patterson, 
Philadelphia; Colin (pencilled notes referring to above) Patterson, 
Linn Patterson and Miss Bessie Patterson, all of Fulton county. Thomas 
Patterson married Miss Ella Sharpe, near Newvile; had three children: 
Sharpe Patterson, Newville; Alexander Patterson, near McConnellsburg; 
and a son, McConnellsburg.  Mary Patterson, married David Carson, 
Mercersburg; had four children: Mrs. Anna Riddle, Denver, Col.; 
Patterson Carson, Phoenix, Ariz. John Carson, Lincoln, Neb.; Jennie 
Carson, Nebraska. 

8. James, born March 9, 1786; married Jean Downey.

9. Franklin, born June 11, 1788; died February 10, 1814, just before 
his Wedding day. 

10. William, born May 18, 1790; married and moved to Richland county, 
Ohio. 

11. Esther, born June 4, 1792; died August 2, 1875; married John 
Wallace, a descendant of the founder of Waynesboro. 

There are a number of descendants of John Bourns still living in this 
country. 


Jeremy Burns' Family.

Jeremy, the second child of the old cannon-maker, who married Sarah 
Renfrew, died February 16, 1847. There were born to him and his wife 
twelve children. All are dead. One daughter, Hannah Jane, married a Mr. 
Foutz. They had two children, one of them, Mrs. Nannie ----r, whose 
residence is not far from the old homestead and is on the old Bourns 
property, and the other Miss Sallie Foutz, who makes her home with her 
sister.

Another of Jeremy's daughters, Nancy, born March 15, 1811, married 
Samuel White, the owner of a woolen mill at Fayetteville. Her children 
were: Hon. J. Burns White, Mrs. Nannie George and Miss Emma White, 
Fayetteville. Nancy Bourns White died August 24, 1854, married John 
Downey, Fayetteville. There are two living children: Mrs. Emma Colby, 
Chicago, formerly of Chambersburg, and Mrs. Laura Heisinger, 
Philadelphia.

Samuel Rea Burns, a son of Jeremy, born April 2, 1816, died december 
26, 1887, married Margaret Renfrew, a cousin. Two children are living: 
Mrs. Sallie Coffman, wife of Dr. J. J. Coffman, and Miss Annie Burns, 
both of Scotland. 


A Poet in the Family.

John Francis Bourns, a son of Jeremy Bourns, was a physician, who died 
only eleven years ago in Noristown, aged 90 years. He was the only one 
of the grandsons of John Bourns who continued the old way of spelling 
the name-Bourns. He was a school teacher in early life. For awhile he 
taught in Shippensburg. Then he went to Chambersburg and read medicine 
there with Dr. Jeremiah Senseny. A letter to his mother tells that he 
was there during the cholera epidemic. Later he went to Philadelphia. 
He was a poet of no mean talent and the columns of the Chambersburg 
Public Opinion, under the editorship of Hon. M. A. Foltz, and of the 
Waynesboro Record, when edited by William Blair, often were graced by 
the products of his pen.

Esther, the youngest child of John Bourns, born June 4, 1792, died 
August 2, 1875, married John Wallace, a descendant of the founder of 
Waynesboro, which once bore its founder's name. To them were born four 
children: Esther A., Thomas Hazlet, Sara Jane and John. Sarah Jane 
Wallace died December 10, 1907. John died in early youth. Esther 
married Thomas S. Cunningham, now borough treasurer of Waynesboro. Four 
children are living, all in Waynesboro: Smith W., an ex-councilman of 
Waynesboro; Scott, teller of the Peoples national bank; Frank, of the 
C. V. R. R. office, and Miss Grace. Thomas Hazlet Wallace married 
Elizabeth A. Johnson. Three children are living: Johnston Wallace, 
Washington, D. C.; John B. Wallace and Misses Hattie and Anna Wallace, 
Waynesboro.


General James Burns.

James Burns, fifth son of John Bourns married Jean Downey, who was a 
descendant of the Dinwiddie family of Scotland, which traced its 
ancestry back to 1296 and whose ancestral home was Annandale, 
Dumfrieshire, Scotland. A number of the Dinwiddie lairds were of 
distinction in their country. Hugh and David came to this country in 
1741 and settled in York county. David was the first ruling elder of 
the Covenanter church either in America or in York county; the record 
is not clear.

Hugh was a soldier and distinguished himself in the French and Indian 
war. When the revolutionary war began he entered the army as a major 
and was made a lieutentant colonel of the York county associated 
battalion (third battalion), December 31, 1776. He received his 
commission, January 1, 1777, and died January 12, eleven days later, 
aged 49 years. His body is buried in the grave yard of the Second 
Presbyterian church, Philadelphia.

Hugh Dinwiddie married Jean Crawford, daughter of John Crawford. They 
had eight children, one of whom, Rosanna, married James Downey, and 
lived in an immense stone house near the juncture of the east and west 
branches of the Antietam creek, a mile or two south of Waynesboro. The 
house is now owned by C. L. Walter, Waynesboro, and was long occupied 
by him as his residence. To James Downey and his wife were born seven 
children, on of whom, Jean, married James Burns, in October, 1814.


A Brave Soldier.

James Burns was an officer in the army in the war of 1812 and a brave 
soldier. His sword is now in the possession of Hon. J. Burns White, 
Fayetteville. He was long known as General Burns in Waynesboro and 
received this title from his command of the infantry which was 
organized in the community.

He was an exceedingly modest man but a soldier of fearless bravery. He 
was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant in the war of 
1812 for distinguished gallantry and on the eve of his discharge from 
the army, in August 1814, he received his commission as captain.

Several times, when volunteers were called on for perilous work, he was 
among the first to respond. Once he volunteered to take the place of 
his captain, because he was unmarried and his captain was a man of 
family. Another time at Niagara he volunteered for an exceedingly 
hazardous undertaking. He was to take a boat filled with ammunition 
down the river to forces placed there to check the British. When he and 
several other men started with the boat they received orders not to go 
below the second bend in the river; if they went further they would get 
in the swirl of the rapids. Unfortunately the second bend was a small 
one and they didn't recognize it. They continued on down the river and 
soon heard men shouting to them from the shore. Believing them enemies 
they kept on and soon found themselves close to the rapids.


Surrendered to Friends.

The men on shore shouted again and again to them to pull to the bank 
and finally, covering them with their guns, ordered them to surrender. 
There were two alternatives. One was certain death in the rapids; the 
other surrender, with the probability of being exchanged or recaptured 
by their own army. They chose the latter, drove their boat against a 
rock, climbed on the rock and then to the shore. As they reached the 
bank, they turned and looked back. The rock, which had been their 
bridge to the land, had been washed away by the strong current.

Then they surrendered themselves and to their great joy--and maybe also 
to their chagrin--they found the soldiers they were trying to escape 
were of their own army.

James Burns did not often talk of his service in the war but when some 
of the soldiers from New York state stopped at his home during the 
civil war and complained of what they called the horrible condition of 
the food they were supplied with, he burst out in anger. He told them 
they were soldiers in their country's service and must put up with 
hardships. They he related the experience of some of the soldiers of 
the war of 1812. Often they tramped through deep drifts and, worn out 
at night, pitched their tents, rolled their blankets around them and 
slept on the frozen snow. More than once, when on a long march on a hot 
summer day, they had nothing to drink and when they saw a puddle of 
dirty, repulsive water ahead of them on the road, raced to it to get 
the chance to dip it up with their hands and satisfy their consuming 
thirst.

James Burns was sheriff of this county from 1836 to 1839.


James Burns' Descendants.

James Burns had two children: Rosanna, born August 15, 1815; died April 
28, 1879; and Jane, born February 21, 1817; died February 19, 1884.

Rosanna married, July 30,1844. William South Amberson, a prominent 
merchant of Waynesboro. To them were born five children: Dr. James 
Burns Amberson, Sarah Cunningham Amberson, Jane Downey Amberson, Mary 
Elizabeth Amberson and Presley Neville Amberson. Dr. J. B. Amberson, 
Miss Sarah C. Amberson and Presley N. Amberson are the only children 
living.

Dr. Amberson is a prominent physician dn member of the state and county 
and Waynesboro medical societies. He was married to Miss M. K. Good, 
December 1, 1873. To them were born these children: Mary E., William 
Smith, Gurney G., Ruth Detrich, James Burns, Jr., Katherine Good and 
Jean Downey.

Presley N. Amberson holds a responsible position with Frick Co., 
Waynesboro. He was married to Margaret Isabel Ruthrauff, May 17, 1892. 
They have two children: William Ruthrauff and Rosanna.

Jane Downey, second daughter of General James Burns, married David 
Hoerner McGaughey, a farmer of near Bridgeport, this county, December 
21, 1848. Three children were born to them: Roseanna Mary Love, who 
died February 7, 1909, in Waynesboro; Eliza Jane and James Burns, the 
latter two dying in infancy.

It will be observed that all the female descendants of John Bourns are 
entitled to membership in the Daughters of the Revolution and the 
Colonial Dames and that the female descendants of General James Burns 
have the right to entry, too, to the Daughters of the War of 1812.


John Bourns' Wife.

Much has been said of the men of the family, but little of the women. 
Esther Bourns, wife of the cannon-maker, was a woman of great strength 
of character. She helped build a home in the almost unbroken forest and 
to rear a family of worthy children. One time she displayed in 
remarkable degree her promptness of decision. She had gone on horseback 
to visit a neighbor, taking Jeremy, her second child, then an infant, 
with her. On the way the horse frightened and Mrs. Bourns lost control 
of it. She quickly realized that she could not manage the animal and 
hold her baby in her arms at the same time. She must either get rid of 
the baby or she must let the willful steed have its way, with 
consequences to her and the child that could be easily guessed.

She determined to both save the infant and conquer the horse, so she 
waited for the opportunity, leaned far off the animal and dropped the 
baby gently into a brush pile and then proceeded to very vigorously 
teach the horse that she was its master. The animal was speedily 
brought up by some expert horsemanship and then taken back to the 
brush-heap cradle, whence the youngster was taken, cooing and laughing, 
and then the journey was resumed with the horse ambling along in 
gentlest spirit.

The house which John Bourns built of logs is not now standing. Four 
locust trees stand at the four corners of the site of the home of the 
patriot and within this square and round about it people have 
frequently dug for some relics of the founder of a family or for some 
arrow heads which might tell of an attack upon the structure by 
Indians, but nothing has been found. Not very far away is a big brick 
house built by Jeremy Burns and now owned by Theodore Wiesner and it is 
one of the landmarks of the section.

The warriors of the family have occupied this sketch in large measure 
but there have not been lacking in the descendants of John Bourns those 
with the gift of poetizing. Dr. John Francis Bourns, as told, wrote 
many delighting verses and others of the name have given proof of the 
"divine afilatus" which filled the soul and the life of the cousin of 
the cannon-maker of the Antietam.


Place for a Monument.

There is little of the old left. There are "the everlasting hills", of 
course--one of them perpetuating the name of the old cannon-maker--but 
nearly all else is marked by the twentieth century advance. Hundreds of 
acres rolling away from the mountain sides are cultivated, many of them 
scientifically. Three or four miles to the east, up on top of the 
mountain, are great summer resorts for those who would escape the 
burdens of the city's summer. A few miles to the north is the state's 
big White Pine sanitarium for tuberculosis sufferers and even nearer 
are the orchards in which the state forestry forces are growing a 
million or more of little trees. The new has overtaken the old but 
there yet remain the memory of the man who made the first American 
cannon and fashioned it with his own forceful grit and brawny arms and 
who was such a patriot and such a citizen as well deserves a monument 
that, looking upon it, coming generations may be made sturdier by the 
example of the pioneer who accomplished unusual things in an unusual 
way.


A Little Romance.

And here, possibly, you will permit of a bit of romancing that fresh 
communion with the wealth of the Scottish poet has inspired. 

What if Robert Burns had not received the commendation of Dr. 
Blacklock, the critic for whose good opinion he had not dared to hope, 
and his book of poems had not sold so well in 1786? Would he have made 
the voyage in the steerage quarters he had engaged, to Jamaica, and 
would he there have yarned for the "banks, and braes, and streams" of 
old Scotland, and in his loneliness turned to the kin separated by the 
fewest miles? And would he have come to this country and to this county 
and found contentment with his cousin, the cannon-maker? And would he 
here have sung the songs that long have thrilled the world?