BIOGRAPHY: George W. BURNS, Mifflin County, PA

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The Commemorative Biographical Encyclopedia of the Juniata Valley, Comprising 
the Counties of Huntingdon, Mifflin, Juniata, and Perry, Pennsylvania.
Chambersburg, Pa.: J. M. Runk & Co., 1897, Volume I, pages 582-583.

  GEORGE W. BURNS, Reedsville, Mifflin county, Pa., is a son of Jacob and Mary 
(Hook) Burns, and was born in Union county, April 5, 1830.  His paternal 
grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Burns, came from Scotland with one son and two 
daughters, landing in Philadelphia, and proceeding to Harrisburg, where they 
settled and passed the remainder of their lives on Duncan's Island.  The elder 
Jacob Burns died in 1809, leaving a family of four children:  Peter;  Mary;  
Margaret;  and Jacob, Jr.  After receiving a common school education, Jacob 
Burns, Jr., learned the business of blacksmithing.  This trade continued to be 
his occupation for the greater part of his life.  His wife, Mary, is a daughter 
of Jacob and Sarah Hook, who were of German descent.  The children of Mr. and 
Mrs. Jacob Burns are:  Eliza Ann, died when three years old;  George W.;  Henry, 
living at Cleveland, O.;  Tena (Mrs. Adam Greer), has three children;  William 
Jackson, married Mary Bell, has five children;  Elijah Harrison, married and has 
two children;  Elizabeth;  and Maria (Mrs. Edward Ritter), has four children.
  The removal of the family to Brown township, Mifflin county, took place when 
George W. Burns was ten years old.  Here for some years he attended the common 
schools during their winter terms, and manfully lent his boyish strength to the 
assistance of his parents by working for the neighboring farmers.  He resided 
with his father and mother until he married, having in the meantime acquired the 
art of stonemasonry.  He has worked at that trade with more or less regularity 
throughout life.  Forty-one years ago, in 1856, he was appointed sexton of the 
East Kishacoquillas Cemetery, and on March 17, of that year, removed to the 
sexton's house, in which he now resides.  During the period of his engagement as 
sexton, Mr. Burns has interred in the cemetery more than three hundred bodies.  
During the war of the Rebellion Mr. Burns enlisted in Company D, Eighty-eighth 
Pennsylvania Volunteers, Capt. James P. Meade.  He was mustered out January 30, 
1865.  He is a member in good standing of Colonel Hulings Post, No. 176, G. A. 
R., at Lewistown, Pa.  He is a Democrat, and is much interested in local 
politics.  He has served one term of three years as constable.  In 1893 he 
purchased a small homestead in the neighborhood of Henry Taylor's, near the big 
spring, on Tea creek, which he has since improved and rented to a tenant.  Mr. 
Burns long and uninterrupted term of service at the cemetery speaks plainly for 
his faithfulness and popularity.
  George W. Burns was married, November 29, 1853, to Mary Ann, daughter of John 
and Mary Ann (Everhardt) Hackett.  Their children are:  William J.;  Margaret M. 
(Mrs. Robert Miller);  James H., of McCooks, Neb., married, and has two 
children;  Nancy Jane, at home;  Anna Elizabeth (Mrs. Henry Wickes), resides in 
Altoona.  Mrs. Burns died April 26, 1883, at the age of fifty years.