David P. Burnison Biography


	This biography is from "Memorial and biographical record; an illustrated
 	compendium of biography, containing a compendium of local biography,
	including biographical sketches of prominent old settlers and 
	representative citizens of South Dakota..." Published by G. A. Ogle & 
	Co., Chicago, 1899. Pages 850, 853

	Scan, OCR and editing by Maurice Krueger,mkrueger@iw.net, 1998. 

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DAVID P. BURNISON, a worthy representative of the agricultural and 
stock growing interests of Jerauld county, owns and operates a fine 
farm of four hundred and eighty acres on section 4, Franklin township, 
one hundred and sixty acres of which he has brought to a high state of 
cultivation. He was born in Pennsylvania, in 1847, and on the paternal 
side is of Scotch and on the maternal side of Irish extraction. The 
family made their home near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where the father 
of our subject engaged in farming during the latter part of his life, 
but formerly was a policeman and teamster in Pittsburg. When our 
subject was eight years old they drove across the country to eastern 
Illinois and located there, where the father continued to engage in 
agricultural pursuits. 

Mr. Burnison, the subject of this review, is the fifth in order of 
birth in a family of nine children, and was educated in a log school 
house. Leaving home at the age of twenty-two, he began farming for 
himself upon rented land, and lived alone for four years. In 1876, 
however, he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Houmes, whose 
parents were natives of Holland and whose mother is living near our 
subject. Seven children, six sons and one daughter, have been born of 
this union, of whom the eldest, Otis, died June 13, 1899. Those living 
are Winswor, Mary, William, Walter, Adrian and Samuel. 

Just prior to his marriage, Mr. Burnison purchased a farm of one 
hundred and fifteen acres in Iroquois county, IIlinois, all of which 
was under cultivation. In fact it was a model farm, with a good well 
forty feet deep, an orchard of sixty apple trees, all kinds of small 
fruit and a grove of soft maples. Selling that place in the spring of 
1884, Mr. Burnison came to Jerauld county, South Dakota, and located on 
the south half of section 4, Franklin township, where he built his 
present comfortable residence and a good barn in 1891. He brought with 
him three cows, a team of mules, one horse and two pigs, and is still 
interested in stock raising. At different times his crops have been 
destroyed by drought and hail, and one year he raised only three 
bushels per acre, but he has gradually prospered, having made a decided 
success of his chosen calling, and is now the owner of one of the best 
improved farms in Franklin township, having a complete set of farm 
buildings. He erected the first house of any size in his neighborhood, 
and planted ten acres in trees, some of which are now thirty feet high. 
He now operates three hundred acres of land, and is a stockholder in 
the Alpena creamery, to which he supplied the milk from sixteen cows in 
the summer of 1899. 

Formerly Mr. Burnison was a Republican in politics, but now casts his 
ballot for the men and measures of the Populist party, and takes quite 
an active interest in local political affairs, being at present a 
member of the township central committee. He has been a member of the 
school board and the board of supervisors several times, and his 
official duties have always been discharged in a most commendable and 
satisfactory manner.