William E. Burton 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 1080-1081

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

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WILLIAM E. BURTON. One of the potent factors in the prosperity enjoyed 
by Brown county, South Dakota, and who has greatly assisted in 
developing and extending its agriculture, is the subject of this 
review. He is one of the early settlers of Henry township, and has 
acquired one of the finest estates in the locality. His farm is on the 
James river and is indeed a beautifully situated tract, and he has 
added more than the usual improvements of a farm. 

Our subject was born in Walworth county, Wisconsin, February 1, 1856, 
and is the son of John and Elizabeth (Backhouse) Burton. His father was 
born and raised in Yorkshire, England, and came to America in 1849, 
prior to his marriage, and engaged in farming. He served in the Civil 
war, teeing a member of the First Minnesota Artillery. The grandfather, 
John Burton, came to America in 1849, and settled in Wisconsin. The 
mother of our subject emigrated to this country in 1848, and died in 
Dakota in 1896, since which time the father has made his home with his 
son, Robert K. Burton. 

William E. Burton was the second in a family of six children, and was 
reared on a farm in Carver county, Minnesota, where his parents moved 
in July, 1856. 

He received a common-school education, and at the age of twenty-one 
rented land near his father's home, in Carver county, and engaged in 
farming. He remained there three years, and farmed one year with his 
father, and in the fall of 1881 they disposed of their farming 
interests in Minnesota and went to Brown county, South Dakota, where 
both took up land along the James river, in Henry township. Our subject 
erected a claim shanty, 16 x 20 feet, and a sod barn, 16 x 28 feet, and 
had one team of horses, a wagon and two cows as a start in his new 
home. During the first two years he broke land and worked his farm, and 
the first crop was five acres of wheat, in 1883, which yielded twenty 
bushels per acre. June 28, 1894, a tornado struck his farm about four 
o'clock P. M., and completely demolished his barn, which was in course 
of construction, and did much damage generally. Our subject now owns 
five hundred and thirty acres of land, of which two hundred and 
seventy-five acres are under cultivation and the balance is converted 
into pasture and hay land. He has a complete set of buildings, good 
residence, two - story granary, 24 x 16 feet, three large machine 
sheds, chicken house, hog house, milk house containing feed and 
windmills, and altogether his farm is one of the best improved in that 
section of the country. The James river runs through the farm from 
north to south, and the buildings are located on the east bank, and our 
subject has twenty acres of the finest forest trees to be found in the 
state. He engages in both stock and grain raising, and at present has 
seventy- five head of cattle, eleven head of horses, and other stock. 
When he located in Henry township his nearest neighbor was one mile 
distant, and the next two miles away, and aside from those two he had 
no neighbors for many miles. 

Mr. Burton was married, in 1877, to Miss Amada Overly, who was born and 
raised in Jackson county, Ohio. Mrs. Burton died in the spring of 1892, 
leaving four children, three of whom are living, as follows: Grace, 
born May 8, 1880; Edna, born February 10, 1882; and Mattie, born 
January 9, 1886. Mr. Burton married Miss Anna Kemple in the fall of 
1894, by whom he had two children, both deceased. Mrs. Burton was born 
and raised in Carver county, Minnesota, and was the daughter of Jerry 
Kemple, who was born in Germany, and came to America in 1856 and 
settled in Minnesota. Mrs. Burton passed away in 1897. Mr. Burton has 
held numerous township offices, and is at present town supervisor. In 
political sentiment he is a Democrat, and stands firmly for the 
principles of his party. He is well versed in public matters, and is 
strong in his convictions for right, and well merits his success.