(Major) W.S.R. Burnette, b. 27 Mar 1841

MABRY, MATHIS

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/21/2004 at 11:26:03

Few men are more widely and favorably known in either the business or social circles of Preston than the subject of this notice. He was until recently a senior member of the firm of Burnette & Co., dealers in lumber and coal, and having their headquarters on Gillette Street in Preston. The Major came honestly by his title, which was conferred upon him during his military services in the late war. He has been active in the councils of the Republican party for many years, and has maintained his principles with all the natural strength of his character. During the late Presidential contest he was Presidential elector for the Second District of the State of Iowa, and there is reason to suppose that in the near future he will be handsomely recognized in the conferring upon him of a comfortable Government office.

The subject of this sketch was born in Allegheny City, Pa., March 27, 1841, and lived there until he was eight years of age. He then went with relatives to Virginia, where he first attended the common schools, and at the age of fourteen entered upon an academic course at Emery and Henry College. Two years later, while in his junior year, the outbreak of the Civil War interrupted his studies, which he had been pursuing with the intention of fitting himself for the practice of law. Although reared amidst the Southern element he was warmly in sympathy with the Union cause, and returning to his native State enlisted in the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry, and repaired with his regiment soon afterward to Covington, Ky. His first battle of consequence was at Perryville, where he received a flesh wound, was left helpless on the field for a time, but was finally picked up and taken to the hospital at Louisville. Upon his recovery he was tendered the commission of First Lieutenant in the Quartermaster's department, but later re-entered the field as Captain of Company M, 8th Tennessee Mounted Infantry.

The early part of 1863 was spent by Capt. Burnette with his regiment under Gen. Burnside in the department of the Ohio, and later he served all through the campaign of the Valley of the Tennessee, being in the siege of Knoxville and the other minor engagements which followed. In 1864 he joined the army of Gen. Sherman in the Atlanta campaign, and later was with Stoneman's division. He assisted in effecting the destruction of Hood's army at Nashville, during which time occurred the assassination of President Lincoln and the surrender of Lee. He received his commission of Major at Murfreesboro, Tenn., in the spring of 1865, and his honorable discharge at Nashville on the 8th of June following.

For a period of sixteen years after leaving the army Maj. Burnette officiated as a minister of the Methodist Church, belonging to the Upper Iowa Conference, to which he was attached in 1868. He had prior to this, Jan. 6, 1867, been married to Miss Mary May Mabry, in New Albany, Ind. He first met his future wife during Morgan's raid through that State, and they spent the first years of their wedded life in Rolla, Mo. Mrs. Burnette was born April 6, 1847, near New Albany, Ind., and is the daughter of Fleming and Nancy Mabry, natives of Ohio, and now deceased. The first ministerial charge of our subject was at Quasqueton, this State, and the year following he was transferred to Raymond, where he remained two years. The three years following he was on the Vinton circuit. He was next at Monmouth, this county, one year, whence he was transferred to Preston in 1876. Next he was in Delaware Junction and Miles two years each, and then, on account of failing health, he removed to Kansas, and preached at Bennington six months, but suffered severely from inflammatory rheumatism. Later he was stationed at Comanche, Iowa, but on account of a recurrence of rheumatism, went to Paducah, Ky., and abandoning the ministry, engaged in manual labor.

Maj. Burnette returned to Iowa from Kentucky in the spring of 1884, and established himself as a coal and lumber dealer at Preston, and also utilized his spare time at carpenter work. He had during these years neither parted with his patriotism, or suffered himself to lose track of the march of political events. In 1887 he was made the candidate of his party for State Senator, but was defeated with the balance of his ticket. Later he was made Presidential Elector to the State Republican Convention for the Second Congressional District, and has exercised an important influence upon the councils of his party in this section.

Joseph Burnette, the father of our subject, was of French birth and parentage, a native of the city of Paris, which he left when a youth of sixteen years, and crossing the Atlantic established himself in Allegheny City, Pa., where he learned the trade of a machinist. There also he was married to Miss Jane Mathis, who was born in that vicinity. He occupied himself as a machinist and a millwright until the outbreak of the Rebellion, when he enlisted in the Confederate army, was captured by the Union troops, and died a prisoner of war at Camp Chase, Ohio, when fifty-four years of age. In this connection it is proper to state that after his marriage Joseph Burnette had settled in Virginia. After his enlistment he was promoted to the post of Adjutant General on the staff of Gen. John B. Floyd. He entered the army during the first years of the war, and served until nearly the close. The mother in the meantime had died in Virginia while her husband was in the service. Although father and son were on opposing sides in the late conflict, each fought according to his principles and his beliefs. To the parents of our subject there was born a large family of eleven children, five sons and six daughter, of whom only three are living: James, a resident of the Old Dominion; Ann Elizabeth, living in Arkansas; and William S. R., our subject.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois)