Shadrach Burleson (died 1883)

BURLESON

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 3/9/2009 at 23:16:42

Jackson Sentinel, June 7, 1883.

DIED-

BURLESON-At his home in Buckhorn, Tuesday, June 5, 1883, Shadrach Burleson, aged 77 years, 3 months and 18 days.

Thus again we are called upon to record the demise of another pioneer, a man to whom we can attribute more credit for the formation of this county than any other person in it. Coming here as early as 1837 he settled at the place of his death. A generous, popular and public spirited man, he had been identified with nearly all the movements that has advanced the county from infancy to its present greatness.

For years he kept a hotel at Buckhorn, and none who ever applied for a meal or a night’s lodging can say that it was refused him from the hands of Shadrach Burleson.

During the building of the Iowa Midland Railroad, Mr. Burleson manifested a lively interest in its construction, and aided that company materially in many ways. For this he was rewarded by a life pass over any of the C. & N. W. Co.’s roads. It was while returning from Clinton on the Midland road, one dark, rainy night a year or more ago, that he met with an accident which doubtless hastened his death. While alighting from the cars at Nashville he lost his footing and the train starting at the time, he was dragged a considerable distance, crushed between the steps of the car and the platform. He was conveyed to his home and after weeks of painful suffering recovered enough to visit this city a few times. But the shock of the accident was too great for a person of his years, and some six months ago the affliction which was the real cause of his death settled upon him-paralysis.

He leaves a large family of upright, influential children, who mourn his death. His wife, a dutiful, loving helpmate, for over 65 years, died in 1879, and her death was also that of the departed pioneer, will be mourned by the whole community.