BURLINGAME, PERRY
BURLINGAME, LANDERS, PUTNAM, DEMEREE, STEVENS, VALET, BUCHANAN
Posted By: Jean Kramer (email)
Date: 5/20/2004 at 15:39:46
Biography reproduced from page 398 of Volume II of the History of Kossuth County written by Benjamin F. Reed and published in 1913:
Among the citizens of Irvington township whose energy and enterprise have substantially contributed toward promoting the agricultural development of Kossuth county mention must be made of Perry Burlingame. He is the owner of an excellent farm of four hundred and eighty acres known as “Kossuth County Heights,” because it occupies the highest elevation in the county, in the cultivation and improvement of which he has been actively engaged for more than forty years.
Mr. Burlingame was born on the Susquehanna river, South Bainbridge, New York, on the 5th of November, 1846, and is a son of Rufus and Elvira (Landers) Burlingame, who passed their entire lives in South Bainbridge. The American branch of the Burlingame family was founded by one George Burlingame, who came from England in 1634 on a vessel known as the “Bona Venture.” He was an agitator and succeeded in arousing a mutiny on shipboard, whereupon the officers of the vessel put him ashore when they reached the Barbadoes islands. He was later picked up by a Dutch vessel and is next heard of in Worcester, Massachusetts. When Roger Williams left Plymouth to found the colony of Rhode Island, among his followers and stanch adherents were members of the Burlingame family, one of whom, Christopher Burlingame, married Susanna Putnam, the daughter of old Isaac Putnam, of Revolutionary fame. George Burlingame had five sons: Rogers, John, David, Thomas and Eaesop, and our subject is a direct descendant of the fourth, Thomas Burlingame. His son, Nathan B., was a soldier in the Revolution and the father of Richard Burlingame, the grandfather of the subject of his review. In 1782, Richard Burlingame removed from New England to the state of New York and located in Chenango county, where he acquired a farm which is still in possession of the family. There Rufus Burlingame was born and reared and passed the greater part of his life, his death occurring on the old homestead in 1879, when he had attained the age of sixty-eight years, his natal year having been in 1811. He was a raftsman, bridge builder and carpenter, in connection with which trades he also engaged in farming and held some public offices. He was patriotic and public-spirited and enlisted in the Union army but his services were declined because of his age. The mother, who was also born at South Bainbridge, her natal day being the 20th of October, 1815, survived her husband for many years and had passed the eighty-second anniversary of her birth at the time of her death. She is buried at Afton, formerly known as South Bainbridge, as also is the father. Four children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Burlingame, our subject being the third in order of birth and the only son. The others are as follows: Zeruah, who celebrated her seventy-fifth birthday on March 22, 1912, the wife of George W. Landers, who is also living, of Afton, New York; Sallie, who died in October, 1910, at the age of seventy years; and Almira, who was born in 1852 and became the wife of George Demeree, of Harpersville, New York. After the death of his father, Rufus Burlingame took possession of the old homestead on which he wrought many improvements and engaged in its cultivation until his death, following which the property passed into the possession of his son, Perry.
The early years in the life of Perry Burlingame were passed on the old homestead in New York, his education being acquired in the district schools and a select school which he attended for one term. He assisted his father with the cultivation of the farm until he had attained his majority, when he left home and began his independent career. From that time until November, 1868, he worked out as a farm hand in the vicinity of his home, but later moved elsewhere, continuing to follow this occupation for two and a half years. During that period he accumulated five hundred dollars, which was a large amount of money for that time, and decided to buy a place and engage in farming for himself. He wished to purchase a tract of one hundred and four acres in the vicinity of his old home and offered to pay one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre for it, but the price was not acceptable. More than thirty years later, however, he realized the ambition of his early manhood and became the owner of this property, which he bought in 1904 for eleven dollars and seventy-five cents per acre. As he was unable to buy such land as he desired in his native state, Mr. Burlingame came to Iowa and bought eighty acres in Irvington township, that formed the nucleus of his present homestead. After buying his land, for which he paid cash, being given five dollars discount for so doing, he returned home to earn the necessary money to make improvements. He was now working for a definite purpose and applied himself with renewed energy and during the succeeding two years accumulated eight hundred dollars. At the expiration of that period he returned to Kossuth county and bought another forty acres and then began making improvements and placing his land under cultivation. He is very practical and exercised sound judgment in the direction of his improvements, anticipating the possibility of future needs, and at first erected a small frame cabin, to which he built additions as needed. Prosperity has attended the efforts of Mr. Burlingame during the intervening years and he has added to his holdings at various times until he now owns four hundred and eighty acres of excellent land. He has erected thereon two sets of improvements and his fields are under high cultivation, while his farm is equipped with every modern convenience or implement that will minimize the labor or expedite the work connected with its operation. As opportunity has presented he has made other judicious investments in real estate and in 1903 bought a section of land in Red River Valley, Canada.
Mr. Burlingame was married January 7, 1877, to Miss Julia E. Stevens, of Colesville, Brown county, New York, who was born June 18, 1843, and is a daughter of Peter, and Julia (Valet) Stevens, natives of New York, both deceased. To Mr. and Mrs. Burlingame have been born three children: Birnie, who married Maggie Buchanan and is living on his father’s farm in this county; Nellie, who is at home; and Herbert, who was bookkeeper in a bank at Lewistown, Montana, and is now farming in Canada.
In their religious views the family are Universalists, but they attend various protestant churches. In politics Mr. Burlingame is a republican, as was also his father, but his grandfather was a democrat and his great-grandfather a whig, while he has one son who votes the democratic ticket. He has never sought public office and although once elected justice of the peace refused to qualify, as he felt that the demands of his private interests precluded the possibility of his creditably discharging his official duties. The success that has come to Mr. Burlingame has been achieved through unremitting diligence and the intelligent concentration of his energies upon a definite purpose, and without doubt he now finds his greatest satisfaction in the thought that he has made his own way and is indebted to no one for furthering his interests.
(Photos of Mr. and Mrs. Perry Burlingame accompany this biography.)
Kossuth Biographies maintained by Linda Ziemann.
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