Burnham, Lorin A.

BURNHAM

Posted By: Joyce Hickman (email)
Date: 11/14/2008 at 13:40:55

Lorin A. Burnham

(From the 1883 History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, by J. H. Keatley, p.261, Wright Twp.)
L. A. Burnham, farmer, P. O. Griswold, Cass Co., Iowa, born in Oswego County, N. Y., September 23, 1834, son of Philo and Sarah (Rice) Burnham, he born in Greene County, N. Y., September 16, 1793; she a native of Connecticut, and died December 15, 1862, at the age of sixty eight years. The father was a farmer, and followed that vocation until he was nineteen years of age, when he entered the service of the Government in the war of 1812. In 1818, he experienced religion, and, up to his death, was a devoted follower of Christ. He was married to his first wife March 14, 1818. They had six children - Alma, born July 9, 1820; Sarah M., born June 23, 1825; John R., born June 24, 1827; Philo H., born January 1, 1832; Lorin A., our subject; and Charles H., born December 9, 1840. The three later are living - Philo H. and Charles H. are living in Scriba, Oswego Co., N. Y. March 18, 1864, our subject's father united in marriage to his second wife, Lydia Miner, born in Berkshire County, Mass., November 22, 1800. He had four memberships in the American Bible Society, and bequeathed to them $250, and also a like amount to the Home Missionary Society. For sixty years he had been a member of the Presbyterian Church, and died in the faith February 7, 1878. Our subject received a common-school education and worked on his father's farm till the age of twenty-one. He came to this county in 1857, and, during the summer of that year, worked in Lewis, Cass County. In the fall he purchased 100 acres in Section 35, Township 75, Range 38. He added sixty acres the following year. he was among the first settlers of Wright Township. He was married, in Council Bluffs, in July, 1860, to Mrs. Caroline Burnham, nee Miner, born in Delaware County, N. Y., March 15, 1832. She is the daughter of Isaac and Ann M. (Halleck) Miner, both natives of New York. Her mother was a niece of Gen. Halleck, and died in December, 1880. The father is still living in Green County, N. Y.; is a miller, as are also his three sons. Our subject now owns 240 acres of land in Sections 34 and 35, Wright Township. He is a farmer of the first order; has good buildings on his place, and feeds most of the grain which he raises. he has been Town Trustee for several years. Has three children - Adelbert L., born December 9, 1861; Fred A., born December 29, 1863; and Carrie E., born July 23, 1876. Subject and wife are members of the Presbyterian Church of Griswold, Cass County, of which he is an Elder. In politics, he is a Republican.