James E. Burnside was one of the earliest pioneers of Scott County, Iowa, where he settled when the Territory was inhabited by few persons except Indians. His experiences during the hardships and trials and privations of the early days were thrilling in the extreme and would fill a volume with fascinating and instructive reading. But interesting as these reminiscences would prove, limited space forbids their recital and confines us to a mere detail of the outline of his life record.
He was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia, April 10, 1813, the son of Alexander and Elizabeth (Gilland) Burnside, and is one of a family of eleven children. Both his parents were natives of Virginia. The father died in February, 1874, at an advanced age. The mother attained the advanced age of ninety-nine years and ten months, her decease occurring in 1860.
When James was two years old his parents moved to Logan County, Ohio, and settled on a farm near Bellefontaine, where he spent his boyhood and received such education as the primitive schools of that early day afforded. At the age of twenty, in 1833, he went to White Pigeon, Michigan, where he lived three years, and also built a saw and flouring mill.
There also, on April 9, 1835, he married Miss Elizabeth, the daughter of Amos and Fairby (Blockson) Barr, the former a native of Ireland and the latter of Maryland, in whom, through all the privations and trials of pioneer life, he found a true and devoted helpmeet and companion.
In the spring of 1836, on May 18, Mr. Burnside, in company with two companions, started on horseback on a westward tour, in search of a location for his future home. The journey through the country, which was then for the most part an unpeopled wilderness, was full of perils and hardships, they often traveling thirty and forty miles a day before they could find a place of entertainment, with only a map and compass to guide them in their course. Crossing the Mississippi river at the site of the present City of Burlington, then known as "Flint Hills,” they traveled for ten days in a southwesterly direction through the Hawkeye territory and Northern Missouri. Their provisions being nearly exhausted, they changed their course, and traveled northeasterly, and after a tedious journey reached the site of the present town of Buffalo, on the Mississippi, in Scott County. After satisfying himself that he could make a living for himself and family in this place, Mr. Burnside returned to White Pigeon and sold his mill property and moved his family and effects to their new home, making the journey in what was commonly called the "prairie schooner," drawn by a team of oxen.
He first settled on Sugar creek, some six miles below the present town of Tipton, in Cedar County. During the same fall, 1836, three other families settled there, and during the following winter some twelve more families came and staked out land claims. During that year (1836) Mr. Burnside hauled the timber for the first steam flouring mill in Scott County, which was built in 1837 by Mr. John Sullivan in Rockingham. He also hauled wood for Antoine Le Claire, in whom he found a lifelong friend, and whose memory he cherishes with the warmest affection. While he was thus employed his wife staid in Cedar County, whither he made frequent trips carrying provisions, which were high and scarce. Flour was from fifteen to twenty dollars per barrel; corn meal from six to seven dollars per barrel; bacon, twenty-five cents per pound, with the ribs in; frost-bitten corn, one dollar per bushel, and other things in proportion.
In the spring of 1837 Mr. Burnside moved his effects from Cedar County to the site of his present home in Blue Grass Township, Scott County, and there laid the foundation of what has been a most successful career. In the spring of 1850, soon after the discovery of gold in California, he joined the westward tide of emigration to the gold fields, crossing the plains and reaching his destination after a perilous journey of seventy-five days. His "gold fever" experience differed from that of many others. He worked fourteen days in the mines, with eight men in his employ, whom he paid eight dollars per day each.
His profits in the fourteen days were seven thousand three hundred and fifty dollars; and with characteristic good sense, he decided to let well enough alone and turn his steps homeward. He made the trip on a sailing vessel from San Francisco to Panama, which occupied forty-seven days, thence across the isthmus to Chagres, where he boarded a steamer bound for New Orleans. There he exchanged his gold dust for coin and then made his way by boat to his home, reaching there November 15, having been gone seven months and thirteen days.
With the exception of this time, Mr. Burnside's life for nearly half a century has been spent in Scott County, which he has seen developed from a wilderness, inhabited by tribes of Indians and infested by wild beasts, to a veritable "land flowing with milk and honey," the richness and fertility of whose soil rival that of any garden spot in the world.
In this development and growth he has had a large share, and in his community has always held a conspicuous place, being a man of broad outlook, far-sighted and liberal-minded. A man of progressive views, and with the happy faculty of making the most of his opportunities, he has accumulated a competence, and during these years of "green old age" enjoys with keen relish the fruits of his honorable toil. His life has been one of useful employment and through his works the world has been made better and brighter.
BIOGRAPHIES