David A. Burrows, who has spent most of his life in and near Davenport, is rightly classed among her substantial and influential citizens. He was born near Elizabeth, New Jersey, March 12, 1825, and passed his early boyhood in his native place. When he was fourteen years old he accompanied his eldest brother, John McDowell Burrows, to the West, and went to live with him on a farm near the then small town of Davenport. Here he worked for his brother gardening and selling his products to the people of the village, being the first to engage in that line of work here. That was in 1839. After two years of hard work the monotony of his life and the longing to visit the scenes of his childhood proved stronger than the dissuading arguments and entreaties of his brother, who vainly sought to induce him not to attempt such a perilous journey alone. But the young man had made up his mind to go home and go he would, however great the difficulties. While going the rounds of his daily routine on a certain day he learned that a steamer called the "Indian Queen" would come down the river that afternoon, and at once determined that he would take passage on board it. Hastening home he delivered the receipts of his morning sales to his brother's wife, and quickly packing his personal effects in two small bundles, started on foot for Buffalo Landing, ten miles southward on the Mississippi river, and arrived there just in time to see the boat, which refused to stop in answer to his signal, pass the desolate hamlet. Undaunted by his misfortune and disappointment, he resolved that he would not return home, and took shelter with the ferryman, a Mr. Gardner, with whom he staid a week in hiding from his brother, who, having learned whither he went, had pursued and was searching for him. Bidding good-by to his friend, the ferryman, he crossed the river and made his way through the woods by night to Oquawka, Illinois, where, on the following morning, he traded a copy of "The Life of General Marion" for an Indian canoe and started down the river, meeting with no more serious drawbacks than being capsized by the waves caused by a passing steamer. He reached St. Louis in safety and from there to Cairo and thence up the Ohio river to Pittsburgh he worked his way on a steamboat, through the agency of a kindly disposed relative. From Pittsburgh he went by way of the canal to Cleveland, earning five dollars during the journey by driving a team on the towpath. With this five dollars he secured passage to Buffalo, whence he went to his home, arriving there with four cents in his pocket. He remained about home some three years, working at anything he could turn his hand to, and then returned to Scott County and began farming and teaming for the railroad company. He followed that line of work some years, after which he turned his attention to milling and buying and selling grain with good success. During his residence in and near Davenport of more than fifty years Mr. Burrows has always borne himself as an enterprising man of affairs, and so demeaned himself in all his business and social relations as to command the confidence and high esteem of his wide circle of friends and acquaintances. In politics he is a Republican, though in no sense a politician. He is an earnest and devoted Christian and a member of the Christian Church.
He married Miss Mary Jane Glaspell of Davenport. Of three children born to them, two, Ida M. and Anna M., are successful kindergarten teachers in Davenport. Mrs. Burrows died September 8, 1886.
BIOGRAPHIES