My Genealogy Hound

WILLIAM BURRUS, a leading general agriculturist of Buchanan Township, Berrien County, Mich., born in Preble County, Ohio, August 19, 1826, has spent his entire life, with the exception of his earliest days of boyhood, among the changing scenes of his present locality, and has for fifty-seven years been intimately associated with the progressive interests of the State. Our subject is the fifth child of the eight sons and daughters born unto Edwin and Sallie (Wilson) Burrus, both natives of Virginia. Reared, educated and married in the Old Dominion, the parents resolved to try their fortunes in another State, and on horseback journeyed to Ohio, bringing with them in their saddle-bags their limited possessions. They crossed the mountains and came to Preble County, and, arriving safe and sound, made their home in that fertile district. In 1836, they again changed their locality, then emigrating with their family to Michigan. With the exception of the two eldest, their children were all born in Ohio, the Burrus family being a large addition to the population of Bertrand Township, which they selected for their abiding-place.

During the first year the father farmed on rented land near where Dayton now stands. He purchased the second year sixty acres of wild land, upon which he built a hewn-log house, and, having provided a shelter for wife and children, next set himself resolutely to work clearing the land and cultivating the soil, which in due time rewarded him with a bounteous harvest. The years passed on, and in 1850 the mother sickened and died, and within the same year, a few months after, the father rested from his labors. Harmonious in life, they were not long divided by death.

Of the children who gathered around the fireside of the old home, but three now survive. James is deceased; Martha is the widow of J. P. Martin; John is deceased; Nancy, deceased, married Benton Phillips; Julia A. is the wife of Nathaniel Hamilton; William is our subject; and Albert and Dinah are deceased. Reared upon a farm, our subject shared the experiences of the pioneer days and grew up to manhood a self-reliant and industrious youth, ready to begin the battle of life and win his upward way. He had received instruction in the little primitive school of his home district and, familiar with the daily round of farming duties, at twenty-one years began the pursuit of agriculture upon his own account. When twenty-three years of age, William Burrus was united in marriage with Miss Mary McIntire, daughter of William and Sarah (Furson) McIntire. The father and mother of Mrs. Burrus, well-known residents of Ohio, had emigrated from the Buckeye State to Michigan in 1835, in which year Mr. McIntire went to work in a mill beyond Niles. The country was at that time sparsely settled, homes were few and far between, and no goods for household use could be gotten nearer than Niles, then a small village. Mr. McIntire pre-empted his land from the Government, and to his deed is appended the signature of Gen. Jackson, then President of the United States. The land, one hundred and sixty acres, cost its owner $1.25 per acre. Mrs. McIntire was the first woman who made butter for sale in her locality, a fact well remembered by Mrs. Burrus. The first house built upon the old farm was made of round logs, and during the first winter it had neither floor nor chimney but nevertheless the pioneer family lived and prospered. Mrs. McIntire, who was born in Ohio in 1809, died in 1850, and after her demise her husband sold his farm and located west of Buchanan, and later settled northwest of the same place, where he continued to reside the remainder of his days.

Born in Pennsylvania, this upright man and enterprising pioneer had passed twenty years of his life in Berrien County when he died, regretted by all who knew him, October 25, 1856. Of the nine children who had blessed the McIntire home, one died in infancy; Betheny is deceased; Lansel resides in Denver, Colo.; Mary A. is now Mrs. Burrus; Joseph N. died in Kansas in 1883; John D., one of the first volunteers from Iowa, died in the service of the Union in 1863 or 1864; Joel F. resides in Maysville, Colo.; William S. volunteered in 1862 in a Missouri regiment, and, a non-commissioned officer, died after three months’ faithful service; Samuel W. is a resident of Iowa; and Jennie is the wife of Frank Howe, of Salem, Ore.

Our subject and his estimable wife, numbered among the descendants of the oldest settlers of Berrien County, have reared their children to lives of usefulness: John is a prosperous farmer of Buchanan Township; Orvilla is the wife of Merville Alvord, and lives in Kansas; Lincoln is a well-known resident of Bertrand Township; Minnie is the wife of Bennett Peters, of Hammond, Ind.; Mary is the wife of Frank Phillips, and is at home in the township. Olive S. and Frank E. complete the list of brothers and sisters who have brightened the home. The year succeeding their marriage, Mr. and Mrs. Burrus spent upon the old Burrus farm, but in 1852 they located upon a tract of forty acres, a part of the present homestead of two hundred and five acres, one hundred and fifty of which are under a high state of cultivation and improved with a handsome and commodious residence, immense barns and other substantial buildings. Beside this magnificent farm, one of the finest pieces of property in the township, Mr. Burrus has other landed possessions, and has through thrift and superior business attainments achieved a comfortable competence. Our subject, aside from the tilling of the soil, devotes much of his attention to breeding Norman horses of a high grade, and handles some of the best stock in Berrien County.

Fraternally, Mr. Burrus has long been connected with the Ancient Free & Accepted Masons, affiliating with Lodge No. 68, at Buchanan, and is also a member of the Orange, as is likewise Mrs. Burrus. Our subject has ever taken a deep interest in local and national affairs, and, a man of sound judgment, has been an important factor in the advancement of matters of mutual welfare, and has held with efficiency many important public positions of trust, occupying and faithfully discharging the duties of various township offices.