BURTON, John

Photo courtesy: Andrea W. Petho

BURTON, John. (Bonsall, Derbyshire, England, ABT. 1799--Dubuque, IA, Nov. 21, 1854) John partnered with his brother Thomas first at farming in New York state, then in Dubuque as smelters of LEAD in Durango.

The source of the following is "The Wallis Family Tree and other facts"

John Rider Wallis, 1959

In 1851 Burton returned to England for a visit. Perhaps traveling about Derbyshire the pretty twenty-year old widow, Mary Barton Gell, attracted the attention of the fifty-year old visitor from the new world. Any any rate, after a year or two arrangements were completed for Mary to come to America. Jodge Robert Bonson related at the dedication of Camp John Burton, the Boy Scout camp donated by Harold and Rider Wallis, that John Burton went down the Mississippi expecting to meet his bride in St. Louis but through misunderstanding Mary embarked for the upriver trip and the shops passed in the night and (they) failed to speak to each other in passing. It was a month later when the meeting took place, probably at the Bonson's comfortable brick home (later Morgans), for Jane Burton Bonson was a sister of John Burton. The marriage for John Burton and Mary Barton Gell must have taken place soon after Mary's arrival in Dubuque. Their first and only child, Mary Burton, was born Sept. 28, 1854.

The mines and smelter had been profitable enough to make John Burton the most important and influential man of the Durango area. Landing in New York in 1828, he made his way "upstate" and established a farm near Albany. In 1835 the lure of lead and tall tales of fortunes in Iowa country across the great river could not be resisted. After a sale of the farm, livestock and personal property, the long trek by canal boat, river and stage coach ended in the beautiful valley of Durango. Brother Allen was very proud to display a sale bill describing the property of John Burton to be offered at auction on the 8th day of February 1831, and another valuable item telling of a giant ox, the property of John Burton, to be on exhibition at Crosley Hotel, Albany. N.Y. with the admission 12 1/2 cents--advertised as the finest ox in this country or Europe, fattened by John Burton of Gilderland, Albany County. The most important keepsake of John Burton is the old leather bound ledger I have with hundreds of entries in his own handwriting. This record was started in 1838 and continues in 1848 and shows amounts paid for minerals, together with items of merchandise, foodstuffs and whiskey ($1.00 a gallon), sold to miners (called "grubstaking the miners") Many familiar names appear, such as Langworthy, Bonson, Carter, Gllespie, Morning. In the front of the book appears the following:

                   "My brother Thomas Burton died
                   the 26th of August, 1847.
                   Prepare our Selves to meet
                   our God--a Mane  a Mane (sic)
                           John Burton"

I have perhaps fifteen to twenty original Government patents on parchment issued by the U. S. Government and signed by or for the President Zachary Taylor Millard Filmore (sic), or Jas. K. Polk

Grandpa Burton and his brother Thomas established claim to great acres in hills and valleys in the Durango area as soon as they started their smelter near Maquoketa Creek. When a land office was opened in Dubuque, administered by Warner LEWIS title to the land was made secure by obtaining so-called Government parents. A number of the parcels of land obtained by John and Thomas or by John alone were the result of land grants to veterans of the war of 1812 and the Government patents recite the name and military service and company commander of the veteran as "an act to raise for limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," approved Feb. 11, 1847-John Graham, private in Captain Baker's company, Second Regiment Illinois Volunteers, etc. As a result of filing mining claims and purchase of land through the Government land office, the brothers, John and Thomas, acquired about two thousand acres in Dubuque, Peru, Jefferson and Center Townships. (On the death of Mary Burton Wallis the need to John Rider Wallis, Trustee, included more items and pages and represented more acres of land than had ever been recorded in one instrument in Dubuque County.

In my portfolio I have five letters address to John and John and Thomas Burton of Albany, N.Y. who was acting as an agent for John after the sale of the land in New York. The letters are called territorial covers because they were in use before the days of postage stamps and while Iowa was a part of Wisconsin territory, hence the term territorial covers. No envelope was used as the letters were folded and sealed with hot wax and in the upper right hand corner the figure "25" in red ink indicated a payment of twenty-five cents for delivery from Albany, N.Y. to Dubuke Winconsin Ter (sic). The earliest date of the five letters in Nov. 2, 1837 and is marked "favored by Thomas Burton," which seems to place the date of Thomas' arrival in Durango as 1837. The next letter is dated Jan. 14, 1838; the others May, July and August, 1838. The letter of July 8, 1838 is directed to:

                John & Thos. Burton Smelters
                       Dubuke
                  Territory Winconsin
                        US

The content of the letters is interesting as they reveal rather large money transactions and a reference to a lawsuit to secure judgement on a past due mortgage. Altogether the money transferred from the agent to John Burton seems to have totaled over $5000, a sizeable (sic) amount for a pioneer in a new land. Reference is made to sending a certificate of deposit of $500 and a draft of $789.21 and later $3000.

It is appropriate to insert at this point the facts regarding John Burton uncovered by Judge Robert Bonson and used at the dedication of the Boy Scout Camp referred to earlier.

       Based on information obtained from the records of his
       naturalization and marriage in the office of the Clerk
       of Court of Dubuque County, Iowa, and also on entries
       in my father's diary, I believe the following facts to
       be approximately correct:

       It appears that his first naturalization papers were
       taken out in Albany, N. Y. There are conflicting dates
       in his naturalization papers, one appearing as 1834 and
       the other as 1836. From this paper I would infer that he

\ was born in 1799 in Derbyshire, England.

       The picture of the early settlers shows that he came to
       Dubuque in 1836.  He was naturalized in November 1, 1841.
       He was married on November 17, 1852 to Mary Gell.

       He died November 21, 1854 and was buried in [[LINWOOD
       CEMETERY]] 

Mary Barton Gell's sister, Elizabeth Barton, married Joseph HEROD.

The Burton's Furnace Road in the area in 2012 undoubtedly relates to the smelter he operated in the 1830s.

Mary Barton Gell Burton. Photo courtesy: Andrea W. Petho

Mary Burton, daughter of John and Mary Barton Gell Burton. Photo courtesy: Andrea W. Petho

Mary Barton Gell Burton Stokely Wilson, Joseph Herod, and Elizabeth Barton Herod. Photo courtesy: Andrea W. Petho

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Source:

Amundson, Lloyd. Rootsweb World Connect. http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:383871&id=I17913723

Petho, Andrea W.--e-mail

http://members.tripod.com/~Doreen_3/DBIOU-Z.htm