Biographical Sketch of W. H. BURNS (1893); Chester County, PA

Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris <jMcDmorris@comcast.net>.

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Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl-
vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley
and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Philadel-
phia, PA, 1893, pp. 787-8.

"W. H. BURNS, whose record as a progressive business man is one of achieve-
ment and remarkable success, is a son of Peter and Ellen J. (Dyson) Burns,
and was born at Berwyn, in Easttown township, Chester county, Pennsylvania,
November 5, 1857.  He attended the common schools of Easttown and Tredyffrin
townships, and after receiving a good English education he learned the trade
of a carpenter with William H. Webster.  In 1878, at the end of his three
years' apprenticeship, he commenced life for himself, and in a short time
engaged in contracting, which he has followed ever since.  His ability and
industry soon carried him forward from the building of dwelling houses to
the erecting of public buildings, and within the last eleven years his
career of success has been as steady as it has been remarkable.  He has
erected sixteen stations on the Pennsylvania railroad, beside building the
fine Berwyn Presbyterian church, and many elegant and tasteful residences
in different parts of the county.  Mr. Burns owns and operates the Berwyn
planing mill, in which he prepares most of his building lumber, and in his
business, including his contract help and mill force, he employs forty-five
men, whose weekly wages aggregate six hundred dollars.  He has built up a
contract business in his line of work second to none in the county and
equaled by few in the State.  W> H. Burns is of that class of self-made
men who have relish for hard and persistent labor, and possess a genius for
overcoming obstacles and making circumstances the obedient servants of
their will.  He has won success by system, energy and the ability to read
the future effects of present causes in the business world.  He is a repub-
lican in politics, and a member and trustee of the Presbyterian church.

"On July 20, 1881, Mr. Burns married Ximena M., daughter of Enoch S. and
Mary J. Wells, of Berwyn, Pennsylvania.  To Mr. and Mrs. Burns have been
born six children, five sons and one daughter: Austin M., Lotta M.,
Willie D., Carroll H., Roy W. and Louis W.

"The Burns family is of Scotch descent, and Isaac Burns, the paternal great-
grandfather of W. H. Burns, was a native of Chester county, where he died
in July, 1830.  His wife was Margaret Greene, of English descent.  Their
son, Peter Burns, sr. (grandfather), was born about 1795, and lived at
Berwyn, where his occupation was for some time that of farming, and where he
died in 1877.  He was a soldier in the war of 1812.  He was a cabinet maker
by trade, and during the late civil war was engaged at Philadelphia in
working int he navy yard of the United States.  After the war he returned
to his farm of seventy-five acres, on a part of which the present town of
Berwyn is built.  He was a republican, and a member of Berwyn Presbyterian
church, whose original house of worship he was largely instrumental in
erecting.  He married Elizabeth Jones, who was of Welsh descent, and had
seven children: Benjamin, Isaac, Hannah, Eliza, Peter, Sallie J. and Henry,
who died from the effects of a wound received at the battle of Chattanooga
during the civil war.  Peter Burns (father) was born May 12, 1827, in Phil-
adelphia, and is a stone mason by trade.  He has followed contracting on
masonry work for a business, and has, until within the last few years, made
a specialty of stone bridges.  He is an active and well posted republican,
and a trustee of Berwyn Presbyterian church.  He is also a member of Berwyn
Presbyterian church.  He is also a member of Berwyn Lodge, No. 999, Inde-
pendent order of Odd Fellows; and Thompson Lodge, No. 340, Free and Accepted
Masons, and in the Masonic fraternity has attained a high rank, being a
third degree Mason.  He married Ellen J. Dyson, daughter of John Dyson, of
Millerstown, Perry county, Pennsylvania.  Their children are: William Henry,
Estella J., Joseph S., John D., Frank L., Anna May, Martie and Bessie."