****************************************************************************
File contributed to the Fulton County ILGenWeb Project
Copyright 2008, all rights reserved.

These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format 
without the written consent of the author at http://fulton.ilgenweb.net.

****************************************************************************

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

****************************************************************************

The Biography of George BURNETT 

Pages 222 and 225, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: BARBEE, BODEN, BURNETT, DAVIS, GOURLEY, HUBANKS, HUNGERFORD, JOHNSON, MERRIS, PHILLIPPI, POLAND, PRATT, RIST, ROBERTS, SAMPSON] 

    
GEORGE BURNETT is noted for his industrious habits and enterprising spirit, and is the oldest settler of Fairview Township who is engaged in any active pursuit. When only five years of age he was brought to this county by his parents, William and Sarah (Poland) Burnett, but his birth occurred in Harrison County, W. Va., April 19, 1830. The trip from Virginia to this State was made in 1835, in a wagon pulled by three horses. The parents sought a new home and found it in Fulton County, Ill., where the father bought a claim with a cabin on it for $1000. He entered the land from the Government and at once started to work to improve it. They went to Ellisville to mill and the country around was in a purely primeval state. 
    
The first school our subject attended was where Lyons graveyard is now located, and he can give a most interesting description of this country in its pioneer days when game abounded on every side having seen fourteen or fifteen deer in a herd many a time. Breaking up and clearing land and farming engaged his time and attention from an early period in life. He has turned acres of the virgin sod of the State of Illinois, and has had a long and prosperous career as an agriculturist. 
    
Mr. Burnett was married in 1854 to Miss Abigail Barbee, daughter of Franklin and Lucinda (Merris) Barbee, natives of Virginia and Canada respectively. Her parents were married in Ohio, where she was born, and later moved to Illinois, settling in Scott County and in 1853 coming to Fulton County. Mrs. Burnett was only seventeen years of age when she was married and to her and our subject have been born four children: John F. married Miss Eliza Pratt, who died in 1888 leaving four children; he is now in charge of the home farm; Eliza E., married Henry Rist and lived in Fremont County, Iowa, where she died in 1880 at the age of twenty-two years; Mary C. died when seventeen years of age; Clymena R. is the wife of Joseph T. Gourley, and has one child, Blanche R. Mr. Burnett has noted with great satisfaction all the improvements in the way of farm machinery and the general progress throughout his county. He is opposed to secret societies and gives strict attention to his business in which he has met with marked success. He is also giving much attention to stock-raising and is very proud of his horses. The principal part of his wealth has been accumulated in the pork producing industry. He is a member of the Republican party, and religiously, he and his estimable wife belong to the United Brethren Church. 
    
Our subject's father was a native of County Tyrone, Ireland, and left that country when only eighteen years of age, coming to the United States and settling in Virginia where he married the mother of our subject. They came to Illinois from Virginia in 1835 and were numbered among the pioneers of Fairview Township, locating on section 18. The mother died in 1859 when fifty-seven years of age and the father in 1862 when sixty-one years old. To them were born twelve children: viz: Rachel, who married John Roberts, died at Ipava leaving five children; Elizabeth, who married John Hubanks, lived in Iowa. She died at the home of her father leaving six children; John*, who resides in Davis County, Iowa, married Charlotte Johnson*[ see endnote] and has had thirteen children; George is the subject of our sketch; martin died in infancy; Mary, who married Reuben Hungerford, lives in Metropolis, Ill.; James lives in Fairview Township, of which he is one of the well-to-do farmers. He was twice married; Margaret died when twenty-three years of age; Sarah A., the wife of Benjamin Sampson, lives in Warren County, Ill., and is the mother of seven children; Martha, was the wife of Alex. Phillippi, and at her death left two children; Anettie is the wife of Wm. Boden, of Sacramento, Cal., and has two children; William, who married Neosha Davis, died in 1888 when forty years of age. 

*Note: Charlotte Johnson, my great-great-grandmother's sister, was the first-born child of early Fulton County residents Moses Cutting Johnson and Zerilda "Jane" Willcoxen. Charlotte was the namesake of her maternal grandmother Charlotte (Calloway) Willcoxen (whose biography is the 1871 Fulton Atlas), wife of Capt. Elijah Willcockson (Willcoxen, his bio is in the Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of Fulton County), cousins who were descendants of Daniel Boone's sister Sarah. For more information about Charlotte Johnson's families, both her ancestors and her and John Burnet's descendants, please visit her entry on my website (http://stipak.com/willcockson/elijah/bios/3.htm#P3975)--Alice Stipak