HON. ANDREW BURNSIDE
The father of Mr. Burnside was of Scotch descent — the mother of English. Soon after their marriage they emigrated to the West Indies, and were for a number of years engaged on an indigo plantation. They removed hence to Laurens district. South Carolina, where Andrew was born in 1786. After receiving a common school education, he studied surveying and engineering, a profession he followed for a long period, but always in connection with large farming interests. Among other fields of labor, he made large surveys of government lands about Michigan City, Chicago, Green Bay and in Minnesota. He married Jane Crossen, whose parents were of Irish descent — date not recorded. After residing in Indiana and Illinois for many years, he settled at Gratiot's Grove, in what is now La Fayette county, in 1845, purchasing the farm of Samuel Scales, north of White Oak Springs. Previous to locating in Wisconsin, he had held the position of magistrate in Knox county, Indiana, county commissioner and assessor in Laporte county, same state, and several times surveyor of the same, and, it is probable, a member of the Indiana constitutional convention.
Mr. Burnside was elected a member of the Constitutional Convention of Wisconsin in 1846, and served in that body on the committee on finance, taxation and public debt. While not specially prominent or conspicuous, he was noted for his clear understanding, strong sterling sense, and firm integrity of purpose, which endeared him to all his associates.
The pioneer experiences of Mr. Burnside were long and varied. Shortly after his marriage, in company with his brother, Edgehill [sic] Burnside, and wife (parents of Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside), he removed to Indiana soon after its territorial organization, traveling the whole distance and crossing the Cumberland mountains in the old-time large southern wagons, the greater part of the distance being then through a wild and almost uninhabited country. He settled on White river in the south end of the state before even counties were formed, and here with his own hands erected a log cabin for his family. As there were no saw mills in all that section, the floor and furniture were made from poplar "puncheons" hewn by himself, while oak shieves split out of logs formed the roof. After some years passed in an effort to clear away the forest, he got sufficiently discouraged to sell out and moved to Knox county, where he built a hotel and saw mill. A few years later, he removed to the wilderness in the northern part of the state, locating on Pine lake, in Laporte county. Here he began the survey of public lands for the government. He entered the land and laid out the site of Michigan City, which, for some years, it was supposed would become a western metropolis; but the shifting sands at the mouth of the river destroyed that illusion. After surveying a portion of the country on the Calumet and Kankakee rivers, he removed, in 1842, to Freeport, Illinois, but continued surveys in the Green Bay country, doing the whole of the work on the Peshtigo river. Subsequently he made extensive surveys in northern Minnesota. When he first commenced this class of labors, the frontier land office was located in Cincinnati, Ohio — Micajah F. Williams register and receiver. When he closed, the frontier had practically receded beyond the Mississippi, if not Missouri. Of course a life thus passed amidst the wilds and fastnesses of the west, witnessed many stirring events and dangers by "flood and field," but our space is too limited to dwell upon details. After a long career of usefulness and honor, he died at the age of about eighty years. He had always enjoyed remarkably good health until within a few weeks of his decease.
