Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/491

Rh Her story of " That Lass o' Lowrie's," printed in " Scribner's Magazine," obtained great popularity, and was immediately issued in a separate volume (New York, 1877). In 1878-'9 some of her earlier magazine stories were reprinted, viz., " Kathleen Mavourneen," " Lindsay's Luck," " Miss Cres- pigny," " Pretty Polly Pemberton," and " Theo." They were originally contributed to a periodical in Philadelphia, and were published in book-form without her permission by a house in that city, a proceeding that led to a public controversy. Her second novel, " Haworth's," was published as a serial in two magazines, and was printed in a volume in 1879. In 1879 an authorized edition of her earlier love-tales was issued in New York. In 1880 ap- peared a new novelette entitled " Louisiana." Her third novel, " A Fair Barbarian," was published as a serial in 1881, and in a volume the year follow- ing ; and a fourth, entitled " Through One Admin- istration," appeared in book-form in 1883. In 1886 a juvenile tale, entitled " Little Lord Pauntleroy," was printed as a serial in the " St. Nicholas " maga- zine. " That Lass o' Lowrie's," depicting life at the Lancashire mines, went through many editions in England, and has been repeatedly dramatized.

BURNETT, Henry CLay, lawyer, b. in Essex CO., Va., 5 Oct., 1825 ; d. near Hopkinton, Ky., 1 Oct., 1860. He received a classical education, re- moved early to Kentucky, where he entered upon the practice of law, and was in 1851-'3 clerk of the circuit court of Trigg co. He was elected to congress as a democrat in 1855, 1857, 1859, and 1861, but was expelled, for his open sympathy with secession, on 3 Dec, 1861. He had presided over a Kentucky southern conference held at Russellville on 29 Oct., 1861, and called a sovereignty convention at Russellville on 18 Nov., of which also he was presi- dent, and which passed an ordinance of secession and organized a state government. He was a rep- resentative from Kentucky in the provisional Con- federate congress, serving from 18 Nov., 1861, till 17 Feb., 1862, and a senator in the Confederate con- gress, serving from 19 Feb., 1862, till 18 F«b., 1865. After the downfall of the Confederacy he exerted himself to restore the peace democrats to the as- cendency in his state.

BURNETT, Peter Hardeman, governor of California, b. in Nashville, Tenn., 15 Nov., 1807; d. in San Francisco, Cal, 16 May, 1895. Burnett was a trader and lawyer. He went to Oregon, over- land, in 1843, took a prominent part there in the or- ganization of the territorial government, was mem- ber of the legislature in 1844 and 1848, and became a judge of the supreme court. The gold excitement attracted him to California in 1848, and he worked for a short time in the mines, and then became agent in managing the complicated affairs of the Sutter family and estate at New Helvetia. In 1849 he was one of tiie most active persons in urging the rights and necessities of the people of California as suffi- cient warrant for the formation of a state govern- ment in advance of congressional authority. Dur- ing the agitation of that summer he was an out- spoken opponent of the United States military gov- ernment of the territory ; but he cheerfully joined in accepting, at length. Gov. Riley's action, where- by a constitutional convention was officially called. Under the new constitution he was at once elected governor, and assumed the office, although the state was not admitted by congress until September, 1850. He resigned the governorship in 1851, then practised law, and was one of the supreme judges m 1857-8. From 1863 till 1880 he was president of the corporation now known as the Pacific Bank in San Francisco. He has published " The Path which Led a Protestant Lawyer to the Catholic Church " (New York, 1860) ; " The American The- ory of (rovernment, considered with reference to the Present Crisis" (1861); "Recollections of an Old Pioneer" (1878), which is especially valuable in connection with the early political and constitu- tional history of the Pacific coast ; and '* Reasons why we should Believe in God, Love God, and Obey God " (1884).

BURNETT, Waldo Irving, naturalist, b. in Southborough, Mass., 12 July, 1828 ; d. in Boston, 1 July, 1854. He was interested from his boyhood in entomology, studied medicine under the direc- tion of his father, a physician, was graduated at Harvard medical school in 1849, and spent some time in Europe, studying natural history and mak- ing microscopic observations. After his return to the United States, though suffering from consump- tion, he accomplished much valuable scientific work, the results of which were published in the " Jour- nal " and " Proceedings " of the Boston society of natural history, the " Memoirs " of the Ameri-can academy of arts and sciences, the " American Jour- nal of Science," the " Transactions " of the Ameri- can medical association for 1853, and the " Ameri- can Journal of Medical Science." His principal work was a prize essay on " The Cell, its Physiol- ogy, Pathology, and Philosophy, as deduced from Original Observations ; to which is added its His- tory and Criticism," published by the medical as- sociation. He was engaged at the time of his death in translating from the German the " Comparative Anatomy " of Siebold and Stannius.

BURNETT, Ward Benjamin, soldier, b. in Pennsylvania in 1811 ; d. in "Washington, D. C, 24 June, 1884. He was graduated at the U. S. mili- tary academy in 1832, served in the Black Hawk war of that year, in garrison at Fort Jackson, La., was an instructor at the military academy in 1833- '4, and on topographical and ordinance duty until 1836. when he resigned and became a civil engi- neer. At the beginning of the Mexican war he was made colonel of the 2d New York volunteers, and was sent to join the army under Gen. Scott. He was engaged with his regiment at the siege of Vera Cruz, and in the battles of Cerro Gordo, Contreras, and Churubusco, in the last of which he was severe- ly wounded. The regiment was disbanded 1 Aug., 1848. Col. Burnett received the thanks of the state legislature and a silver medal from the city of New York, and was brevetted brigadier-general. The surviving members of his regiment gave him a gold medal, 20 Aug., 1853, and further recognized his services, 18 Aug., 1859, by presenting to him the gold snuff-box in which the freedom of the city of New York had been officially given to An- drew Jackson forty years before. As a civil engi- neer he was engaged on dry-dock construction from 1849 till 1855 in the U. S. navy-yards at Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and on the water-works of Brook- lyn and Norfolk, Va., in 1855 and 1856. From 1858 till 1860 he was U. S. surveyor-general of Kansas and Nebraska. During the latter years of his life he was an invalid, and gave up aU active work. He was buried at West Point. He mar- ried a daughter of Gen. Aaron Ward, of West- chester CO., and his son, a lieutenant in the navy, adopted his grandfather's name.

BURNHAM, Gordon Webster, manufacturer, b. in Hampton, Conn., 20 March, 1803 ; d. in New York city, 18 March, 1885. He was a farmer's boy and began life poor, but saved money while a clerk in his native place, with which in 1828 he entered into business as a principal. Successful in this, he entered the firm of Benedict & Coe in Waterbury,