Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/65

 BURLEIGH.

BURLEIGH.

was subsequently appointed state land agent by- Governor Connor, and served as such in 1876, 1877, and 1878, at the same time holding the posi- tion of assistant clerk of the Maine house of rep- resentatives. In 1880 he accepted a position in the office of the treasurer of state which he held until his election as treasurer in 1885. He was re-elected in 1887. In 1888 he was nominated for governor and resigned his position as treasurer. He was elected by a large plurality, and in 1890 was re-elected. During his service as treasurer the public debt was reduced more than §400.000, and during his administration as governor the rate of taxation reached the lowest limit in the history of the state, and the entire bonded debt, amounting to $'2, 38-1,000, and bearing interest at six per cent, was refunded by the sale of three per cent bonds, thus reducing the interest account •one-half. After his retirement from office Gov- ernor Burleigh became the principal publisher and proprietor of tlie Kennebec Journal. He was a delegate-at-large to the Republican convention in 1896, and was elected to the 56th, 57th and .58th congresses, 1899-1905.

BURLEIGH, Walter Atwood, a prominent pioneer of Dakota, was born at Waterville, Me., Oct. 35, 1820. He studied medicine at Water- ville, and in New York city, and was graduated at Castleton medical college. He removed to Kittanning, Pa., where he acquired a large

practice, and d e- voted much of his time in the cam- paigns of 1856 and 1860 to the support of the Republican party as a platform speaker. In 18 61 President Lincoln appointed him agent of the Yankton Sioux Indians of Da- kota territory. The Indians being i n - flamed by previous grievances, threat- ened to burn the warehouse, council "house and other property of the agency. Dr. Burleigh despatched two brave and reliable men to Fort Randall for a body of U. S. regulars, and at daybreak on the following morning just as the hostile Indians, armed and in their war paint, gathered for an attack upon the buildings, the troops approached, and their chiefs sued for peace. In the latter part of August, 1862, the agency was again in danger from the hostile Sioux in their retreat from the Minnesota mas- sacre. Dr. Burleigh at once built a substantial

block house, and called for troops from Iowa, and with these and the good offices of Struck-by-the- Rees, the head chief of the Yanktons, the agency was saved, and South Dakota was spared a bloody invasion. Dr. Burleigh was elected a delegate to the 39th Congress in 1864, and in 1866 to the 40th Congress. In 1877 he was elected a member of the legislature of Dakota, and chosen president of the council. He was a member of the last legislature of Montana territory, and was elected to the convention of 1889, which framed the con- stitution of that state. He also engaged in many private enterprises, having at one time a fleet of steamboats on the Missouri river, which did a large carrying trade between St. Louis and Fort Benton. Burleigh county, North Dakota, was named in his honor. He graded fifty miles of the Northern Pacific railroad and erected the first house in Bismarck. He practised law for twelve years in the courts at Miles City, and Bil- lings, in Montana. He, upon removing to Dakota, made his home at Yankton, where he erected a magnificent mansion overlooking the Missouri, and having a wide range of scenery. He died at Yankton, S. Dak., in 1896.

BURLEIGH, William Henry, poet and jour- nalist, was born at Woodstock, Conn., Feb. 2, 1812; son of Rinaldo Burleigh, educator, who became blind in 1827 and died in 1863. On his mother's side he was lineally descended from Governor Bradford. William worked on a farm, was apprenticed to a tailor and afterwards to a printer, and while working at the case, he fre- quently contributed articles to the columns of the journals on which he was employed. He was an advocate of anti-slavery, temperance and peace, and both as editor and lecturer exercised a widespread influence in behalf of reform, having editorial charge at different times of the Literary Journal, the Temperance Banner, the Christian Freeman, and the Washington Banner. His fear- less denunciation of vice and depravity exposed him on several occasions to mob violence. He had no taste for controversy, preferring the quiet of literary pursuits, and he sevei'al times estab- lished pureh- literary journals, which, though short-lived, were of a high order of merit, some of the poems and j^rose articles from his own pen being gems of exquisite ray. In 1850 he removed to Albany and became the general agent and lecturer of the New York state temperance society, editing its organ, the Prohibitionist. He removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1855, and was ap- pointed harbor master of the port of New York, and he continued to discharge the duties of that office, or of that of port warden, during the re- mainder of his life. A small collection of his poems was published in 1841, and enlarged editions were issued in 1845 and 1850. After his death a