Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/69

 BURNHAM.

BURNHAM.

Fort Jackson, La., he returned to the military academy and served for a year as assistant instructor of infantry tactics. He resigned his commission in 1836 to engage in civil engineer- ing. He re-entered the service in 1846, and distinguished himseK in the Mexican war as colonel of the 2d N. Y. volunteers, receiving in recognition of his gallantry a brevet brigadier- generalship and a vote of thanks from the legislature of New York, a silver medal from the city of New York, and from the surviving members of his regiment a gold medal and the gold snuff-box in which the freedom of the city of New York had been presented to Gen. Andrew Jackson forty years before. From 1849 to 1854 General Burnett was engaged in dry dock construction at the Brooklyn and Phila- delphia navy yards, from IS.jS to 1856 on the Brooklyn and Norfolk waterworks, and from 1858 to 1860 as svxrveyor-general of Kansas and Nebraska. He was an invalid during the later years of his .life, and died at Washington, D. C, June 34, 1881.

BURNHAM, Daniel Hudson, architect, was born in Henderson, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1846; .son of Edwin ami Elizabeth (Weeks) Burnham; grand- son of Nathan Burnham, and a descendant of Lieut. Tlionias Burnham, who immigrated to Massacliusetts in 16.35. He removed to Chicago, 111., with his parents in 1856, and was educated in A'arious schools there and in Massachusetts. He studied architecture in Chicago, and settled in practice there in 1889. He was the architect of the Rookery, the Calumet club house. The Temple and Masonic Temple, Montauk block, Insurance exchange. Women's building, Northern liotel and •several churches in Cliicago, 111., the Mills build- ing, San Francisco, Cal., the EUicott Square building, Buffalo, N. Y., the Society for Savings building, Cleveland, Ohio, and the Land Title building, Philndelphia, Pa. He became an au- thority on office buildings. He was chief architect and director of works of the World's Fair build- ings, 1890-'93, and was president of the American institute of architects, 1894.

BURNHAM, Henry Eben, senator, was born in Dunbarton, N. H., Nov. 8, 1844; son of Henry L. Burnham, and a descendant of John Burnham who came from Norwich, England, in 16:^5, and settled in what is now Essex, Mass. He was graduated at Dartmouth college in 1865: studied law in the office of Minot and Mugridge at Con- cord, N.H., and in the offices of E. S. Cutter and Judge Lewis W. Clark at Manchester, N.H. He was admitted to the New Hampsliire bar in 1868; engaged in practice with Judge David Cross at Manchester, later with George I. McAllister,' and subsequently became a member of the firm of Burnham, Brown & Warren. He served as judge

of the probate court in Hillsborough county, 1876-79, and presided over the Republican state convention in 1888. He was elected to the U.S. senate from New Hampsliire as a Republican for the term 1901-'07.

BURNHAM, Michael, clergyman, was born at Essex, Ma.ss., June 28, 1839. In 1860, he entered Phillips academy, Andover, Mass., and was graduated from Amherst college in 1867, and from the Andover theological seminary in 1870. In 1868"-69, he was licensed to preach, and in 1870 was ordained and installed pastor of the Central Congrega- tional church, Fall River, Mass., resigning in 1882 to accept the pastorate of Imnianuel church, Boston High- lands, where he re- mained three years. On Feb. 27, 1885, he as- sumed charge of the First Church, Spring- field, Mass., and in 1894 accepted a call to the

Pilgrim church, St. yy,,:,,^^ /^....^.J^ Louis, Mo., and was

installed as its pastor June 1. He received from Amherst the degree of A.M. in 1877, and the degree of D.D. from Beloit college in 1887. He served several years on the board of trustees of Hartford theological seminary, of Wheaton seminary, of the French Protestant college, and of the School for Christian workers, at Spring- field, Mass. In 1885 he was made corporate mem- ber of the A. B. C. F. M., and in 1888 was elected trustee of Amherst college. He was made trustee of the Chicago theological seminary in 1894, and of the newly organized American university at Washington, D. C, in 1895.

BURNHAM, Sherburne Wesley, astronomer, was born at Thetford, Vt., in 1840. He was educated at Thetford academy, adopted steno- graphy as a profession, and during the civil war was with the army at New Orleans as shorthand reporter. At a book auction there he chanced to buy BnrritVs Geography of the Heavens, and, becoming intere.sted in the charts, the next clear night he traced out the constellations and principal stars in the heavens. This .served to heighten the fascination of the stud5-,and he pur- chased a cheap telescope, which he used until he exchanged it for a larger instrument. At the close of the war he removed to Chicago, where for many years he acted as court .stenographer. On reading Webb's Celestial Objects for Com- mon Telescopes, he determined to devote all his leisure time to astronomical investigations.