Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 02.djvu/80

 BURKUS.

BURT.

BURRUS, John Houston, educator, was born near Murfreesboro, Tenn., in 1849; son of William C. Burrus, a wealthy planter, lawyer, and politi- cian ; his mother, Nancy, was a slave of mulatto and Indian extraction. On the death of Mr. Bur- rus in 1860, Nancy and her three surviving sons

were divided with his other property among his heirs. President Lincoln's emancipa- tion proclamation gave them freedom, and John with his mother and brothers settled in Nashville, Tenn. He entered the [University as a stu- dent in 18G7, and was graduated in 1875. He was engaged for two years as an instructor

^ *^ /^yi^AAyv^^iL. in Fisk university, but C/ in 1879 he resigned to

devote himself exclusively to his legal studies. He was admitted to the bar in January, 1881, and in September, 1883, became president of Alcorn agricultural and mechanical college at Rodney, Miss.

BURT, Armistead, representative, was born in Edgefield district. S.C., Nov. 16, 1802. He was educated as a lawyer and practised in Abbe- ville and Willington, Abbeville district, S.C. He was a representative in the 28th, 29th, 30th, 31st and 32d congresses, 1843-'53, and was elected speaker pro tenqjore of the 30tli congress, serving during the absence of Speaker Winthrop. He was a secessioni.st, but held no office under the Confederate government. He was a delegate to the Democratic national convention in New York in 1868. He died at Willington, S.C, Oct. 30, 1883.

BURT, John Otis, physician, was born at Syra- cuse, N.Y., April 27, 1835. He was graduated at Harvard in 1858, and at the New York college of physicians and surgeons in 1864. He was ap- pointed an assistant surgeon in the U.S. navy July 30, 1861 ; served on the Colorado of the Gulf squadron ; at the naval liospital at the mouth of the Mississippi and on the iron-clad Cairo until she was destroyed by a torpedo on the Yazoo river. He resigned Nov. 23, 1863, studied medicine in Paris and Vienna 1863-4. and subsequently became professor in the medical department of Syracuse vmiversity. He died in 1894.

BURT, Nathaniel Clark, clergyman, was born in Fairton. N. J., April 2o, 1825. He was gradu- ated at Princeton in 1846, from the theological seminary in 1849, and was ordained to preach in 1850. He served as pastor of churches at Spring- field, Ohio, 1850-55; at Baltimore, Md., 1855-'60;

and at Cincinnati, Ohio. 1860-'66. The years 1866 and 1867 were spent in travelling through Europe, Egypt, and the Holy Land, where he made investigations and observations of much value to Bible students. In 1868 he became president of the Ohio female college, but. after two years' service, his ill-health constrained him to seek a permanent home in southern Europe. He received the degree of S.T.D. from Hanover college, Ind., in 1861. He was a fre- quent contributor to denominational periodicals, and he was the author of Hours Among the Gos- pels (1865) ; The Far East (1867) ; and The Land and its Story (1869). He died in Rome, Italy, March 4. 1874.

BURT, Stephen Smith, physician, was born in Oneida, N. Y^., Nov. 1. 1850, son of Oliver T., and Rebecca (Johnston) Burt, and grandson of Aaron Burt, identilied with the early history of central New York, one of the founders of the city of Syra- cuse, and a Uneal descendant of Henry Burt, who came to New England in 1635. He was edu- cated at the English and classical school. West Newton, Mass., the Eagleswood mili- tary academy in New Jersey, the Edwards Place school at Stock- bridge, Mass., and had two years' tuition at Cornell university. He wasgraduatedfrom the College of physicians and surgeons of New Y^ork, in 1875, valedic- torian of his class, and from Roosevelt hospital in 1877. He was elected a member of the state and county medical societies, and of the New Y'ork academy of medicine, and was professor of thoracic diseases at the Uni- versity of Vermont in 1884 and 1885. In 1882 he became a teacher, and in 1884 was made professor of physical diagnosis and clinical medicine in the New Y'ork post-graduate medical school and hos- pital, and attending-physician to the New Y^ork post-graduate hospital. He was a charter member of the Hospital graduates' club of New Y'ork. In 1890 he received the honorary degree of A.M. from Yale university. He published in pamphlet form : A Clinic on Heart Disease (1886) ; Pleurisy (1887) : Vieics on the Prevention and Treatment of Typhoid Fever (1889) ; Some of the Limita- tions of Medicine (1889) ; Pulmonary Consump- tion in the Light of Modern Research (1890) ; Bacteriology and Preventive Medicine (1891) ; The Ethics of Exjieri mental ion Upon Living Animals (1891).

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