Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 2.djvu/351

Rh appointed upon the Claims and Finance committees. To the consideration of the many important matters coming before the Judiciary Committee at the late session of the Legislature he devoted the most careful attention, giving all questions effecting the public interest in the committee as well as in the senate, as full an investigation as circumstances would permit, and fair treatment in all respects. A ready debater, combining clearness of statement with vigor of speech, yet speaking only when impelled by judgment of the merits or the necessities of the case, he exercised an influence in the deliberations of the senate second to that of no other senator. It cannot be regarded improper to remark that no man in the state stands higher in the confidence of his party today, than Mr. Burns, and should he be inclined to pursue a public career, there is no position in the gift of his party to which he may not reasonably aspire.

Mr. Burns was united in marriage with Sarah N. Mills, of Milford, upon the twenty-first anniversary of his birth, Jan. 19, 1856, by whom he has four children, two sons and two daughters. He has a fine estate in Wilton, and is known as one of the most public spirited citizens of the town. His religious faith is of the liberal order. He has taken thirty-two degrees in masonry and is a prominent member of the organization. In 1874 he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from Dartmouth College, and in the recent organization of his military staff he was designated by Gov. Head, Judge Advocate General with the rank of Brigadier General.

, senator from the Amherst district, No. sixteen, was born in Ridge, November 19, 1828, being the son of a farmer of that town. He received his education in the Common schools, at the academies in Jaffrey and Marlow in this state, and Brattleborough. Vt., and under private tutors. He studied medicine two years, but relinquished the same for the study of law, which he pursued in the office of Pierce & Tyler at Winchendon, Mass., and that of Hon. Edmund L. Gushing, late Chief Justice of this state, at Charlestown, and graduated at the end of a four years' course, at the State and National Law School, at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and was admitted to practice in the courts of New York and this state, and subsequently those of Vermont; but after a few years' practice of his profession has devoted his life mainly to teaching, in which occupation he has met with marked success. He became principal of the Orleans Liberal Institute at Glover, Vt.. in 1858, where he was engaged for seven years, was subsequently three years principal of Marlow Academy; one year principal of the High School at Edgartown, Mass.; three years at Lenox, and three years at Great Barrington in the same state; also as principal of their High Schools, and had been for six years previous to election to the senate principal of McCollom Institute, the well known academy at Mont Vernon, which institution under his management attained a high and extended reputation among the educational institutions of the state. Mr. Todd has served for fourteen years altogether upon school-boards in the various places in which he has resided, but held no political office previous to his election to the present senate, with the exception of that of representative in the legislature, to which he was chosen by the citizens of his native town in 1857 and again in 1858, only two votes being cast against him the latter year. He served each year upon the Committee on Education, and in 1858 was the Cheshire County member of the select committee appointed to draft resolutions upon that portion of the governor's message relating to national affairs, the adoption of which resolutions by the house he advocated in a strong speech. In the senate he has been known as an active working member, serving upon the Committees on Claims, Education, and Roads, Bridges and Canals, being chairman of the first named committee.

Mr. Todd was married, Aug. 16, 1857, to Mary A. H. Blodgett, of