|
John A. Burman
John
A. Burman was for many years one of the leading farmers of Paton
township, where he settled at an early date. He is now living retired
at Lanyon, Webster county, Iowa, for his labors in former years brought
to him the success which enables him to live without further recourse
to labor. He was born in Sweden, July 28, 1849, and spent the first
twenty years of his life in that country, acquiring his education in
the common schools.
The favorable reports which Mr. Burman heard concerning America led him
to seek his fortune in the new world and in 1869 he crossed the
Atlantic to America, making his way to Altoona, Knox county, Illinois,
where lived his sister and some friends whom he had known in the old
country. He had only a dollar and eighty cents when he arrived in the
new world, but he possessed what is better than money - a strong
purpose, laudable ambition and determination to succeed. He worked one
year for the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad Company at
construction work between Galva and New Boston and was afterward
employed for nine months on a farm by a Mr. Koehler, a Pennsylvania
Dutch man, who paid him nineteen dollars per month for his services. He
afterward engaged in farming, renting land until 1876, when he removed
to Webster county, Iowa, where for one year he cultivated a rented farm.
Mr. Burman next bought eighty acres of section 1, Paton tqwnship,
Greene county. Not a furrow had been turned nor an improvement made
upon the place, but with characteristic energy he began its
development. He built a little house and prairie stable and he
experienced the usual hardships and trials incident to pioneer life.
One winter the snow was so deep that he could not get in the stable in
the regular way and carried water and grain to his horses through a
hole in the front of the barn. After the third day he dug a tunnel from
the house to the barn, which served until the thaw in the spring. He
made a trip to Crooked creek for coal on one occasion and was gone from
two o’clock in the morning of one day until three o’clock the following
day, such were the conditions of the road. He now owns two hundred and
eighty acres of valuable land and his farm is the visible evidence of
his life of thrift and energy. He has worked earnestly year after year
and as time has passed his fields have brought forth rich harvests and
his energies have gained him prosperity. Retiring from his farm about
four years ago he removed to Lanyon, where he is now residing in well
earned ease. Aside from his property he is a stockholder and one of the
directors in the Farmers Elevator Company.
Mr. Burman was married in Webster county, March 26, 1876, to Miss Tilda
L. Johnson, who was born in Sweden, March 13, 1852, and came to America
from her native land in 1870, at which time she located in Illinois.
Mr. and Mrs. Burman have become the parents of eight children, Hannah,
the wife of A. T. Eklund, of Paton township; Sophia, the wife of David
Carlson, living in Webster county; Alice, Edith, Esther, Paul and Ruth,
all at home, and Martin, who died at the age of eight months.
Mr. and Mrs. Burman are members of the Mission church, which they
joined soon after its organization, and in its work they have taken an
active and helpful part. Mr. Burman has served as one of the trustees
and deacons for twenty-five years and has done everything in his power
to promote the growth of the church. He formerly gave his political
support to the republican party but is now a prohibitionist. believing
that the cause of temperance is one of the most important issues before
the people today. His life has ever been honorable and upright, his
actions manly and sincere, and wherever he is known he is held in high
esteem.
|
