This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Burnett Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/lEC.2ACE/1991 Message Board Post: From "History of Grant County, Wisconsin", 1881, p. 590 - 592. THOMAS PENDLETON BURNETT. Mr. Burnett was born in Pittsylvania County, Va., September 3, 1800, and was reared from early childhood on a farm in Bourbon or Spencer County, Kentucky. During this time, he obtained such instruction as he could by the aid of an academy and private instruction from neighboring gentlemen, laboring with his own hands, and afterward teaching, to acquire the means of support while prosecuting his studies. "While reading law, he was favored with some minor offices, such as Constable, Deputy Sheriff, Sheriff, etc., from the fees of which he derived a scanty means of support." Soon after his admission to the bar, he settled at Paris, Ky., where, in the practice of his profession, he is said to have been brought in contact, and often into professional collision, with some of the ablest lawyers in that State. For two years he filled the office of District Attorney. After the accession of Gen. Jackson to the Presidency in 1828, Mr. Burnett, who had been a warm partisan of the Genera! l, received October 15, 1829, the appointment of Sub-Agent in the Indian Department, to reside at Prairie du Chien. An accident which occurred soon after, when he was laboring with characteristic zeal and courage to resist the progress of an extensive fire at Paris, and which resulted in crushing one of his legs, confining him to his bed or his room for seven months, and leaving him a cripple for life, determined him to accept the appointment, far as it was below his hopes, rather than attempt to regain his practice after his long illness; and a severe domestic misfortune aided in procuring this decision. Arriving at Prairie du Chien in June, 1830, he found "but two or three American families in the place, except in the garrison at Fort Crawford. The major part of the inhabitants, four hundred in number, were Canadian French and half-breeds, who spoke only French with some Indian languages, all of which were to him unknown tongues." Mr. Burness was at first disappointed in ! the country, the people, and the duties of his office, but upon better acquaintance became strongly attached to them all. To the employments of his agency - the salary of which was only $500 - he was permitted to add the practice of his profession, in which he soon obtained some business, including suits prosecuted in behalf of the Government. In 1834, his connection with the Indian Agency ceased, and he devoted himself more completely to the practice of his profession. Some question having been made as to the existence of a vacancy in the office of District Judge, on account of the alleged non-residence of Judge Irwin, Mr. Burnett's appointment to the office was strongly urged upon the President; but the latter did not recognize the existence of a vacancy. In January, 1835, Mr. Burnett was appointed by Gov. Mason, of Michigan Territory, District Attorney for the counties of Crawford, Iowa, Dubuque and Des Moines; and he attended the summer terms of the courts in those counties; but finding it "inconvenient and unpleasant," tendered his resign! ation to Gov. Mason, September 10, 1835. In October following, he was elected to the Legislative Council of Michigan Territory, which was appointed to meet at Green Bay, and, on the meeting of the Council in December, he was chosen its President; but the meeting, which was of doubtful legal validity, was a practical failure. Congress was, however, memorialized at this session in favor of a speedy organization of the Territory of Wisconsin; and a memorial to the President of the United States in reference to the offices of the contemplated Territory, urged upon him the appointment of its own citizens in preference to persons from other parts of the country. As it was understood that Gen. Dodge would be appointed Governor, Mr. Burnett was urged as a suitable person for the office of Secretary. "If the Secretaryship could not be obtained," we are told, "Mr. Burnett desired a Judgeship;" that is, he desired to be appointed one of the Judges of the Supreme Court of the Territory! , and his friends in Congress, Col. Richard M. Johnson, of Kentucky, a nd Col. George W. Jones, then Delegate from Michigan Territory, and through their influence Senators Benton and Linn, of Missouri, and Senators Wright and Tallmadge, of New York, earnestly, though unsuccessfully, sought to secure his appointment to one of the two offices named. About the same period, Mr. Burnett is said to have become a member of the Four Lake Company, organized under the lead of Gov. Mason and Mr. Doty, for the purpose of laying out a city in the Four Lake region, which should become the capital of the new Territory. By the appointment of members of the First Legislative Assembly of the new Territory, as made by Gov. Dodge, upon the basis of a census taken in 1836, Crawford was allowed two members of the House of Representatives, but no member of the Council. The people of that county claimed that, under the organic act, each county was entitled to be represented in each House; and Mr. Burnett was unanimously elected by them to be a member of the Council. The full number of members authorized by law had, however, been chosen in other counties, pursuant to the Governor's appointment and proclamation, and very naturally Mr. Burnett's election was not certified by the Governor, nor was he admitted to the seat he claimed. During that session of the Legislative Assembly, Mr. Burnett was nominated by the Governor, and confirmed by the Council, as District Attorney for Crawford County, but this was done without his knowledge, and he subsequently declined the appointment, on the ground that the ! Council "was not legally organized, and that it had not therefore the lawful authority to perform any valid and binding act." This characteristic protest echoed the displeasure of Crawford County at the failure of Gov. Dodge to give them a representation in the Council. Whatever may have been the merits of their claim, it is needless to add that the objection of Mr. Burnett, if sound, would have been fatal to the validity of all acts passed by the First Legislative Assembly, which have, nevertheless, always been treated by the courts as valid. Upon the organization of the Territorial Supreme Court in December, 1836, on the motion of D. G. Fenton, Esq., Mr. Burnett was appointed as its official reporter, a position which he held until his death, some ten years later. The decisions of this court to the close of the term of 1840, were prepared by Mr. Burnett, and published in 1841 by the direction of the Legislature, as an appendix to a volume containing the acts of a regular ! and a special session of the Legislature. The decision of 1842 and 184 3 were published by Mr. Burnett in a separate volume in 1844. In 1837, he had removed from Prairie du Chien to Cassville, in Grant County, and subsequently moved to a farm in Mount Hope, on the line of the old military road from Fort Crawford to Fort Winnebago, which he had selected and embellished with taste and care for his permanent home, and to which he had given the name of "The Hermitage." Field, garden and lawn were already taking shape under his eye and hand. A dwelling of stone was planned to take the place of the comfortable log cabin, which had been erected for temporary occupancy. In the winter of 1844-45, and again the succeeding year, Mr. Burnett had served in the Territorial Legislature as a member of the House of Representatives from Grant County, and upon the election of delegates to the first Constitutional Convention in 1846, he was chosen as one of the county's representatives in that body. Mr. Burnett had been confined at his home by disease for some months before the meeting of the Convention in October, and it wa! s not until the 14th of that month that he took his seat. He was assigned a position as a member of the Committee on Corporations, where he served for about three weeks. October 25, he was recalled to his home by the intelligence of the alarming illness of his wife from typhoid fever. A wagon-ride of eighty-five miles, commenced after an exhaustive day's work, brought him to his home, only to be himself struck down with the fever. Himself, his wife and his aged mother, who had recently come from Kentucky to spend her last days with him, lay prostrated by the same disease, under the same roof and within hearing of each other. "The mother died on the 1st of November, the husband and the wife on the 5th, and on the 7th of that month, when the evening shadows fell on 'The Hermitage,' the bodies of the three reposed side by side, 'in a beautiful grave at the head of the garden,'" in a spot that the owner had chosen as the burial-place of the family. On the 10th of November, his colleague, Hon. J. Allen Barber, announced Mr. Burnett's death to the Convention. That body, thereupon, adopted resolutions of condolence, respect and sympathy, to go into mourning by wearing crape on the left arm of each member for thirty days, and adjourned over one day out of respect to the memory of their deceased brother. Mr. Burnett had acquired great prominence during his comparatively brief career. He was a worthy and valued citizen, eminently gifted, intelligent and useful. "His death created a profound and painful sensation over the entire Northwest, where he had been so well and favorably known." [I am not related to this family. I'm posting this as a service and hope it helps!]