Los Angeles County
Biographies
JOHN ARTHUR BURTON
BURTON, JOHN ARTHUR, Railroad Constructor, Los Angeles, California, was born in Peshtigo, Wisconsin, November 11, 1868, the son of Benjamin Burton and Isabella (McDonald) Burton. His parents were natives of the eastern part of what was at the time known as Upper Canada. His mother and father were of Scotch descent, the latter also having a strain of hardy Irish blood.
Mr. Burton was reared in Alexandria, Ontario, and graduated from its High School at the age of sixteen years. Immediately thereafter he obtained a position as clerk in the Alexandria Post- office and branch of the Government Savings Bank. While at school Mr. Burton had spent his spare evening hours at the local telegraph office and there mastered the key, becoming an expert telegrapher while yet in his teens. This proved of great help to him when he began his business career, for at the end of a year he was Chief Postoffice Clerk, Chief of the Savings Bank Department and in charge of the Government telegraph office.
While working for the Government he had attracted the attention of local business men and when he resigned, because of ill health, Mr. Burton was offered an opportunity to go into the banking business, but he was obliged to decline it, and, on advice of his physician, sought out-of-door employment.
Leaving home in October, 1886, Mr. Burton became a timekeeper on the Santa Fe Railroad, then building in Oklahoma, and later went to Colorado, following the same line of work. He took a course in a commercial college at Topeka, Kas., and graduated therefrom at the head of a large class in 1889. In that same year he was taken to San Francisco, California, by A. A. Grant, the famous railroad builder, and placed in charge of the latter’s business there. He remained with Mr. Grant in charge of his business and in a confidential capacity until the latter died in 1901.
Mr. Burton was an executor of Mr. Grant’s will and for years a trustee of his estate, and was, under court appointment, the receiver for the California & Nevada Railroad, which, under his receivership, was finally sold to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad Company.
In 1903 the well-known pioneer firm of Grant Brothers, railroad builders, which had brought more than one transcontinental line across the rough Western plains and mountains, was incorporated under the title of Grant Brothers Construction Company. An interest in the corporation was tendered Mr. Burton and upon his acceptance he was elected a Director and Secretary of the company, both of which offices he has retained.
Mr. Burton has under his direction the financial end of the business of the construction company, which runs into millions of dollars annually. During a large portion of the work in Mexico, Mr. Burton was at the front and organized the numerous offices which had to be operated in connection with this extensive work.
Upon becoming connected with Grant Brothers’ Construction Company, Mr. Burton moved his home from San Francisco to Los Angeles. He has always had great confidence in the future of Southern California generally, and in Los Angeles in particular, and as illustrative of his convictions he has built a handsome residence there and invested heavily in real estate and other substantial fields.
Mr. Burton has been a worker all of his life, his prominence in his chosen field is due to his untiring energy, indefatigable industry and his persistent desire to do his work well. He is essentially a home lover, and his chief pleasure lies in the society of his wife and children.
He is a member of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce, the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the Elks.
Transcribed 7-7-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 315,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES