Placer
County
Biographies
SAMUEL B. BURT
An enumeration of those men of the
present generation who have won honor and public recognition for themselves,
and at the same time have honored the state to which they belong, would be
incomplete were the failure to make prominent reference to the one whose name
appears above. A native of New York,
Samuel Blane Burt was born in Corning, Steuben
County, on the 16th of September, 1828. At an early date in the history of
Springfield, Massachusetts, his ancestors, natives of England, located there,
the progenitor of the family in the new world being Henry Burt. He took up his abode in Springfield in 1638,
and served as one of the selectmen of the town.
Our subject is a representative of the eighth generation of his
descendants. The great-grandfather, Benjamin
Burt, became one of the pioneers of Orange County, New York, where occurred the
birth of Belden Burt, the grandfather.
Benjamin Burt, our subject’s father, was also born in that county, and
when he had reached man’s estate he married Miss Dorcas Ackerson, a native of
that locality and a descendant of one of the prominent Knickerbocker families
of the Empire state. They were Baptists
in religious faith and were industrious farming people. They became the parents of eleven children,
only four of whom now survive. Both the
father and mother died in their seventy-eighth year. Belden Burt, their eldest surviving child,
now resides in Riverside, California.
Samuel B. Burt, the next in the
family, was educated in Alfred College, near Allegany, New York. During his youth he remained on his father’s
farm assisting in the work of field and meadow with the exception of the time
passed in school. At the age of
seventeen years he began teaching and followed that profession for three years
ere his emigration to California. The
year 1850 witnessed his arrival on the Pacific coast. He sailed from New York on the steamship
Georgia and after traveling on foot across the Isthmus of Panama he took
passage on the steamship Columbus, bound for San Francisco. On the 7th of June he arrived at
the Golden Gate and thence made his way to the Sacramento River and by steamer
to the city of Sacramento, going afterward to Salmon Falls, in El Dorado
County, with a company of twenty who had a claim in the riverbed. There he engaged in placer mining for about a
month and by the 1st of October had taken out one thousand dollars,
his companions being equally successful.
He then came to Placer County and located a mining claim seven miles
below the town of Auburn, near where the Loomis is now mined. There he engaged in a search for the precious
metal for a short time with fair success, after which he joined others in the
building of a sawmill and began the manufacture of lumber, which at that time
was worth two hundred and fifty dollars per thousand feet. The enterprise had hardly been started,
however, before the price dropped to twenty-five dollars. Mr. Burt continued the operation of his mill
for eight years and then went to Bath, where he engaged in merchandising for
fourteen years. On the expiration of
that period his building and its contents were destroyed by fire, the loss
amounting to twenty thousand dollars.
After this disaster he turned his attention to quartz mining at Bath,
but the new venture proved unprofitable, although he is still the owner of the
mine, which has since produced about one hundred thousand dollars.
Mr. Burt’s fellow citizens,
recognizing his worth and ability, called him to public office and he was
elected a member of the board of supervisors for Placer County. His course there was so commendable that in
1873 he was elected a member of the state assembly, and was later chosen to
represent his district in the state constitutional convention, where he
assisted in formulating the present organic law of California. Subsequently he was chosen by popular
suffrage for the office of state senator, in which capacity he served two
years, ably representing his district.
An incident worthy of mention in connection with his election is that he
made no canvass for the office and did not spend one dollar in treating, something
unusual in California. As a legislator
he gave close and earnest study to every question which came up for
consideration, and when his mature judgment sanctioned a measure he earnestly labored
for its adoption.
Tiring of public life, he again
turned to general merchandising, opening a store in Auburn, which he has since
successfully conducted. His honorable
business methods, his reasonable prices and unselfish dealing have secured him success,
yet he has met many obstacles. On the 20th
of September, 1898, two of his warehouses were destroyed by fire, entailing a
loss of five thousand dollars. He is a
man of marked perseverance and courageous spirit, however, and these qualities
have enabled him to work his way steadily upward.
In 1874 occurred the marriage of Mr.
Burt and Miss Ruth Augusta Eastman, a native of New Hampshire. Their union has been blessed with one
daughter, Sarah Willis, who is now in school.
They have one of the pleasantest homes in Auburn and are among the most
respected and prominent citizens of that place.
He has ever been a stalwart Republican since casting his first
presidential vote for John C. Fremont, and in political circles he has attained
prominence, which is a merited recognition of his ability. He has long been recognized as a leader in
public thought and opinion and his influence in the legislature of the state
has been beneficial. He has a wide
acquaintance among the most prominent men of California and is held in the
highest regard. After a pure, honorable
and useful life, actuated by unselfish methods, prompted by patriotism and
guided by truth and justice, he may, in the evening of life, rest assured that
the people of his county are not unmindful of those who have devoted themselves
to its interests.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 137-139. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.