John Sargent Burnett
John Sargent Burnett, farmer and stock-raiser, Seldon, is a son of liobert and Susanna Burnett, who were natives of Virginia, came to Ohio in 1810, and settled for the winter on the waters of Herod's Creek, in Ross County, where they remained until the spring of 1811, when he removed to this county, and settled about half a mile east of Sugar Creek, where Henry Bush now lives, on the south side of the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad, remaining here for some two years, when he removed to a farm about one mile northwest from Jasper Station, where he remained until his death, which event occurred December 9, 1878, in the ninety-first year of his age. His wife died in 1839. He married his second wife, Catharine Caylor, in 1844, who died in 1876. By his first wife he had eleven children, six sous and five daughters. Sidney died when a young woman; Harry married, and lives in Clinton County, near Sabina; Rebecca is the wife of Jacob Mark, Esq., living near Jasper Mills; NaQroa was married, but is now dead ; Thomas married, lived in Wasliington, and died in 1870, and his widow and children still remain in the same place; Catharine, wife of Joseph Plum, lives in Washington; Elihu married and removed to the State of Iowa a few years ago ; Absalom married, and lives in Peru, Indiana; Susanna married, moved to Allen County, and died: Jesse was a twin brother to John S., and died in infancy.
The subject of our sketch was born October 21, 1817, and married Sarilda Feagins in February, 1846. She is the daughter of Richard Feagins, who is one of the pioneers of the county, being in his eighty-fifth year. He lives with Mr. and Mrs. Burnett, who now own and occupy the old homestead, where Mr. Feagins has lived for so many years. Mr. Feagins has been much of a man in his day, but now is becoming quite feeble, both in body and mind.
Mr. and Mrs. Burnett are the parents of three children, two daughters and one son. Mary Catharine married David Toops, and is a widow. They had but one child, Oliver Edwin, a sprightly lad, eleven years old, living with Mr. and Mrs. Burnett, who are much delighted with him. Richard Henry married, and lives on his father's tarm, and is without children. Susanna married Barton L. Stevenson. They live in the house with Mr. and Mrs. Burnett, and have one son, Alonzo Edgar, four years of age, a child of superior intellectual development for one of his years.
In 1849, Mr. Burnett was elected to the office of county surveyor, in which official capacity he served for fifteen years. He was elected justice of the peace for Jasper Township in 1846, and served for three years. He taught school for a number of his earlier years. Was educated at Athens, in this state, and is an intelligent, wellinformed man, being more than an average in this respect with the men of his age. He owned and lived on a farm but a few miles north of Jasper Mills most of his married life. In the year 1876 he disposed of it, and purchased his father-in-law's farm, on the east bank of Sugar Creek, in Union Township, a little north from the Cincinnati and Muskingum Valley Railroad. This farm contains one hundred and twenty-one acres of choice land. The family moved here in the spring of 1876. Mr. Burnett is a Republican in politics, a Christian gentleman, kind and affiible, and much interested in the Sunday-school, education, etc.
From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County