William Eden Burrowes
The late William Eden Burrowes, who died at his home in Bath township on April 10, 1916, was a native son of Greene county and had spent all his life here. He had lived to bring his farm of three hundred and forty-six acres up to an excellent state of cultivation and had there one of the finest farm residences and farm plants in the northern part of the county. That farm is now included in the great Wright aviation field created in the vicinity of Fairfield by the government for the training of aviators following the declaration of war against Germany in the spring of 1917, and when the Burrowes farm was taken over for that purpose the farm residence and farm buildings were razed. Since selling the farm Mrs. Burrowes, widow of the subject of this memorial sketch, has been making her home at Osborn, but is again confronted by the probability of having her home taken through the operation of the flood-prevention project.
William Eden Burrowes was born in Fairfield on October 8, 1854, son of Joseph and Lydia (Winters) Burrowes, the former of whom was a merchant in Fairfield at that time, as well as a landowner in that vicinity. Reared in the village, William E. Burrowes received his schooling there and early turned his attention to farming, becoming in time the owner of the farm above referred to and on which he spent his last days. He was a Republican, and for years served the public as trustee of his home township. He was a member of the Reformed church, as is his widow. On May 18, 1896, William Eden Burrowes was united in marriage to Clara B. Williamson, who also was born in this county, daughter of James and Mary (Brown) Williamson, the former of whom also was born in this county and the latter, at Troy, in the neighboring county of Miami. James Williamson was born at Osborn, a son of James and Jane Williamson, natives of Pennsylvania and early residents in the northern part of Greene county, and he became a farmer in Bath township, he and his wife rearing there a family of seven children, of whom Mrs. Burrowes was the third in order of birth, the others being as follows : Charles, now deceased; Dr. William P. Williamson, a physician at Troy, Ohio; Ocy, who died in youth; Ida, deceased; Edgar, deceased, and Effie, a resident of Piqua, where she is engaged as a teacher in the city schools. To Mr. and Mrs. Burrowes were born seven children: Earle W., a farmer and stockman at Osborn; one who died in infancy; Nellie B., now Mrs. Paul Whaley, of Columbus; Mary W., now Mrs. Frost Dille, of New Carlisle; Joseph A., at home with his mother; Grace, at home with her mother; and James E., at Dayton. There are four grandchildren.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A.Broadstone, editor. B.F.Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918