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biography from Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
LEONARD BURTON, deceased, was born in Virginia in 1816, and was a son of Joshua and Phoebe Burton, the former being a native of Maryland and the latter of Pennsylvania. Of the early life of the subject of this sketch but little is known, save that he was a farmer's boy and, like many others, received but a limited education, but was accustomed to hard work. In 1852 he came to Mahaska County and located on section 34, Garfield Township, where he lived until the spring of 1864, when he sold out and bought 160 acres on section 10, Des Moines Township, where he lived until his decease, which occurred Feb. 20, 1880. At the time of his death he was owner of 208 acres of fine land. In 1839 he was married to Susan Mercer, a native of Fayette County, Pa., daughter of Moses and Elizabeth (Wallace) Mercer, who were also natives of that State. They had a family of ten children, five dying in infancy. The others were: Eliza J., now the wife of William Hait, of Des Moines Township; James Clark, who enlisted in the 3d Iowa Infantry during the war of the Rebellion and died in hospital at Mexico, Mo., and was there buried; Matilda, now the wife of W. H. Downing, of Des Moines Township; Thomas S., who served two years in the 4th Iowa Battery, and now resides in Lyle, Minn.; Jesse M., who died in 1863, aged twelve years. Mr. Burton was a regular ordained minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, receiving his ordination in 1850. While carrying on his farm he never neglected to preach the Gospel as opportunity offered. All over this county, as well as in the neighboring counties, he has preached Christ and Him crucified in almost every school-house. Politically in early life he was a Whig, afterward a Republican, and later in life a Greenbacker. He was a strict temperance man, and was among the first to advocate prohibition. His widow still resides on the old homestead and carries on the farm. She is an intelligent woman and much respected by all.
Portrait & Biographical Album of Mahaska Co., Iowa, 1887
Mahaska County, Iowa Genealogy