and and Mahoning Valley railroad. He is also interested in the Hocking valley coal-lands, and purchased for their owners the three railroads car- rying coal from that field in June, 1881, and in 1885 the Ohio Central railroad.
BURKE, Thomas, governor of North Carolina,
b. in Ireland about 1747 ; d. in Hillsborough, N. C,
2 Dec, 1783. He left Ireland about 17(54, and lived
for some years in Aceomac co., Va., engaged in the
study and practice of medicine. He next studied
law, began practice in Norfolk, and in 1774 re-
moved to Hillsborough, N. C. Of a bold and im-
petuous temper, a ready writer and speaker, he be-
came one of the leading spirits in the revolutionary
contest. While he was in Virginia, his writings in
opposition to the stamp-act had brought him into
notice ; and he had a large share in the formation
of the constitution of North Carolina. He was a
member of the provincial congress at Halifax in
1776, and a volunteer at the battle of Brandywine.
He was a member of congress from December, 1776,
until 1781, when he was chosen first governor of
North Carolina under the new constitution. In
September of thkt year he was surprised and seized
by the tories, and retained at James island, S. C,
as a prisoner on parole. Obnoxious to the tories
from his previous course, he was in daily apprehen-
sion of assassination, to escape which, after endeav-
oring unsuccessfully to obtain an exchange or a
parole to some other state, he effected his escape in
the night of 16 Jan., 1782, after an imprisonment
of four months. In a letter to Gen. Leslie, Burke
gave his reasons for withdrawing, and said that he
still considered himself subject to the disposal of
the British authorities. He was regularly ex-
changed soon afterward, and resumed his duties as
governor, but was defeated the following year,
when a candidate for re-election, it being urged
that he had violated his parole.
BURLEIGH, William Henry, journalist, b.
in Woodstock, Conn., 2 Feb., 1812; d. in Brooklyn,
N. Y., 18 March, 1871. He was a lineal
descendant, on his mother's side, of Gov. Bradford.
His father, a graduate of Yale in 1803, had been a
popular and successful teacher, but in 1827 became
totally blind. William, who had been bred on a
farm and educated principally by his father, was
now apprenticed to a clothier and afterward to a
village printer. He contributed to the columns of
the newspaper it was a part of his duty to print,
not in written communications, but by setting up
his articles without the intervention of writing.
From the autumn of 1832 till 1835 he was almost
constantly engaged in editorial duties and in charge
of papers advocating one or all of the great reforms
then agitating the public mind — anti-slavery,
temperance, and peace. Though naturally one of the
most genial and amiable of men, Mr. Burleigh was
stern in his adherence to principle. In 1836 he
added to his editorial duties the labor of lecturing
in behalf of the American anti-slavery society, and
defending their views. For a time he had charge
of the “Literary Journal” in Schenectady, then
became in 1837 editor of the Pittsburg “Temperance
Banner,” afterward called the “Christian Witness,”
the organ of the western Pennsylvania anti-slavery
society. In 1843 he was invited to Hartford by the
executive committee of the Connecticut anti-slavery
society, and took charge of its organ, the “Christian
Freeman,” which soon became the “Charter
Oak,” a vigorously edited and brilliant defender of
the anti-slavery and temperance reforms. Mr.
Burleigh afterward took charge of the Washington
“Banner.” He struck trenchant blows at popular
vices and political depravity in his papers, and
received
his reward more than once in mob violence.
But while he deemed this heroic defence of
unpopular doctrines a duty, and maintained it with
unfaltering heart, he disliked controversy, and,
whenever he could command the means for it, he
would establish a purely literary paper, which,
though generally short-lived, always contained
gems of poetry and prose from his prolific pen, and
avoided controversial topics. In 1850 he disposed
of the “Charter Oak” to the free-soilers, the
nucleus of the republican party, and removed to Syracuse,
and subsequently to Albany, N. Y., to be the
general agent and lecturer of the New York state
temperance society and editor of the “Prohibitionist.”
When in 1855 Gov. Clark offered him,
unsolicited, the place of harbor-master of the port of
New York, he accepted it and removed to Brooklyn.
For the next fifteen years he was either
harbor-master or port-warden, but found time for
much literary and some political labor. In the
political campaigns he was in demand as a speaker,
and his thorough knowledge of all the questions
before the people, together with his eloquence,
made him popular. He was also in request as a
lyceum lecturer, especially on anti-slavery
subjects. A collection of his poems was published in
1841, followed by enlarged editions in 1845 and
1850. A part of these were after his death
published, with a memoir by his widow (Boston, 1871).
— His wife, Celia, reformer, b. in Cazenovia, N.
Y., in 1825; d. in Syracuse, 26 July, 1875. She
was a teacher, and in 1844 married C. B. Kellum
and removed with him to Cincinnati. She was
divorced from him, and in 1851 married Charles
Chauncy Burr; was again divorced, and in 1865
married Mr. Burleigh. She was the first president
of the Woman's club, Brooklyn, and took an active
part in advocating woman suffrage and other re-
form movements. After Mr. Burleigh's death she
prepared herself for the ministry, and was pastor
of a Unitarian church in Brooklyn, Conn., until
1873; but failing health compelled her to resign in
October, 1871, when she went to the water-cure
establishment of Dr. Jackson in Danville, N. Y.
Mrs. Burleigh had a wide reputation as an able
writer and an eloquent speaker. — His brother,
Charles C., abolitionist, b. in Plainfield, Conn.,
10 Nov., 1810; d. in Florence, Mass., 14 June, 1878.
He studied law, and was admitted to the bar of
Windham co., Conn., but soon became interested in
the anti-slavery movement, in which he attained
high distinction as an orator and an earnest worker.
He, with his brother, edited an abolitionist
newspaper called “The Unionist,” the publisher being
Miss Prudence Crandall (q. v.) who was indicted
for keeping a colored school in Connecticut. He
rendered efficient service to Mr. Garrison in Boston
in protecting him from the violence of the mob in
1835, and was one of the speakers in Pennsylvania
hall, in Philadelphia, when that building was
burned by a mob in 1838. He was one of the earliest
advocates of women's rights and of liberalism in
religion, as he was also of temperance principles, in
behalf of which he spoke frequently. For fifteen
years he was resident speaker of the free Congregational
society in Florence, Mass., and for one year
preached in Bloomington, Ill. He was the author of
“Thoughts on the Death Penalty” (1845), and a
tract on the Sabbath, which advanced anti-Sabbatarian
views.
BURLEY, Bennett G., Confederate naval officer. On 19 Sept., 1864, assisted by Capt. Bell and others, he captured the steamer “Philo Parsons,” plying between Detroit and Sandusky, when about two miles from Kelly's island, off the Ohio coast.
