John Sinsel Burdett

Burdett, a Taylor County native, served in the Richmond Convention, and voted against secession from the Union.

He was a delegate to the First and Second Wheeling Conventions, and later enlisted in the Union Army.

After the war, Burdett served in the West Virginia State Senate, and in 1870, was elected State Treasurer.

Member of the Virginia Convention of 1861; son of Frederick Burdett and Susan Sinsell Burdett.

aka John Sinsell Burdette (both spellings appear throughout this family line)

http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=blb41_66&...

Photo from: http://www.wvculture.org/history/statehood/images/burdettjohn.html

-Photo added by: Crystal 2/01/2011 to Find A Grave Memorial# 18756458

Member of the Virginia Convention of 1861; son of Frederick Burdett and Susan Sinsel Burdett.

{His photos are available at the WV State Archives and the WVU Library.}

Prominent Men of West Virginia (1890), pp. 677-679:
[JOHN SINSELL BURDETT.
THE writer of this sketch knew Captain Burdett in Taylor and Harrison counties during the antebellum days, and knew him as a stirring, stern, uncompromising friend or enemy. He finds him still the same, now at the other shore of three-score and ten. He doubtless will last many years yet, and the English John Bull blood of his father, with the phlegmatic German of his mother, will always cause him to be feared by enemies and revered by friends. His whole history has been the same, whether on the hustings, in partisan warfare, in party· policies or in State councils-always the same blunt, straightforward, bold, defiant man-too much so, from a modern standpoint, for political advancement. His public life proves this, for he might have been greater had he been truculent. Our mountains have produced many such, but very few aggressive and persevering enough to stem the tide on to his success. From an humble clerk to legislative halls is no mean record.
Captain Burdett was born in Harrison county, Virginia, December 20, 1818. His boyhood was spent in attending the winter sessions of the pioneer school and clerking in his father's store at Pruntytown-the father having come to the county barefoot, but by industry and integrity amassed a handsome competence. By close observation and night study John fitted himself for the active life of usefulness he has lived. Deeming his section of Harrison entitled to form a county, he surveyed the lines and formulated the petition which resulted in the organization of Taylor county out of a part of Harrison. In 1844, at the age of 26, his follow-countrymen sent him to represent them in the State Legislature, and his first term wa8 so satisfactory that they returned him to the same duty six after sessions. By appointment he was census taker of Taylor county in 1850, and was Public Administrator and Special ·commissioner. He succeeded his father and continued a merchant, in connection with other business, for several years.
When the dark days of the Republic approached, he foresaw the inevitable-war, bloody war, or a disseverance of the States of the Union. While so-called statesmen were shading their eyes to the issue, Captain Burdett leaped at once to the conclusion and took a stand in grim determination to hold to the Union or die with it. The old Commonwealth was in painful labor, and he strove manfully that she should not bring forth dishonor. Elected a member of the Constitutional Convention at Richmond, in 1860-'61-the same body that passed the ordinance separating the State from the Union-he was one of the fifty-six members who voted steadily against every phase of secession offered. Hisses, hootings, the rabble yell and the mob's threats were alike unheeded, as he stood unflinchingly by what he considered a patriotic duty to the whole Government.
Returning to his home, he made unceasing and successful resistance to the secession ordinance. He took an active part in restoring the government of Virginia under the Federal Union; also in the formation of the new State of West Virginia. He proved his patriotism by four year's service in the Union Anny of the Potomac, ending with Lee's surrender, having been commissioned by President Lincoln, and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate, a Captain and Commissary of Subsistence.
After victorious peace had consummated his fondest hopes he returned to his native hills, and his people continued his public service by electing him to the Senate of West Virginia from the district composed of the counties of Monongalia, Preston and Taylor, he receiving the unprecedented majority of 1,200 votes. He was in the National Republican Convention at Philadelphia in 1868 that nominated General Grant.
Captain Burdett moved to Charleston, Kanawha county, in 1868, and was elected by nearly 20,000 majority State Treasurer of West Virginia, serving from March 4, 1871, to 1875, and reelected for a second term.
In 1888, at the age of seventy, he was made President of the Harrison and Morton Club of Charleston, and at the last meeting of the Republican National League, in Baltimore, was appointed the member of its National Executive Committee from West Virginia.
The Captain has been active and influential from 1840 to 1889, and appears good for the campaign of 1892. He says he "expects to die in the harness of 'protection to American industries' and the promotion of the best interests of the grandest country and government ever vouchsafed to man." He says he has witnessed the Presidential inauguration of two Harrisons and hopes to attend the third in 1892.
Captain Burdett married, in July, 1845, Abby Ann Johnson, daughter of Col. William Johnson, of Bridgeport, Harrison county, West Virginia, and sister of Ex-United States Senator Waldo P. Johnson, of Missouri.
The father of the subject of this sketch was Frederick Burdett, a native of Fauquier county, Virginia. His mother, whose maiden name was Susan Sinsell, was a native of the same county. The grandfather was from England and the grandmother from Germany, both of whom emigrated to the American colonies at an early day, before the Revolutionary War.]

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 20 2022, 14:41:34 UTC