John Burnett was a lifelong resident of Greenwood Township, the second generation owner of the Burnett farm. He served as supervisor of Greenwood Township in 1925-1927, 1928-1929, 1930-1935. He ran for Clare County Sheriff in 1930.
A Tribute to John Burnett, Sr.
By: Claudia Allen (1977)
Last month Harrison lost a fine citizen when John Burnett, Sr., passed away. I intended to write a "Cleaver" profile detailing his life and contribution to this area as farmer and friend, but unfortunately he died before it was completed. I wish he had lived to read it. Mr. Burnett passed his life without fanfare, but I think that he deserved a great deal, so I have gone ahead and written a profile of the late John Burnett, Sr., a tribute to a gentle man of the earth.
John Burnett, born on a farm outside of Harrison in 1894, dedicated – with the steady help and companionship of his wife of over sixty years – his whole life to farming. A man of earthly wisdom and well chosen words who saw mighty changes in his country and in Harrison during the course of his lifetime. No one could tell you of his life and opinions better than John Burnett himself, and he did in a conversation we had late last summer.
"I always wanted to be a farmer out in the open. I didn't like it inside.
"My dad came here in – oh – around 1890. He bought this place when he came here, and we kept in down on through. When they came here, there was a log house here. Everything was woods in them days. My people cleared this out – about eighty acres of clearing. There are a hundred and twenty acres all together.
"All this country through here was farmin' land. Across the road there where all this brush and trees and stuff has come up, they raised corn and wheat and oats. Over there. The woods has come right back in.
"We sold butter and eggs in town to buy our groceries. My folks before us did the same thing. I went with mother downtown when I was wearing kneebritches when we delivered butter in a crock down to Will Wilsons' – that's that old Wilson place down to the lake. We furnished them with butter for years.
"Dad pulled stumps, big pine stumps, to make a street for Harrison. He'd load 'em up with dynamite and burn 'em up to make streets for people to walk on.
"I remember that flu epidemic of 1918. My mother was still alive then, and by golly she didn't get it. She took care of the chores. She took quinine. That was her remedy.
"We used to go to the movies a lot. We used to go to Clare and Marion once in a while, and we used to go down here when Ollie Hallet had her theater. She had the first one in town. It was up there near where the printing office is. It was a big ole store building that they fixed over for a theater.
"There's been a lot of different new angles, not only in movies and radio and television, but also in the formin' deal. These last hundred years have seen a powerful lot of changes. You're goin' from hand labor to mechanized labor, that's what you're doin'. I told Ma, we've lived through some of the biggest changes that ever took place. It was a good time. We got to see a lot.
"I can remember before when they cut all this grain by hand – cardled it. I've raked behind a cradler. The guy with a cradle would lay down the swath, and another guy with a rake would roll 'em up and tie 'em up with a band. One man with a combine does it all now. I often wonder what they'd do if they had to drop back to that way all of a sudden. They wouldn't know what to do. They'd just be pretty near stuck.
" I liked the old wood stoves. If I could still cut wood, that's what I'd use. But I can't do it, and I can't get Ma to do it.
"We got electricity in '45 and now if the power goes off I couldn't even get a drink of water, because there ain't no way of pumpin' that thing by hand no more. We depend on a buncha gadgets. I think it was the wrong thing to do. Suppose you get a bad storm that'd knock the thing out, and it took 'em a moth to repair it. What would people do? People wouldn't know how to get along. Back then, before we got electricity, we didn't have no power, and we had everything."
John Burnett, Sr., a gentle man of great strength, courage, moral principles, and vision personified the pioneer spirit that made this country and Harrison great.
Article published in 'Clare County Cleaver'
A Tribute to John Burnett, Sr.
By: Claudia Allen (1977)
Last month Harrison lost a fine citizen when John Burnett, Sr., passed away. I intended to write a "Cleaver" profile detailing his life and contribution to this area as farmer and friend, but unfortunately he died before it was completed. I wish he had lived to read it. Mr. Burnett passed his life without fanfare, but I think that he deserved a great deal, so I have gone ahead and written a profile of the late John Burnett, Sr., a tribute to a gentle man of the earth.
John Burnett, born on a farm outside of Harrison in 1894, dedicated – with the steady help and companionship of his wife of over sixty years – his whole life to farming. A man of earthly wisdom and well chosen words who saw mighty changes in his country and in Harrison during the course of his lifetime. No one could tell you of his life and opinions better than John Burnett himself, and he did in a conversation we had late last summer.
"I always wanted to be a farmer out in the open. I didn't like it inside.
"My dad came here in – oh – around 1890. He bought this place when he came here, and we kept in down on through. When they came here, there was a log house here. Everything was woods in them days. My people cleared this out – about eighty acres of clearing. There are a hundred and twenty acres all together.
"All this country through here was farmin' land. Across the road there where all this brush and trees and stuff has come up, they raised corn and wheat and oats. Over there. The woods has come right back in.
"We sold butter and eggs in town to buy our groceries. My folks before us did the same thing. I went with mother downtown when I was wearing kneebritches when we delivered butter in a crock down to Will Wilsons' – that's that old Wilson place down to the lake. We furnished them with butter for years.
"Dad pulled stumps, big pine stumps, to make a street for Harrison. He'd load 'em up with dynamite and burn 'em up to make streets for people to walk on.
"I remember that flu epidemic of 1918. My mother was still alive then, and by golly she didn't get it. She took care of the chores. She took quinine. That was her remedy.
"We used to go to the movies a lot. We used to go to Clare and Marion once in a while, and we used to go down here when Ollie Hallet had her theater. She had the first one in town. It was up there near where the printing office is. It was a big ole store building that they fixed over for a theater.
"There's been a lot of different new angles, not only in movies and radio and television, but also in the formin' deal. These last hundred years have seen a powerful lot of changes. You're goin' from hand labor to mechanized labor, that's what you're doin'. I told Ma, we've lived through some of the biggest changes that ever took place. It was a good time. We got to see a lot.
"I can remember before when they cut all this grain by hand – cardled it. I've raked behind a cradler. The guy with a cradle would lay down the swath, and another guy with a rake would roll 'em up and tie 'em up with a band. One man with a combine does it all now. I often wonder what they'd do if they had to drop back to that way all of a sudden. They wouldn't know what to do. They'd just be pretty near stuck.
" I liked the old wood stoves. If I could still cut wood, that's what I'd use. But I can't do it, and I can't get Ma to do it.
"We got electricity in '45 and now if the power goes off I couldn't even get a drink of water, because there ain't no way of pumpin' that thing by hand no more. We depend on a buncha gadgets. I think it was the wrong thing to do. Suppose you get a bad storm that'd knock the thing out, and it took 'em a moth to repair it. What would people do? People wouldn't know how to get along. Back then, before we got electricity, we didn't have no power, and we had everything."
John Burnett, Sr., a gentle man of great strength, courage, moral principles, and vision personified the pioneer spirit that made this country and Harrison great.
Article published in 'Clare County Cleaver'
John Burnett was a lifelong resident of Greenwood Township, the second generation owner of the Burnett farm. He served as supervisor of Greenwood Township in 1925-1927, 1928-1929, 1930-1935. He ran for Clare County Sheriff in 1930.
A Tribute to John Burnett, Sr.
By: Claudia Allen (1977)
Last month Harrison lost a fine citizen when John Burnett, Sr., passed away. I intended to write a "Cleaver" profile detailing his life and contribution to this area as farmer and friend, but unfortunately he died before it was completed. I wish he had lived to read it. Mr. Burnett passed his life without fanfare, but I think that he deserved a great deal, so I have gone ahead and written a profile of the late John Burnett, Sr., a tribute to a gentle man of the earth.
John Burnett, born on a farm outside of Harrison in 1894, dedicated – with the steady help and companionship of his wife of over sixty years – his whole life to farming. A man of earthly wisdom and well chosen words who saw mighty changes in his country and in Harrison during the course of his lifetime. No one could tell you of his life and opinions better than John Burnett himself, and he did in a conversation we had late last summer.
"I always wanted to be a farmer out in the open. I didn't like it inside.
"My dad came here in – oh – around 1890. He bought this place when he came here, and we kept in down on through. When they came here, there was a log house here. Everything was woods in them days. My people cleared this out – about eighty acres of clearing. There are a hundred and twenty acres all together.
"All this country through here was farmin' land. Across the road there where all this brush and trees and stuff has come up, they raised corn and wheat and oats. Over there. The woods has come right back in.
"We sold butter and eggs in town to buy our groceries. My folks before us did the same thing. I went with mother downtown when I was wearing kneebritches when we delivered butter in a crock down to Will Wilsons' – that's that old Wilson place down to the lake. We furnished them with butter for years.
"Dad pulled stumps, big pine stumps, to make a street for Harrison. He'd load 'em up with dynamite and burn 'em up to make streets for people to walk on.
"I remember that flu epidemic of 1918. My mother was still alive then, and by golly she didn't get it. She took care of the chores. She took quinine. That was her remedy.
"We used to go to the movies a lot. We used to go to Clare and Marion once in a while, and we used to go down here when Ollie Hallet had her theater. She had the first one in town. It was up there near where the printing office is. It was a big ole store building that they fixed over for a theater.
"There's been a lot of different new angles, not only in movies and radio and television, but also in the formin' deal. These last hundred years have seen a powerful lot of changes. You're goin' from hand labor to mechanized labor, that's what you're doin'. I told Ma, we've lived through some of the biggest changes that ever took place. It was a good time. We got to see a lot.
"I can remember before when they cut all this grain by hand – cardled it. I've raked behind a cradler. The guy with a cradle would lay down the swath, and another guy with a rake would roll 'em up and tie 'em up with a band. One man with a combine does it all now. I often wonder what they'd do if they had to drop back to that way all of a sudden. They wouldn't know what to do. They'd just be pretty near stuck.
" I liked the old wood stoves. If I could still cut wood, that's what I'd use. But I can't do it, and I can't get Ma to do it.
"We got electricity in '45 and now if the power goes off I couldn't even get a drink of water, because there ain't no way of pumpin' that thing by hand no more. We depend on a buncha gadgets. I think it was the wrong thing to do. Suppose you get a bad storm that'd knock the thing out, and it took 'em a moth to repair it. What would people do? People wouldn't know how to get along. Back then, before we got electricity, we didn't have no power, and we had everything."
John Burnett, Sr., a gentle man of great strength, courage, moral principles, and vision personified the pioneer spirit that made this country and Harrison great.
Article published in 'Clare County Cleaver'
A Tribute to John Burnett, Sr.
By: Claudia Allen (1977)
Last month Harrison lost a fine citizen when John Burnett, Sr., passed away. I intended to write a "Cleaver" profile detailing his life and contribution to this area as farmer and friend, but unfortunately he died before it was completed. I wish he had lived to read it. Mr. Burnett passed his life without fanfare, but I think that he deserved a great deal, so I have gone ahead and written a profile of the late John Burnett, Sr., a tribute to a gentle man of the earth.
John Burnett, born on a farm outside of Harrison in 1894, dedicated – with the steady help and companionship of his wife of over sixty years – his whole life to farming. A man of earthly wisdom and well chosen words who saw mighty changes in his country and in Harrison during the course of his lifetime. No one could tell you of his life and opinions better than John Burnett himself, and he did in a conversation we had late last summer.
"I always wanted to be a farmer out in the open. I didn't like it inside.
"My dad came here in – oh – around 1890. He bought this place when he came here, and we kept in down on through. When they came here, there was a log house here. Everything was woods in them days. My people cleared this out – about eighty acres of clearing. There are a hundred and twenty acres all together.
"All this country through here was farmin' land. Across the road there where all this brush and trees and stuff has come up, they raised corn and wheat and oats. Over there. The woods has come right back in.
"We sold butter and eggs in town to buy our groceries. My folks before us did the same thing. I went with mother downtown when I was wearing kneebritches when we delivered butter in a crock down to Will Wilsons' – that's that old Wilson place down to the lake. We furnished them with butter for years.
"Dad pulled stumps, big pine stumps, to make a street for Harrison. He'd load 'em up with dynamite and burn 'em up to make streets for people to walk on.
"I remember that flu epidemic of 1918. My mother was still alive then, and by golly she didn't get it. She took care of the chores. She took quinine. That was her remedy.
"We used to go to the movies a lot. We used to go to Clare and Marion once in a while, and we used to go down here when Ollie Hallet had her theater. She had the first one in town. It was up there near where the printing office is. It was a big ole store building that they fixed over for a theater.
"There's been a lot of different new angles, not only in movies and radio and television, but also in the formin' deal. These last hundred years have seen a powerful lot of changes. You're goin' from hand labor to mechanized labor, that's what you're doin'. I told Ma, we've lived through some of the biggest changes that ever took place. It was a good time. We got to see a lot.
"I can remember before when they cut all this grain by hand – cardled it. I've raked behind a cradler. The guy with a cradle would lay down the swath, and another guy with a rake would roll 'em up and tie 'em up with a band. One man with a combine does it all now. I often wonder what they'd do if they had to drop back to that way all of a sudden. They wouldn't know what to do. They'd just be pretty near stuck.
" I liked the old wood stoves. If I could still cut wood, that's what I'd use. But I can't do it, and I can't get Ma to do it.
"We got electricity in '45 and now if the power goes off I couldn't even get a drink of water, because there ain't no way of pumpin' that thing by hand no more. We depend on a buncha gadgets. I think it was the wrong thing to do. Suppose you get a bad storm that'd knock the thing out, and it took 'em a moth to repair it. What would people do? People wouldn't know how to get along. Back then, before we got electricity, we didn't have no power, and we had everything."
John Burnett, Sr., a gentle man of great strength, courage, moral principles, and vision personified the pioneer spirit that made this country and Harrison great.
Article published in 'Clare County Cleaver'
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Explore more
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
