My Genealogy Hound

HENRY BURNMASTER, now resident of Irving and an industrious and respected citizen of the county, was born in Germany, December 21, 1823, and is a son of Cort and Isabella (Bronte) Burnmaster. His paternal grandparents were natives and life-long residents of Germany. His father, Cort Burnmaster, was reared and educated in his native land, where he followed farming until his death. He married Isabella Bronte, by whom he had eight children, of whom some did not live to reach maturity.

Henry Burnmaster received his education in the common schools of Schenectady, New York, to which city he had been brought from Germany at an early age. He also learned there the trade of broom-maker, which he followed successfully for many years and at times manufactured very large quantities to meet the demand made for his brooms, which always sold well in the markets as a reliable and first-class article. In 1856 he came to Irving, where he has resided ever since. He married Ann Waite, a native of Schenectady, New York, and a daughter of Oliver Waite, a carpenter, who came from Massachusetts to Schenectady, where he married Anna Reese, by whom he had six children. To Mr. and Mrs. Burnmaster have been born nine children: Helen L., wife of Lyman Newton, of Irving; Charles, a farmer, who married Lydia Taylor; Josephine, wife of Reuben McPherson, of Marion, Ohio, where he is in the employ of a railroad company; Anna, married to W. H. Parsons, a druggist of Forestville; Mary, wife of George Parks, a merchant of Irving; Kate, married to George Sackett, a farmer; Allen, married to Agnes Gleason and in the employ of a railroad company; Henry, married to Mary Baird and likewise in the employ of a railroad company; and Cora, wife of William Bolden, a grocer of Evans Centre.

Henry Burnmaster was formerly a whig and is now a republican in politics. He at one time gave some attention to farming in the town of Hanover, where he then owned one hundred and twenty-one acres of land. He is a member of the Irving Baptist church and of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.