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DAVID S. BURTON , was born on a farm in Lawrence county, Ohio, August 22, 1822, where he remained until seventeen years of age; then ran on the river from Pittsburg to New Orleans as a hand and second mate until 1839; went into the swamps of Louisiana, where he followed rafting, boating, and running saw mills, until 1841; then he returned to Lawrence county, and farmed until October 12, 1843, at which time he married. He then went to St. Louis, Missouri, remaining a short time, then to Brookline, Illinois, (now called East St. Louis) where he chopped cordwood until 1844. His house was washed away by the overflow of the Mississippi river, and he placed his family on an island fifteen or twenty feet square; stayed there two days, when he found he must swim to the shore. He obtained a boat, went back for his family, and took them to St. Louis; then went to Alton, Illinois. He walked from Alton to Lick Creek, hired an ox team and sent for his family at Alton. He lived in a house of William Shelton, on Lick Creek, six months, then followed farming one year, moving to Calhoun county, and settled on the river bank, where he sold cord-wood to steamboats, and made two hundred and twenty-five thousand staves. He then came to Sangamon county. On August 22, 1862, he entered in Company I, Seventy-third Illinois Infantry Volunteers, and served as Corporal and wagon master, and was made brigade wagon-master in Sheridan's Division. He made his first trip to Mission Ridge with supplies and ammunition just as Bragg left. He saw Joe Hooker go up the mountain, also saw the big siege gun thrown over the bluff, and the surrender. He was captured at Stephenson, Alabama, where he was kept on short rations five days, then ran over the mountain to McMenville and was there paroled; he reported to the Union army at Nashville, where he was kept in the Zollicoffer House eighteen days. He was sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he took three hundred sick mules up the valley and kept them one winter; was then discharge on account of sickness. He returned to Sangamon county, where he remained until 1869, then sold his farm of two hundred and five acres. He is at present living on his farm of two hundred and forty acres.

His wife was born in Cabell county, Virginia; daughter of James Tharp, of the same State. He is a farmer and was in the War of 1812; he is in his ninety-first year, a lively old gentleman. His wife, Elizabeth Jenkins, was the mother of ten children. She was a member of the M. E. Church, and died in 1875.