William Burnley    

WILLIAM BURNLEY. Among those who stand as distinguished types of the world’s workers and who have introduced new eras of thought by inventions of great utility is recorded the name of William Burnley, the proprietor of a large establishment at North East, for the manufacture of the articles of his invention. He is a native of old England, born at Echelshill, Bradford, December 22, 1845, a son of Benjamin and Elizabeth (Snowden) Burnley and a grandson of Joseph and Mary (Jennings) Burnley.

Coming to the United States, Benjamin and Elizabeth Burnley established their home in the city of Erie in July of 1848, and there he followed his trade of a woolen manufacturer for about three years. Later buying a farm in Greenfield township, Erie county, he spent the remainder of his life there and died in 1896. His wife followed him to the home beyond in the following year. William was the fourth born of their ten children, seven sons and three daughters, and continuing in business with his father until he had reached his twenty-fourth year he then began farming for himself on rented land, continuing, as a renter from 1870 until 1887. In the latter year he engaged in the manufacture of electrical materials at Miamisburg, Ohio, but four years later went from there to Painesville, Ohio, where for eleven years he was engaged in business for himself, and in the meantime he secured a number of patents on the articles which he had invented. In 1907 he came to North East, moving his business here, and he is now at the head of a large establishment on Wall street, on the Lake Shore Railroad, where he compounds his inventions. He is also the president of the Burnley Battery and Manufacturing Company, incorporated under the laws of Ohio at Painesville, and of which the treasurer is Clifford N. Graul and the secretary and manager F. B. Hess, with main offices in North East.

Mr. Burnley married January 1, 1869, Annie C. Hitchcock, from the state of New York, a daughter of Myron D. and Sarah (Wright) Hitchcock, of Oswego, that state. Their children are: Elizabeth, who died in 1896, at the age of twenty-six years; Nellie, who died at the age of twenty-five in 1895; Jennie, wife of F. B. Heath, of North East; Nettie B., wife of John Kline, of Miamisburg, Ohio; Myron W., whose home is in Kansas City, Missouri; Grace, the wife of C. M. Graul, the manager of the Painesville Telephone Company at Painesville, Ohio. Mr. Burnley endorses the principles of the Republican party, and he is a member of the order of Masons No. 399, of North East, and of the Knights of Pythias order at Erie, Lodge No. 327.

A twentieth century history of Erie County, Pennsylvania : a narrative account of its historical progress, its people and its principal interests, Chicago: Lewis Pub. Co., 1909, page 441.  More Erie County History Books   Search Hundreds of 1880s-1890s Pennsylvania County History Books for biographies and historical information on your ancestors.  View the book page images on line and print them out for your genealogy file!  Free Access to the old history books - plus birth & death records, census images and ALL other records at ancestry.com.