USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > History of Detroit and Wayne County and early Michigan: A Chronological Cyclopedia of the Past and Present, Vol. II > Part 34
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I hereby certify that Her Majesty's Commissioners, upon the award of the jurors, have presented a prize medal to William A. Burt, for a solar compass and surveying instrument, shown at the exhibition. ALBERT, President of the Royal Commission.
Hyde Park, London, October 15, 1851.
While in London, Mr. Burt had the pleasure of meeting and making the acquaintance of Sir David Brewster, Hugh Miller, Sir John Herschel, and other celebrities in the realm of science, the ac- quaintanceship was continued, by means of corres- pondence, for many years, and proved a source of much pleasure.
The usual rewards of the inventor did not fall to Judge Burt in his lifetime, nor have they since been reaped by his heirs.
It is a matter of record, that the great value of the solar compass to the United States Government became established at about the time when in order to preserve an inventor's rights, and secure his reward in the usual manner, a renewal of the patent should have been sought. Judge Burt went to Washington for this purpose, but, with the simplicity characteristic of him, was easily persuaded by the
Aided by knowledge obtained during many years of work throughout the Northwest Territory, he continued to study and experiment, and at last . Government land officials to believe that if he
Hallo Bot
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would allow his invention to become public prop- erty, the Government, as the principal beneficiary, would, through Congress, make suitable pecuniary recognition.
The petition then filed by Mr. Burt, the inventor, and since his decease several times renewed by his heirs, has been favorably reported on by every committee of Congress to which it has been re- ferred, and a bill has several times passed one or the other branch of Congress making appropriation of money in recognition and satisfaction of this most just claim, but has failed to be given full legal enactment.
That millions of money have been saved to the Government in the cost of making original surveys, through the adoption of the solar compass, is a fact well known to all surveyors-general and deputies engaged in this branch of the Government service.
For fifty years the United States had exclusive use of the solar compass. It seems to have been orig- inated for its special purpose, and, in fact, to grow out of the necessity felt by Judge Burt, during his experience as a deputy United States surveyor, for an instrument that should do more accurate work than the common surveyors' compass then in use.
That a government founded upon, and actuated by equitable principles, should have so long neglec- ted to do justice to him or his heirs is hardly credit- able, but it is to be hoped that the merits of the invention, and the advantages derived therefrom, will soon be appropriately recognized and rewarded.
A second important invention of Mr. Burt's, the Equatorial Sextant, was the outcome of his studious endeavor to apply the principles of the solar compass to navigation. On his return from Europe, in 1851, with the idea of perfecting his plans for this instrument, Mr. Burt took passage on a sailing ves- sel, for the purpose of making observations at sea. The trip was eminently successful, and his studies and experiments brought forth a perfect equatorial sextant. He thus gave to the sailors on the track- less sea, facilities equal to those furnished by the solar compass to the woodsmen in the trackless forest.
At this time he retired from active work as a sur- veyor, and moved to Detroit, to devote himself to giving instruction in its use. He also gave instruc- tions to a class of lake captains in astronomy and navigation, and in the use of his equatorial sextant, and a number of these captains made successful winter trips across the Atlantic with their fore and aft lake schooners, to the great astonishment of the "old salts."
In 1852 he was chosen a member of the Michigan Legislature, served during the session of 1852-53, and improved the opportunity to advance the
project of a canal about the falls of the St. Mary's River of which he was one of the orig- inal and most earnest advocates. He was made chairman of the joint legislative committee on the subject, and it was largely owing to his intelligent and energetic efforts that the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal was constructed, upon what was then deemed an extravagantly liberal scale.
On August 18, 1858, he was suddenly stricken down with heart disease. He died possessing the universal respect of all his fellow men, peacefully and contentedly, attended by his wife, who had done well her part during the forty-five years of their mar- ried life, and he never neglected to award to her much of the credit of his success. Mrs. Burt did not long survive her husband ; she died, on August 23, 1864, and was laid by his side in the pleasant little rural cemetery at Mt. Vernon, where they had lived for so many years. A few years later their remains were removed to Elmwood Cemetery, in Detroit.
Mr. Burt was not only fertile in ideas, on scien- tific and mechanical subjects, but he also possessed clear and decisive convictions on religious and political subjects, and had the courage to uphold them. Theories in any direction would not satisfy him : each new topic was taken up with the deter- mination to fully comprehend its meaning and drift, and then to enforce its truth. He was not fanati- cal, however, and no man was more prompt to acknowledge error of judgment, or more hearty in expressions of satisfaction over the discovery of an error.
In company he was modest and unassuming, but able to hold his own with any one in a discus- sion, and in conversation was brilliant and well informed on a wide range of subjects. He was a consistent and firm believer in the doctrines of the Baptist Church, and was one of the organizers of the Society at Mt. Vernon, Michigan.
In politics he was a Jeffersonian Democrat, but aside from the ordinary part taken by every good citizen, did not actively participate in political affairs.
He was a member of the Masonic fraternity, and one of the founders, and the first Master of the third Masonic lodge organized in Michigan.
WELLS BURT was born in the village of Wales Center, Erie County, New York, near the city of Buffalo, on October 25, 1820, and was the fourth son of Wm. A. Burt, widely known as the inventor of the solar compass, who came with his family to Michigan in 1825, and settled in Wash- ington, Macomb County. The son attended the district schools of that locality through his boyhood, but received his best education through intercourse
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with his father, who was a man of rare intelligence and a diligent student, especially in scientific direc- tions.
As Wells Burt grew to manhood he learned the science of surveying from his father, who was engaged in extensive surveys of the public lands under contracts from the government, and gained practical knowledge by accompanying him as one of his assistants. Later he took contracts from the government himself for the surveying of thousands upon thousands of acres of the public lands of Michigan and Wisconsin. In the performance of his duties he was painstaking and exact to an un- common degree, and this trait of faithfulness and conscientiousness was manifested throughout his life, in all his business relations and his intercourse with those about him. His work in the wilds of north- ern Michigan in those early days, was fraught with many hardships and dangers, often his little party of surveyors being the first white men who had in- truded upon the domain of the Indian tribes of that region. But there was also compensation for these trials, for through his work he became thoroughly acquainted with the mineral resources of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, and was thus enabled to make investments which laid the foundation for a considerable fortune. He had no ambition to gain great wealth, and not having very robust health, preferred for many years to lead a quiet life, com- paratively free from the anxieties and cares of more active business life. He was, however, one of the organizers of the Union Iron Company of Detroit, established in 1872, and for ten years its presi- dent. He was also largely interested in the Lake Superior Iron Company, of Ishpeming, and the Peninsular Iron Company, of Detroit, and a holder of stock in the Third National Bank and the Ameri- can Banking and Savings Association of the same city, besides being connected with various enter- prises in other places.
He was married on February 19, 1851, to Amanda F. Beaman, of Rochester, Oakland County, their early married life being spent in Washington, Ma- comb County. In 1865 they removed to Ypsilanti, that better opportunities might be afforded for the education of their children. In 1881 Mr. Burt came to Detroit, building a beautiful home on Woodward Avenue, where he died suddenly of neuralgia of the heart, on November 29, 1887.
At the time of his death he was a member of the First Baptist Church of Detroit. He rarely gave outward expression to his deepest feelings, and his religious life was quiet and undemonstrative, but those who knew him had many evidences of his kindly, loving nature, and Christian character. He was a devoted, considerate husband and father, a true friend, and a good citizen.
He performed many acts of benevolence, and gave largely of his money to church and charitable objects in Detroit and elsewhere.
He left a widow and five children, namely : W. Clayton Burt, Mrs. Henry L. Jenness, Miss Helen E. Burt, Mrs. Elstner Fisher, of Detroit, and Mrs. C. Van Cleve Ganson, of Grand Rapids.
JOHN BURT was born in Wales, Erie County, New York, April 18, 1814, his father, Wm. A. Burt, was the inventor, and patentee of the solar compass. The family emigrated to Michigan in 1824, coming on the steamer Superior from Buffalo, and landing in Detroit on May 10, and were soon settled in a log house in Washington township, Macomb County. The father's business frequently called him away from home, and, as the eldest of five sons, the mother depended chiefly upon John for assist- ance, and for six years he was a very active helper in pioneer life. At sixteen years of age, having developed strong mechanical instincts and ability, he was employed by his father to assist him in building saw-mills. His first lessons in mathe- matics, surveying, engineering, astronomy, and navigation, were received from his father, but he also attended the district school.
In 1835, when twenty-one years of age, he married Julia A. Calkins, daughter of a respected and influ- ential farmer. They settled on a farm and remained five years. Mr. Burt was then persuaded by his father to accompany him as assistant in the work of conducting the linear and geological surveys in the Upper Peninsula. He was fully acquainted with the use and operation of his father's solar compass, and after one season's experience in the woods on May 18, 1841, was appointed a Deputy United States Surveyor, and from 1840 to 1851 he was engaged continuously on Government surveys in the Upper Peninsula. In 1848 he subdivided the Jackson Mine district under a government contract and discovered a number of new iron deposits, in- cluding the Republic and Humboldt mines. He also located accurately several others, discovered by Dr. Houghton in 1845.
The most remarkable instance known or recorded of the magnetic influence possessed by bodies of iron ore occurred while he was running the west boundary line of T. 46 N. R. 30 W., in which the great Republic Mine is located. This body of ore affected the needle for a distance of 6 miles, and nearly all bodies of iron ore in that region, whether outcropping or not, attracted the magnet, hence the ease with which their presence was indicated by the solar compass, and to its use is justly awarded the credit of the early discovery of the great mineral wealth of Northern Michigan, Wisconsin, Minne- sota, and other portions of the West. While Mr.
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Burt was surveying the iron regions of the Upper Peninsula he obtained and preserved specimens of iron ores and kept notes of where they were found, together with the topographical and geologi- cal features and botanical peculiarities of their sev- eral locations. These notes were turned over to Messrs. Foster & Whitney, United States Geolo- gists, and in their report of 1851, they give him due credit.
The valuable knowledge obtained by ten years of work in such a region led him in 1851 to take up what proved to be his life work, namely ; the devel- opment of the mineral resources of Northern Mich- igan. He foresaw that the cheap transportation of the ores by lake was to be the greatest factor in their development. He knew that ore in abundance was within comparatively easy reach ; with prophetic ken he saw the extent of the demand which would come, and in fact he comprehended as no one else did, the wondrously beneficial influence the develop- ment of that country would have on the general welfare of the country especially as to the States west of the Alleghanies. Mr. Burt's intimate ac- quaintance with the ore lands of the Upper Penin- sula, naturally caused him to desire the ownership of a portion thereof, but under the so-called Mineral Land Act, the prices had been so increased as to pre- clude his purchasing. He therefore applied to the Land office at the "Soo" for an opinion from the Attorney General of the United States as to the char- acter of the iron ore lands and as to whether they were rightly classed as mineral lands. He was in- formed that iron ore lands did not come under the head of mineral lands, and the officials at Sault Ste. Marie were instructed to offer and sell such lands, as agricultural lands, at $1.25 per acre. The first lands entered under that decision were those en- tered by Mr. Burt and the entry constitutes a part of the 15,000 acres, now owned by the Lake Su- perior Iron Company. It is conceded that the sell- ing of the iron ore lands at the reduced rate and the railroad and canal enterprises originated and pushed to completion by Mr. Burt, were the three prime factors in the present advanced civilization, improvement, and wealth of the Upper Peninsula. Mr. Burt greatly desired that the people of his own State should have control of these lands, and sought earnestly to interest Zachariah Chandler, Henry N. Walker, Eber B. Ward, H. P. Baldwin, and other citizens in his plans, and offered to sell them a three-eighths interest in his purchase, including the property of the present Lake Superior Iron Company now worth several millions of dollars, and a large share of the site of the present city of Marquette for the sum of $50,000. They apparently failed to comprehend the advantages offered and thus lost an opportunity seldom within reach. Mr.
Burt then visited Pittsburgh, where his exhibits and appeals were also unappreciated. The elder Mr. Schoenberger, then the most prominent iron manu- facturer in Pittsburgh, said to him; "we have an abundance of good ores in Pennsylvania and have no need of your Michigan ores, besides we will not see a ton of Michigan ore in Pittsburgh market in our day." Mr. Burt replied, "Mr. Schoenberger, you will have it here in five years at the farthest, and beg for it." In just four years from that time Mr. Burt had the satisfaction of seeing 4,000 tons of Lake Superior iron ore pass through the St. Mary's Falls Ship Canal, some of it consigned to Pittsburgh.
In the summer of 1851 he returned to Carp River, where the city of Marquette is located, with a force of thirty men, built a dam across the river and also a saw-mill, the first erected in that region, preparatory to the erection of a forge for the manu- facture of blooms. While at this work Mr. Burt was casually visited by the late Heman B. Ely of Cleveland, whom he imbued with his own sanguine ideas of the future of the iron interests of that country. Mr. Ely was a railroad man, and it was proposed that they should join forces in the construc- tion of a railroad from the lake to the mines. This was a project Mr. Burt had long had in mind, and the proposition being acceded to, Mr. Burt, Mr. Ely, and his brothers, John F., Samuel P. and George H. Ely began the railway and completed it in 1857. Meanwhile, Mr. Burt, the late Captain E. B. Ward, and other gentlemen, foreseeing that the railway would be of little immediate value without a way to get ore laden vessels through the Sault Ste. Marie river, revived the idea of a ship canal around the rapids in that river, and in the winter of 1851 and 1852 visited Washington, and. with Mr. Burt's room as headquarters, besieged Congress for a grant of money or land to aid the State in building a canal, and a grant of 750,000 acres of land was made by Act of August 25, 1852, the conditions of which were accepted by the State on February 5, 1853. Under a contract entered into April 5, 1853, between the State Commissioners and Messrs. Joseph Fair- banks, J. W. Brooks, Erastus Corning, August Bel- mont, and others, the canal was completed and turned over to Mr. Burt, as its first Superintendent, on May 1, 1855, and on June 18, following, he had the extreme satisfaction of passing the steamer Illinois, Captain Jack Wilson, as the first boat through the canal. During the remainder of the navigation season, of about five months that year, four thousand four hundred and seventy-four tons of ore were passed through the canal, and in 1887 nearly two and one-half millions tons were passed through. The history of the canal, and the stu- pendous growth in the ore trade of the Upper Peninsula, is well known, but it is not so generally
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known that Mr. Burt was the first to recognize the need of enlarging the canal, that he was foremost in all movements to improve it, and that all grants and appropriations made by the Government were chiefly obtained through his tireless energy and masterly exhibits and arguments. It is also true that the then largest single lock in the world, the canal lock, begun in 1870 and completed in 1881, was built after a plan devised and patented by Mr. Burt.
Meantime, from the summer of 1851 to 1857, besides pushing the canal project, Mr. Burt gave a great deal of time and energy to the construction of the Iron Mountain Railway, and the improvements at Marquette. After completing his agreement with the Ely Brothers, of Cleveland, contracts were made with the Jackson Iron Company, and with the Cleveland Iron Company, to carry iron over the road for one dollar per ton the first two years, after which fifty cents per ton was to be paid, until, by a graduating scale, each company should ship, per annum, more than one hundred and twenty-five thousand tons, when the price was to be reduced to thirty cents per ton. No charter was then obtain- able, as the State had no railroad law, but with these contracts, obtained chiefly by Mr. Ely, as a basis for business, the building of the road was begun as a private enterprise. The lumber for the docks, offices, and other buildings of the railroad company was sawed in Mr. Burt's Carp River mill, and sold for ten dollars per thousand, while the lowest price elsewhere was twenty-five dollars per thousand. In June, 1852, Mr. Burt contracted with the railway company to extend their road two miles farther to the Burt, now the Lake Superior mine, and the railroad company agreed to carry ore for him at the figures named in the contracts with the Jackson and Cleveland companies.
Mr. Burt was also the prime mover in the organi- zation of several iron manufacturing companies, all of which use Lake Superior ores. He was a director for thirty-three years in the Lake Superior Iron Company, now incorporated for its second term of thirty years ; was President of the Peninsula Iron Company, of this city, for thirty years, and also President of the Marquette Furnace Company, the Carp River Furnace Company, and of the Burt Free Stone Company, of Marquette. On February 12, 1855, a general railroad law for Michigan was approved by the Governor, and three days later a railroad company was organized under the name of the Iron Mountain Railroad Company, with Mr. Burt as President. The passage of the railroad law was opposed by all the old railway companies, but was secured through the efforts of Mr. Burt, his father William A: Burt, and Heman B. Ely. During the United States Congress of 1855 and 1856, John Burt, aided by the late W. B. Ogden, of
Chicago, obtained land grants to aid in the construc- tion of the Bay de Noquette & Marquette road, from Little Bay de Noquette to Marquette, the Marquette, Houghton & Ontonagon road, and the Michigan & Wisconsin State Line road.
It will be noticed that thirty-four years ago he had formulated a railway system for the Upper Peninsula, his plans being fulfilled by the completion and operation of the Duluth, South Shore & Atlan- tic, the Milwaukee & Northern, and the Peninsula division of the Chicago & Northwestern Railroads. The latter road was built with the grants given for construction of the Bay de Noquette & Mar- quette and State Line roads. Mr. H. B. Ely died in 1856, and Mr. Burt, on February 15, 1857, was elected President of the Bay de Noquette & Mar- quette Railroad, and in 1858 the road was completed to the Lake Superior Company's mine, locally called the Burt mine ; this railroad and the Iron Mountain Road were then consolidated, and from that time to the present it has been a very successful enterprise. Mr. Burt withdrew from the company in 1863.
In 1855 he bought the Lake Superior Journal, then published at Sault Ste. Marie, moved it to Marquette, and published the paper four years, when he sold out to Warren Isham. The paper is now known as the Marquette Mining Journal.
It was not alone as an explorer, financier, and organizer, that Mr. Burt excelled ; he had a good record as an inventor. He obtained his patent for the canal lock, heretofore alluded to, on May 28, 1867. On January 19, 1869, he obtained a patent on an improvement in the manufacture of iron, by the use of pulverized oxide of iron in the puddling furnace, and his process is largely used in puddling iron throughout the country. On May 25, 1869, he obtained a patent for the manufacture of crude blooms, using oxide of iron by running molten pig metal on to the oxide while in the crucible. On September 7, 1869, he obtained a patent for the manufacture of pig iron, and on December 28, 1869, a patent for a finishing case for railway bars. He also obtained a patent for purifying blast furnace gas, which is successfully used in many furnaces. On March 27, 1877, and on October 29, 1878, he was granted patents for a system of ventilation, which has been introduced, in a modified form, in the Capitol at Washington. On April 24, 1883, he was granted a patent on charcoal furnaces, or retorts, for distilling wood and obtaining charcoal for fur- nace use.
In politics he acted with the Democratic party until the passage of the fugitive slave law, and the birth of the Republican party, when he aided in the organization of that party, and continued to work with and for its prosperity as long as he lived. In 1868 he was an elector at large for the Republi-
Cher. S. Ding
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cans of Michigan, and was honored by the Electoral College with the duty of delivering to the President of the Senate the vote of the State for Grant and Colfax.
Physically Mr. Burt was tall and well built, with a frank, pleasant face, and a very engaging manner. He was a close and almost constant student, and like his father, could not be contented with mere theories. Although to some of his contemporaries he seemed visionary, yet he was only enthusiastic, and this because he saw in advance of his times. He was extremely systematic in his business methods, and in all of his dealings, was the soul of generosity, and quick to recognize and make allowance for disappointment or misfortune on the part of any with whom he had business relations.
To his own kith and kin and to those whom he held as his friends, he was always helpful, and with- out thought of pay, he directed many persons to tracts of land, the purchase of which made them wealthy. He possessed a thoroughly religious spirit, an even temper, and was eminently a trusty friend and an agreeable companion. At the very early age of sixteen he was baptized, and united with the Baptist Church. From that time he felt a deep interest in the cause of Christ, and con- tributed liberally to all the churches with which he had been connected, and other churches, in his denomination and outside of it, received liberal gifts from him. The First Baptist Church, in Mar- quette, felt especially indebted to him for his generous gifts to them, and after his death the fol- lowing resolutions were passed by that church :
Resolved, That we extend to the relatives of Brother John Burt our deepest sympathy in their sad and sudden bereavement. That we remember with gratitude his gift to us of a church edi- fice and ground at an early day in the history of our church and city That we remember his earnest words of encouragement and his prayers full of faith in the final triumph of God's people and of His cause.
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