The Burroughs Family

The Burroughs Family. Area 13. , Silas Mainville Burroughs, Sr. (1810-1860), Silas Burroughs made many important contributions to the Village of Medina and owned considerable land here, farming, running a lumber business and legal practice., Burroughs served as village clerk of Medina, Orleans County, N.Y., in 1835; village trustee in 1836 and 1839-1843; studied law and was admitted to the bar in Orleans County in 1840 and commenced practice in Medina. He was again trustee of Medina 1845-1847 and village attorney 1845-1847. He represented Orleans County as a Democrat member of the New York State Assembly, serving four times between 1837 and 1853. Burroughs was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Congresses in the U.S. House of Representatives and served from March 4, 1857, until his death in Medina, N.Y., June 3, 1860, with interment in Boxwood Cemetery., He played a key role in the bill to enlarge and improve the Erie Canal and was offered the role of Canal Commissioner. He also worked hard for the welfare and rights of Native Americans. Burroughs was at the forefront of the struggle against slavery and spoke out forcefully and fearlessly in opposition to the institution. In 1859, a Richmond, VA newspaper labeled he and his Congressional colleagues as treasonous for supporting the John Brown raid on Harper's Ferry, and placed a bounty on their heads. In 1851 he donated 2 acres and founded the Medina Free Academy, and with others purchased land for the new Boxwood Cemetery. He also gave land at the back of the Walsh Hotel for use by the local militia. Burroughs was brigadier general of the 29th brigade of the New York State Militia., Silas Mainville Burroughs, Jr. (1848-1895), Burroughs was educated in the Academy school. Following apprenticeship to a local doctor, he worked in stores and druggists in Albion, Lockport and Buffalo, before moving to Philadelphia to join the large pharmaceutical firm Wyeths as a traveling salesman. He qualified at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy in 1877 and the following year set up his own business, Burroughs and Co. in London, acting as an agent for Wyeth and other firms. His friend Henry Wellcome joined him two years later and Burroughs Wellcome and Co was established. The firm became an international success. It used American methods of marketing and manufacturing, introducing a wide range of products including tabloid medicines and medicine chest, both praised by the explorer H. M Stanley., A visionary employer, Burroughs introduced an eight-hour working day and profit sharing. He supported social reform and political change including Irish home rule and was a staunch supporter of the Single Tax movement and good friend of its champion, Henry George. Burroughs, like his father, was a philanthropist and he founded the Livingstone Hospital, Dartford. He loved Medina and returned many times. In his will he left 1/24th of his property to John Parsons [the father of his old school friend who had died in the Civil war], 1/24th to the Medina Cemetery Fund and 1/24th to the First Presbyterian Church, Medina. His sudden death from pneumonia was reported world-wide. He is buried in Monte Carlo., The Burroughs Mansion, A splendid gothic style residence once stood on this site as part of a magnificent estate., It was constructed in the late 1840s for Silas Burroughs (1810-1860) and was considered one of the finest residences in Medina, its gothic style with pinnacles and buttresses making it unlike any other house in the village. It cost an estimated $10,000 to build and stood in a large grove next to the river, with a pond and fountains., The house survived a serious fire in 1851 and was sold upon his death for $2,805., In 1903 was used as a smallpox quarantine home and after a fire in c.1915 it was demolished., A replica of this house can be found in Rochester, NY., (Caption):, The Burroughs Mansion, c. 1850