Menzo E. Burton, whose finely developed farm is located on section 6, Chemung Township, lives on the old Merriam farm of 150 acres, of which sixty acres are in Boone County. He was born on the old Burton farm, May 19, 1871, and was the youngest son of the family of Billings Burton, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. He left home when twelve years old and has earned his own way ever since. Learning the buttermaking trade, he was engaged in it in Wisconsin, Illinois. Iowa, Ohio, Oklahoma. Texas, Colorado and Missouri, and assisted in establishing a number of creameries in these different states. It was his custom to erect the building, install the machinery and then educate someone to take charge, after which he would go on to another community. Oftentimes, however, he was called back by urgent appeals of the stockholders who wished to have his expert knowledge and experience to guide their enterprise. Still later he covered North Dakota, Minnesota and other western states, twenty-two in all, and in each state established creameries at various producing centers, the majority of which are still in operation. Mr. Burton was thus occupied for about twenty years of his life.

He had been married at the age of twenty-one years at Williams Bay, Wisconsin, to Lottie Green, and she died six and one-half years later. He was married (second) to Hattie L. Merriam, a daughter of Hamilton and Mary Merriam, who owned the present farm of Mr. and Mrs. Burton, to which she was brought from Linn, Wisconsin, when five years old. Mrs. Burton's parents died in Sharon, firm in the faith of the Methodist Episcopal church. At their death, Mr. Burton bought the Merriam farm, and has made many changes upon it. This farm was entered from the government by a Mr. Bird, and he built the first house, but it was destroyed by fire in 1914, and in 1918 Mr. Burton replaced it with a fine modern structure. He has added twenty-two acres across the railroad, so that there are now 150 acres in the farm, the greater part of which is cultivated. Here Mr. Burton carries on grain and stock farming with a gratifying success.

Mr. Burton was called upon to make the supreme sacrifice as his eldest son, the gallant young soldier Serg. Burnice Burton, was killed in action during the first big drive on Verdun, October 16, 1916. He enlisted at Panama in the English Aviation Service, going there from Virginia where he was operating a creamery, at the outbreak of the World War. He left a widow, whose maiden name was Helen CTaypool, whom he had married in Oklahoma, and two sons, Bernard and Theodore. Serg. Burton was an experienced flyer and had been at the front some time. His family received a characteristically cheery letter from him just a week before he was killed. Like so many heroes of that mighty conflict, he was very young, only twenty-three when stricken from the rolls of life. All that is mortal of this young man who loved humanity better than he did his own safety, is buried near Verdun, and his grave is properly indicated and marked. By his second marriage, Menzo E. Burton has the following children: Paul Everett, who is a graduate of the Sharon High School; Victor Carroll and Donald M., who are attending the Sharon High School; and Bessie Louise, who is the youngest. All of these children are living at home. The father of Mrs. Burton, the late Hamilton Merriam, was born near Syracuse, N. Y., May 23, 1832, and he died at Sharon May 23, 1901, on his sixty-ninth birthday, where he was living retired. As a child he was taken by his parents, Allen and Permelia Merriam, to Walworth County, Wis. They were natives of New York, who died near Linn, Wis. Hamilton Merriam was married in 1800 to Mary Brown, also born in New York, who came to Wisconsin when eighteen years old. Until her marriage she was a school teacher.

In 1881 Mr. and Mrs. Merriam came to McHenry County and bought the Henry Bird place, two miles east of Sharon. Mr. Bird lived on his farm until he retired and went to Sharon where he died at an advanced age. Mr. and Mrs. Merriam had the following family: Permelia Belle, who is Mrs. Duncan Stevenson of Madison, Wis.; George, who lives near Palmyra, Wis.; Wallace, who lives near Darius, Wis.; Orrin, who lives on a part of the Merriam farm; Hattie, who is Mrs. Burton; and Fred, who lives at Janesville, Wis. The Burton family is another of the highly respected ones of McHenry County that is connected by intermarriage with a number of others that belong in the best class of those who aided so materially in the settlement and development of this important section of the state. Mr. Burton and his wife are potent factors in the neighborhood, and their children are bright young people who give promise of becoming useful and enterprising citizens.
(1922 History of McHenry County, Illinois, pp 505-507)