THE WAUPACA COUNTY POST

No date marked – possibly 1980’s – likely 1954

 

Dan Burnham, At Masonic Lodge

 

            The birthday of one of Waupaca’s oldest residents – a man who has been a member of the Waupaca lodge, F. & A.M., for over 58 years, longer than some people live – was honored at the lodge hall Tuesday evening.

            Daniel F. Burnham – newspaper editor, school teacher, farmer, legislator – was honored on the occasion of his 90^th birthday.  He was present at the party, posed for a rare photograph, cut the huge birthday cake baked for the occasion, and joked with his fellow lodge members.

            Mr. Burnham ran newspapers in Waupaca for 39 years, from 1907, when he bought the Republican, to 1946, when he sold the Waupaca County Post.

            He told Tuesday night of merging the old Republican and the Post in November 1908, and of a date in 1911, when another man started the Waupaca Leader. On August 12, 1912, the Leader owner bought out the Record.

            In 1917, Mr. Burnham bought out the Record-Leader and consolidated with the Republican Post, and of this union was born the Waupaca County Post.  He operated the County Post until his retirement in 1946.

            MR. BURNHAM reminisced about old times with a reporter, and told of the time he and the other newspaper editors of Waupaca were driving to a county press meeting in Manawa.  Mr. Burnham was driving, and an editor leaned over the back seat and said, “We’ve just merged the Record and the Leader.”

            He recalled days back in 1871, when he was 7 years old, when the Waupaca County Fair was held on a plat of ground east of the present Churchill Street and south of Highways 22 and 54.

            “From there, we could look north across the river and watch the laying of the first railroad tracks into the city,” he said.

            Mr. Burnham was born Feb. 8, 1864, on what is now Berlin Street, in the city of Waupaca. He has lived in and near Waupaca since that time.

            For many years he owned and operated the farm east of Waupaca which his folks owned before him.  He was county superintendent of schools from 1897 to 1903, when the salary was $800 a year and “you furnished your own transportation, a horse, and paid your own expenses, including feed for the horse.”

            Mr. Burnham taught school from 1892 to 1896, and was a member of the state legislature for four years.

 

            MR, BURNHAM was made a Mason on July 23, 1895.  Among those who signed the recommendation for his entry were K.C. Chandler, who operated a business at he site now occupied by Edward Pommer on Water Street; A.J. Van Epps, county sheriff and secretary of the lodge; W. Scott, grandfather of Allen Scott; and E. Hobson.

            “He always took a great interest in the welfare of his city, state, and nation, and fought for many reforms and policies which he considered for the good of the community,” his son John wrote.

            A story on Mr. Burnham’s past life, written by John Burnham, now with the agricultural experiment station at North Dakota Agricultural College, Fargo, ND, appears in another column of this issue.