biohoseaburnham
Biography
of
Hosea Ballou Burnham
Source: History of Rockingham County, New Hampshire
Town of : Epping Page 239
H. B. BURNHAM, M.D.
Hosea Ballou Burnham, son or Miles and Salome (Hall), daughter of David
Hall, was born in Chester,now Auburn, N. H.,
Oct. 15,1829. Miles Burnham was born in Northwood in 1793. (His
father's name was Jacob. He was son of Paul Burnham,
of Durham, N. H., who was born in Essex, Mass.) He passed his early
life in Boston, was a carpenter by trade, aud became
a merchant and hotel keeper in Chester. He had six children, of whom
Dr. Burnham was third. He was a steadfast adherent to
the principles of political economy enunciated by Thomas Jefferson and
others of that school. His death occurred Sept. 30, 1850:
that of his wife Sept. 29,1881. Jacob, the earliest of the name
we can now trace, was a farmer in Northwood and Nottingham,
one of the sturdy yeomanry of those early days,and with his vigorous
constitutinn lived to the advanced age of ninety-two years,
dying in 1836.
The Burnham family is of English ancestry, and the American
starting-point is Essex,Mass. Dr.Burnham received his education
at the cnmmon schools of Chester until he was thirteen, then attended
Gilmanton Academy, New HampHhire Conference
Seminary, at Sanborntown Bridge (now Tilton), N. H., and Wesleyan
University, at Middletown,Conn. He began the study of
medicine with the late,William D. Buck, M.D., a physician of high
repute in Manchester,N.H. He attended medical lectures at
Berkshire Medical Institution, Pittsfield, Mass.Harvard Medical
College, Boston, and Vermont Medical College, Woodstock, Vt.,
from which latter school he was graduated in 1853. During his student
life he taught in the public schools of the City of Manchester
Immediately upon graduation he opened an office at Lawrence, Mass. and
entered into the general practice of medicine. His stay
here was short, and in the fall of 1854 he removed to Epping, where he
has ever since been engaged in the active practice of
his profession. His whole time has been given to the demands of this
practice, and he has been very successful, acquiring a high standing
among the medical men of this section of the State, and is quite noted
as a surgeon, having performed successfully many
of the difficult operations in surgery. He has always been a diligent
student, and has kept in the front rank of the progressive
physician of the day. He has been county physician since 1871,
and has had entire medical charge of the Rockingham County
Institution, and the insane asylum connected therewith. He is a member
of the New Hampshire Medical Society, American Medical
Association, and of the Rockingham Medical Society, of,which he is
president.
He was appointed examining surgeon in the United States Pension
Department, Nov. 16, 1872, and still retains the office.
Dr. Burnbam has not remained an idle spectator of events, but has
largely interested himself in matters appertaining to the
improvement, development, and education of the community, and has been
superintendent of school committee thirteen years
He has never swerved from the Democratic principles of his ancestors,
but has held aloof from politics, having no desire or
craving for political preferment, but has his fifth commission as
justice of the peace, his first one being dated in 1855. He is a
member and Past Master of Sullivan Lodge, No. 19, F.& A.M., of
Epping, and is a member of St. Alban Chapter, No.15, of Exeter.
Dr. Burnham is a man of fine physique of culture and refinement,
and is possessed of more than ordinary social qualities that endear him
to a large circle. As a business man he takes high rank, and has been
financially very successful. He was first treasurer of Epping
Savings-Bank, and is now one of its trustees. Broad and liberal in all
things, he freely concedes to all the right to differ from him in
opinion, but hold with firmness to his own, which is only adopted after
a careful exmination of the subject.
He is Unitarian in religious belief.
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