Born: Thompson, Connecticut, 1829.
Died: Chicago, Illinois, 1882.
Mr. Burgess came of Puritan stock. His mother trained him in the straitest thought of Calvinism. Her death came in 1843, which led the son to seek the Lord. He failed to receive the blessing at the "mourners' bench" and turned away from religion, believing himself given over to hardness of heart or predestined to be damned. He attended Norwich Academy, New York, and came to Metamora, Illinois, in 1847, where he taught three years.
He became a Christian in 1850 under the ministry of Henry D. Palmer. Shortly he went to Bethany College, reaching there with $4.50, but by resourceful labors graduated in 1854. His life thereafter was passed in Illinois and Indiana, where he served as teacher in Eureka and president of Butler College, pastor of churches and as a mighty champion and triumphant defender of the truth of the gospel against all opposers.