JAMES M. McBURNEY, a rising young attorney of Washington, well-versed in civil law which is his special practice, is a native of the borough, born March 7, 1858. His great-grandfather, James McBurney, married Martha McGoffin, and they had six children, viz.: Mary (Mrs. John McAuley), Alexander, Joseph, James, Martha (Mrs. James Matthews) and Jane (Mrs. John Gillespie). Of these, James, who was a native of Washington county, married and had children, as follows: Ebenezer, James, Joseph, Eliza (Mrs. Hawkins), Martha (Mrs. Watson), Sarah (Mrs. Thompson of Mercer county), and Catherine (Mrs. Gault also of Mercer county), all dead except Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Gault. Their father was an officer in the Pennsylvania Militia, and died many years ago on his farm in South Strabane township, now owned by the Zediker family. Ebenezer McBurney was born in 1814, in Mercer county, and was educated in the subscription schools of the locality of his birth. He learned and worked at the trade of carpenter in Washington, where he put up many buildings; later in life he was employed in moving buildings, at which he was considered, in his day, quite an expert. Some years before his death, which occurred September 12, 1889, when he was seventy-five years of age, he gave up working at his trade. He was a kind-hearted, generous man, too confiding, over liberal with his means, and through giving bailment for others, lost a large part of his hard-earned estate. He was a democrat until the breaking out of the Civil war, when he went over to the Republican party. He was too old to go to the war, moreover had broken his leg by falling off a barn, but he served as provost-marshal for his district; was also private detective for the county, under Ralph McConnell and J. F. Taylor, district attorneys, serving as such six years. At one time he was a member of the old Seceder Church, but having joined the I.O.O.F., he was dismissed from the church. He married Mary, daughter of Thomas Maxwell, who came from Wheeling, W. Va., to Washington where he (Maxwell) worked at his trade, that of hatter. Eleven children were born to this union: Helen, wife of Joseph Shaw, in Houstonville, Chartiers township; Samuel F., on a stock farm in Texas; John F., on the old homestead in South Strabane township; Alexander F., a dentist in Canonsburg, this county; James M., our subject; George M., a farmer in Belmont county, Ohio; Kate M., wife of George M. Haldeman, of Washington; two daughters, Mary and Margaret, who died at the age of sixteen and twenty-one respectively; and two that died in infancy. The parents are both deceased, the mother having passed away six months before the father. James M. McBurney received his primary education at the schools of the neighborhood, and then (1875) entered the preparatory department of Washington and Jefferson College, graduating in 1881 in the classical course. After leaving college he taught one year as principal, in McKeesport Academy, being associated with Rev. Robert M. Russell, who now has charge of a U. P. Church in Pittsburgh, East End. Returning to Washington, Mr. McBurney commenced the study of law with Hon. H. J. Vankirk, finishing under John W. Donnan, and was admitted to the bar of Washington county, April 27, 1885, since when he has been in the continuous practice of his profession in the borough. In 1889, Mr. McBurney was united in marriage with Miss Annie S., daughter of J. B. Reekers, of Washington, and one child, Louise R., has come to cheer their home. Our subject has been a member of the U. P. Church since 1876, is a deacon in the same, and a teacher in the Sabbath-school. He is a Republican, but does not allow politics to interfere with his business, which commands all his time, and receives his diligent attention.

Text taken from page 12 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed March 1997 by Victoria Smith of San Jose, CA as part of the Beers Project. Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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