California Biographies Transcribed by Peggy Hooper This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm Source: History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from its earliest settlement to the present time. Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M. The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905 Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176 FIELDING GUY BURNS. The years which have passed over the head of Fielding Guy Burns, one of Tulare county's oldest pioneers, have brought to him and to the country many changes. When he first came to this section of the state the country was unimproved and un- cultivated, antelopes and elk and other wild animals were roaming over the plains, and there was nothing to presage the prosperity and growth of which the county was capable. To such men as Mr. Burns obstacles existed only to be overcome, and with the courage and industry of the early pioneer he directed his best efforts toward the growth of this section, and his own personal success. Both results have been accomplished, Tulare county ranking with the best in the state, and Mr. Burns holding place with the first men of the section. Born in Sherman, Grayson county, Tex., November 2, 1850, Fielding Guy Burns was the youngest of two children born to his parents, his brother, John Franklin Burns, now residing near Tucson, Ariz., where he is engaged in the stock business. His father, Jephtha, and grand- father, Uriah, were both natives of Tennessee, the elder man locating in Texas, and in 1853 crossing the plains to California. He became a resident of Monterey county, where his death occurred. As a resident of Texas, he was one of the stanch supporters of the rebellion in that state, and most eager for annexation to the United States. He also took part in the Mexican war. Jephtha Burns was a stockman in Grayson county, Tex., where he remained until 1853, when he started to cross the plains with his father and two brothers, John and Charles, re- siding respectively in Merced and Monterey counties, the latter being ninety-one years. In Elm river, Tex., where the brothers were fishing while on the trip, Jephtha Burns was drowned. His wife, formerly Amanda Virginia Bacon, died February 15, 1851. She was born in Franklin county. Mo., a daughter of Fielding Bacon, a native of Virginia and a farmer and stockman of Grayson county, Tex. He came to California in the same train with the Burns fam- ily, in 1853. He first located at Elmonte, near Los Angeles, where he engaged in the stock- business until the spring of 1856. In that year he came to Tulare county and settled on the St. John's river, ten miles east of Visalia, where he entered land and improved a farm. In the years that followed he gave his attention to the establishment of his personal success, which has been the result entirely of his own efforts. When he first came to California he brought with him a few cattle, for which he had traded his land in Texas, and after keeping them for a time in Los Angeles county, sold the two hundred for $125 per head in Graysonville, in the San Joa- quin valley. This money was sent by the Adams Express Company to Los Angeles, while he went by boat to that city, finding on his arrival that the express company had failed. Out of this deal he lost all but his fare and $1,500. With this comparatively small amount he started again in the making of his fortune. He immediately bought of P. O. Pico three hundred head of cat- tle at $5 per head, which he paid for, and another three hundred on credit. He immediately took them to Sonora and sold them in the southern mines at good profit. Returning to Los Angeles, he once more invested in stock. In the fall of 1855 he bought one thousand head of cattle and drove them to Tulare county, where he began the stock business which brought him such lucrative returns in the passing years. He became very successful, accumulating land in Tulare county until he owned eleven thousand acres. At a cost of $12,000 he put up a fine brick house, the brick for which was made on his place, while the woodwork was hauled from Fresno Slough. In the flood of 1867 his house sustained such injuries that he built another resi- dence on the Cottonwood, where he had entered land, and made that his home for five years. At the end of that time he located in Visalia, where he lived until 1882, when he moved to Los An- geles, where his death occurred at the age of eighty-nine years. His wife, formerly Sarah Bell, a native of Virginia, also died in Los Angeles. Of their four daughters Mrs. Burns was the eldest, her death occurring in Texas in 1851. Fielding Guy Burns was reared in Tulare county, a member of the family of his grandfather, Fielding Bacon. He received his educa- tion in the public schools of Visalia and in a private seminary. He remained at home until attaining his majority, when he engaged in the stock business in Humboldt county, Nev. He continued there for three years, when he returned to Tulare county and engaged in the sheep business on the plains for the ensuing five years. Following this he engaged in the rais- ing of grain, operating two thousand acres of the property of his grandfather. He has met with success in his work and has accumulated considerable property, now owning six hundred and twenty-six acres on section 32, township 17, range 25. It was originally a section, but the valley railroad took fourteen acres of it. It is fine, productive land, in the vicinity of Elbow creek, and is devoted to alfalfa, grain and stock. He also owns three hundred and sixty acres on sections 18 and 19, township 17, range 26, on the Cottonwood, a productive and well-improved farm, which he rents. In his political affiliations Mr. Burns gives his support to the Democratic party.