Howard Burnham
Encyclopedia
Mather Howard Burnham went by the name of Howard and his brother was the celebrated scout Frederick Russell Burnham
. He traveled the world, frequently worked as a mining engineer and, during World War I
, he became an intelligence officer
and spy
for the government of France
. He had a wooden leg which he used to conceal tools for spying when he was behind enemy lines.
family on a Sioux
Indian reservation in Tivoli, Minnesota
(near Mankato
), just before his family moved to Los Angeles, California
. He was named after his cousin Lieutenant Howard Mather Burnham
, a United States Army Civil War
officer who was killed in action at in the Battle of Chickamauga
. His father, the Rev. Edwin Otway Burnham
of Kentucky
, a long time frontiersman and missionary died when Burnham was only 3, leaving the family destitute. He and his mother, Rebecca (Elizabeth) Russell Burnham, originally from Westminster
, Middlesex
, England
, left to live with an Uncle in Iowa
, but his brother Fred, then 12, stayed in California to repay the family debts and to make his own way.
At 14, Burnham was in school in Massachusetts
. Ill with an injured leg, his brother sent him the money to return to Los Angeles. His leg was removed four inches below the knee. He also suffered from tuberculosis
and following the amputation he had a long convalescence. For those two years he lived with his brother who taught him how to shoot, saddle a horse and pack animal, the art of scoutcraft
and how to ride the range, and all of this in spite of his wooden leg. A voracious reader with an amazing memory, he enjoyed books on military strategies and tactics, and was fascinated by history, geology
, metallurgy
, and mining. He roamed the deserts from Death Valley
to lower California, living among and learning from the Cahuilla
Indians of Agua Caliente (now Palm Springs, California
), and teaming up at times with solitary prospectors to learn desert prospecting, pocket hunting, and the mysteries of the "great horn spoon" (probably the California Gold Rush
).
In 1888, during one of his desert prospecting excursions, Burnham had a shoot-out with an Indian (not Cahuilla). He was on an old trail leading over the mountains between Kawia and San Jacinto
and less than an hour before the attack he met an Indian with whom he had a conversation in Spanish. Burnham continued on the trail until he heard a slight raport and felt something hit his right leg, and then a second report resulting in a flesh wound to his left leg. He immediately threw himself flat on the ground and commenced cautiously eyeing the surrounding country for the enemy. When saw a hat rising from behind a rock about 150 yards away, he drew his pistol and fired on the hat. His enemy fled down the Los Coyotes creek, down the canyon trail Burnham had been following, with the intent to assume a new ambush. Burnham recognized his enemy as the Indian he had met a short time earlier and he knew that this Indian was carrying a Winchester rifle and had him out gunned. Burnham left his pack animal, tools, provisions and blankets and quickly fled with on his horse down a steep cliff away from the trail and to safety in San Jacinto.
For the next few years, Burnham studied mining and worked on and off in the California desert as mining engineer at the Alvord mine, a gold mine owned and operated by the Burnham-Clapp family and their Pasadena business partners 1885–1891. He received his professional mining certification from the Pacific Chemical Works of San Francisco, an assay company owned and operated by Henry Garber Hanks, the first State Mineralogist for California.
as soon as he could to join his brother Fred already in Bulawayo, Matabeleland
. He soon found work as a mining engineer and was in charge of the assay laboratory and smelting room at the Langlaagte Royal Mine in the Transvaal
. In 1895, he was preparing to accompany his brother in a massive expedition into Northern Rhodesia
when he took ill and was forced to leave for Europe to recuperate. He left for Germany
accompanied by his nephew Roderick, and the two of them then went to London, England. In 1895, he married his first wife Margaret. He returned to the United States and from 1896-1898 attended the Michigan Mining School (now Michigan Technological University
), graduating with an S.B. By September 1898, he and his wife were back in Africa and he was working for an English syndicate and supervising over 2,000 miners at the Rosa deep gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. While in the Transvaal, Burnham was a chief chemist, an engineer, and an assistant inspector for mines, and he wrote a textbook: Modern Mine Valuation.
When the Second Boer War
broke out in 1899, Burnham felt he would be protected because of his American citizenship. Initially he remained at his post in the mines in the Boer Republic, but as a precaution he sent his wife to Cape Town, South Africa, then a British colony. But the situation in Johannesburg quickly worsened. The Boers seized the mine and began working it for their own benefit. Burnham traveled to East London, South Africa to inform the syndicate directors of the situation. He was captured by the British and held 24 hrs before he could prove that he was an American citizen. When he started back to Johannesburg, he was captured by the Boers who took him for a British spy. For a time he was uncertain if he would be shot or hanged. He wired his family for funds to help get him out of his predicament. Only weeks earlier, his brother had been prospecting in Alaska
during the Klondike Gold Rush
when he received a telegram from Lord Roberts
requesting his assistance in the war – Fred left for Africa within the hour. Fred Burnham had just been appointed Chief of Scouts for the British Army
and was en route to South Africa via England, but he was still too distant to provide any immediate help.
Over the next few years, he lived in both England and South Africa. He gave lectures and contributed a series of articles on mining techniques and the sundry principles underlying the finance of mining enterprises, more especially the "risk rate." In London on November 18, 1903, Burnham married Constance Newton, then a young school teacher and an heiress to Newton, Chambers & Company
, whom he had met on the ship during their voyage to South Africa. From 1905 until about 1908, Burnham was a non-resident follow at the Royal Colonial Institute in London.
irrigation project in Mexico
with his brother Fred. In 1908, he and W. A. Wadham of London, England, took a month long geology and mining trip though Sonora on behalf of American and English business partners. Negotiations were made for the purchase of four properties: the Batue, Mequite, La Fiera, and another property. He considered the La Fiera to be the best of the lot and a small force of men under the supervision of John Anderson was put to work there. His brother purchased water rights and some 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land in this region and contacted an old friend of the Burnhams from Africa, John Hays Hammond
, who conducted his own studies and then purchased an additional 900000 acres (3,642.2 km²) of this land—an area the size of Rhode Island
. Just as the irrigation and mining projects were nearing completion in 1912, a long series of Mexican revolutions
began. The final blow to Burnham-Hammond plans came in 1917 when Mexico passed laws prohibiting the sale of land to foreigners. The Burnham and the Hammond families carried their properties until 1930 and then sold them to the Mexican government.
, Burnham worked in intelligence for France
. In 1914, he was incarcerated near Tampico, Mexico as a suspected spy, and was released with the help of William Jennings Bryan
, then U.S. Secretary of State. He immediately left Mexico for France and stopped in Barcelona, Spain his way to Algiers, Algeria, then a French colony that the German Intelligence had infiltrated to support of the rebels. He was sent on a dangerous mission to lead 28 soldiers into the desert, meet with the rebels, and persuade them to make peace with the French. On the way, the group encountered a hostile clan, lost 20 men, exhausted all of their ammunition, and were taken prisoner. All were executed, except Burnham. A sheik elder with the clan had earlier gotten into trouble with the French in Algiers and Burnham had come to his defense, leading to the release of the man. Burnham returned to Algiers alone and was then sent to France.
In 1917, French intelligence then sent Burnham across enemy lines as a spy to discover if the Germans were preparing a new front through the Alps
. Traveling through neutral Switzerland
, Burnham assumed his former identity as an American mining engineer and crossed into Germany on the plea of extreme ill-health – his tuberculosis had violently resurfaced. Burnham had spent much time before the war in German spas, and his work for the French intelligence had been classified, so the real reason for his near-death return was not suspected by the authorities. Additionally, he was traveling with large quantities of American gold coins for his treatment and gold was desperately needed in wartime Germany. Nevertheless, Burnham was both searched and closely watched throughout his stay.
While in Germany, Burnham applied his engineering skills to converting simple household materials in useful surveying instruments, and he used his wooden leg to conceal these tools when he traveled to places such as Bad Nauheim
. Due to the high cost of his treatments, $500 a month paid in gold, Burnham was a welcome visitor at every resort in Germany. Still, all of his correspondence was reviewed and at the insistence of German authorities he was frequently escorted by one or more nurses and a private secretary. Since he was unable to permanently record his surveys and other findings on paper, he relied on his remarkable memory.
Burnham became very ill and was allowed to return to Switzerland for his health. The French government quickly transported Burnham to Cannes, France. From his death bed, Burnham shared his secrets with other intelligence officers and the French government transported his family from England to Cannes. The data Burnham had gathered was convincing: the Germans were not opening a new front in Alps and there was no need to move allied troops away from the Western Front. His dying words he whispered to his surgeon: "Always have I wanted to help pay the debt my country has owed to France. Go back to the front and save the living. I am already dead." He was buried in Cannes beside the tomb of A. Kingsley Macomber
, another American, to honor the French Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse
whose fleet had enabled George Washington
to force the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia
in 1781.
(1617–1688) of Hartford, Connecticut
, the first American ancestor of a large number of Burnhams. The descendants of Thomas Burnham have been noted in every American war, including the French and Indian war
.
He had four children:
Frederick Russell Burnham
Frederick Russell Burnham, DSO was an American scout and world traveling adventurer known for his service to the British Army in colonial Africa and for teaching woodcraft to Robert Baden-Powell, thus becoming one of the inspirations for the founding of the international Scouting Movement.Burnham...
. He traveled the world, frequently worked as a mining engineer and, during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, he became an intelligence officer
Intelligence officer
An intelligence officer is a person employed by an organization to collect, compile and/or analyze information which is of use to that organization...
and spy
SPY
SPY is a three-letter acronym that may refer to:* SPY , ticker symbol for Standard & Poor's Depositary Receipts* SPY , a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps* SPY , airport code for San Pédro, Côte d'Ivoire...
for the government of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He had a wooden leg which he used to conceal tools for spying when he was behind enemy lines.
Early life
Burnham was born to a missionaryMissionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
family on a Sioux
Sioux
The Sioux are Native American and First Nations people in North America. The term can refer to any ethnic group within the Great Sioux Nation or any of the nation's many language dialects...
Indian reservation in Tivoli, Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
(near Mankato
Mankato, Minnesota
Mankato is a city in Blue Earth, Nicollet, and Le Sueur counties in the U.S. state of Minnesota. The population was 39,309 at the 2010 census, making it the fourth largest city in Minnesota outside of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The county seat of Blue Earth County, it is located...
), just before his family moved to Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
. He was named after his cousin Lieutenant Howard Mather Burnham
Howard Mather Burnham
Lt. Howard Mather Burnham , is best known for having fought and died at the Battle of Chickamauga in Georgia, during the American Civil War.-Early life:...
, a United States Army Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
officer who was killed in action at in the Battle of Chickamauga
Battle of Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga, fought September 19–20, 1863, marked the end of a Union offensive in southeastern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia called the Chickamauga Campaign...
. His father, the Rev. Edwin Otway Burnham
Edwin Otway Burnham
Rev Edwin Otway Burnham was a Congregational minister.He was born in Ghent, Kentucky, his father died when he was 5 and his mother died the following year. He and his younger sister, Caroline, moved to Madison, New York to live with their grandfather Abner Burnham, a soldier of the Revolutionary...
of Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, a long time frontiersman and missionary died when Burnham was only 3, leaving the family destitute. He and his mother, Rebecca (Elizabeth) Russell Burnham, originally from Westminster
Westminster
Westminster is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster, England. It lies on the north bank of the River Thames, southwest of the City of London and southwest of Charing Cross...
, Middlesex
Middlesex
Middlesex is one of the historic counties of England and the second smallest by area. The low-lying county contained the wealthy and politically independent City of London on its southern boundary and was dominated by it from a very early time...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, left to live with an Uncle in Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
, but his brother Fred, then 12, stayed in California to repay the family debts and to make his own way.
At 14, Burnham was in school in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
. Ill with an injured leg, his brother sent him the money to return to Los Angeles. His leg was removed four inches below the knee. He also suffered from tuberculosis
Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis, MTB, or TB is a common, and in many cases lethal, infectious disease caused by various strains of mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body...
and following the amputation he had a long convalescence. For those two years he lived with his brother who taught him how to shoot, saddle a horse and pack animal, the art of scoutcraft
Scoutcraft
Scoutcraft is a term used to cover a variety of woodcraft knowledge and skills required by people seeking to venture into wild country and sustain themselves independently. The term has been adopted by Scouting organizations to reflect skills and knowledge which are felt to be a core part of the...
and how to ride the range, and all of this in spite of his wooden leg. A voracious reader with an amazing memory, he enjoyed books on military strategies and tactics, and was fascinated by history, geology
Geology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, metallurgy
Metallurgy
Metallurgy is a domain of materials science that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements, their intermetallic compounds, and their mixtures, which are called alloys. It is also the technology of metals: the way in which science is applied to their practical use...
, and mining. He roamed the deserts from Death Valley
Death Valley
Death Valley is a desert valley located in Eastern California. Situated within the Mojave Desert, it features the lowest, driest, and hottest locations in North America. Badwater, a basin located in Death Valley, is the specific location of the lowest elevation in North America at 282 feet below...
to lower California, living among and learning from the Cahuilla
Cahuilla
The Cahuilla, Iviatim in their own language, are Indians with a common culture whose ancestors inhabited inland areas of southern California 2,000 years ago. Their original territory included an area of about . The traditional Cahuilla territory was near the geographic center of Southern California...
Indians of Agua Caliente (now Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs, California
Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...
), and teaming up at times with solitary prospectors to learn desert prospecting, pocket hunting, and the mysteries of the "great horn spoon" (probably the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
).
In 1888, during one of his desert prospecting excursions, Burnham had a shoot-out with an Indian (not Cahuilla). He was on an old trail leading over the mountains between Kawia and San Jacinto
San Jacinto
San Jacinto is Spanish for Saint Hyacinth; as a place name, it may refer to:* San Jacinto, Bolívar, Colombia* San Jacinto, Chiquimula, Guatemala* San Jacinto, Comondú, Mexico* San Jacinto, Lerdo, Mexico* San Jacinto, Ancash Region, Peru...
and less than an hour before the attack he met an Indian with whom he had a conversation in Spanish. Burnham continued on the trail until he heard a slight raport and felt something hit his right leg, and then a second report resulting in a flesh wound to his left leg. He immediately threw himself flat on the ground and commenced cautiously eyeing the surrounding country for the enemy. When saw a hat rising from behind a rock about 150 yards away, he drew his pistol and fired on the hat. His enemy fled down the Los Coyotes creek, down the canyon trail Burnham had been following, with the intent to assume a new ambush. Burnham recognized his enemy as the Indian he had met a short time earlier and he knew that this Indian was carrying a Winchester rifle and had him out gunned. Burnham left his pack animal, tools, provisions and blankets and quickly fled with on his horse down a steep cliff away from the trail and to safety in San Jacinto.
For the next few years, Burnham studied mining and worked on and off in the California desert as mining engineer at the Alvord mine, a gold mine owned and operated by the Burnham-Clapp family and their Pasadena business partners 1885–1891. He received his professional mining certification from the Pacific Chemical Works of San Francisco, an assay company owned and operated by Henry Garber Hanks, the first State Mineralogist for California.
Africa
After the Alvord mine in California was destroyed in a fire, Burnham stayed in California until 1894 to wrap up his family's affairs with the mine and left for the South African RepublicSouth African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
as soon as he could to join his brother Fred already in Bulawayo, Matabeleland
Bulawayo
Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...
. He soon found work as a mining engineer and was in charge of the assay laboratory and smelting room at the Langlaagte Royal Mine in the Transvaal
South African Republic
The South African Republic , often informally known as the Transvaal Republic, was an independent Boer-ruled country in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century. Not to be confused with the present-day Republic of South Africa, it occupied the area later known as the South African...
. In 1895, he was preparing to accompany his brother in a massive expedition into Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia
Northern Rhodesia was a territory in south central Africa, formed in 1911. It became independent in 1964 as Zambia.It was initially administered under charter by the British South Africa Company and formed by it in 1911 by amalgamating North-Western Rhodesia and North-Eastern Rhodesia...
when he took ill and was forced to leave for Europe to recuperate. He left for Germany
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
accompanied by his nephew Roderick, and the two of them then went to London, England. In 1895, he married his first wife Margaret. He returned to the United States and from 1896-1898 attended the Michigan Mining School (now Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological University is a public research university located in Houghton, Michigan, United States. Its main campus sits on on a bluff overlooking Portage Lake...
), graduating with an S.B. By September 1898, he and his wife were back in Africa and he was working for an English syndicate and supervising over 2,000 miners at the Rosa deep gold mine near Johannesburg, South Africa. While in the Transvaal, Burnham was a chief chemist, an engineer, and an assistant inspector for mines, and he wrote a textbook: Modern Mine Valuation.
When the Second Boer War
Second Boer War
The Second Boer War was fought from 11 October 1899 until 31 May 1902 between the British Empire and the Afrikaans-speaking Dutch settlers of two independent Boer republics, the South African Republic and the Orange Free State...
broke out in 1899, Burnham felt he would be protected because of his American citizenship. Initially he remained at his post in the mines in the Boer Republic, but as a precaution he sent his wife to Cape Town, South Africa, then a British colony. But the situation in Johannesburg quickly worsened. The Boers seized the mine and began working it for their own benefit. Burnham traveled to East London, South Africa to inform the syndicate directors of the situation. He was captured by the British and held 24 hrs before he could prove that he was an American citizen. When he started back to Johannesburg, he was captured by the Boers who took him for a British spy. For a time he was uncertain if he would be shot or hanged. He wired his family for funds to help get him out of his predicament. Only weeks earlier, his brother had been prospecting in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
during the Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
when he received a telegram from Lord Roberts
Frederick Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts
Field Marshal Frederick Sleigh Roberts, 1st Earl Roberts, Bt, VC, KG, KP, GCB, OM, GCSI, GCIE, KStJ, PC was a distinguished Indian born British soldier who regarded himself as Anglo-Irish and one of the most successful British commanders of the 19th century.-Early life:Born at Cawnpore, India, on...
requesting his assistance in the war – Fred left for Africa within the hour. Fred Burnham had just been appointed Chief of Scouts for the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
and was en route to South Africa via England, but he was still too distant to provide any immediate help.
Over the next few years, he lived in both England and South Africa. He gave lectures and contributed a series of articles on mining techniques and the sundry principles underlying the finance of mining enterprises, more especially the "risk rate." In London on November 18, 1903, Burnham married Constance Newton, then a young school teacher and an heiress to Newton, Chambers & Company
Newton, Chambers & Company
It was in 1789 that George Newton and Thomas Chambers entered into a partnership that would result in the founding of one of England's largest industrial companies of that era, Newton, Chambers & Co.-History:...
, whom he had met on the ship during their voyage to South Africa. From 1905 until about 1908, Burnham was a non-resident follow at the Royal Colonial Institute in London.
Mexico
While his wife and children stayed in England and France, Burnham returned to North America in 1907 and for the next few years became associated with the Yaqui RiverYaqui River
The Yaqui River is a river in the state of Sonora in northwestern Mexico. Being the largest river system in the state of Sonora, the Yaqui river is used for irrigation....
irrigation project in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
with his brother Fred. In 1908, he and W. A. Wadham of London, England, took a month long geology and mining trip though Sonora on behalf of American and English business partners. Negotiations were made for the purchase of four properties: the Batue, Mequite, La Fiera, and another property. He considered the La Fiera to be the best of the lot and a small force of men under the supervision of John Anderson was put to work there. His brother purchased water rights and some 300 acres (1.2 km²) of land in this region and contacted an old friend of the Burnhams from Africa, John Hays Hammond
John Hays Hammond
John Hays Hammond was a famous mining engineer, diplomat, and philanthropist. Known as the man with the midas touch, he amassed a sizable fortune before the age of 40. An early advocate of deep-level mining, Hammond was given complete charge of Cecil Rhodes' mines in South Africa and made each...
, who conducted his own studies and then purchased an additional 900000 acres (3,642.2 km²) of this land—an area the size of Rhode Island
Rhode Island
The state of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, more commonly referred to as Rhode Island , is a state in the New England region of the United States. It is the smallest U.S. state by area...
. Just as the irrigation and mining projects were nearing completion in 1912, a long series of Mexican revolutions
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
began. The final blow to Burnham-Hammond plans came in 1917 when Mexico passed laws prohibiting the sale of land to foreigners. The Burnham and the Hammond families carried their properties until 1930 and then sold them to the Mexican government.
World War I Espionage
During World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Burnham worked in intelligence for France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. In 1914, he was incarcerated near Tampico, Mexico as a suspected spy, and was released with the help of William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
, then U.S. Secretary of State. He immediately left Mexico for France and stopped in Barcelona, Spain his way to Algiers, Algeria, then a French colony that the German Intelligence had infiltrated to support of the rebels. He was sent on a dangerous mission to lead 28 soldiers into the desert, meet with the rebels, and persuade them to make peace with the French. On the way, the group encountered a hostile clan, lost 20 men, exhausted all of their ammunition, and were taken prisoner. All were executed, except Burnham. A sheik elder with the clan had earlier gotten into trouble with the French in Algiers and Burnham had come to his defense, leading to the release of the man. Burnham returned to Algiers alone and was then sent to France.
In 1917, French intelligence then sent Burnham across enemy lines as a spy to discover if the Germans were preparing a new front through the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
. Traveling through neutral Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, Burnham assumed his former identity as an American mining engineer and crossed into Germany on the plea of extreme ill-health – his tuberculosis had violently resurfaced. Burnham had spent much time before the war in German spas, and his work for the French intelligence had been classified, so the real reason for his near-death return was not suspected by the authorities. Additionally, he was traveling with large quantities of American gold coins for his treatment and gold was desperately needed in wartime Germany. Nevertheless, Burnham was both searched and closely watched throughout his stay.
While in Germany, Burnham applied his engineering skills to converting simple household materials in useful surveying instruments, and he used his wooden leg to conceal these tools when he traveled to places such as Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim
Bad Nauheim is a town in the Wetteraukreis district of Hesse state of Germany. , Bad Nauheim has a population of 30,365. The town is located approximately 35 kilometers north of Frankfurt am Main, on the east edge of the Taunus mountain range. It is a world-famous resort, noted for its salt...
. Due to the high cost of his treatments, $500 a month paid in gold, Burnham was a welcome visitor at every resort in Germany. Still, all of his correspondence was reviewed and at the insistence of German authorities he was frequently escorted by one or more nurses and a private secretary. Since he was unable to permanently record his surveys and other findings on paper, he relied on his remarkable memory.
Burnham became very ill and was allowed to return to Switzerland for his health. The French government quickly transported Burnham to Cannes, France. From his death bed, Burnham shared his secrets with other intelligence officers and the French government transported his family from England to Cannes. The data Burnham had gathered was convincing: the Germans were not opening a new front in Alps and there was no need to move allied troops away from the Western Front. His dying words he whispered to his surgeon: "Always have I wanted to help pay the debt my country has owed to France. Go back to the front and save the living. I am already dead." He was buried in Cannes beside the tomb of A. Kingsley Macomber
A. Kingsley Macomber
Abraham Kingsley Macomber was an American adventurer, businessman, philanthropist, Thoroughbred-racehorse owner and breeder...
, another American, to honor the French Admiral François Joseph Paul de Grasse
François Joseph Paul de Grasse
Lieutenant Général des Armées Navales François-Joseph Paul, marquis de Grasse Tilly, comte de Grasse was a French admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake, which led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown...
whose fleet had enabled George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
to force the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown, Virginia
Yorktown is a census-designated place in York County, Virginia, United States. The population was 220 in the 2000 census. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in colonial Virginia in 1634....
in 1781.
Family
Burnham was a descendant of Thomas BurnhamThomas Burnham
Thomas Burnham was born in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. A lawyer and landowner, he arrived in the American Colonies in 1637, and lived most of his adult live in Connecticut. He was among the earliest puritan settlers in Connecticut, living in Podunk and finally settling in Hartford,...
(1617–1688) of Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital of the U.S. state of Connecticut. The seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960, it is the second most populous city on New England's largest river, the Connecticut River. As of the 2010 Census, Hartford's population was 124,775, making...
, the first American ancestor of a large number of Burnhams. The descendants of Thomas Burnham have been noted in every American war, including the French and Indian war
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
.
He had four children:
- Frederick Newton Burnham (Aug 25, 1904–1959), b. LydenburgLydenburgLydenburg is a town in Mpumalanga, South Africa. The town is slated to be renamed Mashishing, according to an announcement made on June 30, 2006 by the South African Minister of Arts and Culture, Pallo Jordan. Lydenburg is situated on the Sterkspruit/Dorps River tributary of the Olifants River at...
, Republic of South Africa. d. Hastings, England - Thomas Chambers Burnham (May 14, 1906–2004), b. ChapeltownChapeltownChapeltown or Chapletown may refer to:*Chapeltown, Lancashire, a village in the borough of Blackburn with Darwen*Chapeltown, South Yorkshire, a suburb of Sheffield**Chapeltown Central railway station**Chapeltown railway station...
, SheffieldSheffieldSheffield is a city and metropolitan borough of South Yorkshire, England. Its name derives from the River Sheaf, which runs through the city. Historically a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and with some of its southern suburbs annexed from Derbyshire, the city has grown from its largely...
, England; d. Key Largo, FloridaKey Largo, FloridaKey Largo is a census-designated place in Monroe County, Florida, United States, located on the island of Key Largo in the upper Florida Keys. The population was 11,886 at the 2000 census. The name comes from the Spanish Cayo Largo, or "long key"...
. - Mary Burnham (May 29, 1909–1987), b. LimpsfieldLimpsfieldLimpsfield is a village and parish in the east of the county of Surrey, England near Oxted at the foot of the North Downs. It lies between the A25 to the south and the M25 motorway to the north, near the Clackett Lane service station...
, SurreySurreySurrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, England; d. London, England - Katherine "Kitty" Burnham (October 9, 1911–1999), b. Saint-MaloSaint-MaloSaint-Malo is a walled port city in Brittany in northwestern France on the English Channel. It is a sub-prefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine.-Demographics:The population can increase to up to 200,000 in the summer tourist season...
, BrittanyBrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
, France; d. Tormarton, Bath, EnglandTormartonTormarton is a village in South Gloucestershire, England. Its name comes from Thor Maer Tun meaning The settlement with the thorn on the boundary. It is one mile North-East of junction 18 of the M4 motorway, with the A46 road and close to the border between Wiltshire and South Gloucestershire. As...