My Genealogy Hound

JOHN BOURNE has entered the second half of a century, and, during the last quarter through which he has passed, has witnessed more changes of scene and covered more territory than ordinarily falls to the lot of man. He was born in Fredonia, Chautauqua county, New York, August 22, 1839, and is a son of Thomas and Huldah (Cooley) Bourne. His father was a native of England and emigrated to America in 1832, when he married Huldah Cooley, a native of Vermont, and a school teacher, by whom he had several children. He was a born sailor, graduating from the English service as passed-midshipman when fifteen years of age and eventually becoming a captain in the merchant marine, making twenty-nine trips from England to American ports. In his religious principles he was episcopalian and a member of that church. He died in Fredonia August 31, 1839, nine days after the birth of his son John. His wife (mother) was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and died, aged seventy-three years.

John Bourne was reared in Dunkirk until he was thirteen years old, and then in the country round about, receiving his education in the common schools. At the first extension of the Erie canal he secured a position as ax-man in the engineer corps, with which he remained three years. In 1859 he went to Sheridan, this county, and engaged in farming operations until the summer of 1861, when he enlisted, in August, in Co. D, 72d N. Y. Vols., and served until the close of the war, being honorably discharged at Kingston, New York, in July, 1865. He participated in all the principal battles in which his regiment was engaged and was wounded twice, once in the neck at the battle of Gettysburg by a minie-ball and once by a spent ball at the battle of the Wilderness, which knocked him senseless. Neither wound was sufficiently serious to cause him to be sent to the hospital. After his discharge from the army he came to Dunkirk and was employed as clerk in the office of the United States Express company until 1866, when he went West, where he was employed as messenger and route agent by the same company for three years, and afterward as agent at Paoli, Kansas, for nine months, after which he was engaged in the transfer business for a year at Fort Scott, Kansas. In the latter part of 1870 he was engaged by the Overland Transportation company and placed in charge of the men employed in the transfer of their business to the M. K. & T. R. R., and remained in this position until the M. K. & T. reached Denison, Texas, in 1872 when the contract of the O. T. company was completed. He was then employed by the M. K. & T. R. R. Co., and continued with them until April, 1873, when, at the request of John Buckley, ticket agent at the Erie railroad station in Dunkirk, he came here and accepted a position as clerk and assistant ticket agent in the Union depot. In this service he remained until 1881, when he was appointed ticket agent, which office he now holds with general satisfaction. Politically he is a straight republican and takes an active interest in National, State and local politics. His family are unitarians. He is a member of William O. Stevens Post, G. A. R.

John Bourne was married August, 1866, to Edith Buckley, youngest daughter of John Buckley, of Dunkirk, and has had several children, of whom two sons and two daughters are now living: Philip H., Graham M., Augusta D., and Juliet Madge. While he was at Lime Stone Gap, Indian Territory, in 1872, in the employ of the Overland Transportation company, a daughter, Lilian, was born. She was the only white child of New York parentage ever born in the Indian Territory. Her birthplace was in the reservation of the Choctaw Nation. She was an uncommonly bright and promising child, but was attacked with diphtheria in 1882 and passed beyond to join the angels’ throng.