Daniel Mark Burbank - 1770
Son of (Lieutenant) Daniel Burbank was born 7 Mar 1770 in Williamstown
Massachusetts, and wife Margaret Pynchon. This was written by
His son Daniel Mark Burbank. When I (Daniel Mark) was five years
of age, my father started west with two other families. They
built a flat bottom boat on the Monongahela River at a Place
called Ologam Point. . . it being one of the forks of the Ohio
River. We came on down the river to Cincinnati, Ohio and resided
there until in the spring of the year of 1820, at which time
my father and family and one of the other families again started
down the Ohio River until we came to a place called Shawncetown,
Gallatin County, Illinois, situated on the west bank of the Ohio
River.
From this place we traveled west into Hamilton County Illinois four miles west of Maloansboro, This being the county seat of Hamilton County. Here we lived for sometime when two of my older sisters Sophia and taisa married two brothers--Sophia to Ennis Maulding and Loisa to William Maulding. From this place we moved to Swiring Point--in Morgan County, Illinois and from there into Exeter, Scott County, Illinois.
Here at Exeter, July 14, 1826, my Mother (Margaret Pynchon Burbank) died leaving me only 12 years old and one brother yet younger Augustun.
My sisters Aveline and Margaret then kept house for my father. Then my sister Margaret. Married Adam Coonrad and lived at Exeter. Then my father moved one mile south on a farm. At this time Avelion married Orlando Kellogg and soon after my father married a widow by the name of Adams. She had four girls and two boys, and they came to live with us on the farm. Then my sister Aveline Kellogg was a captain of a steamboat then running on the Illinois River, and my youngest brother Augustin went to live with them.
We lived on the farm until 1828, when we moved again to a place called Meredosia, Morgan, county, Illinois, on the Illinois River. Here my father bought land that lay along the river and built a home and made other improvements.
In the year 1830, I started
with my youngest sister Mary Ann, by water for Cincinnati, Ohio
where my oldest brother Lester lived, to learn the trade of carpenter.
Our leaving my father, left him with none of his real children
at home,and he being guiet feeble, having the use of his right
hand lost by a felon, which was irritated and brought on by the
brutal care of his second wife and doctor. They sought to destroy
him and take away his means. They made all preparations one morning
to cut off his hand. When I asked him if he was going to have it
done he said, "My son I don't know what is best.." He
was in very poor health and confined to his bed. I said, "Father
don't have it cut off." There-upon, the doctor told me to
shut up my mouth and the old women clinched me by the hair of the
head and ordered me out of the house. Father covered up his face
with the sheets and wept. I sent for my brother-in-law, Adam Conrad
and he took father home to his house. There he was cared for and
his hand got well, but withered down until it was nothing 
but skin
and bone. He stayed with his son-in-law for some time and then
went to Cincinnati and spent the summer with his eldest son, Lester.
In the fall of 1832 he went back to his home and found his wife married illegally to a man by the name of Brown and his property all used up. After going to his home, he did not find Brown at home. His wife urged him to take breakfast, this he refused but took a cup of coffee instead. He became ill shortly after and went back to Meredosia and took a room in a hotel. He grew worse and started to vomit violently and only lived three or four days. It was said by the neighbors and doctor that this woman had poisoned him to death. His body was taken to the town of Exeter, Illinois and buried by the side of his first wife, Margaret Pynchon Burbank in a cemetery west. of town on a high rolling ridge.