Charles Hiram Burnett (1847 – January 9, 1916), was the first

Treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

of the

City of Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of ...

1869-1872, a

commission merchant A merchant is a person who trades in commodities produced by other people, especially one who trades with foreign countries. Historically, a merchant is anyone who is involved in business or trade. Merchants have operated for as long as industry ...

and the General Superintendent of various coal mines in

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

and

Pierce Pierce may refer to: Places Canada * Pierce Range, a mountain range on Vancouver Island, British Columbia United States * Pierce, Colorado * Pierce, Idaho * Pierce, Illinois * Pierce, Kentucky * Pierce, Nebraska * Pierce, Texas * Pierce, We ...

Counties on Puget Sound in the state of Washington.

Family

Burnett was the son of

Hiram Burnett Hiram Burnett (July 5, 1817 at Southborough, Massachusetts – 1906, in Seattle, Washington) was a well-known pioneer of the Puget Sound country, and an honored citizen of Seattle. Family and early life His parents were Charles Ripley Burne ...

and Elizabeth Merriam Gibbs Burnett of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

, Washington. He married Jeanette Campbell McLean and they had two children Amy Louise and Charles Hiram Jr. When his wife died young he continued living with his in laws, his mother in law Georgia McLean for almost forty years from his marriage to her daughter to her decease. His son Charles Hiram Burnett Jr. was a Seattle City Councilor, President of the

Seattle City Council The Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-lar ...

and Acting Mayor of Seattle. Burnett officiated at the grand opening of

Pike Place Market Pike Place Market is a public market in Seattle, Washington, United States. It opened on August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. Overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront on Pu ...

with fellow City Councilor

Thomas P. Revelle Reverend Thomas Plummer Revelle (1868 – July 5, 1937) was an American attorney, Washington State Republican Party, Republican politician, and preacher, who was a proponent for the founding of Seattle, Seattle's Pike Place Market. Biography ...

Charles_Hiram_Burnett%2C_Jr%2C_1906_%28PORTRAITS_1711%29

Charles H. Burnett Jr. was born in 1875 in Seattle, Washington. He was the son of Charles Hiram Burnett Sr and Jeanette McLean. Jeanette died when Charles Hiram Burnett Jr and his sister Amy Louise Burnett Bond were children. Amy was raised during high school as a ward in the household of Howard Cranston Potter and Alice Kershaw Potter. The Potters daughter Bertha Potter Paschall Boeing was the wife of

William Boeing William Edward Boeing (; October 1, 1881 – September 28, 1956) was an American aviation pioneer who founded the Pacific Airplane Company in 1916, which a year later was renamed to The Boeing Company, now the largest exporter in the United S ...

. Charles Hiram Burnett Jr. was active in Puget Sound real estate and insurance businesses. Charles H. Burnett Jr. was also active in the Washington poultry and egg industry as a breeder, agricultural fair judge and lobbyist. The family were involved with development of made land created by the lowering of the surface of

Lake Washington Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest natural lake in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It borders the cities of Seattle on the west, ...

in 1916. Charles Burnett Jr.'s wife was Mary Florence Goodfellow of Seattle, and

Wenatchee, Washington Wenatchee ( ) is the county seat and largest city of Chelan County, Washington, United States. The population within the city limits in 2010 was 31,925, and was estimated to have increased to 34,360 as of 2019. Located in the north-central part ...

. Three of Mary's brothers, John, James, and George Goodfellow founded West Coast and Hawaii construction firm Goodfellow Brothers. Charles Burnett Jr. moved to Maui, Hawaii about 1935 with his wife to be near their son. They lived at Haiku Plantation

Haiku-Pauwela, Hawaii Haiku-Pauwela ( haw, Haikū-Pauwela) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Maui County, Hawaii, United States, consisting of the village of Haiku, Hawaii and the hamlet of Pauwela. Haiku itself is an unincorporated community. The population was 8, ...

, and owned Haiku Poultry Farm. Charles Hiram Burnett Jr. died in May 1941, and his wife Mary died in March 1962. Their son Charles H. "Buster" Burnett III born 1902 died 1967 moved to

Maui The island of Maui (; Hawaiian: ) is the second-largest of the islands of the state of Hawaii at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2) and is the 17th largest island in the United States. Maui is the largest of Maui County's four islands, which ...

where he worked for

Alexander & Baldwin Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last ...

in a series of management jobs and eventually became manager of Pu'unene Sugarmill in Pu'unene, Hawaii in 1962.

Business

In April 1867 Hiram Burnett published a legal notice in the newspaper that his minor son Charles Hiram Burnett was free to go into business with S. B. Hinds. He was in partnership first with Hinds then after their firm merged with Corliss P. Stone he was a junior partner in Hinds, Stone & Co.. When Hinds left the firm became Stone, Burnett. They developed real estate, built a pier with warehouses and they sold wagons and carriages. They were the first merchants to use the Pike Street coal bunker to stock and ship Washington coal. Charles Hiram Burnett managed Seattle's first commercial delivery service. Charles Hiram Burnett met his wife because father in law Charles Edward McLean operated a Puget Sound delivery boat. In 1873 his partner Corliss P, Stone then also Mayor of Seattle unilaterally removed the liquid funds from their partnership turned full ownership over to Burnett and then temporarily absconded. Charles Hiram Burnett was put in charge of the sale of shares, house lots and coal for the Renton Coal mines of

Renton, Washington Renton is a city in King County, Washington, and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated southeast of downtown Seattle, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington, at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 2020 census, the ...

. Among the other executives involved with Burnett in Renton Coal and other subsequent coal mines were Charles B. Shattuck and

Erasmus M. Smithers Erasmus M. Smithers (February 17, 1830 – November 20, 1905) was one of the European pioneers of the Pacific coast and the founder of the city of Renton, King County, Washington. His wife and her first husband had settled on the land where the to ...

. Subsequently, Charles Hiram Burnett spent time managing operations at several other Washington locations. He was the founder of the village of

Burnett, Washington Burnett is an unincorporated community in Pierce County, Washington, United States. It is located just south of Buckley, Washington. It is on State Route 165 between Buckley, Washington and Mount Rainier National Park. A post office called Bur ...

and the first owner of the land created by the lowering of

that is now the

Boeing Renton Factory The Boeing Renton Factory is the Boeing Company's manufacturing facility for narrow-body commercial airliners, and their military derivatives. Current production includes the Boeing 737 MAX passenger airliner and the Boeing P-8 Poseidon military ...

in Renton, Washington. He died at the Savoy Hotel in Seattle on January 9, 1916. In the city of Renton, Charles Burnett has an avenue, a park and a train station named after him. While Charles Hiram Burnett's daughter Amy was in finishing school in Tacoma she lived as a ward with her father's friends Mr. Howard Cranston Potter Jr. and Alice Kershaw Potter the parents of Bertha Potter Boeing (Mrs.

). Howard Cranston Potter was member of a family prominent in the New York Episcopal clergy. Potter was also a descendant through his mother of merchant bankers Alexander Brown of Baltimore founder of the firm Alex Brown, his grandfather was James Brown of Brown Bros. & Co. and his father was Brown's son-in-law and partner philanthropist

Howard Potter Howard Potter (July 8, 1826 – March 24, 1897) was an American industrialist, investment banker, diplomat and philanthropist, and a partner in Brown Bros. & Co. Early life Potter was born in Schenectady, New York on July 8, 1826. He was the sec ...

John Crosby Brown "One Hundred Years of Merchant Banking" the History of Brown Bros. & Co. note on Howard Potter
/ref> of New York. Alice Kershaw Potter was the daughter of Milwaukee grain and lumber merchant

Charles James Kershaw Charles James Kershaw was a businessman born in Burnley, Lancashire, England, in 1832. He came to America in 1841, and received his education at the Derby Line Academy, in Derby Line, Orleans County, Vermont. He came West in 1853, and engaged in ...

. Amy Louise Burnett became the wife of

Marshall Latham Bond Marshall Latham Bond was one of two brothers who were Jack London's landlords and among his employers during the autumn of 1897 and the spring of 1898 during the Klondike Gold Rush. They were the owners of the dog that London fictionalized as Bu ...

and Charles Hiram Burnett Jr. Seattle City Councilor, Council President and Acting Mayor of Seattle. Charles Hiram Burnett Jr.'s wife was Mary Florence Goodfellow.

References

Sources

Seattle City TreasurersHistoryLink Essay: Voters elect Corliss P. Stone as mayor of the City of Seattle on July 8, 1872HistoryLink Essay: Seattle Mayor Corliss P. Stone embezzles $15,000 and runs on February 23, 1873Historical Quarterly 19.p65

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Burnett Sr, Charles Hiram People from Pierce County, Washington People from King County, Washington History of Renton, Washington People from Renton, Washington 1847 births 1916 deaths