Burns, Daniel M.

Biographical Sketch

Daniel M. Burns was born in Mississippi in 1846. His father, William Burns, was a well-to-do rancher and farmer. The senior Burns died en route to Oregon in 1847. Burns' mother died in Sacramento two years later. Young Burns was raised by W. A. Selkirk, a man engaged in mining at Independence Hill, California. Burns began to earn his own livelihood as a cattle rancher in 1855. During the Civil War, he served the Fourth California Regiment in Arizona.

On his return to California, he continued ranching and later ran a hotel in Woodland. He served two terms as Yolo County Clerk before being elected Secretary of State for California in 1879. In 1883, he began mining operations in Mexico. He was president of the Candelaria Consolidated Mexican Mining Company At San Dimas. In 1889 he returned to California and settled in San Francisco, where he served as police commissioner and was active in Republican party politics.

From the guide to the Daniel M. Burns Papers, 1888-1926, (The Bancroft Library)