Ascension County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....Burnside, John June 29, 1881
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Mary K. Creamer marykcreamer.00@gmail.com March 6, 2023, 2:02 am

source: The Donaldsonville Chief. (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, July 02, 1881, page 2

DEATH OF JOHN BURNSIDE. - On Thursday the melancholy news reached here that Mr. 
John Burnside, known as the Sugar Planter Prince of Louisiana, had died the 
previous evening at Greenbriar White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, whither he had 
gone a few days before in search of health. His ailment was dropsy of the heart. 
Twice last week he was prostrated in his store on Canal street, New Orleans, but 
rallied, and was so much better when he left the city for Virginia that his 
speedy recovery was confidently anticipated by his friends. His death occurred 
shortly after reaching his destination at White Sulphur Springs.

We are unable at this writing to give Mr. Burnside's exact age, but he was far 
advanced in years and had apparently fulfilled man's allotted term of fourscore 
and ten. He was, we believe, a native of Ireland, and attained wealth from small 
beginnings by energy, frugality, sharp business tact and correct habits.

He was the richest and most extensive sugar planter in the United States, owning 
eleven large plantations in Ascension and St. James parishes alone - seven of 
these in Ascension - besides valuable property on other portions of Louisiana 
and lands in Texas with the extent and value of which we are unacquainted. 
Speculation is rife as to the disposition he has made of his wealth and the 
hands into which the management of his large property and planting interests 
will fall, but we prefer to await a more opportune moment for commenting upon 
this subject. Beyond doubt deceased has left a will and its purport will be made 
public in due time.

We knew Mr. Burnside quite well, having been thrown into business contact with 
him about eight years ago. While he was considered by many who were only 
casually acquainted with him to be of a cross and crabbed disposition, there was 
a warm side to his heart and a kindly tendency in his nature that were not hard 
to find if sought in the proper way. The writer of this article will long have 
reason to recall the name of John Burnside with gratitude and esteem for an act 
of disinterested kindness in an hour of need and we doubt not that the record of 
his daily life shows the performance of many a similar deed attesting the innate 
goodness of his heart and his sympathy with the trials of his fellow men. May 
the soul rest lightly on his prostrate form and his spirit wing its flight to 
the choicest realms of bliss which await the souls of mankind beyond the tomb.


source: The Meridional. (Abbeville, La.) 1856-1906, July 09, 1881, Image 2

John Burnside owner of ten of the finest plantations on the Mississippi whose 
sugar crop averaged 450,000 yearly and who owned a palatial residence in one of 
the most fashionable quarters of the city of New Orleans, estimated at $350,00 
died at Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs  Va., at seventy-six of age, of 
Hydrocarditis. He was considered to have been the wealthiest citizen in the 
State of Louisiana, 6,000,000 being supposed to have been his fortune.

 

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