John Coleman Burnett, assistant general freight agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railway, at Topeka, is a native Kansan, having been born at Lawrence, May 22, 1866. He is a son of Jonathan Coleman Burnett, a lawyer by profession, born in Morrisville, Vt., in 1825, who came to Kansas in 1857, and bore a conspicuous part in the struggle to make Kansas a free state. He was the author of much of the text matter of the state's first constitution adopted by the Wyandotte convention, of which he was a very prominent member, and also served as land commissioner of Kansas, receiving his appointment from Abraham Lincoln. In the passing of Jonathan Coleman Burnett, in 1899, Kansas lost one of its prominent pioneers and one of its most public spirited citizens, of whose life and work more detailed mention is made elsewhere in this work. The mother of John Coleman Burnett was Anna Mary Fisk, who still survives and resides in Lawrence.

John C. Burnett was reared in Lawrence, Kan., and received his early education in that city. In 1888 he entered the employ of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway Company and has remained in its employ for the past twenty-two years, advancing step by step from his first humble position to those of greater trust and responsibility until Feb. 1, 1910, when he was made assistant general freight agent. A short recapitulation of his advancement is as follows:

On March 11, 1891, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Josephine Bailey of Topeka, but a native of Ohio. To them have been born two children: Kenneth, born Oct. 7, 1892, and Mary, born Jan. 13, 1898. Mr. Burnett is a member of the Masonic order, in which he has attained the degree of Knight Templar, and is a Noble of the Mystic Shrine. He is also a member of the Commercial and the Country clubs of Topeka.