Bio: John William Burgess

John William Burgess was born 1844 in Cornersville, Giles county Tennessee, son of Thomas T Burgess and Mary Judith Edwards. His life followed an interesting course. He grew up in a southern, slave-holding family, but at the time of the Civil War he joined the Union troops as a scout and quartermaster. Following the war he attended Amherst University and Massachusetts, and remained in the Northeastern United States through most of his adult life.

In 1869 he married Augusta Thayer Jones, daughter of Thomas Jones and sister of Samuel Minot Jones. Augusta probably accompanied her husband to Germany in 1871, where he spent several years studying law, history and political science. Upon his return to the United States in 1873, he took a teaching position at Amherst College, and that was followed by a professorship in history, political science, and international law at Columbia University. He was credited with establishing the School of Political Science at that institution.

Augusta Jones Burgess died in 1884, following fifteen years of marriage. She had no children. Shortly after her death, John W Burgess married Ruth Payne (Paine) Jewett, the daughter of Elisha Payne Jewett and Julia Kellogg Field. Ruth was a noted and accomplished artist. John W Burgess and Ruth Jewett had one son, Elisha Payne Jewett Burgess. He married Annette Curren, and had a daughter Ruth Payne Burgess II.

John W Burgess died in 1931 in Brookline Massachusetts. He was eighty-six years old. Ruth Jewett Burgess died several years later in 1934. They are buried in the Green Mount Cemetery at Montpelier, in Washington county Vermont. Their granddaughter, Ruth Payne Burgess II, is also buried there.

According to family information, Ruth Payne Burgess II was married in 1945 to Swiss ambassador, Walter EA Jaeggi, and they were the parents of a daughter, Marie Anna Ruth Annette Jaeggi. It is unknown whether there are living descendants.

A great deal has been written about this interesting family branch. For readers who would like to read further:

John William Burgess; American National Biography; James Farr, online in Feb 2000; http://www.anb.org/articles/14/14-00087.html

Wikipedia: Ruth Payne Burgess; https://en.wiki2.org/wiki/Ruth_Payne_Burgess

Burgess Family Papers; ca 1850 to 1969; MS #0168
Columbia University Library, Archival Collections
A collection of letters and memorabilia of John William Burgess, his wife, Ruth Payne Jewett Burgess, his son Elisha Payne Jewett Burgess, his daughter-in-law, Annette Curnen Burgess, his grand-daughter, Ruth Payne Jewett Burgess, and the Burgess, Jewett, Payne, and Curnen families. The personal correspondence numbering 17 items, covers the period 1908 to 1927 mainly between John and Elisha Burgess. There are two letters of a social nature from Eleanor Roosevelt and Nicholas Murray Butler and one lengthy post card from George Bernard Shaw to Annette Curnen Burgess. Also, memorabilia including portraits, photographs, books, diplomas, and medals.
http://findingaids.cul.columbia.edu/ead/nnc-rb/ldpd_4078564/summary#summary

Reminiscences of an American Scholar: The Beginnings of Columbia University by John W. Burgess: Sometime Ruggles Professor of Political Science and Constitutional Law in Columbia University

Samuel Minot Jones: the story of an Amherst boy; Charles Swan Walker, 1922; http://books.google.com/books/about/Samuel_Minot_Jones.html?id=nvsYAAAAMAAJ

Green Mountains, Dark Tales; Joseph A. Citro, 2001. The chapter on Redstone gives the story of the summer home of John W Burgess and Ruth Payne Jewett.

Do you want to know more?
Link to John William Burgess

Biography of John William Burgess; written by Pamela Hutchison Garrett for John Markham of Chesterfield website; 2015.