C. W. Burch, foreman of the Dayton Paper-Mills, was born in Susquehanna County, Pa., Feb. 19, 1846, and in 1859 accompanied his parents to Townsend, Huron, Co., Ohio, and thence, in 1868, to Boone County, Ill. June 1, 1864, he enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Forty-second Illinois Infantry, in the 100-days service, and served till November, 1864. He then returned to Boone County and worked on a farm two years, when he went to Valparaiso, Ind., and learned the paper manufacturing business, which he has followed with the exception of one year when he was in the employ of the Peninsular Railroad. In 1878, he came to La Salle County, and soon after was employed as foreman in the mill of H. B. Williams, who built it in 1878. Mr. Burch was married Dec. 19, 1869, in Battle Creek, Mich., to Mary L. Rust, who was born Feb. 23, 1854, a daughter of John E. and Judith S. (Masters) Rust. She died April 28, 1884, leaving one child – Frederick, born Oct. 31, 1872. He was again married Sept. 24, 1885, to Carrie Larson, of Rutland, La Salle County. In politics Mr. Burch is a Republican. In religious faith he is a Baptist.¹

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1. History of La Salle County, Illinois, 2 vols. (Chicago: Inter-State Publishing Co.,1886), 2: 88-89.