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William T. Burton Collection |
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4.17 linear feet
Archives and Special
Collections Department Biographical Sketch Burton was born on September 25, 1884 in Orange, Texas, where he attended school until the seventh grade. He moved to Sulphur, Louisiana at the age of 17 and for a short time worked for his uncle who was postmaster and railroad agent. In 1914, he was involved in both the mercantile and oil businesses. In 1916, he started in the shell business and began buying land, planting rice, building roads, and running a ferry while rebuilding a sugar mill and farm. He liquidized the old Calcasieu National Bank and formed the Calcasieu-Marine National Bank. He valued education a great deal. Every year he gave a financial gift to each graduating senior of Sulphur High School. He established the William T. and Ethel Lewis Burton scholarship program in which he presented a full four-year college scholarship valued at $4,000 to one graduating senior in each of the public and private high schools in Calcasieu, Cameron, Jeff Davis, and Allen parishes. In 1968, he donated $65,000 to McNeese’s new computer center. He also provided gifts in the medical fields and other civic and cultural activities in the Southwest Louisiana area. He was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by McNeese. Burton died on September 1, 1974.
Scope and Content Note The collection consists of plaques awarded to Burton by various clubs and organizations and photographs of Burton with Junior Livestock Show prize-winning pigs and sheep and the FFA and 4-H members who had raised the animals.
Container List Box 1 Box 2 Box 3 |
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