Burns, Silas

Silas Burns died on October 20th, 1876, an accomplished steam engine manufacturer, a wealthy director of the NC Railroad Company, and a state Senator who represented Chatham County. However, prior to those feats, he was an axe maker. Born in Andover, Massachusetts, to Benajah Burns and Sarah Carlton on June 17th of 1804, Burns and his wife, Lydia, moved to the Raleigh area in 1834, where he constructed the first iron foundry in the city on its western outskirts. By 1843 he was noted as a major local supplier of naval store related tools, including  boxing axes, for the turpentine producing industry, which was, at the time, one of the major industries of the state.

   Burns’s work in the capital city of NC would become more readily noted in the 1840s as he did some highly publicized work in the capitol building, which had been recently rebuilt after a fire destroyed the original structure in 1831. His foundry produced the main railing for the Capitol’s grand library staircase, noted as a beautiful addition, in 1843. In 1847, along with stone mason William Stronach, Burns won the contract to construct the stone coping and iron fence surrounding Union Square where the State Capitol was located. The structure was completed in 1848. His involvement in the facilities and structures of the capitol eventually earned him a position as the Superintendent of Public Works for the State of NC, and his popularity in Raleigh would also lead to a position as a state Senator in 1868.

   In 1862, despite continuing work on projects there in Raleigh, Burns and his wife moved to Lockville, along the Deep River near modern day Moncure, where he owned a mining facility and mill.  He would pass away there at Lockville at the age of 82 on October 20th of 1876. He was buried in the City Cemetery of Raleigh. In 1898, during renovation of Union Square and the Capitol Building, Burns’s decorative iron fence was relocated to the cemetery where he was buried, and is still located there today.