Abram B. BurnettA Kansas Portrait
Chief Burnett's Pottawatomi name was Nan-Wesh-Mah. He was born on the north side of the Tippecanoe River near Muncie, Indiana in November, 1812, the son of Potawatomi Chief Shau-Uque-Be and Cone-Zo-Quah, the daughter of Chief Chebaas. At the time, the Potawatomi were a powerful tribe, numbering perhaps 10,000. He was educated at a Baptist missionary school for Indian children in Fort Wayne, Indiana. That school was under the direction of the Reverend Isaac McCoy, a famous missionary who was involved in the establishment of Indian reservations in Kansas for eastern tribes, including the Potawatomi. Nan-Wesh-Mah served as one of McCoy's principal interpreters during the 1820's. He was an important mediator for the Potawatomi tribe. After his father died when he was young, he was adopted by his mother's cousin, Abraham Burnett, and took his name, but came to be known as Abram B. Burnett. In 1838, Burnett and his Potawatomi bride, Dah-Moosh-Ke-Keaw, were removed with other Mission Band Potawatomis to a reservation in southeast Kansas. His first wife died in 1842 and in 1843, he remarried to a German Catholic immigrant, Marie Kofflock. In 1848 Chief Burnett moved to the area that was later to become Topeka. In Topeka he farmed a large plot of land near Burnett's mound along Shunganunga Creek and traded horses. Chief Burnett was an impressive figure. He was a physically large and powerful man, reportedly weighing over 450 pounds in his later years. He typically dressed in a coat and trousers and wore a tie when occasions demanded. He often wore a dress hat and carried an elaborate cane with a German silver mount and engraved triangular-shaped blade. Burnett died June 14, 1870 on his farm near Topeka and his wife and children moved to the Potawatomi reservation in Oklahoma. For additional information about Abram B. Burnett and his family, please
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Burnett's Mound is a prominent bluff top on the south
edge of Topeka that is a local landmark and reference point. It is a
natural formation, but legend says that it is the burial mound of a
native Indian chief, Abram B. Burnett. Burnett was an Indian chief,
but he was not a native Kansan nor was he buried on this bluff. His
remains are in a graveyard south and west of the large bluff.
