From the pages of his own 1924 Beachwood Directory and Who’s Who, here is what William Mill Butler wrote about original residents Mr. and Mrs. Warren T. Burnett. Click on all the embedded links for a broader understanding of his life and background:
Burnett, Warren T., west side Beachwood Boulevard, Block B-28. All-year resident.
Mr. Burnett was born in Seneca Falls, N.Y. His parents removed to Yonkers, where he attended the public schools. At sixteen years of age he struck out for himself at Maplewood, N.J., where he started in the oil business and succeeded on a capital of $5. He told us the story in his quiet, humorous way, and it is so good that we shall try to reproduce it as an example of what a plucky and honest American lad can do.
“I wished to get up a route to sell kerosene oil,” he said, “but I had no horse or wagon. I happened to read in a paper the advertisement of a man in Orange Valley who wanted to sell a rig. So I went to see him and told him I would like to buy the horse and outfit. ‘But,’ said I, ‘I have no money.’ ‘Neither have I,’ he replied, ‘and the horse is starving. Have you any feed?’ I said no, but I would get some. ‘All right,’ he then said, ‘take and try him for two weeks, and if you like him you can pay me fifty dollars for him, wagon and harness and all.’ Then I went to a farmer and said, ‘I want 500 pounds of hay, but have no money to pay for it just at present.’ He replied, ‘All right, back your wagon up and pay me when you can.’ So I got the hay, but how about feed? I went to the mill and said I needed either a bag of feed or a bag of oats. The miller replied, ‘you can have both.’ ‘But,’ I said, ‘I have no money to pay for them yet.’ He looked at me and said, ‘You look as if you would pay for them; you can have them.’
“So far so good. Then I drove down to Newark and saw Mr. McKurgen, what was in the oil business there, and I bought a barrel of oil. It cost me $4.38, and as my entire capital was only $5, it nearly ate it up. I had to have a faucet, but the man in the yard said, ‘We have several lying around here that are not in use and you can have one.’ Then I bought a measure and a funnel for sixty-two cents cash and had twenty cents left. I worked hard and at the end of a whole week I found I had sold just one quart of kerosene; but I had some promises and kept right at it and at the end of another week I found I had sold three barrels. I felt like a young Rockafeller.”
And Warren T. Burnett kept at it for six years, and while he did not amass a fortune like John D., he was able to marry at the age of twenty-three, Miss Mary F. Van Riper, of Newark. After that, with Mrs. Burnett, he removed to Ocean Grove and Asbury Park, where he worked as a carpenter for a time and afterwards became a builder. Later he removed to Newark, and while there went on an excursion to Ocean Gate, with the result that he purchased lots at this resort and opened a store in 1918. In 1921, however, upon seeing Beachwood he and Mrs. Burnett decided to settle here, and they built a two-story dwelling and store combined on Beachwood Boulevard.
Wife, Mrs. Mary F. (Van Riper) Burnett: children, Milton T., Warren F. and Florence Edna Burnett.
Milton T. Burnett, of East Orange, married Cynthia Morris, and their daughter married Jack Wines, of East Orange, and they have a son, Milton, thus making Warren T. Burnett a great-grandfather. His second son, Warren E., of Newark, married Lizzie Richards; they have three children. Florence Edna Burnett married Eugene L. McKee, and they have one child and reside at Gray, in the State of Maine. Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Burnett are members of the Beachwood Property Owners’ Association; Mr. Burnett is a member of Volunteer Fire Co., No. 1, and a trustee of the Fireman’s Benefit Association.
