Col. James Burd
Highspire, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
"Tinian," home of Col. Burd, is still standing on the opposite hill. Burd was road-builder of Braddock's expedition; French and Indian war commandant at Fort Augusta. Patriot and a soldier in the Revolution.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
From his home "Tinian" on the Susquehanna, Col. James Burd served the frontier in the French and Indian War, helping cut roads for Gen. Edward Braddock's ill-fated 1755 expedition and later commanding at Fort Augusta, a key defensive post upriver at Sunbury. When the Revolution came, the veteran soldier again took up the patriot cause. His house, the marker notes, still stood on the opposite hill.
Why it matters
Burd embodies the Pennsylvania frontier officer whose road-building and fort command opened the interior a generation before he turned that experience to the Revolution.
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Related people
- · Col. James Burd
- · Gen. Edward Braddock
Related events
- · Braddock's Expedition (1755)
- · French and Indian War
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Burd Tombs
Middletown, PA · est. 1946
Col. James Burd was among the frontier soldiers who fought in the French and Indian War, the 1750s–60s struggle that pushed European powers and their Native allies across the Pennsylvania backcountry. From his estate "Tinian," Burd also helped author the Middletown Resolves in June 1774, one of many local declarations of grievance that swept the colonies on the eve of the Revolution. He and his wife, Sarah Shippen — of a prominent Pennsylvania family — lie buried near the entrance of the Middletown Cemetery.
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Col. Timothy Green
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Timothy Green's life traced the whole arc of Pennsylvania's revolutionary generation. He first bore arms as an officer in the French and Indian War, then in June 1774 joined his neighbors in signing the Hanover Resolves, a bold early declaration of readiness to resist British authority. Through the Revolution that followed he stood out as a leader of this Susquehanna-region community, and he rests today in the graveyard just south of the marker.
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