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Alfred A. Burnham

American politician (1819-1879)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 18, 2026
Entity authorityQ2602761
Source-derived summary

Alfred Avery Burnham (March 8, 1819 – April 11, 1879) was an American politician who was a U.S. Congressman, a lieutenant governor of Connecticut, a speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives, and the clerk of the Connecticut Senate. He worked as a lawyer in Windham, Connecticut.

Biography

Born in Windham, Connecticut, Burnham completed a preparatory course and attended college for one year before studying law. He was admitted to the bar in 1843 and commenced practice in Windham. He served as member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1844, 1845, 1850, and 1858, serving as speaker in 1858. He served as clerk of the Connecticut Senate in 1847, and was the 48th Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut in 1857.

Burnham was elected as a Republican to the Thirty-sixth and Thirty-seventh Congresses (March 4, 1859 – March 3, 1863). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1862. He was again a member of the Connecticut House of Representatives in 1870 and served again as speaker.

He died in Windham, Connecticut, on April 11, 1879, aged 60.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Alfred A. Burnham” as american politician (1819-1879). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alfred, Burnham and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1819, 1879, 1843, 1844—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1819-03-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Alfred, Burnham and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Alfred A. Burnham”, the useful work is to connect “american politician (1819-1879)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 18, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2602761. VIAF identifies the subject as 56521080. The Library of Congress control number is nr98004826. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1819, 1879, 1843 and 1844.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

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Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Alfred A. Burnham” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.