newspaperman, soldier, lecture manager, b. Cuba, N.Y. He moved with his parents to Illinois in 1844, and to Altho, Wis., in 1847. He learned the printing trade on various Fond du Lac County newspapers, and in 1856 worked briefly on the Lawrence (Kans.) Herald of Freedom. From 1860 to 1861 he published the Markesan Journal. During the Civil War, he served as 1st lieutenant with the 3rd Wisconsin Cavalry (1861-1865), and after the close of the war was commissioned a major. One of the survivors of the Baxter Springs (Kans.) massacre of Oct. 6, 1863, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his part in this battle. From 1865 to 1874 he worked at various jobs in the West, and in 1874 moved to Boston to join the staff of James Redpath's lyceum lecture bureau. In 1875 he became co-owner of the bureau, and in 1879 opened his own office in New York, where he managed the lecture tours of Mark Twain, Bill Nye (q.v.), Henry Ward Beecher, and many others. He was the author of two books recounting his experiences with famous personalities, and of an article for Century Magazine which told of his pioneer boyhood. He died in Jersey City, N.J. Dict. Amer. Biog.; Who Was Who in Amer. (1943); Wis. Mag. Hist., 36.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the James Burton Pond Papers for details.

View newspaper clippings at Wisconsin Local History and Biography Articles.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]