John Otis Barrows

John Otis Burrows was born on August 4, 1833 in Mansfield, Conn. His father was a farmer and John helped on the farm until he was 21 years old. He had a desire to go to college so he taught for two years at Kimball Union Academy, at Meriden NH during the school year and worked on the farm during his vacations. He then entered Amherst, graduating in 1860 with a B.A. He then studied divinity at East-Windsor Hill, Conn. for one year and at Andover Theological Seminary for two years. He worked as a pastor in New Hampshire for six years, then traveled with his family to Cesarea in Asia Minor as a missionary with the American Board and after six or seven years worked in Constantinople for three or four years before returning to the United States. A illness in the family prevented them from going back overseas. Rev. Burrows returned to pastorates in Atkinson, NH and Newington, Conn. He wrote On Horseback in Cappadocia and In the Land of Ararat: a sketch of the life of Mrs. Elizabeth Freeman Barrows Ussher, Missionary to Turkey and a Martyr of the Great War, a book about the life of his daughter (who was married to physician, Clarence Ussher). He wrote poetry later in life.

Dianne Shapiro, from "The Magazine of Poetry: a quarterly review," Vol. V, Charles Wells Moulton, Buffalo, NY, 1893 (accessed online 12/28/2017)