lawyer, soldier, newspaperman, politician, b. Oneida County, N.Y. He moved with his parents to Waukesha in 1850. He graduated from Carroll College (1857) and taught school in Fox Lake. After studying law in New York, he returned to Wisconsin, was admitted to the bar, and set up a practice in Fox Lake. During the Civil War, he served as a private in the 29th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (1862-1863) and in 1863 was promoted to major of the 2nd U.S. Colored Troops (later the 53rd Regiment U.S. Colored Troops). After leaving the army in 1866, he settled in Fort Atkinson (1867), and was for several years village president. A Republican, he was a member of the board of directors of the state prison (1876-1881), private secretary to Governor William E. Smith (q.v.) (1878-1882), president of the state board of super-vision of Wisconsin Charitable, Reformatory, and Penal Institutions (1881-1885), and agent for the settlement of state swamplands and war claims (1885-1888). He was a delegate to several state Republican conventions, and was state adjutant general (1889-1891). Burchard was editor of the Fort Atkinson Herald (1870-1871), and associate editor of Hoard's Dairyman (1892-1912). He was president of the Wisconsin Dairymen's Association (1896-1897) and was postmaster of Fort Atkinson (1898- 1916). E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914); Ft. Atkinson Jefferson Co. Union, Jan. 21, 1921; Biog. Sketches of Old Settlers . . . Wis. (Waterloo, Wis. 1899).

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]