A picture of a power-generating house in Burnett, Washington is not of itself terribly interesting. But the man behind the name of this coal mining town in east Pierce County is. Charles Hiram Burnett was born in Providence, Rhode Island in 1847. The family moved to Port Gamble in 1853, where his father, C. Hiram Burnett operated a sawmill. Charles moved to Seattle at age 20 and formed a partnership with S.B. Hinds. Because he was not yet 21, Charles was considered a minor, so his father published a legal notice stating his son was free to go into business. Their new firm soon merged with Corliss Stone’s. Hinds, Stone & Co. developed real estate, built a pier with warehouses, and sold wagons and carriages. Their company was the first to use the Pike Street coal bunker to stock and ship Washington coal.
The firm was renamed Stone & Burnett. In 1872, Stone was elected Mayor of Seattle. However, within a year Stone absconded with $15,000 from the partnership, leaving for San Francisco with a woman married to another man. Burnett took over the organization which also owned house lots and coal mines in Renton. There he joined with early Renton pioneers, Charles Shattuck and Erasmus Smithers, and became superintendent of the Talbot mine in Renton in 1874.
In 1881, Burnett was prospecting along South Prairie Creek with his mules, “Hiram” and “Nellie” where he found coal. He opened the mine as the South Prairie Coal Company and formed the town of Burnett, operating its mines until 1906 when he sold out to Pacific Coast Coal Co. Charles married Jeanette McLean in 1874 and they had two children, Amy Louise and Charles Hiram Jr. His son became a Seattle City Councilor, President of the Council, and Acting Mayor of Seattle, officiating at the grand opening of the Pike Place Market in 1907. Charles Burnett Sr. died at Seattle’s Savoy Hotel in early 1916 at the age of 68. The coal mines he started remained in operation until 1927. Burnett, the town he founded is an unincorporated area in Pierce County located about three miles south of Buckley on State Route 165.
