Jabez Burns the Coffee Roaster Man

Jabez Burns (December 18, 1805– January 31, 1876) was an English nonconformist divine and Christian philosophical writer. He was one of the first clergymen of any denomination to preach teetotalism from the pulpit. 

Jabez had a brother, William, who had a son he also named Jabez.  This Jabez was born in London in 1826, but moved to Dundee, Scotland in 1829.  Not much else is know until young Jabez arrived in New York City in the summer of 1844, with his mother. 

In 1845 Jabez Burns began work as a teamster for Henry Blair, a prosperous coffee merchant, and he remained employed by coffee and spice firms for many years.  In the mid-1850s he devised a calculating machine, to facilitate lengthy calculations.

In 1864, Jabez Burns founded Jabez Burns & Sons, and began to manufacture an improved coffee roaster which he had invented. The company existed up to 1960.

Jabez Burns was also a musician who started the Burns Brass Band made up of his six sons and one grandson.

Jabez Burns, front row, center.