Samuel Burn grew up in Leadville and married Mary Grace Phillips. Grace, who was an adopted child (raised by William Phillips and Kate Nichols but apparently the daughter of Simon Phillips and Mary Higman), did not want her husband or children to grow up in the mines. So she insisted that the family move to Denver where Samuel found work on the city trolleys. Grace outlived Samuel by many years.
In Leadville, Sam Burn was a stationary engineer (he ran the hoist and the engine) for the Little Johnny Mine.
The LITTLE JONNY is on Breece hill in the Leadville, Mining district at an altitude of 11,475 feet. It had a mass of copper ore, sand carbonates 1-3 feet thick with 40-50% lead, and upwards of 30oz of silver to a ton. Sam later worked as a car repairman for the CNS railroad. In 1910, he was an engineer at the York Mill.
He left Leadville with his family around 1922 moving into a house on W. 29th (3600 blk) at Lowell in Denver, and taking a job at the Card Iron Works. The family moved to an apartment on the 3500 block of Bryant St. for a short time and also moved across the street to a house on the corner of 36th and Bryant. Moved to 3333 W. 31st Ave. till 1929.