In 1916 the Massachusetts legislature and electorate approved a calling of a Constitutional Convention.[6] In May 1917,[1] Burell was elected to serve as a member of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917, representing the 26th Middlesex District of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[2]
Massachusetts Treasurer
Elected Treasurer in 1919, Burrell resigned from the position on September 3, 1920, following an investigation by a special legislative committee, which revealed that banks using the services of an advertising agency owned by Burrell received increased amounts of state money.[7] Burrell was also criticized for depositing $125,000 of state funds with Hanover Trust Company, a bank run by Charles Ponzi.[8]
Burrell denied any wrongdoing and ran for Treasurer five more times after his resignation, losing to Charles F. Hurley in 1930, John E. Hurley in 1944 and 1950, Roy C. Papalia in the 1952 Republican primary, and Laurence Curtis in the 1956 Republican primary.[9]
^ abcJournal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter printing co., state printers, 1919, p. 7
^ abcJournal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter printing co., state printers, 1919, p. 11
^Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter printing co., state printers, 1919, p. 626
^ abcdefgRichard T., Howard (1920), Public officials of Massachusetts (1920), Boston, MA: The Boston Review, p. 26
^ abcdeBridgman, Arthur Milnor (1917), A Souvenir of Massachusetts legislators 1917, Volume XXVI, Stoughton, MA: A. M. Bridgman, p. 113
^Journal of the Constitutional Convention of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, Boston, MA: Wright & Potter printing co., state printers, 1919, pp. 7–8
