He was the son of John Burling (1807–1870) and Adaline F. (Taylor) Burling (1808–1883). He attended the district school, the Willets private school, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, and also took a business course at Bryant and Stratton Business College. On December 25, 1867, he married Mary H. Lane (1848–1881), and they had four daughters. He engaged in the grocery feed and grain business in Brooklyn from 1869 to 1871. He was Supervisor of the Town of Harrison from 1878 to 1886. On October 2, 1883, he married Clara B. Sutton (1862–1928), and they had four children.
Later he engaged in the grain business again, continued active in Republican politics, and in 1907 became the first President of the Citizens Bank of White Plains.
