Sketch of Amos Burdine, St. Charles County, Missouri >From "A History of the Pioneer Families of Missouri, with numerous sketches, anecdotes, adventures, etc., relating to Early Days in Missouri" by William S. Bryan and Robert Rose, Published by Bryan, Brand & Co., St. Louis Missouri, 1876. ********************************************************************** General Amos Burdine, as he was called, was a native of Kentucky, where he married Jennie Davidson, and came to Missouri in 1811. He settled in Dog Prairie, St. Charles County, and built his cabin on the James Mackey claim. Soon after he came to Missouri, the earthquakes at New Madrid occurred, and the shaking of the earth caused the boards that composed the roof of his cabin to rattle so that he imagined there were Indians up there trying to get in. So, arousing his sons, for it was at night, they secured their guns and began to fire through the roof, which they som completely riddled with bullets that it would not stop the rain anymore. He was a believer in witches, as were many of the early settlers, and used to brand his cattle in the forehead with a hot shoe hammer, to keep the witches from killing them. He had a flock of geese, and several of the birds died of some disease peculiar to the goose family. The General imagined that the witches had been at work; so he built a large log fire and commenced burning the dead birds one by one. When the third bird was thrown on the fire it gave signs of life, and the General always declared, that all the others came to life and flew around the fire and drove the witches away. On another occa- sion he imagined that he had been shot in the hip with a hair ball, and called on a physician to have it extracted. But of course no such ball could be found. Burdine was a great hunter, and killed more deer than any other half dozen men in the vicinity. He used the skins of the animals that he killed for beds and bed clothing, which was a common thing among the people of that day. He had a habit of naming the trees in the woods where he killed deer, and his sons knew the woods so well, and the names of the different trees, that when he sent them to bring the game in, they never had any trouble in finding it. His little pony, Ned, was so well trained that he knew when to run, walk or stand still by the simple motion of the bridle, and, being as fond of hunting as his master, he never failed to obey the commands. The General could mimic the cry of any animal or bird, and often imitated wolves or pan- thers for the purpose of scaring deer out of the brush, so he could shoot them. A party of hunters heard him one day screaming like a pan- ther, and imagining they were in close proximity to one of those fero- cious animals, they put spurs to their horses and rode away for their lives. He gave names to nearly all the streams in his vicinity, and Chain of Rocks, on Cuivre, owes its appropriate title to him, Burdine was a man of medium size, but his wife was very large and heavy. One day he undertook to weigh her with a pair of old fashioned steelyards. They were fastened to the rafters of the porch in front of his house, with a grape vine, and he tied another grape vine to the hook on the under side of the steelyard for his wife to sit in. Mounting on a barrel, so as to be high enough to handle the beam, he signaled to his wife that he was ready, and she took her seat. But immediately the beam ascended to the roof, carrying the General with it; and he hung suspended in the air until some members of the family came to his assistance and helped him down. Hon. William M. Campbell, of St. Char- les, began to write a history of the General's life, but died before the book was completed. It would no doubt have afforded a rich mine of humor and adventures. Some amusing anecdotes of this original charac- ter will be found under the head of "Anecdotes and Adventures" in this book. The General's wife died of Cholera in 1832. Some years after- ward suit was commenced against him for the land on which he lived, the title being vested in another party. He lost the suit and his home, and becoming dissatisfied with the new order of things in Missouri, he moved his large family to Arkansas, where they were not crowded with neighbors. ==================================================================== USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for purposes other than stated above must obtain the written consent of the file contributor. This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Penny Harrell ====================================================================