The Boot Story
or
Three Burtcher Brothers
As told to Edgar E. Burtcher by Robert H. Burtcher
Years after this story was told it was discovered that three Burtcher brothers by the names of Michael, Sebastian and Bartholomew Burtcher came to Ste. Gen. Co MO in 1797
Ed Burtcher recalls a story about three Burtcher brothers who came to America landing in the N.W. part of the country. They couldn't speak English and Robert said they were German. They worked in timber where the ground was very wet. They were told that if they didn't wear boots they would die of rheumatism. Not speaking English they misunderstood and thought they would die if they wore the botts. They spent three years there working in shoes.
One brother had a nasty temper and caused trouble for all three. One instance of that temper was when they wanted chicken in a diner and didn't know the English word for chicken; the one with the temper cackled and the propriorter brought him an egg. Thinking he was being made a fool of the temper Burtcher started a fight and the brothers decided to leave. They decided that wasn't the place they wanted to lilve anyway because if the boots didn't kill them the nasty brother would get them killed and they headed south coming eventually to S.W. MO. to a place called Walker's Jog. This is a portion of MO. that cuts into the state of AR. Some of the towns there are Cardwell, Haiti, Semit and Kennit.
We don't know any of the years or any other details of this story. Robert told it in 1951 or 52. He had a family tree with names and dates but Ed was young and didn't pay close attention to it so doesn't remember much except that the name Burtcher had a different spelling. Says he thinks it was in German.
Written by Edgar's daughter Freeda Burtcher Berry
