Burden vs. Hornsby 1869-1870

The shot that rang out on the night of October 18, 1869 , affected not only Charles Burden but dog lovers everywhere.  It was on that night that Old Drum was shot.  When Charles Burden found his favorite dog, Old Drum, dead he vowed someone would pay for the “murder” of his beloved hound.

That someone was his neighbor and brother-in-law, Leonidas Hornsby.  Hornsby had recently lost a number of sheep to dogs and vowed death to the first dog found on his property.  Old Drum was that dog.  Ironically, Hornsby did not actually pull the trigger, his ward Samuel “Dick” Ferguson did.

Burden could not let the tragic death of Old Drum go unpunished and the case went to court.  The case of Burden vs. Hornsby was tried three times before the final case in Warrensburg , Missouri , on September 23, 1870 .  Hornsby took the case to the Court of Common Pleas in Warrensburg, claiming the case against him was circumstantial.  It was at this trial that Burden brought in the legal expertise of George Graham Vest.  Here is where Vest made his famous eulogy of Old Drum, appealing to dog lovers all over the world.  The eulogy won the case for Burden, who was awarded $50 in damages for the loss of Old Drum.  Hornsby took the case to the Missouri Supreme Court where the verdict was upheld.

The eulogy of Old Drum by George Graham Vest immortalized Old Drum in the hearts and minds of people everywhere.

In 1854 he married Sallie Sneed of Danville , Kentucky .  They had three children, two sons and a daughter.  On August 9, 1904 , Vest died at his summer home in Sweet Springs , Missouri , and is buried in St. Louis , Missouri .

Charles Burden, owner of Old Drum, was born on February 28, 1825 , in Kentucky .  He came to Missouri before the Civil War to farm.  Burden was known for owning choice land along Big Creek, in Johnson County , Missouri , and a pack of good hunting dogs.  He had three children Sallie, Jennie, and Charles.  Leonidas Hornsby was Burden’s brother-in-law and neighbor.  There was no ill-will known of between the men, either before or after, in the case of Old Drum.  The years healed the wounds after the trial.  According to relatives, though both men were not poverty stricken, it took several years after the trial to fully recover from the financial losses of the trial.  Charles Burden died in February of 1911 on the farm near the death of Old Drum.  Burden and Hornsby are buried a few yards apart in get same country cemetery. 

“Gentleman of the Jury, a man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness.  He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side.  He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and the sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world.  He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince.  When all other friends desert he remains.  When riches take wings and reputation fall to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens.  If fortune drives the master forth an outcast in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death.”