Bust Family Mansion - Potosi, Missouri

RUINS OF OLD BUST FAMILY MANSION

Built in the 1800's - possibly by a McClanahan.  At right is all that is left of what was once a very beautiful home.  It has quite a reputation for being haunted.  One source says that there was a baby who was either killed or died in front of the fireplace & there have been sightings of a baby in or near the fireplace in the home.  There may be ghosts of slaves there too.

Another source tells that one time they saw a very large (human size) black bat on the roof.  It was there for about a minute & then vanished.   Eight people witnessed this phenomenon at the same time.

 

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Another time this same person, along with a friend, were walking near the mansion when a large tree (approx. 2-3 feet in diameter) fell just a few feet in front of them.  He said you could feel the ground shake when it crashed down.  They ran a way screaming.   When they went back about 20 minutes later to try & determine what had caused the tree to fall it was not there!

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These pictures were photographed by Esther & Gene Carroll in the 1980's. It must have been a very beautiful home in its day.  I am told that now (2007) it has crumbled to ruble.

If I remember correctly the log outbuilding was "V" notched logs with square nails.  Also around the house there was a ground cover of Vinca (Periwinkle) growing everywhere.  We took some starts & brought them home & planted them at the northwest end of our house & it is still growing & spreading.  Every spring the Periwinkle has such beautiful, tiny, delicate blue blossoms.


FAMILY HISTORY:  Robert Bust, proprieter of the Cadet Roller Mills, & a member of the firm of Long & Bust, owners of the Potosi Mills, is of English birth,& is a son of Joseph & Elizabeth Bust, who had a family of nine children.  Robert, who was the thired child, was born in 1834, & located in Washington County, Mo., when twenty-one years of age, in 1855.   He learned the trade of a miller, which has been his life occupation, with an uncle, Robert Hornsey.  The mill he now operates at Cadet he has remodeled two or three times;  he rebuilt it & made it a roller mill in 1887, providing the mill with the latest improved machinery, with a capacity of fifty barrels per day, & the quality of its product meets with a ready sale, being unsurpassed in this section of Missouri.  In 1865 Mr. Bust was married to Miss Lucy McGready, a daughter of Dr. James H. & Mary Ann (McClanahan) McGready, who were among the early settlers of Washington County.  Mr. & Mrs. Bust are the parents of eight children, viz.:Francis J., Fannie E., William H., Edward M., Preston T., Jesse W., Latty J., & Lucy I.  From: Goodspeed's History of Washington County - pg. 975 - 1888 Reprint

Robert Bust died 8 November 1897 & is buried in the Old Masonic Cemetery on Breton Street in Potosi. On the tombstone it gives his birth date as 27 October 1834 & birthplace as Lincolnshire, England.