History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century/4/Robert J. Burdette
ROBERT J. BURDETTE, journalist, lecturer and author, was born July 30, 1844, in Greensborough, Pennsylvania. He removed to Peoria, Illinois, and when the Civil War began enlisted as a private and served until peace was established, when he returned to a position as a clerk in the Peoria post-office. He afterwards became a proofreader on the Peoria Transcript, and later night editor of the same paper. Here he began to develop a remarkable talent which attracted the attention of the newspaper fraternity and was offered a position on the Burlington Hawkeye. In a few years he gave that paper a national reputation and corresponding circulation outside of the State. As a humorous writer he had few equals and his fame extended wherever the English language was read. He remained on the editorial staff of the Hawkeye for more than ten years, when his ever growing fame brought him tempting offers from the great metropolitan journals and he accepted a position on the Brooklyn Eagle. He entered the lecture field and was in great demand over the entire country, winning additional reputation. He wrote several books which had large sales, among which were “Hawkeyes,” “Rise and Fall of the Mustache,” “Innach Garden and Other Comic Sketches,” and “Life of William Penn.”