USA > Maine > Knox County > Union > A history of the town of Union, in the county of Lincoln, Maine : to the middle of the nineteenth century, with a family register of the settlers before the year 1800, and of their descendants > Part 34
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But, alas ! poor Sambo! His end was tragical. In March, he went, with Joseph Meservey and others, into the Medomac country to hunt. The men, having ousted a bear from his den, thought it best, availing themselves of Sambo's assistance, to drive him toward home, instead of killing him at once and carrying or hauling him. When they had gone some distance, and were crossing Appleton Ridge, the dog, in at- tempting to leap back after biting the bear's legs, as the snow was deep and soft, came in contact with a tree. Bruin struck him with his paw, knocking him up into the air; and, as he came down, hit him again. Meservey wrapped him in his blanket, and brought him home; but he was about dead. Thus fell poor Sambo, a martyr to the cause of bear-hunting. . No record remains of his obsequies ; no marble monument points out his resting-place ; no epitaph records his valorous deeds. He was probably buried like a dog.
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BEARS.
MRS. HART AND THE BEAR-TRAP.
Sometimes the alarms from bears led to ludicrous, and at other times to painful, results. In 1794, when the men had gone to a military training, and the only persons at South Union, except little children and Her- vey Maxcy, who was about ten years old, were Mrs. William Hart, Mrs. Josiah Maxcy, and Mrs. Joseph Maxcy, they were disturbed by the squealing of hogs. As the noise was loud and continued long, the women came to the conclusion that the hogs must be attacked by a bear, and resolutely went out against him. They found the old porker and her two young ones dangling in the air, and squealing so loud that they might be heard one or two miles. The swine had been caught in a bear-trap, which had teeth or spikes as long as one's finger. It had been so fastened to a bent tree, that, when it was sprung, the tree, with the suspended trap, would return to its natural position. The women bent down the tree, two of them with their feet pressed upon the springs; and the two pigs jumped out and ran off. But the old porker could not get away so easily. The teeth of the trap had penetrated under the cords. Mrs. Hart undertook, when the other women were pressing down the springs, to open the jaws of the trap, and release the animal. She suc- ceeded; but, just at that moment, the jaws were sprung together, and caught her by both hands. The long teeth or spikes penetrated them, and the scars of the wounds are visible to this day.
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
CHAPTER XLIX.
ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY. (Continued.)
Wolves. - Wolf Hunt. - Cat-vaughan. - Foxes. - Personal Expe- rience. - Fox seized by Asa Messer. - Beavers. - Raccoons. - Musquash. - Minks, Sables, and Loup-cervier. - Weasel.
WOLVES.
THE wolves in this part of the country seem to have had their principal head-quarters in the dense, gloomy, and almost impenetrable forest along the seashore between the St. George's and the Muscongus Rivers. There they suckled and reared their whelps in low ledges and dens. Thence they went forth on their " long gallop " to a great distance, ranging and prowl- ing through the wilderness and the new settlements, and making night hideous with their howlings. In early times they were numerous and saucy; bold when famishing, but generally sneaking from danger; and howling piteously and imploringly when caught alive. They were carnivorous, but would eat vegetables, and in winter have been known to feed on sumach- berries. They were very fond of the sheep of the early settlers ; but they would on an emergency accept poultry. Young colts and calves were not exempts, and they have sometimes attacked swine. Seldom were any seen in Union on the east side of the river. Farmers surrounded their barn-yards with fences of long poles placed perpendicularly and contiguously, and pinned or spiked on transverse poles or joists, to keep these thieves from their herds and flocks. In summer, light fences were made in the woods, with gaps at the wolves' paths. A log was laid across each of these openings, and a trap set so that when the wolf stepped over the stick he would put his-foot upon the trencher. These animals were also shot,
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WOLVES.
and baited and caught in steel-traps and wood-traps. The reputation gained by killing a wolf; the bounty of four pounds for every grown wolf, and one pound for every wolf's whelp; sweet revenge for losses of sheep, swine, and poultry ; and the excitement of hunt- ing,-kept up a perpetual and implacable warfare, and thinned their number. Large parties, from time to time, scoured the woods to kill them.
WOLF HUNT.
About the year 1820, late in the fall, a general wolf- hunt was announced through several towns in the vicinity. At the appointed time, there was as large a gathering as at a military muster. With guns, dogs, and ammunition, the men from several towns met at Trowbridge's Tavern, on the Warren and Waldobo- rough post-road. Joseph Farley, Esq., of Waldo- borough, was chosen headman. As his health was poor, instead of going on foot, he rode and gave directions, and he entered with great zeal upon the expedition. Nathaniel Robbins, Esq., of Union, took a position about half-way between the St. George's and the Medomac Rivers. The men stretched out on his right and left, each one in sight of his right-hand and left-hand man, till the cordon extended from river to river. Robbins had a surveyor with him. The orders to him were to run a south course till he struck the salt water. As it was afternoon, it was agreed to camp on the road between the Narrows at Thomaston and Broad-bay on the Medomac. There, along the whole route, -a distance of probably eight miles, - fires were built so near to each other that a wolf could not pass between them without being seen; and, what would frighten the wolves back, a tumultuous noise of firing and hooting was kept up all night. The next day the party went through to the salt water, and even down to the clam-beds. Not a wolf was seen by any of them. If any secreted themselves, they were exter- minated by a terrific fire, which swept through the forest, in a very dry season, not many years afterward.
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
CAT-VAUGHAN, OR CATAMOUNT [?].
In 1777 or 1778, Richard Cummings and Jessa Robbins went beyond Crawford's Pond, near to Mil- ler's present residence, to hunt. Their three dogs set up a violent barking, and treed a wild-cat, or " cat- vaughan;" an animal, however, which seemed to differ somewhat from a wild-cat. It was about as large as a middle-sized dog, and had very sharp claws and very heavy teeth. Cummings and Robbins were short of ammunition ; for "powder was one dollar a pound, and hard to be got at that." Robbins said he believed he would go up and get her. Accordingly, he swung , his club on his back, and began to climb. As he approached the animal, she growled and "spit" at him, and, from time to time, gave indications of an inclination to attack him. Robbins took his club, and kept up a noise by pounding on the tree as he ascend- ed. She receded from him, and went out on a limb so far that he could not quite reach her with his club. He then began to shake the limb violently, and she jumped. The moment she touched the ground, Cummings, with his club and the three dogs, pounced upon and killed her. The scientific name of the animal is not known. Old hunters told Robbins that his was a very hazard- ous undertaking.
FOXES.
Formerly, foxes were very numerous. About the years 1816 and 1817, their tracks were so thick on Capt. Barrett's land, on the east side of Seven Brook opposite to Hills' Mills, that, sometimes after a light snow, the fields appeared as if they had been raced over by sheep. Then a good skin was sold for one dollar. Men and boys hunted, and set traps. They enjoyed the excitement, and did not object, when they had skins, to take the money for them. Every- body was talking about foxes, boasting of the number he had shot and denned and trapped; and describing, sometimes in too strong language to bear rigid criti- cism, his various expedients to outwit Reynard.
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FOXES.
Entering into the spirit which then prevailed among the boys, the writer, just at night when a snow-storm was coming on, set his trap a little beyond the brow of the hill, east of Seven Brook, on his father's land. On going as near to the trap as was expedient, in the morning of the two or three following days, it seemed not to have been disturbed. Finally, as the settling snow would spring it, and thus alarm any foxes which might be prowling about, a stick was punched into the fox-bed. The trap was gone. The excitement became intense. A movement was made toward the woods. Sir Reynard heard the noise, and was soon discovered springing and making great exertions to get through or over a brush-fence which the hooks on the end of the trap's chain had prevented him from passing. He was speedily pounced upon and made prisoner. In trying to release himself, he had gnawed through the skin and flesh, and broken every bone in the leg by which he was caught. He was held by nothing but a single cord, and with a few bites he might have severed this and set himself at liberty.
When taken, he feigned sleep, and in this condition was carried a quarter of a mile or more to the kitchen. Here he opened his eyes upon such a scene as he had never beheld. Before him were the culinary implements pertaining to civilized life. Whether his foxship would have preferred a luxurious mode of living to the, irregu- lar course to which he had been accustomed, or a chicken "with fixens" to one without them, is left to conjecture, as he was not consulted. His head, up to his ears, was plunged into a pail of water. The skin was taken off and stuffed with hay. A peculiar sensation was experienced when a few months afterward it was removed from the nail on the rough stud by the garret- window, and parted with to a tin-peddler for one bright silver dollar. Such is the history of the only fox which the writer ever had any part in trapping or killing. Hundreds of miles has he travelled, and hundreds of hours has he spent, with his gun and traps; though, with the exception just mentioned, his nearest ap-
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
proach to success was that he once had a "glorious" snap at a fox ; but the gun would not go off.
Now for another fox-story; which, though it may seem improbable, is satisfactorily authenticated. On a Sunday morning, about the year 1821 or 1822, Asa Messer was going to a ten-acre cornfield which he had planted on burnt land. Exactly at the corner of the roads leading to Washington and to Skidmore's Mills, within five or six rods of the house afterward built by Robert Pease, and within twenty-five rods of the corn- field, he saw and heard a red squirrel. It was on a spruce, had a piece of an ear of corn, and, for so small an animal, was making a great outcry. As Messer drew nearer, he saw a large fox on a small knoll, lying flat on his belly, and watching the squirrel with in- tense interest. The squirrel kept descending toward him, and chippering and running back. A large white birch stood three or four feet from the fox, and nearly in a range with Messer. Messer stealthily crept up to - the birch. The attention of the fox, with his back toward Messer, was entirely engaged in watching the squirrel, whose repeated attempts to come down had been for some time tantalizing him. After looking round once or twice from behind the tree, Messer con- cluded to make an attempt to jump on him and seize him. He sprang. Reynard, taken completely by sur- prise while licking his chops and watching the squirrel, did not attempt to run, but squalled and rolled over upon his back. › Messer's feet and hands struck the ground exactly where the fox lay ; but, in rolling over, the fox had moved a foot or two. In an instant he seized him by the neck. Reynard, however, soon came to his senses. Messer picked up a stick, one end of which had become rotten, and attempted to strike him. Twice Reynard seized the stick with his jaws, and broke it off. With the remaining part, which was short but harder, Messer pommelled him to death, and carried the carcass to Ichabod Irish, who helped him to skin it.
During the last twenty or thirty years, John F.
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BEAVERS. - RACCOONS.
Hart's dogs and the zeal of hunters have been thinning the foxes and driving them away. Now they are very scarce.
BEAVERS.
It is said that there must have been many beavers in Union when it was a wilderness, and that to them the inhabitants are mainly indebted for the meadows. As their dams, one after another, have decayed and been destroyed, meadow-grass has grown where there was none when the ground was flowed. Be this as it may, there is no doubt that there were beaver-settle- ments on the meadow at the north end of Seven-tree Pond and in other places. Within the recollection of the early inhabitants, a very few beavers have been killed at Muddy Pond. The barrier, more than forty rods long and from two to six feet high, which extends from Vinal Ware's land on the north side of Round Pond to St. George's River, is the work of beavers; the bottom probably having been made of logs, and fas- tened by them, till the dam, which made the meadows on the north of it, was completed. Samuel Boggs, of Warren, availing himself of the circumstance that these animals always hasten to repair their dams when broken, made a breach in it, set his trap there, and caught one. The river at that time, down which logs were rafted, entered the pond twenty or thirty rods east of the place where it now does; and hay is carted over the old channel, while the little opening made by Boggs has become the main outlet. The singular circumstance may be added, that, as late as the time of the incorporation of the town, the water of Round Pond extended to the beaver-dam; and it was not till the present century that hay was cut south of it.
RACCOONS.
Raccoons were plenty. Phinehas Butler shot one on the top of the old camp at South Union. In cut- ting a road to the Medomac Meadows, forty were taken or killed in the course of a few days. One man
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
caught forty in one season. He took nine in one hollow log or in dens in three different years, and seven at another time. The flesh was palatable; and their skins, about the year 1815, were sold for about one dollar each.
MUSQUASH.
Musquash abounded in the streams and meadows. Amariah Mero took sixteen out of one hole. When Dr. Sibley resided on the farm south of the Old Burying Ground, he shot and caught in traps fifty-one in one season. " When they were drowned out of their nests by a freshet, William Hart would take some man with him, row along the rivers and meadows, and bring home a back-load of them. Their flesh was not eaten, except in cases of oppressive want; but their skins commanded a fair price, at a time when hats were manufactured of fur.
MINKS, SABLES, AND LOUP-CERVIER.
Minks and sables were hunted, the former with success. Some twenty-five or thirty years ago, Story Thompson killed a loup-cervier near Mr. Stewart's.
WEASEL.
Thirty or thirty-five years ago, a weasel was in the habit of coming to the premises of. Dr. Sibley, imme- diately after he assumed his white winter dress, and remaining till the color of it was changing the next spring. He became quite tame, but would never al- low himself to be touched with the hand. During his sojourn at the house, he was an exterminator of the rats and of all the mice which came in his way. He became mischievous at last among fresh-meat, eggs, and the like, and finally disappeared, after having spent four, five, or six winters on the premises.
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DUCKS. - WILD PIGEONS.
CHAPTER L .. -
ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY. (Continued.)
Ducks. - Wild Pigeons. - Loons. - Crows and Blackbirds. - Hunting Matches.
DUCKS.
IN early times, ducks were very plenty. They were not much hunted, as there were but few inhabitants, and they had but little time to go after them. Ammu- nition, too, was scarce and dear. Wood-ducks came in flocks of thirty or forty. Towards night, they would go to the land to get acorns and other food. At low water, there was a sandy beach two or three rods wide on the margin of Seven-tree Pond, at the line dividing Josiah Robbins's farm from the one on the south. Robbins baited them there with green corn, and caught them in a pigeon-net. It was necessary to set the net very near to the water, so as to intercept them; for, when alarmed by its springing, they always hurried in that direction. Here Robbins, having set his net the evening before, entered his bough-house before day- break, which was the time of their coming. During one summer, when flax was rotting in Seven Brook, at the stone bridge east of Dr. Sibley's, several wood- ducks came to feed on the seeds. Some were killed. Two or three were wounded and caught; but all attempts to tame them were useless.
WILD PIGEONS.
Many years ago, when the country was new and rye-fields were numerous, wild pigeons came in count- less multitudes. It seemed as if they were sent, like the quails of old, to relieve the wants of the people. Early in spring, when they flew high, flocks have been
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
seen so large and long that the two ends were not in sight at the same time. Great numbers were caught by all the early settlers. Sometimes they were salted, and kept till winter. Many were taken on the Old
Burying Ground hill. Nathaniel Robbins, Esq., re- peatedly caught twenty-five dozen at once. He sold many to General Knox, who kept them alive till win- ter, and fatted them. Jessa Robbins caught thirty dozen and ten at one haul. He sold them at Thomas- ton, mostly for eightpence a dozen, which was con- sidered a good price. Some he sold to General Knox, when he was examining the river, before he moved to Thomaston. Mrs. Dunton says her father, David Robbins, caught so many that he was called Pigeon Robbins. She has known him to take twenty dozen before breakfast, twenty dozen after dinner, and twenty dozen more before dark, - making sixty dozen in a day.
In order to take pigeons by baiting them, the stubble in a rye-field was entirely removed; and a spot ten or twelve feet wide, and fifteen or eighteen feet long, was levelled, and made like a carrot-bed. When there were no leafless small trees near, some were cut, and stuck down as stands for the pigeons to light on. The grain, of which there must always be enough on the pigeon-bed, was laid along in rows. As, in rising from the bed, pigeons always fly in the direction of the stands, the net is set so as to intercept them. A bough-house was built, into which was extended one end of the rope of the net. The catcher commonly secreted himself in the bough-house before daylight, so as to be in season. The pigeons came early, and lighted on the stands. Sometimes they would sit an hour before going down to the bed. At first one would go down, then two or three more. Immediately after- ward, nearly the whole flock would pour down. The net was then sprung by pulling the rope. Sometimes, when the flock was very large, it was necessary, in order to prevent the pigeons from raising the net and escaping, to confine it with stones or crotched sticks,
1 LOONS. . 415
placed there for the purpose. The skulls were then broken by nipping the heads between the thumb and finger.
Many were caught by hoverers. A wild pigeon was tamed, which was easily done. A bed was made. The hoverer was tied down in the middle of it, with string enough to let him act freely. When a flock passed over, wishing to join them he would flutter, and call them. Although there was no bait, they would be thus decoyed. As they would not light unless there was bait, the catcher was ready to spring the net upon the flock the moment it struck down where the hoverer was.
LOONS.
Loons have always been numerous, particularly in Seven-tree Pond. Their legs are placed far back on the body, and stick out behind like paddles. Of course they cannot walk on the land. A favorite place of resort for them in breeding-time was the north end of the island. On to this they shoved themselves. There they laid their eggs and hatched their young. They require considerable surface of water to rise on the wing, and can never rise in a calm, nor in any direction except against the wind; and sometimes they have been known to scoot along on the top of the water for half a mile, and yet not succeed.
About the year 1826, Nathaniel Robbins, jun., saw two loons fighting. One would attack the other, which appeared to be the weaker, and the weaker would immediately retreat toward the shore.' At last the weaker darted up to the land. Robbins ran about knee-deep into the water, caught it, and carried it to his father's. It was kept a day in the front yard, not being able to rise from the ground, or even walk; and then it was returned to the pond.
Loons often passed between Seven-tree Pond and Round Pond, in the river. They have the power of letting themselves down so low in the water that nothing but the head will appear above the surface.
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ZOOLOGICAL HISTORY.
They often do this in small places. When Nathaniel Robbins, Esq., was fishing for salmon with a seine, these birds would sometimes enter the river to go to Round Pond; and, in consequence of letting themselves down, they would stick their heads into the net-work below the rope. Their feathers being stiff, they could not draw them back; and, being very muscular, they would flap their small but very strong wings, till they wound up a great part of the seine into a snarl. Commonly, they do not go in flocks, but in pairs ; though in Crawford's Pond several have been seen together. If they halloo loudly, it is always regarded as a sign of a storm.
John Jones, with a rifle, on the shore opposite the house of Willard Robbins, fired at a loon which he saw at a great distance. The loon was not wounded, and it dived. Upon rising, it halloed, as if in defiance. Jones stood still, and fired a second time. Again the loon went down, and after a few minutes re-appeared. With each dive he made great advances towards the shore. He uttered another loud scream. As his body was sunk into the water, Jones fired, the third time, at his head. The ball struck very near the eye, and killed him instantly.
CROWS AND BLACKBIRDS.
May 28, 1788, the town voted to " allow as a bounty on crows eightpence per head, and one penny for black- birds,'for all killed in town by town-inhabitants for the year ensuing. .. . June 20, 1803, voted that twenty cents be given for crows and five cents for blackbirds. Voted that the town-treasurer be empowered to receive crows and blackbirds, and pay for the same; and that he cut off their heads." May 14, 1804, an article " to see if the town will allow a bounty for crows and blackbirds, striped and red squirrels," was dropped. No bounties have been voted since.
Crows continue to be numerous. Half a century after the settlement of the town, flocks containing several hundreds would light on the hills and pastures
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CROWS. - HUNTING MATCHES.
in summer, and early in autumn, to feed on grasshop- pers. They have never been quite so saucy in Union as they have occasionally been in other places. A few years ago, in Hopkinton, N. H., they killed seventeen turkeys in one flock, not taking one daily, as a hawk does, but destroying an entire brood at once. One farmer in that town discovered, on one of his lambs, a crow, which had picked out one eye, and was thwacking the lamb over so as to pick out the other. A neighbor lost eight lambs in one spring, which were undoubtedly killed by them. Of some of the lambs the tongues as well as the eyes were picked out. The crows in the neighborhood had become very bold. But in Union probably nothing of the kind has oc- 'curred. The most which is apprehended from them is the injury they may do in the cornfields ; and to these it is believed they do no harm in spring, by pulling up the corn, unless they have young. When it is con- sidered that it is very easy to scare them away at the seasons of the year when they do mischief, the policy - of killing them may be questionable. They are scaven- gers and carrion-eaters, and destroy an immense number of insects and worms, which, without their co-opera- tion, would in time bring desolation on many a rich field.
HUNTING MATCHES.
When the town was first settled, game was plenty ; and for a long time there was one hunting-match or more yearly. Men who proposed to take part met and agreed on a day to which the hunt should be restricted, and determined the comparative value of different animals, according to their scarcity. A bear, perhaps, would count 100, a fox 20, a racoon 15, a partridge 6, a crow 5, a grey squirrel 3, a red squirrel 2, a blackbird 1, and so on. The party then chose two captains, and they cast lots for the first choice. After the successful captain had selected a man, they proceeded alternately till all present were enrolled in the one or the other company. On the day appointed, every man went to hunt. In the evening, all came 36
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