USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Brookville > A pioneer history of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania and my first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, when my feet were bare and my cheeks were brown > Part 10
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The puma, popularly called by our pioneers panther, was and is a large animal with a cat head. The average length of a panther from nose to tip of tail is about six to twelve feet, the tail being over two feet long, and the tip of which is black. The color of the puma is tawny, dun,
Panther.
or reddish along the back and side, and sometimes grayish-white under- neath or over the abdomen and chest, with a little black patch behind each ear. The panther is a powerful animal, as well as dangerous, but when captured as a cub can be easily domesticated. These animals are occasionally to be found in this wilderness. The pioneers shot them and captured many in panther- and bear-traps. The pelts sold for from one to two dollars.
The Longs, Vasbinders, and other noted hunters in our county killed many a panther. A law was enacted in 1806 giving a bounty of eight dollars for the " head" of each grown wolf or panther killed, and the " pelts" bringing a good price for fur, stimulated these hunters greatly to do their best in trapping, hunting, and watching the dens of these dan-
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
gerous animals. The bounty on the head of a wolf pup was three dollars. The bounty on the head of a panther whelp was four dollars. The county commissioners would cut the ears off these heads and give an order on the county treasurer for the bounty money. A panther's pelt sold for about four dollars. On one occasion a son of Bill Long, Jack- son by name, boldly entered a panther's den and shot the animal by the light of his glowing eyes. Jackson Long's history would fill this volume. In 1833, Jacob and Peter Vasbinder found a panther's den on Boone's Mountain. They killed one, the dogs killed two, and these hunters caught a cub, which they kept a year and then sold it to a showman. In 1819 the Legislature enacted a law giving twelve dollars for a full-grown panther's head and five dollars for the head of a cub.
" One hundred years ago wolves were common in Northern and Western Pennsylvania. In the middle of the last century large packs of
Wolf.
them roamed over a great portion of the State. To the farmer they were an unmitigated nuisance, preying on his sheep, and even waylaying be- lated travellers in the forest. After the State was pretty well settled these beasts disappeared very suddenly. Many people have wondered as to the cause of their quick extinction. Rev. Joseph Doddridge in his ' Notes' ascribes it to hydrophobia, and he relates several instances where settlers who were bitten by wolves perished miserably from that terrible disease."
I have listened in my bed to the dismal howl of the wolf, and for the benefit of those who never heard a wolf's musical soirée I will state here that one wolf leads off in a long tenor, and then the whole pack joins in the chorus.
Wolves were so numerous that, in the memory of persons still living in Brookville, it was unsafe or dangerous to permit a girl of ten or twelve years to go a mile in the country unaccompanied. In those days the Longs have shot as many as five and six without moving in their tracks,
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
and with a single-barrelled, muzzle-loading rifle, too. The sure aim and steady and courageous hearts of noted hunters made it barely possi- ble for the early settlers to live in these woods, and even then they had to exercise " eternal vigilance." In 1835, Bill Long, John and Jack Kahle captured eight wolves in a "den" near the present town of Sigel. Wolf- pelts sold for three dollars. Wild-cats were numerous ; occasionally a cat is killed in the county yet, even within the borough limits.
One of the modes of Mike Long and other pioneer hunters on the Clarion River was to ride a horse with a cow-bell on through the woods over the deer-paths. The deer were used to cow-bells and would allow the horse to come in full view. When the deer were looking at the horse, the hunter usually shot one or two.
Buffalo.
Every pioneer had one or more cow-bells ; they were made of copper and iron. They were not cast, but were cut, hammered, and riveted into shape, and were of different sizes.
The black bear was always common in Pennsylvania, and especially was this so in our wild portion of the State. The early settlers in our county killed every year in the aggregate hundreds of these bears. Bear- skins were worth from three to five dollars a-piece. Reuben Hickox, of Perry township, as late as 1822, killed over fifty bears in three months. Captain Hunt, a Muncy Indian, living in what is now Brookville, killed sixty-eight in one winter. In 1831, Mrs. McGhee, living in what is now
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
Washington township, heard her pigs squealing, and exclaimed, "The bears are at the hogs !" A hired man, Phillip McCafferty, and herself each picked up an axe and drove the bears away. One pig had been killed. Every fall and winter bears are still killed in our forests.
Peter Vasbinder when a boy shot a big bear through the window of his father's house, and this, too, by moonlight. This bear had a scap of bees in his arms, and was walking away with them. The flesh of the bear was prized by the pioneer. He was fond of bear meat. Bears weighing four or five hundred pounds rendered a large amount of oil, which the pioneer housewife used in cooking.
Trapping and pens were resorted to by the pioneer hunters to catch the panther, the bear, the wolf, and other game.
The bear-pen was built in a triangular shape of heavy logs. It was in shape and build to work just like a wooden box rabbit-trap. The bear steel-trap weighed about twenty-five pounds. It had double springs and spikes sharpened in the jaws. A chain was also attached. This was used as a panther-trap, too. " The bear was always hard to trap. The cautious brute would never put his paw into visible danger, even when allured by the most tempting bait. If the animal was caught, it had to be accomplished by means of the most cunning stratagem. One successful method of catching this cautious beast was to conceal a strong trap in the ground covered with leaves or earth, and suspend a quarter of a sheep or deer from a tree above the hidden steel. The bait being just beyond the reach of the bear, would cause the animal to stand on his hind feet and try to get the meat. While thus rampant, the unsuspecting brute would sometimes step into the trap and throw the spring. The trap was not fastened to a stake or tree, but attached to a long chain, furnished with two or three grab-hooks, which would catch to brush and logs, and thus prevent the game from getting away."
An old settler informs me that in the fall of the year bears became very fat from the daily feasts they had on beechnuts and chestnuts, and the occasional raids they made on the old straw beehives and ripe corn- fields. In pioneer times the bear committed considerable destruction to the corn. He would seat himself on his haunches in a corner of the field next the woods, and then, collecting a sheaf of the cornstalks at a time, would there and then enjoy a sumptuous repast.
Wolves usually hunt in the night, so they, too, were trapped and penned. The wolf-pen was built of small round logs about eight or ten feet high and narrowed at the top. Into this pen the hunter threw his bait, and the wolf could easily jump in, but he was unable to jump out. The wolf-trap was on the principle of the rat-trap, only larger, the jaws being a foot or two long.
Trappers rated the fox the hardest animal to trap, the wolf next, and the otter third. To catch a fox they often made a bed of chaff and got
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
him to lie in it or fool around it, the trap being set under the chaff. Or a trap was set at a place where several foxes seemed to stop for a cer- tain purpose. Or a fox could be caught sometimes by putting a bait a
Fox.
little way out in the water, and then putting a pad of moss between the bait and the shore, with the trap hid under the moss. The fox, not liking to wet his feet, would step on the moss and be caught.
THE AMERICAN ELK-DEER AND DEER COMBATS-HUNTERS, PRO- FESSIONAL AND NON-PROFESSIONAL-STALKING AND BELLING DEER-OTHER ANIMALS, ETC.
The American elk is the largest of all the deer kind. Bill Long and other noted hunters killed elk in these woods seven feet high. The early hunters found their range to be from Elk Licks on Spring Creek, that empties into the Clarion River at what is now called " Hallton," up to and around Beech Bottom. In winter these heavy footed-animals always " yarded" themselves on the " Beech Bottom" for protection from their enemies,-the light footed wolves. The elk's trot was heavy, clumsy, and swinging, and would break through an ordinary crust on the snow, but in the summer-time he would throw his great antlers back on his shoulders and trot through the thickets at a Nancy Hanks gait, even over fallen timber five feet high. One of his reasons for locating on the Clarion River was that he was personally a great bather and enjoyed spending his summers on the banks and the sultry days in bathing in that river. Bill Long presented a pair of enormous elk-horns, in 1838, to John Smith, of Brookville, who used them as a sign for the Jefferson Inn. " The common Virginia white-tailed deer, once exceedingly numerous
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
in our county, is still to be found in limited numbers. This deer when loping or running elevates its tail, showing the long white hair of the lower surface. If the animal is struck by a bullet the tail is almost in- variably tucked close to the hams, concealing the white.
Elk.
" The American deer, common deer, or just deer, is peculiar to Penn- sylvania. It differs from the three well-known European species, -the red deer, the fallow deer, and the pretty little roe. Of these three, the red deer is the only one which can stand comparison with the American.
" The bucks have antlers peculiar in many cases, double sharp, erect spikes or tines. The doe lacks these antlers. The antlers on the bucks are shed and removed annually. Soon after the old antlers fall, swellings, like tumors covered with plush, appear ; these increase in size and assume the shape of the antlers with astonishing rapidity, until the new antlers have attained their full size, when they present the appearance of an ordinary pair of antlers covered with fine velvet. The covering, or ' velvet,' is filled with blood-vessels, which supply material for the new growth. The furrows in the complete antler show the course of the cir- culation during its formation, and no sooner is the building process com- pleted than the 'velvet' begins to wither and dry up. Now the buck realizes that he is fully armed and equipped for the fierce joustings which must decide the possession of the does of his favorite range, and he busies himself in testing his new weapons and in putting a proper polish upon
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
every inch of them. He bangs and rattles his horn daggers against con- venient trees and thrusts and swings them into dense, strong shrubs, and if observed during this honing-up process he frequently seems a dis- reputable-looking beast, with long streamers of blood stained 'velvet' hanging to what will shortly be finely polished antlers with points as sharp as knives. When the last rub has been given and every beam and tine is furbished thoroughly, our bravo goes a-wooing with the best of them. He trails the coy does through lone covers and along favorite runways unceasingly ; he is fiery and impetuous and full of fight, and asks no fairer chance than to meet a rival as big and short-tempered as himself. He meets one before long, for every grown buck is on the war- path, and when the pair fall foul of each other there is frequently a long and desperate combat, in which one gladiator must be thoroughly whipped or killed. All deer fight savagely, and occasionally two battling rivals find a miserable doom by managing to get their antlers securely inter- locked, when both must perish. Two dead bucks thus locked head to head have been found lying as they fell in an open glade, where the scarred surface of the ground and the crushed and riven shrubs about told an eloquent tale of a wild tourney long sustained, and of miserable failing efforts of the wearied conqueror to free himself of his dead foe." -Outing. The Vasbinders, Longs, and all the early hunters found just such skulls in these woods.
Artificial deer-licks were numerous, and made in this way : A hunter would take a coffee-sack and put in it about half a bushel of common salt, and then suspend the sack high on the branch of a tree. When the rain descended the salt water would drip from the sack to the ground, making the earth saline and damp, and to this spot the deer would come, paw and lick the earth. The hunter usually made his blind in this way : A piece of board had two augur-holes bored in each end, and with ropes through these holes was fastened to a limb on a tree. On this board the hunter seated himself to await his game. Deer usually visit licks from about 2 A.M. until daylight. As a rule, deer feed in the morning and evening and ramble around all night seeking a thicket for rest and seclusion in the daytime.
" For ways that were dark and for tricks that were vain" the old pioneer was always in it. When real hungry for a venison steak he would often use a tame deer as a decoy, in this way : Fawns were captured when small, tamed, reared, and permitted to run at large with the cattle. A life insurance was " written" on this tame deer by means of a bell or a piece of red flannel fastened around the neck. Tame deer could be trained to follow masters, and when taken to the woods usually fed around and attracted to their society wild deer, which could then be shot by the secreted hunter. At the discharge of a gun the tame deer invariably ran up to her master. Some of these does were kept for five or six years.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
Deer generally have two fawns at a time, in May, and sometimes three. The horns of a deer drop off about New-Year's.
Love of home is highly developed in the deer. You cannot chase him away from it. He will circle round and round, and every evening come to where he was born. He lives in about eight or ten miles square of his birthplace. In the wilds of swamps and mountains and laurel-brakes he has his " roads," beaten paths, and " crossings," like the civilized and cross roads of man. When hounded by dogs he invariably strikes for a creek or river, and it is his practice to take one of these "travelled paths," which he never leaves nor forgets, no matter how circuitous the path may be. Certain crossings on these paths where the deer will pass are called in sporting parlance "stands." These " stands" never change, unless through the clearing of timber or by settlement the old landmarks are destroyed.
" The deer loves for a habitation to wander over hills, through thick swamps or open woods, and all around is silence save what noise is made by the chirping birds and wild creatures like himself. He loves to feed a little on the lowlands and then browse on the high ground. It takes him a long time to make a meal, and no matter how much of good food there may be in any particular place, he will not remain there to thor- oughly satisfy his appetite. He must roam about and eat over a great deal of territory. When he has browsed and fed till he is content, he loves to pose behind a clump of bushes and watch and listen. At such times he stands with head up as stanch as a setter on point, and if one watches him closely not a movement of his muscles will be detected. He sweeps the country before him with his keen eyes, and his sharp ears will be disturbed by the breaking of a twig anywhere within gunshot.
" When the day is still the deer is confident he can outwit the enemy who tries to creep up on him with shot-gun or rifle. But when the wind blows, he fears to trust himself in those places where he may easily be approached by man, so he hides in the thickets and remains very quiet until night. To kill a deer on a still day, when he is not difficult to find, the hunter must match the deer in cunning and must possess a marked degree of patience. The deer, conscious of his own craftiness, wanders slowly through the woods ; but he does not go far before he stops, and like a statue he stands, and can only be made out by the hunter with a knowledge of his ways and a trained eye.
" The deer listens for a footfall. Should the hunter be anywhere within the range of his ear and step on a twig, the deer is off with a bound. He does not stop until he has reached what he regards as a safe locality in which to look and listen again. A man moving cautiously behind a clump of bushes anywhere within the sweep of his vision will start him off on the run, for he is seldom willing to take even a small chance against man. Should the coast be clear, the deer will break his
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
pose, browse and wander about again, and finally make his bed under the top of a fallen tree or in some little thicket.
" To capture the deer by the still-hunting method, the hunter must know his ways and outwit him at his own game. First of all, the still- hunter wears soft shoes, and when he puts his foot on the ground he is careful not to set it on a twig which will snap and frighten any deer that may be in the vicinity. The still-hunter proceeds at once to put into practice the very system which the deer has taught him. He strikes a pose. He listens and looks. A deer standing like a statue two hundred yards away is not likely to be detected by an inexperienced hunter, but the expert is not deceived. He has learned to look closely into the de- tail of the picture before him, and he will note the difference between a set of antlers and a bush.
" The brown sides of a deer are very indistinct when they have for a background a clump of brown bushes. But the expert still-hunter sits quietly on a log and peers into the distance steadily, examining all de- tails before him. Occasionally his fancy will help him to make a deer's haunch out of a hump on a tree, or he will fancy he sees an antler mixed with the small branches of a bush, but his trained eye finally removes all doubt. But he is in no hurry. He is like the deer, patient, keen of sight, and quick of hearing. He knows that if there are any deer on their feet in his vicinity he will get his eyes on them if he takes the time, or if he waits long enough he is likely to see them on the move. At all events he must see the deer first. Then he must get near enough to him to bring him down with his rifle."- Outing.
Deer will not run in a straight line. They keep their road, and it is this habit they have of crossing hills, paths, woods, and streams, almost invariably within a few yards of the same spot, that causes their destruc- tion by the hounding and belling methods of farmers, lumbermen, and other non-professionals. Deer-licks were numerous all over this county. A " deer-lick" is a place where salt exists near the surface of the earth. The deer find these spots and work them during the night, generally in the early morning. One of the methods of our early settlers was to sit all night on or near a tree, " within easy range of a spring or a ' salt-lick,' and potting the unsuspecting deer which may happen to come to the lick in search of salt or water. This requires no more skill than an ability to tell from which quarter the breeze is blowing and to post one's self ac- cordingly, and the power to hit a deer when the gun is fired from a dead rest."
" Belling deer" was somewhat common. I have tried my hand at it. The mode was this: Three men were located at proper distances apart along a trail or runway near a crossing. The poorest marksman was placed so as to have the first shot, and the two good ones held in reserve for any accidental attack of " buck fever" to the persons on the first and
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
second stands. An experienced woodsman was then sent into a laurel thicket, carrying with him a cow-bell ; and when this woodsman found and started a deer, he followed it, ringing the bell. The sound of this bell was notice to those on the " stand" of the approach of a deer. When the animal came on the jump within shooting distance of the first stand, the hunter there posted would bleat like a sheep ; the deer would then come to a stand-still, when the hunter could take good aim at it; the others had to shoot at the animal running. The buck or doe rarely escaped this gauntlet.
" The deer was always a coveted prize among hunters. No finer dish than venison ever graced the table of king or peasant. No more beauti- ful trophy has ever adorned the halls of the royal sportsman or the humble cabin of the lowly hunter on the wild frontier than the antlers of the fallen buck. The sight of this noble animal in his native state thrills with ad- miration alike the heart of the proudest aristocrat and the rudest back- woodsman. In the days when guns were rare and ammunition very costly, hunters set stakes for deer, where the animal had been in the habit of jumping into or out of fields. A piece of hard timber, two or three inches thick and about four feet long, was sharpened into a spear shape, and then driven firmly into the ground at the place where the deer were accustomed to leap over the log fence. The stake was slanted towards the fence, so as to strike the animal in the breast as it leaped into or out of the fields. Several of these deadly wooden spears were often set at the same crossing, so as to increase the peril of the game. If the deer were seen in the field, a scare would cause them to jump over the fence with less caution, and thus often a buck would impale himself on one of the fatal stakes, when but for the sight of the hunter the animal might have escaped unhurt. Thousands of deer were killed or crippled in this way generations ago."-Outing.
A deer-skin sold in those days for seventy-five to ninety cents. Of the original wild animals still remaining in our county, there are the fox, raccoon, porcupine, musk-rat, martin, otter, mink, skunk, opossum, woodchuck, rabbit, squirrel, mole, and mouse. Fifty years ago the woods were full of porcupines. On the defensive is the only way he ever fights. When the enemy approaches he rolls up into a little wad, sharp quills out, and he is not worried about how many are in the be- sieging party. One prick of his quills will satisfy any assailant. When he sings his blood-curdling song, it is interpreted as a sign of rain.
The wholesale price of furs in 1804 were : Otter, one dollar and a half to four dollars ; bear, one to three dollars and a half ; beaver, one to two dollars and a half ; martin, fifty cents to one dollar and a half ; red fox, one dollar to one dollar and ten cents ; mink, twenty to forty cents ; muskrat, twenty-five to thirty cents ; raccoon, twenty to fifty cents ; deer-pelts, seventy-five cents to one dollar.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
The pioneer hunter carried his furs and pelts to the Pittsburg market in canoes, where he sold them to what were called Indian traders from the East. In later years traders visited the cabins of our hunters in the county, and bartered for and bought the furs and pelts from the hunters or from our merchants.
1.
s
Porcupine.
Old William Vasbinder, a noted hunter and trapper in this wilder- ness, and pioneer in what is now Warsaw township, was quite successful in trapping wolves one season on Hunt's Run, about the year 1819 or 1820 ; but for some unknown reason his success suddenly stopped, and he could not catch a single wolf. He then suspected the Indians of robbing his traps. So one morning bright and early he visited his traps and found no wolf, but did find an Indian track. He followed the Indian trail and lost it. On looking around he heard a voice from above, and looking up he saw an Indian sitting in the fork of a tree, and the Indian said, " Now, you old rascal, you go home, Old Bill, or Indian shoot." With the Indian's flint-lock pointed at him, Vasbinder imme- diately became quite hungry and started home for an early breakfast.
Bill Long often sold to pedlers fifty deer-pelts at a single sale. He had hunting shanties in all sections and quarters of this wilderness.
In 1840 the late John Du Bois, founder of Du Bois City, desired to locate some lands near Boone's Mountain. So he took Bill Long with him, and the two took up a residence in a shanty of Long's near the head-waters of Rattlesnake Run, in what is now Snyder township. After four or five days' rusticating, the provisions gave out, and Du Bois got hungry. Long told him there was nothing to eat here and for him to leave for Bundy's. On his way from the shanty to Bundy's Mr. Du Bois killed five deer.
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