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 58
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home. Bears have from one to four cubs annually, about the Ist of February.
Knapsacks were made out of bed-ticking or canvas, with shoulder- straps. One of these young bears Long sold to Adam George, a butcher in Brookville. Even at this late day Long only took the skins and what meat he wanted for his own use. This fall Long was not feeling well, and had to keep out of the wet. He therefore made Charlie carry him across the streams. He also made Charlie carry a wolf-skin for him to sit on at night, when he was watching a lick. At another time Charlie and Long went out on a hunt near the head of the North Fork. In lonely solitude the dog started a bear, and Long could not shoot it for fear of hitting the dog, so he ran up and made a stroke at the bear's head with a tomahawk, wounding it but slightly. The bear jumped for Long, and the dogs came to the rescue of their master by catching "the tip of the bear's tail end," and, with the valor and fidelity of a true knight, held
Wi
A common bear-pen.
it firmly, until Long, who had left his gun a short distance, ran for it. Charlie thought Long was running from the bear, and took to his heels as if the " Old Harry" was after him. Long tried to stop him, but Charlie only looked back, and at this moment his foot caught under a root, throwing him about thirty feet down a hill. Charlie landed on
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a rock hard enough to have burst a shingle-bolt. Long, seeing this, ran to the bear with his gun and shot him. He then hurried down the hill to see what had become of Charlie, calling to him. Charlie came out from under a bunch of laurel, saying, " God Almighty, Massa Long, I am falled from heben to hell ! Are you still living ? I tot that ar bar had done gon for you when I seed him come for you with his mouth open. Bless de good Lord you still live, or this nigger would never git out of dese woods !" That night Charlie and Long laid out in the woods. The wolves came up quite close and commenced to howl. Long saw there was a chance for a little fun, so he commenced to howl like a wolf. Charlie became nervous. " When lo ! he hears on all sides, from innumerable tongues, a universal howl, and in his fright" said there must be five thousand wolves. Long said he thought there was, and told Charlie that, if the wolves came after them, he must climb a tree. In a few minutes Long made a jump into the woods, yelling " The wolves are coming," and Charlie bounded like a deer into the woods, too. The night was dark and dreary ; but deep in the forest Charlie made out to find and climb a majestic oak. Long, therefore, had to look Charlie up, and when he got near to our colored brother, he heard him solilo- quizing thus : " Charles, you have to stick tight, for if this holt breaks you are a gone nigger." Long then stepped up to the tree and told Charlie the danger was over ; but coming down the tree was harder than going up, for Charlie feil to the earth like a thunder-bolt and doubled up like a jack-knife.
Charlie's domestic life was not all peace, as the following newspaper advertisement will explain :
" CAUTION.
" Whereas my wife Susey did on the 26th day of March last leave my bed and board, and took with her two of my sons and some property, having no other provocation than 'that I would not consent to my son marrying a white girl, and bring her home to live with us.' Therefore I hereby caution all persons against harboring or trusting her on my account, as I will pay no debts of her contracting.
" If she will come home I promise to do all in my power to make her comfortable, and give an equal share of all my property.
" CHARLES SOUTHERLAND. " April 7, 1847."
When this wilderness commenced to settle up, Long visited Broken Straw Creek, in Warren County, on the head of the Allegheny River, to see a noted hunter by the name of Cotton, and to learn from him his method of hunting young wolves. He learned much from this man Cotton, and afterwards secured many young wolves by the instruction given him by Cotton. In the winter of 1835, Mike and Bill Long went to
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Boone's Mountain to hunt. This mountain was a barren region in those days, that always looked in winter-time like
" Rivers of ice and a sea of snow, A wilderness frigid and white."
· During the season Bill killed one hundred and five deer and Mike one hundred and four, and together they killed four bears. At this time there was some local demand in Brookville and other towns for venison, and in this year the Long's sent loads of venison to Harrisburg, making a trip to the capital in seven or eight days. In 1839, Long moved into Clearfield County, and his history in this county ceased.
Number of animals killed by Long in his life-time : bears, 400 ; deer (in 1835 one white one), 3500 ; panthers, 50 ; wolves, 2000; elks, 125 ; foxes, 400 ; wild-cats, 200 ; catamounts, 500 ; otters, 75.
Long used to catch fawns, mark their ears, turn them loose, and kill them when full-grown deer. Elks were easily domesticated, and sold as follows,-viz. : for a living male elk one year old, $50 ; two years old, $75 ; three years old, $100 ; and for a calf three months old, $25. In 1835, Long had five wolf-dens that he visited annually for pups, about the Ist of May each year.
In 1834, Bill Long, his brother Mike, and Ami Sibley started on a hunt for elk near where Portland now is. At the mouth of Bear Creek these three hunters came across a drove of about forty elks. Bill Long fired into the herd and broke the leg of one. This wounded elk began to squeal, and then the herd commenced to run in a circle around the injured one. Sibley's gun had the wiping-stick fastened in it, and he could not use it. Bill and Mike then loaded and fired into the drove as rapidly as they could, the elks continuing to make the circle, until each had fired about twenty-five shots, when the drove became frightened and ran away. On examination, the hunters found eight large elks killed. They then made a raft, ran the load down to where Raught's mill is now, and hanled the meat, pelts, and horns to Brookville.
In 1836, Bill Long took Henry Dull and started on a hunt for a young elk. On the third day Long saw a doe elk and calf. He shot the mother, and his dog caught the calf and held it without hurting it. Long removed the udder from the mother, carrying it with the " teats" uppermost, and giving the calf milk from it until they reached Ridgway, where a jug of milk was secured, and by means of an artificial " teat" the calf was nourished until Long reached his North Fork home. Dull led the little creature by a rope around its neck. Mrs. Long raised this elk with her cows, feeding it every milking-time, and when the calf grew to be some size he would drive the cows home every evening for his supper of milk. When this elk was full grown, Long and Dull led him to Buf- falo, New York, via the pike westward to the Allegheny River, and up
38
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
through Warren, and sold the animal for two hundred dollars,-one hun- dred dollars in cash and a note for the other hundred, that was never paid.
In the fall of 1836, Long took Henry Dull with him to hunt wolves. The second evening, Long found an old wolf with six half-grown pups. He shot two and the rest ran away. Long and Dull then climbed a hem- lock, and Long began his wolf howl. On hearing the howl, two pups and the old wolf came back. Long then shot the mother, and afterwards got all the pups. Dull became so frightened that he fell head first, gun and all, through the brush, striking the ground with his head, producing unconsciousness and breaking his shoulder. "Thanks to the human heart, by which we live," for Long nursed Dull at his home on the North Fork for three months. Scalps then brought twelve dollars a piece. In that same year Fred. Heterick and Bill killed an elk at the mouth of Little Toby which weighed six hundred pounds. In 1824, Bill Long had a thrilling adventure with a huge panther in what is now War- saw township. He, in a hand-to-hand encounter, killed the animal near where Bootjack now stands.
In the winter of 1834, William Dixon, Mike and Bill Long, with dogs, went out to "rope" or catch a live elk. They soon started a drove on the North Fork, and the dogs chased the drove over to the Little Toby, a short distance up from the mouth. The dogs separated one buck from the drove, and this elk, to protect himself from the dogs, took refuge on a ledge of rocks. Bill Long, while Mike and Dixon and the dogs attracted the attention of the elk from below, scrambled in some way to the top of the rocks and threw a rope over the elk's horns, and then cabled the elk to a small tree. This infuriated the elk, so that he jumped out over the rocks and fell on his side. Mike and Dixon now had the first rope. Bill Long then rushed on the fallen elk and threw another rope in a slip-noose knot around the elk's neck, and fastened this rope as a guy to a tree. Each rope was then fastened in an opposite direc- tion to a tree, and after the buck was choked into submission, his feet were tied, and the elk was dragged by these three men on the creek ice to where Brockwayville now is. Here they secured a yoke of oxen and sled from Ami Sibley, a mighty hunter. A small tree was then cut, the main stem being left about five feet long and the two forks about three feet in length. Each prong of the tree was fastened to a horn of the buck, and the main stem permitted to hang down in front over the buck's nose, to which it was fastened with a rope. A rope was then tied around the neck and antlers, and the loose end tied around the hind bench of the sled ; this drove the elk close up to the hind part of the sled. The ropes around the feet of the elk were then cut, and the buck lit on his feet. After the animal had made many desperate efforts and plunges, he quieted down, and no trouble was experienced until within a few miles
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
of Brookville, when, meeting an acquaintance, Dixon became so much ex- cited over the success in capturing a live elk, that he ran up and hit the elk on the back, exclaiming, " See, we have done it !" and this so scared the elk that he made a desperate jump, upsetting the sled into a ditch over a log. The oxen then took fright, and in the general mêlée the elk had a shoulder knocked out of place and the capture was a failure.
There grew in abundance in those days a tree called moose or leather- wood. The pioneers used the bark for ropes, which were very strong.
ELK AND VENISON JERK ..
This was " venison flesh cut off in a sheet or web about half an inch thick and spread on the tops of pegs driven into the ground, whilst under- neath a fire was kindled, fed with chips of sassafras and other odorous woods, that gradually dried it." The web would be removed and re- placed until the jerk was thoroughly dried. The old hunter used to carry a little jerk always with him to eat with his bread. This jerk was a delicious morsel. Bill Long gave me many a "cut." I think I can taste it now. Mike and Bill Long would bring it to Brookville and retail it to the people at five cents a cut.
AN INCIDENT ON THE PIKE.
In the spring of 1820, when the pike was being constructed, there was an early settler by the name of George Eckler living near Port Barnett. This man Eckler liked a spree, and the Irish that worked on the pike were not averse to " a wee drop at ony time." A jug or two of Long's " Mountain Dew" whiskey, fresh from the still, was secured, and a jolly " Donnebrook fair" time was had one night in the woods. Eckler came in for the worst of it, for his eyes were blackened and he was battered up generally. On sober reflection he concluded to swear out a warrant before Thomas Lucas, Esq., for the " Paddies of the pike." The warrant was placed in the hands of the constable, John Dixon, Sr. There were about twenty-five in this gang of Paddies, and Constable Dixon summoned a posse of eight to assist in the arrest. This posse consisted of the young Dixons, Longs, and McCulloughs, and when this solid column of foresters reached the Irish on the pike, one of the Paddies told the constable to " go home and attend to his own business." He then commanded the pike battalion to remove the handles from their picks and charge on the posse. This they did, to the complete rout of the natives, chasing them all in con- fusion like a herd of deer through and across Mill Creek. Young Bill Long was with this posse, and he ran home, too, but only to arm him- self, not with a shillelah, but with his flint lock, tomahawk, and knife. Thus armed and single-handed he renewed the conflict, keeping in the woods and above the Irish, and sending balls so close to their heads that
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the whiz could be heard, until he drove the whole pack, with their carts, etc., from above Port Barnett to where Brookville now stands.
As I remember Long, he was about five feet and four inches high, chubby, strongly built, active, athletic, and a great dancer,-danced what he called the "chippers" and the " crack," -was cheerful, lively, and good-natured. He carried a heavy single-barrel, muzzle-loading rifle. His belief was that he could shoot better with a heavy rifle than with a light one. Although there were dozens of professional hunters in this wilderness, this man was the king. He had an enduring frame, a catlike step, a steady nerve, keen eyesight, and a ripe knowledge of all the laws governing " still hunts for deer and bear." To reach the great skill he attained in mature life required natural talents, perseverance, sagacity, and habits of thought, as well as complete self-possession, self-control, and quickness of execution.
In these woods Long had great opportunities for perfecting himself in all that pertained to proficiency in a great hunter. Of the other hunters that approached him, I only recall his brothers, the Knapps, the three Vastbinders, the Lucases, the Bells, the Nolfs, Sibley, Fred. Heterick, Indian Russell, and George Smith, who is still living.
The professional hunter was created by the law of 1705 under the dynasty of William Penn. The law reads as follows :
" AN ACT FOR THE KILLING OF WOLVES. FOR PREVENTING THE DE. STRUCTION OF SHEEP AND CATTLE BV WOLVES.
"SECTION I. Be it enacted by John Evans, Esquire, by the Queen's royal approbation Lieutenant-Governor under William Penn, Esquire, ab- solute Proprietary and Governor-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania and Territories, by and with the advice and consent of the freemen of the said Province in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That if any person within this province shall kill a dog-wolf, he shall have ten shillings, and if a bitch-wolf, fifteen shillings, to be paid out of the county stock. Provided such person brings the wolf's head to one of the justices of the peace of that county, who is to cause the ears and tongue of the said wolf to be cut off. And that the Indians, as well as others, shall be paid for killing wolves accordingly.
"SECTION 2. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all and every person or persons who are willing to make it their business to kill wolves, and shall enter into recognizance before two or more jus- tices of the peace of the respective counties where he or they dwell, with sufficient security in the sum of five pounds, that he or they shall and will make it his or their sole business, at least three days in every week, to catch wolves, shall have twenty-five shillings for every wolf, dog or bitch, that he or they shall so catch and kill within the time mentioned in the
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
said recognizance, to be paid out of the county levies where the wolves are taken as aforesaid."
Repealed by the acts of 1782 and 1819.
Long's early dress was a coon-skin cap, moccasin shoes, a hunting- shirt, and generally buckskin breeches. The hunting-shirt was worn by all these early hunters, and sometimes in militia drill. It was a kind of frock, reached down to the thighs, had large sleeves, was open be- fore, and lapped over a foot or so when belted. This shirt was made of linsey, coarse linen, or of dressed buckskin. The deer-skin shirt was cold and uncomfortable in wet and cold rains. The bosom of the shirt served as a receptacle for rye bread, wheat cakes, tow for cleaning the rifle, jerk, punk, flint and knocker to strike fire with, etc. Matches were first made in 1829, but were not used here for many years after that. The belt was tied behind ; it usually held the mittens, bullet-bag, toma- hawk, and scalping-knife in its long buckskin sheath. The moccasin in cold weather was sometimes stuffed with feathers, wool, and dry leaves. The heavy early rifles carried about forty five bullets to a pound of lead. The hand-to-hand conflicts of this noted hunter with panthers, bears, catamounts, wolves, elks, and bucks, both on the land and in the streams, if written out in full, would make a large volume of itself. Elks and deer frequently took to the creeks, and a battle royal with knife and horns would have to be fought in the water. Long was several times mistaken while in a thicket for a wild animal, and careless hunters shot at him. Once his cheek was rubbed with a ball. Dozens of Indians and pale- faced men hunted in this wilderness as well as he, and the table giving an exhibit of the aggregate number of animals killed by Long during his life as a hunter only goes to show what a great zoological garden of wild animals this wilderness must have been. For some of the data in this article I am indebted to Mrs. Dr. Gibson, née Anna McCreight, of Rey- noldsville, Pennsylvania.
William Long died in Hickory Kingdom, Clearfield County, Penn- sylvania, in May, 1880. and was buried in the Conway Cemetery, leaving two sons,-Jack, a mighty hunter, and a younger son, William.
Peace to his ashes. In the haunts of this wilderness, scorched by the summer sun, pinched by the winds of winter wailing their voices like woe, separated for weeks at a time in his lonely cabins from the society of men and women, and then, too, awakened in the dark and dreary nights by the howl of the wolf, the panther's scream, and the owl's to-hoo ! to-hoo ! Long steadily, year in and year out, for sixty years pursued this wild, romantic life.
THE HABITS OF SOME OF THE GAME LONG HUNTED.
Our bears cub in February, have two cubs at a birth, and these cubs are about the size of a brown rat, without hair, and blind for nine days.
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They are suckled by the mother for about three months, when they reach the size of a cat ; then the mother takes them out and teaches them to eat nuts, berries, bugs, little animals, green corn, vegetables, hogs, sheep, and sometimes cattle. A full-grown bear will weigh four hundred pounds. He is exceedingly strong. He can carry a heavy burden and walk on his hind legs for a long distance.
He frequently gnawed himself out of hunters' pens, is a bold, intelli- gent beast, and his meat was considered a delicacy by the hunters.
Bears lived in " homes," holes, or dens, and sometimes in a rocky place there would be a "community." They, like deer, follow their own paths.
Our panther was fully as strong as the bear, but was rather cowardly, and especially fearful of dogs. A single blow from one forefoot or a bite from a panther would kill a dog. As a preservation, the panther hunter always had a trained dog with him, for a single bark from a dog would often scare a panther up a tree. The panther, as a rule, sought and sprang upon his victim in the dark. He could throw a buck, hog, or cow without a struggle. A panther attained sometimes a length of ten feet from nose to end of tail. They lived in dens and had two cubs at a time.
Rowe, of Clearfield, says of the hunter Dan Turner, " Once, when going out to a ' bear wallow,' his attention was attracted by a panther acting in a strange manner. He soon saw a large bear approaching it. With hair erect and eyes glaring, the panther gnashed his teeth, and, waiting until bruin came up, sprang upon him. A mortal struggle ensued. Turner watched with much interest the fight, which lasted some ten minutes or more. At last the growls of the fierce combatants became faint, and the struggle ceased. The panther slowly disengaged himself from his dead enemy and took position upon the carcass. It was now Turner's time, and, raising his rifle, he shot the panther in the head. After examining it, he was of the opinion that it could have lived but a very few minutes longer. Nearly every bone in its body was broken, and its flesh was almost reduced to a pulp by the blows and hugs of the bear."
Our wolves always had their dens in the wildest, most hidden part of the wilderness. They always manage to get under the rocks or ground to shelter themselves and young from all storms. The male fed the female when the " pups" were small He would travel a great distance in search of food, and if what he found was too heavy to carry home, he would gorge himself with it and go home and vomit it up for the family. The wolf and fox were very chary and hard to trap. But Long and other hunters knew their habits so well that they could always outwit them.
A wolf could carry a sheep for miles in this way : seize it by the throat and throw it over or on his back. Wolves hunted the deer in packs ; they
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all hunted together until a deer was started. The pack would keep up the chase until they were tired ; then one wolf would keep up the chase at full speed, while the balance of the pack watched, and when the deer turned a circle, fresh and rested wolves struck in and pursued ; thus the deer was pursued alternately by fresh wolves and soon tired out, and would then fly to some stream ; the wolves would follow, and while the deer would remain in the stream the wolves would separate, a part of the pack forming in line on each side of the stream, when the deer would become an easy prey to these ravenous creatures.
The most dangerous animal or reptile was the rattlesnake. We had these colors : the black, yellow, or spotted. Millions of them inhabited these woods, and some were four and five feet long. Snakes, as well as other wild animals, travel and seek their food in the night. To escape this danger, each pioneer kept a large herd of hogs, who would kill and eat snakes with impunity. Dogs, too, were faithful in this direction. But how did the woodsman and hunter escape ? Well, he wore woollen stockings, moccasins with anklets, and buckskin breeches. A snake could not bite through these, and at night he usually laid his head on the body of his dog to protect his upper extremities.
It was seldom that the elk or deer had twins. The bear, panther, and wolf always had a litter. Wolves reared in the same pack lived friendly, but strange males always fought.
The deer, when frightened, circled round and round, but never left his haunt. The elk would start on a trot, and never stop under ten or fifteen miles. The bear was and is a wanderer,-here to-day and away to-morrow. The wolf and panther were fierce and shy.
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APPENDIX.
SOME LOCAL HISTORY -- A LINCOLN STORY-THE MEMORABLE CAM- PAIGN OF 1864.
IN the spring of 1864 we had thirty thousand human, living skeletons in rebel prisons. The war had been carried on for three years. The following great and sanguinary battles had been fought,-viz. : Bull Run, Seven Pines, Fort Donelson, Fort Pillow, Shiloh, Seven Days' battle in Virginia, second battle of Bull Run, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Stone River, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Cold Harbor, Spott- sylvania, and the Wilderness. These battles, or most of them, had been the bloodiest that modern history records. In our sorrow and despair, the most bitter antagonisms existed at home between the war and anti- war people. A new President was to be elected that year, and in order to save the country and to punish rebellion, nearly all patriots-this included war Democrats-believed that the re election of Lincoln was absolutely necessary. Actuated by these impulses, Judge Joseph Hender- son, of Brookville, was chosen our Congressional delegate to the national convention, which was to meet on the 7th of June, 1864, in Baltimore, Maryland. Judge Henderson, Major Andrews, and myself were warm friends. The judge was a great friend of Lincoln and Johnson. On the 5th of June I accompanied the judge to Baltimore. Our State delegation consisted of fifty-two men,-forty-eight district delegates and four at large,-viz., Simon Cameron, W. W. Ketcham, Morrow B. Lowry, and A. K. McClure. Simon Cameron was made chairman of the delegation. The following States were represented in that body : Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennes- see, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Cali- fornia, Oregon, West Virginia, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, and Missouri. There was a dispute as to the right of Tennessee to represen- tation, but the convention voted them in. In this the judge voted aye, and on the first ballot Lincoln received every vote except Missouri, which cast a solid vote for General Grant. For Vice-President, Andrew John- son, of Tennessee, was nominated on first ballot over Hamlin, of Maine, Dickinson, of New York, and Rosseau, of Kentucky. It was thought by
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