USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 15
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
migrate in such numbers. They fed on beechnuts, etc. In this territory every tree would be occupied, some with fifty nests. These pigeons swept over Brookville on their migration to these roosts, and would be three or four days in passing, making the day dark at times. The croakings of the pigeons . in these roosts could be heard for miles.
Red-shouldered hawk
The coopers and the bloody goshawk, the great-horned and barred owls, like other night wanderers, such as the wild bear, panther, wolf, wild-cat, lynx, fox, the mink, and agile weasel, all haunted these roosts and feasted upon these pigeons. The weasel would climb the tree for the pigeons' eggs and the young, or to capture the old birds when at rest. The fox, lynx, mink, etc., depended on catching the squabs that fell from the nests.
Like the buffaloes of this region, the wild pigeon is doomed. These once common birds are only to be seen occasionally. Isolated and scattered pairs still find a breeding-place in our wilds, but the immense breeding colonies that once visited Northwestern Pennsylvania will never be seen again. The extermination of the passenger pigeon has gone on so rapidly that in another
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decade the birds may become a rarity. The only thing that will save the birds from this fate is the fact that they no longer resort to the more thickly populated States as breeding-places, but fly far into the woods along our northern border. Thirty years ago wild pigeons were found in New York State, and in Elk, Warren, Mckean, Pike, and Cameron Counties, Pennsyl-
American goshawk
vania, but now they only figure as migrants, with a few pairs breeding in the beech-woods.
To give an idea of the immensity of these pigeon-roosts, I quote from the Elk Advocate as late as May, 1851 :
" The American Express Company carried in one day, over the New York and Erie Railroad, over seven tons of pigeons to the New York market, and all of these were from the west of Corning. This company alone have carried over this road from the counties of Chemung, Steuben, and Allegheny fifty-six tons of pigeons."
As late as March, 1854, they came in such clouds for days that I was tired of looking at them and of the noise of the shooters.
The wild pigeon lays usually one or two eggs, and both birds do their
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share of the incubating. The females occupy the nest from two P.M. until the . next morning, and the males from nine or ten A.M. until two P.M. The males usually feed twice each day, while the females feed only during the forenoon. The old pigeons never feed near the nesting-places, always allowing the beechmast, buds, etc., there for use in feeding their young when they come forth. The birds go many miles to feed,-often a hundred or more.
Sharp-shinned hawk
Pigeons do not drink like any other bird. They drink like the ox or cow, and they nourish the young pigeon for the first week of his life from " pigeon milk," a curd-like substance secreted in the crop of both parents profusely during the incubating season. We had but two varieties,-the " wild," and turtle-doves.
Our birds migrate every fall to Tennessee, the Carolinas, and as far south as Florida. Want of winter food is and was the cause of that migration, for those that remained surely picked up a poor living. Migrating birds return year after year to the same locality. In migrating northward in the spring, the males usually precede the females several days, but on leaving their summer scenes of love and joy for the south, the sexes act in unison.
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Of the other pioneer birds, there was the orchard-oriole, pine-grosbeak, rose-breasted grosbeak, swallow, barn-swallow, ruff-winged swallow, bank swallow, black and white warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, barn-owl, American long-eared owl, short-eared owl, screech-owl, great-horned owl, yellow-billed cuckoo, black-billed cuckoo, kingbird, crested flycatcher, phœbe-bird, wood- pewee, least flycatcher, ruffed grouse (pheasant, or partridge), quail, also
Wild pigeon
known as the bob-white, marsh-hawk, sparrow-hawk, pigeon-hawk, fish-hawk, red-tailed hawk, American ruff-legged hawk, horned grebe, loon, hooded merganser, wood-duck, buff-headed duck, red-headed duck, American bittern, least bittern, blue heron, green heron, black-crowned night-heron, Virginia
Grouse or Pheasant
rail, Carolina rail, American coot, American woodcock, Wilson's snipe, least sandpiper, killdeer plover, belted kingfisher, turtle-dove, turkey-buzzard, whip- poorwill, nighthawk, ruby-throated humming-bird, blue-jay, bobolink, or reed- or rice-bird, purple grackle, cowbird (cow-bunting), red-winged blackbird, American grosbeak, red-poll, American goldfinch, or yellow-bird, towhee-
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
bunting, cardinal- or redbird, indigo bunting, scarlet tanager, cedar- or cherry- bird, butcher-bird, or great northern scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, American
Belted kingfisher
redstart, cootbird, brown thrush, bluebird, house-wren, wood-wren, white- breasted nuthatch, chickadee, golden-crowned knight.
20
Humming-birds
NATURAL LIFE OF SOME OF OUR BIRDS
Years.
Years.
Raven
100
Pheasant 15
Eagle
100
Partridge
15
Crow
100
Blackbird 10
Goose
50
Common fowl IO
Sparrowhawk
40
Robin
IO
Crane
24
Thrush
IO
Peacock
24
Wren
5
Lark
16
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
WILD BEES-BEE-HUNTING, BEE-TREES, BEE-FOOD, ETC.
"How doth the little busy bee Improve each shining hour, And gather honey all the day From every opening flower."
In pioneer times these woods were alive with bee-trees, and even yet that condition prevails in the forest part of this region, as the following article on bees, from the pen of E. C. Niver, clearly describes :
" Although the natural range of bee-pasturage in this section is practi- cally unlimited, singular to relate, apiculture is not pursued to any great extent. With all the apparently favorable conditions, the occupation is too uncertain and precarious to hazard much capital or time on it. At the best, apiculture is an arduous occupation, and in the most thickly populated farming communities it requires constant vigilance to keep track of runaway swarms. But in this rugged mountain country, with its thousands of acres of hemlock
Straw bee-scap
slashings and hard-wood ridges, it is virtually impossible to keep an extensive apiary within bounds. The rich pasturage of the forests and mountain barrens affords too great a temptation, and although the honey-bee has been the pur- veyor of sweets for the ancients as far back as history reaches, she has never yet become thoroughly domesticated. At swarming time the nomadic instinct asserts itself. Nature lures and beckons, and the first opportunity is embraced to regain her fastness and subsist upon her bounty. Never a season goes by but what some swarms escape to the woods. These take up their habitation in hollow trees or some other favorable retreat, and in time throw off other swarms. Thus it is that our mountains and forests contain an untold wealth of sweetness, but little of which is ever utilized by man.
" Here is the opportunity of the bee-hunter. In the backwoods counties of Western Pennsylvania bee-hunting is as popular a sport with some as deer- hunting or trout-fishing. It does not have nearly so many devotees, perhaps, as these latter sports, for the reason that a greater degree of woodcraft, skill, and patience is required to become a proficient bee-hunter. Any backwoods-
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
man can search out and stand guard at a deer runway, watch a lick, or follow a trail; and his skill with a rifle, in the use of which he is familiar from his early boyhood, insures him an equal chance in the pursuit of game. It does not require any nice display of woodcraft to tramp over the mountains to the head of the trout stream, with a tin spice-box full of worms, cut an ash sapling, equip it with the hook and line, and fish the stream down to its mouth. But to search out a small insect as it sips the nectar from the blossoms, trace it to its home, and successfully despoil it of its hoarded stores, requires a degree of skill and patience that comparatively few care to attain. Yet in every community of this section are some old fellows who do not consider life complete without a crockful of strained honey in the cellar when winter sets in. Then, as they sit with their legs under the kitchen-table while their wives bake smoking-hot buckwheat cakes, the pungent flavor of decayed wood which the honey imparts to their palates brings back the glory of the chase. When- ever a man takes to bee-hunting he is an enthusiastic devotee, and with him all other sport is relegated to the background.
" There are many methods employed in hunting the wild honey-bee. The first essential is a knowledge of bees and their habits. This can only be acquired by experience and intelligent observation. The man who can suc- cessfully ' line' bees can also successfully ' keep' them in a domestic state, but a successful apiarist is not necessarily a good bee-hunter.
" September and October are the best months for securing wild honey, as the bees have then in the main completed their stores. At that season they can also be most readily lined, for the scarcity of sweets makes them more susceptible to artificial bait. But the professional bee-hunter does not, as a rule, wait until fall to do all his lining. He wants to know what is in pros- pect, and by the time the honey-bee suspends operations for the winter the hunter has perhaps a dozen bee-trees located which he has been watching all summer in order to judge as near as possible as to the amount of stored honey they contain. If the hunter wants to save the bees he cuts the tree in June and hives the inmates in the same manner as when they swarm in a domestic state. Many swarms are thus obtained, and the hunter scorns to expend any money for a swarm of bees which he can get for the taking. As a matter of course, when the honey is taken in the fall the bees, being de- spoiled of their subsistence, inevitably perish.
" ' I'll gather the honey-comb bright as gold, And chase the elk to his secret fold.'
" The first warm days of April, when the snows have melted from the south side of the hills, and the spring runs are clear of ice, find the bee-hunter on the alert. There is nothing yet for the bees to feed upon, but a few of the advance-guard are emerging from their long winter's hibernations in search of pollen and water, and they instinctively seek the water's edge where the
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
warm rays of the sun beat down. Where the stream has receded from the bank, leaving a miniature muddy beach, there the bees congregate, dabbling in the mud, sipping water and carrying it away. The first material sought for by the bees is pollen, and the earliest pasturage for securing this is the pussy- willow and skunk-cabbage, which grow in the swamps. After these comes the soft maple, which also affords a large supply of pollen. Sugar-maple is among the first wild growth which furnishes any honey. Then come the wild cherry, the locust, and the red raspberries and blackberries. Of course, the first blossoms and the cultivated plants play an important part, but the profusion of wild flowers which are honey-bearing would probably supply as much honey to the acre as the cultivated sections.
" The wild honeysuckle, which covers thousands of acres of the moun- tain ranges with a scarlet flame in May, is a particular favorite with bees, as is also the tulip-tree, which is quite abundant in this section. Basswood honey has a national reputation, and before the paper-wood cutters despoiled the ridges and forests the basswood-tree furnished an almost unlimited feeding- ground. This tree blooms for a period of two or three weeks, and a single swarm has been known to collect ten pounds of honey in a day when this flower was in blossom. Devil's-club furnishes another strong feed for bees, as well as the despised sumach. Last, but not least, is the golden-rod, which in this latitude lasts from August until killed by the autumn frosts. While these are the chief wild-honey producing trees and plants, they are but a fractional part of the honey resources of the country.
" Having discovered the feeding-ground and haunts of the wild honey- bee, the hunter proceeds to capture a bee and trace it to its habitation. This is done by 'lining,'-that is, following the bee's flight to its home. The bee always flies in a direct line to its place of abode, and this wonderful instinct gives rise to the expression, 'a bee-line.'
" To assist in the chase the hunter provides himself with a 'bee-box,' which is any small box possessing a lid, with some honey inside for bait. Arrived at any favorable feeding-ground, the hunter eagerly scans the blos- soms until he finds a bee at work. This he scoops into his box and closes the lid. If he can capture two or more bees at once, so much the better. After buzzing angrily for a few moments in the darkened box the bee scents the honey inside and immediately quiets down and begins to work. Then the box is set down and the lid opened. When the bee gets all the honey she can carry she mounts upward with a rapid spiral motion until she gets her bear- ings, and then she is off like a shot in a direct line to her habitation. Pres- ently she is back again, and this time when she departs her bearings are located and she goes direct. After several trips more bees appear, and when they get to working the bait and the line of their flight is noted, the box is closed when the bees are inside and moved forward along the direction in which they have been coming and going. The hunter carefully marks his
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
trail and opens the box again. The bees are apparently unconscious that they have been moved, and work as before. This manœuvre is repeated until the spot where the swarm is located is near at hand, and then comes the most trying part of the quest to discover the exact location of the hive. Sometimes it is in the hollow of a dead tree away to the top; sometimes it is near the bottom. Again, it may be in a hollow branch of a living tree of gigantic pro- portions, closely hidden in the foliage, or it may be in an old stump or log. To search it out requires the exercise of much patience, as well as a quick eye and an acute ear.
" To determine the distance of the improvised hive after a line has been established from the bee-box the hunter resorts to 'cross-lining.' This is done by moving the box when the bees are at work in it some distance to one side. The bees as usual fly direct to their home, the second line of flight converging with the first, forming the apex of a triangle, the distance between the first and second locations of the box being the base and the two lines of flight the sides. Where the lines meet the habitation is to be found.
" Different kinds of bait are frequently used in order to induce the bees to work the box. In the flowering season a little anise or other pungent oil is rubbed on the box to attract the bees and keep them from being turned aside by the wealth of blossoms along their flight. It is a mistake to mix the oil with the bait, as it spoils the honey the bees make and poisons the whole swarm. Sometimes in the early spring corn-cobs soaked in stagnant brine proves an attractive bait, while late in the fall beeswax burned on a heated stone will bring the belated straggler to the bee-box.
" Cutting a bee-tree is the adventuresome part of the sport. An angry swarm is a formidable enemy. Then, too, the treasure for which the hunter is in search is about to be revealed, and the possibilities bring a thrill of anticipation and excitement. So far as the danger goes the experienced hunter is prepared for that, and protects his head and face by a bag of mosquito-netting drawn over a broad-brimmed hat. With gloves on his hands he is tolerably protected, but sometimes a heavy swarm breaks through the netting, and instances are on record where bee-hunters have been so severely stung in despoiling wild swarms as to endanger their lives. In felling a tree great care must be exercised in order that the tree may not break up and destroy the honey. Sometimes trees are felled after night, as bees do not swarm about in the darkness, and the danger of getting stung is not so great.
" The amount of honey secured depends upon the age of the swarm. Frequently much time and labor have been expended in lining and cutting a tree which yielded nothing, while again the returns have been large. There are instances in this community where a single tree yielded over two hundred pounds of good honey. Not long since a hunter cut a tree in which a hollow space about eighteen inches in diameter was filled with fine honey for a length of fifteen feet. Often a tree is cut which has been worked so long that part
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
of the honey is spoiled with age. Often the comb is broken and the honey mingled with the decayed wood of the tree. The bee-hunter, however, care- fully gathers up the honey, wood and all, in a tin pail, and strains it, and the pungent flavor of the wood does not in the least detract from the quality in his estimation.
" Bee-hunting as a sport could still be pursued in nearly every section of Western Pennsylvania, particularly in the lumbering and tannery districts. In these sections thousands of acres are annually stripped of timber, extend- ing many miles back from the settled districts. Fire runs through these old slashings every year or so, and a dense growth of blackberry and raspberry briers spring up. These, with the innumerable varieties of wild flowers, afford a rich and vast pasturage for the honey-bee which has thrown off the restraints of civilization. Swarm upon swarm is propagated, the surplus product of which is never utilized. With a little encouragement bee-hunting might become as popular a form of sport with the dweller of the town as with the skilled woodsman."
The bee was imported, and is a native of Asia.
CHAPTER VII
BILL LONG, THE " KING HUNTER -THE HUNTER OF HUNTERS IN THIS WIL- DERNESS-SOME OF THE ADVENTURES AND INCIDENTS IN THE LIFE OF " BILL LONG" FROM HIS CHILDHOOD UNTIL HE WAS SEVENTY YEARS OF AGE
I PAUSE here to tell the story of Bill Long, the " king hunter." William Long, a son of Louis (Ludwig) Long, was born near Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1794. His father and mother were Germans. In the summer of 1803, Louis Long, with his family, moved into this wilderness and settled near Port Barnett (now the McConnell farm). Ludwig Long's family consisted of himself, wife, and eleven children,-nine sons and two daughters, -William, the subject of this sketch, being the second child. The Barnetts were the only neighbors of the Longs. Louis Long brought with him a small " still" and six flint-lock guns, the only kind in use at that time. It was not until about the year 1830 that the percussion-cap rifles were first used, and they were not in general use here for some years after that. Guns were invented by a German named Swartz, about 1378. As soon as Mr. Long raised some grain he commenced to operate his "still" and manufacture whiskey, this being the first manufactured west of the mountains and east of the Allegheny River.
This part of Pennsylvania was then the hunting-grounds of the Seneca Indians,-Cornplanter tribe. The still-house of Long soon became the resort for these Indians. Pittsburg was the nearest market for pelts, furs, etc., and the only place to secure flour and other necessaries. From the mouth of Red Bank Creek these goods had to be poled up to Barnett's in canoes. By scoop- ing the channel, wading, and polling, a round trip to the mouth could be made in from one to two weeks. Although the woods swarmed with Seneca Indians, as a rule, they never committed any depredations.
In the summer of 1804, when William was ten years old, he killed his first deer. One morning his father sent him into the woods for the cows. Nature was resplendent with verdure. William carried with him a flint-lock gun, and when a short distance from the house he found the cows and a deer feeding with them. This was William's opportunity. He shot and killed this deer, and, as a reward for merit, his father gave him a flint-lock gun as a present. This circumstance determined his course in life, for from that day until his death it was his delight to roam in the forest and pursue wild animals,
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
and hunting was his only business. He was a "professional hunter," a " still hunter," or a man who hunted alone.
In the summer of 1804 William went with his mother to Ligonier, in Westmoreland County, to get some provisions. The only road was an Indian path, the distance sixty miles. They rode through the brush on a horse, and made the trip in about five days.
Bill Long, the king hunter of Northwestern Pennsylvania
The Indians soon became civilized, as far as drinking whiskey and getting drunk was an evidence. They visited this still-house for debauchery and drunken carnivals. As a safeguard to himself and family, Louis Long had a strong box made to keep the guns and knives of these Indians in while these orgies were occurring. The Indians desired him to do this. Mr. Long never charged the Indians for this whiskey, although they always offered
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
pelts and furs when they sobered up. In consideration of this generosity, the Indians, in broken English, always called Louis Long, "Good man; give Indian whiskey. Indian fight pale-face; Indian come one hundred miles to give ' good man' warning."
Ludwig Long kept his boys busy in the summer months clearing land, farming, etc. The boys had their own time in winter. Then William, with his gun and traps, traversed the forest, away from the ocean's tide, with no inlet or outlet but winding paths used by the deer when he wished to slake his thirst in the clear, sparkling water of the North Fork.
The boy hunter, to keep from being lost while on the trail, followed up one side of this creek and always came down on the opposite. When he grew older he ventured farther and farther into the wilderness, but always keeping the waters of the North Fork, Mill Creek, and Sandy Lick within range until he became thoroughly educated with the country and woods.
In his boyhood he frequently met and hunted in company with Indians. The Indians were friendly to him on account of his father's relations to them, and it was these Indians that gave William his first lessons in the art of hunting. Young William learned the trick of calling wolves in this way. One day his father and he went out for a deer. William soon shot a large one, and while skinning this deer they heard a pack of wolves howl. William told his father to lie down and be ready to shoot, and he would try the Indian method of "howling" or calling wolves up to you. His father consented, and William howled and the wolves answered. William kept up the howls and the wolves answered, coming closer and closer, until his father became scared; but William wouldn't stop until the wolves got so close that he and his father had to fire on the pack, killing two, when the others took fright and ran away. The bounty for killing wolves then was eight dollars apiece. A short time after this William and his father went up Sandy to watch an elk- lick, and at this point they killed an elk and started for home. On the way home they found where a pack of about twenty wolves had crossed their path, near where the town of Reynoldsville now is. Looking up the hill on the right side of Sandy they espied the whole pack, and, both father and son firing into the pack, they killed two of them. William then commenced to " howl," and one old wolf through curiosity came to the top of the hill, looking down at the hunters. For this bravery William shot him through the head. On their return home that day Joseph Barnett treated them both to whiskey and "tansy," for, said he, " the wolves this day have killed one of my cows." When Long was still a young man, one day he went up the North Fork to hunt. About sundown he shot a deer, and when he had it dressed there came up a heavy rain. Being forced to stay all night, he took the pelt and covered himself with it, and lay down under the bank to sleep. After midnight he awoke, and found himself covered with sticks and leaves. In a minute he knew this was the work of a panther hunting food for her cubs,
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
and that she would soon return. He therefore prepared a pitch-pine fagot, lit it, and hid the burning fagot under the bank and awaited the coming of the panther. In a short time after this preparation was completed the animal returned with her cubs, and when she was within about thirty feet of him, Long thrust his torch up and out, and when it blazed up brightly the panther gave out a yell and ran away.
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