USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne County [Pa.] > Part 4
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The elm, grand and majestic, is a tree which is like- ly to continue in existence as its wood is not so valu- able as to invite its destruction. Long may it wave!
The hemlock spruce, sometimes called double spruce, is found only in the south-western part of the county. It grows to the height of the white pine, is equally straight, and often attains a size of two and a half feet in diameter. It is found chiefly along the head-waters of the Lehigh and Tobyhanna. The timber was for many years the common plunder of the shingle-makers, who found a ready market for their shingles in North-
ampton county. The timber is free and easy to work, and since the construction of the Delaware, Lackawan- na and Western railroad, the timber has advanced in value, and large quantities of it are yearly prepared for market, at the mills of Dodge & Co., at Tobyhanna. Like the hemlock, it is a slow-growing tree, and will not be reproduced for a century.
The white oak and other varieties of the oak were found principally about Moosic mountain and Palmyra and Paupack townships. The timber, never very abun- dant, has been used up in the county. Could the fires be kept out of the woods, some of it might be repro- duced and preserved.
The shagbark hickory was and is found only in iso-
39
THE FORESTS.
lated places, generally upon hills, as upon Hickory hill in Lebanon, McCollam's hill in Damascus, and Collin's hill in Cherry Ridge. It was found, also, upon the alluvial soil of the Paupack, above Wilsonville, where many of the trees grew to be two and a half feet in diameter. Whether they have all been taken off, I do not know. The nut in size and flavor is exceeded only by the English walnut.
The butternut is found along the hill-sides of all the large streams of the county, seeming fitted to the deep, strong, stony land in such places. But it will grow almost anywhere remote from streams. It is found at the foot of Hickory hill in Lebanon, several miles from the Delaware river, whence those useful tree-planters, the squirrels, carried the butternuts, it is supposed. If the nuts are planted soon after they fall, by cover- ing them with soil and leaves, they grow with a rapid- ity attributed to Jonah's gourd, and if cut down will sprout up again. The wood is valuable for ornamen- tal purposes. The tree seems likely to escape extine- tion. The Lombardy poplar, mulberry, locust, horse- chestnut, and black-walnut have not been named, be- cause they are not considered indigenous to this part of our country.
The sugar-maple. This tree is found in most of the Northern States, and is one of the marvels of the American forests. The extraordinary neatness of its appearance, and the beauty of its foliage, which in sum- mer is of the liveliest green, and in autumn of a glow-
40
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
ing crimson, has led to its selection as a beautiful or- nament in our yards and avenues. It will grow upon almost any soil, and is easily transplanted. When used for fuel, its wood almost equals the solid hickory. The tree has been destroyed with a reckless prodigality and a thoughtless disregard of its value. The consid- eration, however, that the tree yields a sugar which is delicious to the tastes of the young and the old, the manufacture of which may be made profitable, is like- ly to lead to its future preservation. In some parts of the county, especially in Mount Pleasant, the farm- ers are wisely saving the second growth of maples for sugar-orchards. On almost every hilly farm is some rocky spot, unfit for the plow, which might be planted with maples. In the Eastern States the farmers set maples on both sides of the highways, from which trees some of them make all the sugar they need. They also furnish the traveler with cooling shade and add to the farmer's prospective store of fuel. The day will come when the highways of Wayne county will, in like manner, be embellished with maples, to the profit and comfort of the farmers. In ordinary sea- sons, four pounds of sugar can be made from a tree of medium size. The sap of second-growth trees produces more sugar than that from trees found in old forests. The seed of the sugar-maple ripens and falls in October. There are varieties of this tree called "birds'-eye" and "curled" maple, the wood of which, fifty years ago, was valuable and much sought after by cabinet-makers. It commanded a high price in England. But the
41
THE FORESTS.
caprice of taste is such that its value has greatly depreciated.
The red flowering maple is a beautiful tree. It blos- soms in the latter part of April. The blossoms are of a beautiful red and unfold more than a fortnight before the leaves. The tree is called soft maple and the grain is sometimes curled like the sugar-maple. Sugar is made from the sap of the tree as white as that made from the other maple, if the bark of the tree is not boil- ed with the sap. The tree grows luxuriantly in rich, moist land, the bark is smooth, the body straight, and the foliage of a light green; many consider it more graceful than the hard-maple. The wood is used for a variety of purposes in making domestic wooden ware and agricultural implements. The utility and beauty of the tree should insure its cultivation and preservation.
The amount of money received in Wayne county during the past eighty years for all kinds of lumber sent to market and for hemlock bark sold to our tan- neries, cannot be estimated, but, if it could be, the amount would astonish us. Probably the wants of the people were such that they were justified in cutting down our most valuable trees, to obtain what they could from them. But it appeared to us that some descrip- tion of our native forests would be appropriate, lest some of our noblest trees, once the glory of our hills and streams, should be forever forgotten.
6
42
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
CHAPTER IV.
QUADRUPEDS-THE BEAR.
M ANY of the kinds of wild beasts which lived in the original forests of Wayne county, have become extinct. The bear, wolf, panther, elk, beaver, and marten, have entirely disappeared. The bear lived a solitary, quiet life in forests and deserts, subsisting on fruits, chestnuts, beech-nuts, and roots, and, al- though not carnivorous, would, when incited by hun- ger, attack and devour small animals. Like the Reb- els, they liked to be let alone; but, forced into a con- fiet, they fought desperately. Owing to the hardness of their skulls, thickness of hide, and tenacity of life, they were hard to kill. When shot down from trees, or caught in traps, hunters, sometimes, by going too near them, paid dearly for their rashness, barely es- caping with their lives.
Asa Stanton, of Waymart, says his father, Col. Asa Stanton, once caught in a trap a bear which broke the chain, and, there being a tracking snow, his father fol- lowed the trail over the mountain, down to about Archbald, where he overtook the fugitive. A large dog that he had along, pitched in for a fight, but soon got the worst of it. Stanton's gun was wet ; so, to re- lieve his dog, he went at the bear with his knife.
43
THE BEAR.
Bruin caught Stanton by the leg, above the knee, and tore it so that he bled very profusely. But the dog, annoying the beast, made him quit his hold of his master, who, cleaning and reloading his gun, shot the monster dead. Stanton, weak and faint, was found by a hunter, who went with him to his home. From the wound received, he was lame the rest of his life.
Seth Yale, Esq., shot and wounded a young bear at the head of the Upper Wood's pond, in Lebanon. The old dam came to the rescue, and, with open mouth, ad- vanced upon the Esquire, who struck at her with a hatchet. She knocked the hatchet from the handle. He ran the handle into her mouth, but she managed to seize him by the arm, and, with her iron jaws, almost crushed it. The Esquire luckily had a faith- ful dog along, which, annoying the bear in the rear, made her release her hold upon the Esquire and turn upon the dog, which was too cunning to let her get hold of him. Yale picked up his gun, retreated a few rods, reloaded it, shot and mortally wounded the bear, and then with his dog went for his home, which he reached with difficulty, being weak and faint from the loss of blood. Had it not been for the sagacity of the dog, it was the opinion of the Esquire that the bear would have overcome them both.
The bear is a hibernating animal. At the begin- ning of the winter, when very fat, he retires to some hollow tree, and sleeps through the heart of the win- ter. The Indians seldom attacked the bear, and free- ly admitted that bruin was too much for them. But
44
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
the whites killed them for their skins, and often smoked and ate the flesh. Hilkiah Willis and my father killed one, the meat of which weighed about five hundred pounds. The skin was glossy black, and they sold it for twelve dollars. It would now be worth forty dollars, at least. The bears in the sum- mer months had their wallowing places, near which they were in the habit of standing upon their hind legs, and marking, or registering, their utmost height by biting the bark on some chosen tree. The bear may be said to be extinct in Wayne county.
THE GRAY WOLF.
The common gray wolf, originally found in all the Northern States, traversed every hill, and howled in every swamp. Being wholly carnivorous, he killed and devoured every animal that he could overpower. The first settlers found it absolutely necessary to keep sheep to supply them with wool, from which, by hand labor, they manufactured their winter-clothing. The wolves hunted the deer in packs, but the deer, when not impeded by snows, often ran to the rivers or ponds and escaped. But sheep and young cattle could not thus escape, and if not watched by day and se- curely folded by night, were sure to fall a prey to the wolves. It was said by the old farmers that with all their watchfulness, they lost yearly one-eighth of their sheep by wild beasts. A law was passed the 10th of March, 1806, requiring the county to pay to the per- son producing the scalp of a full-grown wolf or pan-
45
THE PANTHER.
ther, eight dollars, and for the scalp of a young whelp or cub of the same, four dollars; another act was pass- ed the 16th of March, 1819, raising the bounty on a full-grown wolf or panther to twelve dollars, and on a whelp or cub of the same, four dollars.
The farmers and hunters, encouraged by the boun- ty laws, made constant war upon their enemies. But the wolves were cunning and suspicious, and were not often caught in traps. Esquire Spangenberg and Charles Kimble walked one down in two days and kill- ed him; and Alva W. Norton, Esq., with a companion, pursued and walked down two Canadian black wolves and shot them, but these were exceptional cases. Old hunters used to say that wolves, having made a de- scent upon a flock of sheep and satiated their hunger, at once put off upon a long tramp, as experience and instinct taught them that they were not safe to re- main long near the scene of their depredations. Pur- suit was generally unavailing. After many years they were all exterminated. Phineas Teeple, a famous hunter in Manchester, probably killed the last one heard of in the county.
THE PANTHER.
The panthers, though less numerous than the wolves, were more to be dreaded because they could climb over any fence that could be built. They often sprang from their covert lairs and caught sheep in the day- time. I once saw one spring from a thicket and kill a sheep in the public road near the place where Geo.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Foote afterwards built a house. A neighbor came along and frightened the beast away before he had finished his meal. The carcass of the sheep was taken for bait, a trap was set in a spring near by, and the panther caught. About the year 1809, Joseph Wood- bridge, Esq., of Salem, bought eleven choice sheep. He kept them in a lot near his house, and built a high fence around a pen, in which to keep them dur- ing the nights. He came to my father's one morning greatly excited, saying that some animal had been in his pen and killed the most of his sheep, and sucked the blood from their throats. The finding was that the killing had been done by a panther, and the sentence, "immediate death." A large mastiff dog soon treed the murderer, and my father shot at him with a mus- ket. The monster fell down the tree wounded and fought desperately and ahnost killed the dog, but he was finally overcome. Several hunters said it was the largest panther they had ever seen or heard of. Its claws were sent to Connecticut to show the Yankees what kind of monsters the settlers had to contend with in the beech woods. Not being a rov- ing animal, the panther was much sooner destroyed than the wolf. If there is one left in the county, he must live in the most desolate places. It is alnost safe to say that the panther has in these parts become extinct.
The marvelous stories sometimes told about bears, wolves, and panthers, without provocation aggressively attacking men, women, or children, should be received
47
THE DEER.
with many grains of allowance. That fear of man, seemingly impressed on the brute creation by a Higher Power, restrains them from committing any such violence.
THE DEER.
These most useful of all the wild animals were once the most numerous. They were shy and retiring, del- icate in form, fleet as the race-horse, with sight and hearing intensely acute. They were called red in the summer and gray in the winter. Their skins were val- uable only when in the red coat. Throughout the whole species the males have horns which are shed and renewed yearly, increasing in size and the number of their branches, at each renewal, until a certain period. Their first antlers appear in their second year and are straight, small, and simple, and are shed in the succeed- ing winter. Though the Indians were dependent chiefly upon the flesh of the deer for food, and on their skins for raiment, they were careful not to kill them wantonly or when they were with young; consequently when the whites came into the county, they found the deer bounding over every hill or grazing in every grassy valley. They were as necessary to the subsist- ence of the whites as they had been to the Indians. Their flesh was not eaten when killed in the winter season, unless necessity compelled its use, for the ani- mal in hard winters fed upon the laurel which im- parted a poisonous principle to the meat. In view of this fact and to prevent a wanton destruction of the deer, an act was passed in 1760, making any person
48
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
liable to the payment of a fine of three pounds, who should kill or destroy any deer between the first day of January and the first day of August in each year, and the law was generally respected. Almost all the early settlers kept guns, many of them muskets of the old "Queen Anne's Arms," as they were called, which he- ing loaded with buck-shot when discharged were dan- gerous at both ends. All guns, muskets, and rifles had fint-locks until about fifty years ago, when they were superseded by perenssion powder and caps. Hunting was followed, in order to procure necessary food. Some few men made it profitable, or pursued it from an ac- quired passion for dangerous adventures. Some per- sons are doubtful whether white deer were ever found among our common fallow deer, but it is a fact. About fifty-five years ago a hunter in Sterling township, sold the skin of a white deer to William T. Noble, a mer- chant at Noble Hill. As the animal was a very large one, Mr. Noble regretted that he could not have had it as it was before it was skinned, so that it might have been stuffed and preserved, as it was a male and had huge antlers. The flesh of the deer, called venison, in the fall months was delicious. It was often dried or smoked without being salted, and called fresh junk. The skins were worth from fifty cents to one dollar. Deer often went in flocks of twenty or thirty in num- ber. After rifles came into use, about 1810, the mum- ber of deer began to fail. For forty years they were hunted, trapped, and chased to ponds by dogs, where they were assaulted and killed by the hunters who
49
THE ELK.
overtook them with canoes. From year to year de- clining in numbers, they have become so scarce that a hunter might rove a month without finding one. If not now extinct in this county, they surely will be in a few years.
THE ELK.
This noble animal, considerably larger than the common deer, which otherwise they very much resem- ble, never was very numerous ; still in early days they were found in some parts, especially in Canaan and Clinton, by reason of which a large tract of land in those townships containing 11,526 acres was named "Elk Forest." It is said that the elk sometimes at- tained the height of five feet, and that they did not attain their full growth until they were twelve years old. When full-grown their antlers are very large and spreading. Charles Stanton killed one in Canaan, the horns of which weighed twenty-five pounds and their length and spread was each four feet. Asa Stan- ton now has the horns, which are distinguished for the broad palmation of the antlers. By nature the elk is shy and timorous and sends away at the sight of man. When brought to bay or standing in defense, however, like all the deer kind, he is a dangerous antagonist. His weapons are his horns and hoofs, and he strikes so forcibly with his feet that he can kill a wolf or dog with a single blow. It is then that the hair on his neck bris- tles up like the mane of a lion, which gives him a wild and formidable appearance. In winter he lives by browsing upon the laurel and small boughs of trees, and
7
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
in the summer upon the wild grass in the swamps. The usual pace of the elk is a high, shambling trot, but when frightened he makes wondrous leaps and goes with a tremendous gallop. In passing through thick woods he carries his horns horizontally or thrown back, to keep them from being entangled in the branch- es. He is an excellent swimmer, and in summer re- sorts to the lakes and ponds and stands in the water, to escape from the bites of the flies and mosquitoes. Asa Stanton, of Waymart, says that his father had seen twenty or more at one time standing in the Elk pond. What became of all the elk is not known. Probably they retired to the westward at the advance of the whites. Hunters did not boast of killing many of them. The meat of the animal is delicious, and the skin very valuable. The elk is easily domesticated. It was the pride and glory of the hunter to kill them. The county of Elk was erected in 1843, at which time there were some found in the great forests, but they were soon all destroyed. Probably there are not ten men living in Wayne county who ever saw one in our for- ests. The last one heard of was killed fifty years ago.
THE BEAVER.
This animal challenged the Indian's veneration and the white man's admiration. They were found along most of the main streams, and especially along the Wallenpaupack, the Lackawaxen, and the head-waters of the Lehigh. Like the elephant they were half-rea- soning animals, lived together in societies, and tenanted
51
THE BEAVER.
the ponds, rivers, and creeks. Where the creeks were not of sufficient depth, they built dams, to deepen the water beyond the power of frost. Asa Stanton, who understood them well, says: "They built houses of wil- lows, birch, and poplars, their aim seeming to be to have a dry place to sleep, lie, and, perhaps, eat in. Sometimes the houses had several compartments which had no communication with each other except by wa- ter, and when finished had a dome-like appearance." In building dams, or houses, they carry stones and mud under the throat, by the aid of their fore-paws. Their trowel-shaped tails are used as rudders and pro- pellers and not, as has been supposed, for the carrying of mud and for use as a trowel. They generally work
in the night. Though they are classified with the Ro- dentia, or squirrels, yet their teeth are different; for such is the strength and sharpness of their teeth that they can lop off a bush as thick as a cane at one bite, and do it as smoothly as if cut with a knife. I have seen trees that had been gnawed down by them, six inches or more in diameter. It attains its full growth at, or before, its third year. It produces from two to six at a birth. The length of its head and body is . about forty inches, and its tail one foot. They live upon the bark of the willow, birch, shaking asp, and other trees which they gnaw down, drag into the wa- ter, and, for winter use, cover up in the water below the reach of frost. The Indians attached great value to the skin of the beaver, and they had occasion to ex- ercise all their sagacity to capture them; the whites,
52
HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
also, duly appreciated the fur of the animal, from which hats of great value were manufactured. The guns and traps of the white men finally effected their extinction, and tradition has it that near the depot of the Eric railroad below Honesdale, was killed the last beaver ever seen in Wayne county. The last one that I ever saw, was caught in a trap by Edmund Nicholson, of Salem.
THE MARTEN.
This animal, generally called Pennant's marten, though never very abundant, was found in Wayne. They were carnivorous and belonged to the weasel tribe, living upon squirrels, mice, and birds. Their length was about thirty inches, and the tail about seven- teen inches. The fur was short on the head, but in- creased in length towards the tail.
THE RACCOON.
This animal is to be found about farms in the vi- cinity of forests. The body is about fifteen inches in length, the head about five inches, and the tail eight or ten inches, the latter being ornamented with several whitish rings. The color of the back is a dark gray. The blacker the fur, the more valuable is the skin. The late Franklin Barnes in his time dressed and man- ufactured the skins into beautiful and valuable gloves. They are hibernating animals, that is, they burrow in the winter and lie in a torpid state, sometimes coming out during a thaw. They go in very fat and come out very lean. They prey upon small animals, birds. in-
53
THE WOODCHUCK AND HEDGEHOG.
sects, and eggs, adding fruits and succulent vegetables to their diet, and especially ravaging the farmer's corn- fields. There is no difficulty in taming a raccoon, but they become too mischievous to be endured. The fur was once extensively used in the manufacture of hats.
THE WOODCHUCK,
Called also the Maryland marmot, is too well known to need much description. He is a hibernating animal and lives upon clover, grass, and vegetables. When tamed he is harmless and fond of caresses. In the month of November, he goes into winter quarters, blocks up his door, and lies torpid, without eating, un- til spring. When he comes out, the severity of win- ter is past. He is of a grayish-brown color. Occa- sionally one may be found that is intensely black. The teeth of this animal show that he belongs to the Ro- dentia, or squirrel tribe.
THE HEDGEHOG.
It is known by naturalists as the Urson, or Canadian porcupine, but it is altogether different from the Eu- ropean, or African porcupine. The hedgehog has but one kind of spines or quills, which are thickly set over all the superior parts of its body and covered by a coarse, long hair that almost conceals the quills, which are of different lengths, the longest not being over two and a half inches. These, however, form a coat of armor which protects the animal against every enemy but man. When attacked they roll themselves
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
up into a ball, and woe be to the animal that seizes them then. The hedgehog lives upon mice and frogs and upon vegetables and the bark of trees, and hiber- nates among rocks and in caves. It has been tamed and kept in a cage, but they cannot be honestly recom- mended as suitable pets for children. The Indians highly prized the animal both for its flesh and quills; with the latter they ornamented their pipes, moccasins, and dresses.
THE SKUNK.
This animal is almost black, with white stripes. It generally lives near a rocky forest, having its den in an excavation in the ground or under rocks, where it lies dormant most of the winter. It is a pest, as it makes nocturnal visits to the poultry-yard, eats the eggs of geese, dueks, and hens, and destroys their broods. From a sack it discharges a most fetid and disgusting fluid secretion, one drop of which is suffi- cient to make a garment unbearable for years. Not- withstanding all this it was the opinion of Dr. Budd, a noted physician of New Jersey, that the musk of the skunk will yet be recognized as the most effective remedy in materia medica, for the cure of phthisis or any cognate disease of the respiratory organs.
THE OTTER.
This animal, in consequence of its amphibious na- ture, is nearly allied to the beaver, mink, and musk-rat. It is about five feet in length, including the tail, which is eighteen inches. The chin and throat are dusky
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