Barton County KS Archives History - Books .....Buffalo Hunting By Tenderfeet 1912
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@gmail.com July 24, 2005, 3:31 pm

Book Title: Biographical History Of Barton County

BUFFALO HUNTING BY TENDERFEET

EDWIN TYLER tells about his experience in hunting the Monarchs of the Plains,
during the early days of Barton County; "When I came to this part of the country
buffalos and autelope [sic] roamed the prairies of Western Kansas in countless
numbers. While coming through the central part of the state, nearly everybody,
we met this side of Emporia told us that tomorrow we would find buffaloes in
plentiful numbers. At Atlanto in Rice County we were told that we would find
them the next day on the Arkansas river. We were quite anxious to find them as
we were hungry for some fresh meat. Our arms consisted of two double barrelled
shot-guns, one of which had two hammers and the other but one. We had traded a
dog for the one with a single hammer. We traveled late that night and camped in
the sand hills. The next morning we got an early start. We soon encountered
large numbers, of antelope but we paid no attention to the mas it was buffaloes
we were after. Soon after we had reached the Arkansas Valley we saw three old
bulls crossing the trail a short distance ahead of us. Bill Hartshorn and I soon
had our fastest horses unharnessed. We mounted them and with the reins in one
hand and our guns in the other we charged on the game. As soon as we got within
shooting distance we dismounted and prepared to fire. By this time the game was
too far away for our arms. We made three charges on the animals and finally gave
up in disgust and decided to postpone our feast of buffalo meat. A few days
after our arrival at a point where Great Bend now stands, D. N. Heizer invited
me to go with him and a party up Dry Creek where he was going to locate the
party on a homestead. When we arrived where Tom Brandt lived, Heizer told me I
could take my gun and go up the creek where I would find plnty of game. He told
me to keep near the brush on the creek, and I could get near enough to the game
to make my shots effective. He told me to shoot a buffalo just behind the fore
leg to get the best results. I obeyed all his orders but saw no game until I
arrived at a point that is now a part of Chas. Button's home place. Here I saw
three buffalo bulls standing not twenty feet away, their heads partly hidden by
the brush. I could make no attempt to raise my gun, nothing going up except my
hair and heart. I ducked down low and sneaked back to where I could climb a tree
on an instant's notice. My nerve finally rturned and I crept up close to the
animals, aimed at the point designated by Mr. Heizer and pulled the trigger.
Then, I ran for the tree I had selected to climb. When I was up about ten feet
from the earth I looked back expecting to find a dead buffalo. However I finally
located all three of them some mile and a half away. They were in behind some
plum bushes. Made another stealthy advance but they were on the lookout and long
before I got within shooting distance they ran towards the river as fast as they
could go and I never saw them again.

   "My next experience was with a genuine old buffalo hunter, John W. Tilton.
One day he proposed to me that we go to the Five Mile Timber to get a load of
wood. He took a 22 calibre revolver and I took an ax. We had no thought of
finding any buffalo, but as my reputation had suffered in the hunting line I was
rather in hopes that something would happen so that I could distinguish myself.
As we were driving around a sand hill where Clayt and Ed Moses have their cattle
sheds we spied a buffalo cow. John stopped the team and sneaked up behind the
hill until he was within twenty feet of the animals. He then began firing the
pistol. The cow dropped and we found on examination that she had been shot
through the lungs and shoulders. The animal had no more than touched the ground
when John was on top of her and was holding her down by the horns, while he
called to me to bring the ax. I had lost the ax in the excitement and was
looking for a tree. I found one but after John had coaxed and pleaded with me
for some time, I took the ax to him, and then returned to my tree. It took John
but a short time to kill and skin the buffalo. I then remarked to him that we
had done very well. And you should have seen the look on his face when I said
'We.' I often wanted to go with the hunters after that but none of them seemed
to want my company.

   "A short time after 'we' had killed that buffalo cow, Mr. and Mrs. Hartshorn
and my wife and I started out to visit the neighbors in our vicinity. I took my
gun and two Shepherd dogs with us. I had forgotten that my wife had trained
those dogs so that they would drive cattle, sheep, etc., in any direction that
might be indicated by a wave of the hand. We had driven but a short way when we
saw a buffalo lying in the grass. I crawled up to within about a hundred yards
of it when all of a sudden my wife motioned to the dogs, and they ran by me like
shot out of a gun. They ran around the buffalo and it started for me with the
dogs in pursuit. I beat it back to the wagon slightly in the lead. After running
around the wagon twice I got together enough courage to turn and shoot at the
animal. I sent about a dozen buck shot into it and at last I could say I had
killed a buffalo. It has always been a wonder to me that I did not shoot the
dogs instead of the buffalo.



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