OHIO STATEWIDE FILES - The Ohio Hunter [Chapter 16] ************************************************************************ USGENWEB ARCHIVES(tm) NOTICE Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgenwebarchives.org ************************************************************************** File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by Sara Grimes McBeth saramcb@socket.net June 22, 2005 ************************************************************************** IN THE SWAMP AGAIN. 171 CHAPTER XVI. SPEND THE WINTER IN THE SWAMP--TAKE THE DUTCIIMAN ALONG WITH ME- SMALL GAIN AND IIARD FARE--A DAY WITHOUT FOOD EAT SOME COON--FRESH SUPPLIES RECEIVED PLENTY OF WILD HONEY--BEREAVED OF MY WIFE--A MOURN- ING CIRCLE--START FOR ANOTHER HUNT--NOV- EL METHOD OF DETERMINING A COON-TREE--A HOUSE AFLOAT--NOVEL PREDICAMENT FOR THE NIGHT--MARRIED. WHEN winter came again it found me ready for the woods. It had become as natural for me to go to the swamp in winter, as for the game to huut their dens. This time I also took the aforesaid Dutchman with me, and we arranged our camp and set our tents for thc winter. Our successes were attended with many reverses, yet we made very good average of the time. Whcn we first went into the woods we did not kill enough to keep ourselves in meat. and soon our limited store of breadstuff was consumed by ourselves and dogs. One morning, when the weather was very unfavorable for hunting coon, we found ourselves entirely destitute of anything to eat. The prospect seemed rather dubious and I was in favor of going home for something to eat; but my German friend said if I would stay and hunt he 172 THE OHIO HUNTER. would go home and bring some grub. I told him I would do it, and accordingly we both started on our different routes, neither ourselves nor dogs having had any breakfast. I was very successful that day catching coon, but skinned them and threw them away as fast as they were caught, so that when night came I had nothing to eat myself, or to feed my dogs. We then laid down and slept until about two hours before daylight, when we got up and started again for coon, this being the best hour in the day to hunt them. By this time alimentiveness was the most active phrenological development, and clamored loudly in favor of the neglected stomach. The first coon we caught were hastily dressed and a fire built, and the roasting process was commenced, but no sooner had the savory odors greeted my olfactories than the roasting was suspended, and I commenced satisfying my ravenous appetite with unbaked coon! Had I been fresh from the city, where it is genteel and customary to eat raw meat, the effect might have been more favorable; but in the woods we always cooked our meat; and where meat was so plenty I never was partial to taking it rare. But in this instance I did not stop until I had nearly demolished one good size and fair proportioned little animal of the coon species. This proved sufficient, however, and I have molested that delicate meat but little since ! Early the next morning my German friend re- BEREAVED OF MY WIFE 173 turned with the promised subsistence, but I already had an overloaded stomach, and such delicacies as corn bread and boiled pork possessed no attractions; and for several hours I felt little inclined either to eat, hunt, or take any exercise. I was quite willing to stay in camp the remainder of that day and the following night; but early the next morning I was as eager as ever to follow the coon, though for a rather different reason. The first tree we cut contained four coon, and thirty pounds of pure honey. This last-mentioned article regulated the gastric organs admirably. After this signal good fortune, I returned to the camp and lay down and rested very contentedly. In an hour or so, my friend, who had been in quite a different direction, came in with only one coon, declaring, "Coon no run in daylight, and when Dutchman around!" We hunted together the next week and had very good success. As soon as our load of fur was large enough, we started for home. The proceeds of that hunt paid me admirably for the time it cost. When I reached home I found my family exceedingly anxious about my welfare, for my stay had been protracted beyond their expectations. I found them well, however, and I soon left them again for my haunt in the woods. In the year 1848 I was bereaved of the companion who had for sixteen years been the partner of my toils. Hand in hand we had walked the 174 THE OHIO HUNTER rugged path of pioneer life, and just as we were nearing the borders of a more comfortable existence, just as the woodsman's ax and maufacturer's tools had subdued the forest, and comfortable homes had been erected, and pleasant, fertile vales been spread out before the laboring pioneer as the reward of his industry, and we were promising our- selves "better days,"--just then the great destroyer of human plans and human expectations, with unsheathed sword, laid low in the dust the fondest of my cherished hopes. The light of my home was extinguished at noonday,, the pall of gloom was settled over my darkened hearth. But in that dark hour I learned as never before, that "sweet are the uses of adversity ;" for it is losses and crosses that tighten the bands that unite us to the Great Head of the church. From that event I must ever date a more perfect faith and reliance upon Him who never leaves or forsakes his children in the hour of trial. It was indeed a trial to gather my family around me and look upon the broken circle; for besides my own heart being widowed, there were eight children made orphans; and though I felt my own loss irreparable, I knew that theirs was so. And from them at least, the mysterious hand of Providence, whose ways are past finding out, had removed the truest, tenderest friend God ever gave. I will not underrate a father's love, but the ten- derest, deepest, purest, devotion of the human START ON ANOTHER HUNT. 175 heart, is the Christian mother's undying love for her children. She alone can divine their little wants. She only can minister to their mental, moral, and physical necessities, the proper aliment; and she, of all the world, is the only one who can develop, in exact, proportions, the mental, moral, and social element of their unformed characters so as to bring forth a perfectly symmetrical whole. The winter passed slowly and gloomily by; sometimes I endeavored to follow along in the lawful and laudable pursuits of life; at other times I abandoned everything to my grief. I had an aged mother, now past seventy years of age, who assisted me in keeping my family from separation. Spring at length emerged from the depth of that gloomy winter; and though it brought sunshine and gladness to many hearts, it brought neither to my desolate home; and through the multitude of cares and anxieties, which now set with far more than double weight upon my mind, how could I purchase forgetfulness ? In the fall, my friend Kinney and myself started for another hunt. This time we came into thc immense forests of Wood and Henry counties, instead of Putnam and Paulding. My partner had traveled the route before, but to myself it was entirely new. We journeyed on for three days before we got through; but at the close of the second day I was obliged to give up in consequence of ill health a.nd exhaustion. By this 176 THE OHIO HUNTER time we had reached the hunting grounds, which lay along the banks of a creek, called Turkey Foot, in Henry county. Mr. K. told me that there was a family living on the Creek, by the name of Hill,--that they were very clever, hospitable people, and that I must go there and stay all night, for as I was not well it would be imprudent for me to camp in the woods. About ten o'clock that night we reached his house and obtained permission to stay all night. Our hospitable hostess, who was just enjoying her first and most refreshing slumber, did not complain that her luxurious repose was disturbed, but with ready hands she prepared us supper, and set before the weary and exhausted hunters the best provisions her humble home afforded. My friend ate heartily, but a very small quantity sufficed for me, and we soon laid down and rested until morning. A good night's rest did its part toward restoring me to bodily health, and the next morning we started for the valley. We stayed several days in camp without accomplishing much, though we caught a few coon and deer, enough to keep ourselves and dogs in meat. At last we came to a house on the river where we got permission to stay all night, and the next morning made arrangements for boarding there during the remainder of our stay. Coons were plenty, and we commenced the sport of killing them in earnest, We were getting quite successful DISCOVER TRACKS OF COONS 177 in the business, when my partner was rendered incapable of service from the effects of a felon on his finger. The man where we were boarding, whose name was Thorp, said if we would teach him to hunt, he would go with us for seventy-five cents per day. We agreed to his terms, and started for the woods. Thc coon did not run very well, but we pursued what we could find. My partner and myself never went together, but took something like parallel ranges, from forty to one hundred rods apart; when we wanted one another we we would give a signal howl, and thus determine the course. Mr. Thorp was to follow me just for enough at one side so that he could see me and not get lost. At length I came to a tree that bore unmistakable traces of coon. I could see the marks where they went up, but not where they came down. I saw that Thorp was looking at me, so I placed my nose against the tree and commenced smelling of it ! When Thorp came up I told him there were coon in that tree. He looked carefully about, but seeing no tracks, said, "How do you know there are coon in the tree?" Instead of explaining to him the true theory, I made an evasive reply, and left him to suppose I had determined the matter by the sense of smell. Thorp commenced the operation of cutting the tree, but had not proceeded far, when I: heard Mr. K. howl. I answered, when he told me he had a coon treed, and wanted I should come 178 THE OHIO HUNTER. and cut it. I told Thorp he should stay and cut down the tree, and when he had caught the coon he could come where I was. At length he came to where I was hard at work cutting the coon tree, and said, "I want to know how you knew there was a coon in that tree." I told him it was a poor hunter who couldn't tell when he had treed a coon. But he was persistent in knowing the means by which it was discovered, and said, "I'll be darned if I didn't see you smelling up that tree, before I came up" --and accordingly he walked up to the tree I was chopping and place:l his prodigious olfactory against the bark. The evidence was by no means conclusive, and he declared he could smell nothing but the bark. He then wanted to know how I knew that Kinney had a coon treed when he howled. I told him by the different intonations of his voice. He only responded by saying that we must have better ears, and noses, too, than he had. This finished our hunting for that day, and we returned at night to our boarding- place. Early the next morning, just after the break of day, the dogs commenced a tremendous barking just behind the house. We went immediately to the spot and there was a large wolf holding a deer that it had caught. Thorp raised his gun and I ordered him to shoot, for it was a wolf,--correcting his im- pression that it was a dog. He fired, the bail passing through the flank. The dogs sprang up. PRECARIOUS SITUATION. 179 on the wolf and I ran for the deer, caught and killed it. We continued hunting with little intermission until winter broke up, when we commenced gathering together our furs, which had been left at different places of deposit; and we agreed to meet at Mr. Hill's, on Turkey Foot, and stay there until we could dispose of them. I got there a day earlier than my friend. The weather was very bad, and the water high and constantly rising. The house stood right on the bank of the Creek, and before bed-time the water commenced coming into the house, and rose so rapidly that soon the floor was all afloat,--it not being nailed down. I brought in plenty of wood and filled the fire-place and kept the fire above high water mark; then I floated in saw- logs and built scaffolding above the water. The beds and valuables were placed upon this, and after all was arranged the family retired for the night; but there were not beds enough, and some must sit up. The lot fell upon me and the old gentleman's daughter. Now the scaffold allotted to us was only just wide enough for two chairs, side by side, and somehow we couldn't help getting somewhat acquainted before morning. The high water detained me several days; but it having at length subsided, I returned to my home. Found my family well and comfortable. But my mother, who was very old and somewhat childish, said she had raised one family and could 180 THE OHIO HUNTER not now in her old age be troubled with the cares and responsibilities of another,--that I must get another house-keeper. This was placing me in a dilemma from which I did not know how to extricate myself There were a great many very competent house-keepers, but how to get one-- that was the question. I debated it seriously in my own mind for several days, then mounted my horse and determined to try. The success attendant was worthy the effort it cost, and the young lady who I had so gallantly preserved from the liquid element, now ventured to trust herself more fully in my keeping.