Pioneer Hunters of the Kankakee by J Lorenzo Werich

Transcription

UC-NRLF
$B 7ES bMfi
of the
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i
BY
i
iiii i
i
J.
.
i
LOREMZO WEH!€H
Yours Truly
J.
Lorenzo Werich
Pioneer Hunters
of the
Kankakee
BY
J.
LORENZO WERICM
Copyright
By
J,
1920
Lorenzo Wcrich
All Rights
Reserved
CONTENTS
CHAriER
ILLUSTRATIONS
J.
-
-
Lorenzo Werich
Frontpiece
12
Raccoon
Pioneer Trapper's Shanty on Little Paradise Island
John Werich
A Deer Hunter's Lodge on Johnson's Island
Trapping P\y
View
In
A
Camp
on Island Six
to
Two
-
Ay
Island
The White
Island
Home
Saw
-
_
_
_
-
-
on the Kankakee
Star
151
"
-
/Aill
108
129
-
-
Typical Trapper's Shanty on Indian Island
The Indian
102
107
-
_
_
House
73
-
-
Club House
of Louisville
Louisville Club
38
70
-
_
_
_
-
Eaton's Bridge
Interior
-
First
Haute & Indianapolis Club House
Trapper's Cabin on Grape Island
Some of the Traps That Were Used by Early Hunters
Ay First Duck Shooting from a Boat
The Old River Bed at North Bend
Rockville. Terre
Ruins
of a
The New Kankakee
Camp
of
_
_
Logansport Hunters on Cornell's Island
^. .'j.'<-^<<
-
-
134
135
137
139
143
146
150
186
188
189
—
I
•i''.
:•-
«
CONTENTS
CHAI-IER
»
i
—^''
ILLUSTRATIONS
J.
-
Lorenzo Werich
-
Frontpiece
12
Raccoon
Pioneer Trapper's Shanty on Little Paradise Island
John Werich
A Deer Hunter's Lodge on Johnson's Island
Trapping /^y
-
Eaton's Bridge
_
Louisville Club
A
Camp
to
-
-
Typical Trapper's Shanty on Indian Island
Indian Island Saw /îll
Home
The White
Star
on the Kankahee
-
-
-
-
-
-
Haute & Indianapolis Club House
Ruins of a Trapper's Cabin on Grape Island
Some of the Traps That Were Used by Early Hunters
Duck Shooting from a Boat
The Old River Bed at North Bend
_
The New Kankakee
-
First
Camp
of
_
Logansport Hunters on Cornell's Island
'jf^^lj
151
"
Rockvllle. Terre
Ay
102
107
108
129
-
_
Two
The
A\y Island
-
-
_
House
on Island Six
38
70
73
-
_
_
Club House
Interior 'View of Louisville
In
-
First
-
-
-
-
134
135
137
139
143
146
150
186
188
189
To
The Pioneer Hunters and Trappers
of the
Kankakee River Region,
of faithful friendship,
By
I
of
many
years
dedicate this volume.
the Author.
CHAPTER
I
CATCHING MY FIRST RACCOON
REMINISCENCES
OF PIONEER DAYS ON
THE OLD KANKAKEE RIVER
CATCHING MY FIRST
RACCOON
I
"Oh the hunting days of my youth,
Have forever gone from me."
was born in a log cabin on my grandfather's
farm near Valparaiso,
Indiana
within
two miles and a
stream
of
which
I
am
in
1860, and
half of the historical
going to
tell
you.
It
was
whilst watching the vanishing of a great hunting
ground by the reclaiming of the Kankakee
swamp
kee
a
new Kanka-
that involves the plot
which forms
lands, or rather
fîver,
making
the gist of
my
of th2 old
Pottowattomie Indian who v/as driven
story.
I
have seen the sad face
FiGNFF.R
HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
from his hunting grounds on the Kankakee, and
now we see a shadow of gloom, of sadness, on
the faces of the fev/ remaining old pioneer hunters
wild
who have
spent their early years in hunting
game and
trapping the fur-bearing animals
Kankakee
of the
not
It is
my
purpose
Kankakee
of this
of all the
region.
to write the
region or to give
whole history
reminiscenses
pioneer hunters that have hunted and
on the Kankakee, in the years past, as it
would take a long time to write it, and it would
fished
make volumes.
/Aany hunters have come here from
cities,
far
off
Nev/ York, Philadephia, V/ashington, Bos-
and many near-by
ton, Pittsburg,
cities.
1
have
met and hunted with sportsmen from Europe,
and the hunters usually get what they are lookfor— plenty
ground
for all
States.
This
far
north as
States,
game— as
of
I
kinds of
fact
I
it
was the
game
know, as
far
hunting
birds in the United
I
have hunted as
could and yet be
and as
best
in
the
United
south as the Gulf of Aexico,
10
and west as
far
as the Rockies, and
I
yet found a place that equalled the
swamps,
for
Kankakee
the variety of game to be found there.
To make a long story short,
was the hunters' and trappers'
wonder he now
over
have never
feels
sad
those days
in
it
paradise, and no
at heart
when he
looks
once great hunting-ground nov/ the
He can realize how the
the farmer.
this
home of
Redman
felt
when he had
to give
up
this region
to the white hunters.
V/hen about eight years of age v/e moved to
marsh and lived in a log cabin on Bissel
the
Ridge.
In the
summer season my
father ditched
and made hay. The grass v/as cut v/ith a scythe.
After being cured it was hauled out of the marsh
on a brush
stacked.
to
some
knoll
In the fall father
or
ridge
and there
trapped the fur-bearing
animals and shot game for meat, while tending
He would dress the skins at night. I
his traps.
helped getting the bow-stretchers ready and in
And v/hen snuffing the
stringing the dry hides.
candle,
no lamps or
electric lights v/ere
11
used
in
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
those days,
snuff the
A
out.
would sometimes get sleepy and
little too low and put
the light
I
wick a
few yards
our cabin ran a
in front of
small creek that spread out over a
low marsh,
or rather a slough, as they are sometimes called,
below our house.
just
formed a great
This
musk-rat pond and was also a great place for
About
wild ducks to nest and rear their young.
a mile above our cabin was another musk-rat
pond, and this
ing
it
little
a run-way
another.
for
creek was
the rats from
me
Father gave
traps which
its'
two or three old
had weak springs and which
set without
breaking
my
mak-
outlet,
one pond
fingers,
I
to
steel
could
should they
set
caught between the jaws.
the traps along the creek where the rats would
stop to feed on roots and such vegetation as
happen
to get
I
musk-rats usually feed upon.
rats that
fall.
One morning
and found a raccoon
est sister usually
she was with
me
in
one
went with
this
I
of
1
them.
me
morning.
12
caught fifteen
went to my traps
Ay young-
to the traps
and
To say we were
Trapping
My
Firjt
Raccoon.
This
is
one of the wild
animals that dwell on the edge of civilization
the Kankakfê,
in
the wilds of
where dwelled the author
frightened would be putting
We
form.
it
nothing to
iiad
in
kill
a
mild
very
the
raccoon
and would probably not have done so had
we something with which to do it. /Ay sister hav-
with,
more courage than
ing
the coon whilst
father
I
was away tending
and help kill the coon.
mother and soon had
1
ended.
this
trapped
some
became
quite
v/hen
I
to his
mothertraps— to come
for
With two big clubs my
fAr. Coon's eaithly career
happened.
big
game since
so excited
caught the
first
I
mg, commencing
forded me.
that time, but never
as on the
morning
raccon.
will
be forever photo-
was
my memory.
lived when began my early hunt-
graphed on the tablets
at this place
have hunted and
I
ihe scene that morning
.
home
has been more than a half century
It
ago since
stayed and watched
1,
ran back
But
of
It
1
to realize the
of
course
I
pleasure
had no idea
it
of
af-
the
hardships which existed in it. We resided here
about two years and a half. In the meantime
my
father
bought the Bissel stock, consisting
13
of
Sawmill Company.
/Ay grandfather owned five
two-fifths of the stock in the Indian Island
one-hundred dollar shares
of stock in the
saw-
This he gave to my mother.
mill company.
Our next move was to the Indian Island where
I
spent the next ten years of
I
will tell
you more
in
my boy-hood
another chapter.
14
days.
CHAPTER
II
FINDING THK MISSING LINK
THE DISCOVERY
OF THE KANKAKEE BY
LASALLE, A FUR TRADER MEETING
THE POTTOWATTOMIE INDIANS AND
FINISHING THE MISSING LINK
Look at the map of Indiana and you will
up
in the left-hand
stream
see,
corner of the State, a small
southern part of St. Joseph
which
in a south-western direction
flows
county,
and drains the counties of LaPorte, Starke, Porter,
rising in the
Jasper,
boundary
Lake and Newton.
line
is
It
also the
between the counties have menI
Years ago the Kankakee was called
the eastern branch of the Illinois river, but that
tioned.
theme has been disproved. The Indian name
of the Kankakee, from the two words "The-Ak
(wolf) and "A-Ki(iand) literally means Wolf15
Land
many
River, from the fact that
a band of Indians of the
years ago
Aohican Tribe who
cal-
led themselves "wolves" when driven from their
by the Iroquois, took refuge on its
banks near the headwaters of the The-A-Ki-Ki.
Charlevoix, the French missionary, on his voy-
homes
age down the Kankakee
in 1721.
river
speaks
from some of these of
It was
of the wolves.
Indians, whose village was a few miles from the
south bend on the St. Joe river, and where now
stands the
city of
South Bend, that the mission-
ary recFuited his force for his
the
Kankakee,
in
the state.
of its early history,
animals which
made
the
country.
is
expedition
and the
Illinois,
The Kankakee
rivers.
River
the
the
Yet there
is
/Mississippi
most
very
down
historical
little
known
only that the numerous wild
made
this
region
their
Kankakee an important
home
fur-trading
Occasionally a hunter's story of see-
Kankanewspapers. The
wild-cat in the
ing or shooting a deer or
kee swamps
river
itself,
is
read
in
the
though not a long
16
one,
is
beautiful,
FINDING THE MJSSING LINK
winding through marshes,
among
gled vines,
its
forests,
wooded
and there there an opening
spreads
its
becomes
channel
for
the
in
miles and in
miles of
A\omence,
its
forest.
many
a lonely, lily-fringed lake.
the sand and clay forms
crops
and long tan-
islands, with here
Its
where
Illinois,
great
dam
partly
removed
years ago
dollars.
at
a
across the
a-
few
cost of seventy-five thousand
The Kankakee region was once a
heavy timbered country, but the forest
greatly
in
rock
the
dam was
This
places
bed
course to within a few
out and forms a
stream.
It
reduced
its
wood
districts.
fires
have
The
lofty
sycamore and the mammoth elm are still to be
found on the banks of the Kankakee, as they
were during the time when the fur-laden boats
In the
of the French glided down the river.
early history of this continent
of
Spanish explorers
to
geographical features by
discovered after
der, the
some
give
it
was the custom
it
naming
some
special
the place they
Saint in a church-calen-
day the discovery was made,
17
in
this
PIONEiiR
manner
was no
it
trouble
trace
to
exact
the
course of these explorers along the coast of the
continent.
for this
was not so
It
reason
many
of the early discoveries
made
have never been written
in history.
fall
of
1679, LaSalle
Bay and coasted
until
he arrived
river.
the
left
shore
the
the
at
Here he
Joseph
and stayed here most
And
with the French.
notes of historical
French
by the
Early
vessel
of
at
in
the
Green
Lake /Michigan
mouth
of
built
Fort
that winter
all
interest,
the
St,
LaSalle
on account
of the ice, to
await the arrival of Tonti, an Italian
whom
he had brought with him from
There were about forty
officer
France as
in all
his lieutenant.
as they
As soon as
left Ft.
LaSalle early
in the spring,
the ice had gone out of the river they
ascendedthe
St. Joseph river as far as the south
bend about eighty miles, then encamped for a
time to await the remainder of the party, which
Then they took portage
arrived in a few days.
across the
swamps
to
the headwaters of the
'The-A-Ki-F<.i." (Kankakee.)
18
FINDING THE MISSING LINK
was LaSalle's plan and idea, when he
France and sailed from his home in Rouen
It
left
to
accumu-
the French possessions in Canada, to
by trading European merchandise
the Indians for their furs and pelts which they
late a fortune
to
and northern
got along the lakes
this object in
trading posts
is
now
on the
posts, as
trading
traded
view he explored
what
rivers in
with the
1
many
Indiana,
lakes and
and established
After establishing
frontier.
have said
Indians
With
rivers.
such
before,
LaSalle
articles of
mer-
chandise as guns, ammunition, knives, hatchets,
kettles, blankets and beads in exchange for their
valuable
furs.
"You Can Do
This was the motto of the Indian
Ae Good— Do You
I
Good."
The Indians soon learned that tlie Frenchman
was a benefactor and not an enemy, therefore
in a
few years they were carrying on a big
fur
trade with the Indians on the northwest frontier.
Tradition
tells
us that every wigv/am
days v/elcomed the
visit of
a
in
those
Frenchman. Hav-
ing carried out his plans so far successfully, this
19
celebrated explorer had another object
in
view.
This was to find the link. which connected the
of
great inland seas of the north with the waters
that
He had heard of
the gulf in the south.
wonderful
flowed
north far
With
river,
"'The father of Waters."
from tne unexplored wilderness
away
into the
this object before
ploring expedition to
unknown Sunny
him he
find
set out
shorter
a
which
in
the
South.
on an ex-
way
that
would shorten the world's commerce between
the East and the West and to his idea he had
found the missing link which
kee
river.
20
is
our ov/n
Kanka-
CHAPTER
ill
THE MIAMI CONFEDKRACY
THE DEFEAT
OF THE POTTOWATTOMIES
AT THE BATTLE OF TIPPECANOE
WHICH FOREVER SHATTERED THE
STRONGHOLD OF THE
MIAMI CONFEDERACY
In
1881
I
made
a
trip to
the
Indian
and the Pottowattomie reservation
1
visited several tribes of Indians,
at
in
territory
Kansas.
that
time
the Indian affairs were under the control of the
Pederal Government.
was
to find,
if
possible,
tomie Indians that
at
The purpose of my visit
any of the old Pottowatone time
inhabited
the
Kankakee region, that might be able to learn
more of the early history of their hunting grounds
on the Kankakee river.
found two very old
Pottowattomies that claimed to have lived and
hunted on the Kankakee river in their early days.
I
1
21
You can not tell how old an Indian is by his
looks unless you are acquainted with his habits,
but they are octogenarians.
At any rate they
gave accounts of events that had actually happened when and where treaties had been made.
When
spoke of the great tragedy at Fort Dearborn one of the old warriors arose to his feet,
1
threw a blanket around him and began to pace
to and fro; finally he said in a saddened voice
that
that
they
he was
I
there.
1
drew from him some
He
never before had heard.
when
felt
sippi river.
1
facts
how
/Aajor Irwin passed through the
Kankakee swamps, notifying them
to start for their new home beyond
tion
told
obtained
much
to
be
ready
the /Aisssis-
valuable informa-
One
from those two old warriors.
of
them
then was a young warrior of seventeen summers.
He was
with Elskwat-awa, the Prophet,
they sent
Winamac down
Vincennes
the
where they went
with Gen. Harrison.
were survivors
of
Wabash
in
when
river
to
council circle
Later they both fought and
the
Battle
22
of
Tippecanoe,
THE DEFEAT OF THE POT TOWOTTOMIES
which forever shattered the stronghold
Me
/Aiami Confederacy.
was encamped on a
the
river,
how
told
were defeated.
army
marsh land near
tract of
the shape of a flat-iron,
in
the
of
the
how
they
There were two men, one white
and the other a redrnan, who v/orked with
all
scheme of Tecumseh and
Els-kwat-awa. These were General Harrison
and the chief, Winamac. The former sent conenergy
stant
to defeat the
messengers from among French
of the territory
counseling
through
peace,
and
strength and influence
to
hoped
disarm
At the same time the
ings.
noblest of his race, devoted
Sometimie
curing peace,
number
of the
assembled
on the
St.
at
settlers
Kankakee
all this
all
their
of
the
efforts to se-
his
in /Aay,
hostile feel-
one
latter,
all
region,
tlirough
18H, a
Pottowattomies from
this
a place called the "Cov/
large
region
Pasture"
Joseph River, and were only preventof Tecumseh and
ed from joining the followers
the pleading eloquence of
the
Open-Door by
the
venerable Winamac.
23
A
few months
later
Tecumseh departed for the South to solicit aid
of other tribes to develop his scheme for a great
While he was gone Open Door
messengers to the Pottowattomie's
confederacy,
out
sent
upon the natives to join his forces.
number of the inhabitants of the Kankakee region formed in line of march and passed
down through the prairie marshes to the Pottolands, calling
A
large
wattomie Ford, crossed the Kankakee, then on
Winamac was
through to the Prophet's town.
sent to Governor Harrison with a message of
This
peace.
his deceitful
purpose.
the
is
where the
crafty
work and was now
As preparation was made
women and
/Aany were hidden
sand
along the
for the
war
in
caves
in
the
Tippecanoe River near
Winamac now stands. Others
where the City of
came in large numbers
and remained hidden
tide of war.
in
children were sent to the North
for safety.
hills
Prophet got
free to effect his
to the
in its
Hundreds
and children thronged
of
defenseless
to the
24
Kankakee swamps
recesses to await the
women
shores of our his-
THE DEFEAT OF THE PO rVOWOTTOM IKS
river
toric
and waited many
watching and long nights
of
weary days
of
pain from hunger
and fatigue for the return of the braves, many of
whom were never to come. The result of the
The beBattle of Tippecanoe is well known.
trayed and defeated Pottowattomies returned to
homes.
their
Aany regretted
many others
ihe whites whilst
the
crafty
here
was
the
doom
British to
that act against
were incited by
a desire for revenge and
another great tragedy,
Less than tv/o
of Fort Dearborn.
laid the plot for
years after their defeat at the Battle of Tippe-
canoe, the garrison
at
Fort Dearborn
tached and three-fourths
The
of their
was
number
at-
killed.
survivors surrendered with the promise of
This promise
their captors to spare their lives.
Captain Wells' horse was shot
As he fell an Indian ran up
from under him.
was
broken.
and stabbed him
arms
of
of his
in
the back and he died in the
Fottowattomie friends.
the Fort Dearborn massacre
saddest
is
The
history
one
of the
Indian tragedies of the Fottowattomie
,
25
PIONEER HUNTFCRS OF THE KANKAKEE
lands that was ever placed on the pages of history.
We
will ship
a period of eight years over
No
Pottowattomie land.
events
of
any great
importance occured then. Indian Territory became a State, Fort Dearborn v/as again garriThe French held the ascendancy in
soned.
influence in this region
highest regard
by the
white hunters began to
and were held
Indians.
come
In
to the
in
1821
the
Kankakee
The day before General Harrison
region.
the
start-
ed on his march up the Wabash to meet the
Prophet, two young men volunteered to join the
army, by the names
Haskins.
officer
of
They had
Daniel Scott and Aike
a cousin in
Battle of Tippecanoe.
Having a broken
was picked up and carried away
kee swamps, about sixty miles
cared
for
son who
to the
distant,
the
leg,
he
Kankaand was
by a squaw, taking the place of her
had been killed. In 1821 Scott and
Haskins came north
search
the army, an
named Atwood, who was wounded at
to the
Kankakee region
As there was
of their lost relative.
26
in
a
THE DEFEAT
Ox^^
THE POTTOWOITOMIKS
back
large estate to be settled
Ohio
in
v/as
it
know his ^^'hereabouts. Scott and
necessary
liaskins made every effort to find him alive,
to
if
they could, or where he v/as buried
They brought with them such
if
Indians usually wants, such as pipes,
needles, etc.
knives,
They
possible-
trinkets as the
got in
tobacco,
with the na-
by giving them these goods for very little
or nothing.
By kindness they gained their
tives
friendship.
when
the
English
This
naugh.
region
Scott opened a store at Bengaul but
was
come
the
they called
first
and was an ancient
trading post
village
Tass-
it
in this
v/hen the
French had established a trading post in long
years past, before even the Pottowattomie revolt.
It
was on the
old Pottowattomie
trail
lead-
ing from the Kankakee River to the Lakes.
In
the early summer, after the hunting season
was
over
for
the fur
bearing animals, the Indians
would pack their furs, then with their women
and children they would start north for the lakes
to meet the French fur trading boats which came
27
down to the lower lake region to trade with
them for their furs. During the summer season
they fished and picked
what they
lived
seasons,
in
berries,
as these were
on mostly during the heated
the fall they would return to the
Kankakee hunting grounds where one of their
main camps was located on a long point of the
mainland or ridge that projected far out into the
swamp and near the mouth of Sandy Hook.
This place was
hundreds
known
of Indians
hunting seasons.
same
side of the river
land,"
and
of
which
him face
during the
below this on the
1
known
will
fiaskins
as the "Indian Is-
speak
this old
to face with
mies, while
there
There was another Indian
camping ground a few miles
having his store on
and
as "Indian Garden"
camped
later on.
Indian
hundreds
of
'trail
Scott
brought
Pottov/atto-
camped and hunted
for
nearly two years and was the first v/hite hunter
Scott sold his store
to camp on Indian island.
to a
Frenchman, then he and liaskins returned
to the East.
They never heard
28
or got trace of
THE DEFEAT OF THE POTTOWOTTOMIES
As have said
now made by
their lost relative,
mense
the Indians in
1821 two
well
acting in this
known and remarkable
influence
trading with
parts of this country. Early in
all
men
im-
before
I
fortunes were
all
through
capacity
Kankakee
the
became
for their v/ealth
and
country.
They were Joseph Bailie and Pierre F. Navarre.
As there is usually in these early time stories a
what happened
little love and romance, this is
men.
to these
In
accordance with the general
custom among traders both married daughters
of native chieftans.
on the
After a time Bailie settled
prairie north of the river
in
what
after-
wards was Porter county, and near the site of
where Valparaiso now stands. The place was
called Baily
point
in
Town and
Porter county.
/Michigan City
banks
of
for
in
still
a well-known
Navarre
a time and then
the St. Joseph River.
settled
moved
at
to the
fAr. Bailie,
or
was generally called, was a native
Prance.
It was in 1822 that he first settled
and for the next eleven years he
Town
Bailly
Bailly as he
of
is
29
was
the only
limits.
man
white
daughters.
As
very wealthy,
the
within
His family consisted
of a wife
the years passed by he
so
much
country
and
four
became
so that he purchased a
sloop and was thus enabled to take his children
east to give them the advantage of a thorough
education and culture.
the veil and
was
Eleanor, the oldest, took
many
for
years Aother Super-
Aary's School at Terre Haute, Indiana.
There have been many treaties made with the
ior of St.
Fottowattomies. one
1836.
By
made
in
the former treaties
mies conceded
to
1832 and one
the
Fottowatto-
United States
the
in
all
the
country situated between the mouth of the Tip-
pecanoe
fîver,
running up the river twenty-five
miles, thence to the
Wabash
river,
thence across
known as the
St. /Aary's Treaty.
By this treaty the Kankakee
region formed a part of the domain of the Fot-
to the Vermillion river.
towattomie
This was
Indians, although
the land by right of
they were of the
and the Aiamis claimed
occupancy. The Pottowat-
/Miami's Confederacy
30
THE DEFEAT
OP^
THE POTTOWOTTOM lES
tomies held possession when the whites began
to settle the
country and
it
was with them
that
the United States government treatied in 1836.
The remainder
of the territory
Pickamick and Kankakee
held claim to
the territory
all
By
part of the State.
and
last
the
treaty
their lands to the
now was on
rivers.
in
the
The Aiamis
the northwest
the terms of the second
Fottowattomics ceded
all
United States Government and
agreed to relinquish the territory when called upThis was called the /^\ississinawa
on to do so.
was made on the
Treaty and
near the headwaters
Pottowattomies
left
the
of
the
treaty grounds
Kankakee.
Kankakee swamps
their
new home toward
the Sunset, to
that
was given them
for
theirs
as
long
But
their
the
The
for
land
own and was
as the sun shines and the rain
Great Pather at Washington
mind
and a few years later they
changed
were removed to the Indian Territory, The War
falls.
their
his
Department allowed a few to remain, those who
had distinguished themselves as friends to the
31
1836
man by the name of Robinson, of French and
whites during the early Indian troubles. In
a
Indian nationality,
was the
absolute control
over
tribes
Chicago
his
the last time,
people as
thus
mie's
presented
land
as
and had
Pottowattomies
1836 he assembled
In
number
to the
for
the
all
from the year of 1825.
his
chief feader,
of five
fie
thousand near
was known
Chief
to
have
Che-Bing-Way.
an account of the Pottowatto-
it
I
appeared
at the
whites immigration to this region.
32
time of the
CHAPTER
IV
SETTING STEEL TRAPS
THE WHITE MAN SETTLING
THE COUNTRY VACATED BY THE INDIANS
AND THE FIRST TRAPPER TO SET
STEEL TRAPS ON THE KANKAKEE
The history of the region of the Kankakee
country under the Aborignies is told. The great
/"Aiami Republic fell before the
East,
and
it
became
Republic
of
the
the obvious destiny
of
the
nations to yield to the strongest race.
"33" marked the advent
lies
from the East.
The
of the first
first
The year
white fami-
settlers
to
arrive
were the Aorgan Brothers, Isaac and William,
who came
early
in
the
summer
County' Ohio, and settled on a
wards known as AVorgan
cast side of
from
prairie,
Wayne
after-
is on the
Sandy Hook and a few miles from
33
Prairie.
It
THE PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
Two years later my
the Kankakee river.
Dye came from Holmes County,
Grandfather
Ohio, and settled on a prairie on the west side
of Sandy Hook, which is now known as Horse
He was
Prairie,
now Boone
was only
seeing
the
first
township.
five
many
years of
of the
white settler in what
is
/Ay mother at that time
age and she remembers
Her
Fottowattomies.
arri-
Kankakee country antedating
is more than fifteen years.
father
my
that of
were found
in this
val in the
next decade
many
part of the country.
settlers
Game was
every cabin was found a
some
of
these pioneer
In the
and
plentiful
rifle
From
or two.
homes came
in
the
early
hunters and trappers of this story.
Hence, "The
Pfoneer Hunters of the Kankakee"
is
my
story.
In the outset of
this
the
story
I
title of
had
in
mind only a short story of the early trappers and
have detoured out over more
But
hunters.
I
territory
than
I
expected.
graphic sketch of
all
the
If
men
I
to
give
a
who have hunted
and trapped on the Kankakee
34
were
it
would
fill
vol-
SETTING STEEL TKAPS
umes.
Therefore
will
I
few of
a
of
speak only
As have said fur traders
in those early days became immensely rich and
the Kankakee Region in an early day was the
the earliest pioneers.
greatest
I
hunting ground
the
in
/Aiddle West,
As
especially for the fur-beaFing animals.
gold
and gems was the magnet that attracted our
Hoosier folks to the Far West, so it was the fur
trade
brought the early explorers to the
that
Kankakee
The Indians caught
new-comers for
region.
and traded them
Then began
to the
the greatest trade that this
New
Indiana ever knew.
brought
the
new
ing
to
into
trade
tell
the furs
trinkets.
existence in
and
it
is
you about
history of the
types of
the
some
in
Kankakee
fur
of
persons were
new country by
of these
this
part
new
trade
I
am
story,
is
go-
as the
one
of the
"45"
history.
pages
Harrison Hartz Polsom and Rens Brainard, two
brightest
of
In the fall of
its
young men came from Ohio with their parents.
In 1840 they settled on the prairie north of the
Kankakee Swamp.
Having some idea
35
how
a business
profitable
bearing
ness.
First
embarked
of
of
who had
Alyes
tlie
fur-
in that busi-
them made a butter-nut
Then they wenl
dugout.
name
each
was trapping
it
animals, they
to a
blacksmith by the
settled in this region
in
"30" and had opened a blacksmith
shop on his homestead, and who also kept a
the early
cross-road store a few miles east of the Indian
Town, now Hebron, and engaged him to make
them three dozen steel rat-traps at one dollar
each, and four two-spring
traps as they are
lars each.
and
of
otter
sometimes
These were the
set in the
Kankakee
traps,
wolf
or
called, at three dol-
first
steel traps
On
country.
made
the
first
October they launched their dugouts and
outfit off Coal Pitt Island, a small island
trapping
in the
north
marsh where
and Smith had
dled their dugouts up the
ber line until they
early
days
known
it
for
many
years Jones
their charcoal pits.
came
was
They padmarsh along the tim-
to
called
to the old river
men
36
North Bend.
In the
Flag Pond but was
as North
Bend from
SETTING STEEL TRAPS
the fact that
point the
this
at
north
the farthest
of
Kankakee flows
entire course.
its
At
this
an opening through the timber to
the river. They ascended the river a few miles.
When night came upon them they landed on a
point there
is
small ridge near the mouth of Crooked Creek.
frail camp and a glowing camp
They soon had a
When
fire.
they landed on the ridge Brainard
shot two young fox squirrels and with what provisions they
had brought with them they soon
had a good supper.
After supper they gathered
up some withered herbage, spread their blankets
and lay down for a night's rest in the lone, silent, solitary, stillness of
to
the
be lured to sleep by the
Kankakee swamps,
hoot-owl, the howl-
wolves and the splashing of the muskThis was the
the water near the camp.
ing of the
rats in
first
night's
experience
pers in years of
of
the following day they
looked
/*Vr.
for
two
of the oldest trap-
service on the Kankakee.
set
On
out their traps and
a suitable place to build their shanty.
Folsom took
part of the traps
37
and went up
Brainard took the remainder and
the river.
went down stream.
the
They returned
afternoon and reported their
pect of a building
to
trip
camp
in
and pros-
Brainard had found a
site.
on a bayou
beautiful small island near the river
which he thought would be a very suitable spot
for a shanty.
Folsom. on his hunt up stream,
had found the material
time they had a cozy
little
an island they named
is
the
known by
yet
American
first
He
to build the shanty.
had found an old wigwam made
and barks, v/ell dried and smoked.
of
puncheon
In
a short
trappers' shanty on
"Little Paradise,"
name
that
today.
trapper's shanty
which
This
on the
was
Kan-
have any knowledge of. There
were a few French huts and traders' shanties
kakee
that
I
along the borders of the
and
purpose
of trading
and the
early hunters.
the building
the
fall
of
the
The
sale
regions for the
trafficing with the Indians
Twenty years
prior
to
shanty on Paradise Island
catch of furs at
success,
swamp
of
Little
Paradise proved a
furs
brought something
38
n
«
-
-
>
"
»
>
>
Pioneer Trapper's Shanty on Little Paradise Island, where
the
first steel
traps
were
set
on the Kankakee
in
1845
SETTING STEEL TRAPS
over one hundred and twenty-five dollars. They
invested part of the
the
money
following winter built
Beach
fridge
On
seasons.
in
built
Folso-ra
it
more
this ridge
In
for four
they found a hunter's
man named
the year before, in
and Brainard
and
traps
a shanty on Little
which they shantied
shanty occupied by a
had
in
buiit
a
Ritter,
1846.
In
who
1851
shanty on Long
Ridge which they used until 1866. Then they
sold out and left Long Ridge.
Folsom then
went
into
partnership
with William
Granger^
They built a cabin on Red Oak. This cabin
was burned in "73."
They rebuilt it the following year and used it until he retired from the
trapping business in
1883, having spent a
third
Kankakee swamps.
Uncle
Marl Seymour, as he was called, who had been
with him for many years, continued trapping the
Red Oak ground until old age compelled him
He left his island home on the Kanto quit.
of a
century
in
the
kakee and spent the remaining years of his life
home of P\r. Polsom at Hebron, Indiana.
at the
39
was with f-olsom on his early
expeditions on the river and when he sold out
on Long Iîdge, built a shanty on Grape Island,
Then he
whare he trapped for several years.
Brainard, v/ho
Beach ground
trapped the
Little
four years.
Finally he
about
thirty
for
three or
quit trapping altogether
Folsom and Brainard
years ago.
were the pioneer trappers who first sat steel
on the Kankakee River over seventy-five
traps
The next decade found many huntand trappers along the Kankakee swamps.
the fall of 1847 Aose Summers and John
years ago,
ers
In
Dusenberg glided down the winding Kankakee
with a trapping outfit and landed at
in skiffs
Long Ridge,
trapper's
built
a shanty which v/as the
shanty on the Ridge.
They used
first
this
for a number
Leaving Long
Ridge they shantied on a number of islands between English Lake and /Aomence, Illinois.
This same year Joel GfJson built a log shanty on
of years.
shanty
Long Ridge and
for
many
years.
followed the trapping
business
He had two sons who
40
also
SETTING STEEL TRAPS
were trappers and trapped many years after
their father had retired.
There was another old
time hunter whose locks were as white as the
driven
snow when
lived for
many
hunter was
He had
the Fall of 1838,
in
and
Ridge where he
the
of
Fifty years
years.
known
knew him.
first
I
on Long Ridge
a
cave
in the side
dug
settled
ago
this old
as Uncie Frank Sweny.
lie
was
the oldest residential hunter and trapper
the
"river,
having commenced
Kankakee as
one
of
much
early as 1833.
V/illiam
Bissell,
thepioneer settlers of Forter county, spent
Kankakee in the
1847 Heck
brother John built a shanty
This was the first American
The French and Indian
time hunting on the
early days.
In
the
Goodridge and his
on French Island.
shanty.
trapper's
Fall of
early
hunters had settled on this island
before the arrival of the
whence
its
on
hunting on the
it
derived
its
name.
early history later on.
an early pioneer
In
years
will give more of
1852 John Broady
I
of this region,
41
many
Qoodridges and from
began trepping
on Sandy Hook, also he trapped the Crooked
Creek Claim. Later on he owned the Indian
Garden trapping ground which he sold to Samuel
Irvin
in
the
early seventies.
A\r.
Broady
was a very successful hunter and trapper
'
He
never trapped any after selling out his claims
but continued hunting on the Kankakee
up to
the time
of his death which occured in 1878
from a severe cold from the effects of getting wet
by
falling
through the ice in a bayou, on a very
cold day whilst hunting deer,
widely
many
-
known
as
a
A\r.
deer hunter,
hunting parties through the
Broady was
led
having
swamps
in
was about this time that
my father came to the Kankakee region and for
many years he and /Ar. Broady were hunting
those early days.
It
partners and have been together on
many
hunts through the Kankakee Swamps.
Gideon Alyea, son
of the old trap
shanty on Butter Nut
maker,
deer
1852
In
built
Ridge and trapped
a
this
ground for many years. Leaving the Butter Nut
he built a shanty on what is now known as
42
SETTING STEEL TRAPS
Me also built a shanty on
Island.
Shanty
Fryes Island and one on Cornell's Upp<gr Island.
He
followed the business
pelled
him
to retire.
until old
age com-
1847 William—Uncle
In
Bill— Adams, with his parents, settled near He-
bron and
five
years later he went
as a shanty boy with
Two
years
ness
for
later
he v/ent
himself and in
cali to the Colors
swamps
some time in
into the
swamps
furs.
into the trapping busi-
"61"
he answered the
his
Returning
country up to
home he went
the 90's,
built
when he
retired.
In
a log cabin on Cor-
makers who were making
him and a few years later an old Indian
Island
rails for
the
again hunting and trapping un-
1850, Isaac Cornell
nell's
in
Folsom, handling
and served
the close of the war.
til
/Ar.
for
rail
In the early 50's
and hunted game.
Hunter fîce and Harman Granger built a shanty
lived in
it
ridge lying between Red Oak and
Bucks Ridge, known as Rice's Ridge, and for
many years it was used as a trapper's shanty.
on a small
Aany
years ago there were
43
some deer hunters
camped on
noe there
this ridge
that they
tliere
was an
would cross the
hunt, as there were
than on the south
and
more deer on
river
in
to
the north side
One man
side.
old ca-
in the party
became dizzy-headed and sea-sick so easily
that they had to lay him down in the bottom of
the canoe and sit on him to keep him from falling out.
Bucks Ridge was
for
many
years the
home
They were a very interesting
a father and mother, two
of
family, consisting
a
beautiful
sons,
daughter and a little boy eight
or ten years old.
They had settled there many
years before and seemed to enjoy their wild life,
of the
Brockways.
From them
we obtained some potatoes and corn bread.
The youngest of the hunting party fell in love
with this young damsel and we thought it was
going to be a match, but they did not come to
as they were hunters and trappers.
time.
They parted with many
bitter
tears,
never to meet again as the mother would not
part with her darling child.
44
SETTING STEEL TRAPS
good time we all
After having a
home, proud, with plenty
the hunts
of
I
took after
what became
that.
returned
game. /Aany v/ere
have often thought
1
of that pretty, fair-haired
the Kankakee, and for
with the angels
of
in
all
Heaven, as
from the Brockways since,
/"Aaud /Auller, "Of
I
all
45
I
have not heard
In the
words
sad
pen, the saddest of these,
it
girl of
know she may be
language
of
of tongue or
might have been."
CHAPTER V
DIVIDING THP: game
.
KILLING DEER WITH PITCHFORKS
AND CORN KNIVES ON BOGUS ISLAND
AND HOW WE HUNTED AND DIVIDED
GAME
IN
PIONEER DAYS
In the cold winter of
Beaver Lake
drained, there
in
was an island
the lake called
it
was
the
Sogus
home
does.
Bogus
known
for
of
years before
Indiana,
at the v/est
Island from the
fact
this
island
was the
years,
last
cent
horse
years,
thief,
the "bad
life.
Mere,
until
the robber,
the
man"
of
that
has been
refuge
the counterfeiters of the picturesque era
Kankakee
was
end
outlaws and despera-
the
Island, as
many
many
1838,
Newton County,
the
highwayman
of the frontier
46
of
of
our
comparatively recounterfeiter,
of the
the
swamps and
found s^fe retreat
DIVIDING THE
in this partly
waters of
wooded
island
GAME
and
officers in pursuit
were
the
in
rolling
Even
the Federal
baffled here,
for years
game and at
this beautiful lake.
the outlaws lived in safety on wild
times would raid the country-side to look at a
With the
pioneer's horse.
The
tiny,
island at
of
draining
Lake, Bogus Island entered upon
Beaver
des-
final
its
one place was only about a
quarter of a mile from the mainland.
In the dry
season the water was very shallow and all kinds
game: deer, wolves and fox, could wade or
of
swim
to the island.
The cold winter
lake
over and
ice
slick
and
the
glaring,
with
froze
the
around the island was
the
island
full
of deer,
and much small game. Well all old huntthat deer or any other cloven-footed
animal, when chased, cannot stand or run on
wolf
ers
know
glary or slick ice.
Consequently they are
anyone who comes
at the
Notice
mercy
along.
was sent out far and wide over the prairies and
sand ridges and hunters' cabin along the Kanof
kakee.
Allen Dutcher, fâus Allen,
47
Sam
liar-
rison,
Bill
Thayer,
Sam /AcFadden and many
whose names
other pioneer hunters
gotten were
with
his
father
I
have
AcFadden was
5. L.
there.
for-
there
and was only twelve years old.
as he related it to
In his narrative of the hunt,
he
me,
said:
"1
will
never forget
it
as
1
came
near freezing to death going home from the hunt
and we got so deer that we could not take care
them home as wc had no means
of
them
of
conveyance
or get
in
but pulled the most of
As
I
have said
The
deer.
We
those days.
some
them out on a hand-sled.
before, the island
hunters,
carried
trappers
was
alive with
and
squattors
The oid cap and ball
gathered
With dogs, clubs, tomahawks,
rifle were used.
pitchforks and corn-knives the massacre comin
menced
with guns.
morning and at sundown the
The crowd consisted of about
twenty-five men and boys and two women.
at early
battle closed.
One
fork.
of
the
The
women
party
in
killed s
all
seven wolves and two or three
48
deer with a pitch-
killed
sixty-five
foxes.
deer,
Wolves
GAME
DIVIDING THE
and foxes can run on giary ice so many of them
and fully as many deer got away as
got away,
were
by slipping and sliding towards the
There were so many that they could not
killed,
shore.
kill
them
many
chance
a
once, consequently that gave
at
all
hurt in the fight
Only one man was
and he would have been killed
to escape.
by a big buck had he not been rescued
The buck was
killed
with
in
time.
a corn knife.
The
wounded hunter was placed on a litter and carried to his cabin on the Kankakee at what was
at that time known
as Harrison's Landing.
After years the place was called Thayers and
was near where the Grangers years after had
their
used
trapping
to
We
Grape Island.
on the river many
hunt on Bogus Island.
That
shanty on
camp near
years after the big
their cabin
am going to
hunt
used to
and divide the
deer hunt beat the world.
tell
you
game.
hov/
After the hunt
teresting of all
square.
v/e
is
Now
is all
I
over the most
in-
the dividing of the gam.e on the
Sometimes there
49
is
a
great
deal of
in the matter and you have got to
keep your eyes skinned and look out for break-
sHull-dugery
Now
ers.
mode
the
for
of dividing the spoil.
Before shot-guns were in use and rifles were all
the go, hunters' law was that the men who drew
first
blood took the hide and half the
when shot-guns came
drive
the
and shoot
old
held
a
to
law as
to
of
and decided
shot-guns and
had
to
the deer
time and, after mature deliberation,
it
meat, but
all
we thought that
rifles was not just.
5o we
War on the Kankakee one
kill
Council
vogue and
in
that
in
v/e
changed
hunting altogether with
the
man who
drew
first
blood was entitled to the hide but the meat
and
rifles,
game should be divided equally among all.
When we got ready to divide, the game is divided
in
as
many
shares as there are hunters.
turns his back to the
at
each
And
pile in turn
the
entitled
one with
to
the
game and another
and also asks whose
his
pile
One
points
it
is.
back turnea says who is
or bunch pointed at.
But
sometim.es a heavy accent
50
of signal
by the
one
DIVIDING THE
who
points out
back
is
turned.
is
GAME
They sometimes give them-
selves the best pile of game.
to
say that
my
of
fair
no use
v/as
to
share
have
question
better
of
is
sorry
of
as they would
it
and say that you ought
have told you hov/ we
it
luck.
1
among us was
in
Now one
reference
The Indians
noisy hunting.
that
am
way and cheated
But there
the game.
deer and divided game.
hilled
1
in that
squeal about
only laugh you out of
to
And
have sometimes been a victim
I
misplaced confidence
out
man whose
understood by the
alv/ays
to
great
still
still
or
hunt,
they keep perfectly quiet and motionless
for the game to come along.
Or they
and wait
sneak quietly upon the game.
mode
of
1
learned
ern plains, hunting buffalo and antelope
open country many years ago.
with an Indian all day and he
a word.
With over
hunting both
try
I
this
hunting with the Indians on the West-
in
must say
fifty
will
scarcely
years experience
the forest and
that
in
the
You can hunt
say
in
open counthe white man must take off
51
in
the
hat to the Red /Aan when
comes to the
scientific mode of hunting wild game.
As a
his
it
matter of course
in driving
and ridges we had
to
in
all
But
could to get the deer out.
question.
In
coming
in at
marshes
thickets,
make
a
night
the noise
this
we
was the
majoriry
of
the hunters would leave loads in .their guns, in
the day of the muzzle loader,
up
in
all
night
the morning before daybreak
off,
wakening the whole country
for
the purpose
of
I
for
miles around
guns and putwould not miss fire.
contended that doing so
put every
in
the morning
deer within hearing of the
the alert and look out for danger, and
noise
we made
in
the
A
me
gun well taken care
up.
fire
not shot
if
off for
hunt with a noisy
camp on
the
least
morning was the
But a majority decided against
gave
and get
them
fire
cleaning their
ting fresh loads in so they
Whilst
and
a week,
camp and
I
1
but
1
best.
never
of will not .miss
never did
like to
most always got
most game by keeping still,
One time in
two
of
the
decided
to take a
party
moving camp
the
52
DIVIDING THE
GAME
near cut and hunt through the woods and join
the camp at night,
But they got lost and we
fired
guns and
signal
built a big
Finally
fire.
they arrived long after night,
tired. and
and almost exhausted.
the
Whilst
weary
men were
geese flew over them. They fired
several shots and succeeded in bringing down
lost three wild
one.
After
found
it
some hunter
around
that
is
on the
for
hunting
had
fallen
it
for
some time they
an old deserted
in
the
or trapper, perhaps
They brought
for miles.
it
the goose not the well, and
They might
subject.
and years
to
kill
into that well again
one
only
into
camp,
we moralized
try for
a wild goose
well of
one thous-
and have
fall
it
Now was
and not succeed.
Providence or Chance that governed in this
case? While want to be a Christian and beit
1
lieve
everything that
is
good and
true
I
could
understand special Providence that (hear talked
so much about.
In some cases a man a half
inch too far
away
is
killed
inch another escapes.
and another
And by
53
the
half
least
an
little
thing
men and women and
poor,
innocent
little,
children, through no fault ot theirs, are killed.
And others by the most trifling thing escape.
1
have seen the meanest and wickedest person
have a splendid and beautiful day for their
funeral
and
I
have seen the
Lord
friends of the
poor and the good Christian people almost
frozen to death or drowned in burying their dead.
The
moral question with
great
me
is.
was
or
was
of
the
it
sun.
But when
second.
The revolution
only an after-thought.
moon and
v/c
stars
this
Men,
earth gotten up especially for the benefit of
are perfect to a
come down
to the lav/
governing our little Earth we ail imperfection,
one law creating, another destroying. It is nothing but a
truction
war
safety or security
said
elements and a law
of the
between every
v/hat
living thing.
any
in
place or
one
keep one another
down
be over-run with them.
or the
This
54
It
it
is
no
is
was
animals and birds
set of
set
is
thing.
a beautiful act of Providence
that lie created
des-
of
There
to
world would
about the
way
DIVIDING THE
with
some
human
of the
GAME
one
family, destroying
another with war and miurder while
Providence
with pestilence, famine and accidents keeps the
human
I
from
the
earth.
have noticed when a vessel goes down
at sea,
loaded
dence
the
family
down
over-running
with precious
alv/ays
strongest
seems
who
the poor helpless
to
are
freight,
on
be
that
Provi-
the
side of
good swimmers,
women and
little
v/hiist
children are
Providence had anything to do with it
would have kept the boat from going down.
lost.
if
He
Some
years ago on a western railroad
train
conveying a large
a
number
senger
vines to a Conference or Synod ran over
cattle
of
pasDi-
some
on a high grade and threw the cars dov/n
Fortunately no one was
a steep enbankment.
killed
and the Divines came out with a card
Providence
thanking
perintendent also
that
if
their safety.
The su-
out with a card and said
Providence had anything to do with
would have kept the
fiEst
for
came
place.
it
lie
cattle off the track in the
So you see how
55
it
goes.
In
my
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANfvAKEE
hunting experience
more
for
many
years
have found
I
special cases of special Providence for the
animals and birds than
I
ever saw
of a
Iwill tell
for
the
human
stubbed tailed brindle
you
dog that belonged to one of the party. Whilst
out hunting he ran the deer out of a thicket to
family.
me
and
the boys
laughing at one of
so excited that he could not
did not shoot for
1
who was
shoot because the deer ran
him..
v/ithin a
few yards of
Just at that time the thought
came to him
had left camp without any bullets.
His
was some distance away v/hen he called
aloud: "Daddy, have you got the bullets?" This
frightened the deer and he turned toward me.
The dog came up, looked me in the face as
that he
father
much
to say,
letting that
left
me as
"Aint you
ashamed of yourself for
And he turned and
deer get away?"
other friends had
left
me
and
before,
would not drive any more deer to me
redeemed myself.
will tell you how
had
was
done. Another time we were out hunting and
as was on the left flank half a mile from the
1
I
56
until
that
I
GAME
DIVIDING THE
rest
of the
around
saw a
I
me and
v/ard
up
party
to within
the
off to
him both
large
buck coming
straight to-
the dog right after him,
yards of
fifty
left.
I
barrels
He
in the side.
heard a noise and looking
I
up out
got
and
me
came
fie
and then turned
the
of
gave
grass,
sav/ every shot strike
him
ran about seventy yards and
The dog came up and saw what
had done and looked me in the face and wagged
his srub-tail as much as to say, "You are a
bully boy with a glass eye and have done the
will stand by you."
right thing this time and
tumbled.
1
I
And he
Some
He
did.
stayed with
say that animals have
not sense.
Talk about
uine, clear, solid sense
I
believe
that
some
me
Here
is a genabout
it.
fooling
animals have sense and
instinct,
reasoning faculties as well as the
some
human
far
their
young and obtaining food and
them.
I
will
them
nov/
in
relate
providence and sense
day.
only and
and no
and
excel
that
all
instinct
in
57
the
family
things, protecting
shelter for
nearest
any animal
special
that
I
ever
saw.
it
This
comes
young fawn
is tlie
forth
is
it
world and the least animal
kill
And now comes
it.
and
is
true as
time the fav/n
is
born
part of
all
no scent
the
holy
until
it
is
mals, wolves, wild-cats, dogs,
it.
The fawn
way
of the
fectly
will
not detect
most
wonderful
v/rit.
From
able to run
it
place where
nourish
ani-
within
see
the most secluded and out
lies in
will
lie
per-
same
morning. The
day without moving, in the
its
early
it
mother
left
in the
it
all
night but
it,
in the
knowing
full
well that
if
found near
day time her presence might lead to
covery.
little
it
disis
sense or instinct that keeps that
helpless animal
day.
its
But what a wonderful provision
providence,
all
the
has
morning and stays away
day, only returning at nightfall to suckle and
leaves
in
pass
it
unless they
doe stays near and watches
all
it
ferocious
of
will
places imaginable, and
still all
world could
the
in
All kinds
or smell.
a few feet and
When
or deer.
the most helpless thing in the
still,
You may pass
58
away from
within
a
its
few
mother
feet of
GAME
DIVIDING THE
them and they
will
not move.
while hunting on
Father told
the
North
stepped over two of them
in the
that
they ran, whilst he was looking
for
/Aarsh
me
he
grass before
a squirrel fox.
If you find one when very
youjig you can pick it
up and carry it a short distance and then let it
down and it will follow you home like a dog and
become very tame.
Another time
were
v/e
hunting and the dog ran a deer out of the thicket
and we
and wounded
all fired
noise to
drive
V/e followed the
and got
wounded deer
After hunting
it,
it,
m.aking enough
the deer out of the country.
all
started for
camp.
In
the
camp
we started
the deer in
the
a short distance
around
for
awhile
we
evening our route to
took us by the same thicket from which
scattered
to
out,
One
it.
tired
morning.
and weary, taking our time
was some distance be-
hind and near the thicket
fired
or
fifteen
and
were
of the party
turning around
ten
We
killed
in the
marsh.
On
saw him aiming at something
feet from him in the grass.
Me
I
what he supposed was a
59
rabbit,
but he came to find out that itv/as a young deer
that
had hidden there
the thicket where
the morning.
disturbed
it
all
we had
day
than a young
the
and
All this noise
or m.ade
in
firing
move, and
it
near
grass
fired three or
shots
in
had not
this
more
is
hunân family could have
done without squalling and making a fuss.
So
it
is
of the
The
with the birds.
dence
that guides
likewise
sam.e special
Provi-
and protects the animals does
the
to
feathery tribes.
Ramibling
through the woods and over the marshes one
often finds a covey of quail or a brood of
pheasants. To see how the m.other bird protects her young; she will flop
and
tract your attention from the
flutter
to
at-
birds so that
young
you would think she had both wfngs broken,
fluttering
just
far
enough
reach, long
enough
away and
hide
through the
woods
will
in
for
the
the
in
the
to
keep out
young
grass.
of
your
birds to skulk
Take a
stroll
Springtime and you
smile at the swinging birds with your wise,
amused
pity,
who
builds her tiny nest v/ith such
60
GAME
DIVIDING THE
laborious care, high
top, only to be
winds.
blown av/ay by the
But are not the homes
family, the sweetest
upon
built
up out on the moving
homes
tree
chilly
autumn
the
human
of
of our tenderest love
just as insecure a
foundation,
hang-
some mysterious depths, and rocked to
And
and fro only to be swept away into ruin.
a
as
South
a
has
balmy
provided
yet He who
refuge for the summer birds to which they can
ing over
fly,
the
He not provided
human family?
has
I
likewise
might
a
shelter
write a
for
book on
"Special Providence for Animals and Birds" but
I
will
leave that
for
the naturalist,
61
CHAPTER
MY
MY
VI
BOAT RIDE
FIRST
FIRST FISHING
KANKAKEE
BOAT RIDE AND
EARLY EXPERIENCES WITH
A SHOT GUN
TRIP TO THE
AND MY
is
FIRST
To shorten up a story that is already too long
When
somewhat of a task.
found that
I
I
have considerable more material than
sert in this
little
book and unless
of the details there
Therefore,
the
mere
1
is
bigger
what
has
fish
to
some
make an
some
dangers
to hold myself down to
newspapers and
offering prizes for the best
of
the
anglers have caught
stories than they did
this angling
cut out
in-
of slopping over-
Since the
facts.
stories
can
have
will
magazines have been
fish
1
1
game
>2
Just see
a man
coming to
and give advance no-
is
affidavit
fish.
when
MY
he
[ice
is
FII^ST
telling
mouth about
his
scribing a fishing trip
in
slip
sign
cannot
"dyed"
in
boyhood.
i
ago
is
no
truth
if I
try
years
naked
always have been a
crank on fishing ever since
my
began
fishing in a small
first
Ay
creek that ran near our cabin.
outfit
was de-
I
am and
the v/ool
1
many
the nude,
tell
hard enough,
once when
on the Cottenwood River
Northern /Minnesota
1
he dare open
because my
Just
fishing,
to
happened
pencil
BOAT RIDE
truth before
icie
first
fishing
consisted of a red v/illow pole, a shoestring
and a bent pin for a hook.
grub v/orms and angle v/orms
line
Grasshoppers,
v/ere the bait.
Chubs and sun-fish were the kind
caught,
if
any.
Sometimes
I
of
fish
would go
I
fishing
and do very well until that
big swamp owl would hoot "Who are you," and
that would end my fishing for that night.
The
at night for cat-fish,
summer
me
that
1
was
ing from the
bank
mentioned before
Father took
eight years old
wrth himi to the Kankakee.
at
We
were
North Bend, which
Whilst
63
we were
I
fishing
fish-
have
F\r.
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKIAKEE
Irvin, a trapper, came floating down the
Samuel
This v/as the
river in a skiii.
had ever seen.
he and
in the
father,
r\r.
water
first
being old friends, sat on the bank
shade talking whilst was fishing part of
and climbing swamp trees until got
I
the time
tired.
in
I
Finally
one
me
I
and
his boat
landed
Irvin
craft
I
made knov/n my
desire to
ride
Father told
things— the boat.
and sit down in the bottom of the
did and then he got into the boat and
of those
to get in
boat.
I
shoved
it
out into the stream.
around the bend and back
to
We
went down
where we
started,
have often thought of sitting in the bottom of
the boat and grasping the sides so tight that
1
I
dented the sides
of the
boat with
out v/hen there
my
was no danger
This was
keep from
falling
of
out unless the boat upset.
my
my
falling
first fishi.ng trip
first
boat
to the
ride.
years later leather ran
ing trip
fingers to
Kankakee River and
this same place fifty
Near
me on my last duck huntHe v/as then over
on the Kankakee.
four-score years of age, yet he could
64
handle a
MY
BOAT RIDE
FIRST
hunting boat then as well as he did when he
gave me my first boat ride. Among the earliest
recollections of
are
a
fev/
of
my boyhood hunting with a gun
my first shots, in 1869 Father
bought a nev/ hzavy number ten double-barrel
Breach-loaders were
muzzle-loading shot gun.
not so
that
numerous then as now.
it
to load
or
could not hold
I
it
was so heavy
Yet
shoot.
I
v/as
was anxious to shoot it once. One day
out in the woods near the house gsthering hickory nuts and the dog treed a black squirrel,
father was home and got him to let me shoot
lie put in a light load as the squirrel was on
it.
1
I
Then putthumb around a small bush and letting
a small tree and not very high up.
ting his
his
fingers
against
soon
1
saw
did.
lying
me in the mysteries of handling a
He told me to look along the barrel until
initiated
gun.
I
the gun on his fingers
made a good rest, he
which
bush,
open,
the
V/hcn
the squirrel, then to pull the trigger.
Bang!
I
got
up
The
my
recoil
knocked
me
This
down.
nose was bleeding quite free65
ly,
but
said
{
I
initiated.
on
sure
made
1
strip
way
for
of
was
a labor o
repeated progress
began my
Near our house and
v/ing shots,
between the main land and
a
Father
squirrel.
it
That same Fall
his tutorin-g.
practicing
am
1
love on his part and
under
my
went and picked up
was
open marsh.
swamp
This
1
timber was
was a
great fly-
ducks, from the north bend of the river
across to
One
Sandy Hook.
the gun out
on
this
fly-way,
afternoon
hid
took
1
behind
some
pucker bush, shot and killed the first duck that
came along which happened to be a Grey Aallard or Greenhead.
waded out in the marsh.
1
The water was about two
it was late in November.
moment
my
in
life.
house, Father being
wanted
to
have
that
it
feathers
proudest
bird
to
have
and
way.
It
deep and cold, as
was the proudest
took the duck
1
away from home.
supper but
for
I
I
I
of
my
Father,
It
66
have
to the
/Aother
would not
wanted Father
As
all.
moment
my
it
feet
to
see
it
when
was my first game
life
I
it,
was the
showed the
said,
bird.
MY
BOAT RIDE
FIRST
A\y boyish heart swelled with pride.
had been
est desire
gratified.
1
found
/Ay greathad acI
quired the "knack" and from that time on
came
a "wing shot."
was
I
be-
I
the only boy in the
was
neighborhood that could shoot "flying."
envied
chums.
by my boy
greatly
/Aany of
them were much older than I, so much so that
I
one day
I
his
"Werich
v/ife,
overheard one
of
our neighbors say to
will ruin that
boy by
letting
him
run around totting a gun all the time. They'd a
darn sight better keep him at work doing some-
A few years later v/hen
thing worth while."
breech loaders became more plentiful Father
bought one and gave
or rather
gun and
it
it.
in
I
I
1884
if
thought so
1
the old muzzle loader,
became
the parlor
I
me
traded him an old watch
carried
it
it.
The
much
I
of that old
gun that
across the Western
the foothills of the Rockies for
shooting wild
for
inseperable and would keep
my wife v/ould have permitted
game, as
throv/ coarse shot that
was
it
I
the
the
ever saw.
67
in
Plains
to
purpose
of
best
gun to
For double
BB
and swan shot
buck shot
it
v/as
could not be beat and
it
a
daisy.
for
would chamber
It
number one buck shot and nine made a
Firing two shots into a bunch of ante-
three
load.
lope at eighty or a hundred yards certainly
the hair
home
made
the following year
Returning
cleaned up the old gun and have not
loaded it since. That has been more than a
"85"
fly.
I
Father had promised to
duck hunting v/ith him in the swamps
could shoot "flying." Aany a
just as soon as
on
the Kankakee River he has
hunting trip
third of a century ago.
take
me
I
shoved
me and
I
have v/itnessed many remark-
able shots as well as
is
man who made
a
tions but
ever
well
1
little
a good shot, and
pleased as
I
was.
I
Father
ones.
show
could see a change
made
I
many poor
but
of his
emo-
eye whenknew he was as
in his
I
heard
Bill
Adams
whisper to Jerome Rathborn one time when
they were stopping at our place on a duck hunt:
"That boy
vil
and
if
of
John's can shoot
like the
very de-
he keeps on improving by the time he
68
MY
is
he
[ifleen
be the champion shot on the
On my
Kankakee."
BOAT RIDE
FIRST
will
last
hunting
on the
trip
with me, as mention has
Kankakee, Father was
been made, and was running the boat, when
I
made two of the most remarkable wing shots
ever made in all my hunting experience. We
were going through
Hook when
the
mouth
a pair oi blue v/ing teels
ing past about tv/o feet
came
is
fly-
As
above the water.
old-time duck hunters know, a teel
est bird to hit of the
Sandy
of old
all
the hard-
duck family on account
of
pulled
darting and zlgzaging in their flight.
down on them with the right barrel of the gun
I
way off and to my surprise
The same morning over
made another wonderful
Bayou
We v/ere coasting down the bayou
as they were a long
they both
in
fell
Cornell's
I
double shot.
and Father
dead.
v/as manipulating the paddle
when
the hardware
out of the timber to
until
my
right.
and
I
rose
up
The brush was
could not get sight of either of
they flew out into the opening.
By
so thick that
them
a pair of mallards
I
69
time they were a long
this
way
off,
too
far to
shoot at using good judgment,
But I decided to
try them.
Giving the gun considerable elevation
and before
other
I
was
at this
lost
greatly to
my aston-
one dead, the other winged^
could give the crippled one the
fell,
I
barrel
and
this
and
pulled the trigger
1
ishment both
it
skulked
As
it.
I
off in
have said
the pucker brush
my
before,
Father
and
time over four-score years,
writing,
1920.
his nintieth year.
is in
at
lie
continued his hunting until the infirmities of age
removed him from the swamps. This day finished our shooting.
I
my home
returned to
in
Logansport, Indiana, and before the duck hunting
season opened again
I
the shoulder in a railroad
my
I
mention
member
traps
large
my
in the
this incident.
This
for this
The reader
opening chapter that
I
enough
ing in
all
enough
70
steel
I
to carry a gun.
spent over a half century
in
rea-
will re-
set
and caught wild game long before
or old
arm at
was
right
accident.
hunt on the Kankakee and
last
son
lost
was
hav-
hunting
JOHN WERICH— Born
hunter hving,
now
in
1830.
The
oldest pioneer
Regan hunting on the
1852.
few months before this book went to
press he shot and killed a tiger cat that measured forty inches
long and stood seventeen inches high, the first one ever seen
in the
Kankakee swamps, supposed to have escaped from
some menagerie.
Kankakee
in
in his
A
90th year.
c
c
c
< c « o
c
o »
»
* o
•
» C
C
9«
C'
MY
FIRST
BOAT RIDE
and trapping on the Kankakee.
CHAPTER
HUNTERS
WHO
VII
HAVE BUCKFEVERED
GUNS
THAT HAVE SPASMS
AND HUNTERS THAT HAVE
THE BUCK FEVER
One more
story
of incidents in
matter
the
and
of history to
woods
for
it
will
deer hunting.
But
man who
the
years.
conclude the series
It
is
all of this is
a
has tramped
only repeating
old
stories to tell of the deer that ran too fast for
you
once saw a tenderfoot hunter jump
up a deer at close range and he stood and
watched the deer until it was out of sight before
to shoot.
I
he realized he had a gun in his hands. And so
it is with others; the duck that
always flew behind the hunter as he sat on a
in
musk
rat
house
a slough and could not turn around, or of the
72
c
3
0)
-a
6J!
-a
a
C
o
r-
O
C
o
0)
o
HUNTERS
WHO
HAVE BUCKFEVERED
had
flock of wild geese that
cow
lit
in the
pond
in
the
day he had no gun, If you
pasture
had pressed your nose against the pane and
peeped through the window of a little log huntthat
camp on an
island near
Sandy Hook, say
on a November evening fortytwo years ago, you v/ou!d have candle-lighted
three young men sitting around an old cook
i'ng
about eight
Two
stove.
pipes,
far
as
p. m.,
of the
men were
and each was
I
know.
Let
at
peace
me
usually
v/ith
on
old clay
the world as
introduce you to them.
In the opposite picture that
stove but
pulling
sitting
guy standing by the
down
in the easiest
chair (an old cracker box) to be found in camp,
and absorbing the most
whom
heat,
is
my
friend
Bill
Garrison,
brought along on his first deer
hunting expedition in the Kankakee swamps.
Leave it to "Bill." He always grabs the biggest potato in the dish and the huskiest wedge
of pie
on the
seat
in
gink
sitting
1
and always gets the softest
The tall, lanky, leather-faced
plate,
camp.
on the woodpile behind the
73
stove,
THE PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
dressing a musk-rat hide
is Jolly Smiih, an ailcamper and fur-dresser and flapflap flipper, head cook and dish v/asher, trapper,
should say off
fur-trader, and a good trailer.
around
I
hand
that Jolly
inches
stands about
neck
to
Thzre
isn't
rubber after
an ounce
In fact, there isn't
seventy-three
and when he stretches
in his socks,
game he
is
that.
on
hiiri.
of supsrflous flesh
much
flesh of
his
taller'n
any
kind.
Jolly
so thin he would have to stand a long time in
You can
bright sun to make a decent shadow.
is
see his back from the
front if you stare hard
reckon an expectorate who would
velocity int-o his work could spit a
enough and
put a
little
I
hole through Jolly three times out of
five.
But
anybody who picks up Smith for a v/eak-kneed
hunter on a long run makes a mistake. On the
trail
guy
he
is
tougher than a boiled owl.
front
in
sitting
lead, laddie
and
that hunter
is— well, I'm too modest
it is.
All
1
will
bullet
say
is
The other
the stove with a bar of
of
molds,
that there
74
running bullets
to say who
were three of us
WHO
HUNTERS
in the party.
1
HAVE BUCKFEVERED
have already described two. so
you can draw your own conclusions as
The next morning
identity of the third,
and
clear
edges
decided
was
swamps was
one
of
dog and go up the
south side to the
Perhaps
flats.
We
frozen over.
to drive the ridges so
to take the
the
was
shallow water around the
cold, the
of the
to
it
I
our
had
party
on the
river
ought to ex-
meant by the flats.
/Aany
French and Spanish words have become incorporated with the English in America that one
plain a
what
little
is
knows the name of
The
right names.
hardly
their
swamp,
that
of the
part
and places by
things
flats
is
swamp
a
that
high,
is
dry
seldom
under water except in extremely high-water
These flats are covered with heavy timtimes.
ber of
In the Fall
swamp-oak.
they are a great place
zling in the
that
sure
leaves and
was the head
place
account
of
for
deer to feed
snow
of the
and early winter
for
ridges
by
acorns.
noz-
And
and almost a
up a trail. On
freezing up, the deer would run the
for
the
dog
75
to take
flats and ridges and they would have to be
chased hard before they would run the low
swamps. Big Beech Ridge was to be my stand
and Garrison on the west end of Peach Island.
Smith took the dog to the flats and had no more
than got on them when the dog took up a trail.
Just after sunrise reached the east end of the
I
ridge only to see two hunters
We
the other side.
met
either of
them
coming up from
had never
were strangers,
before, but
I
1
never stand on
cerem©ny with a sportsman. An acquaintance
was soon struck up between us. They were
from South Bend. Indiana, and had a camp on
One of the hunters was a greyGoose Island.
man, probably sixty-five years of age,
and claimed to be an old deer hunter who had
haired
hunted and
the
killed
deer with the Indians
Kankakee Swamps
grounds
of
the
^ti<zxQ
yet
Pottowattomies,
was much younger.
when
the
hunting
Mis
partner
The old hunter was one
of
those fellows
thought he knew it all and
what he did not know about deer hunting was
that
76
HUNTERS
WHO
HAVE BUCKFEVERED
The young hunter looked
with great admiration upon his older companion
end would do anything that he directed. They
had sent their dogs up the swamps. They said
that all but one were young dogs and that the
old dog did not amount to much.
Our dog was
not worth knowing.
a good one, the best
I
ever hunted with, a good
tounger and swift on the
the
time
"Spot"
their
all
dog
tried to get
being a good runner.
with
me
what
on
would
be the reagree
for
them
to
sult
if
their
and
I
I
dog should bring a deer
should
one or more
kill
to
it,
or
if
them and
But they did not want
it
They were
trail.
and boasting on
bragging
was dropped.
A
my
if
they should
to discuss
fire
was
to this point
dog should chase
kill
it.
the subject so
built in
the
end
of
an old butternut iog and we stood around it and
listened for the dogs.
We were on the east end
of the ridge
and
in
a hoUow.
the hollow the bluff
is
On each
very steep.
side
was about seventy-five or eighty yards wide.
a deer was headed for this ridg2 from the east
77
of
The hollow
If
it
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE IÂNKAKEE
would run
number
this
hollow to get on
ten muzzle-loader,
the ridge.
Ay
loaded with buck-
shot, rested sgainst a tree.
The old hunter's
gun was a double combination of shot rifle gun,
ten guage shot and 30-30 rifle.
The young
hunter was using a cap and ball rifle. Their
guns were leaning against the log. We were
around the fire, as it was a cold morning,
listening for the dogs when suddenly from away
sitting
off
up the ridges came the
hound.
But only
for
a
silvery voice of a
moment was he heard
as he crossed from one ridge to another on the
way
to
bugle
Peach
A moment
Island.
notes rang out
and again the
and warned us
deer was running the north ridges and
come
to
this
point
where we were
that the
would
stationed.
The music told us that the dog had reached
Peach fridge about a mile away. V/hose dog
was making the noise was the question that
none of us could tell, but each imagined that he
could diatinguish the voice of his favorite dog.
One thing was sure of and that was that there
1
78
HUNTERS
was
mile
rifle
WHO
one dog
but
the
up
HAVE BUCKFEVERED
the
in
About
chase.
swamp we heard
We
four times in succession.
then and there that somebody
deer and that
we
weren't in
the log again by the
yet
and
name,
I
told
that there
the dogs were
of
the
/Ar.
it.
I
of
a
a
gave up right
had got our
down on
sat
The dog was running
Spencer, as that was his
fire.
was some hope
still
half
the crack
for
us yet as
For the tounging
running.
hound was coming closer
all
the time.
we heard two reports of a shot gun in
knew was Garrison for can
rapid firing and
tell when he
is
shooting because he always
Just then
it
I
shoots his "second" barrel
I
first,
referring
to
his
quickness with his second shot. Following this
we heard the crack of a rifle and again four
shots
had been
fired
coming on towards
and yet the hound was
us.
since the dog had reached
urged my companions to
themselves so that the
turned.
S'ut
/Ar.
Two
sit
down
deer
K.now-it-alI
79
or
three times
Peach Ridge had
or
I
conceal
would not be
and don't-want-
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAICEE
to-takc-advise-from-a-country-greenhorn refustold him that advice from a country
ed.
1
greenhorn was about as good as that of a city
tenderfoot and that their actions do not show
much
very
them
skill
as a deer hunter,
again, "Boys, that deer
to this hollow
will
Let us act
minutes.
hind the
and
be here
in less
1
saw
to
straight
than thre€
hunters and
like
Just then
log."'
spoke
i
coming
is
get
the deer
be-
coming
from the other side of the ridge straight
to
this
was right upon us within twenty-five yards and running like a racer,
sailing over old logs and brush with the ease of
a bird.
At this fired one barrel and at another
stand, a big buck,
and
it
I
leap the deer
not give
was behind an
him the other
er grabbed
up
his
old tree so
I
could
The young huntand
fired.
The deer at
gun
barrel.
this
time was less than a hundred feet from him.
lie
missed
fire
and the deer ran around
other side of the ridge and while doing
man
of
with the rifle-shot gun fired two
course missed.
By
this
80
time
1
to
the
this
the
shots and
gave him
my
WHO
HUNTERS
HAVE BUCKFEVERED
second barrel as he disappeared into a blackthicket
berry
seventy-five
We
away.
yards
dumfounded while we reloaded
our guns and finally something was said about
But the first dog that came up was
old "Spot,"
all
looked
my
old
His eyes were ablaze
dog Trump,"
with excitement and
called out "here Trump"
1
and with a look
recognized me.
me
of surprise
Wagging
the
his tail
grand old dog
he came up to
/Meanwhile /Ar. Spencer
where
the
had gone
deer had turned past us
and found great splotches of blood on the leaves.
to
be approved.
to
The dog took up the
trail
brought the buck back by
mile a minute.
1
vâs
and
me
the
on the top
while the deer ran the edge of the
me.
on
A\y fusee banged out twice.
that big
buck
at
a short time
in
at
of
rate
ridge
1
of
a
the slope
below
held right
about one hundred and
fifty
away and the buck kept right on going.
Whang-bang went the rifle-shot-gun of the huntfeet
er
who knows
not
just
how
to
more than a hundred
81
do
feet
it.
The deer was
from him and not
a ball or a shot touched him.
ing
ing
The dog was givhim a very close chase and when his loungsuddenly ceased knew what had happen1
ed.
A moment
into
the
came
shot the
had
I
my
hunting knife
neck long before the
buck's
deer hunter
who
later
up.
deer.
firstclass
Then the question was,
On examining
it
was
it.
found that he had been
hit
in
the
shoulder by
one buck shot, from my first shot, on the first
round as he was running right side to me.
He
ran until he tumbled over. The three of us had
fired nine shots and
learned afterwards it was
I
the
same deer
and
that there
fore
it
in less
had passed three hunters
had been ten shots fired at it be-
reached
us. making in all nineteen shots
than ten minutesand only one bullet had
pierced his hide.
lots of
shall
that
Bad shooting secured
excitement and
run,
always remember.
A
for
reminiscence
There are a class
us
I
of
hunters that have a faculty of forgetting their unpleasant experiences and exaggerate their joys
and success. We divided the game with the
82
HUNTERS
Goose
Island
WHO
BU.CKFEVERED
HAVii:
camp and
returned to
our
camp
always remembered my
evening,
We moralas
the good.
well
poor shooting as
ized on the question; was it a fault of the guns
or had the hunters an attack of the buck fever
in
the
or
was
but
it
t
Providence or chance or did the guns
that governed in this case is
have spasms
something that
For never before
could not quite understand.
I
ence have
I
this hunt.
shots.
out of
in all
my
long
hunting experi-
seen such shooting as was done on
I have witnessed
many remarkable
Geese and ducks have been pulled down
Deer have been shot and killed
the sky.
away and many other mirasaw Father shoot and
kill a hoot-owl one night about nine-thirty when
not see the tree
it was so dark that you could
A big hoot-owl had lit in
that the owl was in.
a big oak tree near the cabin and commenced
Father took down the
to hoot "who-are-you."
a fourth of a mile
culous shots made.
old squirrel
rifle
I
and shot
in
the
direction
At the crack
which the sound came.
83
of
from
the
down came something clattering to the
rifle
ground.
I
as a knob.
took the dog and found the owl. dead
CHAPTER
VIII
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
AND HOW THEY WERE
OBTAINED.
THE BEE-TREE
SWINDLE AND
It
HOW
WAS WORKED
IT
was away back
in
1868.
Think
of
it.
Fifty
when made my first appearance in
the Kankakee Swamps.
Since then
have
hunted in swamps and on mountains, in the big
years ago
1
I
forests
and on the
memory
ramble
quite
to the
plains, but
so well
days when
bearing animals in the
are
I
many
fi'rst
none
clings to
when my
I
my
thoughts
was trapping the furKankakee region. There
1
very funny things happened
old hunting days.
in the
I
as
told
my
early
in
those
experiences
chapter of this book from the angle
a pioneer hunter of the west, although
85
it
of
did not
PIONEER HUNTERS
all
has
in later years, for
me fame was
years ago.
It
dents that
THE KANtCAKlEE
many
it
won
big hunts that
west of the /Mississippi River,
Whilst writing this story and talking
with ©Id friends
old days.
OP^
Kankakee Swamps then as
center in the
1
I
have been
over those
living
has freshened memories
have not thought
of
inci-
of for years.
In
the early 60's. during the Civil War. the price of
furs of all kinds
went up.
coon skin would
fur
as
it
was
bring
would
hide
from four to nine dollars each.
sell
just
A mink
four dollars
A good
and
a half,
nailed on the shanty door, and the
buyer would
pull the nails himself.
All kinds
good price and for this reason
hunters
were
many
brought to the Kankakee
Swamps. Also many trappers were brought
of furs brought" a
here.
Up
to this
time the pioneer trappers had
no established trapping grounds as there was a
vast territory along the river covered with
water
the whole year round which furnished good trap-
He saw that his rights
ping grounds anywhere.
were slipping from him and that he would soon
86
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
be crowded out
of a trapping
So some
ground.
of the old pioneer trappers got to'gether
tablished what
Some
is
known
as
held certain claims
mission,
owners, while
a
trappers'
upon
rights
from permission
others
still
and es-
others
had
claim.
of
per-
of the
land-
bought
their
grounds. These trapping grounds or claims, as
they were sometimes called, were divided by a
running north and south as the river is supposed to flow from the northeast in a southwestern course. So the miles on the river v/ere
line
the base lines of the
both sides
fitable
all
the
as
far
as
way from two
Therefore there were
in width.
State
of the river just
and ran
trapping
claims and extended
grounds lying
and English
line
between
Lake.
a
it
on
was pro-
to ten miles
good many
the
Indiana
These claims
were bought and sold almost the same as
estate and they v/ere about as strong in
real
their
stipulation as the Clayton-Bulwort treaty.
They
have brought many a trapper on the verge ©f
war.
Ameng
the early trappers
87
who came
in
PIONEfiR
the late
fifties
Essex, better
HUNTKRS OF THE KANKAKEE
and early
known among
ers as "Essex, the
he was one
made.
Gilson,
They
in
built a log
fact that
bee hunters that
He began
region.
185 9
whom
of
E.
the old-time hunt-
Kankakee
hunting and trapping
J. E.
Joshua
Beehunter" from the
of the greatest wild
ever hunted the
with
sixties were:
in
partnership
mention has been
cabin on v/hat
is
known
as Butternut Ridge and near the Swift Cut
Off.
years then went
into
Here he trapped
for three
partnership with Charles Cassel and on
Shinty
and trapped three yc-'ars.
1862 he enlisted and was en-
Island built a shanty
In the
rolled
summer
of
5th Regiment. Indiana
Company
He was Quartermaster Sergeant and
in
1,
Cavalry.
served to the close of the war. being discharged
on June
went
1865, when he returned and again
the swamps and continued hunting
15.
into
and trapping
until
1880.
/Aost of
swamps v/as spent in hunting
came famous as a bee hunter.
the
from the trapping business
for
his
bees.
time
He
in
be-
After retiring
many
years
he
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
devoted his time to the bee culture, having in
the meantime invented and patented a bee hive
which he manufactured and
great
In the winter of
hive.
gan trapping and
built
v/as a
It
1867 Samuel
his skinner
Buck could
and
Beach
man,
old pioneer river
fur dresser.
It
is
said that
more hides
skin and dress
be-
Irvin
a shanty on Little
Eben Buck, an
Ridge,
was
sold.
improvement over the old-fashioned bee
in
an
In
hour than any two trappers on the river.
a
and
rat
hide
he
was
an
stretching
dressing
In the
expert.
fall
of '71 Irvin built
a shanty on
Quinn's Island on the north side of the river and
a
little
used
This shanty he
two seasons then found that he had
below the north bend.
for
been encroaching upon the rights
Then he sold his shanty, to
trapper.
ger.
it
site of
the
same year
another
Bill
Gran-
Red Oak and placed
one that was burned in '73,
Polsom moved
on the
In the
of
Irvin
it
to
bought another claim or
rather two claims, the Indian
the Crooked Creek Claim,
89
Garden Claim and
This purchase
ex-
PIONEER HUNlÊRS OF THE KANKAKEE
tended his trapping grounds up the river as far
lie built a shanty on Indian
as Crooked Creek.
Garden near the mouth
in
of
the Pall of '79, after the
Late
Sandy Hook.
fall
catch, he sold his
claim including shanty, boats and traps to the
Sherwood Brothers, Jerry and Holland, for one
hundred and fifty dollars. He also realized one
hundred and forty dollars from one month's
trapping,
thus retiring
from the business
after
spending twelve years of successful trapping
The
the Kankakee.
latch string
/Ar
of
oii
Irvin's
shanty door always hung out to all hunters and
fishermen from far and near and they were hospitably treated
trapped
sold
and entertained, The Sherv/oods
one or two seasons, then
the ground
out
and
moved
very successful trapper
Castle
who began
Charles
Castle.
Island ground for
He
retired in
business
at
Another
to
Tennessee.
in
those days was H. G.
trapping
with
his
cousin.
They trapped in the Shanty
several years and bought furs.
'82 and engaged
Hebron Indiana.
90
in the
mercantile
By 1882 nearly
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
the
all
had
old-timers
left
the
Turs
swamps.
were getting cheap and hardly worth catching.
But a few years later prices began to go up and
then the younger generation took up the trap-
Now
ping business.
as
what
or
1
have gone
to the limit
the beginpromised
will
ning, The Pioneer Hunters and Trappers,
leave the latter day hunters for the second edithis
of
story
in
I
1
The reader remembers said that Essex
was a great bee hunter and to my mind he was.
But he had many close rivals in hunting for
tion.
1
wild honey.
Now
I
will tell
you
of
one
of the
shrewdest bee hunters that ever operated
Kankakee Swamps,
tricks to all trades"
off
and got away
called
evil
it
lie said
and a stunt
are
"there
that
he puUed
with, or rather a
"joke"
as he
surely proves the assertion of good or
repute of past Sawyers
grow,
in the
that
lienry 3.
or
Sawyer was
Sawyers yet
to
related io the /Ar.
Sawyer who many years ago ran the Eatons
Perry and of which v/ill speak later. This young
1
hunter
who
originated in
91
Kentucky but
later at
Big Log, Indiana, has friends who have determined
that he
is
born hunter (Ken-
a natural
tucky produces a large crop of such).
Sawyer
was long armed and amiable.
f^rom many
years of practice in hunting and shooting wild
fowls, deer and wild hogs and other game which
inhabitated
the
Kankakee
cerrect notion of his
region
own about
had a
fairly
/Aany
hunting,
sportsmen from the city would employ
him and turn over their camp to him and at
night he would teach them local geography of
of the
the
Kankakee
came known
years he
be-
the sportsmen in
the
In a
region.
to
almost
all
The business
fev/
of a guide in those
nearby cities,
days was to push a boat through the swamps,
bayous and sand marshes with one, and sometimes two, hunters
in
At times there
it.
much hard work to perform,
fall hunt when the water was
two he grew
tired
of
this
in
especially
low.
in a
business
was
the
year or
and
his
thoughts seemed to consist as far as might be
And here he invented his practo avoid work.
92
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
Sawyer was struck on the idea of
As he was well known by all of
bee-hunting,
the old bee hunters along the Kankakee he was
tical
"'joke,"
welcomed as joyously
at a
bee hunters cabin as
he were a long missing brother. He was at
once made to be at home in the bee hunters
if
cabin on Long Ridge, whilst the old hunter entered with a friendly rivalry with the
ter in the giving of
number
visiting a
who
resided
one
river,
of
advice and information. After
of the
among
them
young hun-
old-time bee hunters
the sand ridges along the
v/as
Honey Bee Sawyer.
He
thought he had the secret so he began looking
for wild bees that stored their honey in hollow
which were called bee
trees
at a
good
many
price in
hunters engaged
in
Autumn
of
Honey
the business.
Sawyer began hunting the
the
trees.
sold
those days as there were not
"59".
wild bees
it
When
was
in
At that time there were
several good bee hunters in the swamp among
whom I might mention the Steven brothers,
/Aarion
and
Pilander,
Harrison
93
Dolson,
Joe
Mad Folsom, Charles Carmon. and
Cason.
score of others that were very successful
hunters.
They were
lowed the business
at
bee hunting as
scheme
that
all
old timers
1
who had
fol-
Sawyer was green
for years.
said before, but he
worhed and
a
bee
laid the old
hit
on a
bee hunters
the shade.
He was always a lucky hunter.
Good luck seemed always at his hand. No
matter what the game was he pursued, he aland so the same luck
v/ays was sure to bag
in
it,
followed him
iu
the bee hunting business.
He
found two or three trees, cut them, and they pro-
ved good, getting from sixty
fifty
pounds per
tree.
honey, as there were
to
one-hundred and
Being a good season
lots of
for
wild flowers for the
bees to work on. Sawyer concieved the idee to
mark every tree that he found that had a hole in
to mark them all bee trees, generally
picking
it,
on
were easily climbed.
He had a
made something on the order
that telegraph linemen use.
He had everything
in readiness and just as soon as the frost came
trees that
pair of climbers
94
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
and killed the flowers so the bees would have
work on
bait
he was ready
for
nearly every tree with a hole
on
and
it
it
marked bee
is
seldom
very
them.
in
it
that
tree being desturbed.
to
As
i
his
name
had
you hear
said
of
a
Before close
bee hunting season Sawyer went around
the trees that he had his name on, climbed
of the
lo
all
some honey-comb
them, stuck
and smeared honey
all
the
honey,
hollow
all
inside of the tree
around the hole so that
neighborhood bees would v/ork on the
passing
tree.
when
in
and out
This the b2es
of the
will
hole
do
in
the
late in the
After baiting
are gone.
about sixty-five or seventy trees in this way,
having three or four live trees, genuine bee trees,
Fall
the flowers
he announced his trees
for
sale and
in
a few
Some
days he had his victim coming.
from the ridges, hearing of the result of some
of
concluded there was
a
settlers
Sawyer's bee
trees,
some of them visited
had a shanty on
who
hunter
bee
the young
Buck's Ridge, with a view of buying some of his
chance
for
speculation, so
95
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKl'K
trees.
As good luck would have
was
it,
warm, sunny day in the middle
the bees worked on bait nicely.
of
it
a
October and
Sawyer lOok
them through the swamp, over ridges and
showed them his stock of bee trees. The bees
were working
strong, going
trees, indicating a strong
and out
in
of
the
swarm.
trees with the pole of
Sounding the
an axe gave them some
idea as to the hollow
V.''.-î
After
tain.
the
might con-
tree
examining the trees, mig
turned to the cabin late
in the
party
re-
afternoon-~tired,
wet and hungry. The trapper who was shantying with him had a kettle of stewed duck, boiled
potatoes, bread, butter
and
coffee,
which made
good supper. Sawyer asked them three
dollars and fifty cents a tree and showed them
a
fairly
the honey that he took out of a tree that he cui.
Me
said he
and
/Ar.
if
Smith, the
and take
for
had sold
six dollars'
worth of honey
they doubted his statement they could ask
the
man
honey
v/ho helped
out.
The
him
cut the tree
settlers hesitated
awhile, bui finally said they v/ould give
96
him
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
two dollars and
fifty
cents a
tree
for
sixty-five
There were three trees on the north side
trees.
of the river
want
to
they did not want.
miss
did not
Sawyer
sale so he said that he
a
would
and if they did not
more than one hundred and fifty pounds
cut two trees near the cabin
g'st
from the two trees he
And
fifty.
were
to give
agreed.
the
first
pounds
better.
was
if
there
would
him the three
They went
one they Q'ot
a
little
them
v/ould carry
cut the trees
first
them
the
two
that they
tn is
they
and from
over one hundred
The other
honey
They soon closed the
decided on the
To
fifty.
cut the trees
to
of nice
to help
take
was more than
freeze
tree
deal.
and the
was
still
Sawyer
was
tiiiie
up v/hen the ice
would b-^ the
safely, as that
sv/amp and get
The
honey
bargoin was closed and
Sawyer received his money, two hundred and
best time to get around in the
the
out.
twenty -seven dollars
for
the sixty trees contained
lows.
Not a bee
in the
97
five
bee
nothing
whole
trees, whilst
but
tlic
hol-
sixiv trees or for
a
This was hnown as the
long time afterwards.
"hollow tree sale."
Just before
time
Sawyer
of the first freeze
a paper informing
happen
things
took the
map
A
parted.
had a bee
that all kinds of
settlers
Kankakee Swamps, he
Kankakee valley and de-
of the
few days later the settlers
came and
cut several trees
They
any honey nor be:?3 but found a
honey-comb on a string inside the tree.
piece of
find
them
led
to
They went
tr'cked.
but with no honey.
perience
this
about the
or
the ridge and
the
tree cutting.
and did not
This
the
in
left
was never
had been
believe
that they
to their
homes much
What they
A
knov/n.
wiser,
said of their exfev/
an old bee hunter asked one
of
days
after
them
hov/
drew a long hunting
much honey they got.
The other
knife and threatened the inquirer.
fie
settlers
were questioned not
at
all.
It
v/as
one
of thp shrev/dest tricks ever pulled off in the his-
tory
o'"
the
Kankakee
Valley,
bee hunter went abroad
all
liis
over
feme as a
Northern
diana and he was thence after knov/n as
98
In-
Honey
TRAPPERS' CLAIMS
Bee Sawyer, and
is
not
dimmed
done on
this
successful bee hunter and
the
home
bee hunting.
that
got
1
Although
mostly when
a boy
1
used
bee hunting
had
work on
stuck
watch
1
of
for
after they
for
in
bees
find
them.
for
I
very
found
V/hen
when he went
the
year
after
the
bees would
and by putting some honey-comb,
stick,
the
place, then
som.e open
in
bees,
and
within a half mile they will
if
there are any bees
come
to the bait
and
have loaded themselves with honey
around once or twice then
rise, circle
Then
start straight for hcmiC.
the line on the direction of the
many
did
1
killed the wild flowers the
on a
year
never found
Pather
go with
the
training
sweetest hunts
of the
and what
In the fall
bait
they will
early
was not looking
1
to
all
never hunted
I
it
trees
days kept
early
my
much yet
is one
a man can engage in.
many bee
frost
in
supplied with wild honey
round and from him
very
achievement
his
father was quite a
or forgotten,
of
you
have
heard
9v
the
hunter gets
tree.
the
old
Possibly
saying.
"Straight
as a bee
line."
that old saying originated.
crooked
line to its
Well, this
A
home when
is
bee never
loaded.
where
flies
a
CHAPTER
IX
RUNNING THE FERRY
THE PIONEER
BRIDGE BUILDERS CARRYING
THE UNITED STATES MAIL THROUGH
THE KANKAKEE SWAMPS
IN A CANOE
Away back
in
the
chilly
autumn
of
1836,
George Eaton, with his family, landed on the
banks of the Kankakee River at a place known
in the early
built
days as Pottowati.Qmie,
Pord,.,
.He
a log cabin on the right "-bank' of the'r'iver.
He was one
of the couragepy':^',
redeemed the
savagery.
He began
and ran what
'gi^ti^'e;i: i'^,eii\e,i^\
country from superstition and
wâs
pioneer
known
life
as a ferryman
as the Eaton Perry.
He would transfer people from the Porter
county side to the sand ridges in Jasper county.
At the season of the year when the water was
101
high the distance was about a mile and
and part .of the way was through a dense
a half
swamp
and a pathless marsh. In 1847 or 1848 there
was a United States mail route established between /Aichigan City and Rensselaer, Indiana,
and
/Ar.
Eaton had the contract
to
carry the
Kankakee Swamps.
mail across the
winter time v/as the
riveF
In
the
and marshes were
was somewhat difficult. But in the
summer season when the water was low the
mail was either carried through the swamps and
frozen
up
it
marshes on horse back
of
"49" Eaton
This was the
built a bridge
first
above /Aomcnce,
it'
was
burned,it
ing atoll bridge.
's
On the
across the
river.
on the Kankakee
bridge built
111.
In the winter
or stage.
fotlowing
summer
supposed on account of it beA\r. Eaton continued to run the
the ferry up to the time of his death which oc-
cured
in 1851.
His remains were
laid at rest
a beautiful knoll near the landing place.
Eaton,
a
woman
of
remarkable
strength, continued to run the
102
ferry
nerve
and
on
/Ars.
and
deliver
±
^
t
c
cc
c
c
RUNNING THE FERRY
on tiie south side. At times the water
was so high that it could not be carried by stageAs have said, she was a woinan of couragg and
the mail
1
strength
and there were but few men wiio could
excel her with the oars.
men on horseback
daybreak two
ferry
One morning
and wanted
about
arrived at the
to be hastily transiered to the
main land on the south side. They said they
had lo be in Rennsselaer by noon, as there was
going to be a Government land sale at one o'clock that day and they wanted to be there at the
The recent
had raised
opening of the
sale.
the v/ater in
the river and marshes that one-
fourth of the
way across would swim
Through the timber they could
as the water v/as from, knee to
horse.
rains
a horse.
ride their horses
belly
deep
Ars. Eaton told them she could
them over one
at a
to
a
ferry
time but it would delay them
about an hour and a half or she could take them
both over
e.t
the
same time and
that there
were
places thej they could swim their horses and
that they could ride their
103
horses until the water
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAK.EE
got too deep to wade then they could get Into
the boat and swim the horses alongside the
They decided to go together and took
passage per "skiff and horseback riding their
boat.
when
horses
it
wasn't too deep.
an hour they were landed safely
Landing
in
This
Jasper County.
dent mentioned which
daring feats
of
this
showed her
skill
as a
In
at
only one
is
less
than
Sand Ridge
is
ot
one
the
inci-
many
kind in which lArs. Eaton
boat's
woman.
Late
the afternoon of the next day the sheriff of
in
La-
porte County, Indiana, arrived in the ferry looking for tv/o stolen horses taken
from a farmer
near Doorville and the description of the men
and horses tallied v/ith those that Ars. Eaton
There
ferried across the river.
that
they were the
The chances
horses
in
as
Aany
for getting
is
the
much
no doubt but
v/anted
away and
the sand ridges on the
the river v/as
side
men
better than
south side of
on the north
country was not so
a stolen horse has
104
at Laporte.
hiding stolen
well settled.
been hidden away on
RUNNING THE FERRY
these
by
swamp
was
a
died
Horse stealing
1857 and was
in
the old
name
the bridge
/'Ars.
Saw/er C3.ne
He
ferry.
was
a
built
not
and high water
Eaton
burying ground near the
family
oi
those days
I'Ars.
buried beside her hus-
After the death of
landing.
by the
the
in
occurence.
very frequent
in
band
which were never found
islands
their owners.
Eaton a
in
possession
in
bridge
"57."
built
substantially
of the
man
the
of
As
ice
following spring took
it
Sawyer then ran the ferry again and carried mail for three or four years.
He also put
out.
up a sawmill on the banks of ihe
good lumber business.
Aany
sawed were
rafted
down
sold out his business to
used
built
a bridge
of
and did a
the logs he
the river.
in 1860 he
cnus 5aum, who oper-
ated the mill and ran the ferry
Baum
river
that
for
a
stayed
few years.
in
and was
war when the County
Porter and Jasper Counties
until the close of the
Commissioners
of
jointly took over the
Later on they
made
bridge
and made
a grade through the
105
it
free.
swamp
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE ICANKIAKEE
of timber
was
and sand as
pleted across the
was
marsh
the last of the
County.
In fact,
it
was
This was
Baum's
And
Bridge.
to the
It
This
land.
dry
in
Porter
the last in Northern In-
built
the bridge
and
knov/n,
line.
grade was com-
gate system
toll
When Baum
diana.
in.
as the timber
far
several years before the
yet
across the river at the
to
is
stayed
it
this day,
Eaton
built
same
place
a
as
bridge
fourteen
years prior to the building of the Baum's Bridge.
It
was
at this ford that /Aajor Irwin
crossed the
Kankakee when he was giving notice to all the
Indians along the Kankakee Swamps to be
ready to leave
homes beyond
this ford
in
the
early
summicr
the /Aississippi.
Also
it
while gathering up the children of the
1878
built a
was
where General Tipton crossed the
their far-off hunting
In
for their
a party of
at
river
forest to
grounds toward the sunset.
hunters from Pittsburg, Pa.,
club house at the bridge and they put on
the river a small steamer, "Little
Rhoda" which
played between English Lake and Long
106
Ridge.
^
i 3 i
.
>U^
RUNNING THE FERRY
There was another party
of
hunters from Louis-
Kentucky, who built a club house at the
bridge in the fall of "78 known as the Louisville
ville,
Hunting Club with
Wm. Thompson,
of Louisville
as President and H. Parker Rice and
Perman,
and
of
club
Aaron
P.
Hebron, Indiana, as hunting guides
house managers.
Parker, better
known as "Dock" among the hunting circles,
became associated with the Louisville Club in
their
annual
fall
they
camped
in
hunt of '76
are sometimes
they
and
at
that
time
a cotton shanty or rag-house as
near the Prairie
called,
The next season they built a shanty
where now stands their magnificent building
v/hich was erected in '78 by Dock Rice, archiBend.
tect
and
builder.
On
the following year, '79,
another club house v/as
known
Wilcox,
of
Baum's
built
by a hunting club
House Club"
as the "White
Bridge,
the
hunting guide.
In
feathery tribe
many
as
the
season
and
of
the
sportsmen that
gather along the marshes of the
107
George
manager
hunting
are
with
Kankakee
to
get a shot at a web-foot duck, and
many years
me face to
hunting on this stream have brought
face with
many good
hunters' fraternity.
of
my
most pleasant
on
my memory
recollections that were printed
v/ere scenes
around a hunters'
often regretted
of the
talks
recording.
I
to the
fellows that belong
Some
camp.
did not keep a diary for
I
have
many
around these campfires are worth
H
CD
r
o
c
o
c
n>
c
CO
CO
CHAPTER X
LAST OF THE POTTO WATTO MIES
FIRING
THE MARSHES TO
DRIVE THE GAME OUT.
HOW THE INDIANS ROAST A DEER HEAD.
THE LAST OF THE
POTTOWA-TTOMiES
ON THE KANKAKEE
The
remember
that
in
a previous
mentioned that a few
of
the
readers
chapter
I
wattomie Indians were
Now
little
permitted
Potto-
remain.
to
you what became of AVingo, the
Indian boy. One of the most wonderful
I
will teil
stories of all
is
a prairie on
fire,
the grandest sights in the v/orid.
in the fall of the
kee Prairies on
yellow leaf
year
fire,
when
in
the
all
which
1
is
one
of
have seen,
a dry time, the
Kanka-
time of the sear and
nature
is
about to put
off
and put on the v/hite-snow.
The Indians sometimes would set the grass on
her garb of green
108
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKLEE
fire
to drive the
going
It
sweeps
game
like
out.
If
there
is
any wind
a mighty hurricane and car-
ries everything before
Sometimes
it.
you can
burn the grass around you and escape before
the raging billows of fire reach you.
"One time
many
years ago," says an old hunter, "Aubbee-
naubbee and
an Indian boy, and myself,
/'Aingo,
were out hunting in the tall grass and weeds on
the marshes about two miles from the river. We
had
deer and had just cut
it
open and
and were preparing to skin
it and cut it up so that we could carry
it
home,
when we heard a roaring and crackling noise
killed a
taken out
west
its
us
entrails
the
of a
mighty storm.
Aubbeenaubbee, with terror despicted on his
of
like
coming
was on fire and that
As the wind was blowing
hard from that direction we knew that it v/ouid
soon be upon us and we knew that there was no
salvation for /Aingo in the tali grass as he was
small.
In the twinkling of an eye we opened
face, said that the
we must
out the
get
prairie
out.
deer and
shoved /Aingo
109
in
and then
LAST OF THE POTTOWATTOMIES
closed
it
up
Aubbeenaubbee and
clam.
like a
then broke and ran
for
our lives and of
I
the
all
running and tumbling and summersaults in the
tall grass beat the world and all the rest of mankind.
I
took a straight shoot
Aubbeenaubbee took
off to
for
the
the
left
of
but
river
me and
reached the pond or slough with some water
and musk-rat houses in it and he rushed in and
hurriedly tore
off
the top
of
an old musk-rat
house and jumped in and was saved. After
running hard and being almost given out of being overtaken by the
fire
the river where there
ment
i
stood with wonder and am.aze-
at the glorious sight of the
rolling
me
Then
reached a creek near
I
ed over and was safe
Jordan.
1
was some water.
crosson the other side of the
But
1
fire
1
ions
fire
escape the scorching ele-
paid no attention to them.
had passed by it had
blackened pall.
started to
the
of
by and some deer and v/olves rushed by
in their fright to
ments.
ocean
left
find
nothing
a
my compan-
and found Aubbeenaubbee with
110
After
but
his
head
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE ICAN KAK.EE
stuck out of a musk-rat house,
a
little
clad to get
old
all
scorched about the head.
off
right except
But he was
He crawled
with that.
musk-rat house and started
/Aingo as
we had
out of the
look
for
great fear for him, fearing that
he had been roasted
deer and
roasted
to
our great delight
at the
found
the
door and to
'5it down
And we opened the
/Aingo called out,
you are at the right door'"
deer and behold,
We
alive.
knocked
he was safe and sound,
al-
it was red-hot for him for a short
The deer was roasted to a nice brown on
the outside and we sat down and made a square
meal off of him. Then we cut it up and carried
it home and we had enough to eat for sometime
without cooking." The finest bill of fare that
though he said
time.
I
ever saw was to pass over the burnt
after a big fire
all
district just
had passed and you could
find
kinds of game; coon, rabbits, and sometimes
prairie
many
chickens and ducks, nicely roasted and
a
meal have
I
hunting and hungry.
made
1
will
Ill
of
tell
them when out
y@u how the
In-
dians cooked their mgats and the
a deer head,
the
in
square and about a
fire in
it
and keep
burning
the deer
Wrap
deep and inake a hot
until
it
Then scrape out
oi red hot coals.
ashes.
it
foot
about a foot
hole
dig a
They
roast
and most delicious
the finest
is
it
world.
way they
nearly
lull
the coals
and
is
head with the skin on
in
wet leaves and place it in the hole and cover it
up with the hot ashes and coals and leave it until
it
is
roasted through, then take
skin will peel
off
and
Brains and tongue are
that
all
throws v/hale tongue
can cook
lay the fish
the
cooked and
You
same way. You
the shade.
caught
a wet paper of any kind and
down and cover it up with hot ashes
fish
and coals
nicely
in
in the
fish just
wrap the
out and
it
leave a clean, tender meat.
just
the ashes.
in
as you would
After
it
is
a
done take
roast
it
out
potato in
and the
paper and skin peels off and leaves the juicy
meat for you to place your pepper and salt and
eat
it.
just try
It
it
is
the finest thing in the world.
You
sometime when you are out camping
112
PIONEliR
HUNTERS OF THE KANKAICEE
:^
on the Kankakee and you will never get tired of
One time on the Kankakee we were out
it.
pike and
fishing for
such
in
used
liildebrandt's
had
to
make
present
hook or Johnson
spinner and
other patented fishing hooks and
We
|
the
at
ij
time, such as skinners, trolling
grabbers or
\
we had no
those days
fishing outfits as are
|
our lines and
many
artificial baits.
hooks
in
those
days and in fishing for pike or pickerel in the
Kankakee we had to have strong lines and stout
hooks and bait with a big finn of one of the fish
|
j
you haven't such a bait use a large
and keep it moving, as a pickminnow
or
frog
erel seldom bites at a still bait but always takes
it
on the wing and go for it like lightning and
caught.
splashes
horse.
water.
If
water
in
your face
Then we would
One day we
pull
like
them
a flying
sea
out of
the
in
caught nine pickerel that
We cooked
measured altogether fifteen feet.
them all up for supper and with bread and butter and coffee the nine of us ate them all up and
all of
us said
it
beat the world and
113
all
the rest of
|
\
mankind.
Nine
Just think!
men
eating fifteen
Another time we were fishing on the
Kankakee and caught many red^horse, buffalo,
and suckers. We ate so many fish that some of
feet of fish.
the boys could not change their shirts
Now
or four weeks.
men know
al!
thai suckers
old hunters
fish
thgm
best, only
three
fisher-
and red-horse are a very
but just as good as any and
bony
for
and
they are so
full
some
of bones.
1
like
will
you how we fixed them and they were alright.
Take a sucker and clean it nicely, then lay it on
tell
the
slump
cross-ways
and with a sharp knife cut it
about an eighth of an
or log
into pieces
inch long stick the pieces together
and
fry.
ble
you
at
that
It
is
alright
or get cross-ways
they
v/ith
and the bones
m
will
cornmeal
not trou-
And
your throat.
are far better than
German
carp.
One
time we were fishing and caught a lot of carp
when some guy came along and gave his idea
and directions as
to planking carp.
ions were: Get a nice big carp
good shape.
Put
it
His direct-
and clean
on a hardwood plank,
114
it
in
salt
PlONEiiR
and pepper it well, then spread a layer of butter
on the top. Cover this with strips of bacon and
cornmeal. Slip him in a hot oven and when
done
to a
brown take the
and throw the
fish
outfit
away and
back
of the
shanty
eat the board.
I'll
say that baked suckers and trimmings you will
find more palatable than any hardwood board or
if
none of these
will assure you that,
carp.
1
dishes don't appeal
you
to
especially, just try
A\any years ago, but to be exsomething
winter of 1843 and the coldcold
was
the
it
act,
else.
known, there was a party of deer
The snow was
hunters camping on the Kidge.
very deep and the weather so cold that it was
est winter ever
almost impossible to get ©ut and hunt for game.
The ice in the river was so thick that they could
an axe so they
on the ice and set them on
not cut a hole through
pulled a
fire
to
lot
old logs
it
with
mslt a hole through
it.
After a night
a part of a day they got a hole through
kinds
of fish,
snapping
pickerel, bass, salmon,
turtles
bounded out
115
it
and
and
all
and even
of the ice
and they
LAST OF THE PO
had fish
One
when
ice did not
the
to
them
last
break up that Spring
Some
seventeenth
the
came
out
was so
they dressed and cooked
made soup enough
now
weather moderated
old snapping turtle that
large that
April.
rOWATl OMIES
1
to last thein until the
until
it.
it
The
week.
a
away
in
hunters crossed the river on the ice
of April thai Spring.
I
will tell
you
some of the Indians that were left on
Kankakee and what became of little A\ingo.
Indian boy.
/Aingo was the last Pottowatof
tomie on the Kankakee,
lie
had been captured
by the Sioux and carried away to the Northwest.
The old
/'\ingo
chief, the father of
Niagara, did not like
and was not inclined
to confer the
honor
on him he had so
his favorite child
some
chief
ter
fairly made,
Niagara was
must
be
the wife of
and she
distinguished
was doomed
as
many
personage.
But the
old
to be outwitted
a father
is in
by his daughmatters of this kind.
At a time when the chief was absent holding a
with
a
neighborhood tribes of Sioux,
A\ingo picked out two of the chief's best horses
council
116
to escape with his girl to his own
Niagara was ready and when the village
was sunk into profound sleep she met him in a
on which
tribe.
sequestered place, bringing a supply
sions for the
their saddles
trip.
In
a
moment
and away.
of
they
provi-
were
They were not
in
less
own people and
would be followed by the Indians as long as
there were any hopes of overtaking them.
By
morning, however, there would be a wide space
than three long sleeps from his
between them and
make
their
pursuers and
their
escape entirely practible
befall them on the way.
should
haps
night or next
day
in
if
would
no mis-
The
first
the evening they reached a
and hunters and among them
were old Kill-buck and LaBonta, Frenchmen
who were trapping and buying furs, and from
camp
whom
the
of trappers
I
camped on
The trappers were
obtained this narrative while
Kankakee many
years.
much surprised to see two young Indians,
a young man and a squaw, rixle up and alight in
the midst of them, apparently much fatigued and
very
117
LAST OF THE POTTOWAITOMIES
Their presence required
explanation, as tiiey might belong to
a
way-worn.
anders
in that vicinity,
who might
The young Indian made
the
trouble.
give
friend-
of
pretext
ship but he might be the spy of a
prompt
some mer-
band
hostile
who were meditating an attack on them,
what means this pretty young girl who is
him. War parties are never encumbered
women and
some
to
the faded condition of
extent
allayed
their
their
fears,
as
but
wilh
with
horses
was
it
evidence that they were on a long and severe
journey.
his
object
Old Kill-buck interrogated him as to
and destination and learned that he
was a Pottowattomie and a remnant of the
tribe of the Kankakee and Wabash Rivers, and
who had been taken
captive about a year before
by the Sioux, and was carried away by themi to
up in the northwest until a chance
their villages
to
escape
young
to his
girl v/ith
own
him
tribe
presented
v/as
Sioux,
The
itself.
for
whom
he
among
her
tribe.
The attachment was not only mutual
but
that
conceived
a
fondness while
118
PIONEER HUNTERS OE THE KANKAfCEE
they might consumate their bliss they
They were now
necessary to eiope.
hPs native village to
which another
found
flying
night's
it
to
ride
he thought would bring them. As they seemed
very much fatigued and were out of provisions,
the party very promptly tendered them the
they had which was
consumed
best
with good relish
by the two lovers, and after they had enjoyed a
incilittle repose Kiil-bucH drew from them the
dent and story
to
just related.
persuade them
to stay until
and
The trappers tried
morning and en-
which they needed so much, but he replied that they had not
slept any since they set out on their flight, nor
joy the refreshments
rest
did they even dare to think of closing their eyes
before he should reach his
own home,
fie
that he would be pursued as long as there
the faintest hope of being overtaken
knew what
into the
in the
his
hands
camp
doom would
of the
be
Sioux.
knew
was
and he also
he again fell
Having remained
if
a short time, the two fugitive lovers
were again on the wing
flying
over the green
LAST OF THE POT rOWA'i' rOMlES
prairies of the
A
the moon.
Kankakee marshes by
and
full
beautiful
the light of
moon animated
and sustained by the purity of their motive, and
the hope of soon reaching a place of safety and
hearts,
good
vel over
not
said they
They
protection.
and above
good
all
happily
that
many
home in
And
safety
that
years.
was ever heard
of the
cause and why
a good
Kill-buck learned afterwards
luck.
that they reached his
for
had good horses,
good weather, good country to tra-
of .'Aingo
Pottowattomies.
and
lived
was the
Doranto. the
Lenia Leota,
last
last
his sister,
was taken captive by some other hostile Indians
and carried off to the far west toward the sunset
and her fate was never known nor never will be
But like the
judgment.
a
dark
and troustars that shed their glory ore
until the great
bled sea, like
ed are thou
day
of
some
still
to
long forgotten story cherish-
me. There v/ere two or three
other Indians that lived
on the
river.
One
and hunted and trapped
old Indian,
Sheubana.
on French Island and he was related
120
lived
to old
PIONEER HUNTERS OE THE KANKAfCEE
Peashaway, who for many years lived on an
island in the north
lodge.
head waters
Lake.
marsh near the Cumbcrtand
Sheubana and Peashaway
When
of
1
the
last
Kankaiiee
heard
dians mentioned were the
tomies on the Kankakee.
of
lived
on the
near English
them, the three In-
last of the
Pottowat-
CHAPTER
XI
HOM!{ OF CHIEF KILLBUCK
FRENCH ISLAND
MANY YEARS THE HOME
FOR
OF CHIEFS
SHEUBANA AND OLD KILLBUCK
WHEN SETTLED BY A FRENCH
FUR TRADER
NAMED
LA BONTA
The first white man to settle on French Island
was a French fur trader by the name of LaBonta.
He
and
trafficing with the early hunters
pers
settled here for the
who had
that time.
settled
As
1
purpose
of
trading
and trap-
along the Kankahee
at
have said before the War De-
partment granted a few of the Fottov/attomies,
who had been friendly to the whites, per-
those
mission to stay
in
the
KanhaKee Region, There
were two or three French families on the island
who had
reason
it
settled there years before
derived
its
and
name "French
122
for
this
Island."
PIONtER HUNlÊRS OF
There were four or
land
at this
Indians living on the
among them
aged squaw by
time and
Indian and his
Me was
Sheubane.
cre
five
KANKAKE?:
rHt.
at the Pt.
and saved a great many
of the
eighty
by the white hunters
1858 and
of
whom
1
Sheubaria lived with
grandchildren
in
whites,
in
the
obtained this
winter of
F^rench
where LaBonta found old Killbuck dead
winter of
"whilst
a
1857.
"One day"
couple
of
passed the wigwam
said the
little
Island
in
the
hunter
out hunting
we
Sheubana and found
his
us were
of
lie
narrative.
squaw and two
his
wigwam on
a
of
age when found on
this island
years
name
Dearborn massa-
was over
of
the
is-
an old
lived
poor old squaw and the children in great distress.
They informed us that Sheubana had started
down the river to hunt and been gone for three
days and they knew thai somêthing had happened him or he would have been bach. As
they
fed
were out
them the
of
m.eat
best
we
and nearly starved we
could and called out
our force and started to hunt
123
for
him.
We
©11
had
HOMIi OF CHIEF KILLBUCK
gone far when one of the party heard a
not
noise and §@ing to the spot found the
Indian
fast,
with one leg in
that were used in those
game
and
days.
of
poor old
those traps
In looking
for
woods and brush he ran against
and sprung and got caught and being
the
in
the trap
old
one
it
feeble,
And
could noi extract himself.
there the poor old soul had lain for three days
and nights in the cold and rain without shelter
or anything to eat,
and the storm and the winds
had beaten on
aged head.
bitter
his
over him.
tears
vs/e
V/e shed
extracted
many
him as
soon as possible and placed him on a litter
made of sticks and barks and carried him as
carefully
One
and tenderly as a child to his wigwam.
on returning had killed a deer
of the party
which they carried along with them and they
placed Sheubana and the deer at the door of
the
like Longfellow's Hiawatha had
deer at the feet of Ainnehaha, the
wigwam
placed his
Laughing Waters. It would have done your
have seen those
(if you had one) to
soul good
124
PIONEfiR
HUNTERS OF THE iCANlvAKEE
And
Indians rejoice at the return of Sheubana.
it
was then
saying
could
I
in the Bible:
joy
pents and
who went
in
is
is
and
is
greater
rejoicing
lost
saved than the ninety and nine
not astray.'
as good care of
visited
'TheFe
and found, and there is
Heaven over one sinner that re-
over one that
more
understand that beautiful
Suffice to say, they took
Sheubana as they could and
him every day.
We
had some iinaments
salves, sticking plasters — as hunters always
go prepared for accidents and we applied them
But we had to
freely and he mended quickly.
leave and before leaving
we good spare and
we
left
them everything
plenty of
aftergame.
wards heard that he got well, lived and died on
the headv/aters of the Kankakee.
Aay his soul
rest in
peace."
/Aany years ago
I
this island
was
the hiding place of a bunch of counterfeiters and
which part
of the
gang were captured
at
Bogus
some years ago. In the Fail of 1859
Uncle Marl Seymour was trapping the French
Island
island ground, in the bayou
125
between the
river
HOMK OF
CHIEF KILLBUCK
and the landing, h'c was setting a trap at an
old rat house in the bayou when he made a
In sticking a tailey
discovery.
rat
house
it
stake
the old
in
struck something hard and sounded
hollow, like striking a stick against
He removed
the top
a small iron box covered
moss, from which
rats
an old box.
the rat house
off
with
used
and found
sand and
rust,
to build their houses.
Prom the appearance of the box it had been
hidden away in the bayou for many years and
the rats had built quite a
In
opening the box
it
house over
large
was found
to
outfit of counterfeiting tools, dyes,
and things
money.
that are
used
Possibly this
the gang that
In
the
outfit
contain an'
plates,
making
belonged
was captured on Bogus
the early sixties.
There are
many
of
Aany
years ago a
leads
bogus
to part of
Island
dark,
terious stories connected with the early
©f this island.
it.
in
myshistory
man
by the
Beeler was hunting in the swamips and
his dogs ran a fox into a hole on the island and
name
in
of
digging out the
den
for
126
the fox he dug
up the
PIONEER HUNIKRS OF THE KANKAKEE
remains
for
a
of
men
two white
number
of
years by
history docs not reach.
had been buried
that
unknown hands where
in the i°all of 1844 as
Rens Brainard was hunting on
man
the river he dis-
lodged against
some
driftwood near the French Island Landing,
tie
covered the body
of a
recognized the body as that of John
German who
Drago,
been murdered and two pieces of
pump tied to his body and then cast
be buried
river to
ful
in
the
still
a
Drago had
an old iron
lived near the island.
waters and
the
into
peace-
sands, with no marks of his last resting place.
i3ut
the
iron
old
pump
down
to the
sandy grave
had placed
it.
against
some
ported
the
Tiver
at
was used
that
weight was not heavy enough
body
which the murderer
in
The body srose and
old driftwood.
finding
of the
French Island
Ar.
body
to
who came and
for a
to hold the
the
lodged
Brainard
re-
man
the
of a
in
Jasper County
tlie body and
examination
and found
postmortem
To conceal the
that he had been murdered.
authorities
made
a
127
took up
HOMK OF
CHIEF KILLBUCK
crime, the body had been
Kanhahee
the
ceased soon went
and
sunken
The
River.
work
to
to the
friends
to solve the
bring the murderer to justice.
picion led to the arrest of
V/eberon Warteno,
a
who
of
body of
de-
the
mystery
Strong sus-
Bohemian named
lived
near the island.
Circumstantial evidence was strong against him.
confessed that
lie' finally
crime and v/as
guilty
ruary
laer.
tried in ihe
and was sentenced
1886,
26,
in
he comm.itied
Circuit Court,
to
be hung.
the
found
On
Feb-
the court-yard at Rensse-
Jasper County, Indiana, he paid the pen-
alty of the crime, thus
Weberon
ending the
life
V/arteno. ihe murderer of
career of
John Drago.
About a miie and a half up the river from.
French Island and on the opposite side of the
river is a big knob, too small to be called an
island, that
has more history
than any island on the
of
about
swamp
river.
river.
to the
square
150 square feet
about 150 yards back from
forest
It
was a hard place
128
foot
Having an area
and is in a dense
to find for
the
one v/ho
PIONEiLR
is
HUNTKRS OK IHE KANKAKEP:
acquainted with the location.
not very well
Years ago
was known as Deserters
it
from the fact that during the
rebellion
fugitives
it
dark days
was a hiding place
from
Along
justice.
for
Island
the
of
deserters and
the
in
eighteen
was organized at Hebron, Indiana
known as the Columbian Club
club
hunting
nineties there
a
from the
fact that the
was going on
Columbian World's Pair
Chicago that year, so they
called their organization the Columbian Hunting
There were eight charter members of the
Club.
old
all
club,
in
business
Smith, president,
Ailler.
Hebron.
<J.
C.
secretary and
George A\argison,
and Ira
Bart Siglar; L.E.Ripley
They built their clubhouse on the little
have just described and called it
V. Fry.
island that
Camp
George
of
Gidley,
Jerry Sherwood,
treasurer.
Chas.
men
6
I
to 2,
from the
fact that there
were
six
Two years
democrats and two republicans.
to
later the membership had increased
sixty-two
members, then the name was changed
Sixty-two from the
fact that
129
there
to Island
were sixty-
n
o
3
3
D-
o
c
c
3
HOMK OF
two members
island
is
the eight
the
club and the big knob or
known by that name to
charter members of the
Hunting Club
but
in
CHIEF KILLBUCK
three,
alf
Siglar.
this
old
day.
Of
Columbian
have crossed over the divide
and
Qidley
Fry.
has long since been deserted as the
The
island
swamp
fires
swept over the island some twenty years ago
and destroyed the clubhouse', yet now and then
a
camp was made on
the
island during
the
duck shooting season, as shown in the cut. The
island 6 to 2 is pretty much like Goldsmith's
deserted village, forlorn and desolate, yet there
are
this
many happy memories
little
island camp of
years gone
by.
130
that
cluster
around
hunting days
in
the
CHAPTER
XII
INDIAN ISLAND
INDIAN ISLAND FIRST SETTLED
SOLD TO A SAW MILL
COMPANY WHERE THE FIRST STEAMBOAT
WAS BUILT ON THE KANKAKEE
BY THE WHITES.
Indian Island in an early day was
Aike's
white
Island
man
from
by the
the fact
name
known as
was a
Maskins who
that
of A\ike
there
hunted with the Indians and camped on this
and whom
mentioned before, it was
island
better
I
known
as Indian Island and was
for
un-
and camping grounds of
the Pottowattomie Indians. It is one of the oldtold
ages the hunting
islands on the
Kankakee and
was no Indian camp betv/een the headwaters and the mouth of this historical river
est
inhabited
there
that
had
a better fortification than Indian Island,
131
INDIAN ISLAND
Haskins Wds with General Harrison on that
mous march up
Rivers and
first
shot
it
.at
was this
the
misty, moonlight
was on
kins
made
the
On
Battle of Tippecanoe.
night in
picket
a
Mas-
November, 1811,
and as the Indians
duty
on the camp
theis attack
fa-
Wabash and Tippecanoe
white hunter who fired the
in
the
night
by
in the early
upon the sleeping army.
the night it had been raining but along
crav/ling
part of
about midnight
broke away and the clouds
it
v/ere thin
and
moon and
as the clouds were
scattering.
very rapidly and
at
full
As
brightness.
times the
There was a
full
moved
moon shown in its
light
the Indians
they
had
just
been
new guns and hatchets they were
supplied
still very bright.
The Indians made their attack
v/ith
about three o'clock
in the morning and as they
skulked and crawled upon the cam.p Maskins
sav/ something glisten as the m.oon shone
through the thin clouds and knev/ what
.He pulled
his
gun
to his shoulder, took
the glistening ©bjcct, pulled the trigger,
132
it
was.
aim
at
and an
PIONEER HUNTERS OF
i'HE
KANKAKEE
Indian bounded up out ©f the grass and
yelled.
aroused the others and the battle began
and the result of that shot is well known.
The
This
in
a
remembers
told
previous
chapter what brought liaskins to the Kankakee
Swamps. In 1854 Aaron Broady Sr., and his
The land of which
son, John, entered the land.
reader
i
was originally a part belonged to the
and contains one hundred and twenty
the island
State
The
acres.
island
itself
thirty-five or forty acres.
fore the country
way
of getting
contains about
In the early
was drained
by water nearly the
only
only
days
be--
was surrounded
whole year round and the
to the island was with boat
it
wading in from the north side. In the dry
season when the water vâs low you could drive
or by
in with a
team but
in
the
winter season
the marshes were frozen up, getting
ice
was
the best time.
in
when
on the
The Broadies each
built
a log cabin and cleared up afeout ten acres and
put
it
under
The
cultivation.
was heavily timbered.
island at that time
The Kankakee swamps
133
INDIAN ISLAND
were
covered with a
originally
On
hard wood.
heavy timber,
the dry land v/as found
many
oak and hickory, while on the bottom or swamps which were covered with water
varieties of
is
the white and black ssh, red and white beech
sycamore, elm,
soft
maple,
white
coUonwood,
white and yellow birch, and three or
ties of
is
swamp
or water oak, whilst
four
veri-
on the ridges
found the white and black walnut, three
spe-
paw-paws, wawred haws, iron wood and dog
cies of dry land oak, sassrjfras.
hoe, prickley ash,
wood.
Aost
of this
timber
was valuable saw
timber and on this island was a good
1866
site
for
a
saw
mill.
ized
and known as the Indian island Sawmill
Company.
So
It
in
from the
thousand dollars
ter of
company was organ-
was made up
who owned swamp
island
a
of prairie
farmers
lands.
They bought the
Broadies. paying them five
in cash for it and in the win-
'66 when the marsh was frozen up they
put the sawmill on the island and soon had
operation.
Pirst
they sawed the
134
lum.ber
it
in
to
PlONtSR HUNTERS OF TH K KANKAfCEE
and
build the mill
boss and his
built of
and
men
white oak
that-
was
to put
of
up
to live
house
a
for the mill
The house was
in.
throughout except the floor
The
white ash.
teen by thirty-four
one
feet,
building
story,
and
is
six-
is
box
sided with one by twelve inch white oak siding.
The house his never been painted and
good condition and
in
use at
this writing.
Several years ago there was a lean-to
the east side of the house and
where
The
1
mill
Vv'hen the
spent
ten years of
business
swamps were
frozen
of a task
out to the dry land.
Ira Cornell,
I.
river a
two
of the
the
is
days.
winter
off
the
island,
as there were only cer-
times of the year that
In
on
building
up thousands of
and sawed into
But getting the lumber
lumber.
was somewhat
the
mill
In
in
1920.
built
my boyhood
was good.
logs were brought to the
tain
in this
is
it
could be hauled
1868 John
heaviest
Bissell
and
stockholders
in
A. Company, built and put on the
steamer. The White Star, for the purposr
I.
5.
of transporting
lumber and cord wood down
135
io
INDIAN ISLAND
/Aomcnce,
river
where there was sale
island
and
and other points along the
Illinois,
is
in
for their product.
The
about one hundred rods from the river
order to get the steamer and
from the island
boats
flat
they had
wide and four
to the river
to
dig
a
canal eighteen feet
feet deep.
Pether was put on the job as superintendent and
with 3 gang of
men
Known then and
is
with shovels dug what
Cornell steamboat canal.
was
Hecron, Indiana,
For several
was the
the steamer and
fitted
out
of
boat builder.
up and down the river Pather
and John Bissel, captain. The
on the KanHakeedid not pan
out just as expected and
called,
Adison E. Buck,
the master
trips
pilot
freighting business
were
was
day as the Bissell-
to this
flat
a
the early
seventies
boats or .scowes,
were sold
for
in
to a
pleasure
bought the Bissel stock
pany which contained
in
Aomence
boat.
the
I.
as they
party and
In '71
I.
5.
A'\.
Pather
Com-
two-fifths of the shares in
the company.
The reader remembers that
was here where left them in the opening chap-
it
I
136
tcr of this story
that
I
and
it
take them with
}he Kankakee.
It
is
only
me
to
island
was way back
and smok@y old days
days that now seem
of
the
hazy
in 1871,
those
in
October,
another cen-
to belong to
tury and another manner
and proper
home on
rigiit
my
of living,
These were
the days you could hardly see the
sun on ac-
smoke
count
of the
settle
over the lowlands and thousands
of
dense clouds
of
that
of
would
acres
Kankakee marshes and swamps were on
fire
not only here but thousands of acres elsewhere
were burning and not only the prairie, marshes
and forests, but cities and towns were passing
away
in
smoke.
The year
The
was known as
'71
was very low, the
lowest it had been for years.
The swamps and
marshes in many places had dried out and the
the dry season.
filling of
river
sell-moved earth
had washed
in
and decayed
from the
vegitation.
of past
centuries that
highlands,
This
took
sediments
fire
and
burned everything down to the sub-soil. Thousands of acres of marsh land were burned out in
137
H
(I
(I
o
a>
cr
W
u>
en
5^
O
o
3
•1
2
o
cr
o
s
'
'
>
=r
;^
w
3
;^
?r
rt>
-t
*
',
INDIAN ISLAND
way, leaving deep holes covering an area of
two to twenty acres in a place and from one to
this
five
feet
in
made many
we moved to
depth and when filled with water
small lakes and ponds. The day
was
the island, October 9,
day in Chicago, the great Chicago
on this island that many scenes of
fire.
it
was here
and
seventies
1
began
shot
a
with
hunting
that
my
gun.
eighties
canvas,
early experiences
During the
and duchs.
of
who came
trip to this
island
It
was
brought the
A\i.
first
made
li. J.
his
and
AcSheehy,
first
hunting
and the acquaintance
newspaper mian grew
ship.
far
parts of
here to shoot wild geese
In the Fall of '75,
Logansport, Indiana,
early
this island v/as a great
camping ground for hunters coming from
I have met with hunters from all
near.
the country
was
It
my boyhood
experiences were painted on memery's
as
the hot
of
this
into inseperable friend-
AcSheehy and
breech-loaders
his party that
to the island
the next year his hunting partner, the late
Condon, a millionaire rece-trecU
man
of
and
John
Chica-
PIONEER KUNTKRS OF THE KANKAKEE
brought to our place the
go,
first air
pillows that
was in a hunting boat on the
Kankakee marshes and near our place that
first met one of Indiana's most famous
writers,
a
He
was
with
General Lew Wallace.
party of
Indianapolis hunters and was stopping at the
1
ever
sav/.
It
1
Indianapolis. Terre
houses
Haute and Rockville club
Baum's
at
Bridge,
I
might mention
who have
scores of Indiana hunters
some
at
time in the years past hunted on the Kankakee.
Getting logs out of the
certain
owing
swamps.
up
early in
fore
it
to
swamp was
various
it
condition
a team.
of
the
Sometimes the swamp would freeze
the winter with high water and be-
froze solid the water
making
very un-
conditions
would leave the
ice
and when the ice was in this
was dangerous getting around v/ith
Under these conditions logging was
shelly
it
•
no good
saw
that winter.
mill to
some
Finally
Father sold the
parties in Valparaiso
and they
moved it to the big v/oods near Chesterlcn, InAbout 25 years ago Father sold the
diana.
139
72
o
n
o zr:
^ P
a
fc
::
X
fC
c
*<- fD
:r
c
::•
_.
.
;:;
fU
o -•
J-
.
>'X
t^
_^
c/i
pj
3
INDIAN ISLAND
island to
fitted
/Ar.
Henry Kahler,
up the place
for
of
who
Chicago,
a hunting and fishing
re-
1908 a party of Chicago sportsmen orwhat
was known as tlie Kankakee Valganized
sort.
ley
In
Hunting Club with Frank Nahser, president.
A. Hoffman, vice-president, and Henry
The club
Stevens, secretary and treasurer.
Dr. p.
leased the hunting rights on several thousand
acres of sv/amp land and built their clubhouse
on Indian
of
the
Island,
club
where some
made
hunting
of
trips
the
members
to this
place
swamps were drained and
duck shooting became a thing of the past. Then
was taken down
they sold the club house and
and moved away.
every year
until the
it
140
CHAPTER
XIII
GRAPE ISLAND
TRAGEDY ON GRAPE ISLAND.
A TYPE OF TRAPS THAT WERE USED
BY THE PIONEER HUNTERS FOR CATCHING
WILD GAME BEFORE STEEL TRAPS
WERE INVENTED.
The
history of
dark page
other
in
Grape Island
is
a history with a
Grape Island, as well as many
islands, never made any perma-
it.
swamp
was inhabited by hunters
and trappers during the hunting season. The
island was first inhabited by white men as early
nent settlement but
as
1844 by
built
a
it
man named
the fur bearing animals
in
game and caught
rude traps.
years later he used steel traps,
time hunters have
porary
home
made
this
A
few
fâny other old
island
their
during the trapping season.
141
who
Allen Dutcher;
a shanty and hunted wild
tem-
The
.
GRAPE ISLAND
tragedy on Grape Island put a dark page
history, as there
was one
of the
ed murders committed on
ever knov/n
in
the
in
was
Kankakee
1876 John France
this island that
the
history of
Swamps. Early in the fall of
and James Cotton, two trappers, had bought
traded
or
the
Grape Island trapping ground.
a log cabin, using green cottonwood
for
They built
logs and they covered
to this,
its
most cold-blood-
it
with a board roof.
Prior
many years they had been trapping
marsh below Long Ridge. Their grub
for
the soi:th
box was
Hebron,
getting
so
low,
l'\r.
France went
Indiana, to get grub-supplies
to
and he
The next day he
and found the cabin burn-
stayed at Hebron over night.
returned to the island
ed.
The
burned.
one side and end was
roof
and part
On
investigation he found everything
inside burned
charred body
bullet hole
in
of
and among the ruins he found the
of his partner.
There was found a
his skull, indicating that
on
he had
been murdered and the cabin
set
up the crime and destroy
trace of evidence.
142
all
fire
to
cover
And as said, the logs were green, therefor the
I
The purwas never appre-
cabin did not completely burn down.
porter of this dastardly crime
hended.
motive
/Aany theories were advanced for the
crime but no facts, and it was the
of the
general supposition that he was murdered
for to
obtain his money, as they had recently sold their
furs.
They had chosen this particular time while
one was absent from camp. Now will tell you
how the Indians and old pioneer trappers made
1
^their
rude traps
in early times.
They would take
and
a small log, eight or ten inches in diameter,
fifteen or
eighteen
feet
long and
or two-thirds of the way.
split
it
about ha if
Place the log on the
a creek or river or
run-way on the banks of
wherever game is likely to pass and then take
another small log or heavy stick for weight and
it
on top
feet
from
caught.
of
the
split
pole and then about two
end where the game is to be
Drive dov/n two stakes, one on each
the
side of the pole
to
keep
m.ore at the other end the
143
it
in
place,
and two
same way, and
for
r«)r^^
1,-
Ruins of
a
Trapper's Cabin on Grape Island where
James Cotton was murdered and burned
February
7,
1877
CJRAPE ISLAND
the
same
stick
out
quail traps, only
Then
They then made a common
purpose.
trigger
much
up the end
raise
larger, called a
on the long
fox, wild-cat.
stick
and woe unto the
kept
any other animal
or touches the trig-
sticks
the
trap
and down comes
on the lower
place by the stakes
stick
which
That rude
was rightly named when it was
"Dead Fail" for in the morning you will
find
game dead
We
trap
without the use of a club.
no cause
of
is
en each side and
catches the victims between them.
erally find
wolf.
coon, mink or
ger, for that springs
in
ne-
and place the
trigger
that takes hold of the bait
the upper
set
to
figure 4.
of the split stick the
cessary heighth. set the
bait
you use
v/ood like
of
called
a
your
genblame or negligence on
the part of the trap, but generaliy find the victim
was
run
either deaf,
in
the
way
dumb
of a
or blind,
trap.
We
and no cause
exonerate
all
to
that
attached to the traps from our blame for their
sad misfortune. Another mde trap that was
is
used
for
catching wild
game
144
without the
use
of
PiONKER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
spring or trigger
a hole
in a
in
those early times was
hollow tree about
the ground large
enough
wild-cat to put his head
to cijt
inches from
fifteen
for a lynx, wolf,
Cut a
in.
fox
;jr
ten
crevice
or twelve inches long below sloping almost to
bottom, then hang your bait in
the hole and wait for the results.
a
point at the
the
hollow
/Ar.
Lynx, wolf, fox or wild-cat comes along, puis
his head in the hollow for the bait and as he
comes down
comes down
head and necH
to get the bait his
the crevice.
game dead
In
the
your
clergy.
Another was the snare
ing trap, as they were
among
the
first
morning yo
without the
will find
benefit
trap, or
sometimes
swingwere
called,
used on the Kankakee
in
early
They would take a sapling and bend
so as the top would reach the ground and
times.
was held
trigger.
in that
A
position by
stake was driven
squared on two
had a notch cut
sides.
in
One
so as
to
means
in
fit
side of the stake, the other end
145
of
one
the ground
side
i
<:-4
of
the
t
:-!
stick
and
slick
on the square
was fastened
to
a
a
c
OS
0)
4-1
c
G
o
PIONHKR HUNTIiRS OK
the sapling by a
to the trigger so
The
hook notch.
it
KANKAKEK
THF.
moved
could not be
pullinc the stick out of the notch
To
of
would
the sapling they
buck-skin
strings,
Then they
and place them
all
head through one
and woe unto the wolf
touches the
or
stake.
made
snares
those
in
quite a
around the
or
more
fast
without
the
number
bait,
could not get the bait without
game
its
their
would make
days.
ting
in
such as was used
of loops
as the
fix
was
bait
so
put-
of the snares;
any other animal that
bait, for that pulls
the stick
out
of
the notch in the stake that holds the sapling and
v/hen you return you will find your game swinging in the air several feet
above the ground as
One more
of these fashown
mous old-time game catchers that was used on
the Kankakee long before steel traps were in
in illustration.
use or even thought
game-pen.
bottom.
It
It
was
was
were what they called a
sides and
of
built of logs-- top,
built in
a side
The top
or
bluff,
up
to
Then they had a trap
pen was covered
the level of the ground.
door on top.
hill
of the
146
PlONhhH HUNTI.RSOI'' IHK KANKAKhh
with leaves or grass to hide suspicion and over
the door ihey
hung up the
When
of venison,
bait,
a hungry
usually a
lynx
woli.
piece
or
fox
came
along they would stop to feed on the bait
and they would have to pass over the trap door.
When
they were about to take
hold of the veni-
son the game would step upon the door,
would turn and down they went into the pen.
It
in
when there was plenty of such game
Kankakee swamps was not an un-
early times
along the
common
it
thing to take three or
of the
pen
lot of
game
at
is
caught, such as wolves, foxes
/Aany years ago some
wild-cats.
wolves out
i(jur
one time and sometimes a mixed
a trap of this kind on a
little
/Aarsh and they took out
trappers had
island in the
of the
pen
at
it
was said
that a few
North
one time
two wolves, three foxes and a wild-cat.
early day
and
panthers
in
an
v/ere
on the uplands, as the panther did not inhabit the swamps on account of
caught
the
in this v/ay
water, as
they
were not much
But a number were caught
147
in
for
water.
the big v/oods near
GRAPE ISLAND
Lake
V/hen the
/Michigan.
came
steel traps
in
use the old rude traps were almost forgotten and
are
remembered as a
About
thing of the past.
and used a pen
thirty-seven years ago
to catch
Rochies
of
the
trap on the foot-hills
built
I
mountain
lion
and
bear.
and used
also built
I
a dead-fall on the KanxHahee to catch a red
that
was so cunning
steel trap.
1
could not catch
the most cunning animal
in
know
All old trappers
a steel trap.
1
will tell
catch wild turkeys
it
that a
the world
in
you how
in a trap.
We
v/e
fox
with
a
fox
is
catch
to
used
would
to
build a
pen out of poles eight or ten feet square and
two feet high, and cover it with poles and brush.
But before building the pen begin about ten feet
from one side and dig a trench, tapering it under
the edge of the pen just deep
key
to get in by stooping
the trench on inside
enough
down.
of the
for the tur-
You
continue
pen a couple of
feet
until the trench is not more than six or eight
You then scatter corn
inches deep at the end.
in the
trench to the end and around in the
148
pen.
GRAPE ISLAND
The turkeys come along and see
start
the
in
trench,
eating
as
the corn.
They
they go along,
and stooping under the edge of the pen and
jumping up on the high part for the corn and
there they are.
think of jumping
they
came
say that
sense or
I
in.
There you have them.
never could see
instinct in this
case than any
know
The poor simple things never
down and passing out again as
much
matter and
of the traps in the
of.
149
1
must
providence,
it
is
a worse
business that
I
if
^
a
c
^>
i
s
X
<<
22
-a
c
X
P
c
X
X
u
3
>
«2
CHAPTER XIV
BARRiX-HOUSE BLIND
SHOOTING
DUCKS FROM A
BARRELHOUSE BLIND. THE
FIRST TUB SHOOTING ON
THE KANKAKEE
MARSHES.
Of course you remember where the last chap/'Rethinks
hear some old-time
ter ended.
I
"You
hunter say;
cences
of
bet
I
deer hunts
related
time recollections to keep
long as
1
live
do."
where the
These reminisleft
enough
me
last
from forgetting
chapter ended.
old
a's
It
during the winter hunt of seventy-four
happened
and the story
of
what transpired and some other
experiences have been told
and
some time
to tell
in trappers'
shanties
As have promised at
you how we shot geese and
in hunters' lodges.
1
ducks on the open marshes, so here goes.
i50
/Ay
BARRliL-HOUSE BLIND
duck shooting trip to the South /Aarshcs
was made in October, 1872.
As a boy of
first
twelve years
had done a
1
little
shooting
the
in
ponds and on fly-ways at our island home but
never had been out on a big hurt like this before,
as
1
termed
of this trip,
ent
to
when any mention was made
found the hunting entirely
differ-
open marsh than what was
around the island.
Ducks were not
on the
used
1
it
big,
I
very plentiful on the marsh that
fall
so .my
first
hunting trip was of short duration. A year or so
was sitting in a trapper's shanty beafter this
was a cold winter night, listening
hind a stove,
to hunters' yarns and stories, told by a party of
I
it
deer hunters
who were
in
camp on
the
island.
They were spinning hunters' yarns and discuss-
Kan-
ing the excellent hunting conditions of the
kakee
region, as
two members
old-time hunters of the
of the party
swamps
for
many
were
years.
While the old story-teller had stopped to get
marked hunter, turned to
wind. Bill Jones, a
his
me
with the question: "liow would you enjoy a duck
151
.
IMONM.R HUNTKRS ()K IHK KANKAKLh.
hunt on Wolf Lake just as soon as the ice goes
In less than ten minutes the trip was all
out?"
arranged and the start was to be made as soon
V/olf Lake
as the ice was out of the marshes.
was noted
for its early
duck shooting on account
the ice goes out sooner than it does on the
shallow v/ater marsh, as the winter snows and
tliat
soft
winds
will
soon melt
it
out
before
long
does on the shallow water where there
grass and willows frozen
down under
in
it
more
is
the ice that holds
it
the water so that the sun and winds
never touch
it.
It
is
a
long
time going out.
These marshes have attracted the attention
sportsmen from
all
parts
of
the
country
of
who
would pilgrimage to this region year after year
It
was very seldom
to shoot geese and ducks,
place
pulled
ity,
mistake was
a
that
for
down
although
which
is
made by coming
to
this
successful duck shooting. The hunters
their birds with distressing regularit
is
practically prairie
fact that in later
years the shooting
152
shooting
From
so deceiving to the novice.
is
this
done from
PIONELR HUN'rKRSOF THE KANKAKhfc.
which
a portable blind called a sink-tub and
commonly
rather than from
called tub-shooting
a boat or a blind.
In the
fall
is
there
shooting
is
and marsh willows growing
in the shallow water marshes for a blind but
when the marshes froze over the grass is set on
plenty of grass, flags
by hunters to drive trie game out and after
the fire has run over the ice covered marshes
fire
everything
is
burned
off slick
and clean above
the ice so in the Spring shooting there
for
As
a blind.
is
nothing
the days of the long, cold winter
were passing and the clear, sunny days of
Springtime had come and melted the ice out oi
the marsh began to get restless, more so as the
I
days lengthened
into Spring.
the call of the wild, as
it
me
oftener than that.
absolutely right thing in
cal,
sensible sink tub.
my
It
of
I
Finally
well
me
it
was
about
was a boy
I
hit
it
upon the
estimation; a practi-
consists of a kerosene
sawing the top of the barrel off at the
Then went to a blacksmith shop and
barrel by
bulge.
knew
when
every Spring and Fall and
got
I
gets hold
I
153
barri'X-housp: blind
had two
made and
rings
bolted to the barrel for
stake rings and with two stakes four or five feet
long with hooks on driven in the ground and
then hooked into the rings on the barrel to hold
it
down,
the top of the barrel high
leaving
just
enough above the surface so
could not splash over,
the water
that
water was
in case the
shallow a hole was dug to lower the tub to the
If the water was not too
water level.
deep the
hunter would
wade out
would be rowed out
a sink tub blind
in
otherwise he
to his blind,
In
shooting from
shoot
over decoys
a boat.
one has
to
a hunter with a good call and a bunch
decoys was pretty sure of a string of birds
to
was out
of
and
3y
take to camp.
marsh
the
The
I
had everything ready
ice usually
twentieth
the time the ice
of
Sometimes
/Aarch.
the start came.
island
in
the
the
goes out about the tenth
than that and sometimes
for
for
later,
it
Round Grove and near
a
154
start.
to
the
earlier
finally the day
We made camp
marsh near a
is
of
on a small
large island called
large,
open body
of
PIONELK HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
water called Goose Pond, which bordered on the
swamp
rel
timber
house
morrow.
dream
After supper
line.
blind
and had
all
lay
down on
a
I
my
set
ready
barthe
for
marsh hay bed
to
quacking ducks com-
of the long line of
ing to the decoys.
made
1
was up early the following
dozen wood decoys in a
powder flask and shot pouch
I
Placing a
morning.
basket with
and with
my
my
No. 10 double barrel muzzle loader
my shoulder 1 departed for the blind which
reached before sunrise. In going through the
marsh to the blind ran across the remains of
on
I
I
an old blind
that
had been used the year before
with a stake driven in the ground and a half cirPart of the head of a
cle board.
nailed
hatchet
on the stake
1
cut the stake
still
standing.
the water's
at
off
and put
my
nicely and made a good
seat.
coys about twenty yards
in
it
in
barrel
Stepping inside the barrel
fowling piece,
house
I
blind,
1
It
edge
fitted
placed the de-
front
of
picked
placing caps on the
155
keg was
With my
nail
the
up
tubs,
blind.
my
old
snapped
iBARRlt:L-HOUSE BLIND
them
make
to
sure that the tubs were clean and
always did this before loading a gun that
had not been used for sometime. Then care-
dry.
1
loading with four drams of powder and one
and one-eighth ounce of No. 6 shot was set
As the sun arose
for whatever came along.
fully
I
ibove the timber
marsh horizon
of
swamp and
the
over the
like a big ball of brass, the
spike-
and wegians began to fly in countless numA few shots had been fired on the marsh
bers.
tails
a mile or so above where
ers
on Round Grove.
I
was by some camp-
This put
ducks
the
to
to watch these
It was quite interesting
movements among the thousands of spikes and
flight.
wegians.
heads.
I
It
heard the quack of two greenme some time to locate them
took
and wegians. But answering my call they decoyed nicely and as they
poised in the air before alighting they made an
among
the spike-tails
easy mark and they both
at the
first
shot.
Shortly
came
after
tumbling
this
a
down
flock
of
canvas-backs came over the decoys, leaving
156
PlONEhR HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKEE
number behind.
did fairly well
after my return to the blind on the second mornthree of their
ing, for
had a double shot
1
Then
tails.
came
I
decoys the
among
some
barrel,
hundred
a
decoys and
the
within
queer
1
felt
Finally
got
1
that
lit
around
feet of
Imagine,
if
close by eyed
began very
the
them.
of
while sitting there like
Those
log.
all
twenty
an empty gun.
with
powder
of
largest flock of
Without exageration
ever saw.
was over
there
bunch
at a
my gun was empty
while
the
to
ducks
I
1
all right
black
believe
They lit
my sneak
where
I
sat
you can, how
a bump on a
me
anxiously.
load the gun.
carefully to
in
1
pinthere
but did not
have
room enough in the barrel to get the ramrod out
and get the wads down on the powder without
exposing my arms above the barrel. Those
me
near
flight.
gave the warning signal and took
moment all were gone.
finished
In a
loading but never
hap
1
fully
of losing the best
in ^11
my
recovered over
chance
hunting experiences
157
I
my
mis-
have ever had
for
a big
shot
at
BARRliL-HOUSE BLIND
black ducks,
after
Shortly
a
this
duck came from the direction
came over
timber and
with the
to pick
It
was
him up
a
first
I
large
looking very
found a
brown
much
the hunters on the
name
the
third
of
barral
the
swamp
the decoys and
in
poised and curved his wings to
down
large lone
of the
and when
as he
him
let
I
light
waded out
duck unknown to me.
I
bird with a large flat
a
like
marsh
duck.
None
spoon-bill.
that
saw
could
it
The morning
day was rough and
bill,
of
tell
of the
wind was
cold, the
blowing strong from the northwest and not
many
ducks were seen out on the open marsh in
stormy and windy weather for they would stay
in
or
near
shooting
for
the
timber.
Yet
I
two or three hours
had
in
fairly
good
the morning.
As was sitting in my sink barrel blind thinking
how much more comfortable it was than standI
ing in the water in a grass blind all day,
a loud "swish" of wings.
Looking out
I
I
heard
saw
five
arose, gave
large ducks over the decoys.
dead
and a
them the right barrel and two fell
1
158
PlONKhR HUNTERS OF
clean miss with the second.
I'HE
1
KANKAKKh
waded out and
up two black ducks and here is where
discovered that there are two varieties of black
piclied
ducks
By
I
just
as surely as two and two
ten o'clock
was
it
getting
waves would splash over
I
my
gathered up
for
camp.
1
had
number
there were
duck
family.
/Aany
that in
now
fifty
the top
make
of
extinct.
eight
The
barrel.
varieties of the
I
1
killed
would never believe
years those great myriads
1
the
of the varieties that
tion ducks could have
years gone by
four.
rough.
decoys and made a bee-line
in all forty-six ducks and in
that
then are
very
of
migra-
been exterminated.
In
have often wondered where so
many species of the duck family sprang from,
The
so much more so than the dry land birds.
book name of many birds is derived from habits
and
their dress, as the
green-head mallard, the
pointed
spike-tail which has only two long
The wood-duck, somefeathers in their tail.
times called the tree-duck from the fact that
they build their nests in old snags and hollow
159
BARRb:L-HOlJSE BLIND
and sometimes they are called the nuthave never heard where she got the
hatch, but
trees
1
like any hunter who kills a duck
and does not know the name of it he can offer a
name.
But
guess.
The wood-ducks
wood-mice
build
Sometimes the
hollow trees.
will
nests
their
in
squirrel or
flying
carry a few butter-nuts or beach
nuts in a wood-duck's nest to crack at his leis-
ure
and perhaps some early observers found
in a wood duck's nest and jokingly
these nuts
accused the duck
have come
way
that so
to
of
trying to hatch them.
conclusion that
the
many new names
in later years.
sprung up
broke camp and moved
scarcely a duck
first
was
to
A
of
this
out
of
be seen.
A
scores of sink tubs
year or so
in
use but
I
the
ducks have
few days later
the
we
marsh,
This was the
portable blind or tub-shooting ever
the Kankakee.
is
done on
there
were
of a different
type.
later
They were made of galvanized sheet iron mostly instead of an old kerosene barrel, and while
do not want to claim anything new in shooting
I
160
PlONEhR HUN'lhRS OF THE KANKAKLL
from a blind, for that mode of hunting is as old
as man, only an
the
system
were
many
They
improvement
during those early
days.
marked hunters and very few
of
of
names
their
I
can
recall except the Cannons. Roots, /Aorehouses, Starkeys and scores of others whose
names have forgotten. Harry, my half brothnot least
er, was a star wing-shot and last but
who
were
and
cd
were the Qilson boys,
Billy,
1
i
to be the
many
believed by
river,
remember one
before breech-loaders
best
shots
many
time,
came
in use,
on the
years
one
of
ago,
them
one hundred and ninety ducks and eight
geese in one day's shooting using a muzzle
seventies that
It was during the early
loader.
killed
Kankakee
region reached the zenith of
as a hunting resort.
from a boat.
In
/Ay
first
shooting
its
glory
was done
some seasons we would have
splendid shooting
and
in
others not so good,
The
depended on the weather conditions.
marshes seemed to be the natural feeding
But
grounds, especially for the diving ducks.
this
161
BAF<Ri':L-f{OUSK iJiJND
the dredging of great ditches
lands letting the water
the
1
abiiiiy to
caused the glory
off
Kankakee AXarshes
had the
to depart.
my
who may
ture the prairie
not have seen them.
marshes
for
length and from two to
and dotted
v/iih
of
miles
of
Pic-
miles and miles
twelve
hundreds
feel
those
islands to
of
wish
only
1
make you
describe and
the beauty of these marsh
readers
low-
the
through
iii
width
in
small islands and
ridges containing from one-half to twenty acres.
The one
we were camped upon contained
The lofty sycamore with its
acres.
that
about four
white bark can be seen
above the
for
miles
as
they
mammoth oak and down
limbs dropped
ropes
of
rose
from
its
creeping grape-vines.
were many others covered with hucThere were many different
bushes.
v/hile there
kleberry
these
islands.
species of birds which
inhabited
Among
were several species
the
game
birds
the snipe family which nests and rears
of
young
also
wood-duck
The
during the nesting season.
or
dozen
also inhabited these islands and a half
U)2
its
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAK iCK"
more other
varieties of
an
Also, in early
island.
ducHs nesting on or near
times
nesting place for wild geese and
marsh
a portion of this great
was
it
a
great
reason
for this
northern Jasper
in
County along the Kankakee Swamp timber was
known as Goose Lake but generally known
among
hunters as Goose Pond,
the latter-day
where thousands
and
of
geese would flock
roost
to
morning they would leave
for the feeding grounds, usually on some farmer's wheat or cornfields.
When they would rise
at night;
in the
from the water the
the
of
flop
sound
filled
with
as they
wings
and
birds
have the
rise
an express train rumbling ov^r a
Now have tried to picture this great
1
at twilight or
memory
ever seen
as one
in a
lake where the
by
was
of
bridge.
pond
their
air
man and
daybreak.
of
It
most
the
stands
country abounding
surroundings
given over to the
in
duck hunting and we had
1
63
in
I
in
have
marshes, a
were not marred
wild
things
Another time
love the silent places.
out
beautiful
camp
a
I
that
was out
hunter of
Bf.iND
n.\Ri<i:L-i{Oi?sr:
many years experience but when he came to
camp in the evening his strinq would show only
a few birds and when asked what was the reawas that
son he said he didn't know unless
it
away
the feathers carried
pened
timers.
fired
for
I
am
not telling
down
biought
many were
and missed
times and "Understand, old-
many
to m.e
you
a
the foxy old birds that
hov/
certain
interest
in
early years
This
to the
was unknown
at
it,
away
unfold,
it
is
water-fowl
of
to the
remarkably true
is
i
duck grow
prominence, which
varieties
into
shot
termed
carried
feathers
As times passes and years
scarce and others come
ternity.
1
or as the old-time hunters
matter of intense
hunters
every shot
that
Not by any means.
a bird."
another case where the
the meat.
This hap-
the birds.
hunting fraof
several
species and particularly applies to nearly every
variety of large kucks known in the Kankakee
River Region.
As
I
have
said,
many
varieties
now almost
fifty years ago, are
exterminated and where we ran our boats over
of ducks, plentiful
164
PIONEER HUNTERS OE THE KANKAKEE
marshes and where
the
I
sat in
my
and shot ducks almost
barrel blind
kerosene
years
fifty
ago now stands the farmer's house in the cornfields and the scene of those by-gone days still
How often do my
clings to my memory.
thoughts
a
lot
back
drift
more
fun
to
can a
those
fellow
camp
have
What
days.
in
a
hunter's
lodge or trapper's shanty costing about
dollars amidst
its
environments.
some have
ful
days,
in
artificial
its
Every hunter has a hobby and
two, as
It
than
natural surroundings,
a ten thousand dollar mansion with
fifteen
it
was with me
has been said
that
my
youth-
hobbies
belong
in
human and are a part of the Creator's
The human nature glories of posbirthright.
to
the
session, both good and bad and all valuable.
has been said by scholarly m2n that hobbies
sane
men
often discount the
nevertheless
we have them
dreams
just
of
the
an
land,
I
also enjoyed fully as well
ice.
165
Now
idiot,
same.
loved hunting with a gun on the waters and
a good dog on the
It
of
I
dry
hunting with
before breaking
lUJND
IJARRKL-llOUS!';
Ccunp and
grounds
ing into
tell
its
third stage of
readers
the
known as
fit
the
leaving
to the agriculturist,
ot
Kankakee hunting
which is now pass-
development.
another type
shovel and a
rat spear.
how we hunted
or
Now
and occasionally an
tracked to
ice
their
in his
a
reader
told the
I
will relate
the
how we
mink and musk-
otter but not very
as they stay close to deep water.
the
an axe,
two,
have
I
hunted the ring-tail, raccoon,
speared
to
hunters
the deer, shot the wild geese,
trapped wild animals.
snow on
want
the fur hunters, and their hunting out-
consisted of a good dog
rat,
I
of
coon and
often
was
there
If
mink
were
dens and the musk-rat was
house with a
long
two-pronged
spear jabbed through the house where the rats
But the coon and mink
'Stayed during the day.
were mostly hunted with dogs. Scores
hunters who hunted the swamps with
never hunted with a gun
at all
of
fur
dogs
and the hunter
a good coon or mink dog in those
had
days
something that was valuable, One
who owned
1^6
PIONEER HUNTERS Oh THE KANKAKEE
camp on one of those swamp
near our camp was a half-breed
time whilst in
islands quite
Indian's hnt
matches
was
owner
the
from
judging
1
of
in the hut.
my
Now
readers
who
coon, dog
owner
name.
I
saw
Not seeing any dog
/Missouri
in
coons was
imported coon
believing
that
many
meaning
a good
of
dog "Auck." as that was
He was
by
his
a black-tan English fox hound
the Ozark /fountains
and
mountains were
but a
1
briefly relate fhe story told
will
of the
and was born
ern
hides that
are lovers of a good dog will
be interested with the true
the
valuable coon dog.
of
he had an
dog from /Aissouri.
of
very
inquired what kind of a dog he hunted
lie said that
with,
a
number
the
around
sticking
around
and with the hope of securing e few
hut and found that he
called at his
I
in
in
those days the
alive with raccoons
/"Aissouri
and hunting
sort of hereditary with A\uck.
few days old
and before
south-
his
When
eyes had
opened he and his two brothers were bought by
a Kankakee hunter and brought to the Kanka167
BARRKL-HOUSt.
kee
Swamps and
be
mothered and cared
lU.liND
turned over to a bull
With
for.
bitch
their
to
keen
scent of inheritance and the viciousness of their
foster
mother they were made the most famous
hunting dogs that ever hunted
Swamps and
those puppies
other than that of a
one hundred and
fications,
/Missouri
fifty
in
with
for
no pedigree
hound,
dollars each.
nerve and size
Kankakee
the
sold
for
Their quali-
the hunters of
coon
and mink in the swamps on the ice in those
days made them valuable not only for coon and
mink hunting but they were trained for other
wolves and
game— deer,
fell
into
the
/AcNeel. and
old
hands
when
he refused an
offered
by
some
of a
the
loxes,
One
of
them
noted deer hunter.
Ed
dog was eleven years
two hundred dollars,
offer of
/Michigan
deer hunter
who
wanted the old dog to train some young ones.
have an old note book made of hunting events
and
Its covers are tattered, dirty
of years ago.
1
faded,
its
and on the outside shows
shabby service the ravage
168
of
plainly
upon
time and evl-
PlONliER HUN'JERS
dence
of
of
wear and
happy memories
lections
blessed
stir
me
gift is
as
1
of
OF THE KANKAKEE
But
pages are full
and recoldays
by-gone
tear.
I
memory
believe to be the
person
may
What
open the old book.
many
of all the
all-wise, beneficient Creator,
ory
its
The
gifts of
gift of
most precious
of
a
an
memA
all,
lose his possessions, be deprived of
sight or the loss of a limb but
once having seen
and enjoyed these things the memory will
main whilst life and intellect last and can be
called at most
any
time.
When
1
re-
re-
turn over the
dim and faded pages am back again in the old
What events in hunting
Kankakee Swamps.
you can remember, Friend Hunter. What glor1
when you were present
Every hunter keeps in his
ious happenings occured
to
behold them.
some wonderful performance
He has only to shut his
hunting grounds.
memory
of the
to the last
eyes and see again the shots or catch, just as it
was made, even though it might have been forty,
fifty
or
even seventy-five years ago and the
achievements will
smallest details of the great
169
BARR't^.-HOnSK BLIND
never pass from
his
lime hunter has a string
ful
of all.
happenings
it
memories
such
oi
What were
think back upon.
Every old-
recollections.
to
the most wonder-
has been
hunters love best the trapping
that
said,
side
of
the
hunting.
might be true from the financial side
yet ask any old timer to tell of five great events
of happenings of things he saw and four of them
While
will
this
Think
be tales of hunting with the gun.
over and see
ory
of
hunting glories
thoughts of
many
sooner
the
to
who were there
come
The hunters
wasn't) have always claimed
all rifle
shots
ever
made
in
Kankakee Swamps was made on Long
Kidge about
Hall,
will
the
than any achieve-
the rod or traps.
(I
thai the greatest of
the
made
great shots
recollection
ment made with
longer and
lingers
it
The mem-
isn't strictly true.
it
if
who
is
fifty
now
years ago by a hunter
dead.
Mall
named
was a native
o^
Me
Jasper County and a deer hunter by trade.
and Harrison Dalson hunted deer together a
great deal and were together on the day that
170
Hall made the great shot.
Two deer came
dashing by
liall,
running
in
through the body of the
stantly
and struck
first
the
shoulder between the
first
A
it
was
out hunting in the
fell
upon two
their
dead.
big
horns so
of
other
each other
ball
deer
few days
in
it
in-
deer under the
ribs
and
bounds more
later
/Ar.
Dalson
swamp when he came
bucks fighting.
They had locked
tight
together that they could not
separate themselves, he shot one and
the other
passed
Hilling
and second
lodged near the heart and a few
and
directions,
opposite
and when they came opposite
Hall took aim and fired.
The
knocked
the head with his hunting axe.
He
hung them up and went home and told Hal!
that he no longer had the best of him, for he
had killed two deer with only one shot. Hall,
wouldn't believe
it
at
first
but
when he could
not
any bullet hole in one of the bucks, only
where it had been hit on the head with the pole
of an axe.
Yet he was entitled to claim the
find
champion shot having
killed
171
his
two,
running
BARRKL-HOUSt BLIND
with one bullet.
/Aany years ago Father Hilled
two, a doe and a fawn, at one shot.
They were
lie
still.
standing
had
them
trailed
into a red-
brush thicket where the brush was so thick
that
one could not see only
The
red-brush
is
on the sand
all
a species of scrub-oak that
ridges.
making
winter,
distance.
a short
They hold
it
a
great
grows
on
their leaves
hiding place for
Looking under the bushes Father saw
what he thought was a deer's legs but could
deer.
not
see
any
trusty old
rifle
part
to his
body.
Raising the
shoulder he
aimed where
of
the
At the
he thought its body v/ould be and fired.
crack of the gun away bounded a deer. He
where he thought the deer was standing
To solve
and there lay one too dead to kick.
the mystery he looked at the tracks of the one
went
to
that ran
away and discovered
blood on the snow.
five or forty
last kick.
great splotshcs of
Following the
trail
thirty-
yards he found the doe kicking her
The
bullet
fawn and lodged
in
had passed through the
the shoulder of the doe.
172
As
they stood side by side, only a
same
they were Killed by the
few
bullet.
feet
dents just mentioned are only a few of the
orable shots.
apart,
The
inci-
mem-
What hunters have seen such
doings, or rather,
where
never saw things
just
is
there
any hunter who
as wonderful?
!73
CHAPTER XV
DRAlNIN(i
TIll^:
SWAMPS
WHERE THE
IN(^.ENlJ^r^
oe has
DEFEATEi) THE DESIGNS OF NATURE
KANKAKE SWAMPS OFF THE
THE OLD RIVER AND THE
ONCE FAMOUS HUNTING
BY ERASING THE
MAP.
(GROUNDS A PAS'E
MEMORY
It
is
not
my
purpose
reclaiming or
kakee
fîver.
as
to write the story
rather, the story of the
it
is
a history
in
of
the
new Kanin
itself,
our
childhood we were taught by our teacher and
the geography that this vast region was a great
swamp and by the term "swamp" it means a
low depression in the earth's surface and this
and mud and by applying
the term "swamp" this vast Kankakee Region
was
filled
made
was
a
with water
very
large
mud-hole.
This teaching
a great hinderance to the settling
country and many men and
174
women
up
still
of this
cling
PIONEER HUNTERS OK
HE
1
of a century
Swamps
ago any mention
called
less extent of
up visions
K:aNKA[CP:E
Up
tenaciously to that teaching.
to
of a
region
swamps and marshes,
a
quarter
Kankakee
of the
limit-
of
uninhabited
and desolate, a country always associated with
and death, of unfriendly sav-
tales of suffering
For years this country
ages and wild animals.
was passed over by hunters and prospectors
and was considered worthless, but the marvel-
ous transformation which has taken place
last
three
decades
in
the
most
sunshine, furnishes one of the
and
pages
inspiring
in
the
in
the
land of silence and
interesting
of
history
our great
Kankakee development. The Kankakee swamp
is
vanishing from the map.
shrunken and
it
midable barrier
is
no longer
to the
northwestern Indiana.
its
boundaries have
presenting
several hundred thousand acres of
soaked,
craw-fish country
claimed by
means
of
a
for-
growth and progress of
There was at that ti.me
that
this
dredging, that
producing bountiful harvests.
17.S
water-
has been
are
re-
now
Every year hun-
DRAINING
1
HK SvvAMPS
now
dreds of people are residing on farms
a few years ago were
ago
tt
was
a
musH-rat ponds.
common
very
that
Years
thing to hear
of
some Eastern speculator being taken in by one
of those swamp-land swindlers.
They would
plat out a tract of
their victim
to
some
swamp
and trade
Ohio, was taken
in
by
and when he came
not find
it
as
it
to
or sell a tract of this
One
speculator.
go East
land,
/'Ar.
land
Jones, of Dayton.
some swindler
in this
to look for his land
was covered
find
way
he could
with water from one
deep and the way that Jones told it
was more amusing than true. Jones said he
was a victim of mispleced confidence. He had
traded for a tract of land on the Kankakee
to five feet
River and was making a
search
oi
his
land.
good houses on
it
trip
He
down
said
the
that
it
river
in
had two
and was near a town.
I
should judge from his description of the country
that he was looking for his farm. That the town
been musk-rat houses and
would
the town must have been a rat-town.
and houses must
of
I
176
term
I
such from the inhabitants
it
have experienced
many
er
whilst
years ago
on the western
of the
place as
such a joke
myself
wasan overland
freight-
just
I
We
plains.
would work
this
gag on the tenderfoot that would come along
inquiring if there were any settlements or set-
The answer was
anywhere near,
most always in the affirmative and if they would
go to such and such a place there was quite a
tlers living
settlement and a large town.
The tenderfoot on
going to the place directed would find
ed by
a lively
prairie dogs.
myself.)
(I
This
little
have hunted
is
Jones had traded
in
made
about such
for
inhabit-
these
for
a
it
known
farm that
down
/Ar.
instead of two good farms
sixty-nine (the wet season)
his trip
as
towns
They were musk-rat houses.
and houses.
was
four-footed tribe
the
It
when Jones
Kankakee and
the
re-
country were not so well developed then as they are now, and his story of
what he saw is more amusing than jest, so far
sources
of
as the truth
tlie
is
concerned,
fie says
Indiana
is
DRAININCJ
ll-IE
SWAMPS
when
a delightful country or will be
The State
tion of
is
it
There
building up.
sand,
is
is
more
calls land.
But
acres of this
rat
grain shocks.
in
finished.
water and
cotton
wonderful
land, at least
trees,
vegeta-
What
flowers.
what
Hoosier
a
coming on. Thousands of
Kankakee /Aarsh where the musk-
houses used
made
a
and vines and wild
tion of grass
wants
and
roots
pucker-brush,
of
plenty
swamps and marshes and
it
is
it
big enough and a considerable porhas a good foundation. What it wants
is
it
to
is
stand
Wnat
now
the
stands the golden
that
change
the next quarter of a century
will
is
I
be
leave
/Ar. Jones then goes
guess at,
say that he did not trade for a musk-rat
to the reader to
on
to
town or a cotton-wood grove,
Being discourbecause
could
a town who
have
anyone
aged
would take a boat and go out
with a surveyor and make a map
pond,
big
trip
when she met
up the
/Ar.
178
the
of a
house and population.
Star was making a
Bridge
in
river
swamp
musk-rat
The White
Baum's
to
Jones, the Ohio land
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE tCANKAKEE
speculator,
who was
sailing
over the marshes
The steamer had struck a
hunting
snag and the crew was at work getting loose
when Jones and his party came up. He began
telling the crew how tired he was of water and
marshes and more water and scraggley brush
for his farm.
and more water.
of the
Finally he bluffed the captain
White Star by saying: "Coptain, what
the average price of land up in this
By
country.
was
tired
of
the gallon,
Aany
his
same way by buying
for
the
land
it
it
or trading
is
out
this
land that God forgot to
was
be,
of
region
was
was
going to
left for
tell
you
man
to finish.
how
in part
it
"the
called
To my mind
finished just as the Almighty intended
it
look
to
covered with
sight,
finish."
the
in
Kankakee land
and when they come
Sometimes
water.
Jones
.^r.
other Easterners have been taken
without seeing
the
of
part
think."
Kankakee land speculation
trip down the Kankakee.
his
when he made
1
is
And now
was done.
it
1
it
to
am
5y
the ingenuity of man, assisted by the State gov5
79
DkAINMNC;
eminent,
map
from our
God
due the
is
tion
of
man.
and
five
it
is
At
this
water-soaked and
many examples
feating
time there was between
drained by these engineering
the
swamp
habita-
the
hundred thousand acres
This work of the State
fords
for
pleasant places
land practically
Now
SWAMPS
and converting the counlry, which
forgot, into
four
ll-H':
credit of erasing the
designs
of
workers.
fêclaiming Service
of
of
man's audacity
nature,
this
v/orthless.
of
af-
de-
This draining
movement originated way back in the early
when the Governor of Indiana recomfifties
mended a bill to the Legislature for the redeeming of the sv/amp lands along the Kankakee
was the
duty
to the
great agricultural class of the 'Kankakee
Valley
Valley.
That
it
State's
that the farmers of this region
have contributed
a greater service to the people of the state than
can ever be repaid. The landowners themselves
in an overgight of the law regarding the sale and
swamp
drainage
of
and paid
foi
lands have willingly
these lands and then taxed
180
bought
them-
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAtCEK
selves for the drainage besides.
Section
Two
Indiana which
been
or
may
Article
of the Constitution for
is
Eight,
the State of
as follows: "All lands that have
be hereafter gianted
to
State
the
where no special purpose is expressed in the
grant and the proceeds of the sale thereof, including the proceeds of the
sale of the
land granted to the State of Indiana by
swamp
act
the
September,
Congress on the 28th day
1850." In the same section implies that the
of
of
swamp
lands were granted to the state on con-
dition that the
money
those lands be used
in
derived from the
sale
of
the drainage of the same.
That part of the contract, sorry to say, has never
As
have said, all great
been carried out.
I
movements have
their beginning.
with the drainage of the
the
early
known
lers,
as
went
fifties
the
into
a
bunch
of
of the
it
was
In
men, afterwards
Kankakee Swamp Land Swindan agreemeni with the State
drain
a
certain
Kankakee marshes by
digging
Authorities at Indianapolis to
amount
So
Kankakee Swamps.
181
DRAlNINCi
THE SWAMPS
big ditches and emptying them in the
they were to take a certain percent of
drained
They dug a few small
pay.
on range and section lines, reported
the state authorities and received their
to
land grants
for
several thousand acres of
land without ever draining an acre of
They
and
the land
for their
ditches
same
river
sold
and traded great
swamp
the
land.
tracts of this land to
who never saw the land beand in some instances they never
fore buying
As mention has before
saw
after buying
been made, when they came to look for their
Eastern speculators
it
it.
it
nev/ possessions
it
could not
be
found on ac-
The specubeing covered with water.
lators could see no future for such a desolate
count
of
region
and never paid the
were sold
sales
for taxes.
and very
little
of
The lands
taxes.
The counties held the tax
was ever redeemed and
it
the land went back to the State.
Occasionally
deeds and
in later
years some
swamp
land sv/indlers' deeds are heard of in the
district courts.
The
of these tax title
state issued the land grants
182
inONKER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAICEE
in
good
makers did not
faith but the ditch
their part of the
agreement.
swamp
Authorities ordered a
land
Ind,,
and was the
district.
was appointed
first
of
position
commissioner
ditch
com-
Lytle,
to this
After serving about a year
fulfill
the State
ditch
Aaron
missioner to be appointed and
Valparaiso.
1834
In
for
and a
this
half
he resigned and Ezriah Freeman was appointed
his successor.
Commissioner Lytle had a few
ditches surveyed out
and dug.
They were sold
out in sections and half sections just as
much
as
a contractor thought he could construct.
State
Ditch No. on the north side of the river was
1
dug and an Irishman by the name
of /AcDugal contracted for the first two mile sections and John Broady of Three f\ivers, /Michi-
the
first
ditch
gan, bought the third
tions
one and a
was run
and
half of the fourth sec-
State Ditch No. 2
half miles.
and
farther east beginning at the river
running up old Sandy
sected with Ditch No.
Bridge Island.
I
Hook
1
to
where
near an
it
island
might explain here why
183
inter-
called
it
de-
rived
that
place
DRAINING THE SWAMPS
name is from the fact
where the
is
first
that at this
wagon road crossed
Sandy MooH, Early in the seventies a wagon
bridge was built across the East Channel of
Sandy Hook from
over
little
five
the
main land
hundred
feet
to the Island, a
long,
Previous to
the building of the bridge the channel
ed
channel
in boats.
Getting back to
these ditches were dug by hand
feet
wide
then eight
feet
wide
miles
The two ditches
first
ford-
that
1
the subject,
with
shovel and were twelve
three
was
water and footmen crossed the
during low
for
pick
and
the
first
to the source.
have mentioned were the
Stale ditches dug in the
Kankakee Valley
At the lower
They were practically a failure.
end where they emptied their waters into the
Kankakee they filled up on account of bach
water
was
when
of little
the
use
at
river
all.
was high and
the ditch
as they had to be cleaned
and recleaned every few years costing the landowners several thousand dollars at each operation
which means that these people have spent
184
PIONEER HUNTERS OF THE KANKAKE!'
nearly one hundred
own money
thousand dollars
without as yet
their
of
realizing the desired
/Aost of these settlers bought this poor,
wet land with limited capital and are improving
it under hard conditions.
Legally and by all
benefit.
owes
rights the State
to the
land-owners
Kankakee River Region every
been spent
have said
I
beginning.
dollar
of
in the reclaiming of these lands.
all
improvements have
great
So
in
the
summer
ton big ditch in
Lake County and
it
on both sides
running parallel with the stream
of
One
was
Single-
was the
dredge ditch dug for the reclaiming of the
Since that there have been
region.
ditches constructed
As
their
of eighty-six
the date of the digging of the Cass and
the
has
that
first
swamp
many
the river
of
great
importance was the drainage of English Lahe
some years ago, Three years ago was commenced the reclaiming ditch, the new Kankakee
River, by straightening the old river
so crooked
itself.
in its
course that
In a distance of forty
185
it
which was
almost crossed
miles, straight line,
»
J J 3
O
DRAINING THK SWAMPS
it
ran near one hundred
mining big trees along
ble
in
down
in
fill
up
another,
in
In
slow, sluggish stream,
tliat
out
v\âsh
high
miles on each side of the
speculators
could
years ago.
Cass
&
The
holes
making
it
some
of these
return
to
large
land
Gifford,
Singleton.
a
would
it
for
Since the con-
river,
this
what they were looking
find
great
water
struction of the big ditch the water
if
would tum-
swamps and marshes
spread out over the
to this channel,
under-
miles,
fifty
banks
and
the river
one place and
and
its
is all
confined
swamp
land
region
they
fourty or
fifty
owners such
as
for
of
Kankakee
City,
and Nelson Morris, the Chicago meat
packer, and many others who owned large
tracts of swamp lands were strong in favor of
Illinois,
draining whilst
tiic
movement,
pers
many
others
were opposed
to
especially the huuters and trap-
who said that would ruin their business,
Kankakee Swamps were more valuable
it
that the
for their furs
than they were
tural purposes.
The money
186
for
that
their
agricul-
was brought
PlONtLR HUiNTERSOF IHE KANKAK,«L
into this country for tlie sale of furs
between
dallars
sixty-five
amounts
and seventy-five thousand
every year, that the revenue
alone from
18
50
to
to
1900 amounts
furs
for
over
to
three
million dollars.
Furs vary greatly in
from
one
to
the
next.
Sut only durprice
year
ing the
fifty
years was there one good prime
hide brought
in selling for
those days a
thirty-three cents.
musk-rat hide would
three to ten cents a hide.
brin^^
rat
In
from
Father predicted that
day would come when a good prime rat
skin would sell for a dollar.
Fifty-two years
the
later in 1920 his prediction came true, when he
saw good prime rat skins sell for four dollars
and ten cents apiece. In those days it took n
rat skin to
French
buy a
fur trader
Detroit, /Aichigan,
common
by the
used
sewing needle. A
of Cuttauh from
name
to
buy
furs
gion and he told the trappers'
had
better
buy
in a
the needle-maker
not get any
good supply
was dead and
more needles very
•
187
in
this
re-
wives that they
of needles,
that they
soon.
as
would
Upon
the
fi^ssicr=asfr-|sâ-
'
'^
"'
—*
c
't
X
•->-
>.
c
K
.A
'^'
<*•
O
o
E
\^
a>
a;
cz
C
re
4- -:^^
.•^n
^^
-^
DRAINING THE SWAMPS
strength of this statement he
of
wives
needles to the squaws and the
vyhitc
in
hunters,
needle
for
a
rat
thousands
traded
the
of
exchange he gave them a
This vast region that
skin.
was considered worthless has made many a
man a small fortune. The best figures obtained
for (he am )U':( of furs caught and sold by the
hunters and. trappers of the
Kankakee Swamps
1900 was apseven hundred and
betv/êen the years of '18 50 and
three
proxlmatciy
iiily
thousand
million,
Whenever
thoLisand per year.
up before the
legislature for
the drainage of th2
yet
swamp
seventy-five
there
was
a
bill
an appropriation
for
lands there was
al-
to
Finally ihe fatal day
chine
of
oppose it and cause its defeat
the water soaked lands weie doomed.
ways enough
rip,c\
an average
dollars,
was
set
above
f3a urn's
ditch
of
to
came.
A
big dredging
ma-
v/ork In the river a few miles
Bridge
and excavated a great
one hundred and
fifty
feet
in
width
through the dense forest. Hence the new Kankakee fîver. The game had become almost
188
PlONhER HUN'l ERS OF THE KANKAKEE
extinct long before the water ever flowed
new
The
river.
swamp,
to
my
Salsberry, a
last
deer that was killed
knowledge, was
Panhandle
killed
by
in the
in
E,
railroad engineer of
the
D.
Lo-
Indiana, in his Fall hunt of 1880.
and
his party were in camp on CorSalsberry
nell Island and one morning he and ike Shaw,
gansport,
another Panhandle engineer, were going to the
for a day's shooting and in going
South /Aarsh
through the
trail
bird
swamp
timber a deer ran, across the
and Salsberry shot and killed it. usin? small
shot.
And two months later Father killed
one on the North /Aarsh.
These were the
deer ever seen alive or dead
swamp
country
ment
and a
in
region.
is
of a
The
story
in this part
of
a story of evolution
country
richly
the
some
the
develop-
endowed by
story of neglected opportunity,
but from
last
Kankakee
the
in
of
nature,
neglected
instances not from lack of appreciation
man's natural
along the lines
done so much
inclination
of least resistance.
for this
favored country
189
to
follow
Nature has
that
the
Camp
of Logansport, Ind., Hunters on Cornell's Island
on the Kankakee
Left
J. B.
Camp — H.
Messinger.
J,
in
1880
McSheehy, John Condon, Sam Doll,
Right
Camp — Ed
Salsbury, Ike
Shaw
DRAINING THE SWAMPS
existence which called
struggle for
best energies, eliminated.
to
It
was easy
understand the slow development
gion
and
to
We
later years,
cal location,
its
must understand
a
century
this
plored
the
live,
re-
progress of
its
geographi-
topographical formation and the
conditions controlling
nearly
to
of this
the rapid
appreciate
man's
forth
its
ago,
Way
destiny.
when
/Aajor
back,
Long ex-
Kanhahee region, in his report he
name "Kankakee Swamps." The
gave
term caught the fancy of the public and has
been set in type for it ever since and it is imposit
sible to estimate
has been
try,
in
how
potent a factor the phrase
retarding the growth of
Here, as well as in most
the hunter followed close on
the pathfinders
er's
Paradise,
all
this
new
the
coun-
territories,
foot-steps
of
and here, indeed, was the HuntImagine, if you can, an area of
several hundred thousand acres of
marsh land and abounding with
all kinds and the river alive with
varieties found in the States.
190
swamp and
game of
wild
fish of
the best
While the deer.
PIONEER HUN'lERS OK IHt KANKAKKL
wild-hog, turkeys, geese and ducks made the
hunters meat; the
animals.
and
otter,
mink, musk-rat. raccoon,
lynx and wild-cat were the fur-bearing
wolf, fox.
surely
It
was the home
hunter
of the
This was the condition of the
trapper.
re-
gion when the fêdman left it and the white
hunter built his cabin on the wooded islands
and the shores
the readers
of the
Yet
Kankakee.
hearts of the
hunters ask
bountifully
for
bestow
the hoe
it
to
him
swamps
But by and by the
came and
seemed
he
That
gifts?
should look with disapproval on the
no small wonder.
nature
more; could
her
of
their
Could the
families lived in so secluded a spot.
more
many
wonder why white men with
man
is
with
looked upon the country and
that
this
too good to be given over
swamp
to the
was
region
musk-rat and
the raccoon and to the exclusive use of the few
men who
did not
own them and
brought about the reclaiming
der the
Swamp
new
conditions, with the
(Qifford) fâilroad. the
191
this
is
what
Un-
movement.
advent
of
the
Kankakee swamp
DRAINING THE SWAMPS
country passed into
and
nncnt
m many
its
second stage
of
develop-
places the "hoodooed" craw
flats of the Kankakee region is now the
Kankakee Valley corn fields. The reclaiming
of the Kankakee swamps cast a shadow of
fish
gloom and sadness to the few remaining oldtime hunters who have spent their early years
hunting and
They
trapping on
feel pretty
much
Kankakee
the
as did the
Indians
river.
when
they had to give up their ideal hunting grounds
to
the
The pioneer hunter saw the
whites.
French fur-trader and the Indian
saw
their
go,
then they
game go and now what is
number have seen the vanishing
the wild
Kankakee swamps.
poet "There
In
the
of
the
language
of
the
land
of
our
a magical tie to the
is
of
left
home, which the heart cannot break though the
footsteps
may
roam."
Yes, indeed, the ties that
bind us to the land of our birth are
cal.
old
1
often find this so
home.
scenes that
I
1
am
when
naturally
loved so well
192
I
am
truly
attracted
when
a
magi-
visiting
boy.
to
my
the
5o
it
PIONEER HUNfERSOK
was
KANKAKKh
I'HK
once inhabited
with the Indians that
The reader remembers
region.
was made
in
a previous chapter of
this
mention
that
my
visit
to
the Indian Reservation.
the
Fottowattomies
One
old warrior, Chief Nae-nee-be-zho, narrates
in
Me spoke
the sadness and sorrow of his people.
of the whites, of the
white man's hunting ground
He
and
their destiny.
ish
and be no more.
how they would vanHe said in part, "Oh,
told
Great Aaster. the pale-face
man
comes and
driven from the face of
is
land that
was ours
is
the
the fêd-
earth.
The
gone from us and the
rocks are our bed and the leaves are our cover.
We
sigh in vain for yesterday,
no comfort
for
tomorrow,
we have no
all
gone and the fêdman's days are but
return to the land of
placid river.
Oh
my
that
Father,
1
hope,
our greatness
1
few,
is
1
gaze on the
might die and sleep
breathed the
here where the great Waubonsie
air,
beneath the same trees which have shelter-
ed him.
Oh
where
the war chief
is
where are the
friends of
Waubonsie,
1V3
my
Father.
/Aeltontonis
I)
RA
i
MN
'
r
rr
7
s vv a
!
I
m
i
's
and many others? Oh, could stand where my
But no vestige of the powtribes once roamed.
The lakes and
erful Pottowattomies remain.
I
marshes and the Kankakee
canoe was want
of the
my
Redman's
canoe
to the
River,
my
which
knows not
to glide;
the
dip
Where once moored
Lake ./Michigan now
paddle.
I
shore of
the great steamers are at anchor and the dip of
the
Redman's paddle
more does
the
No
heard no more.
is
arrow
flint-tipped
fall
the deer
and the woodlands resound no more with
bounding step upon
now comes
majesty
the
of
marsh
the pioneer's
nature
of the
is
cow
man and on
white
Oh
white
man
seek
its
for the
trail
in
is
I
forgive the cruel pale-face
peace
of the great
whose home was along
I
his
gaze on the camp
and hear him call it Chicago.
Nau-nee-bo-zho,
for disturbing the
The
in its stead.
and humbled
dwarfed
naught but nature's ruins.
of the
his
But
the brink of the river.
wigwam
of
Shaubanee,
the
Kankakee
my
people and
fêgion.
find in
place the houses and barns of the white
194
man.
PIONEER HUNTERS OF
Again,
if
1
HE KANKAKEE
they would turn to the spot where the
and where the
was
smoked
the
peace
by
great warriors
would
find
towns
and
The
cities,
they
villages.
great Chiefs held their councils
pipe of
on the spot where once
the
deer-skins were spread and the great oak
tree
brick walls rise
had been taken away. The memories of the
Redman have been buried beneath the white
man's axe, trowel and plow.
could not understand
why
Nau-nee-bee-zho
were banished
they
from the land that the great master gave them
unless it was for the treachery of Nau-non-gee,
Red
or the murderer of
Bird,
on the
(Eaton's Ferry) to
ries of the
Lake
/Michigan.
Kankakee, which was the
ground
about me
of
ing
is
scene which
1
my
are
sire,
and
desolation
sought to return
that
trail
Kankakee
run from Pottowattomie Ford on the
Oh memoideal
hunt-
so shattered,
I
turn
all
from the
to the land of the
The pale-face has no love fer our
memories and our traditions he regardeth not.
setting sun.
Sad
is
the
heart of
the
Redman.
195
Years and
DRAININCJ
years ago
tiful
when
squaw
to
French
the white man, and
the
young
now
the
THE SWAMPS
moved his beaunow the home of
same swamp where
Indian
this old
Island,
in
the
his
papoose paddled
Kankakee
dance made the
air ring
is
canoe
log
Where
corn-fields.
now heard
is
the war
the brass
band playing "Just As The Sun Went Down."
And
the tolling of the bells in the towers
the departure of the
the Great /Aaster.
Redman who
In
the
quiet
tells of
worshipped
groves where
the sky and the trees were not
shut out to the
fêdman, nature
art.
sit
in
his
is
the highest
He would
canoe with Okemoes and
his
little
papoose floating between the banks over the
He saw in the Great
silvery waves of the river.
/Aaster everything.
gines;
no fences
There was no black smoke
locomotive and traction en-
from the railroad
to
mar
the beautiful land which
the Great Father had given to them.
about
to
leave
their
lodge
As
I
was
and bidding them
good-bye. one of the old warriors rose to his
feet, threw a blanket around him and passed to
196
and
PlONtER HUiN'lERS OF THE KANKAKEE
fro, saying in a low, sad tone: "Oh gone are
the days of
ple
my
youth and memories
and the beauties
forever buried.
gotten,
When
hood where
1
of
ouf beautiful
my
peo-
land
are
/Ay Father and myself are for-
and the Land
no more."
of
know us
of Liberty shall
my boyplayed with the pebbles and sand,
1
visit
the scenes of
where years before played the little papoose
with his canoe and paddle, and when
recall
I
some
of
my
fishing, the
early
adventures
of
hunting and
most pleasant recollections
was my boyhood days
the Kankahee.
in
End.
my
island
of
all
home on
14 DAY USE
RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED
LOAN
DEPT.
due on the last date stamped below, or
on the date to -which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.
This book
is
923223
/:5'j2.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY

Pioneer Hunters of the Kankakee by J Lorenzo Werich

Transcription

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