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THE mortgage which had hung
so long over us, like a dark cloud obscuring our temporal horizon and
chilling our hopes, was at last removed, May first, 1841. After the
mortgage was on the place it hardly seemed to me as if it were ours. It
was becoming more and more valuable all the time, and I thought it was
dangerous to let the mortgage run, as the old lady might foreclose at
any time and make us trouble and expense. The mortgage was like a cancer
eating up our substance, gnawing day and night as it had for years. I
made Lip my mind it must be paid. I knew it caused mother much trouble
and, although father said very little about it, I knew that he would be
over-joyed to have it settled up. I told him I thought I had better hunt
during one fall and winter and that I thought I could, in that way, help
him raise money to pay the mortgage. I was about twenty years old at
that time and thought I had a very good rifle and knew how to use it.
I went to my friend
William Beal, and told him I had concluded to hunt through the winter. I
asked him if he didn't want to join with me and we would hunt together,
at least some of the time. He said he would. I told him I thought we
could make more money by hunting than we could in any other way as deer
were worth, on an average, from two and a half to five dollars apiece at
Detroit, and we could take them in very handily on the cars.
We found the deer very
numerous in the town of Taylor, next south of the town of Dearborn.
Sometimes we went and staved a week. We stopped nights with an old
gentleman whose name was Hodge. He always appeared very glad to see us
and gave us a hearty welcome. As he and his old lady (at that time)
lived alone, no doubt they were glad of our company. They must have felt
lonesome and they knew they would be well rewarded with venison and
money for the trouble we made them. Mrs. Hodge took as much pains for us
and used us as well as mother could have done. We carried our provisions
there on our backs, flour, potatoes, pork and whatever we needed. We
carried pork for the reason we relished it better a part of the time
than we did venison. Mrs. Hodge prepared our meals at any time we wanted
them. Sometimes we ate our breakfast before daylight and were a mile or
two on the runway of the deer when it became light. The woods and oak
openings abounded in deer and we had very good luck as a general thing.
We made it a rule to stay and not go home until we had killed a load,
which was not less than six. Then we went and got father's oxen and sled
to go after and bring them home. After we brought them home we took the
hind quarters, the hide, and sometimes the whole deer, to Detroit and
sold them. In this way we got considerable money. In fact my pocketbook
began to pod out a little. Of course, we saved enough, of the
fore-quarters for our family use and for our old friends, Mr. and Mrs.
Hodge. But we couldn't afford to let them have the saddles; we wanted
them to sell as we were going in for making money.
It would be impossible
for me to delineate the occurrences incident to my hunting days. The
story told in full would fill a volume, but if it were not in connection
with my father's family and how we got along, when I was at home with
him, I should not mention it at all. As it is, I will try to describe
one day's hunt after deer, which might be called a successful day, and
another hunt after bears, which was not successful and one or two deer
fights. My comrade and I started from father's very early one morning. A
nice tracking snow, three or four inches deep, had fallen during the
fore part of the night. In the morning it was warm and pleasant. When we
came near the head of the windfall, we found the tracks where three
large bucks had been along. It is not common that those large deer go
together. They are generally scattering, one or two, or with other deer,
but in this case, it seemed, three old bucks had agreed to go together.
We followed them about half a mile to the west until they crossed what
is now the old telegraph road in the town of Taylor, south of where Mr.
Putnam lives. We thought the deer went into a large thicket, that stands
there vet. We made up our minds they were lying in that thicket. William
said he would go around and stand on the ridge, beyond the thicket, in a
good place to see them when they were driven our. I told him I wanted
him to be sure and down one, so that I could see how they looked. I
stood where he left me about half an hour, to give him plenty of time to
get around, then I started along slowly, on the tracks.
I followed them about ten
or fifteen rods when I found, that instead of going into the thicket
where we supposed, they had turned into a little thicket, near a fence
and clearing that had been made at an early day. I little thought they
were lying there, but sure enough, in a minute, they jumped up and away
they went, one after the other, toward the big thicket. They seemed
desirous of making all the sport of me they could; as they were running
across a little opening they showed me their white flags. I shot very
quickly at the middle one. I told him by the report of my rifle, which
rang out clear on the morning air, that I wanted him to stop, and he
struck his flag.
They were running from me
a little diagonally, and were about twenty-five rods off, when my bullet
struck his side, it being partly toward me. They ran right into the big
thicket where we first supposed they lay. I loaded my rifle and went
where they were running when I shot. I saw that the blood flew in small
particles on the snow and I was sure he was ours. He ran for one breath,
got out of my sight and fell dead, having made his last tracks, being
shot through the lights.
I hurried across to my
friend Beal and told him I had shot a noble buck. That he was running
away from me and that I would not allow him to do so. The other two had
gone out of the thicket, over the ridge, so far east that he didn't see
them at all. We hurried back to where the one we had got lay, took out
his entrails, climbed up a sapling, bent down the top and fastened the
gambrels of the old buck to it; then sprinkled powder on his hair, so as
to keep the ravens from picking him, let go the sapling and it
straightened up with him so that he was out of the way of the dogs and
wolves. Then we started as quickly as possible after the other two. They
went a south-west direction about eighty rods, then turned south-east
and went straight for the Indian hill, went over it and took their
course nearly east. They had ceased to run and were walking. There was
another large thicket east of us, which was about half a mile through
and we thought, possibly, they might stop in that before they went
through into the woods. It was agreed that I should go around, that
time, to the lower end of the thicket, and stand. He was to try and
drive them through if they were there. I went south to what we called
the south branch of the Reed creek. It was frozen over and there were
three or four inches of snow on the ice; I vent on it without making any
noise. I ran down a little over half a mile very quickly; when I was
below the thicket I turned north, went through the brush that grew on
the bank of the creek, up to a little ridge where it was open and
stopped by the side of a tree, which was about twenty or thirty rods
from where I turned north.
I didn't stand there but
a very short time before I heard and saw some partridges fly away, and I
knew they had been disturbed by something in the thicket. Then I saw the
two deer coming just as straight toward me as they could run, one right
after the other. When they got within about eight or ten rods of me I
had my rifle ready. They saw me and, as they went to jump sidewise, my
rifle spoke to another one and the voice of it forbade him going any
farther. That was the second word my rifle had spoken that morning.
The deer turned and ran
in a semi-circle half round me in plain sight, then off, out of sight,
over the ridge where Doctor Snow's farmhouse now stands, in the town of
Taylor. In a few moments out came my comrade; I asked him, what the
report of my rifle said, as it burst through the thicket by him and
echoed over the Indian hill. He said he thought it spoke of luck. We
followed the old buck a little ways over the ridge and came to where he
had made his last jump. He was a beautiful fellow, equally as fine as
the first one.
Then we thought we had
done well enough for one day, we had each of us one. So we cut a wooden
hook, put it into his under- jaw, both took hold and drew him up where
the other one hung. We put them together and started slowly for home. We
were following along an old trail and had drawn both deer about half a
mile together, when we came to where five or six deer had just crossed.
They were going south-east and we were going north-east. While we were
looking at the tracks two men came in sight. One was Mr. Arvin Sheldon,
the other Mr. Holden. We knew them very, well and knew that they were
good hunters. They looked at our deer and said that we must hang them
up, said they would help us. So we bent down two saplings and hung the
deer Lip, side by side, then we started with them. It was early in the
day, perhaps about ten o'clock. We followed the deer beyond what is now
Taylor Center, and into the west woods two miles from there. Near Taylor
Center, Holden left us. He thought there were too many of us together,
and went off to try his luck alone and followed another flock. We found
that these deer were very shy and it seemed impossible for us to get a
shot at them.
After we got into the
west woods we were bound to stick to the same ones. It was late in the
afternoon and as we were getting so far from home, we thought we had
better use a little stratagem. We would go very slowly; it was agreed
that I should follow the tracks and that the other two should be
governed by my movements. One was to go to my right, and keep as far off
as he could and see me, through the woods; he was to keep a little ahead
of me. The other was to manage in the same way at my left. When we
started we were something in the shape of a letter V, only spread more.
If I went fast they were to go fast and if I went slowly they were to do
the same. They were to watch me and look out ahead for the deer. We
traveled some little distance in this way when I saw a deer standing
about thirty-five rods off. It was a long shot, but I drew up my rifle
and fired. Mr. Sheldon had two dogs with him and when I shot they broke
from him and ran after the deer we had been following. They went yelling
after them, out of hearing. It was always my practice, after I shot, to
stand in my tracks and load my rifle, keeping my eye on the place where
the deer were. When I shot, my comrades started for me and soon we three
friends were together. Sheldon remarked, that he guessed I hadn't hit
that one. I asked him why. He said the dogs had already gone out of
hearing and that if I had killed one, they would have stopped. I left
the tracks and walked along in the direction of where the deer had
stood, watching upon the snow and brush to see if I could see any signs
where the bullet had struck a bush or twig, until I came to the place
where the (leer had stood. It proved to be, not one of those we had been
following, but an old buck that had just got up out of the bed where he
had been lying and was standing over it when I fired. I looked and saw
some short hair lying on the snow, and told Mr. Sheldon that that looked
as if I had made a square shot and that the dogs had gone after the well
ones we had been following, that this one was an old buck which we
hadn't disturbed before. I thought perhaps he had got up to see the
flock that we were following go by. We didn't follow him more than ten
rods before we found where he lay last. He was a very large buck, a full
mate for either of those we already had.
A little ways back we had
crossed a coon's track and we knew that he had been along in the latter
part of the night, as it snowed in the earlier part of the night. We
thought he hadn't gone far, so we agreed that Sheldon should follow his
tracks and find his tree (at that time coon skins were valuable), while
we went back about a mile, to a lone settler's, by the name of Plaster,
(who lived on the openings) and borrowed an ax. When we came back to the
woods we were to halloo and he was to answer us. We had to do what we
did very quickly as it was getting near night. When we had borrowed the
ax and were nearly back to the woods again, we heard the report of
Sheldon's rifle, as it rang out of the timber clear and sharp and died
away in the oak openings. When we got into the woods we hallooed for
him, he answered and we went to him; he had found the tree. We asked him
what he had shot at, he said at a deer, but missed him. We cut down the
tree and were rewarded by getting four coons. Afterward I sold the coon
skins in Detroit for a dollar apiece. That Mr. Arvin Sheldon is now an
old resident of the town of Taylor and lives about two miles south-west
of me.
After we got the tree cut
down and the coons secure, it was between sundown and dark. We were six
or seven miles from home and then had to take the ax home. Late that
evening, when I got back under the old paternal roof, there was one
there who was very tired but the excitement of the day helped him a
little. By hunting (and it was hard work for me as I made a business of
it) I accumulated a considerable sum of money. Father had earned and
saved some money, so that with what I had, he made out enough to pay off
the mortgage to Mrs. Phlihaven and had it cancelled. Then his farm was
clear. If I had not felt anxious about it myself, the joy expressed by
the other members of the family, when they knew that the mortgage was
paid, would have been a sufficient reward for all the labors I had
performed, for all the weary walks, the running and racing done, while
upon the chase, both day and night.
It is a little singular
that an animal as mild and harmless as the deer ordinarily is, should
when cornered or wounded have such courage that he will fight man or dog
in his own defense, jumping upon them, striking with his feet. As their
hoofs are sharp they cut to the quick, at the same time they are hooking
with their horns. I will relate one or two incidents, one of which came
under my own observation:
I was out hunting with R.
Crandell. We were near the Reed creek when he shot a buck. The deer
fell. Crandell thought he was sure of him; handed his rifle to me. I
told him to stand still and load his gun, but he ran like an Indian; he
took long steps. When he got up near, the old buck had gotten a little
over the shock the bullet gave him and he got up, turned upon Crandell,
raised the hair upon his back so that it stood forward. Then the scene
changed; Crandell ran, and the deer ran after him. He came very near
catching Crandell and must have done so if he had not dodged behind a
tree, and around it he vent and the deer after him. Crandell said he
called upon his legs to be true to his body then if ever; and I thought,
judging from the way those members of his organism were carrying him
around that tree, that they were exerting every nerve to save him. He
hallooed every minute for me to shoot the deer. But the race was so
amusing, I did not care to hurry having never seen such an exhibition of
Crandell's speed before. (Without doubt he did his level best.) Soon,
however, I thought it necessary and I shot the deer. Crandell said I had
laughed enough to kill myself. He appeared to be displeased with me;
said I was too slow, and might have released him quicker.
Some two or three years
after this, Crandell had another hunt with a Mr. Holden, of
Dearbornville, the incidents of which are given in his own words: "Being
anxious for a hunt, Holden and myself started out for a deer hunt on our
southern hunting ground. After traveling about three-fourths of a mile
from 1)earbornville, Holden, being a little way from me, started a buck,
he running directly south; I told Holden where to go on a certain road,
newly cut out, and stand and I would drive the deer to him from the
east. As expected, I soon started him and Holden's dog followed the deer
straight to him. In about three minutes shang went Holden's gun; I ran
with all my might. The dog had stopped barking and I knew the deer was
ours. But, when I got to the road, I heard Holden hallooing loudly for
help. The deer had jumped across the road into the old tree tops and the
dog caught him. Holden saw that the deer was getting the better of the
dog, laid down his gun, took out his knife and went for the deer. When
he got up to the deer the deer paid all his attention to him instead of
the dog. The deer had gotten Holden down between two logs and stood on
him, stamping and hooking him desperately. Holden said: 'For God sake
kill him or he will kill me.'
"I was so much excited I
was afraid to shoot for fear of killing Holden or the dog, but I shot
and the deer fell lengthwise on Holden. I rolled him off and Holden got
up, all covered with blood from head to foot, with his clothes torn into
shreds. He looked at himself and said despondingly, 'What a spectacle I
am!' I peeled some bark, tied his rags round him, patched him up the
best possible and we started for home through the woods, got as near his
home as we could and not be seen, then I left him, went to his house and
got him some clothes, took them back to him and helped him put them on.
When clothed he went home a bruised and lacerated man." |
