Saline County, Missouri - Chapter 4: Wild Animals and Fish, 1910

When tilis count}- was first occupied l)y white people, lx)th the woods and prairies ahounded in game and the lakes and streams were full of fish. Even in the little prairie holes and small hranches, fish were often- found large enough to eat. There were the perch, the croppy and the bass, the blue, the yellow and the channel catfish, together with the buffalo and the drum, the latter two a very poor quality of fish, almost worthless. The catfish, though, is a very superior fish. Most fishermen of taste believe the Blackwater cat to be a little better than any other fish, better even than the best quality of trout found in the Great Lakes. The fish here, that is, those of the lakes and streams in this county, are supposed to be better in quality than the fish found elsewhere in this state of the same kind, ascribed to the saline character of the water in the county. It seems from the accounts of the early settlers that there were no partridges or pheasants found here. These birds came in after the country was occupied by the settlers. The wild turkeys were very abundant, attaining a formidable size when the settlements furnished them corn fields to range in. Occasionally large gobbler turkeys were killed weighing twenty pounds dressed. Accounts of first settlers say immense flocks of these fowls have been seen, several hundred in a single fiock.

It is said that the elk disappeared from this county in 1836. Prior to that time they were reasonably numerous, being- attracted to this count}' from other localities on account of the numerous salt "licks." Old Nathaniel Walker was a famous hunter and old pioneer, who was wont to relate that at one time he encountered a drove of fiftv elk feeding on the prairie where the present court house stands. The l)ear disappeared from the county about the same time, probably four years later, in 1840. :\n old time Democrat said that the Whigs scared the bear, deer, elk and almost all other sort of game out of the county in that year by the tremendous noise they made in honor of the election of General Harrison, it being the first time the Whigs ever succeeded in electing their candidate President of the United States. Bear had been plenty enough in the early days and caused the settlers great annoyance and trouble from his decided fondness for \oung pigs and the like. Bear hunts were organized and many of these animals were killed in the county first and last. The timbered regions of Blackwater and Salt Pond Avere their favorite haunts, although they were seen in every part of the countv. The last bear that was killed in the county that history gives any account of was taken in the following very singular manner in the year 1840 : Tobias Cooper, a descendant of Col. Benjamin Cooper, of Cooper's Fort. Avith some companions were out hunting cattle on the prairies in the western part of the county. Suddenly they came upon a full grown black bear on the plains near the present site of Malta Bend. Being unarmed, with nothing to kill the bear but their cattle whips, with these they undertook to drive him to a house, and actually did so by fiercely cracking their whips and yelling at the animal, and keeping him on the go. Reaching the house, a gun was procured, with which the bear was killed. The incident is known as Cooper's bear drive. In 1840 a party of hunters started a bear in the bmsh southeast of the house of C. L. Francisco in Elmwood township, and ran it through the south grove, but the animal escaped. That famous hunter, Nathaniel \\'alker, killed a black bear in 1838. near Air. Francisco's in Elmwood township.

The fierce panther also made his home in this county, remaining here as late as 1838. Many a Saline county pioneer, as he sat by his fireside in the early days, felt his blood run cold and his heart stand still as the piercing scream of the panther was borne on the wings of the night wind through the forest to his lonely cabin. The cry of the panther is something like that of a woman in distress, but much more terrifying. It can be distinctly heard a mile or more. "Nothing," said an old settler, "ever pestered me like the scream of a panther. It always made the cold chills iiui over me. I never could get used to it as much as I heard it. It always made me think of Indians." These animals, however, would seldom, if ever, attack a human being unless first Avounded or suffering from distressing hunger. Usually the panther made his rounds in quest of food at night, when he frequently visited the settlements, carrying off a calf or a hog. A full grown panther was once seen by an early settler down on Blackwater trotting along with a one-hundred-and-fifty-pound hog as nimbly as a cat would run away with a rat.

In the Edmondson Bottom at an early day, it was related by Messrs. Wolfskin. AA'ilhite and others to Jerrold Letcher, a panther was once discovered which had killed and carried away nine large hogs and concealed them in a cavity of earth made by the uprooting of a large tree in a windstorm. The animal had dispatched its victims all within so short a time that the carcass of every hog was yet warm when found, and it had attempted to conceal them by covering them up with leaves. The settlers organized and went in juirsuit of the beast, but it escaped, crossing the river into Chariton county.

From all accounts, there were at least three varieties of wolves in the county, the black, the gray and the coyotte. or prairie wolf. The first two varieties were entirely too numerous and of all sizes and every degree of ferocity. Notwithstanding the relentless warfare constantly waged against them by the people, the wolves infested the county until i860, and indeed it is said that there are a few in existence at this late date, 1909. and that the county has ne\'er l)een entirel}- free from wolves. The author of this work, however, is a native of the county and although having lived here the greater part of seventy years, never saw a wolf in his life within the bounds of the county, although he has seen e\-ery variety of wolves to be found on the plains of the great West. Wolves are very prolific, naturally increasing rapidly. One litter was found in this county containing twelve whelps. Speaking of the habits of these animals, Mr. Wolf skill, an old pioneer, said : "The old she-wolf howls loud and long just at day break, and again at dusk Ijetween sunset and dark."

In the early days, hunting wolves was something of a duty to be performed as well as a j^astime. for they made destructive inroads upon the settlers' fiocks and herds. Aljout the year 1837. a large black wolf became quite famous and notorious in Saline county and in many other adjoining counties of central Missouri by reason of the numlier and character of its exploits. This animal had lost part of its tail in a trap, and from this circumstance was known far and wide as the "Old Bol)-tail W^olf." Its favorite haunts were on Blackwater. although it roamed where it listed. Its boldness and daring were remarkable. Stories ha\e been related of its marauding almost incredible. It fre(|uently visited farm yards in daylight, selecting a fine mutton or a pig and making off with it in ])lain \-iew of its owner, and would whip as many dogs as would he brought to attack it. h^inallv the citizens decided to make united effort to rid the country of this great lupine marauder. The ]mcks of hunting dogs of .\sa Finley. old "Uncle Dick" Alarshall and Urutus I''ink'\- were secured and the timber along Blackwater driven up until old "Bob-tail" was started near Isaac's lM)r(l. The trail once struck, the chase was kept up for two days and nights (many of the pursuers in the meantime l)eing worn out, abandoning the hunt) until the Missouri was reached at iJoonville. Here old "I'ob-tail" bravely plunged into the ri\er, swimmin<>- until he reached the Howard counl\ shore in safetv.

the hunters in SaHne county giving up the chase to return home. The wolf soon after took up his abode and phed his vocation on the Grand Prairie in Boone county. Here he stayed for about two years more, preying on the folks and defying all attempts to capture. A reward of one hundred dollars was raised and offered for the capture of old "Bob-tail." A noted hunter named Hendershott pursued old "Bob-tail" all one day with his pack of trained dogs. At night Hendershott went h(ime, leaving his dogs to care for the wolf as best they might, not doubting, however, that he would find them all safe and sound in the morning. But, alas ! the next morning, on going out in search of his dogs, Hendershott met one of them, maimed and bleeding, dragging itself homeward, and a little further on, the rest of them, stretched out dead near a large gopher hill, on which, apparently, the wolf had stood and dealt out death and destruction to its assailants as they approached.

Old "Bob-tail" then made his way over into Audrain county, where he was at last poisoned by one Walker, who took the skin, scalp, bob-tail and all into Boone county in order to make certain of receiving the reward offered.

The favorite method of capturing the wolves was to organize a general hunt. A day would be appointed and the population for miles around would assemble, that is, the men, all mounted and armed, and accompanied by packs of dogs. A large circle would be formed, miles in extent, and the hunters with their dogs would gradually close in upon the center. In this manner the wolves would be started, and few of them could escape. Various other kinds of game were frecjuently taken in these "circle hunts," as they were termed.

During the Civil war, wolves became more numerous and man}- were killed,' but, as previously slated, save now and then an occasional coyote sneaks into the county, it may be said there are no wolves in Saline county in 1909.

Wildcats, catamounts and an occasional lynx were often seen, but were neither very destructive nor troublesome, their raids being restricted to the chicken coops.

Daniel Snodd}- and others caught a large l)lack wolf out in the Petite Osage prairie that was oxer three feet in height, being caught in a large steel trap. The wolf had killed a good sized two-year-old heifer. Although the men had cut his liam string, he whipped six large dogs and a fiste very easil}- wliile in this crippled condition, the hunters being forced to shoot him.

The red deer formerly abounded in the countv and from 1830 to 1850 could be seen on the i)rairies in great herds of from twentv to fort\-. They were attracted to this county b^- fine feeding grounds and numerous salt "licks" from the surrounding country, and remained (|uite numerous up to the beginning of the Civil war. As late as the year 1855 three citizens of the county, Messrs. Gaines, White and Herndon, killed in the aggregate two hundred and forty-six deer in one hunting season.

Of course, where these animals were so numerous, there were some exceptionally large ones, and many a story is told of the mammoth buck slain by the early hunters. The variety, character and lack of evidence of their verity precludes the publication of all these hunting stories in these pages. It is recorded in Wetmore's Gazeteer on this point that one of the hunters of Saline was in at the death of a buck which he killed on Blackwater weighing three hundred and two pounds, the largest, it is claimed, the account of which ever found a place in the annals of field sport. Several have been killed in Saline weighing as much as two hundred and forty pounds, and they were considered enormously large.

But it was in later years, after the people became in better condition to indulge in hunting as a sport and pastime, that the royal sport of deer driving was generally indulged in. From 1830 to 1845 one of the famous places for hunting was ''Experiment," General Smith's country house on the Salt Fork. It was a sort- of headquarters for hunters, and the place was always provivded with a good pack of hounds and a small armory of guns, tog'ether with plenty of horses and other hunting equipments. The General himself, besides his three sons, James, Crawford and Troup, were ardent sportsmen, particularly fond of deer driving and very successful hunters. There was ne\'er a countr}- where red deer was more bountiful or the topography of the country better adapted to the sport of deer driving, the prairie and timber being properly distributed for that class of hunting. There are men yet living who recollect the pleasure of deer driving at that period and are willing to admit that there has never been any finer sport.

Another prominent sportsman and accomplished deer driver (for I believe he never engaged in stalking deer) was Thomas W. Gaines, whose place, some six miles south of Marshall, was a well known hunting headquarters for sportsmen from this and adjoining counties. Mr. Gaines, being a young man of ample estate when he came here from Kentucky, could well afford to indulge himself in his sporting inclinations. He always kept a fine pack of well trained deer hounds and he always accompanied them and managed them in the driA-e himself, keeping them well under control, and when a deer was started, he was so expert in the sport and so familiar with the hunting grounds and so well understood the inclinations of the deer that he was generally able to get a shot before the animals had time to reach the standers. Mr. Gaines was the most successful deer hunter in this section of the county about the middle of the last century. There were no game laws at that time, but among all these sportsmen and deer drivers it was considered disgraceful to kill a deer out of the regular hunting season, which began about the first of ]n\x, ending in December. Besides our resident deer hunters, there were several parties of camp hunters from adjoining counties, Howard and Jackson, who were in the habit of coming here to camp and hunt evei7 fall. One or two of these parties always camped in the neighborhood of Mr. Gaines's and were always anxious for him to join them in the hunt, because they were sure to get venison when Gaines was one of the party. The author of this book has frequentl}-, when he was a lad, been a member of Mr. Gaines's hunting party collected and starting out from his residence. Among others of whom the hunting party consisted was the Hon. John G. Miller, congressman from Cooper county, and himself quite a gifted sportsman; Robert Stuart, his former law partner; Richard Miller and others, whose names cannot now be recalled.

But the writer very well recollects one hunting party collected at Mr. Gaines's house, it having been arranged to drive up Finis creek as far as we could go during the morning, returning in the afternoon. Altogether, the party was made up of ten or a dozen men on horseback, and on returning we were carrying the carcasses of five fine deer, it being during the month of October or Xovember, the drive having extended as far southwest as the head of Walker's branch and back. There was nothing superior to a saddle of corn-fed venison, and at that period it was no trouble for the deer to get as much corn as they could eat, and such venison would gratify the pallet of the most cultivated epicure. No better meat was ever set on a table.

There was another and entirely different class of game to be found here in Saline about the middle of the last century. The timber in the country, having increased to perhaps double the area that existed in 1820, therefore furnished fine cover for wild hogs, and hunting wild hogs, for many years, was a favorite sport in the most densely timbered portions of the country, and one in which a much more ample supply of meat was usually obtained than in deer hunting.

In the earlier settlement of Saline, before bacon and beef were numbered among the products of the county, the settlers used venison almost exclusively for their meat. The skins of the deer, when properly dressed and made into buckskin, furnished excellent material for their hunting shirts and trousers, hence deer hunting was a useful business as well as sport.

at all rare and unusual. Space forbids a full description of affairs of this kind, but Mr. Mooney once captured a buck in a most singular way not more than three or four miles southeast of Marshall. Mr. Mooney was engaged as a hired man working on the farm of Mr.Lawton. Late in the evening he was directed to go to the field with a team after a load of shock corn, the corn being- cut and put in shocks. As he was driving up to the gap to enter the field, he noticed sexeral deer feeding there, one of which, a buck, had his head thrust into a corn shock rubbing his horns and tossing the corn about. Instantly Mooney, handing the reins to the boy who was on the wagon with him, jumped down and. slipping up to this buck unobserved, jumped on him astride, locking his hands around his neck. The Imck commenced pitching about with him. endeavoring to throw him off. but Moone}" being' very stout and athletic and hea\y, he was unable to do so. after ha\ing kept up bucking until he was completely worn out. At that time Alooney. recollecting that he had a pocket knife, moving his right hand from around the deer's neck, succeeded in getting his knife out, opening it with his teeth and proceeded to cut the deer's throat, killing him in that way. The author obtained this story from Mr. Mooney some years before his death, and there is no doubt of its truth, a very rare instance -of a man capturing a deer without the use of a gim.

Beaver and otter were also plentiful at one time, but that day has passed. A famous trapper was one McReynolds. but trapping has been kept up throughout the history of the county and is at the present day, to a limited extent, being confined to raccoon, opossum, muskrats. and pole cats, the latter being the main fur producer of the country.