Louise Brewster Miller 1900-1992

Bright Hours

WOULD LIKE TO again dedicate this It was therefore one of life's precious neth Shewmaker., a Lvremier Webster page to a member of our fly-fishing and unpredictable serendipities when I scholar and history professor at Dart- Icommunity who recently passed married a fly fisherman and (at thirty- mouth College. Read this lively piece away, this time in a personal farewell to two) discovered a new dimension to this and see if you don't agree that Daniel my own angling role model. woman (aged eighty-five) as we stood Webster would have made a grand fish- My grandmother, Louise Brewster shoulder to shoulder in the soft dusk on ing buddy. Miller, died on June 30, 1992 at the age the Battenkill over the course of what I also introduce Gordon Wickstrom of ninety-two in Noroton Heights, Con- was to be the last few summers left to of Boulder, Colorado, who writes en- necticut. Widow of Sparse Grey Hackle us. She was adept, graceful, and above thusiastically about fishing's postwar era (Alfred Waterbury Miller, 1892-i983), all a determined handler of the gleam- and the multitalented Lou Feierabend Aamie, as we called her, learned to fly ing Garrison rod "Garry" had made for and his technically innovative five-strip fish early on in her marriage, figuring it her so many years ago. I was awed and rods. Finallv.i I welcome Maxine Ather- was the only way she was going to see humbled by her skill. ton of Dorset, Vermont, to the pages of anything of her fishing-nuts husband. I will miss bringing word pictures of this journal with her First Person article, He arranged for the best of instruction Tom's and my fishing to Aamie (when "Old Friends from the Golden Age,'' for this game Bostonian woman: Ed- she could no longer go to the water) and which gives us a lyrical look at some ward R. Hewitt, John Alden Knight, hearing her voice turn girlish with well-known figures of that time. Jack Atherton, and Ray Bergman. shared and remembered excitement. In a little aside about Max, nearly five Turns out she was just as passionate Fishing to long-ago wild trout on a decades ago my grandparents used to at heart about the sport as Sparse. With now-drowned Catskill stream alongside visit Jack and Max Atherton at their four children to raise (including my a "pinkster" bush into which flashed home on the Battenkill in Arlington. Af- mother, Mikie), she found time over the hummingbirds were rich and vivid ex- ter the men went off fishing, the women next fifty years in a busy mother's1 periences to the last for her, which she would yank an elegantly prepared, but wife'sIcommunity volunteer's schedule described in a 1988 Trout magazine arti- prefrozen, casserole out of the freezer to for fishing, primarily on her beloved cle. I am ever grateful for her long and throw in the oven, and then hurry down Catskill streams and rivers. When the healthy life, and for the luck to be the the hill to the Battenkill to fish until fishing day was over she brought her granddaughter of a woman who so dinner. Sparse and Jack made lots of ap- knitting to the wide front steps of the loved the beauties of this world. preciative noises about the savory meal DeBruce Club on which she would that seemed hours in the making while perch (women weren't allowed in the going on about the fishing the women clubhouse) in stocking feet, listening to IN THIS FALL ISSUE of The American Fly had missed. My grandmother still gig- the men's tall tales of the day. In memo- Fisher I am proud to feature a landmark gled about that one. ry of their "bright hours," Sparse dedi- profile: a comprehensive examination of MARGOTPAGE cated his book Fishless Days Angling America's famous statesman and angler, EDITOR Nights (1971) to her and chivalrously Daniel Webster, and the role angling christened her "Lady Beaverkill." played in his life, written by Dr. Ken- Preserving a Rich Heritage for Future Generations - - TRUSTEES Journal of d' he ~mericanMuseum of Fly Fishing E. M. Bakwin Me1 Kreiger Foster Barn Richard F. Kress FALL 1992 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 4 William M. Barrett David B. Ledlie Bruce H. Begin Ian D. Mackay Paul Bofinger Malcoln~MacKenzie Lewis M. Borden I11 Bob Mitchell Daniel Webster, Angler ...... 2 Robert R. Buckmaster Wallace J. Murray 111 Donn H. Byrne, Sr. Wayne Nordberg Kenneth E. Shewmaker Roy D. Chapin, Jr. Leigh H. Perkins Calvin P. Cole Romi Perkins Peter Corbin Allan R. Phipps Lou Feierabend: From Five to Z ...... 14 Thomas N. Davidson 0. Miles Pollard Charles R. Eichel Susan A. Popkin G. Dick Finlay Dr. Ivan Schloff Gordon M. Wickstrom Audun Fredrikson Stephen Sloan Arthur T. Frey Wallace Stenhouse, Jr. Larry Gilsdorf Arthur Stern First Person: Gardner L. Grant John Swan Curtis Hill James Taylor Old Friends from the Golden Age ...... 18 lames Hunter Richard G. Tisch Dr. Arthur Kaemmer James W. VanLoan Maxine Atherton Robert F. Kahn San Van Ness Woods King I11 Dickson L. Whitney Martin D. Kline Earl S. Worsham Gallery: Preston Jennings ...... 23 Edward G. Zern TRUSTEES EMERITUS Museum News...... 24 W. Michael Fitzgerald Leon Martuch Robert N. Johnson Keith C. Russell Hermann Kessler Paul Schullery Letters ...... 27 OFFICERS Chairman of the Board Foster Barn Contributors...... 28 President Wallace J. Murray 111 Vice President ON THE COVER: Statesman and angler Daniel Webster is a historical Arthur Stern figure of mythicproportions, both in regard to his political and his angling Treasurer William M. Barrett accomplishments. When Webster walked in the woods with his fly rod, Secretar nicknamed "Kill-all," the writer Stephen Vincent Bene't recorded "the trout Charles R. dchel would jump out of the streams right into his pockets, for they knew it was STAFF no use putting up a fight." In this Fall 1992 issue, Dartmouth professor and Executive Director history scholar Kenneth E. Shewmaker offers us a complete profile of a Donald S. Johnson great American. Engraving by J. A. J. Wilcox (no date). Executive Assistant Virginia Hulett Curator/Development Assistant Alanna D. Fisher Research/Publicity Joe A. Pisarro Registrar T71eAmerican Fly Fisher is published Jon C. Mathewson four times a year by the Museuni at P.O. Box 42, Manchester, Verlnonl 0j254. Publication dates are winter, spring, summer, and fall. Membership dues include the cost of a onc-year THEAMERICAN FLY FISHER subscription ($20) and are lax deductible as providcd for by la%,. Membership rates are listed in the back of each Editor issue. All letters, manuqcripts, photographs, and materials intended for publication in the journal should be sent Margot Page to Ihe Museum. The Museum and journal are not responsible Tor unsolicited manuscripts, drawings, photographic Art Director material, or memorabilia. The Museum cannot accepl respons~bdlty for statements and interpretations that arc Randall R. Perkins wholly the author's. Unsolicited n~snuscriptscannot be returned unless postage is provided. Contributions to The American Fly Fislier are to be considered gratuitous and the property of the Museum unless otherwise requested Consulting Editor by the contributor. Articles appearing in this journal are abstracted and indexed in Historical Abstracts and America: Donald S. Johnson History and L* Copyright 0 1992, the American Museum of Fly Fishing, Manchester, Vermont 05254. Original Copy Editor material appearing may not be reprinted without prior permission. Second Class Permit postage paid at Manchester Sarah May Clarkson Vermont 05254 and additional offices (USPS 057410). The American Fly Fisher (ISSN oXR4-3562) Contributing Writer P o s T MA s T E R : Send address changes to TheAmerican Fly Fisher, P.O. Box 42, Joe A. Pisarro Manchester, Vermont 05254. Daniel Webster, Angler by Kenneth E. Shewmaker

ONEOF THE PREEMINENT Webster schol- interest and one might assume he has also gained a reputation as one of ars in the country, Dr. Kenneth E. Shew- been researching and writing this compre- America's greatest anglers. According to maker, professor of history at Dartmouth hensive., livelv, article ever since. Here is a one often recounted story, he allegedly College, has previously contributed brief most exhaustively researched personal caught a world-record breaking 14%- articles about aspects of Daniel Webster's look at one of America's greatest states- pound brook trout on a fly in the Car- role in angling history to The American men, Daniel Webster, and the role that man's River on Long Island in 1827.l In Fly Fisher (see "Daniel Webster and the anglingplayed in his life. EDITOR his celebrated journal, Ralph Waldo Great Brook Trout," vol. 8, no. I, Winter Emerson characterized the versatile and 1981; "Three Daniel Webster Letters on Y ALMOST ANY STANDARD, many talented Webster as America's Fishing," vol. lo, no. I, Winter 1983). He Daniel Webster (1782-1852) ranks "completest man." "Nature had not in was asked by former executive director as one of the most prominent our days, or not since Napoleon," Emer- Paul Schullery and former journal editor Americans of the nineteenth century. son wrote, "cut out such a master- David Ledlie years ago to write a thor- Generally regarded as one of the greatest pie~e."~ ough account of Daniel Webster's angling lawyers, orators, politicians, and secre- Clearlv. Daniel Webster had the stuff lqe. Evidently, their request sparked his taries of state in American history, he of whichlegends are made and he even

2 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Opposite: Daniel Webster was remem- mine what the historical documents Rev01utionl'~oAlthough individuals like

bered bv Charles Lanman., his L~rivate suggest about the kind of fisherman John Conroy and Benjamin Welch of secretary and fiequentjishing compan- Webster actually was, to see what those New York were producing quality rods ion, as not only "our foremost states- records add to our knowledge of the and reels by the 1840s, the English influ- man," but "our greatest angler." Another early history of American sport fishing ence remained strong, and many fly colleague solemnly described Websterj in general and American fly fishing in fishers continued to use imported tackle angling talents as "proverbial." This por- particular, and to assess the role that from Britain. trait of Daniel Webster was engraved by fishing played in Webster's life. After a Webster's introduction to fishing may H. Wright Smith after a painting by chronologically organized account of have been tied to more native traditions, Joseph Ames. Webster's activities as an angler, the es- but the English influence reached even say addresses several specific questions into the wilds of New Hampshire. Ac- bearing on Webster and the history of cording to Lanman, Webster caught his became a legendV in his own time. Pri- American sport fishing. What kind of first trout when he was five years old. marily because of intellectual and ora- fishing equipment did he use? What The site, which Webster himself appar- torical prowess, Webster came to be de- were the largest" fish that he caught?V ently pointed out to Lanman in the scribed by his contemporaries as "God- Most importantly, what part did angling 1850s, was somewhere on Punch Brook, like" and acquired the status of what play in his life? a small but lovely stream which runs historian Merrill D. Peterson calls "the In order to separate myth from reali- through the property that belonged to mythical statesman."3 He also gained ty, I have relied primarily on Webster's his father, Ebenezer Webster. Ebenezer status as what might be called the myth- private correspondence and public fashioned a rod from a hazel branch for ical angler. In 1845, John J. Brown, a statements, which have been examined his son. to which Ebenezer then at- New York tackle dealer, published The systematically from the time he learned tached ;string and pin-hook, baited the American Angler's Guide, one of the ear- to write until his death in 1852. I also hook with a worm, and showed the liest and best books by an American on have studied accounts of Webster's ex- young boy where to cast. In the process the subject of fishing.4 Along with Mar- ploits in what were then called "field of struggling with a 1-pound trout, tin Van Buren. Brown included Webster svorts" bv friends and other contemvo- which immediately grabbed the worm, on his short list of famous American raries. The third major source upon the youngster lost his balance and tum- politician-anglers. Moreover, Brown which this essay rests is contemporary bled into the water. When Ebenezer res- credited Webster with catching a 9- books about fishing such as Brown's cued Daniel from Punch Brook, he still pound cod off the coast of Massachu- previously mentioned American Angler's had possession of the trout and was setts "with a common trout line and Guide, and outdoor magazines such as hooked on the sport for the rest of his trout hook."5 In 1852, J. Prescott Hall, a the American Turf Register and Sporting life, or at least so the story goes." Web- U.S. district attorney who had worked Magazine (published from 1829 to 1844) ster himself does not mention this tale with Webster in a legal capacity and and Spirit of the Times (published from in an autobiographical fragment that he who was himself an angler, character- 1831 to 1861), the first journals devoted wrote for a friend in 1829. Rather, he ized Webster's success at fishing as entirely to sports (horse racing, hunt- credits an Englishman, not his father, "vroverbial."6 Charles Lanman. who ing, fishing) popular at the time. Al- for early instruction in the art of an- served as Webster's private secretary and though these magazines paid relatively gling. frequent fishing companion from 1850 little attention to angling, they provide, to 1852, remembered Webster not only as Paul Schullery has observed, valuable as "our foremost statesman:' but also as information about the history of Ameri- "our greatest anglerl'7 can fishing and fishermen, especially If anything, the legend of Daniel since only "a small portion of anglers in According to Webster, Robert Wise Webster has grown with the passage of any generation write anything at all was "my Isaac [sic] Walton."l2 Wise was time. No other author has done more to about their sport."9 a Yorkshireman who deserted from the mythologize Webster than Stephen Vin- Long before Daniel Webster was born British army after the Battle at Bunker cent Benet. Benet's famous short story in the rural and sparsely settled com- Hill in 1775 and went over to the Ameri- of 1936, "The Devil and Daniel Webster," munity of Salisbury, New Hampshire, a can side. He thereafter served with New has become an American classic. Al- tradition of sport fishing, including the Hampshire troops, and perhaps with though the fictional tale revolves around subsport of fly fishing, had become well Ebenezer, who was the captain of a mili- a legil contest between Webster and Sa- established in America. The town of tia company which fought in several im- tan over the life of a condemned New Boston enacted laws to vrotect vublic portant engagements, including Ben- Hampshire man who has bargained access to certain fishing waters as early nington and White Plains.13 In any away his soul, Benet did not overlook as the 1630s, and the first angling club in event, Ebenezer Webster allowed Robert Webster's reputation as a skillful fisher- North America, the Schuylkill Fishing Wise to live in a small cottage which was man. In Benet's own words, when Web- Company, was founded in Philadelphia located on a corner of the Webster farm ster "walked the woods with his fishing in 1732. Colonial newspapers carried ad- in Salisbury.14 Wise was apparently rod, Kill-all, the trout would jump out vertisements for tackle dealers and some both childless and illiterate and as a of the streams right into his pockets, for colonial anglers, such as John Rowe of young man Daniel Webster would read they knew it was no use putting up a Boston, had their rods and reels import- the newspapers to him. Wise, in turn, fight against him."s Like the trout, the ed from England. Not surprisingly, according to Webster, "carried me many devil ended up in the frying pan. North Americans were strongly influ- a mile" on his back "paddled me over, & The purpose of this article is not to enced by their British heritage, which over, & up & down the stream," and de- add to Webster's reputation as a mythi- helps to explain why "fly fishing was an voted entire days "in aid of my boyish cal angler. Rather, the goal is to deter- established practice on the eve of the sports," asking in return only that he be

All photographs courtesy of the Dartmouth College Library FALL 1992 3 read to in the evening. Daniel Webster Cabot on June 4, 1825 offers consider- loved Robert Wise and characterized able information about trout fishing him as "a true Britonl'ls According to near Sandwich and about Webster's skill Samuel P. Lyman, a longtime friend of as an angler. Cabot, a Boston lawyer, Webster and one of his earliest biogra- had provided advice on how to fish phers, as soon as school was out or the Mashpee Brook and Webster found the chores were finished, Webster, presum- advice helpful, for he stated that "on the ably often in the company of Wise, whole" he had never "had so agreeable a headed for such nearby streams as days [sic] fishing" nor did he "ever ex- Punch, Middle, Stirrup Iron, or Wigwag pect such another."22 Webster's com- Brook. "It was rare indeed," Lyman panion on that agreeable occasion was writes, "that he ever returned without not George Blake, but John Denison (or being heavily laden with the trophies of Dennison), one of the earliest known his skill and patiencel'l6 Although there American fishing g~ides.~3Nicknamed is no reference to fly fishing in Webster's "Johnny Trout," a term commonly used autobiographical fragment or other ac- to refer to trout in general, Denison had counts of Webster's early years, it is at a reputation among sportsmen for least conceivable that it was a deserter probably taking "more trout than any- from the British army who introduced one person in the United States." Deni- an impressionable young Webster to the son also made rods and lines "for a art of angling with a fly. What is incon- moderate compensation," provided that trovertible, however, is that at an early his guests would "not take his 'kill-all,' a point in his life Daniel Webster devel- favorite fishing tackle which no one sees oped a passion for fishing, which he but him~elf."~4Denison may have made called his "favorite sportl'l7 an exception in Webster's case, for he The earliest letters in which Webster built Daniel Webster's favorite trout rod recounts his sporting activities in any and Webster nicknamed it "Kill-all."25 detail date to the 1820s. Aside from the According to American TurfRegister and autobiographical fragment, then, there Sporting Magazine, Denison was fre- is very little first person information quently employed by Bostonians such as historians can draw on for recreational Webster "to show them the sly places insights until Daniel Webster was a ma- where the fish congregate, and also to ture man in his late thirties and early catch them a mess, when all their exer- forties. tions have failed('26 In the 1820s, Webster and his wife Denison did show Webster "the sly Webster lavished an estimated $90,000 in transform- Grace frequently vacationed at Sand- places," but he did not have to catch fish an ocean fishing expedition, as well as hunting jaunts. wich, a town on Cape Cod, Massachu- for his guest. John Denison "was with setts, with George and Sarah Blake. me," Webster wrote, "full of good ad- George Blake, an easygoing U.S. attor- vice, but did not fish-nor carry a rod." ney for Massachusetts who lived near Since anglers frequented the Mashpee that he even succeeded in tempting the Websters on Summer Street in "nearly everyday," the trout were not Davis into joining him, Webster increas- Boston, shared Daniel Webster's enthu- plentiful. But Webster did well by fol- ingly spent more time angling in the siasm for hunting and fishing. The two lowing Cabot's suggestion that he care- ocean than in trout streams.28 Until the men spent many happy hours together fully and thoroughly fish "the difficult 1830s, freshwater fishing for trout seems working the streams of Cape Cod for places" that others tended to pass by. Al- to have been the type of angling Webster trout and searching the marshes for together he took "26 trouts" with a total pursued most frequently. Thereafter, he game birds.18 In 1820 Webster wrote that weight of 17 pounds and 12 ounces. In turned toward the sea, where he sought although the weather had been good, gratitude, he sent Cabot the largest: a cod and haddock and other saltwater few birds had "paid dearly for our visit. fish weighing 2 pounds and 4 ounces, species off the coast of Massachusetts. Mr. Blake is the great man in this de- taken under a bush below some beech There seems to have been two reasons partment -I run after & pick up the trees at 3:00 P.M. Webster asked Cabot to for the change. One reason centers birdsl'lg During another trip with the show the large trout to Isaac P. Davis, a around Webster's purchase of property Blakes to Sandwich in 1825, Webster Boston manufacturer who had in Marshfield, Massachusetts, and the commented to a relative that he would promised to join Webster on the excur- other involves a decline in the quality of have sent him "some trouts had there sion but then "fell back." Webster want- the trout fishery. been a less number of mouths" to ed, he wrote, to "excite" Davis's regrets. Because of wanton overfishing by in- feed.20 The ladies sometimes joined Daniel Webster also had an experience discriminate anglers, netting, and the their husbands on fishing excursions in that day familiar to anglers. He "hooked taking of fish during spawning time, the ocean, but from the surviving corre- one, which I suppose to be larger than there was a noticeable decline in the spondence it seems that Daniel Webster any which I took as he broke my line, by quality of the trout fishing in certain and George Blake spent most of their fair pulling, after I had pulled him out parts of America by the early nineteenth time together at Sandwich tramping the of his den, & was playing him in fair century. Writing in the 1840s, John J. fields for game birds or fishing the open ~ater."~7 Brown observed that trout had "become streams for trout.21 Although the records suggest that extinct in those parts of New York, New A letter that Webster wrote to Henry Webster fished the Mashpee again, and Jersey, Pennsylvania, and many of the

4 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER ing his MarshJield estate (in Massachusetts) into one of the showplaces of New England. An invitation to WebsterS country home oftea included The estate was his escapefiom rhepressures ofdiplomacy, law, and politics.

eastern states, that are adjacent to the made it illegal "to catch Pickerel or ceased to supply quality fishing and principal cities and towns, and are Trout in any of the rivers, streams or hunting in the late 1820s, Isaac Davis abundant only in the less populated and ponds within the Commonwealth, by suggested that Webster consider Marsh- accessible portions, and even there are day or night, in any other manner than field as a location that still provided fast decreasing."29 Long before Brown by hooks and lines, on penalty of fifty "good sport."33 After several successful published these comments, Webster was cents for every pickerel or trout so tak- excursions to the area, Webster pur- aware of the problem and he did some- en, to be paid to the person who may chased 160 acres from Captain John thing about it. sue for the same."3l Charles Eliot Good- Thomas in 1832. From this modest be- Webster's political career was atypical speed believes that the law of 1822 may ginning, Webster went on to create a in that he spent very little time serving have been "the first general protective kind of New England counterpart to in local or state office prior to being measure applying specifically to any Mount Vernon, the estate of his boy- elected to Congress. As Webster himself game fish passed by an American legis- hood hero, George Washington. By the put it in a dinner speech he gave in lat~re."3~If SO, it certainly is appropriate time of Webster's death in 1852, the Syracuse, New York in May 1851, "all the that the bill was sponsored by Daniel property at Marshfield had grown to public services which I have rendered in Webster. 1,400 acres, complete with thirty build- the world, in my day and generation," ings, including an enlarged, remodeled, with but one exception "have been con- and imposing two-story main house, a nected with the general Government."30 Though a decline in the quality of the network of well-organized fields and The single exception occurred for ten trout fishery may help to explain Web- groves, a trout pond, and a collection of days in 1822 when Webster represented ster's turn toward the ocean as the place livestock and birds that included llamas Boston in the General Court of the to practice his favorite sport, the more from Peru and peacocks from India. Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Dur- important reason seems to have been Marshfield was maintained by a small ing that brief service, he introduced a his purchase of the Marshfield property, army of about twenty-five laborers, bill to prevent the destruction of picker- which was near the ocean on the Massa- overseen by Captain John Thomas's son, el and trout in the state. Webster's bill, chusetts coast south of Boston. When Charles Henry Thomas, and later by which was passed into law on June 15, the neighborhood around Sandwich Charles Porter Wright. The main house

FALL 1992 5 lay only about a mile from the outlet of sions, Webster would assign some guests speech that he delivered. On July 25, Green Harbor River into the Atlantic to the Comet while he and Peterson 1852 Webster's friends and neighbors Ocean, and Webster usually had a yacht would teach the ladies the art of angling surprised him with a large reception at and two or three smaller boats moored aboard a smaller boat, the Signet. Ly- Marshfield. Speaking extemporaneous- at his boat landing there.34 Either Seth man participated in one such trip dur- ly, Webster gratefully thanked the as- Peterson or Thomas D. Hatch was in ing August of 1844. With Peterson busily sembled crowd for honoring "a well-un- charge of the boats and tackle, which "baiting the hooks, taking off the fish, derstood covenant" that he "would talk werevkept ready for a fishing excursion and shaking his sides with laughter," the to them about farming, but not a word at a moment's notice3 Webster lavished "great expounder of the Constitution about law or politi~s."4~ an estimated $90,000 in transforming . . . taught the young ladies old Izaak the Marshfield property into one of the Walton's art."40 Squire Webster presided

showplaces of New E11gIand.3~ over evervthingi " and he insisted on cer- Marshfield was not Webster's only es- Marshfield was an ideal place for an tain "customs of etiquette," as Lanman cape. After his brother Ezekiel's death in outdoors sportsman interested in boat- soon discovered. Dinner was a "full 1829, he became sole owner of the Elms, ing, fishing, and hunting, and visitors dress" occasion, and Webster did not the family farm in Franklin, New quickly learned that an invitation to hesitate to reprimand Lanman for ap- Hampshire (formerly Salisbury).49 Pur- Webster's country home almost auto- pearing at the dinner table attired in in- chase of adjoining lands enlarged the matically included a fishing excursion formal garb.4l Elms to approximately 1,000 acres.jO with their host on the ocean. Philip When not entertaining guests, Web- Webster also held title to two of the sev- Hone, the mayor of New York City and ster used Marshfield as a place of re- en houses in the village of Franklin and a famous nineteenth-century diarist, freshment and escape from the pressure forty acres fronting on nearby Lake spent several days at Marshfield in July of diplomacy, law, and politics. He Como.jl The Lake Como property in- 1845. Hone characterized Webster as would fish or hunt from daylight to cluded "a fine white sandy beach," a "the very perfection of a host." After dusk either alone or in the company of boathouse, and "a boat big enough to

breakfast on July 9, Webster drove Hone boatman Seth Peters0n.4~For examvle,1. row out four Ladies, to catch little fish- and another guest "over his extensive in May 1842, while serving as secretary es."5= grounds down to the beach, where his of state, Webster made a short visit to Webster described the Elms as a tran- boats were ready for a fishing excursion, Marshfield just prior to the commence- quil "spot of absolute quiet" and the which is one of his greatest enjoyments." ment of his negotiations with the special water there "so exquisite, as strongly to Attired in "a loose coat and trousers, British envoy, Lord Ashburton. In a de- induce teetotalism."j3 But he did not with a most picturesque slouched hat, lightful letter dated at Washington, D.C. spend much time in New Hampshire, which a Mexican bandit might have on May 4, he let a friend in on "one of especially after the acquisition of coveted," Webster directed his boatmen the secrets of diplomacy." Although the Marshfield. The Webster family farm on how to prepare the vessel for depar- press was speculating that he was travel- was ably managed from 1835 on by John ture, examined the bait, and helped to ing to Boston to confer with the gover- Taylor, a capable 6-foot, 5-inch New hoist the sails. The fishing party aboard nor of Massachusetts on the disvuted Hampshire Yankee who received one- the sloop Comet "had tolerably good northeastern boundary between Britain half of the income produced from grow- sport for a couple of hours," but the wa- and the United States, the "great object" ing corn and potatoes and raising live- ter turned rough and both Hone and of his trip was to "see Seth Peterson, and stock there. Taylor reserved a wing of Webster became seasick. They quickly catch one trout."43 On May 26 he in- the main house for Webster's occasional returned to shore, changed into proper formed the same friend that he had visits, but they were few and far be- dinner attire, and enjoyed a "sumptuous "done fishing and trout-catching," had tween.54 In 1g38 Webster commented meal" gracefully presided over by a taken leave of Peterson, and would be that it had been two vears since he had good-humored host. Two days later, heading for Washington in the morn- been able to spend a day in New Hamp- Webster and Hone were on the ocean ing.44 In August 1842, after the success- shire3 When Webster did manage to again. This time the weather cooperated ful completion of his negotiations with get to the Elms, fish and fishing wge on and the party caught "twenty-six cod Lord Ashburton. the secretarv of state the agenda. In July 1843 Webster hosted and twenty-two haddoch [sic],weighing returned to ~aishfieldwheri he en- a "chowder party" for some four to five more than three hundred pounds." joyed "a glorious month of leisure" dur- hundred friends and neighbors on the Hone's diary entry for July 11 states that ing which he and Peterson "settled shoreline of Lake Como. The guests, ac- he had "never had such mart and never many a knotty point."4j cording to the Boston Atlas, enjoyed saw such 'spoils,' and the sail home in To ensure that Marshfield was a place "quite a variety of fried and chowdered our beautiful yacht was delightful."-i7 of respite, Webster did not allow any fish," and one satisfied guest toasted Hone's experience at Marshfield was conversation on diplomacy, law, or poli- "The Constitution of Webster - rarelv not atypical and other visitors, includ- tics during the fishing excursions has so large a heart been mated with sd ing Richard Blatchford, Charles Lan- aboard the Comet or the Sigr~et.4~Web- great a mind."j6 In the company of man, and Samuel Lyman, soon found ster also had a pact with his neighbors, Richard Blatchford and Charles Lan- themselves aboard the Comet or one of as one of them recalled. that thev "were man, Webster spent a few days at the Webster's other boats catching fare that welcome at Green Harbor [an inlet near Elms both in 1851 and 1852. For the 1852 would be prepared for dinne~-.38Accord- Marshfield where he kept his boathouse visit, he advised Taylor to warn the ing to Lanman, when he had large num- and moored his vessels] to talk of farm- perch in Lake Como "that Mr. Blatch- bers of "guests under his roof. Webster ing, fishing, and community concerns," ford is coming"; in a subsequent note he might send one group after trout and but there were "to be no discussions of added that Lanman would supply all of take another aboard his yacht for a fish- politics or law."47 Webster confirmed them "with fish from Lake Comol'j7 ing trip on the ocean.39 On other occa- that understanding in the last public Whether either of Webster's angler com-

6 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Daniel Webster relaxing under an elm at his family home "The Elms" in Franklin, New Hampshire, which he once described as a "spot of absolute quiet." Because of the demands on his time, he was an in- frequent visitor to this farm, especially af- ter the purchase of the Marshfield proper- ty, but when able, he enjoyed fishing for perch and pike on nearby Lake Como where he kept a boathouse. Engraving by Joseph Lakeman (1871).

Lanman had been a reporter for the Na- tional Intelligencer prior to becoming li- brarian of the War Department in 1849. In 1850 Seaton told Webster about "an unusually large rockfish" that Lanman had taken at the Little Falls of the Po- tomac River and a few days later ush- ered his former employee into the office of the secretary of state. Webster greeted the younger man with an exclamation: "I am told, sir, you are a famous fisher- man, and I wish to capture a monster rockfish in your company."62 From this warm beginning Webster and Lanman went on to become almost constant fishing companions. In 1850 Lanman switched clerkships to become librarian of the Department of State, and in 1851 he became Daniel Webster's private sec- retary and traveling companion. Ac- cording to George Ticknor Curtis, Lan- man accompanied Webster on all of his visits to Franklin and Mar~hfield.~3 Webster held Lanman in high regard as an agreeable companion and a "great fisherman, so great as to have lulled Salmon, in the Rivers of the British Pro~inces."~4In June 1851 Lanman planned a short trip to the Allegheny Mountains and served as Webster's panions caught fish is unclear, but Lan- artist and newspaper reporter prior to guide. Although Lanman anticipated man recalled taking a drive around Lake becoming Webster's private secretary in that the trout fishing would be "superb," Como, a body of water abounding in October 1851. Lanman, however, was Webster found himself too busy being perch and pike, where Webster kept a much more than Webster's scribe. Al- entertained at public dinners in towns boathouse and enjoyed "the pleasant though thirty-seven years younger than such as Capon Springs, Virginia, to ex- recreation of anglingl'58 the secretary of state, Lanman estab- plore the nearby mountain streams.65 lished a close friendship with the older Lanman returned from one of those man.60 In a letter of introduction, Web- streams with forty trout, some of them As the 1852 visit to the Elms suggests, ster characterized Lanman as a "friend" "decent in size . . . two or three being a Charles Lanman had many opportuni- and "a faithful, reliable, good man."61 foot long," but Webster seems not to ties to observe Daniel Webster. Some of How two men so far apart in age be- have had the opportunity to try his luck. the best firsthand accounts we have of came close friends is an interesting sto- He did, however, notice that the chubs Webster as an angler come from Lan- ry, and the bond that tied them together and dace in the waters around Ca~on man's prolific pen. Lanman himself was their mutual love for fishing. At Springs fed gluttonously on locusts and holds an important place in the history some point in 1850, William Winston rose "to the fl~.''6~What had been of American sport fishing. According to Seaton, publisher of the National Intelli- planned as a vacation for the secretary Schullery, Lanman, who authored thir- gencer, the most influential newspaper of state turned into a round of recep- ty-two books and many articles, was of the time, introduced Lanman to tions and speeches, part of the price that America's "first great travel writer."59 In Webster. Seaton and Webster had been Webster willingly paid for his fame, but addition to being a much published au- friends, occasional fishing partners, and Lanman lived up to his reputation as a thor, Lanman was an accomplished political allies for over thirty years, and skilled fisherman.

FALL 1992 7 the morning. "Their idea of it is, that it out some topics that merit more specific THEFISHING IN D.C. is that part of the day, which comes attention. What kinds of fishing tackle Once back in Washington, however, along after a cup of coffee, & a beef did Webster use, what were the largest Webster found time to go fishing and he steak or a peice [sic] of toa~tl'7~Sir Hen- trophies that he brought to the net, and, did so by getting up at four o'clock in ry Lytton Bulwer, the British minister to most importantly, what part did fishing the morning. While serving as secretary the United States, found himself "too play in his life? When angling in the of state, Webster regularly spent a few indisposed, do not fancy I was too lazy," ocean, he usually employed clams and hours with Lanman angling in the Po- to meet the secretary of state early in the baitfish or artificial lures made locally in tomac, and he was back at his desk in morning, most probably for a fishing Marshfield. Although he often fished the Department of State by ten excursion.73 Even Lanman sometimes with flies in freshwater streams and o'clock.67 As this pattern of behavior had to be roused by his employer. Lan- ponds, not a single reference to the pat- suggests, Daniel Webster was an early man recalled being awakened at Marsh- terns that Webster favored can be found. riser. We know from the notations that field "at a very early hour" by a secretary Such inattention to specifics is not un- he made in the margins of many of his of state imitating "the graceful motions usual in the history of early American letters that he habitually awakened him- of an angler, throwing a fly and striking fly fishing. The editors of The American self between 4:00 and 5:oo A.M.,and he a trout." The day, not surprisingly, "was Fly Fisher have noted that Charles Lan- was proud of the fact that he was always given to fishing."74 man qualifies as "one of the first Ameri- moving about before the sun appeared In 1851, on almost a daily basis, Lan- cans to write about fly fishing," but his on the horizon. Webster usually went to man and Webster fished the Potomac writings are weak in describing the bed at ten o'clock: he was one of those River. Thev had a routine. Webster methods employed by nineteenth-cen- fortunate people who did not need picked Lanman up at 4:oo A.M., and tury anglers77 We do know, however, more than six hours of sleev.68 Samuel they were on the water by 5:oo. Joseph that outdoorsmen such as Lanman and Lyman once overheard Webster remark Payne, who lived near the Little Falls, Webster had many choices. In The to Charles Lanman that what little he served as their boatman. According to American Angler's Guide, John J. Brown had accomplished in his life had been Lanman, Webster was contented if he listed forty-seven patterns, some of "done early in the morning."69 Unless caught nothing, but delighted if he cap- which -the Alder Fly, Black Knat, Cow fishing was on the schedule, Webster tured a bass or rockfish. Lanman re- Dung, Green Drake, March Brown, Red sometimes had as many as twenty letters called a morning when Webster landed Ant, and White Miller-are still familiar ready to mail before breakfast. When a 16-pound rockfish. When the prize today. These "and many other flies not many people were just beginning their had been gaffed, the secretary of state enumerated," Brown observed, can be daily tasks, Webster often was finishing clapped his hands like a small child, purchased "at the regular tackle stores, his. "Now," he commented to Peter Har- "jumped to his feet," and let out an In- can be made to order, or procured from vey on one such occasion, "my day's dian vell "which might have been heard England." Indeed, Brown recommended work is done: I have nothing to do but in ~kor~etown."0; this, as on other that anglers always "examine the waters fish."70 occasions. Webster insisted that he and and shake the boughs of trees, to pro- Whether he was going fishing or not, Lanman ieturn to the city before the cure the latest insect that will most dawn was Daniel Webster's favorite Department of State opened for busi- probably fall a prey to the voracious time. One of the most poetic letters he ness. He told Lanman that he (Webster) trout, and imitate nature's handiwork ever wrote, at "5. o clock A.M.,"pro- "was President Fillmore's clerk" and was on the spot."78 claimed the morning to be "a new issu- therefore obliged to be at his desk. Imitation of natural insects was no ing of light, a new bursting forth of the Moreover, he did not want to rob the great mystery to Webster's contempo- sun, a new waking up, of all that has life, government of any time that he owed it. raries; as early as 1830, the American from a sort of temporary death, to be- "For an old man," Lanmnan remem- TurfRegister and Sporting Magazine had hold, again the works of God, the Heav- bered Payne commenting, the secretary provided detailed and illustrated in- ens & the Earth." He did not think that of state "was a good fisherman."75 structions on how to tie flies.79 Accord- Adam and Eve "had much advantage of Lanman was with Webster on May 8, ing to Genio C. Scott, the Red Ibis, an us, from having seen the world, while it 1852 when the secretary of state was seri- attractor that did not actually "imitate was new. The manifestations of the ously injured in a carriage accident that any winged insect," was one of the most power of God, like his mercies, are 'new may have contributed to his death six popular patterns in the northeast.80 In a every morning -& fresh every moment.' months later. The two friends were on kind of primer for those who wanted to We see as fine rising of the sun, as ever their way from Marshfield to Plymouth take up fly fishing, the editor of Spirit of Adam saw; & its risings are as much a "to enjoy some trout-fishing" in a pri- the Times recommended that the first miracle now, as they were in his day." "I vate pond. Both men were thrown from choice of the novice should be "the know the morning," Webster concluded, the carriage when the transom bolt Brown, Red, and Black Hackle," two of "I am acquainted with it, & I love it, broke, and Webster was knocked un- each. Before using these flies up, the fresh & sweet as it is, a daily new cre- conscious and badly bruised. He was novice was advised to learn to tie his ation, breaking forth, & calling all that confined to bed for ten days and was own imitati0ns.8~Unfortunately, there is have life, & breath, & being, to a new unable to sign his name for several no indication that Webster learned to tie Adoration, new enjoyments, & new weeks thereafter. The unfortunate car- his own flies, and he does not tell us gratitude.''71 riage accident seems to have ended whether he ever used a Red Hackle or

Not evervone,, , of course. shared Web- Daniel Webster's days as an angler3 Ibis or any of the other specific patterns ster's enthusiasm for getting out of bed that were widely available in his time. at 4:oo A.M.AS Webster commented in He did, however, express a dislike for the letter cited above, few inhabitants of This chronologically-oriented account Limerick hooks, because the fish American cities knew anything about of Daniel Webster as an angler has left seemed more likely to let go of their

8 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER hold than was the case with "old fash- imagined might be possible. Webster water, &c.:' which persuaded him to try ioned h0oks."8~Webster probably used then professed a sense of responsibility his own hand at catching blues.94 On Kirby hooks, an inexpensive brand that when it came to throwing "a May fly to August 7, he took twenty-five "remark- was imported from England ili large a trout. bvi this beautiful "gear." "A flv ably fat and plump" blues who "pulled quantities.83 In a letter to Isaac P. Davis, thrown clumsily:' he wrote, "with such like horses."95 Webster did not tell

Webster mentioned that he had brought imvlements. or a fish struck unadroitlv.,, Blatchford how much the fattest blue with him to Washington "white tinned or blayed without skill, or suffered to es- weighed, but he concluded that "for hooks from England, lines boiled in cape, except into the basket, would just- blue fish merely, nothing can be quite so gum from Rio Janeiro [sic], and other ly affect the operator with lasting dis- good as Edgartown."96 Although Web- craft from Boston and New York, not to grace." Webster concluded by compli- ster turned many large cod into chow- mention some beautiful little reels, and menting Welch for his incomparable der, I have found no record by Webster some elegant artificial bass and blue fish work and by asking him to convey his or his fishing companions of how much bait, manufactured at Mar~hfield~"~4We "warmest thanks . . . to the source to any specific cod weighed. also know that Webster purchased fish- which I owe this most extraordinary The largest trout that Webster credit- ing tackle from Joseph West and Com- and elegant outfit for angling."90 ed himself with landing is the 2-pound, pany of New York.85 But we know very In September the mystery was cleared 4-ounce native taken from the Mashpee little about the particular items that he up when Timothy Hedges of East in 1825. At first glance this does not purchased. Hampton, New York, identified himself seem to be much of a prize for a mythi- as the donor of the contents of the box. cal angler like Daniel Webster. However, Apparently a letter that Hedges had sent in the context of Webster's overfished We know much more about Web- Webster "contemporaneously with the environment, it was a big fish. In 1851, ster's rods than we do about his flies, box" had not reached Marshfield. The Webster defined a "decentn-sized trout reels, and other fishing tackle. In addi- gift, Hedges stated, was intended as a to be one of 12 inches.97 Articles in the tion to Kill-all, made by John Denison, mark of his "high estimation" of Web- sporting journals of Webster's time and he possessed another rod made of red ster as a statesman who had rendered letters from Webster's angler" friends wood which he named the Edgar rod, "distinguished Services" to his "country also suggest that a 2-pound trout would given to him by a friend, perhaps & to the worldl'gl In 1977, the American have been considered a prize. For exam- William Edgar, a New York lawyer. In Museum of Fly Fishing acquired one of ple, an unsigned letter to the editor of June 1847 Webster returned to Marsh- Webster's Welch rods, an impressive 12- the American Turf Register and Sporting field after a long absence only to find foot, four-piece apparatus with Web- Magazine, dated June 30, 1830, reported the Edgar "entirely good for nothing" ster's name engraved on the silver reel that "fat, plump" trout ranging in size and the rest of his tackle broken and in seat. Webster was not exaggerating from 8 to 16 inches could be taken with disarray. A "book of flies and hooks" when he described Welch rods as "ex- a fly in the neighborhood of Carlisle, had simply disappeared.86 Webster was auisite." nor were the editors of The Pennsylvania.98 A subsequent note, per- able to repair old Kill-all and to make it American Fly Fisher exaggerating when haps from the same correspondent, told serviceable, but he then made an ab- thev characterized the acauisition as "a of a mammoth trout of 4 pounds solutely delighful discovery, the kind tangible link with our dimmest angling "gigged by Mr. John Lee" near that fishermen dream about. In an un- pa~t."9~We may not know much about Carlisle.99 Another anonvmous svorts- opened box in the gun room he found the flies that Webster used, but visitors man claimed that he hid take; a 3- "the most splendid angling apparatus" to the Museum can examine one of the pound trout at Samuel Carman's pond one could imagine. The box contained rods that belonged to him. on Long Island in 1812 "and one had "three complete rods, all silver mount- since been taken in the mill tail, at the ed, with my name engraved; beautiful same place, which weighed 14% Ibs." reels, and books of flies and hooks, and As far as we can tell from Webster's Notwithstanding the tantalizing rumor quantities of other equipments."87 own accounts and those of his fishing that someone at some point in time had Except for the rodmaker's card, Web- companions, what were the largest fish captured a 14 %-pound leviathan, the ster did not have a clue as to the origins that he caught? Lanman, as mentioned largest trout claimed by "X" did not ex- of his good fortune. Not knowing what earlier, credited a jubilant Webster with ceed 3 pounds.100 In an article titled else to do, on June lo he dispatched a bringing a 16-pound rockfish from the "Johnny Trout Beat at Last" and dated letter of effusive gratitude to the name Potomac to the net. Webster credited at ~ostonon June 12, 1832, another on the card, Benjamin Welch of New himself with taking a 7-pound blackfish. anonymous writer at least gave names York. Along with John Conroy, Welch On a "mild, still" day in September 1851, when he stated that James Bodfisk, "a was one of the most highly regarded just at flood tide, he "caught thirty very scientific and expert angler of the first rodmakers of Webster's time.88Genio C. fine Tautog." He reported to Blatchford water," had killed an &inch "salmon Scott characterized his Welch rod as that he threw his hook "into their den" trout" that went 4 '/4 pounds near Sand- "the best" he had ever "owned for gen- under Sunk Rock near Marshfield and wich. Since John Denison, according to eral fly-fishing," and Webster seemed that "the chiefs" all contended for it. "Leather Stocking," had never caught, equally pleased with his three Welch The largest was a fine "seven pound fel- during the whole of his professional ca- rods.89 Webster complimented Welch low."93 In 1849, Webster and his son reer, a fish weighing more than 3% for the "exquisite workmanship" repre- Daniel Fletcher went after blues off pounds," Bodfisk had "completely out- sented in the rods and reels and thanked Edgartown, Martha's Vineyard. Web- generalled" Johnny Trout.lol him for the "trulv beautiful" flies. He ster's appetite had been whetted when The claims of those who correspond- could now pursue "his favorite sport" his son returned from a solo excursion ed privately with Webster were consid- more elegantly equipped than "Poor with tales of "lines broken, hooks car- erably more modest than the accounts Isaac [sic] Walton" ever could have ried off, fish jumping ten feet out of the published in the American Turf Register.

FALL 1992 9 Henry Grinnell, who had amassed a for- nious dispute with Great Britain over was personally fond of being "rowed out tune as a New York merchant, spent ~rnerican-accessto Canadian waters re- to sea" for health and recreation and much of his leisure time angling for flects a fisherman's mentality. When the "occasionally catching a fish,"' Webster trout and salmon in the United States, British government stationed a naval recalled some remarks made by Peter- Ireland, and Scotland. Grinnell aptly force off the coast of British North son "while pulling an oar." According to characterized himself as more fond of America to prevent encroachments by Webster, Peterson opposed the Demo- the sport of fishing than any "man liv- American fishermen in certain disputed cratic plan because the only thing he ing or dead not excepting the great Iza- waters, Webster took matters into his had to sell was his honest labor: he ak Walton." In 1845 Grinnell provided own hands. Without even consulting needed to purchase such necessities as Webster with a full account of his latest President Millard Fillmore, he issued flour, meat, and clothing, and occasion- fishing excursion. According to Grin- such inflexible statements that both the ally a little coffee, sugar, and some nell, on the south side of Long Island he president and some members of Con- spices. Peterson could not see how the took "60 Trout in 3 hours, but there was gress became concerned that hostilities prices of these goods, especially the im- not much sport in that as the fish were might break out between the two coun- ported ones, would be reduced by low- small, none over ?hof a pound." At Car- tries. Speaking extemporaneously be- ering the wages of people like himself. man's in Fireplace, however, he landed fore that large assembly of friends and Webster concluded by expressing his fish that ranged from 3/4 of a pound to a neighbors gathered to honor him in agreement with peterion that ~merica pound and a half, and a large trout that Marshfield on July 24, Webster observed did not need "the miserable L,~olicv weighed "2 pounds." Grinnell hoped in that many of those in the audience which would bring the condition of a the future to take Webster to Douglasses earned their living on the sea. "To use a laborer in the United States to that of a Pond, where he had "taken some fine Marblehead phrase," the secretary of laborer in Russia or Sweden, in France fish . . . small in number but large; aver- state proclaimed he would protect their or Germany, in Italy or Corsica!"1°9 aging 1% lb- you fish in a boat."'02 rights "hook and line, and bob and The Bunker Hill address of 1825 ranks Even as Grinnell was pursuing trout sinker."1°5 as one of Webster's most memorable on Long Island, Webster invited him to A month later, in a private letter to discourses. On the fiftieth anniversary come to Marshfield. Although "the Blatchford, Webster commented that of that historic battle, he spoke to an au- Trout season" was "fast running off, & since he had his "great halibut hook" in dience of twenty thousand that included altho our brooks have been a good deal the fisheries question, "it must come the Marquis de Lafayette and scores of scourged, & exhausted:' Webster was aboard."lo6 In response to Webster's bel- veterans of the struggle for indepen- confident that he and Grinnell could ligerent stance, the British quickly dence. Fixing his gaze on Lafayette and "make prize of a trout, in Marshfield, backed down. Nevertheless, Webster's the old soldiers, Webster brought tears Plymouth, or Wareham." "If we find no behavior alarmed many and drew a fair to the eyes of many with words that trout:' Webster added, "we shall yet amount of criticism in Congress. In a soon became famous: "VENERABLE have some pleasant drives, & perhaps it speech supportive of ~ebsGr'sdiplo- MEN! you have come down to us from a may be agreeable to you to see that part macy, Senator William Henry Seward of former generation. Heaven has boun- of the Old Colony, even if the Fly should New York reminded critics that Webster teously lengthened out your lives, that be thrown in vain."l03 Webster and had defended American maritime inter- you might behold this joyous day. You Grinnell were unable to coordinate their ests for decades. Webster, Seward stated, are now where you stood fifty years ago, schedules in 1845, but their correspon- "is a man of Massachusetts-is it too this very hour, shoulder to shoulder, in dence suggests that the "good old days" much to say the MAN OF MASSACHU- the strife for your country."llo Webster were not all that good, at least in the SETTS? The ocean with its fisheries, had first uttered these memorable lines more settled areas of the northeast. Ac- washes the shore of the farm on which while wading a Cape Cod trout stream cording to the editor of the American he dwells. Nay, sir, he is an angler him- in the company of John Denison and his Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, in self, I am told, and of course he is a son Fletcher Webster. fish stories "a little fiction is said to be good one, for he is not half and half in According to Fletcher Webster's ac- allowable."l04 Even if one accepts that anything." Seward aptly concluded that count of the incident, he was following questionable principle, Webster's 2- in defending American fishing rights, his father down the stream, "fishing the pound, 4-ounce Mashpee trout com- Webster was defending "an interest so holes and bends which he left to me." At pares well with the big fish prizes re- near to himself" and his constituency.1°7 one point, Fletcher noticed that his fa- ported by anonymous anglers to that As Webster's fiery speech of July 24 ther was behaving uncharacteristically, editor and to Webster himself by con- and his letter to Blatchford suggest, fish- that he seemed "quite abstracted and temporaries such as Grinnell. ing analogies and metaphors were part uninterested" in angling. He passed up of his political discourse. References to the best spots; allowed his line to "run FISHINGAND POLITICS fishing and fishermen found their way carelessly" down the brook; got his Finally, did Webster's love for angling into several of his great speeches. In an hook tangled on twigs or tall grass sev- have any discernible impact on his ca- 1840 Saratoga, New York, address Web- eral times; and even held his rod still reer as a diplomat, a politician, and an ster immortalized Seth Peterson by of- while the line was not making contact orator? It can be reasonably assumed fering his fishing companion as a model with the water! When Fletcher quietly that his sponsorship of the 1822 law re- of American character and common approached his father from behind, he quiring the use of hooks and lines in the sense.108 Eighteen forty was an election found him gazing at the trees, advanc- ponds and streams of Massachusetts re- year and the target of Webster's remarks ing one foot, and speaking to "Venera- flected an angler's desire to preserve an at the great mass meeting in Saratoga ble Men."ll1 According to Charles Lan- endangered natural resource. Moreover, was an alleged plan by the rival Demo- man, the salutation to "Venerable Men" the strong position that he adopted in cratic party to lower the wages of Amer- was "first heard by a couple of huge 1852 as secretary of state in an acrimo- ican workers. After observing that he trout, immediately on their being trans-

10 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER The legend of Daniel Webster has only grown with thepassage of time: not only has he acquired the status of "mythical statesman" but also that of "mythical an- gler." The photographer of this rather rakish-looking Daniel Webster is un- known, as is the date.

courage Peterson, who also was a skillful angler, from catching fish in the stream that ran through Peterson's own proper- ty. Jokingly, Webster told Peterson that he would prosecute him if he did so! Pe- terson added that Webster "loved to take trout:' but he also liked "to catch big fish." The big fish were in the ocean, and that is where Peterson and Webster spent most of their time together215 Al- though his "great delight:' as Curtis concluded, was Marshfield and the sea, Webster could "cast a 'fly' with as much skill as anyone who ever landed a trout."l16 In an article published in 1868, Lanman included Webster on a short list of famous American anglers. The others were George Gibson, George M. Bibb, and George W. Bethune. Gibson, who was fishing the Letort as early as the i79os, possessed great skill in "throwing the fly." Bibb, a U.S. senator from Kentucky, "scorned the fly:' had the bad habits of using profane language and "fishing on the Sabbath," but he was known for an uncommon enthusiasm for catching fish. Bethune, a clergyman of the Dutch Reformed Church and composer of hymns and books on reli- gion and poetry, edited the first Ameri- can edition of Walton's The Compleat Angler in 1846 and went fishing when- ever he could. Webster, "our greatest an- gler:' began fishing "when only five ferred to his fishing-basket.""Z Lanman torical studies? To begin with, the his- years old, with a pin-hook in New seems to have embellished a wonderful torical record provides a pretty good Hampshire, and . . . was on his way to a tale, but the story seems to be otherwise idea of when, where, and how Webster trout pond near Plymouth, when he true. Daniel Webster himself referred to fished and of what kind of an angler he met with the sad accident which un- the incident in his autobiography and was. Prior to the 1830s, he pursued trout doubtedly hastened his death." Lanman mentioned it to Lanman and others.1- in the Cape Cod region; thereafter, he observed that Webster "became partial In an unpublished letter to Fletcher dat- did most of his angling in the ocean to the fishes and scenery of the sea" as ed June 22, 1851, he commented that near his estate in Marshfield or at Lake time went on and was happiest "when since he had already prepared a forth- Como in New Hampshire. Except for fishing for cod or pollock in his yacht coming Fourth of July address he would the Potomac, only rarely did he venture off the coast of Marshfield." But he also "not have to be thinking out 'Venerable outside of Massachusetts and New qualified as "an expert trout fisher- Men"' if he found a trout stream prior Hampshire to pursue his favorite sport. man."l17 to delivering the speech.114 If nothing Whether fishing in salt or fresh water, In his thoughtful history of American else, the rehearsal of the Bunker Hi11 Webster was a skillful angler. Seth Peter- fly fishing, Paul Schullery has suggested oration in a Cape Cod trout stream sug- son, Webster's neighbor in Marshfield that "there is nothing wrong with lion- gests that Daniel Webster knew how to and boatman for fifteen years, provided izing great fishermen as long as they're combine business and pleasure. George Ticknor Curtis with a valuable really great."ll8 Whether Webster quali- retrospective on Webster as a fisherman. fies as a truly great fisherman is ques- Peterson characterized Webster as "a tionable. Friends (Curtis) and contem- So what does this account of Daniel first-rate trout fisher." He had never porary writers (Brown) may have ro- Webster as an angler add up to and seen "anybody so smart at taking a trout manticized Webster's exploits as an an- what difference does it all make to his- from his hole. Webster even tried to dis- gler. Brown, for example, has him "an-

PALL 1992 11 gling for salmon in the Kennebec," ing of his life. In a warm personal letter York: Nick Lyons Books, 1987), pp. 30-32,38-39. though there is no indication that he dated August 23, 1851, Webster told 5. John J. Brown, The American Angler's Guide; or, Complete Fisher's Manual for the United States ever did so.119 Although Webster may Blatchford that "I like your society" and (New York: H. Long & Brothers, third edition, not have been quite the mythical angler concluded that their friendship consti- 1849), PP. 17, 205. that Lanman and others have made him tuted "a source of happiness" to him.125 6. S. P. Lyman, Life and Memorials of Daniel out to be, he was, as Joseph Payne, the Webster counted many of those he had Webster (New York: D. Appleton and Company, D.C. boatman, remarked, "a good fish- "wet a fly" with among the dearest peo- 1853, 2 volumes), vol. 2, p. 264. erman" and fishing certainly played a ple on earth. 7. Charles Lanman, "The Annals of Angling," The Galaxy, vol. 6 (September 1868), p. 312. significant role in his life. Richard Current, one of Webster's 8. Stephen Vincent Benet, The Devil and Fishing was never far from Webster's most insightful biographers, has gone so Daniel Webster and Other Stories by Stephen Vin- thoughts. Shortly before his death in far as to suggest that "the sportsman cent Bene't (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1967), 1852, Webster told Professor Cornelius and gentleman farmer may have been P. 5. C. Felton of Harvard College that al- the true Daniel Webster."lZ6On Novem- 9. Schullery, American Fly Fishing, p. 25. It is though he was not feeling well he hoped ber 19, 1841, shortly after returning to worth mentioning that Webster subscribed to Spirit of the Times from 1842 to 1852 and that his to write a book of "personal observa- Washington from a vacation in Marsh- personal library contained several books on fish- tions on our fresh and salt water field, Webster himself scribbled the fol- ing, including such classics as Izaak Walton's The fishes."l20 A few weeks later, he signed lowing note: "Here I am, at my table, Compleat Angler. For information on the holdings his last will and testament. He left all of and my work-in good health, but not in Webster's private library, see Leonard & Co., his "fishing-tackle" to his grandson, feeling so well as when I was in the Boat Auctioneers, Catalogue of the Private Library of Daniel Webster (Boston, n.d.). On 30 October Samuel Appleton.lZ1Together with eight with Seth, or sitting under the bushes 1852, Spirit of the Times published an obituary of guns, his fishing equipment, probably up at 'Island Creek Pond.' . . . I ought to Webster on its front page. Unlike most obituaries well worn from use, was valued at have been a fisherman. But it is too late of Webster, this one focused on his fondness for $146.~~~One of Webster's rods has sur- to change."127 the "pleasures of the field:' vived to find an honored place in the Posterity can be glad that Webster lo. Ibid., p. 21. Information on the importation American Museum of Fly Fishing, but persevered at his desk and did not de- of tackle from Britain appears on pp. 2, 7-9, 15-16, 21, 32, 39-41. unfortunately his book was never writ- vote his life to catching fish, but we can 11. Charles Lanman, The Private Life of Daniel ten. Although Webster only provides us also be grateful for the many remarks Webster (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1858), pp. with glimpses of his tackle and tech- that he made about angling in his con- 135-36. nioues as a flv fisherman. we can be versations, correspondence, and speech- 12. Autobiography in Charles M. Wiltse, et al., grateful for the letters that have survived es. In addition to providing some in- eds., The Papers of Daniel Webster, Correspondence the ravages of time. Webster's love of sight into the early history of American (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, u 1974-1986, 7 volumes), vol. 1, p. 14 (autobiogra- angling and the imprint that it made on sport fishing, they suggest much about phy). Hereafter cited as Correspondence. his career and political discourse are Daniel Webster as a human being. To 0. Maurice G. Baxter, One and Inseparable: well documented in his private corre- cite a final example, in an undated note Daniel Webster and the Union (Cambridge, Mass.: spondence and public writings. to Charles March, a lifelong friend and Harvard University Press, 1984), p. 3. importer of fine wines, Webster left us 14. Claude M. Fuess, Daniel Webster (Boston: Da Capo Press, 1930, 2 volumes), vol. I, p. 25. this timeless advice on how to console 15. Autobiography in Correspondence, vol. 1, Fishing played a large part in Web- anglers who have bad luck: PP. 14-15. ster's life. In addition to the discernible 16. Lyman, Life and Memorials, vol. 1, p. 193. impact on his behavior and discourse as My Dear Sir: 17. Daniel Webster to Benjamin Welch, lo June 1842, in Fletcher Webster, ed., The Private Corre- secret of state an orator, politician, and diplomat, an- It is a great but I intend spondence of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, going to Long Island, Tuesday Morning, gling contributed to his mental and Brown and Company, 1857, 2 volumes), vol. 2, pp. physical health and to the quality of his for 2 or 3 days, to take a trout. If you will 255-56. Hereafter cited as Private Correspondence of life in general. "Amidst the toil of law, & send me one bottle of wine (to Astor Webster. the stunning din of politics," he wrote in House) I will put it in my Bag, & it may 18. Baxter, One and Inseparable, pp. 73-74. console me, in case of bad weather, or bad 19. Webster to Alexander Bliss, 29 August 1820, 1836, "any thing is welcome, which calls luck- either or both of which sometimes Bancroft-Bliss Papers, Library of Congress. my thoughts back to Marshfield, tho' it occur to fishermen.128 20. Webster to James W. Paige, 27 May 1825, in be only to be told which way the wind C. H. Van Tyne, ed., The Letters of Daniel Webster blows."123 In 1838, he returned to Wash- As one of the eminent historians of our (New York: Haskell House Publishers, 1902), p. ington from Marshfield refreshed and time put it, because of Webster's letters 612. energized for the issues confronting him on fishing he "seems to be a much more 21. See the letters written by Grace Webster in in the Supreme Court and Senate. attractive human being!"129 e 1826 in ibid., pp. 711-U. 22. Webster to Henry Cabot, 4 June 1825, in "There is nothing in this world-or at Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 51-52. least for me-like the air of the sea, 23. Schullery, American Fly Fishing, p. 47. united to a kind of lazy exercise, & an ENDNOTES 24. American Turf Register and Sporting Maga- absolute forgetfulness of business & zine, vol. 3 (August 1832), p. 624. 1. Kenneth E. Shewmaker, "Daniel Webster and cares. The mackerel fishing has been 25. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 3 May 1849, in the Great Brook Trout," The American Fly Fisher, Van Tyne, Letters of Daniel Webster, pp. 714-15. glorious."l24 Marshfield and mackerel vol. 8 (Winter 1981), pp. 21-24. 26. American Turf Register and Sporting Maga- offered Webster rehabilitation and re- 2. Bliss Perry, ed., The Heart of Emerson's Jour- zine, vol. 3 (August 1832), p. 624. freshment from "business and cares:' nals (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 27. Webster to Henry Cabot, 4 June 1825, in and much more. The friendships that he 1926), p. 261. Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 51-52. 3. Merrill D. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate: 28. Webster to Issac P. Davis, 29 March 1830, in formed with fellow anglers - George Webster, Clay, and Calhoun (New York and Ox- Blake, Richard Blatchford, Charles Lan- Correspondence, vol. 3, pp. 48-49. ford: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 391. 29. Brown, American Angler's Guide, p. 232. man, and Seth Peterson, among 4. For more information on Brown, see Paul 30. Speech at Syracuse, May 1851, in James W. others- were among the most reward- Schullery, American Fly Fishing: A History (New McIntyre, ed., The National Edition of the Writings

12 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER and Speeches of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, 63. Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. 2, p. 511. ibid., vol. 2, pp. 332-34. Brown and Company, i903,18 volumes), vol. 13, p. 64. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 27 June 1851, 96. Webster to Blatchford, 15 August 1849, in 422. in Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, pp. ibid., vol. 2, p. 339. 31. Boston Daily Advertiser and Repetory, 17 446-48. 97. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 27 June 1851, June 1822. 65. Charles Lanman to Daniel Webster, 9 June in ibid., vol. 2, pp. 446-48 32. Charles Eliot Goodspeed, Angling in Ameri- 1851, Webster Papers, New Hampshire Historical 98. "Trout Fishing in the Neighbourhood of ca: Its Early History and Literature (Boston: Society; Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 511-20. Carlisle:' American Turf Register and Sporting Houghton Mifflin, 1939),p. 133. 66. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 27 June 1851, Magazine, vol. 1 (August 1830))pp. 613-14. 33. Peter Harvey, Reminiscences and Anecdotes in Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 99. Unsigned letter, "A Mammoth Trout:' ibid., of Daniel Webster (Boston: Little, Brown and 446-48. vol. 2 (August 1831),p. 609. Company, 1877))p. 264. 67. Lyman, Life and Memorials of Webster, vol. loo. "Deer Hunting and Trout Fishing on Long 34. Baxter, One and Inseparable, pp. 282-84. 2, pp. 263-65. Island:' ibid., vol. 2 (March 1831), pp. 343-44. 35. Fuess, Daniel Webster, vol. 2, p. 329-30; 68. Harvey, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of 101. "Johnny Trout Beat at Last:' ibid., vol. 3 George Ticknor Curtis, Life of Daniel Webster Webster, p. 366; Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. 2, pp. (August 1832), p. 624. (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1870, 2 220-22. 102. Henry Grinnell to Webster, 22 May 1845, in volumes), vol. 2, p. 664. 69. Lyman, Life and Memorials of Webster, vol. Correspondence, vol. 6, pp. 88-89. 36. Irving H. Bartlett, Daniel Webster (New 2, p. 56; Lanman, Private Life of Webster, p. 85. 103. Webster to Henry Grinnell, 15 April 1845, York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1978), p. 208. 70. Harvey, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of in Shewmaker, "Three Daniel Webster Letters on 37. Allan Nevins, ed., The Diary of Philip Hone, Webster, p. 366. Fishing," The American Fly Fisher, vol. lo (Winter 1828-1851 (New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 71. Webster to Harriette Story White Paige, 29 1983)~pp. 10-11. 19271, pp. 736-40. April 1847, in Correspondence, vol. 6. pp. 231-32. 104. Editorial Note, American Turf Register and 38. For an accont of a fishing contest between 72. Ibid., p. 231. SportingMagazine, vol. 4 (June 1833), p. 528. Richard Blatchford and another guest, see Lyman, 73. Bulwer to Webster, 25 June 1851, Webster 105. Kenneth E. Shewmaker, "'Hook and line, Life and Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 121-32. Papers, Library of Congress. and bob and sinker': Daniel Webster and the Fish- 39. Lanman, Private Life of Webster, pp. 90-91. 74. Lanman, Private Life of Webster, p. 90. eries Dispute of 1852," Diplomatic History, vol. g 40. Lyman, Life and Memorials, vol. 2, pp. 130- 75. Lanman, Recollections of Curious Characters (Spring 1985), p. 123. 32. and Pleasant Places (Edinburgh: David Douglas, 106. Webster to Richard Blatchford, 24 August 41. Lanman, Private Life of Webster, pp. 91-92. i881), pp. 223-24; Lanman, Private Life of Webster, 1852, in Shewmaker, ed., The Papers of Daniel 42. Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. z, pp. 664. pp. 99-100. Webster, Diplomatic Papers ( Hanover, N.H., and 43. Webster to Mrs. Edward Curtis, 4 May 1842, 76. For information on the carriage accident London: University Press of New England, 1983- in Correspondence, vol. 5, pp. 203-05. see Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 605-07. Lan- 1987,2 volumes), vol. 2, p. 712. 44. Webster to Mrs. Edward Curtis, 26 May man provided Curtis with a detailed account of 107. Cited in Shewmaker, "'Hook and line, and 1842, in Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 109-11. the mishap. For a briefer account see Lanman, Pri- bob and sinker,'" p. 122. 45. Webster to Edward Everett, 28 November vate Life of Webster, pp. 173-74. 108. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate, p. 295. 1842, in Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, 77. Editors, "A Checklist of Works by Charles 109. McIntyre, Writings and Speeches of Web- p. 156. Lanman:' The American Fly Fisher, vol. 11 (Fall ster, vol. 3, pp. 3-36. 46. Harvey, Reminiscences and Anecdotes of 19841, p. 19. 110. The Bunker Hill Speech as cited in Shew- Webster, pp. 279-80. 78. Brown, American Angler's Guide, pp. 99- maker, "The Completest Man," p. 101. 47 Gershom Bradford, "The Unknown Web- 108. 111. Note by Fletcher Webster in Private Corre- ster," Old-Time New England, vol. 44 (Fall 1953))p. 79. "Method of Making Artificial Flies," Ameri- spondence of Webster, vol. 2, p. 257. 56. can Turf Register and Sporting Magazine, vol. 2 112. Lanman, Private Life of Webster, p. 99. 48. Speech of 25 July 1852, in Kenneth E. Shew- (September 1830), pp, 35-37. 113. See Webster's autobiography in Correspon- maker, ed., Daniel Webster: "The Completest Man" 80. Genio C. Scott, Fishing American Waters dence, vol. 1, p. 14; see also Webster to Fletcher (Hanover, N.H., and London: University Press of (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1869), p. 30. Webster, 12 June 1847, in Private Correspondence of New England, iggo), pp. 293-95. 81. "Notes by the Editor:' Spirit of the Times, Webster, vol. 2, p. 257. 49. Baxter, One and Inseparable, p. 282. vol. 6,9 April 1843, p. 67. 114. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 12 June 1841, 50. Peterson, The Great Triumvirate, pp. 388- 82. Webster to Henry Cabot, 4 June 1825, in Webster Papers, New Hampshire Historical Soci- 89. Correspondence, vol. 5, p. 221. ety. 51. Webster to Millard Fillmore, 13 July 1852, in 83. For information on nineteenth-century 115. Curtis, Life of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 663-64. Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 535- hooks, see Brown, American Angler's Guide, pp. 116. Ibid., vol. 2, p. 222. 36. Lake Como had previously been called Chance 26-27. Brown preferred the Limerick to the Kirby. 117. Lanman, "The Annals of Angling:' pp. 311- Pond and today it is called Webster Lake. 84. Webster to Issac P. Davis, 26 June 1842, in 12. 52. Webster to George Ticknor, 21 February Correspondence, vol. 5, p. 221. 118. Schullery, American Fly Fishing, p. 245, 1846, in Correspondence, vol. 6, pp. 22-24. 85. Bill from Joseph West and Company for 119. Brown, American Angler's Guide, p. 17. 53. Webster to Millard Fillmore, 13 July 1852, in $12.37 for fishing tackle, 25 May 1849, Webster Pa- 120. Cornelius C. Felton as cited in Curtis, Life Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, pp. 535- pers, Dartmouth College. of Webster, vol. 2, p. 670. 36; Webster to Richard Blatchford, 30 August 1849, 86. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 11 June 1847, 121. Daniel Webster's Last Will and Testament, in ibid., vol. 2, p. 341. in Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, p. 256. 21 October 1852, in Correspondence, vol. 7, p. 370. 54. Baxter, One and Inseparable, p. 282. 87. Webster to Fletcher Webster, 17 June 1847, 122. Inventory of Daniel Webster's Estate, 1 Jan- 55. Webster to John Davis, 2 October 1838, in in ibid., vol. 2, pp. 257-58. uary 1853, in Correspondence, vol. 7, pp. 376-77. Correspondence, vol. 4, p. 331. 88. Schullery, American Fly Fishing, p. 39. 123. Webster to Charles Henry Thomas, 4 Feb- 56. Boston Atlas, 9 August 1843. 89. Scott, Fishing American Waters, p. 173. ruary 1836, in Correspondence, vol. 4, p. 82. 57. Webster to John Taylor, 14 June 1952, and go. Webster to Benjamin Welch, lo June 1847, 124. Webster to John Davis, 2 October 1838, in Webster to Taylor, 8 July 1952, both in Harvey, in Private Correspondence of Webster, vol. 2, pp. ibid., vol. 4, p. 331. Reminiscences and Anecdotes of Webster, pp. 306- 255-56- 125. Webster to Richard Blatchford, 23 August 07. 91. Timothy Hedges to Webster, 13 September 1851, in Private Correspondence of Iliebster, vol. 2, 58. Lanman, Private Life of Webster, p. 66. 1847, Webster Papers, New Hampshire Historical PP. 464-65. 59. Schullery, American Fly Fishing, p. 29. Society. 126. Richard N. Current, Daniel Webster and 60. For information on Lanman, see Dorothy 92. "An Extraordinary Acquisition: The Daniel the Rise of National Conservatism (Boston and McNeilly, "Charles Lanman:' The American Fly Webster Rod:' The American Fly Fisher, vol. 6 (Fall Toronto: Little, Brown and Company, 1955), p. 183, Fisher, vol. 11 (Summer 1984), pp. 14-19. 1979))pp. 21-22. 127. Webster to Charles Henry Thomas, 19 No- 61. Webster to Edward Everett, 27 September 93. Webster to Richard Blatchford, 15 Septem- vember 1841, Webster Papers, Dartmouth College. 1851, in Correspondence, vol. 7, pp. 274-75. ber 1851, in Private Correspondence of Webster, 128. Shewmaker, "Three Webster Letters on 62. Josephine Seaton, William Winston Seaton ~01.2, pp. 471-72. Fishing:' p. 11. of the "National Intelligencer": A Biographical 94. Webster to Blatchford, 17 July 1849, in ibid., 129. John Hope Franklin to the author, 15 May Sketch (Boston: James R. Osgood and Company, vol. 2, pp. 328-29. 1987. Needless to say, Professor Franklin is an avid 1871), pp. 297-98. 95. Webster to Blatchford, 8 August 1849, in trout fisherman.

FALL 1992 13 Lou Feierabend: From Five to Z

by Gordon M. Wickstrom

HATEVER IT WAS,we were full of it back in 1946, home safe from the wars and in col- wlege - out in Colorado -ready to take up our trouting where we had left it in 1943. We were wildly interested in every- thing new in tackle and technique: daz- zled by the new spinning reels and their maneuvers which, indeed, killed many trout in our old and favorite waters. But we knew that we needed better rods, es- pecially fly rods, than those we had left behind and now found lacking. I'd just married in 1948 when I read the Super Z. angling editor Al McClane's monthly column in Field 6 Stream (October 1948) which featured an interview with "Super Z." I was a student of slender ment engineer" with IBM. In 1965 the a man named Lou Feierabend on the means on the GI Bill, but I ordered two company moved him to our own Boul- "new" five-strip cane rod construction fly rod sets of blanks and one spinning der, Colorado, where I was occasionally method. It was the good news our gang set. With ferrules mounted and all ac- able to meet him and learn more about of young, ambitious anglers was looking cessories each set cost but $27, still a lot this vastly talented and genial man, his for- satisfying our need to be in the of money at that time for a young veter- rod building, his ferrule, and his skill in swing of things with something revolu- an. a myriad of advanced technologies. tionary to rally around. Feierabend and The gang of angling lads with whom Now, in Lou's eighty-second year, I find McClane sounded really "postwar." I had long associated joined in the buy- myself retired back home to Boulder, Perhaps it was in that same issue of ing frenzy, and Feierabend must have and at this machine, to tell his story. Field ei. Stream that there appeared one shipped at least ten rods west. We felt of those little half-inch ads for the Five that we were on an angler's road to A TRUEAUTODIDACT Star Tackle Company in Pearl River, Damascus and were bearers out west of Born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in New York, offering (I can still feel the a new dispensation. 1910, Lou's father died when he was excitement) five-strip rods! Not until I To us dazzled young fellows this dis- eleven. In order to manage the family answered the ad and got back a tant purveyor of rods was generous to a greenhouses effectively and alone, Lou's brochure did I learn that the head man fault in his correspondence about these mother sent him at the age of twelve to of Five Star was Louis B. Feierabend "sticks." We were amazed that he could Staunton Military Academy in Virginia himself. He was offering an entire series be so interested in us and we began to where he was a student for seven years. of five-strip rod blanks - fly, spinning, develop a friendship. During this time Lou found himself a and bait casting-joined by a revolu- Feierabend left rod building in 1951 guest on a trip to the Gallatin River in tionary new ferrule that he called the and hired on as "new products develop- Montana, the start of a life-long rela-

14 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER JuDe 17, 1952 L s FEIERAEIEND 2,600,629 PISIIHO ROD JOINT

' TI1.4 Jvll 11, 1919 2-1

Super Z V ,I

m r -- , 3

olV 1s Leonard

Left: Patent application drawingsfor the Super Zfer- number of years). But at the end of 1945, 1952.Above:Lou Feier- he met John Bishop who ran Rockland abed's drawings illustrate Tackle Company in Hillburn, New York, the Super Zsolution: enlarge and became Bishop's partner for a year the female tube, and only before the partnership dissolved in round the corners ofthe friendly differences over business phi- thus making the barnboo of losophy. But during that year, they were both sections identical in dl- visited by N~~ uslan who was making ameter in the joints and re- five-strip fishing rods in his shop in ducing the potential for in- Spring Valley, New York. flexibility in the rod action. Uslan had become a disciple of Min- nesotan Robert W. Crompton who ad- vocated cane rod construction of five strips over the standard six. Crompton, tionship with that state and its rivers- dilemma"- a lack of academic creden- a fine old-line craftsman, also developed love of angling was set forever. His other tials. a pressure wrapping machine for rod interests ranged over all manner of me- A true autodidact, there seemed to be building that has become a standard. chanics, especially those having to do nothing that Lou couldn't teach Uslan had recently set up shop to with aircraft and flying. himself-nothing was beyond the build and sell five-strip rods in New Unable to afford college after range of his probing mind and joyful York and frequently consulted with Staunton, he spent a year with family fascination with the world. He began his Crompton. Uslan's visits in 1942 to carnations and the Wright Manufactur- career in 1934 as an inventive, innovative Feierabend and Bishop at Rockland ing Company making model airplane engineer and designer with Wright Are- Tackle got Lou interested in rod con- parts. When the floral business began onautical Corporation in Patterson, struction. And at the same time, be- looking up in 1931, enough funds were New Jersey where World War I1 caught cause Bishop knew the fabled Jim Payne available for two and a half years of him in a job freeze until he was able to in Highland Mills, New York, he and study at the University of Miami in sci- get free and better himself with Flight Lou went there looking for rod sections ence and mathematics. But faltering Training Research in Trenton, until which they might finish into good rods business conditions at home-in those war's end in 1945. Then in 1945, he for the trade. Payne recognized Lou's dark days of the Great Depression-re- worked on the development and manu- abilities- his fine work with his hands, quired that he return to help with the facture of the Fulton Airphibian- a sin- and even finer mind for the problems of greenhouses, which, it turned out, gle vehicle for land and air that actually rod building-and took him in for a couldn't support the entire family. One worked and sold a number of pilot spring and summer of rod building. way or another though, there were two models but, says Lou, like the Cord au- Payne was eager to teach Lou all he more years at New York University tomobile, was too much ahead of its knew and suggested that the partner- night school and marriage to Lillian Rae time. ship with Bishop was a misfit-sales- Gillson whom he met at Wright Areo- Enter fishing tackle. Lou's trouting in man versus engineer, oil and water. And nautics. The stresses and strains of the Montana and his casting practice on the so, after working and "studying" under Depression kept Lou from his degree at lawns of Staunton Military Academy Payne's masterful tutelage, Lou left NYU, the lack of which haunted his ca- now began to take over his interest in Bishop and accepted Nat Uslan's invita- reer for some years. Still, there was the flying the skies, though gliders and glid- tion to come to Spring Valley and work marriage that over the long haul made ing held abiding interest for him (later as an engineer for him. In what Lou up for what Lou calls his "voluntary to dominate his restless mind for a calls Uslan's "primitive" shop (Uslan

FALL 1992 15 was sixty by then), Lou began all man- ly careful manufacture, was slow to de- gether for him. Beautiful: very much ner of technical innovation for finer rod velop. In order for the company to sur- like the rods he built. building. Uslan had advocated sawing vive, Lou turned over the business (Lou over conventional splitting of culms was part of an independent partnership into strips; Lou agreed and developed while in Uslan's emvlov. thus he was Faced with the prospect of this arti- just such a saw capable of finer toler- free to turn over his Aark'of the compa- cle, Lou only recently sat down to put ances than the old "split and plane" ny along with the use of the patent) to the argument for five-strips as succinct- method. members of the firm: Fredrika Allen ly as he could. I include it here: and Margaret Liebhauser, former col- leagues at Flight Training Research. He Primary requirements of fly, spin, and Anglers and writers like Charles Ritz, then went on with his own effort to fur- bait casting rods are power and action. Lee Wulff, and A1 McClane began show- nish anglers with five-strip rods out of The cross section of the rod largely deter- ing up in Uslan's shop where Lou could his home in Pearl River, New York, call- mines power while the taper along the talk the new, postwar language of an- ing it the Five-Star Tackle Company. length of the rod determines casting con- gling technology with the best of them. These rods represented his improve- trol and accuracy. Only three rod cross ments over the five-strip Uslan tapers sections have stood the test of time: of Happily, Lou could show them his new four-, five-, and six-strip construction. ferrule which he called Super Z after the which he found too top-heavy and slug- Bamboo has emerged over the years as increased (super) section modulus or Z. gish, and too soft in the grip area of the the ultimate natural material for con- Uslan had been having trouble with his butt. It is to Uslan's credit that he gave struction due to its unique growth char- ferrules when Lou stepped in with this the younger engineer his head in im- acteristics: a dense outer structure gradu- invention. proving both design and construction ally becoming less dense toward the cen- Everyone knows that the fault of con- methods of the brilliant new ferrule. ter of the cane. Casting a line or lure in- ventional ferrules is that they require But it wasn't enough to make a mar- vokes elongating stresses along the outer the male or upper tip section of cane to ket adequate to sustain a growing fami- curve of the rod and compressive stresses be deeply cut into through the outer ly. Fiberglass rods were coming on through the fibers along the inner portion strong. Fine bamboo fly rods were not of the rod's curvature. These lighter, inner power fibers in order that the male tube fibers act as a continuous bulkhead pre- can be accommodated by the slender, in great demand and five-strips, in spite venting collapse of the outer working lower female tube or sleeve of the fer- of an initial burst of theoretical interest, fiber walls. rule. It's at this weakened point in the didn't catch on-except with us young male that most serious rod failure oc- Coloradans. curs. The Super Z solution was to affix a So Lou threw over the manufacture tube or sleeve of nickel silver of in- of rods and signed on with IBM as an creased diameter to the lower half or engineer in 1951; he could now indulge shoulder of the female member of the his passion for gliding as he looked to ferrule that takes the wood. As in con- the west and its skies. He had been an ventional ferrules, only the corners of equally enthusiastic bow hunter since the cane construction needed to be the days back at the academy when he rounded off to take this female member. and fellow student Barry Goldwater fi- With the female tube enlarged, the nally were able to make a string strong male half no longer had to be turned enough for the bow an Indian had given down through those strong outer fibers the senator and presidential candidate- of bamboo. Now, as with the female, to-be. Transferred to Boulder, Colorado, only the corners must be sacrificed. In in 1965, Lou now had the skies for glid- On the assumption that a round sec- this way, the bamboo of both sections ing and the mountains for the elk that tioned rod would be the ideal casting tool because of its willingness to bend on any could be of identical diameters at the occasionally fell to his bow. Cane rod plane, nearly round, multistrip cane rods joints. No longer was the section modu- sections were stored away in the base- have been built, but are typically too lus of the male member dangerously cut ment of the canyon home and angling heavy and slow of action. In order to im- in order to fit a needlessly slender fe- became just one more fascinating thing prove casting efficiency, rod makers male tube. The result was a considerably to do in a virtuoso's life-repertory. adopted multistrip, multisided (polygo- shorter ferrule overall and one that, Today, in retirement, after an award- nal) construction. It is interesting to com- therefore, reduced the dead spot in the winning career with IBM, having in his pare strengthlweight considerations of action of a rod that an inflexible ferrule eighty-second year given up gliding vast the three cross sections using the circular section as a reference (see Figure 1). tends to cause. distances. he now makes telescoves.A, cre- Of course, it wasn't lost on Lou that ates time-lapse fdms of mountain air such a ferrule would be near perfect for and meteorological phenomena, designs the fast-developing fiberglass rod tech- new fly reels and oxygen delivery sys- nology with its round shaft requiring a tems for respiratory patients, and reads ferrule that could bear no cutting into at pre-Socratic philosophy, in particular, all and could tolerate no diameter dif- and the history of Western philosophy, ferential at the joint.' in general-all the while keeping up At first the hope was that there could with technical papers of all sorts. "Vir- be a livelihood in the manufacture of tuoso" is the right word for him. He's a this revolutionary new ferrule, but as it man in whom the "technical" modu- turned out, there was not. Marketing lates readilv and easilv into the sviritual for the ferrule, which required extreme- and back all ;hings coming to-

16 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Figure 2 depicts a square constructed from those of a rod of either circular or builder Everett Garrison was given the about the circle of reference. (The as- pentagonal cross section. opportunity to rebut the odd number- sumption is that increasing the material One may then ask, "If the five-strip rod sided rod theories in Field &Stream of the round section must necessarily in- is so efficient, why are there so many six- (April 1952). Garrison's thrust was that crease its strength.) Quite obviously, the strip rods on the market?" Answer: eco- the extra strength gained by the five- addition of four triangular "splines" pro- nomics. Tools, jigs, fixtures, cutters, based strip is at too high a price: the rod broke vides added strength-an increase of 27 on even divisions of 360 degrees, are percent over the basic circle. Trouble lies available everywhere. Tools required for down under all that stress, even broke in the fact that this rod no longer bends odd divisions do not exist and must be off bamboo fibers at the corner^.^ (I in- evenly in all directions as does the circular made to order. Proof models of rods terject here that I've fished Feierabend cross section. The square has two pre- based on construction theories have come five-strip rods almost exclusively for ferred bending planes across opposed flat from a very few innovators who have in- forty-four years with no degradation in sides. It wants to avoid bending across the vested substantial sums satisfying their the rods whatever. They are as sound greater strength of corner opposed by curiosity without sufficient financial gain. and fine today as in 1948.) corner. Lou B. FEIERABEND Garrison further took the position Figure 3 illustrates the five-strip rod: same round section. In this case corners that any section the sides of which de- N 1948, A1 McClane, invited Lou to scribes a circle and the corners of which join him in a "dialogue" on five-strip describe another circle will bend with Iconstruction for the October issue of equal ease in any direction. Hence, a Field Q Stream. In those pages Lou set six-strip rod, according to Garrison, will down many of the characteristics of bend readily across not the five planes of five-strip rods as opposed to the con- the five-strip, but across six! Feierabend ventional six- or even rarer four-, and as seriously disputes this on both theoreti- yet the only theoretical seven-strip rods. cal and applied grounds. In addition to his points taken above, he In any case, the three Field &- Stream argued that as a result of the five-strip's McClane columns cited above should be readiness to flex in pretty much any di- studied by anyone interested in rod con- rection, the fly fisher can, as Lou says, struction of any kind. (Beware the error "wish" the cast anywhere he wants it to in the graphic in the 1948 article show- go. A five-strip rod has less a mind of its ing the quadrate wanting to bend most own and is more at the service of the readily across corners!) And then, too, lie opposite flats. The amount of material caster - with increased power added to the reader will want to consult Mc- added to the basic circle is approximately the bargain. Casting with one can be an Clane's monumental New Standard 16 percent. Under these circumstances the astonishing and happy experience. Fishing Encyclopedia (New York: Holt, rod is strongest on planes involving a flat Rinehart and Winston, 1974), to which and an opposite corner. Planes of pre- Lou engaged in another "dialogue" ferred bending lie, however, somewhere with McClane for Field &- Stream in Lou contributed the important section between one cornerlflat pair and the ad- February of 1950 about his experimental on rods and their construction. jacent cornerlflat pair as shown by arrows work on the seven-sided rod. He pro- It may be difficult these days to put in Figure 3, thus resulting in five planes of duced rods that McClane said were like one's hands on a five-strip fly rod by preferred bending. This results in a rod of holding a mule by the hind leg, so stiff Feierabend, but should one be lucky superior strength and willingness to bend and powerful were they. In this con- enough, he or she will discover a rod of approaching that of the circular cross sec- struction the rod wants to bend directly unusual integrity and casting power, an tion. across the center of a flat to exactly its elegant tool, its sections joined by the opposing corner; hence the great stiff- most beautiful and efficient ferrule ness. ever-all of it the work of a man nf"L Early on there was concern that the great spirit who throughout his long more glue in a rod the weaker its struc- lifetime of craftsmanship, theory, and ture and efficiency might be. In five- innovation has made better and more strip construction there is no continu- pleasurable things to use. - ous glue line through the rod as in a six- sided rod. This factor was thought to strengthen the five-strip and prevent shear along a continuous plane of glue; ENDNOTES he calculated that there is 15 percent less 1. Super Z ferrules are being made once again, glue in five-strip construction. Subse- though not by that name, by Bailey D. Wood of quently, Lou built a seven-strip rod with Hyde Park, Vermont. Feierabend says that they are increased glue mass and discovered that finely made and altogether up to snuff. z. Garrison reports that Dr. George Parker 4, Figure the familiar six-strip hexago- more glue per se had no deleterious ef- Holden, author of The Idyll of the Split Bamboo, nal cross section has an increase of 10.3 fect on the rod. This, of course, depend- told Garrison just before he died in 1934 about his percent of added material to the circle. As ed on the good modern glues which recent investigation of five-strip construction. in the square, flats and corners are each Lou early advocated. Perhaps the most Garrison says that he considered the "five" idea, paired and opposite, and also, as in the telling argument, though, against a sev- but rejected it on the grounds given above. Dr. square, strength across the corners is Holden had also discussed the idea with Robert greater than that across flats. Since there en-sided cane rod is the difficulty and W. Crompton of St. Paul, who actually went on to are three pairs of flat sides, three planes of cost of manufacture. build a five-strip rod that turned out to be much preferred bending exist. As a result, cast- Following these two FeierabendJMc- too stiff and punishing, built as it was like old- ing characteristics are distinctly different Clane "articles," famed bamboo rod fashioned tapers.

FALL 1992 17 FIRST PERSON

Old Friends from the Golden Age

by Maxine Atherton

HISTORIANSCAN sometimes transform dry facts into compelling reading, but there is no substitute for firsthand ac- counts of our fly-fishing past. Maxine Atherton, widow offine artist John Ather- ton (illustrator and editor of The Fly and the Fish, and a contemporary of Norman Rockwell), shares a colo~ulfirst-person account of some of the luminaries of the Maxine Atherton (and Hollybrook Gay) on the Miramichi. golden ige of ' fly fishing: ~eorge LaBranche, Otto von Kienbusch, and Ed- ward R. Hewitt. Maxine is a tireless champion of conservation and, fortunate- various members, are a marvelous obituary, written by the editor, Sparse ly for us, she writes prolifically, even source of authentic information about Grey Hackle (Alfred W. Miller). Mem- though she is well into her eighties (hav- the heritage, development, and tradi- bers of the Anglers' Club were wonder- ing recently purchased and mastered a tions of fly fishing in North America. ful to me after John's death. computer). This article is adapted from Fundamentally, the club, a place for I knew three of the most prominent the book she is currently working on, members to meet and chat about their and active early members. The names of From the Age of Fishes. fishing experiences, was (and still is) a George LaBranche, Edward R. Hewitt, TOMROSENBAUER luncheon club. The charter members, and Otto von Kienbusch are recorded in successful industrialists with business the annals of fly-fishing history since HE ANGLERS' CLUB, one of the first offices in the area around the Stock Ex- they, having had the opportunity to fish major clubs of fly fishermen in the change on Wall Street, chose to locate extensively in England and Scotland, left TUnited States, was formed in 1906 their club headquarters in rooms over Americans a wealth of information and patterned after London's Fly Fish- Fraunces Tavern at 101 Broad Street. about what they had learned abroad ers' Club. Like the Parmachenee Club, it As I look at an issue of The Anglers' and practiced in America. LaBranche was started by a group of devoted fly Club Bulletin, published the month after and Hewitt wrote some of the most in- fishermen in New York City. Now, The John died (in 1g52), I feel sentimentally formative books ever published on the Anglers' Club Bulletin, particularly the fond of that men-only-club. A photo of subject, and von Kienbusch left behind early issues, featuring articles written by John is on the cover and inside is the a valuable heritage in his collection of George LaBranche

fishing literature and manuscripts dat- ing from the fifteenth to the nineteenth centuries, along with some charming Edward R. Hewitt old prints and original paintings. The collection is small in quantity but great in quality and now is housed at Prince- ton University. methods, for both wet and dry fly fish- The hunt resembled a drive at a George LaBranche, Edward Hewitt, ing, particularly greased-line fishing manor in England. The kennelman and Otto von Kienbusch were close with nymphs, and I found his instruc- "ran" the dogs, George and John fol- friends. George was the oldest and Otto tions easy to follow. I knew George lowed behind him with their guns, and the youngest. I thought Mr. Hewitt was LaBranche as a bright, peppery man I, the only spectator, followed behind the most relaxed and congenial of the and Mr. Hewitt told me that he was a them. The dogs performed beautifully three. Otto said George I& the finest rich man who had become richer be- and I was particularly impressed by the technician with a flv rod he had ever cause he was holding a block of shares fact that onlv two hunters had all of known. (I say John Atherton was the in Electric Boat Company when the those pheasants to themselves. finest technician with a fly rod.) Mr. Luisitania was torpedoed in 1915 [see The other guests that weekend were Hewitt said George was the leader in de- The American Fly Fisher, Spring 19921. LaBranche's sin and his wife and Mrs. veloping dry fly fishing for Atlantic John and I were living in Connecticut LaBranche. She seemed too young to be salmon and that he was the first to fish when George LaBranche invited us to the son's mother, and that strange week- with flies in salt water (at Islamorada in visit him in upper New York state one end in an American manor house ad- Florida). Mr. Hewitt (being respectful of weekend. I knew nothing about him midst vast, cleared fields holding his age, John and I always addressed then and was impressed by his country doomed pheasants, we "dressed" for him as Mr. Hewitt, and he spoke of his home, High Holt, which resembled an dinner. Mrs. LaBranche asked me if I wife as Mrs. Hewitt) cast a somewhat English manor house. Inside the guest had brought a dinner dress (a semifor- sloppy line, but he knew more about wing, the long hall with bed- and bath- mal dress with long skirt and sleeves). how and where to drop a fly, on or in a rooms on each side, seemed to go on Yes, I had, and the gentlemen wore the river. than anvone I knew. Yes. even forever. We had arrived earlv in the af- best of tweeds. Sunday supper was more than my husband. ternoon and were the only guests there. turkey hash - leftover from Sunday din- The other guests and Mrs. LaBranche ner-and was served to all but George would arrive late that afternoon, the LaBranche. He was served a whole wild I think LaBranche's book, The Dry housekeeper said. George had said he duck, rare, as it should be, and cooked Fly and Fast Water, is still the best book was going to take us hunting, so we in a marinade of red wine and spices. It I ever read on the subject of casting changed into hunting clothes. was delicious; I had been seated next to

All photographs from the archives of The American Museum of Fly Fishing FALL 1992 19 our host, and he let me taste a sliver of and I imagine she was in her late sixties. the meat. I visited him in their New York house The last time I saw George LaBranche after she died and he showed me two was years later at a reception given for lovely urns, one on each side of the fire- Mr. Hewitt by his publisher shortly be- place mantel in the living room. Her fore he died. Both men were in wheel- ashes were in one and the other one was chairs. for his ashes after he died, he said, and added that the ashes in both urns would EDWARDR. HEWITT be sprinkled into the Neversink River . Unlike LaBranche and Kienbusch, He died in 1957 at the age of ninety- Hewitt had never been a successful busi- one and I was with him in the hospital nessman and he had no desire or need the night before the surgery that took to be one for he had inherited a fortune. his life. After a quick comment that he But he was a hard worker, a valued con- would be glad when it was over, he sat servationist, and very productive. In his up in bed as though he had no intention books he left us important information of dying and asked me to visit and fish about fly fishing, and about salmon and with him next spring at the upper Nev- trout rivers. He was my favorite and he ersink. He survived the operation the was fond of John. next morning, but a couple of days later Mr. Hewitt's father had been a suc- his old heart stopped beating. cessful industrialist, one of the pioneers Otto von Kienbusch of the steel industry in ~rnericawho was associated at times with J. P. Mor- I remember Otto von Kienbusch (he gan and Andrew Carnegie. Mr. Hewitt dropped the "von" later) as more of a began fishing for trout on his father's collector than a devotee of fly fishing. written some letters of introduction for estate in ~ewJersey when he was a Other than that, I knew nothing about me to use in Spain, and while we were small boy and as a young man his father him. He had asked me to visit him and I sitting on the sofa in the armor room a took him to the Carnegie castle in Scot- had no idea why, but I went to his New voice in the spectacularly high ceiling land. Mr. Hewitt said that while York house, a brownstone off Fifth Av- said, "I'm ready." Carnegie and his father talked business, enue. I rang the doorbell and a strange I glanced up. High up at the top of a the Carnegie gillies took him fishing in man opened the door and ushered me narrow. black iron stairwav on a side the castle's salmon river. Later, Mr. He- into a large hall. He told me to go up- wall, a'very large lady draded in black witt's father was elected mayor of New stairs and open the door at the top. The silk from head to foot (somewhat like a York City. stairs went up the side of the hall wall nun's habit) was standing on the land- Mr. Hewitt said his maternal grandfa- and they seemed to go on forever. Final- ing in front of a door. Otto told her to ther, Peter Cooper, was responsible for ly at the top, I opened the door, stepped go ahead with their chauffeur and we finally getting the telegraph cable laid into a darkened room and almost ran would come later in a taxi. Silently, she across the Atlantic Ocean and for build- into the long spear of a man mounted came down the stairs, walked across the ing the first locomotive in America. on a horse-both in armor! It was room to the door in back, and vanished Cooper was also a philanthropist who somewhat of a shock because I had nev- through the doorway. gave New York City Cooper Union and er heard of Otto's armor collection. Lat- I assumed she was Mrs. von Kien- the New School for Social Research, the er, Mr. Hewitt told me, with a twinkle in busch, but why hadn't she stopped to first free night schools for working peo- his eyes, that Otto had collected armor speak to me? And why hadn't Otto in- ple in America. While comparing his for the Metropolitan Museum of Art troduced us? It all seemed very grandfather to Rockefeller, Du Pont, until he infuriated them by bidding on strange-like the movie, Dr. Jeckel and and other famous industrial tycoons of the best pieces for his own collection. Mr. Hyde, while Dr. Jeckel or Mr. Hyde, that time, Mr. Hewitt said all Peter I was about to run downstairs when a I wasn't sure which one, went on talking Cooper's male descendants had become blaze of light flashed over the room and to me as though nothing unusual had happened. hard-workingU scientists rather than Otto, a slight gray-haired man, walked prodigal dependents. through the doorway on the other side Otto had not told me we were going Hewitt's father sent Edward - after he of the huge room. A most dramatic en- somewhere that evening and I did not graduated from Princeton as a pharma- trance, indeed. He greeted me gracious- know where he was taking me in a taxi cist -to a university in Germany, which ly, showed me around the massive col- until we got there. We went to a tea at was noted for a special course in sci- lection of every kind of armor imagin- the Guild of Rare Books, of which he ence. While Edward was there he met able, led me into a smaller room, and was resident. I introduced mvself to and fell in love with Mary Ashley, who showed me his fabulous collection of Mrs. von Kienbusch, a man sitting next was traveling abroad with her mother. antiquelrare books, manuscripts, paint- to her offered me his chair. and I sat Mary and Edward were married in ings, and prints, all related to fly fishing. down and stayed beside her to the end. her parent's Montana home (James He then took me back to the armor We talked about art rather than rare Ashley was the governor of Montana) room. and while we sat at the end of the books, and I was delighted to learn that and lived in New York. Mary Hewitt was room on a sofa in front of a glowing Mildred von Kienbusch was familiar an invalid when I first met her and Mr. fireplace, he offered to help me plan my with, and an admirer of, John Ather- Hewitt was doing everything possible to trip to Spain. ton's museum paintings. keep her alive. Never have I known a A week or so later Otto phoned and Later, after I returned from Spain, more devoted husband. He was seventy asked me to visit him again. He had Otto invited me to go one weekend with

20 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER ber of The Anglers' Club who had ships going back and forth from New York to Santander. had answered the notice and promised to have a captain of one of his ships get the reel. I had met Acheson Harden during a field trial at Hot Springs in Virginia years ago. I had been seated next to him at dinner in the ballroom, the evening after a day in the field with springer spaniels. It wasn't long before I found that I was sitting next to a fly fisher and a most attractive man. ~urin~our con- versation I told him that I had fished at Parmachenee in September, without my husband. but with his urecious Leonard trout rod. I describe2 every detail of catching landlocked salmon with flies, told him about the beauty of the Maine woods, about the sunsets, and described how the guide had taught me how to cast with with a book under my arm (to keep the rod from going too far back- John Atherton and his Hewitt reel on the Bi wa;d). I loved my husband's Leonard rod, I said, and didn't want to give it back to him. Several months later I received a mys- him to Wyandanche, an exclusive club when I unpacked my duffle bag and dis- terious package in the mail. A fly rod, on Long Island for trout fishermen. I covered my Hewitt reel was gone. Lucki- my first, very own rod! It was a Powell have been told it is now a state park ly, I had another trout reel with me, but rod and inside the package a note from with fishing open to the public. I would I phoned Sefior Camino at once, told Mr. Powell said that Mr. Harden had have loved to fish there, but was afraid him I had lost the reel, probably at the asked him to make the rod and send it of becoming a collector's item, so de- Saia., , and asked him to trv and find it for to me. I loved it. Powell fly rods, made clined the invitation. me. A week later I received a letter from in California, were the most popular Otto was ninetv-one when he died. him, saying that he had not found the custom-made rods in the West at that and although he bicame blind, he neve; reel, but would keep looking. time. I sat down at my desk and wrote stopped fishing. Some years later I met I had to return to New York without Acheson Harden an effervescent thank his daughter and was surprised to learn the reel, but the following December I you note, which he never acknowl- from her that Otto had been a talented sent a Christmas card to Seiior Camino. edged. artist, but never had the chance to de- A week later I received a letter from him I had heard nothing about him until velop the talent. Mr. Hewitt said Otto's saying that he had the reel and would Sparse told me ~chesonHarden was go- father had made a large fortune in the have written sooner if he had known my ing to get my Hewitt reel back to me. tobacco business, which Otto had inher- address. Mr. Hewitt had engraved his Sparse advised me to write to Sefior ited and as a career had to manage it. signature and my name on the reel and Camino, tell him about Acheson, and What a pity! Sefior Camino, a devoted fly fisher, ap- ask Camino to take the reel to the presi- preciated the importance and sentimen- dent of the bank in Santander. I did as tal value of the reel. He said he did not Sparse suggested, and a few weeks later Other members of The Angler's Club want to send the reel through" the cus- the president of the bank personally helped me. To show that fly fishers are toms office in Spain, where things got handed my Hewitt reel to the captain of no ordinary creatures, I will relate a true lost, and advised me to send him the an American ship (one of Acheson's). story about the adventures of my pre- name of a reliable man who was going The captain put the reel in the ship's cious Hewitt trout reel. Mr. Hewitt had to Santander, would get the reel there, safe and sailed it across the Atlantic made it by hand and John had bought and deliver it to me in New York. Ocean to New York City. There, he per- and given it to me on my birthday. Mr. Delighted to learn that he had the sonally delivered the reel to Acheson Hewitt had made several of those reels, reel, I telephoned Alfred Miller (Sparse Harden. who uhoned and said that he had carved them out of solid aluminum Grey Hackle), and after I read Sefior had the reel, was sending it to me by and sold them, but only to special Camino's letter to him, he agreed to do special messenger, and asked me to let friends who were members of The An- what he could, which consisted of him know if and when I received the glers' Club. My reel was not as polished putting a notice in the Bulletin, and one reel. The messenger delivered the reel to and finished as the others, but it was on the bulletin board at The Anglers' me, I phoned Acheson, thanked him special because it was the original, the Club, asking any member going to profusely, and never heard from him first one Mr. Hewitt had made, and he Spain in the near future to get in touch again. had become a very special man in the with him. Indeed, if that special trout reel had world of fly fishers. A few days later, Sparse phoned me been the crown jewels, it wouldn't have I was at the Parador Tormes in Spain and said that Acheson Harden, a mem- had better care. -

FALL 1992 21 much better than the world-famous Maxine Remembered Test, Itchen, and others of England. But one never hears of them because they AMONGMAX'S PAPERS, historical material, and artifacts, many of which she has do- are all privately owned and so closely nated to this Museum and other anglinglconservation concerns, is this charming and held that it is impossible for a stranger warm profile written by her old friend, Sparse Grey Hackle, circa 1955. without excellent personal connections to get access to them. Any stranger but ACHIEVINGCOMPLETE DEVOTION to an- ton; even the village grocer in Arlington, Max, that is. She went to Paris, and got gling was for Max a long and initially whom she respectfully called Mr. Jones, some of the most utterly gorgeous, clas- abrasive process. She willingly aban- called her Max. sic nymph fishing in Normandy that re- doned a career in art to marry John With the exception of spelling the mains in the whole world. Can't speak Atherton, later a well-known artist. But commonest words (she's a finishing French, either. it took many an arduous lesson and school girl), Max can do anything; She traveled once "down on the much fervent exhortation to even inter- specifically, she can cook like a gour- Labrador" to fish some unnamed arctic est her in the fly fishing which was Jack's met's dream. Dogs, kids, farmhouse river teeming with salmon and black consuming passion. women, and people of every calling and flies. This fantastic journey involved the The landlocked salmon waters of station are automatically her friends and use of various minor units of trans- Maine, the Atlantic salmon rivers of admirers. But she is a ladv through" and portation including a converted ice Canada, and Edward R. Hewitt's famous through, from the five-gaited-horse breaker. The Eskimo women who were preserve on the upper Neversink were aristocracy of Kentucky, and her quality aboard crowded in to watch Max dress her schoolrooms, but she did her post- shines out so strongly that no one ever and she, sympathizing with their curios- graduate work on the Vermont Bat- can be in doubt as to who and what she ity, showed them. She stayed with a mis- tenkill, on the banks of which she and is. That is her shield, weapon, and pass- sionarv familv.,, and later with an Eskimo Jack dwelt. port in every situation. family, in a miserable little coastal vil- In those days the Battenkill trout One time or another, Max has fished lage; helped decorate the church for an -browns, of course -averaged 14 inch- Pacific Northwest steelhead and trout epochal visit of the lieutenant-governor es and there was an abundance of 3- to streams, many of the eastern Canadian (he didn't come); and made friends with 5-pounders, all in splendid condition. salmon streams, just about all the good the entire aboriginal population. When the Hendrickson, that river's best trout water in New York and New Eng- And finally, with two Eskimo boys for hatch, was on, Max and Jack ranged up land, and all of the classic streams. company and chores, she camped and and down the stream all day long until Just recently I heard a Pennsylvania fished for two weeks beside the tidal they were as gaunt as wolves. Dutchman telling of the fascinating Max pool of this salmon river. Besides doing On this infinitely rewarding, but Atherton with whom he had fished with much fishing, she: (I) tried to short-cut supremely taxing, water Max learned to on the Miramichi, and two years ago, around a hill and came within a whisker fish with the skill as well as the vertinac- when I went to Roscoe on the of being permanently lost in the endless, ity of an otter, and made hersek the best Beaverkill, I was told everywhere I went featureless Labrador "bush":,\, (2) fished fisherman (or woman) with the nymph that "Max Atherton was just here." too long on the wrong side of the tidal that I have ever seen. The full exploita- When I finally got her on the telephone, pool one evening and came within an- tion of that artificial lure is, to me, the she sang out in a bosun's voice: "Hello, other whisker of being permanently most exacting of angling techniques. Sparse! Have you heard? They're closing drowned when she fought her way How she fished! I remember once the rivers at noon on account of forest- across the rising tide-current; (3) ate, watching her force her way upstream to fire hazard. We're all going away up the slept, and lived in universal muskeg the head of a swift, deep run. She had Willowemoc where the warden can't mud and moisture for two weeks, al- been stemming that heavy current for find us. Come along!" and she chortled most; and (4) had to go without a hot hours, but she held her rod like a like a schoolgirl. That was typically Max; bath for the same length of time. couched lance and charged as fiercely as but my point is that she was recognized Max's account of this trip is more hi- any knight going into battle. and reported wherever she went. larious than mine would have been, but Jack Atherton died in 1952 at the Max's first fishing trip alone was you can see that she is a dauntless threshold of his artistic promise-died made, without introductions or any woman. I have never seen her afraid of of a heart attack in the Miramichi with knowledge of the language, to try the anything. In fact, what gave her more his waders on, right after a hot battle alpine rivers in Spain for salmon and standing in that community than any- with a big salmon. Soon afterward their trout. She had a wonderful time, board- thing else was her contempt for bears, of daughter married. With no close ties or ed for a week with a peasant couple, and which there apparently are a lot in demanding responsibilities, and some by the time she came home had every- Labrador. modest financial resources, Max was one from the river guardians to the di- But alas, she lost her reputation all in free to go fishing. She has been going rector of tourism and the foremost a few minutes. The entire village was ever since. ichthyologist of Spain working for her. turned out, one evening, by an unbro- Max is composed of energy and en- She went to France the same way. The ken series of fire-siren shrieks emanat- thusiasm and locked-in atomic vower: if chalk formation which is the reservoir ing from Max's bedroom. When a group she ever stopped moving she'd just dis- for the classic English chalk streams dips finally mustered the courage to burst in, appear. Her husky voice continually up- down and passes under the English they found her almost literally perched on the ceiling. hvsterical and incoherent. lifts in laughter, and I can't remember Channel-hence the white cliffs of "I , what she looks like when she isn't smil- Dover -to rise again in Normandy and It seems a plain, ordinary mouse had ing. No one ever calls her Mrs. Ather- nourish chalk streams which are, in fact, sauntered in and glared at her.

22 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER GALLERY

N 1935 DERRYDALE PRESS PUBLISHED author Preston donate the unpublished material and copyright of the Jennings's book, A Book of Trout Flies, now recognized book which was to be titled The Fish and the Fly, an exten- Ias one of the major milestones in American angling sion of his first book in which Jennings planned to explore writing. It was the first successful attempt to catalog the entomology, fish vision, the properties of light, and the major insect hatches in a region and will always stand as imitation of insects. the prototypical angler's entomology for Americans. The approximate time during which this work was ac- It was with some excitement that the Museum received complished was the 1950s Jennings had published a series the manuscript collection of Preston Jennings in 1980, of articles in the 1940s on trout vision, insect translucency, generously donated by Mrs. Preston Jennings. Included in and related subjects, and it seems probable that some of this memorabilia are his notes and letters on hatching se- that material was intended for inclusion in this book. quences; considerable correspondence with such notable In the Jennings papers are five separate bundles of authors as T. Price-Tannet, Letcher Lambuth, and Lee pages titled "Introduction" and a sixth entitled "Preface." Wulg hand-painted line art of insects; photos of the au- He had aspirations of exploring the philosophy of angling thor; flies tied by various well-known artists, as well as as- in the aesthetic sense and this seems to be the recurring sorted odds and ends. But the gem of the collection was theme in his introduction. The Museum is proud to make the unfinished manuscript of a book. available to the public these previously unavailable writ- Museum Trustee Nick Lyons arranged the acquisition ings from one of our most significant angling authors. - of the manuscript and Mrs. Jennings was good enough to CRAIGTHOMAS

Photograph by Cook Neilson FALL 1992 23 The American Museum of Fly Fishing Post Office Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. 802-362-3300 JOIN! Memership Dues (per annum*) Associate* $25 New Exhibitions for 1993 tionist Sigurd Olson, the brilliant pho- Sustaining* $50 In addition to many of the celebrato- tography of David Brown, the engaging Patron* $250 ry special events now being planned to art of naturalist Robert Perkins, as well Sponsor* $500 commemorate our twenty-fifth anni- as other delectable objects from our ex- Corporate* $1000 versary next year, Museum members tensive collections. Life $1500 will enjoy an array of exciting new exhi- Hardly a week goes by before another Membership dues include the cost of a bitions that will be installed at the Mu- visitor asks to see the tackle of fly fishing subsciption ($zo)to The American Fly seum for visitors to savor. personalities like Bing Crosby, President Fisher. Please send your application to One of the most interesting exhibits Eisenhower, and that perennial favorite, the membership secretary and include should be a large display devoted to the Ernest Hemingway. Starting in the your mailing address. The Museum is a evolution of the fly reel, drawn from the spring of 1993, Museum visitors will be member of the American Association Museum's substantial reel holdings, par- able to view the tackle of such notables of Museums, the American Association ticularly our Frederic Sharf Reel Collec- as bandleader Glenn Miller, President of State and Local History, the New tion. Jim Brown, author of the Muse- Jimmy and First Lady Rosalyn Carter, author John Voelker (a.k.a. Robert England Association of Museums, the um's popular book A Treasury of Reels, Vermont Museum and Gallery Alli- will serve as one of our project consul- Traver), President Dwight Eisenhower, cance, and the International Associa- and the immortal Babe Ruth, among tion of Sports Museums and Halls of tants and will lend his own considerable expertise to the preparation of an exhi- others. Our offerings for 1993 will in- Fame. We are a nonprofit, educational clude something for everyone. institution chartered under the laws of bition catalog. the state of Vermont. Many members have asked our staff about the possibility of preparing an ex- "Anglers All" Moves on to SUPPORT! hibition on canoes and fly fishing. Yale University As an independent, nonprofit, institu- Everyone, it seems, loves canoes and the After two highly successful exhibi- tion, the American Museum of Fly natural affinity that exists between these tions this year at the Catawba Science Fishing must rely on the generosity of graceful, functional craft and fishing. Center in Hickory, North Carolina (Jan- public-spirited individuals for substan- With this in mind, we are developing an uary to May), and the Wildlife of the tial support. We ask that you give our exhibit dedicated to the fly rod and the American West Art Museum, in Jackson institution serious consideration when canoe. Although in the early stages of Hole, Wyoming (August to October), planning for gifts and bequests. development, we hope to include the "Anglers All," the Museum's largest trav- tackle of the legendary author/conserva- eling exhibit, moves on to the Peabody

Summer hours (May 1through October Courtesy of the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History 31) are lo to 4. Winter hours (Novem- ber 1through April 30) are weekdays lo to 4. We are closed on major holidays. BACK ISSUES! The following back issues of The American Fly Fisher are available at $4 per copy: Volume 6, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Volume 7, Numbers 2,3 Volume 8, Number 3 Volume 9, Numbers I, 2,3 Volume lo, Number 2 Volume 11, Numbers 1,2,3,4 Volume 12, Number 3 Volume 13, Number 3 Volume 14, Numbers 1, 2 Volume 15, Numbers i,2 Volume 16. Numbers 1.2.3. ." Volume 17, Numbers I, 2,3 The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale Ui~iversityiiz New Haven, Connecti- Volume 18, Numbers 1,2,3 cut, will host our travelling exhibit, 'Xnglers All," from December 4 to April 1993.

24 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Museum of Natural History, Yale Uni- sury of Reels by angling scholar Jim versity in New Haven. Connecticut. Brown, which has now been released in Fly Contest Rules wherl it will be open to the public from three best-selling editions. 1. The contest is open to all members December 4,1992 to April 1993. of the American Museum of Fly Fishing. This will be the ninth showing of 2. Flies must be tied by the person "Anglers All" since 1985, and it should submitting the entry. be one of the best. Staff members from 3. Participants are limited to two en- the Peabody and AMFF-joined at times tries. by AMFF officers Foster Bam and Gard- 4. Each entry must by accompanied ner Grant, and special friend, author1 by an entry form, pattern name, photo professor Ed Migdalski- have met on a With the thousands of fly patterns of the fly, and the recipe, along with a regular basis over the last few months that have been created, it seems espe- short description of what the fly repre- both in New Haven and in Manchester cially fitting that the Museum, soon to sents in relation to the American Muse- to lay the groundwork for the exhibi- celebrate its twenty-fifth anniversary as um of Fly Fishing and its mission to tion, discussing design, script, and plans the "keeper" of fly fishing's rich her- preserve fly fishing's history. for associated lectures, educational pro- itage, adopt a pattern of its own as part 5. Flies must be easily reproducible; grams, and fund-raising opportunities. of the celebration. Since we already the Museum plans to use reproduction In addition to a unique opening of know that there are literally hundreds of as part of its fund-raising activities. the exhibition on December 4 (to which Museum members -young and old, ex- 6. Flies must be tied with readily all AMFF members and friends will be pert and novice- who regularly tie flies, available, nonexotic materials. invited), a gala dinnerlauction will also we thought we would offer all of you a 7. The final date for submission of en- be held on December lo. All proceeds chance to create an "Official Museum tries is March 15, 1993 (received at the from the evening will benefit the respec- Fly" as part of our twenty-fifth anniver- Museum by that date). tive operating funds of AMFF and the sary celebrations. 8. The panel of judges' decision is fi- Peabody Museum of Natural History. The rules, given below, are fairly nal. The winner will be announced at Museum members will receive mailings straightforward. We are, however, espe- the Museum's Festival Weekend Dinner, about both events this fall. If you live cially interested in entries that will visu- June 5, 1993 and in the Museum's quar- near, or plan to travel to, the New ally represent the Museum and its mis- terly journal, The American Fly Fisher. Haven, Connecticut, area you won't sion: to preserve the valuable legacy of 9. All flies entered become the exclu- want to miss this magnificent exhibi- fishing. For further information contact sive property of the American Museum tion. For further information call us at Alanna Fisher, the Museum's curator, at of Fly Fishing and will be added to the 802-362-3300. Museum's permanent collection. Work on Rod Book Begins The Museum has initiated another I publishing project sure to interest our The American Museum of Fly Fishing's 25th Anniversary I members and the angling community in general. This spring, work officially be- "OFFICIAL FLY" CONTEST gan on a catalog, similar in content and style to AMFF's A Treasury of Reels, ENTRY FORM devoted solely to the Museum's fabulous collection of rods. I I The book is being written by long- I I Name I time Museum volunteer David Klaus- I I I I meyer of Steuben, Maine. Dave is cer- I I Address: I tainly no stranger to the world of fly I I fishing, having been a maker of fine I I City: Zip Code: I I cane rods and a keen studentlwriter of I I I the art for many years. Dave is also a de- I I Phone: 1 voted friend of the Museum who gives 1 I several hundred hours of his time to us I I Pattern name: Type of fly: I I I every year. I I I I Aiding Dave in this herculean en- I I deavor (the Museum now holds a fasci- 1 In addition to the fly itself, please include: I I I nating array of nearly 1,400 rods) will be 1 I I I Jon Mathewson, AMFF's new registrar I __photo recipe short description I I I 1 I and a qualified historical researcher in I I I his own right. We feel we have the right 1 Signature: I team assembled to vroduce a book that I will be a fitting companion piece to Paul Schullery's American Fly Fishing: A His- I I I M A I L YO u R EN T RY TO : The American Museum of Fly Fishing, P.0. Box 42, 1 tory, and our highly successfuc~Trea- I I I Route 7A & Seminary Avenue, Manchester, Vermont 05254. I I I L------_-_------A

FALL 1992 25 NOWin Paperback! Available for the first time in paperback, A Treasury of Reels: The Fishing Reel Collection of the American Museum of Fly Fishing A Treasurv ofReels: The Fishing Reel Collec- chronicles one of the largest and finest public collections of fly don of ~hkAJmerican Museum if ~1~ ~i~hi~~reels in the world. ~rought together in-this richly diverse and uouular1 L book, which includes more than .750 - reels svannina Introduction and catalog by Jim Brown nearly two centuries of British and American reelmaking: are any tique, classic, and modern reels; those owned by presidents, en- Photographs by Bob O'Shaughnessy tertainers, novelists, angling luminaries, and reels owned and used by everyday anglers. -

Author Jim Brown has written extensively on the history of fly reels. His first book, Fishing Reel Patents of the United States 1838- 1940, is now regarded as a standard reference work in the field. Bob O'Shaughnessy is a Boston-based photographer and dedicat- ed salmon fisherman.

A Treasury of Reels can be ordered for $29.95, plus $5 postage and handling, from the American Museum of Fly Fishing, P. 0. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254; 802-362-3300. Proceeds from the sale of this book directly benefit the Museum. Museur Gift Shop

Special limited edition print, Four-color exhibition posters "Lost Pool," by John Swan. printed on high-quality glossy Printed on acid-free paper (15 %" stock, ample borders. Each x 26 ?A1'),ample borders. Each poster is $15, plus $2.50 postage signed and numbered print, $95. and handling. Postage and handling included.

Our t-shirts are loo% preshrunk cotton. Specify color (navy, cream, hunter green, or heather gray) and size (S, M, L, XL), $15 each, plus $2 postage and handling. Museum hats featuring brilliant Durham Ranger salmon fly; specify cor- duroy (beige or teal, $12.50) or supplex (bright blue or teal, $13.50). Updowners (with earlneck flaps) available in bright blue or gray ($19.50). Hats: one size fits all; add $2 postage and han- dling. Pewter pin features our logo in silver on forest green background. Vest patch is silver and black on Dartmouth green background; $5 each, "World of the Salmon" plus $1 postage and handling. (Ogden Pleissner image, 26" x 22")

"Time On the Water" "An Artist's Creel" "Water, Sky, and Time" by John Swan (26" x 20") by Peter Corbin (26" x 23") by Adriano Manocchia (25" x 22") IPlease make checks ayable to AMFF and send to l? 0. Box 42, Manchester, VT, 05254. Mastercarif Visa, and American Express accepted. Call 802-362-3300. From a Father I was surprised and pleased when I opened the Summer edition of The American Fly Fisher. Your generous trib- ute to Craig and the inclusion of one of LETTERS his writings was most gratifying. I'm sorry that Jamie and I could not spend more time browsing in June. The Muse- um appears to be going great guns, and the magazine format is more attractive and sprightly. Thanks for the reel of the sport of fly fishing thanks to your A Thank-you Letter book-it's most enlightening. efforts. The fly-tying demonstration Dick Woods I would like to extend my deepest that Joe gave was one of the high points Chagrin Falls, Ohio thanks to all concerned for the honor of of the tour. Am looking forward to being voted Joe A. Pisarro 1992 Volun- coming back again next semester. Diptera Visitor teer of the Year. That the award is Jack Fragomeni Thanks for the wonderful hospitality named for Joe Pisarro, who has become College of Saint Rose you showed me when you allowed me a good friend, and that I share the com- Albany, New York pany of [1991 winner] Angus Black, is to come to the ~useumandstudv awav. It was a real treat to pick up and read trulv, icing" on the cake. Praise for the Journal In my professional and private life I This has been a wonderful week. To- through angling books I had only heard have been associated with a goodly day Hermann Kessler let me borrow the about. I hope to be able to come back number of national, state, and local or- latest issue of The American Fly Fisher. again. I feelas though I just got started ganizations, but none the caliber of Where have I been? He also let me bor- down an interesting but long road of AMFF. One cannot help but be im- row back copies-I'll never catch up. discovery. What a great job you are do- pressed by the enthusiasm and concern Went cover to cover and truly enjoyed ing at the Museum in making the li- all who are touched by the Museum the contents. No fluff;just pure meat brary and artifacts available to those show for it. Not superficially or as a so- and potatoes, and great writing. Our vis- who seek the opportunity to learn about cial or patronal obligation, but in a gen- its are always a joy and eagerly antici- fly-fishing history. uinely caring way. This in no small way pated. Jim Cannon is due to the efforts of staff who have Bob Clapp Evergreen, Colorado transformed a repository into a vibrant, Great Barrington, Massachusetts dvnamic entitv. The vhrase "museum Jim Cannon, co-owner of The Blue Quill family" is a daily goal and reality. Blood, Sweat, and Tears Acknowledged Angler, Evergreen, Colorado, is currently I treasure the acquaintances and We just wanted to drop you a quick writing a book devoted to midge fishing friends that I have made and the time note to let you know how much we en- and Diptera midge patterns. Those read- that I have spent there. My fondest wish joyed the AMFF Annual Festival Week- ers who wish to submit original Diptera is that my association with you all will end. As always, the weekend was well patterns, or who can supply period and continue for a very long time to come. planned and executed with perfection. contemporary references about Diptera Don Catalfzmo A lot of hard work (blood, sweat, and patterns, can contact Jim at The Blue Amsterdam, New York tears) went into the weekend. The Mu- Quill Angler, 1532 Highway 74, Evergreen, Colorado 80439,303-674-4700. The Museum as Theravv seum looks great-it gets better and better. Keep up the good work. (Terrific I would like to express my gratitude article on the Museum in Summer Fly A Nick Anecdote for a tour of the Museum organized for Rod ei. Reel. Hope it generates lots of I would like to acquaint you and your a group of our patients on April 3,1992. members.) readers with an interesting and reveal- They remarked quite favorably on the Judi and Dave Shirley ing vignette about Nick Lyons, whose talks given by the staff and they were Stratham, New Hampshire fine article in the Spring issue prompted delighted by the fly-tying demonstra- me to go public about this incident. In tion. Many thanks for making this won- an article about Nick in the University derful science and history museum ac- of Pennsylvania's alumni magazine, cessible to us. there was mention of a book he pub- Susan Burton lished titled The Long Walk (not about Activities Therapist, St. Mary's Hospital fishing, but the most amazing story of Amsterdam, New York endurance and courage I have read). Having seen a review several years pre- School Tour viously, I had been looking for the book, Thanks again for the great tour of the but it was out of print until Nick picked Museum. The students of PED 154, Col- it up. I wrote him at Lyons & Burford to lege of Saint Rose, Albany, and I had a get a copy. Apparently they were out of wonderful time. Their comments dur- the book, but he sent me a very gracious ing the following week's class were very letter about having a slightly "rubbed" positive and enthusiastic. They have a copy (looked perfect to me) which he greater insight into the history and lore mailed to me with his compliments.

FALL 1992 27 Here is a man who makes his living sell ing books, giving one away to someonl -- he doesn't even know- who would hav~ CONTRI BUTORS been happy to pay for it in any event - - You were right in your foreword abou his importance to fly-fishing literature and I would add that he not only come across in his writings as a nice fellov Maxine Atherton lives in Dorset, Ver- you would like to go fishing with, bu mont, not too many miles from her old turns out to be that and more. house (located in Arlington, above the Gene Arnold Battenkill). The widow of John Ather- Berwyn, Pennsylvanir ton, she spent many years fishing the Miramichi and established for herself a A Tyer Too? reputation as both a respected salmon Mr. P. D. Malloch who carved tha fly fisher and a fearless, inexhaustible beautiful model on page lo of ROI conservationist. At present, she is fin- Swanson's "Fish Models, Plaques, anc ishing a book called From the Age of Effigies" in Summer 1992 was also Fishes. dresser of Atlantic salmon flies. On fl plate 15 of Bates's book, The Art of th Atlantic Salmon Fly, is a fly called Th Ghost tied by Mr. Malloch. I can find nc other reference to him in the book Someone should research this fact. John H. Pierc Grass Valley, Californi, Stuart Bratesman Just All-Around Good Words Kenneth E. Shewmaker is a professor at Dartmouth College where he teaches I enjoyed the Summer issue of Th the history of American foreign policy. American Fly Fisher. The personal not Among his publications is a two-vol- in the beginning; the Swanson article oi ume edition of The Papers of Daniel fish models; the piece on John Aldei Webster, Diplomatic Papers (University Knight; Notes & Comment. . . . Indee~ Press of New England, 1983-1987),which the whole journal was wonderful read he edited. His most recent book is ing. Thank you. Daniel Webster, "The Completest Man" David Ros (University Press of New England, 199o), Princeton, New Jerse an assessment of Webster's multifaceted career as politician, as orator and writer, A Nice Mix as lawyer, and as secretary of state. Pro- Nick Lyons sent me a copy of Th fessor Shewmaker loves to fly fish for ~merican'Fly Fisher in connection wit1 trout and salmon, and, like Daniel Web- some research I am doing. What a real1 ster, he has learned how to occasionally nice magazine! The articles are format combine scholarship and pleasure. ted in a very reader-friendly layout an1 the content, at least in the Spring 199 issue, nicely mixed technical stuff an1 reminiscences. I particularly enjoyed th Daniel P. Marschka article on High Holt and the mention c Gordon M. Wickstrom is professor of the Green River and Columbia Count; drama, emeritus, at Franklin and Mar- My casual angling friend, Stephen FOJ shall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. also liked that article because he is He has recently retired to his native BerkshiresIHudson River architectur Boulder, Colorado, where he fishes, buff. writes, gardens, and enjoys his old John Rowa~ hometown. He is a sometime contribu- Altamont, New Yori tor to Gray's Sporting Journal where his "Strawberries on the Coln: A Confes- sion" (Gray's, Spring 1988) was awarded the Charles F. Orvis Prize for Distinc- THEAMERICAN FLY FISHER welcomes tion in Writing on Angling in 1990. To letters and commentary from its read- alliterate: he owns five Feierabend five- ers. Please write to Editor, TAFF, P. 0. strip fly rods. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254. All letters are subject to publication unless otherwise specified.

28 THE AMERICAN FLY FISHER Illustratioll from The Rob Roy on he Baltic by J. MacGregor

Summer and Other Wonderful Things

HEY TEND TO GET shorter every Museum will hold at least two "gala cele- such as the conservation of our Mary year, don't they? Summers, I brations in 1993 to commemorate its Orvis Marbury Collection, the expan- Tmean. This summer found the twenty-fifth consecutive year of opera- sion of our library, the publication of Museum at a turning point in its histo- tion. The first, now being planned by our new book on the Museum's rod col- ry. There is that distinct something, a the Museum staff, will be held during lection, our official accreditation, the feeling that is palpable at times, that as the Fourth Annual Museum Festival addition of another staff member, and an institution we are entering a new era, Weekend - June 4, 5, 6, 1992 -and will many other projects. having discovered a new strength, and a feature the opening of an art exhibition Though all too brief, the summer of redefined sense of purpose. In short, we by internationally known artist Chet 1992 was a memorable season for me, a continue to evolve. Reneson. Other suecial events will be a season of growth. The memories of the Having completed a year-long "self- Twenty-fifth Anniversary International wonderful things I did this summer study" project, submitted to the Ameri- Symposium on Fly Fishing (to be -the scuba dives, sea kayaking on Lake can Association of Museums in July, we chaired and moderated by Professor Superior with my children, the feel of have only recently learned that our Richard Hoffmann of York University, sun, sand, and rock, and the research "study" has passed first muster-a sig- North York, Ontario, Canada), as well trips to Canada-all remain fresh, but nificant accomplishment in itself. Now as an expanded version of our annual suddenly I realize too, that it has been the Museum family continues its jour- Manchester dinnerlauction, the open- five very eventful years now since I ney down the road of the accreditation ing of a number of new exhibitions, an joined the Museum. I feel a great sense process to a meeting of AAM's national open house and much more. Later next of fulfillment both personally and pro- Accreditation Commission later this summer, the Museum will officially cel- fessionally when I observe how far we vear. ebrate its twenty-fifth with a birthday have progressed in that time. I like what Equally exciting is the news from our bash at Robert Todd Lincoln's historic I see. Still, I know that the best is yet to Twenty-fifth Anniversary Committee, "Hildene," also held here in Manchester. come. which is being chaired by trustees Additionally, we will continue to DONJOHNSON Richard Kress and Richard Tisch. The work on a great many other projects, EXECUTIVEDIRECTOR THEAMERICAN MUSEUM OF FLY FISHING, a nonprofit educational institution dedicat- ed to preserving the rich heritage of fly fish- ing, was founded in Manchester, Vermont, in 1968. The Museum serves as a repository for, and conservator to, the world's largest collec- tion of angling and angling-related objects. The Museum's collections and exhibits pro- vide the public with thorough documenta- tion of the evolution of fly fishing as a sport, art form, craft, and industry in the United States and abroad from the sixteenth century to the present. Rods, reels, and flies, as well as tackle, art, books, manuscripts, and pho- tographs, form the major components of the Museum's collection. The Museum has gained recognition as a unique educational institution. It supports a publications program through which its na- tional quarterly journal, The American Fly Fisher, and books, art prints, catalogs, and newsletters are regularly offered to the pub- lic. The Museum's traveling exhibits pro- gram has made it possible for educational exhibits to be viewed across the United States and abroad. The Museum also pro- vides in-house exhibits, related interpretive programming, and research services for mem- bers, visiting scholars, authors, and students. The Museum is an active, member-orient- ed nonprofit institution. For information, please contact: The American Museum of Fly Fishing, P. 0. Box 42, Manchester, Vermont 05254, 802-362-3300,