The Pennsylvania Lion Or Panther

Home , Blue Hill (New York), The Panther (horse)

T he A l to o n a T ri b u n e Pu bl i shi n g Co .

A LTO O N A , P E N N A .

l 9 l 7

C O PY R I G H T E D A L L R I G H T S R E S E RV E D

H O N . C L E MA N . S O B E R O K ,

F o r 2 1 ea r n n i i o Y s a M e m b e r of th e P e n sy l va a G a m e C o m m i ss n . — o r R e n o n e h o t I n ti m t F ri n a ro H l W ld w d S a e e d of A n a l .

Pre face H istory Description Habits Early Prevalence The Great S laughter The Biggest Panther Diminish ing Numbers

The Last Phase 44 - 48

- — R e Introduction " Sporting. Possibilities 49 52

Superstitions 53—57 Tentative List o f Panthers Killed in Pennsylvania S ince 1 860

I I I f X . Ode to a Stu fed Panther

I . PREFACE .

H E obj ect o f this pamphlet is to produce a narra tive blending the history and romance of the

once plenti ful Lion of Pennsylvania . While pages have been written in natural histories describing ’ this animal s unpleasant characteristics , not a word has been said in its favor . It has never even had an apol o g eti c . In reality the Pennsylvania Lion needs no defenders , as those who understand him realize the nobility of his nature . From reading John W . God ’ “ H ” b man s American Natural istory , pu lish ed in 1 828 , one would imagine that the Pennsylvania Lion , or , as it i s most commonly called , the panther , was a “ " most terrible beast . Among other things he says In the daytime th e cougar is seldom seen , but its peculiar cry frequently t hrills the experienced traveler with ”

the . horror , while camping in forest for th e night “ Even Mary Jemison , The White Woman o f the Gen “ essee , speaks of the terri fying shri eks o f the fero ci o u s panther , as she heard it in her childhood days on

. I n Marsh Creek , Franklin County reality the pan f ther was an ino fensive creature , desiring only to be ‘ re let alone , yet brave when attacked by dogs , and s ectfu l A p o f man . single hunter in St . Lawrence

me t e County , New York , five panthers tog ther , of which , with his dog and gun , he killed three at the m and ti e the next day th e other two . Th e first settlers finding it in the woods set out to kill it as they did O OR THE PENNSYLVANIA LI N PANTHER . with every other living thing from the paroquet to the

- e heath cock , from the northern hare to the pin marten , f rom the passenger pigeon to the wild turkey , without m i . co n o cal l trying to study it , or give it a chance E v the panther was of great value for the hide , meat , and oil , and as the ﬁnest game animal which Pennsylvania produced . As former Governor Glynn , o f New York , “ said in a message to the Legislature , Game should be ” conserved to furnish a cheap food supply . In the fol lowing pages will be found the bulk of the in formation which the writer has been able to collect on the sub

ec j t o f the panther in Pennsylvania . It has been pre

" V w h pared from the point of ie of the old unters , whom the writer has i nterviewed . While there are some statements which are liable to be declared scientiﬁcally incorrect , they are printed for what they are worth , as the authorities were as reliable as u m ci en t-iﬁc o b servers can be . The writer has consulted practically every book which contains a mention of the panther in the Keystone State , and also many other works on the cougar of the United S tates and Central and South “ ” H e America . does not seek to split hairs and make the Pennsylvania Lion a separate variety , greater or

‘ grander than its relatives in other parts . The state ment is herein made that Pennsylvania panthers were be the largest known in the East , and this the writer

' ' l th an ther s i eves to be correct . The romantic part of e p soj ourn among u s has been dilated upon whenever possible . This animal , above all others , added most to f the legendary lore of the State . But the chief e fort C L E E N T F . H E R L A C H E R M ,

i th a a n th e r C u b W P T a k e n i n T re a ste r V a l l e M i ffl i n C o u n t y , y ,

i n 1 893 .

O R THE PENNSYLVANIA LI N O PANTHER . o f these pages wi ll be to disprove many o f the stories derogatory to the animal , to give a hearing to its side of the case and a wider knowledge o f its beauty and

. use fulness This , i s done in case a time should come " ” when red - blooded sportsmen will decide to rei n tro duce the panther as our leading game animal . Then there would be at least one published work which would show the misj udged “ cougar ” in a favorable light . Though perhaps lacking in scientiﬁc exactness , these pages would contain a brief for its existence . S outhern panthers may still visit the wilder localities e w o f P nnsylvania , and a ider knowledge of the animal

i m ight help preven t a general onslaught against these wanderers . In this connection it might be well to state that the wandering pan thers are smaller than h those which eld thei r ﬁxed abode in a single valley . “ ” In Algeria , where wandering leopards or panthers

are found , they are called Berrani , whereas those which remain in one locality are called Dolly . The H Berrani , (the unting Leopard ) strangely enough , is smaller than the Dolly . Natural history has many parallels , coincidences and mysteries . All of them teach us the wonders of existence and should make us deal gently with every form of God ’s lesser creatures . We have no right to say which ani

w as mals shall be destroyed and hich spared . Just we look with scorn on the wasteful methods o f the old time lumbermen of Pennsylvania , we will before long cherish. the same opinion of the men who wantonly d y estro ed the wild li fe of the Commonwealth .

HI T RY l l . S O

' HE history o f the panther seems to be as old as

the Indians themselves . The Erie tribe who were blotted out by the Iroquois in 1 6 56 were

“ " Yen resh called the , or the long tailed , which was “ “ Gallicised into Eri , hence Erie , the place o f the “ i

. du panther The French called the Erie , Nation ” Chat , or Cat Nation , which was simply a translation

Yen r h es . du o f , the name o f the panther Nation Chat “ means Panther Nation , which is the real name of the Erie . From the earliest times the Pennsylvania lion has been unj ustly feared . The first S wedish settlers on c the Delaware hunted it unmerci fully . They ould not bu t believe that an animal which howled so hideously at night must be a destroyer o f human li fe . When William Penn first landed at Phil adelphia the range of the panther still extended to the outskirts of the city of Brotherly Love . In a letter to his friends in Eng n land , written during his first visit to his provi ce , he “ ' o r said living creatures , fish , fowl , and the beasts o f - an d the wood , here are divers sorts , some for food

r fi an d fi o t . p , some for pro t only ; for food as well as profit , the elk , as big as a small ox ; deer , bigger than ours , beaver , raccoon , rabbits , squirrels , and some eat young bear and commend it . The creatures for profit

only , by skin or fur , and which are natural to these parts , are the wild cat , panther , otter , wol f , ﬁsher , 1 0 -YL VA NI A O R THE PENNS LI N O PANTHER .

minx , muskrat , etc . This shows that the sagacious Quaker was awake to the commercial possibilities o f the panther and other animals . On a number of occa sions he expresses himself in favor of the protection — of fur bearing animals , except when their coats were M in prime condition . Certain of the ingo Indians hated the panther , classing it with the wolf and wild cat , as one of the few animals which were at perpetual

Kan i sta i a . war with thei r God of the chase , g By the beginni n g of the eighteenth century the panther was driven back as far as the western limits of the present 1 7 50 Chester County . By it was rarely found East o f the Blue Mountains Here it made its stand for more — 1 840 than three qu arters o f a century . By it was driven further West , its limits being approximately a . line drawn across the S tate in a Northeasterly dirce

the tion , beginning at Eastern border of Fulton Coun

n the No rth t , y, thr ough Perry County , thence alo g

i l k es- Branch to VV B arre , and from thence across to 1 8 70 to the Honesdale . By the range was closed in

" Cl earﬁel d M ifﬂi n following counties , Centre , , Clin 1 880 L S . ton , Potter , ycoming and usquehanna By

‘ l earﬁeld M ifﬁi n C , Centre and contained the only na W a tive panthers , though anderers from West Virgini continued traveling through some of the Western and 1 89 5 Northern counties . In the range was limited to

" M ifﬂi n two valleys only , viz Havice and Treaster , in s di sa County , when the last native race of panther p

are . . . pe d Dr T Rothrock , former Forestry Commis

r a d si o n e of Pennsylvania , he rd the wei r cry in Treas

THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

f P n s l v 1 89 3 . o e n a ter Valley , in O f all the animals y nia the panther is by far the most picturesque , and has been treated in the most fantastic manner by early

- writers . In an old history of the Lenni Lenape , pub “ l i shed " nearly a century ago , a writer states There are many animals which the Indians in Pennsylvania

to n were accustomed hunt , some on accou t of their value , and others because of the mischie f they did .

Among these the panther is a terrible animal . Its s cry resemble that o f a child , but this is interrupted

b e by a peculiar bleating like that of a goat , which

i t. trays It gnarls over its prey like a cat . It pos sesses astonishing strength and swi ftness in leaping

' and seizing hogs , deer and other animals . When

pursued , even with a small dog , it leaps into a tree ,

‘ i t darts m I f from which upon its ene y . the ﬁrst shot T misses , the hunter is in imminent danger . hey do

n not , in common , attack men , but i f hu ters or travelers approach a covert , in which the panther has its young , thei r situation is perilous . Whoever ﬂies from it is lost . It i s , therefore , necessary for those threaten ed

a with an attack to withdr w gently , walking backward ,

and keeping thei r eyes ﬁxed on the animal , and even i f e th y miss an aim in shooting at it , to look at it stead ” I t fastly . was these early inaccurate accounts which

a n c used the public clamor against the Pe nsylvania lion , resulting in the enactment o f bounty laws and speedy 1 850 H extermination . In , John amilton , a surveyor , encountered a female panther and two cubs crossing

o m i n the Coudersport pike . g g the direction of Little 1 2 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI ON OR PANTHER .

Chatham Run . Though within twenty feet of the f huge female , the animal made no e fort to molest the gentleman . S o much for the great danger of approach “ "” " ing where a panther has its young Dr . Caspar

Wistar , Professor of Anatomy in the University of

on Pennsylvania , originally owned the land which the towns of Loganton and Carroll , in Clinton County , now stand . As there were no railroads in those days ,

VVi star - ou Dr . , when his periodical visits to Sugar

Valley , drove in his own conveyance , accompanied by H ercules , his faithful colored servant . Just previous V H to one of his isits , enry Barner , a pioneer , whose “ ” old homestead , near the mouth of Carroll Gap , is

H e still standing , killed a panther in his front yard . t shot the monster , i is said , as it was about to spring at him . It was found to measure more than eleven feet

U . from tip to tip . pon reaching the neighborhood Dr Wistar soon learned that a-n unusually large panther had been killed by Mr . Barner , and immediately pro ceeded to the home of the settler to ascertain the particulars of the capture . As he approached the

“ dwelling he saw lying in ‘ the yard the grinning head in of the panther an advanced stage of decomposition , i but , be ng prompted by a desire to further his scientiﬁc

i re researches , he desi red to procure it for dissect on ,

' r l s con d ti n h e g a d e s o f i ts i o . Accordingly ordered his servant to place the head in his carriage that he might take it to Philadelphia . This the Negro did , but for “ years afterward he would laugh about dat lim-burger ” ’ i m smell under de seat . This Negro s son became so O O R THE PENNSYLVANIA LI N PANTHER . pressed by the wonders o f the forest li fe that he took

- t employment as body servan to Ario Pardee , the mil “ l i o n ai re lumberman , and under the name of Black ” S am - t , was well known in the old ime lumber and hunting country in Central Pennsylvania . I II . E I D SCR PTION.

— FTER interviewing many old time panther hunt ers and persons who saw the Pennsylvania lion

e alive or recently kill d , among them Jacob Q 1 821 a . uiggle ( John H . Ch tham George G H S 1 809 astings , eth Iredell Nelson ( Clement

H rl a her . e c d F and others , the writer has evolve the following description o f the Lion of Pennsylvania

Body , long, slim , head large (averaging eight inches in mature specimens , wide in proportion to length ) ; A legs strong, short ; forelegs like the frican lion , e u stout r than hind legs ; tail , long and t fted at end ; color greyish about the eyes ; ha irs within the ears grey , slightly tinged with yellow ; exterior of ears blackish those porti ons o f th e lips which support the s whisker , black ; the remaining portion of the lip pale chocolate ; throat , grey ; beneath the neck pale yellow .

' Co u n t shadi n General color, reddish in Potter y, g from - i n a dull gray to a sla te further S outh the State . The hide o f a West Virginia pantheress killed on the 1 901 Greenbriar River , Pocohontas County , in , three quarters grown , owned by Hon . C . K . Sober , of Lewis a f burg , has long white hair on chest and belly , ﬂu fy , dark brown tail , culminating in a large tuft of black hair , like the tip of the tail of an African lion . It measured seven feet three inches from tip to tip .

f H i s G eorges. Bu fon , whose French work on Natural J ESS E L O G A N ( 1 809 - 1 9 1 6 ) 60 A P e n n s y l va n i a I n d i a n W h o K i l l e d a P a n t h e r i n 1 8 .

1 6 THE PENNSYLVANIA LIO N OR PANTHER .

o Pennsylvania lion , but this in turn has bec me its most d C igniﬁed ognomen . It is interesting to note that Peter

t m an ed Pen z , the famous Indian ﬁghter , killed a male

’ M c El hattan panther near Run , Clinton County , in

1 798 n Man . The I dians told the Dutch settlers on hattan Island that the hides of panthers they brought there to sell were from females, that the males had f manes and were di ﬁcult to capture . Perhaps the earliest form of the panther possessed maned males . They may be a modiﬁcation of the prehistoric lions

l i te/ x w o . e s a 0 which Pr f Leidy called f , and hich ranged parts of the continent . The Indians may have

a n repeated old tradition , and not something made out of the whole cloth . Panthers lived in shallow caves along the steep slopes of the rockier of the Pen n syl va

" nia mountains . Peter Pentz , it is said , crawled into a deep cavern to kill the maned panther and its mate . George S hover blocked up a panther in a cave on L 1 865 Little Miller Run , ycoming County , in , built a

n f ﬁre a d su focated the beast . There have been a few Pennsylvanians who called the Pennsylvania lion the cougar , and a still smaller number who alluded to it a s the puma. There has been a wide range to the

. S . . scientiﬁc nomenclature N Rhoads , the Phila d elphia naturalist , who knows more about the panther than any other man in the State , gives preference to

eli s c u u a el i s f o g r . This is undoubtedly superior to f

l re c o n co o r . , which conveys very little Others have ferred to it as the American Lion , Brown Tiger and

Catamount . The last title refers more properly to the THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

L y . Canada nx , or big grey wild cat The Pennsylvania

Germans used to call the panther the Bender . Philip “ ”

. Tome , in his Thirty Years a Hunter , tells o f Rice Hamlin killing a panther on the Tiadaghton weighing

1 75 w as 200 pounds . About pounds a good average h L . w o weight for a mature Pennsylvania ion Tome , also was probably the greatest of all Pennsylvania hunters of big game , has recorded many o f his hunt ing adventures in a book entitled “ Thirty Years a ” H e w Hunter . was a sportsman as ell as hunter ,

re never killing recklessly . Though he makes no capitulation of panthers which fell to his unerring

bullets , his descendants estimate that he killed at least

o f t hi s 500 of these noble animals . One grandsons , L George . Tome , a noted hunter , resides at Corydon .

" M ifﬂi n in Warren County . Old County hunters described a panther killed by John Reager and William D el l ett near Milroy in 1 869 as being so large that when the carcass w as thrown across th e shoulders o f a horse the head dragged on one side

P en n s l and the tail on the other . According to the y

’ vania hunters the specimens o f fel z s co ug u ar now seen in Zoological gardens have faded coats , or else the e w stern individuals are plainer colored . It is said that the winter sunlight shining on the many tinted coats o f the Pennsylvania lion was a sight beauti ful

to behold . Even in death the hides retain the rich

fulvous , fawn , orange and lemon tints for forty years

m s or ore . George G . Hastings vividly de cribes a ' magniﬁcent male panther w hich sunned itself and 1 8 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER . rolled in the snow on the breast of a splash dam on 1 872 Big Run , Centre County , in February , , when he was alone and unarmed at a nearby camp . The great ’ feline seemed to be aware o f the Nimrod s u npre

aredn ess p , lingering about the premises for upwards of an hour . A Florida panther killed near Miami 1 9 1 4 in the winter o f , measures , length of head and

56 28 . body inches , length o f tail inches The hide was sent to the writer by the naturalist Rhoads . It rep ’ a resents the extreme peninsular dark phase , being

c . rich hocolate brown in color The head is small , as is the head of the West Virginia panther , previously alluded to ; the coat o f the West Virginia specimen is a paler brown , lacking much of the richness of the

Florida hide . A dark dorsal line from shoulders to tip of tail is very noticeable on the Florida specimen , but like the West Virginia hide it has the tuft at end o f tail . A mounted Florida panther in the Museum o f H Natural istory , New York City, is a sooty or slate e f d gr y in color , very di ferent from the hide procure ' ' by M r . Rhoads .

BI IV. HA TS .

T i s un fortunate that when the Pennsylvania lion was prevalent no local naturalists made an at

tempt to study the habits of the noble animal . M r . “ S . N . Rhoads , in his Mammals of Pennsylvania and ” o N ew Jersey , gives us the m st complete account , but it ’ w as w ritten years after the animal s disappearance and mostly from hearsay evidence . In the ﬁrst place , the panther of Pennsylvania was not unnecessarily ” cruel . It fed mostly on decrepit and wounded deer and elk , sickly game birds and rabbits , also on mice , rats . bugs , worms and berries . It was also a scavenger , eating animals which had died after receiving wounds t from hun ers , and those which had succumbed from

I n n ﬁ natural causes . a forest it was a decidedly b e e c i al element . It never killed more than it could eat under any circumstances . There is no authentic case of the Pennsylvania lion having attacked human beings

reval ent i n even when wounded . There i s a story p Lycoming County of a doctor having been eaten by a panther about 1 840 ; later researches prove that he was lost in the snow and died of exposure . Wolves , pan thers and hawks picked his carcass , not knowing enough to respect a human corpse , but that was the

. H very worst D . S . Maynard , in his istorical View 1 874 o f Clinton County , published in , tells of an occa sion when the workmen on the S tate Road between Renovo and Germania found the bones of a man “ who

1 9 20 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N O R PANTHER .

no d o ubt had been killed and eaten b y a panther . f Probably the man died rom exposure , and his carcass

h m en was chewed up by the lion . The same aut or ’ VVo m an s tions an instance near Young Town , now

an d North Bend , where a panther killed devoured an

e a ox , and another instance wher panther killed a fox , which , j ackal fashion , had been following it to “ o . btain a share of the swag Another case , on Pine

C o Creek , on the linton C unty shore , is that of a child going after the cows , which had to pass under an overhanging timber of an abandoned dam , on which a panther was crouched , and the brute springing on the child devoured it . This was supposed to have ' 8 0 1 2 . happened about , but no names are obtainable The child was probably lost in the woods or kidnaped by the Indians who camped at the mouth of the cree k

When wounded , panthers courageously attacked the dogs , but refused to molest hunters . When about to i be knifed or shot , these an mals are known to have

t e looked h hunters in the eyes and shed real tears . It is rec o rded that panthers made interesting and aff ec ti o n ate pets . An admirer in Philadelphia sent a young

E E n Pennsylvania lion to dmund Kean , a celebrated g lish actor . It followed him about the streets of Lon ’ don , attracting more attention than Alderman Parkin s ’ ’ D A z ara n team of quaggas . s tame pa ther is recorded as being gentle , but very sluggish . Agnes Sorel , the celebrated Parisian actress , was presented with a lively young panther by a S outh American admirer . A short time ago the lady presented the animal to the Jardin

22 THE PENNSYLVANIA LIO N OR PANTHER .

herd of about thi rty deer , another unusual occurrence

u for that time . The yo ng panthers usually followed the mother until almost full grown . They hunted w with her , but hen two or three years old left to seek mates . Panthers did not have young every year , but only brought forth a fresh litter when abandoned by f “ their almost mature o fspring . In Fur News Maga ” zine a writer from Perry County describes a battle to the death between male panthers which was witnessed one night by a belated traveler crossing the “ S even S B rothers , as the even Mountains , the Tussey , Path H S Valley , Thick ead , and , Bald , S hade and S tone ranges , are often called . The traveler watched the com

the bat from behind a big rock , seeing two ﬁerce brutes tear each other to pieces . The males and females , e except mother and young , kept s parate except during the mating season . The panther is a silent animal

an d . except at this season , when its young is taken

Its love song was maj estic , but its cry of maternal anguish one of the m o st doleful to be conj ured by the

H . imagination . W . S chwartz , the brilliant editor of “ the Altoona Tribune , recently wrote Anent the cry

ha m n o o f the panther . This writer d a y conversati ns

' with a gentleman Who was born in 1 7 6 8 and who was one of the pioneers in this vicinity . Many times did he make ou r young blood run cold by the tales of the panther an d its habit of crying through the night like an abandoned child . More than that , the writer , some — t sixty two years ago , heard a plain ive cry one night

- he i s as spent the night with h grandmother , near T H O M A S GA L L A U H E R S I M C O X ( 1 840 - 1 9 1 4)

R e l ato r of M a n y I n d i a n L e g e n d s C o n ce r n i n g th e P a n t h e rs of th e l a o rest i n i nto n a n d P otte r n t B ck F , Cl C o u i es.

R THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N O PANTHER .

s Canoe Creek , and was as ured by her that it was a ” panther . The cry was repeated several times . Panthers w ere fond of standing erect when sharpen ing thei r cla w s against the rough bark of the tupelo

hreck en trees . Franklin S g ast relates h ow two hunters ’ on Baker s Run , in Centre county , in an early day carved away a section o f bark from one of these trees “ 4 1 858 and cut on the smooth surface Dec . , , Jake ” H Gl el so n 4 b eer all , Abe , kilt deers The tupelo in question was a fav0 1 i te nail sharpening resort of the panthers which trailed the aged or wounded deer in that section an d shortly a fterwards with their heavy claws the huge brutes completely effaced the boastful

record o f the enterprising Nimrods . That the panther would resent meddling is attested f 1 83 5 to by George Hu f , born in , o f White Deer , U nion County , who tells how a man named Jacob h Lushbaugh , a hunter in the W ite Deer Mountains , in trying to rescue a favorite dog from the grip o f a panther had one o f his hands badly lacerated by the m ’ onster s fangs . V. EARLY PREVALENCE .

IONS in British E ast Africa were never mor e prevalent than was the panther in Pennsylvani a Th a century or more ago . e woods fairly

no o n the teemed with them . Yet they made inroads — myriads of elk , deer , hares , heath cocks , wild turkeys , grouse , quails , wild pigeons , rabbits and hares which

i f re t c ov er shared the o s s with them . The ﬁrst settlers destroyed all game mercilessly and when it grew scarce blamed its disappearance on the panthers ,

. W . lynxes , ildcats , wolves and foxes A warfare was waged against the miscalled predatory beasts ; they

a n were exterminated , but game bec me scarcer tha ever . It i s now only that people are beginning to wake up to the fact that the panthers were the victims

" of a cowardly plot to avert the white hunters cu .lpa i l i b ty. S . N . Rhoads states that in Luzerne county

' bounties am o u n i n g to were pai 'd o n the scalps 1 808 1 820 of panthers between and . More than ﬁfty of these superb animals were killed in one year . J . J . “ Audubon relates that Amo-n g the mountains of the headwaters of the Juniata river , as we were informed , the cougar is so abundant that one man has killed for s ome years from two to ﬁve , and one very hard winter s 8 . u 1 50 even This was written abo t . Samuel Askey , S S u — of now hoe , Centre co nty , killed sixty four

1 820 1 845 e panthers between the years of and . Thes THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER . were taken in a limited district and all of thi s great

. hunter ' s neighbors were engaged slaying panthers at

—ﬁve the same time . During these twenty years it i s estimated that six hundred panthers w ere killed in

Centre county . E leven full grown panthers were

0 11 l h Cl earﬁel d killed Medix Run , which f ows t rough 853 lk 1 . and E counties , during the winter of At no

the time . h owever , was range of the Pennsylvania lion

\Vhi l e . evenly distributed . it was teeming in Centre

w as Cl ea rﬁel d and counties further S outh , it a rare

’

M cKean W . visitor in Potter , and arren counties

C . Dickinson , the great hunter of the Black Forest , savs " Panthers w ere never as prevalent at the head w o f S aters the Alleghany as on the usquehanna , the ’ Clarion , or the Juniata . I don t believe that more than ten or twelve were captured in what i s now Mc

Kean county since the ﬁrst w hite man settled there . w I believe that panthers , like wild cats , ere afraid o f the g rey timber wolves which abounded there . Yet w as B the panther almost as plenti ful in Tioga , rad ford and S usquehanna cou n ties as it Was in Centre or

ifﬂi n H w M . undreds ere slain in S usquehanna county ’ and Bl ack ni an s history of that county abounds with ‘

" instances of its appearance among the early settlers .

I t was killed by the hundreds in -Vyo m i n g and coun ties directly S outh . It bred in the inaccessible swamps in S usquehanna county and among the rocky fast nesses at th e headwaters of the Lehigh river . It was

w a s never plenti ful in Clinton county . but found in L great numbers in ycoming and S ullivan . The lim 26 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER . i ted range and the limited amount of wild territo ry in

Pennsylvania set an early doom on the native lions .

Gradually civilization closed in , and the number of hunters increased yearly . Panther hides were as pre

" - — valent o n the walls of old time farm buildings as . e woodchuck skins are today . Almost ev ry backwoods kitchen had a panther coverlet on the lounge by the t stove . Pan her tracks could be seen crossing and re

the crossing all fields , yet children on their way to school were never molested . In an early day i nCentre county hunters w ho had killed fi fty panthers were of no f rare occurrence . Among the Je ferson county hunters “ B ” who killed fi fty panthers may be mentioned ill Long , “ H u ” 1 880 The King nter , who died in May , , in his

—ﬁr ninety st year . Young bloods dared not pay court to a gi rl unless they could boast of having killed a panther or two . Even preachers and missionaries j oined in the chase and seme of them held high scores in the awful game of slaughter . Panthers insisted in returning to spots where they had reared their y oung the season before. The hunters were soon aware

' ' ‘ “ ” of the panther ledges o r clefts and robbed them annually . They lay in wait for the old animals , kill

do ing them without quarter . A g which would not to trail a panther was held be o f small value . Tame panthers were used to attract their wild relatives b u t

. M c Co n n el of the forests Joseph , a pioneer in N u orthern J niata county , killed eleven panthers in i . s seven years in this way , He said to have covered one entire side of his barn with panther

THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

H e hides . thought so little o f them that they rotted where they hung and were blown apart by heavy gales . German buyers secured many panther “ skins , as there was a steady demand in the old coun ” try for these hides , like there always has been for

Co . H . S walnut chroeder , o f Lock aven , sent their 893 last consignment to Germany in 1 . William Perry killed a mature male panther on Yost Run , Centre 1 875 county , in , which was seen in the trap by S . A .

\Va s r h A d w o t . and J . Roan , residents of Clinton coun ’ t . y, now living Roan says that the animal s head was covered with old scars , showing where it had been in sanguinary battles with rivals in the past . James \V l i e t y Miller , ve eran hunter of Clinton county , but formerly of Cameron county , killed many deer in the old days the ﬂanks of which had been scarred by . ff f panthers in thei r ine ectual e forts to . bring them down . On one occasion Miller saw the tracks of nine “ ” U panthers on a crossing on p Jerry Run , in Cam

’ “ eron county . In Miller s boyhood days , he was born 1 83 8 in , the greatest panther hunters in the S i n n em a

r Berﬁel d honing Valley we e Joe , John Jordan , Arch

' H w ho Logue and enry Mason , resided a short dis

. tance up the East Fork According to Jonas J . V , 1 838 V ei k ert U Barnet born in , of , nion County , ’ panthers were so prevalent on Penn s . Creek in the

ﬁrst decade of the Nineteenth Century that his uncle , W' Jacob eikert , was unable to keep pigs for a period

. VVeikert of seven years Mary Hironimus , o f , was followed four miles by a panther ; the exp erience 28 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N O R PANTHER .

made her an invalid for nearly a year , as the huge “ ” w on l d cat treated her as a Tabby a mouse , letting

w al k a l o n her g the path a few feet ahead of him , stop h ping when s e stopped and running when she ran . ’ ‘

. L S Mrs Mary De ong , of tover s , in B rush Valley , e f Centr county , in walking along a orest path saw a panther crouched above her on the limb of a large

f e . white oak , but the animal su fered her to pass b neath

On another occasion at night , when going for help when her mother was ill , she met a panther by the e path . By holding the lantern between hers lf and ' e the monster she was allow d to go her way , the panther keeping abreast o f her j ust far enough in the shadows to avoid the light , until she reached the ’ w as neighbor s cabin . The fear of panthers so ﬁrmly implanted in her that her descendants to this day always instinctively look up m the forks of l arge trees when passing through a forest . Panthers often leaped on roofs of shanties at night , frightening the

‘ female occupants considerably . John S . Hoar tells of an instance of t his kind in T reaster Valley ( M ifﬂi n 1 896 County ) about , and another similar occurrence ’ “ is recorded in Miss Blackman s History of S u squ e hanna County . H REAT AUGHTER . VI . T E G SL

NIMAL drives , similar to those once held in w an d S outh Africa , ere as plenti ful in Central “ S outhern Pennsylvania as in the Northern

tier . As they occurred in the remote backwoods dis o f tri c ts where no written h istory was kept , accounts — them have w ell nigh lapsed into oblivion . One of the 1 7 60 greatest drives ever known took place about , in the vicinity of Pom fret Castle , a fort for defense d i n against the Indians , wh ich had been constructe

' ” 1 7 56 a S . Black J ck chwartz was the leader of this

w drive . hich resulted in the death of more than forty

n T he panthers . S chwartz , or as he is ofte called ,

W t e u ild Hunter of h J niata , must not be confounded with Captain Jack Armstrong , a trader , wh o was mur a ’ 44 dered by Indians in J ck s Narrows in 1 7 . History

tw o has confused the men , but as the wild hunter f o fered his command of sharpshooters to Gen . B rad dock in 1 7 55 there can be no doubt that they were di f f eren t persons . Panthers and wolves had been troubling the more timi d of the settlers , and a grand drive towards the centre of a circle thi rty miles in r diamete w a s planned . A plot o f ground was cleared into which the animals were driven . In the outer edge of the ci rcle ﬁres were started , guns ﬁred , bells rung ,

all manner of noises made . The hunters , men and boys , to the number of two hundred , gradually closed 3 0 THE PENN S YLVAN IA LI ON OR PANTHER .

he in on the centre . When they reached the point w re

“ the killing was to be made , they found it crowded

' l i n r w l i n e o . with y p g , g g , bellowing animals Then the

slaughter began , not ending until the last animal had f been slain . A group o f Bu faloes broke through the i guards at an early stage o f the kill ng, and it is esti mated that several hun dred animals e scaped in thi s h . s t e n way Th e recapitul ation is as follow , cou t hav

' i n g been made by Black Jack himself at the close o f

" - 1 09 w 1 1 2 the carnage Forty one panthers , olves , 1 1 4 1 7 1 foxes , mountain cats , black bears , white bear , 2 1 98 1 1 1 f 3 1 1 2 elk , deer, bu faloes , fishers , otter , i s 3 an d u w ards 500 glutton , beavers p of smaller ani mals . The percentage of panthers to the entire num ber killed is an interesting commentary on the early prevalence o f these animals . The choicest hides were f taken , together with bu falo tongues , and then the “ ” heap of carcasses as tall as the tallest trees , was heaped with rich pine and fired . This created such a stench that the settlers were compelled to vacate their cabins in the vicinity of the fort , three miles away . There is a small mound , which on being dug into is filled with bones , that marks the spot o f the slaughter , near the head waters of (West ) Mahan ’ -ck tango Creek . Bla Jack s unpopularity with the I n dians was added to when they learned of this animal

e. driv The red men , who only killed such animals as they actually needed for furs and food , and were real conservationists , resented such a wholesale butchery . The story goes that the wild hunter was ambushed A A J O H N V A N TT P H I L L I PS ,

’ h n C h ath a m s R u n Cl i n to n C o u n t H i t a P a n th er i th W o , o , y , W

H i s S i l k H a t a n d Sc a re d th e B ru te A w ay .

2 3 THE P ENNSYLVANIA LIO N OR PANTHER .

he killed ﬁ fty p anthers , principally in Centre and

‘ Cl arﬁel a e d counties . As he began his c reer as a ’ hunter on Bell s and Tipton runs , tributaries of , the “ h e H Juniata , was often called the Lion unter of the s Juniata . On one occa ion when visited by Hon .

CL- K . S ober , of Lewisburg , former State Game Com

s 11 1 1 s i on er he . had , the hides of eleven panthers hang 1 849 ing up at his camp on Rock Run . In the last “ ” animal drive or Ring Hunt was held by the Pioneers C at Beech Creek , linton county . S everal panthers , it is said , escaped through the human barrier . BI GEST PANTHER . VII . THE G

I TH practi cally no written records it i s well nigh impossible to gain a correct idea of the

general size o f Pennsylvania panthers . As far as it is known there are three mounted panthers in

-ce existen , one at State College , one at Albright Col

M c l hattan lege and a thi rd at E . In addition to these the writer possesses four hides of panthers , two killed

H . by Aaron Hall , two by George G . astings The ﬁrst S named mounted specimen , a male , killed by amuel 1 856 E . Brush in S usquehanna county in , measures 7 9 feet inches ; the second , also a male , killed by 1 868 8 " Lewis Dorman in Centre county in , i s feet the thi rd , a female , killed by Thomas Anson in Berks 1 874 6 6 county in , is feet inches from tip to tip . This w ould give a fair average o f the si z esf One of the largest Pennsylvania panthers on record taken in recent years was killed in Clinton county , on Young ’ VVo m an s 5 5 1 8 7 . Creek , by Sam Snyder , on January ,

I t sho t n i n e measured a few hours after it was , , feet two inches . Thi s giant animal had been heard run ning the deer along the ridges near the creek for sev

had be n eral weeks , and several parties e organized m . S a S to capture it It remained for nyder , a lad of

ﬁces twenty years , with his pack of six trained , to run it down . One bright morning he tracked it to a point

where it was forced to take re fuge . on an overhanging

33 3 4 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N O R PANTHER .

a H e branch of mammoth white oak . ﬁred at it , the i bullet passing through ts left shoulder . The wound served to infuriate the monster , and it leaped from the

i o f tree , land ng m the centre the snarling , snapping pack o f dogs . Backing up against the butt o f a fallen

o n o t d i heml ck , with its right paw , which was sabled, it killed ﬁve of the ﬁces before the hunter sent a bullet

' h ﬁ into its brain . T e ce which escaped was a tiny ter t rier , which was aler enough to keep out of reach of ’ the b ru te s paw . The huge carcass was transported in ’ o x - T0w n an cart to Young Woman s , now North

' i n Bend , where a fter it hung for a day f ront of a tav

an d ern , it was skinned the hide sold to Matthew H ’ a r . ann , J , a hotel keeper of Young Woman s Town . c u t The carcass was up into roasts and steaks , and e “ the entire settlem nt feasted on it for several days .

b . H f One dark night , ten years later , Jaco K u f , better “ known as Faraway was foll o wed down ’

Th e . Young Woman s Creek by a panther . brute kept along the side of the ridge , howling every few min utes , until it neared the settlement . Evidently the panther had young, and feared that the traveler might D K . . e a a molest them James E y, in his Natur l His . tory o f New York State , described a panther killed

by Joe Wood at Fourth Lake o f Fulton Chain , in

Herkimer county , New York , which measured eleven f feet three inches . The stu fed hide was exhibited fo r U many years at the tica Museum . The contents of

to this Museum were removed , it is stated , Jackson 1 8 ” 70. d ville , Florida , about Adiron ack Murray , - J O H N Q . DYC E ( 1 830 1 904) Wh o ra i l e the a st P a n th e rs i n M c E l h atta n Ga T d L p ,

Cl i nto n C o u n ty .

3 5 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER . w 1 869 riting about , says that the panther of the “ North \Vo o ds often measured twelve feet from tip

P fo u ts . S to tip imon , o f Leidy township , Clinton county , caught a record panther in a trap near the mouth of Beaver Dam run which measured eleven feet six inches from tip to tip . Thi s is mentioned in ’ “ H ” Maynard s istorical View of Clinton County . D r .

Merriam believes eight feet to be a good average size . This w ould indicate a close similarity in dimensions

P en n s l va between the panthers of the Adirondacks , y nia and the West . Colonel Roosevelt killed six cougars in Colorado in 1 901 which averaged a triﬂe over eight feet apiece . If anything the Pennsylvania panthers , like the Pennsylvania trees , were larger on the average than those o f the Adirondacks . It was the ideal location for them to thrive , for as Pro f . J . A . “ Allen said " The maximum physical development of the individual is attained where the conditions of em vi ron m en t are most favorable to the li fe of the spe ”

. G cies The panthers which eorge G . Hastings , o f ff Bu alo Run , Centre county , killed on December 3 0 3 1 1 871 and , , measured nine feet and eight feet nine

. inches , respectively The larger was the female , and H M r . astings believed it was the mother of the smaller one . George Shover killed a giant male panther on

, y , 1 865 Little Miller Run L coming county in January , , w hich measured eleven feet from tip to tip . For some reason male panthers were much more numerous in"

Pennsylvania than female . Th e opposite was the d case in the Adiron acks , according to Dr . Merriam . O f 3 6 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI ON OR PANTHER . all the instances o f panthers noted ' by the writer of

e . this articl , not more than six at most , were females ’ The inf o rmation concerning S am Snyder s record

e . panther was giv n to the writer by John G Davis , o f ’ M c l hattan E , wh o moved to Young Woman s Town with his parents in April of the year in which the beast was killed . He was sixteen years old at the time and remembers the details of the occurrence viv f idly . Michael Plu f , who died at Hyner , Clinton coun t 1 9 1 4 74 y, in January , , aged years , also recalled the ’ circumstance . It is recorded at length in Maynard s

H o n History of the County . . J . W . Crawford , of

Pa . North Bend , , published an interesting account of “ ” o o f 20 this panther in the Renovo Rec rd February , 1 9 4 1 861 1 . He says that Snyder went to the front in and was killed at Fort S umter . The story is well known in Clinton and adj oining counties and several persons , including Judge Craw ford , who saw the panther when it was brought to Young Woman ’s “ ” Town , are still in the land of the living . The world of sport hails Sam Snyder as a mighty Nimrod "

P fou ts Simon , the great hunter , was the ﬁrst white man to settle on Kettle Creek , Clinton county . At th e o S fo t of picewood Island he found , on one occasion , three young panthers lying in their nest of leaves u n dern eath s H e the helter o f an old root . quickly gath

r ered them up in his arms and sta ted home . When he had arrived within one - fourth of a mile of his resi

dence the sound of panther yells fell upon his ears .

n P f u Then comme ced a race for li fe , and o ts fully de

3 8 T HE P E NN S YL VA NI A LI O N OR PANTHER .

s o on saw the deer running in different directions . I got between them , in hopes that I should see them m trying to come together again . I kept y stand per

' haps ﬁve or six minutes , when I saw something slip o f ping through the bushes , which I took to be one the deer ; but I soon found that it wa s coming t o ward me . I kept a close look out for it ; and directly , within e ten st ps of me , up rose the head and shoulders of the largest panther that I ever saw , either before or since .

He kept behind a large log that was near me , and

u . looked over . But tho gh I had never seen a wild one a before , I knew the gentlem n , and was rather afrai d

. of him I aimed my riﬂe at him as well as I could , he looking me full in the face ; and when I ﬁred he made

o ff a tremendous spring from me , and ran through the brush and briars , with the dog after him . “As soon as I recovered a little from my fright I loaded again , and started after them . I followed them i as fa st c as I ould , and soon found them at the foot o f a large and very high rock ; the panther , in his

-w n c - hurry , having sprung do the left of ro ck ﬁ fteen or twenty feet ; but the dog , being afraid to venture

u so great a leap , ran aro nd , and the two had met in a thi ck laurel swamp , where they were ﬁghting the

best , way they could , each trying to get the advantage t . of the o her I stood on the top of th e rock over them , ’ and ﬁred at the base of the panther s ear , when down w he ent ; and I ran round the rock , with my toma hawk in hand , believing him to be dead . But when I

’ ﬁ hti n a ai n got near him , I found he was up and g g g ,

39 THE PENNSYLVANIA LIO N O R PANTHER .

r and consequently I had to hur y back for my gun , l o ad it again , creep slyly up , take aim at his ear , as w hi m before , and give him another shot , hich laid dead 0 11 the ground . My ﬁrst shot had broken his shoulder ; the second pierced his ear , passing down ward through his tongue ; the last entered one ear , and

c the . ame out at other , scattering his brains all around H e measured eleven feet three inches f rom the end

w as of his nose to the tip o f his tail . This the largest panther I ever killed , and I suppose I have killed at least ﬁfty in my time . “ I took from this fellow sixteen and a half pounds o f rendered tallow . It i s something softer than mut

- h ton tallow , but by mixing it with one fourt of its weight of beeswax , it makes good candles . I continued hunting the balance of the season , with little success

— no t b killing any ears , although there were great H numbers of them in the woods owever , I knew but little o f the art o f hunting . A panther killed by John Treaster in the S even Mountains in 1 875 ’ m easu red b o d e 8 3 , y and h ad feet , tail feet , total eleven feet , almost the record . Dr . Schoepf describes “ a sh runken hide o f a South Carolina panther as over

ﬁve foot from the muzzle to beginning o f tail , the tail itsel f somewhat more than three feet long ; the back

an d and sides head fallow , nearly fawn colored , ﬂanks and belly whitish grey ; the end o f tail verged some w o n hat black , but the rest o f the tail was o f the color ” of the body . MI I I VIII . DI N SH NG NUMBERS .

I TH the hand of all raised against them , it i s small wonder that by 1 860 the panther had

. become , a rarity in the Pennsylvania wilds Three or four were the m o st killed in any o n e y ear

t . from that date on , un il the ﬁnal extermination After 1 860 , they bred in but two localities in the Common

—i n Cl earﬁel d wealth the Divide Region of County , in

‘ ifﬂi Cl earﬁel d u the had the M n County. In Co nty y

s . widest range , and increased mo t satisfactorily There w as an almost impenetrable evergreen forest at the the head of Medix Run , which did not ﬁrst feel ’ ’ w o o t dm an s 1 904 -ther s axe until , and which was a pan

1 892 . paradise . A few panthers bred there until about The cries of panthers and the howling of w o lves could

r am be heard there fo a few years after that . S Odin ,

Cl iffo rd . u s u ehan n a of , S q County , killed the last pan 874 1 . ther in the northern section in February , It i s described as having ben a superb male , red colored and

1 55 . n o weighing pounds Its measurements are t given .

A female which was with it escaped , and is probably the same one which was killed by Th-omas Anson a — , coal burner on the slope of the Pinnacle , in Northern

Berks County , in August of that year , according to

. S O D . hock , now of the Public Service Commission “ ” at Harrisburg . Forest and Stream (Vol . III , Page 67 1 46 ) gives the weight of this animal as pounds ,

40 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

y leng th 6 feet 5% inches . Measured in the stud of

i t 1 s the writer of this article , whe re it now reposes , exactly six feet six inches " The old hunters were not “ ” all gross exaggerators , as some would have us think . The story of the killing of this panther is of — more than passing interest . The coal burners lived in a shack on the east face of the Pinnacle , which is the highest point in Berks County . Nearby is the cele “ b rated Amphitheatre , where the Blue Mountains appear to form a horseshoe about the village of Eck ville and its surrounding ﬁelds . Travelers have com “ ” i t pared to the Cirque de Gavarnie in the Pyrenees .

' — On several n ig hts the coal burners heard the animal prowling about their premises , much to the terror of their dogs . They supposed it to be a wild cat , as these animals were very plentiful in the neighborhood . One

Pﬂ e er evening Jacob g , one of the burners , went to a farmhouse to get a pan of butter . It was dusk when h e started for the shack , but he was able to observe — that h e was being followed by a huge cat like animal .

H e kept his nerve , and was gratiﬁed to ﬁnd that the monster ceased following him when it reached a large

. b spring There it egan lapping up the water like a cat . H e u was narmed , but at the shanty he found one o f

his companions , Thomas Anson , who owned a riﬂe . Anson is said to have killed a panther in Wayne Coun — t n — i h 1 867 y the last know in that section . The two men returned to the spring , ﬁnding the panther not far

’ distant . Anson put several bullets into the brute s body , ending its li fe . To this day the S pring has been 42 THE PENNSYLVANIA LIO N OR PANTHER .

I known as The Panther Spring . t is a ﬁne pool of e water , and i s along the mountain road b tween Wind

-eh sor Furnace and Eckville . A sket was made of the 1 9 2 H o w 1 . . . S spring by Artist C H hearer in August , this panther wandered into Berks County , where none e of its kind had been seen in forty y ars , can only be ex plained by the facti that the creature was working its f o . way westward in search a mate Faires Boyer , a noted hunter , residing at Centreville , Snyder County , ’ killed a panther on Jack s Mountain in November ,

8 3 . 1 7 . It had been probably driven eastward by dogs

H erl ach r Clement F . e killed two panth ers on Mos

l arﬁ l C e e d 1 880 . quito Creek , in County , in February , Fo r many nights they had been annoying the horses at a big camp , the frightened animals prancing and foaming while the panthers prowled outside . Leonard M cElhattan Johnson , of , Clinton County , remembers this incident very well . The panthers in Treaster

Valley did little damage , and were in a sense protected “ by the old settlers , who resented outsiders hunting

i or cru sing about the valley . Even Dr . Rothrock was warned to be “careful ” in passing through the valley

‘ H rl cher alone . Clem e a followed these panthers by “ ” c o their regular rossing fr m Sugar Valley , Clinton

County , and discovered their ledge , in th e early

1 892 H e summer of . abstracted four pups , which were about three or four months old . Returning the following year , he found two pups in the same nest ,

' which he also carried away . Many of the old hunters believed that in some mysterious way the P en n syl va

THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

nia lion , like the wolf , was an integral part o f the orig inal forest . When the old forests were cut , the pan thers and wolves of the Keystone State diminished , until the destruction of practically all of the “ ﬁrst ”

a . growth timber , they vanished ltogether This may

' also account for the passing o f panthers an d wolves from the Adirondack Mountains in New York , which ’ occurred so completely after the l u m berm en s devas tati o n HAS E . IX . THE LAST P

ND n o w th e noble lion of Pennsylvania is re

— c du ced to a mere foot print , a voi e , a memory

of other days . He i s spoken of by persons who have heard rather than seen him . William J . Emert , of Youngdale , Clinton County , whose ﬁsh basket was riﬂed by a wandering panther at his bark camp near

‘ D a u s ahon da 1 889 g g , Elk County , in , remembers the ’ animal s cries distinctly , and can give an exhibition of unique mimicry . The writer , having heard the cries

ca i ti vi t o f the panther in a wild state and in p y, can vouch for it that the genial Bill actually heard the real 1 91 1 thing . Potter County newspapers in reported that the cries of a panther were heard in the vicinity S of weden Hill , near Coudersport , in the autumn of that year . The same fall a panther was heard near h Bare Meadows , Centre County , some nig ts roaring from the very summit of Bald Top . When calling

for their mates they , invariably climbed to the highest

- peaks . This panther was tracked during a light snow

' tha i fall clear to S tone Valley . S o me say t t was killed

hr ck . S e en ast there Franklin g , of Tylersville, Clinton ’ the County , on commenting on the volume of panther s “ " on cry , said If a panther roared the other side of i the Nittany Mounta n , all Sugar Valley would be ” hreck en ast aroused tonight . S g , who is now in his

78th the year , hunted panthers with Askey boys near THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

S now S hoe , Centre County , during the Civil War .

James Lebo , o f Lucullus , Lycoming County , tracked 909 1 . two panthers across his ﬁelds in February , They w ere traveling in a northeasterly direction . During the summer of that year panther cries were heard at f di ferent points along the Coudersport pike , whi ch runs past the Lebo home . Across the road from this gentleman ’s residence is the swale where th e mangled

~ body of little Edna Cryder was found in 1 89 6 . Pan ther tri cks were observed on the Pike by Dr . Rothrock 1 9 1 3 S in ; in Detwiler Hollow , in the even Mountains . in the same year , by several hunters . In November , 1 9 1 2 , three rabbit hunters scared up a panther which was sleeping under the prostrate top of a pine tree , in 1 3 — w . 1 9 Det iler In November , , several farmers heard panther cries , and one reliable person saw a panther

s in his barnyard in Logan Valley , near Altoona . John town papers reported a panther as doing much dam age to deer and other game on Laurel Ridge , in Som erset County , in the same month . There i s probably a panther path leading into Pennsylvania from the

Maryland and West Virginia Mountains . This i s 1 9 1 3 proved by the killing of a panther in November , , several miles north of Washington , D . C . This wan derer evidently heard or scented the mountain lions at

Rocky Creek Park Zoo , lost hi s bearings , became over

the conﬁdent and paid death penalty . The path must lead up the Laurel Ridge to Blue Knob , where it di verges , one line heading north th rough Centre County to Potter County, the other northeast along the Bald H 46 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI ON OR PANT ER .

Eag le Mountain to the Tussey Mountains , thence into H on M . . the S even ountains country . C K . S ober says that he feels conﬁdent that panthers still come into

Pennsylvania by these paths . Panthers had a regular crossing from Nittany Valley to the Summit c ountry at' H o l eto n pp , Clinton County ; thence across S ugar Mi f Valley , and from there south to Treaster Valley , H ﬂin County , where they bred . Emmanuel arman , as a boy , encountered panthers on this crossi ng, while

A . D . Karstetter , Postmaster at Loganton , can recall panthers crossing S ugar Valley within the past thirty years . The panther which Wilson Rishel heard on the S ugar Valley Mountain , south o f Tylersville , Clinton 1 870 County , in , was heard the day previously at

Lamar , and the day before that in the east end of to Nittany Valley , according D r . Jonath an Moyer . Emmanuel Harman heard the same panther the week H before in Gottshall ollow . David Mark , born in 1 83 5 , says that panthers were always a rare animal in S ugar Valley , only passing through there at intervals by their regular paths . The S even Mountains was the

last stand of the native panthers in Pennsylvania . H Clement F . erl acher camped in Treaster Valley in 1 892 1 893 the summers of and , as has been stated pre vi o u sl y, having heard rumors that the pair of pan thers which he tracked to the valley were breeding there . As the result h e captured four cubs in 1 892

tw o bu t ' the and the following year , old ones escaped . “ ” H e says the old panthers took on terribly over the loss o f thei r young . It was pr o bably these unhappy R . O A H A O E R D J N T N M Y , C i n ton o u nt h i i l C y P ys c a n a n d a N ote d A u th o rity o n th e H a i ts of the e n n s l v b P y an i a L i o n .

48 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI ON OR PANTHER .

S former tate Commissioner of Agriculture , and now S tate Highway Commissioner , was followed by a panther in S omerset County about the same year . In

1 880 H o n . . . about , M B Rich , present member of the

Pennsylvania Legislature from Clinton County , was i followed by a panther on Little P ne Creek , Lycoming

County , for a distance o f seven miles . H Hollister , “ in his History of the Lackawanna Valley , tells o f 1 83 7 being followed eight miles by a panther in , in

Wayne County . Hollister was in a buggy at the ” time , but the Big Cat could lope as fast as “ ”

. . . S the horse could gallop C E Doc mith , a veteran Clinton County sportsman and naturalist , saw panther tracks as big as a human hand on

i Fish Dam Run , in the late sevent es , when on a

. f hunting trip with Enoch Hastings Davie Sha fer ,

c at S who worked in a lumber amp the witches , in ’

Clinton County , near the panther s crossing , heard a panther prowling around the shack one winter night 0 1 88 . in Being alone , he built a big ﬁ re in front o f

the . . cabin , sitting by it until daylight Charles H

Dyce , a success ful lumber j obber , saw a panther on the old Clay Pike which severely frightened hi s horse e Dewey , whil returning to his home at Ebensburg t f rom his camp at Belsano , Cambria coun y , on the 9 3 1 9 1 4 1 4 1 0 . evening o f February , Early in the carcass o f an aged deer was found in the Seven Mountains near Woodward that showed signs of hav ing been killed and partly eaten by a panther . RE - INTRO DUCTIO N SPO RTING X .

POSSIBILITIES .

S man becomes more educated , he will shrink more and more each year from taking the lives

o f tender , shrinking creatures like squirrels , rabbits and quails . Many will hesitate from destroy — H e ing gentle eyed deer or the maj estic elk . will de

man mand a quarry worthy of his status as a , worthy

- H i s o f his high powered riﬂe . mind will turn to larger

‘ bl ack b ear and more savage beasts , such as the red and

a sk re- o and the panther . He will the intr duction of panthers and the adequate protection of bears . The bear has its drawbacks on account o f its hibernating habits , its general lack of ﬁghting qualities . He will select the panthe r as . his ideal of the big game animal . The forest areas o f Pennsylvania could be stocked with these beasts and a ﬁve- year closed season put on i them to allow them to mult ply . During this time these subtle brutes would be well able to care for themselves .

They would feed on old and decrepid deer and elk , sickly fawns , diseased hares and turkeys and in the

an d summer months on myriads o f bugs , grubs , ants

n t h worms , and on roots and berries . O ce t e closed season expired , sport royal would begin . There could be an extra license charged for panther hunting , as the

n territory and number of beasts bei g limited , it would not be wise to have the forests overcrowded with hunt 50 THE PENNSYLVANIA LIO N O R PANTHER .

ers . Dr . C . Hart Merriam , in his intensely interesting account of the animals of the Adirondack region , de scribes panther hunting as it was in the North Woods “ H e " o thi rty years ago . says The hunter c mmonly

fo r follows the panther many days , and sometimes for weeks , before overtaking him , and could never get him were it not for the fact that he remains near the spot where he kills a deer till it is eaten . When the hunter has followed a panther for days , and has , perhaps ,

o nearly c me up with him , a heavy snowstorm often

H e sets in and obliterates all signs of the track . is then obliged to make wide detours to ascertain in which direction the animal has gone . On these long and tire o f some snowshoe tramps he is , course , obliged to sleep , without shelter , wherever night overtakes him . The heavy walking makes it impossible for him to ’ o carry many days rations , and when his pr vision gives out he must strike for some camp or settlement for a new supply . This , of course , c onsumes valuable time and enables th e panther to get still further away . When the beast is ﬁnally killed the event is celebrated

al tabl e by a feast , for panther meat i s not only p , but is ”

. e n ob really ﬁne eating What grand , exhilarating , n ling sport it must have been " As practiced in the

Adirondacks , so it was carried on in Pennsylvania in the old days . It is related that Lewis Dorman , a Cen

n tre cou ty hunter , followed a panther for nearly two months before he brought it to bay . Dorman , who was 28 1 905 a mighty hunter , died on November , , and is ’

S t. buried in Paul s Churchyard , near Woodward , in G E O RG E S M I T H ( 1 827 - 1 96 1 )

A S u cc essf u l El k C o u n ty P a n th e r a n d W o lf H u n te r .

THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

’ \Vei kert John Penn s Valley . Henry Dorman , of , U nion County , had occasion to carry a strip of bacon

to a lumber camp on Cherry Run . It was at dusk , and a panther scenting the bacon , followed him the entire distance , occasionally howling mournfully . Packs of panther dogs would soon spring up in the mountainous settlements , and the breeding of these animals would

give an impetus to the canine industry in these regions . S mall bull dogs are said to be best for this purpose . “ ﬁ ” though many pre fer the ordinary whiffet or ce . H “ H ” Aaron all , the Lion unter of the Juniata , slayer of ﬁ fty panthers in Pennsylvania between 1 845 and

1 869 . , bred a race o f panther do gs . They were part

bull dog , part bloodhound , part New foundland , f . and part masti f They were so large that C . K . S ober , of Lewisburg , former State Game Com missioner , when on a visit to Hall at his hunt

ing cabin on Rock Run , Centre County , was able

‘ to ride on the back o f one o f them . They were trained to hunt in pairs , and when the quarry was

overtaken , to seize it by the ears on either side , holding ’ the m o n s er t . . \ H _ until the hunter appeared Vith all s 1 892 death , in , this interesting breed of dog was al lowed to become extinct . Old hunters declare there is

' th e t a a an ther nothing in ea ing line th t can equal fp roast .

It is said to taste like pork , only far more luscious in

. ﬂavor The meat i s white like chicken , but of more u s bstance . The hams are said to be superior to those

. 1% s of the hog The panther hides are valuable as g ,

- bed covers and lap robes . The S eneca Indians made 52 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI ON OR PANTHER .

the skin into pouches , in which they stored their great ” medicine . The claws were used as amulets to signify ’ the Indians victory over the forces of evil , panthers being supposed to have kinship to the M achtan do or f Evil One . Panther oil was an e ﬁcacious remedy for — gall stones and rheumatism . Hundreds of hunters among them Colonel Roosevelt—have been attracted to

Routt County , Colorado , by the panther hunting , where

l l i er . Co these animals are trailed with dogs Robert J ﬁ , a New York society man , headed a party of wealthy

i n 1 91 3 hunters into this region November , , to hunt ” Mountain Lions . Colonel C . J . Jones has provided similar sport for distinguished visitors at his ranch in r “ A izona , the pastime there being to rope the var ”

. s an d mints Penn ylvania can have all this more , i f

u t re- she will b set about to establish the superb sport .

In B ritish East Africa , according to A . Barton Hep burn , of New York City , lions have been placed on the protected list , the limit being four lions per hunter a season . Why cannot Pennsylvania follow this ex cel l en t example and protect the Pennsylvania lion ? It H is said that an old hunter named Noah allman , who spent his last days near the Blue Mountain Amphi theatre in Northern Berks county , possessed several trained panthers which he used to entice their wild brethren out of the hiding places at the head waters of the Lehigh River . Then the old Nimrod , who was i l ev dently an early prototype of Colonel Jones , wou d lag oo the panthers and drag them back to his camp in triumph .

- 54 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N O R PA NTHER .

4 r P A N 5 1 9 1 . VVE ST Cri nsr nn A . , , J ,

E AR M n I—I OE M A KE R ‘ D . S l I have your very kind etter o f January 2d . That - panther cry— I have often asked myself how I could describe it and failed to satisfy the inquiry though I think I have at this very minute a somewhat clear

m 11 1 r n f re e b a c e o . _ it It would not be an adequate reply i f I said it sounded like the wa i l o f a child seek

n ing something , a cry , distinct , hal f i quiry and half

e 1 11 1 t in t mper . There was something human , though A n . d unmistakably wild , clear and piercing yet I do

to not know how make a more satisfactory reply , ex cept to say that the cry seemed to be in all its tones

n n e about a mi ute long . I heard it o evening in Treas ter Valley repeated so o ften that I could recogn i ze it as coming from an animal movi n g along the rocky slope of the mountain where no “ child could have been at that hour , and was told by those residents in ‘ ’ ’ ’ w i n ter s . the region , Oh , it s the [ cry It did not seem to be unusual to them . Tha t was about twenty years ago .

Cordially yours ,

H R K . OT OC . ( S igned ) J T . R

Joseph H . Taylor , an able western writer on sport

' ing topics , accurately describes the panther s cry ' n which he heard during a ﬂood at Lake Ma dan , North 1 80 8 . Dakota , in March , THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

' W " C . . Dickinson says A great many writers claim that a panther does not scream or make any noise . They might as well try to make me believe that a pack of wolves could not howl or bark , growl or ” - w hine . Dickinson heard th e panther cry at the head o f the Dri ftwood branch o f the S innemahoning when H camping with his father , E . . Dickinson , in the 8 H “ 1 72 . e summe r o f says it was a loud , shrill , ” scream . He saw the last panther tracks on th e Dri ft w i n 0 11 ood branch January of the same year , while a i hunting trip w th his father . But there are real super — sti ti o n s of the painter as most of the early settlers

. 1 1 called it It was said to have a very deﬁnite sp r t , which came back and haunted familiar scenes after it had met with an unnatural death . A hunter in Cen S 1 864 treville , nyder county , in , killed a large male f — panther , stu fed it and mounted it on the ridge pole of

- n his wood house . One ight the mate came after it .

o f and springing on the r of , pushed the e ﬁgy into the h ’ . S e vard carried it back to Jack s Mountain , where many persons averred it came to li fe again . In the \Vhi te Mountains , not far from Troxelville , Snyder county , a panther was killed and its hide put into an

. S attic to cure trange noises were heard , and the skin mounted on a carpenter ’s trestle was met with in the woods at night . A witch doctor hit the horrid

’ manikin with a silver bullet , after which it gave no further trouble . Among the superstitious the Dorman panther was said to leave its case in the Natural H i s tory Museum on the top ﬂoor o f the old Academy 56 THE PENNSYLVANIA LI ON OR PANTHER .

’ building at New Berlin on All Souls Night and scam per about the big room after mice . It is now out of ghostly surroundings in the handsome new museum at Albright College , Myerstown , Lebanon County , 1 9 05 having been taken there about . Seneca Indians believed that the spirits o f tyrants and unfaithful queens passed into panthers . They were hunted speci

ﬁc all r - y for this and other befo e mentioned reasons , having as little peace in animal form as in their

n r human incarnations . Early German pi o eei sl said

' ’ “ — that the panther s hide glowed like fox ﬁre at ” night and green lights burned f rom the eyes . It was l I t held to be good uck to be followed by a panther . meant that outside forces were seeking the evil in the

w . person followed , that it would soon be drawn a ay ' f . o Prof . E Emmons , Williams College , says in his Report on the Quadrupeds of Massachusetts “ The panther will not venture to attack man , yet it will fol low his tracks a great distance ; i f it is near evening it frequently utters a scream which can be heard for

- miles . Some of the ﬁrst S cotch Irish frontiersmen regarded the panther ’s wailing as foretelling a death “ “ ” in the family . It was the token or Banshee of

- . S these sturdy souls amuel Stradley , a well known hunter residing on the Tiadaghton or Pine Creek , in L com m y g County , while watching for deer at a cross 1 870 ing in , fell asleep in the forest . When he awoke

he found himself covered with leaves . Crawling out he sat perfectly still until he was rewarded by seeing a huge panther come up , which he shot . It had evi THE PENNSYLVANIA LI O N OR PANTHER .

en tl d y thought him dead , and buried him in leaves to be eaten On some future occasion . Michael Fetzer ,

1 834 an ~ o l d born , hunter residing near Yarnell , Cen tre County , recounts that when he was a boy a panther once came to the kitchen window of the Reese home stead and looked in at the family assembled around

H e the supper table . was soon chased away by the dogs and disappeared in the forest at the foot o f In

S h recken a st dian Grave Hill . Franklin g describes panthers concealed in the forest grinding thei r teeth and snarling while Tom Askey and he cleaned a deer at a big spring near S now Shoe . He said that it was

o c a disconcerting sound , to say the least . This ' cured during the Civil War early one evening . The last panther i n the Snow S hoe region o f Centre coun — — ty the great abode of these beasts in early days was 1 886 S killed on Rock Run in , by Charles tewart , o f

Cl earﬁel d Kylertown , county , who collected a bounty on its scalp at Bellefonte . XII . TENTATIVE LIST O F PANTHERS KILLED N PENNSY VANIA SINCE 1 I L 8 6 0 .

t D e C o u n y . a t . H u n te r .

860 o h n . D o rth u m e r a n . . 1 e h N b l d J D S a y . x C I i n to n 1 860 P h i i h r l p S e c k e n g ast. S o m e rs et 1 860 Cl i n to n ( 1 C u b ) 1 860 6 1 N o rt h u m b e r l a n d . 1 8 6 0 B ra df o rd 1 8 P o st W i lc o x . 6 1 a Ce n tre 1 8 T o m A s key . 8 60 W a r re n 1 J e s s e L o g a n . 1 864 k e m n r a r h a a s e . S y d e M c , J S p l 1 862 F a i re s o e r S n y d er B y . 1 862 F a i re s o e r S n y d e r B y .

W a r re n 1 863 Sy l v e ste r C . W i l l i a m s . n Cl i n to n 1 863 J o h E n g l i s h .

- C Ii n to n 1 863 J o h n E n g l i s h . 1 863 r m t h E l k G e o g e S i . 1 867 h o m A n s o n x W a y n e T a s .

t e e m e r 24 1 868 e i s o r m a n . C e n re D c b , L w D

- 1 87 5 W i i a m P e r r . C e n t re . l l y

S n y d e r 1 869 D a n T re a ste r .

i n F e r u a r 27 1 872 o h n a rtz e . M i ffl b y , J Sw l l

o m i n a n u a r 1 865 eo r e h o v e r . Ly c g J y , G g S n Cl e a rfi e l d 1 870 S et h I re d e l l N e l s o . Cl e a rfi e l d 1 87 1 S et h I re d e l l N e l s o n . l n Cl e a rfi e l d 1 87 2 S eth I re d e l l N e so .

J e ffe rs o n 1 872 A n d y J a ck s o n L o n g .

i 1 87 3 eth re e e so n . Cl e a rf e l d . S I d l l N l 3 n o s B l a i r 1 87 S o l o m o B o .

t r e e m e r 0 1 87 1 e o r e . asti n s . C e n e D c b 3 , G g G H g

“ e e m er 3 1 1 87 1 e o r e . a sti n s . C e n t re D c b , G g G H g

ove m e r 2 1 1 87 3 F a i res o e r . S n y d e r N b , B y

8 4 m s A n s o n . B e r k s A u g u st 4 , 1 7 T h o a

t m a n . x M c K e a n J a n u a ry 1 , 1 860 J . E a s

s e h a n n a e e m e r 1 5 1 87 4 S a m O i n . x S u q u D c b , d x Ca m b r i a 1 87 5 J a co b K a u ff m a n . 7 n S u sq u e h a nn a 1 86 S a m O d i . " B I L L L O N G ,

o r n i n e r s o u n t 1 7 90 i e i n ea r i e o u n t 1 880 . B B k C y , , D d Cl f ld C y , “ " n t h n n n i T h e K i g H u n e r o f t e P e sy l va i a B g G a m e F i e ld s . XIII . O DE TO A STUFFED PANTHER .

(These lines were written upon seeing the ef ﬁgy of the Dorman panther i n the Natural History

n Museum of Albright College , Myerstown , Lebano

0 11 r 6 County , Novembe ,

w i l i h w h en th e shad o w s fl i t At t g t , Wi h i n th e an i en m u seu m si t t c t I , u s en ru s e l ss Ga z i n g th ro u g h th e d t c t d g a . ( Wh i l e h o st s o f savag e m em o ri e s pa ss) i r l e o u r e ffi l u d c o u s s u ff d . At y g y , y t Th e fu l vo u s ol o r fa d ed th e aw s al l u ffed c , p p , A n d b u l l et h ol es i n jo w l an d si d e T el l w h ere y o u r l i fe b l o o d eb b ed l i k e som e r ed ti de ; — A streak o f l i g h t th e l a st o f d ay Gl eam s h r o u h a w i n d o w on o u m u z l e ra t g y r z g y , A n l i u r l a ss e e s w i h arn e fi r e d g ht s y o g y y t g t . Yo u a l m o st sti r th o se o r b s i n fr etfu l i r e ’ Wh i ch g ap e i n to th e su n set s d yi n g fl am e T o w a rd s th e w i l d m o u n t ai n s w h en c e y o u c am e ; R evi ve s o l d i m ag es w h i ch d o rm an t l i e O u t si d e th e w i n d i s' rai si n g to a si g h i i i h i m e L k e o ft y o u vo c ed n t e p r val w o o d . ’ ’ I n ou l i fe s i l ri m a e I d ra e i t i f co u l d y r p g g , t c I I n w h i e i n e fo r e s s o s em b l i n i n th e b r ee e t p t , t p tr g z

i e r es l ess sab l e -c o l o r ed sea s L k t , Ben ea h i n rh o d o d en d on h i e s h i h t , r t ck t g , Yo c o u ch ed u n i l o u r e am u r t y pr y c e b y .

G ou se o r si l faw n o r even ﬁ sh er - fox r , ck y , , Yo u ren an d h en sl u n b a i n o th e ro s t , t k ck t ck ,

A n d o n ol d w i n r n i h s l i t b th e l ou d - sw e m o c t y g t , y c pt on o u w a i l i n to th e m u si c o f th e s h e es a u n e Y r g p r t ,

O A L EW I S D R M N ,

T h e F a m o u s P a n th e r S a e r o f h re i n e r o u n ta i n e ntre o u nt . l y S M , C C y

I N D E X

C h a pte r P a g e s

Preface 5 8 — The Last NVo l f Who Gets the Credit 9 1 8 1 9 22 The Last Pack .

Three Kinds o f Wolves 23 3 1 Description and Habits Former Prevalence 53 The Biggest 57 i 60 A \Vh te Wolf in S ugar Valley . 61 65 Cause of Extinction . 66 86 Wol f Hunting in Pennsylvania . .

Possible R e- Introduction 8 7 Superstitions 9 641 1 1

1 - 1 6 B ravest of the Brave . 1 2 1 1 — Catching Wolves With Fish Hooks . 1 7 1 26

Historical Data 1 2 7 - 1 28

I . PREFACE .

HAT a new book treating on the much - discussed wol f can be written at all the animal must be described from an entirely different point of t view , else it would be superﬂuous . Happily the au hor feels that there is a side , an important one , to the w o l ﬁsh character , which has been overlooked or per verted . It is a side decidedly favorable to the animal , to its inherent right to live , to be protected by man kind . The wolf of Pennsylvania accomplished much more good than harm . At the time when the Indians ranged the Continent and Nature ’s balance was per

fect . , the wolf played an important role With the panther it preyed’ upon the weak and sickly wild ani mals and birds , preventing the perpetuation of imper feet types and the spread o f pestilences . It kept up a high standard o f excellence among the lesser creatures , was the great preserver of type and perfection . Wolves having no animals to prey on them killed the ow n sick and weakly specimens o f their race , thereby keeping up the standard o f strength and vi rility . “ Charles John Andersson in his remarkable book , The

Lion and the Elephant , in speaking o f the lions of “ Central A frica said " Destroy them and the hoofed ” animals would pe rish in masses o f inanition . In ad ’ d and ition wolves devoured bugs , insects , grubs worms

a o f an inj urious nature . When the white man p peared on the scene and began killing all living things ~ 6 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

indiscriminately , the food supply o f the wolves was f l ﬁ h d t . w o s a fected The iet required mea , and this at times became unobtainable . Crazed with hunger the e wolves attacked calves , pigs and she p; which slow of motion and easily captured , occupied the same relative position to them as had the f ormerly abu n d ant weak and imperfect deer , elk , rabbits and hares . Just as some otherwise harmless men commit murder

the o v when crazed by lack of food , w lves played ha oc in farm y ards that otherwise they would have left u h b ” molested . But most of the sheep killed y wolves

- were slain by half wild , vicious dogs . There are fewer sheep in Pennsylvania today than when there

f d o . were wolves . What is needed is an e ﬁcient g law

As the result , bounties were put on the wolves , they o were hunted u nmerci fully . Now c mes the hue and “ ” cry that bears are killing sheep . Again the dogs are the real and only culprits . Wolves were also useful forest scavengers , cleaning up the neighborhoods of ’ camps and hunters shambles . E . H . Forbush , the a famous S tate Ornithologist of M ssachusetts , has “ said " When I ﬁrst found wolves feeding on berries t I was surprised . It is probable tha no land mammal ” is strictly carn i vero u s . No person stopped to reason — i f the wolf had a useful purpose in the world man deliberately acted as i f the Wise Maker had erred in u r creating such animals . All living things have a p pose ; it would be a loss to the world i f even the com mon house ﬂies were completely exterminated . It i s an over - production of any one species of things that

8 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . unwittingly to the slaughter and abrogate the game ” T law . . he early settlers of America were unhampered

w n o by game laws , their blood lust kne bounds . The wolves were starved into criminal acts , and then pun i shed e for them . Now after the wolv s are gone a more discriminating generation looks over the scene dispas si o n ately and notes that nothing has been gained by t their exti rpation . In Scotland when wolves and o her predatory creatures abounded no o n e ever heard of “ ” g ro u sef disease or rabbit disease ; the ibex and chamois in S witzerland deteriorated after the wolves h disappeared . The ibex exists in Italy w ere there are wolves , and as long as there are wolves there will be f ibexes . In Africa bu faloes and certain antelopes ff diminish as the lions are killed o . The rinderpest rages in regions where there are no longer any lions , leopards or Cheetahs . In Pennsylvania the harm done

de tr c i n ' o f a al n by the s u t o wolves has been pp i g . Fi rst

racti o f all the increase in insect pests . These were p cally unknown when panthers , wolves lynxes and foxes were prevalent . S econdly , the race of deer has de teri o rated Odo coi l eu s A m eri can u s , the larger variety

Bo reali s M i l l er is completely extinct . The race of deer is only kept up by frequent introduction o f speci

“ s r h r ar men from Western States w he e t e e e w o l ves . “ — ” The grouse are getting scarcer , despite man made game laws ; disease ravages them every few seasons .

The big hares are nearly gone , rabbits not what they were , the quail are frail ; sickly specimens breed now ; “ ” formerly the predatory creatures prevented that .

1 0 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSY L VANIA

Iredell Nelson kill ed two wolves in Cl earﬁel d County

an d M arch 1 892 . r in February , ; they we e native brown wolves and the last remnant of the big packs which for N years infested the Divide Region . Mr . elson was in

83 rd r the his yea at that time , hence he can be called oldest wol f slayer that Pennsylvania has produced .

Capt . A . A . Clay , of Ridgway , Elk County , hunting a crony of Col . Roosevelt and an all around sportsm n , states that a native wol f was killed in E lk County in

' 1 89 1 m i i to w ho . No ame s g ven as killed this animal in Rhoads ’ “ Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jer ” e sey . It is said that ano ther w l f was killed by a deer

1 887 re hunter in Elk County in . John Razey , a s ected S p citizen of underlinville , killed a wolf in 1 890 Potter County in , and received a bounty from the 6th County Commissioners . On S eptember of the S same year Fremont Gage , of weden Valley , killed 1 886 another w ol f in Potter County . The year was , “

e . proliﬁc in kills of native wolv s Dan Treaster , the o S Daniel B one of the even Mountains , killed a mag n iﬁcen t black wolf in Treaster Valley , formerly Black

M i fﬁi n S Wolf Valley , County , and George izer killed a M cKe n . a grey wolf on Pot to Creek , in a County Dan Long killed the last wol f in the Blue Mountains 1 886 S ’ in in hubert s Gap , as the bounty records of 1 888 Berks County for that year will show . In

Charles Ives and Theodore Pierce , two boys , killed a

M cKea n . lame grey wol f on Kinzua Creek , County It ’ had escaped from one of C . W . Dickinson s traps a 1 885 few seasons be fore . In Dan Treaster killed two Y A NI A 1 1 WO LF DA YS I N P E NNS L V .

1 881 black w olves in Treaster Valley . In Emmanuel

Dobson killed the last wol f in Forest County . In that year S eth Iredell Nelson killed ﬁve brown wolves in ﬁ Cl ea r el d County . Andy Long killed the last two ff 1 881 H wolves in Je erson County in . Jake amersley ,

of North Point , killed the last wol f in Clinton County 877 9 1 3 1 . 1 about In February , , there was a wolf ” scare in Horse Valley , not far from Chambersburg , which resulted in the killing o f two peculiar looking

dogs , which had evidently adapted themselves to

forest li fe and running deer . The hide of the male

hangs in the study o f the writer of this article . It i s

a pasty grey in color . The hide o f the bitch , which i s

now in the possession o f M . W . S traley , Chambers

burg , is said to be darker . A wolf was reported as seen “ ” at Mackeyville , Clinton County , in deer season , 1 1 ' 9 1 . W An escaped coyote killed by A . B . inchester

u 1 9 1 5 in Clinton Co nty in December , ; another shot by S 1 9 1 6 Amos axton in the same county in November , , gave ri se to many sensational wolf ” stories which

went the rounds of the newspapers . Judge Harvey W.

VVi ll i am s o rt Whitehead , o f p , reported that two wolves ’ o r coyotes were tracked in hi s game preserve on Larry s

Feb ru u r 6 a 9 1 . Creek , Lycoming County , in 1 Game

K l b fu wardens reported to the redoubtable Hr . a s “ that large grey foxes or w olves were running deer on certain mountains in Centre County in the fall of 9 1 1 5 . A coyote was reported killed near Farrands o 9 6 1 1 . ville , Clinton C unty , in January , Centre County 1 91 6 newspapers in April , , told of a wolf which fright 1 2 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . ened farmers and howled from the to-p of the moun tain near Jacksonville Gap , in that county . Doubtless there are records o f other wolves killed or seen in re cent years , but up to the time of the preparation of this treatise they have not come to light . It is certain that wolves were killed in the S even Mountains after

1 886 Cl earﬁeld 1 884 1 892 , in the region between and , 89 0 and in Potter C o unty within a year or two o f 1 . From the data available it would seem that Seth Ire dell Nelson is the slayer of the last native wolves , in l k addition to being the oldest wolf killer . The E 1 891 County wolf of is next in order , but the pity of ’ it is that the hunter s name is unknown . It is hoped that the party in question will read this article and come forward . If the persons to whom the last bona

ﬁde bounty were paid deserve the title , then John

w ho Razey and Fremont Gage , killed the wolves in r Potte County , are the heroes of the exploit , and ﬁt — M ac u een o f - a Chro cai n to rank with Q , Pall , who

S R o -r killed the last wolf in cotland , and y Carragh , who in the Tyrone mountains slew the last Irish wolf . The personalities of John Razey and Fremont Gage should be better known and should be given a chance to wear their laurels in that immortal coterie of Penn sylvania wol f hunters which includes such names as

Dan Treaster , Seth Iredell Nelson , S amuel Quinn , of ’ Quinn s Run , who killed four wolves with a single bullet ; C . W . Dickinson , who caught wolves with ﬁsh

S eR o a hrecken hooks ; amuel Askey , L y Lym n , Philip S l gast and David Zimmerman , who droves the wo ves out

1 3 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

o f Eastern Sugar Valley . There is plenty o f glory , and an admiring posterity ; there can be no prouder title than slayer o f the last native wol f in Pennsylvania . D Let us hail the names of Nelson , ickinson , Lyman , ’ S hreck en ast g , Askey and the rest as heroes of th e chase "

Among famous Pennsylvania wol fers Bill Long , 1 790 born near Reading , Berks County , in , and died at

H Cl earﬁel d 1 880 ickory Kingdom , County , in May , , is

- pre eminent . During his career in the wilds o f Clear ﬁeld and Jefferson Counties he killed two thousand

1 83 5 ve wolves . In he had ﬁ wol f dens which he vis i ted annually for pups . From one den he abstracted pups ﬁve years in succession , as the mother wolves

r H i s pe sisted in returning to the same localities . son , 1 829 1 9 00 Andy Jackson Long, born in , and died in , killed one hundred and ﬁfty wolves , the last two in

1 881 . m ff George S ith , a Je erson County hunter , born 1 827 1 901 the in , died in , killed ﬁve hundred wolves in 1 . 1 82 Pennsylvania forests Le Roy Lyman , born in , 1 886 gored to death by a bull in , was famed as the H i . s greatest wol f hunter in Potter County son , Milo

Lyman , states that his father killed three hundred 1 852 wolves in Pennsylvania , mostly between the years 1 865 and . Samuel Askey in Centre County killed 9 8

hreck en as wolves , Philip S g t in Clinton County killed 93 wolves . Wolves in Elk County were prevalent as

H o ck en b . . er late as the seventies . P C y, the well known photographer of Warren , relates that his mother and sel f were followed by wolves on Mill 1 4 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

8 1 69 . Creek in The last wolves in Elk County , on

. which bounties were paid , are recorded in Dr . W . J ’ “ M cK n ig ht s Pioneer Outline History of Northwest ” 8 " . ern Pennsylvania as follows J . R . Green , Nov , 8 1 r 8 8 . 1 7 . . 2 1 73 . , one ; J Bennett , J , Oct . , , one ; A J 1 8 4 3 1 7 . Rummer , Dec . , , one ; J R . G reen , October , 1 874 On 4 1 8 4 e . 1 7 , ; John Myers , Dec , , one ; George 8 1 8 4 S 7 . . mith , April , , two ; Charles A B rown , Dec 28 1 8 4 7 . . 1 8 7 7 . , , one ; O B Fitch , December , , one James Irvin collected the last wolf bounty in Warren

i n ' 1 866 1 865 County . In several wolves were killed

S Co rn l an ter by the Faddy boys , eneca Indians , on the p i r . l en t Reservation , in Wa ren County Wolves were p ’ ful on Co rn pl an ter s Reservation and on Kinzua Creek

1 8 - r as late as 70 . Indians killed the last wolves in VVa ren County in the late sixties , but there is no record of

y i their ha ng collected any bounties on the scalps . Jim

S o Jacobs , the old eneca elk hunter , was conspicu us among the redm en who hunted the last wolves in

M cK Warren and ean Counties . According to some

' authorities this mighty Nimrod was killed by a train 1 880 F near Bradford in , although John C . rench , o f

Roulette , Potter County , declares that he saw him on S the eneca Reservation , alive and well in S eptember , 1 881 . But such an apparition would not surprise the

Indians , who ﬁrmly believed in ghosts . General

Egbert L . Viele , Civil War hero and pioneer of Mc

- Kean County oil ﬁelds , purchased two female wolves i . o r from C W . Dickinson , of Norw ch , that county , as n am en ts to his estate on Riverside Drive , New York

1 6 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

Mt . Alton , and there they learned that a wolf had

been seen on Marvin Run , a tributary to Kinzua o Creek , so they started out after the w lf . This wolf had been seen by different people in the i woods during the year prev ous . It was reported bi w as to be a g one , but no one who armed had

got near enough to it to take a shot at it . Ives , 24 who was about years old at the time , and

Pi erce , also a young man , made their way over to

the section where the wol f had last been seen . The big fel l o w appeared and before he could get away Ives got a ‘ shot at him and made short work ’

of the animal s existence . It was a female . “ 4 M r . Ives says the pelt measured 7 feet inches

in length from tip to tip . 88 i In 1 0 Mr . Ives shot an an mal at Lewis Run o d which he always c nsi ered a coyote , but which

other hunters declared was a wolf . There was no question about the species o f the animal killed on ” the Kinzua , however .

o A pack of wandering w lves , a dozen in number , came to the edge of the clearing at the back of the H home of the great wolf hunter , Aaron all , near

U 1 880 . nionville , Centre County , one winter night in They set up a terrific howling which the dogs could o not silence . They came so cl se that their flaming H eyes could be seen by M r . all and his sons from where they stood on the back porch . After several shots were fired at them they disappeared in the di rec tion of the big Alleghany Mountain . A black wol f followed Andrew H ironimus out of Poe Valley one 863 H i 1 . e n night in February , could hear its tread the fro z en snow a few feet back of him but it made O C . W . D I C K I N S N , K n o n t th e re atest i v i n e n n s va n i a Of Mc ea C u y , G L g P y l t W o lf H u n e r.

W 1 8 OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . lates that up to 1 860 the wolves had a crossing in the west end of the valley near Log an Mills . A third t pa h was near Summer Creek , not far from the heart o f the present town of Loganton ; it was used by the 1 857 wolves as late as , in their j ourneys to and from the White Deer watershed . John Womeldorf relates that packs of wolves used to run along the summits of the . mountains on the northerly side of S ugar Val ley on winter evenings howling at the farmers en gaged in thei r “night milking ” in the barnyards in the valley below . Many farmers favored ﬁring the mountains to destroy their cover . HE AST PACK. I II . T L

S long ago as1 83 5 the p acks of wolves in Central

Pennsylvania showed signs of diminishing . In the spring of that year the bodies of twenty

S n ot wolves were found in a gulley on hade Mountain ,

w i n e fo rdsto w n d . far from S , after the snow had melte w The poor animals , eakened f rom lack of food , had huddled together for mutual protection , been engulfed H in a snowbank and perished . unting parties , trap pers and poisoners wiped out a dozen packs in the Sn S Juniata , S even Mountains , ow hoe and Black For 8 0 est regions between 1 83 5 and 1 6 . At the time of the first settlers packs of 500 were common ; during the first half of the nineteenth century a pack contain 1 850 ing fifty was considered a rarity . After , a pack

w as . o f twenty considered unusual D r . W . J . M c “ o f ff " Knight , Brookville , Je erson County , says In the middle of the last century large packs o f wolves ” roamed a greater part of the state . Edwin Grimes , o f l 1 83 0 Rou ette , Potter County , born in , tells o f packs of thirty and forty wolves surrounding his hunting

M cKean 1 847 camp near Buttsville , County , in , and subsequent years . They were so plenti ful that Grimes I n never bothered to skin the wolves he shot . the

Cl earﬁel d Divide Region o f County three packs ,

all of about twenty individuals , lingered on until 88 1 0 . H a fter John Kearns , now of Lock aven , 2 0 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

d Clinton County , states that these wolves estroyed many deer crusted in the snow near Pen

ﬁ l 870 I n e d 1 . S , about — the even Mountains only one pack survived the celebrated Black Avengers ,

chw ar tz e ei st as they were called by some , or the S g by

’ a a others . This pack lways cont ined twenty black 1 880 wolves and held its numbers until after . It made

reaster Mifﬂin its headquarters in T Valley , County , bu t ranged through the entire S even Mountains coun ’ her i s . e try T no record that they ever did, any great

o r . amount of damage to live stock game , although Dr o f J . T . Rothrock says that they were one the causes V for the scarcity o f deer in Treaster alley . Very few of them were ever captured by hunters or trappers .

Dan Treaster , of Treaster Valley , trapped a few each o l d winter , but followed the Indian policy of keeping the breeding stock alive . Forest ﬁres and lumbering , as well as diminishment of food supply after the Seven ’ Mountains became a no ted hunters rendezvous caused

o H erl acher their numbers to gr w less . Clem , who

1 892 an 1 893 camped in Treaster Valley in d , says that the pack numbered about a dozen during those years . In 1 898 the beds o f thirteen wolves were discovered by

the n ~ ﬁshermen in Detwiler Hollow , in Seve Moun “ ” tains , evidently this same pack o f black boys . In 1 902 February , , George Grenoble was followed by three black wolves in a wood between Millheim and ’

Aaronsburg, in Penn s Valley . Wolves singly and in pairs were tracked in the S even Mountains during the

9 3 904 1 905 . 1 0 1 . winters of , and P F . Conser , a Mill

21 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

hi heim farmer, was working in one o f s ﬁelds with his 1 9 08 son Harry in March , , when they saw a black wol f trotting along in a southerly direction , evidently head ed for the S even Mountains . This gave rise to the story that the wolves were returning to the S even

Mountains . It is said that wolves howled in Treaster

Valley and High Valley during the S pring of 1 9 08 . It i s claimed that wolf tracks were noticed in the Bare 1 909 Meadows in the winte r of . But that is the last k heard of the Black Avengers . A pac of Centre County grey wolves was reduced i n numbers by

S S - t amuel Askey , of Snow hoe , who killed ninety eigh

1 820 1 845 n between and . A pack of brown wolves hu g f on in the Bu falo Mountain Country , and ranged up to 3 o 1 85 . the White Deer M untains until April , Fam i shed , they attacked some dogs belonging to a raft the moored at foot of Bald Eagle Mountain , near

Muncy , but most o f them were shot by raftsmen . That was the last heard of the pack , which was undoubtedly

' Charl es an d the last pack in that part of Pennsylvania . H ff U James u , of White Deer , nion County , chased grey 1 8 5 wolves in the White Deer Mountains in 7 . The three packs of brown wolves in Cl earﬁel d County were harassed by trappers , most o f them being killed by S eth Iredell Nelson and his associates . By 1 890 they

were reduced to three or four scattering individuals . There was a big pack of grey wolves in M cKean

County during the ﬁrst hal f of the nineteenth century . i At times it numbered a hundred an mals , old and young . S ettlements along the Alleghany divided it , 22 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

and part ranged into Potter County . The bulk of the M cK ean County aggregation were slain or scattered

“ r by C . W . Dickinson , formerly o f No wich , but the remnant were killed after 1 886 on Potato Creek and

Po tter . Co u n t Kinzua Creek . The last of the y band S F re were killed by John Razey , of underlinville , and 1 890 mont Gage , o f Sweden Hill , in , who collected the c bounty on their scalps . However , C . W . Di kinson claims , with good reason , in Chapter VIII , that the ’ Razey wol f was Col . Parker s escaped coyote . The grey wolf which followed the last elk killed by Jim

' t Cou n t No Jacobson , a half breed hunter , in Po ter y, vem b er 1 8 75 w as , , shot a few weeks later by Le Roy

Lyman . There was a pack of grey wolves in Blair and h r Cambria County , whic anged into other more south

an -d S o m erly counties , another pack of grey w olves in

erset . County, which inhabited Laurel Ridge These packs were being constantly reinforced by starving n a a imals from West Virgini . C . E . Connelly , the his torian , states that he heard wolves howling in the for

at f r est night in West Vi rginia , between Bu falo C eek

u S 1 902 . and the Ga ley River in eptember , The almost ’ total destruction by hunters o f deer , wild turkeys , ground—hogs and rabbits in the mountains of Southern

w o l ﬁsh Pennsylvania , caused the breaking up of these companies , perhaps forever . S . N . Rhoads mentions “ ” t a school master , somewhere in the S even Moun ains , 9 being attacked by a pack of wolves about 1 8 8 . Lucky pedagogue to have had such an experience in this empty day I

24 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

s others a dusky black , or very dark brown , other j etty black or dusky black with somewhat lighter coloring on the under parts . Many o f them had brown ears . That the black wol f was a separate variety is upheld by the fact that its general contour was different from

i w 1 l l the others . Th s be seen exactly in Chapter IV , by studying the d escriptions and dimensions o f the ff e black wolves as di er ntiated from the other kinds .

As far as intelligence went , the black wolf was far the superior of the others . It was susceptible of a domestication , and would have m de the ideal hunting dog of Pennsylvania . In the Jura Mountains , on the borders of France and Switzerland , two varieties of

wolves were found occupying adj acent territory . The grey wol f inhabited the great forests on the plains and W the ﬁrst plateau , hile the black wolf was found in the high mountain regions embracing the second and third “ l e te K i a au s. . . M c n h . t p Dr W J g , in his Pioneer Out ” o f e line history Northwest rn Pennsylvania , states “the pioneer hunter would sometimes raise a wolf pup . This pup would be a dog in every sense o l d of the word until about two years , and then ” would b e ' a ' w o lf in all hi s acts Audubon in _

“ ‘ “ his Quadrupeds o f North America says z Once When we were traveling on foot no t far from the S outhern boundary of Kentucky , we fell in with a

foll o w m hi s black wolf , g a man with riﬂe on his shoul

. O n t der speaking with him about his animal , he as

' an d sured us that it was as tame and gentle as a dog , that he had never met a dog that could trail a deer bet L E R O Y LY M A N ( 1 82 1 - 1 886 )

A P otter C o u n ty H u n te r o f N at i o n a l R e p u tati o n W h o S l ew i Seve ra l H u n d re d W o l ves i n N o rth e r n P e n n sy l va n a .

26 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

o n the mountain back of his cabin . He had preserved “ 1 89 5 to several wild pigeons until , be used as stool ” “ ” pigeons in the event of the great ﬂocks returning .

- He also kept several wolf dogs . These animals had dun and grey coloring not unlike collies , but had the

' n shorter hai r a d longer legs of wolves . There was no trace of black in their coloring , although their owner stated that their grand—sire had been a black wolf which coupled with a sheph erd bitch some ten years before when he was lumbering for Ario Pardee in

High Valley . He said that neither turkeys nor dogs had the l east inclination to revert to the savage pro cl i v ities of their ancestors . I f the grey wolves and the brown wolves had any of the admirable characteristics

i n sa eth . of their black relat ves , the old hu ters y not Cra fty and mean ” is the general verdict expressed “ ” about the grey wolves , nasty like little cur dogs , i s the general run of remarks relative to the brown W olves . Doubtless these uncomplimentary character i z ati on s are unj ust to the animals , but they were cer tai n l y not up to the standard of the black wolves . If all are of one variety these attempts at specialization are hardly worth the time to read . At the same time it may show that color in animals has much to do with e habitation , character and disposition . It may h lp to reveal the secret of why some men are blonde and others dark .

. 22 1 83 0 Robert C Quiggle , born August , , died 23 1 9 1 6 May , , an intelligent gentleman who resided at

Pine Station , Clinton County , told of his brother , Wil ‘ 27 \VOL F DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

liam Quiggle , who used to climb a certain big shellbark

back of their home and bark like a wol f , drawing many brown wolves o ff the mountains close enough to \ ’ be shot . Vhen shown the author s tame coyotes at Mc

l h n " \Vh atta . E S prings Mr Quiggle exclaimed y, those are the same animals that abounded on the Bald Eagle

u r h t . e w a Mountain seventy years ago Q y, was the most easterly limit of the coyote ’s range ? Could it possibly have been identical wi th the “ small brown wolf of th e S w usquehanna Valley , or the small brown ol f of the ? Carolinas Jacob Quiggle ( 1 821 - 1 91 1 ) older brother

of Robert C . Quiggle , often related to the author how h is brother \Vi l l i am called the wolves o ff the m g u n tai n

and out of the forest to be shot . Once when Jacob Quiggle was a tiny boy he told his father o f the nice bro w n dog which followed his little sister an d himsel f

to school every day . The elder Quiggle became sus

1 1 0 p c us , and accompanying the children armed with a

- 0 11 shot gun , encountered a wolf the path . Despite the ’ children s entreaties he shot the handsome animal .

Colonel James W . Quiggle was fond o f relating how

n w at ightfall , especially in cold weather . the olves howled along the foot of the Bald E agle Mountains at

M cEl hattan y , in Clinton Count . The stress laid on

' the b arking o f these brown wolves i s another point in favor of the possibility of their being “ prairie ” w . M a 2 7 1 820 olves or coyotes Daniel Ott , born y , , S ’ S pioneer hunter of elin s G rove , nyder County , states w that . olves w ere plenti ful along the S usquehanna w hen he was a boy . They sometimes barked from the top of the Blue H ill at the good people across the river 28 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

a in Northumberland and S unbury . When the can l was building in the early thirties they barked nightly from the summit o f Mahanoy Mountain . M r . Ott killed many wolves an d saw numerous wolves taken “ by other hunters . They were yellowish grey in color , lighter colored than the timber wolves of the west ”

. W was the way in which he described them In the est , f as a bu falo hunter in the seventies , Mr . Ott saw and killed timber wolves . This all adds color to the suppo sitiou that perhaps the coyote had a n a rrow strip o f range east of the Mi ssissippi as far as the mouth of

S . the Juniata . When this subj ect was referred to . N

Rhoads , of Philadelphia , the great authority on the mammals of Pennsylvania stated emphatically that it would be impossible to believe that the prai rie wolf ( cam s l atro ns) ever had a permanent habitat in Penn

s o rti n arl an ce sylvania , or even in Ohio . In the old p g p n of Pennsylva ia , the black wolf and the grey wolf “ ” “ howled , while the small brown wolf barked . H unters ranked the brown wolf little above the co l i sha y or grey fox as a game animal , whereas they fully respected the splendid qualities of its larger rela

’ ti ves cam s l ca am a bil a s e y on and c s n . At tim s the grey and black wolves imitated the hunting dogs and “ bark ed , but their natural utterance was a truly melancholy

ersOn iﬁcati on howl , the very p of loneliness and wild n ess , of night time and olden days . Audubon in his “ ” Quadrupeds of North America describes vividly W how a farmer near Vincennes , Indiana , hom he vis i ted a I n , caught m ny black wolves in pitfalls . the Seven

Mifﬂi n - Mountains , in Centre and Counties , the old

29 \VO L F DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . settlers used this method of trapping Pennsylvani a black wolves . Daniel Karstetter , who was born near ’ Karo on di n ha the Blue Rock , on the (John Penn s 1 824 1 907 Creek ) in , and died in Sugar Valley in , maintained several o f these pits near his hunting camp at G reenbriar Knob . A haunch of venison or a dead sheep was usually placed in the pits , which were as eight feet deep , broadest at the bottom so to render it impossible for the most active animals to escape from

re them . The mouth o f each pit was covered with a volving platform o f boughs and twigs , and attached to a cross piece of timber , which served as an axle . When the hungry animals scented the bait and sprang on the covering, it revolved , hurling the brutes , sometimes two

Karstet or th ree at a time , into the pit below . O ften ’ ” ter s cabin was entirely weather - boarded with wol f hides obtained in this way . Susquehanna County , “ ” w here animal drives were practiced to rid the section of wolves and other more or less troublesome animals , “ ” w as also the scene of much pitfall hunting . An aged German hunter from the S chw arz w al d in the Old

Country , was a leader in this pastime . Josiah Lord , a S usquehanna County pioneer , in describing the antics of a pack of wolves who descended on a dead cow near ’ H hi s home , is quoted in Blackman s istory of that “ ’ County as follows " About two o clock in the morn ~ ing we were waked up by a sudden yell o f the w i n term i ssmn olves , and they yelled without until day

. f light As they continued howling, the ﬁne yelp o the ' pups increased th e roar which seemed to shak e the ” S earth like thunder . Another usquehanna County 3 0 W OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . wol fer has this to say concerning the howling o f “ " wolves I wish I could describe this howl , but the best comparison I can give would be to take a dozen

W i l stl es railroad h , braid them together , and then let

o ff one strand after another drop , the last peal so frig htfu ly piercing as to go through y o ur heart and soul ; you would feel as though your hair stoo d straight on end i f it was ever so long . The Brown brothers , S of usquehanna County , caught many wolves in pit falls . A S usquehanna County wol f hunter , contem ’ ’ o rar p y with the Brown boys , i s quoted in Blackman s History as describing the wolves of that region as “ - coarse , grey haired , ugly looking things . Wolves

o- 1 830 were prevalent in Pike C unty as late as . Joseph

in 1 832 . Brooks , a Yorkshireman who died , made a failure of his woolen - goods manufacturing near Ding man ’s Ferry because the wolves destroyed the sheep in large numbers , while the lambs succumbed from “ — ” eating too much sheep laurel or Lamb kill . The site o f this unfortunate venture is now called the “ George

W . Childs Park , having been given to the Common wealth o f Pennsylvania by the widow of the famous editor and philanthropist . One of the most famous wolf hunters in Pennsylvania was “ King” ( Henry) “ ” Heizmann , The Bear Trapper , who died near Boy

' i l l i n 89 5 ersv e U 1 . , now called Mazeppa , nion County ,

Every fall this eccentric man , who was by profession a maker of wooden pumps , would place his trapping outﬁt in his saddle—bags and go to the White Deer

ca Mountains Where he trapped until spring . He p tu red many wolves , luring them out o f the forests by

I T N AND HABIT V. DESCR P IO S .

M cKean W. DICKINSON , of Smethport, Coun

t . e y, the greatest living P nnsylvania wol f

hunter , and a man of intelligence and education , makes the “ following c o mments anent our native wolves “ The peculiar traits o f the wolf family are too numerous to state here in full , but will give some of the main points ; The wolf i s on e of the m o st cunning and shrewd animals we know anything about . They are the m o st difﬁcult animal to catch in a trap that

a . we know anything about . If a wolf is caught in trap by bait and should happen to make his escape , ’ don t try to catch that wolf with bait again , for life Th i s too short to do it . e only way to catch that wolf is to set traps in a path where they travel o ccasionally . ’ Don t use any bait ; i f you do he will give that locality

o e a Wide berth . If a W l f g ts caught in a trap and

o ff happens to twist his foot , he must leave the pack or drove he belongs with . Whether they drive him away or Whether he leaves them because he can ’t stand the long j ourneys they take i s a question we ’ o f . We can t answer . never saw an instance a three footed wol f traveling with other wolves ; he always goes alone ; keeps near the settlements . H e may be in three or four countie s in three or four days and never kills but one sheep at a time , and never goes O A A J N S J . B R N ET ( B o rn

Wh o H e a r th e o lves H o wl In P o e V a l l e C e n tr C o nt d W y , e u y ,

In 1 863 .

3 4 WOLF DAYS I N PENNSYLVANIA .

s are two or three weeks old , the two old one do their

o f ' heavy k illing sheep . The male wolf stays with the female from mating time until the young are grown and hunts for food as faithfully as the mother wolf . When the young are about ten weeks old the old ones take them from the den and begin to teach them to

o f travel . After they leave the den they are a band

r- s wandere . They do not return to the den again that year . They are taught to wander and kill . By the time they are six m onths old they m e great ranger s and will travel as far in a night as the old ones care to go . During late S eptember and October the wood W chucks are denned up for the inter , so the wolves will begin to slaughter sheep again , but at this season , of the year the number of sheep killed is only about hal f compared with May and June . Thei r sheep kill ing is not conﬁned to the two peri o ds above men ti o n ed , for they are liable to make a raid on sheep at

l attter any time . During th e part of J anuary the old

’ wolves will take the young wolves to some l o cal itv i - i ro m twenty to forty m les from the den . Here they will soon teach the young they have got to stay away

' The m u s from them . y t not follow after the old ones i f they do , they get roughly handled . As soon as the young are thoroughly convinced they h ave got to

f o r shi ft themselves the old ones return to their den , and any wolf that dares to venture near that point has g o-t to be able to whip that pair or he must hike for other quarters . A full grown Pennsylvania grey wol f ’ is about as tall as a greyhound , and has a long nose , 3 5 \VOL F DAYS I N PENNSYLVANIA .

, q uite slim ; he has large tusks , a ﬁne set of teeth a mouth split well back ; he has a treacherous rolling

eye . very keen ; he is heavily built through the butt of j aws ; ears about four inches long , inclined to be thick ’ a n d stand up on his head like a fox s ears . He is quite deep through the chest and well cut up in the

ﬂ . anks . He is thin through the chest , body and hams The shape of his body after being skinned i s similar to H i s the bo dv of a fox , only very much larger . hair or a fur is long but not coarse . It gives him a shaggy p

r . pea an ce . His tail i s long and shaggy A full grown wol f of this species will weigh from 60 to 80 pounds . There have been some larger ones caught in thi s sec

' 9 0 ti o n w eig hi n g as high as pounds . I saw a western Y f . . timber w olf in the Zoo at Bu falo , N , in March ,

1 9 1 4 s e . and it eemed to m slightly bigger than the grey w olf of Northern Pennsylvania . But it may have been better fed . Their main hold on a sheep or deer

‘ the thro at ( except a buck deer with antlers ) is , which

~ e they will hang to , giving the animal a few viol nt shakes w hi ch will make their necks creak until the animal stops struggling , then he will let go . If he is a

cripple he will proceed to take a meal , but i f he belongs to a den w here there are young whelps he w ill look

' see for a chance to kill another sheep . and i f he can t ’ any more to kill he w ill take a meal and hike and won t return to any of the dead sheep again or visit this sec tion again that season , unless he can come in on the opposite side o f that ﬁeld ; then it is fresh mutton for him . He will not visit any o f the old carcasses . The 3 6 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

“ a wolf is very strong, quick and active . If lone wol f gets up to a buck deer with antlers the wolf will j uke and dodge around the buck until he gets a snap or two ’ at that buck s gambrel j o int s At a single snap h e will . have one leg of that buck useless and a snap or two at ’ the other gambrel j oint , and that buck s hind legs are

n useless . He will stand O his gambrels instead of his ' f No w re r . hind feet . h e is an easy p y o that wol f Just u one throat hold and that b ck is a dead deer . The only good trait of the wol f is , the old male will not leave the mother wol f to take care of her young ; he is al

to a ways with her , death being the only thing sep rate h l f . t e w o them Still , many men think ought to have

n been protected by law . Not a y of that for me , but I think that the bounty laws are superﬂuous and a waste ’ ” — of the S tate s money . The sheep killing wolves

- which Mr . Dickinson describes doubtless would have been less destructive had not man decimated the deer

‘ and other of their natural s ources of subsistence . These gray wolves were probably the type which

cams M exi ean u s ma bi l i s . Mr . S . N . Rhoads calls In size they were the largest of the P en n syl ’ vania wolves . In Williams Civil and Natural H 1 79 7 istory of Vermont , published in , the weight of

' a Vermont wolf i s given as 92 pounds . A large speci men o -f the European wol f mentioned 1 n the s ame 6 8 H 9 . work i s given as pounds ounces arlan , in his H Pennsylvania Natural istory , evidently refers to the “ brown wol f when he says " The wolf in Pennsylvania

- r n i s reddish brown colo , the hair bei g tipped with

3 7 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

e black , but especially so over the fore should rs and n s " sides . Bartram , in his atural hi tory notes , says “ The wolves of Pennsylvania are a yellowish brown ” ’ color . This i s the variety which is called in Trego s “ ” l u u s cci den tal i s Geography of Pennsylvania p o . A

c i o c i en ta is better name would be an s c d l . Audubon gives the measurements o f a black wol f as follows " 3 2 Length of head and body , feet inches ; tail vertebra , 1 1 1 1 inches ; tail vertebra , including fur , foot inch ; 3 length of ear , inches . C . W . Dickinson gives the length of the ear of a Pennsylvania wolf as 41 inches ; “ ” tail very long . These animals , being noted for thei r “ long , trailing tails , were called by the old settlers the ” - d- long tailed hunters . Others among the ol timers “ ' i h l A bl ck called them Mountain N g ti n g a es . a wolf ’ y 1 85 7 caught in Penn s Valley , in Centre Count , about , 4 4 1 measured , whole length , feet inches ; tail , foot ;

' 2 c f hi . o t s length of ear , in hes The ears wolf were very narrow , the nose was more pointed and the tail w as not quite so long as the grey wolves from the h northern part of t e S tate . The black wolf is known

cani s l c on scientiﬁcally as y a . The measurements of a small wol f , taken in Sugar Valley be fore the Civil

War , are given as , length from point of nose to root of 2 1 1 1 1 . tail , feet inches ; tail, foot inch The meas u rem en ts of a west ern grey wolf are given as , nose to 3 origin of tail feet inches ; length of trunk of tail , 1 1 3 foot inch ; ears , % inches . These are singularly like the measurements of the grey wolves noted by

C . W . Dickinson in Northern Pennsylvania . While it 3 8 W OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . may be possible that the three varieties of wolves found in Pennsylvania were all variations of the one species . x d ff they e hibite marked di erences . The grey wolf o f the Northern Counties was th e biggest and strongest variety ; his prevailing color was dark grey , his head i h w an d o n ted . T e and j a s large , his ears long p brown wolf of the Eastern and Central part o f the State was about the size of the animal whi ch Audubon called th e “ o a red Texas w lf , or most likely the size of male coyote . It varied in color from a yellowish to a red dish brown . It had smaller and squarer ears than the m grey wolf of the North . The black wol f , which seldo e i f ever was found outside of the S ev n Mountains . r was slightly larger than the brown wolf , mo e rangy

trem en d in build , with long but narrower ears , and a

so o tv ous length of nose . It varied in color from a

as . w . grey , or hyena color , to a j et , shiny black Its tail o i n t o ften so devoid of hair , especially summer , as “ s ' resemble a black curved stick . It was the swi fte t runner of all the three varieties . It was very moder o I t ate in its diet , and seldom attacked sheepf lds . would have been an ideal animal for coursing w ith e dogs . Audubon gives the height of a W stern grey

5 ; the wo lf as 2 feet inches . C . W Dickinson says

Pennsylvania grey wol f was the height of a greyhound . A Pennsylvaniablack wolf was said to be “ about the

- height of a half breed shepherd dog . A Pennsylvania brown wolf “ resembled in height and general appear ” ance a small sized foxhound . From these meagre pen pictures perhaps those interested i n the wolves of th e

40 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANI A .

had lost his winter coat , and his hair was as short and

- smooth as a common smooth haired dog . It j ust dawned on me that I never before saw a wol f while he had his winter coat of fur on . “ S The late Spring , ummer and early Fall being th e

o r only times that we could trap hunt them , and all of our experiences with the wol f family were while they

a - had thei r summer co t , which is not one quarter as

a long or heavy as their winter coat . And fter looking this fellow o ver carefully we have changed our mind about the sizeof him . Instead of putting him in the heavy class we will put him as a medium - sized full I f f ‘ grown wolf . I am ortunate enough to get to

Buffal o the last o f this month I will . try to g et a photo s of this fellow in his summer coat , and , i f succe sful , will send you a print so you can compare them . They

o f are a hard animal to get a picture , because they are so restless and uneasy . You will see that this is not a s perfect picture , for the wol f moved his tail , and it j u t

- shows a blur , but this is the best view out of a dozen . It does not make any difference where this wol f comes

— w as from whether it Maine , Montana or Cali fornia

“ —he a t is a gray wolf , and the very s me ype o f the n grey wol f of Pennsylva ia . When hunting young wolves , which was done in the latter part of May or fore part of June , it was a mystery to me , as I could not make out Where all the long hai r in their nests

i s . w as came from , but it very plain to me now It all from their he avy Winter coats . H E N RY B . K A RST ETT E R ,

h o C a n e o u n t a n n i e n ts of th e ay s B o rn 1 842 , W R c M y I c d D e W h e n W o l ves T rave l e d T h ro u g h S u g a r V a ll y .

Cl i n to n C o u n ty .

42 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

n was for the permanent abode , but a seco d generally

d the ten miles distant , was kept in rea iness in case regular cave was noticed by some passing ﬁsherman or prospector , who would be sure to report its exist ence at the nearest settlement . When the wol fers ar

“ rived at the spot the entire w o l ﬁsh family would have “ ” left for parts unknown . For that reason one o f

11 the parent wolves was constantly 0 guard . This sagacious trait saved many a litter of pups at the

o f C Wolf Rock dens at the head Henry Run , linton

County , that otherwise would have been quickly de stroyed . Yet correctly speaking , wolves were home

ac loving animals , and their dislike of abandoning customed neighborhoods contributed not a little to their speedy extermination in Pennsylvania . It is a

' “ m i sn o m er to call them wanderers ; only in their last , dark , starving days did they ﬂit from place to place in Pennsylvania . MER PREVA EN E . VI . FO R L C

NE of the ﬁrst enactments made by W’illiam Penn during hi s second visit to Pen n syl va nia in 1 69 9 was to have a bounty placed upon the scalps of wolves . At a Court held at

2n d 1 69 5 Chester , October , , it was stated that “ ’ ” there are several wolves heads to pay for , show ’ ing that there w as a bounty on wolves h eads as 69 5 1 05 1 . 7 early as In , wolves had so increased in numbers about Philadelphia that an Act was passed in l w ci ves R ec . that year for the killing of ( Col . , Vol II , 2 1 2 pp . . The amount paid was ten shillings for — a dog wolf , ﬁfteen shillings for a she wolf . The great ’ O u ak er i n interested himsel f the matter reluctantly , as he was a strong beli ever in the conservation of fur ’ “

ee . bearing animals . S T Clarkson s Memoi rs of ” 8 \ 1 . 3 2 . Villian Penn , Vol I , p But a couple of cold w inters had set the wolves to howling about the very e outskirts of Philadelphia , and som thing had to be done to quiet the public clamor . Calves , pigs and

- sheep , taken in some instances by two footed thieves . d a w e no oubt , were charged gainst the olves , so th y had to f su fer . Hundreds of wolves were slain to collect the bounty . At ﬁrst the numbers did not seem to de

ff) crease , and a cry was made double the bounty This was done in some localities through private liber ’

. t 1 7 1 8 ality A the time of Penn s death , in , wolves ‘ 44 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

1 x we e practically e terminated east of Lancaster . O f

1 n course , they were plenti ful still the Blue Mountains and in the Lehigh and Pocono regions until a centu ry b ’ later . But y the date of Penn s demise they were known no more , except as rare stragglers , in the fertile farming regions in what is now Montgomery , Chester , L “C “ ancaster and York ounties . A wolf was killed in 1 800 1 81 6 Bucks County in , in Chester County in , and 4 1 83 S . one was seen in York County in . according to

N . Rhoads . At the time o f the French and Indian War , when the chain of forts along the Blue Mountains were

k redm en 1 755 attac ed by in , wolves were present in large com panies . While there is no record or tradi

o f - h tion extant t eir having molested human beings , they proved a source o f complaint as considerable as

m n red e . the Wolves and panthers , as well as the In

“ dians , pillaged the farms at the base of the Blue

o ff Mountains , carrying much stock . Twenty years later they were still numerous along the Blue Moun tains , and women whose husbands had gone to the front in the Revolutionary War complained that there was no one to guard stock and children from packs of — . . S hungrywolves One woman Mrs Barbara chwartz , — wi fe o f a R evol u ton ary soldier shot three wolves r n o he r. which had attacked watch dog , the shooti g ccu ring in her front . yard near the present town o f

S hubert . After the war the returned soldiers formed

“ hunting parties , so that by the close of the eighteenth century these savage animals w ere ' sel do m seen east U of the Blue Mountains . ntil the middle of the nine

45 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

teen th century they were prevalent in Franklin ,

Adams , Cumberland , Perry , S chuylkill , Luzerne and 845 adj oining counties to the North . In 1 or there abouts they are described as being very numerous in

the Wyoming and Tomhicken Valleys . They were the still found by hundreds in the S even Mountains ,

S o f P- M cK ean and to the outh them , and in otter , and

Cl earﬁel d Counties . They were exterminated in the t West B ranch Valley , except as stragglers , abou thi s i time . The celebrated Black Wolf wh ch regularly followed the pack etb oats on the West B ranch C anal H from Williamsport to Lock aven at night , was killed

oo o f 1 847 b during the great ﬂ d , y Mike Curts , where

the old woolen mill now stands in Antes Gap . Mrs . “ Caroline Lanks , The Little Red Riding Hood of the ” West B ranch , who as a small girl saw the wolf and

alarmed the neighborhood , said that it was black with H ” s wide brown bars . Black eaded Bill William ,

- old timer and veteran Bucktail , of Pine Station , Clin

ton County , says that the last time he heard a wolf call on the Round Top back of his home was in the Fall o f 1 863 , when he was home from the army on a furlough . Wolves from Sugar Valley o ften appeared on the VVi l Round Top , which rises directly South of Mr . . ’ liams home , long after they had ceased to breed in Cl earﬁel d its rocky caverns . Wolves in County were 1 880 plentiful on Mosquito Creek, in , according to — Leonard Johnson , formerly a well known lumberman .

They kept up such a howling at night , and such a scampering around the horse stables in a camp where 46 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

e he was mployed , that the horses would hardly be ﬁt for work the next day , so terriﬁed were the poor equines . Wol ves were numerous on Potato Creek , in

M cK ean u County , pto about that same year . The old packs , such as had marooned Dan Treaster in his barn 1 850 in Treaster Valley , Centre County , up to about , 8 were abo ut run out in the S even Mountains by 1 8 0 . They relied on company for the success of their hunt ing operations , and they apparently lacked the courage ’ to forage alone . In Penn s time packs of ﬁve hun dred wolves had been noticed . Peter Pentz , who died 1 81 2 in , was once followed by a pack of two hundred , which was considered an unusually large number at that time . s D r . B . H . Warren , famou naturalist and custodian S of the Everhart Museum at cranton , thus describes an encounter with wolves in Tomhicken Valley " “ - The following memoranda came from Dr . Thos . C .

U i . Thornton , o f Lewisburg , n on County This physi - c i an o f is something over seventy years age , and a son of the Dr . Thornton who had an adventure with the

- . L w . war like wolves When in e isburg , call to see Dr

. H en . Thornton He lives next house to our friend ,

. . S C K ober , and he would be pleased to have you call to see him . the In the late summer or early autumn , about 84 “ 1 3 . . year , Dr T . A H . Thornton was going from

‘ T-o m hi ck en Co Valley , Luzerne County , to Catawissa ,

‘ lumbia County . At that period there were no wagon ’ e roads . The doctor s route was from nec ssity via

48 WO D V . , LF AYS IN PENNSYL ANIA

poured . There were no nearby drug stores in those days , and physicians compounded the remedies they h administered , and t ey always carried medicines in making professional calls .

Ammonia , then as now , was extensively used in lini

fo rtu ments for external applications . The doctor

' n atel - o ther dru s y had in his saddle bags , with g , a large bottle full of ammonia . r The howling, cruel and bloodthi sty pack of snarl ing, snapping , vicious beasts , came near the spot where

o the d ctor stood and after stopping for a few minutes , circling around and eyeing their victim with murder

“ the ous gaze , they began the attack . Luckily for doc tor , he had taken a position where his back and sides

o were well pr tected by a ridge of high rocks , and the wolves were obliged to approach in front . They boldly W plunged forward , led by a big olf with sharp , white incisors and foaming mouth . The man stood erect , s O club in one hand , a heavy cla p kni fe , with pened d blade , between his teeth , and the ammonia ﬁlle cloth e in his right hand . Wh n the animals came within a

the few feet , they paused as i f to take a final survey o f human being they so c o nfidently hoped to soon tear to s shreds and devour . A the beasts paused the man struck at them with the saturated cloth he had pre pared . The strong fumes and some of the fluid in nostrils and eyes made the wolves beat a hasty retreat as they slunk off yelping , snorting and coughing . The

“ man continued his j ourney , wandered for two nights

l l d . I one dav To eat he had only some berries , bark

50 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

o north of W odward , and was one of the large black

species found in this region at that time .

The wolves , thirteen in number , ﬁrst appeared in

r September at the fa ms in this sectio n . They killed

six sheep and wounded a number more the ﬁrst night . The farmers heard them howl as they went into the

o r w ods about dayb eak the next morning .

The farmers who lived in the neighborhood , the

H o sterm an s Vo n adas and H i n k sons , the Garys , ,

hunted and set traps for the wolves , but were unable

to kill any of them . The wolves left in a few weeks

and did not return until December of the same year . About Christmas the pack again came into the val

. ley . They killed a hei fer , which had been left in the

. S ﬁelds , and devoured a portion o f it everal inches of

sno w covered the ground at this time , and the farmers ’ H o sterm an s tracked the wolves to Gap , and from there

" east into Pine Creek H ollow . The wolves appeared

an d f . every night , all e forts to trap them were in vain One night two dogs which belonged to the H o sterm an s followed the wolves and drove them into the woods ; there the wolves turned on th e dogs and killed one o f

“

them and ate about h alf of its carcass . The farmers placed the remains o f the dog in a

c o f tree and the car ass . the hei fer on the ground and

set traps around the carcass of the hei fer . In the u morning the hei fer was unto ched , but the wolves had the snow tramped down under the tree in which the

dog was placed in their efforts to get the dog . At last a trap was set at a place on a small stream 51 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . w here the wolves al w ays crossed When leaving th e val

ley . The next morning the trap held a mammoth black w olf . A fter this one was killed the farmers set out poison and the wolves left immediately and never returned

Thev w afterward . ere seen later in the winter in

Brush Valley . Althou gh many wolves were seen and tracked since that time , that was the last one killed at the east end o f ’ ” w as Penn s Valley . S ubstantially the same story told

\V H \Vo o d he w ri ter . to t by Charles osterman , of w ard , born in w ho Abe S imcox , died at his mountain h ome on the “ S H ” 1 909 68 south slope o f ugar Valley ill in , aged

w \Vo l f years , killed a number of olves at the Rock at H the head of enry Run , in Township , Clinton “ n” County , when he ﬁrst moved on the mountai in

1 861 . Be fore his house was completed he lived in a hunting cabin near the Rock ” which was a famous rendezvous for wolves . One night , while at the cabin V w t h \ . . S w i Maj or H ours , of Pine Station , olves climbed on the cabin roof . as i f trying to get in at the smoked beef hanging on the ra fters . With game b e

r coming scarce , the wolves grew desperate . This e minds one o f the similar antics of a fox described by th e S tuart brothers in Volume II of their entrancing ” Lays of the Deer Forest . After the Wayne Town o w S ship w lves ere gone , imcox , accompanied by H ugh M c Cl u re l , made several successfu wol f trapping ex ’ cu rsi on s \Vo m an s to the head o f Young Creek . That 52 O W LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

’ 1 864 1 865 i m co x s was in and , after S return from the ’ ’ im co x Civil War . S s wolf traps are now in the author s e collection . The last wolves of Wayne Township w re

aro n probably killed by Jacob E , near his residence in 1 861 th e east end of Nittany Valley , who in lo ’ cated a wolf s nest in a hollow log on the moun

K am m erdi n er H H tain above ollow . e killed the six pups , and returning the next day shot the

H . mother wol f . Emmanuel arman , of Mt Zion , 25th 1 832 ' born May , , while trout ﬁshing at the

M cEl hattan o head o f Run , heard wolves h wling one night at his camp ; it was about 1 870 . Campbell H 1 834 erritt , born in , saw a lone wol f on a number of occasions at hi s home on the Coudersport Pike , in 85 H 839 1 6 . . . 1 J Emery , born in , tells of a wolf which plagued the farmers at the mouth o f Pine Creek

( Lycoming County ) j ust before th e Civil War . J . F Kn e l e 1 83 7 p y, born in , tells o f seeing a wolf near 1 871 Camp Dodge on Slate Run in , and how he tried to kill it to obtain the pelt as a rug for the wealthy lumberman Norman Dodge . In speaking

Gu n sau l u s of the early prevalence o f wolves , John , o f Snow Shoe , Centre County , who was born in

1 83 7 o-f , relates how his mother used to go out doors in the winter mornings at their home near the mouth of Rock Run and pound on the side o f the house with a slab of wood to make th e wolves stop howling . He believes that but for poisoning and forest ﬁres there H would still be wolves in Pennsylvania . W . . Franck , 1 848 1 860 born in , relates that up to he heard

53 WOLF DAYS I N PENNSYLVANIA .

w olves howling as they crossed S ugar Valley on I\f their regular path near Logan . In his boyhood _ ills

Jacob Franck , grand father o f W . H . Franck , was fond of taking trips to distant parts of the

country to explore new game ﬁelds . In the win e ter months he often traveled on snow sho s , but i f

the skating was good , would skim for miles on skates

along the frozen surface of some river . On one occa sion he was going up the Fi rst Fork of the S i n n em a

Berﬁel d honing to hunt with Joe , when night overtook

w as him . but as there was a new moon and skating

. S good , h e continued his way uddenly out of the gloom

appeared a pack o f gaunt wolves . which started to fol

w as low him over the slippery i ce . Franck tired ; he

co o tac had skated from the mouth of S that day , but “ ” O1I he put extra speed , moving so quickly that the

hi m H e w olves could not quite get up to . was able to “ ” ’ Berﬁel d s reach Daddy cabin in safety , where he had the satisfaction of shooting two of the wolves

from the landing . Had he been unarmed and fallen , undoubtedly the savage creatures would have attacked hi m cruelly . In the S outh Mountain region of Adams , Franklin and Fulton counties wolves disappeared co incident w ith their passing in other parts o f the State

the Towards last , when they became scarce it was always said that they had gone to Maryland and West

Virginia w here game was more plenti ful . In those “ states the surmise w as made that they had gone

North into Pennsylvania . VII . THE I W LF B GGEST O .

ROM Old Nichols , a respectable Indian well l known a ong the Coudersport Pike , comes the story of the killing of the biggest Pennsylvania

“ wolf . As may be supposed , it was a grey wolf . The — slayer was none other than the fam o us half breed d Jim Jacobson , who , it is claime , brought to earth one the of the last elks in Pennsylvania , and some say last

re twelve elks slain in the Commonwealth . But the most markable part of the narrative is that this intrepid hunter was but ten years o f age at the time of this

" matchless exploi t " Ths biggest wolf was killed by the “ ” i m o r littlest hunter . J Jacobson , to be more exact , S amuel Jimmerson Jacobson , was born at New Bergen , 48 t 1 8 . now Car ee Camp , in Potter County , in The o parental shack st od , it i s said , on the site of Charles ’

S chrei bn er s . barn His father , Jacob Jacobson , was a S native o f weden Hill , not far from Coudersport ,

o while hi s m ther was Mary Jimmerson , daughter of

C King Jimmerson , a Seneca hieftain , who was said to “ be a son of Mary Jemison , the j ustly celebrated White

/ m \Vo an of the G enesee . Jacob Jacobson was o f 852 1 . S wedish extraction , and died in It was during “ 1 858 S the month of April , , that the now historic pring ” Bl i z z arc , a snow storm of unprecedented severity , occurred . According to the Clinton County Times , 8 4 1 5 . this blizzard occurred in the latter part of April ,

WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

j ust inside the crude gate . Jimmy was watching for

' w ri ﬂ e i n . her, and ran for ard , hand The Indians were

- delighted to . see that the half breed bo y possessed such ’ h courage , and danced and sang wit glee . Then the s carcass was measured . It was ju t one inch over six 1 00 feet from tip to tip , and its estimated weight was

m r pounds . The tail , easured sepa ately , was exactly f m “ W ” two feet . The a ous Beaver Dam olf , killed in 1 907 Blai r County , in , according to enthusiastic chron i cl ers , measured less than six feet , and weighed eighty

c four pounds . The hide was stretched and ured ac cording to formulas of the redm en and sent as a relic , to Ole Bull , who , during his residence near New e Bergen , had befri nded the Indian widow and her

- . U Norse blooded son nfortunately , the great violinist was on a tour when the skin reached New York , and d it became lost before he returned to claim it . It is sai “ th that he wrote a note of thanks to the lad , which celebrated hunter preserved to his dying day . This h H early triumph decided t ecareer o f Jim Jacobson . became a hunter, devoting practically his entire time

- o f to th e pursuit of big game . Though j ealous his u n obtru reputation as a Nimrod , he was modest and

sive . But his record as the slayer of a big elk i in Potter County and the biggest wo l f in Pennsylvan a

m . are now pretty ﬁ r ly established Edwin G rimes , 1 860 t while hunting in the Kinzua Valley in , wi h Ben j amin Main , killed a record grey wol f . The hide was

eR o sold to the veteran wolfer L y Lyman , who pro n o u n ced it the biggest he had seen in his long experi J A C O B Q U I GG L E ( 1 82 1 - 1 9 1 1 )

A Cl i n to n C o u nty G e n tl e m a n W h o Wa s F o l l o we d to Sc h o o l b y a ro n W o f l B w l i n th e O d D ay s .

VIII A HIT . W E WOLF IN SUGAR VALLEY

U “ 9 O IRE GEORGE WAGNER , who died at his

- R comfortable mountain top home in osecrans , 74th Clinton County , a few years ago , in his year , used to relate an interesting story of a large white wolf which plagu ed the early inhabitants of

S . i t ugar Valley This animal , because of s unusual color , was shunned by the rest of the pack , being com

el l ed p to lead a solitary existence . Its isolated li fe made it misanthropic and added to its cruelty , for it was the terror of the stockmen for several years . H unting parties were organized , traps and poisons of

set all kinds were out , but it escaped them , creating

u havoc among sheep and calves . O f co rse the amount of dama ge done by it was greatly exaggerated by the

— n e t old timers,but that is neither here nor there . O nigh

i S hreck en ast Phil p g , an old hunter living near Tylers

li trrr i n ville , heard a commotion in his barn , and y g out reached the door j ust in time to meet th e white wolf

e . emerging , his j aws cover d with blood The aged

o Nimrod slammed the d or on the brute , catching it by

- the tail . He threw a plough share against the door

fo r and ran to the house his riﬂe . By the time he got back the wolf had gone , leaving his bushy tail wedged

hreck en ast in the door . Old S g used the tail for many

- years as a plume on the coc k horse of his spike team .

During his career as a hunter in S ugar Valley Mr .

k - S hrec en g ast killed ninety three wolves . After all h met ods had failed to rid the valley of the white wolf ,

an o ld Jacob Rishel , settler , suggested calling the aid

o f 1 81 2 of George Wilson , a veteran the War of , who l lived across the Nittany Mountains at M cE hattan . 58 59 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

7 “115 0 11 1 02 , who survived to the age o f years , had ” shot several spook wolves with silver bullets . On hi sway to Lock H aven one day Rishel had the good l l M cGi . fortune to meet Granny , a reputed witch Thi s grand old lady of eighty - six years sug gested that be i fore calling n \Vilson a home remedy be tried . It

consisted in securing a black lamb , born in the Fall of r the year , in the da k of the moon , and tying it near a

m f - spring trap . After uch di ﬁculty such a lamb was ’ at found in Isaac Cooper s ﬂock , and tied by the trap ,

the summit o f Tunis Knob , south of Loganton , where ’ the w ol f s den was located . The plan worked like a

charm the very ﬁrst time . A fter devouring the de tenseless lamb the white wol f began smelling at the I t o d . trap , perhaps in search o f more g o things h m h m i i . t e o sprang, catching by the nose In rn ng he w as found by the hunters and beaten to death with

. S clubs John chrack got the pelt , which served as r a hearth rug in hi s home near Car oll for a long time . ’ Few strangers would believe that it was a wolf s hide . The long white hair and bob tail made it resemble the

M C rm i ck . c o pelt of an Angora goat Reuben , o f

P en ﬁel d Cl earﬁel d \V , County , uncle o f J . . Zim 89th merman , now in his year, recalls the kill U ing of this white wol f very well . n fortunately

Was w as the head not mounted with the skin , but set ’ Ol d R i shel s - up on a pole above Mr . sheep fold , like a

murderer on London Bridge . It remained there until

a heavy wind blew it down , and it was eaten by hogs . Children were afraid to pass the sheep - pen after dark ’ w hile the wolf s head was on the pole . Truth ful youngsters declared that it snapped i ts j aws and that 60 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . its eyes ﬂashed green light On particularly rough nights . No wolves came near the pen while the head was in evidence . A week later a pack pillaged the pen to the tune of ten early lambs . Another report has it that they were stolen by trout ﬁshermen and roasted at an orgy held in the Gotschall Hollow . A female sheep dog owned by a farmer in the east end of

- the Valley , during the hey day of the white wolf , gave l ' bi rth to a litter of tai l ess w hi te pups . These were t immediately put to death , as it was feared tha they would bring bad luck . A preacher met the white wolf ’ r Bru n ard s in the g aveyard at g Church , and the animal

l . ran out of the gate ye ping piteously It acted , the

cu r preacher said , like a yellow that had had boiling — water poured on it , or as one old free thinker , Dennis

' ’ “ a H sk H ley , of Robbin s ollow , put it , it feared the y pilot like th e devil would holy water . After it was

to skinned its ﬂesh was found be full of scars , the e r sult of conﬂicts with brown and grey wolves , which hated it as much as did the human residents of the region . S ugar Valley was also plagued with a ter l rible wol f of great boldness , which resemb ed the famous Bete de Gevaudan o f France . John

S chrack killed this wolf one night at a sheep - fold near

a C rroll , where it was unsuccess fully leaping up at a sixteen foot stockade , on the top of which one of its

o ff paws , nipped in a steel trap , was impaled as a “ ” good luck talisman . Its specialty for a long while was frightening the school children who had to cross the wolf ’s path or “crossing ” which ran north and

u south thro gh the valley about a mile west of Carroll , on their way to the old red school house .

XTIN I N. IX . CAUSE O F E CT O

T was some satisfaction to the admirers of the w ol ﬁsh race in Pennsylvania to feel that their dis

appearance was not entirely due to the hunters .

Comparatively few were trapped or shot, as the bounty records will show . Rev . Joseph Doddridge , in his “ Notes , ascribes the rapi d diminution of wolves in Pennsylvania to hydrophobia; H e relates several in stances where settlers who were bitten by wolves per h i s ed . miserably from that terrible disease Man , how

Ont ever , was directly responsible for thei r passing of sight . By destroying thei r food supply they were com l f pe l ed to die of starvation or strike o r a new country . The prevalence of wolves in M cKean County in the late seventies was due to their desire to pass through there to New York S tate . The open country north of

Allegheny and Cattaraugus Counties , in New York , made it impossible for them to reach the Adirondack wilderness , and they congregated in the vast forests of

o original timber in P tato Creek , where they starved to death and were slaughtered or poisoned . The black wolves of the S even Mountains made a similar effort to reach the North Woods . David Frantz , a celebrated wolf hunter who lived near Coburn , Centre County , said that in 1 898 and 1 899 wolf tracks were observed ’ across Penn s Valley , passing in a northerly di rection . Wolves were seen and tracked in Brush Val 6 2 WO I E LF DAYS N P NNSYLVANIA .

S ley , ugar Valley and along the Coudersport Pike in the r winters of those years . One o two lingered about ’ Henry Campbell s saw mill , near Haneyville , in the 1 898 early part of . Hiram Myers quotes John Bilby as saying that wolves were observed n ear th e S tevens

V 1 900 Fishery in that icinity in . Wolves were seen in ’ 1 900 1 901 1 902 1 908 Penn s Valley in , and . In a black wolf was observed traveling s o uth towards the S even

H o Mountains . w far north these wolves traveled can only be conj ectured . Doubtless some of them got as a ' f r as the northern border of the Black Forest , there turning back at the vast stretch of arable land ahead of T o r them . heir instinct told them to go n th ; for some reason they did not travel south . All the native wolves

S . o f outhern Pennsylvania were grey , and between these and the bl ack variety existed a marked antipathy . Perhaps they dreaded going south and encountering — r their old time foes . In the north there we e no native

1 890 i n . wolves a fter , and that respect the way was

“ o clear . In the s uthern counties few native wolves 1 890 hung on after , but they were constantly re inforced by wanderers fro-m West Virginia and Mary i t land . Be as it may , the two or th ree black wolves which remained were back in the Seven Mountains in 1 908 e n , and doubtl ss died of starvatio during the fol

the- lowing year . They were probably same as left that r region ten years before , and were therefo e very aged specimens at the time o f their return . Dr . C . Hart

Merriam , in his remarkable treatise on the mammals of the Adirondack region , in speaking of the disappear

64 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA ,

Department , which checked wasteful ﬁres , and the wise foresight o f the Game Commission which en

’ forced game laws on the small l o t O f wild li fe which i to o . rema ned , came late for the wolves When the

' r ver o l d remnant returned they we e y and weak , and

m . . may all possibly have been of the sa e sex . C W Dickinson says that wolves being cannibals may have e do . had much to with their decrease Dan Treast r , b one of the no lest of wol f hunters , when asked why he did not enlist outside aid to rid Treaster Valley of

" D estro thei r wolves , stated y food supply and they ” n will go so on e ough . There was ample veriﬁcation

o o f his prophecy . But the improvident p isoners hur h H w ei e ried t ei i passing . owever hungry the wolves , they would have subsisted somehow were it not fo i

' i o n ei o fo-o d the po s s. Famished fr m the lack of , even a poisoned cai cass tasted go o d to them . The whole

f . s ale poisoning indulged in by the Gri ﬁns and C . W Dickinson in M cKean County in 1 878 destroyed all the wolves i n that section except a few strag gorl ers and ei ip

w 0 1 ds a ples . In other , the reproducing nimals of

t l . the packs were gone . S o much for tha ocality The poisoning bee o f the Penn ’s Valley farmers in 1 857 put an end to the black wolves frequenting the east end

o . of that valley . S much for another locality Robert m C Askey , grandson of S amuel Askey , the ighty entre n County wol f hunter, told the writer rece tly that very few wolves comparatively were shot or trapped in the —h e Snow Shoe region . In his boyhood was born in 1 839—wolves were so prevalent about h is home n ear E o rn 1 830 a n d so n I E J r. DW I N G R I M ES , B , , E DW I N G R M S , T h i s A g e d H u n ter H as H a d M a n y T h r i l l i n g A d ve n tu res W ith n W o l ve s i n th e F o rests of N o rthe r n P e n nsy l va i a .

. W LF HUNTING I L X O N PENNSY VANIA .

B W. i k C. D c in so n Sm eth o rt Mc Kean y , p , Co u n ty, the Greates Li vi n Wo l f H t g un te r.

R e r o d u ed r o m th A l to o n r i e . a T b u n e ( p c f . )

S to the killing o f the last grey wolf in Pen n syl can vania , I only state that I believe the last

i n grey or timber wolf , as they are called many

M cK a sections , was killed in e n County in the latter

o f 8 6 part of September fore part of October in 1 8 .

( Charles Ives , one of the party , gives the date as c e Two boys from B radford ame up to Mt . Jew tt , a

o R . small t wn along the N . Y . Erie R . , about three S n miles outh of the famous Ki zua Viaduct . The boys

Off - M o t t at t. g the rain Jewett , went to the Nelson ‘

Hotel , which was kept by a man by the name of W .

w a Wallace B rewer , who , by the way , s an old hunter and trapper here . The boys stated they were going down to th e old Beaver Meadows to spend a week in e search of big game , and they each want d to get a pint

o to o o f whiskey . Mr . B rewer inf rmed them they were n you g to get any liquor , and advised them to go back bi a to B radford , as g game was sc rce in that locality , and said he thought they stood as much of a chance to ﬁnd a gol d mine as they did t o kill anything larger than a porcupine . The boys were not in a mood to be discouraged ; they shouldered thei r knapsacks and B e guns and started for the old eaver M adows , which

66 7 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . 6

are about a mile and a half from Mt . Jewett , on the

to Kinzua Creek . When they were about half way the Meadows they heard a riﬂe shot up the valley about Th ff a mile away . e boys took o their packs to rest a ’ few minutes , and one o f them remarked , Let s keep watch for a few minutes in the direction o f the riﬂe

w e . shot , as may see something coming this way ” Just then one said " What is that coming ? The animal came within about eight rods , j umped on an old log and stopped and looked back toward the point where the rifle report was heard . One of the lads raised his rifle and fired and th e game disappeared . The boys went out to see what had become of the ani mal they had shot at . When they got to the place , there lay some kind of animal , but what it was they did not know , so they shouldered their knapsacks and returned to the hotel , dragging the animal , as they w anted to find out what it was . On reaching the hotel one o f the boys called on M r . Brewer to come out and tell them what kind of an animal they had killed . As

he " soon as Mr . B rewer saw t animal h e exclaimed

“ ’ Well , well , boys ; you hav e got a prize . You have h got a genuine wolf , only he has got but t ree feet . The left hind foot was missing . But that wol f has got more dead sheep to hi s credit than any wolf ever had ” be fore . M r . Brewer then told the boys what to do to 5 2 . get the bounty on the wolf , which at that time was $

Now , I am sure this was the last grey or timber wol f caught or killed anywhere in this section o f Pen n syl va nia , for all the Potter County or Blair County wol f 68 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANI A .

t i s c I o s or e , whi h will explain later on . There is a secti n of this State which used to be known as the wildcat di s

e n tri t , which included Potter County , Cameron Cou ty ,

Cl earﬁel d f n County , Je ferson County , Elk Cou ty ,

o M cKean Lhe Forest C unty and County , which was last home and breeding place o f the grey wolf . Now , we say grey wolf because thi s was the only species of

‘ t 1 00 wolf we had in that section for the las years , except a few coyotes that were brought into M cKean from the western plains . We never had any black or — brown wo lves in this locality not for the last 1 00 f years . It is true there w as a little di ference in the color of some of them ; some w o uld be ashade lighter o r but a shade darker than others , this variation in color was very small when compared with the medium color . As the lumber trade was carried on more ex ten si vely in all o f the above named counties except

McKean h , in whic the trade was carried on only in a small way along the Allegheny River and Potato

e the Cr ek , it left southern part of this county , the

' northern part of Cameron co u n ty an d the northern L part of Elk county a virgin forest , only traversed " I hunte rs and trappers . n this section the wolves had

- 1 850 thei r last pow wow . From until the last one was killed , the number of sheep killed by wolves will never be known , but the toll was heavy . To give the reader Of something of an idea these losses , will state some of ’ o my near neighbo rs l sses . A man who lived within a hal f mile of my father, wishing to mak e some of his V t relatives in the middle Western States a isit , ren ed

69 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

his farm and stock to a man by the name of C . P . Rice , the stock being ten o r twelve head of cattle and about 1 868 forty sheep , giving Rice possession April 1 , . About th e 2oth o f May two wolves came in and killed

“ fourteen sheep for Mr . Rice in one night , and ﬁfteen days later they came back and killed fourteen more ,

- making a loss o f twenty eight sheep . Besides this loss ,

M r . Rice lost about one dozen o f the orphan lambs , making his total loss about forty sheep and lambs . In 1 869 1 0th , about the of May , wolves came in and killed eleven sheep for C . A . Burdick in a single night . ’ ’ M r . Burdick s farm adj oined my father s farm on the

West side . Five days later the wolves came back and killed the two that they did not get the ﬁrst night .

M r . Burdick had thirteen ewes and none o f them had

n dropped thei r lambs yet , so the o ly way to estimate his loss would be to say he lost all he had . Every “ farmer that kept sheep had to contribute to Mr . ” Wol f . Wolves were very cunning when they killed a ’ farmer s sheep . They would not return to get another meal of the dead sheep , but would make a raid on

h . t e . live ones It seemed .to be thei r delight to kill as to An d long as they could ﬁnd anything kill . it looks as i f they were afraid to return to the dead animal for fear o f getting thei r toes pinched . This cunning trait of thei rs made it extremely difﬁcult to trap them . N 1 865 n evertheless , from u til the last one was killed we waged a relentless war on them . The winter of 5 7 was a hummer . The snow was very deep and the

“ mercu ry went from 3 0 to 3 8 deg rees below zero ma ny 70 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

. e n f times Two brothers , Mik a d Dick Gri ﬁn , lived in h t e southern p art of Keating Township . They lost a yearling steer . They drew the steer out into the woods o and skinned it . One f the men went past the carcass of the steer On e day and noticed that a pack o f wolves were making nightly V isits to the carcass for their a i me ls , as he not ced a well traveled path where they came down from the mountains for their evening meal , and take the same path to the mountains . The men purchased a bottle of strychnine and poisoned the carcass . The wolves returned that night and ate their last meal . They went back into the mountains . The men followed th e trail some distance and got dis

c u ra ed . o g as the snow was very deep . They gave up They thought the poison n o good because it did not kill almost instantly . They found after a while that the poison would kill their neighbor ’s dogs and even kill crows that fed on that carcass . There i s not a doubt in my mind but what that was the last meal 1 87 7 any o f that bunch ever ate . In June , , th e writer f ound where wolves had killed a deer . It being in a

c l lo ality where young cattle were liab e to feed , making it dangerous to set traps , we decided to use poison . None of the brutes came back after eating one meal 1 878 e of the poisoned meat . In December, , wolv s killed six sheep for a neighbor . We tied one of the

- d dead sheep on a hand sled , rew it back into the woods about one mile , following the trail where the wolves

k . had come in . We poisoned this carcass to ill In about two weeks we had a severe thaw ; the snow all

7 2 W OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . the time of the above dates there were probably two dozen hunters ? cabins located at various points in this

0 1 f est, and they were usually occupied from the latter

t o f l m 3 l st par October unti Dece ber , and none o f them ever reported seeing a wolf track after the Fall and

' 1 885 fo r fore part o f Winter of , and four or ﬁve years 1 885 saw prior to they no wolf signs , only o f one or

o ff the other o f these wolves which had a foot . Now , the writer is certain there was not a single wo lf raised in this section in the last thirty - four or thirty - ﬁve years . I f a pair of wolves had raised a litter of whelps anywhe re in this section the damage to the owners of sheep for a radius of thirty miles would have created excitement enough so it woul d be known for a hundred miles around that neighborhood . As to the Potter e County wolf story , we would lik to state some facts verv in regard to this statement . While we remember well of reading the account o f thi s at the time it hap

few pened , we wish to state a facts in regard to this

t an u subj ec . Col . Noah Parker , old h nter , who lived at G ardeau in the southeastern part o f Norwich

s Township clo e to the Potter County line , went to Colorado in 1 884 for the express purpose o f killing an m elk , and when he returned fro Colorado he brought

H e m home a female coyote . ade a dog house for it

n o t . and chained it up , as h e dare allow it to run loose Later o n he bred this coyote to a dog he kept and the i coyote ra sed a litter of pups , but they proved to be a

e lot o f thieves . They would kill sh ep or poultry and steal all the meat around the premises unless it was J . L . E C K E L ,

o nt A n A u th o r i ty o n the H a b i ts of th e W o l ves of Cl i n to n C u y .

74 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

the - than the tail of a grey wolf of same size . During the latter part of the nineties , a man living in the City t of Bradford , had a cage of young coyotes sen

- H e him by a friend in one of the Western States .

ﬁxed a pen in his yard , put the ﬁve coyotes in it , and ,

c e after a oupl o f years , these coyotes broke j ail one n w as ight and all made their escape . One o f them ’ , killed the next _ morning in a neighbor s hen house where he had killed half the poultry in the house . The next they were seen was near R i xf-ord and Duke Cen ter , where two o f them were shot while th ey were kill ing sheep . The next place the two remaining ones were seen was on the farm of L . J . Gallup , in Liberty

' Township ( which a dj oins Potter County) . They ’ - came into M r . Gallup s sheep pasture in mid day and killed a sheep . Mr . Gallup saw them kill th e sheep . H e took his riﬂe out and shot one of them ; the other one made his escape , and the only thing we have ever heard (until recently) of the lone coyo te was an item we saw about seven years ago in th e Williamsport B Grit , which stated that a wol f had been killed in lair h o County , w ere there had not been a w lf seen for forty years . At the time we read about this Blair County wolf we were of the opinion that i f anything like a wolf had been killed in that locality it was the last one of the ﬁve coyotes that made their escape in

Bradford . We saw an item clipped from the Altoona 21 1 91 4 Tribune of January , , giving an account of ‘ ’ Dam the killing o f the Beaver wolf , and as the writer of that article gave such a glowing account o f 7 5 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

‘ ’ the event , we can t see why he should have been so shy about his being known . Now , we challenge M r . ‘ ’ H County Contributor , ollidaysburg , as the writer styled himself , to produce any authority to show where a den of young wolves were raised in McKean the State of Pennsylvania , outside o f

—ﬁve County , within the last forty years . Next , we challenge you to show us a single citizen of Blair County who ever saw a grey wol f outside of a cage in _

Blair County . Dare you come out and state wh en or about what time the last bounty was paid on a wolf in your county ? Dare you state that you ever saw a

’ grey wolf outside of a cage or a zoo or park in Penn

? o sylvania or anywhere else Now , M r . C unty Con tributor , we know that there h as not been a single den of young wolves raised within this State in the

- H last thirty six years . ad that Beaver Dam coyote 29 been a grey wolf , he could not have been less than r " yea s old At that age , would he have had as nice ou saw ? teeth as y Now , Mr . Contributor , will you tell us what is the natural age of a wolf ? In your description of the Beaver Dam animal , you could not g i ve any better description o f a coyote i f you had one

0 11 to look at . That short , bushy tail 3 speak of is about the only sure mark that you can rely on to tell a

- large coyote from a small grey wolf . The old time hunters in this locality used to call our wolves the “ — ” long tailed hunters . Then , again , you say the people thought this animal was a big grey fox . Just think o f that " One “ o f our Pennsylvania wolves i s eight or 76 W OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

ten times heavier than a fox . You say a large dog a was b dly chewed up by this animal . Now , M r . Con

1 00 e i s a ' do tributor, we will wager $ that ther not g in Blai r Co unty that could catch a big Pennsylvania grey

i - 00 wol f n an all night chase . And we will wager $1 ’ more that you haven t got any two dogs in the county

' that can whip one o f them . We will put up another $1 00 that you have not got a dog in your county that ’ can catch a coyote ; and we don t believe you have a

‘ o d g that can whip a coyote . You say young Mr . M o ore saw this animal j umping and snapping at the ’ th roats of his father s sheep . Now , Mr . Contributor , i f one o f our Pennsylvani a wolves had made a single ’ snap at a sheep s throat , that sheep would have been a

o dead one before Mr . M ore could get his revolver out of his pocket , to say nothing about shooting , for one o f our wolves wo uld kill a sheep as quickly as a cat could kill a rat . We have seen this trick done , and would say that we Were terribly surprised to see how quickly it was done . I have the skin of a coyote u which was ca ght in Cherry County , Nebraska , and i f

- I wanted to f o ol anybody by misrepresentations , I think I could fool nineteen - twentieths or more of all the people in Central Pennsylvania by showing this skin and saying it was a genuine Pennsylvania wolf ,

- but I have no inclination to deceive or fool any one . The methods o f hunting wolves in Pennsylvania are only a few; as the wol f by nature is a night prowler , an d here in this heavy wooded mountainou s country the most skill ful hunter could not mak e ﬁve cents a

7 7 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

day hunting wolves , only by hunting for a den where w they have their young . The writer only kne of three wolves being shot by hunters while in pursuit

of game , unless they were hunting for a wolf den , and then it i s not one time in a dozen that the hunter

ee can will s one of the old wolves . So you see the chance of a hunter getti n g a shot at a wol f i s a good n way apart and far between . We were acquai ted with a good many of the old hunters in four or ﬁve coun

o f ties , and not one in ten them ever saw a wolf while

hunting or trapping, except the wolf was in a trap . Our method of hunting wolves was to train a dog to

follow the trail of wolves on bare ground ; then , in ’ o f M a o the month y, g into a locality where wolves

have been killing sheep . If we could get the trail the ﬁrst morning after the killing the dog would foll ow

as k the trail nearly as fast we cared to wal , but i f the tw o trail was a day or old , we might not be able to keep the trail for 1 00 rods in a whole day . In a case of this kind we could consult our compass and note the d course as nearly as possible , provide these wolves traveled in a straight direction , but i f they traveled in any direction to hit every every laurel patch or j ungle , we dropped that trail quick , for wolves that are rear ing young will go as straight to their den , after getting

o bee a go d meal of mutton , as a will ﬂy to his tree

i after getting a ll the honey he can car y . If you have a good dog and can get a fresh trail of wolves going to to their den , you are sure ﬁnd the den , but you may not ﬁnd a wolf after all , for i f the den is in a ledge 78 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . o f rocks you may not get a single wolf , for when the young get to be six weeks old they are very cunning , and the o ld ones have been k n-o w n to leave the locality o f their den and n o t return to that l o cality for six i month s or more . And it s seldom they return for h t ree or four weeks . Our method of trapping them around a den is to set a trap in every path that leads to

- the den . The most successful method the old time trapper had was path trapping . The best method of t rapping for wolves by bait was to throw o u r bait down in any place in plain sight of some knoll two or three rods away ; set a trap on the knoll, for the wolf

“ wo uld go over that knoll a do zen times before h e

e n o would venture up to the bait . S t trap nearer the

o n e bu t bait than the on the knoll , i f there should be any old paths near , that is , within ﬁfteen or twenty

i n . rods , set a trap each path We would not go to these traps oftener . than three or four days ; then we would go past them just near enough so we could see — i f they were setting all right g o ﬁ fty or a hundred rods and go back on the other side of the valley .

o Never go to the traps and turn around and g back , ’ - to . for i f you do , don t expect catch a wolf in it We have never ma de a great fortune hunting or trapping n wolves , but we thi k we have come as near making wages at it as any man in this section during our time , for we have caught , killed and sold scores of young

' and old ones besides what we poisoned . We are cer tain that we put quite a number out o f commission , ’ Now w possibly a hundred . we hope you on t think

80 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

o n h o f fur the ide . The wol f was not trapped for what the hide was worth , but for the bounty on his scalp . Thi s bounty law was chang ed many times .

Most of our laws of this character were local laws . There were four or ﬁve counties in this locality that b n 25 1 2 had a ou ty law passed , $ on a wolf and $ on a whelp or pup , as they were commonly called . During the ﬁrst four years this law was in force the trappers

' caught so many wolves that every man that was not a trapper sign ed a petition asking the State Legislature

' to change th e bounty on w o l ves to $1 2 on a gro wn 6“ u wolf and $ on a whelp , on all wolves ca ght in Mc

Kean County , after the passage of said act , and the ff law was changed to this e ect . When this law was passed noneo f the trappers w ould try to catch a wol f . The wolves increased so fast that the next Legislature was petitioned to change the wol f bounty to the origi

' n h The' nal amou t , whic was done . early settlers in

verv Northern Pennsylvania were mostly poor , and it ’ ' put them to their wits end to get money enough to

' e u bo d to eth er . pay taxes and k ep so l and y _ g Had it not been for the wild game , the abundance of ﬁsh ' ’ fu r- s S and the small bearing animal , uch as coon , foxes , marten and mink , all of which were very plenty , four - ﬁfths of the early settlers would have starved o u tand been forced to leave or die . A true story o f some of the early settlers would be an interesting bo ok for the people of this age to read . S ome o f the fur buyers who traveled through this country in early a ‘ ’ days that my father told me bout were Doc Smith , H E N RY W R E N

I n W a r i m e e a i a a u n te r W h f k l T R g l , H o O te n M a tch e d H i s S i l i th th e o l ves of th e W h ite ee r e i o n n i n o n W W D R g , U o C u ty .

82 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

their own family . So by taking the food supply from the wolf during the hard winter months his fate was ” sealed . n As stated by M r . Dickinso , sometimes the hungry “H wolves turned on one another . enry Wise , born in

1 840 o o f , and a li fel ng resident Sugar Valley, in Clin

’ " Co un t rel ates 57 ton y, that in the year of the panic o f , a pack of wolves in crossing the valley turned on one ’ of their fellows near the mouth of Schwenk s Gap o l d and devoured it . This bears out the French pro “ M au vai se est l a sai son u an d Mn l o u m an e verb , q p g ’ h l r H . e e t e au t e . enry B Karst tter r calls wolves cross 1 859 ing Sugar Valley as late as , and thei r persistent howling when they reached the Winter Side . Daniel 1 83 5 e Mark , born in , while out picking huckleb rries

Fal sbar on the g , a high mountain on the watershed o f Wh ite Deer Creek , saw a wolf , at close range , in the summer of 1 870 . The sight o f it frightened his dogs b to silence and he said nothing a out it at the time , lest

H . i t terrify his women companions . . J S chwenk saw this same wolf a few years later . The last wolves in “ ” W-ol ﬁan d , as the wild region at the head o f Weikert

" u n U w as cal l ed R , in nion County , , were killed in ' 85 1 7 , when an intrepid band of hunters , consisting of 3 1 893 87 B ill Pursley ( died February , , aged years ) ,

William Moyer and Jacob F . Barnet , surprised and Berﬁel d killed a pack of eleven coal black wolves . Joe l o f and H enry Mason , the eading wolf hunters the

, o u t Sinnemahoning Valley, surprised and wiped a pack of twelve wolves on Loup Run , now erroneously 83 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

R u n Cl earﬁel d 1 856 . called Loop , in County , in

‘ w C . W . Dickinson , in speaking o f the ol f traps used

' “ " T in Northern Pennsylvania , says he best bear and wol f traps used in this section by the old settlers were m made by a blacksmith who lived near El ira , New m — York . A man named A es put out a good trap the

Ames trap . The Freeman trap sold by a man in Olean ,

New York , was a very good trap . I . did most of my hunting with the number four Newhouse trap , made n by the Oneida Community . I have i my possession “ ” a three Elmira traps over a hundred ye rs old , and

I ew hou se good traps yet . like them better than the N bear trap , as I never cared for a trap with spikes in

F ew the j aw . o f our country blacksmiths could tem per a trap - spring that would stand ; they would either bend or break ” Som e o f the wol f traps made and H f dated by John o fman , of Loyalsockville , nearly a r w centu y ago , ere still in use in the White Deer Moun tains as fox traps during the past winter ( 1 91 5 Taen chel s or animal drives , called in Pennsylvania “ H ” Ring unts , with a special view o f ridding sections

P en n s l o f country of wolves , were practiced by the y vania pioneers . The hunters formed a vast circle , and at the sound o f a bugle , or the ringing o f din ner bells , closed in towards th e centre , where the surrounded animal s were shot to death by ex

riﬁem n pert e . S ometimes the lines wavered and the intended victims made good their e scape . The last “ Ring Hunt ” for wolves in Susquehanna County was 1 834 “ ” held in . An unsuccess ful Ring Hunt was 84 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

849 n 1 . held near Beech Creek , Clinto County , in A Ring H unt ” was held in Tioga County in 1 81 8 One took place in Snyder County , led ” H by Black Jack S chwartz , The Wild unter o f ” 1 760 1 09 the Juniata , in , in which wolves were slain . S ettlers on the Blue Mountain and S econd Mountain held a “ drive which centered in the Cran berry Bog on . the Berks and S chuylkill County line , 1 83 0 in , as a result of which fourteen wolves paid the “ H ” death penalty . About that same year a Ring unt b was held y farmers in Crawford County . The last wol f in Sugar Valley , mentioned as having ’ 1 870 been seen by Daniel Mark in , lingered e on . about his favorite haunts for quit a few years longer . J . D . Eckel , while on a hunting expedi 1 875 d tion in , , with William Beck , an old hunter , crosse the mountain on the north side of the valley by way of the Karstetter Path , when , on the north slope of th e b mountain, a out ﬁfty steps from the summit , they noticed a large grey wol f standing on the path in front h o o ‘W . B w of them eck , knew the w lf ell, declared that it was the last of its race left in Sugar Valley . — Mr . Eckel described it as about the size of a full grown do w i th f shepherd g , sti f ears , and a greyish black in |

n e f-o r color . Whe Dan Treast r , whom Treaster Val

’ ifﬂi n B ley , M County , formerly lack Wolf Valley , was

al so named , was living in the little valley known as Treaster Valley in Centre County ; his cabin was fre quently surrounded by wolves at night . On more than e t l o one occasion , when , with his wi fe , he w n to the g

85 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

barn to feed the stock , they were surrounded by the

howling pack and marooned in the stable all night .

This historic old structure is still standing . J . L .

Eckel , a noted surveyor in Suga r Valley , Clinton

D . County , in the old days , and father o f J . Eckel

mentioned above , o ften related how he was compelled to keep his campﬁre burning brightly all night in Sugar Camp Gap to prevent the packs o f howling

wolves from coming too close to his sleeping quarters .

In the Pennsylvania forests , especially those in the

Northern and Northwestern counties , are many iso “ ”

d . late rocks , known as elk rocks On these huge de tached boulders the elks held th e attacking packs o f C wolves at bay . olonel Noah Parker has vividly de scribed ﬁnding the skeletons o f wolves about thes e

’ ' r el ks vi cto ri es i n these ﬂ ocks , showing the _ con icts , but sometimes he came across the bones of the antler ed " monarchs lying among the skeletons o f wolves , showing that both the attacked and the attackers

o u paid the death penalty . Nick Montarsi , a p p

lar young Italian , residing in Clinton County , who for “ ” merly acted as a Butteri , or cowboy , on the Italian

Campag na , says that the reason the big white woolly I talian wol f dogs , which are themselves partly wolf , wear collars covered with sharp iron spikes i s that

when the wolves attempt to catch them by the throat ,

their j aw s are lacerated by the spikes , and in their i agony they are dr ven away by the wolf dogs , thus pro

tecti n r " o g the ﬂocks and herds from their ﬁe ce f es . 86 WOLF DA YS I N PENNSYLVANIA .

The celebrated Ethan Allen Craw ford , born in 1 792 , thus described the method used by the wolves in the White Mountains o f New H ampshire 1 11 devour ing a sheep " They generally took no more than they wanted at a time . They select the finest and fattest , ' and on him perform a curious act i n butchering . We have found , after they have visited the flocks , a skin perfectly whole , turned flesh side out , with no other mark upon it , excepting the throat , where there was a w regular slit cut , as though it had been cut ith a kni fe , down as far as the forelegs the flesh all eaten k o ff out and the legs ta en , down as far as the lowest j oint ; the head and back bone left attached - to it ; the f ‘ pelt le ft in the field , but a few rods rom the house they would sometimes set up a howling , and a more terrific and dismal noise I never wish to hear than " this , in a clear still night . Their sound would echo

the from one hill to another , and it would seem that ” a woods were ﬁlled and alive with them . Cr wford f kept a pet wol , the antics of which are told of graphi ’ “ H cally in his wi fe s book , istory of the White Moun ” tains . The wolf was so tame that it rode on the box — seat o f a stage coach alongside of the driver from “

. A Colebrook to Lancaster , in the Granite State ring hunt held in the S andwich Range , in that state ,

1 830 l . in , resulted in the death of four wo ves The rest of the pack broke through ” and escaped into the forests .

88 I VO L F DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

e w wolves . Deer and elk are here alr ady , but ithout

so — y the called predatory beasts to harass them , the are sure to deteriorate ; Wolf and panther hunting can be

’

. W u n made the royal sport o f Pennsylvania olves . molested , except at certain seasons , could soon make themselves at home , and would prove a great beneﬁt alike to sportsmen and to the game animals and birds .

to w As far as damage sheep is concerned , it ould be

v ri etv less than is now done by dogs . As to the best a

Wo l f e of wol f to introduce , the Black se ms to have been ableto adj ust itself to conditions ; it w as the last

. w E to be exterminated As far as kno n , the astern black w olf is now extinct . The Western timber wolf

Pen v n i co u l f requires a wider range than n syl a a d a ford .

a The grey Pennsylvani wol f is gone , but its congeners in the West Virginia wilds might be introduced w ith advantage . The brown Pennsylvania wol f i s probably e h eu xtinct , as its relatives in Nort Carolina and T n essee h as been recently killed to the last specimen by professional hunters . The Western coyote might d adapt itself , and could be introduce i f no other varie

v . al readv ties were a ailable This animal , as stated ,

” resembles the Pennsyl vania brown wolf in many re s ects f t p . It a fords spor wherever it is known and is

u u H v hardy , is game and reso rce f l . owe er , it i s too prone to degenerate into a mere poultry thief to make its introduction popular . The methods of the old Pennsylvania bounty hunters would not be used bv the sportsmen of the future . These included trapping .

an d . snaring , pitfalls poisoning The wol f hunting as A A Bo rn 1 83 6 M RS . C R O L I N E L N KS ( ) " T he t tl e R ed R i d i n g H oo d of the W est B ra n ch .

A 90 WO LF DAYS IN PENNS YLVANI .

- wolves on horse back . The animals were baited

o to come int the open , and then mounted men

- f and wol f hounds made after them , the e fort being put forth to prevent them from getting back to cover . d The huntsmen were armed with spear s, and pinione the ﬁerce beasts to the earth f rom thei r galloping steeds . In our Western States , coyotes , and occasion

o n ally timber wolves , are coursed the open plains by — Russian wol f hounds , followed by mounted hunters .

The wolves , i f run down , are killed by the pack of dogs ‘ n or elses shot by the hunters . This is o ften do e on the Russian S teppes , by a stronger race of wolf hounds than has been developed as yet in the United

an f States . In e fort to arouse interest in a better type ' a es o ffered of wolf dogs , the writer of these p g two special prizes at the Dog S how of the Westminster ‘ 1 9 1 4 Kennel Club , held in New York in February , , for Russian wol f - hounds which had actually coursed

u r o se i n wolves , or were kept for this p p a wolf coun

- try . At present the Irish wolf hound looks to be more

. cap able of running down wolves than the Russian

a variety , which i s c lled the Borzoi . The breeding and _ sale o f wolf dogs would add greatly to the income of m Pennsylvania mo untaineers . A co parison of the different varieties of wolf dogs can be gleaned from the following, which is quoted from the New York “World “ S everal years ago General Roger Wil

K . w as liams , of Lexington , y , a j udge in a wolf hunting

- contest in Colorado , in which Russian wol f hounds

- U sti u and S cotch deer hounds contested . nder the p 1 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . 9

l ati on s only two dogs could be turned loose on one

wolf . Among the Russian dogs was one which had

- won the gold medal s in a wol f killing contest at S t. ff z Petersburg , o ered by the C ar, and his owner claimed

that he could kill any American wolf . But the Russian f o dogs ailed , so did the S c tch dogs . One of the latter quit ﬁghting for a moment and its owner pulled a

revolver and shot the dog dead , saying he would not ” have a dog which would quit ﬁghting . A letter from

Cali fornia states that Russian wol f - hounds are a fail ure on ranches where they have been installed for

the purpose o f killing coyotes and wolves , and do as

much damage to live stock as the wolves . The writer

- o f this article is a lover o f the Russian wolf hound , 6 , and has bred the dogs since 1 90 . But he believes the race will have to be strengthened by actual contact t with wolves , or it will deteriora e into a mere showy

- 1 908 tw o t house pet . In he obtained coyo es and a

o M c lhattan B snian wol f for a chase at E , Clinton

- h County . The wol f ounds did not seem inclined to

course the animals , so the chase was never held . The

coyotes are now in the Reading Zoo , and the wolf was

sold to a traveling showman . According to the new s papers this animal broke out ' of the wagon

r Y . somewhe e near Rochester, N . , bit a cow which was pasturing peace fully by the road side , and

' also frightened a little girl . The Russian wolf

a h s hound is beauti ful and intelligent animal , and a “ ” been j ustly called the aristocrat of the dog kingdom . Perhaps a cross between this breed and the Irish wol f 92 WO LF DAY S IN PENNSYLVANIA . hound would produce the right sort for Pennsylvania w ol f hunting . With all these prqspects there is a glo ri ou s - vista ahead for dog lovers and true sportsmen , i f only we can get the right kind of wolves again " We will quote an old Irish poem about a celebrated wolf

M cD erm ot hunter named , who Was once the terror of the wolves o f Munster "

h a en ed o n a d a w i h h o rn an d h ou n d s It pp y t , ’ ’ b aron al l o t h rou h M cD erm o t s o u n d s A g p t g g r . ’ ’ r Wel l h o s d , pu r su i n g o er th e d u isty pl ai n A w o l f h a sou h th e n ei h b o i n w o o d s ai n t t g t g r g to g .

’ M a c h ea r s th a l ar m a n d w i h h i s o a en s ea , t k p r , J o i n s i n th e h a se an d run s b efo r e th e e e c , p r , O u s r i s th e h u n sm an d o s an d an i n s eed s t t p t , g p t g t , A n u i m h l l i n a e l eed s d str ck b y h t e fa g sav g b .

Myriads o f associations have been formed to pro tect song birds and other lesser creatures . Better still would be an organizati on of red—blooded men to pro tect the wol f . But let it be clearly understood that this would not include cases where the wolf has lately gotten into cattle countries and subsists on a diet “ ” unauthorized by nature . Only in cases where the r wolf esides in a region , uninhabited except by wild beasts , and is pursuing the tenor of his way , upholding nature ’s balance and adding to the picturesqueness of the , should he be protected . And then . wilderness h e should be safeguarded from extinction in every

. possible manner . Bounty hunters and others who mis represent him should be kept away and this noble relic o f a grander and primitive age preserved for a

93 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

more discerning future generation . A day will come — — and not more than tw o g enerations o ff when all of God ’s wonder ful creations will be appreciated in their proper places , and only disgust felt for the reck less and merciless generations who thoughtlessly and

Pen n s l selﬁshly wiped out our wild li fe , especially in y ’ “ ” vania I n Stuart Brothers Lays of th e Deer Forest “ " I n the it i s stated ancient hunting, beasts of sport

" V en eri e were divided into three classes , Chase and

R th e h w ol ascal . The ﬁ rst were , the hare , art , the f, — and the wild boar . The second , the fallow deer , the h t e . fox , the marten , and wild boar The last , the gre , b r — badger , the wild cat , the otter , and any beasts not ” b belonging to the ﬁrst two classes . Thus it will e

t he a - an d seen that wol f ranked s sport royal , in early times was strictly preserved to be hunted by kings .

Today this noble beast , which was once the sport o f e i monarchs , stands in imminent dang r of extinct on by cheap bounty hunters , mercenary trappers and poison ers According to the Indians and the early settlers in the Pennsylvania mountains , there existed on very rare occasions a certain kind o f weather called “ Wol f D ”— ays cool days with very bright sunshine , and occa si on al e dark shadows , w ith brisk northw st winds days when trees , bushes , grasses , and water were — always in motion on such days the wolves sallied forth , the sunlight , with patches o f shadow , and all e nature restless , blended with their striped , mottl d or shadowy coats as protective coloring , making them in broad daylight practically invisible . On all other days , 94 WO LF DAYS IN PE N NSYLVANIA .

except when ravenous with hunger and desperate , they remained near their rocks or dens in the deep forests , going abroad at night to howl at the imperturbable moon or forage on inert game or peaceful ﬂocks The swi ft and sometimes contrary , breezes of the Wol f

Days bewildered the sense of smell in many dogs , with the result that the wolves with a sly look in their or dark eyes would dart by the unwary canines , spring over a fence into a barnyard , killing a sheep while the m farmer ilked his cows only a few feet away . While deer in fenced enclosures or preserves are sure to deteriorate without the predatory animals to keep them from succumbing to what Charles John Andersson “ ” called inanition , which mani fests itself in barrenness and proneness to disease , it would be a foolhardy pro “ Th c edu re to place wolves in parks . ewolves would “ ” corner the deer at the fences , killing them down to a the last one , thereby leaving none for the hum n hunt ers . However , in the open , predatory animals are nec

. essary adj unct s and assets to the game . Game ani t mals , particularly elk and deer , mus be kept moving , ever on the alert , to be worthy of the name of game . I f their enemies are removed , they soon degenerate to the level of domestic cattle , lose their ﬁne heads , ' i n ( unless specially fed ) decrease in size , and the end become prey to all m anner of pesti ’ ’ lences . Nature s methods , and Nature s methods t alone , which includes the exis ence of wolves , makes for the continuance o f a ﬁne virile ,

O n speedy race of deer . the other hand , foxes , wild

XII . SUP TITI N ERS O S .

Old - World countries the wolf was the origin of

‘

many weird legends and tales . In the Northern mytholog y it is stated that the giantess S u g erbo da

den " bore wolves to Loke , Onde , or the Wicked God

a s w ard i n th e fores of i ron E t , t , S at th e vi l On e E , A n d th er e b eg at

Th e you n g w ol ves.

Likewise , the wolf of Pennsylvania gave rise to its

“ ' share of superstitions . Although only known to resi o f dents the Commonwealth for two centuries , it left an impress that will last for the next ﬁve hundred years . Some of the old legends , however , have a ’ ten den cy to die out with , the passing of the aged people , the younger generations evincing little desire to hand them down . There being few open ﬁre places n left to cluster about on cold wi ter nights , family story

a telling is fast becoming lost accomplishment . Fur the m o re r , unimaginative persons obj ect to the hearing or telling of stories the absolute truth o f which cannot be vouched for . Faith is unthinkable to such practical

o individuals . Fortunately s me few of the older stories

n ew . are still in existence, and several ones have cropped up during the past quarter of a century . Of these last named the most celebrated is the one which the writer of this article related in his volume of l e “ ” en ds g , Pennsylvania Mountain Stories , in Chapter US R H . KA L BF , D . J . C m m i ss i o n e r Wh o E n o u n te re F a m o u s P e n n sy l va n i a G a m e o , c d i n o u nt i n 1 859 . W o l ves i n N o rth ern Lyc o m g C y

98 WO I N ‘ P E N YL A NI A LF DAYS NS V .

’ h crushed the wol f s skull . S e carried the carcass home, where her husband skinned it , and it was used d to cover thei r infant , which was then in its cra le .

r So much for that sto y . Compare it to the following .

o H which is quoted word for word fr m James E . art ing ’s well known account o f the wolves of S cotland in “ “ Extinct British Animals " Anoth er story is o n

- . w C ebhan record of a wolf killed by a oman o f Cre ,

S G . near trui , on the North Side o f the Strath lass

She had gone to Strui to borrow a girdle ( a thick , cir cu l ar plate of iron , with an iron loop handle at one side

an d u sed Ha for lifting, for baking bread) . ving pro

i t she cured . and being on her way home , sat down o upon an old cairn to rest and gossip with a neighb r , when s uddenly a scraping of stones an d rustling of

o f l leaves were heard , and the head a wo f protruded f rom a crevice at her side . Instead of ﬂeeing in

a o alarm , however , she dealt him such bl w on the s skull with the full swing o f her iron di cus , that it brained him on the stone which served for his em erg ' ” i d o f n g head . This emphasizes the wor s the late A " S u ndrew Lang, which were somewhat like this

erstiti on s p are very much the same , despite varying

‘ ” o climes and creeds . This st ry is probably centuries old , and similar occurrences have revived its details in the minds of the old people . Near the scene of this 1 83 5 adventure , about , a pack of wolves drove a ﬂock of sheep belonging to James Williams o n the ice which co vered the West B ran ch of the Susquehanna

River , and th e animals slipped , and falling were easy 99 WOLF DAYS IN PENNS YLVANIA .

l - victims to their w o ﬁsh foes . Another were wolf o f Central Pennsylvania also had its hi m i tat in Wayne

Township . George Wilson long suspected that a cer

and tain woman in his neighborhood was a witch , went

l ﬁ n e abo ut in w o sh form at nightfall . O evening at dusk he saw the wol f , which was of extraordinary size and brown in color, crossing a ﬁeld back of his cabin .

He quickly loaded his riﬂe with a silver bullet , and made after the intruder . Taking careful aim , he ﬁred , but the darkness was too far advanced to make his aim

H e accurate , although he was a famous marksman .

- di sa struck the animal in the left fore leg , and it p peared into the forest at the foot of lower Bald Eagle

Mountain (the Sugar Valley Hill ) howling piteously . H e had barely gotten into his house , when the sup posed witch rushed into the cabin o f a settler , who lived about a mile away , with her left arm broken i t above the wrist . The arm was put in splints , but never became straight again . It is interesting to note that in the Seven Mountains the ghost wolves were always black ; in the West B ranch Valley brown , and in the Northern part of the State grey , showing the i nﬂuence o f the prevailing type on the imagination . The old people in the Seven Mountains declared that ’ “ " the Black Wolf s yowl said plainly Dead Indian , "” Dead Indian , where , where , where It was supposed to indicate the proximity o f Indian graves containing treasure . It was an unvarying custom with the ﬁrst settlers in S ugar Valley to have a wolf ’s paw nailed over the door of sheep pen or stable , for good luck . " 1 00 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

It was claimed to mean long li fe i f one met a wol f in

o . H en tran c the f renoon Judge D . C . enning , in his “ ” i n g Tales of the Blue Mountain s (published at Pottsville in quotes an old lady as follows “ When I was -a child there were still remaining in

' these (the Blue ) mou ntains a remnant of the large droves o f w olves that were wont to infest these for ests in earli er times . It was said that their numbers Were reduced far more greatly from disease contract ed from devourin g the diseased carcasses of dead horses returned fro-m the wars o f the Revolution and 1 8 “ H 1 2 . than from any other cause owever , as the wolf family“ grew smaller h e became more mystical and had imparted to him attributes which he never B possessed in reality . ecause of his marauding and ruthless nature he was more to be feared than the cat r amount or panther , as these had their regula haunts , where their presence might be always know-n ; but the

e . es eci wolf was a tramp , and might be ver present , p

n H e ally i the night time . was invested with wonder ful and mysterious powers . He could cause the cows

to to . refuse milk He could lead the swine astray , and he seemed at all times to be in league with the evil one . H e was said to be presided over by an analagous

“ “ - h e king , the great seven orn d beast , part wolf , part ” bear , and part panther , but larger than any of these . e M As to the wolves in the Blu ountains , George Potts , an old soldier residing near Bethel ( Millersburg) , in

Berks County , says that there were still a few wolves in the Blue Mountains wh en he returned from the

1 01 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

1 864 Civil War , in , and that they were prevalent in

- ﬁve large numbers when he was a boy , over sixty years ago . D . C . Ney , of Jonestown , Lebanon Coun t y, states that his uncle , Thomas Ney , killed wolves in n to 1 840 India town Gap subsequent , that the wolves maintained a path along the summit o f the S econd

o M untain as far west as the Susquehanna , thence into ’ the wilds o f Clarks Valley . Daniel Long , still living S ’ in hubert s Gap , near Millersburg , killed a wol f near his home in 1 886 . It came to his farmstead at butch e ring time , making friends with an unsexed female

. w dog The dog follo ed the wolf to the mountain , and returning with it several days later the “ ﬂeet by night was shot by Long , who lay in ambush for it . The hide , which Long says was black in color , was made into a rug , and is said to be in Reading at th e present time . This was undoubtedly the last wolf killed east o f the Blue Mountains , and was possibly a straggler S from the S even Mountains . John imcox , son o f the wol f hunter , Abe . Simcox , while working at a prop , Kam m erdi n er timber j ob at the head of Run , in Clin

i n 1 900 ton County , , observed a black wol f which came to the camp every evening for two weeks and played 1 1 with a collie dog belonging to the camp boss . In 90 ' John S imcox and his brother To rren ce saw three wolves near the Wolf Rock on Henry Run . The wolves , after resting on the rock , disappeared across e S the run and up the steep slop of ugar Valley Hill , where wolves had many dens in an early day . Wolves ’ came close to John D . Decker s home in Decker Valley . 1 02 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

1 870 in the heart of the S even Mountains as late as , seemingly seeking to lure the dogs into the forests . They howled nightly on the ridges north o f the Decker home . Elizabeth C . Wright , in that entertaining book , ” Al l e han i es s Lichen Tu fts from the g , publi hed in 1 860 ’ , speaks of stag s horns often becoming entangled “ in dense thickets of buck laurel (K al mi a l atifoli a ) R un on Kinzua , and th e deer being held there until killed by wolves . In Sugar Valley , as previously ’ “ ” e stated , a wol f s paw was a good luck sign , and wh n

, ’ n o longer obtainable , bear s paws and even wild tur

’ ‘ ’ key s claws were nailed on the barns . A wolf s head — was considered even more lucky, and old timer s re member these talismans on barns along the highways in Sugar Valley and Brush Valley . In Angelo de ’ “ Gu bern ati s l Mythologie Zoologique , Vo ume II , “ ’ 1 55 n S i ci l e o n Cr o i t n n n e tete page , it is stated E , q ’ e l u a u m n t e c u r e de cel ni n i s en r evet d o p g e e l o ag q .

D an s l a r ovi n ce d e Gi r en ti o n ai t d es so u li ers d e p g , f ’ pean a e l on p au x enfan ts q u e l es parents vez z l en t ” l i u r en dre or ts braves et be l eu x . f , , q Old settlers in Sugar Valley state that Indian children passing through the valley with their parents were similarly equipped . J . W . Zimmerman , son of the famous hunter , David A . Zimmerman , relates an interesting incident connected with the last wolves in the East

’ 1 847 End o f Sugar Valley . About the old Nimrod ’ ’ Ga destroyed a wol f s den in Green s p, consisting of a

‘ — - es she wolf and a hal f dozen pups , but the dog wolf caped . One wintry night , after Zimmerman and his

1 04 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . coming towards him ; he threw them some sc raps of bread and cheese until it was all gone . The wolves

o made a closer appr ach to him , and he knew not what i to do , so he took a pa r of bagpipes which he had , and as soon as he began to play upon them , all the wolves r ran away as i f they had been sca ed out o f their wits . “

" . The soldier , disgusted , cried out A pox take you all

k n o w n o u so If I had y loved music well , you should ” have had it before dinner . Hollister in his great “ ” History of the Lackawanna Valley , tells of a pioneer ’ in Leggett s Gap who in traveling. through the forests dragged an old saw—mill saw after him over the rocky trails ; the sounds effectually ke eping away the packs o f wolves which formerly troubled him . This author “ ” w ho also tells of a woman , Mrs . Nokes , was treed for an entire night by a pack of wolves . He names Elias S cott as the most noted wol f hunter of the D valley . The sprightly and courageous orcas

o H lt , of near Lewistown , is said to have poked the barrel of a riﬂe down the throat of ‘ a wol f w hich had the impertinence to look in at the windo w w here she sat sewing . At the present time no

' o -f an Pen n s l van i a skull , bone , hide or tail y y wolf is known to be in existence . During the prevalence of these animals no one had the foresight to coll ect speci mens for the museums , probably as the extinction of the species was not deemed imminent . But the poison ers hastened the end cani s l u pu s ; though skulls and hides were probably in existence at remote farmhouses

a for twenty yearsafter this general dis ppearance . The

1 06 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

by Dr . B . S . Barton as being a cross between the wolf f t o . and fox , or wolf and some o her species dog Later he mentions that the S i x Nations had the breed in a pure state as late as 1 805 The Lenni Lan ape ” - enn i Chu m . called it the L , or the original beast

S . N . Rhoads quotes Dr . Daniel G . Brinton as saying “ ” “ ” o that the original beast had p inted ears , and was “ ”

al l n m . called by the Indians in New Jersey , who used it for protection and hunting , but likewise for ” food , and especially for ceremonial purposes . It probably resembled the celebrated Black Wolf Dog of “ — ” Florida . Another were wolf that figured in the annals of Wayne Township , Clinton County , was oft en est o described by Jac b Dyce , an old gentleman who passed away m that community ab o ut - twenty years “ ” ago when well up in eighty . This wolf was a th ree legged animal , and defied the hunt ers and trappers for i a dozen years , until its hardy spir t was laid by a silver ’ — bullet fired from George Wilson s ri fl e the same vet ’ eran w ho disposed of another o f Wayne T o wnship s I n o d . spo k wolves , previously escribed Among the dians on the Corn pl an ter and Alleghany Reservations is sometimes heard a sto-ry of a Polish trapper named

Wal l i z e n d John , a his Indian companions , who , about

1 83 5 o e , was sn w d in at his hunting cabin on Windfall

Run , Potter County , later the structure being buried by a landslide . A pack of ravenous wolves are said f ca ti ves to have dug the l p out , but with a small show o f al i z gratitude were killed by W l e and comrades . This tale was a favorite with the gallant Indian deerslayer , W 1 07 OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

had S imon Black Chie f , who heard it from Tall Chief and Jim Jacobs . The sagacity o f Pennsylvania wolves , especially the black wolves of the S even Mountains , was proverbial . It i s related that the philanthropic Ario Pardee was in the habit of taking solitary walks through his vast Pineries , estimating the timber and thinking out schemes for the betterment o f mankind . On one o f these rambles he happened into a clear ing in High Valley , where he met a very small

’ boy named Israel Riter , who was tending a few ragged v looking sheep . The philanthropist percei ed a large black wol f standing at the edge of the clearing , no great distance away , apparently watching th e grazing H animals . e communicated his discovery to the young shepherd , and advised him to set his dog on the wolf .

The boy replied that such would be a risky procedure , as the wolf at the edge of the clearing was only there to attract hi s attention that on the opposite side of the clearing there was no doubt another wol f , which , w as soon as he turned the dog on the ﬁrst wolf , ould

o ff w eal thv take the Opportunity to carry a sheep . The

o i gentleman , who doubted the extraordinary story , fered young Riter that i f he would try the experiment , he would make good any loss of sheep in dollars . The boy agreed , and sent his dog after the wol f , which was in plain view . No sooner had he done so when the ambushed con federate rushed out from the opposite

" thicket and plunged into the ﬂock . At that moment ’ m the philanth ropist s Negro body servant , Black S a , who had been following his master unknown to him at 1 08 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

' a respectful distance , appeared on the scene , and , rais — ing his riﬂe , killed both wolves with two well directed

i m il r ' t r s . s a s o hots A y is told in S outhern France , showing the apparently universal intelligence o f the

h e k n . S r c e ast wolf family Philip g , of Tylersville , ex Clinton County , recounted an perience along the same lines that happened to him when watching a

ﬂock of sheep in Little S ugar Valley . It is said that

Sam Emery , of White Deer Valley , sold the hides of tw o -w n o f bro wolves to John W . Gr f , a fur buyer from

Lebanon County . C . W . Dickinson had tanned the

' hide of “ a grey wol f which he ki l l ed in M cK ean County 1 873 in May , , using it as a cushion on his mowing ma 1 898 chine and land roller until , when , on moving , he burned it with a lot of rubbish . Many stories are told

re of the intelligence of wolves , the remarkable case ’ “ ” corded in S tuart B rothers Lays of th e Deer Forest of a blind wolf in the Highlan ds o f S cotland that was guided through the forests by a companion by means of a rod held in the j aws of both is exceeded by a re o i w o ﬂ er cent experience Bud Dalrymple , the famous D o f S outh akota . This hunter found a wol f which had

r to dragged a heavy t ap to a cave , and was unable get about , but was fed by its comrades , the den being ﬁlled — with chunks of meat which show that w o l ﬁsh sagacity was not all directed to rapine , but is compassionate H . S in the extreme A fox trapped in weden ill , Potter

fed County , was for several days by its companions ,

w as fo xﬂi n as another Sullivan County . These episodes were recounted in Pennsylvania newspapers in 1 91 5

1 09 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

’ ' 91 6 W sai d ' to and 1 . olves are have fought over the H “ ” bodies of Captain arry Green , the Regulator from

co m an i an s the Juniata country , and his p , who were ’ murdered by Indian marauders in Green s Gap , Clinton 1 801 County , in , their howling and yelping being so

‘ voci ferous that settlers were attracted to the spot , and h w o . gave the remains decent burial White Mingo , a ’ celebrated Indian who was murdered at S tump s Run ,

S w i n efo rdsto w n 1 7 68 near , now Middleburg , in , gave — an exhibition of personal bravery as a w ol f hunter never since equalled in Pennsylvania . When the ﬁrst white 1 765 settlers came to Middle Creek Valley , about , they were troubled with incursionsof wolves from the surrounding mountains . White Mingo came to the rescue o f the pioneers by smearing blood and tallow on his moccasins and making a trail in the forest . The wolves took up the scent , until soon a pack o f one hundred rapacious beasts were at the heels of this savage prototype of the Pied Piper " H e timed the process so that the animals emerged from the woods S near the present town of Beaver prings , where set tl ers concealed behind stu m psv and sheds shot them — down to the last one . The last pack of wolves thir — teen i n number to visit Middle Creek Valley came to a barnyard near Beavertown during the cold wintero f 1 81 0 , killing a huge ox in sight o f the frightened tenants of the premises . A device known as the wol f ” ’ kni fe was suc-cessfu ll y tried on the wolves in Jack s

Mountain , back of Beavertown . It consisted of a sharp kni fe blade imbedded in frozen fat , and placed 1 1 0 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

along a path frequented by the animals . When a wolf

stopped and licked , the fat , the blade would cut his tongue . The sight of the blood would infuriate the e pack , causing them to ﬁght among themselv s until sometimes half the pack would be slain . That there is

- some connection between the wolf notes , those wild , e inexplicabl variants sometimes struck on a violin , and w ol ves , is attested to by the following anecdote of S Lewis Dorman , the famous hunter of the even

1 905 an d 1 s S t. Mountains , who died in , buried in ’ Paul s Churchyard , near Woodward , Centre County .

As is well known , Dorman was a violinist of note . H One summer evening , when camped in igh Valley , ' he Was tuning an o l d ﬁddle belonging to Jacob “ “ Riter , when accidentally a sharp wolf note was struck on the strings . It was answered by a wolf on the summit of the Red Top . Dorman repeated the “ wolf notes as best he could , eventually drawing the wolf o ff the m ou n tai n an d bringing it to the edge of the clearing ( The next night the hunter played some good music on his own violin , but the wolf paid no attention to it . But when again he drew the bow across the weakest part of the old , imperfect violin , the wol f was quick to respond from his mountain re treat . John Jones , a Pennsylvania poet , thus alludes to the wolves in his magniﬁcent poem of pioneer days , “ The Retrospect

Wh en n i h s w e e l on an d w i n er s c ol d g t r g t , T h e w ol ves w o u l—d pr o w l i n h u n g er n ear Ar o u n d th e h ou se w h i l e i n th e fo l d Th e f i h en ed l am b al l c i n e i r r g t s r g d w th fea .

III . BRAVEST F THE BRAVE X O .

H AT ' the presence o f wolves in a country brings out th e bravest characteristi cs in manki nd can

I . not b e denied . t is the pabulum of heroes

i e , fo r S ome famil es hav fought wolves generations , and in the wars of men they demonstrate what they have learned of valor in the chase . Take the Quinn ’ i 1 - a . t w o f mily , for nstance The r cres is a lf s head ,

' ' a erased , argent . They have been known as race of wolf hunters and warri o rs in the North of Ireland for centurie s. Terrenc e Quinn was noted am ong the r h ea liest Indian ﬁg ters in Central Pennsylvania , and escaped from the . awful massacre at Dry Valley in

“ 1 7 8 He ; H e 7 . was a noted wolf hunter in his day f l A 1 0 1 83 1 93 . died in Bu fa o Valley , ugust , , aged years

en His son , S amuel Michael Quinn , was appointed an sign i n the Rangers Commanded by the celebrated

’ I n 1 788 Peter Grove . young Quinn , then in his e w as t twentieth y ar , selected as an assis ant surveyor and sent into the wild regi ons of the West B ranch . H e at camped the mouth of the run , which was named ’ t after him , , Quinn s Run , near the presen town of H M Lock aven . odern innovations have changed the ’ f R u n name o the run to Queen s . One of the young ’ P r b surveyor s companions , ete Farley y name , was seized with an attack o f palsy and conﬁned to his bunk h in the s ack , which stood on the bank of the run

1 1 2

1 1 4 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

his eyes . In the doorway stood Quinn with the pan ther hide over his shoulder , and the four dead wolves piled about his feet . The dogs formed the background m o f the picture . The excite ent was a help to the sick

o . man , and he soon rec vered The two young men ’s killed , while camped at Quinn Run , over one hun dred wolves , which naturally reduced the boldness o f these animals in that neighbo rhood . Later in life

S to f e amuel Quinn returned Bu falo Valley , wh re he

o became noted as a generous patr n of sport . He loved g ood horses and encouraged horse racing in that re

u gion . On his way down country he fo nd a stray horse in a forest . On its back were remnants of a

o o saddle , sh wing that it had once bel nged to some

n trader who had been ambushed and slain by redm e .

o f fo o t er The young Ranger was ﬂeet , and ran aft it , and caught it by the mane . The animal was a dark - o brown in col r , with a white face , well put together and was an entire . Quinn made a rude bridle out of hides an d rode the animal h o me . H e named the

Ao i dh . horse , which is the Gaelic for Stranger On

o the way a pack of w lves put in an appearance , and the young - Nimrod shot a dozen of them from the ’ — H e horse s back, in the true old fashioned Irish style .

‘ f-o r o used the brown horse many years as a st ck horse ,

r i and the da n of S ea Turtle , wh ch won a twelve mile race from the Great Island to Jersey Shore , about

83 5 . 1 , was one o f his numerous progeny It i s said ’ that when he . won this race he wore a wolf s tusk sus

hi s . pended by a string around neck Thus equipped , a

1 1 6 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

be be living in the Cameron County wilds today , he l i eves - f-oo d , but for forest ﬁres , the lack of supply , A and , all , reckless poisoning . ccording to Seth _ above

I redell Nelson , a man named William Bonsal , while riding horseback through a forest in Cl earﬁel d Coun t 1 89 1 y, killed a wolf with a club ; that was about or

1 892 . . J . E Cleveland , of B radford County , driving a pair o f fractious colts from Fox Centre , Sullivan 1 877 en County , to his home in Canton in the fall o f , countered a large wolf in the road which badly fright '

ed . u en the team Ebenezer Leach , o f L zerne County , ' ’ told o f a faw n in Leggett s Gap pursued closely by two wolves , which ran up to him and placed its head between his legs for protection . A E . OA S M U L N R H DS , A uth o r of a m m a l s o f P e n n s l va n i a a n d N ew e rse " P u b M — y J y , ( l i s h e d 1 903 ) T h e G re at A u th o r i ty o n P en n sy l va n i a n the r n d o ves P a s a W l .

1 1 8 WOL F DA Ys I N PENNSYLVANIA .

c of leared land , which Mr . Martin utilized as a pasture he for all his stock , except his hogs and calves , which kept near his house so it would be handy to feed them . ’ Mr . Martin s sheep ran at will on the abandoned farm from the time snow went o ff in the spring until he W drove them to his farm after inter set in . During

o to 1 4th f ur years prior May , he did not lose a single l sheep by wolves . We looked at this fact as being a most positive proof that the wolf den was within two or three miles of this abandoned farm , which is lo cated on the to p of the mountain between Red Mill ’ B rook and Robin s B rook . These two streams empty into Potato Creek about four miles east o f the aban ‘ 4 do n ed . S o 1 w e farm , on May th , set out in quest of the wolf den , with our knapsack on our back , con s taining three wolf traps , a mall quantity of salt and three or four days ’ rations for mysel f and my faithful

o dog R ver , which always was my companion on my l hunting or trapping expedi ti on s w hi e h e lived . Dur s e ing spring, umm r and fall a hunter or trapper always carried a ﬁsh line , a few extra hooks and package o f

b to salt . In case provisions egan run low he could catch all the trout in ﬁfteen minutes a man could eat at one meal . After traveling about eight miles we came on the old abandoned farm known as the Bunker H ill

‘ to ok to farm . We the tall timber in a northwesterly direction . In less than an hour we had the trail of

c u f-ol l o w wolves , which Rover o ld about as fast as I cared to walk . After we followed this trail for twenty minutes we left it , as the wolves seemed to be going

1 2 0 WOLF DAYS I N PENNSYLVANIA .

R w e a sun came in sight in the east . ight here e mad blunder , as the dog wanted to take th e trail we were b had following the night efore , while I made up my mind to go to the top of the mountain where the wolves had answered me ﬁrst the evening befo re . When we went about one - third the distance to the hill top we found a path or trail that only an experienced w oods man would detect . This path led straight up or down W the hill , and as old Rover anted to go down hill , we decided to follow him . We had gone about thirty

' rods when we came to a ﬂat rock . This rock was about level on top and about sixteen feet square . The

o the gr und on hillside was as high as the rock , while — the do wn hill side of the rock Was about th ree feet above the ground . The leaves that had fallen from the trees for ages lay on this rock the same as they H did on the ground around it . ere on top of this rock , about the centre part o f it , was something that looked ’ n H th o ice to me . ere in e leaves was a w lf s bed that ’ had been occupied many times . It resembled a dog s bed in a straw pile ; a ring of leaves about six inches

o f high all worn ﬁne . And at this season the year , e b ing the time all animals shed their winter coat , there was wol f hair enough in this bed , and mixed with the

o broken leaves in the ring ar und it , to make a dozen ’ - birds nests . Now we are sure we are going to ﬁnd the coveted prize . As we looked for the path from “ this rock we could not see any , so decided we were in ” wrong and retraced our path up the hill . After we had gone six or eight rods past th e point where T I MB E R WO L F I N S U M M E R P E L A G E .

h ot e n I ff l 2 0 i i nso n . ( P o T a k n B u a o 0 b y C . W . D ck )

1 22 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . scraping the thick oil out with the point of a kni fe blade I found the lock would wo rk all right . After putting the lock back in place we retraced our steps back down hill to the ﬂat rock , wondering all the time at what made the path end so abruptly at that point . Two or three years prior to this a beech tree that stood at the upper edge of the rock had broken o ff and fallen ‘ down the hill over this r o ck . The force of this tree falling down hill had carried the butt of the tree about hal f way across the rock . As we got to this rock old

Rover trotted through the bed , j umped on to the butt

th e of the tree , trotted down log until he got among

o ff the limbs , j umped on the right side , and as soon as he started from the log I could see the ' path very plain . I stopped him , went down to where he was , told him to go on ; he went about ﬁve ro ds to the side of a large rock that was about ﬁ fteen feet high and

b o a out thirty feet square . The d g walked along to i the corner of the rock , turned to the r ght , and as soon as I turned this corner the dog was looking into a large hole under and about the middle of the rock . The

ﬁrst glance told us we had the den sure , whether we got any wolves or not . We let the dog go in under the rock and after a minute called him out by chirping to

' u o l ve him . yo n g w s followed him to the mouth _ The l of the ho e . There were seven of them , pretty little “ ? cusses , too , but how were we to get them That

' o o k was the perplexing problem . We began t l o for a small sapling that forked out th ree or four feet from the ground . We soon found one , the prong being 1 23 WOLF DAYS I N PENNSYLVANIA .

about six feet long . These prongs we twisted into

switches , taking hold o f the two switched prongs

about hal f way to the top , from the point where they separated from the prongs together with the tops o f

each prong pointing in opposite directions , then tied

them with a small string, then wound the top end of one prong around the butt end of th e other several

times to the point they pronged , tied this fast , then n wou d the other side in the same way . This left a k ho op about two feet in diameter . We tOo our

hatchet , cut th e sapling so the part below the prongs

was three feet long . We sent the dog into the den . As soon as we heard the whelps whining around the dog

w e H chirped to him . e came out , the whelps trotting along with him until they were within two feet of the

hole . We had one hoop in position be fore calling

the dog out . We stood as much out of sight as possi

ble and allow us to see into the hole , holding our hoop “ close up against the rock , and when the little brats stopped to bark at us we dropped the hoop over two

of them , giving them a quick j erk . They rolled out

h O doors about three feet . We dropped our O p and H " clinched them . oly smoke , h ow they did yell At

to ﬁrst they tried bite , but as soon as they found out

we were not going to hurt them , we could handle them as well as you could handle little puppies four or ﬁve

weeks old . The experience we had with other dens

in former years , we were certain we could not fool these littl e chaps again the same day . We went forty

on e rods from the den , cut three clogs , for each trap 1 24 W OLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . we had with us ; we set a trap in the tw o paths _ ' that seem d to e . w e be the most traveled Then went back , h t e . let the dog go under rock again , but nothing doing We Could not get a whine from the little fellows . went and cut a little sapling a little larger , for a good

o ff 1 ﬁsh pole , cut the top at a po nt where the p ole was

- three eighths of an inch in diameter , tied the largest

ﬁsh- on hook we had to the top end of the pole . Then we crawled under the rock as far as the cavity was large enough for us to go , then ran the pole on under the rock , j udging from the feeling to tell whether it

’ hit a stone or hard gr o und or an animal . Directly I

' l ittl e . a was sure it hit an animal I gave j erk , and at ‘ ’ - . ki i that a young wol f began to y . I backed out from under the rock , pulling the pole With me , and I pulled the little wolf out . We found the hook was fast in the muscles of his foreleg close to the body . After getting the hook out of the leg we put the pup into the knapsack and crawled into the den again , and in less than ﬁve minutes we had another one hooked . This

o one was hooked through the left f refoot . After

’ getting him o ff the hook we crawled under again and

ﬁsh ed until we were so tired we had to quit , and as it was late in the afternoo n we set the remaining trap in the hole and went home , taking the four wolves

We W with us . Early the next morning took six olf r traps and went back to the den . On a riving there we found everything as we had left it the day before .

We took up the trap in the hole as cautious as possible , h got my hoop and let t e dog go under . We soon heard

1 25 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

the whelps whining . We chirped to the dog, and as h e

came out one whelp came close enough . We caught

him with the hoop . Then we tried the ﬁsh pole again . Nothing doing " We went and set the six traps in the

to paths that came in towards the den . We went the

den , let the dog go under again , but nothing doing .

Tried the ﬁsh pole again . Got nothing . We had a I heavy chalk line with us . took the wolf we got in

the morning , tied this chalk line to his neck , crawled under as far as I could get and let him go back into

t . the den , le ting the line out as fast as he went in He

went whining along until he found company . Then

H e we began to pull him back . began to whine and

kept it up until we drew him up to us . Now it was as l dark as night , our body ﬁlled the ho e so we could see

nothing . We felt back of the one we had , and got one him of the remaining ones by a leg, held on to , backed

out o f the den ; so now we had six out o f the seven . A cousin of mine , a slim , puny boy of sixteen , wanted to go with me this day , and I took him along, as h e was so anxious to see a wolf den , and as it was after noon we went to where I had cam ped the ﬁrst night out , to eat our dinner . It was not over ﬁfty rods from the den . After dinner I asked my cousin to go trout

H e fishing with me for an hour or two . said he would rather lie down and sleep , as he got up so early , so I went fishing for one and a half hours and caught 85 I nice trout , but on my return was startled not to find ‘ ’ the boy . I hollered as loud as I could yell , but got no

A s answer . we looked around we noticed our knap 1 26 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

sack was gone , and the two wolves with it . The

' tho u ht stru ck g us the boy might have gone to the den , so we ran to it , and got there j ust in time to see that boy back out from under the ro ck with the seventh ’ - wolf . Now , we don t believe that there was another boy of his size and age within“ the State that could e o . have be n hired to go there int that den My cousin ,

whose name is F . A . Gallup , is . still alive , and resides in the vicinity of Smethport . We kept our traps set in the paths for two months , and did not catch a thing ” except hedgehogs , rabbits and woodchucks .

M cKn i ht According to D r . g , Dickinson was not the only Pennsylvania hunter who caught wolves with ’ “ o hooks . In the g od doctor s Pioneer Outline His ” ho w tory of Northwestern Pennsylvania , it i s related “ H ” 1 845 B ill Long , The King unter , in , used an iron hook to draw eight pups out o f a wol f’s den four l ff miles from the present town of Sige , Je erson H m County . ol es Wiley , a noted wolf hunter of Gar O rett County , Maryland , whose expeditions ften ex tended into Southern Pennsylvania , made a specialty of entering wolf dens and capturing the pups alive , often encountering and vanquishing the j ustly i n fu r i ated parent wolves .

1 28 WOLF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA .

‘ — vari ou s eri o ds Lenni Lenape . During the p of Indian the hostilities in what is now Pennsylvania , Munsee , and especially the Minsi , were the most hostile to the white settlers because O f having been driven from the country adj acent to the Delaware River by the various a purchases of the Penn f mily , and then driven from the Susquehanna , notably at Wyoming, by the various e Susquehanna purchases . The Munse were usually

M ahi cko n s b e allied with the and the S enecas , and “ ” came veritable wolves in their raids on settlements . The above information was furnished to the writer by

R ev . o . G . Dr eorge P D nehoo , of Coudersport , one o f the great authorities on the Indian period in Penn syl H vania , and the able secretary of th e State istorical C ommission . The history of the Indians is closely h re interwoven with t at of the wolves , and further searc hes will surely unearth a wealth of interesting materials .

E ND OF PART I .

( Part II will comprise the Moose , Elk , Bison ,

Beaver , Pine Marten , Fisher , Glutton and Canada

Lynx . ) R A V E O F A CO B F . B A R N ET G J , ’ “ ” O ne of B i l l P u rs l ey s C o m p a n i o ns o n the G reat S u r p ri se o H u n t of 85 W lf 1 7 .

1 3 0 W O V LF DAYS IN PENNSYL ANIA .

' The history o i the panther in Pennsylvania is not complete without mention o f Jess e Hughes , one of the leading hunters of Lycoming County . Many are the tales r ecounted o f his adventures with the Penn

dr1 v1 n sylvania lion . On one occasion he was g his

the r team through Antes Gap , in di ection of Jersey

d . Shore , his sled being loade with freshly killed beef

Near the old . Woolen Mill a panther leaped from a tree , narrowly missing the sled . Hughes always car ’ he h ried a riﬂe under the driver s box , which broug t ' — quickly into position and with a well directed bullet , ’ ended the monster s li fe , as it lay sprawling by the ’ roadside . John Vanatta Phillips , o f Chatham s Run ,

o c Clinton County , a relative of Hughes , also had an “ ” - casi o n al run i n with the lion of Pennsylvania . One

Sunday morning , immaculately attired (he was known d as the best ressed man in the county) , Phillips was t on his way to Sunday School . His path lay hrough

A the a dense wood . tree had been blown across path , on which lay a huge tawny panther fast asleep . Phil

o ff lips not wishing to make a detour , took his tall beaver hat and struck the sleeping brute a heavy

crack across the back of the neck . The panther

o ff t woke up , uttered a piercing yell , and galloped in o

the depths o f the forest .

>i< It is related that on one occasion Daniel Karstetter

" ’ was resting a fter a hard day s hunt in Al l em i n g l e

Valley near Coburn , and had fallen into a doze lean su d ing up against a giant hemlock , when waking ' 1 3 1 WOLF DAY S IN PENNSYLVANIA . den ly he beheld a pack o f twenty wolves staring at him . He opened his mouth to shout at the inquisitive H e brutes , but found himself speechless . complained o f hoarseness for several days a fterwards . This inci dent recalls the old French superstition that the sig ht o f a wol f produces dumbness , the saying being when “ 1 1 l persons suddenly become hoarse that a vu e loup .

( He has seen the wol f . )

The early scarcity of wolves in Western Pen n syl va nia is attested to by the statement in the “ History o f Mercer County ” that in 1 807 bounties Were paid on — the scalps o f only thirty one wolves in that county .

>l<

G ‘ H Former overnor Pennypacker , in his istory of ” 1 872 t Phoenixville , published in , stated hat the last wol f discovered an d killed in the dense woods at Val

1 780 . ley Forge , Chester County , met its death in “ " 1 73 1 Further on in the book he says In March , , Moses Coates purchased 1 50 acres of land along the

Northern Bank o f the French Creek , where North

Phoenixville now is , and erected a dwelling . At this time the only inhabitants u pon the M an avo n Tract w ere himself , Francis Buckwalter , and an Indian named S kye . The wolves were so numerous that the ’ sheepfold for security , was placed against the house , d and for many years afterwar s , in the Winter morn ings , the snow would be found beaten down by the struggles of these animals in their efforts to effect an Y 1 32 W O . I N P E NNS UVA NI A LF DAYS .

“

e . entranc When they became too daring , a gun dis charged from the window into the pack would dis ” perse them temporarily .

e Jacob Meyer , an elderly resid nt o f Carroll , Clinton “ t o . a County , recently t ld A D . Kars etter , Postm ster of

Loganton , that one Winter night during the Civil “ ” w War , after sitting up ith his best girl , he had occasion to cross on the Northerly h u . side of Eastern S gar Valley , when omeward bound “ ’ ” It was in the we sma hOu rs a n d the stars had begun

w an e a el i n to . , Suddenly Meyer heard y p g and snarl ing, only to ﬁnd himself surrounded by a dozen huge

“ “ grey wolve s . The animals kept surrounding him , i e h gnashing the r te th , and switching him wit their

f . hairy tails , but made no further e fort to molest him

to But when he started walk , they acted as i f they

w as so w anted to trip him . He unarmed decided to

o-l ves make the best of the situation . The w gambolled abo ut him unti l at the ﬁrst grey streaks of dawn they disappeared up the path in the direction of Nittany M e ountain . Meyer was almost frozen , being d prived of the power of speech for several hours afte r return ’ d t c ing to his resi ence . Meyer s adven ure re alls an

’ x ri n ce o f almost sim ilar e pe e William Penn , Founder fOrm er of Pennsylvania , as descri bed by Governor u w ho Pennypacker . The famo s Quaker , had been inspecting some property in Chester County , near li ht . N Phoenixville , became belated and lost his way g

' 1 33 WOLF DAY S IN PENNSYLVANIA .

settling on , he was surrounded in the dense forest by a pack of snarling , snapping wolves . The ugly brutes played about his feet all night in a most tantalizing

an d fashion , severely trying his nerves temper , he being , o f course , unarmed . At about daybreak the t wolves depar ed , leaving Penn to get back to civiliza tion as best he could . Ever a fterwards he referred to the hill where he had been tormented by the wolves as Mount Misery and the hill where emerged from “ ” the forest in safety as Mount Joy .

>l< >l<

l Juliana Barnes , or Berners , an ear y English hunt 1 388 ress , born about , like other writers o f the period ,

places the wol f among the four animals of venery , or sport royal , the others being the hart , hare and boar , “

A . in her Book of St . lbans ( Published after her death . )

t It is a singular circumstance tha the Lovett family , who were noted as wol f hunters in England in the “ ” i — three w o l ves assan t M ddle Ages their arms are , p , sprang into prominence as wolf hunters in the Black Forest o f Pennsylvania du r1 n g the second hal f o f the

Nineteenth Century . Their name is said to be derived f u vet l w o . rom L , or Loup , meaning f

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k A H Jac llen , a New ampsh ire hunter , (born in 1 83 5 B r . ) is said by the noted author , Charles E . eals , J , 1 34 WO LF DAYS IN PENNSYLVANIA . to have been followed by wolves for many miles while

i o skating one night on the River Sa nt J hn , in Maine , ’ a o ran ck s a years g , recalling Jacob F similar dventure i on the S innemahoning in Pennsylvan a .

It is stated that at the funeral of the noted Indian 1 682 to Chie f Passaconaway , in Maine , in , animals f the number of constituted the funeral o fering , among them 240 wolves .

’ n a Joh W . Craw ford o f Chath m s Run , Clinton

County , reports that one morning during the cold 1 9 1 7 weather in February , ; an animal probably a

‘ r coyote but resembling a wolf , was seen c ossing the old canal bed on the Charles Stewart farm , near that place .

(The above paragraphs were inadvertently omitted in the compilation of the book . )