New York's hunting and fishing pastimes history: A 19th century snapshot
Back in the early days of the 19th century, entertainment wasn’t easy to come by.
Especially if you lived in a rural area, which most people did, at least in upstate New York.
Or maybe it was easy to come by, but took different forms than it does today. You certainly couldn’t sit in the house and watch TV or play video games.
Horse racing was a big thing. Ball playing, including early forms of baseball, was part of the deal for younger people.
Hunting and fishing, though, probably were the foremost recreations. They were readily available, for sure, and occasionally all too much so, according to some accounts.
We hunt and fish today, of course, but I wonder if we do so with the earnestness of those old timers.
Tales of exciting adventures were told by Abijah Beckwith, a farmer and prominent citizen of Cedarville in Herkimer County. He was a town supervisor, deputy marshal, assemblyman, a New York state elector for Abraham Lincoln in 1860, and much else. He lived from 1784 to 1874 and kept a journal of his adventures to pass on to his descendants.
In 1981 and again in 1985, The Conservationist Magazine printed excerpts from Beckwith’s writings, provided in part by his descendants Grace Brown of Voorheesville and her son, Larry Brown. They are fun to read, and, as the editors pointed out, they also provide a snapshot of life in those times. I enjoyed the stories, and I also was fascinated by the name Abijah. Old Testament names were common in Beckwith’s time. Abijah was a king of Judah, regarded as “wicked” by some sources, and a grandson of Solomon.
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Unlike his namesake, Beckwith seems to have been well thought of. And, while apparently not well educated – he describes himself as a “poor skollar” and a bad speller – he was an observant reporter, a good writer and a lover of sports of all kinds.
Several of his stories involved a man named Pierce, a wildly enthusiastic and relentless hunter who liked nothing better than to chase foxes with his hounds. Pierce never gave up in those endeavors, no matter how hopeless the quest might seem.
Pierce and Beckwith and a man named Cummins started after a fox one day, and the dogs eventually trapped it in a crevice in some rocks. Beckwith offered to shoot the animal, but Pierce wouldn’t agree to that, since it would spoil the hide.
“… He seemed to think more of a dollar got by sale of a fox skin than two got in any other way, and was verry particular to save them in good order,” Beckwith wrote.
So, Pierce had Beckwith and Cummins lower him into the crevice, with the dogs ahead of him. Eventually, Pierce, with Beckwith holding solidly to his ankles, was pulled back up, holding a large stone he said he had to get out of the way. Down again he went, with his friends holding on with iron grips. Again he was pulled up, this time with the fox, which he held over his head for fear the dogs would tear it apart. He ended up walking home in wet boots, which he had tremendous trouble removing. When his wife finally was able to pull them off, he saw the impressions of Beckwith’s thumbs and fingers around his legs.
“Zounds,” he exclaimed to Beckwith, using a familiar mild oath of those days. “You don’t get hold of my heels again!”
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Another fox hunt involving Pierce, Beckwith and another man went on for two full days. After a morning’s run, the fox ran into a hole. The hunters stopped for lunch, then resumed the hunt. They didn’t get the fox, but plugged the hole it was in, and went to a tavern near Cedarville, where they had supper and spent the night. The next day they got after the fox again, and after much work from the dogs and a lot of digging into the side of a hill, they came away with it.
Beckwith was a practical man – in reading his journal and eyeing his portrait you get the impression he could squeeze a dollar until it bled – so he decided to write up a fiscal accounting of the adventure.
He valued the work of two men the first day and three the second day at 75 cents per day or $6; the cost of a horse and sleigh at $3, and the bill at the tavern at $3. The fox skin brought $1.50, so Beckwith figured they were out $10.50.
“I have frequently asked myself what it is that causes men to undergo the great fateague of a fox chase,” Beckwith wrote. “They generally act from some motive, usually that of profit or pleasure. In this case the former is out of the question, & the latter is, in most cases, overbalanced by the pain & fateague.”
Does that sound a bit familiar?
Another story recalled a bear hunt that took place about 1816 along Steele’s Creek. Again, Pierce was involved, and so was his son. There was another long jaunt through the woods and fields, with shooting and snarling, with the bear all but killing one of Beckwith’s dogs. The hunters had trouble with their guns, and then Pierce tried to kill the bear with a tree branch, lost his balance, and fell into the animal along with the dogs. He managed to escape before another man appeared and shot the bear dead.
Tough work, for sure, but I guess they had fun. And Pierce, Beckwith said, sold the bear’s glossy black hide for $7.50, a heck of a lot of money in those days.
Notebook
Ilion youngster lands big tiger
Trenten Pope of Ilion had a big catch on the Mohawk River recently.
The Central Valley Academy sophomore, 15, landed a 37-inch, 12-pound tiger muskie while fishing with his father.
Pope used a quarter-ounce, black Rooster Tail to fool the tiger. It took about 20 minutes to land on an ultralight outfit and 4-pound test line.
Hawkwatch under way
The Franklin Mountain Hawkwatch has begun.
Volunteers began staffing the watch, across the Susquehanna River from Oneonta, on Aug. 26 in anticipation of the annual migration flights of raptors. Many thousands of hawks, eagles, falcons and other birds of prey will be flying south over the site between now and the end of the year.
The best days for most birds are those with decent winds from the Northwest. The first species to migrate are broad-winged hawks, with numbers peaking in mid-September.
Information on the hawkwatch and directions to it are available at https://doas.us/research/franklin-mountain-hawkwatch/.
Write to John Pitarresi at 60 Pearl St., New Hartford, N.Y. 13413 or jcpitarresi41@gmail.com or call him at 315-724-5266.
This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Ilion teen catches 37-inch tiger muskie: Here are the details
