Title: The Black Moose in Pennsylvania
Author: Shoemaker, Henry W.
Language: English
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[Illustration: Typical Maine Moose Head (Killed in 1902 by Samuel
Merrill). (Frontispiece)]



                            THE BLACK MOOSE
                            IN PENNSYLVANIA

                                  BY

                          HENRY W. SHOEMAKER

         (Author of "Pennsylvania Deer and Their Horns", etc.)

  "_The kingly Lyon, and the strong arm'd Beare
  The large lim'd Mooses, with the tripping Deare,
  Quill darting Porcupines, and Rackcoones bee,
  Castelled in the hollow of an aged tree._"

                                                   _William Wood, 1634_


                         Altoona, Pennsylvania
               Published by  THE ALTOONA TRIBUNE COMPANY
                                 1917
                   Copyrighted--All Rights Reserved



                          INDEX TO CHAPTERS.


  Chapter.                        Page.

   I.  Fossil Remains              5--7

   II. Historical Evidence        8--15

  III. Traditional Evidence      16--21

   IV. Summary                   22--27

    V. Moose Horns               28--31

   VI. The Original              32--45


[Illustration of wolf]


[Illustration: SETH IREDELL NELSON (1809-1905) A Hunter Possessing
Definite Data Concerning the Black Moose in Pennsylvania.]



                          I. FOSSIL REMAINS.


When the writer first visited the hunting lodge home of Seth Iredell
Nelson (1809-1905) at Round Island, Clinton County, in August, 1899,
he noticed a medium-sized set of moose-horns hanging on the wall of
the great Nimrod's living-room. Having heard traditional stories
of the occasional appearance of the Black Moose or _Original_ in
Pennsylvania, the thought flashed through his mind, "Those may be
the antlers of a Pennsylvania Moose." Upon asking Nelson where the
horns came from, the magnificent old hunter replied that they were
Canadian horns, sent to him some years before by a party who had once
hunted with him in Pennsylvania in deer season. "But," added the old
Nimrod, "there once were moose in Pennsylvania." Asked if he had ever
seen any, he replied that he never had, that the last were gone long
before his day, but that he had killed at least 500 elk, sometimes
called "grey moose" in the Pennsylvania forests. That same fall, the
writer heard that a farmer named John Hennessy, about 1850, as near
as could be ascertained, while grubbing stumps on the edge of the
Tamarack Swamp in Northern Clinton County, had unearthed a pair of
fresh looking moose horns. When Samuel N. Rhoads published his great
work, "Mammals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," in 1903, the writer
found little comfort in the assumption that moose had wandered into
Pennsylvania in post-Columbian days. This is what Rhoads has to say
under title of "Eastern Moose": "The fossil remains of moose have
been found in Pennsylvania caves. Certain statements of earliest
travellers imply that the moose was found on the west shores of the
Hudson River opposite New York and in Northeastern Pennsylvania. There
is a Moosic in Lackawanna County; a Moosehead in Luzerne County,
and Chickalacamoose in Clearfield County. In Doughty's 'Cabinet of
Natural History,' Volume I, Page 281, a Philadelphia correspondent
says that the horns of moose were found in a salt lick in the
Allegheny Mountains, Pennsylvania, near the New York State line.
These items are here noted in support of the theory that the moose
in late pre-Columbian times wandered into the Allegheny Mountains
of Pennsylvania from its more favored haunts in the lake regions of
New York. Miller states 'it once ranged throughout the State of New
York.' If this can be verified by history it would be an interesting
fact, at once removing any improbability of its range in parts of
Northern Pennsylvania, quite as well suited to its needs." Rhoads
further states that fossil remains of the East American Moose (_Alces
Americanus Jardine_) dating from the Pleistocene period were found in
the Durham Cave, near Reigelsville, Bucks County, and that a skeleton
of Scott's Fossil Moose (_cervalces scotti Lydekker_) also of the
Pleistocene period were unearthed from a shell marl beneath a bog at
Mount Hermon, Warren County, New Jersey. It will be the purpose of the
following pages to endeavor to show that the Black Moose was present
in Pennsylvania as an irregular migrant or straggler within the last
one hundred and twenty-five years, citing as evidence, the writings of
reliable travellers and historians, and the traditions of old hunters
who were themselves sons of old hunters. That it is not a case of
confusion of Nomenclature, for Rhoads states that somewhere in Dr. B.
S. Barton's writings the grey moose or wapiti is called the "Original,"
will also be demonstrated, as the old-fashioned hunters were very
jealous and proud of their knowledge of the different kinds and species
of wild animals.


[Illustration of bobcat]



                       II. HISTORICAL EVIDENCE.


Historical evidence of the presence of the Black Moose in Pennsylvania,
though not plentiful, is convincing. Dr. J. D. Schoepf, the
distinguished German army surgeon and naturalist, who travelled
through Pennsylvania in 1783-1784, has this to say in his "Travels in
the Confederation," Vol. I, Page 161, in speaking of the vicinity of
Heller's Tavern, one mile south of the Wind Gap in Northampton County:
"The farmers were not well content with their lands. The nearness of
the mountains brings them in Winter unpleasant visits from wolves and
now and then, bears. And there is no lack of other sort of game; deer
and foxes are numerous: elks wander hither at times. From several
descriptions furnished by people hereabouts, it seems that they give
the name Elk to the Moose as well as to the Canadian stag, and so give
rise to errors. Both animals come down from the North, where one is
known as Moose, Black Moose or Original, and the other (the Canadian
stag) as Grey Moose to distinguish it from the first." On page 243 of
the same volume, the talented author, in speaking of the Allegheny
Mountains between Carlisle and Fort Pitt (Pittsburg) remarks: "The
commonest wild animal is the Virginia deer: the Grey Moose, very
similar to the European stag has also been seen in these woods, but it
is more numerous in Canada.

 [Illustration: C. W. DICKINSON,
 A Living Pennsylvania Hunter Whose Memory Retains Many Interesting
 Reminiscences of the Moose.]

The Black Moose or elk, is seen here but rarely." H. Hollister, in
his inimitable "History of the Lackawanna Valley," published in
1857, in speaking of Tripp's Meadow, near Scranton, a hunting and
camping-ground highly thought of by Indians and early white settlers,
says: "Around this camp game was abundant. The elk and the fleeter
moose stood among their native pines, or thundered onward like the
tread of cavalry, the deer in fearless mood browsed on the juicy
leaf, while the mountain sides, though stern with wilderness offered
to the panther or the bear little shield from the well-poised arrow
of the Indian." On Page 210, the same author says: "The Moose, from
which the mountain range bordering the Lackawanna--The Moosic--derived
its name, were found here in great abundance. Deer and elk, at that
period thronged along the mountains in such numbers that droves often
could be seen browsing upon the budding saplings or lazily basking
in the noonday sun." In Doughty's "Cabinet of American History,"
Volume I, Page 281, a Philadelphia correspondent tells of the finding
of a fresh-appearing set of Moose antlers in a salt lick near the
New York State line. Investigation of this account showed that the
antlers in question were unearthed in 1819 by Jim Jacobs, "The Seneca
Bear Hunter," a noted Indian hunter at a swamp which was situated
in Bradford, McKean County, in the center of what is now the City
Park. This would show conclusively that the Moose, in post-Columbian
times ranged into Northwestern Pennsylvania. If at one time they
"ranged all over New York State" it would be natural that they would
frequent the headwaters of the Allegheny River just across the line in
Pennsylvania. But as Western New York was opened to civilization they
withdrew to their hiding places in the North Woods, only venturing
South when driven by severe winters and then through the last unbroken
stretch of forest from the Adirondacks to the Catskills, and thence
into the wilds of Northeastern Pennsylvania--keeping close to the
Catskill-Allegheny Mountain backbone. Tales of the presence of the
Moose in the Keystone State will also be found in "More Pennsylvania
Mountain Stories," Chapter I (Reading, 1912), "The Indian Steps,"
Chapter I (Reading, 1912), and "Juniata Memories," Chapters IX, XXIV
and XXVI (Philadelphia, 1916), by the author of these pages. Other
mention of the Black Moose in Pennsylvania is occasionally made in
county histories, romances and poems of the Northern and Eastern parts
of the State. Careful research will undoubtedly bring further valuable
references to light. The Black Moose has left his name indelibly along
the entire route of his latterly migrations through Pennsylvania. There
is a Moose's Wood Pond in Kidder Township, Carbon County. There were
said to be Moose Ponds in Susquehanna, Wayne and Pike Counties. There
is a Moosehead (in Foster Township) and Moosic Mountain--"The Imperial
Moosic" of the Poet Caleb Earl Wright, in Luzerne County. In Lackawanna
County, in addition to the Moosic Mountain there are two Moosics, one
a town of four thousand inhabitants in Old Forge Township, the other
a hamlet in Newton Township, and a Moosic Lake in Jefferson Township.
There is a Moose Run in Centre County in Boggs Township; the Moshannon,
i. e., _Moose-hanne or Moose-stream_, forms the western boundary of
Centre County, dividing it from Clearfield County. The Black Moshannon,
or _Black Moose-stream_ is a creek in Centre County. In Clearfield
County is found a Moose Run in Huston Township, and Moose Run Station,
also Upper Moose Creek, (Lawrence Township), and Moose Creek (Girard
Township). Clearfield town, the seat of justice, was formerly called
Chickalacamoose. The Moshannon rises near the northern border of
Blair County, at the Three Springs. In the extreme southern limit of
the range there is said to be a Moose Creek in Somerset County. On
account of so many small lakes in Pennsylvania having been renamed with
fanciful names by influential summer colonists within the past twenty
years, the historic names have been discarded, but old settlers in
the neighborhoods can give the real names in every instance; in this
way it is thought that eventually some of the "moose" names will be
restored. In Sullivan County the beautiful and romantic Lewis' Lake was
rechristened "Eagles Mere" by summer boarding-house keepers. It is held
by some that Elk Lick, Somerset County, was named for the Moose, which
was called "Elk" by many German pioneers, as well as for the true Elk
or Wapiti. At any rate Black Moose were seen in the vicinity of this
swale shortly before the Revolutionary War. Dr. C. Hart Merriman in his
splendid report of the animals of the Adirondack Mountains, published
by the Linnean Society in New York in 1884 states that the last moose
in the "North Woods" of New York was killed on Raquette Lake, Hamilton
County, in August, 1861. The height of this last specimen, which was
a female, was seven feet at the hump and weighed 800 pounds. Samuel
Merrill in his authoritative and fascinating "Moose Book" published in
New York, in 1916, thus describes the slaughter: "A party of four men
from Philadelphia, including a lawyer and a physician with two guides,
were on a fishing trip in two boats. One sportsman fired a charge of
buckshot into her shoulder at 50 yards' distance; another fired a
charge of number 6 shot, and the guides each added a rifle ball." Among
the last men in New York to kill a moose was Hon. Horatio Seymour,
Governor of the State, the antlers of which were admired for many years
at his home at Deerfield, Oneida County. The Governor killed his moose
at Jock's Lake, Herkimer County, in 1859. Alva Dunning, a well-known
hunter, killed several moose on West Canada Creek in 1860. Verplanck
Colvin, State Engineer of New York, in his report on the "Adirondack
Wilderness" transmitted to the Legislature at Albany in April, 1874,
says: "As a matter of Zoological and general interest, I may mention
that in a few of the most remote portions of the wilderness, we have
met with indications of the Moose, which to some of the guides seemed
unmistakable.

 [Illustration: LEWIS DORMAN (1820-1905).
 Friend and Protege of Josiah Roush, "The Terrible Hunter."]

This gigantic deer is, however, almost extinct in the Adirondacks, and
I would suggest that it be made, in future, unlawful to kill or destroy
the animal at any season." From the above it will be noted that the
Black Moose held on in its Northern fastnesses for three quarters of a
century after its extirpation in Pennsylvania. Moose have since been
re-introduced in New York, but it is not known for certain whether the
experiment will prove a success. In the Catskills, situated midway
between the Adirondacks and the Alleghenies of Pennsylvania, Black
Moose were noticed during the first decade of the Nineteenth Century.
At one time, at least, Moose were found in Connecticut, and a cow moose
was killed within two miles of Boston, Massachusetts, in 1721. Jim
Jacobs, the discoverer of the Moose horns in the swamp in Littleton,
now called Bradford, McKean County, was one of the most interesting
figures in the sporting annals of Pennsylvania. He was a grandson of
Captain Jacobs, the brave defender of Fort Kittanning, and his mother
was a daughter of the Seneca chieftain, Cornplanter. He was therefore
of the Indian aristocracy. "The Seneca Bear Hunter," as the great
Nimrod was generally called, was born near Gawango, on Cornplanter's
Reservation in Warren County (the house, the oldest in the Reservation,
is still standing) in 1790. From the time he was old enough to "tote
a gun" he was noted as a slayer of big game. Innumerable were the
elks, deer and bears that fell before his unerring rifle. On June 25,
1814, with Captain John Titus and other Senecas, he participated in
the famous march, 80 miles, between sunrise and sunset, between Cold
Spring on the Seneca Reservation and Lundy's Lane, on the Niagara
River, participating in the battle of that name and helping to win
the victory for the American forces. In 1867 he killed an elk in Flag
Swamp, Elk County, that by some authorities is held to be the last
native wild elk killed in Pennsylvania. He was several times married.
By his first wife, according to C. W. Dickinson, he had one daughter,
who died of consumption while still in her teens. By other wives he
had two sons. John C. French says that probably Jim Jacobson (also a
noted elk hunter) and "Dan" Gleason, the wolf hunter, were his sons. On
the night of February 24, 1880, there was a great blizzard in Northern
Pennsylvania. Jacobs, then in his 90th year, happened on the tracks of
the Erie Railroad, near Bradford, when he was hit by a freight train
and killed. P. L. Webster, an aged citizen of Littleton or Bradford,
who died recently, is authority for this account of the "Bear Hunter's"
taking off. John C. French of Roulette, Potter County, historian and
litterateur, states that in Indian summer, 1881, while in the Seneca
Reservation near Carrolltown, he met Jim Jacobs in the forest, carrying
his long rifle, and that he engaged in an interesting conversation with
him. He was seen by others in the Reservation up to that time and
later. "But," adds Mr. French, "my seeing 'The Seneca Bear Hunter' does
not prove that he was alive. The Indians were firm believers in ghosts,
and if he was actually killed a year or two previously, they would
have said that I merely saw his shade revisiting the favorite hunting
grounds."


[Illustration of weasel]



                      III. TRADITIONAL EVIDENCE.


Traditional information concerning the presence of the Moose in
Pennsylvania is not lacking. Every old hunter can talk freely on
the subject, and will relate what was told him by his father or
his father's father on this subject. The gist of the evidence is
convincing, as it all _dove-tails together_ so nicely; it is not a
heterogeneous collection of irreconcilable statements. Beginning with
Seth Iredell Nelson there was not a single old-timer interrogated who
had any doubts as to the presence of the animal in Pennsylvania or
its identity. John Q. Dyce, probably the most intelligent and best
informed of the older generation of Pennsylvania hunters, declared that
the Moose had a "crossing" on the West Branch near Renovo, which they
followed to Chickalacamoose and along the Allegheny summits to Somerset
County. Clement F. Herlacher quotes Josiah Roush as saying to Lewis
Dorman that the Moose in Pennsylvania was called the "Original" that it
meant that the moose was the "ancestor" or "daddy" of the entire deer
tribe. Roush, who was known as "The Terrible Hunter," trailed deer in
the snow, using no weapons, killing them by running them to the water,
and plunging in after them and drowning them in mid-stream.

 [Illustration: JIM JACOBS (1790-1880)
 "The Seneca Bear Hunter," Who Found a Set of Moose Antlers in McKean
 County in 1819.]

In one of his solitary hunts he penetrated to Pike County where he
met a redman named Tahment Swasen, probably the Indian hunter of that
name who was so admired by the gifted Thoreau, and who told him the
meaning of the word "Original." From constant exposure in icy waters
Roush became "knotted with rheumatism," finally succumbing from an
attack of pneumonia at his home near Woodward, Centre County, at the
early age of 45 years. Merrill in his "Moose Book" conclusively proves
that the name is not _original_ but _orignal_, and is derived from a
Basque word _orenac_ meaning deer. This was corrupted by the French
Canadians into _orignac_ and then to _Orignal_. In Pennsylvania it was
_Original_. Swasen claimed that as the moose was the only species of
deer found on all continents it proved him to be the progenitor of the
entire cervine race. No trustworthy information has come to the writer
that the moose bred in Pennsylvania. John Q. Dyce said: "They probably
bred in the State at one time." Other old hunters made the same
guarded remark. Jesse Logan, grand-nephew of James Logan, "The Mingo
Orator," who was born in 1809, and died on February 17 of last year,
had heard of the presence of Moose in Pennsylvania during his father's
lifetime, but said it was the scarcest of all the wild animals of the
Commonwealth. He had heard that in the deep pools of the Moshannon,
or "Moose Stream," the moose were in the habit of bathing, performing
strange evolutions when the horns of the crescent moon were up-turned,
that no Indian would kill a moose at that time, that Chickalacamoose
(now Clearfield) meant "the meeting place of the moose." A Moose, one
of the last killed in Pennsylvania, was shot at one of these pools, and
Captain John Logan (Jesse's grandfather), who lived nearby, fastened
the antlers over the door of his cabin to bring good luck. "But," added
Jesse Logan reflectively, "Captain Logan had bad luck every day he
lived under the moose horns, and was finally put out by a white man
who claimed to own the ground on which the shack stood." Generally
speaking, Moose horns above a door were supposed to bring good luck.
Joshua Roush stated that the moose always crossed into Pennsylvania
at one particular point, near Narrowsburg on the Delaware River, from
there the path led southwesterly along the Allegheny highlands clear
to the Maryland line. The Wind Gap in Northampton County was evidently
an outlet for the Moose to Southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Wind Gap is only ten miles as the crow flies to the mouth of Martin's
Creek on the Delaware River. Very old people in that section can tell
of the occasional appearance of Moose in the Wind Gap up to the last
decade of the Eighteenth Century. There is a story of a moose being
killed by Moravian Indians on Moose Run, Centre County, of another
killed on Burgoon's Run, Blair County, and one or two driven South by
dogs, slain near the Juniata in the vicinity of McVeytown, but the
dates are uncertain. Jesse Logan stated that the Black Moose was not
seen in Northwestern Pennsylvania in his day, but the finding of a
comparatively fresh-looking set of Moose antlers at the salt-lick
(now the centre of the City Park of Bradford, McKean County) in 1819,
and the prevalence of the Moose-Wood or Leather-wood, show that they
were present in that section probably a generation earlier. C. W.
Dickinson, born in 1842, a great authority on wild life topics, who
resides at Smethport, McKean County, states that when he was a boy he
heard some of the old gray-haired men say that they had been told that
there were Black Moose on the headwaters of Pine Creek (Tiadaghton) in
an early day, but that he never heard anyone say that they saw one.
That would establish the presence of Moose in Northern Potter and Tioga
Counties, completing the evidence that they lived at one time along
the entire "Northern Tier" of Pennsylvania Counties. It is stated
that the early Scotch-Irish settlers along the Juniata River referred
to the Moose as the _Black Elk_. It is understood that this name was
sometimes applied in Ireland to the extinct "Irish Elk" (_Megaceros
hibernicus_); it would seem that the pioneers from the Emerald Isle
noted the resemblance between the palmated antlers of the extinct
forest monarch dug up in their own bogs and the Black Moose of their
new Pennsylvania home. There are some who claim that the Black Moose
was a regular resident of Pennsylvania, breeding in the State up to
the years immediately following the Revolutionary War. As names, dates
and places are lacking, and in the face of documentary evidence, and
the views of naturalists like Rhoads and others to the contrary, it
must be regarded as the veriest tradition. According to Boyd's "Indian
Local Names," Chickalacamoose, now Clearfield, Clearfield County,
signifies "It comes together," or "The meeting place." As before noted,
according to Jesse Logan, it meant "meeting place of the Moose," a
far more plausible translation of this ancient name. In Daniel G.
Brinton's "Dictionary of the Lenni Lenape," the Delaware word for
Moose was "Mos." John C. French, speaking of Potter County (Northern
Pennsylvania) says: "None of our oldest men ever saw a Pennsylvania
Moose, though Edwin Grimes (born 1830) heard some of the old men, back
about 1840, tell of having killed or hunted 'the Original' about 1770
and earlier; both in Pennsylvania and New York. Capt. John Titus, born
about 1784, said in 1881--he was nearly 97 years of age--that there
had been none since he could remember in Western New York or Northern
Pennsylvania, except an occasional traveller from farther north. He
called them 'Woodeater' and said they were also called 'original' by
some, as they were the largest--seven feet high at shoulders--and were
thought to be older than any other deer species, that their short
necks and long legs fitted them only for feeding on trees and briars,
or in water where plants floated on the surface, roots three or four
feet below. My grandfather, William French, born in 1788, said they
sometimes came south of the lakes in New York to the Chemung River,
while he was a boy living there.

 [Illustration: Birthplace of Jim Jacobs. (Oldest House in Cornplanter
 Reservation, Warren County.)]

The following is a memorandum of what my father told me, as he
remembered, his grandfathers told him about the 'brown elk' as they
called them. My great-grandfather, John G. Martin, who came from
Ireland in 1775, to join the Continentals against England, and resided
in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, after the war ended, for nearly fifty
years, always called the 'Original' or Black Moose a _brown elk_. My
father, born in 1818, never saw one; but his father, born in 1788, saw
a few of them in Steuben County, New York, and along the Pennsylvania
line in Tioga County, while a boy and spoke of them as Originals, and
very rare--some of them very large."

[Illustration of fox]



                             IV. SUMMARY.

 Irregular Migrations--Range--Habits--Moose Birds--Moose Hunters--Final
 Extermination--The Last Moose.


Needless to say it is pretty well established that the Black Moose
was not a permanent resident in Pennsylvania during the past five
hundred years, it was not even an annual visitor, and if it bred
here, it was after its migrations North were stopped by the "ring of
steel" of the army of Nimrods along the Delaware. During exceptionally
cold winters up to the last decade of the Eighteenth Century, the
Moose moved Southward out of their permanent abodes in the Adirondack
wilderness, crossing the Mohawk River at some un-named point, thence
following the Catskill wilderness through Schoharie, Greene, Ulster
and Sullivan Counties to Narrowsburg, where they crossed the Delaware
into Pennsylvania. From thence they followed the main chain of the
Allegheny Mountains in a southwesterly direction through Wayne,
Lackawanna, Wyoming, Sullivan, Lycoming, Clinton, Centre, Clearfield,
Blair, Cambria, Bedford and Somerset Counties to the Maryland line, the
extreme southern limit of their wanderings. They remained true to this
path of migration, and those seen or killed in Huntingdon, Mifflin,
Westmoreland or Allegheny Counties were presumably driven there by dogs
or Indians; except that evidently there was a regular migration line
from Wayne County through Pike County, a region reminiscent of the
Adirondacks with its evergreens and ponds, on through Monroe County to
the Wind Gap of Northampton County. It is not clear in the writer's
mind if this was the _Original's_ ancient route into New Jersey or that
the moose noted in the Wind Gap were driven there by dogs, but it seems
a fair supposition that the Wind Gap was their route of ingress to New
Jersey. No record has been kept of the habits of the Moose during their
sojourns in Pennsylvania. It is agreed that they were of a confiding
nature, indulging in their favorite browse in close proximity to
hunters' cabins. In the winter it probably comforted itself much as it
would during mild winters in the Adirondacks. Moose which remained in
Pennsylvania in the Springtime were fond of bathing in the deep holes
of their favorite streams. The old settlers learned from the Indians
when to expect the coming of the Moose by the appearance of the Moose
Bird or Canada Jay (_Periosoreus Canadensis_). This rather thickset,
more plainly plumaged relative of the common Blue Jay of Pennsylvania,
visited Pennsylvania for the same reason as the Moose, the extreme
cold weather in the North. Dr. W. T. Hornaday in his "American Natural
History," says: "The plumage of the Canada Jay has a peculiar fluffy
appearance, suggestive of fur. Its prevailing color is ashy-gray. The
nape and back of the head are black, but the forehead is marked by a
large white spot. The wings and tail are of a darker gray than the
body. The home of this interesting bird--the companion of the Moose, as
well as of forest-haunting man--extends from Nova Scotia and Northern
New England, throughout Canada to Manitoba, and northward to the limit
of the great forests." As they came by wing it was natural that they
could reach Pennsylvania a week or ten days before the arrival of the
Moose. Their coming was the signal for the hunters to get ready and
many a moose that otherwise might have escaped, was forced to run
the gauntlet of the forewarned and fore-armed Nimrods. Probably an
occasional Moose that was belated in returning North gave birth to its
calves in Pennsylvania. Merrill says that usually two or three were
produced at a birth, making them the most prolific of the deer family.
In the extreme Southern limits the calves were born in April. For years
after the last Moose had ceased coming to Pennsylvania, the visits of
the Moose Birds set the old hunters on the _qui vive_; as in the case
of the bison in the West and the wild pigeons here, it took them a long
while to realize that the Moose would come no more. John H. Chatham,
the Clinton County naturalist and poet, saw a Moose bird in McElhattan,
that county, in the winter of 1903. It is difficult to ascertain just
who the hunters were who slew the Moose in Pennsylvania, few Indians of
note were guilty of the slaughter of their beloved _Original_; only
the starving rag-tag of the redmen helped in the final extirpation.

 [Illustration: SAMUEL N. RHOADS,
 The Great Authority on the Mammals of Pennsylvania.]

Doubtless if a list of male residents along the backbone of the
Allegheny Chain from Moosic Mountain, Lackawanna County, to Elk Lick,
Somerset County, of about the year 1790 could be procured, it would be
as good a roster of early Pennsylvania Moose hunters as is obtainable.
Who killed the last moose in Pennsylvania is a mooted point. Jacob
Flegal, a Clearfield County pioneer, is said to have killed the moose
whose antlers adorned Captain Logan's cabin near Chickalacamoose, one
of the Buchanans killed a moose south of the Juniata, near McVeytown,
Indians killed a moose on Moose Run, Centre County (giving the stream
its name); Landlord Heller's neighbors' dogs caused the death of the
moose, the antlers of which hung over the main entrance of the old
stone tavern in the Wind Gap for so many years. All these moose were
killed during the decade between 1780 and 1790; there is no record of
any having been seen since then. In other words, they were exterminated
in Pennsylvania about the same time as the bison. It has been stated
that "Colonel John Kelly killed the last bison in Pennsylvania in
1790 or 1800." As to definite dates, probably the moose killed by the
Buchanans on the Juniata comes as near to being known as any. The old
tavern which this family kept for many years was opened in about 1790.
The moose was killed either that same year or the year following. For
many years this tavern was known as "The Bounding Elk," being named
for a Black Elk or Moose, which some years _before_ the erection of
the building, swam the Juniata nearby, but was killed before he could
take harbor in the southerly forests. Dorcas Holt Buchanan, wife of
"The Bounding Elk's" first landlord, was herself an intrepid Nimrod.
It is recorded that on one occasion when a big deer was chased out of
Matawanna Gap into the river by dogs the young woman plunged into the
stream, and catching it by the horns, drowned it in a pool. Several of
the habitues of the tavern cheered the plucky girl from the bench at
the front door, shouting: "Go it, 'Dorkey,'" as she grappled with the
terrified "Monarch of the Glen." It is related that the trick could not
have been performed more neatly by Shaney John, an Indian hunter, who
drowned many deer in this way, or by his white disciple, "Josh" Roush,
"The Terrible Hunter" of the Seven Mountains. On another occasion
while sewing by an open window one summer evening, Dorcas noticed a
wolf looking in at her. Picking up the rifle, which she always kept by
her side, she rammed the barrel down the frightened animal's throat.
In this connection it may be well to quote Roush further on the Moose
in Pennsylvania, as related to him by pupils of Shaney John. The old
Indian said that he had as a boy feasted on "Moose nose," a great
delicacy, and once had seen a young Moose broken to draw a sledge
one particularly severe winter, at a camp near the headwaters of the
Moshannon River in Blair County. The beast hauled a load of hides
to the Bald Eagle's Nest in Centre County. An Indian hunter named
Harthegig was the trainer, while two warriors named The Big Cat and
Killbuck, accompanied the consignment to the nest. According to some
authorities the European "Elk" or Moose has performed similar service
in Sweden.

[Illustration of oppossum]



                            V. MOOSE HORNS.


Few and far between are the traces of Moose horns in Pennsylvania.
But they do exist, and probably in some remote farmhouse garret a set
or two are still to be found. The writer, when engaged in antiquarian
studies along the Blue Mountains accidentally learned of the last known
pair. They hung for many years above the front door of Heller's stone
tavern, near the Wind Gap, in Northampton County, once the famous
pathway of the Moose from Northern to Southerly regions. It was related
that Marks John Biddle, a celebrated lawyer of Reading, while stopping
at this tavern, when on a horseback journey, noticed the horns, and
asked about them of the landlord. Old Jacob Heller obliged his guest
by taking them down and letting him measure them. They had a width of
78-1/2 inches and weighed a trifle over 91 pounds. Dr. Hornaday in
his "American Natural History" tells of a Moose killed in the Kenai
Peninsula, Alaska, in 1903, the antlers and skull of which weighed
93-1/2 pounds. The Record Moose Horns in the Field Columbian Museum,
Chicago, weigh about 92 pounds. This Record Moose was taken in the
Kenai Peninsula in 1899. The late Captain F. C. Selous (recently killed
in battle in British East Africa) stated that the antlers of a Moose
which he killed on the McMillan River, Canada, in 1904 had a spread of
66-1/2 inches and weighed 75 pounds.

 [Illustration: JOHN Q. DYCE (1830-1904),
 A Hunter Who Delighted to Tell of the Times When Moose Were Visitors to
 the Wilds of the Keystone State.]

Doubtless the Moose of Colonial days was a much larger animal than any
specimens seen today, even the gigantic so-called "Alaskan" Moose.
By studying the deterioration of European Red Deer, by the actual
measurements of horns in various Continental collections and actual
weights recorded in old-time sportsmen's note books, during the past
three hundred years from antlered giants to puny runts, it is doubtless
the same with our Moose. Like the Red Deer of Europe, the Moose of
America is hunted ruthlessly for exceptional heads, and is no longer
troubled by wolves which formerly pulled down the weakly and imperfect
specimens; result a sure deterioration. That the predatory animals do
not deteriorate in size is proved by the fact that fossil bones of
wolves discovered in England are not any larger than those of European
wolves of the present day. The Wind Gap moose horns were taken, Heller
said, from a Moose which had been driven by dogs at a trot through
the Gap, and at the Easterly end it had staggered and fallen to the
roadway from exhaustion. A farmer named Adam Gross got an improvised
rope and tackle, and swung the huge brute, which he averred weighed at
least a ton, into his barn. It lived only a week, despite all manner
of attentions devoted to it. The dead Moose was propped up astride of
a fodder-shocker and exhibited in Gross's barn as long as the cold
weather lasted. Heller remarked that there was another set of Moose
horns on the out-kitchen of Eckhard's tavern, beyond the Wind Gap, of
similar size, but they were not viewed by Mr. Biddle. Several old men
hanging about the tap-room told Mr. Biddle that the Pennsylvania Moose
was a creature of appalling size, the males often stood eight feet at
the hump, that the spread of the horns was tremendous but the creatures
handled these appendages with great dexterity. Marks John Biddle, let
it be said, was one of the very few gentlemen hunters of his day in
Pennsylvania. In his stable at Reading he had a room fitted up as a
museum, with cases all around the walls filled with stuffed animals and
birds that he had shot. On top of the cases were stuffed panthers, one
of which had a white spot on its breast, and above hung the antlers
of deer and elks. Mr. Biddle was particularly fond of elk hunting,
and is the gentleman who hunted elks "on some barren mountains in
Northwestern Pennsylvania" in company with Mr. Peale of Philadelphia,
which has been so often quoted by natural history writers. De Kay in
his "Natural History of New York" mentions a set of what were probably
Adirondack Moose horns in the Lyceum of Natural History in New York as
being 48 inches in width. Beside the Pennsylvania horns at Heller's
tavern they would have appeared like pygmies. Charles Augustus Murray,
the distinguished English traveller thus describes the Wind Gap.
"From Owego to Easton the country is undulating, wild, wooded and the
soil light and poor. A few miles from the latter town the road passes
through the Blue Ridge of mountains at a point called the Wind-Gap;
and a most noble situation it is for a temple of Aeolus. I know not the
exact elevation, but it is very high, and being the only gorge in the
neighborhood, the wind sweeps through it with tremendous violence."
It may be that in the bleak winds of today can be detected the shrill
whistle of the vanished Moose, the stalwart _Orignal_ of other days. As
stated in previous chapters moose horns were found in St. James Park,
Bradford, about 1819, embedded in the slough of the old salt lick,
another set was dug out of the Tamarack Swamp, in Northern Clinton
County, by a farmer named John Hennessy about 1850, and another set
adorned the lintel of Captain Logan's cabin at Chickalacamoose the
last years of the Eighteenth Century. This last named Moose is said to
have weighed, including antlers, over one thousand pounds after death.
According to some it was killed by Logan himself, by others it was
claimed that pioneers named Smith and Flegal were the slayers. It is
to be hoped that information leading to the discovery of other sets of
Pennsylvania Moose horns will be forthcoming.

[Illustration of mink]



                           VI. THE ORIGINAL.

                      A Tale of Kittanning Point.

Reprinted from "Juniata Memories," by Henry W. Shoemaker.

                      (Copyrighted by J. J. McVey, Philadelphia, 1916.)


Kittanning Point is a spot pre-eminent in Pennsylvania song and story.
As a pivotal point in history it will always be remembered; as a
scenic glory it is the envy of all the States. And in legendary lore
it holds a secure place, for clustered about it are many weird and
curious traditions, some of which still linger only in the hearts and
minds of the old folks. Those few of the tales which have been written
out are read and re-read with breathless interest. Still there are
others unrecorded that possess a thrill or charm worthy of competent
chroniclers. History tells us that many Indian paths converged at
Kittanning Point, including the main pathway from Aughwick to Fort
Kittanning, consequently it was a frequent meeting place of the savages
in their journeys across the mountains. They often camped near the
springs in Kittanning Gap, or on Burgoon's Run, and many are the arrow
points and other relics picked up thereabouts by persons of quick wit.
In addition to the Indian paths, the Point was a favorite "crossing"
for many kinds of wild animals. While out of the line of the bison,
whose main trails were further east and further west, these noble
creatures sometimes summered on the high mountains in small bands,
coming to and from their fastnesses through the Gap.

 [Illustration:
 Dr. Owen Jacobs (at right) and son Ezra (late of U. S. A.)
 Descendants of Captain Jacobs, of Fort Kittanning Fame.]

It was a favorite rallying ground for the elk and deer. They were so
plentiful in Revolutionary days that all the hunters had to do was
to penetrate the forests a few steps from their camps in order to
have venison for dinner. And at that only the hindquarters or the
saddles were used. A few elk lingered long in this region, ranging
between the Point and Laurel Ridge, where one of the last killed in
the State was slain at the Panther's Rock, in Somerset County, about
the middle of the last century. Panthers also had a "crossing" over
Kittanning Point. It was on one of their "migratory lines" between
West Virginia and Central Pennsylvania. They always traveled by the
same paths, consequently a hunter with a fair degree of patience would
surely be rewarded. This "fixity" of travel was one of the reasons
for their practical extinction in our Commonwealth. The wolves were
prevalent at the Point until comparatively recent years, principally
on account of the abundance of game. When it decreased, they left for
more productive regions. Bears were often found about the Point, as the
fine chestnut and walnut trees gave them rich "pickings" in the autumn
months. In the Gap were several bear dens, which are still pointed out
by the old hunters. These bears were all of the black variety. But
most interesting of all the wild life, large and small, which ranged
over these now desolated hills was the Black Moose. This mammoth
animal, known in pioneer days in Pennsylvania by the quaint name of
the Original, and elsewhere as _Orignal_, which is derived, according
to Samuel Merrill, the great authority on Moose, from the Basque word
_Orenac_ meaning _deer_, was particularly partial to the glades and
vales about Kittanning Point in the years immediately preceding the
Revolution. In fact, its path for migration passed over the Point in a
southwesterly direction. In these migrations these huge beasts made a
practice of tarrying for several days amid the grand primeval hardwoods
which covered the Point. Despite its size, for it is the largest of
all deer, extinct or existing, the Original was very fleet of foot
and well able to take care of itself. As far back as tradition goes
there is no record that the moose ever bred in Pennsylvania to any
considerable extent. They were distinctively a northern animal, though
they had been coming to this State for untold ages, as their fossil
remains well show. Pennsylvania was about the southerly limit of their
migrations. After Southern New York had been opened to settlement, and
the forests between the southern border of the Adirondack Mountains and
the Pennsylvania State line cut away, the moose were unable to continue
their journeys into the wilds of the Keystone State. The last to enter
Pennsylvania came from the Catskill Mountains, crossing the Delaware
River at various points north of the Water Gap.

 [Illustration: CLEMENT F. HERLACHER,
 Whose Mind Is a Veritable Store House of Traditions of "Moose Days."]

When the migrations ceased those moose already in Pennsylvania had
to remain there, and they were cruelly butchered by the settlers.
Perhaps on account of their all-time scarcity in our State, the early
Indians seldom killed the Original. They looked with veneration on this
gigantic brute, viewing it as the dignified progenitor of elk and deer,
which formed their staple articles of life. To have a moose browse in
the vicinity of an encampment presaged victory in war, to find a moose
head or antlers in the forest, good luck in the chase or domestic life.
The moose stood for all that was biggest, noblest and best in Indian
life, it typified all outdoors, the grand free scope of the wilderness.
To single out such a splendid animal for slaughter, while all around
were myriads of deer, herds of elk, companies of bears and countless
smaller game, seemed to the Indian mind, with its Mosaic sense of
justice, almost a sacrilege. Consequently the moose were never killed
unless in dire necessity, or in the later days of the Indian race when
they were desperate and had lost many of their former ideals. But it
was galling for them to see the white men slay moose without quarter,
to see them disregard sporting standards that had been maintained
for centuries. Among the proudest and shrewdest Indians residing in
the Juniata Valley was Young Jacob, the youngest son of the knightly
defender of Fort Kittanning, Captain Jacobs. Inborn was his mistrust
of the white men, whose wanton destruction of forests, game and fish
went hand in hand, he felt, with the complete annihilation of his own
race. He resented the friendly advances made by the newcomers to the
copper-colored aborigines. He held aloof from all gatherings where
the two races apparently fraternized together. He would listen to no
compliments, accept no favors from the white men. He never forgave
the wrongs of his own family. James Logan, or Tah-gah-jute, was the
only other Pennsylvania Indian who held similar views to a marked
degree. He often told Young Jacob as they rested under the shade of the
giant white oaks at Logan's Spring, near Reedsville, that the white
men wished the entire Indian race under the sod, and would put them
there as soon as they could. "Some of us," he declaimed tragically,
"they will kill with bullets, others of us they will kill with poison
called rum, our women and children they will starve to death." Logan's
greatest sorrow was that he could not impress his ideas on the other
Indians. They laughed away his fears, drank the white man's bad
whiskey, bartered and played with him on all occasions, suspecting
nothing, fearing nothing. Logan would go on to say that a hundred years
in the future, when the proud Indian race remained but as a faint
remnant of its former strength and greatness, his words would prove
true, but now he was looked upon as such an anarchist that he could
not even impress his own brothers, Thachnedoarus, or Captain Logan,
and John Petty Shikellemy. But Young Jacob shared Logan's views to the
minutest detail; he was intuitive, and he had proofs of the white man's
perfidy. Never could he be influenced by soft speeches or tawdry gifts.
He would be a true redman of the forest, uncorrupted to the last. He
had as one of his special missions in life to save the wild animals and
birds of the Juniata Valley from extermination. He traveled up and down
the three branches, preaching toleration, moderation, conservation,
among the drink-ridden Indians, who still lingered at their old hunting
grounds. He begged them to cherish their old ideals, only to kill such
game as was absolutely necessary for food and clothing. Even if the
white men killed right and left, and permitted dead game to rot in the
woods, which they called "sport," the Indians should kill moderately,
as they did in the past, for was not the wild life a gift from the
Great Spirit, and should be carefully tended as such? But most of his
preaching fell on deaf ears. Homeless, drunken savages were out of
touch with the high principles of the past; they wanted to kill just as
their white corrupters were doing. Young Jacob was like an echo from
the past, a past so distant that it hardly seemed possible ever to have
existed. And once in a great while Young Jacob argued with white men on
the impropriety of wasting wild life. Sport, as defined by the Indians,
meant harmless pleasure, physical exercise, feats of skill, fun, the
chase, but never wanton destruction of any gift of the Great Spirit.
But the white men could not see it that way, as long as they had guns
they liked to practice on living targets, to see how many animals or
birds could be killed in a day or hour, besides game was a nuisance in
a rapidly developing country. The game was in the woods to be killed,
and if they did not kill it, somebody else would. And they laughed in
Young Jacob's face as the price of his pains. All this served to deepen
his hatred for the cruel white men who claimed they were "civilizing"
the Juniata Valley, but to his mind desolating it. It grieved Young
Jacob to see the Indians yielding to the white men's false titles and
moving westward without a protest. He longed to fire their hearts with
a sense of their wrongs, and lead them in a bloody war against their
foes. With this in view he traveled up and down the valley, preaching a
gospel of resistance. And sometimes he crossed over into the Allegheny
headwaters beyond Kittanning Point. Almost every Indian was content
to follow the white men's orders and move on, but occasionally he met
one who was sober enough to realize the terrible injustice of it all.
But the Indians who felt that way would say: "What you state is true;
we are being robbed and murdered; but what can we do when the majority
of us is willing to submit?" It was a hopeless task, the Indians
were a doomed race. Still Young Jacob's energy was inexhaustible, he
would not admit his teachings fruitless. He continued his missionary
work, trusting that some spark from his torch of hate might kindle
the unhappy red race to a last defiant stand. He carried on his work
so quietly that none of the white men in authority suspected that he
was any more than a surly, disgruntled savage, as befitted the son of
a defeated Indian chieftain. And he was glad that they felt that way
about him.

 [Illustration: HON. HORATIO SEYMOUR.
 Governor of New York 1852-1854, 1862-1864.
 (Slayer of One of the Last Moose in New York State, 1859.)]

Otherwise there would be a price on his head, or he would be ordered
out of Pennsylvania on pain of death, like was meted out to the
resisting Logan. He played his part better than Logan had done, and it
gratified his savage heart. It was on one of his homeward trips from
the Allegheny River that he shed the first white blood, which put a
price on his head, and made him a skulking exile to the last of his
days. He had been visiting the abandoned Indian settlements at Logstown
and Kittanning, at the last-named important town viewing the grave of
his defeated but not dishonored father, Captain Jacobs. This chieftain,
named for a German ironmaster in Lancaster County, was one of the most
heroic Indians in all the annals of the red race in Pennsylvania.
He had followed the Indian trail across the mountains, his ultimate
destination being Black Log Valley and Standing Stone. Near Kittanning
Point, on Burgoon's Run, he had built a lean-to of boughs, expecting
to be joined there by a couple of Indian spies who had gone down the
Allegheny River in a canoe, and were to travel eastward by way of
Laurel Ridge. On the night of his arrival, to his great pleasure, a
giant moose ambled out of the forest and began leisurely browsing on
the twigs of the moosewood trees which formed an undergrowth of the
great hardwood forest. Apart from his delight in watching the monster's
antics, as he bent down the trees and nibbled at the tenderest twigs,
much as an elephant would feed, was the feeling that the beast foretold
that the propaganda which he was promoting would some day become a
reality. The moose saw the Indian, and looked at him with his comical
little eyes, but he had perfect confidence that the redman meant him
no harm. For several days and nights the mammoth animal made the
vicinity of Young Jacob's camp his headquarters. He became so used to
the Indian's presence that he kept as close to him as if he had been
a big mule. On the evening of the third day Young Jacob was getting
ready to start on his journey, as evidently his Indian friends had been
detained or gone by a different route. His chief regret was at leaving
the moose, which stood munching at the succulent twigs. He liked to
travel by night, it was cooler, and as he knew every foot of the way he
could travel further. While he was adjusting his pack on his back he
heard the twigs crack and looked up. Perhaps it was another Original,
and he had been camping in a moosic rendezvous! But instead of another
moose he saw a solitary white man, clad in a green shirt, buckskin
trousers, and moccasins, and carrying a long rifle. It is hard to tell
whether the newcomer saw the Indian or the moose first. In any event
he raised his firearm and took aim at the unsuspecting animal, which
kept on browsing. When Young Jacob saw the white man's intentions, he
stepped forward, saying politely, for all Indians, past and present,
have been noted for their courtesy, "Brother, don't kill that moose.
The woods are full of deer, if you are hungry, and the moose is a pet
of mine." But the white man only sneered, and pulling the trigger,
the ball sped with unerring aim, lodging in the big Original's heart.
With an awful bellow of pain, mingled with surprise, the animal turned
and charged on his white destroyer. The hunter, who reloaded his gun
deftly, let the moose get within a few feet of him, when he fired
again, but the big brute had been already mortally wounded, and fell
without the aid of the second shot. With a sound like a falling pine
the Original crashed to the earth, lying dead among the ferns and
hazel bushes, his wide-spreading palmated antlers stretching out on
either side like the knives of a reaper. Planting one foot on the dead
animal's swarthy proboscis, the white man struck a silly attitude.
Young Jacob, supposed savage, yet in reality a model of gentility and
toleration, looked at him a moment in disgust. Then calmly he asked
him what he intended to do with the mammoth carcass in the middle of
summer. The white man stroked his long beard a moment and said, with a
great show of _insouciance_, "Why, of course, leave it. What else could
I do with it?" That was too much for the fair-minded Indian. The white
man had killed a harmless moose for "sport" and now was going to leave
it to rot and feed the ravens. He could contain himself no longer, and
cursed the paleface roundly for his folly. "Why," he shouted, "that
moose was around my camp for three days and nights, happy and doing no
harm, and I thought no more of shooting him than I would the little
singing birds in the trees above. We Indians only kill when we have to;
we have sense." The white man's temper was equally aroused, and he
swore at the Indian in turn. "You say you Indians only kill when you
have to. You are damn fools. We white men kill when we want to, and
intend to kill everything before we get through." With that he raised
his rifle threateningly. But Young Jacob suspecting such a motive, and
forgetting that the white man had not reloaded his weapon, pulled his
own trigger first, and the paleface fell to the earth, a bullet through
his lungs. When the redman saw what he had done he showed no remorse,
until on picking up the white hunter's rifle he found it empty. Then he
threw down his own gun and went to the dying man's side. Stooping down
he said to him: "White man, I cannot call you _brother_ now. I am sorry
for what I have done. I did not remember that your gun was empty."
But the white man, rolling his eyes which were glazing with death and
staring at his slayer, cursed the Indian with his dying breath, then
closed his eyes in death. As he passed away Young Jacob was leaning
over him, and muttered, "Now you know how it feels to be in the moose's
place." The die was cast. Young Jacob had now been added to the list
of Indian murderers. It would be a waste of time to bury the dead man,
the wolves would dig him out. The crime would be discovered sooner or
later. So, without deigning to rifle the corpse's pockets or touch his
gun and powder horn, he left him lying in the now profound darkness,
within a dozen feet of the dead moose. It was there that the two
Indians, arriving from Laurel Ridge found the body the next morning.
Though they suspected some such episode as what had actually happened,
knowing Young Jacob's nature so well, they seized upon it as a good
excuse to curry favor with the white men. So they went through the dead
man's effects, finding documents which identified him as Jacob Glelson,
an adventurer and land prospector from Pennsbury on the Susquehanna.
From the look of things he had been shot down by an Indian, Young
Jacob, in cold blood. They made haste to report the crime when they
arrived at Standing Stone. The virtuous Proprietary Government, on
the alert to avenge a white man's death, but sometimes singularly
apathetic when an Indian was slain, no matter what the circumstances,
set its wheels in motion to apprehend the savage murderer. A reward was
offered, and the news spread to the four corners of the wilderness.
Young Jacob sensed this situation perfectly, and made himself a
fugitive. When the pursuit became too hot he allied himself with the
Tories and was one of the real leaders of that treacherous band. The
contempt which the settlers once had for him changed to fear. Many were
the white men ambushed and cruelly slain by his direction. His youth,
his dash, and his close relationship to the old chiefs gave him the
sobriquet of "the king's son." He seemed to be the active agent for all
the devilish conduct of Indians and white renegades. The government
was most anxious to apprehend him to atone for Glelson's "murder," and
to remove the ring-leader of so many bloody deeds. It had not been
forgotten how Young Jacob's father and his warriors had been rounded
up at Kittanning by a force of three hundred intrepid men sent after
them from Fort Shirley, under the command of the famous Colonel John
Armstrong, for whom Armstrong County was named, and to whom the city
of Philadelphia presented a silver medal for his great victory. It
was in the month of September, in the year 1756, when the attacking
force surprised the Indian band at three o'clock in the morning. They
had been guided to the town through the darkness by the whooping of
the Indians, who were holding a war-dance. Young Jacob had urged them
to save their energies for a better purpose, but to no avail. And it
was he, with clearer senses than the rest, at dawn first noticed the
attacking party crossing the corn field which bordered the settlement.
Rousing the sleepy-eyed defenders, he posted them at the loopholes
in Captain Jacob's redoubt. A shot from Young Jacob's rifle wounded
Colonel Armstrong in the shoulder, and he fell in a heap. Directing the
forces from where he lay, he ordered that the Indians' huts be set on
fire, as the redmen refused quarter. The redmen mocked their efforts to
fire the buildings, but some of the soldiers with reckless bravery were
able to start the blaze going at one corner of Captain Jacobs's house.
During a lull in the firing the old chieftain, his squaw and Young
Jacob, "the king's son," attempted to escape from the burning building
through a window nearest the river. Captain Jacobs, in assisting his
squaw through the window, was shot in the head and he fell back dead
amid the smoke. The squaw plunged bravely into the water, but was shot
dead. Young Jacob, not wishing to die a coward's death, sprang through
the window and reached the opposite shore of the river before he fell
wounded, pierced by half a dozen balls. The first reports had it that
he was killed. A party of Indians who arrived on the far shore after
the battle was in progress, at the risk of their lives rescued the
courageous young warrior and carried him back into the forest. There
in a dismal glade, in a haunt of night herons, he was nursed back to
health, as befitted "the king's son." But after years of plotting
Young Jacob was shot to death ignobly with Weston and his Tories, when
they were surprised at Fort Kittanning Gap in 1778. And thus ended the
earthly career of one of the most remarkable Indians of the Juniata,
an unreconcilable to the last, fighting for the ancient ideals, for
"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." And when the report was
sent broadcast that Young Jacob was among the fallen, the slaughter of
the Tories at Kittanning was accounted doubly a victory. But when James
Logan, or Tah-Gah-Jute, heard the news out in Ohio, he grieved silently
and long. He thought of the old days in Pennsylvania, at the "Logan
Spring" where at his favorite resting place, he had spent so many hours
in conference with the dead warrior. And his grief was deep, because
he knew that the Indian race had lost its sincerest champion; that the
hoped-for renaissance would never be.


[Illustration of ringed-tailed cat, raccoon relative]


Transcriber's Notes

 page 24,  Orignal  changed to Original  (slaughter of their beloved
   _Original_)
 page 26,  wnite changed to white (by his white disciple)
 page 28,  Peinsula changed to Peninsula (Kenai Peninsula in 1899)
 Sentences divided by illustrations were reconnected and the
   location of the illustration reset.





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