Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-02-10

Famous Hunters Of Pike County, Penn
sylvania.

Famous Hunters OF Pike County, Penn
sylvania.
/ The Milford Pa. correspondence of the
/ New York Tribune says: For sometime
/ past public attention has been turned to the
/ mysterious Cheever murder case in Pike
i county, and sketches of the famous Green
ing family, which is implicated in the
crime, will be OF public interest.
For fifty years or more the Greetings
have enjoyed a widespread reputation.
cold jerry" the father of the family, is 70
years old. but he is as straight as d flag
staff, and looks no more than 40. For
sixty years he has hunted in the Pike
county forests, and knows every acre of
ground between the Delaware and Sus-
quehanna rivers. In appearance he is
rather striking. a shaggy, grizzled
beard covers his face, his sharp, blue eyes
CLEAN beneath heavy eyebrows, and his
physique is that of an athlete. He will
hunt all day, tramping through snow a
foot deep, and, if need be, wading ice
bound streams with bare feet and trousers
rolled to the knee. Since he has been a
''backwOOdsman" he has killed 364 bears
and 1,133 deer, besides a number of
beaver, wolves, wildcats, panthers, and
smaller game. He thinks no more Of a
hand-tO-hand encounter with a wounded
bear or a four prOnged buck than he
would Of cleaning his gun; in fact, he
would prefer a ''scrimmage' with the
animals to anything--eXcept, perhaps, the
villainOus whisky Of this region. Many
are the tales told of the old mans daring.
In November, 1878, he entered a bears
cave, and after capturing two cubs had a
/ desperate hand-tO-hand fight with their
mother, who appeared upon the scene just
as Jerry was leaving the cave. In 1S49 he
was upset from boat in SaWkill pond by
an Infatuated buck which he was pursuing
and nearly drowned. A few years later
another wounded deer chased him up a
tree, where he remained until he was
nearly frozen tOdeath, when help arrived.
His escapes as told by himself would fill
volume and would make interesting
reading. He talks in dialect peculiar to
the region, and INDUCES in many aphOr-
isms.
Old Jerry's wife is quiet, motherly
woman. and their daughter, who is a
schOOl-teacher, is favOrite about "Rattle-
snake" where they live; but she seems
strangely out of keeping with the rufian-
ism by which she is constantly surround
ed. The ''bOys," Case, John, AlOnzo, and
! young Jerry-are ''chips Ofthe old block, :"
they fear neither God nor man. Their eX-
periences have been rough and they are
lawless and yindictive both by nature and
/ habit. Young Jerry and his father are
very much alike in disposition, and John,
who is accused Of the murder of Annie
/ Cheeyer, has always been accredited with
! the best disposition. The different men,
| bers Of the family all make their living in
! the same way. The farm owned by the
old man yields nothing Of value. The
adjoining lands are owned by Nine. POnisi,
the actress; John Vincent, stage man.
ager; Harry b. DOdsWOrth, the band
master; and other New Workers. All this
adjoining land is covered with valuable
| timber, and here it is that the Greetings
do their ''work-" They cut and sell tim
Der, railroad ties, hOOp-pOles, and tanbark,
and during the hunting season act as
guides for metropolitan spOrtsmen. In
their work Of cutting lnmber they are no
respecters of party lines" they cut
where they please, and woe to him who
! dares to interfere. 1t is on account of
continual trespassing, and cases of as
sault and battery which sometimes result,
that the Greetings have been constantly
/ before the courts during the last twenty
/ five years.
Old Jerry's brother, who once lived
here, had the misfortune to offend the old
hunter, who made it so unpleasant that
he was finally obliged to move to another
part Of the country to secape the persecu-
tiOn of Jerry and his boys. There was
only one man in Pike county whom the
| Greetings were afraid to modest. One
winter Il backwO0ds preacher opened a
revival meeting in the schO0l-hOuse not
far from Old Jerry'S cabin. One Sunday
while Old Jerry was out hunting he met one
Of the ''bOys" who was going to the ''meet-
ing'' and who invited Jerry to come along
and ''see the revival get busted ups
GreeniDg went along to see the fun. and
when they entered the schoOl-hOuse the
preacher was Ginning OUT hymn. The
first thing Jerry saw was his companion
mounting the pulpit steps uttering some
words not calculated to inspire religious
thoughts. The preacher was a small,
Wlry, athletic man, and in less than a
moment the intruder was seized by the
collar and thrown bodily ont Of the win
dow. He did not come back and the
preacher, recognizing Jerry in the audi
ence and hoping to scare him, said that it
was owing to the power of religion that
he was able to overcome his antagonist so
quickly. Jerry thought that if religion
could enable man to ''lickV another who
was his muscular superior ii was just
what he wanted to help him fight it out
with the only man in the county of whom
he was afraid. That very moment he
went forward and was converted" and
after one or two meetings he felt the
power increasing. just about that
time he met his much-feared antagonist.
Snow or never" said Jerry, throwing off
his coat and making lunge at his enemy,
who was always ready for fight. In less
than ten minutes Jerry looked as if he had
been struck with a cyclone. He went
home and told his wife if there was no
more good in religion than that he didn't
want it, and he never has been inside a
church since.
''Mebbe you'll think l am a lynn when
L say that bar weighed uppard o. five
hundred am fifty-six pound,'' said Jerry
the other day, in concluding a hunting
tale. ''But it's tn gospel truth, sir, am
thu b'arskin a hangin' up in my ranch
over to Rattlesnake IL prove my allegra-
ton, as that OF lawyer, that usety stop to
Barney Stgler's alters, said. 1 never lied
yet, boys, an Pm gettin' too OF t. learn
th' bizness, fur Pm nigh so year OF; but
Pm q fxvictnr vot