Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-04
SAVED BY WILD PIGEONS.
With the Help of Big Beech Nut Year
and Delaware River Freshet.

and Delaware River Freshet.
A flock of wild pigeons, flying very high
in a northwesterly direction, says a Morse
ton n. y special to the San, attracted
the attention of that villages population,
and the flock was watched with in
tense interest until it disappeared in the
distance.
"NOw, that's what call a genuine GU
riosity," said an old resident. 'That's
the first flock of pigeons Fve seen in ten
years in these parts, and yet / can remem-
Der when they came here by the thousands
every spring and fall. They used to nest
in our woods in the spring, and came back
again every other fall to feed on the beech
nuts. They came every two years because
they knew that the beech trees were bar
rem every other year, and they never made
mistake in the year, either.
''lf it hadn't been for wild pigeons some
of the richest men in this county and in
neighboring counties would have been
poor tO-day-that is, if they had stayed
where they were. We used to have some
big pigeon years, but the season of 1887
beat any two we ever had. LAUNDERING
was the only business in this part of the
county then, as that and tanning are now.
The lumber was RATED down to the Della
markets. In 1887 times were bad. That
was the year Of the great panic. Lumber
couldn't be sold for what it cost to get it
to market, and for what was sold il was
hard to get pay. To make matters worse,
all crops failed in this region that season.
The fall opened with prospects of starva-
ton for the hundreds of people who de-
pended for support on the lumber bust
ness. Employers had no money to pay
nd 4ofv
the necessaries of life.
ut happened that 1887 was the beech
nut year, and nobody remembered when
the nuts have been so plenty for MANY
years. That was the salvation of the re-
giOn. People were beginning to talk in
earnest of making raids upon the sur
rounding towns and villages to obtain
supplies. the news of the bread riots in
New I Ork having reached here and given
them the cue. But before any act of this
kind was committed the wild pigeons be-
gan to arrive in the beeches, and in a very
few days the woods were alive with them.
To say that there were millions of them
does not approach the number. Every tree
seemed to be loaded, and the ground was
Uttered with the branches broken off by
their weight as they thronged in the trees
at night to rOost. The noise made BY
their wings and threats was so great that
the report Of a gun could not be heard 100
feet away. A person could go anywhere
in the beeches, shut his eyes and shoot,
and never fail to bring down pigeons.
The whole region turned out to kill pi-
geOns. They were shot, dubbed, Melted,
and killed and captured in every known
manner by men, women and children, and
carried away by the bOatload and sold
about the country.
'There was a splendid rafting fceshet
in the Delaware at the time, but, although
there were many RATS ready to run, it
isn't likely one would have been started
down the river if it hadn't been for the
wild pigeons. Old raftmen and others
agreed to run these RATS to Philadelphia
free of charge to the owners if they would
grant them the privilege of loading the
lumber with pigeons. The offer was gladly
accepted and every raft was run heavily
freighted with pigeons. Some of the RATS
were stopped at different points along the
river, where, hard as the times were, prof
liable markets were found for the birds.
Others ran through to Philadelphia direct,
where the pigeons were quickly sold at
good prices. The freshet kept up so well
that some spectators made several trips.
clearing as high as $1,000 a trip. Before
the pigeons left the beeches. which was
not for weeks, more money was brought
back to the region from their sale than
was received for all the lumber that went
to market. Men who, with their families,
had been on the verge Of starvation, were
made comparatively rich almost in a day,
and the foundations of big fortunes were
laid. One Of the biggest grocery estab-
lishments and one of the Wealthiest leather
firms in New York city to-day owe their
existence to the big pigeon year of 1887,
for the men who own them were started
in business by their fathers, who made the
money by rafting wild pigeons down the
river in that memorable fall.
speaking of beech nuts and specula-
ton, another big year for nuts was 1920,
and that year a man named Conroy went
into a speculation that had quite differ
ent result from the one in wild pigeons
that followed. In those days people were
in the habit of letting their pigs run in the
woods and fatten on the nuts. COnroy
conceived the idea of tattening hogs in
this way by Wholesale, and then gathering
them up and driving them to market. He
calculated that he could easily make a
profit of at least So on every hog thus fat
tened. He secured the country and bought
up at least a thousand pigs and turned
them into the beeches. They got along
timely; but o week or so before he intended
to collect his hogs and drive them to mar
ket the weather turned terribly cold and
a foot of snow fell. When he went into
the woods to get his hogs he found them
scattered about dead, in groups of a dozen
or so, where they had huddled together to
keep warm. A few only survived the
colo, and they ran wild. Descendants Of
theirs lived in the woods for years and
were so wild that they afforded many eX-
citing hunts for the spOrtsmen Of that
day."