The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1886-05-05
Josh COBB AND HIS DOGS
An Coon-H Hunters Life u
sudden Death.

loneed everywhere in this part G
the State, and yet nowhere in par
ticular.n said an old-timer, who re
membered his subject veil, to a cor
respondent of the New York Tune
at Rocky Hill, Pa, recently. "A
for that. there never was a bette
hunter in the shape of wild gam'
than Josh was. His long, single
barreled rifle, his tall, gaunt Inquire
and the sharp-eyed yellow dogs tina
always trailed at his heels were OBJ
;ects familiar to every town, village
and camp from the Lehigh to th'
Chemung and the Delaware to th'
Susouehsnna thirty or forty year;
AGO. There was a mystery about
his yellow dogs that no one couic
eve solve. People in those days
who had known Josh forty years OF
more. neve saw him without hls
yellow dogs following close in bis
tracks. and they knew that the dogs
could not be the same ones year IN
and wear out. No one else was
known to have a dog of the same
breed as JeshIs. 1t was long-limbed
and long-haired, with an eye as large
and sharp as a Wells. Jcsh's dogs
never made friends with anyone be-
sides himself. When be stopped
they stopped, and never moved on
until he did. During the sixty years
that Josh travelled about IN the
woods these dogs were his constant
companions.
Naturally in all these years the
hunter must have had at least SIX
different generations of dogs, and
they must all have been bred and
raised somewhere by himself. What
became of the animals as they grew
old and useless and made way for
successors identical in appearance,
nature and name, and where the
successors came from no M knew.
The secret died with the old hunter,
for since bis death, a quarter OF a
century and more ago, no such dogs
as his mysterious, wolf-like yellow
dogs have ever been seen IN this re-
gion. they were equally useful on
the deer trail. in the fox chase, after
bear. on the rabbit track. in the
pheasant hunt, or after the willy
coon. They would never hunt with
a party unless Josh was in charge OF
it. Josh never had less than three
of these strange, unfriendly animals
at his heels. Frequently he had
six or seven. Sometimes he would
not be seen in any Of the villages fer
months at a time,and his appearance
in town after these long stops in the
wood was always signalized by his
going on an extended spree. He
had but few words to say TO anyone,
even when drunk, but he was de-
termined in his purpose, and what
eve he made up his mind to Go,
drunk or sober, no ohe could pre-
vent him from doing. When he
was in liquor his dogs watched
about him constantly. Once he
came into the old Egypt clearing
and got drunk. He had frye dogs
with him. A big bushwhacker nam
Fed liiah Hoar was there, also drunk.
Hoar was the terror of every place
where he happened to be when
drunk. He was quarrelsome, tyr
ranical and brutal. On this occasion
he tried to stir up a quarrel with
~unoffending Josh Cobb, and finally
struck him. Instantly all five of
the dogs were upon the bully. He
fought his way out of the bar-rooOm
and, as he went out of the door, shot
and killed one OF the dogs, Josh's
~favorite, named Grad. Josh got So
Der next day. He had the dead dog
buried, but never said a word or
made any sign that he had any feel
ing in the matter. He shouldered
his rife and went back to the woods
with his remaining dogs.
"The day that Josh left the clear
ing Elijah Hoar had gone back to
his bark Job, over near Nebo swamp.
He didn't GENE into the cabin that
night, and next morning one OF the
men on the job went out to see what
the reason was. He found Hoar
lying on his face by the stump of a
big hemlock tree. He vas dead,
with a rifle ball through his heart.
There was never any evidence dis
covered that warranted the arrest of
anyone on the charge of having kill
ed the bark-peeler, but no one ever
had any doubt as to who It was.
Josh Cobb had avenged the death
OF his dog. as sure as the dog was
dead.
"Old Josh's last hunt was in the
month of February, 1856. That was
a favorite coon hunting month of
his, or rather coon killing month,
for, as he knew where he could go
any time and get the game he want
ed, there wasn't much hunting about
it. About that time of year the
coons are still budding together in
their winter nests in hollow trees.
Thirty years ago coonskins had a
good market value, and Josh always
made a raid toward the end of the
winter. Taking his dogs one day
he went over to Nebo swamp, and
in a short time had located eight
trees, each one of which his wood
craft assured him contained a family
of coons snoozing away in the hol-
low trunk. He cut down one tree
after another, and his dogs soon
routed cut the coons and made short
work of them. Josh had felled sew
en- of the trees. and forty-two coons
were living about on the snow, ready
TO be gathered up and skinned. He
set to work on the eighth tree, which
was what is known as a 'pepperage
tree. 1t was dead and hollow. On,
big limb stuck out from the trunl
about forty feet from the ground
Old Josh worked away with hi
axe at the trunk, and had the tire
nearly ready to fall, when the BIZ
limb suddenly separated from tn
trunk ard fell with a crash. Josl
could not get away in time, and tn
heavy branch struck him on tn
head and he dropped TO the grount
with a crushed skull.
The singular bowling of Josh