The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1888-05-25
FIGHTING A WILD HOG.
An Exciting Adventure in a New
York Forest.
Desperate Encounter with an Infatuated
AnImaI-Though Badly Wounded
the Beast Nearly Kills
Two Men,

There are still dense tracts of forest
in Sullivan County, N. Y, lying less
than one hundred miles from New
York City itself, where the black bear
and other animals which long ago dis
appeared from regions that were set
tied years after Sullivan County's woods
began to fall before the axe, are still
rs numerous as they were when the
first settlers took up land in the coun-
ty century and half ago. With
such surroundings there naturally ex-
lists in those wild localities a race of
sturdy hunters and trappers, descend
ants of the pioneers, and the seeker
after material for exciting and thrill
ing stories of adventure need 90 no
further than to one of the many back
woods hamlets where these rude but
hospitable people make it their lone.
A striking figure among one particu-
lar settlement of this kind was Peter
Stewart, who had spent the most of
q long life in the woods, but who
was an important man among his
people, having twice represented them
in the New York Legislature, and oc-
cupied many local offices of trust
During his life in the woods it once fell
to his lot to be participant in hunt
ing adventure, the like of which but
few, if any hunters ever experienced,
on this continent at least. Old Mr.
Stewart related to me once the thrill
ing incident connected with that hunt.
They will make II lively chapter in the
literature of adventure.
The extensive beech woods of Sulli-
van county were Of great Importance
to the early settlers before they had
cleared up farms and fields under Gull
tivation to raise corn sufficient for
feeding the large number of swine
they were obliged tokeep. Pork being
the chief article of backwoods diet,
they fattened their hogs on beech-nuts
for several years. The nuts made
pork that was soft and greasy, but it
was pork, and the food cost nothing.
The beech-nuts were scarce some years
and in others they were unusully
plenty. The greatest beech-nut year
ever known was 1920.
1.-The nuts were so thick on the
trees, said Peter Stewart, in giving
this "Reminiscences, "that there was
barely room for the leaves. When
they dropped in the fall they covered
the ground two inches deep. That
autumn a man who lived along the
Neversink river was struck with the
idea of turning drove of hogs into
the woods and tattening them for mar
ket. 1t was calculated that u hog that
was turned into the beech to fatten
would increase in value five dollars by
the time it was taken out. This spec.
ulator argued that he could, therefore,
make five thousand dollars by feeding
one thousand hogs on beech-nuts until
they were fat enough to sell. He
bought all the hogs he could find in the
neighborhood and turned them into
the beech all marked with his brand.
A few days before the time he intended
to collect his herd there came asudden
cold snap with heavy snow-storm.
The storm lasted for two days, and
when the hog owner VENT the woods
h found his hogs scattered about in
heaps dead. They had collected to-
gether during the storm to keep warm,
in groups of fifty or more, and most OF
them were trampled or smothered to
death. Out of his one thousand head
of swine the speculator did not have
more than one hundred left. The dead
ones were shipped away for soap
grease,
'In 1926 Sam Darbee and myself
were hunting bears in Rockland
beech. We had killed three bears and
several deer, and one day while re-
turning to our cabin we came across
n track of some animal in the snow
that was strange to Us. We put dog
on the track, but it was two days be.
fore we came up with the animal. In
the meanwhile, we had made up our
minds that it was y wild hog, the off
spring, no doubt, of some of the
stock that the Spectator had not re.
covered five years before. On the
third day, | was following the track
through a swamp, when suddenly one
of the largest and most savage-look-
ing boars | ever saw jumped out with
loud snort from bush of laurels.
His bristles stood erect on his back,
and two immense tusks were dis.
played, one on each side of his snout,
and extending upward at least two
inches. My dog was q few steps
ahead of me, as l had kept him back.
When the boar saw the dog he low
cred his head and began to champ and
froth- at the mouth. The boar was
fully three feet high, and l never saw
: an uglier looking beast in all my ex-
perience in the woods. The dog was
half hound and half shepherd. He
sprang at the boar at once and was
received with lunge and thrown
at least ten feet away, with
his vitals pierced by the boars long
tusks. The poor dog tried to renew
the attack, but he fell, and was soon
dead The boar stood his ground as
if waiting for me to attack him. ]
aimed at his fore-shoulder and fired.
With a fearful snort the boar turned
and ran into the swamp. apparently
not injured. Darbee heard the CIR
and soon came up. We started after
the boar, determined to bag oul
game, now that we had 1t, We came