Daily independent. [volume] (Elko, Nev.) 188?-1915, 1891-06-20
A WOMAN TRAPPER.
She Supports Her Family by the
Sale Of Her Captures.


Sullivan county, Pa. She is the widow
OF the late Charles j. hathaway, and
she lives on Bccmcr Hill, in Forks
township, where She was born in the
woods forty odd years ago. Her only
son, Hiram, is fifteen years cid, and she
has two daughters younger than he.
Zach fall and winter, says the New
York Sun, the Widow Hathaway is the
busiest woman in the township. Last
season she cleared nearly four hundred
and fifty dollars from the sale of furs
and ginseng root. The animals from
which the greater portion of the furs
was obtained were trapped and skinned
by Mrs. Hathaway. The rest were
bought and shipped to market with
those that She had gathered, and the
ginseng root was dug by the children.
AS soon as the trapping season opens
in the fall Mrs. hathaway begins to
set traps for sllrnlis, minliS and musk
rats. IL costs her nothing for skunk
traps. because she uses fiat stones for
that kind of fur. She lifts one end of
the stone upright where she finds it,
props it up with some slender sticks
that look like n figure 4. places bit of
Hny kind of meat on the trigger, and the
trap is I'll rcaGy for the stupid skunk to
walk under and get the life crushed out
Of him. If n stranger asks n native Of
lieemcr Hill, of Elk Creek. of Wildcat
Hill, or of Sparrowhawll Brook why sc
many flat stones arc tipped up here and
there, the native will look surprised for
second and then tell him that the
stones are the Widow Hathaway's
skunk traps.
hot dow
she makes more money out of skunk
skins than from all the other kinds of
far put together. For catching minl1s
and musllrats she has to have steel
traps, and the traps cost money in the
first place, require oiling and care later
on, and are heavy to lug around. Be-
sides, skunk skin is now worth more
III the market than mink or Il muskrat
hide. And she would sooner skin n
skunk, she says, than musllrat or q
mink, because she can do it Il good deal
quicker and the odor is not at all often
sivc when you know how to handle the
animal and get used to the smell.
After Mrs. Hathaway has set all her
traps she starts out the next morning
to sec if anything has been caught dur
ing the night. She goes over the route
in the same manner that she did when
she set the traps, and she takes bait
along and two sharp knives. If she
finds skunk under one of the fiat
stones, she pulls it out, resets the trap,
ties the skunk to Il pole, throws the pole
over her shoulder and goes to the next
trap. Whenever she has unusual luck
the burden of slIunks soon becomes
heavy, and in that case she stops at
some brook, skins the animals and has
nothing but the hides TO carry over the
rest of her route. To make complete
circuit of her traps sometimes takes the
best part of Il day, she says. Up to the
middle of December Mrs. Hathaway had
last season trapped two hundred and
ninety four slSunks, twenty seven
minlIs, forty-three muskrats and one
nartcn.
When the first sleighing comes the in
lustrious widow lets Hiram look after
the traps, because he can wade through
the snow better than she can. Twice
each week she drives all around the
countryside and buys up fox skins and
other furs that the woodsmcn have
gathered, paying fair cash price for
them. She is an excellent Judge Of
furs, and no one can fool her on the
quality of SkinS that she examines.
Mrs. halfway is governed in the prices
she pays for furS by u printed list of
quotations which Philadelphia dealer
sends her once month. All the furs
Ehc traps herself or buys of other trap
pcr3 she ships to the Philadelphia dealer
every three or four weeks. The skins
arc stretched. tackled up against the
barn, and dried thoroughly, and that is
nll she docs 20 them,
Gingscng root Is also quoted in the fur
dealers list. During the fall, before
the ground became frozen Mrs. Hath
nway's children dug several baslctfuls
Of ginseng root in the woods on Wild
cat hill. The roots were dried in the
oven and around the stove until they
were as dry as they could be,
and then Mrs. hathaway found that
she had thirty two pounds A fcyv dnvs