Morning journal and courier., 1891-12-21
PENNSYLVASIA,S LAST ELK.
The Story ofIts Staying.

From the New York Sun
 "Tne man who was in at the killing of the last elk killed in Pennsylvania died 6 few days ago in Potter county" said a for mer resident of that part or the Keystone state. "His name was Ira Parmenter, and he must have been ninety years of age. He was born near the forks of the Sinnama- honing, where his father, who came from Connecticut with his family before the close of the las: century, was one of the first settlers. The old hunter just dead was the last of his race He had followed the life of a hunter and trspper until three years ago, when he became partially blind and was forced to hang up his rife. He had lived during the times when elk wolves and partners, all of them now extinct, were numerous in the Pennsylvania woods, and he probably more than any of his contem- | poraneous woodsmen aided in bringing about their extinction. For many years ! he has insisted that he had killed the last | panther ever known to be in Penn sylvania
 but Jacob Bensley an old Pike county hun ter, finally brought such evidence to bear that he and not Parmenter was entitled to that honor, that the latter acknowledged | Bensley's claim. That he was in the hunt, ! though, which resulted in the killing of l the one lone elk that chung to its native l hills and fsstnesses in the Pennsylvania wilds, there is no doubt, although the elk l was killed by another person and an Indian at that. This elk hunt WAS Parmenter's fsvorite reminiscence, among the hundreds of stirring stories of his life in the woods that he was always ready to relate almost
 up to ihe day of his death.
 "This elk hunt occurred as late as 1867, although it was supposed that <he last of the wapiti race in Pennsylvania had met his death 20 years before Not any of the animals nor any sign of them had been seen since 1S45, when Seth Nelson of Elk county shot what was supposed to be the last one, and its immense head and sutlers for years were exhibited at Pearle's musrum in Philadelphia, as those of the last Penn sylvania elk In the fall of 1867 this same Seth Nelson and Ira ParDenter were hunt ing along the headwaters of Bennet's creek, in Play swamp, from which water flows on one side to the sources or the Susquehanna, and from the other to the Allegheny feed CTS. They were on the trail of deer, when
 suddenly they heard the peculiar whistle a
 bull elk sounds only at that time of year,
 the whistle being the call for a mate. The two hunters got their hounds on the elk's trail and followed it all day, when heavy and prolonged rain storm came up. and the trail was lost. The hunters roamed for
 weeks trying to strike the lost trail but did
 not succeed The news that there was still
 another elk left in the Sinnsmahoning
 woods spread throughout the region and clear to the Indian reservations over the
 New York state line. Among these was a
 hunter and trapper famous on the Chatta-
 raugus reservation, known to the whites as
 Jim Jacobs. One day in the latter part of
 November Ira Parmenter and Seth Nelson
 started out to try again to find the trail of
 the lone bull elk of the Sinnamahoning.
 There was 8 good tracking snow, and on
 the south side sFlsg swamp they discov-
 cred tracks in the snow that they recog-
 nized at once as an elk's, and at the same time they were surprised and by no means
 pleased to see the Indian hunter. Jim Js.
 cobs, appear on the scene. Jacobs was au
 old man even then, although he lived and 2 hunted for 10 years longer, when he was killed by the cars at Salamanca, N. |. He , ! had hunted elk for 50 years and knew all their habits and instincts perfectly. Par
 menter and Nelson objected io tine Indian joining them in the chase of the elk and he
 was forced to leave the trail. The two white men followed the elk for four days and it led them through the almost unbro ken wilderness of western Pennsylvania
 clear down to the head waters Of the Clar ' ion river in Clarion county. There blind ing snow-storm came up, but they kept on knowing that the elk would not travel ir 3 the storm. At last they discoverd that tn. elk had taken refuge in a laurel thicket, and
 they felt that the prize was almost within
 their grasp, when a rifie-shot rang out up 2 on the snowy air from the thicket. They 3 made their way into the thicket, and in sr B opening in the center stood the Indian, Jin
 Jacobs, one foot on the dead body of tht elk, and his rife held threateningly. ss b, T faced the white hunters creaking through | the laurels. The willy Indian had read the course of the elk by his knowledge of tho animals instincts, and had followed it &: p surely as if he had been on its track in ths
 snow, and had actually reached the laure !, swamp where the animal took refuge bs 7 fore the elk reached there itself. The twt 6 white hunters, although disappointed ana - chsgrined over their failure to capture th, f prize they had followed for hundred 6 nilee, were forced to scknowedge the wen 8 derful skill and unsrring judgement of th, l. old Indian, and aided him in carrying hi l prize home. The head and antlers of tn, 6 elk were in Jacobs house at Salamanca a T the time of his death, and are probably il