The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-10-14
WILD GAME IN INDIANA.
Deer-I<illing "Reminiscences of a Wa
bash County Resident.

Henry Garner, in Wabash Tribune.
/ came to Wabash in 1885. Two or three
years later I moved out In the country and
tried farming. l tell you there were plenty
of deer, turkeys and squirrels in those days
How many deers have / killed I'm my life?
Well, can't say sure. Adam Graves used to
say he killed more than a hundred, and he
wasn't here any earlier than / was, but /
guess maybe l have shot as many as sixty
or seventy at the least calculation One
time l killed two fine bucks at one shot.
and I'll tell you how L did il.
They were standing close together, one
or them with his neck in front of the 9TH
er $ hip. | knew II l missed the neck of the
nearest one l would certainly hit the other.
| shot and both of them sprang away
through the woods. one Of them being
plainly badly crippled. 1 had two good
once and had not chased them a hundred
yards until. they caught the crippled one,
which had It's thigh broken.
buck lay the other one. stone dead. with a
bullet hole through its Wind pipe and the
Jusuiar vein. l hung them up in a tree top
ana went back home-I killed them on the
Peter Bechtol farm, now known as the
Thomas Brodbeek place, and was living on
the Cowgirl farm, just north of town-and
getting a horse carried them both back to
yards. from me when L shot, as 1 measured
the distance by stepping it off.
1 got one deer once that l didn't kill. One
evening heard some dogs chasing a deer
through the woods not a great distance
from my cabin, and all at once their bawl-
ing ceased and / heard no more of them
that night. | lived east of where the Ed
kenerk farm is then, and the next morning
1 went out TO try and kill some turkeys. /
didn't travel more than two or three hum
1red YARDS until L came upon two of the
nnest speckled hounds you ever saw, and
they were lying beside a deer they mad
killed the night before at the time heard
them yelping.
The weather was cool. it being late in
october, and as the dogs had not touched
the deer after killing it, I picked it up and
carried 1t back home. the hounds. which
fact that l got the deer did not give me
SO mucn comfort as did the thought of what
a spiendid pair of hounds had come into
my possession. | fed the dogs well and
they strayed around the cabin all day and
uhui we went to bed. but in the morning
they were gone and / never saw anything
more or them. / heard afterward that they
belonged to a maj north of Huntington. and
that they had started the deer away east
of my place and had finally run it down
home for two days, but they finally turned
up all right.
l killed my last deer. I think, in 1860 or
1861. / lived then on the George w. Low
man farm, two miles and a half norfhwest
OF here. Had some cattle on the DIR. Hun
bard farm. where Elias Stone now lives.
and one morning l started out to salt them
of course. taking my gun with me. WAS
passing through a deadening just about
where the John Cox farm residence now
stands, when | heard some hounds chasing
through the woods.
L stopped and listened and knew the dogs
were coming toward me. With nv gun I'm
l watched until / saw a fine deer
break from the woods into the deadening
/ waited until the animal got within about
seventy yards of me and fired. and the
deer fell. with a broken back. That was
the last deer killed in Wabash county to
my knowledge, although | will not positive
ly state that to be the fact. 1 have seen
deer tracks in the woods since then,
but no deer.