Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1897-04-08
The Times That Were.
From the Nelson [ [Ry. Record.

bounded on the north by the noble
Patuxent river, on the east by the
great Chesapeake Bay, and on the
south by the Potomac river which
runs past the National Capitol and
and several hundred miles beyond,
dividing Maryland from Virginia.
There are, within her borders, Eve
.rissrs and -ssys, ana several deer
and nayigable creeks, not to meu-
tion many small inlets, all of which
produce oysters, famed for their size
and flavor.
Fifty years ago, when the writer
was very young man, these rivers,
bays and creeks from October to
April, furnished feeding ground for
millions of swans, geese and wild
ducks of many kinds, thousands of
which were slaughtered every year,
as much for the sport and the value
of their feathers as for their use as
an article Of food. Many gentle
men who were fond of cunning
kept their meat-hoases well stored
with ducks of the finest quality and
fed their servants upon them, and
! well remember my fathers fore
man, old Basil, asking him one
day, hat iu hand, if he would not
give the hands some meat, "for
they were SO tired of them damned
ducks. they couldn't eat 'em no
more"
But of late years great change
has been wrought, and where there
were millions then, there are not
hundreds now. 1t is generally ac-
counted for by the clearing and
settling around the great lakes,
which broke up their nesting
grounds. And this is the favored
land that hundreds of Kentucky's
pioneers left hundred and one or
two years ago or less, most of whom
settled in the vicinity of Bardstown
and Georgetown and one or two
other localities, going a distance of
six or seven hundred miles in wag-
ons, carrying wives and children,
and when their destination was
reached, found dense forest to be
cleared up, houses to be built, and
the land, in the main, no better
than that they left behind them,
and no fish, oysters or wild fowl to
speak of. The great-grand father
of one of Kentucky's greatest law
yers, Z. 4. Mckay, sold his farm
adjoining me, to my grand father,
and joined the great caravan that
wended its slow and tedious way to
far off Kentucky. That farm be.
longs to-day, to the children of one
of my deceased sisters, and the old
house having survived its useful.
ness, is to be demolished in the
spring and a new one erected in its
stead.
Amongthose who left here in the
great exodus were the Combs,
Greenwells, Mattinglys, Coughs,
Edelens, Cecils, Auds, Abells,
Spaldings, Morgans, Medleys, Tay.
lors, Fenwicks, Prices, &c. Ny
grandfather, above alluded to, had
a sister who married a Greenwich
and moved to Kentucky; and prob
ably has descendants there at this
time.
When was bog, there was q
tradition rife here to the effect, that
when the old pioneers from this
section used to meet Saturday even
ings in Bardstown, as soon as they
had shaken hands, one would turn
his back to the other and beg him
for half dozen kicks under his
coat-tail and when they were duly
administered, the other would turn
around and ask his friend for his
kicking. The legend went on and
said that not infrequently, half
a dozen pairs have been noticed,
exchanging civilities Of this nature,
in the course of an afternoon.
Why was this done, you ask Why,
in order to get temporal punish
ment inflicted, to expiate the griev-
Gus SIN they had committed in
abandoning the peaceful shores of
Maryland for the wild forests and
savage Indians of Kentucky. But
the plunge had been made, the la.
Dor and exposure of going forbade
the idea of return, and it was a
clear case of ''root hog or die -