Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1901-07-25
BONA DeROCK
Fiddler and Hunter of the
Upper Genesee.
TRUE HUNTING STORIES
A Single Shot that Struck Three Deer
The Chase of Old GoIden-A
Home-M Made Violin.

/
Reservation and gone, most of them, to
the Buffalo, Tonawanda, Cattaraugus
and Allegany reservations, came class
| of hardy Adventures, many of whom,
enamored of frontier life, were much
| given to the chase. They were the born
| children Of the woods, brought up as it
were, with rifles in their hands, and
/ were acquainted with the nature and
habits of all the kinds of wild animals
which then infested the big woods of
Western New York.
The days of the wolf and bear had
passed and the fleet deer, so plenty in
! the days of Bill Bennett and the Indian
! hunters OF old Caneadea, had become
| scarcer and more and more wary of
their stealthy foes, which called for
more patience and a higher degree of
skill on the part of the hunter to get
shot at the timid creatures. This con-
tributed considerably to the excitement
of the chase and gave toi it a fascination
! scarcely known to the earliest hunters,
and added correspondingly to the fame
of the successful hunter. Especially
was this the condition along the valley
of the Upper Genesee, and the veteran
hunters, like the Kingsleys, Cooleys,
Buffers, Van Nostrands, Bullocks and
Old George Parke, who had tracked
the deer over hills and valleys, over
crags and precipices even, had been
forced into retirement by the infrmi-
ties of age, and were no longer able to
endure the long-distance chase.
At this juncture came the De Rocks,
| fresh from among the hills Of Delaware
County, where they were born and
raised They were strange mixture
of blood. OF Spanish, French and
Indian ancestry, they inherited many
of the peculiarities and characteristics
of their several strains of blood. The
family name descended from the
| French. There were number of the
De Rocks-Reuben, now Sc, and Cyrus
B., so years old, were the ones most
marked as hunters. Cyrus would hardly
be known by that name, as he had al
ways been known as Bona, a name
which his father bestowed upon him in
admiration of Napoleon Bonaparte,
and which Cyrus made still more ap-
propriate in choosing his first wife,
whose name was Josephine. The CO.
incidence abruptly stopped there, as
Bona's Josephine was not divorced, as
was the great Napoleon's.
Rube and Bona were remarkably
| good shots, and was not long after their
appearance in Caneadea before they
knew and were thoroughly acquainted
with all the features of hill and dale, of
mountain and valley, of stream and
gorge, of the Upper Genesee country
for many miles in all directions. They
were fleet of foot, excelIed in endur-
ance, and their exploits soon became
the talk of the day, and excited the
admiration, and, in some instances,
the envy of the few veteran devotees
of the chase who still fingered in the
territory of old Caneadea.
One of Bona's first adventures in the
Allegany woods happened one morning
when he shot deer which the old
hunter Parker had started. He dressed
it, and hid the carcass under the fallen
trunk of big tree. Parker, following,
found where it had been killed, but
failed to find his venson, though sitting
for awile to rest on the trunk of the
self-same tree.
One time Rube shot q deer which
fell daad, scarcely leaving his tracks.
Upon examination no mark of the ball
could be found. The post-mortem ex.
animation revealed the ball lodged be-
tween the shoulders, having pierced
the heart, whittier it penetrated from
the rear. The deer had persisted in
standing with his head away from the
hunter, who, tired of waiting for
better exposure, let drive with remark
able result
Rube once caught young fawn and
tanned it. 1t came to be very fond of
the place and family. The writer we'll
remembers seeing it about the premi-
ses. 1t would come into the house at
meal time and the family would feed
it what it liked from the table. 1t was
soon great pet. 1t became passion
ately fond of apple pie, so much so, in
deed, as to be nuisance, a real bother.
So they shut the fawn out at meal
time. One day while they were eating
their dinner from table standing in
front of one of the windows the young
deer appeared and looked in. Quickly
discerning his favorite apple pie he took
the shortest course to get it. Result,
considerable confusion and innumer-
able fragments of window glass. This