Ohio Statewide Files
"The Hunters
of Ohio"
USGenWeb Archives
 
The information for this site was contributed by
Sara Grimes McBeth
saramcb@socket.net
 
Chapter 01 | Chapter 02 | Chapter 03 | Chapter 04 | Chapter 05 | Chapter 06 |
Chapter 07 | Chapter 08 | Chapter 09 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 |
Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 |
Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 |
Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | TOC | Author | Publisher |


View Text Version of Records


THE HUNTER OF OHIO.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION -- BIRTH -- EDUCATION -- EARLY LIFE
IN THE CITY AND COUNTRY -- JOGGLERY -- THE
SUPERSTITIONS OF THE PEOPLE -- FORTUNE-TELL-
ING AND WITCHCRAFT A DELUSION

IT may appear a bold enterprise for a modest man to attempt to write his own history, to give an impartial coloring to his vices and virtues with his own hand, to bring himself before the world in the character of a hero while still living, and liable from the fallibility of human nature to commit new errors, and exhibit new weaknesses that shall contradict past deeds;--.whereas the man who leaves so important a matter to the dictation of friends, years after he and his follies have, been laid in the grave, leaves to them a much less difficult task to perform than he imposes upon himself when undertaking the same important duty. Whether I shall prove to be a hero or not, remains for the sequel of my story to show,

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I was the fifth of eight children, and my parents were of the plebeian order. I gave very early evidence of unusual precocity, and aged grand-dames would shake their heads wisely and say, "He is a remarkable child." My mother was very early impressed with the truth of this senti- ment, and to her dying day I believe she never found out to the contrary. Whether or not I have fulfilled the promise of my childhood, I shall leave the reader to determine.

I was born in the county, of Armstrong, State of Pennsylvania, March 22, 1810. My mother was of Irish and German extraction, my father, Welsh; and if in my nature were not, united the wit of the Irish, the sagacity of the Germans, and the eloquence of the Welsh: I at least inherited a respectable share of the love of the marvelous in the one, and adventurous in the other. The substratum of my education was formed from legendary tales of ghosts and witches, of which in that early day there was no scarcity; and although I became very skeptical in regard to the truth of them when very young, yet nevertheless., I never wearied of listening to them and I believe the people of that day never did of telling them. Mother Goose, was also an important auxiliary in the education of the young, and her influence upon my character was not trifling; and although I always doubted the authority of' her stories, they were nevertheless interesting, and to my ardent nature,

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much more attractive than the dull A, B, C, stories of this kind. I formed a very early abhorrence for such common-place things as books and school, and usually played the truant while my anxious mother was exhausting her limited resources in securing for her children the advantages of an education. I grew to be a man entirely unacquainted with such persons as Cobb and Noah Webster.

My earliest recollections are associated with mountains and hills. I early learned to love" rugged cliff' and stupendous rock, and used to cause my anxious mother many a search for one who was never more at home than when driving the moles and the bats to their inscrutable hiding places. To this circumstance, perhaps more than to any other, is attributable the love of the wild and romantic, which has characterized all of my later life.

In 1812, my father moved to Washington County, Ohio, and three years later, my mother, with seven dependent children, was left a widow. Soon after my father's death, my mother left our rural home and moved into the city of Cincinnati. The great difference in scenery and influences between life in that metropolis and our quiet country borne, was not without its effect upon the habits of boys whose plastic characters were yet to be formed, and who were at this tender age unguarded by a father's care. True, of all that

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maternal watchcare could do, nothing was left undone for us; but a mother with all her tender solicitude for her children, cannot guard all the haunts of vice, or shield them from their pollut- ing influences. The dimes and half dimes that I could make by doing errands for rich people, were quite a source of profit to my mother, and I was therefore left free at will to spend my time in the street, where such opportunities of making money were most frequent.

The lessons usually taught in the streets, either of our large cities or small villages, are not very moral in their nature, and this instance proved no place exception to the general rule. If there is more wicked than all the rest, or one that, affords greater facilities for gaining instruction in all that is vicious, that place will not, long escape the detection of the wide-awake youth who is in pursuit of no better knowledge. In Cincinnati I learned many tricks, and some sleight-of-hand performances, that were destined to make me, if not popular, at least distinguished, in the neighborhood in which I afterward lived.

When twelve years old, my mother moved to Piquay County, in the same State. The people in the immediate neighborhood in which we lived, were mostly Pennsylvania Dutch, and were very ignorant in regard to many of the cunning arts with which we had become familiar while living in the city; trod although I could neither read nor

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write at that age, I was very intelligent in regard to all kinds of witch stories, and the exercise of many a cunning craft. With the assistance of my brother, who was two years younger than myself, many strange feats were accomplished which the people there called witchcraft, and the title of "little witches," so often applied to mischievous children, was no meaningless phrase when spoken of us. The people there were much more practical believers in witches than they were in their Bibles, and the and in the performance they could not fully comprehend, was sufficient to confirm that "the gods are come down unto us," Whilst boys, in the streets of Cincinnati, we had practiced 'throwing stones, until we could, with almost certain success, bring a squirrel or bird from the top of the tallest trees, By a little maneuvering on our part, we could conceal the missile sent, and make the credulous observers believe that the birds and the beasts were subject unto us, and that by only a wave of the hand we could bring them dead at our feet. On one occasion my brother told some boys that this was nothing to what we could do, -- that we could turn ourselves into deer if we tried, and run by them with such swiftness that they could not touch us. They had already seen enough to convince them that "nothing would be impossible" but some would rather see than hear; for

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other, to simply hear was enough; and with true deference to their fears, they dreaded to witness any more displays of our skill.

One day we were attending a vendue, and about twenty people offered us a dollar apiece if we would turn ourselves into deer. We did not like to tell them we could not, so my brother replied, "if they would wait here until we went into the woods and performed the necessary rite," we would do so. We started for home, designing to leave the deluded people to watch until their appetites, that faithful monitor to all, should remind them they had better go, too. But fortune smiled propitiously upon us once, and sent a tame deer, pursued by dogs, flying past them, and there was not known to be a deer in all the country. This confirmed their worst superstitions and belief that we were real witches, and it was circulated far and wide what wonderful exploits we had performed; -- that the lives of the birds and squirrels were in our hands; that we had turned ourselves into deer, and flew past them with the lightness of an evil spirit; that they had seen it all with their own eyes, and what their ears had heard, and their eyes beheld, there was no use of disputing.

So generally were these statements believed, and so strong was their faith, or rather, I should say, deep was their ignorance, that one day a gentleman called upon my mother to hire one of her boys to drive away the birds and squirrels

BOYHOOD DAYS23

that were doing serious damage to his cornfields. My mother told him that we could do nothing more than any other boys, but he would not believe her, and insisted on our services. He had come fifteen miles, and did not like to be refused, but my mother would not let use go, and he was obliged to return home alone, evidently very much disappointed.

At another time, as we were going along the public high way, our attention was attracted by two persons in a field close by the roadside, pulling the wool from a dead sheep. My brother inquired what they were doing that for. They answered, they wished to save the wool. I told them they had better stop or I would make it rise up and bite them. The fence corner in which it lay was hedged with thick grass, and underneath the grass was a long pole, one end of which was under the sheep, and the other protruded through the fence. I put my foot upon the pole, and the dead sheep began to tremble and rise toward them. They no sooner saw this spiritual manifestation than they ran for the house, and in breathless terror told their parents what had happened. The old people, with marvelous courage, came out determined to kill us if they saw us; but we had found a retreat behind a large tree, and they were too fearful to carry their investigation further than the door-yard.

Thus we escaped observation, and the old people retired to their mud

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domicil, more fully persuaded than ever, that the days of witchcraft were not ended, and that we were the veritable witches of Endor, or some other place, with power to make ourselves visible or invisible.

The reader can judge from what I have already told, that religious meetings were unknown in those parts, for such ignorance cannot exist where the light of the Gospel has ever shone; and had it ever been faithfully proclaimed to this deluded people, it would not. have been long before their darkened understandings would have been enlightened, and such gross errors would not have escaped detection. But at this time; there was no such thing as meetings; but. the young people, true to their social instinct, congregated together on the Sabbath-day, at different places and for different purposes. Hunting, fishing, and playing ball, were among the principal amusements; and it was for this purpose that quite a number were assembled one Sunday, when my brother and myself suddenly appeared in their midst, with my arms full of squirrels which we had caught by means of finger-stones cast into the tree tops, as we were on our way to that place. There were no marks upon the animals, and it appeared very strange how we had caught so many. On being questioned in regard to the facts, we told them we charmed them; they then immediately wanted to see how the mysterious work was accomplished.

BOYHOOD DAYS.25

Before reaching the company, we had propped up one on a log, and left it; when asked for a proof of our skill, I pointed to the squirrel thus left behind, and told my brother to stop it quick. He immediately commenced crossing himself, and making strange motions, and the squirrel, from want of power to do otherwise, stood perfectly still. I walked deliberately to the spot, knocked it down, and carried it to the company stone dead.

I cannot describe to my readers the astonishment manifested by the entire company, all of whom were many years our seniors. By this apparently miraculous manifestation of power, we confirmed their worst suspicions in regard to us; we also told them we could even put our fingers in the mouths of live squirrels and they would not bite us. We had caught one alive, and George, for that was my brother's name, seizing it carefully by the throat, put his fingers in its mouth allowing them to remain there sometime unharmed, then releasing his grasp about the throat, bade one of his companions to try the same trick. One of the most credulous did so, and as the result, was soon beseeching the "witches" to assuage the pain!

Thus the reader can see how ignorance paves the way for superstition, and exposes the person to impositions and inconveniences, to which the truly enlightened are never subjected. But superstition is not confined to that class of people I

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have just described, alone. How many of our would-be-thought intelligent people, will spend their last quarter of a dollar to see a man swallow a sword, or pluck large Neshanic potatoes from some respectable citizen's hat, or smash to pieces his elegant gold watch, that they may display their wonderful powers of jugglery; and how many anxious young ladies will give some wandering gipsy an entire week's wages, to inform them whether their future husband's eyes are black, or blue, or their present suitor's intentions are sincere; and if their present leap-year enterprise will prove successful, or if they will have to wait four years longer. And after all these questions have been answered satisfactorily, how cheerfully they labor to replace the missing dollar, saying, they do not begrudge it at all, for she told them just the truth, and they wouldn't miss knowing it for twice what it cost."

Now these fortune-tellers know much better than those who hear them, that there is not word of truth in all they say; and if it chances to happen according to their prediction, it is not in consequence of anything they have said; and though we may regard them as foolish about ev- erything else but fortune-telling, they know that on that subject we are.

While there lingers in our minds one shadow of belief in regard to the superhuman endowment of some of our fellow beings, the belief that our

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heavenly Father, through such agencies as table-tipping, mysterious writing, wandering gipsies, or any other supernatural means, condescends to make revelations to the world, not contained in his Holy Word, or communicated by his Divine Spirit in the still small voice, let us remember there is still some dark corner unenlightened; for it is virtually saying and believing that since the Alpha and Omega said, "It is finished," he has thought of something more to say, and concluded to adopt a more convenient mode of communication


Chapter 01 | Chapter 02 | Chapter 03 | Chapter 04 | Chapter 05 | Chapter 06 |
Chapter 07 | Chapter 08 | Chapter 09 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12 |
Chapter 13 | Chapter 14 | Chapter 15 | Chapter 16 | Chapter 17 | Chapter 18 |
Chapter 19 | Chapter 20 | Chapter 21 | Chapter 22 | Chapter 23 | Chapter 24 |
Chapter 25 | Chapter 26 | Chapter 27 | TOC | Author | Publisher |

 


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