REMINISCENCES AND NOTES

Morgan County, Jackson Township

            By the year 1842, the township was quite well settled and the citizens were in better circumstances and more comfortable. The log cabin was still the rule, but a few frame houses had made their appearance. The wild animals had largely disappeared. Even deer had become somewhat scarce, though down in Brown County among the precipitous ravines and almost impenetrable woods, all of the native wild animals could still be found, not excepting bears and panthers. These were rare, but still they were there for the hunter who had sufficient courage to follow them to their lairs. Deer were very numerous there yet, and many interesting incidents could be told of the hairbreadth escapes of those of Jackson Township who went down there on hunting excursions. Deer, wolves, catamounts, foxes, wild turkeys, myriads of squirrels, snakes, wild cats, etc., etc., were still found in Jackson in greater or less abundance. The earliest settlers in Jackson had a picnic so to speak. John Hamilton, who lived near Morgantown, tells of shooting wild turkeys and deer on the present town site almost every morning, or whenever they were required for food or otherwise. He would get up just as the light began to break in the East, take his rifle, walk out a few hundred yards from his cabin, and in a few minutes the crack of his rifle would announce the death of either a deer or a wild turkey. The latter in the fall of the year became often very fat. It is stoutly averred by old settlers, that sometimes when they were shot from the top of the high trees and fell the long distance on the hard ground, the skin upon their backs burst open like a ripe pod. This sounds ‘fishy’ now, but no doubt the old settlers state the truth. Take such a bird, pluck it and dress it, and roast it to a ripe brown before the fire-place, and then garnish it with rich dressing and smother it in delicious gravy and the old settlers had a feast fit for the gods. It makes the mouth water too think of it. A great sport in early times was the hunting of bee trees. It may not be generally known yet it is a fact that wild bees are unknown far out in the wilderness, hundreds of miles from human habitation. They are like the pioneer hunters, and just precede the advance guard of pioneers. It required some experience to be able to find bee trees readily. In the summer the flight of the bees was watched and the direction taken followed. A Close and experienced observer could thus trace them to their store of sweets. It could be told fairly well, also, when a bee was coming from the hive or returning. An examination of its honey bags would reveal whether it was loaded or not. If it was loaded and on the wing, its course was a ‘bee line’ for its hive, otherwise it was seeking some flowery pasture. In the winter time when the snow was on the ground, bees would venture out of their trees on warm days, would be frozen to death and would drop on the snow, where their bodies would cause a yellow discoloration of two or three inches in diameter. A cluster of these yellow spots could be seen a long distance – often twenty or thirty rods, and the location of the bee trees could thus be found. The Hamiltons, on one occasion, discovered a fine bee tree on the present site of Morgantown, from which almost a tubful of the finest candies honey was obtained. The old settlers, many of them, did not fare so badly after all.

Source: Counties of Morgan, Monroe and Brown, Indiana. F.A. Battey & Co., Publishers, 1884