Transcript:Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia/p359

Source

Haymond, Henry. History of Harrison County, West Virginia: from earliest days of northwestern Virginia to the present. (Morgantown, West Virginia: Acme Publishing, 1910).

Overview

William Haymond, Jr. was the son of Major William Haymond. He submitted a series of letters about the life and times of his father and family to his nephew, Luther Haymond. Eight of these letters were included in the source above. This transcript is part of a series of transcripts that provide the text for those letters. The text is presented as accurately as possible and hyperlinks to werelate pages for individuals are provided. This is a work in progress.

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Transcript - Letter No. 4.

Letter No. 4.

Palatine Hill, Va., 6th. April, 1842. Luther Haymond,

Sir: — In my last letter I had brought my narrative up to the year 1790. We were still living on the hill above Clarksburg. The Indians were getting to be very troublesome, still we would venture in the woods. It seems strange to me at this time that my father would indulge us in our excursions at that time. As those times are so forcibly impressed on my mind I will give you an account of one or two circumstances which to me now would seem perilous. In the fall of 1790 I went Avith old Mr. Thomas Nutter and Isaac Eichards on a hunting excursion to see if we could find any buffalos. We steered our course through the hills towards Marietta, generally leaving the road to our right hand until we reached the Hughes' Eiver, five miles below where the road crossed said river, we fell on the trail of a buffalo bull, followed him about a mile when we saw him jump up and start to run. Richards and myself fired at the same instant; one of us shot him in some part of the head which brought him to his knees, the other hit him behind the shoulder, which was the killing shot. He ran about 150 yards and fell. He was a fine animal. We but- chered him and set out for home. We came into the State road near where Mr. Martin now lives, we arrived safe at home with our meat.

One other trip I will mention. In the last of February, 1793 Jona- than Coburn and myself started on a trapping voyage. We hired Daniel McCann to go with us to the mouth of Fink's Fork of Leading Creek to help carry our traps out and bring in our horses. Just below the mouth of said fork Coburn and myself camped, built a canoe and stayed there about a week. While there we caught four beavers. We then descended the Creek in our canoe to its mouth, which we thought was about twenty- five miles. At the junction of the creek with the river we set a trap and went up the river about one hundred yards. It was then near dark. Co- bum went on the land to find a place to camp ; he came back and said he had found a fine chance for a fire,a small house he said, which had been built by hunters to put meat in. We struck fire, put in a quantity, and it blazed up finely while the bark lasted, and then it took the balance of the night to keep it alive. It was a very cold night and too dark to hunt wood. As soon as day came, we made a fine fire to thaw ourselves. Co- burn said he had dreamed that he had a scuffle with a man who had but one arm, and said he: "I expect I shall find a beaver in that trap with one foot off." He went to the trap and brought back a beaver which had lost one of its fore legs. I suppose he had been caught in a trap and gnawed his leg off. This was one of the truest dreams I ever knew. We then descended the river slowly saying to each other that when we got to the usual crossing places of the Indians we would be very careful, but we always forgot to be so in crossing those places. There had been a great beech mast the preceding year. There was plenty of mast in March. The woods were full of deer, bear and some buffalo and a large quantity of turkeys. We lived chiefly on turkeys. They were very fat. About ten miles above the mouth of the West Fork of the Kanawha we killed a buffalo, and about six miles above the same place we saw a bear swimming in the river. We landed and had a hard fight. We shot about six times before we killed him. I think he would have weighed about 400 pounds. We took him on board our canoe. Just above said West Fork I saw some deer, landed and proceeded after them. Coburn shot a buffalo on the bank. The dogs jumped out of the canoe and ran the buffalo down the river and stopped opposite to me, but I still kept down the river and left Coburn to kill him, which he did. He was a very large bull. We landed at the mouth of the West Fork where we barbecued bear meat &c., and then proceeded down said river. About a mile below the mouth of Spring creek we saw a deer standing near the river. Coburn landed to shoot it, when about half up the bank we heard a gun up Spring Creek. Said Coburn, "Shall I shoot?" At that time the deer ran. We heard dogs bark and then thought it a white man though with some doubts. We started and got near where the gun was fired and hallooed, and the man answered, and we went to him. He had killed a fine bear. He thought when he heard us, or I suppose he would have broke ground, that it was his two companions who had left him twenty-six days past, for Neal's station. He had been camped about three miles below Spring Creek, had killed and jerked some buffalo. We took his bear and carried it or a part of it to our canoe and started again. before we got to his camp we found a fine canoe lodged on one side of the bank, which we launched and took with us.

While there launching the canoe, Coburn shot a large otter, the skin of which we afterwards sold for four or five dollars. We stayed at his camp that night consulting whether to go up the river again to the mouth of the West Fork to hunt. But Coburn, having a family, was opposed to returning and having so many dreams, I suppose having once dreamed true, thought he had done so again, so we gave it up. I am not aware that these hunting trips will be interesting to you. I write them merely to show how venturesome people were in those days.

Yours & C,

Wm. Haymond.