The Turnbo Manuscripts
by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925
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TWO BEARS EATING HICKORY NUTS
ONE OF THEM CHASES A HUNTER IN A LIVELY WAY
By S. C. Turnbo
Edward Upton or Uncle Ned as he is commonly known was born in Rutherford
County, North Carolina, August 24th, 1833. His father’s given name
was also Edward and he settled in southern Mo. in 1852, and lived in Howel
and Ozark Counties from time to time until his death near Gainesville. His
body was interred on the Ellis farm on Lick Creek one mile below Gainesville.
His wife, Mrs. Nancy (Bracket) Upton, died in Rutherford County, North Carolina.
Young Edward Upton was 19 years old when his father come to Missouri and
taken an active part with other settlers hunting game. Some of his hunting
stories are given in this chapter. While his father lived on Lick Creek
below Gainesville young Edward Upton’s main hunting ground was on a
small stream that empties into Lick Creek. Mr. Upton said that one day in
1856 while hunting in this little valley he noticed two buck acting queer.
They were running back and forth across a shallow hollow on the side of
a hill. As they passed to and fro they would halt a short while in the bed
of the branch and stamp their feet. I stood still and viewed the deer until
they had become quiet and walked away without shooting at one of them. I
went on up to see what they had been doing and found a large rattlesnake
badly mutilated, by the deer’s feet. The rattler carried 13 rattles,
and was nearly cut to pieces in the middle part of its body.
"I have killed a great number of deer here in Ozark County," said
Uncle Ned. "But I never was lucky enough to kill more than one deer
at one shot. But on one occasion while hunting with father on the south
fork of Bennetts Bayou he shot at a deer about 60 yards. The animal was
standing near a pond of water and its body was partly concealed from view
by a bush. When father shot I saw the deer drop. While we were advancing
to where it lay we found another deer lying in the agony of death in 30
yards of the other deer and on a line from where father stood to the one
shot at. The one shot at the ball had entered its neck. The bullet had passed
through the other deer’s head. We did not see but the one deer when
the shot was fired. It was supposed the deer was lying down and had rose
on its feet the moment father pulled the trigger of the gun or just in time
to receive the bullet through its head. A hunter meets with peculiar incidents
sometimes and the above is one of them which is not hearsay with me. Another
little incident worth noting down occurred to my father and my brother,
Daniel Upton, while they were hunting one day in the hills west of Lick
Creek. Father shot and wounded a big buck 4 miles from home. The dogs pursued
it 4 miles down Brattons spring creek then the deer made a short circuit
and turned back up the creek again and the dogs chased it to the head of
the creek then over the dividing ridge to where we lived on Lick Creek ¾
of a mile below where Gainesville now stands, and the dogs caught it at
the yardgate. The deer had run 12 miles from the time it was wounded until
the dogs overhauled and killed it. Father had shot at the buck uphill and
by some means the discharge of the gun broke the main spring of his gun
lock and brother Dan jokingly remarked to father that shooting uphill was
the cause of the main spring getting broke. I have seen several bunches
of deer together since I have lived in the Ozarks," said Uncle Ned.
"Herds of deer present a beautiful forest scene. The largest number
of deer I ever saw near together was 150 on Bennetts Bayou one evening at
sunset. The herd was divided into two parts but both bunches were in my
sight at the same time. It was delightful to witness so many deer together
but in those early days it was common to meet droves of deer more or less
in number almost every day. But the most fascinating sight of deer I ever
had was in Howel County, Mo. I and my brother Daniel were sitting on a fence
that enclosed 6 acres of sod land planted in corn. The fence was new and
was considered stock proof. The young corn was half leg high. Rasin weed
and other wild growth had sprung up all over the new ground. While we were
resting on the fence 15 deer come to the opposite side of the field from
where we were and jumped over the fence into the field like a bunch of sheep.
The deer, which were all does, were followed by 20 young fawns which entered
the enclosure through the opening between the rails. When the does and fawns
got together in the field a lively and interesting scene commenced. The
old and young deer played all sorts of antics. They run and frolicked all
over the field. We sit perfectly still and carried our conversation on in
a whisper. Some of the deer played in a few yards of us without seeing us.
Ever now and then the does would stop a few minutes and feed on the rasin
weed then resume the play. We could have sit on the fence till sunset and
enjoyed this beautiful scene of nature, but after the deer had frolicked
together some time one of the does seen us and apparently gave the alarm
to the others and off they bounded to that part of the fence where they
had entered the field and leapped over to the outside and was soon lost
from view. The fawns appeared to be surprised at the sudden disappearance
of their mothers and stood as if bewildered. "Ah, what a jolly time
we will have catching fawns," said I, and me and Dan jumped off the
fence and ran toward them. The fawns all started toward the fence where
the old ones had leapped over. When they reached the fence they all huddle
up together in the fence corner. I thought we would sure capture some of
them at least, but the next thing we knew the fawns disappeared through
the fence into the tall grass on the outside and that was the last we saw
of them. I have heard of hunters seeing white squirrels here," said
Mr. Upton. "I met one of this kind on Lick Creek below Gainesville
in 1966. The squirrel was as white as the whitest of cotton. I had my rifle
with me but I would not shoot at it. The squirrel was up a sycamore tree.
Many times afterward I looked up this same tree and other timber which stood
nearby to catch sight of this pretty little animal again but that was the
last I seen of it. I will now give you a little story of finding bee trees.
One day I and my father and my brother Daniel found 11 bee trees on the
dividing ridge between Lick Creek and head prongs of Brattons Spring Creek
and expected to rob all the trees the following day. So we started out early
in the morning with anoox wagon and plenty of vessels to collect the honey.
The first tree we reached was a small post oak. As the tree was little we
did not expect to find much honey in it. Dan struck the tree with the axe
to sound it and found that the wall between the hollow and outside was a
thin shell. Then he sank the blade of the axe into the tree and withdrawing
it honey run out at the apeture made by the axe. This astonished us and
we hacked around the tree near the ground with the axe and let it down to
the ground as easy as we could. It proved that the tree was crammed full
of rich honeycomb for 12 feet up the hollow. We filled three large vessels
full of honey and put 20 lbs In a sack. The quantity of honey found in this
tree exceeded our expectation so far that we returned home without visiting
the other trees that day. But none of them proved to be as rich in honey
as this one was. I suppose, "said Mr. Upton, "that almost every
settler has had some experience with wolves. I have had some trouble with
them, but I cannot tell a very big yarn about wolves because I never have
had the experience with them as others have. But there were plenty of them
here. I recollect on one occasion when we lived on Lick Creek, a bunch of
wolves got among our hogs. It was in open daylight. The wolves had ventured
close to the dwelling where the hogs were lying in their bed and attacked
them. The hogs rallied and made a great to do. I and brother Daniel ran
out with rifles in hand to drive the wolves off, but before we could do
so they killed two fine sows and wounded a shoat. We shot and killed two
of the wolves which were gray ones and the others left the dead porkers
and retreated. I have another wolf story to tell you that is a little funny
which happened in this way. I knew of a place on Lick Creek where a lot
of wolves were raising their young. When I thought they were large enough
to give a fellow a little sport in capturing them I took a sack and paid
the den a visit. The bed was under a shelving rock. There were 7 young wolves
lying In the bed large enough to yelp. Looking about to see if the coast
was clear of old ones, I caught one of the young beast and put it in the
sack. The others scattered and hid in the grass on the hillside below their
bed and I had much trouble before I captured them all and crammed them into
the sack. The young beast mixed together lively in the sack and made all
sorts of noises. I looked for the old ones to rush up every moment, and
I heard them howl just as I started to leave. My business lay rolling away
from there. The 7 wolves in the sack was not a light load to carry and how
they did kick, snap and cut up. I left that vicinity on a fast run. The
pups kept up their kicking and fuss until I was pretty well satisfied the
old ones heard them for it was now evident they were answering the pups
in the sack. This stimulated my running powers and how I did run with that
sack of wolves. After I had sped ¼ of a mile from the bed I stopped
and looked back and heard them howling and whining at the bed. Then I lit
out running again and did not halt until I had run another ¼ mile.
I did not tarry but a moment for they were pursueing me. I could not see
them but I could hear their angry noise between me and their den. Their
howling sounded too lonesome to suit me and on I went again and did not
stop until I arrived home exhausted and almost out of breath. I do not presume
the wolves followed me far, or they certainly would have overtaken me. Did
I ever have any trouble with a bear, you say? Well no. I have seen plenty
of them but it was not my lot to be a bear hunter. But my brother Daniel
Upton if alive could give you a few entertaining stories about wild bear.
One day Dan went stock hunting on head of Barren Fork of Little North Fork.
He was afoot. He carried his rifle but had no dog with him. As he went along
a hillside., he heard something eating hickory nuts. He imagined it was
hogs. The noise was below him and the nature of the hill prevented Dan from
seeing them. Going down the hillside to a ledge of rock he stopped to survey
the spot from where the noise eminated to try to ascertain the owner of
the hogs for he was surprised to meet hogs out in this wild section where
there was no settlements. But no hogs were there but two bears were in close
rifle range. They were so busy masticating the nuts that they did not notice
the humane intruder. Raising his gun Dan leveled it at one of the bears
and fired. The animal dropped to the ground. The other one quit eating the
nuts, stood still and was evidently puzzled to understand what made such
a noise and his companion falling all on sudden. "Well," thought
Dan, "I will reload my gun and kill you too." But his bearship
did not allow him time for Dan had barely commenced pouring powder into
the charger before the bear looked up the hill and spied him standing on
the ledge of rock. The black beast seemed to get terrible mad and charged
toward him. Dan did not get mad but he got awful bad scared and dropped
the gun and fled like a deer fleeing before a pack of hounds. The man run
for life. The bear run to catch him. The latter was gaining on his humane
enemy rapidly and would soon overhaul him. As It happened a man of the name
of Beasely was hunting near this same spot and heard the report of Dan’s
gun and saw the man retreating toward him. Directly the pursueing bear come
in view. He waited until the bear was near him and he shot it through the
head. Dan was ignorant of the man’s presence until the welcome report
of the gun rang out and the bear had fell. My brother said that Beasely
was just in time to save him and he felt very grateful to him for his timely
interference. Each hunter had a dead bear on hand and they turned their
attention to them., removing the hides,dressing the meat and conveying it
home."
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