Buren Underwood with one of his beloved coon dogs.
Wildlife Tales
By Beverly Belcher Woody
Patrick County was quite the wilderness in the 18th and early 19th century when settlers began arriving. There are many exciting reports of encounters between man and nature.
Beginning in 1632 the General Assembly permitted localities to pay rewards to persons who killed wolves. An act passed by the General Assembly during its session begun in October 1778 made the auditor of public accounts responsible for reimbursing localities for destruction of “Noxious Animals,” which included wolves.
The Wolf Scalp Bounties Records, 1776-1818, include accounts and receipts containing the names of persons to whom payments were made, the amounts, and the dates paid for the wolf scalps. The accounts and receipts were usually certified by the local clerk. According to the Virginia Auditor of Public Accounts, forty-five of these wolf scalp bounties were paid out in Patrick County from 1791-1811. One of these bounties was collected by my 3x great-grandfather, Samuel Underwood.
Mr. Henry Jackson “Squire” Dillon recorded many of the wildlife stories he grew up hearing. The following are some of the exciting accounts that took place in the Rock Castle and Woolwine area.
“My great-grandfather, Johnny Brammer, was a great hunter. He used a flint lock musket which he loaded with buckshot. On one occasion while hunting, he discovered two turkey gobblers engaged in combat. As Robinson Crusoe would say, ‘He took aim and let fly’ bringing down both turkeys with one shot. He stood in his tracks and reloaded his musket. When he was getting ready to retrieve his game, a black bear appeared! He promptly shot the bear, which rolled down the side of the mountain. After reloading, he followed the path where the bear fell and found it dead a quarter of a mile away.”
Mr. Dillon goes on to tell the following story about an old hunting cabin near the Jasper Dillon spring. “My great grandfather killed a deer near this cabin. He dressed his kill and with night overtaking him, he spent the night in the cabin. He took his prize inside the cabin and barred the door. During the night, he was visited by a pack of hungry wolves. They managed to climb on top of the cabin and tried to tear the roof off. The wolves finally left without harming him.”
Mr. Dillon also recounted a tale about his great uncle Jackson Dillon.
“Jackson Dillon was a quite a hunter and a man of great physical strength. One night, while coon hunting, his dog bayed in a den under a rock cliff. He started a fire with the intention of driving smoke in the den to drive the raccoon out of his place of retreat. Shortly after the smoking out process began, an animal came out of the den. He seized it by the nap of the neck and killed it. Two more animals came out and they were treated likewise. On closer examination, Dillon discovered he had slain three bobcats without sustaining a single scratch!”
Mr. Dillon then goes on to tell an exciting account about a panther.
“A man named Saul DeHart was traveling through the forest unarmed. He witnessed a panther kill a fawn. DeHart advanced on the panther, waving his hat and hollering at the top of his voice! The panther climbed a tree while DeHart grabbed the fawn and ran. The panther looked on in amazement!”
There certainly was no shortage of snakes in Patrick County either. From the October 20th, 1887 edition of the Patrick County (VA) Press: Mr. Coleman Goins, of Ararat, in this county, last week, killed a monster rattlesnake near his home. The skin, when taken off, measured five feet in length and held a peck of bran. The snake had eighteen rattles and had swallowed a full-grown squirrel a short time before killed. Captain James Boyd beats this. His boys last week, while pulling fodder on his place near Stuart, saw a large rattlesnake run under a ledge of rock in the field. The boys moved a large rock, when to their astonished gaze they beheld a nest of rattlesnakes. They went for them and soon dispatched seventeen snakes, two very large ones, with fifteen rattles each, the others running in size from twelve to eighteen inches in length. Mr. Green Ingram, of the Meadows of Dan area, also reports a larger snake killed by one of his neighbors. This one seems to be the champion snake, as it is claimed by good authority that it was ten feet long. This is a good year for snakes as well as all kinds of cereals.”
Kenneth Harbour shared an amusing story about a fellow named Burnett. This Burnett fellow had a mill where the West Fork and North Fork of the Smith River meet. In the summertime, he lived in the upstairs loft of the mill. In the winter, he lived in a cave nearby the mill. Burnett would build a fire at the entrance to the cave to stave off wildlife. One morning, he awoke to find bear tracks all over the cave, including all around his feet!
By the time my Dad was born in 1935, sadly, much of the wildlife had been hunted to near depletion. I recall my Dad telling me that he was a grown man before he saw his first deer (and he grew up at the foot of Buffalo Mountain)! Kenneth Harbour told me that he was 18 years old before he saw his first deer too. Now, they are everywhere!! Hopefully, since the restoration of the elk herd in Buchanan County, Virginians will become more interested in preserving healthy habitats that our native species need to survive.
Kenneth Harbour, Matt Hubbard, and Mary Atkins Osborne contributed to this article.
(Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com.)
