1894 deer hunting

This preacher wouldn’t have to pray for his daily venison — at least not for a while.

“The Rev. Mr. Patterson, pastor of the Baptist Church, killed the largest buck so far known this season,” the Indian Lake correspondent reported in The Morning Star of Glens Falls on Aug. 25, 1894. “He had ten points on each horn and weighed something over 200 pounds.”

In other 1894 hunting news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• Venison and trout — the Adirondack sportsmen’s version of surf and turf.

“Robert McClellan, S.A. Hayes, and W.J. Guthrie went to Thirteenth Pond on Saturday and returned home yesterday. They killed three fine deer and brought back two of them. They caught all the trout they could use during their sojourn and brought home twenty-five pounds,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 1. “The party were guests of H.A. Maxam of the Thirteenth Lake House and speak in complimentary terms of the entertainment furnished them.”

• “Judge J.M. Whitman and son, Richard Whitman of Sandy Hill, have returned home from a week’s outing in the Adirondacks, spent at Camp Contentment on Harris Lake, in the town of Newcomb. They brought with them a 150-pound deer, killed by the younger Mr. Whitman, and a large number of bass and other varieties of fish, of which there is an abundance in Harris Lake,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 31. “The deer, which is a handsome specimen, is the first one brought to Glens Falls this season. The head will be mounted by George L. Suprenaut.”
• “Frank Brown went out for a deer Saturday night and killed a three-year-old, which weighed 190 pounds,” the Blue Mountain Lake correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Sept. 1.
• “A number of men while threshing at the farm of George Stevens last week discovered a deer in the fields nearby. The machine was stopped, and guns were procured, and the deer killed,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Sept. 7.
• “S.B. Chamberlain, J.H. Burnham, F.B. Brown and John Wilson have returned home from a successful deer hunt in the North Woods,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 18.
• “Mike Jenks left for Big Pond yesterday for a hunt,” the Schroon Lake correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Sept. 29. “He drove a fine 200-pound buck to the pond, where Captain Wickham was on guard. He killed the deer, and it is now on exhibition at Pithen & Stanton’s store.”
• “A party of our townsmen returned last night from a deer hunt at West Stony Creek but without getting a single deer,” the Stony Creek correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 1. “One of the party had an exciting time with bears.”
• “Mr. and Mrs. George Reilly and Mr. and Mrs. James Landers and Matthew Landers returned home yesterday from a sojourn with friends at Schroon Lake and vicinity,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 2. “Messrs. Landers and Reilly, accompanied by Warren Jenks, devoted a few days to hunting at North Pond, and, as a result of the skill of Matthew Landers in the use of a rifle, they brought home a handsome buck, weighing about 160 pounds, which is now on exhibition at the market of Corbett & Corbett, South Street.”
• “James Avery, W. J. Dodge, A. A. Curton, Charles Flake, and Frank Short, a party of Albany hunters, have returned from the Adirondacks with three fine dear as evidence of good sport. They killed a fourth, upon which they fed while in camp,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 11.
• “H.E. Tidmarsh, Sandy Hill, came home last evening with a fine buck weighing 125 pounds. The deer is exhibited at Rifenberg’s Market,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 12.
• “George Suprenant, taxidermist, has been doing a lively business this deer hunting season. … Deer are more plentiful along Lake George this season than for a number of years,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 12.
• “Bert Turner has returned from his vacation in the Hamilton County wilderness. He was one of a party of seven who spent ten days on a hunting trip,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 24. “They shot nine deer, bringing one each out the woods.”
• “John Frazer, who lives at the head of Northwest Bay, Lake George, killed two deer last week, one of which weighed 300 pounds and the other more than 200 pounds,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 5. “Mr. Frazer sold his interest in the larger animal for $1.50 (the equivalent of $54.13 in 2024 dollars) to two hunters who accompanied him.”

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