19th century hunting — Antlers for W.W. Durant’s yacht

“A fine buck, weighing 296 ½ pounds, was recently killed by Commodore Bradley of Raquette Lake. The buck is the largest ever shot in this section,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Nov. 12, 1890. “The antlers, which have seven points on each side, will be set up for W.W. Durant’s yacht, in which he and his family will start next June for a cruise around the world.”

In other 19th century hunting news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “It is reported that wild ducks and geese were never so plentiful on Lake Champlain as they are this season,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 18, 1890. “And the sportsmen are having the best of luck.”
• “Deacon Bolton of Horicon shot and killed a bear that was swimming across Brant Lake the other day,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 21, 1893. “William Stevens, son of William B. Stevens, while hunting on West Mountain yesterday morning shot and killed a fox weighing about twenty-five pounds. This is said by local sportsmen to be the first to be killed heretofore this season.”
• “S.B. Chamberlain returned from the north woods on Saturday last with a four-year-old buck weighing 235 pounds, dressed, which he captured the first day out. The prize was the center of attraction in Mr. Chamberlain’s neighborhood,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 25, 1893. “The world’s fair sinks into insignificance to him when compared with the trophy of his first deer hunt.”
• “Amasa Howland and party will return today from a week’s hunting trip at Lake Champlain,” The Morning Star reported on Sept. 30, 1893. “They sent twenty grey squirrels to be distributed among their friends yesterday.”
• “Lyman J. West went to Harrisburgh Tuesday on a deer hunt and returned Friday, bringing with him two of the largest bucks that have been brought out of the woods. Their combined weight was 538 pounds,” The Warrensburg correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 7, 1893. “Mr. West’s party hunted three days and killed four deer, which is considered the best of luck by everyone who knows anything about deer. The deer attracted a great deal of attention at the express office here.”
• “Hunting parties are fast leaving the woods,” the Indian Lake correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 14, 1893. “Some twenty-two deer passed through this place Tuesday and Wednesday.”
• “There was exhibited yesterday at J.O. Leary’s Warren Street market (in Glens Falls) a good-sized black bear which was killed at North Fort Ann Thursday by George Benton, a fourteen-year-old boy at that place,” The Morning Star reported on Nov. 9, 1893.