Small game hunting — 1894

Inexperienced small game hunters should have a backup plan for supper.

“Local lovers of sport are making the best of gunning season, and from the looks of the full bags of game, it is evident that the woods around Salem abound with partridges and squirrel,” the Salem correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Sept. 28, 1894. “Not everyone, however, who shoulders a gun is expert enough to bag the game, and not infrequently, weary hunters can be seen returning after a long day’s tramp with not even a small squirrel.”

Experienced hunters need a backup plan, too.

“The Hunting Club, the members of which are W. B. Griffin, Norman R. Gourley, Dr. J. I. Henning and Robert McClellan, were pleasantly entertained at Mr. and Mrs. Griffin’s Monday evening at a ‘game’ supper,” The Morning Star reported on Dec. 12. “For several years it has been the custom of the club to go on an annual hunt, and the game secured was cooked and served to their friends by Mr. and Mrs. Griffin. … This year they did not secure any game, but a small porker was secured, and they had the supper just the same.”

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

• “Levi H. Wing brought home five fine gray squirrels as a result on Labor Day. This is the first of the season that has been reported,” the Fort Edward correspondent reported in The Morning Star of Glens Falls on Sept. 5.
• “Squirrels are plentiful,” the West Mountain correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Sept. 22. “One of our local Nimrods has twenty-six gray tails as a proof of his luck so far.”
• “A dozen plump gray squirrels were in the bag of District Attorney Jenks and Sheriff Reed during a hunting trip to French Mountain yesterday afternoon,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 6.
• “Henry Stevenson of Glens Falls, who was here hunting the other day, got thirteen gray squirrels,” the West Mountain correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 1.
• “The Seven Staples fox hunters have already captured thirteen foxes this winter,” The Granville Sentinel reported on Dec. 14.

Click here to read the most recent previous hunting history post.