I don’t have anything against wolves. I admire them for their tenacity to stay on this planet in spite of ongoing efforts to kill them. I also am indebted to them because our dogs are descendants and I have always owned dogs. There was a time, not that long ago, when wolves struck terror in local citizens.
Abraham Snethen, the Barefoot Preacher— Book Reviewed by Abraham Lincoln—I wrote this book review a number of years ago. See what you think:
*This book is available at the Brookville Historical Society In Brookville, Ohio. Abraham Snethen was born in 1794. After he married he moved to Montgomery County, Ohio. If he was 25 when he married, that would put him in the county around 1819 or 1820. His arrival in the county depends on the age he was married. He would be one of the earliest settlers in Clay Township.
Abraham Snethen was born on January 15, 1794*, and after his marriage, moved into Montgomery County, Ohio along the east side of what is now Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek Pike were not named after the wolves that lived around here, but maybe they were because the wolves were here in great numbers. I have records from Gordon, Ohio where I was born that wolves prowled the chicken coupes and vegetable gardens at night and their howling sent chills down the backs of the local residents.
Arlington Road just north of the present Baltimore - Phillipsburg Road is where Abraham Snethen once lived. While living there, he also worked on another claim farther west when he had the time. He often traveled before daylight and returned after dark.
He said, “When traveling after night, I most always carried a torch of hickory bark, which not only enabled me to see my way, but with it I could protect myself from the wolves, for at that time the wolves abounded in great numbers everywhere, and would, when hungry attack a man, and woe be to the hapless fellow if he had no means of defense. They were afraid of the light, and one was comparatively safe, as long as his torches glared in the darkness.
Wolves attacked Abraham Snethen and they nearly cost him his life. “I had gone quite a distance from home to help a neighbor by the name of Jake Tillman, butcher a hog. It was late in the evening when the work was completed, and I got started homeward. I had half a hog on my back, and had gotten within calling distance of the house when the wolves which had scented the meat, began to howl all around me. I had not forgotten my experience with the wild hogs, and knew from that, what I might expect from the wolves.
“I bent every energy, and ran with all my might toward the house, for I was anxious to save my meat as well as my life, but I soon found that I could not save both, and possibly neither.
“The woods seemed full of wolves, as it had of wild hogs on the night they attacked me. I threw my meat to them, and hoped they would stop to eat it and thus allow me to escape. I was disappointed for among so many there was scarcely a bite apiece for them, and so while a few stopped to quarrel over the meat, and devour it, the main pack pursued me. It was indeed a race for life, with the odds greatly in favor of the wolves. I chanced to run against a sapling and at once saw the means of my deliverance. I climbed the sapling in a twinkling, but not before the wolves had torn one leg of my pants off, and had bitten me severely.
“No sooner had I secured my own safety, than I realized the danger to my wife, for I well knew that the howling devils, would soon leave me, and assault the cabin. I cried at the top of my voice, which rose above the din of the yelping pack, and my wife hearing, responded. I told her that I was in a tree, and safe enough, and that she must bar the door, and do it quickly, too, for the whole pack would soon set off for the house, which they did, and with a dismal howl which chilled the blood to my veins, but my wife had acted quickly, and the pack came up against a door securely barred.
“I stayed in the tree until daylight. It was a very cold night, and with all my effort to keep from freezing, I only partially succeeded, for at break of day when the wolves slunk back into the gloom of the forest, my wife came out to help me down, I found that I was quite badly frozen, and actually stiff from the cold.”
Note: The year the treaty was signed in Fort GreeneVille (1795) found the buffalo and elk entirely disappeared from the country east of the Wabash River. Wolves, panthers, and wildcats were especially annoying to the settlers. Rewards were paid for wolf scalps but they persisted and would attack and drive unarmed men into the trees. They often came into the settlements in packs, driving women and children into their cabins. At night their howling could be heard in great numbers. They reportedly ate garden vegetables and destroyed pigs and poultry.
Abraham Snethen, the Barefoot Preacher— Book Reviewed by Abraham Lincoln—I wrote this book review a number of years ago. See what you think:
*This book is available at the Brookville Historical Society In Brookville, Ohio. Abraham Snethen was born in 1794. After he married he moved to Montgomery County, Ohio. If he was 25 when he married, that would put him in the county around 1819 or 1820. His arrival in the county depends on the age he was married. He would be one of the earliest settlers in Clay Township.
Abraham Snethen was born on January 15, 1794*, and after his marriage, moved into Montgomery County, Ohio along the east side of what is now Wolf Creek and Wolf Creek Pike were not named after the wolves that lived around here, but maybe they were because the wolves were here in great numbers. I have records from Gordon, Ohio where I was born that wolves prowled the chicken coupes and vegetable gardens at night and their howling sent chills down the backs of the local residents.
Arlington Road just north of the present Baltimore - Phillipsburg Road is where Abraham Snethen once lived. While living there, he also worked on another claim farther west when he had the time. He often traveled before daylight and returned after dark.
He said, “When traveling after night, I most always carried a torch of hickory bark, which not only enabled me to see my way, but with it I could protect myself from the wolves, for at that time the wolves abounded in great numbers everywhere, and would, when hungry attack a man, and woe be to the hapless fellow if he had no means of defense. They were afraid of the light, and one was comparatively safe, as long as his torches glared in the darkness.
Wolves attacked Abraham Snethen and they nearly cost him his life. “I had gone quite a distance from home to help a neighbor by the name of Jake Tillman, butcher a hog. It was late in the evening when the work was completed, and I got started homeward. I had half a hog on my back, and had gotten within calling distance of the house when the wolves which had scented the meat, began to howl all around me. I had not forgotten my experience with the wild hogs, and knew from that, what I might expect from the wolves.
“I bent every energy, and ran with all my might toward the house, for I was anxious to save my meat as well as my life, but I soon found that I could not save both, and possibly neither.
“The woods seemed full of wolves, as it had of wild hogs on the night they attacked me. I threw my meat to them, and hoped they would stop to eat it and thus allow me to escape. I was disappointed for among so many there was scarcely a bite apiece for them, and so while a few stopped to quarrel over the meat, and devour it, the main pack pursued me. It was indeed a race for life, with the odds greatly in favor of the wolves. I chanced to run against a sapling and at once saw the means of my deliverance. I climbed the sapling in a twinkling, but not before the wolves had torn one leg of my pants off, and had bitten me severely.
“No sooner had I secured my own safety, than I realized the danger to my wife, for I well knew that the howling devils, would soon leave me, and assault the cabin. I cried at the top of my voice, which rose above the din of the yelping pack, and my wife hearing, responded. I told her that I was in a tree, and safe enough, and that she must bar the door, and do it quickly, too, for the whole pack would soon set off for the house, which they did, and with a dismal howl which chilled the blood to my veins, but my wife had acted quickly, and the pack came up against a door securely barred.
“I stayed in the tree until daylight. It was a very cold night, and with all my effort to keep from freezing, I only partially succeeded, for at break of day when the wolves slunk back into the gloom of the forest, my wife came out to help me down, I found that I was quite badly frozen, and actually stiff from the cold.”
Note: The year the treaty was signed in Fort GreeneVille (1795) found the buffalo and elk entirely disappeared from the country east of the Wabash River. Wolves, panthers, and wildcats were especially annoying to the settlers. Rewards were paid for wolf scalps but they persisted and would attack and drive unarmed men into the trees. They often came into the settlements in packs, driving women and children into their cabins. At night their howling could be heard in great numbers. They reportedly ate garden vegetables and destroyed pigs and poultry.