Cornelius Hengen
"Hunting in Otter Tail County 100 Years Ago"
from "East Otter Tail County History, Volume II"
©1994
My mother, Mary Revering, passed away two years ago, at the age
of 102 years. Born in Effington Township, Otter Tail County, she
often related tales of hunting in the area, in the first decade
of this century.
Most elderly women don't know what a sharp tail grouse is, but
mother recalled her grandfather hunting them. That would be
Cornelius Hengen,
who himself lived to the age of 101, passing away in 1925. This
was in the vicinity of Urbank, Minnesota, an inland town (no
railroad) in the south central part of Otter Tail County. Apparently
Cornelius Hengen
hunted deer, rabbits, and ducks, as well as sharp tails around
Urbank, as mother surely had a rich treasure of hunting stories.
They were accounts of
grandfather Hengen
and three of her brothers, who also were hunters. They were the
sons of
John
and
Anna Kraemer.
They were John, George, and Matt Kraemer.
Mr. Hengen,
of course, hunted in an era unparalleled in mid America. He told
mother of the countless numbers of passenger pigeons, the market
hunting for ducks, geese, upland plover, sharp tails, ruffed grouse
and the abundant rabbits, prairie chickens.
October is the month of the Indian Summer. When it arrived,
Cornelius Hengen
was ready with his L.C. Smith double barreled shotgun, hand loaded
shotgun shells, game bags, all loaded upon a farm wagon drawn by
a team of horses. He, and his nephews, were all to hunt sharp
tails in the meadows. Birds were incredibly abundant in the Urbank
area, and there were not any limits, no hunting season, no licenses.
If, in the aforementioned Indian Summer, the weather turned
unseasonably warm, it was necessary to carry a large quantity of
ice, in order to keep the birds cooled down. The ice was cut the
previous winter from nearby lakes, such as Arken, Lake Jessie,
George, or Block's Lake. My mother and her sisters, my aunts:
Helen, Barbara, Anna, and Mary. The sisters accompanied the
hunters retrieving the downed grouse, and putting them on the
ice in the wagons.
The grouse were firmly ensconced in the tall prairie grass. The
farm dogs found the grouse quickly, and the shooting was fast
and furious. The girls, my mother included, picked up the birds
and helped the dogs in their retrieves. The wagons would move
along briskly, and the shooting was sometimes continuing for
quite a spell, when large coveys of the sharp tails were
encountered. The grouse were feeding in wheat stubble, and
after experiencing some gunning, began to flush more wildly.
Sometimes they would not hold to the dogs' point, and it was
necessary for the hunters to fire at long range.
The side-by-side double-barreled shotguns were equal to the job.
Some times the hunters had the new Winchester shotgun shells,
which were factory loaded, sometimes they used their hand loaded
shells. Ten gauge Winchester shotguns were common, and the guns
were invariably long of barrel, and full choked.
Soon there were fifty birds in the wagon, on the ice. They were
covered with straw they'd brought along, and covered with a
tarpaulin. Occasionally a prairie chicken was gunned down. These
birds with their delicious white meat were considered quite a
delicacy on the table and they were kept separate, destined to
be enjoyed at the
Kraemer
dining table when they returned.
Sometimes these would be taken to nearby Parker’s Prairie, to be
sold to the market. These birds would be shipped to the fine hotels
in Minneapolis, and brought a premium price. Buyers were also in
business at Fergus Falls.
Now it was evening and the hunters were perhaps thirty miles from
their home. A stone and sod farmhouse stood in a small clearing
near Henning. The hunters were welcomed by the homesteader and
invited to dinner. Some of the fresh sharptails and a prairie
chicken were quickly defeathered by the girls - my mother saying
she didn't mind this work and-prepared for the table.
The farmer would go into his smokehouse, cut the twine on a large
ham, with the meat falling from the rafter into his hands. Along
with potatoes, sweet corn, baking powder biscuits, the sharp tail
grouse, homemade bread, and apple pie, the hunters were indeed
well fed. Under the stars in the farmyard, they covered up with
blankets after the dogs had been fed bread and meat scraps.
A return trip the next day was usually successful in securing yet
additional sharp tails and in late afternoon they would be back
at Urbank. The take was more than 150 birds. Some of the birds
would be canned after cooking, for winter meat. Other birds found
their way to neighboring farms, or into the town.
Later in the week, the party would set out once again, for yet
more grouse. A dressed prairie chicken would fetch 15 cents on the
wild game market, a princely sum in those days in 1910, in Otter
Tail County, Minnesota. Wild game supplied a mainstay of meat for the
John Kraemer
family in those days, and although the take of
game was large, it may be assured that all of the meat was
diligently used by the hunters. My mother, up to her last days,
enjoyed relating accounts of early day hunting with her
grandfather and her brothers.
E-mail: dwagner2@isd.net
©2002 DJW
Last Modified:
February 18, 2002