Greene County PA News Articles
He Was Pursued with Malice an Inoffensive Citizen Driven from His House Which is Then Burned (News Article)
Date: 1891-01-05; Paper: The Philadelphia Inquirer
An Inoffensive Citizen Driven From His House, Which is Then Burned
Waynesburg, Jan 4. - A few nights ago a house belonging to David Kennedy, two miles from Mt. Morris, was burned to the ground by incendiaries. Mr. Kennedy had removed from the house only a few days before he burning.
He is a quiet, inoffensive citizen, and has been in poor health for a number of years. For some time past evil-disposed persons in the neighborhood had annoyed him by malicious acts, so that to avoid their annoyance he moved out of the neighborhood. The burning of his house is believed to be another act of these malicious persons. - Contributed by Michelle Kennedy Byrd
Republican Compiler (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania) January 12 1825
From the Waynesburg Messenger.
The vast devastation of Sheep made by the Wolves in the south-west part of Greene county, for upwards of two years, had, at the opening of last spring, become a subject of alarm among those who yet had flocks left them, and a matter of serious consideration among the few who desired to see the means of comfort and convenience increase in the county.
A circular hunt was at length proposed as the best method of destroying the wolves; and no sooner was it publicly spoken of as practicable, than there was an almost unanimous outcry for its execution. Arrangements were accordingly made, which have been before the public.
The day (20th May last) fixed for the hunt, arrived. It was preceded by a clear, frosty night, during which the captains, upwards of two hundred, with their respective commands of ten men each, were encamped, with very few exceptions, at their respective stations, seventy-three in number, two hundred rods apart; forming a circle of forty-five miles. The morning was serene and the sky clear; and as soon as the disk of the sun was visible, the signal was blown from the top of a high conic hill, and passing on the left, returned on the right in twenty-two minutes. The second passed round in eight minutes, and the third in fifteen.
The whole lines then marched towards the centre, where they closed between one and two o'clock, with about one hundred deer, two wolves, and three foxes enclosed. The wolves escaped amidst a volley of rifle shot, that in appearance would have defied the escape of a wren. The deer and the foxes, however, afforded a delightful and enchanting sport; and few there were who did not enjoy it.
Deer, however numerous the flock, always run in a row upon the track of their leader. The centre circle was over half a mile in diameter and thickly covered with forest trees, affording ample play ground for the game, and safety in the hunters. There was an unanimous observance of order and prudence. The men lined the circle at about five feet distance from each other, and almost everyone had a rifle.
The deer kept almost constantly in motion until shot down; and mostly at fullest speed along in front of the lines, within easy rifle shot, in gangs of from ten to twenty in a line; and the successive discharge of the rifles being equal to the speed of the deer, produced one continuous sheet of sound until their line was shot down, or fled into the centre out of reach. Six or eight of these flights of discharge were going on at once. At one place the leader of a file of deer, made a bold push at the line, knocked down the man standing in his course, and let out all his followers in safety.
In about an hour and a half all were down that did not escape. Upwards of an hundred deer were killed, and three red foxes, one of which was the last thing shot. In less than an hour after his death there were not fifty men near the ground, they having retired in good order, without having witnessed a quarrel or an unpleasant accident, and in a universal glow of good humor.
About fifteen wolves were seen during the advance of the lines, but it is not known that any of them were killed. Several scalps having been since brought to the Commissioners for premium, the deaths of which being dated about the time of the hunt, a suspicion arose that some of the old frontier hunters, who were discovered far in advance of the lines during the march, killed wolves, and concealed them. It is hoped this is true, and it is corroborated by the fact that so far as we can learn from inquiry, a dozen sheep have not been killed since in that boundary. Before that as many as thirty have been killed at a place in one night.
The last hunt (24th Nov.) was not so successful. A few ill-natured and selfish ones, near the hunting ground raised a hostility against it, and by uttering threats of vengeance against those who should come to the line on the frontier next Virginia, so intimidated many who were appointed to that line, that they did not attend their stations, by which vacancies were left where the game all escaped, and not a thing was closed in the centre. More than three thousand men attended, who retired from the ground with general decorum.
A good many deer were killed on the march by persons forming the lines. And as there was a frequent discharge of rifles considerably in advance of the lines, and signs of slaughter were seen, it is presumed many deer were killed by the skulking opposers of the hunt, and concealed.
The original design of the hunt, however, is probably effected, as there is no certain intelligence of a wolf having been seen since the last hunt.
The travelling of the men through the woods to their stations; the keeping up large fires at most stations all night; the hallooing of the men during the night, for few of them slept any; the blowing of the horns, and discharge of fire arms so much, in all parts of the wood land, with the smell of gunpowder, had, no doubt, had a tendency to alarm the wolves, and frighten them quite out of the limits of the county. Add to this, the spirit of circular hunts, including circles of eight or ten miles, are forming numerously; and two have taken place since the 24th Nov. on and near the original ground, which will tend to keep up the alarm and convince the wolves of the continuance of the danger.
-- Contributed by Nancy Piper
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