By: Stan Jordan
The city of Fort Wayne is contemplating making a River Road Way there in that part of town, after the three rivers come together and form the Maumee River. They plan on spending 20 million dollars on the project, maybe even a little more.
Right here in the Antwerp area, we can have a River Road Way with a lot less money, maybe a little help from the state of Ohio.
Right now we have good access to the river for canoes and kayaks. The powers-that-be are working on a new marina down at Forders Bridge.
That’d make a good jaunt if you put in here at the Antwerp Park and drift downstream to the Forders Bridge Marina.
Right now you can use a canoe and kayaks and some smaller pontoon boats, but when the water level is low in summer you might have trouble with the rocks. If you have a longer, heavier boat – I know of a few riffles in the river that would cause you trouble.
If we could get a grant or maybe the Army Corps of Engineers would come and, in the riffles or where the water is low, take a crane and dig out a passage through that spot. As a rule those riffles are not very long. Maybe only dip it out to 2-3 feet any and all float boats would slide right on through.
Yes, I know that sounds like a big job, but just think of the recreation possibilities that we have here.
We must start somewhere, so why not now.
See ya!
The Maumee Catfish
By: Stan Jordan
A few weeks ago I wrote a column about Mayor Ray DeLong and fishing for some of those monster catfish in the Maumee.
I also talked about taking the boy out of the country. Well I am going to write another column about how you can’t take the country out of the boy and our local pastor Rick Grimes is our proof positive.
Rick helps out a lot here at the West Bend News and we talk fishing every time we get a chance. We talk about fishing the Maumee River when we were kids. I’m telling you, you don’t forget those school kid memories.
Rick says about the style of fishing for those giant shovel head catfish: They grow huge sizes, like a 40 pounder is sort of middle size. He also talked about a little live bait, worms and chicken inners, other bits of fish or anything to tempt those big rascals. He was telling about night fishing, that is very enjoyable if conditions are right.
There are different ways of trying to catch a big one. Ray DeLong says the best time is night fishing for a big catfish.
You can fish from a boat if you wish, with a light of some type, or you can fish from the bank.
Now I use to do some night fishing from the bank, with a nice fire and a seat of some type. But then when you have a bonfire, there are a lot of other things added, like a drink of some type, hot dogs maybe or maybe no fire and just a sandwich or maybe nothing.
See ya!
Something on the eagles
By: Stan Jordan
I was talking with Steve and Nancy Derck the other day and this is what Steve thinks.
Now their lots run 3 or 4 hundred feet back to the river and things are pretty quiet back there and they see both of the eagles pretty often.
Just the other day he saw the one come up off the fence row and it was carrying a good sized limb or twig. Steve watched him swing off to the south east toward the Antwerp Park.
Then a day or so later he saw the eagle soaring around the river and he had a limb in his claws. Steve made a point of watching where the eagle flew to. Steve said he flew back to the park area about where their other nest was. He wasn’t too sure, but he thinks the eagles are building a new nest off to the east a little from where the old nest was. But then he said, “I’m not too sure about the exact location” but he thinks it is on the north side of the river close to the old nest location.
Steve and Nancy’s lots run all the way to the river and they have a lot of rabbits and squirrels in the back yard and they have seen the birds pick up a rabbit for their next meal. Yes, that’s gory but that’s nature. Well now, this is Friday, May 19th and some folks told me that some eagles are building a nest on the Maumee a few miles east of Antwerp. They tell me it is after you go past Dead Man’s Curve and head north in the area of Willie Doll’s and the Les Hart place, that is on C.R. 424.
I went down that way, but I didn’t see any action, but there are a lot of trees there to block your view.
I guess we will just have to wait till fall, after the leaves are gone.
See ya!
Sam Rivers, Indian Agent Chapter 34: From the agency to the Fort
By: Stan Jordan
As the wagon came up to the gate the guard called out, “Who goes there?”
Rooster said, “Open the gate, Charlie, we have to get him to the infirmary in a hurry. Get me some help.”
The help arrived at the infirmary about the same time the wagon did. The boys got Callie down carefully. They thought she was the patient. They soon discovered I was covered up with straw in the wagon. There was some excitement all over the post. A few lanterns came and the boys carried me into the emergency room.
After Dr. Grooms examined me, he said aloud to all who helped me and were still in the room and anxious to know how I was. This is what they tell me because I was still unconscious. The doctor said, “I’m not sure but I don’t think he has a concussion. I think he took a hard blow to the head, and his numbers are good. The claws of the bear did not go very deep but a lot of trauma. We will keep Sam very quiet and warm for as long as it takes for him to come around. Now little lady, let’s take a look at you!” Then he said, “Nurse, can you please put Callie on the examining table in the next room?”
The old doctor felt Callie’s belly and moved around a bit and was very quiet about the whole situation.
He asked, “Callie, have you picked out a name for the baby yet?” Callie said they have discussed it.
Then doc said, “I think you should have two names.”
There was a moment of silence and Callie said, “Twins? Am I going to have twins?”
He said, “It surely looks like it to me. I have delivered a lot of babies in my time and I think I can feel two bodies in there. Are there any twins in your family?”
Callie said, “Yes, my mother was a twin.”
“Well little lady, I think we should plan on two babies and not too long from now either. I think all of the stress that you have gone through might have moved your due date up a little.”
Then he took off his white coat and said, “I’m going down to Post Exchange to get a stiff drink. I will drop in the first thing in the morning. Sam will be all right here and I want the nurse to fix you up in ward B for a few days.”
The news that Callie Rivers was going to have twins right here at the Post Hospital spread around like wild fire. The ladies were all excited and talking about what baby clothes they could lend to Callie.
One older lady said, “I knew she was going to have twins. I saw her get off the wagon.”
Well, I don’t know about that because Rooster said she still had her buffalo robe on when she got off the wagon. But I guess that lady was very adamant that she already knew. That was on Monday night when I got mauled by the bear. It was Tuesday night when they got me here to the hospital. They tell me that I moved a little on Thursday.
I guess I didn’t thrash around in bed. I moaned a lot for an hour or so, and then I opened my eyes, and I saw Rooster and Callie and they both told me what happened.
I said, “I guess I don’t remember anything, but then again I remember about seeing a bear. Gosh, I’m hungry.”
See ya!
NO. 9
HELP! HELP!
By: Stan Jordan
To all of my readers…
A few weeks ago, I was talking with a young man and he told me that he had seen a badger in the area. Well I am sure he did, because I have had other reports of seeing a badger here.
If that man sees this column, I wish he would stop into the West Bend News or call me, because I want to talk to him again, 419-258-2000.
See ya!
AUTO BY OTTO: 3
Memories
About the year 1897 we moved about a mile farther south were we leased 60 acres of woods for a period of 5 years from a Mrs. White, the terms of the lease was to clear this land of whatever timber and brush it contained and break the ground for farming which we received all we could raise during this period of five years. At the expiration of 5 years we leased it for two additional years for furnishing the tile and ditching the farm. This ground was very fertile, but we earned everything we raised, there being no demand for wood, choice trees were cut and rolled in large piles and burned, the choice of the larger trees was cut into timber. The main thing was to get rid of the wood by the quickest method which was burning it, breaking this soil was some job, it required heavy plows to cut through roots and tough swail grass sod, stump so thick you could hardly get the plow in the ground between them, but after the first year some of the roots and stump had rotted so the going was easier. During this time our home was a little cabin of two rooms with no ceiling, with rough boards nailed up and down and was it ever cold. On severe cold days the water would freeze in pail while we fired two stoves, a cook stove and a heater, but I don’t ever remember any of us being sick. During the first year our water was out of a hole I dug close to the house, all surface water, during heavy rains in the spring the water was from 6 in. to 18 all through the woods so we laid rail fence about our water hole so we could find it. After the season advanced and the ground began to dry. It was nothing unusual to find a drowned rat or mouse in the hole. Frogs and snakes were always on hand, by the following fall we dug a real well and walled it up with brick, but it was still mostly surface water. We lived her until 1903, during these years practically all of my time was spent in the woods, hunted every Sunday and always carried a shot gun to work, but I really don’t believe that the game at that time was as plentiful as now, deer and wild turkeys were gone, a few ruffles grouse still remained, the gray and black squirrel (in my early days, no gray’s, fox squirrels were very scarce around there, coon and skunk were quite common, as were mink and muskrats. I sold mink hides for 35 cent, muskrats for 9 to 11 cents, each skunk about 40 cents and a couple of coon skins I sold for 60 cents, although I don’t think that all of this fur was enough when it was just prime. opossum were very scarce, chipmunks were very common, they would dig up the sprouted corn almost as fast as we planted it along the edge of the woods so I to patrol that part of our farm early in the morning and late at night and shoot as many of them as possible during the planting season.
When I about twelve years old my father bought me a light muzzleloading single barrel shotgun from Frank Derck for $1.75, about 44 caliber. I was the proudest boy in America when I shouldered my gun and went forth to hunt, I remember that I bagged two red squirrels on my first hunt, perhaps there were game laws at that time but I had never heard of any, squirrel season opened up for me what the wheat was cut, rabbit season in September, while on young rabbits the season opened up when they were large enough to eat, quail I hunted the year around, although my quail hunting did not reduce the birds to any extent, with my old muzzle-loader about one shot was all I ever got in a flock, sometimes I would hit one, but not very often. I shot two or three grouse, also some wild ducks that used to stay in some of the low places in the woods in spring of the year, rabbits being the main hunting, in these earlier years I had shot two Shide-pokes (green heron) thinking they were wild ducks because of their long neck & bill and we ate them. Also shot a crane (Gt. blue heron) and tried to eat it, but I recall it was not very palatable owning to the fishy taste. In the latter minutes it was not uncommon to hear in the early spring the hoarse croaking of the ravens, I can only recall seeing them flying very high and always two or three of them. I don’t believe that I saw or heard any of them in this country. While we were clearing this White farm, we employed an old man, Gel Chaney, who was then well up in the seventies, who had always lived around in that locality making his living making hoops, hunting and trapping, to me he was a very interesting character. Many times he told me of shooting a number of black bear, the last one he shot was along the ravine, about two miles west of Antwerp at the junction of the present Route #24 and the river road on the east point of the now Charlie Graves farm, he would tell me about trapping and shooting wolves, panthers (which no doubt were wild cats) wild hogs and wild turkeys. He told me of shooting deer whenever the meat supply was low, the woods were full of them. He also told me of the migration of the gray squirrels, he said the hordes of them traveling toward the south , he witnessed when they came to the river (Maumee) they would unhesitatingly jump into the water and swim for the opposite shore. Some of them being so tired and worn out by the time they reached the shore they would lay upon the bank and he killed all he could carry with a club. He said after this migration there were no more squirrels. I don’t remember if he told when the migration occurred or not, at least I don’t remember. Another incident he told me was when his father was a young man, the Indians would steal from them and that his father and another young man shot an Indian and hung him suspended from his arms and legs between two trees over the trail leading to their settlement, but don’t know if that happened about here. Another incident he told me about was shooting fish, mostly pike and dog fish, a mile east of the Ohio – Indiana state line and about 40 rods south of the Wabash RR, this being the back water of the six mile reservoir on the farm now owned by J. F. Miller.
