Who Were The Longhunters?

last fall Ryan and I spent a weekend with a wonderful group of guys down in Kentucky we had a lot of very interesting conversations we did have one conversation with Simeon England about long hunters and market hunters here it is so I've got Simeon England here Thank You Simeon for coming in and I I've got a question that I've know folks would really be interested in that is tell me about what's really going on with long hunters what is the time period and who are these guys the long hunters really started the period started in the 1760s and would go quite a bit up to the 80s 1780s really and and these guys are guys that are a lot of them wouldn't necessarily like the farm you know they're on the edge of the frontier and they're maybe their family farm but they didn't really like it they would be you know maybe like the roam the woods and and also a little bit of adventurous spirit to be out because they know that this is Indian land and then you know and it's dangerous out here but but they would come out sometimes in the in the fall and and winter here and then in hunt they didn't really like to take the winter hides I'd like to take more of the summer hides and put in your Red Deer uh-huh and they would be going for longer periods of time than than just a normal hunt right so it isn't necessarily a particular oh we're gonna do this in the winter time because the bet hides were better in the summer time that's correct yeah and they're and they're trapping and they're they're hunting bear and things like that in the mean time so they're they're not just hunting the Virginia red there for the skins or they're doing other things while they're out here so if the 1760s 1780s is their time period what's our geographic spot that we're really kind of concentrating on yeah I think they're coming out of Virginia through the gap they're hunting Kentucky Tennessee and they can be even in Illinois they're trading hides Kaskaskia which is right on the Mississippi River so you know those those three states in a general region there so are they consistently having an antagonistic relationship with the Native Americans or is it mixed or it is mixed some of them didn't didn't have any trouble at all when would come and hunt and no trouble and then make it all the way back home but their hides and boon got robbed I know three times at least so so sometimes there was trouble and sometimes there was alright so maybe you had to do it different regions or how different people interacted with them or and different sized groups I mean sometimes the groups are can be as small as eight or ten and sometimes there's there's group we think that maybe 35 or 40 hunter Siegel is a big group right so they're gonna be sort of more protected where people would might not mess with 30 or 40 guys whereas they would with just a small group correct okay so was this a profitable thing you think I think it was very profitable yeah it was it was enough it was enough profit for a potential farmer to leave all of that farm work come here for for a maybe half a year yeah and go back and have more money than than what he was gonna make at the farm so maybe he does this it's like I'm gonna risk my life doing this for a couple years so I have money to buy a better farm or a different place well and sometimes you would come I mean there's there's Ledger's that guys would would come and didn't have a gun so they would sign for a gun I don't work the gun off and I continue to work and make more money and and then you know quit whenever they were done and hopefully take the gun depending on how much alcohol they bought in the meantime and or sell the gun back before they left sure sure and and there is a certain portion of this kind of thing helping to settle this area also these guys you know maybe maybe making land claims doing two things at once sir I think it is yeah I think that the boon was certainly surveying the land in his mind as he was hunting and trying to figure out where he wanted to go and where he wanted to land there are people that come and settle in these areas because of they were here because they knew the land already that's correct so that I know a really good spot yes yes as the and and a lot of them came back to spots that they saw while they were while they were hunting they wanted to come back and and we need to get back to that spot so we can explore that more right or maybe I've got experience as a long under Oh now all these people are gonna want to settle in this area and I'm the guide to get them into that spot correct yeah yeah and burn Boone he laid clam two bunches of land that he ended up losing but he had claimed to a lot of land in Kentucky mm-hmm so we might have a misrepresentation of maybe kind of what it would have been like there what do you what do you think that situation would have felt like there camp situation what we think well I think our modern times I mean I think that generally by and large is the absence of horses and animals yeah and we don't have a lot of times the resources to be able to recreate that but if you figure we have to bring everything in and we have to bring hides out and so if you figure at least 300 person at least right now we're talking what some of those were a lot a much more like eight we hoard yes yes at least three and sometimes as much as that I mean that that is that is the introduction that into our mindset that we are we are missing a lot of animals and dogs too there's there's gonna be a lot of hunting dogs there's inside of a camp there's gonna be a lot of smell there's gonna be a lot of working of hides there's gonna be a lot of meat I mean that's what's feeding the dogs don't want me wrong but but there's a lot of carcass you know slash just working the meat there's a clothes there's a lot of grease there's a lot of Filth involved when rough these are rough they're probably wearing out their clothing they're all greasy and grimy and stinky and Wow yeah I smell alone what would probably you know maybe maybe keep an enemy or where - yeah but yeah I'm surprised there's not a camp called skunk camp or something right so yeah it's it this is this weekend has been really interesting cuz it's helped me envision that better I mean it's not perfect we can't get there in a perfect way but you know every time we set ourselves in this situation and we can get some horses in here and some dogs and you know all that that goes on a little bit of hunting a little bit of this it's just really interesting well and if you figure this would be a little section off of a station at camp yeah if we were a group of 40 and there were eight or ten hunters in one area this this would be a good representation of that so when I when I think about this some of the readings that I've done lately something like Cresswell's journal it's really interesting because he you know he travels down the ohio up the kentucky and they get into this back sort of camp station I think it's Harrodsburg and he's running into this it's a very rough spot it seems like it's probably a station or you know a hunting you know large camp there they're not necessarily there for settling there they're doing something did yes is that connect they're working doing a job and they're there their aspect is we are here now we're living here but we are going back yeah with our money and so we're doing a job that I mean almost like in modern times that we when we get done we're going to clock off and we're gonna go back home and that's that's kind of their mindset so they they want to be you know comfortable here but been able to work a lot and been able to kill a lot and they're they're moving it around a lot to work a game out and they aren't there and they're following the deer and moving their smaller camps and and and then packing the hides and then and it's always in their mind how many can we pack into a pack and load onto a horse and take off and they've only got so much transport see me and tell me a little bit about what you do at least connected with what we're doing here yeah I've always loved history in the aspect of this time period and once I found it about the age of thirteen or fourteen it was you know it's almost like this is what I'm supposed to be doing hang and I didn't start doing it well until until I met my what I call my hobby mentor and his name's Kurt Schmidt and and he had researched a lot of this and he took me from from doing it pretty bad to doing it Mike pretty good yeah yeah and and and allowed me to skip all of those steps so I think it's really important to have a mentor if you're if you're interested to get into this this kind of a thing to get especially the mindset if you can get the mindset you know connected and in in your mind to what they were dealing with on a personal level I think easier to do without the modern things and to put all of that stuff away not worry about the connection that we have every day and every every second of the day and and want to come out and do this and a disconnect and connect here that's right right and I want to feel what they were feeling here right and maybe we can't we can't know that we've gotten there perfectly but we can certainly try and that's that's right yeah we can read and study and do the best that we can okay this person went through this and he made it he left so what did he learn from that attack that ambush that problem getting his powder what there what happened to what what was his difficulties he comes along the way yes right how he's changed at the end yes yeah and you build guns I build guns knives knives axes yeah where can people see the kind of stuff you make Facebook about Facebook's I mean England will put up will put a link down in the description section so you can check out Simeon's Facebook page thank you so much you're welcome thank you

Channel: Townsends

Views: 428,178

Keywords: townsends, jas townsend and son, reenacting, history, 18th century, 19th century, jon townsend, 18th century cooking, pathfinder school, practical survival skills, 18th century study, self reliance, long hunter

Id: nt0OUVnx-y4

Length: 9min 51sec (591 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 27 2019