Original Document

Among deer hunters, each section of our State has its local hero, its greatest deerslayer. Who the greatest of all in the Keystone State was or is, is still a mooted question. When Dr. Schoepf was traveling through the Commonwealth in 1783, he recorded in his "Travels" that many hunters killed as many as ten harts in- a day. Elias Scott, the most famous hunter in Northeastern Pennsylvania, who died at an advanced age in 1868, killed 11 in one day, 175 in one season and 3 at one shot. John Q. Dyce, of Clinton County, who died in 1904, shot 9 in one day, 98 in one season, and 3 at one shot. David Bryant, of Susquehanna County, killed 3 in one shot, and 1000 in 12 years. Jonathan Sabin, of the same county, killed 3 in one shot, and 7 with 5 shots. Daniel Spencer killed in the same county 1500 deer, and 60 with 1 pound of powder. …
 
Bill Long, born in Berks County in 1790, died in Clearfield County in 1880, held the marvelous record of having slain 3500 Pennsylvania deer. He killed 225 in one season, 6 in one day and 2 in one shot. He was ten years old when he killed his first deer. His son, Andy Jackson Long, who was born and died in Jefferson County, killed 1500 deer, including 100 in a season, 6 in a day, and 2 in one shot. "Jack"" Long died near Rumbarger (now DuBois) in 1900 at the age of 71 years. Samuel Askey, who died at Snow Shoe, Centre County, in 1857, at the age of 83 years, killed 2000 deer, of which 100 were killed in a single season and two at one shot. Seth Iredell Nelson, born in Union County in 1809, died at Round Island, Clinton County, in 1905, killed 1000 deer in his long career. As late as 1873, he killed 23 deer in one season. E. H. Dickinson, of McKean County, who killed his first deer in 1833, and his last one in 1887 just three years to a day before his death, slew over 1100 deer in the Pennsylvania forests.
 
George Smith, of Elk County, born in 1827, and who died in 1901, killed 3000 deer in Pennsylvania, including 7 in one day, and 2 at one shot. Nelson Gardner, of Elk County, killed, 1000 Pennsylvania deer, including 4 in one day, 125 in one season, and 2 at one shot. Daniel Karstetter was considered by many the greatest deer hunter on the northern border of the Seven Mountains. In his long career he killed 600 deer, including 4 in one day, and 2 at one shot. Marcus N. B. Killam, born in 1815, who died at Paupack, Pike County, in 1902, and who was the greatest deer hunter in northeastern Pennsylvania, killed 900 deer, including a superb buck which weighed, clean, 306 pounds. David A. Zimmerman, Sugar Valley's greatest deer hunter, who died in 1899 at the age of 78 years, killed 600 deer, and as many as 75 in one season. Nelson Tyrrell, of Bradford County, born in 1821, died in 1911, killed 500 deer, and 4 in one day. C. F. Herlacher, still living in Sugar Valley, has killed 400 Pennsylvania deer, and his neighbor, Jared Earner, has shot 210 deer. Aaron Hall, of Centre County, killed 500 deer, and 6 in one day. Scores of Pennsylvania hunters are living who have killed over a hundred deer.

Credit: Henry W. Shoemaker, Pennsylvania Deer and their Horns (Reading, PA: Faust Publishing Co.,1915), 41-6.