page_0005

The remains of the Elk, (horns & bones) were to be seen on
the Prairie hereabout, when I first came to the state, and so late
as the autumn of 1820, some were found and killed on the south
side of the Sangamon river, between Springfeild & the Illinois river

For several years later, they were not uncommon, in the hilly regions
in the northwest of our state, and in the parts of Wisconsin adjoining

The Buffalo had once abounded so ^here, and so lately that its bones were
in a decayed state, strewn thickly all over the country, adjoining the
Illinois river, in its northern part So plentiful were they
in various places, that a common sized wagon box, might have
been filled from with the bones, found on a lot of less than five acres;
but time has so effectivelly wrought, that a solitary reminant can now
be scarcely be found.

I frequently enquired of the Fur traders and Indians, about their manifest
destruction, and about the date of their latest appearance in Illinois; but
found no one that could tell with certainty, any thing about it

From an Indian chief of the Potawatamies, who said he was born and
raised in the region of Peoria, and who was taken with others & kept at
St. Louis as hostages, during the war of 1812 to 15; I learned that he
had never seen Buffalo east of the Mississippi - With relation
to the bones so plentifully dispersed over the Prairies, he said that
the old people, told, that many years before a great snow had fallen,
so deep (holding his hand above his head) that all the Buffalo had
perished, and that since that time, they had never come into Ill.

As late as 1798 my father hunted them, in the central western
parts of Ohio, at and previous to that ^which time they were common
there, in their annual migrations; but immediately after ceased
with a solitary exception, to be known in the State

During the autumn of 1804 a solitary old bull (supposed
to have come from the north west) made his apperance in
the settlements, bordering the Ohio river, and after a well
sustained chase, was killed within a few miles of my birth
place, in the Southwest part of the state

From these data I think it probable that Buffalo have
not ranged in Illinois during the present century

Yours respectfully
Smiley Shepherd