Illinois, late in 1819, wrote, “I bought several 
[deer] in the winter, the greater part without their 
skins, at one dollar each, but one or two higher; 
one weighed more than 100 lb. weight. They 
generally weigh from 60 1b. to 100 1b. A good skin 
is worth fifty cents: their horns, though large, are 
of no value here.” Of life in Pike County, Illinois, 
in 1831, Rebecca Burlend (1848:22) reported, 
“Mr. Oakes. . . . came to invite my husband to 
buy some venison, which he had killed with his 
tifle just before.” Mrs. Burlend’s husband bought 
“a quantity of nice venison at a halfpenny per 
pound.” Jones (1838:213) described what appeared 
to be a somewhat wasteful exploitation: “Immense 
numbers of deer are killed every year by the 
hunters, who take them for the hams and skins 
alone, throwing away the rest of the carcase. 
Venison hams and hides are important articles of 
export. Fresh hams usually sell at from seventy- 
five cents to one dollar and fifty cents a pair, and 
when properly cured, are a delicious article of 
food.” 
In the early part of the nineteenth century, 
use of the deer resource had not progressed to the 
point where many herds were being greatly de- 
pleted; in fact, many herds were showing popu- 
lation increases. Some time prior to 1853, a 
tapering off of peak numbers must have been 
evident in the northern and northeastern parts of 
the state. In that year, the state legislature 
passed a law which prohibited the killing of deer 
between January 1 and July 20 in the following 
counties: Lake, McHenry, Boone, Winnebago, 
Ogle, De Kalb, Kane, Du Page, Cook, Will, Ken- 
dall, La Salle, Grundy, Stephenson, and Sangamon 
(Purple 1856:391). 
It seems reasonable to believe that increas- 
ingly restrictive laws governing the hunting of 
deer reflected continued reduction in their numbers, 
In 1855 a closed season between January 15 and 
August 1 became effective throughout the state, 
except for designated counties, most of them in 
the lower parts of the Illinois and Embarrass river 
valleys and the southern one-fourth of the state 
(Purple 1856:391-2). This trend in law making 
suggests a noticeable falling off of the northern 
and central Illinois herds. Yet Bogardus was 
quoted by Leopold (1931:194) as stating that deer 
were “exceedingly plentiful” when, in 1857, he 
first arrived in Illinois (Menard County, one of the 
counties not included in the 1855 legislation). 
The major reduction of the deer population 
which had been built up during the early days of 
settlement took place probably between 1850 and 
1870. The human population in Illinois increased 
from 55,211 in 1820 to 1,300,251 in 1855 (Gerhard 
1857:218). During the next 15 years, the popu- 
lation increased to 2,539,891. The tremendous 
increases in human population greatly accelerated 
the clearing of the wilderness that remained (Cole 
1919:1). While openings created in the forests by 
the early pioneers provided the means for deer 
population growth, the industriousness of settlers 
and farmers of a later period increased the tempo 
of the clearing process to the point where suitable 
deer food and shelter were greatly curtailed. The 
destruction of deer habitat, together with the 
killing of deer for food and sport, and possibly for 
protection of crops, resulted eventually in a great- 
ly reduced deer population. 
During the middle of the nineteenth century, 
the deer herds in Iowa, southern Wisconsin, and 
Indiana were also undergoing reductions in num- 
bers. In Iowa, deer were taken in large numbers 
by the settlers, and many were slaughtered shortly 
after the severe blizzard of 1856; with more in- 
tensive land use they were greatly reduced in 
numbers (Scott 1937:83). In southern Wisconsin, 
heavy hunting and “the tremendous human impact 
on the land” were thought by Swift (1946:16) to 
have been primary reasons for the decline in deer 
numbers there. In Indiana, the decrease in deer 
numbers was found by Barnes(1945:5) to have been 
the result of clearing the land for a predominantly 
agricultural state. 
In 1873, the Illinois legislature by statute 
prohibited the killing of deer anywhere in the 
state between January 1 and August 15 (Hurd 
1874:547). This statute seems to indicate that 
the southern as well as the northern herds had 
been greatly reduced in numbers by about 1870. 
By 1901, the deer population must have reached 
a very low level, for the legislature provided com- 
plete protection throughout the state for 5 years 
(Hurd 1901:963) and it has continued to give 
complete protection since that time. 
Although it has not been established that 
deer were entirely extirpated from all sections 
of Illinois, it seems probable that “the last deer 
seen” progressed, by counties, from north to south. 
Leopold (1931:191, map) recorded no wild deer 
for the northern half of Illinois after 1874. His 
sutvey indicated that the last northern Illinois 
deer seen was in Ford County. It is possible, 
however, that deer existed in Illinois in the vi- 
cinity of the Kankakee River at a still later date. 
Barnes (1945:5) wrote, “Even as late as 1878, 
sixty-five of these animals [deer] were bagged in 
5 
