SETTING STEEL TRAPS 

 wer€ trappers and trapped many years after 

 their father had retired. There was another old 

 time hunter whose lochs were as white as the 

 driven snow when I first knew him. He had 

 settled on Long K[d<ge in the Pall of 1838, and 

 dug a cave in the side of the Ridge where he 

 lived for many years. f^ifty years ago this old 

 hunter was known as Uncle Frank Sweny. He 

 was the oldest residential hunter and trapper on 

 the -river, having commenced hunting on the 

 Kankakee as early as 1833. William Bissell, 

 one of thepioneer settlers of Porter county, spent 

 much time hunting on the Kankakee in the 

 early days. In the early Pall of 1847 Heck 

 Goodridge and his brother John built a shanty 

 on Prench Island. This was the first American 

 trapper's shanty. The Prench and Indian 

 hunters had settled on this island many years 

 before the arrival of the Goodridges and from 

 whence it derived its name. I will give more of 

 its early history later on. In 1852 John Broady 

 an early pioneer of this region, began trapping 



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