TRAPPERS' CLAIMS 

 all the old-timers had left the swamps. Purs 

 were getting cheap and hardly worth catching. 

 But a few years later prices began to go up and 

 then the younger generation took up the trap- 

 ping business. Now as i have gone to the limit 

 of this story or what I promised in the begin- 

 ning, The Pioneer Hunters and Trappers. 1 v/iil 

 leave the latter day hunters for the second edi- 

 tion. The reader remembers I said that Essex 

 was a great bee hunter and to my mind he was. 

 But he had many close rivals in hunting for 

 wild honey. Now I will tell you of one of the 

 shrewdest bee hunters that ever operated in the 

 Kankakee Swamps. He said that "there are 

 tricks to all trades" and a stunt that he pulled 

 off and got away with, or rather a "joke" as he 

 called it surely proves the assertion of good or 

 evil repute of past Sawyers or Sav/yers yet to 

 grow. Henry B. Sawyer was related to the /Ar. 

 Sawyer who many years ago ran the Eatons 

 Ferry and of which 1 will speak later. This young 

 hunter who originated in Kentucky but later at 



91 



