168 THE SHAD STREAMS OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
bors, having secured a landing on the Nommock at the foot of Monocacy 
island, fitted up a fine seine and necessary boats (canoes) and caught 
half a dozen shad, having fished twice as many days. I shared two, 
having found the whisky (before my temperance days); others outbid 
me, determined to taste the good of their labors. I fatigue much in 
writing, being in my ninetieth year.” 
Isaac Thompson writes from Lee, Lee county, Illinois: 
“T was born in Pittston in 1796. My father’s farm lay alongside of the 
Susquehanna river. I lived on the farm fifty-one years. In regard to 
the shad fishing, as I grew up to manhood I fished many days in the 
shad fishing season of the different years. The first run was the male 
shad—not near as good as thefemale. After catching the first run then, 
if we could have a rise of water then came the female—a far better 
quality. The female put for the headwaters of the river, and there 
would spawn; then the old fish would come back down the river, and the 
wind would often drive them ashore, and they would lay there rotting 
till they stunk. People used to come down from toward Easton, North- 
ampton county, and bring whisky and salt, and trade for fish; also from 
the upper part of old Luzerne county, bringing maple sugar to trade 
for shad. One man by the name of Taylor bought fifteen and put them 
in a sack after they were cleaned, shouldered them and walked off with 
them. I have known upwards of a thousand caught in one day on the 
point of the island. 
“As to the localities of the fisheries, there was one at Falling Spring, 
about four miles from where I lived, another on the point of Winter- 
moot island, and the next on the side of the island between two and 
three miles from where I lived. They drew out on the beach of Samuel 
Cary’s farm; another just below that I think drew out on the farm of 
Crandall Wilcox; another just below the falls. We have done no fishing 
since the Nanticoke dam was built.” 
Steuben Butler, a son of Col. Zebulon Butler, who led the patriots at 
the battle and massacre of Wyoming, 1778, says: 
“T was born in 1789; remember the old shad fisheries in the river 
here very well; was not a fisherman myself; after the run of shad had 
started I used to get in a boat and row up to the fishery and purchase 
my supply of shad and bring them down and salt them away. The 
price varied according to the abundance of the shad, some seasons being 
less expensive than others. As I recollect it the Pettibones used to 
have charge of the fishery above Wilkes-Barre ” 
Dr. Charles F. Ingham says: 
“T remember te old shad fisheries in the North Branch, particularly 
the Butler fishery, which was on the bar opposite and a little above 
Union street, Wilkes-Barre. Nanticoke dam was commenced in 1828 
and finished in 1830, and 1 recollect that that ended our fishing, although 
I saw shad caught below the dam by hooks attached to poles—think it 
