THE TOLLESTON CLUB HOUSE. 



Daring the pa^t year the waters have been unusually 

 low upon all the marshes of this section of the country, 

 and at the time of my vUt the Tolle,ton marsh was lower 

 than it had been for \ ears. It was, therefore, difficult to 

 get about, as many of the ordinary channels were only 

 streaks of mud. The marsh is very treacherous and dan- 

 gerous, aud in many places one could easily be guilty of 

 a my.-terious disappearance whose solution could never 

 be found. Even iu its half frozen condition we found it 

 laborious and risky walking when we left the boat, and, 

 laden with shells and decoys, undertook to walk from the 

 river to the Middle Slouch. I was accompanied ty 

 Ernest, the head puslu r, who was thoroughly acquainted 

 wuh the marsh. We had both to bemoan the fact that 

 the ducks wouldn't decoy on our day, although there 

 were hundred* of thun on the Middle and Big sloughs, 

 and in fact, pretty much everywhere. 



The present acreage of th.p club is about two thousand 

 acres. This is the growth from the nucleus of sixty acres 

 purchased in 187 1 by the founders of the club. The liulk 

 of the land was acquired in 1S81. It comprises all of 

 the marsh lying between Ewing's and the Ft. Wayne 

 bridges. The land is all inclosed with wire fence, and 

 posted against trespass. Several Pinkeilon policemen 

 have acted as assistants to the local officers and keepers, 

 and no effort is spared to make a trespasser feel that he 

 is a tr^-passer the moment he crosses that wire fence. 

 The lawless element of the adjacent town o? South 

 Chicago has made frequent trouble, and nothing hut the 

 absolutely determined and uncompromising attitude of 

 the club has served to keep the public off their coveted 

 marshes. On one occasion five boats came tin the river, 

 resolved to shoot on what they declared the State of In- 

 diana gave them as public ground. They wete met by 

 Mr. West and an office] - , and the former sent a load of 

 goose shot through the boat of the ringleader; this was 

 followed by other loads, until the would-be hunter was 

 forced to leave his sinking boat, to give up his gun, and 

 hurry after his fleeing companion*. The big Finkt rton 

 men grab these rough fellows,, pound them up, throw 

 them in the river, confiscate their nuns, sma-h their 

 boats, and by other gentle means endeavor to convey the 

 impression that the Tolleston Club owns the Tclleston 

 marsh. The club will test the constitutionalitv of the 

 absurd Indiana "over flowed lands law," and' 1ns no 

 dou'.tof winning in the upper court. Tt has now on 

 hand, I believe, six or eight suits against trespassers. It 

 won one suit last summer, and co-t a bull-headed neigh- 

 bor $83 before it got done with him. It has repeatedly 

 confiscated the guns of trespassers, and has all the way 

 been aggressive whenever it could he. This was the 

 only possible way it could command the respect of the 

 element wth which it had to deal. It should be stated 

 at this point that the club will not abondon its past 

 policy one iota. It means fight, and has all the money it 

 wants to fight with. Its ultimate success is unquestioned. 

 It has bought this land and has a right to it. An aggres- 

 sive champion for its own and all similar rights, the 

 Tolleston Club deserves and commands the respect and 

 approval of all organizations of a like purpose. 



Owing to the difficulty in getting about over the marsh 

 during my visit, which rendered a personal knowledge 

 of its features impossible, I beg to offer, in description 

 and comment, the following extracts from the little his- 

 torical sketch published by the club in the neat little 

 volume which contains its by-laws: 



"The club house is located on the north bank, nearly in 

 the center of the extensive nurshes of the Upper Calumet. 

 These marshes lie upou both sides of the Little Calumet 

 River, which winds its tortuous length through them, and 

 embrace all between the meandered lines of the government 

 surveys. The marsh is some ten miles in length and a mile 

 to a mile and a half in width. The whole of this district is 

 covered with alternate water and wild rice, in about equal 

 proportions, and so peculiarly interspersed as at onco to 

 command the admiration of sportsmen. 



That portion of the marshes just above the club house 

 'which is conceded to be the best portion) is divided into 

 three general divisions, viz., the 'North Sloughs' the 



Center Sloughs' and the 'South Shore Sloughs.' The 

 North Sloughs are entered near the landing, aud lie on the 

 north side of the river channel, extending eastward iu a 

 continuous chain of successive water and rice some two or 

 three miles, through the entire length of which boats can 

 pass without touching the channel at all. 



"The Center Sloughs lie between the channel and 'Big 

 blough (so-called), and consist of a complete labyrinth of 

 alternate sloughs and rice, lying in all possible shapes, some 

 two miles in length hv a half mile in width. 



'•The South Shore Sloughs lie south of the 'Big Slough' 

 and river, and consist ol alternate water and rice, in places 

 a mile or more wide, over which boats can pass lor miles 

 without striking the channel at all. 



"The -Big Slough' is a body of water or bayou off south- 

 east from the channel, in places » hundred r^d fl w irip, and 

 nearly three miles long, with its hundreds of minor bayous, 

 islands and ont channels. 



"The whole of the area above described (which area 

 embraces only a small section of these extensive marshes) is 

 covered with innumerable sloughs, bayous, morasses, ponds 

 and mud holes, of endless variety of shape, in size all the 

 waytrom a small pool up to a forty-acre pond or lake, 

 divided and mterspersed with fields ot wild rice and cane 

 bogs, lily pads, rushes and musk rat houses, and yet so 

 formed by nature that a bunting boat can pass through 

 opemrjgs (known to hunters and easily learned) almost 

 over the entire ground, and even to the river proper. Still, 

 even to this day, there are many sloughs whollv inaccessible 

 to boats, so that no number of hunters can frighten the 

 game wholly from the marsh. 



"Persons who have hunted these marshes for years are 

 continually surprised on discovering new shooting ground 

 and passages which they never belore supposed to exist. 



"fne Tolleston marshes seem to be formed hy nature for 

 a retreat and feeding ground tor wild ducks Situated at 

 the foot of the great Upper Lakes, they are the natural fly- 

 ways for wildfowl. 



"Peculiarly is it the home of the mallard, the blue-winged 

 teal and woodduck, while snipe are plenty in their season 

 It may appear somewhat extravagant to say it, but never- 

 theless those who have shot in these marshes, and know 

 their formation and abundance of game, will probably, to a 

 man, sustain the assertion that, take it season by season, 

 they afford the bast duck shootiug ground of equal extent 

 in the Northwest. 



"In the fall of 1883 over 8,000 ducks were bagged by the 

 members of the club on these marshes. 



"Upon the main channel of the river Ashing is good in 

 season. Pickerel, percu and bass are taken at times in 

 large quantities 



"The affctirsof the club have steadily improved since its 

 organization. The club owns some SoO.OOO worth of property, 

 aud with a list of members so prominent in business and 

 professional circles, eminent in wealth, station and culture, 

 who never pull trigger for pecuniary profit, nor in wanton 

 cruelty, believes itself to be second to no association of the 

 kind iu the world." 



Nor is ifc second. 



These words about the plenty of game on the ToLhston 

 marsh are not exaggerated. For the past three years the 

 shooting has been better there than it has anywhere else 

 in this vicinity, and it is no use for other sportsmen to 

 deny that fact. This is partly and largely due to the 

 fact that the Tollestons have put out large amounts of 

 feed for their ducks. I have before this made mention 

 of this matter, which was watched with much curiosity 

 by sportsmen all through the West; space fails to make 

 long mention of it now, or to say more than that the club 

 proposes to continue its efforts in this direction. This 

 work was carried out under the directions of the able 

 president of the club, Mr. F. A. Howe, an old and observ- 

 ant shooter, and there is no longer any doubt possible as 

 to its efficacy. I was talking with Mr. Howe the other 

 day in regard to the future plans for this work. He said 

 he thought more corn would be used than anything else. 

 "The first choice of the mallard duck for food." said he, 

 "is the acorn, and after that comes corn." Mr. Howe is 

 firm in his belief that the natural food now offered in our 



marshes is not adequate to the demands of large bodies 

 of wildfowl. 



I do not know better how to give an idea of the shoot- 

 ing on the Tolleston marsh than bv a hurried look at 

 some scores I caught while looking o?er that most de- 

 lightful of all sporting books, the club register, between 

 whose covers I spent a pleasant hour. I find that in 1880 

 daily scores of 35, 33. 42, 3G, 39, were not at all un- 

 common. Mr. F. A. Howe, whom the records show to 

 have been perhaps the most successful duck shot of the 

 club, is frequent with such scores as 23, 93, 51. 65, 41 4C 

 58, 74, 44, 34. The total of ducks killed in the fall of 1880 

 is 4,215. A frequent entry of description f-ays "mixed 

 duck*." The shooting may therefore be known to be 

 varied and interesting by reason of novelty. This is a 

 feature of the marsh. 



On Nov. 15, 1880, "A. R. H." has written: "Verv cold. 

 Big Slough frozen stiff, }>nd river fiozen in places. 'Think 

 jig is up for '80, unless James Gordon Bennett or other 

 Arctic explorer chcoses to visit these haunts." 



To show how quickly thenorthern flight comes in after it 

 starts compare thelollowing entries for the spring of 

 1881. The season opened April 5, and the tcoiewasl 

 bluebill. On April 8 there were scores of 80, 40, 80 



On Sept. 23, 1882, A. N. Young killed 42 teal in four 

 hour.-, and J. C. Knickerbocker killed ijS, and was back 

 at the club house at 2:15 P. M. The total for that one 

 day was 343 ducks. 



On Nov. H, 1881, there were the following entries: 

 "Baron d'Abouville, Capitaine d'etat-mas'sr (a guest), 9 

 mixed ducks; Georges Lejeune, 2 bluebills; CcmtedeGuU- 

 velio, L eu ten ant de Chasseurs a pied, 1 udhead. It 

 would seem that the latter shooter, instead of being a 

 chasseur a pied, was pretty near being a shoottur a son 

 tete. Wonder if he came all the way irom France to kill 

 that redhead! 



"April 15, 18S4," says Mr. L. G. Fisher, "season closed. 

 Marsh fud of ducks." Then for Aug. 20 and 21— hot 

 days— is the following pleasant r.ott : "Small party cf 

 twelve spent a day at the club in lest and recreation." 

 In the summer the club is much visited by ladies. On 

 Aug. 5, 1886, it seems Misses Jesse and Maud Wilson's 

 parly caught two 3ibs. pickerel. 



On Aug. 9, 18S5, "Tue Big Slough was covoredfor acres 

 with the lotus flower. No such flower exhibition ever 

 seen before on our marsh." So says Edward Starr, the 

 present secretary of the club, a man, it appears, not de- 

 voted blindly to the gamebag. Again, on Aug. 31, Albert 

 Hayden and his guest, C. H. Allen, of St. Louis, were 

 "resting, not hunting with powder and shot." But then 

 came "Sept. 20: opening of the teal flight." Probably 

 they didn't rert so much then. 



On Nov. I, 1883, Mr. Geo. L. Thatcher killed one duck 

 of the mudhen variety, and with the modesty of the 

 true duck sport, forgot lo lecord it." On April 3, 1888, 

 Robert Peacock slew Jl turtles. On April 24 Geo. r! 

 Wells bagged 46 snipe, and Mr. F. A. Howe bagged 40 

 snipe in a half day. On May 31, Julian Hayden and 

 Miss Dora left the following record, highly suggestive 

 that somebody else's sister and brother were there too: 

 "Beautiful day; splendid dinner; all lovely." Following 

 this is the brief utterances of a summer widower, pei> 

 haps, "July 22. No wife. James Wright," Record is 

 also made of the "annual game dinner, Dec. 17." 



The following scores, however, will be found interest- 

 ing, for they were made from Oct. 1 to 24, in 1888, the 

 annus irm of Western duck shooters. Thev are taken 

 almost at random and run 34, CO, 40, 33, 33, 41, 27, 23, 29, 

 tfe, 75. Now find the scores of our other clubs lor those 

 dates and you have all the answer and comment you 

 want on the question, "Does it nay to feed wild ducks?" 



The Tolleston Club does not allow shooting upon Sun- 

 day, nor after sundown upon any day. It allows only 

 one gun to go out in each boat. It allows no loaded gifns 

 in the house and no clogs. It would impose a $25 fine tor 



