FOREST AND 
STREAM 
26 
game preserves, probably in southern Ohio, 
where more land can be purchased more cheaply 
than in other parts of the state. It will 
provide for the establishment of forest, bird and 
set aside approximately $25,000 of the proceeds 
from the hunters’ license fees for the purchase 
of territory for the preserve. 
The commission had hoped to put the project 
into effect this year, supposing that money from 
this fund could be used for such a purpose, but 
the attorney general’s department ruled that spe¬ 
cific action by the legislature would he necessary 
before the money could be so used. 
Some months ago the agricultural commission 
appointed a committee consisting of H. C. Price, 
member of the commission; Charles E. Thorne, 
director of the Wooster state experiment sta¬ 
tion; J. Warren Smith, chief of the weather bu¬ 
reau station at Columbus; John C. Speaks, state 
fish and game warden, and B. W. Gayman, sec¬ 
retary of the commission to investigate refor- 
estration, and this committee has reported in fa- 
History of the 
N a small and dingy room up 
a narrow stairway in Lexing¬ 
ton, Ky., an old and grayhair¬ 
ed man once told me the story 
Of the Kentucky reel. The 
room was littered with the ma¬ 
chinery and the debris of the 
metal-worker’s craft, the stair¬ 
way was not overly clean, and the faded little 
blue sign which informed us that J. L. Sage 
dwelt above gave small promise to my two 
friends and myself of anything extraordinary. 
Yet I found something which was quite new to 
me, at least, and which in some of its features 
may'be new to readers of Forest and Stream. 
“They tefll us, Mr. Sage,” said we, “that you 
know something of the life and adventures of 
the Kentucky reel. Is that so?” 
“Well, supposing it'is?” said the old gentleman. 
“Why, we want to know all about it, and if you 
don’t mind answering a few questions, we will 
just trouble you for a little while, for the sake 
of a paper that loves good reels of all kinds.” 
The old gentleman laid down a reel which he 
was finishing—for he himself was a maker of 
fine reels of a sterling local reputation—and took 
off his hat. “If you will just be still,” said he, 
"and let me begin at the beginning, I will tell 
you all about it.” 
We promised, and although our eagerness oft¬ 
en interrupted him, he went on, beginning as he 
said, at the beginning. 
“A good many people,” said he, “have the 
idea that the Kentucky reel is the product of 
one man, or at most the product of two firms, 
and that there is a patent covering a certain 
definite form of it. This is not the case. There 
are several parties who have made or are mak¬ 
ing the Kentucky reel, and these reels are nearly 
as good one as another. Their general re¬ 
semblance in mechanism is a matter of follow¬ 
ing a type. This type was established long ago, 
and there has not been so much change in it as 
you might think. 
“In old times, you know, things were differ¬ 
ent from what they are now. Tradesmen work¬ 
ed about from place to place more, and a man 
vor of the establishment of a preserve to provide 
for this and for fish and game propagation. 
THE BIGGEST MUSKALONGE. 
State Fish and Game Warden John C. Speaks 
failed, last week, to secure for mounting and 
preserving what is believed to be the largest 
Muskalonge ever taken in Ohio waters. The fish 
was taken by the Post Fish Co. of Sandusky, in 
a trap-net by Cassidy and Welch, two Kelley 
Island fishermen, near Kelley’s Island. It meas¬ 
ured four feet, five and one-half inches in length 
and weighed just 43 pounds. Years ago muska¬ 
longe were taken frequently in the bays of Lake 
Erie, but lately they have been rarely found. 
There is no record of a fish of this size, how¬ 
ever, and General Speaks, to whom the matter 
was reported, was anxious to secure the speoi- 
men for mounting and preservation, but before 
his request reached the fish company the mon¬ 
ster had been sold to a caterer in Sandusky, who 
served it at a dinner. 
Kentucky Reel 
of any trade often did parts of work belonging 
to other trades. Thus the old-fashioned silver¬ 
smith used to make and repair clocks, and mend 
watches, and do pretty much all sorts of fine 
tinkering. It was a silversmith who made the 
first Kentucky reel, and indeed the making of the 
best specimens of that reel has pretty much al¬ 
ways lain with workmen, skilled in the watch¬ 
maker’s trade. That is why they are so fine and 
delicate and accurate. 
“The man who made this first reel was named 
Sneider, and he was a silversmith watchmaker, 
probably from Switzerland. The Clay family, 
over around Paris, in Bourbon County, were all 
great fishermen, and I reckon it was some of 
these Clays who first got Sneider to make a 
reel. 
“That was in 1837. Then Sneider got to mak¬ 
ing reels for the Blairs, the Bibbs, the Morris¬ 
seys, McCurdys and Holemans, all Frankfort 
men. There are some of these old reels there 
and in this town yet. I can show you a Sneider 
reel to-day that is as good a casting reel as you 
need ask, although it is a good deal more than 
forty years old. You men talk about a reel 
wearing out in two or three years, so it has to 
be fixed or be worthless; I tell you a good reel 
will outlive a man, and if you don’t believe it, 
you can try one of these old reels yourself. 
“Well, Sneider made good reels, and he died. 
Bear in mind that to him is due the credit of 
the first Kentucky reel, and that it was well and 
honestly made. 
“Sam Ayres was a Lexington watchmaker, 
and after the fashion cff his kind, he had to 
move, and so he went over to Danville. Jonathan 
F. Meek was apprenticed to Ayres, and learned 
his trade there. Then Jonathan Meek left Ayres 
and went over to Frankfort and worked for 
Loomis. Meek was a fisher himself, and loved 
the sport. At that time the Kentucky river was 
a pure and undammed stream, and the fishing 
for bass and jack—or pike, I suppose you 
Northerners call them—was all that could be 
asked. This was in 1839, and about this time 
Meek left Loomis, rented a little shop, and set 
up a watchmaking business for himself. 
“Old Judge Brown and Meek used to go out 
hunting and fishing together a great deal, and 
one day the old Judge said: ‘The fish are biting 
splendidly, Jonathan, I reckon I’ll have to 
send over to Sneider and get another 
reel. But tell me, why can’t you make me a reel? 
You’re a pretty good workman.’ 
“Jonathan Meek did make the Judge a reel, and 
it was a mighty good one, a better one than 
Sneider made. It was a very small and long 
reel, and you will remember that was the old 
form of the Kentucky reel. Meek cut out his 
own driving-wheels at Frankfort, but he had to 
go back over to Danville to get at a machine to 
cut his cogs. He finished up the reel with his 
watch tools. 
“Along about 1839 Jonathan’s brother, Ben¬ 
jamin F. Meek, was also apprenticed to Ayres. 
Ben was a prodigal son, and went wild. After 
a while he went over to Frankfort, and Jona¬ 
than took him into the business with him. Jona¬ 
than worked at the watchmaking trade, and put 
Benjamin at working the reels, for which there 
began to be a demand. They worked this way 
along about 1842. They followed the Sneider 
pattern of reel pretty closely. It was about this 
time that Jonathan made a reel, the end plates of 
which were silver dollars. 
“In 1843 there was, up in Louisville, a silver¬ 
smith by the name of Hardman. He was a good 
workman, but he was a visionary fellow, what 
you call ‘cranky,’ I believe. He was an invent¬ 
or, and if he happened to take a new notion, he 
would drop his work and everything else, and 
sit and study; then When he got a thing half 
worked out, as like as not he would throw it 
away and never finish it. Hardman made a few 
reels. He made a 3-bar reel, shorter by one- 
third than the old Sneider model. He orna¬ 
mented his reels. The Kentucky reel of to¬ 
day is practically the same thing as the old 
Hardman reel. That is the existing type. 
"It was about now that the Kentucky river 
was dammed and locked. The boats used to lie 
up at a lock, and the passengers would get out 
and go fishing. A great many of these used the 
Hardman reels. Benjamin Meek, thus happened 
to see a Hardman reel. He dropped the old 
Sneider model, and at once began to follow the 
Hardman model. Benjamin Meek made a per¬ 
fectly finished reel. He put on a knurled rim 
to his plates. But he made a 5-bar reel, and he 
did not screw through the plates into the bars, 
as Hardman did. Barring that, the best reels of 
to-day are practically Hardman reels. These old¬ 
er reels nearly all had the “click” made of a 
piece of goose-quill. This makes a pretty good 
Click, but one that will only wear about a month. 
“Benjamin Meek made reels in the firm of J. 
F. and B. F. Meek at Frankfort, till 1850. Then 
the boys failed in business, and had to give up 
their old shop. Jonathan went to Louisville to 
work at his trade at watch repairing. Benjamin 
took in B. F. Milam as a partner at Frankfort. 
Milam was formerly an apprentice of Loomis, 
afterward worked for Benjamin Meek and then 
became his partner. In the new firm Meek made 
the reels and Milam made the watches, but 
Milam made poor watches, so they traded work, 
and Milam made the reels. 
“Things ran on in this way till 1864, and then 
Benjamin Meek and Milam dissolved partner¬ 
ship. Milam went on making reels, and Meek 
kept up the jewelry business. At length Benja- 
