Reminiscences: Chapter 7

Reminiscences of Early Peoria
by Odillon B. Slane

Chapter 7
page 20

THE INDIAN GOBBLER

BENJAMIN F. SLANE, who when a small boy, came with his parents to Fort Clark, Peoria, in 1831, told the story of the Indian gobbler. So long ago has it been since the writer heard his father tell this story, that he has forgotten the exact time and place of its occurrence. It was in a deep forest where some men were busily engaged building a log house for "a newcomer." One day while they were working away rolling up logs on to the half-built structure, they heard the gobble of a wild turkey in the near distance.

"There's a turkey," said one of the men. But they kept on with their work. Occasional sounds of the gobble continued. Finally, one of the men who was an old hunter, listened intently for a time and then said: "I'll stop that fellow's gobble." Taking his rifle he went into the woods in an opposite direction from where the sound proceeded. After a while they heard the report of a rifle and soon the hunter came in with an Indian scalp. Indians, you know, can imitate the sounds of birds and animals. They do this in order to effect their capture. This Indian lay behind a log with his gun beside him. By imitating a turkey gobble, he expected to lure one of the men in his direction, then kill him.

The hunter told how the Indian would raise his head above the log, then dodge down, out of sight again. Slowly he raised his head to gobble, when the white man's bullet pierced his brain. The Indian gobbler had gobbled his last gobble.

Chapter 6 Chapter 8

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