[Note: Jonas was a son of Reuben and Christina Miller Harman]
Jonas Harman, son of Reuben Sr., before moving to Missouri, resided on what is now known as the George W. Ritchie farm in Pendleton County, WV and the following stories about his experience with deer in that early period, are told:
On one occasion he was out hunting near what is known as the Cave School house in the Harman Hills and shot a very large spiked buck, knocking the deer down and thought he had killed him and was proceeding to turn the buck over to cut his throat so he would bleed, when to Jonas' surprise, the buck sprang to his feet and gave battle. Jonas struggled with him quite awhile. His clothes were nearly off his body and he would have been glad to let the deer go, but he was not to be gotten rid of so easily. But after much effort, Jonas succeeded in getting his hunting knife out of his shot pouch and drove its long sharp blade to the deer's heart and won the battle. In this battle, the ground was torn up for a considerable distance around, the deer's feet sinking into the earth a couple of inches or more, as it brought them down so hard.
On another occasion when out hunting he caught a fawn and took it home and made a pet of it.
He put a bell on it and it became very tame. When it grew up, it would go to the mountain, at intervals, and sometimes would be gone several days, but would always return home and each time, it would bring another deer with it which Jonas would kill, as he made it a rule to always take his gun out with him when he heard the bell. And each time when Jonas would kill its companion, the little traitress would caper about as if in great joy over having brought the deer for him to kill.
One reason why Jonas moved to Missouri, he had heard that the hunting was so good
there.
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