56                       PAST AND PRESENT OF GREENE COUNTY.

    The last herd of wild elk that were seen on the town plat of Jefferson was during the winter of 1875-6. In the winter of 1856-7, elk herds could be seen from Jefferson on the prairie in Hardin township. In the deep snow this winter, a party of hunters from the city, with dogs, killed an elk about six miles north of Jefferson and abandoned it to the wolves. The next morning a party consisting of Jacob M. Cline, J. M. Culley, J. A. Wynkoop and Eli Rivers, hungry for elk beef, was about starting to bring in the elk on a hand sled when the owner of the dog that first caught the animal protested, and claimed that as his dog drew "first blood," the game was his. They recognized the hunter's rule, and as the owner of the dog was the dog's nearest kin, they compromised by promising him the skin. The hand-sled party wallowed through the snow for six miles, found the elk, which they quartered, hide and all, placed the quarters on the sled and started for home. Of course the man who was to have the hide was all "broke up" when he received it in four pieces, but the laugh was on him and the crowd had no end of fun with him, as they shouted to him that they did promise him the hide but made no pledge that it should be a "whole" hide.

Source:

Stillman, Edwin B., "Dividing the Hide," Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa ... Together with Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead, Chicago, S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907, p. 56.