Heading: (Sport – Hunting – Illinois Wolf scalp bounty, 1842)
Author:
Title: 1842 Illinois wolf scalp document
Place Published:
Publisher:
Date Published: 1842
Description:

Henry Long. Handwritten Document Signed (Morgan County, Illinois, Feb. 22, 1842) 1pg., docketed on verso. Affidavit sworn before a county clerk, that "the scalp by me produced was taken from a Wolf killed within this State...over six months old...."

From the early 19th century, most states and territories of the Union passed laws paying a bounty for the scalp of a wolf ("most sneaking and thievish of all animals"), with "ears intact". In Abe Lincoln 's Illinois, wolf scalps became virtual currency, used to pay taxes - or buy a pint of whiskey in a saloon. And organized wolf-hunts became "as keenly relished by the people as ever fox-hunting was in England." Henry Long, was a German immigrant from Tennessee who became a pioneer farmer in southwestern Illinois, bordering the Mississippi River.

Small tear at top left corner otherwise very good.