HISTORY OF JACKSON COUNTY.     439
            ==================================
 
 
and down the streams of this section, locating for short periods
where the game was most abundant. But these few were soon
driven beyond the Father of Waters, and later were compelled to
find homes in the Rocky Mountains, where they are fast dis-
appearing, and will soon be entirely extinct.
 
  
                       WILD GAME.
 
At the time of the coming of the first settler wild animals were
very numerous. Bears were often seen, and frequent1y killed.
Deer were almost as numerous as hogs, and could be shot from
the doors of the cabins. The distressing and mournful howling
of the wolves was no uncommon sound. Turkeys were as numer-
ous as quails are to-day, and their meat, in sweetness and flavor, 
far surpassed that of the tame ones - so says the old hunter.
Squirrels were so numerous that companies were organized for 
the purpose of destroying them, in order to protect the cornfield.
Hogs not unfrequently went wild, and when attacked were as
savage and ferocious as the bear or panther. The deer were quite
plentiful in this township for many years, and in fact they have.
been hunted and killed within the last few years.
 
  
                    FIRST SETTLERS.
 
One of the first to settle in Salt Creek Township was John 
Lutes, who built a small log-cabin a half a mile north of Houston.
George Wagoner settled a quarter of a mile east of Houston.
Joshua Brown a mile to the west, and William Winkler and Samuel
Stockdell were in the same neighborhood. A few years later
came James Acton and George Gable, James Mulkey, Michael
Rudolph, Solomon Cox and Joseph Young. Contemporaneous
with the settlement made at Houston, which was some time prior
to 1820, other settlements were made on "Muddy Fork" and at
Finley's. At the former were Joel Jackson, Phillip Highnote,
Thomas Scott, John Scott, Arthur Martin, John Blerings, Silas
Mahuron, Jesse Isaacs and Squire Sims. At Finley's were Will-