The Turnbo Manuscripts

by Silas Claiborne Turnbo
1844-1925


Turnbo Home | Table of Contents | Keyword Search| Bibliography | Biography


WOLVES KILL A COW AND MULE
By S. C. Turnbo

Mr. Dave Dunlap, who has lived in the Carrollton hollow in Boone County, Ark., since 1854, said to me one day at his home, "You say did I ever know of wolves attacking and killing large stock in the Carrollton hollow. If you call a mule and a cow large stock I have. Their ravages on stock was terrible. They would invade the stock lots and destroy sheep and calves. They would also attack hogs and kill or wound them before we would interfere and drive them away. But the incidents of their killing hogs, sheep and calves were tame affairs to what these vicious animals were able to accomplish when they wanted to. I well recollect that on a certain night a pack of wolves killed a white pided cow 3 years old in less than 200 yards of the Carrollton hollow schoolhouse and devoured half of her before they left. The cow belonged to my father Jim Dunlap and he sent word to the neighbors to tie up their dogs for he was going in on the wolves with strychnine. He put plenty of poison in the remaining carcass of the cow and in a few days we counted nine dead wolves lying in the near vicinity of the schoolhouse. A mule 3 years old that belonged to Jesse Dunlap and Jim Buckly was killed one night by wolves in the hollow one mile above the schoolhouse. The women found what was left of the mule lying in 300 yards of their cabin. Evidence showed that the mule had struggled hard against the attack from the hungry pack but was finally overpowered and killed and almost eaten up. The mule had been worked in the plow all day and was turned out at night to graze till morning and was killed that night.

Next Story


Turnbo Home | Table of Contents | Keyword Search| Bibliography | Biography


Springfield-Greene County Library