Pioneer life; or, Thirty Years a Hunter, Being Scenes and Adventures in the Life of Philip Tome

by Philip Tome

Pioneer Life is a mostly autobiographical narrative of the life of Philip Tome. Tome was born in 1782 near present-day Harrisburg and lived on the upper Susquehanna for much of his life. He tells colorful (and mostly true) tales about his hunting exploits in the Pennsylvania wilderness, as he tracked elk, wolves, bears, panthers, foxes, and other large animals through the state’s north-central mountains, earning wide renown among his contemporaries. His stories contain suspenseful chase scenes, accidents, and narrow escapes, inviting the reader to view a still-wild Pennsylvania through the eyes of one who “was never conquered by man or animal.” Pioneer Life, originally published in 1854, has since been reprinted several times.



This classic hunting memoir includes the following

I. Birth and Early Life
II. Hunting the Elk
III. Capturing a Live Elk
IV. Face of the Country
V. Face of the Country — Continued
VI. Danger From Rattlesnakes
VII. Wolf and Bear Hunting
VIII. Another Elk Hunt
IX. Elk-Hunting on the Susquehannah
X. Elk-Hunting — Continued
XI. Nature, Habits, and Manner of Hunting the Elk
XII. Elk and Bear Hunting in Winter
XIII. Hunting on the Clarion River
XIV. Hunting and Trapping
XV. The Bear, Its Nature and Habits
XVI. Hunting Deer at Different Seasons
XVII. Nature and Habits of the Panther, Wolf and Fox
XVIII. Rattlesnakes and Their Habits
XIX. Distinguished Lumbermen, Etc.
XX.. Reminiscences of Cornplanter
XXI. Indian Eloquence

This book originally published in 1854 has been reformatted for the Kindle and may contain an occasional defect from the original publication or from the reformatting

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Adventure

142 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1854

Reviews

[Jim Vancise]

Absolutely amazing! I can't get over how well this guy (who lived at the time of The War of 1812, and out in the PA Boonies) could write as well as he does ! He recounts the methods used to hunt and trap such animals as Elk & Bear. He even traps Elk & floats them down the river to Pittsburg alive.

[Daniel L Snider · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hunting and HISTORY

The writer was very repetitive in his hunting stories. The book became much more enjoyable when he related the history of the region and its people in the later part of the narrative.

[ken sizer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Early life in Pa. Interesting.

Not well written, but it shows an interesting view of the past in Pa.
Well worth reading to learn about the past.

[Patrick Martin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thirty Years a Hunter is an apt title for this book as it was all about hunting game in the late 1700's. I found much of it interesting, the techniques used in the day to hunt wolves, bear, elk, rattlesnake, deer, eel, fish, panthers (mountain lions), fox et all.

I also found interesting the stories of the hunting trips, through my home state of Pennsylvania, walking for days to track the herd or a single animal even though they were everywhere in the state. Walking up to four foot of snow and digging in it to find more firewood to stay warm and ward off frost bite. Walking for 15 miles a day through the dense forest. Talking with Chief Cornplanter about herd migration and the like.

But after a while the book became redundant, I mean, how many elk hunts can you read about? Over and over it was the same thing after the beginning of the book explained the hunts. These hunters took a good bit of meat but it was used, no waster, thankfully.

Bottom line for me, I could have learned just as much without the redundancy by reading an internet article.

[Marilyn Trunnell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome book!!

If you enjoy traveling with the author through the life of a hunter procurer in the late 1700’s to early 1800’s, this is your book. There’re numerous historical names and events contemporarily that encourages the reader to stop and investigate the same for a broader understanding of the times.....

[Judson Smith · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unbelievable make-believe

None of this happened. Everything is just fabrication...of a person having nothing but armchair imagination.
The writer has only a loose concept of how creeks run....and therefore in describing ascent of a stream....actually describes lay-of-land that one would encounter in descent of a stream-system.

[Roberto Galindo · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little tedious and repetitive with the trips but the descriptions of the places, distances and people are unbelievable. The reports towards the end of the book are top quality, including the verification of facts in the book. Blow away.

[Glenn Willis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good to read what it was like in the mountains of north central Pennsylvania from late 1700 to early 1800 you work hard to survive

[Ed Oakes · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit repetitive, and a tad hard for me to believe. The amount of animals killed and the exploitation of resources was a bit hard to believe. I don't think the woods of PA supported that many critters, agriculture aided in supplying a food source and raw woods wouldn't have been able to support that many animals. Plus, I've trekked through 3 feet of snow and no easy task, he makes it sound like a summer stroll with stream crossings. And wet anything in snow country can definitely lead straight to loss of limbs. But they all gladly plunged through.
They also did a lot of betting and boasting too.

[Joshua]

I wasn't too excited by the hunting stories (guess what! abundant game in Pennsylvania in the early 1800s!) but was more interested in reading between the lines for glimpses of the pioneer life. The story of how the family arrives at its cabin with snow falling, expecting it to have been built, but finding it incomplete, establishing a mill, interactions with Cornplanter, etc. are quite interesting. The final chapters of 'Reminiscences of Cornplanter" and "Indian Eloquence" are worthwhile, although the latter closes with letters from missionaries on the reservations.

[Autumn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I definitely tell Tome was a Pennsylvanian. There is a special way that Pennsylvanians speak- and it comes out in his writing. Who else will describe a wolf "sauntering out" for a deer? Other than that; I enjoyed reading about animals which are expatriated from Pennsylvania, namely: wolves and panthers. Growing up I heard stories about panthers (rarely did we call them "mountain lions" in my house) and was always afraid of them. But, it is a fresh perspective on Pennsylvania history that I would not otherwise have had.

[Dan Weiss · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting first-hand account of pioneer life in frontier Pennsylvania.

[Gerald Caffee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good information about animals

Very interesting book. Mr Tome provides the reader with a great deal of information about various animals living in the Penn. wilderness.