Unknown Upland Hunter

[Dean Romig]

Originally Posted by Ken Hill

The guy looks a little like the person on this book cover by Arthur MacDougall Jr.




I can't find an image of MacDougall to know if the book cover is a rendering of the author. MacDougall was born in 1896.

Ken

Burt Spiller was born in 1886 so MacDougall is not a far stretch but we won't know without a verified picture of him.

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[Dunnigun]

The info. on this man Haynes, is that he was in his eighties when the book was published in 1961.
He also states that he was on the staff of two sportsmans magazines. He was a crazed sports fisherman beginning in 1919 and published his first book on waterfowling in 1926. Says he was known for a time as 'Sailfish Bill' and was hooked on fishing for 30 years. There is no mention of upland hunting, so he might not be your man. Although, Spiller might have been chummy with a fellow outdoorsman and author enough to go grouse hunting a few times. Be interested to know when you nail the identity of the mystery man.

[Ken Hill]

Dean,

There is picture from the late 40s in the link below. It is on page 48. I just don't know. I could not copy just the one page and put up the picture. He was reverend out of Maine.

Ken
https://digitalmaine.com/cgi/viewcon...correspondence

[Ken Hill]

Here's the picture



Ken

[Dean Romig]

Oh Horsefeathers!!! That didn't work...


Anyway - I copy/saved it and was able to enlarge it but couldn't reproduce the enlarged version here.
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[Garth Gustafson]

Everett St John (1881-1966) Mass. grouse hunter/conservationist might have a passing resemblance to your guy. From Frank Woolner’s “Grouse and Grouse Hunting”, pg 66.

[stumpstalker]

Ken and Dean:

Spiller did write about a parson who he befriended at a Boy Scout jamboree. And the following Spring they fished the Rangeley Lakes, Maine region together, e. g., Quimby Pond. The parson’s ministry was near enough to the area they fished, that Spiller remained local for an extra day just to attend the parson’s Sunday church service. Spiller did not identify his friend by name, but wrote of this in the chapter “Fisherman’s Luck”, in his posthumously published FISHIN’ AROUND.

It may, however, be a too much of a stretch to postulate a connection between Spiller’s “parson” friend and the Reverend Mr. MacDougall, whose ministry, being in Bingham, Maine is more associated with the fishing areas of the Kennebec River drainage. It is a region that does have a MacDougall Pond (is that connected with the Reverend MacDougall, Sr. or Jr.?) and an Enchanted Pond (which the book cover illustrated may be associated with).

[Bill Murphy]

I have not read any of "Mak's" works, but I read the entire Maine Authors file. It is quite entertaining.

[stumpstalker]

I now see that according to MapQuest it is only 65 miles from Rangeley proper to Bingham, taking Route 4 Eastward and then historic Route 201 North alongside the Kennebec.

So, fishing either area would be feasible for the Rev. MacDougall and Burt Spiller. And this would include the day Spiller delivered his “parson” friend at midnight to his home after a day of fishing, and in time for the minister to deliver the Sunday sermon that Spiller stuck around for one more day to hear.

I see at least a two-part problem: 1) What was the identity of the “parson”; and is he MacDougall, the answer of which, if ever found, would be an objective fact; and,

2) is there a convincing likeness between the photo Dean has to work with and the one of the Rev. MacDougall, which is subjective.

[Dean Romig]

I paged through "Partridge Shortnin'" by Grampa Grouse (aka Gorham Cross of Wellesley Hills Ma.) because he, "Tap" Tapply and Burt hunted together often and maybe I'll find a picture in there. He lists a bunch o' names of guys they hunted with over the years.





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