The Nimrod of Pioneer Days
A legendary deer hunter, famous for his incredible shooting, falls ill as the city remembers his frontier exploits.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mr. Surber, well known among all old settlers as a crack marksman, lies dangerously ill at his home with typhoid fever. He is nearly 60 years of age and his friends are waiting anxiously to hear that he will take a favorable turn. He is well known from his connection with the pile-driving firm of Surber & Eagan, and for his fame as a hunter and marksman. He came to the city from Indiana in the year 1859, and in the early days made his living by hunting, deer hunting being his forte. He is reputed to have killed more deer than any other man in this vicinity. Many stories are told of his feats in the early '70s. One day he and some of his old comrades were practicing on a wharf and another member of the party offered to bet Mr. Surber a dollar that he could not hit the head of a barrel placed on the next wharf. The bet was promptly taken, but the man put the barrel head instead with its side towards the marksman, as he had expected. Still Mr. Surber would not back out, and confounded his rival and won the dollar by hitting the improvised target square on the edge, splitting it in two.
“Confounded his rival and won the dollar by hitting the improvised target square on the edge, splitting it in two.”
This reflects the 'frontier mythology' of Seattle, where men were elevated to local legends based on survival skills and legendary, tall-tale feats of physical prowess.
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