BarryBobPosthole
01-22-2015, 01:22 PM
Problem is, I can't find it anywhere electronically so you'll have to order a paper version to read it. Its cheap though.
Its called "adventures of a Frontier Naturalist: The Life and Times of Dr Gideon Lincecum.
Here's a link to the wiki of the guy. His father was a man 'of the bordering sort' and moved his family every few years when civilization started to catch up with where they were. He lived in the late 1700 to mid 1800s and was a self taught naturalist and doctor. He lived among two or three of the various Mississippian tribes (choctaw, creek, chikisaw, etc) and learned to hunt and use a bow and snares by age 7. Much of the autobiography is about the game that he found and hunting. But he also talks about the various businesses he started and some really interesting people he met in his life. A great deal of his life he lived where I think Eddie lives, near the Tombigbee River near Columbus, Ms. He corresponded with Darwin's father about medical stuff, and with Darwin himself about hos theories of evolution. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Society and regularly had his papers published and discussed by them. And all from a self taught botanist, naturalist and medical doctor. My own great grandfather was a circuit doctor in Arkansas from the mid 1800s to the early part of the 20th century and the family can find no record of his formal education, so I think it was pretty common for doctors ofthat time, particularly on the frontier, to learn either from books or by apprenticing. Lincecum also apprenticed under a Choctaw medicine man and converted to botanical medicine after he killed a two year old girl applying the poisons they used to use as cures back then, mainly mercury. He said he had much greater success using botanical cures.
A really interesting guy. In the last chapter I read, he tells of how they prepared their supper most days on the trail while he was exploring south Texas with a small group in the 1820s. They'd roast venison on sticks stuck in the ground near the fire and them cut off strips with their knives and dip it in wild honey they held in a tin cup. They'd throw all their leaving in a kettle with corn grits and water and it would cook all night and that would be their breakfast.
Don't read the introduction. It'll makeyou want to burn the book its so boring. But the part written by old Gideon is awesome!
BKB
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Lincecum
Its called "adventures of a Frontier Naturalist: The Life and Times of Dr Gideon Lincecum.
Here's a link to the wiki of the guy. His father was a man 'of the bordering sort' and moved his family every few years when civilization started to catch up with where they were. He lived in the late 1700 to mid 1800s and was a self taught naturalist and doctor. He lived among two or three of the various Mississippian tribes (choctaw, creek, chikisaw, etc) and learned to hunt and use a bow and snares by age 7. Much of the autobiography is about the game that he found and hunting. But he also talks about the various businesses he started and some really interesting people he met in his life. A great deal of his life he lived where I think Eddie lives, near the Tombigbee River near Columbus, Ms. He corresponded with Darwin's father about medical stuff, and with Darwin himself about hos theories of evolution. He was also a member of the Philadelphia Society and regularly had his papers published and discussed by them. And all from a self taught botanist, naturalist and medical doctor. My own great grandfather was a circuit doctor in Arkansas from the mid 1800s to the early part of the 20th century and the family can find no record of his formal education, so I think it was pretty common for doctors ofthat time, particularly on the frontier, to learn either from books or by apprenticing. Lincecum also apprenticed under a Choctaw medicine man and converted to botanical medicine after he killed a two year old girl applying the poisons they used to use as cures back then, mainly mercury. He said he had much greater success using botanical cures.
A really interesting guy. In the last chapter I read, he tells of how they prepared their supper most days on the trail while he was exploring south Texas with a small group in the 1820s. They'd roast venison on sticks stuck in the ground near the fire and them cut off strips with their knives and dip it in wild honey they held in a tin cup. They'd throw all their leaving in a kettle with corn grits and water and it would cook all night and that would be their breakfast.
Don't read the introduction. It'll makeyou want to burn the book its so boring. But the part written by old Gideon is awesome!
BKB
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon_Lincecum