Jens Lund - Flatheads and Spooneys Fishing for a Living in the Ohio River Valley

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THE OHIO RIVER SERIES

Rita Kohn and William Lynwood Montell
Series Editors

Flatheads & Spooneys

Fishing for a Living in the Ohio River Valley

Jens Lund

Copyright 1995 by The University Press of Kentucky
Paperback edition 2010

Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth,
serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre
College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University,
The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College,
Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University,
Morehead State University, Murray State University,
Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University,
University of Kentucky, University of Louisville,
and Western Kentucky University.
All rights reserved.

Editorial and Sales Offices:The University Press of Kentucky
663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508-4008
www.kentuckypress.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:

Lund, Jens, 1946
Flatheads and spooneys : fishing for a living in the Ohio River Valley / Jens Lund.
p. cm.(Ohio River Valley series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-8131-1927-8 (acid-free recycled paper)
1. FishingOhio River ValleyFolklore. 2. Fishing communitiesOhio River ValleyHistory. 3. Ohio River ValleyHistory.
I. Title. II. Series.
GR107.F53 1995
398.0977dc2095-23982
ISBN 13- 978-0-8131-2968-6 (pbk. : alk. paper)

This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting
the requirements of the American National Standard
for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials.

Manufactured in the United States of America.

Member of the Association of American University Presses

One would like to know more of that race of fishers... who openly professed the trade of fisherman, and even fed their townsmen creditably, not skulking through the meadows to a rainy afternoon sport. Dim visions we still get of miraculous draughts of fishes and heaps uncountable by the riverside.

Henry David Thoreau

Contents

Series Foreword

The Ohio River Valley Series, conceived and published by the University Press of Kentucky, is an ongoing series of books that examine and illuminate the Ohio River and its tributaries, the lands drained by these streams, and the people who made this fertile and desirable area their place of residence, of refuge, of commerce and industry, of cultural development, and, ultimately, of engagement with American democracy. In doing this, it builds upon an earlier project, Always a River: The Ohio River and the American Experience, which was sponsored by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the humanities councils of the states of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, with a mix of private and public organizations.

The Always a River project directed widespread public attention to the place of the Ohio River in the context of the larger American story. The Ohio River Valley Series expands on this significant role of the river in the growth of the American nation in volumes that present the varied history and folklife of the region. Each titles story is told through men and women acting within their particular place and time. Each reveals the rich resources for the history of the Ohio River and of the nation afforded by records, papers, and oral stories preserved by families and institutions. Each traces the impact the river and the land have had on individuals and cultures and, conversely, the changes these individuals and cultures have wrought on the valley in the passage of years.

As a force of nature and as a waterway into the American heartland, the Ohio (and its tributaries) has touched us individually and collectively. This series celebrates the story of that river and its valley through multiple voices and visions.

Flatheads and Spooneys represents the first major study of the commercial fishery of the lower Ohio River Valley and of the men and women and the indigenous culture that is defined by their life and work as fisherfolk. It is thus of interest both as an account of a colorful, little-known way of life and as a fund of historical and cultural information.

Beginning in the early 1800s, numerous occupants of the Ohio River Valley made a living by fishing, shell-gathering, and trapping in and along the waters of the main stem and its tributary streams. Those persons presently involved in fishing activities are the inheritors and practitioners of a complex body of traditional skills and verbal folklore associated with river life. Among the skills described in this volume are the making and use of hoopnets, jumperlines, fish traps, and mussel brails. Also described are the types of boats used in fishing and musselling and the different kinds of fish and mussels that are taken. The men and women who fish commercially are conscious of an occupational and social identity that represents a meaningful alliance with nature and the river. Additionally, many of them have close ties with a nomadic houseboat subculture that flourished on the Ohio from the early nineteenth century to the 1950s.

Flatheads and Spooneys by Jens Lund focuses largely on the Lower Ohio River Valley since at the present time commercial fishing is confined to that area, but it is undoubtedly an accurate portrayal of the occupational activities of fisherfolk that formerly could be found in the entire Ohio River Valley country. Lunds recording of the verbal lore of the river people, his articulation of their sense of identity, and his historical and descriptive information provides a vivid picture of an interesting way of life created and perpetuated by the fisherfolk of the river.

Rita Kohn
William Lynwood Montell
Series Editors

Preface

My forebears and I are from the fishing village of As, Denmark. One of the fondest memories of my childhood is of a herring fishing trip on the Kattegat on a neighbors purse-seiner. Although my family members were farmers and skilled tradesmen, we were taught to admire our fishermen neighbors for their independence and resourcefulness.

There is something paradoxical about the idea of inland commercial fishing. This may be one reason I was attracted to this subject as a research topic. My first personal encounter with Ohio Valley fisherfolk was an interview with the Durham family of Old Shawneetown. After that interview, I was hooked, and I began to seek out other river folk. I made the acquaintance of Orval Loven, a Wabash River fisherman in Grayville, Illinois. Orval took me under his wing and allowed me to accompany him on a number of fishing trips. Here I really began to learn about the ways of river fish, and of river fishermen and their gear. My research eventually led to a dissertation titled Fishing As a Folk Occupation in the Lower Ohio Valley (Indiana University, 1983). Much of the research data in this book comes from that dissertation, with substantial follow-up during the 1980s and early 1990s.

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