Fayette County History & Genealogy


History of Fayette County


From R. S. Dills' History of Fayette County

PIGEON ROOSTS

Beginning at the mouth of Sugar Creek, and extending down both banks of Paint Creek, about one and one-half miles, was a dense grove of cedar trees, known throughout the country as the "Cedar Hole."

At these roosts the pigeons congregated to breed, and in some cases one tree would contain a hundred nests. The noise at night caused by the continual fluttering of birds and the cracking of over- loaded branches could be heard for quite a distance, and each morning, it is said, the ground was strewn with dead and wounded birds, so that the pioneers in the vicinity were bountifully supplied with pigeons without gun or club.

Samuel, John and Frank Waddle, Henry Snyder, William Blair and sons, Frank McLaughlin, Jack Daugherty, and indeed all the neighborhood for miles around, visited this spot at night, arriving about sunset as the pigeons began to come in. It is said that the noise created by their arrival was almost equal to the roar of a cataract, continuing for two or three hours, until they became so far settled down as the breaking limbs would permit, when they knocked them off the trees, wrung off their heads and turned them over to the housewife, who soon converted them into delicious pot-pie, roast, etc.




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