TRhis was briefly touched on on another forum but I thought i would move it here so as not to highjack the original post, many think that the steel trap was a product of the post 1800 western fur trade expansion but here are some things to think about when trying to get a ckear picture of the steel traps place in American history.
A quote from John Brickell 1730, N. Carolina "The commodities convienient to bring from Europe are as follows...Traps of all sorts, and especially for Beavers..."
1756, quote from Colonel James Smith of Penn. "..Beavers are caught in steel traps are drown, provided the trap be heavy enough to hold them under water.."
1769 in the Illinois country request for goods " 300 Beaver traps such as had of Baltzar Geer-excesively wanted"
1763 from the Simeon Ecuyer during the seige of Ft. Pitt
" I have collected all the Beacer traps which could be found with our merchants, and they were placed in the evening outside the palisades, I would be pleased to send you one with the leg of a savage, but they have not given me this satisfaction"
1779 A Morovian missionary wrote that in the Ohio territory the Beaver numbers had been greatly reduced since the Indians had learned from the whites how to capture them in steel traps.
In 1770 Squire Boone brought back to Kentucky more traps and equipment for the long winter.
There are many, many more references to traps and trapping from the mid 1700's and earlier east of the Mississippi,while "hunting or trading for fur was the manistay early on, the advantage of the trap was recognized and caught on more quickly than many think, in later times Sewell Newhouse is often credited with the invention of the steel trap in the 1830's or 40's he mearly continued a style that had been around for over a hundred years and made it better it is unlikely that he contributed much to the trap production of the RMFT era as most of his recorded work is after 1848 when he joined the Onieda Community.
A quote from John Brickell 1730, N. Carolina "The commodities convienient to bring from Europe are as follows...Traps of all sorts, and especially for Beavers..."
1756, quote from Colonel James Smith of Penn. "..Beavers are caught in steel traps are drown, provided the trap be heavy enough to hold them under water.."
1769 in the Illinois country request for goods " 300 Beaver traps such as had of Baltzar Geer-excesively wanted"
1763 from the Simeon Ecuyer during the seige of Ft. Pitt
" I have collected all the Beacer traps which could be found with our merchants, and they were placed in the evening outside the palisades, I would be pleased to send you one with the leg of a savage, but they have not given me this satisfaction"
1779 A Morovian missionary wrote that in the Ohio territory the Beaver numbers had been greatly reduced since the Indians had learned from the whites how to capture them in steel traps.
In 1770 Squire Boone brought back to Kentucky more traps and equipment for the long winter.
There are many, many more references to traps and trapping from the mid 1700's and earlier east of the Mississippi,while "hunting or trading for fur was the manistay early on, the advantage of the trap was recognized and caught on more quickly than many think, in later times Sewell Newhouse is often credited with the invention of the steel trap in the 1830's or 40's he mearly continued a style that had been around for over a hundred years and made it better it is unlikely that he contributed much to the trap production of the RMFT era as most of his recorded work is after 1848 when he joined the Onieda Community.
