For The Love Of Contemporary

Cal Tanner is a maker of hunting pouches, haversacks, powderhorns and other items who is well known for his exceptional leather craftsmanship and quality. He has won numerous awards for his work, which, in Cal’s own words, he approaches with the mindset of a professionally-trained eastern craftsman working with locally available materials after moving to the Ohio frontier at the end of the 18th century. Jim Hays and his wife Peggy are multi-talented artists with unique ability to capture the feel of well-made, authentic looking and aged accoutrements - including forge work, knives, pouches, horns and textiles. Cal and Jim are neighbors working in the beautiful and historic Paint Creek Valley region of southern Ohio. They have teamed up for this year’s auction to replicate a rare surviving early 19th century pouch with a history that is intertwined with the events leading up to the warfare that erupted on the Indiana frontier in 1811.

The “Thomas Simpson Pouch” and its accompanying horn, was carried and used by Simpson – a professional hunter working the present-day Ohio-Indiana border area in the first decade of the 19th century. Born in Maryland in 1773 Simpson moved with the frontier – to North Carolina, the Clinch River area of Tennessee, and by the early 1800s on to the western edge of the settlements along the 1795 Greenville Treaty Line. In the winter of 1809-1810 he moved west beyond the old Treaty line when he hired out as a hunter for the survey crew that ran the western boundary of the famous “12-Mile Purchase.” The 12-Mile Purchase had been negotiated with pro-American chiefs at the Treaty of Fort Wayne in 1809, against the wishes of Tecumseh and other opposed Native leaders – and thus was one of the first in a string of treaties and sales that led to the hostility that erupted on the Indian frontier in 1811. Simpson remained - first settling in the surveyors’ cabin – located in present day Fayette County, Indiana, and spent the rest of his life in the area, eventually being joined by his family and many friends from North Carolina.

The original pouch set is a fitting project for Cal’s and Jim’s artistry – beyond the regional connection it exhibits a combination of professional and home-spun craft – extremely well made and simple yet beautifully designed with a long pointed tail flap and an inner divider. True to the original, Cal has reproduced the pouch in oak-tanned calfskin while having the original on his bench to study. Cal also demonstrates his talent as a horner, faithfully reproducing the original horn accompanying the bag with its single raised ring and a reinforcing iron band on the spout and a domed plug held by hand-cut wooden pegs. The worn out and replaced strap, the glassy translucence and flattening on the horn’s inboard side and the presence of a powder measure made from a late 19th century center-fire shell casing - discovered hidden deep in the bottom of the pouch – all suggest countless miles of carry and generations of use.

Jim has added a beautiful bone handled knife with a hand-forged blade to complete the set. The knife is perfectly in keeping with the strong but simple and elegant features of the bag and horn.

“I have been a lover of history and believe in the preservation of our heritage. I’ve liked muzzleloading for many years and made my first trip to Friendship (the national matches at the home range of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association) in 1965.

I served in the military in Germany.

I am a hobby blacksmith and am self-taught – I usually blacksmith and whitesmith my work. I am into knives, colonial hardware and anything else that may strike my “fancy”. I consider myself a professional piddler.

I also like reenacting and going to rendezvous and love to collect early antiques, primitives, guns and accoutrements.”

Jim Hays

To see more of Cal’s and Jim’s work, you can visit these links:

Calvin Tanner

Jim Hayes

Contact:
Calvin Tanner:
218 Hwy 50

Bainbridge, OH 45612
(740) 634-3579

email: tannermc@bright.net

Jim and Peggy Hays:

1832 California Hollow Road
Bainbridge, OH 45612
(740) 626-2381

Email: peaceablekingdomfarm@horizonview.net

Copy by Cal Tanner and Jim Hayes. Photos supplied by the Contemporary Longrifle Foundation.

Pushmataha is the most famous chief of the Choctaw nation and was the primary Choctaw war leader during the War of 1812. Pushmataha died in 1825 on a diplomatic mission to Washington DC and is buried there in the Congressional Cemetery as Brigadier General Pusnmataha.

When CLA member Matt Fennewald heard the theme of the CLF auction was the War of 1812 he was enthusiastic about changing his original donation proposal of a horn and bag to a Choctaw bow. Matt was aware of a bow attributed to Chief Pushmataha and supposedly was carried by him during the War of 1812. Pushmataha was a believer in traditional Choctaw cultural and the spiritual power of traditional ways and weapons. It is likely that the stories he carried a bow into battle in the Creek wars are true. There is a probability that he was in the small contingent of Choctaw warriors at the Battle of New Orleans but that cannot be verified.

Matt’s quest to build a faithful copy of that bow is a story in itself. He contacted the Choctaw National Museum, who holds the bow in their collections and after some discussion with personnel at the museum he believes that particular bow is actually Filipino and not Choctaw. Matt did not want to do something that might be misrepresented, so he decided to make what he feels is a little more likely as far as a Choctaw bow, arrow, and quiver set that could have been used by Pushmataha in the War of 1812.

The bow is made from hickory and has a string twisted out of whitetail deer back sinew. The arrows are river cane, fletched with wild turkey wing feathers, and have fore shafts made from hickory. Matt included several different point styles as he feels this best represents the variety that would have been found on the arrows in a working quiver. The quiver is woven from river cane and was made by Paul Fennewald, Matt’s father, who is also a CLA member and lives in Missouri.

Matt says he did not use any special tools in the construction “just some research, a hatchet, drawknife, shaving horse, pocket knife, and some sweat“ In the preservation of traditional artistry, that is special.

The river cane used in the construction of the arrows and quiver have a connection to another Indian chief who was also connected to the War of 1812. This material was gathered near Lake Wappapello, in the St. Francis River watershed, in Southeast Missouri. Lake Wappapello is named after Chief Wapepilese, a Shawnee who reportedly hunted in this area, and was friendly to the early white settlers in southeast Missouri. His village was located on the site of present day Bloomfield, MO.

Matt and his father are both from farms on Moniteau Creek in Moniteau county Missouri. Paul gave Matt his first flintlock rifle at the age of 10, in return for a summer working the farm. Endless hours of Matt’s childhood were spent pouring over The Books of Buckskinning, as there was nothing more in life he wanted than to be a mountain man. Later on he spent a few years studying art at college, then left to spend some time hitch hiking around this great country and trying to live off the land. When the time came to settle down the only place that felt like home to Matt was back along the Moniteau Creek and so that is where lives today on a small farm along with his amazing wife and three children. Matt is noted for his brain tanning, hand crafted bows and arrows, hand stitched hunting bags, and powder horns.

Matt said he made this donation to the CLA because “ I wanted to donate to the CLA for the Foundation Auction foremost for the reason that I think the CLA is great and their promotion of the long rifle culture is something sorely needed today. Also I think it is great exposure for the donating artist.”