An interesting article was published in the Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette in 1893 that gives a story of an old powder horn owned over the years by three men.[1] One of the owners was Daniel Shotts, my husband’s 3x-great-grandfather. He had received the deer-skin covered powder horn in 1825 from a hermit named Hewitt, who lived many years in a cave.
In those early days, hunters used a long-barreled, muzzle-loading rifle. This powder horn was described in the article as made of “cow’s horn” that later was “mended by drawing over it the skin from a deer’s leg, hair out, which has hardened until it is as firm as metal, holding the horn so that it is impossible to move it. The larger end is filled with a smooth wooden stopper with a swivel in it, so that a strap could be passed through it. The small end is stopped by a wooden peg.”
After Daniel used it, he gave it to Martin Haynes in 1835. The article went on to say that it was now (in 1893) in the possession of Martin’s grandson, C.M. Haynes. They also speculated that it caused the death of many bucks.
What a treasure that C.M. Haynes had, something owned by
many early pioneers of Ross County. It might have looked this the image below, created by ChatGPT from the description in the news article.
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| Created with ChatGPT[2] |
#52Ancestors: Week 38 – “A Document With Personality”
This is my ninth year working on this year-long prompt, hosted by Amy Johnson Crow (https://www.amyjohnsoncrow.com/) at Generations Cafe. I write each week in one of my two blogs, either Mam-ma’s Southern Family or My Trails into the Past. I have enjoyed writing about my children’s ancestors in new and exciting ways.
[1] “The
Hermit’s Horn,” Chillicothe Daily Gazette, 21 Apr 1893, p. 1, col. 5; imaged, Newspapers.com
(https://www.newspapers.com/image/284879736/
: accessed 18 Sep 2026).
[2]
Powder Horn, image created by ChatGPT from description in the news article, 18
Sep 2026.
Never saw anything quite like it! And a wonderfully historic pedigree, too.
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