I am searching WILSON, HORTON, BARNETT, and HAINES, from 1860 to 1910 in Madison Co., and Dallas Co. Here is an excerpt from the History of Madison County, pub. 1879. It is fairly long for an e-mail, but I thought it interesting....... GREAT SNAKE HUNT One of the historic events of the county is the great snake hunt of 1849. It has been faithfully handed down by tradition, and some of its events have been so strongly put that its authenticity has been doubted by some of the late settlers of the county who have thought that it had something of the air of a "fish story". Such, however, is not the case, and there is no event in the history of the county better established than the snake hunt of 1849. It seems that in the early times the county was badly infested with rattlesnakes, the many rocky places furnishing them fine dens where they increased and multiplied with great rapidity. Prior to the organization of the county they were so numerous as to be a great pest and even greatly dangerous to life. The often-heard deadly rattle became a source of great alarm and terror to the "women folks" of the new community especially. It was quite common for men to wear leather leggins as a protection from rattlesnakes. In a little "snake frolic" indulged in on North River, Irwin Baum and William Combs killed ninety rattlesnakes in an hour and a half,and, as one of them remarked, it was not a very good day for rattlesnakes, neither. It was related that George Guye once killed thirty-five rattlesnakes which he found rolled up together in a round ball. The tenant on Mr. McKnight's farm on Hoosier Prairie once declared that there were enough snakes on the place to fence it, and then have enough left for a grand snake hunt. (to be continued) I thought I would post this in segments, so that those of you who weren't interested, wouldn't have to download it. Barbara in NC