Men I Have Fished With; Sketches of Characters and Incidents with Rod and Gun, from Childhood to Manhood, from the Killing of Little Fishes and Birds to a Buffalo Hunt
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This work has been selected by scholars as being cultur...)
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.
This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.
As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Fred Mather was an American pisciculturist and writer on outdoor life.
Background
Fred Mather was born on August 2, 1833 in Greenbush, now Rensselaer, N. Y. His parents were Joseph and Chianna (Brockway) Mather of Lyme, Connecticut, and he was a descendant of Rev. Richard Mather of Toxteth, England, who came to Massachusetts in 1635 and settled in Dorchester.
Education
After the removal of his family to Albany in 1850, Mather studied at the Classical Institute of Prof. Charles Anthony.
Career
During boyhood he had exhibited a strong interest in outdoor pursuits, particularly hunting and fishing, and it was probably this that impelled him, soon after his marriage, to join the great Western migration. He located temporarily in Wisconsin, where he was interested in lead mines at Potosi, also engaging in hunting and trapping. He participated in the government surveys in Minnesota and passed some time in Kansas prior to the Civil War. In 1862 he enlisted in the 113th New York Volunteers and served with credit throughout the Civil War, being discharged with the rank of captain in the 7th New York Artillery. What led him to adopt fish culture as a life work is not clear, but he may have been influenced by the activities of Seth Green and other pioneers in this field between 1860 and 1870. In any case, he experimented with the hatching of perch eggs in the rooms of the State Geological Survey at Albany in 1867. The following year he established himself at Honeoye Falls, Monroe County, N. Y. , initiating the more extensive piscicultural work in which he rapidly gained distinction. With the establishment of the United States Fish Commission in 1872 he was called upon for various services, being entrusted with the shipment of live shad to Europe in 1874. He repeated the trip in 1877, carrying eggs of the California salmon in a case of his own designing, and bringing back a few European sole for planting in American waters. In 1874 and 1875 he experimented with the hatching of Michigan grayling and made some efforts to propagate the sea bass. In his literary activities he was prominently identified with Forest and Stream, serving as a member of its editorial staff and furnishing frequent contributions. His work also appeared in Rod and Gun and American Sportsman, and in the Chicago Field now the American Field, the fishing department of which he edited from March 1878 to April 1880. The latter periodical alone published over three score short articles from his pen. A compilation of his writings shows over seventy titles of a technical nature in addition to the foregoing. As a prominent member of the American Fish Cultural Association and its successor the American Fisheries Society he wrote extensively for their annual Transactions. Other works, such as Men I have Fished With (1897), In the Louisiana Lowlands (1900), and My Angling Friends (1901), consisted largely of anecdotes and reminiscences of his experience during his travels and numerous field investigations. He was author of Memoranda Relating to Adirondack Fishes (1886) of some scientific value, and a technical handbook, Modern Fish Culture (1901). He died near Lake Nebagomain, Wis.