Coon, Christian

Among the noted characters of early times was Christian Coon. He was a soldier, tinker, and trumpeter. He had been in the war, and could produce the loudest blasts from his wonderful brazen horn. He is said to have been one of the Hessian troops hired by England and sent out here to fight her battles. He was taken prisoner at the battle of Trenton, Dec. 26, 1776, where many of his fellows shared the same fate, and subsequently entered the American service, and remained in the army until the war ended. In some engagement he received a sabre-cut on the arm, for which he drew a pension during life, without which he could not have supported himself.

At one time there was an association of young men, some residing in Crawford and others in Shawangunk, Ulster,.Co., who had banded themselves together to commit all kinds of deviltry. The longer the association continued their operations the bolder and more pestilent they became, till finally they did deeds worthy of indictment and prison.

Among other subjects for fun and deviltry, two members of the club selected Coon; in which, however, as things turned out, they waked up the wrong customer. It roused the dormant energies and lion courage of the old soldier, which had slumbered within him for a quarter of a century, and he seized his musket, captured his assailants, and at the point of the bayonet drove them like craven dogs before him on the public highway for several miles till he came to the first justice, to whom he delivered them up. The officer received them, penned up like so many cattle in the corner of a horse-shed. This heroic act of trumpeter Coon, while it gained him much credit and applause, derided and deeply mortified the prisoners, and fairly turned the tables of fun and trick upon themselves. The cream of the joke was the musket was not loaded, nor had it been in twenty years. The young men were asked why they did not run off and escape. They answered, "We did not know what the old devil would do."