BTHC History

The Bucktail Hunting Club, Inc. History
By
Ernest Pellegrino

The B.T.H.C. Inc. was started by a group of men that consisted of fathers, sons, relatives and friends, that hunted together on the Pocono Mountains in the mid 40's and early 50's. In the early 50's the Korean War broke out and young men were drafted in the service. When they came home, they noticed the U.S. Steel Plant was starting and a lot of hunting land was brought up by developers for housing.

Ernie Pellegrino (article author)

Listed are the guys who hunted in the Pocono's together in the 40's & 50's
Norman Francis Jr. (Abe)
Norman Francis Sr. (Reds)
Wesley Francis (Bing)
John Johnson (Chinger)
Frank Weber
Bernie Herling
Charles Stackhouse
Reid Stackhouse

In January of 1955 they decided to start a hunting club with a cabin and hunting grounds. A meeting was held in Reds (Norman Francis Sr.) and Abe's (Norman Francis Jr.) cellar. This was the beginning of the B.T.H.C.. A $10.00 fee was charged for initiation and $0.50 a month dues were collected from each member that wished to join.

I heard about the club and asked if I could join, the answer was yes, but I would have to pay a $15.00 initiation since the club was already started and I joined in March of 1955. As we grew, many changes took place in dues and fees.

The first couple of years were tough trying to keep members and get a place of our own. Many members came and went.

A few members would go look at places in the Pocono's and report to the club at the next meeting. Decisions were hard to make, until in 1957 on January 1st, Frank Weber, an older member said "If we didn't have a place by the end of the year he would drop out". Bill Cubberly, another member was in Real Estate at the time, so he and myself got together and sent letters to realtors in North Central PA, since land in the Pocono's was too costly as reported to us by other members who also inquired there. We received many brochures and picked out three places to look at. At our next meeting at the Continental (a local tavern in Yardley PA), we decided to check these places out and possibly put down a down payment.

At that time, I think we had 13 members, 11 showed up on Sunday morning and made the trip to look at these properties. A big surprise awaited us at this meeting, Bill received a letter about a farm that was not yet listed from Jackson Realty. A farm, 330 acres more or less, included a barn, house, 11 cows, 8 acres of wheat in the fields, a tractor, buzz-saw, gasoline engine in the barn, hay-rake, mow-machine, smokehouse, pig-pen, chicken house, corn crib, wagon house and out house. All for the amount of $7,200.00. We looked the letter over and made it our first stop. Upon checking it out, we decided we liked it very much and told the Real Estate agent that we had (2) two other properties to review and would get back to him.

The other places were in Troy and Mansfield (not far from the B.T.H.C. property), but less ground and woods and more costly. At dinner that night, we made our choice, it was called the Fanning Farm. We decided to offer $5,500.00 for the property, plus we didn't want the cows or wheat in the fields. We just wanted the rest of the property. We left a $1,000.00 deposit with the Realtor to be held in escrow.

That Monday night Bill received a call telling him the place was ours.

Frank Weber and Chuddy (Charles Jones) were carpenters and said even though the house did not look to good, it was very solid and we could do a lot with it.

by
Ernst Pellegrino / written June, 2000

Original BTHC Members / 1955
Norman (Abe) Francis Jr.
Norman (Reds) Francis Sr.
Wesley (Bing) Francis
Charles (Chuddy) Jones
Dick Jones
Ronnie Marrazzo Sr.
Bill Cubberly
John (Chinger) Johnson
John Estok
Frank Weber
Paul Hall
Ernie Pellegrino
Bernie Herling

Original CHARTER Members / 1957
@ the Time of Incorporation
Norman (Abe) Francis Jr.
Dick Jones
Charles (Chuddy) Jones
Ronnie Marrazzo Sr.
John Estok
Ernie Pellegrino
Bill Cubberly
Wesley (Bing) Francis
Bernie Herling
John (Chinger) Johnson
Frank Weber
Norman (Reds) Francis Sr.
Bill Keller
Elwin Cooney