Fisherman Shot, 1898

MILLER, SKILLINGHAST

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/26/2014 at 22:12:16

Dubuque Herald, April 30, 1898

FISHERMAN SHOT

Game Warden Miller, of Wisconsin, has been making it warm for violators of the law governing seining during the past week. He has been patrolling the sloughs and tributaries of the Mississippi river below East Dubuque and up above, and has succeeded in capturing and destroying a number of nets and seines.

At McGregor he has recently found a lot of seines, which he burned, and this caused no little feeling. Yesterday evening about 4 o'clock Mr. Miller was out on a still hunt near McGregor and found a man by the name of Skillinghast, a fisherman who had been violating the law, and whom he had warned, but the fisherman showed fight, and when he saw the warden he shot at him, but the warden was also handy with a gun, and leveling at Skillinghast, shot him in the back of the neck.

The wound was not considered dangerous, but was just close enough to the vital parts to show that Miller was not shooting for fun. The shooting created quite a sensation, and the result of the affair is in doubt at this time.