Week 11, Achievement: Resolvo "Sol" Shaw the Fox Hunter

Week 11 of 2024’s 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge is “Achievement.”

Eastern American Red Fox (Vulpes vulpes ssp. fulvus) observed in Algonquin Provincial Park, Ontario on January 2017 by Joanne Redwood, Creative Commons

While no one can say for sure that the time Sol Shaw shot his wife’s fur coat ultimately led to the couple's divorce, it probably didn’t help their relationship.  Sol was positively obsessed with hunting.  He was fiddling with his 10-gauge in his living room one morning, lost so deeply in a fantasy about fox hunting that when he spied a flash of fur out of the corner of his eye, instinct took over.  BANG!  He shot a hole right through his wife’s coat and damaged the sewing machine beneath it.  His livid wife complained to his hunting buddies about his obsession.  “As for Sol he meekly purchased a new fur of a color that didn’t resemble a fox, paid for repairs on the sewing machine, and continued to hunt, secretly glad that since he had let loose he hadn’t missed his aim.”  This story appeared in a newspaper article, “Fox Hunt Tales In Good Old Days,” nine years after his death.  A writer by the initials A.G.S. wrote many tales about Sol and his Androscoggin Gun Club buddies.  The syndicated column appeared in newspapers throughout the country from the 1890s-1930s.

Resolvo “Sol” Shaw was my great-great grandmother Annie’s elder brother.  He and his twin, Oscar, were probably born in either Oakland or Albion, Maine in 1841.  Sol settled in Lewiston with his wife, Sarah Amelia Stone.  The couple had no children and divorced in 1895.

Sol was a barber, and from the way the mysterious A.G.S made it sound in his articles, stories of the Androscoggin Gun Club’s hunting and fishing exploits were told, retold, and spun into legendary gold in that barbershop.  Sol was most remembered for his marksmanship.  He may have honed these skills from a boyhood spent roaming the woods of Maine, or it’s possible he gained them in the Civil War when he served with Maine’s 20th Infantry, rising to the rank of colonel.  Through his gun club, he won many shooting competitions – probably because he nearly always had a gun in his hands.  A.G.S wrote in one of his barbershop articles, “One of the barbers, ‘Sol’ Shaw would go over to the corner half a dozen times a day; pick up the shotgun quick as a flash, point it at something on the wall and put it down without a word.”  He enjoyed a challenge when hunting.  He was once asked if he ever shot a bear.  “’Yes,’ said Sol contemptuously, ‘but it’s no fun, I’d as lief shoot a pig.’”  Sol enjoyed the challenge of hunting foxes.  The wily creatures were hard to track, and their size and speed made them difficult to shoot.  Sol was patient and a cracking shot.  A.G.S. reported that he once struck a fox in the head with bullets from a shotgun from 75 paces away. 

The writer also shared a funny story about Sol and a friend eating sardines when canned fish was fairly new.  The two men ate nearly the entire tin while one of their other fishing buddies was occupied.  Realizing that their friend might want to try sardines too, they quickly shoved live bait into the oily tin, coating the wiggling fish.

 Sol eventually moved to Readfield, Maine, where he continued to work as a barber, hunting and fishing in his spare time.  His move may have been a result of his father Greenlief’s death in 1891.  He moved to the family farm where his stepmother and younger half-sisters lived.  He died there in 1900 at the age of 59.  Without children to leave behind who may have passed on his stories, these tales of Sol Shaw may never have been shared if it hadn’t been for the newspaper articles written by A.G.S.  Thanks to him, stories about Sol and his hunting friends were read throughout the country decades after their deaths.

Sources:

“Shooting Bears,” Scott Valley (California) News, 9 March 1889, p. 1, image copy, Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/image/696377399/ :accessed 19 March 2024).

“Batch of Smiles,” The Boston Globe, 3 February 1937, p. 24, image copy, Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/image/431756193/ : accessed 19 March 2024).

“Fox Hunt Tales in Good Old Days,” Sun-Journal (Lewiston, Maine), 9 January 1909, p. 7, image copy, Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/image/828288167/ :accessed 19 March 2024).

“On A Simple Philosophy of Joy,” Sun-Journal (Lewiston, Maine), 26 December 1924, p. 4, image copy, Newspapers.com ( https://www.newspapers.com/image/828403814/ :accessed 19 March 2024).