Tobias Wynkoop and the Deer Park.

Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois
Edited by Newton Bateman, LL.D. and Paul Selby, A.M.
and
History of Lake County
Edited by Hon. Charles A. Partridge
Illustrated.
Chicago: Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers. 1902

from History of Lake County, 1902

CHAPTER I

Winecup's Point is understood to refer to the point of timber on the road at the crossing of the creek, about a mile north of Libertyville, and should have been Wynkoop's Point, being at the place where Tobias Wynkoop settled in 1835--a person of rare eccentricity, whose peculiarities are remembered by the early settlers, and at whose expense many a ludicrous anecdote is related. He was an extravagant man; but his was an extravagance of ideas. In theory, he was expansive, and never did anything on a small scale.

CHAPTER IV

Wynkoop's Deer Park.

Tobias Wynkoop built a log house on the creek north of Libertyville and made claim to a vast tract of land from the Des Plaines River west. He had come west with some means and large ideas. Making his plans to put in a full hundred acres of wheat he succeeded in plowing but ninety acres and, therefore, did no seeding whatever that year, it being too late when the remaining ten acres had been broken.

    Studying the habits of the deer, Mr. Wynkoop discovered that they traveled a beaten track in a single file and that they could not jump a 16-rail fence. This learned, he planted a patch of turnips, enclosed about ninety acres of land along the river with a high rail fence in which was a single opening, constructed a gate, attached a long cord by which it could be closed, and plowed a wide furrow along the usual runway of the deer clear up to the turnip patch, which was fenced off within the main enclosure.
    The park thus enclosed was on sections 4 and 9 in Libertyville. A house in an oak tree, reached by a ladder, served as a lookout and secreted the hunter and his dog. The cord from the gate to the deer park reached this hiding place. The scheme which had cost so much time and labor, was a well devised one, and actually worked so well that in a short time he had about thirty deer within the enclosure. But he declared that he would not kill any until he had a hundred secured.
    The animals all broke out one night, apparently having rushed in a body against the fence, as several lengths were found toppled over next morning. This ended the deer park scheme.

Notes from Richard Wynkoop's 1904 edition of Wynkoop Genealogy in the United States of America, page 95:

358. Tobias Wynkoop, (Petrus 142, Tobias 40, Evert 4, Cornelius 1), born July 13 or 18, 1797, Kaatsbaan church; married Eleanor Welsh, who died in 1866. They lived in Illinois. He removed to Georgia, in the autumn of 1868.
Children of Tobias and Eleanor Wynkoop
621. Adam
622. Elizabeth
623. Caroline. She m. E---- S. Terry, of Chicago
624. Peter
625. William
626. Alburtus
627. Valentine

Created December 30, 1998; Revised September 17, 2003
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