Books From C. John Sullivan

Eildon Ducking Club, Gunning Records & Logs

(Alpha Graphics 2021)

It had long been written about the area of Carrolls Island and the Narrows located between Spesutia Island and the western shore being excellent for duck hunting. In 1855 Elisha J. Lewis, M.D. mentioned in The American Sportsman: Containing Hints to Sportsmen, Notes on Shooting and the Habits of the Game Birds, and Wild Fowl of America that “The principal sites on the Chesapeake Bay where Sportsmen resort for this kind of pastime are the points immediately about Havre de Grace, the narrows of Spesutie….” The notoriety and reputation of the Spesutie Narrows are what ultimately brought gunners from the East Coast to the area.

On October 31, 1885, a group of 25 gentlemen from New York and New Jersey assembled to organize the Eildon Ducking Club. This book is a chronicle of the records and logs from the Eildon Ducking Club dating from 1886 to 1906.

Bishops Head Fish and Gun Club

(Alpha Graphics 2018)

In 2004, the Historic Context Study of Waterfowling Hunting Camps and Related Properties referred to Bishops Head as “the last of the great hunting Clubs.” By incorporating a number of facsimile pages from the original “Game Record” of November 1, 1923, through January 31, 1931, I have aimed to provide the reader with a snapshot of what was taking place at the Club.

The details I have included provide a glimpse of the vast number of waterfowl that migrated to this place. Few waterfowlers of the present generation can imagine the magnitude of the flocks from this era. What is revealed is the passion for this great sport and some of the many hardships that were endured to enjoy it. The passion continues to this day; although the great flocks have diminished, the love of being one with nature and the camaraderie of being with like-minded friends and companions keep us returning to the blinds.

Waterfowling: Maryland’s Legislative Timeline

(The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore)

This booklet contains a listing of all of the Maryland Waterfowling Legislation enacted from 1832-1936.

Chesapeake Ducking Guns – Baltimore Made

(Full House Press 2016)

Baltimore shotguns were used not just in Maryland and up and down the Eastern Flyway, but throughout the country. ​This book focuses on shotguns crafted by two of the most famous Baltimore gun makers, Alexander McComas, and Clark & Sneider, as those makers are the focus of my personal collection of Baltimore guns.

New shotguns crafted by Clark and Sneider were shipped to Virginia, North Carolina, New Jersey and other Eastern states and as far away as Texas and Montana. Sneiders’ altered guns were shipped to California, Wisconsin, and New Mexico. DeLancey Floyd Jones carried his four-gauge breech loader by Clark and Sneider from Long Island, New York, to Carroll’s Island, Maryland. J. Olney Norris and his brother, Isaac T. Norris, both wealthy millers in Baltimore City, used their Baltimore-made Alexander McComas eight-gauge shotguns at Carroll’s Island in Baltimore County and at the Swan Island Club in North Carolina.

Old Ocean City: The Journal and Photographs of Robert Craighead Walker, 1904-1916

(The Johns Hopkins University Press 2001)

In Old Ocean City, Sullivan mixes his own commentary and explanatory captions with excerpts from Robert Walker’s journal and more than one hundred family photographs (discovered in 1994, Sullivan notes, in a sweltering attic in Berlin, Maryland). Views of handsome beach architecture and grass-covered dunes suggest an Ocean City almost unimaginable today. Rare photographs and accounts of shorebird hunting (banned in 1918 to protect sandpipers, plover, herons, and other species) are an arresting contrast to more familiar scenes of boating, fishing, and beachcombing. We see the Walker children growing up — and Ocean City growing up around them. The result is a surprising look at a place “far different than our memories would recall.” Sullivan includes a time line of Ocean City history and Walker family visits, starting with the formation of the Atlantic Hotel Company in 1868 (the company’s stockholders chose the name Ocean City at their 1875 meeting in Salisbury) and ending with the Walkers’ sale of their beloved cottage in 1950.

Waterfowling, The Upper Chesapeake’s Legacy

(Maplehurst Publisher 1987)

Before becoming a “bedroom community”, prior to the birth of Aberdeen Proving Ground, Harford had a distinct reputation. It was known up and down the Eastern Seaboard for its magnificent waterfowling. The sport attracted many of the country’s foremost businessmen and created a vital part of Harford’s economy at the time.

Today, decoys which remain from that era are our only tangible link to those different times. Joining the antique decoys is this publication, clearly a labor of love for its author, who has compiled and recorded the most complete record of this important portion of the heritage of Harford County, Maryland and the Upper Chesapeake.

Swan Island Club
1872-A History -2014

(Maplehurst Publisher 1987)

Much of the history of waterfowl hunting in America can be found in the handwritten gunning logs of clubs that not only record their hunting success, but also their social nature and the traditions of the club. Club histories are seldom continuously documented, and lapses in record keeping leave information gaps. The Swan Island Club, established in 1872 in Currituck County, North Carolina, has a continuous record of 140 years of operation.  Member rosters, hunting success logs, photographs, and commentaries from past and recent members and staff have been brought together in this new book by C. John Sullivan, Jr., entitled Swan Island—A History—1872—2014—Currituck, North Carolina. Decoys, dogs, boats, game, hunting methods, and the men who maintained the club’s traditions are skillfully  woven together in this unique history of waterfowling at Swan Island.