The Wyoming Schuetzen Union's “Center Shot”

John Bodine, “Old Reliable”

- Jim Foral

There was a time in the history of Creedmoor when the mere mention that Colonel John Bodine or Major Fulton were to shoot in a long-range match was sufficient to destroy all hope of victory on the part of the new-comers, but grit and persistence are characteristic of our American rifleman.”

These front-page words of a Forest and Stream staff writer represented the realistic expectation. The thought of facing either man – Bodine in particular – with something to lose on the line, was a pretty daunting prospect. Those who’d faced him before were aware that his nerve would outlast theirs, and the contest’s outcome was not just likely, but a foregone conclusion with little to be done about it. Bodine was that imposing – and that good.

John Bodine was born in Ulster County, New York, near the village of Highlands in 1825. He was descended from the Huguenot Patentees, the original seven-family group that settled on a 40,000-acre patch of topsoil on the west side of the Hudson River, in the valley of the Walkill. It was purchased from the Esopus Indians in 1677. Young John was brought up as a farmer and practiced this occupation until the age of 29, whereupon he left the farm and hired on for two years with the New York and Erie Railroad. Later, he took a clerking position at the National Bank of Newburg, New York, and relocated there.

Sometime after this he became engaged in the freighting business and ran barges on the Hudson River from Highlands to New York City. Another John Bodine, likely his father, was active in the same business, in the same vicinity a generation previously. This business-suited both Bodines and the junior built it up into a rather profitable venture.