The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-02-07
THE BIGGEST BEAR YET.
s,o+ Twice in 1878, and Had Two Bull
r lets in his Body When Killed the Other
r-.n,n ths Netp York Sun.

ehot Twice in 1878, and Had TWO Bull
,a+s in his Body When Killed the Other
Day.
From the Netc York Sun.
MILFORD, PA, Jan. 2S.-One day in the
.uof 1878 Jacob Benseley of Lehman town
snin this county, discovered bear prowl-
go near his pig pen. The fact of the bears
.resence was not surprising, as it was no
uncommon thing to see bears almost any
dow in that part of Pike county ten years
40 so that it would have been cause for
a5Sore comment if person did not see bear
plb;la iourneving to or from the nearest
.own than it would have been to meet one
ry,erv mile or So Mr.. Benseley was there
Sore not at all surprised when he saw that
rnorning the particular bear mentioned, but
Ee was surprised at the animals unusual
.ze Mr.. Benseley was 6S years old at that
Hme. and had been bear hunter for more
.ban fifty years He had killed bears by
.he score, and of all sizes and shades. He
Mad not only killed bears, but while
nnanthers still existed in Pike county he was
, famous slayer of these fierce beasts Of
~rev He is credited with having killed the
last panther ever seen in the county, al
though there is one at present lurking in
the woods near the falls of the Shohola.
But among all the great wild deuizens
of the forest that Hunter Benseley had
lain low with his rife, this bear that
cast longing eye on the inmates of his pig
sty that autumn morning had no equal for
size or formidable appearance. The big
bear did not show any sign that Hunter
Benseley's presence on the scene had any
disturbing effect on his intentions of the pig
sty. and the old backwoodsman went back
in his house and got his rifle. He lodged
two bullets in the bear before the animal
was convinced that Benseley was deter
mined in his objection to its feeding on his
porkers, and it went bowling and bleeding
into the woods. The hunter was not
he drew his rifle on walk away, and
the persistence on the part of this bear
in not dying after having two of
the old dead shots bullets in his body was
the greatest surprise that Hunter Benseley
ever had in his whole career in the woods.
He summoned his son, James Madison Ben
seley, and the two followed the bear to the
woods. 1t escaped into a jungle, from
which the hunters could not dislodge him,
and they gave up the chase, the old man be-
leving that the bear would die from his
wounds AS the big animal was not seen
again, either alone or in company with any
of the bears of less bulk in the township,
Hunter Benseley's opinion that the two bull
let's he had lodged in the bear had done for
him, was generally accepted as correct.
Time passed, and the big bear ceased to
be subject for discussion in the town ship.
A year ago Uncle Jake Benseley, as he was
known all over Pike county, died, and the
work of keeping down the bears in Lehman
and adjoining townships fell to other hands.
During the past fall Mad, Benseley, while
on his way to Milford one day, saw bear
cross the road in front of him, not far from
his house, and the great size of the animal
at once recalled the big bear of 1873. The
bear got away in the woods. When Mad.
returned home he spread the news that the
bear his father had shot nine years before
had come back, as he did not believe
there could be two bears of that size
in the county. 1t was bigger, he declared,
than the one Tunis Smith killed in Green
township in 1885, and that one was the lar
gest ever bagged in the county. 1t was
seven feet long, and weighed 500 pounds.
That bear was stuffed and presented to the
Smithsonian Institution, where it is now.
Mad. Benseley said that the big bear he
had seen and the one his father had shot,
made the Tunis Smith bear seem like cub
in comparison. A hunting party was or
gained, and long and persistent efforts
made to capture the monster. but he kept
in retirement and his retreat could not be
found. On morning after recent snow
one of Mad. Benseley's neighbors saw
a track in the snow, the size of
which scared him. 1t was a BEARS
track, and from its dimensions
there was no doubt that it had been made
by the fugitive Ben seley bear. The foot
prints measured seven inches across the
ball" of the track, and was enormous pro-
portionateIy. In a short time there were
many hunters on the track, but the bear
gave them a chase that lasted for days, and
it was only two or three days ago that he
was overtaken. The bear was surrounded
III a swamp by nine lusty hunters, and the
dogs sent in to run him out. He killed a
couple of dogs before he consented to make
a break for the open. He crashed out
through the laurels, and appeared within a
rod Of where John Schoonover was stand
ing. Schoonover is one of the sure shots of
the county, and he sent
lall crashing through the big animals
brain, and the enormous brute fell dead
almost in his tracks. In dressing the
bear two battered bullets, encysted with
flesh were found in his shoulder. Mad.
Benseley says he will make an affidavit that
they were the bullets his father fired in the
bear in 1873, and no one doubts that such is
the fact. The monster bear was divided,
and each of the nine hunters got fifty pounds
of meat. The skin, according to one account
measured eight feet and five inches from
nose to tail, and another account says the
measurement was seven feet eleven inches.
The bear was not particularly fat, but
skin and all, he weighed over 500 pounds.
If he had been as fat as the Tunis Smith
bear of Green township he would have
weighed 600 pounds, the hunters say.