Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-04-05
CALIFORNIA BEAR KILLERS.
CIRCUsEs THAT JIH wILBURN AND BILL
NOWLIN OF TRINITY HAVE HAD
WITH GRIZZLIES.

JdultS W llbulAl. VI l@cAiS AbANSS' NAN
of the few men for whose prOwess the
Round Valley outlaws always have had
a wholesome respect, is bear destroyer
of the first order. Whether he has kill
ed as many as Sylvester Scott of SonO-
ma county has wiped out is a question,
but as bear fighter from the ground up
he stands second to none.
Old Jim's arm is crippled and almost
useless. The hand is cuIled up like a
claw. and the end of a broken bone
makes a big knob on his wrist. On his
scalp are two deep sears, extending al
most from his forehead to the back OF
MS neck. By these souvenirs he remem-
bers the toughest bear fight he ever had.
He had chased big grizzly into the
brush. and was unable to coax him out
where he could get shot at the beast
An Indian offered to go in and prospect
for bear. and disappeared in the thicket
His search was successful, but perhaps
it was a question whether he found the
bear or the bear found him. The Indi-
an came out of the thicket at a spring
ing gait, with the bear good second. and
they came so suddenly that even jim
Wilburn was taken by surprise. In two
more jumps the bear would have been
on top of the Indian, but jim sprang
between them, rifle in hand.
Before he could fire, the weapon was
wrenched from his hands and broken
like a reed. He grabbed his pistol, and
that was knocked out of his hand in
iiffv. Then the bear closed with him
and both went down, the bear on top
The first thing the bear did was to try to
swallow Jim's head, but it was large
head and made more than mouthful
The bears long upper teeth slipped along
the skull, plOwing great burrows in
Jim's scalp, while the lower teeth lacer-
ated his face. The brute's jaws were
stretched so wide to get hold that he
could not close them fairly and crunch
Jim's skull, as he amiably intended tC
do.
Before the bear could make another
grab at his head Jim thrust his fist down
the animals throat, and kept it there
while the grizzly chewed his arm into
pulp. Meanwhile he had got hold of his
big knife and plunged it into the bears
side with all his strength. Again he
tried to stab his enemy, but the knife
did not penetrate the hide, and he dis
covered that in the first thrust the knife
had struck rib and the point was turn,
ed up The bear clawed and chawed
and jim felt around for the wound he
had made first. When he found it he
thrust the knife in and worked it around
in a very disquieting way In the strug
gle the knife slipped out of the hole sew.
eral times, and once jim lost it, but he
persistently searched for the hole when
he recovered the knife, and prospected
desperately for the bears vitals.
At last he worked the blade well into
the griZzly's interior, and made such
havoc by turning it around that the
brute gave up the fight and rolled ovel
dead, with Jim'S mangled left arm in his
jaws.
1t was tough fight and close call
and old Jim was laid up in his cabin fol
many day afterward. He recovered
with a ruined arm and more sears than
he could count, and has killed many q
bear since.
Bill Nowlin, the man who killed Newt
Irwin in Round Valley, when Irwin was
sent by the White gang to murder him
has a record as bear obliterator. He
learned the business of killing grizzlies
under the guidance of Sylvester Scott
1,nF ho 70 ~
when he located in the valley he was
sought by stockmen, who were troubled
by bears and wanted the maTauders hunt
ed down. Jim Simonin had something OF
a reputation in the valley as bear
killer, and when Nowlin took a contract
to clean out some grizzlies that were
whooping it up on Kickawakie Creek he
he asked Simonin to join him.
They took pack of dogs along, and
soon after striking the creek the hounds
ran grizzly into the chapparel and went
in after him. The brush was thick, and
the dogs could not get fair show al
the big fellow, who obstinately declined
to be drawn out of his stronghold by
their attacks. So dense was the thicket
that the yelping of the dogs and growl-
ing of the dogs were muffled, and the
conflict seemed further away than it
really was. Newlin became impatient
and started to find out where the bear
was located. He pushed through the
thicket, and was making his way care
fully toward the place where the dogs
seemed to be having the biggest row,
when Caleb suddenly arose beside him,
and gave him a welt with his paw that
sent him spinning down hill like top.
The blow fell little short, luckily for
Nowlin, and only one claw struck his
shoulder, but that was enough to give
him pretty fair idea of the power of
the brute. He kept hold of his rife as
he went down hill, and when he landed
on his knees, facing the bear, he raised
the gun to his shoulder and let her go.
The ball struck the bear back of his
shoulder, and as Caleb turned to bite
the place where he was hit, NOwlin fired
again and put ball into his head. The
bear tumbled over, and in his death
struggle tore up the bushes and saplings
by the roots. To make sure of his game,
NOwlin pumped two more shots into
the bear and put an end to his struggles.
When he went up to look at the monster,
he saw SimOnin standing on the trunk
of a fallen tree that had lodged in a
crotch and was lying at an angle that
brought the upper part some ten or doz-
en- feet from the ground. "Look out"
shouted Simonin, "there's another bear
down therer
"Then why don't you come down and
shoot him?" said Nowlin.
He had barely spoken when the dogs
and small bear came plunging out of
the brush in confused heap within
twenty feet of where he stood. They
were so mixed up that it was hard to
tell dog from bear, and NOwlin could
get no chance to put in shot without
endangering his dogs. The bear got
one of the dogs down, when Nowlin
rushed up to them with his knife, lean
ed over the bears back and plunged the
knife to the hilt into the side opposite
himself, knowing that the bear would