The Forest Republican. [volume] (Tionesta, Pa.) 1869-1952, 1889-08-28
A MIGHTY BEAR HUNTER.
THE GREATEST LIVING AMERICAN
SLAYER OF BRUIN.
His Home in the North Carolina Noun.
tains-Some of His Narrow Es.
Capes and Daring Feats.

His Home in the North Carolina Noun.
tains-some of His Narrow Es.
capes and Daring Feats.
Around Asheville, n. c., are many in
teresting points, but none so highly novel
as the home of Big Tom Wilson, the
most noted living bear hunter in America.
Big Tom has killed up to the present
writing Just three hundred and fifty-seven
bears, exclusive Of the cubs he has cap
tured and killed. He was born and raised
at the foot of Black Mountain, one of the
highest peaks in western North Carolina,
and has been hunting bear since mere
boy.
1t is worth the ride of thirty-ffve miles
on horseback through the mountains
from Asheville, to visit the home of, and
see and talk with, Big Tom. His is a
typical mountain home, a small log hut
with stick and mud chimney at the foot
Black Mountain and on the edge of a
small stream konwn as Cancy River.
There is not another house within ten
miles, and to any but the most expe-
rienced mountain guide the place is mac
cessible, there being only one small gap
through the mountains by which it is
possible to reach the place, for Cancy
River a short distance below the hunters
mountain home is suddenly lost from
view and appears above ground again
miles away on the other side of the noun
tain.
Tom has a wife and fourteen children,
all of whom live in the one room of the
small log cabin. But children are not
the only live stock that Tom has, for
around his home are three large black pet
bears. These are his dogs or his hunt
ing companions.
Tom is a great burly fellow, six feet
four inches tall, with broad shoulders
and muscles of steel. His beard is long
and black, slightly tinged with gray. His
hair is as straight as an Indians, and
hangs down over his shoulders. His eye
brows are long and bushy, while be-
Meath them is as piercing a pair of gray
eyes as one could imagine. He is per
feet type of the ideal mountain hunts
man, and mere glance at him would
indicate to the most conservative that he
could grapple with and conquer, empty
handed, the most ferocious bear.
But Tom has had one tussel empty
handed and says he never wants another.
As a consequence his face and body are
covered with scars and one finger of his
right hand is gone. 1t was in the fall
of 1882. He had been hunting over the
mountains, and having struck no game,
had rested his rifle against a tree and
lain down for a nap. He awoke sud
denly to find big black bear on his
hind legs with the gan clutched
between his paws and almost over
him. Tom jumped to his feet
in an instant. But the bear was equally
quick, and, dropping the gun, made for
Tom. They grappled, and as Tom ex
presses it, "there was the greatest hug
ging match for half an hour you ever
saw" Tom held his own admirably at
first, but the bear bit and tore at his
clothes until they were all off, and then
tore the flesh from his shoulders in hunks.
Tom was choking the bear with his great
hands of iron and the bear was hugging
and tearing at his arms and shoulders.
He was bleeding from a dozen different
wounds and rapidly growing weak when
he stumbled on rock and fell, with the
bear on top. His back struck some
thing hard. 1t was his rifle.
His hopes arose, and with a great ef-
fort he turned, caught the muzzle of the
rifle with one hand, pressed it against
the throat of the bear and quickly pulled
the trigger with the other.
The ball crushed through the neck
and brain of the bear and he fell over
dead. Tom was saved, but to use his
own expression, he "will never tackle
another bar without ole trusty," his
rifle.
Tom was never known to trap bear.
He says that is taking an unfair advan-
tage of the "critters" "
Just after his single handed experience
with the bear Tom got three large ones
out of one tree. He and his boy were
going over the mountains unarmed.
They were nine miles from his cabin and
it was late in the afternoon when he
spied three bears in the limbs OF a chest
nut tree eating the fruit. He immedi-
ately builta large fire around the trunk of
the tree and sent his boy home for his
rifle, while he remained to keep up the
fire and prevent them from getting away,
The trip was long and rugged one,
and the boy did not reslrn until the next
morning, but Big Tom keptthe fire burn
ing and watched all night. At sunrise
the boy had returned, and Tom got all
three in that many shots.
Big Tom don't hunt as much now as he
used to, but he never returns without
game. The three bears he has at his
home he raised having captured them
when cubs, They are as obedient TO his
command as dogs, and always accompany
him on his hurts. He says they never
fail to find bsar, and as a wild one seeing
them will approach he can kill them
without difficulty. Two of them are
SCARED and bitten up quite badly, Tor
sometimes Tom carries them out to see
them fight with and kill the wild ones
around the mountains. They sometimes,
however, have very tough fights, and on
one or two occasions Tom has been COM
PEELED, in order 10 save his pets, to enter
the melee armed with a knife and assist