St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-12
OARoLINA's BEAR SLAYER.
A Visit to Big Tom Wilson in His
Wild Mountain Ell ONE.

OAAkOAANA DEAN oAE1 Il 4uAss
A Visit to Big Tom Wilson I'm His
Wild Mountain Ell ONE.
Asheville N. CO. Letter to Atlanta Constitu-
ton.
Around Asheyille are many interest
ing 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 557 bears, exclusive of the
cubs he has CAPTURED 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 five miles
on horseback through the mountains
from Asheville to visit the home of and
see and talk with Big Tom.
His is typical mountain home-a
small log hut, with stick and mud chin
ney, at the foot of Black mountain, and
on the edge of a small stream known as
Caney river. There is not another house
within ten miles, and to any but the
most experienced mountain guide the
place is inaccessible, there being only
one small gap through the fountains
by which it is possible to reach the
place, for Caney river short distance
below the hunters mountain home is
suddenly lost to view, and appears
above ground again miles away on the
other side of the mountain.
Thus Big Tom is monarch of all he
surveys. Tom has wife and fourteen
children, all of whom live in the one
room of the small log cabin. But chill
dren 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 hunting companions.
Tom is 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 straightas an Indians and
hangs down over his shoulders. His eye
broWs long and bushy, while beneath
them is as piercing pair of gray eyes
as one could imagine. He is a perfect
type of the ideal mountain huntsman,
and mere glance at him would indi
cate to the most conservative that he
could grapple with and conquer. empty
handed, the most ferociouS bear. But
Tom has had one tussle, empty handed,
and says he never wants another. AS a
consequence his face and body are COW
cred 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 tree and lain down for
nap. He awoke suddenly to find big
black bear on his hind legs with the gun
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
hugging match for half an hour you
ever saw" Ten held his own admir-
ably 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 chok-
ing the bear with his great hands of
iron, and the bear was hugging and
tearing at his arms and shoulders. He
was bleeding from dozen different
wounds and rapidly growing weak when
he stumbled on rock and fell, with the
bear Oh top. His back struck something
hard. 1t was hisritle. His hopes arose,
and with great effort he turned, caught
the muzzle of the rife 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, she will never tackle
another bar without ole Trusty," his
rifle.
Tom was never known to trap a bear.
He says that is taking an unfair adYan-
tage of the "critters."
just after his Single-handed expert
ence with the bear Tom got three large
ones out of one tree. He and his boy
we're going over the mountains I'M
armed. They were nine miles from his
cabin and it was late in the afternoon.
when he spied three bears in the limbs
of chestnut tree eating the fruit. He
Immediately built 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 return until the
next morning, but big Tom kept the fire
burning and watched all the 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
ne uSeu TO, put ne never returns WlCn-
out game. The bears he has at home
he raised, having captured them when
cubs. They are as obedient to his COM
mand as dogs, and always accompany
him OH his hunts. He says they never
fail to find bear and as wild seeing
them will approach he can kill them
without difficulty. Two of them are
SCARED and bitten up quite badly, for
sometimes Tom carries them out to see
them fight with and kill the wild ones
around the mountains. They some
times, however, have very tough fights,
and on one or two occasions Tom has
been compelled, in order to save his
pets, to enter the melee armed with a
knife and assist them in the fight.
At home they are generally chained,
but the big mans children play around
them, and the little ones often ride on
their backs around the cabin.
Tom says he is getting old now and is
going to give up hunting after next
winter, but those who know him say he
will never give it up until he is too old
to climb the mountains. He is now ap-
parently about fifty-fve years of age,
and perhaps the most perfect specimen