Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1903-09-15
Albany.

We see the account of seeing and also
of the killing of the bear in Mason near
the Blanchard cottage. This reminds
me of bear hunt and killing that hap
pened about 1857, or 40 years ago last
spring, which was as follows:
1t seems that there had been several
bears seen in different parts of the town,
and several shots fired at them from
shotguns (rifles were almost unknown
then in these parts), but to no effect, aod
as would naturally be expected, every
object that was seen moving at dis
lance, or a crash of underbrush beside
the road, brought the cry "a bear! A
bear, suren'
Well, one day about this season, David
Tyler, who lived on the old Tyler place,
so called, in the house that then stood a
few rods south of where the Blanchard
cottage now stands, had his brother
Nathan helping him get out manure, and
one K. o. Bean, (the father of our pres
emit Register of Deeds) was at work in
the house at carpenter work. The Ty-
lers heard their dogs barking loudly
near by on the side hill. Of course the
first thought was, bear, and so Nathan
advised David to investigate, and he
started for the place where the dogs
were barking, but not as David of old,
for he was not armed with sling, mol
even pocket knife.
To his great surprise he met his bear
trying to defend himself from the dogs
whereupon David gave the war cry, A
bear! A bearr' and then without his
sling he began to throw rocks, which
were plenty at that place. The bear
finding himself unable to dodge fas
enough to defend both ends of himself
from the dogs and the stones, took, a.
the old saying is, leg bail, but not being
we'll acquainted with the land took ;
straight course for the house.
On the first call from David Mrs. lyle
brought forth an old flintlock gun an(
powder horn for Bean to use in extermi
mating the bear, and as that was the hes
at hand, he took the same, and, Yankee
like, took his hammer and broke of
some old cast iron for bullets and loadet
Old Unreliable and started to meet tn
foe. He soon met him, and taking
good aim pulled, but only flash in tn
pan, and then he kept up until he say
| it was no 60 and the bear was gettini
past them all. Then he made charg
on him with the gun reversed ends an,
as Bruin went down into brook, strucl
, at his head. That dropped down an
the blow fell on his hip, and the gu
, stock, also the bears hip, were bot
/ broken. Bruin turned to defend himsel
when all three began to pile on tn
blows with gun barrel and stones, whic
, soon brought him down to rise no more
Then the question came up who did tn
| killing. Nathan said he knew he did i
as he hit him in the head with stone
D and as one of them had to swear he xii
ed him in order to obtain the bount.
, they selected Nathan to go before tn
s town treasurer to obtain the bounty {
i. IS.
My father was treasurer and sha
Y never forget the event. Nathan brougl
y the skin and one foot to prove the xii
ing. He said, "By CORY, | know
r killed him, for / hit him right in I'll
face with stone bigger than my fist,
: so of course he went on record as Il
1 bold slayer. Who knows but what Il
one just killed might be descendant
Y the first named bear, who had come
visit the haunts of his forefather?