The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-06-08
MARINES Old
BEAR HUNTER
IS A|NETY-S|X
Uncle GreenIeaf Davis is Still
Able to Play the HAr-
kansas Traveller. :

BANGOR. NE. June S. Uncle.
GreenieaI Davis, the hermit OF Shin
Pond, bear hunter. nature lover ana
philosopher. IS spending his Ninety
eighth year, as he did his n1nety-
seventh. at Ted cromett's camps.
Traveller" and other moving melo-
dies on his treasured fiddle. made
by himself. and still handy with his
famous rifle, when he chr1stened In
its youth, Napoleon Bonaparte
Greenleaf Davis is the. grand old
man of the woods" On the death
OF his father sixty years or more ago
he Inherited log house. pr1m1tlve
sawmin driven by water power. and,
a township Of ttmberland conta1n Ing
about $4,000 acres of sprune ana
pine. But of all this he has little
or nothing left save a camp on the
shores of Shin Pond and few acres
surrounding It; for he never was
business man. his tastes running
rather to poetry and the study OF ma
ture For many years he mas spent
most of his time at Shin Pond wnaeh
| is near the town OF Patten, In the
northern tip OF PenooScoI CORY Ivy
! where he kept bachelor hall and fol-
| lowed his natural bent OF seeking
icompanionship with birds and am
mails and fishes rather than with men
In nid-winter 1t has been MS hao1t
! TO seek greater comfort in the VII
llaee of Patten, but by far the great
er part of the last sixty years mas
been spent apart from manK1no-
IL Companion OF Thoreau-
Henry d. Thoreau visited Mount
lsRatahdsn in 1913, and Davis. then
| only twenty-sU, accompanied him on
a several weeks tour Of the forests
| of that regions. assisting him in gath
! erine material for his book The
! Maine woods. Besides being a
bnnter and fisherman, Davis IS some
thing of a naturalist It was ne VINO
made the discovery that the oeauu-
f,,l markings Of birdseye maple are
caused by woodpeekers seeSing Tue ne
sweet sap of the tree, the dents OF
their sharp bills leaving scars that
in time assume reddish hue.
| The old mans memory goes back
To. the days, when game, instead OF
being scarce. was rather too plenti-
frl- and when the TaHantines. orig
inal proprietors of this part of Maine.
had not taken to wearing store
Clones, and living in frame houses
h,1t We're real Indians without an
idea in the world outside Of hunting
and eating. and little fighting be-
tween times.
When I was young, he says Che
has killed more than 20 bears in his
time), .-fat bears were almost as
thick among the old growth beeches
along the slopes Of Mount Katahdtn
as red squirrels are today In the
fall, after the early frosts had 1oos-
ened the beechnuts. I could go out
with an old smoothbore gun and
shoot two or three most any day
Every fan father used to call US boys
and get up bear hunt to get meat
to roast through the winter Some,
times the hunt lasted a week. some
times longer. but we never quit tn
we had put by the carcasses of eight
or ten fat bears
in the days when 'Tippecanoe'
ran for president there was no rail
road within 100 miles Of where we.
lived. and If any one had told us
about Chicago dressed beef coming
through to Maine in refrigerator cars
We would have locked him up as.
crazy. The hindquarters of fat
| bear that had fed on becchnuts. when
hung on a spit, roasted before hard
4 wood fire and basted In Its own fat
! until it was shiny brown. made eat
ing good enough tor the minister OF
s the fTst selectnan. The kidney fat
] OF bears, which was oily and SOFT
slike lard, was used Tor frying dough
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