The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-06-08
OLD
BEAR HUNTER
IS nINETY-S|X
Uncle GreenIeaf Davis is Still
Able toPIay the Gar
kansas Traveller. "

BANGOR, Nle., June s. Uncle
Greenieaf Davis. the hermit OF SHIN
Pond, bear hunter, nature lover and
philosopher. is spending his ninety
seventh, at Ted efromett's camps.
stiIl able to play The Arkansaw
Traveller and other moving melo-
dies on his treasured fiddle. made
by himself, and still handy with MS
famous rife, 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 a log house, a pr1mrtlve
sawnnill driven by water power, ana
a township of cumberland containing
about 23:90O acres OF spruhe and
nine. But of all this he has little
or nothing left save camp on the
shores of Shin Pond and few acres
surrounding 1t; for he never was
business man, his tastes running
rather to poetry and the study OF ma
ture. For many years he mas spent
is near the town OF Patten, IN the
northern tip Of Penobscot county.
where he kept bachelor hall and fol-
lowed his natural bent OF seeking
with birds and anil
nals and fishes rather than with men
In n1id-winter 1t has been ms haoiS
TO seek greater comfort In the viz
lage Of Patten. but by far the great
er part Of the last sixty years mas
Keen snent apart from mankind
Companion OF Thoreau.
Henrvs d. Thoreau visited Mount
Katahdin in 1913, and Davis, then
only twenty-six, accompanied him on
a several weeks tour Of the forests
Of that regions. assisting him in gath
ering material for his book Ine
Maine Woods" Besides being
hunter and fisherman, Davis is some
thin:g of a naturalist. 1t was he who
made the discovery that the beautl-l
fuI markings Of bfrdseye maple are
caused by woodpeckers seeking the
sweet sap of the tree, the dents or
4beir sharp bills leaving scars that
i'm time assume a reddish hue
The old mans memory goes back
TO the days. when game, instead OF
being scarce, was rather too plent1-
full. and when the Tarrantlnes; orig
inal proprietors of this part OF Maine.
had not taken to wearing store
clothes, and living in frame houses
but were real Indians without an
idea In the world outside of hunting
and eating. and little fighting be-
tween times
as Bear Hunter
w men was yOu06p Nc fSAyS-N
has killed more than 20 bears in his
time), lat bears were almost as
thick among the old growth beeches
along the slopes of Mount Katahdin
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 fall father used to call US boys
and get up bear hunt to get meat
to roast through the winter. Some
times the hunt lasted week, some
times longer. but we never quit TIL
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 a fat
bear that had fed on 6eZshnufs. when
hung on spit, roasted before hard
wood fire and basted IN Its own TAT
until It was shiny brown. made eat-i
ing good enough for the minister of
the frst select1nan. The kidney Tat
OF bears. which was oily and soft.
like lard. was used for frying dough-