Holt Collier Holt Collier ( c . 1846 – 1936 ) was a noted African - American bear hunter and sportsman . While leading a hunt as a tracker for Teddy Roosevelt in November 1902 , Collier set the stage for the incident that would serve as the origin of the Teddy Bear phenomenon . Biography . Collier was born circa 1846 as a slave in Mississippi , serving ( as a third generation ) the Hinds family on Plum Ridge Plantation , built by General Thomas Hinds , veteran of the Battle of New Orleans . General Hinds , at the request of General Andrew Jackson , had surveyed central Mississippi and chosen the site for its capital , Jackson , before settling nearby in what is now Hinds County . Collier killed his first bear at age ten ; thereafter , his job was to supply meat for the table of the Hinds family and field hands . With the outbreak of the Civil War , Collier ’ s master Howell Hinds and his seventeen - year - old son Tom , Collier ' s childhood companion , left for the war after manumitting him . Although told by his former master that he was too young to fight , Collier stowed away on a riverboat and joined Howell and his son in Memphis . At the Battle of Shiloh he witnessed the death of Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston . Collier ' s biographer says that although there was a prohibition against blacks serving in uniform , Confederates made an exception for Collier because of his demonstrable skills . Collier stayed with the Hinds men until later being given the opportunity to officially join the 9th Texas Cavalry . He did so , serving in Company I through the rest of the war , fighting in Mississippi , Alabama and Tennessee . After the war Collier returned home to the Hinds family . During Reconstruction , Collier was tried by a military tribunal in Vicksburg of the murder of a white man , Captain James King . The accusation may have stemmed from King ' s advocacy for the use of " Freedmans Bureau " labor on the Hinds plantation . After his acquittal , Collier left the state on the advice of William A . Percy of Greenville , going to Texas to work as a cowboy on the ranch of his former commander , General Lawrence Sullivan Ross . Upon the murder of his former master , Collier returned to Greenville for his funeral and remained in Greenville for the rest of his life . He became a noted bear hunter , killing over 3 , 000 bears during his lifetime . Such was Collier ' s fame among big - game hunters that Major George M . Helm asked him to serve as President Theodore Roosevelt ' s tracker during the President ' s famous Mississippi bear hunt of 1902 . The hunt was very high profile , attended by noted big - game hunters , as well as John Avery McIlhenny of Avery Island , Louisiana who had served with Roosevelt in the Rough Riders during the Spanish American War . Numerous reporters were among the entourage . On that hunt , Collier and his tracking dogs cornered a large female bear . Collier bugled Roosevelt and the rest of his party to join in ; however , before Roosevelt arrived the bear killed one of Collier ' s tracking dogs . Collier ordinarily would have shot the bear immediately , but wanting to keep the bear alive until the President arrived , he instead whacked the bear over the head with his rifle , bending its barrel . He finally lassoed the bear and tied it to a tree . When the President at last arrived , he famously refused to shoot the helpless bear , which another of his party eventually killed with a knife . The Washington Post and other newspapers publicized Roosevelt ' s compassion for the animal . An editorial cartoon of the event by Clifford Berryman titled " Drawing the line in Mississippi " erroneously depicted the bear as a cub . The story eventually gave rise to the " Teddy Bear " phenomenon . Teddy Roosevelt was greatly impressed with Colliers abilities and presented him with a Winchester Rifle . He served again as Roosevelt ' s tracker during a Louisiana bear hunt of 1907 . Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge in Mississippi is named in his honor . He died in 1936 and is buried in Greenville , Mississippi .