Times change with the season, and with each passing year and each passing generation we grow distant from what many refer to as the good old days. Times when family, friends and neighbors were everything and it was the bonds of love and family that bound us together, not the usurping false facade of social media. Good tales and stories were our form of entertainment, and oral history was still the way our culture and heritage were passed on from one generation to the next. Oh, how times have changed! But has it all been for the better?
For many families in our area, this social tradition is still very much a way of life. We wish to extend our thanks to GreeneScene reader Mona Moore for sharing part of her family’s history with us. Mona related a story to us of an epic bear chase, in the western part of Greene County on November 24, 1927, a true tale fit to be told around a warm wood burning stove or in front of a fireplace on a cold fall evening when families are together enjoying company with each other.
This story was related to Mona in the form of a poem written down and recorded in her family since the time this story happened. The poem was penned by her great grandmother, Elizabeth King Smith, who was a journalist in her day. This story will live on through the passage of time.
This wonderful story captures an amazing incident of a community that lived around Rutan in the early part of the 20th century, a generation of people who grew up in the late 19th century and knew a way of life far different than what we are accustomed to now. All the people mentioned in this story were connected through the bonds of blood or marriage, as nearly everyone was in these small hamlets in days gone past.
But now on to the tale, as it was related by Elizabeth Smith, wife of “Still” Smith who is mentioned in the story.
A Thanksgiving Bear Chase
By Elizabeth King Smith
A lot of tales we’ve read
and a lot of tales we’ve heard”
But this is the “true tale” from
the fellows that got the bird.
Across a bottom in Center””
And up a Richhill grade
Old Bruin went a-galloping”
Apparently not afraid.
But Nellie Stockdale saw him.
She could scarcely believe her eyes.
But after close observation”
She surely was surprised.
Ed Smith was in the cornfield
At 6:30 shucking corn
And glanced up and espied him
on Thanksgiving morn.
After a moments thinking
And given some alarm,
he started on a bear chase
Practically unarmed.
With Roy Stockdale following
And Guy Anderson close behind,
We meant to make it hot from Bruin
Before he crossed the line.
We Traveled o’er the hillside
At a very rapid gate
Determined to find him
Before it was too late.
After but two hours of traveling
Old Bruin was espied
Laying in a briar patch
On Burt Scott’s hillside.
Roy and Guy sat down to watch him
Lest the bear should travel on
But he seemed so well contented
That he may have stayed till dawn.
After Just a moments thinking,
Ed decided he would run
Just across the hillside
to Borrow Still Smith’s gun.
The gun Still gladly promised,
and in the house he run,
Come back out immediately
And handed Ed the Gun.
To Ed the gun he handed
But the shells he kept.
We traveled back up the field
In which the black bear slept.
In his great excitement
Still of an honor thought,
After loading up his gun,
Said “I’ll take the first shot.”
One shot was all was needed.
Twas then Old Bruin died.
And all Still wanted for his share
Was just the black bear’s hide.
After all those miles of traveling
And Quite a little sweat,
We did not think he quite deserved
The hide of Bruin yet.
We did not want a marksman.
Our own aim we would trust.
With gun of ample power,
We’d kill that bear or bust.
So homeward then we started,
With Bruin up on a pole.
Although our task was difficult,
We were bound to make our goal.
We landed with him safely,
And soon the news was spread.
Folks flocked in by the dozen,
Although the bear was dead.
The Carcass was divided
So all the folks could taste
The Bear that crossed our country
And caused us all this chase.
Now, talk about the carcass.
Some made an awful fuss.
They said they would not eat it,
But it’s good enough for us.
Joseph F. “Still” Smith, would pass on the following year on April 17, 1928 at the age of 64; his wife Elizabeth would follow him on November 24, 1951, exactly 24 years to the day of the bear hunt she recorded for posterity.
It is hard for us now to understand how great an event this would have been to the community of Rutan nearly a century ago, but as Mona Moore shares, “The bear hunt was probably the most exciting thing that ever happened in Rutan, and the men involved got a lot of attention. Still’s wife Elizabeth knew the inside story, which was that the original group wanted to use [Still] Smith’s high powered gun, but they didn’t intend for him to take part in the actual kill. He had other ideas. He gave them the gun but kept the ammo in his pocket so he’d have to load the gun and could then take the first shot. The kicker to the story – the bear was asleep at the time. Perhaps they were not such fearless hunters after all.”
