Have you discovered a colorful character or two somewhere in your family tree? Anyone who hunted and killed 101 Black Bears? None of my plain old boring ancestors did that, either. But I ran across a story about someone who did and it also turns out that he's a distant cousin.
My interest in genealogy and family history has evolved over the years. I started out just wanting to fill in some blanks in my paternal family tree. Now I'm almost obsessed with researching and developing stories that I think are worth sharing with family and friends. The story might be inspired by someone's family story that's been passed down through generations. Maybe it's a story that somehow connects to family or place.
An early story I posted on DKos was about Horatio the Elephant who fell through the bridge over the Connecticut River back in 1820 was one of the first that sent me off doing research about the event. My 4th and 5th great-grandparents lived in that little New England town at the time. I have no doubt that they were personally involved in the activities surrounding the event.
I spent a lot of time researching the details. And I still got a few things wrong in that story. Still, my research didn't end. I now know the details about the first five elephants that were brought to North America. I have even collaborated with the Baraboo [WI] Circus Museum researchers. I've found diaries of people who wrote about seeing this "curiosity" back in 1789. It would have been appropriate to publish part of this story when the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Circus recently decided to phase out the use of elephants altogether.
Good for them.
I am not happy about the fact that the subject of this story trapped and killed 101 Black Bears. I am interested in telling the story of this colorful and interesting man and sharing his wit wisdom with everyone.
But first, here's the community graphic that I have often failed to include in the GFHC Open Thread.
Genealogy & Family History Community
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I'll tell you the story of 101 Black Bears on the other side of the Cheese Poof...
The following article was published in the August 1907 edition of The Vermonter, now a public domain document. The following is a verbatim transcription of the original article originally written by M. M. Ball.
Fair Warning; the story describes some grisly details about killing a bear.
A Veteran Hunter-Trapper and his 101st Bear.
Charles Merritt Robbins, of Hancock [VT], the subject of this sketch and whose picture with his 101st bear is here reproduced for the benefit of the readers of The Vermonter is we believe the champion veteran bear hunter and trapper of Vermont. Mr. Robbins was born Jan. 10, 1831, making him over 76 years old when he caught his last bear this summer. He has had some exciting adventures but had plenty of nerve and skill and came out of them all right, and with a whole hide [his].
At one time he had a bear in a trap and a man who happened to be with him begged the privilege of shooting it, which he readily granted. The man put two or three bullets into the bear which tumbled over, apparently dead, and Robbins, supposing that to be the case, kneeled [sic] down on him to cut his throat with a pocket knife when up arose Mr. Bear and Robbins got out of the way in a hurry. Grabbing his rifle he put a bullet into bruin which stopped him very suddenly. At another time he got into close quarters with a bear and had his coat torn completely off his back but escaped any actual injury.
Mr. Robbins once followed a bear three miles into the dense woods on Lincoln Mountain in the night, with a lantern. [nice dangling participle, isn't it?] Seeing it was no use to follow him further, he turned and retraced his steps homeward. He thought several times that he was being followed but could not see anything. The next day he went back there and could plainly see the tracks of two wild-cats. "Lucky for them", said he, "that I did not get my eye on them."
The largest bear he caught weighed 405 pounds and the smallest 40 pounds, and his biggest haul was two bears in one day.
At the early age of four he had the misfortune to lose one eye. When he grew to man's estate he went away and had a glass eye put in. Upon his return one of his neighbors asked him if he could see with the glass eye. "Oh yes", said Robbins with a twinkle in his other eye, "I can see first rate with it but I generally use the other one to sight a gun with."
Besides being a bear hunter Mr. Robbins is a good republican, a good citizen, and has held many town offices. He is a genial, kindly old gentleman, and wears a full beard, as you can see in the picture. He was in the neighboring town of Rochester this summer when a small boy (little Harry Workman) balanced up to him and wanted to know if he was Santa Claus, which pleased him very much.
Charles Merritt Robbins and his 101st Black Bear
Charles Merritt Robbins is my eighth cousin, twice removed.
Perhaps his appearance reminds you of a familiar famous person, say John Greenleaf Whittier. They are fifth cousins, three times removed.
He was also known as Merritt Robbins.
He married Charlotte Lucy Dunham, potentially related in some way to Stanley Ann "Shirley" Dunham, President Obama's mother. I haven't tried to find a link between the two Dunham women.
Charles Merritt Robbins is the grandson of one of the first settlers of Hancock, VT, Zenas Robbins, Esq. Zenas was sent by his father Joshua Robbins from his home in Connecticut to Vermont with orders to survey and lay out the town of Hancock. Apparently, Joshua was one of the proprietors of that place.
This Robbins family's immigrant ancestor was Gentleman John Robbins who was one of the early settlers of Wethersfield, CT. The family estate was located on Rocky Hill, CT. The history of the Robbins Family of Wethersfield states that Gentleman John Robbins was probably the wealthiest person in Connecticut.
Have you discovered a colorful character while researching your family history?