Old Ephraim and the Bear
Old Ephraim and the Bear
How He Killed a Yearling In a Fair Fight Without Weapons.
(from the Peninsula Enterprise, Accomac, VA - September 28, 1895)
Old Ephraim Hatfield, father of Anse and Elias Hatfield, of McCoy-Hatfield feud notoriety, was a born fighter. He was also a mighty hunter, and had one ambition. It was to kill a yearling bear in a fair fight without any weapons other than those nature provided him with. Every day that he felt especially strong he would go out with his dogs and his boys, and, treeing a bear, would get him down and fight him. When bruin would begin to get the best of the encounter, he would call his boys to let loose the dogs. Year after year passed and Ephraim had not yet whipped a bear.
Anse Hatfield (left) and bear in tree.
One day a fine yearling bear was treed, and as Cuffy was climbing to a place of safety old man Hatfield cut off a piece of the animal's tail with a quick blow of his knife, and the bear came down. Ephraim threw his gun and knives to the boys and cried out: "He's a likely varmint. Stan aside, boys, an watch yo' dad. I'm comin, bar!" And he clutched the bear by the throat. The animal got its paws around Ephraim, and they fought, rolling in every direction, until it was almost impossible to distinguish man from beast in the cloud. The boys held the dogs and encouraged the old man by shouting to him:
"Go it, pap! You've got 'em! Give it to 'im, dad!"
Down the hill the two rolled until they could roll no farther.
"Let loose the dogs!" shouted the old man. "Let 'em loose! The critter's got me!"
But the boys thought the old man would never have a better opportunity to realize his ambition and whip a yearling bear and kept the dogs away. Finally Ephraim, seeing that he was not to have assistance, began to use his foot and hands with an energy born of despair, and in half an hour he succeeded in choking the animal to death, but not until his clothes were torn to shreds and his face and body were covered with gaping wounds, from which the blood flowed so freely that it left a crimson trail wherever the man went. Dragging the carcass out of the pit Ephraim started after the boys, and it would have fared roughly with them, but they fled. The old man reached his home and was almost dead from loss of blood, but his ambition had been realized -- he had whipped a yearling bear in a fair fight. The boys hid out in the woods for several days, and would not return until their father, whose joy at his success had got the better of his pain and anger, sent them word that he would not whip them if they returned. Hatfield never wearied telling how he whipped a yearling bear, and his sons are equally proud of their father's achievement.