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Artist's Rendition of Early Settlers Facing Danger on Bear
Island.
Continued
from page 1
Down came the four maddened bears almost
instantly, wounded and prepared to fight. There was
no time to reload guns, so they were cast aside. Knives
were the only weapons that could be used. The bears were
met with long hunting knives. Some of the men were struck
and sent sprawling, but were up again quickly and others
were seized in the bears' terrific embrace and bitten
and clawed unmercifully.
Fortunately there were more men than bears, so the men
were able to assist each other. Within a few minutes there
were three dead bears lying around. The fourth bear got
away and started across the ice toward Meredith Neck,
but the ice was rotten; [the bear] broke through and floundered
around in the water. The men finished him with a bullet
and dragged his body ashore.
There was bear meat in abundance now to appease the wounded
surveyors. They decided that the island had been appropriately
named "Big Bear."
The first settler on the island was Robert Bryant, a resident
of Palmerstown, as Meredith was known in those days. Prior
to serving as an Ensign in the Revolutionary War, he built
a house on the high ridge of North Bear in 1770. Though
little is known of him following the war, Robert and his
wife, Abigail, are buried in the Meeting House Cemetery
on Meredith Neck Road.
In 1799, Bear Island was annexed to Meredith. By this
time, the Dockham, Bickford, Nichols and Maloon families
had come to settle and farm the central and southern parts
of the island. Theirs was an austere existence, isolated
and rigorous—raising crops, grazing sheep, fishing
and trapping. Clothing was woven from homespun flax and
wool; several garments and accessories made by these pioneers
are on display at the Meredith Historical Museum.
They planted maples to provide sugar, along with apple
trees, that still bear fruit today in a small orchard
on Jerry Point. The original plan, including the botanical
names of the various orchard species, is kept in
the cottage of William Puffer, who bought this property
in 1913, now owned by his granddaughters, Eleanor Ernst
Thompson and Dorothy Ernst Bean.
An article written by E.H. Maloon, the village blacksmith
appeared in the December 20, 1922, Meredith News, describing
early life on Bear Island:
Going way back in time we find Uncle
Jimmie Bickford bringing up a large family of children
there. We find Capt. Eleazer Bickford who was long pilot
of the steamer Lady of the Lake, as one of the children
of another family of Bickfords. Also, Waldo Maloon and
family, who were
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