It's about
my great-great-great-great Grandfather Reuben and his Grandfather Samuel.
Samuel
Sherman lived on a farm in Lisbon, New Hampshire, and served as a private in
Captain Caleb Whitings Company during the American Revolution. He marched on
the alarm of 19 Apr 1775 to Roxbury.
At that time
the country was a wilderness. Bears and other wild animals undisputedly held the territory.
There was a
great scarcity of provisions among the settlers. Samuel’s grandson Reuben, then
a lad of sixteen, traveled to Barnet, VT through the wilderness, and procured
three pecks of flour, without the sign of a road or anything to guide him.
When he
arrived almost in sight of home, his dog met him and barked vigorously at some
object in a tall pine, which he discovered to be a bear. Crying lustily, he was heard by his mother, and ordered their family musket, which was
without a lock, with ammunition and a firebrand.
The boy held
the gun while his brother touched it off with the firebrand and killed the
bear. The body lodged in a fork of the tree, which obliged them to cut it down.
The meat furnished by the bear was a Godsend, and saved the family, with the
flour which the boy had carried ten miles on his shoulder, from starvation.
Happy Fourth of July, America.
2 comments:
Wow - amazing story. Happy 4th to you two.
Thanks, Avis. All true, taken family (and some public) records at the time.
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