Bruin: My Family's Pet Bear

One of my hobbies is genealogy and I came across an amazing family story about one of my Pennsylvania ancestors! His name was Robert Stewart and he lived in Pennsylvania in the 1800's. And, he had a pet bear. Yes, a pet BEAR!

The story was written about 30 years after he died, but I can imagine the story was told over & over in the area. Here's the story which is taken from History of Centre and Clinton Countie, Pennylvania (page 523) which was published in 1883:


An image of "Grizzly" Adams and his pet bear from Wikipedia

 Mike Swartz and the Black Bear

A tame bear belonging to the family of Robert Stewart was missing one morning, whereupon a man by the name of Mike Swartz and Mr. Stewart went in pursuit of him. After a while he was discovered in a tree a short distance from the house. One of the men, who had a gun, fired at the bear, and succeeded in bringing him to the ground, but slightly wounded. In order to prevent Bruin from escaping Mike ran up and caught hold of the bear, which in turn Bruin caught Mike by the hand with his mouth, at the same time giving him a hug such only as bears can give; at which Mike called out to his companion, who was at a safe distance, to come to his assisstance, but Stewart, who no doubt thought "self-preservation the first law of nature," cooly replied, "Mike, if you were my own born dear brother I could do nothing for you under the circumstances."

Isn't that a terrific story?!? Of course, the story doesn't tell what happened next. I'm assuming everything turned out fine and they had a good laugh about it later. I did look to see if Mike survived, and didn't find a death notice. And, with the humor of the story, I do think it must have turned out OK after all.

There was another brief passage from the book about Robert. It was on the preceding page and both gives me pride in my Stewart family and an idea of where to look for Robert's elusive parents and possible siblings. This is from page 522:

Robert Stewart came from Chatham's Run in 1816, and settled on the Valentine Hanna property, near the Bald Eagle Creek. He had formerly lived at the mouth of Young Woman's Creek. He was of Scotch descent, and was the father of eight children, - four sons and four daughters, - all of whom possessed energy, and were very remarkable for their powers of endurance.

I'm wondering how they behaved that they were spoken of as possessing "energy" and "very remarkable for their powers of endurance." It sounds like a great family, though, and I'm happy to claim them as mine!

Who Do You Think You Are? (part 2)

Alex and I have now watched the first two episodes of the American verion of Who Do You Think You Are? And, we LOVE it!!!! And... you can actually watch the full episodes online until September 18th! You can also view photos from each journey and additional video clips!

Highlights from Sarah Jessica Parker's episode

The first episode was about Sarah Jessica Parker. She amazingly traced ancestors back to both the California Gold Rush of 1849 and to the Salem Witch Trials! (And, no, I haven't found anything quite so interesting in my history.)

Highlights from Emmitt Smith's episode

The second episode was our favorite. It was about Dallas Cowboy star Emmitt Smith. (I was moved to tears multiple times during his story!) He traced his slave ancestors - and found out that some were mulatto. He even went back to Africa and visited the area where his family had probably lived before being captured and sold into slavery. What an incredible, and sad, story. But, as he said, his ancestors must have been strong people!

Don't forget... the series airs on Friday nights!

got census?

We received our Census 2010 form earlier this week. Since Alex was born in late 2000, this is the FIRST census she has been included on! And, as a genealogist, I love the census! How else would I track my ancestors? So, I was excited that this is a census year. (And, I'll be excited in 2012 when the 1940 census is released to the public! Each census is "private" for 72 years.)

So, Alex and I have been completing a Census Lapbook created by A Journey Through Learning. (It is on sale at CurrClick for only $4.) This lapbook also comes with a study guide, so most of the information is right there for you! (You do look up some numbers on the internet.) I think we have 3 little booklets to finish and then we need to put it all together.

Who do you think you are?

"Who Do You Think You Are?" is a new series that will air on Friday, March 5th. This series follows 7 celebrities on a quest to discover their pasts. I am looking forward to it (but, of course, I haven't watched it yet so please judge this series for yourself!)

I started doing genealogy about 13 years ago with the help of my Great Aunt Beulah. She was born in 1923 and passed away a little over a year ago. For decades, she researched our family the "old fashioned way", i.e. without a computer. I am grateful for how she taught me to research and the wonderful research she passed along to me.

Next school year, I plan on teaching a genealogy class to 4th-6th graders. I hope to pass along my love of learning about the past of our own families. Hopefully, some of these children will uncover records that will be passed down for many generations.

Here's a brief preview of the series which starts a week from Friday. I'm excited to see what this series will bring...and see who it inspires to look into their own family heritage!

Emmissaries of Peace

We bought a subscription to Colonial Williamsburg's Electronic Field Trips (CW EFT) from Homeschool Buyer's Co-op for 2009/2010. We recently had our first EFT which was entitled "Emmissaries of Peace." Here's a short description of this lesson from their site: "During the turbulent era of the French and Indian War, the Cherokee people struggled to preserve their independence. Follow Cherokee leader Ostenaco and Virginian Henry Timberlake on their 1762 journey from Chota (the capital of the Cherokee nation)."

With CW EFTs, there are several different parts. The shows air live on a particular day, so you should do the background reading and activities ahead of time. (I didn't realize that, so we got that backwards this time.) With "Emmissaries of Peace", we read the historical background which was about the history of the Cherokees and particularly their interaction with Eurpeans.

Besides the very interesting background, we also had several activities to do. Alex and I really enjoyed the activity where we compared Cherokee and Colonial life. She read about the Cherokees and I read about the Colonies and we both did a presentation. There was also a lesson on Cherokee symbolism. In addition, there were 2 interactive online activities: one about negotiating a treaty and another about the Trail of Tears.

On the "live" day, there are actors in the studio portraying various people from the program. They play the show in 3 clips and during breaks students can email or call in their questions. They also have additional time to call in their questions after the show is over.
We really enjoyed learning about the Cherokees especially since Alex is Cherokee. She is a direct descendent of two of the primary men in this episode of history, Ostenaco and Lt. Henry Timberlake. Ostenaco's daughter had a child with Timberlake, and he is Alex's direct ancestor! The drawing at the top is from 1762 when Ostenaco traveled with Timberlake to London.

This program ended with the Trail of Tears. One of Alex's  female ancestors survived the Trail of Tears and Alex's family still has the land she was granted in Oklahoma.
I highly recommend this program. The next program airs live on Thursday, Nov 19th (though members can watch the video segments before or after) and is entitled "A More Perfect Union." The site reads: "Witness the conflict and compromise that accompanied the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. Join young eighteenth-century observers, unseen by convention delegates, as they travel from state to state tallying the vote. Learn about the ratification process and Americans’ growing interest in their fledgling nation’s new government."