Bear hunting in Tennessee was similar to hunting in Texas. Just avoid wild hogs. (Wikipedia)
It was late fall 1845 when R. P. Merrill arrived in Hunt County. At the age of thirteen he was hired to help build a log barn for his brother-in-law James R. Horton. The barn was unusual by our 21st Century standards. Actually, it was a large corncrib with the south side open for about 200 hogs to bed down. Log walls enclosed the other three sides. After the corncrib was completed, Merrill returned to the Horton farm on the North Sulphur River bottom. He and a few others gathered the hogs and began the walk to their new home. After two days they arrived on the Sabine River bottom southeast of what would become Greenville. The Horton family moved to their farm before the New Year.
Merrill and the others managed to move the hogs with a little trickery. Hogs like to eat. So a wagon full of corn went along with them. Regularly corn would fall from the wagon but it wasn’t really necessary. The river bottoms were full of mast, the fruit of pecan, oak, chestnut, and other forest trees. Pigs and other wild animals delighted in mast. With food available, the hogs stayed together and followed the wagon.
At the new barn, the corn was loaded into cribs or storage bins, and the hogs were turned loose to forage. Merrill only had to keep an eye on them and make sure they were in the barn at night. On cold nights he slept in the barn with the hogs, but most nights he and his two dogs slept outside the pen.
About Christmas a rumor spread through the neighborhood that farther down the Sabine bears were plentiful in a big cane break. Two local hunters decided they wanted to try their hand on a bear hunt.
They arrived at Merrill’s camp and insisted that he accompany them as guide. He agreed after explaining that a huge wild boar had been seen in a thicket between his camp and the cane break. Merrill thought it would be wise to avoid that thicket and the boar. The hunters were experienced and cared little about such a thing as a wild boar. They were after bear meat and fur. After all, they were experienced hunters.
When they arrived at the thicket the hunters decided to take a short cut through the wooded area. It was only a few minutes until their twelve good bear dogs picked up the hog scent. They quickly scrambled after the wild boar in hot pursuit when it turned on them. Before the hunters could call off the dogs, two were dead and three others ripped up badly. This abruptly put an end to the bear hunt.
The men returned to Merrill’s camp where one of the hunters, Mr. Mooney, told Merrill to bring some water. It was a two hundred yard trip. After a few times, Merrill rebelled. Mooney jumped up and hit his baldhead on the low roof Merrill had over his cooking place. It was such a surprise to Mooney that the boy laughed out loud. This enraged the hunter but he did not undertake to chastise the boy.
The men tucked tails and headed home, without bear meat or bear skins as well as short some of their prized dogs.