Welcome back to Scary Bear Attacks!
Today’s episode takes us back to a prior age, when the New Hampshire territory was
still a frontier.
The terrain here is still mountainous forested landscape with the classic New England deciduous
foliage decorating the hillside.
Stands of Maple, Oak and Birch trees composing a canvas that no human artist could justify.
At the time, the area was habitat for whitetail deer, wolves, moose, cougar, lynx and bobcat.
Most residents here were subsistence farmers, growing what they needed from small farms
and ranches.
The granite mountains here are not high by most standards but the lifestyle at the time
was still fraught with dangers seen and unforeseen.
It was the evening of another warm summer day in New Hampshire.
The year was 1785 and like nearly every other frontier family the Leach’s were still working
hard to finish up their chores.
Bradley Leach told his 8 year old son, Jonathan to take his horse up to the pasture and bring
the cows back down for the evening.
Jonathan was a smart boy and always did his chores and Bradley was not worried about this
last task remaining on the pairs chore list.
Jonathan grabbed the reins of his trusted horse, Mr. Whipple, and started up the dirt
road to the upper pasture.
Mr. Whipple walked behind Jonathan and nipped at grass as he could reach it along the way.
The light was just starting to fade and the boy yawned with satisfaction at the completion
of the day.
A little bit about the area at the time of the attack, New Hampshire was sparsely populated,
as it still is today.
Run-ins with wildlife couldn’t have been uncommon, as there were many different substantial
predators living there at the time of this attack.
Most people would have hunted deer, turkey, moose and other animals to augment their food
resources and it is assumed the Leach’s were no different.
Being so integrated into their natural surroundings was a part of day to day life, so the presence
of an apex predator may not have been an unusual event.
The pair had traveled about 300 yards to the last pasture when a black blur streaked from
the woodline.
The three year old boar black bear had been watching the boy and his horse approach and
had decided to attack.
The bear was upon the pair so fast that the boy barely had time to glance up from the
ground before the impact of the 225 pound predator.
The bear clawed the boy in the face and the neck and then pinned him down by the shoulders.
Jonathan let out the loudest and most urgent cry for help he could muster.
Mr. Whipple reared up on his hind legs amidst all the confusion and turned in circles out
of conundrum.
Mr. Leach was about 150 yards away in the next pasture and heard his son's distressed
cries for help.
He desperately sprinted the short distance to the fencerow which separated him from his
son.
He clumsily crossed the fence and started after the bear, now grasping his young son
by the throat.
The bear dragged the boy back into the woodline by the time Bradley caught up to them.
Bradley lifted the wooden stake he was carrying with him over his head and lowered it over
the back of the beast.
The bear spun around and stood on his hind legs to face the man.
The bear's paws swiped menacingly at the man, now desperate to recover his son.
The sharp teeth and claws of the bear proved too much for the man and he was forced to
retreat into the darkness, wrought with sadness and confusion.
Mr. Leach rounded up the neighbors and they agreed to wait until morning to pursue the
man killer as pursuing it in the dark would be too dangerous.
That night in the Leach home there was much crying and no sleep.
As soon as the morning broke, the neighbors gathered in front of the Leach home and the
men all started to walk up to the attack scene.
They paused at the initial attack site and witnessed the young man's blood in the grass,
as well as the drag trail leading off into the bushes.
The bridle the young man was leading the horse with was lying in the duff as well as the
young man's hat a little further on.
They methodically followed the drag marks into the forest until they found the boy's
remains.
His thigh was completely eaten and his neck and head were bitten severely.
Suddenly, from behind a nearby log the bear rose up and menaced the men with popping jaws
and ferocious claws ready to defend his kill.
Almost in unison the recovery party fired their firearms as 3 shots rang out in rapid
succession.
The bear tumbled to the ground, not far from the body of the beloved boy whose life it
had just ended.
Jonathan's remains were gathered up and brought back to the family home.
His family mourned his loss and they prayed as they laid him to rest on the family homestead.
This is the oldest recorded bear attack in the historical annals of the state of New
Hampshire.
Some information about the eating habits of black bears in New Hampshire will help us
understand the causes and relationships surrounding this episode.
In this location, bears start the spring by feeding on grasses and other succulent plants
but by summer have moved on to eating berries, fruits, roots and flower blossoms.
By fall they focus on nuts with high caloric value like beechnuts, acorns and hickory nuts.
Nearly year round, they have very little meat in their diet due to the abundance of plant
food resources.
After reviewing the facts surrounding this episode, I am left with a few questions.
Do you think the bear stalked and killed Jonathan out of predatory or territorial motives?
Do you think that Bradley should have fought to death to recover his son, even if he were
already dead?
Why didn’t the father and son have a firearm nearby given they lived in what was a frontier
at the time?
What could Bradley have done differently to make sure his family was safer?
Do you think this attack may have been due to a bad berry crop?
I will gladly read a reply to your comments, so please post your thoughts in the comments
section below and let's talk about it!