During the first few years of our settlement in Handy, the bears, wolves and deer were very thick. During the first winter I have looked out of the door of my log house and counted eight or ten deer browsing on the timber. The bears frequently killed and carried off our hogs. The first sheep in the town I bought of Lawson Gordon, I think in the year 1839 -- some 13 in number. I built a pen at the end of our log house, of which the house formed one end, and put the sheep into it every night. One night, forgetting to shut up the gap or entrance, the wolves got among them and killed all but one. This one got among the cattle, who protected it. About this time we had raised some four or five calves. The wolves got among them, near the house, in the night-time.
We heard the calves bleat and ran out as quick as possible. We found three of them kicking and bleeding to death. Z.B. Fowler had three calves in a lot a short distance from there. The wolves went directly to them, and killed two before we could drive them off. There is one more little feature that I wish to mention. The first year we mowed our marsh land, we killed 125 massaugers, besides black snakes measuring from three to eight feet in length.
Tomorrow, in part 7, more about the wildness of the area.
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