From The Pages Of The Bee ––

Animal Stories Of Yore

By Jan Howard

Through the 125 years The Newtown Bee has been published, there have been several stories about animals, some unusual, some commonplace, but all touching on the relationship between humankind and animals.

In the March 20, 1896 Bee, there is a story about an encounter by William Shepard and Cicero Beardsley with a wildcat.

Mr Shepard, it seems, stayed late in Botsford one evening, as did Mr Beardsley. As they lived near each other, they decided to go home together.

“We had gotten about halfway to Gray’s Plain when there came the most unearthly yell I ever heard,” Mr Beardsley said.

His companion pointed out that the unearthly yell was from a wild cat. “In two minutes he was within four rods of us and, it being extremely dark, we could not see him,” Mr Shepard said. “We stopped, he stopped, but he did not stop his screaming. We had not a weapon and expected every moment he would be upon us.”

The wild cat, Mr Beardsley said, stayed at their sides for half a mile. Then he crossed ahead of them but kept up the yelling until his screams were heard last “on the high mountain, High Rock,” the paper said.

“You may believe we were glad to lose the frightful screams of that beast!” Mr Beardsley said. “We shall never forget that night!”

In the January 17, 1913 issue of The Bee, a story described a wildcat weighing 24 pounds that was trapped by Charles Glover.

Turtles were the subjects of at least three stories in The Bee.

In its April 17, 1903 issue, The Bee reported that W.C. Johnson found a land turtle, “which cannot possibly lose itself.” The turtle bore the initials, L.P., ’77, which the newspaper said were presumably the initials of Lewis H., adopted son of Mr and Mrs C.H. Peck.

Under the initials L.P. were the initials C.B.J. (C.B. Johnson), ’87, and W.C. (W.C. Johnson), ’89.

The marks were renewed, additional dates laid, and the turtle released, according to The Bee.

On July 31, 1925, The Bee reported that C.F. Conger picked up a box turtle in a field that had the name of Charles L. Briscoe, 1851, carved on its shell. Mr Conger cut the name of C.L. Briscoe out deeper and let the turtle go again.

Mr Briscoe was the father of a former Newtown selectman, E.D. Briscoe. The Bee wrote, “The name was carved on the turtle 74 years ago, and there is no way of knowing just how old the turtle is.”

On October 8, 1926, the newspaper reported that while J.A. Turner was taking a drive the previous Sunday, he called on Frank Lake, who showed him a small snapping turtle he had found that had two heads.

This unusual snapping turtle apparently would eat with one head and drink with the other. The Bee commented, “This almost beats out Mr Turner’s snake story, but it is all right. If he succeeds in raising it, he will exhibit it at the Danbury Fair next year.”

 Snakes were often mentioned in early issues of The Bee, with residents seeming to vie for the honor of encountering the largest in diameter or longest.

Deer have always lived close to humankind, perhaps too close for farmers and gardeners because of the plants they destroy and for drivers who may encounter them unexpectedly on the road.

In June 1906, The Bee wrote about a “fine deer” that appeared in a lot near the home of J.B. Fairchild, and moved “in and about with the horses.”

In the March 3, 1916 issue, a local farmer bemoaned the fact that deer “have no place in economic agriculture” and were a “serious detriment to the development of the state’s agricultural resources.” He noted that “our little and gentle deer delight to browse the growthy and juicy twigs of cultivated trees,” especially fruit trees. He also noted that the “deer pastured so greedily” on his barley crop.

In the May 26, 1922, a story told of a den of small foxes found by Henry Moore of Taunton. One day he had gone to look after some young stock in a far pasture lot, and discovered a nest of young foxes.

The following Monday, because it was too hot to plough, he took two of his men and armed with picks and shovels, drove to the lot and proceeded to dig out the foxes, capturing three young ones.

While they were busy digging, Mr Moore happened to look up and about 20 feet from him stood a handsome, full-grown deer. His gun lay on the ground some distance away so he was unable to do more than give the animal an admiring glance before it turned, and leaping over fences, was soon lost in the woods.

The newspaper noted, “Mr Moore set out for small game and captured it and brought it home, but did not anticipate seeing such large and rare game in this part of the country.”

Then, of course, there were the stories about bounties that were paid to local hunters for foxes and stories of foxes raiding the hen houses of Newtown’s farmers.

In the December 22, 1905 issue of The Bee, bounties on foxes, ranging from $1 to $6, were paid by the treasurer of Newtown, C.H. Northrop, to John W. Hall, Edward Egan, Michael Cavanaugh, Harry Coger, Charles Briscoe, and Clarence Baldwin.