Many wild animals still roamed the forest, in the 1820s, including bears. Years later, Jacob Stage’s wife, Martha Carmichael, told a story about her grandmother as a young mother.
The menfolk had gone some distance to hunt and left Grandmother alone with her children in a recently built house with only a curtain for a door.
When a bear appeared at the door wanting something to eat, Grandmother hid the children under the bed, and beat off the bear with anything she could grab.
From then on, Martha’s Grandmother refused to stay alone when the men were away. Do you blame her?
