Jacob Myers and the Bear

From History of Clermont County, 1880, Louis Everts

Jacob Myers, the First permanent settler of Goshen Township, was born in Penn's Valley, Centre County, PA., about the year 1775, and followed the occupation of a boatman and raftsman on the Susquehanna River a short time. The highly wrought description of the wonderful fertility of Kentucky and the Northwest Territory induced him to try his fortunes in the New Eldorado. In 1795, in company with the Frybarger family, he started over the mountains with his stock and settle near Frankfort, KY. In 1796 they all removed to Waldsmith's (sic) settlement on the Little Miami River, where the village of Germany (now Camp Dennison) afterwards sprang up, and which became famous in after years as the theatre of the old Mathias Kugler's manufacturing and merchandising enterprises…

In 1798 he bought a farm of several hundred acres on one of the branches of the Obannon Creek, in what is now Goshen Township, two miles south of the present village of Goshen. He was then the owner of a pony, on which he loaded a sack of potatoes, an axe, and a grubbing-hoe, and with his trusty rifle, tomahawk, and hunting knife, he made his way to his new purchase through a dense wilderness inhabited by wild animals and Indians. After tethering his pony he immediately proceeded to plant his potatoes, it being then the middle of June, after the completion of which he fell to cutting down trees and clearing of this potato patch. He soon erected a cabin and pig pen, and then brought his young wife and son to their new home. His first cradle was a sugar trough, and the floor of is cabin the native earth, which, however, soon gave place to an artistic puncheon-floor split out of logs and slightly planed smooth with a common chopping-axe….

Mr. Myers' nearest neighbor was Abraham Miller, near the present town of Loveland, who was then considered a prosperous farmer, living on the farm afterwards known as the judge Emery farm, and where he sought and obtained work at 37 1/2 cents a day, it being his only opportunity to obtain cash to buy powder, lead, and salt. Much of the time which he worked for Miller he would walk to and fro, belated, he concluded to ride his pony, and searched around the small clearing without being able to find her. Pausing a moment he heard the tinkling of the bell, which was then an unfailing accompaniment of horses and cattle, and proceeded in haste up the creek in the direction of the sound with a bridle across his arm to catch her. Approaching a large fallen oak which was in his pathway, and when within a few feet of the tree, a large black bear reared himself up, with his paws resting on the log immediately in front of him, and thus they stood face to face in a questioning sort of attitude. It then for the first time it struck him that in his haste he had forgotten gun, tomahawk, knife, and dog, and was thus at the mercy of the ferocious brute. He afterwards related that each hair stood on end like the quills of the fretted porcupine. After considering the situation a moment he concluded that his only safety lay in frightening him, and immediately sprang at his bear-ship with a loud whoop, at the same time brandishing his bridle in Bruin's face, which did so frighten his enemy that it took to its heels and fled with precipitation. The ludicrousness of the final ending of the encounter always afterwards excited the old gentleman's risibles to a loud guffaw on its being mentioned.