Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Looking For A Few Good Stories

If you look at the post just below this one, you'll understand my title. I would love to apply for the Pomeroy Foundation Grant and commemorate one or more of the good old legends of Scipio. If I knew the approximate location of the "Tracy and the Bear" escapade (see a previous blog entry), I would apply right now - maybe you can help. Or perhaps, you know another story? Let me know!

1 comment:

Roger A. Post said...

Hi, Sandie. The approximate location of the "Tracy and the Bear" story is somewhere in the vicinity of Cork Street and the Sherwood Road. One version of the story has the encounter beginning east of Cork Street and south of the Sherwood Road, south of the DeWitt C. Gould residence. D. C. Gould's house is shown about 1/4 mile east of Cork St. on the 1875 Scipio map. Alanson Tracy reportedly rode the bear to a location near the Friends' Meeting House north of Poplar Ridge, a point which would be a bit south of the large dairy barn complex currently present between Sherwood and Poplar Ridge. This would be a bear ride of nearly 2 miles, if true. In this version, Alanson drowned the bear in a water-filled hole.

The version of the story in Storke (1879:332) is not very specific as to location, but does place Alanson with a neighbor at the time of the bear attack, which still localizes to the vicinity of Cork Street and the Sherwood Road because Alanson lived west of that corner. In Storke's version, the bear is killed by an ax after a ride of nearly 1 1/2 miles.

I hope this info is useful enough to enable your application.