Bears and other wild creatures must have created a lot of hardships for the pioneers of our little community, when they were trying to carve homes and farms out of the forest in the old days.

There are countless stories which our ancestor settlers have passed down through the families and some of them have been written down. I was always fascinated by those tales which have been told and retold since the days when those tough and determined people first arrived in this area. My ancestors arrived early in the 1800s and I remember sitting in the pale, yellow glow of the old coal oil lamps listening to the oldtimers pass on the stories of adventures of yesteryears to my generation and many of them deserve to be told once more.

Some information was written down in the records of Alliston's early churches. One of the first churches was a pretty little white building on Victoria Street West It was Knox Presbyterian Church, built in 1861-1862 by John and William Buyers.

In the earliest church records, wild animals were mentioned as a danger: "Services were held both morning and afternoon. No service was held in the evening due to the great distances the people came on foot and it was necessary for them to reach home or some friendly roof before nightfall due to the wild animals, especially bears and wolves that roamed the land."

No doubt, the folk had heard of some who were attacked on the trails at night.

My great grandfather, Matthew Braden, arranged for a local preacher to meet with him and his fiancée at the Braden farm on the 7th Concession of Essa Township, to perform their marriage ceremony. Her parents farmed near Baxter and she travelled to her wedding on foot by way of a rough forest path. She recalled, "I was coming down the trail when I came to a huge maple that had fallen across the path. I climbed over it and jumped off the other side, landing beside two bears. I screamed and ran away and the bears did the same."

My grandmother Annie Welch recalled a scary trip home through the forest, by horse and buggy. Will and Annie had failed to arrive home before dark and suddenly some kind of large wild cat leapt out in front of the horse and uttered a blood curdling scream. The poor horse collapsed in fright and grandma fainted, but Grandpa, an experienced woodsman, stood up in the little buggy and applied the buggy whip vigorously, accompanied by a ferocious yell, whereupon the wild beast lost its nerve and leapt into the dark woods.

There is another story, handed down through the Braden family about a pioneer family member who had spent the day at a barn building bee for his pioneer neighbour. He recalled, "I was just passing the beaver meadow about dusk when I surprised a she bear and her two cubs. She rose up on her hind legs to defend them and fortunately, I was carrying my stone hammer, at the time, but every time I tried to hit her, she deflected every blow like a boxer. I was almost exhausted when I tried a boxing strategy of my own, feinting a blow but drawing back and then when she was off balance, I was able to knock her down. I don't know what happened to her but I seized my opportunity and ran for my life."

The Bradens were people of faith and no doubt he never forgot to thank his creator for preserving his life that evening by the beaver meadow, realizing that all too often we fail to thank the Lord for his blessings.

My grandfather, Robert Braden used to talk about a time when a huge bear broke into some settler's little log barn and carried off a large market hog, into the surrounding forest. The poor pig was still alive and struggling but the powerful beast had no difficulty climbing the rail fence with the terrified porker under one arm. Finally, its pathetic screaming faded away as it was carried deep into the dense forest which still covered much of the land. In those days the determined farmers refused to let wild animals destroy their dreams for successful farms. Calling the faithful dog and loading up the old single shot rifle with a little extra powder and lead balls the farmer was soon on the trail of the robber and he had a fine bearskin to keep him warm the next winter.

Bears are on the increase, once again and this week, I received a note from my son, Steve who lives at the edge of dense forest in British Columbia. He had a frightening experience with a fierce bear and these are some of his words:

"I was in the deep, dark woods that afternoon when I heard a thump, thump, thumping sound....a bear came running full tilt. I was terrified and all alone. It kept coming. I knew that I could not give any ground at all and if anything I had to advance.

"I yanked out my machete and advanced as it ran toward me. I roared, barking caveman sort of coughing yells and hacking at anything in my path. Still the bear came. This was about the time when I thought that I would die and leave nameless bones, covered in moss.

"Finally, the bear broke the charge and began chuffing and stomping with its front feet."

Steve went on to relate how the bear charged twice more but he was finally able to intimidate the brute long enough to escape to his cabin. He writes that his heart and lungs were bursting and he was as wet as if he had been swimming and as long as an hour afterwards he was still pouring sweat and his hands were still shaking.

Now, his generation has one more bear story to add to those of his ancestors and now he can understand the words in the Bible which tell us that we should never say for certain what we will do tomorrow for at any moment our Maker may take us home. It is better to be ready to go.

The pioneers had a lot of such encounters with wild beasts, right where our modern community stands today. Unfortunately, most of those old stories have been lost or forgotten but in those times, that's the way they were then.

For more about the yesteryears of old Alliston, see the next Tuesday's edition of the Alliston Herald. Ralph Braden is arranging the publication of these stories in a book entitled The Way We Were Then.