BUCKET LIST UPDATE No. 136: Visit the “Bear Man” grave at New Hope Baptist Church at Natchez

The 'Bear Man' Grave at Natchez.

If memory serves me correctly, the first time that I can remember ever hearing anything about the “Bear Man” grave was several years ago when award-winning writer and photographer Josh Dewberry mentioned it in The Monroe Journal newspaper. Dewberry was writing an eight-part series about the oldest churches in Monroe County, and the first installment in the series was about New Hope Baptist Church at Natchez.

In that story, Dewberry detailed the church’s history, but his mention of the “Bear Man” is what I remember most about the story. According to Dewberry, “local legend tells that in the early 1890s a man traveling with a trained bear was mauled and killed by his bear and is buried in the church cemetery. A simple wooden cross marks his grave, and a local resident is said to have killed the bear.”

Fast forward a few years, and my memory of this unusual grave was jogged once again when the Web site www.ruralswalabama.org featured New Hope Baptist Church and mentioned the “Bear Man” grave as well. According to that Web site, “in the far corner of the cemetery there is a simple wooden cross with ‘The Bear Man’ marked on it. According to local tradition, a Frenchman traveling through the area in 1891-1892 with his trained bear was killed when his bear turned on him. The bear was then shot and killed by observers, and both the man and bear were buried in this grave. The wooden cross with ‘The Bear Man’ marks the grave.”

I later heard that more details about the “Bear Man” were included in The Monroe Journal’s second “Centennial Edition,” which was published on May 15, 1969. Sure enough, on Page 75 of that publication, in a story titled “Natchez Was Once Known As ‘The Fork’,” you’ll find where it says that “an incident happened in Natchez that probably has not occurred in any other in the United States. A Frenchman came to our school in Buena Vista leading a bear. Our teacher, Prof. Claude Hardy, paid him to have the bear act; so he put a little boy’s hat on the bear’s head and the bear would stand on his hind legs and dance, then he would have the bear climb a tree. This man went on to Natchez where the bear threw him down and began to eat him alive and would not allow anyone to come near. The man yell, “Oh, Jimbo, don’t do that please.” Mr. Bill Reaves shot and killed the bear with his rifle. The ‘Bear Man,’ as he was called, is buried in Natchez Cemetery. This happened in the year 1891-92.”

Knowing all this, I couldn’t honestly say that I’d ever been to New Hope Baptist Church at Natchez, and I was sure that I’d never seen the “Bear Man” grave in person, which is why I put this little field trip on my “bucket list” a few years ago. On Monday of last week, I took the time to ride up to the old church, and it didn’t take long to find the grave of the “Bear Man.” It’s marked with a wooden cross and sits in the far back corner of the cemetery, away from the road that runs in front of the church. If you look closely, you’ll even see the faded letters across the marker that reads “The Bear Man.”

In the end, how many of you have seen the “Bear Man” grave at Natchez? Do you know exactly when this incident took place? Do you know any more details about the incident? Let us know in the comments section below.