Posted by
Gray Ghost on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:38:06 AM
The Mississippi Delta has been said to extend from the front door of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee, to Catfish Row in Vicksburg, Mississippi. That this is a true statement is proven in the book, Holt Collier, His Life, His Roosevelt Hunts, and the Origin of the Teddy Bear. Written by a fellow Mississippian (Minor Ferris Buchanan), the book takes a look at the life of one of Mississippi's most famous sons, Holt Collier.
Born in approximately 1846, Holt was a slave of the family of General Thomas Hinds. General Hinds is famous in history as the leader of Hind’s Dragoons of Mississippi. This mounted military force fought the British and their Native American allies during the War of 1812. Under the command of General Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, Hind’s Dragoons helped give America one of its most famous military victories.
The world in which Holt Collier lived was quite different than the Mississippi Delta of the year 2010. The delta was little more than one large swamp, with immense cane breaks. Today it is one of the richest farming areas in the world, with topsoil depths of over twenty feet. In the Mississippi Delta of the 1800’s, wild game (such as bear, cougars, and deer) was abundant. Today, only the vast numbers of whitetail deer speak of the not too distant past.
Holt Collier could neither read nor write; but his life was that of legends. He served as a scout and sharpshooter for the Confederate army. During the Battle of Shiloh, he was present at the death General Albert Sidney Johnston. After the Civil War, he was charged with the murder of a corrupt Union officer, an officer in charge of the "reconstruction" policies of a vengeful federal government. He went to Texas and became a cowboy, herding cattle along the Chisolm Trail.
In the late 1800’s he moved back to Greenville, Mississippi. There for the next twenty years he was the most "celebrated" hunter in Mississippi. He was so famous that Teddy Roosevelt hired him twice to organize bear hunts in the southern Delta. During the first hunt, President Roosevelt declined to shoot a bear that Holt Collier had "wrestled" into submission. The legend of the "Teddy Bear" was born.
In 1936, Holt Collier passed away and was laid to rest in Greenville. However, some time in 1935, my 15-year-old father met and spoke to this paragon of Mississippi values. Dad had come to Greenville from Hollandale, Mississippi (about 25 miles away), with my grandfather. He later told me that Collier was one of greatest men he ever met. (Dad also got to "handle" the rifle given to Holt by a grateful President Teddy Roosevelt.)
I highly recommend this book.