‘Scuse me,’ sez he, ‘dat’s too easy.’ – Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Dollar Coin

Today, the Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Dollar Coin remembers a hunting trip in November 1902 that resulted in the foundation of a toy company.

After reading the bear hunting stories in the newspapers of the day, Morris and Rose Michtom sewed a small stuffed animal, placed it in their New York shop’s window and called it Teddy’s Bear.

After people expressed interest in the bear, Mr. Michtom wrote President Roosevelt to ask if they could market the stuffed animal using his name, “Teddy Bear.”

President Roosevelt responded, “I don’t think my name’s likely to be worth much in the bear business, but you’re welcome to use it.”

He was wrong. That “Teddy Bear” became the foundation for the Ideal Toy Company.

But, what was the story about the bear hunt?

In the Jungle Roads and Other Trails of Roosevelt, published in 1920, Daniel Henderson included the following eye witness account of the hunt using the local man’s vernacular.

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While President, Roosevelt went on a bear hunt in a part of the United States he had not previously explored — the cane-brakes of Mississippi. This section was miles from the railroad and had been the favorite hunting ground of General Wade Hampton, leader of the Confederate Black Horse Cavalry.

The experiences of the Colonel on this four days’ trip can best be told in the words of “Ho” Collier, a negro swamp guide and bear hunter.

Collier was a slave in his youth and knew every foot of Mississippi soil from Vicksburg to Memphis. It was a great occasion for him when a President of the United States came to hunt under his guidance, and his account shows that he made the most of it.

Not so much for the picture of “Ho,” but for the way it reveals the Colonel when on a sporting trip, we repeat the story as Frederick C. Drinker and Jay Henry Mowbray have passed it on:

“I know all those gentlemen in de party has had a mighty fine time, and as for de President, I never seen a man in all my times of hunting in dese woods what ‘joyed a hunt like he did. He was jes’ as happy as a schoolboy, and he certainly is a dead-game sport.

“We started out Thursday, and it took us ’bout till dark to get in camp and get settled good. So on Friday morning, ‘fore we started out, Mr. Roosevelt said he was awful anxious to kill a b’ar.

“So when he said dat, I told him dat I was deter’ mined for him to get dat chance, and if, I had to run a b’ar down and tie him I would see dat he got a chance to get a shot.

“Of course de party all scattered, and we begins to hunt, and somehow I felt like I was a’going to get a big one up, and sho’nuff, I wasn’t wrong, ’cause dat b’ar we first started was de biggest he b’ar I ever see or heard tell of for a long time.

“He was a hard one to run down, too. I am here to tell yo’ and when I heerd dat rascal breaking through de cane and my dogs hot after him I knew I was a-going to get close after him. I was anxious for someone to ride around and get the President to follow in with us, as I kept on feeling dat he could get a big b’ar ‘fore long.

“Whar was de President? Why, Lordy, chile, he was a snooking ’round on his own hook in de jungle. Dat man wouldn’t be tied to nobody. I done make a terrible noise, so he’d come whar de b’ar was, but whar wuz he?

“When my dogs did run dat b’ar down he went down in a mud hole, and it was kinder thick and hard to get at, so I stood round and didn’t shoot, case I wanted ‘the Colonel’ to hurry up and come in behind me so he could kill the first one.

“I tried my best to get dat big b’ar to tree, but he wouldn’t so I thought he was jes’ going to get the best of my pack, so I hit him with the butt of my gun and then throwed my lassoo ’bout his neck and made him fast to a willer tree.

“Then they done got de President, and den when he come up, I says, ‘Shoot de b’ar, Colonel, he’s tied !’

” ‘Scuse me,’ sez Colonel Roosevelt, laffan at de ba’r all tied up dar nice and snug, ‘Scuse me,’ sez he, ‘dat’s too easy.’

“De President was sholy sort of contempuse wid de situation, and I feel more liken a mule dan a hunter.

“De President said sumpin’, I spect it war from de Bible, ’bout it ain’t no use slayin’ de helpless. Dere I wuz wif my b’ar done tied up, and I think mighty fast to get out of dat fix.

” ‘Stick him,’ sez I to Massa Parker, and den I showed him how to do de trick. I tell you, my honey, dat big rascal didn’t las’ much longer after dat knife went into him.

“I say, ‘Colonel, you watch me close an’ you sholy gits a b’ar.’ Den he lafs and sez, ‘All right. Ho, I’ll keep an eye onto you.’

“We didn’t do no huntin’ on Sunday, ‘ca’se all of us is ‘ligious. It was awful quiet in de camp, as we wus all meditatin’ on de foolishness of life and eatin’. I saw de President mos’ every minute, and I do say dat he showed himself to be such a fine, good gentleman dat I was always admirin’ of him.

“I tell you we done had a grand dinner, such like dey couldn’t possibly have at de White House. How could dey git ‘possum and b’ar, which we had wif sweet ‘taters dat melt in de President’s mouf and mak’ him look so happy dat he had a good appetite? Den we had turkey gobbler, and dis man’s too perlite to say dat he eat more dan de President. It done mak’s me hungry ag’in when I looks back on dat dinner.

“De President says befoah dinner dat he wants to go on a little stroll in de woods. Den one of de gentlemen sez to de President: ‘Mistoo President, why doan you take you gun wid you?’

“De President he shakes his head an’ walks away. He says: ‘No; I ain’t been alone since a long time gone, an’ I’se goin’ be alone for a little while now.’

“I seed what he done. He goes off an’ sits down by de crick, an’ looks into de water an’ at de woods. Spec’ he was thinkin’, too, but I couldn’t tell. Den he gits up an’ comes in an’ settles down to business a’eatin’ of de ‘possum an’ de b’ar an’ de taters an’ de gobbler, an’ looks like he was wholly happy.

“De President cheer me up, an’ de rest, too. He tells me, just like it was nuffin’, ’bout some mighty fine hunts he done had over in de Rockies, ’bout shootin’ lions and moose. He say he had some mighty good times, ‘But Ho!’ he says, ‘I gwine tell dat he ain’ never had no nicer time anywhere den right here in dese Misippy woods.’ Dat’s de very words de Colonel sez to me.

“Den he talked to de gentlemen ’bout various things, but I ain’t gwine tell you dat, ‘case we was talkin’ private.

“De same hoodoo was on us de third day, but I done feel sure de President gits a shot at a b’ar. He sholy did nearly git one dat he chased all de way from 8 to 3 o’clock.

“Den what you think dat scoun’rel b’ar do? He breaks away from de dogs and goes shoppin’ acrost a ribber, and Ho knows he is done gone for good. Den I tole de gentlemen dere wan’t no use goin’ no furder.

” ‘I spec,’ sez de President, laffin, ‘dat we ain’t goin’ git no b’ar dis trip.’

“De President he took de skull of the big b’ar dat Mister Parker stick, and he say dat he take dat skull home to keep. When we gets ready to leave de camp de President was de most jolly of all de gentlemen. Dey all say we hates to leave his camp and de President say it was a d-e-l-i-g-h-t-f-u-l place, jes’ like dat.”

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The Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Dollar Coin shows against the cartoon of the president refusing to shoot the tied bear, circa 1902.

Teddy Roosevelt Presidential Dollar Coin