Honey Pear Salad

Holt Collier led the hunting expedition when Theodore Roosevelt visited Mississippi in 1902. The story goes that the president was desirous of a black bear to add to his trophy collection and was in a hurry to do so. Roosevelt was stationed in a blind, and Holt led chase to the elusive black bear with a pack of forty dogs. The impatient president left the stand to have lunch. With the success of the hunt resting on his shoulders, Holt took the initiative, captured the bear with a lariat, and tied it to a willow tree by the Little Sunflower River in an effort to save his dogs from the bear and fulfill the president’s wishes. Moments later Roosevelt arrived on horseback and surveyed the scene. He declined to shoot a bear tied to a tree but was impressed by the bravery and abilities of Mr. Collier. The Washington Post editorial cartoonist Clifford Kennedy Berryman ran two drawings on the front page of the paper of a cute little cub that in no way resembled the ferocious bear captured single-handedly by Collier. The story became a national sensation and an enterprising Morris Michtom sewed up a small stuffed bear cub and nicknamed it the Teddy Bear, selling them for a buck and a half each. By the next year Mr. Michtom had founded the Ideal Toy Company and was selling thousands of Teddies a year. Today you can visit the first national refuge named for an African American, the 2,033-acre Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge near Onward, Mississippi. Each fall when the pears are ripe, the honey is in, and the Great Delta Bear Affair festival rolls around I think of that November hunt and that amazing American, Holt Collier.