Murphy Farms Number 1

Once upon a time a young Chippewa Indian from Washington Island was hunting with his dog on the hill overlooking Horseshoe Bay in the present Town of Egg Harbor. As he was cautiously stepping forward amid the tall trees and occasional open glades he spied two bear cubs comfortably dozing on the sunny side of a big windfall. Being, like all Indians, fond of pets, he silenced and restrained his eager dog and crept forward intending to capture the cubs alive. When near them he laid down his gun and suddenly pouncing upon them he seized them both. Immediately there was much squirming and yelping but he managed to get a good hold in the fur of the neck and after a brief struggle arose with one cub in each hand. No sooner was he on his feet, however, before he heard a ferocious growl behind him. Turning instantly he saw a huge bear, the mother of the captive cubs, advancing upright on her hind feet. His gun was on the ground some distance away, so dropping the cubs he pulled his tomahawk and his knife to defend himself. He had only time, however, to raise his arm to throw the tomahawk when the savage beast was upon him and giving his arm a tremendous blow which broke it like a pipe stem she sent his tomahawk flying through the air several rods away. Then she seized him in a terrible embrace and he felt his ribs cracking.

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

Egg Harbor seems to have been a great place for bears. Old settlers tell of them invading their storehouses to steal their bacon and drink their milk. Once in broad daylight it even happened that a child was carried away by a bear. This happened at the home of Fred Kracht in section 32. It was on a morning in May, 1876. The father had gone to Baileys Harbor. The mother, eager for a piece of gossip, had left her little two year old boy undressed in the yard while she strolled down to a neighbor woman some distance away for a chat. Soon the dog which was chained was heard savagely barking and the child screaming in terror. The mother and the neighbors hurried to the house but the child was nowhere to be found. A general alarm was sounded and scores of men turned out to search the woods and the fields thoroughly. Nothing was ever found of the child, however, only some big fresh bear tracks leading into the swamp.

Passage source: History Of Door County Wisconsin The County Beautiful, published 1917.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Egg Harbor Town - 5,021 words on its settlement, mills, schools and churches.