AMERICAN HOUNDSMAN BEN LILLY-
After the honorable David Crockett of Tennessee, Ben Lilly was said to be the greatest bear hunter in American history. He reputedly killed more bear with a knife in hand-to-hand combat than Ol’ Davy ever attempted to “grin” down. In truth, Ben Lilly no doubt killed more black bears and mountain lions, or panthers, as he called them, during his lifetime than any hunter in history.
Realizing in his late 20s that he yearned for a life in the wilderness and that he could indeed make a living by hunting “varmints,” he became very skilled at tracking down black bears, mountain lions and eventually, a small number of western grizzlies. A deeply religious man who refused to hunt on the Sabbath, Lilly truly believed that eradicating the land of bears and panthers was his God-given duty, and he dedicated his life to that pursuit.
Ben Vernon Lilly (1856-1936) was born in Wilcox County, Alabama. His family migrated to Kemper County, Mississippi, where he spent most his boyhood. He was raised with a strong Christian ethic. Lilly’s father, Albert, was a blacksmith, and young Ben took to the trade and learned it well.
When Lilly was 12, his parents sent him to a military academy in Jackson, Mississippi, where he promptly ran away. His whereabouts remained unknown to the family for nearly a decade until his bachelor uncle and namesake, Vernon Lilly, ran into him by chance in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was working in a blacksmith shop. Uncle Vernon offered his 23-year-old nephew a job on his thriving cotton farm in Morehouse Parish, Louisiana. Within a year, Uncle Vernon died, and Lilly inherited the farm.
One day at the farm, he had a chance encounter with a black bear. During the ensuing scuffle, he ended up killing the “varmint” with one of his handmade knives. The experience changed his life. He had found his true calling. The thrill of the hunt beckoned and, in due time, he would heed its call.