Escaped animals · Kearny
The bear that kept Kearny indoors
Contemporary report; the printing located and the date confirmed in Chronicling America
A Newark-datelined wire item, confirmed in a September 25, 1906 Perth Amboy Evening News printing, blamed an escaped bear for nighttime raids on Kearny henhouses and left residents keeping indoors.
The report
A newspaper brief reported that a bear had escaped from an unnamed Russian man who passed through Kearny while exhibiting the animal. In the nights that followed, residents blamed the bear for raids on poultry enclosures. People reported tracks in soft ground, and barking dogs were followed by the discovery of another damaged henhouse the next morning.
The article described residents avoiding unnecessary trips after dark and said some people who did venture out carried weapons. If the bear remained free, the community expected to organize a coordinated search.
Location and dating note
Although the saved source page files this clipping under Newark, the article itself repeatedly identifies Kearny. The visible clipping gives September 25 but not a year; that gap is now closed (see below): a September 25, 1906 printing of the same Newark-datelined item was located in the Perth Amboy Evening News, so 1906 is a confirmed publication date rather than an inference from the archival filing label.
Names, places, and source fields
- People
- The exhibitor is described by nationality but not named; no resident is named.
- Places
- Kearny, New Jersey. Newark appears only in the source collection’s filing title.
- Publication
- Headline “In Fear of Hungry Bear.” The archived clipping’s masthead is not visible; the same headline and text appear in the Perth Amboy Evening News of September 25, 1906, page 3.
- Date
- September 25, 1906, confirmed against that printing.
Sources and research limits
- Unidentified newspaper, “In Fear of Hungry Bear,” September 25, year and page not visible in the clipping; source transcription reviewed against the source collection image.
- Perth Amboy Evening News (Perth Amboy, N.J.), September 25, 1906, page 3, “Kearny Residents Keep Indoors Till Escaped Animal Is Caught” — Chronicling America full text reviewed. Datelined “NEWARK, Sept. 25,” it reports the same story as the archived clipping in near-identical terms: a bear escaped from a Russian exhibitor passing through town, footprints in soft ground, dogs barking ahead of overnight henhouse raids, residents keeping indoors after dark and going armed when they did go out, and talk of a “systematic hunt” if the bear was not caught. It confirms September 25, 1906 as a real publication date, independently of the archival filing label. Its headline is a two-deck head whose top line, “In Fear of Hungry Bear,” is the archived clipping’s own, so this is likely the clipping’s own printing rather than a separately headlined one.
The copyrighted clipping was used for research and is not reproduced. This page is an original summary. No capture or resolution notice was located in this session’s search of Chronicling America New Jersey titles; that does not rule out a later notice in a paper not digitized in that collection.