Beadle's Dime Novels No. 231: The Texan Trailer

About this issue

This 1871 dime novel by Charles E. Lasalle follows Davy Crockett during his celebrated last bear hunt in Texas. Crockett, the renowned Tennessee bear-killer who moved to Texas to support independence efforts, becomes separated from his hunting party in pursuit of an immense black bear. After a comical encounter with Hans Bungslager, a German settler, Crockett tracks the bear toward a log cabin where a young woman is drawing water. The terrified girl flees indoors as the enraged bear pursues her. Crockett pursues both into the cabin, where he engages the bear in desperate close combat on the lower floor while the girl takes refuge upstairs. Armed with a Bowie knife and using available furniture, Crockett battles the creature in hand-to-hand combat, determined to prevent it from reaching the frightened woman.