Broom Totin’ Woman

By A. Sayward Lamb

One night, during September of 1986, Mrs. Irene Stevens heard a loud commotion in the front yard of her home. Mrs. Stevens, a lady of small stature, lived on the former Greenwood Town Farm, located on the Patch Mountain Road, in Greenwood City, Maine
Checking out the noise, Mrs. Stevens discovered a very large black bear had just attacked and killed her pet goat, which had been sleeping underneath the front porch of her farmhouse.

She looked outside just in time to see the bear dragging the goat carcass across her dooryard, headed towards the woods. By this time Mrs. Stevens was very upset, so she went into her house, got her broom, then took after the bear! Her efforts proved successful, because the bear dropped the goat and climbed up a nearby tree! Mrs. Stevens
returned to her home, where she telephoned her neighbor, Albert Silver, asking him if he would come to her house and shoot the bear? Albert advised her to call the local game warden.

Mrs. Stevens placed the call to the game warden, who told her he would be down in the morning. Wanting no part of that suggestion, Mrs. Stevens requested his badge number, and the telephone number of his Supervisor. Confronted with her determined efforts, the warden decided it might be better if he came right down. Upon his arrival, Mrs. Stevens escorted the officer to the spot where she had “treed” the bear. They soon discovered the bear nearby, back down on the ground, with the goat. She kept urging the
warden to shoot the bear with his revolver. Upon seeing the huge size of the black bear, the warden wanted no part of that suggestion.!

He decided it would be better to retreat from the site and make a telephone call to Tim Farrar, of West Paris, and have him come over with his bear hounds, to track, and dispatch the bear. As soon as Tim arrived, the hounds were released in Mrs. Stevens dooryard. The dogs immediately caught scent of the bear and headed for the woods, with Mrs. Stevens and the others, close behind. Upon arriving at the scene, where the bear had last been seen, they discovered the bear had taken refuge in the very same tree that it had gone up when Mrs. Stevens had “treed” it with the broom! Tim dispatched the bear with a carefully placed bullet from his gun, to end the fracas. When the bear was weighed, it tipped the scales and well over three hundred pounds.

This true tale was told to me by a close friend, Milt Inman, who lives in Greenwood City. Milt heard the gunshot that night from his home, located just across the outlet of Hicks Pond, not too far from Mrs. Stevens home Some people, whom I have talked with regarding this incident, believe Mrs. Stevens was very fortunate that the bear did not attack her, especially while it had the goat in its possession. No doubt, that bear must have been some surprised to find it was being chased by a “broom totin’ woman who was as mad as could be! No wonder it dropped the goat and climbed up the tree!