In Sharkey County during a Mississippi Delta bear hunt in 1902, President Roosevelt refused to kill a bear that had been tied up for him to shoot because he believed doing so would be unsportsmanlike. His guide on the hunt was Holt Collier, a former slave, Confederate soldier, and Texas cowboy. As the hunt began, Collier told Roosevelt where to wait for the bear to come out of the cane brake, but after a long wait the President left that spot. When the angry bear finally emerged from the woods, Collier jumped from his horse, clubbed and stunned the 250-pound bruin, threw a rope around the dazed animal, and sent for Roosevelt to shoot it. News of Roosevelt's refusal spread in newspapers across the country, and a political cartoonist drew a cartoon of the captured bear incident. The teddy bear grew out of this Mississippi hunting trip when a New York retailer soon began calling the toy bears in his shop "Teddy's bears," and children around the world still use the name teddy bear for stuffed animals.
