Ben Lilly
Encyclopedia
Benjamin Vernon Lilly or Ben Lilly (1856 – December 17, 1936), nicknamed Ol' Lilly, was a notorious big game hunter, houndsman and mountain man
of the late American Old West
. He remains famous for hunting down large numbers of grizzly
, cougars and black bear
s. A mix between a transcendentalist
spirit and an arduos Christian, he is portrayed as an unfathomable Southern wild character. He was a stern adept of the simple living and outdoor freedom, he roamed and hunted from Louisiana
to Arizona
and from Idaho
to as far south as Chihuahua and Durango
, Mexico and was a subject of American folktales. He guided oiler W. H. McFadden
and President Theodore Roosevelt
in hunting expeditions, whom he intrigued and wrote about him. He is considered, arguably, to be the most prolific hunter of apex predators in the history of North American hunting and also the last active mountain man of the historical American Southwest. He was not a conservationist but made important contribution of fauna specimens and naturalistic observations to American institutions and museums. He is a contradicting character and his exploits have been consistently exaggerated to folktale proportions, and most records are oral, bona-fide, Americana
transcripts.
, Alabama of parents from North Carolina
.
His family moved from Alabama to Kemper County, Mississippi
when he was young and spent most his childhood there, being raised as a devout Christian. After the end of the American Civil War
, at twelve, he was sent by his parents to a military academy in Jackson, Mississippi, but he ran away. Lilly’s whereabouts were not known to his family for a long time, until his uncle, Vernon Lilly, by chance discovered him running a blacksmith shop in Memphis, TN. His uncle, a “planter” from Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
, offered Lilly a job, and he accepted. After his uncle's death, he inherited the cotton farm, and there, in 1880, he married his first wife, Lelia, who he not so affectionately referred to as “ daughter of Sodom and Gomorrah
”. He also worked as a blacksmith but did not pursue this career for long; later he used these skills to fashion his particular hunting knives and traps. There, in Louisiana, he discovered his passion for big-game hunting after killing a black bear with a knife, and started pursuing hunting as a career relentlessly for the rest of his life. At first, he was making an income selling bear meat and wild honey. Then, he moved east to Texas, in the Big Thicket
and lived for three years around 1904–1907 in Ben Hook's hunting camp, with whom he partnered with.
In 1907, he guided President Theodore Roosevelt, as chief huntsman in a big game hunting expedition in Tensas Bayou
, Louisiana. Roosevelt wrote about Ben Lilly:
Lilly was 5'9" tall and around 180 lbs, and known for his particular strength and stamina that stayed with him until old age, "spare, full bearded, with mild, gentle eyes and a frame of steel and whipcord." In his convictions, Ben Lilly did not smoke nor drink alcohol or coffee, facts that set him apart from the rest of his contemporaries. He was, however, fond of eating bear and particularly cougar meat, which, he believed, in a similar fashion to synchretic Native-American ideas, that it would give him feline
powers. He was one of the most accomplished houndsmen at the time in North America, and was strict but fond of his packs of hounds, mostly Southern catahoula and coonhound
breeds.
In 1908, he crossed into Mexico, Chihuahua, and then took to the Sierra Madre
mountains, in western Coahuila
, where he hunted grizzly and became the source of local tales, notably the one of him pursuing menacing large grizzly that sported a white star and terrorized locals of Camino Real. A description of a grizzly hunt while in Coahuila, Mexico, narrated personally by him remains:
He crossed back into USA, and settled in Gila Wilderness
, New Mexico
, and as of 1911 he started being employed by the government and local cattle ranchers for depredation, earning the most money in his lifetime. He is credited with killing the last wild grizzly of the vast Gila Wilderness.
In 1912 he was registered as hunter and trapper for the Apache National Forest
in Arizona
, living near Clifton
and earning $75 a month. Between 1916 and 1920 he was employed full time by the U.S. Biological Survey. The ties with the agency started in 1904, when at 50 years old, he began sending specimens of the animals he hunted and trapped to the collections of U.S. Biological Survey , today's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Museum of Natural History
, Washington D.C., through the care of his friend, Ned Hollister
. Those specimens included mountain lions, brown and black bears, deer, otter, and rare animals like the Mexican gray wolf or ivory-billed woodpecker
. The most famous of these specimens went to the Smithsonian Institution
, and was a record grizzly hunted in north-east Arizona. On occasion, he captured mountain lion cubs and raised them to full maturity, not as pets, but to observe their habits.
In 1921, Ben acted as guide for Oklahoma
oil tycoon W.H. McFadden on his memorable hunt through the Rocky Mountains
, from Mexico to Canada. For some reason, Lilly left the party in Idaho and did not finish the trip to Canada. For fifteen years, from 1911 to 1926 between Ben's fifty-fifth and seventieth years, he reached his goal of hunting every day of the year, except Sundays.
By hunting all bears and cougars, Benjamin Vernon Lilly held the personal belief that he was in a sacred mission for the extermination of "malefic creatures" and spared no effort in doing so. He was no doubt, one of the most destructive individuals that contributed to the reduction of North-American apex predator
s to the brink of extinction, an undeniably condemning act by modern standards of both ethical hunting and wildlife conservation. The numbers of animals killed by Ben Lilly in his exploits is subject to sufficient contradiction but bona-fide it is estimated that he successfully hunted between 600 and 1000 mountain lions in his lifetime. One of the very few confirmed things is an epitaph that Ben Lilly wrote on the box in which he buried one of his most prized hounds in 1925, near Sapillo Creek, New Mexico:
, more precisely a double edged S-shaped large Arkansas toothpick
dagger, apprehendedly named " The Lilly Knife".
For the rest he was an accomplished marksman and used Winchester lever action rifles, a 30-30
for cougars
and a .33 Winchester
(.33 WCF) caliber for bears. He died at eighty, on December 17, 1936, on a ranch in Pleasanton
, near Silver City, New Mexico
and is buried in the historic Memory Lane Cemetery in Silver City.
His modest tombstone bears the epitaph: "Lover of the Great Outdoors". In 1947 last people that knew him, erected a bronze plaque on his memory, on Bear Creek, Pinos Altos, New Mexico.
. He believed that eating cougar meat would give him feline agilities.
In one well known account, his wife sent him to shoot a chicken-hawk
that was bothering the birds around their home. Then he went missing for almost two years, and upon his return, when asked what happened, he gave the laconic answer: “That hawk just kept flying!”
Quotes from Benjamin Vernon Lilly are sometimes shocking by today's standards, many completed with Southern humor:
Mountain man
Mountain men were trappers and explorers who roamed the North American Rocky Mountains from about 1810 through the 1880s where they were instrumental in opening up the various Emigrant Trails allowing Americans in the east to settle the new territories of the far west by organized wagon trains...
of the late American Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
. He remains famous for hunting down large numbers of grizzly
Grizzly Bear
The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...
, cougars and black bear
American black bear
The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...
s. A mix between a transcendentalist
Transcendentalism
Transcendentalism is a philosophical movement that developed in the 1830s and 1840s in the New England region of the United States as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard University and the doctrine of the Unitarian...
spirit and an arduos Christian, he is portrayed as an unfathomable Southern wild character. He was a stern adept of the simple living and outdoor freedom, he roamed and hunted from Louisiana
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
to Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
and from Idaho
Idaho
Idaho is a state in the Rocky Mountain area of the United States. The state's largest city and capital is Boise. Residents are called "Idahoans". Idaho was admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, as the 43rd state....
to as far south as Chihuahua and Durango
Durango
Durango officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Durango is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is located in Northwest Mexico. With a population of 1,632,934, it has Mexico's second-lowest population density, after Baja...
, Mexico and was a subject of American folktales. He guided oiler W. H. McFadden
W. H. McFadden
-Early life:William H. McFadden, born in Moundsville, West Virginia on June 11, 1869, was an essential factor in opening up the oil fields of Oklahoma...
and President Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
in hunting expeditions, whom he intrigued and wrote about him. He is considered, arguably, to be the most prolific hunter of apex predators in the history of North American hunting and also the last active mountain man of the historical American Southwest. He was not a conservationist but made important contribution of fauna specimens and naturalistic observations to American institutions and museums. He is a contradicting character and his exploits have been consistently exaggerated to folktale proportions, and most records are oral, bona-fide, Americana
Americana
Americana refers to artifacts, or a collection of artifacts, related to the history, geography, folklore and cultural heritage of the United States. Many kinds of material fall within the definition of Americana: paintings, prints and drawings; license plates or entire vehicles, household objects,...
transcripts.
Personal life
He was born in the winter of 1856 in Wilcox CountyWilcox County, Alabama
Wilcox County is a county of the U.S. state of Alabama. Its name is in honor of Lieutenant J. M. Wilcox, who fought in the wars against the Creek tribe. As of 2010, the population was 11,670...
, Alabama of parents from North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
.
His family moved from Alabama to Kemper County, Mississippi
Mississippi
Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...
when he was young and spent most his childhood there, being raised as a devout Christian. After the end of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, at twelve, he was sent by his parents to a military academy in Jackson, Mississippi, but he ran away. Lilly’s whereabouts were not known to his family for a long time, until his uncle, Vernon Lilly, by chance discovered him running a blacksmith shop in Memphis, TN. His uncle, a “planter” from Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
Morehouse Parish, Louisiana
Morehouse Parish is a parish located in the U.S. state of Louisiana. The parish seat is Bastrop. In 2000, the parish population was 31,021....
, offered Lilly a job, and he accepted. After his uncle's death, he inherited the cotton farm, and there, in 1880, he married his first wife, Lelia, who he not so affectionately referred to as “ daughter of Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah
Sodom and Gomorrah were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis and later expounded upon throughout the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament and Deuterocanonical sources....
”. He also worked as a blacksmith but did not pursue this career for long; later he used these skills to fashion his particular hunting knives and traps. There, in Louisiana, he discovered his passion for big-game hunting after killing a black bear with a knife, and started pursuing hunting as a career relentlessly for the rest of his life. At first, he was making an income selling bear meat and wild honey. Then, he moved east to Texas, in the Big Thicket
Big Thicket
The Big Thicket is the name of a heavily forested area in Southeast Texas. While no exact boundaries exist, the area occupies much of Hardin County, Liberty, Tyler, San Jacinto, and Polk Counties and is roughly bounded by the San Jacinto River, Neches River, and Pine Island Bayou. To the north, it...
and lived for three years around 1904–1907 in Ben Hook's hunting camp, with whom he partnered with.
In 1907, he guided President Theodore Roosevelt, as chief huntsman in a big game hunting expedition in Tensas Bayou
Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge
The Tensas River National Wildlife Refuge is located in Madison, Tensas, and Franklin parishes in northeastern Louisiana, west of the city of Tallulah.-Wildlife and Habitat:...
, Louisiana. Roosevelt wrote about Ben Lilly:
"I never met any other man so indifferent to fatigue and hardship. The morning he joined us in camp, he had come on foot through the thick woods, followed by his two dogs, and had neither eaten nor drunk for twenty-four hours; for he did not like to drink the swamp water. It had rained hard throughout the night and he had no shelter, no rubber coat, nothing but the clothes he was wearing and the ground was too wet for him to lie on' so he perched in a crooked tree in the beating rain, much as if he had been a wild turkey. He equaled Cooper's Deerslayer in woodcraft, in hardihood, in simplicity–and also in loquacity."
Felinae
Felinae is a subfamily of the family Felidae which includes the genera and species listed below. Most are small to medium-sized cats, although the group does include some larger animals, such as the Cougar and Cheetah....
powers. He was one of the most accomplished houndsmen at the time in North America, and was strict but fond of his packs of hounds, mostly Southern catahoula and coonhound
Coonhound
A Coonhound is a type of scent hound and a member of the hound group.Coonhounds are an American style of hunting dog developed for the quarry and working conditions found in the United States. Coondogs are highly valued.-History:...
breeds.
In 1908, he crossed into Mexico, Chihuahua, and then took to the Sierra Madre
Sierra Madre Occidental
The Sierra Madre Occidental is a mountain range in western Mexico.-Setting:The range runs north to south, from just south of the Sonora–Arizona border southeast through eastern Sonora, western Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Durango, Zacatecas, Nayarit, Jalisco, Aguascalientes to Guanajuato, where it joins...
mountains, in western Coahuila
Coahuila
Coahuila, formally Coahuila de Zaragoza , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila de Zaragoza is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico...
, where he hunted grizzly and became the source of local tales, notably the one of him pursuing menacing large grizzly that sported a white star and terrorized locals of Camino Real. A description of a grizzly hunt while in Coahuila, Mexico, narrated personally by him remains:
"Old man Sanborn set me on him. They was grizzlies, four of them, and I tracked them down by myself and killed them. They was desert bears, light colored with a stripe down their back, but desert or mountain they didn’t get away and I killed the four of them, brought their skins back to Sanborn."
He crossed back into USA, and settled in Gila Wilderness
Gila Wilderness
Gila Wilderness was designated the world's first wilderness area on June 3, 1924. Along with Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Blue Range Wilderness, the wilderness is part of New Mexico's Gila National Forest. The wilderness is approximately from north to south and east to west...
, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
, and as of 1911 he started being employed by the government and local cattle ranchers for depredation, earning the most money in his lifetime. He is credited with killing the last wild grizzly of the vast Gila Wilderness.
In 1912 he was registered as hunter and trapper for the Apache National Forest
Apache National Forest
Apache National Forest was established by the U.S. Forest Service in Arizona and New Mexico on July 1, 1908 with from portions of Black Mesa National Forest. In 1974 entire forest was administratively combined with Sitgreaves National Forest to create Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest...
in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, living near Clifton
Clifton, Arizona
Clifton is a town in and the county seat of Greenlee County, Arizona, United States, along the San Francisco River. The population of the town was 3,311 at the 2010 census. It was a site of the Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983....
and earning $75 a month. Between 1916 and 1920 he was employed full time by the U.S. Biological Survey. The ties with the agency started in 1904, when at 50 years old, he began sending specimens of the animals he hunted and trapped to the collections of U.S. Biological Survey , today's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Museum of Natural History
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. Admission is free and the museum is open 364 days a year....
, Washington D.C., through the care of his friend, Ned Hollister
Ned Hollister
Ned Hollister was an American biologist primarily known for studying mammals. From 1916 until his death he was Superintendent of the National Zoological Park...
. Those specimens included mountain lions, brown and black bears, deer, otter, and rare animals like the Mexican gray wolf or ivory-billed woodpecker
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
The Ivory-billed Woodpecker is or was one of the largest woodpeckers in the world, at roughly 20 inches in length and 30 inches in wingspan. It was native to the virgin forests of the southeastern United States...
. The most famous of these specimens went to the Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
, and was a record grizzly hunted in north-east Arizona. On occasion, he captured mountain lion cubs and raised them to full maturity, not as pets, but to observe their habits.
In 1921, Ben acted as guide for Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
oil tycoon W.H. McFadden on his memorable hunt through the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
, from Mexico to Canada. For some reason, Lilly left the party in Idaho and did not finish the trip to Canada. For fifteen years, from 1911 to 1926 between Ben's fifty-fifth and seventieth years, he reached his goal of hunting every day of the year, except Sundays.
Apex predator
Apex predators are predators that have no predators of their own, residing at the top of their food chain. Zoologists define predation as the killing and consumption of another organism...
s to the brink of extinction, an undeniably condemning act by modern standards of both ethical hunting and wildlife conservation. The numbers of animals killed by Ben Lilly in his exploits is subject to sufficient contradiction but bona-fide it is estimated that he successfully hunted between 600 and 1000 mountain lions in his lifetime. One of the very few confirmed things is an epitaph that Ben Lilly wrote on the box in which he buried one of his most prized hounds in 1925, near Sapillo Creek, New Mexico:
He was known to many times fight and dispatch in hand-to-hand combat bear and cougars using a self-made custom Bowie knife
"Here lies Crook, a bear and lion dog that helped kill 210 bear and 426 lion since 1914 (n.n. 11 years period), owned by B. V. Lilly ..."
Bowie knife
A Bowie knife is a pattern of fixed-blade fighting knife first popularized by Colonel James "Jim" Bowie in the early 19th Century. Since the first incarnation was created by James Black, the Bowie knife has come to incorporate several recognizable and characteristic design features, although its...
, more precisely a double edged S-shaped large Arkansas toothpick
Arkansas toothpick
The Arkansas toothpick is a heavy dagger with a pointed, straight blade. The knife is balanced and weighted for throwing and can be used for thrusting and slashing...
dagger, apprehendedly named " The Lilly Knife".
For the rest he was an accomplished marksman and used Winchester lever action rifles, a 30-30
.30-30 Winchester
The .30-30 Winchester/.30 Winchester Center Fire/7.62×51mmR cartridge was first marketed in early 1895 for the Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle. The .30-30 , as it is most commonly known, was the USA's first small-bore, sporting rifle cartridge designed for smokeless powder. The .30-30 is...
for cougars
Cougars
Cougars is a Chicago-based rock band signed to the New York-based label Go-Kart Records.The Cougars' music is often compared to that of Rocket from the Crypt...
and a .33 Winchester
.33 Winchester
The .33 Winchester Center Fire is an American centerfire rifle cartridge.Introduced by Winchester for the Model 86 lever rifle , it survived until the Model 86 was dropped in 1936...
(.33 WCF) caliber for bears. He died at eighty, on December 17, 1936, on a ranch in Pleasanton
Pleasanton
Pleasanton is the name of several places in the United States of America:* Pleasanton, California* Pleasanton, Iowa* Pleasanton, Kansas* Pleasanton, Nebraska* Pleasanton, New Mexico* Pleasanton, Texas* Pleasanton Township, Michigan...
, near Silver City, New Mexico
Silver City, New Mexico
Silver City is a town in Grant County, New Mexico, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 10,545. It is the county seat of Grant County. The city is the home of Western New Mexico University.-History:...
and is buried in the historic Memory Lane Cemetery in Silver City.
His modest tombstone bears the epitaph: "Lover of the Great Outdoors". In 1947 last people that knew him, erected a bronze plaque on his memory, on Bear Creek, Pinos Altos, New Mexico.
Peculiarities, humor and quotes
He was known for his simple, transcendentalist philosophy, derived of his radical lifestyle. He was an arduous free practicing Christian his own way, yet most considered him a mad wildman, deeply affected by his lifestyle, an iconic hillbillyHillbilly
Hillbilly is a term referring to certain people who dwell in rural, mountainous areas of the United States, primarily Appalachia but also the Ozarks. Owing to its strongly stereotypical connotations, the term is frequently considered derogatory, and so is usually offensive to those Americans of...
. He believed that eating cougar meat would give him feline agilities.
In one well known account, his wife sent him to shoot a chicken-hawk
Chickenhawk (bird)
In the United States, a Chickenhawk or Chicken Hawk is an unofficial designation for three species of North American hawks: the Cooper's Hawk, the Sharp-shinned Hawk and the Red-tailed Hawk. The term Chicken Hawk, however, is inappropriate...
that was bothering the birds around their home. Then he went missing for almost two years, and upon his return, when asked what happened, he gave the laconic answer: “That hawk just kept flying!”
Quotes from Benjamin Vernon Lilly are sometimes shocking by today's standards, many completed with Southern humor:
"Anyone can kill a deer but it takes a man to kill a varmint." — by varmints he meant bears, mountain lions, and wolves.
"Property is a handicap to man."
"I never saw a man with his face shaved clean until I was a big boy. When I saw him I thought he was a dead man.... walking about, and I was mighty scared."
Ben Lily to a rogue bear, prior to dispatching him with a Bowie knife:“You are condemned, you black devil, I kill you in the name of the law!”
”My reputation is bigger than I am. It is like my shadow when I stand in front of the sun in late evening.”