Capt. Crow and Taming a Bear in Syracuse

Charles M. Crow, was busy operating his wholesale wine and liquor dealership in Syracuse, New York, when a letter from the Canadian North Woods arrived in August of 1879.  In it a friend wrote that he had shipped him a “beautiful black bear” that had been captured 15 days earlier.  Deciding it was no joke, Capt. Crow hastened to a train station west of the city to intercept the animal.  He knew owning a bear would be a challenge but Crow had faced challenges before.

Details of Crow’s early life are sketchy.  According to census records he was born in Ireland in 1835.  That meant that he was just a child when the Great Famine ravaged the Emerald Isle during the 1840s resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands.  The disaster also sent many Irish on disease-ridden ships to America. The boy Crow was among them.  For many the decade of famine was a life changing experience, as we can assume it was for Crow.

Crow’s next challenge would come with the outbreak of the Civil War.  Taking a  cue from his being widely addressed as “Captain” Crow, I checked his name against a roster of six million Civil War soldiers and found a Charles M. Crow — the only one — and assume it was our man.  He was a member of the 42nd Indiana Volunteer Infantry, recruited in Evansville in October 1861 for a three year enlistment but he actually fought throughout the conflict until the Confederates surrendered in April 1865. 

The regiment lost a total of 310 men during service; five officers and 108 enlisted men killed or mortally wounded; one officer and 196 enlisted men died of disease.  Perhaps the 42nd’s most costly battle was in September 1863 at Chicamaugua, fought at the border of Tennessee and Georgia.  Shown here, a memorial in the Chickamauga and Chattanooga National Military Park commemorates the 42nd Indiana Infantry Regiment.  Although Crow entered as an enlisted man, it would not have been unusual for his promotion to officer rank over the course of the war.

As Captain Crow, the young man found his way to Syracuse, New York, where he faced a new set of challenges.  There he went to work for Dr. John M. Wieting, a Syracuse doctor, lecturer, and entrepreneur, who was well known for being difficult.   A biographer attempted to put it gently:  “Dr. Wieting was a man of great force of character….While not tolerant of the opinions and theories of others…to his settled beliefs he adhered unflinchingly.”

Initially Crow lived with Dr. Wieting and his wife, Mary Elizabeth, who was 25 years younger and six inches taller than her diminutive husband.  In the 1875 New York census, Crow was was listed as one of three “servants” in the household.  His real activity was as Wieting’s “agent,” presumably arrangingtenants for the Wieting Office Block and programs for the Wieting Opera House, left.

From Syracuse business directories it appears that after approximately a decade working for the doctor, Crow moved out on his own, opening a wholesale wine and liquor house in downtown Syracuse at the corner of Warren and Genesee Streets, opposite the posh Vanderbilt Hotel.  It was there that he received word about the bear.  Having overcome the Irish Famine, survived the Civil War, and labored successfully for the cantankerous Dr. Wieting, Capt. Crow was not to be intimidated by a bear.  He headed for the railroad station.

According to a local reporter, Crow found the train and shouted up to the American Express agent: “Have you got a bear in that car?” The agent replied “I should think I had, and if he belongs to you, you better come in here and take care of him.  He has tired us all out and we have got enough of him.” Crow mounted into the car to find in one corner an iron-bound cage. In it was chained a large jet-black bear, growling loudly and thrashing up and down the enclosure.

Undaunted by the scene, Crow told the agent:  “I’ll fix him.  Wait till I get him home, and if I don’t tame him in 24 hours you may have my store.” Arriving in Syracuse, the cage (with Crow sitting on top) was transferred to his liquor house.  There ensued a struggle between the owner and the bruin while a phonograph played music in the background.  A crowd, including a reporter, jammed into the liquor store to watch.

The bear continued to roar and several times the crowd panicked and ran out of the store thinking the bear had escaped.  In the end Crow’s strength in pulling a chain around the bear’s neck prevailed. According to the reporter:  “…The bear gave up conquered and lay down peacefully in the bottom of his cage.  Capt. Crow eyed him in triumph and proudly said, ‘There you beast, I told you I’d fetch you.’ The Captain says that in less than 10 days he will lead the bear around the streets like a dog.  Of course he will have him muzzled.”

Notes:  The key source for this vignette was the story in the Syracuse Courier of August 20, as reprinted in the New York Times on August 23 under the headline:  “A Syracuse Man Who Never Gave In to Man or Beast.”  The quote about Dr. Wieting is from “The Memorial History of Syracuse, N.Y.: From Its Settlement to the Present Time,” by Dwight Hall Bruce, 1891.  Genealogical sites furnished other important information.  It appears that Crow never married.