Free Republic

Born a slave in 1846, Holt Collier lived a most extraordinary life for all of his 90 years. In fact, his story is so interesting that while researching the origin of the Teddy Bear, following an innocent question from his daughter, author Minor Buchanon decided that Collier’s life needed to be documented and that’s just what he did in the biography: Holt Collier: His Life, His Roosevelt Hunts, and the Origin of the Teddy Bear. This well researched book documents all of the ins and outs of his life and is definitely worth a read. Slave, Confederate soldier, Ninth Texas...

The first National Wildlife Refuge in this country named for an African American, is now in the Mississippi Delta, near Hollandale. It is the Holt Collier Wildlife Refuge. Collier was a freed slave, who had served in the Confederate Army, and led President Theodore Roosevelt on a legendary bear hunt, near Onward, Mississippi in 1902. When Roosevelt didn't get a bear, Collier caught one and tied it to a tree. Roosevelt would not shoot it and the press corps traveling with him named it his Teddy Bear. The name stuck. The Holt Collier National Wildlife Refuge is now 1,438 acres,...