John Hillman with bear
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John Hillman with bear
Updated Jun 26, 2025
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Unknown User
30 favorites
01/01/2001
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AncientFaces
382k+ followers 411 favorites
11/06/2014
What a photo! Unknown date - Any ideas?
via Facebook
I'm sure his family used every bit of that bear..
via Facebook
I hope you are a vegetarian...btw what sort of clothes do you wear or shoes....any leather? Coach is great leather products. Along with many other companies that make accessories that women and men use daily. I roll my eyes at comments like these because ppl who have so much compassion for animals that humans hunt and utilize do not realize how they use animal each day. Exactly the same way people who drive a car complain about oil drilling or even off shore drilling. Doesn't make sense. I feel sorry the bear but I know it was respected & not just left for dead. Not everything has to be bought in a store.
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That doesn't make it right though. You need to have compassion to make changes. You have to start somewhere.
via Facebook
Fair point jennifer,
I do feel sad when I see any dead animal, even when as you say its used for food and clothing,
I cant even watch many wildlife programmes as it shows animals killing animals, which I know is the circle of life, just feel sad😯
I do feel sad when I see any dead animal, even when as you say its used for food and clothing,
I cant even watch many wildlife programmes as it shows animals killing animals, which I know is the circle of life, just feel sad😯
via Facebook
Seriously, Verona. Applying your morals to an era where people had no choice about being all veggie is ludicrous. Did your GG-grandparents eat veggies through a hard winter? I doubt it. Get off your high horse.
via Facebook
In early days, bears were eaten and a great source of protein. All of the bear was used for various uses. Currently, The black bear is hunted for food in Alaska.
via Facebook
Even in recent times (the 60s) up in Troy and Libby Montana, there were people who swore there was no better shortening for making cookies (among other delights) than bear grease.
Kathy Pinna
218 followers 32.9k+ favorites
11/06/2014
And don't forget bear grease for "hair gel"! :)
via Facebook
They did not waste anything. It also made a fine blanket or coat.
via Facebook
The bear is not standing up. He's dead. He's hanging up. Since bears eat people I guess it's ok for people to eat bears. But I think hunting bear should be done with an axe and knife, or a sword. It's more equal than a rifle.
via Facebook
Bears DON'T eat people; nor do people eat bears, who are never hunted for food, they are hunted for fur and trophy hunting. How ignorant.
via Facebook
Yes now they are but in the vintage photo I am sure every bit of that was eaten and its fur for something !! Wow people lighten up..
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bears are eaten , its not sad its for survival
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In other times Galina Galina Alexander people did, indeed, munch bears.
via Facebook
This was taken over a 100 years ago. Hunting any animal was for food, and the hides were used, also.
via Facebook
Hunting wasn't only used for food . It was for sport too even back then unfortunately
via Facebook
The question wasn't about the bear at all. It was when was the picture probably made. I'd would say late 1800s into 1900s. The bear was probably shoot fir food and seeing how it's winter in the picture the family probably could use the meat.
via Facebook
Oh...I love this picture....back in the early days, our pioneers made use of their animals that they killed....sometimes it was their only means of survival...they didn't go out and kill wildlife,just for a thrill. They needed everything that they killed...it's called surviving...
via Facebook
Back in those days, people had no choice but to eat what they killed.
via Facebook
That's a bunch of baloney, They have a new gun, I live where bears are common. They don't make good eating. at least not on my farm, hunters do.
via Facebook
Bearhunt in the winter when its slow and hibernates? Sickning.😕
via Facebook
Some areas, black bear do not go into deep hibernation. in the southeast for example, it is not unusual to see bear in the winter.
Jacqui Garcia
8 favorites
11/06/2014
A shot in the dark, maybe mid 1930's / 40's
via Facebook
This is horrible! Haven't we moved past glorifying the slaughter of innocent wildlife? Surely we should honor our ancestors, but not the shameful deeds they practiced in their evolutionary ignorance.
via Facebook
Well. Why don't you travel back in time and tell your ancestors to stop killing animals and starve to death because that was the only way to survive a long winter.
Fact. It isn't "glorifying" killing animals. It is presenting a fact of life. \grow up.
Fact. It isn't "glorifying" killing animals. It is presenting a fact of life. \grow up.
Sheila Zimmer
23 favorites
11/06/2014
Yes..don't hunt...I'm sure the rightful owner of that bearskin rug was the bear!!!
via Facebook
If they were so desperately poor, how did they afford to have their photo taken in supposedly 1860s or 70s? I'm just curious
Serena Williams
20 favorites
11/10/2014
This is later than that. We can't tell if these men were poor or rich, but we do know that it was winter and they didn't have a grocery store (the only meat you ate you got for yourself). By the time this picture was taken, photography was getting less expensive and more available to people, but it also could have been taken by a photographer who just asked for them to pose.
via Facebook
In the 1900s (this is likely 1910 or so), many people had cameras. They were not expensive. It was a popular hobby. And just because people had to hunt to feed themselves doesn't meant they were "poor". That was how people lived who didn't live in town. There were no supermarkets in the middle of the bush.
via Facebook
Apologetics (from Greek ἀπολογία, "speaking in defense") is the discipline of defending a position (often religious) through the systematic use of information. Early Christian writers (c. 120–220) who defended their faith against critics and recommended their faith to outsiders were called apologists.[1]...
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Great photo! I have deer hunters in my family and have helped my mother prepare the meat for freezing. My brothers have a great setup at their camp and do a great job of keeping the meat clean and ready for us to process. We worked hard at it and there wasn't any good meat wasted. Mother and I have had to stop doing it but we miss being able to.
via Facebook
Penne not all people back then wasted food like that. Most only hunted what they needed and they used ALL of what they could of that animal. Meat they ate .. hides they used for blanket s. And so on.. from ALL animals, deer elk, moose, beaver, squirrel, turkey, ...... and let's not forget BEEN yes I said beef. God gave us all the animals for food to eat. Not to waste. It's sad that a lot of people did and still do. God will dill with them. Peace to all and God Bless
via Facebook
Some people here are so judgmental! Try not to judge things in the past by today's norms. In reality, if your ancestors had not killed animals to survive, you would probably not be here....to judge everyone else.
via Facebook
Self righteous people kill me...I bet if that's ALL there was to eat you'd pull your chair right up to that table and be thankful for that meal, thankful for warm fur coat, and thankful for the guy's who went out and risked their lives to feed and cover you...get over it we are ment to hunt, fish, and garden to survive...when you go out to those fancy high priced restaurant's do you really know what there serving you...seriously this was/is a way of survival...yes even today...think about if the Ancestor's didn't hunt, and fish we surely wouldn't be here to set back and say how wrong this is...so instead of condeming thank them for making the choices they did so their line could survive to creat us
Serena Williams
20 favorites
11/10/2014
I get that people feel bad for the bear, but you can't take this picture out of context. This country would not have been able to get off the ground if people had not been allowed to hunt. It was a necessity. Imagine no grocery stores. Imagine the nearest store 50 miles away by horse or foot. This was for flour and salt and sugar. You'd probably have to wait until the snow cleared for that trip too. Your garden was also not an option for a while. People sometimes starved. A bear could be used for all sorts of things besides food. This isn't like two men on a safari--these are the men who laid the groundwork for all the things we take for granted and are able to benefit from today.
via Facebook
People are making all sorts of assumptions to justify what we see in the photo. We don't know that these people had no other food source; heck we don't even know if they ate the bear meat at all. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with judging the past through the eyes of an enlightened present. We can look back and see how far we may (or may not have) come. There's nothing wrong with being repulsed by the photo, a photo that may very well be a posed celebration of a trophy kill.
via Facebook
Holy c***... Some people are getting their panites in knots about something that was a fact of life for our ancestors. Fine. You have the luxury of being able to get fresh vegetables all year round. Your ancestors did not. They killed animals to survive. SURPRISE! they ate every bit. Used the hides and the bones when they could. Get over yourselves. If they didn't, you wouldn't be here. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
via Facebook
I think this is the same person. The Ancestry entry says that he was born in 1820 and died in 1905 but this photo is certainly in the late 1890s-early 1900s and this man certainly does not look in his 70s and 80s. It IS however, a John Hillman.
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