Lion-hearted and Brave Old Dog Saves the Day

1865: On April 16, Ethelbert Harris who lived about twenty miles north of Santa Cruz on the El Jarro Rancho, near Davenport, encountered a grizzly about a mile and a half from his house. His dogs had been “worrying” her, and so she was quite aroused. He raised his rifle to fire at her but it misfired. He tried to strike her with it but tripped and fell. The grizzly pounced on him, lacerating his right leg.

His dog, Towser, “the truest and most faithful friend man ever had” came to his rescue by trying to engage to bear giving Harris the chance to climb a nearby tree. He called off Towser and the other dogs and after about fifteen minutes the bear had departed and, faint from the loss of blood, he climbed down the tree.

Santa Cruz Sentinel,
September 30, 1992

The whole incident was witnessed by his adult son Sandero and by William Cook who were both in the safety of neighboring trees. The two men helped him back to the house and it was hoped that the wound would heal. Unfortunately, it did not and had to be amputated. The leg was buried in a nearby cemetery and a picket fence erected around it.

The Harris family eventually moved to Monterey and the land on which the leg was buried became part of McCrary’s Big Creek Lumber’s holdings.

According to historian Sandy Lydon, it wasn’t until years later, when Donald Clark was researching place names for his books Santa Cruz County Place Names and Monterey County Place Names that he discovered that the rest of Harris was buried in Pleyto Cemetery in South Monterey County.

In July 1992, with the help of the McCrary family, a Harris family reunion was organized at the site of the burial of the leg. “Among the family mementos brought for display were the barrel of the rifle that had misfired on that fateful day and one of the peg legs Harris wore as a result of it.”