A wonderful reminiscence of life on the first American frontier, this book by Emmanuel Hatfield offers valuable insight into a fascinating era in American history. Tales of hunts predominate, as Hatfield faces bears, catamounts, panthers and other wild beasts in a vast wilderness that exists no more. This book is a unique work and an important memoir about the way of life of a long-vanished place and time. Hatfield, a cousin of the famous feudists, grew up in the wilderness of eastern Tennessee, which had been settled by his father and grandfather in waning years of the 1700s. As a young man, he moved with his parents to Green County, Indiana, where he was among the first pioneers to that region as well. He narrated these events late in his life, and we are fortunate to have them.