Among these hardy pioneers was a most unusual family, the Beavers. Paw and Maw Beaver and the three little Beavers, Betsey, Tony, and Molly, built a log cabin and settled on top of one of the wooded hills in the Appalachian Mountains. |
As Tony grew up, he learned all the important skills that Paw could teach him—things like hunting and shooting. One day Tony was walking in the woods, and his little sister Molly was tagging along. He and Molly found a trickling stream, no bigger than a pencil, and followed it just to see where it went. It followed a rugged, twisting course till it turned into a wide river. When Molly remarked that the river snaked around, twisting and turning just like an eel, Tony dubbed it the Eel River and named himself the owner! |
Tony had chopped down trees for his Paw, but he'd never thought about seeing how fast he could chop; but the contest sounded interesting, so Tony told Big Bill he'd like to try. |
In West Virginia Tony Beaver became just as famous a woodsman as his cousin Paul Bunyan did up North. He started his own lumber business on the Eel River. And just like Paul had Babe the Blue Ox for help, Tony had two oxen named Hannibal and Goliath. |
Based on the stories in The Remarkable History of Tony Beaver, West Virginian, by Mary E. Cober (New York: David McKay, 1953)
Story of race with Paul Bunyan taken from Tony Beaver, Griddle Skater, by Elizabeth and Carl Carmer (Champaign, Illinois: Garrard Publishing Company, 1965)
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"Tony
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Discussion Questions |
West Virginia's Appalachian Music and Literature is a self-contained teaching unit by Avis Caynor and Reneé Wyatt (1997), reprinted with permission in 2003 in the larger web site AppLit.
Complete list of AppLit pages on folklore
AppLit Folktale Index page on Tony Beaver