Nothing screams Christmas toy more than the teddy bear. Its origin story began Nov. 14, 1902, near Onward, MS, where Theodore Roosevelt was hunting for black bears. After proving difficult finding one, a bear was brought in chains to be killed. Roosevelt deemed it “unsportsmanlike” & refused to shoot it. A cartoonist heard the story, found it hilarious, & wrote a comic about it which led to a toy manufacturer making “Teddy’s Bears”, which, of course, caught on. Thus, Onward, MS, became known as

TSA's tragic tale of a giant abandoned teddy bear gets a twist

Fascinating History of the Teddy Bear