A one-act play based on the true story of Dr. G. G. Wilkins of Pittsfield, New Hampshire. Told by his bear.
Dentist. Barber. Gun dealer. Fur trader. Saloon keeper. He stamped his name on thousands of coins, kept a bear in a cage on Main Street, and ended up in court. When it was over, the town had three opinions about him. Watch it and pick yours: devil, genius or fraud?
George Granville Wilkins was born in Antrim, New Hampshire, on January 11, 1819. By 1860 the census listed him as a dentist in Pittsfield. From about 1857 to at least 1873 he stamped thousands of coins with "DR. G. G. WILKINS" to advertise. In 1866 he bought a two-story building on Main Street that the town nicknamed "Fort Wilkins." There he pulled teeth, cut hair, sold guns, pelts and patent medicine, ran a saloon, and kept a caged bear out front. He was twice convicted of selling liquor illegally, and was discharged in a case over an alleged plot to burn A. J. Sherburne's barn. He died in Pittsfield in 1879.
The dialogue, the bear's narration, and the townspeople other than Wilkins are imagined.
Sources: New Hampshire Historical Society · Pittsfield Historical Society marker no. 17, "Fort Wilkins" · Q. David Bowers, The Strange Career of Dr. Wilkins (1987)