SATURDAY OCTOBER 21st 1820
Friday august 25th last (sic), early in the morning, a wolf stopped at the door of Jean Tessier, farmer at the Beauce of Verchères. His dog that was outside, seeing the wolf comming, started to yap................ the wolf went away in the direction of St-Marc. It stopped in the cattle-pen of Joseph Handfield and jumped at several animals. The dog of the family started to yap and Handfield saw his animals running here and there in the field with terrible bellowings. He took his gun and ran to the park. He saw the beast and shot at it. Thinking it was dead, he went close and saw it was a wolf. With the end of his gun, Handfield touched the wolf and this last one woke up and jumped at him and bite him in the face.....................he fought with it for a while and then ran to his house. As soon as the door was closed, the wolf tried to get inside......... Handfield was full of blood, he laid down being not able to stand anymore. During the same day, the wolf was killed by Mr Antoine Beaudry of St-Marc. The animals, bitten by the wolf, all became sick and died lately. Joseph Handfield himself died the third day of this month, with all the symptoms of the hydrophobia...................... The day of his death, his two brothers visited him, he told them "Today is the fourth day, I will not go through it, I feel my heart to grow weaker"..................... At 3 o'clock, this same day he entered in agony and died at 5 o'clock, in great pain. He left his wife and many young children.