Bennington

MORSE, Noah

Vermont Historical Magazine, No. XI, October 1867, p 184
(extracted from a section on the history of Dorset, Bennington County, 
Vermont)

Noah MORSE came into Dorset [Bennington County, Vermont] from Massachusetts 
in 1778, and settled on the place now owned by the Hon. Heman MORSE. The 
farm had been formerly possessed by one BEARDSTER, whose property, in 
consequence of joining the enemy in the Revolution, was confiscated. It is 
related in the [MORSE] family, while the still unbroken forest nearly 
surrounded the homestead, a daughter of this household [a daughter of Noah 
MORSE] one moonless night kept faithful vigil for an expected lover. The no 
less faithful lover was making good way up the steep hill which the house 
crowned, rapt with out question, in sweet musings of the kind welcome near. 
But let loves in a wilderness ever keep one ear open. Suddenly the stealthy 
tread of a wild beast kept pace close by the roadside; the darkness was thick 
to readily discover the unwelcome attendant; all doubt was, however, quickly 
removed by the terrific scream of a panther. At a single leap down the 
hillside the arrested lover put distance between him and his waiting love; 
and such fear lending wings to his flight, he soon outstripped even the 
bounding catamount. A party of hunters was soon on the track, following on 
to the Green Mountains, eastward, they found crouched on top of a hemlock 
stub, some forty feet from the ground a fell grown catamount, found to 
measure eight feet, which two balls dispatched. It was easy, moreover, it 
may well be inferred, for a sensible girl to forgive his not keeping troth 
that night; and notwithstanding the untoward event above narrated, the 
runaway lover became her husband.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly