News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1903-03-18
CAPT. JED'S HORSE.
A True Story About Capt. Jedediah Hyde,
from Whom the Town of Hyde
Park was Named.

(By Mary Caroline Hyde, author of Karo-
anna, ""Grit, "Hester HYDE" etc.
1t was a pitifully cold winter, that
winter of 1888! All over the brown
frozen earth OF northern Vermont was
the snow piled many feet deep, while
biting win DIS and stinging trosts forced
the cruel weather into every crack
and Granny OF farm house and field.
Yet this bleak, bitter cold was but
the climax in series of weather trials
with which thegood settlers had COM
bated. FrOsts in each summer month
had cut down their crops and three
times replanting from their shrinking
store had brought neither crop nor
harvest to keep winters hunger wolf
from the door. Grain, corn, beans
and potatoes all fell victims to the
ruthless frost.
From summer such reckless
weather deserves so warm name
they glided into autumn and to the
verge of winter. Live stock and
poultry began to suffer for their usual
food and as a astresource we're eaten
to keep them as we'll as their owners
from hunger's keenest pinch. All
about were the Green mountains,
thick wooded and we'll fired from the
Grabbed cold. Eagerly the suffering
settlers ransacked dale and glen for
such small fry as woOd-chuck and
squirrel to hold body and soul to-
gether. Then it was that :" 10 and
Molly" the friendly Indians, came to
~ En Obi Cf h.
weather was of little consequence to
them and winter was the season for
trapping. They showed the famish-
ing settlers how to catch trout
through the ice and laid at their door
the carcasses of a bear and deer max
ing it no wonder that that to this
day the people of Hyde Park tell in
what esteem they hold the memory
of the copper colOred pair so kind to
their torefathers.
The woodland hospitality of the In
dams could not last long however
the bear meat and vensiOn were eaten
and empty larders once more stared
the settlers in the face. In this emer-
gency they turned to their leader and
hlOuu, u CdIl3 oLIOhS n1h VI toJ
grown hardy and vigorous from SER
vice in the last two wars.
capt. Jed" they said, "you are
not a soldier of the French and Indian
war and the Revolution for nothingl
Tell us how to keep from starving"
Capt. Jed looked down at them with
as cheerful countenance as if this
xuoro not tho uoru CuoutiOp no bod
been asking himself for many days
past. ''It had as much money as
land, or in other words, the country
had paid for my soldering in money
instead Of lana warrants, | warrant
you no one should go hungry that
lived within 30 miles of the Green
mountains. AS it is, | am land-poor
and can seem to do so little. These
coins," and he jngled few pieces of
money in his pocket, ARE boarded
TO buy us food and grain, but how to
pay for horse to fetch them to you
is more than have Yet been able to
PLAN
The poor settlers shrugged their
thin shoulders and turned slowly
away. "What indeed was the use of
buying supplies in Burlington, 30
miles away, if there was no horse to
get them to Hyde Park; and this was
what Capt. Jed had put to them as
he dared, no doubt"
Capt. Jed called them back. cit
won't dol Ofcourse you shan t starvel
1start for Burlington as early as lean
tomorrow morning, and in a few
days you will be eating your fill"
They looked at him earnestly.
"Where is your horse coming from?"
they asked. You surely must have
a horse to fetch the food to u.s."
"Leave that to me-" he replied.
cts long, hard tramp this grim
winter from here to Burlington"
they continued as if testing his reso-
lution. "You'll freeze footing it,"
Capt. Jed scowled. Think you
which is the warmer; to ride or walk
An this weather from the north pole?"
"That's 500 they assented, tbs
warmer to walk"
"Sure it is" he responded and with
such cheerfullness of tone that they
felt far less starved as they went back
to their homes with the great news
that Capt. Jed was off for Burlington
early the next day to buy them food.
Glow do you know he is going ?"
asked a woman grown querulous
from the force of long drawn hunger,
"you are fooling u.s."
Not a bit. Down yonder Capt.
Jed told us he was going and be will
do it. When has he ever broke his
word to us?"
1t was in the pitch darkness of
sullen December morning that Capt. |
Jed, or more fully Capt. Jedediah
Hyde, started on his journey to Bur
lington. Thrusting his feet into thick
cow-hide boots and knotting muffler
under his chin, he was equipped tor
his fOod-gathering errand.
Just one moment he glanced at the |
scant breakfast set out for him, but |
with "Pll leave it to the Others" he
hurried away into the black morning
with the stride of younger man.
Soon the highway, such as it was
in that early day, was left for a
shorter trail through the woods and
noon found him many miles on his