Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1905-09-09
GRANDFATHER'S
PANTHER STORY.
BY g. A. STEPHENS.

Grandfather used to tell us the fol-
lowing story of an adventure he had
with a panther when boy.
He never speaks Of panther,
though. Catamount is his name for
the creature; though sometimes,
when he is talking with any of the old
hunters and trappers, they speak OF
It as the Indian devil" That was
the name the first settlers here gave
It, because the Indians used to have
such a dread of 1t. But it's all the
same thing. Catamount, Indian dev-
NJ" cougar, and puma, all mean panth-
or, and a still more general name for
It IN this country is the North Ameri-
can tiger. =
suppose one reason why it has so
many names is because it differs in
color and size through different lati-
Eudes of=tlre: continent: 2 Along the
northern portions of the United States
and in Canada it is of maltese gray,
fading into. White. upon the under parts
Of the body But, farther south the
fur takes a sunny tint, growing tawny
"a the Southern States While still
farther down, in Mexico and South
America, 1t becomes, spotted and mot,
tied. like the tiger and leopard, and
the people here call 1t the jaguar. In
California they have named it ~"the
Californian lion" And up in Oregon
and Washington they have "a purple
panther" at least they say so.
at was in the year 1872" as grand
father tells it. 81 was nothing but a
boy at that time, and the country was
all new around here. My father had
moved up two years before, and had
got clearing of some fifty acres
made, and a frame house up. There
was but one family nearer than the
settlement, in the lower part Of the
township, where the village is now.
Jeremy Edwards had come up the
year before father, and felled the
trees across the stream there, where
Bdwardses live now.
"In 1912 was Jim Madison's war
with England. They didn't volunteer
then; troops had to be raised by
draft Father and Edwards we're
both drafted. l we'll remember the
night they were summoned. Terrible
time among the homefolks! Mother
and Mrs. Edwards and the girls cried
all night. But there was no help for
1t. There was no such things as sub
stitutes then. They had to go the
next morning, and leave us to take
care of ourselves the best we could
up here in the wilderness.
''IAttle Johnny Edwards-old Uncle
Jack, as they call him now-was just
about my age-let's see we were four
teen then-and the men away, every
thing depended on US. Those were
tell you. But we used to change
works, as we called it. so as to be to-
Gether as much as we could, for it
Was rather lonesome planting and
1loeing off in the stumpy., sprouted
clearings. All! that was long, anxi-
Gus Summer He was somewhere on
Lake Champlain. But the weeks
dragged by, and cold weather came
On.
1--WE were getting things fixed up
30 pass the Water as we'll as we
could, when one night about the first
of November, Johnny came running
over to ask If we had seen anything
OF Brindle, the cow. 1t had been
bright Indian Summer day, and they
had turned her out to browse, bu1
she hadn't come up as usual, ano
was nowhere in sight. 1t was already
dusk, but taking the old gun we start
ed together, and hunted both clear
$ngs we'll over. Brindle was certain
ly not in the cleared land.
."Have to give her up tonight
Johnny" said l. "But I'll go with
YOU IN the morning. She's lost in the
woods, or hedged up somewhere
among windfalls. We heard the lu-
clvees crying, and as we went back
along saw a bear digging ground-nuts
under a rock. Although these were
common enough sounds and sights
In those days, still we didn't care
to 30 off into the forest after dark.
att showed during the night, sew
eral inches. But Johnny was over
early. Brindle hadn't come in. He
had brought his gun and taken Gull
along (Gub was Johnnys dog), and
we now started off for thorough
hunt in the woods.
'How queer everything looked tina