Moretown Stories and Legends

In her classic book, Vermont Place Names, historian Esther Munroe Swift tells us that no one knows for sure how Moretown got its name. But some good stories have been passed down to us. Here's one told to me by Ray Holland.

In the early 1800s, General Wait brought Constant Freeman to Waitsfield. Constant Freeman then built a house in what he thought was Waitsfield but due to a surveying error was actually outside of Waitsfield.(What is now Ward hill in Moretown) Constant Freeman was a selectman in Waitsfield and he went to meetings in Waitsfield Village every two weeks. Because he had to walk a long way through the woods and mountains, he would leave in the morning and come back at about 2:00 a.m.

One night Constant Freeman was coming home from a meeting in Waitsfield and his snowshoe broke. So, he stopped to fix it. Suddenly a bobcat jumped on him. He pushed the bobcat off then he stuck his mittened hand down the bobcat's throat and grabbed his tongue and started choking the bobcat. But Constant Freeman couldn't stand to see the bobcat like that. So he slowly pulled his hand out. The bobcat didn't attack him, so he headed home. (By that time Constant Freeman was fed up with having to walk to Waitsfield every two weeks) He walked a little ways, then turned back and saw the bobcat's glowing green eyes, but he just continued on his way.

He got home and the bobcat was still following him. He ran into his house and shut the door. When he got in his wife said "Constant Freeman why on earth are you so late!?" Constant answered, "WE NEED MORE TOWN BECAUSE I AM SICK AND TIRED OF WALKING MILES AND MILES TO GET TO SOME OLD MEETING."

And that is the story of how Moretown got its name.

P.S. The bobcat was wearing a red Moretown Bobcats sweatshirt . JUST KIDDING!!!!

This story first appeared in Moretwon Matters, February, 1999, when Hilary Byrne was a fourth grade student at Moretown School.