Ballou, William John, b. 1871.

William John Ballou was born in Wallingford, Vermont, in 1871, the son of William S. and Esther Andrews Ballou. He attended Amherst College and graduated from Brown University in 1897. He then obtained the B.D. degree from Hartford Theological Seminary in 1900. Ballou traveled extensively in the United States, Canada, Europe, and the Near East before returning to Vermont where he served the Congregational churches in Ludlow and Chester. It was in Chester that he became interested in panthers. In addition to making this collection of panther stories from around Vermont he organized "The Irrepressible and Uncompromising Order of Pantherites," with himself as the Grand Puma.