THE ARTICLE I FOUND IS BELOW.  IT WAS IN THE CATSKILL MOUNTAIN NEWS FIRST "REMEMBER WHEN" ISSUE.

CATSKILL MOUNTAIN NEWS,
MARGARETVILLE, N.Y.  THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1986

GATHERING- The picture contains with spouses as follows -
Front row children - L-R: Clara Morse (Cronk), Lola Stahl (Conklin), Lois Ballard (Mead), Mary Morse and John Morse.
2nd Row - Olive Beadle (Morse), Mary Segrin (Morse), Alba Cinda Ellis (Morse), Mabelle
Morse (1st Ballard, 2nd Carroll), Martha Austin (Morse), and Elmer Stahl.
3rd Row - Ezra Morse, John A. Morse, Olive Morse (Beadle), Willis Beadle,  Eugene Morse, and Minnie Morse (Stahl) holding daughter Mary Stahl (Roberts). 

** By the pattern of names after each woman or girls name, the name in parentheses would be the married name of that particular female. ** 

Trace Many Years of Local Roots

This photo was posed in early summer of 1893 at the Jonathon Ballard Homestead, the last house up the valley of Vega. 
   This valley, one of the most beautiful in all the Catskills was known for many years as Batavia-Kill.
   I am particularly proud of this picture of a portion of the Morse family as it shows four generations.  My mother (1st row center), my grandmother, great-grandmother and father, and my great-great-grandmother she having been born in 1809.  I think a photo of four generations during that period was not a common event.
   The Morse family was gathered home shortly after the deaths of my grandfather, Ira Harris Ballard, and my great-grandparents, Jonathan and Rosana Ballard.
   The Ballard and Morse families came to Batavia-Kill from Dutchess County with other pioneers in the early 1790's.  Peleg Ballard and Joseph P. Morse were the progenitors of the name in the Vega valley.  The descendents have spread throughout the state and country.
   Both Ballard and Morse served in Dutchess County regiments during the Revolutionary War. These two families like other early Vega settlers can trace their clans to England via the Mayflower.  There were twenty-three family names that survived the terrible winter of 1620-1621 at Plymouth.
   The Ballards descended from John and Eleanor Billington and Francis and Sarah Eaton families.  The Morse family trace to John and Elizabeth Howland and to her parents John and Catherine-Ann Tilley.  The story is told that Elizabeth Tilley was twelve years old when arriving at Plymouth so John Howland waiting properly until she was sixteen to marry her. 
   -- Article written by Clayton Ballard Mead

** PLEASE NOTE **

Contrary to what is written in this article, the parents of Elizabeth Tilley Howland were
John Tilley and Joan (Hurst) Rogers.

Another Morse-Ballard connection is from Chauncey Morse & Catherine Todd.  Chauncey was the son of Ira Morse & Elizabeth Shout.  Catherine Todd was the daughter of John Todd & Zillah Ballard.

** ON ANOTHER NOTE **

Chauncey Morse & Catherine Todd are my 4th Great Grandparents.