USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 1
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-
HISTORICAL SKETCHES
OF
FRANKLIN COUNTY
AND
ITS SEVERAL TOWNS
WITH MANY
SHORT BIOGRAPHIES
BY FREDERICK J. SEAVER MALONE, NEW YORK
-
ALBANY J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS
1918
COPYRIGHT 1918 BY FREDERICK J. SEAVER MALONE. N. Y.
NOV 29 1918
C CIA508326
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PAGE
xi
Foreword
CHAPTER I
FRANKLIN COUNTY
Not on a Natural Highway, and Therefore Late in Settlement - Not Inhabited Early Even by Indians - " The Siberia of New York" - The First White Settlers Indian Captives - The Founding of St. Regis - The Story of Sir John Johnston's Flight Through the Adirondacks - The Old Military Tract and the Macomb Purchase - Sketches of Some of the Early Land Owners, a Group of Remarkable Men - Character of the Pioneers - The Erection of the County - Population at Various Periods - Apprehension of Indian Massacres - Geographical and Climatic - Pioneer Conditions - Money Scarcity - Potash Making a Principal Industry - How the Pioncers Lived - Schools - An Early Agricultural Society - Changed Dairying Conditions - The Hop Industry - Crops to Which the County is Especially Adapted - Horses and Other Stock - Striving for Transportation Facilities - Banking - Gradual Progress - The Present Agricultural Society - Civil War Conditions and Activities Contrasted with Those Now Prevalent - The County's Civil War Military Record - Life after the War - Private Parks and Forest Fires - The Adirondacks as a Sanatorium and Park - Property Valuations and Taxation -The Public Schools - Other Changes in Brief - The Future.
CHAPTER II FRANKLIN COUNTY OFFICIAL ACTS
The County Erected in March, 1808, and Site for Court House Fixed in 1809 - Cost of the Structure, which was also Jail and a House of Worship - Pro- ceedings of the Supervisors 1808-1813 - The Jail Condemned - Salaries Increased - Excise - Civil War Burdens - A New Poor House - Super- visors' Sessions More Protracted - A Company of the State National Guard Formed and an Armory Bought - A New Court House, Clerk's Office and Jail - Officials Refund Unlawful Fees - The Influx of Chinamen - Cost of Supporting the Poor - Town Meetings in the Fall - Improvement of High- ways - Breaches of Trust - Increase in County Expenses.
CHAPTER III FRANKLIN COUNTY POLITICALLY
Original Grouping of Parties - Early Party Names; Federal, anti-Federal. Republican, National Republican, Clintonian-Republican, anti-Masonic, Whig and Democratic - The anti-Masonic Movement Fiercely Bitter - The Aboli- tion Party - Little Interest in Politics in Franklin County until after 1822 - Elections Formerly Continued for Days - Franklin County Generally Fed- eralist or Whig until 1843, and Then Until 1859 Usually Democratic - A
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Campaign Story - The Campaign of 1840 the First with Spectacular Fea- tures - The Democracy Disrupted - The Knownothing Party - Political Rancor - The Campaign of 1860 - A Union Party During the Civil War - Features of Some Campaigns - A New Ballot Law - " Dandelions " and " Snowshoers " - Malone's Glee Club - Caucus Systems and Practices - Lists of Public Officials.
CHAPTER IV
ALTAMONT
Town Erected 1890 - Reservoir Dam Built in 1870, and Broke in 1871 - The Windfall of 1845 - Earliest Settlers - Mart. Moody, Guide and Fabricator -- The First Wedding, on " Sally's Rock " - The Northern Adirondack R. R. Made Tupper Lake - Early Saw Mills - A Big New Industry Locates Just as the Town Seemed to be "Going Back " - An Experiment in Scientific Forestry - Derrick - Moody - Litchfield Park and Chateau; the Latter a Medieval Castle - Tupper Lake Village - An Error in the Census - The Big Fire of 1899, Followed by Great Improvements - Church Organizations and Other Societies - Murders.
CHAPTER V
BANGOR
Town Erected 1812 - Early Settlers of a Superior Type, with Many Descendants Still Living in Bangor - Early Industries Included a Linseed Oil Mill and an Axe Factory - A Beneficent Bequest - Manufacture of Starch and Tanning Extract - Fruit Raising - A Remarkable Dream - The Town's Butter Product - The Jewett Milk Pan - Town Houses the First Churches - Societies and Church Organizations.
CHAPTER VI
BELLMONT
Town Erected 1833 - Its Development Slow, and Its Timber Practically Wasted - Its Summer Resorts - Early Settlers and Early Industries - Iron Mines and Forges - Chateaugay Lake Almost a Deserted Hamlet - Two Murders - Churches.
CHAPTER VII
BOMBAY
Town Erected 1833 - The Hogans - The First Settlers Largely Irish; Others Came from Vermont and New Hampshire - First Religious Movements - A Convent and Indian Mission School - Eminent Sons of Bombay - Some of the Town's Industries - Railroads - Dairying.
CHAPTER VIII
BRANDON
Town Erected 1828 - Early Settlers Frugal and Sturdy - Few Farms, and Lumbering Operations Small Until Recent Years - Reynoldston the Only Hamlet - Voting Under Difficulties - A Murder - Churches.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER IX
BRIGHTON
Town Erected 1858 - Early Settlement - The Town Made by Adirondack Sum- mer Resorts - Gabriels - Pigeon Flocks and Roosts - Churches.
CHAPTER X
BURKE
Town Erected 1844- A Town of "Hollows " - Settlement Began Earlier Than 1800 - Burke Hollow Formerly a Tough Place, but now Eminently Respectable - Personal Sketches of Some Residents - Two Exciting Days - Societies and Churches.
CHAPTER XI CHATEAUGAY
Erected as a Clinton County Town 1799 - Chateaugay the Mother Town of all of Franklin County - Derivation of the Name - The Chasm and an Intermittent Spring - The Old Military Turnpike - A Good Town Agri- culturally - The First Settler and His Hardships - Other Pioneers - Irish Came in 1850, at First a Rough and Turbulent Element; Now Among the Best Citizens - Many Pioneer Families Extinct - Gates Hoit a Spy - Slaves Once Owned in the Town - An Important Point in the War of 1812 - Two Block Houses - General Hampton's Army Camped in Town, and the British Seized the Place for a Day - Wolf Bounty Scandals - Tragedies - The Village - The Churches and Other Organizations - The Story of a Circuit Rider - Newspapers, Creameries, etc.
CHAPTER XII
1
CONSTABLE
Town Erected 1807 - More Populous in 1810 than Malone - Trout River Once a Lively Hamlet - Smuggling and Informers - Market Gardening - Indi- cations of Indian Occupancy - First White Settlers - Early Taverns and Stores - Liquor License Fees $5 - The Canadian Rebellion and the Fenian Movements - Churches.
CHAPTER XIII
DICKINSON
Town Erected 1808 - Named in Compliment to General Philemon Dickinson of New Jersey - Northern Part of Town First Settled - Pioneers Exception- ally Strong Men - How a Debt Was Paid - A Mighty Hunter - How One Pioneer Went to School - Sketches of Prominent Citizens - A Man of Eccentricities Who Believed in Witchcraft - A Noted Horse Thief - An Episode of California Life - A Murder - Merchants and Landlords - Industries - Churches and Other Societies - Mormon Proselyting.
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CHAPTER XIV DUANE
Town Erected 1828 - The Duane Family - Major Duane Located in Order to Help Stamp Out Wolf Bounty Frauds, and Operated in Duane Along Big Lines - Iron Works - The Schroeder Activities - Hotels and Summer Resorts - Alonzo R. Fuller - Religious Movements.
CHAPTER XV FORT COVINGTON
Town Erected 1817 - Military Reservations Leased by the State to Individuals - The Present Village, Formerly Known as French Mills, Part of an Indian Reservation - The Town's Farmers Progressive and Successful - Some of the First Settlers - Fort Covington and the War of 1812 - Fort Covington and Malone Compared - Business Enterprises - Sales of Lands by the State - Industries - Hotels - Newspapers -The Academy -Transportation Conditions - An Agricultural Society - Murders - Fort Covington Office Holders - Arrested for Driving on Sunday - Former Prominent Residents. Including "Old Grimes " - Churches and Societies - Some Unfavorable Conditions.
CHAPTER XVI FRANKLIN
Town Erected 1836 - A Sizable Town - A Refuge for Escaped Slaves - A Bribe Turned Down - A Destructive Fire - A Former Adirondack Gateway - Early and Later Mills - Old Taverns and New Hotels - Stony Wold Sana- torium - A Notable School - Railroads - Many Small Settlements - Churches.
CHAPTER XVII HARRIETSTOWN
Town Erected 1841 - Principal Waters - Summer Camps - Railroads - Early Politics and Practices - Settlement and Growth Slow Until 1880 - First Settlers - First Hotels - Industries - Saranac Lake Village and Lake Clear -" Adirondack " Murray and Doctor Trudeau - Their Influence on the Growth of Saranac Lake - The Trudeau Sanatorium - Village Growth and Improvements - Newspapers - The Philosophers' Club - Churches - Murders.
CHAPTER XVIII MALONE
Town Erected 1805 - Derivation of Its Name - Some of the Pioneers - Curiosi- ties of Old Assessment Rolls - The Old Pound - Taxes Paid by Notes - Pen Pictures of the Early Village - Prices from an Old Merchant's Books - Some Early Industries - Community Achievements - Franklin Academy - Other Educational Institutions - War Influences - 1815 an Important Year - Olla-Podrida - Local Industries - Titusville, Glen Hope or Chasm Falls - Whippleville - Other Industries - Industries Now in Operation - Water- Works - The Hotels, Past and Present - Banking - Newspapers -Malone's More Serious Fires - Murders and Other Homicides - Churches and Other Organizations - The Farrar Home for Deserving Old Ladies - The Alice Hyde Memorial Hospital - Malone in War Times - War Prices - Con- federate Raids Apprehended - Malone's Part in the Present War.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XIX MOIRA
Town Erected 1828 - Earliest Settlers - Long a " Lawrence Town " - The Ilam- Jets of Moira and Brushton - Railroads - Moira the Meeca of Democratic Pilgrims - An Old Postmaster's Accounts - Quality of the Town's Citizenry High - A Thompsonian Doctor - Industrial Enterprises - The County's First Sanatorium - A Chalybeate Spring - An Agricultural Society - Murders - Newspapers - Early Hotels - Churches and Church Discipline - Fraternal Organizations.
CHAPTER XX SANTA CLARA
Town Ereeted 1888 - Origin of Name - First Settlers - Traces of Military Occupaney - The First Mill and Tavern - An Iron Mine - Humphrey's Landing Now Santa Clara - Upper Saranac - Brandon - Fires at Santa Clara - Patrick A. Dueey and John Hurd - Everton - New Lumbering Methods - Hamlets Almost Deserted - The Rockefeller Private Park - Churches - Vacation Home for Working Girls - Facts and Conjectures about Military Oeeupaney - Fatal Fires - Murders.
CHAPTER XXI WAVERLY
Town Ereeted 1880 - Character of Soil and Adaptability to Agriculture - Other Natural Resources and Reforestation - Beginning and Growth of St. Regis Falls - A Murder - Some of the Leading Men of the Town - Churches and Societies - Population.
CHAPTER XXII WESTVILLE
Town Erected 1829 - Population - Adapted to Market Gardening - First Settlers and Their Activities - Giant Pine for Ships' Masts - An Iron Forge - Grist and Saw Mills - Lime and Brick Making - Early Merchants - Hotels - A Destructive Forest Fire - Societies and Churches.
CHAPTER XXIII
THE SAINT REGIS RESERVATION AND THE SAINT REGIS INDIANS
The Reservation; How It Was Established - Basis of Indian Claims - Prowess and Ruthlessness of the Mohawks - The State's Contention as to Owner- ship - The Price the Indians Received - Parts of Reservation Ceded Later to the State - Annuities - The Canadian Saint Regis Reservation - Timber Wasted and Now Scarce - The Indians - Adoption of the Name Saint Regis - The Saint Regis Church and the Story of Its Bell -Gifts from France and Rome to the Church and How They Were Lost - The Indians in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812 - Indians Who Were Outstanding Figures - The Number of American Saint Regis Indians - Indian Clans and Present Form of Government - Improved Condition of the Indians, with a Better Inclination to Work - The Squaws Better Treated - Benefited by "Kansas Money " - What of the Indians' Future?
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXIV FRANKLIN COUNTY AND THE WAR OF 1812
Early Local Military Activities - Operations at Fort Covington and Saint Regis - General Hampton and General Wilkinson's Operations - The Former De- feated North of Chateaugay, and the Latter at Chrystler's Farm - General Hampton Ran Away - The Campaign Against Montreal Abandoned and the Wilkinson Army Quartered at Fort Covington - An Epidemic of Sickness - Insufficient Medicines, Food and Clothing - Malone a Hospital Point - Horrible Destitution and Suffering - General Wilkinson's Abortive Plans - French Mills, Chateaugay and Malone Abandoned by the American Army, Followed by a British Invasion - Malone Panic Stricken - Extracts from the Tompkins Papers - Minor Notes - Pay-Rolls of Franklin County Militia Companies.
CHAPTER XXV SCANDALS OF AN EARLY PERIOD
The Embargo Act of 1807 More Injurious to the United States Than to England or France - The Act Violated - New England and Northern New York Sentiment Antagonistic to the War of 1812 - Potash Flagrantly Smuggled into Canada - Vast Fraudulent War Claims - " Old Times " Not Better Than the New - Wolf Bounties and the Frauds Perpetrated by the Hunters - The State and County Robbed - Exposure of the Frauds, and New Bounty Laws.
CHAPTER XXVI ARSENAL GREEN, MALONE
Boundaries of the Property - Given by Cone Andrus to the State and a Part Lost Under Mortgage Foreclosure, but Recovered - Formerly No Lanes or Driveways, and Those Now Existing Belong within the Park -The Old Arsenal Lot - An Arsenal Built in 1812 - The Arsenal Lot Sold in 1853 - A Political Celebration - Early Militia Conditions - Stories of Old " Train- ing Days " - Some of the Militia Officers - " The Chateaugay Infant " - The Green Quitclaimed by the State to the Village of Malone in 1917.
CHAPTER XXVII THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
Date of Establishment Uncertain - It Flourished Between 1840 and 1860 - Purpose of the Movement, and Methods of Operation - " Stockholders ". " Conductors " and " Station Agents " - Where the Lines Ran; One Through Malone - Some of the Fugitives - Some of the Franklin County Abolition- ists and "Station Agents " and " Stockholders."
CHAPTER XXVIII TRANSPORTATION DEVELOPMENT
How the First Settler Came to Chateaugay - Early Journeys Required More Days Than They Now Take Hours - Wretched Mail Service - Character of Early Highways - The St. Lawrence Turnpike - The Northwest Bay Road - The Old Military Road from Plattsburgh to Chateaugay - The Hopkinton and Port Kent Turnpike - Effort to Have a Canal Constructed - Former Navigation Facilities - Agitation for a Railroad, with Success after Twenty Years - Other Movements to Secure Railroad Facilities - Railroads Finally Built - The County Spends Half a Million Dollars for Improved Highways - Large Numbers of Automobiles - Horses Disappearing.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XXIX THE FENIAN RAIDS
Malone a Rendezvous in 1866 and 1870 - Derivation of the Word "Fenian " - Organization of the Fenian Society - Original Purpose of the Organization - Spread of its Branches or Circles - A New Scheme of Operation Formed and Announced - Preparations in Canada to Repel an Apprehended Inva- sion - Arrival of Large Numbers of Fenians at Malone - Canadians Be- lieved to Be Spies, and Roughly Handled - Advance upon Canada Aban- doned, United States Authorities Having Interfered - Another Movement in 1870 - An Engagement Near Trout River, Resulting in a Fenian Rout - The United States Again Interfered - Fenians Arrested and Imprisoned - Informers and Spies.
CHAPTER XXX ELEAZER WILLIAMS
The Title, " Dauphin " - Story of the Son of Louis XVI., Known as the "Lost Dauphin " - Over Forty Claimants, of Whom Eleazer Williams Was One - Known Facts about Williams - The Hanson Claim of Williams's Royal Descent - Williams's Own Story of His Life - Assertion of an Amazing Offer - Rev. Mr. Robertson's View - Other Glimpses of Mr. Williams's Life and Personal Appearance - The Mother Declared Him to Be Not an Adopted Son, but Her Own Child.
CHAPTER XXXI LUTHER BRADISH
An Associate of Thurlow Weed, Millard Fillmore and William H. Seward - Identification with Franklin County - Elected to the Assembly - Speaker of That Body - Then Twice Lieutenant-Governor - Defeated for Governor -An Extensive Traveler - Closing Years of His Life.
CHAPTER XXXII WILLIAM ALMON WHEELER
CHAPTER XXXIII MANY BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES
FOREWORD
The suggestion has been urgently made to me now and again by various parties that the information acquired concerning Malone and Franklin county affairs during newspaper work here covering a period of forty years, together with the data at my command contained in the files of the Malone Palladium, make it a sort of publie duty that I prepare and publish a history of Franklin county. But such a work is too formid- able to be undertaken with the time that could be spared for continuous application in examination and compilation of records, even if capacity and aptitude for so ambitions an effort were not also laeking.
Yet I am by no means insensible to the desirability and importance of assembling and arranging in narrative form such personal recollec- tions of our older residents as may still be obtainable, as well as more authoritative information which, if not put together soon, may be lost forever, or at least become daily more and more difficult to collect and shape for the benefit of those who in later days may care to know the past of our several towns and of the county. The work ought, indeed, to have been done fifty years or more ago if it were to possess the charm and value that men of the time of Asa Hascall, Joseph H. Jackson, Sidney Lawrence, William A. Wheeler, Ashbel B. Parmelee, Dr. Theodore Gay, Dr. Sidney P. Bates, Joel J. Seaver, Francis T. Heath or others who might be named could have given to it. But the obligation to prepare and leave accessible such a record and recital was perhaps not then realized, as certainly it was not discharged. In the spirit and with the purpose of now supplying, at least in part, what it is regrettable that others did not do long ago, a series of sketches will be prepared by me along the lines indicated, though, of course, without claim or pretense that they should be dignified as "history." Rather, they will be in the main biographical and desultory, with reproduction of parts of some of the papers in my possession which were written by men of prominence of an earlier generation. If the effort shall serve to interest or entertain any considerable number of Franklin county people in the present, and be found of value in later years for reference, I shall be sufficiently recompensed for the time and labor that I shall have expended.
There are doubtless many omissions, and the sole merit which it is ventured to claim for the work is that it has been wrought with pains- taking care in prosecuting inquiries and in searching records, and that,
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FOREWORD
so far as it has been possible to make it, it is accurate. The files of the Franklin Telegraph from 1820 to 1829, of the Spectator for 1833 and 1834, and of the Malone Palladium from 1835 to 1909 have been exam- ined week by week, and records in the surrogate's, county clerk's and the several town clerks' offices, as well as many church records and some in the office of the Secretary of State, have been consulted diligently for facts; and it has been my purpose that no unqualified statement of importance should be made that has not been authenticated.
FREDERICK J. SEAVER.
MALONE, N. Y., July 1, 1918.
CHAPTER I
FRANKLIN COUNTY
The discovery of America having been due to the dream of a west- ward passage to the Indies, the localities not on the seaboard which were first settled were logically the important river valleys, for the early voyagers were prone to mistake any large stream for an arm of the sea, and to ascend it in expectation that it must lead to a western ocean. The valleys of the Hudson and St. Lawrence were thus the regions in and about the State of New York to be earliest opened and occupied. Accordingly we find the sites of Quebec, Montreal and New York each becoming a military and trading post almost within a century of the discovery by Columbus, and in less than another hundred years there were forts at Oswego and Niagara, and for France and the Church Jesuit missionaries were assiduously cultivating the friendship of the Indians through Central New York, in the remote parts of Canada, and even in the territory which we now call our Middle West. That other localities to which natural thoroughfares or important Indian trails did not lead waited yet another century before being occupied is easily understandable. It is, indeed, occasion rather for surprise that a country of the characteristics which were popularly imputed to Northern New York, except possibly to the shores of Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence, should have attracted settlement even then. Surveys of State lands to the line of the present boundary of St. Lawrence county had sent the report broadcast that the entire region was rugged, mountainous and inhospitable, if not uninhabitable. A map in the Documentary History of New York, published in that period, actually carried the note that the mountains here "show their tops always covered with snow," and many years later Senator Young stigmatized Franklin county as "the Siberia of New York." So unfavorably, in fact, was this section regarded that notwithstanding the State set apart in it hundreds of thousands of acres, still called " the Old Military Tract," from which revolutionary soldiers might choose homesteads under the war land-bounty acts, not a single acre here was ever entered by any claimant - which is to say that only a little more than a century ago lands in our county could not even be given away. No natural highway pierced it, or even touched it except at a single point, nor is there evidence that the Indians inhabited any part of it until within comparatively modern times. True, the
2
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
Adirondack Mountains* take their name from a tribe of the Algonquins, whom the French called " Montagnais," and the woods and waters which in after years afforded so rare sport to white lovers of the rod and gun, and later still became a resort of pleasure and fashion for troops of summer idlers, and a sanatorium of blessed potency for the sick, were aforetime the deer-hunting and beaver-trapping grounds of the Algon- quins and the Iroquois. But that seems to have been all, for the permanent lodges of these peoples were elsewhere, save for the possible exception of some very remote occupation by them or their predecessors of the vicinity of St. Regis. Here, on the east bank of the river of the same name, near its confluence with the St. Lawrence, may still be distinguished what some antiquarians believe to be an ancient Indian burial mound - probably made (if made at all except by nature) by Indians antedating the discovery by Columbus. As a matter of fact there are few burial mounds east of Ohio.
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