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EYTAYYCELLYYTA
HISTORY
OF
ROUND LAKE,
SARATOGA COUNTY,
N. Y.
RARY
BR
1 1
OF CONGR COPYRIGHT S OCT 1 1897) 23015 OF WASH NOT
BY
ARTHUR JAMES WEISE, M.A.,
AUTHOR OF THE
History of the City of Troy, N. Y. ; Discoveries of America to the year 1525 ; History of the City of Albany, N. Y. ; Troy and its Vicinity.
7
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by ARTHUR JAMES WEISE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
-
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
PRESS OF DOUGLAS TAYLOR, BOOK, JOB AND CATALOGUE PRINTER, 89 NASSAU STREET, Corner Fulton, New York.
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PREFACE.
As shown in the initial pages of this work, the French were the first explorers of the vast forest-clad region between the Mohawk and St. Lawrence rivers. The name, Saintonge, given it by Samuel de Champlain, in 1609, has, as I believe, been corrupted by mis- pronunciation into that of Saratoga. The so-called Indian name, Kayarossos, designating a part of its territory, is also derived from the French.
The information presented on the succeeding pages was obtained with considerable painstaking, particularly the numerous names which appear in the foot-notes. The publication of the work has been approved and sanctioned by the Round Lake Association.
It is a great pleasure to me to mention and acknowledge the generous courtesies of the Rev. William Griffin, D.D., the Rev. Joseph E. King, D.D., and the Rev. H. C. Farrar, D.D)., and the helpful favors of Joseph Hillman, and the kind offices of John D. Rogers.
ARTHUR JAMES WEISE.
TROY, N. Y., August 8th, 1887.
HOTEL WENTWORTH.
ROUND LAKE.
The scenery of the valley of the Upper Hudson between Troy and Saratoga is bordered easterly by the distant range of the Green Mountains and a wide foreground of undulating hills. Westerly a continuity of high land limits the view of the, open country beyond. The landscape along the river dispreads itself in brooky meadows, arable fields, and short stretches of woodland. As far as Mechanic- ville, the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad runs between the Cham- plain Canal and the Hudson. North of the village, the road, by a reverse curve like the letter S, bends westwardly around the south side of Round Lake, and passing the station extends northwesterly to Ballston Spa.
Round Lake, three miles in circumference, is picturesquely environed by gently sloping hills, woody knolls, and grassy meadows. Long Lake, four miles westward, disembogues by an outlet into Round Lake, which discharges its water through Anthony's Kill into the Hudson, seven miles eastward.
The grounds of the Round Lake Association, about two hundred acres of land, lying west of the lake, are in the town of Malta, in Saratoga County, New York, nineteen miles from Troy, seven from Mechanicville, six from Ballston Spa, and thirteen from Saratoga Springs. The highway on the east side of the grounds runs through Maltaville, a mile northeast of them, and through Jonesville, three miles southwestward.
The sun-flecked depths of the cottage-clustered wood are entered by broad avenues diverging from the gateways at the passenger station on the east side of the railroad. Narrow lawns brightly
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bedded with flowers border these approaches and the paths extend- ing from them. Beyond the prettily-built summer homes along the west side of the majestic grove appear others of varied architecture embowered by the branches of the tall trees surrounding them. In the central part of this sylvan retreat is a large pavilion with thou- sands of sittings for the people attending the religious meetings, summer schools, Sunday school assemblies, lectures, oratorios, exhibitions, and concerts held there in the summer. Conspicuously fronting the north lawn is the admirably-arranged and finely-fur- nished Hotel Wentworth. Farther northward, in a leafy recess of great oaks and fragrant evergreens, is the handsomely-built Griffin Institute, which, in all its elaborate features, fitly expresses the unstinted generosity of the highly-esteemed president of the Round Lake Association. Near the hotel is the Round Lake mineral well, the sparkling water of which, as shown by analysis, is like that of the Congress fountain at Saratoga Springs. East of the wood, on a rise of ground commanding a wide prospect of the surrounding country and an extended view of the lake, is the George West Museum of Art and Archæology, a finely-proportioned structure, given the association by its generous treasurer. Garnsey Hall, on Whitfield Avenue, and Kennedy Hall, on Peck Avenue, are also attractive edifices, gifts of the two benevolent women whose names the well-planned buildings bear. Alumni Hall, on Whitfield Avenue, is also a noticeable structure.
PROPRIETARY TITLES OF THE IROQUOIS, FRENCH, DUTCH, AND ENGLISH.
Three centuries ago Round Lake lay within the extensive hunting grounds of the Iroquois or Mohawk Indians. Wild deer browsed in the sunny glades of the great forests environing it, and beavers built their dome-shaped lodges on its bosky banks. Water-fowl found it a haven of rest and refresliment, and in its quiet depths pickerel and other fish abounded.
It was then geographically in New France, near the supposed source of the Grande River (the Hudson), discovered by Giovanni da Verrazzano, in 1524. The French had explored the noble stream as far northward as the site of Waterford, where they bartered for furs with the Mohawk and Mohegan Indians for many years.
Gerard Mercator, the well-known deviser of the projection so serviceable to navigators, was one of the first cartographers to
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delineate that part of New France, now the territory of New York. On the rare and highly valued map, in the Bibliothèque Nationale, in Paris, made by him in Duisburg, Germany, in 1569, the Grande River is outlined far beyond the height of its navigation at the mouths of the Mohawk. Several ranges of the Adirondack and Green Mountains seen from the high hills at Troy and Lansingburgh are also represented on it to show the natural configuration of the unexplored region in which the great river flowing southward to the sea has its rise.
Forty years later, in the summer of 1609, Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer, penetrated the depths of the vast wilderness, between the St. Lawrence and Mohawk rivers, as far southward as the lake to which he gave his name. At that time the Algonquin Indians of Canada and the Iroquois of New France were at war, and the hunting-grounds of the latter were the field of many conflicts between the warriors of the two hostile tribes. As Champlain was informed by the Algonquins accompanying him, the distance over- land to the Grande River from the lake, now known as Lake George, was four leagues. The ambitious Frenchman called the region of country which he had explored Saintonge, the name of his native place in France.
Two months later, Henry Hudson, the English navigator, ascended the Grande River in the " Half Moon." What he learned from the friendly Mohawks respecting the French fur traders is partly dis- closed in an inscription on a Dutch map made five years after the exploration of the Grande River, which the Dutch had called the Groote River. "As far as one can understand from what the Maquaas (Mohawks) say and show, the French come with sloops as high up as their country to trade with them."1
After the English had dispossessed the Dutch of New Netherland and had given the name New York to a part of its territory, some of the prominent men of the province began to petition the English Crown to be privileged to buy from the Indians large tracts of land bordering the Hudson and Mohawk Rivers. Among the number of petitioners was Samson Shelton Broughton, Attorney-General of the Province of New York, who, with those associated with him, was licensed April 22d, 1703, to purchase from the Mohawks " a certain
1 Vide : The Discoveries of America to the year 1525, by Arthur James Weise, M. A .- G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1884, Chaps. IX., X. and XI.
The History of the City of Albany, New York, by Arthur James Weise, M. A .- E. H. Bender, 1884, Chap. I.
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tract of vacant and unappropriated land, in the County of Albany, called or known by the Indian name of Kayarossos," adjoining the north bounds of Schenectady, and extending to the west bounds of Saratoga and to the Hudson River. Overtures were made to some of the Mohawk sachems, who conveyed, October 6th, 1704, as was estimated, from 250,000 to 300,000 acres of land to the persons interested in the purchase. The title to the property was con- firmed by a patent granted by Queen Anne, November 2d, 1708.
The so-called Indian name, Kayarossos, or Kayadarossera, as it was written later, said to mean "the country of the lake of the crooked stream," is apparently of French origin, and is evidently a· corruption by mispronunciation either of the two French words, pay arrosé, a watered country, or of the three, pay des ruisseaux, a country of streams.
On the large map of Kayadarossera, made in 1770, and now in the office of the Secretary of State, in the Capitol, in Albany, Round Lake is delineated and designated by its descriptive name. The lake is represented as lying in section two of the ninth allotment.
On some earlier maps the lake is similarly named. The English appellation, Round Lake, displaced the variously written one, Tio- noondehowa, Dionoondehowe, Tanendahowa, Shonandohowa, which, it is said, was given the lake by the Indians.
FIRST CAMP-MEETINGS IN THE UNITED STATES.
" The groves were God's first temples. Ere man learned To hew the shaft, and lay the architrave, And spread the roof above them, -ere he framed The lofty vault to gather and roll back The sound of anthems,-in the darkling wood, Amidst the cool and silence, he knelt down And offered to the Mightiest solemn thanks And supplications."
No privilege was more heartily enjoyed by the widely-separated settlers cultivating farms in different parts of the United States at the beginning of this century than that of congregating in some accessible wood for a few days in warm weather to listen to the earnest preaching of a number of godly men. One of the earliest of the popular woods' meetings was held in 1799, on the banks of the Red River, in Kentucky. Two brothers, William and John McGee, both preachers, one a Presbyterian and the other a Method-
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ist, came to the settlement there that year and assisted the Rev. James McGready, a Presbyterian minister, in conducting a series of religious services. The meeting-house was not large enough to contain all the people. The zealous men, unwilling to deny them- selves the opportunity of preaching to so many hearers, thereupon discoursed from a rudely-constructed platform in an adjacent forest, where the sojourning settlers slept in booths built of the leafy branches of trees or in the wagons in which they had come there.
A year or two later the use of tents instead of booths by some of the people attending the woods' meetings obtained for them the name of camp-meetings.
The first camp-meeting in the State of New York was held at Carmel in 1804. The memorable one at Stillwater, not many miles from Round Lake, in June, 1805, was the first held within the present bounds of the Troy Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church. It continued four days. The services were conducted by Methodist ministers from Canada, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. The presence and preaching of Bishops Asbury and Whatcoat attracted to it great numbers of people, many of whom were converted and became members of the growing church.
In the subsequent period of three and sixty years camp-meetings were annually held at one or more places within the present limits of the Troy Conference. Shortly after the one at Sandlake, in August, 1867, the first steps were taken which led to the purchase of land at Round Lake for the site of a camp-meeting.
SELECTION OF THE ROUND LAKE GROUNDS.
The attractive features and noticeable conveniences of the camp- meeting grounds at Martha's Vineyard induced Joseph Hillman, of Troy, in the summer of 1867, to interest a number of other promi- nent Methodist laymen in forming an association to purchase an eligible site for a camp-meeting and to provide suitable accommoda- tions for the people attending it. A location along the Troy and Boston Railroad was first searched for, but in consequence of the unwillingness of the officers of the company controlling it to accede to certain proposals made them, the line of the Rensselaer and Sara- toga Railroad was then explored for one. Of the places visited none seemed so desirable as a partly-wooded extent of ground
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between the railroad and Round Lake, seven miles north of Mechanic- ville. 1
On September 4th, 1867, the undertaking was further advanced by Joseph Hillman, who that day sent invitations to many Methodist ministers and laymen residing within the limits of the Troy Confer- ence requesting them to attend a meeting to be held on the selected grounds at Round Lake, on Friday, September 20th, and informing them that the morning and afternoon trains from the north and south would stop there then.
The weather was fair on the designated day and a large number of the invited persons was present. Although the aisles of the spacious wood through which they observantly walked were here and there thicket-grown, stone-encumbered, and even marshy in places, the visitors nevertheless admiringly surveyed the symmetrical beauty of the lofty trees, enjoyably inhaled the balsamic fragrance of the evergreens, and appreciatively remarked the natural com- pactness of the gravelly soil. The advantages of the lake for boat- ing and fishing, the practicability of obtaining an adequate supply of excellent water for drinking and other purposes, and the situation of the grounds at the side of the railroad and at the convergence of several highways further influenced the visitors to decide that the site was in every way suitable for camp-meetings.2
1 The pioneers of the enterprise who first viewed the grounds at Round Lake were Joseph Hillman, Gardner Howland, the Rev. C. F. Burdick, and the Rev. Ensign Stover.
2 The following persons visited the grounds that day: From Troy, Rev. Erastus Wentworth, Rev. John W. Carhart, Rev. Ensign Stover, Rev. M. Hulbard, Joseph Hillman, Perrin W. Converse, Oliver Boutwell, Lyman R. Avery, Ephraim D. Waldron. Leonard Smith, W. L. Van Alstyne, C. Bachelor, N. S. Vedder, Lyman Bennett, William Harris, Gardner Howland, George Bristol, P. S. Pettit, Joseph Crandall. S. J. Peabody, S. L. Wood.
From West Troy, J. D. Lobdell, E. Mors, J. A. Newkirk, C. G. Hill, David Rankin, W. H. Haswell, William Tucker.
From Lansingburgh, Rev. W. R. Brown.
From Waterford, Rev. H. C. Farrar, Levi Dodge, C. E. Howland.
From Cohoes, Rev. H. C. Sexton, Jacob Travis, William Foote.
From Albany, Rev. Jesse T. Peck, D.D., Rev. Dexter E. Clapp, Rev. W. P. Abbott, Rev. Richard Meredith, Rev. I. C. Fenton, Rev. G. C. Wells, Rev. R. H. Robinson, Rev. A. A. Farr, Rev. Charles Devol, M.D., William W. Wollett, William Dalton, D. D. C. Mink, John W. Osborn, S. A. Stratton, B. Nichols, George Downing, Edward Robinson, Lemuel J. Hopkins.
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ROUND LAKE.
THE ROUND LAKE CAMP-MEETING ASSOCIATION INCORPORATED.
Joseph Hillman, the projector of the enterprise, on May 5th, 1868, obtained the passage of the act by the Legislature of the State of New York, constituting him and his associates the first trustees of the Round Lake Camp-meeting Association of the Methodist Epis- copal Church of the Troy Conference.1 The corporation was per- mitted to possess real estate not exceeding $150,000 in value and to derive an annual income from its personal property not exceeding $30,000.
The first meeting of the trustees was held at the office of Peck & Hillman, in Troy, on May 4th, 1868. Joseph Hillman was elected President of the Association, Charles W. Pierce, Vice-President, Edgar O. Howland, Secretary, and George Bristol, Treasurer.
On April Ist, 1868, about forty acres of land, lying on the west side of Round Lake, were purchased for the association from Rice Hall and John Moore.
On July 24th, that year, subscriptions to the funds of the associa- tion began to be solicited. The work of clearing away the under- growth in the unfrequented wood was then begun. The removal of the stone fence, running through it from the railroad, and of numerous bowlders roughening the uneven ground was also undertaken.
From a spring on the west side of the railroad water was conveyed by wooden pipes to a pretty fountain in the centre of the space called Fountain Square. Not far eastward of it a covered platform was
From Saratoga Springs, Rev. Samuel Meredith, Prof. H. A. Wilson, S. E. Strong, M.D., S S. Strong, M.D., R. Hamilton, M.D.
From Fort Edward, F. D. Hodgeman.
From Ballston Spa, Rev. O. J. Squires, Levi Weed, M.D., Squire Warren.
From Mechanicville. Rev. P. P. Harrower, S. B. Howland, E. O. Howland.
From Stillwater, Rev. S. Brown, Rev. R. Westcott, S. Chase.
From Crescent, Rev. B. M. Hall.
From Clifton Park Village, Rev. A. W. Garvin.
From Greenbush, Rev. T. A. Griffin.
From Center Brunswick, N. B. Betts, Henry Brust.
From Hyndsville, Rev. A. J. Day.
From Williamstown, Mass., S. Southworth.
1 The first trustees as named in the act were Joseph Hillman, Gardner Howland, George Bristol, Ephraim D. Waldron, Phineas S. Pettit, Hiram A. Wilson, Roscius R. Kennedy, Edgar O. Howland, William Foote, Levi Weed, Robert N. Newton, Charles W. Pierce, Robert Coburn, James H. Earl, William Dalton, F. D. Hodge- man, Joseph E. King, D.D., Hazen W. Bennett, William McEckron, Jesse Wilson, and George L. Clark.
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built to be used for a preaching-stand and for sittings for the minis- ters attending the meetings. In front of it rows of boards, resting on fixed pieces of timber, were arranged to seat the people congre- gated there during the services. Meanwhile a two-story frame building was erected on the east side of the railroad for a freight and passenger station. These and other improvements preceded the camp-meeting held on the grounds in September.
THE FIRST CAMP-MEETING AT ROUND LAKE.
The first camp-meeting at Round Lake, that of the Troy Con- ference, was not inaugurated with any special services. On the opening day, Tuesday, September Ist, 1868, the railroad trains brought in the morning and afternoon great numbers of persons who came to remain during the ten days' meeting. Those from the sur- rounding country arrived in carriages and wagons, bringing with them such movables as were indispensable to dwellers in temporary habitations. While some were busily engaged in pitching and fur- nishing tents around the space occupied by the platform and rows of seats, others pleasurable strolled through the woods enjoying the freedom of their out-door life. After night-fall a number gathered in front of the preaching-stand, and took part in a prayer-meeting conducted by the Rev. Ensign Stover, of Troy. Two hours later the camp of two hundred and more tents was as silent as the dark woods in which it was embosomed.
The cities of Albany and Troy and the villages northward within the bounds of the Troy Conference all contributed parts of their population to augment the large concourse of people present at the services on the second day. In the morning, at half-past ten o'clock, the Rev. Elisha Watson, Presiding Elder of the Saratoga District of the Troy Conference, having the direction of the exercises, announced from the preachers' stand the regulations of the camp and the order of the daily services. Those of that day were begun by the Rev. C. F. Burdick, Presiding Elder of the Troy District, who announced and read the hymn:
" Jesus shall reign where'er the sun Does his successive journeys run,"
which was sung by the great congregation of more than two thou- sand persons with that quickened fervor of religious feeling which often animates large bodies of worshipping people. The Rev. J. D. White, of Gansevoort, then offered a prayer, which was followed by
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the reading of the XIX. Psalm by the Rev. Ensign Stover. Then the hymn:
" Jesus, the name high over all,"
read by the Rev. F. A. Soule, of Union Village, was sung. The Rev. Elisha Watson, in behalf of the members of the Round Lake Camp-Meeting Association, then presented the grounds for dedication to the service of God to the Rev. Jesse T. Peck, D.D., of Albany. The subject of his dedicatory discourse was God's revelation of Himself to man as declared by the text, Exodus xx., 24: "In every place where I record my name I will come unto thee, and I will bless thee." The memorable sermon of the eloquent preacher was fol- lowed by the dedicatory prayer of the Rev. R. H. Robinson, of Ball- ston Spa. The singing of the doxology,
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow,
and the giving of the benediction by the Rev. O. J. Squires, of Ballston Spa, closed the impressive services of the morning.
In the afternoon the Rev. John P. Newman, D.D., of New Orleans, preached. He took for his text the interrogation, " Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me ?" In the evening, the Rev. W. P. Abbott, of Albany, discoursed on Isaiah xxi. 11, 12. Prayer meetings were held afterwards in large tents in different parts of the camp.
The presence of more than fifty ministers, some of other denomi- nations, and the attendance of two to three thousand other persons at these first services were gratifying evidences of the success of the association's undertaking.
Public interest in the meetings increased. On Sunday, September 6th, about eight thousand people were on the grounds. On Wednes- day evening, September 9th, the sermon of the Rev. Sela W. Brown, of Castleton, on the parable of the wheat and tares, was the last of the thirty discourses delivered during the meeting.1 The earnest,
The following ministers preached: Revs. Jesse T. Peck, D.D., Albany; John P. Newman, D. D., New Orleans; W. P. Abbott, Albany; R. H. Robinson, Ball- ston Spa; D. P. Hulburd, Jonesville; F. Widmer, Schenectady; Charles Devol, M.D., Albany; - Ruopp, -; L. N. Beaudry, Center Brunswick; G. C. Wells, Albany; G. J. Brown, North Adams, Mass .; Ensign Stover, Troy; Carson Parker, Bennington, Vt .; John W. Carhart, Mechanicville; James M. King, Troy; David B. Mckenzie, Rock City; J. A. Wood, Wyoming Conference; Erastus Wentworth, D. D., Pittsfield; Simon McChesney, Saratoga Springs; Merritt Hulburd, Troy; J. B. Wood, Clarksville; R. W. Jones, - ; T. S. McMasters, Peru; Foote, --; J. S. Inskip, New York; Ensign Stover, Troy; Benjamin Pome- roy, Waterford; J. C. Wells, Albany; Sela W. Brown, Castleton.
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practical, effectual preaching of the Gospel led many hearers to acknowledge and accept Jesus Christ as their Saviour.
One number of the Round Lake Journal, edited by the Rev. A. C. Rose, of North Granville, containing telegraphic, general, and local news and advertisements, was issued on Thursday, September 3d.
ROUND LAKE.
A committee from the National Camp-Meeting Association of the Methodist Episcopal Church having visited the grounds during the meeting, and made overtures for the use of them in July, 1869, the Round Lake Camp-Meeting Association accepted the proposals made for the privilege.
The first constitution and by-laws governing the association were adopted September 9th.
On October 20th, that year, the Executive Committee solicited sub- scriptions by a printed circular, stating that. about $17,000 had been expended for land, fences, buildings, tents, water-works and grading, and that it was proposed to make other improvements requiring an outlay of $3,000. Mention was also made that the subscriptions then amounted to nearly $10,000, and that the receipts during the camp-meeting had been $3,365.02, and the expenses $2,020.09.
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FROM THE FIRST NATIONAL TO THE FIRST FRATERNAL CAMP- MEETING, 1869-1874.
Many of the improvements made by the association in 1869 are represented on a plan of the grounds drawn by H. Drube, a civil engineer, who had surveyed and partly laid them out into building lots and avenues. More than a thousand young trees were planted along the avenues outside the wood and at other points where their shade and growth were thought desirable. Thirteen cottages, mostly two stories high, and eight or ten other buildings were erected.1
A bell weighing two hundred pounds was purchased and hung in the tower of the preachers' stand. A bookstore and newsroom, a market and grocery, a post and telegraph office were also eligibly located. For the care, feeding and watering of horses, and for the disposition of vehicles, the arrangements were judicious and ample. Sittings for three thousand people were placed in the auditorium. About four hundred tents, varying in size from the spacious, rainy- weather tent, sufficient for sheltering an audience of more than two thousand persons, to the diminutive sleeping tent, 7 x 7 feet, were provided.
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