USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 37
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
shows the most valuable body of ore in the town of Westport.
In 1868 the Lake Champlain Ore & Iron Company bought the Halstead house and land, between Main street and the lake shore, mrow the grounds of the Westport Jun, and also the William J. Cutting place at the head of Liberty street, upon which are now found the golf links. Additional territory along the lake front was obtained by the parchase of a narrow strip from Minerva Clark, whose house stood on Main street, and a number of acres from Israel Pattison. In the fall of 1869 a large furnace was built upon the lake shore, and a wharf thrown out a little to the north of it. Liberty street was opened to the lake for the first time, to give access to the wharf aud furnace, and the compaus made a road from Main street to their works. The furnace stood upon the line between the Halstead prop- . erty and the land south of it. It was not so large nor so expensive as the Siseo furnace at Jacksonville, built twenty years before, and it manufactured but a small quantity of irou, never making large shipments. For the masoury of the works the Gibbs brothers of West- port, -- Orange Gibbs being the head of this firm,-were employed by the contractors.
The furnace was named, I think, the Norway Fur- nace, but the village people always called it the New Furnace, and the wharf the New Wharf. The ore which was made into iron here came from the Elizabethtown. mines, and from the Norway bed at Nichols pond. The transportation of the ore to the furnace was the great-
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
est problem of the enterprise, and one which the com- pany never solved. There was no railroad through Essex county then, and all the iron manufactured must go south by water, on canal boats, from the company's wharf. The ore lay on a mountainside sixteen hundred feet higher than the furnace, and about five miles away in an air-line, but no one expected the ore to come down on an air-line. A separator was built on the shore of the pond, below the mine, and a tram-road was planned to run from the separator to the furnace, crossing the highway near the MeMahon place. It was to be ballasted with tailings from the mine, and it crossed an arm of the pond. The rails were actually laid as far as the highway, and some cars of the sepa- rated ore were run down, and their contents loaded upon wagons to be carried to the furnace, but the work was abandoned before the road was put in good working condition. This train road was laid out to pass within forty rods of the Merriam mine, which had been opened in 1867, on lot No. 165, south of the Norway mine, but although some of the ore from the Merriam was trans- ported to Merriam's Forge, (a distance of ten miles or more,) it was all carried on the town's highway.
Two years from the time that the Norway Fur- nace was erected, it was evident that Westport need hope for no era of prosperity from the development of her iron mines by the Lake Champlain Ore & Iron Com- pauy. The history of the enterprise is simply the his- tory of an experiment, and one which proved signally unsuccessful, the net results to the town being little
. 502
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
more than one or two additions to ber interesting col- Jection of ruins. The failure of the firm of Jay Cook & Co., on Sept. 19, 1873,-the "Black Friday" which be- gan the disastrous panic of that year,-occurred some time after the business in Westport had been suspend- ed, and there is no connection between the two events. The separator on the shore of the lonely pond and the furnace far below on the shore of the lake were suf- fered to fall slowly in decay, the machinery rusting with neglect and damp. For years it was a favorite pretext for an idle stroll to wander down to the shore and look around the New Furnace, which lay open to any visitor. In the map of 1876 four buildings are shown still standing at that time, but in 1887 the last traces of the unsightly ruins were removed.
Eventually most of the property passed into the hands of a company with a slightly different name, - the Lake Champlain Ore Company, but the Halstead house stood in the name of the F. P. Fletcher estate. The Pattison farm returned to its owner through fore- closure. Mr. John A. Griswold, the great iron manu- facturer of Troy, undertook the settlement of the busi- ness in Westport, and afterward Gen. Marvin, also one of the iron men of Troy, owned the Halstead property, and when the house was converted into a hotel, in 1876, it was called the Marvin House, on this account.
Mr. R. Remington, the agent of the company, during his residence in Westport boarded with Mrs. Har- riet Sheldon in the Cutting house. This house was also connected with the history of the Sisco furnace,
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
since it was occupied for five or six years by Hon. George W. Goff, when he owned the property at Jack- sonville. Mr. Remington was a gentleman in the first stages of consumption when he came into the Adirou- dacks, and after the conclusion of the business, (about 1871) he started for California, but died upon the way thither. Various people connected with the iron works lived in the Halstead and the Cutting houses, among others Mr. Schubert, and Mr. Crowley, of Baltimore, who built the tram road.
It cannot have been long after the enterprise of the Norway Furnace that the Split Rock ore bed was opened, on the steep lakeward side of the mountains, directly opposite Fort Cassin. It is said that William M. Tweed, the famous Grand Sachem of Tammany, in- vested funds, public or private, in this mine, but his connection with it cannot have been of loug duration, as his dramatic downfall and imprisonment occurred in 1871. After the railroad, in 1876, opened communica- tion with the south, some Albany parties worked the mine and built the separator on the water's edge, the ore sliding down from the mine by gravity. The board- ing house was built then, and the workmen's houses, on a narrow shelf seven hundred feet above the lake, reached from the wharf by long flights of ladderlike stairs, with hundreds of steps. The landward approach was across the Split Rock range from the Essex high- way.
We must not leave this year without its record of the first match game of modern base ball ever played in
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
the county, between the Adirondacks of Elizabethtown and the Monitors of Westport, in July, at the county seat. The Monitors who played that day were R. W. Arnold, C. E. Stevens, George, Charles and Warren Pattison, Rush and Harvey Howard, Henry Merrill and Henry Sheldon, with Jim Barnes as one of the scorers.
1867.
Town Meeting held in the Armory.
Samuel Root, Supervisor.
George W. Cole, Clerk. James A. Allen, Justice.
Eli Farnsworth. Assessor.
William O. Niebols, Collector.
Levi Frisbie, Albert Carpenter, Edward Kidder, High- way Commissioners.
B. A. Barrett, Charles W. Holcomb. Poor Masters.
Charles E. Stevens, Ansel C. Hall, Hinkiey Coll, Inspec- tors of Election.
Edwin B. Low. Charles W. Holcomb, Edwin Lawrence, Charles H. Sweet. Constables.
Pathmasters .- Henry Sheldon, Melvin Carpenter, Henry E. Warren. Major Barber, Augustus P. Holt. Charles W. Holcomb, A. C. Lewis, P. D. Merriam, Alden Sibley, Cy- rus B. Royce. Henry Lafayette, Dorr Howard, Charles C. Dunster. Dewitt Hooper, D. R. Woodruff, Ephraim Hill, Harvey Smith, Julius Vaughan; Herriman Daniels. E. J. Smith. Eleazer Welch, Alvin Burt, Solomon Stockwell. Lewis Cleland or J. Ferris, J. F. Braisted, John E. Smith. Orrin Taylor, Guy Frisbie, Martin Pierce, John Fortune. Jerome B. Bailey, D. L. Allen.
April 23 an election was held to choose delegates to the Constitutional Convention. Whole number of votes giveu for Senatorial Delegates to the Convention, 121.
In March of 1867 the M. E. church was rededicated, having been enlarged and remodeled the previous year. Twenty feet were added to its length, and the expense of the alterations amounted to $4000. The pastor at
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
. this time was the Rev. David Lytle. At the rededica- tion services, the Rev. E. Wentworth, D. D., of Troy, and the Rev. J. E. Bowen, presiding elder of the Plattts- burg District, were present. The trustees were D. L. Allen, Samuel Root, P. D. Merriam, William Frisbie, Aaron Clark, and C. W. Holcomb. The committee on repairs, Samuel Root, P. D. Merriam, and D. L. Allen. Aaron Clark was the builder, all the work being done under his supervision. This was now the leading church, in numbers and wealth, as it has since remained. In 1881 the membership was two hundred and fourteen.
1868.
Town Meeting held in the Armory.
Barton B. Richards, Supervisor.
Henry H. Riebards, Clerk.
Pbiletus D. Merriam, Justice,
Alvin Burt, Assessor.
William O. Nichols, Collector.
James M. Wballon, Highway Commissioner.
Charles W. Holcomb and Kittredge Cross. Poor Masters.
Hinckley Coll, Cyrus W. Riebards, Laureus H. White, Inspectors of Election.
William O. Nichols. Charles W. Holcomb, J. C. Osborne, Frank Sweatt, Alfred E. Williams, Constables.
Harvey Pierce appointed constable.
For this year we will give the names of the pathmas- ters in connection with the road district in which each one lived. Since the adoption, in 1903, of the new sys- tem of road working, these road districts are no longer important as actual divisions, but are given as so much ancient history. In another half century the names and places mentioned will have a quaint interest for the Juberitors of the soil of Westport.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Boundaries of Road Districts :
No. 1. Beginning at the north line of Platt Sheldon's farm, and running to the south line of O. B. Howard's farm. Patbmaster, Orren B. Howard,
1-12 0 82. Beginning at the town live, running north to the south line of Samuel Root's farm. Henry Stone.
3. Beginning at the south line of Samnel Root's farm, and running north to the north line of Charles Pattison's farm, including the road from Coll's Mills to Frft. &the Warren school house. Charles H. Pattison.
4. At the house of James W. Coll, running east and north by Archibald Pattison's to the south live of A. P. Holt's farm, including the road to Barber's Point and Young's Bay. Henry Frisbie.
5. At the north line of Charles Pattison's farm, run- ning north to the west end of the bridge, theuce south along the plauk road to James A. Allen's wharf, thence up the hill to the west corner of Page and Eddy's store : including road from Nelson Barton's wheelwright shop to Charles H. Eddy's by N. J. Barton's house ; also. from the guide board at A. P. Holt's on the lake road to the south line of A. P. Holt's farm. Israel Pattison.
6. At the forks of the road near Patrick Boyle's house, running east to the forks of the road near the gate. Enoch Gregory.
7. At the top of the hill in front of the Union School house, running north by the "half way rock" near Asa Viall's; also the road running northeast to the brook crossing the road near the house of A. A. Allen. Almon . Allen.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
S. At the bridge near the Moses Felt place, running north by Merriam's Forge until it intersects the road leading from Wadhams Mills to Essex ; including as much of said road as lies between a well situated a few rods west of P. D. Merriam's house, and the town line. William P. Merriam.
9. At the brook near Almond Allen's house, running north to the north line of T. Pottery's farm, including the road running west by Asahel Havens to the Moses Felt bridge. William T. Williams.
10. At the north line of T. Pottery's farm, running north to the north line of the town near Whallonsburg, including the road to M. P. Whallons. Cyrus B. Royce. 11. At the forks of the road near the Angier school house, running north to the town line, including the road by Webster Royce's to the town line. Henry Lo- fayette.
12. From the half way rock north to the town line near John R. Whitney's including the road from the grist mill up the hill to the forks of the road where the Presbyterian church formerly stood; also the road leading west, a little north of Elijah Wright's, to the east line of Henry Betts' lot. William Laurence.
13. From the corner of the road at the Exchange Hotel, east to a well situated a few rods west of build- ings now occupied by P. D. Merriam, including the road past Henry Dunster's to the Felt Bridge, and the road to Benjamin's Hardy's. Edwin Ames.
14. From the corner where the Presbyterian church formerly stood, west of Sylvester Young's to the plank
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
road, including the road from District No. 27 to Joseph Hodgkins. Joseph Hodgkins.
15. From the corner where the Presbyterian church formerly stood, west to the east line of Isaac Johnson's farm, including the road running north past A. Hart- well's to the north line. D. R. Woodruff.
16. From the Widow Bowers' place, south across the plank road to the run near old Southwell place. Howard Farnsworth.
17. From the forks of the road near Samuel Storrs'. east by Harvey Smith's to the road from the Willard Hartwell place to Julias Vaughan's. Edgar Hill.
18. From Julius Vaughan's west line, east to John Bromley's house. Morcus J. Hoisington.
19. From Julius Vaughan's west line, west to the bridge near Meigs' Forge, thence south to the Steel Mill. Herriman Daniels.
20. From the southeast corner of Harry J. Persons hotel, west and south to the south line of D. M. Howard's farm. D. Mansfield Howard.
21. From D. M. Howard's house, west to M. J. Hoisington's including the road from Abram Greeley's to Eleazar Welch's west line. J. J. Greeley.
22. From Orren Howard's south line, south to the town line. Alcin Burt.
23. From the corner of the road near the Steven- sou school house, west to the town line. Orsemus Stock- well.
24. From the bridge at Brainard's Forge, northeast
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
to the town line near Clelands, and from Lee Prouty's across to I. Johnson's. Julius Ferris.
25. From the Felt bridge south to A. A. Allen's. Abram Sherman, Jr.
26. From near Abram Greeley's, west to W. P. Mer- riam's west line on the mountain. John E. Smith.
27. From the corner near I. Johnson's, south to the north line of District No. 14. Leonard Taglor.
28. From the corner near Julius Vaughan's, north to the plank road. Martin Vanghan.
29. From the corner near Brainard's Forge, south by Sam Pierce's to the north line of Widow Bowers, also from the bridge at Brainard's Forge east to the line of Isaac Johnson. Rufus Hodgkins.
30. From the south line of John Mather's land to the south live of the town of Essex. John Fortune.
31. From the west line of Wi. P. Merriam's mount- ain, south to the Seventy-five Furnace. Thomas With- Prbee.
33 From the plank road near Charles Holcomb's, east to D. L. Allen's wharf, thence south by Allen's store, and west through the lane to the main road, be- tween D. S. MeLeod and William Barnard. William U: Olds.
On August 27, 1868, the school district at Seveuty- five was formed, and called No. 14. The consenting trustees were Walter Tefft of Moriah, William F. Han- chett of Elizabethtown, and Alvin Burt, Melvin Car- peuter and John Stevenson of Westport. H. Riley Palmer was resident at Seventy-five.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Statement of result of General Election, Nov. 3 Whole number of votes for Governor ;- for John A. Griswold, 252; for John T. Hoffman, 135. Vote for Inspector of State Prisons, 386 ; for Henry A. Barnum, 242 ; for David B. McNeil, 144. Votes for Member of Assembly, 386; for Samuel Root, 257; for Abiathar Pollard, 139.
Thus we seo that Col. Root went to the Assembly this year, as he also did in 1869.
1869.
Town Meeting held at the Armory.
Lewis H. Roe, Supervisor.
Edwin B. Low. Clerk.
Cvrenus R. Payne, Justice.
Israel Pattison. Assessor.
Henry H. Merrill, Collector.
Marcus Storrs and Charles C. Dunster, Highway Com- missioners.
Harley Clark and Samuel Pierce. Poor Masters.
James E. Barnes, George A. Skinner and Hinkley Co !! Inspectors of Election.
Pathmasters .- William Floyd, Alexander Stevenson. Henry Warren. Houry H. Merrill. H. B. Howard, Enocb Gregory, Asa Viall, P. D. Merriam. Edmund Floyd. James M. Wballon, Henry Lafayette, Orrin F. Hardy. R. Hustis, Artemas Hartwell. Harvey Drake. Franklin Vaughan, Patrick Boyle. Heman Franklin, Albert Carpenter, War- reu Pooler. Henry Stoue, Orlin Stockwell. George Palmer, Abram Sherman, John E. Smith, Ozro Taylor. Col. Ben- nett. Martin Pierce, John Fortune, Thomas Witherbee, D. L. Allen.
In July D. L. Allen was appointed Assessor.
In October Harvey Pierce was appointed Coustable. J. H. Allen, Justice.
This year's supervisor, Lewis H. Roe, was a nephew of the Hon. George W. Goff, and succeeded him in the
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
management of the Sisco furnace and the property at Jacksonville. The Roes came from Scotland to Amer- ica about 1730, and settled in Orange county, N. Y., before the Revolution. The first immigrant was Jesse Roe, and his son, Captain Nathaniel Roe, was one of first settlers of Chester, N. Y. His sou Daniel was the father of Dr. Genest Roe, who married Elizabeth Goff, sister of George W., Robert, and Sophia, who married Silas H. Witherbee. The children of Dr. Genest Roe were : Lewis H., George G .: Alice, who married Prof. E. J. Owen ; Sophia, who married Jonathan G. Wither- bee of Port Henry ; Mary, who married John W. Whitehead of Port Heury; and Jennie, who mar- ried Charles E. Hall of Philadelphia. Mrs. Elizabeth Roe lived at Jacksonville until her death, and her daughter, Mrs. Hall, now owns the place. Mrs. Hall's daughters are Sophia and Josephine, the latter now Mrs. Robertson Marshall.
In April of 1869 occurred the great flood upon Mill Brook in Moriah, caused by the rapid melting of the snow with heavy rains.
. 1870.
Town Meeting held at the Armory.
Lewis H. Roe. Supervisor.
James H. Alleu, Clerk.
Edwin B. Low. Justice.
William B. Lawrence and Milo Gibbs, Assessors.
James E. Barnes, Collector.
Levi Frisbie. Highway Commissioner.
Peter Ferris and Edwin Kidder, Poor Masters.
Charles E. Stevens, Orrin Hardy and Cyrus Richards. Inspectors of Election.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Harvey Pierce, James E. Barnes. Enoch Gregory. Rich- ard Brown. Alvin Davis. Constables.
Pathmasters .- Henry Sheld.m. Alexander Stevenson. Charles Pattison. Archibald Pattison. Israel Pattison. Enoch Gregory. Joshua Bennett. William P. Merriam. William T. Williams, Corus B. Royce. Henry Lafayette. Heury Betts. Cyrenus R. Reed, D. Hooper. G. H Pierce. Ephraim Hill. Heury Willard, Barney Boyle, Charles Pat- ten. Harvey Howard, Warren Pooler, F. B. Howard, Or- lin Stockwell. George Palmer, J. F. Braisted. John E. Smith. Ozro Taylor. John Quincy Adams. J. T. Johnson. Joon Fortune, Sorel Fountain. M. Flinn.
D. F. Payne was appointed Assessor in place of William Lawrence, who refused to serve. Israel Pattison was ap- pointed Assessor in the place of Milo Gibbs, who refused to serve. William Joiner appointed Constable.
This year it was found necessary to purchase a new book for the keeping of the town records, which is still in use. The present writer has not performed the labor of copying the records in the new book, leaving that for a future volume and (probably) a future historian. The supervisors and town clerks for the past thirty-two years have been as follows :
1871. Town meeting in the Armory. Edwin B. Low, Supervisor. Twenty-four years before this his father, John H. Low, had held the same office. The Lows, father and son, were also justices of the town for the greater part of the lives of each, doing much of the legal business required in the vicinity. James H. Allen, Clerk.
1872. In the Armory. William P. Merriam, Super- visor. James H. Allen, Clerk.
1873. In the Armory. William P. Merriam, Super- visor. James H. Allen, Clerk. Resigning in May,
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
probably to remove to Port Henry, his father, D. L. Allen, was appointed Clerk in his place.
1874. In the Town Hall, meaning that the Armory had been purchased by the town, and was now called the Town Hall. Samuel Root, Supervisor. Frank H. Eldy, clerk.
1875. Daniel F. Payne, Supervisor. William C. Pollard, Clerk. This was the son of Dr. Abiathar Pol- lard.
1876. Andrew J. Daniels, Supervisor. William C. Pollard, Clerk. It is only fair to remark that Mr. Dan- iels was the first one of the only two Democrats who have been elected supervisor since the war. Westport is solidly and stolidly Republican and conservative, as the election returns for forty years will show, and when a Democrat is elected to office it may fairly be taken to indicate the popularity of the candidate.
1877. Charles D. Sprague, Supervisor. Charles Ed- son Stevens, Clerk.
1878. Charles D. Sprague, Supervisor. Charles Ed- son Stevens, Clerk.
1879. Samuel Root, Supervisor. M. Judson Hickok, Clerk.
1880. Merritt A. Clark, Supervisor. Frank H. Eddy, Clerk, and re-elected to this office, with the ex- ception of one year, for twenty-one years, to the time of his death, in 1901.
1881. Merritt A. Clark.
1882. Charles D. Sprague. 1883. Merritt A. Clark.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
r ...... 1884. Daniel F. Payne.
1885. Freeborn H. Page.
1886. Freeborn H. Page.
1887. Freeborn H. Page.
1888. Honey H. Richards. Mr. Richards is the second Democrat elected to this office in the term of years mentioned.
1888. Ellery J. Sherman. This year the town meet- ing was held for the first time in the new Library build- ing. which had been opened the preceding summer, and each town meeting since that time has been held in the same place.
1890. Ellery J. Sherman.
pf- 1891. Ellery J. Sherman.
IS92. Daniel F. Payne, Supervisor. Low E. Faller. Clerk.
.1893. Daniel F. Payne, Supervisor. Frank H. Eddy, Clerk.
1894. Luther Boardman Newell, Supervisor. This was the last election under the old law of annual town meetings. Henceforth all town officers held office for two years. Mr. Newell dying in office, Mr. Augustus P. Holt was appointed Supervisor in bis place.
1896. Augustus P. Holt.
1898. Augustus P. Holt.
1901. Samuel H. Hodgkins. The Town Clerk, Mr. Frank H. Eddy, dying in office, Mr. George B .. Rich- ards, his brother-in-law, was appointed in his place.
Justices of the peace since 1879 have been William Douglass, C. Wesley Daniels, James A. Allen, Fred V.
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HISTORY OF WESTPORT
Lester, Charles C. Dunster, Frank B. Royce, Scott E. Phinney, James E. Patten, and Case Howard, the last four now holding office.
1870-1875.
The five years from 1870 to 1875 complete the history of the Old Westport,-the Westport without a rail- road, and without a summer season devoted to strau- gers. Dull and listless was the little place, with the Days of Lumber far back in history, and the Days of Iron just acknowledged as hopelessly past, although there was in reality another decade of iron production in the near future. One event of this short period was the building of the lighthouse at Barber's Point in 1873.
Split Rock light had burned for twenty-five years and that at Crown Point for fifteen, but there was as yet no guide for a midnight mariner seeking to enter Northwest bay. The light of Barber's Point is visible fifteen miles, and the tower is eighty-three feet high, forming part of the dwelling of the keeper. The whole structure is of stone, built at the top of a steep descent into deep water, where the scarred rocks show tremeu- dous action of water and ice, exposed as they are to the full force of the strongest winds, waves and currents found upon the whole length of the lake. From the Jand the place is easily accessible, and a charming spot. The first keeper of the light was Sergeant James E. Barnes, an old soldier who had lost one leg in the serv- ice, and the present one is Major C. E Stevens of the 77th N. S. V.
HISTORY OF WESTPORT
In the spring of 1875, just as the ice was breaking up in the lake, the Hunter house was burned upon North. Shore, at Hunter's bay. It ocenrred in the evening, and the unwontel light was soon observe.l from th : village. It was two miles away by water and four by Inud, but men ran down to the boat houses on the shore and took out the boats which had lain there all winter, launched them and pushed off, making their way as best they could with lanterns between the floating cakes of ice. Others hastened to the scene by land, but no Que arrived in time to be of material assistance, as the house with nearly all its contents burned to the ground. Mr. Hunter was at the time a helpless invalid, and Mrs. Hunter, before any help came, had herself brought him out to a place of safety, then returning for a box of val- uable papers she was overcome and fell to the floor insensible. At this moment the farmer who lived in the farmhouse upon the place arrived, and going into the burning house discovered Mes. Hunter upon the floor and brought her out. The house was not rebuilt until 1902.
Also upon North Shore, that same summer, the steamer Champlain was wrecked. In those days, be- fore the railroad was built upon our side of the lake, there were two regular line steamers touching at our wharf daily, a day boat and a night boat. The night boat was the Champlain, making her landing at near midnight. One clear, still, moonlight night near the mid- dle of July she touched at our wharf, discharging freight and passengers, the latter numbering several of the
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