USA > New York > Essex County > Westport > Bessboro: A history of Westport, Essex Co., N.Y. > Part 38
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first summer boarders who had found us out. The steamer went on her way, but when she came to the northern point of the bay, just beyond Rock Harbor, a place where her course lay close under the shore, and in water two or three hundred feet deep, she failed to make the necessary turn around the point, and ran upon it, the force of her engines lifting her out of the water as her bow slid up upon a shelving rock. There she hung over a backbone of rock, her great timbers straining and breaking amidships, with her bow out of the water and the waves washing in at the stern win- dows, and setting the dining room afloat. There was no panic among the crew, and the passengers were soon set ashore in safety, the gang-plauk being run ont to the shore, quite in the ordinary way, with trunks and valises following as though lake steamers commonly marle landings at midnight on lonely and uninhabited shores, with bewildered passengers hustled off to sit on the rocks nntil morning. Soon after daybreak the tag A. Williams came along and was signalled alongside the wreck, and the passengers transferred to her deck for the continuance of the voyage.
Perhaps the very tameuess of this shipwreck, in which no lives were lost, gave rise to the story that it was premeditated, and a neat device of the Transporta- tion Company to obtain the insurance of an old boat. For my part, I have never been able to believe it pos- sible that men would so risk their own lives in so dav- gerous an experiment. Close off the point upon which the Champlain struck, the water measures from one
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hundred to one hundred and fifty feet in depth, smooth rocks dropping sheer down beneath the water, and had she rebounded as she struck, or had she struck only a few feet farther from shore, she would have sunk out of sight with all on board as soon as she could have filled with water. If it was planned, it was well planned, and an example of the fine art of wrecking. Captain George Rushlow was then in command of the Cham- plain, and the pilot was John Eldridge. The latter left the boat instantly as soon as she struck, made his way to the shore and wandered off into the woods upon the the mountain sides. At daybreak he came to the house of Col Lee, about four miles from the scene of the wreck, seeming to be completely lost, and too much dazed to be able to give a clear account of his receut experience. All this served to give a touch of mystery to the event which greatly added to the enjoyment of the village people as they rose to the comprehension of the fact that this startling occurrence, a genuine hope- less, disastrous wreck, had been sent to these shores by that especial Providence which sometimes remembers the Places Where Things Never Happen. It was printed in the New York papers that there had been a Wreck near Westport, and we felt that now we might dare to defy Oblivion. There was a distinct sense of wistful regret that the wreck in itself had not been more shock- ing, so as to attract more attention in foreign parts, but we made the most of the story as it was. On the pro- gram of the next school exhibition, arranged by a teacher with a fine eye for local effect, stood these
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words : "Poom -. The Wreck of the Champlain," and the village poet, then a young girl, did her best at working up the dramatic points of the incident. The poet has not felt herself the centre of so tremendous an occasion since the night when she read that poem to the solemn- faced rows of people sitting on the rude benches of the old school-house. There was one place in the poem where there had been a dreadful struggle between the rhyme and the grammar. It is now quite forgotten which went to the wall, but it was full twenty years afterward before it occurred to the poet that that particular stanza might perhaps have been left out. But she remembers with gratitude the sturdy patriotism which applauded with undiscriminating admiration, and has never regret- ted that she helped to heighten the effect of an unusual incident in our history.
The point upon which the Champlain was wrecked has since been known as Calamity Point.
Modern History. 1876-1904.
With the last quarter of the nineteenth century may be said to begin the story of the New Westport. In 1876 came the railroad, connecting Albany with Mon- treal, and giving us for the first time swift access to either. That this railroad, owned by the Delaware & Hudson Canal Company, runs along the precipitous shore of the lake, instead of through the comparatively stuooth valley followed by the Old State Road through
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Schroon and Lewis to Keeseville, is entirely due to the great influence of the town of Moriah, strong in her iron interests, and seconded by all the lake towns as far as lay in their power. Westport was bonded for $25,000. The road as a whole presented great engi- neering difficulties, but its passage through the central valley of Westport, avoiding both our mountain systems, called for no tunneling nor extensive blasting. Regu- lar trains begau running in time to carry Essex County people to the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia, and to many a native youth that summer was the first which gave him a glimpse of the wide, wide world. Now came the decline of the lake traffic, with its many romantic conditions, afterward partially restored by the increase of summer traveling for pleasure. And with the railroad arose the era of the summer boarder, with all which that implies.
For another reason the year 1876 marks a division line in our village history, in that it was the year of the Great Fire, a calamity which cleared the way for many changes. It occurred on the night of August 15, originating, probably by accident, in the stables of the old Lake House, and sweeping south ward along Main street until the hotel, the corner block owned by D. L. Hooper and R. J. Ingalls, the dwelling house of V. C. Spencer and the Baptist church were consumed. Then the wind shifted ever so little from north to west, and the brick corner block across the street, containing the stores of C. H. Eddy, E. B. Low and Amos Pres- cott, was also destroyed, and the next block considera-
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bly damaged. In the building of E. B. Low was the post-office, then kept by William Douglass, aud in that of C. H. Eddy was the town clerk's office. One historic deposit consumed with Eddy's store was a quantity of type and printing material, the mortal remains of the old Turner newspaper, consigned to the cellar a gene- ration before. The excitement and confusion were great in a village with no fire department and no ade- quate water supply, but men fought the flames bravely inch by inch, climbing the shingled roofs and covering them with wet earth and sods, carrying water in pails from wells and cisterns, and even up the hill from the lake. The three bells were rung until the country people for miles around were roused, and came in to help. It happened that there was at the time a Teach- ers' Institute held in town, and the hotel was filled to its utmost capacity. The old Halstead house, opposite the Baptist church, was saved by the thick, damp, foli- age of the large elms and maples which had shaded it for so many years, but these were so badly scorched that they have never quite recovered their beauty, and some of them have died. The total cost of the fire was estimated at $75,000. The burned area was immedi- ately built over by the owners, in a manner greatly to the advantage of the village, with the exception of the hotel site, which lay untouebed for eleven years.
Thus the southern part of the village was left with no place of entertainment for strangers, a state of things which had not existed since John Halstead built the first frame house in the village, on the south corner at
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the top of the lake hill, in 1800, and there offered eu- tertainment to man and beast. Here came the earliest travelers, landing from the ferry, or awaiting its uncer- tain arrival. But in course of time conditions changed, and from abont 1825 the house was a private dwelling, occupied by the Halstead and Sawyer families until 1868. Then it was sold to the Lake Champlain Ore and Iron Company, and this company owned it at the time of the fire. A large addition was then built to the house, and it was transformed into a hotel, under the name of the Marvin House. Gen. Marvin of Troy, one of the iron maguates of the day, was the principal owner. For ten years the management changed frequently, Mr. Montford Weed keeping it the greater part of the time, and in 1887 the property was purchased by the present proprietors, and the house became the Westport Inn. It has been improved and built upon until the original structure is now entirely gone. The Ino is a summer hotel, keeping open only from June to October, and has become oue of the popular resorts of the Adirondacks. It is in its season the principal hotel of the place, ac- commodating one hundred and fifty guests. The first manager was Mrs. Henry C. Lyon, followed after a few years by Mrs. O. C. Daniels. In 1900 the management was assumed by Mr. Harry P. Smith, who has been connected with the Inn since its first opening. The Inn property now comprises all the old Halstead prop- erty along the lake shore, with two places across the road, the Gables and Over the Way, besides the Wil- liam J. Cutting place, on which are the golf links
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stretching back toward the mountains, and the club house on the corner, made out of J. N. Barton's carriage shop.
The water works came as a direct consequence of the opening of the Inn, the company being chartered in 1801. The water, the best in the world, is brought from the Mountain Spring in the hills back of the vil- lage, and the pipes extend from A. P. Holt's on the south to Stony Sides ou the north, from Jacksonville on the east to the railway station on the west. All the central part of the village is sewered.
The Library.
In the winter of 1884-5 was the first movement to- ward a town Library. The idea originated with Miss D. May Howard, then teaching south of the village, and was eagerly approved by the faculty of the High School, at that time consisting of three teachers, Mr. Chas. F. Chisholm, Miss Kate Rogers and Miss Lina HI. Barton. Other young people of the town who gave help at the beginning were Miss Lou Prescott, Miss Ada G. Douglass, Miss Minnie Newell, Charles Holt, George Richards, Harry Douglass, Frank Royce, and Ben Douglass, Mrs. Francis L. Lee gave substan- tial help when applied to, and Dr. F. T. Delano, then just settled in town, gave valuable aid.
The young people held entertainments in the Armory, which had been fitted up with a rude stage and ruder seats some years before for the use of the Forrest Club,
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and in a few months fifty dollars was raised and in- vested in books. Mr. Amos Prescott offered the use of a wing of his house as a library, and for three years his daughter acted as Librarian, with some help from other young ladies. Membership tickets were sold, en- tertainments and sociables were held at the houses of people kindly disposed and the first catalog, printed June, 1886, showed 238 volumes. Now, after eighteen years, we have over two thousand volumes.
In 1887 Miss Alice Lee took an active part in the fortunes of the growing Library. By personal effort she succeeded in obtaining subscriptions in town of $1,100 in cash and labor, and donations from friends outside to the amount of $1,400. In October of 1887 the Westport Library Association was incorporated by the state, the charter members of the Board of Trustees being Miss Alice Lee, Peter P. Bacon, Frank H. Eddy, Frank T. Delano, John Hoffnagle and Luther B. New- ell. Upon Mr. Hoffnagle's moving to Rouses Point, David A. Clark was elected in his place, and after the death of Mr. Newell Mr. Georgo C. Spencer and Mr. Frauk B. Royce were elected trustees. After the re- moval from town of Dr. DeLano and Mr. Spencer, and the deaths of Mr. Bacon and Mr. Eddy, three more were elected, Mr. Frank E. Smith, Mr. Harry P. Smith and Mr. George B. Richards. The President of the Associatiou is Miss Lee. Secretary, Mr. L. B. Newell, succeeded by Mr. Frank B. Royce. Treasurer, Mr. F. H. Eddy, succeeded by Mrs. F. H. Eddy. For a num- ber of years the work of Librarian was done gratui-
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tously by ladies living in town, the first of whom was Miss Louise Prescott. After the new building was oc- enpied help was given by Miss Ada G. Donglass, Mrs. F. T. DeLano, Mrs. F. H. Eddy, Mrs. J. L. Roberts, Mrs. F. E. Smith, Mrs. F. B. Royce and Miss Jennie Daniell. Since 1892 paid Librarians have been eur- ployed,-Miss Marian Ferris, Miss Marie Bacon, after- ward Mrs. Harry P. Smith, Miss Osite Bacon, after- ward Mrs. John H. Low, and Miss Molly Eddy.
The vacant lot in the centre of the village, still cov- ered with the ruins of the old "Persons Hotel," was purchased as the site for the new Library building, aud the grounds were leveled and cleared by contributed labor. The Library building, 26x52 feet in size, was designed by Messrs. Andrews & Jaques of Boston, and constructed by Mr. David A. Clark. On Thursday evening, July 26, ISSS, the ball was filled with the au- dience which had gathered to witness the opening cere- monies. Upon the platform sat the trustees and li- brarian, with the Rev. FI. L. Grant of the M. E. Church, Rev. Mr. Benedict of the Baptist, and Rey. F. X. LaChance, of the Roman Catholic Church, and also Mr. Amos Prescott, who had given the Library a home for three years. Dr. F. T. DeLano presided, an ac- count of the work was given by Mr. L. B. Newell, and the principal address was made by the Hon. Richard L. Hand of Elizabethtown, followed by remarks from Senator R. C. Kellogg.
The Library has been used since its opening as a town hall, in which elections and town meetings are
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held. It is also the most available placo for public en- tertainments. It is supported entirely by the rent re- ceived in this way, by tickets sold to non-residents and by contributions from friends, as the town has never been taxed for its maintenance.
Westport Farms.
Important in the history of the old patent of Bessboro was the purchase, in 1894 of nine farms along the lake shore, by Mr. James McKinley Graeff. These farms, with a mountain lot on Harper mountain, comprise eighteen hundred acres, and all are operated together under the name of the Westport Farms. No finer farm- ing land can be found in all the world, and here much of the modern improved farming machinery has been first seen in town. The Creamery, the manufacture of maple sugar in its season, and all the operations of a large estate give employment to large numbers of work- men and their families. The residence has been built overlooking the site of the oldl pre-Revolutionary settle- ment of Raymond's Mills, and the island of Father Jogues. The beautiful bay has now a tragic interest from the drowning of Mr. Graeff's eldest sou, a boy of twelve, in June of 1903. It was in 1900 that Mr. Graeff received his first election to the Assembly, and he is now holding his fourth term as member from Essex County.
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Iron.
"To this last quarter century belongs the record of the last iron manufacture in the town, and it would seem that this is the proper place for a brief summary of the whole history of that industry. It might be said to begin with Philip Skene, about 1765, shipping ore from the Crown Point bed, now the Cheever, to Skenes- boro, followed by the operations of the Plattsburgh pro- prietors at the same place after the Revolution. But . for the soil of the present Westport the history of iron begins in the earliest decade of the nineteenth century, with the work of Jonas Morgan at two points on the Black river. For fifty years, the time being divided into two periods by the fresbet of 1830 which swept away most of the work of the earliest settlers, the little forges on the Black carried on an intermittent but not an in- considerable industry. Here belong the names of Brainard and Mitchell, Southwell, Lobdell, Myrick and Hatch, ending with Meigs, who vanished in 1855. Iron was not made upon the Boquet so early as upon the Black, but the town records mention Wadhams and . Braman's forge at the Falls in 1822, and in 1829 the only iron works in town were those of Barnabas Myrick at the same place. During this half century of small local iron making, bar iron was recognized as a standard of exchange, equally with grain and cattle.
The second period begins with the purchase of the Cheever ore bed by Boston capitalists in 1838, leading to the development of the Moriah mines, and the in-
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creased manufacture of their ore in Elizabethtown and Westport. In 1815 the plank road was laid from the Valley to the Bay, chiefly for the convenience of the men who were drawing iron to the wharves. In the same year Merriam's Forge was opened upon the Bo- quet, to see a prosperous existence of about twenty-five years, making in 1865 four hundred and fifty tons of iron, and using eighty thousand bushels of charcoal. All the ore was drawn over the mountains from Mine- ville, much of it in the winter, the farmers of the neigh- borhood going with a load of hay or grain, and return- ing with a load of ore for Merriam's Forge. le 1848 the Sisco Furnace was built upon the lake shore, by Boston capital, and represents the height of our iron production. Six to nine tons of iron were made per day, but all was over with Jackson's failure in 1857. To this period belong the first attempts to raise ore in Westport. The Campbell or Nichols Pond bed (after- ward the Norway) was opened between 1845 and 1850, and the ore used in the Valley Forge, in Elizabethtown. About 1850 the Jackson or Ledge Hill bed was opened and the ore used in the Sisco Furnace. The Merriam bed was not opened until 1867.
After the war came the third period, and the briefest of all. The furnace at Seventy-five was built in 1864, standing by a geographical accident on Westport land, but belonging in fact to the system of Moriah iron works. Iu 1868 the Lake Champlain Ore and Iron Company, of which firm the most famous name is that of Jay Cook, began operations, building the Norway Furnace
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in 1869, with the separator and tram road at Nichols Pond, and giving its name to the Norway bed. At nearly the same time the Split Rock bed was opened, faintly enhaloed with the name of Boss Tweed, but not until the late seventies were separator, wharf and dwel- ling houses built.
Our fourth period, and the last, that of Payne at Wadhams Mills, extends from 1873 to 1884. Daniel French Payne had bought all the old Wadhams prop- erty, lands and mills, in 1865, built a new saw mill in 1867, and enlarged the grist mill in 1868. In 1873 he began the construction of a two-fired forge, finished it in 1875, added another fire in 1879, and still another in 1880. With this plant his maximum production of iron was one thousand tous a year. The ore was brought from . the Moriah mines and from Ferrona and Chateaugay on the railroad. The last iron was made in 1884, the difficulty of obtaining charcoal rendering its further production unprofitable.
This undoubtedly ends the chapter of iron making in Westport. The water-power at Wadhams has since been used only for milling purposes, but now, in 1904, it is about to be utilized for an extensive electric plant, capa- ble of furnishing light and power for many miles of the surrounding country. So that instead of loads of ore dragged slowly over the mountains to be made intoiron at the Falls of the Boquet, the electricity generated at the Falls will be Hashed to Mineville to furnish the power for working the mines there.
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Roman Catholic Church
It was intended to give complete sketches of each of the three churches in town, but the essential details of the histories of the three Protestant denomin- ations may easily be gathered from the data given in the chronological account, and any one interested will gladly undertake the trouble of tracing their growth and development. They were organized early among an emigrant people of New England origin, as one of the first necessities of their daily lives, the Baptist church in 1807, the M. E. church in 1816, and the Congregational somewhat later. The fourth church has been unmentioned until an outline of its history is now given.
The first white man who ever looked upon the shores of Westport was a Roman Catholic, -Samuel de Cham- plain, in 1609. The first white man whose foot ever pressed the soil of Westport was a Roman Catholic, -- Pere Isaac Jognes, a Jesuit priest. In 1642 he, with two companions, Counre and Goupil, also priests, were captured by the Mohawks on the St. Lawrence and carried,np Lake Champlain. Landing upon the island near the southern shore of the land which is now called Westport, the three priests were compelled to run the gauntlet, and were otherwise tortured. Pere ' Jognes was afterward killed by the Indians in the Mo- hawk country.
All through the one hundred and fifty years of French sovereignty over Lake Champlain and its borders, the
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Pope of Rome claimed spiritual sway over all souls within it. When the fort at Crown Point was built in 1731 a little church sheltered an altar where mass was said, at times, as long as the lilies of France floated from the flag staff upon the ramparts. The French village near the fort saw many a priest stopping for a night on his journeys up and down the lake, some- times with a war party of painted savages on their way to burn villages on the English frontier. To this pe- riod, we believe, belongs the little ebony image of the Virgin and Child, discovered among the pebbles of North Shore. Some Canadian voyager, some Indian convert, or some missionary priest traveling in the bark canoe of an Iroquois warrior, may have dropped it as he stepped ashore for a night's encampment.
When the country was given over to England, in 1763, the religion of France retained no foothold upon it. Not until 1840 was mass first said iu Port Henry, and not for several years after that in Westport. The Ro- man Catholies in the place have been, almost without exception, immigrants from Canada, in numbers too few to maintain a separate parish until within twenty years. The conversion to Roman Catholicism of Edgar Wad- hams seems to have little connection with his boyhood home, as he was received by the Sulpicians of St. Mary's Seminary at Baltimore in 1845, four years afterward ordained a priest of St. Mary's Pro-Cathedral at Albany, and there remained until he became first Bishop of the new see of Ogdensburgh in 1872. Therefore it cannot be said that he influenced the growth of the church in
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this vicinity in any degree until his entrance upon his bishopric.
In 1857 land was purchased for a church and ceme- tery, and the frame of the church was raised and en- closed. although the building remained uncompleted for more than twenty years. Active in these begin- nings, as always through the subsequent history of the church, was Mr. Peter P. Bacon, who was trustee of the church until his death. Other trustees have been Michael Flinn, John Close and John Ferrell. Upon the appointment of Bishop Wadhams to his see, he sent Father Shields to this mission, and afterward Father O'Rourke, in charge at Port Heury, gave time and at- tention to the completion of the church in 1879. In 1882 the parish of Westport was formed, including Elizabethtown, Essex and Keene, and it was attended by the Rev. Joseph Redington, and then by the Rev. John Sullivan, who died in the winter of ISS1. The next summer the Rev. Michael Halahan was re- moved from his position asassistant at the cathedral and placed in charge of the parish. Through his exertions the church and grounds were greatly improved, and a parochial residence erected, since which time the home of the parish priest has been in this place. The com- pleted church was dedicated by Bishop Wadhams, un- der the protection of St. Philip of Neri, with a large number of visiting priests in attendance. The new bell was baptized with the name of Pere Isaac Jogues, and its musical sound floated forth over the little island where the gentle priest had suffered, two hundred and .
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forty years before. The cruel savages are gone. Their animal-like worship of the forces of nature has com- manded no followers since they were swept away. But the cross of Christ, upon which Isaac Jogues fixed every thought of his anguished sont as his gaze swept the horizon of this wilderness, still shines as a symbol over the whole land.
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