USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 19
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The Christian sect is said by Hough to have been organized in 1818 by Elder Uriah Smith and James Spooner. For a long time it was the strongest religious body in that section, if not in the town as a whole. At West Bangor it included until sixty years ago nearly every inhabitant. February 10, 1860, the Christians joined with the Methodists, Uni- versalists, Presbyterians and Baptists in forming the "Union Society of West Bangor," each denomination having one trustee, and each to " have the privilege of occupying the meeting house in proportion as they have paid in building or shall pay in repairing the same." Though there appear to have been individuals of both the Universalist and Baptist faiths in the vicinity of West Bangor, neither of these denomi- nations ever had a distinctive organization there except as perhaps they
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may have effected informal associations incidental to joining in the Union Church movement. Nor, I think, did either ever have a settled pastor, but were served irregularly and infrequently by clergy of their respective denominations from Malone. The members of the Christian organization have died out very largely, or have been absorbed by the Adventists - the society holding no services now and having had no settled pastor since about 1868.
While the first Methodist Episcopal church in Bangor was not incor- porated until 1851, and the South Bangor church of that denomination not until 1860, they nevertheless date considerably earlier, for the con- ference records show that a regular ministerial appointment to the town was made by that body as early as 1835, and that such appointments have continued unbrokenly every year since; and undoubtedly Metho- dist services were held here long before by circuit riders, as in 1837 the charge was reported to the conference as having one hundred and sixty- five members. The society has two church edifices besides its share in the one at West Bangor. Its house of worship at North Bangor was built in 1903, and a curiously misleading inscription appears on its cornerstone, the implication of which is that the entire edifice was a gift by the persons whose names are graven on the stone, whereas they gave the stone only. Prior to the erection of this church the old town hall had been used alternately with the Congregationalists. The church at Bangor was built in 1856, meetings there having been held previously in the school house. Services are held each Sunday both at North Bangor and at Bangor, and on alternate Sundays at West Bangor. There is one pastor for the three places. The membership at West Bangor is eighteen, at Bangor forty-four, and at North Bangor one hundred and fifty-nine. The parsonage is at North Bangor. An unfortunate and acrimonious schism in the church occurred thirty years ago, growing out of the adherence of a part of the members to Rev. C. N. Capron, who was tried by the conference in 1883 while he was pastor here, the charges against him having been falsehood, fraud and drinking, and the judgment by conference having been that he be suspended. Nevertheless he and his friends continued to hold possession of at least one of the church edifices and the parsonage until an order was issued out of the supreme court restraining Mr. Capron from fur- ther occupancy. The suit was settled later by the Capron faction sur- rendering the property, and the breach was long ago healed.
The French Presbyterian church did not long endure. In 1859
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Henry Morrell of Ogdensburg, but previously of Bangor, where he had served as the church's minister, deeded a lot and the meeting house thereon, situate on the Taylor road, to Jacob Jefferson Johnson (a negro), Peter Labell and Francis Gravell as trustees of the society in question. The premises were sold to the late Judge Paddock in 1864, and by him in the same year to the First Seventh Day Adventist Church, of which Horace W. Lawrence was the leader. This latter sect had had followers in the town for twenty years or more, Millerism having had a considerable vogue there when the second coming of Christ was so implicitly expected in 1843. The Adventist church organization is still maintained.
According to the county clerk's records Joshua Dickinson deeded a plot of ground in 1851 to Anderson Wilson, Richard King and Thomson Graves as trustees of the First Episcopal Church of Bangor, but as no such organization is remembered by old residents as ever having had an existence, and as at the time stated the gentlemen named were trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church of Bangor, it is altogether probable that the record is erroneous, the word " Methodist" having been inad- vertently omitted either in the original or in its transcription. More- over, the lot deeded was occupied for a time by the Methodists for a parsonage.
St. Mark's Church at West Bangor was a mission of St. Mark's of Malone, and was the outgrowth of a feeble movement by the few Episcopalians of the place for an organized existence. These had held services occasionally in the stone town house or union church until crowded out of its use by the stronger denominations, and then in a hall over Dr. Darling's store. A church edifice was built in 1876, and for several years the Episcopalian rectors at Malone officiated in it irregularly. The organization no longer exists.
Saint Augustine's Church, Bangor (Roman Catholic), was incorpo- rated in 1887, and has a church building at North Bangor, erected in 1890 on the cross road, south of the corners, and afterward moved to its present location on the highway leading to Malone. It has a mem- bership of over one hundred families.
The St. Mark's church building was sold in 1902 by the heirs of Dr. Darling to St. Edward's Church (Roman Catholic), which continues to occupy it. It includes ninety-two families, and is served by the rector of Saint Augustine's Church at North Bangor.
The Wesleyan Methodist Church of the Bangor and Burke circuit
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(now named the First Wesleyan Church and Society) is at Cook's Corners, and was organized in 1850 through the efforts of Rev. Joseph Grinnell. The circuit originally included not only the towns named, but also Sand Street in Westville, Fort Covington Center, South Bom- bay, Wolf Swamp, Keach's school house in Moira, Egypt, Canaan, the Riley district in Bangor and Coal Hill in Westville ; and a single pastor served them all until about 1871. The church building at Cook's Corners was erected in 1871, and is just over the town line in Fort Covington. Before the church was built services were held in the school house. The Cook's Corners Society is almost, or quite, the only sur- viving Wesleyan organization of the considerable number that at one time existed in the county.
Spiritualism gained a considerable hold fifty-odd years ago in the North Bangor section, and at least two persons there obsessed by it became insane.
George Mott, an upright and respected farmer, had the distinction of being the last Democrat to represent Franklin county in the Assembly, having been elected by 258 plurality in a triangular contest in 1856 over Rev. Andrew M. Millar (Rep.) of Chateaugay and Charles Russell (Knownothing) of Bombay. A son of Mr. Mott (D. Warren) was a student at Franklin Academy forty-odd years ago, studied medicine, was admitted a practitioner, and removed to California, where he has had a large measure of success, both professionally and politically. Dr. Mott represents his district in the California Senate.
CHAPTER VI BELLMONT
The town of Bellmont was erected from Chateaugay March 25, 1833, and then included all of the territory now comprising the town of Franklin. In 1838 its boundaries were extended by annexation of a strip a mile wide extending across the north end of the town, which was detached from Chateaugay. The town was named for William Bell, of the city of New York, who had been an employee of William Constable in the latter's shipping enterprises, and afterward was him- self a merchant. At about the close of the eighteenth century Mr. Bell had acquired, with others, title to practically all of the lands in the northern part of the town, Mr. Bell's portion comprising about eight thousand acres, and twenty-odd years later he was accustomed to spend his summers on the property. He must have been a man of considerable means for that day, because by his will there were specific legacies of money amounting to nearly twenty thousand dollars, while the residue of the estate, other than realty, was bequeathed to a relative who sup- posedly would be richly remembered. Mr. Bell died in 1841.
The town was of slow development, and even yet is mostly wilder- ness, though largely denuded. Generally the soil is neither rich nor deep, and its surface, rocky and mountainous, does not lend itself to profitable agriculture. Even the lumbering and other industrial enter- prises that have been prosecuted did not tend particularly to populate the town permanently, nor to enrich it. Miles upon miles of its forest area were destroyed for conversion into charcoal, and though, first and last, it has had many sawmills, most of them were small, and much of the timber cut within its borders went to mills elsewhere for manu- facture. Neither have its many waters been utilized extensively, as in other localities, for summer resort business, except that Lower Chateau- gay Lake has not been altogether neglected, and except also that in the western part of the town in comparatively recent years Indian Lake and Mountain View have had many camps built upon their shores. Mountain View (formerly known as State Dam, a dam having been built upon the river there by the State in 1855 or 1856) was once one of the most prolific trout waters in the Adirondacks, and Indian Lake
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(Round Pond) was a famous hunting resort. One of the old guides used to tell that he once counted twenty-seven carcasses of deer piled at a single point on its shores, stripped of their hides, and the meat left to rot. Mountain View and Indian Lake are in close proximity, and together have perhaps a hundred cottages. In addition, there are at the former place an all-the-year-around population of forty to fifty, with a school house, a Roman Catholic church, a Protestant church, two hotels, two stores, and a number of boarding houses. An unofficial enumeration of the people in cottages and camps, including permanent residents, on one day in July, 1915, listed eight hundred and ten. Lower Chateaugay Lake, a fine sheet of water, and easily reached from Chateaugay, formerly had two small hotels, and now has one, the Banner House, formerly conducted by J. S. Kirby and now by F. H. Adams, which attracts a considerable number of guests, and has a deserved popularity. A few cottages have been built there recently. But Ragged Lake, Ingraham Pond and other waters in the town have only one or two summer camps each. Ragged Lake formerly had a small hotel, kept by J. W. Pond. The Banner House was formerly the Bellows House, which originally was a mere shack. Jonathan Bellows located in Constable more than a hundred years ago, and laid out a trapper's line from there to Chateaugay Lake .. In place of the shack which he first occupied at the latter point he built a comfortable house, which his son, Lewis, subsequently enlarged and conducted as a hotel for a good many years. Guests from Montreal began to visit the place in appreciable numbers in 1837 or 1838, and after the railroad from Rouses Point to Ogdensburg was built the business increased notably. The locality was then known colloquially as the "Shategee Woods," and, except for the Saranacs, was about the only Adirondack point that outsiders sought in Franklin county. The Bellows property was sold in 1891, renovated and enlarged, and has since been known as the Banner House. A son of Lewis Bellows (Millard F.) still lives in Bellmont, and a daughter is Mrs. N. Monroe Marshall of Malone.
So far as I know, Bellmont is the only town in Franklin county for which the Legislature made special provision to induce settlement. In 1822 an act was passed which provided for granting one lot in town- ship number ten, Old Military Tract (now in Franklin), to each and every person who within five years should clear and fence fifteen acres of such lot, erect thereon a habitable dwelling, and be there settled with his family ; and also three lots to each and every person who within
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four years should erect and put in operation one good and sufficient grist mill within said township, and one lot to each and every person who should erect and put in operation one good and sufficient sawmill.
Among the early settlers in the eastern part of the town were Samuel C. Drew, Enoch and Paul Merrill, John Sanborn, John B. and Joseph H. Jackson, Jacob and John Otis, Jonathan Bellows, John D. Miles, Joseph, Jonathan and Noah Estabrooks and Roswell A. Weed - all locating at or near the site of the present hamlet of Chateaugay Lake. Mr. Drew was probably the first of these, in 1816, though Mr. Sanborn claimed to have preceded him, and sought to have the town called San- borntown on this account. Some of Mr. Drew's descendants are now located in New York city, where they have made a business of moving large buildings, and have accumulated handsome fortunes. Mr. Drew came from New Hampshire, as also did several others of those named, including the Merrills. W. H. J. Drew, who became the close friend of Mr. Bell, was the first white male child born in the town. He was at one time school commissioner, and his grave is on the old homestead on the west side of Chateaugay Lake. The Merrills, or their descend- ants, conducted a small hotel at the foot of Lower Chateaugay Lake, and were famous fishermen with nets, and but for their operations and the use of dynamite afterward by miners at Lyon Mountain the waters thereabout would undoubtedly contain a more abundant supply of trout and whitefish. Of these latter, which are one of the finest of pan- fish, Mr. Merrill used to bring wagon loads to Malone something over forty years ago, and mixed with them a considerable proportion of lake trout. Mr. Merrill himself was honestly persuaded that net fishing really bettered the supply of trout, as it removed from the lake the large fish which prey upon the small fry and eat the spawn.
Gates Hoit, of Chateaugay, representing nonresident landowners, built the first sawmill in the town in 1822 or carlier, and it was soon afterward sold to John B. Jackson (afterward wood agent for the O. & L. C. R. R. for many years), who, a little later, himself built a grist mill nearby, the stones for which were cut from native boulders by John D. Miles. Mr. Miles was one of the most estimable citizens that Bellmont ever had. He acquired an interest in the Jackson mills. A grandson still resides in the town. Mr. Weed took over the Jackson and Miles mills and acquired other properties in considerable amounts, opening a hotel and enlarging the mills. A considerable part of the product of the sawmill was hauled forty miles to Champlain for Meigs
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& Wead of Malone. Mr. Weed was prominent in all of the town's affairs until 1854, when he sold the mills to a Mr. Hughes of Ver- gennes, Vt., and removed to Plattsburgh. He was the father of Hon. Smith M. Weed, of Plattsburgh, who joined with others almost half a century afterward to establish at the place of his birth the greatest industry that the town ever possessed, if not the largest ever operated in the county. Another son was William B. Weed, who was a cavalry captain under Kilpatrick in the civil war, and then went to Australia, where he is supposed to have been murdered. Mr. Hughes did an extensive business for a time, but failed, when the mill was acquired by Erastus Meade and George W. Palmer, of Plattsburgh. Mr. Palmer withdrawing after a year or two, Samuel F. Vilas took over his interest, and in 1869 or 1870 Gilbert L. Havens leased the mill and ran it for a year or two. Joseph Clark built and operated a sawmill in the same vicinity in 1848.
Even earlier than 1810 William Bailey, then residing at Chateaugay, dug iron ore near Chateaugay Lake until the deposit was exhausted, and manufactured it at High Falls on the Chateaugay river. In 1826 Jonathan Stearns, of Malone, leased and worked mineral lands in the same vicinity until the supply failed, and about 1875 Lewis H. Bellows and Edgar Keeler, of Chateaugay, located and worked an iron mine near the Bellows House, drawing the ore to Irona. This mine was sub- sequently worked by other parties also, and two separators were built in the vicinity for handling the ore.
The first store at Chateaugay Lake was built by John B. Jackson and Dr. Hiram Paddock, of Chateaugay, the business of which was managed by Elias Beman, of Chateaugay, who operated an ashery also. Other early merchants here were Charles Backus and Nahum Whipple, the latter of Malone. In 1869 Meade & Vilas erected a large store build- ing, and conducted a mercantile business in connection with their lumbering operations.
Settlement at Brainardsville, a mile down the river, was later, and in a paper read by Mr. O. F. Chase before the Historical Society a few years ago it was stated that even as late as 1843 bear, lynx, wolves and panthers were abundant in the neighborhood. The first sawmill here was built by a man named Chamberlain, and was sold to Abel H. Miller, then of Malone ; then to Fisk & Van Allen of Albany, for whom James Coates looked after the operating; then, in 1854, to Lawrence Brainard of St. Albans, Vt., who enlarged it, and also built a grist
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mill and a number of houses. Gilbert L. Havens was his resident manager, and in 1861 bought the properties and operated them exten- sively until he failed a dozen years later, when he removed to Colorado. He was a hustling, affable gentleman, and loomed large in the politics of the town. Upon his failure Mr. Brainard came again into possession, and resumed operations. In 1882, the mills having been destroyed, the sites and water powers were sold to John Hoy, who built and operated a grist mill, afterward adding to it a sawmill. The latter is still operated by the Hoy family, but on a smaller scale than of old. In 1850 Alanson Roberts of Chateaugay built an ashery, and employed a man named Cromp to run it. The place thus came to be called Cromp- ville, but five years later, when the first post-office was established and called Brainardsville, the hamlet assumed that name also. Smith Payne was the first postmaster. At about this time Edwin Smith built and ran a starch factory here, which was afterward run by William S. Douglas of Chateaugay, and then by others until within a few years. There was also a sawmill on the brook, built by George Miller.
Brainardsville's first school was located to the east of the present hamlet, on the farm of John Kenison, now owned by Robert Arnold, a half mile from the Clinton county line. Miss Eliza Merrill, daughter of Paul, was its first teacher, and Miss Olive Miles (afterward Mrs. Wm. P. Cantwell of Malone) the second. But the population began to center farther west, and this school was abandoned. A new school house was built at Brainardsville in 1854. S. F. Storrs, who was reputed to have taught school for sixty terms, was one of the first teachers there.
Early merchants were Lawrence Brainard, Matt. J. Reynolds, G. L. Havens, Oliver Young and O. F. Chase & Co. J. S. Kirby succeeded Mr. Reynolds, and was himself succeeded by Bennett & English. Jacob Taubenheimer and F. M. Hoy were also once in trade at this point.
Brainardsville consists at present of a small group of dwelling houses, a store or two, a sawmill, a creamery, a wheelwright shop, owned by W. W. Lamberton, that does considerable business, and a Methodist church. It has a gravity system of water works, established by private enterprise in 1904, which has as takers nearly all of the inhabitants.
Other early settlers, mostly in the north central part of the town, were: John and Alva Orcutt, John Richey, James Barry, George Winkley, Smith Bunker, Marcus, Elijah and Charles E. Heading, Earl Howe, James Smith, Joseph, John and William Williamson. The last named was accidentally shot and killed by a child in a hotel in Malone in 1825. Mr. Howe died in 1884, and he used to tell that at the time
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he located, about 1830, there were only four or five residences, hardly more than huts, between Malone and Chateaugay Lake, and that it was a twenty hours' trip to Malone and return. Alva Orcutt and sons, William C. and Harry P., operated a starch factory (which had been built by Meigs & Wead of Malone) and a sawmill near their farm, five miles from Malone village, and Mr. Barry, who remained in the town only a short time, removed to Malone, and located on the South Bangor road. He was the father of Mrs. F. D. Kilburn and Mrs. Thomas Cantwell of Malone. Mr. Winkley became probably the most important farmer in Bellmont, and was a pioneer breeder in this county of fine- blooded cattle and Norman horses. The Headings were extensive farmers, sturdy men, and leaders in town affairs. Sherman J. Heading, son of Elijah, still lives in Bellmont, and is one of its foremost citizens. Bunker Hill, which one who has climbed it does not readily forget, was named after Smith Bunker, whose farm was located on it. Descendants of Mr. Thurber, Mr. Smith and the Williamsons are yet living in the town, and are factors in its affairs. A mile or so above the Orcutt mills on Trout river Charles Ring and John Monk built a sawmill, which they sold in 1854 to Samuel Voorhis from Elmira, and which was run later by Shepard & Jackson of Malone, O. W. Moody and David F. Field, Wallace H. Jones and Henry Bassett, John Phipps, and finally by Buel L. Foote; and a mile still farther up the stream Daniel Buell had a mill - afterward owned by Elisha Hare, then by Miles N. Daw- son and Orville Moore of Malone, and still later by Scott G. Boyce, who moved it a mile or two west and south, where it still stands. The Wayne Lumber Co. of New York city bought it a few months ago, and is now operating it, getting out lumber for use in building aeroplanes. Gilman Goodwin, who had made a fortune in New York city as a mover of buildings, came into the town in the sixties, and built and for several years operated a comparatively small mill on Little Trout river, about a mile east of the town house, where at a considerably earlier day Samuel, and then Benoni, Webb had had a mill. Mr. Goodwin rebuilt at a cost said to have amounted to sixty thousand dollars, but the enter- prise did not pay, and he returned to New York city. The machinery in the mill sold for five thousand dollars in 1882, and was removed to Gouverneur. John B. Hart built a mill at about the same time with Goodwin for John B. Roscoe of New York, for whom he operated it for several years. Later the property went into the hands of Judge Henry A. Paddock of Malone and Mr. Hart, but it never paid. An older mill,
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known as the Lewis Tucker mill, had been run at about the point where Mr. Hart located. The Goodwin and Hart establishments were both steam mills, and each proprietor ran a store in connection with his lumbering operations. Charles D. Rood also had a mill forty years ago or more on Little Trout river, near the Burke line, which was unprofit- able. John Hoy of Brainardsville built a sawmill north of the town house, and was fatally injured by the bursting of a flywheel while operating it in 1887.
The frequency with which failure was written across early lumbering enterprises is striking and pitiful. The operators had an abundance of the best timber of this region almost at the doors of their mills, they were unsparing of themselves in respect to hours and arduousness of labor, and the wages that they had to pay were low. Nevertheless it was only the exceptions who made money. Lumber commanded but a low price, the hauls to shipping points were long and over poor roads, and in many cases the equipments of mills gave only a small product. Thus the forests were wasted, and disappointment and hardship were the principal return that the owners realized.
The following have been merchants in a small way at Bellmont Center or vicinity : John Ryan, Edward Graves, Harvey Harrington, Earl Howe, Ben. Webb, Frank W. Winkley, Abe Reynolds, Thomas Rounds, Edward White and Thomas Reynolds.
Except for possibly two or three farmers, the first settlers in the extreme western part of the town were Charles Ring and John Monk, who came from Tompkins county about 1852 to engage in lumbering. They erected two mills on the Ingraham stream, and operated them for a number of years. A dozen years later both were wrecks. For twenty or thirty years Ringville (now known as Owls Head) had little growth, but has since become a busy and thriving hamlet, with a railway station, shops, stores and a Methodist Episcopal church. Until within a year or two Scott G. Boyce had a large sawmill and planing mill here for several years. The latter was burned, and the former dismantled and removed. Mr. Boyce formerly had a sawmill east of Owls Head also, in the vicinity of Ingraham Pond, which mill was built by Cornelius and Cass Wilson. Forty years ago, in order to vote, the residents of the section had to drive by way of Malone to Bellmont Center, nearly eighteen miles; and it was almost impossible even in a stirring cam- paign to induce more than a dozen or fifteen to undertake the trip when free transportation was furnished and payment made for their so-called
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