USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 2
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The first white person known to have set foot within the present limits of Franklin county came to St. Regis from Caughnawaga about 1750. The Indians at the latter place were a remnant of the Mohawks, formerly settled near Schenectady, and known as the " praying Indians." They were persuaded by French missionaries to remove to Canada about 1667. The story, briefly, as told by Franklin B. Hough, who was pains-
* An old gazetteer refers to one range of the Adirondacks as the " Peru Moun- tains," which naturally suggests treasure and precious metals, but in fact the name is understood to have been taken from the town, which, in turn, is sup- posed to have been so called because of its mountainous character. This par- ticular range is described as extending from about ten miles west of Lake Cham- plain southwestwardły through Essex and Hamilton counties for a distance of one hundred and thirty miles.
NOTE .- Though the matter does not pertain particularly, or hardly at all, to Franklin county, it may nevertheless not be uninteresting to emphasize here the error of what has been, I think, the general school-boy impression, that America was once densely populated by aborigines. My own school history's recital of wars and massacres certainly suggested to the childish mind that the Indians, if not as numerous as the leaves of the forest, were surely almost as many as the trees. But the best authorities place their probable aggregate, of both sexes and all ages, east of the Rockies, in the territory of the United States, at the time of the discovery, at not more than 300,000, or only about as many souls as the cities of Rochester and Utica combined now contain. The same territory had in 1910 a population of 85,000,000, or more than 260 times that of the Indians four centuries previous. The Indians now surviving in the United States, when the idea is more or less prevalent that they have been all but exterminated, number almost as many as they did in 1500. Lossing and other more accurate historians estimate the number of Indians belonging to the " Long House " or the League of the Iroquois, at not to exceed 13,000 at their strongest, and there are half as many now living in New York. Yet, unless we may be near a reservation we rarely. see one, or, unless something directs the matter particularly to attention, realize that there are any in the State. Fisk gives the Hurons, who occupied the country to the east of the lake that bears their name, only 20,000 souls in all, and a somewhat careful examination of authorities discloses that with the exception of King Philip's forces in the ter- rible war that he waged, and which at their maximum numbered between 3,000
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taking and usually accurate, is that two boys named Tarbell were kidnapped at Groton, Mass., about 1723, taken to Caughnawaga, and there adopted - growing up in the habits, manners and language of their captors, and in the course of time marrying daughters of two of the chiefs. Superior in mind and enterprise to the genuine Indian youths, and so outclassing them at many points, jealousy was provoked against the Tarbells and their immediate families, aligning the village into factions and creating general friction and disturbance. These differences proving irreconcilable, the missionary priest at Caughnawaga advised the Tarbells to withdraw and establish themselves elsewhere. They and their families, together with their wives' parents, proceeded to St. Regis, which they called Ak-sis-sas-ne, said to signify " where the partridge drums," though the name is claimed by some writers not to have been applied because of such drumming, but from the fact that the grinding of ice in the St. Lawrence in that vicinity, floating through the rapids and lodging in the calmer waters, produces a noise which at a distance resembles the drumming of the partridge. Here the Tarbells made small clearings for corn fields, and founded their homes. Fronting on the St. Lawrence, and bordered by the Raquette on the west and by the St. Regis on the east, the location is one of great natural attractiveness, and the soil is generally rich and fertile. In 1760 they were joined by a colony from Caughnawaga which is believed to have numbered several hundred, marshaled and led by Father Anthony Gordon, a Jesuit missionary, who, arriving on the day whose patron saint is St. Regis, gave that name to the place. The motive for this movement from Caughnawaga is understood to have been the withdrawal of the Indians from the close vicinity of Montreal,
and 4,000 warriors, the largest Indian war party prior to or during the Revolu- tionary War of which record has been made was one of 1,800, led by Montcalm at Ticonderoga in 1758; and this included savages recruited all the way from Quebec to Iowa. The next largest, of 1,000, was mustered by Sir William Johnston in an expedition against Oswego. In other campaigns and maranding forays the maximum appears to have been 600 until about 1800, when a much larger force was all but exterminated in Ohio, and again at the Custer massacre of the Little Big Horn. Most of the colonial Indian horrors were perpetrated by bands usually numbering only 30 or 40, though occasionally they were par- ticipated in by from 100 to 200. The entire fighting strength of the Iroquois in 1700 is rated by Parkman at only 1,200, disease and war having cut it in half. The same authority gives the total number of Algonquin warriors in Canada at the same date as scarcely 1,000, and this inclusive of all who were scattered from Ottawa to the Atlantic. As still further demonstration of the point that is sought here to be made, Parkman, in referring to the flight of a party of raiders from Massachusetts to Canada, declares that in the entire distance of 200 miles there was not a house or even one Indian wigwam. Thus any idea that in pioneer times the country was thickly populated by savages must be revised and rejected. Indeed, the slightest careful reflection proves that in the nature of then existing conditions any considerable population was impos- sible, for the country was so much a wilderness, and the Indian clearings and fields so few and scant, that it could not have supported large numbers of people.
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where corrupting and degrading influences, particularly the ease with which liquor could be obtained, made the work of the missionaries doubly arduous and discouragingly barren of results. Absolute prohibi- tion and suppression of the rum evil characterized the new village for a time, but has not been a distinguishing condition of the locality in late years. Unless the tribe is to degenerate utterly, measures must be enforced to restore the state of affairs in this regard which Father Gordon instituted. Intemperanee and tuberculosis are the scourges of this people.
Another white person besides the Tarbells, an Indian captive and a woman, is naturally recalled in connection with St. Regis, though never herself a resident there. In 1704 the village of Deerfield, Mass., was sacked and partly burned, many of the inhabitants massacred, and many others carried into captivity. Among the latter was Eunice, aged seven years, the daughter of Rev. John Williams. She was taken to Caugh- nawaga, grew up in the tribe, and in time mated with an Indian, the husband taking the wife's name. She visited Deerfield upon two occa- sions after reaching womanhood, but could not be persuaded to desert the people with whom her life had been cast, nor to discard even tem- porarily her Indian dress and resume the garb of the whites. Eleazer Williams (sometimes called "Lazarre "), who is believed by many to have been the lost dauphin of France, and who was educated at Long Meadow, Mass., and at other schools in New England, and served for many years as a missionary to the Indians in Central New York and in Wisconsin, afterward becoming an Episcopal clergyman at Hogans- burgh, is held by Parkman, and probably with truth, to have been Eunice Williams's grandson. But the story of Eleazer Williams will be a chapter by itself.
Though the Tarbells and Father Gordon are the first whites indubi- tably known to have set foot within the limits of our county, the impression persisted among the early settlers here that others must have antedated them; and, indeed, that assumption may be well founded not- withstanding it is not susceptible of positive proof. Almost a hundred and fifty years before St. Regis was founded it is known with certainty that French fur traders were pushing west and north from Montreal, and establishing trading stations at all advantageous points. Thus it is far from improbable that territory in the vicinity of Fort Covington and St. Regis may have been occupied by adventurers of this class long before the migration of the Tarbells, and that they even penetrated to locations a number of miles south of the St. Lawrence. Various incidents arose
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from time to time three-quarters of a century ago which gave support to that idea. In 1851 Wing Merritt, a wheelwright of Malone, while dress- ing out wagon spokes from an oak tree eighteen inches in diameter that had been cut in Brasher, found a leaden bullet within an inch of the heart of the tree, and by counting the concentric rings within which the bullet lay, and making what was deemed proper allowance for the ball's penetration, it was believed that the shot must have been fired close upon two hundred years before. The incident is unquestionably authentic. Then, too, within a few years of the same time a knife or dirk thrust into a log or tree trunk was found in the heart of the wilderness in the town of Bellmont under conditions which were held by those who looked into the matter to point unmistakably to its having been left there by a European a great many years previously. But these and other similar incidents, however interesting and suggestive, are of course not proof that the county was visited by whites prior to 1750, and I have not been able to find any authentic record that confirms the conjecture or assumption.
SIR JOHN JOHNSTON'S FLIGHT THROUGH THE ADIRONDACKS
The story of Sir John Johnston of Johnstown is well known in a gen- eral way, but that he journeyed through parts of Franklin county. and almost perished here from exposure and starvation, will, I think, be news to most people. He was an ardent supporter of George III. and a strong royalist, with a considerable number of Scottish retainers and an unbounded influence with the Mohawk Indians. In the winter of 1775 General Schuyler met Sir John by appointment in the vicinity of his home, and compelled him to surrender two or three hundred stand of arms, with ammunition for them, and exacted his parole not to engage in hostilities against the Colonists. In May, 1776, reports having reached General Schuyler to the effect that Sir John was about to violate his parole, a large force of Colonists was sent from Albany to apprehend him ; but Tory or Indian friends having warned him of the approach of these, he fled with his retainers to Canada. Mr. James Croil, in his history of Dundas county, Ont., says that, being apprehensive that if he should pursue the Lake Champlain route he might come into collision with the Colonist army that was operating in that region, he directed his flight through the Adirondaeks, descending the valley of the Raquette river to its confluence with the St. Lawrence, where he was met by Indians from Caughnawaga, and taken thence by boat to Montreal. The hardships
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endured in the wilderness are said to have been extreme, and food in sufficient quantities for so large a party impossible of procurement. Many of Sir John's followers were given land grants in Dundas county, and Mr. Croil having had opportunity to gather data from these or their descendants, his statement is to be presumed authentic. Moreover, a work compiled and published by one of Sir John's descendants corrob- orates it, though not routing the flight quite as definitely as Mr. Croil does. Sir John marshaled later a host of his Indian followers under the redoubtable Brandt, and also organized a force of regular soldiers known as the Royal Greens, and was a terrible scourge throughout the Mohawk valley.
THE OLD MILITARY TRACT AND THE MACOMB PURCHASE
Every wilderness tract, every farm and even every village lot and gar- den plot in Franklin county is a part either of the so-called Old Military Tract or of the so-called Macomb's Purchase. The former comprehended all of the towns Burke, Chateaugay, Bellmont and Franklin, and the latter all of the fifteen other towns. A brief statement concerning these tracts should, therefore, be of popular interest.
The Old Military Tract was set apart by act of the Legislature in 1786 for satisfying out of the same the claims of persons entitled to bounty lands promised by a prior act for enlistment and three years' service in the Revolutionary army. Each private and non-commissioned officer was entitled under this latter act to five hundred acres of State lands, and commissioned officers from one thousand acres to five thou- sand five hundred acres each, dependent upon their rank. To meet such claims something like three-quarters of a million acres in the northern part of the State were appropriated, comprising the four towns named in Franklin county and also five towns in Essex and Clinton counties. But the Legislature had created other military tracts also for the like purpose, lying in the central part of the State and in Ohio, and, these latter being deemed more desirable, all land-bounty claims were filed against them, so that not a single acre of the tract in this region was ever pre-empted by a soldier. All of it was subsequently sold by the State to land speculators at about nine pence per acre. 'The names of those who became early owners in this tract which are now at all familiar here are William Bailey, Gerrit Smith, Guy Meigs, Samuel Wead and William Bell. The town of Bellmont (then including Franklin) takes its name from the latter, and Gerrit Smith's investment was largely with the idea
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of providing homes for freed and fugitive slaves - Mr. Smith having been one of the most zealous and best known abolitionists in the period antedating the Civil War, and an ardent member of the society for colonizing the western coast of Africa with emancipated blacks. Not a few colored people were in fact settled upon a part of Mr. Smith's pur- chase, and some of their descendants are still residents of Franklin and Essex counties, though the severity of the climate, the inhospitable char- acter of the soil and the agricultural ignorance of the negroes combined to make the attempted colonization a failure.
The Macomb Purchase, effected in 1791, included parts of Franklin, Lewis, Jefferson and Oswego counties, and all of St. Lawrence, together with most of the American islands in the St. Lawrence river, comprehend- ing nearly four million acres. The contract price made with the State was eight pence per acre, one-sixth part to be paid in cash, and the remain- der in five equal annual payments, without interest, but with a discount of six per cent. per year to be allowed to Macomb if he should anticipate any of the agreed payments. And, even at this price, the State benefited only by one-half of the amount, the other half having been allowed for services to the commissioners who made the sale. A condition of the grant or patent that was never met required that within seven years from its date there be one family actually settled on the tract for every six hun- dred and forty acres thereof; otherwise, the estate to " cease, determine and be void." Also the letters patent reserved to the State " all gold and silver mines, and five acres of every hundred acres " for highways. The contract of purchase provided further that there be deducted from the acreage to be paid for " all lakes whose area exceeds one thousand acres " and a "tract equal to six miles square in the vicinity of the village of St. Regis," which last exception was intended to provide for an Indian reservation.
Macomb became financially involved before the transaction with the State was fully consummated, and by a series of transfers various sec- tions of the tract for which he had bargained became vested in a number of people -some of whom had been from the start silent partners with him in the deal. Included among these early owners were Daniel McCormick, William Constable, John McVickar, Hezekiah B. Pierre- pont and Richard Harison. The Constable holdings in Franklin county as partitioned were mainly in the central northern parts, the Pierrepont in the western, the Harison in the central, and the MeCormick in the central and southern. Afterward Ray de la Chaumont. Michael Hogan,
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Luther Bradish and others came into ownership of considerable tracts through purchase from one or another of those named.
These early land owners in the Old Military Tract and in Macomb's Purchase constituted so remarkable a group of men, both as regards character and abilities and their relation to the government of the State and to the business enterprises of their day, that it would be unpardon- able to omit brief sketches of them.
Alexander Macomb was born in Ireland in 1748; came to America with his parents in 1755; located at Detroit, Mich., in 1772, where in thirteen years he amassed a fortune in the fur trade; removed to New York in 1785; married as a second wife a daughter of a partner of William Constable. His residence was on Broadway, below Trinity church, and at one time it was rented and occupied by Washington when he was President. Mr. Macomb served several terms in the Assembly of New York, and mingled in the highest social circles, counting among his intimate friends many of the foremost men of the nation. He failed in 1792 for a million dollars; was arrested and confined in jail for a time at the instance of some of his creditors ; re-established himself finan- cially ; and failed again in 1812. General Alexander Macomb, who com- manded the land forces at the battle of Plattsburgh, was his son. Mr. Macomb died at Georgetown, D. C., in 1831.
Daniel McCormick also was an Irishman, and among his closest friends and almost constant companions at his stately home on Wall street were William Constable, Richard Harison, William Bell and Michael Hogan, some of whom were to be seen with him almost every afternoon on the porch of his house. His establishment was continually the scene of friendly dinner parties, at which the number of guests was always odd. Mr. McCormick was one of the most polished gentlemen in the city, and had the entree to the most exclusive social circles, as is shown by the fact that he was a guest at a dinner given by Mrs. John Jay to President Washington. He would not move from his Wall street home even when every other residence in the locality had disappeared, and the district had been given over wholly to business establishments. He was president of the Society of the Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, grand treasurer of the grand lodge of Masons of the State of New York, a member of the Cham- ber of Commerce, and an alderman. A biographer says of him that he was old-fashioned, and clung tenaciously to accustomed habits and style of dress. He wore short breeches to the last, with white stockings and buckles, and powdered his hair. He was without a stain on his char- acter. He died in 1834, possessed of great wealth.
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Michael Hogan, owner of Bombay, another Irishman, who had been a ship captain, sailing to every part of the globe, and speaking a number of languages, brought with him to New York in 1804 four hundred thou- sand English sovereigns, equivalent to two million dollars - an almost unheard of fortune in this country at that time. The money is under- stood to have been the dowry of Mrs. Hogan, who was a princess of India, and whom Mr. Hogan had married in the city of Bombay. Mr. Hogan established a store on the site afterward occupied by the old Astor House, and filled it with such a stock of costly merchandise as the city had then never seen. Afterward he became a ship-owner and importer, doing an immense business. He gave the grandest dinners known in New York, and a biographer says that he was the perfect Irish host and gentleman, commanding universal respect. He was a contributor to standard publications of his day. A number of his ships were captured by Great Britain in the war of 1812, involving him in financial embarrassment. A monument was erected to him in old Trinity churchyard, and afterward removed to Grace church.
William Bell had been supercargo for William Constable in the latter's trading enterprises with China, and was deemed an authority of ultimate appeal in all matters relating to commercial business with Asia.
A sketch of Luther Bradish, an up-standing figure in the politics and government of the State of New York three-quarters of a century ago, forms a separate chapter of this work.
Robert Watts, a partner with Mr. Bradish in Moira holdings, and long a resident there, was of the New York family of that name, a number of whom were large merchants, and was related by marriage to General Philip Kearney. An elder Watts married the daughter of the Earl of Sterling.
William Bailey, once owner of the greater part of Burke and Chateau- gay, and also the local agent for William Constable, was originally from New York city, possessed considerable means, and located in Chateau- gay in 1800. There he conducted a large farm, and built and operated an iron forge- the first in the county with the possible exception of the one in Westville. In 1810 three slaves were owned in Franklin county, and Mr. Bailey was one of the two owners - the other being Mr. Harison of Malone. Though I am not sure, it is my impression that Mr. Bailey had two slaves, and Mr. Harison one. In 1820 there was not a negro, bond or free, in the county. Mr. Bailey was the father
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
of Admiral Theodorus Bailey, the hero of the capture of New Orleans in our civil war. The admiral was born in Chateaugay in 1805. Mr. Bailey was also the grandfather of the late Mrs. C. C. Whittelsey, of Malone. He represented Clinton county, a part of which Chateaugay then was, in the Assembly in 1802 and 1806, and in the latter year was also a judge of the court of common pleas for Clinton county. He removed from Chateaugay to Plattsburgh in 1811, and died at the latter place in 1840.
Gerrit Smith, the radical abolitionist, and one of the operators of the famous " underground railroad," was said by Thurlow Weed to be " the handsomest, the most attractive and the most intellectual man I have ever met." Mr. Smith is suspected of having quartered on his lands at or near North Elba, Essex county, some of the escaped slaves whom he guided to points of safety against recapture, and it is believed that a number of these were transported secretly through Franklin county to "stations " in Malone, and thence into Canada, via Fort Covington.
So far as I have been able to ascertain, Hezekiah B. Pierrepont had no particular distinction except as a business man of large interests and varied experiences. He is said to have been always lenient and liberal with those who purchased lands from him in cases where they were unable to meet payments as provided in their contracts.
John McVickar, born in Ireland, came to New York as a youth, and was under the guardianship of Daniel McCormick until of an age to rely upon himself. He entered the mercantile business in 1986, and in the course of a few years became one of the largest merchants and ship-owners in the city. The volume of his business was enormous, and a large part of it was the importation and sale of Irish linens and other Irish manufactures. So important to Irish industries were his purchases that upon the occasion of a visit that he made to the island it was a subject of general remark, and it was jokingly suggested that the lord lieutenant confer upon him the order of knighthood. Mr. McVickar also traded largely with China through his own ships. He was one of the founders of the Society of Friendly Sons of St. Patrick, a vestryman of Trinity Church, a director in a number of banks and insurance companies, and a member of the boards of managers of several benevolent and philanthropic institutions to be connected with which was deemed a great honor, as the appointments were invariably restricted to the very best men to be found in the city. Barrett's " Old
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Merchants of New York" says that Mr. McViekar was possessed of a sound judgment and a nice sense of the highest commercial honor, and was proverbially generous in extending aid to merchants who were weaker than himself. A son married a daughter (Euretta) of William Constable, and a daughter married William Constable, Jr. William McViekar, deceased, of Malone, who was the father of Mrs. C. W. Breed and Mrs. Ralph, was a descendant of John.
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