USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 29
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The names Anthony Sprague, Artemas Smith and Solomon Cook, all then resident in that part of Malone that is now known as Con- stable, appear on the assessment roll for 1805, marking them as among
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the first settlers. Little besides that is known concerning them. Wil- liam B. Buell, the father of Edward A., was born in Constable in 1813, and, his parents determining to move to Michigan when he was too young to be taken with them, was brought up by Oliver Bell. William Cooper also came at least as early as 1805, and had a saw mill and carding mill north of the Welch or Coburn mills; John C. Davenport, who had a tannery on Cooney brook, just east of the Corners, in which Daniel I. Coonley subsequently became a partner; Alden Haskell, who had a hotel in 1817; Peter B. Davenport, also an inn-keeper ; and Guy Meigs were other early comers. Mr. Meigs became a commanding figure in the county, both in a business and in a political sense, and it is regrettable that more data relative to his life in Constable can not be had. His activities from 1824 until his death in 1854 are pretty well known, but I can learn nothing of him in Constable except that he lived at one time on a farm near Dr. Wyman's, where his first wife died in 1816, and that he leased a saw mill on Salmon river, in the south- western part of the town, from Jacob Wead in 1829. Whether he ever was in trade in Constable I can not say, but his genius in that line prob- ably made him a merchant somewhere at a very early age. He was Constable's supervisor in 1826, when he was doing business at West- ville Corners, and was elected sheriff in 1836. He and his three wives are buried in Constable.
As nearly as I can trace the matter, through conversations with aged residents and from the records in the county clerk's office, Peter B. Davenport and then Reuben Gillett (the father of Sidney W.) had a hotel on the corner where Robert C. and Frank R. Wilson now reside. Mr. Gillett had a liquor license there in 1830 and 1831, and Mr. Daven- port must have preceded him. Then for a good many years the stand was a private residence, and such hotel accommodations as the hamlet afforded were to be found at the site of the present Hutchins House. Putnam W. Sumner had a liquor license there almost continuously from 1833 to 1845, though in 1843 the license ran to Jacob Travis, who, however, was refused a renewal in 1846 upon the ground that he " was not a proper applicant to keep such a place." While Mr. Sumner was landlord he had a store in the building. James Tobey, the father of Cornelius P. and Charles, bought the stand in 1845. Other landlords there were Goodrich ("Duck ") Hazen and Cornelius P. Tobey, the latter of whom was proprietor when the house burned in 1868. It was rebuilt by Robert C. Wilson for a private residence, and a dozen or fifteen years later became a hotel again, under the proprietorship of
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Lyman Hutchins. It was again burned some fifteen years ago and again rebuilt as a hotel. It was here, I think, that Alden Haskell had his tavern in 1817. The Davenport-Gillett stand was made a hotel onee more in 1874 by Cyrell Hutchins, and was so continued for a number of years. E. G. Smith ran it at one time. Still another old-time hotel was that of Daniel I. Coonley, which was near the Cooney brook, east of the Corners.
After Harry Horton and Charles and Henry Hawkins had ceased to carry on a mercantile business at the Corners, Sidney W. Gillett gave up his store at Trout River, and located at Constable - selling out there to Edwin L. Meigs, and removing to Malone. Other occupants and dealers on this site have been Mason & Culver, James and Harvey Hastings, James S. Dudley, Fred C. Hastings, Harvey J. Dudley, R. C. Wilson & Son, and now Roy B. Child. Across the commons George D. Hastings built and conducted a store about 1865, in which he was succeeded by J. Nelson Aubrey and Fred A. Dudley, who sold to Her- bert J. Buell, and he to Alburn E. Aubrey. Mr. Hastings also built and for a time kept the store around the corner, on the road to Trout River, now occupied by the post-office, and in which A. E. Aubrey, G. A. Harmon, Asa Harmon, Herbert J. Buell and Fred A. Dudley were later traders. Still a little farther north there used to be another store, kept by Hyson, Jason J. and Henry Carpenter. Opposite the post- office building there was, a long time ago, a cheap store or saloon of bad repute, built by William Healey, but which is now occupied by Harry Priest as a feed and produce store.
The Cooper saw mill and carding mill, above referred to, was run by Cooper & Hawkins in 1830, and was sold by Robert Cooper in 1839 to Esek Sprague and James G. Dickey, and by them in 1848 to Myron Chamberlain, who operated the property as a clothing, dye, fulling and carding mill and also as a sash and door factory. It was next run by George W. Works, and finally was bought by Jewett J. and Albert Webb, who converted it into a creamery, which it continues to be, with William Stebbins as maker.
Harry Horton became identified with the town about 1826 or 1828, and was influential in its affairs for a dozen years. He was a brother of Hiram Horton of Malone, and the grandfather of Mrs. H. D. Thomp- son and William H. and John H. King of Malone. He operated as a merchant and land owner and agent until about 1840 - his store having been on the same site now occupied by Roy B. Child. Henry H. Hawkins was another notable figure here at about the same period.
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Some of the old town records are in his writing, which was as sym- metrical and handsome as copperplate. He and his brother were the first merchants at Constable in 1824. George W. Darling, a physician, came in 1822, and practiced with notable success for a long time; and Jacob Hart was here as the pastor of the Congregational church in 1822.
The date of the first settlement in the northern part of the town, at or near Trout River, is not now determinable, but it was at least as early as 1820. Among the first comers were Simeon Witherell, Eras- tus Hazen, E. J. Knappin, Andrew MacFarlane, Peter Brewster, Sulli- van Tuthill, Orson L. Healey, Augustus Martin, James Gilmour Dickey and Washington Wooster. Arrivals a few years later included James V. Dickey (a cousin of James Gilmour), Patrick Lahey, Warren Rob- inson, Peter Martin, William Scranton, Francis Waggoner, David Web- ster, -Sr., Robert Gillard, Aaron Honsinger, John Vandervoort, Ezra Warren, James Dempsey, Patrick Riley, and Daniel Hughes. Mr. Knappin had an ashery, just north of the international boundary, the chimney of which has been made the starting point in many deed descriptions. What this ashery meant for a good many years to a good many people may be conjectured from the fact that in a sketch pre- pared by Mrs. Wallace H. Webster, and published in 1910, it is stated that the writer had seen an acre of ground covered with four-foot wood, bought at fifty cents a cord, for heating the ovens in which the potash was converted into pearlash, and from the further fact that when Mr. Gillett ran it and was in trade here he had on hand at one time pearlash valued at more than ten thousand dollars! John Lamontaigne made the barrels in which to pack the product, which went to Montreal, or fifty miles through the wilderness to Plattsburgh, whence it would be shipped by boat to New York. Mr. Martin was prominent for a long time, and was the father of many local enter- prises. About 1838 he built a saw mill half a mile above the hamlet, on the west side of the river, which was burned. He rebuilt a quarter of a mile below, and sold the new structure to his son, Jed. This mill was carried off by ice. The elder Martin next built another saw mill a quarter of a mile over in Canada, in which he included a carding mill, and where he also made cloth in a small way and manufactured furni- ture. He was several times in the mercantile business also. Mr. Rob- inson was the first customs officer here, and his salary was four hundred dollars per year. James Gilmour Dickey came in 1825, and for ten years was in trade and had a saw mill, in which was a feed mill. The
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particulars concerning the building of the mill in question are lost, but it is thought to have been erected more than a hundred years ago by parties from Montreal, which, if true, might explain the timber thefts of which Mr. Constable complained in his diary in 1804. The same mill was operated later by Sidney W. Gillett, and its products, both then and earlier, were rafted to Montreal. Later still it was run by Edwin A. and Wallace H. Webster. Before, during and after Mr. Gil- lett's time, Trout River was a source of lumber supply for a wide extent of country, and it was almost a daily occurrence that teams loaded here with lumber by parties from Westville, Fort Covington and points in Canada. James V. Dickey was a merchant from about 1828 to 1845. Mr. Wooster was the foster father of Mrs. W. H. Webster, who was the daughter of Solon Bingham of Burke. Mr. Wooster was customs officer for twenty-five years, and was in trade. Mr. Warren, a black- smith, was the father of Herrick E. and Washington W. Mr. Lahey was the father of Patrick H., late of Malone, and of George of Trout River, and Mr. Dempsey of William, now of Malone, but formerly one of the best known men in Constable - as square as a die, supervisor of the town a good many times, and an extensive dealer in livestock and farm products.
A stone grist mill was erected by Edwin A. and Wallace H. Webster in 1858, the walls of which still stand, though cracked by two fires. It was next owned and operated by Hector McLeod, who afterward won success and means at St. Johnsbury, Vt., and who sold to John R. Cameron. Then Thomas Helms had it until 1880, when it burned, and Mr. Cameron again came into possession and rebuilt it. Next it became the property of Charles W. Hyde, now a druggist in Malone, and in 1893 it burned again. Mr. Hyde sold to John Moore, who began a re-equipment of the interior, but never completed the work. This mill is just over the line in Canada, as also was the old Dickey-Gillett saw mill, for there is no point near the hamlet on the south of the border where it is feasible to develop a power.
Trout River had at one time two tanneries, on the Canadian side, the first of which was built by Alexander and James McNair during the civil war, and the second by Hugh Sutherland. Both were burned thirty years or more ago. The former had, however, been converted previously into a planing mill, which was owned and run by McNair and Charles Tuggey.
A starch mill was built on the American side of the line, probably prior to 1860, by the Webster Brothers. It was bought and operated
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by Clark Dickinson of Malone, who finally sold it to Jed. L. Martin, when it was changed over into a sawmill, to take the place of the one on the opposite side of the river that had been swept away by ice. It rotted down.
Besides Mr. Martin and the two Dickeys, early merchants here were Goodrich Hazen, Elisha Hollister, Washington Wooster and Orson and Joshua Healey. Sidney W. Gillett began trade probably before 1840, and his establishment was the best stocked and enjoyed the largest custom ever known at this point up to that time. When the Webster Brothers succeeded him, about 1850, and had afterward Edwin L. Meigs and Nathan L. Knapp as partners for a time, they drew custom from points thirty to forty miles distant. Wallace Webster withdrew from the firm about 1860, removing to Malone, and the senior member continued the business until 1865, when he disposed of it to John R. Cameron. Lyman J. Folsom traded here for something like ten years, and was succeeded when he removed to Malone in 1876 by Brown & McNeil. Alexander Dalzell, Derby & Paddock, John McFadden, Jed. L. Martin and Charles W. Hyde were also merchants at one time or another. Mr. Hyde went there from Malone about 1880 to open a branch drug store for Captain George A. Mayne, then in business in Malone, eventually bought the store, added other lines of goods, and when he became collector of customs arranged a partnership with the late James M. Hastings. Ten years later he sold out, removed to Malone, and established the Hyde drug store. Present merchants at Trout River are Mrs. John McCaffrey, Albert J. Elliott, George Bruce and Berry Brothers, dealers in groceries and meats. Henry McKane also has a meat market. Two store buildings where a considerable business used to be done, and another which was formerly a saloon and liquor store, are vacant, marking the decrease in business that has taken place.
But if there has been a loss in industrial and commercial activity, a compensating improvement has obtained in public order and morality. Within the recollection of men still living fighting of a fierce character, without other motive or provocation than a lust for display of prowess, was of frequent occurrence - the combats sometimes being between residents and stalwart men from Canada who came solely to settle which were the better fighters. Then, too, men who had good horses often arranged races up and down the street, while a drunken and howling body of spectators looked on as the trials proceeded. The stake usually
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was a jug of whiskey. Whether because of the prevalence of these con- ditions, or with other significance, is unknown, but the place, originally known simply as "The Lines," came to be called Villain Harbor. The early meaning of the word "villain " not having been that which we now attach to it, but signifying a man who held land by a servile tenure, and hence a countryman or farmer, it is possible that the name may have been applied to suggest that the locality was a desirable point for farm settlers. The name Trout River was taken when the hamlet was given a post-office in 1852.
The first hotel at Trout River of which I have knowledge was kept by Orson P. Healey in 1831, as the Constable town records show that he was granted an inn-keeper's license in that year and again in 1833. This record represents the town board as having found the applicant to be a fit person to keep a tavern, his establishment adapted to the busi- ness, and a hotel there to be actually necessary for the accommodation of the traveling public. The fee charged for the first year was five dol- lars, which was increased a year or two afterward to six dollars, and later restored to the amount first stated - as perhaps the rate of fifty cents a month had come to be regarded as excessive and burdensome when liquor commanded only two or three cents a glass. Thomas Caldwell also had an early tavern here, but whether before, coinci- dentally or after Healey can not be ascertained. Alexander and Thomas Chisholm built the Frontier House in 1866. It was burned a year later, was rebuilt by Frank Larue and Henry Riley, and was kept later by Riley alone. There was also at one time a hotel which James Black built and kept. The Franklin House was built in 1876 by Patrick H. Lahey, and kept by him until he removed to Malone in 1884. For thirty years past it has been run by Edward Dolan, and is the only hotel in the place. Long ago stages ran from Fort Covington, via Trout River, to Montreal, and then the hotels here had many guests. Even as late as Mr. Lahey's time every room in his house would be taken night after night. It is different now.
In Mrs. Webster's sketch, previously referred to, she states that at the time of the rebellion in Canada, nearly eighty years ago, large numbers of Canadians fled their homes, and sought refuge until the trouble should be over with friends on this side of the border; and that when the Fenian raids occurred in 1866 and 1870 " for twelve miles every family but one fled to the States." In the 1870 raid the Fenians made their camp on the Lahey farm, about a half a mile south of the hamlet; and upon their retreat when driven out of Canada they poured
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along the street and through yards and fields in disorderly and panic- stricken flight - many of them throwing away their arms and accoutre- ments. For years afterward practically everybody in the town who wished for a gun or a bayonet as a souvenir of the occasion had one, either picked up where it had been cast away, or obtained in exchange for food. The residents at Trout River at the time of the engagement in 1870 were not themselves in much better case than the Fenians, dread of possible personal injury or of destruction of property having seized many, while curiosity was the dominant condition with others. Anxious to witness the battle, so-called, and at the same time to seek safety, these latter crowded into the old stone grist mill until it would hold no more. The story of these movements is told more fully in a separate chapter.
Besides the starch factory at Trout River, the town had four others : One in the southern part, in the Chauncey Child neighborhood, built and operated by W. W. & H. E. King of Malone; a second, near the Bishop bridge, built by George F. Dickey and Henry A. Paddock, and owned afterward by George W. Hale, who abandoned it, and was then run until it was demolished by James S. and Harvey J. Dudley and Fred C. Hastings ; a third, north of the Corners, built by Justus P. Culver - owned subsequently by Dickey & Paddock, then by Hiram H. Thompson, and last by Dudley, Hastings & Dudley, who demolished it; and a fourth, near the Burke line, built by Solomon Fitch of Constable and E. P. Deming of Burke, who sold it to be converted into a barn. The Culver factory was burned in 1856, when Culver had it, and again when it was owned by Dickey & Paddock.
Sawmills additional to those at Trout River, the Welch or Coburn mill at the Corners, the Child mill at the Bishop bridge and that built by Asaph Perry, location unknown, but thought to have been on the Salmon river, were: one built by Ira Langdon, which is better known as the Culver property, and which was owned at one time by Russell J. Hall; one below the Culver mill, built by Putnam W. Sumner, and then owned by Sherburn Ingalls; one on Little Trout river, built by Hiram Estabrooks; one near the Burke line, built by L. D. and E. P. Deming of Burke; and the one on Salmon river which Jacob Wead leased to Guy Meigs in 1829. Julius B. Douglass and Allen Dennis had a sash and door factory near the Culver sawmill. It was run later by O. F. Hollister, then by George W. Works, and now by Charles H. Drum.
Constable never had a Masonic organization exclusively its own, but its membership in Franklin Lodge of Westville was so large for a time
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that that organization held its communications, beginning in 1859, alternately at Trout River and in Westville.
Constable Grange, No. 1061, was organized some ten or twelve years ago, and has a present membership of fifty-one. It owns the hall in which its meetings are held.
There are no other fraternal, benevolent or civic orders in the town.
Sheffield Farms, Slawson-Decker .Company, has a milk shipping station at the railroad. Its receipts are at times manufactured at the station, and at other seasons are conveyed to a like station of the same company at Malone, and sent thence to New York.
The church organizations in Constable now number five, and for- merly there were two others. Those now in existence are the Presby- terian at Constable Corners (originally Congregational), the Methodist at the same place and also at Trout River, and a Roman Catholic at Constable and another at Trout River. The records of the Champlain Presbytery give the date of the organization of the first named as 1821, with Rev. Mr. Armstrong as the organizer, and the date of enrollment with the Presbytery as 1822. But the records in the county clerk's office contain a certificate that the society was formed May 21, 1817, by Rev. Thomas Kennan at the school house, which is stated to have been the place where the participants "had statedly attended for divine worship," thus establishing the fact that there had been a Congrega- tional movement and preaching in Constable for a time previously. The first trustees were Solomon Wyman, Samuel Perkins, Alric Man, Oliver Bell and John Child. The society has been continued uninter- ruptedly since 1821 at least, and usually has had a resident pastor. Services were held customarily in the school house until the town house was built, and then in the latter. A church edifice was erected in 1844, and the dedicatory sermon preached by Rev. Ashbel Parmelee. In 1847 the form of organization was changed from Congregational to Presbyterian.
A Baptist society whose existence has lapsed was formed in 1833, but was always weak in numbers, and, though it held its monthly meet- ings and prayer meetings with a considerable degree of regularity until about 1878, it seldom had a pastor of its own. It is said to have had thirty-one members at the time of its organization, but the highest number that it ever reported to the St. Lawrence Baptist Association after 1848 was twenty in 1866, and the usual number so reported ranged between ten and fourteen. It never had a church edifice, and usually worshiped in a school house or in the town hall.
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Though it must be believed probable that occasional Methodist serv- ices were held earlier, either by circuit riders or by pastors of adjacent parishes, the first recognition of Constable by the conference was in 1836, when it was listed with Westville as a mission "to be supplied." It does not appear again in the conference minutes until 1842, when, still joined with Westville, it was once more listed as a mission; but, with the exceptions of 1842-3 and 1849-50, no pastor was assigned to it until 1854. The first pastor, in 1842, was Rev. Matthew Bennett. Beginning with 1854, it has been joined almost continuously with Westville as one charge. A Methodist organization was effected at Trout River about 1860, and a church built a year or two afterward. It is a station or appointment with Constable and Westville, a single pastor serving the three places.
A Free Will Baptist Society, with some of the members residing in Malone, was formed in 1841. It was always few in numbers, and never had a church home of its own. In 1852 it had twenty members. When the society went out of existence I am not informed. One of its pastors was the Rev. Charles Bowles, a negro, who had been a revolutionary soldier. He died in 1843 in Malone, and is buried in Constable. On his tombstone is inscribed, "for forty years a faithful minister of the Free Will Baptist Church."
About 1860 a union church society was formed at Trout River, and a house of worship erected in 1861, but never fully completed for religious usage, as friction developed along denominational lines. Reli- gious services were never held in the building except possibly upon one or two occasions, and it stood vacant until about 1893, when it was leased to the school district for ninety-nine years for school purposes. The structure had been veneered with brick originally, but as the veneering had begun to fall away in places it was all removed, and siding and clapboarding substituted.
According to Rev. John Talbot Smith, in his History of the Diocese of Ogdensburg, the Catholics of Constable were dependent until 1865 for ministrations of their faith upon occasional visits by priests from Hogansburgh or upon visitation by themselves to Malone or Fort Cov- ington. In 1866, however, all of Constable was attached to Malone, and Rev. J. J. Sherry ministered to it until 1870, when an independent charge, called St. Bridget's, was created at Trout River, and Rev. Thomas Walsh assigned to it as its first resident pastor, and officiating at both Constable and Trout River. A church building was erected at the latter place in 1871. A year later St. Francis's church at Con-
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stable was formed through the efforts of Rev. Father LeGrand of Malone, which division of territory, reducing the membership of St. Bridget's to thirty-eight families, was thought to render its further con- tinuance precarious. The membership has since increased, however, to sixty-two families, and is further strengthened by a usually considerable attendance by Canadian families. St. Francis's church has a neat brick house of worship, erected soon after its incorporation, and from 1887 until 1918 was combined with St. George's church at Burke, the two comprising one charge. The membership of St. Francis's num- bers one hundred and seventy-five families.
Apart from the many smuggling ventures of large volume that for- merly served as the basis for gossip in the country stores and at the home firesides, and which enlisted the detective energies of federal officials, little of remarkable interest or moment attaches to the history of the town. The place was scourged by the Asiatic cholera in 1832, presumably brought from Fort Covington or St. Regis, where it was much more virulent. The death rate at St. Regis was fourteen in every one hundred cases; the percentage at Constable is unknown, but while there were a number of deaths the proportion of recoveries was higher than at St. Regis.
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