USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 3
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James Donatianus de la Ray de Chaumont, owner of a third of a million acres in the Macomb Purchase, in which was included the township of Harrietstown which contains the village of Saranac Lake, was born in France in 1760, the son of Count de Chaumont, who was the zealous friend and helper of the United States during our war for independence. When Benjamin Franklin went to France as a com- missioner for the Colonies to enlist a French alliance, the French gov- ernment, though friendly, was not yet ready for an open break with Great Britain, and consequently denied Franklin's appeals and entreaties. Nevertheless it secretly encouraged Frenchmen of means and military capacity to act individually in our interest, and Count de Chaumont needed no urging to serve in this direction. He at once placed his hotel or chateau in the suburbs of Paris at the disposal of Franklin, stipulating only that no rent should be paid or obligation be regarded as ineurred until the Colonies should win their independence ; and upon these terms Franklin made the establishment his office and home for years. Moreover, the count declined to accept an appointment as one of the ministers of France in order that he might remain free to assist America individually. He gave outright to Franklin in 1:26 a thousand barrels of gunpowder and other military stores, and there- after was untiringly active in buying ships, uniforms, arms, etc., for this country. His transactions along these lines ran into the millions of dollars, for much of which Franklin paid him at the time, or he found reimbursement through the sale of the prizes which John Paul Jones or. others captured. Nevertheless the operations embarrassed him sorely, and it was nearly twenty years later that Congress made a settlement with him. The son was in full accord with the father in this work, and it was to effeet a settlement that the former came to the United States, where he remained for many years. became an American citizen, and formed intimate friendships with Gouverneur Morris, William Constable and other eminent men of the time. Constable having sold the Chasanis traet in Lewis and Jefferson counties to a French syndicate, which planned to build cities on it and establish
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
manufacturing industries to compete with England's, Le Ray de Chaumont was put in charge of the proposition after it was seen that the original expectations regarding it could not be realized. He also made large purchases of lands himself from Constable, and brought thousands of mechanics and other operatives from France to settle on the tracts. For almost forty years he resided in Jefferson county, seek- ing to develop his lands, and engaging in various enterprises designed to be of public benefit. It was a corporation organized by him that built the first decent road into Franklin county, the old St. Lawrence turnpike, from Black River to Bangor. He died in France in 1840.
William Constable, born in Dublin, Ireland, in 1752, was left by his father in that city to be educated when the latter came to this country in 1762. The son followed a few years later, and joined the father near Schenectady, where he soon entered into business. There he and Alexander Ellice became friends, but the latter, being imbued with Tory proclivities, returned to England at the outbreak of war. It was doubtless from this association that Mr. Ellice came afterward into ownership of the Constable lands in Constable and Westville. Mr. Constable himself entered the Colonial army, and became aide to General Lafayette. Soon after the restoration of peace Mr. Constable again interested himself in mercantile affairs, opening an establishment in Philadelphia, which had a branch in Charleston, and thereafter his business ventures covered a wide range and were large and important. He traded extensively with the West Indies; built, owned and sailed ships to Havana and Asiatic ports ; became a partner in New York city with Robert Morris and Gouverneur Morris ; built and operated a large flouring mill at Yonkers; speculated heavily in lands not only in New York, but also in Kentucky, Virginia and Georgia, and also in public funds. His fortune was large until heavy losses were incurred while he was in Europe, due to reckless indorsements by his brother, James, who had become a partner with him. Ogden Edwards eulogized Mr. Con- stable after his death in 1803 as a master spirit in every circle, even among the magnates of this and European countries, and declared that as a conversationalist he was unsurpassed. His mansion in New York is said to have been that of a prince, at which his friends always received princely treatment. After Richard Harison, he was intel- lectually probably the greatest of those who were owners in the so-called Macomb's Purchase, and apparently it was principally through associa- tion and friendship with him and Daniel McCormick that the others of
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
whom sketches have been given in preceding pages were drawn into investing in lands in this section.
Francis Harison (never spelled with two rs) queen's counsel, and direct descendant of Richard Harison, lord of Hurst, and the grand- father of Richard, the proprietor of the township of Malone, came to New York in 1708 with Lord Lovelace, the then recently appointed Governor of the province, and two years later sheriff, afterward becom- ing a judge of the admiralty court and also recorder. The Hari- sons were thus one of the earliest English families in New York, and the descendants are disposed to emphasize the fact that they are in no way related to the Round Head General Harrison, but are of cavalier ancestry. The Malone Richard Harison was born in New York in 1747, and at the age of thirteen entered King's College (now Columbia University) in a class of which he and John Jay, the eminent jurist and statesman, twice Governor of New York, were the only members. The two remained friends and associates throughont their lives. Mr. Harison studied law after graduation from college, and was admitted to the bar as soon as he attained his majority. Almost immedi- ately he won success and distinction, which not only placed him in the front rank in his profession, but brought him wealth also. He was at one time the law partner of Alexander Hamilton. In a work by the then president of Columbia College, in 1847, he is named with Mr. Hamilton, Aaron Burr, Brockholst Livingston and two or three others as having given to the bar of his time an eminence of character and talent comparing favorably with the high standing of the bench, and as one of "its brightest ornaments." to which was added: "Richard Harison was the most accomplished scholar of the group." and "he was, moreover, a sound lawyer." Historians generally of New York city, covering the period of Mr. Harison's activities, refer to him as " that great lawyer " or "that great man." He succeeded James Kent as recorder, " and his refinement and urbanity were as conspicuous on the bench as in private life." As bearing upon his scholarship, it is told that, naturally a student, he was a thorough master of Greek, Latin and French, and a reader of widest range: even after reaching his seventy-second year, he took up the study of Hebrew. and mastered that language. Besides having been recorder of New York, he was secretary of the board of regents of the University of New York from 1787 to 1790: member of Assembly in 1787 and 1789: a member in 1788 with Hamilton, Jay and others of the convention which adopted
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
the federal constitution : and from 1789 to 1801 United States attorney for the district of New York. Through the kindness of his greatgrand- son, William Beverley Harison, I am privileged to have before me as I write a photographic copy of his commission as United States attorney. signed by George Washington, and also a photographic copy of a per- sonal letter from President Washington, transmitting the commission, from which I quote: "The high importance of the judicial system in our national government makes it an indispensable duty to select such characters to fill the several offices in it as would discharge their respective duties with honor to themselves and advantage to the country." Mr. Harison was nominated to the Senate by President Washington to be judge of the United States district court, but declined the office. He died in New York December 2, 1829.
Bearing in mind the conditions in Franklin county as set forth in previous pages, and considering that, though Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence river were principal avenues along which the forces of England and France moved and fought almost continuously in the half century of conflict which those powers waged for dominion in America, Clinton county had not a permanent settler until 1763, and St. Law- rence none until 1792 with the exception of the mission at Fort La Presentacion (now Ogdensburg), the fact that it was more than three centuries after the voyage of Columbus before there was a single white home within the present limits of Franklin county is less occasion for remark than the fact that one was established even then. It certainly was not expectation or hope of finding here gold and silver loot and mines, such as had enriched Spain from Mexico and Peru, nor yet a search for adventure or the dream that the climate was mild or the soil especially fertile, that induced our first immigration. The impelling motive, then, could hardly have been other than the spirit of restlessness which in all countries and in all ages has kept the tide of migration and the course of empire and civilization moving westward - now in prose- cution of war, now for attainment of freedom of worship, and again merely in the search and striving for cheaper lands and for larger opportunities in life. The latter must have been the impulse in this case, for the men who came knew in advance that for a time at least conditions here must make for dire privation, for ardnous labor, and for only a bare living at the best. Nevertheless, they came. the sturdy manhood of New England, with devotion to home. with belief in the church and the school, and with fidelity to conscience. While probably none of them quite so phrased it, they believed, too, " in the sovereign
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
fatherhood of God and the equal brotherhood of man ;" and for that some of them had fought at Bennington, Quebec, Ticonderoga, Saratoga or Yorktown.
CHARACTER OF THE PIONEERS
We who enjoy to-day the fruits of the labors and the traits of char- acter of Franklin county's pioneers can not too highly estimate their worth, nor too greatly venerate their memories. Unlettered though some of them were, lacking the refinements which association and attrition with others induce, and environed but rudely in all respects. they yet possessed great natural intelligence, were endowed with shrewd judgment which hard experience made practical and far-seeing, and were enterprising to a degree. To these qualities and to the sacrifices and privations which our ancestors voluntarily imposed upon them- selves beyond those which necessity compelled had they chosen to con- sider only the then present and themselves, instead of having looked to the future, Franklin county owes much in the line of material develop- ment, beneficent institutions, and rank in enterprise. intelligence and character. As a boy it was my privilege to know some of those who had converted Franklin county's forests into farms, established our churches and founded our schools: and. though of course there were exceptions, their simple and correct habits and walk in life, their virtues, their intense convictions and inflexible loyalty to principle gave them a rugged and sterling worth that commands unbounded respect : and I should feel that a duty had been undischarged if this brief tribute were not here paid to them.
ERECTION OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
The lands comprising Franklin county were originally a part of Albany county, which once embraced a portion of the State of Maine, all of the State of Vermont. and nearly all of that part of New York which lies west of the Hudson and north of the Mohawk. Clinton county was erected from Washington, one of Albany's offshoots. in 1188, and then, and by subsequent extensions, included all of its present self, and substantially all of Essex and Franklin and a part of St. Lawrence. What is now Franklin county consisted at that time of parts of the towns Champlain, Peru and Plattsburgh. Chateaugay (spelled in the act creating it, " Chatenaga ") was taken from Platts- burgh and Champlain in 1:99, and in 1801 and again in 1802 and 1808 there were annexations to it, so that with Malone it was coex- tensive with Franklin county. comprising an area of almost seven- teen hundred square miles. For twelve years after the first settlement
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
here we were one with Clinton as a county. All real estate records were kept at Plattsburgh, and all court business had to be transacted there. Even yet not a few of the records of early conveyances of lands in Franklin county are to be found solely in the office of the clerk of Clinton county, only some of the more important having been certified to the clerk's office in Malone, and so made easily accessible here. For a time the arrangement as indicated occasioned little inconvenience or annoyance, as the population was scant and its interests so slight that public records and litigation concerned the inhabitants but seldom and insignificantly. Immigration continuing at an increasing rate, how- ever, the condition became irksome and insupportable, developing a demand for separation from Clinton and for the erection of a new county, particularly because jury duty and attendance at court as wit- nesses were onerous and costly. At that time fees for jurors in courts of sessions and common pleas were but one shilling in each case in which they were sworn, and in the supreme court and circuit court the same when sworn, with an allowance of six shillings per day for time spent in going to and returning from the place of service. Witnesses received two shillings per day. This meant that a juror drawn or a witness summoned from any part of what is now Franklin county had to travel to and from Plattsburgh, usually on foot, pay all of his expenses, and receive perhaps a dollar and a half at the minimum or possibly three or four dollars as a maximum for his week's time and outlay. Now a juror from, say, Tupper Lake, serving at Malone, would be paid for a week's attendance something over twenty dollars, and a witness in a criminal case about eight dollars.
In 1808 the Legislature was petitioned to erect this county, with Norfolk suggested for its name. Barely a month later (March 11th) the prayer of the petition was granted by the enactment of an act to divide Clinton county, but with the name of the county set off there- from to be Franklin instead of Norfolk. Four other counties were erected the same day, all but one by chapters earlier than that creating Franklin ; and the latter became the forty-first county of New York. The act of erection provided, in brief, that there be established the county of Franklin, with boundaries the same as those now existing. except that in 1822 one township was detached from Franklin and added to Essex, and in 1913 a tract of five square miles was taken from St. Lawrence at its southeastern part and annexed to Franklin, so that the latter might complete a highway, in which St. Lawrence is not especi- ally interested, to connect Tupper Lake with roads leading straight through the wilderness to Utica and Albany. The act erecting our
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
county further provided that there be created here " a court of common pleas and general sessions of the peace," the terms of which should be in April and October in each year at the academy in Malone. (This court was equivalent in most respects to the county court as created by the constitution of 1846, and as before the " side judges " or jus- tices of sessions were abolished, though its jurisdiction was somewhat broader, and the "first judge " was not required to be a lawyer.) The act authorized the supervisors of the county to raise by tax on the freeholders and inhabitants of the county the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, "to be applied and appropriated by them to strengthen and secure one room in the said academy as a gaol for said county," and empowered the sheriff and other officers to confine their prisoners there or in the jail of the county of Clinton as they might elect ; and thus the academy building became at once an institution for instruc- tion, a temple of justice, and a place of detention for debtors and for punishment and correction of evil doers, as well as serving for a few years as a house of worship. This so-called academy building (the institution was never chartered as an academy) was a two-story frame structure, and stood a little to the north and west of the present academy building. It was known as "the Harison Academy," and at one time went into disuse for school purposes, when it was converted into a tenement house, and was so occupied at least as late as 1844. One of the rooms in it was rented by a tenant to the village band for a meeting place for practising, and for a time the Odd Fellows had their lodge room on the second floor of the building. Later it was again converted into a school building, moved a short distance to the west, and used for the higher grades of our village schools until about 1870. Some of the teachers who were in charge there were Cyrus Bates, Cyrus Thomas, Sidney Sayles and Marcus Johnson. Fifty-odd years ago students there would drop waste paper between the studding, where the plaster was broken, and then throw a lighted match into the cavity. Thus every few weeks school would have to be dismissed because the building was on fire.
The act of erection further changed the boundaries of Chateaugay as well as those of Malone. detaching from the former certain townships which were to remain a part of Clinton county, and annexing to both Chateaugay and Malone (then called Harison) those parts of the towns Plattsburgh and Peru which extended to the present St. Lawrence county eastern boundary. It also provided that Franklin county should be considered a part of the eastern district of the State, and that returns
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
of elections for State officers, members of both Houses of the Legisla- ture and representatives in Congress be made to the clerk of Clinton county. As judges, sheriff's and county clerks were all then appointive by the Governor and Council, a consequence of this provision is that there is no record in the county clerk's office at Malone of the county's vote until 1822. The eastern district included in 1808 the counties of Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Montgomery, Washington, Essex, Clinton and Franklin, and was entitled to a representation of eleven Senators. In 1815 the district was changed to exclude Albany, and to add Herki- mer and Lewis, with a representation of eight Senators.
FRANKLIN COUNTY'S GROWTH
As illustrative of the conditions which had occasioned the movement for a separation from Clinton county, the growth of our own county may appropriately be shown at this point. Chateangay, all uninhabited in early 1796, had come to contain a population of 413 at the date of the census in 1800, which had increased in 1810 to 625, notwithstanding its partition in the meantime to make Malone, and that of the county as a whole to 2,719, though in the ensuing four years (due to appre- hension of war and to its effects when it actually occurred) there was a loss of 151. The population of the county and of its several towns in 1810 and in certain subsequent years was :
When
COUNTY
formed
From what taken
1810
1820
1830
1840
1860
1900
1910
1915
Complete.
1808
Clinton county.
2,719
4,439
11,312
16,518
30,837
42,842
44,534
46,181
Altamont
1890
Waverly
3,045
4,691
4,480
Bangor.
1812
Dickinson
370
1,076
1,289
2,520
2,221
1,946
2,179
Bellmont .
1833
Chateaugay.
472
1,376
2,414
2,341
2,031
Bombay
1833
Fort Covington
1,146
2,440
2,742
2,588
1,337
Brandon .
1828
Bangor
316
531
794
938
872
860
Burke.
1844
Chateaugay
2,240
1,936
1,772
1,835
Chateaugay
1799
Champlain and Plattsburgh
625
828
2,016
2,824
3,183
2,723
2,840
2,903
Constable
1807
Malone +
916
637
693
1,122
1,680
1,266
1,323
1,331
Dickinson
1808
Malone.
411
495
446
1,005
1,917
1,691
1,609
1,514
Duane.
1828
Malone.
247
324
279
312
300
255
Fort Covington
1817
Constable.
979
2,901
2,092
2,757
2,043
2,028
2,045
Franklin
1836
Bellmont
192
1,105
1,501
1,447
1,378
Harrietstown +
1841
Duane.
340
3,390
4,753
4,716
Malone t.
1805
Chateaugay
767
1,130
2,207
3,229
6,565
10,009
10,154
11,255
Moira
1828
Dickinson .
791
962
1,798
2,484
2,346
2,413
Santa Clara
1888
Brandon
580
675
525
Waverly
1880
Dickinson
1,615
2,170
2,133
Westville
1829
Constable.
619
1,028
1,635
1,237
1,121
1,128
208
706
741
777
Brighton.
1858
Duane.
* Includes 1,253 Indians in 1900 and 1,249 in 1910. The number of Indians shown by the enumeration of 1915 is 1,086, but undoubtedly should be nearly 1,500. See chapter on St. Regis. t Then Harison.
# Part of Brandon afterward added.
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FRANKLIN COUNTY
The decrease in population during the war of 1812 and in the years immediately preceding was due to these facts: There was a settlement of Indians in the county, all of whom had been at one time British wards. On contiguous territory lying in Canada were an equal or greater number belonging to the same tribe who were still British, and though this people had had no sanguinary record in three-quarters of a century then past, and, indeed, most of those dwelling within Franklin county had been American in sympathy during the war of the revolu- tion, they were nevertheless Indians, and a hundred years ago the mere name suggested savagery, bloodthirstiness and rapine. It was known, too, that for some time preceding the declaration of war British agents had been successfully inciting Indians along the Northwestern frontier to outrages upon the American whites in that section, and rumor magnified and distorted real conditions there and everywhere adjacent to Canada. The effect was utter demoralization, and it is told that many times when false alarms were given, or even at sight of an Indian's footprints, the settlers would be seized with panie, and flee to the woods with their wives and children for hiding. Similarly, though more quietly, the Indians themselves suffered, as knowledge that their appearance away from their reservation would be certain to occasion alarm on the part of the whites, if not collision with them, and operated to restrict their movements and to prevent their customary hunting trips. But as a matter of fact not only was there no Indian outbreak here, but there was never a real indication that one was meditated. Nevertheless, so strong was the belief that one was certain to occur that some of the more timid settlers abandoned their homes, removing to localities which were thought to be safer, and undoubtedly considerable numbers who had contemplated coming here were deterred by appre- hension from so doing. As indicative of the state of affairs, General Clark Williamson, a man of exceptional determination and intrepid courage, came to Malone in 1809 and purchased the farm near the Junction which was for so long a time his home, but, disquieted by the general conviction of Indian outbreaks, deemed it imprudent to remain. Returning to Vermont, it was a number of years before he felt justified in again coming and establishing his home here. The instance is probably only one among many that were similar.
Between 1860 and 1865 the county lost 2,692 in population, or nine per cent., because of a diminished birth rate during the period of the civil war, and because many of the large number of men here who entered the Union army gave their lives to the cause, or settled
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HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
elsewhere instead of returning to their homes after their terms of enlistment had expired.
In the thirty years from 1860 to 1890 the county as a whole made a net gain of only 7,223 in population, the increases having been principally in Bellmont, Harrietstown, Malone, Moira and Waverly, and actual losses having been experienced by Bombay, Chateaugay, Fort Covington and Westville - some of them considerable. Dickinson also had an apparent loss, but it was occasioned largely, if not altogether, by the town's partition for the erection of Waverly. Chateaugay's decrease was due principally to the fact that several hundred residents removed to Colorado; and it seems probable that other losses are to be explained by the fact that families are generally smaller than formerly, which is strikingly illustrated by school records and conditions. For illustration, there is one district in Burke in which the school used to be of considerable size that has not a single child of school age, and there are a number more scattered through the county where similar conditions exist, though perhaps not quite as extreme. The exact facts for the county are not in my possession, but in the State as a whole there are 15 schools which have but one pupil each, 86 in which there are but two each, 900 in which there are not more than five each, and 600 more with not over seven each. Franklin county undoubtedly has its share of these nearly 1,600 districts where the laughter of children and the sunshine of their presence have almost disappeared, and I think we may charge largely to "race suicide " the losses which the census shows for some of the towns.
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