USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 30
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85
During the Civil War, when bounties were voted to encourage enlist- ments, the supervisor of Constable refused to sign the bonds by issue of which the money was to be provided, and a special town meeting then vested authority in Edwin A. Webster to sign in place of the super- visor ; but either because of the delay or for other reasons the town failed to fill its quota. A number of men had fled, or, in the vernacular of the period, " skedaddled " to Canada in order to escape the draft, and. therefore, when the names were drawn no man could be found who could be held for service. Indeed, it is said that at that time there was in the entire town only one able-bodied man within the draft age limits, and he, having located only a short time previously, had not been enrolled. All of the others liable to service had already entered the army as volunteers, or were beyond reach in Canada.
CHAPTER XIII
DICKINSON
An act of the Legislature in 1808, to become effective April 1, 1809, created the town of Dickinson from Malone. It then included all of what is now Bangor, Brandon, Moira, Santa Clara, Altamont and Waverly and a part of Harrietstown - a tract approximating twelve miles in width by fifty-odd miles in length, or nearly a half million acres as shown by the assessment rolls of the towns named. When erected there was probably not a single white inhabitant in all of this vast area outside of the townships Bangor and Moira; and its entire assessed valuation was only $267,903, and the town tax was $661.06 - of which $175 was for wolf bounties, $360.56 for roads and bridges, and all of the remainder, $125.50, for compensation of town officials, who worked cheap twenty years later, if not from the first. In 1828 the commissioners of highways, the inspectors of common schools and the fence viewers received but seventy-five cents per day each.
Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, who was Speaker of the House of Representatives from 1795 to 1799, and United States Senator from the latter year until 1805, was interested in the Macomb purchase, and in the partition of lands among the members of the syndicate became the owner of several tracts, including Dickinson, in the western part of the county. This township, number seven, was called Annastown, after a daughter of William Constable, but Hough attributes the origin of the name as applied to the town to a gentleman of that name in New Jersey - a statement easily credited in view of Mr. Dayton's own resi- dence and his proprietorship of the township. The Dickinson in ques- tion was undoubtedly General Philemon, who took an active part in the war of the revolution, and hazarded his ample fortune as well as his life in the struggle to establish his country's independence. In the memorable battle of Monmouth, at the head of the New Jersey militia, he exhibited special gallantry, was afterward a member of Congress, and died at Trenton in 1809. It seems a reasonable assumption that it was because of the Dayton and Dickinson association in Congress that the former gave his friend's name to the town.
The first town meeting was held at the hamlet now known as Brush- ton, and it is worthy of remark that as long as Bangor and Moira
[280]
281
DICKINSON
remained a part of Dickinson one or the other always furnished the supervisor, and that it was not until 1828 that any resident within the limits of the present town ever held the office.
Dickinson as now constituted embraces only 27,753 assessed acres, or little more than a twentieth of its original area, so badly has it been shorn from time to time for the formation of new towns. Its popula- tion in 1810 (when Bangor and Moira were both included) was 411, and ten years later (with Moira still a part) only 495. In 1830, with Moira then set off, it had fallen to 446, but in the ensuing decade it jumped to 1,005, and practically doubled again in the next twenty years. The greatest number of inhabitants that it ever had was 2,022 in 1875, and the number in 1915 is 1,514, of whom 24 are aliens. At least a part of the loss here indicated was due to the partition of the town to form Waverly in 1880, the decrease since then having been 150.
Only a comparatively small part of Dickinson is really good farming land, while the remainder, though mostly tillable, is rough and roeky. The surface is broken by many hills. Deer river winds tortuously across the town from east to west a little south of the center, and, while not a large stream, has so steady a flow that at a number of points it affords excellent power for small mills. The town is watered also by a number of brooks. An improved highway leads from Moira southerly through Dickinson, and it also has one line of railway - built in 1883 to facilitate lumbering operations farther south, but now a link in the New York Central system, and extending from Tupper Lake to Ottawa.
Like all of our older towns, Dickinson was settled principally from Ver- mont, and the pioneers were particularly rugged and determined men. It is apparent from the census figures already cited that settlement was insignificant prior to 1820, and continued small up to 1840. The first highway traversing the town was the St. Lawrence turnpike, which entered from the west at a point about three miles south from the Moira line, and took a diagonal course to the extreme northeast corner at East Diekinson. The Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike was not built until some years later, and passed through a rougher section, south of the center of the township. Naturally, then, it was along the St. Lawrence turnpike that the first comers located. Hough makes Wil- liam Thomas from Hopkinton the very first, but adds that he remained for only a short time. Apparently the first permanent settlers came about 1810, and made their abodes in the vicinity of East Dickinson. These included Jesse and Jotham Rice, Jesse and Enoch Irish, Solomon Ross (who was a soldier in the war of 1812), and Reuben Cady. Elder
282
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
Spooner must have arrived five or six years afterward, as he is credited with having been the leader in organizing the Christian church here in 1815, and Andrew, Colvin, Ira and Orson Potter came before 1812. Without attempting to fix definitely the years of subsequent arrivals, it is perhaps enough, and all that it is quite safe, to say that Erastus Hutchins, Benjamin Heath and Samuel Foster (the latter having been a Moira pioneer) were here in 1822 or 1823, and that Zina and Norman Roys, Niah Wood, Simeon C. Harwood, Loderick Butterfield, Alexander Dawson, Samuel Niles, Jeremiah Sampson, Major Baker, Peter, Job and Artemas Whitney, William C. and Solomon Clark, Thomas Mea- cham, Warren Ives, and Eben and David Parks must have come at about the same time or a little later; for from 1828 their names recur often in the town records as officials. Then these records carry some- what later such names as Josiah Bailey, who was town clerk for nearly half a century, George Page, Moses A. Dustin, Jonathan Saunders, Patrick Fleming, John Ramsdell, William Mosier and Hardy, Harvey and Harrison Hazen, Danforth Briggs and Richard Parks, most of whom were as self-reliant, resolute and capable men within their several walks of life as it ever was the good fortune of any community to possess. Not brilliant, having only such education as their limited opportunities had permitted them to acquire, and many of them rough and some even a bit wild at times, they were yet so sound of judgment, so practical and so faithful and conscientious in discharging the trusts that their townsmen committed to them that Dickinson came to be par- ticularly respected, and to be regarded as a model of what a well governed town should be. Descendants of most of the pioneers still reside in Dickinson, and follow worthily in the footsteps of their forebears.
Jotham and Jesse Rice, brothers, and Zina and Norman Roys were originally all from one stock, though adopting three separate ways of spelling the name. Edward I., a high-class man, a son of Jotham, was a lieutenant in the Civil War. Leonard S., merchant at Brushton, and Mrs. William M. Clark of Malone and Mrs. Elliston Barse of Dickinson are his surviving children. Willard B., formerly a merchant at Bangor, and supervisor of the town (who writes his name " Royce "), is also a grandson of Jotham. Jesse had one son, Anson, whose daughter, Mrs. Hiram Fish, lives at Massena. Zina and Norman Roys, brothers, located near Dickinson Center about 1828 or 1829. Wellington, son of Zina, moved from Dickinson to Malone a few years ago, and is now engaged in farming in the latter town. Mrs. George Lamson of Dickin-
283
DICKINSON
son is a daughter, and Sidney Roys of Bangor a son of Norman. Solomon Ross arrived before 1812, as he served in a Franklin county command in the war of that period. Milton, a son, is a merchant at Lawrenceville. Family tradition is that Andrew Potter (the father) and Colvin, Orson, Sylvester, Ira and Levi, his sons, all came in 1817, but I find on the payroll of Captain Rufus Tilden's company that Levi served in that company at Fort Covington between July 8, 1812, and January 13, 1813, and that Ira was a corporal under Captain Tilden on the march to Plattsburgh in 1814, which would make them earlier comers by at least five years than does the family tradition. Levi settled at West Bangor, and the hamlet was called Pottersville in his honor. Mrs. J. V. R. Bowles of Bangor is his daughter. Tra moved from Dickinson to Fort Covington after a year or so, and Sylvester located at Brushton. E. H. Potter, merchant at Brushton, is the son of Colvin. Marvin, son of Orson, was a captain in the Civil War, and two brothers were in the service with him.
Reuben Cady, who had been a soldier in the war of 1812, and served the town as supervisor, kept a stage-line hotel at a very early day near East Dickinson, at which town meeting was often held after 1828, and where the local militia used to assemble occasionally for "general training." He had five sons, Orlen, Almon, Edwin A., William and Wallace, all deceased. Edwin and William alone have descendants residing in the county. Mrs. Thomas Trumbull of Bangor is the daughter of Edwin, and Orlen of Moira, and Clinton W., insurance agent in Malone, are sons of William. Two other son's, Amos and Hartwell, reside in Dakota.
Samuel Foster had a hotel a short distance west of Cady's. At one time he owed Colvin Potter six dollars, which the latter wanted to use in buying a pair of steers. Mr. Foster promised payment after the next "training day " if the weather then should be fair, and, surely enough, he settled in midafternoon. Inasmuch as liquor then sold at three cents a glass, we may guess how abstemious the soldiers were on such occasions. Myron Foster of Bangor is a grandson of Samuel.
Enoch Irish served as a member of a local militia company in the war of 1812, and therefore must have been one of the earliest settlers. He removed to the West about eighty years ago. None of his descendants are known to be living. Jesse, a brother of Enoch, had six sons, viz., Jesse, Abel, Jonas, Fletcher, Henry and Sidney. Jesse and Sidney are still living in Dickinson, Henry in Moira, and Fletcher in New Eng- land. Mrs. Charles Whitney of Malone is the only descendant of Sidney
284
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
now living in Franklin county. Mrs. Eldon Skiff of Dickinson is a daughter of Jesse, 2d.
.
Thomas Meacham must have arrived at least as early as 1808, as he appears in the proceedings of the board of supervisors of that year as having been paid fifty dollars as bounties for wolves killed. He first settled in Hopkinton, moving afterward into what is now the town of Waverly, and at one time lived in Dickinson on the Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike. In his old age he returned to Hopkinton, and died there or just across the town line in Waverly in 1849. He was not identified at all conspicuously with public affairs, but was notable as a hunter and trapper. His earnings in bounties for noxious animals in the forty years of his activities must have aggregated thousands of dol- lars, as his obituary, written by a townsman, states that he kept accurate account of the number of the larger animals trapped or shot by him, and that the totals were: Wolves, 214; bears, 210; catamounts, 77; and deer, 2,550. Bounties were payable for all of these except deer, and if we average the amount at only ten dollars each, his revenue from this source would be over five thousand dollars. Once he trapped or shot three wolves in a single day, for which he received one hundred and eighty dollars - the bounty at that time having been sixty dollars per head. It was he who gave the name to Lake Meacham.
Jonathan Saunders first located with his father, Green or Greenleaf, in Moira before the war of 1812, as at the age of sixteen years he served on one expedition in that conflict, acting as a substitute for Barnabas Barnum of Bangor. When he began life for himself he settled in the northern part of Dickinson. He was the father of Dexter and Julius C., deceased, and of Willard J., attorney, of Dickinson, and of Oscar of Moira. Amy Shufelt, deceased, of Malone, Mrs. George Davidson, and Mrs. Curtis Clark, residing in Nebraska, were his daughters. Leslie M. Saunders, lawyer, at St. Regis Falls, is a grandson.
It is doubtful if half a dozen persons now living remember Loderick Butterfield, and even his name scarcely remains a memory in the town, though he must have been in his time a man of local importance. He was the first merchant in Dickinson, his store having been the stand since occupied by Sumner Sweet, Abel Irish & Andrew Wood, Harrison Barse, Aaron G. Perry, Luther Perry & Melvin Sowles, Joseph Jessmer, Ernest Tebo and Louis Peets. He was supervisor for a number of years, beginning with 1828, and was postmaster for a long time. Eventually he went to Michigan, where he died. One daughter married
285
DICKINSON
Eli Gale of Moira, and another Calostin Crooks of Bangor. A son, Hinman, died at East Dickinson sixty years ago.
Peter Whitney, as one who knew him characterizes him, was " an old- fashioned gentleman," a man of exceptional parts, the Methodist class leader, held many town offices, and was a natural leader of men. As with most others of his contemporary townsmen, he had to live without luxuries and endure hardships, but nevertheless his children fared far better than he himself in his boyhood, for he never had a pair of boots or shoes until old enough to earn the money with which to buy them. He used to tell that as a child, even in the winter, he always went bare- footed to school, a mile distant from his Vermont home. Before start- ing he would heat large hard-wood chips, and after running in the snow until the cold became unbearable would put down the chips and stand on them until he could go on again. He was the father of Barney, who became one of the best known and most highly esteemed educators in Northern New York, having been principal of Lawrenceville Academy, school commissioner for twelve years of one of the St. Law- rence county districts, and for a long time superintendent of Ogdens- burg's city schools ; of Cyrus P., now of Malone, who was school com- missioner in Franklin county from 1864 to 1870, and is a surveyor, probably more familiar with wilderness landmarks and old surveyors' lines than any one else in this section; and of Byron A., the music dealer in Malone. Cyrus P. has been the surveyor for A. B. Parmelee & Son for more than twenty years. Job and Artemas Whitney settled in the southern part of the town, and were only distantly related to Peter.
Simeon C. Harwood was for years town clerk and justice of the peace, and the locality of his residence is still known as Harwood's Corners, which, by the way, suggests the entering of a protest against a practice that is becoming too common of bestowing new locality names when a property changes ownership. A name once given to a stream, a hill or a corners should be continued indefinitely unless some excep- tionally good reason arises for changing it. There was formerly a post- office at Harwood's Corners, called Dickinson, with three or four farm residences close by. Mr. Harwood finally removed to Moira, and his three sons, J. Nelson, Simeon C. and Asaph L., to Malone.
John Ramsdell came about 1825. His son, Nelson, was born in Dickinson eighty-odd years ago, and is now living with a son at St. Regis Falls. He was a leading and consistent member of the Free Will Baptist church, for which he served as preacher in 1865 and again
286
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
about twenty-five years later. Herbert N. and Melvin B., sons of Nelson, represented Dickinson and Waverly respectively on the board of supervisors in 1915 and 1916, and are men of standing and usefulness in the western part of the county. The former is in trade at Dickin- son Center, and the latter at St. Regis Falls. Fred, another son of Nelson, resides at St. Regis Falls.
There were three Hazen brothers, Hardy, Harvey and Runey, who came respectively in 1828, 1831 and 1841. Harrison, Safford and Sumner were sons of Hardy, and George and Horace, both living in Dickinson, of Harvey, and Glenn, Dwight, Hollis and Holland, all of Dickinson, and Earl of Malone, grandsons. Millard, a son of Safford, resides in Dickinson, and Reuben, another son, in Lawrence. Seward and Anson, who lived in Malone for a good many years, were sons of Harrison. Seward now resides in Lawrence, and Anson is a merchant in Pennsylvania.
Benjamin Heath came in 1824, and established a stage-line hotel in the western part of the town. His son, Milton, became a militia colonel, was an unsuccessful candidate for sheriff in 1842, and after- ward resided for a time in Malone, and then at Potsdam. A daughter of Benjamin married Dr. Petit, who died in the army during the Civil War, leaving a son, Frederick, who was adopted by Colonel Heath. The Heath hotel burned in 1870.
Erastus Hutchins settled in 1822. He was the father of Claudius and Anson, both of whom served as supervisor, and were active and influential generally in town matters. Claudius was a militia colonel, and was county clerk from 1862 to 1868- continuing thereafter to make Malone his home. Melburn W. was the son of Claudius, and came to be one of the best known men in the county. For years he was a justice of the peace, clerk of the board of supervisors, surrogate's clerk, deputy county clerk, and president of the board of education of the village school district of Malone. In 1898 he was appointed an examiner of State banks, and removed to New York - becoming the head of the examining force. His boyhood friends will remember him as the best billiard player and the best ball player in the county, and as surpassing them all in every form of athletic sports. He died in 1911.
Alexander Dawson was a prominent figure for a long time, and was the father of William, who was for a number of years supervisor, a farmer and a lumberman on a large scale for his day. Alson and John were also sons of Alexander. Guy H., a merchant at the Center, and
287
DICKINSON
respected citizen, and Alexander, a farmer, are sons of William, and Mrs. George W. Dustin of Malone is a daughter. Homer, another son, deceased, was landlord for a time of the old Dustin hotel at the Center. Joseph B., the present landlord there, is a son of John.
Warren Ives, accompanied by his brother, John, came from Vermont in 1829, with an ox team from Ticonderoga, having lost one of his horses through the ice in crossing Lake Champlain, and traded the other for the oxen. They were ten days making the journey from Ticonderoga, camping wherever night overtook them, and often their camp-fire showing wolves prowling near. They located at first in the southern part of the town, where Warren kept a hotel for a couple of years, and then built the first house at what is now the Center. John Thomas, a son of the old Connecticut clock-maker, who was a cousin of the Ives brothers, came with them, or followed soon afterward, and from him the place took the name Thomasville, by which it was so long known. Warren Ives and Mr. Thomas built the first grist mill in the town, which was not much of a success, and after a year or two the latter and John Thomas moved on farther west. Warren Ives remained, and attained a good deal of local prominence. He surveyed many of the town's roads, was a lawyer, and served as supervisor for a number of years. He and Abial Chamberlain built the first sawmill at the Center, on the site now occupied by the Orcutt lower mill, which was used exclusively for custom work, as no lumber was then made there for market. Chamberlain was a man of eccentricities, gruff and grumpy, and liked by nobody. He believed in witchcraft, and boys were his particular aversion - which meant, of course, that the boys delighted in annoying him and playing tricks upon him. They would set the mill running at night, and then send him letters suggesting that the witches had done it, and advising him to consult a fortune teller who lived in the vicinity, and who confirmed the boys' representation, and directed that he burn the saws to exorcise the witches. He followed the advice, and presumably spoiled the saws, whatever may have happened to the witches. Martin V. B. and H. L. Ives of Potsdam are sons of Warren. The former has represented his district in the Assembly. Another son, Gideon S., has been twice Lieutenant-Governor of Minnesota.
William Mosier was another of the early settlers, and had several sons - John, James, Noble and William, all now dead. Watson, a clergyman, but now connected with rapid transit lines and a dealer in real estate in New Jersey, is a son of John: and Alfred Mosier and Mrs. Fred Hale of Dickinson and Judson and Elbert of Malone are children of William, 2d.
288
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
Moses A. Dustin, a man of fine character, originally a Vermonter, had been a school teacher in Ohio for twenty years before establishing himself in Dickinson, where he also taught. His sons were Moses Atwood, Ezra T., William Dana, George W. and Alonzo. The latter went West when a young man, and is supposed to have been murdered and robbed. Communication between different parts of the country was not as easy then as it is now, and the exact facts could never be learned with certainty. The other sons all became prominent in Dickinson, and George W. was for years a county personage of consequence and popu- larity. He served in the Sixth Heavy Artillery in the Civil War, and afterward was connected for some time with the quartermaster depart- ment of the regular army, and for a year or two was private secretary to Chief Bushyhead, an Indian. He was sheriff of Franklin county from 1889 to 1892, and afterward was in business at Brushton. Moses A., Jr., was proprietor of a hotel on the Port Kent and Hopkinton turn- pike, and then for a good many years of the house at Dickinson Center, and was a genial landlord. George W. of Malone is a son of Moses A., Jr., and was county clerk from 1880 to 1886. He is at present in the real estate business -one of the squarest and most estimable citizens the county ever had. Mrs. George H. Oliver and Mrs. John H. Dullea of Malone, Mrs. Seth Johnson of Burlington, Vt., and Mrs. James H. Putnam, now living in Mississippi, are daughters of Moses A., Jr., and E. Dana Dustin, now in New York city, and Mrs. Aloney Rust of Malone, Mrs. James Moore of Oneida, and Nita F. Dustin, a teacher at Batavia, are children of George W., 1st.
William C. and Solomon Clark came about 1840. William M. of Malone is a son of the former, and George C., the fruit dealer, and Mrs. Ira Haskell are grandchildren. Harlan P. and Melvin B. of Brushton are sons of Solomon, and Mrs. John W. Genaway of Malone a granddaughter.
George Page was the father of Homer, deceased, and of Watson. The latter is distinguished for having a personality that enabled him whenever a candidate for office as a Democrat to carry a town which was good ordinarily for two or three hundred Republican majority. He lived for a number of years at St. Regis Falls. George S. and Burt of Dickinson and Robert of Tupper Lake are sons of Homer. Another son, Edwin, lives in Missouri.
Eldred Baker, popularly known as Major Baker, came about 1840. I think that he had lived previously in Bangor or Brandon. He kept a hotel on the Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike for a dozen or fifteen
289
DICKINSON
years, about a mile east of its intersection with the road leading from Dickinson Center to St. Regis Falls. During this period there was a good deal of teaming past this hotel, the produce of the region which was shipped out going mostly by this route to Black Brook, and the supplies that were brought in all coming over the same road from Lake Champlain. Mr. Baker removed about 1854 to Dickinson Center, and there kept the hotel, the American House, which used to stand near where the Orcutt store and office now is. He had several children, all of whom except two are now dead. These reside in California. Harri- son G. Baker, who at one time had a hotel at Brandon, and was well known throughout the western part of the county, was a son of Eldred.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.