USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 35
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John A. Qua gave his recollections of early Fort Covington in a letter published a few years ago. He came there from Washington county in 1819, when he says that there was no store except a small grocery, which was where the Gillis drug store stood later, though there were two places which sold liquor. All trading was done at Dundee. There was no school house, nor a church, and Alexander Cambpell had the only hotel, at the west end of the lower bridge. The village con- sisted of only a few log houses. Outside of the village on Drum street, the only residents were a Mr. Russell, David Drum, Ebenezer Stevens and Sewall Gleason ; on the Bombay road, a Mr. Dana and Robert and William Chapman : on the Deer River road, north of the Ellsworths, only two log houses; on Creighton street, William Creighton and Samuel Fletcher ; and on Burns street. George Larkin Burns, William Ryan and William Holden. The first school house was on the Far- linger place, and the second on the Thomas W. Creed place. With the latter a town house was combined, in the upper room of which Lorenzo Coburn's reminiscences state that a Mr. Crosby had an " academy " (not incorporated) in 1825, and Rev. Elisha Hazard taught a district school in the lower room. Wages in 1819 were three shillings a day, and it is a safe guess that a day was longer than eight hours.
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John H. Hatton did not become a resident until about 1850, but he was in time to gather a good deal of early history at first hand from those who had made it, which he published in his later years. He names Charles Marsh (not mentioned either by Mr. Briggs or by Mr. Qua) as having been in trade in 1820. Mr. Marsh was decidedly pros- perous at one time, and devoutly religious. Indeed, Mr. Hatton says that he took upon himself the entire support of the Presbyterian church, less such contributions as others might volunteer to make. He lived in an old stone house on Water street, just above the mouth of the Little Salmon, which sloped from the highway back to the bank of the river. It was built in four sections, so that the roof of each new part stepped down from the older. The newer parts were shed, store- house, etc. ; these have been torn down, and the front remodeled. It was known as " Marsh's castle." At one time the systematic smuggling practiced at the Fort was conducted largely by landing the goods at the river end of the building, and then secreting them in it until there should be opportunity for their removal. I have never heard, however, that Mr. Marsh was a party to such operations, or even privy to them. He failed about 1850 for more than twenty thousand dollars, afterward became insane, and died poor. He was thrown from a buggy thirty- odd years ago, and never recovered from his injuries. He came from Washington county by way of Montreal, where he got his training in merchandising.
Still another merchant in the long ago was Samuel C. F. Thorndike of Malone, who, however, remained for only a short time.
The activities of William Hogle. a notable personage at one time, were principally of a little later date. According to Mr. Hatton, he was an adopted son of George B. R. Gove, and his store at one time employed five clerks, and had so large a trade that all were kept busy. He went into the steamboat business, sinking over twenty thousand dollars in it, which ruined him financially. Later, however, he oper- ated the Gove saw mill, and manufactured saleratus on an extensive scale from pearl-ash. He had a wharf just below where the Little Salmon empties into the Big Salmon, and used to ship potash or pearl- ash, hoop poles and Indian baskets by canal boat, via the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu river and Lake Champlain, to New York city. He was also a partner of Allen M. Lincoln for a short time in the manufacture of starch in the Luther Starks woolen mill.
Yet more important factors in business than any of these were Benjamin Raymond, Warren L. Manning, Richard Grange and James
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W. Kimball, all of whom were of a later period. Perhaps S. V. R. Tuthill, a partner of Mr. Manning, ought to be included in the list, and also D. E. Deneen and T. W. Creed as later extensive dealers.
The story of the industrial establishments of Fort Covington is difficult to trace in detail with accuracy. The first were, of course, the Indian saw mill and the Robertson grist mill, together known as the French mills. If taken literally, Mr. Constable's diary, locating the one on the north and the other on the south bank of the river, would require them to be either below the Lincoln tannery, where the river bends to the west, or south of Chateaugay street ; and a map on file in the county clerk's office, made in 1835, actually shows them at the first mentioned point, which is an absurdity, because that site admits of no power development. Moreover, records in the Secretary of State's office at Albany establish incontestably that these mills were in the imme- diate vicinity of the sites of the present electric light plant and of the former McNaughton grist mill. An act of the Legislature, passed in April, 1819, providing for the sale of the lots in the mile square carried a prohibition against the issuance of a patent by the State to the heirs or legal representatives of James and Alexander Robertson for the grist mill lot until they should pay to the State one hundred and twenty dol- lars, to be applied to the benefit of Robert Buchanan. Knowing that it was the policy and law of the State that original occupants of any given parcel in this tract should have the preference in buying at the appraised valuation, but that nevertheless compensation must be made to the then tenants or occupants who had made improvements, the significance of the provision quoted from the law of 1819 is readily seen. Buchanan had been a lessee of the grist mill from the Robertsons, and in the course of his fifteen years of such occupancy had doubtless laid out something on the property for betterments. The Robertsons, apparently, declined to compensate him for these, and, the disagreement being carried to Albany, the State limited the prescriptive right of the Robertsons to buy unless they complied with the general obligation to pay for improve- ments. The matter evidently dragged for six years, when, in 1825, Elizabeth Robertson Stuart of Montreal, "sole heiress of James and Alexander Robertson," met the stipulated condition, and received the State's patent to the lot on the west side of the river, where the electric light works are, which she contracted in 1831 to Thomas Mears of Hawkesbury, Ont., who was the father of Hamlet B. and Thomas Stew- art Mears. But if this be not enough to fix convincingly almost the precise spot where the first grist mill stood, it may be added that I have
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been privileged recently to see the notes on early Fort Covington that were made thirty or forty years ago by a gentleman who then examined carefully into the facts, when pioneers were still living to impart information, and these notes also locate the original mills at the places stated. Having in mind probably the general course of the river from where it passes out of Westville, Mr. Constable must have written "north " and "south " where "right" and "left " would have been more accurately descriptive.
But before proceeding to designate as far as may be the various establishments that have flourished, decayed and disappeared at this center of activity during nearly four generations it seems pertinent to unfold more fully the conditions and record concerning the ceded lands in the mile square.
Seven or eight years before its cession by the Indians to the State the Robertsons sublet the east half of the traet to William Hawkins, who, unable to keep up his payments, repudiated his agreement with the lessors; but, instead of surrendering his holdings to them, deliv- ered back a part to the Indians. During his possession Hawkins had in 1809 and 1810 erected a new saw mill where the first one had stood. Ignoring their own lease to the Robertsons, the Indians there- upon leased the lots between Mill street and the river, together with the saw mill thereon, to Wareham Hastings.
The entire mile square, ceded by the Indians in 1816, was surveyed by State authorities in 1818 into "houselots " and "outlots." The former, numbering about one hundred, were of varying dimensions, and were all in localities which were expected to be occupied by village residences or commercial and manufacturing establishments. Two factors were to govern in the sale of these, viz., the estimated value of the land alone, and the appraised value of improvements, if any, added. For the unimproved lots or parts thereof (for some of the lots were sold as a whole, and others broken into two or three or even a half dozen parcels each) the prices ranged from fifteen dol- lars to two hundred dollars apiece, while the appraised value of improve- ments varied widely. For the lot on which the electric light works are the straight land value was appraised at $2,000, and the improvements at $3,120, out of which latter sum Buchanan was, of course, to get his $120, while the remainder represented the interest of the Robertsons themselves - they having been the original builders. The value of the several lots lying between Mill street and the river was set at $1,000, and of the improvements at $1,500.
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The " outlots " were in the outskirts of the mile square, and had an area of from two to thirty-four acres each. The number of such lots was twenty-one.
Now for such history of the several mills and shops in the locality as I have been able to gather :
According to the Constable diary, the saw mill on the east side of the river had gone into disuse by 1805. It had undoubtedly been a primitive and cheaply constructed affair, and naturally could not last long. By 1810 William Hawkins had rebuilt it, as shown by State records, and by 1816 Wareham Hastings had come into possession. The latter purchased the property outright from the State in 1822, and sold it the same year or the next to Joshua Aiken of Peru, who in turn disposed of it in 1823 for $5,300 to Benjamin Sanborn of Fort Coving- ton and Thomas Mears of Hawkesbury, Ont. The deed of conveyance includes both a saw mill and a grist mill. The latter was built by San- born. for Chapter 7 of the Laws of 1824 recites that he had by mis- take built a part of his grist mill on the lot above the one that he owned, and gave him the privilege of buying the additional lot. When and how the saw mill went out of existence I am unable to learn. In 1826 Sanborn disposed of his interest in the property to Mears, and the grist mill remained thereafter for nearly half a century a Mears possession, though operated now and again under lease by other parties,- among whom were John and Robert Patterson, who had it when it burned about 1870, Isaac Seeley, John Gillies and Gilbert A., Albon and Almon Wright. Later the Wrights had it by purchase, and sold it in 1888 for twelve thousand dollars to the Fort Covington Milling Company (a McNaughton organization), which proceeded to lay out several thou- sand dollars additional in converting it into a roller-process mill and otherwise improving it. This company did an extensive business for a number of years, smuggling wheat by the carload, and finally having to pay five thousand dollars to the United States government to settle the case against it. Not long after the dam had been carried off by a freshet in 1913, the mill burned, and has not been rebuilt.
The " bark mill " marked on the map of 1818, which would natu- rally be supposed to belong to the Streeter tannery, was in fact an adjunct of William W. Herrick's, and had no water privilege except for grinding for that particular works. State records show that it had gone into practical disuse in 1832. Near this bark mill was Benjamin B. Streeter's tannery, in which Grindal Streeter was afterward a part- ner. A shoeshop was an adjunct of it, and not far away was a hat fac-
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tory run by one or more members of the family. At this factory high hats for men's dress wear were made. As I now visualize the only one of them that I ever saw, it might have served as a pattern for the head- gear that Uncle Sam is pictured as wearing, or it might have been copied from it. These hats were higher and larger than the modern silk tile, were of a yellowish tinge, and the plush or fur with which they were covered was nearly as long as the fur of an animal.
It seems a reasonable assumption that the "clothiery " shown on the map was a carding mill - perhaps that of J. Congdon and R. A. Camp- bell advertised in 1821, and also the same as that which George A. Cheney owned later. Certainly it could not have been a woolen fac- tory, for there was no such establishment in the county until after 1825.
The triphammer works, as already stated, were owned and run by Jesse Woodbury, Jr. The census of 1825 lists them as still in existence, but that of ten years later omits them altogether.
Quite a distance down the river, and between the river and Water street, was William W. Herrick's tannery, with shoeshop connected with it. The precise date of its establishment can not be ascertained, but certainly was 1818 or earlier. Walter Herrick, a grandson, is confident that it antedated Allen Lincoln's, which was on the lot next north, and probably was built in 1822.
Mr. Lincoln had a shoeshop in connection with his tannery, and also a store in one end of it, from which he wholesaled large quantities of merchandise (then cheaper there than at Cornwall) to go into Canada for resale. When Mr. Lincoln identified himself with Fort Covington there was not a house in the place that he could rent, and he had to fix his habitation temporarily in Westville - walking to his work every morning. and tramping home at night. His tannery. shoeshop, store, real estate investments and other activities prospered him remarkably, and no man in the town was of greater importance or more prominent. His estate, valued at one hundred thousand dollars. was one of the largest ever accumulated by anybody in Fort Covington. His tannery continued to be operated for a good many years, his son, Allen M., running it, and then James Blansfield. It was finally torn down.
The Cheney carding mill and dye works were sold to John and Alexander M. Stewart, who converted the building into a furniture factory, which fire wiped out.
James Courtney's carriage shop stands about where the Streeter tan- nery used to be. and is the only industry in the vicinity on the east side of the river where there were formerly so many. A part of the
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Courtney building once stood on Water street, where Mr. Courtney understands that it was at one time a hotel, kept by a Mr. Dutcher, and then by Hiram Stafford, but which others remember as a saloon only. Near this point there was also a plant for rectifying whiskey, which was run by D. E. Deneen and Michael Mead.
As already demonstrated, the first grist mill was located nearly oppo- site, close up to the dam on the west bank. The lot on which it stood was contracted in 1831 by a Robertson heir to Thomas Mears, who already owned a like mill on the east bank, and full title passed in 1839. But the premises had been sold under a judgment in 1836, Ham- let B. Mears buying them in, and the sheriff's certificate of sale reciting that there were "grain mills, a distillery and outbuildings thereon." The deed of 1839. however, recites the description as it appeared in the contract of eight years earlier, and mentions only an old building that had theretofore been used as a mill, without specifying its kind, but which undoubtedly was the original grist mill of 1805. The census of 1835 so lists it, but that of ten years later omits it, so that it must have disappeared, perhaps by decay or by fire, during that decade. Between the contents of the contract of 1831 and the sheriff's certificate it is made to appear rather convincingly that the distillery was built . between 1831 and 1836. It is understood to have been owned and operated by Aretus M. and Myron Hitchcock. How long it was run and what became of it is unknown, but my conjecture is that it became the Luther Starks woolen factory, as the latter was established in a building that was already standing, which the lessee undertook in his lease to complete and improve.
In 1841 Hamlet B. and Thomas S. Mears leased to Luther Starks for ten years, with renewal privilege, a building and water rights on the west side of the river for a carding and fulling mill and for the manu- facture of cloth, the lessors reserving a right of way to a point below for a saw mill if they should build one there. By the terms of the lease Mr. Starks was to make specified changes and improvements in the building. He operated the industry until he committed suicide by cut- ting his throat in March, 1850. The business was continued for a few years thereafter by Tilness Briggs.
The saw mill contemplated in the lease was built by the Messrs. Mears, and after a time was made over into a starch factory, which the Mears Brothers operated, followed by Gilbert A. Wright and then by Allen M. Lincoln and William Hogle. It had but a brief life.
Both this starch factory and the Starks woolen mills were torn down,
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and the material in them utilized for the erection of a sash and door factory near by for Gilbert A. Wright, which was four stories in height, and is said to have contained ten thousand dollars' worth of machinery. It did a considerable business for a country plant until it was destroyed by fire.
Matthew Fleming and Donald Chisholm had a wheelwright shop just below the starch mill, and later Seth Blanchard had one yet farther down the stream. Both were burned. Lewis Bullis also had one on Center street, east of Water street, and on Salmon street, below Center, James Somers had another, a good many years ago. The building is still standing, but is not in use.
The sole industrial establishments in this immediate locality at present are the Courtney shop on the east side, and on the west bank the elec- tric light and power plant, the saw mill, planing mill and feed mill of Patrick and W. H. S. Keefe, who came from Canada in 1902, and first installed the electric works, which have a potential development of three hundred horse power. The rates for service are two dollars per month per light for residences and half a dollar more per light for commercial consumers. The arrangement induces free burning of lamps, with the result that Fort Covington always has the appearance of being one of the best lighted villages in Northern New York. Plans and terms were virtually agreed upon in 1917 by which Shields Brothers were to build a transmission line from the works to Bombay, and there use the cur- rent for lighting their factory and offices as well as other business places and residences. The Keefe dam was carried off by a freshet in 1913, and has been replaced by one of concrete.
South of this center, close by the upper bridge, on the west side, Calvin Henry had a stone blacksmith shop in the long ago, which was displaced thirty years since by a furniture factory built by Spencer & Premo. The latter was converted a few years ago into a co-operative creamery, now owned and operated by Solon Storm. Almost directly across the stream was Daniel Noble's tannery and shoe shop. The building is now a barn, just in the rear of William G. Kelsey's dwelling house. Mr. Noble owned a considerable tract of land south of the tan- nery, and an indentation of the river there has borne the name Noble Bay for many years.
At the so-called upper falls, south and cast of the upper bridge, near the old Danforth saw mill, which age and high water put out of existence thirty or forty years ago, there was a carding and fulling mill and woolen factory at least as early as 1834. Luther Danforth
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owned it in 1836, and presumably built it. He leased it in that year to Luther Starks and Sidney Briggs. According to the census this mill and the one on the Little Salmon in 1834 manufactured 22,407 yards of cloth valued at $6,885 -- which was only about half as much as the like product of the county that was made in the same year in families, where in the same time there were also made 20,623 yards of cotton and linen. In that period nearly every family had its flock of sheep. and wives and daughters were accustomed to make the cloth required for practically all garments for men, women and children, as well as blankets and spreads for the beds and tables. Spinning and weaving were then included in the customary household accomplishments, and, indeed, as Gaillard Hunt puts it, "in the country each family was an independ- ency. * * % The household stood alone, and might be cut off from communication with the rest of the world for months at a time with- ont inconvenience." Some specimens of these early mannfactures are still to be found in Franklin county, and show an intricacy of design and a beauty of finish that are amazing for hand work. Even the President himself in 1809 wore a suit of homespun at his inauguration. Mr. Starks assigned his interest in the lease of the mill in 1839 to Daniel Russell and D. Stiles McMillan : and in 1843 the business was adver- tised under the name of Sidney Briggs & Co., who announced the price of twenty-five cents per vard for making gray eloth, or thirty cents for colored. In 1850 Mr. Briggs assigned his lease of the property to Benjamin Raymond, who in turn assigned it soon afterward to Alonzo Doane and Reuben Martin - Doane assigning his interest the same year to Preserved Ware. In 1856 Mr. Martin came into actual ownership of the property. The operators of the mill from the time of Briggs to 1866 are not surely ascertainable. Luther Danforth is claimed by some of the older people to have run it himself for a part of this period. while others insist that he never ran it himself at all. Tillness Briggs and Norman MePhee were both there for a time, and during a part of the period of Martin's ownership it was operated by his son-in-law, Elory Howard. Moses Santinee and Louis Currier. brothers-in-law, also ran it, but whether separately or in partnership no one seems to remember. In 1866 it was sold to Joseph Shannon, who, with his son, David, operated it except for a short time until it was sold to Thomas Davidson in 1893. Mr. Davidson still made cloth there occasionally in a small way until his death in 1917, but the establishment was better known as a carding mill. the only one of the many doing custom work that at one time flourished in the county. The old dam was carried off. and the plant depended upon a gasoline engine for power.
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ยท Near this woolen mill Daniel Taro (brother of "poor Peter" of Malone, a skillful moulder sixty years ago, but afterward a vagrant drunkard, who was killed on the railroad near Montreal ) had a foundry before the civil war. A mortar and pestle made there may still be seen at the MacArtney drug store.
Across the river from the woolen factory, but farther up the stream, Thomas Mears once had a saw mill, which was run as late as 1875 by S. J. Stewart, and still later by Allen Fay for his brothers, Joseph and James. Joseph now owns the site and power, the mill having gone out of existence.
Toward the close of the civil war, when the price of cotton reached a fabulous figure. Gilbert A. Wright built a flax mill near this saw mill, and in 1866 sold a half interest in it to Hamlet B. Mears; but the enterprise did not prosper. and was abandoned -the building being made over into a sash and blind factory. and eventually burned.
Daniel Whitney and Luther Bartlett had a tub factory in the same vicinity, which was owned and run later by Sands Austin. It was burned when Mrs. Lareach and two daughters were occupying the second story as a residence. The mother was old, and the night of the fire had been locked in while the daughters went to the village. Unable to make her escape, she was burned to death.
Another tragedy near by was the drowning perhaps seventy years ago of Thomas Carter and two girls. They had been to church and return- ing had to cross the river in order to reach their home. The boat was small and unsteady. and, overturning, all were drowned.
Over on the Little Salmon earlier than 1830 John Starks built the first woolen mill that the county ever had. Misfortune pursued him persistently, however, the mill having been carried off by a freshet while it was yet almost new, and, having been quickly rebuilt. was destroyed by fire in 1839 or 1840. Mr. Starks removed to Malone, and in 1843, in company with Cyrenus Gorton and George A. Cheney, bought the woolen mill now owned by the Lawrence-Webster Company, but failed soon afterward. His Fort Covington mill was rebuilt by Myron Hitchcock, who ran it for a time, and I am informed that Sidney Briggs also had it later. It was finally torn down or carried off by high water.
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