USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 36
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
Near the John Starks woolen factory was the dwelling house of Robert McPhee, an expert weaver who came from Paisley, Scotland, and set up looms in his house. He employed two or three hands, and turned out a considerable product of fine goods.
338
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
In this same locality George B. R. Gove built and ran a grist mill, a- mill for grinding plaster and a saw mill. It is said that the plaster ground here was drawn to Plattsburgh, where it was sold as a fertilizer. The grist mill became the property of Judge Henry A. Paddock, son-in- law of Mr. Gove, and was sold by him in 1865 to Sherman B. Rickerson. Subsequent owners have been Thomas and William Hamilton, Robert Mitchell and now Archibald McNair. Though the mill still stands, it is useless, partly from depreciation and also for lack of power, the dam having been undermined. The Gove saw mill was run at one time by William Hogle, and fifty years ago or more he and Allen M. Lincoln had a starch mill there, which was owned afterward by Thomas W. Creed. It was carried off by a freshet in 1887.
In view of the general practice in early times, it would be strange if there were not a saw mill on every stream in the town where a power could be developed; but I have been able to obtain trace only of a few additional to those already named; all but two of these were in the vicinity of Deer River Corners, now called Fort Covington Center. The first of them was on the east branch of Deer river, and was doubt- less built by Jonathan Ordway; another, with a tub factory combined, was built by Nathan, James and Addison Inman, and was burned in 1861 ; one a hundred rods up the stream, built by Edwin S. Bean in 1857, sold to Richard Delarm, who resold to Mr. Bean, and the latter to Lewis Billings ; another, still farther up the stream, built by Winchester Briggs, and gone long ago; still another was built and run by Allen Ellsworth ; and on the west branch of Deer river Alonzo and William Ordway had a mill. Another industry in this locality was a brickyard on the Charles Frye farm, operated by Robert Cushman and Seth Blanchard. The field book of a State survey in 1832 shows a saw mill on Pike creek that had almost rotted down, and which at the date stated was owned by David McMillan. Information from another source fixes 1813 as the date of its erection ; at a later date it was removed and rebuilt by Mr. McMillan farther up the creek.
The earliest hotels in Fort Covington were one at the west end of the lower bridge on Center street in a building a part of which is now the residence of Frank J. Bucklin, and one in the building now occu- pied by the Allen S. Matthews estate as a tin and hardware store. Both of these were running in 1813, and perhaps earlier: the former with Alexander Campbell as landlord, but by whom the latter was first kept I am unable to ascertain. Lemuel K. Warren (who was a landlord at Hogansburgh in 1831) was its proprietor in 1820, and William Cleve-
339
FORT COVINGTON
land had it in 1830. Mr. Cleveland had previously owned a distillery in Malone, and kept a hotel on Webster street, near the Brewster resi- dence. Joseph Briggs erected a hotel almost on the international boundary in 1816, which was known as the Briggs house for more than forty years. Landlords there after Mr. Briggs were William Shedd. Albert Stebbins and John McGregor. It is now a private residence, occupied by Edward Chorette. An act of the Legislature passed in 1825 authorized the leasing of a quarter of an acre of land owned by the State which was bounded on the north by Chateaugay street, on the west by Salmon street, and on the east and south by Salmon river (which is the lot where the creamery now is, or near it) to Benjamin Sanborn, provided he erect thereon a tavern house and outbuildings, but with the restriction that no part of the premises be used as a deposit for saw logs or lumber. Whether Mr. Sanborn ever built the hotel I do not know. In 1825 Joseph Spencer, the elder, had a hotel the location of which I cannot fix. Merchants by the name of Johnson advertised their store " in the rear of Joseph Spencer's tavern." Harvey Clark had a hotel on the lot immediately west of the school house grounds (now known as the Sawyer lot) as early as 1819 or 1820. which he rebuilt in 1824. The new house burned in 1827, and while it is known that Mr. Clark was still an innkeeper a year or two later, it is impossible to determine whether it was at this same point or elsewhere. He was a brother-in-law of Rev. Nathaniel Colver, who boarded with him in 1821, and who wrote to Mrs. Colver that he could see from his chamber window " every morning and evening from one to three deer within about a hundred and fifty rods, playing in the meadows." James Parker had a hotel in 1830, which was probably the present Northern Hotel on Water street,* which he is said to have built. The latter has had many landlords since that time, among whom the following are recalled : Osborn Allen (the grandfather of J. O. Allen of Brushton). Alexis Dutcher, Oliver Paddock, F. W. Stoughton, and David and Robert Stafford for a few years following the civil war, Tom Lee. Samuel McElwain, Dan. Taillon and King Kellogg. During the Staf- ford regime Fort Covington was engaged in a big fight to give the town a temperance character, but the Staffords persisted defiantly in the sale of liquor, and were frequently indicted and fined therefor. David became violently insane in 1873. Mr. McElwain committed suicide by cutting his throat in 1883. Another old hotel was the so-called "old
* The Northern Hotel was closed in the spring of 1918, and its furnishings sold at auction. It seems doubtful if there will ever be occasion to reopen it.
340
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
red house " on Mill street, which was kept by Judge James Campbell. The date of the building of the American or Spencer House is unknown, but it was certainly in existence as early as 1837, and even may have been the hotel kept by Joseph Spencer, the elder, in 1825, in the rear of which was the Johnson store. Samuel Browning, afterward at Hogans- burgh and then proprietor of the Ottawa House in Montreal, kept the American House at one time, and other hosts there include James Caul, Joseph Spencer, the younger, N. Hollenback, Fitch O'Brian, Duncan M. Cameron, Alexander Gardner, Charles Kellogg, and now Daniel Grant. This hotel was a military barracks in 1837 or 1838, when troops were stationed in the town to enforce our neutrality laws during the Papineau rebellion in Canada. The American House and the Northern Hotel are the only present inns in the town, and, unlike most other towns in early days. Fort Covington does not appear to have ever had taverns outside of the village.
Fort Covington's first newspaper was the Franklin Republican, founded by J. K. Averill in 1827, and then published by Samuel Hoard, with Francis D. Flanders as associate editor, until 1833; the Franklin Gazette. established by Mr. Flanders in 1837, and removed to Malone in 1845, when Mr. Flanders was Assemblyman; the Salmon River Messenger (sometimes derisively called the Mullet) which J. Dennison Fiske founded in 1851, and which J. Seeley Sargent (who removed to New Orleans) published later until it was discontinued after a year or so : the St. Lawrence Valley Record, founded by William Manson and published for a few years until 1876, when it was discontinued; the Sun, started by Ransom Rowe in 1885, and since his death, ten years afterward, published by Isaac N. Lyons : and the Advertiser, established by Frank J. Bucklin in 1910, but discontinued in 1917.
Fort Covington Academy was chartered April 21, 1831, and notes were given to the amount of nearly three thousand dollars by a number of men of the vicinity, with promise to pay annually the interest on their obligations toward the support of the institution. The upper room in the town hall, which at that time was on the Creed lot at the corner of Chateaugay and High streets, was used at first for a school room, as it had previously been used for a private academy that was taught in 1825 by a Rev. Mr. Crosby. A stone building two stories in height was erected for it the next year on the public square on the west side of the river, on the same lot that is occupied by the present high school. The original structure was burned in 1874, and was rebuilt in 1876. The academic charter was surrendered in 1904, and the high
341
FORT COVINGTON
school with an academic department authorized at the same time. The number of academie students ranged for a long time in early days between twenty-five (in 1840) and seventy-five (in 1842), in which latter year the fees received for tuition aggregated eight hundred dollars. The high school now employs three teachers and has fifty- five pupils.
Transportation conditions comprise an interesting story. In early years the Salmon river was navigable even for large boats to a point south of the international boundary, and much freight was sent out and brought in by water, and a considerable passenger traffic was fostered. Local parties were both steamboat builders and owners, though most who so operated lost amounts which in those days were accounted a fortune. The principal market was of course Montreal, but in some cases shipments were made directly to New York city. In 1866 two lines of steamers were running between Dundee, Que., and Montreal, with competition so keen that the fare was only a sixpence : and in 1881 there were four lines of boats plying between Dundee and Cornwall, Dundee and Lancaster and St. Anicet, Dundee and Ogdensburg. and Dundee and Massena. each having a good patronage. In those days Fort Covington got its coal by water, and the price there was so much less than in Malone that in some cases it was hauled by team from the former point to the latter, whereas now the Malone price averages the lower. The channel of the Salmon is at present so shallow that even motor pleasure craft scrape the bottom at some points - due in part of course to the fact of filling in, but perhaps also to the fact that the level of the St. Lawrence itself is claimed to be lower than formerly. Something like thirty years ago the federal government made an appro- priation for dredging the Salmon, and in 1889 the State appropriated ten thousand dollars for the same purpose. But there could be no value to these operations so long as nothing was done from the boundary north, and Canada would do nothing in the matter, as its engineers esti- mated that it would require a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to dredge the river properly through the Dominion to the St. Lawrence.
But advantageous and beneficial as water navigation was in former years, the need for railway facilities was felt. and agitation to obtain them developed in 1866. or perhaps a trifle earlier, and continued inter- mittently and spasmodically for fifteen or eighteen years before success was realized. The first movement of the sort of which I have knowledge began about 1866, when it was proposed to build from Potsdam Junction (now Norwood) to St. Lambert, Que. Publie meetings were held in
342
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
every hamlet in the northern part of the county, and as the constitu- tional prohibition against granting aid to private enterprises was not then in force Fort Covington voted to bond for seventy-five thousand dollars and Bombay for fifty thousand dollars as a bonus, while individuals pledged sums upon a like basis up to five hundred dollars each. The undertaking never went further, and about 1868 a new pro- ject was presented and urged - which looked to the building of a road via Malone to Ausable Forks, where connection was to be made with the Delaware and Hudson system. This also failed of practical result, and in 1872 the proposition was advanced to construct a line from Montreal to Massena. Again Fort Covington voted to give a bonus of seventy-five thousand dollars, Bombay of forty thousand, and individuals generous amounts. Matters then dragged for ten years, when construc- tion was actually begun under Grand Trunk auspices, and the line opened for business in 1883. No local aid was given except for rights of way and some small personal subscriptions. In 1887 the contract was let for an extension from Fort Covington to Massena, the work of building was rushed, and thus Fort Covington gained a rail outlet east- ward through Canada to New England points and westward to the New York Central system, though the service is not particularly good as respects passenger accommodations.
The St. Lawrence Valley Agricultural Society was formed in 1871, and held annual exhibitions on well chosen and excellently fitted grounds to and including 1875 - five in all. Enterprising farmers and business men stood by the project enthusiastically and loyally, but every year expenses exceeded receipts, so that when the affairs of the society were finally wound up in 1883 the life members, numbering seventy-five, had to pay about fifty-five dollars each to discharge the debts.
The first murder committed in Franklin county was perpetrated in Fort Covington February 2, 1825. The victim was Fanny Mosely, who had formerly lived at Hawkesbury, Ont., where she had been married three or four years previously to a worthless schoolmaster, and had come to Fort Covington for a wedding trip. There her husband stole all of the money, two hundred dollars, that her father had given her as a marriage portion, and also a sleigh and a pair of horses derived from the same source, deserted her, and was never afterward heard from. Thus abandoned and left destitute, Mrs. Mosely became a tailoress, won general respect, and accumulated some property. In 1824 she went to the Videtoes, two or three miles south from the village, to make her home, and became engaged to Stephen Videtoe, with arrangements for
343
FORT COVINGTON
the marriage to occur a few days subsequent to the date of the murder. At the time that the crime was committed Videtoe and Mrs. Mosely were alone in the house, except for Videtoe's parents, who were sleeping in the kitchen. Videtoe had pretended for some days previously that he had seen Indians about the premises, and simulated fear that they meant to massacre the members of the household. Accordingly he pro- cured a gun and ammunition, and after darkening the window with a blanket shot Mrs. Mosely, and, death not being instantaneous, gave her wine which contained arsenic. She died after two or three hours, ignorant that her affianced was her murderer. Videtoe gave out the report that Indians had come to the house, broken the window near the victim's bed, and shot through the aperture. At first his account of the affair was accepted generally as truthful, and, spreading with amazing rapidity, soon brought men armed and grimly determined to hunt down the assassins and give them summary justice. But no tracks were to be found in the snow leading to or from the house, and, it becoming mani- fest that the window had been broken from within instead of from with- out, and it appearing also that the bullet could not possibly have taken the course it did if fired as Videtoe had represented, the theory of Indian perpetration was quickly abandoned, and Videtoe was arrested. The trial in the following July continued for five days, and though the evidence was almost wholly circumstantial it was deemed so convincing that the jury required only a few minutes to find a verdiet of guilty. Some features of the trial seem curious to-day. The sessions of the court began at seven o'clock mornings, and were continued until late every evening - the final session not having been concluded until five o'clock in the morning. Just preceding or just following the judge's charge, a prayer was offered by Rev. Mr. Colver. The execution was August 26, 1825, and was publie. It occurred on the lot on Elm street in Malone, just east of Mrs. Gilbert's, now owned by Harry H. Hawley, which was long known as " gallows hollow." Crowds of people coming from all parts of the county were present to witness the gruesome affair. Videtoe protested his innocence to the last, and went to the gallows with a written denial of his guilt in his hand, and even after the trap was sprung changed the paper from one hand to the other and waved it at the crowd. The motive for the crime was of course never positively known, but was conjectured to have been jealousy, or possibly a desire to avoid the marriage. Videtoe was about twenty-five years of age.
A second murder, suggesting in some of its phases the Videtoe affair, was perpetrated November 18, 1885, by Edward Gower. The vietim
344
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
was his wife. They lived in a rude hut west of Fort Covington Center, and had been to Brushton to market their turkeys. On the way home, both having got out of the wagon, their horse ran away, and Gower pursued it, leaving the woman to follow at her pleasure. Gower's story ran that after reaching home and waiting a time for Mrs. Gower, he assumed that she had stopped for the night with a neighbor, and went to bed. He claimed to have been awakened by a crash of breaking glass, and to have fired through the window in the belief that mischievous boys were about, and with intent to frighten them away, after which he insisted that he returned to bed, and knew nothing of the fatal result of his shot until the next morning, when he found his wife dead under the window. Blood prints on the window casing indicated that Mrs. Gower had tried to get into the house after she had been shot, and the belief was that she had returned home soon after Gower himself arrived, had been thrust out by him, and then shot deliberately through the window. The prosecution contended that it would have been impossible to inflict the wound had Gower fired as he claimed to have done. Mrs. Gower was seventy years of age. A plea of guilty of manslaughter in the second degree was accepted by the court, and the prisoner was sentenced to imprisonment at Dannemora for one year.
A calamity of a different sort occurred in the town May 12, 1875, when a tornado swept over a section of the village. The schoolhouse near Malachi Barry's was unroofed, a daughter of Mrs. Fanny Brown instantly killed, and a child of Harry Lowe seriously injured. Others of the school children were also slightly hurt. The path of the wind was narrow, but ten or fifteen other buildings were partly wrecked, and in one case where a fence was destroyed every post was pulled out of the ground.
The record of public offices held by Fort Covington residents is formidable, and demonstrates that the town has not been slow in gain- ing recognition of the political claims of its people. Excluding minor positions, like coroner, associate judge of the court of common pleas, loan commissioner, attorney for the St. Regis Indians, subordinates in the customs office and clerkships at Albany and Washington, the list is as follows :
School Commissioners .- William Gillis, George W. Lewis and William G. Cushman.
Deputy Collectors of Customs .- Seth Blanchard, John Hunsden, James Camp- bell, John McCrea. James B. Spencer, James Campbell. Samuel H. Payne, Ezra Stiles, George B. R. Gove, Ezra Stiles, Philo A. Matthews, S. E. Blood, A. S. Creighton, George S. Henry, Sidney Ellsworth, Rodney Russell.
Sheriff's .- James Campbell, James C. Sawyer.
345
FORT COVINGTON
District Attorneys .- Henry A. Paddock, Walter Payne.
Surrogates .- James B. Spencer, Henry A. Paddock.
County Judges .- William Hogan, Roswell Bates, Joseph R. Flanders, Henry A. Paddock.
County Clerks .- George B. R. Gove, Uriah D. Meeker, Francis D. Flanders, Edward A. Whitney, Almerin W. Merrick.
Representatives in Congress .- William Hogan, James B. Spencer.
Members of Assembly .- William Hogan, George B. R. Gove, James Campbell, James B. Spencer, Jabez Parkhurst, Francis D. Flanders, Joseph R. Flanders, George B. R. Gove, James W. Kimball, Allen S. Matthews.
Presidential Electors .- James Campbell, James B. Spencer.
It is interesting to note that besides presiding on the bench Dr. Ros- well Bates was upon one occasion himself arraigned in circumstances that must seem amazing to the present generation, which apparently holds the Sabbath in so indifferent estimation. The doctor started one Sunday afternoon or evening from Fort Covington to drive to Malone, where he was to spend the night with his sister, Mrs. Leonard Conant, and then get an early start on Monday for a visit in Vermont. At Westville he was overtaken by an officer, who, apprehending him, escorted him back to Fort Covington, where he was arraigned the next day and fined for having traveled otherwise than professionally on Sun- day. His church also took him to task for the offense, and disciplined him by denying him the privilege of partaking the communion until he should express penitence, which he did after half a year. At the time in question a State statute prohibited traveling on the Sabbath except in cases of charity or necessity, or in going to or returning from wor- ship, visiting the sick and certain other specified cases.
SOME FORMER RESIDENTS
A number of former residents deserve special mention, some because of notable achievements, and others because their life history is of exceptional interest.
William Purcell was born in Fort Covington August 15, 1830. and at the age of three years removed with his parents to Rochester, where he became a newsboy, then a printer, and at length an editor. He founded the Rochester Union in 1852, and remained its editor except for a few months in 1884 until his death in 1905. His retirement in 1884 was voluntary, and was dictated by the fact that he could not con- scientiously support Mr. Cleveland for the Presidency. The Union was the strongest and best Democratie paper in Western New York. Mr. Purcell was for six years a member of the Democratic State committee. and its chairman in 1879. He was for a long time one of the board of managers of the State industrial school at Rochester, serving as its
346
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
president, and was also a member of the State board of mediation and arbitration. In 1881 he was defeated for Secretary of State.
James MeMahon, born in Fort Covington in 1831, removed while yet a child to Rochester, where, upon reaching manhood, he engaged in the book trade, and afterward in the transportation business in a large way. This work led to his removal to New York city, where he became connected with the Emigrant Industrial Savings Bank in 1878, and continued with it until 1906, becoming its president. The institution ยท is the largest savings bank in the world, and has over a hundred million dollars of deposits. Mr. McMahon was also a director or trustee in several commercial banks, trust companies and fire insurance companies, and was actively and usefully associated with a number of important charitable and philanthropic associations. During the latter part of his life he made his home in Brooklyn, where he was a member of the board of education, but never held or sought any distinetively political office. He died in 1913.
W. H. Hawkins, born in Fort Covington in 1816, died at Potsdam February 9, 1889. Mr. Hawkins was educated at Franklin Academy, Malone, and at an early age entered the ministry of the Methodist Episcopal church. Among other charges served by him were Chat- eaugay, Fort Covington and Malone. He was also onee presiding elder of the Potsdam district. Retiring from the ministry, he located at Potsdam, engaged in the mercantile business, and acquired a competence.
Daniel R. Cameron, brother of James (" Black Jim "), was born at Summerstown, Canada. Locating in Fort Covington, he was at one time in business with Preserved Ware, but removed to Chicago a good many years ago. There larger opportunities and his own fine qualities of good fellowship and excellent natural abilities led to big business connections. He was at one time associated with the famous publishing house of Culver, Page & Horne, and later entered into a partnership with Mr. Amberg, whose index files are known throughout the world. Mr. Cameron was president of Chicago's board of education for a long time. He became wealthy, retired from business, and removed to Altadena, Calif., where he had one of the finest homes in the State, and entertained in a princely way. He died in 1918.
William C. Kingsley as he was called in Brooklyn, but Kinsella as the family was always ealled in Franklin county and on the border, was born in the edge of Canada, and really was not identified with Fort Covington except as a student at the academy in his boyhood. He left the locality while yet a youth, taught school and engaged in the con-
347
FORT COVINGTON
tracting business in Pennsylvania, built a railroad in Illinois, and at the age of twenty-five years located in Brooklyn in 1858. There he con- tinued in the contracting business, building a large part of the city's water-works and sewerage system, improving the so-called Wallabout district, and constructing the big storage reservoir at Hempstead. He was among the first to suggest bridging the East river, and became the foremost advocate of the project - arguing and elaborating the idea so convincingly that the Legislature was persuaded by his presentation of the matter in 1867 to authorize the undertaking, which in the beginning was designed to be wholly a private enterprise. Mr. Kingsley raised the first five million dollars for beginning the work, he and his partner making the largest individual subscriptions for stock in the company. Mr. Kingsley became superintendent of construction, and then was successively trustee, vice-president, and from 1882 until his death president of the corporation - serving in the last stated capacity with- out compensation, as he donated his salary of five thousand dollars a year to the bridge fund. He was a director in many semi-public service organizations of the city and in many financial institutions, was par- ticularly active and helpful in developing Coney Island and Prospect Park, and was the largest stockholder in the Brooklyn Eagle. Though a leader of the Democratic party in Kings county for a long time, and though both local and national dignities of a political character were more than once within his reach, he never held public office. He died in 1885, and Hugh MeLaughlin said of him that he was the ablest man that ever took part in Brooklyn affairs.
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.