USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 49
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If in the long ago the policy of making a country newspaper dis-
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tinctively the purveyor of local news had prevailed, as is now so largely the custom, the preparation of historical matter would be a vastly easier and more accurate work. But the Franklin Telegraph, the Spectator and the Palladium, as well as the older of the other papers to which reference remains to be made, rarely contained items of home news until about 1870, and the exceptions were generally meagre and unsatisfactory.
The Franklin Gazette was founded at Fort Covington in 1837, but ten years later the office of publication was transferred to Malone, where the paper was continued under various ownerships until 1911, when it was discontinued. The Gazette was leased about 1870 for six years to A. N. Merchant - Mr. Flanders remaining its editor. It was then sold to John Law. The Gazette was always strongly, even bitterly, Demo- cratic in politics, and during the civil war was so outspoken in support of the so-called State-rights construction that Mr. Flanders was arrested on summary warrant issued by the President or Secretary of War, and taken to Fort Lafayette at New York and then to Fort Warren at Boston, where he was confined for about four months. Joseph R. Flanders, a brother, though never announced as one of the owners of the paper, is known to have shared in editing it at times. He also was arrested at the same time with Francis D., and was subjected to the same imprisonment. No specific charge was ever preferred against either, nor was any hearing given them. The procedure appears to have been simply an exercise of the war powers of the President, and to have had for its purpose a suppression of utterances which were believed to be calculated to discourage enlistments and to be prejudicial generally to the cause of the Union. Publication and editorship of the paper was continued by Mrs. Flanders during Mr. Flanders's imprison- ment, and its tone was at least no less extreme than it had been. The writer of this sketch was authoritatively informed many years ago that a communication from Mrs. Flanders to Jefferson Davis during the civil war was intercepted by federal officials, but is not sure whether that occurrence was a factor in causing the arrests referred to. At the time of the imprisonment of the Flanders brothers the forts in which they were confined were crowded with inmates who had been arrested for similar cause, and most of whom were from border points, like Baltimore and Louisville. No appeal to the courts was permitted to any of them. On his way to Malone the United States marshal who made the arrests stated to a gentleman at Syracuse that his instructions were to brook no interference, and that if any attorney or judge should
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undertake proceedings to halt or hinder him he was to apprehend such person also. As further indication of Mr. Flanders's extreme views and outspoken utterance of them, the fact is, recalled that when the Papineau rebellion was gathering head in Canada in 1837 the Gazette, expressing approval of it, was denied postal privileges in the Dominion. A similar proscription against circulation of the paper in the mails of the United States was enforced for a period of sixteen months during the years 1862 and 1863.
The Jeffersonian was published at Malone during the years 1853 and 1854, and was an outgrowth of the Democratic factional strife of that period. Joseph R. Flanders was its editor and one of the pro- prietors, William B. Earle and Carlos C. Keeler having been joint owners with him, but with no part in editing the paper, which was uncompromisingly and radically "hard-shell," and which showed uncom- mon vigor and ability. Upon the removal of Mr. Flanders to New York city to engage in the practice of law, the publication was discontinued.
Alfred Lincoln and Samuel Thorndike, bright young men, and law students or perhaps admitted practitioners, published a small paper for a short time before the civil war. It was of folio form, each page about eight by twelve inches in size, and had different titles at different times. One issue before me, dated July 6, 1857, was called The Chafer, and another, dated January 17, 1860, the Truth Teller. It was printed surreptitiously in the Gazette office by Gazette employees at night, though the type was set in its own office, which was on the second floor of the building now known as Houston Block, at the west end of the Main street bridge. The sheet contained personal items and gossip mostly, and in tone was snappy, if not scurrilous. Nathaniel Fisk, father-in-law of the senior editor and proprietor, threw the type out of the office window into the river one day, and that ended the enterprise.
The Malone Farmer was founded by George H. Stevens in 1886 with avowal that its mission would be especially to represent the farm- ing element, to fight unnecessary and excessive expenditure of public moneys, and in particular to reduce the charges for county printing. Julius Q. Clark was its publisher for a time, and it next went into the control of Andrew E. Clark, a son-in-law of Judge Henry A. Paddock. The appearance of the paper in its early years was cheap and dirty, and its contents corresponded. It is now owned and conducted by Halbert D. Stevens, Frederick L. Turner and Leon L. Turner, and has become one of the high-class weeklies of the State, with a large circulation. The remark may perhaps be permissible that it does not dwell now much upon the cost of public printing. It is Republican in politics.
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About 1890 William F. Mannix started a newspaper which he called The Independent, and the Farmer having ceased to be as fully as desired the especial representative of the interests which were originally back of it, a corporation was formed to acquire and conduct The Independent as the official organ of the Patrons of Industry. The grouping of the directorate was a curious one to those who understood then local con- ditions, the names having been Lyndon K. Young, George W. Briggs, M. A. Martin, H. A. Taylor and Gordon H. Main, with George H. Stevens as manager. The name was changed to The Farmers' Advo- cate, and up to the time that the corporation ceased to be the owner its publication cost Mr. Stevens about $1,200. E. N. W. Robbins bought the concern in 1896, and continued publication of the paper for about five years, with an annual loss of $800 to $1,000. The paper was discontinued in the latter part of 1900.
A Mr. Murphy brought The Forum here from Massena in 1902, and published it for a few years at about the period when Bryanism and Hearstism was permeating the State Democracy, and when municipaliza- tion of the water-works system was a local issue. The latter proposition was to cut theretofore prevailing rates squarely in two, and give a rich return to the village. The paper had little character or standing, but was a rank champion of pretty much everything that savored of radical- ism or socialism. It was removed to Kansas after a few years.
The Malone Evening Telegram was started as a daily in 1905 by Charles M. Redfield, then a stranger in the county, and has continued ever since under his ownership and editorship. It has had a remark- able prosperity, and has a circulation of five thousand copies. Other dailies in places corresponding to Malone in population have almost always had a languishing existence during their early years, but the Telegram secured a large number of subscribers at once, and has always commanded a goodly line of advertising. It is newsy, and while nom- inally Republican in politics the counting office control sees to it that it is never offensively or aggressively partisan, nor very assertive on any controverted question of any sort.
Frederick L. Long came from New York in 1912, and began the pub- lication of a Democratic daily, but the enterprise lived only a few months.
MALONE'S MORE SERIOUS FIRES
Malone has suffered seriously from fires, and a list of the more notable of its losses by this cause is appended for reference purposes :
The first academy building was partly burned in 1835, and small as
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the loss was in dollars it was yet as grievous in proportion to the popu- lation and wealth of the community as was that by the destruction of the school building, almost on the same site, in 1880. The structure burned in 1835 was replaced with one of stone, which latter was razed in 1868.
The second Amsden hotel, at the junction of Main street and Har- ison place, and known as the Franklin House, was burned about 1843 or 1844.
The cotton mill built by Jonathan Stearns about 1829, and subse- quently owned by Hugh Magill and William Greene, was burned March 13, 1846. The building was occupied also as a dry goods and general store by Magill & Greene, and most of the store stock was saved. The loss was $50,000.
A fire memorable because of attendant weather conditions rather than by reason of the amount of loss destroyed William King's resi- dence on the corner of Main and Pearl streets March 27, 1847. The greatest snow storm ever known in Malone had continued throughout the day, and light, fluffy snow lay four feet deep on the level, so that the engine could not be brought to the ground, nor water hauled from the river.
The tannery on the east side of the river, owned by W. H. Webster, was wholly destroyed August 23, 1865, together with 800 cords of bark, and the fire, spreading northwardly, consumed also P. Clark's livery barn on Mill street, and on Main street the two stores then owned by Rufus R. Stephens and C. W. Allen and George W. Fisher. The Stephens store was occupied by James N. Palmer with ready-made clothing. The Main street buildings contained also Odd Fellows' Hall, the village school district library, D. N. Huntington's insurance office, C. B. Conant's tailor shop, a billiard room, and the store of Allen & Fisher. The loss was $16,000 exclusive of the tannery and bark, which were valued at $15,000.
The old Hosford Hotel, a frame building erected earlier than 1807, adjacent to the present Rutland Railroad, caught fire January 20, 1866, when the temperature was ten degrees below zero. The structure stood about twenty feet north of the brick Franklin House, erected in 1851, and was connected with the latter by a wing. The old hotel contained Wantastiquet Hall, a famous dance room in its day, and rooms in it were used as an annex to the Franklin House. Both structures were completely destroyed. They were owned by A. W. Ferguson, Nathan Knapp and B. S. W. Clark, and had as tenants J. T. White (book
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store), Amander Heath (grocery), S. B. Carpenter and Samuel Greeno (meat markets), Sanford and Mackenzie Lewis (saloon), Mrs. Darrah and Miss Darling (millinery shops), and James L. Hogle, landlord, whose loss was $5,000. The loss on buildings was $10,000, while the individual losses of tenants was slight. Mr. Hogle undertook to buy the lot on the corner of Main and Webster streets, where the Baptist church now is, with the purpose of building a hotel there. But the proposition fell through, and, instead, he built at the corner of Main and Academy streets, now the Smith House.
St. Joseph's Catholic church, then recently built and not wholly finished, was discovered to be on fire soon after the close of morning service September 4, 1870, and was entirely destroyed. The insurance was only $13,000, which was hardly more than the debt upon the property.
The tannery of Webster Bros. was discovered by the watchman to be on fire October 20, 1879, and, instead of giving the alarm promptly, the man ran nearly a quarter of a mile to notify the foreman privately. By the time that the alarm was sounded the entire structure was wrapped in flames, and, with but a scant water supply, nothing could be done to save the establishment, nor much to protect adjacent prop- erty. The heat was so fierce that the Lincoln & Miller tannery on the west side of the river was soon burning, and was destroyed. Two wooden buildings on Main street overhanging the river, and owned by G. W. Fisher and M. E. Lynch, the stone stores known as Field's Exchange or Horton Block, and owned by Myron B. Horton, and also the two stores next east, owned by Mrs. W. W. King and Edward Cherrier, the stone marble shop on Mill street south of the tannery, and P. Clark's Block and Joseph Cogland's saloon, also on Mill street, were all burned. The principal tenants were John H. Moore (fruits and confectionery), N. Morse (books and boots and shoes), D. F. Man- nix (clothing), and the Odd Fellows. Webster Bros. reckoned their loss at $50,000 while the other losses were estimated to aggregate $45,000. It was the biggest fire that had ever visited Malone up to that time.
On Christmas eve, 1880, the three-story brick academy and high school building, erected in 1867 and 1868, and containing eight class rooms and a large assembly hall, was utterly destroyed. There was little water for fighting the flames, and the stream delivered from the hydrant until the steam fire engine was got at work was miserably weak. Nor was the steamer effective, because the supply of water was insuffi- cient to feed it. The cost of replacing the building was $42,000.
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January 28, 1888, a fire originating in the crockery store of M. C. Tullar, situate in that part of the Ferguson House structure that was called Empire Block, extended quickly to Lawrence Hall and thence to the hotel proper. The weather was intensely cold, there was little water in the reservoir, with a feeble hydrant pressure, and owing to heavy ice in the river the steam engine was slow to start, so that the flames gained a big headway, dooming the entire structure. An explosion blew the front wall of the hotel outward, and Isaac Chesley, an estimable and popular merchant, was buried in the debris and killed. The building was owned by Oliver Howard, and the principal tenants were John M. Spann (hardware), M. C. Tullar (crockery), Abner Croff (furniture), Kempton & Barnum (dry goods and groceries), Thomas Carpenter (ready-made clothing), Wm. P. Cantwell (law offices), Frank P. Penfield (undertaker), Sanford & Bartlett (milli- nery), the Farmers National Bank, and Frank Tallman, lessee of the hotel. The fire was the most destructive that Malone ever suffered, the aggregate of losses having been estimated at $150,000. As a result of the calamity, however, the long agitated enlargement of the village water works was brought about.
January 18, 1892, a fire originating in the Houston building (adjacent to the river, on the south side of Main street) destroyed all that part of the structure that stood above the street level, and also R. D. Rice's shoe store and the building next west, which was occupied by Davis Bros. as a drug store. The Houston building was so cut up by parti- tions that the flames found many hidden places in which to work, and approach by the firemen not being possible except from the front, the fire was a difficult one to fight, even with an abundance of water driven by a good head. The tenants were N. J. Lyon (meats), Ernest Muller (jewelry), Davis Bros. (drugs), Miss Kate Hart (groceries), and Pond Bros. (cigars). The losses totaled about $16,000.
June 6, 1893, the tannery of Webster Bros. burned for the sixth and final time, but since its destruction in 1879 the water supply had been increased, so that, though the building was larger than ever before, hard work prevented the flames from extending to other property. Nine powerful streams were poured upon the tannery. It had not been operated for some time, and contained little stock. An offer of $15,000 for it had been made a short time previously, and refused because ridiculously inadequate.
A fire originating in the insurance office of Hutchins & Wilson December 3, 1895, was one of the most stubborn and persistent ever
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known in the town, and although enough water was poured into the building to float it into the street if it had not been anchored its upper floors were gutted, and also those of the building next on the west, with considerable damage to two others adjoining. The buildings were owned by Mrs. J. R. Flanders, S. A. Beman and George C. Williamson, Mrs. E. Cherrier and Thomas Adams, whose losses were figured at $11,000. The tenants who suffered were R. McC. Miller (drugs), George C. Wil- liamson (general merchant), E. N. W. Robbins (printing office), F. G. Shufelt (boots and shoes), and Hutchins & Wilson, S. A. Beman and M. T. Scanlon (offices), with combined losses of about $14,000.
May 26, 1896, the hardware store of H. D. & R. C. Thompson and the building adjoining, owned by the Wells Knapp estate and occupied by J. J. Murphy with dry goods and groceries, were burned. The losses were estimated at $50,000. The origin of the fire was unknown, though it was suggested at the time that it might have been caused by lightning.
The Olympia Hotel, which had formerly been the Elmwood House, on the corner of Main and Pearl streets, was burned February 11, 1899 - the fire starting when the proprietor and most of the help were absent, serving a banquet at the armory. The mercury stood at fifteen degrees below zero, which, with the inflammable character of the build- mg, made it impossible for the firemen to do effective work except in protecting adjacent property. The losses sustained by the help were heavy, and that of the proprietor, Henry A. Gray, was estimated by him at from $15,000 to $18,000. The house had been opened under the new management only about six months before, and contained a lot of new furnishings.
The Malone Paper Company's mill was burned May 26, 1903, with a loss of about $100,000. At that date the village water mains did not reach to the locality, and the nearest hydrant was half a mile distant. Besides, the steam fire engine was out of town, fighting forest fires, and no effectual effort to save the property was possible.
In the afternoon of April 2, 1911, fire broke out in the basement of the main building of the Northern New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes, a three-story and basement brick structure which had cost about $60,000, and just as it was thought that the fire had been extinguished by the use of the school hose it was discovered to have crept between partitions to the second floor, where the flames were bursting through the windows. The beginning of the fire was in the northeastern corner of the building, a strong wind was blowing from the west, and fire walls divided the struc-
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ture into three parts - eastern and western wings and a central section, so that complete destruction seemed almost impossible. Nevertheless, and though, as one observer remarked, no building ever fought harder to save itself, the flames worked along corridors and through doorways and burned everything except a hospital annex. A considerable part of the contents was saved. The new buildings which replaced the one that was burned cost about $130,000.
The worst fire horror that Malone ever had occurred April 17, 1913, when a building on the corner of Catherine and Mechanics strect, in use as a hotel, but without equipment of fire escapes, was destroyed. The place was known as Hotel Wilson, with William and Mary Wilson under- stood to be its proprietors, though a relative named W. M. Bailey was nominally in control. The building was a mere shell, erected originally as a carriage repository, and in half an hour after the alarm had been given it collapsed. There were thirty-five boarders and guests in the house, and the family and help brought the number of inmates up to forty-two. So rapid and fierce was the progress of the flames that cur- tains of fire or clouds of smoke filled the hallways before the occupants could get from their rooms even in an undressed state, and many of those who succeeded in escaping had to leap from the windows. A number suffered thus broken legs or arms or were otherwise seriously hurt, while others were severely burned. After the fire had been extin- guished and the debris partly cleared away, the bodies of six persons were recovered from the ruins - some partially consumed and others so charred as to be identifiable only with difficulty. In addition, Fred Tummons was so badly burned that he survived only a few hours. The dead were: Albert Robideau and John Tummons of Malone; Philip O'Connor of Saranac Inn-formerly of Constable; John Maas of Albany ; Michael W. Cooney of Westville; and Tony Nicolina of New York. Nicolina was a harpist, and after having once escaped re-entered the building against warnings of the danger, in the hope of saving his harp. He was never again seen alive. William and Mary Wilson were indicted and tried for manslaughter, but the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
MURDERS AND OTHER HOMICIDES
For nearly three-quarters of a century following its first settlement, there was no proven murder in the town, nor even a death that was strongly suspected of having been by murder. The record thereafter for a number of years runs almost as strikingly the other way, and gave Malone for a time a reputation that shamed and hurt. So many killings
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occurred within a few years without a single one of them expiated that it came to be said that life to a visitor with money was unsafe here if venture were made into evil walks, or association had with a certain class of characters, who seemed to be able to rob and murder almost at will, and to defy detection. Happily the past dozen years or more show a cleaner page, and in particular since the legalized sale of liquor ceased on the first day of October the town has been as quiet and, superficially at least, as orderly as could be wished.
Early in the morning of May 24, 1867, the body of George H. Sea- bury of Chateaugay - who had been a student at Franklin Academy and at the time was home temporarily from Amherst College - was found on Main street, in front of the Hugaboom block, the site of which then was occupied by the original King store building, and in the base- ment of which there was a saloon. There were contusions on his face and forehead, and a pistol ball had pierced his heart. Letters and a purse in his pockets were undisturbed. Physicians testified at the inquest that death must have occurred almost or quite instantly. The contents of Mr. Seabury's trousers pockets, almost falling out, suggested that he had been carried up the saloon stairs feet foremost, and the belief was prevalent that he had been shot in the saloon, though no evidence of a trustworthy character was procurable to that effect, or determinative of who were the murderers. One dissolute character, indeed, did say when intoxi- cated that he was looking into the rear windows of the saloon'and saw the fatal shot fired, but when he became sober denied having any knowl- edge whatever of the affair. Mr. Seabury was not in the habit of fre- quenting saloons, and the generally accepted theory concerning the crime was that he had been an agent in the employ of the Canadian or British government to ascertain and report upon Fenian plans and movements, and that he was killed by Fenians. No arrests for the murder were ever made.
George Barr of North Lawrence attended the Franklin county fair in 1870, and spent a part of the time while in Malone at the poker table. He was known to have had at least $500 in money on his person when, on the evening of September 28th, he left the hotel to take a train for home. Two days later his body was discovered in the river just below the Main street bridge. He had received a blow on the head, had been garroted, and his pockets rifled. The conjecture at the time was that he had been persuaded after leaving the hotel to abandon the purpose of returning to his home that night, and at a later hour had been mur- dered and robbed, and his body thrown over the bridge. The iden-
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tity of his murderers was never known, nor did suspicion even point to any one very definitely as probably the guilty party.
It came to be whispered on the street at New Year's, 1881, and almost shouted from the housetops a few days later, that Emma Davis had poisoned Gertrude, the daughter of Samuel Manning, and niece of Warren L., with the latter of whom she had made her home in Malone for a number of years. Warren L. Manning had formerly been a mer- chant in Fort Covington, whose years numbered more than fourscore, who was understood to be wealthy, and who had no family other than the brother and niece with the exception of Mrs. Thomas Davidson, an adopted daughter. Miss Gertrude was twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, and Miss Davis thirty-two years old, a member of the Methodist church in good standing, had formerly lived in Brandon, but for ten years preceding had been Mr. Manning's housekeeper, with a status that made her almost as one of the family. Two or three weeks later Miss Manning herself made complaint before a magistrate against Miss Davis, who was arrested and held for the action of the grand jury. She was indicted in March for administering poison with intent to kill, and was tried in the following September - District Attorney Badger appearing for the people and Hon. John I. Gilbert for the accused. The undis- puted facts in the case were that Miss Manning returned from church one Sunday noon early in November, 1880, in apparently good health, and soon after dinner the same day became violently ill, vomiting and purging. There was improvement in her condition after a few days, but similar attacks recurred at intervals during the ensuing six weeks, with apparent partial paralysis and lack of sensation developing. At about the time of the second attack a physician was called, and was in attend- ance frequently thereafter, with a number of other practitioners appear- ing as counsel. At the trial Miss Manning, brought into court on a couch, testified to quarrels having occurred between herself and Miss Davis, that substantially every instance of a recurrence of her trouble followed soon after Miss Davis had administered food or medicine, and that upon one occasion she had found a greenish sediment in a cup of Prust coffee made for her by Miss Davis, and also once in a cup of milk. A number of physicians testified to their belief that the case was one of arsenical poisoning, while others of equal standing scouted that view, and insisted that Miss Manning's condition was due to calomel, or was a manifestation of hysteria, which it was urged might simulate any ailment. Assuming the guilt of the accused, the motive attributed to Miss Davis was hope that with Miss Manning dead she might marry
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