USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 64
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
From the fact that there is neither record nor local tradition that British troops invaded the county at any time subsequent to the raid
608
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
which followed immediately upon the evacuation by General Wilkinson, except as they passed hurriedly through the western part on their way to Hopkinton two or three weeks later, most of the representations con- tained in this memorial would seem to have been based not so much upon actual occurrences as upon apprehension of what might be experi- enced; though it is, indeed, easily believable that cattle and provisions were drawn from the county into Canada, for it was charged at the time that residents who had a greed for profitable commerce, regardless of its character, did not scruple to establish it with the enemy, and that regular smuggling operations out of the country were prosecuted on a considerable scale - St. Regis being generally the point of exportation.
No attention appears to have been paid by the Legislature to the memorial beyond referring it to a special committee, which I find upon examination of the Assembly journal for 1814 submitted a report on April 6th to the effect that it had no doubt that great distress had been created among the inhabitants living near and adjoining the territorial line, and more particularly in Franklin county. The committee there- fore proposed a bill for the relief of our people, the exact terms of which the Assembly journal fails to state, but indicates that it was along lines similar to those of a measure passed at the same session for the benefit of the inhabitants of the Niagara frontier, and which provided for a State loan to these to the amount of fifty thousand dollars. But the bill for Franklin county did not pass, though whether it failed because of legislative disfavor, or possibly by reason of the memorialists them- selves protesting that it was not money that was wanted, but armed men, there is no means for determining. At all events, neither was furnished.
And they called this war! Surely, if measured by the perfection of mechanism and equipment, by the evidences of discipline and military skill, by the valor, and by the carnage that has desolated half of Europe during the past four years, or even that distinguished the struggle between France and Germany in 1870, or that were witnessed in our own civil war, it does not deserve the name, but should be classed simply as a series of insignificant clashes or skirmishes - a pretense of war and a travesty upon it. Our own country had not even one general in 1812 who was proficient in the science of war, and equal to applying it effectually. Canada was no better off, and no draft could be made upon Great Britain's home resources and commanders because the mighty effort then in progress against Napoleon was taxing the mother country to
609
FRANKLIN COUNTY AND THE WAR OF 1812
the uttermost. Consequently so-called armies were hardly more than assemblages of ill-armed men, half fed, practically destitute of medical supplies and attendance, untrained, without discipline, lacking steadiness under fire, and almost without heart in the enterprise, because a large part of the people were without sympathy with it, and, generally speaking, the better element refusing to enlist. On land there was no brilliant or pronounced success for the American arms except at New Orleans, and that battle was fought after peace had been signed. Worse yet, the war was bootless of admitted results, the United States having gained nothing by it, since the terms of peace contained no reference whatever to any one of the three main grounds that had been assigned for declaring war.
It would be ignoble to regret that the affair was but a mimicry of war, with failure to contribute thrilling chapters of military achieve- · ment by the American arms, for with it otherwise the suffering and sacrifice of life must have been multiplied. Yet it would be the extreme of reckless folly to forget or disregard the lessons that it teaches. It was solely that, equally with ourselves, the British were completely lack- ing well drilled troops, welded into a disciplined force, that saved the United States from a humiliating and disastrous issue of the rash adven- ture. God grant that peace may continue to be our portion as a nation ; but unless we prepare ourselves better than it has been our policy hitherto to do - better in providing an adequate army, in strengthening our defenses, and in assembling a sufficient store of arms and ammuni- tion - God save us if we should be attacked, for we would be powerless to save ourselves. And let it be borne in mind that miracles of the Old Testament order no longer occur, and that providence does not intervene in these days for peoples who do nothing to help themselves .*
EXTRACTS FROM THE TOMPKINS PAPERS
The voluminous papers of Governor Tompkins contain but few references to Franklin county. They are :
Statement that in 1808 the strength of the brigade composed of Clinton, Franklin and Essex county troops was 262, and that in 1813, on a war basis, it was 800;
Suggestion under date of March 31, 1812, to the secretary of war that, among other assignments, one of a detachment to be located at French Mills was indispensable :
" It is scarcely necessary to note that this was written before the United States engaged in war with Germany.
20
610
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
Statement to General Dearborn in June, 1812, that the militia assem- bled at Plattsburgh and other places on the northern frontier were unarmed and unequipped, and that if attacked by the Indians from St. Regis or Caughnawaga they would be as inefficient as so many women ;
Announcement July 6, 1812, that General Mooers intended to equip a battalion of four or five hundred men in or near Malone ;
Order under date of June 27, 1812, that Franklin county detachments rendezvous and remain at Malone until further orders should be received from General Mooers ;
Report to General Hull under date of July 8, 1812, that General Mooers had advised Governor Tompkins that the inhabitants of Frank- lin county, of all parties, had held a meeting, passed patriotic resolu- tions, and were determined to remain on the frontier, and to go shoulder to shoulder to defend themselves ;
Announcement July 20, 1812, that the Governor was inclined, under the powers conferred by an act passed in 1808, to build an arsenal at Malone or some other suitable place in Franklin county, with Ebenezer Brown- son and Joseph H. Moulton, of Malone, and Gates Hoit, of Chateaugay, as commissioners to acquire a site and superintend the work. Accord- ingly the Governor authorized James Weston, of Essex county, to pro- ceed in the matter, and advanced one thousand dollars to pay for a site, plans, etc. ;
Announcement to General Wright under date of August, 8, 1812, that further forces and supplies of arms, etc., would be sent to Clinton and Franklin counties within a fortnight;
Reference in a letter under date of August 12, 1812, to the arsenal at Malone as being then in course of construction ;
Order under date of August 12, 1812, placing Major G. D. Young, of Troy, in command of detached battalion in Clinton and Franklin counties ;
Announcement in a letter to Gates Hoit under date of September 18, 1812, that the Governor had furnished Ebenezer Brownson two thousand dollars on account for work on the arsenal at Malone, and had made an advance to Gates Hoit of three hundred and fifty dollars for expense in providing barracks. [It appears that the structures for which the sum last mentioned was to pay had already been erected without the Gov- ernor's knowledge. There is nothing in the communication revealing where these " barracks " were located, but they must have been a block- house in the northwestern part of Chateaugay, or possibly the works in the northeastern part of that town called " Fort Hickory."-F. J. S.];
611
FRANKLIN COUNTY AND THE WAR OF 1812
General orders of September 18, 1812, reciting that a number of inhabitants in the county of Franklin exempt from military duty had associated themselves together as a company, and pledged military service in case of invasion or other emergency; and declaring the serv- ices of these accepted, and appointing, breveting and assigning Joel Amsden to be captain, Gabriel Cornish and Enos Wood to be lieuten- ants, and Aaron Parks to be ensign of said company. [There is no record at Albany that this company was ever called into active duty .- F. J. S.];
Authorization as commander-in-chief, under date of October 1, 1812, of the organization of a company of infantry in the town of Constable, to be called the Franklin County Volunteer Exempts, with David Erwin to be captain, William Perry lieutenant, and John Hunsden ensign. [This company appears to have had a good deal of service ; see preceding pages .- F. J. S.];
Estimate under date of November 11, 1812, that there were thirteen hundred militia in service in Clinton and Franklin counties ;
Letter announcing transmission on December 8, 1812, of large quan- tities of socks, stockings and mittens, contributed by the women of some of the Hudson river counties, to Peter Sailly, of Plattsburgh, to be distributed by him to the troops at French Mills and elsewhere in the North ;
Notice to the secretary of war under date of February 6, 1813, that the last of the militia troops of the North, the detachment at French Mills, would be discharged March 8th, and that it would require about fifteen thousand dollars to pay them ;
Message to the Legislature at about the same date, announcing that orders had been given to issue arms and ammunition, upon the requisi- tion of General Mooers, and that the inhabitants of Franklin county had been furnished with muskets and ammunition upon the solicitation of their committee of safety for their protection against Indian depreda- tions. The message refers to a capture of fifty to sixty stands of public arms by the British at French Mills (doubtless those lost upon Captain Tilden's surrender) as the only arms that had been lost.
MINOR NOTES
Two or three weeks after the invasion of French Mills, Malone and Chateaugay, the British made an incursion to Hopkinton, via Moira, where a few muskets and some three hundred barrels of flour were seized by them. Having no means of transporting so large a quantity
612
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
to Canada, a part was destroyed, a part presented to the inhabitants, and about one hundred and fifty barrels taken away.
When French Mills was evacuated by General Brown, the boats that had served to transport General Wilkinson's army from Sacket Harbor were seuttled and burned to the ice. They numbered three hundred and twenty-eight, and here and there along the Salmon river, below Fort Covington, may still be found part of wrecks of the barges that were thus destroyed. A number were sunk near the mouth of Salmon river, and silt lodging against the wrecks formed an island in the course of years. It goes by the name of " Gunboat Island."
Of course the block-house which was built in 1812 could not begin to accommodate all of General Brown's army, and he had two other encampments, both fortified. One was near the Presbyterian church on the east side of the river, and the other on the place formerly owned by Hamlet Mears, on the west side, and now owned by Joseph Fay. It is about a quarter of a mile south from Chateaugay street. Traces of the latter are still easily discernible. The block-house was burned at the time of General Brown's evacuation, so as to prevent it falling into the hands of the British. A number of interments had been made just out- side of its walls of soldiers who had died within it, and a dozen or fif- teen years ago excavations in the vicinity resulted in unearthing a num- ber of skeletons,
The entire cost to our government of the expedition from Sacket Harbor to French Mills, and the maintenance of the army there and at Chateaugay during the winter, is said to have been about eight hundred thousand dollars.
In comparatively recent years the channel of the Salmon river had a greater depth than it has at present, and large steamboats ascended the river regularly as far as Dundee, Quebec, about half a mile below Fort Covington. One of these steamers was the Salaberry .. How many of the multitude of people who made excursions on it to Cornwall, Ontario, and other points, recalled the fact that it was named in honor of a Canadian, who, under adverse conditions, gained a signal victory over the Americans, outnumbering him five to one, in 1813?
General Jacob Brown's headquarters while he was in command at French Mills in 1813 and 1814 were in the building now occupied by the Allen S. Matthews store.
General Wilkinson used for his headquarters while in Malone the IFarison residence, or manor house, on Webster street, which was then a beautiful place, with a broad avenue bordered by stately trees leading
613
FRANKLIN COUNTY AND THE WAR OF 1812
to it from the street, with fine gardens and a green-house, and with a care-taker's lodge which served to accommodate the headquarters guard. The place was subsequently owned by Robert A. Delong, and is now owned and occupied by Ernest Müller .. After General Wilkinson's departure from Malone in 1814, a dozen or more muskets were found in the cistern, where they had been thrown perhaps by deserters from the guard, or by those who preferred not to be burdened by them on the march.
The lot on Pearl street now occupied by Cyril Dupree for a planing mill was made a burial place for the soldier dead of General Wilkinson's army, and within recent years parts of skeletons and metal military buttons have been unearthed there. Soldiers who died in hospitals on the west side of the river were buried, or were supposed to be buried, in the garden of Dr. Henry S. Waterhouse on Webster street, who then owned and occupied the place afterward owned for many years by James C. Spencer, and now owned by Miss Lola Sweet and occupied by Samuel C. Dudey. Dr. Waterhouse was one of the most brilliant and most skillful surgeons who ever practiced in Northern New York, but was not regarded as particularly scrupulous. He was drowned something like twenty years later in Gulf of Mexico waters. Dr. Waterhouse had always a number of young men studying under him, and the bodies of some, if not of all, of the soldiers that were sent to his premises for interment were buried only in the haymow of his barn, while those of others that were actually committed to earth were subsequently exhumed, and all dissected in the doctor's study for the benefit of his students. It used to be said that even the dead of the doctor's neighbors were not. safe from disturbance by him for like purposes. Be that as it may, the late Deacon Jehiel Berry, of Malone, who as a boy lived with Dr. Waterhouse for a time, is responsible for this story: When the British forces reached Malone after the withdrawal of General Wilkinson's army, they prosecuted an energetic and generally thorough search for stores abandoned by the Americans, and succeeded in locating and seiz- ing most of them. A considerable quantity that had been secreted in the chambers of Dr. Waterhouse's residence escaped discovery through this incident: The outbuildings and the lower part of the house having been thoroughly explored, the squad of soldiers proceeded to the upper floor, and, finding the first door tried by them locked, demanded the key, which the doctor produced. The door then swung open - revealing a skeleton with pistol grasped in its extended hand, and point- ing directly at the searchers, who fled in terror, and did not venture to
614
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
return. Thus the provisions in the custody of the doctor were almost, or quite, the only ones that were not found and seized.
The pay drawn by the privates in Captain Tilden's company for serv- ice at French Mills from July 8, 1812, to August 15, 1812, was $8.43 each, or for the full six months from enlistment in July, 1812, to date of discharge on January 8, 1813, $40.01 each. The pay of the privates who marched to the relief of Plattsburgh, covering a service of from ten to twelve days, ranged from $2.66 to $2.93 each.
Alric Man, of Constable, was the ranking militia officer in Franklin county during the war of 1812, at the close of which he was a brigadier- general. Thomas Smith, of Chateaugay, was next in rank, and during the war was a major. Later he was promoted to a colonelcy. I fail to find from the records that either of thera drew pay for service except for a few days in September. 1814, wher. they marched with four com- panies of Franklin county militia for the relief of Plattsburgh when it was threatened by a dozen or fifteen thousand British troops under General Prevost. McDonough's victory on the lake September 11 com- pelled the retirement of Prevost, though not until he had had a sharp engagement with the American land forces, in which he was worsted. The Franklin county companies did not set out on the march from here until the day that the battle was fought, and so, of course, were not participants in it.
The treaty of peace with Great Britain in 1783, as also that' of 1815, fixed the forty-fifth parallel as the boundary line between the United States and Canada from Lake Champlain westward to the point where it strikes the St. Lawrence river. This agreement was upon the suppo- sition, on the part of both Great Britain and the government of the United States, that that parallel had been correctly delineated in a sur- vey that had been made prior to 1:15, when. in fact, such survey had been inaceurate. This error and a graver misunderstanding concerning the true boundary of the State of Maine was a cause of dispute and contention between the two governments for nearly sixty years, and almost precipitated another war about 1840. In 1842 the Webster- Ashburton treaty settled the matter by compromising the Maine claims and by making the line as understood in 1783, instead of the true par- allel of forty-five, the boundary along New York's northern frontier. At Rouses Point the divergence of the boundary line as settled in 1842 from the forty-fifth parallel is about three-fourths of a mile. Prior to this adjustment the fort at Rouses Point, being north of the forty-fifth parallel, was by the letter of the treaty of 1783 on Canadian territory.
615
FRANKLIN COUNTY AND THE WAR OF 1812
and because so built has derisively been called Fort Blunder. Graham's map, showing the line as run prior to 1725 and the boundary as estab- lished by the treaty of 1842, is on file in the office of the secretary of state at Albany, and is before me as I write this statement. It shows the agreed boundary line at Rouses Point three-quarters of a mile north of the forty-fifth parallel, and trending thence southerly on a straight line to a point just west of the village of Fort Covington, where it coin- cides with the parallel, the two proceeding thence as one to the St. Law- rence river at St. Regis. This would naturally be supposed to be con- clusive of the matter, but the official report of the boundary commission conflicts with the map, and states that the boundary line as fixed in 1842, and as now monumented, is very far from being a straight line; that twenty-eight miles west of Rouses Point it crosses the parallel of forty-five; and that it then runs to the south of it until it reaches the Chateaugay river, where it bends again northward, and, continuing that trend, again crosses the parallel (this time to the north of it) at a point about four miles east of St. Regis - proceeding thence a little north of west so that at St. Regis it is one hundred and twenty-five feet north of the parallel. The commercial atlasses generally delineate the existing boundary in accordance with the commission's report, as here outlined, and do not follow the official Graham map.
William Kingsford in his work, "The History of Canada," says that at the time of the war of 1812 there was a military works, called Fort Hickory, to the northeast of the village of Chateaugay, on territory which the letter of the treaty of 1783 made within the limits of the United States, but which the present boundary puts in Canada. From information which I regard as wholly trustworthy I am persuaded that Mr. Kingsford is in error in stating that this block-house was on land that is now in Canada. Mr. Ezra S. Goodspeed, an elderly and intelli- gent resident of Chateaugay, whose memory is accurate as to matters within his own recollection, as well as to representations derived from others, tells me that Fort Hickory occupied the exact site of the present residence of Mr. Herbert T. Earle, four miles northeast from the village of Chateaugay, on the so-called " Montreal road," and that this point is just about one-half mile south of the boundary line as established in 1842, and a somewhat greater distance south of the parallel of forty-five. Mr. Robert Sellars, editor of the Huntingdon Gleaner, and himself the author of a local history of decided interest and merit, writes me indireet confirmation of this claim, by saying that Fort Hickory was on the farm of Major Jacob Smith, a revolutionary soldier, which was indubitably
616
HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY
within the present boundaries of Chateaugay. This farm and block- house was occupied during the war of 1812 by Samuel C. Hollembeck, who was a noted character, and was known commonly as " Old Coger." He possessed very great physical strength, was of a fierce temper, pro- nounced aggressiveness and undaunted courage. Once during the: war of 1812 three British or Canadian soldiers appeared at the block-house, in which Mr. Hollembeck was living alone, and demanded its surrender. Mr. Hollembeck drove them off, and literally "held the Fort." He was an ardent and intense admirer of General Andrew Jackson, and him- self bestowed the name "Fort. Hickory " on the block-house, in admira- tion of his hero, who was called " Old Hickory." Mr. Hollembeck after- ward removed to Malone, and located about three and a half miles west of the village. William Hollembeck, a painter, and quite as queer a character as the father, was a son; John, Fred, Henry and Will (all well known in Malone a generation ago, and now all dead) were grand- sons ; and Mrs. Leslie Hutchins, of Malone, is a granddaughter.
Another block-house was erected by Gates Hoit in Chateaugay in 1812, near the junction of the Marble river with the Chateaugay, at a point about three miles north and west of the village. It was occupied by American troops at intervals during the war, and was afterward burned, the conjecture being that it was set on fire by Canadians.
Upon the arrival of the British detachment at Malone, in February, 1814, it was halted near Memorial Park, at the junction of Elm and Main streets, where a deputation of Malone's leading citizens waited upon the commandant, Colonel Scott, to learn his purposes and to inter- cede against any seizure of private property or molestation of individual civilians. Satisfactory assurances were given, and the promises thus made appear to have been respected except in isolated cases, where indi- vidual soldiers made themselves offensive and disturbing without the knowledge or approval of their officers. The country from Chateaugay to Hopkinton was at the mercy of the British at this time, and, as Mr. Sellars of Huntingdon says, it speaks well for the forbearance of their officers that they treated the residents humanely ..
Colonel Scott made his headquarters in Malone at the hotel of Apple- ton Foote, which stood on the site of the present armory, at the corner. of Main and Webster streets, and the camp of the body of his troops was established on Brewster Hill, just west of the village, a point admirably chosen for purposes of defense if, by any chance, troops had been sent here by General Wilkinson from Plattsburgh. The Indians are said to have burrowed in the snow wherever they chose, and
617
FRANKLIN COUNTY AND THE WAR OF 1812
to have slept with no other protection than their blankets. The British force remained at Malone for only two days. A detachment to attack them is said to have been started out of Plattsburgh, but upon receipt of information that they had withdrawn from both Malone and Chateau- gay was recalled. It may have been in anticipation of some such demon- stration that the British stay in the locality was made so brief.
The late Henry V. R. Foote, of Malone, a grandson of Appleton Foote, advised me recently, upon information derived from his father, that Colonel Scott was a veteran of the Peninsula campaign in Spain under Wellington, and that he lost an arm in that war.
James B. Spencer, of Fort Covington, was commissioned by President Madison, February 1, 1815, a captain in the 29th regiment of infantry, regular army. The original commission, framed, which formerly hung on the wall of the supervisors' chamber in Malone, is now in the pos- session of Mrs. Spencer-Brown. Whether Captain Spencer had served previously during the war does not appear, but the commission must have been a promotion, for Captain Spencer is known to have begun recruit- ing at Chateaugay for the company with which he was identified on June 2, 1813, while his captain's commission bears date nearly two years later. Captain Spencer's recruiting account book shows that nineteen members of his command were from Franklin county, and that it par- tieipated in the battle of Plattsburgh. These recruits were: Samnel Beman, James Baker, Zebulon Baxter, Zodack Martin, Nathaniel Ayres, Chateangay ; Thomas Burgess, Jeremiah Hubbard, Joseph Sweetzer, Francis Lamore, Ebenezer Moor, Wm. Patteson, Robert Hamilton, Joseph Badrow, Samuel Wheaton, John H. Spring, Batease Baro, Samuel Drew, Samuel Moor, Constable; and Jacob Gilman, Malone. The term of enlistment was for the duration of the war, and the pay of a private was eight dollars per month, with a bounty of two dollars additional paid at the time of enlisting. The company was mustered out of service in June, 1815, when Captain Spencer turned in " ninety- six muskets, complete, eight damaged guns, seventy-two cartridge boxes and belts, and five swords and belts, complete." Under " mess accounts " the book shows that Captain Spencer paid two dollars per gallon for molasses, thirty-seven and a half cents per pound each for butter, sugar and coffee, and twelve and a half cents for beef. The whiskey that he bought cost less per gallon than butter cost per pound.
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.