USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 66
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Less may be said in extenuation of the fact that after the war had ended vast fraudulent claims for property alleged to have been appro- priated by the army of General Wilkinson, and for supplies represented to have been destroyed, were presented at Washington, with forged vouchers and false affidavits - particularly from Fort Covington. An investigation followed, with a humiliating exposure of attempted fraud. though in justice it should be added that in some cases at least the claimants were in no degree participants, or even cognizant of the " raising" of their claims after their preparation and verification and before finding their way to the treasury department. Outside attorneys and speculators were in the main at the bottom of the dirty part in the business, and by their operations brought not only disgrace upon the county, but by involving all claims in a general distrust and discredit doubtless caused many deserving cases to be disallowed, and so pre- vented recovery for genuine losses.
It is rather the modern habit to think of old times as the best, with stricter and higher standards of official conduet and individual rectitude. Possibly that view may be just, by and large, though I doubt it. and hold to the belief that not only is polities fairer and cleaner to-day than in former times, but that, measured by the number of men in office and by the tremendously larger opportunities in the present for defranding the public, the instances of misfeasance and dishonesty are far fewer than formerly. There has just been recited an illustration of almost
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an entire community going wrong in a case where the government's needs were great and desperate, with vital national interests in issue, and also of a widespread attempt, attended by perjury and forgery, to loot the treasury, and without punishment of anybody responsible for it. It would be a sorry and untenable thought that these experiences could be repeated in like situation in this day.
A yet more startling record of extensive swindling stains Franklin county's annals. To-day I tell it publicly and fully as legislative journals and public documents reveal it. Few of the names of those implicated are known to this generation, and it can not be realized how tender and avoided a subject it used to be. As a lad, having chanced to hear or read something bearing upon the wolf-bounty scandals, and inquiring of an elder for more particulars, I was rebuked for having referred to the matter, and cautioned that there were still among us too many respectable descendants of the wolf hunters to make it prudent to allude to their operations.
From 1815 to 1820 the part of bounties paid by the State for noxious animals destroyed in Franklin county, according to a report by the State comptroller to the Legislature, ranged from about five hundred dollars to one thousand dollars per year, but in 1821 they bounded to $10,600, and the matter aroused the indignation of honorable men throughout the State. Governor Clinton gave it a paragraph in his annual message, the comptroller communicated regarding it 'to the Legislature, and it was a subject of frequent reference and discussion in the Legislature's proceedings. Franklin B. Hough, whose long resi- dence in Albany and familiarity with departmental records there gave him exceptional opportunities for obtaining first-hand information, states in his Gazetteer of New York that the bounties paid in our county in the three years 1820, 1821 and 1822 aggregated $55,269, as follows : Wolves (929), $51,685; panthers (25), $1,075; foxes (587), $1,852.50; bears (93), $243; and smaller animals, $413.50 - which was equivalent to $12.50 for every man, woman and child then living in the county.
From Colonial times the State had authorized and paid bounties in varying amounts per head for the killing of wolves until the reward offered for cach full-grown wolf had become twenty dollars, and finally forty dollars, payable by the State and county jointly, with the privilege to towns to add to that amount at their own cost. I have endeavored to verify Dr. Hough's figures, but without success; probably because data available in 1850 can not now be located. However, I do find in a
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report submitted by the comptroller to the Legislature in 1822 the statement that our board of supervisors at its annual session in 1821 had audited and approved claims of the character in question to the amount of $23,369, of which the State was called upon to contribute $10,530, and that subsequent to that session and prior to the date of the comptroller's report in 1822 additional like claims had been allowed to the total of $8,000. Special committees were appointed by both the Senate and Assembly to consider the situation and prepare remedial measures. One of these reported that of the large amount paid only a very small proportion was borne by resident taxpayers, the greater part of the total not assumed by the State having fallen upon non-resident land owners. Moreover, the local share appeared to have been taken care of, in part at least, by the hunters themselves. Thus it was found that in the town of Chateaugay the hunters had deposited with an individual in trust one thousand dollars, which sum was to be applied by him toward the payment of the taxes of residents. The legislative committee naively remarked in its report that it was unable to determine whether this procedure was in pursuance of a stipulation on the part of the hunters to take such action as compensation to the voters for having granted lavish bounties, or was merely a gift in gratitude. Surely it must have been the latter, for was not honesty the character- istic of former times, and are not men who acquire money by dubious means always eager to part with it without a consideration? It was shown in the report, further, that, whereas the clerk of the board of supervisors had certified to the comptroller 529 wolves killed, he could list only 316 when called upon for a detailed statement.
Yet again, the comptroller's communication to the Legislature declared that while so great a number of wolves had been slaughtered, it could not be found that the wolves had killed a single sheep or done any damage. Sounds very like retribution reaching Mr. Wolf for having picked a quarrel with Master Lamb, as told by Æsop, doesn't it?
In Malone a special town meeting was called at about this time to vote upon the question of repealing the town bounty, and the Franklin Telegraph, which was the town's first newspaper, contained both a communication and an editorial in opposition to repeal. It was argued in both that the vote of the preceding year for a bounty amounted practically to a contract with the hunters, and that it could not be abrogated except through a breach of good faith. It was urged also that the hunters had bought largely of traps, guns and equipment on the strength of the offer of a bounty, and that withdrawal thereof would
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be virtual confiscation of their investment. It was still further pleaded that the payment of wolf bounties helped to bring money into circula- tion in a time when it was exceedingly difficult to obtain currency, and, anyway, that almost the entire tax paid for wolf bounties was borne by the State and by non-residents, the local part not amounting to more than one-sixth.
The consequence of the exposure at Albany was the passage of two laws on the subject in 1822. . One reduced the bounties that might be offered to ten dollars for a full-grown wolf or five dollars for a whelp; and limited the total expenditure in Franklin county for such bounties in any one year to one thousand dollars. If legitimate claims for more than that amount should be presented at the rates prescribed, then the thousand dollars must be distributed proportionately between the claimants. This act further provided greater safeguards against possible collusion between the authorities and the hunters, requiring that a claimant for a bounty, besides presenting and leaving with a magis- trate the head of the animal killed, file an affidavit describing the circumstances of the killing; exacted that an assessor, overseer of the poor or a commissioner of highways should sit with the justice of the peace whenever a claim was considered and acted upon ; and commanded that the ears of the animal be burned after the case should be disposed of. The second law directed the comptroller to withhold payment of the State's share of the bounties already allowed by the county . authori- ties until an investigation should have been made concerning them ; empowered the Governor to appoint a commission of inquiry, which was to report in duplicate to the comptroller and to the treasurer of Franklin county ; and enjoined the judges of oyer and terminer and of general sessions here to charge the grand juries to probe the matter, and the district attorney to prosecute all cases of fraud that might be established.
The report of the Governor's commission can not now be found. The copy filed with our county treasurer was presumedly burned when other records of that official were lost by fire forty years ago, and the copy lodged with the comptroller has been mislaid or purloined. Whether the report gave names I have no means of knowing: but it is shown by a report made by the comptroller himself to the Legislature in 1823 that it did recite some of the methods employed in the swindle and some of the attendant results. Dogs' heads had been made to serve as those of wolves, and in one instance a deer's head proved sufficient. According to the comptroller, the commission pronounced $2,505 of the
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bounties claimed from the State to be "illegal and unfair," with $500 of outstanding certificates partaking of the same character. Inasmuch as the State and the county shared equally in paying the bounties, this would make the whole fraudulent sum actually proven over $6,000, not including the amounts paid by the towns separately ; and probably there were a good many cases that were not susceptible of clear proof.
The frauds were greater in Chateaugay than in any other town, with Bangor probably ranking second, and Malone not guiltless. In Chateau- gay $1,930 of town bounties was held to be "illegal and unfair." As stated by Dr. Hough, the commission added that there were so many bounty certificates outstanding that "they served in some measure as currency in the county."
In addition to the practices described in the report of the commis- sion, it was told to me in my boyhood that after a hunter had pre- sented a wolf's head and a justice had examined it, it would be placed upon a table or chair behind the justice while he was executing his certificate, whence a collusive hand would pass it through a window to some waiting member of the gang, and that thus a single pate might draw a number of bounties through the negligence or connivance of an accommodating magistrate.
To complete the narrative it remains only to be stated as a matter of justice to the good people of the time that the complaint of frand was lodged with the comptroller by Franklin county residents, and was backed by affidavits, a procedure which in the circumstances would seem to have required no little courage, and which might easily have involved personal danger to the affiants if their identity should be discovered.
The discussion at Albany, followed by investigation and legislation, must have "thrown a scare " into the hunters and their accomplices, because in the next year the bounties paid were hardly more hundreds of dollars than in 1821 they had been tens of thousands. But no one was punished criminally, nor, so far as I have been able to learn, even prosecuted. That impotent conclusion would hardly be possible to-day.
CHAPTER XXVI ARSENAL GREEN, MALONE
THE STORY OF ACQUISITION OF THE PROPERTY BY THE STATE - THE OLD ARSENAL -AN INCIDENT OF A POLITICAL CELEBRATION - THE OLD STATE MILITIA, OR "FLOODWOOD," AND GENERAL TRAINING DAY.
Local records are barren as regards this property, and the facts con- cerning its conveyance and general history are to be found only in the offices of the clerk of Clinton county and of the Secretary of State and in the statutes.
Cone Andrews (the name came afterwards to be written Andrus) came to Malone from Vermont in the early years of the last century, and about 1805 bought from Noah Moody for $459 a tract of fifty-one acres, bounded substantially as follows: Beginning in what is now Main street. at a point nearly opposite from where Howard avenue diverges, running thence westerly to or near the southwest corner of the Howard block; thence northeasterly, following the line of Elm street, to a point at or near Terrace street, which is easterly from the old Whittelsey (now McClary) homestead; thence about twenty-seven rods east, which would be near Lawrence avenue; thence southerly to Main street; and thence westerly to the place of beginning. Mr. Andrews (or Andrus) was the father of William, Lucius, Leonard, Albert and George, and was by occupation a farmer and inn-keeper. He died about 1821.
In 1812 Cone Andrews deeded to the people of the State of New York a tract of land " for this use and purpose and this only, viz., that it shall be appropriated as a public green and parade ground, and that no buildings hereafter are to be erected thereon." The tract in ques- tion was bounded: Beginning at the southwesterly corner of the lot on which the Elks lodge house stands (then the residence of Dr. Horatio Powell, and later of William A. Wheeler) ; running thence southwesterly on Elm street twelve rods and eighteen links; thence southerly forty
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rods ; thence east thirteen rods and twenty links ; thence northerly fifty rods to the place of beginning, containing three aeres and thirty-five rods.
Also another parech, which included at least parts of the lots of the late Mrs. S. A. Beman (formerly S. W. Gillett's) and of Notre Dame church. containing a trifle over two acres (86 rods) "for the purpose of an arsenal and other public buildings being erected thereon."
Both conveyances were upon the condition that they be received sub- ject to any mortgage or mortgages on about one-fourth of an acre on the southwesterly side of the Main street frontage of the first described piece. The further consideration was " one shilling." As to the mort- gages referred to, the record is complicated and obscure. One for $113.90, given in 1804, was not cancelled of record until 1827. How it was paid or by whom does not appear. Another, running to Cone Andrus, was for $1,500, and covered, with other lands, a part of the park: it is understood to have been foreclosed in 1815, though the record does not so show. A third (not given until 1815, and probably growing out of a resale after the foreclosure just referred to) was for $1,000, and covered the same part of the park as the Andrus mortgage. This third mortgage was foreclosed in 1829, and the lands which it covered were sold shortly afterward to Obadiah T. Hosford. Mr. Hos- ford then fenced in the mortgaged part of the park, which consisted of a wedge-shaped piece fronting five rods on Main street, running to a point twenty-five rods northerly, or beyond the railroad.
A map attached to the deed given by Cone Andrus to the people of the State of New York in 1812 shows that the arsenal lot was contiguous to the larger plot or park, so that there was then no lane or driveway between the two parcels, as there is at present. So, too, the fact that the northeastern corner of the larger tract was coincident with the southwestern corner of the Elks or Wheeler lot on Elm street proves that there was no lane on that side either. Whether the lanes that now exist were taken from the park or from abutting private lands, accurate measurement of the present fenced frontages on Main and Elm streets would conclusively demonstrate. (Measurement by pacing does make the lanes a part of the park.) When, and how, these lanes were created I have not been able to ascertain ; but it is my conjecture that they were arbitrarily laid out or set off, but only by fencing, and not by authority, after the sale of the arsenal lot by the State in 1852, when the park was first fenced.
The same day that Mr. Andrus conveyed to the people of the State of
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New York, Benjamin Seeley, who at one time had had title to a part of the park property, quitelaimed to the State " all his right, title, property and demand " in that parcel.
Assembly documents for 1835 disclose that a bill for repurchase by the State of the part of the park fenced in by Mr. Hosford was referred to the commissioners of the land office for a report upon the facts. The report recited, after giving the history of the State's acquisition of the park and arsenal lot, as above outlined, that by Mr. Hosford's action the uniformity of the park had been destroyed to some extent, rendering it less suitable for a parade ground; and placed an estimate of fifty dollars to seventy-five dollars on the value of the piece sold under mortgage. Thereupon a bill was passed, chap. 179 of the Laws of 1835, authorizing the commissioners of the land office to appoint one or more suitable and competent person or persons to estimate and appraise: the value of that part of Arsenal Green which had been sold under a decree of foreclosure, and providing that when the person or persons having the legal title derived from such decree and sale should execute to the people of this State a sufficient deed of conveyance of the said lot or parcel the treasurer of the State should pay to such grantor the sum at which such land should have been so estimated and appraised. The report of the State comptroller for 1836 carried this entry of payment : " Ineumbrance on arsenal lot at Malone, $100."
Chapter 269 of the Laws of 1850 authorized the sale of arsenals and. lots in a number of counties in the State, including that at Malone ; and it was sold October 9, 1852. to William Andrus for $600 - con- veyance being made by the State, however, to Samuel C. Wead, doubt- less by arrangement to that effect between Mr. Andrus and Mr. Wead. Mr. Wead sold the lot later to Albert Andrus, who built upon it and resided there for several years.
Chapter 7 of the Laws of 1852 appropriated the proceeds from the sale of this property, less $200, to the improvement of the "Arsenal Green and parade ground," and authorized the payment of the money to Guy Meigs, Samuel C. Wead and Hugh Magill, who were appointed commissioners to expend the same in grading and fencing said " public green and parade ground," in setting out trees upon it, and in making such walks through it as they might deem proper, provided nothing be done to injure the green for the purpose of military parades. The act further provided that the said Arsenal Green should never be sold for private purposes except the same be directed and authorized by an act of the Legislature.
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The two hundred dollars reserved out of this appropriation was doubtless withheld for use in buying another arsenal lot, in case the State should conclude that one was wanted. The old arsenal building was not torn down for a number of years after its sale, and continued to be occupied by the State. In 1860 the State purchased from S. C. Wead for $300 " for an armory " a lot on the east side of Park street, a few rods north of Second street, and continued to hold it, umised, until 1873, when the then adjutant-general certified that it was not required for military purposes, and it was resold, by authority of Chap. 717, Laws of 1873 -S. C. Wead being the purchaser, and paying $300 therefor.
This act provided, further, that the proceeds of the sale be paid over to the trustees of the Village of Malone, "to be expended by them in securing and fencing the State grounds in said village."
An arsenal was built upon the arsenal lot as early as 1812. It was a two-story stone structure, and cost $5,000. In February, 1814, when General Wilkinson's evacuation of Malone occurred, after the retreat here in October, 1813, from French Mills (Fort Covington) following the American defeat at Chrystler's Field, or Farm, Colonel Scott occu- pied the town for a part of two days with a British force of about a thousand men additional to a smaller number of militia and a body of Indian allies. These latter, with some of the more turbulent of the militia and regulars, were bent upon destroying the arsenal, and actu- ally set fire to it. Representations to Colonel Scott by a number of the more prominent residents of Malone, to the effect that destruction of the arsenal would be wanton, and not within the practices sanctioned in civilized warfare, induced the British commandant to interfere, and the building was saved. When it was finally razed, more than forty years later, a part of its timbers and stone were purchased by S. W. Gillett, and were used in the erection of the dwelling house afterward owned and occupied by Mrs. S. A. Beman.
While the arsenal stood it was used for housing cannon (mainly howitzers) and the accoutrements and equipment of the local State militia. One of the howitzers went from the arsenal to Chateangay, and another stood or lay for many years at the corner of Main and Clay streets in Malone village. My recollection is that the brass six-pounder, which served Malone for a long time in the firing of Fourth of July salutes and in celebrating political victories, also came from the arsenal
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stores. At least it is the fact that this piece was bought from the State · by citizens of Malone, of whom I remember that the late Francis T. Heath was one. It was afterward confiscated by State authorities upon the pretense that its further use would be unsafe; but the men who had bought it and owned it were not consulted or recompensed.
It may interest younger readers to know that in celebrating the Republican successes at the October elections in 1872 in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania (which virtually assured the re-election of General Grant), this field piece was used at an hour long past midnight. It was then standing on the south side of Arsenal Green, and in loading it some recklessly jubilant celebrant rammed a stone in it, which a moment later crashed through the roof of the house on Park street now owned by Stephen M. Howard, and then owned and occupied by Benjamin Webster. Mr. Webster's awakening must certainly have been startling. Among those engaged in this celebration I recall the names of Wallace W. King, Sylvester S. Willard, Daniel H. Stanton, Colonel Wm. A. Jones, Colonel Birney B. Keeler, and S. A. Beman, and, I think, H. D. Thompson, and myself. John C. Slack was the cannoneer.
There is no record in the Franklin county clerk's office, nor at Albany, that discloses by what process or proceedings the railroad gained its right of way through the park, but it was probably accomplished by condemnation under the general railroad law.
The present generation has little knowledge of early militia con- ditions in the country districts, nor can it easily form a true conception of them. Under the old military law all able-bodied free male white citizens between the ages of eighteen and forty-five years, with the exception of legislators when the Legislature was in session, State officers and their deputies and clerks, certain county officials, judges, ministers of the gospel, teachers and students, firemen, men who had already served four years in the militia, and workers in certain specified industries, were subject to military duty. A further exemption, how- ever, let out those who, " from scruples of conscience shall be averse to bearing arms," upon a payment of four dollars. Each captain was required to make the enrollment for his own company, the bounds of whose district were fixed by some superior officer. The law originally
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required the militia to assemble by companies "in their respective beats " on the first Monday of September, and, at a later date, in June in every year, "for the purpose of training, disciplining and improving in manual exercise," and by regiments or battalions once in each year between the first of September and the fifteenth of October; and at such other times and places, either by regiments, battalions, companies or troops, as should be directed by the proper authority. Non-commis- sioned officers were required in addition to assemble two days succes- sively between the first day of June and the first day of September for like purposes. It was prohibited to sell or give away on a parade ground during a parade "any spirituous liquors, without permission of the commanding officer." Uniforms do not appear to have been prescribed for privates, though it was contemplated by the statute that non- commissioned officers should uniform and equip themselves, at their own expense, with an infantry cap, a tight-bodied blue coat with yellow or white metal buttons, a white vest and pantaloons, and black gaiters or half-boots. Privates were subject to a fine of two dollars for a failure to appear at a parade, and to smaller fines if present without proper equipment, including "two spare flints." About 1854 the flint-lock muskets were changed to a more modern arm, fitted for the use of per- cussion caps. The compensation for military service was an allowance or commutation of two days on the highway tax of each man. The law appears to have been unpopular, as the Franklin county board of super- visors repeatedly memorialized the Legislature for its repeal, and the assessors persistently omitted to assess the fifty-cent per capita tax which the law required to be laid upon men generally. Thus there were no funds provided for payment of the militia, and, in consequence, in a number of years after 1850 "general training day " did not amount to much.
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