Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns, Part 9

Author: Seaver, Frederick Josel, 1850- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Albany, J. B. Lyon company, printers
Number of Pages: 848

USA > New York > Franklin County > Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns > Part 9

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THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The public school development has been great. Though the number of school districts in the county remains substantially unchanged, in part because of consolidation of several into union free school districts, the school buildings have been bettered generally, and better qualified and a larger number of teachers are employed, the courses of study have been broadened, and the work is of a better grade. At the close of the civil war only two institutions were giving academie instruction, and now the number is eleven. The public moneys apportioned to the county by the State in 1868 totaled $20,322.50, and in 1917 the amount was $58,224.39. There has been, besides, a corresponding increase in the school appropriations locally.

There are six incorporated villages in the county, viz .: Malone (1853), Chateaugay (1869), Fort Covington (1889), Saranac Lake (1892), Tupper Lake (1902), and North Bangor (1914).

OTHER CHANGES IN BRIEF

Changes which need be only enumerated include the introduction of gas in Malone as an illuminant in 1871, and later as a fuel; of the electric light in the same place in 1886, and since then in almost every hamlet in the county; of the telephone in 1882, and now numbering more than two thousand subscribers in the county; of water-works in

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY

a dozen communities; the erection of new county buildings ; a large in- crease in the number of religious and fraternal societies, as well as the erection of a number of fine edifices for worship; the founding of the Farrar Home for Deserving Old Ladies, and of the Alice Hyde Memorial Hospital at Malone and of a general hospital at Saranac Lake. Nor should mention be omitted of the prevalence of markedly better excise conditions and of a stronger temperance sentiment. A half a century ago almost any one of even a half-way decent reputation could procure a license to sell spirituous liquors, and nearly every village and hamlet had its saloons or hotel bars, while in the few instances where towns ranged themselves in the prohibition column the traffic was nevertheless continued not uncommonly, and usually without aggressive action either by individuals or by public authorities looking to its suppression or to prosecution of offenders. At present there are but three license towns in the county, and a year or two hence, now that the women can vote, there are not likely to be any. Moreover, in the towns where no- license obtains sales are almost unknown, whereas in the old time no-license was often equivalent to "free rum." Legitimate business is better because of the change, wives and children are more comfortable and happier, and men generally are leading more useful and cleaner lives.

A word about the " movies " seems pertinent because they reflect so marked a change in the attitude of the people in the matter of amuse- ments. Every village and almost every hamlet has a place of enter- tainment of this type, and it is astonishing the patronage that they enjoy. In Malone alone the admissions amount probably to $500 or $600 a week, and elsewhere in proportionate sums, so that fifty thou- sand dollars a year is doubtless spent in the county for this one form of amusement.

Systematic and comprehensive improvement of highways began about 1907, and reconstruction of over a hundred and thirty miles of roads has been had since 1911 at exclusively county expense, with bonds issued to the amount of half a million dollars to pay for it. The undertaking was perhaps too ambitious in consideration of the county's wealth and resources, for maintenance is expensive, and if not given the improvements go to pieces quickly. About an equal mileage of State and county roads has also been built, the towns as such have invested heavily in like works, and the old ineffectual and wasteful practice of working out highway taxes has been discontinued altogether.

FRANKLIN COUNTY

THE FUTURE

What of the future? It is believed not to be without hope and promise, though conditions and our location, remote from manufactur- ing centers, can not be thought favorable to a very large growth or to a very great industrial development. Aside from the timber supply, our natural resources are few, and not likely to attract capital for the establishment of large manufactories. It would seem, therefore, that we have no warrant for expecting new industrial activities except as additional comparatively small plants may be created. But the sanatoria, the summer resort business, the factories that we already have and agricultural possibilities are resources of no mean consequence, and all are capable of further expansion - particularly agriculture. Study of scientific farming and intelligent and diligent application of its methods must be our principal reliance. Our fields have never as yet produced in the measure that they ought, nor have they been given over always to the classes of crops to which they are best adapted; neither have our dairy herds had the attention and selective care which alone can make them properly profitable, and sheep husbandry has been too much neglected latterly.

The average cost of living here is lower than in most localities ; the habits of the people are frugal ; labor agitation and disturbances are practically unknown; the suppression of the sale of liquor makes for larger savings, for a better employment of the energies of men, for greater thrift, and for morality; and the climate lends itself to the development of strong and vigorous men.

With proper fostering of the interests which we have, and especially if the best approved methods of cultivation of the soil be learned and applied by farmers generally, and painstaking and intelligent attention be given to farm stock - cows, swine, sheep and poultry - so that only animals that show a profit be allowed to live, the county ought to thrive and its people generally prosper.

CHAPTER II FRANKLIN COUNTY OFFICIAL ACTS

The official history of Franklin as a county begins, of course, with the county's erection in March, 1808, as told in preceding pages, and everything of an official character antedating that year is a part of the annals of Clinton county, or of the separate towns Chateaugay, Con- stable and Malone, originally called Harison. The record for 1808 is brevity itself, and includes no matter of consequence apart from the routine procedure of organizing the county government under the terms of the act of erection.

SITE FIXED FOR COURT HOUSE

In 1809 a petition to the Legislature represented that Noah Moody's dwelling house, on the rising ground a few rods west of the Main street bridge, in the center of the town [ township?] of Malone (the township was originally called Malone, but the town, which included a number of other townships, was called Harison at that time) had been selected by the inhabitants of the county for the site of their court house and jail; that "in consequence of such selection the inhabitants of such town had bound themselves to contribute the sum of fifteen hundred dollars toward erecting such court house and gaol within two years;" and that since the act erecting the county had not definitely designated the site it was questionable whether payment on the bond could be enforced, it was prayed that the site be fixed by law. An act as sug- gested was accordingly passed, and in 1810 a supplementary act empowered the supervisors of the county to raise by tax the sum of $3,250 in three equal annual installments for building the proposed structure, besides five per cent. commission for the collector and one per cent. fees for the treasurer. The supervisors were also to appoint a committee to superintend the work, and the sum of $250 previously raised for strengthening a room in the academy for use as a jail, but never expended, was authorized to be applied, with the $3,250, in con- structing the new building. In 1811 a further act sanctioned an increase of $500 over the original amount allowed for construction, and provided that when the judges of the court of common pleas should deem the building to be so far completed as to be safe and convenient

[72]

FRANKLIN COUNTY OFFICIAL ACTS

for holding courts and securing prisoners, they direct the sheriff to give notice thereof by proclamation, and that thereafter "said court house and gaol shall be the court house and jail."

The original journal of proceedings of the board of supervisors for the years 1808 to 1813, inclusive, lies on my desk, and it shows on this subject that Cone Andrus and John Mazuzan, of Malone, and James Ormsbee, of Chateaugay, were appointed a committee to superintend the work of building, and that they were paid at different times a total of $127.25, which included the expenses of one of them for six days spent on a trip to Plattsburgh and also six dollars paid for plans and for drawing a contract for erection of the building - which allowances were additional to the following sums voted for construction. In 1810, $1,084; in 1811, $1,333.33 ; and in 1812, $1,332.67, or a total of $3,750. In addition an allowance of seventy dollars was voted to the contractor for covering the cupola with tin instead of with shingles, and for pro- viding a "necessary." There was also a separate appropriation of sixty dollars for the repair of a door in the jail and for painting the seats in the court room. Thus, if the full fifteen hundred dollars from subscriptions was realized, the entire cost of the building, including the expenses and compensation of the building committee, but exclusive of other fees and commissions as well as of two dollars paid to one of the judges for examining as to the sufficiency of the jail, and three dollars "blown in " for spitboxes, was $5,757.25.

At the time of the appointment of the building committee they were instructed by the supervisors to take for a model the court house in the county of Clinton, "and build as near like that as in their opinion they think will best commode this county, having reference to the sums of money likely to come into their hands for the purpose, which will probably not exceed the sum of five thousand dollars, including all probable donations." The resolution proceeded further: "It is wished that they might complete the outside and paint it the ensuing year, and to accomplish this purpose they will please to collect all donations made by individuals, by subscription, bond or otherwise, as soon as possible. From these it is expected the committee will realize at least fifteen hundred dollars."

THE COURT HOUSE ALSO A JAIL AND HOUSE OF WORSHIP

The building was erected under contract by Noah Moody. It was originally hip-roofed, and contained a basement, a part of which served as a kitchen for the sheriff, and the other part consisted of two tiers of

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY

cells - dark, damp and dismal, without a particle of furniture except one chair in each cell. Straw scattered on the floor had to serve for beds for the luckless prisoners confined therein. The sheriff and family made the superstructure their home. The first floor was cut into six rooms - dining-room, two living rooms, a hall, and a debtors' and criminal prison. The latter had only a single grated window, and contained bunks for beds. The ceiling was made of blocks of wood dovetailed together and once in an attempt to escape the prisoners heated a poker and undertook to burn off the dowels, with the result that they set fire to the building and had a decided fright. The jury rooms on the second principal foor were appropriated by the sheriff for sleeping quarters when court was not in session, and the remainder of the floor was the court room proper. As it was the only public assembly room in the town for many years, it served also as a public hall for almost all sorts of purposes-for public worship for the different denominations, for lectures, concerts, etc.

The court house hill in 1810 was a very different proposition from that of to-day. It had a greater rise, with a much sharper grade, which fact. joined to its deep sand, led to the opening of a highway up academy hill, that was commonly used by the stage and by west-bound traffic generally. A road ran at this time diagonally across the academy green. In course of time the court house hill was cut down, so that by 1853 the court house was pretty well up in the air, and because of this the building was lowered fourteen feet by Nathaniel Evans. It ceased to be used for jail purposes with the erection of a new jail in 1552. and. when the new court house was built, in 1863, was sold at auction to ex-Sheriff Stockwell for $93.

PROCEEDINGS OF THE SUPERVISORS 1805-1613

Parts of the journals of proceedings of the supervisors for the Fears 1505 to 1613, inclusive, amply repay examination. In these years the board usually convened in annual session at the academy, accomplished nothing the first day beyond organizing, and then invariably adjourned to a hotel. where its further meetings were held and its real business transacted. The supervisors in the years stated were:

Year Chateaugay

1808 Gates Hoit

Allon Man

1800 William Bailey Albon Man

1:10 Games Holt Seth Blanchard Joseph Plumb

1:11 Tame. Ormsbee Albon Man

1:12 Seliu: Fairman

Albon Maz

Joseph Plumb Joseph Plumb

George F. Harison

1:13 Gates Hoit

Albor Man

Jonathan Lawrence

Harison, Ezrarille or Malme

Nathaniel Blanchard Aza Wheeler Hiram Horton

Asa Wheeler

Harry S. House

Constable

Dickinson Not erected Samuel Pease

FRANKLIN COUNTY OFFICIAL ACTS

Bangor having been made a town, Joseph Plomb was its superma in 1613.

John H. Russell was clerk of the board for all of these years, and for the first session was paid fourteen dollars fer attendance and services and for engrossing the proceedings. For per diem, mileage and expenditures for books the three supervisors : zved & total of $38.54. The town salite, including a levy of 8.30 ==

highway purposes, were in these am 8410.05: Constatle, $391.30; and Hszisom, 8:04.94.

moneys and the items for wolf bounties, the total town Chateaugay were but 8:5, and for Harmsen valy $1:4 valuation of Chateangay was 8188.363; of Constable 8168.629.84: and cf Harison 8412.636-a total for the county of $ ?: 3.538.84. Upom this valustion was laid a tax for county uses of Fire and three-quarter mills, or $2.199.56, of which 8250 was for providing a lock-up in the academy. 8850 for distribution among the towns for bridges, and unstated amounts for wolf beauties and for water expenses 1 like rate on the present valuation of the county would yield $39 .. 40.5%. or only about cze-sixth of what was raised in 191t. The amount of the budget in Ists was less than one dollar per capits, while in 191; it was five dollars for each inhebnent.

Further analysis of those early town charges discloses that commis- siones of highways and overseers of the poor were gand one doller each. assessors & dollar and a quarter each, derks of elections a dollar and a half each, and supervisors two dollars each per day. In thst period State elections were held in the spring, and those for representatives in Congress in the autumn. For the latter the supervisors made pro- vision by allowing to each town for the expenses thereof the maristens sum of forty-one dollars !

CURIOUS CHARGES

Some of the allowed savants are extremely curious. For illustra- tion, there were four claims presented by three individusis ss county charges, at two dollars per day each. for " examining wovien cloth." From earliest times down almuest to recent years the laws of the Siste provided for inspection by officials of almost everything - beer and pork, potash, hay, hoys, green luides and skins, daksesi. lumber. shingles, flour and meat, leather, wood and store, and many other articles. Usually the sets authorizing the appointment of inspectors

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY

and prescribing their duties provided that makers and shippers of any of the commodities specified should label the packages with their names and addresses; required inspectors to rate the quality of the goods, and stamp the same on the packages ; and imposed penalties for sending the goods out of a district or out of the State without compliance with the provisions of the statutes concerning them. The theory of the pro- cedure was that the State's reputation as a producer should not be permitted to be injuriously affected through shipment abroad of inferior commodities or of commodities improperly packed. But nowhere in the index to general laws is there any reference to inspection or examination of woolen cloth, and neither the State historian nor State librarian had ever heard of such a service. But in running through the index to the laws of 1812 for another purpose I chanced upon the explanation. In that year an act was passed (but repealed three or four years later, and so never got into the general laws) that provided for the payment of premiums of $100, $50 and $30 for the best, second best and third best specimens of woolen cloths made in mills of this State from wool grown in the State, and also for premiums of $40, $35 and $30 for specimens made in families. In each county the cloths were to be judged by the judges of the court of common pleas, and the samples approved by them were to be sent to Albany for final judgment for the State as a whole. The judges were to be paid two dollars each per day for their services in this capacity. The quantity of cloth examined by them does not appear, nor are there figures showing the county's product at that time. The census of 1825, however, shows a production for the county in 1824 of 8,941 yards not fulled and of 13,307 yards fulled. In the same year the county made 26,162 yards of cotton and linen.

The supervisors' records from which I am quoting contain these items also:

County budget in 1809 (including $1,000 for bridges) $2,276 05

County budget in 1811 (including $260 for bridges and $1,333.33 for

court house and gaol) 2,444 72

County budget in 1812 (including $1,332.67 for court house and gaol)

3,286 02

County budget in 1813.

1,699 97 5 50

Building four pounds in Chateaugay.

120 00

Ebenezer Brownson, two days examining woolen cloth.

4 00

Joshua Nichols, two days examining woolen cloth. 2 00

4 00

Asa Wheeler, one day examining woolen cloth.

Gates Hoit, in 1811, for services as county clerk.

12 00

Clerk of the board of supervisors in 1811.

11 50

Appleton Foot, for room and candles for court, three terms . .

34 00

John Wood, in 1810, " for services done as sheriff "

FRANKLIN COUNTY OFFICIAL ACTS

Lemuel Chapman, finding room and candles for jury.

$2 00

Gideon Collins, for money advanced for transporting arms from Plattsburgh . 1 25

Expenses for bringing arms from Plattsburgh in 1812 (paid by 23 individuals ) .

643 86

Gates Hoit, for time and expenses in 1813 in transporting munitions of war from Plattsburgh to Franklin county and distributing same .

Lemuel Chapman, guarding arms in transit from Plattsburgh in 1813.

36 00

Thomas Kennan, transporting arms and munitions from Platts- burgh, and distributing same in 1812. 4 00

6 00

Jonathan Lawrence, for transporting arms and munitions from Malone to Dickinson ... 4 00

Reuben Kelsey, undersheriff in 1813, for board of prisoner three weeks and five days. 5 58

Reuben Kelsey, undersheriff, for board of Indian three weeks and two days 4 93

Appleton Foot, for providing room and candles and fire-wood for three terms of court.

45 00

It seems also from these records that cash did not have to be had always when taxes were due, as a resolution adopted by the supervisors authorized the county treasurer to take notes from Albon Man and George F. Harison for taxes on the lands of Harison and Pierrepont, for whom Mr. Man and Mr. Harison were agents.

If taxes were low in the years which these records cover, such con- dition did not continue in 1821, when the county budget jumped to $28,794.04 (due largely to the extravagant and doubtless corrupt allowance of bounties for wolves killed), which total was equivalent to a tax of over five and a half dollars for every man, woman and child in the county.

RECORDS MISSING

The original records of the proceedings of the board of supervisors from 1813 to 1833 can not be found, but from data obtained from other sources it would seem that, with few exceptions, transactions could not have been much more than of a routine character for a long period. In 1819, however, the Legislature having directed the super- visors to appoint commissioners to purchase a suitable site and to erect thereon a fireproof clerk's office at a cost of not to exceed one thousand dollars, the supervisors appointed Benjamin Clark, Cone Andrus and John L. Fuller as such commissioners, and authorized them to expend five hundred dollars for the work. The next year six hundred dollars was raised to cover the cost to date, and a year later two hundred and eighteen dollars additional was voted. A lot west of the court house, fronting ten rods on Main street and six rods on

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY

Brewster street, was purchased for one hundred dollars, and a single story edifice of wood (scarcely " fireproof "?) was constructed, which stood until 1850.

THE POOR AND THEIR SUPPORT

The Legislature having passed an act in 1824 making the establish- ment of poor houses obligatory upon all of the larger counties and per- missive in the smaller, agitation was begun to have Franklin county take advantage of the provisions of the act, upon the representation that money would be saved and pauperism diminished, because those who would apply quietly to a town official for assistance would not seek admission to a public institution unless driven by actual distress to such course. The supervisors in 1826 appointed a committee to investigate, which submitted a very full and careful report in 1827, showing the cost of the then existing system to each town and to the county for each of the then preceding six years, and urging strongly that a poor house be built. The figures of cost as given in the report were :

Year

Cost to Towns

Cost to County $63.17

1821

$503.78

1822

372.82

74.54

1823

618.25

185.03

1824

513.15

170.95

1825

721.30

257.23

1826

795.17

1,103.08

$3,524.47

$1,854.00

The county paupers were those who had no legal residence in a town, and were mostly foreigners. The census of 1825 listed only eight per- sons in the entire county as paupers. More than half of the whole county charges for support of paupers for the six years was for expendi- tures in the single town of Fort Covington, while of the town charges forty-four per cent. was borne by Malone alone. Figures gathered from the State as a whole, and analyzed by the secretary of State, were pub- lished to show that the average cost of keeping a pauper in a poor house was only twenty-four cents per week, and it was stated that, whereas it had formerly cost the city of Salem, Mass., from ten to twelve thousand dollars per year to maintain its poor, the cost had been

FRANKLIN COUNTY OFFICIAL ACTS

reduced to sixty-four dollars per annum through the establishment of a poor house.

But notwithstanding this showing (which possibly may have been thought to prove too much), and notwithstanding the strong argument made by the committee in favor of acquiring a farm and building a poor house, the board of supervisors practically ignored the matter until 1830, when superintendents of the poor were appointed and directed to rent a tenement and a small farm, and cause the per- manent paupers to be there maintained. The next year it was voted to buy a suitable place for a poor house, and the sum of two thousand dollars was appropriated for the purpose. The results predicted by the report of the committee in 1827, above noted, were not realized, how- ever, unless comparison be made with the year 1826 alone, as the appropriations ranged every year after 1830 until 1845 from fifteen hundred dollars to two thousand five hundred dollars. In 1845 the poor house was burned, and the supervisors provided for rebuilding, but without appropriating a dollar specifically to cover the cost - which must have been paid, perhaps, out of the insurance money, or perhaps from the county's contingent fund. At the same time the board voted to petition the Legislature to abolish the poor house system in this county. Precisely the motives that determined this latter action are not of record, but it is not difficult to conjecture what they may have been in part. Doubtless the question of cost was one, and also considerations of humane treatment of the poor may have been a factor. It will be seen in preceding pages how considerately the town poor had been cared for under the practice of placing them in good families, and in the Franklin Telegraph (Malone's first newspaper) appeared an advertisement in 1825 inviting bids for the support of Malone's poor for the ensuing year, but carrying the reservation that the lowest bid would not necessarily be accepted. In other words, the kind of care that the poor would be likely to receive, as well as the price, would enter into determination of the award. But by no means could a system adaptable in 1825 have been certain to work satisfactorily twenty years later, because at the earlier date practically all of the inhabitants were socially on the same plane, regardless of financial standing, and even most of those who were best to do were poor, and glad to be able to add a bit to their incomes in any honest way, while by 1845 a new class had come to constitute an appreciable percentage of the population, and some of these would not have been agreeable in

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Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns, Part 9

Author: Seaver, Frederick Josel, 1850- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Albany, J. B. Lyon company, printers Number of Pages: 848

Author: Seaver, Frederick Josel, 1850- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Albany, J. B. Lyon company, printers
Number of Pages: 848