USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 10
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 10
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Adirondack, Bark-eaters.
Andiatorocte, The place where the lake con- tracts, name of Lake George.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Apalachian, Endless monntains.
Astorenga, Hills at Little Falls.
Caniaderi Oit, Tail of the lake; a name of Lake George.
Cossayuna, The lake at our pines.
Dionondehowa, Lower falls of the Batten Kill.
Kahchoquahna, Fish dipping place. The site of Whitehall village.
Kingiaquahtonec, A stone-throw portage between Fort Edward and Wood creeks, near Mors street in Kingsbury.
Mettowee, Pawlet river.
Ondawa, White creek.
Onderiguegon, Wood creek, drowned lands near Fort Ann. The word meaning conflux of waters.
Ossaragas, Wood creek.
Saratoga. There are seventeen spellings of this word, with three meanings given : Salt place, swift water, and track of the heel.
Tacundewide, Harris bay, on Lake George. Ticonderoga. Twenty spellings, and mean- ing where two rivers or waters meet.
Tightilligaghticook, South branch of the Batten Kill.
Wahcoloosencoochaleva, Fort Edward.
Wampachookglenosuck, Whitehall.
The Dutch called Wood creek Hout Kill. and named Lake Champlain, Corlar, while nearly every Indian tribe had a particular name for Lake Champlain and the Hudson river.
HISTORIANS.
Dr. Asa Fitch and Hon. James Gibson, with other local writers, did much to create an interest in securing the history of Wash- ington county in permanent shape by con- tributing articles to the press concerning the early settlers and the growth of the county.
In 1874 A. W. Holden issued his " History of Queensbury," in which he devotes consid- erable space to those military operations of the French and Indian and Revolutionary wars that occurred on the present territory of Washington county. Dr. Holden's work is
well written and contains a large amount of valuable information.
Judge Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester, in his " History of Saratoga County," in . 1878, traces at length the track of marching armies through the territory of Washington county, from the impolitic invasion of Champlain to the fateful march of Burgoyne. The Judge is a fine descriptive writer, and at times grows eloquent in portraying the beauty and the glory of the "old wilderness" country that was an unbroken sea of foliage in summer, from the Hudson to the Green mountains. Speaking of the discovery of Lake Champlain Sylvester describes it as follows : “Cham- plain entered the lake -the far-famed 'wil- derness sea' of the Iroquois, whose tranquil waters, studded with islands, stretched far beyond the southern horizon. From the for- est-covered shores on either side rose lofty mountain chains, whose highest peaks were yet covered with patches of snow. Over all was flung the soft blue haze called mountain snake, that served to temper the fierce sun- shine of our American summer, and to fill all the landscape with spectral -like forms of shadowy beauty."
To meet an urgent demand for an exhaustive general history, Crisfield Johnson, in 1878, wrote his "History of Washington County." The work was well and conscientiously done, and the volume is a reliable standard of refer- ence in regard to all historical events that have occurred in the county. Mr. Johnson is an able and accurate writer, whose style is pleasing and interesting. At times when the subject allows he indulges in a keen irony, as when speaking of Ethan Allen's capture of Ticonderoga, he says, " that Allen had de- manded and received its surrender 'in the name of the Great Jehovah and the Conti- nental Congress,' to neither of which authori- ties had he ever before been supposed willing to yield obedience."
In the introductory chapter of his history Johnson draws a very fine and beautiful pic-
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ture of Washington county territory, as circled by the fortunes of war with famous battles. He says, "Had a cordon of sentries been patrolling the boundaries of the county during the eventful quarter of a century which suc- ceeded the great French and English war, some of them would have learned, by eye or ear, of the occurrence of all the important contests for the mastery of this great strategic locality while they were being fought. Those who, in the autumn of 1755, had been guard- ing the western line of the present towns of Fort Ann and Kingsbury, would have heard the thunder of General Johnson's artillery as he repulsed the columns of Dieskau from the rude breast works on the shore of Lake George, only four miles to the westward ; those who occupied the same posts two years later might often have stayed their course to listen to the roar of Montcalm's guns, and the more feeble replies of the ill-fated Fort Wil- liam Henry ; while they who, in July, 1758, had stood on the northermost peaks of Put- nam, would have known by the terrific can- nonade that a desperate battle was being fought five miles northward, around the ram- parts of Ticonderoga. In the Revolution the famous fields were still closer. The sentries on the southern line of the town of White Creek, in August, 1777, would have seen close before them, in the valley of the Walloomsac, the rude farmers of New England and New York driving in disastrous rout the disciplined
mercenaries of Brunswick and Hesse ; those who, a month later, had stood where the west- ern border of Easton is washed by the placid Hudson, might have watched the red-coated battalions of England on the other shore re- coiling before the terrible fire of the Conti- nentals in the first battle of Saratoga; while those who stood there on the 12th day of Oc- tober, would have seen those same proud battalions, English and Hessian alike, fleeing before their despised antagonists to the shelter of their intrenchments, and the fate of Amer- ica decided in favor of Independence."
The long struggle of one hundred and seven- ty-four years, from 1609 to 1783, for national dominion over the territory of Washington county and of New York State, may be com- pared to a great game of chess, in which the Indian wars constituted the pawn opening, the Inter-colonial wars exhibited the deploy- ment of the minor pieces, and the Revolu- tionary war represented the late development and desperate struggle of the major pieces for supremacy.
The spirit of change is such and the march of progress has always been so wonderful that the prophecy of the present but seldom be- comes the history of the future ; yet if material development has meaning, and if mental cul- ture and moral growth stand for life and prog- ress, then will the future career of Washing- ton county be as splendid as her past record is brilliant.
HISTORICAL NOTES
UPON THE
Villages and Towns of Washington County.
CHAPTER I.
VILLAGE AND TOWN OF SALEM.
VILLAGE OF SALEM.
Solid, substantial and progressive is the quiet and peaceful village of Salem, the eastern seat of justice for Washington county, and whose early growth was the result of New England thrift and Scotch-Irish prudence.
The site of the village of Salem was the initial point of settlement in the town of Salem, and is claimed to have been the first perma- nently settled spot in the county, a claim that can only be disputed by Cambridge and White- hall, whose chances of greater antiquity de- pend upon whether Turner and Conkey built a cabin or not when they came out in 1761 to locate their land.
James Turner and Joshua Conkey came to the site of Salem in the sping of 1761, and in the fall went back to their native place of Pel- ham, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1762 they returned to Salem, accompanied by Ham- ilton McCollister. Their hut or cabin stood on the site of the Ondawa house. They brought their families in 1763 or 1764, and several other settlers from Massachusetts came with them at the time, or shortly afterward. The New Englanders called the place White Creek,
which name was used without opposition until 1767, when Dr. Clark's colony came, and set- tling in and around the little hamlet, sought to have it known as New Perth. Settlers now came in rapidly, and the double named ham- let soon grew into an important village, and in 1773 there appeared at the place a young En- glish physician, Dr. John Williams, who was to have much to do with its future growth and importance. The Revolutionary war inter- rupted its growth, but before its close the vil- lage assumed its present name of Salem, either from the name of a fort erected in 1777, by the inhabitants, or as a compromise desig- nation of the place between White Creek adherents and New Perth supporters.
After the Revolution Salem became an as- pirant for the county seat, and through the efforts of Gen. John Williams, partly secured the coveted honor. The construction of the first court house was commenced in 1792, and ever since then Salem has remained as one of the two county seats provided by law for Washington county.
In 1803 the village had attained such a size that it was incorporated on April 4th of that year. Its growth from then was slow, but substantial, up to the late war, that checked all village growth. At the first census after the war the village showed a population of one thousand two hundred and thirty-nine,
( 80 )
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
and since then has enjoyed a steady growth and satisfactory progress.
The fire department of the village dates back to 1803, when one hundred dollars werc voted by the freeholders to purchase fire im- plements, and an additional one hundred dol- lars to buy a fire engine. These authorized expenditures were never made, and in 1804 the fire apparatus of the village consisted of four ladders, a number of leather buckets, and a few hooks. About this time Major James Harvey owned a small fire engine, and two years later the first fire company, con- sisting of seven members, was formed. A small engine was purchased in 1810, which was replaced in 1838 by a larger one that was used in the two great fires of September and October, 1840. Old Union Fire Company, No. I, was organized in 1861, and purchased Cataract engine, No. 8, of Troy, for eight hundred dollars, but the fires of 1874 showed the necessity for more than one engine, and Osoma fire steamer was bought in 1875. The Osoma Steamer Company was organized January 23, 1875 ; the A. M. Wells Hook and Ladder Company on the same date ; and the Marion Hose Company, No. 2, May 1, 1875.
The first hotel in the village was opened by James Turner in a log house that was built by him in 1766, and on the site of which was built the Ondawa house, that was first known as the Washington coffee house. Another old hostelry of the village was the Salem hotel, opened by James Rowan in a log house that was torn down in 1802 by General Wil- liams, who erected the handsome Salem hotel that burned in 1877.
While providing for the wants of the trav- eling public, the mercantile interests of the village also received early attention. The pioneer store was opened by James Turner in 1773, on the site of the Fitch & Beattie store. Major Harvey built the store building, in 1822, owned by L. M. Liddle in 1877. Priest Nichols erected a store building before 1800 6
on the site of the McNaughton & Beattie es- tablishment, and the "Corner Store" was opened between 1801 and 1803, by Ebenezer Proudfit.
Rev. Thomas Clark was the pioneer physi- .cian, followed in 1773 by General John Wil- liams, who, in 1780, had a competitor to some slight extent in the person of Dr. Peletial Fitch. Among the early physicians of Salem who became eminent in their profession were: Drs. Joseph Tomb, Hon. Asa Fitch, Abram Allen, and Ephraim Allen.
Salem village took an active interest in the early railroad. building of the county, and that part of the Troy and Rutland railroad from Eagle Bridge to Salem was commenced at Eagle Bridge, June 3, 1850. About 1850 the Rutland and Washington railroad, from Salem to Rutland, Vermont, was put under construction, and two years later both roads were in full operation. The Troy and Rut- land Railroad Company, in 1850, purchased five acres of land at Salem, on which they erected their depot and machine shops, the latter of which were partly destroyed by fire in 1876.
Financial matters have also received due attention by the village. The Bank of Salem was organized in 1853, with a capital of one hundred and ten thousand dollars, and its first officers were : Bernard Blair, president ; Isaac W. Bishop, vice-president ; and B. F. Ban- croft, cashier ; while A. L. McDougall was employed as attorney. The bank advanced funds to the town and county in the raising of troops during the late war, and closed a highly honorable career in July, 1865, when it dis- solved. Its successor, the National Bank of Salem; was organized in 1865, with a capital of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. The first officers were : C. L. Allen, president; D. Woodward, jr., vice-president ; and B. F. Bancroft, cashier.
The church history of the village of Salem is extremely interesting. The first church in order of age is the United Presbyterian church,
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BIOGRAPHIY AND HISTORY
which was rather transplanted to than founded at Salem, in 1766, by Rev. Thomas Clark, M. D. This church was organized at Bali- bay, Ireland, previous to 1747, and religious persecution led them to come to America in a body in 1764. They halted at Stillwater in. 1765, until Dr. Clark chose Salem as their future home. In 1766 this congregation, two hundred strong, including baptized children, removed to Salem, where they had erected a church building out of small round logs, and having a bark roof and a dirt floor. No list of this congregation can be found. Its dea- cons were : George Oswald, David Tomb, William Thompson, William Moncrief, Wil- liam Wilson, Richard Hoy, John Foster, and David Hanna. The little log church was abandoned in 1770 and a larger church build- ing erected by its side. Seven years later the logs of the pioneer church were used for mak- ing a breastwork around the Presbyterian church that was fortified by the whigs and afterward burned by the tories. Dr. Clark performed a vast amount of labor, and in 1782 went to South Carolina, where he died in 1792, while in charge of two congregations. Rev. James Proudfit succeeded Dr. Clark as pastor in 1783. In 1795 Rev. Alexander Proudfit was installed as assistant pastor to his father, and after the death of the latter in 1802, served the church until 1835. During "his pastorate, in 1797, a new church was erected, at a cost of four thousand dollars. Rev. James Lillie, D. D., followed Rev. Proudfit, and was succeeded by Dr. Halley, T. B. Farrington, J. C. Forsythe, W. A. Mc- Kenzie, and others.
The Presbyterian church was organized in 1769 by members of the New England colony, who once seemed on the point of uniting with Dr. Clark's church. The Presbyterian church had fifty-two members when it organized, and the elders were : Alexander Turner, Edward Savage and Daniel McCleary. No list of these members can be obtained, and their first house of worship was not built until 1774. Three
years later, in an uncompleted state, it was turned into a stockade fort by the whigs, and afterward burned by the tories. A second church was built, which burned in 1836, and its successor was erected in 1837. Rev. John Warford became pastor in 1787, and served until 1802. His successors were : Revs. Samuel Tomb, 1806 to 1832; John Whiton, A. B. Lambert ; J. Henry Brodt, 1865 ; and others.
The Welsh Presbyterian church was organ- ized in 1868 by Griffith Jones and John Ed- wards.
The Methodist Episcopal church only dates back to the Salem mission, established in 1844, yet Methodist services had been held at the court-house as early as 1821. Rev. John Fassett was the first minister in charge, and the first church edifice was built in 1846. The present fine church structure was erected in 1876.
Saint Paul's Episcopal church was organized February 18, 1860, and the corner-stone of the church structure was laid on September roth of the same year. Rev. Charles Purvi- ance was the first rector.
The Holy Cross Catholic church was organ- ized, and its church edifice erected in 1859. It was the successor of the Salem mission, and its first resident pastor was James S. O'Sullivan.
The village graveyard, set apart by Dr. Clark, became so filled with graves that Wil- liam McKie and Asą Fitch, M. D., agitated a cemetery. Their views were carried out, and nearly twenty years ago Evergreen cemetery was laid out one mile south of the village, where taste and skill and art have wrought, and a beautiful city of the dead greets the gaze.
TOWN OF SALEM.
Salem is bounded on the north by Hebron ; on the east by the State of Vermont ; on the south by Jackson ; and on the west by Jack- son, Greenwich and Argyle. Salem has fifty square miles of area, and its surface consists of moderately elevated ridges, separated by
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
narrow valleys. It is drained by the Batten Kill and Black, White and Trout creeks. Lytle's pond is in the north, and McDougall's lake on the west boundary. Roofing slate quarries have been opened in the north, and other industries have been projected.
Salem consists mostly of the Turner patent of twenty-five thousand acres, onc-half of which had to be given to the colonial officials as a bribe. The bribed officials sold their share to Dr. Clark, and the Scotch and New Englanders divided the entire patent by lot.
No list of the members of the two colonies can be found. With Alexander Turner, James Conkey and Hamilton McCollister were : John Savage and his sons, Edward and James, Gid- con Safford, and Matthew McWhorter.
Among those who came with Dr. Clark were: Robert Clark, Thomas Beattie, John Harsha, William, John, and Daniel McCleary; John Rowan, David Hanna, William Thompson, James Thompson and David Edgar.
Other settlers besides the New England and Dr. Clark colonies came from Ireland, Scot- land, and the New England provinces and set- tled in the Camden valley and other parts of the town.
In 1789 two schedules of the Turner patent contained one hundred and twenty family names and two hundred and eighty-two proprietors, which embraced the larger part of the popula- tion of the town. Among the families were the Armstrongs, Beattys, Blakeleys, Bartletts, Bells, Boyds, Browns, Carswells, Conkeys, Clarks, Clevelands, Chambers, Collances, Covenhovens, Conners, Craigs, Crossets, Cruikshanks, Duncans, Edgars, Fitches, Gaults, Gibsons, Gettys, Grays, Gilmores, Harshas, Hannas, Hopkins, Hunsdens, Hen- dersons, Huggins, Henrys, Hoys, Linceys, Lyons, Lytles, Longs, McCarters, McFar- lands, Moors, McMichaels, McCollisters, Mc- Nitts, Moncriefs, McNishes, McCrackens, Mulchenas, McMurrays, McMillans, Martins, McDougalls, Nelsons, Oswalds, Orrs, Ram- ages, Rowans, Rogers, Robinsons, Stewarts,
Sloans, Savages, Stones, Steeles, Stevensons, Scotts, Smiths, Terrals, Turners, Tombs, Thomases, Willsons, Williamses, Webbs, and Wrights.
The Camden valley was covered principally with land grants made by the king in 1770 to English soldiers, whose lands in a couple of years came into possession of James Duane. On May 1, 1773, Duane leased the most of these lands to Philip Embury and his Irish colony.
The civil organization of the town was by act of legislature, passed March 7, 1788, and the first officers were: John Rowan, super- visor ; James Tomb, Clerk ; and Elisha Fitch, collector.
The unincorporated villages of the town of Salem, are : Shushan, Eagleville, Clapp's Mills, and Fitch's Point.
Shushan is six miles south of Salem, on the Batten Kill, and takes its name from the post- office which was so called by the postal au- thorities to avoid the title of South Salem, proposed by the inhabitants. It has a rail- road station, a factory, mills, and shops, and in 1880 had a population of three hundred and twenty-eight. The place was settled prior to 1775.
Eagleville is on the Batten Kill and two miles east of Shushan. Its postoffice name is East Salem, and a grist mill was built there prior to the Revolution. A woolen factory was erected about 1820, and the place enjoys a good local trade.
Clapp's Mills, or Baxterville, is three miles south of Salem, on the Batten Kill. Its early industries were a grist mill, saw mill, Reid's nail mill, and clothing works ; its later manu- factures are the sawed marbles of the Baxter Manufacturing company, who built a marble mill in 1865 to saw their Rutland marble.
Fitch's Point, at the confluence of Black creek and Batten Kill, is an old settled place, and has been the residence of the Fitch family for many years, besides being the home of Dr. Asa Fitch, the noted physician, naturalist and author.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
The churches in the town outside of Salem village are not many.
The First Baptist church of Salem was con- stituted at Shushan, June 19, 1790. Asa and Silas Estee and Oliver Brown, and Sarah Huff were of the original members. The house of worship was erected between 1800 and 1803, and was enlarged and improved in 1845, and again in 1876. The first minister was the Rev. Obed Warren, and in eighty- eight years twenty-two pastors had labored with the church.
The Moravian church had its origin in 1770, in the "valley of Camden," where its life record numbered one hundred years. The first of its eight pastors was Rev. Father Abra- ham Bininger, and its last, Rev. Benjamin Ricksecker, whose departure virtually dis- solved the church.
The United Presbyterian church of East Salem was organized in 1820, with twenty members. A church edifice was built in 1822, at a point one mile east of Shushan, and a parsonage was erected five years later. The first pastor was Rev. James Whyte. .
The Methodist Episcopal church of Shu- shan was organized in 1846, with fifteen mem- bers, and Rev. Edward Noble served as the first pastor. A church edifice was built in 1847. But three-quarters of a century before this organization had been effected Philip Embury preached in the southern part of the town of Salem, and for fifty years prior that section had been traversed by circuit riders, one of whom was the celebrated Lorenzo Dow.
The schools of the town were subscription until 1813, when the system of public schools was introduced. In 1843 there were six hundred and eighteen children between five and sixteen years of age, and in 1877 that number had in- creased to one thousand three hundred and forty-eight. At the present time the public schools are in good condition.
Higher education was looked after at an early day, and in 1780 a classical school was in operation in which four students were pre-
pared for college. This school was taught by Rev. Thomas Watson, and afterward by Saint John Honeywood, and in 1791 had attained such rank that it was incorporated as an acad- emy by the regents of the university of the State, under the name of Washington acad- cmy. A long line of competent principals have had charge of this institution of learning, and its influence for good has extended far be- yond the limits of the county.
CHAPTER II.
VILLAGE OF SANDY HILL AND TOWN OF KINGSBURY.
VILLAGE OF SANDY HILL.
On the Hudson, in the southeastern part of the town of Kingsbury, is Sandy Hill, the west- ern seat of justice of Washington county, and one of the foremost manufacturing villages north of Albany. By the provisions of chap- ter XL. of the laws of 1810, passed March 9th of that year, it was enacted that " All that part of the town of Kingsbury, in the county of Washington, known by the name of lot No. 93, lying on the Hudson river, and all that part of the plat of said town lying south of lots Nos. 33 and 34, and west of the great or middle road of said town plat, as laid down on the map of the division of the said town, shall be known and distinguished by the name of the village of Sandy Hill."
The boundaries were considerably extended by the act of March 21, 1856, which also granted additional powers and privileges, which are recorded in chapter XLVIII. of the act.
The incorporation of the village of Sandy Hill was fully completed by the action taken at the annual meeting held on February 23, 1875, when it was " Resolved, That this village become a corporation under the provisions of chapter CCXCI. of the laws of 1870, and pos-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
sess the powers given thereby." This resolu- tion passed by a vote of one hundred and forty- six ayes to thirty-eight noes, and the return was recorded in the clerk's office as the last step in the course of perfecting the corpor- ation.
There are no village records to be found back of 1856, in which year Orson Richards was president of Sandy Hill.
The site of Sandy Hill was passed over by an Indian trail from the Hudson to Lake George, and through what is now the public park ran the great military road from Fort Ed- ward to Fort William Henry, which was cut out through "an unbroken forest of mighty white pine trees into whose gloomy shadow the sun's rays seldom penetrated and in whose dim recesses innumerable deeds of horror and massacre were done."
Over the founding and early history of the old Indian trail oblivion has settled such an impenetrable gloom that even tradition has not dared to penetrate its depthis, and only imagination can vainly conjecture the swift march of avenging war parties and the fear- ful scenes enacted around the torture stake and in the gauntlet running. The earliest event in the recorded history of Sandy Hill was the tragedy of murder and massacre, from which, by some strange freak of fancy, a prac- tically inclined northern Pochahontas was ac- tuated to save John Quackenboss. Impressed as a teamster to haul supplies from Fort Ed- ward to Lake George, Quackenboss was cap- tured, together with Lieutenant McGinnis and the train guard of fifteen men. Their Indian captors halted on the site of the public park of Sandy Hill, where the seventeen unfortu- nate men were seated on the trunk of a fallen tree. The Indians soon resolved to murder their close-bound captives, and commencing at one end of the line, tomahawked each one in succession until the lieutenant and Quack- enboss were the only ones left. As they ap- proached the lieutenant he dodged the blow, and throwing himself back on the ground tried 6ct
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