USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 11
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 11
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to burst his bonds ; but death came in the whir of a dozen tomahawks. Quackenboss then closed his eyes to receive his death blow, but was unexpectedly saved by the interposition of a squaw, who demanded that as he was no soldier he should be spared and given to her for a slave. Her request was granted, and Quackenboss was spared, although he was afterward made to run the gauntlet. He after- ward obtained his freedom in Canada, and finally settled in the town of Cambridge.
When the Kingsbury patent was laid out into lots, the last one, No. 93, covering the corporate limits of the village, was not sold, but held in common by the patentees because it covered the entire river frontage at the " Falls."
The third settler in the town, and the pioneer at Sandy Hill, was Albert Baker, of New York city, who, in 1768, came with his wife and two children-Albert and Charles- to the site of the Hiram Allen residence, and near the falls that now bear his name. He built a short wing dam and put up a saw mill, and was soon jo'ned by Michael Huffnogle, who built a house near the site of the Waite residence. The Revolution came, and in 1780 Baker and Huffnogle were compelled to fly before the Indian bands of Carleton's invasion of that year. When peace was declared, or probably sooner, Baker returned to find his improve- ments in ashes and ruins. He went to work, however, energetically, and in a short time had erected another mill and dwelling.
In 1784 John Moss built a dam and saw- mill above the village. Dr. Zina Hitchcock, Jonathan Harris and others also came about 1784 and the little hamlet soon grew into some size and considerable importance.
In 1793 Washington passed through the place on a visit of inspection to the northern lake posts.
By the year 1800 the village had a postoffice, two taverns and several stores and shops, and sessions of the courts of the county had been held at the tavern of Mary Dean since 1797.
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It now commenced a steady career of progress, that has continued ever since. In 1806 the old court house . was completed on grounds donated by Dr. Hitchcock, and the Moss grist mill was built at the dam, while in the next year Albert Baker built a new grist mill, and changed his old mill, put up in 1795, into a carding and fulling mill. About the same time of Baker's improvements Ahijah Jones erected a carding mill and clothiery.
Four years later, in 1811, "the public square " or present park was surveyed, and for some time went by the name of the "Green." The commissioners were Russel Cole, William High and Thomas Bradshaw, and the date of the survey was August 4, 1811.
Then clustered on three sides of this square and extended along the main street above and below it, all the buildings of the village of Sandy Hill in the second year of its corporate existence. The residents of that year and the business and public houses of the place are nearly all embraced in the following account : The corner tavern was kept by -- Ashley, whose predecessor was Daniel Cook, who kept as early as 1800. This tavern was burned in 1855. The Eagle tavern was on the site of Clark's store, and also burned in the fire of 1855. Its earliest proprietor was a Mr. Dean, from New York city, and it was headquarters for the Cleveland & Taylor stage line. The Doty tavern was kept in 1800 by Alpheus Doty and afterward until 1834 by his widow, whose successor, Thomas Toole, changed its name to that of the Bull's Head. The Bull's Head in 1850 was enlarged and became the Park hotel. It burned in 1873, and on its site was erected the Rexford house, whose fate was to burn three years later. Captain Wil- liam High had a tavern. The residences were those of John Lamb, Henry C. Martindale, Capt. John Thomas, Mr. Rood, Capt. Solo- mon Day, Darius Sherril, Dr. Russel Clark, Judge Roswell Weston, Jonathan Harris, Dr. Zina Hitchcock, Israel Hand, Judge John Baker, Micajah Pettit, - Brannock, Clark
Colton, -- Curtis, Luther Johnson, Bogar- dus Pearson, -- Bird, Squire Collamer, Maj. Thomas Bradshaw, and Albert and Caleb Baker. The stores were kept by John Lamb, Carmi Dibble, Samuel M. Hitchcock and an- other merchant whose name has been lost. Rood's pottery, Johnson's tannery, Hand's currier shop, Amos Call's wagon shop, An- drew's blacksmith shop, and Thomas' saddlery shop, with the mills, made up the industries of 1811.
During the war of 1812 a toll bridge was erected. It stood from 1813 to 1835, when it was swept away by a flood. Progress was slow until 1819, when the village made a long stride ahead by the establishment of the Sandy Hill Times, and the Washington and Warren bank that afterward went down in disaster. Jacob Barker was president and Benjamin F. Butler cashier, while the celebrated poet, Fitz Greene Halleck, was a temporary cashier for a short time. Between 1824 and 1832 the construction and enlargement of the Glens Falls feeder was completed, and has been a source of material prosperity ever since.
Prosperity of an abundant character seemed to hover over the place in 1836, when the Washington and Saratoga railroad was pro- jected through Sandy Hill. Six heavy stone piers were built in the river below the dam for a bridge, but the panic of 1837 suspended operations, and afterward the route was changed. Had the road been built through Sandy Hill it has been asserted that Glens Falls, Sandy Hill and Fort Edward would have all been consolidated into one village, or rather city. From that unfortunate day Sandy Hill has grown steadily by means of her mills, factories and other industries, and on July 5, 1869, the village secured railroad communica- tion by the opening of the Glens Falls rail- road through the western part of her corporate limits. Toward this road the village voted twenty-five thousand dollars of bonds. Four years later the enterprising citizens of the place secured the erection of the present beau-
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tiful court house, toward whose construction the town of Kingsbury issued twenty-five thousand dollars worth of bonds. And to- day the western county seat is holding well its own in material advancement with the other villages of equal size in the State.
The population of Sandy Hill in 1855 was 1,360; in 1865, 1,939: in 1870, 2,350; in 1875, 2,501 ; in 1880, 2,487; and in 1890, 2,895.
· The industries of Sandy Hill during its early years were about summed up in the mills and factories of Baker and Jones, and the second stage of manufacturing commenced in 1844, when Stephen Howland purchased the Baker mills, then gone to ruin, and erected the first manilla paper mills of the United States. In 1845 the Wilber & Witpen and the Tarter & Luther carriage factories were built, and the succeeding year Benjamin Ferris erected a manilla paper mill that afterward was changed to the Waite wall paper mill. A shoddy mill was started in 1860, and then changed to a straw printing paper mill that was burned, rebuilt, burned again, and rebuilt, a third time to become a prey to the flames. The Washington Mowing Machine works were built in 1868. Howland & Co.'s paper mill was built in 1866, the Baker Falls Iron Machine works were started afterward, and the Halm Art Pottery works were erected in 1877.
Orsen Richard's upper and lower saw mills succeeded several old saw mills, and in 1872 were connected by a railroad track at a cost of thirty thousand dollars. Other industries have come into existence, and not over one-tenth of the vast water power at Baker's Falls has yet been used. The clear fall of the Hudson at this point is fully seventy feet, and affords the opportunity for the future establishment of some great manufacturing plant.
The fire department of Sandy Hill has been in existence since 1833, when the first fire com- pany was organized and purchased a small ro- tary engine of but little force. A small brake
engine equally as worthless replaced the rotary in 1850, and was succeeded in 1858 by the Rescne engine that did duty up to 1872, when it gave way to the Independent, a second-class engine, purchased in that year. In 1878 the the fire department consisted of Rescne Fire Company, No. 1; Eber Richards Independent Fire Company, No. 2; Rescue Hose Com- pany, and Wakeman Hose Company. Sandy Hill had her first great fire October 11, 1876, and after that loss, the purchase of a fire steamer, or the introduction of the Holly Sys- tem, was warmly urged.
Sandy Hill has moved slowly forward in many lines. The Sandy Hill Gas Light com- pany was incorporated in 1876. The First Na- tional bank of Sandy Hill was established Jan- uary 1, 1864, and various societies and benefi- cial organizations have been formed. The postoffice, established in 1798, with Roswell Weston as postmaster, has grown to an office of quite large dimensions.
Likewise the church growth of the village has been one of interest. The Presbyterian church at Sandy Hill was organized in 1803 by Rev. Lebbens Armstrong, at the house of Capt. William Smith, some four miles north of the village. The court house was their first place of worship at Sandy Hill, and so continued until 1827, when they erected a church edifice. The pews of the church were declared free in 1869, and a flourishing Sab- bath school was organized at an early day.
The Methodist Episcopal church of Sandy Hill was organized in 1825, with thirteen members : Benjamin Clark, Nathaniel Wickes, Jacob Lattimer, Seth Smith and George Har- vey and their wives, and Mary M. Lee, Katy Carrier and Carmi Dibble. The court house and school house, No. 16, served as their places of worship until 1840, when they erected a church edifice on Main street at a cost of four thousand dollars. A parsonage was pur- chased in 1855 for twelve hundred dollars.
Saint Mary's Catholic church, the mother church of Catholicity in Washington, Warren,
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and Essex counties, was organized about 1830 as Christ's church, by emigrants who came from different parts of Ireland. The name was afterward changed to Saint Mary's. The resident pastor was Rev. John Kelly, S. J. A stone church was built, and the congregation became so strong in numbers in 1873 that Saint Paul's church was formed of the French members, under Rev. G. Huberdault. The members of Saint Paul purchased the first Baptist church building at Park Place for a house of worship.
Sandy Hill Baptist church was constituted in April, 1840, with forty members. Rev. J. B. Murphy was the first pastor, and the church, on December 5, 1872, dedicated their second and present beautiful church structure at a cost of fifty-seven thousand dollars. The church is Gothic in style and cruciform in shape.
The Advent Christian church was organized with about twenty members in 1859, by Rev. Joseph Parry, who became its first pastor. Their church on Main street was built in 1860.
In education as in religion the village is favorably known for its interest and its first class school buildings. The Union Free school was opened in 1869 in the handsome school building at the head of Oak street, un- der Prof. William McLaren, as principal. An academical department was established in 1871. The building cost twenty-three thous- and dollars. Private schools of high grade have been taught in the village, and one of merit was that of Rev. Dr. Bostwick.
TOWN OF KINGSBURY.
The form of the town of Kingsbury is that of a square, and its boundaries are : Fort Ann on the north, Hartford on the east, Argyle and Fort Edward on the south, and Warren and Saratoga counties on the west. The surface is level and rolling, with hills in the east. Its drain- age is by Wood, Half-Way and Bond creeks. Its surface was once crossed by the old Indian war trails, from the Hudson to the lakes, and
an important canal and railway now pass through its territory along Wood creek, while the canal's main feeder crosses its southwest corner. It was originally heavily timbered.
The territory of the town is embraced in the Kingsbury patent, that was granted to James Bradshaw, of New Milford, Connecti- cut, on May 11, 1762. There were twenty- two associates in the patent with Bradshaw. They were Daniel and Nathaniel Taylor, Sam- uel Brownson, Comfort Star, John Warner, Kent and Abel Wright, Benjamin and Eben- ezer Seelye, Preserved Porter, Gideon and Thomas Noble, Partridge Thatcher, Daniel Bostwick, Samuel Canfield, Isaac, John and Jonathan Hitchcock, John Prindle, Benjamin Wildman, Amos Northup and Israel Camp. Nearly all of these were residents of Connecti- cut.
The first settler was Bradshaw, who came in 1763, but did not bring his family until two years later. £ Oliver Colvin, sr., the second settler, located in the north, and Albert Baker, the third pioneer, made his home at Sandy Hill, in the southwestern part of the tract. Michael Huffnogle joined Baker in a short time, and of other early settlers we have record of Samuel Brownson (a patentee), Jo- seph, Moses and William Smith, Thomas Grant, Benjamin Underhill, Solomon King, Henry Franklin, S. Dillingham, Ennis Gra- ham, George Wray, John Moss, Timothy, Moses, Samuel and Gilbert Harris, Nehemiah Seelye, John Griffith, John Munroe, Leonard Decklyn, Amos McKeney, Asa Richardson, John Phillips, Adam Wint, Samuel, Andrew, Adiel and Samuel Sherwood, and the widow Jones, from New Jersey, and her six sons, John, Jonathan, Dunham, Daniel, David and Solomon. David Jones became noted as the affianced lover of Jane McCrea. John Moss settled at Moss street.
When the Revolution broke out the Jones', Adam Wint, Gilbert Harris and many others became tories, and took up arms for the Eng- lish. Many of these tories were with Bur-
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goyne when he crossed the town in 1777, and some of them three years later came with Carleton when his track through Kingston was marked with murder, fire and pillage.
After the Revolution, the town was not changed in either name or territory from the patent grant of 1762, and received State re- cognition March 23, 1786.
The unincorporated villages of Kingsbury are: Kingsbury Street, Patten's Mills, Smith's Basin, Dunham's Basin, Adamsville, Moss Street, Vaughn's Corners and Langdon's Cor- ners.
Kingsbury Street, five miles northeast of Sandy Hill, is a place of nearly two hundred inhabitants and was early settled. Several stores and taverns have been kept there, and the postoffice was established in 1810, with Jonathan Bellamy as postmaster.
Patten's Mills is a small village in the north- west, and was known as Jones' mill-place until Edward Patten came and built a later mill, thus giving his name to the hamlet, where a postoffice was opened in 1825, with James Pat- ten as postmaster. There have been several stores but no hotel at Patten's Mills.
Smith's Basin, five miles northeast from Sandy Hill, came into existence with the open- ing of the canal in 1822. It is named for Eze- kiel Smith, the proprietor of the first store and hotel. The postoffice was established in 1849, with L. C. Holmes as postmaster. The village has about two hundred population and is a railroad station.
Dunham's Basin is like Smith's Basin, a station on the railroad and canal. It is named for Daniel Dunham, an early settler, lies two miles cast of Sandy Hill, and has a hotel and store.
Adamsville, named for John Quincy Adams, is six miles east of Sandy Hill. The post- office was established in 1827 and gave name to the hamlet. The first postmaster was Cal- vin H. Swain.
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Moss Street is a rural settlement one-half mile north of Sandy Hill, and was named for
Deacon John and Captain Isaac Moss. A hotel was once kept there.
Vaughn's Corners was founded by William M. Vaughn, who opened a tavern and hotel there at an early day. The hamlet is five miles north from Sandy Hill, and once had a postoffice.
Langdon's Corners is a farming neighbor- hood four miles north of Sandy Hill, in the western part of the town.
Church history goes back over a century, to 1790, when an Episcopal church was organized in Kingsbury. Twenty-three years later the church was reorganized under the name of Zion church, and in 1854 a beautiful stone rural church edifice was erected. From a missionary station the church has become a self-supporting parish, and has sent mission- aries to China, the Sandwich islands, and the Indian territory. Rev. S. B. Bostwick served as rector from 1846 to 1877.
The Kingsbury Baptist church was organized about 1790, and two years later had a mem- bership of ninety-three, with Rev. Ebenezer Willoughby as pastor. They helped to build a Union church edifice on the Joseph Adams farm, and this building, in 1843, was removed to Kingsbury street and became known as a Baptist meeting house,
The Adamsville Baptist church was consti- tuted in 1795 by the name of the Second Hartford Baptist church, with thirty - two members. The name was changed in 1813 to that of Hartford and Kingsbury, and then in 1827 to Adamsville, from the name of the postoffice established near in that year. Dur- ing 1832 a portion of the members left and formed Hartford and Kingsbury church, which disbanded ten years later and the members returned to the Adamsville church.
About 1800 Sandford's Ridge Methodist Episcopal church was organized, with Daniel Brayton in charge. A church building was erected in 1832.
The school interests of the town have been well protected, and in 1878 the sixteen school
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·districts of the town contained one thousand five hundred and thirteen children of school age.
Kingsbury is noted for its unusually large proportion of improved land and its steady increase of population.
CHAPTER III.
VILLAGE AND TOWN OF WHITEHILL.
VILLAGE OF WHITEHALL.
A monument to the ungratified ambition of Philip Skenc, whose name it once bore, is Whitehall, that to-day ranks as one of tlie largest and most important villages of the county.
Whitehall was incorporated as a village in 1820, and thirty years later, on March 16, 1850, an act of legislature was passed, revis- ing and consolidating previous laws in regard to the village of Whitehall. This charter was amended in 1853, 1859, 1869 and 1876.
Whitehall was founded in 1761, under the name of Skenesborough, by Major Philip Skene, an English half-pay officer, who is de- scribed in the Gentleman's Magazine as being the grandson of John Skene, of Halyards, in Fifeshire, Scotland, and as a relative of the famous Sir William Wallace. Skene entered the English army in 1739, was at the taking of Carthagena, and in the battles of Fontenoy, Culloden and Laffeldt. He came to America in 1756, was promoted to a company in the En- niskillen foot, and a year after, being wounded under Howe, at Ticonderoga, was appointed major of brigade by General Amherst, who encouraged him to project the settlement he made in 1761 at Whitehall.
When Skene and his colony of about thirty families arrived at Whitehall, they found an old stockade fort of the French and Indian war standing in what is now the southeast angle of High and Church streets.
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The next year he was ordered on the expe- dition against Martinico and Havana, and was among the first to enter the breach at the storming of Moro castle.
On his return to his colony he brought a number of slaves with him, but to his aston- ishment found his settlers nearly all gone. Be- ing a man of energy and business ability, he set about to make his colony what he intended it to be. Having considerable private means he soon placed the affairs of the infant settle- ment on a firm basis. In 1768 his regiment was ordered to Ireland, but he exchanged into the 10th foot, and soon sold out so as to be able to establish his residence at Skenesbor- ough and carry out his ambitious design of at- taining a prominent position in the colonies. He now gave his whole attention to the devel- opment of his colony, and with the labor of his negroes, his colonists and some discharged soldiers, he built a sloop to open transportation on the lake, constructed a passable road of thirty miles to Salem, and improved another road to Bennington. He built a saw and grist mill, and erected a two-and-one-half story stone mansion on the present roadway of Wil- liams street. His massive stone barn, as it was pierced with port holes, was probably in- tended for defense in time of danger as well as for housing horses and feed during periods of peace.
During the county-seat struggle in 1772, Skenesborough had so increased in size and importance that Major Skene sought to have the seat of justice established there, and him- self commissioned as judge of the courts. Fail- ing in these objects, it is thought that he then entertained the loftier ambition of making his village a colonial capital and himself the gov- ernor of a new province of Ticonderoga, em- bracing the territory of northern New York and the present State of Vermont. When the Revolution opened Skene was in England, where it is said he was then successful in secur- ing the grant of the new province and its gov- ernorship, but the same parties who had
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thwarted his earlier scheme of a county seat now defeated his more matured scheme of colonial establishment by fanning the spark of discontent against parliamentary impositions into the fierce flame of armed rebellion against all English authority.
Skene returned but to hear of the confisca- tion of his schooner, his slaves and his other property by the soldiers of Captain Herrick and other New England leaders, and to be arrested as a tory. He was exchanged in 1776, and the next year served as a volunteer with Burgoyne, being at the battles of Bennington and the Saratogas. Skene was attainted and his property confiscated by New York in 1779, and after failing to recover his property he made his residence in England, where he died October 9, 1810, at Addersy Lodge, Stoke Goldington, Bucks. In his obituary notice Philip Skene was styled, " formerly lieutenant- governor of Crown Point and Ticonderoga, and surveyor of his majesty's woods and for- ests bordering on Lake Champlain."
Skenesborough was held by the Continental troops during the Revolutionary war, except when occupied by Burgoyne and Carleton for a few weeks and a couple of days respec- tively.
In 1786 the name of the place was changed from Skenesborough to Whitehall, and four years later its houses were said to only num- ber eight or ten. The postoffice was estab- lished in 1796, and in 1812 the place became a base of supplies and a stragetic point for the American operations against Canada. Mc- Donough anchored his captive fleet and some of his own vessels in 1814 in East bay, where they decayed and sunk, one by one, in the succeeding years. In 1817 Whitehall con- tained about fifty houses, a fulling and a stave mill, a saw and grist mill, and the government houses and a school house. The taverns were: Anthony Rock's, Henry Wiswell's, and the Bellamy house; while the stores were con- ducted by James H. Hooker, Capt. Archibald Smith, James Perry, Ezra Smith, and Rock
& Fonda. Five years later the Champlain canal was opened and the first newspaper, The Whitehall Emporium, came into existence. In 1824 the canal was completed and the same year Whitehall entertained LaFayette at the Wiswell hotel when he was passing on his way from Burlington to Albany. Steamboat navigation, that commenced in 1810, was now attaining respectable proportions.
The village grew slowly until 1848, when the Washington and Saratoga railroad was opened and a period of great prosperity commenced. The next year Whitehall was first recognized as a port by congress, although the district of Champlain, including Whitehall, was created by act of congress, approved March 2, 1799. In 1875 passenger traffic on the lake from Whitehall as the southern terminal was closed by the opening of the New York and Canada railroad, which has made Ticonderoga the successor of Whitehall. Freight traffic still is carried northward on the lake from the village by means of company and private transporta- tion lines. Since 1875 the population of the village has decreased some, but present indi- cations warrant future development and pros- perity as the result of the healthy growth set- ting in to-day.
The fire department of Whitehall com- menced in the year 1835, when the small Tor- rent fire engine was purchased, although a small hand engine had been presented to the village by Col. John Williams. The Torrent cost one thousand three hundred and fifty dollars, and additional engines and fire equip- ments have been purchased from time to time until Whitehall now has an efficient fire de- partment. In 1878 there were, the Empire hook and ladder, Whitehall steamer, W. F. Bascom engine, and WV. H. Cook engine com- panies ; and the James Doren, George Brett, jr., B. F. Lacca, and A. C. Hopson hose companies. In 1860, 1864, 1875 and in 1876, there were fires at which the fire and hose companies rendered efficient service. The canal is one main dependence for water in case
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