USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 16
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 16
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"PHILIP EMBURY,
the earliest American minister of the Metho- dist church, here found his last earthly resting place.
" Born in Ireland, an emigrant to New York, Embury was the first to gather a little class in that city, and to set in motion a train of meas- ures which resulted in the founding of John Street church, the cradle of American Meth- odism, and the introduction of a system which has beautified the earth with salvation and in- creased the joys of heaven."
The early settlers at Cambridge appreciated the true value of learning, and the log school house was succeeded in the year 1815 by the Cambridge Washington academy, built by subscriptions, some of which were taken as early as 1799. Two thousand three hundred dollars of a permanent fund was obtained after the house was built, and Cambridge Wash-
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ington academy was in due time incorporated by the board of regents. The academy was opened August 16th, and dedicated Septem- ber 5, 1816. The institution was organized with a classical and an English department, and opened with fifty-one scholars. A new academy building was erected in 1844, and the school with varying fortunes continued its existence until 1873, when its portals were closed after a long and useful career, during which time it sent forth many students who made their mark in life. The building in 1873 was leased to the school trustees of the west district, who promised to maintain an acad- emic department. The principals of the acad- emy were: David Chassell, Rev. Alex. Bul- lions, Rev. N. S. Prime, Rev. John Monteith, William D. Beattie, Addison Lyman, Russell M. Wright, Rev. T. C. McLaurie, Rev. E. H. Newton, Rev. A. M. Beveridge, Rev. C. I. Robinson, C. H. Gardner, J. H. Burtis, A. P. Beals, D. M.Westfall, William S. Aumock, Rev. George I. Taylor, Daniel Marsh, jr., J. P. Lansing, and Miss Amelia Merriam. The presidents were: Rev. John Dunlap, Alex. Bullions, and E. H. Newton, J. M. Stevenson, and Rev. Henry Gordon.
TOWN OF CAMBRIDGE.
Cambridge is bounded on the north by Jack- son ; on the east by White Creek; on the south by Rensselaer county ; and on the west by Easton. When erected Cambridge em- braced its present territory and that of Jack- son and White Creek with a part of Vermont. It was organized as a district of Albany county, March 12, 1772, became a town in 1788, and as such was annexed to Washington county in 1791. The present area of Cambridge is twenty-two thousand six hundred and fifty- seven acres of land, of which eighteen thous- and eight hundred and seventy-five acres were improved in 1875.
The first town officers of which we have any record were those of 1774, in which year Sim- eon Covell was elected supervisor ; William
Brown, town clerk ; and Edward Aikin, collec- tor. At a town meeting in 1812, one hundred and four pathmasters were appointed.
The surface of the town is hilly in the north and west, level along the Hoosick river, and on the eastern border is a part of the Owl Kill or famous Cambridge valley, noted for fertile soil and beautiful scenery. Originally covered with heavy forests, a part of the uplands are yet well wooded. The soil varies from a heavy sand to a light clay loam, with some few small gravel areas. This soil is productive, and flax and potatoes are raised in large quanti- ties, while the production of garden seeds has been an important industry for nearly half a century.
The drainage of the town is by several small streams, chiefly flowing into the Hoosick river.
About four thousand acres of the Hoosick patent, granted in 1688, lie in the southern part of the town. The Cambridge patent, issued in 1671, embraces the remainder of the town, and gave name to the beautiful valley stretching northward along the waters of the Owl Kill. The Cambridge patentees were : Isaac Sawyer, Edmund Wells, Jacob Lansing, William Smith, Alex. Colden, Goldsboro Bangor, and others.
Between 1761-63 among those who came on the Camden patent were : John McClung, James and Robert Cowan, Samuel Bell, Col- onel Blair, George Gilmore, George Duncan, David Harrow, William Clark, John Scott and Thomas Morrison, some of whom were in what is now the town of White Creek. Other early settlers were : Ephraim Cowan, Robert Gilmore, Austin Wells, Samuel Clark, Jonathan Morrison, Edwin Wells, John Allen, David Sprague, Seth Chase, John Woods, John Harroun, Thomas McCool, Thomas Ashton, Simeon Fowler, John Young, Josiah Dewey, Rael Becbe, Samuel Clark, William Eager, William Selfridge, John Younglove and John Corey, of whom some resided on White creek. In addition to these we have the names of the following early settlers taken
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from the record of those disturbed in the pos- session of their lands during the Revolution : Ephraim Bessey, Benj. Smith, John Morrison, William Cooper, Isaac Gibbs, George Searl, William Bleck, Archibald, John and William Campbell, George Telford, Winslow Heath, William King, Timothy Heath, Amos Buck, John Austin, James and Eben Warner, and James, Samuel, James S. and David Cowden. Some of these settlers were in White Creek and a few in Jackson.
Edmund Wells, one of the Cambridge pat- entees, came in 1773, and settled on the Thomas Cornell farm. He was the only patentee that became a settler. Capt. Daniel Wells came in 1779, and the Cowdens and Longs settled on the Owl Kill several miles below Cambridge. James Long opened the first tavern in the town, and Major Cowden built and painted the original "Checkered House." Phineas Whiteside came into the southwestern part of the town in 1766. Hugh Larmouth (now Larmon), from Scotland, was an early settler, as was also Capt. Elihu Gifford, who served on a privateer in the Rev- olution and commanded a company in the war of 1812. While privateering, Captain Gifford was captured by a British seventy-four, and escaped from her off the coast of Cuba by swimming three miles to shore. The Lees, Gilmores, Stevensons, Ackleys, Bowens, Websters, Greens, Weirs, Averills, Englishes, Waites, Wrights and Coulters were among the early families of prominence and note.
Of the pre-historic history of the town of Cambridge, there are neither ruins to indicate its character or tradition to tell of the people who made it. The Indian hunter came and passed away, and the pioneer clearing appeared on the stream and in the forest, but ere the early settlement had attained any proportions the Revolution burst upon the land. In 1777 Baum's foraging column passed along the pres- ent northern boundary line of Cambridge to seek for plunder, but to find annihilation at Bennington.
The unincorporated villages of the town of Cambridge are: North Cambridge, Centre Cambridge, Buskirk's Bridge, and Coila.
North Cambridge is on Lot No. 70, and four miles west of Cambridge. Esek Brownell and John Willis settled there at an early day, and Brownell opened a store and afterward se- cured a postoffice, of which he was commis- sioned postmaster. Years later the postoffice was discontinued, and the business of the place became limited to a few mechanic shops. Near North Cambridge in 1838, a Methodist Episcopal church was organized, whose first trustees were Peter Hill, sr., Isaiah Darrow, and Edward F. Whiteside. A meeting house cost- ing one thousand five hundred dollars was built, and the Rev. Reuben Wescott served as the first pastor.
Centre Cambridge lies in the heart of a rich and beautiful country, and is near the centre of the town on the old thoroughfare locally known as the "Shun pike." The Whitesides, Kenyons, Allens, Shermans, Hills, Skinners, Pratts, Burrows, Millers, Halls and Willetts, were among the early settlers at that place. Valentine Randall opened a public house about 1800, Joseph Palmer kept the pioneer store, and James H. Hall was the first post- master of North Cambridge postoffice, which was established in 1829. Dr. Morris was the first physician. A mile west of the village is the station on the Greenwich & Johnsonville railroad.
The Whiteside church, on a hill near the village, was built in 1800 by the Whiteside family. Mrs. Phineas Whiteside left by will one hundred pounds toward its erection, and other members of the family contributed suffi- cient to ensure its completion. In 1825 the house was rebuilt, and although no regular church organization was effected, yet preach- ing has always been steadily maintained. Rev. Mr. Dunlap was the first minister, and after him Rev. Henry Gordon held regular services.
As early as 1813 Fenner King was leader of a Methodist class at Centre Cambridge, and
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on March 15, 1823, the Methodist Episcopal church of East Cambridge was formed. The first preacher was Rev. Samuel Draper, and the church edifice was erected at a cost of one thousand dollars.
Buskirk's Bridge is partly on the Rens- selaer county side, to which, of late years, the business interests of the place have passed. Martin Buskirk, from whom the place derives its name, kept a pioneer tavern on the Cam- bridge side, and built the first bridge across the stream. Two early Cambridge-side stores were kept by Carpenter and Allen, whose Christian names are not recollected.
Coila, once Stevenson's Corners, and later named for Coila, in Scotland, is one mile from Cambridge village, and lies partly in the town of Jackson. The locality was first known as the Green settlement, from early settlers of that name, and subsequently became Steven- son's Corners, in honor of William Stevenson, who had a store there at an early day. His successors were McNeil and McNaughton. John Gow opened a store in 1840, and be- came the first postmaster. Rich's tannery started in 1806, came into the possession of the Robertsons in 1816, and in 1879 was oper- ated by J. E. Robertson.
The United Presbyterian church of Coila was formed in 1786, under the name of the Associate Presbyterian congregation of Cam- bridge, being the part of the old Cambridge church that withdrew with the pastor, Rev. Thomas Beveridge, in the Burgher and anti- Burgher contest. The "old yellow meeting house" was the first church built, and in it there were no fires in winter. Reverend Bev- eridge served as pastor until his death, in in July, 1798. In 1833 a new brick church was built, which in late years has been repaired and refitted, making a very fine and well fur- nished building.
Along the line of the Greenwich and John- sonville railway several hamlets sprang up be- tween 1870 and 1880. Some of them promise . to be of size and importance in the future.
West Cambridge secured a postoffice, which was kept at first in the depot building, and a steam saw mill was erected about 1875.
South Cambridge, another of these promis- ing hamlets, soon possessed a store, postoffice and several mechanic shops. The country surrounding South Cambridge is very beauti- ful and was formerly known as Quakerhood, on account of the Allens and other Quaker families that were carly settlers there.
The early roads in the town of Cambridge were such as neighborhood wants required, but soon after the close of the Revolution the need of a substantial highway leading south- ward was felt, and led to the formation, in 1799, of the Northern Turnpike company, of which William Hay, Edmund Wells, jr., Da- vid Long, Martin Van Buskirk, John Williams, Edward Savage, and others, were directors. The road was constructed from Lansingburg to Cambridge, and then was carried forward to Burlington, Vermont. This turnpike was the main thoroughfare of travel until 1852, when the Rutland railroad was built along its general course, and took its trade and travel.
While this railway does not run through Cambridge, yet it is sufficiently near it in western White Creek so as to supply it with good shipping facilities, and within the last few years a station has been established at the village of Cambridge.
The Greenwich & Johnsonville railroad was completed in the western part of the town in 1870, ir a general course along Wampecack creek. Its stations in Cambridge are at Sum- mit, West Cambridge, South Cambridge, and Lce.
The earliest school report of the town, made in 1821, shows six hundred and fifty-nine chil- dren between five and fifteen years of age to be in Cambridge. In 1876 there were fifteen dis- tricts and nearly nine hundred children enumerated.
The first Sunday school was organized at Cambridge village, where a missionary society, called the Cambridge Circuit branch of the
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Troy Missionary society, was formed January 7, 1832.
A temperance society was organized at Cam- bridge in 1831, under the auspices of the Meth- odist Episcopal church.
CHAPTER IX.
VILLAGES OF EASTON AND NORTH EAS- TON, AND TOWN OF EASTON.
VILLAGE OF EASTON.
Easton is the oldest village in the town of Easton, and lies near the center of the south- ern half of the town. Jacob Benson was the first settler, and Dr. Jonathan Mosher was the first physician. The northern part of the vil- lage was first settled, and the southern part is sometimes called Barker's Grove. The first blacksmith shop was started by Stephen and George Allen about 1800, and a store, hotel, and mechanic shops came into existence dur- ing the early years of the present century.
Friends' meeting of Easton dates back to 1773, at the house of Zebulon Hoxie, who had come that year from Dutchess county, accom- panied by his brother-in-law, Rufus Hall, who was also a Friend. Several Quaker families soon came from Rhode Island, and other Quakers from Dutchess county, and in 1775 the first preparative meeting was established, and a log meeting house was built one mile east of Easton. During the Revolution, on account of their peace principles and neutral- ity, they suffered much in loss of property and persection by soldiers of both armies. After the Revolution the society grew in numbers and influence, and in 1787 erected a frame meeting house on the site of the log one. In 1838 a preparative meeting was established in the north part of the town, where a brick church was built, and while this branch pros- pered and flourished, the parent meeting lost in numbers and finally ceased to exist.
Marshall seminary was established at Easton in 1863, and derived its name from Benjamin Marshall, one of the principal stockholders. The building cost over four thousand dollars, and in 1868 was sold to the Easton and Sara- toga Quarterly meeting of Friends for three thousand dollars. Five years later the build- ing burned, but was rebuilt the next year by the Easton meeting at a cost of twelve thous- and dollars. The early principals of the school were : Rev. A. G. Cochran, Miss Maria Shepherd, and Andrew J. Qua.
In 1880 Easton had two stores, a hotel, a large carriage factory, and several mechanic shops.
VILLAGE OF NORTH EASTON.
Two miles north of Easton is the village of North Easton, formerly called Easton Corners. The site of the village was principally owned by Nathaniel Starbuck, who became one of its early business men. For some years after the first houses were built the place was called Starbuck's Corners, and then as it increased in size the name of Easton Corners came into use, and finally to designate it from the older Easton it was named North Easton. Garrett Lansing kept the first store in 1794. He had as competitors and successors in the mercantile business, Jacob Van Buren, Charles Starbuck, and John Gale, who served as the first post- master in the early years of the present century.
North Easton has two churches, a Reformed and a Methodist Episcopal.
The Reformed church of Easton was organ- ized at North Easton in 1803, under the name of "The Reformed Protestant Dutch church of Easton." It was reorganized under its present title February 8, 1872. The first pas- tor was Rev. Philip Duryea. The first church structure was built between 1803 and 1807, repaired in 1845, and some years later torn down to make room for the present church edifice.
The Methodist Episcopal church of Easton was originally organized near Crandall's Cor-
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ners at an early day, and in 1835 the society left that point as a worshipping place and erected a church near North Easton. This church was replaced by a larger and better structure in 1850. The first pastor at North Easton was Rev. Roswell Kelly.
North Easton has grown but slowly, yet has never gone back, and is now one of the most important business places in the town, con- taining a carriage factory, store, hotel, and various mechanic shops. The town meet- ings of late years have been usually held at the village.
TOWN OF EASTON.
Easton, the southwest town of Washington county, is bounded on the north by Green- wich ; on the east by Jackson and Cambridge ; on the south by Rensselaer county ; and on the west by Saratoga county, from which it is separated by the Hudson river.
The town of Easton was organized in 1789, from the parts of the towns of Saratoga and Stillwater lying east of the Hudson river, and remained in Albany county until February 7, 1791, when it was transferred to Washington county. The town records only go back to to 1793, when Philip Smith was elected super- visor, and Richard Macomber, clerk.
The area of Easton is thirty-eight thousand eight hundred and thirty-four acres. The sur- face is level along the Hudson, then rolling and hilly, and finally mountainous in the east. The principal peaks are Willard's and Swain's mountains, and Harrington, Whelden, and Louse hills. The soil is a rich loam variously intermixed with clay, gravel and sand. There is scarcely an acre of waste land in the town. Farming is the main occupation, although manufacturing establishments are operated at Galesville and Greenwich. Cement mountain in the north contains heavy veins of fine ce- ment, rock and limestone.
The drainage is by the small streams falling into the Batten Kill and the Hudson river.
The valley of the Hudson has made the
western territory of Easton war trail and battle ground for every rival race or nation struggling for mastery of the Upper Hudson. Some of the great military expeditions of the inter-col- onial wars passed through the town of Easton. Fort Saraghtoga was built on the eastern bank of the Hudson in 1709, and was destroyed in 1745. Its successor, Fort Clinton, was erected some distance back from the river in 1746, and its walls were razed to the earth during the next year. All traces of these fortresses have disappeared, but judging from the most relia- ble sources of information, Fort Clinton stood about half a mile south of Galesville or Mid- dle Falls. With the destruction of the earlier fort was swept away the first settlement of Washington county. Some of these dispersed settlers may have wandered back to their wasted fields, but they made no stay, and the tide of settlement did not return to the county till 1761.
Of the settlers in Easton from 1761 to 1774, we have very little account. Nathan Tefft and his son, Stanton, a surveyor, came from North Kingston, Rhode Island, in 1766, and pur- chased land on both sides of the Batten Kill, near Middle Falls. Killian De Ridder came from Holland and settled in the north part about 1766 or 1767. Of the settlers from 1773 to 1789 we have record of Thomas Bea- dle, Elijah Freeman, Thomas Dennis, Jacob Haner, Jonathan Wilbur, John Fish, George Deul, Abner Fuller, Richard Davenport, Charles Russell, Peter Becker, William Abeel, Abraham Wright, Rensselaer Schuyler, Wil- liam Thompson, Gerrett Wendell, Nathaniel Potter, Jacob and Peter Miller, Garrett Van Buren, Peter Rundel, Captain Van Vorst, Samuel Sheldon, - Vandenburgh, James Storms, Rufus Hall, Zebulon Hoxsie, William Foster, David and David Pettys, jr., Stephen Anthony, Benjamin and Ephriam Fish, Samuel Cook, Morton and Henry Van Buren, Gideon Bowditch, Joseph Potter, Abel Coon, Elihu, Edmund and Jedediah Robinson, Robert Dennis, Richard Macomber, Barzilla and
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Abraham Pease, Benjamin Starbuck, James, Philip and Joseph Smith, Eleazer Slocum, Elisha Freeman, Sylvester Satterlee, Jacob Benson, Tyler Wilcox, Abraham Russell, Greeve Hall, Garrett Lansing, Squire Thomas Smith, Sterling Waters, Asa and Ezra Cran- dall, Roswell Osborn, Alex. Case, Francis Brock, John Pettys, and David Remington.
Some time previous to the Revolutionary war the following captains of whaling vessels at Nantucket and Dartmouth came to Easton: Daniel Folger, William Coffin, William Swain, Robert Meader, Barzilla Hussey, David Beard, John Swain, and Nathan Coffin.
Garrett Lansing was the pioneer merchant of the town; John Gale built the first grist and woolen mills, the former in 1810, and the latter in 1846, and both at Galesville. The first foundry and the first flax mill were put up at Greenwich, where the pioneer paper mill was erected in 1863 by Ballou and Craig. Greenwich is also entitled to the credit of the first knitting mill, which was erected in 1862.
In addition to the principal villages of Easton and North Easton already mentioned, the town of Easton contains the villages of South Easton, Crandall's Corners, and Fly Summit, and a part of the incorporated vil- lage of Greenwich, and a part of Galesville.
South Easton is two miles east of Easton and near the Cambridge line. Five brothers of the name of Cook were the first settlers, and the locality was known for some years as Cook's Hollow. Isaac Merritt kept the first store before 1800, and his successor, Thomas D. Beadle, remained long enough to give the name of Beadle Hill to the little hamlet. Beadle was also the first postmaster. In the course of years Beadle Hill became South Easton.
Crandall's Corners, two and a half miles south of Easton, and near the town and county line, was named in honor of Holden Crandall, an early merchant and hotel keeper of the place. The postoffice was established in 1867 with Warren Crandall as the first postmaster.
The Methodist Episcopal church was formed at Crandall's Corners, Rev. Roswell Kelly being the first pastor, and services were held in the school house until 1834, when the so- ciety built a small church. The year follow- ing the society erected a church at North Easton. The old church building was finally purchased by Warren Crandall, who repaired it thoroughly in 1868, when it was dedicated as a union church.
The southern part of the incorporated vil- lage of Greenwich is in Easton, and includes a furnace, carriage factory, and paper, knit- ting and flax mills.
That part of Galesville, or Middle Falls, in Easton, contains a few dwellings, a woolen factory, and saw, plaster and grist mills.
An embryo village in an early day was started about a mile and a half south of Greenwich, where Benjamin Prosser had a saw mill and a store, and Andrew Ferguson ran a wheelright shop, but the near and larger village drew away its business and killed its growth.
On the Hudson, coming north from the town line, are three ferries, Searl, Smith, and Hogan, and opposite Schuylerville a toll bridge eight hundred feet long was built in 1837. A cheese factory was built two miles north of North Easton in 1874, by Job H. Wilbur and John Pratt.
CHAPTER X.
VILLAGE OF WEST HEBRON AND TOWN OF HEBRON.
VILLAGE OF WEST HEBRON.
West Hebron is the largest village in the town of Hebron, and lies at the junction of the two branches of Black creek. “On all sides excepting the road valleys, it is guarded by wooded mountains. On the south-
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east Wilson's mountain stands perpetual guard; the fury of the western winds is broken by Patterson's range, and the ragged side of the ' Devil's Threshing Floor' stands like a sentinel of protection on the north and east. The val- ley just north of the village is the finest in the . county. For half a mile the road passes through a narrow defile that in the distance closely resembles an Alpine pass."
West Hebron was settled at an early day on account of the water power there. Bev- eridge's saw mill was built at an early day, and one mile above the village a carding ma- chine was operated half a century ago. Gar- rett Quackenbush built an early grist mill, which was equipped with a single run of rock stone. The postoffice was established in 1816, with George Getty as the first postmaster. Stores, hotels and shops came in due time, and dwellings increased in number until in 1880 West Hebron contained a population of two hundred and five, and had one hotel, three stores, a drug store, harness shop, two churches, clothing store, blacksmith shop, marble works, cheese-box factory, saw mill and starch factory. The starch factory was built in 1866, by Rac and McDowell, who used annually six thousand bushels of pota- toes, and produced forty-eight thousand pounds of starch.
Around the village are superior roads, fine scenery and many delightful drives.
The Associate, now United Presbyterian church of West Hebron has records running back to 1790, when a meeting was held at Andrew Beveridge's, three miles north of the village. Rev. Robert Laird, of Argyle, preached for this congregation as early as 1807, and the first trustees of whom there is any account were : Andrew Beveridge, Hugh Moncrief and William McClellan. The first . church, a frame, was completed in 1802, and stood one mile east of the village. The next church structure was erected at the village in 1831, and was repaired in 1859. The par-
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