USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 20
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 20
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Glens Falls, the hamlet of the past, the village of the present, and the city of the future.
There is much of interest in the early history of the village and in the lives of its pioneer settlers.
Dr. A. W. Holden, in his valuable " History of Queensbury," has preserved much informa- tion of the early families of Glens Falls, that without his zealous labors would have passed into oblivion.
Abraham Wing, the pioneer settler and founder of the village, was of Welch descent, and tradition states that the Wing family in Wales wrote their name Winge. John Wing came from London, in 1632, and settled at Lynn, Massachusetts. He afterward removed to Sandwich. His eldest son, Daniel, married Hannah Swift, and their eldest son, Daniel, wedded Deborah Dillingham, and became the father of Edward Wing, whose son, Edward, by his second wife, Sarah Tucker, was the father of Abraham Wing, whose birthplace was Dartmouth, Bristol county, Massachu-
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setts. Abraham Wing wedded Anstis Wood, and at an early age removed to Oblong, in Dutchess county, where he remained until 1763. In that year he came to the site of Glens Falls, and, as founder and chief citizen of the village, passed the remaining years of his life, which drew to its close on May 3, 1765. He was born August 4, 1721. His life was one of activity, event, and usefulness.
The next most important personage in the early history of the village, after Abraham Wing, the founder, was Col. John Glen, whose name the place now bears. The immigrant ancester of Col. John Glen was Sander Leen- dertse Glen, a servant of the West India Com- pany, at Fort Nassau. He came to New York, bought land, and traded to some extent with the Indians. He married Catalyn Don- cassen, or Dongan, and his eldest son, Jacob, was the father of Johannes, whose son, Jacob, married Elizabeth Cuyler, and was the father of Col. John Glen, who was born July 2, 1735. Col. John Glen served as a quartermaster in . the French and Revolutionary wars. He mar- ried Catharine Veeder, bought land of Daniel Park, near Wing's Falls, and in 1788 paid for a wine supper to have the privilege of giving his name to Wing's village. Colonel Glen died at Schenectady, September 23, 1828.
The postoffice was established in 1808, while the village does not seem to have been incor- porated until 1840.
TOWN OF QUEENSBURV.
The town of Queensbury, patented May 29, 1762, to Daniel Prindle and twenty-two others, originally comprised in addition to its present territory the towns of Bolton, Caldwell, Ches- ter, Hague, Johnsonburg, Luzerne and Thur- man. It was one of the original townships erected March 7, 1788. The northern and eastern parts of the town are hilly, while the western part is a sandy plain extending to the foot of the Palmerton mountains.
The town occupies a plateau on the great watershed between the Hudson and the Saint
Lawrence rivers, while its drainage in the northern and central parts is through Half-way brook into the waters of Lake Champlain, but the Harrissena part is to Lake George, and the remainder is to the Hudson river. The more important of the creeks, brooks and runs of the town are : Reed's Meadow creek ; Cold brook, noted for a terrible massacre during the French and Indian war; Meadow run, some- times called Four Mile run ; Rocky brook, on which stood Fort William; Butler brook ; Roaring brook ; and the celebrated Half-way brook, on the old military road from Fort Ed- ward to the head of Lake George. On Half- way brook was laid out in 1762 the site of a town village that never got beyond the paper state of its existence.
The principal places in the town beside Glens Falls are : Oneida, where Joshua Chase erected the first house about 1793 ; Goodspeed- ville, founded in 1845 by Stephen Goodspeed ; and the Harrissena, Sandford Ridge and Brown settlements, so thickly dotted with dwellings, churches and school houses as almost to be counted as hamlets.
The Baptist church was first organized in the town of Queensbury in a log building on Round pond that served for a school house and church for several years. The Round Pond Baptist church was organized in 1795 by Elder Hezekiah Eastman, of Danby, Ver- mont, and had an existence of thirty years.
The first Baptist church of Queensbury, or Oneida, was organized November 13, 1832, with the following thirteen members : James and Betsey Fuller, Franklin and Samantha Guilford, Aaron and Amanda Kidder, Isaac and Amy Nelson, A. M. and Maria Odell, Ellis and Lucy Pettis, and William Niles. A church structure was built at Oneida, and regular services were held until 1853.
The second Queensbury or West Mountain Baptist church was formed in 1837, and the next year had a membership of forty-nine, with Deacon Moses Randall as minister. Ser- vices were held as late as 1870, in the old
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church building erected between 1838 and 1841.
The fourth Baptist church in the town of Queensbury was the Baptist church at Glens Falls, which has been described in connection with that village.
The Methodist Episcopal church of Thur- mantown, or Johnsburg, was organized about 1798, by Rev. David Noble.
The Friends, or Quakers, built a log meet- ing house in 1787, on the Bay road, just south of the Half-way brook, and services were held there for many years.
The population of the town of Queensbury and the village of Glens Falls, at the three last United States censuses, has been as follows:
1870.
1880. I 890.
Queensbury,
8,387
9,805
11,849
Glens Falls, 4,500
4,900 9,509
We have account of the following saw mills in the town of Queensbury : Phineas Austin's saw mill was built on the outlet of Big pond in 1808, and in the same year Solomon Austin built his saw mill on the same outlet. Bald- win's mill, near the left bank of the Hudson, was built between 1854 and 1857 ; David Bar- ber's mill, on Trout brook and near West mountain, was put up in 1837, and Fuller's mill built between 1786 and 1794, was on the outlet of the Big pond. Joseph Hull's saw mill, on Trout brook, was built in 1826 ; Moon's mill, on Long pond outlet, in 1808, and Odell's mill in the last named year on Big pond out- let. Nichol's saw mill, below Little bay, was built between 1824 and 1835 ; Odell's mill, on Ogden brook, in 1823, and Micajah Pettit's mill, that was near the river bridge, dated back to 1802. Job Wilbur had a saw mill in 1785 on Cold brook. The following list in- cludes some of the most prominent and im- portant localities in the town of Queensbury :
Big bay, an expansion of the Hudson river above the Big bend.
Little bay, an expansion of the Hudson river above the Big bay.
Big bend, a curve in the Hudson resembling the letter U, and inclosing a peninsula of three square miles.
Blind rock is a gneiss boulder, along the route of the old military road from Fort Ed- ward to Fort William Henry, and was used as a sacrificial stone by the Indians, who tortured and burnt a large number of prisoners on its surface. One tradition says that the name came from a blind man being burned there.
Block Island swamp is the western part of the Big Cedar swamp, and contains Block island, on which a block house was built dur- ing the Revolutionary war.
Hunter's bridge was a famous runway for deer and other game, in pioneer days, and is on a small rivulet west of the Bay road.
The Caves are passages through the bed rock at Glens Falls, by the action of water. They are very small, and figure in Cooper's novel, the " Last of the Mohicans."
Big Dam is a structure fourteen feet in height that was originally built across the Hudson river, two miles above Glens Falls, by the State, for the purpose of creating a pond for the canal. It was rebuilt in 1872.
Dunham's bay, at the southern extremity of Lake George, was named for Elijah Dunham, an early merchant and lumberman.
Park's ferry was established just above the falls by the Parks family, and just prior to the Revolution.
Forbes and Johnson's charcoal forge was at the outlet of Forge pond, and was built about 18II.
Sand Beach ford was a ridge of bed rock making a rough fording at low water.
Morgan's ford, at the old Morgan place, be- tween Glens Falls and Sandy Hill, was a cross- ing place for a portion of Burgoyne's army in I777.
Fort George was planned and partly built by Col. James Montressor, in June, 1759. It was on an elevation six hundred yards south from the lake, and about the same distance east of the ruins of Fort William Henry. It
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was often called Montressor's folly. Near it, in 1776, was erected the two hospitals in which over three thousand smallpox patients from Schuyler's army were treated. When Bur- goyne's advance occupied Fort George, there were only two of its fourteen cannon that were mounted.
Harrissena is the northern part of Queens- bury, and derives that name from the numer- ous Harris families settling there at an early day.
Harris's bay is the southeastern extremity of Lake George, and was named for old Bill Harris, whom tradition says killed eight In- dians at one time, by stratagem, near this part of the lake.
Hendrick's rock, a large boulder determined
by Judge Hay's measurement as the spot where King Hendrick fell on the morning of the bloody morning scout.
Jessup's Falls are ten miles above Glens Falls, and there the Hudson river has a sheer descent of seventy feet.
Northwest bay is on Lake George, and often goes by the names of North arm and Kan- kusker bay. Norman Shelden, Van Wormer, and Phelps bays are on the southeastern part of Lake George.
Wild-cat swamp was just west of Glens Falls, and in early days was a harbor for wild beasts of prey.
William's rock is a huge boulder, where tradition says Col. Ephraim Williams fell.
GE -22TO MASTER .868 -KU
WASHINGTON COUNTY AND THE TOWN OF QUEENSBURY
BIOGRAPHIES.
H ON. JAMES GIBSON, lawyer, editor and historian, is descended from John Gib- son, of Providence, Rhode Island, and by his grandmother is ninth in descent from John Brown, the assistant of the Plymouth colony, and by his mother seventh in descent from John Townsend, of Warwick, Rhode Island, afterward of Oyster Bay, Long Island. His parents were James B. Gibson and Margaret Townsend ; and he was born at Salem, New York, September 5, 1816. James B. Gib- son was a lawyer of distinction, and was held in high esteem by his fellow-towns- men. His wife was a lady of rare attain- ments, highly cultured and deeply versed in literature. She died July 20, 1825, and her husband on May 10, 1827. James Gibson at the time of his father's death was only eleven years old. He was educated in the Washing- ton academy, and while a student there entered the law office of his uncle, Samuel Stevens, a former partner of his father, who was at that time an eminent lawyer, and who afterward became one of the leading members at the Al- bany bar. After the departure of Mr. Stevens, young Gibson studied in the office of Cyrus Stevens, at Salem, and subsequently with Hon. John H. Boyd, of Whitehall. In 1836 Mr. Gibson was admitted to practice, and on the first of January of the following year he formed a partnership with Cyrus Stevens, which con-
tinued one year, until the latter removed to Albany. From that time on he practiced his profession alone in his native village. where he has ever since resided. In October, 1839, he was admitted as a counselor at law. He was successful from the outset in his profession. " His qualifications," to quote the language of another, " were such as to attract the attention of the public, and in a brief time he gathered to himself an extended practice." Very many important cases, civil and criminal, have been intrusted to him during the fifty years of his professional life. From 1853 Judge Gibson has been largely engaged in railroad suits, and in the latter part of the '70's he was the attor- ney for the Boston, Hoosic Tunnel & West- ern Railway company in several important causes, and especially in re-opening the Al- bany Northern railroad. After reaching his majority he entered with great spirit into poli- tics, joining the Whig party, with which he remained until the organization of the Repub- lican party in 1856. In 1838 he assumed the editorial chair of the Washington County Post, at Salem, and continued as editor through the. presidential campaign of 1840, and till Janu- ary 1, 1841, when he sold the paper. At the first judicial election after the adoption of the Constitution of 1846, he was nominated as a candidate for justice of the supreme court by the whigs, but was defeated. He owed his
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defeat to his connection with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, as at that time the feeling against secret societies was of consid- erable force, and he encountered the tide be- fore its ebb. In November, 1850, Mr. Gibson was elected county judge, serving four years, the duties of which office he discharged with marked ability. In November, 1866, he was elected State senator from the district com- posed of Rensselaer and Washington coun- ties. His reputation preceded him, and led to his appointment as chairman of the committee on claims, and a member of the judiciary, two of the most important committees in the sen- ate. In the senate body he took an active part in legislation, making several speeches, the most notable, perhaps, being the one sus- taining the policy of the National government on the then pending issues. He was an active member of the Republican party from its birth to the presidential canvass of 1871, when he became a liberal republican, and labored earnestly during that campaign for the success of the principles of the liberal party. For many years Judge Gibson has been identified with the Democratic party. In early life he manifested great interest in military affairs, and in 1840 raised and was made captain of a com- pany of light infantry, attached, by special order, to the 50th regiment of infantry in the State militia, subsequently became major, thence promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and on the disbandment of this regiment he was at- tached to the 30th regiment of the New York State National guard, of which he was promoted to colonel. During the war of the Rebellion the 30th regiment was twice filled up by draft, in readiness for service, but many of its members volunteered into the United States army and thus reduced its membership. In 1867 he became brigadier-general of the 12th brigade, which disbanded in 1874. This brigade was one of the best drilled and best disciplined in the State. He became an Odd Fellow in 1845, served as district deputy grand master during 1856 and '57 ; elected
grand warden of the grand lodge of northern New York in 1857 ; deputy grand master in 1858, and grand master in the year following. In 1860 he was elected worshipful master of Salem Lodge, No. 391, Free and Accepted Masons ; appointed senior grand deacon of the Grand lodge of New York in 1862, elected junior grand warden in 1863, and again in 1865 ; senior grand warden in 1865, holding the office for three years ; grand master in 1868, and was re-elected in 1869. As grand master he, on June 8, 1870, assisted by the Grand lodge and twelve thous- and of the craft, laid the corner-stone of the Masonic temple in the city of New York. It appears that he has been grand master of both these great fraternities. In this he stands alone in this State, as no other person who has been grand master of Free Masons has ever been at the head of Odd Fellows, and vice versa. During the war of the Rebellion his voice was often heard in public debate, urging the people of his county to do all in their power toward the preservation of the Union. The same spirit that filled the hearts of " the fathers " during the dark days of the Revolu- tion animated him at this time. He was a member of the war committee at Salem, which by the way did its duty so well that the town had its quota raised in advance of every draft, except on the occasion of the first one. The old court house in Salem was erected about 1790, and after standing for sixty-seven years had outlasted its usefulness, and was only valu- able as a relic. The circuit judges, lawyers and laymen complained of it, and it was proposed, in 1867, to make needed repairs, and an order therefor was granted. This started a discus- sion as to the advisability of the erection of a new edifice ; Mr. Gibson being strongly in fa- vor of this, he was in the spring of 1868 elected supervisor of Salem for the purpose of carry- ing out the desires of his constituents on that subject. But other towns wanted a court house, and a strong, though unsuccessful ef- fort was made 'to get it away from Salem. In
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
December, 1868, Judge Gibson brought the matter before the board of supervisors, where- upon a committee was appointed with Mr. Gibson to obtain plans, etc. In January fol- lowing it was resolved to build at Salem, and he was appointed as chairman of the building committee, and they were to use not to exceed thirty thousand dollars in its construction, which they did. On June 17, 1845, Judge Gibson was chosen as a member of the board of trustees of Washington academy, one of the oldest educational institutions in the State. He drew the charter of the village of Salem, which went into effect in 1851. He takes a deep inter- est in educational matters, and was elected a member of the board of education soon after its organization. Notwithstanding his long service he still frequently visits the academy, and assists at examinations, and in every pos- sible way shows his love for the institution wherein he received his education. In 1860 he assisted in the organization of Saint Paul's Episcopal church, and was chosen one of the wardens of the congregation ; was licensed as a lay reader by Bishop Potter, of the New York diocese, in 1860. Judge Gibson has for- several years devoted much of his time to the collection of facts pertaining to the history of Washington county, and at the organization of the Washington County Historical society, in 1876, was elected its president. He is a member of the American Geographical society; director of the National bank at Salem ; trus- tee of the Evergreen Cemetery association, and is interested in nearly all public matters con- cerning his native town. On October 17, 1841, he wedded Jane, the daughter of Ira Wood- worth and Wealthy Ann Gilbert, his wife. They have had three children : Mary, wife of T. A. Wright, of New York city ; James, who was a practicing lawyer at Salem, is now dead. In "Life Sketches of Members of the Leg- islature," published in 1867, we find the fol- lowing : " Senator Gibson is a gentleman of quiet dignity. His long, flowing hair and whiskers, tinged with gray, his mild eye, which
seems to be overflowing with kindly feelings, his low, persuasive voice, which is seldom brought up to a high pitch, unite in throwing around him a personal atmosphere, which renders his presence both pleasant and pow- erful."
JAMES L. MCARTHUR, editor and proprietor of the Granville Sentinel, has been for a number of years a prominent leader in the Republican party of Washington county. At present he is the head clerk of the Corpor- ation department in the State treasury, under Hon. A. B. Colvin. He is a son of William and Elsie (Lillie) McArthur. William McAr- thur (father) was a native of the town of Put- nam, this county, where he was born in the year 1824, and resided up to the time of his death, which occurred in 1874. He was a man of considerable prominence in his neighbor- hood, having held the office of supervisor for a period of twenty consecutive years, and also for many years acted as justice of the peace. By occupation he conducted a carriage manu- factory, practiced law, and also managed his farm. A member of the Presbyterian church, and in his political tenets he was identified with the Republican party. James L. McAr- thur's grandfather, James McArthur, found his way from the Highlands of the same interest- ing land to settle down permanently on Amer- ican soil. He belonged to that strong Scottish family known as the McArthur clan, of which ex-Senator MacArthur, of the Troy Budget, has the original coat of arms. His grandfather Lillie was a highly educated man, and a grad- uate of the University of Glasgow. He was a pioneer of whom any new country might have been proud. And it may be stated here that Scotchmen have the chief honor of hav- ing been the first settlers of the town of Put- nam, New York. Numbers of them emigrat- ing from their highland homes to this pictur- esque mountainous region, found something here to remind them of the early scenes of their lives beyond the ocean, and as they
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
looked upon the lovely waters of Lake George and Lake Champlain they must have often thought of the beautiful " lochs " of their na- tive land. And so they became attached to their new pioneer homes in the northern wilds of old Washington county.
William McArthur married Elsie Lillie, who was one of fifteen children, and a member of an early settled family in the town of Putnam. She is a member of the Presbyterian church, and is now in the sixtieth year of her age. Her parents came from Glasgow, Scotland.
James L. McArthur was born in the town of Putnam, Washington county, New York, March 16, 1844. Here he grew to manhood, and re- ceived the rudiments of his education in the common schools. Possessing a natural taste for newspaper work, he established, at the age of twenty-one years, the Granville Sentinel, in 1875. For a period of forty years various at- tempts had been made to establish a paper in that village, but without success. The Sentinel at once took rank among the leading papers of the county, and is considered to be the ablest and most influential journal in northeastern New York, and having a circulation larger than any two other leading papers of the county. In 1880 he sold the paper to his brother-in-law, George Weller, and went to Plattsburg, New York, where he started the first daily morning newspaper that village ever had, and was called the Morning Telegram. He managed it very successfully for one year, when he sold it to a stock company, going from there to Schenectady, where he worked for three years on the Daily Star of that city. During the presidential campaign of 1884, Mr. McArthur did editorial work on the Schenectady Union, the leading republican paper of that place. In 1886 he went to Albany, where he became a member of the editorial staff of the Argus, holding the position for two years. Re- turning to Granville in 1888, he again as- sumed charge of the Granville Sentinel, which has ever since been ably edited, widely circu- lated, and is one of the best advertising medi-
ums in this section of the State. After A. B. Colvin was elected State treasurer in the fall of 1893, he made Mr. McArthur head clerk of the Corporation department, a very deserving compliment to one who has labored long and earnestly for the success of the Republican party. Mr. McArthur took charge of this de- partment on January 1, 1894. In February, 1878, Mr. McArthur wedded Anna W., a daughter of Nathan Lewis, deceased, of the village of Granville. To their marriage has been born one child, a daughter, Belle.
James L. McArthur is a charter member of the Mettowee Lodge, No. 559, Independent Order of Odd Fellows; of Whitehall Encamp- ment, and Sandy Hill Council of the Royal Arcanum. Of many newspaper notices in reference to making the Sentinel a semi-weekly paper, we quote the following from the Glens Falls Times :
" With characteristic foresight and an in- domitable zeal, Editor J. L. McArthur has plunged into his latest venture - the weekly special edition of the Granville Sentinel. That the giant of the Washington county press will make a success of his pet scheme no one will gainsay. The Sentinel possesses much prestige on account of its immense country circula- tion ; the territory is so well adapted to pro- mote the circulation of a semi-weekly country paper, and Brother McArthur has such splen- did success in developing bright journalistic ideas, we feel that it becomes us to congratu- late our Washington county readers on the fact that they are no longer dependent upon Glens Falls papers for speedy disbursement of home news. Welcome to the Semi-weekly Sentinel."
HRISTOPHER UNDERWOOD,
the grandson of John Underwood, who was a native of England, and the founder of this branch of the Underwood family in the United States, who located in the vicinity of Cam- bridge and Boston, Massachusetts, and subse- quently removed to the town of Millbury,
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Windsor county, Vermont, where he purchased two fains and followed the occupation of farming until his death, which occurred some years previous to the war of 1812. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and fought at the battle of Bunker Hill, where he received a bayonet wound in the thigh, but he served through the entire war and lived to see the crowning glory of a permanent and final sepa- ration from the mother country. His wife was a Miss Morgan, by whom he had a family of children : Oliver, father to Christopher; Jonathan, James, Erastus, and Polly. Chris- topher Underwood was engaged in the lum- bering business nearly all his life, retiring from business in 1883. On July 3, 1841, he wedded Mahala Griffin, by whom he had two children : George F. and Myron S. The father of Christopher Underwood, Oliver Un- derwood, was born in Millbury, Windsor county, Vermont, where he received the bene- fits of a common school education, and lived in that town the greater part of his life, remov- ing in his latter years to the town of Bolton, Warren county, this State, thence to the town of Horicon, the same county, where he fol- lowed the pursuits of farming until his death. He was a member of the Whig party, and he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church, and in the war of 1812 he was one of many who left Washington county for the bat- tle of Plattsburg, but who arrived there after the battle had ended. His wife was Maria Nichols, and had a family of eleven children, nine sons and two daughters : Oliver, jr., Da- vid, John, Christopher, whose name heads this sketch ; Samuel, Thomas H., Lemuel, Miles, Sydney, Rosanna, and Lucie, all of whom are now deceased, excepting Thomas and Rosanna.
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