USA > New York > Warren County > Queensbury > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 6
USA > New York > Washington County > History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York > Part 6
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Breymann encountered Stark's pursuing forces ere he knew there had been a battle, and was driving them back when Seth Warner rein- forced Stark with a regiment of Green Moun- tain boys, and made complete the victory of the morning. Breymann was repulsed and re- treated, and Bennington passed into history as the first check Burgoyne received in his invasion. It roused the spirits of the Ameri- cans. Raw militia had defeated British sold- iers; the Indians, enraged at being restrained, began to desert from the English army, and the inevitable result in defeat and surrender followed at Saratoga.
Before Baum had marched southward the Whigs of New Perth and White Creek tore down their log church to make a stockade around their frame church, which they forti- fied, but later abandoned when the German raiding force marched through the Cambridge valley. The church fort was burned by the Tories, who also attacked Captain McNitt and a part of the Black Creek Whig militia, in a plank house, but were repulsed.
During Burgoyne's advance Schuyler or- dered the Whigs to retire from the country and leave their harvests, while the English general ordered all who remained and desired his protection to fall in the rear of his army. These non-combatants, and all others who re- moved to the rear of the British army, were called "protectioners," and afterward were often subjected to harsh treatment at the hands of the Whigs.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
CARLETON'S RAID.
The surrender at Saratoga gave peace to the county, and the northern frontier re- mained quiet until 1780, when in April a threatened invasion was reported by an es- caped prisoner. The militia was ordered out, and Governor Clinton, with a large militia force, hastened from Albany to Fort George. The alarm soon passed, and the forces were all either disbanded or withdrawn.
During the autumn the threatened invasion became a reality. In October, Maj. Christo- pher Carleton, a nephew of Sir Guy Carleton, with eight hundred regulars and royalists and a small party of Indians, came up Lake Champlain, and landed from his fleet of eight vessels and twenty-six boats, at Skenesbor- ough. From there he advanced rapidly to Fort Ann, which surrendered to him on Octo- ber 10, 1780. The captured garrison con- sisted of seventy-five men, commanded by Captain Sherwood. From Fort Ann Clinton marched to Fort George, which also surren- dered to him, and on the 12th sailed down Lake Champlain. The militia were not ral- lied in time to prevent his retreat, and thus ended the last expedition that has marched over the War-path of America.
UNION CONVENTION.
In 1781 Vermont still claimed all the pres- ent territory of Washington county, and di- rected that a convention be held at Cambridge to decide whether and on what terms the dis- tricts of that county and part of Rensselaer should be united with the "Green Mountain State."
The Seceders, mostly New Englanders, elected delegates to this convention, while the New York supporters paid no attention to these proceedings.
The "Union Convention" met at Cambridge on May 9, 1781, and after seceding from New York, chose delegates to the Vermont legisla- ture. Vermont was to defend them and sub- mit any state boundary line dispute to Con-
gress or any other tribunal mutually agreed on by New York and Vermont.
County and town secession was not a fav- orably received doctrine with any State be- yond Vermont, and a majority of the inhabi- tants of the county were opposed to the movement, and so the work of the convention never amounted to anything.
Vermont parties were then negotiating with England to acknowledge Vermont as a neutral State, but Yorktown was the death-knell of this move, and the Green Mountain State never attempted to take possession of the county. One year later Vermont renounced all claim to all of the present territory of eastern New York.
Yorktown not only gave the county peace on the northern frontier from England, but led to the peaceful relinquishment of all her present territory by the Vermont authorities.
REVOLUTIONARY SOLDIERS.
At this late date it is impossible to secure but a fragmentary list of those noble settlers of Washington county who bore arms in the War of the Revolution, but we present the names of what few could be secured.
Colonel Williams' Charlotte county regi- ment served in the Burgoyne campaign. It consisted of five or six companies, of which we have only an account of Captain Charles Hutchinson's company of fifty-two men, Cap- tain Thomas Armstrong's company of thirty men, and Captain John Hamilton's company of thirty-two men. No complete roster can be presented of these companies that are named, and but a few scattering names of others of the county that served in other regi- ments can be obtained. The following scant list of names has been obtained, together with some little information as to some of those named :
NEW PERTH OR SALEM COMPANY.
Captain Charles Hutchinson's company was largely from New Perth, or Salem, and there
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
is record of it being in service from June 20 to October 20, 1777, and again serving in March, 1778.
CAPTAIN HUTCHINSON'S COMPANY.
OFFICERS.
Charles Hutchinson, captain. Edward Long, first lieutenant.
Robert Stewart, second lieutenant.
Alexander Turner, ensign.
Daniel McNitt, sergeant. James Stewart, sergeant.
Thomas Williams, sergeant.
Thomas Lyons, sergeant.
Isaac Gray, corporal.
David McNitt, corporal.
Robert Hopkins, corporal. James Tomb, corporal.
PRIVATES.
Chambers, John.
McClure, John.
McMichael, John.
Creighton, Robt. Dunlap, John.
McNitt, Alex.
Gray, John, sr.
McNitt, Alex., sr.
Gray, John, jr.
McNish, Alex.
Gray, Nathan.
Martyn, Hugh.
Hamilton, James. Harsha, John.
Miller, John, Moore, James, jr. Rogers, William.
Henderson, Alex.
Henderson, James.
Rowan, John.
Hopkins, David.
Simson, Andrew.
Hopkins, David (2d).
Simson, Alex.
Simson, John.
Hopkins, Isaac. Hopkins, John. Hopkins, Robert.
Thompson, James. Thompson, John.
Hopkins, Samuel.
Webb, David.
Hunsden, Alex.
Williams, John.
Lyon, Samuel.
Williams, Lewis.
McAllister, John. Wood, Reuben.
The above fifty-two names of officers and privates are on a pay-roll of November 10, 1777, and a memorandum attached states that twenty-two of this company had marched to Ticonderoga.
On another pay-roll of the same company we find the following additional names : Isaac 4
and John Gray, jr .; Alex. McNish, John Liv- ingston, Joseph Tomb, John, William, Andrew and John Lytle (2d); William Sloan, Andrew Simpson, Turner and James Hamilton, jr .; Lewis, Thomas and Lewis Williams, jr .; Robert Stewart, James and Samuel Hopkins, sr .; Francis Lemon, John Chambers, Samuel Lyon, John Rowan, Ebenezer Russell, and James Moore, sr. and James Moore, jr.
On a third pay-roll of this company, in 1778, appear the following additional names : Thomas Bar, William Campbell, George Easton, Alex. Garrett, Nathan Gray, Robert Gilmore, Richard Hoy, Daniel Livingston, William and Robert Matthews, Hamilton McCollister, Matthew McClaughery, Daniel Mathison, William Moffit, William Miller, jr., George Miller, Peter McQueen, Thomas Oswald, David, Archibald and Alexander Stewart, George Robinson, Timothy Titus, Samuel Wilson, and John Webb.
From memoranda attached to this last pay- roll we find that the company was afterward commanded by Captain Edward Long, and that Reuben Wood became a sergeant, Thomas Williams clerk of the company, while John Gray and David Hopkins, the one exempt and the other above age, yet served.
CAPT. THOMAS ARMSTRONG'S COMPANY.
OFFICERS.
Thomas Armstrong, captain.
John Armstrong, first lieutenant.
Daniel McCleary, second lieutenant.
John Martin, ensign.
Zebulon Turner, sergeant-major.
John Gibson, sergeant.
John Hunsden, sergeant.
David McKnight, sergeant.
Robert Caldwell, sergeant.
William Lytle, corporal.
William Smith, corporal.
Jonathan Nivens, corporal.
William Huggins, corporal.
Robert Armstrong, drummer.
James Turner, fifer.
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
PRIVATES.
Blakeney, George. Moncrief, William.
Boyd, John.
McMichael, Robert.
Boyd, Robert.
McArthur, Robert.
Cleveland, Benjamin. McFarland, James, sr.
Gibson, Thomas.
Means, James.
Lytle, Isaac.
Wilson, John.
Lytle, William, jr.
Wilson, Joseph.
Lytle, Robert.
These names are taken from a pay-roll from June 20 to October 20, 1777.
CAPT. JOHN HAMILTON'S COMPANY. OFFICERS.
John Hamilton, captain.
James Wilson, first lieutenant.
George H. Nighton, second lieutenant.
Samuel Croget, ensign.
David Hopkins, sergeant.
R. V. Wilson, sergeant.
Nathaniel Munson, sergeant.
William Smith, sergeant.
Jonathan Barber, corporal.
Robert Getty, corporal.
Isaac Hopkins, corporal.
David Wheaton, corporal.
PRIVATES.
Brown, James. Harmon, Alpheus, sr.
Duncan, John.
Lytle, Isaac.
Fisher, Daniel. McCloud, Daniel.
Fisher, John. Sharp, Abel.
Getty, Adam. Parrish, Josiah.
Getty, David. Tirrell, Samuel.
Getty, John.
Wilson, David.
Gammis, Samuel.
Whitten, David.
Harmon, Martin.
Wade, Solomon.
Harmon, Selah.
Captain Hamilton's company was largely from Hebron.
The following persons, from the towns named, served in the Revolutionary war :
ARGYLE.
John Smith. John Taylor,
CAMBRIDGE.
Capt. Geo. Gilmore. Azor Bouton.
James McKie. Elisha Gifford.
Joseph Volentine. John Weir.
Jesse Averill.
John Wait.
Earl Durfee.
GRANVILLE.
The following soldiers served in Capt. Silas Child's company :
Ebenezer Danforth. Henry Watkins.
Daniel Stewart. HARTFORD.
Capt. Samuel Taylor. Nathan Taylor.
Col. John Buck.
Samuel Bowen.
Capt. Asahel Hodge. Doctor Jones.
Alexander Arnold. . Asher Ford.
HEBRON.
Col. Alex. Webster. Guile Wilson.
Capt. John Getty.
John Wilson.
Isaac Morchouse. Robert Getty.
WHITE CREEK.
Colonel Tiffany.
William Gilmore.
Capt. Jon. Gardner.
Isaac Fowler.
Hiram Hathaway.
Aaron Perry.
The revolutionary period had now drawn to a close, and the settlement period, which- it rudely terminated, was to find its successor in a pioneer period, following the war and stretching till the closing of the eighteenth) century.
The story of the Revolution, that has so often and so eloquently been told by the au- thors of America as not to need repetition here ; yet it might be well, before leaving the subject, to correct two once prevalent errors concerning that struggle.
The German troops in America were not all Hessians. The latter were not such a blood- thirsty people as represented, only being con- scripts against their will to fight a ferocious set of rebels.
The leading statesman and the intelligent mass of the people of Great Britain were not in favor of the measures of the Parliamentary
51
BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
party in power that provoked the Revolution- ary war. Taxation without representation in America was a violation of the Magna Charta of England, that Englishmen would have fought against as quick as the Americans.
CHAPTER XII.
.
CHARLOTTE BECOMES WASHINGTON COUNTY-CAMBRIDGE AND EATON AN- NEXED - CANALS - COUNTY SEAT STRUGGLES- TURNPIKES-WARREN COUNTY ERECTED-BATTLE OF PLATTS- BURG.
CHARLOTTE BECOMES WASHINGTON COUNTY.
When the Revolution closed, the stream of settlement, which it had interrupted, poured again into the southern and central part of the county, and by 1784 settlers were securing farms in the north in Dresden and Putnam. The three thousand inhabitants of 1774 grew to fourteen thousand in 1790, and this great increase was nearly all from 1784.
The Revolutionary war left the Americans at its close with a hatred of everything Eng- lish. The names of Tryon and Charlotte were unendurable to the people of the coun- ties so called, as the one recalled the last Eng- lish governor and the other recalled the name of the Queen whose husband sent his armies to ravage the last-named county. This dis- gust took form in public expression, and on April 2, 1784, the legislature passed an act changing these names, and which, after the enacting clause, read as follows :
"From and after the passage of this act the county of Tryon shall be known by the name of Montgomery, and the county of Charlotte by the name of Washington."
Thus the first Washington county in the United States came into existence, and the name of Queen Charlotte was left for preserva-
tion in the United States to the county in Vir- ginia that is still called Charlotte.
Courts had ceased to be held in the county in 1775, and although ordered in 1779 to be convened again, yet there is no record of any court under the State being held until 1786.
On February 5, 1787, an act was passed di- recting the courts to be held at Salem - which had been formerly known as Scottish New Perth, and Puritan White Creek-but the in- fluence of Fort Edward was such that on April 21, 1788, the law was so changed that one of the three yearly terms was to be held at the house of Adiel Sherwood, in the village of Fort Edward.
In the meantime the lands of the Tories had been forfeited by an act of the legislature, passed May 12, 1784, and Col. Alex. Webster, commissioner under this law for eastern New York, sold many tracts of land in Washington county. He sold one hundred and sixty-two tracts of Philip Skene's land ; one hundred and thirty-one of Oliver De Lancy's; ten Jessup tracts ; three Jones tracts, and many other tracts. Col. John Williams was the larg- est purchaser of these forfeited lands, buying sixty-five tracts in different parts of the county. Major Skene sought to regain his forfeited lands and resume his residence at Skenesbor- ough (Whitehall), but his effort was of no avail and he remained in England.
CAMBRIDGE AND EASTON ANNEXED.
During the year 1791 the town of Cam- bridge, including the present territory of Jack- son and White Creek, was transferred from Albany to Washington county, to which was also annexed the parts of Saratoga and Still- water towns on the east side of the Hudson as a town by the name of Easton. This trans- fer of territory was likely secured by Gen. John Williams in order to strengthen the chances of Salem to secure the permanent location of the county-seat.
In March, 1791, some of the residents of Salem and Cambridge, whose markets were in
52
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
Rensselaer county, got an act passed in the assembly annexing them to that county, but General Williams defeated it in the senate.
CANALS.
About 1794 considerable interest was awak- ened in the subject of canals, and two com- panies were formed to build one canal from the Mohawk river to Lake Oneida, and an- other canal to connect the waters of the Hud- son river with Lake Champlain.
The Northern Inland Lock Navigation Company was formed to construct the Hud- son and Champlain canal, and among its pro- moters were General Schuyler and General Williams. The company commenced clearing out the obstructions in Wood creek, but had to cease for want of funds, and their great work was not completed until thirty years later.
COUNTY SEAT STRUGGLES.
In 1792 three places-Salem, Fort Edward and Fort Miller - were rivals for the county seat. The legislature left the matter to the board of supervisors, who met and located the county seat at Salem. Fort Edward sought to have the vote reconsidered, but while failing in that direction made a success" ful move to retain the holding of the courts for a part of each year at that place, and se- cured the passage of a law to that effect. A court house and jail were commenced at Salem in 1792, but were not completed till 1796. In the last named year, Adiel Sher- wood, at whose house the court held its Fort Edward session, one day near the dinner hour ordered the judges to vacate the court-room, which was his dining-room, so that the table could be set for dinner. The judges resented this insult by fining Sherwood and passing a sentence of fifteen days imprisonment against him, and three of the honorable body being State Senators, procured a law at the next session of the legislature which removed the holding of courts from Fort Edward to Sandy Hill, where they have been held ever since,
and where, in 1806, a two-story frame court house was completed.
The county clerk's office was kept at neither court house, but at the clerk's residence until 1806, when it was located by law within one- half mile of Peleg Bragg's house in Argyle.
TURNPIKES.
The first important movement toward good roads was the incorporation, on April 1, 1799, of the Northern Turnpike Company, which built a turnpike from Lansingburg, in Rens- selaer county, through Cambridge, Salem, Hebron, Granville and Hampton, to the State line, and connecting with a similar road to Burlington, Vermont. This company also built a branch from Salem northeastward to the State line, and another from Granville to Whitehall. Seven years later the Waterford and Whitehall turnpike, sixty miles long, was built, and crossing the Hudson ran from Fort Miller, by the way of Fort Edward and Fort Ann, to Whitehall, from which the Whitehall and Fair Haven, and the Whitehall and Gran- ville pikes were built, beside the Mitchell and Shaftsbury, and the East Salem roads, constructed about the same time.
Closing the pioneer period of the old cen- tury, in whose last year the turnpikes had their beginning, we see the county with a newspaper, the Northern Centinel, that was started in 1798 as the second successor of the pioneer sheet, the Times or National Courier, whose existence was confined to the year 1794 ; and also having five militia regiments, under the command of General Williams.
In the opening decade of the nineteenth century we see the county equipped with three great pikes running north and south, one from Whitehall to the Hudson, a second from Whitehall to Salem and Lansingburg, and the third from Lansingburg to Bennington. Over these roads often passed north long lines of teams, carrying grain and pot and pearl ashes to be shipped by Lake Champlain to Montreal, Canada, while south they bore the same arti-
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
cles (especially when the lake was frozen) to the local markets of Lansingburg.
During this pike period, that extended from 1799 to 1824, when it began to decline, several events of importance occurred, among which were the introduction of merino sheep in 1809, the raising of flax in 1812 for manufacturing purposes, the great loss of territory by the erection of Warren county, and Prevost's threatened invasion, that was stayed by the battle of Plattsburg.
WARREN COUNTY ERECTED.
On March 12, 1813, Warren county was erected whereby the county of Washington lost all her territory west of Lake George and the Hudson river, and in the neighborhood of eight thousand population. This was her second great loss of territory, the first being when Vermont became a State and she lost all the lands east of the Green Mountains.
BATTLE OF PLATTSBURG.
For three years the second war of Inde- pendence had been dragging its weary way on the Niagara frontier, but nothing had occurred to disturb the Champlain region until August, 1814, when the cry of invasion over the old War-path of America spread on the very wings of the wind all over the county. The militia was called out en masse and marched northward, but ere they reached Plattsburg McDonough's naval victory over the "cream of Nelson's marines" had caused Prevost's land forces, called the " flower of Welling- ton's army," to beat a hasty retreat, and their services were not needed. The Washington county men mostly went by the way of Bur- lington, Vermont, where they were very poorly equipped with arms.
For ten years after the close of the war of 1812, the turnpikes were the main avenues of traffic and principal routes of travel in the county, and then came a change wherein Washington county took her first important step in the great material progress of this most wonderful nineteenth century. 4a
CHAPTER XIII.
NEW INDUSTRIES-CHAMPLAIN CANAL - PLANK-ROADS-EARLY RAILROADS.
NEW INDUSTRIES.
The pike period, toward the close of its most active years, was noted for the long pro- cessions of teams and the large number of big yellow stage coaches that passed over the three great roads of the country. In the lat- ter part of the pike period the log cabin and hewed log-house had given away largely to frame dwellings, and the people turned their attention to the development of several new industries, although not neglecting the manu- facture of potash and the raising of grain for home use and exportation. Hats, caps, and shoes were largely manufactured at every vil- lage, and fulled cloth, flannel, tow cloth and linen were made in nearly every farm house. But to new and increased home manufactures was added the business of wool-raising.
Wool-raising soon became the leading in- dustry of the county, a position which it held for nearly thirty years. Granville, Salem and Cambridge, and one or two other places in the county, became such noted markets for com- mon and merino wool that large quantities of wool were brought to them for sale from Ver- mont and several New York counties.
CHAMPLAIN CANAL.
The active pike period was succeeded by the canal period, which commenced with the construction of the Champlain canal, and ex- tended from 1823 to 1848, when it was suc- ceeded ( although it has never been superse- ded) by the railroad period.
The Champlain canal is next in importance to the Erie canal, and runs from Waterford, seven miles from Albany, to Whitehall, com- pleting the water-way between the Atlantic seaboard and the navigable Saint Lawrence. The construction of the canal was authorized
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BIOGRAPHY AND HISTORY
in 1817, and on June 10, 1818, work was com- menced on this great avenue of commerce. The canal crossed the Hudson at Schuylerville, by means of a seven hundred foot dam, and followed the east bank of the river to Fort Edward, where it left the Hudson and passed over a ridge to the valley of Wood creek, down which it passed ( running part of the time in the bed of the creek) to Whitehall, where it united with the headwaters of Lake Champlain.
On September 10, 1823, the whole work was completed and commerce had a water- route from New York to Montreal. In 1825, Gov. DeWitt Clinton recommended to the legislature that the Hudson be made naviga- ble for steamboats to Fort Edward, and that the Batten Kill be made navigable for steam- boat travel to the Vermont line, but both pro- jects failed. The next year the canal was im- proved by the abandonment of slack-water navigation and the construction of a boat channel, independent of the river, all the way from opposite Schuylerville to Fort Edward. Other improvements were made in succeeding years.
The length of the Champlain canal is sixty- six miles, including Waterford side-cut and the Cohoes and Saratoga dams. When con- structed the size of prism was forty feet wide on the top water-line, narrowing to twenty-six feet at the bottom, and having four feet depth of water. In 1870 the size was increased to fifty-eight feet width at the top, forty-four feet at the bottom and six feet depth of water. Boats drawing five feet of water and the same size as those on the Erie were then placed on this canal. From its junction with the Erie canal to one mile north of Waterford the sup- ply of water is from the Mohawk river at Cohoes ; from Northumberland to Whitehall* the supply of water is from the upper Hudson through the Glens Falls feeder, supplemented on the north by Wood creek at Fort Ann. Droughts and the destruction of the forests on the water sheds of the upper Hudson decreased
the supply of water there to such an extent that in 1880 no surplus could be retained, and there was barely quantity enough to meet the demand. The canal has thirty-three locks, cost.nearly two and one-half million dollars, and in 1880 carried one million two hundred thousand tons of freight, yielding an income of over fifty-one thousand dollars.
When the canal was built farmers feared that there would be no sale for horses or oats, and that hauling would be destroyed, but they soon found that their fears were groundless.
PLANK ROADS.
Toward the close of the canal period the "plank road fever " broke out in Washington county, and four of these roads were con- structed between 1847 and some time prior to 1860. These roads were as follows : White- hall and Hampton, Fort Edward and Fort Miller, Fort Edward and Argyle, and Hart- ford and Sandy Hill. The first two went down in less than twenty years, and the others were in operation in 1880.
EARLY RAILROADS.
The period of the canal's supremacy in the material history of the county drew toward a close in 1848, when the first railroad train ran from Saratoga to Whitehall. Washington county had entered upon the second epoch of her progress from pioneer days to her present prosperity and advancement. '
The railroad movement in the county dates back as early as 1834. On May 2, of that year, the Saratoga and Washington Railroad Company was incorporated, with a capital of six hundred thousand dollars, but did not fully organize until April 20, 1835, and its operations were checked by the panic of 1837. An increase of stock to eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and an extension of time until 1850 were secured, and the com- pany,in April, 1848, commenced laying their ยท track, which was completed in December of that year. The road was soon extended to
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