History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 140

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922

USA > New York > Clinton County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 140
USA > New York > Franklin County > History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 140

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But of all the game found in these forests deer are the most valuable, and afford the rarest sport. The hunting of this noble game has been made the subject of a vast amount of legislation, the object of all which is doubtless intended to be salutary. But however good the inten- tion, it is unquestionably a fact that the deer are gradually, and not very slowly disappearing, and if the rate of de- crease goes on in the present regularly increasing ratio the child very likely, if not already born, may soon be, who will kill the last Adirondack deer, as the guilty man per- haps now survives with the blood of the last moose upon his skirts.

The methods by which this work of extermination is going on are various. In night-hunting the sportsman (?) steals along a still-running stream, or marshy pond, in a boat propelled by a guide at the stern with a paddle, so noiselessly that the brushing of a lily-pod along the side seems to grate harsh thunder on the midsummer night air; in the bow is a bright light in front of a common reflector, which sends a gleam far in front over the water, but leaving

the boat and its occupants in the deep shade. The deer is in the water, feeding, or taking his night bath, and as the bright light approaches around some corner he appears to be fascinated, and will allow it to approach within a few feet, always provided, however, that not the least noise is made, -the click of a rifle, the movement of an oar, or the slightest effort to relieve the throat from the scorching effect of excitement,-in which case the game is off with a snort and a crash through the bushes.

Usually, however, if his would-be murderers are skillful he falls an easy prey, bis bright burning eyeballs affording an excellent mark. Hundreds of deer are killed in this way every summer, many of them far away in the depths of the woods, by tourists and guides, who are often unable to save more than a small portion of the venison, leaving the rest to taint the air.

Another method is still-hunting, in which the hunter creeps, assassin-like, along the trail of his victim, usually in the deep snow, and shoots him down in his tracks. Suc- cess, however, requires great skill and patience on the hunter's part, elsc the deer sees him first and is off in a flash.

" Crusting," another method, and a murderous one, con- sists in taking the trail of a deer when the snow is covered with a crust strong enough to bear a man with snow-shoes, or a light dog, but through which the sharp hoofs of the deer break at every step, impeding his progress so that he is almost certainly killed. This is a common method, and a most unsportsmanlike one, for at the season during which it is possible deer are usually so poor as to be almost entirely worthless except for their hides.

Killing them in their yards is another destructive method. After the deep snow-falls, the decr naturally herd together in some spot where there is plenty of food, consisting at this season, to a great extent, of hard-wood twigs. Here they feed, treading down the snow, and constantly enlarging the " yard," sometimes to hundreds of acres; and here, again, they are slaughtered in great numbers by pot-house hunters. These two last methods are probably doing more to exterminate the deer than all others combined.

Hunting deer with hounds has been fiercely assailed in legislative halls and elsewhere, until the opinion seems to prevail very generally that this is the most reprehensible practice of all. Upon this point an old deer-hunter ex- presses his opinion thus : " The only manly way of hunting deer : your still-hunter, your yard-butcher, your cruster, and your night-hunter are all cold-blooded murderers, who steal upon the deer like treacherous assassins, and kill him without giving him a chance for his life. But the first bark of the dog, as he is beating up for a start, warns the deer- a mile away, perhaps-that an enemy is on his trail, and gives him time to form plans for baffling his pursuer. The whole forest is open to him, with a hundred different points where he can cut off his trail by taking water, supposing he should be so hard pressed as to be driven to that ex- tremity. If he runs to where a hunter is stationed, the chances are two to one the shot will miss, and the chances are ten to one that he will not run within half a mile of a hunter. Why, it is an actual fact that not one in five of deer started by dogs is killed or harmed, and the chances are about even that the dog, every time he runs a race, will

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either get lost in the woods, to perish, or be stolen. Talk about exterminating the deer by hounding them ! It's all humbug, sir. The hunters who operate without dogs are the ones that are exterminating the deer. Abolish all methods of deer-hunting except with dogs, and the deer will hold their own, and more too, in such a wilderness as the Adirondacks. Why, sir, the bay of one dog on a still morning puts a hundred deer on the alert, and sends the alarm far and wide through a whole colony of them, while one sneaking hunter will murder half of them before they know it."

As in other cases, probably the truth of this matter lies somewhere between the two extreme limits of opinion, and when found, let us hope our legislators will aet upon it as a basis, and save the deer, if possible.

FUTURE OF THE ADIRONDACKS.

What is destined to be the future of the Adirondaeks ? A considerable portion of this vast area is covered by toler- ably good soil, as the heavy hard-wood timber sufficiently indicates ; but, owing to the high altitude, it can never become a rich farming country, for there is usually a very narrow margin of time between the starting of early vege- tation in the spring and late spring frosts, and also between the ripening of late erops and early autumn frosts : in fact, these margins are not very seldom completely obliterated entirely, and the farmer finds his labor fruitless. If cleared, doubtless portions of it would make excellent grazing-lands, but the expense of subduing it from its present condition to one rendering agriculture moderately profitable would hardly be repaid in the value of crops realized in the mean time; hence, with the millions of acres of rich loam-lands lying in the West all ready for the plow, it is hardly prob- able that the inducements offered to agricultural enterprise upon the erest of this high plateau will prove sufficient to very rapidly accelerate its subjugation and settlement.

Portions of it have already been stripped of its lumber, but this condition only exists along the borders of large streams, owing to the difficulty of driving logs through small streams, the remoteness from market, and the ex- pense and hardship attendant upon lumbering operations in the heart of the wilderness ; all of which makes successful competition with other sections, especially Canada and the Northwest, very difficult.

In former times the State has appropriated large sums to "improve" these rivers by the ercetion of flooding dams, -the cause of drowning vast traets of land above, and destroying the timber,-and by blasting rocks out of the channels. But of late the rule has been to withhold such appropriations, under the plausible plea that it is not only wrong both in principle and practice to increase the burdens of general taxation for the benefit of private and individual interests, but that such a poliey was affording facilities at the publie expense for arriving at results to which the publie interest, and especially those of commerce and manufactures, were opposed ; these results being the denudation of the great forest traets, which exert a most important influence upon the general welfare.

This, then, brings us to an important consideration bearing upon the whole subject, for upon this table-land of some 6000

square miles, having an average altitude of about two thou- sand feet above the level of the sea, some of the most important rivers of the State have their sources and main feeders. Here, also, are the lofty mountain ranges which play so important a part in the economy of nature relating to the ceaseless round of evaporation and condensation of the atmosphere's moisture, operating on the principle of contraction by cold, to draw copious supplies of rain from the clouds as they are driven back and forth over these high altitudes by the shifting winds. And here also are the means of storing up these vast supplies of water, not only in the hundreds and thousands of lakes and ponds connected by a net-work of sluggish streams, but also in the mosses and spongy soils which cover a large proportion of the land surface, even up to the utmost limit of the timber line on the highest mountains. Thus almost the entire surface, both land and water, is wonderfully adapted for holding in reserve the water supply for times of need. But strip this surface of its forests, and how changed the conditions.

In the southwestern part of Clinton County is a mountain rising some two thousand feet above the plain, between Au- sable and Saranac Rivers, and known as Catamount Moun- tain, a bald gneiss rock, almost entirely destitute of vegetation and soil,-a condition partly natural, but largely due, it is said, to the effects of a fire that swept over it several years ago, stripping it bare, even of its porous, loamy soil, from the summit almost to the very base. Every rain, whether light or heavy, which falls upon this vast mountain mass, is of course precipitated upon the valley below in a very short time, swelling the streams suddenly, thus enhancing the danger of freshets ; and then the water almost as quickly subsides, thus giving the least possible amount of benefit to manufacturers dependent upon the water-power, and also to farmers. Right across the valley is another mountain range, wooded to its very summit, and covered with mosses which stow the water up, thus promoting an even flow in the streams which it feeds. Here, then, we have a plain illus- tration of the whole matter. Divest these high altitudes of their dense forest coverings, and these mossy fibres -- not unusually a foot long, and so densely paeked in their natural perpendicular position that as you walk over the surface it seems like a thick earpet under your feet-will wither in the sun, because there is not much thickness of earth, and only serve to feed forest fires ; and thus large portions of the now luxuriant surface will be converted into arid wastes, and the copious rains which must always fall here will be hurled upon the valleys below, and as suddenly subside, thus entailing, instead of blessings, as now, the double eurse of freshet and drought.

But there is another consideration, hardly less important, which in the interests of a large and constantly increasing class demands the preservation of the great forest for a " breathing-place," a sportsmen's and tourists' paradise, a grand sanitarium for the Empire State and all her neigh- bors, for there is room enough for all. Here sufferers from lung diseases find, in the rarefied air, laden with healing odors of balsam, spruce, and fir, relief which they seek in vain elsewhere. Hay-fever patients cease to weep and sneeze on climbing to the level of these high table-lands,

508

HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY, NEW YORK.

while dyspeptics invariably forget that they have stomachs, and so firmly do invalids become attached to the location and climate that it is found more and more difficult year by year to drive them back to their city homes on the approach of the time for closing hotels, insomuch that the project has been seriously entertained of building one or more large houses expressly for the winter accommodation of invalid guests.

In reply to the question, " Will not the Adirondacks eventually play out as summer resorts ?" an enthusiast, but who usually bases his opinions upon sound sense, replies, " No, sir; they will never play out. Look at the White Mountains, with their palatial hotels, and their thousands of regular visitors every year. And there is comparatively

nothing there to attract them. True, they have their grand mountains, but so have we, in such numbers that we can almost duplicate the whole White Mountain range and take it away without missing it! And we have what they have not, and cannot have, our wonderful water-ways, upon which we can float hundreds of miles, by different routes, through the grand old forests, with the best of hunting and fishing. All we want is more hotel accommodation, and casier means of transportation, all of which are coming right along. No, sir; the Adirondacks will never play out so long as the wind blows through these grand old pine- tops, and decr run in the woods, and trout swim in the waters ; and whoever is living ten years hence will find a hundred visitors here where he now sees onc."

SUPPLEMENT.

MILITARY RECORD, DANNEMORA.

The following list of those who enlisted from this town during the late Rebellion was received too late for insertion in its proper place. The list is a copy of that on file in the Military Bureau at Albany.

Velor Aryell, private, 2d N. Y. Vet. Cav .; enl. Dec. 21, 1863. John Abar, private, Co. C, 91st Regt .; enl. Aug. 19, 1864.

Joshua Billy, private, 44th Regt. ; enl. March 17, 1864.

Robert Collins, private, Co. C, 16th Regt .; enl. April 25, 1861. Silas Cummins, private.

Clark Chappell, private, 83d Regt .; enl. July 25, 1863; re-enlisted. Isaac Cournell, private, enl. Oct. 10, 1863.

Warren Dockum, private, Co. C, 16th Regt .; enl. Sept. 28, 1862. Henry Detour, private, Co. B, 96th Regt .; died iu hospital.

Joseph Detour, Jr., private, Co. B, 96th Regt.

Albert Eddy, private, Co. B, 5th N. Y. Cav .; enl. April 1, 1865 ; disch. Aug. 25, 1865.

Charles Fournio, private, Co. E, 16th Regt .; eul. April 25, 1861 ; re-enl. in 16tli N. Y. Cav., 1863.

John Ford, private, Co. C, 16th Regt .; enl. April 25, 1861; disch. Aug. 10, 1862, for disability.

Henry Facto, private, Co. C, 91st Regt .; enl. Aug. 19, 1864.

Phillip German, private, 2d N. Y. Vet. Cav.

Hiram Higby, private, Co. C, 16th N. Y. Cav .; died of wounds in battle of Wil- derness.

James Hart, Jr., private, 16th N. Y. Cav .; enl. Sept. 16, 1864.

Mitchell Joundran, private, Ist Art .; enl. Dec. 19, 1863.

Joseph Jasmand, private, 44th Regt .; enl. July 22, 1863.

Joseph Laroe, private, Co. E, 16th Regt.

Frank Laroe, private, Co. G, 16th Regt .; enl. April 26, 1861. Charles Lacosse, private, Co. B, 96th Regt.

George Lacosse, private, Co. B, 96th Regt.

Thomas Myers, private, Co. C, 16th Regt. ; enl. April 25, 1861 ; killed June 27, 1862, at Gaines' Mills. Ilugh McVela, private, Co. B, 96tlı Regt. Patrick Mc Vela, private, Co. B, 96th Regt. Walter Mc Vela, private, Co. B, 96th Regt. Lewis Mear, private, 2d N. Y. Vet. Cav. ; enl. Oct. 31, 1863. Antoine Murray. private, 44th Regt .; enl. March 17, 1865.

John Morrow, private, enl. Aug. 9, 1864.

Albert Mear, private, enl. Sept. 22, 1863.

Robert Mason, private, Co. B, 96th Regt .; died in service.

Oscar B. Morrison, 2d lieut., Co. B, 96th Regt .; enl. Nov. 18, 1861 ; pro. to capt .; wounded; resigued.

Edwin Morrison, private, 16th N. Y. Cav .; enl. July 18, 1863. Marshall Rassett, private, Co. C, 91st Regt .; enl. Aug. 19, 1864. Eli Rassett, private, Co. C, 91st Regt .; enl. Aug. 19, 1864. Octavius Rassett, private, Co. C, 91st Regt .; enl. Aug. 19, 1864. Joseph Richards, private, 1st N. Y. Cav .; enl. Sept. 18, 1861. Fraucis Ramo, private, 2d N. Y. Vet. Cav .; enl. Dec. 31, 1863. Edmond Soper, private, Co. E, 16th Regt. ; enl. Aug. 29, 1862 ; disch. July 6, 1865. Henry Shelly, private, Co. E, 16th Regt .; enl. Aug. 29, 1862. . John Sangamon, private, 2d N. Y. Vet. Cav .; enl. Dec. 21, 1863. James Sleven, private, Frontier Cav .; enl. Jan. 18, 1865. John Sharp, private, Frontier Cav .; enl. Jan. 21, 1865. Joseph Putran, private, Co. E, 16th Regt. ; enl. April 25, 1861.

Adolphus Patnode, private, Co. G, 16th Regt .; enl. April 25, 1861. Francis Patnode, private, Co. B, 96th Regt.

Mark Powers, private, Frontier Cav .; enl. Jan. 10, 1865.

Thomas Park, private, Co. C, 16th Regt .; enl. April 25, 1861.

A. D. Tenant, private, Co. C, 16th Regt .; enl. April 25, 1861. Lafayette Torrey, private, Co. C, 16th Regt .; enl. April 25, 1861. Charles Tefft, private, Co. E, 16th Regt .; enl. Aug. 29, 1862. Joseph Tacy (3d), private, 2d N. Y. Vet. Cav .; enl. Dec. 21, 1865. John Williams, private, 118th Regt .; enl. Dec. 15, 1863.

John Gonya, private, Co. F, 91st Regt .; enl. Oct. 5, 1864; credited to Essex Co. Jerome H. Gay, private, Co. F, 91st Regt .; enl. Aug. 19, 1864; credited to town of Saranac.

Leander Ladue, Edward Lancore, privates, enlisted in another State.

Aleck Lamora, private, credited to another county.

David Larre, private, credited to another county.

Charles Myers, private, Co. F, 91st Regt .; enl. Oct. 16, 1864; credited to another county.

Antoine Pollard, private, credited to another State.

Arza Turner, private, 16th N. Y. Cav .; credited to Essex Co., N. Y.

James Vanaraman, private, Co. E, 16th Regt .; enl. Aug. 29, 1865; credited to Plattsburgh ; died of disease.

Lewis Wells, private, credited to another State.

THE supervisors of the town of Franklin, Franklin Co., have been as follows :*

1836-38, Henry B. Hatch ; 1839-40, Norman Stickney ; 1841, William Knowles; 1842, John R. Merrill; 1843-44, Henry B. Hatch; 1845, John R. Merrill ; 1846, Norman Stickney ; 1847-50, John R. Merrill; 1851, Hugh Martin; 1852, James B. Dickinson ; 1853, John R. Merrill; 1854-55, Hugh Martin ; 1856-59, George Tremble; 1860-61, Luther S. Bryant; 1862-63, George Tremble ; 1864, Chancey Williamson ; 1865-66, George Tremble; 1867-68, James H. Pierce ; 1869-70, George Tremble; 1871-72, Patrick McKelops; 1873, James H. Pierec ; 1874, Patrick McKelops ; 1875-76, James H. Pierce; 1877, Patrick McKclops ; 1878-79, George Tremble.

THE present (1879) pastor of St. Patrick's Church, Rouse's Point, is Rev. J. R. Scanlon.

The present pastor of St. Mary's Church, in the village of Champlain, is F. X. Chagnon.

The present pastor of St. Joseph's Church, at Coopers- ville, is Father Beaudreau.

On page 126, the paragraph commencing " Following Judge Palmer came Perry G. Ellsworth," etc., should fol- low the sketch of Peter Sailly Palmer.

* The names from 1852 to 1879 are furnished by Mr. William H. Melvin, town clerk.

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History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York : with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 140

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia Publication date: 1880 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co. Number of Pages: 922

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J.W., & Co., Philadelphia
Publication date: 1880
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis & co.
Number of Pages: 922