USA > New York > Clinton County > Plattsburgh > History of Plattsurgh, New York from its first settlement to January 1, 1876 > Part 3
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itants, the growth of the village was very gradual for the first twenty-five years. In 1811, the village contained 78 dwelling-houses, 4 hotels, 13 stores and II shops and offices. Among the merchants were Fouquet & Green, Samuel Moore & Co., McCreedy & McDowell, Lewis Ransom, Carlyle D. Tylee, Benjamin G. Wood, Elijah White, John I. and Roswell Wait, and Platt & Smith, Several of the stores were then on Broad Street. Trow- bridge & Seymour, hatters, occupied a building on Margaret Street, opposite what is now Brinkerhoff Street. The manufacturing establishments, exclusive of carpenter and wheelwright shops, were a small forge, a tannery on Broad Street, two small saw-mills, a grist-mill and a fulling- mill. The only public building was the Court-House.
In October of this year, the mill company lands not appropriated to mill purposes, were subdivided into build- ing lots by Pliny Moore, William Bailey, and William Keese, who had been appointed by the Supreme Court as commissioners in partition. What is now known as the " Park," had been laid out as a public highway, eight rods wide, as early as 1803, but it had remained enclosed with the adjoining lands until their subdivision into vil- lage lots by the commissioners at this time.
In the Spring of 1811, a public meeting was held in the village, at which Peter Sailly, William Bailey, Melancton Smith, John Miller, Samuel Moore, Jonathan Griffin, and Levi Platt, were appointed a committee, with authority to raise money by voluntary contributions, for the purpose of purchasing a suitable lot and erecting an Academy building. The committee selected a lot on Oak
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Street, to be bounded on the south by "a contemplated street to be laid out between the land of Melancton Smith and lot number seven," then owned by Abraham Brinckerhoff, Jr., of the city of New York. The lot was four rods in front on Oak Street, and extended back ten rods. On the 14th of May, Mr. Brinckerhoff, in consid- eration of $100, conveyed the lot to the committee, in trust, " for the purpose of erecting said academy thereon." The building was immediately commenced, and was com- pleted the same year. The building committee were, Sam- uel Moore, Jonathan Griffin, and Louis Ransom. It was sixty feet long, and twenty-seven feet in width, and front- ed on Oak Street. A wide hall ran through the centre, dividing the lower story into two large school-rooms. A large room occupied nearly the whole of the upper story, and was reached from the lower hall by a broad stairway in the northwest part of the building. At the time of its erection the Academy was the largest and most imposing public edifice in Northern New York.
In the winter of 1813 and 14, the premises were leased to the United States government and used for barracks. The Academy was occupied by the artillery, and the old Presbyterian Church by the infantry, the parade-ground being between the two buildings.
The Academy was refitted in the spring or summer of 1814 and used for school purposes with Spencer Wall as principal teacher.
The upper room was used for many years as a place of worship and for public meetings. The Clinton County Bible Society was organized in this room, on the 5th of
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March, 1816, with Pliny Moore, of Champlain, as Presi- dent ; Doct. John Miller, of this village, as Vice President ; Azariah C. Flagg, as Treasurer, and William Swetland as Secretary. The Rev. J. Byington and Roswell Ransom, of Chazy, David Savage, of Champlain, the Rev. Nathan- iel Hewitt, William Pitt Platt, James Trowbridge, and General Melancton L. Woolsey, of Plattsburgh, were ap- pointed directors.
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The first temperance society in the county was also organized in this room. A preliminary meeting was held on the 7th day of October, 1815, at which General Ben- jamin Mooers presided, and Silas Hubbell, Esq .. of Cham- plain, acted as Secretary. A committee was appointed to prepare an address to the people, and the towns were re- quested to send delegates to an adjourned meeting, to be held at the same place, in the month of January. The address was published in the Plattsburgh Republican of December 16. It was a strong appeal for aid to sup- press, not only intemperance, but the other vices of the day-those " bummers " following in the track of war -- swearing, gambling, and an open violation of the Sabbath. The committee refer to the great consumption of ardent spirits in the county, which they estimated at 30,000 gal- lons annually, or nearly four gallons to each inhabitant, including women and children. The appeal was not made too soon, nor was it made in vain. The convention was held at the appointed day, when a " County Moral Society " was organized, the salutary influence of which was long felt throughout the county.
The Academy was under the supervision of the com-
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mittee and their successors until the spring of 1828, when it was incorporated under the name of the " Plattsburgh Academy," and placed under the control of a Board of Trustees, with perpetual succession. The date of the act of Incorporation, is April 21, 1828. The first Board of Trustees was composed of Benjamin Mooers, John Lynde, William Swetland, Jonathan Griffin, Frederick Halsey, Frederick L. C. Sailly, Heman Cady, Ephraim Buck, William F. Haile, George Marsh, John Palmer, and Henry K. Averill. But two of these gentlemen are now living -- Mr. Sailly, who is President of the present Board of Trustees, and Mr. Averill, who resides in one of the Western States.
The Board of trustees of the Plattsburgh Academy, has from the beginning been a strong one. The leading men have filled this office, and their names are " house- hold words; " always serving without pay and often con- tributing liberally in aid of the institution.
Mr. Swetland was for nearly his whole lifetime, asso- ciated with the Board of Trustees, and for many years its presiding officer.
Judge John Palmer was also, during his life, identi- ficd with the institution.
The present Board are Frederick L. C. Sailly, Doct. Truman DeForris, Cornelius Halsey, Peter S. Palmer, William W. Hartwell, Smith M. Weed, George L. Clark, Samuel F. Vilas, George M. Beckwith, John Henry Myers, and Theodorus Platt.
The internal arrangement of the rooms of the Acade- my was changed several times. At first, as we have
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stated, there were two large school-rooms below and a large hall above. The partitions below were subsequently torn down, and the whole thrown into one room. They were again put up and the north portion partitioned off into small rooms, for those who wished to reside in the building-to be again torn down. In 1839, or about that time, an addition, doubling the capacity of the Academy, was erected by voluntary contributions of the citizens.
It is said that Bela Edgerton was the first head teach- er, with Benjamin Gihnan as assistant. After the war, Spencer Wall was employed as principal of the classical department, and continued to occupy that position until the fall of 1817. On the 9th of September, 1816, a. school was organized on the Lancasterian plan, and placed under the charge of William Young, of Albany. In May, 1817, a "Sunday free-school " was organized, which was held every Sunday, from 8 o'clock in the morn- ing, " until the time of public service." The upper room of the Academy was used for this purpose. This was prob- ably the first Sunday-school in the county. About this time, Miss Clark opened a school in the Academy, "for the instruction of young ladies in the various useful and ornamental branches of education."
In November, IS17, Mr. Wall was succeeded by the Rev. Frederick Halsey, with Miss Cook and Mr. Young, as assistants. Mr. Halsey was succeeded, in December, 1818, by A. C. Fowler, who remained in charge for a year or more, when Alexander H. Prescott was appoint- ed principal, with David Brock as assistant. At this
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time, Miss Deming taught the ladies department and continued to do so until the Fall of 1824.
Mr. Prescott remained in charge of the Academy until about the year 1831, and during his administration, the school deservedly acquired a high reputation. After leaving the Academy, Mr. Prescott kept a private classi- cal school in the village, until August, 1833, when he was appointed principal of the " Clinton County High School," at Schuyler Falls. He subsequently removed to Chazy, and was for some time principal of a school at that place.
Mr. Prescott was succeeded in the Academy by Jona- than Blanchard, Jr. The number of students for the year 1832, was one hundred. Of thesc, thirty-five, in- cluding Margaret Davidson, the gifted poetess, her bro- ther, Levi P. Davidson, afterwards an officer in the U. S. Dragoons, and William Sidney Smith, an officer in the Ist Reg't U. S. Artillery, are known to have died. Of those of the classes of 1832, now living, we call to mind . Samuel B. M. Beckwith and Doct. George Howe, now of Chateaugay ; A. J. C. Blackman, of Mooers ; Joseph K. Edgerton, of Fort Wayne, Ind .; Hon. John C. Church- ill, of Oswego; Hon. D. B. McNeil, of Auburn ; Sam- uel Platt and George Stevenson, of New York City; John White, of Cleveland, Ohio; Rev. Cyrenus Ran- som, of Peru ; Erastus S. Mead, of Belmont, and Dewitt C. Boynton, Rev. Charles I .. Hagar, John W. Lynde, William D. Morgan, Elric L. Nichols, Peter S. Palmer, Levi Platt, and George M. Sperry, of this town.
Mr. Blanchard remained in charge of the Academy
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for several years, and was succeeded in somewhat rapid succession by Mr. Boynton, Mr. Rich, Mr. Doolittle, Mr. Scott, Mr. Foster, and Rev Dr. Coit. Robert T. Co- nant was the principal in 1844 and 1845. On the 5th of January, 1846, John S. D. Taylor, better known as Dor- sey Taylor, was appointed principal. His brother, Joseph WV. Taylor, joined him in September, 1847, and under the joint management of the two brothers, the Academy at- tained a high reputation in this section.
Royal Corbin succeeded as principal in 1860, Edward P. Nichols in 1861, F. G. McDonald in 1865, E. A. Adams in 1869,. W. L. R. Haven in 1867, W. M. Lille- bridge in 1869, and Oscar Atwood in 1871.
In May, 1867, an act was passed by the Legislature, forming a Union School District in the village, and vest- ing the government of the schools and of the Academy in a Board of Education, composed of ten members, five to be elected by the qualified voters of the district, and five to be chosen by the trustees of the Academy, from their own number. Since then, the Academy building has been under the control of the Board of Education. The old building was destroyed by fire on Friday even- ing, November 10, 1871. Two lots were purchased adjoining the old Academy building on the north, and the foundation of a new building commenced in the fall of the year 1873. This building was completed at a cost of $35.000, and opened for use September 1, 1875.
The year ISit was an important one in the history of the village. The subdivision of the mill property and the opening of Brinkerhoff Street, unbarred the lands in
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the central portion of the village, concentrated the mer- cantile establishments, which were, before this time, widely scattered throughout the place, and generally in- fused a new activity and enterprise among the citizens. The building of the Academy was commenced at this time ; preparations were also now made for the erection of a suitable place for public worship, and for the estab- lishment of a public newspaper.
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In the spring of this year, a number of gentlemen met by appointment at the house of Peter Sailly, to con- sider the subject of establishing a political paper. Be- sides Mr. Sailly, there were present at this meeting Col. Melancton Smith, Judge Kinner Newcomb, Judge Charles Platt, Isaac C. Platt, Caleb Nichols, Doct. John Miller, Thomas Treadwell, and General Benjamin Mooers, of Plattsburgh; Judge Carver, of Chazy, and Judge Samuel Hicks, of Champlain, A stock company was organized, and a press and type having been pur- chased, the first number of the Plattsburgh Republican was issued. The paper was at first under the editorial supervision of Col. Smith. In 1813, Azariah C. Flagg became the editor, and retained that position until about the year 1825.1
I have before me broken files of the Republican from 1815 to 1820. From these I learn that in the win- ter of 1815-16, a stage line was established between this village and the city of Montreal, making two trips cach week. In summer, the communication was by the steam-
I A small sheet had been started here in ISoz, called the American Monitor, which was discontinued after a feeble existence of less than two years.
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boat Vermont, a small vessel one hundred and twenty feet in length, with an engine of twenty horse-power, com- manded by Capt. John Winans. In 1815, this boat ran between Burlington and St. John's, leaving Burlington every Monday and Friday morning, and St. John's Wednesdays and Saturdays, stopping at Cumberland Head to land and take on Plattsburgh passengers and freight.
In August of this year, a new boat, called the Pho- nix, Capt. J. Sherman, commenced running between Whitehall and St. John's. This was a larger boat than the Vermont, and was advertised as of "uncommon speed," and as being " fitted up in a style not inferior to those on the North River." The boat made one round trip cach week. What was considered great speed in those days, may be inferred from the fact, that when the Chancellor Livingston was put on the North River, at a cost of $110,000, it was the boast of the owners and the wonder of the public, that she could run from New York to Albany in twenty hours !
I also find that in January, 1823, Jonathan Thomp- son, " the mail carrier," commenced running a stage once a weck between Plattsburgh and Ogdensburgh, leaving this village every Tuesday morning, and arriving at Og- densburgh on Thursday evening. This line connected with the steamboats on Lake Champlain and Lake On- tario, and was advertised as "the best route between the Eastern States and the country bordering on the great lakes and the St. Lawrence." Mr. Thompson announces that he will carry his passengers in "covered spring car-
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riages, strong and commodious," and he promises them " excellent public houses on the route," and "very good roads for a new country." In December, 1824, the stages made two trips each week. This winter we had a tri- weekly communication with Albany and Montreal. A daily mail route was first established between Ogdens- burgh and Plattsburgh in July, 1837.
The road over which Mr. Thompson ran his " cov- cred spring carriages," was now in very good condition, though it had once been the terror of all those whose business led them through Chateaugay woods. In ISII, a law had been passed, requiring the managers of the lottery for the purchase of the botanic garden, to raise $5,000, to be expended for the improvement of the road between Plattsburgh and the town of Chateaugay, under the direction of Peter Sailly, Jonathan Griffin, and James Ormsbec, and the year following another act had been passed, authorizing the State Treasurer to advance the money, in anticipation of the drawing of the lottery. The small amount thus furnished was found inadequate for the construction of a passable road. Yet nothing further was done until i817, when the road was im- proved by the United States troops then stationed at Plattsburgh. This work was commenced in August of that year, at a point three miles west from the village (Thorn's corners), by a detachment of the Sixth Regiment, under command of Lieut .- Col. Snelling, and was, contin- ued, from year to year, to the great disgust of the officers and men, until twenty-four miles of the distance had been completed. In March, 1822, the sum of $7000
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was appropriated by the legislature, to be expended "in extending and completing" the road to Chateaugay, a distance of fourteen miles. One-half of this sum was to be raised by the counties of Clinton and Franklin, and the residue was to be furnished by the State. By an act passed February 14, 1823, the Judges of the Clinton Common Pleas were authorized to erect a toll-gate "at or near the dwelling-house of Benjamin H. Mooers, eighteen miles west of Plattsburgh village." From that time, the road was improved and kept in good repair by the tolls. It was an avenue of travel of great importance and benefit to this village, as well as to the inhabitants of Franklin County, and until the completion of the Ogdensburgh railroad, was the principal route of com- munication between Lake Champlain and the towns in Franklin County, and the eastern portion of St. Law- rence County.
The first execution for murder in this county, was that of James Dougherty, a soldier; who was tried and convicted for the murder of a young man named John Wait, a resident of Salmon River, while the latter was returning from Pike's Cantonment, where he had been to deliver a load of wood. He was tried at the June Oyer and Terminer, 1813, Judge James Kent presiding, and was sentenced to be hung on Friday, the 6th of August of the same year, and his body delivered to the President of the Clinton County Medical Society, "for the use of said Society." He was hung near the lake shore on the " Boynton road." On the 26th March, 1814, William Baker, a sergeant in the British Army
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(103d regiment of Infantry), was executed as a spy. He was hung on the sand ridge between Court and Brink- erhoff Streets in the village.
In July, 1813, one Francis de Alert and his father had been arrested and committed to the county jail, charged with the murder of a man named Peter Miller, at Champlain. They were both released by the British at the time of the raid under Col. Murray, in August of that year, and fled to Canada. Francis married soon after, and remained in Canada until in the winter of 1816, when, for some unexplained purpose, he crossed the lines into Champlain. He was immediately arrested and recommitted to jail, and having been indicted, was tried and convicted, at a Court of Oyer and Terminer, Judge Ambrose Spencer presiding, held in June, and was sentenced to be hanged on the 26th of July. His body was delivered to Doctors Beaumont and Center for dissection. On the morning of that day, the people of the surrounding country, and from Grand Isle, assembled in numbers to witness the execution. Great was the disappointment when, about nine o'clock in the morning, it was announced that Alert had cheated the gallows of its victim, by hanging himself in his cell.
James Pike was tried for murder on the 30th June, 1815, before Judge Jonas Platt, and acquitted. In June, 1821, George Hyde was tried for manslaughter before Judge John Woodworth, convicted and sentenced to State Prison for it years.
On the ISth of March, 1825, Peggy Facto was publicly executed. Peggy Facto was convicted for the
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murder of her infant child. It was an unnatural and aggravated crime. The infant was first strangled by a string tied around its neck, and the body then thrown into the fire, where it was partially consumed. The mutilated remains were afterwards concealed under a pile of rubbish in the woods, where they were found and dragged out by dogs, and the murder thus discovered. She was tried at the January Oyer and Terminer, 1825, and sentenced by Judge Reuben H. Walworth, on Satur- day, the 23d-by the sentence of the Court, her dead body was to be delivered to the President and members of the Medical Society for dissection. She was executed on the arsenal lot on Broad Street.
Francis Labare was indicted as accessory, and was tried and acquitted at the same term of the Court. On the 28th June, 1826, Elvira Steel was indicted for the murder of a Mr. Carter, keeper of the Plattsburgh Poor-House. She was tried at the same term before Judge Enos T. Troop and was acquitted, on the ground of insanity. In June, 1827, William H. Houghton, of Chazy, was indicted for murder, and Harriet Dominy as accessory. On the trial Houghton was acquitted. The trial continued several days. Houghton was defended by Judge Lynde and Mr. Swetland, of this village, Ezra C. Gross, of Essex County, and Samuel Stevens, then of Washington County. After his acquittal Harriet Dominy was discharged from custody.
Alexander Larabee was hung on the arsenal lot on Broad Street, on the 23d of March, 1834, for the murder of Leander Shaw, his son-in-law. He had been tried
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and sentenced at the January Oyer and Terminer. To the last he asserted his innocence and caused a declara- tion to that effect to be read from the scaffold by the Rev. Father Rafferty.
Joseph Levert was tried and convicted at the Sep- tember Oyer and Terminer, 1847, for the murder of his wife, and was sentenced to be hung on the 16th of No- vember, of the same year. The scaffold was erected in the jail yard. Levert made a written confession, in which he gave a detailed account of the murder, which was published in the village papers. It was a cool, pre- meditated act.
Joseph Centerville was indicted at the October Oyer and Terminer, 1854, for the murder, at Schuyler Falls, of his sister-in-law, Margaret Rock, a girl about eleven years of age. He was tried before Judge James, at the next February Oyer and Terminer, and having been convicted, was sentenced to be executed on Wednesday, the 28th day of March, 1855. He was hung in the Court-House yard, upon the same gallows used at the execution of Leveri.
There was great distress throughout the county of Clinton during the winter of 1816-17. Mr. Peter Sailly, in a letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, under date of January 24, 1817, says : " A large portion of the inhabitants are inuch distressed for want of bread, whilst the poorer and laboring class are absolutely destitute of the means of obtaining it, at the high price it sells for." The col- umns of the " Republican " bear evidence to the severity of the season. 6 The summer was unusually cold and
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backward. On Thursday, the 6th day of June, the atmos- phere at Plattsburgh was filled with particles of snow, and it was uncomfortable out of doors without a great- coat. In Vermont the weather was still more severe. On Thursday " the snow fell rapidly, but melted as it fell. Much snow fell on Friday night, and on Saturday in the forenoon in many places. In Williston it was twenty, and in Cabot eighteen inches deep. The ground at Mont- pelier was generally covered during the whole of yester- day (june 8th), and the mountains, as far as can be seen, are yet completely white. [Letter published in Republi- can of July 13, dated Waterbury, Vt., June 9th.] This cold weather was succeeded by an uncommon drought. No rain fell during the months of August and September. The earth became parched, and, in clay soils, opened in large cracks ; swamps were dried up, wells and brooks failed to furnish water, and the rivers became so low that the mills could not grind sufficient to answer the wants of the inhabitants. Wheat was brought to the mills of Messrs. Smith and Platt, in this village, to be ground, by farmers residing as far north as Lacadic, in Canada. Fires also raged throughout the county, burning up large quantities of timber and frequently destroying pastures and meadow lands. No rain of any consequence fell until after the ioth of October. " The atmosphere," says the Republican of October 5th, "has been so filled with smoke, arising from the fires in every direction, that even in this village, for three or four days the first of the pres- ent week, it would be difficult in the morning to dis- tinguish a man at the distance of fifty rods."
On the 3d day of March, IS15, an act was passed by
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the Legislature, incorporating the village of Plattsburgh. The bounds of the village, as prescribed by this act, ex- tended north to the highway, running cast and west past the " residence of Samuel Lowell " (now Capt. John Boynton's), and west to the cast line of the school lot. The first election of village officers was held on the 2d day of May of that year, at the hotel at the foot of River Street, known as " The Ark," and then kept by David Douglass. At this election, William Bailey, Jonathan Griffin, John Palmer, Reuben H. Walworth, Levi Platt, Samuel Moore, and Eleazer Miller, were chosen trustees, and Giliad Sperry, clerk. [The bounds of the village were materially reduced by an act passed in April, 1831.]
One of the first acts of our " village fathers," was to provide for the building of a market-house and public scales. The market-house was erected on the cast side of the square or " Park," in front of the Court-House. It was used for several years ; the stalls, four in number, being annually leased at auction. The scales stood about four rods south of the market, and here all hay sold within one half of a mile of the Court-House, was, by ordinance, re- quired to be weighed. These scales were an old-fashioned, clumsy affair, provided with beam and chains, pullies and cog-wheels, used for the purpose of raising the wagons off the ground. Between the market-house and the hay scales, a turnpike road was constructed along the south side of the square, while all north of this road was a quag- mire, in which innumerable bull-frogs, of enormous growth, held nightly concerts for the amusement of our forefathers.
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