History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 105

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780

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A note to page 427 in Holden's " History of Queensbury" probably applies to the women of the two households at Glen's Falls, who are reported as having fled into the woods with a boy thirteen or fourteen years of age. Being met by Indians, they saved themselves from capture by stating that the boy, who was considerably bundled up, had the smallpox. The Indians left with considerable haste. It needs no elaborate deseription to render clear the horrors of that fearful night. The father dead in the " old castle"; the son, Elisha, with his bowels, as it were, in his hands, fleeing to his brother's house ; the hasty gathering of the little children ; the wife and the dying brother crossing the IIudson in the darkness for safety ; the other househokls, with the young wife separated from her wounded husband, fleeing into the depths of the forests and reaching Fort Ed- ward. Such are the sacrifices met by those who settled these now peaceful plains and earved out for themselves the rich inheritance, the beautiful homes of their descendants. Elisha Parks died the next morning, and his body and that of his father were buried at Sandy Hill, on the site of the Presbyterian church. The rude stones which originally

marked their graves are said to be laid into the foundation walls of the church. Lewis Brown and Isaac Parks were taken prisoners that night. Brown managed to escape the next morning. Andrew Lewis, a son-in-law of Abraham Wing, lived on the island, and the Tories attempted to eap- ture him ; but for want of boats they could only do it by wading, and he made this so dangerous by the use of his trusty rifle, that they gave up the attempt. A party formed at Fort Edward the next morning started in pursuit. Daniel Parks and Lewis Brown joined them. They found the smoking ruins of the elder Parks' house and the saw- mill. The double log house was not burned.

The Tories, with Ephraim Parks and some other captives, though who they were does not appear, fled up the Hudson, crossing the Sacandaga at its mouth. At Stony ereek they took the bed of the stream. The pursuers, baffled and losing the trail, returned. Doubtless the lives of the pris- oners were saved by this return, for Isaae Parks stated that they overheard the Tories decide to kill them if they were overtaken. Isaae Parks was carried to Canada, escaped three times, was re-taken, and kept three years.

This raid broke up the Parks settlement. They re- moved within the protection of Fort Edward.

Solomon Parks, son of Daniel, though a mere lad, is said to have been an orderly attached to the staff of Colonel Long, of the militia stationed at Fort Ann. About two weeks before Burgoyne's advance it was thought necessary to send all the families of this section to places of safety in Dutchess county and in Connecticut. Solomon Parks, with others, was detailed to assist in this flight. All the horses and oxen of the neighborhood were pressed into the service.

The Parks families returned when peace was declared, and with their numerous branches have ever since been prominent in the northern section of the town. Three old wood-colored houses at Baker's Falls, and one farther west, towards Glen's Falls, are old homesteads of this family. Zina Parks, thought to be the oldest living resident born in the town, still survives at the age of eighty-one.

The following note is here added from Holden's " History of Queensbury": "Some confusion has arisen by reason of the different modes of spelling this family name. The family claims affinity with the Parke family of Virginia, so nearly allied to the Custis and Washington families. The autograph of Daniel Parks shows that he spelt the name Parke. By permission, some years since, I copied from the fly-leaf of the Parks family Bible the following, which affords support to the foregoing statement with refer- enee to early settlement :

"' I, S. Parks, and Susannah, my wife, were married in 1789, in May. I was born in the town of llalf-Moon, now Waterford. When I was two months old my father moved his family to what was then called Wing's Falls, and now Glen's Falls, and there built the first mills that was ever built there. And we suffered a great deal in the struggle for liberty. We lost our lives and property, and became poor and weak.'"

This young Solomon was the son of Daniel, and while it confirms on the whole the record at the beginning of this narrative, it shows that Daniel Parks must have come here earlier than his father Elijah. This record shows also that

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Solomon was only a boy of twelve when said to have been acting as orderly. The tradition of the family is, that he was only an officer's servant, and that is consistent with the age given, though hardly consistent with the idea that he had charge of the removal of families before the advance of Burgoyne. It carries the date of' Daniel Parks' settlement at Glen's Falls back to 1765.

At what is now South Glen's Falls in this town there is a traet of land, containing about two thousand acres, known as the Glen patent. It forms a gore between the north line of the Kayadrossera patent and the river. This patent was granted to John Glen, of Schenectady, in 1770. But the Parks' bad made improvements there before this time, which they also sold to Glen. Glen cut a road through the woods from Schenectady, which ran through Saratoga Springs, and commenced operations on his patent about the year 1770,-some say carlier. After the Revolution, Glen occupied the place for many years. He came with his fam- ily and colored servants, and spent his summer there, living in fine style in the " old castle."

The place was first called Wing's Falls, but about the year 1788 Glen purchased the right to the name of Mr. Wing, the proprietor on the north side of the river. Tradition says Glen agreed to pay the expenses of a wine-supper for the entertainment of a party of mutual friends. To this Mr. Wing assented ; the supper was had, and the name changed to Glen's Falls, which it has since borne .*

JACOB BITELY .- From the account of Mr. Bitely, now a police officer in the village of Glen's Falls, we learn that his grandfather, Jacob Bitely, settled in Moreau before the Revolution. His farm was the present IHitchcock place on the river. During the most dangerous stage of the Bur- goyne campaign, the family left for safety and went over to the other side of the river. They were gone but seven days. They returned to find their buildings burned, and were obliged to erect temporary shelter and get through the following winter under circumstances of great difficulty and hardship. Like all other families in this section, they re- call many incidents of the great struggle. During the war a girl from a recent settler's family came to Mr. Bitely's to ask for help. He put up for her a quantity of meal, and then told the " boys" to draw the seine and catch some fish for her. While they were doing this they were surprised by some Tories and taken prisoners. John Bitely, Henry Bitely, Nathan Duryee, Lydius Duryee, and Ephraim Cree- han were carried away to Canada and kept several months. The Duryees were from the other side of the river.

Jacob Bitely left four sons, the two above mentioned and two more, Jacob and Peter.

DAVID JONES .- Some years before the Revolution, just how many is uncertain, this family, destined to have a prominent place in history, in consequence of their relation to the murder of Jeanie McCrea, came from Leamington, N. J., and settled on the river. Their place was the pres- ent Rogers farm. The family consisted of a widow and six sons. Four of the sons went farther north, and settled at Moss Street, above Sandy Hill. Two sons, David and Solomon, remained with their mother. A little earlier than

this, John McCrea had settled on the same side of the river, within the present limits of the town of Northumber- land, and Jeanie McCrea, sister of John, came from New Jersey and lived with her brother. Here the old aequaint- anee between the families in New Jersey was continued, and David Jones and Jeanie McCrea were the mutual attrac- tion to each other in the respective homes. When the Revolution broke out, the fearful line of civil war was drawn through neighborhoods formerly united in peaceful associa- tion, and through families bound by the ties of home and love, sundering the tenderest relations and shattering the brightest of human hopes. John McCrea, a patriot, en- tered the American service.

Before the Revolution, it is said General Thomas Rogers bargained for the Jones lot. After the war, about the year 1783, General Rogers took possession of the Jones homestead with his wife and children, and the place, now so adorned and beautified, is still in the possession of his descendants. One of his sous married a daughter of Colonel Sidney Borey, of Northumberland. Being early left a widow, she afterwards married Judge Esek Cowen, of Sara- toga Springs.

David Jones, being a loyalist, entered the British army, and in the attempt to have his betrothed wife brought to the British camp, in the summer of 1777, the fearful massacre took place which sent a thrill of horror through the land and became a powerful agent in arousing the country to resist to the bitter end the onward march of Burgoyne.

On the Olmstead farm were very early settlers undoubt- edly before the Revolution. The chain of title has been from Hilton to Reynolds, Reynolds to Shepherd, Shepherd to Olmstead. The first-named IIilton was no doubt the pioneer. An unusual circumstance connected with this farm is, that a mortgage executed by Hilton had an ex- tension of seventy-five years before it was paid. Interest was paid on it regularly through the time of Hilton, Rey- nolds, Shepherd, and the principal was at last paid up and the mortgage discharged after the Olmsteads came in pos- session.

At the mouth of the Snoek Kill there was living in the time of the Revolution one Captain Tuttle. There is a tradition, but not fully authenticated, that his house was burned by Burgoyne's army.

Some of the older people recall the name of Harrington as that of a family here in the time of the Revolution. Lent Ilamlin states that there was a family also living on a part of the present Rogers property, whose house was secretly entered by the Tories and the milk poisoned for the purpose of destroying them and other patriots.

These families, with perhaps a few others, constituted the population of the present town of Moreau when the fury of the fierce conflict between England and the colo- nies burst upon the land. The progress of settlement was stayed. The few who were here were divided into patriots and loyalists, or, to use the names they applied to each other, rebels and Tories. Henceforward lives and homes could only be saved by unceasing vigilance, by innumerable stratagems, by flight, or by the use of trusty firearms al- ways loaded and ready for instant use. Under such a state of society women, and even children, grew heroie, and often

" See Holden's " History of Queensbury," page 359.

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

saved their lives and the lives of others by acts of heroism brighter than the deeds of chivalry.

When the storm had passed and the sky cleared, the sun of peace, gently rising upon a free country, shone upon many a scene of desolation, many a home of sorrow. The Hudson breaking from the mountains, drew its curved and waving boundary line as before. The dark pinc-forests still covered the plains of the interior, the hills rose in grandeur at the west, but the cabins and the cottages of the settlers were in ruins. Slowly they returned to gather about them the remnants of their broken households, and

build again homes for themselves and their children. It was a work full of sad memories. There were some who would return no more forever. The treaty of peace could not bring back the dead. Around the hearth-fires of the Parks family there were vacant chairs. The aged sire and the stalwart son were sleeping where neither the thunders of war nor the salutes of peace would ever again waken them to field or fireside.

The boat of David Jones no longer cleft the waters of the river, and Jeanie McCrea was no longer waiting to catch the first sight of his flashing oar. She was at rest in the grave, where soldier hands had tenderly buried her mangled form, and he was a sad, lone exile, mourning over a lost love and a lost land.

But time and toil are God's angels of peace to sorrowing homes ; hope rises with labor; hearts are strong when hands are busy ; courage conquers sorrow within and dan- ger without. New houses were built, no longer to be guarded by the rifle ; new fields were cleared ; grain again ripened in the war-swept valley ; new settlers, under the glad impulse of a land redeemed from foreign rule, came from their old homes and penetrated the wilderness; and thus through toil and war and blood was reached the second pioneer period of Moreau, extending from the close of the Revolution to the organization of the town.

About the year 1790 a large number of settlers came to this section of country. Daniel Hamlin, Paulinus Potter, and Mr. Churchill, three brothers-in-law, all came from Connecticut. With them, or soon after, came Moses Lewis. Daniel Hamlin's pioneer home was on what was afterwards known as the Tearse place. He had three sons,-Daniel, Truman, and Lent.

The latter, born in 1799, is still living, and has furnished several items of carly settlement for this work. Joel Potter, son of the carly settler, Paulinus Potter, also resides with Ilamlin, at an advanced age. The Churchill place was in the same neighborhood. Moses Lewis' farm was the present place of John Thompson.

Just after the war, Colonel Thomas Rogers, said to be a descendant of John Rogers, the martyr, settled upon the river. It is understood that the Jones place was confis- cated, and purchased by Mr. Rogers of the State. Whether this was so or not, it became the early homestead of the Rogers family. Colonel Rogers had three sons,-Thomas, James, and Halsey. Edward Washburn, of Fort Edward, when a boy, lived at Colonel Rogers'; was there when he died, in 1816. lle states that there was another pioneer family, that of John Rogers, in the same neighborhood. Thomas Rogers was the first supervisor of the town. The old home-

stead is now owned by a descendant, John Rogers, and with its hedges, beautiful groves, and grounds finely laid out, is one of the most delightful places upon the river.

Billy J. Clark, the early physician, so well known, and spoken of at length in another place, settled in 1799 at the Corners that now bear his name. Dr. Clark and Dr. Littlefield were the earliest physicians in town.

Previously, Dr. Wicker, of Easton, was sent for in sick- ness, and it was under his advice that the young Dr. Clark, then a student in his office, came to Moreau.

Amos Hawley came from Connecticut in 1802, and settled on the present place of Edward Hawley. He bought the place of one Baird, who may have been a pioneer before the Revolution. Deacon Shepherd was also an early settler, below the Rogers place, on the river. Hle had three sons, -John, Joseph, and Amos. James Buruham and Josiah Burnham settled in the Parks neighborhood, at Baker's Falls. John Reynolds was another pioneer, about 1800. His brother, George Reynolds, came a few years later. He opened a tavern at the Corners which bear his name. The house is now occupied by his son, Hon. Austin L. Reynolds. The Thompsons were early settlers. There were six brothers,-Hugh, Sidney, Berry, Eben, Lewis, and Asahel. In 1799, Giles Sill came from Lyme, Connecticut. He bought a farm of Mr. Hamilton, upon which mills were already built.

Mr. Hamilton's name should perhaps be added to the pioneers before the Revolution.

Giles Sill's purchase was the farm now owned by his grandson, John N. Sill. Of his sons, Enoch and Gurdon settled in this town. The former was an active member in the Congregational church, and the name of the latter appears as one of the presidents of the old temperance society. On his tombstone is recorded the following epitaph : " A temperance soldier of 1808 : ever faithful to the cause."

At the " bend" there were several families very early. Dexter Whipple and Elisha Danford, brothers-in-law, came there about 1800, or 1802, from Connecticut. Oliver Hubbard, probably from the same State, was also a well- known resident there. Ichabod Hawley owned a large tract of land north from the bend,-the neighborhood where the Whipples now live,-and resided there. Mr. Andrews was an early settler with the Churchills from Connecticut.

Henry Martin, whose name appears as the first town clerk, and held that office for many years, was an early merchant.

John Albrow was an early settler near Fortsville, Irenus Hulbert at Clark's Corners, and Ezra Cooper.

Lewis Brown was an early settler; spoken of as a man of a humorous turn of mind, full of practical jokes. Ile once told a neighbor that he had lost sixty lambs that year. When inquired of as to the reason of so great a loss, he replied he had no sheep to raise them from.

Arrested for some petty offense and taken to Albany, he quietly informed the landlord at some stopping-place that the sheriff, who was in charge of him, was the prisoner, and must be locked up. Told the landlord the man would protest and pretend to be an officer, but he must pay no attention to it and lock him up. It was done, but by what legal or other process the sheriff escaped does not appear.

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

In later years, Benjamin Barrett is remembered as a peculiar genius, a noted lumber-dealer and raftsman upon the river. On one occasion, not liking the looks of an untidy, dirty-faced girl that waited upon him and his friends at a tavern, he called for a tub, for two or three pails of water, for soap and towels, all of which were duly brought according to his order.

Then suddenly seizing the unsuspecting girl, they gave her a bath and a scrubbing long to be remembered. " There," he says to the astonished landlady, " you have got a clean waiter once." The following has so often been told of so many, we may safely repeat it of Barrett : At Troy he laid a wager of five dollars with an Irishman that he eould throw the said son of Erin across the Hudson river. The wager was accepted, and the money put up. Seizing the sturdy Irishman by the nape of the neck and the " northwest corner of his pants," as our informant describes it, he threw him plump into the stream. The man, puffing and blowing, clambered up the bank and demanded the money. " But," said Barrett, " I didn't promise to do it the first time; I will do it yet if it takes all- day." The Irishman saw the point, and preferred to lose the money rather than have the experiment con- tinued.

About a mile north of Fortsville, on the old stage-road from Saratoga Springs to Sandy Hill, Josiah J. Griswold kept a tavern at a very early period. This account of early settlement is already extended later probably than the year 1805, when the town was organized ; but we add a few more names. James Mott came from Half-Moon in 1808, and settled on the William Haviland farm. His brother, Thomas Mott, a few years later, bought the present Alpheus place. Another brother, William, came about the same time as Thomas. His place was the present Ira Palmer farm.

The two pioneer Mott families in this country were Jesse Mott, of Saratoga, and Zebulon Mott, of Half-Moon. The Moreau settlers were sons of Zebulon. The mother of Mr. Joseph A. Sweet was a sister of the elder Motts, and the late supervisor, S. Mott Sweet, unites the family names in his signature.

Joseph A. Sweet has many manuscripts, interesting memorials of the family, unpublished poems, and other valuable material. Abraham I. Fort was a prominent set- tler, but not the first pioneer at the hamlet that bears his name, Fortsville.

In connection with this point. Truman Wilcox was well known by his manufactory of earthenware. He came from Hartford, Conn., first to Bald mountain, across the river, then to Gansevoort, and finally to Fortsville; at this last place he carried on the business for forty-nine years, and died June 9, 1873, aged eighty-one.

The notes from the town records, the lists of town offi- eers, the membership of the early "Temperate Society of Moreau," and the records of the churches together show many additional names of carly settlers. It is believed that, with the preceding notices of pioneers, they constitute a correct statement of the first settlement of the town.

Jabez Hamilton was a settler in the western part of the town, over the mountains, as early as 1800. Ilis son, Jabez

Hamilton, Esq., of South Glen's Falls, has been a justice of the peace for many years.

The Hayfords were also residents here, about the time of the Hamlins and Churchills.

Grist-mills were established very early, before 1800, opposite Sandy Hill, and also at Fortsville. In building the present mill at Fortsville, which stands upon the site of the first one, the old mill-stones were taken out. Lent Hamlin remembers that people went to mill over the river, walking string-pieces with bags of grain on their shoulders. Has been to mill himself, horseback, when he was so young that if a bag with a peck in it fell off, he could only get it on again by lifting it upon a stump, and then on the horse.

Tillottson's ferry, across the Hudson, was established at the " Big Bend," in 1823. The timber rafted down the upper Hudson was taken out at this point, drawn across the country to the river again near Fort Edward.

Glen's Falls was known as Wing's Falls until about 1788. In very early times there was a tavern at the present Ensign place, kept by Conrad Ollendorf. This was on two important routes. The lumber and business travel from the " bend" across to the " roll-way," at Deadman's point, passed by this house. Also, the stage-line from Saratoga Springs, via Fortsville, to the old bridge at Sandy Ilill. The old Mawney house, at Clark's Corners, the Reynolds tavern, on the route from Fort Edward to the old Saratoga line, at Fortsville, the tavern kept by Josiah Griswold, and another near the Wilton line by Betts, were all early taverns in this town. The opening of the railroad changed all the business features of the interior of the town. The railroad, drawn in a curve from Gansevoort clear around to Glen's Falls, furnishes the traveling facili- ties and the business connections. The small hamlets have lost the importance they once had. Most of the trade is at the villages just outside the boundary line of the town.

At South Glen's Falls the Baptist church was organized in 1794, over which Rev. Calvin Hulbert was pastor for many years. At that time members connected with this church lived at the Great bend, four miles west.

Elder John C. Holt, of Moreau, was at Glen's Falls in 1832-33, in a great revival, when eighty were added to the church.

The Congregational church of Moreau was established about 1796 (River), and from Queensbury Earnest Cheny used to eross the ferries at Sand Beach or the Block-house to attend. Also, at Reynolds' Corners, in 1800, wives on horseback behind their husbands, or sometimes walking the string-pieces that were put across the Hudson at the island at Glen's Falls.

Mr. John Folsom, soon after 1800, built the house so long known as the Rice mansion. Ile came from Albany ; was an elder in the Presbyterian church, and was very ac- tive in organizing the church at Glen's Falls. He was a man of considerable means, at one time owning a large in- terest in the toll-bridge. He was active in religious work in the neighborhood, and was regularly licensed as a minister, but seems never to have borne the title of Rev. He died in 1839, Dec. 2, aged eighty-three. His mansion is still spoken of as the " old Folsom house."

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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

Colonel Sidney Berry, of Northumberland, had one son (Sidney), who settled at Glen's Falls, and married a daugh- ter of John Folsom.

IV .- ORGANIZATION.

The town is named in honor of Marshal Moreau, who visited this country in 1804-5. IIe had participated largely in public affairs in France, and been prominent in the wars which had desolated that country. Being com- promised by some real or suspected plot against the govern- ment, he was exiled, and passed the years 1805 and 1806 in the United States. Returning to France, he re-entered the army, and died of wounds received at the battle of Dresden, Sept. 2, 1813.

The town was organized March 28, 1805, its territory being taken from Northumberland. The first town-meeting was held at the dwelling-house of Samuel Scovill, Jr., on Tuesday, the 16th day of April, 1805. The following officers were elected : Thomas Rogers, supervisor ; Henry Martin, town clerk ; Amos Hawley, Nathaniel Sill, Caleb Burrows, assessors; Elijah Dunham, Irenus Hulbert, Samuel Crippen, highway commissioners ; Amos Ilawley, Abel Cadwell, overseers of the poor ; Nicholas W. Angle, Paulinus Potter, constables; and the last named was also chosen collector. A pound was ordered to be built, near the dwelling-house of Henry Cole. A bounty of $10 was offered for each wolf killed in the town. "Hogs not to be run at large unless well yoked and ringed." And the meeting adjourned to be held the next year at the house of Abel Cadwell. At the general election held the same spring, May 2, 1805, Adam Comstock received fifty-seven votes for senator, John Veeder sixty-three, and Nicholas N. Quackenbush, sixty-one. For Assembly, John Cramer received seventy-eight, John McClellan seventy-seven, Jer- emy Rockwell, seventy-two, and Jesse Mott seventy-two.

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 105

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894 Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign Number of Pages: 780

Author: Sylvester, Nathaniel Bartlett, 1825-1894
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia, Everts & Ensign
Number of Pages: 780