History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 2

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

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On the 2d day of April, 1784, the legislature of the then new State of New York passed an act by which it was ordained that :

" From and after the passing of this act, the county of Troy shall be called and known by the name of Montgomery, and the county of CHARLOTTE by the name of Washington."

" Thus these two counties," says Judge Gibson, in his " Bench and Bar of Washington County," " organized origi- nally by one legislative act, and simultaneously named in compliment to royalty and its satellite by a subsequent legis- lative act, after passing through a sea of fire and famine and desolation and war, were simultaneously born again in a baptism of blood, and one of them named after the greatest of its slaughtered heroes on the battle-field, MONTGOMERY, and the other after the most distinguished of its living survivors, the immortal WASHINGTON."

It will thus be seen that what is now the county of Saratoga was not set off in the division of the 24th of March, 1772, but constituted and remained a part of Albany county until the 7th day of February, 1791, when Albany county was again divided, being reduced to its present limits, and the counties of Rensselaer and Saratoga set off.

Besides the county of Albany there are nine other origi- nal counties in what is now the State of New York, namely, the counties of Duchess, King's, New York, Orange, Queeu's, Richmond, Suffolk, Ulster, and Westchester.

These ten original counties were all formed on the 1st day of November, 1683, by order of the Duke of York, then the sole proprietor of the provinces, and who ascended the throne of England on the 6th of February, 1685, as James II., of unfortunate memory. These counties were all named after James and his near relatives.

Thus, the counties of New York and Albany were so ealled in honor of his two titles of the Duke of York, in England, and Duke of Albany, in Scotland.

The counties of King's and Queen's (now Kings and Queens without the possessive) were named in honor of the Duke's royal brother, then King Charles II., and his wife, Catharine of Braganza.

Duchess (now Dutchess), containing also what are now Columbia and Putnam counties, complimented James' wife, Mary Hyde, Duchess of York.

Suffolk county was named after King Charles, in whom was then vested the title of Duke of Suffolk. This title was lost by Charles Grey, father of Lady Jane Grey, in consequence of her rebellion.

Richmond county was named in honor of Charles Lenox, Duke of Richmond, a natural son of Charles II., by a French woman, Louise de Querouaille. The royal duke- dom of Richmond had descended from the brother of Henry Stuart, the father of James I., of England, and had become extinet on the death of James Stuart, son of the first cousin of Charles I. It was then conferred by Charles II. upon the son of his favorite mistress above named, the ancestor of the present family of Richmond.

Orange county, then including Rockland county and all of the present county of Orange lying south of a line run- ning west from the mouth of Murderer's creek, was called in honor of William, Prince of Orange, and his wife, Mary of England, the daughter of James, who, with her husband, ascended the throne of England as William and Mary.

In 1683 the younger brother of King Charles had the Irish title of the Duke of Ulster, and I'Ister county was named in his honor. The county has since been divided, and from it taken the counties of Sullivan, Greene, and Del- aware, and the northern part of Orange. On the death of the last Earl of Chester, the most important of the peerages of the old Norman kings, the title became merged in the crown, but was always conferred upon the Prince of Wales. As Charles II. had no legitimate son, he himself retained the title, and it was also in his honor that the county of Westchester received its name.

But at the time of the division of Nov. 1, 1863, there were two other counties made out of what was then con- sidered the duke's province of New York, viz., the counties of Duke's and Cornwall, and where are they ? The title of Duke of Cornwall also remains with the crown of Eng- land when there is no Prince of Wales to hold it, and the islands on the sea-coast of Maine being claimed by James, were erected into the county of Cornwall. Martha's Vine- yard and Nantucket islands, also claimed by him, were set off as Duke's county. But Massachusetts, having the pos- session of all these islands, refused to give them up. James therefore yielded his claims, and Cornwall and Duke's became the lost counties of New York.

III .- CIVIL DIVISIONS OF SARATOGA COUNTY.

At the time of the division of the county of Albany, and the formation of Tryon and Charlotte counties, on the 24th day of March, 1772, the part still remaining in Albany county, now constituting the county of Saratoga, was divided into two districts, the " District of SARAGHI- TOGA" and the " District of HALF-MOON."

The district of Ilalf-Moon embraced the present towns of Waterford, Half-Moon, and Clifton Park.

The district of Saraghtoga then contained all the remaining north part of the county, embracing the territory now divided into seventeen towns.

On the 1st day of April, 1775, another district was

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

earved out of the district of Saraghtoga, and named the " District of BALLS-TOWN."

This new district of Balls-Town then included the present towns of Ballston, Milton, Charlton, Galway, Providence, Edinburgh, and part of Greenfield.

What is now Saratoga County remained thus divided into three distriets until after the War of the Revolution.

On the 7th day of March, 1788, three years before Saratoga County was set off, the name " distriet" was dropped, and Balls-Town, Half-Moon, Saraghtoga, and STILLWATER were organized as towns of Albany county; and when Saratoga County was formed, on the 7th day of February, 1791, these towns, BALLS-TOWN, HALF-MOON, SARAGIITOGA, and STILLWATER, still remained, forming the four mother towns of Saratoga County. The town of Stillwater was originally taken off from the Saraghtoga District, and when erected included the present town of Stillwater, a part of Easton, in Washington county, and all but the north part of the town of Malta.

From these four " mother towns" of Saratoga County other towns have been from time to time set off and subdi- vided, until the county contained its present number of twenty towns, as follows, viz. :

CHARLTON, MILTON, and GALWAY were all formed from Balls-Town on the 17th of March, 1792, and the line of Charlton changed in 1795.

GREENFIELD was taken from Saratoga and Milton, on the 12th of March, 1793, having first been called Fairfield.

PROVIDENCE was taken from Galway on the 5th day of February, 1796.

NORTHUMBERLAND was formed from Saratoga, on the 16th of March, 1798.

EDINBURGHI, as Northfield, was taken from Providence on the 13th of March, 1801, and its present name given April 6, 1808.

HADLEY was formed from Greenfield and Northumber- land, on the 27th of February, 1801.

MALTA was taken from Stillwater on the 3d day of Mareh, 1802, and that part of Saratoga lying south of the Kayadrossera ereek annexed March 28, 1805.

MOREAU was taken from Northumberland, on the 28th of March, 1805.

WATERFORD was formed from Half-Moon, on the 17th of April, 1816.

HALF-MOON was changed to Orange on the 17th of April, 1816, but the original name was restored on the 16th of January, 1820.

WILTON was taken from Northumberland, on the 20th of April, 1818.

CORINTII was taken from Hadley, April 20, 1818.

SARATOGA SPRINGS was set off from Saratoga on the 9th of April, 1819.

DAY, as Concord, was formed from Edinburgh and Hadley, and its present name adopted, December 3, 1827.

CLIFTON PARK, as Clifton, was formed from Half-Moon, March 3, 1828, and its present name given March 31, 1829.

In the following pages, after devoting several chapters to the general history of the county of Saratoga, from its earliest exploration by white men, in 1609, to the present

time, each of the several towns will be taken up in their order, and, so far as it has been possible in the necessarily limited space allowed, a history of each will be given.

CHAPTER III.

TOPOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.

I .- GENERAL VIEW.

THE surface of Saratoga County is extremely diversified. Towards the north it rises into the rocky crags and towering mountain peaks of the Adirondack ranges of the mountain belt of the great wilderness. Towards the south it slopes into low rounded hills and gentle undulations, bordered by long river-valleys. Through the westerly part of the towns of Old Saratoga and Stillwater, and easterly of Saratoga lake, extends an isolated group of hills which rise to the height of some five hundred feet, with rounded summits and terraced declivities.

Along the bank of the Hudson there stretches a broad intervale, bordered on the west by a range of clay bluff's rising from forty to two hundred feet in height. From the summits of this range of clay bluffs an extensive sand plain reaches westerly to the foot of the mountain chains, and extends southwesterly from the Hudson, near Glen's Falls, across the county, a distance of thirty-five miles, to the Mohawk, at Clifton Park. This belt of " Saratoga Sands" covers the greater part of six townships, of land, viz., Mo- rean, Wilton, Northumberland, Saratoga Springs, Malta, and Clifton Park.

II .- MOUNTAINS.

The great wilderness of northern New York, now oftener called the Adirondack wilderness, is an upland region of a mean height of about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and comprises greater or lesser parts of eleven eounties of the State, viz., Saratoga, Warren, Clinton, Essex, Franklin, St. Lawrence, Lewis, Hamilton, Herkimer, Oneida, and Fulton. A line beginning at Saratoga Springs and running westerly across the country to Trenton Falls, near Utica, on the Mohawk ; thence northerly to Potsdam, near Ogdensburg, on the St. Lawrence ; thence easterly to Dan- nemora, near Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain; and thence southerly to the place of beginning, will nearly coincide with the outlines of the great wilderness.

A few small settlements, confined mostly to the fertile valleys of the streams, lie within the boundaries above de- scribed. But in many places the ancient woods stretch down beyond these lines to the very shores of the water-courses, and cast their shadows over the great routes of travel that surround northern New York.

The Adirondack wilderness is quite the size of the whole State of New Jersey, or of Vermont, or of New Hampshire. To compare it with European countries, it is three-fourths as large as the kingdom of Holland, or Belgium, or of the republic of Switzerland, whose Alpine character it so much resembles. Within the borders of this wilderness are more than fifteen hundred lakes and lakelets, and from its moun- tain heights run numberless rivers and streams of water in every direction. Over it all is spread a primeval forest,-

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

" covering the land as the grass covers a garden lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless undulations, burying mountains in verdure, and mantling brook and river from the light of day."

The southeastern part of this great wilderness, into whose sombre shades the northern half of Saratoga County stretches, is traversed by no less than five distinct ranges of mountains. These ranges cover what is known as the Mountain Belt of the Wilderness. They run about eight miles apart and parallel with each other. The chains are not always quite distinct, but often their lateral spurs inter- loek, and sometimes single mountains are so vast in size that they occupy the whole space between the ranges and choke up the intervening valleys. These mountains are not regularly serrated, but consist of groups of peaks joined together by immense ridges. From the south these moun- tains rise continually higher and higher, until at length they culminate in the highest summits of the Adirondack range proper, the old giants of the wilderness. On every hand this mountain belt of the great wilderness presents the most striking features of an Alpine landscape. In every part are seen towering mountain peaks, deep, yawn- ing abysses, gloomy gorges, rough granite bloeks, sweeping torrents, fresh fountains, and green mountain meadows.

The five mountain ranges of the wilderness are called, beginning with the most easterly one, the PALMERTOWN range, the KAYADROSSERA range, the SCARRON range, the BOQUET range, and the ADIRONDACK range. Of these five mountain ranges two of them, viz., the Palmertown and the Kuyadrossera ranges, stretch a great part of their length far down into the county of Saratoga, almost com- pletely filling all the northern part of the county with their rugged mountain masses.

PALMERTOWN MOUNTAINS.

The Palmertown mountain range is the most easterly of the five ranges of the mountain belt of the Adirondack wilderness. It begins in Sugarloaf mountain, near Ticonde- roga, on Lake Champlain, runs down on both sides of Lake George, and stretching southward across the Upper Hudson, which breaks through it, it extends through Corinth, Moreau, Wilton, and Greenfield, and terminates in the rocky, forest-covered hills over which North Broadway runs in the village of Saratoga Springs.

At Lake George this range forms the beautiful highlands which add so much to its wild and picturesque beauty. French mountain, overlooking the old battle-ground at the head of Lake George, so rich in historie memories, is more than two thousand feet above tide-water. In Saratoga County one of the highest peaks is Mount MacGregor, while Glen Mitchell lies at the foot of a mountain gap or gorge of this range.

Long before the northern part of Saratoga County was settled by white men, tradition says a band of Indians, flee- ing from the east after King Philip's war, settled at the foot of this mountain range, in what is now the town of Wilton, calling themselves Palmertown Indians. From them the region round about was called by the earlier settlers, soon after the French war, Palmertown. From this comes the name Pahuertown mountains.

KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA RANGE.

The range of mountains next easterly of the Palmer- town range is the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra range. This range be- gins on Lake Champlain, near Crown Point, and runs down through Warren county into Saratoga County. The range enters this county in the town of Hadley, and runs through that town and the towns of Day, Edinburgh, Corinth, Greenfield, Providence, and terminates in the highlands of Milton, Galway, and Charlton. From Sara- toga Springs this range is plainly to be seen, filling up the southwestern horizon with its dark-green forest-crowned mountain masses. This range derives its name from the old Indian hunting-ground of which it forms so conspic- nous a natural feature. The Hudson winds along for many miles in a deep valley lying between the mountain masses before it turns eastward and breaks through the Palmner- town range. The Sacondaga breaks through the Kayadros- sera range from the west, and enters the Iludson in this valley. The highest peak in this range is Mount Pharaoh, whose Indian name is On-de-wa. This mountain is on the border of Essex county, and its summit is four thousand feet above the sea.

THE SCARRON (SCHROON) RANGE.

Across the extreme northwest corner of Saratoga County, in the towns of Day and Edinburgh, extends a part of the . third great mountain range of the Adirondack wilderness.

This range begins in the promontory of Split Rock, in Essex county, on Lake Champlain. Thence it runs down through Warren into the southeast corner of Hamilton and across the northwest corner of Saratoga, and ends in the rounded, drift-covered hills that rise from the valley of the Mohawk, in Fulton county. Scarron (Schroon) lake lies at the foot of this range in Warren and Essex coun- ties, and Schroon river there winds through its deep valleys.

From this lake and river this great mountain chain de- rives its name. The name is now commonly written Schroon, but on all the older maps it is written Scarron. It is a tradition, which seems well grounded, that this name Scarron was given to this lake and river by the early French settlers at Crown Point, on Lake Champlain, in honor of Madame Scarron, the widow of the celebrated Freneh dramatist and novelist, Paul Scarron, who was styled in his day " the emperor of the burlesque."

After her poet husband, who was a paralytic and a cripple, died, being still a most beautiful and fascinating woman, she captivated even royalty itself by her wondrous charms. By some means the young widow became the secret governess of the natural children of Louis XIV. by Madame de Montespan, and soon became the rival of the latter in the affections of the voluptuous and dissolute king. After the queen, Maria Theresa, of Austria, died, the king made the charming widow Scarron his wife by a secret marriage. Louis then settled upon her a large es- tate, named Maintenon, and made her Marquise de Main- tenon. As Madame de Maintenon, for thirty years she controlled the destinies of France.

But this mountain chain, the lake, and the river bear her more humble name,-the name of her poor, brilliant poet-husband, Scarron.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

The next two mountain ranges of the wilderness, the Boquet range and the Adirondack range proper, neither of them lie within the bounds of Saratoga County.

The mountains of the great Adirondack wilderness be- long to the old Laurentian system of Canada, and not to the Apalachian system of the Atlantic slope, as is by some writers erroneously stated.

A spur of the vast Canadian Laurentian chain crosses the river St. Lawrence at the Thousand Islands into northern New York. After, by its rugged, broken char- aeter, forming the Thousand Islands in crossing the St. Lawrence, this spur of the Laurentides spreads easterly to Lake Champlain, southerly to the valley of the Mohawk, and westerly to the Black river, forming the whole rocky groundwork of the upland region of the great wilderness. In the interior these mountains rise into a thousand lofty peaks, towering above thousands of crystal lakes and emerald mountain meadows.

From the high, rounded hills on the east side of Saratoga lake, the well-defined ridges of the two great ranges that fill up all the northern part of the county with their wild grandeur can be distinctly traced. First, the Palmnertown, ending at Saratoga Springs, and beyond them the Kay-ad- ros-se-ra, in bold relief against the western sky, extending still farther southward into Galway and Charlton.

III .- RIVERS.

The Hudson river for more than seventy miles of its course sweeps along and washes the eastern border of Sara- toga County. The Hudson is fed by a system of forest branches that spread over the whole mountain belt of the Adirondack wilderness, but only one of these main branches -the Sacondaga-enters the borders of Saratoga County.

The Mohuicks called the Hudson Ska-nek-ta-de, mean- ing " the river beyond the open pines." To the Mohawks, when going across the carrying-place from the Mohawk river at Schenectady to the Hudson at Albany, the latter river was literally " the river beyond the pines," and thus they so called it in their language. Its Algonquin name, however, was Ca-ho-ta-te-a, meaning " the river that comes from the mountains lying beyond the Cohoes falls." Henry Hudson, its first white discoverer, translating its Algonquin name, called it the " River of Mountains."

The early Dutch settlers ou its banks sometimes called it " The Nassau," after the reigning family of Holland, and sometimes " The Mauritius," in honor of the Stadtholder, Prince Maurice. But it was not called The Hudson until the English wrested it from the Dutch, in 1664, when they so named it in honor of their countryman, its immortal dis- coverer and first explorer.

The Hudson is literally a " river of the mountains." It is born among the clouds on the shaggy side of Mount MeIn- tyre, and in the mountain meadows and lakelets near the top of Mount Marey, almost five thousand feet above the level of the sea. The infant Hudson is eradled in the awful chasms of the Panther Gorge, the Gorge of the Dial, and in the Indian Pass, called by the Indians Du-yalı-je- ya-go, " the place where the storm-elouds meet in battle with the great serpent."

Near the centre of this wondrous chasm of the Indian

Pass, high up on the rugged side of Mount MeIntyre, two little springs issue from the rocks so near to each other that their limpid waters almost mingle. From each spring flows a tiny stream. The streams at first interlock, but soon sepa- rate and run down the mountain side into the chasm, which is here two thousand nine hundred and thirty-seven feet above tide. After reaching the bottom, one runs southerly as the head-waters of the Hudson, the other northerly into the St. Lawrence.

Upon the south side of Mount Marey is a little lake called " Summit Water" by the old guides, and by Ver- planck Calvin, in his Adirondack survey, "Tear of the Clouds." This little lakelet is four thousand three hun- dred and twenty-six feet above tide-water. It is the highest lake-source of the Hudson.

After thus rising upon its highest mountain peaks, the Hudson in its wild course down the southern slope of the wilderness crosses four of the mountain chains, which all seem to give way at its approach, as if it were some way- ward child of their own.

After bursting through the Palmnertown range, its last wilderness mountain barrier, it encounters in its wore placid course to the sea the great Apalachian system of mountains, and seems to rend them from top to bottom. Or, rather, from the natural head of tide-water, some two miles above Waterford, in Saratoga County, the Hudson virtually ceases to be a river and becomes an estuary, or arm of the sea, in which the tide throbs back and forth, and on whose peaceful bosom now float the navies and the commerce of the world.

THE MOHAWK RIVER, before it mingles its waters with the Hudson, washes almost the whole southern side of the county of Saratoga. The Indian name of the Mohawk was Te-uge-ga. It rises on the highlands of the Lesser Wil- derness of Northern New York, northerly of Oneida lake, near the head-waters of the Salmon river, which runs into Lake Ontario. The Salmon river was the ancient River de la Famine of the old French explorers. The Cohoes falls, in the Mohawk, on the border of this county, were ealled by the Indians Ga-ha-oose, meaning " the falls of the shipwrecked canoe."

THE SACONDAGA RIVER enters the county of Saratoga on its western border, and breaking through the mountain barriers crosses the whole width of the county, and enters the Hudson on its eastern border. For twenty miles of its course before it enters the Hudson there is a reach of still water which is navigable by small steamers. Sacondaga is an Indian name, signifying " The river of the sunken or drowned lands," in allusion to the large Ilaie, or moun- tain meadow, through which it runs just before it reaches the border of the county. This great vlaie was the favorite hunting-ground of Sir William Johnson, and near it he built his two hunting-lodges. called the Fish House and the Cottage, on Summer House Point .*

THIE KAY-AD-ROS-SE-RA RIVER is the largest stream whose whole course lies within the borders of the county of Saratoga. It rises on the southern slopes of the Kayad- rossera mountains in Greenfield and Corinth, and running

# See " Trappers of New York," by Jeptha R. Simms.

HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.

thence southerly between the mountain ranges, through Milton to Ballston Spa, it then turns easterly into Saratoga lake. From the lake to the Hudson it is known as Fish creek.

The other numerous smaller streams of the county are mentioned in the history of the several towns through which they run.

IV .- LAKES.

The principal lakes of the county of Saratoga are now called Saratoga lake, Round lake, Ballston lake, and Lake Desolation.

As the old Indian name for Lake Champlain was Caniad- cri-guarunte, " The door of the country," and that of Lake George was Caniad-eri-oit, "The tail of the lake," so the Indian name for Saratoga lake was Cunind-eri-os-se-ra, " The lake of the crooked stream." The name was after- wards written Cui-ad-er-ros-se-ra, and since, Kay-ad-ros- se-ru, its present form.

The name 'Sharlutoga, now Saratoga, was never app'ied by the Indians to this lake, nor to the great hunting-ground in which it lies. Saratoga was the name of the hunting- ground along the river hill-sides.

On some old Dutch and French maps, the Hudson river is represented as taking its rise in, and running from, Sara- toga lake. Hence it is called on those maps Cupi-aqua. The Indian name of ROUND LAKE is Ta-neu-da-ho-ra, and for BALLSTON LAKE is Sha-nen-da-ho-ra. The sig- mification of both of these names seems to be lost.

LAKE DESOLATION, as its name indicates, is a wild, weird body of water, situate on the top of the Kayadrossera mountain range, on the border of Greenfield and Provi- dence, its waters running, first westerly and then northerly, a long circuit into the Sacondaga, within six miles of their source in the lake. The stream was called by the Indians Ken-uy-et-to.

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History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers., Part 2

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