USA > New York > Saratoga County > History of Saratoga County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers. > Part 56
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Edward II. Thorn, enl. Aug 31, 1862; 77th Regt .; pro. to com. sergt .; disch. June 16, 1865.
William J. Tabor, enl. Oct. 8, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. H; pro. to Ist lient. ; killed Oct. 19, 1864, at Cedar Creek ; brought home for burial.
George Thompson, enl. - Bat.
Charles I. Thurber, enl. April 30, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. D; pro. to corp .; dischi. July 23, 1861 ; enl. Co. D, Feb. 13, 1863.
Jesse B. Thorn, enl. Oct. 17, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. D; wounded in Wilderness ; disch. Dec. 13, 1864.
Stephen Trumble, en1. Sept. 16, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E; wounded in the Wilder- ness, May 6, 1864.
William B. Thorn, enl. Aug. 30, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. C; pro. to sergt .; disch. June 16, 1865.
Jacob Thompson, enl. Feb. 14, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. C; disch. July 10, 1862.
Gustavus Tack, enl Ang. 31, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E; died May 18, 1864, of wonnds received at Spottsylvania ; buried at Fredericksburg.
Edward Van Rensselaer, enl. Nov. 17, 1862, 153d Regt., Co. HI ; disch. Nov. 1865. Newman Vanwie, eul. Nov. 4, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. C; left the service, June 25, 1862.
Charles W. Van Prtten, enl. May 7, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. F; left the service, Aug. 27, 1862.
Joseph Valentine, enl. May, 1863, 2d Vet. Cav. ; disch, with Regt. Nov. 8, 1865. Frederick Voxman, enl. May, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. F.
Abram L. Velie, en1. Aug. 11, 1862, 115th Regt., Co. F.
John R. Valentine, enl. Aug. 11, 1862, 115th Regt., Co. F.
W. W. Worden, enl. Sept. 24, 1861, 77th Regt. ; pro. Ist lient. ; wounded in tho Wilderness and at Winchester; mustered out Dec. 13, 1864.
William H. Walker, enl. Nov. 24, 1863, 2d Cav .; pro. Ist hosp. stew., July I, 1865 ; disch. Nov. 8, 1865.
Augustus R. Walker, enl. Ang. 31, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. C; wounded four times; disch. Juno 16, 1865.
Oscar R. Walker, enl. Jan. 2, 1864, 16th Art. ; pro. corp .; disch. Aug. 21, 1865. James 11. Wilson, enl. April 14, 1864, 25th Cav., Co. E.
D. J. Wheeler, enl. July 7, 186.1.
George Henry Weeks, enl. Aug. 11, 1862, 113th Regt., Co. F; pro. 1st lieut. ; disch. June 17, 1865.
Andrew J. Williamson, enl. Oct 16, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. C; pro. corp. ; disch. Ort. 29, 1862.
Thomas M. White, enl. Ang. 3, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. C; had served full time in the 30th; pro. 2d lieut. and adjutant; in many battles; brevet maj .; mustered out July 7, 1865-four years and three months.
Luther MI. Wheeler, enl. Sept. 24, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. ^; pro. capt .; died of wounds at Fredericksburg, May 3, 1863; brought home for burial.
Henry Whitman, enl. Sept. 2, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E; disch. Jan. 28, 1863, for disability.
Andrew A. Weatherwax, enl. Aug. 31, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E; transf. to Bat- talion, 77th ; served out his time.
John W. Wluttaker, enl. Sept. 6, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E ; trans. to Vet. Rit., 77t h. James Welch, enl. Aug. 31, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E, trans, to Vet. Bat., 77th.
Hiram Weatherwax, enl. Aug. 31, 1862, 77th Ragt., Co. E; disch, for disability, June 15, 1863.
Jerome Weatherwax, enl. Aug. 31, 1862; 77th Regt., Co. E; disch. Aug. 21, 1863, for disability.
Patrick Winn, enl. Aug. 31, 1862; 77th Regt., Co. I.
Samuel Wilcox, enl. July 7, 1863, 211 Vet. Cav., Co. F.
Thomas J. Wheaton, enl. Aug. 8, 1862, 115th Regt., Co. G.
Dennis Welch, enl. Ang. 11, 1862, 115th Regt., Co. F.
Frederic G. Woodward, enl. Det 20, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. HI ; disch. for disability, Nov. 18, 1862.
George W. Winne, enl. Oct. 16, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. D.
Charles Welch, enl. Maty, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. D.
Andrew Werd, enl. May, 1561, 30th Regt., Co. D.
Joseph Il. Weatherwax, enl. Ang. 31, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E; trans. to Battalion, 77th ; served out his time.
David W. Weatherwax, enl. Sept. 26, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. G; in all the battles of the regiment.
Wallace W. Wickham, enl. Sept. 30, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. G; disch. Dec. 13, 1564.
Alexander K. Waldron, enl. Dec. 1, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. D; pro. hospital steward; disch. Dec. 25, 1863; re-enl. same regiment; wounded; disch. Jnly 28, 1865.
Lewis Wood, enl. Sept. 27, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. E; resigned Oct. 4, 1862; cap- tain of his company.
Alonzo Williams, enl. Sept. 27, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. E; disch. Jan. 5, 1863, for disability.
Elisha A. Waters, en1. April 30, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. D; disch. June 18, 1863. Henry W. Whitman, enl. April 30, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. D; disch. June 18, 1863. John Weeks, enl. April 30, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. D ; disch. June 18, 1863.
Thomas A. White, enl. June 9, 1861, 30th Regt., Cu. D; left the service, Feb. 12, 1862.
Addison Walker, eul. Sept. 25, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. A; taken prisoner; ex- changed ; disch. June 18, 1863.
Daniel Webster, enl. May 7, 1561, 30th Regt., Co. F; re-enl. 2d Vet. Cav.
Robert Williams, enl. May 7, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. F; disch. for disability.
Bernard Winn, enl. May 7, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. F.
Edwin Washman, enl. Oct. 16, 1801, 77th Regt., Co. C; left the service, May 30, 1862.
Samuel Weeks, eul. Sept. 22, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. F; luft the service, Feb. 24, 1863.
Andrew .I. Weed, enl. Ang. 6, 1863, 2d Vet. Cav., Co. C.
James Wiley, enl. Aug. 25, 1863, 2d Vet. Cav., Co. D.
Alonzo Williams, enl. Sept. 27, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. E; disch. for disability Jan. 5, 1863.
Charles H. Wildy, eul. Aug. 30, 1862, 30th Regt., Co. G ; trans, to 76th Regiment. Daniel G. Wager, enl. Aug. 13, 1862, 115th Regt., Co. F; wounded ; disch. Nov. 15, 1865.
Luke Welch, enl. July, 1864, 16th Cav .; discharged for disability.
John Waslaburo, enl. June, 1865, 192d Regt.
George Washburn, enl. Sept. 28, 1864, 14211 Regt.
George A. Webb, enl. Oct. 18, 1861, 77th Regt.
James B. Walley, enl. Sept. 1862, 30th Regt .; transferred to 77th Regt.
John C. Winney, enl. Aug. 5, 1862, 115th Regt .; served through ; disch. with regiment.
Bruce Winney, enl. Aug. 5, 1862, 115th Regt .; disch. with regiment.
Smiith C. Wbitcomb, enl. Sept. 27, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. E; lied May 6, 1862, of fever.
Edward W. Winne, enl. Oct. 17, 1861, 75th Regt., Co. C; Ist sergt. ; pro. 2d lieut., March 24, 1862; Ist lieut., Jan. 23, 1863; capt., May 9, 1863; disch. Sept. 9, 1864.
Andrew J. Williamson, enl. Oct. 16, 1861 ; pro. corp. ; disch. for disability, Oct. 29, 1862.
Augustus R. Walker, enl. Ang. 3, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. C; trans. to Vet. Bat- talion, 77th.
William K. Young, enl. Nov. 23, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. G; appointed 2d lieut .; resigned April 15, 1862.
George Young, Jr., epl. Ang. 30, 1862, 30th Regt., Co. G.
George Young. enl. Sept. 4, 1862, 30th Regt., Co. G.
Uriah Young, enl. Ang. 30, 1862, 30th Regt., Co. G.
William H. Yale, enl. Oct. 28, 1861, 77th Regt., Co. D; in all battles of the 77th ; wounded ; disch. Dec. 13, 1864.
Frederick Zwanker, enl. May, 1861, 30th Regt., Co. F.
Gustavus Zack, enl. Ang. 31, 1862, 77th Regt., Co. E; died of wound=, May 18. 18CI.
VILLAGE OF BALLSTON SPA.
I .- GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES.
THE village of Ballston Spa, the county-seat of Saratoga County, is situate at the head of the lower valley of the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river. The village lies mostly in the town of Milton, the shire-town of the county, but the upper or southern part is fast extending across the town-line into the town of Ballston. This latter name was first written Balls- Town, in honor of the Rev. Eliphalet Ball, the founder of the town. But as there was already a Ballstown in Maine, it was changed to Ball-town. Afterwards, in conformity with the law of phonetic decay in language, as Fontaine- belle-can, " the beautiful spring," in France, has run into Fontainebleau, the favorite country-seat of royalty, Ball- town Springs has become Ballston Spa.
The valley of the Kay-ad-ros-se-ra river, which extends from Ballston Spa easterly, following the tortuous course of the stream until it falls into Saratoga lake, is one of ex- ceeding beauty. Like the far-famed valley of Rasselas in the classic eastern story of Dr. Johnson, this valley of the wild Kay-ad-ros-se-ra was the " happy valley" of the Mo- lunrks' hunting bands, who were the owners of the vast hunting-ground of the same name, of which it formed a part.
In Indian tradition many a thrilling legend has its scenes laid in this " valley of the crooked stream." From the opening of spring all through the summer and autumn moons until about the 1st of February, when they went home to celebrate the " feast of the white dog," their New- Year's festival, the Mohawk braves made this " happy val- ley" the ground of their hunting lodges. Through this happy valley also ran the old Indian trail which led from the Mohawk valley to Lake Champlain and the St. Law- rence. It was the only trail over which they could travel with their canoes with little land carriage. This long trail Jed down the Mohawk at the mouth of the Eel-place creek, thence up that creek to near the head of Ballstou lake ; thence down the lake and its outlet to what is now East Line. At East Line there was a short carry to the Mournkil, down which they paddled their canoes into the Kay-ad-ros- se-ru river, which they entered in this beautiful valley, the classic land of Indian story, made immortal by Cooper, Irving, Peter Kalm, and La Rochefoucauld.
II .- EARLY SETTLEMENT.
The mineral springs of Ballston Spa, like those of its sister village of Saratoga, have long been world-renowned ; but, unlike those of Saratoga, these springs had received but little attention from the red man. The Indians had often noticed that game flocked in great abundance to drink the waters of this valley, but there was in it no great
" medicine spring" like the famous high rock at Saratoga. It was reserved for the white man to discover and develop the mineral springs of Ballston Spa.
In the early summer of 1771 some surveyors employed by the commissioners appointed to survey and partition among its thirteen proprietors the great patent of Kayad- rossera were engaged in running the north line of the five- mile square, now the line between the towns of Milton and Ballston. When these surveyors and their chain-men arrived on the brow of the hill, opposite what has since been known as the Public spring, the heat of the day being intense, and seeing the rippling waters of the creek through the openings in the forest, they with one accord dropped their instruments, and ran down the bank to the strean to quench their thirst and bathe their foreheads in its cooling waters. It was then and there THEY FOUND A MINERAL SPRING,-the spring now called the Public spring, its waters then bubbling up cool and delicious from the low swampy ground which then bordered the creek. It was when first found a large full fountain rising to the surface and freely running off. The discovery was soon noised abroad, and people soon began to find their way along forest-paths to drink of the waters of the new-found mineral spring.
Reuben Sears, the author of a book called " Mineral Waters, a Poem," published at Ballston Spa by him in 1819, says in a note, page 78, " William Bousman, aged sixty-one, who has resided at the southwest corner of Sara- toga lake from the age of twelve years, informs me that the next year after his father came to that place, in 1771, he saw these springs. An Indian named Harry, of the Tus- carora tribe, who tarried all that summer at his father's, coming home one night from a hunting excursion, said he had discovered a spring of very fine water like that of Saratoga. The next day he and the Indian, taking their guns, went to the place, and saw near the creek the spring that now stands in the publie highway. At the first dis- covery it appears there was but one spring, though after- wards another broke out near by, which has since been lost."
It was not until about the year 1787, nearly twenty years after their discovery, that any permanent improve- ment was made at these springs. During this period of twenty years these springs were much frequented, it is true, by traveling parties and by the early settlers of the vicinity, who mostly located a mile or two to the south of them; but no one built near them any structure larger than a temporary log hut or bark shanty for a summer camping-place. A rude trough was dug out of a log near by, in which the spring water was used for bathing pur- poses ; and a gourd shell, hung on a tree near by, was the
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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
only convenience for drinking. During this time, however, many people visited the springs, and boarded with the early settlers two miles away, or, bringing their provisions with them, encamped near the springs a part of the summer, as people now do in the Adirondack wilderness. They were then springs in the wilderness.
But about the year 1790 a new era dawned upon Balls- ton Spa. In the year 1787, Benajah Douglas, father of Stephen A. Douglas, the " Little Giant" of the presidential campaign of 1860, came to settle at Ballston Spa. The father of Benajah Douglas was Asa Douglas, long known as a famous pioneer of the valley called " Jericho," which extends along the western line of Massachusetts from Leb- anon Springs towards North Adams. For a long time before the war of the Revolution the line between the States of New York and Massachusetts was disputed,-New York claiming to the Connecticut river and Massachusetts claiming to the lIndson. Asa Douglas settled on this disputed ground just west of the State line as since established, in which is now Stephentown, three or four miles north of Lebanon. But in colonial times it was claimed he lived in Massachusetts, and for several years before the Revolution he represented the region in the colonial House of Delegates, at Boston. In a word, Asa Douglas was a famous man in all the region, and had kept a tavern for many years.
His son, Benajah, now became the pioneer of the springs in the valley of the Kayadrossera, and was enabled to profit from his father's experience in tavern-keeping, and make these springs of the forest another Lebanon. So in the year 1787, Benajah Douglas built, for those days, a comno- dious log tavern near the Public spring. He purchased a farm of one hundred acres adjoining the spring on the west, on which he built his first rude hostelry and opened it for the accommodation of guests. lle also built a small frame house near by for the use of people who came there with their own victuals.
About the same year Micajah Benedict opened a tavern and took boarders, one mile south of the springs.
In the year 1792, Douglas, who, the year before, had taken a deed of his one hundred acres, built what was theu considered a large house, it being thirty by forty feet in size, with a kitchen added.
In the year 1792, Nicholas Low also built a house of the same size on his land lying cast of the spring and adjoining the lot of Douglas.
Mr. Low, long a famous merchant of the city of New York, and the fifth son of Cornelius Low and Margarette, his wife; was born near New Brunswick, on the Raritan, New Jersey, on the 30th day of March, 1739. Late in life he married a widow named Alice Fleming, by whom he had three children,-two sous and a daughter named Henrietta, who married Charles King, for many years pres- ident of Columbia College. flis elder brother, Isaac Low, the part owner of land at Saratoga Springs, upon the break- ing out of the Revolutionary war, at first espoused the American cause, but afterwards adhered to the crown. Nicholas cast his lot with his countrymen. Isaac went to England in 1783, and died there in 1796, having been at- tainted and banished by an act of the Legislature in 1779. Nicholas died in New York on the 26th day of December,
1826. In addition to these, Salmon Tryon built on the hill south of the spring a log house, to which he added a small frame with one room only and a bedroom. To these buildings Tryon added a store for the sale of dry goods and groceries.
The houses of Douglas and Low were not completed till the summer of 1793. In that year Mr. Merrill took and kept the house of Mr. Low, but neither of the houses did much the first season.
It was not till the year 1794, only six years before Gideon Putnam began to build the Union at Saratoga, that the great tide of summer travel set in towards Ballston Spa. Yet those six years of superior accommodations afforded by Ballston Spa would doubtless have cost Saratoga its now peerless position among watering-places, had not the Ballston springs been afterwards, through natural or artificial eauses, nearly lost.
In the year 1794, Mr. Merrill also put up a small frame building, which he let to visitors, who furnished themselves; and in that season all the houses at Ballston Spa were filled with guests. People came from New York, Boston, Phila- delphia, Hartford, and the West Indies. This house built by Mr. Low afterwards passed into the hands of the brothers MeMasters, who built large additions. Not long after Douglas finished his house, in the year 1795, he sold his farm to Joseph Westcot, upon whose death it passed into the hands of Mr. Adderde, who built extensive additions and kept it for many years with great success.
In the year 1801, Stephen IT. White built an addition to a small house which had been put up two years before, and the year following he built the east, and in 1807 the west, wing of his large boarding-honse, which, after his death, was kept by his widow for many years.
In the year 1803, Nicholas Low erected the spacious and, for those days, the elegant hotel called by him the Sans Souci, after a famous one visited by him in Europe.
The Douglas property sold to Reuben Hewitt and Joseph Westcot consisted of one hundred acres. The house was on the site of Henry A. Mann's, and the farm extending back on the uplands. The price is stated in the deed as £1600, which seems to be rather high for those early times, unless dreams of future greatness were already at- traeting adventurers. The witnesses to the deed mentioned were John Thompson, Nathan Thompson, Epenetus White, Alexander Sloan. It was acknowledged before Epenetus White. Mr. Westcot's sous were Reuben and Joseph.
Two of the sons of Reuben, John H. and Joseph E., reside in Ballston Spa, also a daughter, Mrs. N. J. Johnson, and another daughter is Mrs. Lorenzo Kelly, of Rochester.
The elder Westcot dying soon after emigrating here, his widow was married to Joshua B. Aldridge, and the place, afterwards a celebrated boarding-house, was known for many years as the Aldridge House. In possession of John H. Westcot are many papers of historic value. Reuben Hewitt, one of the said joint proprietors who was connected to the Westcots, was in the army of the Revolution, and his several commissions as sergeant, sergeant-major, second lieu- tenant, and first lieutenant bear the signatures of distin- guished men,-Eleazer Fitch and Jonathan Trumbull, governors of Connecticut, and the bold, umnistakable auto-
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HISTORY OF SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK.
graph of John Hancock, president of Congress. Among Mr. Westcot's papers is also a map of a portion of the old farm laid out into lots, described as " being near the town of Bath or Ballston Springs," surveyed and drawn by James Scott, December, 1802.
Au early scientific writer states that " the original spring issues from a bed of stiff blue clay and gravel, which lies near a stratum of slate nearly on a level with the brook or rivulet which runs through the town." Besides this one original spring there were three others, all said to have been of different taste and quality and all very near each other. These were on a small plat of ground in what is now the extension of Bath street. One of these at the foot of the hill, opposite the present harness-shop, exactly in the present road, was known as the Jack spring. There was still an- other in the yard of Medberry's hotel. All these springs promised to have a national and world-wide reputation. Visitors coming through the forests to find them led to the building of the Douglas log house for their accommodation, even in 1792. The tide of travel grew with each year. Other hotels or boarding-houses followed in quick succes- sion. The now quiet, secluded, yet beautiful glen around the old iron-railing spring, rapidly cleared of its forests, became the resort of fashion and wealth. With the rush of visitors for the summer came all the other institutions of a thriving village,-stores, shops, schools, and churches.
In the course of ten or twelve years the following board- ing-houses were built, as remembered by Joseph Jennings, now living at the age of ninety, and John S. Ford, seventy- seven. The Aldridge or Douglas House, already mentioned, was very early enlarged. At one time there was an exten- sion seventy feet long, containing a dancing-hall below and sleeping-rooms above. This was in after-years, about 1843 or 1844, moved across the road by Reuben Westcot and became part of another building. The old " Low Hotel" was also built near the iron-railing spring. The present Jennings House, the front part of which was first a store, was established perhaps as early as 1800. There was still another large boarding-house kept by White on the place now owned by Widow Corey. The MeMaster House was also near the main spring. No house at all now on the place occupied by it. The Clark House stood just where the railroad now crosses. The Ball House was just below the Clark House. There were three of the brothers Ball ; two of them were " dancing-masters," as the teachers of the terpsichorean art were always termed in the olden tintes, so that this village might have easily been named Balls' Town even if no minister of that name had ever settled in this county. There was also the Flint Hotel, not far from the Aldridge House. In the rapidly-growing village there was also another hotel on the site of the present Commercial. In the north part, not far from the grist-mill, was also a very early tavern kept by Daniel Thomas. Besides all these the Sans Souci, built by Nicholas Low nearly three-quarters of a century ago,-even in 1803 built to its present size and its present form,-so that with the exception of slight additions, necessary repairs and painting, that building ex- ists to-day as it stood in the childhood of the oldest citizens in Ballston Spa. Even Joseph Jennings was but seventeen years old when the Sans Souci was built. In this large
and, for those times, palatial building, were entertained the most distinguished men of the nation,-presidents, senators, governors, and judges inscribed their names upon its regis- ters ; wealth, fashion, and culture met in its ample rooms, and pages of anecdotes might be written of this famous resort. There Joseph Bonaparte and his suite stayed for some months, in 1827; and there, in the west parlor, a messenger brought to him the letter that announced the death of the great Napoleon on the island of St. Helena.
The springs that promised to be so valuable were lost, according to the story of the older people, by not " letting well enough alonc." In the attempt to dig them over and retube them, the several veins were lost, though as valuable water as ever has in late years been recovered by boring deep. Indeed, chemical analysis shows the waters at the present time to be peculiarly pure, healthy, and medicinal, rivaling those of Saratoga.
In 1809 most of the stores were on the flat. Epenetus White was an early merchant on the corner, near the " iron- railing spring." Near there, too, Warren was an early trader, followed by Sears. In this same place William Bridges kept a bakery, and his father before him. Proba- bły it was the first bakery in all this section.
Joel Lee was an early merchant where the new bank building now stands, and Barnum at Westcot's place. An early jeweler was Mr. Edson. Elder Langworthy, the old Baptist minister, was also a jeweler. Moses Williams was an early shoemaker, and followed the business for many years. John S. Ford, to whom we are indebted for many of these items, served his apprenticeship in the shop of Williams. This was the principal shop. There were one or two others. Eli Barnum had a harness-shop in connec- tion with his store, assisted by llarvey Loomis, How re- modeled into the residence of John II. Westcot. Webster was an early blacksmith. His shop was on the site of a present one. Lockwood was also a blacksmith, with his shop near the creek. Samuel Smith and Archibald Kidd were merchant tailors, perhaps nearly as early as 1800.
There was a grist-mill before or about 1800, built by Hezekiah Middlebrook, somewhat above the site of the present Blue mill. Another mill was built in later times, on the creek above the Aldridge House, known as the Red mill, recently burned and not rebuilt. Daniel Thomas was the early pioneer in the north part of the village. There are not many buildings erected before 1800 now standing in the village. The old Middlebrook house, now owned by Edwin H. Chapman ; parts of the Henry A. Mann honse ; the John W. Taylor house, now owned by John Brown, Esq. ; the Scribner house, and the Flint house, are thought by some to have been erected earlier than 1800.
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