USA > New York > Warren County > History of Warren County [N.Y.] with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 23
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86
Much of the attention of pioneers in any locality and of early public offi- cials has always been devoted to the laying out and opening of highways. One of the most important of the early thoroughfares in this section of the State is what is still known as the old State Road. Its opening was authorized early in the century and it runs from Sandy Hill northward through the present towns of Queensbury, Caldwell, Warrensburgh and Chester, and on northward across Essex and Clinton counties to the Canada line. Platt Rogers was con- spicuous in opening this highway and received large grants of public land in Essex county for his services in this capacity. The State Road involved a heavy outlay in its construction and large sums have since been expended in its maintenance ; but it has always been kept in very good repair and was, from the first, of great utility to the inhabitants of the territory contiguous to its course. Another prominent highway, which was opened at an early day, was that running from the State Road near the foot of Schroon Lake north- westerly across the town of Chester and the southwest corner of Essex county and into Hamilton county.
The inhabitants of Warren county suffered considerably from the effects of what is remembered as the cold summer, in the year 1816, although its effects were not so deplorable as those of the succeeding summer, when the scarcity caused by the failure of the crops of the preceding year was most seriously felt. Perhaps the cases of actual suffering in this county were less numerous than in many other localities, as the inhabitants were a little less dependent upon the actual products of the land from year to year; but there were many in the rural districts who felt the pinch of want and were hard pressed to provide actual necessities for their families. The season was a most remarkable one and has not had a parallel since. The sun seemed bereft of his power to give out heat to the freezing earth ; ice formed in many localities every month in the year; snow fell in this county in June and crops could not grow and ripen except in the most favored localities. Those who were successful in raising crops to any considerable extent, felt the extreme need of saving them for the next year's seed time, while many who possessed the means of relieving .the
197
TO THE PRESENT TIME.
less fortunate, declined to do so except at such exorbitant rates as to prac- tically shut out the poor. A season of this character might occur at the pres- ent day without causing even a scarcity in the thickly populated communities of the country. If crops fail in one section they succeed in another, and even if it is remote, even if the ocean roll between the favored and unfavored local- ities, modern rapid transportation is adequate to adapt the supply to the de- mand in all sections; while the wealth of one region rarely rests idle in these later days, another one wants. Hence, it is difficult for the reader of to-day to realize and appreciate the fact that their ancestors of only two or three generations ago saw "the wolf at their doors" in the great Empire State, because a cold season cut off most of the crops. But the fact remains, and is vividly remembered by old residents of the county.
But the privations and hardships of the pioneers of the county soon began to be mitigated by the advancing march of civilization, the introduction of public improvements, the influx of settlers, the opening of roads, the establish- ment of schools and churches and the increasing productiveness of the farms.
In the early days of the settlement of the county the productions of the soil were limited almost exclusively to the necessities of the inhabitants. If a surplus was raised there was little market for it, except at a great distance. Money was scarce, very scarce, and most exchanges were made by bartering one commodity for another. Almost every dwelling had its loom ; boots and shoe were made largely by itinerant mechanics; while the actual food necessi- ties were raised from the ground. Had it been otherwise in these respects, the scarcity of money would have been felt in a much greater degree than it was.
The early settlers of the county, in common with those of most other local- ities in the country, no sooner became located in their humble homes, than they set about providing means for the education of their children, and rustic school-houses were soon scattered - often very widely scattered, to be sure - through the wilderness. But in these pioneer schools and under the most dis- couraging circumstances were laid the foundation of education and character which enabled the growing youth to enter upon life as they found it, armed with all the necessary elements of success. Churches, too, were organized, the primitive school-houses commonly sufficing for some years as places for religious worship, and the spread of the gospel was none the less rapid and permanent because the prayers of the people went up from very humble temples.
The region of Northern New York of which this county forms an impor- tant part, was vastly benefited in its material interests by the opening of the Champlain canal in 1823, and to a greater degree, particularly the locality of which we are writing, by the completion of the Glens Falls feeder which was made navigable for boats in 1832. The lumber interest, the manufacture of
198
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
lime and, in short, every branch of industry in the county was given an im- petus by these improvements, the effects of which are still felt. Railroad agi- tation also began as early as 1831-32, in which year the Warren County Railroad Company was organized and incorporated for the avowed purpose of building a road from Glens Falls to Caldwell, with the privilege of extending the line to Warrensburgh. Application was made to the Legislature early in 1831 for the incorporation of a company comprising John Baird, Peter D. Threehouse and associates, as a company to build a railroad from Saratoga to Glens Falls ; but it was many years before these projects were consummated. The details of the internal improvements in the county are given in a later chapter.
On the 26th of May, 1836, the towns of Chester, Johnsburgh, Warrens- burgh, Athol, Caldwell and Queensbury were taxed $3,000 for the improve- ment of the State road, with John Richards, Allen Nelson and Ezra B. Smith as commissioners. In March of the following year another sum was taxed for a similar purpose.
The memorable financial crisis of 1837-38, from which the entire country suffered, was severely felt in this county. The newspapers of the period teem with accounts of failures, losses and suffering which have since been without a parallel. Money was extremely scarce and the ordinary necessaries of life were difficult to obtain without ready pay. One item in a local paper states that "a man floated a raft of lumber worth $5,000 into the port of Bangor, Me., for which he was unable to obtain a single barrel of flour. The lumber would not sell and the flour could not be bought except for cash." Many in this county lost their all in the general panic; but the energy of the people and the advantages of the locality in a business sense, enabled them to quickly re- cover from the blow.
We have before in this work alluded to the prevalence of wild animals in this region and the part they played in the food supply of the pioneers. Down to even comparatively recent times, the remote parts of the county have been the home of several varieties of the early forest denizens. It is not very many years since the larger wild animals were quite frequently killed in the county and were even viewed as a public nuisance. In the Spectator of August II, 1837, appears the following item : "Destruction among panthers .- There was an old panther and two young ones killed by a party of hunters one day last week in the town of Johnsburgh, in the northern part of the county. The old one measured eight feet in length ; the others were some somewhat smaller." It was not far from the same date that Samson Paul killed a large panther with a fishing spear on the shore of Lake George in the town of Bolton. Still later, according to Dr. Holden, one of the grandsons of Sabele, the Indian, killed one with a pitchfork in a barn in Johnsburgh. These animals, with bears, deer and wolves, have been known to frequent the county at much later times than those referred to, and bounties were offered in most of the towns for their exter- mination.
199
TO THE PRESENT TIME.
State legislation having direct reference to this county has not been exten- sive nor very important in character, having for its chief objects the authoriza- tion of roads, bridges, the improvement of the streams, and kindred topics. On the 20th of April, 1836, an act was passed appropriating $4,000 to build a bridge at the junction of the Schroon and middle branches of the Hudson River, between the towns of Athol and Warrensburgh. George Pattison and Stephen Griffin, of Warrensburgh, and Richard Cameron of Athol, were the commissioners. On the 27th of April, 1841, John Richards, jr., of Warren county, and Ezra Thompson and George Parburt, of Hamilton county, were by law appointed a commission to lay out and make a road four rods wide, " commencing on the State road near the mills of Elias P. Gilman, town of Gil- man, Hamilton county, and thence in the most direct line to Johnsburgh." On the 26th of May of the same year $4,000 was appropriated for the repair of the State road from Glens Falls to Chesterfield, in Essex county. On the 2d of May, 1844, an act was passed appointing James D. Weston, of Luzerne, John J. Harris and Abraham Wing, of Queensbury, commissioners to locate and superintend the building of a bridge over the Hudson River at Johns- burgh. They were authorized to borrow $2,500 on the credit of the county for that purpose. May 12th, 1846, Abraham Wing and Cyrus Burnham, of Warren county, and Clark Rawson, of Essex county, were appointed by law as commissioners to lay out roads and expend the highway moneys in the coun- ties of Warren, Essex and Hamilton. On the 3Ist of January, 1849, an act was passed authorizing the purchase of the toll bridge at Jessup's Little Falls, the comptroller being allowed to loan $1,200 to the counties of Saratoga and Warren, out of the common school fund. The purchase to be made of George T. Rockwell, Jeremy Rockwell and Betsey Rockwell, executors of the estate of Jeremy Rockwell. In the year 1849 considerable appropriations were made for the improvement of the channels of streams in the county, for the fa- cilitating of the rafting business. Ten thousand dollars were appropriated to- wards improving the upper waters of the Hudson, with Jacob Parmeter, of Essex, Daniel Stewart, of Warren, and Jeremy Rockwell, of Saratoga county, as commissioners. Two thousand dollars appropriated "to clear the rafting channel from the foot of the rapids at the head of the Glens Falls feeder pond to Had- ley's Falls." Fifteen hundred dollars appropriated for clearing the rafting channel between Phelps Bay to Barber mill dam. Four thousand dollars ap- propriated for clearing the rafting channel at and above Jessup's Little Falls, including the Schroon and the west branches of the said river. April 9th, 1853, William Hotchkins, of Chester, Jonas Ordway, of Johnsburgh, Thomas Barnes, of Minerva, Essex county, were by law appointed a commission to superintend the construction of a bridge in Johnsburgh three-fourths of a mile from North Creek ; the State appropriated $2,000. On the 25th of April, 1866, Henry Crandell, Joel Green and Benjamin C. Butler were appointed commissioners
200
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
to " lay out a road for wagons from Hudson River near Roblee's Hotel in Johnsburgh, up through the town of Indian Lake to the Carthage road near the head of Long Lake, Hamilton county."
In the year 1848 the plank road was built from Glens Falls to the village of Caldwell, an improvement that was of much benefit to the northern part of the county ; this utility was still further enhanced when the road was contin- ued to Warrensburgh a few years later.
The formation of the town of Horicon took place March 29th, 1838, when it was set off from Bolton and Hague; and November 13th, 1852, the town of " Athol," which had been formed from the original town of Thurman at the the time of the formation of Warrensburgh, February 12th, 1813, was divided into the present town of Thurman and Stony Creek, completing the town or- ganization of the county.
There have been several notably exciting political campaigns in Warren county, although as a general rule political antagonism and animosity cannot be said to have run as high as in many localities. During the anti-Masonic period much feeling was awakened and considerable excitement followed. In 1826-27, also, when William Hay and Norman Fox were the opposing candi- dates for the Assembly, a very stirring campaign was carried on. Joseph W. Paddock came into the field as a "Jackson man," and by the aid of influential political friends was run as an "independent " candidate. Hay was elected on the then so-called " Republican " side, and his victory was celebrated in polit- ical campaign songs, etc. Personal rivalry ran so high as to lead to libel suits, which, however, did not result seriously to any one. The campaign of 1844 was one of unusual interest in this section. The Glens Falls Republican, started the year previous, espoused the cause of the Democracy and made its influence felt from the first. That party was then largely in the ascendant in the county. Since the organization of the Republican party Warren county has uniformly given majorities for the candidates of that political faith, although many Dem- ocrats have been elected to offices of importance, through their individual pop- ularity and worth.
The growth of Warren county, after its organization, has been rapid and healthful. It presented to settlers attractions in its water power, its vast and valuable forests and its other natural advantages not offered by many other sections, and a sturdy and energetic population sought its borders, secured the lands and many of them entered largely into the lumber business when it was about the only means, or at least the most available one, of securing a livelihood and ready return for labor. There were many mills within the present limits of the county before the beginning of the present century, and the number rap- idly multiplied after that date, until they were scattered over all parts of the region, many of them erected in later years of enormous capacity, and the lum- ber interest became and long continued of paramount importance. In the year
201
TO THE PRESENT TIME.
1877 Dr. A. W. Holden furnished to Franklin B. Hough the following details and statistics of the lumber interest as applicable to Warren county, which we are amply justified in placing in these pages : -
"The lumber business on the Hudson River dates back to an early period in the history of the country. Mrs. Grant in her Memoirs of an American Lady, speaks of timber rafts being floated down to Albany as far back as 1758. Saw-mills were erected at Glens Falls in 1770, and from that time to the pres- ent the manufacture and export of timber has constituted one of the most im- portant industries. But the once heavily-timbered pine forests have receded before the axe of the lumberman, until far away among the sources of the mountain rivulets at the north there is only left here and there a scattered remnant of those towering and stately ornaments of the woods. Since 1850 the manufacture of pine timber has formed but an inconsiderable item in the product of the Hudson River mills. In addition to the destructive fires which, from time to time, have devastated the mountains and cleared the forests along the line of the border settlements, the death of the spruces from some myste- rious cause has stripped the forest of its evergreens and in many instances ne- cessitated the in-gathering of thousands of logs to save them from becoming a loss through natural decay. Nevertheless, as fifty spruce trees to the acre is considered a liberal estimate and the surrounding woods are often so heavily timbered with other growths as to make it difficult to fall the spruces without lodgement, the clearing away of the dead-wood makes but little difference in the general aspect or density of the forest. On the southeast side of the great Adirondack plateau the hemlock-producing belt extends but little if any north of the Warren county line. A few isolated clumps, a gnarled and dwarfed specimen at widely recurring intervals are but the exceptions which establish the rule. The consumption of the deciduous forest trees within the lumber dis- trict proper has not yet entered as a factor in the lumber product., The rela- tively few dock-sticks, spars and pieces of round timber which find their way to market down the river, or by the Glens Falls feeder, are nearly or quite all obtained at points within the range of settlements and south of the wilderness border. The lumber region tapped by the Hudson and its affluents is relatively small, as compared with the vast water-shed drained by the Raquette and its tributaries, to say nothing of the Black, the Oswegatchie, the Grass and the St. Regis Rivers, all of which contribute to swell the majestic flood of the St. Law- rence. And yet along the ponds and marshes and headwaters of the Schroon, the Sacandaga, the North, Boreas, Indian, Cedar and Rock Rivers are to be found extensive and untouched tracts of timber of as good quality as any ever brought to market.
"It is worthy of mention that while of the second growth of white pine the quality is greatly inferior to that of ' the forest primeval,' the same is not true of either the spruce or the hemlock, the younger and newer trees being preferable as
202
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
producing the strongest, soundest and most desirable grades of lumber. An- other interesting fact in this connection is that considerable tracts of territory on the borders of, and within, the great wilderness which have been cleared by the axe of the settler, or denuded by destructive fires, are again covered with a dense second-growth of trees ; and it is confidently asserted by those whose judgment should be competent, that there is to-day a larger area of forest in ' the great North Woods' than there was twenty-five years ago; and that this condition is relatively increasing, notwithstanding the enormous consumption of the lumber-producing evergreens. It is a mistake to suppose that the Adi- rondack wilderness is being cleared up.
" River-driving is a feature in the lumber business which came in vogue about fifty years ago. Previous to that time the practice prevailed of erecting small mills of feeble capacity and primitive machinery on brooks, rivulets, or by the aid of wing dams, on the banks of rivers near the sources of supply. This system was attended with great waste of labor and material. As the growth of our cities and the demands of commerce increased, mechanical in- ventions multiplied, the economies of manufacture were studied, extensive mills with all the adjuncts of machinery were constructed at central points, and logs were drawn or floated to the mills from the ponds above. As the cost of pro- duction increased and material receded, combinations of operators were organ- ized, river-driving became systematized and manufacturing at the great centers of the lumbering business steadily increased.
"This mode of operating necessitated the accumulation at seasons of high water of large quantities of logs for the year's supply. At this day the points of supply and consumption are so remote that one and often part of two years' stocks, representing from three-fourths to a million of dollars, are constantly afloat. A system of booms was devised in order to retain and convey the logs to the points where they were to be sawed. But it was found that enor- mous losses frequently resulted from freshets. Once in four or five years, sometimes oftener, a tremendous spring flood would occur, which no amount of precaution or care could (or did) prevent from bearing off on its resistless, turbulent and turbid waters, the gathered harvest of an entire year's work in the woods, leaving the mills idle for the want of stock; and the employees, thus thrown out of their regular work, were forced to seek in other fields of in- dustry a scanty and precarious employment.
" To remedy these evils, 'the Hudson River Boom Association ' was formed about the year 1849. This combination included all the mill owners below the great falls on the Hudson River (Jessup's Falls), together with many log own- ers who had their lumber made at their mills. At great expense a substantial series of piers and system of chain booms was constructed at the foot of the Big Bend, about four miles above Glens Falls, which, strengthened and im- proved from time to time, has never failed to accomplish the work for which it
203
TO THE PRESENT TIME.
was designed and to withstand the pressure of the heaviest freshets. In order to equalize the annual expenses attendant upon the management of the boom and the reception and discharge of the logs, a record of the number delivered and sworn to by each contributor to the drive had to be kept by the Boom Association, and thus we are enabled through the courtesy of its secretary, Mr. William McEachron, of Glens Falls, to present in a tabulated form the num- ber of logs received for the last twenty-five years, with the exception of three years, which are estimated. It is premised that each unit of the count here given is a market log, viz .: a log thirteen feet long and nineteen inches in diam- ter in the clear at the smaller end. Such a log, calculated as a cylinder, con- tains 25.6 cubic feet and practically represents about two hundred feet of lum- ber, board-measure. As the average of stock runs in the boom, including logs of all sorts, each market log will represent two pieces by count and the actual number of logs delivered to the various drives is obtained by multiplying the numbers of the table by two.
"The amount of lumber carried to market by rail is very inconsiderable and scarcely worth mentioning. By estimates it would not exceed one per cent. The number of market logs manufactured at points above the Big Boom is roughly estimated at twenty-five thousand, representing 5,000,000 feet of lum- ber per annum : -
Market Logs Received at the Big Boom from the time of its Construction in 1851 to the Present Time.
YEARS.
MARKET-LOGS.
1851
132,500
1852.
345,400
1853
303,000
1854.
297,000
1855
302, 500
1856
292,500
1857
298,000
1858
332,000
1859
400,000
1860
353,000
1861
300,0001
1862
300,0001
1863.
310,000
1864
279,000
1865
292,000
1866
507,000
1867
832,000
1868
600,000
1869
543,000
1870
687,000
1871
551,000
1872
1,069,000
1873.
824.000
1874
446,000
1875
563,000
1876
575,500
1877
575,0001
Total
12,309, 5002"
.
I No report; estimated.
2 Equal to 2,461,800,000 feet of lumber in twenty-seven years; or 91, 180,741 feet on general aver- age per annum.
204
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
The conditions of the lumber interest in the county have not materially changed from those above described in 1877. It is still the leading industry; but must soon decline with the gradual disappearance of the great forests upon which it has fed and grown. The great mills, principally located in the town of Queensbury, the lumber companies, and other features of the business are treated in the history of that town, as also is the manufacture of lime, one of the prominent industries of the county.
WARREN COUNTY CIVIL LIST.
Representatives in Congress .- 1823-25, John Richards ; 1835-37, Dudley Farlin; 1845-47, Joseph Russell ; 1849-51, John R. Thurman ; 1851-53, Joseph Russell; 1867-69, Orange Ferris ; 1869-71, Orange Ferris.
Delegates to Constitutional Conventions .- Oct. 13 to Oct. 27, 1801, John Vernor, Queensbury ; Aug. 28 to Nov. 10, 1821, John Richards, Johnsburgh ; June I to Oct. 9, 1846, William Hotchkiss, Chester; 1868, Andrew J. Cher- ritree, Luzerne.
Presidential Electors .- 1808, Micajah Pettit (appointed), Chester ; 1816, Artemus Aldrich (appointed), Thurman ; 1832, Dudley Farlin (elected), War- rensburgh ; 1840, Keyes P. Cool, (elected), Queensbury ; 1848, Billy J. Clark, (elected), Queensbury ; 1860, N. Edson Sheldon (elected), Queensbury ; 1864, Alonzo W. Morgan (elected), Queensbury.
State Senators .- 1839-42, Bethuel Peck, Queensbury; 1854-55, George Richards, Warrensburgh ; 1856-57, William Hotchkiss, Chester ; 1862-63, Russell M. Little, Glens Falls ; 1878-79-81-82, William W. Rockwell, Glens Falls.
Assemblymen .- 1786-87-88-89, Peter B. Tearse, Queensbury ; 1800-02, Micajah Pettit; 1800, John Thurman, Johnsburgh ; 1800-01, Seth Alden, Queensbury ; 1805, James Starbuck, Chester; 1807, William Robards, Queensbury ; 1812, Halsey Rogers, Caldwell ; 1812-13, John Beebe, Cald- well ; 1814, Charles Starbuck, Chester ; 1814-15, John Richards, Johnsburgh ; 1816, Michael Harris, Caldwell ; 1817, William Cook, Hague; 1818, Duncan Cameron, Thurman ; 1819-20, Norman Fox, Chester ; 1821, James L. Thur- man, Warrensburgh ; 1822, Duncan Cameron, Thurman.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.