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 34
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On the 17th of January, 1878, the Warrensburgh News was started by G.
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THE COUNTY PRESS.
A. Morris and Son (A. H. Morris). In January, 1881, the establishment was purchased by L. C. Dickinson, who is present editor and proprietor, with C. E. Cole as assistant. It is a handsome country journal of eight pages, six columns to the page and independent. It is very ably conducted.
The thrift and energy of the village of Glens Falls is particularly manifested by the fact that although as yet but a village, it possesses two daily newspa- pers. It is a sign of enterprise and prosperity, and of that spirit which is the most distinguishing characteristic of modern times, especially in the United States. It is the spirit, become a habit, with which a business or professional man, or an artisan sits down to his breakfast, paper in hand, and, learning of the movements of foreign armies, of the dissensions in the English House of Commons or the German Reichstag; and of the measures proposed and adopted or rejected by the Legislature of his own State and country, as well as the rumors of gossip and the reports of crime and casualties the world over, finds argument for the reflections of a day. The daily press disseminates in- telligence, while the weekly press and more deliberate publications give utter- ance to the prophecies which wise and experienced men deduce from the sig- nificant happenings of the times.
The Glens Falls Daily Times, a handsome, eight-column sheet, was started June 2Ist, 1879. It was at the beginning but a 16x10 paper, printed on a quarto-medium Gordon press, one side at a time .. The first proprietor was A. B. Colvin. On January Ist, 1883, John H. Burnham bought a half inter- est in the business and has been associated with Mr. Colvin ever since. The Glens Falls Weekly Times was first published in the spring of 1880, by Mr. Colvin. The editorial rooms are situated in the Times building in Glen street. The paper is ably edited both with reference to its mechanical appearance and the editorial expressions of its proprietors. Five libel suits have been brought against it, none of which terminated in a judgment for the plaintiff, a fact which is most significant as revealing at once the fearless aggressiveness and fidelity to truth and justice of those who are responsible for the utterances of the paper.
The Morning Star, published daily excepting Sundays, was started on the 2d day of April, 1883, by its present proprietors, J. C. Mahoney, T. J. Lord, B. W. Sprague and A. L. McMullen, who compose the Star Publishing Com- pany. In August, 1883, they began the issue of their weekly papers. The office is on the corner of Glen and Ridge streets. The paper is a world of methodical mechanical arrangement and neatness, and contains always a full and complete account of the local, State, national and foreign news of the day. Its editorial expressions are judicious and impartial. These qualities conspire to increase its circulation and value as an advertising medium, and augment the encouraging prosperity of the enterprise.
19
290
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
CHAPTER XXI.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
Reminiscences - Early Lumber Operations - Incipient Commercial Operations - The Canal and Feeder - Early Railroad Agitation - The Warren County Railroad Company - Navigation Projects - Other Railroad Enterprises - The Railroad Between Fort Edward and Glens Falls.
T HE early history of Warren county affords a striking example of the impos- sibility of thickly populating a region not easily traversable by commerce of some kind or other. Prior to the construction of the Champlain Canal and the opening of the Glens Falls Feeder, and of course long prior to the laying of a railroad track in the county, the time and means and labor expended in the transportation of exports and imports rendered the most comfortable life a series of anxieties and hardships which can scarcely be conceived by the more luxurious children of these latter days. The pioneers who immigrated hither, mostly from New England, at the beginning of the present century, would scarcely have been willing to suffer the toil, exposure and privation necessa- rily incident to the life they led, had they not been allured by the hope, often delusive, of amassing a fortune. This came, not for ease, but profit. Otium cum dignitate was a motto which if they ever heard they completely ignored and contemned. Almost without exception their ambition, the inducement to their coming, was to fell the splendid forests which mantled the mountain and darkened the depths of the valleys, and drive the logs down the Schroon and Hudson Rivers to the mills for the lumber markets of Albany and Troy. The most prominent, probably, of these early lumbermen was Abraham Wing. The excellent water power at Glens Falls occasioned the building of huge saw- mills at that place, more especially after the opening of the canal and feeder. In 1860 one mill at the State dam had twelve gates and two hundred and fifty saws. Days and often weeks were consumed in getting this lumber and the other products of the county to their destination, and in bringing back the goods which necessity compelled the people to import. The primitive road was a scarcely discernible trail whose route was indicated by blazed trees ; the primitive bridge was simply two logs thrown parallel across a stream, con- nected by a roadway of loose planks ; the primitive vessel was a scow ; and the primitive railway a horse. Of course the lapse of a few years witnessed a material amelioration of this condition of things. But the roads which, out- side of the lumber interest, were the most important media of communication were indifferent until the plank road era between 1840 and 1850. Before this, however, the Champlain Canal had been opened (1823), an event which gave the lumber business of the entire region a new and lasting impetus.
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INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
The Glens Falls Feeder .- In about this same year of 1823 the Glens Falls Feeder, that important tributary of the Champlain Canal, was surveyed and commerce of all kinds began to grow more brisk. In 1824 the feeder was dug through, but was not made navigable to canal boats until its final completion in 1832. It extends a distance of seven miles from a point in the Champlain Canal at a summit level, a mile and a half northeast of Fort Edward to a point three miles above Glens Falls, where there is a. State Dam across the Hudson seven hundred and seventy feet long and twelve feet high. When it was first built it was not wide enough for boats to pass except at the turn outs dug here and there along the channel. The opening of this feeder to boats is a most important event in the commercial history of the county. Caldwell had there- tofore been the most thriving village in the county, but the commercial avenues which had formerly converged at that village were diverted to Glens Falls. From that time to the present the lumber business has been the most extensive interest of the county. The feeder was further enlarged about 1845.1
Navigation Projects .- That the inhabitants of this northern region under- stood the necessity of opening thoroughfares of commerce between the natural avenues afforded by the lakes and rivers is manifested by the organization of navigation companies with projects more or less chimerical. While the pioneers of Warren county were struggling for existence in the wilderness, men all about them, impelled by motives of self-interest, were forming into companies for the purpose of building canals and dams and of improving the navigation of rivers and lakes. Plans for improving the navigation of the Mohawk River to the west were prepared as early as 1725, though nothing was done to this end till March 30th, 1792, when the " Western Inland Navigation Company" was incorporated, with powers to improve the channel and build canals and locks to Lake Ontario and Seneca Lake. At the same time the "Northern Inland Navigation Company " was formed, its object being to connect the waters of the Hudson River with Lake Champlain, work since accomplished by the Champlain Canal. This company made some progress, and began work to a limited extent, but failed for want of funds to carry out its plans.
Railroads. - Subsequent to the mania for building canals, when the fever had subsided, the county suffered in common with the rest of the civilized world from the perpetual agitation of schemes for the construction of railroads. There had been, it is true, some agitation of the kind as early as 1832. On April 17th of that year the " Warren County Railroad Company " was incor- porated. The proposed route was to extend from the Champlain Feeder, at or near the village of Glens Falls, to the village of Caldwell, with the privilege of prolonging the road to the town of Warrensburgh.
The commissioners were as follows: John Baird, Dudley Farlin, John
1 The success of this enterprise was due largely to the efforts of William McDonald inthe Legisla- ture.
292
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Osborn, Pelatiah Richards, William McDonald, Alonzo W. Morgan, Duncan McMartin, Halsey Rogers, Robert Gilchrist, William Caldwell, Jesse Buell, Peter Smith, Jerad H. Coster, James B. Murray, Russel H. Nevins, and John C. Stevens. But this scheme died a natural and an early death.
Several years previous to 1860 a company called the Sackett's Harbor and Saratoga Railroad Company projected a scheme for building a railroad through the county along the west side of the Hudson. The Lake Ontario and Hudson River Railroad Company subsequently (before 1860) laid out the road and did a part of the grading, but were forced at last to abandon the project.
Many of the inhabitants of Warren county were much elated about 1860- 63 by the prospect of a railroad proposed to be built from Saratoga or Glens Falls northward across Warren and Essex counties to Plattsburg, and, by con- nections, to the St. Lawrence. The agitation of this enterprise, interrupted by the War of the Rebellion, was renewed at the close of that conflict, and for quite a period its consummation was confidently predicted. Meetings were held and a partial survey of the route was made. The rock upon which the enter- prise finally foundered was the refusal of those controlling the great Moriah iron interests of Essex county to co-operate with other towns in any proposed railroad, the line of which did not extend along the western shores of the lake. This enterprise owed its conception and incipient progress largely to T. J. Durand, who subsequently became the controlling power in the Adirondack Railroad Company, the line of which now ends at North Creek in this county, with a prospeet of reaching up into Essex county sometime in the future. A line of stages formerly ran over portions of this proposed route from Schroon Lake to Keeseville.
The Adirondack Railway Company is really the offspring of a company formed in August, 1860, under the name of the " Adirondack Estate and Railroad Company," although a movement had years before been organized to construct a road between Saratoga Springs and Sackett's Harbor, and proved abortive as before stated. The Adirondack Estate and Railroad Com- pany controlled and held under contracts for the purchase of 800,000 acres of land in the northern wilderness of New York. English capitalists were here in 1861 with funds to promote the opening of this region, but were precluded from consummating their project by the breaking out of the Civil War. Soon after this legal proceedings were instituted, by virtue of which all the lands and other effects of the company went into the hands of Albert N. Cheney. Thomas C. Durant then purchased the entire property of Mr. Cheney, and under an act of the Legislature passed April 27th, 1863 (Chap. 236), formed the Adirondack Railway Company. Under that law the new company became possessed of all the rights, privileges and franchises of the old com- pany. The organization was completed by the signing of articles of associa- tion on October 15th, 1863. Amended articles, defining the present route of
293
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
the road, were filed March Ist, 1871. The grading which had been barely begun by the old company was then finished, and the sixty miles of track now used was at once laid.
The present officers of the company are as follows: President, Thomas C. Durant ; secretary, William M. Durant ; general superintendent, C. E. Dur- kee; roadmaster, Charles R. Eastman.I
The railroad now composing one of the branches of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's lines was opened from Fort Edward to Glens Falls on the 4th day of July, 1869. It was arranged to be built by Glens Falls, Sandy Hill and Fort Edward. The cost of construction was to be $140,000, of which Glens Falls was to pay $100,000, Sandy Hill $25,000 and Fort Ed- ward $15,000. The latter sum was never paid. The first president was John Keenan, and the first Board of Directors Jerome Lapham, Jeremiah Finch, Charles Hughes and Orson Richards. The opening of the road was a festive occasion. A train of eleven coaches made eleven trips from Fort Edward to Glens Falls, and were crowded to their utmost capacity with free passengers, many of whom, it is said, took their lunches and road all day. In a short time after it was opened the Rensselaer and Saratoga Railroad Company took it from the Board of Directors, whose plans of running the road were frus- trated by want of funds, and agreed to start and operate it. George H. Cramer then became president. The Rensselaer and Saratoga Company kept the road but two or three years, and then leased it to the Delaware and Hud- son Canal Company. The road was extended to Caldwell in 1881, and the extended portion opened for business in June of the ensuing year. Fort Ed- ward suffered materially by the opening of the road, while Glens Falls, from the same cause, the diversion of commerce, was greatly benefited.
It was in the year 1869, also, that a great scheme was inaugurated for the construction of a road from Oswego, N. Y., to Portland, Me., to pass through Warren county. The inhabitants of this county were greatly interested in the project. A railroad conference was held at Saratoga for a number of days, and was largely attended from all the interested sections. For want of vitality, means and harmony, the plan was abandoned and the road has never been built.
1 The information for the above sketch was kindly furnished by George F. Fowler, esq., of Sara- toga Springs, the attorney for the company.
294
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
1
CHAPTER XXII.
THE BENCH AND BAR OF WARREN COUNTY.1
W ARREN county was organized in 1813 from a portion of Washington county.
The first Court of General Sessions of the Peace for the county was held in the Lake George Coffee House at Caldwell on the 2d Tuesday of Septem- ber, 1813. Court organized as follows: William Robards, esq., presided as first judge ; Michael Harris, judge ; David Bockes and Jeremiah Russell, esqs., justices of the peace.
The following grand jurors appeared and were sworn, to wit : -
Halsey Rogers, foreman, Dilivan Gardner, John Darby, Roger Haviland, Thomas Tilford, John H. Hitchcock, Benjamin Wing, jr., Elisha Folger, John S. St. John, Benjamin Barret, Edward Cornwell, John Lindsey, David Alden, Luther Stebbins, James Ware, Nathan Goodman, Obadiah Knapp, James L. Throman, Herman Hoffman, James Archibald, Solyman B. Fox, Thomas M. Wright.
The grand jury presented to the court seven indictments, four for assault and battery, one for assault and battery with intent to murder, and two for forgery.
Mr. Russell having been appointed district attorney, acted as such at this court. The first criminal action tried in the county was The People vs. John Harrison for an assault and battery upon the body of Isaac Farr, before the following grand jurors : Nehemiah Wing, David Havilan, Jonathan Pitcher, Obadiah Mead, Frederick Hubbell, Nathanial Tripp, Orson Mead, O. Taylor, Reuben Smith, Solomon Moon, Reuben Green, Isaac Washburn.
David Sisson and Andrew Parsons were sworn as witnesses on the part of the people, and Isaac Farr was sworn as a witness on the part of the defend- ant.
The jury, after being charged by Judge Robards, retired and rendered a verdict against the defendant of guilty of the assault and battery as charged in the indictment.
Whereupon, on motion of Mr. Russell, district attorney, the Court ordered " that the said John Harris for the offense aforesaid be imprisoned in the gaol of the county of Washington in close confinement far the space of two months."
At this court a second indictment against the same party for an assault and battery an the body of Daniel Sisson was tried and the defendant found guilty ; and this entry on the records of the court made : " Ordered the like sentence as in the last preceding cause."
1 Prepared by Hon. Isaac Mott, of Glens Falls.
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
The first Court of Common Pleas held in the county of Warren was held at the Lake George Coffee House in the town of Caldwell on the second Tues- day of May, 1813, and organized as follows: -
William Robards, esq., first judge ; Kitchel Bishop, Michael Harris, esqs., judges ; Jeremiah Russell, esq., assistant justice; John Beebe, clerk; William Peffer, appointed crier.
The following named persons were on motion admitted as attorneys and counselors, to wit :-
Robert Wilkinson, Roswell Weston, Asahel Clark, Henry C. Martindale, Lawrence T. Vankleek, Royal Leavens, William Hay, jr., Horatio Buell and Christian Sackrider.
The following orders were entered :-
" Ordered, That the rules of the Court of Common Pleas of the County of Washington as those adopted the 12th day of March, 1808, be, and they are hereby adopted as the rules of this court in all cases where they will con- sistently apply.
" Ordered, That every attorney of this court residing without the county (except attorneys residing in Sandy Hill in the county of Washington), shall appoint an agent who shall be an attorney of this court and who shall reside at Queensbury or Caldwell, which appointment shall be in writing signed by the attorney and filed in the clerk's office, and the clerk shall constantly have the names of the several agents of the respective attorneys appointing them, and the latter in alphabetical order, entered on a list to be kept in his office, and all notices and pleadings served on or delivered to such agent shall be good ser- vice upon the attorney on record, and in default of such appointment (except as aforesaid), the opposite attorney may proceed as in case when no attorney is employed."
Whereupon the court adjourned.
At a Court of Common Pleas held at the Lake George Coffee House in the town of Caldwell on the 2d Tuesday of September, 1813, by William Ro- bards, first judge; Michael Harris, esq., judge; Jeremiah Russell, David Boches, esqs., assistant justices.
Archibald Noble, Edward Noble, Duncan McEwan, Duncan Cameron, James I. Cameron, John Doig, Thomas Norman, Eliza Martha Norman, Rob- ert Simpson, and James Dow were naturalized and declared citizens of the United States.
The first civil cause tried in this court was Hannah Austin, administratrix, and Samuel Andrews, administrator, of the estate of Phineas Austin, deceased, vs. James Divine and John Divine.
Mr. Wilkinson, attorney for plaintiffs.
Judgment rendered for plaintiffs for $78.56 damages and six cents costs. Of the members of the Warren county bar, the name and fame of Enoch
296
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
H. Rosekrans occupies the most prominent place. E. H. Rosekrans was born at Waterford, New York, October 16th, 1808. His preparatory education was acquired at the Lansingburgh Academy. He entered Union College, and grad- uated in July, 1826, with honors. Studied law with his uncle, Judge Samuel S. Huntingdon, and after admission to the bar, in 1829, he became and con- tinued the law partner of the latter gentleman for about two years; came to Glens Falls in 1831, and was married to Cynthia Beach, of Saratoga Springs, in 1832, and received the appointment of Supreme Court Commissioner, and Master in Chancery the same year. In 1867 the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by Union College; was elected judge of the Supreme Court in 1854 and again in 1863, and continued to discharge the duties of that position until his term of office expired in 1871. He sought a renomination but failed to obtain it. His practical retirement from the bar soon followed, and although frequently consulted on important matters, he did not enter upon any active practice in court. Attorneys and clients, at times, found occasion to criticise his rulings from the bench as hasty and arbitrary. He was prompt to decide, and expeditious in the transaction of business; his language was concise and pointed, and his written opinions evinced an extensive knowledge and clear conception of the law seldom surpassed in the annals of the Supreme Court. He died May Ist, 1877, mourned by a large circle of private and professional friends.
Halsey R. Wing was born at Sandy Hill, Washington county, N. Y. He entered Middlebury College, Vermont, and graduated therein in 1832. His legal studies were pursued in the office of Hon. Samuel Cheever. He served for a brief period as assistant district attorney of Albany county. In 1835 he was married to Harriet N. Walton, of Montpelier, Vt. He came to Glens Falls in 1841, in which year he was admitted as counselor at law, and the fol- lowing year as solicitor in the United States Courts, and counselor in Chancery. In 1845 he became the first judge of the county, having previously been elected to the office of justice of the peace and inspector of common schools. In 1851 he entered into partnership in an already established business, the celebrated Jointa Lime Company, consisting of himself and Mr. John Keenan, and con- tinued a member of the successful firm up to the time of his death. After en- tering the Jointa lime firm he gradually withdrew from the practice of law and did not again appear as an active practicing attorney in court. Afterwards Mr. Wing became largely connected with many other important and successful industries of Glens Falls, and was always respected by his associates for his un- compromising honesty and faithful performance of every duty which he was called upon to discharge. A careful, discreet, pains-taking, honest lawyer, a wise and prudent counselor, a faithful husband, loving father, and generous, trusting friend, he will be remembered for his progressive usefulness and virtu- ous manliness as one of the noble characters who has left his imprint on the
1
HALSEY R. WING.
āļĢ
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THE BENCH AND BAR.
" sands of time," and made the world brighter and better by the force of char- acter and the virtue of good example.
Orange Ferris was born at Glens Falls in 1814. His elementary education was received in his native village. His collegiate course was pursued at the University of Vermont. He studied law in the office of Hon. William Hay, of Glens Falls, and was admitted to the bar in 1840. The following year he was appointed surrogate of the county, in which position he served for four years. In 1851 he was elected county judge and surrogate, was re-elected in 1855 and again in 1859, thus serving in that capacity for twelve consecutive years. In 1865 he received the appointment of provost marshal for the Six- teenth Congressional District, but declined to serve. In 1866 he was elected to Congress, and was re-elected the succeeding term. In 1871 he was appointed commissioner of the Court of Claims, and in 1873 was reappointed for four years to the same position. In May, 1880, he was appointed second auditor of the treasury department, a position which he occupied until removed by the Democratic administration of President Cleveland. Whether acting as judge, congressman, commissioner, or auditor of the treasury, Judge Ferris has always maintained a spotless character which has commanded universal respect. A sound lawyer, an impartial judge, a faithful executive, sincere friend, and honest man, he lives loved and respected by his friends and neighbors, hale and hearty for his advanced life, with many years of usefulness yet before him.
Isaac J. Davis was born at Castleton, Vt., in 1831. His education was chiefly acquired at the common schools. He came to Glens Falls in 1851 and commenced reading law in the office of L. H. Baldwin. Taught a district school the following winter, and in the spring renewed his legal studies with Henry B. Northup, of Sandy Hill, where he remained one year. He then re- turned to Glens Falls and finished his studies in Baldwin's office. He was ad- mitted to the bar in 1853, and immediately opened an office. From 1854 to 1857 he was a law partner of Halsey R. Wing. He was the Democratic can- didate for district attorney in 1859 and in 1863 for senator; was defeated, al- though running ahead of his party ticket in both instances. He was elected county judge in 1871 and again in 1877. He was twice married, to Miss Gray, of Arlington, Vt., in 1857, and to Miss Williams, of Schuylerville, N. Y., in 1865. The latter lady survives him. Judge Davis was emphatically demo- cratic in make up and manner, rarely lost an opportunity to make a new ac- quaintance, and as a consequence was more generally known through the county than any man that had ever lived in it. As a friend, counselor, and peacemaker Mr. Davis was very generally sought, and whenever an amicable adjustment was reached without service of legal papers, he invariably rendered his services free of charge, laughing as he would sometimes remark, " Oh, never mind ; let it go, that is all right." Generous beyond the capacity of his purse, never refusing to buy a book, feed a pauper, or feast a prince, he became the
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