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 47
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Reed Ferriss, of Duchess county, was an early and intimate friend of Abraham Wing, the founder of Queensbury, and purchased a large tract in the original patent. One of his lots was upon the eastern border of the town. Mr. Ferriss was the founder of Ferrissbury, Vt., according to Dr. Holden. The outlet of the Big Cedar Swamp derived its name from him, being called in the early survey and records, Reed's Meadow Creek. After the Revolutionary War Mr. Ferriss came up the river every season to look after his interests here
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and in Vermont. His eldest son was named Edward, was a hatter, and re- moved to Glens Falls about the year 1794, bringing with him about $500 in cash. At that time this was quite a fortune, and he was offered in exchange for it great lot number 29, of the original survey, now embracing the most thickly settled and valuable portion of the village of Glens Falls, and the offer was declined. Soon after his arrival here he bought the lot next north of the present Glens Falls Insurance building, on the rear of which he erected a hat shop, where he carried on business for a number of years ; he also built other structures and gave considerable impetus to the early growth of the place. In 1798 he erected a tavern on the site of the present dwelling owned by A. Newton Locke, and in 1802 he began building the old Glens Falls Hotel on the site of the present Rockwell House. A year or two later he diverted the springs of water and the rivulet on the side-hill, now covered by the Glens Falls Opera House, into a shallow reservoir, making a fish pond in the rear of Albert Vermillia's market building ; this was, for a period, one of the attrac- tions of the place. Early in the century he erected the long known structure on Warren street, now owned by Mrs. Dr. Holden, which was subsequently variously designated as Ferriss's Row, the Tontine, the Long Row, Hemlock Row, and McGregor's Row. This structure was burned in 1856. Mr. Ferriss married first Parthenia, daugher of Dr. Seth Allen, and second, her sister Hannah.
John A. Ferriss was a son of Edward and one of the leading men of Glens Falls. He was the first postmaster of the village, was president of the village in 1839 and held other positions of trust. He formerly carried on business on the corner of Warren and Glen streets, on the site of what is now the Holden block, and was recognized throughout the county as public-spirited and enter- prising, commanding the respect of all. He died in 1840. Hon. Orange Fer- riss, of whom a brief sketch is given in the chapter devoted to the legal profes- sion, was a son of John A. Ferriss.
David Ferriss was an early settler in the town, but little is now known of him. According to Dr. Holden, " while yet there was little more than a bridle path from Glens Falls, then known as the Corners, to the Ridge, he settled on the farm now occupied by Isaac Mosher a little south of the Half way Brook on the road to the Oneida, where he built him a log house, which he not long afterwards abandoned, and being of an adventurous turn, went west, where, af- ter various adventures, he was finally accidentally drowned in the Mississippi, while running a raft of timber down that stream. The name of Widow Ferriss appears recorded on the town book for the year 1792."
Of the Gilchrist families of Glens Falls and Fort Edward the same writer says that "the ancestor of the Arnerican branch came to this country shortly prior to the Revolution, and was the head of this which, among many Scotch families, in those early days, took up tracts of land in and about Argyle, He-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
bron and Fort Edward. The heir in the direct line failed for want of issue something over forty years ago. During Burgoyne's advance in the Revolu- tion, and while his force lay encamped at Kingsbury street, the Gilchrist home- stead with its family bible and records was burned by a party of marauding Indians. Other outrages and atrocities were perpetrated in the same neighbor- hood by the same gang. A single link in the chain of evidence necessary to establish the proof of heirship was thus destroyed, and so the estate with its immense revenues lapsed to the crown, and Queen Victoria makes it her sum- mer residence. A striking instance of the value of a perfect family record."
In the year 1795 David Sanford, son of Zachariah and Rachel Sanford, re- moved to Sanford's Ridge, in this town. He was born in 1769. At Sanford's Ridge he engaged in mercantile business in which he was very successful. His name appears as town clerk in the years 1802-3. He received the deed of lot No. 12 of the orignal survey, from George Southwick and Justus Brown. Mr. Sanford married Amy Hartwell, and was the father of George Sanford, who was born at Sanford's Ridge in 1805. The father died when George was but seven years old, but he assumed at an early age the management of the homestead and the care of his mother and several sisters. When he became of age he formed a co-partnership with Orlin Mead, his brother-in-law, in the lumber business, while that traffic was in its infancy ; the firm also carried on a large mercantile trade in Glens Falls. He was an active politician, held the office of supervisor and represented the county in the Legislature in 1841. He was one of the founders of the Glens Falls Academy, and one of its earliest trustees ; also one of the corporators of the Episcopal Church in the village, in 1840. In 1850 he removed to Ballston Spa, and a few years later to Syra- cuse, where he died in 1862.
Peter B. Tearse, whose name appears as Assemblyman from 1786 to 1789, then a resident of Fort Edward, and who was town moderator of Queensbury in 1795, was a man of prominence in the Revolution ; he was adjutant while stationed at Fort Edward at the time of Burgoyne's advance, and major in the regiment of Colonel Marinus Willet in 1777. Soon after the Revolution he settled at Fort Edward and married Polly Hunter, granddaughter of Mrs. McNeil, who owned an immense landed property valued even in those days at more than eighty thousand dollars. In 1798 Mr. Tearse was chosen one of the town assessors and also held other minor offices. About the beginning of the century he removed to the head of Lake George, and erected the first building on the site now occupied by the stone store in Caldwell. Here he carried on a trade in general merchandise. He also owned an ashery for the manufacture of potash at the foot of the hill near his store and on the bank of the lake at the north side of the brook. His success was not commensurate with his enterprise, which was at least half a century in advance of the age in which he lived. Attracted by the newly discovered mineral waters of Ballston,
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he removed thither, where he soon after died (in the year 1802), and where his remains now lie buried in an unknown and unhonored grave.
John Vernor's name appears frequently in the town records from 1795 to 1802. He was a merchant and inn-keeper at the head of Lake George early in the century and probably before that date, as it is on record that he was chairman of a public meeting of the citizens from various towns of Washington county, held at the house of Colonel Joseph Caldwell, of Kingsbury, on the 25th of February, 1793, at which Dr. Zina Hitchcock was nominated as the Federal candidate for the Senate. He was one of the earliest commissioned magistrates in the county, having been appointed February 24th, 1791. He was quartermaster in the Thirteenth Regiment from the Saratoga district, of which John McCrea was colonel, all of whose officers were commissioned Oc- tober 20th, 1775. John Vernor died December Ist, 1825, at the age of eighty. His son, John, jr., died in 1822, aged fifty-one.
One of the leading men of the town in early times was William Hay, born in Cambridge, Washington county, in the year 1790. He was related to Col- onel Udney Hay, who was prominent in the Revolution. About the begin- ning of the century his father, also named William, came to Glens Falls, em- barked in the lumber business and erected a store, the first building on the corner of Glen and Warren streets, now occupied by the Holden block. For a time he was very successful, but ultimately met with reverses and his prop- erty passed into the hands of others. During these reverses the son succeeded in acquiring an education, and in 1808 was studying law in the office of Henry C. Martindale, in this village. In 1812-13 he opened a law office at the head of Lake George. He raised a rifle company and in 1814 proceeded to Platts- burg, but did not arrive in time to take part in the battle. In 1819 he became the publisher of the Warren Patriot, the first and only regular newspaper ever published at Lake George. In 1822 he removed to Glens Falls and re- sumed the practice of law. In 1827 he was elected to the Assembly. In 1837 he removed to Ballston and three years later to Saratoga Springs, where he died a few years later. He held the office of district attorney of Warren county in 1825-27 and was otherwise honored by his fellow citizens. He was pos- sessed of fine literary abilities, broad general information and was a deep stu- dent.
Adonijah Emmons was a pioneer of the town and held the office of post- master at Glens Falls in 1816; he also practiced law and was an active and influential politician. He subsequently removed to Sandy Hill and published a partisan paper, the Sandy Hill Sun. He died in 1843 in Detroit, whither he removed his family in 1838. Halmer H. Emmons was his son-a man of emi- nence in the legal profession, and United States Circuit judge in 1870.
The name of William McDonald occupies a conspicuous place in the an- nals of the town. He was born in New Milford, Conn., in 1784. His mother
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
was Mary, sister of David Sanford, before mentioned. Mr. McDonald came to the town when he was eight years old, but returned to New Milford to se- cure a business education. He again came to Queensbury in 1799 and en- tered the employ of his uncle, David Sanford, as bookkeeper and accountant and soon had the full management of the large mercantile business. About 1805 he purchased his uncle's interest in the store and continued trade until 1808, when he removed to Waterford. Here he carried on a large business until 1820, when he returned to the Ridge and resumed trade at the old place. Three years later he disposed of his stock, removed to Glens Falls and soon afterward bought the old Wing farm; he enlarged and rebuilt the unfinished dwelling, making a spacious mansion, which he occupied until his death, Sep- tember 11th, 1870. Mr. McDonald held the office of town clerk as early as 1802-3 ; in 1821 he was nominated for the Assembly and overcame by his personal strength and popularity the opposition candidate, Asahel Clark, a man of great prominence. In the succeeding session Mr. McDonald was chiefly instrumental in securing a survey and appropriation for the Glens Falls feeder. He was elected the next year, only seventeen votes being cast against him; and was again elected in 1828. He was the first president of the old Commercial Bank, vestryman of the Episcopal Church at its formation, and received many other evidences of the confidence of the community.
Among other prominent early settlers of whom our mention here must be brief, was Dr. Seth Alden, of Shaftsbury, Vt., where he was born as early as 1749. He died at Fort Edward in 1809, or 1810, having removed there just previously. He practiced at Caldwell from the date of his removal from Shaftsbury (now unknown, but very early) until he left for Fort Edward, and was eminent in the profession. He is said to have been the first occupant of the old Lake House at Caldwell.1
Dr. Asa Stower, of Massachusetts, the pioneer of the medical profession in the country, came here in 1780, first making his home with William Robards at the Ridge. He subsequently bought a farm, lately occupied by Joseph Haviland, and later sold it and purchased the one now occupied by Anson Staples, where he passed the remainder of his days. He died May 25th, 1848.1
Two brothers, John and Robert Moon, emigrated to this town from Rhode Island about 1783 ; but little is known of the former, but Robert settled on the outlet of Long Pond, where he built a saw-mill and the first grist-mill in use in the town after the Revolutionary War. He had three sons, Solomon, Robert and Benjamin, who lived near each other and carried on the mills and farming business after their father's death.
Parsons Ranger was here before the beginning of the century; his son, Samuel Ranger, was born in the town in 1796. He built the first Presbyterian
1 See chapter on the medical profession.
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Church in the town in 1806-8, the original subscription paper for which re- mains in the hands of his descendants. (See history of the Presbyterian Church and original subscription list, presumably embracing most of the resi- dents of the vicinity at the beginning of the century.)
Stephen Stephenson came into this town about the year 1785 and settled on the Dunham's Bay road, where he made a small clearing and erected a log house. At that time there were only eighteen families residing in the whole town. His daughter Emma became the wife of John Goss.
Phineas Austin was a very early settler, and father of John D. Austin, who was born here in 1786. John Austin, now a resident of the town, is a son of John D. His grandmother died here in 1856, at the age of one hundred and two years.
Josiah Burnham settled in Moreau in 1784, and subsequently came to this town. He was in the War of 1812 and drew a pension for his services. He married a granddaughter of the elder Abraham Wing. His son was Cyrus Burnham, who was the father of Glen F. and Julius R. Burnham, at present residing in the town.
Reuben Numan came to the town with his parents when he was fourteen, (1792), and located at the Ridge. Charles P. Numan, a farmer in the town, is a son of Reuben.
The Haviland families have been identified with the history of the town from early years, and descendants now occupy prominent positions, business and otherwise, in the community. Roger Haviland settled here as early as 1795, when he occupied a house which stood facing the south street at the turn of the road leading to the big dam; this house was burned about 1858. Roger Haviland afterward removed to the Ridge. Abraham Haviland was a resident of the town, also, previous to the beginning of the century, and had a blacksmith shop on the site of George Ferguson's store in Glens Falls. He had a son named John G. Haviland, who had a son, John M. The latter was father of John G. Haviland, now a member of the firm of Havilands & Gil- bert. The elder Roger Haviland had sons named David, Solomon, Joseph and Roger. A son of the latter, also named Roger, was father of C. W. Hav- iland, of the firm just named. Four branches of the family, all descended from Roger, the pioneer, are represented in the town.
John Vanduzen came to the town in 1785. Robert Vanduzen, now living near French Mountain, at the age of ninety-four years, with his son Ransom, is a son of John.
Augustin Odell was the pioneer of the families of that name in this town. His name appears first in the town records in 1788.
Other early settlers were Job Beadlestone, who came during the Revolu- tionary War and located near Harrisena. His daughter, Phebe Ann, married Veniah Harris; the latter was a grandson of Moses Harris, the pioneer, and
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son of Henry Harris. Palmer B. Jenkins settled in the town before the begin- ning of the century, coming with his father, Simeon. Gamaliel Jenkins, of Harrisena, is a son of Palmer B. Jonathan Crandell came in at about the be- ginning of the century. Isaac Crandell, the florist at Glens Falls, is a grand- son of Jonathan. Col. A. W. Morgan came to the town in 1813 and learned the harness-maker's trade with Judge Henry Spencer. In 1835 he purchased eleven acres of land, covering the central part of the site of the village of Glens Falls, for $800; this he laid out into lots and sold, continuing the real estate business until 1870. He laid out several of the village streets. He now lives on a farm two miles north of Glens Falls.
The names of many other early settlers and prominent men of this town will appear in succeeding pages, in connection with the professional, mercan- tile and manufacturing interests of the county.
A conspicuous figure among the early settlers and one well remembered by them was that of the Indian preacher known as Father Paul. According to tradition he was a pure blooded Mohican, a connection of the great Indian preacher, Sampson Occum, and a pupil of the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock. Father Paul came to Queensbury soon after the close of the Revolutionary War, re- moved to Caldwell, and later to Bolton, the "principal theatre of his ministerial labors." He had six children : James, Phebe, Jonathan (called Daunt), Benoni, Henry, and Sampson. The children were all a dissipated, worthless set, scof- fers at religion and social restraints, "given over to reprobate minds." Samp- son Paul's name appears in Judge Robard's docket, in 1802, as defendant in a lawsuit ; and Anthony Paul himself is recorded as defendant in a suit March 18th, 1805, in which David Osborn, jr., merchant, is plaintiff. Father Paul was duly licensed to preach, and being the only person thus qualified who had then made a home with the settlers hereabouts, he was invited to address them on the Sabbaths on the themes of religion. He did so and they were edified. He shared with them their joys, he buried their dead, and consoled them in their afflictions, but the appetite which had wrought its evil work upon his race was the subject of his indulgence and effected his ruin. He became a confirmed drunkard ; he was, consequently, discarded as a public teacher, and departed with so little regret to the neighborhood that no record is left of his decease. He is described by one who saw him before his downfall as being universally beloved and deserving it. "His broad, high-cheeked, copper-col- ored face was spread over with an habitual smile of benevolence, and when, at times, lit up with zeal, he opened his mouth with words of kindness, and showed a broad row of beautiful teeth, the whole countenance was actually beautiful. He had his weakness and we know it; but he was good to us, and so he got his daily bread among us and ministered from house to house and on the Sabbath in holy things, etc. etc. At length Father Paul went from us, whether falling a victim to his debasing habit, dying in a poor-house, or escap-
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ing in some distant haunt among his countrymen, I could never learn. The general belief was that he died alone; that he built a hut far down the lake, just below The Narrows, and where the beetling cliffs of Tongue Mountain almost shut up the passage, and there subsisted by fishing and hunting, until a kind Providence granted him his release."
We have already alluded to the settlement in Queensbury of William Ro- bards. His son, William, jr., was for a number of years early in the century in the Commission of the Peace and later was promoted to the bench. The following list of marriages performed by him throws considerable light upon the residents of this region in early days. We give merely the names of the contracting parties, without the often quaint accompanying remarks found in the docket : -
November 19th, 1801, George Bates and Mary Beadleston. December 30th, 1801, Reuben Seelye and Cynthia Odel, both of Queensbury. May 2d, 1802, Waterbury Gray and Betsy Stone, "Betsy of Queensbury and Gray of Westchester county." September 5th, 1802, John Goss and Emma Steven- son ; Goss was from Fort Ann, (Westfield.) September 21st, 1802, John A. Ferriss and Hannah Alden. October 31st, 1802, Jonathan Strickland and Katy Hubbel. November 16th, 1802, John Amiden and Rachel Sumner. January 2d, 1803, William D. Harris and Sina Chandler. August 12th, 1803, Luke Dalrymple and Susanna Jenkins, married at the house of Joseph Jenkins, in Queensbury. August 14th, 1803, Azel Stevens and Polly Tyrrell ; married at Peter Peck's, Queensbury. August 28th, 1803, Seneca Lapham and Rachel Allen. September 11th, 1803, Dexter Whipple and Rebecca Danforth, mar- ried at Joshua Danforth's. October 23d, 1803, Enoch Haskins and Anna Hill, married at Anson Comstock's, Queensbury. October 28th, 1803, Joseph Jen- kins and Judah Bailey, "married at my house, Free Agents." November 20th, 1803, Edmund Peck and Sally Ranger, "was then married at Person Ranger's." November 24th, 1803, Jeremiah Tubbs and Sybil Odel. May 21st, 1804, Isaac Hollibird and Charlotte Parks. May 25th, 1804, Henry Harris and Margaret Brown. June 24th, 1804, Benjamin Seelye and Anna Haight. July 4th, 1805, Schuyler Brown and Lydia Simpson, married at the house of Elnathan San- ford. August 18th, 1805, Samuel Sherman and Peggy Thompson, married at the house of Samuel Thompson. September 8th, 1805, Joseph Winslow and Polly Wells. November 24th, 1805, William Tripp and Hannah Mead. March 26th, 1806, Thomas Hammon and Keziah Reynolds, married at the house of Solomon Reynolds. May 10th, 1806, James Robertson and Martha Van Kleek. September 2Ist, 1806, Amos Irish and Vina Harris: and Daniel Peck and Tenty Sisson, married at the house of N. Sisson. September 12th, 1807, Jacob Odel, jr., and Phebe Brown; and Clark Jenkins and Rebekah Smith, at the same time and place.
It is probable that this list embraces a large majority of the marriages in
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the town during the period referred to, and most of the parties were among early residents of Queensbury, and many of them became prominent. William Robards, jr., died March 27th, 1820, at the age of forty-two years. He is buried in the little enclosure at the Round Pond. In his docket is a record which goes to show that he looked with little favor upon the evil of intoxication. It reads as follows : -
" Washington county. Be it remembered that on the 10th day of Septem- ber in the year of our Lord 1805 * * * was convicted before me Wm. Robards one of the Justices of the Peace in and for the County aforesaid on my view for being drunk in the town of Queensbury in said county on the day aforesaid. Given under my hand and seal the day and year above written."
This was followed by other entries of a similar character. The convic- tions become of some importance when we remember that they were adjudged at a time when intoxication was not considered the exception to general good conduct, as at the present time.
It will have been seen by the foregoing pages that with the opening of the century, settlement had rapidly progressed in this town; and before the end of the first decade, the tide had turned to a great extent from the flat, alluvial lands of the " Genesee country," which were gaining a reputation for unhealthi- ness, northward along the old military road and the newer forest pathways, where not half a century before armies were marching and countermarching, leaving battle-fields behind them as mementoes of their sanguinary strife. Glens Falls was then a thriving hamlet and settlers had located in many other parts of the town, while the sites of the now populous cities of Syracuse, Rochester, Cleveland and Cincinnati were almost uninhabited wastes. The vast pine for- ests hereabouts offered irresistible attractions to hardy lumbermen, and the almost unlimited water power turned the numerous wheels of mammoth saw- mills on every hand.1 Spafford's Gazetteer of New York, published in 1813, says in reference to Glens Falls at that time: "On the north shore [of the Hudson] are 2 saw-mills, the one a gang mill with 21 saws, a trip hammer, and a very valuable grain mill, with 4 running stones is now building on the site of the old one, by Gen. Pettit, the enterprising proprietor of the other mills." And the same work further says upon this topic, that there were twenty-three saw-mills in active operation in the town of Queensbury in 1810, six of which were located on the outlet of the "Great Pond." Large quantities of lumber were also manufactured at that date in Luzerne and Hadley, which was drawn around the " Big Falls," rafted down to the Bend, taken out and drawn over-
1 Rev. Dr. Dwight traveled through this region in 1798, and thus expressed himself: "Thursday, Oct. 4, 1798, we left Sandy Hill, and rode two miles and a half up the Hudson, to see the cataract, called, from a respectable man living in the neighborhood, Glen's Falls. . Almost immediately . above the cataract is erected a dam eight or ten feet in height for the accommodation of a long train of mills on the north, and a small number on the south bank." In contrast with this is what the same observer wrote in 1811 : " At Fort Edward, Sandy Hill and Glen's Falls, there are three handsome villages, greatly improved in every respect since my last journey through this region."
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