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 67
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The Carpenter Hotel has just been leased by Messrs. Hamilton & Craig, who are successors to Sullivan & Madden. Next before them J. H. Carpenter ran the house for twelve years. It will now; after having been twice enlarged, accommodate one hundred guests.
The Lake House, just north of the Central House, on the opposite side of the street, is built on the oldest hotel site at the lake. It is three hundred feet long. The Harris House, south of it, belongs to the same proprietor, who makes use of it only during the busy season. F. G. Tucker is the proprietor.
The Fort William Henry Hotel was rebuilt from an older hotel, in 1868, by T. Roessle & Son, who are also proprietors of the Arlington, at Washington. It is from four to six stories in height, and fronts three hundred and thirty-four feet on the lake. It covers the site of the old Fort William Henry, hence its name.
The Prospect Mountain House is built at an elevation of nearly 1,800 feet above the lake. The Mount Ferguson House is on a point which though really lower than the main mountain, appears from Caldwell to be higher. W. J. Ferguson, proprietor. Fort George Hotel was completed and ready for. occupation in 1874. It is on the east side of the lake, near the head, and has a capacity for nearly three hundred guests. E. L. Seelye is proprietor.
Crosbyside, formerly known as the United States Hotel, is across the lake from Caldwell. It will accommodate about two hundred guests. Proprietor, F. G. Crosby. The Carpenter and the Central Hotels are the only ones which are kept open winters as well as summers.
To S. R. Stoddard's little hand-book entitled Lake George we are indebted for much of the information concerning the hotels above mentioned, and we cannot do better than quote a few words from the same interesting chapter con- cerning the Indian emcampment : -
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
". A remnant of the once mighty race of Mohicans still lingers ; ' they are given to lingering ; they prefer it to anything else; their wigwams are found in the borders of the forest, just west of the entrance to the Fort William Henry grounds. Six or seven families in all, from the home of the St. Francis Indians, in Lower Canada, coming in the spring and usually returning with the frosts ; descendants of the Abenakis-' O-ben-ah-keh - they will tell you, and pure blood at that."
Mercantile .- Dennis Lyon, successor to Charles E. Hawley, keeps a gro- cery store in Caldwell. E. A. & C. J. West have been running a general store since 1883. They were preceded by Coolidge & Lee, and they by Sylvester Lewis, who started the business. Dr. William R. Adamson has kept a drug store on Main street for about six years. A. Wurtenberg has for the last ten years opened regularly every season a dry goods store in the village. He oc- cupies the old stone store. Julius Tripp, in the fall of 1884, succeeded Adol- phus Brown in the hardware business. George Smith has had a grocery store at the upper end of the village since the fall of 1884.
John R. Potter and S. R. Archibald are the shoemakers of the locality.
Physicians. - Dr. William R. Adamson was graduated from the Bellevue Medical College in 1873, and came to Caldwell in 1875. Dr. F. H. Stevens was graduated from the Medical College at Castleton, Vt. (now the Burlington Medical College), in 1849. He practiced first with his preceptor at Crown Point. Came to Caldwell in December, 1884.
Churches .- The oldest church in Caldwell is the Presbyterian, which had a predominating influence in the ecclesiastical councils of the old Union Church before mentioned. The present structure was built in 1855, and took the place of the old one. The pastor at that time was the Rev. Eldad Goodman, suc- cessor to Rev. Eastman. He was followed in 1858 by Rev. S. Huntington, who remained until 1861, and was replaced by the Rev. Eldad Goodman. In 1870 Rev. James Lamb was called and remained until 1884. Then Rev. S. Huntington came in until 1878. In that year the present pastor, Rev. Robert Barbour, accepted his call. The church was organized in 1830. The records the first year or two were signed by Amos Savage. In 1848 the church dis- solved, and in 1851 reorganized. The present officers are: Elders, F. G. Crosby, G. W. Tubbs, G. W. Smith; deacon, Edwin White; trustees, A. S. Harris, M. N. Nichols, G. W. Tubbs. The present membership is forty-one. The pastor acts also as Sunday-school superintendent.
St. James Parish (Episcopal) was organized in 1855, and a frame church edifice at once erected. The clerk at the first meeting was Austin W. Holden. The first wardens were James Cromwell, M. D., and William H. Smith ; the first vestrymen, John N. Robinson, Horace Welch, Samuel R. Archibald, John J. Harris, Hiram Wood, Henry M. Norman, F. G. Tucker, and William Vanghn. The first rector was the Rev. Robert Locke. His successors have been con-
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secutively, Revs. Robert F. Crary, John F. Potter, James A. Upjohn, and the present rector, Rev. Charles H. Lancaster, who commenced his labors here in March, 1874. In May, 1866, the first frame church was blown down by a mighty wind and the present edifice immediately begun on the same site. In 1879 the rectory was built at a total cost of $3, 183.45, by Thomas Fuller, the original designer of the State capitol at Albany, and now chief architect of the Dominion of Canada. The present value of the church and lot is $10,000, and of the rectory and lot, $5,000. There are ninety-one communicants in the par- ish, and the Sunday-school, with the rector as superintendent, has forty-eight pupils and six teachers. The present officers are: Rector, Rev. Charles H. Lancaster ; wardens, H. H. Hayden, and George H. Cramer ; vestrymen, S. R. Archibald, F. G. Tucker, Le Grand C. Cramer, Walter J. Price, James Cran- dall, Kleber Burlingame, Galloway C. Morris, and Charles M. Schiefflin. Sam- uel R. Archibald has been clerk of the vestry since 1869.
In 1884 a Methodist Church was organized, and a chapel erected in 1885. The Rev. Webster Ingersoll supplied the pulpit for several months. The Rev. Mr. Potter was the first pastor. Membership thirty. E. J. West is the Sun- day-school superintendent.
Water- Works .- The first water-works were built in Caldwell in 1879, but proved inadequate and were adandoned. In 1883 new works were built by a stock company on Prospect Mountain, which afford an abundant supply of water for fire and domestic purposes.
Hill View Post-office .- This post-office was established in 1877, four miles north of Caldwell. E. L. Patrick, M. D., has been the postmaster from the beginning.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF WARRENSBURGH.
T HE town of Warrensburgh lies upon the east bank of the Hudson River, and is formed of a long strip of territory extending north and south. It is bounded on the north by Chester, on the east by Caldwell and Bolton, on the south by Luzerne, and on the west, upon the other side of the Hudson, by Thurman, Stony Creek, and a small part of Saratoga county. The Schroon River, which forms the northeast boundary of the township, flows southerly for some distance and then turning abruptly from a southerly to a westerly course, divides the town into two nearly equal parts, and flows into the Hudson; the Hudson itself, and the numerous small tributary streams which feed these rivers,
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
constitute the principal drainage. Along the Hudson and Schroon Rivers the soil is alluvial and sandy, elsewhere it is stony and difficult to cultivate, except- ing in small strips consisting of a light loam.
The peninsular portion is a rolling plateau varying in altitude from six hundred to one thousand feet above the river. The southwestern part is occu- pied by an immense mountain mass, containing several peaks which rise to an elevation of from two thousand four hundred to three thousand feet above tide. It has been estimated that nearly two-thirds of the land is arable.
Warrensburgh was formed from the old town of Thurman, on the 12th day of February, 1813. The territory which it comprises had been partly re- claimed from a savage state for many years, though even in 1813 it might be called a sparsely peopled tract. Indeed, as late as 1836, Gorden's Gazetteer describes the town as being mountainous and wild, covered with woods and abounding with iron ore.I
The earliest settler in the town was William Bond, who moved in 1786 on to a tract of land situated about two miles southwest from the site of the village of Warrensburgh. Bond's Pond was named from him. He had passed away before the present town was formed, of course, and the records have no mention of his name. From an article in the Warrensburgh News, under date of January 15th, 1885, corroborated by living witnesses whose memories reach back nearly to the beginning of the present century, and who are con- versant with the traditions of early days, we are able to give a tolerably good account of the early settlers of this interesting region. The immigration of William Bond was quickly followed by the coming of other pioneers who for- sook, oftentimes, the more plodding and less laborious life of New England, for the rough and even perilous struggle for existence in this unpeopled wil- derness. In 1787 Joseph Hatch moved on to what is known as the Duncan McDonald farm, now owned by Stephen Griffin, 2d. In the same year Joseph Hutchinson, and Gideon and Stokes Potter came here. Josiah Woodward moved here also in 1787 from Connecticut, and like the others, brought his family with him. They were the seventh family that settled in the section of the country north of the head of Lake George. He lived on the same ground now covered by the new house of John L. Russell. Judge Joseph Wood- ward, still living, is his grandson, and the son of Isaac Woodward, who was fourteen years of age when he came here with his father in 1787. Aaron Varnum came here in 1788. In 1789 James Pitts built a tavern on the site of the Warren House, and in the same year Timothy Stow moved on to the farm now owned by Samuel Judd. Pelatiah Richards came in 1802. He was born on the 19th day of February, 1786, and was a prominent merchant in the village of Warrensburgh for many years. He was town clerk in 1825, and supervisor from Warrensburgh in 1830, and again in 1838. He died Feb- ruary 11th, 1870.
1 No iron has ever been worked in the town.
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TOWN OF WARRENSBURGH.
In 1804 James Warren came to Warrensburgh. He was for years propri- etor of the tavern kept by John Heffron, and also kept store for a number of years in the building now used for the same purpose by James Herrick. He built and conducted quite an extensive potash factory or "ashery " on the north side of the Schroon River about where Mrs. James Fuller now lives. It was customary in those early days to hold the annual elections at different points in the town for three consecutive days, it being practically impossible to establish any central point which would enable all the voting population of the town to cast their vote and return home on the same day. In 1811 James Warren, while returning from an election held on the farm now owned by Nathaniel Griffing, of Thurman, was drowned by the upsetting of a skiff in the West River. Nelson Warren, then a boy ten years of age, was with his father at the time, and it is said that the excessive fright caused his hair to turn white. Two years after this fatality Warrensburgh was organized, and named after this prominent man. After his decease his personal representatives car- ried on all the branches of his business for several years.
Soon after James Warren arrived here in 1804, Kitchel Bishop settled on the ground now covered by the dwelling-house of Dr. E. B. Howard. He was a farmer and owned all the land at present owned by Mrs. Minerva King. Judge Bishop represented the county thirteen years in the Legislature. About the year 1810 or 1812 he established a small tannery, the first in the town.
Another early settler of prominence was Dr. McLaren, who must have come here before 1790. He lived and practiced medicine on the site of the present dwelling house of Stephen Griffin, 2d. He married Susan Thurman, daughter of Richardson Thurman. Richardson Thurman was a nephew of John Thurman, the original patentee of all this part of the county and the owner of nearly all of what was known as Hyde Township, including the greater part of all the territory now covered by the towns of Chester, Warrens- burgh and Thurman. Dr. McLaren's wife inherited from the Thurman family a lot of 500 acres, called Lot 22 of Hyde Township, running along the west side of the Schroon River in the west part of the village of Warrensburgh. Dr. McLaren died in the first decade of years in the present century.
In the early part of the nineteenth century the population along the rivers and on the more fertile tracts of lands in the surrounding county began per- ceptibly to increase. Stephen Griffing, who is still alive and of keen and accurate memory, gives an excellent picture of the natural and business condi- tion of the community as early as the period between 1800 and 1810 or 1812. He was born in Duchess county on the 6th of June, 1796, and came here in March, 1800, with his father, Stephen Griffing, sr., who had served in an official capacity for five years in the Revolutionary War and drew a pension for his services. When he first came here he settled where his son, Nathaniel Griffing, now lives, and three miles and a half southwest of the site of the vil-
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
lage of Warrensburgh. He began at once to clear the land and conduct a farm there. At that time William Hough, a blacksmith, was living on the Chester road, a mile from Warrensburgh. He went away soon after 1820. Myron Beach boarded in the tavern (now the Warren House), and kept a store where James Herrick now does. He afterwards went to Lake George, where his death occurred. He was a brother of Mrs. James Warren (Melinda Warren), and it was not until after Mr. Warren's death that he kept the store as his suc- cessor. He was captain of a company of artillery that took part in the battle of Plattsburg. Joseph Harrington, a farmer, lived about a mile south of War- rensburgh. The farm was afterwards divided, and his sons, Israel and Warren, now live on the several halves. James Lucas occupied a farm about four miles up the Schroon River, near where his son now lives. Jonathan Vowers, an- other farmer, lived near him. Nathan Sheerman, farmer and plow-maker, lived about four miles up the Schroon River from Warrensburgh. He has no descendants now living in town. Abel Matoon ran a farm about a mile north of Sheerman's. David Millington, a farmer also, lived on the Hudson River about three miles westerly from the village. Duncan McDonald worked a farm near Millington. Daniel Geer, a mechanic, lived four miles south of the vil- lage. In 1801 Jasper Duell kept a tavern on the site of the Warren House. He was predecessor to James Warren. In the upper part of the present vil- lage (proper) of Warrensburgh there was, in 1800, but one building, an old school-house, which stood near where Judge Joseph Woodward's house now stands. Being the only school within a circle of a number of miles, it was well attended. There was no church edifice in town. As is usual in the early his- tory of all the towns in the State, the first religious meetings were held in the school-house. A Methodist Church was organized about here in 1796, and the first pastor was the Rev. Henry Ryan. The first store kept in town was that conducted by James Warren before mentioned. There was no manufac- turing done here so early as 1800. The roads through and from Warrens- burgh to Lake George, Chester, Bolton and Thurman were then quite traversable.
Among other early settlers were William Lee and William Johnson, the latter being the first white person to die in this town.
Coming down to a period a few years later, we find it expedient and inter- esting to write something more concerning the Woodward family.
Judge Joseph Woodward was born on September 20th, 1804, in this town, about three miles and a half north of his present residence on premises now owned and occupied by his nephew, William F. Woodward. Judge Wood- ward's father and grandfather have been mentioned in preceding pages. On the 5th day of March, 1828, Joseph Woodward married Julia, daughter of Lucius Gunn, a clothier, whose works were just east of the present tannery. She died in 1832, and in 1836 Judge Woodward married Charlotte, daughter
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TOWN OF WARRENSBURGH.
of Duncan McDonald. On the 24th of September, 1844, the subject of this . sketch moved to his present residence. Judge Woodward has a keen recollec- tion of Warrensburgh as it was when he was a boy, and has given the writer much valuable and interesting information. During the period between 1810 and 1820, lumbering became quite a prominent industry. The surface of this town not only, but of the whole county, and the counties to the north and west, was covered with forests of splendid pine, the demand for which gave a great impetus to the hitherto unaroused activities of the region. At this time and for years before there were a greater number of saw-mills in town than there are at present, though they were usually old-fashioned and small. Every brook large enough to turn a wheel was brought into requisition. Before 1810 Albro Tripp had a mill on a small brook north of the village. Dudley Farlin came soon after the organization of the town, and built the mills now operated by Emerson & Co. He continued proprietor of them until 1834, when he sold out to Nelson Warren. The logs were brought to his mills from all the sur- rounding country - large quantities floated, as now, down the Schroon River. Up to nearly 1820 Dr. McLaren had a small saw-mill on the north side of the river. Pine logs were then worth twenty-five cents, where now they would bring four or five dollars. In 1822 Joseph Woodward bought of James L. Thurman a saw-mill about four miles north of the village, on a little tributary of the Schroon.
The ample water power afforded by the two large rivers and their numer- ous tributaries occasioned the springing up of a number of mills and factories of various descriptions. Dr. Harmon Hoffman built and owned a grist-mill on the site now occupied by the Burhans Mills. He sold out to Dudley Farlin about 1816, after an explosion of powder had destroyed the store which he kept near the mill. A short distance above this mill were the ruins of a former mill which had been abandoned. Farlin rebuilt the structure which is still used as a grist-mill by the Burhans brothers. These were the only grist-mills in town. Potash was made hereabouts quite extensively. The ashery of James Warren has already been mentioned. Simon Hough ran a small factory north of the village a year or two in the second decade of years.
Even as late as 1810 the farms were all small. Josiah Woodward's clear- ing was probably the largest one in this part of the county, and it did not com- prise an area of more than forty acres. Kitchel Bishop's clearing was nearly as large, and James Warren's was about of equal size with Bishop's.
The only tannery built in early days here was the one owned by Kitchel Bishop about 1810. Its only successor is the extensive tannery owned by the firm known as B. P. Burhans & Son. The schools of this period were a sort of a community school, without much organization. The largest one in town stood where the stone store owned by Lemuel Woodward and the estate of A. G. Woodward now is. In 1811-12 Samuel Lake, of Chestertown, taught 37
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
there. Subsequently Samuel Stevens, who afterwards achieved prominence as a lawyer in Albany, taught this school. It was a framed building. The attendance was usually quite large, numbering often as many as sixty or seventy pupils.
Before 1810 the Methodists had erected a small church edifice on the site of their present church, and worshiped there in goodly numbers. Besides the Rev. Henry Ryan, already mentioned, the Rev. Tobias Spicer was well known here, and indeed, throughout the county. The Presbyterians had a meeting- house in the present town of Thurman, on the west side of the Hudson River, and a Rev. Whipple, from Chester, preached to them. Many people from Warrensburgh were prominent members of this church. These were the only churches then about here.
After further mention of the earlier settlers of Warrensburgh, we will look a little to the organization of the town.
One of the most prominent of the men still living, whose memory reaches back nearly seventy years, is Stephen Griffin, 2d.I He was born on October 18th, 1812, about two miles west of the village of Warrensburgh on the bank of the Hudson River. His father was John Griffing. His mother's maiden name was Catharine J. McEwan. John Griffing came to the town in 1798. He ran the farm summers and "lumbered it" winters. He died in 1827 at the age of forty-seven years. Stephen Griffin, 2d, came from the old home- stead in October, 1838, and began keeping the hotel in the village now known as the Adirondack House. After he had bought this property he married, on a Wednesday of this October, Maria Coman, of Luzurne, and on the follow- ing Saturday he and his bride began to keep the Adirondack House. Brad- ford Tubbs had preceded Mr. Griffin as proprietor of this tavern. The latter continued in possession until 1847, when he leased the property to Lewis Per- son. In 1874 Mr. Griffin was elected Assemblyman from this district. In 1884 he was appointed by Comptroller Chapin State agent for State lands - a position which he still holds.
Among the early settlers whom he remembers are James L. Thurman, a well- to-do farmer who lived in the house now occupied by Samuel Judd. He came from the town of Thurman (or Athol). He has two sons, Samuel and Charles, and one daughter, Mrs. James Woodward, still living in the village of Warrens- burgh. John McMillen lived on the road which leads along the west bank of the Schroon River, about one and a half miles from the village. He moved to Thurman about 1820. He was a farmer. A grandson, Wallace McMillen, now resides in North Creek. Joseph Norton, like nearly all the others, a farmer, lived north of Spruce Mountain, on the road to Chester. While liv- ing here, in addition to his farm labors, he kept an inn, but about 1820 he moved over to the south of the mountain and devoted himself exclusively to
1 This name is spelled differently by different members of the family, sometimes Griffing and again Griffin being deemed preferable.
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TOWN OF WARRENSBURGH.
farming. He died in Caldwell. Albro Tripp, casually named hereinbefore, was a farmer, and in what was formerly a part of Warrensburgh, on the Ches- ter road, where the mile strip was taken off and added to Chester ; he there- upon became perforce an inhabitant of the last named town. None of his descendants now lives here. He was captain of a company of milita, and went to Plattsburg during the war of 1812, but reached there too late to participate in the famous battle at that place.
Samuel Stackhouse, a carpenter and joiner and millwright, lived on the south bank of the Schroon River, on premises now owned by the peg com- pany.
The town was not without its coterie of physicians in those days. Dr. Harmon Hoffman lived in the village in the house now occupied by John Stone and David Woodward. Although a practicing physician he owned a grist-mill and saw-mill on the premises now occupied by A. C. Emerson & Co. About 1816 he and Abraham Wing, who afterwards went to Queens- bury, built a store near the iron bridge. After a few months it burned and was never rebuilt. Dr. Hoffman moved to Saratoga about 1820 and remained there until his death.
Dr. Thomas Pattison, a sketch of whose life appears in the chapter devoted to the history of past physicians, came to the village of Thurman in 1805 and boarded with the family of Richardson Thurman. He married that gentleman's daughter, Elizabeth, on the 4th day of February, 1810, and removed at once to the farm now occupied by John and James McGann. He practiced medi- cine here until about 1850 or 1855. He died February 6th, 1867. He has, now living, four sons - Elias, of Hammondsport, Steuben county ; Thurman, of Wellsboro, Pa. ; Augustus, of Williamsport, Pa., and James, of Ballston, N. Y., and two daughters, Mrs. Sarah Carpenter and Miss C. E. Pattison, both residing in the village of Warrensburgh.
The reader now has some idea of the condition of the country, and the names and the occupations of the residents of the town at the time of its or- ganization in 1813. He is therefore prepared to read with keener interest an account of some of the early town meetings, and of the quaint and self-ex- planatory resolutions passed thereat.
The first town meeting of the town of Warrensburgh was held on the 4th day of April, 1813, at the house of Mrs. Melinda Warren.1 The following persons were elected the first officers of the town: Supervisor, James L. Thur- man ; town clerk, Myron Beach ; assessors, Dr. Harmon Hoffman, John Mc- Millen and Joseph Norton ; commissioners of highways, Dr. Thomas Pattison, . Whitman Cole, Albro Tripp; overseers of the poor, Dr. Harmon Hoffman and Dr. Thomas Pattison ; constable and collector, Samuel Stackhouse ; fence
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