USA > New York > Saratoga County > Our county and its people : a descriptive and biographical record of Saratoga County, New York > Part 5
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The next permanent settlement at that point of which any authentic records are left as to dates and names, occurred in 1784, when the land embraced in the site of the village of Waterford was purchased by Colonel Jacobus Van Schoonhoven, -- Middlebrook, Ezra Hickok, Judge White and several other persons, most of whom had emigrated from Connecticut for the purpose of colonizing the fertile country at this point and founding a village at what they believed was and would remain the head of navigation on the Hudson River. There is abundant evidence, however, that several sturdy pioneers had located here prior to that year, for Half Moon had already been organized as a district (in 1772) and such commodities as the whites, but not the Indians, needed had been sent to that point by the merchants of Fort
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Orange. Immediately after the English conquest of Canada in 1760 settlements rapidly extended along the valleys of the Hudson and the Mohawk, and even some distance into the interior.
The first settlement in Ballston was made in 1763 by Michael and Nicholas McDonald, natives of Ireland, who had been enticed on board a vessel lying in the Shannon, brought to Philadelphia and sold for a term of years to pay for their passage. Their wilderness home was located near the west bank of Ballston Lake. In 1770 Rev. Eliphalet Ball, with his three sons, John, Stephen and Flamen, and several mem- bers of his congregation, removed from Bedford, N. Y., and settled in the vicinity of Academy Hill. To induce him to locate in the town and establish a church and conduct regular services, he received a do- nation of five hundred acres of land from the proprietors of the famous "Five Mile Square " tract. Soon after Mr. Ball's arrival large acces- sions to the settlement were made by immigrants from New England, New Jersey, Scotland and the North of Ireland, and in honor of Mr. Ball they named the locality Ball's Town.
George Scott, grandfather of Hon. George G. Scott, and great-grand- father of James L. Scott of Ballston Spa, came from the north of Ire- land and settled in 1774 in Ballston. His wife was a sister of General James Gordon. During the raid of 1780 under Colonel Munroe he was struck down by a tomahawk and left for dead, but he recovered. James Scott, his son, became a well-known surveyor. George G. Scott, son of James, became one of the most prominent residents of the town, which he served as supervisor for nineteen consecutive years.
General James Gordon was the most conspicuous among the pioneers of his day. He came to America from County Antrim, Ireland, when a youth of seventeen. He settled in the town of Ballston and located on the farm on the Middle Line road now owned and occupied in the summer by George T. and Roland W. Smith. So important a part did General Gordon take in the early history of Saratoga county, that the following brief account of his life, containing historical statements of general interest, is appropriately inserted in this chap- ter. It is taken from a work entitled: "Family Records of Theo- dore Parsons Hall and Alexandrine Louise Godfroy, of 'Tannancour,' Grosse Point, near Detroit, Michigan, including brief accounts of the St. Auburn, Scott-Gordon, Irvine-Orr and Navarre-Macomb families," collected by Theodore Parsons Hall and published in Detroit, Mich., in 1892:
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
James Gordon, as a child, was furnished with every advantage of education; was a fine classical scholar, destined for a profession ; but in a spirit of adventure set out for America in 1758, when a young man of but nineteen years of age. He had a relative in America named John Macomb, who, with his sons, was largely engaged in the Indian and Army supply trade, having stores at Albany, Fort Niagara and Detroit. John Macomb was from County Antrim, and married Jeanne Gordon, niece of Alexander. He was grandfather of Gen. Alex. Macomb, commander in- chief U. S. A. Gordon became a partner of the Macombs and later of their young clerk, John Askin of Detroit, a member of one of the old Canadian families. . . . The diary of Gen. Gordon, recording his adventures in his various journeys up the Mohawk to Oneida lake, thence via Oswego by canoe to Fort Niagara, and thence by canoe to Detroit, is of unusual interest. Gordon spent the winter previous to the Pontiac outbreak, 1763, in Detroit, and at this early day, thirteen years before the Revolution, he traveled on horseback through the forests from Detroit to Pitts- burg, thence to Philadelphia and New York, to Albany.
After a short visit to his old home in Ireland he converted his estate into money, returned in 1765 and purchased land in Saratoga, a district of Albany county (since the town of Ballston), and erected mills there. As early as 1708 Queen Anne had issued a patent for a tract five miles square where Ballston now stands. In 1763 a Scotch-Irish element, led by the Macombs, began a settlement there. In 1774 Gordon, having induced his brother-in-law, George Scott, with his family, consisting of his wife, his daughters, his mother-in-law and her sister, also his own sister, to- gether with a number of their Scotch-Irish friends, to locate there, a town was laid out, to which they invited Rev. Eliphalet Ball, previously of Bedford, Westchester county, N. Y., who established a church there, 1775. The course of England to- wards some of the Scotch-Irish in Ulster had engendered a bitter feeling, which naturally led them to espouse the patriotic cause in the struggle for independence. After providing houses for themselves, some twenty-five settlers, male and female, on September 22nd, drew up a covenant and founded there a Scotch Presbyterian Church. Mr. Ball was given a large tract of land (400 acres), and the place called Ballston in his honor. The father of Mr. Ball and Mary Ball, the mother of Presi- dent George Washington, were cousins. . James Gorden was from the start the leader and the life of the infant colony.
He had married, March 16th, 1775, Mary Ball, daughter of Rev. Eliphalet Ball. At the outbreak of the hostilities in 1776, he raised a regiment, recruited largely in Albany, afterwards Saratoga county. Near the close of the war (1780) he was taken prisoner in an Indian raid led by a Tory named McDonald, and after the war closed he was visited at his home by President George Washington, Gov. Clinton and other leading patriots. He participated in a number of engagements in that vicinity, and was present at Burgoyne's surrender. While a prisoner in Canada he was confined in the Recollet Convent, afterwards paroled for a time at Quebec, then escaped to Halifax, and was finally ransomed by his friend, James Ellice, for a heavy sum of money. . . . Gordon was commissioned Brigadier-General in 1786. Was a member of the Assembly 1777-8-9-80-4-6-7-8-9- 90. Senator, 1797-1804. In May, 1779, he was elected a Representative in Congress over Hon. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer of Albany. The district included all Western New York. On the organization of Saratoga county in 1791 he was appointed Judge
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of the Court of Common Pleas, and died January 17th, 1810, aged 71, leaving one child, his daughter, Melinda Gordon. born January 30th, 1777.1
Epenetus White, from Connecticut, located on the east side of Balls- ton Lake about the time General Gordon moved to Ballston, possibly a year earlier. His son, Epenetus White, jr., settled near the old iron spring in Ballston Spa about 1800 and engaged in merchandising till 1828, when he built the old red mill which was burned in 1874.
As early as 1770 Dr. Elisha Miller removed to Ballston from West- chester county, and settled on the east side of the lake, a short distance from the outlet. He was a practicing physician. During the war he removed his family to Schenectady, but returned himself to attend to his patients, frequently in the face of grave personal danger. He was a man of high attainments, and lived to an old age.
James, William and Samuel McCrea, brothers, also settled in Balls- ton before the war. James occupied the farm now owned by Henry Harrison, two and a half miles southwesterly from Ballston Spa. Will- iam occupied the Henry Davis farm adjoining it on the south, and Samuel settled on the McCarty farm north of James's place, on the west side of the road. Joseph Morehouse, and Nathan Raymond, his brother- in-law, from Connecticut, settled on the east side of the lake before the war. Captain Titus Watson also settled in the town before the war, probably as early as 1772. He served in the war as lieutenant and subsequently as captain. His home was located on the east side of the lake. Edmund Jennings came from Connecticut in 1775. His son, Joseph Jennings, resided in Ballston Spa for many years. Zaccheus Scribner located on the east side of the lake in 1770. His son Thad- deus served in the Revolution, and afterwards was a mail carrier for many years. Stephen White, a nephew of Epenetus White, came from Connecticut before the Revolution and served in that war. Hezekiah Middlebrook, also from Connecticut, located in town in 1772, and in the following year removed to a large farm in the southern part of Milton. He became a prominent, wealthy and very influential resident of the
1 " General Gordon, perceiving the need of a competent surveyor to lay out the new territory being rapidly settled after the close of the war, had his young nephew, James Scott, educated in this profession. Many of the most important surveys in Northern New York were made by James Scott, and his services as engineer utilized in a number of public works. He received from the Canadian government in payment of surveys, a large tract of land near the present city of Toronto. In 1809 he married Mary Botsford of Derby, Conn. He held a number of political offices, was master in chancery, and was final authority on all questions of land titles. Their only child, George Gordon Scott, was born at the old homestead in the town of Ballston, May 11, 1811. The latter afterwards became Judge Scott, of Saratoga county, New York."-Family rec- ords of the Scott-Gordon Family. By Theodore Parsons Hall, Detroit, Mich., 1892.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
latter town. John Taylor, who is believed to have been the father of Hon. John W. Taylor, at one time speaker of the House of Represent- atives, owned a farm in Ballston before the Revolution, but the home- stead stood just over the Charlton line. About 1770 Ebenezer Sprague came from Connecticut and located on the Middle Line road, a short distance north of the farm subsequently owned by General Gordon. His property afterward passed into the hands of James Thompson, and is now occupied by Miss Rhoda Thompson. Beriah Palmer, who came from Connecticut during the early days of the war, or probably a year or so prior thereto, and settled on the farm recently owned by the late Hon. S. W. Buell, near Burnt Hills, became a prominent man in his community, serving for many years as magistrate, supervisor and town clerk. He was widely known as Judge Palmer. Others who came prior to or during the early days of the Revolution, were Uriah Bene- dict, from Connecticut, who located on the East Line road; Nathaniel Weed, John Cable, John Young, Robert Speir, grandfather of the sher- iff bearing the same name; William Barnes, Sunderland Sears, Isaac Howe, Jabez Hubbell, Isaac Stow and the Davis family. The latter came about 1775 and located on the Middle Line road just north of Ballston Centre.
Settlements were also made in Wilton at an early date. As early as 1764 William and Samuel Brisbin, brothers, located in the limits of the present town, then known as Palmertown. They first located on the south branch of Snoek Kill, which subsequently became the Laing neighborhood. They made clearings and built a saw mill, but when the Revolution began they abandoned their homes and took up arms for the defense of the colonies. Rowland Perry, with his wife and eight children, removed from Dutchess county to Wilton in 1770. They entered the wilderness by way of a road cut by the Jessup family, early settlers of Luzerne, from Fort Miller, on the Hudson, by way of what are now Emerson's Corners and Wiltonville. The sons of this family bore the names of Samuel, John, Benjamin, Absalom, Roswell, Artemas, Rowland and Joseph. The McGregor family, after whom Mount McGregor is named, consisting of four brothers-James, Will- iam, John and Alexander, sons of John McGregor of Thorn Hill, Scotland-immigrated to New York in 1781, and in 1787 James and William settled near the site of Wiltonville.
Elijah Parks was probably the earliest settler in Moreau. He came from Salisbury, Conn., in 1766, and with his sons purchased about
Schw Whomprow .
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
eight hundred acres of land at South Glens Falls. He erected the dwelling house afterwards known as Parks's Castle, and a saw mill near the falls. His sons resided with or near him, and a son-in-law, Lewis Brown, occupied a double log house above the castle. Tradi- tion says that when the war of the Revolution broke out there were twelve families living between Fort Miller and Fort Edward.
Among these pioneers was Jacob Bitely and David Jones. The lat- ter, who came from Leamington, N. J., had a wife and four sons, one of whom, Colonel David Jones, served under General Burgoyne. He was engaged to marry Jeanie McCrea, who was killed while being con- veyed from the home of Mrs. McNeil to the British camp, as described in another chapter. At the close of the war the Jones farm was sold to General Rogers, who took possession in 1783. The Hilton family located in the eastern part of the town, and Captaie Tuttle, of whom very little is known, lived at the mouth of Snoek Kill.
The first record we have of the erection of any building in the town of Saratoga is the story of the convention held at Albany September 4, 1689, when a resolution was passed authorizing the building of a stock - aded fort " about the house of Bartel Vroman at Sarachtoge, and twelve men raised out of the two companies of the city and two companies of the county, to lie there upon pay, who are to have twelvepence a day, besides provisions, and some Indians of Skachkook 1 to be there with them, to go out as scouts in that part of the county." Bartel Vroman doubtless was the pioneer settler of Old Saratoga.
While the exact date is uncertain, it is probable that the mills and other buildings erected by representatives of the famous Schuyler fam- ily of Albany on the south side of Fish creek stood there as early as 1709. As this was twenty years subsequent to the year when Bartel Vroman's house is mentioned in the record of the Albany convention referred to, it is not improbable that other settlements may have been made in that locality between the years 1689 and 1709. This opinion is strengthened by the knowledge that Colonel Peter Schuyler 2 deemed it advisable to build a stockaded fort on the east side of the river in 1709. This fort was located on a high bluff about a hundred rods be- low the mouth of the Batten Kill, upon which General Fellows placed his cannon before Burgoyne's surrender. It stood there for nearly
1 These were the Schaghticoke Indians, who occupied the territory about the mouth of Hoo- sick river, in Rensselaer and Washington counties.
2 Colonel Schuyler was then in the service of the government in command of the advance guard of the second great Army of Northern Invasion.
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
forty years, but in 1747 it was abandoned and burned by the retiring English troops. If the Schuylers had mills at the point mentioned, somebody must have operated them, and consequently there must have been residences near by; but who these persons were probably never will be known.
The first village in the town of Saratoga of which any mention is made in history was called Saratoga, and was built about the Schuyler mills. In 1745 it contained about thirty families, who in that year were attacked by the French and Indians, and either killed, captured or driven away. The dwellings in the village were then laid in ashes. The exact date of the destruction of this first Saratoga is given as No- vember 17, 1745, but no details of the bloody event are extant. Col- onel Peter Schuyler was killed in his own home, while fighting to de- fend it.
It was not until after the peace of 1763 between England and France, when fear of massacre and pillage was in a measure relieved, that permanent settlements were made in Saratoga. Soon after the French were driven out and their Indian allies had stopped their depredations, the Schuyler mansion and mills were rebuilt by Philip Schuyler, who afterward commanded the northern division of the patriot army in the war of the Revolution. Then followed the immigration of a number of industrious, intelligent families, who came to work in the mills or to engage in farming or merchandising. About 1764 Abram Marshall came from Yorkshire, England, settling on the farm since known as the Marshall place. Thomas Jordan, his son-in-law, was also an early settler. Thomas Smith came from Dutchess county in 1770 and began the cultivation of an extensive farm. Hezekiah Dunham was another who located there before the Revolutionary war, in which he served. Joseph Welch came about 1765, served as a lieutenant in the American army, was taken prisoner and carried to Canada, where he was com- pelled to remain three years. John Strover bought a farm about 1770, but doubtless did not occupy it until the close of the war, in which he served with distinction as a scout. James I. Brisbin was a very early inhabitant, but whether he came before the war or not is unknown. Isaac Leggett and Gabriel Leggett settled in Stillwater, but their farm extended into Saratoga. They were founders of the Society of Friends here, as was also Tibbett Soule and George Davis, ante-Revolutionary inhabitants. Sherman Patterson settled before the war in the north part of what is now the village of Schuylerville. Colonel Van Veghten
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
who located at Coveville about 1772 or 1773, was a man of considerable local prominence. Conrad Cramer came as early as 1763. John Woe- man, - Swart, William Green, and three brothers named Denney lived in the eastern part of the town when the war began.
The most distinguished of all the families having interests in the town of Saratoga prior to the Revolution were the Schuylers, in whose honor the historic village of Schuylerville was named. An uncle of General Philip Schuyler settled at the mouth of Fish Kill quite early in the eighteenth century and erected some mills. Some time prior to 1767 General Schuyler came into possession of the estate. On his death it fell to his brother John, from whom it passed to the latter's son Philip, a nephew of the general. The latter became financially involved and the mansion, with the large farm surrounding it, was sold by his assignee to Colonel George Strover, a former agent of Schuyler's, who subsequently became active in raising funds for the Saratoga battle monument. The original Schuyler was killed at the destruction of the old village of Saratoga November 28, 1745. General Schuyler used the mansion he had inherited as a summer residence, he and his family spending the winter months at Albany.
Settlements were made in Stillwater at a very early date, probably following closely upon those made at Half Moon Point. The Vanden- burgh family located as early as 1732 on the eastern side of the river, above the falls, and it is but reasonable to suppose that settlements occurred on the west side of the Hudson, in Saratoga county, soon after that date, if not prior thereto. Aside from the Schuyler mills in Saratoga and the village destroyed there in 1745, the earliest settle- ments on the west side of the river north of Half Moon Point occurred in Stillwater. Dates of the earliest habitations are lacking. As early as 1764 George Palmer bought land within the limits of the town. He also bought mills already built there, which were then owned by Isaac Mann. These mills had been operated several years, and a consider- able colony had grown up about them, but whether they had been built five, ten, fifteen or even twenty years previous to their sale to "Palmer is not known. As far as can be learned, therefore, Isaac Mann was the first white man to build a home and remain for any length of time in Stillwater. When he settled there cannot be told.
In 1762 an entire church, numbering one hundred and one members, voted unanimously to remove to Stillwater, and the majority of them followed their resolution and did so. Thus it is seen that Stillwater
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
village contained a considerable number of inhabitants at least a dozen years before the beginning of the Revolutionary war. The male mem- bers of the congregation who signed the agreement to remove to Still- water were: Henry Stevens, Gideon Lawrence, Zebulon Stevens, Uriah Stevens, Robert Campbell, George Palmer, Lemuel Taylor, Eber Andrews, Benjamin Green, Ephraim Andrews, Ebenezer Wolcott, Ephraim Andrews, jr., John Frisbie, Solomon Campbell, Robert Camp- bell, jr., Jonathan Morey (or Mowry), Titus Andrews, John Fellows, William Patrick, Daniel Campbell, Cyprian Watson, Edward Firel, Joel Frisby, Reuben Wright, Israel Rose, Isaiah Keeler, Amariah Plumb, Phineas Stephens, Jesse Howard, Robert Patrick, Joseph Stevens, Ebenezer Andrus and Benjamin Munger. Whether all these persons came or not is not certain. This church, now the Congrega- tional church of Stillwater, for many years known as "the church at the yellow meeting-house," was the pioneer religious society of Saratoga county.
John Neilson, a native of New Jersey, came to Stillwater in 1772, at the age of nineteen years, determined to make a home here for himself. Three years later, after having worked in the meantime for a man named Quitterfield, living near Bemus Heights, he purchased a farm and married the daughter of his former employer. He became wealthy, and his sons and grandsons men of influence in the county.
Harmanus Schuyler settled in Stillwater about 1770 and engaged in the milling business. His mill was on the Hudson, a short distance below the present village, and consisted of a flour and grist mill, a saw mill and a carding and fulling mill. He had a family of five sons and two daughters. Before coming to Stillwater he had been in business in Albany for several years. In that city he had served as high sheriff from 1761 to 1770. He served as assistant deputy quartermaster- general under General Philip Schuyler, who was a relative and had charge of the construction of the boats used on Lake George. After the war he returned to his farm and mills at Stillwater, where he died September 1, 1796.
John Bemus kept a tavern at the southern end of the flats that formed the strategic points in the battles of Saratoga. He was located there when Burgoyne began his invasion, and according to early historians he settled there at least as early as 1762. Bemus Heights takes its name from John Bemus.
Ezekiel Ensign settled above the creek at Wilbur's Basin about 1772
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EARLY SETTLEMENTS.
or 1773, and owned a farm a mile square. When the news of Bur- goyne's approach came he removed his family to Albany, and upon his return he found his farm in the hands of the enemy and his residence in use as a British hospital. It is said several wounded officers in Bur- goyne's command died there and were buried in the rear of the house.
Major Ezra Buell, who was one of the most useful and daring guides who served in the patriot army, came to Stillwater a few years before the war. He was a bachelor and died as such. He was the first crier of the county court. His death occurred in 1838, at the age of ninety years. John McCarty was another early pioneer, occupying a large farm at Wilbur's Basin which he purchased about seven or eight years before the war. Evert Vandenburgh owned one of the richest farms in the town prior to the war, His buildings were burned by the Brit- ish in 1777. Jeremiah Hart came from Connecticut about 1775 and settled on the east side of Saratoga lake. In 1777 he served as a scout for the American army. George Coulter was also living near the fa- mous " Freeman's farm " when the war broke out.
Following closely upon the settlement of Half Moon Point1 came the penetration into the wilderness to the north along the banks of the Hudson, the section now embraced in the town of Halfmoon. We have positive information from the old Albany records that several families, mostly Dutch settlers, lived there before 1680, but how many years before that date they removed there is largely a matter of con- jecture. In 1718 Killiaen Vandenburgh built a substantial stone house2 about two miles north of Crescent, near the centre of the town. It was the most substantial house in that locality for many years. In 1714 the district of Half Moon, which included Waterford, Halfmoon and Clifton Park, contained one hundred and one inhabitants, mostly Dutch settlers. Oldert Ouderkirk, Daniel Fort and Joshua Taylor lived in the town prior to 1763. The year before a saw mill had been erected on Steena Kill, near Crescent. The old Leland farm was oc- cupied in 1748 by a family who were massacred by a party of French and Indians in 1748. The barn on the place is known to have been erected in 1737. John Flynn, an Irishman, settled in the eastern part of the town in 1752 or 1753 and kept a tavern until the beginning of the Revolutionary war, when he removed to Albany. James Deyoe3
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