USA > New York > Essex County > Elizabethtown > Pleasant Valley : a history of Elizabethtown, Essex County, New York > Part 15
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That monster of imperial birth, Whose chain encompaseth the earth And shackles ev'ry nation, Is money-plac'd in bribery's hands Tis seen-a Tompkins firmly stands And braves a Prorogation.
Suspending for a legal time In order to defeat a crime, The pow'r of legislation, And who but implicated knaves
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Call his prorogative that saves, A "Tyrant's Prorogation.'
Let disappointed ad'uce scowl, Let loud rebellious factions howl In dreadful agitation. Their deep nocturnal plots shall fail, Tompkins and Liberty prevail Spite of the Prorogation.
Tompkins and liberty then toast Our pride and safety, strength and boast Esteem and admiration. What independency of mind, What firm integrity we find In his late Prorogation.
And when our Councils meet again, Hope for the best-Hope every stain Of guilt or accusation May yet be fairly wip'd away,
So wish and so forever pray The friends of Prorogation.
The Supervisor of Elizabethtown for the years 1812 and 1813 was Azel Abel, then living on the farm in the Boquet Valley which is to-day owned and occupied by Robert H. Wood. The Inspectors of Election for the years 1812 and 1813 were Azel Abel, John Lobdell, Boughton Lobdell, Enos Loveland, Asa Post.
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War of 1812 Period.
War was declared against England at Washington, D. C., June 18, 1812. Brigadier General Daniel Wright of Eliz- abethtown, who commanded the militia of Essex, Clinton and Franklin counties, was immediately called to active duty. Gen. Wright received news of the declaration of war June 29th, through Major General Benjamin Mooers. The Hon. Benja- min Pond, then Congressman from this district, had been one of the most pronounced advocates of war.
A few days after the declaration of war came orders direct from Gov. Tompkins which we find in the Tompkins Papers, Page 360, as follows :
Albany, June 27, 1812.
Sir :- The detachment of Militia from your brigade is hereby ordered into service. The detachment from the Essex regi- ments will rendezvous at such times and places as you may appoint. Such of them as can conveniently assemble at Eliz- abethtown, and may not be armed, will arm and equip them- selves from the Arsenal at that place. They must supply them- selves invariably with blankets and with knapsacks if they have them. Such equipments as they may possess will be taken with them, and if defective, they will be exchanged at the public arsenals. The contingent expenses of transporting the detachment from Essex to Plattsburgh will be defrayed by the bearer, Capt. Campbell, with whom you will please to make the necessary arrangements for that purpose. Major Noble will take the command of the detachment, and Dean
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Edson, who is assigned as brigade quarter master, will also accompany the detachment to Plattsburgh. Major Noble will report himself on his arrival to Major General Mooers and re- ceive his orders, Brigade Quarter Master Edson will wait at Plattsburgh the arrival of instructions of Brigadier Gen. Micajah Pettit, of Washington county. The detachment from Clinton will rendezvous at Plattsburgh, and that from Franklin will rendezvous and remain at Malone, in said county, until orders shall be received from Major Gen. Mooers. The flat- tering accounts which I have received of your military talents and of your active and zealous patriotism makes me rely with confidence upon the earliest possible fulfillment of this order. I am, Sir, respectfully your ob't servant,
DANIEL D. TOMPKINS.
Brigadier General, Daniel Wright.
June 26, 1812, Gov. Tompkins wrote from Albany to Major John Mills, Washington County, as follows :
"You will proceed, with the military stores and articles direct to Whitehall on Lake Champlain, from whence you will trans- port them, together with the cannon ball belonging to the State, lying at Whitehall, to Plattsburgh and Essex arsenals. If an immediate conveyance by water cannot be obtained, you will proceed by land with the articles for Plattsburgh through Vermont to Burlington, and from thence send for Gun Boats and other vessels from Plattsburgh, or employ them at Bur- lington, to transport the articles to Plattsburgh, and from the proper point on Vermont shore send across those for Eliz- abethtown, Essex County."
The "proper point on Vermont shore" was, in all human probability, Basin Harbor. All boats with an oar or sail in the vicinity of Basin Harbor and Northwest Bay were doubt-
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less brought into use in the transportation of this "warlike freight." It is supposed that the first wharf at Northwest Bay was built during the War of 1812 and that "its necessity was first felt for unloading supplies for the Arsenal at Pleasant Valley." Once on the western shore of Lake Champlain the military stores were put into rude carts and dragged over the rough mountain road to Pleasant Valley, crossing the Black River at Morgan's Forge, now Meigsville, as the present Eliz- abethtown-Westport turnpike route then lay through un- drained swamps.
It would seem that war's loud alarm did not deter Wm. Ray from writing Gov. Tompkins regarding his (Ray's) circumstan- ces and the need of something being done for him right away. The following letter written 11 days after the declaration of war is well worth reproducing here :
Elizabethtown, June 29, 1812.
His Excellency Governor Tompkins,
Sir : Never in my life did I feel myself so oppressed-so injured-so degraded, so vitally wounded as at present. Little did I think after having received so many proofs of your Ex- cellency's friendly disposition towards me and having given so much testimony in my own favor that instead of being relieved I was to be plunged in still deeper distress. Concious that I have not deserved this treatment I felt it the more sensibly, but why do I complain ? What hopes can I have that my wrongs will be redressed ? I seem doomed to perpetual misery and disappointment without any cause. Ignorance, folly, stu- pidity and infamy are suffered to domineer over me. My pov- erty which ought to have been an advocate in my cause has been (I cannot but think) a cause of my defeat. Had I been rich those who have endeavored to destroy me would not have dared the attempt. Had I been less zealous in the
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Republican cause I should have had fewer enemies. I do not believe there ever was in this or any other country a person treated with more ingratitude and injustice than myself. My suffering situation in life-the extreme indigence of a worthy family-my appeal to justice, to sensibility, to clemency, all of which I believe your Excellency to possess, have been totally disregarded. "There is no flesh in man's obdurate heart but does not feel for man." But as I am determined to publish a pamphlet in defence of my rights and character, I shall not trouble your Excellency with any more fruitless complaints at present than just to state that as war is declared I should willingly accept of any station not too laborious for me to en- dure the fatigue of wherein I could prove to Your Excellency by deeds and not by words only that I am not altogether so useless and so bad as I have been represented. I beg of Your Excellency not to understand me that I impute to your Excel- lency my want of success in the application lately made by me for the clerkship as no such charge is meant.
My family is in a state of absolute starvation and if your Excellency should feel disposed to send me some trifling pe- cuniary aid until a situation could be procured for me I should feel thankful. Perhaps the office of Barrack master in or about Albany might be obtained for me or deputy Commis- sary of provision stores or some such sedentary employ- ment-or if I could obtain a place as Editor of a Government paper like the Albany Republican or even have money ad- vanced to continue the Editor of a paper here it might relieve my distress. But if there is no help for me, if I am forever abandoned by your Excellency do for heavens sake let me know it without delay. I hope I am not so utterly contempt- able as not to merit a reply.
ALONZO MCDONOUGH FINNEY, Elizabethtown's Grand Old Man.
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Many people here are much alarmed at the unarmed situa- tion of our militia on account of the hostility of the Indians.
With undiminished respect, I am your Excellency's most obedient humble servant,
WM. RAY.
It is learned from brigade orders sent to Major Ransom Noble July 4, 1812, that the final rendezvous of the troops was at Willsboro.
And so the Second War with England, commonly referred to as the War of 1812, began in Northern New York. Word passed from house to house throughout Elizabeth- town : "War is declared! The Governor has ordered out the militia !" The answering thought in almost every heart was "Indians !" From this terror the people of this region were never freed until after the War of 1812, in which the savages were employed by the British in many engagements. Gov. Tompkins, in his dispatches ordering the militia of Northern New York to the front, said: "I trust that when you reflect upon the indispensable nature of the service upon which the detachment is destined, the protection of our frontier breth- ren, their wives and children, from massacre by savages, you and every other officer and good citizen will join heart and hand in forwarding the execution of this requisition."
Just a week after Independence Day, 1812, Brigadier Gen- eral Daniel Wright's quill pen wrote his first report to the Commander in Chief, which read as follows :
Elizabethtown, July 11, 1812.
Sir : I received your Excellency's order of the 27th of June on the 5th inst., directing me to direct the militia de- tached from the Essex regiments to march to Plattsburgh.
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suffered no delay. I immediately informed Major Noble that he was to march with the troops to Plattsburgh. He cheer- fully received the order and proceeded on his way with his men on the third day after I received your Excellency's order.
I likewise informed Brigade Quarter Master Edson that he was to repair with the troops, which order he obeyed. Your Excellency may rest assured that all and every order within my power will be strictly and punctually attended to.
Suffer me to inform your Excellency that I have been flat- tering myself that there would some opportunity present to view that I could serve my country in some post of office that I could be of service to my country and receive some emoluments to myself, as I am not a man of fortune. I was three years in the late American Revolution, and have held seven different military commissions in the militia and have been doing duty for twenty-eight years past, to the present moment.
Should your Excellency think proper to remember me, I should gratefully acknowledge your Excellency's favor.
I am, sir, with the highest respect, your Ob't Serv't, DANIEL WRIGHT, B. G.
To His Excellency, Daniel D. Tompkins.
Thus wrote Brigadier General Daniel Wright, he who had served under Col. John Stark and whose commission as 2d Lieutenant had been signed in New Hampshire in 1786 by Gov. John Sullivan and whose commission as Lieutenant, dated 1791, was signed by Josiah Bartlett, who had been a signer of that immortal document, the Declaration of Inde- pendence, and who was then President of New Hampshire.
Following is a letter written by Gov. Tompkins to Wm. Ray a month after war had been declared:
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Albany, July 18, 1812.
Dear Sir :
I sincerely sympathize with you and your family and beg leave to say that no want of regard or friendship on my part has tended to defeat your prospects. On the contrary, I did suppose the appointment of your friend, Major Skinner, as Commissary for the Eastern District would enable him to give you some satisfactory employment in that Department. Such as the Superintendence of the Arsenal at Elizabethtown in his stead or something of that kind.
Should Major General Mooers have any situation or vacancy under his command which you would be willing to take and for which he will recommend you I will assign you to it imme- diately and put you in pay. My cares have been greatly mul- tiplied by the new attitude which our country has taken and this circumstance plead my apology for the delay in answer- ing yours of the 29th June.
I am, D'r Sir, with much regard, y'r ob't ser't,
DANIEL D. TOMPKINS.
WILLIAM RAY, ESQ'R.
Just before the declaration of war 14 persons met in Eliz- abethtown to organize the First Congregational Church of Lewis. Following is from a Historical Sketch of the First Con- gregational Church of Lewis, New York, Prepared by Mrs. Milford Lee, 1901 :
"On the 12th of June, 1812, a meeting was held at the house of Alexander Morse in Elizabethtown for the purpose of or- ganizing a Church. Deacon Levi Brown was chosen modera- tor. There were present Rev. Cyrus Comstock, Rev. Mr. Bur- bank and the following persons, who became members of the organization : David Johnson and wife, Obed Holcomb and
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wife, Sage Churchill and wife, Polly Morse, Mahitable Wood- ruff, Widow Nicholson, Cyrus Nicholson, Percy Nicholson, Sally Sykes, Clarissa Lee, Ishmael Holcomb. It was resolved to organize a Church for the town of Lewis and a part of Elizabethtown to be called The First Congregational Church of Lewis. These fourteen persons uniting in Church relations formed the first Church organized in Lewis.
Rev. Mr. Burbank preached occasionally in 1812 and 1813. Meetings were held at the house of Deacon Levi Brown in Lewis most of the time. When there was no preaching the Deacon read two sermons each Sabbath. In 1814 meetings were held in a barn. There was at this time only one frame house in Lewis, the rest were log cabins."
Rev. Cyrus Comstock, better known as Father Comstock, was sent into Essex County by the Berkshire Missionary Society of Massachusetts to organize Congregational Churches. Dea- con Levi Brown, who was born and reared in the midst of New England Congregationalism, emigrated to Lewis shortly after the organization of that town. In his wilderness home he missed the church relations he had previously so much en- joyed and so when Father Comstock was sent out to labor in Northern New York, Deacon Brown saw to it that the town of his adoption received early attention. Upon his arrival in Lewis, Father Comstock was kindly taken into the home of Deacon Brown, which continued to be his headquarters for several years.
Following is a copy of the order designating Wm. Ray Bri- gade Quarter Master :
STATE OF NEW YORK, GENERAL ORDERS, Head Quarters, Albany, Aug't 26, 1812.
Dean Edson who was assigned Brigade Q'r Master of the
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3d detached brigade of the militia of this State, having re- signed the said station and General Micajah Pettit Command- ant of said brigade, having accepted the same, and assigned William Ray to officiate in said station. The Commander in Chief hereby approves of the said resignation and assignment, and direct accordingly that the said William Ray, be recog- nized, obeyed and respected as Brigade Quarter Master of said detached Brigade until further orders.
By order of the Commander in Chief.
ROBERT MACOMB, Lt. Col. & Aid-de-Camp.1
General Wright's brigade, the 40th, was at the breaking out of the War of 1812 composed of four regiments, drawn from a large extent of sparcely settled country. There was the 66th, Lieutenant Colonel Alric Mann, the 36th, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Miller, the 9th, Lieutenant Colonel Elijah Barnes, and the 37th, commanded by Major Ransom Noble of Essex. In the 37th were a large number of Elizabethtown men.
There were four different calls to military service during the two years of the War of 1812, the first for six months, the others for a few days each.
In Pleasant Valley and contiguous territory men were trained to shoot. The fact that large and fierce wild animals, such as panthers, wolves and bears, were still plentiful kept residents of this section in touch with shooting and straight shooting at that. So when the War of 1812 broke out most of the able bodied men were "in good trim" for effective military service.
Lieutenant Thomas MacDonough was given command of Lake Champlain September 12, 1812, and shortly afterwards
1 The Wm. Ray letters and the order designating Wm. Ray Brigade Quarter Master were clipped from a copy of the Elizabethtown Post & Gazette of April 6, 1899, the letters, etc., having been furnished at that time by Henry Harmon Noble, then of the State Historian's Office.
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arrived at his post, as he tells in these words : "After remaining a few months in Portland I was ordered by Mr. Madison to take command of the vessels in Lake Champlain. Proceeded thither across the country through the Notch of the White Mountains, partly on horseback, carrying my bundle with my valise on behind and a country lad only in company to return with my horses. Arrived fatigued at Burlington on the lake in about four days and took command of the vessels." MacDonough was then 29 years old, having been in the navy since he was 17, leading a life of excitement and adven- ture in the West Indies and upon the Mediterranean. It will be recalled that MacDonough was a midshipman on board the ill-fated frigate Philadelphia with Wm. Ray, the pioneer journalist of Pleasant Valley.
MacDonough remained upon Lake Champlain until winter closed in and then went to Middletown, Conn., where he was married the first of December and where he stayed till the opening of navigation in the spring.
MacDonough's task was similar to that of Benedict Arnold on Lake Champlain in 1775, if he had a navy he must build it himself. Possessed of plenty of energy and resolution, he se- lected the place for his navy yard and immediately commenced his Herculean task, that of constructing a navy which was eventually to not only aid in turning back the tide of aggres- sive British invasion at Plattsburgh but was to place the name MacDonough in the forefront of the world's naval heroes. About four miles from the mouth of a deep, smooth flowing stream-Otter Creek-coming into Lake Champlain from the Green Mountain State at a point opposite the steep cliff of the Split Rock range, at a place called the "Buttonwoods," he built his ships. "Buttonwoods," about 10 miles by water from North west Bay, was safe from attack to a degree which no harbor on the lakeshore afforded.
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Speaking of the busy scene at "Buttonwoods" Robinson says in his "Vermont :" "A throng of ship carpenters were busy on the narrow flat by the waterside ; the woods were noisy with the thud of axes, the crash of falling trees and the bawling of teamsters ; and the two furnaces were in full blast casting shot for the fleet."
It is not unlikely that William Ray, editor of The Reveille, went from Pleasant Valley to Northwest Bay and crossed Lake Champlain to visit MacDonough whom he had known amid stirring scenes of previous years. It is said that a party of young people started from Northwest Bay and visited the navy yard under the escort of Lieutenant Platt. Rogers Halstead, then 19 years old. Names of others in the party reported to the writer were Maria Halstead, sister of Lieutenant Halstead, and the 15 year old daughter of Judge Joseph Jenks, Mary by name. Mary Jenks afterward married Ira Henderson and the author of Pleasant Valley has often heard their daughter, Mrs. Mary A. Richards, relate the romantic incident. Such an ex- cursion at that time was somewhat dangerous, as British gun- boats were astir on Lake Champlain.
In June, 1813, two of MacDonough's best ships, the Growler and the Eagle, Commanded by Lieutenant Sidney Smith, brother of Colonel Melancton Smith, ventured along down Lake Champlain and into the Richelieu River, where they were surrounded by the British and captured, after a sharp fight. The boats were at once repaired and sent out against the Americans, under the names of the Finch and the Chub and all that summer and the next were seen upon the lake flaunting the British flag.
Saturday, July 31, 1813, men on galloping horses went throughout the township of Elizabethtown warning every militia man to rendezvous at Pleasant Valley the next after-
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noon, "there to wait further orders, as a party of British troops have invaded the state and are making for Plattsburgh." Then from the mountains and valleys of Keene and Jay, from the highlands of Lewis, from Split Rock Falls to Brainard's Forge and from the terrified lakeshore towns whose position was that of most imminent danger in case of naval attack, the men and their officers came flocking in. Missing accoutre- ments were supplied from the arsenal, the ranks crystalized into order by words of command and away they went along the Rogers or State road to the north. On Tuesday, August 3, General Mooers wrote from Plattsburgh to Gov. Tompkins : "Gen. Wright's brigade arrived here yesterday with about four hundred troops." If those men left Pleasant Valley (Elizabeth- town village) Sunday afternoon and reached Plattsburgh, nearly 40 miles away, on Monday they must have marched all night. Surely the grass didn't grow under their feet while on that march !
Speaking of the arrival of General Wright's troops in Platts- burgh, Mrs. Caroline H. Royce says on pages 254 and 255 of Bessboro :
"Arrived at Plattsburgh, they found the place in the hands of Col. John Murray of the British regulars who had landed on Sunday unopposed, with a force of 1400 men, and was burning and plundering at his own will. That this should have been so is one of the mysteries and one of the disgraces of the war but it hardly belongs to us to discuss it here. When the Brit- ish set sail again the Growler and Eagle, under their new names, and much ashamed, it would seem, of the new colors they were forced to fly, went on up the lake; threatened Burlington, and sailed away to the north unmolested. Meanwhile our men wentinto camp outside Plattsburgh and ate what their wives and mothers had put into knapsacks, and at the end of the five days
JUDGE ROBERT S. HALE.
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for which they had been warned out, most of them went home again, without having fired a shot at the enemy. This was in no wise the fault of the soldiers, nor of Gen. Wright, who had shown such alacrity in getting to the front. A company of Essex County militia remained at "Camp Platte" under the command of Captain Luman Wadhams of Lewis until Nov. 18, when they went home, and military operations were closed for the winter.
The following from page 183 of a Gazetteer of the State of New York by Horatio Gates Spafford, A. M., printed and pub- lished by H. C. Southwick, No. 94 State Street, Albany, in 1813, will be of special interest, as it describes Pleasant Valley as it appeared in the second year of the War of 1812 :
ELIZABETH-TOWN, a Post-Township, the capital of Essex County, bounded N. by Keene, Lewis and Essex ; E. on Lake Champlain, or the State of Vermont; S. by Moriah, W. by Scroon. Except along the lake, this township is very moun- tainous, though there are some pretty extensive and some very fertile vallies. A Mountain, called the Giant of the Valley, about one mile S. W. of the court-house, rises to a great height, singularly precipitous, and deserves separate notice. Pleasant-Valley, is about eight miles in length N. and S., one mile wide, and surrounded by high mountains, presenting some summits of very great height. At the northern extremity of this vale, stand the County buildings, an arsenal, belonging to the State, and a number of dwelling-houses, stores, &c., giving the appearance of a small Village, called PLEASANT-VALLEY. This Village is about 60 rods from the Bouquet river, which runs northward through the valley, and about eight miles westerly from N. W. Bay, on L. Champlain. This Town has been set- tled since about 1785, and now contains 300 families, and 124 senatorial electors. About half the land in this Town belongs
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to the State, and of that improved, some is held in fee, and some by lease. Watered by Bouquet river and some small streams, there is no want of good sites for mills. Timber is plenty, and there are several beds, now wrought, of very excel- lent iron-ore. There are 4 grist, 7 saw-mills, 4 forges, a card- ing-machine, and some other small water-works, and a distil- lery. The population is improving rapidly. The roads are pretty good, and there is a ferry across the lake to Panton in Vermont. At the head of N. W. Bay, there is a small Village of about 20 houses, some mills, stores, &c. The navigation of L. Champlain, facilitates the sale of produce, and renders Canada the market for this part of the country. Population in 1810, males 741, females 621-1362 souls. Taxable prop- erty, $108,450, real and personal.
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