USA > New York > Essex County > The military and civil history of the county of Essex, New York : and a general survey of its physical geography, its mines and minerals, and industrial pursuits, embracing an account of the northern wilderness > Part 27
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Soldiers' Rights. On Southier's map, a tract is laid down, commencing about a mile and a half from the flag-staff at Ticonderoga, and extending along Lake Champlain, from a mile and a half to two miles wide, upon which is inscribed, " Soldiers." A map has been exhibited to me by the distinguished professional gentleman already re- ferred to, which seems to have been executed more than sixty years ago, in which the seven tracts are laid down, in conformity to Southier, beginning with William Doug- lass on the north, succeeded by four others, of one thou- sand acres each ; one of seven hundred acres, and one of four hundred acres, making an aggregate of six thousand one hundred acres. It appears by the Land Papers, that a return was filed February 8, 1772, of a survey for " Wil- liam Douglass and others, noncommissioned officers and private soldiers of sundry tracts of land containing together six thousand one hundred acres on the west side of waters running from Wood creek to Lake Champlain." On the county map, six of these rights are laid down in Essex county.
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Stevenson. James Stevenson, December 7, 1765, applied for a patent in right of his father, James Stevenson, com- missary of ordnance, etc., for three thousand acres; but it was not granted until the 11th of July, 1776. This patent lies in Ticonderoga, and is usually called, the Kirby patent.
Stewart. A tract of fifty acres, granted May 2d, 1772, to James Stewart, is situated on Lake George, in Ticon- deroga, and south of Tomlin's patent.
Summervale. This tract of fifteen thousand one hundred and twenty acres, was surveyed in 1771, but a patent to Goldsboro' Banyar, and others, was not granted until August 14, 1786. The tract lies in Crown Point and Ticonderoga.
Totten & Crossfield. Experience had proved, that transac- tions for the acquisition by private individuals of Indian lands were fraught with infinite. mischief and injustice. At an early period, the instructions to the colonial go- vernors, and at length, soon after the cession of Canada, a peremptory proclamation of the king, prohibited every purchase of the kind, and declared that all purchases of lands from the Indians should be made by the crown.1 The same wise and beneficent policy was engrafted in the state constitution of 1777, and those which have succeeded.
On the 10th of April, 1771, Joseph Totten and Stephen Crossfield, shipwrights, residing in the city of New York, presented a petition to the council, asking for a license to purchase from the Indians a tract of land lying on the west side of the Hudson, and on the 7th June following the license was granted. In accordance with this privi- lege a treaty was held in July, 1772, at Johnson Hall, with all the peculiar solemnities of such occasions and under the auspices of Sir William Johnson, for the pur- pose of perfecting the contemplated purchase, with the Mohawk and Caughnawauga Indians. The purchase was made for the consideration of about one thousand one
1 Doc. Hist., VII, 571.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
hundred and thirty-five pounds New York currency, and a deed formally executed for the tract, embracing about eight hundred thousand acres and with boundaries care- fully designated by courses and land marks, but singularly vague and obscure. This interesting document is still preserved in the office of secretary of state, among the Land Papers, vol. XXXII, 45. A written agreement of association was entered into March 27th, 1772, between " the intended proprietors of lands about to be purchased by Ebenezer Jessup in behalf of Totten and Crossfield and their associates," and on January 14th, following, a fur- ther agreement was executed and a ballot made of twenty- four of the townships in the purchase. A catalogue of the lots drawn, with the proprietors' names annexed, is on file in the secretary's office.1
Ebenezer Jessup, a large operator in lands at that period, was the active agent in these arrangements, and purchased the tract for Totten and Crossfield and their associates. This Indian deed conveyed no legal title, the absolute fee in the land existing in the crown. It undoubtedly pro- tected them against intrusion and conferred rights proba- bly analogous to the preemptive rights existing at the present day. The government recognized these rights and issued patents in subordination to them. Jessup ad- vises Governor Colden, December 27th, 1774, that he had agreed with certain individuals for Totten and Crossfield to convey ten thousand acres to them in the purchase, and requested that letters patent should be granted, in con- formity with the agreement, which was soon after done.2
The territory comprised in the Totten and Crossfield purchase lies in the counties of Essex, Warren, Hamilton and Herkimer. The west and part of the north lines were surveyed in 1772, with an outline of a portion of the town- ship, each of which included about twenty thousand acres.
1 Land Papers, LIX, 9, 10, 88. This volume is occupied exclusively with papers referring to this tract.
2 Land Papers, XXXIX, 157.
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Slight vestiges of these surveys may still be traced. The colonial government issued patents for a few townships previous to the revolution, some of which I have men- tioned, but none of these extended to lands in Essex county. Among these patents, the return of a survey of twenty thousand acres for Sir Jeffrey Amherst appears among the Land Papers under date of March 27th, 1774. Sufficient evidence exists upon which to form an estimate of the market value of these lands at that period. Jessup executed December 3d, 1772, a receipt to Philip Livingstone for two hundred and six pounds and eight shillings, the purchase money of two townships; in July he gave another receipt to Thomas Lewis for fifty-one pounds, in payment of three thousand acres, and on 8th April the same year another to Chris. Duyckinck for one hundred and three pounds "in full of twenty-four thousand acres." These are preserved among the Land Papers. The action of the pro- prietors at a meeting, January 14th, 1773, in reference to the construction of a road, indicates that their measures for the improvement of the territory were active and judi- cious.
On the 21st of April, 1775, and only a few months pre- ceding the day established by the constitution of 1777, from which all royal grants were abrogated, Dartmouth wrote to Tryon, that the king would confirm by letters patent to Totten and Crossfield and their associates, " their lands, on humble application" and "a disavowal of all asso- ciation" with the nonintercourse measures of the colonists.1 The two former, at least probably yielded their adhesion- to the government. Tradition asserts that these estates were confiscated. It is certain that a large portion of the purchase reverted to the state government. The imaginary lines of all the townships were laid down on Southier's map, although a part only had, at that time been practi- cally surveyed. In the years 1785 and 1786, numerous petitions were presented to the state for grants of large
1 His. Doc., VIII, 570.
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tracts in this territory, and many by the original proprie- tors, who thus asked the confirmation of their former claims. These applications were generally conceded, the claimants usually paying the state a valuable consideration for their grants.
Tomlin. Thomas Tomlin obtained a grant of two hun- dred acres May 2d, 1772, located east side of Lake George and adjoining Stoughton. On the old map referred to,1 this patent is thus located.
Wharton. A patent was granted to John Wharton, Esq., late captain in Sixtieth regiment, April 16th, 1765, for three thousand acres, which was located by Gilliland in Essex.
Wriesburg. On the same day a patent was granted to Daniel Wriesburg, late captain Sixtieth Foot, and was located by Gilliland, in Willsboro'.
1 See Soldier's Rights.
PART II. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.
The physical formation of Essex county combines pecu- liar and striking characteristics. The beautiful and pic- turesque are singularly blended with the magnificent and imposing. Exhibitions of impressive grandeur, scarcely transcended by the magnificence of Niagara, are combined with scenes of incomparable sylvan beauty and romantic seclusion. A very large proportion of the county is formed by a general upheaval, which produced a common eleva- tion of the whole region, except along the shores of Lake Champlain, and some of its tributaries. It may be pro- nounced in the aggregate, a broken and mountainous terri- tory. Many districts, however, embracing large portions. of entire townships, exhibit a very high degree of native fertility and adaptation to tillage. The surface of these tracts is usually level, or presents gentle and agreeable un- dulations. Extensive valleys, lying elevated among the mountains, possess the richest soil, formed by the accumu- lation of ages, from the debris of the higher steeps. Allu- vial flats of great extent and natural fertility, spread along: the margin of numerous streams, and surround the hidden lakes and ponds in the interior.
The hills and mountains, far up their slopes, often afford a rich and generous soil, yielding the choicest pasture and meadow lands. Although these advantages may mitigate its general character, the country presents a vast surface, rock bound and inaccessible in its cliffs and heights, and impracticable to cultivation. A large portion of this territory, stamped by nature with ruggedness and desola- tion, and closed against the approaches of agriculture, teems with immeasurable wealth in its forests and mines.
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HISTORY OF ESSEX COUNTY.
Several detached and broken ranges of mountains enter the county from the south. These mountains appear to lose their distinctive peculiarities as a system or general range, and are thrown together in promiscuous, massive groups. Two of these disturbed ranges reach the limits of the county at Ticonderoga. They are not high, but exceedingly abrupt and jagged. One suddenly terminates at Mount Defiance, and the other subsides into slight eminences, in the vicinity of Lake George. Two other ranges, loftier and more important, exhibiting the same dislocated character, traverse the county in nearly parallel tracts. They both terminate in bold and majestic pro- montories upon Lake Champlain, and spread their lateral projections over the county. These lofty promontories, at some points upon the lake, present a high and nearly perpendicular wall, and at others, their huge and beetling cliffs impend over the water. These impressive spectacles of mountain scenery are exhibited at Moriah, Willsboro', Westport and Chesterfield.
Peaks occur along the line of these sierras, which in other regions would be regarded as conspicuous land- marks, but here, associated with loftier and more impos- ing summits, they have neither names nor notoriety. Among the class of secondary mountains within the county, are Pharaoh, in Schroon, Mount Dix, in North Hudson, and the Bald mountain, in Moriah, which attract attention, and are admired for their position and formation. The Bald mountain rises to an altitude of more than two thousand feet. By its proximity to the lake, and its isolated position, one standing upon its bald peak may trace the sinuosities of the lake, studded with its islands and promontories, distinctly revealed in a course of more than forty miles. The villages and mountain scenery, with the intervening plains on both sides of the lake, form a brilliant picture, while directly beneath, the eye rests upon the elevated plateau in Moriah, " all dressed in living green," and the busy scenes that sur- round the numerous ore beds. This peak will soon be
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reached by a convenient ascent, when the explorer may enjoy, without any great effort or fatigue, one of the most impressive and beautiful panoramic views afforded by this region of forests, mountains and lakes. In the Adi- rondac group, situated chiefly in the towns of Keene and Newcomb, a cluster occurs of the loftiest and most re- markable mountains east of the Mississippi. Less ele- vated than individual summits of the White hills of New Hampshire, or the Black mountain of North Carolina, they far exceed any entire range in the gigantic magni- tude of their proportions, and in the grandeur and beauty of their structure. It is extraordinary, that the public should, until so recent a period, have been in comparative ignorance of this remarkable group of mountains, and of the deeply interesting and romantic country they envelop in their mighty folds. They are within forty miles of Lake Champlain, the great avenue of northern commerce, and so familiar to the fashionable tourist. Their highest peaks are visible from Burlington, and the altitude of Mount Marcy has actually been determined from that point. The idea, however, is inaccurate, that this tract had not been explored until a recent date, or that these mountains were unknown until a late discovery. Most of these scenes have been, for many years, familiar to innu- merable hunters, pioneers and surveyors. Most of these prominent summits are visible through a wide territory (which has been occupied for more than half a century), not in the obscurity of distance, but in the full exhibition of their majesty and glory.
Mount Marcy, the monarch of these wilds, towers above the surrounding pinnacles, in a beautiful cone, and in one view nearly an acute apex. Ascending above every contigu- ous object, and piercing with this striking formation far up- ward no one can contemplate it without recognizing the force and appropriateness of its name, in the energetic and beauti- ful nomenclature of the Indians. They called the towering mountain projecting its acute top toward the heavens, Tahawus, The Cloud-splitter. The height of this mountain,
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above tide water, is 5,467 feet. Another eminence, Mount McIntyre, supposed to fall a little below Mount Marcy in altitude, perhaps surpasses it in ponderous magnificence, and presents a more uniform, massive and compact structure. The Dial mountain, Mount Seward, McMartin, Colden, and other peaks unmeasured, of appa- rently equal if not greater dimensions, mingle in this cluster, and impress a stamp of Alpine grandeur upon the scenery.
A lofty range known as the Keene mountains, pre- sents a peculiar aspect; dark, broken, and frowning. The White-face mountain, in the majestic Indian dialect Waho-partenie, an eminence of 4,855 feet,1 stands re- mote from the other groups, and occupies the northern extremity of the huge mountain belt that encircles the town of North Elba. This peak from its rare and admira- ble proportions, its bald summit, solitary isolation, and the vast preeminence of its height above surrounding objects, is a beautiful and conspicuous landmark, over a wide horizon. A few years since it presented a spectacle of un- equaled sublimity. In the heat and drought of midsummer, the combustible materials upon its summit were fired by accident or design, and during one whole night the confla- gration raged, exhibiting to the gaze of hundreds, almost the splendor and awfulness of a volcanic eruption in its wild vehemence. A convenient pathway has been con- structed to the summit of the mountain from which a mag- nificent view is commanded over a wide expanse of territory.
Public sentiment will not ratify the acts of private men, who would obliterate the aboriginal names of the great physical features of this continent, and substitute those of individuals, however eminent their political position, or excellent and esteemed their private characters. The In- dian nomenclature is singularly rich in its force and
1 A recent observation gives to White-face about the same altitude as Mount Marcy.
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euphony, and in the beauty and illustrative appropriateness of its designations. The names they have attached to physical objects will soon be the only vestige of their ex- istence. They will leave no other monuments of their former presence upon the land they once possessed, and fondly deemed their own peculiar heritage.
LAKES.
Lake Champlain. In an early part of this volume, I glanced at the military aspect and commercial importance of Lake Champlain. The rare and exceeding beauty of its scenery arrests and delights the observer. On the east it is bounded by an undulating plain, rich in a high and luxuriant culture, whilst beyond this, the horizon is limited by the bold and broken outline of the Green mountains. On the western border, the dark and tower- ing Adirondacs, spread far into the interior, here and there projecting their rugged spurs into the bosom of the lake, and often forming lofty and inaccessible headlands, covered with forests, or exposing bleak and frowning masses of naked rock. The lake ranges in width, from one mile to fifteen miles. It is studded by innumerable islands ; some of which are mere rocky projections; others clothed in their native green woods, rest like gems upon the waters, and others formed by alluvial deposits, are unsurpassed in their native loveliness, or in their exuberant fertility.
The severity of a northern climate closes the navigation of this lake no inconsiderable portion of the year. The ice usually forms upon the broadest part about the 1st of February, and remains, in an average of years, until near the middle of April. The navigation is suspended for a longer period by the ice forming earlier and remaining later at each extremity.1 The lake occasionally remains open the entire winter. The transition from navigation to the transit of the lake upon the ice, is often amazingly sud- den ; teams having crossed its broadest part, upon the ice
1 Iddo Osgood, Esq.
21
.
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the fifth day after it had been passed by a steamer. The. ice often attains great thickness. The spectacle, frequently afforded by this vast expanse of icy surface, is singularly beautiful and exhilarating. It furnishes for several weeks the great highway of business and pleasure. Roads di- verging from every point, are animate with activity and excitement. Long trains of teams, freighted with the commodities of the country, glide easily over it, whilst the pleasure sleigh bounds along its smooth and crystal field, breaking the stillness by the music of its merry bells. Little danger occurs in the transit of the ice, except in the passage of the cracks or fissures, which starting from the various points and headlands, rend the ice asunder with a sound and concussion like the reverberation of thunder, or the prolonged discharge of ordnance. These fissures en- tirely separate the ice, and are designed by the wise pur- poses of providence to strengthen it, by affording an escape to the pent up air beneath.
The balmy atmosphere and warmer sun of approaching spring, affect and gradually weaken the ice. Traveling on it, then becomes hazardous, and is often attended with great jeopardy and frequent loss of life and property. The inhabitants, residing upon the shore of the lake, are habi- tuated to these perils and familiar to the modes of assist- ance. On the alarm of accidents, they rush to the point of danger, with prompt and efficient zeal bearing ropes and boards and other requisite articles, and rarely fail to extricate the sufferer, when the scene can be reached.
The final breaking up of the ice in the spring often affords a spectacle of intense interest. The evidences are readily recognized, which portend the event. Its surface exhibits several marked and peculiar phases, which indicate the progress of decay. Its usual transparent and brilliant clearness yields to a dark and clouded aspect. This is succeeded by a soft and snowy color, as the moisture leaves the surface and penetrates the mass. The next stage in its dissolution is exhibited as the body of ice becomes porous and losing its buoyancy, sinks to the level of the water.
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Its appearance then is black and portentous, and can scarcely be contemplated without a feeling of awe and dread. The fissures now open and expand. The ice sepa- rates into larger bodies, and driven by the winds in immense fields, is broken up, and often piled in huge masses upon the shores where it remains late in the spring, a memorial of the passed empire of winter. At other times, the ice continues nearly entire, until saturated with water, it at once, in a moment as it were, disappears, dissolving into its original element. In the progress of dissolution of the ice, a singular phenomenon is revealed. The mass at this time, exhibits a combination of an infinitude of parallel crystals or icicles, arranged in a perpendicular formation, and each distinct and perfect, extending from the lower side to the surface, or in other words, from the water to the atmosphere. These particles separate from each other in the process of disintegration.
A day of jubilee and rejoicing succeeds, when these icy fetters are finally broken up, and intercourse is restored. The advent of the first steamer of the season, always reju- venated during the winter, and fresh from the hands of the painter, is hailed at each landing by joyous shoutings and often by the booming of artillery.
INTERIOR LAKES AND RIVERS.
The numerous lakes and gem-like ponds, that stud the surface of the country in such profusion, not only diversify and adorn the scenery, but are the source of the vast water power so essential to the industrial interest and prosperity of the country. This water, chiefly arising from springs, is usually cold, clear, and pure. Schroon lake, lying partly in Warren country, is ten miles long and one and a half broad, and is remarkable for its quiet and romantic beauty. A high, precipitous shore encloses it on the east, and on the west a cultivated and delightful tract spreads its fertile fields down to the brink. This lake forms the reservoir to the waters of the upper Hudson. It is already the chan- nel of a valuable traffic, and will become highly important
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to the rapidly increasing manufacturing business of the district.
Paradox lake is situated in the same valley, and is separated from Schroon lake by a drift or alluvial, of apparently modern formation. Paradox lake occupies the basin of hills that environ it in a gentle ascent, except the narrow passage at its outlet, which is a confluent of the Schroon river and nearly on a level with it. The river, swollen by the mountain torrents, often rises higher than this lake, and pours its waters into the basin, presenting the paradoxical appearance of a stream rushing back upon its fountain head. The lake derives, from this singular fact, its unique but not inappropriate name. Directly east of Schroon lake, and elevated above it several hundred feet, lies Lake Pharaoh, an important body of water, sur- rounded by a group of dark and gloomy mountains. In this vicinity cluster numerous ponds, the fountain heads of valuable streams.
The miniature lakes and ponds, which repose in almost every valley among the Adirondacs, and form the head springs of the Hudson, possess indescribable romance and beauty. Now they are embraced and hidden by dense and unbroken forests, and now encompassed by lofty mountains, whose inaccessible precipices descend into their waters by a nearly vertical wall, and now slumbering in the bosom of some lovely and picturesque nook, their mirrored surface, reflecting this varied scenery, is alone broken by the leaping of a trout, the gambols of a deer, or, at far intervals, by the oar of the solitary hunter. These gentle and subduing beauties of nature, combined with the awe-imposing and thrilling grandeur of their mountain spectacles, with the pure, invigorating and health-inspiring air which envelops them, must render these solitudes among the most desirable and attractive resorts, to the philosopher, the invalid and the tourist of pleasure.
Lake Placid, situated principally in North Elba, just touches that beautiful valley, in the incomparable land-
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scape of which it forms a conspicuous and very essential feature. Its great expanse, its deep and transparent waters, its beautiful proportions, stretching its sinuosities along bold headlands far into the recesses of the moun- tains, until in the distant view, its waters seem to lave the base of Whiteface, although in fact separated from it by a rich valley of two miles in width, unite to render Lake Placid one of the most delightful and attractive objects in this land of loveliness and silence. A small pond connects with the lake by a narrow channel; this pond has no other inlet or outlet, and is distinguished by a singular circumstance. The water flows for a period of two or three minutes from the lake into the pond; an interval of a few seconds succeeds, with no apparent motion of the water; after this, for the same time, it flows back again into the lake. This ebbing and flowing is, I believe, perpetual.1 Lake Placid is one of the most important heads of the Au Sable river. The manufac- turing interest on the line of that stream, has erected at the outlet of the lake, an expensive and ponderous dam. This work forms the lake into a capacious reservoir, and secures a permanent supply of water, at all seasons, to the immense works moved by the Au Sable.
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