USA > New York > Franklin County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 48
USA > New York > Jefferson County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 48
USA > New York > Lewis County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 48
USA > New York > Oswego County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 48
USA > New York > St Lawrence County > The north country; a history, embracing Jefferson, St. Lawrence, Oswego, Lewis and Franklin counties, New York, Volume 1 > Part 48
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Some day, some one will write a biography of Dr. Mary Walker. She was one of the most colorful women of her day and her repu- tation was international. Born in the old Walker homestead on Bunker Hill, near Oswego, at twenty-three she had graduated from the old Syracuse Medical College with the degree of M. D. In 1855 she married Dr. Albert E. Miller of Rome, New York, but never took her husband's name and does not appear to have lived with him long. Even then Dr. Mary Walker wore masculine clothes. During the Civil War she was commissioned a surgeon with the rank of first lieutenant in the Union forces. She wore the ordinary officer's uniform of her rank and rendered valiant service. She was
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taken prisoner and exchanged for a Confederate officer of the same rank. Associated with her in war work was Dr. Clara Barton who laid the foundations for the American Red Cross.
Following the war Congress voted her a medal but also gave her what she valued even more the right to wear masculine clothes. She always carried this authorization with her and although she was often arrested for appearing on the street in men's clothing, was always promptly released when she produced her congressional au- thorization. Attired in rusty black and invariably wearing a silk hat, Dr. Mary Walker became a familiar figure in most of the large cities of the country. She appeared on the lecture platform and at one time opened a sort of a sanatorium in her Bunker Hill home at Oswego. She had one patient, a Russian woman, suffering from arthritis. This woman she pulled out of bed at all hours of the night and insisted that she try to walk. The patient finally escaped and fled to a neighboring farm, where she swore out a warrant for Dr. Mary's arrest on the charge of assault. The doctor, however, dared anyone to serve the warrant and no one did.
Dr. Mary Walker died at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dewey located about five miles west of Oswego, February 21st, 1919, being at that time eighty-seven years of age. A comparatively small num- ber of people attended the simple funeral rites held at Bunker Hill. The body lies in the family burial plot at Riverside cemetery, Oswego.
Dr. Mary Walker was a fanatic. She can be described by no other term. She had few interests outside of dress reform and she seemed to believe that if women wore men's clothes almost all the evils of life would disappear. Comparatively indifferent to the evils of intoxicating liquors, she was a bitter enemy of tobacco in any form, but most of her energies were expended in trying to persuade women to adopt men's clothing, an undertaking in which she made a conspicuous failure. Wrote Dr. Mary: "The greatest sorrows from which women suffer today are those physical, moral and mental ones that are caused by their unhygienic manner of dressing. The want of the ballot is but a toy in comparison."
One reform she accomplished and that, alone, should have brought her undying fame. Her collar button chafed her neck and so she created the inside neckband, thus preventing the metal from touch- ing the skin.
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"EBEN HOLDEN" AND FREDERICK REMINGTON
When Dr. Mary Walker was at the heighth of her fame and Marietta Holley was writing her most successful books, a young man from the country was just taking his degree from St. Lawrence University at Canton. That young man was Irving Bachellor, then known as Addison Bachellor, now one of the country's best known novelists. Irving Bachellor probably did not coin the term, "North Country" to designate Northern New York, but it was he, who through his novel, "Eben Holden," brought it into general usuage. Irving Bachellor has always been essentially a Northern New York man. Although for a number of years he has spent only a compara- tively small portion of the summer there, yet the majority of his novels are woven about Northern New York and its history. He sensed the color and romance in the Northern New York of the War of 1812 days and wrote "D'ri and I." He revered the memory of that great political leader of the North Country during the Jack- sonian epoch, so he wove the character of Silas Wright into one of the best of his books, "The Light in the Clearing."
Irving Bachellor was born in what is still called Paradise Val- ley, not far from the Village of Canton, in St. Lawrence county, September 26th, 1859. In his own peculiarly delightful way, Irving Bachellor has told the story of that boyhood in the town of Pierpont in his "The Story of My Boyhood." At the age of eight, he tells us, he became a candidate for president of the United States. It was not a sought for honor but one thrust upon him. But one sunny, summer's day young Irving Bachellor dropped from the presidential race. That day he ran away from school. The next day the teacher called. Irving was summoned to the back of the house and with a hickory switch his father impressed upon his son the fact that it was best to follow the line of least resistance and reannounce his candidacy. Needless to say that Irving then and there resumed the ardours of the campaign.
"Eben Holden," Bachellor's first and best known book, was pub- lished in 1900, nineteen years after his graduation from college. It received a flattering reception. Over night Bachellor became famous. He was sought after by publishers. Invitations galore poured in upon him. From that time on Bachellor has retained his place as
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one of the leading writers of fiction in America. As this is being written he is still at seventy-two turning out a book a year. Every commencement finds him at his Alma Mater, St. Lawrence Univer- sity, where he has long been a member of the Board of Trustees.
But another St. Lawrence county boy, Frederick Remington, al- though he early attained fame, unfortunately died while still a com- paratively young man. He died in 1909, then a man of but fifty, and his body lies in the cemetery about a mile from Canton, his boyhood home, under a stone which bears the simple inscription, "Frederick Remington, 1861-1909." The paintings and bronzes of Frederick Remington stand apart in American art. They held a place in their day with the Gibson Girl. His dashing cowboys, his bronco busters, his Indians and his horses are as virile and convincing as life itself. In 1924 one of Remington's smaller canvasses brought $3,900 at a sale in New York. Some of the larger ones have commanded a price as high as $7,500.
Old residents of Canton recall Remington as a light-haired boy who spent much of his time in school sketching. His teachers scoffed at him and said that "Freddy" Remington would never amount to anything. His father, too, was perplexed and after the boy had at- tended Yale, got him a job at Albany. But this did not suit Rem- ington. He went to Montana and tried ranching. He was a failure even at that. One day he showed up in New York with a few dol- lars in his pocket and some sketches under his arm. He sold the sketches of course. New York had never before seen anything like them. He had taken the west and put it on canvass. Remington was "made." After many western trips, he settled permanently in the east and maintained a studio at Chippewa Bay where he spent his summer.
After the death of her husband, Mrs. Remington presented to the City of Ogdensburg Remington's collection of Indian and cowboy relics which the Smithsonian Institution had tried unsuccessfully to acquire. In the collection is Remington's cowboy hat, his palette, his brushes, his easel and his modeling stand. In 1923 the Remington Museum, the old Parish house, was dedicated at Ogdensburg and there today the collection may be seen, a permanent memorial to Northern New York's greatest artist.
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THREE NORTH COUNTRY STATESMEN
The same year that Abraham Lincoln was elected president of the United States, a young Malone lawyer was elected to congress as a Republican to represent the Essex-Clinton-Franklin district. That man was William Almon Wheeler, who was later to become vice president of the United States. Mr. Wheeler was not a great statesman in the sense that Silas Wright was. He was a man of sterling honesty, a rare parliamentarian and a man who at one time had great power in the Republican party. The late Frederick J. Seaver, the Franklin county historian, probably knew Wheeler as well as any man and indeed was closely associated with him for many years. Writes Mr. Seaver: "If I were to pronounce an opinion of him as a politician in the broader field, it would be that he lacked aggressiveness and courage-which, perhaps is explicable in part by his morbid and persistent belief during the last twenty years of his life that his health was precarious, and would break utterly if he were to engage strenuously in any undertaking . . . Bitterly ini- mical to Senator Conkling's political leadership, he nevertheless chose to content himself with sneering at it, and refrained from openly challenging it. As a legislator there must be great respect for his aptitude, abilities and high purposes."
William A. Wheeler was born in Malone June 30, 1819, the son of poor parents. He was forced to work his way through Franklin Academy. Later he entered the University of Vermont but poverty forced him to withdraw before graduation. Returning to Malone he studied law and was duly admitted to the bar. Almost from the first he held public office. He was town clerk, town superintendent of schools and district attorney. He served two terms in the as- sembly where he demonstrated his rare ability in legislative matters and then retired from politics to become cashier of the old State Bank of Malone, a position which he held twelve years.
When the Republican party was organized in New York State, Mr. Wheeler, formerly a Whig, at once joined the ranks of the new party, and in 1857 was elected to the state senate on the Republican ticket. During this, his first term, he received the unusual distinc- tion of being elected president pro tem of the senate. In 1860, as we have seen, he was elected to congress and in 1867 was elected as
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delegate-at-large to the state constitutional convention, becoming its president. The next year and successively until 1876 he was returned to Congress by the St. Lawrence-Franklin district, all the time his power in that body and in the ranks of his party increasing.
The estrangement between Blaine and Wheeler in 1873 is a well known political incident. That year Senator Conkling and other close friends of General Grant, who distrusted Blaine, planned to make Wheeler speaker of the House. Blaine appealed to Wheeler to crush the movement which he did, the understanding being that Wheeler would be made chairman of the committee on appropriations in com- pensation. This promise Blaine failed to keep with the result that bitter feeling developed between the two men. In 1876 Wheeler was mentioned for president but he, himself, counseled against it and advised that the state delegates go for Conkling. When Hayes was nominated, it was decided that the nomination for vice president should go to New York and Wheeler was nominated. Wheeler was a good presiding officer of the senate but the office of vice president did not appeal to him. He said it was too much like being an heir with great expectations.
When Conkling and Platt resigned from the United States sen- ate in 1881, Mr. Wheeler was the leading candidate against Conk- ling and probably could have been elected had he acted with energy and expedition. Instead, characteristically enough, he refused to even go to Albany until it was too late to do any good, and of course was beaten. From then on he withdrew from politics and passed his remaining years a disappointed and lonely man in Malone. He died June 4th, 1889.
Northern New York has produced two governors of New York State. Strangely enough, both were Democrats. Silas Wright has already been considered and in another part of this work appears a biography of Roswell P. Flower. However, the career of Roswell P. Flower cannot be dismissed with a sketch in any history of Northern New York. He was too important a figure in the political life of the nation. His daughter, Mrs. Emma Flower Taylor of Watertown, has written and privately published an intimate and interesting biography of her distinguished father. One would go far to find a more readable book. The Flowers came originally from Connecticut and settled in Theresa and there in 1835 Roswell Petti-
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bone Flower was born. The death of his father put young Roswell to work in the family woolen mill when he was but eight years old. By dint of hard work at various tasks he succeeded in getting through high school and taught district school for a time before coming to Watertown where he got the appointment as deputy post- master. Later he purchased an interest in a jewelry business and married Sarah Morse Woodruff, daughter of Norris M. Woodruff, one of Watertown's leading citizens.
After the death of his brother-in-law, Henry Keep, Mr. Flower went to New York to look after his estate and there early demon- strated that extraordinary ability in financial matters which soon made him known as one of the most astute operators on Wall street. Interested from youth in politics, Mr. Flower ran for congress as a Democrat against William Waldorf Astor in the eleventh congres- sional district and was elected by a majority of over 3,000 votes. In 1882 he and his wife went to Washington where he had a dis- tinguished career. The Democrats nominated him for governor in 1891 and he was elected by a majority of nearly 50,000 over Jacob Sloat Fasset and when he retired from the executive mansion in 1894 the state was free from debt for the first time in seventy-five years.
Former Governor Flower died in Eastport, Long Island, May 12th, 1899. Of him Theodore Roosevelt said: "To Mr. Flower it was given to hold high office, and while loyally serving his party to yet keep in his mind, his duty to the people and the state." Today his statue stands at the entrance to beautiful Washington street, Watertown, as a perpetual reminder to the people of that city of the statesmanship and benevolence of one of its most distinguished citizens.
Like Roswell P. Flower, Robert Lansing, wartime secretary of state under President Wilson, was a Democrat. Being a Democrat Mr. Lansing could not expect political preferrment in his own lo- cality and, as a matter of fact, was beaten decisively for mayor of Watertown in 1902 by a clerk in a newspaper office, the late James Pappa, who happened to be a Republican. But Mr. Lansing early gave promise of becoming a shrewd international lawyer and diplo- mat. Born in Watertown October 17th, 1864, a member of a dis- tinguished family of lawyers and jurists, he graduated from Am-
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herst College in 1886, was admitted to the bar in 1889 and the following year married Miss Eleanor Foster, daughter of John W. Foster, who had been secretary of state under President Harrison. Secretary Foster appointed his new son-in-law, then but twenty- eight years of age, as associate counsel for the United States in the Behring Sea controversy.
From then on Mr. Lansing's connection with the state department was fairly permanent. Although he maintained a law office in Water- town, being for many years associated with Frederick Boyer, a distinguished Watertown attorney, his connection with that office was really nominal. His career was cut out for him in the state department. He held a number of important commissions in the state department until March 20, 1914, when he was appointed counselor for the department of state. During the World War, prior to the entry of the United States, Mr. Lansing proved a valued counselor to President Wilson who grew to have great respect for his judgment. Consequently when William Jennings Bryan resigned in 1915 Mr. Lansing was named in his place and served all during the period of the war, resigning in 1920.
It is not necessary here to give the details of the controversy which developed between President Wilson and Secretary Lansing. Interested persons are referred to Mr. Lansing's own books, which have had a wide circulation. Suffice it to say that following the peace conference, Mr. Lansing found it inadvisable to longer remain as head of the state department and consequently submitted his resignation to the president which was accepted. Then Mr. Lansing embarked in the practice of international law in Washington, organ- izing the firm of Lansing and Woolsey. For eight years he practiced in Washington, spending his summers at Henderson Harbor where he fished almost daily for bass. His death occurred in Washington October 30th, 1928.
THE WORLD WAR
It will be some years yet before the complete story of Northern New York's participation in the World War can be given. No com- plete list of North Country men who served in that war has ever been printed. At the present time the State Historian and his as- sistants are attempting to complete the full record of New York
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state in the Great War, but it will be many months before it is fin- ished. Scarcely had war been declared when Fort Ontario at Oswego and Madison Barracks at Oswego became once again the center of military activity. Four companies of National Guard and two divi- sions of Naval Militia left the Northern counties for the front at an early date. Madison Barracks became an officers' training camp where thousands of young men were trained for commissions in the national army. Watertown became an important center for the manufacture of munitions and the New York Air Brake Company expanded its plants beyond anything before known. Thousands of young men went forth from the North in the various draft con- tingents. A students' training corps was established at St. Law- rence University and a military-like atmosphere prevailed on the campus of the old Canton college.
Fort Ontario became General Hospital No. 5, with a full con- tingent of Medical Department troops, a corps of Red Cross nurses and hundreds of patients, many shipped back home from the battle lines of France. To tell the full story of Northern New York in the World War would require a volume in itself and a list of casu- alties from the North Country would fill many pages.
So in the course of our history we come to the present time and it only remains to survey the North Country of our own day.
CHAPTER XXI.
THE NORTH COUNTRY OF TODAY
POPULATION AND RESOURCES-ITS CITIES AND VILLAGES-WATERTOWN, THE METROPOLIS, OSWEGO AND ITS HARBOR, OGDENSBURG, THE PORT, AND MASSENA WITH ITS PROSPECTIVE POWER DEVELOPMENT.
Upwards of 300,000 people reside in the snug, little empire, now known far and wide as the North Country of New York. St. Law- rence, largest county in population and geographical area, has 90,- 960 people, Jefferson has 83,574, Oswego county 66,645, Franklin county 45,694 and Lewis, the smallest of all, 23,447. Watertown, the largest city, has a population of 32,205. Oswego comes next with 22,652. Ogdensburg ranks third with 16,015, Fulton fourth with 12,462 and the village of Massena fifth with a population of 10,637. Malone, the largest village in Franklin county, has 8,657 residents, and Lowville, the largest village in Lewis county, 3,424. Other im- portant villages are Carthage, important manufacturing center of Jefferson county, with a population of 6,182, including the village of West Carthage; Potsdam, in St. Lawrence county, with a popu- lation of 4,136; Gouverneur, in the same county, with 4,015 people; Canton, also in St. Lawrence county, with a population of 2,822; Pulaski, in Oswego county, with 2,046 residents; Saranac Lake vil- lage, partly in Franklin county and partly in Essex, with a total population of 8,020; and Tupper Lake Village in Franklin county with a population of 5,271.
Oswego, the southernmost county of the group, with its rich truck farms, its dairy industry and the manufactories which line the Os- wego river, has never faced a more prosperous future. At the City of Oswego, as this is being written, one of the greatest harbors on the Great Lakes is being improved and expanded at an initial ex-
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penditure of $3,585,000, made possible through act of Congress. Three railroads, the New York State Barge canal and Lake On- tario give Oswego unusual advantages from a transportation stand- point. Its waterpower has brought it industrial prestige. It is not surprising that the Oswego Chamber of Commerce believe that great days are in store for Oswego and refer to their town as "Os- wego, a City of Opportunity."
Oswego has more than forty important manufacturing plants, in- cluding one of the larger plants of the Diamond Match Company, the Long candy plants, the Oswego Tool Corporation, the Taggart- Oswego Paper & Bag Corporation mill and a number of textile mills. It has a number of new schools, including a half million dollar high school, and of course the beautiful building of the Oswego State Normal Schools on the outskirts of the city. It has a large number of well supported churches, including St. Mary's, one of the most beautiful churches in all Northern New York, the massive St. Paul's Church and "Old First" Church, with its belfry and colonial columns.
Oswego still looks to the lake as it did in the faraway days when the British traders greeted the Indians with their furs at the water- front. The completion of its new harbor, it feels, will bring it again great prosperity even as a century ago the completion of the Os- wego canal made Oswego one of the most important ports on the Great Lake.
The City of Fulton, standing at the old carrying place on the Oswego river, if it has lost the impetus which came to it years ago through the building of the Oswego canal, has gained through the development of its water power, and is now an important manufac- turing center with great woolen mills and important paper mills. According to the 1930 Federal census Fulton does an annual retail business amounting to approximately $7,000,000 with 253 retail stores.
Pulaski, the metropolis of eastern Oswego county, is a neigh- borly village centrally located as between Watertown and Oswego and Syracuse, and has the prestige of being one of the two shire towns of the county. Pulaski is only four miles from Lake Ontario and close to the Selkirk Shores State Park which has given it importance as a recreational center. It is the center of a prosperous farming community, has two banks with combined resources of over $3,000,-
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000, has a weekly newspaper, five beautiful churches, a modern school and several industries.
In Jefferson county is Watertown, the metropolis of the North Country, one of the most beautiful cities in New York state. Wa- tertown with its modern office buildings, its great industries, its tremendous water power, its $2,000,000 municipal power plant and municipal street lighting system, its extensive system of parks and playgrounds and swimming pools, its vast trading area which give it an annual retail trade in excess of $21,000,000, has brought it an enviable reputation throughout the state. Thompson Park in Wa- tertown can hardly be equaled in any city of its kind in the country. The Flower Memorial Library, the beautiful building of the Agri- cultural Insurance Company, the city school system, consisting of a modern high school, two new junior high schools and a dozen or more modern grammar schools, scattered throughout the city, con- tribute to the beauty of the city. Then there is Immaculate Heart Academy, a secondary school of the highest standing, the Sacred Heart Theological Seminary, and a number of parochial schools, all modern, including the Holy Family High School. Beautiful Trinity Episcopal Church, the gift of Roswell P. and Anson R. Flower, the First Presbyterian Church, the largest church of its denomination in the North, Asbury, one of the largest Methodist churches in the Northern New York conference, beautiful All Souls Church, one of the pioneer Universalist churches in the North Country, three great Catholic churches, Holy Family, St. Patricks and the Church of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart, and a number of other churches, all well supported and representing practically every denomination and creed, have proved one of Watertown's greatest assets.
Watertown is governed by a commission and a city manager. It has miles and miles of paved streets, thousands of beautiful homes, five of the largest banks in Northern New York and is the financial and business center of a great area stretching from Lake Ontario to the Adirondack Mountains and from the St. Lawrence river well into Oswego county.
Carthage is the largest village in Jefferson county outside of the City of Watertown. Like so many other places in Northern New York, its water power has brought it wealth. A century ago Car- thage began to come into prominence as a manufacturing center
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