USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 35
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"We crossed the Hudson at Dumont's Ferry, and through a road in the township of Argyle, extremely miry, made our way to Fort Edward where we stopped some time to examine the works. 2
"Fort Edward is distant from Albany forty-seven miles and from New York two hundred and three. A small, scattered, lean looking village is built in the neighborhood.3
"From Fort Edward to Sandy Hill (three miles) the road, after ascending a long acclivity. passes over the plain on which that village is built. The evening I spent with Judge H-, a member of the senate of this state. This gentleman gave me much useful informa- tion concerning the surrounding country and its inhabitants.
"Saturday, October 12, [1810] Messrs. C- and H- left us and proceeded to Lake George. Mr. D- and myself, intending to return to Carpenter's in the evening, stopped at Glens Falls, three miles on the road. It rained all night, and until ten in the morning. We were therefore late, and after spending an hour and a half at the falls, returned to Sandy Hill. The river was high, and all those fine varieties of water, which were so visible in the preceeding autumn, were lost in one general accumulation of force and grandeur. The
1 Dr. Dwight is mistaken as to the date of the building of Fort Miller, if indeed so pretentious a designation as a "Fort" can be given it. It was erected as a block-house to protect store- houses in 1755, at the same time as Fort Edward. The block-house at the "Second Carrying Place " was built under the eye of Colonel Miller-hence the name, and it is one of the very few places in the county that has retained the name originally given it to the present'day. "It is not probable," says Dr. Fitch, "that there ever was here any enclosure such as is commonly under- stood as a Fort. The block-house and store houses were built upon the flat at the west side of the Hudson at the head of the falls. This flat is protected upon three of its sides by the river, which curves around it in a form resembling that of a horse-shoe; while about one side of the remain- ing side is covered by a lagoon or narrow bay which makes off from the river. To complete these natural defences, a parapet of timber and a deep fosse in front of it was extended across the neck of land from the head of the lagoon south to the river bank opposite to it. The remains of this work [1848] are still very distinct through its entire length of many rods. A block-house was also erected upon the bluff which overlooks this flat from the west. Thus protected, this was far the strongest position of any of the carrying-places along the river."
2 Here follows a description of Fort Edward which is omitted as it has been given in a more appropriate place, viz .: in the sketch of that fort, Chapter V.
3 Could President Dwight's shade now revisit the place, how different would be his descrip- tion !
311
SUNDAY AT CAMBRIDGE IN 1810.
river rolled or fell elsewhere in a violent and majestic torrent. A copious mist filled its bed, and descended on us in a shower.
"We took a late dinner and crossing at 'Roger's Ferry,' a little below Sandy Hill, pursued our journey on the western side of the Hudson. Here we found the road much better and the scenery much pleasanter.
"On Sunday morning, October 13th, having been informed that there would be no public worship in Saratoga, none, I mean, in which we wished to participate, and that there was a respectable Scotch clergyman at Cambridge, we left at this place, and, crossing 'Du- mont's Ferry' again, rode through the township of Argyle and a small part of Greenwich to the place of our destination, where we arrived just after the congregation had begun their morning worship. On our way, a decent Scotchman came up to us on horseback and very civilly enquired why we travelled on the Sabbath; observing to us at the same time, that such travelling was forbidden by the law of the state, and that the people of that vicinity had determined to carry the law into execution.1 We easily satisfied him, and were not a little pleased to find that there were people in this vicinity who regarded the law of the land and the law of God with so much respect. When we entered the church our companion obligingly conducted us to a good seat. We found in the desk a respectable clergyman from Scot- land, who gave us two edifying sermons, delivered, however, in the peculiar manner of the Seceders. 2
" The country from 'Dumont's Ferry' through the township of Argyle is, for six or eight miles, a plain of pitch-pines. The soil is alternately clay and sand, everywhere replenished with slate of a very fragile and dissolute 3 texture. The surface then rises gradually into
easy swells and then into hills. The soil of these is loam mixed with gravel, generally of a moderately good quality. The forests contain oak, chestnut and hickory and abound in maple and birch. The rocks are principally granite.
1 () Tempora ! O Mores ! What will the good people of Washington say to this !
2 It would be of interest if Dr. Dwight had given us the name of this excellent divine; for, perhaps, some of his descendants are yet living in Washington County.
3 It is interesting to observe how the meaning of words change even in the course of fifty years.
The word " dissolute" is now applied to one of a dissipated character. To a reader of meditation, this note is in point.
312
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
"On this road there is a small village in the township of Argyle, and another in that of Greenwich. The latter is built around a col- lection of mills on the Battenkill. This large mill stream rises in the township of Dorset in Vermont, and running south-westward through Manchester, turns to the west in the north part of Sunderland. Thence, passing through Arlington, it crosses the County of Wash- ington between Cambridge and Salem, Easton and Greenwich, and discharges its waters into the Hudson at the southwest corner of Greenwich. Its course is about forty miles. Here it is called the Battenkill. In this village there is a decent Baptist church and about thirty houses of an indifferent appearance.
"The township of Argyle contained in 1790, when it included Greenwich and Easton, 2,341 inhabitants; in 1800, after Easton was separated from it, 4,595. In 1810, after Greenwich was separated from it, 3,813. In 1800 Easton contained 3,069 and in 1810, 3, 253. In 1810 Greenwich contained 2,752. The original township contained in 1800, 7.764 and in 1810, 9,818. In 1790, the county of Washington contained nine townships and 14,042 inhabitants; in 1800, sixteen townships and 35,574 inhabitants; in 1810 twenty-one townships and 44, 289 inhabitants.
" These facts will give you a tolerably just view of the progress of settlement and population in these parts of this state, which, until very lately, were a mere wilderness.
" The township of Cambridge is both fertile and pleasant. On its western side runs the range of Taghkannuc, in a succession of hills, some of them approaching towards a mountainous height. All the varieties of 'hill, dale and sunny plain' and beautiful interval are here presented to the eye of a traveller. A considerable part of its extent is in various directions almost a continuous village. The in- habitants, some of whom planted themselves here before the Revolu- tionary War, are chiefly emigrants from New England and Scotland.1 Those who came from Scotland particularly engaged my attention. They left their native country in the humblest circumstances and after encountering all the hardship and expense incident to a long and tedious voyage, had, at their arrival, no other objects of their reliance beside the goodness of the soil and climate, their own hands and the common blessings of Heaven. Notwithstanding the difficul-
1 Some few, also, came from New Jersey. See one of the earlier chapters.
COMFORTABLE WASHINGTON COUNTY HOMES. 313
ties, which I have described as attending the formation of a settle- ment in an American forest, they have already advanced to the full possession of comforts, and in some instances of conveniences. Their houses are warm and tidy, and their farms in a promising condition. In the church they were decently dressed, and apparently devout; out of it they were cheerful, obliging and kind. To bring themselves into this condition, they have undoubtedly suffered many troubles; yet, they have certainly acted with wisdom in transporting them- selves into a country where all the necessaries. and comforts of life are so abundant, and so easily obtained. The prospects of the poor brighten at once, their views expand, their energy awakes and their efforts are invigorated, when they see competence rewarding of course every man possessing health, common sense and integrity, laboring with diligence and preserving with care the fruits of his in- dustry. At the same time a mighty difference between the possession of a fee simple estate, and a dependant tenantry, even where the terms are mild, is perfectly understood and deeply felt by every man who has been a tenant. Of all the feelings derived from civilized society, that of personal independence is undoubtedly the most de- lightful.
"We saw three churches in Cambridge, two of them belonging to the Scotch settlers, and all of them decent buildings. In 1790 this township contained 4,996 inhabitants; in 1800, 6, 187, and in 1810 [the year of Dr. Dwight's last visit] 6,730.
"From Cambridge to Hoosac Falls the county is rather pleasant, particularly the first six or eight miles. The rest of the way it was too dark to allow us an opportunity of examining it. I have since passed through it three times and found it not a little improved."
A year or two later President Dwight again took a tour through Washington County, in describing which he writes as follows:
" Monday, October 23d, accompanied by Mr. L- we rode to Stillwater, and, after being obliged to wait three hours for our din- ner, proceeded to Argyle, on the eastern side of Miller's Falls [i. e. Fort Miller]. Mr. L- left us the next morning and we proceeded to Lake George, passing through the villages of Fort Edward, Sandy Hill and Glens Falls. Here we dined, and while our dinner was pre- paring, went down to examine this noble cataract. To my great mor- tification I found it encumbered and defaced by the erection of sev-
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314
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
eral paltry buildings raised up since my last visit to this place. The rocks both above and below the bridge were extremely altered and greatly for the worse by the operations of the water and the weather. The courses of the currents had undergone, in many places, since my last visit, a similar variation. The view, at the same time, was broken by the buildings-two or three of which, designed to be mills, were given up as useless, and were in ruins. Another was a wretched looking cottage, standing upon the island between the bridges. Noth- ing could be more dissonant from the splendor of this scene, and hardly anything more disgusting. I found a considerable part of the rocks below the road so much wasted that I could scarcely acknow- ledge them to be the same. On the road from Waterford to Fort Edward a great number of valuable houses are erected. The enclosures, since my last visit are greatly improved and multiplied, and the county is more generally and better cultivated. This is par- ticularly true of Argyle and Northumberland, yet, throughout the whole distance the county is greatly advanced toward a state of thorough cultivation. At Fort Edward, Sandy Hill and Glens Falls there are three handsome villages, greatly improved in every respect since my last journey through this region. In each of the last two there is a neat Presbyterian church lately erected. A minister has been settled over both villages at a salary of $700 per annum; a fact which proves at once the prosperity and good disposition of the in- habitants.
" A strong bridge is built over the Mohawk, a mile and a half below Cohoes, and another across the Hudson from Northumberland to Argyle, at the foot of Miller's Falls. The road from Glens Falls to Fort Miller has become worse than it was formerly, having been worn down through the soil."
Nor were the Baron de Chastellux, the Swedish naturalist, Kalm and President Dwight the only distinguished travellers who, about this period, made tours through Washington County, desirous of see- ing for themselves the classic ground (par excellence) of the Revolu- tionary War.
In . the early spring of 1776, Charles Carroll of Carrolton, (one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence) together with Ben- jamin Franklin and Samuel Chase, were appointed by the Continental Congress Commissioners to visit Canada with a view of inducing the
315
NARRATIVE OF CHARLES CARROLL.
French inhabitants of that Province to unite with the American Col- onists in throwing off their allegiance to Great Britain and in making a joint effort for independence.
Accordingly, on the end of April of that year, Franklin, Chase and Carroll embarked at New York in a sloop for Albany, on their way to Canada, having received on the 20th of March preceding ample in- structions from Congress "to promote or to form a union between the Colonies and the people of Canada." The party landed at Albany on the 7th.1 On the 9th, accompanied by General Schuyler and mem- bers of his family, the party proceeded northward by the old military route, which was cut through by General Sir William Johnson at the commencement of hostilities during the French war of 1755-63. On the way the gentlemen of the party visited on horseback the fall of " the Cohooes," of which the description is most vivid and graphic. Mr. Carroll also describes the large lumber industry, and other quite extensive manufacturing interests belonging to and conducted by General Schuyler at Schuylerville, near the mouth of Fish Creek. This place is called in the journal "Saratoga; " the springs of that name being but very little known at the time. The name Saratoga is claimed to be derived from an Indian word signifying "the valley of the great side hill."? General Schuyler's mansion was reached the same evening and the party remained the guests of the general and his hospitable family for a week or more.
On the 16th [April, 1776,] Mr. Carroll writes in his journal: " At a mile from Fort Miller we got into a boat and went up the Hudson river to Fort Edward. Although this fort is but seven miles distant from the place where we took boat, we were about four hours rowing up. The current is exceedingly rapid, and the rapidity was increased by a freshet. In many places the current was so strong that the bat- teatt-men were obliged to sit up with poles and drag the boat by the painter. Although these fellows were active and expert at this busi- ness, it was with the greatest difficulty they could stem the current in particular places. The congress keeps in pay three companies of bat- teau-men on Hudson's river, consisting each of thirty-three men with a captain ; the pay of the men is £4 10s. per month. The lands border-
Imagine the difference at the present day. Then by sloop the time from New York to Al- bany was almost a week-now less than three hours!
2 See one of the earlier chapters of this work for an exhaustive discussion of the meaning of the name Saratoga.
316
WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
ing on Hudson's river, as you approach Fort Edward, become more sandy, and the principal wood that grows on them is pine. There are several saw mills both above and below Fort Miller. The planks sawed at the mills above Fort Miller are made up into small rafts, and left without guides to the current of the river; each one is marked so that the raft-men that remain just below Fort Miller falls watching for their coming down, may easily know their own rafts. When they come over the falls they go out in canoes and boats and tow their rafts ashore, and then take them to pieces and make them again into larger rafts. The smaller rafts are called cribs. The ruins only of Fort Edward remain ; there is a good, large inn where we found quartered Colonel Sinclair's regiment. Mr. Allen, son of old Mr. Allen, is lieutenant- colonel; he received us very politely and accommodated us with beds. The officers of this regiment are in general fine-sized men, and seemed to be on a friendly footing; the soldiers also are stout fellows.
[17th April, 1776.] " Having breakfasted with Colonel Allen, we set off from Fort Edward on our way to Fort George. We had not got a mile from the fort when a messenger from General Schuyler met us. He was sent with a letter by the general to inform us that Lake George was not open, and to desire us to remain at an inn kept by one Wing,1 at seven miles distance from Fort Edward, and as many from Fort George. The country between Wing's tavern and Fort ' Edward is very sandy and somewhat hilly. The principal wood is pine.
" At Fort Edward the river Hudson makes a sudden turn to the westward; it soon again resumes its former north course, for, at a small distance, we found it on our left, and parallel with the road which we travelled, and which from Fort Edward to Lake George lies nearly north and south. At three miles or thereabouts from Fort Edward there is a remarkable fall in the river. We could see it from the road, but not so as to form any judgment of its height. We were, however, informed that it was upwards of thirty feet, and is called the Kingsbury Falls." We could distinctly see the spray arising like a vapor or fog from the violence of the fall. The banks of the river, above and below these falls for a mile or two, are remarkably steep
1 Now Glens Falls.
2 At present known as " Baker's Falls"-so named, as Dr. Holden writes, from Caleb Baker, the original proprietor and builder of the first mills at that place.
317
GRAYDEN'S DESCRIPTION.
and high, and appear to be formed or faced with a kind of stone very much resembling slate. The banks of the Mohawk river at the Cohooes are faced with the same kind of stone. It is said to be an indication of sea-coal." 1
On the return of Franklin and Carroll from Canada, they were met at Fort Edward by Captain Alexander Grayden of the Continental Army, and a lawyer of some eminence after the war .? He was on his way, under a strong escort, in charge of a large sum of money in coin to General Schuyler at Lake George-this money being designed to promote the purposes sought to be accomplished by the Commission- ers, Franklin and Carroll. Grayden's description of the country in this vicinity is as follows:
"Immediately beyond Fort Edward the country assumed a dreary, cheerless aspect. Between this and Lake George, a distance of about twelve miles, it was almost an entire wood, acquiring a deeper gloom, as well from the general prevalence of pines, as from its dark ex- tended covert being presented to the imagination as an appropriate scene for the ' treasons, strategems and spoils' of savage hostility, to which purpose it had been devoted in former days of deadly dissen- sion. It was in this tract of country that several actions had been fought; the Baron Dieskau had been defeated; and that American blood had flowed, as well as English and French, in commemoration of which the terror we attach to the adventitious circumstances which seem to accelerate man's doom, had given to a piece of standing water near the road the name Bloody pond. The descending sun had shed a
1 Carroll, also, speaks in his journal of the fertility of the soil of what is now Washington and Warren counties. This, however, was not new. Indeed, as early as 1759, while General Amherst was reconstructing the fortresses at Ticonderoga and Crown Point, a proclamation was issued by Lieutenant-Governor James DeLancey, inviting the attention of settlers to lands "between Lake George and Fort Edward." He continues, they "will there find three Several Spots of cleared Ground, two of them capable of containing half a dozen families each, and the other not less than twelve; on which shall be left standing for their convenience the Wooden Hutts and Coverings of the Troops that have been posted there since the Beginning of the Campaign, which, from the footing we have now at Crown Point, will be no longer necessary, and will be evacuated and left for the use of those who shall become Settlers. The first of the said Spotts is situated four miles above Fort Edward, {now Green's mill.] The second at the Half-Way-Brook, near the old Champion house, and the other three miles from Lake George, [ Brown's Halfway house.] The soil is good, and capable of improvement, and all three well watered. The IIalf- Way-Brook being the spott sufficient for a dozen Families." At the time of the original survey of the township of Queensbury, in 1762, writes Dr. Holden, some of these cabins were occupied by dwellers.
2 His work, Grayden's Memoirs, dealing with contemporaneous events is exceedingly interest- ing.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
browner horror on the wilderness; and, as we passed the dismal pool we experienced that transient emotion of commiseration which is nat- ural to the mind when contemplating past events, involving the fall of friends, the fortune of war, and the sad lot of human kind. ' Denique ob casus bellorum sortem hominum.' * *
* The day we spent at this station was employed in taking a view of the remains of Fort William Henry, and in sauntering along the margin of the im- mense fountain of pure water which constitutes Lake George."
But we have not yet exhausted the list of our distinguished travel- lers in Washington County.
Early in the summer of 1796, Isaac Weld, Jr., whose ancestor had penetrated these wilds in the early part of the century, accompanying General Nicholson in his famous expedition of 1709, in the capacity of a naturalist, came to this country as the representative of what would now be called a "Syndicate," to ascertain "whether in case of future emergency any part of the United States might be looked forward to as an eligible place of abode." He was, like Kalm, a shrewd and accu- rate observer, and possessed, withal, of a fund of humor. A few ex- tracts therefore from his travels through Washington County into Canada, may prove of interest to the reader. Leaving out the account of his journey from New York, Albany, Stillwater and Saratoga (which though of great interest, is not germane to this history) we begin these extracts from the time of his leaving Saratoga.
"Of the works thrown up at Saratoga by the British and American armies during the war, there are now scarcely any remains. The country round about is well cultivated, and the trenches have been mostly levelled by the plow. We here crossed the Hudson river and proceeded along its eastern shore as far as Fort Edward, where it is lost to the view, for the road still runs on towards the north while the river takes a sudden turn to the west.
Fort Edward was dismantled prior to the late American war, but the opposite armies, during that unhappy contest, were both in the neighborhood. Many of the people whom we found living here, had served as soldiers in the army, and told us a number of interesting particulars relative to several events which happened in this quarter. The landlord of the tavern where we stopped, for one, related all the circumstances attending Miss McCrea's death, and pointed out a hill, not far from the house where she was murdered by the Indians and also the place of her interment.
319
WELD'S DESCRIPTION.
Fort Edward stands near the river. The town of the same name is at the distance of one or two hundred yards from it and contains about twenty houses. Thus far we had got on tolerably well, but from hence to Fort Anne, which was also dismantled prior to the late war, the road is most wretched, particularly over a long cause-way between the two forts, formed originally for the transporting of can- non, the soil here being extremely moist and heavy. The cause-way consists of large trees laid side by side transversly, some of which having decayed, great intervals were left, wherein the wheels of the carriage were sometimes locked so fast that the horses alone could not possibly extricate them.1 To have remained in the carriage over this part of the road would really have been a severe punishment, for although boasted of as being the very best in Albany, it had no sort of springs, and was in fact little better than a common wagon. We, therefore, alighted, took our guns and amused ourselves with shooting [partridges? ] as we walked along through the woods. The woods here had a much more majestic appearance than any that we had before met with on our way from Philadelphia; this, however, was owing more to the great height than to the thickness of the trees, for I could not see one that appeared more than thirty inches in diameter. Indeed, in general, the girt of the trees in the woods of America is but very small in proportion to their height, and trifling in compari- son of that of the forest trees in Great Britain. The woods here were composed chiefly of oaks,“ hickory, hemlock and beech trees, inter- mixed with which appeared great numbers of the smooth bark or Weymouth pines, as they are called, that seem almost peculiar to this part of the country. A profusion of wild raspberries were growing in the woods here, really of a very good flavor; they are commonly found in the woods to the northward of this. In Canada they abound everywhere.
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