USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 37
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The following lines, entitled "Hard Times," are quoted from my father's paper (The New York Commercial Advertiser) and were pub- lished at the close of the War of 1812:
"No business stirring ; all things at a stand, People complain they have no cash in hand;
' Dull Times' re-echoes now from every quarter, Even from father to son and daughter. Merchants cry out, ' no money to be had,' Grocers say the 'times are very bad ;' Mechanics work, but they can get no pay, Beaux dress genteel, and ladies, too, are gay. Cash very scarce, dancing twice a week- Business dull-amusements still we seek ; Some live awhile, and then, perhaps, they fail, While many run in debt and go to jail. The females must have ribbons, gauze and lace, And paint besides, to smooth a wrinkled face; The beaux will dress, go to the ball and play, Sit up all night, and lay in bed all day. Brush up an empty pate, look smart and prim, Follow each trifling fashion or odd whim. Five shillings will buy a good fat goose, 2 While turkeys, too, are offered fit for use. Are these bad times, when persons will profess To follow fashions, and delight in dress ? No! times are good ; but people are to blame Who spend too much, and justly merit shame!"
1 Referring to the dissentions between New England and the Middle and Southern States.
? Would that five shillings would now buy a "good fat goose !"
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
"It happened that on a Sunday afternoon in February, 1815, a ship was discerned in the offing, which was supposed to be a cartel, bring- ing home our commissioners at Ghent, from their unsuccessful mis- sion. The sun had set gloomily before any intelligence had reached the city. Expectation became painfully intense, as the hours of dark- ness drew on. At length, a boat reached the wharf, announcing the fact that a treaty of peace had been signed, and was waiting for noth- ing but the action of our government to become a law. The men on whose ears these words first fell, rushed in breathless haste into the city to repeat them to their friends, shouting, as they ran through the streets 'Peace! PEACE! PEACE!' Every one who heard the sound repeated it. From house to house, from street to street, the news spread with electric rapidity. The whole city was in commotion. Men bearing lighted torches, were flying to and fro, shouting like madmen PEACE! PEACE! When the rapture had partially subsided, one idea occupied every mind. But few slept that night. In groups they were gathered in the streets and by the fireside, beguiling the hours of midnight by reminding each other that the agony of war was over, and that a worn-out and distracted country was about to enter again upon its wonted career of prosperity."
At the time that the news was received, S. G. Goodrich (" Peter Parley ") happened to be in New York. Speaking of the joyful effect produced, he says-thus corroborating Dr. Wayland-" I had gone in the evening to a concert at the City Hotel. While listening to the music, the door of the concert-room was thrown open, and in rushed a man breathless with excitement. He mounted a table, and swing- ing a white handkerchief aloft, cry out, 'Peace, Peace, Peace!'" The music ceased; the hall was speedily vacated. I rushed into the street, and oh! what a scene! In a few minutes thousands and tens of thou- sands of people were marching about with candles, lamps, torches- making the jubilant street appear like a gay and gorgeous procession. The whole night Broadway sang its song of peace. We were all Dem- ocrats, all Federalists! Old enemies rushed into each other's arms; every house was in a revel, every heart seemed melted by a joy which banished all evil thought and feeling. On Monday morning I set out for Connecticut. All along the road the people saluted us with swinging of hats and cries of rejoicing. At one place, in rather a lonesome part of the road, a schoolmaster came out, with the whole school at his heels, to ask us if the news were true ? We told him it
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PUBLIC JOY AT PEACE.
was, whereupon he tied his bandanna handkerchief to a broom, swung it aloft and the whole school hosanned, 'Peace, Peace!'"
Nor were the effects of the Peace confined merely to natural bursts of delirious delight or to sentimental gushes of feeling. An increased material prosperity was at once apparent. Under the changed condi- tion of affairs every industry, as if touched by the magic wand of an enchanter, awoke to new life and vigor. Instead of " ships rotting in every creek and cove," as so graphically described by Dr. Wayland, the different ship-yards of the city resounded from morning till night with the blow of the hammer, as keel after keel of new vessels was daily laid; in place of our "immense annual products mouldering in our warehouses," ships could not be built or chartered fast enough to convey these products to foreign customers, and in lieu of the " sources of profitable industry being dried up," the streets were filled with artizans plying their several vocations, and with laborers going to and from their daily toil. In the counting-houses, moreover, where a short time previous those few clerks, who had been so fortunate as not to be discharged, yawned languidly over their desks, all was bus- tle and animation, as, briskly engaged with foreign correspondence, their faces beamed with satisfaction at the immediate prospect of their services being well requited. New buildings, public and private, sprang up in different sections of the city with marvelous celerity and the wharves, no longer green with mould, and tenanted solely by the water-rat, were lined with ships waiting only for favoring gales to whiten the ocean with their sails, and bear the flag of the United States into ports where for so long it had been unseen, if, indeed. it had not been almost totally forgotten! In fact, the city, no longer a "deserted village," presented the appearance of an immense hive, teeming with human bees, in which no drones were either known or allowed. Squalor had given place to splendor, poverty to affluence; a full tide of prosperity had set in and shrewd speculators, who knew how to take advantage of its flood, were making rapid fortunes.
Nor was this wonderful re-action confined solely to the city of New York. The entire state of New York, and especially Washington County shared to the utmost in this revival of industries, both of farming and of manufacturers. Indeed, from the close of the War of 1812 may really be dated the first steps which eventually led to this county taking such a pre-eminent rank among her sister counties in all that appertains to material wealth and prosperity.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
Soon after the close of the war, viz. : on the 17th of April; 1815, the town of White Creek was taken off from the town of Cambridge-it thus becoming the southeastern town of the county. Its name is de- rived, says Johnson, from the stream of that name, which forms its western boundary, but the appellation has been the origin of consid- erable trouble among students of the early history of the county, many of whom have confounded it with the old "White Creek," which has gone for a hundred years by the name of Salem. The sur- face of the south portion of the town is gently rolling, and the cen- tral and north portions are occupied by the Taghanick Mountains. The summits of these mountains are rocky and broken and covered with forests. 'The principal streams are Hoosick river, Owl Kill, Pumpkin Hook (said to be a corruption of the Indian Pom-pa-nuck, the name of a tribe of Indians of the Mohican nation, who removed hither from Connecticut) Center, White and Little White. The upper course of Owl Kill is through a deep and narrow valley abounding with many picturesque views. The Walloomsac Patent, which lies partly in this town in the south, was settled by the Dutch. Among the other grants, also, were the Bain, Embury, Grant and Campbell, and the Lake and Van Cuyler Patents. A colony of Irish Methodists settled near Ash Grove about 1770, and here was organized the Sec- ond Methodist Episcopal Church in America, by Thomas Ashton (from whom the locality was named) and Rev. Philip Embury. The first settlement at White Creek was made by James and Thomas Mor- rison. 1
At the same date, 17th of April, 1815, Jackson was formed from Cambridge, the township lying in a narrow strip between Cambridge and White Creek on the south and Salem on the north. It was named after the hero of New Orleans, then all the rage, that general having just defeated the flower of the British troops, composed of Welling- ton's Peninsular troops, under General Edward Packenham, the "hero of Salamanca," and one of Wellington's veteran officers- in the same way that, should new towns spring up in the United States, (in 1900) many would be found bearing the name of "Dewey" -the hero of Manila. The north branch of the Taghkanick range occupies the castern portion of the town, and several parallel ranges extend through the central and western portions, rendering the entire
I French.
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SETTLEMENT OF SALEM.
surface very hilly. The summits of the hills are from 300 to Soo feet above the valleys and are generally crowned with dense forests. The principal streams are the Batten Kill and a branch of Owl Creek. In the valley between the hills that border immediately upon the Batten Kill and those further west, are several small lakes, known as Long, Big, Dead and Little ponds. These lakes are beautiful sheets of water, abounding in game fish, and surrounded by hills, forests and fine cultivated farms. Portions of this town and of White Creek were embraced in the Anaquassacoct Patent of 10,000 acres, granted May II, 1762. The first settlers were James Irwin, Peter Magill and John Miller, all of whom located in the south part of the town. The first church (Reformed Protestant Dutch) in the town was organized De- cember 31, 1833, Rev. James W. Stewart being its first pastor. The late George Law, one of the projectors and proprietors of the Califor- nia line of steamships, was a native of this town.
As Salem, so often spoken of from its past traditions, is such a prominent town in Washington County, this may be an appropriate place in which to speak of its history more at length, although several allusions to that town have already been made in the course of this history.
Salem, though organized in 1788, was really first settled about the year 1756, by two companies of emigrants, one from Scotland and Ireland and the other from New England. They worshiped together under the ministry of the Rev. Thomas Clark, an Irish preacher, till differences arose about "occasional communion," and about receiving the covenant of the three kingdoms. This-to us at the present day- ridiculous controversy occasioned a separation in 1769. A Presby- terian Church was soon after formed, and the Rev. John Warford, its first minister, was installed in 1789. He labored in this pastorate about fourteen years, when he was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Tomb, who continued in the ministry till his death in 1832. His successors have been Rev. John Whiton and Rev. A. B. Lambert. The first Presbyterian Church was built in 1774, and for three years it was used, during the Revolution, for barracks and a store-house.1 It was burned by the Royalists in 1778. The next church was built imme- diately after the Revolution and was accidentally destroyed by fire in
1 This was not the only church and public institution used in the Revolution for barracks. During that war both the present "Brattle St" church in Boston, and the still standing colleges of Brown University at Providence, R. I., were also used for this same purpose.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
1836. The third, erected at a cost of $10,000, was also burned in April, 1840.
The following inscription is copied from a monument in the Salem village graveyard:
" Here lie the earthly remains of Rev. James Proudfit, pastor of the Ass. Ref. Congregation in Salem; who, after manifesting the most ardent zeal and disinterested faithfulness in the Gospel of his Master during a period of nearly fifty years, fell asleep in Jesus, Oct. 22d, 1802. 'Well done, good and faithful servant; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.' 'They who turn many to righteousness shall shine as the stars forever and ever.' "' '
Thirty years elapsed after the War of 1812-15, before the citizens of Washington County were again called upon to show their patriot- ism and once more both that county and Warren were represented by their gallant soldiers, on the plains of Matamoras, at the storming of Chapaultepec, the fierce fought battle of Monterey and the hotly con- tested struggle of Buena Vista. " The boys," says Dr. Holden, " came back radiant with success and covered with glory-to die like sheep struck with the rot-those heroes who whipped the Mexican ' Greasers!'-that same despised enemy, which, a few years later, sent the armies of France back on the sea and shot the brave Maxi- milian like a dog! Verily, 'Republics are ungrateful,' and it needs something more than the glamor of poesy and the allurements of romance to make the battle-scarred veterans believe that it is sweet and glorious to die for one's country." 2
Regarding the occurrences of the late Civil War, this history will be confined entirely to those companies and regiments which were enlisted in Washington County-giving the names of their different officers. With the valor of these regiments at the South and upon various battlefields too numerous to mention, this history has nothing to do. Suffice it to say that the men who enlisted from Washington County were no whit inferior in endurance and bravery to those of their ancestors, who, in many a hard fought field against the flower of the French army, came out victorious. Besides which, to give in
1 Barber. The late Rev. Alexander Proudfit, formerly of Salem, and afterward so long a revered citizen of Saratoga Springs, N. Y., was, I think, the grandson of this Rev. James Proud- fit.
2 Dr. Holden in this probably had in mind the Latin poet's aphorism, Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY IN CIVIL WAR.
detail an account of the many brilliant actions in which they were participants would exceed greatly the limits which the publishers of this work have prescribed.
The reader must, therefore, be satisfied with the statement that with the first thrill that vibrated through the North, when the news that Fort Sumter had been fired upon,' no county in all of the States of the United States, was more anxious, not only to enlist, but to be sent to the front as early as possible, than that of Washington Coun- ty. Many of her heroes are now lying beneath the soil of the battle- fields of Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam and Fredericksburgh, or else, in the further south, quietly resting beneath the wild mag- nolia's shade. It may, however, be said, in passing, that in the latter two engagements, the county of Washington, as well as Warren County, was most gallantly and proudly represented; and as a proof of this statement, the large mortuary list which subsequently was sent back to fill so many homes with sadness, tells the story, that their boys, wherever they went did their full duty, and of their mem- ories neither of those counties (Washington and Warren) necd be ashamed. On the contrary, they can always point to their achieve- ments with well earned pride.
To come then to the several companies which Washington County sent to the front in the Civil War.
TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT.
The first regiment from this portion of the state was the Twenty- second New York Infantry, four companies of which were raised in Washington County. Nearly all of the towns were represented, but the centers of organization of these companies were as follows, viz. : Company B, Fort Edward; Company D, Cambridge; Company G, Whitehall; Company H, Sandy Hill. The officers of these companies were as follows:
COMPANY B-Robert E. McCoy, captain; Duncan Sendrum, first lieutenant ; James W. McCoy, second lieutenant.
1 I well remember when the news of this momentous event was received. I was then engaged in a baseball game in a field near S iratoga Springs, when the tidings came to us from the tele- graph-office in that village. Instantly, although it was at a critical period in the game, every one of us threw down his ball and bat, and leaving them on the field, rushed into the town to gain confirmation of this event !
There were no Democrats nor Republicans in that crowd-all were patriots.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
COMPANY D-Henry S. Milliman, captain; Thomas B. Fisk, first lieutenant; Robert Rice, second lieutenant.
COMPANY G-Edmund Boynton, captain, succeeded by Benjamin G. Mosher before muster; Duncan Cameron, first lieutenant. 1
COMPANY H-Thomas J. Strong, captain; William A. Piersons, first lieutenant ; Matthew S. Teller, second lieutenant.
After doing valiant service, this regiment returned home and, on the 19th of June, 1863, was mustered out. Sad, however, to relate, hardly a quarter of those who had set out so proudly under its ban- ners to the sound of martial music in the early summer of 1861, returned to their homes. Battle and the disasters incident to malarial campaigns had laid many in the grave, while others had, previously to the home coming, been discharged on account of physical disabil- ity, or else were still held captives in confederate prisons. A number of changes had also taken place among the officers. James W. McCoy was now captain of Company B. Captain and Brevet-Major M. S. Teller was now in command of Company H, with A. Halleck Holdbrook and Marshall A. Duers as lieutenants. Duncan Cameron was captain of Company G, and Lucius E. Wilson was in command of Company D.
Upon the war-worn and scarred battalion reaching Fort Edward, "it was received with a grand ovation by the excited people. A similar reception greeted it at Sandy Hill and Glens Falls, and then the first companies raised in Washington County for the defense of the national life were dismissed to their long unvisited homes."
FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT.
This regiment, which was raised in the summer of 1861, and the members of which were generally from Albany, Montgomery, New York. Otsego and Washington Counties, was mustered into the ser- vice of the United States from August 20 to September 24, 1861. The only company raised in this county was Company F, which was raised at Sandy Hill and vicinity. Its first officers were James C. Rogers,
1 And here regarding Duncan Cameron, I would fain lay a chaplet of immortelles upon his memory. Long before the war, I knew him well. He was then an inn-keeper in the town of Athol (since Thurman in Warren County) and a more brave, genial man-having all the sterling characteristics of his Scotch ancestry-I never met. He did valiant service in the war, and his name should be held in affectionate remembrance. Doubtless, of course, there were many others in these companies (herewith mentioned) who were as brave as he; only, not having a personal acquaintance with them, I cannot speak of them with any personal knowledge.
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SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR.
captain; George B. Culver, first lieutenant and John W. Wilkinson, second lieutenant.
This also was a fighting regiment. In the seven days fight on the Peninsula and in the Battle of Chancellorsville it suffered severely- Company F losing its first lieutenant, Hugh B. Knickerbocker, who had succeeded George B. Culver.1 and several privates, besides having a heavy list of wounded. Indeed, Captain (afterwards Major) Rogers states that he does not believe that half a dozen of the original mem- bers of Company F came back to Washington County. A few, he further says, had previously been discharged; a few, after their terms of enlistment had expired, went directly from the army to settle down in other localities and the majority, stricken down by battle or disease left their bones under the soil of Virginia.
FORTY-FOURTH INFANTRY.
This regiment, otherwise known as the "Ellsworth Avengers," and intended to be composed of one or two picked men from every town in the state, had among its members some twenty or thirty men from Washington County. Among these was Edward Northup of Sandy Hill, who subsequently became an officer in the regular army. It was mustered out of service on the HIth of October, 1864, the veterans and recruits being transferred to other regiments.
EIGHTY-SEVENTH INFANTRY.
While this regiment was raised mainly in Brooklyn, yet Company A was composed almost wholly of men from the towns of Dresden and Putnam in this county. It covered itself with glory even under the severe trials of the Army of the Potomac, loosing, in fact, so many in the battles in which that army participated-especially at
1 Lieutenant George B. Culver (at present, 1900, cashier of a bank at Granville, Washington County) was taken critically ill at Washington, D. C .. and this, therefore, was the reason of his having to give up his command. A sketch of his war record is in point:
George Bradley Culver. First Lieutenant, U. S. V., Company F, Forty-third New York In- fantry, Albany and Yates Rifles. Enlisted August. 1861, mustered in September 3, 1861, honora- bly discharged July 16, 1862. His record is as follows: Defenses of Washington, D. C., Hancock's Brigade, Smith's Division. Army of the Potomac; First Brigade, Smith's Division, Fourth Corps, Army of the Potomac; siege of Yorktown and Battle of Williamsburgh, Va ; First Brigade, Sec- ond Division, Fourth Corps, Army of the Potomac; Peninsular Campaign, First Brigade, Second Division, Sixth Corps, Army of the Potomac.
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
those of "Malvern Hill" and the "Wilderness," that it was finally consolidated with the Fortieth New York Volunteers. When, at length, it was mustered out on the 17th of June, 1865, there were very few members of the original Company A remaining it.
NINETY-THIRD INFANTRY.
Undismayed by the disasters which had fallen upon the Union arms, John S. Crocker, a lawyer of Cambridge, in the fall of 1861, began the raising of another regiment, his design being to have it recruited mainly from this county. Crocker's efforts were successful and the command was mustered then at Albany -- the regimental rendezvous-in November of that year under the name of the "Ninety-third New York Infantry." John S. Crocker was Colonel, B. C. Butler of Luzerne. Warren County, Lieutenant-Col- onel; Michael Cassidy of Albany, Major and Haviland Gifford of Eas- ton, Adjutant. The following were the companies from Washington County, with their officers.
COMPANY G-Cambridge and vicinity; Walter S. Gray, captain; W. V. S. Beekman, first lieutenant; Frances S. Bailey, second lieutenant.
COMPANY F-Fort Edward and vicinity; George B. Moshier, cap- tain; John Bailey, first lieutenant; Silas S. Hubbard, second lieuten- ant.
COMPANY I-Granville, Argyle, etc .; Nathan J. Johnson, captain ; William Randles, first lieutenant; James M. Crawford, second lieu- tenant.
This regiment remained at Albany until the ist of April, 1862, when they went to Washington and thence (under General Mcclellan) to Fortress Monroe and Yorktown. While engaged in the siege of the latter place, Colonel Crocker and Major Cassidy were captured by the enemy. In February, 1865, Lieutenant-Colonel Butler was mus- tered out, when Adjutant Haviland of Easton, was commissioned and mustered as Lieutenant-Colonel, remaining in command of the regi- ment until the end of its service. J. H. Northup, captain of Com- pany I was, about the same time, mustered as major and commis- sioned as lieutenant-colonel, so that, during the closing portion of this regiment's service, both of the field officers were from Washington County, although that county furnished but three out of the original ten companies. The regiment was mustered out on the 29th of June,
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SOLDIERS OF THE CIVIL WAR.
1865, but few of the Washington County boys who had enlisted in this regiment were among the number then dismissed to their homes -in fact, only one of the original nine line officers from that county was mustered out with the regiment.
NINETY-SIXTH INFANTRY.
This regiment, which was raised in the autumn of 1861, was drawn chiefly from Warren, Essex and Clinton counties. Company E alone was from Washington County, and was chiefly recruited from the vicinity of Sandy Hill and Fort Edward. Its first officers were Hiram Eldridge, captain; A. J. Russell, first lieutenant and James S. Cray, second lieutenant. This regiment was one of the few regi- ments which remained in service until 1866. It was mustered out in the spring of 1866.
D'EPINEUIL'S ZOUAVES (FIFTY-THIRD INFANTRY.)
Desirous of emulating his French ancestors in the Revolutionary War, Count Lionel J. D'Epineuil, in the summer of 1861, came from France to the United States with the intention of raising a brigade of Zouaves-if possible all Frenchmen-to serve in the Union army. He had a new and very peculiar drill which he wished to put in practice, and was very zealous in his efforts to obtain men. He obtained the services of a M. Antoine Renois of Whitehall, who had already re- cruited a large number of men, to raise a regiment of Zouaves (to carry out his pet idea) from northern New York and Lower Canada. Accordingly, M. Renois established recruiting stations at various points along Lake Champlain and obtained quite a number-some fifty being from Whitehall. These were not enough for a regiment, however, and by an order from the War Department, what few men had been obtained, was mustered out in the spring of 1862.
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