USA > New York > Washington County > Washington county, New York; its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 42
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Sandy Hill is widely known for its schools and churches as well as for its splendid industrial enterprises and progressive business men.
The Presbyterian church in this village was organized in 1803 by Rev. Lebbens Armstrong, at the house of Captain William Smith, which stood about four miles north of the village. The congregation worshipped in the court house until they erected their first church building in 1826. This building was replaced by a handsome new edifice in 1895. Rev. Charles D. Kellogg, D. D., is the present pas- tor.
The Methodist Episcopal church of Sandy Hill was organized in 1825, but they did not erect a church edifice until 1840. Rev. L. D. Cook is the present pastor.
About the year 1830 and during the pastorate of Rev: John Kelly, Saint Mary's Catholic church was organized. It was at first known as Christ's church, but the name was subsequently changed to St. Mary's. This church increased wonderfully in strength and in 1872 St. Paul's church was organized by the French members. under the charge of Rev. G. Huberdault. The present pastor of St. Paul's is Rev. Eugene Rey. St. Mary's congregation has now under con- templation the erection of a splendid church edifice to cost $50,000, and the project will undoubtedly be consummated at an early date.
The Sandy Hill Baptist church was organized in April, 1840, and Rev. J. B. Murphy was the first pastor. Their present fine church building was erected in 1872 at a cost of $57,000. Rev. E. R. Sawyer D. D., is the present pastor.
The Advent Christian church was organized in 1859 by Rev. Joseph Parry. Their church building was erected in 1860. The present pastor is Rev. O. W. Higley.
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GAZETTEER OF TOWNS-SALEM.
Sandy Hill has excellent school buildings and the status of the schools is high. The Union Free School was opened in 1869 with Professor William McLaren as principal. Miss Frances A. Tefft is the present principal.
Sandy Hill is adequately supplied with banking facilities through its two banks, The National Bank of Sandy Hill, capital $50,000, and The Peoples National Bank, capital $50,000.
The First National Bank was organized in January, 1864. In Jan- uary, 1883, the charter having expired by limitation the bank was re- organized as the National Bank of Sandy Hill.
The People's National Bank was organized in September. 1884.
The societies of Sandy Hill are quite numerous and influential. The principal ones are :
Sandy Hill Lodge, No. 372. F. & A. M.
Kingsbury Lodge, No. 203, A. O. U. W.
Catholic Mutual Benefit Association.
Royal Arcanum, Sandy Hill Council, No. 587.
Royal Templars of Temperance.
Improved Order of Red Men, Ongwehoneve Tribe, No. 298.
Sandy Hill Chapter No. 189, R. A. M.
The Iroquois Club.
Knights of Columbus, Sandy Hill Council No. 296.
Order of Eastern Star.
Crown Star Chapter No. 143, Knights of Maccabees.
William M. Collin Post No. 587.
Sons of Veterans, Gen. James C. Rogers' Camp, No. 72.
The fire department comprises the C. R. Paris Hose Company No. I, the J. W. Wait Hose Company No. 2, and Union Hose Company No. 3.
TOWN OF SALEM.
A year after the English and Colonials had passed through Fort Edward on their way to strike a last blow at the French supremacy in Canada, and more than sixteen years before the eastern banks of the Hudson resounded with the echoes of Burgoyne's advancing can- non, two pioneers from New England threaded their way through the westward forest and coming upon the ground where Salem now lies, decided to build there their future homes.
It is not surprising that they should have been attracted by this region. The sunny hills and rich flats, watered by clear brooks flow-
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ing toward the south and west to swell the current of the Battenkill; the kindly and inviting aspect of the fertile country-side, even when rank with the tangle of the primeval forest, must have brought these men to realize gratefully that they had found a place where nature yielded her richest fruits and fairest charms. These two men, James Turner and Joshua Conkey, probably remained during the summer of 1761 to clear the land about their newly chosen homes, and returned for the winter months to their families in Pelham, Mass. The next spring they were accompanied on their journey to the westward by Hamilton McCollister, but did not bring their families and household equipment with them until the third year, 1764. Wagons of course were out of the question in those days to the migrating frontiersman and these hardy settlers had to be content to carry with them only such things as could be packed upon the backs of their horses. The first dwelling-that ultimately occupied by the Turner family- was a rough log-cabin without any floor but the cold earth and in which the most prominent article of furniture was a table formed from the stump of a tree, the roots of which still remained in the ground and the top of which had been made as level as possible with the implements at hand. This cabin was built upon the ground where the Ondawa House now stands and Turner chose for his land that lying to the west of this site. McCollister going to the east and Con- key still further in the same direction up the creek.
If Turner and Conkey built their cabin and remained to fit the land for farming on their first visit in 1761, then they were the first per- manent settlers in Washington County. In this same year Philip Skene brought thirty families, under his employ, to the head of Lake Champlain, and set them to clearing the ground where Whitehall now stands. The 21st of July of this year is the date of a patent compris- ing the central parts of the present townships of Cambridge and White Creek, but it is not certain that any families moved into this district until the next year. More than a score of years before this, however, forts and fortified settlements had unquestionably been established on the left shore of the Hudson. The destruction and abandonment of these have been fully described in the early chapters of the general county history, from which it will be seen that they were not so much settlements as they were military outposts; at all events they were not permanent. If then we allow to Salem the primacy of settlement it must be with some reservations; still neither Skene's
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settlers nor those who went to live upon the lands inchided in the Cambridge patent were upon the ground of their future homes as early in the year as were Turner and Conkey, and even if these two men did not build their cabin in the year of their first expedition they evidently intended from the first to make their homes where Salem now stands, and so we may say that at least they were the first in the county to lay their hands to the task of establishing a colony that should turn out to be permanent.
They obtained in 1764 from the governor and council, a patent of 25,000 acres, which covers a large part of the present town, and as the crown forbade the granting of more than a thousand acres to any one person they enlisted their fellow townsmen of Pelham in the enterprise and the names of twenty-five of the inhabitants of Pelham and vicinity appeared upon the grant.1 It was not at that time a difficult matter for those giving convincing evidence of intention to settle in an unoccupied district to obtain a patent, but the Colonial authorities were unprincipled in their dealings with the settlers and were sure to exercise their cunning to the end of leaving some defect in the title or of retaining for themselves some rights which to the prospective patentees seemed trifling enough, until, in future years, they were brought to realize their true magnitude. In this case the patentees were actually forced to buy up the authorities with a bribe of one-half the grant agreed upon, before they came into possession of the patent. The men who profited by this venality were Oliver De Lancy and one or two of his henchmen within the inner circle of gov- ernmental scheming at New York. When these families from Pel- ham were established in the new settlement, they named it "White Creek," from the whiteness of the bed of the stream which ran through it, as well as from the admirable clearness of the water, a marked contrast to the stream coming from the north, which they called " Black Creek."
One of the first events to arouse the interest of the inhabitants of White Creek was the holding of divine service in the dwelling of Mr. Turner one Sunday in the summer of 1765. The service was con- dueted by Dr. Thomas Clark, a Scotch clergyman who for more than a decade had been established in the north of Ireland and who had,
1 Frequently fictitious names were used in cases of this kind and it is not definitely known whether all the twenty-five names on the Turner patent were genuine or not.
[ 48 ]
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the summer before, come to the new world, accompanied by some three hundred of his parishioners. This was the first divine service ever held in the new settlement and probably the first in New York state north of Albany. The settlers of White Creek as well as some from more remote districts came eagerly to hear the word of God from the lips of the reverend stranger; and they received not only spiritual edification from his holy utterances but a considerable temporal quickening when they learned that he was searching, in behalf of his numerous flock, for a desirable place for them to settle. He expressed himself as much pleased with the outlook for prospective settlers in the vicinity and when told of the half-interest in the patent, held by DeLancy and his friends, he thought favorably of attempting a nego- tiation by which his company would come into possession of the De Lancy interest in the grants.
The altogether unusual features connected with the emigration to America of this Scotch-Irish colony which, heralded by Dr. Clark, advanced to White Creek, and there settled, make it well worth our while to go back a few years to trace its history.
The eighteenth century saw many splits and schisms among the Presbyterians of Scotland as well as among their brothers who emi- grated to the north of Ireland.1 It is as difficult to gain a fair concep- tion of the various matters over which they quarreled and separated, as it is to understand the unflinching resolution with which they held to and suffered for their several creeds. Amongst numerous sources of trouble was a pronounced variance of opinion respecting the pro- vince of the civil magistrate in matters of religion. This so-called "New Light " controversy was widely prevalent in Scotland for many years and of course extended to the Presbyterians in Ireland as well. In Monaghan county about two hundred families became so dissatis- fied with the preachings of their ministers that they petitioned 2 The Associate Burgher Presbytery of Glasgow to send to them a spiritual
1 The Presbyterians in the north of Ireland were descendants of the Scotch covenanters who went thither to escape persecution for having disowned the unprincipled Charles II, as their lawful sovereign; also for denying the right of James, Duke of York, to the succession.
2 In 1733 there was a formidable secession from the Church of Scotland occasioned by an Act of Assembly which removed all hope from the congregations of electing their own ministers. These secessionists in 1747, split into "Burgers" and "Anti-Burgers," owing to differences among them concerning the oath taken by burgesses. In 1820 these factions joined interests and formed "The United Secession Church" which in 1847 united with a large part of "The Relief Church" and has since been known as " The United Presbyterian Church."
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adviser in whose teachings they might find the light and the truth. In compliance with this request the Presbytery in 1748 sent out Dr. Clark, then a young licentiate, to minister to the needs of the peti- tioners in Monaghan County. His first preaching was at Ballybay, but his labors extended over a considerable field and he held frequent services in the neigboring villages. In 1751 his followers at Ballybay organized as a church and although Dr. Clark had other urgent offers for his services, he accepted in that year the call from the people of Ballybay and was installed as their pastor on July 23d.
Dr. Clark, at this time barely thirty years old, had completed his collegiate studies at the University of Glasgow and after graduation, had pursued the study of medicine and received the degree of M. D. at the same institution. For two years before his connection with the Associate Burgher Presbytery, he was fighting in the king's army against the pretender, Charles Edward, whose cause perished on the field of Culloden Moor; so that it is possible to trace the elements of character which won him such high esteem, to his soldierly ideals, scientific training and religious zeal. His great popularity at Ballybay and the rapid growth of the newly established church. under his pas- torship, excited the bitterest jealousy among the people of the other Preybyterian church of the town, and prompted them to go to any length to rid the community of the man who was causing their down- fall and humiliation. It was known that the young divine would not acknowledge the king as head of the church and also that he refused to follow the custom of taking oath in court by kissing the Gospels. They believed that these were sufficient grounds upon which to secure his conviction for disloyalty and eagerly awaited an opportunity to seize him when he should be away from Ballybay and at a time when they would not be overpowered by his friends. The arrest finally took place January 23d, 1754, at New Bliss, a neighboring village, where Dr. Clark was acting as moderator to a call for a pastor. Sev- eral of the elders and members of the rival church went to New Bliss and arrested their enemy just as he had closed his sermon. Dr. Clark did not resist, and admonished those present not to cause disturbance and riot by attempting his rescue. That night he was kept under a strong guard in a tavern and on the following day he was taken by his captors fourteen miles to Monaghan jail.
When the judges, more than ten weeks later, examined the warrant upon which he was committed, they found it defective and ordered
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WASHINGTON COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
his release, but he was again thrown into prison on a new writ, and probably was not released the second time until well into the sun- mer. During his imprisonment he frequently addressed affectionate letters to his congregation and during the warm months many of his loving flock would travel the long road to Monaghan and crowd about him in the gloomy jail to hear his words of holy instruction. Mothers brought their children thence to be baptized, and one young couple who afterward journeyed with him to America came there to be mar- ried.
His final acquittal may have been due to the evident triviality of the charges, in view of the loyal services he had rendered in fighting his king's battles; or perhaps to the fact that it was manifest from the first that his persecutors were seeking his conviction from motives of factional jealousy, and not on account of the charges set forth in the writ.
However zealous and inspired his work among the people of Bally- bay may have been, it is easy to see that his life there must have been far from a happy one, and when in 1762 there came upon him the great grief of his wife's death, it is small wonder that he longed to get away from the surroundings which so constantly recalled and intensi- fied his sorrow. There was at this time a considerable emigration to America, both from Scotland and Ireland, and the letters sent back from those who had gone over seas to seek freedom and fortune, des- cribed the New World in such glowing terms as to incline those in the Mother Country strongly toward abandoning the oppression and per- secution of their native land for the limitless resources and religious freedom lying open to them beyond the Atlantic. The fame of Dr. Clark's heroic work had been carried into the western continent and about this time he received two urgent calls to go to America-one from Albany and one from a congregation in Rhode Island. The Presbytery, when apprised of these calls, appointed him to labor for one year in America, but it does not appear that he agreed to return, and it is highly probable that he intended from the first to settle there. No greater tribute could possibly be made to the love and devotion in which he was held by his congregation than the fact that about three hundred of them decided to accompany him when it was made known that he proposed to leave Ireland for the New World. The company sailed from Newry, May 16th, 1764, and landed safely in New York on the 28th of the following July.
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Before setting out, Dr. Clark had been in correspondence with the Hon. Robert Carter of Columbia College, New York City, with res- pect to obtaining a grant of land for the emigrants who were desirous of accompanying him. When he reached New York he found that there was, on the shores of Lake George, an unoccupied tract, which, although it had not yet been surveyed, might to all intents and pur- poses, be considered as good as theirs. They could not, however, move on to the land and build their cabins until it had been apportioned into lots; this would necessitate a considerable wait, and while in New York a number of families, discouraged at the prospect of long delay, fell into the hands of a land agent who offered them favorable conditions to go south, and separating from the main body of the company, established themselves in Cedar Springs and Long Cane, S. C. Dr. Clark thought it desirable to spend the time which should elapse until they should be free to occupy their grant, at a place as near as possible to their intended homes; he accordingly moved up the Hudson with the main body of his Colonists as far as Stillwater. For the most part they had little money and it became necessary for them to seek employment among the people of Stillwater for the win- ter. The few who went up to investigate the Lake George tract came back with rather unfavorable accounts of the severity of the winter, the forbidding aspect of the mountains, and the rocky character of the land. Dr. Clark and his company decided that it would be advis- able to look about for a more congenial region, and so he started out on a tour of investigation through the surrounding country. It was while on this journey that he came into the settlement of White Creek and held service in the cabin of James Turner.
Dr. Clark spent the summer of 1765 traveling on horseback from one settlement to another, investigating the conditions important to a company of farming people and learning what he could of the accessi- bility of the patents. The De Lancy half of the Turner patent seemed to him to be better than any other he had come upon and so, late in August he went to New York City and began negotiations to secure it for his colony. The conditions under which Dr. Clark's followers obtained the land were that after the first five years they should pay a yearly rent of one shilling per acre; they therefore could have a fair period to clear their land and get it into good condition for farming before any rent would be cxacted of them.
Early in the spring of 1766 the men of his company journeyed thirty
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miles through the forest to their new homes where they cleared and burned ' over as much land as possible and planted corn. In midsum- mer they went back to Stillwater where they helped with the haying and harvesting and returned in the autumn to gather in their own crop and build their cabins. It is noteworthy that from the first these people had been conscious of the fact that they were a church organi- zation in search of a new home and not a mere band of adventurous colonizers. Immediately on reaching White Creek they had put up a good-sized cabin as a home for their pastor in the future (for the time being it was their general headquarters) and during that busy sum- mer, when it would seem that each man had more work than could be well accomplished, on his own lot, there were specified days upon which all came together and joined in the work of building a meeting house so that in the following spring when their families should arrive there might be a suitable place to hold public worship.
This was the first structure of the kind in the county and in fact in all the region north of Albany to the Canada line. As the men had no teams the logs had to be dragged into place by hand, but in spite of these difficulties they made their future house of worship forty feet in length and of generous proportions. This crude edifice had no floor, the crevices between the logs were filled with clay, the roof was of black-ash bark and the seats were rough benches made from logs split in half and placed on blocks of wood. The site of this first church was a few rods south of the "Old Meeting House " which now stands at the top of the hill south of the new mill. The road then ran at the foot of the hill on the opposite side of the meeting house from where it now passes and across this road they also built in the summer of 1766 a school-house.
Some of the families who had crossed the water with Dr. Clark did not move up the next spring to White Creek but remained in Still- water, where they thrived and where at the present time their descen- dants are among the most prominent people. The main body, how- ever, passed out into the wilder region and occupied the cabins that had been prepared for them the summer before. Before the end of May enough were there so that divine worship in the new meeting house was commenced. There were none of the formalities of organ-
1 The Indians in this vicinity had been in the habit of burning over the land yearly so that it was comparatively free from underbrush.
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izing a church, no admission of members or election of trustees. The company was already a perfectly organized religious society, with its pastor, its elders, its members, all regularly constituted. Dr. Clark had never resigned nor had the Presbytery released him from his pas- toral charge over these people. Their church membership had never been interrupted. They took no letters of dismission to join another church. He was their pastor; they were his flock. The same rela- tions existed between them in America as in Ireland. We doubt if any other religious society has been transferred from the Old to the New World in a manner so regular and orderly and with so little to vitiate its title to continuous identity.
Dr. Clark's colony came across the ocean and arrived in Salem. The preaching of the Word on the Sabbath and the administration of the Sacraments were regularly continued during the three years of their pilgrimage with only such occasional interruptions as were at times unavoidable. Thus they came into this town a fully and perfectly organized church.
Previous to the arrival of the people from Ballybay there were only three families (those of James Turner, Joshua Conkey and David Webb) regularly settled at White Creek. Hamilton McCollister, then unmarried, was also there but had not yet built a cabin. During the succeeding years some twenty or more families, from the Massachu- setts towns of Pelham, Colerain, Sturbridge and vicinity, followed Turner and his friends to the new settlement and established their homes on the many vacant lots of the Turner grant. The population was also swelled by the arrival of a number of other families from the Monaghan district; for Dr. Clark, realizing that the five years during which the land could be held free of charge would terminate in 1770, and that every unoccupied acre would, after that time, become a pub- lic burden, had made great efforts to induce his friends in Scotland and Ireland to join him. One of the congregation made the long journey to the Mother Country to describe the many attractions of the new-found home and by virtue of this messenger and much cor- respondence, carried on by Dr. Clark, the members of the colony were considerably increased.
It might be supposed that the half of the Turner patent retained by De Lancy and conveyed by him to Dr. Clark would be marked off by a well defined boundary from the half held by the original paten- tees. If this had been the case the Scotch-Irish contingent would
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have been on one side of the town and the New England contingent on the other. No such arrangement as this, however, took place; the three hundred and four plots of eighty-eight1 acres each into which the land had been surveyed, were divided by lot between the two par- ties, so that the people from Ballybay and those from Pelham were intermingled all over the town.
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