USA > Vermont > The Lake Champlain and Lake George valleys, Vol. III > Part 8
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Rt. Ru, Un U. Plamondon,P.1)
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which he held until January of 1919, when he was given his discharge and returned to Au Sable Forks to resume his private practice. Supporting his profession by membership in the Essex County Medical Society, the New York State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, of which organization he is a Fellow, Dr. Culver also belongs to the American Associa- tion of School Physicians and the Association of Military Surgeons. A mem- ber also of the staff of the Champlain Valley Hospital and the staff of the Physicians' Hospital of Plattsburg, Dr. Culver, who has always taken a keen interest in civic and political concerns, has served Essex County as coroner since 1926 and, since 1930, has been health officer of the towns of Black Brook and Wilmington. Past president of the Rotary Club of Au Sable Forks, and a member of M. A. Nelson Post, American Legion, of Au Sable Forks, the doctor, who belongs to Omega Upsilon Phi Fraternity, also is an active mem- ber of the Masonic Fraternity, being a member of Tahawees Lodge, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons, Plattsburg Chapter, Royal Arch Masons, Platts- burg Commandery, Knights Templar, and Oriental Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. Dr. Culver, who attends the First Meth- odist Church of Au Sable Forks, finds recreation from his professional and public duties and responsibilities by indulgence in his two favorite sports of tennis and golf.
George J. Culver married, in 1914, Emma J. Cranfield, a native of Albany. Dr. and Mrs. Culver are the parents of two children : I. Marjorie Cranfield, who graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Skidmore College, class of 1938. 2. Jane Kathryn.
REV. WILLIAM A. PLAMONDON-Another new generation of children has been born since the revered and Rev. Father William A. Plamon- don first came to Burlington, back in 1903, to found and organize his present parish of the Church of St. Anthony, located at Park Avenue and Pine Street. Many of these present-day children are the sons and daughters of grown men and women who, as infants, were christened by this good Father and who, as parents now, still receive his spiritual guidance and blessing. Of a noble line of Plamondons, dating back to the reign of Edward I, in 1275 A. D. and including among their illustrious number families of this same name who aided and abetted the great Champlain, who shall say but what the Rev. Father William A. Plamondon was the noblest of them all-inasmuch as he did what he did, unfailingly, "unto the least of these," his spiritual children.
The first of the name of Plamondon on this continent came in 1717, during the reign of George I, when this country was but sparsely settled, and he located at Quebec, Canada, where Louis Plamondon, the tenth of that given name and the great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was born in
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1775. His son, Louis (II) Plamondon, was born at Quebec, 1807, where he came to own and operate five farms. Artemas, a brother of his, was killed in a dispute over a beaver which was trapped on land belonging to Indians. Louis (II) Plamondon married Louise Gosslin, born at Montreal in 1810, a mem- ber of one of the most highly respected families of that city, and a very beauti- ful woman. They were the parents of fourteen children, including Louis (12) Plamondon, born 1836 in St. Hilaire, Province of Quebec, who became a prosperous merchant and farmer, while three of his brothers were priests and two of his sisters were nuns. His wife, Césarie (Brillon) Plamondon, a very beautiful woman, was born at Richelieu, in the Province of Quebec, 1837, and died at St. Hilaire in 1871, the daughter of Marcelle Brillon, a very successful farmer and trapper having considerable trade with the Indians, and Catherine (Racine) Brillon. Césarie (Brillon) Plamondon was brought up by her uncle, John Pion, who was a wealthy and influential man. She was the mother of ten children : I. Louis (13), born in 1858. 2. Azama, born in 1859. 3. Joseph, born in 1860 and who died in infancy. 4. Henry, born in 1862, who went to the Klon- dike, became an extensive dealer in high grade furs, and laid out many rich claims for Eastern prospectors. 5. Rev. William A., of further mention. 6. Hilaire, born in 1864. 7. Arthemise, born in 1866; married, 1886, Theodore Malo, a Montreal merchant. 8. Felix, born in 1867, died in infancy. 9. Rev. Alphee, born in 1868, a Jesuit priest now in England ; educated in St. Hyacinthe, in the public schools and in the college and seminary at Montreal, and was ordained in 1899. 10. Corinne, born in 1869; educated in Montreal ; married, 1903, Eusebe Goulette; now living in Burlington, Vermont. Louis (12) Plamondon married (second) his sister-in-law, Matilda Brillon, born in 1848, and they were the parents of two children: I. Mary, born in 1883. 2. Eva, born in 1884, and now a nun in Notre Dame Convent, Montreal.
Rev. William A. Plamondon, of whom this is primarily a record, was the fifth child born of his father's first marriage, and passed his early years in St. Hilaire, his birthplace, where he began his education in the parochial schools. His parents then sent him to Bellows Falls, Vermont, where he attended the public schools in order that he might learn the English language. His high school education was obtained at Nashua, New Hampshire. Then, matricu- lating at the Montreal College, conducted by the Sulpician Order, he took the classical course of four years, after which he came to Burlington, Vermont, to enter old St. Joseph's College, where he spent another four years completing the classical course. Returning to Montreal, he entered the Grand Seminary, taking the philosophical course, and completing his studies there he returned to Burlington to become master of discipline at St. Joseph's, where he spent the years 1890 and 1891. He was then sent to Rome, Italy, by Bishop De Goesbriand and completed the three-year theological course in the class of 1894, and was there ordained in the American College by the Vicar-General.
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After a decade or more of intensive studies, Rev. William A. Plamondon returned to Burlington, Vermont, where his bishop granted him a vacation until Christmas, 1904. He was then assigned to Bishop Michaud's parish, St. Francis Xavier, at Bennington, Vermont, to fill the vacancy caused by the absence of Father Barron, who had gone abroad for a period of six months. After this service, Father Plamondon was appointed parish priest at Reads- boro, Vermont, and North Pownal, where he remained seven years and built up both these parishes. He was then called to Brandon to supervise the affairs of the Church of Our Lady of Good Help, and after eight months' service was called on January 13, 1903, to the rectorate of St. Anthony's parish here in Burlington. He found a church partially completed and a very small number of communicants, largely made up of working people. Through his tireless efforts and inspiration, Father Plamondon has succeeded in erecting the present beautiful and substantial brick church and rectory at Park Avenue and Pine Street, and has completely organized all religious societies in con- nection with the Church of St. Anthony's, such as the Holy Name Society for older men and women of the parish; the St. Anne's Society for Women; and the Young Women's Sodality of the Blessed Virgin. He is contemplating the erection of a parish school.
Independent in his political convictions, Father Plamondon is a member of the Knights of Columbus, and a religious leader who is beloved alike by Catholic and Protestant, by the rich and the poor. Here is a man of whom the citizenry of Burlington is rightfully proud : an adopted son of Burlington, who has brought only honor to this city and who has sought only goodness and brotherly love.
LESTER V. STREEVER-One of the leading lumber merchants of Ballston Spa, Lester V. Streever is also an outstanding real estate developer, being the owner and manager of the Cotton Point and Rainbow Beach areas, one of the outstanding vacation and recreational districts on Lake George.
Lester V. Streever was born in Milton, June 10, 1881, son of Charles Henry and Ella Belle (Van Ostrand) Streever. Charles Henry Streever, who was born in Milton, September 7, 1850, was a son of Frederick W. Streever, a native of Germany, who came to Milton from his native Hanover when about eighteen years of age. Ella Belle (Van Ostrand) Streever, his wife, was born in Milton in 1854.
After attending the grade schools and the high school in Ballston Spa, Lester V. Streever became associated, in 1899, with his father, Charles Henry Streever, in the lumber business, continuing to 1908 when, the business being incorporated, Lester V. Streever became an officer of the present Streever Lumber Company. Charles Henry Streever and other members of the cor-
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poration withdrew in 1923, leaving Lester V. Streever and his son, Donald Courtney Streever, in control. Mr. Streever is also interested in real estate, being the owner and the developer of the well-known Cotton Point and Rainbow Beach developments, near Bolton Landing on Lake George. A member of the Republican party and of the Ballston Spa Baptist Church, Mr. Streever is also a member of the Ballston Spa Rotary Club.
Lester V. Streever married, at Ballston Spa, August 25, 1903, Caroline Scott Granger, born June 6, 1882, daughter of Foster and Alice (Scott) Granger. Mr. and Mrs. Streever are the parents of two children: I. Donald Courtney, born August 17, 1905. 2. Elsie Priscilla, born June 20, 1916.
FREDERICK SCOTT STREEVER-Whether Frederick (Fred) Scott Streever, of Ballston Spa, New York, has had a successful career would depend upon the viewpoint of the observer. But that Fred Streever has found life vastly entertaining and generally enjoyable there can be no doubt. This has been rather because of versatility than of specialized talent. Born April 7, 1879, in less than modest circumstances in the hamlet of West Milton, Saratoga County, New York, he early discovered a love for nature and the delightful out-of-doors close at hand. This, throughout his life, has been a dominant influence.
The schools he attended were numerous but the schooling sketchy and forced upon his unappreciative boyhood between the age of five and sixteen, at which latter age, he left with no future regrets whatever, excepting for the misspent time. Mr. Streever is fond of saying that he had learned to read before he attended school and did not learn his "multiplication tables" until after he had left. Yet perhaps it is not unusual to acquire schooling rather than learning ; and education is hardly to be entirely measured by diplomas or sheepskin, any more than successful living by possession and influence.
He had few holidays in his last two years of school days as his spare time was needed in his father's building operations. And, if the hours were long and the labor unduly heavy for his years, yet fishing and hunting with his father, who was also a man passionately fond of the out-doors, was some- thing thus doubly precious and never to be forgotten.
At the age of sixteen he was "on his own," beginning at ten cents per working hour of a ten-hour (weather permitting) day and, with "board and bed" at $4 per week, there was yet sufficient margin to buy clothes as well as arms, and ammunition, rods and tackle, and to lay a few cents aside, and spare time for better acquaintances with nature. At the age of eighteen he had charge of a small building construction gang and at twenty-three he began handling contracting on his own account. During these years he completed his apprenticeship as carpenter.
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Discovering his lack of technical training he, when nineteen, enrolled for a course of architecture in the Scranton International Correspondence School, and the mail order lessons were worked out with trestle and tee-square right on the jobs during working hours, and after.
Busy years followed, with payrolls numbering up to eighty and ninety mechanics. The buildings erected were those incident to small-town life in the early nineteen hundreds but aggregated several millions of dollars, com- prising all the factories of his home town as well as business blocks, and in- cluded real estate operations, sub-divisional developments and some financing. He also designed and erected several buildings-both factories and residences -in neighboring states.
During all of this time the buildings, with few exceptions, were those designed on his own trestle and their erection supervised in person; but there was also time for much hunting and fishing and some writing of outdoor articles, which found publication in sports magazines.
Favorite of all recreation was following his foxhounds afoot upon the fresh fallen winter snows in pursuit of the red fox. He also maintained, with his father, his own deer hunting camp in the Adirondacks for seventeen con- secutive years and acted as professional guide three years preceding.
Mr. Streever bred many foxhounds, principally for his own use, but about 1912 he acquired some pedigreed stock upon which his present strain of fox- hounds was established. Preeminent among Mr. Streever's hounds was: Ch. Wash AKC277564, who won a National A. K. C. field championship in 1919 at the Brunswick Trials; and Ch. Wash's daughter, Lorna, who won the Derby field trial at the same meet, at that time an unprecedented occurrence and since duplicated but once. Notable among his hounds, and nationally known through Mr. Streever's writings, were: Black Joe and White Skipper, Ruffian, Rambo, Fritz, Lame Reldy and others.
In later years Mr. Streever established the Rafinesque Kennels for breed- ing of foxhounds and these fine, pedigreed sporting dogs, all tracing back to Ch. Wash, have been and are now being shipped to points near and far and used for various game. Bear, wild boar, big cats, wolves, foxes, coons have been successfully hunted and trailed in all quarters of the country.
Among Mr. Streever's writings of dogs may be mentioned a series called "Origin of American Trail Hounds," comprising chapters on Birdsong, Walker, July, Robertson, Buckfield and other American strains; and also a series called "Good Bolde Hounds," comprising reminiscences on individual trail hounds. The first appeared in "National Sportsman Magazine" about 1934 to 1936; the latter, in "Hunting and Fishing Magazine" about 1928 to 1930. Among Mr. Streever's writings on fishing topics may be found the Pan-fishing chapter published in Mortimer Norton's anthology, "Successful Angling" (MacMillan).
C & G .- 6
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Many articles on big game hunting of elk, moose, big horn sheep also appeared in various sports magazines referring to hunting expeditions made by Mr. Streever in various parts of the United States, Canadian provinces and Old Mexico.' "The Dog Owner's Forum," now continuing in "National Sportsman Magazine," has been conducted (at this writing) into its tenth year without intermission as an annex to the "Sporting Dog Column," also by Mr. Streever.
Besides carpentry as a vocation, real estate and building contracting as a business, and architecture as a profession (Mr. Streever was licensed by the University of the State of New York, having passed the regents requirements in 1930) there have been, as noted, some expeditions into a wide though humble field of letters, the whole interspersed with a great deal of varied out- door experience.
The possibility of such wide variety in business, recreation and sport may be partially explained by his neglect of other and, to him, lesser interests. Mr. Streever never saw a professional game of baseball, football or hockey. He never visited what he calls a "dress ball" or "a party," nor a world's fair nor, in short, hardly a social gathering of any sort. At this writing his home is, and has been, in a comfortable log house southwest of Saratoga Springs, where he dwells alone on his five-hundred-acre woodland estate. Hunting trophies hang upon the walls. Hounds, sometimes as many as sixty, bay in the kennels out back among the oaks. Beside his big stone fireplace he scribbles stories, writes letters, designs buildings. He sallies forth in an old Ford hunting truck equipped to stay for days on each and every snowfall. An increasingly larger part of the daylight hours are spent in recreation afloat or afoot with an omnivorous appetite for any outdoor pursuit, fly fishing, trolling, deer, fox or bird hunting.
Although he still conducts a modest building business-principally the design and erection of highly original lodges and camps-he finds opportunity to photograph and has published hundreds of outdoor scenes, hounds, hunting, fishing. During the difficult years of the business recession his professional attention was largely given to appraisals of real estate and he appeared before the Court of Claims of New York State for owners in proceedings during the acquisition of lands for the Sacandaga Reservoir by the Hudson River Regulating Board, for the Saratoga Battlefield by the State of New York, for the elimination of grade crossings in the village of Whitehall by the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and the State of New York, and for the Saratoga Springs Reservation by the Saratoga Commission, as well as numberless others.
Mr. Streever has also developed, or aided, several of the local mineral water springs including the Hides-Franklin, the Washington Lithia, and the Chapman well. About 1926, becoming convinced that the State had errone-
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ously located the chief underground reservoirs of the characteristic charged Saratoga waters, Mr. Streever acquired several hundred acres well to the west and southerly of the present Reservation. In 1938 he drilled a prospecting well four hundred and thirty-five feet deep and found-as he had become convinced-that the waters were indeed present. The extent is still to be de- termined but Mr. Streever's holdings extend for two miles and along the entire western boundary of the State's lands.
The occasional reader who has followed so far along his life interests will hardly be interested in Mr. Streever's family tree, since he has no children. His wife, Isabelle Russell, daughter of Charles and Naomi Russell, died in 1930. But it may be briefly stated that his paternal grandfather, Frederick Wolradt Streever, one of a family of nine boys, was born exactly sixty years before him in Germany, on April 7, 1819, and his wife, Louisa Mary (Buhr- master ) Streever, in the same country. Frederick S. Streever's father was Charles Henry Streever ; his mother, Ella B. Streever, one of a family of nine children of Harlow Van Ostrand of Holland Dutch Colonial descent, and of Eleanor Tallman, his wife, also of a family of nine children. Those interested in the coincidence of numbers may note the recurrence of seven and nines in Fred Streever's birthday and those of his grandfather Streever, and also that his father's birthday, too, was on the seventh day of the ninth month.
Fred Streever has written, also, some verse. This has all been upon out- door themes and it, like the rest of Fred Streever's activities, is nothing if not original. Perhaps the best known of these poems is "The Span of the Bridge," based upon the Northampton wooden bridge over the Sacandaga. But several other bits have seen printer's ink and many more remain in his notebook as souvenirs of pleasant outdoor experiences. Toward these he expects to turn when the bitter winter shall make the increasing years no longer enjoyable afield and also to his widely established correspondence with kindred lovers of the outdoors throughout the United States of America.
It seems at this time fitting to close this autobiography, if not complete, then with the following lines appropriate to those who live alone and turn. as their years increase, more to the consolation of past recollections than to plans for the future :
OLD MAN'S PICTURE SHOW
It is quiet tonight for the folks are away And the eaves are adrip; 'twas a lonely day. Yet not so lonely ;- Run just for me, And brighter than calcium, Mem'ry's Movies I see.
Mem'ry hoarded these pictures, varied, indeed, The scenes on her screen. It's just what I need. Here's the face of a schoolmate, long vanish'd and gone. There's the first girl I loved, Hurry along Old Mem'ry ! More pictures for me.
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More pictures. And then, crowding fast, Come scenes of the pleasures and joys of the past. Pictures of days joyful, well spent, Pictures of hours that happiness lent. Then scenes not so pleasant, sorrow and pain, They are the ones I'd do over again. Some of mistakes and errors I made, On these, Old Mem'ry, if you please drop the shade.
Show only pictures of happiness here,
I am lonely tonight and need them to cheer.
That's better ! Right well I remember That triumph ; hold, let it linger !
Yes, Mem'ry, that's right, run it over again.
Just you and I, Mem'ry, know what happened then, A secret we hold it, and eaves droppers never
Can gather the secrets
We hold together.
On swiftly they flicker across the screen, Yet faster the action. Stop, Mem'ry ! Stop quickly ! Don't show that to me,
Too often I've seen that picture, I wish that film could be lost ;
And 'twould seem that if use could wear it in shreds, In shreds it would be. Ah, Mem'ry, you jade, Always sneaking that one on me.
Then come pictures of sins that I am regretting Because I committed
And others of sins yet more deeply regretted Because I omitted committing. In fact, my regrets are about half and half And these pictures tickle and cause me to laugh.
Very lively the Movies that Mem'ry shows me When our house is all quiet And there's no one to see. Mem'ry, Mem'ry! You're a funny old jade. Heigho, Mem'ry. Just pull down the shade
For I hear the folks coming- And when they get home They will think I am crazy To be laughing alone.
They've been to a Picture Show Just over the way But saw not the half Mem'ry showed me today.
Jaul & Dryer
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JUDGE PAUL LLEWELYN BOYCE-During his career at the Warren County bar, Judge Paul Llewelyn Boyce has risen to prominence both in his profession and in public life. He is one of the leading lawyers of the county and since 1930 has served as county judge, surrogate and judge of the Children's Court.
Judge Boyce was born on November 19, 1887, son of Llewelyn and Hattie C. Boyce. He attended Bolton High School and Troy Conference Academy, from which he was graduated in 1910, and afterward entered Clark Uni- versity at Worcester, Massachusetts, from which he was graduated in 1913. He prepared for his professional career in Columbia Law School, taking the degree of Bachelor of Laws in 1916. Upon his admission to the bar he entered the office of a New York City law firm, continuing until he enlisted for service in the National Army during the World War. Judge Boyce went to France with the American Expeditionary Forces and remained in the army until after the Armistice. When he received his discharge, he returned to his law work in New York City, where his activities centered until 1923. In the latter year he established his practice in Glens Falls. His reputation as an experienced and able attorney preceded him and he soon took his place as one of the leading members of the local bar. He has been a partner in several firms during his career in this city and has successfully met the large profes- sional responsibilities devolving upon him.
During these years, Judge Boyce also became influential in the general life of the city and county. A Republican in politics, he became prominent in local councils of his party and in 1928 took his seat in the State Assembly, to which he was elected at the polls. He served at Albany through 1929, and in 1930 was nominated and elected county judge, surrogate and judge of the Chil- dren's Court of Warren County. In 1936 he was reelected and is now serving his second term. He is known as a capable, experienced and impartial judge, and has added to his stature through his effective and faithful administration of his judicial duties.
Judge Boyce is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association and other professional organizations. He is a director of the Bolton National Bank and the Algonquin Hotel Company ; a member of the Warren County Republican Club, the Kiwanis Club, the Masonic Order and the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks. His attain- ments and qualities of character have made him one of the first citizens of Warren County and have brought him the respect and regard of its people.
Judge Boyce married Erna N. Nordenholdt, of Staten Island, New York, and they are the parents of two children : Paul C. and Betty Lou.
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