Historical sketches of Franklin county and its several towns

Table Of Contents

Page

Foreword

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CHAPTEE I Franklin County

Not on a Natural Highway, and Therefore Late in Settlement — Not Inhabited Early Even by Indians — " The Siberia of New York " — The First Vvhite Settlers Indian Captives — The Founding of St. Regis — The Story of Sir John Johnston's Flight Through the Adirondaeks - The Old Military Tract and the Macomb Purchase — Sketches of Some of the Early Land Owners a Group of Remarkable Men — Character of the Pioneers — The Erection of the County — Population at Various Periods — Apprehension of Indian Massacres — Geographical and Climatic — Pioneer Conditions — Money Scarcity — Potash Making a Principal Industry — How the Pioneers Lived

— Schools — An Early Agricultural Society — Changed Dairying Conditions

— The Hop Industry — Crops to Which the County is Especially Adapted- Horses and Other Stock — Striving for Transportation Facilities — Banking

— Gradual Progress — The Present Agricultural Society — Civil VVar Conditions and Activities Contrasted with Those Now Prevalent — The County's Civil War Military Record — Life after the War — Private Parks and Forest Fires — The Adirondaeks as a Sanatorium and Park — Property Valuations and Taxation —The Public Schools — Other Changes in Brief - The Future.

CHAPTEE II

The County Erected in March, 1808, and Site for Court House Fixed in 1809- Cost of the Structure, which was also Jail and a House of Worship — Proceedings of the Supervisors 1808-1813 — The Jail Condemned — Salaries Increased — Excise — Civil War Burdens — A New Poor House — Supervisors' Sessions More Protracted — A Company of the State National Guard Formed and an Armory Bought — A New Court House, Clerk s Office and Jail — Officials Refund 'Unlawful Fees — The Influx of Chinamen — Cost of Supporting the Poor — Town Meetings in the Fall — Improvement of Highways _ Breaches of Trust — Increase in County Expenses.

CHAPTEE III Franklin County Politically

Original Grouping of Parties - Early Party Names; Federal anti-Federal. Republican, National Republican, Clintonian-Repubhcan, anti-Masonic, Whig and Democratic — The anti-Masonic Movement Fiercely Bitter — The Abolition Party — Little Interest in Politics in Franklin County until after 1822 — Elections Formerly Continued for Days — Franklin County Generally federalist or Whig until 1843, and Then Until 1859 Usually Democratic — A

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1V Table of Contents

Campaign Story — The Campaign of 1840 the First with Spectacular Features—The Democracy Disrupted — The Knownothing Party — Political Rancor — The Campaign of 1860 — A Union Party During the Civil War — features of Some Campaigns — A New Ballot Law — " Dandelions " and Snowshoers '-Malone's Glee Club - Caucus Systems and Practices - Lists of Public Officials.

CHAPTER IV

T ° W w Er fr Ct f, d \ 890 — Reservoir Dam Built in 1870, and Broke in 1871— The t? S- °l v? 7 4 L~ Earliest S ettlers-Mart. Moody, Guide and Fabricator — The First Wedding on " Sally's Rock " — The Northern Adirondack R. R. fj^t T PP<?r ^ke -Early Saw Mills - A Big New Industry Locates Just as the Town Seemed to be "Going Back "-An Experiment in Scientific Forestry-Derrick — Moody — Litchfield Park and Chateau; the Latter a KreT R C qq St lV TU F,! r ^ke Village -An Error in the Census - The Big oih^oSief-MutdeJs "^ Im P r —^ ~ Church Organizations an J

CHAPTER V Bangor

Town Erected 1812 -Early Settlers of a Superior Type, with Many Descendants Still Living in Bangor -Early Industries Included a Linseed Oil Mill and an Axe Factory -A Beneficent Bequest - Manufacture of Starch and Tanning Extract -Fruit Raising -A Remarkable Dream - The T6wS SnoJ 'oduct-The^ewett Milk Pan - Town Houses the First ChuXs — Societies and Church Organizations.

CHAPTER VI Bellmont

Town Erected 1833 - Its Development Slow, and Its Timber Practically Wasted -Its Summer Resorts -Early Settlers and Early Industries - Iron Mines -Cnur r che 8 ~ ^^ ^ Alm ° St * De8erted Hamlet - Two MurSrs

CHAPTER VII Bombay

Town Erected 1833 -The Hogans - The First Settlers Largely Irish- Others Came from Vermont and New Hampshire - First Religious Movements - A Convent and Indian Mission School - Eminent Sons of Bombay -Some of the Town's Industries — Railroads — Dairying. *

CHAPTER VIII Brandon

'J'own Erected 1828 -Early Settlers Frugal and Sturdy - Few Farms and Lumbering Operations Small Until Recent Years — Revnoldltnn n?< 'n Hamlet -Voting Under Difficulties - A Murder -Churches 7

Table of Contents v

CHAPTER IX

Town Erected 1S5S- Early Settlement - The Town Made by Adirondack Summer Resorts - Gabriels - Pigeon Flocks and Roosts - Churches.

CHAPTER X Burke

ttv t„H 1S44 — 4 Town of "Hollows" — Settlement Began Earlier Than Town Erected 1M4 — A iowu T , pi are but now Eminently

— Societies and Churches.

CHAPTER XI Chateaugay

Erected as a Clinton County Tow, ,170. - Gha^ay J^ghe^Tojy of

all of Franklin P^^-^MUtoT tStmSb-A Good Town Agri- Intermittent Spring -The Old ^ a g/g3 shiT>a _ other Pioneers - culturally -The First Settler and His _ E ships > A

Irish Came in 1850, at First a Rough and Turin rtmt* i«n ^ & the Best Citizens -Many Pioneer ^g^Jg^Point in the War of 1812 a Circuit Rider -Newspapers, Creameries, etc. CHAPTER XII

Tow „ Erected 1807 -More Porous in ™££j*£Z?SSK2£ . gSE

a Lively Hamlet — Smuggling and f "^ "l^ 1 % ettl ers Early Taverns and

Movements — Churches.

CHAPTER XIII Dickinson

Town Erected 1808 -Named in CompUment ^^^^^^^^

New Jersey -Northern Part of Town ^Fiiri ^ Hunter -How One

ally Strong Men -How a Debt V »as Paid A g y A Man of

Pioneer Went to S c J 10 ° l -/ ket tTt,hcraft - A Noted Horse Thief - An Eccentricities Who Believed « Wrtch«aft_ ^ ftnd Landlord9 _

SS^^^SSSt^J sSties - Mormon Proselyting.

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CHAPTEE XIV

DlJANE

Town Erected 1828 - The Duane Family - Major Duane Located in Order to Help Stamp Out Wolf Bounty Frauds, and Operated in Duane AWBig

ReZrU-ZonZT^U™ S « h -? der ^ivfties - Hotels and s/mm ef jvesorts Alonzo K. * uller — Religious Movements.

CHAPTER XV

Town Erected 1817 -Military Reservations Leased by the State to Individuals

Reservation Th.T' "J™*^ ^T " Frendl Mills - p art of an Indian th Siw Town's Farmers Progressive and Successful - Some of

h n e / S Sett lfrs- Fort Covington and the War of 1812 -Fort CovinLn TtL~\ZuZT r t7? US r 6S Enter P ri - S - Sales of Lands by g the cSSw lndust / ies — Hotels — Newspapers —The Academv —Transportation Conditions -An Agricultural Society - Murders - Fort Covington Office KX-SJI" f ° r Mvtajj on Sunday -Former ProminlnfResid^K Conditions. G ™ »- Churches and Societies - Some Unfavorable

CHAPTER XVI Franklin

Town Erected ,836- A Sizable Town -A Ref,, s e for Escaped Slave, -A Bribe

Churches. School - Railroads - Many Small Settlements -

CHAPTER XVII Harrietstown

Settlers- Furrt Hotel, - Industries - Saranac Lake VillaS and Lake"cie,r Lmprovements - Newspapers - The Philosophers' Club - Caches -

CHAPTER XVIII Ma LONE

Town Erected 1805 -Derivation of Its Name - Some of the Pioneers - Curiosi ties of Old Assessment Rolls - The Old Pound - Taxes Paid bv Notes - Pen ?le r F f T h !, E f rly Villa ^ e - Prices from an Old Merchant ? Book ^- Some Early Industries -Community Achievements - Frank™ " Academv - Other Educational Institutions — War Influences — 181 % ™ T™JtS« ?™J — Olln-PnrlHriQ t^„„i t j j. • „. loio an Important Year

federate Raid, Apprehended - Malone's Part in the Present War

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CHAPTER XIX

Town Erected 1S2S — Earliest Settlers — Long a "Lawrence Town" — The Hamlets of Moira and Brushton — Railroads — Moira the Mecca of Democratic Pilgrims — An Old Postmaster's Accounts — Quality of the Town's Citizenry High — A Thompsonian Doctor — Industrial Enterprises — The County's First Sanatorium — A Chalybeate Spring — An Agricultural Society — Murders — Newspapers — Early Hotels — Churches and Church Discipline

— Fraternal Organizations.

CHAPTER XX

Town Erected 1888 — Origin of Name — First Settlers — Traces of Military Occupancy — The First Mill and Tavern — An Iron Mine — Humphrey's Landing Now Santa Clara — Upper Saranac — Brandon — Fires at Santa Clara — Patrick A. Ducey and John Hurd — Everton — New Lumbering Methods — Hamlets Almost Deserted — The Rockefeller Private Park — Churches — Vacation Home for Working Girls — Facts and Conjectures about Military Occupancy — Fatal Fires — Murders.

CHAPTER. XXI Waverly

Town Erected 1880 — Character of Soil and Adaptability to Agriculture — Other Natural Resources and Reforestation — Beginning and Growth of St. Regis Falls — A Murder — Some of the Leading Men of the Town — Churches and Societies — Population.

CHAPTER XXII Westville

Town Erected 1829' — Population — Adapted to Market Gardening — First Settlers and Their Activities — Giant Pine for Ships' Masts — An Iron Forge — Grist and Saw Mills — Lime and Brick Making — Early Merchants

— Hotels — A Destructive Forest Fire — Societies and Churches.

CHAPTER XXIII The Saint Regis Reservation and the Saint Regis Indians

The Reservation; How It Was Established — Basis of Indian Claims — Prowess and Ruthlessness of the Mohawks — The State's Contention as to Ownership — The Price the Indians Received — Parts of Reservation Ceded Later to the State — Annuities — The Canadian Saint Regis Reservation — Timber Wasted and Now Scarce — The Indians — -Adoption of the Name Saint Regis — The Saint Regis Church and the Story of Us Bell — Gifts from France and Rome to the Church and How They Were Lost — The Indians in the Revolutionary War and in the War of 1812 — Indians Who Were Outstanding Figures — The Number of American Saint Regis Indians — Indian Clans and Present Form of Government — Improved Condition of the Indians, with a Better Inclination to Work — The Squaws Better Treated — Benefited by "Kansas Money" — What of the Indians' Future?

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CHAPTER XXIV

Early Local Military Activities — Operations at Fort Covington and Saint Regis

— General Hampton and General Wilkinson's Operations — The Former Defeated North of Chateaugay, and the Latter at Chrystler's Farm — General Hampton Ran Away — The Campaign Against Montreal Abandoned and the Wilkinson Army Quartered at Fort Covington — An Epidemic of Sickness — Insufficient Medicines, Food and Clothing — Malone a Hospital Point — Horrible Destitution and Suffering — General Wilkinson's Abortive Plans — French Mills, Chateaugay and Malone Abandoned by the American Army, Followed by a British Invasion — Malone Panic Stricken — Extracts from the Tompkins Papers — Minor Notes — Pay -Rolls of Franklin County Militia Companies.

CHAPTER XXV Scandals of an Early Period

The Embargo Act of 1807 More Injurious to the United States Than to England or France — The Act Violated — New England and Northern New York Sentiment Antagonistic to the War of 1812 — Potash Flagrantly Smuggled into Canada — Vast Fraudulent War Claims — " Old Times " Not Better Than the New — Wolf Bounties and the Frauds Perpetrated by the Hunters

— The State and County Robbed — Exposure of the Frauds, and New Bounty Laws.

CHAPTER XXVI

Arsenal Green, Malone

Boundaries of the Property — Given by Cone Andrus to the State and a Part Lost Under Mortgage Foreclosure, but Recovered • — Formerly No Lanes or Driveways, and Those Now Existing Belong within the Park — The Old Arsenal Lot — An Arsenal Built in 1812 — The Arsenal Lot Sold in 1853 — A Political Celebration — Early Militia Conditions — Stories of Old " Training Days " — Some of the Militia Officers — " The Chateaugay Infant " — The Green Quitclaimed by the State to the Village of Malone in 1917.

CHAPTER XXVII

The Underground Railroad

Date of Establishment Uncertain — It Flourished Between 1840 and 1860 — Purpose of the Movement, and Methods of Operation — " Stockholders ". " Conductors " and " Station Agents " — Where the Lines Ran ; One Through Malone — Some of the Fugitives — Some of the Franklin County Abolitionists and " Station Agents " and " Stockholders."

CHAPTER XXVIII Transportation Development

How the First Settler Came to Chateaugay — Early Journeys Required More Days Than They Now Take Hours — Wretched Mail Service — Character of Early Highways — The St. Lawrence Turnpike — The Northwest Bay Road

— The Old Military Road from Plattsburgh to Chateaugay — The Hopkinton and Port Kent Turnpike — Effort to Have a Canal Constructed — Former Navigation Facilities — Agitation for a Railroad, with Success after Twenty Years — Other Movements to Secure Railroad Facilities — Railroads Finally Built — The County Spends Half a Million Dollars for Improved Highways

— Large Numbers of Automobiles — Horses Disappearing.

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CHAPTER XXIX

The Fenian Raids

Malone a Rendezvous in 1866 and 1870 — Derivation of the Word "Fenian" — Organization of the Fenian Society — Original Purpose of the Organization — Spread of its Branches or Circles — A New Scheme of Operation Formed and Announced — Preparations in Canada to Repel an Apprehended Invasion — Arrival of Large Numbers of Fenians at Malone — Canadians Believed to Be Spies, and Roughly Handled — Advance upon Canada Abandoned, United States Authorities Having Interfered — Another Movement in 1870 — An Engagement Near Trout River, Resulting in a Fenian Rout — The United States Again Interfered — Fenians Arrested and Imprisoned — Informers and Spies.

CHAPTER XXX

The Title, " Dauphin " — Story of the Son of Louis XVI., Known as the " Lost Dauphin " — Over Forty Claimants, of Whom Eleazer Williams Was One — Known Facts about Williams — The Hanson Claim of Williams's Royal Descent — Williams's Own Story of His Life — Assertion of an Amazing Offer — Rev. Mr. Robertson's View — Other Glimpses of Mr. Williams's Life and Personal Appearance — The Mother Declared Him to Be Not an Adopted Son, but Her Own Child.

CHAPTER XXXI Luther Bradish

An Associate of Thurlow Weed, Millard Fillmore and William H. Seward — Identification with Franklin County — Elected to the Assembly — Speaker of That Body — Then Twice Lieutenant-Governor — Defeated for Governor — An Extensive Traveler — Closing Years of His Life.

CHAPTER XXXII William Almon Wheeler

CHAPTER XXXIII

Many Biographical Sketches

FOREWORD

The suggestion has been urgently made to me now and again by various parties that the information acquired concerning Malone and Franklin county affairs during newspaper work here covering a period of forty years, together with the data at my command contained in the files of the Malone Palladium, make it a sort of public duty that I prepare and publish a history of Franklin county. But such a work is too formidable to be undertaken with the time that could be spared for continuous application in examination and compilation of records, even if capacity and aptitude for so ambitious an effort were not also lacking.

Yet I am by no means insensible to the desirability and importance of assembling and arranging in narrative form such personal recollections of our older residents as may still be obtainable, as well as more authoritative information which, if not put together soon, may be lost forever, or at least become daily more and more difficult to collect and shape for the benefit of those who in later days may care to know the past of our several towns and of the county. The work ought, indeed, to have been done fifty years or more ago if it were to possess the charm and value that men of the time of Asa Hascall, Joseph H. Jackson, Sidney Lawrence, William A. Wheeler, Ashbel B. Parmelee, Dr. Theodore Gay, Dr. Sidney P. Bates, Joel J. Seaver, Francis T. Heath or others who might be named could have given to it. But the obligation to prepare and leave accessible such a record and recital was perhaps not then realized, as certainly it was not discharged. In the spirit and with the purpose of now supplying, at least in part, what it is regrettable that others did not do long ago, a series of sketches will be prepared by me along the lines indicated, though, of course, without claim or pretense that they should be dignified as "history." Bather, they will be in the main biographical and desultory, with reproduction of parts of some of the papers in my possession which were written by men of prominence of an earlier generation. If the effort shall serve to interest or entertain any considerable number of Franklin county people in the present, and be found of value in later years for reference, I shall be sufficiently recompensed for the time and labor that I shall have expended.

There are doubtless many omissions, and the sole merit which it is ventured to claim for the work is that it has been wrought with painstaking care in prosecuting inquiries and in searching records, and that,

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xii Foreword

so far as it has been possible to make it, it is accurate. The files of the Franklin Telegraph from 1820 to 1829, of the Spectator for 1833 and 1834, and of the Malone Palladium from 1835 to 1909 have been examined week by week, and records in the surrogate's, county clerk's and the several town clerks' offices, as well as many church records and some in the office of the Secretary of State, have been consulted diligently for facts; and it has been my purpose that no unqualified statement of importance should be made that has not been authenticated.

FREDERICK J. SEAVER.

Malone, N.. Y., July 1, 1918.