The French on Lake Champlain in 1759

LETTERS OF FRANCOIS CHARLES DE BOURLAMAQUE

Translated by Richard W. Ward with the assistance of Mary Cushman

SECOND INSTALLMENT
[I currently have no copy of the 1st installment.]


To Chevalier de Levis:

17 October 1759 I have not had, my dear general, an instant to report to you until today concerning the English army's movements. It left St. Frederic on the 11th with around ten, eleven or twelve thousand men, preceded by a vanguard of sixty batteaux, one brigantine, twenty pieces of ordnance (canons de 18), one snow as strong as my schooner, and several batteaux armed with large cannons; one only carrying six de 24.[1]

Our xebecs were surprised, without doubt, and nobody saw the vanguard pass them. They were at their regular post near the Iles aux Quatre Vents [now called Four Brothers], although I had written to their commander that, for the little he feared to be attacked, he ought to draw closer together his cruise squadron and his station, because it was essential to enter the river before the English.

The schooner was placed at the point of Grand Isle to guard the entrance to Missisquoi Bay. On the 12th at the break of day, it was greeted by the brigantine and the snow. The first gave chase and was about to take it when it ran aground. The schooner took refuge in the further end of Missisquoi Bay.

The xebecs, who had not sighted the brigantine, were fighting with the batteaux and had captured one when the wind died down suddenly and after that changed to the northeast. The brigantine got itself afloat again and went back towards the xebecs.

At nightfall Laubara[2], after having seen the main body of the English army near the Iles aux Quatre Vents, took refuge in Tsonnonthouans Cove[3], where he sank three ships, and marched, on the morning of the 13th, through the woods, having previously dispatched two long boats to warn me of the enemy’s advance and [to give me] an account of the prisoners.

The northeast wind, which continued violently for three days, prevented the enemy from approaching here; it could have advanced since yesterday morning and I believe them near the river.

The schooner, which emerged from the northeast of Missisquoi Bay, is opposite the end of Isle La Motte, near the north side, and has been waiting fruitlessly for three days for a southwest wind, the only one which can make [it] sail. The odds are ten to one that it is captured or burned by now. The loss of these ships is a great misfortune for the defense of the river.

I have asked for help from Vaudreuil, having too few men to hope to guard this frontier. I do not know what he will send me. My entrenchments have been finished for some time and I was in search of winter quarters; all is stopped; one must consider what is most urgent. If we are fortunate enough to repel or wear out the enemy, we will do what we can.

From the report of prisoners, it appears that Amherst has ordered Gage to act at the same time.

The season is late; unfortunately it has been dry for a long time, and the finest weather in the world, although cold, the past few days.

I do not know where the enemy wants to come. Some prisoners, who left St. Frederic three weeks ago to go to the Rapids and were taken upon their return, spoke of a camp seen as they passed Point au Fer; but there can be a corps scattered around on the other shore.

Montreal is in consternation, and I fear very much that this despondency may prevent the militia from marching. We have all desired to do well. I have taken all precautions that the weather, the few men I had, and the nature of the countryside permitted me. We will fight our best; come what may.

To M. de Rigaud:

Ile aux Noix, 19 October at 3 PM Sir, the English army left yesterday morning from the AuSable River and should be either at Point au Fer or in Missisquoi Bay by now.

Their vanguard was seen yesterday starting off, and their camp was detected through smoke at the AuSable River.

Do not delay, please, to send me the five hundred men I asked for and the one hundred fifty destined for St. Jean. I have not yet received any help, and it is certainly time to have some.

If your scouts bring you no news of the enemy in the direction of the Chazy River, please go to St. Jean yourself with what will be left to you beyond the aforesaid number, leaving Laprairie only two or three hundred men to secure that place.

I am writing no more at present to the Marquis de Vaudreuil; please give him an account of what I have written you.

To Marquis de Vaudreuil:

Ile aux Noix, 20 October 1759
You should know from Rigaud that my scouts have been driven back to the river by about twenty batteaux, which appeared at noon within sight of the entrenchment [and] returned then to the upper part of the river.

There was heard that evening a cannon shot sounding retreat, which seems to announce that the army is camped there.

I have not yet received a single man to reinforce me, nor have any come to St. Jean. Those whom you have ordered to assemble militia doubtlessly are badly performing the task.

I hear the Canadians are discouraged. It would be easy for those who commanded them to make them understand that, the season being advanced, the English efforts would not be of long duration. The position here is good, the troops are well disposed, but there must be help. It is expected. I have announced it to give confidence; if it does not come, it [confidence] will be lost.

There was nothing yet in Missisquoi Bay by 2 PM. I have scouts there; but what recourse do I have there if I have no men?

I have written Rigaud to go in person to St. Jean if his scouts see nothing in the Chazy River and to leave three hundred men at Laprairie, it being understood that he will send in to me the six hundred fifty men for St. Jean and here. But how will he do it if he does not have three hundred men in all? I beg you, today, that you detach a hundred men of those three hundred to send to me.

The Iroquois are all leaving one after the other as well as the Nepissings. I shall soon remain without Indians.

Ile aux Noix, 23 October 1759

I see by the letter you wrote to me on the 21st that the crew of the xebecs has apparently arrived in Montreal. I did not know of the prisoners' report, Laubara having scorned to send a letter in favor of sending me his messenger. I am curious to know what was his maneuver and what reason he had for sinking his three ships at the beginning of the night without having tried to escape under the cover of darkness and without a cannon shot. I think that his reasons are good; but appearances are against him. Whatever it may be, if this man is clever, he is even more unfortunate.

Please send, urgently, to St. Jean all the soldiers who were on board those xebecs, not having too much here for the defense. I will now make the best of it according to events.

I have need also of sailors to reinforce the crew of the schooner and to arm a small cannon that I am having finished here and that will be very useful for defending the river. I intend, if you have not assigned Sir Tennet to anything, to give him command of this boat. As he is a good servant of the King, I am persuaded that he will accept this commission with pleasure, although it is less important in appearance than the one he had before. If Basserode is returned with his detachment, as I hope, and if he is in a state to finish this campaign, please send him promptly to St. Jean, where he will wait to hear from me. It would be good, too, to send with him the militia which he had on the xebecs. Of all the militia that you have commanded, only twenty-six have come yet to St. Jean. No news of the others.

I wrote you yesterday some Englishmen had appeared in Missisquoi Bay. Four or five bateaux have been at the place where the seventeen landed the 21st to go to St. Francis[4]; they landed, made a scouting expedition, and returned towards the lake. The officers who observed them could tell me whether they had [gone] by the south end of Grand Isle or by the north channel, an important observation, which has given a means to conjecture the location of the English army. I still have there about forty scouts, whom I have ordered to abandon the head of the portage as soon as the enemy lands on this side and to proceed to the South River, where I intend to establish posts in stepping stones on the points which I have reconnoitred in order to trick the enemy in that river and to endeavor to gain a few days; for it is impossible for me to attack it in the portage, where it is three leagues from a fine landing place to pitch on and where it will retrench gradually and very quickly. Yet for this maneuver that I propose to make, it is absolutely necessary to have considerable reinforcements.

I have two scouts on the land to the north in order to go to see where the English army is. I have ordered those in the South River to go to scout towards the mill by Missisquoi Bay.

In regard to bombardment and cannonading of Ile aux Noix, I am still expecting it. With patience and provision one takes his course.

FOOTNOTES

1. The names of the vessels were the brigantine Duke of Cumberland and the snow Boscawen. The writer has been unable to determine the exact translation of canon de 18 or six de 24. It appears that the "one only carrying six de 24" is the radeau Ligonier, which was cut with ports for six iron 24 pounders. Any help in clarifying this from readers would be appreciated. For further discussion, see "Guns Under Lake Champlain" in York State Tradition, Winter 1969, p. 10-16, and Harrison Bird's Navies in the Mountains (New York, 1962), p. 91-95.

2. Harrison Bird, in Navies in the Mountains, spells the name of the xebec's commander de la Bras. In his later book, Battle for a Continent (New York, 1965), he calls the same commander Captain Dolobaraty.

3. This name is translated as a name for the Seneca Indians. Irondequoit Bay on Lake Ontario also was called the Bay of Tsonnonthouans. (See William Beau Champ, Aboriginal Place Names of New York. Albany, 1907. p. 116-117). Bourlomaque is apparently referring to Cumberland Bay at Plattsburgh.

4. This is a reference to Major Robert Rogers' famous expedition to destroy the St. Francis Indian village.

York State Tradition
Summer 1970, 36-9.

LETTERS OF FRANCOIS CHARLES DE BOURLAMAQUE

Translated by Richard W. Ward with the assistance of Leonard Theroux

FINAL INSTALLMENT


To Chevalier de Levis:

Ile aux Noix, 25 October 1759 The English, my dear general, appeared within sight of the intrenchments with fifteen bateaux; they saw our cannon, and fired, and retreated. I do not know whether they realized they were so close to us or whether they had unwittingly gone that far in chasing the scouts. This detachment was supported and followed by about fifty bateaux, by one brigantine, and by two gunboats, all three ships armed with canon de 18. The ships did not pass the Ile aux Tetes.[l]

About fifteen bateaux appeared at the same time in Missisquoi Bay.

You believe rightly that these appearances, combined with reports from the prisoners, who affirmed the armed party of the 11th, have kept us alert. The day before yesterday the fifty bateaux and the three ships left the cove which is opposite to Foucaut's mill to return up the lake. [2] My scouts have seen no one since from that party, nor from those at the Chazy River, nor any in Missisquoi Bay.

I believe the season is too advanced now for Amherst's undertaking. I do not understand how he will maintain his status at home; he conducts a foolish campaign.

The loss of the xebecs is a mystery to me. Laubara, so unfortunate, I believe is ignorant. He has sunk his boats without trying to march, without firing his cannon, and without attempting to escape under the cover of darkness. He has gone to Montreal and without doubt he has reasons, since Vaudreuil writes to me that he could not do otherwise. I would not give him, I believe, the command of the galliot St. Cloud.

Our winter plans are extremely retarded; we will do what we can, but we must act very hastily.

The colonials show me great ill will. Rigaud has assembled three hundred men at Laprairie; it is all that could be furnished in ten days. I have returned to my little camp without hope of getting a single man. I think that the seven hundred that you have sent off were lost to both sides, and that they will desert on the way.

Vaudreuil writes me that all the habitants are sick and that they cannot march.

Roquemaure seems to want to be on the shore of the St. Lawrence River, and as you leave me in charge of the location of these batallions, I can better put the La Reine regiment at Laprairie because it is equal to the task. It is good also to have some one there we can count on.

To Marquis de Vaudreuil:

25 October 1759
The scouts that I had sent by land to Point au Fer found there on the 22nd fifteen bateaux with three English ships, which set out on the 23rd at nine o'clock, taking the lake route. One of the officers I had dispatched has gone forward as far as the Chazy River and has searched the banks as far as the rapids, without finding anything there.

Nothing has appeared up to last night in Missisquoi Bay since the last detachment that I reported to you. I have sent a scout to that bay to search the banks of Grand Isle to the south shore, where I think the enemy might have camped, if he wishes to operate in this area. I expect this scout today or tomorrow morning.

It seems that, if the enemy army must move, we must be ready for them: they had not begun to move at the time that was told to the prisoners of de Laubara, and the detachment, of whom they had knowledge on the lake, was that of fifty boats which had been, on the 22nd, opposite Foucaut's mill and of whom a party had given chase to my scouts on the 21st.

The season is now well advanced for beginning operations, and in spite of my conviction that Amherst risked his head in not acting, I begin to persuade myself that he will not move this campaign further.

I plead with you to send to St. Jean the detachments of soldiers and Canadians that were on the xebecs, as well as their equipment. I urge you not to change their destination because I will then be able to draw fifty militia from that fort to look after the one here.

The good will of M. de Laubara is very commendable.

I doubt that when he is here he intends to praise himself. I believe that the Indians will leave me. I will do my utmost to engage them to go to take prisoners. The promise of a thousand crowns and a keg of liquor that I gave them fifteen days ago does not tempt them at all. I find them always the same since the departure of the English from Fort George.

To Chevalier de Levis:

2 November in the evening
. . . The English have been at the fort of the Abenakis, at Missisquoi. since the day before yesterday. I am sending to find out what they are doing there and in what numbers.

Vaudreuil has sent me a packet to go to Amherst, of which I do not know the content; but from letters I have had from Montreal, it appears that there is a question on the exchange of prisoners. He left the day before yesterday.

Today Madame de la Milletiere writes me that Vaudreuil only demands the exchange of the native [Canadian] officers and complains that if it is so done, her husband will not be included and may never return.

I wrote her that that is not the appearance of this, that surely Vaudreuil will demand all the French officers indiscriminately and that her husband will have the fate of the others. I believe, in effect, that this anxiety has been given her without foundation . . .

3 November 1759
The English that had been seen in the fort at Missisquoi are found to be five men of Rogers' detachment who had become lost. Three Abenakis, less cowardly than the others, took the five men easily. The prisoners say that Rogers has reached the Connecticut River where he must have arrived a long time ago. His plan had never been to return to the boats that he had left in the bay. They had hardly any provisions when leaving St. Francis . . .

5 November 1759
M. de Cadillac, who arrives, my dear general, from St. Frederic, has not found the army all withdrawn, as was believed. [ 3]

He has also met in the Bay Tsonnonthouans two ships; or these is one of our xebecs which had been believed to be sunk; others are in effect under the water, and the English intend to raise them. [4]

The aide-de-camp, Abercromby, has spoken of the maneuver of our xebecs with very little esteem and claims to have been much surprised that we had abandoned them. Nothing was easier, according him, than to save them.

He has said also that the English army had come nearly up to Bay of Tsonnonthouans and Amherst, having received a messenger from Boston, who apprised him of the taking of Quebec, returned immediately, not wishing to lose any men in order to take a country he regarded as defeated.

Sir Abercromby was on the boats that reconnoitred Ile aux Noix on the 21st, and he said he had been very much surprised to see twenty cannons directed on the river’s entrance. He concluded that we had much there; whereas he believed the opposite before, knowing that I had to order two artillery convoys to the Rapids and to Jacques Cartier . . .

FOOTNOTES

1. According to Amherst's Journal (dated October 24), Captain Dalyel reconnoitred to the Ile aux Noix and the French fired one shot at Dalyel. Jeffrey Amherst, Journal of Jeffrey Amherst. Ryerson, c1932. p. l84.

2. Foucaut’s Mill was on Windmill Point, Alburg, Vt. Abby Maria Hemenway, Vermont Historical Gazetteer. The Author, 1871. vol. 2, p488. The cove opposite Foucaut's Mill would therefore be located in or near the present village of Rouses Point.

3. Cadillac was a captain in the French regiment of Berry. He should not be considered too reliable a witness, See David Lee, "The Contest for Isle aux Noix, 1759-1760". Vermont History, Spring 1960, p. 101 and Amherst, op. cit., p. 186.

4. Amherst received word on October 27 that one of the xebecs had been raised already and that his men were ready to raise the others. Amherst, op. cit., p. 185.

York State Tradition
Fall, 1970, 23-5, 28.

Ralph Bellows on Chateaugay Lake Steamboats

Three letters from Ralph Bellows, Chateaugay, regarding steamboats on Chateaugay Lake:

I have just read the fall issue of York State Tradition. I was much interested in the story about the old Merrill House, written by Mrs Reilly. The picture of the steamboat at the Merrill House landing is not the Maggie. It is the Adirondack. My father, the late M. S. Bellows, who was a boat builder for 50 years, built it in 1882 and ran it as a passenger boat for several seasons before selling it to Mr Eb McPherson. He also built launches and rowboats for several of the people mentioned in Mrs Reilly's article, among them being Sidney Farrar, Seth Thomas, the clock man, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, General Moffitt, and William Muldoon, famous physical culture man who trained John L. Sullivan for his fight with Corbett. There were six steamboats on Chateaugay Lake at different times. They were the Nellie Tupper, Jennie, Adirondack, Emma, and two company tugboats both named Maggie. M. S. Bellows built all of these except the Nellie Tupper and one of the tugboats.

You are right about the picture of the boat on the cover of the fall issue. It is also a picture of the Adirondack. These pictures were taken before the name had been painted on the bow. You may be interested in a description of the Adirondack. I have an old advertising circular that reads as follows:

Chateaugay Lake, N. Y.
May 18, 1882

Having sold the steamer Jennie, I am now building a steamer to take her place, which I think will be better adapted to the wants of pleasure seekers. She is 55 feet long, 8-foot beam, with two cabins and will be run by an 18-horse power engine. She will make two regular trips daily, connecting with the stage at Belmont Iron Works, stopping at Bellows' Lake House, Merrill's, Ralph's, Indian Point, and all desired points on the lake. Excursion trips before and after regular trips. Trial trip on or about June 20, 1882. Hoping for a continuance of your patronage, I am
Yours sincerely
M. S. Bellows

The Lake House has been called "Bannerhouse" ever since J. S. Kirby bought the place in the fall of 1891. Very few people know anything about the early history of this old hotel. It was built about 1838 or 1840, making it one of the oldest, if not the very oldest, of resort hotels in the Adirondacks.

The Jennie was taken to Chazy Lake. M. S. Bellows built his first cedar rowboat when he was 16 years old and the Jennie when he was 22 or 23.

There might possibly be some old timer who would question the fact that there were two company tugboats. There were two but they were not in use at the same time.

In my first letter I said that both tugboats were named Maggie. After giving it some thought, I am not positive that the first boat was called Maggie, but I am sure the second was.

Another thing I'd like to mention. There are at least three pictures of the Adirondack all slightly different. In the picture on the cover of the fall issue there is no name on the boat. In another picture the name is painted in large letters across the bow. Another picture shows the boat without a pilot house and no name on the bow. At sometime the pilot house had been removed.

I mention all this because of the unlikely possibility that someone might write to you and say, "I have a picture of the Adirondack and it is not the same boat shown on the cover of the fall issue."

York State Tradition
Winter, 1965, 50.

Lead in Them Thar Hills?, by Phyllis L. Wells

WERE there once lead mines in the Adirondacks? Can anyone prove that there were? Probably not, but there have been numerous stories by various people; some seemingly good evidence; and a whole lot of time, energy, and money expended in an effort to do so.

Perhaps the most publicized mine was in the vicinity of Owls Head and Ragged Lake, in Franklin County. Floy S. Hyde in her Water over the Dam at Mountain View, tells about Ignace Plamondon, commonly called Plumadore, who was among the very early guides in this region. Born in Michigan about 1781 of French and Indian parentage, he lived for a time in Chasm Falls, but ranged widely over the northern Adirondacks. He died at 98 in 1879 and is buried in Duane.

Floy Hyde relates the following from Morton Fitch's History of Ragged Lake in Franklin County. In the early 1860's Plumadore made his headquarters with Madore Fountain, an old trapper, near Plumadore Pond and at Round Pond (now Indian Lake). At that time he would go east from Round Pond and south from the highest point of land near Drain Pond Hollow, and return with lead to be melted and made into bullets. Because of this, the hill east of Indian Lake was called Ore Bed Mountain. The deposit he visited was the source of supply for the St. Regis tribe, and its location was kept a sacred secret from the whites.

When older and in failing health, Plumadore went to live with a Spicer family near Chasm Falls. He became fond of them, told them about the lead supply, and promised to tell them its location. But, while visiting at Deer River (on the Duane-Meacham Lake road), he was taken sick and died, his secret untold.

F. J. Seaver, in his Historical Sketches of Franklin County, tells of Major Albon Man, who before the Civil War used to hunt at Indian Lake and Mountain View (then Round Pond and State Dam). He employed "Old Aleck". a St. Regis Indian, for guide and camp worker. On several occasions "Old Aleck" sneaked off from camp, and after a few hours, returned with quantities of pure galena, which they reduced and cast into bullets. Old settlers in the vicinity used to tell of the same Indian appearing at their homes from time to time with native lead, claiming to have gotten it from a “mine in the mountains."

It is interesting to note that Lot 87, which contains Ore Bed Hill, is given on several old maps as the "Lead Mine Lot". About 1890 this lot belonged to Orville Moore of Malone, and others. Elmer Davis of Owls Head recalled that some men hired him to transport a considerable amount of equipment to Ore Bed, where they sank a shaft, saying they were searching for the lost lead mine. The attempt was unsuccessful, as was a similar one on Whipple Hill.

In 1894 the Plattsburgh Sentinel reported a rumor that lead had been found in this area, and that a Syracuse party was arranging to open a vein. In 1900 the Adirondack News reported that Thomas Todd, who had tramped through this area for years, believed that he had located the mine. He and others in Malone purchased land located east of Indian Lake and south of Owls Head Mountain from M. V . B. Turner of Plattsburgh. Arrangements had been made for an expert to start drilling. No big discoveries followed either of these reported finds.

The story of Cass Hoose and lead near Plumadore Pond appeared in the Adirondack Enterprise in 1970, probably a reprint from the Malone Farmer in 1925. He and his brother lived on the old Hatch place on the Loon Lake-Duane road. When he was twelve, an old miner named Davis, having heard of the lead deposit, came with instruments, and took the boys along on his exploration. They went east to a hill near Plumadore Pond, where there were indications of a lead deposit. Tunnelling into the hill produced thin slivers of lead, but no vein. Davis became ill, and nothing more was ever done.

Donaldson, in his History of the Adirondacks, tells of two inn proprietors who had contact with Indians concerning lead. Charles H. Wardner ran the Rustic Lodge at the end of Upper Saranac Lake in the early years of this century. He told of two old Indians coming to the Lodge from Canada, saying they were looking for lead. They knew that Indians once living here had known of its whereabouts. Their search was unsuccessful, and they never returned.

James M. Wardner, a relative, ran the Rainbow Inn on Rainbow Lake, and told of an old Indian who came to his place and offered quantities of lead ore as a medium of exchange. If he failed to have enough to complete the bargain at hand, he would disappear for awhile and return with a new supply. His secret was guarded with great care.

Lead fever also infected Essex County. The story ran as a series in the Essex County Republican in 1883. Smith's History of Essex County also gives some of the details.

At the close of the Revolution, William Shapley, a soldier who was quite familiar with the waters of the Champlain Valley, came to settle on Flat Rock Bay. Exploration of Peru Bay (Willsboro Bay) disclosed abundant game, so he often hunted in the area. One day he picked up a light colored stone with which to scrape off the flint in his musket. Thinking it interesting, he picked up several more to carry home in his knapsack. That evening he put the pieces in the fire and discovered them to contain lead.

The next day Shapley returned to the spot, hoping to find more of the "stones," but several years' search proved unsuccessful. Later, his half-brother, Joseph Moore, settled nearby and helped Shapley with his search. Still without success, they eventually left the area, after telling several local people all about the old find.

The area in which Shapley located the "stones" was not far from where Peru Bay was visible, and among the northeast foothills of Rattlesnake Mountain, a huge mountain lying directly west of the Red Rocks, and near Little Sand Beach, at the south end of what is now the end of the tunnel at the railroad cut.

Some years after Shapley's discovery, Caleb Smith (an old settler on Willsboro Point) was hunting in the same area and went into a hollow to find water. Brushing away leaves, he found some stones which were very heavy. The sound made when struck together convinced him that they contained lead. He covered the place, making a mental note of the location, and intending to return. He later did with his son-in-law, Dr. Asa Fisher. Still later, they told two friends, who also helped in the search. Finally, the information became known among several other settlers, who also aided in the search. Nothing was ever found by any of these people.

Winslow Cossoul Watson says that his father, Elkanah Watson, brought from London in 1784 an old map made by French engineers in l731. The map exhibited exact designations of headlands, islands, rocks, reefs, etc., and was considered to be the only minute chart of Lake Champlain extant. On the shore of Peru Bay is marked "lead ore bed."

In the early part of the nineteenth century, Levi Higby's father erected a sawmill at Port Kendall. It was in the deep gorge later spanned by the iron railway bridge of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company. In clearing the gorge for the placing of timbers, workmen found a crucible of the type used for melting ores . Had it been used by the old French engineers a hundred or so years earlier?

In April 1883 the Plattsburgh Sentinel printed a letter from John Mattocks of Chicago (Presbyterian minister in Keeseville, 1838-1856) who tells of buying an old atlas published before the Revolution. At or near the present location of Willsboro was marked "lead mine."

Accounts are retained by descendants of those who were taken prisoner by the French and Indians, that on their way through the lake to Canada, they landed at a small sand beach on a great bay, at a place where the rocks stood steep and high above the water. Some of the Indians went up into the mountains, and after a few hours, returned with lead ore. Notice that Red Rocks and Little Sand Beach are alluded to.

Mr Martin of Essex once accidentally secured a specimen of lead. He and his father were becalmed on the bay near Red Rocks. He took a shotgun and went ashore to get partridges. In climbing over a ledge, he broke off a small bulge which turned out to be lead. Messrs. Cameron & McDonald, contractors on the railroad, found one small pocket of lead when cutting through the Red Rock.

Winslow Cossoul Watson, in his Military and Civil History of the County of Essex, says that a tradition of an ore bed on Rattlesnake Mountain was known to exist among the Indian tribes north of the Great Lakes . Since the settlement of Port Kent, and until around 1870, a group of Indians appeared annually about mid-autumn. They usually camped at the sand beach south of the village, or in a glen nearby, for about ten days, and then disappeared. It is thought that they came for lead ore.

Trembleau Mountain is another location given in some accounts about the lead mine. As reported in the Essex County Republican in 1881, a landowner claimed to have found the excavation made by the Indians on Trembleau Mountain. In his letter, John Mattocks also states that in 1858 Jackson Bishop or his brother John of Keeseville had shown him a cube-shaped piece of lead ore which he had found while hunting on Trembleau Mountain.

The Plattsburgh Sentinel in 1883 carried a letter from Leander Dunham of Ellenburgh Depot regarding the Trembleau Mountain lead mine. He states that he was a sailor on Lake Champlain in 1826, and while returning from Whitehall, was becalmed near this mountain. He went ashore and rambled around. Later, he heard of an old man being taken captive by the Indians. They left him in a canoe while they went ashore at that spot, returning with a lot of lead. Dunham says it was the same spot where he had rambled around earlier.

Clinton County's lead mine, once known to the Indians, was in the Lyon Mountain area. The summer 1967 issue of York State Tradition relates the story of two men's attempts to discover the location, as told years ago by Capt. E. E. Thomas of Chateaugay Lake.

Nathaniel Collins was one of the first white hunters to canoe on the Chateaugay Lakes and roam the surrounding woods. While fishing on South Inlet he came upon an Indian girl and her parents. She explained that they had come for lead, and warned him not to follow them. Nat went across the inlet to a high elevation, and for five days he searched for smoke by day, and fire by night. He never saw either. After eight days the Indians returned loaded down with lead--long strips with evidences of charcoal.

About the same time, Mose Sangimore settled at Chazy Lake. He went hunting on Lyon Mountain, looking for the Indian lead mine. Smelling smoke, he used the wind to guide him to a cavern with stone steps and logs. He ventured in for a few feet, hearing no sound, but detecting the strong smell of smoke.

Leaving his overalls in a tree, he broke branches for a trail, and returned the next morning with neighbors. He could not find the mine. The Indians had probably been in the mine when Mose discovered it, and erased his trail marks . The location is still a mystery.

Also of interest in Clinton County is the notation "Leadmine Gully" found on a soil map of the county. It lies directly to the west of the Dead Sea area of Altona. Beers' Atlas of Clinton County, 1869, shows a spot marked "leadmine" in plot #80, northeast of Churubusco, in the very northeast corner of the town of Clinton.

Undoubtedly, the Indians did know of the existence of lead in any or all of these locations. However, white men have never been able to substantiate its existence. Accounts of the various deposits remain as tales of the distant past, none of them ever having become a commercial reality.

###

According to the Essex County Republican, November 7, 1924, a woman who was a native of Plattsburgh enlisted and served as a man in the Union Army in the Civil War. Born Mary Ann Murphy, her mother died when she was very young, and she was adopted by the Benjamin Hill family, who moved from Plattsburgh to Worcester, Mass. She enlisted as Saul Hill when she was 18. She was a member of Company B, 53rd Massachusetts Regiment.

York State Tradition
Summer, 1974, 30-4.

The Search for the Indian Lead Mine on Lyon Mountain, by E. E. Thomas

Legend has it that a lead mine, once known only to Indians, exists in the Lyon Mountain area of the Adirondacks. The story of two white men's attempts to discover the location of this treasure was told years ago by Captain E. E. Thomas of Chateaugay Lake. He claimed to have secured his information from descendants of the white men who were in contact with the Indian users of the lead from this mine. His account, which is here condensed, appeared in the Chateaugay Record in May and June 1950.

AFTER the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company sold out to the Delaware and Hudson Railroad Company, I was hired by the latter to go through their holdings and estimate the amount of standing timber. I was also to find the old lines and to watch for lumbermen who, having no respect for boundary lines, kept chopping in the direction in which they could see the best timber. This work took me into all the logging camps of the area and into the homes of the oldest inhabitants. When the business talks were over, I would frequently be entertained by stories of bygone days. In one of these I became greatly interested. It concerned an Indian lead mine, and lest I should forget the details, I wrote the story down, as it was told to me, on the back of my report blanks.

NATHANIEL COLLINS was one of the first white hunters or trappers to paddle a canoe on the Chateaugay Lakes or to roam the surrounding woods. His camp was located on what is now called Baker Point.

One day while fishing in South Inlet, he heard an unusual noise on the shore below him. He paddled toward the spot and caught a glimpse of someone walking on the shore. Suddenly a pretty Indian girl, attired in a buckskin suit, stepped out on the beach almost in front of his canoe. To his salutation of "Good morning", she replied in unbroken English.

She told him that her father and mother were with her and that they were on a hunting and fishing trip. They were going to build a canoe to use while they were there and also a bark wigwam to protect them from the rain.

Before she had finished, the old squaw appeared, and then the girl's father. The father said very little but looked at the white stranger with a frown.

In a few minutes the girl turned and began to converse again with Nat. He told her that they need not build a canoe, that they were welcome to the use of his, and he also invited them to his camp for as long as they wished to stay. When the girl told this to her parents, the frown left her father's face, and a smile revealed their appreciation. Their scant belongings were carried to Nat's cabin, and at the first meal they devoured nearly all the food Nat had.

Before sunset that evening Nat took the Indian girl out on the lake to hunt for game. The girl demonstrated her expert marksmanship. During their stay she went hunting with him three times, fired four shots and killed three deer. The Indians helped jerk this venison, and this with the fish they caught comprised most of their living.

One day Nat and the girl went out fishing. She, feeling quite free with him by this time, told him the real reason why they were there.

"My father is getting old," she began. "There is but one chief over him. He had been here many times, but he says he will come only once more. We are here to get lead for bullets for his rifle." "Where is the lead mine? " asked Nat.

"I will tell you", she replied, "what no other white man ever knew. Go up this brook about one hour. On the side of the brook on which the sun rises there is a pointed rock about three feet high. This rock is held in position by two smaller ones. Go on about fifteen minutes and you will come to a spruce log lying directly across the stream. Now you are half way between the pointed rock and a hemlock tree which is blown over and has several pegs driven into it. When you find this, go straight towards the sun about twenty minutes and you will come to the lead mine."

"But", said Nat, "if I go in the morning, the sun will be in the east, and if I go in the afternoon, it will be in the west. What time of day shall I go?"

"Ah, ha!" laughed the girl. "That I can't tell you. As much as my father loves me, he would shoot me if he knew I have told you what I have, for he says no white man shall ever see this mine."

One day the girl told Nat that she and her father and mother were going to the mine and cautioned him against following, "for if you do," she said, "Father will shoot you."

It was near three o'clock when they started out, the old chief in the lead, his squaw following, and the girl bringing up the rear. The girl suspected that Nat would follow in spite of her warning. They were not quite out of sight when the girl turned and motioned to Nat to go back. But Nat was not afraid of a bullet at such a long distance as he meant to follow. He started slowly on behind and was careful not to gain too much on them. As dusk set in, Nat knew it was useless to go any nearer. It was obvious that they were waiting for darkness.

Then an idea struck him. Across the big inlet there was a high elevation from which he could get a good view of Lyon Mountain. By going to this elevation, he could surely locate their campfire.

As there was a bright moon, he made good time down the brook and up to the highest point on the ridge. There he waited and watched for the fire that would help locate the mine. He watched throughout the night but no campfire appeared.

Breakfast was of little importance to him next morning. He swallowed a bite, and cramming some venison into his pocket, he went to the hemlock log where he had last seen the Indians. Their footprints were plain until he reached this spot. Then where did they go? Nat searched but not one footprint did he find to give him the slightest clue to the direction in which they had gone.

All that day he hunted, traveling in ever-widening circles around the old hemlock. As the sun went down, he went back to camp, ate a hearty supper, and started out again. This time he went to a place where he could get a different view of Lyon Mountain, but the results were the same. For the next five days he hunted for smoke by day and fire by night, but neither did he see.

On the eighth day the Indians returned with all the lead they could carry. Most of it was in long strips with much charcoal in it. This revealed to Nat that they had got the lead out by building a fire on or beside it and as the lead melted, scraped it out with sticks.

After that they stayed but one more night with Nat. The girl told him as they left that they would be back in a few days for more lead.

They were barely out of sight when Nat again started out on the hunt for treasure. He thought that the old chief would have been unable to wipe out the tracks they would have made with the heavy load on their backs. But his search was in vain, and he returned to his cabin with much respect for the Indian's crafty ways.

Shortly after this, the Indians returned for their final trip to the mountain of precious minerals. This time Nat did not try to follow them but awaited their return, which was on the third day. That night the girl asked Nat for a kettle and bullet mold. When the lead was hot, they ran a large supply of bullets and gave them to Nat. (At the time I was gathering this information, Collins' daughter, Mrs William Shaw, who lived at Lower Chateaugay Lake. had three of these bullets).

The Indians never returned for more lead. Nat persistently continued the search but with no success.

AT CHAZY Lake, about five miles from Upper Chateaugay Lake, Mose Sangimore had settled about the same time that Nat Collins came to Chateaugay Lake.

One day Mose went hunting on Lyon Mountain, but whenever he went in this direction, it was not for the game to be found there. He had heard about the Indians' lead mine, and it was this that pulled him like a magnet towards the top of the mountain.

As he advanced, he smelled smoke, yet none could be seen in any direction and there was very little wind to carry the odor very far. Putting a finger in his mouth, he let it remain until it was blood warm. Then taking it out, he held it above his head. The side on which he felt the cool air told him in which direction to go to locate the source of the unusual smell.

Advancing carefully, he was soon standing beside an opening from which smoke was issuing. "I have found the lead mine!" he said to himself.

But Nat Collins had told him of the Indian girl's threat, so very cautiously he explored the opening. On two sides there were solid ledges, and leading down into the depths, he could see stones which were used as stairs. He ventured down for about eight feet. Overhead he could see logs laid side by side and reaching far back into the blackness of the cavern. No sound came from the depths, but there was a strong smell of smoke.

He climbed out of the cavern, made a mental note of the nearby trees and bushes, and slowly walked down the ridge, looking back to familiarize himself with the surroundings. When he was about 200 yards away, he climbed a yellow birch tree, and taking his overalls off, hung them in the very top. Then he climbed down and proceeded toward home. Every bush that came within his reach he broke until he was sure that he could return by this well-marked trail.

The next morning, with his rifle on his shoulder and four neighbors accompanying him, he began to climb to the opening he had seen the day before. The trail was easily followed, and at last they reached the yellow birch tree.

"This is the tree, " he said, "on which I hung my overalls, but they are not here. Yet I am sure this is the ridge."

They searched the area but no trace could they find of the mine. They finally returned to their homes, no wiser and no richer than they had been in the morning.

It is my belief that the Indians were in the mine getting lead when Mose Sangimore discovered it. Anyone familiar with Indians knows that they would have seen his broken bushes and found his overalls in the tree. Undoubtedly they erased his trail marks by cutting all the brush and then breaking other bushes on a similar ridge to mislead the white man.

Now time has worked many changes, and death has sealed the knowledge of what little the white men were permitted to learn. The location of the Indian lead mine remains to this day a mystery.

York State Tradition
Summer, 1967, 23-7

Comments on Chateaugay Lake Indian lead mine and artist Chester Harding, by Ralph Bellows

A native of Chateaugay Lake comments on the Indian lead mine and Chester Harding, painter

I HAVE read the story about the Indian lead mine [Summer 1967] which was supposed to have been in the vicinity of Upper Chateaugay Lake. The story interested me because my great grandfather settled on the lower lake in 1820, and my grandfather was born in 1813, so they knew all the stories about the lead mine, as did my father.

I'll tell a story about Indian lead just as my father told it to me. Back in the 1820's and 1830's the Indians were still coming to Chateaugay Lake in the summer to camp on the sand bar and Indian Point. One time in the fall, when they were returning home, they stopped at my grandfather's place on the lower lake. One of the Indians showed my grandfather a chunk of pure lead and wanted to sell it to him. This Indian told him he got it in the woods west of Indian Point. My grandfather recognized it at once as an ordinary bar of lead that you could buy in most any store in those days only it was battered and hacked with a hatchet. This Indian probably showed it to some other people who believed him or wanted to. As my father said, this was probably the source of all the stories about the Indian lead mine.

My father knew Nat Collins for over 40 years, and I often heard him speak about him. Nat was born in 1829 and died in 1906. When he became old enough, he started acting as a guide for some of the guests at the Lake House, which my grandfather ran from 1840 to 1886.

One day late in the fall Nat and a Mr Peabody were up on W Mountain when Mr Peabody noticed steam coming out of the rocks some distance away. He called Nat’s attention to it, and when they went over there, they saw that the steam was coming from the opening of a small cave. The next day my grandfather along with Nat, Mr Peabody, and some other men went back to the cave with ropes and candles and went down into it for 50 feet or so. (I am quite sure my father told me this Mr Peabody, who was from Boston, invented a rifle or an improvement on a rifle) . For some reason, I never went to see this cave, but the late Charles Merrill, who lived on the upper lake, used to guide some of the summer people up the mountain to see it.

Another man that Nat used to guide, mostly fishing, was Chester Harding, the artist who painted the only known portrait of Daniel Boone. This was painted in 1820, the last year of Boone’s life. Harding was just a young fellow at the time. The story about his journey on horse back from Springfield, Mass., to Missouri and his experience in finding Boone is quite interesting. About a year ago I wrote to True magazine to see if they could give me any information as to where this painting might now be. They informed me that in 1940 it was owned by Mr Herbert Lee Pratt and was on loan to the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, where it may still be. They also said that Harding was a self-taught artist who became a favorite painter in London and had patrons among the Royal family. Mr. Harding spent 20 seasons at the Lake House during the 1840's, 1850's and 1860's.

Ralph Bellows
Route 2
Chateaugay, N. Y. 12920

York State Tradition
Fall, 1967, 43-4.

The Banner House, by Maitland DeSormo

An Old Adirondack Hotel

WHAT is now known as the Banner House on Lower Chateaugay Lake is one of the oldest resort hotels, if not the oldest, in the Adirondacks. The first proprietor was Jonathan Bellows, who came from South Charlestown, New Hampshire, and settled in the present town of Constable, Franklin County, sometime between 1805 and 1813. He was a direct descendant of John Bellows, a passenger from London, England, on board the good ship Hopewell in 1635. Like so many other restless, adventurous people of that time, a later generation of the Bellows family had moved from Massachusetts to New Hampshire, then on again through Vermont to northern New York in search of greater freedom of opportunity in that vast northern Adirondack wilderness region known as the Shatagee (Chateaugay) Woods.

Soon after his arrival in Constable, Jonathan established a series of trap lines, one of which followed the Little Trout River southward and then across to the Chateaugay River, the outlet of the lakes of the same name. Continuing upstream, he found on the lower lake the hunter's shack which the Drews family of Gilmantown, New Hampshire, had occupied in 1816, before building their own cabin on the opposite shore.

Bellows bought the shack and 50 acres of land from Gates Hoit, who was the agent for several nonresident landowners. Not long afterward Bellows replaced the shanty with an enlarged, comfortable, permanent home for himself and family.

By the early 1830's he was providing accommodations for occasional hunters and fishermen. Their accounts apparently attracted the attention of more sportsmen, for by 1837 an appreciable number of guests, most of them from Montreal, began to arrive and Bellows' Lake House had become a popular resort. Since indoor space was limited, many of the arrivals brought their own tents and equipment. Bellows or one of his sons took care of the guiding.

When the Northern Railroad, later known as the Rutland, was completed in 1850, the small hotel prospered even more. Except for the Saranac region, this locality was the only section of Franklin County that sportsmen sought at that time.

Undoubtedly the most famous guest ever to stay at the Lake House was Arthur F. Tait, the artist, whose superb paintings of hunting and fishing scenes were lithographed by Currier and Ives. At least two of his pictures were painted there in 1854 and 1855. These were called "Ice Fishing on Chateaugay Lake" and "Arguing the Point. " The latter work features Jonathan Bellows and his son Franklin.

Tait was described by H. Perry Smith, author of Modern Babes in the Woods, as "a jolly Englishman, a good sportsman and a great lover of nature. " Wallace's Guide to the Adirondacks called him "a master hand in throwing the fly, floating for deer and making a canvas glow with life."

Two other celebrated artists, Chester Harding and Louis Maurer, also stayed with Bellows during the mid-1850's. So far as is known, Harding, who is renowned for having done the only portrait of Daniel Boone, did not paint any of the local scenes. Maurer's work, like Tait's, was made world famous through the medium of Currier and Ives prints. He probably painted his "Deer Shooting on the Shatagee" somewhere along the shores of Lower Chateaugay Lake.

After Jonathan Bellows' death, his son Lewis added on to the original structure of the Lake House and continued to operate it. In 1891 Millard Bellows, son of Lewis, sold the hotel to J. S. Kirby and A. M. Bennett. Shortly afterward, when the former became sole owner, he changed the name to the Banner House, signifying his intention of making it an outstanding hostelry. Mr Kirby, the son of Charles S. Kirby, one of the area's oldest residents, owned a large farm and had been a partner with O. F. Chase in a mercantile firm in nearby Brainardsville. He spent all of his 75 years in the town of Belmont and was closely identified with the Banner House for a generation before selling the business to F. W. Adams, his son-in-law. He spent the rest of his life at the hotel, however. At the time of his death on April 16, 1921, the Chateaugay Record described him as a well-informed, cultured person and an interesting conversationalist. He liked the life of a hotel owner, and his guests responded to his friendliness with equal warmth. Being interested in local history, he wrote many papers which he read to fellow members of the Franklin County Historical Association.

The Banner House’s present proprietor, Mrs Louise Adams Chase, is the third generation owner. She and her family moved to the Banner House when she was three years old. She graduated from Chateaugay High School and taught in rural schools for several years before her marriage. Mrs Chase inherited her grandfather's interest in local history. She has written a series of articles entitled "This I Remember" for the Chateaugay Record. Like her grandfather, she also has a warm personality. Her guests soon become her friends and they seek her company often. Willingness to listen, prompt attention to their requests, her conversational skill, and her interest in her guests as people— these are her most obvious traits and personal assets.

Banner House has always catered to families. Kids seem to enjoy being there and sense that Mrs Chase likes to have them around. She is seldom too busy to listen to their youthful tales and problems and is quick to respond with encouragement and advice.

The following incident illustrates the informal atmosphere of the place. The late N. H. Botsford, who was treasurer of the New York World, had vacationed there many years. He was a very dignified old gentleman with one notable idiosyncrasy: he seldom carried much money. He usually did not have even enough cash to tip the help, so Mrs Chase would pay them and add that amount to his bill, which she would send him after his return to New York.

One day, when he was all ready to leave for the city, he drove around to the front porch, where Mrs Chase was sitting and talking with a woman guest who had just arrived. Botsford got out of his car, walked over to Mrs Chase, kissed her goodbye, and returned to his car. From there he called out, "When you get around to it, Louise, send me my bill!" Then he drove away.

The bewildered guest remarked, "I've done a lot of traveling and stayed at a lot of places, but this is the only place I've ever been where the guests kiss the owner goodbye and then leave without paying their bill ! "

Mrs Chase's daughter Pauline has more than a modicum of her mother's understanding of people and management talent. She represents the fourth generation Banner House proprietors.

Many of the Banner House guests have been returning year after year. Of one family four generations have been guests here. Much of the hotel's appeal can be traced to its location on a knoll which commands a pleasant panorama of lake, wooded shores, and a long line of medium- sized mountains. It is also far enough from centers of population to ensure quiet nights and restful days but still within less than an hour's drive from Plattsburgh and Lake Champlain. As in its earliest days, Banner House continues to draw guests seeking quiet relaxation.

York State Tradition
Fall, 1965, 36-9.

The Merrill House, by Mrs. John Reilly

An Old Hotel on Upper Chateaugay Lake

Seneca Ray Stoddard

Merrill House, ca. 1890s

MANY have wanted me to write a book about the Merrill House. Indeed a book could be filled with stories of this famous old hotel, but I never found the time even to start such a book. Now I am asked to write an article on its history. It is rather late in life for me to undertake anything more than a brief sketch.


Darius Merrill, founder of the little hamlet of Merrill, came into this area from New Hampshire and selected a choice spot in the wilderness on the shore of Upper Chateaugay Lake, a short distance above the Narrows, which connects the Upper and Lower lakes (Upper Chateaugay Lake lies in Clinton County; Lower Chateaugay lies in Franklin County). Here he cut down the trees and built a log building -- all the logs hewed by hand and dovetailed together -- with a boat house underneath and two rooms above. This he lived in until he built what was the beginning of Merrill House, a building of huge logs to be used as a fishing and hunting lodge.


Soon it became so popular that more room was needed and he added to it. This was over 100 years ago. There is no one left now who knows the exact date. In 1869 a large addition was built and also a cottage at the end of the hotel for a Dr Angell from New Jersey. This was attached to the hotel by a porch.


When Darius Merrill died, his son Shepherd Merrill came into possession of the property, and he, about 75 years ago, sold it to my father, Oliver Young, who spent the remainder of his life in it.


My father enlarged the hotel, putting up a three-story addition. He established in the hotel a post office, telegraph office (there were no telephones here then), a general store, and ice cream parlor. In connection with the hotel he ran also a boat and horse livery, later a car livery. It was a very busy, lively place, for it became the point from which all cottagers embarked for their camps across the lake.


In early summer, men from New York, New Jersey, and even as far away as California brought their wives and families, accompanied by nursemaids for the children. With them came many wardrobe trunks full of clothes, for they used to dress "classy" on their vacations in those days and they came to spend the whole summer.


The husbands came for weekends by train. Sleepers came into Lyon Mountain, where they were met by our stages, drawn by horses over the deep-sand road. The horses used to stop and rest when climbing the Sand Hill. Drivers allowed them to do this, and the horses soon learned where their resting places were.


In the early years a steamboat came from Lower Chateaugay Lake, where it connected with a stage from Chateaugay village, bringing mail and express. The steamboat stopped at the Merrill House and two other hotels on Upper Lake. On the Fourth of July a band played on the boat at all stops. People from many miles around came to the Merrill House landing to hear it play.

probably Seneca Ray Stoddard

A view of the Merrill House dock at Upper Chateaugay Lake, showing Moffitt's Island, the southwest shore, which at this writing (2007) remains in its natural pristine state of wilderness. The "Adirondack" steamboat (above) was built by Millard Bellows; its Chateaugay Lake debut was in 1882.

My father's Merrill House advertisement in Stoddard's 1895 Adirondack guide book gives the cost of board as $2.50 per day, $10 to $14 per week, and "special rates to families for protracted stay. " I remember a lady once asked my father what the rate per day would be if she ate no breakfast. Dad replied, "Same price, whether you eat it all in one meal or in three. "


Celebrities from many parts of the world found their way to Merrill House, where they always found an old-fashioned welcome awaiting them. They called it their "second home." Plain, wholesome, home-cooked food attracted them, as did also the hotel's sand beach, one-fourth mile long, which provided many hours of safe wading and swimming for both children and adults.


Among the celebrities who came here were Geraldine Farrar, metropolitan opera star; movie actress Evelyn Thaw and her son Russell; President Grover Cleveland; Seth Thomas, clock manufacturer; Charles Schwab, steel magnate; General Stephen Moffitt; Congressman John Moffitt; Robert White, member of the Canadian parliament; Judge George Smythe; Russian composer Tschaikovsky; and even "Dutch" Schultz with his lawyer and body guards en route to Malone for his trial for evasion of income taxes.

Piano at The Merrill House, where Tchaikovsky *heard the news.

Millionaires and paupers, we might say, received the same welcome, and they all mingled as one family. There was always an atmosphere of good will. It was a second home for lone bachelors and maiden ladies as well as families, and they returned year after year to have their "reunions.”

I remember that, when I was a child, after supper, as was customary in the Gay Nineties, the women donned dresses with long trains, which they carried over their arms. They vied with each other to be the best dressed. Arm in arm they walked the length of the long veranda, holding up trains or long skirts. They got their exercise this way, counting the number of times across the veranda and figuring the miles they walked.

Marjorie Young Reilly was the last
proprietor of the Merrill House.

Evenings were spent in the large living room around the fireplace, singing songs, playing cards, and talking. Older ladies would be knitting by the fireside.

Croquet was always one of their games on the front lawn. Many a friendly argument would develop but was soon forgotten when the dinner bell sounded.

In 1933 Oliver Young passed away at the age of nearly 79, and I returned from California to take over the old place. I continued to run it, in the same way that my father did, until 1963, when ill health compelled me to give up. I then rented it to a family of about twenty people, including in-laws. They care for themselves, cottage style, and they love the place.

I hesitate to part with it, having lived here most of my life. Years ago, as I was driving through Bloomingdale, I asked a man what town it was. He stood up to his full height and proudly said, "Bloomingdale, the Paradise of America." Such we think of Merrill.

Merrill House was the center of activity for all the cottagers around the lake. They came here with their problems, joys and sorrows. We always were happy to lend a helping hand or share with them their joys and sorrows.

Children came back, grown up, married, and with children of their own. Though they may have been absent for many years, they returned—couldn’t wait to get here, so they said—and were at once "at home", where their parents had come so many years ago.

The Merrill House in 1964.

I tried not to change the interior. When people returned after being absent for some time, they would exclaim, "Same old place. Not changed a bit." And I was glad, for in these days of many changes, it pleased them to find one place still the same.

York State Tradition
Fall 1964, 24-8.

* a musician joke.

The Old Guide's Story, Chapter 20

Pioneers Turn Home Into ‘Pill Factory,' --Remedies Help To Meet Expenses

In the nineteenth chapter Mr. Merrill told of the rescue of Darius by a searching party headed by his father, who found him unconscious and with toes frozen, lying beside a log near Little Trout River, after he had wandered three days in the woods.

CHAPTER 20.

Luckily for Darius, he came from the good old stock of hard working, robust and strong constituted frontiersmen, and inherited from both sides their virility and good health, otherwise he might have suffered more severely from his enforced exposure in the forest. As it was he recovered rapidly and declared he was able to return to Malone school the last week in January, knowing he would need the three remaining months before spring to enable him to pass the examination for a first grade certificate for teaching.

Accordingly about January 25th, grandfather hitched up the team to the pung, and drove Darius back to Malone. And there we will leave him for the present and follow grandfather and Wes through their struggles to keep the wolf from the door and also to retain their usual number of animals on the farm.

This winter was long to be remembered throughout the little settlement as a period of "hard times." In fact it was almost a famine brought about in part by the reckless building of the summer before and by a spirit of jealousy which had led the farmers each to see if he could not exceed his neighbor furnishing his new house, or buying some fancy breed of animals. Some, if not all, ran in-to debt because their credit was good. A poor hay crop also increased their difficulties and all these causes combined to give them a tight pinch to survive the long, hard winter.

Darius had been intentionally kept ignorant of the general situation, as grandfather was glad to make sacrifices in order to keep him in school. And so he and Wes had to resort to heretofore unheard of schemes to keep the larder replenished. One or two of these little schemes grandfather had learned while in New Hampshire.

On account of so much heavily-timbered land--all forest everywhere--there was no market for wood. So when the settlers were clearing their land, the logs were skidded into great heaps and burned. The ashes were then gathered and through some formula, which I have been unable to find out, they made many little pack-ages of something they called "salts" which found a ready market in a drug store in Chateaugay four corners.

Grandfather and Wes made several bushels of the salts that winter, squeezing the finished product into little cakes about two inches square. They were placed near the stove all around the floor to dry. Drying would harden them sufficiently to handle without breaking. For these cakes they would get a penny each.

And now grandfather brought into practical use one of the things he had learned while in the medical school in Manchester--that of making cathartic purgative pills. His recipe for making them was: Four parts pulverized aloes, two parts pulverized rhubarb, one part pulverized cayenne pepper, well mixed and wet with spirits of wine.

He and Wesley made many little boxes of these pills. A dozen pills wrapped up in paper constituted a box for which the druggist in Chateaugay would pay him five cents.

Another recipe which they used to good advantage that winter was or cough pills: One part maple sugar, one part fir balsam, one part ginger, one part salt, mix thoroughly, then roll and press firmly into pill size of green pea. Dose one to three, every six hours until relieved.

While grandfather was making these pills Wesley would be gathering balsam from the gum blisters which project from the bark of balsam trees. To gather this liquid gum they used a tin can which was fastened to the end of a ten-foot pole, the can had been shaped like a huge spoon with the pointed end ground sharp. This sharp end was thrust under the lower end of the gum blister, which allowed the gum to run into the cup. The cup, which held about one-half gill, would be poured, when filled, into a large bottle which he carried for this purpose. It took Wes about e week or ten days to gather a bottle full of gum. This balsam was very valuable, the druggist paid them one dollar an ounce for it.

Along about New Year's they had butchered a pig. The entrails grandfather had taken down near the river bank for fox bait, around which he had set six traps.

Twice a week he would go down near enough to see the traps, which were carefully covered with light snow. The foxes were eating the bait but were very careful to step over each trap as they came to it.

At last, however, when the bail was nearly all devoured, two or three foxes came one night and started fighting over the remaining morsels, and consequently one of them got caught in the traps.

During January and February 1 grandfather managed to fool three more foxes into his traps. These skins he sold for seventy-five cents each. (Quite a difference from the after-the-war prices of 1923 and 1924, when they were worth from eighteen to twenty-five dollars each).

In the meantime grandmother and Abbie were not idle. Both were knitting industriously stockings and mittens from the wool sheared from Wesley's Southdowns.

Grandfather's little apple tree nursery also added its contribution to the general fund and every Monday morning would find grand-father packing his big box with the various articles of home manufacture, and hitching old Dan to the pung, he would start peddling through the farming district east and north as far as Chateaugay, and sometimes clear to Champlain.

Returning by way of Chateaugay he would purchase the few necessities which grandmother had written on the memorandum. This trip would usually take two or three days, and great was the rejoicing when grandfather returned home with the needed supplies.

And so the winter passed and with April came the delightful, though hard work of making maple sugar.

Darius had completely regained his usual good health and was now eager to return to the farm for the spring work, but his school would not end till June 1st and then the spring work would be half done. However, he managed to get home two or three week-ends to help in the sugaring, as that was a pleasure he could not deny himself and also a help that Wes appreciated.

Another thing Darius could not resist was the smell of spring in the woods. The fresh warm south winds coming down the lake, still covered with ice, wafted an odor to his nostrils that no sportsman could resist. And best of all was the fishing trip with his father up to the mouth of the Thurber brook where they only had to, cut some holes through the ice and drop in their hooks, well baited with fresh worms, to pull out the speckled pounders and then, last but not least, eating them from grandmother's. What a feast that always was! Even Wes, enjoyed that part of it.

Darius had made many friends that winter. Members of the singing school class and the church choir received him in, their homes as one of their own family. He told Bill Wheeler of his hunt up the Little Trout River, but made light of it, as he felt somewhat ashamed to think that he got lost. Bill, however, thought it was a great feast, and wished he could have been with him.

Finally when the school came around and Darius was gathering up his books and extra clothes, Bill appeared at his room and they had a parting visit, Darius repeating his invitation to Bill to come to his home and Bill repeating his acceptance. And so the two friends parted.

Next morning bright and early, carrying his satchel over his shoulder by a stick thrust through the handle, Darius started on the long walk home. When about half way he met his father coming after him, with the light wagon and team. He had the big box filled with young seedling apple trees well packed in moist earth to keep them from wilting.

"Mighty! Mighty! Dide, why didn't ye wait awhile till I delivered these trees? Now set right dawn here on that rock while I go on to Farmer Foote with these trees. It's only about a mile further and won't take me more'n an' hour.”

Darius, being pretty tired carrying his heavy satchel, readily consented, and sitting down, watched the blue birds building a nest in. a nearby stump. Already in imagination he could see the woods down in the pasture where they drove the sheep to be sheared, and the river, the big hole under the rock, where he had surprised Wes by capturing the big trout, the lake, the mill. He could feel that unseen magnet tugging and drawing him ever toward the mountains, the fascinating wildness of the hills and valleys.

Thrilled by his own imagination he again inwardly renewed his resolve to some time own a goodly share of the beautiful forest surrounding the Upper Chateaugay Lake.

Copyright 1930.
By Charles E. Merrill.

In the next chapter Mr. Merrill tells how the settlers built stone "fences," describes the spring work on the farm and tells of Darius' return to the sawmill where he continued his studies in spare time.

The Old Guide's Story, Chapter 19

Searchers Discover Darius Unconscious and Freezing--Exposure Causes Illness

In the eighteenth chapter Mr. Merrill told how Darius, lost in the woods, followed Little Trout River for several miles in the hope of reaching civilization, how he killed a deer on the way, how he heard a distant call which he answered with a musket shot, and how at last, completely exhausted by his three days' tramping, he fell unconscious to the ground beside a log.

CHAPTER 19

Grandmother had sat up all night Saturday. When, early Sunday morning Darius had not returned, grandfather and some of the neighbors set out in search. The party included Uncle Bill Weed, Uncle Enoch Merrill, Erastus Meade and many other neighbors, some on horseback and some on snow shoes, started for Little Trout River in search of Darius, who they feared was lost in the woods.

The heavy snow storm which started the day before and continued all night, had completely covered all tracks so that there were no clue as to what direction the boy had taken, and the forest being so wide, the chances looped slim for finding him.

Setting out in couples, they zigzagged along both sides of the Little Trout River, taking a southerly course. When night came, the parties returning from the search had found no trace of the missing boy. Grandfather sent word by Uncle Bill Weed to grandmother that he would not be home that night, that he would stay with Mr. Drown, a farmer who lived near the river. He figured he would be on the ground earlier in the morning by saving that five mile trip.

The next morning the search party arrived early with many additional neighbors to assist. In fact the whole settlement turned out. There was a regular organized hunt. The men spread out about 100 feet apart with instructions to keep within shouting distance of each other. They determined to search the Little Trout River Valley to its source.

Progress was very slow, owing to nearly two feet of snow. By noon they had made only about six miles when they gathered on the bank of the brook to eat their lunch and discuss the possibilities of finding the boy alive.

"Don't see any better plan than to keep right on, do you, neighbor Weed?" said grandfather.

"Think you're right, Paul," Mr. Weed answered. "Eventually Darius will strike some little spring or valley leading to the Little Trout River which he will have sense to follow and if he doesn't tire out, freeze or starve to death, I reckon we'll find him before night."

Thus encouraged the party wasted no time in setting out again. Assuming their previous positions for the search, the men continued shouting to each other in hope that the boy might be within hearing.

Forging steadily ahead, without thinking where they would spend the night, by sundown they had made about ten miles in all. Already darkness was creeping along the valley. Grandfather called a halt for consultation. They decided to give a rousing halloo before making camp, in the hope that if the boy was within earshot he would signal to them in some way.

As the echoes of the shout died away, a rifle shot was heard. Now they felt so good they all shouted again.

"That’s Dide!" said grandfather. "Hurrah, boys! He’s not a quarter of a mile from here, living and safe!"

Pell mell, they started, trying to see who could get there first. Shouting as they ran and getting no response, they felt concerned and wondered if it might be a hunter, whose shot they had heard. But still hoping it was Darius they plunged on.

Grandfather, in the lead, stopped suddenly at sight of a familiar-looking pack basket. Lying, stretched beside the basket was Darius, face downward.

"Dide! Dide!" grandfather shouted. "Here he is, boys!"

Pulling the basket from his shoulders, he turned the boy over, quickly slipping his hand under his coat. He felt his heart beating faintly. At this moment the party had arrived. Two of them set about gathering wood for a fire, while others pulled off the boy's wet and frozen clothing and rubbed him vigorously.

Setting some stakes over the fire they hung his clothes on them to dry, while four of them sitting down, took him across their knees to do the rubbing.

Discovering that all of his toes were frozen they rubbed them with snow to take out the frost. Luckily, he had been there but a few minutes before their arrival, and so, within an hour, he was telling them his story. While two of the men were making a litter of two strong poles about 10 feet long with three crosspiece tied with rawhide to connect them, and little poles strung lengthwise about four feet apart, others started up the stream to dress the buck.

Bringing the deer down they joined the party and within another hour they were on their way back to the highway with Darius on the litter and several men dragging the buck.

It was 1 o'clock when grandmother, weak and worn-out from her worry, saw the searching party coming up the road. They were coming slowly. That made her think they were carrying Darius. But what if he were not alive? The terrible thought came to her mind. Calmly she waited in the doorway.

Grandfather seeing her standing in the door shouted:

"All's right, Hannah, we've got him, safe and sound. All's well for a Merry Christmas!"

Darius insisted on dividing up the venison with the neighbors. The next morning he showed a fever and was unable to get out of bed. He developed lung fever (now called pneumonia) and for three weeks he had a fight for life. But grandmother, being a competent nurse and loving mother, he was restored to his usual good health and within a month was back in school again, telling his school-mates his experiences which he never hoped to have to repeat.

In the next chapter Mr. Merrill tells about the hard winter when the settlers had to exercise their ingenuity to earn even a few cents to buy the necessities of life. He tells how his grandfather made medicinal pills, trapped foxes, fished through the ice and peddled nursery stock through the settlements to support his family.

Copyright 1930.
By Charles E. Merrill.

The "Original" Old Guide's Story, by Charles E. Merrill

Mr. and Mrs. Harry Matteson of Malone have kindly made available their collection of newspaper clippings consisting of the text, in serial form as it was originally published by the Malone Evening Telegram in the early 1930s. However, of the 102 original chapters (edited down to 43 in the version published by Fay Welch), there are some missing chapters, including the first 18, as well as a few later on.

Because I'm under some time restraints and eventually need to return their property, I'm going to begin with chapter 19 and work my way through. As time and money permit, I'll have to somehow obtain the missing material and transcribe it, although due to the as yet undetermined quality of the medium I'll be working from (probably microfilm or microfiche), this process will most likely be problematic as well as time-consuming.

This page will serve as the "contents" with links to the individual chapters.

Here is seen Guide Merrill fishing at Owlyout Rapids near the spot where his father, Darius, died. his father ruptured a blood vessel while lifting a horse from the mire, and died before help could be brought.

"In the first chapter of his reminiscences, Mr. Merrill told how, in 1820, his grandfather, with other families, migrated from New Hampshire into New York State and settled near Chateaugay Lake. A picturesque picture he drew of the journey, "Grandfather Paul leading with old Bright and buck yoked to the heavy wagon, Hannah perched in the back end, with baby Cyrus almost lost to view among the household goods." It was in the new home that Darius, father of the author, was born."

Malone Evening Telegram, 26 August, 1930

Chapter 19--Searchers Discover Darius Unconscious and Freezing--Exposure Causes Illness
Chapter 20--Pioneers Turn Home Into 'Pill Factory,'--Remedies Help To Meet Expenses
Chapter 21--Old Guide Tells How Fields Were Cleared and Stone 'Fences' Were Built
Chapter 22--Young Giants Delight in Showing Their Strength at Barn Raising and Bee
Chapter 23--Darius Starts Teaching School, But Rowdy Gang Causes Him Some Worry