The Frank Pond Music Company

In honor of Memorial Day and the fallen soldiers of America, we present this 1941 sheet music by the Frank Pond Music Co. of Mountain View (from the collection of the Franklin County Historical and Museum Society):

 (click to enlarge)

An unidentified newspaper clipping (circa 1965):

 



Malone Popcorn Vendor

From undated (ca. 1970s) Malone Evening Telegram:

Ca. 1930s Photo of Frankie Browning, by Floyd Lord 

Courtesy of George Pond

In the 1930s, Frankie Browning operated a mobile popcorn machine outside the Grand Theatre in Malone, from which he also sold peanuts and raisins.  Harold F. Brown wrote in his Do You Remember When? Editor's Column,  "A kerosene burner supplied the heat for making popcorn and Frankie had to turn the roller popper by hand.  The picture shows the kerosene can and snouted pourer underneath the stand.  The pail hanging on the back caught the parts that did not pop.  The fragrance of popcorn filled that section of Main Street each evening, tempting theater goers."   Peanuts cost a dime, a box of raisins a nickel, a bag of popcorn cost a nickel and big box could be had for a dime.  According to Brown, Frankie Browning was "badly crippled" and laboriously wheeled his popcorn cart across Main Street from its storage area behind Pond's store each night. 

The Settler

    The Settler
    By Alfred B. Street

His echoing axe the settler swung
Amid the sea-like solitude.
And rushing, thundering, down were flung
The Titans of the wood;
Loud shrieked the eagle as he dashed
From out his mossy nest, which crashed
With its supporting bough,
And the first sunlight, leaping, flashed
On the wolf's haunt below.

Rude was the garb, and strong the frame
Of him who plied his ceaseless toil:
To form that garb, the wild-wood game
Contributed their spoil;
The soul that warmed that frame, disdained
The tinsel, gaud, aud glare, that reigned
Where men their crowds collect;
The simple fur, untrimmed, unstained.
This forest tamer decked.

The paths which wound 'mid gorgeous trees,
The streams whose bright lips kissed their flowers.
The winds that swelled their harmonies
Through those sun-hiding bowers,
The temple vast—the green arcade,
The nestling vale, tho grassy glade.
Dark cave and swampy lair;
These scenes and sounds majestic, made
His world, his pleasures, there.

His roof adorned, a pleasant spot,
'Mid the black logs green glowed the grain,
And herbs and plants the woods knew not,
Throve in the sun and rain.

The smoke-wreath curling o'er the dell,
The low—the bleat—the tinkling bell,
All made a landscape strange.
Which was the living chronicle
Of deeds that wrought the change.

The violet sprung at Spring's first tinge,
The rose of Summer spread its glow,
The maize hung on its Autumn fringe,
Rude Winter brought his snow; 
And still the settler labored there,
His shout and whistle woke the air,
As cheerily he plied
His garden spade, or drove his shore
Along the hillock's side.

This poem, and others extolling the delights of the New York wilderness were reprinted in Forest Leaves, a quarterly magazine published by the TB Sanatorium at Gabriels, 1903-1934.  The poet Alfred B. Street, the onetime NY State Librarian, often wrote about life in the wilderness with poetic descriptions of nature.  Street's "The Forsaken Road" evokes the balance of wilderness and settlement that is part of the Adirondacks in its first few lines:

In the deep bosom of the wilderness,
Arbor'd with green, now hidden by the leaves
Dropp'd at the breath of Autumn, seaming here
The hollow wet with oozing springs, and there
Traced lightly on the firm and level glade
Winds, in two wheel-marks, a forsaken road.

Evert A. & George L. Duyckinck, The Cyclopedia of American Literature p.435

(Philadelphia: William Rutter & Co., 1880)(Vol. 2)

Alfred Billings Street

1811-1881



R.C.A.F. Plane Crash

In 1942, several Royal Canadian Air Force airplanes crashed near Ragged Mountain.

click to enlarge

June 19, 1942 Chateaugay Record

Curiously, there was no further reporting in the local press on this tragedy.  Wartime censorship may perhaps account for this resounding media silence. 

.

Marital Separation, 1851-style

From  Franklin Gazette:

Malone Schools in 1891

We stumbled upon this list of Malone village schools (while researching something else, naturally) in the July 3, 1891 Franklin Gazette.   It is from a report on the schools' enrollment and attendance, but it is also useful as a run-down of the school buildings throughout the village near the end of the era of neighborhood schools.  Do you recognize your ancestors in the lists of students?

Santa Clara Lumber Company lumber camp

From the January 30, 1974 Tupper Lake Free Press and Tupper Lake Herald :

Santa Clara Lumber Company camp near Tupper Lake, ca. 1914

The newspaper caption reads:

AWAY BACK WHEN - The late Frank McCormick, Tupper photographer, snapped this picture about 60 years ago at one of the logging camps operated by the Santa Clara Lumber Co.  In the remote Cold River country.  His camera caught a glimpse of what was "home" for the winter for a lot of early Tupper residents, in an era when lumberjacks stayed in camp all winter.  Horse-power was still of the four-footed variety, and more than 30 were led out by their teamsters for this photo.  The teamster seated on his horse at left center cradles a puppy in his arms.  Perhaps some of the old timers among our readers can identify some of the lumbermen in this photo.

Frank McCormick operated his photographic studio on Park Street in Tupper Lake from 1904, when he moved it from its location on Cliff Ave, until his death in 1942.  His son James ran the studio from 1945-1955.   

And from the March 17, 1964 Malone Evening Telegram:

Santa Clara Lumber Camp on Ampersand Pond, circa 1905

The newspaper caption reads:

TURN OF THE CENTURY -- The three men sitting in front were prominent Malone businessmen who were being entertained at the Santa Clara Lumber Co. Camp of Ferris J. Meigns on Ampersand Pond along about 1905.  N. Munroe Marshall, sitting against the left post, Fred Amsden, with the pointed hat and clasping his knees and Jack Flanagan, wearing the knee socks, were in the party which also included several well-known Tupper Lake residents. 

Other Resources and Images:

-  Photo of:  Horse-drawn load of lumber (1915) in the collection of the NYS Archives
-  Photo of:  Interior of log bunk house (1920s) of the Santa Clara Lumber Co. in collection of NYS Archives
-  Photo of:  Santa Clara Lumber Co yards and office (1920s) in collection of NYS Archives
-  Photo of:  Lumber Camp on Mt. Seward in Town of Harrietstown in collection of NYS Archives

-  History of Town of Santa Clara from Seaver's (1918) Historical Sketches of Franklin County, NY