1853 Franklin County Board of Supervisors

From the 1853-1867 Minutes and Account Book of the Franklin County Board of Supervisors (forerunner of the Board of Legislators) in the collection of the Franklin County Historical and Museum Society (1984.118.1):


"At the annual meeting of the Board of Supervisors of Franklin County held at the court house in the town of Malone on the 11th day of November 1853
Supervisors Present -
 
Joseph Eldred         Bangor
William Weed         Bellmont
George Russell        Bombay
Jason Baker            Brandon
Elisha Marks           Burke
Thomas Bennet       Chateaugay
Joseph Hastings       Constable
Peter Whitney          Dickinson
James Duane            Duane
Chandler Ellsworth   Fort Covington
John N. Merrill         Franklin
Wiliam F. Martin      Harrietstown
Henry S. Brewster    Malone
Simon D. Stevens     Moira
Philemon Berry        Westville
 
On motion, James Duane was unanimously chosen chairman of the Board.
 
Adjourned, on motion, to the house of C.M. Gifford in Malone."

Map of Loon Lake Hotel property

The Franklin County Historical and Museum Society is hosting Joseph LeMay on September 3, 2010 at 6:30pm for a discussion of the history of Loon Lake, NY.   The event is free and open to the public.  If you have your own photos and memories of Loon Lake, and especially of the Loon Lake House hotel, please bring them to share.  We'll be meeting in the Schryer Center behind the museum at 51 Milwaukee St., Malone.  Call 518-483-2750 for more details.

This map of the Loon Lake Hotel and associated buildings in 1940 is in the collection of the Historical Society.  It is part of an extensive collection of maps and drawings of structures from the O'Neil and Hale Insurance Agents of Malone. 

1968.462.78

Click Image to Enlarge

Previous posts and other web resources on Loon Lake, NY:

http://franklinhistorian.blogspot.com/2009/11/loon-lake-hotel.html

http://www.townoffranklin.com/loonlake.html

http://loonlakehoa.org/history.html

http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/franklin/postcards/loonl2.jpg

http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/09-1963a.gif

http://docs.fdrlibrary.marist.edu/images/photodb/09-1964a.gif

Bill Smith the Adirondack Hermit

From the booklet Adirondack Pioneers by John H. Titus (Troy Times Art Press, Troy, NY:  1899.   pg. 39) in the collection of the Franklin County Historical & Museum Society:

"Bill" Smith

    William H. Smith, known as "Bill" Smith the "Adirondack Hermit," and whose portrait appears with this sketch was born in Irasburgh, Vt., in April, 1826.  At the age of sixteen years he went to Lowell, Mass., a distance of 250  miles, traveling on foot.  He began there at driving a truck wagon and remained there till 1850, when he came to Franklin, N.Y., and worked at lumbering for different parties.  He hauled logs off the land where Paul Smith's hotel now stands.  After that he engaged with Price & Dickinson of Bloomingdale, and laid the cellar wall for what is now known as the Titus store, and which was the first cellar wall laid in Bloomingdale.  At that time he owned a farm of 150 acres in the town of Franklin, about 1 1/2 miles from Bloomingdale.  In 1862 he kept the hotel known as Hunters' Home, and after that moved to his farm, where he has lived ever since, most of the time alone, which gave him the name of the "Adirondack Hermit."
    Mr. Smith's beard is about six feet long.  He is six feet four inches tall, and when his beard is properly combed he can stand erect and step on his beard.  His weight is 200 pounds.

Bill Smith was suffiently famous to warrant an article in the NY Times upon his death in 1895. 

Loon Lake Hotel

Loon Lake House was opened by Ferd and Mary Chase in 1879 and stood as a magnificent Adirondack hotel until it burned in 1956.  This photo, from the collection of the Franklin County Historical & Museum Society, features the hotel staff in 1896: 

Click image to enlarge

For more information on the history of Loon Lake, visit the wonderful Town of Franklin website.