American Bicentennial Flag

From a piece in the Sept/Oct 1976 Empire State DAR News:

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Caption:  
PRESENTATION --  Adirondack Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, presented a Bicentennial flag to Troop 20 boy Scouts Fife and Drum Corps of Brushton.  Directed by Bruce Jackson, the boys portray the Spirit of '76.  Because of the historical significance of this troop and the part they are portraying, Adirondack Chapter made the award.

And from a July 7, 1976 Malone Evening Telegram article:

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These and other clippings were preserved in one of several scrapbooks compiled during 1960s-1990s by Adirondack Chapter DAR.

Jacob Smith and Family of Chateaugay

One of the first families of Chateaugay, NY is the Jacob Smith Family. 

Excerpted from a February 1978 article in the Chateaugay Record, written by John Andrew Bilow:

"A monument has recently been erected in the Willis Cemetery in Earlville honoring Jacob Smith, one of the first settlers in Chateaugay and a Revolutionary War Soldier.

Jacob Smith was born in East Haven Conn., July 7, 1742, the son of Thomas Smith and Eunice Russell.  Smith married Elizabeth Blanchard, December 27, 1772 and had eight children: Eunice, Ruth, Thomas, Stephen, Jacob, Eli, Amaziah, and Salmon.  Ruth was born in Shutesbury, Mass., Thomas at Sherburn, Vt., Stephen in Arlington, Vt., Jacob, Eli and Amaziah in Sunderland, and Salmon in South Hero, Vt.  This family was well traveled. 

Jacob enlisted in the Revolutionary War in  May of 1775 in the state of Vermont in the company commanded by Captain Gideon Brownson in the regiment Commanded by Colonel Warner.  He served in Seth Warner's Regt. for two years and saw service in the Battle of Hubbarton, the Batttle of Bennington in 77 and the Battle at the capture of Burgoyne.  In the spring of 1778 he was transferred to Col Samuel Herricks Regt. and served for eighteen months when he was discharged. 

According to a statement made by Jesse Down of Poultney, Vt. in 1828 Jacob was cited as a Lieutenant and was also at the taking of Fort Defiance and Crown Point.  He was granted a pension of 15.74 semi-annually for his services in the Revolution. 

Smith was a selectman in South Hero, Vt. and was also known as Major according to the census of 1790.  Upon moving to Chateaugay in 1797, he established the first tannery in Franklin County, in the Northeastern part of town.  This would be in the Earlville area.  For the next 100 years his decendants were men of affairs in the town.  Thomas was a Colonel in the War of 1812 and owned a Tavern.  Salmon was a town justice.  His grandsons, Eli B. and Henry B. were wealthy merchants, businessmen and politicians."

Jacob Smith served as Supervisor of the Town of Chateaugay from 1829 until his death in 1831 and his grandson Henry B. Smith was Supervisor 1841, 1845-1849, 1851, 1856-1858, and 1861-1862.  

Hon. Henry B. Smith, a lifelong Democrat, was born in Chateaugay in 1805 and died in Chateaugay in 1863.  He held numerous local and state offices in addition to Town Supervisor, including assesor, justice of the peace, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, collector of customs, and State Senator. (Hough, p. 469)

Henry's brother, Eli B. Smith donated four acres of "sightly grounds" as the site of the Chateaugay Academy and Union Free School, which opened September 15, 1879.  (Hurd, p. 465)

Capt. Salmon Smith (Jacob's son and the twin brother of Amaziah), also a soldier in the War of 1812, is highlighted in the Album of Genealogy and Biography, Cook County, Iillinois by Calumet Book & Engraving Company, Chicago (1896):

"He was a most pronounced infidel up to the age of thirty years, when he was converted to the Christian religion.... He was so well known and had been such a vigorous opponent of religious belief, that his change of sentiment produced much good in the community, although he had always been regarded as an honorable and worthy man.  He occupied some of the most responsible positions that the people could bestow.  He was an able lawyer, and served the public quite as ably and well when elevated to the Bench, as he had previously in a military capacity.  All his brothers did military service, and were pronounced workers in the Methodist Church.  He was born January 12, 1786, in South Hero, Grand Isle County, Vermont, and at twelve years of age removed with his father to Chateaugay, New York, where he resided the remainder of his life and passed away May 24, 1828."

List of 1915 Forest Rangers and Fire Observers

From May 7, 1915 Chateaugay Record and Franklin County Democrat:

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Munger Grist Mill

Recently donated to the Franklin County Historical and Museum Society by William Loring:

Handwritten on the back is: "Munger Grist Mill, Lower Park Street, Malone 1892"

From Seaver (1918), p. 450:

"A stone flouring mill, five stories in height, near the Gravell plant, which was begun by George F. Dickey in 1868 and finished in 1870, with the expectation that it would have an output comparable with that of the large mills at Oswego and Rochester.  It was too big a proposition for Mr. Dickey's means, however, and the property soon went into the hands of Henry A. Paddock.  About 1882 it was bought and run by A. Munger for a number of years.  For a time it did an ordinary country mill business, and after Mr. Munger's death was converted into an excelsior mill.  It burned in 1911."

The "Gravell plant" referenced was a slaughter house and pork packing plant north of the center of the Village of Malone.  (ibid)   Excelsior (wood wool) is a product made of stranded wood fibers - once used as protective packaging in wood crates and as filling material for bedding and furniture products, and now used as Easter basket grass, in cooling pads, animal bedding, erosion control and archery backstops.



Fun Facts

(Well, if you consider historical/demographic facts fun, that is.... and we do.) 

In any case:
o Chateaugay is the oldest town in Franklin County, NY (founded 1799)

o Tupper Lake is the youngest town in Franklin County (founded 1890 and renamed in 2004 – originally town of Altamont)

o Duane is the least populous town

o Malone is the most populous town

o The 2000 census recorded 51,134 people living within Franklin County.

o Harrietstown is the largest township (in square miles)

o Constable is the smallest township (in square miles)

Malone Streetscape

The view that most of us are familiar with of the intersection of Main and Elm Streets in Malone either precedes the building of the Hotel Flanagan (1914) or includes that dominating structure.  But almost every image of that section of the Village of Malone includes the Rutland Railroad depot. 

Except this one:

From the collection of the Franklin County Historical and Museum Society



This print, taken from an ambrotype by Christie Fay, is from the 1850s.  At left is the Hiram Horton homestead, which was torn down to make way for the Rutland Railroad Passenger depot and is now the site of Community Bank.  The small building next to the Horton house is the first bank building in Franklin County, of which Vice President William A. Wheeler was its first cashier. 

From Seaver's Historical Sketches of Franklin County:

(p.414) Describing Malone circa 1815:  "On Elm street there were the Hosford Hotel at what is now the railroad crossing, the Horton home on the site of the present passenger station, a store and six dwelling houses. " and "... and Oliver Booge, just opposite the Wead Library on Elm Street."  

(Pp.458-9) "... in 1851, when the Bank of Malone... was incorporated by Mr. Wead, John and Hiram Horton, Edwin L. Meigs, William King and William Andrus of Malone, Henry B. Smith of Chateaugay, Leonard Fish of Bangor, and a number of individuals residing in Vermont.  Mr. Wead was the first president, and William A. Wheeler the first cashier.  Business was begun September 15, 1851, and while a bank building was in course of erection was continued in the law offices of Asa Hascall on or near the site of the present Episcopal Church.  The bank building was a one-story stone structure located where the Wead Library now stands."

[Ed. note:  the Wead Library referred to in these passages is the first Wead Library building, established in 1881 and where the site of the current Village offices are (next to Community Bank), not the current library building on the corner of Elm and Park Streets.]

Chateaugay Historical Society

On October 1, 2011, Jack Bilow will visit the Chateaugay Historical Society Archive Room to give a talk and book signing of his newest publication: "A War of 1812 Death Register: Whispers in the Dark".

Jack has spent over seven years, many of these in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. researching the names of  the men who served, were taken prisoner, wounded and died in the War of 1812 in Vermont, New York and along the  Canadian Border. Focusing on the northern front of the war from Maine to Niagara he has included approximately 20,000 soldiers in this hardcover book of 552 pages including sixteen pages of illustrations, many unpublished until now. Over 1800 militia men from Vermont and 1400 from Essex, Franklin, and Clinton counties in New York who particiated in the Battle of Plattsburgh are listed.

The book is an excellent resource for those who are researching their North Country roots or are interested in military history. It would make a nice addition to any North Country collection.

Please join Jack Bilow and the Chateaugay Historical Society for an informative and entertaining morning at the Chateaugay Memorial Library from 9am to 12 am. Jack will give a talk at 11am and will have books available for signing from 9-12.