HISTORY: Bellmont Township; Franklin co., NY

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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF FRANKLIN COUNTY AND ITS SEVERAL TOWNS

WITH MANY SHORT BIOGRAPHIES BY FREDERICK J. SEAVER
MALONE, NEW YORK

ALBANY: J. B. LYON COMPANY. PRINTERS 1918

CHAPTER VI BELLMONT

  The town of Bellmont was erected from Chateaugay March 25, 1833, and then
included all of the territory now comprising the town of Franklin. In 1838 its
boundaries were extended by annexation of a strip a mile wide extending across
the north end of the town, which was detached from Chateaugay. The town was
named for William Bell, of the city of New York, who had been an employee of
William Constable in the latter's shipping enterprises, and afterward was
himself a merchant. At about the close of the eighteenth century Mr. Bell had
acquired, with others, title to practically all of the lands in the northern
part of the town, Mr. Bell's portion comprising about eight thousand acres,
and twenty-odd years later he was accustomed to spend his summers on the
property. He must have been a man of considerable means for that day, because
by his will there were specific legacies of money amounting to nearly twenty
thousand dollars, while the residue of the estate, other than realty, was
bequeathed to a relative who supposedly would be richly remembered. Mr. Bell
died in 1841.

  The town was of slow development, and even yet is mostly wilderness, though
largely denuded. Generally the soil is neither rich nor deep, and its surface,
rocky and mountainous, does not lend itself to profitable agriculture. Even
the lumbering and other industrial enterprises that have been prosecuted did
not tend particularly to populate the town permanently, nor to enrich it.
Miles upon miles of its forest area were destroyed for conversion into
charcoal, and though, first and last, it has had many sawmills, most of them
were small, and much of the timber cut within its borders went to mills
elsewhere for manufacture. Neither have its many waters been utilized
extensively, as in other localities, for summer resort business, except that
Lower Chateaugay Lake has not been altogether neglected, and except also that
in the western part of the town in comparatively recent years Indian Lake and
Mountain View have had many camps built upon their shores. Mountain View
(formerly known as State Dam, a dam having been built upon the river there by
the State in 1855 or 1856) was once one of the most prolific trout waters in
the Adirondacks, and Indian Lake (Bound Pond) was a famous hunting resort. One
of the old guides used to tell that he once counted twenty-seven carcasses of
deer piled at a single point on its shores, stripped of their hides, and the
meat left to rot. Mountain View and Indian Lake are in close proximity, and
together have perhaps a hundred cottages. In addition, there are at the former
place an all-the-year-around population of forty to fifty, with a school
house, a Roman Catholic church, a Protestant church, two hotels, two stores,
and a number of boarding houses. An unofficial enumeration of the people in
cottages and camps, including permanent residents, on one day in July, 1915,
listed eight hundred and ten. Lower Chateaugay Lake, a fine sheet of water,
and easily reached from Chateaugay, formerly had two small hotels, and now has
one, the Banner House, formerly conducted by J. S. Kirby and now by F. H.
Adams, which attracts a considerable number of guests, and has a deserved
popularity. A few cottages have been built there recently. But Ragged Lake,
Ingraham Pond and other waters in the town have only one or two summer camps
each. Ragged Lake formerly had a small hotel, kept by J. W. Pond. The Banner
House was formerly the Bellows House, which originally was a mere shack.
Jonathan Bellows located in Constable more than a hundred years ago, and laid
out a trapper's line from there to Chateaugay Lake. In place of the shack
which he first occupied at the latter point he built a comfortable house,
which his son, Lewis, subsequently enlarged and conducted as a hotel for
a good many years. Guests from Montreal began to visit the place in
appreciable numbers in 1837 or 1838, and after the railroad from Rouses Point
to Ogdensburg was built the business increased notably. The locality was then
known colloquially as the "Shategee Woods," and, except for the Saranacs, was
about the only Adirondack point that outsiders sought in Franklin county. The
Bellows property was sold in 1891, renovated and enlarged, and has since been
known as the Banner House. A son of Lewis Bellows (Millard F.) still lives in
Bellmont, and a daughter is Mrs. N. Monroe Marshall of Malone.

  So far as I know, Bellmont is the only town in Franklin county for which the
Legislature made special provision to induce settlement. In 1822 an act was
passed which provided for granting one lot in township number ten, Old
Military Tract (now in Franklin), to each and every person who within five
years should clear and fence fifteen acres of such lot, erect thereon a
habitable dwelling, and be there settled with his family; and also three lots
to each and every person who within four years should erect and put in
operation one good and sufficient grist mill within said township, and one lot
to each and every person who should erect and put in operation one good and
sufficient sawmill.

  Among the early settlers in the eastern part of the town were Samuel C.
Drew, Enoch and Paul Merrill, John Sanborn, John B. and Joseph H. Jackson,
Jacob and John Otis, Jonathan Bellows, John D. Miles, Joseph, Jonathan and
Noah Estabrooks and Eoswell A. Weed   all locating at or near the site of the
present hamlet of Chateaugay Lake. Mr. Drew was probably the first of these,
in 1816, though Mr. Sanborn claimed to have preceded him, and sought to have
the town called Sanborntown on this account. Some of Mr. Drew's descendants
are now located in New York city, where they have made a business of moving
large buildings, and have accumulated handsome fortunes. Mr. Drew came from
New Hampshire, as also did several others of those named, including the
Merrills. W. H. J. Drew, who became the close friend of Mr. Bell, was the
first white male child born in the town. He was at one time school
commissioner, and his grave is on the old homestead on the west side of
Chateaugay Lake. The Merrills, or their descendants, conducted a small hotel
at the foot of Lower Chateaugay Lake, and were famous fishermen with nets, and
but for their operations and the use of dynamite afterward by miners at Lyon
Mountain the waters thereabout would undoubtedly contain a more abundant
supply of trout and whitefish. Of these latter, which are one of the finest of
pan-fish, Mr. Merrill used to bring wagon loads to Malone something over forty
years ago, and mixed with them a considerable proportion of lake trout. Mr.
Merrill himself was honestly persuaded that net fishing really bettered the
supply of trout, as it removed from the lake the large fish which prey upon
the small fry and eat the spawn.

  Gates Hoit, of Chateaugay, representing nonresident landowners, built the
first sawmill in the town in 1822 or earlier, and it was soon afterward sold
to John B. Jackson (afterward wood agent for the 0. & L. C. R. R. for many
years), who, a little later, himself built a grist mill nearby, the stones for
which were cut from native boulders by John D. Miles. Mr. Miles was one of the
most estimable citizens that Bellmont ever had. He acquired an interest in the
Jackson mills. A grandson still resides in the town. Mr. Weed took over the
Jackson and Miles mills and acquired other properties in considerable amounts,
opening a hotel and enlarging the mills. A considerable part of the product of
the sawmill was hauled forty miles to Champlain for Meigs & Wead of Malone.
Mr. Weed was prominent in all of the town's affairs until 1854, when he sold
the mills to a Mr. Hughes of Vergennes, Vt., and removed to Plattsburgh. He
was the father of Hon. Smith M. Weed, of Plattsburgh, who joined with others
almost half a century afterward to establish at the place of his birth the
greatest industry that the town ever possessed, if not the largest ever
operated in the county. Another son was William B. Weed, who was a cavalry
captain under Kilpatrick in the civil war, and then went to Australia, where
he is supposed to have been murdered. Mr. Hughes did an extensive business for
a time, but failed, when, the mill was acquired by Erastus Meade and George W.
Palmer, of Plattsburgh. Mr. Palmer withdrawing after a year or two, Samuel F.
Vilas took over his interest, and in 1869 or 1870 Gilbert L. Havens leased the
mill and ran it for a year or two. Joseph Clark built and operated a sawmill
in the same vicinity in 1848.

  Even earlier than 1810 William Bailey, then residing at Chateaugay, dug iron
ore near Chateaugay Lake until the deposit was exhausted, and manufactured it
at High Falls on the Chateaugay river. In 1826 Jonathan Stearns, of Malone,
leased and worked mineral lands in the same vicinity until the supply failed,
and about 1875 Lewis H. Bellows and Edgar Keeler, of Chateaugay, located and
worked an iron mine near the Bellows House, drawing the ore to Irona. This
mine was subsequently worked by other parties also, and two separators were
built in the vicinity for handling the ore.

  The first store at Chateaugay Lake was built by John B. Jackson and Dr.
Hiram Paddock, of Chateaugay, the business of which was managed by Elias
Beman, of Chateaugay, who operated an ashery also. Other early merchants here
were Charles Backus and Nahum Whipple, the latter of Malone. In 1869 Meade &
Vilas erected a large store building, and conducted a mercantile business in
connection with their lumbering operations.

  Settlement at Brainardsville, a mile down the river, was later, and in a
paper read by Mr. 0. F. Chase before the Historical Society a few years ago it
was stated that even as late as 1843 bear, lynx, wolves and panthers were
abundant in the neighborhood. The first sawmill here was built by a man named
Chamberlain, and was sold to Abel H. Miller, then of Malone; then to Fisk œ
Van Allen of Albany, for whom James Coates looked after the operating; then,
in 1854, to Lawrence Brainard of St. Albans, Vt., who enlarged it, and also
built a grist mill and a number of houses. Gilbert L. Havens was his resident
manager, and in 1861 bought the properties and operated them extensively until
he failed a dozen years later, when he removed to Colorado. He was a hustling,
affable gentleman, and loomed large in the politics of the town. Upon his
failure Mr. Brainard came again into possession, and resumed operations. In
1882, the mills having been destroyed, the sites and water powers were sold to
John Hoy, who built and operated a grist mill, afterward adding to it a
sawmill. The latter is still operated by the Hoy family, but on a smaller
scale than of old. In 1850 Alanson Roberts of Chateaugay built an ashery, and
employed a man named Cromp to run it. The place thus came to be called
Crompville, but five years later, when the first post-office was established
and called Brainardsville, the hamlet assumed that name also. Smith Payne was
the first postmaster. At about this time Edwin Smith built and ran a starch
factory here, which was afterward run by William S. Douglas of Chateaugay, and
then by others until within a few years. There was also a sawmill on the
brook, built by George Miller.

  Brainardsville's first school was located to the east of the present hamlet,
on the farm of John Kenison, now owned by Robert Arnold, a half mile from the
Clinton county line. Miss Eliza Merrill, daughter of Paul, was its first
teacher, and Miss Olive Miles (afterward Mrs. Wm. P. Cantwell of Malone) the
second. But the population began to center farther west, and this school was
abandoned. A new school house was built at Brainardsville in 1854. S. F.
Storrs, who was reputed to have taught school for sixty terms, was one of the
first teachers there.

  Early merchants were Lawrence Brainard, Matt. J. Reynolds, G. L. Havens,
Oliver Young and 0. F. Chase & Co. J. S. Kirby succeeded Mr. Reynolds, and was
himself succeeded by Bennett & English. Jacob Taubenheimer and F. M. Hoy were
also once in trade at this point.

  Brainardsville consists at present of a small group of dwelling houses, a
store or two, a sawmill, a creamery, a wheelwright shop, owned by W. W.
Lamberton, that does considerable business, and a Methodist church. It has a
gravity system of water works, established by private enterprise in 1904,
which has as takers nearly all of the inhabitants.

  Other early settlers, mostly in the north central part of the town, were:
John and Alva Orcutt, John Richey, James Barry, George Winkley, Smith Bunker,
Marcus, Elijah and Charles E. Heading, Earl Howe, James Smith, Joseph, John
and William Williamson. The last named was accidentally shot and killed by a
child in a hotel in Malone in 1825. Mr. Howe died in 1884, and he used to tell
that at the time he located, about 1830, there were only four or five
residences, hardly more than huts, between Malone and Chateaugay Lake, and
that it was a twenty hours' trip to Malone and return. Alva Orcutt and sons,
William C. and Harry P., operated a starch factory (which had been built by
Meigs & Wead of Malone) and a sawmill near their farm, five miles from Malone
village, and Mr. Barry, who remained in the town only a short time, removed to
Malone, and located on the South Bangor road. He was the father of Mrs. F. D.
Kilburn and Mrs. Thomas Cantwell of Malone. Mr. Winkley became probably the
most important farmer in Bellmont, and was a pioneer breeder in this county of
fine-blooded cattle and Norman horses. The Headings were extensive farmers,
sturdy men, and leaders in town affairs. Sherman J. Heading, son of Elijah,
still lives in Bellmont, and is one of its foremost citizens. Bunker Hill,
which one who has climbed it does not readily forget, was named after Smith
Bunker, whose farm was located on it. Descendants of Mr. Thurber, Mr. Smith
and the Williamsons are yet living in the town, and are factors in its
affairs. A mile or so above the Orcutt mills on Trout river Charles Ring and
John Monk built a sawmill, which they sold in 1854 to Samuel Voorhis from
Elmira, and which was run later by Shepard & Jackson of Malone, O. W. Moody
and David P. Field, Wallace H. Jones and Henry Bassett, John.Phipps, and
finally by Buel L. Foote; and a mile still farther up the stream Daniel Buell
had a mill   afterward owned by Elisha Hare, then by Miles N. Dawson and
Orville Moore of Malone, and still later by Scott G. Boyce, who moved it a
mile or two west and south, where it still stands. The Wayne Lumber Co. of New
York city bought it a few months ago, and is now operating it, getting out
lumber for use in building aeroplanes. Gilman Goodwin, who had made a fortune
in New York city as a mover of buildings, came into the town in the sixties,
and built and for several years operated a comparatively small mill on Little
Trout river, about a mile east of the town house, where at a considerably
earlier day Samuel, and then Benoni, Webb had had a mill. Mr. Goodwin rebuilt
at a cost said to have amounted to sixty thousand dollars, but the enterprise
did not pay, and he returned to New York city. The machinery in the mill sold
for five thousand dollars in 1883, and was removed to Gouverneur. John B. Hart
built a mill at about the same time with Goodwin for John B. Roscoe of New
York, for whom he operated it for several years. Later the property went into
the hands of Judge Henry A. Paddock of Malone and Mr. Hart, but it never paid.
An older mill, known as the Lewis Tucker mill, had been run at about the point
where Mr. Hart located. The Goodwin and Hart establishments were both steam
mills, and each proprietor ran a store in connection with his lumbering
operations. Charles D. Rood also had a mill forty years ago or more on Little
Trout river, near the Burke line, which was unprofitable. John Hoy of
Brainardsville built a sawmill north of the town house, and was fatally
injured by the bursting of a flywheel while operating it in 1887.

  The frequency with which failure was written across early lumbering
enterprises is striking and pitiful. The operators had an abundance of the
best timber of this region almost at the doors of their mills, they were
unsparing of themselves in respect to hours and arduousness of labor, and the
wages that they had to pay were low. Nevertheless it was only the exceptions
who made money. Lumber commanded but a low price, the hauls to shipping points
were long and over poor roads, and in many cases the equipments of mills gave
only a small product. Thus the forests were wasted, and disappointment and
hardship were the principal return that the owners realized.

  The following have been merchants in a small way at Bellmont Center or
vicinity: John Ryan, Edward Graves, Harvey Harrington, Earl Howe, Ben. Webb,
Frank W. Winkley, Abe Reynolds, Thomas Rounds, Edward White and Thomas
Reynolds.

  Except for possibly two or three farmers, the first settlers in the extreme
western part of the town were Charles Ring and John Monk, who came from
Tompkins county about 1852 to engage in lumbering. They erected two mills on
the Ingraham stream, and operated them for a number of years. A dozen years
later both were wrecks. For twenty or thirty years Ringville (now known as
Owls Head) had little growth, but has since become a busy and thriving hamlet,
with a railway station, shops, stores and a Methodist Episcopal church. Until
within a year or two Scott G. Boyce had a large sawmill and planing mill here
for several years. The latter was burned, and the former dismantled and
removed. Mr. Boyce formerly had a sawmill east of Owls Head also, in the
vicinity of Ingraham Pond, which mill was built by Cornelius and Cass Wilson.
Forty years ago, in order to vote, the residents of the section had to drive
by way of Malone to Bellmont Center, nearly eighteen miles; and it was almost
impossible even in a stirring campaign to induce more than a dozen or fifteen
to undertake the trip when free transportation was furnished and payment made
for their so-called "day's work." This part of the town has since been made
into a separate election district, and polls from a hundred to a hundred and
forty votes.

  Standish lies on the Clinton county border, and mostly in Clinton county.
There are a furnace and coal kilns there, some parts of which are in Bellmont.
To the west of Standish are the Middle Kilns, and still farther west, near
Wolf Pond (about seven miles south of Mountain View), are other kilns.
Twenty-odd years ago there were at these three points a fluctuating scattered
population of perhaps two or three hundred, but, with the decrease of
industrial activity there, it has diminished considerably.

  A sawmill was built a number of years ago a mile and a half south of
Mountain View by Edwin R. Bryant, of Syracuse. Its principal product seems to
have been lawsuits and judgments. The mill was burned, and rebuilt by Felix
Cardinal. It was continued in operation under different ownerships until 1915,
when it was ismantled and removed farther south.

  The largest sawmills ever operated in Bellmont were those of Gilman Goodwin,
John P. Hart, Gilbert L. Havens and Scott G. Boyce, none of which is now
running r in existence.

  Pope, Williams & Company began operations at the hamlet of Chateaugay Lake
in 874, to erect the largest and best Catalan forge in the world. Its supply
of re was to be obtained from the Lyon Mountain mine in Clinton county, about
eleven miles distant, and its charcoal from the adjacent forests. Gardiner
Pope was the resident manager for the first few years, and was succeeded by
John H. Moffitt, now of Plattsburgh, who while in Congress gave place to
Lansing Donaldson, now of Malone. Senator N. Monroe Marshall was also
connected with the enterprise, in the store, until he was elected county
clerk. In 1877 the works and property were transferred to the Chateaugay Ore
and Iron Company, in which LeGrand B. Cannon, of New York, and Hon. Andrew
Williams and Hon. Smith M. Weed, of Plattsburgh, were heavily interested. The
Bellmont department of the company had a sawmill at the forge, the old Roswell
Weed property rebuilt, in which the lumber for its forge buildings, shops,
houses for its operatives, etc., and for planking six miles of highway to the
railroad at Chateaugay, was sawed. The company maintained a steamboat on the
lake for towing its barges laden with ore, charcoal and wood to the forge and
kilns; its store did a business of a hundred thousand dollars or more per
year; it built scores of dwellings for its employees; thirty thousand solid
cords of four-foot wood were burned annually in the kilns at the forge and at
Standish; a million bushels of charcoal were used in a year; and it had on its
payrolls continuously two or three hundred men in this county, besides the
choppers and teamsters who worked under contract. In times of greatest
activity it turned out annually five thousand tons of blooms and billets, than
which there was none of higher grade in the world. Except in periods of
business depression, and until other methods were discovered and utilized by
which iron suitable for conversion into steel could be produced at a lower
cost, the orders for its output outran the capacity of the forge. At one
time this iron commanded ninety dollars per ton, while now I think that not a
pound is produced anywhere by the Catalan process, and the iron that answers
as a substitute for it has sold as low as about thirteen dollars a ton. The
cost of production varied of course as wages were high or low and as
improvements were instituted from time to time, but could never be brought
under thirty-eight dollars per ton. The cost of operating was over a hundred
thousand dollars a year. Two tons of ore made one ton of iron, and the former
cost six dollars a ton. The business was abandoned in 1893.

  At first thought it seems strange that this vast industry apparently added
little to Bellmont's population, but it is to be remembered that as it
developed the mills of Goodwin, Hart and Havens were about closing, and thus
what was gained in one direction was in part offset by losses in others.

  The Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railway enters Bellmont from Malone at Chasm
Falls, near the northwest corner of the town, and, bearing southeasterly for
about twelve miles, passes into Franklin near Plumadore Pond. The Chateaugay
Railway enters at Standish, on the eastern border, and runs southwestwardly
seven or eight miles to Wolf Pond, where the two lines are almost in contact.
The former has stations in Bellmont at Owls Head and Mountain View, and the
latter at Middle Kilns and Wolf Pond. The Chateaugay Railway was built through
Bellmont in 1886, and the Adirondack and St. Lawrence in 1892.

  Two murders have been committed in Bellmont. In November, 1852, Ira Sherwin,
of Malone, shot and killed Justin Bell, a well-to-do farmer of Brasher, in the
latter's hunting or trapping camp near Owls Head. Sherwin himself reported the
death of Bell, admitting that he shot him, but claiming that it was an
accident. He was known to have been under the influence of liquor the night of
the murder, and inconsistencies in his story and contradiction of it in some
particulars by established facts cast suspicion upon him. The evidence on the
trial was almost wholly circumstantial, but so convincing that a verdict of
guilty was found. One bit of testimony was especially interesting, and told
strongly for the prosecution. A bank in Montreal formerly indicated the
denominations of its bills by Roman numerals, and it was sought to show that a
two-dollar note found in Sherwin's possession had been Bell's. An illiterate
witness who had seen Bell's money testified that one note that he had seen
Bell have was "an eleven dollar bill." No cross-questioning could shake him on
that point, and when the two (II) dollar bill taken from Sherwin was produced
he unhesitatingly identified it as at least exactly like the one that Bell had
had. Sherwin was sentenced to be hung, but the sentence was commuted to life
imprisonment.

  The other murder occurred in August, 1877, in the extreme northwestern part
of the town, and was perpetrated by an Italian tramp who called himself Joe
Woods, but whose real name is believed to have been Joseph Sullivan, and his
criminal record bad. The victim was Steven Barber, a respectable farmer of
small means, who lived alone with his wife. Woods had stopped at the house for
dinner the day before, and had sold articles of clothing to Mr. Barber, who in
counting out the money in payment showed about thirty dollars still remaining
in his possession. Woods gained entrance to the house in the night, shot and
killed Mr. Barber in bed, and also twice shot Mrs. Barber. He was apprehended
a day or two later in Clinton county, and brought to Malone, where, upon his
arrival, a crowd quickly gathered, and chased him to the jail, with cries of
"Lynch him," though no real attempt was made to take him from the officers.
Woods was tried and convicted in December of the same year, and was executed
in the jail yard at Malone in February, 1878. Mrs. Barber's wounds were
severe, one bullet having penetrated an eye, and yet she positively identified
Woods as the murderer, claiming to have recognized him in the moonlight.
Considering the character of her wounds, the identification was remarkable.
Her evidence was certainly a marvel of clearness and certitude.

  In 1855 the Legislature appropriated five thousand dollars for clearing and
improving the rafting channel of Salmon river and its tributaries and for the
construction of piers, booms and dams, and in 1857 voted a further equal
amount for completing the work. Wm. King, Buel H. Man and Aaron Beman were
named in the act to expend the first appropriation, and Ebenezer Man, Hiram
Horton and B. S. W. Clark to expend the second. A part of the money was
applied to the building of the dam at Mountain View, and in consequence the
locality was long known as "State Dam." When I first visited it, in 1863, the
place was desolate enough. The sole building was a tumble-down barn, and the
stream above the dam showed mainly only-standing trunks of trees, half-sunken
logs and a waste of roots and limbs. The act appropriating the money carried
permission to overflow State lands, and such flooding had killed the timber on
the banks of the originally narrow channel. In 1893 a further appropriation of
two thousand dollars was obtained for the removal of this refuse, and the
locality is greatly improved in appearance. The first act of appropriation
provided that the State lands adjacent to Salmon river should be sold only in
parcels of six hundred and forty acres at public auction, and for not less
than thirty cents an acre! Try to buy a building or camp site there now, and
note the advance in values.

  The hamlet of Chateaugay Lake, once a hive of activity and of abounding
prosperity, is now almost deserted. The great forge buildings and the sawmill
have rotted down, many of the cottages built for the operatives have been
demolished or removed, while others stand in a dilapidated condition,
unoccupied, and the store that once was thronged with customers is at present
the place of worship of the local organization of the Holiness Movement. There
is no industrial establishment in operation, nor any business at all except
one small grocery store. The early teachers of Chateaugay Lake's school
included Mrs. Paul Merrill, D. D, D. Dewey, Samuel and Theodore Beman, Misses
Martha Williamson, Harriet Hoit and Jane and Olive Miles, Darius Merrill and
Myron T. Whitney.

  The history of church organizations in Bellmont may be briefly told.
Religious services were held at Chateaugay Lake as early as 1824 by Rev.
Ashbel Parmelee of Malone and Elder Ephraim Smith. Mr. Chase told in a paper
contributed to the Historical Society a few years ago that the former once
officiated in Mr. Drew's house to a congregation of only eight, but that these
included every (adult?) inhabitant of the town.

  The Methodist Episcopal Church of Chateaugay Lake was incorporated June 5,
1889, at a meeting held "at the accustomed place of worship," with Nathan
Thurber, J. W. Merrill and Henry N. Cootey as trustees. For fourteen years
previously, however, Methodist services had been held regularly in the school
house hall by the pastor of the church at Brainardsville, and occasional
services from a more remote time. Chateaugay Lake never had a church building
until 1916, when one was erected by the Methodist Episcopal denomination. The
site, on the lake road about half way between the hamlet and the Banner House,
was given by Dr. E. E. Thurber. What the purpose was I do not know, but
notwithstanding the incorporation in 1889, a further incorporation under the
same title was had October 17, 1914.

  St. Agnes Church of Chateaugay Lake (Roman Catholic) was incorporated in
1875, and for several years thereafter services were held more or less
regularly in the school house hall by the priest in charge at Chateaugay.
Before such incorporation mass had been said infrequently in private houses
here, while latterly Catholic services have been at Brainardsville once a
month, the priest at Chateaugay officiating. The society has no church
building.

  The first Congregational Society of Bellmont, at Bellmont Center, was
incorporated in 1849 with John Richey, Joseph Williamson and Thomas McKenny as
trustees, but no history of the life and activities of the organization is now
traceable. Doubtless it was only a missionary charge, served probably by
clergymen from Malone and Burke, and possibly sometimes from Chateaugay, and
after a time was suffered to die. In 1868 the Presbyterian-Congregational
Society of Bellmont was incorporated, and enrolled with the presbytery of
Champlain in 1871. It had completed a church edifice in 1870. Rev. Andrew M.
Millar served as pastor from 1867 to 1896. In later years services between
pastorates were conducted by the Malone clergymen and by students from Magill
College, Montreal. Prior to the erection of the church building services had
been held first in the school house and then at the town house.

  The history of Methodism in Bellmont before 1853 is meagre. We have
authentic information that the town was in the Chateaugay circuit, but nothing
fixing the neighborhood or neighborhoods where the early meetings were held.
Rev. James Erwin, stationed at Chateaugay, was certainly in Bellmont in 1835,
and it is only a reasonable presumption that his predecessor in the circuit
had been there before him, and that his successors visited the town every year
afterward until the conference appointed a resident clergyman to the charge in
1854. This appointee apparently preached both at Brainardsville and at
Bellmont Center, and perhaps occasionally at Chateaugay Lake also. At
Brainardsville services were held in the school house until the erection of
the church edifice in 1866, and for sixteen years prior to 1870 there were
pastors resident either here or at Bellmont Center. But in 1870 Brainardsville
was a part of the Chateaugay charge, and so remained until 1885. Since this
latter date it has been united with Chateaugay Lake and Bellmont Center, the
three comprising one independent charge with a single pastor. Considerable
improvements in the church building were made in 1915.

  At Bellmont Center a class was formed in 1853 or earlier, and until 1888 or
1889, when a church building was provided, services were held at first in
private houses or in the school house, and then in the town hall. During the
period of fifteen years when Brainardsville was joined with Chateaugay, the
Bellmont Center organization was served ministerially by Benjamin F. Brown, a
local preacher, who was commonly called,"Priest" Brown, who died in 1868, and
then by pastors located at Burke. Since 1885 it has been again united with
Brainardsville. For several years no services were held in the winter season,
because the church lacked provision for heating it, but this defect has now
been corrected, and the church is open throughout the year. The church
building was erected in 1888 on a site donated by Sherman J. Heading.

  A Methodist Episcopal church was built at Owls Head in 1898. The
organization is a part of the Chasm Falls charge, the clergyman of which
officiates at Owls Head. Prior to the establishment of this church occasional
Methodist services had been held in homes in the vicinity.

  St. Elizabeth's at Mountain View was organized and a church building erected
in 1907 through the efforts of Rev. Father Valois of St. Helen's at Chasm
Falls, of which charge it is a mission. It is attended usually by the rector
of that church, though not infrequently supplied by priests who are guests at
one of the hotels.

  The first Union Protestant Church of Mountain View was incorporated May 29,
1915, with C. C. Morgan, J. W. Pond and S. K. Payne as trustees. The church
building is an attractive structure. The organization does not contemplate
employment of a regular pastor, the church being, as its title indicates, open
to all Protestant denominations, and services will probably be held in it by
clergymen from vicinity parishes and by such as may spend their vacations at
Mountain View.