HISTORY: Burke 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 X BURKE

Burke was erected from Chateaugay April 26, 1844, being the final partition of
Chateaugay, which was mother to all of the towns now comprising the county. It
was proposed to call the new division Birney, in honor of the Liberty
candidate for President in 1844, but the Legislature evidently preferred the
name of the English statesman, and so, disregarding the prayer of the
petition, substituted Burke. It is one of the smaller towns in area, assessed
as containing 27,463 acres. The population in 1845 was 1,285, which increased
to 2,240 in 1860, declined to 1,920 during the civil war, gained two hundred
in the next ten years, and then remained practically stationary until 1892,
when another decline began. In 1910 the population was only 1,772, but in 1915
had increased to 1,835. Until it was erected into a town the place had been
known as West Chateaugay.

Burke is watered principally by brooks and the Little Trout river, which
enters the town from Bellmont at the extreme southeastern corner, and takes a
northwesterly course into Constable. The Chateaugay river cuts across the
extreme northeastern corner of the town, and Trout river across the extreme
southwestern corner   hardly more than a mile of each being in Burke. The
Rutland Railroad runs through the south third of the town, and has a station
nearly midway between the Chateaugay border on the east and Malone on the
west.

An improved county highway, extending from Malone to Chateaugay, passes
through the town in the southern part, and a State road follows the so-called
north route, running through Burke Center and Thayer's Corners. Burke was one
of the first towns in the county to undertake for itself the construction of
stone roads, and has done some excellent work under this system.

Burke's surface is undulating, as no one familiar with its nomenclature or its
topography would ever doubt. The locality near the railroad station is the
"Hollow;" half a mile distant is the "East Hollow;" a mile north is "Taylor's
Hollow;" and a mile or two west of that is "Hawks's Hollow;" while in other
districts, wherever a river or a brook flows, there are hollows almost
innumerable, but not distinguished by names. The soil, while not the most
productive in the county, is yet of so good an average that intelligent
farming is profitable, and consequently the general condition of the people
prosperous.

The principal settlement in the town is near the railroad, extending both
north and south of the station. Formerly, if not more populous, it was more
important industrially, as at one time it had a sawmill, tannery, starch
factory and a planing mill, which now are all out of existence. There remain a
school house, a hotel, a creamery, a milk shipping station, a feed mill, two
or three small shops, a half dozen stores, and a small group of dwelling
houses, a Grange hall and an Odd Fellows' hall, and a Methodist and a Catholic
church. The residences are generally of a better type and better kept up than
are commonly found in so small a place, and testify in their appearance to
enterprise and comfortable circumstances on the part of the owners. The place
has been greatly improved from its former estate, when pretty much everything
was centered either in the "Hollow" or in the "East Hollow," whereas now, the
mills having disappeared and stores, hotels and dwellings there having been
burned, almost everything is on the hill on the east side of the river, a
vastly better location. The hamlet has a gravity system of water works and it
and even the farming sections are electrically lighted from the power
development in Chateaugay. The population is probably at least three hundred.

At Burke Center, where it seemed until the railroad was built that the larger
settlement might be, there are the town house (built in 1851 and 1852), a
Presbyterian church, the store of Lorenzo W. Thayer (the same structure built
by Joseph Goodspeed in 1828), and a half dozen dwelling houses.

Sun represents merely the center of the activities of George and Henry Jordan
a few years ago, when they did a driving business at that point   conducting a
large farm, a creamery, a store, shops and a steam sawmill. Nothing now
remains except a milk skimming station, the store kept by J. W. Taillon, and
two or three residences.

Thayer's Corners lies directly east of Burke Center, near the Chateaugay line.
Formerly the Sons of Temperance had a two-story braiding here, with the first
floor used for religious meetings and the second as a lodge room, but now
burned. There are ten or a dozen dwelling houses in the locality, and a store.
At one time there was a Baptist church, but the society is no longer alive.

The first settlers came mostly from Vermont earlier than 1800, or nearly a
half century before the town was erected, and even before the district was
known as West Chateaugay. A few came a little later from Canada, and settled
principally in the north part of the town. Gates Hoit, who was in Chateaugay
in 1800 or before, undertook some years afterward to make a list of all who
had been in the township at the time of his arrival, but omitted a number.
This list included Jehial Barnum, Jr., Azur Hawks, John S. and James S. Allen,
Noah Lee and Warren Botsford. To these I am able to add Moses Eggleston, Rufus
Jones, Samuel Haight, Israel Thayer, Benjamin and Lewis Graves, Simeon Reed,
Jr., and Ira Smith as having been there in 1800 or having arrived soon
afterward. Deed dates are not conclusive, of course, for in the period in
question settlers usually held their lands only under contract from their
initial occupancy until payments under the contracts had been completed, when
actual conveyance would be made. Yet John Allen received his deed in 1798,
Benjamin Graves in 1799, Mr. Thayer and Mr. Hawks in 1801, Mr. Reed in 1802,
Reuben Allen in 1803, and Mr. Smith and Lewis Graves in 1805, while Mr.
Thayer, Mr. Hawks, Mr. Haight and Mr. Lee had given mortgages as early as
1798, proving that the section which is now Burke had settlement earlier than
any other part of the county except Chateaugay itself. Mr. Barnum was the son
of Jehial Barnum, who settled in Bangor about 1807, and came directly from
Vermont. He is understood to have been the first settler, probably in 1797,
and owned several hundred acres of land   a single sale made by him in 1805
having been five hundred and twenty acres. He was uncle to Phineas T. Barnum,
the showman. In the dozen or fifteen years following 1805 arrivals included
James Hatch, Ira Covey, Dorastus Fitch, Erastus and Newman Finney, Dr. Stephen
F. Morse, Joshua Nichols, James Brewer, John Mitchell, Joel Andrews, Timothy
Beaman, Ezra Stiles, Joseph Goodspeed, Reuben Smith (a brother of Ira),
William Hilliker, John Twaddle, Peter Bush and Nathaniel and Orada Day, and
doubtless others whose names are not recalled. In checking up these lists
the contrast with, conditions in Bangor is both striking and melancholy. Where
Bangor shows a notably large number of descendants of the original stock still
abiding there, Burke has scarcely any. Allen, Morse, Fitch, Finney, Jones and
Smith are almost, or quite, the only names borne by the early settlers to be
found now upon the election registers or assessment rolls of the town, and
some even of these perhaps do not trace their lineage to the pioneers, the
families of whom have become extinct or removed elsewhere. Like the pioneers
in other towns, they were mainly strong, manly men, fitted to found and manage
the affairs of a community upon orderly lines, and give it enterprise and
character.

Azur Hawks resided for a long time at the forks of the Fort Covington-Malone
road, which locality thus came to take the name "Hawks's Hollow," and was a
lieutenant in the State militia in 1808 and a captain in 1809. James S. Allen
was the first clerk of the county of Franklin, in 1808. Noah Lee removed to
Malone and then to Bangor at an early day. Moses Eggleston lived near Thayer's
Corners, and is said to have come from Vermont on horseback, carrying money in
a bag, and armed with a pitchfork for its defense. He was an ensign in a
militia company in 1808, a captain in the war of 1812, and a
lieutenant-colonel in 1818. His company in 1814 appears to have been recruited
in Chateaugay, and to have seen no service except for a few days on the march
to and from Plattsburgh, which was not reached until after the battle had been
fought. The route taken was south from the Chateaugay four corners to near the
Bennett place, whence it led east through the forest along a mere trail to the
Roberts tavern stand, eight miles east of the four corners. The turnpike was
thought to be too Dear Canada to be safe against attack by the enemy. Of the
company's members who resided in the territory now embraced in Burke there
were Israel Thayer, first lieutenant, Warren Botsford, Jehial Barnum, Jr.,
Simeon Hawks and Nathaniel and Orada Day. Addis K. Botsford, formerly school
commissioner and until his death a practising lawyer at Saranac Lake, and
Elmer Botsford, a prominent attorney at Plattsburgh, as well as Bay Perrigo of
Burke, are grandsons of Warren Botsford. Ira Smith had no sons, but Reuben had
Samuel, Benjamin, Arthur and John, each of whom left male descendants; and yet
the only ones of this line bearing the name Smith now in the town are George
A., his three sons and a grandson and his brother Samuel. At one time Reuben
and his son, Samuel, owned almost all of the land in and about Burke Hollow,
and were proprietors of nearly all of the business concerns there   store,
shops, sawmill, etc. Arthur Smith (father of Fred Smith of the Smith House,
Malone) and Abram G. Smith (the latter of another family) owned most of the
little not in the hands of Reuben and Samuel. Rufus Jones was the grandfather
of George, now a merchant. Ezra Stiles, who had been an officer in the war of
1812, was the Methodist class leader in Burke, was one of the early merchants,
and later removed to Fort Covington, where he became customs officer and a
militia colonel. He was an unsuccessful candidate for State Senator in 1871,
and was an uncle of Ezra Goodspeed, now of Chateaugay, to whom the writer is
indebted for a good deal of the information contained in this sketch. Mr.
Goodspeed is also a grandson of Jehial Barnum, Jr. Mr. Reed, though married
four times, has no known descendants. The only descendant of Israel Thayer,
for whom Thayer's Corners was named, now residing in Burke, is Smith W.
Thayer, though the latter's father, Lorenzo W., now living in Malone,
continues in the mercantile business at Burke Center, and Warren T. Thayer, a
grandson of Israel, lives in Chateaugay, and was  elected to the Assembly in
1915, 1916 and 1917. Mr. Morse was the first physician in the town, and was
the grandfather of A. Cady Morse, former county superintendent of the poor.
Joshua Nichols was first judge of the court of common pleas in 1815, and Mr.
Mitchell was sheriff in 1822, and a militia lieutenant in 1819. He it was who
executed Videto, the county's first murderer, and it is told that upon the
occasion he wore his full regimentals, and, mounted on a white horse, sprung
the trap with the point of his sword, and then rode straight for his home in
Burke. Benjamin Graves was an unsuccessful candidate for the Assembly in 1804.
He removed to Plattsburgh, and was three times sheriff of Clinton county. John
Twaddle came early from Canada: John B., who is in trade in Malone, is his
grandson. Ira Covey also came from Canada, locating in the northwestern part
of the town, at the point since called Coveytown. Theodocia Thayer and Alfred
Deuel are the only surviving descendants in Burke of Lewis Graves, and Mrs.
Lydia McMillan and Mrs. Fred Wood of Joel Andrews. Smith W. Thayer is a
great-grandson of Newman Finney, and Austin Finney a grandson. Except for
these instances, I think that none of the early settlers have descendants now
living in the town.

Later years added a considerable number of stirring and sterling men, among
whom it is not easy to overlook Elisha Marks, Abram G. Smith, Martin B.
Durkee, Sidney A. Paddock, J. W. and Levi J. Looker, Seymour Brown, Milo
Baldwin, Allen Ellsworth, Ezra S. Goodspeed, George B. Smith, L. D. and E. P.
Deming, John McKenzie, Edward Mallon, Nathan Mason, John P. Badger, John
Featherston, George T. Scovel, George B. Greene, Thomas R. Kane, Robert, John
and Nelson W. Johnston, Sheldon A. Ellsworth, William McKenzie, Thomas S.
Crawford, Corydon S. Chapman, Isaac B. Farrar, and Everett Brothers   men who
with their sons and the sons of the pioneers established or operated the
industries, the hotels and the merchandising of the town for a long period.
They filled, too, the town offices generally, and with such carefulness and
efficiency that taxes remained low.

Particular mention should be made of the three men identified with the town
who attained to greater distinction than any other of its residents, viz.,
John P. Badger, Fernando Beaman and Philander Deming. Mr. Badger had no
prominence and had achieved nothing of consequence until he was approaching
forty years of age. He came to the county with his parents from New Hampshire,
and in his younger manhood learned the carpenter's trade. Later he was
lumberman, merchant and manufacturer of starch. At about the age of
thirty-five years he began to take an active interest and part in politics,
and almost at once became recognized as the Republican leader in Burke. The
town had always been strongly Democratic, but by personal argument and
organization Mr. Badger soon converted enough of the electors to Republicanism
so that that party gained control, and has held it ever since. Not until Mr.
Badger was thirty-six years old did he begin the study of law, and after 1872,
in which year he was elected to the Assembly, he completed his course in the
Albany Law School, and was admitted to the bar. He served three years in the
Assembly, and then located at Malone, where he continued to reside until his
death in 1912. He had a suave and engaging mariner, never antagonized any one
with bitterness, and always gained his ends by diplomacy and compromise if it
was possible to do so without sacrifice of principle. In 1877 he was elected
district attorney and held the office for six years. In 1891 he was a
candidate for the Republican nomination for justice of the supreme court, and
failed of success by reason of a deadlock in the convention, which continued
for weeks. Mr. Badger came to be regarded as one of the strongest lawyers in
the county, and probably the very best before a jury.

Fernando Beaman, a brother of Timothy, who for a long time was one of Burke's
most prominent men, died in Michigan in 1882. He was a lawyer, and became a
member of Congress. He was appointed United States Senator, but declined the
office because of ill health.

Philander Deming, son of Rev. R. R. Deming, who was pastor of the Burke
Presbyterian church from 1850 to 1856, was identified with the town only as a
resident during his youth and later as a summer visitor to his brothers,
Lucius D. and Edward P. He had a decided literary bent, and was the author of
a number of short, captivating Adirondack stories, most of which were first
published in the Atlantic Monthly, and then in book form. He became a
stenographer, made his home in Albany, and, attending a law trial there, took
the evidence in shorthand for practice. During the course of the case a
dispute arose concerning some point in the testimony, and the trial judge
called upon Mr. Deming to read his notes on the question. That was the
beginning of stenographic court reporting, the incident having demonstrated
the importance and value of the practice, which was almost immediately
thereafter instituted, and has ever since been continued. It would be deemed
impossible now to conduct court business without it, and Mr. Deming was its
originator. He himself was appointed a court reporter, and so served at Albany
for many years   his literary work having been performed in leisure hours or
during vacations. He was a gentleman of fine character and striking presence,
liberally educated, a graceful writer, and an interesting companion.

But with good citizens bad ones came also or developed there, and at one
period the hamlet of Burke, known also as the "Hollow " and for a time as
Andrusville, was exceedingly tough. That condition did not continue for a
great while, however, and latterly there has been no town in the county with a
higher reputation for good citizenship, sobriety and morality. Though it has
had few men who attained to eminence, the number proportioned to the entire
population who are recognized as notably intelligent, useful in their several
walks of life, and trustworthy in anything and everything is decidedly large.

The industries of Burke never included any large establishment, and have
consisted almost altogether in such mills and shops as used to be common in
every settlement. They have included only -a grist mill, saw mills, tanneries,
asheries, starch factories, brick yards and stone quarries. With the
disappearance of the forests and the discontinuance of the manufacture of
potato starch, even these have- gone out of existence with the exception of
the grist mill and the quarries; and since concrete came into so common use
the quarries are idle, or are worked only on a small scale. In addition to the
industries above indicated, in years so remote that information on the matter
is almost impossible of procurement, Burke had an iron foundry, situate on the
Little Trout river about a hundred rods below Hawks's Hollow. It was built by
Reuben Allen and Amos Chipman, and is believed to have made, among other
wares, stoves and caldron kettles. An attempt was made after abandonment of it
as a manufactory to move the building up the hill. Thirty yoke of oxen were
employed in the undertaking, which nevertheless proved a failure. The
structure was then taken apart, moved piecemeal, and made into a barn. The
history of the establishment as a foundry can not now be ascertained with any
definiteness, but it was probably operated for only a short time.

A vague impression apparently prevails that at one time Daniel Smith & Sons
had a pottery in Burke, but I have been unable to obtain information
decisively confirming it, and, so far as I know conclusively, the only clay
product here was brick. Both John Collins and Seymour Brown, and possibly
others, operated brick' yards years ago.

The first saw mill was probably built by Alexander Church, as he sold a half
interest in it in 1811 to James Hatch. It was located nearly west of Burke
Center, or about a mile and a half northwest from where the railroad station
now is; subsequent operators of it were Simeon Hawks, Walter Dimick and Joseph
Goodspeed. It went out of existence in 1858. Other saw mills were: One built
by Samuel Smith in the Hollow, at the bridge, which was run afterward by Day &
Badger, Day & Greene and William E. Walker; one just below Hawks's Hollow,
built by George Keep about 1848 or 1850, and abandoned after two or three
years because it was not profitable; one a half a mile farther down the
stream, built by William Beaman about 1848 or 1850, and owned later by
Talmadge Spencer; one yet farther north, built by David Darling between 1850
and 1855; one in the extreme southwestern part of the town, known as
Skeelsborough, probably built by Moses Hutchinson about 1850, and since 1859,
until it was carried off by a freshet, owned and run by Sidney A. Paddock, who
sold A1 hemlock dimension stuff in 1864, delivered in Malone, at seven dollars
a thousand feet which price was nevertheless more than double that realized by
Mr. Goodspeed a dozen or fifteen years earlier; one just south of the
railroad, built by Gibson Smith; one built by George S. Adams about 1865, near
the tannery, a short distance above the railroad, which was operated afterward
for a considerable time by Elisha A. Hare, with Corydon S. Chapman as a
partner for a couple of years; one, a gang mill, a mile and a half south of
the railroad, built by Henry B. and Elisha B. Smith, of Chateaugay, about
1855, and afterward owned and operated by Mr. Hare; one built in 1860 by
Joseph Featherston as a part of the tannery, near the Adams mill, and owned by
Sidney W. Gillett, of Malone, from 1864 to 1869, when it burned; one in the
extreme southeastern section, built by John McKenzie, of Burke, and James
Jordan, of Chateaugay, about 1864 or 1865, and burned in 1871; one on the same
site as the last preceding, built by James Danford about 1873, and from which
the machinery was removed to Bellmont something like twenty years later; one
north of Thayers Corners, built by Martin R. Durkee about 1853; one just north
of Durkee, built by Amos Aldrich, and operated from 1857 to 1862; a steam
mill, built by George and Henry Jordan in the north central part about 1897,
and run until 1905; and a small portable steam mill south of Thayers Corners,
operated by Otis S. Witherell and John W. and Daniel Mitchell from about 1884
to 1900. At the present time there is not a single saw mill in Burke.

Martin Durkee was the father of Colonel Charles Durkee of Malone. He was big
(weighing nearly three hundred pounds), bright and bluff   his language upon
occasion being picturesque, not to say lurid. A brother, Charles, residing in
the West, was a United States Senator from Wisconsin, and Governor of Utah. He
died in 1870, and a few years ago the Malone Durkees had expectation of
realizing a part of the fortune which he was supposed to have had, but the
securities which he had been reported to own could never be found. Judge Adams
was a Bangor man, and was elected county judge by the Knownothing party in
1855. Simeon Hawks is said to have been engaged with James Hatch in smuggling
cattle into Canada for the British in the War of 1812, and the story is told
that upon one such expedition, being obliged to cross the Chateaugay river and
unable to swim, he was towed over by clinging to the tail of one of the
steers. He became a militia ensign in 1817 and a lieutenant in 1820. Joseph
Goodspeed was for many years the political boss of Burke, holding the town
securely in the Democratic column, and dictating all nominations and the
town's affairs generally. He was the lieutenant and representative here of
Henry B. Smith, of Chateaugay, and never lost his grip on the town until John
P. Badger contested supremacy with him and his son, Ezra, and won against
them, though infrequently the Republicans had previously carried it.

With the exception of the feed mill of Hill & Darling near the railroad, which
is of recent date, Burke has had only one grist mill. It was built in 1832 by
Jehial Barnum, Jr., and Joseph Goodspeed, and is now operated by William
McKenzie. Intermediate owners or operators include Eli Goodnow, Samuel Starks,
T. L. & Harry Douglass, Albert Stebbins and John McKenzie. The last named (as
good a man and as expert a miller as the county ever had) bought the property
in 1860, and ran it until 1877. Just below this mill there had been a
building, erected by Mr. Goodnow for a stave mill, and used later by John W.
Marks and John P. Badger as a furniture factory, which Mr. McKenzie converted
into a mill for making pearl barley. This building was burned.

Burke has had four starch factories. The first was built in the Hollow in 1846
by Elisha Marks for his brother, Ira. Elisha afterward acquired ownership, and
ran the mill. Subsequent owners were Myron Derby, and Andrew Day in
partnership at different periods with George B. Greene, John P. Badger and
Everett Brothers. It was burned under the latter ownership in 1887.

The Sidney Paddock factory in the southwestern part of the town was built
prior to 1854, probably by Andrew J. Day. In 1867, when the latter was
operating the Marks mill, he invaded the Paddock territory for stock, and the
rivalry thus provoked jumped the price of potatoes to forty-five cents per
bushel, creating no little excitement and alarm among manufacturers in other
towns. The statutes against combinations in restraint of trade had not then
been thought of, and a meeting of all the manufacturers in the county was held
at Malone to consider the situation. It was finally agreed that Paddock and
Day might fight out their own battle as they liked, but that elsewhere forty
cents should be the maximum price. Starch sold in that year at better than
seven cents a pound.

A factory was built in 1857 east of Burke Center by A. J. Day and William G.
Dickinson of Malone. It burned in 1862 or 1863, and was rebuilt by the
original owners. It was owned and run later by George T. Scovel alone and in
partnership with W. W. & H. E. King of Malone, and with George B. Greene; then
by Greene & King, Grant Wilmarth and Morse & Walker, who tore it down.

A fourth factory was built by J. J. Jameson in the northern part of the town,
but was run for only a few years. It burned in 1878.

There were asheries of course in an early day; four in all; one by John
Mitchell in the northeastern part of the town; one by Daniel Mitchell, near
Thayer's Corners; one by Colonel Stiles, near Burke Center; and one by Lewis &
Andrus on the Canadian frontier. These bought black salts from the farmers,
converted it into pearl ash, and sold the product in Montreal. It was for a
long time the only commodity that was equivalent to cash.

The town had tanneries, too, but apparently not as soon after the first
settlements as was usual in most places. Nathaniel Day had one in the vicinity
of Thayer's Corners, the date of which I have been unable to ascertain.
Nathaniel Witherell also had one later in the same locality, and Hezekiah Olin
built one about 1850 in the Hollow, east of the bridge, and on the north side
of the turnpike, where Hiram Cartwright afterward had a shop and planing mill,
and still later James Toland had a cheese factory. A half mile distant, in the
East Hollow, Joseph Featherston built one about 1858, which burned in 1860,
when he built another south of the railroad, near the Adams saw mill, and
combined a saw mill in the same building, together with a shoe and harness
shop. This property, which was sold in 1864 to S. W. Gillett of Malone, burned
in 1869.

Earlier than 1850 Moses Keefe and George Jordan had a cabinet shop in Taylors
Hollow, east of Burke Center, and at about the same time and in the same
vicinity John Taylor had a chair factory, while from 1845 to 1849 Taylor &
Baldwin operated a bedstead and wooden bowls factory below the Hawks saw mill,
near where Sheldon A. Ellsworth now lives. The bedsteads were the
old-fashioned post and rail variety, with seventy-two feet of rope in place of
the modern slats and springs. E. F. Bellows had a tub and wheelwright shop
near the Hollow, which was burned in 1885, when James Danford built a planing
mill on the same site. This was also burned about 1900.

Two quarries of a handsome, durable sandstone have been opened   one in the
extreme southwestern and the other in the southeastern part of the town. The
former was worked as early as 1850 for stone in building the old Northern
Railroad, and then lay idle until 1876, when Sidney A. Paddock, its present
owner, proceeded to develop it, and filled large orders from St. Albans, Vt.,
and from Chateaugay, Saranac Lake, Malone and other places   getting out great
smooth flags, window sills, foundation facings, etc. The other was formerly
owned by Daniel Crippen, and now by his sons, Martin and Fred. It was worked
extensively a few years ago by "Jack" Anderson as lessee, whose principal
market was Montreal. At present the Crippens themselves get out fine stone in
limited quantities as orders come to them. But with the prevalent use of
concrete for walks, curbing and even walls the quarries can not be operated
profitably except on special orders where price is less a consideration than
appearance.

Burke's hotels have been numerous. The first one was built probably by Charles
Dunham, as he had a liquor license in 1805 and 1806, issued by the town
authorities of Chateaugay, and James Constable's diary of his visits to our
county in 1805 notes that he stopped there on two occasions. Its location is
not determinate, and probably it was not long in existence, as it had no
license after 1806. Mr. Constable refers to it in one place as eleven miles
from the southeast corner of the town of Constable and five miles from
Chateaugay four corners, and elsewhere as if it were near the western border
of Burke. Another inn of about the same period was built by James Hatch at
least as early as 1806, as he was licensed in that year. It was located at the
top of the hill west of the Hollow, and still stands, being occupied at
present by William Porter as a residence. Other landlords there after Hatch
were John Smith, Samuel Smith and Abram G. Smith, by whose estate the property
is now owned. James Hatch was the father of Harry B. Hatch, a pioneer in the
town of Franklin, the grandfather of Mrs. 0. W. Moody and Harry Hatch of
Malone, and the great grandfather of Charles H. Moody of the Franklin House,
Malone. He was a militia lieutenant in 1817 and a captain in 1820. He removed
to Ellenburgh about 1829, and kept a hotel there until his death.

Moses Eggleston had a hotel early east of the Hollow, and Norman Percy one in
North Burke between 1840 and 1850. Joshua Beaman had one at a very early date
a half mile west of Thayer's Corners, and Rufus Jones one in a log house just
across the road. Chateaugay's town meeting was held in the latter in 1813, and
the general election in the former in 1828 and 1832. Joseph Goodspeed had a
tavern from 1831 to 1851 near the Center, and during a part of the same period
Hiram Miner kept a temperance house where Fred Countryman now resides, about a
third of a mile west of Goodspeed's. The sign, "Temperance House," is still
partly traceable on the front of the building. Mr. Miner was the father of the
wife of Rev. Andrew M. Millar. Prior to the time of Miner this house had been
kept by Stephen Cook, and then by Nelson Cook.

Reuben Pike, Sr., had a hotel a mile west of the Hollow, at what is now the
Fred Baldwin place. In 1844, as once since then, campaigning was carried on by
parties traveling through the county with a four-horse rig, and a stop was
made at this hotel. William A. Wheeler was one of the campaigners, and the
party "refreshed" at the bar, when the best that the house afforded was
served; and out of the incident grew the expression "Pike's best," which
everybody used to call for thereafter.

Samuel Smith built a hotel in 1847 or 1848 in the Hollow, on the east side of
the river, kept it himself for a time, and had as successors, "Hank" Smith,
George S. Adams, Henry Lord, Reuben Pike, Jr., David Schryer and Mary Wilson;
the latter the same woman who kept the Hotel Wilson on Catherine street,
Malone, when, it was burned in 1913 with so awful a loss of life. The house
was at times of a character that was very offensive to the good people of the
place, and it burned during the tenancy of Mrs. Wilson.

Other hotels that have been located at the Hollow include one south of the
railroad, kept by R. P. Shandrew; one in the N. W. Johnston house, since
burned, on the site of Thomas Crawford's present residence, kept by William
Heading; one called the Eagle Hotel, the first door east of the Maple Leaf
Hotel, kept by Mrs. Arthur Smith, mother of Fred Smith of the Smith House,
Malone; and the Maple Leaf Hotel, at the top of the hill on the east side of
the river, kept by Henry Lapier. The last named is at present the only hotel
in the town.

Burke has had at least nine creameries and two cheese factories. The first of
the creameries was built in 1874 a mile west of north from the railroad
station by Henry W. Bellows, and others, located in all districts of the town
except south of the railroad, by Ralph N. Bassett, C. C. Mason, Eli Darling,
Bromley & Cooper, George and Henry Jordan, Woodbury Wentworth and Ketcham &
Bassett. One that was at the Hollow, which was afterward the Toland cheese
factory, and one in the eastern part of the town are out of existence. The
second cheese factory is a feature of the milk shipping station at the
railroad, where at the height of the season a million and a half pounds of
milk are received per month, and at one time fifty to sixty thousand pounds of
cheese made. The establishment's product now is candy. Some of those who have
been proprietors of creameries additional to those who were builders are:
Finney & Bromley, Wallace Pearson, Wallace Lyman, Jerome Coonley, Roy Clayton,
the Columbia Creamery Company, Marshall White, Fred Turner, Myron A very, A.
H. Fay, Judson Santamo, Willard D. Williamson and Karl Walbridge. Fifteen to
eighteen years ago the value of the product of these creameries averaged
perhaps twelve to fifteen thousand dollars each per year, which the business
of the milk shipping station must have lessened a good deal.

Probably the first store in Burke was that of Joseph Goodspeed near the
Center, built in 1828, though Ashbel N. Sanford is sometimes credited with
having preceded him. If Sanford was in fact in trade it was before 1815, at a
point west of Thayer's Corners. John Mitchell had a store on the Canadian
frontier, in the extreme northeastern part of the town, but I think not until
as late as about 1837. The place, but not the building, is the same that
Minnie Perkins lately occupied, with no enviable reputation. Since Mitchell's
time there have been, and are now, other "line" stores to the west, the
buildings being partly in Canada and partly in New York. These have been kept
by many different parties   Soper & Gurley, J. J. Jameson, Lewis & Andrus,
Seymour L. Wyman, Leonard and John Bush, Cartwright & Perrigo, George Anderson
and John Helm and others. The Bush store was burned some years ago, but four
remain, viz.: J. J. Jameson's, John Patterson's, John B. Flynn's and Minnie
Perkins's, now closed because she is in prison. Some of these were altogether
respectable and legitimate in their business, though always when the profit
seemed greater than the risk were a cloak for smuggling operations by their
customers   which, of course, is not necessarily a reflection upon the
proprietors. Others of these stores, whose stocks consisted largely of
"Kentucky hardware," were now and again mere drinking resorts, and an offense
to the community. 

Merchants at Burke Center, besides Mr. Goodspecd, have included Ezra Stiles,
Ezra Goodspeed, Thomas Williams, Dr. William Golding, Finney & Scovel and
Lorenzo W. Thayer, whose store building is the same that Mr. Goodspeed erected
ninety years ago; and at the Hollow, where there was little trading until
1848, Joseph Goodspeed, Samuel Smith and Elisha Marks as partners, and later
Taylor & Mitchell, Marks & Derby, Lewis Arthur, Ezra S. Goodspeed, Day &
Badger, Soper & Adams, Warren Clark, Lyman Brown, Everett Brothers, George B.
Greene, William Day and Harvey Harrington. George A. Smith and George Jones
are merchants there at the present time.

Daniel Mitchell had a store at Thayer's Corners, which the tornado of 1856
demolished, and which was rebuilt to be "storm proof." The same building is
there yet, and is occupied by Daniel Gillett.

Burke has known at least two days of great excitement   one June 30, 1856, and
the other July 4, 1861. The story of each is unusual and stirring. In the
afternoon of the date first stated the storm known as the Chateaugay tornado,
which has never been equaled in the history of this section except by the
whirlwind that tore through the wilderness in the southern part of our county
in 1845, developed near the western border of the town, but did little damage
west of Hawks's Hollow. An eyewitness of its origin told afterward how he saw
two clouds forming, one in the northwest and the other in the southwest, and,
rapidly converging, meet with a resultant wind which swept eastwardly to Lake
Champlain, but with diminished fury after it had passed Chateaugay. It's path
was narrow, but within that limit it wrought awful havoc. Fences, buildings
and forests were leveled. A count made two days later showed nearly two
hundred buildings between the west line of Burke and Chateaugay four corners
blown down, unroofed or moved from their foundations; and this included only
the structures that had been practically destroyed. From the Constable line to
Burke Center the damage was less than from the latter point east, but at the
Center the store of Keeler & Stewart and the school house were unroofed and
several dwelling houses wrecked. Thence the wind seems to have taken its
course at a higher level until it neared Thayer's Corners, where it trended
lower, and the store of Daniel Mitchell was utterly destroyed and its contents
scattered. Some of the goods that it had contained were found later in the
town of Clinton, ten miles or more east. From Thayer's Corners on beyond
Chateaugay village hardly a building escaped. The only person killed was
Jeremiah Thomas at Thayer's Corners, who was struck by a timber from Daniel
Mitchell's store. He had only recently sold his farm, and was about to move
west.

The other day in question was when Hiram Cartwright and other sympathizers
raised a secession flag at the Hollow. The flag had been painted by William
Hollenbeck. The time was when the Hollow was deemed one of the hardest places
in the county, and the day was doubtless the wildest that Burke ever knew. It
is said that there were two hundred men drunk there on that day, and drunk in
no ordinary degree, but ravingly so. The men who were back of the flag raising
armed themselves, assembled at the foot of the pole, and declared that they
would shoot any one who should attempt to haul down the flag. Word of the
affair reached Malone, and a company of sober men, quite as thoroughly in
earnest as the rabble at Burke, was recruited, largely from the railroad
machine shops, to go to Burke for the purpose of tearing down the rag. Time
was necessarily consumed in making preparations and in waiting for the train,
and in the meantime William B. Donihee, then a law student, was sent to Burke
by Francis D. Flanders to warn the crowd of what was impending, and with
admonition to lower the flag. By furious driving Mr. Donihee arrived in time,
and just as the train pulled into the station Cartwright and his friends had
felled the pole, when the flag was removed, and secreted in a drain pipe in
Cartwright's cellar. Any other course would undoubtedly have precipitated
bloodshed. It is pleasant to be able to note that the emblem was never again
displayed.

Burke has a lodge of Odd Fellows (Shiloh No. 750), organized in 1896, which
has a present membership of sixty-eight. Its hall, near the railroad station,
owned by the order, was burned a few months ago, but has been rebuilt on
larger and better lines than the original structure.

Burke Grange, No. 932, was organized in 1902, and has nearly two hundred
members. Its building, owned by the organization, is located near the railroad
station.

Presbyterianism or Congregationalism in Burke was one with that of Chateaugay
until 1845, when, upon the erection of Burke as a town, twenty-six members of
the mother church (which had been formed in 1816) were granted letters of
dismission to form a Congregational church in the new town. Previous to this
separation, and, indeed, for a few years following it, the same pastor served
both societies   the usual place of worship in Burke having been the Morse
school house, near the Center. In 1850 work was begun upon a house of worship
in the same vicinity, which was dedicated in 1853. It was the first church
building in the town, and it was improved in 1860, and again in 1872. It was
struck by lightning and burned June 22, 1901. A year later the present
edifice, finished in natural woods and with memorial windows   a very
attractive church home had been reared in its place. The membership of the
church is now about one hundred and fifty, of whom one-third are
non-residents. The form of organization was changed from Congregational to
Presbyterian in 1875. For a few years the old Free Will Baptist Church in
North Burke has been in the possession of the Presbyterians, and services in
it are held regularly by the pastor of Burke Center.

The history of early Methodism in Burke is also interwoven with that of
Chateaugay   Burke having been within the Chateaugay circuit or a mission for
more than forty years before it became an independent charge, which status was
surprisingly late as measured by the establishment of similar relations in
other towns no more important. While there is no conclusively sure record
bearing upon the point, it is believed that Methodist services were held in
West Chateaugay (now Burke) in 1802 by a circuit rider, though probably there
was no approach to regularity of visitation until about 1831; and it was not
until 1869 that the place had a conference appointment of a resident preacher,
who must have regretted the assignment, for in 1872 he (Rev. Waly P. Hall) was
charged with scandalous conduct, and subjected to a most annoying prosecution.
The court, however, fully exonerated him. A church building near the railroad
was erected in 1870, and was remodeled in 1903. From 1869 to 1885 the pastor
here served the church at Bellmont Center also, and for the past twenty-five
years or such a matter has officiated at Coveytown, which has a separate
church organization, incorporated in 1890.

The Baptist church was an offshoot of the society of the same denomination
which was formed in Chateaugay in 1817, though not incorporated until 1848.
Between these dates the organization had only a languishing existence, and was
without a pastor for considerable periods. In 1848 the membership in both
towns was eighty-eight, two-thirds or more of whom were in Burke. These formed
a new society, and in IS52 began the erection of a church edifice at Burke
Center. The building burned in 1855, and was at once rebuilt of brick, though
not finished until 1859. The membership showed little loss or gain for several
years, but in 1864 the society reported that "as a church we are spiritually
dead," and that it had had no preaching for two years. In 1867, however, there
seemed to be a revival of interest and activity for two or three years,
following which the number of members decreased, and twenty years later they
numbered hardly more than a score. The membership when the society was
strongest having been located largely in the eastern part of the town, the
church building at the Center was sold in 1874 to the Roman Catholics,
following which services were held for a time in Temperance Hall at Thayer's
Corners. In 1877 the stone building erected by Daniel Mitchell, after the
tornado, for a store was purchased, and converted into a church, finished and
dedicated in 1879. The society having gone out of existence about 1901, the
building has become a store again.

A Free Will Baptist Church was organized in 1870 in the northern part of the
town, within a half a mile of the Canadian line, and Elder Richard Parks of
Dickinson was its first pastor. Rev. Marshall White, since removed to
Virginia, also served it for a number of years. Services were held at first in
the school house, but a church building was soon erected. The society grew to
a membership of about forty, but became inactive nearly thirty years ago, and
finally died altogether. Its church building is now in possession of the
Presbyterians, and services are held in it regularly by the pastor at Burke
Center.

The Wesleyan Methodists have had two church organiations in Burke   one joined
with the Bangor and Burke circuit (which included also districts in Fort
Covington, Moira and Westville), and the other the North Burke and Chateaugay
Wesleyan Methodist Church. The former worshiped at first in the school house
near Coveytown, but now have a little chapel of their own in the same
vicinity, where Carlos Hill, a local preacher, has officiated ever since it
was erected. The other Wesleyan church was about midway between Thayer's
Corners and the Canadian frontier. It was built in 1875, and was blown down in
1888, when the organization was practically abandoned   its members
affiliating with a society of the same denomination at Powers Court, Que.

St. George's Church (Roman Catholic) was formed in the early part of 1874
through the activities of Rev. Father De Pauw, then of Chateaugay. The church
at the Center, theretofore occupied by the Baptists, was purchased at a cost
of eight hundred dollars, and was remodeled in 1898. From 1887 to 1918 Burke
was combined with Constable as a mission, the rector residing at the latter
place, but is now an independent charge. The church building at the Center was
abandoned and demolished in 1906, and a fine new edifice erected at Burke
proper, which was dedicated in 1907. There are one hundred and five families
in the parish.