HISTORY: Constable 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 XII CONSTABLE

 Constable was erected from Malone (then Harison) March 13, 1807, and
originally included Westville, Fort Covington, Bombay and the St. Regis
Reservation. It is now the smallest town in the county, comprising only a part
of one township, assessed as 20,037 acres. In 1810, three years after its
erection, and when it included Westville, Fort Covington and Bombay, it had a
population of 916, or 149 more than Malone, and 291 more than Chateaugay.
Strangely enough, the population increased slightly during the war of 1812,
but through the erection of Fort Covington it decreased to 637 in 1820. In
1825 it was 1,016, but Westville having been set off in 1829 it was only 693
in 1830. In the decade from 1830 to 1840 the gain was 429, and 558 from 1840
to 1860, the population in the latter year (1,680) having been the largest
ever shown. Between 1860 and 1880 there was a loss of 414, and since 1880 the
fluctuations have been slight. The inhabitants now number 1,331, of whom 78
are aliens. There was a considerable influx of French Canadians between 1837
and 1840, and also a large Irish immigration both before and after that
period. Descendants of both of these nationalities comprise a large percentage
of the present population. The earlier settlements were almost wholly in the
southern and central parts, development in the northern section having been
later and for a time slower.

The town derived its name from William Constable of the Macomb syndicate, to
whom the lands in township number three had been apportioned. It has two
hamlets   Constable, lying west and south of the center, and Trout River on
the Canadian frontier. Neither has a population of more than one or two
hundred, nor is either as good a trading point as it used to be. Of mercantile
establishments there are now only two at Constable, and at Trout River but
four. The former place has also a grist mill, a creamery, a small shop or two,
a hotel, the town house and the school house, three churches, and a small
group of houses. At one time it had also a dyeing, carding and fulling mill, a
tannery, a sash and door factory, and a starch factory or two near by. At
Trout River, besides the four stores, there are two churches, a couple of
shops, one hotel, a school house, a customs office, and a few dwelling houses.
Years ago there were in addition two tanneries, a grist mill, a planing mill,
a saw mill or two, a creamery and a starch mill. A livelier and more important
place for a small one was not to be found anywhere in this locality.
Three-quarters of a century ago, and even down to 1874 or 1875, the volume of
trade at both places, though more particularly at Trout River, was large. As
merely a suggestion of how large operations sometimes were there, it is known
that Sidney W. Gillett once had ten thousand dollars tied up in potash alone,
and Lyman J. Folsom a much larger amount in butter, on which a quick break in
prices cost him a quarter of his investment almost overnight. Mr. Folsom had,
too, a two-story and basement building literally packed with merchandise, and
kept six or eight clerks busy. His trade came from both Canadian and American
farmers, and is believed to have been the largest of any store in the county.
If it be wondered where the capital came from for such extensive operations,
the answer is that almost everybody in the vicinity who had saved a bit of
money would bring it to one of the merchants at this point, and insist upon
his taking it for use in his business. It is also a remarkable incident of the
merchandizing not only at Trout River, but in the like "line" stores
elsewhere, that while many of the dealers accumulated what was deemed
comfortable fortunes for the time and place, almost every one of them was
overtaken by disaster   sometimes while still prosecuting business where their
money had been made, and sometimes in ventures in which they engaged at other
points. Mr. Gillett, the Websters and Mr. Folsom are striking illustrations.
Nathan L. Knapp and Edwin L. Meigs were exceptions, and yet the fortune of the
latter was dissipated in the next generation.

Smuggling of goods by customers of the "line" stores was usual and general,
the stores having counters on each side of the boundary, and the extent of
this illegal traffic was quite beyond present conception. A good deal of it
involved simply buying from a counter in foreign territory for the customers'
own consumption, which was practiced commonly by the very best people in both
countries   men and women who were devout church members, and who would have
scorned to cheat or wrong a neighbor, but saw nothing dishonest or
discreditable in evading the payment of customs duties; and for that matter,
were seldom watched or disturbed by the customs officers, who usually confined
themselves to looking after bigger game, for there were others who almost made
a business of smuggling   planning their work cunningly and operating so
extensively that if caught with the goods their loss in many instances must
have spelled financial ruin, and perhaps imprisonment as well. Livestock,
butter, opium, liquors, wool and woolen fabrics and some other manufactures
were thus brought out of the Dominion here clandestinely in great quantities,
and tobacco also in an early day, while kerosene, prints, cotton sheeting, and
sometimes sugar, tea and tobacco were among the articles that surreptitiously
went the other way. Those who engaged in smuggling livestock were usually only
small operators, running in a single animal or two at a time, and now and then
paying a duty on one with the idea of thus averting the suspicion of the
officer; but regular dealers, like William Dempsey, whose shipments of cattle
and horses to city markets ran for a long time into thousands of dollars a
year, could not afford the risks attendant upon smuggling, and rarely, if
ever, failed to make proper entries and pay the scheduled duties. There were
informers at times, who received a share from the seizures that they caused to
be made, but these were usually spotted and so execrated both by the smugglers
arid by their neighbors generally that they found it more comfortable to leave
the locality than to continue to abide in it, though there was no such degree
of contempt and ostracism for the man who informed for the sake of evening a
quarrel as for him who acted for gain. Until about forty years ago, the
customs officers received, in addition to their salaries, a third part of the
value of any goods that they seized. Many stories are told of the tricks
played upon collectors, and especially upon Isaac McMaster in the years
following soon after the civil war. Mr. McMaster was extremely conscientious
and devoutly religious, and clerks and proprietors alike in the "line" stores
at Trout River took delight in selling him goods from the Canadian counter
without a suspicion on his part that he was buying foreign and dutiable
articles. His distress upon learning of his innocent violation of the
law was great, and he invariably penalized himself by paying the duties. On
prayer meeting nights, when he was sure to be in attendance, the men addicted
to smuggling made it a point to be active. And yet it may be questioned if
successful smuggling was greater during his term of office than it was under
other collectors who mingled more among men. For many years after such
operations had been practically discontinued, and when the statute of
limitations had run, a common form of evening entertainment in the stores was
the recital by one or another former smuggler of how he deceived the officers
or how narrow had been his escapes from capture and the loss of his goods. But
there is not enough difference now between State and Canadian prices for most
commodities to tempt strongly to evasion or violation of the customs laws, and
smuggling on the old scale is little practiced.

In its southern part Constable is broken by hills, but the northern section,
though undulating, is as nearly a plain as any other equal area in the county.
It was originally densely wooded by both pine and hard timber, and it is told
that in the lumbering operations here by the men of Westville more than a
hundred years ago the largest timbers required eighteen yoke of oxen and two
spans of horses to haul them to Salmon river, whence they were floated to
Montreal. The town is watered by a number of brooks, by the Salmon river,
which flows for about a mile through the southwestern corner, and by Trout
river and Little Trout river, which join in the northern part. The soil,
though generally light, is rich and heavy in a few localities. Market
gardening is practiced successfully and upon a large scale, especially by
Herbert P. Langdon & Son, successors to Fayette Langdon & Son, who entered
upon the business some fifteen years ago. Their first venture was melon
raising, which was successful for a time, but latterly has been a failure, and
therefore abandoned. At present the concern's specialties are early cabbages,
early corn, early tomatoes, onions, sweet peppers, etc. Of corn they market
forty to fifty thousand cars in a season, and of tomatoes eight hundred to a
thousand bushels. Most of their products are shipped to summer hotels in the
Adirondacks at fancy prices, though considerable quantities are sold in Malone
also. They have developed a particularly early and fine tomato, called the
Langdon Strain of Earlianas, from the most carefully selected specimens of
which they put up large quantities of seeds for sale to seedsmen. For the
choicest of these seeds they have no difficulty in disposing of all they raise
at five dollars per ounce, with other grades selling at varying figures down
to sixty cents per ounce. They had a contract in 1916, outside of the Earliana
seed, to furnish a large house with all of the seed from two acres that were
cultivated solely for this purpose. Their tomato seeds alone brought them two
thousand four hundred dollars in 1915! Mrs. Sherry Vanyea, E. A. Cooper,
Edward Lynch and others also operate here as market gardeners. About twenty
years ago Gaius A. Harmon established a cannery, in which he packed from 500
to 750 cases of tomatoes a year; but the crop was not sure enough every season
to make the venture profitable, and the business was discontinued. The first
garden strawberries grown in Franklin county for market were raised by Lorenzo
Coburn in Constable in 1857. Early in the season he contracted the entire crop
to a fruit dealer in Malone at twelve cents a quart. His largest one day's
picking, on a Saturday, was sixty-four quarts, which so astonished and
frightened the dealer, lest the berries should spoil before he could sell
them, that he repudiated his contract, and Mr. Coburn then disposed of the
fruit by peddling it from door to door through the village. Since then single
growers here have picked a thousand quarts each in a day, and Malone consumers
have taken from dealers and growers as many as ten thousand quarts in a single
day; and a dealer told the writer thirty odd years ago that he had orders
which would warrant him in buying fifty thousand quarts a day for shipment if
he could get them. One season thirty years ago the price fell to five cents a
quart in quantities.

The St. Lawrence and Adirondack Railway, which is a part of the through line
from New York to Montreal, enters the town about midway between the southeast
and the southwest corners, and traverses it in a northeasterly course to the
northwestern corner of Burke. There is but one station in Constable, which "is
about a mile east of the Corners. Incidentally, it is of interest to note that
the first survey for the Ogdensburg division of the Rutland Railroad ran along
the ridge back of Fred Bell's residence, crossing the river almost directly
west of the cemetery. The rise by this route to the Summit was so great,
however, that one farther to the south, through Malone, had to be substituted.
Otherwise Constable would doubtless have been the principal town in the
county. Improved highways bisect Constable from the Malone line north to Trout
River, and from the Burke line west to Westville. And speaking of highways,
speculative conjecture carries us to a time long antedating the first white
settlement. Where Charles Denio now lives, near the Bishop bridge, over Trout
river, Indian relics (a stone hatchet, & stone head for a war club, etc.) have
been dug up from time to time, and a gentleman who had made a study of Indian
customs, visiting the locality a few years ago, declared the opinion that the
place had been the summer camping ground of a band of aborigines in the remote
past. Premising that all streams were formerly of greater volume than now, he
concluded from the character of the place and its surroundings that it had
been the custom of the Indians to ascend the river from the St. Lawrence to
this point, where there is a fine spring and the land is light and the
exposure warm, to plant and tend their fields of maize.

Be that as it may, our first actual knowledge of the region, and it is scant
for a number of years, dates from 1800. There seems to be good authority for
the statement that the first white settlers were Jonathan Hapgood and
Christopher ("Kit") Austin, who were relatives, and came from Milton, Vt.,
locating on the south line of the present town. Peleg Austin had a place near
by at about the same time. Local tradition is that "Kit" Austin was a hunter
and trapper, but he must have been a man of substance, too, for his holdings
in Constable comprised nearly three hundred acres, and in 1805 he conveyed one
hundred acres in Malone, west of the present village, to Oliver Brewster, and
a few years later fifty acres in the northern part of Malone to Pliny Burgess.
In 1808 he was an assessor of the town, in 1814 a lieutenant in Captain Asaph
Perry's company of militia, and in 1816 its captain. His Constable property he
sold in 1835 to Daniel and William Bassett. The Hapgood farm adjoined Austin,
and is still in the possession of descendants of its original owner. It was
here, in the Hapgood house, that Malone's first town meeting was held in 1805,
when Malone (then called Harison) included all of the county west of Burke,
Bellmont and Franklin. Looking at it now, it hardly seems at first thought
that Hapgood's could have been the most convenient point for the assembling of
the people of all this territory; but it is to be remembered that then no part
of Bangor, Dickinson, Brandon or of any of the southern towns had a single
inhabitant, and Moira only a very few. The first deed recorded in Franklin
county conveyed sixty acres east of Constable Corners to John Cadwell, who,
however, remained for only a short time, as shown by the fact that in 1816 as
a resident of New Haven, Vt., he conveyed this property to Alvin Chipman.
Cadwell came prior to 1805, for he appears on Malone's assessment roll in that
year, and, besides his farm, was thought to have twenty-five dollars
personalty. He was an ensign in the militia in 1811.

Dr. Solomon Wyman, the first physician in the town, came from Vermont in 1803,
bought nearly four hundred acres of land, and erected a log house. He had
recently lost his wife, and the bereavement indisposed him to practice his
profession in his new home, though he could not have the heart to refuse
utterly to minister to the needs of his neighbors when there was no other
physician available. His standing in the profession is said to have been
excellent, though, with the barest handful of people living in the town, of
course his calls could not have been many, nor his fees munificent. But
between professional earnings, the making of black salts and the bounties
obtained through the killing of noxious animals he appears to have thrived,
for in 1810 he had displaced his log residence with the substantial and
commodious frame structure that still continues to be the Wyman homestead. He
early held various town offices, and was a man of force of character and
quaint conversation, as is illustrated by his permission to a colporteur to
leave some tracts (tracks), provided the heels should point toward the house.
His eldest son, Ashley, was a militia ensign in 1822, but afterward removed to
Vermont, where he died. Another son, Solomon, became a physician, and
practiced at Fort Covington, while a third son, Lucius, lived and died at the
old homestead. During the war of 1812 a British deserter came to Dr. Wyman's
and was cared for by him. When he departed he gave the doctor his powder-horn,
which is still preserved in the family. On it are a number of inscriptions and
carvings. The former include the soldier's name, Hamilton T. Davidson,
followed by the words, "his horn, made by J. G." Elsewhere is the name Jacob
Gauy and the date 1776. Among the carvings are one representing a battle,
another a duel, and others English castles.

The date of the arrival of James Welch can not be ascertained with certainty,
but, according to the diary of James Constable, brother of William, who
visited the town in 1804 and again in 1805, he had located at first in
Westville, and had been in Constable long enough before the first visit of
Constable to have enabled him to complete a saw mill in that year. This mill
was located just above the bridge over Trout river west of the Corners, while
the Welch house was half or three-quarters of a mile up the stream, opposite
the present cemetery. At this latter point Mr. Welch kept a hotel and ford,
across which he assisted immigrants who were moving to settlement farther
west, and also hired to them his oxen to help haul their loads up the steep
hill back of his house, from which they followed the ridge road, now
abandoned, but at that time the only one that was passable, because the low
lands were generally swampy. The Welch saw mill was sold in 1813 to Joseph
Coburn, who added a grist mill, and conveyed the latter in 1845 to his sons
Alexander and Lorenzo. Lorenzo was at one time principal of Franklin Academy.
The saw mill was deeded to another son, Thomas M. Both were burned in 1856,
together with a shack-that Lorenzo had built close by for a store. Both mills
were rebuilt by the Coburns, and the saw mill finally went to decay. The grist
mill was sold in 186C to James Gilmour Dickey and George F. Dickey, and has
since had as owners Cyrel Hapgood, William Lyman, Thomas E. Kane, William
McKenzie, John McKenzie, Miller Bruce, and now Perry Bishop.

Mr. Constable noted in the diary which he kept on his trips that the town was
getting only few immigrants in 1804, as settlers showed a preference for
Malone, but added that indications were that arrivals would soon increase; and
upon his second visit, in 1805, he found this condition realized. Evidently he
expected the larger settlement to be a mile or so north from the present
hamlet, as he reserved a plot of ground at that point for sale as village
lots. Mr. Constable fixed the price of the other Constable lands at three
dollars per acre, with a discount of twelve and a half per cent, on all cash
payments. He complained that trespassers had been stealing timber, and that
still more had been destroyed by fire   from which it seems a legitimate
inference that Canadians must have been operating there even before settlers
moved in. The assessment of the lands here still owned by the Constable estate
in 1805, amounting to 28,013 acres, was a dollar and a half per acre.

Oliver Bell and his sons, Samuel and Freeman, were early comers, though first
locating in Westville. Removing to Constable, Freeman in 1811 built a frame
house, sixteen by forty feet, with wing, a mile west of the Corners, on the
road leading to "Westville Center, and kept a hotel in a clearing of an acre
and a half. In the war of 1812 this house was the headquarters of the
commandants of the American troops who were stationed in the vicinity, and
also of British officers who were here for a day or two after the evacuation
by the Wilkinson forces. The old bench that stood in the bar-room, and on
which the soldiers used to lounge when off duty, the old fire-place crane and
a spinning wheel of that period are still preserved by Fred Bell, grandson of
Freeman; but the large pewter platter on which the old-time New England
dinners used to come to the table and other souvenirs were lost when the house
was burned in 1908. The old sign, "F. Bell's Inn," that swung for many years
from a post in front of the building, inviting immigrants to rest and
refreshments within, was also lost in the fire.

Asaph Perry was another pioneer, though nothing is ascertainable concerning
him except that in 1805, as shown by the assessment roll of Malone, he owned a
house, farm and mill, valued at $1,155, and was thought to have also forty
dollars of personalty; and that he was commissioner of highways in 1807, a
militia ensign in 1809 and captain from 1811 to 1816   marching in 1814 with
his company, which numbered only twenty-three privates, for the relief of
Plattsburgh, but not arriving there until after the battle had been fought.
The payroll shows ten days' service. Only two other persons in Malone were
assessed in 1805 at as high a figure as Captain Perry, and the next year he
had to pay on only $437 of realty and nothing on personalty. Unfortunately the
assessment roll does not show in what part of Constable his lands were
located. Samuel Bell (who became an ensign in 1820 and a lieutenant in 1821),
John Child, John E. Estabrooks, Peleg Austin and Nathan Hobbs were members of
Captain Perry's company when it started for Plattsburgh, and Samuel Estabrooks
was a sergeant in it. The latter became its lieutenant in 1816, and its
captain in 1818, succeeding Christopher Austin, who had in turn succeeded
Perry in 1816. Nathan Hobbs was the father of Judge Albert Hobbs, who was in
his day probably the best judge of law in the county, though perhaps not the
most skillful practitioner. Remembering him as a man of austere dignity and
scrupulous in all of the proprieties, a story told of him as a young man in
Constable rather challenges credence. The story runs that upon one occasion
when a religious meeting had been appointed to be held at the town house, and
the expected clergyman failed to appear, some one suggested that Mr. Hobbs
preach, which he did, and was afterward fined one dollar for disorderly
conduct in having presumed to act in a ministerial capacity.

Not much more is to be learned concerning John Child than is obtainable
relative to Captain Perry. He was a brother-in-law of Guy Meigs, had a saw
mill at an early day near the Bishop bridge, which he sold to Harau Hastings,
the son of Joel. The mill (rebuilt of course) is now run by Peter Denesha.
Peregrine White and Wells P. Bishop owned it between Child and Denesha. A
daughter of Mr. Child married D. F. Berry of Malone, and Mr. Child died at Mr.
Berry's, a nonogenarian, forty years ago.

Sylvester and Ira Langdon arrived in 1809, the former returning to Vermont
soon afterward to be married. A yoke of oxen was a wedding present from the
bride's father, and the couple were eight days in making the journey to
Constable. The nails with which Mr. Lang-don's house was built are said to
have been brought by him on horseback from Plattsburgh. He was commonly called
"judge," and was a man of parts, who enjoyed a wide acquaintance and commanded
unusual respect   often acting as arbitrator in cases of differences or
disputes between neighbors. He was a militia ensign in 1814, a lieutenant in
1&16, and a lieutenant-colonel in 1821.

Cyrell Hutchins, Sr., Joseph and Joel Hastings and Enos Harmon came during the
war of 1812 or just at its close. All engaged in farming, though Joseph
Hastings operated as a blacksmith, too. His triphammer works (listed in the
census of 1825 as an iron works) was just across Trout river from the Child
(now Denesha) saw mill, and stories of his skill with iron are yet prevalent.
He learned his trade with Levi ("Tough") Hastings in Malone, and mended mill
saws so that they never broke again at the place of brazing, made axes, adzes,
steel traps, steelyards, augers and mill machinery. His son, Alfred, still has
the triphammer head with which he used to work. He was a militia lieutenant in
1826, and a captain in 1831. Harvey, George D., Joseph, Isaac, DeWitt C.,
James M., Alfred and Emery were sons of Joseph, and Mrs. Alfred Bassett, Mrs.
George Pearl of Burke, Mrs. Willis W. Bullock of Kansas, Mrs. Aaron Stowers
and Mrs. James S. Dudley were daughters. Emery and Joseph were physicians; the
former died at DeKalb, and the latter in Kansas, where he had a narrow escape
from hanging in "border ruffian" times. A gang of those who were determined to
make Kansas a slave State waylaid him one night when he was responding to a
sick call, and except that he was unarmed and that one of the gang had once
been attended by him and knew him to be a physician he would have been
executed. Harvey, George D., Alfred and James M. were closely identified with
Constable for the greater part of their lives; all were exemplary citizens,
and for a long time were among the town's foremost business men. Harvey J.
Dudley, ex-county clerk, is a grandson of Joseph. Charles A. and Hiram of
Malone, deceased, were grandsons of Joel, and Herbert. C. of Saranac Lake, the
late Dr. Clarence A. and the widow of Dr. H. H. Reynolds of Malone,
grandchildren. Haran, a son of Joel, had a machine shop on the opposite side
of the stream from Joseph, below the Child saw mill, and made there about
every kind of machinery produced in a small shop at that time. Among other
things he cut whet-stones from grindstones. He had a brickyard in the
vicinity, which was run afterward by Harmon Hitchcock and Peregrine White, and
another on the flat just south of the Corners. The male line of descent in the
Hastings, Hutchins and Harmon families has been fruitful, so that the names
are among those most common to-day not only in Constable, but those of
Hastings and Hutchins particularly throughout the county, while the
relationships through marriage are perhaps more ramified than those of any
other equal number of our pioneers. Even Bangor's remarkable record along
similar lines seems here to be surpassed. To trace all of these lines would
make a book in itself.

The names Anthony Sprague, Artemas Smith and Solomon Cook, all then resident
in that part of Malone that is now known as Constable, appear on the
assessment roll for 1805, marking them as among the first settlers. Little
besides that is known concerning them. William B. Buell, the father of Edward
A., was born in Constable in 1813, and, his parents determining to move to
Michigan when he was too young to be taken with them, was brought up by Oliver
Bell. William Cooper also came at least as early as 1805, and had a saw mill
and carding mill north of the Welch or Coburn mills; John C. Davenport, who
had a tannery on Cooney brook, just east of the Corners, in which Daniel I.
Coonley subsequently became a partner; Alden Haskell, who had a hotel in 1817;
Peter B. Davenport, also an inn-keeper; and Guy Meigs were other early comers.
Mr. Meigs became a commanding figure in the county, both in a business and in
a political sense, and it is regrettable that more data relative to his life
in Constable can not be had. His activities from 1824 until his death in 1854
are pretty well known, but I can learn nothing of him in Constable except that
he lived at one time on a farm near Dr. Wyman's, where his first wife died in
1816, and that he leased a saw mill on Salmon river, in the southwestern part
of the town, from Jacob Wead in 1829. Whether he ever was in trade in
Constable I can not say, but his genius in that line probably made him a
merchant somewhere at a very early age. He was Constable's supervisor in 1826,
when he was doing business at Westville Corners, and was elected sheriff in
1836. He and his three wives are buried in Constable.

As nearly as I can trace the matter, through conversations with aged residents
and from the records in the county clerk's office, Peter B. Davenport and then
Reuben Gillett (the father of Sidney W.) had a hotel on the corner where
Robert C. and Frank E. Wilson now reside. Mr. Gillett had a liquor license
there in 1830 and 1831, and Mr. Davenport must have preceded him. Then for a
good many years the stand was a private residence, and such hotel
accommodations as the hamlet afforded were to be found at the site of the
present Hutchins House. Putnam W. Sumner had a liquor license there almost
continuously from 1833 to 1845, though in 1843 the license ran to Jacob
Travis, who, however, was refused a renewal in 1846 upon the ground that he
"was not a proper applicant to keep such a place." While Mr. Sumner was
landlord he had a store in the building. James Tobey, the father of Cornelius
P. and Charles, bought the stand in 1845. Other landlords there were Goodrich
("Duck") Hazen and Cornelius P. Tobey, the latter of whom was proprietor when
the house burned in 1868. It was rebuilt by Robert C. Wilson for a private
residence, and a dozen or fifteen years later became a hotel again, under the
proprietorship of Lyman Hutchins. It was again burned some fifteen years ago
and again rebuilt as a hotel. It was here, I think, that Alden Haskell had his
tavern in 1817. The Davenport-Gillett stand was made a hotel once more in 1874
by Cyrell Hutchins, and was so continued for a number of years. E. G. Smith
ran it at one time. Still another old-time hotel was that of Daniel I.
Coonley, which was near the Cooney brook, east of the Corners.

After Harry Horton and Charles and Henry Hawkins had ceased to carry on a
mercantile business at the Corners, Sidney W. Gillett gave up his store at
Trout River, and located at Constable   selling out there to Edwin L. Meigs,
and removing to Malone. Other occupants and dealers on this site have been
Mason & Culver, James and Harvey Hastings, James S. Dudley, Fred C. Hastings,
Harvey J. Dudley, B. C. Wilson & Son, and now Eoy B. Child. Across the commons
George D. Hastings built and conducted a store about 1865, in which he was
succeeded by J. Nelson Aubrey and Fred A. Dudley, who sold to Herbert J.
Buell. and he to Alburn E. Aubrey. Mr. Hastings also built and for a time kept
the store around the corner, on the road to Trout River, now occupied by the
post-office, and in which A. E. Aubrey, G. A. Harmon, Asa Harmon, Herbert J.
Buell and Fred A. Dudley were later traders. Still a little farther north
there used to be another store, kept by Hyson, Jason J. and Henry Carpenter.
Opposite the post-office building there was, a long time ago, a cheap store or
saloon of bad repute, built by William Healey, but which is now occupied by
Harry Priest as a feed and produce store.

The Cooper saw mill and carding mill, above referred to, was run by Cooper &
Hawkins in 1830, and was sold by Robert Cooper in 1839 to Esek Sprague and
James G. Dickey, and by them in 1848 to Myron Chamberlain, who operated the
property as a clothing, dye, fulling and carding mill and also as a sash and
door, factory. It was next run by George W. Works, and finally was bought by
Jewett J. and Albert Webb, who converted it into a creamery, which it
continues to be, with William Stebbins as maker.

Harry Horton became identified with the town about 1826 or 1828, and was
influential in its affairs for a dozen years. He was a brother of Hiram Horton
of Malone, and the grandfather of Mrs. H. D. Thompson and William H. and John
H. King of Malone. He operated as a merchant and land owner and agent until
about 1840   his store having been on the same site now occupied by Roy B.
Child. Henry H. Hawkins was another notable figure here at about the same
period. Some of the old town records are in his writing, which was as
symmetrical and handsome as copperplate. He and his brother were the first
merchants at Constable in 1824. George W. Darling, a physician, came in 1822,
and practiced with notable success for a long time; and Jacob Hart was here as
the pastor of the Congregational church in 1822.

The date of the first settlement in the northern part of the town, at or near
Trout River, is not now determinate, but it was at least as early as 1820.
Among the first comers were Simeon Witherell, Erastus Hazen, E. J. Knappin,
Andrew MacFarlane, Peter Brewster, Sullivan Tuthill, Orson L. Healey, Augustus
Martin, James Gilmour Dickey and Washington Wooster. Arrivals a few years
later included James V. Dickey (a cousin of James Gilmour), Patrick Lahey,
Warren Robinson, Peter Martin, William Scranton, Francis Waggoner, David
Webster, Sr., Robert Gillard, Aaron Honsinger, John Vandervoort, Ezra Warren,
James Dempsey, Patrick Riley, and Daniel Hughes. Mr. Knappin had an ashery,
just north of the international boundary, the chimney of which has been made
the starting point in many deed descriptions. What this ashery meant for a
good many years to a good many people may be conjectured from the fact that in
a sketch prepared by Mrs. Wallace H. Webster, and published in 1910, it is
stated that the writer had seen an acre of ground covered with four-foot wood,
bought at fifty cents a cord, for heating the ovens in which the potash was
converted into pearlash, and from the further fact that when Mr. Gillett ran
it and was in trade here he had on hand at one time pearlash valued at more
than ten thousand dollars! John Lamontaigne made the barrels in which to pack
the product, which went to Montreal, or fifty miles through the wilderness to
Plattsburgh, whence it would be shipped by boat to New York. Mr. Martin was
prominent for a long time, and was the father of many local enterprises. About
1838 he built a saw mill half a mile above the hamlet, on the west side of the
river, which was burned. He rebuilt a quarter of a mile below, and sold the
new structure to his son, Jed. This mill was carried off by ice. The elder
Martin next built another saw mill a quarter of a mile over in Canada, in
which he included a carding mill, and where he also made cloth in a small way
and manufactured furniture. He was several times in the mercantile business
also. Mr. Robinson was the first customs officer here, and his salary was four
hundred dollars per year. James Gilmour Dickey came in 1825, and for ten years
was in trade and had a saw mill, in which was a feed mill. The particulars
concerning the building of the mill in question are lost, but it is thought to
have been erected more than a hundred years ago by parties from Montreal,
which, if true, might explain the timber thefts of which Mr. Constable
complained in his diary in 1804. The same mill was operated later by Sidney W.
Gillett, and its products, both then and earlier, were rafted to Montreal.
Later still it was run by Edwin A. and Wallace H. Webster. Before, during and
after Mr. Gillett's time, Trout River was a source of lumber supply for a wide
extent of country, and it was almost a daily occurrence that teams loaded here
with lumber by parties from Westville, Fort Covington and points in Canada.
James V. Dickey was a merchant from about 1828 to 1845. Mr. Wooster was the
foster father of Mrs. W. H. Webster, who was the daughter of Solon Bingham of
Burke. Mr. Wooster was customs officer for twenty-five years, and was in
trade. Mr. Warren, a blacksmith, was the father of Herrick E. and Washington
W. Mr. Lahey was the father of Patrick H., late of Malone, and of George of
Trout River, and Mr. Dempsey of William, now of Malone, but formerly one of
the best known men in Constable   as square as a die, supervisor of the town a
good many times, and an extensive dealer in livestock and farm products.

A stone grist mill was erected by Edwin A. and Wallace H. Webster in 1858, the
walls of which still stand, though cracked by two fires. It was next owned and
operated by Hector McLeod, who afterward won success and means at St.
Johnsbury, Vt., and who sold to John R. Cameron. Then Thomas Helms had it
until 1880, when it burned, and Mr. Cameron again came into possession and
rebuilt it. Next it became the property of Charles W. Hyde, now a druggist in
Malone, and in 1893 it burned again. Mr. Hyde sold to John Moore, who began a
re-equipment of the interior, but never completed the work. This mill is just
over the line in Canada, as also was the old Dickey-Gillett saw mill, for
there is no point near the hamlet on the south of the border where it is
feasible to develop a power.

Trout River had at one time two tanneries, on the Canadian side, the first of
which was built by Alexander and James McNair during the civil war, and the
second by Hugh Sutherland. Both were burned thirty years or more ago. The
former had, however, been converted previously into a planing mill, which was
owned and run by McNair and Charles Tuggey. 

A starch mill was built on the American side of the line, probably prior to
1860, by the Webster Brothers. It was bought and operated by Clark Dickinson
of Malone, who finally sold it to Jed. L. Martin, when it was changed over
into a sawmill, to take the place of the one on the opposite side of the river
that had been swept away by ice. It rotted down.

Besides Mr. Martin and the two Dickeys, early merchants here were Goodrich
Hazen, Elisha Hollister, Washington Wooster and Orson and Joshua Healey.
Sidney W. Gillett began trade probably before, 1840, and his establishment was
the best stocked and enjoyed the largest custom ever known at this point up to
that time. When the Webster Brothers succeeded him, about 1850, and had
afterward Edwin L. Meigs and Nathan L. Knapp as partners for a time, they drew
custom from points thirty to forty miles distant. Wallace Webster withdrew
from the firm about 1860, removing to Malone, and the senior member continued
the business until 1865, when he disposed of it to John E. Cameron. Lyman J.
Folsom traded here for something like ten years, and was succeeded when he
removed to Malone in 1876 by Brown & McNeil. Alexander Dalzell, Derby &
Paddock, John McFadden, Jed. L. Martin and Charles W. Hyde were also merchants
at one time or another. Mr. Hyde went there from Malone about 1880 to open a
branch drug store for Captain George A. Mayne, then in business in Malone,
eventually bought the store, added other lines of goods, and when he became
collector of customs arranged a partnership with the late James M. Hastings.
Ten years later he sold out, removed to Malone, and established the Hyde drug
store. Present merchants at Trout River are Mrs. John McCaffrey, Albert J.
Elliott, George Bruce and Berry Brothers, dealers in groceries and meats.
Henry McKane also has a meat market. Two store buildings where a considerable
business used to be done, and another which was formerly a saloon and liquor
store, are vacant, marking the decrease in business that has taken place.

But if there has been a loss in industrial and commercial activity, a
compensating improvement has obtained in public order and morality. Within the
recollection of men still living fighting of a fierce character, without other
motive or provocation than a lust for display of prowess, was of frequent
occurrence   the combats sometimes being between residents and stalwart men
from Canada who came solely to settle which were the better fighters. Then,
too, men who had good horses often arranged races up and down the street,
while a drunken and howling body of spectators looked on as the trials
proceeded. The stake usually was a jug of whiskey. Whether because of the
prevalence of these conditions, or with other significance, is unknown, but
the place, originally known simply as "The Lines," came to be called Villain
Harbor. The early meaning of the word "villain" not having been that which we
now attach to it, but signifying a man who held land by a servile tenure, and
hence a countryman or farmer, it is possible that the name may have been
applied to suggest that the locality was a desirable point for farm settlers.
The name Trout River was taken when the hamlet was given a post-office in
1852.

The first hotel at Trout River of which I have knowledge was kept by Orson P.
Healey in 1831, as the Constable town records show that he was granted an
inn-keeper's license in that year and again in 1833. This record represents
the town board as having found the applicant to be a fit person to keep a
tavern, his establishment adapted to the business, and a hotel there to be
actually necessary for the accommodation of the traveling public. The fee
charged for the first year was five dollars, which was increased a year or two
afterward to six dollars, and later restored to the amount first stated   as
perhaps the rate of fifty cents a month had come to be regarded as excessive
and burdensome when liquor commanded only two or three cents a glass. Thomas
Caldwell also had an early tavern here, but whether before, coincidentally or
after Healey can not be ascertained. Alexander and Thomas Chisholm built the
Frontier House in 1866. It was burned a year later, was rebuilt by Frank Larue
and Henry Riley, and was kept later by Riley alone. There was also at one time
a hotel which James Black built and kept. The Franklin House was built in 1876
by Patrick H. Lahey, and kept by him until he removed to Malone in 1884. For
thirty years past it has been run by Edward Dolan, and is the only hotel in
the place. Long ago stages ran from Fort Covington, via Trout River, to
Montreal, and then the hotels here had many guests. Even as late as Mr.
Lahey's time every room in his house would be taken night after night. It is
different now.

In Mrs. Webster's sketch, previously referred to, she states that at the time
of the rebellion in Canada, nearly eighty years ago, large numbers of
Canadians fled their homes, and sought refuge until the trouble should be over
with friends on this side of the border; and that when the Fenian raids
occurred in 1866 and 1870 "for twelve miles every family but one fled to the
States." In the 1870 raid the Fenians made their camp on the Lahey farm, about
a half a mile south of the hamlet; and upon their retreat when driven out of
Canada they poured along the street and through yards and fields in disorderly
and panic-stricken flight   many of them throwing away their arms and
accoutrements. For years afterward practically everybody in the town who
wished for a gun or a bayonet as a souvenir of the occasion had one, either
picked up where it had been cast away, or obtained in exchange for food. The
residents at Trout River at the time of the engagement in 1870 were not
themselves in much better case than the Fenians, dread of possible personal
injury or of destruction of property having seized many, while curiosity was
the dominant condition with others. Anxious to witness the battle, so-called,
and at the same time to seek safety, these latter crowded into the old stone
grist mill until it would hold no more. The story of these movements is told
more fully in a separate chapter.

Besides the starch factory at Trout River, the town had four others: One in
the southern part, in the Chauncey Child neighborhood, built and operated by
W. W. & H. E. King of Malone; a second, near the Bishop bridge, built by
George F. Dickey and Henry A. Paddock, and owned afterward by George W. Hale,
who abandoned it, and was then run until it was demolished by James S. and
Harvey J. Dudley and Fred C. Hastings: a third, north of the Corners, built by
Justus P. Culver owned subsequently by Dickey & Paddock, then by Hiram H.
Thompson, and last by Dudley, Hastings & Dudley, who demolished it; and a
fourth, near the Burke line, built by Solomon Fitch of Constable and E. P.
Deming of Burke, who sold it to be converted into a barn. The Culver factory
was burned in 1856, when Culver had it, and again when it was owned by Dickey
& Paddock.

Sawmills additional to those at Trout River, the Welch or Coburn mill at the
Corners, the Child mill at the Bishop bridge and that built by Asaph Perry,
location unknown, but thought to have been on the Salmon river, were: one
built by Ira Langdon, which is better known as the Culver property, and which
was owned at one time by Russell J. Hall; one below the Culver mill, built by
Putnam W. Sumner, and then owned by Sherburn Ingalls; one on Little Trout
river, built by Hiram Estabrooks; one near the Burke line, built by L. D. and
E. P. Deming of Burke; and the one on Salmon river which Jacob Wead leased to
Guy Meigs in 1829. Julius B. Douglass and Allen Dennis had a sash and door
factory near the Culver sawmill. It was run later by 0. F. Hollister, then by
George W. Works, and now by Charles H. Drum.

Constable never had a Masonic organization exclusively its own, but its
membership in Franklin Lodge of Westville was so large for a time that that
organization held its communications, beginning in 1859, alternately at Trout
River and in Westville.

Constable Grange, No. 1061, was organized some ten or twelve years ago, and
has a present membership of fifty-one. It owns the hall in which its meetings
are held.

There are no other fraternal, benevolent or civic orders in the town.

Sheffield Farms, Slawson-Decker Company, has a milk shipping station at the
railroad. Its receipts are at times manufactured at the station, and at other
seasons are conveyed to a like station of the same company at Malone, and sent
thence to New York.

The church organizations in Constable now number five, and formerly there were
two others. Those now in existence are the Presbyterian at Constable Corners
(originally Congregational), the Methodist at the same place and also at Trout
River, and a Roman Catholic at Constable and another at Trout River. The
records of the Champlain Presbytery give the date of the organization of the
first named as 1821, with Rev. Mr. Armstrong as the organizer, and the date of
enrollment with the Presbytery as 1822. But the records in the county clerk's
office contain a certificate that the society was formed May 21, 1817, by Rev.
Thomas Kennan at the school house, which is stated to have been the place
where the participants "had statedly attended for divine worship," thus
establishing the fact that there had been a Congregational movement and
preaching in Constable for a time previously. The first trustees were Solomon
Wyman, Samuel Perkins, Alric Man, Oliver Bell and John Child. The society has
been continued uninterruptedly since 1821 at least, and usually has had a
resident pastor. Services were held customarily in the school house until the
town house was built, and then in the latter. A church edifice was erected in
1844, and the dedicatory sermon preached by Rev. Ashbel Parmelee. In 1847 the
form of organization was changed from Congregational to Presbyterian.

A Baptist society whose existence has lapsed was formed in 1833, but was
always weak in numbers, and, though it held its monthly meetings and prayer
meetings with a considerable degree of regularity until about 1878, it seldom
had a pastor of its own. It is said to have had thirty-one members at the time
of its organization, but the highest number that it ever reported to the St.
Lawrence Baptist Association after 1848 was twenty in 1866, and the usual
number so reported ranged between ten and fourteen. It never had a church
edifice, and usually worshiped in a school house or in the town hall.

Though, it must be believed probable that occasional Methodist services were
held earlier, either by circuit riders or by pastors of adjacent parishes, the
first recognition of Constable by the conference was in 1836, when it was
listed with Westville as a mission "to be supplied." It does not appear again
in the conference minutes until 1842, when, still joined with Westville, it
was once more listed as a mission; but, with the exceptions of 1842-3 and
1849-50, no pastor was assigned to it until 1854. The first pastor, in 1842,
was Rev. Matthew Bennett. Beginning with 1854, it has been joined almost
continuously with Westville as one charge. A Methodist organization was
effected at Trout River about 1860, and a church built a year or two
afterward. It is a station or appointment with Constable and Westville, a
single pastor serving the three places.

A Free Will Baptist Society, with some of the members residing in Malone, was
formed in 1841. It was always few in numbers, and never had a church home of
its own. In 1852 it had twenty members. When the society went out of existence
I am not informed. One of its pastors was the Rev. Charles Bowles, a negro,
who had been a revolutionary soldier. He died in 1843 in Malone, and is buried
in Constable. On his tombstone is inscribed, "for forty years a faithful
minister of the Free Will Baptist Church."

About 1860 a union church society was formed at Trout River, and a house of
worship erected in 1861, but never fully completed for religious usage, as
friction developed along denominational lines. Religious services were never
held in the building except possibly upon one or two occasions, and it stood
vacant until about 1893, when it was leased to the school district for
ninety-nine years for school purposes. The structure had been veneered with
brick originally, but as the veneering had begun to fall away in places it was
all removed, and siding and clapboarding substituted.

According to Rev. John Talbot Smith, in his History of the Diocese of
Ogdensburg, the Catholics of Constable were dependent until 1865 for
ministrations of their faith upon occasional visits by priests from
Hogansburgh or upon visitation by themselves to Malone or Fort Covington. In
1866, however, all of Constable was attached to Malone, and Rev. J. J. Sherry
ministered to it until 1870, when an independent charge, called St. Bridget's,
was created at Trout River, and Rev. Thomas Walsh assigned to it as its first
resident pastor, and officiating at both Constable and Trout River. A church
building was erected at the latter place in 1871. A year later St. Francis's
church at Constable was formed through the efforts of Rev. Father LeGrand of
Malone, which division of territory, reducing the membership of St. Bridget's
to thirty-eight families, was thought to render its further continuance
precarious. The membership has since increased, however, to sixty-two
families, and is further strengthened by a usually considerable attendance by
Canadian families. St. Francis's church has a neat brick house of worship,
erected soon after its incorporation, and from 1887 until 1918 was combined
with St. George's church at Burke, the two comprising one charge. The
membership of St. Francis's numbers one hundred and seventy-five families.

Apart from the many smuggling ventures of large volume that formerly served as
the basis for gossip in the country stores and at the home firesides, and
which enlisted the detective energies of federal officials, little of
remarkable interest or moment attaches to the history of the town. The place
was scourged by the Asiatic cholera in 1832, presumably brought from Fort
Covington or St. Regis, where it was much more virulent. The death rate at St.
Regis was fourteen in every one hundred cases; the percentage at Constable is
unknown, but while there were a number of deaths the proportion of recoveries
was higher than at St. Regis.

During the Civil War, when bounties were voted to encourage enlistments, the
supervisor of Constable refused to sign the bonds by issue of which the money
was to be provided, and a special town meeting then vested authority in Edwin
A. "Webster to sign in place of the supervisor; but either because of the
delay or for other reasons the town failed to fill its quota. A number of men
had fled, or, in the vernacular of the period, "skedaddled" to Canada in order
to escape the draft, and, therefore, when the names were drawn no man could be
found who could be held for service. Indeed, it is said that at that time
there was in the entire town only one able-bodied man within the draft age
limits, and he, having located only a short time previously, had not been
enrolled. All of the others liable to service had already entered the army as
volunteers, or were beyond reach in Canada.