HISTORY: Dickinson 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 XIII DICKINSON

An act of the Legislature in 1808, to become effective April 1, 1809, created
the town of Dickinson from Malone. It then included all of what is now Bangor,
Brandon. Moira, Santa Clara, Altamont and Waverly and a part of Harrietstown  
a tract approximating twelve miles in width by fifty-odd miles in length, or
nearly a half million acres as shown by the assessment rolls of the towns
named. When erected there was probably not a single white inhabitant in all of
this vast area outside of the townships Bangor and Moira; and its entire
assessed valuation was only $267,903, and the town tax was $661.06   of which
$175 was for wolf bounties, $360.56 for roads and bridges, and all of the
remainder, $125.50, for compensation of town officials, who worked cheap
twenty years later, if not from the first. In 1828 the commissioners of
highways, the inspectors of common schools and the fence viewers received but
seventy-five cents per day each.

Jonathan Dayton, of New Jersey, who was Speaker of the House of
Representatives from 1795 to 1799, and United States Senator from the latter
year until 1805, was interested in the Macomb purchase, and in the partition
of lands among the members of the syndicate became the owner of several
tracts, including Dickinson, in the western part of the county. This township,
number seven, was called Annastown, after a daughter of William Constable, but
Hough attributes the origin of the name as applied to the town to a gentleman
of that name in New Jersey   a statement easily credited in view of Mr.
Dayton's own residence and his proprietorship of the township. The Dickinson
in question was undoubtedly General Philemon, who took an active part in the
war of the revolution, and hazarded his ample fortune as well as his life in
the struggle to establish his country's independence. In the memorable battle
of Monmouth, at the head of the New Jersey militia, he exhibited special
gallantry, was afterward a member of Congress, and died at Trenton in 1809. It
seems a reasonable assumption that it was because of the Dayton and Dickinson
association in Congress that the former gave his friend's name to the town.

The first town meeting was held at the hamlet now known as Brushton, and it is
worthy of remark that as long as Bangor and Moira remained a part of Dickinson
one or the other always furnished the supervisor, and that it was not until
1828 that any resident within the limits of the present town ever held the
office.

Dickinson as now constituted embraces only 27,753 assessed acres, or little
more than a twentieth of its original area, so badly has it been shorn from
time to time for the formation of new towns. Its population in 1810 (when
Bangor and Moira were both included) was 411, and ten years later (with Moira
still a part) only 495. In 1830, with Moira then set off, it had fallen to
446, but in the ensuing decade it jumped to 1,005, and practically doubled
again in the next twenty years. The greatest number of inhabitants that it
ever had was 2,022 in 1875, and the number in 1915 is 1,514, of whom 24 are
aliens. At least a part of the loss here indicated was due to the partition of
the town to form Waverly in 1880, the decrease since then having been 150.

Only a comparatively small part of Dickinson is really good farming land,
while the remainder, though mostly tillable, is rough and rocky. The surface
is broken by many hills. Deer river winds tortuously across the town from east
to west a little south of the center, and, while not a large stream, has so
steady a flow that at a number of points it affords excellent power for small
mills. The town is watered also by a number of brooks. An improved highway
leads from Moira southerly through Dickinson, and it also has one line of
railway   built in 1883 to facilitate lumbering operations farther south, but
now a link in the New York Central system, and extending from Tupper Lake to
Ottawa.

Like all of our older towns, Dickinson was settled principally from Vermont,
and the pioneers were particularly rugged and determined men. It is apparent
from the census figures already cited that settlement was insignificant prior
to 1820, and continued small up to 1840. The first highway traversing the town
was the St. Lawrence turnpike, which entered from the west at a point about
three miles south from the Moira line, and took a diagonal course to the
extreme northeast corner at East Dickinson. The Port Kent and Hopkinton
turnpike was not built until some years later, and passed through a rougher
section, south of the center of the township. Naturally, then, it was along
the St. Lawrence turnpike that the first comers located. Hough makes William
Thomas from Hopkinton the very first, but adds that he remained for only a
short time. Apparently the first permanent settlers came about 1810, and made
their abodes in the vicinity of East Dickinson. These included Jesse and
Jotham Rice, Jesse and Enoch Irish, Solomon Boss (who was a soldier in the war
of 1812), and Reuben Cady. Elder Spooner must have arrived five or six years
afterward, as he is credited with having been the leader in organizing the
Christian church here in 1815, and Andrew, Colvin, Ira and Orson Potter came
before 1812. Without attempting to fix definitely the years of subsequent
arrivals, it is perhaps enough, and all that it is quite safe, to say that
Erastus Hutchins, Benjamin Heath and Samuel Foster (the latter having been a
Moira pioneer) were here in 1822 or 1823, and that Zina and Norman Roys, Niah
Wood, Simeon C. Harwood, Loderick Butterfield, Alexander Dawson, Samuel Mies,
Jeremiah Sampson, Major Baker, Peter, Job and Artemas Whitney, William C. and
Solomon Clark. Thomas Meacham, Warren Ives, and Eben and David Parks must have
come at about the same time or a little later; for from 1828 their names recur
often in the town records as officials. Then these records carry somewhat
later such names as Josiah Bailey, who was town clerk for nearly half a
century, George Page, Moses A. Dustin, Jonathan Saunders, Patrick Fleming,
John Ramsdell, William Hosier and Hardy, Harvey and Harrison Hazen, Danforth
Briggs and Richard Parks, most of whom were as self-reliant, resolute and
capable men within their several walks of life as it ever was the good fortune
of any community to possess. Not brilliant, having only such education as
their limited opportunities had permitted them to acquire, and many of them
rough and some even a bit wild at times, they were yet so sound of judgment,
so practical and so faithful and conscientious in discharging the trusts that
their townsmen committed to them that Dickinson came to be particularly
respected, and to be regarded as a model of what a well governed town should
be. Descendants of most of the pioneers still reside in Dickinson, and follow
worthily in the footsteps of their forebears.

Jotham and Jesse Rice, brothers, and Zina and Norman Roys were originally all
from one stock, though adopting three separate ways of spelling the name.
Edward I., a high-class man, a son of Jotham, was a lieutenant in the Civil
War. Leonard S., merchant at Brushton, and Mrs. William M. Clark of Malone and
Mrs. Elliston Barse of Dickinson are his surviving children. Willard B.,
formerly a merchant at Bangor, and supervisor of the town (who writes his name
"Royce"), is also a grandson of Jotham. Jesse had one son, Anson, whose
daughter, Mrs. Hiram Fish, lives at Massena. Zina and Norman Roys, brothers,
located near Dickinson Center about 1828 or 1829. Wellington, son of Zina,
moved from Dickinson to Malone a few years ago, and is now engaged in farming
in the latter town. Mrs. George Lamson of Dickinson is a daughter, and Sidney
Roys of Bangor a son of Norman. Solomon Ross arrived before 1812, as he served
in a Franklin county command in the war of that period. Milton, a son, is a
merchant at Lawrenceville. Family tradition is that Andrew Potter (the father)
and Colvin, Orson, Sylvester, Ira and Levi, his sons, all came in 1817, but I
find on the payroll of Captain Rufus Tilden's company that Levi served in that
company at Fort Covington between July 8, 1812, and January 13, 1813, and that
Ira was a corporal under Captain Tilden on the march to Plattsburgh in 1814,
which would make them earlier comers by at least five years than does the
family tradition. Levi settled at West Banger, and the hamlet was called
Pottersville in his honor. Mrs. J. V. R. Bowles of Bangor is his daughter. Ira
moved from Dickinson to Fort Covington after a year or so, and Sylvester
located at Brushton. E. H. Potter, merchant at Brushton, is the son of Colvin.
Marvin, son of Orson, was a captain in the Civil War, and two brothers were in
the service with him.

Reuben Cady, who had been a soldier in the war of 1812, and served the town as
supervisor, kept a stage-line hotel at a very early day near East Dickinson,
at which, town meeting was often held after 1828, and where the local militia
used to assemble occasionally for "general training." He had five sons, Orlen,
Almon, Edwin A., William and Wallace, all deceased. Edwin and William alone
have descendants residing in the county. Mrs. Thomas Trumbull of Bangor is the
daughter of Edwin, and Orlen of Moira, and Clinton W., insurance agent in
Malone, are sons of William. Two other sons, Amos and Hartwell, reside in
Dakota.

Samuel Foster had a hotel a short distance west of Cady's. At one time he owed
Colvin Potter six dollars, which the latter wanted to use in buying a pair of
steers. Mr. Foster promised payment after the next "training day" if the
weather then should be fair, and, surely enough, he settled in midafternoon.
Inasmuch as liquor then sold at three cents a glass, we may guess how
abstemious the soldiers were on such occasions. Myron Foster of Bangor is a
grandson of Samuel.

Enoch Irish served as a member of a local militia company in the war of 1812,
and therefore must have been one of the earliest settlers. He removed to the
West about eighty years ago. None of his descendants are known to be living.
Jesse, a brother of Enoch, had six sons, viz., Jesse, Abel, Jonas, Fletcher,
Henry and Sidney. Jesse and Sidney are still living in Dickinson, Henry in
Moira, and Fletcher in New England. Mrs. Charles Whitney of Malone is the only
descendant of Sidney now living in Franklin county. Mrs. Eldon Skiff of
Dickinson is a daughter of Jesse, 2d.

Thomas Meacham must have arrived at least as early as 1808, as he appears in
the proceedings of the board of supervisors of that year as having been paid
fifty dollars as bounties for wolves killed. He first settled in Hopkinton,
moving afterward into what is now the town of Waverly, and at one time lived
in Dickinson on the Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike. In his old age he
returned to Hopkinton, and died there or just across the town line in Waverly
in 1849. He was not identified at all conspicuously with public affairs, but
was notable as a hunter and trapper. His earnings in bounties for noxious
animals in the forty years of his activities must have aggregated thousands of
dollars, as his obituary, written by a townsman, states that he kept accurate
account of the number of the larger animals trapped or shot by him, and that
the totals were: Wolves, 214; bears, 210; catamounts, 77; and deer, 2,550.
Bounties were payable for all of these except deer, and if we average the
amount at only ten dollars each, his revenue from this source would be over
five thousand dollars. Once he trapped or shot three wolves in a single day,
for which lie received one hundred and eighty dollars the bounty at that time
having been sixty dollars per head. It was he who gave the name to Lake
Meacham.

Jonathan Saunders first located with his father, Green or Greenleaf, in Moira
before the war of 1812, as at the age of sixteen years he served on one
expedition in that conflict, acting as a substitute for Barnabas Barnum of
Bangor. When he began life for himself he settled in the northern part of
Dickinson. He was the father of Dexter and Julius C., deceased, and of Willard
J., attorney, of Dickinson, and of Oscar of Moira. Amy Shufelt, deceased, of
Malone, Mrs. George Davidson, and Mrs. Curtis Clark, residing in Nebraska,
were his daughters. Leslie M. Saunders, lawyer, at St. Regis Falls, is a
grandson.

It is doubtful if half a dozen persons now living remember Loderick
Butterfield, and even his name scarcely remains a memory in the town, though
he must have been in his time a man of local importance. He was the first
merchant in Dickinson, his store having been the stand since occupied by
Sumner Sweet, Abel Irish & Andrew Wood, Harrison Barse, Aaron G. Perry, Luther
Perry & Melvin Sowles, Joseph Jessmer, Ernest Tebo and Louis Peets. He was
supervisor for a number of years, beginning with 1828, and was postmaster for
a long time. Eventually he went to Michigan, where he died. One daughter
married Eli Gale of Moira, and another Calostin Crooks of Bangor. A son,
Hinman, died at East Dickinson sixty years ago.

Peter Whitney, as one who knew him characterizes him, was "an old-fashioned
gentleman," a man of exceptional parts, the Methodist class leader, held many
town offices, and was a natural leader of men. As with most others of his
contemporary townsmen, he had to live without luxuries and endure hardships,
but nevertheless his children fared far better than he himself in his boyhood,
for he never had a pair of boots or shoes until old enough to earn the money
with which to buy them. He used to tell that as a child, even in the winter,
he always went barefooted to school, a mile distant from his Vermont home.
Before starting he would heat large hard-wood chips, and after running in the
snow until the cold became unbearable would put down the chips and stand on
them until he could go on again. He was the father of Barney, who became one
of the best known and most highly esteemed educators in Northern New York,
having been principal of Lawrenceville Academy, school commissioner for twelve
years of one of the St. Lawrence county districts, and for a long time
superintendent of Ogdensburg's city schools; of Cyrus P., now of Malone, who
was school commissioner in Franklin county from 1864 to 1870, and is a
surveyor, probably more familiar with wilderness landmarks and old surveyors'
lines than any one else in this section; and of Byron A., the music dealer in
Malone. Cyrus P. has been the surveyor for A. B. Parmelee & Son for more than
twenty years. Job and Artemas Whitney settled in the southern part of the
town, and were only distantly related to Peter.

Simeon C. Harwood was for years town clerk and justice of the peace, and the
locality of his residence is still known as Harwood's Corners, which, by the
way, suggests the entering of a protest against a practice that is becoming
too common of bestowing new locality names when a property changes ownership.
A name once given to a stream, a hill or a corners should be continued
indefinitely unless some exceptionally good reason arises for changing it.
There was formerly a post-office at Harwood's Corners, called Dickinson, with
three or four farm residences close by. Mr. Harwood finally removed to Moira,
and his three sons, J. Nelson, Simeon C. and Asaph L., to Malone.

John Ramsdell came about 1825. His son, Nelson, was born in Dickinson
eighty-odd years ago, and is now living with a son at St. Regis Falls. He was
a leading and consistent member of the Free Will Baptist church, for which he
served as preacher in 1865 and again about twenty-five years later. Herbert N.
and Melvin B., sons of Nelson, represented Dickinson and Waverly respectively
on the board of supervisors in 1915 and 1916, and are men of standing and
usefulness in the western part of the county. The former is in trade at
Dickinson Center, and the latter at St. Regis Falls. Fred, another son of
Nelson, resides at St. Regis Falls.

There were three Hazen brothers, Hardy, Harvey and Runey, who came
respectively in 1828, 1831 and 1841. Harrison, Safford and Sumner were sons of
Hardy, and George and Horace, both living in Dickinson, of Harvey, and Glenn,
Dwight, Hollis and Holland, all of Dickinson, and Earl of Malone, grandsons.
Millard, a son of Safford, resides in Dickinson, and Reuben, another son, in
Lawrence. Seward and Anson, who lived in Malone for a good many years, were
sons of Harrison. Seward now resides in Lawrence, and Anson is a merchant in
Pennsylvania.

Benjamin Heath came in 1824, and established a stage-line hotel in the western
part of the town. His son, Milton, became a militia colonel, was an
unsuccessful candidate for sheriff in 1842, and afterward resided for a time
in Malone, and then at Potsdam. A daughter of Benjamin married Dr. Petit, who
died in the army during the Civil War, leaving a son, Frederick, who was
adopted by Colonel Heath. The Heath hotel burned in 1870.

Erastus Hutchins settled in 1822. He was the father of Claudius and Anson,
both of whom served as supervisor, and were active and influential generally
in town matters. Claudius was a militia colonel, and was county clerk from
1862 to 1868   continuing thereafter to make Malone his home. Melburn W. was
the son of Claudius, and came to be one of the best known men in the county.
For years he was a justice of the peace, clerk of the board of supervisors,
surrogate's clerk, deputy county clerk, and president of the board of
education of the village school district of Malone. In 1898 he was appointed
an examiner of State banks, and removed to New York   becoming the head of the
examining force. His boyhood friends will remember him as the best billiard
player and the best ball player in the county, and as surpassing them all in
every form of athletic sports. He died in 1911.

Alexander Dawson was a prominent figure for a long time, and was the father of
William, who was for a number of years supervisor, a farmer and a lumberman on
a large scale for his day. Alson and John were also sons of Alexander. Guy H.,
a merchant at the Center, and respected citizen, and Alexander, a farmer, are
sons of William, and Mrs. George W. Dustin of Malone is a daughter. Homer,
another son, deceased, was landlord for a time of the old Dustin hotel at the
Center. Joseph B., the present landlord there, is a son of John.

Warren Ives, accompanied by his brother, John, came from Vermont in 1829, with
an ox team from Ticonderoga, having lost one of his horses through the ice in
crossing Lake Champlain, and traded the other for the oxen. They were ten days
making the journey from Ticonderoga, camping wherever night overtook them, and
often their camp-fire showing wolves prowling near. They located at first in
the southern part of the town, where Warren kept a hotel for a couple of
years, and then built the first house at what is now the Center. John Thomas,
a son of the old Connecticut clock-maker, who was a cousin of the Ives
brothers, came with them, or followed soon afterward, and from him the place
took the name Thomasville, by which it was so long known. Warren Ives and Mr.
Thomas built the first grist mill in the town, which was not much of a
success, and after a year or two the latter and John Thomas moved on farther
west. Warren Ives remained, and attained a good deal of local prominence. He
surveyed many of the town's roads, was a lawyer, and served as supervisor for
a number of years. He and Abial Chamberlain built the first sawmill at the
Center, on the site now occupied by the Orcutt lower mill, which was used
exclusively for custom work, as no lumber was then made there for market.
Chamberlain was a man of eccentricities, gruff and grumpy, and liked by
nobody. He believed in witchcraft, and boys were his particular aversion  
which meant, of course, that the boys delighted in annoying him and playing
tricks upon him. They would set the mill running at night, and then send him
letters suggesting that the witches had done it, and advising him to consult a
fortune teller who lived in the vicinity, and who confirmed the boys'
representation, and directed that he burn the saws to exorcise the witches. He
followed the advice, and presumably spoiled the saws, whatever may have
happened to the witches. Martin V. B. and H. L. Ives of Potsdam are sons of
Warren. The former has represented his district in the Assembly. Another son,
Gideon S., has been twice Lieutenant-Governor of Minnesota.

William Mosier was another of the early settlers, and had several sons   John,
James, Noble and William, all now dead. Watson, a clergyman, but now connected
with rapid transit lines and a dealer in real estate in New Jersey, is a son
of John; and Alfred Mosier and Mrs. Fred Hale of Dickinson and Judson and
Elbert of Malone are children of William, 2d.

Moses A. Dustin, a man of fine character, originally a Vermonter, had been a
school teacher in Ohio for twenty years before establishing himself in
Dickinson, where he also taught. His sons were Moses Atwood, Ezra T., William
Dana, George W. and Alonzo. The latter went West when a young man, and is
supposed to have been murdered and robbed. Communication between different
parts of the country was not as easy then as it is now, and the exact facts
could never be learned with certainty. The other sons all became prominent in
Dickinson, and George W. was for years a county personage of consequence and
popularity. He served in the Sixth Heavy Artillery in the Civil War, and
afterward was connected for some time with the quartermaster department of the
regular army, and for a year or two was private secretary to Chief Bushyhead,
an Indian. He was sheriff of Franklin county from 1889 to 1892, and afterward
was in business at Brushton. Moses A., Jr., was proprietor of a hotel on the
Port Kent and Hopkinton turnpike, and then for a good many years of the house
at Dickinson Center, and was a genial landlord. George W. of Malone is a son
of Moses A., Jr., and was county clerk from 1880 to 1886. He is at present in
the real estate business   one of the squarest and most estimable citizens the
county ever had. Mrs. George H. Oliver and Mrs. John H. Dullea of Malone, Mrs.
Seth Johnson of Burlington, Vt., and Mrs. James H. Putnam, now living in
Mississippi, are daughters of Moses A., Jr., and E. Dana Dustin, now in New
York city, and Mrs. Aloney Rust of Malone, Mrs. James Moore of Oneida, and
Nita F. Dustin, a teacher at Batavia, are children of George W., 1st.

William C. and Solomon Clark came about 1840. William M. of Malone is a son of
the former, and George C., the fruit dealer, and Mrs. Ira Haskell are
grandchildren. Harlan P. and Melvin B. of Brushton are sons of Solomon, and
Mrs. John W. Genaway of Malone a granddaughter.

George Page was the father of Homer, deceased, and of Watson. The latter is
distinguished for having a personality that enabled him whenever a candidate
for office as a Democrat to carry a town which was good ordinarily for two or
three hundred Republican majority. He lived for a number of years at St. Regis
Falls. George S. and Burt of Dickinson and Robert of Tupper Lake are sons of
Homer. Another son, Edwin, lives in Missouri.

Eldred Baker, popularly known as Major Baker, came about 1840. I think that
he had lived previously in Bangor or Brandon. He kept a hotel on the Port Kent
and Hopkinton turnpike for a dozen or fifteen years, about a mile east of its
intersection with the road leading from Dickinson Center to St. Regis Falls.
During this period there was a good deal of teaming past this hotel, the
produce of the region which was shipped out going mostly by this route to
Black Brook, and the supplies that were brought in all coming over the same
road from Lake Champlain. Mr. Baker removed about 1854 to Dickinson Center,
and there kept the hotel, the American House, which used to stand near where
the Orcutt store and office now is. He had several children, all of whom
except two are now dead. These reside in California. Harrison G. Baker, who at
one time had a hotel at Brandon, and was well known throughout the western
part of the county, was a son of Eldred.

Denison S. Smith came with his parents to Hopkinton in 1833, and for years
thereafter his life was full of hardship and privation   his clothes in winter
being wholly of cotton, and work in the woods even in childhood being required
of him. Indeed, his people were so poor that the boy's shoes were made by his
father from old boot legs, and his stockings from shreds of wool picked up a
bit at a time from bushes and fence corners where a neighbor's sheep had shed
it, and cleansed, carded by hand and spun and knit by his mother. Even his
summer hats were braided by his mother winter evenings from straw gathered by
her at harvest time. Mr. Smith's years from about 1S43 to 1852 were spent in
New England and in California. The story of his life during this period was
graphically written by himself, and is intensely interesting, but as it does
not bear at all upon Franklin county only very brief extracts from it are
given. His trip from New York to California   by sea to a Texan port, thence
overland into and across Mexico, and thence by boat to San Francisco was
crowded with hardship and thrilling adventure. He reached San Francisco with
barely sixty-two cents of his money remaining, but finally managed to journey
to the mines, where the cost of living was incredibly high  meals of the most
ordinary sort two dollars each, and sleeping accommodations proportionately
dear. Flour sold at a dollar and a quarter per pound (equivalent to two
hundred and forty-five dollars per barrel), and most other eatables at a
dollar per pound. At one time when suffering with scurvy, and vegetables being
necessary to save his life, Mr. Smith paid half a dollar apiece for a half
bushel of onions not larger than English walnuts. Cigars sold at twenty-five
cents each, and drinks at one dollar. Mr. Smith did some prospecting for gold,
but for most of the time worked for wages at whatever he could find to do. He
returned home in 1852, and soon afterward took up his residence in Dickinson,
where he lived respected and usefully until his death, a year or two ago. He
held various town offices, and during the Civil War was enrolling officer for
the town of Dickinson, preparatory for a draft, under Colonel S. C. F.
Thorndike, and afterward was deputy provost marshal. Later he was assistant
United States assessor of internal revenue under U. D. Meeker. Before this he
had been a deputy sheriff, and as such was assigned to pass the last night of
the life of Madison Bickford (who had shot Secor in the town of Franklin, as
told in Chapter XVI) in the cell with him against a possible attempt at
suicide by the prisoner. Bickford had left a prayer meeting in Dickinson to
follow Secor and murder him. Mr. Smith speaks of Bickford, who was only
nineteen years of age, as "a young man of more than ordinary ability, and a
favorite with the young people." Bickford visited pleasantly with Mr. Smith
until two o'clock in the morning, saying, among other things, that he would
not change his fate for ten years in prison, and then slept soundly until
morning. At Bickford's funeral, held in Dickinson, the officiating clergyman
declared that he had died a martyr, and Bickford's father characterized the
execution as "Franklin county's murder." Justus D. Smith of Dickinson is
Denison's only child. He was for twenty years the private secretary of William
H. Russell, of New York, who built a Swiss chalet on the Zina Roys brook in
Dickinson for a summer home.

David and Ebenezer Parks, brothers, and Rev. Richard Parks, Sylvanus Niles,
Patrick Fleming and Jeremiah J. Sampson were all an excellent type of
citizens. The Parks brothers were comparatively early arrivals. Ebenezer had a
son and a daughter, but the family is now extinct, while David's descendants
are numerous. He had six sons and three daughters, of whom John, William, Mrs.
John McNeil and Mrs. Silas Crocker are dead   all leaving children as follows:
By John, Fred, Walter, Hazel and Newton, the latter of whom lives at Utica; by
William, Joseph and Earl, of Worcester, Mass., and Sadie; by Mrs. Crocker,
Edith Wylie of Boston; by Mrs. McNeil, Mrs. Ernest LaBounty and Mrs. Roy
Harris of Montpelier, Vt. Descendants of the others named are: Of Frank,
Claude, Leo, Vernon, Anna and Lenna; of George, Kyle and Daniel; of Thomas,
Edward, Howard, Beatrice, Nellie, Bessie of Carthage, Grace of Newton Falls,
and William and Burt of Tupper Lake; of Ira, John of Dickinson, and Mrs. A. S.
Smith of Saranac Lake. All live at St. Regis Falls except as otherwise noted.

Rev. Richard Parks was of another family, and did not come to Dickinson until
about 1860, when he was called to the pastorate of the Free Will Baptist
church, which, first and last, he served faithfully and acceptably for a good
many years. He preached also in Burke and at a number of other places in
Franklin and St. Lawrence counties, and was everywhere esteemed a high-class
man. He had three sons, George and Nelson, both dead, and Ovett, who resides
in the West. Ovett E., now living in Potsdam, and Frank, a teacher in the
school at Dickinson Center, are sons of George. Nelson had no children.

Mr. Niles came about 1838, and was a blacksmith for fifty years. A sister was
the wife of Denison S. Smith, and Samuel is a half brother, still living in
Dickinson. Sylvanus's sons were Noble, Jay and Sylvester, all now residing in
Dickinson, and his daughters were Mrs. Almeda Spears, living in Essex county,
Mrs. Cora Winters of Dickinson, and Mrs. Nettie Day of Lake Ozonia.

Patrick Fleming was of the highest character, and remarkably capable. He was
town clerk for a number of years, and two or three times supervisor. He kept
the first store at Dickinson Center. His sons, Silas P. and William Alyn, were
at one time well known figures in the town. The former was in trade and also
built, and for a short time kept, a hotel, the Centennial, at Dickinson
Center. He was a fun-loving, rollicking fellow, never contented unless engaged
in some prank that outraged the sense of propriety of the sober-minded.
William Alyn became a lawyer, practiced at Brushton and Malone, and removed to
Minnesota, where he was elected a member of the Legislature.

Mr. Sampson located about 1850, and was a millwright. He had thirteen
children, none of whom was born in Dickinson. All are now dead except Mrs.
Anna Kingley, who resides at Racine, Wis., and Esquire, who lives at Dickinson
Center.

Joseph Bailey, one of the most genial and most accommodating of men, came
about 1845 or possibly a little earlier, and was a farmer, a tanner, a
shoemaker and a cooper   turning his hand also to many other things if thereby
he could help a neighbor or a friend. He was town clerk for most of the time
for half a century, and served as postmaster at Dickinson Center during the
Civil War. A daughter married John Dawson, and still lives in the town. Joseph
B. Dawson is his grandson.

A resident of a different sort was Alonzo Clark, born in 1843. At the age of
forty-six, twenty years of his life had been passed in prison, and later he
served at least one more term   all for horse stealing. He seemed to have a
passion for that sort of thievery. In 1889 he was credited with having stolen
no less than 120 horses, and boasted that not one had been the property of a
townsman. His operations extended all over Northern New York and through the
middle West. Upon his release from prison in 1898 he announced a reformation,
and I think stole no more. But he had no penitence, and reformed only because
he was getting old and had found that stealing did not "pay." In 1898 he
claimed that he had stolen 370 horses in all. He died in 1910.

Dickinson contains no village, and only one hamlet, though there are two or
three neighborhoods rather more closely settled than the average of farming
sections   each of which has its distinctive name. East Dickinson lies in the
extreme northeastern part of the town, and here there are a store, a church
and a few scattered farm houses. Formerly the place had two starch factories,
one of which was burned, and the other has been converted into a feed mill.
Some four miles to the west, and on the northern border, is Alburgh (the name
indicating plainly that the people there were originally Vermonters), and at
this point there are a store, a blacksmith shop, a creamery and eight or ten
families. Years ago there was a Methodist chapel near by. Dickinson or
Harwood's Corners is on the direct road from Moira to Dickinson. Center, and
has a store, a creamery and five or six families resident in the immediate
vicinity. Dickinson Center, the hamlet referred to, is south of the center of
the township. Deer river flows through it. It contains four or five stores,
two churches, a Grange hall (which used to be a Second Adventist church), a
school house and town house, a railroad station, two grist mills, two saw
mills and a creamery. Its population is between four and five hundred.

Dickinson has been the scene of two tragedies of melancholy interest. The
dwelling house of Esek Hawkins burned September 3, 1852, and Mrs. Hawkins and
a daughter, aged seven years, perished in the flames. In 1865 Henry Meacham,
believing his wife unfaithful, shot her through the heart and cut her throat
as she was clasping her infant child to her breast, and then shot himself
through the brain. Mrs. Meacham was a sister of Cook, the accomplice of
Bickford in the murder of Secor.

The list of those who have been merchants at Dickinson Center includes Patrick
Fleming, Thomas Leonard, Theophilus Olena, Luther Hurlburt, Tuttle & Peck, S.
P. Fleming, Tuttle & Conger, George W. Dustin, Alfred H. Olena, S. & Lannis
Wilcox, L. M. Stowe, Richard P. Lindsay, Harvey Harrington, H. G. Baker,
Watson Page, George Chase & Co., Lyndon Young, W. D. Dustin, Fred L. Conger,
F. L. Curtis, B. L. Orcutt, Eev. A. F. Bigelow and C. A. & C. E. Morehouse.
Mr. Hurlburt was a brother of former Congressman Calvin T. Hurlburt of
Brasher, and A. H. Olena, now a prosperous merchant in New York city, is a
grandson of Jeremiah Sampson. Both were partners for a time with George W.
Dustin, ex-county clerk. Those who are at present in trade there are H. N.
Ramsdell, H. H. Briggs and Guy H. Dawson.

Hotels other than those of Reuben Cady, Samuel Foster, Benjamin Heath and
Silas P. Fleming, already sufficiently mentioned, were: One established by
Warren Ives, and purchased about 1840 by Eldred Baker, on the Port Kent and
Hopkinton turnpike, about a mile east from its intersection with the highway
leading from Dickinson Center to St. Regis Falls, which was kept by him until
about 1854, and from that date to about 1860 by Moses A. Dustin, Jr.; one at
Dickinson Center, next north of B. L. Orcutt & Sons' office, known as the
American House (torn down in 1882), which Henry N. Bickford, the father of
James Madison, the murderer, kept for two or three years, though he was more a
pettifogger in justice's court than a landlord, and then for a number of years
by Eldred Baker, and, finally, until it burned, but not in a particularly
attractive way, by a man named Cheney; and the present hotel at Dickinson
Center, the only one now in the town, which was a conversion of the office of
Dr. Hiram N. Smith of Nicholville into a tavern by Moses A. Dustin, Jr., and
kept by him until his death in 1894. It was next managed by Steve Fosburg,
then by Homer Dawson, deceased, and now by Joseph B. Dawson. The tavern on the
turnpike where Ives, Baker and Dustin presided still stands, but has not been
used as a public house for half a century or more. Of Mr. Bickford it is said
that in manner and temperament he resembled the late Hon. John P. Badger, and
he was rated a man of considerable abilities. Before locating in Dickinson he
had made his home in Moira.

The industries of Dickinson were never numerous nor of large importance. The
local demand for manufactured products was of course insignificant, the
streams permitted no large power developments, and until about thirty years
ago all transportation had to be over poor roads, with a considerable haul to
the railroad.

The original grist mill at the Center was almost directly across the river
from the present Tuttle mill. It was sold by Warren Ives in 1843 to Allen
Lincoln of Fort Covington, and by him to Alpheus Conger of Moira in 1863.
Conger executed a contract of sale to E. N. Tuttle and L. M. Stowe, but before
the conditions had been fulfilled sold to Frank B. Peck of Hopkinton. While
the mill was owned by Mr. Lincoln it was run by Elkanah Shaw, whose son, Levi,
was the last person to operate it. After acquiring the property under their
contract, Stowe and Tuttle built a new mill on the opposite side of the
stream, and the old mill eventually rotted down. Stowe sold to Tuttle, who
afterward had as partners George Macomber, and then William Downey. This mill
is now owned and operated by Everett Markham, better known, however, as
Tuttle, he having been adopted by E. N. Tuttle. Upon retiring from partnership
with Tuttle, Downey built a new mill in 1907 a few rods down the stream, and
continues to run it.

The town formerly had four starch factories. One at the Center was built by H.
M. and Jeremiah J. Sampson about 1857, and was sold by them to Milton Heath
and George B. Farrar. Rev. R. Parks and Dyer L. Merrill afterward operated it,
and Mark Page next owned it and ran it successfully for a long time. One at
Alburgh was built by D. W. and C. J. Lawrence and Ira Russell of Moira in
1856. H. H. Thompson of Malone bought it ten years later, and sold to R. S.
Brown and Tabor C. Meigs in 1867. It was next owned by Clark Dickinson and
Thomas F. Mulholland of Bangor, who in turn sold to Wells S. Dickinson and
Fayette W. Lawrence. At East Dickinson there were two starch factories, one of
which was built by Leonard Fish, James Spooner and William Rice about 1855,
sold by them in 1864 to Sumner Sweet, bought in 1866 by R. S. Brown and Tabor
C. Meigs, and by Horace A. Taylor in 1873. It still stands, but has been
converted into a feed mill by Horace Lincoln. The other, I think, was built by
Charles Taylor, who sold it in 1865 to A. G. Perry, and the latter to John V.
Bowles in 1875. It burned in 1877, and was not rebuilt.

The first saw mill, as already stated, was built by Warren Ives and Abial
Chamberlain at the Center, practically on the site now occupied by the lower
Orcutt mill. Anson Hutching bought it fifty years ago, and a few years later
he and L. W. Babcock ran it on an extensive scale until it burned in 1878.
(Dr. Babcock removed to Minnesota, became prominent in politics, and in 1903
was Speaker of the Assembly.) They had also a second mill up the stream, just
across the river from the present Orcutt steam mill. Benjamin L. Orcutt came
to Dickinson from Massachusetts in 1875, and with his brother-in-law, William
D. Dustin, operated for a time the William Dawson mill, east of the Center. In
1879 he and Mr. Dustin bought the old Ives or Hutchins & Babcock mill
property, the former soon acquiring the latter's interest. Since then Mr.
Orcutt and his sons, Fred and Harry B., have operated the mills, doing a large
business, and building up an enviable reputation as capable and
straightforward men. At their lower mill they have an electric power plant,
which furnishes light to such of the people of the hamlet as choose to use it.

At an early day Erastus Hutchins and Hardy Hazen built and ran a small saw
mill in the vicinity of Alburgh, which Anson Hutchins afterward owned, but
upon engaging in business at the Center sold to Milton Lockwood. Alexander
Dawson, the elder, and then Jonathan Saunders, had a mill a mile farther
south. Still another saw mill was built about 1857 at the Center, near where
the Downey grist mill now is, by H. M. and Jeremiah Sampson. This property
was, I think, owned and worked later by Anson Hutchins, and then by Stephen
Dow and George L. Parks, J. W. Webb, and finally by Webb and Willard E. Seaver
as a tub factory. Yet another saw mill was run by John and Alson Dawson on the
Zina Roys brook, at about the point where Fairladies, the show place of the
town (a summer home built of stone by Mrs. Kobbe, of New York, at great cost)
is located. There was also a steam saw mill at East Dickinson in the Bowles
starch factory. The William Dawson mill, above referred to, was originally
called the King mill, and the timber tract and water privilege were acquired
by Mr. Dawson about 1870. It shifted ownership between Mr. Dawson and Albert
Tebo two or three times, and was as often burned. It is now out of existence.
There was also a small saw mill near Barnes Corners, in the same neighborhood
as the Dawson mill, built by Rodney Tyler, and owned at one time by 0. W. and
E. D. Bean. Nothing definite can be ascertained about the man King who first
had a mill in this locality. The mill itself had disappeared seventy years ago
or more.

Dickinson had a tannery as early as 1835 and two in 1845, both small of
course. The first of these was on the farm now owned by Howard Davidson, and
was operated by a man named Bishop Kingsley. The second was Josiah Bailey's,
and was near the Briggs drug store, on the north side of the river.

In 1887 Dickinson Center was led into the hope that it was to be given an
industry which would contribute largely to its growth and prosperity. Rev. C.
A. Morehouse was at the time pastor of the Free Will Baptist Church, had
strong inclinations toward business undertakings, and had engaged with a
brother in a mercantile venture there. He then proposed to establish a chair
factory which should give employment to eighty or a hundred men, obtained the
promise of financial backing by a Chenango county man, and was pledged four
thousand dollars as a bonus by the citizens of the town. Something like half
of this bonus was actually paid over to him, but the remaining subscribers
insisted upon seeing the factory in operation, or at least fully equipped with
the special machinery required, before "making good" on their subscriptions.
To this demand Mr. Morehouse pleaded that it was necessary that he have the
money that had been promised if he were to go on with the enterprise. A
building was actually erected and equipped as a saw mill, but the chair
machinery was never supplied. As a saw mill the establishment employed from
ten to fifteen men, but was not a success under Mr. Morehouse. In 1892
Benjamin L. Orcutt bought the property, and operated it in turning out
hard-wood flooring and butter tubs until it burned in 1897.

The Christian church at East Dickinson was the first religious organization in
the town, and was formed mainly through the efforts of Elder James Spooner,
with the co-operation of Jesse and Jotham Rice, Samuel Foster and Reuben Cady.
The date of organization is given as 1815. For a good many years it was a
thriving body, but for nearly or quite half a century now it has been
inactive, and without a regular pastor. Its records are understood to have
been destroyed by fire a few years ago. The church edifice was erected in
1861.*

* The church was opened again for worship in 1916, a minister of the Holiness
Movement (Rev. Philip Guiter, residing at Moira) officiating, and the
attendance at meetings being surprisingly large, and the interest marked. Mr.
Guiter held services also in the old Baptist church near Alburgh.

The second church organized was the Free Will Baptist, at Dickinson Center, in
1835, with Elder Charles Bowles presiding, John Ramsdell first deacon, and
Jesse Rice clerk. The records are complete from the date of organization to
the present, and the minutes of the early church meetings are extremely
interesting in parts   particularly where they reveal the watchfulness that
the church undertook to exercise over the daily walk and conduct of individual
members. Any member was free not merely to complain of another, but apparently
was expected to do it if cognizant of any impropriety. Thus at meeting after
meeting charges appear to have been threshed out, first against one offender,
and then against another. Upon one occasion the pastor himself was formally
charged with falsehood, but was exonerated. Other delinquencies alleged were
that the accused had failed to attend meetings regularly; had been guilty of
improper home conduct in having failed to be considerate and gentle with wife
or children; had been quarrelsome with neighbors: had indulged in intemperate
language or the use of "hard expressions"; had shown stubbornness; or even had
used ardent liquors; in a word, one had to walk with the utmost circumspection
if he would escape rebuke and discipline at the hands of the church. Such
inquisitorial methods would not be tolerated to-day for an instant. One
resolution adopted by the church provided that a member absenting himself from
three consecutive meetings should be considered "as no more of us," and
another pledged abstention from intoxicating liquor except upon a physician's
prescription, and even then to use it "only for the glory of God." In 1860 the
society determined to proceed to the erection of a house of worship, which was
completed in 1861 or 1862. The timber used in its construction was given by
Mr. Pierrepont, the then owner of such lands in the township as had not been
sold to settlers. Mr. Pierrepont gave the bell also. Seemingly there has
always been a strong interest in the church upon the part of its members, and
it is seldom that it has been without a pastor for any considerable length of
time. Its membership is about one hundred, though not all are now resident in
the town. "Within a year or two it has affiliated with the St. Lawrence
Baptist Association, which is composed for the most part of regular Baptist
societies, the differences between which and the Free Will Baptists are in
this day not wide. The former are Calvinists and the latter Arminians. Then,
too, the Baptists were formerly understood to be close-communionists, while
the Free Will Baptists have always been open-communionists  which distinction
has now, however, been practically wiped out. But since I am not expounding
theology, but only telling a story, enough on this point.

A few words about Elder Charles Bowles, who organized the church, will not be
uninteresting. A biographer says that he was the son of a full-blooded negro
whowas a servant and of a daughter of Colonel Daniel Morgan of Virginia, whose
rangers in the revolutionary war were pronounced by General Burgoyne to be the
finest regiment in the world, and who was the hero of the brilliant victory by
American arms at the battle of the Cowpens. The claimed descent from Colonel
Morgan is, however, erroneous, as that gentleman was not born until 1736,
while Mr. Bowles was born at Boston in 1761. He served throughout the
revolutionary war as a soldier in the American army. A few years after the
war, all uneducated, and incapable of debating or expounding doctrine, but
wonderfully familiar with the Bible, fervent in faith, and moving in
exhortation and in prayer, he became a Free Will Baptist exhorter, and then an
elder. For more than thirty years his field of work was in Vermont, and in
1835 was induced by his son, a Congregational clergyman, to remove to Northern
New York. His first work in this section, apart from stirring religious life
among the woodsmen with whom he came in contact on his way, was in Dickinson.
Then he preached in Moira, in Hopkinton, in Lawrence, in Malone, and in
Constable  in school houses, in homes, in groves   wherever he could gather an
audience. He was full six feet in height, had a deep, heavy voice, and
possessed a good deal of magnetism as a speaker. He became blind, or nearly
so. His last days were passed in Malone with a Mr. Fuller, in the northern
part of the town, where he died in 1843. He is buried in Constable.

The Mormons began a proselyting campaign in Dickinson in 1843. Joseph Smith,
to whom the Book of Mormon was revealed, and Apostle Joseph Meacham were
relatives of the Dickinson Meachams, and it was doubtless this relationship
that directed the movement to this locality. The Mormon meetings were held in
the old red school house on the road leading from Nicholville to Dickinson
Center, and occasioned a good deal of criticism and excitement. A number of
converts were made both among Dickinson and Hopkinton people, and these were
persuaded to journey in ox carts from the locality to Nauvoo, Ill., which was
then the Mormon headquarters. The glamour soon wore off with most of the
proselytes, however, and many would have returned gladly if they could. Report
has it that the hierarchy was not disposed to object seriously to the
withdrawal of men, but that it held to the women with an iron grip. One man is
said to have attempted to steal away with his family, and to have been shot.
Samuel Meacham did return, but came alone, and always thereafter was a
desolate and broken man, mourning for the family that remained at Nauvoo.

Definite information relative to the organization of the Baptist church at
Alburgh is unobtainable, as the records of the society can not be located. The
proceedings of the St. Lawrence Baptist Association for 1848 show that it was
in existence in that year, but without giving any particulars regarding it. In
1853 these proceedings credit it with twenty-nine members, and from this time
until 1865 it appears to have had a pastor with the exception of three years,
though sometimes in conjunction with Nicholville. Its own report to the
association in 1857 declares itself a small, weak body, and the largest
membership it ever listed was thirty-five in 1864, from which time until it
was dropped from the association in 1873 it never had a pastor except in 1868.
In 1877 the association advised that it become a branch of the Lawrenceville
church, or that its members individually unite with that society, sell its
church edifice and give the proceeds to Burke. In 1878 it reported that it was
ready to deed its church building to Lawrenceville, but so far as the records
in the county clerk's office show the transfer was never made. The church was
built or begun in 1860. Local understanding is that all of the people of the
district, regardless of denominational associations, were contributors to the
fund, and the present impression of most of them is that the building was to
be for union services. The title, however, is in the Baptist organization.

In the cemetery across the road is a grave at which stands a tombstone
inscribed with the name of Peter Demo, January 16, 1859, as the date of his
death and 112 years his age. An old resident who remembers Demo well tells me
that he lived in Dickinson a number of years, and that it was known to a
certainty that he was at least as old as the stone represents, and was
confidently believed to be older. He claimed to have been a soldier in
Montcalm's command when Wolfe wrested Quebec from the French in 1759, and
afterward a trapper for the Hudson Bay Company. Doubtless it was upon the
reckoning that he could not have served as a soldier at an earlier age than
twelve years that belief in his having been at least 112 years old was
predicated.

The first recognition of Dickinson in the Methodist conference records was in
1851, when it was made a mission, and Rev. J. Delarme assigned to it. It is
presumable, however, that the place had earlier, though probably infrequent,
Methodist ministration, as Parishville had been the center of a circuit at
least a quarter of a century before, and "riders" from there had doubtless
covered this territory. Potsdam is understood to have been the parent charge.
After Dickinson's organization as a mission it was at times subsidiary to
Nicholville. Later it was joined for a time with Duane, the two constituting a
single parish, and in 1887 St. Regis Falls was annexed. The church building at
Dickinson Center was erected in 1872, services having been held prior to that
date in the homes of members, at school houses and at the town house. Even
before Dickinson was made a mission the St. Lawrence French mission had been
created by the conference (in 1849), and was continued for nearly twenty
years. This mission had stations at a number of points in Franklin and St.
Lawrence counties, the movement having been designed with the intent of
attracting people of French nativity in this section to the Methodist
denomination. The headquarters of the mission for both counties was a short
distance south of Alburgh, where there was a considerable French Protestant
population, and where a chapel was built in 1854 at a cost of four hundred
dollars. Who served at this chapel first I have failed to learn, but Rev.
James Delarme (located at Nicholville) was assigned to it in 1851, and Rev.
Michael Taylor followed in 1854. Then Rev. A. Leclair was in charge for eight
years. Rev. Allen Miller, Rev. Mr. Shaw and Rev. A. F. Bigelow also preached
there. The chapel was finally sold and converted into a dwelling house. As
such it is still in existence.

A Seventh Day Adventist church at the Center was incorporated in 1895, and a
church edifice erected. The movement originated in a visit to the place by
propagandists of the faith, who held a series of tent meetings, and aroused an
interest which continued for a few years; but gradually the membership fell
away, the society ceased to be active, and the building and lot were sold for
five hundred dollars.

There are no civic or other organizations in Dickinson with the exception of
Adirondack Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, No. 1,019, which has a membership of
one hundred and twelve, and owns its lodge room, which was formerly the
Seventh Day Adventist church.

Formerly there was a Grand Army post, named in honor of Daniel Robbins, who
was the Methodist Episcopal pastor at Dickinson Center at the time the 142d
regiment was recruited. He enlisted in that command, and died in the service.
The post was organized in 1886, but surrendered its charter in 1908, when
there remained in the town but few veterans, the large majority having
responded to the last roll call for final "muster out." The highest number of
members that the post ever had was forty-two, and of these only four are now
living. H. G. Waste is the sole survivor of the charter members. The original
officers were: Commander, R. P. Lindsay; S. V. Com., Luther Maxam; J. V. Com.,
Lyndon Young; Officer of the Day, E. E. Bates; Adjutant, S. W. Gleason;
Quartermaster, William N. Tuttle; Surgeon, William Morrill.