HISTORY: Franklin 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 XVI FRANKLIN

The town of Franklin was erected from Bellmont May 20, 1836, and comprises
about half of township number nine and all of township number ten of the Old
Military Tract. In area it is the third largest town in the county, containing
more than one hundred and five thousand acres. Many lakes or ponds dot its
surface, and the two branches of the Saranac river run through it, affording a
number of excellent water powers. As illustrative of the size of the town, the
story is told that one of the early supervisors, journeying to Malone to
attend his first session of the board, after having driven all day, arrived at
a primitive hotel, inquired what town he was in, and was amazed to learn that
he had not yet wholly traversed his own. The anecdote is illuminative of
Franklin's broad reaches, and not less of the horrible highways that used to
characterize it. The town is of rugged surface, its once magnificent forests
now largely gone into lumber, pulp-wood and charcoal, or ravaged by fire. The
character of its soil and its altitude make it impossible that it should ever
become important agriculturally, and the waste of its timber in the past
precludes extensive lumbering operations, so that such growth as may yet come
to it must be through the establishment of summer hotels and sanatoria. It had
a population of less than two hundred when formed, which had increased to
eleven hundred in 1860 and to fifteen hundred in 1900. It is now 1,378. Among
early settlers were a not inconsiderable number of escaped or emancipated
slaves, who were provided with homesteads by Gerrit Smith, the form of whose
grants to these and to poor white men whom he recruited from the cities is
interesting. It names in each as the consideration "one dollar" and the
grantor's desire "to have all share in the means of subsistence and happiness
which a bountiful God has provided for all."

The first settlement in Franklin was made in 1827 by Isaac G. McLenathan and
William Wells, from Jay, Essex county, at the place now known as Franklin
Falls, but from 1827 to 1851 called McLenathan Falls. Here they erected a saw
mill and an iron forge, and almost at the same time another forge was built by
Uriah Sumner a few miles west, at or near Bloomingdale. This latter had only a
very brief life, nor were the enterprises of McLenathan & Wells enduring or
successful, largely because of their remoteness from markets. All lumber and
iron output had to be hauled by team to Port Kent, a distance of thirty-four
miles. In later years a plank road, with toll gates, was built between the 
points named, and was kept up until about 1875. In the course of a few years
after the inception of operations by McLenathan & Wells their industries had
become inactive, and the place was all but abandoned. Operations under new
management were resumed in 1846, however, William V. K. McLean and John
Fitzgerald, also Essex county men, having taken over the properties. The story
of the forge subsequent to McLenathan & Wells's operation of it is not now
ascertainable with certainty, but from the best information that I can gather
it seems probable that the building did not exist after 1847. In that year a
deed of the lot on which the forge was located refers to the forge as if it
were then standing, but no subsequent conveyance of the premises makes any 
mention of the establishment, and certainly the reports of the great fire
which wiped out everything in 1852 do not specify a forge as among the
buildings burned. It is, therefore, to be presumed that about 1847 the forge
disappeared to make room for a saw mill. Keese & Tomlinson became associated
with McLean & Fitzgerald here about 1848 for a year or two, and at about the
same time Peter Comstock, from Port Kent, appears to have become the working
head of the business, but whether as superintendent, lessee or proprietor I am
unable to ascertain. James B. Dickinson and George Tremble, both men of
character and good abilities, came to the place, the former in 1850 and the
latter in 1852. Associated with Mr. Dickinson was James H. Pierce, who became
our county's Assemblyman twenty years later, and afterward represented Essex
county in the same body. For a good many years Mr. Pierce made up and led to
Republican county conventions the delegates from all of the "south towns,"
viz., Brighton, Franklin and Harrietstown, and sometimes from Duane also.
Often they came without caucuses having been held at all, and with credentials
prepared en route. It is worth noting also that in 1871, when Tweed lacked one
vote in the Assembly to pass his New York city charter, he finally obtained it
by the payment of one hundred thousand dollars to Orange S. Winans, of
Chautauqua county; but the offer had first been made to Mr. Pierce, and turned
down by him. Pierce & Dickinson operated at Franklin Falls as merchants, and
they also had a forge in Essex county on the line between Jay and Keene. In 
addition, Mr. Dickinson was interested in the mill at Franklin Falls.

Besides the mill McLenathan Falls had a rather pretentious hotel and a large
store. These and every other structure except one small shanty were wiped out
by a forest fire in May, 1852, which a high wind swept down upon the place
from the hills. So rapidly and fiercely did the flames spread that fowls, dogs
and cattle perished in the streets, and the inhabitants themselves barely
escaped with their lives. Household goods, merchandise in the store, large
quantities of lumber, and even the unsubmerged parts of wagons that had been
hauled into the river were all destroyed. Twenty-three dwellings were burned,
and the first estimate of loss was one hundred thousand dollars, which,
however, revised figures somewhat reduced. The place was rebuilt under the 
leadership of Peter Comstock, though apparently McKean still retained some
interest in the works, for two years later he executed a general assignment
for the benefit of his creditors, in which he conveyed all his right, title
and interest in and to mills, store, etc., at Franklin Falls. In 1859 Mr.
Tomlinson acquired the business and properties, and the next year the firm of
Tomlinson & Tremble was formed to operate them. The mill was repaired and
worked by this concern for five years, when they sold to Christopher F.
Norton, of Plattsburgh, who for fourteen years made Franklin Falls the
headquarters for his extensive lumbering operations on both the north and
south branches of the Saranac, and covering almost all of Franklin and
Brighton and the north part of Harrietstown. While he cut some lumber at
various mills in Franklin, the larger part of his logs were floated to
Plattsburgh and sawed there. Later the power at Franklin Falls was bought by
Dr. S. W. Dodge, who afterward removed to Massena, and the mill was rebuilt
and run by him for a few years.

The mills at Franklin Falls are now only a memory, but they have been
succeeded by a more important enterprise, for here is one of the power
development plants of the Paul Smith Electric Light, Power and Railroad
Company, which, with a companion plant at Union Falls (just on the border
between Franklin and Black Brook in Clinton county), develops five thousand
horse power for transmission over many miles of wire through the southern part
of our county and into Essex and Clinton, to light villages, operate a
railroad, and supply energy for manufacturing purposes. The money outlay for
construction has been very great, and the business done is extensive.

The landlords who conducted the hotel at Franklin Falls after McLenathan have
been: Peter Hewitt, Hugh Martin, Varnum Hewitt, H. Rice, Herrick Bromley,
Lewis L. Smith, Alonzo Moody, Isaiah Vosburgh, S. W. Dodge, Norman I. Arnold
and Patsy O'Neil. The latter's widow now conducts it, but the location is
nothing like what it used to be for hotel business. Fifty years ago the
Saranac and St. Regis lakes country had no railroads running to it, and were
accessible to visiting sportsmen and pleasure seekers only by stage or private
conveyance from Malone or from Lake Champlain ports. Most of the travel was
via the latter, and it all passed through Franklin Falls and Bloomingdale, 
making Franklin Falls an exceptionally good hotel point. While L. L. Smith was
landlord there he served dinners during the summer months to from seventy-five
to one hundred and fifty guests daily.

There have been many saw mills in Franklin other than those at Franklin Falls,
but none of them large   the vast timber cut of the region having been floated
for the most part down the Saranac river to Plattsburgh, and sawed there.
Lumbering here and in adjacent towns forty or fifty years ago (principally by
Mr. Norton and the Turners) was on a larger scale than anything of the kind
known in this county prior to the coming of Mr. Hurd and Mr. Ducey to Waverly
and Santa Clara, and unquestionably Franklin would be to-day a much richer
town (and the estates of the lumbermen larger as well) if such operations had
never been had. Charcoal burning by Bowen & Signor at Slab Bridge, below
Hunters' Home, and the shipping of pulp-wood have also contributed a good deal
to the deforestation of the town.

Probably next in importance to the Franklin Falls operations were those of
Thomas Goldsmith, who acquired over fourteen thousand acres from Gerrit Smith
for $20,891, and who had mills at the Flood Dam (a mile above Thatcherville),
at Goldsmith's, at Alder Brook, and also at a number of points in Clinton
county, just over the Franklin line. He was forced to an assignment in 1846,
but continued to run his mills for the assignee for a number of years
afterward. In 1856 his lands, then comprising 13,890 acres, were sold by the
assignee to Daniel Robinson and John A. Griswold of Troy, who twenty-odd years
later disposed of them to Patrick Hanlon and Bowen & Signor. The mill at
Goldsmith's did only custom work during the period of the Robinson-Griswold
ownership, and was run by Amos Lamson, James Davis and others. H. L. Wait
built a steam mill at this place eight or ten years ago, and operated it until 
his death in the early part of 1915  hauling his product to the railroad at
Loon Lake with a traction engine. The Wait mill still stands, but is idle.

A mill was built at Thatcherville, three miles above Hunters' Home, about 1840
by Avery Thatcher, and a dozen years later Allan Comstock rebuilt on the same
site for his father, Peter, of Franklin Falls. Litigation tied up the
property, however, and the mill never did any work. The writer remembers
visiting it in 1863, when it had become a wreck. About 1879 or 1880 Albert
Turner rebuilt it, and ran it for two or three years   finally selling it to
the Hartwells of Plattsburgh. The mill and the houses belonging with it have
been swept away by fire, and the site is now owned by the International Paper
Company.

A mill was built at Mud pond about 1840 by Leander Cadwell, of Black Brook,
and Lawrence Myers, of Plattsburgh. Jackson & Goff afterward became interested
in it, and then L. L. Smith, about 1870, ran it to get out lumber for
rebuilding Hunters' Home.

Monroe Hall, of Plattsburgh, put up and operated a mill on the outlet of Loon
Lake about 1840; Matt. Fox had a mill at Alder Brook, and Russell French one
at "French's" about 1863 or 1864. Harry B. Hatch, who was Franklin's first
supervisor, and who kept a hotel on the Hopkinton and Port Kent turnpike,
north of Loon Lake and twenty-five miles south of Malone, built a saw mill and
ran it for several years. The place was subsequently owned and occupied by
Richard L. Ross, who was an expert chemist and a gentleman of fine education,
formerly of Albany. The property was dissipated, a splendid library hawked
about Malone book by book, and the place went to ruin. But about 1900 Warren 
B. Walker built a steam mill there, and for seven years cut two and a half
million feet of lumber annually   removing the mill to Kempton in Duane when
the supply of timber had been exhausted.

Something like twenty years ago the Kinsley Lumber Company was organized by
Arthur Leonard and Frank Smith (who were connected with the New York Central
Railroad) and John O'Rourke, and built a mill two miles west of Onchiota. It
burned. The same interests also built a railroad from a point north of Inman
(Loon Lake Station) four miles west to the DeBar Mountain tract for hauling
timber and pulp-wood, which was operated for several years. The lumber
interests of the Kinsley Company passed to Baker Brothers of Plattsburgh, and
the lumber railroad to the Delaware and Hudson. When the latter company was 
expecting to gain control of the New York and Ottawa it was intended to
utilize this link by extending it to Santa Clara or St. Regis Falls as a
connection between the two systems. But control of the New York and Ottawa
went to the New York Central, and thus this lumber railroad is now an
abandoned property and hardly more than a memory.

After the burning of the Kinsley mill Warren B. Walker went to Onchiota and
built a steam mill there about 1910, cutting three million feet the first
year, and later sold to Baker Brothers. They have since sold to the
Plattsburgh Dock and Coal Company, which now operates the mill.

A mill for cutting hard wood was erected by the International Paper Company
between Loon Lake and Kushaqua in 1915, and is now in operation. This and the
Dock and Coal Company's are the only mills now running in the town.

A Mr. Fay built a saw mill at Vermontville in 1848, which was afterward owned
in turn by Isaac Lyon, B. F. Lamson, Chauncey Williamson, Norman and Charles
Arnold, C. C. Whittelsey of Malone, and Dr. S. W. Dodge. Mr. Whittelsey ran it
for two years with H. J. Hathaway in charge. Another mill in the same vicinity
was built in 1850 by Curtis Avery; it was subsequently owned by C. N. Parks,
and then by L. S. Bryant. Neither of these properties is now in existence. 
Vermontville had a foundry also from 1861 to about 1889. It was built by Eli
and Norman I. Arnold, Chauncey Williamson and Albert Keith. Except during the
period of his absence in the army it was operated for the greater part of the
time until 1870 by Norman I. Arnold. H. J. Hathaway then bought it, and ran it
for eight or nine years, until the advent of the Chateaugay Railway brought
competition which he could not meet. The product of the establishment was
chiefly plows, cultivators, scrapers, etc., and for years is supplied about
all of these that were used in Franklin. Harrietstown and Brighton, besides a
good many in Essex and Clinton counties.

Captain James H. Pierce of Franklin, and P. H. Shields of Malone, in 1873
built and for three or four years operated a starch mill at Vermontville.

Innkeepers in Franklin at an early day, additional to those named as having
been located at Franklin Falls, were: Samuel and Russell French at French's,
now Forestdale; John Littlejohn at Alder Brook; Prentis Lovering ("Print") at
Loon Lake; William Squires at a point a mile or two north; Harry B. Hatch at
Hatch's; Paul Smith and Lewis L. Smith at Hunters' Home, since burned; and
John R. Merrill at Merrillsville. The hotel at the latter place was later
conducted by Mr. Merrill's son, William, and by his son-in-law, William J.
Ayers and Charles B. Lyman, and then by James W. Littlejohn. There is no hotel
at this point at present. These inns, or, in the vernacular of the day,
"taverns," were mostly on the Hopkinton and Port Kent turnpike, over which
there was a good deal of teaming three-quarters of a century ago, and their
guests were generally teamsters who stopped only for a meal or for a night, 
and the rates were next to nothing.

In splendid contrast to these rude and primitive places, some of them merely
small log cabins, both as regards the character of structure and of guests, is
the Loon Lake House, which represents an investment of probably close to half
a million dollars, and offers to sportsmen and pleasure seekers a class of
entertainment nowhere surpassed in the Adirondacks. Mr. Ferd W. Chase came
from Vermont in 1878, and erected a hotel which contained thirty-one sleeping
rooms. It was opened to accommodate a few fishing parties in May, 1879, though
the formal opening did not occur until the sixth of July. Its high number of 
guests in that year, on August first, was sixty-one. From that date to the
present it has grown almost every season both in capacity and popularity,
though in the first years taxing Mr. Chase's resources and credit to the
uttermost. The property includes a tract of over four thousand acres of land,
a main hotel building of imposing appearance and large capacity, two annexes,
a number of cottages, boat houses, etc. In addition there are a number of
privately owned cottages adjacent, which are in effect a part of the
establishment. One of these is reputed to have cost its owner no less than
three hundred thousand dollars. How enterprising and unsparing of expense the
management has been in seeking to make the hotel perfect in all its details is
shown by the improvements that it has provided. There is a private acetylene 
gas plant for lighting the place; a system of water supply having a head of
one hundred and twenty-six feet, with two mains leading from a pure spring to
the hotel and other buildings, in which there are stand-pipes and fire-hose
always ready for use in case of emergency. Even greater care has been had to
provide safe and scientific sewerage. The sewage is carried to the hotel farm,
located the other side of a hill three-fifths of a mile away, through two
lines of twelve-inch tile that are laid through a tunnel which at one point is
ninety-two feet deep. This tunnel alone cost five dollars a lineal foot for
driving through earth and ten dollars through rock. There are golf grounds, a
tennis court, pool and billiard parlors, a bowling alley, a livery containing 
horses and carriages and automobiles, and almost every other accessory for
entertainment of visitors. The grounds are beautifully kept, and the same
purpose to give guests the very best that can be provided is manifest within
the house, as without. The table leaves nothing to be desired, and the service
is up to the highest standard. The hotel, annexes and cottages will
accommodate five hundred guests or more, and so admirably is it managed that
the problem never is how to fill it, but how to care for all who apply for
rooms. Mrs. Chase's personality, energy and executive genius are in no small
measure responsible for the success and popularity that the house enjoys. The
hotel and hotel farm employ about three hundred persons.

The time when cases of tuberculosis, even in the incipiency of the disease,
were deemed incurable and hopeless is not far in the past; but, praise be to
Dr. Loomis, Dr. Edward L. Trudeau and others who gave their lives to a study
of the scourge and to devising measures for its prevention and treatment, that
view no longer holds, or at least not as to tuberculosis in its early stages.
And the wilderness of Northern New York has had no insignificant part in
establishing the new gospel that dry mountain air, the balsamic fragrance of
the forests, with nutritious food, due care, rest, proper sanitation and
observance of well established rules for bodily care and prevention of
infection, may even stamp out the disease utterly. Actuated by the proof
afforded in a multitude of individual instances and by the cumulative results 
realized at the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium at Trudeau, near Saranac Lake,
that life in the region, with proper care and treatment, held the promise of
arresting the affliction even in advanced cases, and of effecting a positive
cure if taken in time, a considerable number of philanthropic men and women  
most of them residents of the city of New York, many of them wealthy, and all
prominent socially   determined some fifteen years ago to found an institution
for the treatment of incipient tuberculosis in working women and children,
which should be non-sectarian, and which, while receiving patients who are
able to pay, should be open also, and without charge, to those who have no
means. The names of these deserve a place in this sketch. They are: Robert 
Collyer, Henry B. Barnes, Jas. E. Newcomb, Geo. F. Shrady, Chas. M. Cauldwell,
Chas. H. Knight, R. Maclay Bull, Frederic B. Jennings, Edgar L. Marston, Jacob
H. Schiff, Robert W. de Forest, Robert Stuart MacArthur, Felix Adler, Lelia
Howard Webb, Robert P. Cornell, Emile R. Rogers, Elizabeth W. Newcomb, Hester
E. Shrady, Gertrude Shipman Burr, Edith M. Phelps Stokes, Alice Brevoort Bull,
Pauline Scholle Bier, Elizabeth M. Cauldwell, Mary Potter Geer, Rose
McAllister Coleman, Caroline Starin Carroll, Luck MacKenzie Knight, Caroline
S. Spencer and Louise Pierpont Satterlee.

The name chosen for the institution was Stony Wold Sanatorium. The date of
incorporation was April 10, 1901, and eight months later property consisting
of twelve hundred and fifty acres, situate near Lake Kushaqua, in the town of
Franklin, and having an elevation of over seventeen hundred feet above sea
level, was purchased. Building operations were begun as soon afterward as
practicable, and the institution was formally opened August 15, 1903. Where
there had been only an unbroken forest there have risen an administrative
building with dormitory adjoining; Stony Wold Hall, a building for purposes of 
worship and for entertainments; a dormitory for the help; a woodworking shop;
a store and post-office; five rest shacks; one industrial settlement house;
seven cottages; a power house for generating electricity for lighting the
institution; an outdoor school; and a model cow barn, stable and piggery. A
farm has also been developed. The administration building alone cost
eighty-four thousand dollars, and the entire property is valued at
$302,435.16, and is not mortgaged. The institution has, besides, an endowment
fund of $64,258.75.

The corporation has fifteen auxiliaries with a total membership of nineteen
hundred. In the beginning each auxiliary contributed six hundred dollars to
build and equip a room, and pledged itself to support thereafter an occupant,
the charge for which is fourteen dollars per week. Further funds for building,
equipment and maintenance were realized from subscriptions, and also
considerable amounts from fairs and entertainments given at the
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and other places in New York and at the institution
itself.

Mrs. James Edward Newcomb is the president of the board of trustees, and has
served in that capacity from the beginning. She was the originator of the
enterprise, and devised the plan of organization. She spends a good deal of
time at Lake Kushaqua, and is constant and untiring in effort on its behalf.

Stony Wold has a capacity for twenty children and ninety-three adults and is
practically always full. No children under the age of six years are admitted.
The staff includes the physician in charge (who is at present Dr. Malcolm D.
Lent), an assistant physician (Dr. W. G. Milan), a number of nurses, a
dietician, a storekeeper, an outside superintendent (Albert E. Paye), and
other workers averaging between ninety and one hundred in number.

Stony Wold Hall is used by the Episcopalian, the Catholic and the Jewish
denominations, though none of them has a resident preacher. The Episcopalians
and the Jews use one room in common, and the Catholics have a part of the
structure separately. When the hall is wanted for a card party or for a dance,
the seats are removed, and a room nicely adapted to the purpose is available.

The institution is doing a magnificent work, and hundreds who have enjoyed
care in it, gaining strength and vigor, and enabled to return to life's duties
and labors with new hope and courage, bless daily the philanthropists who have
given so fine an institution to the world, and who cause it to be managed with
such care and loving kindness.

Paul C. Ransom, a graduate of Williams College, having been compelled by
failing health to relinquish the practice of law in Buffalo, turned in 1897 to
the work of fitting boys for college, and in 1903 established the
Adirondack-Florida School, which holds its spring and autumn terms on Rainbow
lake, near Onchiota, and a winter term at Cocoanut Grove, Florida. A school
building or lodge was erected at the former place in 1906 at a cost of
$15,000, and a number of cabins and other structures have been added since.
Mr. Ransom died in 1907, when Mrs. Ransom assumed charge, and has since
conducted the school, with L. H. Somers, a Yale man, as headmaster. Of Mr.
Ransom it is said that his quiet influence over boys was wonderful, and that
he was "a rare master, and a rarer friend." Originally the school was planned
to accommodate twenty pupils, but now has a capacity for thirty; and inasmuch
as it is believed that the best results are attainable only with a small
enrollment no effort is likely to be made for further enlargement. The Rainbow
Lake branch is called Meenahga Lodge. The school is intended to give boys the
best advantages attainable in the way of individual attention and wholesome
surroundings, the opportunity to pursue a course of study in preparation for
college, and at the same time the benefit of outdoor life under the most
favorable climatic conditions. Invalid boys or those suffering from any
organic disease are not received. A chief aim of the school is the cultivation
of character, and particular attention is given also to outdoor sports and 
physical training. The charge for tuition and care is $1,600 per pupil per
year, which does not include traveling expenses, text books or stationery, and
no deductions are allowed for absence, withdrawal or dismissal. The naked
statement of terms is evidence that only the sons or wards of wealthy people
are included among the pupils, who come from all parts of the United States.
The school's standing is very high, and it has the unqualified indorsement of
eminent educators and of many distinguished men whose sons have been among its
pupils.

The Chateaugay Railway and the Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railway enter
Franklin at nearly the same point, in the vicinity of Plumadore pond, on the
northern central border of the town, and, trending a little to the west,
parallel each other to Onchiota, whence the former continues almost due south
to Saranac lake, while the latter swings westward into Brighton. The former
was built as far as Loon Lake in 1886, and extended on through the town a year
or so later. The St. Lawrence and Adirondack was built in 1892. Each of these
roads has a station at Loon Lake (three miles from the Loon Lake House), at
Lake Kushaqua and at Onchiota, and the Chateaugay has one also for the hamlet
of Vermontville, two or three miles distant therefrom.

Franklin has more small settlements and separate post-offices in proportion to
its population than any other town in the county. They are: Inman, Loon Lake,
Goldsmith's, Forestdale, Alder Brook, Franklin Falls, Pine Park or Onchiota,
Lake Kushaqua and Vermontville. Merrillsville was formerly a post-office.
Union Falls is partly in Franklin and partly in Clinton county, the
post-office of that name being just over the line in Clinton. Not all of these
are even hamlets, some of them being merely neighborhoods a little more
closely settled than the surrounding country.

Inman lies a little to the west and north of the center of the town, and
consists only of the two depots of the Chateaugay Railway and the Adirondack
and St. Lawrence Railway, three or four dwelling houses, a store, and a small
hotel, built by Deming M. Roberts, formerly of Malone and Chateaugay, and now
kept by William DesChamps.

Loon Lake is three miles distant, and between the two points the town built a
macadam highway a year or two ago at a cost of thirteen thousand dollars, an
expenditure that would have horrified the earlier residents. At Loon Lake
there are only the group of buildings comprising the Loon Lake Hotel and
cottages, and the store and dwelling house of Fremont F. Smith.

Forestdale, formerly known as "French's," is in the extreme southeastern part
of the town, and has a post-office, a store, a Catholic church, and a few
residences. It formerly had a hotel.

Onchiota or Pine Park is in the western part, and is a small settlement, with
store, post-office, two railway stations, a saw mill, and a club house or
hotel now in course of construction by the Rainbow Club and Improvement
Company. Several thousand young pine trees have been set out here within the
past year or two by the same corporation as a step in reforestation, and the
state is planting hundreds of thousands of young spruce and pine in the same
locality.

Lake Kushaqua, also in the western part, is exclusively the home of Stony Wold
Sanatorium, through the establishment of which in 1901 the place came into
being.

Goldsmith's is on the North Branch of the Saranac river about five miles below
Hunters' Home, and is only the site of an old saw mill and a lumber camp. To
it and beyond, to the Clinton county line, a highway is soon to be built from
Hunters' Home, which will cost over eighty thousand dollars.

Franklin Falls has already been sufficiently described.

Vermontville is the largest hamlet in the town, and yet now has no industries
except farming. The place has two churches, a post-office and a store or two.

Merrillsville is south and east of the center, and consists only of a small
group of dwelling houses and a church.

Sugar Bush, so named because of the large quantity of maple sugar formerly
made there, and still retaining the name though scarcely any sugar is made at
present, is a string of farm houses stretching over a mile or two.

Alder Brook, named for the brook that runs through it, is a couple of miles
east of Merrillsville, and is the same character of place as Sugar Bush. The
two were among the earliest localities in the town to be settled, the settlers
coming mostly from Vermont and Clinton and Essex counties.

Though a considerable proportion of the early settlers in Franklin were of the
REoman Catholic faith, these were dependent for nearly a quarter of a century
for enjoyment of the services of their own church upon Keeseville and the
mission at REedford, which involved several miles of travel. Nevertheless
interest so grew that at length a mission was established at Union Falls, and
not long afterward, in 1854, Father James Keveney built a church at the place
now known as Catholic Corners, which lies between Alder Brook and Union Falls.
It was blessed under the name St. Rosa's of Lima, and has since been
maintained. Incorporation was not effected, however, until fifty years later,
with the bishop, the vicar general, the rector (Rev. Father Richard 
O'Donnell), Edward McKillip and Peter A. Tracy as trustees. Father O'Donnell
is still the rector, and the church has nearly four hundred members.

Vermontville has a Methodist Episcopal church and an Episcopalian chapel,
known as St. Paul's. The latter is supplied irregularly by the rector resident
at Bloomingdale. Apparently the first religious organization was of a union
order, which was for a long time without statutory incorporation, though the
records of the Presbytery of Champlain show a Presbyterian society at
Vermontville in 1860. A church building had been erected in 1856, and a friend
who was then and still is a resident there writes me that it was a Methodist
Episcopal church, though Presbyterians helped to build it. It was to be open
for use by any denomination, but with preferential claim to occupancy
belonging to the Methodists. There has always been a good deal of church
friction here, It would seem that, besides the Episcopalians, the place has
had in turn religious organizations of the union order, Presbyterian, 
Wesleyan and Methodist Episcopal. The Presbyterian must have been feeble and
of short duration. The Wesleyan Methodists held the field principally from
1876 to 1896. The Union Evangelical church was incorporated in 1888, and the
Methodist Episcopal not until 1895. In 1897 the Union Evangelical church
deeded the house of worship to the Wesleyan Methodist church, which ten years
later deeded it to the Methodist Episcopal church. The latter is, except for
the Episcopalians, in sole occupancy of the field.

A Methodist Episcopal organization has existed at Merrillsville for
three-quarters of a century or more, supplied at first by the pastor of 
the church at Saranac, and now Vermontville. The present church edifice 
at this point was built about twenty years ago.

Notice that an application would be made to the supervisors to divide the town
was published in 1859. The new town, to consist of the west half, was to be
called Corcord. But there was not town concord in the matter, and the project
died without even having been presented to the supervisors. The opposition was
political.

John B. Secor, a horse buyer from Westchester county, was shot and killed in
the town of Franklin, between Hatch's and Loon Lake, June 6, 1853, by James
Madison Bickford of Dickinson. Bickford was at a prayer meeting at the latter
place when he saw Secor and a companion ride past, and, leaving the meeting,
persuaded Thomas Cook, a mere boy, to accompany him, and followed the men,
whom they passed somewhere in Duane. At the point of the tragedy in Franklin
they awaited the appearance of Secor and his companion, and upon their arrival
Bickford, in ambush at the side of the road, took Secor's life. The companion 
fled and gave the alarm. Bickford and Cook were apprehended the next day in
Burke, the former having Secor's purse and watch in his possession. On the
trial, a year later, Secor's friend identified Bickford and Secor's property,
and conviction was a matter of course. Bickford was hung September 22, 1854,
and his father denounced the execution as a murder. Cook wished to plead
guilty, but a trial was insisted upon by the court, resulting in a conviction
and a death sentence   which was commuted to life imprisonment, with a pardon 
granted later. Cook returned to Dickinson, married, and one night, forty-odd
years ago, when he was in bed and asleep some one placed a keg of powder under
the bed, and fired it. Cook was killed.