History: Fort Covington (part 1); Franklin co., New York Transcribed by Joy Fisher (sdgenweb at yahoo.com) ************************************************************************ USGenWeb Archives notice Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.org/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm *********************************************************************** Source of file: HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF FRANKLIN COUNTY WITH MANY SHORT BIOGRAPHIES BY FREDERICK J. SEAVER MALONE, NEW YORK ALBANY: J. B. LYON COMPANY, PRINTERS 1918 CHAPTER XV FORT COVINGTON (part 1 of 2) Fort Covington was erected as a town from Constable February 28, 1817, and included what is now Bombay. The mile square comprising the village of the same name and something over seven thousand acres contiguous on the west had been a part of the St. Regis Indian reservation, but were ceded to the State, a part in 1816, and the remainder two years later. The consideration paid to the Indians therefor was an annuity of fifteen hundred dollars forever equivalent to twenty-five thousand dollars capitalized at six per cent. After this cession most of the tract was patented by the State to settlers who had previously held the lands under leases from the Indians at a rental of ten cents per acre per year, though two parcels were reserved by the State for military purposes. One of these, bordering on the right bank of the Salmon river, contains about forty-six acres exclusive of the highway, and was leased by the State in 1845 to John Moore at a rental of twelve dollars per year, subject to surrender of the premises whenever the State should require. Moore subsequently assigned the lease, and the plot has since been occupied under similar assignments by a number of parties. It is at present in the possession of F. J. Dimond, William G. Kelsey, the Alex. Smallman estate, the Salmon River Yacht Club, and others. The like reservation on the left bank of the river is under lease to Mrs. Albert Nevin, and comprises about fourteen acres. The rental for this parcel is five or six dollars. Both leases being terminable at any time at the pleasure of the State, the lessees naturally do not care to undertake costly improvements, and it would seem as if it were for the best interest alike of the State and of Fort Covington that the policy of holding the lands for possible fortification and military occupation be abandoned, and the plots sold outright to the highest bidder, for there is not the slightest likelihood that either of them will ever be fortified or be used for military purposes. For a time following the act of reservation it was proposed now and again to erect defensive works there, but the proposition never went further. Fort Covington is the oldest town in the county in point of settlement by the whites with the exception of Burke and Chateaugay, and if we count William Gray a white it antedates even these. Gray was a revolutionary soldier at the age of seventeen years, his home having been in Washington county, and was captured by the British near Whitehall. Held as a prisoner at Quebec until the close of the war, he located at Caughnawaga, and then at St. Regis. In everything but birth he was more Indian than white. In 1793 the St. Regis chiefs leased to him lands now comprising the village of Fort Covington, known as the mile square, for two hundred dollars annual rental and the promise of the erection of mills there. Three years later this lease was assigned by Gray to Thomas Araquente, a St. Regis chief, and carried with it a saw mill which had been built in the meantime. Toward the close of the year 1798 Araquente transferred his holdings to James Robertson of Montreal for two thousand four hundred dollars and an agreement on Robertson's part to continue payment to the Indians of the stipulated rental. Robertson's lease was for a term of nine hundred and eighty years. Araquente even assumed to include in the transfer, besides the mill and mile square, the lands on both sides of the Salmon river to its source, but no attempt appears ever to have been made to enforce possession or title under this latter conveyance. Three brothers of James Robertson also became interested in his investment. They erected a grist mill in 1804, which was swept off by a flood in 1805, and was immediately rebuilt the cost of the two structures and equipment, according to Dr. Hough, having been about seven thousand dollars. Robert Buchanan was the builder for the Robertsons, and afterward leased and operated the mill for a good many years. He died at Fort Covington or Dundee in 1829, and his brother Duncan in 1825. The town includes only a part of township number two and the ceded Indian lands, making an aggregate assessed acreage of 22,565. It is one of the smallest towns in the county, while in valuation it ranks seventh. Ninety years ago its valuation was the same as Bangor's, and but little less than that of Chateaugay. Malone's was eighty thousand dollars larger, and is now the greater by two millions and a half. In the intervening period Bangor's assessment has been multiplied by five, Chateaugay's by six, and Malone's by fifteen, while Fort Covington's has increased only about fourfold. True, Fort Covington has since been partitioned to make Bombay, but in the same period Bangor has lost Brandon, a part of Harrietstown, and Santa Clara; Chateaugay has been shorn of Bellmont, Burke and Franklin; and Malone has had taken from it Duane, Brighton and the richest part of Harrietstown. Fort Covington is well watered. The Salmon river flows northwestwardly through the northern and eastern part of the town; the east branch of Deer river traverses almost the entire length of the town on the east; the west branch of the same stream crosses the entire south part, whence it bends into Bombay for a short distance, and -then, swinging easterly, again enters Fort Covington, approximately paralleling the east branch, which it joins just above the point of confluence with the Salmon; the Little Salmon flows through the eastern part of the Indian cession, and Pike creek through the western section. The latter empties into the Salmon below the Canadian border, and the Little Salmon about half a mile south of the border. Cushman brook flows for about three miles through the eastern part of the town, emptying into the Salmon a mile above the mouth of Deer river. Fort Covington has of course its ridges and valleys, though not so markedly as most of the towns to the south, a considerable section being as nearly level as any equal body of lands in the north country. Its soil is largely clay except in the south portion, and as a whole is well adapted to profitable agriculture. Originally it was of course densely wooded, and with a larger growth of hard timber than characterized Constable and Westville. It is one of the few localities in the county where oak flourished, a tree that is seldom known on light or gravelly ground. Even now thirty to forty thousand feet of oak are sawed there annually. There was also in some parts of the town a good stand of pine. Most of the latter went down the river in rafts of lumber and ship masts to Montreal or Quebec, as also did the cut from Westville and even from as far to the south as Malone. Pine lumber sold in those days at five dollars a thousand for common, and at eight dollars for clear. A number of the finest farms in the county are in Fort Covington, and a particularly large proportion of its farmers have ranked high in intelligence, in character and in the degree of success that they have attained in their calling, and have been regarded locally as authority in methods and as examples to be emulated. Even as long ago as 1820 farmers of the town succeeded in winning a noticeable part of the premiums given by our first county agricultural society at its first fair for cattle and farm products. Since there are no town records of date earlier than 1817, nor church records until still later, the story of settlement and progress prior to the war of 1812 is now practically impossible of definite ascertainment, the more so because, early occupancy having been in general under leaseholds from the Indians, deed records are also lacking. The part of the town which is now the village was known until 1817, and even later, as French Mills, though why so called it is difficult to understand except upon the theory that a considerable percentage of the early inhabitants were French, for the mills were the enterprise of Englishmen and Scotchmen. The name which was assumed upon the erection of the town was taken in honor of General Leonard Covington, who was mortally wounded at the battle of Chrystlers Farm in 1813, and died on a boat en route to French Mills. His funeral was held from the house, then a hotel, that is now occupied by Frank J. Bucklin, at the west end of the lower bridge, and interment was near the residence of the late T. T. Kimball, on what has since been known as Covington Hill, not far from the block-house. The remains were removed to Sacketts Harbor in 1821. The town would have been called simply Covington except that a town so named had already been erected in the western part of the State; and hence "Fort" was prefixed. When the first settlers other than those connected with the mills came, and who they were, is not known with certainty. Dr. Hough's history names Samuel Fletcher, Aaron McLean, Ambrose Cushman, John Hunsden, David Lynch and Robert, Walter and Duncan Buchanan as having located in 1800 or soon thereafter: but the records in the county clerk's office do not show any of these except Robert Buchanan as having had title to real estate in the township at anything like the date stated, though it is known from State records that Mr. Hunsden was there in 1803 as clerk of the Indians. He was a physician, and, according to the Franklin Telegraph, died there in 1820. He had been a revolutionary soldier, was familiarly known as "captain," and in announcing his death the Telegraph said that he "had long been a useful and respected inhabitant," He was at one time deputy collector of customs. His daughter was the first wife of General S. C. F. Thorndike of Malone. A map in the Secretary of State's office, made in 1818, indicates that he was then the owner of about eight hundred acres of land along the Little Salmon river and west of it. By an act of the Legislature, passed in 1819, he was to be allowed twelve hundred dollars on any purchases of lands that he might make, as compensation for his services in inducing the Indians to consent to the cessions of 1816 and 1818. It is also known that at least one of the Robertsons was there as early as 1798; but in apparent discredit of Dr. Hough's statement of early residents is this record in the diary of James Constable, who visited the place in August, 1805: "Came to the French mills on the north side of Salmon river, being an old saw mill, and now not at work. There is a very large grist mill completing on the other side, the property of a Mr. Robertson of Montreal, which is the old mill with additions. Mr. Buchanan, the superintendent, went through it with us. In April, last, the dam was undermined, gave way, and overset the then mill, the waters carrying the millstone a great distance. * * * The mill is constructed for four run of stones, and the work appears to be good. The expense must be considerable, and the iron work is got at Judge Bailey's, twenty-five miles distant. There is no village here, and no people but those belonging to or working at the mills." (The reference to Judge Bailey is important, as establishing that in 1805 there were iron works at Chateaugay.) But as impeaching Mr. Constable in part, and to some extent suggesting that there were more people at French Mills, or at least in the township, at the date in question than he or even Dr. Hough indicates, I give the following transcript from the assessment roll for 1806 of the town of Malone, of which Fort Covington was then a part: Personalty. Realty. Robert Buchanan $75 $250 Seth Blanchard 100 175 Henry Briggs 400 Walter Blanchard 250 David and Luther Danforth. 320 Silas Cushman 220 Sullivan Ellsworth 200 Thomas Fletcher 15 Samuel Fletcher 312 Buel Hitchcock 25 David Lynch 45 57 Arthur McMillan 30 David McMillan. 63 Daniel McLean 221 Ezekiel Paine 100 These all seem to be, and most of them certainly are, Fort Covington names, though two or three of them may belong to Westville. Unfortunately the assessment roll from which they are copied does not carry any township or lot descriptions. However, an old map on file in the county clerk's office locates Mr. Blanchard three or four miles south of the village, and his will as recorded in the surrogate's office in 1832 refers to Seth W. B. Wilson as his grandson, and makes provision for his education, though I am informed by a surviving member of the family that there was no blood relationship between the two. Mr. Blanchard was in 1817 one of the associate judges of the court of common pleas, and at the first town meeting was elected a commissioner of common schools He was, too, one of the first men to hold the office of deputy collector of customs at French Mills. He had a son, Steven, who was the father of Justus and Seth. The latter was decidedly a "character," effervescing good nature, fond of companionship, and dearly loving a joke. His conversation was picturesque in the extreme, abounding in wit and quaint expressions, some of which are still quoted frequently in the town. By occupation he was a wheelwright, and he lost an arm by reason of its having been so badly mangled by a saw as to necessitate amputation. The map referred to puts Silas Cushman just over the town line in Westville, but shows Ambrose abutting on the river, south and east of the village. The latter was a soldier in the war of 1812. Samuel Fletcher is marked as owning the lot next west of Ambrose Cushman. At a later date he was a merchant at West Constable or Westville Corners, and eventually removed to St. Lawrence county. He was an uncle of Calvin T. Fletcher of Helena, who at one time practiced law in Malone, and the great uncle of the late Ernest T. Fletcher of Malone. Thomas Fletcher is thought by Stiles Stevens, his grandnephew, and exceptionally well informed on points of early local history, to have been the man who was shot by the British when they raided the town in 1812, though Mr. Briggs remembered the name as Frazer. Mr. Stevens is probably correct. David and Luther Danforth are on the map at the southeast corner of the mile square, at the upper falls, where, in company with Guy Meigs, they had a gang saw mill, which after Mr. Meigs had withdrawn from the partnership they continued to operate until the timber supply had been practically exhausted. They also had a carding and fulling and woolen mill, which latter they leased in 1836 to Luther Starks and Sidney Briggs Starks subsequently assigning his interest to Daniel Russell and D. S. McMillan. The place is the same that was until recently occupied by Thomas Davidson, deceased, with a carding mill, and it is worthy of note that, whereas in early times nearly every community had such a mill, Mr. Davidson's was in 1917 the only one in the entire county. It still contained the machinery for the manufacture of cloth. The exact date of the erection of the woolen mill here is unknown, but it was probably between 1830 and 1835,* and was the second mill of the kind in the county. In a letter written by John H. Hatton. and published in 1903, it is stated that Luther Danforth had three sons, a son-in-law (Thomas Richey) and a grandson who were Methodist ministers. Allen Danforth, presumedly a son of David or Luther, served as fifer in Captain Tilden's company in the war of 1812. * Mr. Davidson died in the autumn of 1917, and the mill was then razed. Sullivan Ellsworth was doubtless a brother of Orange and an uncle of Chandler, as a biographical sketch of the latter lists a Sullivan as one of the brothers of Orange. The map gives him a number of farms in the central and southern parts of the town. Orange Ellsworth must have arrived earlier than 1808, as Chandler was born in the town in that year. His farm adjoined the home place of Sullivan. Alpheus Ellsworth, a brother of Orange, probably came at about the same time with the latter. Certainly he was there in 1814, as in that year he joined with Orange in taking title to lands which were already in their possession, probably under contract. David McMillan was the father of Mrs. Ebenezer Stevens, who was the first white child born in the town, and also of David Stiles, who gave the Lawrence, Webster Co. woolen mills in Malone so fine a reputation for honest and durable, even if coarse, products, and who, removing to Wisconsin at about the close of the Civil War, amassed a fortune in lumbering, and died there in 1883. A son, B. Frank, is an almost annual visitor to old friends in Malone and Fort Covington, and is prosperous. Arthur McMillan, a brother of the elder David, was a member of Captain Tilden's command at French Mills in the war of 1812. Buel H. Hitchcock came in 1802 from Vermont with Albon and Alric Man of Westville. He was a physician, and Aretus M., Myron H. and Alric (all of whom became prominent in the business life of Fort Covington twenty years later or more) were his sons. Alric removed to Cornwall, Ont. There is still standing, though built over, a frame dwelling house that is known as the "Hitchcock house." In a paper prepared some years ago by John A. Quaw it is said that this building was in existence when James Campbell came in 1808, and that it is believed to be the oldest frame structure in the county. It is now at the south foot of Water street, on the bank of the river, and it probably was the home of Dr. Hitchcock. Formerly it stood on the lot now occupied by the residence of James MacArtney, some twenty rods north of its present location. It was from this house, as told by Christopher Briggs and Stiles Stevens, that a man stepped out with a gun when the British entered the town in 1812. Particulars regarding the affair are not altogether agreed, except as to the fact that the British fired upon him and either wounded or killed him. Henry Briggs was in trade at French Mills during the war of 1812, but afterward returned to Washington county for a time. He came to Fort Covington again in 1820, accompanied by his family. Several sons of a brother came later, and became well known and substantial men in the northern part of the county. Henry was the father of Christopher, who was elected county superintendent of the poor in 1864, lived in Malone for many years, and committed suicide in 1890 by stabbing himself in the abdomen. The Briggs family was a large one, but I think that the last member of it lately living in this section and bearing the name was Levi, a son of Christopher, who made his home with his son-in-law, Guy Man, in Westville. Concerning Ezekiel Paine or Payne I am able to learn but little. He was town clerk of Constable, of which Fort Covington was then a part, in 1808, a coroner the same year, one of the incorporators in 1815 of a literary society known as the French Mills Miscellaneous Library, and upon the organization of Fort Covington as a town in 1817 was elected one of the inspectors of schools. Samuel H. Payne was an ensign in the State militia in 1818, a captain in 1822, and deputy customs officer in 1838, at which time he evinced such interest and sympathy, if not open activity, in the Papineau cause or Canadian rebellion that he was removed from office. The neutrality law then made it the duty of customs officers, among others, to aid in enforcing that statute, and in particular to seize any arms or munitions or supplies that were intended for use of insurrectionists against a foreign government, so that Mr. Payne was adjudged by the administration to have doubly offended, in that, besides having individually violated the neutrality law, he had been also negligent and disregardful of the obligations of his office for enforcement of it. At that time probably nine-tenths of the people in Fort Covington were pronounced partisans of the rebels. Whether any of them actually went into Canada, as many did at Ogdensburg, to help the rebels fight their battles, I am not advised; but fifty or more of the most prominent men in the place organized an association to give them aid and comfort by subscription of funds and by procuring guns for them. The next year Mr. Payne was nominated by his party for the Assembly as a vindication, but was defeated by John S. Eldredge of Hogansburgh. In 1838 two militia companies in Franklin county were called out for service on the border for enforcement of the neutrality law, and at least one of the two was stationed at Fort Covington, under the command of a Captain Montgomery. The troop used the building now known as the Spencer or American House for a. barracks, and cells of oak plank were built in the cellar for the confinement of men who should be arrested or of soldiers guilty of infractions of discipline. The fact that this hotel was at one time a military barracks is seemingly well understood in Fort Covington, but generally the date is erroneously thought to have been during the war of 1812. Though I have been unable to get any certain line upon the date of erection of the hotel in question, I am confident that it was not then in existence, because there is good authority that in 1812-14 there were but two taverns in the place; one at the west end of the lower bridge, and the other the building known in recent years as the Matthews store. Walter H. Payne was a son of Samuel, was district attorney from 1857 to 1860, and was nominated as a Breckinridge elector in the latter year, but declined. While unable to establish the fact with certainty, I am disposed to believe that Samuel was a son of Ezekiel, and Walter a grandson. Daniel McLean is thought to have been the father of Allan, and the grandfather of the late Mrs. D. J. Stewart and of Mrs. Gilbert A. Wright of Malone. Of the other pioneers, assuming that all of those whom I have listed from the assessment roll were Port Covington residents, nothing can now be learned. James Campbell came in 1808, and for a long time was a prominent figure in the town and county. He was a mechanic, but if he gave due attention to the duties of the many offices which he filled he could not have had much time to work at his trade. He was customs inspector in 1812; adjutant of the Franklin county regiment the same year; assistant United States storekeeper to receive and care for the immense quantities of supplies sent from Sacketts Harbor and Plattsburgh for General Wilkinson's army while it was quartered at French Mills in 1813-14; one of the associate judges in 1817; sheriff from 1815 to 1818; a Presidential elector in 1828; member of Assembly in 1827. After the war of 1812 he was an ensign in the State militia, and then adjutant again. An advertisement in the Franklin Telegraph shows that he was in trade at French Mills in 1821. He died at Cornwall, Ont., in 1883 at the age of ninety-nine years. George B. R. Gove, a man of strong character and driving energy, came from New England in 1809, and for many years was one of the leading men of the place. He was supervisor seven times between 1823 and 1840; was elected county clerk in 1825; was member of Assembly in 1824 and again in 1849; was customs officer 1850-4; and was also a commissioner of the United States deposit fund. He had a brickyard near the village in 1825, and was in the mercantile business in 1828, built and operated a grist mill, a mill for grinding plaster, and a saw mill on the Little Salmon river, and had an ashery. It was through Mr. Gove that the attempted frauds upon the United States treasury by David Jones, by the presentation of baseless or raised claims for losses and damages in the war of 1812, were exposed. Mr. Gove had an honest claim amounting to about six hundred dollars, which Jones had multiplied by ten. A communication came to Mr. Gove from Washington in regard to it, to which he instantly replied that he had no claim for the larger sum, but did have one for the smaller. A thorough investigation followed, which exposed the enormity of the Jones operations, and disclosed that perjury and false certification had entered into them. But between the question whether a Federal or a State statute had been violated no successful prosecution could be made. Captain James B. Spencer was another early arrival, having come from Vermont in 1810. For a man who attained to the prominence and possessed the influence which he enjoyed, he must have been most unfortunate or thoroughly bad. At one time or another he was accused of participation in a number of crimes, viz., passing counterfeit money while he lived in Vermont, collusion with Jones, his brother-in-law, in the attempted war claims frauds, smuggling and subornation of perjury. But he appears to have lived down all of the charges, and to have commanded the respect and confidence of his townsmen and of the county generally. He was commissioned a captain in the regular army by President Madison in the war of 1812, was afterward agent for the St. Regis Indians; a local magistrate; deputy collector of customs; twice member of Assembly; surrogate; a Presidential elector in 1832; and in 1836 was elected to Congress over Asa Hascall, though he lost Franklin county by about two hundred majority, and owed his success to St. Lawrence. He died at Fort Covington in 1848. The McCrea family was also represented early at Fort Covington, but I am unable to learn much about them. The estate of James McCrea, Jr., was administered there in 1809, by James McCrea of Essex county. John McCrea was a second lieutenant in an artillery regiment in 1817, was one of the early deputy collectors of customs, and a deputy sheriff in 1823. His home was where Timothy T. Kim-ball afterward lived. William. Ware must also have come early, as his estate was administered by his widow in 1809, and Essex county militia officers boarded with Mrs. Ware in 1812. Though I have no positive information to that effect, I believe that Preserved Ware, afterward veil known and prominent in both Fort Covington and Bombay, was a descendant. Daniel W. Church, who settled here in 1809, was a surveyor and mechanic, and built many of the mills in the northern part of the county. He removed to Morristown, and died there. Still another estate, administered in 1815, is of interest because of the field of conjecture which it suggests. Elihu Spencer, a soldier in the United States army, was killed at the battle of Chrystler's Field in 1813, and upon the petition of his mother, Martha, a brother, Joseph, was appointed administrator. The record of proceedings affords no further information. Wonder is excited if the administrator named was the father of Joseph Spencer, whom so many of us knew as landlord of the old Spencer or American House. The assumption that he was is strengthened by the fact that in a later generation there was an Elihu Spencer. Still there is probably no record in existence which could resolve the question, nor any living person who knows. Jonathan Ordway located in 1809 or 1810 on the east branch of Deer river, three or four miles southeast from the village, where he had large holdings. Besides engaging in farming- and lumbering, he was a practicing physician. A grandson, Walter S. Ordway, is a merchant in Westville. Thomas Erwin was here as early as 1813; perhaps earlier. He was the father of Rev. James Erwin, who was for half a century a Methodist circuit rider and pastor, and of whose activities extended mention is made in the sketches of Chateaugay, Malone and Westville. The elder Mr. Erwin was an elder of the Presbyterian church, and a close friend of "Father" Brunton, concerning whom more is told in connection with the history of churches in the town. If there were others who were residents prior to the war, the number could not have been large, and information about them is not now procurable. To the war itself the place contributed comparatively few soldiers possibly its close proximity to the border making residents there apprehensive that if they should identify themselves openly and actively with the American cause their families and property interests might suffer more seriously in the event of the place falling into British hands. As a matter of fact, French Mills was entered by enemy forces but twice during the war: the first time in November, 1812, for perhaps an hour, and the second in February, 1814, for perhaps two or three days. Except for two cases, at neither time were civilians or private property much molested. On the payrolls of the several Franklin county companies which served during the conflict, on file in the adjutant-general's office at Albany, I find only these Fort Covington names: James Campbell and Seth Blanchard, sergeants; Alpheus Chapman, Silas Cushman, Arthur McMillan, John S. Payne, Allen Danforth, Marcus Harriman, Samuel H. Payne, James B. Spencer, Silas Ware, Joseph Spencer, Ezekiel Blanchard, Alpheus Ellsworth (spelled Exworth), and Noble Sexton. The last named had been a soldier in the war of the revolution. Fort Covington became an American military outpost within a month following the declaration of war, a company under Captain Rufus Tilden of Moira having occupied it July 8, 1812, and proceeded at once to erect a block house which, however, was never finished. It stood on Covington Hill, but whether near the site of the Presbyterian church, as most residents of the place appear to believe, or farther west, at the crest of the hill above "Water street, is, I think, an open question/ Other companies, from the vicinity of Troy, arrived in September, and one from Essex county in October. All were under the command of Major Guilford Young of Troy, and, with the exception of Captain Tilden's, were withdrawn early in November, but not until after they had made two expeditions against St. Regis, the first of which was fruitless. On the second they captured the place and a company of British soldiers which was in garrison there. Yet another expedition, of which I have never seen mention except in a private letter written by one of the participants (Lieut. Noble of Essex county), was undertaken November 3d. The battalion was ordered out by Major Young ostensibly to proceed against plunderers who were alleged to be driving off cattle at a point eight or ten miles away. They marched all day, a distance of about eighteen miles, for eleven of which they floundered through two swamps, when some of the officers revolted because no plunderers had been found and because they had become satisfied that the major was in reality leading them to an attack upon a superior force near Montreal. They returned with their forces to French Mills their commands being militia organizations, and therefore not subject to service beyond the confines of their own country. Hardly had the Troy and Essex county companies been withdrawn from French Mills when Captain Tilden and his men, numbering forty-odd, were captured by a larger force of British, Canadians and Indians, who remained hardly an hour. The post was occupied soon thereafter by companies from Columbia county, which remained until March, 1813, and then by the company of Captain David Erwin of Constable, who continued in charge until the arrival of General Wilkinson's army in November of the same year. The year following Captain Tilden's capture was without notable incident locally. The story of General Wilkinson's stay is recited in considerable detail in another chapter, and need not be repeated. Hospital Surgeon James Mann, from Massachusetts, says that at this date the vicinity of French Mills was a wilderness, and letters written by members of Major Young's command, a year earlier, complained bitterly that, though the officers were able to find accommodations of a sort in the homes of residents, the body of privates had to live in tents and huts, with altogether inadequate protection from the cold. The many sick soldiers in General Wilkinson's army had mostly to be transferred to Malone, though local tradition is to the effect that a house opposite the American Hotel was converted to hospital uses. But even if every habitation in the place had been so taken, no great number could have been accommodated, as a map of date 1818 shows only thirty buildings in all, including mills, in the mile square. The army remained until February, 1814, a part camping on Covington Hill, near the block house, and. others on a site on the west side of the river, about a quarter of a mile south of Chateaugay street. Both positions are believed by present residents to have been fortified, and there is an impression on the part of some that the military reservation adjacent to Canada on the east side of the river also had defensive works. But apparently more intelligent examination of this latter locality resolves what had been deemed a fortification into a reservoir for supplying water to a distillery just across the border. Pipe logs leading to the place from the mill pond have been cut at a number of points. The army here was under the immediate command of General Jacob Brown of Jefferson county, General Wilkinson having transferred his headquarters to Malone. When General Brown's command was withdrawn and departed for Sacketts Harbor in February, 1814, the block house is said to have been burned and the barges which had brought the force from Sacketts Harbor scuttled and burned down to the ice. Of the truth of the latter representation there is no doubt whatever, as the wrecks of the boats are still to be found at the river bottom, but the block house is claimed by some to have continued to stand for a good many years. Upon evacuation by General Brown the British marched in, February 19, 1814, and seized such stores as were to be found. The presence of an army in a community, its individual units freed from the restraints of home, and prompted often in periods of camp idleness to excesses and unmoral acts, is always demoralizing to the citizenry, and French Mills undoubtedly suffered in this regard, though it is doubtful if it had ever been a particularly godly place, as it is stated in a biography of Rev. Nathaniel Colver that in 1820 there was not a "praying man" in the town. It is altogether probable that business throve when the soldiers were paid, as their scant and miserably poor rations disposed them to buy supplies locally whenever they were in funds. But after the departure of the troops a sharp reaction was experienced, and for years a tremendous scarcity of money prevailed. Christopher Briggs told the writer thirty-odd years ago that when he arrived in Fort Covington in 1820 the place had not recovered from the effects of the war. Only from Judge Campbell or Allen Lincoln could cash be had, and even as late as 1827, when Mr. Briggs engaged in trade, he did not handle a hundred dollars in money in an entire year's business! Confirmatory of Mr. Briggs's story of hard times, I find in the advertising columns of the Franklin Telegraph in 1821 no less than seven notices of sheriff's sales of the property of prominent Fort Covington men, viz.: Ambrose Cushman, Benjamin and Samuel Sanborn, John Drum, Samuel and Jonathan Rich, and James McLean. From the year 1820 we are on surer ground, with more exact and more accurate data, though trustworthy particulars on some points are still unobtainable. According to Mr. Briggs, there were then about thirty-five dwelling houses in the hamlet, and only one store, kept by John Aiken. The manufacturing establishments included a carding mill, a tannery, a grist mill, a cabinet shop, and a trip-hammer works, which made scythes and nails. The map of 1818 in the Secretary of State's office shows the carding mill, marked as a "clothiery," on the east side of the river, the (Herrick) "bark mill," just above it, the trip-hammer works at about the place where Courtney's carriage shop now stands, and the grist mill on the west side, close up to the dam. The trip-hammer works and nail factory were operated by Jesse Woodbury, Jr., from Washington county. There were several stores at Dundee in Canada. It was almost impossible at that time to haul goods from Plattsburgh on account of poor roads, and pretty much everything that the people required from merchants came from Montreal. The customs officers were not vigilant or strict, and never pretended to collect duties on small quantities bought for personal or domestic use unless the smuggler operated so openly that he could not be ignored with safety. When Mr. Briggs did teaming between Fort Covington and Plattsburgh his employers would give him three dollars for the expenses of a round trip, of which seventy-five cents had to be paid for tolls, so that two dollars and a quarter was all that he had for other expenses for three nights and four days on the road. But even this was a munificent allowance in comparison with the funds that sufficed for his journey from Washington county with his father. There were eight in the party, and at the start fourteen dollars was the total amount in their possession. Three miles this side of Plattsburgh the sum had been reduced to three shillings, which one member of the company took at Ellenburgh, and pushed ahead on foot. Mr. Briggs and family were two or three days completing the journey, without a cent of money. "We had to live plainly and work industriously. I had lived in the town thirteen years before I had anything but a lumber wagon in which to drive to church, and even then I was the first outside of the village to own a buggy, while in the village such vehicles were very few. * * * But the period of stress and stagnation following the war was nearing its end, and a year or two later prosperity came to the town not in the degree by which we measure success and growth to-day, but in the modest way in which we estimated them then. * * * Farmers from all over the county brought their black salts there to market them. * * * All these influences combined to build up Fort Covington, and it was from about 1822 to 1832 that the town witnessed its period of most rapid development and greatest prosperity. Men could not come here from all over the country to the southward with their produce without adding materially to the volume of the town's business. They found the place the best market accessible for their products, and these products brought them no cash except in rare instances. They had to take pay for them from the stores, so the town's merchants made money both on what they bought and on what they sold." But the year 1825 was a disastrous one. Lumber tumbled in price, and George N. Seymour, Allan McHutcheon and Aretus and Myron Hitchcock failed. Indeed, as stated by Mr. Briggs, John Aiken, Benjamin Raymond and Warren L. Manning were the only merchants the town ever had in the earlier years who did not fail at some time, though most of them got on their feet again. The Franklin Telegraph contained advertisements by the following: William Burns, tea and sheetings, 1820: John Davidson, dry goods, groceries and tinsmith at Salmon River lines. 1820: James Campbell, Genesee flour, pork, and a thousand gallons of whiskey, 1821; P. B. Fiske, saddlery and boots and shoes, 1821; William Herrick, soal leather at twenty-six cents per pound by the hundredweight, 1824; John & R. Johnson, successors to R. Hawley & Co., in store in rear of Joseph Spencer's tavern, dry goods and groceries, in 1825, to which, they added millinery later in the year, with a milliner "from the south;" Jeremiah Parker, tailor, 1825; A. McHutcheon & Co., a closing out sale of their stock of dry goods, groceries and hard and earthen ware, 1825; James Parker, saddlery, 1826; Miss H. W. Smith, a ladies' school in 1826 at Dr. Paddock's house, at which the tuition for instruction in reading, writing, English grammar, composition and geography was two dollars, and three dollars for rhetoric, history, philosophy, chemistry, ornamental needlework, and painting in oil colors and on velvet; and George B. R. Gove, at the old McHutcheon stand, salt, dry goods, groceries, hardware and whiskey, 1828. Mr. Gove also advertised brick-making in 1825; J. Congdon and R. A. Campbell a carding mill in 1821; and Dr. Roswell Bates vaccination in 1820 at a charge of twelve and a half cents per case "ready-pay" or twenty-five cents "trust." Spafford's Gazetteer, a standard work published in 1824, states that Fort Covington then had forty-nine mechanics, two storekeepers, three grist mills, one fulling mill, two carding machines, one iron works, one nail factory, three tanneries and one ashery. At one time there were six asheries. The Franklin Republican, published at Fort Covington, contained these advertisements in 1828: George B. R. Gove and John E. Johnston, merchants; Ora F. Paddock, druggist; and Thomas Mears, miller. In 1830 the following were advertisers in the same paper: David L. Seymour, potash kettles, salt, strong beer and sole leather; Orvis & Meeker, by George B. R. Gove, agent, tea and domestic goods; Aretus M. & M. Hitchcock, general merchants; and William Cleveland and James Parker, hotels. The senior member of the firm of Meeker & Orvis was Uriah D. Meeker, who afterward became county clerk, and then was for many years deputy clerk and one of the most respected citizens of Malone. Quoting Mr. Briggs again: "I visited Malone for the first time in 1822, and I should think that the towns were then of about equal size. I do not know whether Fort Covington ever contained actually more inhabitants than Malone. The latter had a larger area devoted to agriculture about it at that time than the former, and may have contained the most people. But about 1825 Fort Covington forged ahead of Malone from the business standpoint, and maintained the lead until the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain Railroad was built, though Malone seemed for a time, when its cotton factory was built, to have recovered at least a part of the ground lost." Unlike most of the other older towns, which were peopled so largely from New England, Fort Covington's earliest settlers were from Canada, and were of French extraction, with some sprinkling of English and Scotch, though there were a few also from Vermont and from Washington county in this State. Indeed, perhaps the latter locality supplied the larger number of pioneers between, say, 1806 and 1820. The population of Fort Covington has had remarkable fluctuations. Three years after the town's erection it had just under one thousand, which exceeded that of any other town in the county except Malone, which outnumbered it by about 150. In 1825 it had increased to 2,136, or 118 per cent., and in the ensuing five years there was a further gain of 32 per cent, to 2,901, which placed it ahead of Malone by about 700, or by 200 more than in 1825. Only in these years was it ever larger than Malone. In 1835 it had decreased to 1,665, a loss of 42 per cent. due in the main, if not altogether, to the partition of the town to form Bombay. From this latter date there was a fair rate of growth to 1860, when the figures stood at 2,757 (about half as many as Malone then had), but following that year there was an almost unbroken decline to 1900, since when the population has been practically stationary at a little over 2,000. The figures for 1915 are 2,045, of which 199 are aliens, and the number residing in the village is 757. The village was incorporated in 1889. There are now seven towns in the county each having a larger population, and one other which is of about equal rank. While Fort Covington never at any time except in 1825 and 1830 had a larger population than Malone, it was nevertheless for a quarter of a century the more important and busier place. Its location gave it advantages which no other town in the county possessed. The Salmon river used to be navigable for barges and for steamboats that drew eight or nine feet to a point about a mile above Dundee, which made the place the natural port of entry and of exportation for the entire county and for the eastern section of St. Lawrence as well. Flour and other supplies had to be procured there or from Plattsburgh, and for a long time our lumber and black salts went there on their way to market in Montreal or Quebec. Its stores were the best stocked in the county, and it is not easily understandable why its pre-eminence was not greater than the record shows. It certainly had some enterprising and strong men. In the number and ability of its members of the bar in early days it was particularly strong, and its physicians stood easily first. Politically it almost dominated the county at one time, when complaint used to be preferred against the interference and arrogance of the "Fort Covington junta," as it later obtained concerning the "Malone ring." With everything so favoring it, it would seem that until Malone gained its railroad facilities it ought still more to have outranked and outstripped it. Can it be possible that even in early times a spirit of laissez faire prevailed, as it certainly did at a later period, a single illustration of which it is worth while to cite? Thirty-odd years ago Charles W. Breed of Malone visited the place for a part of a day, and dropped in for a call upon a druggist, who soon proposed a fishing trip down the river. Mr. Breed assenting, the druggist in question locked his store, and called upon his competing druggist (who was also postmaster) to join the party. The latter also locked his store and post-office, and the three were absent for some hours. One wonders if something of this attitude may not have been responsible for the deadness which for a long time characterized the Fort. But this is a long break in our story, and there ought to be a return to about 1820. John A. Qua gave his recollections of early Fort Covington in a letter published a few years ago. He came there from Washington county in 1819, when he says that there was no store except a small grocery, which was where the Gillis drug store stood later, though there were two places which sold liquor. All trading was done at Dundee. There was no school house, nor a church, and Alexander Cambpell had the only hotel, at the west end of the lower bridge. The village consisted of only a few log houses. Outside of the village on Drum street, the only residents were a Mr. Russell, David Drum, Ebenezer Stevens and Sewall Gleason; on the Bombay road, a Mr. Dana and Robert and William Chapman; on the Deer River road, north of the Ellsworths, only two log houses; on Creighton street, William Creighton and Samuel Fletcher; and on Burns street, George Larkin Burns, William Ryan and William Holden. The first school house was on the Farlinger place, and the second on the Thomas W. Creed place. With the latter a town house was combined, in the upper room of which Lorenzo Coburn's reminiscences state that a Mr. Crosby had an "academy" (not incorporated) in 1825, and Rev. Elisha Hazard taught a district school in the lower room. Wages in 1819 were three shillings a day, and it is a safe guess that a day was longer than eight hours. John H. Hatton did not become a resident until about 1850, but he was in time to gather a good deal of early history at first hand from those who had made it, which he published in his later years. He names Charles Marsh (not mentioned either by Mr. Briggs or by Mr. Qua) as having been in trade in 1820. Mr. Marsh was decidedly prosperous at one time, and devoutly religious. Indeed, Mr. Hatton says that he took upon himself the entire support of the Presbyterian church, less such contributions as others might volunteer to make. He lived in an old stone house on Water street, just above the mouth of the Little Salmon, which sloped from the highway back to the bank of the river. It was built in four sections, so that the roof of each new part stepped down from the older. The newer parts were shed, storehouse, etc.; these have been torn down, and the front remodeled. It was known as "Marsh's castle." At one time the systematic smuggling practiced at the Fort was conducted largely by landing the goods at the river end of the building, and then secreting them in it until there should be opportunity for their removal. I have never heard, however, that Mr. Marsh was a party to such operations, or even privy to them. He failed about 1850 for more than twenty thousand dollars, afterward became insane, and died poor. He was thrown from a buggy thirty-odd years ago, and never recovered from his injuries. He came from Washington county by way of Montreal, where he got his training in merchandising. Still another merchant in the long ago was Samuel C. F. Thorndike of Malone, who, however, remained for only a short time. The activities of William Hogle, a notable personage at one time, were principally of a little later date. According to Mr. Hatton, he was an adopted son of George B. R. Gove, and his store at one time employed five clerks, and had so large a trade that all were kept busy. He went into the steamboat business, sinking over twenty thousand dollars in it, which ruined him financially. Later, however, he operated the Gove saw mill, and manufactured saleratus on an extensive scale from pearl-ash. He had a wharf just below where the Little Salmon empties into the Big Salmon, and used to ship potash or pearl-ash, hoop poles and Indian baskets by canal boat, via the St. Lawrence, the Richelieu river and Lake Champlain, to New York city. He was also a partner of Allen M. Lincoln for a short time in the manufacture of starch in the Luther Starks woolen mill. Yet more important factors in business than any of these were Benjamin Raymond, Warren L. Manning, Richard Grange and James W. Kimball, all of whom were of a later period. Perhaps S. V. R. Tuthill, a partner of Mr. Manning, ought to be included in the list, and also D. E. Deneen and T. W. Creed as later extensive dealers. The story of the industrial establishments of Fort Covington is difficult to trace in detail with accuracy. The first were, of course, the Indian saw mill and the Robertson grist mill, together known as the French mills. If taken literally, Mr. Constable's diary, locating the one on the north and the other on the south bank of the river, would require them to be either below the Lincoln tannery, where the river bends to the west, or south of Chateaugay street; and a map on file in the county clerk's office., made in 1835, actually shows them at the first mentioned point, which is an absurdity, because that site admits of no power development. Moreover, records in the Secretary of State's office at Albany establish incontestably that these mills were in the immediate vicinity of the sites of the present electric light plant and of the former McNaughton grist mill. An act of the Legislature, passed in April, 1819, providing for the sale of the lots in the mile square carried a prohibition against the issuance of a patent by the State to the heirs or legal representatives of James and Alexander Robertson for the grist mill lot until they should pay to the State one hundred and twenty dollars, to be applied to the benefit of Robert Buchanan. Knowing that it was the policy and law of the State that original occupants of any given parcel in this tract should have the preference in buying at the appraised valuation, but that nevertheless compensation must be made to the then tenants or occupants who had made improvements, the significance of the provision quoted from the law of 1819 is readily seen. Buchanan had been a lessee of the grist mill from the Robertsons, and in the course of his fifteen years of such occupancy had doubtless laid out something on the property for betterments. The Robertsons, apparently, declined to compensate him for these, and, the disagreement being carried to Albany, the State limited the prescriptive right of the Robertsons to buy unless they complied with the general obligation to pay for improvements. The matter evidently dragged for six years, when, in 1825, Elizabeth Robertson Stuart of Montreal, "sole heiress of James and Alexander Robertson," met the stipulated condition, and received the State's patent to the lot on the west side of the river, where the electric light works are, which she contracted in 1831 to Thomas Mears of Hawkesbury, Ont., who was the father of Hamlet B. and Thomas Stewart Mears. But if this be not enough to fix convincingly almost the precise spot where the first grist mill stood, it may be added that I have been privileged recently to see the notes on early Fort Covington that were made thirty or forty years ago by a gentleman who then examined carefully into the facts, when pioneers were still living to impart information, and these notes also locate the original mills at the places stated. Having in mind probably the general course of the river from where it passes out of Westville, Mr. Constable must have written "north" and "south" where "right" and "left" would have been more accurately descriptive. But before proceeding to designate as far as may be the various establishments that have flourished, decayed and disappeared at this center of activity during nearly four generations it seems pertinent to unfold more fully the conditions and record concerning the ceded lands in the mile square. Seven or eight years before its cession by the Indians to the State the Robertsons sublet the east half of the tract to William Hawkins, who, unable to keep up his payments, repudiated his agreement with the lessors; but, instead of surrendering his holdings to them, delivered back a part to the Indians. During his possession Hawkins had in 1809 and 1810 erected a new saw mill where the first one had stood. Ignoring their own lease to the Robertsons, the Indians thereupon leased the lots between Mill street and the river, together with the saw mill thereon, to Wareham Hastings. The entire mile square, ceded by the Indians in 1816, was surveyed by State authorities in 1818 into "houselots" and "outlets." The former, numbering about one hundred, were of varying dimensions, and were all in localities which were expected to be occupied by village residences or commercial and manufacturing establishments. Two factors were to govern in the sale of these, viz., the estimated value of the land alone, and the appraised value of improvements, if any, added. For the unimproved lots or parts thereof (for some of the lots were sold as a whole, and others broken into two or three or even a half dozen parcels each) the prices ranged from fifteen dollars to two hundred dollars apiece, while the appraised value of improvements varied widely. For the lot on which the electric light works are the straight land value was appraised at $2.000, and the improvements at $3,120, out of which latter sum Buchanan was, of course, to get his $120, while the remainder represented the interest of the Robertsons themselves they having been the original builders. The value of the several lots lying between Mill street and the river was set at $1,000, and of the improvements at $1,500. The "outlets" were in the outskirts of the mile square, and had an area of from two to thirty-four acres each. The number of such lots was twenty-one. Now for such history of the several mills and shops in the locality as I have been able to gather: According to the Constable diary, the saw mill on the east side of the river had gone into disuse by 1805. It had undoubtedly been a primitive and cheaply constructed affair, and naturally could not last long. By 1810 William Hawkins had rebuilt it, as shown by State records, and by 1816 Wareham Hastings had come into possession. The latter purchased the property outright from the State in 1822, and sold it the same year or the next to Joshua Aiken of Peru, who in turn disposed of it in 1823 for $5,300 to Benjamin Sanborn of Fort Covington and Thomas Mears of Hawkesbury, Ont. The deed of conveyance includes both a saw mill and a grist mill. The latter was built by Sanborn, for Chapter 7 of the Laws of 1824 recites that he had by mistake built a part of his grist mill on the lot above the one that he owned, and gave him the privilege of buying the additional lot. When and how the saw mill went out of existence I am unable to learn. In 1826 Sanborn disposed of his interest in the property to Mears, and the grist mill remained thereafter for nearly half a century a Mears possession, though operated now and again under lease by other parties among whom were John and Robert Patterson, who had it when it burned about 1870, Isaac Seeley, John Gillies and Gilbert A., Albon and Almon Wright. Later the Wrights had it by purchase, and sold it in 1888 for twelve thousand dollars to the Fort Covington Milling Company (a McNaughton organization), which proceeded to lay out several thousand dollars additional in converting it into a roller-process mill and otherwise improving it. This company did an extensive business for a number of years, smuggling wheat by the carload, and finally having to pay five thousand dollars to the United States government to settle the case against it. Not long after the dam had been carried off by a freshet in 1913, the mill burned, and has not been rebuilt. The "bark mill" marked on the map of 1818, which would naturally be supposed to belong to the Streeter tannery, was in fact an adjunct of William W. Herrick's, and had no water privilege except for grinding for that particular works. State records show that it had gone into practical disuse in 1832. Near this bark mill was Benjamin B. Streeter's tannery, in which Grindal Streeter was afterward a partner. A shoeshop was an adjunct of it, and not far away was a hat factory run by one or more members of the family. At this factory high hats for men's dress wear were made. As I now visualize the only one of them that I ever saw, it might have served as a pattern for the headgear that Uncle Sam is pictured as wearing, or it might have been copied from it. These hats were higher and larger than the modern silk tile, were of a yellowish tinge, and the plush or fur with which they were covered was nearly as long as the fur of an animal. It seems a reasonable assumption that the "clothiery " shown on the map was a carding mill perhaps that of J. Congdon and R. A. Campbell advertised in 1821, and also the same as that which George A. Cheney owned later. Certainly it could not have been a woolen factory, for there was no such establishment in the county until after 1825. The triphammer works, as already stated, were owned and run by Jesse Woodbury, Jr. The census of 1825 lists them as still in existence, but that of ten years later omits them altogether. Quite a distance down the river, and between the river and Water street, was William W. Herrick's tannery, with shoeshop connected with it. The precise date of its establishment can not be ascertained, but certainly was 1818 or earlier. Walter Herrick, a grandson, is confident that it antedated Allen Lincoln's, which was on the lot next north, and probably was built in 1822. Mr. Lincoln had a shoeshop in connection with his tannery, and also a store in one end of it, from which he wholesaled large quantities of merchandise (then cheaper there than at Cornwall) to go into Canada for resale. When Mr. Lincoln identified himself with Fort Covington there was not a house in the place that he could rent, and he had to fix his habitation temporarily in Westville walking to his work every morning, and tramping home at night. His tannery, shoeshop, store, real estate investments and other activities prospered him remarkably, and no man in the town was of greater importance or more prominent. His estate, valued at one hundred thousand dollars, was one of the largest ever accumulated by anybody in Fort Covington. His tannery continued to be operated for a good many years, his son, Allen M., running it, and then James Blansfield. It was finally torn down. The Cheney carding mill and dye works were sold to John and Alexander M. Stewart, who converted the building into a furniture factory, which fire wiped out. James Courtney's carriage shop stands about where the Streeter tannery used to be, and is the only industry in the vicinity on the east side of the river where there were formerly so many. A part of the Courtney building once stood on Water street, where Mr. Courtney understands that it was at one time a hotel, kept by a Mr. Dutcher, and then by Hiram Stafford, but which others remember as a saloon only. Near this point there was also a plant for rectifying whiskey, which was run by D. E. Deneen and Michael Mead. As already demonstrated, the first grist mill was located nearly opposite, close up to the dam on the west bank. The lot on which it stood was contracted in 1831 by a Robertson heir to Thomas Mears, who already owned a like mill on the east bank, and full title passed in 1839. But the premises had been sold under a judgment in 1836, Hamlet B. Mears buying them in, and the sheriffs certificate of sale reciting that there were "grain mills, a distillery and outbuildings thereon." The deed of 1839, however, recites the description as it appeared in the contract of eight years earlier, and mentions only an old building that had theretofore been used as a mill, without specifying its kind, but which undoubtedly was the original grist mill of 1805. .The census of 1835 so lists it, but that of ten years later omits it, so that it must have disappeared, perhaps by decay or by fire, during that decade. Between the contents of the contract of 1831 and the sheriff's certificate it is made to appear rather convincingly that the distillery was built between 1831 and 1836. It is understood to have been owned and operated by Aretus M. and Myron Hitchcock. How long it was run and what became of it is unknown, but my conjecture is that it became the Luther Starks woolen factory, as the latter was established in a building that was already standing, which the lessee undertook in his lease to complete and improve. In 1841 Hamlet B. and Thomas S. Mears leased to Luther Starks for ten years, with renewal privilege, a building and water rights on the west side of the river for a carding and fulling mill and for the manufacture of cloth, the lessors reserving a right of way to a point below for a saw mill if they should build one there. By the terms of the lease Mr. Starks was to make specified changes and improvements in the building. He operated the industry until he committed suicide by cutting his throat in March, 1850. The business was continued for a few years thereafter by Tilness Briggs. The saw mill contemplated in the lease was built by the Messrs. Mears, and after a time was made over into a starch factory, which the Mears Brothers operated, followed by Gilbert A. Wright and then by Allen M. Lincoln and William Hogle. It had but a brief life. Both this starch factory and the Starks woolen mills were torn down, and the material in them utilized for the erection of a sash and door factory near by for Gilbert A. Wright, which was four stories in height, and is said to have contained ten thousand dollars' worth of machinery. It did a considerable business for a country plant until it was destroyed by fire.