HISTORY: Harrietstown 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 XVII HARRIETSTOWN

Harrietstown was erected from Duane March 19, 1841, and included originally 
three townships. A township and a half taken from Brandon was added in 1883.
It has 134,247 assessed acres, is mountainous in considerable part, contains
many  lakes and ponds, and has only a comparatively small area, in the
northern  section, that is adapted to agriculture, the pursuit of which is
heavily  handicapped by early and late frosts. Among the larger waters are
Lower and  Middle Saranac lakes, a part of each of Upper Saranac and Upper St.
Regis, and Lake Clear. The more noteworthy of the smaller waters are
Ampersand, Follansby, Colby, Oseetah, Lake Flower and Kiwassa (formerly
Lonesome). Lake Flower is an expansion of the Saranac river, and lies within
the corporate limits of Saranac Lake village. On the shores of these several
waters are many summer hotels and wilderness cottages or camps, some of which
represent the expenditure of many thousand dollars and reflect a wealth of
care and adornment of grounds that make them exceedingly attractive. The only
considerable stream in the town is the Saranac river, which takes a tortuous
course of perhaps six or eight miles through the eastern and northern part
before passing into Essex county. The Chateaugay Railroad runs for five or six
miles almost along the eastern boundary before swinging to its terminus at
Lake Placid; the Paul Smith Electric Railway runs northerly from Lake Clear
Junction into Brighton; and the main line of the Adirondack and St. Lawrence
extends in a southwesterly direction for five or six miles through the
northern part, with a branch running from Lake Clear to Saranac Lake village.

The town takes its name from Harriet, eldest daughter of William Constable and 
wife of James Duane. Hough's story attributes its erection to pique on the
part of Major Duane, occasioned by a vote at the town meeting in 1840
providing that the next such meeting be held at Saranac Lake, thirty-odd miles
distant from Major Duane's home. Hough states that this action was
accomplished through an unusual and unexpected attendance at the meeting by so
many voters from Saranac Lake that they had control; and that, resenting the
procedure and resolved not to be inconvenienced again by having to drive a
long distance in order to attend an election, Major Duane forced a partition
of the town against the wish and remonstrance of the Saranac Lake people. But
inasmuch as Major Duane was continued as supervisor in 1841, which would
hardly have been the case if there had really been serious friction between
the two sections of the town, I think that the Hough account should be
received with some degree of allowance.

Another town meeting story runs that in early days, when it was the custom of 
every elector to go to the polls in the morning, and stay through until the 
votes had been counted, the canvass showed upon one such occasion something
like twenty Democratic ballots to one lone Whig, whereupon Captain Pliny
Miller, for many years the political autocrat of Harrietstown, forbade
announcement of the result, insisting that some one had made a mistake, and
that the vote must be retaken. After everybody had voted a second time, the
count showed twenty-one straight Democratic ballots, which, naturally, was
sufficient and satisfactory. Still another anecdote with a political tang
represents that a visitor once reminded Milote Baker as he closed his store
for the night that he had neglected to lock the door, to which Mr. Baker
responded that it was quite unnecessary to fasten anything since there was not
a Whig in town.

Settlement in Harrietstown began prior to 1820, but was of slow development 
for sixty years or more, as census figures show:

1845    1850    1860    1870    1880    1890    1900    1905    1910    1915 
 129     181     340     416     533    1582    3390    4133    4755    4716

While the figures for 1915 are slightly below those for 1910 it is claimed 
that the decrease is apparent only, due to the fact that in the one case 
visitors were erroneously enumerated, while in the other none but actual, 
permanent residents were counted. The number of aliens is returned as 218.

Though Jacob Moody is said to have located in that part of Saranac Lake 
village which lies in Essex county as early as 1819, and Isaac Livingston at 
about the same time near West Harrietstown, Pliny Miller was the first settler 
on the Saranac river in Harrietstown. He had commanded a militia company from 
the vicinity of Troy in the war of 1812, and on his way with his command to
duty at Fort Covington had been persuaded by a relative at Keeseville to buy a
large tract of land in Wilmington, to which he removed at the close of the
war, and engaged in lumbering. The failure of a Montreal concern which had
contracted for his output involved him so seriously that he had to close out
his Wilmington properties, after which he established himself, in 1828, at
Saranac Lake, where at two dollars per acre he bought a three-hundred acre
tract, on which is now located a considerable part of the village. Here he
again engaged in lumbering. For more than thirty years he was the town's
foremost and most influential citizen. His residence was near the present
power house, across the river from the village office, on what is now the
Miles-Tucker place. One biographical sketch represents him as having kept a
tavern, but his descendants do not understand that he ever engaged in such
business beyond having perhaps occasionally accommodated a traveler in his
home. He was, however, the owner and probably the builder of the hotel which
stood on the site of the village office, which was burned in 1856, and which
was run by various lessees, including Wm. F. Martin and Virgil C. Bartlett. In
1859 Captain Miller removed to Wilmington, where he died a year later at the
age of eighty-five years. He was a man of indomitable will, forceful energy
and enterprise, and public spirited. For a number of years he was supervisor,
and when he did not hold the office himself usually determined the man who
did. The late Milo B. Miller and Seaver A. Miller, both gentlemen of character
and substance and of large usefulness, are among his descendants. Hilyer
Miller, the father of Milo, was the first merchant in the village, though of
course in a very small way; and Van Buren, the father of Seaver, was often
supervisor, was more familiar with town affairs and in his time more useful in
a public way, than any other resident. With the paucity of people and with no
local industries of consequence, the life and business of the locality were
long insignificant in volume, though some of the incidents of the earlier time
are interesting.

Milote Baker opened a boarding house or hotel and store in 1851 about a mile 
below the village, but in Essex county. He was a natural host, and his place
had a wide reputation and great popularity, though of course in a small way as 
compared with later enterprises of a similar sort. The sportsmen who stopped 
with him sought their fishing and hunting for the most part at the lake, and
as indicative of the former abundance of game it is told that Mr. Baker
employed thirty men as hunters in 1868, kept two teams constantly on the road
in autumn and early winter, hauling venison to market, and shipped five
hundred deer. His store burned in 1869, but was rebuilt.

Saranac Lake's first hotel, on the site of the present village office, was 
leased in 1849 by William F. Martin, who came from Westville, and ran it until 
he built and opened in 1851 or 1852 the house, a couple of miles distant on
the lower lake, that was known for years as "Martin's," and afterward as the
Saranac Lake House. This was almost or quite the first hotel in this sector of
the Adirondacks that was more than a shack or rude structure, and Mr. Martin's 
friends and the community generally were certain when he began to build that
the venture was a folly, sure to prove a failure. But in twenty years it had
been enlarged to a capacity of a hundred guests, and so equipped that its 
accommodations were deemed at the time luxurious. Its business included,
besides the entertainment of guests, the outfitting of parties who sought
remoter waters and wilds with everything needed by the camper or sportsman, In
1881 the property passed to the ownership of Milo B. Miller at a consideration
of eighteen thousand dollars, and was doubled in size. Mr. Miller managed it
until it was destroyed by fire in 1890. It has not been rebuilt, and the site
is now owned by the Hotel Ampersand interests.

Virgil C. Bartlett succeeded Mr. Martin as landlord of the hotel leased from 
Pliny Miller. He was a picturesque character, and when excited or annoyed his 
language was apt to be emphatic, not to say vivid. But he was quite as much a 
man of action, as of words, and is credited with having established the first 
line of stages which gave communication between Saranac Lake and Lake
Champlain points. In 1855 he built the hotel at Bartlett's carry, on the
outlet of Upper Saranac lake, which he made a popular resort until his death
in 1884. The house was bought in 1890 by the Saranac Club, which had only a
short life, during which the hotel burned. At present a large and fine
property occupies the site, with a dozen or more cottages auxiliary to it. J.
H. Reardon is the manager. James W. Daly occupied the hotel in the village
after the Bartlett tenancy, and was its landlord when it burned in 1856.

The hotel in the village which Martin and Bartlett had kept having burned, 
John Jay Miller bought from his father, the captain, a considerable tract of 
land, inclusive of the site of the Riverside Inn, where he erected a modest, 
plain inn or tavern, and leased it in 1860 to the Bloods   Orlando, Alonzo and 
Arvilla. After five years of occupancy and management the Bloods bought the 
establishment with about eighty acres of land for two thousand dollars.
Charles H. Kendall was the next owner and landlord after the Bloods, and was
followed by George Berkley, who named it the Adirondack House. When Berkley
was murdered something like thirty years ago, Wallace Murray became the
proprietor, and changed the name to Riverside Inn. Pine & Corbett, young men
who had received hotel training with Paul Smith, next bought the property,
which has been greatly enlarged and improved, and is at least as fine an
all-the-year hotel as there is in the Adirondacks.

Another of the early summer hotels in Harrietstown was Jesse Corey's Rustic 
Lodge at the foot of Upper Saranac Lake, which was built about 1859 at the 
Saranac end of the portage between that water and Stony Creek ponds, formerly 
known as the Indian carry. Here the Indians are claimed to have had a summer 
village long before the advent of the whites, and many relics of their
occupancy have been found in the vicinity. Tradition is that the Indians knew
of a lead mine near by, from which they obtained the metal for making bullets,
but white men have never been able to locate it. Corey's was kept later by
Charles H. Wardner.

A small and rude house was built at least as early as 1857 by John Sweeney on 
Upper Saranac lake at the eastern end of another carry from that water to the 
Raquette. It was kept later by David Sweeney, and afterward by 0. A. Covill,
and was displaced about 1886 by the Wawbeck, an excellent house while it
continued in existence; but, the only approach to it at the time having been
by water, it never paid, and in consequence was torn down in 1914.

The Algonquin, on the lower lake, near Martin's, was built in 1884 by Jabez D. 
Alexander, and originally was known as "Alexander's." John A. Harding, a Paul 
Smith protege, bought it in 1890, renamed it the Algonquin, and. managed it
for several years. Its location is sightly, and it has always been deservedly 
popular.

The Berkley, in the village, was built in 1877 by Charles F. Gray for the 
accommodation of the city tuberculosis patients who were then beginning to
seek the locality as a health resort, but for whose care there were neither
suitable cottages nor hotels. Though having a capacity for only fifteen or
twenty guests, it was of ample size for all of the demands then made upon it.
Eugene Woodruff succeeded Gray as proprietor, and then Streeter & Dennison
took it over, enlarged it, and ran it successfully for a number of years.
Latterly it has changed ownership or management a number of times.

The Ampersand was built by Agnew & Eaton, New York city parties, in 1888 for a 
distinctively winter resort for invalids, and though not particularly
expensive in construction carried an atmosphere of elegance and exclusiveness.
It could accommodate about three hundred guests, and was soon changed into a
summer hotel for tourists generally. It burned in 1907 under circumstances
which gave rise to suspicions of incendiarism, but suits at law for the
recovery of a hundred thousand dollars of insurance moneys were thought to
establish the fact that, however anxious the owners may have been to be rid of
the property, the fire was of accidental origin. Recently there has been
effort to organize and enlist capital for rebuilding on a splendid scale, at a
possible cost of a million dollars or more, and though the movement has not
been successful as yet it is said not to have been abandoned.

The town has never had any important industries with the exception of that of 
Branch & Callahan, which is located in the village, and covers an area of
three acres. The plant consists of mills for the manufacture of building
material, and employs a considerable number of men. The firm's particular line
of work is the construction of summer camps and fine dwelling houses in the
village. The earliest saw mill was that of Captain Miller, situate at the
point where the electric power plant now is. It was owned later by the Bloods,
and finally by Stephen Merchant. The only other mills of the kind that the
town ever had, I think, were one built by Charles Greenough on the outlet of
Colby pond in 1885, a steam mill at the head of Lake Flower, owned by Joe
Baker, which burned in 1896, and one erected perhaps twenty years ago in the
lower part of the village by Twombley & Carrier as a part of their sash, door
and trim establishment, which was destroyed by fire.

The only grist mill used to stand below the Miller saw mill, and was built by 
Ensign Miller, and afterward owned by the Bloods and then by T. N. Spaulding.
It was a small affair, and was torn down with the saw mill.

Explanation of the non-existence of considerable mills here, where the supply 
of timber was abundant, and the power excellent, would seem to be the
remoteness of the place from market, the almost entire lack of local demand
for lumber, and the horrible condition of the roads in early times. Logs could
be floated down the river to Plattsburgh, but the manufactured product could
not be similarly transported, and thus, while lumbering in the vicinity was
prosecuted in a large way from as early as 1857 and down to recent years, the
only benefit that the locality derived from the operations was confined to the
wages paid in winter and early spring. The lumbermen became marvelously
proficient in riding logs in the water, and were given to displaying the skill
they had acquired in balancing, and often took daredevil chances. One of these
experts (Henry Martin) is said to have rode a single log across the East river
at New York.

With the exception of Saranac Lake, there is no village in the town, and but 
one hamlet, viz., Lake Clear, which has a population of perhaps a couple of 
hundred, and which sprang up with the building of the Adirondack and St. 
Lawrence Railway. It includes Lake Clear Junction and Otisville, which are
about a mile apart, six miles west by north from Saranac Lake village.
Together they include two or three stores, a post-office, a railway station,
two hotels, a Roman Catholic church and a Presbyterian mission chapel besides
scattered dwelling houses. There are, however, two or three other localities
which are rather more closely settled than the average of farming districts,
each of which has its own distinctive name and a post-office. Peck's Corners,
now more generally called Lake Colby, is a mile or two west from Saranac Lake,
and consists of eight or ten houses, a store, a blacksmith shop, a saloon and
a post-office. Harrietstown lies in the best agricultural section of the town,
and notwithstanding it is in almost the extreme northeastern corner, was known
for a long time as West Harrietstown, probably to distinguish it from Saranac
Lake, which was originally called Harrietstown. Leonard Nokes, J. H.
Farrington and A. S. Whitman were comparatively early settlers at this point.
Mr. Farrington kept a store, which is now abandoned. Isaiah Vosburgh bought in
the vicinity in 1875, and erected and for several years conducted a boarding
house which business afforded the nucleus of the fortune that he has acquired.
He sold to Frank G. Tremble, now of Nicholville, who enlarged the buildings to
a capacity of fifty people, but closed the place four or five years ago. James
J. Fitzgerald bought the Nokes place in 1891, and has operated it successfully
as a boarding house. It accommodates forty or fifty people, at rates ranging
from nine dollars to fifteen dollars per week. A Presbyterian mission church
was erected here in 1907, and is served in the summer season by theological
students desirous of spending their vacations in the Adirondacks, and in
winter from the mission at Keese's Mill.

Two dates and two men loom large in the life of Saranac Lake, and between them 
account for much of the growth and spirit that have made it perhaps the most 
enterprising and progressive village in the State, as well as peculiarly 
attractive in some respects. Rev. W. H. H. Murray's first sketch of Adirondack 
life and pleasures, published in 1868   fanciful, exaggerated and inaccurate
in many particulars though it was  nevertheless so touched public curiosity
and interest in an alluring way that the next season saw a rush of visitors to
the wilderness unexampled in number and so fruitful in consequences that its 
importance to the region can hardly be overestimated. True, many of the first 
throng found only disappointment, hurried home, and never returned   counting 
themselves as of the legion of "Murray's fools;" but many others, captivated
by the charm of scenery, the thrill that the true angler or huntsman senses
when his own cunning and skill prevail over the wariness of game in the wilds,
and conscious of benefits resulting from life in the open, from healthful
exercise or the restfulness which the region induces, continued their
pilgrimages year after year, and, imparting something of their enthusiasm to
others, brought friends with them, until hotels multiplied and became almost
palatial, and the entire Adirondack country was made world famous as a
pleasure and rest resort, a vast natural sanatorium. One of the immediate
effects of the Murray rush was an enlargement generally of the summer hotels,
with installation of modern conveniences and the establishment of a standard
of table fare which the few earlier sportsmen had never thought of demanding,
or even especially desired. Another was its benefit to those who served as
guides   theretofore a class careless in appearance, in expression and in
conduct except faithfully to give their employers a rough attendance looking
to their safety and also to their success in taking game and fish. The changed
conditions brought surer and more prolonged employment, with higher pay,
stimulated to more painstaking and gentler service, induced more correct
habits, greater care in dress, manners and conversation, broadened
intelligence, and proved beneficial in everyway, for, however it may or may
not affect character, attrition never fails to go far in marking the outward
appearance of men and in sharpening their wits. Of course all this necessarily
brought something of material welfare to other classes also   to the merchant,
artisan and farmer. It did not, however, add very much at once to the
permanent residential population, which showed no appreciable increase until
after 1880. But it was in large measure preparatory to what has since
followed, and which could never have been realized except through the 
continually increasing number of wealthy men and women of generous and 
benevolent impulses who find enjoyment summer after summer in the Adirondaeks, 
and become warmly interested in the various movements there of a philanthropic 
sort. The resources of the home people alone could never have accomplished
even a small part of what has been wrought for humanity in Saranac Lake and
other places through the contributions and efforts of visitors who, directly
or indirectly, were started to the woods by Murray.

It is questionable if any one resident of the county ever accomplished as much 
for it and for mankind generally as Edward Livingston Trudeau, M. D., who, a 
native of New York city, was driven by tuberculosis to the Adirondacks in 1873
  not, however, with the slightest hope of cure, or even of any considerable 
prolongation of life. The gospel of hope of recovery for even incipient cases
of 
pulmonary consumption, or of appreciable benefit if the disease were well 
advanced, had not only never then been preached, but the teaching in vogue 
proscribed fresh air in the sick room, especially at night, though it did 
counsel life in the open tinder favorable conditions. Thus Doctor Trudeau, as 
stated by himself, "was influenced in my choice of the Adirondacks only by my 
love for the great forest and the wild life, and not at all because I thought 
the climate would be beneficial in any way. * * * If I had but a short time to 
live, I yearned for surroundings that appealed to me." At that time he was so 
ill and weak that he had to make the drive from Ausable Forks to Paul Smiths 
reclining on pillows and a mattress, and upon arrival had to be carried to his 
room in the arms of a guide. Yet he lived for more than forty years, doing
work during the greater part of the time that would have taxed the powers and 
endurance even of a well man; and achieving results of momentous value to the 
world. The story of it all has been told by himself in a fascinatingly 
interesting autobiography, of which even a detailed summary is impracticable 
here, though its outlines must be drawn if this sketch is to carry any
adequate understanding of the growth and progress that Saranac Lake has made,
and of how it was accomplished.

For three years Doctor Trudeau passed most of his time at Paul Smiths in great 
feebleness, but by reason of the removal of the Smith family to Plattsburgh
for the winter of 1876 7, and inability to find suitable accommodations
elsewhere, he was compelled to locate at Saranac Lake if he were to continue
his stay in the Adirondacks. He says that at that time "Saranac Lake village
consisted of a saw mill, a small hotel for guides and lumbermen, a school
house and perhaps a dozen guides' houses scattered over an area of an eighth
of a mile." The hotel was what is now the enlarged Riverside Inn, and the
population of the entire town was barely four hundred. There was only one
other tuberculous person there for health considerations, but in the winter of
1877-78 Doctor Loomis of New York sent a number of such patients to be under
Doctor Trudeau's observation and care, and in this small and almost accidental
way Saranac Lake had its beginning as a health resort. Benefits realized
spread the fame of the place, larger numbers of the afflicted began to seek
it, and in the course of a few years people of the type in question had come
to comprise no inconsiderable proportion of the population. Doctor Trudeau
continued to spend his summers at Paul Smiths, but visiting Saranac Lake on
two afternoons each week to examine and advise those who came to consult him.
It was not long before upon these occasions the number would often be so large
that they thronged his office, porch and yard. The village had no suitable or
adequate accommodations for them for a time, but with the building of the
Berkley and the enlargement or erection of houses and cottages expressly to
care for invalids, provision was eventually made for all. By 1882 visitors had
become so numerous, including many who could pay only a very moderate charge
for care and treatment, that Doctor Trudeau determined, if funds could be
raised, to establish a sanatorium for incipient cases at which charges should
be less than actual cost. From that year almost to the day of his death in
November, 1915, he was a persistent beggar not alone from his wealthy friends,
but also from utter strangers, for money with which to extend his work. His
presentation of his case must have been wonderfully persuasive, for it is 
quite within bounds to say that the sum of individual contributions and of 
receipts at fairs and entertainments at Paul Smiths, Saranac Inn and other 
resorts can not have been less than a million dollars, and probably
considerably in excess of that amount. The initial subscription was five
hundred dollars, which was followed by a number of petty pledges, and the next
was for two thousand five hundred dollars. Many gifts since then have been for
ten, twenty and even twenty-five thousand dollars each; and the doctor tells
that one appeal by letter to a stranger which he had hoped might yield a
possible two hundred dollars did in fact bring a check for one hundred times
as much.

A site for the institution was bought and donated by the guides of the 
vicinity in 1883, and comprised sixteen acres of rough, boulder-strewn land, 
which cost four hundred dollars. Additions have since been made   in one 
instance at the price of a thousand dollars per acre. The location is a 
sheltered hillside in that section of the village which is in Essex county,
and is specifically known as Trudeau. Work on the first cottage, so small that
it could house only two patients, was begun in 1884, and the original staff, 
exclusive of Doctor Trudeau himself, consisted of a farmer, wife and two 
daughters, none of whom had had any training in administering to the sick; and 
for a few years immediately following practically the only nurses (?) were 
lumbermen and guides and any old woman who could be hired. The charge
originally for board and care was five dollars per patient per week, or two
dollars under actual cost, and has since been increased to eight dollars,
which latter rate leaves a deficit of more than seven dollars. A few
particularly pitiful necessitous cases receive care free of charge. The excess
of cost over payments by patients has usually run from twelve to thirty
thousand dollars a year, which has been made up by receipts at fairs and by
individual contributions, and all of the time until he became prostrated in
1915 Doctor Trudeau gave his services without any charge whatever. The
shortage in receipts for running expenses in 1917 was $42,448. Until an
occasional medical student became a patient, and a few practitioners (notably
Doctor Edwin E. Baldwin and Doctor J. Woods Price) came to Saranac Lake
because they themselves had contracted tuberculosis, all of this vast work
devolved upon Doctor Trudeau alone. To the students and to the gentlemen named
as co-workers with him Doctor Trudeau pays appreciative tribute for their
intelligent and tireless participation in his labors.

From the single little cottage which was its beginning, the institution, known 
for thirty years as the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium, and since its founder's 
death as the Trudeau Sanatorium, has grown until, amid grounds greatly 
beautified, it now comprises some forty buildings of a substantial character
and attractive appearance, containing all modern conveniences   such as
running water, approved drainage and sewerage, electric lighting and hot-water
heating   and is not only free from debt, but has an endowment fund of more
than six hundred thousand dollars! The corps of nurses numbers ten, and five
skilled physicians are in constant attendance. Nearly every structure and
improvement has been the gift of some friend or beneficiary as a memorial.
They include an administration building, a fireproof laundry, a nurses' home
and training school, an infirmary for the bed-ridden, a post-office, a
reception building with offices, laboratory and X-ray department for
scientific work and research, a pavilion for amusements and entertainments, a
stone chapel, a workshop for the patients where, both to divert them from
brooding over their ills and for utility purposes, fancy leather work,
bookbinding, brass work, basketry, photography and frame-making are taught,
and, of course, a number of cottages of varying capacity each, but aggregating
over one hundred. Between three and four hundred patients are treated every
year, and the running expenses alone in 1917 were $109,918. The essence of*the
treament is "rest, fresh air and a daily regulation by the physician of the
patient's life and habits." The cures are estimated at one in six or seven of
those treated, while the percentage in which the disease is held to have been
arrested or improved is placed at about sixty.

Additional to the distinctively sanatorium work and achievements, Doctor 
Trudeau gave close study and careful experiment for years in a private 
laboratory at his home to the problem of the nature, cause and how best to
treat tuberculosis, as well as to effort to discover a cure. The original
laboratory, crude in construction and insufficient both in size and equipment,
has been replaced by one of fine and elaborate outfit, quartered in a
fireproof building erected expressly for it, and in which a band of
enthusiastic specialists are continuing investigation with encouragingly
productive results. It has been made an adjunct of the Trudeau Sanatorium, and
effort is now making to secure an endowment for it sufficient in amount to
yield an annual income of twenty-five thousand dollars.

An imperfect conception may be had from the foregoing of the immeasurable 
value of Doctor Trudeau's work to the world, and it is pertinent to consider 
what its bearing, coupled with the indirect influence of the Murray
publication, has been upon Harrietstown and Saranac Lake. The population of
the former had increased in thirty years from 1845 by less than four hundred,
and not only had growth not proceeded in larger ratio during the next ensuing
half decade, but there was nothing in existing conditions when Doctor Trudeau
came to suggest probability of greater progress in the future. But his service
and his gospel of hope for the afflicted imparted an almost immediate impetus,
and in the ten years following 1880 the number of the town's inhabitants had
multiplied threefold, with half or more residing in the hamlet. In the twenty
years from 1890 there was a further increase of over three hundred per cent,
in the town. Village comparisons are more complicated, and must stand
separately, because Saranac Lake includes parts of the towns of St. Armand and
North Elba in Essex county, and of Harrietstown, Franklin county. According to
the census of 1890 the hamlet, all in Franklin county, contained 768
inhabitants, and the enumeration of 1892 at incorporation fixed the number at
1,014, when the Essex county proportion could not have been much more than ten
or fifteen per cent. It is now about 22 per cent. The census of 1910 credits
St. Armand with contributing 67 inhabitants, North Elba 1,019, and
Harrietstown 3,897   a total of 4,983.

But beyond anything that a census shows, it must be taken into consideration 
that there are in the village, practically at all times, as many as twelve to 
fifteen hundred health seekers, inclusive of accompanying relatives or friends 
and attendants   a floating population because continually changing in 
personnel, but not varying greatly in numbers.

Contrasts other than that of numbers are not less striking. In the place of 
one small, rough hotel there are now a dozen or fifteen, most of them well
kept and some really high class. The one or two boarding houses of simple
furnishing and plain fare when Doctor Trudeau came forty years ago have
increased to sixty or more, many of them well appointed and well managed and
built expressly for occupancy by the sick. The weekly charges by these range
from eight to forty dollars, with a few of the best going as high as fifty
dollars. As against the single physician of the earlier day there are now no
less than twenty, not a few of whom are specialists who would stand high in
the profession anywhere. The one little store, scantily stocked with coarse
wares, has seen many pretentious establishments, including fine markets,
spring up, filled with choice and high-priced goods attractively displayed.
Where there was not a single house of worship, and where even the itinerant
preacher came not oftener than once a fortnight, there are four handsome
church edifices, ably ministered and generously supported. The conditions when
water for the household had to be carted from the river or drawn from cisterns
or wells in danger of pollution have been remedied by the construction of a
gravity system of waterworks, with a mountain spring pond the source of
supply, and affording an abundant quantity for all uses, with a good pressure
for fire protection. The streets, formerly clouds of dust in drouth or beds of
mud after heavy rains, are brick paved or macadamized. The tallow dip or
kerosene lamp at the best has given place to the electric light, or to gas for
those who prefer it. The unattractive home, usually barren of conveniences,
has been succeeded in many cases by residences and grounds which, reflecting a
heavy expenditure, are remarkably fine. Park avenue in particular is as a
whole the handsomest street that I know of anywhere in a place of this size.
It has been built up in the main by those who have located here either in
pursuit of health for themselves or for some member of the family. Land along
it which sold a few years ago at a hundred dollars an acre now commands from
three thousand dollars to ten thousand dollars per building lot, some of which
have only a hundred .feet frontage; and realty valuations generally of two
generations ago were less than the charge now often made and willingly paid
for a single quarter's rental of a large and well furnished cottage. One such
property was recently taken from a reluctant lessor at four hundred dollars
per month, and rentals for property smaller in size or less desirably located
at one hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars are not uncommon.
But further comparisons or contrasts need not be particularized, though it is
worth while to list some of the advantages, attractions and institutions of
the village, together with certain of its corporate acts:

Accessibility.  Two railway lines, one a link in the New York Central system 
and the other in that of the Delaware and Hudson, reach Saranac Lake, with 
frequent, rapid and luxurious train service. The distance in time from New
York city is little more than it was a generation ago from Ausable Forks,
thirty-odd miles away. The station is a union one, and is said to have cost
fifty thousand dollars.

Water Supply.  The first water-works system, instituted in 1893 as a municipal 
project, was based upon a supply from Saranac river in the heart of the
village, but with the intake subsequently extended three-quarters of a mile up
the stream. The water was forced by pumping to a reservoir, whence there was a 
gravity distribution under a hundred pounds pressure. Apprehensive of possible 
contamination of the river water by camps and hotels, McKenzie pond, three
miles distant, was tapped in 1901 2 with a fourteen-inch main, and the river
supply altogether cut out. The pressure remains unchanged. The watershed of
the pond is amply protected, and the water itself is of unusual purity. The
issues of bonds for these undertakings have aggregated $198,000, of which
$167,400 were still outstanding in 1915. The revenue from rentals is about
$22,000 a year, which covers interest charges and retirement of bonds as they
mature. No tax is levied for fire hydrants, which seems to be a faulty
practice.

Lighting Systems.  Electric current is furnished by the Paul Smiths Electric 
Light and Power and Railroad Company for street and private lighting. For the 
former the tax is about $6,000 a year, though a quarter of the amount is 
recovered from the company as a franchise tax. There is also a gas company 
controlled by nonresident interests, whose business consists principally in 
supplying gas as a fuel.

Other Public Utilities and Public Works. A telephone system, affiliated with 
the Bell, giving general local and long-distance service; brick-paved streets, 
which cost $99,000, with bonds to the amount of $96,300 unpaid in 1917, and 
macadamized highways on which the usual annual expenditure is about $5,000; a 
sewer system for which $128,000 in bonds was issued between 1893 and 1912, and 
of which $104,000 is outstanding; storm sewers built at a cost of $9,000; 
concrete sidewalks, constructed by a bond issue of $22,500; a fire-alarm
signal system and a fire station, paid for by bonds aggregating $18,500; an
incinerator for burning garbage, swill and refuse, which cost $9,000, and for
the collection of material and the operation of the incinerator an annual tax
of about $5,000 is levied. The total annual tax levy averages between $45,000
and $50,000 on an assessed valuation of upwards of two million dollars,
whereas when incorporation was effected in 1892 it was estimated that $500
would meet all administrative charges during the first year, but which was
found insufficient by about $1,250. The total outstanding village indebtedness
on the first of March, 1915, was $419,000, for the payment of the interest on
which and such installments of principal as fall due a sum of nearly twenty
thousand dollars is required annually. Besides all this, the school district,
which includes not only the village, but also outlying neighborhoods in
Harrietstown and in North Elba, St. Armand and Santa Clara, has a debt of
$68,000, and levies an annual tax of about $45,000. The town of Harrietstown
has only a very small indebtedness. The tax rate, including State, county,
town, corporation and school district charges, is about $70 on each $1,000 of
assessed valuation. Items of village expense other than those above listed
include: About $4,000 for pay of three uniformed policemen and for incidental
police items; $5,000 for board of health; and $500 each for street sprinkling
and free library.

Library. A free public library, which cost $10,000 for site and building, 
contains 6,000 volumes, and has on file all of the leading periodicals and
many newspapers. The funds for the enterprise were provided by individual
donations and entertainments: and two-thirds of the cost for maintenance is
similarly provided the village contributing $500 per year.

Sanitary.  Sentiment prevails strongly that the village must live up to the 
expectations of those who come to it for health benefit, and the taxpayers 
respond willingly, almost eagerly, to every appeal for money for any project 
which is thought to promise betterment of conditions and surer safeguarding of 
the reputation of the place as a sanatorium. The district has probably the
most stringent and best enforced health code of any small community in the
State. The anti-spitting ordinance is far from a dead letter; the soda
fountains are permitted to use only individual cups, which are destroyed after
having been once used; when vacated every house or apartment occupied by a
tuberculous person must be thoroughly disinfected, including all contents,
before any one else may move into it; and every possible precaution is
established against practices which might spread infection. By this care those
who are authority on the question insist that there is less danger of
contracting tuberculosis in this center, thronged with invalids, than exists
almost anywhere else.

Schools.  The first school was taught in 1838 by Mary A. Miller, a 
granddaughter of Captain Pliny, and the second by Mrs. Mary E. McClelland. 
Another early teacher was Mrs. Azel Lathrop, mother of Mrs. Estelle Martin.
Even as late as 18S4 the entire assessed valuation of resident realty in the
district was but $20,000, or only one per cent, of the present total; and a
little later, when it was proposed to erect a two-room school house,
opposition developed upon the ground that the district would never grow to
fill it. Nevertheless it was not long before six rooms were needed, and to
these additions have been made from time to time until the central building
contains twenty-odd rooms, and employs as many teachers. It has a good working
library of 5,000 volumes, with an outfit of physical and chemical apparatus,
is chartered as a high school, and does college preparatory work. There are
forty teachers employed in the district, and the school buildings have an
estimated value of over eighty thousand dollars, not including sites,
furnishings and apparatus.

Organizations.  Business, social, fraternal and beneficial clubs and lodges 
are numerous. Among them are a board of trade with a membership comprising 
nearly every business man of consequence in the village; a village improvement 
society organized by women for civic betterment; a lend-a-hand society for 
charitable service; various boating and fish and game clubs; a country club
with clubhouse, golf links and tennis courts on the shore of Saranac lake; a
coasting club with clubhouse on Moody pond for skating and other winter
pleasures; Boy Scouts; Whiteface Mountain Lodge, F. and A. M.; Wanneta
Chapter, R. A. M.; Whiteface Mountain Chapter, 0. E. S.; Saranac Lake Lodge,
I. 0. 0. F.; Kiwassa Rebekah Lodge; Saranac Lake Council Knights of Columbus;
Grand Army post; Woman's Christian Temperance Union; a free information bureau
where visitors are advised concerning lodgings, board, etc.; and the Boys'
Club and Henderson Memorial Gymnasium, which had its beginning in 1913 in St.
Luke's parish house, but which now possesses a home of its own that cost
$15,000, supplied by two generous contributors (W. H. Cluett and Mrs. C. R.
Henderson of New York), and whose maintenance costs from $3,500 to $4,000 a
year. Membership is open to all boys and young men between the ages of twelve
and twenty-one years. The clubhouse has pool and billiard tables, bowling
alleys, a library and reading room, shower baths, and a roomy gymnasium with
complete apparatus. The gymnasium hall is used not only by club members for
games and exercise, but also by a number of other organizations for social
gatherings and benefits. A director is employed by the club to supervise the
athletic activities of the members and for gymnasium drill. Educational
features also find a place in the programme, and a series of practical talks
are given by representative citizens. The club has about seventy-five members.

Amusements.  Besides the daily opportunities for boating, golf and tennis in 
summer and for skating, curling, etc., in winter, a grand carnival is held
every alternate year, arranged and managed by the Pontiac Club. Though the
affair extends only through four or five days, several weeks immediately
preceding are crowded with interested preparatory work and its incidents
continue indefinitely afterward as subjects for comment and discussion, so
that the event fills a large place in the winter life of the village. During
the gayeties of carnival time itself the streets are decorated elaborately
with evergreens set along the curbs, with evergreen ropes arching the avenues,
and with public and commercial buildings and residences bright with flags and
bunting. An especially fine feature is a grand parade of scores of sleighs and
cars beautifully trimmed and many floats of ingenious and attractive design.
Skating races, exhibitions of figure skating, house parties, dances and other
entertainments crowd the hours with fun and frolic, a gladsome spirit running
through it all. The celebration closes with the storming of the ice palace at
night, the bombardment with roman candles, the flash of rockets, the explosion
of bombs and the iridescent glare on snow and ice affording a spectacle of
great beauty that is long remembered. Thousands from neighboring localities
and even from distant cities crowd the village during carnival week.

Hospitals.  Besides the Trudeau  Sanatorium there are a General Hospital, a 
Reception Hospital, St. Mary's of the Lake and a number of private hospitals 
conducted as individual enterprises by experienced nurses.

The General Hospital, situate in a wooded park a hundred feet above Lake 
Flower, was built in 1913, and is the gift of a son and daughter of the late 
United States Senator Proctor of Vermont. An isolation cottage was added in
1914 by a New York city gentleman. The two can accommodate sixteen patients.
No tuberculosis cases are received. The rates for room, board, ordinary
nursing and medical supplies range from ten dollars to thirty dollars per
week, and are insufficient to cover expenses. The institution has no
endowment, and the deficits, amounting to about $5,000 a year, have to be met
through contributions by the benevolent.

The Reception Hospital owes its existence and support in considerable part to 
Miss Mary K. Preston of New Bedford, Mass., who came to Saranac Lake an
invalid, and with health recovered was restless and discontented because there
seemed to be no work at hand to enlist her interest and employ her time and
energies. Upon the suggestion of Doctor Trudeau, being possessed of
considerable means, she founded this institution in 1901, leasing a cottage
for the purpose. Another cottage was added in 1903-4, and in 1905 the present
building, overlooking the river, was erected at a cost of approximately
$33,000. It is intended only for the care of poor persons in whom the disease
is well advanced, can accommodate eighteen patients in winter and twenty in
summer, and is conducted at an annual expense of about $13,000. Its charges
are eight dollars per week, which are about half of cost. Donations are made
from various sources covering a part of the deficit, and the remainder Miss
Prescott makes up herself. Three nurses are employed, and a number of
physicians of Saranac Lake give their attendance without charge. The annual
report of the institution summarizes results: "A small proportion of patients
set on their feet, a large proportion temporarily improved through rest and
nursing, and a small proportion helped over the last hard bit of the journey
by expert care."

St. Mary's of the Lake is an offshoot of Sanatorium Gabriels, was established 
in 1910 at a cost of $7.000, and was enlarged in 1916 by the addition of
another story. It is non-sectarian, and when opened could accommodate twenty
patients. Its present capacity is over thirty. It receives only advanced
tuberculous cases, at rates ranging from twelve to fifteen dollars per week.
One trained nurse and a number of Sisters of Mercy constitute the inside
working force, and eight or ten physicians of the village give their services
gratuitously.

The Adirondack National Bank was organized in 1897, the principal movers in 
the enterprise having been William Minshull and Alfred L. Donaldson, both
health seekers at the time. The former has been its president from the
beginning, while failing strength compelled Mr. Donaldson to retire from
active participation in the management a number of years ago. During this
period of enforced quiet he has written a charming history of the Adirondack
region. The bank has a capital of $50,000, an earned surplus of double that
amount, and deposits of nearly three-quarters of a million. Its banking house,
built expressly for it, is an attractive structure, fire-proof, contains safe
deposit vaults for the use of customers, and is carried at a valuation of
$45,000. The Saranac Lake National Bank, also capitalized at $50,000, was
chartered in 1907. It has an earned surplus of approximately $21.000 and
deposits of over a quarter of a million. Both institutions enjoy and deserve
local public confidence.

Saranac Lake's first newspapers were the Pioneer and then the Herald, both by 
W. F. Mannix. The Enterprise was established in 1895 by Charles W. Lansing of 
Plattsburgh and Carl D. Smith of Malone, and soon acquired the Herald and 
Pioneer. In 1898 Smith sold his interest to Allen Vosburgh, who sold in 1906
to Harris & Dillenbeck. Then George H. Foy of Malone published it for a time,
and was followed by Kenneth W. Goldthwaite, under whose control it was
enlarged and greatly improved, ranking as one of the very best newspapers in
northern New York. It is Republican in politics, and is now a semi-weekly. It
was sold by Mr. Goldthwaite in 1918. The Northern New Yorker, not now in
existence, was published for a few years, beginning in 1906, by John J.
Connors, and the Saranac Lake News, founded in 1909, Democratic and ably
edited, is published by E. C. Krauss.

At the Andrew Baker cottage in the outskirts of Saranac Lake village, where 
Robert Louis Stevenson spent the winter of 1887-1888 for the same reason that 
has taken so many others to the locality, a memorial bronze tablet by Gutson 
Borglum was unveiled in October, 1915, bearing this inscription: "Here dwelt 
Robert Louis Stevenson during the winter of 1887-1888. * * * Here he wrote *
The Master of Ballantrae,' 'A Christmas Sermon,' 'The Lantern Bearers,'
'Pulvis et Dumbra,' 'Beggars,' 'Gentlemen,' 'A Chapter on Dreams.' 1850-1894."
Stevenson anathematized the climate while recognizing that it benefited him,
calling it "bleak, blackguard, beggarly." He had a distaste amounting to
positive aversion for formal social affairs, but in his room he captivated
callers by the brilliance and charm of his conversation, and his stepson, who
was with him, has recently written that "he had a wonderful reading voice," so
that "in listening to him one was stirred by an indescribable sense of
romance, of emotion   of the heartstrings being played upon."

Among the earliest of associations or clubs to seek recreation in the 
Adirondacks was one so distinguished in its personnel that failure to mention
it would be inexcusable. It included James Russell Lowell, Ralph Waldo
Emerson, Louis Agassiz, Dr. Jeffries Wyman (not as well known, but ranking
with Agassiz in science and nature study), Judge E. Rockwood Hoar, Dr. Estes
Howe, John Holmes (brother of Oliver Wendell) and W. J. Stillman, and these
arrived at Martin's in 1857, proceeding thence to Follansbee pond, where they
lived with their guides in camp. Such mode of life and everything about the
wilderness was wholly strange to every man of the company except Mr. Stillman,
and it is a question whether they or the guides seemed the more simple and
ignorant to the other. Nevertheless the visitors found so much of enjoyment in
the outing that they repeated it a number of times. An organization which was
to be permanent was formed, and bought a tract of 22,500 acres of almost
wholly virgin forest on Ampersand pond for $600 (less than three cents per
acre), and established a private camp there, which came to be known as the
Philosophers' Camp. It is interesting to recall that the idea was not at all
popular locally, the same sentiment being entertained regarding it which
Lamora manifested forty years later toward Rockefeller, and that there was
newspaper suggestion to the effect that a locked camp meant its probable
destruction by fire and also fire danger to the surrounding forest. However,
nothing of the sort occurred. Upon the breaking out of the civil war the club
went to pieces, and the camp was abandoned. The tract has been repeatedly
lumbered, but is said nevertheless to be now valued at $50,000.

While religious services were held at Saranac Lake occasionally from as early 
as 1837, the Methodists, so far as known, having been the pioneers, and a Mr. 
Adams "from over the lake,' who served also at Duane at a later time, having 
been the first preacher, the first actually organized church movement was non-
sectarian, of date about 1876. This society was called "The People's Church," 
and its trustees were Van Buren Miller, William F. Martin, Orlando Blood,
Robert Smith and A. Fitch O'Brien. Though a lot was purchased for a church
building, no pastor appears ever to have been employed, and the movement was
abandoned in 1880, after the Methodists and Episcopalians had organized. The
church lot was reconveyed to the grantor, and it is difficult now to find any
one in the village who remembers that such an undertaking ever had existence.

The first Episcopalian church services at Saranac Lake were held in December, 
1877, in the parlor of the Berkley Hotel by Eev. John P. Lundy, D.D., of New 
York, who was a member of the tuberculosis colony wintering there. Soon 
afterward Doctor Lundy and others of the guests started a subscription for the 
erection of a church edifice, and residents of the village joined with offers
of money and material. The funds so pledged, however, could not be carried at
the time to more than about half of the sum required, and the project was 
temporarily abandoned, but only to be revived a few months later. Every detail 
of securing money, obtaining plans and supervising the work of construction
was given over to Doctor Trudeau, who proved himself as efficient a church
worker as he afterward became for the sanatorium, and early in 1879 the
building was finished. The site was given by Miss Arvilla Blood; the chancel
windows, representing Faith, Hope and Charity, by Mrs. R. M. Townsend as a
memorial to her husband; and the bishop's chair, the bell and the communion
service by others, each as a memorial. The church was consecrated in July,
1879, as the Church of St. Luke the Beloved Physician. It was an organized
mission until 1903, when its membership had reached such numbers and its
condition had become so assured that it incorporated, and has since prospered
continually. It is said to be probably the one church in the United States
which has an organ recital every Sunday night throughout the year.

"The First Methodist Episcopal Church at Saranac Lake" was incorporated in 
1878, the place having been theretofore merely a mission in combination with a 
number of other hamlets scattered over a wide extent of country, and with 
services provided not oftener than every other Sunday at the best, and at
times still less frequently. Such services were held in the school house or in
homes for almost half a century before the erection of a church edifice was
even seriously considered, and it was not until 1882 that such undertaking was
begun. The building proceeded but slowly, and four years elapsed before it had
advanced sufficiently to permit use of the structure for purposes of worship.
Dedication occurred December 8, 1886, and in 1896 97 the building was enlarged
by the addition of a transept.

Roman Catholic Church growth at Saranac Lake has been marvelous. So far as 
known, the first services in the vicinity according to the rites of this faith 
were held in 1886 by Rev. Father Michael Charbonneau in the Swain camp, then 
occupied by Peter Solomon, who continued his ministrations irregularly for
about two years, and afterward, still irregularly, until 1890 by Rev. Father
James McCarthy of Rochester, temporarily stopping here. In 1888 Saint
Bernard's Church was incorporated, the first lay trustees having been John
Meagher and Michael Carey; but the society had no rector until August 31,
1890, when Rev. John J. Waters was ordained at Malone, and the same day
assigned to Saranac Lake, where he has served continuously ever since. At that
date the parish extended from Onchiota to Cascade lakes, and included also
Saranac Inn, Bloomingdale and the Bartlett Carry. The number of members in
this entire territory was then only sixty. Father Waters entered upon his work
with energy and determination, holding services in Spaulding Block or the town
hall; but in the course of two years secured the erection of a church
building, which burned in 1909. The town hall was again used following the
fire until a new church had been built, which is a massive stone structure of
imposing appearance. It has an altar of Carara marble that was executed in
Italy, given by the women of the parish. The new edifice was more than three
years in construction, though the first service in it was held on
Thanksgiving, 1912. It was consecrated just one year later. Notwithstanding
the original parish has been divided a number of times, and now includes only
Saranac Lake and the immediate vicinity, its membership has increased until it
numbers between fifteen and sixteen hundred.

The "First Presbysterian Church of Saranac Lake " was incorporated March 10, 
1891, but the local records show that organization was actually effected in 
1890, and that Rev. Richard G. McCarthy had secured a lot for a church site as 
early as August, 1889. The building was finished and dedicated in April, 1890, 
the funds for the work having been obtained by Mr. McCarthy, mostly from
guests at Paul Smiths and other Adirondack summer hotels. At the date set for 
dedication the building fund lacked eleven hundred dollars of enough to meet
the cost of construction, which deficiency was supplied by Colonel Elliott F. 
Shepard of New York. Mrs. Shepard gave the parsonage. The sum of the 
subscriptions by Colonel and Mrs. Shepard was $11,271. Until 1903 no one was 
installed as pastor, the five clergymen in charge during the intervening
period having served in the capacity of "stated supply." The charter members
numbered seventeen. The present membership is above two hundred and fifty, and
the society is one of the strongest in the Champlain Presbytery.

Mr. McCarthy had marvelous energy, and was remarkably persistent and 
successful in persuading people to open their check books in aid of his many 
undertakings. It may be questioned, however, if his zeal did not outrun his 
sagacity, for in the ten years from 1895 he organized no less than seventeen 
missions and built as many churches or chapels at widely separated Adirondack 
points, every one of which at the time had but a sparse population, and upon 
sober consideration could not be thought likely to attain a size and wealth
that could be counted upon to support a church properly. Of these, several
places, Lake Clear (organized August 12, 1896), Axton (organized in 1895),
Island Chapel in Upper Saranac Lake and Harrietstown (church erected in 1907)
are in the town of Harrietstown. At Lake Clear there were but twelve families
initially, and at Axton only ten. Island Chapel is maintained by summer
campers, and is open only in such seasons as visitors are in the vicinity in
considerable numbers. Axton has lost a good deal of its former activity, and
there are only a dozen families there   some of whom are Catholics. Students
officiate with more or less irregularity during the summer at Axton,
Harrietstown and Lake Clear, and Mr. Anderson, from Keese's Mill, preaches
once a month at Lake Clear and Harrietstown.

A Baptist society was formed at Saranac Lake about 1895, when a lot for a 
church edifice was deeded to it by Orlando Blood. The organization did not 
thrive, for in 1897 Erwin Bassford and Herbert Warren Pond as trustees deeded 
the site to the Baptist Missionary Convention of the State of New York in 
consideration of $182 and of the payment of outstanding claims against the
lot, with proviso that it be held for the erection of a house of worship
thereon.

The Church of St. John in the Wilderness (of which the Catholic church at Paul 
Smiths is a mission) was organized in 1906, though not incorporated until May
8, 1910, with Edward Patnode and Henry F. Ryon lay trustees. At the date of
the incorporation Father Emile Berard was, and still remains, the rector, but
had been preceded by Father J. A. Hervieux. There are about twenty families in
the parish. Father Berard is disinclined to give information concerning the
church, and, therefore, my statements about it rest mainly upon the current 
understanding, and are not to be taken as authorized, though I believe them to 
be substantially correct. The first church edifice was erected in 1906. While 
occupying the camp of Thomas Blagden on Upper Saranac Lake in 1916 Clarence 
Mackay of New York city attended service one Sunday at Lake Clear. In the
course of his sermon on that day Father Berard expressed the hope that the
parish might have a better church at some time, but added that it could not
then be afforded. At the close of the service Mr. Mackay invited Father Berard
to dine with him, and at the dinner pledged himself to give five thousand
dollars for a new house of worship, which is now (April, 1917) nearing
completion. It is understood also that Mrs. George Fayles Baker, a summer
sojourner at Paul Smiths, has been a generous contributor toward procuring
furnishings for the new edifice.

F. M. Bull Post No. 621, G. A. R., was organized in 1897. Its largest 
membership was twenty-six, which had decreased to eighteen in 1915, when
Warren Flanders was commander.

George A. Berkley, proprietor of the Riverside Inn at Saranac Lake, was shot 
by Charles Brown, a guide, June 22, 1888. The shot took effect in the abdomen, 
and the victim lived only twelve hours. Brown had been drinking, and had been 
refused liquor by Berkley, an altercation and a scuffle following. Brown left 
the hotel with a threat to "fix" Berkley, and, proceeding to his father's 
(Calvin Brown) home, got his rifle, and returned to the village, where, in the 
store of his brother-in-law, Spaulding, he awaited the appearance of Berkley.
As the latter stepped from the hotel to the veranda, Brown fired, with the
result stated. He then fled to the woods, and hid for the day. The nest day he
showed himself, and upon learning that Berkley was dead again disappeared. He
was reported to have been seen a few days later in Hamilton county, but,
though recognized, no one was willing to undertake his arrest, notwithstanding
a large reward had been offered for his apprehension. A Saranac Lake man
claimed to have seen him later, working in a livery stable in Denver, and to
have accosted him by name   Brown denying his identity. When the man looked
for him later he had disappeared, and is not known to have been heard from
since. It is quite generally believed, however, that he fled from Denver to
Alaska.

Gardner McLane, whose home was at Santa Clara, but temporarily located at 
Saranac Lake, shot his wife while intoxicated July 27, 1898. An ante-mortem 
statement by Mrs. McLane gave the affair the character of an accident, but 
McLane was nevertheless indicted for murder in the second degree. He was found 
guilty of manslaughter in the second degree, in December, 1898, and sentenced
to ten years' imprisonment at Dannemora.

November 4, 1902, Allen Mooney at Saranac Lake shot Fred McClelland in the 
breast, Viola Middleton in the hip, and Ellen Thomas or Faysette in the
abdomen. McClelland and another man were in the house with the two women, and
Mooney had asked to be permitted to take the place of one of the men. Upon
refusal, he forced an entrance, and at once began shooting. Of course he was
drunk. The Thomas woman died from the wound. Mooney was indicted, found guilty
of murder in the first degree, and was sentenced to death.