History: Malone (part 1 of 4); Franklin co., New York submitted by Joy Fisher (sdgenweb at yahoo.com) ************************************************ 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 XVIII MALONE (part 1 of 4) Malone was erected from Chateaugay March 2, 1805, at Harison, so called because Richard Harison (never spelled with two rs) was a leading member of the Macomb syndicate, and consisted originally of all of great tract number one of the Macomb purchase and the St. Regis Indian reservation. Yet quite inexplicably a section of the act of 1808 by which the county was created annexed to Harison "all those parts of Plattsburgh and Peru lying within the county of Franklin west of the old military tract," when, as a matter of fact, such parts had been detached by the act of 1805. Thus all of the county's nineteen towns except Bellmont, Burke, Chateaugay and Franklin are offshoots, directly or indirectly, from Malone, which originally had an area of more than three-quarters of a million acres, exclusive of water. It now includes only two townships, aggregating 63,200 of assessed acreage. The name Harison was changed in 1808 to Ezraville as a mark of Mr. Harison's respect for his friend, Ezra L'Hommedieu of Long Island, and on June 12, 1812, Ezraville became Malone. For nearly three-quarters of a century no one appears to have speculated concerning the origin or derivation of the latter name, but in 1885 Vice-President Wheeler believed that he had ascertained that it had been taken in compliment to Malone Constable, assumed to have been a daughter of William Constable. That theory was generally accepted as correct until Dr. C. W. Collins, undertaking investigation of the matter for the Historical Society, found that there had never been a Malone Constable, and learned from a descendant of Richard Harison that the name had been given to the township for Edmond Malone, the Irish Shakespearian scholar and critic, who was Mr. Harison's friend. The change of 1812 was therefore merely application of the name of the township to the whole town; the other township (number nine) was called Shelah. Each of the townships in great tract number one of the Macomb purchase had not only a number, but its distinctive name also; and, the original owners having been almost all Irishmen, the names were for the most part those of places in Ireland. There are nine other towns or villages in the United States called Malone one each in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Iowa. Kentucky, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, all except those Iowa and Wisconsin having sprung up since 1882. The two exceptions received their christening through the influence of men who had lived here, and most of the others, if not all, from residents thereof who were themselves Malones. The town is approximately seven miles in width east and west by fourteen miles in length north and south, and abounds in hills, plateaus, and ravines and valleys. Considerable areas are utterly barren, notably hills and ridges and plains that had been almost denuded of their once heavy forest growth, and then swept by fires. The most striking of these are peaks and ridges in the southern part of the town which are almost bare rock for miles where the merchantable timber had been cut, with fire following, and erosion then removing every particle of soil. There are also considerable rocky areas that almost defy cultivation. The greater part of the town, however, is adapted to agriculture, and some of it as productive as any land in the county. Entering the town near its southeastern corner, the Salmon river, trending a little west of north, courses the entire length of the town, and at the village is almost exactly midway between the eastern and western boundaries the exact center of the township, but not of the town, being in Frank E. Mason's garden on Francis street. "The Branch" flows northerly for nearly eight miles from its source (Lake Titus, which was formerly known as Branch pond) to a confluence with the Salmon in the village limits. Trout river traverses the northeast quarter of the town, and there are brooks almost innumerable, but none of sufficient volume to admit of the development of a good power. The only ponds are Lake Titus, the Twins and a part of Lake Ayers, all in the southwestern section. The Salmon falls perhaps six hundred feet in the first ten miles of its course in Malone, and possibly a couple of hundred feet more from the village northward to Constable. There are four falls or cascades within these distances. Almost throughout its length in Malone the river winds between high banks, so that there is seldom serious damage by floods. State, State and county or distinctively county highways connect Malone with North and South Bangor on the west; with Duane via Lake Titus and also via Whippleville and Chasm Falls on the south; with Constable and Westville on the north; and two roads with Burke on the east, while another highway into Bellmont and to Chateaugay lake is projected nine lines in all, covering perhaps forty miles of really good road. The Ogdensburg division of the Rutland Railroad (originally the Northern, and then known as the Ogdensburg and Lake Champlain), completed in 1850, runs east and west through the northern part of the town, and the Adirondack and St. Lawrence, built in 1892, traverses the eastern part, affording direct connections with Montreal and New York. There are deposits of iron and of mineral paint in the town, and also a number of quarries of excellent building stone. In the southwestern quarter there is limestone from which lime was burned a good many years ago, and here and there a clay formation is to be found which makes fairly good brick. SOME OF THE PIONEERS The first settlers in Malone were Enos, John and Nathan Wood in 1802, with Noel Conger accompanying them or following very soon afterward. Enos and Conger had assisted Joseph Beeman of Georgia, Vt., in surveying the township for Mr. Harison in 1801. This survey, together with one a little later by Nahum Baker, laid out Main and Webster to be the principal streets of the "Center," as the village was long known, but unfortunately no map of either is now to be found. Main street was to be six rods in width, and Webster the same as far south as Franklin; but one night about twenty years later Noah Moody, Samuel Hyde and Appleton Foote built a fence cutting off two rods of Webster street on the west, so as to enlarge their own lots, and that encroachment was suffered to continue. One of the surveys established a reserve of one hundred acres in the vicinity of Webster street, but reserved for what purpose there is no record to show, though conjecture suggests that Mr. Harison intended that such tract should not be included as farms, but be held for residential and store lots. Certainly his ideas of the probable importance of the place seem to have been ambitious, for some of his earliest conveyances were of parcels which are described as "city" lots. Other settlers followed the Woods and Conger almost at once in what were considerable numbers for the period, and nearly all came from Vermont. They were mostly of the Puritan type, and of what Deacon Jehiel Berry used to call "the white oak" strain, and of whom generally Gail Hamilton strikingly wrote: "Every church, every school house, every town house from the Atlantic to the Pacific has Plymouth Rock for its foundation. Wherever Freedom aims a musket, or plants a standard, or nerves an arm, or sings a song, or makes a protest, or murmurs a prayer, there is Plymouth Rock." James Constable noted in his diary of a trip through this section in 1804 that there were then thirty or forty families here, while the people claimed sixty. Upon a second visit in 1805 he concluded from representations made to him locally that, absurd as it now seems, the township was "nearly full," and that it was time to expect to be able to market lands in township number nine, Shelah; but it was not until nearly twenty years later that that expectation began to be realized. What the population had become in 1805 we have no means of determining accurately. The assessment roll for that year, however, which covered all of the lands in the county outside of Bellmont, Burke, Chateaugay and Franklin, contained 140 names besides those of nonresidents, and of this number nearly or quite 100 were living in the township of Malone. Seventeen of those whose names appear thereon possessed no real estate, and 46 others had lands, but no houses. Every parcel of realty was listed as a farm or mill, and of the latter there were only three Appleton Foote's at Brushton, Asaph Perry's in Constable, and Nathan Wood's in Malone. The assessment of personalty suggests an inquisitorial spirit and determination that no one should escape from sharing in the public burdens. There were only 37 persons who were not assessed for personalty in some amount, and the items ran from $10 as the lowest to $375 as the highest, to Zebulon Mead. These valuations are remarkable, too, for their odd totals, like $18, $58, $65, $95 and even $99, indicating manifestly that the assessors meant to be exact in screwing out the last farthing that any one was supposed to have. The total of personalty as listed was $1,584, and of resident realty $9,857. Non-resident lands outside of Malone were assessed generally at 50 cents per acre, and in Malone at three times that figure, or at almost as high a rate as farms. In 1807, after Constable, Bombay, Fort Covington and Westville had been set off from Malone, an electoral census by the State gave Malone 113 voters. Of these 67 were listed as owners of lands in fee, and 46 as having their holdings under contracts. The number of votes actually cast in 1807 was 96, while the year previous, when the northern part of the county was still a part of Malone, it had been 122, and 66 in 1805. Malone's population by the census of 1810 was 767, while the territory detached from it in 1807 (viz., Constable, Bombay, Fort Covington and Westville) had 916, and that detached in 1808 (including Bangor, Dickinson and Moira) had 411. From 1805 to 1812 the assessment rolls gave no data except the names of property owners, the kind of premises (i. e., whether a farm, mill, etc.) and the valuations; and the roll for 1813 is the first from which it is possible to glean definitely where the residents lived and the number of acres which each held. From it I copy the following data, only translating the technical descriptions so as to make locations more easily grasped: Cone Andrus, 26 acres east of Arsenal Green and 2 acres on Elm St., the Clinton Stevens, place, next east of the Wead Library $500 00 Samuel Andrus, 14 acres on Elm street, beginning near where John H. King lives, and extending east 118 00 Joel Amsden, 50 acres near Amsden farm, west of village, and 1 acre, house, barn and store, near Dr. Bates's place 1,000 00 Christopher Austin, 50 acres on Constable town line 125 00 Ezekiel Blanchard, 50 acres near Dimick cemetery 112 50 Nathaniel Blanchard, 149 acres, the G. C. Cotton (now Harmon W. Spencer) farm 409 75 Timothy Bemis, 130 acres in the Gleason dist 227 50 Oliver Brewster, 200 acres at the top of Brewster hill 1,150 00 Ebenezer Berry, 142 acres, on north road to Bangor (Bicknell farm) 528 00 Ebenezer Brownson, the Dewey farm, south of village 400 00 John Barnes, on the road to Chateaugay Lake 435 00 Stephen Bailey, house lot near Baptist church and tannery on west side of river 450 00 Zenas Blodgett, 50 acres in Manson district 100 00 Samuel Broughton, 75 acres in Sperry dist., northwest of village 187 50 Wheeler Branch, 100 acres east of village, near Burke line 250 00 Samuel Brigham, 5 acres, part of Ferguson or Jones & Lester farm 50 00 Leonard Conant, 50 acres near Paddock spring 100 00 Abel Conger, 50 acres, part of Ferguson or Jones & Lester farm 400 00 Noel Conger, 145 acres, part of Ferguson or Jones & Lester farm 1,015 00 Eleazer Crawford, 50 acres near Bangor line, on north road 125 00 Jesse Chipman, 230 acres on Potash road* 550 00 Lemuel Chapman, 103 acres on Potash road 283 25 Zerubabel Curtis, 155 acres on Flat and east 786 25 Joshua Chapman, 100 acres in Williamson dist., near Burke line 250 00 Horace Chapman, 50 acres in Williamson dist., near Burke line 112 50 Ambrose Chapman, 50 acres in Williamson dist., near Burke line 112 50 John Crooks, Jr., 100 acres west of poor house, off Bangor road 250 00 William Cleveland, 1 1/4 acres on Webster St 400 00 Edmund Chapman, 15 acres near G. W. Hubbard (now L. L. Sayles) Farm 45 00 John Daggett, 150 acres, the poor house farm 487 50 Pliny Daggett, 50 acres on road to North Bangor 100 00 Stephen Dunning, 200 acres west of poor house 550 00 Joel Dow, 50 acres in the Gleason dist 261 00 David Fisk, 57 acres in northwest corner of town 250 00 Rufus Fisk, 592 acres at "whiskey hollow" 1,485 00 Zenas Flagg, 1/2 acre, the P. B. Miller (now Smallman) place, Elm St. 250 00 Appleton Foote, 4 acres and tavern (the armory lot) 1,000 00 Ira Foote, 100 acres in Sperry dist 275 00 John L. Fuller, 3/4 acre near bridge, south of Main St., store, house and barn, and 1/2 acre on Elm St., near Smallman place 275 00 Ira Gates, 50 acres in northwest part of town 137 50 David Gates, 90 acres in northwest part of town 225 00 Hiram Horton, 42 acres, beginning near Main St. bridge, running th. east to about Willow St., th. south to river, and th. down river to place of beginning (including mills) $1,500, and 5 acres, residence, at passenger depot, $300 1,800 00 Francis L. Harison, 12 acres, residence, the E. E. Muller place, on Webster St 608 00 John Holley, in Howard dist 625 00 Zenaa Heath, 100 acres in northwest part of town 150 00 Elisha Haskins, 100 acres in Manson dist 150 00 Harry S. House, 100 acres on Trout River 250 00 Stephen D. Hickok, 150 acres just east of village 675 00 Jonathan Hapgood, 50 acres on north line of town 125 00 David Hoit, 49 acres in the N. M. Foote dist 110 00 Obadiah T. Hosford, 1/2 acre, the F. P. Allen (now J. W. Fay) place on Elm St 250 00 Aaron Hascall, 100 acres in northwest part of town 150 00 Noah Harrington, 2 acres on Webster St 50 00 Lemuel Holmes, 17 acres and a third of saw mill in paper mill dist 133 00 Samuel Hyde, Webster St 300 00 Joseph Jones, 90 acres in northwest part of town 217 50 Phineas Jones, 50 acres in northwest part of town 125 00 Silas Johnson, 135 acres near G. W. Hubbard (now L. L. Sayles) farm. 540 00 Reuben Keeler, 100 acres in Dimick dist 300 00 Elijah Keeler, 200 acres on continuation of Webster St 600 00 Brownson Keeler, 170 acres on continuation of Webster St 510 00 Apollos Lathrop, 1/4 acre west of Arsenal Green 100 00 Samuel Loomis, 50 acres in northwest part of town 125 00 John Lewis, 146 acres in N. M. Foote dist 401 00 Zebulon Mead, 100 acres in northeast part of town 200 00 Archibald Miller, 1/4 acre on Elm St 60 00 Charles Moaes, 100 acres in the northwest part of town 250 00 Noah Moody, 4 1/4 acres on Webster St 500 00 William Mason, 138 acres in northwest part of town 414 00 John Mazuzan, 78 acres west of village 513 00 Edward Massey, 1/4 acre on Webster St 200 00 Benjamin Merriam, 4 acres on W. Main St. and 1 acre on Mill St 150 00 Joseph W. Moulton, 50 acres in northwest part and 1/2 office on Webster St 212 50 Elisha Nichols, 188 acres in Paddock dist 873 00 Elijah Nichols, store in village 80 00 Reeve Peck, 1/2 acre on Elm St 25 00 Samuel Peck, 2 acres, north side of Main St., at the bridge, and tannery on east side of river 400 00 Aaron Parks, 100 acres in Porter neighborhood 300 00 Lemuel Parlin, 160 acres on North Bangor road 480 00 Stephen Parlin. 100 acres on North Bangor road 250 00 Isaac Parker, Jr., 200 acres south of village 500 00 Isaac Parker, 170 acres south of village 305 00 John Porter, 100 acres in Porter neighborhood 225 00 Asahel Phelps, 4 acres on Webster St 300 00 Warren Powers, 148 acres west of village, 1/2 acre on Elm St., and store near Baptist church 1,200 00 John H. Russell, 2 acres on Webster St 300 00 Calvin Russell, 50 acres in northwest part of town 125 00 Noah Smith, 137 acres in the Porter neighborhood 342 00 David Sperry, 138 acres in Sperry dist., northwest of village 489 00 Lyman Sperry, 213 acres in Berry dist., northwest of village 564 00 John Sims, 1 1/2 acres on Franklin St 200 00 Benjamin Seeley, tavern on site of present Howard Block 700 00 Ashley Stowers, 50 acres near Dimick cemetery 125 00 Abijah Stowers, 60 acres east of village 150 00 Benjamin Smith, 175 acres on Potash road 350 00 David Stratton, 50 acres near Barnard bridge 125 00 Ebenezer and Alanson Stratton, 62 acres in northwest part of town 186 00 Daniel Sherwin, 6 acres on upper Webster St 36 00 Joseph Spencer, 100 acres in Sperry dist 300 00 Paul Thorndike. 1 acre on Webster St 350 00 Elihu Thomas, 2 acres on Webster St 350 00 Paine Turner. 1/2 acre on Elm St. and 1/4 acre near Main St. bridge 150 00 Abner Whipple, 60 acres on Potash road 180 00 Roswell Wilcox. 50 acres on North Bangor road, 2 miles west of Village 200 00 Asa Wheeler, 50 acres on Potash road 150 00 Truman Wheeler. 86 acres in northwest part of town 215 00 Nathan White, 3/8 acre (house, lot and shop) on Webster St 250 00 Enos Wood, 100 acres on Bangor road (the D. Hardy farm) 350 00 John Wheeler, 50 acres on Potash road 150 00 John Wood, 134 acres cornering on Elm and Park Sts 1,139 00 Adin Wood, 100 acres on Whippleville road and 1 1/2 acres on Franklin St. 400 00 Arunah Wood, 1/2 acre and shop on Elm St 200 00 Elias Watkins, 50 acres in southwest part of township 75 00 Luther Winslow, 100 acres in Keeler dist 300 00 Oliver Wilder, 50 acres in Porter neighborhood 125 00 Oliver Wescott, 50 acres in Williamson dist., near Burke line 250 00 Nahum Whipple, 165 acres east of village 756 00 David Whipple, 11 acres east of village 70 00 Henry Winchester, 50 acres near Barnard bridge 150 00 Harry S. Waterhouse, 2 acres on Webster St 350 00 Ebenezer Webb, 106 acres in northeast part of town 238 50 Samuel Webb, 100 acres in northeast part of town 200 00 Oliver Webb, 100 acres in northeast part of town 225 00 Ebenezer Wood, 50 acres near G. W. Hubbard (now L. L. Sayles) Farm 112 50 Almon Wheeler, 1/2 acre, now the Elks Club on Elm St 200 00 Nathan Wood, 200 acres near Barnard bridge 450 00 Abel Wilson, 1/2 acre on Webster St., near Baptist church 200 00 * The Potash road is the highway leading out of the North Bangor road, two miles west of the village, to the Fort Covington road. While many of those in the foregoing list are no more than names to the present generation, and not a few of them left little or no impress and have no descendants here now, I conceive that the record is nevertheless worth preservation, and that to those who care for knowledge concerning the beginning of Malone it must be found interesting, not simply because it shows where men preferred to settle in the years when choice of location was practically free, but also because with the supplemental data which follow it is informative of the builders of the town. Cone Andrus (spelled originally Andrews) came from Cornwell, Vt., though I think that he had lived earlier in Connecticut. He died here in 1821. He was the father of William, Leonard, Lucius, Albert and George, was a farmer, resided on Elm street, and built the first hotel (except Oliver Brewsters log house) that the town ever had the one that stood just at the present railroad crossing, where Elm street begins. He was conspicuous in the public life of the town, was a member of the committee that had charge of building the court house, and held minor offices many times. During the war of 1812 he served as a cavalry lieutenant, and before the war he deeded to the State land for an arsenal and afterward, for one shilling, the Arsenal Green, worth a good many thousand dollars to-day, for a public green and parade ground. Nathaniel Blanchard was also a man of substance and influence, as is seen from the fact that he was the town's second supervisor, and later was assessor and held a number of other offices. Oliver Brewster had intended when he started from Vermont to fix his habitation farther west, but found the roads beyond Malone impassable. The farm at the top of Brewster hill, just west of the village, being for sale, he bought it, and until he moved into the village, locating on the site of the Methodist church, made his home there in a log house and kept the place as a tavern. It was on his farm that a detachment of General Wilkinson's army was encamped in 1813 14. When James Constable passed through Malone September 23, 1805, reaching Brewster's between eight and nine o'clock in the morning, he found a dance party just breaking up, with discontent at having to quit so early, but with no alternative, as the violinist's instrument was reduced to a single string. Evidently dancing was no less popular then than now, for the party numbered forty, or probably from a quarter to a third of all the adult people living in what is the present town. Mr. Brewster and Cone Andrus were for a long time overseers of the poor, and in some years had as much as two hundred dollars to expend. Mr. Brewster was the brother of David, who came a little later. The latter was a tailor, with a shop where the Methodist church stands, and afterward at the west end of the Main street bridge. He was one of the influential Democratic politicians of his day, and was postmaster under President Jackson, with the office in his shop, where the Democratic "slates" for the county used to be made. Henry S. Brewster was the son of David, and became county clerk in 1847. Ebenezer Brownson resided first on the Elias Dewey farm in the southern part of the town, and then on Webster street, where his home became the rendezvous for the lawyers of the time. Whether he was a lawyer himself, or if he had any occupation at all except that of office holding, there is nothing to show. He was for two terms first judge of the court of common pleas, and was surrogate, county clerk and member of Assembly. He also held his share of the town offices, and was Harison's first supervisor. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. Jehiel and Ebenezer Berry, whose descendants are numerous in Malone, were men of high character. The former, who located on the North Bangor road on what became the Bicknell place, kept a tavern for a year or two. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. Ebenezer was on the farm next east. Both served the town as commissioner of highways. John Barnes, not active in public affairs except to hold a town office occasionally, was a soldier in 1812, an upright citizen and a deacon in the church. He was the grandfather of 0. J. Barnes, the seedsman. Noel Conger, one of the Beeman surveying party, used to be said to have taken two hundred acres of land, facing Main and Fort Covington streets, in the western part of the village, in payment for his surveying services. He was said also to have been the first man to cross Salmon river at the chasm where the stone bridge now is making the crossing on a hemlock log which he felled for the purpose. He remained for about twenty years, and then removed to St. Lawrence county. Jesse Chipman had been a revolutionary soldier, serving a number of enlistments in Vermont commands among which was one in the "Green Mountain Boys" before Quebec in 1776, and two terms in Colonel Ira Allen's regiment. He was private, corporal and sergeant. In Malone he served one term as assessor. Lemuel Chapman was sheriff in 1812, having had training for the office as a town constable. Stephen Dunning lived just west of the poorhouse, and Mrs. Pepper, the daughter of Noah Lee, who lived first in Burke, and then just across the road from Jehiel Berry's until he moved into Bangor, told thirty-odd years ago that the first religious service in Malone was held at the Dunning house Mrs. Dunning holding a candle for the clergy- -man while he read his sermon. The clergyman was a Mr. Cannon from Connecticut, but Mrs. Pepper neglected to state the date of the occasion. Her account conflicts with the understanding generally prevalent a generation ago, which made the place of the first religious service by a Mr. Ransom back of the John Mazuzan house on the corner of Main and Rockland streets, and the time July 4, 1804. Mrs. Pepper's father came in 1803, and her brother, Benjamin, was the first male child of American parentage born in the town. Harry S. House, of sound judgment and quiet life, one of the early supervisors and also many times assessor, was the father of the banker of later years who bore the same name. Stephen D. Hickok was a captain of a militia company in the war of 1812, and led his command on the alarm of the battle of Plattsburgh, though not reaching there in time to participate in the engagement. He became afterward a lieutenant-colonel in the militia. Apollos Lathrop was at one time a partner of Jacob Wead in the distillery at "whiskey hollow," and later a merchant on Main street. He was the father of Loyal C. Lathrop, who was elected sheriff in 1842, and the greatgrandfather of Frank D. and Frederick L. Allen, successful attorneys in New York city, and also of William L. Allen of Malone. Noah Moody is said to have had the first dwelling house within the village limits. It stood about where the courthouse now is. Mr. Moody built the latter structure. He became a considerable land owner, and was a good deal of a factor in town affairs. He kept the first drug store and the first book store in Malone, and was afterward a surveyor. William Mason was a farmer, and in a paper thirty-odd years ago reciting incidents of early times and men Vice-President Wheeler classified him as "a man of grand native intellectual strength, resembling in his mental conformation Silas Wright." According to Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Mason delighted in philosophical monologue, and discussed moral and political questions with fine analysis and great thoughtfulness. Mr. Mason served at two periods in the war of 1812. Reeve and Samuel Pack, originally farmers, built the first tannery on the east side of the river. Reeve was a sergeant in the war of 1812, and was elected sheriff in 1822. Lemuel Parlin, a farmer, also served in the war of 1812. He was the father of Martin L., who was surrogate in 1843, and was elected to the Assembly in 1859. Benjamin Smith, also an 1812 soldier for two periods, was a farmer. He was the brother-in-law of Benjamin Clark, who was at one time the principal merchant of. the town. It was through this relationship that Smith came to be so commonly a given name in the Clark family. Asa Wheeler (not a relative of Vice-President Wheeler) was supervisor and assessor in the early life of the town, and was appointed county clerk in 1811 and again in 1815. David Sperry has no descendants here. A son, David R., of geniality and always bearing Malone in affectionate remembrance, removed to Illinois soon after the close of the Civil War, and engaged at Batavia in the foundry business and manufacture of farming implements, acquiring a handsome property. He was one of the earliest advocates of highway building on intelligent and enduring lines. He died December 30. 1896. Lyman Sperry, twice a soldier in the war of 1812, was the grandfather of Lieutenant Lyman B. and Harbin P. of Malone and of Dennis S. The last named has lived in the West for many years, and is interested in a large and prosperous stationery and blank book business in St. Paul. Dr. Paul Thorndike, whose office stood on the Baptist church corner until he removed to the old Thorndike homestead on Webster street, was the father of General S. C. F. Thorndike, who was elected county clerk by two majority in 1849, was afterward for many years in the railroad offices at Malone, and served as provost marshal during the drafts for the Civil War. Roswell Wilcox was a tanner and currier as well as a farmer, and had a small tannery and shop at the brook two miles west of the village. Luther Winslow served two terms in the war of 1812, and was known as "Captain." He was the father of the first girl born in the town, who was named Malone. She married and removed to Ohio. Russell J. Cunningham is a grandson of Captain Winslow. Enos, Nathan and John Wood, the first settlers, located: Enos on what has since been known as the D. Hardy farm; Nathan on the Fort Covington road, near Barnard's bridge; and John at the corner of Elm and Park streets. All three had been revolutionary soldiers, and though then hardly more than boys were with their father and two other brothers as minute men in the battles of Bennington and Saratoga. Enos was known as "Major" and John as "Captain." Joseph Safford, father-in-law of John, had been a captain in the continental army, and was always called "Colonel." He came here at an unknown date, and died in 1808. Enos served through two enlistments in the war of 1812, in one of which he was a lieutenant, and his son, Adin, was an ensign in Captain Tilden's company at Fort Covington. The sons of Enos were Adin, Arunah and Enos, Jr. The younger Enos became a Presbyterian minister, and died at Potsdam in 1896 at the age of eighty-six years. Arunah was a cabinet maker, with a shop where Mrs. John Lincoln now lives. The only descendants of this line now living in Malone are Herbert J.* and Enos (sons of Henry J.) and their children, living near the old Adin Wood homestead on the Whippleville road which Adin is understood to have taken in payment for work for Mr. Harison. Nelson and George H. were sons of Arunah, and neither left male children. Nelson was one of Malone's principal builders, and wherever a house here has heavy portico pillars two stories in height, particularly on Park street, the structure was of Mr. Wood's fashioning, or copied from the pattern that he set. George was at one time principal of Franklin Academy, and afterward became a lawyer, though not aggressive or persistent in the practice. He lived in the West for a number of years, but passed his old age in Malone. A daughter of Nathan married Frederick Barnard (father of Nathan W. and of Mrs. Harry P. Orcutt), and another was the wife of Asa Stickney, father of Charles J. It was from Frederic Barnard that the overhead railroad bridge north of the village took its name. Junia ("aunt" to everybody) was the daughter of John, and, a spinster, was for long years one of the best known and best loved women who ever lived in Malone. In her later life she was without means or a home of her own, but in every family there was always an eager welcome to her and insistence that she continue a member as long as she would. Her mission was to help and serve, and wherever there was sickness or need in any way for her sunny, cheerful presence and deft care she managed in some way to learn the fact, and always responded. * Deceased since this was written. All of the foregoing were here at least as early as 1805, and a number of them two or three years previously. Joel Amsden, known as "Major" and in fact a captain of a local militia company in the war of 1812, came in 1806, in which year he was assessed as owning with Captain Warren Powers $350 of real estate and $525 of personalty. He became a merchant in a small way, with a store on West Main street at about where the late P. Clark lived for many years, and also had a hotel adjacent, and later built another hotel near the site of the Knapp or Commercial (now Paddock) Block. During the war of 1812, upon an alarm one night of the approach of the British he proceeded with a stub of pipe between his teeth and a lighted candle in his hand to distribute powder from a keg to members of his company, when the candle dropped into the powder. Fortunately it struck butt end down, and was snatched out in time to avert an explosion. The major was the father of Lauriston, who was county clerk in 1834, and the grandfather of James Sumner and Floyd. Samuel Andrus bought 14 acres from Cone Andrus in 1807, "beginning at the old well, so-called," and extending easterly along Elm street. The old well was out in the street somewhere in front of the dwelling house built by Howard E. King (now owned by Mrs. Scott Boyce), and within my recollection a pump stood there. Samuel was the father of Cone Andrus. One of his daughters became the wife of Harry S. House, and another married John Porter. Zerubabel Curtis came in 1806, and owned two hundred acres in that part of the village which we call the Flat and to the east of it. He was the first settler in that vicinity, which was known as "the road to Hatch's" meaning to the tavern in Burke that was kept by James Hatch. He was appointed sheriff in 1814, and had been a cavalry sergeant in the war of 1812. William Cleveland came at an unknown date between 1808 and 1812, and kept a hotel on Webster street, on the lot nest north of Franklin street. He was also part owner of a distillery. He removed to Fort Covington, where he had a tavern, and at one time was a partner of Meigs & Wead in one of their many business enterprises. Leonard Conant, a pillar in the church and a high-class man in all respects, came earlier than 1812, and was a soldier in the war of that period. He was followed by two brothers, one of whom was Ophir, a physician. Jeremiah, another brother, was a drummer in the war of 1812. Leonard was a brother-in-law of Dr. Roswell Bates of Fort Covington, and an uncle by marriage of Dr. Sidney P. Bates of Malone. Marshall, lawyer and railroad official, who removed to La Crosse, Wis., forty-odd years ago, was a son of Leonard. Appleton Foote located originally in 1803 in Moira, where he built a saw mill, and after a year or two removed to Malone. Here he built the house and immense barns that formerly stood on the site of the armory, and ran the place as a hotel until the autumn of 1813. Mr. Foote was the contractor for building the center arch of the stone bridge on Main street in 1817, for which he was paid $2,000. Richard G. Foote, a prominent lawyer in his time, was a son of Appleton. John L. Fuller came about 1808. He was the son-in-law of the Elder Hiram Horton, and father-in-law of Samuel C. Wead. He acted as the agent of Mr. Harison in selling lands to settlers, and lived at one time back of where the Thompson hardware is, at another on the corner of Webster and Jane streets, and at still another on the Clark place, corner of Academy and Duane streets, where he erected a storehouse and office, which was used nearly thirty years later for school purposes while the academy was being rebuilt. He also made a clearing at the Foster Atwood (now Charles Wilcox) farm, but I do not know-that he ever lived there. He had a store on Main street, and was one of the big men of his time. Hiram Horton the elder located about 1807, and purchased from John Wood the saw mill and grist mill which the latter had begun, together with fifty-two acres of land, which included a few acres where the passenger depot is and also everything south of Main street between the river and Willow street except a parcel along the street just east of the bridge. The price paid was $1,950. A year later he bought twenty acres on the west side of the river, between Duane street and the Salmon, extending east to the Branch stream, for $500. Mr. Horton finished the saw mill and grist mill, sold off lots from time to time, and became prominent in many ways. His home was where the Rutland passenger station is. He was early supervisor, and became first judge of the court of common pleas. His son, Hiram, succeeded after a few years to his interests, and for half a century was one of the foremost men in the town. No man did more than the latter (perhaps no one as much) to secure the building of the old Northern Railroad. Among his other services for it he indorsed the company's notes to the amount of half a million dollars. He was member of Assembly in 1844 and Presidential elector in 1864. Zenas Heath was the father of Francis T., who was editor and proprietor of the Palladium for a dozen years, and also for a long time the leading druggist of the town. Besides pursuing the business of farming, Zenas engaged in teaching, and then in operating the Whippleville grist mill. He arrived in 1808, and served in the war of 1812. His sister married Major Dimick, the abolitionist and underground railroad operator. . The date of the arrival of Lemuel Holmes is unknown. He was called "Colonel," and was a great joker always making the best of adverse conditions and minimizing disappointments and misfortunes. He had an interest in a saw mill in the paper mill district, but moved after a time into the southern part of the town, the first settler south of Whippleville. L. W. Whipple is his grandson. Obadiah T. Hosford was here in 1812 possibly still earlier and lived on the Frederick P. Allen (now John W. Fay) lot on Elm street. He came on horseback from Connecticut, and his grandson, William, says that the horse which he rode was the second horse owned in Malone. Mr. Hosford was best known and is best remembered, however, as landlord for thirty years or more at the Hosford House, which was just south of the present railroad crossing at the beginning of Elm street. For a good many years during the period when there was so great a scarcity of currency he was about the only man in Malone who always had money. John Mazuzan must have been one of the very earliest settlers, though I find no reference to him in any record until 1810, when he was elected assessor. His first residence was at or near the corner of Rockland and Main streets, and it was told by early residents that the first religious service held in the town, in 1804, was appointed to be held in his house, but that the attendance was so large that adjournment had to be taken to the field, where the congregation found seats on stumps and logs. Mr. Mazuzan moved later to the Andrew S. Keeler (now John Kelley) lot on the north side of the street. He was a farmer and also a merchant, and held the office of town clerk for fifteen or twenty years. Joseph W. Moulton apparently came in 1812, and was a lawyer. His office was on Webster street. Beyond that I am unable to learn anything about him except that he paid $40 for his office lot, and sold it two years later to Dr. Horatio Powell for $1,150. Isaac Parker arrived in 1808 or earlier, and Isaac Parker, Jr., a little later. The latter had at his death one of the largest farms in the town, and was the third man to engage here in growing hops for commercial purposes. Samuel Hyde, who was a cabinet maker, with a shop on Webster street next south of the old Baptist church, was the second, and Rev. Stephen Paddock the first. Isaac, Jr., served in the war of 1812. Captain Warren Powers (date of arrival unknown) was a leading business man a merchant, part owner of a distillery, and I think interested with Major Amsden in the first Amsden hotel. His store was near the present Baptist church. John H. Russell dates at least as early as 1807, as he was town clerk in that year, and in 1808 and for five succeeding years clerk of the board of supervisors for services in which latter capacity in 1808 he was paid $14. He was a lawyer, and became postmaster. That his duties as postmaster could not have been onerous is evident from the fact that at that time mail came from the east only once a week, and the quantity could not have been large, as the entire lot for all of the country between Plattsburgh and Ogdensburg was carried by a man on his back, who covered the route on foot. John H. was the father of John L. and the grandfather of Judge Leslie W. Russell of Canton. Benjamin Seeley, a first settler in Moira, and then a resident of Bangor for a year or two, came in 1800 or earlier, buying the hotel which stood at the railroad crossing, and also the lot on which the county buildings were erected, and which latter premises he conveyed to the county in 1814 two or three years after the county had begun building thereon. Manifestly such transactions were not then as carefully negotiated and concluded as at present, for there is no record here or in the Clinton county clerk's office that either Mr. Seeley or Mr. Moody (from whom Seeley must have bought) ever had title to it. John Hawley (spelled Holley on the assessment roll) lived three or four miles east of the village, on the north road to Chateaugay. The fine spring which is known by his name was on his farm. He was the grandfather of Harry H. Elisha Nichols and Captain John Wood married sisters in Vermont, and not improbably came to Malone together. Mr. Nichols preceded Jonathan Stearns as a merchant on the corner of Main and Academy streets. John Porters name appears first on the assessment roll in 1808. He was the ancestor of the late Hiram H. Porter, and also of Nelson W., now one of the stirring business men of our village. Noah Smith, father of the genial arid popular Wade, and grandfather of Warren T. and of Mrs. E. E. Hogle, bought 100 acres in 1805 for $250. The story is current in the family that Mr. Smith and five others came together, and had only a single piece of salt pork between them, which they passed back and forth to boil with vegetables merely enough to flavor the latter, until one of the group, forgetting what was due to the others, ate the pork. Mr. Smith was an ensign in the war of 1812. Joseph Spencer located on the Fort Covington road, probably about 1810, and just south of the Westville line. He was a soldier in the war of 1812. Of his six sons, only Mason, Newell and William were sufficiently identified with the town to be factors in its affairs, and to be particularly well remembered. They were sturdy men, and William, locating in Bangor, was a soldier in the Civil War. Byron M. and Harmon W. are grandsons of Joseph, and a considerable number of other descendants of a younger generation are residents of Malone. With the Sperrys and the Berrys the Spencers at one time made up a large part of the population of the northwest quarter of the town, and a better neighborhood was not to be found in the county. Oliver Wescott (written Waistcott on the assessment roll) arrived about 1808, and was a farmer. He was commissioner of highways, and held other town offices. Mr. Wheeler wrote concerning him that he "was possessed of rare perception and sound judgment," and "would, with preparation, have stood in the front rank of jurists and legislators." Henry S. Waterhouse was here before 1807, and was a brilliant surgeon. He remained for more than twenty years, practising his profession, and always had a few medical students in training under him. His garden on Webster street was one of the burial places for the soldiers who died here in 1814, at which time Deacon Jehiel Berry, a mere boy, was making his home with him. Mr. Berry told in the Palladium, thirty-odd years ago that at that time he uncovered a soldier's body in the haymow, which undoubtedly went into the dissecting room; and Hon. Ashbel B. Parmelee remembered that the doctor's own neighbors were always in anxiety after the death of a loved one because of a prevalent belief that the doctor robbed graves in order to obtain subjects for use in instructing his students. Dr. Waterhouse's first wife and six children lie in the Webster street cemetery, with their graves untended and unvisited by any relative for more than three-quarters of a century. After a second marriage the doctor went to Burlington to take a professorship in the University of Vermont, and removed from there to Key West, Fla., where Mrs. Waterhouse joined him in 1829, and died a few days after her arrival in circumstances that cast suspicion upon the husband. Within a short time thereafter the doctor and his only surviving child were drowned while sailing on the ocean. Abel Willson, who came about 1812, was the grandfather of Malone's waterworks superintendent, George A. Willson. He was a merchant, became supervisor, and was elected county clerk in 1829. Almon Wheeler, father of Vice-President Wheeler, located about 1812, and was a lawyer, with office just east of where Putnam's Block now stands, and residence on the site of the Elks' clubhouse. He became postmaster, and was rated an able practitioner. But his gains were less than nothing, and he left to his widow and children only a good name and a heritage of debt. In. checking up some of these names with the earliest town records the reflection comes spontaneously that the men of that day recognized and obeyed the obligation of service. There may have been, as now, anxiety for responsible and remunerative official place, but there must have been also praiseworthy readiness to accept petty and irksome duties, as the busiest, most prominent and most dignified residents appear to have undertaken to serve as poormasters, constables, pound-keepers, overseers of highways, and even as sextons of the town cemeteries. Thus Cone Andrus, Lemuel Parlin and Oliver Brewster were poormasters year after year; Cone Andrus, Oliver Brewster, Jonathan Lawrence, John Wood and Jonathan Stearns pound-keepers; Hiram Horton, Appleton Foote, Harry S. House, William Mason, John H. Russell, Benjamin Seeley, Oliver Wescott and others overseers of highways; and Francis L. Harison (son of the owner of the township) sexton of the Webster street cemetery, and Jesse Chipman of the Dimick cemetery. If the foremost men of Malone to-day would accept similar trusts our taxes would be lighter. THE OLD POUND The pound of earliest days was an institution, and had terrors for the young as the bastile of France had for suspects and evildoers. Town meeting voted regularly that cows and other cattle, horses, swine and sheep must not run at large, and designated certain barn-yards as pounds, and their proprietors as pound-keepers, with penalties to be paid by owners of offending animals to the keeper for distraining them. Any one finding an animal roaming the street or ravaging a garden had the right to drive it to a pound, and to him also a fee (a quarter of a dollar as I remember the amount) must be paid when the animal was loosed. Not infrequently the system sent children supperless to bed because the family kine could not be found, or perchance because the luckless owner lacked the money to redeem it. Later the town built a public pound in the northeast corner of the Academy Green, and later still one at the corner of Rockland and Main streets. The latter was discontinued and the stone inclosing it sold in 1866. At times the election of a pound-keeper was made a joke, and at one election in the fifties the editors of the Palladium and Gazette were named as opposing candidates for the office of hog-reeve. TAXES PAID BY NOTES Another incident of primitive procedure requires mention. In 1812 a resolution was passed by the board of supervisors, directing the county treasurer "to take a note from Albon Man and George L. Harison, if the same shall be by them requested, towards the taxes due from Mr. Pierpont and Mr. Harison, payable in the month of September, next." PEN PICTURES OP EARLY MALONE Forty-odd years ago Samuel C. Wead and a dozen years later Anslem Lincoln gave in the Palladium their recollections of Malone as it was when they first saw it, in 1815. They varied only two or three houses in their remembrance of the buildings then in existence, and analyzing the two articles carefully it is possible to construct a picture of the village or "Center" as it then was. Main street at the east end of the bridge was ten or fifteen feet lower than it is now, and on the west side was much higher. The stone bridge had not been built, and the chasm was spanned by stringers on which poles instead of plank were laid for a driveway. The court house stood on ground probably twenty feet above its present foundation, the original structure having been lowered fourteen feet at one time, and the present building set lower still. The road in front towered higher, as on the north it ran along a dugway. A half dozen small merchants had practically a monopoly of the mercantile business, viz.: John L. Fuller, between the bridge and Mill street; Jonathan Stearns, at the corner of Main and Academy streets, on the site of the Smith House; Noah Moody and John Mazuzan, on the site of the present Baptist church; Warren Powers, just east of this church; Joel Amsden, opposite from Powers's; Abel Willson, at a location not stated, but probably on Webster street; and Oliver Booge, just opposite the Wead Library on Elm street. On the east side of the river Fuller's store was the only building on the south side of the street between the bridge and Mill street, and a shop the only one east of Fuller's within the village limits, while on the north side of Main street there were a small house near the bridge, one where Dr. Philips and Fred F. Fisk afterward lived, another adjacent to Arsenal Park, the arsenal, and one or two on the Flat. On Elm street there were the Hosford Hotel at what is now the railroad crossing, the Horton home on the site of the present passenger station, a store and six dwelling houses. In a field near the Colonel Seaver homestead (Pearl Street was not opened until twenty years later) there was a single house, and in the millyard a barn, a mechanics' shop, a tannery, a carding mill, a grist mill, a saw mill and two tenements one of them the mill house. On the west side of the river, on the north side of Main street, besides the court house and the Amsden store and tavern, there were four residences, and on the south side of the street, besides the stores, only five houses, a tannery, a triphammer works, and the hotel which Mr. Amsden had just started to build near the Knapp or Commercial Block. Webster street had the old academy and fifteen dwelling houses, and Franklin two or three. There were also three asheries, making a total of between sixty and seventy buildings of all kinds. Dr. Bates could count from memory only seventy in 1821, of which he located twenty-four or twenty-five on the east side. Elm and Main had all of these except two, and Main and Webster all but two or three of those on the west side. Fort Covington, Duane, Park and all of the other present streets had not been opened, or were without a single building. Of the residents in 1815 three were physicians, three lawyers, two tanners and shoemakers, two harness makers, two hotel keepers, and a handful of carpenters, cabinet makers, blacksmiths and wheelwrights. A pen picture of the village of yet earlier date than Mr. Lincoln's and Mr. Wead's was drawn by Ashbel Parmelee, D.D., upon his arrival in 1810 to enter upon the pastorate of the Congregational church. All was dense forest on both sides of Main street, and when the trees were in leaf the academy could not be seen from the Main street bridge. The village then consisted of about a dozen frame houses and five or six log cabins. And Constable had called Malone "nearly full" ten years before! Oliver Booge was instantly killed in 1815, and from his books as turned over to the administrators of his estate I was permitted forty or fifty years ago to copy some of his charges to customers in 1814: Wheat, $2 per bushel; corn and rye, $1 each per bushel; hay, $8 per ton; eggs, 20c. per dozen; raisins, 38c.; ham, 20c. and tea $2 per pound; segars, 12c. per dozen; whiskey, $1.50 per gallon; butter, 17@18c. and sugar, 17@20c. per pound; pork, $25@$30 per barrel; cotton cloth, 60@72c., cambric, 88e.@$1.50, and calico, 62@75c. per yard; and steel, 40c. per pound. SOME EARLY INDUSTRIES While in the preparation of these sketches I have been mindful that "a famine in China will always seem less than a dog fight in one's own alley," the "dog fights" in Malone have been so numerous that it is impracticable, and would be cumbersome and tedious, to undertake to recite them all. Some of the affairs of the mongrels at least must be but barely touched, or omitted altogether. Of the minor industries my list includes eighteen saw mills in the town (not all of them early), of which nine were on the Salmon river, four on the Branch stream, two on Trout river, and one each on Roaring brook, the Duane stream and Winslow brook. The earliest were the Wood or Horton mill in the millyard in the village: the Luther Winslow and Lemuel Holmes mill at the George M. Sabin place, below the paper mill, long before Mr. Sabin came; and one at "whiskey hollow." James Duane built one at what is called "the little falls," afterward known as the Man or middle mill; James H. Titus one at Titusville (originally called Glen Hope, and now Chasm Falls), and another at the outlet of Lake Titus; _____ Burnham one near the Chasm Falls church; William Lyman one just above Whippleville; Harvey Whipple and Scott G. Boyce one each at Whippleville; William King one in the village, where the Jay 0. Ballard & Co. factory is; James Tracey and Nahum Whipple each one on Trout river; Elijah Keeler, Timothy Bemis and Lucius A. Simons each one on the Branch stream; Lyman Glazier one on Roaring brook; Josiah Nason one on the Winslow brook; and Scott G. Boyce one on the Duane stream. Many of these changed ownership later, or were replaced by new mills on or near the same sites. The only ones of them all now in existence are those on Mill street and at Whippleville. The first tanneries, which probably were only vat yards, bark mills and perhaps sheds, were built, one by Reeve and Samuel Peck in 1807 on the east side of the river in the village, near the Horton grist mill, and the other by Stephen Bailey and Elihu Thomas in 1809, directly across the river. Another and even smaller and more primitive tannery existed for a short time two miles west of the village, built and operated by Roswell Wilcox. The Peck tannery appears on the assessment roll twenty years after its erection with a gradually diminishing valuation, as though it were outliving its usefulness, and disappears entirely in 1837, when it was bought by William King, and merged with a more pretentious establishment which Mr. King had built in 1831 on an adjacent lot. Enoch Miller, William Robb, Hiram H. Thompson and Webster Brothers were in turn owners after Mr. King. This tannery was burned no less than six times between 1831 and 1893, after which it was not rebuilt. It grew in time to be a great establishment, with nearly or quite one hundred operatives, and for a generation was deemed a menace to neighboring property, as almost every time that it burned it carried destruction to other buildings, including stores on Main street and once the Lincoln tannery on the opposite side of the stream. One of these fires, that of 1879, was the most disastrous as respects property values that Malone has ever known with, the exception of that which destroyed the old Ferguson House. While Malone prized the industry because of the employment it afforded to so large a number of men, a sense of positive relief was nevertheless experienced when, after the fire of 1893, it became known that it had disappeared forever. Anslem Lincoln came in 1815, and with Curtis Burton bought the Bailey-Thomas tannery in 1817. Unable to pay for it, it was sold to Charles Blake of Chateaugay in 1820. A couple of years later Mr. Lincoln and Enoch Miller acquired it, running it for ten years, when Mr. Lincoln bought out Mr. Miller, and built it over. He then operated it for forty years or more, finally selling to his son, John, and Henry A. Miller. After a time the latter became sole owner, enlarged it, and gave its product a reputation for excellence that was nowhere surpassed. It worked only about half as many men as the other tannery, and yet had quite as large an output. It is now operated by Thomas Garnar & Co. of New York, with William W. Morgan as superintendent. Garnar & Co. are the largest bookbinding house in America, and practically all of the product of this tannery, and also that of others owned by them elsewhere, is used in their own business. The first carding mill was built by the elder Horton on a lot north of the grist mill, but was converted into a hat factory, which was worked by Dean Hutchins and John Cargin. Both stiff and soft hats were made, and later _____ Gregory was the proprietor. Mr. Horton erected a larger carding and fulling mill south of the saw mill, of which Orlando Furness was for a time the operator, with Philip B. Miller as foreman. This building is now occupied by Henry Baker for a wheelwright shop. Malone has had five distilleries, nearly every one of the owners and operators of which were men who, if now living, would abhor the business and deem it a reproach to be engaged in it, so changed is sentiment in regard to the manufacture and use of liquor. But a hundred years ago alcohol in some form was deemed indispensable in every household, and the distilleries were thought to be rendering a public service in making it. Some of the distilleries used grain, and others potatoes. The first of them, built at an unknown date and abandoned prior to 1821, was the property of Warren Powers, and stood on Webster street on the lot just south of the Harison (afterward the Robert A. Delong, and now the Ernest E. Mueller) place. It appears on the assessment roll of 1814 as the "still lot." In 1821 Dr. Horatio Powell, William Cleveland, Rev. Stephen Paddock and Deacon Leonard Conant bought the boiler and other equipment in the Powers establishment, and built a distillery a mile farther south, near the Paddock spring. It burned the same year, and its destruction was thought to be a public calamity. Jeremiah Conant rebuilt it in 1827, and sold soon afterward to Samuel Greeno. It burned again about 1830, when Mr. Greeno abandoned the site, and rebuilt east of Duane street, at the foot of the Water street hill. How long he operated there I do not know, but either it or the "whiskey hollow" distillery (probably the latter) was running at least at late as 1845. The Greeno establishment was converted into a tenement house, and was burned in 1859. Still another distillery was built by Benjamin F. Whipple in the ravine near the J. D. Hardy farm, south of the Paddock spring. Yet another, built earlier than 1820, gave the name "whiskey hollow" to the locality where the lower electric light plant is. It was owned by Jacob Wead, John Wood and Apollos Lathrop, and had a considerable product the output of one distillery here in 1835 having been valued at $7,000, equivalent to perhaps thirty-five or forty thousand gallons. The story of other industries will be told in subsequent pages. COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENTS The individual undertakings, necessarily along narrow lines, and the home life of the pioneers it is not feasible nor essential to the scheme of this sketch, to follow in detail. We know through tradition that are yet familiar stories in many of our families, and also by the written testimony of a few who were in and of the early days, that the mode of living was simple in the extreme, even rude, and was unattended by luxury and only rarely lightened by amusements, though each of the hotels had a bowling alley, and baseball was played Saturday afternoons where Memorial Park is; that rigid economy had to be practiced by everybody: that there was a closer approach to entire equality than has since been known, with no class distinctions based upon birth or wealth: and that neighborly sympathy, kindness and fellowship abounded. But the main things that count in enduring influence are that these pioneers, even those who made no profession of religion, stood for enterprise, clean living, character and morality. Capable of large endeavor, but restricted by lack of means in its exercise, they nevertheless aimed true, cherished high standards, and wrought wisely and enduringly. Of community achievement, which is really the measure of a locality's life in its broader aspect, one undertaking stands out significant of the spirit of enterprise which we like to think is a characteristic of Malone, and others loom large in the beneficent influence which they have exerted through all the years. Though we have no record at all concerning its beginning, or as to who were its promoters and supporters, it is known that there was determination early that there should be educational facilities superior to those that the old district school could supply, and that for a quarter of a century from 1806 there was repeated effort to establish an academy. The two-story frame building of wood formerly on Academy Green, but there no longer, was known for years as the Harison Academy. It was built from timber cut and hewed on the spot. But accurate, definite information regarding it had been lost even a generation ago, for in a public address in 1882, Hon. Ashbel B. Parmelee, himself identified with the town from an early day, lamented that we were without more certain knowledge relative to its beginning and early history. It was never chartered as an academy, but Mr. Parmelee stated that tradition ran that the higher branches were taught there, though by whom, or how the institution was supported, was not known. In 1810 there was a special town meeting, called for the express purpose of requesting Ritchard Harison to deed four acres of land for school uses, and a committee was appointed to press the request. Mr. Harison complied, conveying the premises to the judges of the court of common pleas, in trust, and when Franklin Academy secured its charter in 1831 these deeded the plot to the trustees of that institution. A writer told in the Palladium sixty years ago that two early teachers were discharged for intemperance (fortunately their names are lost), each having had a bottle of brandy in his pocket in the school room during school hours. Happily the character of our teachers since then has been of the highest, and their examples proper for the young to follow. As early as 1810 the Malone Aqueduct Association was incorporated by act of the Legislature to supply the village of Malone with wholesome water by means of aqueducts. Appleton Foote, George F. Harison and Warren Powers were named in the act to receive subscriptions for stock, which might be issued in ten dollar shares to the aggregate amount of fifteen thousand dollars. The right to condemn lands and water was conferred, and it was provided that dividends of not to exceed fourteen per cent, might be paid on the stock, while all earnings in excess of that percentage were to be paid to the treasurer of the village, for application to the cost of employing a night watch. Inasmuch as there was then no village, nor any treasurer, the latter provision seems absurd, though indicative of a prevalent desire to have public order conserved; and delve though you should deeper than the ditches were excavated, you will find no record of what the association did, nor how it throve or languished. It is a fact, however, that something like a third of a century ago, during the progress of work on our present water system, pipe logs were found on Water and Catherine streets, no memory of the laying or use of which even the oldest inhabitant recalled, and it was understood that similar pipes were laid on Webster and Alain streets. There was, too, in the long ago a pipe line from the Hosford Spring, east of the fair grounds, across the Flat, but whether it belonged to the 1810 system is not known. The source of supply for the Foote-Harison-Powers system was a spring in the then Parmelee sugar bush, which was east by south from the Webster street cemetery. Such an enterprise in such a time is certainly remarkable. The Congregational church was organized in 1807 with twenty-seven members; and the Baptist church December 12, of the same year, with a dozen members. The date of the organization of the Methodist church is not definitely known; but Dr. Hough says that a minister of that denomination was here in 1811. and a correspondent of the Palladium in 1858 stated merely that the organization was effected between 1810 and 1818. The parish appears for the first time in the minutes of the Genesee conference in 1818, when the church was credited with sixty members. Prior to 1818 it was probably under the jurisdiction of the Canada conference, from which I have been unable to obtain data bearing upon the matter. But as there were sixty members in 1818 undoubtedly there must have been organization some years earlier. Thus we have evidence of three separate religious movements and of two important civic enterprises almost with the beginning of the town's life, and when there was but a handful of people, all of them poor, to push things. The spirit which they reflect was prophetic of the development that followed. Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx p. 25 FRANKLIN ACADEMY As already shown, provision was made almost at once upon the erection of the town for educational facilities of a higher order than the common schools afforded, though the institution then established had more of a private than a public character. It was, therefore, not altogether satisfying. The requirements for an academic charter in 1811 had been merely that an institution have an assured annual income of a hundred dollars, but the people were too poor to provide even that paltry sum, and the effort to gain the Regents' sanction had to be given over temporarily. In 1823, however, agitation began in earnest to secure an academy which should be in fact a public institution, and all that the name implies. Again unsuccessful for a time because of inability to satisfy the Board of Regents that adequate pledges were in hand for a building and for maintenance the requirements in this regard having been increased to two hundred and fifty dollars a year a later movement (begun in 1827 and prosecuted more or less vigorously for several years) resulted in 1831 in securing the necessary funds, and a charter was granted April 28th of that year not for the Harison institution, however, but for a new establishment to be known as Franklin Academy. The scheme employed for procuring funds is noteworthy. Seventy-three men executed mortgages on their homes and farms conditioned for the payment of interest at seven per cent, on the amount of the respective obligations so given. The largest principal sum pledged was only $225, and the smallest $15. Some were for odd amounts, one having been for $21.49, which meant that the mortgagor should pay $1.50 per year. All of the mortgages had a life of twenty years, at the end of which period contributions under them were to cease, and the instruments be discharged. Scarcely any money was in circulation at the time, and few men in the community had assured cash incomes even for taxes and other imperative requirements, so that the men who engaged to pay even a small amount secured by mortgage dreaded lest he be compelled to default, with, consequent loss of his property. It may thus be realized that in signing, all except those who were the most prosperous did so hesitatingly and with trepidation. Nevertheless public spirit and self-sacrifice triumphed, and the proposed institution was guaranteed an annual income of a trifle under three hundred dollars. Franklin Academy thus came into existence, and for more than three-quarters of a century has been doing beneficent work of value beyond all calculation. The names of the mortgagors deserve a place in these pages. They were: Benjamin Clark, Samuel Smith Clark, Jacob Wead, Jonathan Stearns, Hiram Horton, Asa Hascall, Horatio Powell, Charles Blake, William B. Foot, Richard G. Foote, Samuel Peck, Thomas Russell Powell, Obadiah T. Hosford, Elias Dewey, Jr., Frederic Barnard, Samuel Field, Alva Orcutt, Daniel Brown, Wm. R. Vilas, Ebenezer Berry, Oliver Westcott, David Sperry, Nahum Whipple, Orlando Furness, Harry Horton, Clark Williamson, Roswell Wilcox, Noah Moody, William Mason, John Mazuzan, Lemuel Parlin, Ebenezer R. Daggett, Bliss Burnap, Noah Smith, Silvester Langdon, Nathan White, Elijah Keeler, Ashbel Parmelee, Aaron Beman, Myron Hickok, John Wheeler, Jehiel Berry., Asaph Watkins, Myron Berry, Samuel Greeno, Truman Bell, Nathan Strong, Joseph Spencer, Porter Moody, Anslem Lincoln, Josiah Learned, Hiram L. Lewis, Elias Watkins, Arunah H. Wood, Jonas Stone, Martin L. Parlin, Charles Carlisle, Lemuel K. Parlin and Cephas Watkins, all of Malone; Joseph Plumb, Samuel Wilson, Talmadge Barnum, Barnabas Barnum, James Barnum, Elijah Barnum, Joshua Dickinson, Anderson Wilson and George Adams, of Bangor; Timothy Beman, of Chateaugay; George W. Darling and Ashley Wyman, of Constable: and Luther Bradish, of Moira. Hugh Magill and William Green of Malone became contributors in like manner for six years dating from 1846. In addition, the town of Malone voted to the enterprise the moneys in the hands of its overseers of the poor, amounting to $270.11, which were loaned out on mortgage, thus adding $18.91 to the academy's assured annual revenue, independent of tuition fees, and the institution's share of the State literature fund. An academic building was erected, and in December, 1831, the doors of the institution were opened. During its first year of existence eighty pupils were in attendance, and the total income, exclusive of interest paid on account of mortgages, was $927. In 1835 the building was almost destroyed by fire, and was replaced in 1836 by the three-story stone structure which served the school's needs until 1868. The State loaned the town of Malone two thousand dollars for the new building of 1836, and the town donated the amount to the academy. The first floor was divided into two rooms for study and recitation uses: the second had one class room and a number of smaller rooms which were rented to students who in early years lodged therein and boarded themselves; and the third floor was divided wholly into rooms that were similarly used. Afterward these rooms were permitted to be occupied solely by those who were thought to be altogether trustworthy students, and for study purposes only, though notwithstanding the restriction rogues did occasionally gain the privilege of occupying them, and unseemly pranks occurred in them both by day and by night. In 1868 the stone structure was torn down, and a more commodious one, of brick, three stories in height, was erected, containing an assembly room that would seat five or six hundred persons, but without any of the private study rooms. In 1867 the village graded schools and Franklin Academy had been consolidated, and the new building housed both the academic department and some of the higher grades. It was wholly destroyed by fire in December, 1880, and was promptly replaced by a building of practically the same size, similarly arranged, to which an annex of about equal size was added in 1911 at a cost of fifty-five thousand dollars. The academy opened in 1831 with but a single teacher, Simeon Bicknell, whose successors have been: Nathan S. Boynton, Lorenzo Coburn, Worden Reynolds, John Hutton, Elos L. Winslow, Rev. H. S. Atwater, George H. Wood, Daniel D. Gorham, D. D. Cruttenden, John I. Gilbert, Gilbert B. Manley, William S. Aumock, Martin E. McClary, John S. McKay, Edward D. Merriman, Olin H. Burritt, Lamont F. Hodge, Fred Englehardt and Robert N. Northup. Every man in the list was of a character beyond reproach, and most were exceptionally efficient as instructors, with a fine influence upon the students under them. Among the earlier principals a number continued to make Malone their home after concluding their service with the academy, and attained eminence in political and business walks. Of the later ones, nearly all severed their relations with the institution because the high grade of their work attracted the attention of larger places, and so brought them offers of better salaries than Malone could afford to pay, and also larger opportunities. From the single teacher with which the academy opened the faculty has grown to sixteen in number; a respectable collection of apparatus for work in chemistry, geology and physics has been provided; and the district has a library for reference and general purposes that contains over ten thousand volumes. The work is of a high grade, and the institution is rated by educators and the State department of education as among the best of like schools in the State. It has at present an enrollment of four hundred and fifty students, and besides the usual academic courses it has a business and commercial and an agricultural department, and one in home making. Its graduating class for 1915 16 numbered fifty-five, and for 1917 18 fifty-four.