History: Malone (part 2 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 2 of 4) Franklin is the only academy in the State that was ever chartered for a limited period. In 1851 the charter was extended in perpetuity. When application was made for such extension the trustees reported the value of the academic lot as $1,500; of buildings $4,000; library $237; apparatus $188; and other property $1,534, with a debt of $701. Conditions attached to the extension were that the endowment should never be reduced below $2,500, that the premises should be used for academic purposes only, and that before April 27, 1854, the institution should be reported free of debt, or the charter become void. Though merged with the village graded schools fifty years ago, Franklin Academy continues to retain its corporate existence, with a self-perpetuating board of trustees, who choose from their own number five of the ten members of the village board of education the taxpayers of the district electing an equal number. The academy has three separate scholarship funds: one of three thousand dollars bequeathed by Hiram Taylor of Bangor; one of two thousand dollars given by Mrs. Mary A. Leighton of Malone for a memorial to her daughter, Josie; and one of five thousand dollars, devised by Dr. Henry Furness of Malone. The income from these several funds is divided annually between eight needy and deserving students, and because of these scholarships no small number of boys and girls who must otherwise have foregone advanced studies have been enabled to enjoy the benefits of academic instruction, broadening them and fitting them for life's duties. After the erection of Franklin Academy the so-called Harison Academy building, known later as the central school building, went into disuse for school purposes for a time, and became a tenement, with the Odd Fellows occupying a part of it for a lodge room. Then it became a school house again, and until 1868 accommodated the fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades, with a male principal in charge of the higher grades. These principals were Cyrus Bates, Cyrus Thomas, Sidney L. Sayles and Marcus Johnson. The predecessor of Mr. Sayles had not been a good disciplinarian, and the pupils under him had grown to think that they could run the school. How that view worked out one of the students under Mr. Sayles told twenty years later, when Mr. Sayles was under criticism for having handled a boy roughly in a school in St. Paul, Minn.: "Tore his clothes? That's nothing. We have seen the time when we considered ourselves lucky if we didn't get an arm or our whole head torn off by that same professor. At the old central school house in Malone we have frequently marched up stairs three steps at a time with professor just ahead of us, his hand twined affectionately in our hair, with an occasional yank to help us along. And wasn't it a beautiful sight to see him go for a boy in the schoolroom! A hand lighting on his coat collar so lightly as to drive his spine half way through the seat, and when the victim, lit he was generally as far away as the school house walls would let him go. And it wouldn't do any good to hold on to the desk, either. After Sayles had run that school a month there wasn't a desk but what had been loosened from the floor a dozen times, and the trustees thought it only a waste of time and nails to fasten them down again." OTHER EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS St. Joseph's Academy was founded, under the auspices of Bishop Gabriels, by Ursuline Nuns in July, 1898, from the mother chapter at Bedford Park, near New York city. The Edwin L. Meigs or Horace A. Taylor residence property on Elm street was purchased and greatly enlarged, involving an expenditure of about $25,000. Both day and boarding pupils are received, and the branches taught conform to the usual public school curriculum, with Christian doctrine added. The institution holds a charter granted by the State Board of Regents, and employs eight teachers. There are at present 25 boarding pupils and about 500 day students. Protestant as well as Catholic children are accepted for instruction. In the early days of 1884 Henry C. Rider, himself a deaf-mute, came to Malone, and proposed to a number of well known and influential citizens the establishment here of a school for the deaf and dumb. He backed the proposition with statistics showing a considerable number of children of this afflicted type in the northern counties, growing up in ignorance and without any vocational training to equip them for a better life than that of common laborers, and urged that such a school as he was advocating must attract the attendance of these and become a success. People considered his project interestedly and favorably, but at first there seemed to be no one willing to work actively for it except Mrs. Letitia Greeno and Mrs. J. J. Seaver, whose efforts enlisted cooperation after a little time, with the result that the Northern New York Institution for Deaf-Mutes was soon incorporated. The first term of school opened September 10, 1884, with 12 pupils in the Parker or Rounds house on the flat, and with Henry C. Rider as superintendent, and Edward C. Rider as the sole teacher. A fund of nearly a thousand dollars was raised by subscription to defray expenses until the institution should become self-supporting. Mr. Rider's forecast in regard to attendance was quickly justified, and it was not long until parts of three buildings additional to the original quarters had to be obtained for dormitories. Three years later the institution had so proven its success and the necessity for its continued existence that the State appropriated $40,000 for the purchase of a site and the erection of a building, and in 1889 $20,000 additional was voted for completing the edifice. Subsequent State appropriations for additional structures and to replace the original building, which was destroyed by fire, total $200.000. Pupils over twelve years of age are instructed and maintained at the expense of the State, and those under that age by the counties in which they respectively reside. The State allowance is $400 and $30 for clothing per pupil per school year, and that by the counties $400. Not only deaf-mutes, but also children of defective hearing or speech are included among the pupils. Of these latter there have been a number whose infirmity or affliction had caused them to be regarded while in attendance at public schools as dull or stupid, but who made such progress under the special training here, which considered intelligently the peculiarities of each case, that they .have had pronounced successes in life at least one of them having won high standing as a physician in a large city. The use of arbitrary signs for communication between pupils is discouraged and prohibited, all instruction being oral as far as possible. This method is pursued through lip-reading or "hearing" of speech by the eyes. The art is not easy of acquirement, but once mastered the results are marvelous. While it is difficult to read a single word from the lips, in grouping words into sentences one recognized word may enlighten the whole. Then, after a little, the ability to form and utter speech follows. The proficiency which some of the pupils acquire in lip-reading and speaking is wonderful, and, as a single illustration, it is not at all uncommon for these deaf children when in attendance at a "movie" to read from the pictures what the actors were saying in their rehearsals. But occasionally a child evinces incapacity to read the lips or to acquire ability to talk, and in such cases the finger-alphabet is employed. Ordinarily it requires four or five years of painstaking instruction before a deaf-mute acquires even the slight comprehension of the English language that a hearing child possesses at five years of age which indicates something of the awful handicap fastened upon these unfortunates. Besides instruction in the studies common to all schools, the institution gives vocational training in printing and carpentry to the boys, and in cookery, sewing and dressmaking to the girls. The institution has a farm of 41 acres, on which the boys help in planting and harvesting the crops, so that they learn also about practical agriculture. The pupils at the autumn term in 1917 number 110, the literary teachers ten, and the vocational instructors four. The annual expenses reach a total of about $35,000, most of which, other than payments for salaries, is for supplies bought from our home merchants. No enterprise ever justified more abundantly its inception and maintenance, and hundreds of men and women who have had the benefit of training in the institution are to-day leading happier and more useful lives than otherwise could possibly have been their lot. The elder Mr. Rider resigned the superintendency some years ago, and Edward C. Rider succeeded him, and continues to hold the position. In personality, zeal, excellence of judgment, executive efficiency, considerate kindness to the pupils and great tact in managing them, the trustees of the institution are confident that no other like school has his superior as its head, and that Malone is exceptionally fortunate in having him as a citizen and as superintendent of so valued and beneficial an institution. WAR INFLUENCES It is not to be overlooked that from the summer of 1812 into the winter of 1814-15 there were war activities, with markedly disturbing effects in Malone and throughout the northern part of the county. Many were withdrawn from home pursuits to engage in military service; genuine terror prevailed lest marauding Indians or general enemy incursions jeopardize property or even life; enterprise and development were halted, even paralyzed; greed led men into treason in supplying the enemy with cattle and provisions; moral standards were lowered, affecting alike public and individual conduct; and immigration not only practically ceased, but people who had already located moved out. Malone's population decreased by thirty-two in these four years, Chateaugay's 218, and Dickinson's 226. Constable actually gained 73. How Malone was touched otherwise by the war is told in another chapter. While the war continued, and considerable bodies of troops were garrisoned in the county, money flowed freely, but at once upon the close of hostilities an almost inconceivable scarcity began to be experienced, and continued for years. Men had to save literally penny by penny to accumulate cash for taxes, and grain at the distilleries and potash were the only commodities salable for money. 1815 AN IMPORTANT YEAR Nevertheless the year 1815 witnessed arrivals and events of far-reaching local consequence. Among the most significant arrivals of that year are to be reckoned those of Benjamin Clark and Jacob Wead, men apparently of means, certainly of aggressive and venturesome enterprise, and with relationships that are interesting. Mr. Wead had married Mr. Clark's sister, and other sisters were the wives of Apollos Lathrop, Paul Thorndike and Jonathan Lawrence, while daughters of Mr. Wead became the wives of Hiram Horton and John L. Russell, and a daughter of Mr. Clark married Dr. Horatio Powell. Add that John L. Fuller was the son-in-law of the elder Horton, and Benjamin Smith the brother-in-law of Mr. Clark, with doubtless other ramifications unknown, and we have a chain of family connections, embracing so many strong men that they must have been able to control and dominate the community. Mr. Clark's sons were Samuel S., Benjamin W. and Charles J. Mr. Clark, the head of the family, was first judge of the court of common pleas in 1825; Samuel S. was elected county clerk in 1831; and Benjamin W. sheriff in 1845. Benjamin S. W., a son of Samuel S., and a man of scrupulous honor, resolute character and great executive ability, became a merchant, was elected county treasurer in 1857, was identified for a long time with the management of the Farmers National Bank, was appointed inspector of State prisons in 1876, and then agent and warden of Sing Sing prison. In 1878 he was made State superintendent of public works, a newly created office, and was afterward until his death in 1916 either a national or State bank examiner. The elder Clark and Mr. Wead entered into partnership in the mercantile business, their store having been on the Baptist church corner, where Mr. Clark afterward (in 1826) erected a stone building almost a counterpart of the one that still stands at the corner of Main and Fort Covington streets, which was arranged on the ground floor for store uses, and the floor above for living apartments. It was regarded at the time as the finest building in the county, and merchandising was continued in it until 1851 or later. Here was the center of trade for a number of years, and it was here, in the original frame building, that the people assembled in 1816, "the year without a summer," when starvation seemed imminent because of the almost complete crop failure, to await the arrival of a load of flour that was expected from Fort Covington, but which failed to come causing poignant disappointment and almost despair. Scarcity, almost destitution, prevailed until Noah Moody went to Troy on horseback, and there bought a cargo of flour, which the people were so eager to secure, even at the price of sixteen dollars per barrel, that they bought it from the wagons as the latter were driven into the village. Upon the occasion of the disappointment at the Clark & Wead store strong men wept for the hungry little ones at home. Mr. Wead retired after a few years from the Clark & Wead store to enter upon business by himself in a building which he fitted up for a store and dwelling combined on Elm street, next east of the Episcopal church. Mr. Wead was apparently more versatile than Mr. Clark, or perhaps more venturesome, for while the latter stuck pretty closely to the counter, the former, besides continuing in merchandising, engaged in a number of outside enterprises, including lumbering in several localities, distilling, and operating a grist mill and other works at "whiskey hollow." He was also for a number of years practically the town's banker, representing here the Ogdensburg Bank and then the Clinton County Bank, and was county treasurer by appointment of the board of supervisors. The last few years of his life he was paralyzed, but until physically incapacitated had a larger part in the industrial and general affairs of the community than any other individual until his son, Samuel Clark Wead, and Guy Meigs succeeded to most of his interests, and became even more important figures in the town and county. Jonathan Thompson, discharged from military service at Sacket Harbor, and intending to return to his New England home, was attracted by Malone and what he thought to be its possibilities in 1815, and located. He became an important factor. Securing the contract to carry the mails from Plattsburgh to Ogdensburg, he began the work with a single horse, which he himself rode with the mail in his saddlebags, but as demand grew for passenger service he kept adding to his equipment until he had a hundred horses and a number of coaches. The grade of the courthouse hill in Malone was so steep and the track so heavy with sand in those days that the stages were driven up the hill leading to the academy, and diagonally across Academy Green to Franklin street. The road across the green was discontinued in 1851. OLLA PODRIDA A recital in a summary and disjointed way of incidents and developments will help to picture old conditions and practices, as well as to make a partial record that may be found interesting and also useful for reference: The first town meeting was held in 1805 at the farmhouse of Jonathan Hapgood, near the line now separating Constable and Malone that point doubtless having been deemed central as regards population, as the entire county west of Chateaugay had very few inhabitants outside of Malone, Constable, Westville and Fort Covington. Moira had a few settlers, and Bangor and Bombay none or next to none, while Fort Covington's people included so large a percentage of aliens that they might be regarded as negligible. Not one of the other present towns west of Burke, Bellmont and Franklin had a single inhabitant. Subsequent town meetings were held in the Harison Academy until 1813, after which they were held for years in the court house. With all of Malone's progressiveness, it has never reached the point where it was willing to provide a suitable town house. The entire amount of claims allowed against the town of Harison in 1808 was $701.94, which included $290 for wolf bounties and $250 for highways making the entire cost of compensation of all town officials and for all other town purposes only $161.94. (The supervisor alone now receives annually about seven times the latter sum.) Malone or Harison's assessed valuation in the same year was $172,636, and its total tax, including its share of the county expenses, was $713.70, or probably about one dollar for each inhabitant. The entire county budget ranged for the first five years between $3,286.02 and $1,699.91 the larger figure having been due to appropriations toward building the court house. Now Malone's annual town expenses aggregate more than twenty-seven thousand dollars, and its part of the county budget in 1917 was $56,398.07, or in all over seven dollars per capita. It is to be borne in mind, however, that projects which were not thought of a century ago are now public charges. It is a foolish habit, lacking reason, to long for "the old times," and yet in this day of high cost of living and extravagance men might properly sigh, if not for the old scale of expenditure, at least for the old rates of taxation. The second Amsden hotel, located near the site of the present Knapp, Commercial or Paddock block, on Harison Place, was begun in 1815, and was destroyed by fire something more than twenty-five years later. It was called the Franklin House, and was kept at one time by Jonathan Thompson. It had President Van Buren as a guest for a few hours in 1839. The stone arch bridge was built in 1817. Prior to its erection a wooden bridge, strengthened by buttresses, had spanned the stream at quite a lower level. The first flooring of this first structure was of poles or saplings, with plank substituted later; and notwithstanding the buttresses it was a shaky, wavering affair as loaded teams passed over it. The first visit of a President to Malone was that of President Monroe in 1817. The stone bridge not having been completed, the President crossed on foot, and his team forded the river above. In the early days of the old court house, when it was jail also, Orlando Furness had a shoeshop in the basement of the building, and boarded the prisoners. The speedway in early years was across the Flat, but according to the testimony of some of the pioneers the few horses then owned here (the whole number even as late as 1825 was only 341) were almost all for working purposes, and races could hardy have been exciting. An agricultural society was organized in 1820, and held annual exhibitions at Malone for five or six years. Daniel Gorton established a paper mill in 1820 on the west side of the river, just south of the tannery. The output was all handmade, and at first by Mr. Gorton alone. Subsequently he was able to give employment to two girls. It was his custom to manufacture a quantity of stock, and then, shutting down the mill, to peddle it throughout the country. The industry was continued until 1831, when it was abandoned, and Mr. Gorton returned to his old home in Massachusetts. The first newspaper, the Franklin Telegraph, was founded by Francis Burnap in 1820, and continued for nine or ten years. Jacob Wead, B. Clark and Peter Hoople were the only merchants who had advertisements in the paper in 1820, though two shoemakers and a dresser of deerskins each had an announcement in it, and "Ben the Butcher" called upon debtors to settle, as else "he will be in a horrible pickle." One advertisement, after stating that farm products and potash would be taken in exchange for goods, naively added that "cash will not be refused if offered." The school tax collector offered to accept good wheat delivered to Captain Warren Powers or good corn and rye delivered at J. Wead's distillery in satisfaction of taxes, and the Telegraph's publisher advertised for clean paper rags at two and a half cents per pound in payment of subscriptions. The paper contained next to no local news, while its advices from Washington and New York bore date about two weeks earlier than their publication, and from Europe about two months before. But it was an excellent newspaper for the time, and its occasional editorials indicated a good deal of ability. In 1822-3 hope began to be entertained that the isolation of the town was to be lessened through the construction of a canal from Ogdensburg to connect the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. The story of the project is told in the chapter on "Transportation Development." "Whiskey hollow" promised at one time almost to rival the village in importance. It had a saw mill and grist mill very early, with a distillery not much later, and then a brickyard, a pottery, a hemp mill and a rope walk, and in 1831 an iron forge. John Wood, Jacob Wead, Apollos Lathrop and perhaps two or three others appear to have been the earliest operators at the point named, but the principal activity was under the direction of Guy Meigs and Samuel Clark Wead, beginning about 1829. In 1832, when a proposed tariff revision was pending in Congress, information was sought from various industries throughout the country, and Meigs & Wead reported that their forge was started in the spring of 1831 with a capital of $2,500; that it had paid for wages and material $4,320; that it employed five men in the forge, three at the mine, and ten in making charcoal, that bloomers' wages were $1.25 a day, and colliers' 90 cents; that the general scale of wages then prevalent in the locality was $9 to $12 per month, exclusive of board; and that the proprietors expected to realize a profit of 12 1/2 per cent. The forge was run for twelve or fifteen years, its supply of iron having been procured from a mine about three and a half miles west of the village. One night in the forties when the Millerites were in hourly expectation of the end of the world, the glare of the furnace fire was taken for the coming of the flame that was to envelop the earth, and the disciples of the cult were certain that the day was at hand when "there should be time no longer." The only business buildings now standing on Main street that were erected prior to 1831 are one at the corner of Main and Catherine, which was so long occupied by Hubbard & Mallon, and now by the Duffy store, and the other the cotton factory, now owned by the Malone Light and Power Co. The former was built by Daniel Brown for a carriage shop, and a quarter of a century later a new front was added, the original structure having set back several feet from the street line. The upper part of the cotton factory is altogether changed from its original appearance. The next oldest of our store buildings was erected by Meigs & Wead in 1831 on the corner of Mill street, and is now occupied by the Peoples National Bank. For the site of the former Mr. Brown paid $30, and the consideration for that of Meigs & Wead was $100. Malone's first fire engine was bought in 1832, and, an extremely crude contrivance, amounted to little more than a pump set in a box on wheels. It was operated by a crank on each side, and not more than eight men could work on it at a time. It was back-breaking business when one kept at it long. The water had to be dumped into the box from buckets, and the stream which the pump delivered was small and feeble. The Miller House, which occupied a part of the site of the present Flanagan Hotel, and which for a long time was the hotel of the town, was built by W. D. House, a tailor, for a residence. Orlando Furness bought it, enlarged it, and was landlord in it until his death, when Philip B. Miller succeeded him. While Mr. Furness was there he was also the operator of the Horton fulling, carding and cloth-dressing mill, with Mr. Miller as foreman. The day that the latter married the daughter of his employer was a busy one in the mill, and Mr. Miller continued at work until within an hour or two of the time fixed for the ceremony, and an hour later was again, at his post. Wedding trips were not common in those days. In an issue of the Franklin Telegraph in 1824 a story is told of Wesley Johnson having been jolted from a load of flax, .after a pitchfork had first fallen from the load with the stale entering the ground, so that the tines stood upright. Mr. Johnson fell upon these, and they pierced his body from the breast and protruded from the back. Sixty years later Mr. Johnson was still living on Webster street, and, as told by the Telegraph, one of the measures taken in 1824 to accomplish his recovery was to medicate the tines of the fork, which, wrapped in flannel, were put away to aid in healing the wound! Another item published the same year was to the effect that mercury placed in an open cup on a window sill by Dr. Roswell Bates in Fort Covington had congealed, and that a resident of the same town, finding that a bottle of whiskey in his pocket had frozen, bursting the bottle, removed the glass, and ate the whiskey. An advertisement in 1833 in the Northern Spectator, which was the successor of the Telegraph, offered pay of three shillings per cord for choppers,, the men to board themselves which was not poor pay if all could equal the efficiency of a boy who was reported in the Palladium (successor of the Spectator) in 1835 to have chopped and piled six cords in a single day. The present price for chopping is two dollars and a half a cord. Wages generally in 1835 were five shillings a day without board, and a day meant from dawn to dark not merely eight hours. Few domestic servants were employed,, and the best were expected not to ask more than five shillings per week. Tastes and customs change notably, as witness an advertisement by Amos H. Greeno in 1833, in which 'he announced that he would slaughter a beef creature every Tuesday evening, and be ready to deliver cuts from it Wednesday morning. In the present day stewards of high-class hotels and restaurants will not buy beef that has not hung in a cooler for six weeks. In 1834 William Barlow advertised that his two minor sons, aged respectively fourteen and sixteen years, had run away, and forbade any one to trust or harbor them on his account. He offered a reward of one cent for their return to him at Malone. In 1834 wool was quoted at seventy cents and butter at eighteen cents a pound. In 1836 the Palladium reported the organization of the Malone Female Reform Society, which was founded upon the belief that prolonging of visits with any gentleman after the usual hour for retirement was one of the first steps toward licentiousness. The date of the erection of the first Horton grist mill, which was of wood, is not known, but was earlier than 1806. It was razed in 1853, and the present stone structure erected on the same site. W. W. & H. E. King were part owners of it at one time, and sold their interest in 1868 to Eugene H. Ladd. William E. Smallman bought the Horton interest later, and the mill was run for a long time, until Mr. Ladd's death, under the name and title of Ladd & Smallman. Henry Y. Spencer then acquiring an interest in it, the concern took the title of the Smallman & Spencer Company, which sold in 1917 to the Malone Milling Company, of which George D. Northridge is the head. I am told that, whereas in old times there was a flouring mill in almost every hamlet, this is now the only establishment between Rouses Point and Ogdensburg that grinds wheat. Its flour business consists altogether in custom grinding, which keeps it busy from early fall to early summer every year. Grain comes to it to be ground from almost every station on the railroad between the St. Lawrence and Lake Champlain. As late as 1835 the only stores on the east side of the river were those of King & House, Meigs & Wead, Samuel Greeno and Alva Orcutt, and on the west side those of Benjamin Clark & Sons, Lauriston Amsden, Noah Moody, David Brewster and Jonathan Stearns. The Academy Green seventy-five years ago was four feet lower than its present level, and was all rock strewn. Daniel Gaines was landlord of the Miller House in the fifties. His son was blind, a vocalist and pianist, and of nature as gentle as a girl's. He became a minister in the central part of the State, was known as "the blind evangelist," and was a brilliant and impressive speaker. An attempt was made in 1847 to have the board of supervisors set off township number nine from Malone, and annex it to Duane. The Malone town meeting in that year entered a protest against the partition, and nothing came of it. Some ten years afterward the proposition was revived, and again defeated. Twenty-five or thirty years ago the people in the southern part of Malone and in eastern Bellmont agitated seriously the project to form a new town from Bellmont and Malone, but the latter never got any further than talk. The list of Malone's town clerks includes William A. Wheeler, John Hutton, Ashbel B. Parmelee, Joel J. Seaver and Frederick D. Kilburn. The office did not use to pay a quarter as much as it does now, and it seemed to be the policy of the town to bestow it upon poor young men who were trying to get a start in life. As long ago as 1848 Malone formally complained through resolution adopted at a town meeting that it was unjustly treated by the supervisors in the equalization of assessments, and made thereby to pay an inequitable and excessive share of the county expenses. The complaint has continued intermittently ever since, and probably is justified by the facts. In 1834 the town meeting requested the commissioners of excise not to grant any license for a fee of less than $20. In view of the fact that if liquor licenses were now issuable here, the fee for a saloon or a hotel would be $800 or for a store $600, the request of 1834 seems modest. The first passenger train from Rouses Point reached Malone September 19, 1850, and its arrival was greeted by the firing of cannon and a general jubilee. The road was opened through to Ogdensburg September 26, 1850, building having proceeded simultaneously from both termini. In 1855 the State appropriated $5,000, to be expended by Wm. King, Buel H. Man and Aaron Beman at a compensation of $2 a day each for time actually employed for clearing and improving the rafting channel of Salmon river and its tributaries and for constructing piers, booms and dams: and appropriated $5,000 additional in 1857 for completing the work. Ebenezer Man, Hiram Horton and B. S. W. Clark were the commissioners to expend the second appropriation. It was with a part of these grants that the dam at Mountain View was built. The act appropriating the money provided that State lands adjacent to the improvements should not be sold at private sale, but only at public auction in blocks of 640 acres each, at not less than thirty cents per acre! Kerosene was introduced in Malone in 1859, and then sold at a dollar and a half per gallon. Three years later the price was thirty-four cents, advancing afterward to a dollar or more, and at one time since then it sold as low as seven cents. A gas company was organized in 1870, and gas came into use in 1871 at $4.50 per 1,000 feet. The gas house was destroyed by an explosion in 1884, and when rebuilt the price of gas was fixed at $3 if bills were paid promptly. The village was first lighted by electricity November 27, 1886, the generator having been located in an annex to the Whittelsey woolen mill. The works north of the village were built in 1899, and those at Chasm Falls in 1913. Memorial Park at the junction of Main and Elm streets was laid out in 1870, and the soldiers' monument in it was given in 1893 by John W. Pangborn, who had begun his business life in Malone, but removed to New York in 1853. The monument cost $3,000. In 1867 and for a few years immediately following ice skating was as much a craze as roller skating became forty years later. An ice rink was built on Catherine street in 1867 by Jerome and Russell Wentworth, Benj. Webster and L. R. Townsend, and did a great business. Malone had its first telephone service in 1882, and in 1899 a second and competing service was installed. The two combined in 1913, and the Malone exchange has about 1,400 subscribers. The first silos in the county were built in 1889 by B. F. Jewett of Bangor and Nelson W. Porter of Malone. Church fairs were more common thirty or forty years ago than now, and invariably excited more interest and produced more money. Almost always some lottery scheme was a feature of them, prizes being awarded by lot, with voting at a price per vote for a cane, a ring, a watch or some other article to be given to the winning candidate. At one of the St. Joseph's fairs in 1870 the receipts were $1,800, and those of Notre Dame the same year $800. In 1880 St. Joseph's church netted $1,200 from a fair, and Notre Dame $805. In 1899 a fair for the benefit of Ursuline Academy netted $2,200. The appended census figures for Malone ought to be of interest, and certain of them should inspire thinking and action: 1825 1835 1845 1865 1875 1900 1915 Population 1,673 2,589 3,634 6,330 7,365 10,000 10,880 Aliens 58 200 369 914 760 375 No. of neat cattle 1,753 3,033 3,558 4,025 4,504 No. of horses 341 568 789 1,081 1,029 No. of sheep 2,781 4,655 9,445 8,935 2,586 Data for years later than 1875 are not available as to some of the items, as the State has taken no census in the past forty years except as to population, and the published reports of the federal census contain no agricultural statistics for divisions smaller than counties. We know, however, that since 1875 the number of milch cows in the entire county has increased by about fifty per cent., of which Malone has doubtless had its share; and the agricultural census taken by school children in 1917 shows only 812 sheep owned in the town a loss of more than two-thirds in forty years, and of almost 90 per cent, since 1865. In 1876 a single buyer from Connecticut bought in the county and shipped to Hartford 5,000 sheep and lambs, while in 1884 the number bought here and shipped to New England markets was over 11,000. At one time a little later the price paid for lambs was about two dollars per head, and now it is twelve dollars or more. It is incomprehensible that farmers do not give more attention to sheep husbandry, though it is undeniable that they have experienced no little discouragement through dog depredations. For illustration, carefully collected statistics showed that 234 sheep were killed in the county by dogs during the year 1902, and in 1904 one farmer in Malone lost 25 head of blooded animals in a similar way in a single night. But protective laws are now better, and the dog nuisance ought not to be as serious as formerly. Under the new conditions it is hoped that the flocks may increase. According to the school census taken in 1917, there are five school districts in Malone in which not a single sheep is kept, and in each of seven other districts the number is less than ten. The school lot on Main street was a cemetery until 1874, when most of the bodies were transferred from it to Morningside Cemetery. The grounds have been graded down quite a bit, and formerly were inclosed on the front by a stone wall. The village school district bought the lot from the cemetery association, which bought from the Congregational society, and erected the school house in 1878. In 1881 only three churches in the town had any debt, and in the same year the village, the town nor the county owed a dollar. In 1851, when the Congregational society voted to erect its second house of worship, effort was made to locate it on Arsenal Green, but of course the conditions of the grant of the property to the State were a bar to such occupancy. About 1840 a man .named Griffin made wooden clocks in a shop that stood where the Empsall store now is (formerly the Greeno & Austin stand), where the building known as the "Ark" used to be; and he provided Malone with its first town clock. It was placed in the steeple of the Congregational church, but, the works having been of wood, weather warped them, and the clock lasted only a short time. How the habits and customs of a people change is not more strikingly shown by any one condition in Malone than by the matter of cookery. Until nearly two generations after the first settlement every housewife had to be her own baker. Then a Mr. Buck started a bakery on Duane street, and if his own girth were a test must have made good stuff, which the boys of his day aver was the case. A part of his house was used for a school, and Mr. Buck was generous in treating the pupils to crackers, cookies and cakes. A few years later John Taylor started another bakery on the flat, to which his son, Robert C., succeeded. And then there was a third by Jacob Davis on Catherine street. All were closed years ago, but five others have succeeded them, and are in operation. In addition, there are a number of women who make considerable quantities of bread regularly, and also cakes and pies for sale, and great chests of bread are brought here daily from St. Johnsbury, Vt., Plattsburgh, Ogdensburg, Syracuse, Albany and other places, and are on sale at most of the stores. In very early times all but one or two of the stores were outside of what is now the business center on Elm, West Main and Webster streets. Then came a period, continuing for a long time, when all of the merchants except a very few small tradesmen on Catherine, Mill and Brewster streets were on Main street, and mostly on the east side of the river. But recently stores have sprung up in considerable numbers in almost every outskirt. From Pearl street east to the Congregational church practically every lot on the south side of Main street, and for more than half the distance on the north side, has come to be a business place within thirty or forty years, and stores are scattered along the flat, in the Junction section, in the paper mill district, well out on West Main street, and in other quarters. Where and how Malone has otherwise grown is not realized until the localities are recalled which within the recollection of men not very old were farm fields. Fifty years ago all of the section known as Brooklyn Heights was a pasture, without a single building on it, and all of the territory south of Water street between the Branch stream and the Salmon had but one or two houses, with the locality accessible only by way of Duane street or by a single narrow footbridge which spanned the river at a point almost due east from Monroe street. Forty years ago First street had but three or four houses, and Second, Third and Fourth streets had not been laid out at all. Still more recently the streets that diverge from Park to the west, and others that now parallel the latter, have been opened. As late as thirty years ago the Whittelsey and Short farms had but a couple of dwelling houses. Academy street was extended south from Francis hardly more than forty years since, and where streets now run from Webster to Duane there were still more recently only gardens, pastures and sugar orchards. The conditions west of Rockland and south of Franklin and west of Webster were very similar within my recollection. Now these localities are all thickly populated, and in some of them there are particularly attractive residential properties. A memoir of Dr. Theodore Gay, written by his son, William W., in 1906, contains many matters of interest additional to the tribute by an admiring son to one of the exceptionally strong men of his generation. After listing most of the residents on Elm street in the long ago, with description of their premises, Mr. Gay writes: "Every yard was jealously inclosed by high and usually disfiguring fences, many of them allowed to fall into a disgraceful state of decay, eyesores to the neat and orderly. It was not until about 1880 that Malone realized that it had been wasting money in expensive, useless and unpicturesque palings. The first to banish his fence was the late Luther Whitney. The second was Dr. Gay, whose example was speedily followed by others, the result being the pleasing, carefully kept, uninclosed and hospitable lawns which cheer the eye everywhere in the village." And referring to the fees which the doctor used to charge it is told that payments, if made at all, were mostly in produce. Among the credits on an account book in 1843 these are cited: Butter from several debtors at ten cents a pound; 30 pounds of veal at 2 1/2 cents per pound; a pair of stockings valued at $1; two bushels of buckwheat, $1; two bushels of apples at four shillings; 330 pounds of beef, $4.65; three bushels of oats at 25 cents; 14 pounds of pork, $1.40; a sheep, $1.50; a quarter of veal, 73 cents; and a pair of chickens at a shilling apiece. And such was the remuneration that a skillful physician received for village calls at 50 cents each or for country visits at $1 to $1.50 each according to the distance traveled, and with the supplying of medicines included! School houses in the village were few until shortly before the civil war, and there was almost always a private or "select" school (sometimes more than one) which found accommodations in a single room of some private house, and which were supported by tuition fees paid by the parents of the pupils who attended. Main street was lined formerly from end to end of the business section with hitching posts and rails. Besides being unsightly and unsanitary, the arrangement made for cruelty to animals through leaving horses exposed for considerable lengths of time in all sorts of weather, narrowed the traffic width of the street, and increased danger in case of a runaway. After long and somewhat acrimonious agitation, the last of the posts and rails were removed about 1901. Many farmers scolded bitterly at the procedure, and some went so far as to transfer their trading to neighboring hamlets. Who would restore the posts now if they could? Referring to this condition brings remembrance that in early times church sheds were thought to be as indispensable as a church itself. A considerable proportion of every congregation except St. Mark's resided in the country districts, and accommodations had to be provided for teams while the owners were at service. Sometimes a couple of neighbors would join in building a section of shed, which they kept under lock and key, but in general the sheds were wholly church property, and free for use by any one. St. Joseph's and the Methodist churches still maintain sheds. From about 1870 to 1890 Malone had a notably fine volunteer fire department. Though Malone Engine Co. No. 1 had ceased to maintain its aforetime interest and enthusiasm, the organization was still in existence until about 1880, and there were hose companies and a hook and ladder company zealous for service, and eager in their pride of organization and efficiency. Hope Hose Company was composed of young business men of high standing and social prominence, and Active Hose Company of yet younger men and boys of a like class. There was intense rivalry between these two organizations with respect to reporting first at a fire, and also in racing at firemen's tournaments. Each was accustomed to give occasional balls, which were always the society events of the season, and were as fine and enjoyable as good taste and generous expenditure could make them. But earlier than 1890 a good deal of the enthusiasm and interest had disappeared, and in that year an electric fire-alarm system was installed, and the department was reorganized into a paid service, with men and teams always at the engine house, with the consequence that little general interest is manifested. There was more fun under the old plan, but the new doubtless gives better results in respect to the saving of property. Malone was variantly Whig and Democratic before the civil war, with the margin usually close, but has since been Republican without variableness or shadow of turning. Of course the majorities have had a wide range, having approached a thousand once or twice, and now and then having dropped to a hundred or two. with the usual figure nearer the minimum than the maximum. The largest registration of voters ever entered for the town was in 1904, when it exceeded 3,000, and the vote the same year was nearly 2,400. Malone has usually been a "wet" town, but was nominally "dry" by determination of its own voters in 1846 and 1847, by the State statute of 1855 until the act was declared unconstitutional a year later, again in 1887 and 1888 by its own action, and now once more by a decisive vote in the spring of 1917. Quite probably prohibition prevailed in other years also of which I am not informed, but in general the "wets" have controlled often without a contest, and easily even when a fight was made. In my boyhood and young manhood men of sterling character, with the widest opportunities for observation, used to tell me that conditions were worse under no-license than under license, and of my own knowledge that was the fact in 1887 and 1888. In the earlier experiences men who were accustomed to indulge in occasional drinking, or even in periodic "sprees," when liquor was easily procurable at home, bought the stuff in quantities in license localities, or at "blind tigers," and would keep "pickled" as long as the supply lasted. In 1888 the places where illicit traffic was prosecuted or individuals operated as "bootleggers" ran into the scores, and "bums" had no difficulty at all in supplying their wants, while decent people could not procure alcohol or brandy at all for legitimate uses, or in order to get it had to employ the offices of those who knew and could pull the ropes. There was no determined, dominating sentiment to compel regard for the law, and prohibition was nearer meaning free rum than suppression or even restriction,, so that the " dry " majority of 10 in 188? and of 24.2 in 1888 became a "wet" majority of 500 in 1889. Present conditions under the no-license regime which began with the first of October, 1917, are altogether different, and the change is probably due principally to the better public sentiment that now obtains. So far as is known or even conjectured, there are no " blind tigers " or "bootleggers" at work; tradesmen report larger purchases and better payments by those whose earnings formerly went largely for drink; our streets are more orderly; the jail is all but empty; and the report of the village police justice for the month of November did not include a single case of intoxication nor any other offense directly attributable to liquor. In 1906 a Captain Wenwright, a stranger, came to Malone, and announced his intention to build a trolley line from Malone Junction, via Westville and Fort Covington, to Hopkins Point on the St. Lawrence river. The village and the towns granted him a franchise, and considerable grading was done and ties and other material bought. A water power four or five miles north of Malone village was to be developed for generating electric current for operation, and a spur was to be built from West Constable to Trout River. Difficulty was met in obtaining the approval of the State railroad commission, and after repeated delays and disappointments Captain Wenwright became discouraged and abandoned the undertaking. Several thousand dollars had been expended, however, on work and in the purchase of material, though very little of it came out of Captain Wenwright's pockets, but represented borrowings and credits. It transpired that he had practically no means of his own, and that his expectation had been to finance the enterprise by issuing bonds. The Telegraph told in 1824 that there was jubilation in Malone because of the promise that thereafter the town should have a regular semi-weekly mail service, with receipt of Albany papers within five days of the date of their publication; but a year later no mail at all had been received for five days, and it was many years before there was a really good service. Complaint was common in 1837 that mail arrived from Albany only in six to eleven days, and that many times the bags were found to be empty; and as late as 1857 it took three weeks to get a letter to and a reply from Duane, and newspapers from Malone were two weeks in reaching subscribers at Saranac Lake. It was not until 1835 that the people even thought of asking for a daily mail, and in examining the lists of letters advertised as uncalled for at that period and earlier one wonders if it really mattered much whether there were mails once a day, one a month or once a year, for included in such lists appeared always the names of some of the most prominent men in the town merchants, farmers living within a mile of the office who were so well known that they were leaders in their respective circles, and even clergymen and physicians. Postage was payable either in advance at the mailing point or at the destination by the addressee, and in view of the well known scarcity of money then prevalent it is probable that most letters came collect, and that these long lists were due to the disinclination or the inability of the addressees to pay the postage due. The board of supervisors caused notice to be published in 1824 that unless assurances were given that the court house would be cleaned after its use by the various religious societies or private organizations it would be closed against everybody except for distinctively public and official business. The next year the sheriff published a notice apportioning the use of the building for purposes of worship one-half of the time to the Congregationalists because they were the most numerous, and one-fourth each to the Baptists and Methodists. The notice discloses that there had been bickering between the denominations concerning the degree of use of the court house that they should respectively enjoy, and also as to the responsibility of each for its cleaning. In the hope of ending such strife the sheriff made the apportionment as stated, and announced that' he would not enforce the resolution of the supervisors, but would have the building cleaned at his own expense. The population of the village in 1835, more than thirty years after the arrival of the first settlers, was only 104, which had increased in 1840 to 670, and in 1853, when the village was incorporated, to 2,039. In 1855 it was 1,993, and in 1860'exactly 3,000. While every census since then has shown some growth, there has never been anything like a "boom" as the word is understood in the West. The population in 1915 was 7,404, of whom 283 were aliens. Soon after incorporation the village bought a new fire engine, of the hand-brake type, which, cost, with hose, $1,427. The machine had its own suction pipe, and would do good work while men endured to pump it. There was no system of water works then, and cisterns for fire uses were built at a cost of $311.25 at the Congregational church, near Memorial Park, at the Methodist church (then at the corner of Main and Fort Covington streets), and near the academy. The organization of old Malone Engine Co. No. 1 in its early life was a distinguished one, and included practically every man of affairs and prominence in the village. Its meetings were animated and rollicking with innocent fun, and its annual suppers were notable social affairs. It disbanded in 1881, and the engine was sold to Ellenburgh in 1901 for $250. A notice published by the village trustees in 1855 required the building of sidewalks on a number of specified streets, but not on Elm or Main from which it is concluded that these had already been so equipped. East Main street was formerly Church street, West Main was Court street, and Pearl originally Horton and then King street. Dr. Bates wrote of early Malone that it was a rare thing to see people out riding on Sunday, and that "after the churches closed the streets were empty, and a peaceful silence reigned. When the sun went down the Sabbath was ended. The womenfolk resumed their usual occupations of knitting, mending and spinning." Rev. James Erwin, who conducted protracted revival services here in 1836, wrote: "The people of that town were great church goers. I have had a wide observation of the church going habits of people in many sections of the country, but never found any other town that excelled Malone in that respect. * * * The good people of Malone came from far and near 'to worship in His holy temple.' Every church was usually crowded. * * * Those from a distance brought the largest loads, and usually were the first to arrive at the church. I have often held up the custom of that town as an example for other communities to follow." How gratified would be the pastors of our churches to-day, and what an inspiration it would be to them in their pulpits, if this condition now obtained. But apparently a change began to appear within the dozen years succeeding the period of which Mr. Erwin spoke, for in 1858 a correspondent of the Palladium complained of Sabbath desecration by ball playing, neglect of church attendance, etc., as having "sprang up within ten years." Moreover, the tendency noted in 1858 has continued progressively ever since. Malone had telegraphic service first in 1851, or about a year after the railroad was finished. While the only early iron works of consequence were the forge at "whiskey hollow," there yet were others of a sort both earlier and later, the history of some of which, however, is fragmentary and to some extent obscure. In 1815 "Tough" Hastings, whose real name, I think, was Levi, had a large blacksmith shop and triphammer works at the west end of the Horton dam, just off Duane street. An angry helper one day struck him with an iron bar, breaking the frontal bone and destroying one eye. He was left for dead, but made a quick recovery, and soon afterward pitched headforemost into a well. His head was badly cut and bruised, and when, regaining consciousness, the surgeon inquired if he was suffering pain, he replied in the negative, adding that he was not subject to headache. Always thereafter he was known as "Tough." How long he operated the Duane street concern is not known, but twenty years later it or another building on or near the same site was a scythe and axe factory, of which William B. Earle was the proprietor. It was in the same building that Mr. Gorton had his paper mill for about ten years from 1820, and also, somewhat later, Abijah White a pail factory in which he turned out four hundred pails a week. The building long known as "Earle's museum" was erected by Mr. Earle for the help that he employed in the scythe and axe factory. Samuel Field had an establishment in 1829, at a location not now known, where he cast plows, and Oren Moses, Sr., and son, Myron, had a foundry in a building that occupied the site of the creamery (formerly a starch factory) on Water street. Besides making castings this shop manufactured rifles and also built a hand fire engine very like the old Malone No. 1. Samuel Hyde had a machine shop and Oren U. Beach (father of Manley L.) a foundry at or near the Hastings-Earle plant, which Mr. Beach operated from about 1840 to 1853, when the equipment was sold to Charles C. Whittelsey and Daniel N. Huntington, and removed to a building erected for it at the foot of Foundry (now Shepherd) street, near the freight depot. Whether S. C. F. Thorndike and William H. Keeler were also partners in the business I am unable to ascertain, but at least they were joint purchasers with Mr. Whittelsey and Mr. Huntington of springs west of Webster street and south of the cemetery, which were piped to the foundry. The same year that this concern was started Charles B. Beardsley and Andrew S. Keeler built the foundry and machine shops which still stand on Catherine street. Mr. Huntington having sold to Mr. Whittelsey, the latter bought the Catherine street works, abandoning his own shops, and operated them until 1883. The date of his deed to the latter property was 1859, but he may have had possession a little earlier. During his proprietorship he had at different times a number of partners among them Carlos D. Meigs, and Hiram E. and Charles Perkins, and his son, Sidney S. In 1876 he leased to his son, Sidney S., and Chester H. Wead, and in 1881 sold to J. C. Saunders, Sidney S. Whittelsey, Malachi H. Barry, Charles Fury and Leslie C. and Chester H. Wead. The property has since had various owners and, first and last, has done a considerable business making stoves, steam engines, Kniffen mowing machines, wood pulp grinders, and now bodies for motor trucks. Its present owners are the Thomas Hinds Company. Industries other than those heretofore listed on the Duane street lot include a flax mill by Simeon J. Harwood in 1864 and 1865, when the price of cotton was soaring, and planing mills by John R. Jackson and J. L. Keeney, Ladd, Smallman & Wentworth, and P. J. Murtagh. Jonathan Stearns, merchant for many years, began planning in 1826 to erect a cotton factory a strange undertaking considering the distance that the raw material had to be brought in a time when there were no railroads, nor water communication nearer than Plattsburgh. Nevertheless he had his building completed in the early autumn of 1829 a solid masonry structure rising sixty feet from the river level at the Main street bridge, and with the upper room furnished with wooden benches, so that it might be available for religious uses and other public meetings. The building is now owned and occupied by the Malone Light and Power Company. In 1834 the mill made 177,777 yards of cloth, and the product, though coarse, is said to have been of good quality. But high freights (the rate from Plattsburgh to Malone used to be $2.75 per one hundred pounds) and other handicaps made operation unprofitable, and in 1841 Mr. Stearns was forced into bankruptcy. Three or four years later Hugh Magill and William Greene purchased the mill, and ran it until the interior and the machinery were destroyed by fire March 13,1846, with a loss of $50,000, on which the insurance was only $16,000. The walls of the building remained intact, and for a year or two the village had hope that the industry might be revived. But Mr. Magill and Mr. Greene having been crippled by their loss, and no one appearing to engage in the enterprise, the building, or a part of it, was converted into a mill for grinding gypsum for land plaster, and was otherwise variously occupied until 1864, when Mr. Whittelsey and Charles Paddock made it into a woolen factory, which they called the Union Mills. As a cotton factory it had employed as many as a hundred hands in times of its greatest activity. Mr. Magill removed after the fire to Illinois, where he made full financial recovery; Mr. Greene remained in Malone, and for many years was engaged in the liquor traffic on Harison place, where Rush-ford now has a second-hand store. Upon the retirement of Mr. Paddock in 1868 Mr. Whittelsey continued the business alone under the name of the Malone Woolen Mills until 1887, when a stock company was formed to continue the business and also to engage in the manufacture of men's clothing, but the enterprise was not a financial success. In 1890 the factory was leased to Jay 0. Ballard and William C. Skinner, who continued to operate it until their removal to their present location. An electric plant was installed in the building by S. S. Whittelsey in 1907, and operated by him for a time. It was sold in 1909 to the Malone Light and Power Co. William King built a potato starch mill in the village in 1844 or 1845, which I am confident was the first in the county. It was located on Catherine street, on a part of the lot now occupied by The Lawrence-Webster Co. woolen mill and garment factor}-; and after operation for seven or eight years in the manufacture of starch was idle until converted into a machine shop. Other starch mills that the town has had at one time or another have been: One on Roaring brook, one near the church at Chasm Falls, and one just above Whippleville, all built and owned by George W. Hale, though William Lyman and Sherman Stancliff had had one earlier at the last indicated point: one south of Shepherd bridge and one in the Berry district in the northwest part of the town, by W. W. & H. E. King; one on the Branch stream, two miles south of the village, by George N. Keeler; one in the village, opposite The Lawrence-Webster Co. mills, by George N. Keeler and Stephen D. Paddock; and one on Trout river, in the northeast quarter of the town, which was owned in its final days by Hubbard & Mallon. The business ceased to be profitable about 1896 by reason of competition of starch made from corn, and I think that none of the Malone mills was run after 1898, though a few like mills in other towns were operated irregularly and occasionally until 1905. The quarrying of sandstone was at one time a considerable industry. The most important of the quarries was west of Duane street, in the outskirts of the village, and was developed earlier than 1850. It was worked extensively following the building of the railroad, with Dennison S. Willard as superintendent the owner at that time having been T. P. Chandler, the president of the old Northern Railroad Company. It employed thirty to forty men, and the stone was shipped in large quantities to Boston and other New England cities, and also even as far west as Chicago Mr. Chandler finding the markets for it. It was used largely at home also, the old jail and county clerk's office, the railroad machine shops and freight depot, the Knapp or 'Commercial block, the King block and many other buildings having been constructed with it. Another quarry which promised at one time to be valuable is on the Branch stream on the Keeler (now Shields) farm. The stone here is of a handsome pink shade and takes a fine polish, but some of it crumbles and shales upon exposure to air. It was while working this latter quarry that Albert Broughton invented a machine for polishing stone which produced a surface as smooth as glass, whereas the process theretofore employed gave the stone a scratched finish, resembling the surface of sawed lumber. The machine was patented, and was found adaptable to polishing glass also, which work had had to be done theretofore by hand. Captain Alexander Lindsay acquired an interest in the patent, and sold rights under it in England and elsewhere. The Duane paint bed, which is on the west side of Salmon river, a short distance above Shepherd bridge, was discovered in 1850, and was worked for a number of years by Henry B. Duane. The works consisted only of a mill for grinding the metal and a kiln for drying it. This paint was used largely all through this section, more particularly on barns and outbuildings, and was very durable. It was a reddish brown in color. The mill was burned in 1870, at which time it was owned by R. S. Brown and Marshall D. Abbott, but had been in disuse for several years. TITTTSVILLE, GLEN HOPE OR CHASM FALLS Titusville dates as a settlement from 1831, when Mr. Titus of New York city began acquiring wilderness lands in Franklin county, and continued his purchases until, thirty-odd years later, he owned something like forty thousand acres, which subsequently became the property of A. B. Parmelee & Son. He gave the name Glen Hope to the locality, which changed into Titusville, and is now Chasm Falls, and built a store, a saw mill and a grist mill at the head of the falls on the east side of the river, and a scythe factory on the west side. Newell M. Cunningham (father of Russell J.) came in 1832 from Massachusetts to have charge of the scythe factory, and was joined in 1833 by his cousin, William B. Earle, who worked with him until he removed to Malone village, and there started a like factory of his own. The Glen Hope factory was sold to Meigs & Wead, and later to Mr. Cunningham, who moved it down the stream, and operated it on his own account for several years, and until scythes came to be made by machinery, which drove out the hand-made product. The equipment of the grist mill was sold to Harvey Whipple, who removed it to Whippleville, and installed it in a mill that he had built at that hamlet. The saw mill was owned in turn by William King, Meigs & Wead, S. C. Wead and Buel H. Man, Mr. Titus again, and A. B. Parmelee & Son. Twenty-odd years ago the saw mill and a considerable tract of adjacent land were bought for ten thousand dollars by Syracuse parties, who planned a large development of some kind, with suggestion that it would employ enough help so that a village would spring up. They made something of a mystery of their intentions, and either because of their own financial reverses or inability to enlist other capital the expected enterprise was not undertaken, though a survey was made for a railroad spur to connect with the Adirondack and St. Lawrence at Stancliff's siding, and the lands around the head of the falls were plotted into village lots. The property stood idle thereafter until sold at a handsome advance in price in 1913 to a corporation which was subsequently merged into the Malone Light and Power Company, when the largest and finest power development in the county, with the possible exception of the Paul Smith work at Franklin Falls, was instituted. A concrete dam was built, and from it a steel penstock six feet in diameter led down the stream for two-thirds of a mile giving a head of 270 feet at the power house, which, the river having been turned into a new channel, is built in the old bed. The work is fine and thorough throughout, and its potentialities are a generation of 3,500 horse power. The expenditure on the undertaking, inclusive of cost of lands and water privilege and of the transmission line for a distance of nine miles to the village of Malone, was about $425,000. In June, 1914, an overflow at the old dam, which an hour's work applied in time might have rendered harmless, wrecked a part of the penstock, and destroyed entirely the county highway for a considerable distance necessitating building the latter anew over a different route. The company's damage was about $10,000, and that to the road nearly $6,000. Great as the work here is, only a very small force of men is required to care for it and operate it, and consequently it has not added appreciably to the population. Except that there is an increased number of farmers in the vicinity, the place is no larger than it was eighty years ago. Apart from the farms and the electric plant, there are in the locality only a creamery, a store, a Methodist Episcopal church, a Roman Catholic church, and a so-called hotel, which of course had no custom except at its bar, and now that the town has become "dry" is likely to disappear. WHIPPLEVILLE Whippleville, three miles south of the village, is the only hamlet in the town. Though the locality had perhaps half a dozen settlers at an earlier date, the place had its real birth in 1837 or 1838 with the purchase of most of the surrounding lands by Harvey Whipple, who chose to make his home there because of the water power and because the country thereabout was a forest. Mr. Whipple built a saw mill early, which is still in operation, with a planing mill added, and afterward a grist mill, equipping the latter from the mill at Titusville. Zenas Heath was lessor and operator of the grist mill in 1842, and in 1849 Mr. Whipple sold a third interest in it to Samuel A. Culver. It has had many owners since that time, was rebuilt in 1868 by John A. Hogle and Henry M. Tobey, and is now run by Fred H. Lyman. The saw mill also has passed through many ownerships, and is at present the property of Fred. H. Lyman. Another saw mill, run by steam, was built by Scott G-. Boyce and William W. Wheeler, and was burned. A tannery was erected in 1860 by Mr. Whipple for Enoch Miller, who operated it for several years. It was burned in 1882, at which time it was owned by P. D. Moore & Co. of Boston, and was about to be abandoned. In 1872 John A. Hogle was induced to build a two-story-and-a-half-hotel for Merrill Hungerford, his son-in-law, and Egbert Platt, who ran it for a time, but without profit. It was kept afterward by S. Boutwell, and then by Mrs. Hogle, but never did much business. It burned about fifteen or twenty years ago. The hamlet had two hotels in 1917 which were opened more for the sale of liquor than for a general accommodation of guests; but the town having become "dry" one of them closed at once, and the other soon afterward. There are two stores in the settlement, and always from about 1860 there has been one or more, kept by almost as many proprietors as the period numbers years. The hamlet contains forty dwelling houses, and has an estimated population of about one hundred and fifty. The school district is slightly larger than the hamlet proper, and the school has twenty-nine enrolled pupils. OTHER INDUSTRIES Industries other than those already mentioned that Malone has had at one time or another, but which are not now in existence, include: Brick-making by Jacob Wead, and then by Meigs & Wead, at "whiskey hollow," some ninety years ago; in the eastern part of the town by Henry M. Tobey, Andrew Dumas, Joseph Dumas, J. Dennison Fisk, 0. U. Beach, ____ Richards, Prescott and Philip Patnode, Chester Nash, and Alfred A. Rounds, the latter of whom had an output in 1868 and 1869 of fifty to sixty thousand brick per day; by Bell & Colton just off West Main street at about the same time with Rounds; and by Joseph Dumas later on Constable street. Mr. Rounds has many monuments in the town as a builder, including the Rutland passenger station, the poorhouse, the courthouse and the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church. Planing mills and general woodworking establishments by Martin Kearney, and later by Charles A. Burke and John Kelley, on Catherine street; by Orville Moore on Milwaukie street and afterward on Pearl street; and successively by John R. Jackson and J. L. Keeney, Ladd, Smallman & Wentworth, A. M. Erwin & Co., and P. J. Murtagh on Duane street. A small broom factory, established soon after the civil war by Frank Benoit, and worked by him individually for something like thirty years, until 1908, when a corporation organized therefor took it over, and Samuel Benoit, son of the founder, was made manager. Difficulty in obtaining supplies of broom-corn interfered with full success, and the factory was closed in 1916. A match factory, which was a good deal of a joke, by T. B. Cushman, employing no one except himself and daughter, and turning out a product more adapted to kindling profanity than for starting a fire. A slaughter house and pork packing establishment north of-the village in 1880 by N. P. Gravell & Co., which was to have a capacity of three hundred hogs a day, and was to compete in this section with the big Chicago packers. It was not a success. A stone flouring mill, five stories in height, near the Gravell plant, which was begun by George F. Dickey in 1868 and finished in 1870, with the expectation that it would have an output comparable with that of the large mills at Oswego and Rochester. It was too big a proposition for Mr. Dickey's means, however, and the property soon went into the hands of Henry A. Paddock. About 1882 it was bought and run by A. Munger for a number of years. For a time it did an ordinary country mill business, and after Mr. Munger's death was converted into an excelsior mill. It burned in 1911. A flax mill on Duane street by S. J. Harwood in 1864 and 1865. A soap factory near the Rutland Railroad freight depot by Baker S. Horrigan and George D. Lytle. A plant for making trousers and other garments for men, established on Amsden street in 1898 by a corporation styled The Malone Manufacturing Company. The business was not profitable, and was discontinued after a few years.