News from Hamilton County
part 3

Transcribed and Donated by Joanne Murray


From: Franklin Gazette (Malone, Franklin Co., NY) Friday 29 October 1886

The smallest baby in Connecticut says an exchange, is a New York State youngster, born two months ago, at Long Lake, in the Adirondacks. She is the child of David K. and Emily P. Mix, who are visiting here in New Haven, and weighs 2 ½ pounds. She is well formed, sound of lung and appetite, is 13 inches long, her wrist is seven-eighths of an inch across the back, her ankles an inch and a quarter in circumference, and her foot is an inch and a quarter long. Her eyes are blue and her hair is thick and dark.

Notes:
From the Long Lake Cemetery:
Mix, David K. (1847 - 1924); Son of Lyman and Jane; Husband of Emily Peck
Mix, Rose (1886 - 1887) Daughter of David and Emily


From: The Franklin Gazette (Malone, Franklin Co., NY) Friday 3 July 1891

Three small children of Henry Trudell, who lives near Indian Lake, took Paris green last Saturday night and narrowly escaped death. The poison was taken in such quantities that vomiting followed and their lives were thus saved. They will recover.


From: The Franklin Gazette (Malone, Franklin Co., NY) Friday 13 January 1893

At a meeting of the State Fish and Game Commission Monday afternoon, at Albany, four appointments of Special Game and Fish Protectors were made: R.H. Bullock, Smith's Lake, named on the application of the Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railroad; Grotus H. Rison [should be Reising], Morehouseville, for the Morehouse Lake Club; Enos Horton, Nanticoke, appointment requested by the Broome County Board of Supervisors; and Dewitt Staring, Horseheads, for the Chemung Valley Sportsman's Club.


From: Post Standard (Syracuse, Onondaga Co., NY) 7 October 1902

Mr. and Mrs. Mathews left Saturday morning for Indian Lake, Hamilton County, where the both have positions to teach in a graded school; Mr. Mathews as principal and Mrs. Mathews will have charge of the primary department.


From: Post Standard (Syracuse, Onondaga Co., NY) 17 April 1907

To Assist Game Protector

Albany, April 16 - Commissioner Whipple of the State Forest, Fish and Game Department announced today that he had promoted Robert Nichols of Indian Lake, Hamilton County, to be third assistant Chief Game Protector. Salary $1,200 a year. He succeeds Frank M. Potter of Chautauqua, who resigned to become postmaster of Chautauqua.


From: Ticonderoga Sentinel (Ticonderoga, Essex Co., NY) June 1909

[Under Olmsteadville]

Miss Margaret McGinn is home from Long Lake.

Mrs. Thomas Savage of Indian Lake, and Mrs. N. Bush of Newcomb, are visiting their mother, Mrs. Wm. Kelso.


From: Oneonta Daily Star (Oneonta, NY) 18 September 1920

Hunters Attention!

The deer season is short this year. Only one month. So plan to go to Camp Francis, Wells, Hamilton County, where there is plenty of deer, some bear and small game. Garage for 12 cars. Registered guides furnished on request. Address George W. Swift, 623 Broadway, Albany, NY; Thomas F. Maher, 554 Mercer Street, Albany, NY or Camp Francis, Wells, Hamilton County, NY.


From: Oneonta Daily Star (Oneonta, NY) 23 November 1921

Prisoners Jump From Train

Guard in Serious Condition After Being Attacked by Escaping Men

Plattsburg, Nov. 22 - Two prisoners, hand cuffed and shackled together, overcame their guard and jumped from a swiftly moving train near Long Lake, Hamilton County, while being taken from Auburn to Dannemora Prison, according to word received here from prison officials tonight. The prison guard, William Kender, was said to be in serious condition. At a late hour tonight, no trace had been found of the men.

The escaped men are Gene Kirsher, serving a 17-year sentence for first degree robbery in Westchester County, and Peter Pastielone, serving a two-year sentence for robbery.

They were in a party of 14 prisoners guarded by four keepers from Dannemora Prison. Kirsher and Pastielone, upon leaving a lavatory, were said to have assaulted Keeper Kender, kicking him in the stomach and then, not withstanding that the train was traveling nearly 50 miles an hour and they were hand-cuffed and shackled together, have jumped from the car.

The train was stopped as quickly as possible but the guards who hastened back could find no trace of the men in the dense woods which grow close to the tracks. State Troopers and police all over the northern part of the state were notified of the escape.


From: Oneonta Daily Star (Oneonta, NY) 16 December 1920

Fear For Safety of Aviators Felt
No Word Has Been Received of Naval Balloon
Since it Entered Adirondack Regions

Saranac Lake, Dec. 15 - Communications with various sections of the Adirondack Mountains tonight failed to throw light on the fate of the naval balloon which left Rockaway Point on Monday, bound for Canada, and which was last reported Tuesday night near Wells, Hamilton County.

The summer and fall vigil of the fire observers in the Adirondack ranges closed several days ago and there are very few persons in the woods, except lumbermen. A terrific gale swept the Adirondacks during the last two nights making an air trip across the forest extremely perilous. The entire section is blanketed with snow several feet deep.

Woodsmen familiar with the wind conditions believed that the balloon, unless it met with an accident, probably has drifted into Quebec or Ontario. Lieutenant Walter Hinton, a member of the NC-4 crew during its transatlantic flight and who was in charge of the balloon, is regarded as a resourceful officer and navigator. His companions on the flight, which has developed into a mystery, are Lieutenants Stephen A. Farrell and A.L. Kloor.

Nothing developed today to show that the balloon was at any time near Lower, Middle or Upper Saranac Lake, Paul Smiths, Saranac Inn, Lake Placid and any other points in this section. It is possible that the airmen have been forced to land at a point far from human habitation. If such is the case, the three naval officers who set out on the trip without rations are waging a hard fight against the rigors of the Adirondack winter weather.


From: Oneonta Daily Star (Oneonta, NY) 22 September 1920

Seek Aviators In Canada Now

Theory That Balloon Did Not Land in Adirondacks But Went Farther North, Is Expressed Seen Sunday Night

Inhabitants of North Hero, Vt., Believe Strange Craft Over Their Town Was Lost 'Ship' Rockaway, Dec. 21 - Lieutenant Albert W. Evans, naval aviator, balloonist and dirigible pilot, was ordered to leave tonight for Ottawa to direct search there for the balloon missing from the Rockaway naval air station for more than a week.

While the authorities at the naval air station have not given up hope for the three men in the balloon, they admit that the situation was serious.

They are now working, lieutenant Evans said, on the theory that the balloon did not land in the Adirondacks, but passed north of Ottawa.

Lieutenant Evans said that he would enlist every possible agency in the search.

The country now considered the most likely field, is bounded by the Ottawa river on the west, and St. John's lake on the east, and extends north as far as Hudson Bay. Vast tracts are uninhabited and it is here that the Canadian mounted police are expected to come into play.

Meanwhile the search of the Adirondacks by army aviators will continue, it was said at the naval air station here, until hope has vanished. Belief seemed to be growing, however, that had the balloonists been in upper New York State they would have been heard from before now.

With the finding at Rochester of another pigeon believed here not to be a navy bird, officers explained that all birds carried on the balloon carried identification band on the right leg bearing the letters "NAS R.L.I. 19" standing for naval air station. Rockaway. Long Island, 1919, the date of the pigeon's birth and followed by each pigeon's number. Report Seeing Airship

North Hero, VT., Dec. 21 - Residents of this town, situated on an island in Lake Champlain near the Canadian boarder, believe the naval balloon missing since it left Rockaway, NY, more than a week ago, passed over here Sunday night. Several persons have reported seeing an airship, brightly lighted, going in a southwesterly direction about 8 o'clock that night. It was flying at a low altitude and was traveling at about 20 to 25 miles an hour, headed in the general direction of Plattsburg, NY.

In support of the theory that the visitor was not an airplane, it is declared that there was no sound such as would have been distinctly audible from a flying machine at such short range. When first sighted the balloon was nearly over the lake which divides North Hero island from Alburg. Half a dozen persons stood and watched it until it disappeared from view.

First Hunt In Vain

Glens Falls, Dec. 21 - The first hour of the aerial search in the Adirondacks region for the three missing naval balloonists undertaken this afternoon by Lieutenant L.V. Beau and his observer, Sergeant John White, was unrewarded.

Flying at an average altitude of 3,200 feet because of the mountainous territory, mapped out for the initial hunt, the aviators scouted thoroughly over Wells in the Hamilton County region, where the missing balloon was last reported to have been seen flying low. The search extended to Indian Lake, then turning, they headed for the Glens Falls field. In the hour they were in the air, it is estimated the fliers covered a visible area of approximately 300 square miles.

The afternoon was ideal for observation, due to splendid visibility. The aviators, however, fought against severe cold, being chilled through when they alighted, although clothed in heavy, fur-lined suits and their heads protected by hoods. It is planned when they hop off again for the second search at 8 o'clock tomorrow morning to cover the motor.

The Adirondack territory over which the scouts flew is completely ice and snow bound, they reported, in contrast to the Glens Falls region, where ice is absent and the weather much more moderate.

Lieutenant F. B. Johnson, whose plane was burned in Albany this morning when taking off to accompany Lieutenant Beau in the search, reached Glens Falls this afternoon.

He will fly with Lieutenant Beau tomorrow as an observer.

Search Wells Organized

Albany, Dec. 21 - Arrangements made by the state conservation commission to cooperate with the army aviators searching for the missing naval balloon in the Adirondacks were so well carried out today that the commission headquarters were informed of the flight of Lieutenant L. V. Beau in detail before he had scarcely landed on his return to Glens Falls.

District Ranger Roberts of Northville, through the reports made to him by the various rangers under him, made known to the commission by telephone the entire route traversed by the army plane. It was said that the plane was almost constantly under observation by a conservation commission man and that in case of accident aid would have been rendered immediately.

Whether another machine would be sent from New York to replace the one destroyed by fire here today when Lieutenant F. B. Johnson and his observer had a narrow escape from death while starting for Glens Falls had not been learned tonight.

Fire Destroys One Plane

Albany, Dec. 21- One of the army airplanes which were to have searched the Adirondack region for the missing naval balloon, took fire soon after hopping off here for Glens Falls this morning and was forced to make a landing at Westerlo Island, about two miles south of here. The plane was destroyed, but Lieutenant F. B. Johnson, pilot, and Sergeant George Sicke, observer, are reported to have escaped injury.

Lieutenant Johnson and Sergeant Sicke were able to leave the airplane unharmed a few seconds after the forced landing. They also saved their baggage and maps of the Adirondack section.

The airplane took off at the aviation field just south of the city soon after 10 o'clock for Glens Falls, where it was intended to join the other army airplane assigned to search the Adirondacks for the missing balloon. Soon after hopping off, Lieutenant Johnson circled the field, as he explained after the forced landing, to test his machine, which was partly wrecked in landing here on Saturday.

He had circled the field half a dozen times when suddenly the airplane was seen to burst into flames. The fire, it was said by Lieutenant Johnson, was caused by his engine becoming overheated, due to a defective water pipe.

The machine took fire at an altitude of about 1,000 feet and Lieutenant Johnson was unable to return to the aviation field but landed a short distance away close to the Hudson River. The machine, which had been covered with oil when it turned a somersault in landing last Saturday, burned quickly and is a total wreck.

Lieutenant Johnson planned to leave for Glens Falls by train immediately, where he said he would join Lieutenant L.V. Beau, pilot of the other airplane selected to make a survey of the Adirondacks. He expected to accompany Lieutenant Beau as observer in the search for the missing balloon.


Extracted from the Oneonta Daily Star Wednesday, 12 Jan 1921

..."Almost immediately after take off at Rockaway they [Lieutenant Walter Hinton, Lieutenant Stephen A. Farrell, and Louis A. Kloor] went into the clouds. The only time they could see earth was when passing over Wells, N.Y."...

"Near Wells, N.Y. the balloon caught in a tree and while trying to disentangle it, they talked to a man who gave them their bearings. Then they managed to break loose and resume the trip..."

"Then they were caught in a heavy snowstorm, struck tree tops in the Adirondacks, but were swept up by the wind. When the barking dog was heard they opened the valves of the gas bag and descended. The balloon lodged in the branches of a large tree and the officers climbed down, thinking they were in the Adirondacks. They did not know of their whereabouts until they met the Indian, Tom Marks, three days later."

[It was December 14 (1920) when the airmen descended, after which, the trio wandered around for three days until they were found by the Indian mentioned above and were led to the Hudson Bay Company's post at Moose Factory in Northern Canada. From there, they were led on a 16 days' journey to Mattice, Ontario to the log cabin home of the Hudson Bay clerk. They had dispatches from the secretary of the navy forbidding any of them to talk to reporters until an official report had been filed. However, each of the men had written letters to family and friends, and a letter that Hinton had written to his wife had been published. In the letter, Hinton had made some comments about Farrell that the latter claimed were untrue. A scuffle ensued and Farrell hit Hinton in the jaw, knocking him over the table in the presence of newspapermen. The three men returned to New York and the Oneonta Daily Star continued their coverage of the story throughout the month of January.]

Last Updated: Wednesday, 14-May-2008 13:37:16 PDT
Copyright © 2005:  Joanne Murray