News from Hamilton County, NY

Transcribed and Donated by Joanne Murray

The Ada Evening News, Ada, Oklahoma
2 December 1905
An Ancient Indian Jar
Rare specimen of crockery recently discovered in the State of New York
R. HORRACKS of Fonda, NY, while stalking deer during the last hunting season at the Little Falls of the upper waters of the Sacondaga [sic], near Lake Piseco, caught in a heavy downpour of rain, was obliged to seek shelter from the storm under the ledges of the Little Falls. While sitting there his attention was attracted to what seemed to be a round brown boulder partly covered with moss. Carelessly striking it, it gave forth a hollow sound. His curiosity being excited, he dug away the earth with his hunting knife and soon laid bare a symmetrically formed earthen jar.
The jar stands ten inches high. At its largest circumference it measures 30 inches, and at its smallest 20 inches. The circumference of the top or mouth of the jar is 24 inches.
The vessel on the inside bears signs of use but the outside shows no trace of fire, as is usual in Indian jars. The bottom is rounded. The ornamentation around the top is of the usual style of Mohawk pottery - that is, a series of straight and diagonal lines. The jar still bears the moss that had gathered on the rounded bottom that was exposed above the earth.
The jar is a well-preserved specimen of Mohawk pottery and is rare on account of the shape of the top, which is cut in three curves, forming three points, which give it a triangular appearance.
It is a singular fact that the three largest specimens of Indian pottery now in the valley were found in the lake region of the foothills of the Adirondacks - The Richmond jar, The Hanson jar, and the Horracks jar.
The Horracks jar is in the possession of W. MAX REID for the present and is an interesting study. It is not as large as the Hanson jar, but to those interested in the life and affairs of the "original Americans" is of equal value.

The Chateaugay Record; Franklin Co., NY
27 February 1885
The residence of GEO. PERSONS at Indian Lake, Hamilton County, was recently destroyed by fire. A three-year-old boy, son of Mr. Persons was in bed at the time and was rescued with difficulty. An entrance was made through a window, and the boy was taken out all right. He was asleep with three bed quilts over him, and that saved his life, as the room was so full of smoke that the person who rescued the boy was nearly overcome by smoke and heat.
[Note: The three-year-old boy saved from the fire was LOUIS (or LEWIS) B. PERSONS, born 28 April 1881, son of GEORGE F. and IDA B. PERSONS.]

Daily Nevada State Journal, Reno, Washoe County, Nevada
Tuesday 22 September 1891
Forty Years A Recluse
F. F. LOBB, brother of D. S. LARDNER, residing at Piseco Lake, in the Adirondacks, is expected to live but a short time. He has been a hunter and trapper for over forty years and now has consumption. Although he did not go there for health and was not aware of any predisposition to pulminary troubles.
Mr. Lobb was ambitious as a musician, but lost his hearing, spoiling his musical future, and in his disappointment he went forty miles into the woods, built himself a cabin by Piseco Lake and took up the life of a hunter and trapper. He was there twenty-five years before Mr. Lardner knew where he was. Since that time, Mr. Lardner has visited him, and he was here several years ago and spent several months, and was here again more recently. His recluse life was remunerative and his firs were sold at the settlements.
During the progress of affairs at the lake, which has now become a popular resort, Mr. Lobb built him a comfortable home, and when O. B. IVES was at the lake he formed a very pleasant acquaintance with him. - New Britain (Conn.) Herald

The Chateaugay Record; Franklin Co., NY
[Jan - March] 1908
Six Sawmills Affected
Word was received at the office of the Forest, Fish and Game Commission, at Albany, from Johnstown, that Supreme Court Justice Spencer had handed down a decision in line with the contention of the State Department, that sawmills, by dumping sawdust in the streams inhabited by fish, prevent the fish from breeding, although the full grown fish are not actually killed. It is stated that 600 sawmills of Northern New York will be affected by this ruling, which holds that the dumping of such refuse matter into the streams is a violation of law. Action was brought against OREN B. LAPELLE, of Long Lake, Hamilton County, for the enforcement of the penalty; the case being a test to secure a judicial construction of the law.

The Chateaugay Record; Franklin Co., NY
[April - June] 1911
Game Protector Farley Promoted
State Forest, Fish and Game Commissioner, Thomas Mott Osborne, has promoted Game Protector William C. Farley of Waverly to chief of the Southern Division of protectors to fill the vacancy caused by the promotion of Llewellyn Legg as Chief Game Protector. B. A. Cameron of Saranac Lake has been appointed protector for Franklin County and W. J. BUTLER of Long Lake, Protector for Hamilton County at a salary of $900 per annum.

The Chateaugay Record; Franklin Co., NY
[July - Sept] 1915
Chief Game Protector R. B. NICHOLS, of Indian Lake, Hamilton County, reports that deer are more plentiful this year than any year so far as he can remember. This report was made at a meeting last week of the game protectors of the Adirondack division...

Middletown Daily Times - Press, Middletown, NY
29 June 1916
[Under Personals and Social Events]
MRS. WILLIAM SEEHOLZER is at Lake Piseco, Hamilton County, at the cottage of MR. and MRS. W. G. SALTFORD, of Poughkeepsie. The latter is a sister of Mr. Seeholzer.

The Chateaugay Record; Franklin Co., NY
Friday, 15 August 1919
Typhoid Epidemic Results in Suits
Seven suits for damages, aggregating $125,000, have been brought against FRANCIS P. GARVAN and his wife, MRS. MABEL GARVAN of New York, by residents of Saranac Lake, Tupper Lake, Malone and Plattsburg as a result of the epidemic of typhoid fever among the men employed in the construction of Kamp Kill Kare of Raquette Lake early in the summer of 1916. Mr. Garvan now resides in Washington, having recently been appointed alien property custodian.
The suits which are brought in Supreme Court by Francis B. Cantwell of Saranac Lake, assisted by John H. Booth of Plattsburg, are for the following plaintiffs: Edward J. Rabideau of Plattsburg, who asks $25,000; Ambrose A. Commo of Plattsburg, $20,000; Thomas Smith of Saranac Lake, $15,000; Joseph Latourno of Saranac Lake, $15,000, William Cook of Saranac Lake, $15,000; Alfred Gibbo of Malone, $20,000; Edward J. Clohosy of Tupper Lake, $15,000. The suits brought by Rabbideau and Commo will be tried in Clinton County Court and the others in Franklin County. The defendants are represented by James A. Delehanty of New York.
The men became ill while engaged in the construction of the old TIMOTHY L. WOODRUFF camp at Arietta, Hamilton County between April 1, 1916 and July 5, of the same year. There were 129 men employed on the job, and when the typhoid epidemic started, a number of them died, including Joseph Demars of Saranac Lake.
The complaint in the cases charge that conditions on the job were unsatisfactory, contrary to the agreement made with the owners of the camp that clean quarters would be provided. The men charge that they had to sleep in a building that was not large enough for them, that the sewage system was faulty and that flies and other insects carried the germs to the food in the dining room.
Rabideau was ill 13 weeks and his health, he claims, has been permanently impaired. His wife, who cared for him, also contracted the disease and was ill in a hospital nine weeks, according to the complaint.
The epidemic attracted much attention at the time, and efforts have been made several times to start the action, but difficulties were encountered in the serving of the papers.
[Additional notes from; The History of Hamilton County, by Aber & King, © 1965.
Pg. 198: "In 1893, he [Durant] built picturesque hunting lodges, later enlarged into elaborate camps, on Shedd Lake and Summer Lake in Township 6. Summer Lake, later renamed Lake Kora, was sold in 1896 to the late Governor TIMOTHY L. WOODRUFF; later it was acquired by FRANCIS P. GARVIN."
Pg. 271: "Camp Kill Kare, originally owned by LT. GOVERNOR TIMOTHY WOODRUFF of New York under Theodore Roosevelt, was sold to Alfred G. Vanderbilt, who in turn sold it to JUDGE FRANCIS P. GARVAN, Alien Property Custodian during World War I. It remains in the Garvan family."]

The Chateaugay Record; Franklin Co., NY
2 August 1929
Falling asleep while waiting for his intended victim proved the undoing of RUSSELL BERRY of Gilmantown, a hamlet near Wells, He had boasted of his intentions and then took a nap. His would-be victim removed his gun and then had him arrested. Berry is now in the Hamilton County jail at Lake Pleasant for a stay of ninety days. Berry was alleged to have packed his rifle into his automobile and started out to "get" another man residing in that vicinity. He ascertained that his intended victim was fishing on Charley Lake and proceeded to drive up and down a road near the lake. He made boasts about what he intended to do with the result that a neighbor rowed out on the lake and "tipped off" the hunted man. The intended victim rowed to the opposite shore and then made his way to his home where he obtained his own gun. Traveling along the road on which Berry had just been driving, the man came upon Berry's car parked at the side of the highway. He approached quietly, expecting to be fired upon, but instead he found Berry fast asleep. Removing Berry's gun from the car, he proceeded to the home of a justice of the peace to whom he delivered the gun and swore to a complaint. State Troopers were summoned and placed Berry under arrest and arraigned him and the sentence of ninety days in jail was imposed.