It Happened Here--"Jemima said she had Died..."

Jemima said she had died when she emerged from the fever that had suddenly struck her during a local epidemic in 1776, in Cumberland, Rhode Island, where she lived with her father and twelve siblings.  But stranger still was her assertion that her soul had gone to heaven and her body was reanimated by the holy spirit and returned to earth to save souls in a dying world that would soon face the Apocalypse. Within a few weeks Jemima Wilkinson began preaching and traveling around southern New England and promoting her message of personal redemption and forgiveness of sins for all who renounced sin and asked for forgiveness. Her message was not unique, but rather an amalgam of Quaker theology, the religion she had been raised in, and  the "New Light" movement that was sweeping Revolutionary America, at this time*.

 While the message was not unique, the messenger certainly was.  Jemima refused to answer to her old name, maintaining she was now a new being, of neither male or female gender, to be called now the "Public Universal Friend". The "Friend," as she called herself, or sometimes, the "Comforter" began to dress in clerical garb -- usually a black clerical gown,  with  white facings, in the manner of   an Episcopal minister.  She wore her hair long, parted in the middle, in ringlets about her shoulders, as was the fashion of most ministers of the day; and never wore any sort of close linen cap, the almost universal convention of colonial women, who were not of the upper class. When she went outside she usually wore a low, broad-brimmed hat, typically worn by Quaker men. 

Within a couple years the Friend had gained a sizable following, including several wealthy New Englanders, one of who provided him/her and some of her/his brothers and sisters and closest followers with a large residence in Little Rest (Kingston), R.I. 

In 1782 the Friend began the first of a series of extended visits to Philadelphia and surrounding areas.The Comforter had had the most success attracting Quakers and former Quakers in Southern New England, so it was natural she/he would look to Pennsylvania, a fountainhead of American Quakerism for potential followers. Though large crowds were attracted to the Friend's early meetings, often a majority were curiosity-seekers attracted not so much by her/his message as by his/her appearance and the implied flaunting of gender-norms. Soon the local press was filled with a fierce public debate about the Friend and his/her group. Charges of impropriety, fraud, blasphemy and even crimes** were bandied about. 

By the mid 1780's the Friend had turned her major efforts from proselytizing to finding a "New Jerusalem" sanctuary for her/his flock and was looking to the New York frontier. An area west of Seneca Lake was chosen. 

Unfortunately, the New York frontier was not a sanctuary but a maelstrom of competing land claims, beginning with the fact that western New York had been granted to Massachusetts by colonial charter in 1628/9. The Massachusetts' claim was not settled until 1788 when an arbitration board ruled that the Bay State retained the "Pre-emptive right" to buy the land from the Indians to sell it to any speculators/developers but that New York had the right to govern the territory and, once developed, could tax improvements made on it. First to come forward was a partnership of Oliver Phelps and Nathan Gorham who bought 6 million acres of Iroquois land, promising to pay Massachusetts $300,000. But then, another group of investors, led by John Livingston arranged to lease 18 million acres from the Senecas, Cayuga, Oneidas and Onondagas in a 999 year lease. The first complication was that the  Phelps/Gorham purchase and the Livingston and Associates leases overlapped! The two groups of speculators worked this difficulty out by Livingston et.al.  giving Phelps and Gorham cash payments to buy more Indian land and to help meet their payments to Massachusetts.  Then New York Governor George Clinton and the NYS Assembly stepped in to put an end to the Livingston et. al. leasing scheme (which was in fact an infringement on Massachusetts pre-emption rights.) Payments to Phelps/Gorham stopped, settlement lagged and the partners could not meet their obligations to Massachusetts. Bankruptcy inevitably followed.

PREEMPTION LINE
BOUNDARY DRAWN BETWEEN
MASSACHUSETTS AND NEW YORK
DECEMBER 16, 1786
CAUSE OF LONG CONTROVERSY
IN WESTERN NEW YORK
Location: ON US 20 & NYS 5 AT WESTERN EDGE OF THE CITY (sign not found)

 

Several roads that follow the Pre-Emption
lines are named for that line. This one runs
along the western side of Geneva.


 As if these were not troubles enough, the Friend's followers built their settlement along the west shore of Seneca Lake, assuming the Pre-emption line, when surveyed, would run up the center of the lake.  To their horror they discovered, when it was surveyed, it ran several miles west of the lake, through their community, cutting off houses,  a new grist mill  and saw mill they had just constructed!  Then, the demise of the leasehold scheme left the Livingston partnership with clear title to only four townships that Phelps/Gorham had sold them outright. The Universal Friend's followers discovered that instead of a 999 year lease to 14,000 acres, they actually owned only a strip of land 6 miles long and 92 rods wide! James Parker, the Friend's Congregation's agent appealed to the state and in 1791 they were given a grant allowing them to purchase the land for a shilling an acre. But then questions about the accuracy of the pre-emption line began to arise. The old line had been drawn by chain and mariners compass, and conveniently left the town of Geneva in New York and under the Livingston Lessee's control. A new transit created survey put the line farther east, giving part of the settlement back to Massachusetts, on land New York had no right to grant to the Universal Friend's followers!  Fortunately, the business agent of the new owners of the Massachusetts' land, Charles Williamson***, of  Pulteney Associates was sympathetic but some members of the Friend's Congregation ended up paying for their land a third time!

Hewitt Rd., Dresden

By now many of the Friend's settlers had become weary of the battles that ensued over their land.

To make matters worse, the land they had pooled their money to purchase had been doled out in proportion to the money they put in.  With settlement it had increased in value many times over and the bigger land owners, especially, were drawn by profit to sell to whoever (members or non-members) were anxious to meet their price.

By 1794 the Friend had had enough of the willfulness independence of several of the (male) large landholders in her community and moved west with a number of his/her loyal followers, leaving behind the Friend's Settlement  to develop a new settlement near  Keuka Lake, that the Friend called Jerusalem. Unlike the Comforter's original settlement, of which she/he had not owned any part, the Universal Friend in 1791 began making payments to his/her agent who had secured the land from Phelps and Gorham at the time his/her other agent had been securing their Livingston lease. By 1795 the Universal Friend owned 4,480 acres. Starting again with his/her faithful adherents, the Friend built a second community, from the wilderness. She/he was joined by a score of other families, both from the old settlement and the congregations in Southern New England and Pennsylvania. A succession of three large houses was built for the Comforter and a number of her/his followers, male and female, who had chosen his/her preferred lifestyle of celibacy. The last of these, built about 1809, still stands.

For the next decade the Universal Friend held sway over a restive community until 1819 when she died. Lack of a charismatic leader to continue her work led the community to gradually dissolve until by mid-century the properties passed into the hands of individuals who had not been members of the sect.

Friend Hill Rd., off of Rte 29, Branchport

                                                            (This date appears to be in error)

The Universal Friend's 3d and final residence

*Under assault was the Calvinist/Puritan notion that some people were predestined for heaven while the majority were predestined for hell and that an individual's only recourse was to eschew sin and pray for a sign that would confirm their salvation. So too was the notion that clergymen must have formal theological education, to be replaced by the notion that divine inspiration was sufficient to empower an individual to become a preacher.

**In one incident, a new follower of the sect came into disagreement on the interpretation of an event with several older members of the sect. Afterwards she thought she observed a conversation of looks and gestures between older members, and that night awoke in terror, feeling she was being strangled.  No formal reports or investigations were made, and perhaps the incident was dreamt by the girl, but reported in the press it became more grist for the anti-Friend's mill.

***In a future post we will look at the remarkable Charles Williamson.



--A major source of information for this post is from the just published, The Public Universal Friend, Jemima Wilkinson and Religious Enthusiasm in Revolutionary America, by Paul B. Moyer, 2015.


 Marker of the Week -- You just never know where a NYSHM might turn up. In addition  to new markers created daily by both the William G. Pomeroy Foundation and dozens of local organizations, with and without local government affiliations, now and then you come across a marker that has escaped any public listing. Although the New York State Museum Historical Marker List was pretty comprehensive for its time, the list was compiled decades after the State began underwriting markers proposed/applied for by local historical groups and groups of interested citizens. The State Education Department, not having kept its original records appears to had to go back to the County governments to ask their help in compiling its list, with, not surprisingly, mixed results. Though the Albany County listing appears to have been pretty complete, even here are surprises. In Westerlo, a short distance from my home is Lobdell Mills Rd.  Along part of it runs Basic Creek and where the creek crosses the road is this sign. 

To the best of my knowledge, nowhere is this sign listed. 

It Happened Here-- "Big Water"

 

Any discussion of the development of industrial power technologies in the United States often seems to have the adjective “Big” attached to it. Thus, our gasoline/ diesel fueled segments of our economy are dominated by “Big Oil” while much of the power for our electric grid is the product of “Big Hydro-Electric” and throughout most of the later 19^th and 20^th centuries the steam engines that propelled our transportation and industrial sectors were fueled by “Big Coal.”  I believe there are two aspects to this.The first, which we are more accustomed to thinking of, is the political/ economic dimension whereby the production of power becomes concentrated in the hands of a few big producers (think Standard Oil's role in the creation of “Big Oil”.) But the more fundamental second, is the technological dimension, whereby the utility of the power source blossoms with all sorts of new uses for it, inspiring ways to produce and distribute the power more efficiently. (Imagine Standard Oil's fate, without the advent of the internal combustion engine—had petroleum remained just a lubricant and a fuel for oil lamps!) 

 

Before steam power, fueled by coal, became dominant, I believe we can look to an era when waterpower became “Big,” in the second sense– was engineered in ways that greatly increased its power, utilized in many more ways to achieve much greater potential, and even distributed to greatly extend its reach. Evidence of this development is manifest here across New York State and is documented in its NYSHMs.

Main St., near Allen St., Catskill

   Waterpower, harnessed through waterwheels is an ancient technology used for millennia to drain mines, grind grain and saw wood. Watermills were often among the first structures built in the settlement of America, to handle the laborious chores of turning a millstone, or dragging a saw, via a crankshaft, back and forth over a log to render it into planks or squared timbers.
 

Montcalm St., Ticonderoga

(Before Lotbiniere built his fort, he first constructed a sawmill to provide lumber for barracks and other support structures to be located within and near the fort.)                

But with the first stirrings of the industrial revolution in America, the power of waterwheels began to be used in more diverse, creative ways. By the use of belts, pulleys and shafts the motive power of the turning waterwheel was conducted around factories to power all sorts of machinery*. Turning pawls pumped bellows in refineries and trip hammers worked pig iron into wrought iron and steel, while other machines bent and shaped pieces, boring and cutting them. 

Rte 156, Berne

Machines in carding and fulling mills worked and combed wool while water-powered spinning and weaving looms turned cotton, flax and wool into fabrics, and sewing machines enabled workers to turn them into clothing.

Rte 4, Schuylerville, at the Bridge

And water power turned lathes, band saws and jigsaws to make furniture, wagons and intricate architectural pieces for early Victorian homes.

Valleys with a good flow of water filled with mills, and entrepreneurs sought ways to extract the most power from the downward flow. 

 

Rte. 5, Elbridge

Turnpike Rd. (10B), Throop

In 1851 Henry Burden built the world's most powerful waterwheel in Troy.  Sixty two feet in diameter, it was twenty two feet wide and could produced 500 horsepower.

Cor. Mill St., Burden Ave, Troy

           

 

Others filled or surrounded

their mills with combinations

of waterwheels.

Reservoir Hill Rd., Hammondsport

In 1837 Peter Harmony built his first textile mill at the Cohoes falls and twenty-nine years later his sucessors built Harmony Mill #3, the worlds largest cotton mill, with state of the art technology-- five water-powered Boyden turbines, beneath the mill, each delivering to all five floors motive power via belts and shafts to power some 2,700 looms.

Mill #3, Mohawk Ave, Cohoes

*It is easy to forget that until the last decades of the 19^th century (and well into the 20^th) motive power in factories was centralized, whether it was supplied by a turning waterwheel or a central steam engine. Belts, pulleys and shafts transferred power around the factory to individual machines, making factories noisy, dangerous places to work. It would not be until factories were electrified and small AC motors were connected to individual machines that the motive power in factories was decentralized.

 

 Marker of the Week -- Well, it finally happened.  For over two years now, my wife has been accusing me of dragging her all over "Hell's half acre" to chase down and photograph NYSHMs. This summer on a vacation trip to the western Finger Lakes and the Genesee Valley we finally, actually, got there.

Rte 5 & 20, cor. of Half Acre Rd., west of Auburn

A Final Note-- I'm baaack! From the last half of September, until now I have been unable to publish any new posts. I returned from two weeks vacation with a bug that layed me low for two weeks. I think I was finally able to get rid of it by giving it to my wife for another week.

After getting things back together I'm looking forward to resuming my more-or-less-weekly posts. Over the summer I was able to photograph a great number of signs and I look forward to returning to regular postings.

It Happened Here--A Desperate Alarum

 

Frequent in the history of the American colonial wars and revolutionary war are stories of sudden raids and the response to these raids. There are numerous accounts of solitary messengers making desperate flights to warn others of danger or to mobilize forces. Thanks to the 19th century work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, every schoolchild knows the name Paul Revere. The NYSHM's point to at least three of these incidents in New York State, and unlike Revere all three of these messengers made it! One of these, Adam Helmer,  I related in NYSHMS: It Happened Here  on 3/24/13 .  Here is another.
 

In May 1689 Great Britain declared war on France. While this was precipitated by events in Europe, for some time tensions had been heating up in the area between the New York and New France over their frontiers and throughout Iroquoia,. For decades the trade in beaver pelts had been critical to the relationships between the Indians and the Europeans. Now beaver was becoming scarce. The Iroquois began to pressure and intimidate the less powerful tribes to their west to direct their supply of beaver through them to their Dutch / English markets. English traders had made direct inroads with the Western tribes in the Lake Huron area and even in the Hudson's Bay area, deep within what the French considered was their natural economic domain. The French struck back against the English traders capturing large numbers of them and confiscating over 50.000 beaver pelts. They retaliated against the Iroquois by sending an army to destroy Seneca towns in the heart of Iroquoia. in 1687. While officially neutral, the English Governor promised the Iroquois powder, lead and protection for their families. The traders in Schenectady and Albany continued to support and supply their Iroquois trading partners. For the next year the Iroquois kept up a low level war of attack against individual French traders in the woods, and French colonists on the edges of French settlements. In the summer of 1689 the Iroquois struck back with two major raids against the French villages of Lachine and LaChesnaye near Montreal.

In addition to the economic issues, the Iroquois were upset at the successes of the Jesuit fathers in converting their own people. By ones and twos over the decades Jesuits had been bringing Iroquois to their faith. In 1671 Jesuits had convinced fifteen Mohawk converts to settle among Huron converts near Quebec. A few years later 200 Mohawks had left Iroquoia to build a new town near Montreal. Then, a contingent of "praying Indians" led by their war chief Kryn had actually participated in the attacks on the Seneca towns.

NYS 147, Sacandaga Rd. Glenville

 While this was happening, political turmoil was brewing in the English colonies that would have disastrous consequences for Schenectady. In 1688-89 English protestant forces in England conspired to oust their king, James II and put on the throne a Protestant sovereign from Holland.*  When word of this "Glorious Revolution" reached the English colonies, the Provincial governor Edmund Andros was arrested in Massachusetts and Deputy Governor Nicholson operating in New York City was sent packing back to England as rumors swirled that James II's catholic colonial officials intended to support a counter-revolution and even deliver the colony into the hands of the French. One Jacob Leisler, a wine merchant, rose to the head of an ad-hoc Committee of Safety elected from New York City and the surrounding towns, and was appointed acting Lieutenant Governor. Soon the colony was split by parties who either supported Leisler or who felt his government was illegitimate. At a time when towns on the frontier should have been mobilizing and building up their defenses, more often than not, they were paralyzed by officials appointed under the old governor bickering with Leisler appointees, with townspeople uncertain who was in charge. No where was this more apparent than in the small village of Schenectady.

While confusion and indecision reigned throughout much of the New York colony, the ouster of the pro-Catholic James II also alarmed the French. They began to make ambitious plans to attack Albany and carry their invasion through to New York. But Quebec could not amass sufficient troops or supplies for a full scale invasion. Nevertheless, the raids on Lachine and LaChesnaye demanded a response. Schenectady was selected as a target.

In January a raiding party of 114 Canadians and 96 Indians headed south. Traveling on frozen lakes-- Champlain, Ste Sacrement (Lake George) and Saratoga, then connecting with the trail that led from Saratoga to Albany and Schenectady, they paused at the trail's divide to reconsider whether to attack Albany or Schenectady. Perhaps Albany's larger size or the presence of cannon at Albany were deciding factors. Perhaps Kryn's impassioned speech urging them to attack Schenectady a town he knew gave aid and comfort his Mohawk brothers he hated, swayed the raiders, or perhaps they simply decided to carry through their orders.
 

Cor. Front St. and N. Church St, Schenectady

The last 37 miles was an extremely difficult nine day trek, with warmer weather turning the snow to knee deep slush. As they approached Schenectady the temperature plummeted and a blizzard set in. They intended to wait until an hour or two after midnight but decided to attack sooner, rather than endure the bitter cold any longer. They crossed the frozen Mohawk River and divided into two parties to enter the northern and southern gates. In the darkness and blizzard conditions the southern gate could not be found and the southern attack party rejoined the group outside the north gate. Nineteenth century historians recall traditional stories that the attackers found a sleeping town with the north gate left ajar, guarded only by children's snowmen. In any event, the political dissention of the Leisler rebellion had resulted in a breakdown of authority and Schenectady had failed to follow through with the most rudimentary precautions for their safety, including keeping a guard posted. The raiders filtered in, surrounding the town, placing themselves between the stockade and the houses with about seven attackers per household. With shots and war whoops they burst through doors and fell on the sleeping inhabitants. Only a few households were able to put up any resistance. Some of the younger inhabitants were selected for captivity. Most were put to the sword and the scalping knife. In the darkness and chaos a surprising number were able to escape the stockade and find sanctuary in the wilderness. In a matter of hours all but five of some sixty to eighty buildings lay in ashes. Sixty inhabitants were dead and twenty seven were being lead into captivity. Only one or two French raiders had died, and one was seriously wounded. 

Among those who escaped were the Schermerhorn brothers. In the years before the last decade of the 17th Century, Symon Schermerhorn lived in Schenectady with his brother Reyer, sons of Jacob Jansen Schermerhorrn, one of the most prominent traders at Beverwyck (Albany). Like many other Schenectadians, Symon may have had several sources of income--perhaps he did some farming; perhaps he did some trading in beaver pelts. Though the English extended the monopoly in fur trade to Albany, that the Dutch had given to Beverwyck before them, the prohibition against trading in furs was largely ignored in Schenectady. The little settlement on the Mohawk River continued to have a natural advantage, being the western-most town that Iroquois bringing in their furs would reach first. It was also a natural point of departure for the "boslopers," Dutch hunter/fur traders who ventured far into Indian country to hunt furs themselves and/or contact groups of Indians coming in to trade furs. Giving them presents to entice them, the boslopers acted as agents for fur traders in the towns, steering Indians to their clients/partners, sometimes brokering deals in the woods. So aggressive were their tactics, often, that emissaries of the Iroquois tribes more than once registered complaints with the English authorities that boslopers were forcing goods on fur laden Indians and even beating them if they failed to respond favorably. The fact that Symon Schermerhorn was mentioned in plans by former Governor Dongan to set up trading expeditions with western Indians suggests he may have been actively involved in the fur trade. Whatever the nature of his business, Symon was successful enough that he owned several slaves, three he reported killed in the 1690 massacre.

N. Church St., near Front St., Schenectady

We probably will never know the exact circumstances of Symon Schermerhorn's escape from the burning town. Like many other townspeople, he was able to escape in the snow and the darkness during the mayhem of the attack. Perhaps his three slaves created a diversion that enabled him to mount his horse and escape. Perhaps they unbarred and opened the south gate -- the one the attackers had been unable to find in the dark, through which he probably escaped. We do know, however, he escaped in a fusillade of musket fire and was struck in the hip. His horse was also hit and later died from blood loss and exhaustion. We know that when he escaped the stockade he had two choices before him. He could have taken the more direct cart road (King's Highway) to Albany some 15 miles through the largely unpopulated pine barrens. Or he could have taken the winding River Road, some 20 miles, and alert the families in homesteads along the river. In spite of his and his horse's injuries he chose the longer River Road. As the snows piled up he rode some five hours spreading the alarm along this route, not stopping until he reached the gates of Albany to deliver his warning, before collapsing.
 

NYS 5, State St., Corner of Ferry St.

After the attack, many of the survivors returned to their burned out town. Reyer returned to work his farm, labeled on an early map, as Bouwery Number 4 on the flat lands along the Mohawk in front of Schenectady . He promoted and managed a project for harvesting timber for masts and spars for the King's Navy, hauling the timber to the Mohawk, to float them down the river, over the Cohoes falls and down the Hudson where they were to be taken aboard ship for England. He returned as a member of the provincial assembly from Schenectady and village magistrate, a position he was appointed to, the result of his support of Jacob Leisler's government. He continued as a leader of the pro-Leisler faction in Schenectady, surviving his leader who was hung but later exonerated by Parliament. By the end of his life he had become one of the three wealthiest men in Schenectady with an estate valued at over 100 Pounds. (The average estate was less than 25 pounds.) 
 
Many other survivors, however, did not return. Symon was one of these. Symon survived his wound, and moved to New York City. He became the operator of a sloop on the Hudson, transporting cargo between Albany and Manhattan until his death in 1697.
 

  

 Marker of the Week -- ...so the first Meeting of the "First Ever Temperance 
                                                     Organization" was held WHERE (?!)

NYS 32, Gansevoort

     

It Happened Here-- In Sir William's Footsteps

Part 2 Will Gilliland

William Gilliland, (he preferred to be called Will) was a well educated, charming young man living in Ireland. When his father died,  his family was thrown into difficult, if not dire financial straits.  But it was an affair with a young lady of the Irish nobility that caused him to leave Ireland when her family objected and pressured him, (or worse) to desist.  Will escaped into the British army and served for four years in the 35th Regiment of Foot during the French and Indian War.  The Regiment was garrisoned at Fort William Henry and it was there he undoubtedly learned of Sir William Johnson.

Sir William, an Irishman, of modest means, like himself  had made a fortune in the wilderness, establishing himself on a vast manor surrounded by his tenant farmers, mills and cottage industries.

Discharged in 1758 in Philadelphia, Will found work in a New York mercantile firm, and soon charmed his way into the life of Elizabeth Phagen, an orphan and the ward of one of his senior business associates. He married the 'beautiful and accomplished' Miss Phagen who fortuitously came with an estate of 1,500 Pounds.

 With the end of the French and Indian War came the promise of soldiers land bounties* and the nullification of French land titles on land below the 45th parallel (the present NY/Canada border).  Sometime after his marriage, Gilliland moved his business interests to Albany which had become something of a hot bed for land speculation. By April 1763 he was advertising in the Irish newspapers for farmers to come to America to be his tenants and in September that year he met with Sir William Johnson at Johnson Hall.  Johnson recommended he purchase land along the west shore of Lake Champlain, above Crown Point.  He must have been impressed by the young man for he remained his friend and in 1770  secured for him an appointment as a Civil Magistrate for northern Albany County, which then included the Champlain Valley (!).

Rte. 22, Willsboro

 In 1764 Gilliland applied for and received a land bounty of 2000 acres for himself and soon was assisting other veterans in applying for their land bounties, which he, by pre-agreement, would buy from them. Eventually he would own 50,000 acres. In May 1765, leaving his family in New York, he left with a party of fourteen--a clergyman, carpenters, millwrights, weavers, servants, some of their wives and a slave to build a community on the Bouquet River.  With him he took livestock, and eighty barrels of supplies and building materials. Along the way, in Albany and towns farther north he recruited additional tenants. Known as Milltown at first, Gilliland would later name it Willsborough Falls (after himself) and later it would be shortened to Willsboro.

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

Also that year, Gilliland negotiated purchase of the land bounty of Lt. John Friswell who had surveyed his 2000 acre claim around the mouth of the Salmon River, where it empties into Lake Champlain, and the adjacent Stuart patent, a 2000 acre parcel in what would become the Town of Peru. On the Salmon River property he would founded the town of Janesboro, named after his daughter. Another purchase was made on Cumberland head, a promontory north of what would become the city of Plattsburgh. He named it Charlottesboro after another of his daughters. Additional settlements were laid out--Elizabeth, named for his wife and daughter--a town that became Essex; and Bessboro, later Westport, named for his third daughter.

The following year, the first significant threat to Will Gilliland's growing empire occurred. Count Charles DeFredenburgh, a German nobleman with ties to the British royal household received a grant of 30,000 acres around the Saranac river, where he built a house and a mill.  Fearful that DeFredenburgh's claims would override his own, Gilliland gathered a party of workmen, armed them to the teeth and marched north.  In three days they constructed a house, his "Possession House", in the heretofore unoccupied Janesboro and headed to the Saranac where they presented their claims to DeFredenburgh and warned him against trespassing. At the beginning of the Revolution, DeFredenburgh, a Loyalist, retreated with his family to the safety of Montreal.  During the war he returned to find his house and mill in ashes. Shortly after, Defredenburgh disappeared, never to be seen again. It is thought he may have been murdered for the silver plate and valuables he was thought to have hidden before fleeing to Montreal.

FIRST BUILDING
ERECTED IN THIS SETTLEMENT
STOOD HERE IN 1767.
IT WAS THE HOME OF
COUNT CHARLES DE FREDENBURGH
Location: AT INTERSECTION OF BRIDGE AND CHARLOTTE STS.
 PLATTSBURGH

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

 

 The war years saw a disastrous decline in Will Gilliland's fortunes.  Hungry rebel forces ransacked his properties for food and clothing and any saleable items and escaping Loyalists, heading north burned houses and mills.  When General Burgoyne's invading army camped on the Bouquet river in the spring of 1777, Willsborough was abandoned.

 Gilliland was an early supporter of the rebellion, active in its early planning stages and claimed to have proposed the attack on Ticonderoga to Allen and Arnold. He also claimed to have suggested a compromise to both men when feuding broke out between them. Present at the attack of Ticonderoga, he was one of the many left behind when sufficient numbers of boats could not be found to carry the American army across to attack the fort. 

But Gilliland was also a friend and confident of Philip Skene, a developer like himself who plotted for the creation of a new colony encompassing both shores of Lake Champlain and lands from the border, to Connecticut on the eve of the Revolution.  Skene became known as an infamous Tory, and Gilliland's association with him undoubtedly hurt him.

 A signer of the 1775 Declaration of Principals, written at Crown Point, Gilliland was one of several signers condemned by the Governor of Canada, and had a $500 reward posted for his capture.

Later the Sheriff of Tryon County with a small group of Tories and Indians would attempt to kidnap him, only to be captured by Gilliland and imprisoned at Crown Point, themselves.

In the summer of 1776, Benedict Arnold improvised a small fleet to try to oppose a British invasion led by Governor Carleton. One of the ships landed in Willsboro and commandeered food and supplies. Gilliland angrily fired off a letter to Arnold and his superiors, denouncing his actions and impugning his character. Arnold fired back accusing Gilliland of being unpatriotic and a Tory sympathizer.  The charges would dog him throughout the war. Condemned by the British and distrusted by the Americans, several times Gilliland would be taken into custody and held for months at a time while his business interests languished and his properties lay wrecked and abandoned.

Will Gilliand survived the war but slid into increasing debt.  When a Massachusetts law firm brought him to court for non-payment of a debt he felt was unjustified, he refused to pay and was hauled off to debtors prison for nearly six years from 1786 to 1791. In 1789, in a curious bit of defiance, he had a portrait painted of himself, while in prison by the well known portrait artist Ralph Earl (also, a former inmate). He gazes out from his portrait, a cultured man, smiling slightly with a trace of wistfullness, a trace of deviousness, a trace of resolve, his hand pointing to a document as if to say "It is what is." 

Rte 9, South of Plattsburgh

By the time he was released some form of dementia had begun to set in. Some of his properties were saved by "gifting" them to his children.  He went to live with one of his daughters in Willsboro, but insisted in taking long walks to examine "his" properties, which in reality, were no longer his. In 1796, on one of his long walks he became disoriented, lost in a snowstorm, and died.

In 1798 residents of Pleasant Valley, Essex County renamed their town Elizabethtown in honor of Gilliland's wife and daughter.

Rte 22, South of Willsboro

 COON MOUNTAIN
NEAR THE NORTHERN BASE OF THIS
MOUNTAIN, WILLIAM GILLILAND,
EARLY PIONEER OF CHAMPLAIN
VALLEY, MET HIS TRAGIC
DEATH IN 1796
Location: ON NYS 22 ABOUT 1 MILE NORTH OF WADHAMS

(NYSHM missing)

















*Land bounties were a way for the Crown to help pay monies owed soldiers and encourage trained soldiers to settle the frontier, organize into militia and protect the colonies from the threat of Indian attack.


 Marker of the Week -- "Mother Lake"

Washington St., next to Riverfront Center, Amsterdam

Her first day on the job Lenora Barry earned $0.11, and that week $0.65, at Pioneer Hosiery an Amsterdam factory where she was paid piece-rate, and often worked twelve hour days. She had been forced to go to work to support her children after her husband, William Barry had died, probably from lead poisoning he had contracted on the job as a painter.  In 1882  she took a manufacturing job because state law forbade her from returning to teaching, as a married woman. Two years later Lenora joined the Knights of Labor. She rose steadily in its ranks becoming a "master workman" representing one thousand workers, then was elected as the "General Investigator" for the Knights of Labor, taking charge of the Working Women's division. She became the first paid woman investigator and organizer; she was on the road continuously, speaking, investigating and writing reports about labor conditions. A direct result of her efforts was the country's first factory inspection law passed in Philadelphia in 1889.  She retired from professional labor organizational activities when she married Obediah Lake, a newspaper publisher in 1890 but "Mother Lake" continued to speak out and give lectures until 1928, at age 78.  Happy Labor Day.

It Happened Here-- In Sir William's Footsteps 
Part 1--The Jessups

 

For a few thousand New Yorkers, and many thousands of Colonists across the English Colonies in North America the end of the French and Indian Wars occasioned an unleashing of dreams.
For most of these thousands the dream was for a few acres or a few dozen acres of land where they could build a home, farm and live without fear of attack from the French and their Indian allies.  During the war the British and colonial governments had fueled these dreams by inducing/rewarding soldiers and officers with grants of undeveloped land for their military service. For a few of these, their dreams were of a much greater magnitude and they looked to the example of Sir William Johnson for inspiration.

Rte 5, Ft. Johnson

William Johnson had come to America in 1738 to look after the estate of his uncle, Admiral Peter Warren in the Mohawk Valley and to supervise and collect rents from the tenant farmers on Warren's lands.  Soon, however, Johnson became involved in the profitable fur trade and in buying and selling all sorts of commodities to both colonial and Native American fur traders. Fur trading with the Indians led to buying land from them and land speculation.  Johnson moved several times from his original house  in Warrensbush, to across the river where his house/trading post would lie astride important trading routes. The Mohawks came to trust him, adopting him into their tribe, giving him the name Warraghiyagey, "Man who does much business." In time, he acquired large parcels of land, north of the Mohawk, into Cherry Valley and beyond, toward Lake Otsego. At the close of the French and Indian Wars he developed a town, Johnstown, building a palatial house for himself in the midst of his tenant farms, and importing craftsmen to sell goods and services to his tenants. Johnson ran flour mills and saw mills.  For clearing his land he owned some-sixty slaves and ran a profitable lumber business.

Ft. Johnson

Johnson's success in turning the wilderness into his private fortune inspired two brothers,  Edward and Ebenezer Jessup.  Edward had raised a militia company and served as its captain in Amherst's campaign in 1759 in the late war. His service acquainted him with the wilderness north of Albany, up into the Champlain region.  In 1764 the brothers moved to Albany to engage in land speculation. They sought out Sir William Johnson for his advise and help. In 1767 they were granted a patent for 41,000 acres around Lake Luzerne and the northern Hudson region.  They would follow it with two more purchases of 15,000 acres, a whopping 800,000 acre purchase, and another of 40,000 acres. They would own most of what would become northern and western Warren County and lands west to the West Canada Lakes. Sir William Johnson became an invaluable negotiator helping them purchase the land from the Mohawks and Caughnawagas (Canadian Mohawks). By 1773 they had established themselves in the lumber industry, cutting timber along the northern Hudson River and floating it down to their mills south of Lake Luzerne.  Their mills along with the ferry they operated and the town that sprung up around the mills became known as Jessup's Landing.  It remained Jessup's Landing until 1886, when its name was changed to Corinth.

In back of Post Office, Jessup's Landing Beach, Corinth

 Edward and Ebenezer Jessup, joined by their brother Joseph, built elaborate log mansions and furnished them richly, entertaining Sir William Johnson, and his entourage--his son John, nephew Guy, and their families; the Clauses and the Butlers. Even Governor Tryon enjoyed their hospitality.

But such opulence on the frontier and the strong Loyalist opinions they espoused generated early and fierce resentments.  In the first winter months of 1775 arsonists struck their mills, and destroyed the ferry. The Jessups closed their mills, laid off their workforce, packed their belongings and escaped with their families to seek refuge up river with the Johnsons at their Fish house camp.* When Sir John Johnson left for Canada in May, 1775, the Jessup men went with him.

Co. Rte. 44, Lake Luzerne

Rockwell Falls (since widened for logging)

Though the Jessups had made a successful escape, apparently Edward, Ebenezer and Joseph returned to the Patent to recruit Loyalist supporters the following year. In the summer of 1776 they were able to meet Sir Guy Carlton's invasion force with eighty recruits at Crown Point. Though Carleton's army was ultimately forced to turn back because of the lateness of the season, the following year, Edward was again recruiting in the region, this time narrowly avoiding capture. A rebel militia unit from Ballston Spa seized 31 recruits he had persuaded to join up and they would have taken him as well, but Edward managed to jump across Rockwell Falls, on the Hudson, and make his escape. Eventually he would meet up with General Burgoyne's army, and his brother Ebenezer at Willsboro. Plans were made for the Jessups to field a their own regiment, The King's Loyal American Corps, with Ebenezer as Lieutenant Colonel, and Edward as Captain. Previously the Jessups and their volunteers had been attached to Sir John Johnson's King's Royal Regiment of New York. But for the present campaign, Ebenezer remained with Johnson's Regiment and Edward took over Burgoyne's batteaux service.

The campaign, of course, did not go as they had hoped. Stopped at Bemis Heights, Burgoyne's Army was surrounded and forced to surrender. Most of the Loyalists, fearing they would be mistreated by the Patriots, if captured, opted to try to slip away at night before the surrender and try to make their way back to Canada. Not until 1781 would Jessup's Loyal American Corps have enough soldiers to become an independent unit. The Jessup brothers were said to have been taken into custody, then paroled to be allowed to make their way back to Canada, after promising to not engage in future combat. Whether they were paroled or simply escaped with so many other Loyalists, they continued as active combatants. Ebenezer Jessup led the loyalist contingent in a 1778 ship and batteaux raid that devastated the lower Lake Champlain valley and towns in the interior of Vermont, via the Otter Creek.

In 1779 with 57** other prominent Tories they were named in a remarkable document of the New York Legislature. Condemned for Treason, in absentia, they were banished from New York; their property was seized; and they were condemned to death if they were ever captured within the state.

Co Rte 35, 3mi. west of Kingsbury

The Jessups undoubtedly
knew the Jones' family, if
in fact, they didn't recruit
them to the cause. The
1781 Loyal Ranger roster
lists both a Capt. John Jones
and a Lt. David Jones. 





 
For the next four years,  following the Burgoyne debacle, Jessup's "Loyal Americans" saw service mainly along the northern-most end of Lake Champlain and the Richelieu river, building up fortifications from Montreal to Sorel and doing garrison duty, with occasional raids south into rebel territory. Edward accompanied Sir John Johnson on his raids into the Mohawk and Schoharie valleys in the summers of 1780 and 1781. Finally in November 1781 members of the still incomplete Loyal American Corps were combined with fragments of other units to form the Loyal Rangers but by now, with the war winding down, the new unit saw action in only a pair of minor raids. By the summer of 1783 Edward Jessup was involved in resettling his men in townships allocated to them along the Saint Lawrence River. The Jessups would pass from American history into Canadian history, becoming important developers of Upper Canada. Edward would found the town of Prescott, Ontario, and be honored by having a chapter of United Empire Loyalists named for him. Ebenezer eventually moved his family to England to try to gain compensation from the Crown for the vast acreage lost by the brothers. He finally was awarded an administrative post in Calcutta, India, where he died in 1818.



Next Week -- In Sir William's Footsteps, Part 2 Will Gilliland

Marker(s) of the Week--


Question:  What do you do after
you have built the town's major
industry, run the general store,
built most of the houses in town 
and held many town offices?


 

Co. Rte. 4, Hadley

Answer:  Become the town's
Postmaster.














 *The Sacandaga river empties into the Hudson at Hadley/Lake Luzerne. "Upstream" from there is southwest, past the "Fish house" to Mayfield where it makes an abrupt turn northward and continues into the Adirondacks. The section from Mayfield to Conklinville is now dammed, forming the Great Sacandaga Reservoir.

** Others included Sir John Johnson, Daniel Claus, John Butler, Ex-Governor Tryon, Ex-Albany Mayor Cuyler, and Phillip Skene of Skenesboro.