H. P. Smith

“ The sparse population of the county at large, and with the exception of Glens Falls, the absence of any large villages, have operated against the establishment of public journals, and have been the prime cause of the premature decay and death of many papers from which their learned editors expected fame and fortune. It is a very sterile and thinly populated district in this great country of ours where at least one man cannot be found who believes himself born to be a journalist ”

“ The name of the Warren Republican was changed to that of the Warren Patriot in 1815 by Linus J. Reynolds, who had purchased it from Cunningham. The paper was then enlarged from its duodecimo size and double column to a demy sheet with four columns. In about a year Reynolds sold back to Cunningham, who associated with himself Adonijah Emmons. The office was removed to an upper room in the north end of Emmons's house. Cunningham, though a man of refined tastes and brilliant parts, was addicted to intemperate habits, and his prosperity was not commensurate with his enterprise or deserts. ”

“ As the society were unable to procure a pastor, some of its members joined other societies, while others moved away. In 1835 the Baptists finished the church, which had not yet been plastered, and occupied it a few years, but finally, for want of unity among the members, it was abandoned, and recently torn down. The next house of worship was the Methodist Church at Johnsburgh Corners, which was begun in 1838 and completed in 1843. ”

“ JOHNSBURGH is the northwestern town of Warren county, being bounded on the north by the town of Minerva, in Essex county, on the east, across the Hudson, by Chester, on the south by Thurman, and on the west by the town of Wells, in Hamilton county. Its surface is everywhere broken by lofty and precipitous mountains, composed for the most part of solid rock. ”

“ Those who are in- debted to the Messenger will see that we need all that is our due, and we trust they will promptly respond, that we may be enabled to procure material for printing the Messenger on a larger sheet than this. With our next issue we pro- pose to send bills to all subscribers in arrears, and all others who feel disposed to aid us in getting a new press, may pay in advance, for as long a period as they can afford, and they will be credit- ed with the amount and the paper sent the full time — or paid in advertising — if it be for a thousand years. ”

“ In presenting to the public the first number of the Glens Falls Spectator, we feel it incumbent upon us to state at least the general course we shall pursue in its future publication. Our political views are in accordance with those of the present administration [Van Buren] whose measures we shall support so far as we shall deem them consistent with the best interests of the community. A portion of our columns will be devoted to literary, miscellaneous, foreign, domestic, agricultural, and such other objects as are calculated to disseminate general intelligence ”

“ About the same time, 1790, Thurman began to clear land on Beaver Brook, nearly a mile west from Elm Hill, and in 1790 or soon after he erected a saw-mill and grist-mill on the falls of of the brook. Settlers then began to move in from England, Scotland, Ireland and New England. They took up farms varying in size from fifty to one hundred acres. In 1794 Thurman built the first framed barn in town. ”

“ For years the inhabitants carried their grain and butter to Glens Falls and Waterford for sale, in return purchasing and bringing home family supplies, such as tea, tobacco, molasses, rum (for the hay and harvest season) , sole leather, cotton and woolen clothing. At times somebody would make a spasmodic effort at keeping a store—falsely so-called—by dealing in small quantities of rum, tobacco, salt, etc. ”

“ In 1795 he, a widower, and his four sons and three daughters, all adults and unmarried, came to America and settled in the city of New York, where, with his eldest son Archibald, he labored as a stone and brick mason. The family attended the old John street Methodist Church. In 1798, under the persuasive influence of John Thurman, [2] he came to the wilderness lands of Thurman Patent, now Johnsburgh, and purchased four hundred acres in a body—one hundred for each son—and, in 18oo, moved upon the tract and began to clear the land. ”

“ In 1832-33, the Weavertown Tannery was built by William Watson and James Wasson, of Blandford, Mass. The enterprise stimulated the dormant energies of the inhabitants, giving employment to the men, creating a market for bark and farm produce, and awakening hopes of other industries yet to come. Several stores were soon established. [4] A few years later a tannery was built at The Glen. It burned not long a after, was rebuilt, operated a few years and abandoned, having proved a source of loss to everybody interested in it. In 1852 Milton Sawyer and Wheeler Mead built the tannery at North Creek. ”

“ It is the spirit, become a habit, with which a business or professional man, or an artisan sits down to his breakfast, paper in hand, and, learning of the movements of foreign armies, of the dissensions in the English House of Commons or the German Reichstag ”

“ Their present membership is less than it was forty years ago.
David Noble, a local preacher, and father of the first Methodist family in Johnsburgh, was the son of Archibald Noble, of English descent, and Eleanor (Jamison) Noble, of Scotch extraction, was born in Ireland in December, 1734. The Noble family were Episcopalians, or members of the English Church, as it was then styled. When a young man David Noble was converted under the preaching of John Wesley, who, in his early ministry, often visited Ireland, and together with his sons and daughters united with the Methodist societies. ”

“ David Noble well remembers the old man and has often seen those granite millstones. John Thurman, the founder and operator of all these industries, was killed at Bolton Landing in September, 1807, by a vicious bull, and was buried on his own premises, on ground now included in the Methodist cemetery at Johnsburgh Corners. ”

“ In May, 1842, the irrepressible Zabina Ellis bought out Mr. Sherwood and the firm name was Cheny & Ellis. After the lapse of a year Ellis retired from the firm, and left Cheney to conduct the paper alone until January 1, 1851.
Meanwhile newspaper enterprise seemed to be increasing. In September, 1843, two brothers, Marcellus and Thomas J. Strong, practical printers, bought out the press and type of the Literary Pearl, a sheet which had been started by Newton M. Curtis, and which had died after the fitful fever of a short life, and issued a paper under the name of the Glens Falls Republican. ”

“ H. M. Harris, proprietor of the Republican, was born in Schenectady on the I2th of May, 1833. He began his apprenticeship as a printer in the office of the Granville Telegraph, a weekly published at Granville, Washington county, in 1849; this paper was the especial organ of the Washington County Mutual Insurance Company, then doing the largest business of any insurance company in the world, issuing as many as one thousand policies a week. He remained there two years and in January, 1851, came to Glens Falls and finished his apprenticeship on the Glens Falls Free Press, under Zabina Ellis. ”

“ In August, 1883, they began the issue of their weekly papers. The office is on the corner of Glen and Ridge streets. The paper is a world of methodical mechanical arrangement and neatness, and contains always a full and cornplete account of the local. State, national and foreign news of the day. Its editorial expressions are judicious and impartial. These qualities conspire to increase its circulation and value as an advertising medium, and augment the encouraging prosperity of the enterprise.
↑ Largely prepared from newspaper sketches published some years since by Dr. A. W. Holden. ”

“ The tannery has been built over twice since 1876. About twenty men are now kept busy in the building- and as many more furnish the bark, though they are not always in Mr. Reed's employ. The tannery turns out 30,000 sides of leather per annum.
Hotels.—There are two hotels at North Creek—the American Hotel, kept by John Mclnerny since May 1st, 1872, when he came here from Chestertown and built it. The house will accommodate thirty guests; and the Adirondack House, of which J. J. Lyons has been proprietor for four years. ”

“ The soil is a sandy and gravelly loam. Kaolin, serpentine iron ore, and a few other minerals are found in small quantities.
The early history of the town has been so well written by Dr. Holden for the Warrensburgh News, from matter furnished him by David Noble, of Weavertown, that we cannot refrain from drawing largely from this storehouse in the compilation of this chapter. The town was taken from the old town of Thurman on the 6th of April, 1805. The records for the first two years are not to be found. ”

“ In January, 188 1, the establishment was purchased by L. C. Dickinson, who is present editor and proprietor, with C. E. Cole as assistant. It is a handsome country journal of eight pages, six columns to the page and independent. It is very ably conducted.
The thrift and energy of the village of Glens Falls is particularly manifested by the fact that although as yet but a village, it possesses two daily newspapers. It is a sign of enterprise and prosperity, and of that spirit which is the most distinguishing characteristic of modern times, especially in the United States. ”

“ A. W. Holden, the author, subsequently, of a valuable history of the town of Queensbury, and a coadjuter in the preparation of this history, was associated with T. J. Strong in the publication of the Republican. During the political canvass of 1 844 the Clarion, which had claimed to be a neutral paper, came out vigorously for the Whigs. A campaign sheet called The Whig Reveille was published at the Clarion office, and another called The Hickory Leaf at the office of the Republican. ”

“ The daily press disseminates intelligence, while the weekly press and more deliberate publications give utterance to the prophecies which wise and experienced men deduce from the significant happenings of the times.
The Glens Falls Daily Times, a handsome, eight-column sheet, was started June 2 1 St, 1879. It was at the beginning but a 16x10 paper, printed on a quarto- medium Gordon press, one side at a time.. The first proprietor was A. B. Colvin. ”

“ Martin Gillett, who remained in office until about 1830, when he went West, and was succeeded by Clark Burdick.
The first settlers prior to Thurman's death were Robert Maxham and family, Samuel Hamden and family, Robert Waddell, son and daughter, Joseph Hopper, first hotel-keeper; Joseph Robinson, William Leach, Timothy Johnson, Reuben Washburn, Archibald Washburn, Samuel Morehouse, a Revolutionary soldier, and family. ”

“ The greater part of the town is too rough and stony for cultivation, the arable land being thus confined to the narrow valleys formed by the Sacandaga and other small streams which find their devious ways from source to mouth. ”

“ In June, 1876, his grandson, David Noble, of Weavertown (who furnishes much of the information contained in this chapter) , exhumed his remains and re-interred them in the cemetery of the Methodist Church of Johnsburgh. He also removed with the body the marble slab which marked his resting place at Cambridge. [3]
Following is a list given by Mr. Noble, of aged persons who have died in town: Thomas Somerville, died October 13th, 1815, aged 81 years; Mary Somerville, his wife, — — died 1825, aged 83 years; Elizabeth Somerville, a sister, died August 12th, 1837, aged 90 years ”

“ In the succeeding March the. establishment was sold out to Hillman A. Hall and Meredith B. Little for $1,100, who continued the publication under the firm style of Hall & Little. During the next two years the proprietorship passed from Hall & Little to Harris & Hall, Little's interest being purchased by H. M. Harris. Next it became Harris & Little, Hall's interest passing to the latter, and finally, Mr. Harris became the sole editor and proprietor. He has ever since retained his interest and made his paper one of the leading Democratic journals of the State and a power in the party. Mr. ”

“ That issue was printed from type borrowed of the Sandy Hill Herald office, on a little hand press saved from the Messenger office during the fire, the work being done in the editor's corn-house.
Vol. 9. phe:n^ix edition. GLEN'S FALLS, N. Y., FRIDAY, JUNE 3, 1864. No. 23. A GREAT FIRE !— One of the most destructive fires that ever happened in any village in the Northern States, visit- ed Glen's Falls on Thursday last, May 31st, consuming the entire business por- tion of the village and sweeping away the wealth and accumulations of years. The central part of the place is one mass of ruins. ”

“ W. Sisson, store and goods, 30,- 000 — insured 12,000. Messenger office, printing material and stock, over 2,000 — insured r,ooo. Lasher & Freligh, store and goods, 20,- 000 — insured 10,000. W. A. Fonda, house, store and goods, 20,000 — insured 5,000. N. E. Sheldon, store, goods and house, 10,000 — insured 6,000. Hawley's store, goods and house, $3,- 000 — insured 1,000. Mansion House and the Glen's Falls Hotel, 20,000 — insured 15,000. M. C. Rich, 3,000 to 4,000-insured 1 ,000. Commercial Bank, 4,000-insured 2,000. Rosekrans building and contents, 4,000 — no insurance. ”