The Girl from the Adirondack Mountains

By Edith Parker Willette

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9781465333438

Edith Parker Willette

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Copyright © 2009 by Edith Parker Willette.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Part 1

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Part 2

Chapter Thirteen

Acknowledgments

I am indebted above all to my husband and children, without whose encouragement and patience this book would never have been written.

My dear departed Aunt Amy whose notes of the past did help immensely.

Of course, my notes of our travels every step of the way were reminders as well in bringing back memories of friends and beautiful places.

Part 1

Chapter One

My Hometown

I was born Edith Kathryn Parker in May of 1925 in the small town of what is now called Newcomb in the heart of the Adirondack Mountains.

Of course, the Indians were the first humans here as many flints, arrowheads, etc., have been found in this area.

Their deed was given to Edward and Ebenezer Jessup and Associates under a license granted to Joseph Totten and Stephen Crossfield known as the Totten and Crossfield, making it the first colonial record.

The first road to enter this area was authorized by the state legislature in 1807. It extended from Chester through Minerva (known as Dominick at that time) and on through Canton, somewhat following a trail cut around the Revolutionary War time from Minerva through Newcomb and beyond.

Nathaniel Pendleton was born in Virginia in 1756. At the age of nineteen, he joined the Revolutionary Army and was aid to Gen. Nathanael Greene in the Southern Campaign. After the war, he settled in Georgia, studied law, and became a U.S. district judge. In 1796, he moved to New York City, took a leading part in the bar, and married Susan Bard.

Judge Pendleton had land holdings in several parts of New York State and had purchased several thousand acres in the present town of Newcomb where his workers constructed a dam, a sawmill, and later a gristmill and named the town Pendleton.

Now I have read in two different places that there were five or six families here in 1808 who had a gristmill and sawmill but can find no further information on this as to names or where they came from. It stated that they had moved on by the time the Chandlers had arrived.

After less than a decade, the Pendleton family left and lived in Hyde Park, New York, where he maintained an estate called Placentia. He was fatally injured in a carriage accident at a community called Gay’s Hill on October 20, 1821, and lies in the churchyard of St. James Episcopal Church of Hyde Park.

The history of the Pendleton name is very interesting and could be made into a book; but to touch on a bit, one of his grandsons, George Hunt Pendleton (born July 25, 1825) married Alice Key, daughter of Francis Scott Key (author of The Star-Spangled Banner). In 1856, he entered Congress until 1865. In 1878, he was a U.S. senator and so on. County judge George W. Baily of Umatilla County, Oregon, who was from Ohio and an admirer of Pendleton, used his influence to have the name of his county seat changed to Pendleton in 1868.

Pendleton was appointed ambassador to Germany in 1885. He held this post until his death in Belgium in 1889.

The story of the family is very spellbinding as well as the name, still remaining in Pendleton, Oregon, as a reminder.

Joseph Chandler, a native of New Jersey by way of Granville, and his wife, Sarah, came by oxen-drawn cart to be the first permanent settlers in Pendleton in 1816. He erected a two-room log cabin on the southeast shore of Rich Lake facing Goodnow Mountain. Once a year, Mr. Chandler would haul the needed supplies from Minerva (Dominick at that time) with the oxen.

The Chandlers had seven sons: Alonzo, Daniel, Erastus, James, John, Joseph, and Sheldon. They also had six daughters: Emily, Susan, Mary, Ester Ann, Harriet, and Melinda.

Joseph Chandler was followed shortly by James Chandler, his brother, William Butler, Collins Hewitt Sr., Abner Beldin (my grandfather’s uncle), David Pierce, James Ramsey, and Cromwell Catlin.

Sheldon B. Hewitt, son of Collins, wanted to become a great hunter, so he served apprenticeship with a tribe of Indians who lived near Long Lake. He became equal to his teachers in strength, stealth, and swiftness of foot.

These Indians often came to the Chandler cabin to spend the afternoon and evening.

It was a very wild country at that time. Moose were often seen, panthers would scream, and the wolves would howl.

Capt. Peter Sabattis, an Abenaki Indian chief from St. Lawrence County, came once a year looking for game and often stayed with the Chandlers. He liked to bounce little Ester Ann (daughter of Joseph Chandler) on his knee.

He erected an open-face camp near Lake Julia and used it for his hunting, fishing, and trapping headquarters.

Captain Peter was so named as he was with Benedict Arnold on the expedition to Quebec. Also during the war of 1812, he blazed trails for the road makers from Lake George to Lake Ontario and was made a captain in the U.S. Army. He passed away in 1861.

His son Mitchel became very friendly with all the pioneer children.

Mitchel married Betsy Dornburg and raised a family of nine children. Because he was a full-blood Indian, they had to leave Long Lake and move to Pendleton (later Newcomb) as her parents strongly objected to her marriage to an Indian.

They eventually moved back to Long Lake where he became one of the most respected citizens, a guide and a pastor in his church.

Betsy Dornburg was sister to Rachel Dornburg who married Zenas Parker (my grandfather’s brother). Small world, isn’t it?

The first marriage in Pendleton was Abner Beldin and Barsheba Butler in 1820. Their children were Abner Beldin Jr., Elisha, Esaw, Kimball, and Barshaba.

Also in 1820, the first child, Nathional Hewitt, was born.

The first deer killed by an automobile near Newcomb is shown below. My aunt Amy did not know exactly what year this was, but it is a small runabout of early years, perhaps 1903-1906 she said.

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This also reminds me of a little ditty that my aunt told me.

Sing while You Drive

At 45 miles per hour, sing Highways Are Happy Ways.

At 55 miles per hour, sing I Am But a Stranger Here, Heaven Is My Home.

At 65 miles per hour, sing Nearer, My God, to Thee.

At 75 miles per hour, sing When the Roll Is Called up Yonder.

At 85 miles per hour, sing Lord, I’m Coming Home.

Daniel T. Newcomb

Daniel T. Newcomb was born on July 25, 1794, in Pittstown, New York, and served in the war of 1812 under Col. Wm. Knickerbacker in a brigade commanded by General Eddy at the invasion of Plattsburgh in September 1814.

At the age of twenty-eight, he settled in Pendleton and pursued his favorite occupation of agriculture as he cultivated a large tract of land here.

In 1828, Pendleton was incorporated and renamed Newcomb (Saxon origin, which means stranger newly arrived) after him, and he also became the first supervisor of the town.

Mr. Newcomb and his wife lived in Newcomb for several years and then returned to Pittstown.

His great ambition was to become a large agriculturist, so he decided to explore the West a bit first and then settled down.

He finally settled in Iowa in 1837 in a log cabin by the Mississippi River.

Later, he decided to make Davenport his home and moved into a fine residence to be known as the Newcomb Mansion on very spacious grounds.

Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb’s picture is shown below.

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He accumulated a large fortune and remained there until his death on December 22, 1870.

He was always generous to the needy and kind to the poor; hence, he was being known as the poor man’s friend.

Mrs. Newcomb erected the Newcomb Memorial Chapel at Davenport in her husband’s memory and gave many donations locally.

Newcomb, my hometown, has always been a quiet, interesting town with plenty of history, friendly people, beautiful scenery, lakes, and so much forest to explore.

Newcomb and the surrounding towns of Tahawus, Minerva, and Long Lake have so much history that it would take several books to tell it all.

People in the old days were expected to lay up supplies of potatoes, salt, sugar, lard, flour, cornmeal, dried beans, canned pork, chicken, venison, vegetables, fruits, as well as salt pork in earthenware crocks to last through the harsh winters.

Father, as well as most families, built a large square box about a foot high on the dirt floor in the cellar and filled it with sand. After the canning of vegetables from the garden was finished, the remaining carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips were buried in the sand; and we had fresh vegetables for a long time. This fresh produce was used first and then the canned items. A barrel filled with straw always kept cabbage for the winter.

Over half of the cellar was filled with split wood to feed the huge wood furnace that kept the house warm in the winter. This was a job that had to be finished in the fall before the first snow. I often helped Father on the two-man saw to cut the logs and then carried the wood in as he split it.

Butternuts from the butternut trees were gathered in the fall to be used in cakes, pies, ice cream, and candy. The husks were often boiled and used for a brown dye.

Highbush cranberries, so many there but none where I live at the present time, were used in jellies, pies, and muffins.

Also, the cranberries picked off low bushes on the marsh off the Hudson River below my parents’ house were used in pies, jams, and canned for winter use.

My hometown in 1911

Round building on left of picture was called the Round Barn

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My parents’ home in Newcomb

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Chapter Two

Trapping

Beaver trapping was a booming trade in the early years in my hometown as well as elsewhere.

If a beaver found a stream running through a forest with their favorite food of popular and aspen trees, the inner bark or cambium became their food along with the aquatic plants. The branches, some mud, etc., were cleverly engineered into a very sturdy dam. They have been known to change the course of a stream to flow past their food supply.

Their lodges, built of sticks and mud, are very interesting and can be seen in many ponds throughout the Adirondacks as well as New York State.

In the fall, they store branches near their lodge in the water for winter food.

Their tails serve as a warning signal to other beavers when danger is near and can easily be heard as they slap them on the water. Also, the tails are used as rudders in swimming.

Beavers mate between mid-January and mid-March. They give birth in late May and have between three to five young. At the age of three months, the kits eat foliage from the fresh branches and are weaned at six weeks.

When their food supply is exhausted, they will move on; and eventually the trees in the ponds will die, rot, and other vegetation will decay. The pond will fill with this organic material, becoming a beaver meadow and finally a forest again.

In the late 1400s, there were no doubt millions of beavers; but in the late 1500s, beaver trappers sold their pelts to the European markets as the fur felt hat was very popular, the pelt making a great waterproof hat with a glossy sheen. In the late 1700s, the top hat came into style in Europe and America, making a greater demand for beaver pelts. In the late 1800s, the beaver population was very low and beaver trapping was closed.

There are so many interesting stories of the mountain men who trapped beaver for a living. I remember several of my relatives telling stories of beaver trapping. They had to be hearty men, but they also lead a very interesting life in the peace and quiet of the forest.

Now after some restoring and closed seasons, I am seeing more and more signs of beavers. Season is now open again.

Try to quietly watch a beaver as he works tirelessly to construct a beaver house or build a dam. It is amazing what this animal can accomplish.

If you have ever heard the slap of a beaver tail on the water on a quiet, peaceful evening, you will know how to appreciate the aquatic rodent engineers.

Chapter Three

Logging

Logging was also a good source of employment for hundreds of men most of the year in the Adirondacks. Some of the logging was done in the very cold months of the year, so the lumberjack had to be a tough, hardy gentleman to stand the work and weather.

It was daylight to dark days for the lumberjack to select the logs, chop and cut down the trees, keep the roads in shape for the teams of horses to haul the logs to a point where they could be driven down the rivers.

Also, there were the camp cooks (often husband and wife) who worked long hours to keep the workers fed.

Early spring after ice-out, there were logs going down the Hudson River by my parents’ home (where the Hudson River first crosses the main road), tended by river drivers as they were called. They made sure the logs were floating freely and break up any logjams that might occur. There were several places, Hudson River Gorge below Newcomb for one, where the logs would easily hang up.

These men were very skilled to walk the logs and seldom fall into the raging, cold water.

But in spite of their skill, several lives were lost. Asa Bunker, who was rolling logs into the river, slipped and fell into the rushing water. Frank Fuller, twenty-two years old, was breaking up a logjam when he was drowned. Will Timball Daredevil Dick Siple, Morgan King, Byron Alden, Bill McGear, Harry Darling, Frank Ovitt, a man called Frenchie, and more who were mostly known only by first names or nicknames are only a few workers who perished on the job.

Edgar J. Houghton and Jack Casey were in a river drive boat that capsized on July 2, 1892. Casey made it to shore, but young Houghton perished. Dams above the drive were shut down, and finally, a red bandanna around the neck of Houghton caught the eye of a searcher. Then Edgar was laid to rest in Newcomb Rich Lake Cemetery, leaving a wife and children.

There was no workman compensation in those days, so help for the families was by donations only.

Each company sending logs down the rivers had a company mark called a brand on the ends of the logs for sorting purposes. These brands were stamped on the ends of the logs with a stamping hammer consisting of an iron hammer with the brand fitted into a hardwood handle. It took a man with muscle to swing this hammer and mark the logs.

The Finch Pruyn Company mark is shown below:

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In later years, the four foot, or quatre-peid as the French Canadian called it, was adopted and called pulpwood, as length and shape did not matter if it was to be crushed into pulp for paper products.

The pulpwood drivers were not in quite as much danger as the log drivers, but accidents did happen as I remember hearing my father tell. For example, he said Arthur Hopkins was drowned in a river drive near Newcomb in 1901.

Some pulpwood came down the rivers, and some were later brought in trucks and dumped on the point of land my parents owned across the road from their house in the spring after ice-out, then dumped into the Hudson River by conveyor to float down to the Finch Pruyn Company in Glens Falls. Jeremiah Finch and Samuel Pruyn were the owners.

The last of the pulpwood drives was in 1950, when this era ended. Today, trucks move the logs and pulpwood faster to market. You will find some very skilled drivers of these big loads as my husband and I followed one of these for miles into the Adirondack town of Tupper Lake. The driver never touched a brake, but never broke the speed limit, keeping it steady on the winding roads. A driver to be proud of.

Finch Pruyn and Company built many logging camps in the Adirondacks on their thousands of acres of woodland where the lumberjacks lived in big log buildings containing the bunkhouse, kitchen, and dining room or mess hall as it was called.

Also, a branch office, bunkhouse, warehouse, horse barn, and blacksmith shop near the eastern end of Newcomb.

The Pruyns were very prominent people as Franz Pruyn came from Holland around 1630. They settled in Albany (Fort Orange) at that time. Some became members of the United States Congress, the state legislature, and American minister diplomat to Japan, as well as the lumber industry.

Robert C. Pruyn, an eighth-generation decendant of Franz, married Anna Martha Williams from Connecticut. He was very well-known in the banking world, public utilities, became director of the Delaware and Hudson Railway, and so much more.

They had four children: Robert, Ruth, Edward, and Frederick.

Anna’s love of the wilderness came from the William, as they were partly of Native American decent and owned a retreat in the Adirondacks. Her love of nature and desire to live back in the woods led her and her husband to purchase about 13,000 acres on which they developed the Santanoni Preserve.

They both enjoyed horses, hunting, hiking, fishing, and entertaining.

When Robert Pruyn went to look at a site for Camp Santanoni, I understand he took two of his good friends with him—Howard Van Rensselaer and James Fenimore Cooper.

Camp Santanoni was built for the Pruyns in 1892, taking the name from Santanoni Peak. It was a beautiful huge log structure with stone chimneys and many windows. Located on the shores of Lake Delia, now called Newcomb Lake, Camp Santanoni was surrounded by beautiful mountains, which provided a wonderful setting for peace and independence while being partly hidden in the wilderness.

Independence because about forty buildings were constructed on the preserve to house servants, guests, farm animals, smokehouse, etc. Cows, horses, sheep, chickens, pigs, and turkeys were present as well as a huge vegetable garden. This place had an abundance of wild game and fish, making the owners as well as the workers very independent.

Of course, farming was R. C. Pruyn’s delight; and they employed many local people to tend the crops, animals, and do the upkeep. Many lived on the preserve. They also tapped the maple trees and made their own maple syrup as well as cutting ice for the icehouse.

Elbert Parker (my great uncle) was a caretaker and managed Pruyn’s business as well as a guide for hunting and fishing for nearly seventeen years. Finally, Santanoni Preserve became so large that a full-time superintendent was needed.

In 1905, the Gate Lodge, a stone gate lodge at the entrance to the preserve, was constructed. A huge archway for this made a very grand entrance to the preserve and provided a year-round home for the gatekeeper.

The Pruyns also owned a home in Albany as Santanoni was their camp. In the summer and fall, when they were not at camp, fresh vegetables, dairy products, maple syrup, and sugar were brought to them from the Santanoni property.

Before they arrived at Santanoni, local women were hired by the Santanoni housekeeper to clean and ready the buildings. My great-aunt Alice Parker was one along with Effie Hall, Jessie Johnson, as well as others who cleaned there.

Public access by automobile has been banned; but bicyclists, walkers, horse, and wagon riders may see what is left of this magnificent estate. The state has taken over, removed many smaller buildings, and made repairs to the main building or Great Camp as it is referred to.

It is now a historic place.

Other well-to-do achievers such as the Whitneys, Durants, Morgans, Litchfields, Webbs, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, etc., also built great camps on their own land holdings in the Adirondacks as well as some on Jeckyll Island in Georgia that I will point out as having seen later in this book.

All were leaders of the conservation and wilderness movements.

Theodore Roosevelt, an avid sportsman often visited the Pruyns, as did James Fenimore Cooper and well over four hundred others, logged in the three huge volumes of guest books.

Chapter Four

The Civilian Conservation Corps

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was started during the Great Depression years to provide work on projects and help families during the hard times. One camp was established in the outskirts of Newcomb.

The workers were paid $30 a month along with room, board, and health care. They worked on dams, campsites, stream improvement, trails, weed, pest, and fire control, and stone walls.

Much of the work can be seen today in many places. For example, the beautiful stone walls as you drive through Letchworth Park that have survived all these years.

There is also a monument there in their honor.

Chapter Five

Guides

Another picturesque part of the Adirondacks and my hometown was the true Adirondack guide.

They had very interesting personalities and kept few dairies, but they were an easygoing lot who enjoyed life and had a wealth of information as well as an uncanny knowledge of topography and a fine appreciation of the beauty of nature and animals.

I believe the Adirondack guide was born to it and not made, just as I believe I was born to be a natural in the woods, finding my way anywhere, and to love the wilderness and animals as well as hunting and fishing.

So many of my relatives were guides. I can offhand name at least eight in Newcomb starting with Abner Beldin, Abner Parker, Archie Parker, Adelbert Parker, Elbert Parker, Henry Parker (son of Zenus Parker), Sam Parker, and ending with my uncle Ralph Parker who was my idol when it came to hunting and fishing tales that taught me so much. He and my father were so close when it came to hunting and fishing, but Father was not a guide.

Perhaps the most colorful guide was Orson Old Mountain Phelps who was well-known by everyone in his day. He was born in 1816 and lived nearly eighty-eight years. There were so many tales about him.

Also Mitchell Sabattis, a pure-blood Abenaki Indian who knew the ways of the woods and animals. It is said that he was honest, true, and a man of deed.

Another one was John Cheney, born in 1800 near Lake Champlain and arrived in Newcomb in 1830. He was full of tales and was a great woodsman who wanted to be known as a hunter.

The old Adirondack guides have passed from the Adirondacks as the wolves, moose, and panthers have. But today’s guides have the same chores of planning the outing, packing the supplies, setting up camp, cooking, cleaning up, and making sure the client gets the game he or she expected and paid for.

Chapter Six

Hermits

There were a few hermits in the old days, but an individual that I found very interesting was the Adirondack hermit Noah John Rondeau. He lived alone, of course, about nineteen miles back in the woods, high on a bluff on the banks of the Cold River.

His cabin and buildings were constructed from abandoned camps of the Santa Clara Lumber Company who did lumbering there.

A very gentle, knowledgeable, well-kept gentleman who liked to read from his small library, kept a dairy, and had a trapline, Rondeau played the violin and had a vast knowledge of the forest and the animals while he enjoyed the true freedom of solitude in this beautiful region.

Twice I had the occasion to speak with him, and I do treasure the time spent, wishing I had the nature savvy that he had acquired as he explained so much to me that I will always remember.

In November 1950, the huge blowdown occurred, damaging 423,735 acres and closing trails. And a lightning fire in July 1953 closed the woods.

The trail to his cabin had become too much for him, and as a result of all this, he never lived in his beloved woods again.

Sadly, my friend passed away on August 24, 1967, and is buried in North Elba Cemetery.

Chapter Seven

Bounty Hunters

In the 1800s, there were so many bounty hunters accomplished in the art of shooting and trapping that by the late 1800s, the timber wolf and panther were exterminated except in the desolate regions.

My uncle Ralph said that back then, a panther was worth $20 while a wolf brought $30, quite a good dollar in those days.

The moose and deer were sources of meat and hides, but they were also shot by city sportsmen for trophies until the moose also vanished from the forest.

It was the in thing back then to decorate the cabins with mounted heads, antlers for picture frames, chairs, lights, and feet for coat and hat racks.

Chapter Eight

My Relatives

Since I have another book for my children with a history of our family from Abner Beldin Sr., who settled in Newcomb in 1819 to the present day, I will only touch briefly on the relatives and not bore everyone.

Abner Beldin, born January 1773 in Greenwich, Connecticut, came to settle in Newcomb in 1819. He married Barsheba Butler. They had five children: Abner Beldin Jr., Elisha, Esaw, Kimball, and Barshaba.

Abner Beldin Jr. married