Official Publication of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association

October 1980

Commemorative Issue OUR TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF PUBLICATION October 1980 THE QUARTERLY Official Publication of the St. Lawrence County Historical Association

VOLUME XXV OCTOBER 1980 NO. 4

CONTENTS

Peter H. Vrooman 3 Lumbering on the Grass John W. Van de Water 7 Backyard Orchards: Past and Future Paul D. Schweizer 9 Charles Ehricke in Northern New York-Part I Margaret P. Carve1 14 To Cover My Nakedness: A Personal History of Clothing Styles Alan Tuttle 17 Gouverneur Marble-From Great Buildings to Silent Quarries Neal S. Burdick 21 Carl M. Witherbee's Reminiscences of the Village of Canton Mary Ruth Beaman 23 The Wright Corner

The Quarterly is published in January, April, July and October each year by the St. Lawrence County Historical Association. This publication is made possible in part with public funds from As a courtesy to authors and the the New York State Council on the Arts. editor, the Association asks anyone wishing to reproduce all or part of material included in The Quarterly to submit a specific request in writing at least 30 days in advance of its anticipated use. Extra copies may be obtained from the History Center, P.O. Box Cover: A postcard view of the Memorial Arch in the park on Main Street, 8, Canton, N.Y. 13617, at $2.00 Gouverneur, with the Presbyterian Church and several other build- plus 254 postage and handling. ings behind, all built of Gouverneur marble. See the article on marble by Alan Tuttle, beginning on page 17. (Courtesy of the History Center Editor: Varick A. Chittenden Archives) October 1980 3

SLCHA WRITING COMPETITION FIRST PLACE AWARD WINNER-SCHOOL CATEGORY

* '. -+&:-% -- -+. r * is- --k& .c ~:we 6 w -- -4 - -- A logging born on the Crass Rirjer. The cribs built of logs and stones kept the booms from drifting to shore. (Photo courtesy of the author, from the History Center Archives)

Lumbering on the Grass by Peter H. Vrooman

Much has been written before about the logging industry and the life of the woodsmen inAmerica. But little has been recorded about the same along the banks of the Grass River. Here the author-an eighth grader at the Canton Middle School-recreates with thoroughness and clarity this interesting aspect of our County's past.

Introduction place was in the town of Clare, where further down the Main Branch of the A.B. Hepburn had vast holdingsof land. Grass River toward other sawmills in In this account of the lumber industry The time of year was the early winter the county. With the forests maturing in St. Lawrence County, primarily on after the timber had been felled until the and growing back and the current the Grass River, I will try to recount the end of the river drives in mid-spring. rebirth of the lumber industry, I think it lives and duties of lumberjacks and The river drive started from the North is necessary to recall the lives and duties rivermen in the 1890's and early 1900's. Branch of the Grass River in Clare to the of the Adirondack lumberjacks and The area in which this lumbering took Canton Lumber Company in Canton and rivermen. 4 October 1980

toward Bucks Bridge in Potsdam

1-Mill owned by Hodskin and later Spears

Canton Lumber Co.

If toward Stillwater Club

2-Mill owned by Harmon and Rice and A.B. Hepburn Maps of the Grass River and of the Village of Canton, with significant logging operations indicated. (Courtesy of the author) October 1980

Hauling Logs there was no talking, only eating, for to make the hauling of the wood easier. A By the time the first snow had fallen, there was work to be done. The cook's man called a "road monkey" followed all the trees had been felled and piled on word was law and everyone obeyed him. behind the sprinkler sled and smoothed skidways. Skidways were crude loading Without a good cook, the men wouldn't out any ruts or uneven surfaces in the stands,' situated in the midst of cutting work, so the lumber companies made road. He also put sand, marsh hay or dirt areas, and always built on slopes so that sure they hired a capable one. on the very steep grades of a hill. Many when the sleds came in the winter to be The teamsters were awakened by the accidents resulted from careless maneu- loaded, they would be below the level of bull cook, whose job it was to keep the vers on a curving hill or faulty road the skidway. Roads led from all the skid- bunkhouse in order and to wake the men surfaces, causing the deaths of both men ways and these roads met at a main haul- at 2:00 or 3:00 a.m. on cold winter and horses. At the end of the winter ing road that led to the river. It took mornings. They fed their teamsof horses these ice roads could be several feet careful planning in the fall to arrange and hitched up their sleds. The rest of thick. these roads and skidways. Each skidway the lumberjacks soon followed, for the Once the team reached the river, they was measured or "scaled" to find the first one out was usually the first one would unload the logs either on the ice amount of lumber that could be derived back in the evening. Each teamster had itself or on the banks where they could out of the logs. a specific amount of runs he had to be rolled into the river when the spring In the Adirondacks logs were bought make, depending upon how far he had to thaw came. A.B. Hepburn's timber was and sold by means of a Standard Rule. A haul the logs. cut and banked on either side of a wing standard log was considered thirteen When a team got to the designated dam. This structure was constructed of feet long and nineteen inches in diam- skidway that it was to start hauling logs and rocks and was in the shape of a eter at the small end. Any size bigger or from, men rolled-logs off the skidway wide "U". It backed up the water behind smaller was measured in this way: the onto the sleds by meansof a plank ramp. it and when the water was let out, it ratio of the square of the diameter of the A tool called the peavey was used in this would carry the logs behind it and in given log to the square of a standard log. process. Its moveable clasp holds the log, front of it on towards the sawmills. The For example, the square of a log with a while its point pushes it. This tool was increased water level carried the logs twenty-one inch diameter is 441 divided widely used in the hauling of logs and in over rocks and shallows which hindered by the square of the standard 361 equals the river drive which will be explained the movement of the masses of logs. the equivalent of 1.22 standard logs. In later. Some roads had two trucks, one for this way lumber was bought and sold.2 The average number of logs on a sled coming down with the logs and another Each lumber company had its own was about 20-30 but sometimes men for going back for more while others had mark that it stamped on the ends of the tried to make a "record load" of logs. turn-offs so that the returning teams 13 ft. logs, if it floated its logs down a Such loads contained upwards of 80 logs. could get out of the way of the teams waterway. This was done with an ax that The big skidways sometimes had 40 coming down. had the symbol on it. They registered loads of logs in them. Horses were used When the men finished their twelve or these in certain townships. Here are for hauling the sleds and in agood strong fifteen hour days, they would hurry back some marks used on the Grass River: team each horse would weigh about 2000 to the camp, put the horses in the barn The lumber camp usually consisted of pounds. and go to the bunkhouse until dinner a bunkhouse, cookhouse (and eating The blacksmith's job was to shoe the was served. In the bunkhouse they place), barn, blacksmith's shop, and horses, sharpen the peaveys, fix the would hang up their cold, wet mackinaw sometimes an office with a place where sleds, and innumerable other jobs. He shirts and socks and sit by the big stove the men could buy tobacco and clothing. was a valuable member in a lumber which the bull cook had stoked. A big There were fifteen to forty lumberjacks camp. In the fall he also sharpened the problem in the camps was bed bugs and at a camp, depending on the size of the crosscut saws used to cut the timber. lice. Cedar was used whenever possible job. The food was of good quality and in The roads to the river were entirely in the making of bunks because it great quantity. The average fare for downhill and when the weather was cold repelled the bugs. During their leisure dinner was steak, pot roast, salt pork, enough, a sprinkler sled would be put to time before and after dinner, the potatoes, two or three vegetables, baked work on the road. It was a big wooden lumbermen played cards. One former beans, bread, pie, cake, doughnuts and box with two spouts in the back of it Canton lumberjack recalled seeing cookies and boiled eggs. In one camp 400 which let out streams of water. Each $6,000 of hard-earned wages on the table eggs were consumed at one sitting by 40 sprinkler sled had a capacity of up to during a poker game. The men earned men.3 For breakfast, flapjacks, bread, sixty barrelsof water which would cover anywhere from 25-30 dollars a month. coffee, and tea were served. At breakfast 3/, to 3/,'s of a mile of road.4 This was done Good cooks earned $30 or more.5 On

Log marks or "brands"usedby local lumber ccmzpanies in the heydays of the Crass. (Courtesy of the author) 6 October 1980

Sundays men shaved, cleaned their clothes and rested. Also. a travellinp: minister or preacher called a "sky pilot'; I sometimes came to camp. When all the hauling had been done, the men were paid and things were readied for the spring log drive. Some men sent their money to their homes in b good time. One villager as a boy remem- bered when hundreds of lumberjacks from the camps in the area gathered in Canton. where they drank, fought and got ready for the log drive. The Log Drive In early spring, when the ice on the rivers and streams started to melt, it was time for the log drive. A.B. Hepburn hired two hundred men to drive his logs down four miles of the North Branch of the Grass River. The men were mostly French Canadian professional drivers and Indians from the St. Regis reserva- tion in Hogansburg. Men who worked in the log hauling job also participated in the drive. The logs were driven down to the Canton Lumber Company, which Hepburn owned cooperatively with a firm called Harmon and Rice on the Main Branch of the Grass. When the water started flowing and the logs behind the wing dam started moving, the sluiceways or "gates" were opened and the water and logs would come rushing out. Meanwhile, the men stationed on the rollbanks in front of the dam would roll the logs down the steep inclination of the bank and into the raging river below. Hepburn alone had 9,000,000 feet of lumber in the river each season. One year on the South Branch of C' the Grass River. the 13mile stretch from Inside of n h~rrrkhortsr.ctr an Adirorldnck l~cnrhr~rcamp. (From Floy Hyde's DeGrasse to Russell was clogged full of Adirondack For~sts.Fields and Mines, courtesy of the author) logs the whole distance. The North Branch was likewise full of logs. dislodge the key log. This could be water within the second! They were a There were two main categories of approached either by crossing on the hard-working. but good-humored group men who worked on the drive. The first logs and dislodging the key log with a of men. Jams caused many deaths and group positioned themselves on rocks, pike pole or if that didn't work, by many spotson the Grass and other rivers sand bars or the mouths of coves which dynamiting it. In both cases the man had were named after these heroic rivermen. might hinder the flow of logs. These men to be sure to get out fast or else he might Pelky Falls on the Grass is one such were equipped with peaveysor long pike fall into the water to probable death. If place. poles which were used to reach logs he couldn't get back he would try to "ride The average riverman earned about farther away. herout" bystraddlinga logand ridingit $1.50 a day with exceptional log drivers Other men tailed the logs and cleared to still water. In cases where the jam was earning more. The boatmen were paid the shores of any logs that might have in the middle of a wide section of the more with the bowsman and sternsman been lodged on the bank. These men river, bateaux or jamboats were em- earning$2.00 The oarsman earned $3.00 were expert balancers who jumped from ployed. These were shallow boats resem- a day since the bowsman and sterns- log to log. They wore spiked or "calked" bling narrow rowboats with three man's lives depended on his skill. In Croghan shoes (top quality stiff boots occupants: the bowsman, oarsman and extremely hazardous areas wages for made in Glens Falls, N.Y.) which gave the sternsman. The bowsman and the oarsman of $4.00 or more weren't good traction on the slippery logs. Men sternsman were responsible for break- ~ncommon.~ who couldn't ride the single logs rode a ing the jam while the oarsman held the Since the men worked fourteen hours "cooter," which was two logs roped boat untiI they came back and then or more a day, seven days a week, they together. rowed them to safety. Bateaux had other were naturally hungry. In areas where Sometimes logs did get lodged on a jobs, such as transporting food to the the water was swift, the men would rock or sand bar and the thousands of men and rescuing men who went under work most of the night. The cook fol- logs behind it would pile up, forming a in a dangerous area. On the drive if they lowed the drive on the bank of the river jam. In these cases the foreman would were in calm water and a man fell in, with his helpers bringing the gear. He ask for volunteers to "break the jam" or every other riverman would jump in the (continued on page 22) October 1980 7

SLCHA WRITING COMPETITION THIRD PLACE AWARD WINNER-ADULT CATEGORY

The S. W. Hemenway farm-complete with apple orchards-in the town of DeKalb, as it appeared in the Evert's history of St. Lawrence County in 1878. (Courtesy of the History Center Archives)

Backyard Orchards: Past and Future by John W. Van de Water

A familiar sight on farms and even in villages until the 1930's was the apple orchard, full of antique varieties hardy enough to survive even our climate. Here the author laments their passing but also expresses hope for their return.

In 1863 Henry Foote, President of the and his family and render home sweet haunts of men, to retire to villages to rust Saint Lawrence County Agricultural home indeed. So surround your farm away in bar rooms and country stores, Society, said in an address: houses and buildings with shade and for your hearts will live to long once "Philosophers may study the true, the shrubbery, with fruit trees, vines and more for its old associations, and to learn beautiful and the good in all depart- flowers, and make home handsome, as that ments of nature and art; but the farmer well as happy, and as life advances hold There is pleasure in the pathless must do it adapting the tasteful with the daily converse with the garden, the woods useful in the layingout of yards and lots, orchard and the delightful things of There is a rapture in the lonely shore." in the disposition of shade, orchards, gar- nature planted by your labor, trained by How I should like to have known this dens, and buildings, and so, while he your hand and cultivated by your taste, Henry Foote and to have been able to studies the tasteful, he enhances the and above all things, do not in age listen to him as he addressed the farmers value of his estate. All these things act abandon these simple delights, these old of St. Lawrence County back in 1863! and re-act in their effects upon himself familiar friends, to tread the busy But at least I do feel fortunate to know October 1980 his descendant, the Henry Foote of today. What a thrill for the current Henry to be able to go to the Canton library now and read the wisdom of his ancestor. It is an enviable heritage. In another part of his address Presi- dent Foote said: "We are paying large sums annually for fruit to our western neighbors; and it is suggested for your consideration if, in the matter of apples, our farmers might not profitably supply their own domestic markets. If there be a broken hilltop or eminence on a farm, crown it with an orchard. It will be beautiful to the eye, fragrant to the senses, and profit to the pocket . . . It will prove gold in the market, and better than gold to the health of the family. When the orchard is planted, let it be trimmed judiciously -the limbs made to grow free of each other, and outward from the center, not cross-wise, and the head made to balanceor grow equally in all directions. Some farmers seem to think their cows and oxen have more taste in such matter than themselves and so turn their cattle in todo this dainty businessof trimming An ancient apple tree. (From The Apples of Neut York. Volume I, Albany, 1905) by browsing. I have failed to see much fruit follow these operations. The opera- vided me with an extra long Christmas without chemical sprays. Resistance to tors trim too closely. It would be better vacation. apple scab, the bane of many apples, pastured by pigs, which have both Is the pendulum swinging to create a especially the Macintosh types, makes wisdom and patience to wait for the situation where a backyard orchard this possible. Sanitation in the orchard, fruit." again makes sense? Several factors the use of traps for codling moth, the Evidently his cohorts listened careful- make it appear that this may be true and practice of encouraging natural preda- ly, because the book Rural New York by our area that was once nearly self- tors, good pruning, liberal use of organic Cornell Professor Elmer Pippin, pub- sufficient in apples may be soagain. The mulches, and sensible cultural practices lished by Macmillan in 1921, has a map prospect is stimulating and Henry can go a long way toward producing showing St. Lawrence County with Foote's vision of farm eminences excellent fruit. approximately 25,000 acres in apple "crowned with orchards, beautiful to the Still another factor is a changing orchards in 1910. The dots indicating eye, fragrant to the senses, and profit- attitude on the part of many people. No orchards on the map appear mostly able to the pocket" may be refulfilled. longer does every family shopper insist along the St. Lawrence River. "Profitable to the pocket" may be one on cosmetically perfect fruit. Some shop- According to Jeanine Anderson, writ- of the prime factors. It requires little pers have become convinced that a fruit ing in the St. Laurence Plaindealer of imagination, when one considers the with a slight blemish may be a better November 1, 1978, Atwood Manley of trend of inflation and current costs of buy for the family than a perfect looking Canton recalls the time when "almost energy and transportation, to envision fruit that has been sprayed repeatedly every farmer had an apple orchard out importing apples at $15 per bushel in with toxic chemicals. Commercial or- back." Manley is quoted as saying years soon to come. When that time chardists may spray fruit as often as "George Crary used to pack apples in comes, the economic aspect will have fifteen times a year. barrels and send them to Boston." become more persuasive. But if one feels he must spray, the Crary's grandson. Mahlon Bullis, re- Another factor is the introduction by dwarf trees now available will make it members hitching up the horses to take the New York State Experiment Station easy, thus avoiding a huge investment in barrels of Snowapples and Russets to at Geneva of varieties resistant to large machines and spray rigs. market. diseases and hardy in cold tempera- Several homeowners in St. Lawrence What happened to the old orchards? tures. New varieties like Prima, Pris- County have already begun setting out Bill MacKently, successor to Fred Ash- cilla, Empire and Liberty, grown on backyard orchards of the new varieties. worth as propagator of local apple dwarf stock, will begin bearing in two or Who knows? Perhaps in another ten varieties, thinks the deep freeze that hit three years from planting and will years our eminences may once again be the North Country in December of 1933, produce large apples of excellent qual- crowned with the glory that is the wiping out most of the trees, was the ity. These apples are crosses of old blossoming orchard in spring and the main culprit. Old time residents will varieties. Only those crosses that prove fruited orchard at harvest. recall that winter when successive superior in hardiness, disease resist- nights of fifty below zero readings sent ance, and fruit quality are retained for About the Author frost down five feet to break water propagation and sale to the public. John W. Van de Water is a retired educa- mains and close schools and in general In addition to newly developed vari- tor who is a lifelong confirmed organic raise havoc in these parts. I can come eties many nurseries are now featuring farmer. He has raised vegetables and close to claiming the distinction of "local some of the hardy old standbys like fruit, including apples, for years. He is resident" as I was a junior at St. Law- Russet and Snow. Russet has long been the author of the recent chronicle of rence University at the time. I remem- the cider maker's favorite. farm life, Chichee's Trunk, soon to be ber the occasion most fondly as it pro- Many of the new kinds can be grown reviewed in The Quarterly. October 1980 9

Log Cabin at Cranberry Lake, by Charles Ehricke, completed August 16, 1891, watercolor on paper. (Photo courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery, St. Lawrence University)

Charles Ehricke in Northern New York Part One

by Paul D. Schweizer Charles Ehricke-a name not widely known in American art circles-produced a large quantity of fascinating paintings in his lifetime. Especially interesting to our readers may be the ninety-eight watercolors recently given by his family to St. Lawrence University. Most are scenes of the North Country, some created while he was travelling here with Frederic Remington. In the first of a two part series, the author reconstructs his research and his findings about another important North Country artist.

Who was Charles Ehricke? This was many of them had been carefully dated first discussed these watercolors I have the question which confronted me in the and identified by the artist and that a enjoyed the help and enthusiasm of sev- summer of 1978 when ninety-eight significant number of them depicted eral individuals and institutions who watercolor paintings by this one man scenes in the countryside around Can- have aided me in my efforts to learn were brought to my office atthe Richard ton! This prompted me to contact At- more about Charles Ehricke and his F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence wood Manley-the ultimate authority in visits to the North Country. Certainly University. A cursory glance at these most matters relating to the North the most valuable assistance has come works quickened my pulse for it was Country-who examined the watercol- from Charles Ehricke's son Karl, who clear from their rich luminescence that ors with even more enthusiasm than initially gave these watercolors to St. they had never been damaged by any mine and pointed out that as a boy grow- Lawrence University at the suggestion prolonged exposure to the sun and were ingup in Canton he could recall many of of his friends Kent and Bette Faulkner. I as fresh as the day each was painted. the scenes represented in these works. have had the pleasure of meeting and Even more intriguing was the fact that In the two years since Atwood and I talking personally with Karl Ehricke at October 1980 his home in West Orange. New Jersey, this past summer and it was shortly after this that he presented to St. Lawrence University his father's sketch- books, scrapbook and autograph book, as well as photographs, family corres- pondence, and other materials which ".. ..: contributed a great deal towards sup- -,+ . plementing whatever information about -'. i:. Charles Ehricke could be gleaned from the watercolors themselves. In my work on Ehricke at St. Lawrence University I have received valuable assistance from the University Historian Ed Blankman, who brought to my attention the diary of the Adirondack guide Bill Rasbeck, now on deposit in the rare book room of the Owen D. Young Library. This diary provided valuable information about Ehricke's 1889 visit to Cranberry Lake atwhich time he may have met the artist Frederic Remington. During the next several years Ehricke and Remington oftentimes were together in Canton and Cranberry Lake. Indeed their friend- ship sheds further light on a topic which was first discussed by Atwood Manley in his 1961 book on Frederic Remington k Nor?), Country association.^. I have also been assisted by two St. Lawrence University students, Joanne Newmann, who first organized the nine- ty-eight watercolors into a chronological sequence, and by Mimi Carter, who spent long hours reading Canton's news- paper, the Plaindealer, which yielded much valuable information about Ehr- icke's comings and goings in Canton between the summer of 1889, when he first fell in love with the spectacular beauty of the St. Lawrence River Valley, and the winter of 1895 when he married one of Canton's fair daughters. The Bill Rasbeck, July 30.1889, pencil on paper. (Photo courtesy of the Richard delicate task of removing many of the F. Brush Art Gallery) watercolors from the cardboard mounts upon which they had been affixed all of whom were involved in music and Ehricke carefully preserved two letters earlier in this century was undertaken art. In the case of Charles these two Leonard sent to him at his home at 69 with much success by the Williamstown fields were tipped in favor of music. Hamilton Street in Albany. According Regional Art Conservation Laboratory. which was his first love. An obituary in to Karl Ehricke it was at this address a job that provided an unexpected the Knickerbocker Nett~sof Albany dated that his father gave the private violin reward in that inscriptions were found June24,1953 noted that Ehricke's inter- lessons which supplemented the income on the backs of several of the works. est in this field began when, as a boy, "he he earned as the music instructor at the I Mildred Dillenbeck of the Remington admired a violin hanging on a wall and Albany Academy for girls. Ehricke's Memorial in Ogdensburg gave me was given it by the owner." Whatever accomplishments with the violin were information regarding Frederic Rem- training he received on this instrument not limited to teaching, however, and by ington that was pertinent to this initial as a young man in Albany was supple- this date he had achieved considerable investigation into the questionof Charles mented by the trip he made to Europe in recognition as a virtuoso. In a letter from Ehricke's years in Canton, a topic which the fall of 1881, where he remained for France dated January, 1899, Leonard I was encouraged to pursue by John the next two years. It was during this congratulated Ehricke for theuportrait" Baule when he first invited me to extended Wanderjahr that Ehricke which appeared in a recent issue of the prepare a talk for the St. Lawrence studied in Paris with the celebrated Journal of Music, New York, which County Historical Association on the teacher and virtuoso violinist Hubert Ehricke had proudly sent to him. occasion of the opening of an exhibition Leonard and in Munich at the Koenigl- A biographical sketch of Ehricke at the Silas Wright House in Canton in Bayer Musikschule, where he received a which appeared in the Violin World. the spring of this year entitled Nine- diploma in July of 1883. He made an- New York, sometime before December teenth Century St. Lawrence County other trip to Europe in 1886-87 at which of 1895 when it was reprinted in the Artists. time he renewed his acquaintance with Canton Plaindealer at the time of his Born of Prussian parents in the Ger- Leonard and, after he returned from his marriage, provides further information man section of South Albany in 1862, trip, he continued to correspond with his about Ehricke's training in Europe and Charles Ehricke was the youngest child old violin master until this gentleman's his professional interests and accom- of a family of two brothers and a sister death in 1890. In his autograph book plishments. "While in Paris Ehricke October 1980 11 was in daily intercourse with violinists taste was conservative. Although he was probably during his father's first of European reputation, such as Camilli, studied in Paris during the decade that trip to Europe that he was able to demon- Sivori, Paul Viardot and Henry Mar- the impressionists and postimpression- strate for his uncle the drawing skills he sick. Charles Ehricke made his first ists were drawing considerable atten- would have acquired under the tutelage appearance upon his return in 1889 as tion themselves with their radical depar- of his brother and cousin in the United soloist at a concert given by the Theo tures from the standards of conventional States. There must have been a great Thomas Orchestra, on which occasion he French painting, there is no indication deal of contact between Bernkastel and played with great success the G minor that Ehricke took much interest in these Albany even before this date, however, Concerto of Max Bruch. During the developments. His taste in art would for Karl Ehricke owns an impressive musical season that is now nearing its have been formed in large measure by collection of family portraits by Engel in end, he founded the Albany String his older brother Nicholas and by his his home in West Orange. Several of Quartet, which has met with unusual cousin John Tolle, both of whom worked them are executed in adark Rembrandt- success. Ehricke is a brilliant violinist, for the Albany lithograph firm of Weed, esque tonality which is typical of Ger- who captures his audience by the excel- Parsons, and Company. Ehricke would man painting from the middle of the lent interpretation he gives to every com- also have been influenced by his uncle nineteenth century. Whatever lessons position he plays and by his brilliant John F. Engel, a professional portraitist Ehricke might have learned from his sonorous tone. He is the fortunate posses- and landscape painter who first came to uncle would have been supplemented by sor of two perfect solo violins-one a Albany with his parents around 1852. At the careful study of the works of the Old Lorenzo Storioni and the other a repro- the time of Ehricke's birth a decade Masters which would have been avail- duction of Adolph Brodsky's famous later. Engel was in Germany studying able to him in the museums throughout Joseph Guarnerins del Jesu which art but he returned to the United States Europe. In his scrapbook of sketches August Gemunder and Sons made for around 1870, where he remained for there are numerous studies of paintings him two years ago. He has also a col- several years before returning to Bern- by Rembrandt, Rubens, Van Dyck and lection of autographs of renowned violin- kastel on the Moselle where he remained others as well as landscape vistas of the ists, his latest acquisition being that of for the rest of his life. While Engel was Alps and picturesque views of cities in 'Ysaye.' " In addition to the two solo in the United States in the early 1870's Germany which reveal the hand of an violins mentioned in this passage, he worked as an illustrator. One rare accomplished draughtsman. When Ehr- Ehricke collected old musical instru- example of his talent in this medium has icke visited Bernkastel again in the fall ments and in the later years of his life been preserved by the Ehricke family of 1887 his uncle made a wash drawing amused himself by building violins and and shows Engel as a competent but in his autograph book of a mountain violin bows with wood purchased in sentimental mid-Victorian illustrator of climber dressed in lederhosen which he Europe. One example of his skill is this a short poem by John Hay entitled labeled "Edelweiss". The carefully delin- hobby is now owned by St. Lawrence "Little-Breeches," published in New eated detail of this small sketch and its University. York in 1871. cool grey and blue washes are stylistic In the realm of art Charles Ehricke's Karl Ehricke has suggested that it characteristics which were soon to

Canton Fair Grounds, July 21,1891, watercolor on paper. (Photo courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery) 12 October 1980

Landscape Near Canton. July28,1891, u~atercoloronpaper. (Photo courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery)

Stony Point Camp, East Bay, Cranberry Lake, August, 1891, watercolor on paper. (Photo courtesy of the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery) October 1980 appear in Ehricke's own watercolors. his makeshift studio in Horace Sack- Whether Miss Cooke had an interest in Among the ninety-eight watercolors rider's barn on State Street before the violin prior to Ehricke's first visit to in the Brush Gallery collection are travelling down to Witch Bay on Cran- the Haven Hotel, or whether this scenes of the New England coastline berry Lake with his wife and the Lynde developed as a natural outgrowth of above Boston, the Mohawk Valley, Ver- and Keeler families for some relaxation. their friendship is lost to history, but in mont, and one of the countryside outside In Bill Rasbeck's diary there are several any event she became his pupil and in of Indianapolis, Indiana. The remaining references to Remington and Keeler time came to offer violin classes in works depict scenes in and around Can- going off on hunting and fishing excur- Canton. When Ehricke was in town she ton and Cranberry Lake in the years sions with the Rasbeck brothers in the would join him in entertaining their 1890 through 1893. Although we know early part of July. Later in the month Canton friends with occasional informal that Ehricke was also in this areaduring Rasbeck noted that "Prof' Ehricke, recitals. 1889, 1894 and 1895 he either did not Frank Scribner and a Mr. W.W. Beard Among the watercolors owned by the paint at all during these years or more were staying at the Rasbeck's Beach Brush Gallery are four works which likely, the works he painted during these Ridge Camp. There is no mention of were painted by Ehricke in Canton years are not longer extant. Further- Remington in Rasbeck's entries from during the summer of 1890. These are more, because Ehricke rarely gave any this part of the month but this does not the earliest Canton views in the Ehricke of his watercolors away and appears to preclude the possibility that the pathsof collection. One of them is a glowing have had no interest in exhibiting them. these two men crossed this summer. canoeingscene on the Grass River which it is fair to conclude that these watercol- On the 28th of July Ebricke made a Ehricke painted shortly after his arrival ors represent the efforts of a man who pen and ink sketch of the rustic camp in town that summer. He painted this painted for no other audience than where he and his friends had been living quiet scene with a broad fluid brush, himself. Hence they can be regarded as for the past several weeks. The attrac- contrasting the dark olive green of the highly personal works which, like a tion that he no doubt felt for this area trees in the distance with the golden diary, provide an intimate glance into was noted in an article which appeared glow of a North Country sunset. As in the emotions of a talented amateur artist in the Plaindealerthe following Novem- the previous summer, Ehricke spent at who came to love the beauty of northern ber: "Cranberry Lake is truly a sports- least part of his holiday hunting and New York. man's paradise. Itself a noble sheet of fishing in the Adirondacks, as is attested Another intriguing aspect of Ehr- water teeming with trout and receiving by his pencil sketch of Kimball's cottage icke's North Country watercolors is that a plentiful supply of water from brooks at Cook's Pond in Franklin County several of them document that he abounding in speckled beauties. The which he made at the end of August. painted side by side with Frederic Rem- forest for miles is in all its virgin beauty Some time after this date he returned to ington on several occasions. But in recog- and within its shade is found the best Canton, where he remained until the end nizing this fact a whole host of unanswer- hunting in the whole northern Adiron- of September before returningto Albany able questions arise. For example, how dack wilderness." As a souvenir of the to resume what the Plaindealer des- and when did Ehricke first meet Rem- companionship Ehricke enjoyed at cribed as his "musical labors for the ington? Was it in Albany around 1880 Beach Ridge Camp he also made a hand- winter." when the young Remington was living in some sketch of his guide Bill Rasbeck PART TWO- Januarg 1980 that city with his uncle while he was seated with a pipe in his mouth and a lovesick over Eva Caten and waiting for rifle resting on his leg. He also drew at his maturity so he could collect his patri- this time a pen and ink sketch of his good About the Author mony? Remington lived in Albany for friend Frank "Scribby" Scribner. On Paul D. Schweizer, with a specialization about three years before heading west. the last day of July Bill Rasbeck noted in in American art history, was the director and if this was when the two men met, it his diary that Ehricke had made a of the Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence must have taken place prior to Ehricke's sketch of his home but this sketch cannot University until the summer of 1980, departure for Europe in the fall of 1881. be found among his drawings. Shortly when he became director of the Museum Furthermore, is it by plan or coinci- after this he and "Scribby" left Cran- of Art of Munson-Williams-Proctor Insti- dence that both Ehricke and Remington berry Lake and returned to Canton, tute in Utica. He has previously written seemed to arrive in the North Country at where their arrival was noted in the on Elizabeth Campbell Miner for The approximately the same time for a Plaindealer. Quarter1y. number of summers beginning in 1889? Ehricke musthave thoroughly enjoyed Finally, if Ehrickeand Remington were his sojourn in the North Country for he in fact friends, why is it that they only returned again the following summer seemed to meet together in Canton and around the end of July and took a room at Cranberry Lake? It is somewhat per- the fine hotel on Main Street in Canton Give a plexing that there seems to be no evi- which was then owned by Mrs. C.E. dence of Ehricke having ever been at Haven. This hotel boasted on its station- Year-Round Gift Remington's camp at Chippewa Bay on ery that it was furnished with steam the St. Lawrence River or, for that heat, a first class bar and livery, a free matter, at his New Rochelle or Ridge- bus and that its location provided easy Regular Annual field homes. access to the Post Office and the Opera Membership The earliest year in which there is any House. But certainly one of the most circumstantial evidence of contact be- attractive features at the hotel was Mrs. $10.00 tween these two men is the summer of Haven's sixteen year old daughter by 1889. At this time Remington had just her first marriage. Miss Mary Law- been commissioned by Houghton Mif- rence Cooke. There is no record of how Sustaining Annual flin and Company to prepare a large and when Ehricke and Mrs. Haven's Membership number of drawings for an illustrated pretty daughter first met, but their edition of Henry Wadsworth Longfel- friendship at this time can be documen- $25.00 low's Song ofHiawatha. He travelled up ted by a charming small oval portrait to Canton from his home in New York that he painted of Miss Cooke in this year

City and worked on these drawings in which is now owned by Karl Ehricke. I L 14 October 1980

SLCl3A WRITING COMPETITION THIRD PLACE AWARD WINNER-ADULT CATE(

I

Ruth (Peters) Jones, Lillian Peters and theauthor on lamof Aunt Minnie Davis home in Canton, summer, 1920. (Photo courtesy of the author)

To Cover My Nakedness: A Personal History of Clothing Styles by Margaret P. Carve1 Clothing styles have changed often inthe past century. This humorous account reflects those changes and the personal choices of the author in her own time.

This is my 60th year. I am not ancient this were many items of outer wear-all cotton slip with ruffles and lace. or historical, but I have seen much his- long and heavy. I was always "pleasantly plump" and tory pass. Some things as ordinary as The first I remember was a gray flan- after donning all this clothing, I could clothes have changed significantly in nel dress and underpants trimmed with hardly move. A teacher once remarked, those 60 years, and I would like to share pink fur, made in 1925. The dress was "I was slow, but very sure." The clothes some memories of clothing I, myself, lined with white flannel, under which I did it. have worn over the years. wore an undershirt, long drawers, an I spent all my single life on a farm I have memories of my mother's ver- underwaist to which garters were between Red Rock and East DeKalb, sion of the well-dressed baby. Besides an attached by pins to hold up my long except the first eleven months and my elaborate dress, embroidered and white stockings, over which I wore high first year of school. It is now Federal tucked, there were two petticoats, one of topped black patent leather shoes called Highway 11. However, during the twen- flannel and one of lace and ruffles, long "Mary Janes." Between this dress and ties and early thirties, it was mud stockings, and high shoes. Over all of all of the underwear was an elegant covered. In 1930, a pack peddler came October 1980

In 1930, my father, Leon Peters, was drawing milk to Hermon from our farm. It was great fun to go with him and sometimes spend several days with our maternal grandparents, Felix and Belle Bovay. On one of these days, a minstrel came to Hermon to put on a show. I went with a cousin, Thelma Bovay (Meacham), to try out for parts. Because I was the only one there large enough to fit the dress, I became the Old Fashioned Girl. The pantalets were missing. Mother made me short ones from above the knees to ruffles below from an old sheet. In two days, I learned and recited the poem "Rock Me to Sleep" written by Elizabeth Akers Allen. The first line is "Back- ward. Turn Backward, 0, Time in Your Flight, Make me a Child Again Just for Tonight!" Because of the financial disaster of the Depression and my not being satisfied with my parents' choices, I decided to fashion my own clothing. Oneof my first creations was a fur coat which to thisday lies in the attic of Clark's house. It was never completed. Out of second hand material, I made a flashy ice-blue and black dress of heavy sateen. In this frock, while standing by the old iron sink in our farm kitchen, I had my first peck on the cheek. We were in the process of getting a drink after dancing a set at one of our many home square dance parties. Aunt Hazel Calnon, in 1936, gave me a black priest's robe. The material in these robes were indestructible as I was later to learn. With no pattern, I made a shirtwaist dress, long sleeves and snaps in the opening on the side. I put it together while pedaling the old treadle

Stuffed, monogrammed and tucked, November, 1920. (Photo courtesy of the author) by selling used clothing. I became the straps. That night we went to a Neigh- proud owner of a grey tweed suit bor Night Program in Rensselaer Falls. trimmed with red braid. It was short I wore my "support" that night for the and heavy, but I wore it to shreds. first time, and can still feel the agony of About this time Mother was selling not being able to properly breathe. Larkin Products from which I added a How my siblings and I liked to dress two-piece outfit. The blouse was sleeve- up. Out of an old long dress. I made an less white dimity with a blue polka dot elegant tiered blue taffeta gown full skirt. Matching straps crossed over trimmed with white cuffs and collar, my shoulders. There was a question which I wore at home, feeling so grand about needing a slip under the heavy as I waltzed around my home. skirt. As a result, I ended up wearing My step-grandmother, Mary Etta another sleeveless undershirt. Owen Beard Peters (Owen) of Hermon There came a time in the spring of gave us a few old articles of clothing. My 1931 when my mother said I needed brother, John Peters, and I would In the yard of the family East "support." I hadn't noticed. She made entertain relatives on Sunday by dress- DeKalb farm at age 11. (Photo me a straight long bra, with built up ing in these discarded remnants. courtesy of the author) October 1980

In hergrandparents'cast off,Feb- rltary 7, 1.937. (Photo courtesy of the author) sewing machine. I had little black thread and plenty of white. Black shoe polish covered the white stitches on my black dress. For this plain dress, with fancy gold buttons down the front, I made about thirty sets of cuffs and collars, some with matching belts. At this time, I earned a little money and acquired two pairs of

Portrait of the author as a teenager, taken at the Harrington Hotel in Canton. (Photo courtesy of the author)

shoes, one black and red suede, the other Swimming was one of many of my non- green suede. accomplishments. In August, 1941, two Until 1947, I wore thisdress hundreds cousins (Virginia Peters and Thelma of times. My sister, Betty Peters (Hund- Bovay) and Naide Barss, a Hermon ley) of Clare, said she would never go to teacher, persuaded me to borrow a swim- Europe because I gave this dress in a suit and spend a weekend at Terrace Catholic clothing drive for overseas Park on St. Lawrence River in a camp releif. She could no longer tolerate the owned by Aunt Minnie Davis and Uncle sight of this dress and was afraid she Frank of Canton, New York. While would see someone in the Old Country there. I stubbed my toe on a spike on the wearing my old favorite. dock. Eventually, I had surgery and was The first zippered-front dress I owned not able to get around for a while. While was white seersucker, sleeveless, with a I was recuperating, I visited Uncle large buckle belt. Because the wringer Floyd Bovay and Aunt Ruth, Potsdam, washer would break the buckle, I ripped New York. That day I met the man, Jim it off and pinned it backon to be removed Carvel, whom I later married. That is at laundry time. One day I forgot and another "Cover" story! when I went to wring it, I decided to do it by hand. The pin unfastened and pricked my right index finger, which later had to be lanced. To this day I still About the Author Author wearing white seersucker carry a scar. That year, I became Margaret Peters Carvel is a longtime with sash of Juvenile Grange of Juvenile Matron of DeKalb Grange member of the Association and a loyal DeKalb, May, 1938. (Photo cour- #1481. Many times I wore this white supporter of its activities. This is her tesy of the author) dress with my red and gold sash. first writing effort for The Quarterly. October 1980 17

SLCHA WRITING COMPETITION SECOND PLACE AWARD WINNER-SCHOOL CATEGORY

Gouverneur Marble- From Great Buildings to Silent Quarries by Alan Tuttle

The rich geologic deposits with which St. Lawrence Countyhas been blessed have produced, among other things, fine buildina materials like sand- "stone and marble. The Gouverneur marble industry is uiell documented here by this prize winning article and makes us appreciate better the build- ings that we have constructed of that durable product.

The Town of Gouverneur is blessed with many natural resources, and one which stands near the head of the long list was variously known to the outside trade as "Gouverneur, St. Lawrence, or Whitney" marble. From the opening of the first quarry Sketch of old County Clerk's office, on corner of Court and Jzrdson Streets in to the closing of the last, Gouverneur was Canton, as it appeared in Evert's 1878 history ofthe County. It was con.struc- well known for its established trade in ted of Gouverneur marble. (Courtesy of the History Center Archives) marble. Several public buildings, espe- cially churches, were constructed from this fine material. The marble sidewalks known world wide, but since the com- each recurring rain washes it fresh and and foundations of houses have long panies ceased operations, few people in clean. The closeness of its texture makes endured the harsh weather. In fact, this area recognize this rock's true it impervious to moisture; hence, it is not many houses have been torn down and value. affected by frost and does not disinte- reconstructed on their original, solid The remains of the marble companies grate. Its crushing strength is very bases. are most clearly represented by the great, being over 12,500 pounds to the The fame of Gouverneur's marble was water filled quarries that the young square inch, as determined by a U.S. brought about by many fine character- people of this village swim in today. A government test. istics including color and hardness. The fortune is waiting in the marble busi- When the marble was finished either ' marble by request of a customer could ness for anyone who has the capital to rock-faced, patent hammered, or pol- be shaped into any form and of any size. drain the quarries and buy the machin- ished, it so clearly resembled the finer Often special blocks were printed to ery. grades of granite, that it was often mark the year a public building was The marble of Gouverneur had a repu- mistaken for granite. The marble was erected. Name plates for doors were also tation for both monumental and build- worked with comparative ease, and by often sought after. Each mark on such a ing work. The marble was hard and the hand of the skillful artisan, could piece of marble was done by hand and crystalline. It was of close and even have been wrought in any desired form. carefully planned out. The hand tooling texture, which was conducive to a high The same qualities of beauty and that went into each marble block years polish. endurance that made this marble so ago can not be matched by the machines Most of the quarry marble was rich, sought after for fine residences, made it of today. dark, blue color, finely mottled and a adaptable for use in the construction of The number of people that remember small amount of the output was of a churches and other public buildings. the once great marble industry has lighter shade, some almost white. Commissioner I.G. Perry liked St. greatly decreased over the years. The Because of its marked crystalline Lawrence marble so much that he wrote industry was so famous by the end of the structure, it presented when finished, the following: nineteenth century that no one thought rock-faced, an unusually clean and "To Whom it May Concern: about writing down the history of events sparkling appearance. Because of this This is to certify, that I have examined to preserve it for future generations. The peculiar structure, it does not absorb the St. Lawrence marble, from the uniqueness of Gouverneur marble was dirt or become streaked or stained, as quarry of the St. Lawrence Marble Co., 18 October 1980

The steep uialls of a marble quarry. (From Jane A.W. Parker's Gouverneur, A History 1805-1890. (Photo courtesy of the Gouverneur Historical Association) at Gouv., N.Y., and find it to be an Early in 1874, the firm of Whitneys marble to dealers in several states and to excellent marble, susceptible of fine (D.J. and T.J.) & Honeycomb (John S.) Canada. In the latter part of that year, finish and high polish, and am about was formed in Gouverneur for the pur- he shipped several car loads of rough using some for wainscoting in the new pose of doing the mason work for the blocks to marble-sawing mills in South- Capital. I find it to be of a close and even erection of the Main Street Bridge erland Falls, Vermont, and Cleveland, texture, capable of holding a great across the Oswegatchie River in the Ohio, where they were prepared and weight. Superior material for exterior village of Gouverneur. The company sold to the trade for monument pur- and interior building purposes.*" readily procured a sufficient amount of poses. In the spring of 1880, the demand *John Benham, St. Lauwence Marble marble for their purpose from the J.C. for this marble was largely in excess of (The St. Lawrence Marble Company, Barney dwelling house lot on the Somer- Mr. Whitney's limited financial ability Gouverneur, New York), p. 1. ville Street. This was practically the to produce. Because of legal complica- initial step toward the revival 'of the tions between Mr. Barney and the Bar- This truly valuable marble, although marble industry, which had been aban- ney heirs, Mr. Whitney abandoned his existing in almost unlimited quantities doned many years before. This firm was quarry and moved his tools and machin- and cropping out in innumerable places dissolved in 1877, the Whitneys contin- ery directly across the road to the in this vicinity, was utilized only for uing the quarry in connection with their Preston farm. He then opened what was ordinary rough wall purposes until the monument business. the famous St. Lawrence Marble Com- year 1825. when Jasper C. Clark. of Up to this time, the only marble ever pany's quarry. At this time Joseph E. Hailesboro, Town of Fowier, established quarried or sawed in this vicinity had McAllaster of Gouverneur, having be- a small mill atthat place for sawing this been the cap rock, or light colored come financially and otherwise inter- material, which was then known as variety. In December, 1877, the Whit- ested in the enterprise, secured a lease "gray lime-stone." This mill.. stood on neys quarried a few blocks of the dark for about a nine acre triangular piece of Mill Creek, near the spot then occupied colored variety on the Barney Lot, the the J.B. Preston farm, which comes to a by the Agalite Fiber Company's first opening being made on the south side of point at the intersection of R.W. and 0. talc mill in Hailesboro. Mr. Clark was the Somerville Road, nearly opposite the Railroad with the Somerville Road, and succeeded by Addison Giles in the northeasterly end of the St. Lawrence July 1, 1880, under the name of the marble-sawing business. This industry Company's mill. In 1878 the first dark Whitney Granite and Gouverneur Mar- continued in a small way for several colored Gouverneur marble monument ble Company, the marble business was years, but lacking a demand which was finished by the Whitney Brothers begun on a scale more commensurate warranted its continuance, was aban- and was subsequently erected on the with the importance of this very prom- doned in the year 1837. Joseph E. McAllaster lot in the River- ising industry. In the fall of the year the About the year 1838, Hermon Rice, of side Cemetery, Gouverneur. system of quarrying by cutting channels Wegatchie, Town of Rossie, constructed In the fall of 1878, the Whitney Broth- with hand drills was introduced. This a mill for sawing this marble in the ers dissolved and the business was con- method proved too slow for practical village. This business continued with tinued by Daniel J. Whitney, who, in purposes and in March, 1882, a diamond- little success for about ten years and was 1879, sold and shipped small quantities drill channeling machine, run by steam, then abandoned. of the dark colored and unfinished was put into operation. A little later a October 1980 19

The clctti)rg ))till. (Photo courtesy of the Gouverneur Historical Association) large derrick was erected and steam village. The mill, which was substan- John S. Honeycomb, John W. Tracy, pumps were introduced to clear the tially built, was equipped with rubbing Daniel Peck, Henry E. Gates, George P. quarry water. Thus equipped, the beds, turning lathes and every other Ormiston, Abel Godard. T.J. Whitney, gettingout of large blocks wasvigorous- labor-saving device. A branch of the Austin Meyeur, Fred Haile. E.H. Neary ly pushed, and as fast as raised, were R.W. and 0. Railroad ran into their and Lewis Eckman, purchased thirty shipped by rail to Lyman Strong & Son, stock yard alongside a wharf of the right acres of land from William McKean, Cleveland, Ohio, where they were height for convenience in loading cars. near the southwest limits of the Gouver- sawed, finished and sold to the trade. The motive power, which was steam, neur village, and January 3,1882 organ- D.J. Whitney was interested in the busi- was generated by a battery of four ized the Whitney Marble Company with ness and continued as superintendent of boilers and ran a 150 horse-power acapital stock of $750,000. A quarry was this quarry and business until it Watertown Steam Engine, which drove at once opened, a four gang mill erected changed hands. the almost endless machinery of the and equipped, and sawing begun the Afterextendednegotiations,thisplant mill, quarry, pumps and derricks. An following fall. The business prospered wassold tocapitalistsof NewYorkCity, artesi,an well, 450 feet deep, furnished until May 3, 1884, when the mill and and in May, 1884, the St. Lawrence abundant water for all desired purposes. machinery were wrecked by the explo- Marble Company was organized with a Quarry No. 1, which had a surface sion of a boiler, which killed the capital stock of $250,000. The officers opening of 110 x 200 feet, reached a following persons: Joseph Oliver and were: John Benham, president and depth of 95 feet and yet huge blocks Oliver Dashneau, boiler makers of treasurer; J.W. Griswold, first vice- weighing 20 tons were readily raised to Watertown (who were making repairs); president; M.M. Belding, Jr., second the surface by their mighty derricks. W. Frank Newcomb, Eli Jackson, W.T. vice-president; John R. Emery, sec- The stock list of this and all other com- Miller and Charles Murrey, employees. retary; and T.J. Whitney, superinten- panies here included building stone in The company's loss was $20,000. The dent. A 16 gang mill was erected and all forms, rough, dressed, turned and pol- mill was at once rebuilt and business sawing began the following November. ished, as well as"monumental material." was continued until 1888, when, owing The mill was one story high, 82 x 221 feet In November. 1881, the following citi- to financial complications, the company in area, and stood half a mile southwest zens of Gouverneur, locally named "the was placed in the hands of D.G. Wood as of the corporate limitsof the Gouverneur Twelve Apostles," viz.; S.B. Van Duzee, receiver. It continued operations until

The shipping yard, where oxen hauled the great blocks of marble. (Photo courtesy of the Gouverneur Historical Association) October 1980 the following fall, when matters were 1911. ble. This was another quarry which was adjusted and the company was reorgan- The deposit from which the Empire later run by Mr. Sullivan. ized August 23,1888, as the Gouverneur State Marble Company took its material On the Scotch Settlement Road three Marble Company. was located on the Charles Overacker miles from Gouverneur, H.P. Bing- The officers of the Gouverneur Marble farm, a littleover a mile southwestof the wanger of New York started in 1897 Company were: Daniel Peck, president; village of Gouverneur. In 1890 John W. what he intended to be a marble busi- A.Z. Turnbull, vice-president; Lewis Tracy of Gouverneur discovered an ness, but never got into production. It Eckman, treasurer; and George P. excellent quality of marble, which was sold to the Corrigan-McKinney Com- Ormiston, secretary. The capital stock cropped out as a ledge, and after pany in 1905 and operated by their was $75,000. They had four gang saws securing the right to prospect and the subsidiary, the Genesee Furnace Com- and employed upwards of twenty-five option for purchase, induced capitalists pany, to produce fluxing material. It men. They had also purchased a few to join him in the marble business. The was closed in 1917 and the machinery acres from the James Barney farm and above named company was organized dismantled. Fred J. Porter, then 89, had the company was throwing out a fine early in 1891, land was purchased, a been the manager of this plant from quality of marble, with active sales that quarry opened and a fine four-gang mill 1908 to the time it was closed. placed the owners on a solid business was erected the same year. The company Except for a part of the vacant Gouver- footing. officers were: John R. Wood, president; neur Marble Company mill, there is April. 1889, D.J. Whitney became Gilbert Mollison, secretary; James Dow- little left but open water-filled quarries general manager. Business prospered dle, treasurer; and J.M. Esser, super- of a business that once shipped building and the mill was enlarged to a capacity intendent. The directors were J.R. Wood marble to many cities in the United of nine gangs of saws, a rubbing bed was of Appleton, Wisconsin, G. Mollison and States. The Balducci Crushed Stone added and now the plant was complete J. Dowdle of Oswego, and J.W. Tracy of Company on outer Parker Street, Gouv- and first-class in every particular. The Gouverneur. The company employed erneur, is now the only reminder of the regular force employed was fifty men, twenty-five men and had a prosperous once great marble industry. and the annual output of stock was about business. Of the many quarries that once 50,000 cubic feet. The quarry was L The late D.G. Wood of Gouverneur existed just atthe southeastern border of shaped, being 100 x 100 feet and 100 x 60 was the active agent in organizing the the village, the Gouverneur Marble feet. Northern New York Marble Company Company, organized originally in 1884, The Davidson Marble Company was in January, 1891. The officers were: ended its days as the Jones Cut Stone organized July 25,1890, with Alexander Samuel H. Beach, president and treasur- Company in 1941, the last quarry to pro- Davidson, president; John A. Davidson, er; and Samuel F. Bagg, vice-president duce. Richard Jones bought the Gouver- treasurer; Charles Stedman, secretary; (both of Watertown); and John Webb, neur Marble Company in 1936 to get out A.C. Davis, superintendent of mill; and Jr., of Gouverneur, secretary. local marble to match previously con- Erwin B. Hurlbut, superintendent of A model eight gang mill, equipped structed buildings. His purchase was quarry. Capital stock was $300,000. with rubbing bed, turning lathes and all made from the Hampton & Son Com- In 1888, Messrs. Davidson & Son of modern conveniences, was erected and pany, which had bought the business in Chicago, who were very extensive pro- put into operation the same year. The 1930 from Morris Eckmann. In 1942. ducers, manufacturers, and dealers of quarry and mill were located west of and one year after the quarry ceased opera- marble, having quarries and mills in adjoining the Empire State Marble tions, the quarry and buildings were several states, purchased from J.B. Company's property on a plot of seven- sold to Charles L. Ruderman, and were Preston, ten acres of land lying south- teen acresof land from the William Kitts partly burned in 1953. west of the St. Lawrence Marble Com- farm. The company's works were con- pany's property, and at once opened a nected with the R.W. and 0. Railroad by quarry under the supervision of E.B. a side track. This company employed a BIBLIOGRAPHY force of forty men under the supervision Benharn. John. St. Latc.,rttrr Marblr. Gouverneur. Hurlbut. This quarry, which was known New York: St. Lawrence Co. as No. 1, was successfully worked until of Peter Finegan, and did a successful Biondi. Mary H.. Gortrvrtrrttr Marble Itrdttstr!l. July, 1893, when a superior quality was business. Gouverneur. New York: St. Lawrence Historical uncovered on the Milton Barney farm, Other companies tried to get into pro- Association. July 1965 duction but many of them were closed Everts. L.H. and Holcomb. J.M.. Histor~of St. during the grading of the Gouverneur Lnrrrence Corott!l, Philadelphia. New York: L.H. and Oswegatchie Railroad. This deposit quickly due to financial need or they Everts and Co.. 1878 being convenient to the railroad, the only worked on a very small basis. Free Press. Marble Derlittm. Gouverneur, New company secured land, transferred The Extra Dark Marble Company, York: April 21.1949 formed in 1897, ceased operating in Gouverneur. Srsqti-Centerrtiid Histor!l. Gouver- their quarry machinery to, and opened neur. New York: The Sesqui-Centennial corn- quarry No. 2, from which they took 1908; a Mr. Callahan was the owner rnittee. May 24-30. 1955 material for sawing. when it burned in 1910. Johnsoon. J.. Cetttetinial So~tt-enirHistoryofGotct.er- The leading members of this com- The Rylestone Company, opened in ttertr. Watertown. New York: The Hungerford- 1903 northwest of the village at the rear Holbrook Co.. 1905 pany believed that water power was Northern Tribune. The Hnzardn of Marble. Gouver- preferable to steam, and a suitable of the Somerville Road farm now owned neur, New York: May 25.1949 building site and water power having by Merton Gollaher, had a difficult time Parker. Jane A.W.. Cotrtrrnear, A History. Gouver- been tendered them on satisfactory financially. John J. Sullivan became the neur. New York: Booklet. Reprint. Gouverneur: terms on the Black River, near the R.W. owner and ran it to get out church and MRS Printing. Inc. 1976 and 0. Railroad, just east of the city of public building stone at first, and rip Watertown, a splendid l&gang mill, rap rock in 1918 for the Aluminum Com- with two rubbing beds, turning lathes pany's St. Lawrence River canal. Mr. and other finishing works, was erected Sullivan sold the quarry to the Onon- there in 1889 and 1890. This company daga Litholite company in 1922. advertised its product as "New York The White Crystal Marble Company, Marble." situated on the Seavey Road four miles About the Author Joseph C. Callahan was the final north of Gouverneur, was opened by Alan Tuttle was a student atGouverneur owner of the No. 2 quarry and his estate Syracuse men in 1901, due to a demand Senior High School at the time of the now owns the site. The mill burned in for its more-than-unusually white mar- writing of this article. October 1980 Carl M. Witherbee's Reminiscences of the Village of Canton by Neal S. Burdick

Carl Witherbee lived all of his life in the Canton area. As he neared the end of that life he decided to write-everything and anything he could remember-about his hometown. Here the author, himself the editor of the St. Lawrence Bulletin and a member of the university public relations staff, presents a revieu~lessayof this significant book on North Country life.

described the writing project as "recol- lack of respect for people or civic insti- lections of all the folks who have adorned tutions, or poor business sense. Occasion- Main Street from the loan association ally it is spiced with a dash of mild down to the bridge, block by block, store humor, the kind that elicits not a great by store, office by office, all the way back guffaw buta quiet chuckle: "This restau- to the year I began working for the First rant was not open very long when the National Bank in 1905." The core of the operator left Canton without saying book is just such a recitation, but, as goodby to the many merchants he owed Manley pointed out in a review for the up and down the street." St. Lauirence Plaindealer just after the Local history is the history of people, An ntctomohile parade on Main book was published last summer, "Not and Witherbee's book is filled with Can- Street, Canton, ca. 1915. (Courtesy until page 74 does Carl reach the head of tonians. The index lists over 1000 indi- of the Town of Canton Historian's Canton's business section, north side." viduals, and there are more to whom Collection) Before the reader gets there he or she passing reference is made. They range has learned about Winnie Taylor's canoe from community leaders in business and Carl Witherbee wasn't provincial. But livery by the Little River bridge, Pull- politics to storekeepers and bankers to if the sun had risen over Evergreen man service direct to Grand Central traveling salesmen, farmers, teachers, Cemetery and set behind ATC, he Station, draymen, changing Fisk tires handymen, presidents of St. Lawrence wouldn't have been disappointed. Can- in the 1920's, feed stores, coal dealers, University, housewives, stonemasons, ton was Carl's world. celluloid shirt collars, the American soap-makers, horse trainers, lawyers. That world has been recreated in House, con men who worked the area doctors, preachers, volunteer firemen Rem iniscence.9 of the Village of Canton. "around 1910," the whole south side of and a popcorn maker. Carl knew them Carl Witherbee's memoirs which were Main Street(the Donihee& Baker Block, all, and he writes personally about them, recently published by his widow, Grace, the Canton Club, the old town hall and where they lived, whom they married, as a memorial to him. The book is avail- opera house), various industries on the what became of their children, which able in area stores for $6.95, or by mail Grasse River island, how to harvest ice, civic organizations they supported, and from Harold Wilder, Canton Savings & why the village water wasn't always what their hobbies were. Loan Association, Main Street, Canton, very good, Sumner Lasell's inability to Good social history is also anecdotes. N.Y. 13617, for $7.95 inclusive. stop his first car, how to redress a grind- and these crop up in the book every so Witherbee lived all 91 years in or near stone or mold an iron plow-point or often. "There was a conductor on one of Canton. Born on a farm near Woodbridge change the carbon in a carbon arc street- the passenger trains who was born and Corners (Routes 68 and 186), he soon light, day-to-day activity at the Canton raised in Morley, by the name of Roscoe moved with his family to a farm which Fair, how A. Barton Hepburn made his Frauton, with the nickname 'Dode.' On he describes as6'sixmiles from Canton in money, and how to break up a log jam. this particular day Dode asked (dray- the Olin district on the Sykes Road, or Among other things. man) David O'Brien if he could spare a the 'middle road' to Madrid." He began All that in the first four (of 14) chap- chew of tobacco, to which Dave replied coming to school (on horseback) in Can- ters. Remember, this is"reminiscences," he could as he had just bought a new ton in 1900, and graduated from Canton not history. The demand for organization plug and had not used any of it. He High School in 1905. He spent the restof is less. Carl Witherbee wrote it the way handed the new plug to Dode. The train his life in Canton, pursuing a variety of he remembered it, and in the order in was just ready to pull out and as Mr. jobs before settling in as a partner at which he remembered it. Withall, there Frauton fondly looked over the plug, he Witherbee & Whalen for 36 years. is a pattern, more or less decipherable. asked Dave if he cared where he took the He was never one to sit still, so about One can't help but think that if the book first bite, to which Dave replied, 'Hell, the time he turned 85 he began writing were more tightly structured it wouldn't no.' Frauton stepped aboard the moving his recollections of Canton. He was be nearly as much fun. train with the reply that he would bite it blessed with an encyclopedic memory, Witherbee's writing style reflects both in DeKalb Junction." and with the steel to pick the brains of the man and his subject. (At least this Carl Witherbee's Reminiscences of the old friends and associates to fill in the reviewer, who never had theopportunity Village of Canton will be a treasured gaps. He had no formal training in re- to know the gentleman, except through possession for anyone wanting to recall search or writing, but the product of his his book, thinks so.) The writing is utili- the "old days," for younger residents final labor reveals a picture of Canton no tarian-packed with detail, but with curious about the past, or for students of professional historian could ever hope to minimal waste. It is plain, humble. It is life in a typical American rural county render. Witherbee's work is the material not decorated with loud adjectives. Rare- seat at almost any point in the last 75 from which a Thornton Wilder could con- ly does it wander in the heady world of years. If you belong in one of these cate- struct another Our Town. metaphor. It makes no pretense atbeing gories, it might be time to drop a hint to According to his longtime compatriot objective in times of praise; it can be your most reliable source of Christmas Atwood Manley, Witherbee originally indignant when it discovers laziness, presents. October 1980

(Logging, continued from page 6) served four or five meals a day which usually consisted of hash in the morning, pork and beans and bread and butter in the afternoon meals. Once in a while the cook would fish for dinner. Records tell of muskies four feet long and of twelve pound walleyed pike being caught. The Grass River, like all rivers used for driving logs, contained the logs of many owners and it was necessary to sort them. At Cold Springs and Taylor Park, outside of Canton, there was a sorting boom. These were made in the winter by building log cribs on the ice and fillingthem with stones. Depending on how deep the water was, they were built so that the top of the crib would protrude four feet above the surface of the water. When the ice melted, the cribs sank in the water. Booms, or strings of chained logs, were attached from the cribs to shore. Between two cribs there was a space through which logs were poled through by men on the plankway which connected the two cribs. Attached to each crib was a floating dock on which men stood and poled the logs according to the log mark on the log to separate parts of the river. The river was divided into two or more sections, depending on the width of the river, by attaching booms to the sorting boom, which ran to the next sorting boom down the river. In the case of the Grass River, it was probably divided into two sections: Harmon and Rice and A.B. Hepburn's logs in one and Hodskins (later James Spears), Wright and Post of Bucks Bridge and the rest in the other section. The logs were further subdivided at other booms down the river. One of these Sketch of the sorting boom. (Courtesy of the author) was located at the present location of St. Lawrence University's Sand Banks. BIBLIOGRAPHY Log Marks. Book ctf Rt~rords,St. Lawrence County (See illustrations I and 11.) AnnttolRrr~~rtoftlte. . N. Y. Forest Contmissiott. 1893. House' Town 'Ierk'' Office' The drive was concluded after a :lrd A 11tt1to1Repot? of the Cottsrrtvtiott Comttt ission. "The Lumber Camp Cook." Watertotr~rTintc,s. Sept. period of two to four weeksdependingon Albany. N.Y.. Jan. 15.1914. 24, 1960. the amount of logs and the distance to Austin, Carroll, (tape recorded interview of his Lumber Foldersat the St. LawrenceCounty Histor- the mill. The logs were driven into an lumberjack career). 1955. ical Society. inlet or "mill pond" next to the mill and Bird. Barbara. Calked Shoes: Life in Adirondock Man'ey' Atwood' Interviews in Jan' then sawed into lumber. Lttniher Camps (Prospect. N.Y.; Prospect Books, "Old Time Paper Mills." Watet?ort.tt Times. Feb. 27. When the drive was over, the men 1952). 1947. collected their wages and either rested Bishop. Joseph Bucklin. A. Burton Hephttrn. His Reed. Frank, Litmh~rjarkSky Pilot (North Country or went on a drinking and spending Lije o~dSert-ire to His Titne (N.Y.:Scribner. 1923). Books. 1965). binge. The French Canadians would go "Canton's New Lumber Enterprise," Canton Cont- Sloane. Eric. Amerirnn Bornsand Corvred Bridges back to Canada and participate in the merriol Adteytiser, August 7, 1884. (Wilfred Funk. 1954). log drives there, which occurred after Commissioners jor the Improt~ntewtof the Grass Sloane. Eric. A Mrcsettm of Earl!) American Tools the Adirondack drives were over. Thus Ritvr. Book oj Rerords. (Wilfred Funk. 1964). was the exciting life of lumbermen in Fox. William. History ojthr Lumber Indnstr?~in the "Timber Cruise." Waterfort.t~Times, Feb. 22. 1947. State of N. Y. (Harbor Hill Books. 1976). the early days when timber was king. "Veteran LumbermenTell of Old Time Log Drives." FOOTNOTES "Freeman Stammer, a Veteran Lumberman." Watertotcvi Times. April 11. 1941. Waterform Times. Oct. 11, 1939. 'Harold K. Hochschild. Litmherjarksand Ritemen "Wood Scalers Duties," Watertort.n Times. Feb. 24. in the Centrol Adirondacks. 18.50-1950(Adirondack "From Forest to Mill," Watertown Times. Feb. 26. 1947. Museum. 1962). p. 50. 1947. 2William Fox. History ojthe Litmber Indtmtry in the Hochschild. Harold K.. Lztmberjarks and Ritvrmen tt*** State of N. Y. (Harbor Hill Boos. 1976). p. 57. in the Central Adirondacks. 18.50-19.5O(Adirondack 3Hochschild,p. 40. Museum. 1962). About the Author 4Hochschild.p. 62. Hyde. Floy, Adirondark Forests, Fields and Mines (North Country Books. 1974). Peter H. Vrooman is currently a fresh- 5Hochschild. pp. 29-32. "Log Drivers Used the Grasse as a Highway," St. man atHugh C. Williams High School in 6Hochschild.pp. 29-32. Lailvenre Plaindealer, May 2. 1979. Canton. October 1980

Wright Library." (from material donated by Mrs. Ovette Wright of Weybridge, Vt.) [Editor's note-Middlebury College has no record of the professorship ever The Wright Corner having been established.] by Mary Ruth Beaman Governor Wright's funeral was to be at 10 A.M. on that Aug. day in 1847. Canton was full of people. All were awaiting the delayed arrival of repre- [The following are from the account book of Silas Wright, Sr. of Weybridge, Vt., sentatives from Albany who had to come donated to the St. Lawrence County Historical Association by Mrs. Ovette Wright.] through to Watertown by train and from 17 March 1760 Silas Wright was born there to Canton by relays of horses sta- 13 Feb. 1762 Eleanor Wright was born tioned every few miles. A brother-in- 25 Feb. 1781 Our Enfant daughter was born and died the same day-Sunday law, and member of the Governor's staff, 18 August 1785 Samuel Wright was born Horace Moody, was one of those men. 19 March 1788 Orenda Wright was born-Wednesday The Governor's body was carried out of 16 March 1790 Creecy Wright was born-Tuesday the Presbyterian church on a large old 22 Sept. 1792 Ellin Wright was born-Saterday fashioned bier. Eight men labored under 24 May 1795 Silas Wright Jun. was born-Sunday this heavy load from the church to the 20 Apr. 1799 Daniel Leonard Wright was born-Sunday cemetery, stopping every little way to 24 May 1803 Pliny Wright was born Tuesday and died 18 May 1805 have men in the crowd relieve them. 14 Dec. 1805 Pliny Wright 2 was born-Saterday Thus, General Edwin Merritt, then a young man, and his father went forward ***** to lend their shoulders. Dick Bridge, On the Lord's Day, 9th Nov. 1817, As one looks at the desk in Governor who kept the American Hotel in Canton Silas Wright, Sr. wrote a resolution "en- Wright's study atthe museum, one might for some years, also assisted. (from an tered into between my God and myself. wonder about the history of this lovely interview with Gen. Merritt, in Courier May Divine grace enable me to perform piece. In 1946 Frank Van Iderstyne, Jr., Freeman. 15 Sept. 1916) the same faithfully to God and my own president of the St. Lawrence County soul." He resolved not to drink spirits Bank, on its behalf, presented thedesk to anymore and asked God by his grace to Otto J. Hamele, county historian, for the enable him to resist the temptation. He museum. Clarence S. Cook remembered asked for the prayers of his wife and it as having been in the back of the bank children for an "imperfect husband and when he entered as a boy of thirteen in rence County Historical Associa- father." He also suggested that any of 1877. The desk was given a coat of var- tion are partially subsidized by the family having cause to do the same, nish and, aswas the custom of the times, this advertising support. to record it in that book and to be faithful a new cloth was fastened in to cover the to the vow. In 1820 Silas Sr. acknowl- top as one became soiled or worn. edged that he had broken the resolution Perhaps the desk traveled with Mr. many times and again asked God to help and Mrs. Wright as he fulfilled his him. political duties in Albany and Washing- ton. After his death it probably remained in the house in Canton with Mrs. Wright On the 11th July 1826 in Weybridge, until her death in 1870. Pliny, a younger Vt., Silas Wright, Sr. wrote in the back brother of Silas Wright, purchased the of his account book-"This is in place of house from the Wright heirs, married my will that I intended to make when his nephew's widow Ann Bigelow and Silas Wright Jun. comes in August lived in the house until his death in 1890. next-That is to say, the division of my (A gentleman in New York has written property amongst Mother Eleanor ' me that he owns a desk that belonged to Wright and our children-Samuel, Or- Gov. Wright! It is quite possible that enda , Creecy, Eleanor, Silas, Daniel, there was another desk.) Leonard, Pliney." "This is then thinking that I may drop away sudenly and you might be ignored Barnhart Trust of my wishes. Should it be the ease and On the 7th March 1848 an agreement this only left to gyde your conduct in was drawn up between "The President regarding my judgement as stated above and Fellows of Middlebury College" in and other you will doo well-Lay all feelings aside the Town of Middlebury, County of Addi- till we meet beyond the curtain of time." son, State of Vermont, and the subscrib- Friends of Silas Wright ers of an instrument of proposal to honor the memory of Silas Wright, an alumnus the Association of that college. This was to be a new If your corporation or institution The wedding of Silas Wright and Clar- professorship in Moral and Political would like to support Association issa Moody took place 11 Sept. 1833 Philosophy, and in history, to be called work, a representative will gladly according to tradition in the large west "The Silas Wright Professorship." Also discuss details with you. parlor of the big Moody home at the proposed was an extending portion of corner of Main and Park Place. the library to be known as the "Silas d Address Correction Requested Forwarding and Return Postage Guaranteed U.S. POSTAGE P.O. Box 8 Canton, N.Y. 13617 PERMIT NO. 21 Canton, New York

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