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The Quarterly OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE COUNTY HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION STORY OF -4 KEY THEFIRST NATIONALBANK OF CANTON ESTABLISHED 11187 CANTON. NEWYORK 75 Years Lommunity Progress Canton Main Street at.the turn of the Century, showing the site of the present First National Bank building. The Quarterly Official Publication of The -St. Lawrence County Historical Assn. ASSOCIATION OFFICERS CONTENTS 1 JULY 1962, VOL. 7 NO 3 1':rge I'rcsidcirt LAWRENCE G. BOVARD Omlensburg STORYBOOK SOLDIER First Vicc President By Eugene Hatch 4 EDWARD F. HEIM Canton THE EAGLE MILL S;rond Vice. Prrsidcnt LEAH NOBLE By Bette Mayhcw 5 Edwards Srcrctory END OF AN ERA MRS. HAROLD JENKINS KD-2. Potsdam By EIeanor L. Dumas 6 Trcasurcr DAVID CLELANn Canton Editor, The Quarterly MASON ROSSITER SMITH Gouverneur STORY OF A ICEY Assistairt Editor By Nh~aW. Swzithers 10 MRS. BETTE MAYHEW Canton MEMORIES OF SUNDAY SCHOOL PICNICS Corrrwrittcr Chairrtrm Program By Mrf. William Perry 12 MRS. DORIS PLmm Ogdensburg BORROWED LIFE Afu.scum By Lindon E. Riggs 12 FRANK CRARY Canton h'otitii~atioss THE COX HOUSE EDWARD F. HEIM 13 Canton By Frank E. Olnastead Audit and HENRY HORN LOCAL COUNTY HISTORICAL ACTIVITIES canton Edited by Bette Mayhew 14 County Fair HAROLD STORIE muvcrneur Yorkcr Clubs COVER-This is the key to the old church in East DeKalb, and its historical ELWOOD SIMONDS Rossie record, as searched out by County Historian Smithers, and as reported by her in STORY OF A KEY on page 10. THE QUARTERLY i's published in January, April, July and October each year by the St. LawrenceCounty Historical Association, editorial, - MEMBERSHIP UP TO DATE? advertising and publication office 40-42 Clinton street, Gouverneur, Mr. David Cleland, Treasurer, N.Y. St. Lawrence County Historical Association 'EXTRA COPIES may be obtained Canton, N. Y. from Mrs. Nina W. Smithers, St. Lawrence County Historian's Of- Enclosed find $2.00 in cash, check or money fice, County Building, Canton, N.Y. order to cover my dues for 1962. at 50 cents each. Please send The Quarterly to me at this MVlSORY BOARD address : , Mrs. Betty Mayhew, Canton Miss Elizabeth Baxter, Ogdensburg NAhlE ............................... Leonard Prince, Massena STREET and NUMBER Mrs. Doris Planty, Ogdensburg Harold Storie, Gouverneur or RURAL ROUTE .................... Page Four By EUGENE HATCH The Civil War produced one of the most romantic figures of history, General Phil Kearny. The s:ory of his li% re;ds lib an absorbing tale of adventure. Of added interest to North Countrymen is the active part the Kearny family played in St. Lawrence county in the early days. In 1796 Philip Kearny, young Phil's father, bought ten thousand acres of land, fronting the St. Lawrence river, three-fourths of a mile wide, just below Oak Point. The tract extended twenty miles inland through the towns of Hammond and Macomb to the Oswegatchie River in Gouverneur near Elmdale. The elder Kearny was related by his marriage to Miss Watts, to some of New York's leading families, among them the Van Rensalear' s. The Van Rensalears were then interested in northern New York lands, so it is probably that Kearny. an active and prosperous businessman, decided on this purchase. He sent for his land agent, James Bowne. The sturdy and commodious home Bowne built on the Kearny road near the school house is still used as a dwelling. Later two of his sons were Main Street merchants in Gouverneur village. Traces of the Kearnv tenure remain in the name of Brigadier General Phil.ip Kearny the road, the bridge, an iron mine and the scenic falls near Kearny bridge. Here the senior Kearny built a sum- the horses' hoofs all striking simultaneously as if they mer home, enlivened on summer holidays by the presence were galloping to set music." In a charge against the re- of young Phil. His ruling passion, even then was horses. treating Mexicans at Cherubusco, a bullet shattered Phil's and he might be seen at all hours, dashing over the roads left arm and it had to be amputated. on a spirited mount at breakneck speed. A corduroy road. An expedition against the Rogue River Indians, then full df holes, across the swamp on the Rossie road was home to New Jersey. He had married in 1846 Diana Bul- one of his favorite routes, taken at full gallop. litt, George Rogers Clark's grandniece. Now the wealthy, It followed that Phil wanted a military career. Wealthy one-armed veteran could have settled down onBelleGrove, Grandfather Watts, remembering sadly the loss of sons his estate, for the rest of his days. He did make irnprove- in army service, tried to talk him out of it. He offered ments, but the life of a country gentleman must have Phil an annuity of $1500 if he would study for the min- palled. istry. The quiet life of the church had no appeal to this Three thousand miles away, across the Atlantic in restless adventurous boy, but he did agree to become a France, the new emperor, Napoleon 111 was beginning lawyer instead, and began to study law. in the family tradition, to start a war with Austria. It was Then Grandfather Watts died. He had left Phil a million a chance for a gallant cavalry fighter, so Phil sailed dollars, then a sizable fortune. Promptly he applied for and joined General Morris' staff. At Magenta and at hard an army commission. His uncle Stephen, himself a horse fought Solferino he was in every charge. lover and the leader of the First U.S. Dragoons, received The American states were seething with war talk, so he him with pleasure into his cavalry outfit. left Paris hurriedly for Washington. A seasoned soldier of This attractive. promising young man came tothenotice three continents, there would surely be a place for him. of the Secretary of War. The French were regarded as There was, as a brigadier in New Jersey. the leading cavalry tacticians and Phil was sent to France His brigade of volunteers was presently in General to study their methods. He saw active service in Algeria McClelan's Peninsular Campaign. He is credited with with their chasseurs. When he returned to America saving the battle of Williamsburg, by the timely arrival General Alexander Macomb took him on his staff. Later of his troops when General Hooker's soldiers had become General Winfield Scott selected him as his bodyguard. exhausted and outnumbered. The Western Indians were getting troublesome, and there Though Phil Kearny carried on everything with dash was increasing tension between Mexico and Texas. Phil and zest, bordering on the reckless, he was sound and Kearny set out to organize a troop of cavalry. He had clearheaded and he had the confidence of his men. always a bit of the dramatic about him, and he decided In any brigade of citizens turned soldiers, there were a that each of his dragoons should be mounted on a dapple certain number of men who would quietly retire to the gray horse. To purchase these was quite an order. But r ar when a battle began "There was," says Bruce though horse dealers might smile indulgently at this Catton, "a steady leakage back from the front line." fancy, there was something about this tall, personable Catton, our foremost Civil War authority, states that young man, so, at his own expense, he got his cavalry- Phil Kearny invented the division shoulder patch. men mounted. "He made the men of hisdivisionwear a diamond shaped Said an eyewitness. 'They were a spectacular sight. (Continued on Page 138) / ,a , Page Five the floor beneath, reached by a little side door facing up the river, became the basement. The level below this one was reached by a flight of stairs, which' extended down to still another lower level to the roll bed where ran the water as it left the wheels. For several years after completion, Henry VanRens- selaer owned and operated it. At this time the VanRens- selaer land offices were in Ogdensburg and the old Van- Rensselaer mansion stood in that village, open house to the visitor of distinction from abroad. The VanRensselaer property in Ogdensburg later became the property of W.J. Averell and then fell to his daughter, Mrs. Edward Henry Harriman, wife of the American capitalist and railway man of that name who died in 1909. Henry VanRensselaer sold the Eagle Mill to Sard Clark for $30,000 of which a portion was refunded when' By BETTE LIMPERT MAYHE W Captain Moody built the St. Lawrence mill across the river from theS~agleMilL Since in the old VanRensselaerI From 1842 until the spring of 1959, the Eagle Mill of days, the Eagle Mill was the only flouring mill in Canton, Canton nestled against the hill on the west bank of the it was believe that there would be no competition to this Grasse River close to the junction of the Gouverneur for the VanRensselaers had things, they thought, spiked and Ogdensburg main highways. The beautiful four story down and hog tied. sandstone grist mill was constructed for Henry Van- But there came a day after the sale of the mill to Rensselaer, son of the old patroon, Stephen Van Rens- Sard Clark when Captain Moody found a hole through the splaer. It stood very nearly where the first permanent skimmer and built the St. Lawrence mill in 1859. The settler, Stillman Foote, had built Canton's first saw and next owners were George S. Olin and his sons, Arthur flour mill in 180L When his family came from Vermont, V. and Oscar.

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