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HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF
NORTHERN NEW YORK and
THE ADIRONDACK WILDERNESS
including Traditions of the Indians, Early Explorers,
Pioneer Settlers, Hermit Hunters, etc.Nathaniel Bartlett Sylvester
From Chapter XV: "North Elba"; Section III: "The Plains of Abraham"
About the beginning of the present century, a little band of pioneer settlers strayed off into this secluded valley, made small clearings, and built their rude cabins. These pioneers, being separated from the outer world by impassiable mountain barriers, except by a long and circuitous trail up the valley of the Au Sable, subsisted mostly by hunting and fishing. In time they became almost as wild as the Indians that preceded them in the occupancy of their forest home. The place was then known as the "Plains of Abraham."
At length in the year 1810, Archibald McIntyre, of Albany, and his associates founded the North Elba iron works, on the Au Sable, near the Plains of Abraham, and broke in with their new industry upon the seclusion of these pioneers. New life was infused into this little half-wild community. But McIntyre's enterprise was finally abandoned about the year 1826, and nothing soon remained of it but a few decaying buildings and broken water-wheels. At length, in that year the old Indian Sabelle led David Henderson, the son-in-law and associate of McIntyre, from the abandoned works at North Elba, through the Indian Pass to the iron dam on the Hudson. The Adirondack Iron Works springing up in consequence of this discovery, cast another gleam of ruddy light across the mountain shadows of the Plains of Abraham.
Then, with the decay of the Adirondack village, new and strange characters appeared upon the scene. The careless pioneer settlers of the Plains of Abraham had squatted upon their lands, and had never acquired the title to them from the state. About the year 1840, a land speculator swooped down upon their possessions, and they were in their turn, like the Indians, driven from their homes. It was about this time that Gerrit Smith bought the Plains of Abraham, with miles of land contiguous to them, and made his attempt to colonize the grim old northern wilderness with the free colored people of the state. He made to each family a gift of forty acres of land on condition of settlement. He hoped thereby to found in that secluded spot, among their own people, a secure asylum for the many fugitive slaves who were then fleeing toward Canada from the southern plantations.
For lovers of New York's Adirondack Mountains there is no more satisfying reading than this collection of 33 short essays on as many different regions and historical incidents of the North Country, written and first published more than a century ago.
The author covers a wide territory and deals with incidents over a great time span. There are stories about Champlain, Cartier and other early explorers, about the Indians and about the early trappers and settlers. Nat Foster, Sir William Johnson, Joseph Bonaparte and John Brown, all make appearances. There are chapters on Tryon County, Smith's Lake, the High Peaks, Indian Pass, Lake George, the Manor of Willsboro and on the Chazy, Hudson and St. Lawrence Rivers, and much more.
Nathaniel Barlett Sylvester was born in the hamlet of Denmark in Lewis County and studied law in Lowville. He was admitted to the bar at Oswego in 1852. In 1846 he founded the Lewis County Democrat, a newspaper published at Lowville until 1916. In 1866 he was appointed judge of the U.S. Circuit Court and moved to Troy. It was here that he wrote and published his respected histories of Saratoga, Ulster and Rensselaer Counties. He died in 1894.
"This reprint makes available once more a standard source of North Country history, and a volume that is eminently readable, in the mildly romantic tone of 19th century local history." -New York History
316 pages, 5.5 x 8.5, 1997, fifth printing
Originally published in 1877.
$16.50 paperback--A Purple Mountain Press/Harbor Hill reprint
Copyright © 2001 Purple Mountain Press. All rights reserved.