As summer vacation comes to an end, students are once again preparing to return to school.  Following, is a letter written 169 years ago by a student at the Jonesville Academy. The Academy was a private school, built about 1839, complete with dormitories.  It stands today as a private home.

“Jonesville, May 14, 1854.

Dear Father, You said I must write to you tonight and I thought I would but as for being homesick I would never write.  But I am awful hungry.  I like my school first rate and all the boys.  I study Arithmetic, Grammar, Book Keeping, Reading, Spelling and Penmanship.  I want you to send me some letter stamps in your next letter.  I want you should write soon and write all about the dog and everything.  I want the vest right off and as for my shoes fetch them up when you come next week.      

Mother, Have a little pity and make me some good lemon pies and send them up by father.  Sometimes I have to eat clear bread and water for I can’t eat their butter.  Make 6.
        – W.H.H. Tourtellot”

This letter could easily have been written today!  William Henry Harrison Tourtellot, the son of William C. Tourtellot of East Sand Lake, Rensselaer County was 15 years old when he wrote this letter to his parents.  He must have enjoyed his time at the Jonesville Academy, because he later made his home in Clifton Park.  He and his family are buried in the Clifton Park Center Baptist Church Cemetery.  Descendants still live in the Town.

William H.H. Tourtellot was only one of many students who attended the Jonesville Academy during the mid-1800s.  The Academy was founded in 1836 by Clifton Park politician and entrepreneur, Roscius R. Kennedy, who donated substantial funds of his own to sustain the institution.  Public schools were not considered the best at this time, and well-to-do people often formed boarding schools when they could.  The Jonesville Academy, which was really a junior-senior high school, made provision for 50 boarders, male and female, and offered an academic, commercial, classical, and “ornamental” education.

A circular put out by the school about 1852 noted:  “Jonesville Academy is located in the very pleasant, quiet and remarkably healthy little village of Jonesville, the northern terminus of the Halfmoon and Clifton Park Plank Road.”  A broad range of studies was offered including physiology, rhetoric, Greek, Latin, mathematics, bookkeeping, natural science, penmanship, English, French, drawing, painting, vocal and instrumental music, and at various times Spanish and Italian.

Two years before William Tourtellot wrote his letter home, there were a total of 181 students enrolled at the academy, 129 gentlemen and 52 ladies.  Two of the girls came from Washington County, one from Jackson and the other from North White Creek, while several of the boys came from as far away as San Francisco, California and Buenos Ayres, South America.

According to the 1852 circular, the Female Department was supervised and conducted by a lady qualified in every respect to direct young ladies in their course of study and in the cultivation of correct habits and polite accomplishment.  Ladies were to room in the same hall with the teacher and were under her constant supervision.  Instrumental and vocal music, and all the ornamental branches, usually pursued in Female Seminaries, were taught at the Jonesville Academy.

The charge for Board and Tuition, except for piano lessons which were an additional charge, was $100 for an Academic Year, or 44 weeks.  This included washing, fuel, room rent, and use of the furniture.  Tuition, when not included with Board and Room was $6.00 per term, except for Music, Painting, Drawing, Embroidering and Surveying.

Parents were warned about giving their sons too much spending money as “The imaginary wants of most boys are far more numerous than their real ones.”  The list of don’ts included the use of tobacco and alcohol, profane language, gambling, lounging upon the beds during the day, frequenting the kitchen, association between the two sexes, and the use of fire-arms and powder.

The Jonesville Academy remained strong until 1870, when it abandoned its charter because of financial embarrassments.  It continued in part-time operation until 1876, when it was finally closed.  The school building was later used by the public school system until about 1953.  Many older residents of Clifton Park remember attending school in the old academy during the l940s and early 1950s before closing. During the mid 1960’s the school was reopened for a few years to accommodate the large influx of children of newly arriving Clifton Park residents. The abandoned building was auctioned off to the present owners for $10,000 in the late 1970s. The Temple family restored it as a home, retaining many of the school’s features such as the original blackboards. They received Clifton Park’s Historic Preservation Award for their efforts.

 May today’s students have plenty of sweets to eat during the school year, and not have to beg their mothers to “make some good lemon pies.”

Many citizens of Ballston Spa will be aware that in the nineteenth century the east end of Front St boasted a sumptuous hotel called the Sans Souci. Some of these residents may have mused upon the great events, including balls, which might have enlivened this hotel back in the day, even ones graced by the presence of European Royalty on occasion.

Some also may be aware that at the west end of Front St stood a smaller, but still well-appointed hotel, a building then called Aldridge’s, now Brookside. Less well known is that Brookside, in the early 1800’s, boasted an extension, called the North Wing. The ground floor of this wing was a ballroom, in which events were held which could compete with those of the Sans Souci for splendor. The Brookside building thankfully still exists, although shorn of its North Wing. This was sold around 1843 and moved across Fairground Ave. where it serves as an apartment house today.

Few, however, will recall that in the heyday of the Sans Souci and Aldridge’s there was a third hostelry in the Village situated less than one hundred yards from Brookside at the corner of Front Street and Court Street. Unknown today, most of it burned down in 1855 and its corner now lies vacant. But, for many years it operated successfully under the name of the McMaster House. It also had an extension tacked on, in which the ground floor comprised yet another ballroom.

When all three of these ballrooms were in vogue, roughly 1805 to 1830, there was quite a competition between them. At times there were not enough musicians in town for more than one to host dancing on a given evening. The smart folks at the Sans Souci were quite put out when either Aldridge’s or McMaster’s snaffled the best musicians, because they would not demean themselves to attend a ball at one of the other houses, among the “lesser sort.” Aldridge’s and McMaster’s seem to have been more cooperative. Abby May a resident at Aldridge’s in 1800 reported in her diary that balls at Aldridge’s often suffered from a surfeit of males, requiring the importation of ladies from McMaster’s as partners for the evening.

The McMaster House began life in 1792 when Nicholas Low (later the builder of the Sans Souci) started erecting a lodging house a few yards away from the main mineral spring. Low’s house, however, was on the opposite side of the spring from Aldridge’s. Completion came during the 1793 season and crowds really started to flock in from 1794. During the period through 1797 the manager of the hotel was James Merrill.

The brothers McMaster, James and David, were natives of Williamstown, Massachusetts. Their presence at Ballston is first documented in 1796, when they were in their early twenties. The brothers teamed with James Merrill in taking out a mortgage worth 152 pounds to buy a plot of land near the Mourning Kill in what today would be Malta. It seems that the brothers also got involved with Merrill’s management of Low’s lodging house. This evolved into their purchase of the hotel plus 3 adjacent lots in May 1799 for about $2,400, courtesy of a mortgage supplied by Nicholas Low himself.

Within a year, both brothers were married to local women. James had already wed Elizabeth Watrous and David now espoused Euretta Ball, a granddaughter of the Rev. Eliphalet Ball, for whom the town is named. The McMasters expanded their holdings both within the Village and nearby, becoming ever more leveraged as they went. One of their expansions, completed prior to 1804, was a Ballroom extension, which was located south of the original lodging house, as shown on an 1805 survey map.

A double tragedy had struck in September 1803, when both James himself and David’s wife Euretta died within days of each other. David had to buy the property from James’ heirs, requiring a large mortgage from Henry Walton in doing so. He then tried to sell the entire property back to Nicholas Low for the impressive asking price of $9,000. In the meantime, rather unusually, David had married his brother’s widow Betsey. They had two children to add to three Betsey had borne with James. Nicholas Low eventually bought back about half of the McMaster property, not including the hotel, and David and Betsey continued to manage the McMaster House together until David died around 1816. Betsey ploughed on alone and was recorded as still in charge at McMaster’s in the early 1830’s. She continued to live in the Village, dying in 1868.

The end came for the McMaster House on June 21, 1855, when the main building was consumed by fire. However, the Ballroom extension may have survived, having been fortuitously moved a few yards to the south of the 1792 building. Old accounts say that this structure still exists on Court Street, now an apartment building like the ballroom wing of Brookside. In this case the last remnant of the McMaster House may have operated as the Benedict Memorial Hospital from 1928-1953.

More research is needed to prove or disprove this hypothesis, but it is curious to think that the grand ballroom of the Sans Souci suffered demolition with the rest of the hotel in the winter of 1887/88, whereas one of its “lesser” competitors of the halcyon days may live on.

Over 100,000 Americans were traveling or residing in Europe in 1939.  As the threat of war became ever more ominous, in August the United States Department of State created a new office to facilitate the evacuation of these Americans. The war began with Germany’s invasion of Poland on September 1. By the end of the year 75% of the Americans in Europe were either home or on their way home.  Many American ships and men were involved in this evacuation. One of those sailors was my uncle.

Paul Joseph Phillips was born in Saratoga Springs on October 26 1912.  Paul’s father died when he was 9 years old.  His mother, Rose, was left to raise and care for 7 children between the ages of 15 and 2.  Rose and her 7 children  grew to be a very close , supportive family.  Paul graduated from Saratoga Springs High School in 1929, and like many high school graduates of the depression era, he had no firm plan for his future.  After graduation, Paul clerked for his uncle, John Phillips, who was a cigar maker and ran a cigar shop on Broadway.  Paul, also, played baseball as a pitcher for the county’s twi-light league, Saratoga Athletic Club.  The records show he won over half the games he pitched.  Paul was also very involved with the local theatre group, Saratoga Community Players, performing, building sets and acting in their productions in the City Hall Theatre.

Paul was hired in 1933 as a bellman by the United States Steamship Lines on the S.S. Manhattan.  Paul was promoted to steward in 1937 and moved to the recently launched S.S. Washington. The Washington’s route was New York to Hamburg, Le Havre, Southampton,  Cobh and home. Paul, again was promoted in 1938 to assistant clerk to the Purser, and was working in this capacity in 1939.

The S.S. Washington’s initial voyage of 1939 was the liner’s standard route, first stop Hamburg.  In Hamburg 90 German Jews boarded the ship fleeing Germany.  These passengers left the ship in Southampton. The next voyage the route changed, Naples and Genoa,  Italy, Le Havre, France,  Southampton, England, Galway Bay, Ireland and home. By mid-summer, with the unrest increasing, the stops in Italy and France were halted and Lisbon, Portugal was added.

The S.S. Washington arrived in Lisbon in late August 1939 to pick up American evacuees. Paul Phillips was tasked with validating credentials, visas, and passports of the refugees prior to their boarding the ship.He was surprised and delighted to welcome a Saratoga Springs native, Claire Desidoro, who was in line for boarding. Claire graduated from Saratoga Springs High School and Skidmore College.  Saratoga Springs was a “small town” at that time and the Phillips and Desidoro families were very close. Claire was employed as an instructor in Romance Languages at Skidmore College and she sailed to Europe in the spring of 1939 in order to take classes at Perugia University of Linguistics in Italy. With the ports in Italy and France abandoned, the American Embassy assisted Claire and other Americans in Italy, by obtaining transport to France and then to Lisbon.

On September 1, 1939 Germany invaded Poland.  On the 3rd, Britain, France, Canada declared war on Germany, and the same day a U-Boat sank the British liner Athena causing the deaths of 30 Americans on board.   Four days later the Washington was one night out of Lisbon when it was hailed by a U-Boat which directed them to pick up the survivors of the British freighter, Olive Grove, which the U-Boat had sunk.  The ship stopped in Southhampton, then steamed on to Galway Bay, and home to New York.  The Washington was designed for 1,050 passengers and 700 crew, but this trip the ship carried 1,790 passengers 700 of whom were children!  Paul’s mother and sister and Claire’s mother were waiting on the pier when the ship docked in New York.

The S.S. Washington was to immediately return to Europe for more evacuees.  However the National Maritime Union refused to let them return without a formal agreement for a 10% bonus for voyages to the war zone .  The Union’s demands were still unresolved when Washington left New York for Europe in late spring of 1940. 

The Washington arrived in Lisbon in June, took on board 1,020 refugees and put back to sea.  At 5 A.M. the next morning, on June 11, 1940, 180 miles from Lisbon a U-Boat surfaced near the Washington and demanded the vessel be abandoned in 10 minutes. The passengers and 570 crew members hustled into the lifeboats and abandoned the ship, amazingly, with no panic. Eventually, the U-Boat captain realized this vessel was American and left the scene. The passengers and crew remained in the lifeboats for another hour before returning to the ship. The Washington steamed on to anchor in Galway Bay where over 500 additional evacuees were anxious to leave Europe.

Paul Phillips, now the purser’s chief clerk, was deputized to go ashore in the ship’s motor launch, validate the refugees’ credentials and have them moved aboard  the ship. When that task was complete, Paul and the crew of the launch headed back to the ship in a windblown, very choppy sea. A rogue wave hit the launch and washed Paul into Galway Bay. Immediately, 2 crewmen jumped into the sea to rescue Paul.  With Paul’s help, all 3 scrambled back into the launch. Tragically, very quickly after regaining the launch, Paul was stricken and died in the launch. The Irish authorities and the Gardai held an inquest, on board the Washington into Paul’s death. The inquest ruled the death accidental, the result of shock and cardiac arrest. Paul was 27 years old.

Shortly after the end of the war, Paul J. Phillips, merchant seaman, was recognized by the United States as among the earliest Americans to lose their life in the conflict.  Indeed, among the many monuments to those who died as a result of WWII is one erected in 1947 by the parish of the Church of Saint Peter on Broadway in Saratoga Springs. Paul Phillips’ sacrifice is memorialized there, along with 17 other members of the parish. 

Paul was my mother’s (Mary Phillips Murray) brother, my uncle. Claire Desidoro was my wife Susanne’s mother’s (Angela Desidoro Tarantino) sister, Sue’s aunt. Paul and Claire’s stories of their experiences are an important part of our family’s history.

The Grange, formally known as “The Patrons of Husbandry,” was introduced to Saratoga County in 1890, twenty-three years after the agricultural organization’s founding and twenty-two years after the nation’s first local chapter was established in Fredonia, NY.  In the 1880s and into 1890, New York State Grange sent organizers in the field to build up membership.  One reached Saratoga County in 1890.

Organized as a ritualistic fraternity copied after the Masonic Order, the Grange was formed in 1867 by Washington D.C. bureaucrats as a solution to the devastation experienced by Southern agriculture during the Civil War.  The organization was quickly modified to become a farmer’s union fighting the railroads’ high fees and attacking the economic system that sucked away the value of farm labor.

The communities of Charlton, Stillwater, Milton, and Ballston formed Subordinate Granges in 1890.  They were so called to indicate the lowest rung in Grange hierarchy.  Above the Subordinates were (and still are) Pomona (county), State, and National levels.  Ironically, as a grassroots organization, policies and leadership rose from the local affiliates.  Of the four, only Milton exists.  The efforts of Ballston and Charlton faltered early on.  Stillwater continued as an active Grange until the 1990s.

By the mid-20th century, Grange Halls were found in the towns of Ballston, Charlton, Clifton Park, Corinth, Galway, Greenfield, Malta, Milton, Northumberland, Saratoga, Stillwater, and Wilton.  The Grange represented small family farms, and many of them turned to the Grange for support after WWII, when technology and agri-business began to drive American agriculture.  The niche the Grange had carved out for itself was disappearing, and by the early 1960s it strived to be something for everyone.  Today, in addition to Milton, Greenfield and Corinth survive.  All three had to modify their mission to exist.

The name, “Grange,” and that of its officers: Master, Steward, Assistant Stewards, Gatekeeper, Chaplain, and Lecturer were taken from the Romanticism of the period, which looked upon the English model as the pinnacle of human civilization.  Later given the title of “Social Darwinism,” this association with medieval England was intended to instill pride and worthiness among members.  With straight faces, Grangers announced to new initiates, “Agriculture is the first and noblest of all occupations.”

 As a fraternity, the Grange was unique.  Women were admitted as fraternal members equal to men.  Long before universal suffrage, women were leading Subordinate and County Granges.  While to today’s ears the early language of the order’s first degree sounds condescending and archaic, in the late 19th century it was radical.  “I greet these sisters as worthy members of our order.  Woman is the educator of youth and our co-student through life; and to accomplish this she must acquire knowledge and wisdom.  Education adds the greatest charm to woman- it is . . . an ornament in prosperity and a refuge in adversity.”

While all offices were open to women, it was not so with men.  The positions of Flora (dispensing charity), Ceres (ceremonies for the dead) and Pomona (distributing the harvest) were to be held by women.  The office of Pomona was traditionally given to a male Master’s wife.  The two offices were positioned next to each other in the meeting hall, and it was assumed the male Master needed the support.  These offices named after Roman goddesses had a subtle role.  Knowledge of the classics was equated with education.  Early Grange manuals ended with, “. . . the great and grand object, and crowning glory of our organization is to EDUCATE AND ELEVATE THE AMERICAN FARMER.”

When M. W. Bigelow, State Grange’s emissary, came to Saratoga County in 1890, he was talking dollars and cents to encourage farmers to form Granges.  Ten couples and two fellows listened to his talk and signed up as charter members, forming Milton Grange #685.  A month later, the young organization wrote to “some of the groceries in the Trade list to get prices.” Two years later, it was noted, “Grange trade for the quarter amounted to $156.20.” Bigelow also instructed in the ritual and ensured the new Granges would conform to the norm.

Although it seemed to be a footnote to socializing, use of the Grange for education was not ignored.  In October of Milton Grange’s first year, a special meeting was held at which topics of “Views of Butter Making,” “Yeast Making,” “Preparing Milk for the Saratoga Market,” “Bridges,” and “Canning Fruit” were interspersed with music and readings.  In 1906, National Grange encouraged members to discuss Federal funding for parcel post and highways, direct election of senators, and more stringent pure food laws.

Milton Grange first met during the week in mid-afternoon, usually beginning between 2 and 3 o’clock.  Farm work began early, and by noon horses needed rest.  Grangers returned home in time for evening chores.  By 1911, Milton Grange was sometimes meeting in the evenings.  Bacon Hill Grange, organized in 1897, convened in evenings and set its “monthly” meeting by the full moon so the horse and driver had light.  The tradition continued well into the 1960s.

Food was central to the Grange.  Arguably, it was more by consumption than production.  Initially, Granges met at members’ homes or in a rented space.  Holding dinners as fund raisers was out of the question, but meetings often concluded with a “feast.”  Granges strove to acquire property and build a hall.  To meet construction costs and cover overhead every Grange Hall was designed for dancing and public dinners.  Once a hall was constructed, Granges became social centers of their communities.  Many a person overate at Grange suppers, and many couples met at Grange dances and later married.

The marriage of a Grange member as a result of a dance was a special event.  On August 19, 1962, Milton Granger, Hiley Armer married Mary Jane Eliason.  Never having been in Milton Grange’s Hall, Mary Jane unwillingly agreed to attend a dance.  Hiley asked her to be his partner, neither expecting it to be a life-long relationship.  Members of Milton Grange celebrated the nuptials by staging a mock wedding for friends, family, and fellow Grangers. The 14-year-old hapless “groom” was no match for the much older, domineering “bride,” to the hilarity of the audience.

Driving by the Saratoga Tree Nursery, just south of the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, most of us barely notice the state tree nursery’s rustic entrance sign – and you need to squint to see that its full name is “Colonel William F. Fox Memorial Saratoga Tree Nursery.”

The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which owns the nursery, considers Fox the “father” of today’s DEC forest ranger program, as well as the guy who believed the state should raise young trees for later replanting.

Yet the story of the 19th century Ballston Spa native, who also served with valor in the Civil War, is little-known to the general public.

William Freeman Fox was born in the village on Jan. 11, 1840, the son of a Baptist minister who also served in the State Assembly. As a young man, Fox studied engineering at Union College in Schenectady, graduating in 1860. Soon the nation was roiled by the start of the Civil War, which quickly proved more protracted and bloodier than either side expected. Fox enlisted in the Union Army in Elmira, where his family then lived, in 1862.

Fox entered the army with the rank of captain and commanded C Company of the 107th New York Infantry Regiment, assigned to the Army of the Potomac. The young officer saw his first action at Antietam, where he was wounded. He was promoted to major and was wounded again at Chancellorsville in the spring of 1863. He was a lieutenant colonel by the time he was wounded a third time, at the Battle of Resaca, in Georgia, after his regiment was reassigned to Gen. William T. Sherman’s Georgia campaign. Fox was discharged from the Army in July 1864 but was known as “Colonel Fox” ever after. In the years afterward, he wrote several books about the war.

Fox returned to a lumber business the family had started before the war, and over a couple of decades he became prosperous. In an era when many lumbermen practiced indiscriminate clear-cutting, Fox became a proponent of the new science of “conservation forestry,” which sought to use selective cutting to create a sustainable forest resource.

Meanwhile, a debate was on in the New York State Legislature over the future of the Adirondack and Catskill forests – timber interests coveted the lumber, and merchants the free-flowing streams that could be diverted to maintain canal flows. Some of the wealthiest saw their value for wilderness recreation. In 1883, the Legislature prohibited the sale of any more mountain lands to private lumber companies.

In 1885, a new Forest Commission was created to oversee the state’s forest lands. Fox became assistant secretary and advisor to the commission.  He recommended state land acquisitions that expanded the Forest Preserve from 715,000 acres when he took office to 1.6 million acres by the time of his death in 1909.

The debate over the future of Adirondack and Catskill forests was settled in favor of keeping state forest lands “forever wild,” and in 1892 the Adirondack Park was created. Fox was named superintendent of state forests.

With the reduction of logging and increased popularity of wilderness recreation, a new problem emerged – wildland forest fires. In some years, hundreds of thousands of acres burned. The state appointed fire wardens to try to control them, but they worked only during emergencies, and local communities were expected to pay their expenses.

Fox spent much of his career advocating for a more robust response.  In 1899, he wrote to then-Gov. Theodore Roosevelt urging “the organization of an adequate force of forest rangers who should be assigned to districts of a suitable area, which should be patrolled constantly and thoroughly.”  In addition to detecting and fighting fires, the rangers could enforce laws against poaching and investigate illegal logging on state lands, he argued.

A system that became today’s forest rangers was established in 1909, following exceptionally bad fire years in 1903 and 1908. That’s also the year that Fox died, on June 16. He is buried in the Ballston Spa Cemetery.

The name “forest ranger” for the professionalized fire wardens was officially established  in 1912, after the Forest, Fish and Game Commission was reorganized and named the Conservation Department. That department became the Department of Environmental Conservation
in 1970.

“Considered by many the ‘father” of DEC’s forest rangers, Colonel William F. Fox is arguably one of the most important people in the long-storied history of New York State forest lands and forest management,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said when the Saratoga Tree Nursery was named for Fox in 2019.

The state tree nursery, founded in 1911 and the first of its kind in the nation, grew out of another idea Fox advocated, that the state should take responsibility for planting new trees on burned-over lands.

Stephen Williams is a retired newspaper reporter and the author of a collection of his journalism for the Daily Gazette, “Off The Northway,” published by the Saratoga County History Center.