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An Overview of Early Saratoga Religious Communities

Written by Caleb Taran on . Posted in History.

Throughout Saratoga County’s long history, many religious and spiritual communities have called our home their home, with the land even being sacred to some. This article will highlight the founding of several of Saratoga County’s religious communities through the 19th century, with a focus on Saratoga Springs.

Today, diverse people of faith have joined those long established denominations to call Saratoga home, including Jewish communities, several Indigenous Cultural Revival Movements, and a Mosque, Masjid Al-Arqam in Halfmoon. All of them play important roles in the Saratoga Community. 

We must begin with the first religions in what is now Saratoga County. The Mohawk branch of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy maintains a long-lasting presence here, and they primarily follow The Great Law of Peace (Gayanashagowa). The Great Law functions as a sort of constitution. According to legend, it stems from the Great Peacemaker Tekanawí:ta, who traveled among six warring nations and preached a message of cooperation. This eventually led to their coalescing into one Confederacy, with a unique system of government which mirrors representative democracy. This has led some scholars to point to it as a possible influence on the U.S. Constitution, which was later acknowledged by Congress in 1988. There are some supernatural elements in Tekanawí:ta’s story: he was born to a virgin mother, and sailed from the far north on a canoe made of white stone. It is important to remember that religion comes in many forms. This one served as the foundation for an enduring political system.

The earliest Europeans in the region were French Catholic missionaries and traders on their way to and from Quebec, marking the beginning of a Christian presence here. Their attempts to convert the native Mohawks were unsuccessful and often violent. An exception would be St. Kateri Tekakwitha, a Mohawk woman who secretly studied and converted to Catholicism. She is the first indigenous woman of North America to be canonized by the Catholic Church and has become a symbol for both regional Catholics and Indigenous ones across the continent. Despite limited success in converting the natives, a few French missionaries settled on the foothills of the Adirondacks, becoming the region’s first permanent Catholic residents.

Before the American Revolution, Dutch families settled along the Hudson River, bringing the Dutch Reformed Church with them. Today several of these congregations still exist along the eastern and southern borders of the county from Bacon Hill to Vischer Ferry.

As more settlers migrated from New England to Saratoga County (which was considered part of Albany County at the time) they brought their religion with them. In 1769, Eliphalet Ball, a Presbyterian preacher from Bedford, New York on the Connecticut border arrived with members of his congregation. He was an advocate of the New Light movement inspired by the First Great Awakening, which emphasized personal relationships with God and rejected established church power structures. Its less centralized spiritual message heavily resonated with frontier communities. Ball founded the first Presbyterian church in the southwest corner of his farm in 1775, and the town of Ballston came to be named after him.

With the onset of the Second Great Awakening in the early 19th century, upstate New York became known as “the Burned-over District” because of the sheer emotion and energy of Protestant religious activity. This religious fervor along with population growth inspired by the construction of the Erie Canal and railroads lead to a steady rise in Church membership. In 1805, Saratoga County saw its first Anglican Church in Ballston. In 1816, a new Presbyterian Church was founded in Saratoga Springs. Abijah Blanchard was its first ordained deacon, and Darius Oliver Griswold became Reverend in 1822. Although Presbyterians were not newcomers, they gained many converts and formed new congregations. Other Christian denominations which put down local roots during the Second Great Awakening included Baptists, using land gifted by Gideon Putnam, and the Quakers, who would invite Frederick Douglass to speak in 1849.

Starting in 1815, the fledgling Catholic community was bolstered by a wave of French and Irish immigrants. Most were seeking jobs during the summer season, as Saratoga Springs became a popular tourist destination for wealthy Americans and Europeans. At first, they met in town under the leadership of traveling priests, but not long after the Saratoga and Schenectady railroad opened, the Church of St. Peter was founded in 1839, a permanent Parish for a growing congregation. With the arrival of more Catholics, primarily Italian and Irish immigrants, another parish became necessary. St. Clement’s opened in 1917 after the Albany Diocese approved its establishment.

The Saratoga Racetrack opened in 1863, drawing additional ethnic groups into the city. As the African American community grew in mid-century seeking employment in the large hotels, the Dyer-Phelps Memorial AME Zion congregation was founded in 1862. Since then, it has been joined by the Mt. Olivet Baptist church and the Soul Saving Station Church of Saratoga Springs.

Sadly, these new arrivals were not always welcomed in the community. In 1853, a woman who local newspapers dubbed “Miss Lamb” was attempting to convert to Catholicism. In an effort to prevent this, three Episcopal priests kidnapped her. Eventually she escaped and fled to Albany, where she finished her conversion.

Jewish newcomers began arriving in the early 20th century, as Jews from Eastern Europe immigrated to the U.S. en masse. A particularly egregious example of discrimination was the Seligman Affair. In 1877, Jewish banker and founder of J. & W. Seligman & Co. Joseph Seliman was denied a stay in Saratoga Springs’ Grand Union Hotel because he was Jewish. This social antisemitism may have faded by the 1960s, but at that time it was very real.

Saratoga County is home to many faiths, and there will no doubt be more religious choices available as time goes on. While tensions will sometimes arise, if we respect our differences and work together to build a better community, we will be stronger for it.

Mechanicville’s 1919 School Fire

Written by Sandy McBride on . Posted in History.


Mechanicville School No. 1
Photo provided by The Saratoga County History Roundtable.

It was a very calm night.  No wind was blowing and the ground was free of ice and snow and the moon was shining brightly.  It was a beautiful winter’s night, with no hint of tragedy.  Communicants of the First Methodist Church and the Presbyterian Church were meeting for special entertainment.

At the Music Hall on Park Avenue, a dance was in progress.  In the basement of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, a few yards north of School One, members of the Mechanicville Retail Grocers’ Association were just sitting down to their banquet.  The calendar said February 17, 1919, and the clock in the basement said 7:45 p.m.   Forty-five minutes before, the School One clock had sounded seven.

In the new high school, adjacent to St. Luke’s church, the Mechanicville basketball team known as the Halfmoons were handing the Troy Arsenal a drubbing by the score of 24-16 when someone rushed into the gym balcony and shouted “School One is burning!”

Hal Sheehan, Mechanicville’s well-known newspaper columnist who for years recorded and recounted some of the most fascinating happenings in the history of our communities, gave us a vivid picture of what happened on that February night one hundred and two years ago. He recounted this tragic event in several of his columns, Down Our Way, in the Saratogian, in 1969 and again in his column Over Mechanicville Way in the Gazette in 1984, as well as brief mentions in others.

The school building was Mechanicville’s first high school and was built in 1888. Its first class graduated in 1892, a class consisting of six young ladies. It had twelve large classrooms on three stories, as well as a library and a board of education meeting room in the basement.  Atop what Hal calls the “ugly” mansard roof was the pride of the community . . . a tower with a large clock and a 1457-pound bell that rang the hour of the day and night faithfully for 31 years.

As the community of Mechanicville grew, a new, larger high school building was built on the other side of St. Luke’s church and rectory in 1915, and the original building became an elementary school dubbed School One.

On that February night, Sheehan tells us, the Reverend James A. Tappe, rector of St. Luke’s, looked out his window, only a few yards from the school building, at about 7:45 and saw flames shooting up from the basement. He sounded the alarm from a fire box in front of the church, and the Mechanicville Fire Department raced to the scene. 

Firemen had to deal with no pressure in the hydrants,  but soon got their pumpers into action. Seeing the magnanimity of the blaze, they brought in their ancient steamer and put it in action to reach the top floors. One of their big concerns was of the roaring flames spreading to the rectory of the church as well as the Mead home on the south side of the school. The school had wooden ceilings, wooden staircases and oiled birchwood floors and quickly became a roaring furnace. 

At 8:57, the mansard roof collapsed into the basement. Three minutes later, at exactly nine o’clock, the bell chimed nine times and then the clock and bell plummeted 60 feet from the tower into the basement.  The fire would not be controlled until 11 p.m., but continued to smolder all night and the next day as 50 tons of coal stored in the basement burned. By morning light, nothing remained of the school but windowless walls and three chimneys towering above the rubble.

Lost in the conflagration were a thousand library books as well as the textbooks of the school’s 550 students. The flag, which had not been taken down that night, also burned.

City residents wept as they watched the blaze consume the school of which they were so proud. The loss of the clock and the bell were particularly lamented, especially since it had rung just a few months earlier on November 11, 1918 to proclaim the end of the Great War. Many demanded that the bell be retrieved from the wreckage and used again on a new school building. Sadly, the damaged bell was eventually auctioned off, and the high bidder was the Meneely Bell Company of Troy which ironically had crafted the bell some 32 years earlier.

While the students were relocated to many locations throughout the city until a new School One could be built, in a later column, Hal noted an interesting side note to the fire.  It seems that an annual occurrence was the migration of chimney swallows who flew into Mechanicville every year on May 15. They always made their home in the ventilating chimney at the rear of the school.  Observers had noted that there were about 200 of those swallows living at the school in the previous September when they had left town and headed south on the 15th of that month. 

Said Hal, “When the fire destroyed the school building and left only skeleton chimneys standing, the swallows must have gotten the message, for they never returned.”

Rowland’s Hollow: A Lost Crossroads

Written by Jim Richmond on . Posted in Featured, History.


Rowland’s Hollow – Yesterday and Today. Photo provided by The Saratoga County History Roundtable.

Saratoga County has seen 9 generations come and go in the almost 235 years since it was carved out from Albany County in 1791. Settlers moved in, established farms, mills, and small communities. Several of these communities have become villages, cities and suburban towns. Others have remained hamlets and become known as Forgotten Crossroads – still vibrant communities with a rich history of memories. Still others have disappeared altogether, no longer visible or remembered.  They have become Lost Crossroads.

Rowland’s Hollow, also known as Rowland’s Mills, was one of those crossroads, a center of economic activity in its heyday. Now gone but should not be forgotten. In 1878, Nathaniel Sylvester in his History of Saratoga County describes it as follows.

This hamlet is on the eastern line of Milton, and not far from the village of Saratoga Springs. The place is named for H.R. Rowland, the proprietor of the saw-and grist-mills that are situated upon one of the branches of the Kayadrossera. Southeast of the mills there are also stone-works. Prince Wing resides at Rowland’s Mills, and is very extensively engaged in milling, burning lime, and farming. In these occupations he employs a large number of persons. Prince Wing is a native of the town of Greenfield, his father having settled there at an early date.

Sylvester gives credit to two of the most well-known entrepreneurs responsible for the development of Rowland’s Hollow. But where did they come from? And how was it that they were able to obtain the resources to develop these mills? Sylvester hints at an important aspect of the development of Rowland’s Hollow and that is, it did not begin with these men. They were following in the footsteps of their parents and grandparents who first settled in this area years before the first dam was built to contain the first mill pond.

Isaac Rowland migrated from Pittstown, Rensselaer County with his father Oliver and brother Robert in 1802 soon after the birth of his son Hiram. Isaac began accumulating several pieces of land, beginning with the purchase at auction of property of his father, seized for non-payment of debt in 1805. Oliver died in 1810, but son Isaac continued to add to his landholdings. Two purchases were in the 9th lot of the 16th allotment of the Kayderosseras Patent. It was in this area that Rowland’s Mills began to take shape, midway along Rowland Street between today’s Geyser Road and Rt 29.  By 1824 the mills were already in place along the creek, as Isaac parlayed his land acquisitions into successful business enterprises.

By this time Isaac had considerable influence in the community in addition to his business interests. In 1823 he became a subscriber to the newly formed Saratoga County Bank,[i] and his involvement in banking continued – Isaac was one of the original stockholders when Ballston Spa National Bank was formed in 1839, and served as a bank director from 1840-1845. Both his sons, Isaac and Hiram, followed their father in industrial pursuits.  Isaac, Jr partnered with Chauncey Kilmer to erect a paper mill in Rock City Falls in 1840. Hiram worked alongside his father in Rowland’s Hollow, eventually taking over the family’s mills.

Three miles north of Rowland’s Mills another family had settled into the adjoining Town of Greenfield. Prince Wing – grandfather of the quarryman and mill owner- moved to Greenfield in 1786, becoming one of the first settlers in the town. He purchased property and built his home and farm on what is now Wing Road. Grandson Prince, who was to play an important role in the development of Rowland’s Hollow, was born in 1806, and following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather, continued the family’s agricultural tradition. His involvement in Rowland’s Hollow was to come later, after the mills had been operating for many years.

The death of Isaac, Sr in 1857 had a significant impact on the  inhabitants of Rowland’s Hollow.  He was their patriarch. The Beer’s map of 1866 gives us a good snapshot of Rowland’s Hollow as the next generation took over. Hiram Rowland is prominently listed along with his sawmill and gristmill at the junction of the road and the creek. By this time Hiram was 70 years old, and he apparently sold this mill to Prince Wing, who one year later owned the gristmill, expanding his business interests in the Hollow where he also operated the stone quarry and lime kiln.

Wing may have been the owner, but the day-to-day operations were left to others. Joe Parmatier ran the gristmill throughout this period. He lived in the old stone house across the street from the gristmill.  Patrick Leonard was the foreman for Wing’s quarry.

With all the focus on the sawmill and gristmill, it was the limestone rock itself that became the lifeblood of the Hollow in the period after the Civil War. The demand for limestone was high.  It was processed in Wing’s lime kiln and used within the Hollow itself at Isaac Wager’s plaster mill where it was ground for use by the many farms in the area. The products of the Rowland Hollow quarry were also used to construct homes, churches and commercial buildings throughout the Saratoga and Ballston area.  This vibrant community included stonecutters, millworkers, blacksmiths and lime burners whose children attended a small one room schoolhouse on the corner of Rowland Street and Grand Avenue.

The few photos we have today from the last quarter of the 19th century show a small bustling complex of mills, homes and bridges, many constructed using the Hollow’s limestone.  These images represent the second generation of Rowland’s Hollow, the first having given way as wood gives away to stone.

But this heyday was not destined to last. Soon after the turn of the century, the demand for limestone declined, as the plaster mill closed and paper manufacturers turned from straw to wood in their operations. The families that had been supported by the stonecutters and mill workers moved away, and Rowland’s Hollow was abandoned.

The limestone buildings could have, should have, lived on. But they did not.  We are fortunate to have views of the Hollow as it existed in the 1930’s, long after the mills had been abandoned. Even then the buildings were in ruins. Over the years since, the buildings have disappeared, the limestone repurposed for other uses in the local area.

Today it is even harder to uncover the vestiges of the Hollow. Cars and quarry trucks race along Rowland Street. If you look quick you might catch a glimpse of the northeast corner of the stone grist mill, standing 30 feet tall. One wonders why even this remains. How many of us drive along roads in Saratoga County, passing by similar spots, unaware of the life that used to be in these Lost Crossroads?

The Restless Italian: A Merchant on the Erie Canal

Written by Saratoga TODAY on . Posted in History.


Erie Canal Lock 44 Grocery Store of John Brizolara Photo provided by The Saratoga County History Roundtable.

Thousands of immigrants poured into the United States during the mid nineteenth century. Coming mostly from northern Europe, many arrived in New York City and from there spread out to every region of our country.  One such immigrant who eventually found his way to Clifton Park was a restless Italian by the name of John C. Brizolara.

Brizolara was born January 1, 1822, in the village of Magniasco, Town of St. Stefano, County of Chiavery, Sardinia.  At age 15, after two years of public school and further education at Bobbio Seminary, he was engaged in hotel keeping.  At age eighteen he became a clerk in the city of Milan, and in 1845 when he was twenty-three, Brizolara, embarked at Genoa for New York on the sailing vessel “Constantino”.  After a stormy and rather perilous voyage of eighty-eight days the “Constantino” entered New York harbor, and landed her passengers on July 31.

Brizolara could not speak English and was unable to find employment in New York, so he remained there for only a short time.  He went to Boston and shortly after to Bangor, Maine where he eventually found a job.  The harshness of the climate, however, impelled him to move to Albany about 1848, and then to Fonda’s Basin here in the Town of Clifton Park.

Fonda’s or Fundy’s (as the locals pronounced it) Basin no longer exists today, but in the mid nineteenth century it was a small canal side settlement near Lock 20 between Vischer Ferry and Rexford.  If Droms Road extended past Riverview Road to the Mohawk River you would be at the site of Fonda’s Basin.  This area is now under water due to the damming of the river in 1907 to create Lock 7 of the Barge Canal.  It was here that Brizolara worked for three years as a clerk for the Fonda family, probably at a small canal side store that existed at this site.

Brizolara next moved several miles east along the canal to Willow Spring.  This small canal side settlement was located about one mile east of Vischer Ferry and centered around the present-day home of Jim and Nancy Douglass.  Their home was built in 1832 by John Clute, and during the canal era there was a station barn where fresh mules were available to canallers to pull their boats.  There was also a small canal store, now a garage on the neighboring property, and a spring from which canallers could get fresh water.  Above this spring was a willow tree from which the settlement derived its name.  Today a small development across Riverview Road has assumed this identity.

Brizolara engaged in business for a time at Willow Spring, probably working in the canal store.  It was while working here that he met Elizabeth Vandenburgh, born August 15, 1824, whom he married.  In the spring of 1853, he moved west to Rexford Flats where he found employment at another canal store.  This store was larger than the stores at Fonda’s Basin and Willow Spring and Brizolara actually operated the store rather than just clerking.  Here he engaged in the business of a butcher, grocer and gardener.  The store was located near Lock 22.

After four years at Rexford Flats, Brizolara, his wife Elizabeth and two young children, Kate and Albert, left the Town of Clifton Park for East Frankfort in Herkimer County.  Here he purchased in 1857 the canal store and hotel at Lock 44 from George Folts.  He was still engaged in selling canal supplies at this location in 1879 when the History of Herkimer County was published by F. W. Beers.  An engraving of J. C. Brizolara’s store and hotel appears in that publication.  It was his restlessness – the three years with the Fondas at Fonda’s Basin, further clerking at Willow Spring, and the four years running the Rexford store – that gave him the experience necessary to make his own store successful. Brizolara died in 1900 and is buried in the Oakwood Cemetery in Frankfort.

On Saturday, May 3 at 10 AM, the Town of Clifton Park will dedicate a new historic marker at the site of Willow Spring, the canalside settlement where J. C. Brizolara once worked.  The home of John Clute that once served as a canal inn and the remains of the canal store still exist.  The unveiling of the marker will be followed by a walking tour to Lock 19 led by Historian John Scherer. 

This event will kick off Clifton Park’s bicentennial celebration of the Erie Canal.  A series of events are planned, including lectures, an Erie Canal exhibit at the Historic Grooms Tavern, a bike tour along the towpath, and a talk on clothing of the 1820s.  A bus trip will feature a canal boat ride on a restored section of the Erie Canal and aqueduct at Camillus and a stop at the Dry Dock Museum at Chittenango. The Clifton Park Halfmoon Library, also participating in the celebration, will host an exhibit from the Erie Canal Museum in Syracuse and a series of talks on the canal.  These commemorative programs will culminate in a weekend long event in Vischer Ferry on October 11 and 12 featuring antique cars, re-enactors, musicians, a parade, hay wagon ride tours to Lock 19, exhibits, food vendors and a play involving life on the Erie Canal.  Check the web sites for the Town of Clifton Park and the Clifton Park Halfmoon Library for further information.

The Griggs Family of Halfmoon and the Loyalist Migration

Written by Sue Thompson on . Posted in History.


Loyalist Settlements in Canada. Photo provided by The Saratoga County History Roundtable.

Alexander Griggs (1717-1801) was 58 years old and living in Dutchess County when he, by order, signed the Articles of Association in Poughkeepsie in 1775. Not soon after, he moved to Halfmoon with his wife Hester Freer Griggs (1727-1801) and their three sons, Abraham, John and Simon.

It appears that although Alexander had been forced to declare his allegiance to the Rebel cause, all three of his sons remained loyal to King George III during the Revolutionary War.  They were indicted and convicted of crimes against New York, and as a result, Abraham had his Halfmoon property confiscated. Alexander and Hester Griggs remained in Halfmoon during and after the war and are said to be buried in the Middletown Cemetery upon their death in 1801, but a marker for them no longer exists. They had outlived their sons Abraham and John, who, along with Simon, are buried in the United Empire Loyalist cemeteries in Noyon, Quebec.

Abraham Griggs owned his farm in Halfmoon with his brother-in-law Alexander Schutt, and John Griggs were all recorded as enlisted men in the 12th Regiment of the Albany County Militia. Although their regiment was active in the Battles of Saratoga, it appears that Abraham and John had been engaged in Loyalist activities before Burgoyne’s advance from Canada in the fall of 1777.

As early as February 1776, Abraham and John declared their allegiance to the Crown when they signed a letter published in the London Gazette. Signed by some 140 like-minded subjects, the letter was read to the king in his bedchamber and “His Majesty was pleased to receive [it] very graciously.” The signees expressed their “Detestations and Abhorrence of the most unnatural Rebellion” and extolled the “Blessings we enjoy under your Majesty’s mild and happy Reign.” The letter ended with the hope that the king’s “Fleets and Armies would, with Divine Providence, will soon chastise and bring back to their Duty and Obedience, these deluded Persons, who may have dared to violate the Peace and Order of your Majesty’s Dominions in America.”  

With their position clearly stated, at least in London, Abraham and John Griggs did not escape scrutiny at home. On May 13, 1777, the Albany Committee of Correspondence minutes mention Abraham Greggs as having voluntarily taken the Oath of Allegiance. He was discharged from confinement and permitted to return home.

The Schenectady Committee of Correspondence minutes of August 6, 1777, record that John “Grig” had been said to use “some very unbecoming Expressions” when he drank to the health and success of King George III at the house of John Bradt. Based on sworn affidavits from William Moore and John Bradt, “Grig” was committed to the jail in Albany to be released the next day after having made a “most humble concession” to the board and promised future amendment.

Eventually, Alexander Schutt was indicted in July 1780 and convicted of crimes against New York State in August of 1782. Abraham Griggs was indicted April 1782 and convicted in April 1783. By their own admission, they were engaged in aiding and provisioning Loyalists on their travels to and from Canada.  They fled towards Canada in 1780 and eventually found employment with the army in the engineering department.

John Griggs was indicted on June 9, 1780, and convicted of crimes against New York state on October 28, 1780. He was also employed by the British Army as an “express,” or messenger during the war according to the Old Empire Loyalists List. Youngest son Simon Griggs was indicted July 29, 1780 and convicted of crimes against New York state August 3, 1780. He was cited in the United Empire Loyalist List as being an associate of Captain John Savage. He occupied himself during the war with spying and sabotage on behalf of the British army.

Abraham Griggs and Alexander Schutt applied to the British government in 1786 and 1787 for the loss of their Halfmoon farm. They estimated that their losses amounted to 1202£ pounds,, an amount that included land and household items.  According to their sworn testimonies, they had come from Dutchess County before the war and purchased a 150-acre farm in the Van Schiack patent in the Halfmoon district of Albany County as partners. There was a decrepit log cabin for shelter and Abraham’s brother John, a carpenter, replaced it with a 22×22’ wood frame house. They were settled at Caldwell Manor in Canada when they made their second memorial application in 1787.

All this leaves to be determined exactly where the spouses of Abraham and John Griggs were during and directly after the Revolutionary War. Because the birth locations of John Grigg’s sons Simon and Abraham are in Schaghticoke and Halfmoon in 1780, it appears that John was still living in the area.  It’s possible that family members that remained in the area had sheltered with patriarch Alexander. The 1790 census, which doesn’t list specific names, indicates that there were 2 males in the house and 3 females over age 16 at the time. Youngest brother Simon also appeared to remain in Halfmoon.  He and his wife Hester Freer Griggs had two children, Catherine and Henry, that were born there in 1784 and 1786, and he paid taxes in Halfmoon in 1786 and 1788 as well. There is no record of his farm being confiscated as a result of his conviction.  

Alexander Schutt and Abraham Griggs were back in the United States by 1790, according to the census, living near the Canadian border in Champlain, New York, Abraham with his spouse Sarah Scutt Griggs and their two children, Nancy and Alexander. Both families owned an enslaved person.  The census list indicates they lived near each other.

By 1794 John Griggs was living in Petitioners, Vermont, according to the Vermont state census, perhaps with his spouse, Annetje Schouten Griggs and their children. Simon and his family took advantage of free land and low taxes offered by Canada and moved to the Shefford township by 1801. According to the Letters Patent of 10 Feb 1801 filed by Captain John Savage – the first permanent resident of the area – and his associates were among the first settlers.

Abraham, John, and Simon Griggs and their extended family members rest in peace in Canada. Abraham, who died in 1795 at the age of 54 is buried in the small Griggs-Steele Pioneer Cemetery and John, who died in 1799, is buried in the larger United Empire Loyalist Third Concession Cemetery at Caldwell Manor as is Simon, who lived until 1846 when he died at the age of 82.

 Like many other Loyalists, the Griggs wartime devotion to the British cause and their resulting persecution uprooted their lives in America and led them to join the migration northward to Canada to start a new life, leaving their old life behind.

Dawson’s Mill – Charlton’s Last Gristmill 

Written by Saratoga TODAY on . Posted in History.

Local historian W. Bronson Taylor once observed that the three essentials of the early pioneers of Western Saratoga County were “a grist mill, a sawmill, and whiskey still.” While there is little mention of stills, Taylor’s point about the mills is borne out in historical records time and time again. In the town of Charlton, one of these early mills was built by William Dawson on the Crabb Kill, not far above where it enters the Alplaus Kill Creek. Brought into operation as early as 1785, mills would run on this property for the next 120 years. 

William Dawson was born in England in 1762. It was in the English village of Lanchester that he married Jennet Monteith and where in 1780 they had their first son, John. During the next four years, they emigrated to America and purchased property along the Alplaus Kill Creek. Soon after arriving, they had another son, William, followed by James in 1787, and a daughter named Jane two years later. 

The home that William built for his family was a 22 by 34-foot structure built in the saltbox design. While over the years this building was moved and repurposed, as late as 1959 part of it was still standing and being used as a barn. Along with their home, William also built a sawmill and the other necessary outbuildings for the farm. 

When William died in 1822, control of the mill was passed on to his oldest son, 42-year-old John Sr., and after his passing in 1853, John Dawson, Jr. took over management of the mill. In 1858, he began making plans to enlarge his milling business, leaving the original mill site on the Crabbe Kill, and rebuilding further downstream on the Alplaus Kill. 

In the Autumn of 1859, Barrett’s Mill, located just South of the Dawson Mill, burned to the ground. Evidence at the scene pointed clearly to arson as the cause. Without local authorities investigating, the neighboring farmers began collecting clues. One of the most visible was a set of footprints coming from the Dawson homestead. Even more incriminating were the prints themselves, as ones showing an out-turned foot were quickly identified as being that of John Dawson, Jr.’s twenty-three-year-old son Simon. On October 20th, the Lansingburgh Democrat gave this report of the incident:

John, Jr. and Simon Dawson, father, and son, mill owners in Schenectady, are held there on a charge of firing a grist mill run by another party. The evidence is very flimsy and consists only of known business rivalry, and the footprints found around the building where the fire was kindled corresponded with those made by their boots. 

John was released within a couple of weeks, with Simon being held for trial. Though ultimately found innocent, Simon was not let off as easily by some members of the community. Tired of harassment from his neighbors, in the 1860’s he moved West with his wife and children, finally settling in Kansas where he passed away in 1908. With Simon gone, John Jr.’s son George Harmon Dawson stepped in to work beside his father in the family business.

This was not the end of the story, as in that close-knit community many knew that someone was patiently waiting for an opportunity for revenge. That chance came in the fall of 1869, nine years after the Barrett Mill fire, when on the very weekend that the Dawson Mill insurance policy expired a fire was discovered in the grist mill’s stairwell. With the smell of kerosene filling the air, the Dawsons tried in vain to extinguish the flames. Years later, a man on his deathbed confessed to torching the Barrett Mill after being refused credit for a bushel of corn. 

John Jr. and his son George soon began the work of rebuilding their milling business. To expedite the process an existing mill was brought in from a farm in Schenectady that is now part of the General Electric complex and set up below where the Crabb Kill and Alplaus Kill merged. One account of the move noted that it took only three weeks to get the building moved and the mill again in operation. 

In the spring of 1875, while working in this sawmill, John Jr. slipped in front of the blade and had his foot cut off. His severed appendage then flew free of the saw, landed in the millrace, and was washed down into the stream. Those nearby helped stop the bleeding and he was quickly taken to a doctor. It is part of local lore that some morbid individuals spent time searching for John’s foot, with someone finally succeeding in locating the severed limb. 

After losing his foot, John no longer worked in the mill and instead set up a cobbler’s shop on the mill’s second floor. Here he continued in that trade until he died in 1889. The mill was converted to a gristmill after the accident with George taking over management. After operating the mill for the next thirty-two years, George Harmon Dawson passed away in October of 1907. At that time his 29-year-old son, Burton, who went by the name of Bert, who was then working as a brakeman on the railroad, took over management of the mill.

Bert continued to work away from the mill, leaving the day-to-day operation to others. In December of 1911, William Barnett, who had been running the grist mill for Bert, broke his leg in two places when it was caught in machinery in the mill. A year after this accident, W. Bronson Taylor acquired the mill property from Bert Dawson, with the Dawson family moving to Scotia and Bert taking employment as a machinist at General Electric.

Bronson Taylor, in later years known as the “Miller of the Alplaus,” was the last person to operate a mill on the Alplaus Kill Creek and ended its operation in 1941. At that time, Taylor removed the iron from the mill for scrap to support the WWI war effort, and finally in the 1960s sold most of the grist-mill machinery to the Cromie brothers of Charlton.  

Not Mr. Smith… but Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake School Seniors go to Washington

Written by Rick Reynolds on . Posted in History.


Sponsored byThe Saratoga County History Roundtable
Contact The Saratoga County History Roundtable at: saratogacohistoryroundtable@gmail.com

It must have been quite an experience. The anticipation in Senior Year must have been quite exhilarating. Yes, a group of rural American kids going to the big cities for a vacation, a trip, an experience, an adventure. Yes, Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District’s Senior class was going to Washington DC, 400 miles south.

This all doesn’t sound like such a big deal in our America in this time but, for up to 100 years ago, it WAS a big deal. And all experienced by young people from the Burnt Hills and Ballston Lake communities, all seniors at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School.

It all started in 1927.  The inaugural trip. It was actually in March 1926 that the junior class started making plans to take a trip to Washington DC as a class.  There were approximately 40 people in the senior class that year but, in the end, according to one of the local newspapers, only 7 students participated in the trip. But, it started a tradition in the school district and, for the next 14 years, every spring, the Senior class took a train trip to our capital city with numerous stops at other cities along the way and on the way home.  The tradition ended with the lead up to the United States entrance into World War II, in 1940. 

Was this unusual? Was it uncommon for rural young people to make trips such as this as part of their school’s program?  How widespread was this activity is a question with an answer that is uncertain but the Ballston Spa School District had started a trip such as this, also during Spring break, way back in 1912.  Whether it continued every year after that is also uncertain but that trip was going strong from the mid-1920s to the start of war, very similarly to the years BHBL was doing it. And, for Ballston Spa, it seems to have come back after the war, from the early 1950s into the 1960s. Other school districts in the greater Capital Region area were doing trips like this as well, including South New Berlin in the Catskills.

It seems that the itineraries were not always exactly the same year after year but the local newspaper, The Saratogian, printed a detailed itinerary of the 1928 trip, the second in the series of many BHBL trips. The 19 students and their chaperon, teacher Miss Margaret Ray, left the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake area in the afternoon of April 6 and arrived in Washington DC at 6:30 AM April 7 where they immediately went to the Arlington Hotel. I wonder how many of the students had even been in a hotel before?

Saturday’s tours were many and highlighted by Mount Vernon, many Masonic sites, Arlington Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown, and the National Cathedral.  

Monday’s itinerary included a visit to the White House and maybe even a reception with the President; the Red Cross building; the DAR; and the Congressional Library.  Tuesday: the Botanical Gardens, the Navy Yard and the Capitol and the Supreme Court as well as the Lincoln Memorial, the Smithsonian, and various other monuments.  And Wednesday, the last day in Washington, visits were made to the Treasury Building and included a bus tour of the city. A very ambitious agenda for anyone, much less restless teenagers!

Then came Baltimore with a sightseeing tour through the residential sections of the city and visits to a number of the colleges there.  On to Philadelphia and the Walton Hotel which featured a ladies’ restaurant, a gentlemen’s café, several parlors, a banquet hall, and 400 guest rooms, 200 of which had separate baths. That evening, the group attended a dancing party at the hotel! Overall, quite an experience for high schoolers!

In Philadelphia over the next day, there were trips to Fairmount Park where the country’s sesquicentennial (150 years) of 1926, just two years before, had been held as well as Independence Hall, Betsy Ross’ house, and Benjamin Franklin’s grave.  

Finally, after a two hour train ride from Philadelphia, the group arrived in New York where they experienced an elevated train ride, Battery Park, the Aquarium, old Trinity Church, and a tour of an old steamship. Columbia University and Central Park rounded out the visit to New York the next day.

The April 5, 1928 Saratogian newspaper says about the planned end of the trip: “After dinner at 7 o’clock the evening will be free until 11:45 o’clock; one hour before the party is to leave the Grand Central terminal in Pullmans [rail cars].  The entire cost of the trip is $59.”

In other years, other sites were visited as well. The Naval Academy at Annapolis, boat rides on the Chesapeake Bay, various churches in Washington, the Washington Zoo, and Colonial Williamsburg, among others.  In 1940, the last trip before the war, 25 of 29 seniors participated in what must have been very worthwhile trips.  

How did they afford ALL that money?  And, in all seriousness, it did cost a large sum of money for most people in the BHBL community at the time.  There were numerous fundraisers for different classes throughout the years.  The class of 1930 filled the gym at the school while people watched their “circus” animal acts, a Clown Band which included students from the local Charlton School, boxers from Father Hogan’s local boxing school, and a Hall of Horrors Freak Show.  Attendees feasted on Eskimo Pies, candy, and popcorn.  The class realized a profit of $150 from the event, all to be used to offset expenses for the Washington trip.

To think that about 100 years ago all of this was happening in the Burnt Hills and Ballston Lake communities. The seniors were getting a taste of the world beyond their usual one. And it certainly accentuates the fact that the Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake Central School District has been and continues to be a leader in educational activities in this area.  

A West Side Story

Written by Saratoga TODAY on . Posted in History.

This is a story about growing up on the West Side of Saratoga Springs as a member of the post-World War II “Baby Boom” generation. Which side was the East Side or the West Side of Saratoga Springs was determined by the railroad tracks until the late 1950s, but today Broadway is considered the dividing line.

Our neighborhood was centered on the intersection of Waterbury and Lawrence Streets and was very similar to other neighborhoods in Saratoga Springs. Kids were everywhere. The west end of Waterbury Street was the site of The G.F. Harvey Company, maker of Saratoga Ointment.  Every household in town had a jar of the ointment. The 15 households around the intersection were home to 45 children born between 1946 and 1962.

During our growing up years Lawrence Street was a dead-end street, terminating at what we called the “Oval” or the Woodlawn Oval, a reference to the  trotting track on the Hilton Estate. Our Oval was an “in the woods” type of playground for all the children living on or near that section of town, This section of town was referred to as “the rocks” due to granite bedrock’s proximity to the surface, in some areas mere inches below ground.  Primary features of “The Oval” were a “Big Pond” and a “Little Pond” each pond 18 inches, or so, deep, and two “Ash Roads” (The First and Second). The First Ash Road connected Clinton Street with Waterbury, the Second Ash Road connected Clinton with Greenfield Avenue.

A large field, of five or more acres, was also part of the Oval, and miraculously the hay and straw were mowed a couple of times each summer! The Oval was the edge of town in those days and contained wildlife and was a wonderful area to explore, build “forts”, play hide and seek and just have adventures. The Oval is now home to the Embury Complex.

As we got older (7 or 8) we dared to wander a bit farther. We didn’t have restrictions placed on our movements, just be home for supper! The vast Woodlawn (Hilton) Estate and what remained of the Woodlawn Mansion were close by. Following the old Adirondack Railroad tracks north parallel to Seward Street there was a freshwater spring bubbling out of the rock. “Hobo Springs” was a resting spot where a drink of fresh, cold water was available.

Ash Grove Farms was next to the Crusher property (The Crusher may in fact have been part of Ash Grove Farms) and the farm had plenty of cows and horses for us to annoy. The grounds of The Saratoga Golf and Polo Club were and still are near the Ash Grove fields. Many of us received our initial taste of golf at “The Little Club” either via caddying or “jumping on” and playing without permission or paying.

The grounds of “The Little Club” were also a mecca for sleds and toboggans in the winter months. Many winter weekends were spent flying down the various hills of the golf course, then, taking turns, hauling the toboggan back up to do it again. Adjacent to “The Little Club” was the estate of Warren Wright owner of the Calumet Stable and Kentucky horse farm. Between the Wright property and the railroad tracks were the grounds of The Iceland Hotel, which always seemed vacant. The “Hotel” was large, empty, and could be very scary. The hotel burned to the ground sometime in the 1970s and is now Birch Run development.

Around the time we reached the fourth grade, we became fascinated with the Soapbox Derby. The Clinton Street Hill was a perfect spot to “test” our creations for the derby. The parts for our “racer” were either scavenged from neighborhood backyards or “purchased” from “Pop” Ballou. “Pop Blu” was a junk dealer who circulated the streets with his horse and wagon picking up discarded items.We refined our “racers” designs to the point they didn’t fall apart but failed to advance to actually enter The Soap Box Derby.

Beyond the bottom of the Clinton Street hill, on the Woodlawn Estate, was the “Vly”. The Vly was a lake surrounded by woods and was full of fish. A wonderful spot for skinny dipping, fishing, catching frogs, enjoying wilderness. The Vly contained mostly bullheads and the area in and around the Vly had a large population of snakes of many sizes  and varieties. It was drained and excavated for the railroad when the tracks were relocated out of downtown Saratoga Springs in the late 1950s.

We continued to expand the horizons of our world, roving on Daniels Road. In our day the roads beginning with Clinton Street hill and beyond, were dirt roads. Daniels Road paralleled the Adirondack Railroad tracks past Locust Grove Road to route 9N. There was a large brick farmhouse at the intersection of Braim Road and Daniels. Still there. This farm grew some amazing “disappearing “sweet corn”. The farmer would get quite upset (I am sure he did not aim at us, but he did discharge his shotgun) over his vanishing sweet corn, brandishing his shotgun to scare us off.

Near this juncture was a bridge over what we called “The Third Brook”. We thought of this as the third of what we believed were three separate brooks. “First Brook” crossed Denton Road, and “Second Brook” was lost in the woods of Ash Grove farm fields. From Braim’s farm, Mr. Braim paid us for our “irregular help” in his greenhouse and fields with tomato or pepper plants. Many sunfish were caught and released, since none of us wanted to eat the sunfish we caught in Braim’s Pond.

Our bicycles opened new vistas for our exploration, but that’s another story.

Saratoga County: 234 years of Hard Work, Civic Engagement, and Resilience

Written by Saratoga TODAY on . Posted in Featured, History.


Map of the County of Saratoga by David H. Burr 1840. Published by the Surveyor General pursuant to an act of the legislature. Stone & Clark, Ithaca NY 1840. From the Saratoga County Clerk’s Office  

The Birth of Saratoga County: February 7, 1791 On a cold February day in 1791, Saratoga County officially separated from Albany County, marking its beginning as an independent community. Known as “Saratoga” by Indigenous peoples and later formalized by colonial settlers, the county has long been defined by its strategic location, historical significance, and hardworking residents.

For over 230 years, Saratoga’s foundation has been shaped by values of resilience, civic engagement, and industriousness, creating a vibrant community that honors its past while embracing progress.

Before 1791: Evolving Boundaries and Communities. Before becoming a county, Saratoga’s boundaries were part of Albany County, with its governance structure evolving over time. A major milestone came in 1684 with the Saratoga Patent, which granted settlers six miles of land along both sides of the Hudson River from Mechanicville to the mouth of the Battenkill.

By 1772, the area was divided into two districts, Half Moon and Saraghtoga, marking the start of local governance. In 1788, New York State formally established towns within Saratoga, including Halfmoon, Saratoga, Ballston, and Stillwater. Three years later, these towns separated from Albany County to form Saratoga County, ushering in a new era of self-governance.

Saratoga: The “Mother of Towns.” As communities expanded, Saratoga became known as the “mother of towns.” In 1775, Ballstown branched off as a new district, and in 1789, East Town (now part of Washington County) separated. These changes reflected Saratoga’s growing role in shaping local governance. The county’s contributions to the nations founding solidified its historical importance. The Battles of Saratoga, the turning point of the Revolutionary War, demonstrated the region’s resilience and strategic importance.

Geography: A Key to Saratoga’s Growth. Saratoga’s geography has always been central to its development. Nestled between the Hudson and Mohawk rivers and crossed by waterways like the Kayaderosseras Creek and Sacandaga River, the county’s location served as a crossroads of early trade and travel. Fertile farmland and abundant natural resources attracted settlers who built the agricultural and economic foundations for Saratoga’s prosperity.

Civic Engagement: A Lasting Tradition. From its earliest days, Saratoga County residents valued self-governance and community involvement. County, City and Town government leaders partner with private businesses and non-profit societies to create a culture of collective responsibility. Today, this spirit continues. Residents engage in preserving historical sites, supporting sustainable development, and promoting civic pride—ensuring these values remain central to the county’s identity.

Resilience and Modern Growth Saratoga County’s history is filled with stories of perseverance. From the Revolutionary War to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the community has adapted to challenges while building a thriving economy.

Modern Saratoga County is home to a diverse range of economic activities, including tourism, healthcare, technology, farming and manufacturing. Landmarks such as the Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), Skidmore College, and the Saratoga Racetrack enrich the county’s intellectual and cultural life. Visitors are drawn by its historical sites, scenic landscapes, and recreational opportunities, further boosting the local economy.

A Legacy of Independence and Progress Since 1791, Saratoga County has grown from four towns to include nineteen towns, several villages and two cities. The values of resilience, self-reliance, and industriousness that defined its early settlers remain at the heart of its modern identity. From town meetings to thriving businesses, residents continue to honor its history while looking ahead to new opportunities for growth. Saratoga County’s journey—rooted in its rich history, strategic geography, and enduring values—is a story of progress that connects the achievements of the past to the promise of tomorrow.

A President’s Day look At Calvin Coolidge

Written by Joe Raucci on . Posted in History.


Portrait of Calvin Coolidge

This Monday we celebrate President’s Day. It is a time to reflect on the forty-five men who have risen to the highest office in the land. Today we will take a look at the life of Calvin Coolidge, our thirtieth Chief Executive.

His life’s journey began in a small village in our neighboring state of Vermont. His boyhood home is a National Historic Site. It makes for a nice day trip for the Saratoga area residents who are interested in Presidential history.

Calvin Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal.” During his Presidency a story circulated that he was sitting next to a woman at a dinner party. She stated that she had made a bet with someone also attending that she could get the President to say three words. Coolidge quipped back, “You lose.” It gives some insight as to his demeanor.

He was born in Plymouth, Vermont in 1872 on the Fourth of July. The date was apropos for a future President of the United States. His father Calvin Sr. was a storekeeper and a state legislator who would play a major role years later on the most important day of his son’s life. Calvin spent his entire youth in Plymouth. He attended local schools and then studied at St. Johnsbury Academy. He continued his education at Amherst College where he graduated with honors and then pursued a career in the law. In 1897 he opened a practice in Northampton, Massachusetts. Coolidge became involved with

Republican Party politics and methodically climbed the ladder to the state’s governor’s office in 1919.

After serving only two years in that capacity, he was nominated as Vice President on the Republican ticket headed by Warren Harding. The duo were elected in a landslide. On March 4,1921 Calvin was sworn in as our twenty- ninth Vice President. At that time the office was pretty much a do nothing job. Theodore Roosevelt who held the office before his elevation to the Presidency had this to say about it. “I would much rather be anything, say a professor of history than Vice President.”

Fate was about to dramatically change the life of Calvin Coolidge.

On the second of August,1923 Warren Harding suffered a heart attack and passed into history at the age of fifty-seven. It was a shock to the nation. The affable Harding was a beloved figure at the time. Nine million Americans lined the railroad tracks to see his funeral train make the voyage from San Francisco to Washington DC.

It wasn’t until much later that his time in office was diminished due to the various scandals that tarnished his reputation.

When Coolidge was informed that Harding had passed, he was visiting his family in Vermont. At 2:47 on the morning of August third he was sworn in as President by his father Calvin Sr. The elder Coolidge held the position of Justice of the Peace and used that authority to administer the oath. Calvin Coolidge was now the most powerful man in the country.

Coolidge was in office for a major part of the decade known as the“Roaring Twenties.” America was in a feel good mode. After a short lived depression following the First World War, both the Harding and Coolidge administrations put the country back on it’s feet. Unemployment was cut in half, taxes were reduced and the country was at peace.

The 1924 election rewarded Coolidge with four more years in the White House. Prosperity drove the Republican ticket to an overwhelming victory. The Democrats took a shellacking, receiving only twenty- nine percent of the popular vote. His only full term as president was for the most part unremarkable. He continued with the same policies that had worked since he took office. Coolidge chose not to run for re-election in 1928. He was of the belief that he had served long enough. He thought that being in the office for too long created the air of an Imperial Presidency.

In retrospect it was the perfect timing to retire. Coolidge had dodged a bullet. His successor, Herbert Hoover would find out the hard way. “Wonder Boy” as Coolidge respectfully called him, held the office for only eight months before the stock market crashed. The reverberations were felt around the globe. The “Roaring Twenties” were over, a world wide depression was about to begin.

Coolidge retired to his home in Northampton where he wrote his autobiography, penned articles for various publications and wholeheartedly defended Republican Party policies. The former president suffered a heart attack and died on January 5, 1934. He was just sixty years old. This comment from a New York Herald Tribune article shortly after his death sums up the character of Calvin Coolidge. “In a very real sense the nation has lost the leader whom it completely trusted.”

For those interested In presidential history the Calvin Coolidge Homestead is a must see. His boyhood residence, just a two hour drive from here through scenic Vermont, has been left virtually untouched since the night he was sworn in as president. It also served as the Summer White House during the first full year of his presidency. It was here that he conducted the Nation’s business on the second floor of the home. Noted visitors included Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. The President’s burial site is near by at Plymouth Notch Cemetery.

The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library can be found in Northampton, Massachusetts. It is housed on the second floor of the Forbes Library. Although on a lesser scale than many of the presidential museums, it has much to offer relating to the life and times of our thirtieth Chief Executive. Happy travels!