The Characteristics of Life in Franklin County NY in the early 1800’s, (inland from the St Lawrence River). My “Jesmer” ancestors came to this area in the early 1800’sand moved away in 1867. My G-G-G-grandmother, Julia Jesmer was a Plumadore, or (Anglicized: Plumandon.) 

Link to Joseph and Julia Jesmer

There were tourists coming from Montreal to fish and hunt. The railway was in place. There were famers and lumber mills. People were given free land if they would clear, fence, farm and live on the land in five years. There were trap lines and hunting camps. There were lots of Irish and French Canadians. There were people from several mainline denominations. There were also murders too, apparently (see the bottom).

Generally the soil is neither rich nor deep, and its surface, rocky and mountainous, does not lend itself to profitable agriculture. Even the lumbering and other industrial enterprises that have been prosecuted did not tend particularly to populate the town permanently, nor to enrich it. Miles upon miles of its forest area were destroyed for conversion into charcoal, and though, first and last, it has had many sawmills, most of them were small, and much of the timber cut within its borders went to mills elsewhere for manufacture. Neither have its many waters been utilized extensively, as in other localities, for summer resort business, except that Lower Chateaugay Lake has not been altogether neglected, and except also that in the western part of the town in comparatively recent years Indian Lake and Mountain View have had many camps built upon their shores.

Mountain View (formerly known as State Dam, a dam having been built upon the river there by the State in 1855 or 1856) was once one of the most prolific trout waters in the Adirondacks, and Indian Lake (Round Pond) was a famous hunting resort. One of the old guides used to tell that he once counted twenty-seven carcasses of deer piled at a single point on its shores, stripped of their hides, and the meat left to rot.

Ragged Lake (Plumadore Pond) formerly had a small hotel, kept by J. W. Pond. The Banner House was formerly the Bellows House, which originally was a mere shack. Jonathan Bellows located in Constable more than a hundred years ago, and laid out a trapper’s line from there to Chateaugay Lake. In place of the shack which he first occupied at the latter point he built a comfortable house, which his son, Lewis, subsequently enlarged and conducted as a hotel for a good many years. Guests from Montreal began to visit the place in appreciable numbers in 1837 or 1838, and after the railroad from Rouses Point to Ogdensburg was built the business increased notably. The locality was then known colloquially as the “Shategee Woads,” and, except for the Saranacs, was about the only Adirondack point that outsiders sought in Franklin county.

So far as I know, Bellmont is the only town in Franklin county for which the Legislature made special provision to induce settlement. In 1822 an act was passed which provided for granting one lot in township number ten, Old Military Tract (now in Franklin), to each and every person who within five years should clear and fence fifteen acres of such lot, erect thereon a habitable dwelling, and he there settled with his family; and also three lots to each and every person who within four years should erect and put in operation one good and sufficient grist mill within said township, and one lot to each and every person who should erect and put in operation one good and sufficient sawmill.

It was stated that even as late as 1843 bear, lynx, wolves and panthers were abundant in the neighborhood.

The frequency with which failure was written across early lumbering enterprises is striking and pitiful. The operators had an abundance of the best timber of this region almost at the doors of their mills, they were unsparing of themselves in respect to hours and arduousness of labor, and the wages that they had to pay were low. Nevertheless it was only the exceptions who made money. Lumber commanded but a low price, the hauls to shipping points were long and over poor roads, and in many cases the equipments of mills gave only a small product. Thus the forests were wasted, and disappointment and hardship were the principal return that the owners realized.

The Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railway enters Bellmont from Malone at Chasm Falls, near the northwest corner of the town, and, bearing southeasterly for about twelve miles, passes into Franklin near Plumadore Pond. The Chateaugay Railway enters at Standish, on the eastern border, and runs southwestwardly seven or eight niiles to Wolf Pond, where the two lines are almost in contact. The former has stations in Bellmont at Owls Head and Mountain View, and the latter at Middle Kilns and Wolf Pond. The Chateaugay Railway was built through Bellmont in 1886, and the Adirondack and St. Lawrence in

1892.

Tale of Two Murders

Two murders have been committed in Bellmont. In November, 1852, Ira Sherwin, of Malone, shot and killed Justin Bell, a well-to-do farmer of Brasher, in the latter’s hunting or trapping camp near Owls Head. Sherwin himself reported the death of Bell, admitting that he shot him, but claiming that it was an accident. He was known to have been under the influence of liquor the night of the murder, and inconsistencies in his story and contradiction of it in some particulars by established facts cast suspicion upon him. The evidence on the trial was almost wholly circumstantial, but so convincing that a verdict of guilty was found. One bit of testimony was especially interesting, and told strongly for the prosecution. A bank in Montreal formerly iudicated the denominations of its bills by Roman numerals, and it was sought to show that a two-dollar note found in Sherwin’s possession had been. Bell’s. An illiterate witness who had seen Bell’s money testified that one note that he had seen Bell have was “an eleven dollar bill.” No cross-questioning could shake him on that point, and when the two (II) dollar bill taken from Sherwin was produced he unhesitatingly identified it as at least exactly like the one that Bell had had. Sherwin was sentenced to be hung, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

The other murder occurred in August, 1877, in the extreme northwestern part of the town, and was perpetrated by an Italian tramp who called Himself Joe Woods, but whose real name is believed to have been Joseph Sullivan, and his criminal record bad. The victim was Steven Barber, a respectable farmer of small means, who lived alone with his wife. Woods had stopped at the house for dinner the day before, and had sold articles of clothing to Mr. Barber, who in counting out the money in payment showed about thirty dollars stifi remaining in his possession. Woods gained entrance to the house in the night, shot and killed Mr. Barber in bed, and also twice shot Mrs. Barber. He was apprehended a day or two later in Clinton county, and brought to Malone, where, upon his arrival, a crowd quickly gathered, and chased him to the jail, with cries of “Lynch him,” though no real attempt was made to take him from the officers. Woods was tried and convicted in December of the same year, and was executed in the jail yard at Malone in February, 1878. Mrs. Barber’s wounds were severe, one bullet having penetrated an eye, and yet she positively identified Woods as the murderer, claiming to have recognized him in the moonlight. Considering the character of her wounds, the identification was remarkable. Her evidence was certainly a marvel of clearness and certitude.

http://history.rays-place.com/ny/bellmont-ny.htm

Plumadore Pond, New York

Plumadore Pond is located in Franklin county, New York. Find dining and lodging options near Plumadore Pond.

Plumadore Pond is a physical feature (lake) in Franklin County. The primary coordinates for Plumadore Pond places it within the ZIP Code 12969 delivery area.

Nearby cities: Plattsburgh, Antwerp, Le Ray

Coordinates:   44°38’49″N   74°6’6″W

Plumadore Pond is a lake located in Franklin county New York in the United States of America. It is at 44.646881 latitude and -74.1012871 longitude. Plumadore Pond is at an elevation of 520 ft (1706 m). The USGS map that contains this location is titled “Ragged Lake”.

http://www.aboutus.org/Plumadore-Pond-NY-United-States

Plumadore Mountain is adjacent to Plumadore Pond. Neither are located anywhere near a reservation, but they are North of Saranac Lake, NY (near Lake Placid) where I grew up.

http://boards.ancestry.com/thread.aspx?o=20&m=6.9&p=surnames.plumadore

“The Adirondack and St. Lawrence Railway enters Bellmont from Malone at Chasm Falls, near the northwest corner of the town, and, bearing southeasterly for about twelve miles, passes into Franklin near Plumadore Pond.” – from “Historical Sketches of Franklin County and its Several Towns with Many Short Biographies” by Frederick J. Seaver 1918; Ch. VI Bellmont

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~mercierhedlund/pafn10.htm