LOCATION AND NATURAL FEATURES

PATENTS

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EARLY SETTLEMENT

     From the sermon of Rev. Edward P. Sprague, delivered June 4, 1876, we take the following passage, as an excellent summary of the facts connected with the first settlement of Salem;
     “In the spring of 1761, two men from Pelham, Mass., James Turner and Joshua Conkey, visited this county, which they had perhaps traversed during the war just before, and selected the flats where the pleasant village of Salem now stands as the site of their future residence.  Going back to Pelham for the winter, they returned the next spring, accompanied by Hamilton McCollister, the father of the late William McCollister, who died in 1871.  These three men, Turner, Conkey, and McCollister, were the original settlers of this place, and the first also in the entire county.  Their first cabin (hut, it might as properly be called) was erected where the Ondawa House now stands, and the stump of a large tree, cut off as level as possible and left in the middle of their cabin, served as their first table.  Each of these three selected a tract of land for himself, Turner taking that west of their cabin, and in the rear of the present academy building; McCollister going up the creek, about where the present dam now is, and Conkey still a mile farther up the stream.  After two summers here, with their winters in Pelham, they removed their families in the spring of 1763, transporting their goods through the woods on horse back, and fording or swimming the streams.  They made this place henceforth their permanent home.  These three families were the first actual settlers in the county.”
     The claim that this was the first actual settlement in Washington county, as well as in the town, can hardly be sustained.  As we have fully shown in the general history of the county, there was a considerable settlement around old Fort Saraghtoga, in Easton, twenty years or more before the arrival of the pioneers of Salem.  That settlement, however, has passed so completely out of the knowledge of men of later generations, that no one can be expected to be aware of it unless he has made a specialty of searching out the early history of the county.  Salem, however, may contain the earliest continuous settlement in the county, though Cambridge claims to have been actually settled in 1761, and all the accounts declare that in that year Philip Skene established his thirty families in Skenesborough.  These three settlements were within a few months of each other, and if Conkey and Turner actually built a house and commenced operations when they came to look at the land, then Salem was probably the first; if not, then Skenesborough takes the lead.  It is all a matter of probability at best.

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must be considered a reliable statement of the actual citizens of this town before and in the Revolutionary war - 1767 to 1777.
     Men of other towns and other patents could not well have been included to any great extent in these lists.
     The number attached to the names indicate the lots of the Turner patent.  The acres in the original document are omitted here.

     "COUNTY OF
      WASHINGTON } ss.
     "I do hereby certify that the above-named persons, of the county of Washington, have given me satisfactory proof that they actually resided on the respective farms named to their names in the division of a patent of twenty-five thousand acres of land, originally granted to Alexander Turner and twenty-four others on the 7th day of August, 1764, and that on account of the late war they were respectively obliged to quit their said farms by the invasion of the enemy, as witness my hand this 24th ay of January, 1789.
                                                                              "DAVID HOPKINS,
                                       "One of the Judges of the court of Common Pleas
                                                                      for the County of Washington.

                                                                                                                                                                 "ALBANY, January 24, 1789.
     "I certify that the within is a true copy of a certificate and schedule signed by David Hopkins, Esq., one of the judges of common persons therein named are free from paying all past as well as future quit-rents for the number of acres opposite their respective names.
                                                                                                                                                                  "PETER S. CURTENIUS,
                                                                                                                                                                            "State Auditor."

     A year later there is a similar list, as follows:
 

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     "COUNTY OF
      WASHINGTON } ss.
     "I do hereby certify that the above-named persons, of the county of Washington, have given me satisfactory proof that they actually resided on the respective farms named to their names in the division of a patent of twenty-five thousand acres of land, originally granted to Alexander Turner and twenty-four others on the seventh day of August, 1764, and that on account of the late war they were respectively obliged to quit their said farms by the incursions of the enemy, as witness my hand this 24th ay of December, 1789.
                                                                              "ALEXANDER WEBSTER,
                                       "One of the Judges of the court of Common Pleas
                                                                      for Washington County.

                                                                                                                                                                 "AUDITOR'S OFFICE, NEW YORK,
                                                                                                                                                                                              "4th March, 1790.
     "I certify that the persons mentioned in the foregoing certificate are thereby exonerated from paying all past quit-rent for the number of acres set opposite their respective names, amounting in the whole to twelve thousand three hundred and sixty-seven acres, in the before-mentioned patent
                                                                                                                                                                  "PETER S. CURTENIUS,
                                                                                                                                                                            "State Auditor."

     This differs from the first certificate by leaving out the words "as well as future quit-rents."  This may, however, be an omission of the town clerk copying the document, for it is probable one party who could swear to the same thing, would obtain the same terms as the other.
     These schedules comprise one hundred and twenty family names; two hundred and eighty-two proprietors.  The number of families would be considerably greater than the former number, and somewhat less than the latter.
     Of the family names the following ten appear attached
upon recent township maps to the same lots as their ancestors are certified to have resided upon a hundred years ago:  Boyd, 123; Beattie, 145; Carswell, 52; Cruikshank, 108; McClaughrey, 38; Beattie, 218; Thompson, 223; Hopkins, 206; Law, 264; McCleary, 118; Thompson, 156; McCleary, 119; Williams, 96.
     In the family notes given at another place it will appear that still other families are now upon the homesteads of their ancestors.
     Comparing these schedules with the last assessment-roll, 1877, it appears that the following fifty-seven other names of the ante-revolutionary families are still found in town, and in many cases in the same neighborhoods, and very near to the same lots attached to the names in 1789: Edgar, Duncan, Fitch, Craig, Conner, Cleveland, Hanna, McMurray, Scott, White, Rogers, Wilson, Steele, Moore, McNitt, Brown, McMillan, Clark, McFarland, Martin, Lytle, McAllister, McNish, Armstrong, Law, Moncrief, Lyon, Nelson, McArthur, Gray, Campbell, Bartlett, Conkey, Craig, Gibson, Sillis, Lyon, Lytle, McCarter, Moore, Murdock, McNish, Robinson, Rice, Stewart, Simpson, Stevenson, Smith, Turner, Thomas, Webb, Wright, Clapp, Jackson, Kennedy, McDonald, Mills.
     In the case of some more common names, Smith, Brown, etc., the families of the present may not be descendants of the former, and this may be true in other cases, but the statement is probably a fair exhibit of the permanence of the families.
     It may still further be noticed that this shows fifty-three of the old family names to have disappeared from the town, but one or two of these are due to a modern change of spelling, as McCollister to McAllister.
     A large number of the fifty-three families are, no doubt, represented yet through the descendants of the daughters who could transmit the virtues and the property of their ancestors, even the old homesteads with all their memories, but not the family name.
     We add the following notes respecting some of the pioneer families whose names appear in the various papers embodied in this history, viz.: the list of soldiers from the rolls of Colonel John Williams' Regiment, 1776 to 1777; list of town officers, 1787 to 1788; list of claimants for exemption from quit-rent, 1789; and some others from early church records and miscellaneous sources.
     It is not supposed that these hasty notes are in every in stance accurate, nor are they in any sense complete, but it is hoped they may afford some clue to future writers who may desire to compile either public or private history at greater length than our limits permit.  If errors are found, even these may the more surely induce further investigation.
     This brief commentary upon family names will at least indicate the wealth of material existing in Salem, and already largely gathered by Judge Gibson and Dr. Fitch, well known as standard authorities upon this subject.
     And the documents presented here may well induce the people to financially sustain future efforts to place in permanent form not only the interesting annals of early settlement, the records of social and civil life, but the very muniments of title upon which every man's possession of his home depends.

THE TURNER FAMILY

     Alexander Turner, of Pelham, Mass., who being the first named in the principal grant of lands located in Salem, caused the same to be called “Turner's patent,” never came to Salem to reside, and indeed died shortly after the issuing of the grant.
     By his wife, Mary Conkey, had children—Alexander, James, Andrew, Daniel, Reuben and Sarah.
     1. Alexander, also a patentee, settled at Salem about 1765, there remained till 1801, when he removed to Homer, N.Y., and there died on the 2d of April, 1835, aged ninety years.  By his wife, Sarah (Pennell), had twelve children born at Salem, viz.: William, Archibald, Mary, Sarah, James, Esther, Andrew, who died young, Andrew again, Elizabeth, Alexander, Isaac, and Jane.
     2. James Turner, also one of the patentees, settled at Salem in 1764, having married Susannah Thomas, by whom he had Alexander J., who was the first white male child born at Salem, and who married Sarah McCrea, and about the year 1800 removed to and settled in St. Lawrence county, having a large family, and becoming a man of note; Jeanette, who married General David Thomas, of Salem, and their only daughter and child, Jane, married George Wail, of Troy; Sarah, who married at Salem, General Walter Martin, the founder of Martinsburg, Lewis Co., N. Y.; James, who married Eleanor Hunsden, and had children, viz.: William W., who settled at Fort Covington; James, long a blacksmith at Salem; Susannah, who married John S. Hunsden, and settled at Shoreham,

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* By Hon. James Gibson

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Vt.; Eliza, who was brought up in the family of Ebenezer Proudfit, and that of his widow, and married Rev. John A. Savage, and Jane,who married Wesley Platt.
     James Turner, the first settler at Salem above named, died very suddenly at Salem, in February, in the year 1773.

JOSHUA CONKEY

came from Pelham, Mass., to Salem with James Turner in 1761, as usually stated.  Dr. Fitch does not regard this as determined, but considers it safe to state that he brought his family in 1763.  He located up the creek nearly two miles from the village, on the present Chester Billings farm.  His children were Richard, who settled in Roxbury, Delaware Co., N. Y.; John, who settled in Martinsburg, Lewis Co.; Elizabeth, who married first Amos Safford, of Salem, and after his death, Daniel Pratt, of Lakeville; Margaret, who married William Miller, and moved to Martinsburg; Mary, who married Nathaniel Stearns, of Salem; Eunice, who married Samuel Safford (brother of Amos), and settled in the vicinity of Camillus, N. Y.
     Of Rev. Charles Conkey we learn that Richard's children were Joshua, of Salem; Joel, who died unmarried; John, who went to Western N.Y.; and daughters, Mrs. Covel and Mrs. Wm. Montgomery.
     The children of Joshua, son of Richard, were Mrs. Jason Williams, Cambridge; Mrs. Hiram Lewis, Salem, now living in Troy; Rev. Charles Conkey, Salem; Thomas, who died in Hebron; Nathaniel, now of Sandgate; and Daniel, who died in Salem in 1876.
     Silas, a brother of the pioneer, came from Pelham near the close of the Revolutionary war and settled at Fitch Point, erecting clothing-works; after about twenty years he moved to Martinsburg.  Of his children only one settled in Salem, Mrs. William Fitch.

HAMILTON McCOLLISTER

came to Salem with Turner and Conkey on their first return.  If 1761 was the correct date for them, 1762 was the year of his arrival.  He came as a single man in the employ of the others.  He located a farm two miles down the creek from the village, on the place still owned by his descendants.  He married a sister of the wife of Joshua Conkey.  Of his children, two died young; Archibald settled in Salem; Elizabeth, Mrs. Stephen Rowan, of Salem; Martha, Mrs. Elijah Mack, of Salem; John settled in Martinsburg; Mary Ann, Mrs. Jesse Mack, of Argyle; Hamilton, Jr., moved to Ohio; Charles settled in White Pigeon, Mich.; William remained on the homestead in Salem.
Judge McCollister, of Chicago, is a grandson of the pioneer.

DR. PELATIAH FITCH

came from Norwich, Conn., to Groton, Mass.; then to Halifax, Vt.; and from there to Salem in 1779.  He settled on what is now the present place of H. Flowers, known as Milliman's Corners.  Of his children, Joseph remained to Groton; Chester became a sea-captain, and finally settled in West Indies; Pelatiah, Jr., settled in Salem; Elisha first settled in Salem, and afterwards removed to Leroy, Genesee Co.; Benjamin settled in Salem; and Asa in Salem.  Of his daughters, Lydia became Mrs. David Henderson, of Salem, afterwards of St. Lawrence Co.; Elizabeth, Mrs. Aaron Martin, of Salem. Asa Fitch, above mentioned, was a member of Congress, 1811–13,— the well-known Dr. Fitch of olden times,—and father of the now equally well-known Dr. Asa Fitch, Jr.  To the latter we are indebted for much valuable assistance in the preparation of this town history, and for advice upon difficult questions respecting dates, persons, and places.

THE GIBSON FAMILY OF SALEM.

     John Gibson was a sergeant in the Seventy-seventh Regiment of Highlanders, which served in America in the French and Indian war.  He served through the war, and received a certificate of his service from Captain Robertson, who commanded the company in which he was a sergeant.*
     He was secretary to the committee of safety of the county of Charlotte, now Washington, during the Revolutionary war;† and was paymaster of the Rangers in said county, commanded by Captain Joshua Conkey.‡
     He received a grant of land for his services in the French and Indian war; but unfortunately the patent was located on the “Hampshire grants,” and he lost the whole of it. §
     He had a lease of a lot in New Perth from the Rev. Dr. Clark, which he held till 1780.  He seems then either to have left the premises, or been driven therefrom during some incursion, and never returned, or more probably he died about 1780, as his wife, Jean Gibson, got the land discharged from quit-rent on account of being driven off. ⁑ 
     He had sons, John, Jr., James, and perhaps Thomas and Richard.  John and James were both privates in Captain Armstrong's company, in Colonel Williams' regiment of militia, and served at times during the war.
     There was another Gibson family came into the town of Salem at a later day.
     James B. Gibson, of English ancestry, born at Johnston, near Providence, R.I., and died at Salem, May 10, 1827.  He was educated at Plainfield Academy, Connecticut, and Middlebury College; admitted as a lawyer in 1806; and immediately settled in and commenced the practice of law at Salem.  He soon after married Margaret, the only daughter of Benjamin Townsend, of Hebron, and had children, viz.: Frances Ann, who married Jed. P. Clark, of Shelden, Vt., and there died in 1859; Horatio, who died at Aurora, Ill., in 1836; Esther Maria, who married Cyrus Stevens, and died in 1836; James, who is now a practicing lawyer at Salem; Henry, who became a lawyer, settled at Whitehall, and there died suddenly in 1875; William T., who has been largely in the insurance business at Indianapolis; Allen, in the same business at Chicago; and Sarah Margaret, who married Forman Hoxie, and resides in Illinois.

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* 17 New York Land Papers, 71.
† 2 Journal P. C., 338.
‡ 1 N. Y. Prov. Papers, 474.
§ See return of the survey, 18 N. Y. Land Papers, 73.
⁑ See Town Records

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OTHER PIONEERS.

     Dr. James Proudfit, the second minister of the Scotch church, left eight children: 1st, Dr. Andrew Proudfit, of Argyle; 2d, John, a physician, of Norfolk, Va.; 3d, Dr. James, of Philadelphia; 4th, Dr. Daniel, of New York city; 5th, Rev. Alexander, colleague pastor with his father in Salem; 6th, Ebenezer, a merchant, of Salem; 7th, William a farmer, of Salem; 8th, Mary, wife of John Reid merchant, of Troy, and afterwards of Whitehall.

     David Tomb, the pioneer and elder in Dr. Clark's church, settled on what is now the Smith Barnett place.  His sons were: 1st, James, who settled on the farm next south of his father; 2d, John, who inherited the homestead, and had an early distillery, finally removing to the vicinity of Syracuse; 3d, Rev. Samuel, pastor of the Presbyterian church, Salem; 4th, Dr. Joseph, of Argyle.

     Dr. Clark, the minister, had two sons, Ebenezer Clark, of Argyle, first judge of this county in 1800; Dr. Benjamin Clark, who went to South Carolina with his father.  A daughter, Elizabeth, became Mrs. James Campbell.  He was a son of Duncan Campbell, first supervisor of Argyle, moving afterwards to Greenwich, and finally to Canada.

     Robert Clark, a brother of Dr. Clark, came, it is supposed, with the colony, and settled on the Stewart farm, next south of Deacon James B. Stevenson's.  His sons were Thomas, a physician, of Argyle, and Robert, also a physician, an early resident of Monroe, Mich.

     The pioneers of the Boyd family were three brothers,— Thomas, Robert, and John.  Thomas settled north of Salem village, on the farm now owned by his granddaughter, Mrs. D. D. McCleary.  Of his children, William and Robert settled in Salem; John H., a lawyer, at Whitehall.  The daughters were Mrs. Wm. Chapman, of Franklin county; Mrs. James Smart, of Salem; Mrs. John McAllister, of Salem; Mrs. George McMillan, of Argyle.  The pioneer Robert settled on land adjoining that of Thomas, and left two daughters, Catharine and Margaret, the latter becoming Mrs. Keracher.  John, the third of the pioneer brothers, settled where James Moore now lives.  There was also in town a family of Boyds, distinct from these, one of whom was known as John Boyd B., to distinguish him from other Johns.  Of this family were also Joseph and William.

     The pioneer homestead of the Armstrong family was up the turnpike, in the “Bushes” district.  There were evidently two,-John and Robert,-and each had a son of the Same name.

     Benjamin Cleveland, from Rhode Island, came in before the Revolution, and settled on the present Solomon Moore farm.  Of his sons, David and Palmer settled in Pawlet, and afterwards went west; Moses, Aaron, and Daniel settled in Salem, but Moses and Daniel finally went west.

     Job W. Cleveland came six years later than his brother Benjamin, and settled on the farm still in the family.  Of his sons, Daniel C. went to Hebron, Job to Wyoming, Ira to Ohio, Levi H. remained on the old homestead, now living, and Benjamin, also living, in Salem village.  Daughters were Mrs. Chester Fernam, of Hebron; Mrs. Amos Lewis, of Rupert; Mrs. Alvin Grey, of Dorset; Mrs. Elijah Gray, of Dorset; Mrs. Morris Graves, of Salisbury, Vt.; Mrs. Anson Gray, of Dorset.

     Job W., Sr., was a Revolutionary soldier, and was in many battles.  His son, Benjamin, states that his father used to relate that he once heard General Washington ask a soldier to move a rail.  The man, drawing himself up, replied, “I am a corporal!" Washington answered quietly, “Oh, I did not know that,” and getting down from his horse, immediately moved the rail himself.  Benjamin Cleveland's maternal grandfather, William Clark, was killed at the battle of Saratoga.

     Thomas Beattie came from Ireland, one of Dr. Clark's congregation, and settled on the present farm of James Smart.  Of his sons, John, already married in Ireland, set tled in Salem, David in the Camden valley, Samuel, Thomas, Jr., and William, all in Salem; James died young while obtaining an education.  One daughter, Jane, became Mrs. Riley, went west, later in life returned to Salem, and died here.

     John H. Beattie, a grandson of Samuel, is now living in Salem.  Robert Beattie, a produce-dealer of Salem, is a grandson of Thomas, Jr.  Colonel John C. Beattie, an officer of Sing-Sing prison, is a grandson of William; and Samuel, a prominent wealthy farmer of Salem, is a grandson of John, and resides on a part of John's old homestead.

     Malcolm McNaughton was a pioneer of Argyle, coming over in the same ship with the McDonalds.  His son, Alexander, came to Salem at an early day, and exchanged lands in Argyle for the farm of John Harsha, the latter removing to Argyle.  A daughter of Alexander is Mrs. John H. Beattie, of Salem.

     John Harsha was a brother (as understood by Ebenezer McMurray) of Dr. Clark's elder, who died at Stillwater, 1765 or '66. 

     Robert McMurray came in 1774, but was a member in Ireland of Dr. Clark's congregation that had come to Salem eight years earlier.  He settled on what is still known as the McMurray farm, two and a half miles south of Salem village.  Of his children, John settled on the homestead in Salem; Robert, Jr., died young, having married a daughter of John Whiteside, of Cambridge; James never married, died in 1815, a merchant in Salem; William, a minister, died pastor of Market Street Reformed church, New York, in 1835; Jane became Mrs. John McCoy, of Argyle; Margaret, Mrs. Peter Cruikshank, of Salem; Nancy, Mrs. Thomas Stevenson, of Salem; Elizabeth and Susan were the first and second wives of Abner Austin.

     Ebenezer McMurray, member of Assembly in 1854, now living in Salem, and Dr. Robert McMurray, of New York, are sons of John.  The latter died at the age of eighty seven, having passed all his life, except the last few months, on the farm where he was born. William McMurray, of New York, son of the minister mentioned, was one of the first police commissioners of that city under the authority of the State, associated with Thomas C. Acton.  Robert, a son of the Robert who died young, is living on the Whiteside farm in Cambridge.

     Zaccheus Atwood came from Barre, Mass., about 1804, and settled in Salem on the present place of Mrs. McKie.  He had a large family of children, - Elijah G., Charles, Abiathar, Mrs. Benjamin Cleveland, Cyrus, Anson, Samuel, Mrs. Pliny Hall, Mrs. Dr. Turner, and Mrs. T. R. Weston.

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[PORTRAITS OF J. B. STEVENSON & MRS. J. B. STEVENSON]
[PORTRAITS OF THOMAS S. STEVENSON & SARAH R. STEVENSON
[RES. & FARM of THOMAS S. STEVENSON, Salem, Washington Co., N. Y.]

THE STEVENSON FAMILY

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CAMDEN VALLEY

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[PORTRAITS OF ISAAC BININGER & GLOREYANNA L. BININGER]

     GENERAL ISAAC BININGER

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FAMILY SKETCHES

[PORTRAITS OF JULIETTE WILSON & FAYETTE WILSON]
[PICTURE OF RES. of CLINTON F. WILSON, Salem, Washington Co., N. Y.]

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SETTLERS AT CAMDEN BEFORE THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR.

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ORGANIZATION - CIVIL HISTORY

[PORTRAIT S. BEATY]

     SAMUEL BEATY  was born ....

[PORTRAITS OF EBENEZER BEATY & WILLIAM J. BEATY]
[PICTURE OF RESIDENCE OF WM. J. BEATY, Salem, Washington Co., New York]

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[PORTRAITS OF SARAH H. CLEVELAND & JOHN CLEVELAND]
[PICTURES OF RESIDENCE OF JOHN CLEVELAND, Salem, Washington Co., N. Y.]

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VILLAGES.

SALEM.

[PORTRAIT OF B. BLAIR]

BERNARD BLAIR

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FIRE DEPARTMENT OF SALEM VILLAGE

[PORTRAIT OF DR. GEORGE ALLEN]

     This gentleman was descended from.....

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ENGINE-HOUSES, AND WEHRE LOCATED

[PICTURE OF THE RESIDENCE OF THE LATE DAVID HAWLEY,
now owned and occupied by The Family, Salem, Washington Co., New York]

[PORTRAITS of DAVID HAWLEY & LYDIA JANE HAWLEY]

DAVID HAWLEY

     David Hawley was born in the village of Salem, Washington Co., N. Y., Mar. 9, 1809.  He was the ........

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SHUSHAN.

is situated upon the Batten Kill, six miles south of Salem village.  It has a post-office and a station on the Rutland and Washington railroad.  It contains two churches, and tehre is another one near, the history of which are given elsewhere.  There is one woolen factory, a grist mill, harness-shop, five stores, two blacksmith-shops, saw-mill, planing and turning works, and three wagon-shops.  Shushan is the centre of a large and important trade from the towns of Jackson and Salem.
     The village is picturesquely situated on the banks of the kill; some portions very rocky.  The The water-power and the convenience of trade developed the growth of a village at this point.  The name is not the result of local choice nor of any associations connected with the place.  The tradition is that the petitioners, having proposed the name of South Salem, the post-office department objected because Salem was already so frequent upon the list of United States post-offices, and the august officials at Washington proceeded to christen the place Shushan, a good Bible name and suggestive of royal magnificence.  The people accepted the situation, and have gracefully borne the name ever since.
     The lumbering business here was extensive in early times.  The heavy pine forests from the plains of Cambridge, and from the surrounding country in general, were manufactured into lumber here, rafted down the kill to Centre falls, and then taken overland to the Hudson, and floated to Troy.  The oldest house in Shushan now standing was built by Bethuel Church about the time of the Revolution, and it was probably about the earliest dwelling at this point.  It is now a tenant-house, near the railroad, in the extreme north part of the village.  Mr. Church was one of the original proprietors of the water-power.  The grist-mill is thought to have been erected by the brothers Huff before or about the time of the Revolutionary war, but passed immediately into the hands of Mr. Church.  There was a mill for cloth-dressing very early, no doubt
before 1800; about 1830 it developed into a woolen-factory.  Lot Woodworth was connected with it, and Johnson.

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It is understood there was a store at Shushan about the same time or soon after the building of the mills.  Wyman was a very early merchant, and the old store stood very nearly on the site of the present Hurd & Pratt store.  At or near this same site were successive merchants, for a long series of years, Robert R. Law, Isaac Bininger, David Simpson, Mr. Oviatt, Voluntine, Lawrence & Higgins, Henry Cleveland, Congdon & Robinson, and Law & Congdon.  The Church family held the water-power for fifty or sixty years.  The grist-mill and woolen-mill are now owned by Charles Lyons, the planing-mill by George W. Robinson, of Cambridge, also the saw-mill and wagon shops.  Well-known physicians of the village in past years have been Dr. Dunlap, Dr. Gilman, and Dr. Bock.

EAGLEVILLE

CLAPP'S MILLS

FITCH'S POINT

SCHOOLS

[PORTRAIT of J. A. McFARLAND.

JOHN A .McFARLAND

     The ancestry of the McFarland family is traced to the Scottish Highland clan Macfarlane, or Pharlan, the only one, with one exception, whose descent is from the charters given the ancient Earls of Lennox, from whom the clan sprang, and who held possession of their original leands for over six hundred years.  From the ...........

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CHURCHES

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[PORTRAITS of H. WALKER & MARY WALKER]

[PICTURE of the Late HIRAM WALKER, Now owned and occupied by WILLIS H. & JOHN D. WALKER,
Salem, Washington Co., N. Y.

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THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN SALEM.

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[PORTRAITS of WILLIAM McKIE & Mrs. William McKie]

     WILLIAM McKIE was born in the town of ......

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FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF SALEM *

[PORTRAITS of JAMES M. THOMPSON & ACHSAH J. THOMPSON]

[PICTURE OF FARM RESIDENCE of J. M. THOMPSON, Salem, Washington County, N. Y.]

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THE MORAVIAN CHURCH IN SALEM *

THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF EAST SALEM.

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METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF SHUSHAN

[PORTRAITS of HUGH FAIRLEY & MRS. HUGH FAIRLEY]

[PICTURE of RESIDENCE OF SARAH FAIRLEY, Salem, Washington Co., N. Y.]

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METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SALEM.

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ST. PAUL'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH. *

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ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF SALEM *

GRAVE  YARDS IN SALEM. †

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SOCIETIES.

BANK OF SALEM.

[PICTURE of NATIONAL BANK OF SALEM, Salem, Washington Co., N. Y.

[RESIDENCE of B. F. BANCROFT, Salem, New York]

[Page 169]
 

[PICTURE of THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE IN SALEM]

PLACES OF HISTORIC INTEREST.

THE OLD MEETING-HOUSE IN SALEM.

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THE SALEM HOTEL.

THE ON-DA-WA HOUSE

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AGRUCULTURAL ADVANTAGES, STOCK, ETC.

INDUSTRIAL PURSUITS *

OUR RAILROAD AND SHOPS

THE MARBLE-MILL.

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tions.  Some of the nails made by him are now in a museum at Philadelphia.  His shop or factory, after he ceased occupying it, was converted into a barn, which is now on the farm in Camden valley of which Hollis Bruce died seized.  While Mr. Reid lived at Camden he boarded with Robert Montgomery, who then kept a hotel there.

ROOFING-SLATE INDUSTRY.

"CHEAP STORE!

THE OLD STORES OF SALEM *

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MILITARY.

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A list of Captain J. Sherwood's company in Colonel Peters' regiment:

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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

GENERAL JOHN WILLIAMS

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HON. JAMES GIBSON.

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BENJAMIN F. BANCROFT.

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ASA FITCH.

[PORTRAIT OF ASA FITCH]

of three weeks.  Five days after, the great question of war came to an issue in the House, in secret session, he recording his vote in the negative.  The remaining business was rapidly disposed of, and July 6, this protracted session was brought to a close.
     The second ----

[Page 185]

[Page 186]

[Page 187]

DAVID VAN TUYL QUA

[Page 188]

JAMES M. THOMPSON

ENOCH S. SHERMAN

[Page 189]

WILLIAM LAW

[Page 190]

HIRAM WALKER

JOSHUA STEELE.

PORTRAITS of JOSHUA STEELE & MARY A. STEELE

PICTURE of RESIDENCE of MARY A. STEELE & SON, Salem, Washington County, N. Y.

[Page 191]

JOHN CLEVELAND

[Page 192]

FAYETTE WILSON

HUGH FAIRLEY

[Page 193]

ALONZO GRAY

     Among the early emigrants to the town of Salem was Nathaniel Gray, who, settling in the beautiful valley of Camden prior to 1800, there resided till his death, which occurred on Nov. 12, 1850, when he had nearly attained the patriarchal age of four score years.  He was buried in the Camden graveyard, from the church of the United Moravian Brethren, of which society he had been a member from the establishment of their mission in that valley in 1834.
     Lucy, his wife, had deceased eight years previously, having died on Mar. 20, 1842, aged sixty-five years.
     Alonzo, the subject of this sketch, was their son, and was born in Camden, in September, 1798, and died at Salem on the 16th June, 1874, in the seventy-sixth year of his age.
     His father, Nathaniel, was by trade a blacksmith, and had brought up his son Alonzo to the same occupation, and it was not till the twenty-second year of his age that he became free to choose his own way.  He then came to the village of Salem and entered as a clerk in the store of Joseph Hawley, and remained with him as such until David Hawley, who was a son of the former, had become of age, when at the solicitation of Mr. Hawley, Mr. Gray went into business with his son, and continued in that connection in the business of general merchandising for many years.
     During this time he married Miss Mary Hawley, the only daughter of Joseph Hawley and Sally (Gray) his wife.
     On the dissolution of the co-partnership with Mr. Hawley, Mr. Gray continued the mercantile business alone.
     In the spring of 1834, at the annual town-meeting in Salem, he was elected to the office of town-clerk, and was annually re-elected for the ensuing five years, holding the office and doing its important duties with accuracy and faithfulness, till April in the year 1839.
     He held various other positions of honor and trust in the town, the village, the academy, and in the church, and in all of them was diligent and faithful.
     The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Gray was Hawley, who died quite young.
     Mr. Gray was for several years an invalid, but until a short time prior to his death not so ill as to be confined to his house.  His death came quietly and peacefully in a ripe old age, he having attained, as did his father, nearly four score years.

- END OF SALEM TOWNSHIP -

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