Before there was Inlet I: Farrand Benedict, the Shedds and the Munns

PART FOUR

In 1848, the Shedd brothers built a “gang-mill” utilizing 32 saws on the Moose River a mile from its junction with the Black River.

In 1855, the Shedds were sued for damages by Lyman R. Lyon, then owner of John Brown’s Tract.

Apparently they hired Ed Arnold to drive logs in 1848 cut from the Inlet area.

Evidently, Arnold and his coworker named Sutton cut a section from the Forge log dam on Lyon’s lands and drove 300 logs down the Moose River to Shedds’ Mills (Utica Semi Weekly Herald).

The Shedds lived in Leyden where Henry would become Greig’s town supervisor (1857-1859).

In the 1850s, Henry became joint owner of the lands his brother received from Benedict.

They also sold hundreds of acres to the Sacketts Harbor and Saratoga R.R.

Failing financially, the Shedds obtained funds from their stepmother’s sister living in Willsborough, Johanna Pember-ton, who obtained a $7000 mortgage in 1857.

Marshall never married, but Henry married Helen Marion Munn in 1853.

She was the daughter of Otis and Permelia Jennings Munn.

Permelia J. Munn foreclosed on the Shedds in 1862 on the mortgage to Benedict.

That year, she also foreclosed on a mortgage given to the Shedds in 1855 for all of the 6000 acres.

A foreclosure sale awarded to Mrs. Munn complete title to the acreage in 1866.

By that time Mrs. Munn had also obtained the mill and sold it to new operators.

In 1874, it was purchased by G. H. P. Gould and the Lyon sisters and, under Gould’s later ownership known as “Gouldtown.”

Henry’s wife and a child, also named Helen, both died in 1863.

He soon left Greig and worked for the post office in New York City for 30 years and returned to Willsboro in 1893, where he died in 1906.

Marshall turned to farming in Willsboro and died in 1879.

Sagamore Lake’s former name was Shedd Lake, renamed shortly after Alfred Vanderbilt purchased Camp Sagamore in 1901.

Who was Permelia J. Munn and how did the wife of a carpenter and farmer obtain the wealth to invest in forest lands?

Permelia Jennings was the second wife of Otis Munn, who she married in Gill, MA on April 15, 1815.

The Munns moved first to Rochester, then to Carthage Landing and left that location for Greig where Otis became a carpenter and farmer.

They later moved to Leyden in 1839 and concentrated on farming.

At Greig, Otis was appointed commissioner of highways for twenty years, notable for his building the first bridge over the Black River at Lyons Falls.

Otis Munn died August 31, 1880.

Permelia Munn had a brother, Chester Jennings, who came to New York City as a young stage driver and obtained work at the City Hotel as a servant.

A hard worker, he advanced to become a co-proprietor of the hotel and became famous and wealthy.

The City Hotel suffered in the Panic of 1837 and Jennings recovered with the assistance of John Jacob Astor.

Chester Jennings died at the Astor House on January 20, 1854 leaving Mrs. Otis Munn of Leyden an estate valued in 1845 at $150,000.

His sister would invest the monies to provide a legacy for her children and grandchildren.

Permelia J. Munn is pictured in Conway’s “Port Leyden: The Iron City” and mentioned briefly as the purchaser of a portion of Kelsey’s Mills in 1858, which became Port Leyden, and subsequently the land was subdivided for village lots.

With her daughter and granddaughter dying in short order in 1863, and son-in-law Henry Shedd leaving for new employment opportunities, Permelia obtained their mill, and shortly afterwards the 6000 acres at the Head of Fourth Lake in a referee’s deed on May 23 1866.

Permelia J. Munn died in Talcottville on May 5, 1876 leaving the lands to be held in trust to her three children, Chester Jennings Munn, Thaddeus E. Munn and Margaret J. Northrup.

In 1880, in order to create reservoirs, as Benedict recommended in 1855, to supply the Black River Canal and Forestport feeder, the state built the Sixth Lake dam and appropriated 1.8 acres and the right to control Moose River water levels.

The Munn estate claimed loss of land and flood damages and were awarded $400 in 1885.

The executors of Permelia J. Munn’s estate held the lands until May 1, 1889 when the 6,000 acres were sold for $10,000 to an agent for a group of investors who wanted to start a sportsmen’s club.

The agent’s name was James Galvin. No longer would the land be held for lumber and railroads.

Sources: “Men to Match My Mountains” in A Century Wild by Warder Cadbury; “To The Lake of the Skies” by Barbara McMartin, “Abstract of Title” Elmer Ostrander, Preparer; Hamilton County Clerk’s Office for deeds; Adirondack Perk Agency website, “Laws of the State of New York, Vol. II, 1902”; “21st Annual Report of the American and Historic Preservation Society, 1916”; “Annual Report of the New York Forest Commission, Dec. 31, 1890”; “Doctor Durant and His Iron Horse” and “Adirondack Railroads Real and Phantom” by Harold K. Hochschild; “History of the Adirondacks, Vol. II” by Alfred L. Donaldson; “Annual Report of the New York Forest Commission, Dec. 31, 1893, Vol. II, Compendium of Laws 1774 to 1894”; “Decisions of the Interstate Commerce Commission of the United States, Vol. 116”; “History of Essex County: with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers” The Generations Network, Inc.; “The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America” by Henry Marvin Benedict; “Corporate History of the Delaware and Hudson Company and Subsidiary Companies, Vol. III” 1907; “Transactions of the N.Y. State Agricultural Society” Vol. XII, 1852; “History of the Lumber Industry in the State of New York” by William F. Fox; “The Historical Register” Edwin C. Hill, 1921; “The Croakers” by Joseph R. Drake and Fitz Greene Halleck; “A Century of Banking in New York 1822-1922” by Henry W. Lanier; “History of Lewis County in the State of New York” by Franklin B. Hough, 1860; “History of Lewis County, New York and Its People” by Franklin B. Hough, 1883; “Genealogical and Family History of Northern New York” The Generations Network, Inc. 1910; U. S. Census data on Ancestry.com; “Port Leyden: The Iron City” by Matthew Conway; “Daniel Shed genealogy: ancestry and descendants of Daniel Shed of Braintree, Massachusetts, 1327-1920” Shedd Family Association, Ancestry.com; “Reminiscences of Edna Dow Cheney” 1902; Information on the Italian Villa from the Ruggles Foundation website; and the following newspapers from Fultonhistory.com and the Northern New York Library Network: Watertown New York Reformer, Utica Daily Observer, Utica Morning Herald, Utica Morning Herald and Daily Gazette, Albany Evening Journal, Watertown Daily Times, Lowville Journal & Republican, Essex County Republican, Syracuse Evening Chronicle, Utica Semi Weekly Herald, Lewis County Democrat, Lowville Northern Journal.