This is a short biography of George C. Ballard, who was an early Adirondack Guide in the Old Forge area in the 1860’s and ‘70’s.
Unfortunately, history has passed him by because he didn’t grow old in the Adirondacks—he went west and settled in northern Michigan.
He was a lifelong friend of my great great grandfather and an important figure around the Fulton Chain.
The 1878 edition of E. R. Wallace’s Descriptive Guide to the Adirondacks lists “Geo. C. Ballard” among 30 guides working on the Fulton Chain. Ballard is now largely forgotten in his former hunting grounds, but before 1880, he was one of the leading guides in the region.
George Crogan Ballard was born around 1843 in Jefferson County, NY, to George and Lorenda Ballard. His mother remarried (c.1846) when George was around three and young George was raised in the household of his adopted father Cook Williams.
Along with several step- and half-siblings, George went to school and worked the family farm near Fish Creek in the Town of Lewis, Lewis County NY.
In the years following the Civil War, George began to find employment on the Brown’s Tract in the Adirondacks around Old Forge. On September 3, 1869, George registered at the Lawrence Hotel in Moose River Settlement and headed for the Browns Tract.
Over the next years Ballard guided parties for R. M. Sherman of Utica, Dr. E. J. Morgan of Ithaca, J. A. Harper of New York, and George M. Whipple of Salem, MA. The latter stayed at Salem Camp on Fourth Lake.
These clients often employed two or three other guides and George worked regularly alongside fellow guides Dwight Grant, Paul S. Crego, Gus Syphert, John Van Valkenburg, and Abner P. Daniels.
A passing journalist noted in 1875 that Ballard maintained a “bark camp” on 4th Lake. This rustic structure undoubtedly served as a home base for George and his adventurous guests.
In 1876, George Ballard chose to leave the Adirondacks and headed west to purchase land in Iosco County, MI, where he was one of the early settlers. He returned east long enough to marry Synthia Casler (1854-1929) in Oneida County around 1878.
Together they returned to Iosco County where George became a farmer in Grant Township and also ran a saw mill.
In 1885, he was one of a group of citizens who signed the petition for the creation of Reno Township from Grant. Sadly, he became ill with tuberculosis11 and died on June 4, 1894 in Reno Township12 at age 51, leaving Synthia with five young children.
George and Synthia are buried in Reno Cemetery on Towerline Road in Reno.
