Part two

Some five years ago a wooden railway (first Fulton Chain Rail-way] was built, beginning at Moose River tannery so-called, which is situated thirteen miles from Boonville (a village on the Rome, Watertown and Ogdensburg railroad).

A good road and daily stages make connection at Moose River [Settlement] with this little railway.

The [wooden] rails were laid nearly to the line of Township 7, when the owners, to save their park from railroad encroachment, conceived the plan of improving [with dams and lock dams] Moose River (the outlet of the Fulton Chain), to enable them to run a little flat-bottomed steamer [the Fawn], which, connecting with the cars [at Minnehaha], accommodates the travelers in search of pleasure, sport and health.

On this tract are twenty small lakes, which, with this beautiful stream [Moose River], make a park of unrivalled beauty.

In opening this little river for navigation (if it may be called), great care was taken not to raise the water above a line where it would injure the trees or obscure the original outlines of the stream.

This was done by [H. Dwight Grant’s] several low dams and a lock, thus affording the necessary water for the little boat.

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Part One

I sometimes find a newspaper article that resists my summarizing or paraphrasing without detracting from its essence. In the Lowville Journal & Republican of August 6, 1891 was a letter whose author was “a correspondent at Lyons Falls, N. Y.” that was written to the New York Tribune.

Judging from the letter’s origin and the writer’s apparent personal feelings about the topic, I am convinced that the author was either William or Julia Lyon deCamp.

The “family” had recently objected to the combine that wanted to build the wooden rail “Peg-Leg” railroad from Moose River Settlement through their lands to the Forge House, offering a more environment-friendly steamer alternative for that stretch that was currently operating, and would later in the decade win a five-year court case against John Dix’s lumber company, stopping log driving through their lands from destroying north branch Moose River forested river banks and dams.

In Harter’s “Fairy Tale Railroad”, Webb’s engineer Herschel Roberts described surveying across the deCamps’ lands and starting a condemnation suit for the right-of way in July 1891.

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Part Three

Orrando Dexter. Besides being killed, Orrando Dexter’s name also suffered in that it was repeatedly given as Orlando, even by Donaldson’s history. Barbara McMartin spelled it correctly.

Orrando was the son of Henry Dexter, President of the American News Company.

Orrando bought two contiguous tracts of 6000 and 4000 acres at Santa Clara and was a millionaire and also a recluse. His official residence was in Connecticut to avoid New York City taxes.

At Dexter Lake, Dexter built a large mansion designed after Albrecht Durer’s Nuremburg house, a large cottage for his workmen, a maple sugar orchard and a farm house, most of these roofed in copper.

He also fenced in his lands, the traditional haunts of locals and woodsmen, prevented lumber jobbers from passing to deliver wood for their contract jobs and built a house on a widely used road, posting guards to shoot trespassers on site, to prevent its continued use by locals.

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PART TWO

Mr. Bull accompanied Cole and they tracked Parker down. Cole urged Parker six times to surrender and then shot him.

Nessmuk says it was while Parker dodged behind his wife who was helping him get away.

The following May, Mrs. Bull died.

Afterward, both Cole and Bull were indicted for murder after Bull abused guides, accusing them of helping Parker get away.

The guides claimed Bull urged Cole to shoot while Parker was surrendering.

The charges evidently did not stick and this ended the first instance in people’s minds where a guide took advantage of the confidence placed in them.

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