Fulton Chain Steamers III: The Fulton Navigation Co. Years, 1901–1932

PART ONE

In a letter dated April 19, 1901, Dr. William Seward Webb informed J. Pierpont Morgan in New York City that, on behalf of the Raquette Lake Railway directors, he was accepting the option from the Old Forge Company to purchase the two mile Fulton Chain Railroad and the docks and boats of the Crosby Transportation Company.

Dr. Webb informed Morgan that the purchase price was $45,000, but additional amounts necessary for repairing the railroad lines and upgrading the docks brought the total costs to $56,000.

Dr. Webb also asked Morgan and the other partners copied in the letter to send him their share of the purchase price.

The other paying partners were Collis P. Huntington, William C. Whitney and Harry Payne Whitney.

Planned improvements for steamer traffic included “extension and improvement of docks, construction of canopies for protection of passengers and baggage, and other desirable improvements which will permit the docking of deeper draft boats, the direct trans-shipment of freight from cars to steamers…” and other upgrades.

Also, the costs included purchasing a dredging machine and pile driver for improving channels and allowing safe navigation by their steamer “Clearwater,” larger than any of the former Crosby Transportation Company steamers.

Webb advised Morgan that the Old Forge Company also assigned the “apparent title to all the lands under water in Forge Pond,” excepting state dam frontage, “without extra cost.” Continue reading →

Fulton Chain Steamers II: Crosby Transportation Company Years

1896–1901: Part Three

Millionaires such as J. P. Morgan and Collis Huntington owned great camps in the Raquette Lake region, and they needed access to Dr. Webb’s railroad for ready transit to New York City offices.

Morgan was tired of driving stages from Camp Uncas at breakneck speed to Big Moose Station and/or waiting for steamers to reach the Fulton Chain station.

Huntington used the series of carries and steamers from Inlet to Brown’s Tract Inlet to reach Pine Knot.

No direct highway then existed from Inlet to Raquette Lake.

During 1898 and 1899, Huntington built a railroad using the initial line of John Dix’s lumber road to Rondaxe Lake and obtained legislative and regulatory approvals for a public line that removed the necessity for the public to suffer from the inefficiencies of the lines owned by the Old Forge Company.

The state railroad commission’s approval stated that public convenience and necessity required its construction.

After failing to prevent the railroad’s enabling legislation from being passed, the Old Forge Company recognized that travelers could stay one station further north on the Mohawk & Malone, disembark at Clearwater Station and use this new line to reach Fourth Lake camps, Eagle Bay, Inlet or Raquette Lake without using any of the Company’s services.

To survive, the Old Forge and the Crosby Transportation Companies, the primary opposition to the railroad legislation, had no choice but to file for an injunction to prevent its opening to the public.

At the end of 1899, they sued the railroad and its individual directors for damages and sought to stop the railroad for the following reasons: Continue reading →

The Forge House: Owners, Proprietors & Managers, Part XI

The Old Forge Company Years: 1896-1915, cont’d

In August 1906, Frank J. C. Steber, cashier for the Poland National Bank, purchased the Company shares held by Dr. Crosby, Garmon, Victor Adams and Homer Snyder and was soon elected Company president.

In December 1907, the brothers Harry T. and John W. Quinn signed a five-year lease of the Forge House and took possession January 1, 1908.

John Quinn had run the Old Forge Barber Shop for the previous two years.

For the previous five years, Harry Quinn worked for the W. T. Cantwell Company plumbing firm in Utica and the Hammond Beef Company of New York.

The news release in the Utica Daily Press indicated that the Company would be making extensive renovations. Continue reading →

The Forge House: Owners, Proprietors & Managers, Part X

The Old Forge Company Years: 1896-1915, cont’d

As mentioned earlier, the Schencks left the Forge House at the end of 1900. The Company hired John Gilbert Hoffman, captain of the steamer C. L. Stowell, to manage the Forge House beginning January 1, 1901.

He had just married Pearl Wakely, the daughter of John Wakely who owned the Wakely House in Fulton Chain, afterwards moved across the street from today’s Van Auken’s Inn.

However, Hoffman’s stint as manager was brief; he would be replaced in March and returned to his pilot duties. Continue reading →

The Forge House: Owners, Proprietors & Managers, Part IX

The first meeting establishing the Old Forge Company was held in February 1896 and the syndicate determined to raise funds to enlarge the Forge House, doubling the footprint constructed in 1890-1891.

In a transaction dated April 13, 1896, Garmon and Crosby conveyed the Forge Tract’s 1358.62 acres to the new Company, excluding thirty lots totaling 16 acres purchased by others prior to the October 1895 meeting, for $1.00.

Earlier, the Richfield Springs Mercury in November 1895 reported that Adams paid the two men $25,000 for his 50% interest in the Company.

The deed still included the illegal right to raise the dam taken over by the state in 1879.

Contractor Charles D. West of Little Falls directed the Forge House construction team’s forty workers.

A new wing was built, matching architecturally the renovated wing rebuilt by Garmon & Crosby. Broad piazzas were built to surround the hotel’s front and sides.

Every room was repainted, repapered and refurnished. Continue reading →

The Forge House: Owners, Proprietor & Managers, Part VIII The Old Forge Company Years: 1896-1915

In October 1895, Victor Adams assembled a group of investors together in Little Falls and secured an arrangement with Garmon and Crosby to purchase a 50% interest in the Forge Tract properties.

The group’s business plan was to enlarge and improve the Forge House, to build a railroad from Fulton Chain Station to the Forge House dock and to begin development of the tract into a resort town.

They would eventually also establish a transportation company that would buy the independent public steamers on the lower four lakes.

The name of the syndicate would be The Old Forge Company, often referred to as the Old Forge Improvement Company. Continue reading →