by Roy Crego, Guest Contributor

Among the early vacationers at Big Moose Lake was Frank Williams. Frank was born around 1842 in New York City to immigrant Welsh parents. He rose steadily in the business world and eventually became the senior partner in Williams, Russell & Co., a major coffee and sugar brokerage with offices at 101 Front Street in Manhattan.

On the 1880 Census, Frank, his wife Lavinia, daughter Julia, and a servant were listed as living across the East River in Brooklyn at 55 3rd Place—an attractive brownstone.

Coffee may have been Frank’s business, but for pleasure he and his wife traveled regularly to the Adirondacks and Big Moose. Joseph F. Grady, in his The Adirondacks: Fulton Chain-Big Moose Region (1933), tells how guides Jack Sheppard and Richard Crego built one of the earliest permanent camps on the lake for Williams. It was located on the northeast shore near the inlet.   Continue reading →