Leading Industrial Pursuits

Leading Industrial Pursuits

Ballston Spa, Glens Falls, Sandy Hill & Fort Edward

The time in which John S. Bulkeley lived (the late 1800s) was an exciting era in the history of Ballston Spa, Glens Falls, Sandy Hill, and Fort Edward, New York. In Ballston Spa, the industrial economy was resurgent with the establishment of paper mills after the embargoes and shortages wrought by the Civil War had forced the closure of its cotton mills. The future “Paper Bag King” George West had commenced building his paper mill empire and was rapidly becoming the largest manufacturer of manila paper in the world. Isaiah Blood had died a short time earlier, but his hard edge tool factories were still going strong under his son-in-law Henry Knickerbacker. A multitude of other industries had been established, including foundries, tanneries, and textile mills.

Glens Falls was also a growing industrial center. Lumbering was the most prominent trade for many years, but by mid-century the village was home to paper mills, lime quarries, and textile factories. Sandy Hill (present day Hudson Falls) benefited from the falls of the Hudson River, which provided power for several industrial pursuits, most notably sawmills, carriage makers, and paper mills. Fort Edward was also a paper manufacturing center by this time, along with foundries and a notable pottery and stoneware industry.

John S. Bulkeley was born in 1851 to Hiram W. and Mary Bulkeley. Hiram first came to the Town of Ballston as a high school teacher a short time before John’s birth, but later started his own boarding school called “Bulkeley’s Family School.” Young John grew up in a crowded household that contained his parents, three sisters, three brothers, a school teacher, at least one servant, and around ten students.

By the age of twenty, Bulkeley was making a living in a fancy goods store several miles west of Saratoga Springs. Later he became a reporter for the Albany newspapers Argus, Press and Knickerbocker, and Journal, and was known as the “Up North” correspondent. He wrote a series of articles for the Albany Argus detailing the industries of Ballston Spa that received a great deal of attention and favor, and was persuaded to expand upon the articles and compile them into the book describing the manufacturing interests of Ballston Spa that follows. He created a similar book for Glens Falls, Sandy Hill, and Fort Edward in 1877.

Sadly, his life came to an untimely end on July 4, 1885 at the young age of 34. He developed a severe cough in the spring of that year which confined him to his bedroom. Although he received the best medical care that was available, he finally succumbed to what was then known as “consumption” (tuberculosis). He is buried in the Ballston Spa Village Cemetery along with his wife, who died only a year later at the age of 35.

Although John Bulkeley’s life was cut far too short, he left a wonderful legacy in the form of the two books that follow. It is rare indeed for a town to have a first-hand account of the inner workings of its industries from one who set out specifically to record them. Beyond a description of the businesses, buildings, and machinery of the manufacturers that dotted the Kayaderosseras Creek and Hudson River, we are able to read about how the factories operated and the processes used to produce the goods that were shipped around the country.

The importance and rarity of these two works prompted the decision to reprint and republish them in one volume so that they can be more readily available in the future to students, researchers, and historians. Bulkeley’s works are reproduced here as closely as possible to the original, including the few small grammatical errors that crept in, and the advertisements inserted by Bulkeley that subsidized his printing costs. A few of the original graphics were not reproduced because they were too obscured in my copies to be useful, but some of those, such as Benjamin Barber’s water wheel, were replaced from my collection for clarity’s sake. A few other photographs were added to enhance the narrative. It is hoped that this work will take the reader back to a long lost era whose living memory died decades ago with those who witnessed it.

Foreword by Timothy Starr	1

Book I

Ballston and Vicinity	3
Preface	4
Geo. West & Son's Paper Mills	6
The Glen Paper Collar Company	8
Kilmer & Son's Mill	10
Samuel Haight's Tannery	11
Brower & Sherman's Grist Mill	11
O'dell's Paper and Collar Mill	12
The Old Red Mill	12
Jones & Cook's Mill	12
John McLean's Mill	13
The Knickerbacker (late Blood's) Ax and Scythe Works	13
The Eagle Wood and Iron Works	14
The Glen Woolen Mill	17
George E. Knox's Skirt and Corset Factory	17
J. A. Hovey's Cotton Mills	18
J. L. Hempstead & Co.'s Soap Factory	18
Schermerhorn & Swarts' Machine Shop	19
Arnold Harris' Foundry	19
I. Blittersdorff's Paper Box Factory	19
Another Box Factory	20
The Empire Carriage Factory	20
Tripp & Sullivan	21
M. Schwarz & Co.'s Tannery	21
Smith Hovey's Sash Works	21
Hovey's Saw Mill	21
Oil Cloth Factory	22
The Red Mill	22
The Blue Mill	22

Levi Ayers	22
William J. Wayne's Carriage Shop	23
Winne & Hunt	25
Bristol's Hat, Cap and Fur Store	26
N. F. Noxon's New York Store	26
Banking Business of Ballston	27
Dr. Larkin's Medical Institute	28
Marsden's Hotel	28
Boarding School for Young Boys	29
Sans Souci Hotel	29
Sans Souci Spouting Spring	30
The Ballston Spa Artesian Lithia Spring	31
G. R. Beach's General Insurance Agency	32
Ballston, Past and Present	33

Book II

Glen's Falls, Sandy Hill & Fort Edward	37
Preface	38
The Village of Glen's Falls	40
Lumbering	41
Morgan Lumber Company	44
The Lime Business	48
The Glen's Falls Ale Company	52
Glen's Falls Paper Company	53
Glen's Falls Shirt Company	55
L. G. Wilson's Planing Mill and Lumber Yard	56
Sandy Hill	57
Wilber & Witpen's Carriage Factory	59
George Barney's Carriage Factory	60
N. W. Wait and Son	61
Fort Edward	63
The Manufacture of Pottery	63
The New York Stone-Ware Company	65
Fort Edward Collegiate Institute	66
The Fort Edward Steam Planing Mill	68
Fort Edward Brewery	68

Those interested in the famous industrial era of this village will be pleased to learn that author Timothy Starr has reprinted two rare booklets by Ballston Spa newspaper reporter John S. Bulkeley. Bulkeley was the “Up North” correspondent for such newspapers as the Albany Argus and the Albany Journal in the late nineteenth century.

In 1874 he wrote a series of articles about the numerous manufactories in and around this village that were printed in the Argus. The public seemed especially interested in the detailed descriptions of the Glen Paper Collar Company and the various paper mills situated along the Kayaderosseras Creek. The articles were so well received that Bulkeley compiled them into a booklet titled “Leading Men and Leading Pursuits of Ballston and Vicinity.”

A few years later he traveled north of here to the Hudson River and visited the saw mills, logging operations, potteries, and lime kilns operating in that area. The result was another booklet titled “Leading Industrial Pursuits of Glen’s Falls, Sandy Hill and Fort Edward.”

The sophisticated writing found in these works makes it hard to believe that Bulkeley was only 22 years old when he proudly began writing about his hometown. Tragically, he died at the age of 34 from tuberculosis.

His two booklets, which have been out of print for over 125 years, have become difficult to find. Mr. Starr believed that, although they were only 48 pages each, the booklets are of such historical importance that they needed to be reprinted. Both booklets were compiled word for word into one 72 page volume, including the original advertising. Most of the printed copies were donated by Mr. Starr to various local institutions, but a few are available for purchase at the Brookside Museum, home of the Saratoga County Historical Society, in this village.