In July Father Ethier’s band cleared $50 at an open air concert. This second concert of the summer finished enough money to pay for the erection of their bandstand and to buy some music. This was before the 1892 bandstand was erected on the east side of the canal and the church edifice was near the corner of Saunders Street and now Broadway.
Doris B. Morton, Town Historian – The Whitehall Times – July 24, 1986
What about an exhibit of horseflesh in our streets today consisting of the Beechman stallions’ offspring? Five of them. Gilbert Hunt owned two stallions; a chestnut, eleven months 27 days weighing 910 pounds and a bay, ten months 20 days of 700 pounds. Fred H. Smith owned two mares; one a chestnut eleven months old, 660 pounds and a black, 16 months, 640 pounds. Sereno Hollister was the owner of a five year ten month old bay, 680 pounds. The animals were deemed splendid specimens of equine flesh.
Doris B. Morton, Town Historian – The Whitehall Independent – March 19, 1986
In August Mose Blanchard and his son Edward bagged 23 woodcocks, their catch for one day. They shipped the birds south and received $1.25 for each pair. This was a record.
A creepy snake story from Hulett’s Landing. A summer visitor sat on a rock at waterslide reading a newspaper. On hearing the newspaper rustle she looked down to see a rattler across her lap with its head on the paper enjoying the sun. With a terrific scream and lunge she jumped into the lake from which her brother rescued her. The reptile had seven rattles and a button. Remember this was one hundred years ago and not likely to happen in these vacation times.
Doris B. Morton, Town Historian – The Whitehall Times – July 24, 1986
This was the year, 1886, that General John Hammond of Civil War fame erected a monument to his horse that carried him through 88 skirmishes and 34 battles in the South. The horse, named Pink, lived to be 31 years old. His monument, inscribed, is a twelve foot high gray column that stands facing the soldiers’ monument which is in the small park in the center of Crown Point. Look for it at the left side of the road going north.
Doris B. Morton, Town Historian – The Whitehall Times – September 18, 1986
Some people like to have mementoes of the hunt on their walls. Usually the head is the result of their prowess in the field of sport, hunting or fishing. But a trophy reported in December 1886 was of a different kind. The partnership of Skeels and Martin was a meat market. In it was displayed the head of a full-blooded Jersey bull which Home Martin had prepared himself for a wall ornament.
It seems this was the head of “Charley Bell” with a famous pedigree. He was a vicious creature killed for prudential reasons. Editorial comment was that the formidable head impressed one with the idea that it would be very unpleasant to have met its owner in a treeless field.
Doris B. Morton, Town Historian – The Whitehall Times – December 4, 1986