News & Opinion About Huletts Landing, N.Y.
“Winter is with us; raw, cold, mild, all the time, snow all around us, lake frozen with a big crack in the ice right through the middle from Rogers Rock to Bolton Landing. It broke open with a big boom heard all around us; Whitehall, Fair Haven, even Glens Falls. About every day a storm, rain, freezing and everything, or more snow. We just try to get by till spring.”
Excerpted from a letter written to Pat Brotman
from Huletts resident, Irene Phillips.
February 4, 1973
(40 years ago.)
In regards to my earlier post regarding the 1889 Hulett Hotel Bill from David W. Phillips, I heard from Mrs. Nina Danforth two interesting facts:
1.) David was the father of Irene Phillips, not her grandfather or great uncle as I had earlier surmised.
2.) David Phillips was also the builder of the Danforth house at Land’s End, another bit of information that I did not know.
Many thanks to Mrs. Danforth for this information.
Lane DeMuro also passed along a bit of interesting information regarding the Phillip’s farm house. Part of Irene Phillips’ farm house was originally a barn that was built on Noble Island. One winter it was placed on skids and dragged across the ice then up to the farmhouse. It was the north east extension, where the kitchen was. It was a post and hand hewn beam structure that was taken down in the 1970’s.
I believe David Phillips’ house became the farm house and boarding house Irene Phillips lived in.
Some interesting information to note.
Here’s a true piece of Huletts treasure! An actual bill from the hotel dated in 1889.
This is a quite a find, thanks to Lane DeMuro.
Here’s some of the back-story. In 1889, the hotel was owned by W. Howard Bender and only had roughly 100 rooms. To illustrate how early this was in the history of the hotel, in 1889 “the hotel” would have been just the annex to the original Hulett farm house. Bender had purchased it around 1882 from railroad executive C.W. Wentz. Bender’s manager, for the first time that year, was Henry W. Buckell. Buckell would go on to purchase and expand the hotel and even serve as Dresden Town Supervisor down the road. Bender’s signature can be seen on the lower right side of the bill.
The bill was made out to David W. Phillips, who would go on to live in Huletts for many years afterward and may have been Irene Phillip’s grandfather or great uncle. It looks like the entire bill was for $8.10.
Many thanks to Lane DeMuro for emailing me a copy of this.
Click on image to see full-scale.
A newspaper receipt from the Washington County Post, dated July 30, 1894, to Mr. David W. Phillips of Huletts Landing.
Lane DeMuro emailed me a number of documents today from David W. Phillips of Huletts Landing, dating from the 1800’s and early 1900’s. Included was a newspaper receipt from the summer of 1894.
Many thanks to Lane DeMuro for passing this along.
Click on image to see enlarged view.
Many thanks to Mark Stanton for sharing pictures of this Huletts Beer Stein from 1911. Mark has this very unique item in his collection and sent me pictures of it. I have never heard of “Elephant Mountain Golf Club” or A.W. Clarke but it appears that this is a trophy or award for winning a golf match from 1911. What a fascinating piece of memorabilia!
(Click on Images to See Full-Scale.)
Diane Struble with her three children. (Picture from OpenWaterPedia.com)
On August 22, 1958, Diane Struble entered the water in Ticonderoga and swam the entire length of Lake George in 35 hours. She became the first person to swim the entire length of the lake. I had never seen any video of her swim nor thought any existed.
That is until Peter Ballantye sent me this movie clip his parents took during the summer of 1958 as she passed by Huletts.
The video is short but it is in color and it captures history in the making.
Many thanks to Peter Ballantyne and the Ballantyne family for sharing this rare historical treasure.
Adoration of the Shepard’s
Nicolas Poussin – 1633
National Gallery of London
(Click for full-scale.)
I wanted to take this opportunity to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy and healthy holiday season.
Survivors of the 123 NY Volunteers at the dedication of their monument at Gettysburg, PA on September 4, 1888. (25 years after the battle of Gettysburg.)
The monument as it looks today. The 123rd was comprised of volunteers from Washington County, NY including the towns of Dresden and Whitehall. (The 150th anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg will be July 1-3, 2013.)
(Top two pictures only – click to see full scale.)
Face plate of the monument reads:
123rd. New York
Infantry
1st. Brigade 1st. Division
12th. Corps
Imagine a young man from Washington County, NY in August of 1862 who volunteers to serve in the Union army. He gets sent to Washington DC, where he is assigned to the Army of the Potomac and winds up marching to Gettysburg in July 1863, where he will not only take part in the battle which arguably turns the course of the war but his regiment defends an important part of the Union line.
Well, that’s exactly what happened to Washington County’s 123rd brigade. Mustered into the Union army in September 1862, they joined the Army of the Potomac and were engaged in the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg before being transferred to the Army of the Cumberland where they participated in the Campaign of Atlanta, the March to the Sea, and the Campaign of the Carolinas. The survivors were mustered out of Washington, DC, at the close of the war, on June 8, 1865 and returned to Washington County, NY.
Last week, I traveled to Gettysburg, located the monument to the 123rd, and learned about the heroics shown by our local citizen-soldiers there in 1863. The story which follows should be known by all residents of Washington County.
To begin, the battle of Gettysburg was a series of bloody skirmishes that took place during three days: July 1-3, 1863. The Confederate army was at it’s peak and had marched up through Virginia into Pennsylvania. Confederate General, Robert E. Lee, wanted to attack Washington DC from the north and hoped to conclude the war if successful. He had approximately 94,000 men with him. The Union army was in a defensive fishhook-like position defending the high ground on a number of hills south and west of Gettysburg. Union General, George Meade, commanded approximately 75,000 men.
A map of the Gettysburg battlefield. Union forces (in blue) were shaped in a fishhook-like position defending the high ground south of the town of Gettysburg. Confederate forces (in red) attacked over a three day period from the north. Culp’s Hill was important because it was the right flank of the Union line.
The 123rd marched north to Gettysburg from Littlestown, PA on July 1, 1863. The next day, they advanced up Culp’s Hill and formed the right flank of Union lines. They constructed a heavy breastwork barricade of logs. At about 6 p.m. on July 2, 1863 they moved to support the left flank of Union lines near Little Round Top. Returning in the night they found the works they had constructed earlier in the day in possession of the Confederacy as no troops had been left to occupy them.
The 123rd engaged in the most ferocious fighting on July 3rd. During the morning, under cover from artillery from Connecticut’s 20th, they made a charge up Culp’s Hill and recovered the works they had constructed the previous day. They then proceeded to fend off two assaults by Confederate troops who wanted to retake the Culp’s Hill position and breach the right flank of the Union line.
NY’s 123rd saw close fighting on July 3rd at the battle of Gettysburg. Confederate forces came up Culp’s Hill through the woods after the 123rd had retaken this position. This is the view the Washington County soldiers would have had of advancing Confederate troops.
After recapturing the high ground, Washington County forces fought from a position of strength from barricades they had constructed the previous day. This is the view the Confederate soldiers would have had of the dug-in 123rd. Log fortifications, hastily constructed the day before, and boulders were used as protection by the 123rd. (This area is directly behind where the monument is now located.)
The marker in the bottom right corner shows the right-flank of the 123rd’s line on Culp’s Hill.
The stone marker shows the left-flank of the 123rd’s line on Culp’s Hill.
Once the southerners retreated from Culp’s Hill around mid-day, the 123rd was ordered to support the Union front line repelling Pickett’s charge at about 4 pm. This famous frontal assault by the Confederate’s would end in defeat and prove devastating to the South at Gettysburg. Later in the evening of July 3rd, after the 123rd had returned to Culp’s Hill, there were more skirmishes with the southerners, where heavy causalities were taken by the Confederates.
Lee retreated with the remnants of the Confederate army into Virginia. General Meade breathed a sign of relief, knowing that the Union troops had repelled the South and defended Washington, DC.
The 123rd left Gettysburg on July 4, 1863. In total, during the three days of fighting, they lost 14 soldiers.
Today, there is an observation tower on Culp’s Hill where much of the Gettysburg battlefield can be seen.
The Culp’s Hill observation tower today.
A view of Gettysburg, from the Culp’s Hill observation tower. Pickett’s charge took place below.
The 123rd’s flag, hangs in the Skenesborough Museum in Whitehall.
The new movie adaptation of Les Miserables opens on Christmas day. Victor Hugo’s eloquent preface to his novel is below. The poet and humanitarian of France, has in this passage set forth the purpose of one of the half-dozen greatest novels of the world.
The Preface to “Les Miserables”
By Victor Hugo
SO long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation, which, in the face of civilization, artificially creates hells on earth, and complicates a destiny that is divine, with human fatality; so long as the three problems of the age—the degradation of man by poverty, the ruin of women by starvation, and the dwarfing of childhood by physical and spiritual night—are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words, and from a yet more extended point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, books like this cannot be useless.
Victor Hugo
January 1, 1862
Here is the new movie trailer:
Irene Phillips holding Dave Brotman in 1972.
Dave Brotman with Irene Phillip’s sheep, “Big Bill.”
I received these two pictures from Dave Brotman. Dave’s mother (Pat) was friends with Irene Phillips. They rented the Kissy cottage from 1969 to the early 80’s and Dave’s mother and Irene would send each other letters throughout the winter months. These were pictures of Dave with Irene Phillips and the sheep, of course.
Dave’s going to check with his parents to see if they have some more pictures. Irene Phillips property was just past the Catholic church as you head down Land’s End. I can still see the sheep and cats as I passed by as a child on my bike.
Many thanks to Dave for sharing these!
Meadow Point 1904
Click image to see full size.
Sarah Josepha Hale, 1831, by James Reid Lambdin
Sarah Josepha Hale, a 74-year-old magazine editor, wrote a letter to President Lincoln on September 28, 1863, urging him to have the “day of our annual Thanksgiving made a National and fixed Union Festival.” She explained, “You may have observed that, for some years past, there has been an increasing interest felt in our land to have the Thanksgiving held on the same day, in all the States; it now needs National recognition and authoritive fixation, only, to become permanently, an American custom and institution.”
This is the proclamation which set the precedent for America’s national day of Thanksgiving.
Proclamation of Thanksgiving
Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863
By the President of the United States of America.
A Proclamation.
The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.
No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.
Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.
By the President: Abraham Lincoln
Learn more about how an unassuming Boston book seller moved 14 mortars, 43 cannons, and other artillery to Boston in the winter of 1776 at Fort Ticonderoga’s upcoming living history event.
Discover the story of Henry Knox’s noble train of artillery at Fort Ticonderoga’s upcoming living history event, Saturday, December 1, from 10 am – 4 pm. The event will feature a lively program highlighting Henry Knox’s arrival to Fort Ticonderoga and recreate the beginning of the epic feat that ultimately forced the British evacuation from Boston on March 17, 1776. Admission to the “The Noble Train Begins” living history event is $10 per person and payable at the door.
The siege of Boston, April 19, 1775 – March 17, 1776 was the opening phase of the American Revolutionary War in which New England militiamen, who later became part of the Continental Army, surrounded the town of Boston, Massachusetts, to prevent movement by the British Army garrisoned within. In November 1775, Washington sent a 25 year-old bookseller-turned-soldier, Henry Knox, to bring heavy artillery that had been captured at Fort Ticonderoga to Boston. In a technically complex and demanding operation, Knox brought the cannon to the Boston area in January 1776. In March 1776, these artillery pieces were used to fortify Dorchester Heights, overlooking Boston and its harbor and threatening the British naval supply lifeline. The British commander William Howe, realizing he could no longer hold the town, chose to evacuate it. He withdrew the British forces, departing on March 17, for Halifax, Nova Scotia.
“Visitors to the ‘The Noble Train Begins’ living history event will meet Henry Knox, the unassuming Boston book seller whose physical and mental might was first tested with the epic feat of moving more than 14 mortars, 43 cannon, and other artillery to Boston in the winter of 1776,” said Stuart Lilie, Fort Ticonderoga’s Director of Interpretation. “See man and horse power in action as the artillery is selected for the journey. Meet the soldiers left to guard this frontier outpost as the first winter of the Revolutionary War takes hold.”
Henry Knox: Washington’s Artilleryman by Rich Strum
“The Noble Train Begins” living history event will feature interpretive staff working with horses as they move the artillery in place for the journey, cannon tours and cannon demonstrations. The event will also feature Rich Strum, author of Henry Knox: Washington’s Artilleryman, who will present an overview on Henry Knox. Strum’s presentation will take place at 12 pm inside the Mars Education Center followed by a book signing.
Picture captioned:
Burgess I.
Near
“Huletts”
Lake George
4/02
Click to see Larger Image