This article was contributed by James F. Morrison, from
his personal historical collection.
It was transcribed for the web site by Lori
Mosher.
A note from Broadalbin Historian, Gordon Cornell: "Roy J. Honeywell was a good friend of my Dad. He preached in our [Methodist] Church at times as a guest preacher, and usually had dinner at our home after the service. He served as a Chaplain in WWI and was assigned to the Chaplain's office in Washington during WWII."
Broadalbin in History
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Main Street, Looking West |
Being a Brief and Concise Narrative of the Principal Events in the Settlement
And Development of Broadalbin Township from the
Earliest Date to the Present Time.
Illustrated by D. G. Forbes.
Copyright, 1907, by R. J. Honeywell.
Amsterdam, N.Y.
Evening Recorder Job Print.
1907.
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INTRODUCTORY
In presenting this brief history of our township the author takes pleasure in acknowledging his indebtedness for assistance in compilation to Messrs. Geo. Brimmer, Scott Forbes, Archibald Robertson, J. W. Cleveland and A. A. Gardner, who assisted in a marked degree, also to George B. Farley, W. W. Finch, Dr. H. C. Finch, E. D. James, George Stever, Prine Thompson, J. P. Rosa and several other citizens of Broadalbin, beside S. D. Tomlinson of Johnstown, Miss Nellie Brockway of Gloversville, and the late Hugh B. Major of Perth, to all of whom we express the same degree of gratitude for various degrees of assistance rendered with the same degree of good will.
It has been our endeavor to present the facts in a concise, matter-of-fact style, omitting criticism and comment. All subjects are considered consecutively in Book I, but a few which require special treatment without regard to their chronological position are presented in Book II.
The greatest characters in the history of Broadalbin are those who have given themselves and all they possess most unreservedly for the promotion of the greatest public good, and it is the earnest prayer of the author in presenting this little volume that it may exalt the nobility of some of the characters it presents in such a way as to stimulate the reader to a higher devotion to that which is noble and true, and thus shall enhance the honor of our township, our nation, and our God.
R. J. HONEYWELL.
July 27, 1907.
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BROADALBIN IN HISTORY.
IN THE BEGINNING.
In the beginning was the Word…. By Him were all things made. By Him the waters were gathered together and the dry land appeared. By His hand the forests grew and the waste places blossomed as the rose; the fishes of the water; also, the birds, and all things which move upon the earth lived according to His word. Thus opens the history of the world; thus opens the history of Broadalbin.
The times was when Broadalbin lay beneath an inlet of the great ocean which met in the middle of Fulton County the continental glacier flowing south from the Laurentian Highlands. To this period the township owes its hills and its valleys, its sands and its rocks which came into being as the vast Silurian ocean built our continent in successive sea beaches along the Azoic land.
TOPOGRAPHY.
Broadalbin township lies between the diverging ranges of the AuSable (locally known as Mayfield) Mountains on the northwest and the Kayaderosseras which touch the township on the northeast, both parts of the Adirondack system.
Broadalbin has several creeks, the largest of which is the Kennyetto, sometimes called the Little Sacandaga, which twice crosses the town. Its name is of Indian origin, signifying “Snake-trying-to-swallow-its-tail.” The Chuctanunda crosses the southeast corner of the town and the Mayfield creak the northwest. Frenchman’s Creek, named from Joseph DeGolyer, a Frenchman, who built his cabin on its banks while all was wilderness, flows northwest into the Kennyetto. Hons Creek also crosses the northeastern part of the town in a northwesterly direction. The name of this stream is said to be derived from the incident of John (Hons) Conyen falling out of the boat while fishing in company of Sir William Johnson.
From the south the surface of the township slopes gradually up to the Ridge which divides the basins of the Mohawk and Sacandaga rivers. This ridge seems to be a part of the great divide which has been traced by geologist far into Herkimer and Saratoga counties in the Azoic days. North of the Ridge the clay loam of the Mohawk slope gives place to a considerable degree of sand, containing stones of all sizes, and broken into irregular hills and ridges, growing larger and containing a higher proportion of sand and larger boulders as the northern parts of the town are approached. They probably rise to an altitude of well above 1,000 feet, as a survey shows Broadalbin’s Main street to be 820 feet above sea level.
The Sacandaga Vlaie, extending into the town in the northwest, at one time undoubtedly was the bosom of a large lake, of which three successive beaches are traceable, in the days before the Sacandaga cut its way through the rocky barrier of the Kayaderosseras Mountains.
THE ERA OF PARTITION--1708-1842.
On Nov. 2, 1708, the notorious Kayaderosseras Patent, conveying 700,000 acres in the present towns of Amsterdam, Perth, Broadalbin and Galway, was given to Nanning Haermanse and Twelve others. This grant was fraudulent as the Agnier Indians (better know by the Dutch name Mohawk) who owned the land were convinced that they were ceding only land enough for one or two farms. On learning the extent of the patent the Indians protested and so effectually resisted every attempt to settle the land that for many years the patentess received no benefit from their claim. About 1760 Sir William Johnson succeeded in having this patent reduced to 23,000 acres.
The Sacandaga Patent, comprising 28,000 acres in Johnstown, Mayfield, Broadalbin, and Perth, was granted to Landert Gansevoort and others on Dec. 2, 1741. The Glen Patents given to John Glen, Jr., probably on August 24, 1770, embraced land in Stratford, Caroga, Bleecker, and Broadalbin, and aggregated 50,000 acres. The date, extent and exact position of the Haring Patent in central Broadalbin are uncertain. On Nov. 26, 1785, the Stringer Patent of 1,350 acres in Broadalbin was granted to Samuel Stringer, being the first under authority of the sovereign state of New York.
Prior to the Revolution Major Jelles Fonda secured a large tract of land on which the western part of Broadalbin village now stands, and from this arose the name of “Fonda’s Bush.” Anterior to 1800 Daniel Campbell of Schenectady obtained several thousand acres of the Kayaderosseras and Glen Patents which he rented to actual settlers under perpetual leases, some of which are still in effect.
In the early days this region was included in Albany County, but on May 10, 1772, through the efforts of Sir William Johnson, Tryon County was created of all land west of a line from the Delaware river along the eastern line of the present Fulton County to the Canadian line. In 1784 its name was changed to Montgomery County. In 1810 Montgomery County was still the largest in the state with an area of 1,767,680 acres. In 1838 Fulton County was formed as today.
Prior to 1788 this region was called Mohawk, but at that time the name was restricted to the south bank of the river and all of Montgomery County north of the Mohawk was call Caughnawaga. March 12, 1793, this town was divided into the towns of Caughnawaga (or Fonda), Amsterdam, Broadalbin, Mayfield, and Johnstown. In 1799 Northampton was cut off from north of Broadalbin, and in 1842 a large section in the south was given to help form the town of Perth, leaving Broadalbin only 24,103 acres.
FIRST SETTLEMENT: PROVINCIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY
PERIOD--1761-1783.
The first actual settler of Broadalbin was Henry Stoner, a German, who came to America in 1760, lived in New York city and Maryland, married Katherine Barnes of Mayfield; and settled just west of Broadalbin village on the south side of the Kennyetto in 1770. He had two sons, Nicholas and John, the former becoming a famous rifleman hunter, and Indian hater. In 1777 Stoner moved to Johnstown and served three years and three months in the American army, his sons accompanying the regiment as drummers. One morning in the summer of 1782 while living near Tribes Hill, Stoner was stealthily attacked in his corn field, killed, scalped, and his house plundered by marauding Indians. Subsequently Major Nicholas Stoner avenged his father’s murder in a barroom brawl in Johnstown by striking down the assassin with a red-hot andiron while boasting of the deed. Among the posterity of Henry Stoner are the Wilsons, an eminent Gloversville family.
Philip Helmer was the second settler in Broadalbin, settling two miles east from Stoner’s cabin about 1773. A short time prior to the Revolution the site of Broadalbin village became the nucleus of several settlers, among them being Andrew Bowman, Charles Cady, Benjamin Deline, John Putnam, Herman Salisbury, and Joseph Scott. It is believed that this settlement was called Kennyetto, but when all but one or two families removed to Johnstown in 1777 on account of the exposedness of the settlement to Indian forays, the name as applied to the village was lost.
At an early date Peter Robertson, a Scotchman and relative of the McIntyres, settled on a farm on the Ridge in the southern part of the town, his deed being given under George III. A barn on the estate believed to have been built as early as 1774 was burned in June, 1904. His son James was long prominent and influential in advancing the welfare of the community. His grandson, Archibald, one of Broadalbin’s most respected citizens, still owns the old estate with considerable additions. Prominent among the descendants of Peter Robertson are the (Dyer) Thompson family and the Caprons.
Summer House Point on the great Vlaie in the northwest corner of the township is a plot of solid ground sloping gradually on all sides to a level summit 600 feet long by 150 wide and connected with the mainland by a narrow strip of arable ground which is submerged in times of high water, leaving the Point an island. As early as 1761 Sir William Johnson erected on this site an elegant one-story villa which he named “Castle Cumberland” in honor of Duke George, and afterward opened a carriage road from Johnstown. Here he placed two slaves who cultivated a garden, set out fruit trees, dug a well, and made other improvements, and here the Baronet spent much of his time in summer till his death on July 11, 1774.
Early in the Revolution Castle Cumberland was fortified to resist a possible attack by water from the north, an intrenchment six feet wide and several feet deep being cut across the east end of the Point, and during the summer 1776 a half-regiment of infantry under Colonel Nicholson was stationed here. But at the end of summer the Point was abandoned as a military post, and in 1781 Castle Cumberland was burned, probably by emissaries of Sir John Johnson, who despaired of every repossessing it.
On June 15, 1876, a grand centennial celebration was held on Summer House Point, attended by a large concourse of people. An oration was delivered by the late R. H. Rosa of Broadalbin, dinner was served, after which an address was given by Rev. Dr. Moody of Troy, followed by an allegorical representation of the last council of Sir William Johnson with the chiefs of the Six Nations. A large collection of ancient and revolutionary relics was also displayed.
Castle Cumberland was the only military post ever maintained in Broadalbin, and no battle was ever fought on its soil, although it is probably that a band of Indians and Tories crossed the town with forty prisoners on their flight to Canada by way of the Fish House after ravaging the Schoharie valley.
PIONEERS--1783-1800.
Shortly after the Revolution large numbers of Scotts, among them the MacDonalds of Glencoe and Campbells of Argyle and Breadalbane, the principal participants in one of the most notorious tragedies of Caledonian history (Read Macauley’s History of England, pp 1485-1501, 1608, 1737-1742). Came to the Mohawk valley and settled in Galway, Perth and Broadalbin.
About 1783 Samuel Demarest, a revolutionary soldier and native of Holland, after living in Newark, N.J., came up the Hudson on a sloop and settled in Broadalbin on lot number 14 of subdivision No. 3 of the 21st allotment of the Kayaderosseras Patent. He is believed to have kept the first hotel in Broadalbin, where many of his descendants still live. Shortly after came Alexander Murray from Scotland and settled in the village. He held political offices for many years.
Very soon after the Revolution came Samuel Honeywell, a Quaker, from Connecticut and located on the Mohawk slope of the Ridge, on land adjoining on the southeast that of Peter Robertson. The estate has never left the family, and a barn believed to have been built at the first settlement still stands in good condition. Here he kept a large dairy, and for many years his wife annually drove unaccompanied to New York to sell the year’s output of butter. Their posterity today, bearing many names, inhabit at least six states of the Union, besides parts of Canada.
In 1779 William Chalmers located on the Dyer Thompson farm, now owned by L. E. Moore and known as the Pine Grove Farm. Ezra Wilson secured a perpetual lease of 100 acres of the Kayaderosseras Patent from Daniel Campbell, where he settled on Sept. 7, 1795, and soon after Abraham Manchester of Rhode Island located on the farm near Stever’s Mills now owned by Silas Lasher.
Prior to 1792 came Roswell Fenton from Hanover, N. H., to Broadalbin. In 1806 he emigrated to Ohio with his ten children, where he was murdered for his money. He had sixty-three grandchildren, of whom two became founders and four presidents of colleges, numbering among their pupils Presidents Hayes and Harrison, seven were clergymen, several were physicians and congressmen, and one governor of New York. Stephen Fenton married Roxy Fitch, who traced her ancestry to Alfred the Great. They had ten children of whom three were Methodist ministers. One of the, Asa R., after twenty years located at the old home in Broadalbin, and married Sarah E. Fisk of the illustrious family to which belonged General Clinton B. Fisk, James Fisk, Jr., and Rev. Wilbur Fisk, first president of Wesleyan University. Their son, George W., born Sept. 11, 1853, was long a leading citizen of Broadalbin, but removed to Utica, N. Y., in 1906.
Tiffany Brockway came to previously purchased lands northeast of Fonda’s Bush in 1791 at the age of seventeen. Here he built a log house, made a clearing, and sowed a field of wheat, welcoming his father, Nathan, and family to their new forest home on his 18th birthday, March 6, 1792. On April 11, 1799, he was married to Lucy Alvord and in 1805 located on a farm near his father’s, afterward known as Locust Grove, where he remained till his death. He was a major in the war of 1812 and for many years following was a colonel of militia. Industrious, economic, temperate, integral, he was the first pronounced abolitionist in the town. At the advanced age of sixty he united with the Broadalbin Baptist church, living through many more years of a vigorous and useful old age, and passing away on Dec. 3, 1866, still rejoicing over the achievement of his fondest hope for the slave.
About 1795 several pioneers obtained leases under the Kayaderosseras and Glen Patents, among them being John Blair, J. Campbell, W. Demarest, Benjamin Earl, Ezekiel Olstead, Nathaniel and Neil Pearse, Walter C. Rathbone and William Stewart. In 1796 Nathan Babcock came from Connecticut and located on the Ridge, where he lived until his death in 1844, his wife performing the journey on horseback carrying a child in her arms. A daughter of Nathan Babcock married a grandson of Nathan Brockway and their descendants are prominent in several cities of the state. Richard Van Vranken came from Schenectady and settled three-fourths of a mile east of the village in 1798, and the next year John Roberts from Connecticut located near the same place.
It was in the autumn of 1799 that Reuben Burr came from Litchfield, Conn., driving an ox and cow yoked together. He settled in a ruined log cabin on the Mayfield road which he roofed with poles and bark, but the next year removed to the farm long owned by the late Reuben Phillips. He died in 1859. His son, Allan, born June, 1801, became prominent in public affairs, being justice of the peace for sixteen years and postmaster eight under Jackson. He died May 3, 1879. His sons, the late James and Samuel Burr, and their cousin, Wilson Burr, were long prominent and highly esteemed residents of Broadalbin. Prior to 1800 James Sumner came from Vermont and located on the farm known as the Deacon Teller place, and about that year Paul Earl of Rhode Island settled on the farm near Mills Corners long known as the John Perry place and now owned by Fred Cloutier.
EARLY TOWNSHIP GOVERNEMNT--1793-1815.
On the 12th of March, 1793, Broadalbin township was organized from a part of Caughnawaga, and received its name from Daniel McIntyre, a native of Breadalbane, Scotland. A town meeting held in 1793 for some reason was deemed illegal, but at one held at the house of Daniel McIntyre on Tuesday, April 1, 1794, the following officers were elected: Peter V. Veeder, supervisor; Alexander Murray, town clerk; John McNeil, James Kennedy, Joshua Maxon, assessors; Calvin young, Allen Whitman, Alexander Murray, commissioners of highways; Daniel McIntyre, John Blair, poor masters; James Kennedy, Joshua Briggs, Aaron Olmstead, constables; James Kennedy, collector; John McNeil, Nathaniel Perkins, pound keepers; Moses Elwell, hog reeve.
In 1794 sixteen licenses “to keep inns or taverns” were granted at the rate L 2 each. The highways of the town were divided into eighteen districts in 1798 by Daniel McDonald and Elijah Sheldon, and the next year seven more were added. A measure enacted in 1803 prohibiting all persons (citizens of Mayfield, Broadalbin and Northampton excepted), from turning or driving horses or cattle on the Vlaie under penalty of $2 per head-one-half to go to the person who should prosecute the same to effect and the other for the benefit of the highways of the town--seems to indicate that Broadalbin commons were a general pasturage for all the surrounding country.
In 1815 the strong Dutch element in the population succeeded in having Fonda’s Bush incorporated under the name of Rawsonville, in honor of Dr. E. G. Rawson, Broadalbin’s first physician. The act of incorporation never was put in effect, but the name seems to have continued in use till after 1850.
BEGINNINGS--1800-1815.
About 1800 Nicholas Van Vranken kept a store about one mile east of Fonda’s Bush, and the first to keep store in the village were Joshua Green and Thomas Bicknal. The post office was established in 1804 and given the name of Broadalbin through the influence of the Scotch element. In 1805 James Sumner built the first tannery in the town two miles southeast of the village.
In 1805 Dr. E. G. Rawson came from Connecticut and located in a slab house on the present site of the dry goods store of Lasher & Sowle, which he bought from $5 from Nicholas Van Vranken, a carpenter, who furnished the material and built the house. He was the first physician in Broadalbin and became one of the leading citizens. At an early date he owned a drug store where now is the open park in the angle of Main and Bridge streets.
The first grist mill in the village was built in 1808 by a man named Herring, who also built and conducted a saw mill. In 1813 a woolen mill was built at North Broadalbin, but this, together with the early churches and other subjects receives special attention in Book II.
The War of 1812 called some Broadalbin men to the national armies, but the records are meager and uncertain. Its chief influence was to greatly depress business in general, and nearly ruin some of Broadalbin’s rising industries.
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Mrs. F. A. Ward's Residence |
ERA OF DEVELOPMENT-1815-1860.
This period marked no conspicuous event in Broadalbin’s history, but rather a gradual, continued development. During this time the manufacture of paper and gloves, as well as other industries in outlying places, was started as noted in Book II.
Prior to 1840 Harry G. Hawley established a hardware store which only recently has been discontinued by his son, F. S. Hawley, who now conducts a news stand and book store in the same building. In 1844 W. H. Halladay came from Montgomery County and established a harness shop, succeeding in business James Burr and Reuben Fox, who were prominent among Broadalbin’s early store keepers. In 1849 the Amsterdam and Fish House plank road, which was afterward extended to Northville, was built through Broadalbin and was the main thoroughfare between the Adirondack region and the Mohawk until the building of the Gloversville and Northville railroad in 1874.
For many years prior to his death in 1849 Isaac R. Rosa kept an inn where Earl’s hotel now stands. His ancestors were Hollanders and he was born in Schenectady in 1791. He was long known as “Uncle Ike, the Peace-maker,” from the many disagreements he helped to adjust. The oldest of his four sons was R. H. Rosa, the prominent attorney, the youngest, James P. Rosa, is a merchant, late postmaster, and one of the leading citizens of Broadalbin. After the death of Isaac Rosa his widow married his brother, Dr. James P. Rosa, at one time an eminent Broadalbin physician.
The Broadalbin and Mayfield Rural Cemetery, which has been in use for more than a century, was first incorporated on April 1, 1850. The first trustees were Laban Capron, John E. Hawley, Allan Burr, H. G. Hawley, William Chambers, James L. Northrup and Ephraim Wetherbee.
In the great national controversy which led to the Civil war Broadalbin seems to have stood quite strongly on the side of abolition. An idea of the attitude of the town at various periods may be drawn from the following meager election returns. Votes for governor: 1801, George Clinton, 112, Stephen Van Rensselaer, 50: 1804, Morgan Lewis, 130, Aaron Burr, 37; 1822, Joseph E. Yates, 345, Solomon Southwick, 1; 1840, W. H. Seward, 358, William Bouch, 204, Garret Smith, 4.
CIVIL WAR PERIOD.
Colonel Tiffany Brockway was the first outspoken abolitionist in Broadalbin, and his home at Locust Grove often sheltered fugitive slaves in the days when abolition was unpopular, but when the nation was in danger Broadalbin took its share in the national defense, contributing about 100 men to seven regiments. Brief regimental records, together with Broadalbin’s part of the muster rolls, are appended:
The 77th Infantry was mustered in at Bemis Heights Nov. 23, 1861. From the beginning of the Peninsular campaign to the end of the war it participated in all operations of the Army of the Potomac, also Sheridan’s Shenandoah valley campaign. In the famous charge at Spottsylvania it lost one-fourth of its strength in fifteen minutes. This regiment fought in 30 battles. Broadalbin’s representation in the 77th was: Company E, Lyman Cole, James Cole, James B. Hines; Company K, James F. Austin, Hiram B. Gifford.
The 93rd Infantry was mustered in in 1861 and left for the front following March. It served with the Army of the Potomac till June, 1865, participating in 36 actions, among them the largest and fiercest in the war. In Company D of this regiment were Third Sergeant Wm. W. Clark and Private Elias P. Newton of Broadalbin.
The 115th Infantry was mustered in at Fonda Aug. 26, 1862, by Captain Egerton of the regular army. Its first battle was at Maryland Heights on Sept. 13 and two days later its men became paroled prisoners-of-war by surrender of Colonel Miles at Harper’s Ferry. It served on provost duty in Chicago until exchanged in November, then was kept in constant motion until transferred to the department of south in January, 1863, with headquarters at Hilton Head, S. C. With the 115th 1863 was uneventful, but in 1864 it fought in 22 battles, the severest being Olustee, Fla., Feb. 20, when it lost more than half those engaged and where it saved Seymour’s army from rout and publicly complimented by him and styled the “Iron Hearted Regiment.” In 1865 it was transferred to Butler’s division and experienced sever service, in August its effective strength being reduced to 120 men. At Fort Fisher it lost about 70 men in the terrible charge and a still larger number by the explosion of a magazine during the night. In 1862 the regiment left Fonda with a full complement of 1,040 officers and men and in 1865 mustered out less than 200 of its original members. Sylvester W. Clemens, afterward pastor of the Broadalbin M. E. church, was chaplain of this regiment. Broadalbin’s contingent comprised 42 men of Company K.
Roster of Company K: Capt. Wm. Smith, wounded at Maryland Heights; Second Sergeant James M. Hill, promoted second lieutenant, promoted first lieutenant in 1863, transferred to 47th N. Y.; Third Sergeant James O. Fox, died at Petersburg, Va.; Fourth Sergeant Archibald Buchanan, Fifth Sergeant Caleb Olmstead, Fourth Corporal John Park, died at Beaufort, S. C.; Sixth Corporal Samuel Burr, promoted sergeant; Eighth Corporal Henry Luly; Musicians, Joshua W. Ripley and Melville W. Cole. Privates: David Anderson, Marcus Banta, burned to death at Amsterdam Aug. 29, 1862; John R. Clark, died at Petersburg, Va.; Joseph Carpenter, Peter Dingman, Edgar D. Demarest, promoted sergeant in 1865; Wm. H. Dingman, Peter Fry, Wm. M. Fox, discharged for disabilities; Daniel Fosmire, W. A. Honeywell, A. P. Hart, G. G. Honeywell, wounded at Drury’s Bluff and Winchester; Benjamin Hammond, promoted corporal in 1863; Thomas Kelly, Henry Luloy, died at Hilton Head; Norman W. Lyford, wounded at Chesterfield Heights, died May 7, 1864; Chas. M. Marcellus, promoted sergeant; Isaac Manchester, wounded at Chesterfield; Alexander Monroe, died at Hilton Head Oct. 10, 1863; Levi Pettit, killed at Olustee Feb. 20, 1864; Wm. H. Peck, wounded at Olustee; Wm. A. Peek, Elijah A. Rose, Wm. D. Rice, Wm. Rowley, discharged for disability in 1864; Henry Seeley, died June 19, 1863; Obediah H. Sprung, died of wounds in rebel hospital May 11, 1865; Albert Solomon, Richard A. Thorp, wounded at Olustee; Stephen S. Treper, wounded at Olustee; Aaron Ward.
The 153rd Infantry was mustered in at Fonda Oct. 14, 1862. It served in the Potomac, Mississippi and Shenandoah valleys, and later at Savannah, it formed part of the cordon round Washington after the assassination of Lincoln and was guard at the military court which tried the assassins. Broadalbin was represented in Company K by Joseph W. Kested and John T. Sawyer of Mills Corners.
The 10th Cavalry leaves a military record almost without precedent. In three years of service with the army of the Potomac it participated in over 10 engagements and shared with the 1st Maine the reputation of being the two best cavalry regiments in the service. Broadalbin gave 36 men to this regiment.
Muster Roll of Company 1: First sergeant H. H. Boyd, killed; Quartermaster Sergeant Asa Capron, Corporals Henry Betts, Hosea Davis, Jr., Darius S. Orton, Peter Phillips, killed; Daniel Satterlee. Farriers: Charles Thayer, discharged Nov. 8, 1862; Henry A. Lane. Wagoner: James L. Mercer. Privates: Chas. S. Bartlett, killed while on a scout Nov. 18, 1864; Philip Canning, killed by guerillas near Benton Station May 22, 1863; Daniel C. Forbes, killed; Francis Forbes, killed; Wm. Foster, killed; Miner Fox, Hollis Fox, Joseph W. Honeywell, killed at Cold Harbor June 1, 1864: John Hammond, Wm. H. Jones, died in Andersonville Prison Aug. 14, 1864; Thomas Lee, Lorenzo Phillips, died at Aquia Creek, Feb. 6, 1863; Geo. Peck, discharged; Rawson Stoddard, discharged Jan 8, 1864; James H. Sanford, promoted captain January, 1864; Geo. E. Sanford, died of disease May 28, 1865; Geo. W. Schermerhorn, died Nov. 6, 1863; Abram Satterlee, Geo. H. Smith, discharged; Zadock Satterlee, Thomas B. Tatlock, Wm. Wands.
The 2nd Cavalry, commonly known as the Harris Light Cavalry, was a very prominent regiment. It was mustered in in the autumn of 1861 and served till June 23, 1865. Broadalbin’s contingent was A. Brower, A. Culbert and M. Fox of Company F.
The 13th Heavy Artillery, mustered in early in 1864, participated in some of the severest battles in the closing years of the war. Broadalbin sent to this regiment Nicholas Barrett, A. Bates, M. Cornell, John Dingman, D. B. Hall, Henry Hall and M. H. Phelps.
McKean Post, Number 289, G. A. R., was organized on Sept. 18, 1882, with thirty charter members and A. A. Gardner as first commander. Many other veterans of the Mexican and Civil wars subsequently joined. About 40 have died and 33 answered to roll call in 1907. Soon all will go to the last roll call on the “eternal camping ground” and the old regiments will be complete. These veterans and their heroic deeds may be forgotten, but the nation they gave themselves to save still lives.
On to Part II, "Broadalbin In History"