Naturally one can’t talk about Wilmington without talking about Whiteface Mountain. So, naturally again, one turns to the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library and, son-of-a-gun, just take a look at these pictures.

So we ended last week’s column telling about Adeline’s Dad, Halsey who was born in 1870, and the rivalry between the boys of Wilmington and Jay.

I love this book, so it is difficult to publish the best part in this short space, because every chapter is the best part to me.

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Dedication of Whiteface Memorial Highway, Sept. 14, 1935 (Index file no. 241-KB)

Blacksmiths and distillery

“Amos Avery died in October, 1892 at the age of 94 and is buried in the Hays Cemetery in Wilmington.

“He was the first village blacksmith. His shop was located near the Methodist Church. The ‘Old Avery House’ is believed to now be the home of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Terry and family. Amos, the mighty Smith, cared for one of man’s most valuable possessions in the early days of the history of Wilmington. The proper shoeing of horses meant safety to the rider. My memory flashes back to my childhood when I used to watch Ben Elliott, one of the neighbors, as he practiced this technique.

“A second institution was the role played by operators of distilleries, in all fairness to the early builders of places for the manufacture of whiskey, they regarded their industry as an honorable one. At the beginning of the 19th Century, whiskey was the No. 1 industry in Essex County. It was widely drunk in the War of Independence and the War of 1812. It was also kept for medicinal purposes. Old timers used to joke about it being a safeguard in time of emergencies.”

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The country store

“The country store reflected the mores of the community. It was a social center for lonesome people to meet and converse with their neighbors. In the evenings, men swapped tales. They were expected to know the art of spitting which was to make proper use of the spittoons. Let’s hope that these ugly, dirty containers have gone forever.

“Proprietors, like the Westons and Storrs, were proud of their well-stocked shelves of yard goods, guns, tobacco products, spices and patent medicine and some penny candy for the children. Families with reputations for honesty were often given credit to survive during the long winter months.

“Some stores spanned the century at the Village Square. George Lawrence’s store was burned early in the 20th Century. Thereafter at the same site Bert and Pliny Cooper (brothers) operated a store which retained some of the characteristics of the previous century. For instance, on cold winter nights, they allowed the school children to wait there for their parents to come after them.

“Ben Everest, who ran a store at the same location, as the old Weston Store, had well-stocked shelves but did not encourage the store to be used as a social center. Clara Haselton who followed him at the same site had everything from a fish hook to a thimble. In fact, she had so much that sometimes she told customers to come back in a few days so she could have time to search for things.

“To the son of Bert Cooper, Harvey, I am indebted to a considerable amount of information about the early inns. He remembers tales handed down by his ancestors. He recalled that he was told that about 1821, Hiram Angepine came to Wilmington from downstate New York. He built a tavern. There he erected a sign in the shape of an eagle which he said was a symbol of his patriotic enterprise.

“This inn evidently changed hands several times. It was formerly owned by Minor Cooper. [Isn’t that the name of a car?] At the beginning of the 20th Century, it went up in flames. Frank E. Everest arrived in town and built at the same location the Whiteface Mountain House which ushered in a new era of tourism and Wilmington became more than a dot on the map.”

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Reuben Sanford

“Reuben Sanford was one of the most important men in the North Country in the 19th Century.

“He has been described as a man with a pleasing personality and of great physical endurance. Mr. F. B. Foot, his former clerk, gave this account of his employer: ‘I recollect a time when he left Wilmington at 7 a.m. on horseback, and went to Clintonville, from there to Cook’s Forge which was two or three miles out of his way, bought twelve axes, and brought them back to Clintonville to put on board one of his teams, went on to Keeseville, did his business at the bank, and then went to Westport and from there to Elizabethtown. He was a member of the Board of Supervisors, and he met with them that day. After the session, he rode to Wilmington. As I was putting up the shutters of the store about 9 o’clock he rode under the shed on his return.

“The next day we figured he rode about 99 miles and he said it was tough on the horses [he must have changed horses during the journey] but he claimed no fatigue himself.

“He was a hero of the War of 1812, formed five companies from Wilmington and in the Battle of Plattsburgh Major Sanford’s command held the enemy at bay on Bridge Street until the British Army fled under the coverage of darkness.

“By 1821, he was ready to enter state politics where he served in both the Senate and the Assembly for several years. He was also the first postmaster in Wilmington.”