The Founding Generation: Hague Through the Eyes of Mrs. Hoyt Johnson

In August 1892, a woman who had arrived in Hague as a child in 1816 published a three-part memoir in the Ticonderoga Sentinel. She was Mrs. Hoyt Johnson, and her “Early Incidents of Hague” is the oldest and richest firsthand account of life in the town. Writing at a distance of 76 years, she describes the journey, the landscape, the families, the hunger, the work, and the people — including the last Mohican residents, the only documented Black residents, and the women whose labor kept the settlement alive.

No other source recovers this world. What follows is the memoir’s story, annotated with everything the cemetery records, census data, and other project sources can add.

Part I: The Arrival (October 1816)

The Journey from Vermont

Mrs. Johnson’s family left Windsor, Vermont — “our pleasant home at the head of State St.” — in October 1816, traveling more than a hundred miles on roads “of which the present generation have no conceptions.” Her father, a cooper by trade, had already scouted the area and purchased land “nearly two miles west of [Lake George’s] shores.” The family “piled upon wagons our most necessary household articles; leaving our best rooms furnished intending to return, but the return trip never came.” (Mrs. Hoyt Johnson, “Early Incidents of Hague,” Ticonderoga Sentinel, August 4, 1892; transcribed by Vila (Ackerman) Fitzgerald, 1961; compiled in RootsWeb by Bruce De Larm, 2006)

They were not alone. A family named Doolittle — also with six children — traveled with them. The two families, with twelve children between them, made their way slowly westward.

The Goose House

At Deal’s Ferry on Lake Champlain, they crossed by scow boat. From there, “it was an unbroken wilderness, with only a few charred patches with a rude log house for shelter.” Night fell before they reached Hague. At a roadside establishment kept by a man named Pierce, they sought shelter — but “there was no room in the inn for so many of us.”

Pierce and his wife improvised. A shop that “had stood open and geese had been sheltered there” was cleared and swept. Straw and blankets were provided. “We the children, at least, slept the sleep of the just.”

The goose house became a family legend: “for years we often gave our friends a description of our first night’s lodgings in New York state in a goose house, we termed it.” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

Historic Ground

The road from Ticonderoga to Hague crossed Revolutionary War battlefields. The young Mrs. Johnson felt the pull: “This was battle ground, and here my maternal grandfather entered the Fort under the leadership of Ethan Allen when he demanded its surrender ‘In the name of the Great Jehovah and the Continental Congress.’” Her uncle had died and was buried on Mount Independence. (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

Near a spring where soldiers had drunk after battle, she noted that “over 300 never rose again from the effects of the chill that followed the draught.” She asked: “How many of the present generation, as they pass this spring where man and beast still quench their thirst, think of those 300 whose life was an offering for our freedom?” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

The First Inhabitants

From Pierce’s establishment, it was “an unbroken forest” until the village. There, Nathaniel Garfield Sr. “owned and kept a house of entertainment” — Hague’s first commercial lodging, operating by 1816 on the site that would later become the Hotel Phoenix. (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892; wiki/people/garfield_nathaniel_sr.md)

Mrs. Johnson names every household along the lake road: Charles Dodd Sr. (died April 27, 1812, per Heritage Cemetery records — already buried before the Johnsons arrived), a man named Waiste, the Holman family (Nathan Holman, died May 19, 1835, age 87, per Heritage Cemetery), Murphy, Pratt (Miriam Pratt, died July 1, 1825, age 35, per Heritage Cemetery), Baird, and “Mr. Kenny, the miller.” These “constituted the whole number of inhabitants in that part of the town.” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892; RootsWeb, Hague Heritage Cemetery Inscriptions)

At Cook’s Point lived the Cook family, and Mrs. Johnson made a pointed observation: “it was the grandmother, not the grandfather, who laid the foundation of the Cook property. She was a woman of uncommon energy. There are many anecdotes connected with her history which would illustrate the truth of my assertion, which ought to be remembered. Her life would be a good foundation for a novel.” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

The First Home

The Johnson family’s new home was “nearly two miles west” of the lake, on land “now occupied by Wm. Baldwin.” Westward of them — “not a human habitation.” On the farm stood a log house and a framed house “which my father built that year, and the first of its kind erected in town.” It was modest: “boarded and ceiled up with a large fireplace on one side. The best had been done that my father could do, but it was a strong contrast to the home we had left.” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

The year of their arrival — 1816 — was the global “Year Without a Summer,” caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Mrs. Johnson recorded: “This year has come down in history as the cold year. Snow fell every month in the year except one.” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

Part II: The Settling (1817–1828)

The Hunger

The year 1817 was worse than 1816. “The produce was consumed and as quite a number of new families came to town there was real suffering in many cases.” Mrs. Johnson’s father returned to Vermont with a load of cooperage to sell for grain and groceries. Word spread: “the next evening my mother cooked for 23 visitors, and then the day following.” (Early Incidents, 8/4/1892)

The starvation episodes she records are among the most vivid passages in Hague’s entire documentary record:

The Briggs family. Mr. Briggs “ran short of food and started by marked trees over the mountains to Vermont to bring home a bag of provisions.” A severe storm trapped him. “Mrs. Briggs and three children had not a particle of food. They had fasted for three days.” Knowing her husband could not return and that the Rising family’s home stood empty — “Mr. Rising and family only occupied their home through the summer, going to Vermont to work in the winter” — Mrs. Briggs “fastened her children in the house and started early in the morning.” She walked to the Rising house, and “after searching every part she found some dried pumpkin which she took, and started for home. Darkness had come, but love lent wings to her return.” She boiled the pumpkin and fed her starving children. “On this they subsisted until the half distracted father reached home fearing starvation had done its work.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

The miller’s last peck. Another man came to Mr. Kenny the miller, “saying his children and wife only tasted milk once a day for three days and he could not find a peck of grain for sale as no one had any.” Kenny had one peck, “tolled from the scanty grists that had come to his mill. He divided and gave the man half.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

The meal-bag suit. A woman “sent her boy to mill to get a grist ground. He had no clothes, so took a meal bag and ran a string in the hem to gather round his neck, cut some round holes for his arms, slit it up and made two legs and set him astride the grist. He had a substantial suit, if not fashionable.” The same woman, receiving cloth from the mill “one night just at dusk,” made clothes all night: “The next morning five boys came out with new pants.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

The Wave of Settlers

Between 1816 and 1822, “for six years there was a steady immigration of sturdy pioneer men and women.” Mrs. Johnson names them in order of arrival:

1. Leonard Densmore (1817) — from Winchester, New Hampshire. Took a farm opposite her father’s on the upper road. (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892) Cynthia Densmore (1803–1862) later married Zeno Rising. (wiki/people/family_rising.md)

2. Ebenezer Glazier — bought land adjoining the Johnson farm. “He was one of the revolutionary soldiers and lived to draw a pension. He came from Weathersfield, Vt.” His wife Louise Upham “was a woman of notable memory. She could tell all the births, marriages, deaths and every event of public interest, naming year, month, week and day when it transpired.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

3. Jonathan Page — from Connecticut. Built on the farm “now owned by Spencer.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

4. John and Benjamin Hayford — brothers from Connecticut. “Their farms joined.” Benjamin Hayford’s place was later occupied by “Mr. O Hayes.” Joanna Dogget Hayford (1805–1882) married into the Rising family. (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892; wiki/people/family_rising.md)

5. Rufus Rising Sr. (1796–1871) — the Rising family patriarch. His place was later occupied by “Ed. Ackerman.” Mrs. Johnson noted: “He was grandfather to the present Rufus Rising on the paternal side, as John Hayford was on the maternal side.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

6. The Briggs family — “took up land and built a house where Sam Miller now lives.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

7. A family named Johnson (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

8. Three Balcom brothers — “They settled towards Northwest bay.” Came from Massachusetts. The Balcom family became one of Hague’s most prominent, with 29 cemetery burials and three Civil War soldiers. (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892; wiki/people/family_balcom.md)

9. Two Phillips brothers and James Olney — came from Springfield, Vermont, settling near the Balcoms. (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892) Henry Forest Phillips (born January 17, 1841) later served in the Civil War. (Civil War Town Clerk Register, 1866)

10. Amasa Burt Sr. — “building on the hill above the Densmore home.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

“Meanwhile we went from house to house by marked trees, and our way to Vermont was by the Jonathan Page place, then an unbroken forest across the mountain, and all supplies were backed in on men’s shoulders. Catamounts and bears were plenty.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

Sarah Ackerman and the Red-Hot Poker

The memoir’s most vivid character is Sarah Ackerman — “noted for her intrepidity of courage.” Two episodes define her:

The midnight rescue. When a family named Osgood, living near the Page homestead, fell violently ill, Sarah Ackerman “took a torch of pine wood and wended her way in the dead of night, from the Page place to my father’s for assistance.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

The red-hot poker. Years later, while helping care for a woman with a “large family of small children, whose husband in his drunkenness was a terror to his family”:

One evening when his wife and children were fleeing from room to room to escape his blows, she stepped to the fireplace and placed the heavy iron poker, used in those days, in the fire until red hot at one end, then brandishing it over his head commanded him to sit down and behave himself, or she would strike. He begged for mercy which was granted on condition of future good behavior. She lived in the family sometime, and although he tapped his barrel every day a word from her kept peace for his family.

(Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

Sarah Ackerman appears in the Ackerman family wiki page but has no individual entry. She is the most fully drawn figure in any Hague primary source before the 20th century.

The First Institutions

The school fire (~1819). About three winters after the Johnsons arrived, “the school house took fire in the night and burned down. School had kept only three weeks and most of the books were in the seats. Nothing was saved.” The next day, “the men rallied and decided to build.” School moved to one room of the Johnson house. The new schoolhouse was ready in less than four weeks: “Men took turns keeping fires running night and day to dry the plastering between the logs.” Mrs. Johnson’s father broke his leg coming from his watch night — “the only accident which occurred in the hasty building.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

Commerce. Mr. Gilbert came from Greenfield in 1818 and “built a house, saw mill, and grist mill on the upper falls of the stream near the bridge.” Thomas Gage opened the first store the same year, 1818. Charles Harris opened a second store in 1827. Mrs. Johnson’s father ran the only manufactory: his cooper shop, which “not only furnished supplies for the townspeople, but sent loads to Vermont.” Sabrina Norcutt was the first blacksmith. (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

The first lime kiln (1820). Built by Mrs. Johnson’s father, it “proved a great convenience to the town.” Andrew Bevins (died May 6, 1849, age 74, per Heritage Cemetery) “was the only man who understood the process of making the most refined article of pearl ash.” He gathered ashes from land-clearing and home fires and spent weeks each year producing barrels of pearl ash for market — the precursor to modern baking soda. (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892; RootsWeb, Heritage Cemetery Inscriptions)

Religion. The first religious society was a Presbyterian church organized in 1819, “with a membership of nine or ten members, but no minister in town.” Mrs. Johnson’s portrait of its members is acidic: one deacon “often boasted of the dignity conferred upon him.” When he asked a visitor from his hometown, “What will the people of W. say when you tell them I am Deacon?” the reply was: “That Hague is mighty short of timber.” “The reply was a byword for years.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

The Methodists came next (“the itinerant method was well sustained”), then the Baptists under Rev. John Parker, whose preaching drew people “from all parts of the town, even from Northwest bay.” Alvah Bevins, “interested in the lumber business,” proposed building a church: “It was the people’s church, not a denomination one and was free to all.” (Early Incidents, 8/11/1892)

Part III: The Material World

Cooking

Mrs. Johnson’s account of cooking technology is the most detailed surviving description of early 19th-century domestic life in the Adirondacks:

“All cooking was done over fire places, mostly made of stone. A crane was set in side jams with hooks bent like the letter S., some long, some short, upon which we hung kettles for cooking purposes.” Stone ovens were heated for baking. A “spider with legs” (a cast-iron skillet on legs) was heated by coals underneath; “when the bottom was sufficiently done the spider was tipped up edgewise before the fire and finished.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Meat was roasted before open fires: “Whole spareribs were suspended by string or chain before the ample wood fires, and some member of the family, with a long stick, was stationed back of it to keep it turning so that every part was evenly done.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

The progression of stove technology: first the tin baker (“a great step forward”), then the Conant stove (“oblong, two doors in front”), then a Ticonderoga-cast model with a rotary top and six griddle holes. “When a stove was brought to town many doubted its utility.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Textile Production

“Everybody spun and wove the cloth for their wearing apparel.” Flax was wound over a distaff and spun on linen wheels. Wool was carded by hand — “there was at that time no carding machines nearer than Vermont and only a few there.” Thread production was women’s economic power: “Linen home spun was the only thread in use and it was a source of income to the farmers’ wives and daughters to spin thread, coarse and fine, bleaching some to snowy whiteness, coloring it in various colors and exchanging it with store keepers for the various articles needed.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

The linen produced was beautiful: “Linen dresses of exquisite fineness and beauty shining with a luster equal to silk were considered good enough for any gathering, with the lace homemade, and the knot of dainty ribbon for the neck.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Manufactured textiles arrived slowly. The first gingham in Hague was sent to Loring Allen and his wife by friends in Lowell, Massachusetts — “who were the manufacturers.” “Calico was an unknown article.” The first factory cloth arrived in 1837, when Mrs. Johnson’s brother “carried his wool to some factory near the head of Lake George and took in exchange cloth for a part, as an experimental test.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

When a carding machine was erected in Ticonderoga, “people were almost afraid to send their wool there.” Early patrons found the wool fibers broken, “so cut up that yarn spun from it was too tender for weaving.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Shoemaking

“When shoes were wanted for the family a shoemaker came with his bench and tools, and a corner of the kitchen was usually assigned him, as he must keep his waxed threads warm. Each member of the family stood up and had his foot measured preliminary to work. The families were all supplied, the men with heavy and light boots and shoes and women and children with such as was needed. The shoemaker gathered up his kit and went to the next family until the neighborhood was supplied.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

The Boy in the Shirt

One anecdote captures the era in miniature: “one little fellow who went into one of his neighbors one cold November day to borrow an axe for his father clad only in a long tow and linen shirt, hatless and shoeless. When asked if not cold, he drew himself up and said with much dignity, ‘why no, don’t you see I’ve got a bran new shirt’ and he was clad the best of his family. He lived to be clad in broadcloth. That same spirit of making the best of the present led to a competence.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Part IV: The Others

Jonathan and Paul: The Last Mohicans of Lake George

“Two Indians, brothers by the name of Jonathan and Paul, the remnant of the Mohican tribe, resided near the lake.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Jonathan — “or Daunt as he was often called” — lived out his life in Hague, “working, fishing doing odd jobs for a scanty living.” He “ended his days here.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Paul’s story took a different path. He married one of Thomas Dunn’s daughters, “who lived near Northwest Bay.” (Elizabeth F. Holman, wife of Thomas Dunn, died January 12, 1876, age 75, per Heritage Cemetery — confirming the Dunn family’s presence.) They “went west and joined one of the tribes in western New York.” Years later, they returned on a visit:

“The wife was thoroughly transformed into a typical Indian Princess, richly dressed. Her Indian costume was much admired. Two beautiful children, gaily dressed, accompanied them. Civilized life held no attractions for Mrs. Paul, and she said her Indian life was preferable.”

(Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Mrs. Johnson’s account is the only documented record of Indigenous residents in Hague during the settlement era. Jonathan and Paul have no cemetery records, no census entries, no other mention in any source. Without this memoir, they would be entirely lost to history.

Rose and Prince Gilbert: Slavery in Hague

“Of colored people the town can only boast of one.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

When Mr. Gilbert came to town in 1818 — the same Gilbert who built the grist and saw mill — “his wife had two women slaves.” Mrs. Johnson explains the legal context: “New York had just passed the law freeing the slave after such date, but the minor children were to be subject to their owners, boys until 25 years, girls until 21.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

New York’s Gradual Emancipation Act of 1799 freed children born to enslaved women after July 4, 1799 — but required them to serve their mother’s owner as indentured servants (boys until age 28, later reduced to 25; girls until age 25, later reduced to 21). Full emancipation came on July 4, 1827.

One of the enslaved women, Rose, had “a son from two to four years old.” Rose and the others “staid with the family until the law manumitted them. Rose, the mother of the boy, I think died there.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

The boy — Prince Gilbert, “as he was always called” — stayed in Hague after emancipation. He became a fiddler: “was often called on to play the ‘fiddle’ at dancing parties. He was always delighted and considered it quite an honor to play for the white folks.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Mrs. Johnson’s account is the only documented evidence of slavery or Black residents in Hague’s history. Prince Gilbert has no cemetery record, no census entry, and no other mention in any source. The phrase “considered it quite an honor to play for the white folks” — written in 1892 — reflects the racial assumptions of the era while preserving the only record of his existence.

The Comstock Drowning

The memoir’s final episode is a moral parable — or a tragedy, depending on the listener.

A man named Comstock, living near the foot of Lake George, “was noted for his fearless wicked ways, but a jolly fellow.” He owned a sailboat and made up parties for lake excursions. On one trip, his party stopped at the hotel in Hague, “which was then kept by Captain Jennison, afterwards Governor of Vermont.” After drinking freely, Comstock began boasting “about his boat and its capacity to resist wind and storm, and finally wound up by saying, ‘God Almighty could not send a wind strong enough to capsize the boat.’” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

Two men begged to be set ashore. Comstock refused. As they passed Holman’s Point, near Scotch Bonnet, one man leaped for shore. Then “a burst of cloud rain and wind swept down upon them. They hauled for the shore, but could not gain it. They shouted for aid and were heard by a man named Marie. He could not see them or render assistance.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

“When the sun shone out the shores were searched, but not a splinter remained to tell of their struggle for life. Weeks afterwards one body floated to the shore and was buried. Thus ended the life of one who defied god.” (Early Incidents, 8/25/1892)

The Memoir and Its Transmission

Mrs. Hoyt Johnson published “Early Incidents of Hague” as a three-part series in the Ticonderoga Sentinel on August 4, 11, and 25, 1892. She was writing at age 76 or older, recalling events from 76 years earlier — a span equivalent to someone in 2026 recalling 1950. (Ticonderoga Sentinel, August 4, 11, 25, 1892)

The memoir survived through two acts of preservation:

1. In 1961, Vila (Ackerman) Fitzgerald (1904–1995), Hague Town Historian, transcribed the original Sentinel articles. Vila Fitzgerald was herself an Ackerman descendant — connecting back to the Sarah Ackerman whom Mrs. Johnson praised for her “intrepidity of courage.” (RootsWeb, “Early Incidents of Hague,” compiled by Bruce De Larm, 2006)

2. In 2006, Bruce W. De Larm compiled the transcription on RootsWeb, with additional paragraphs transcribed from images of the Ticonderoga Sentinel viewed on Northern New York Historical Newspapers. (RootsWeb, 2006)

Without these two people — Vila Fitzgerald in 1961 and Bruce De Larm in 2006 — the memoir would likely be accessible only on microfilm, and the voices of Sarah Ackerman, Mrs. Briggs, Mrs. Cook, Jonathan and Paul, Rose and Prince Gilbert, and the boy in the bran new shirt would be far harder to hear.

What the Memoir Tells Us That Nothing Else Does

The 1820 Census records that 514 people lived in Hague. It does not record their names, their origins, their hunger, or their courage. Mrs. Johnson’s memoir does.

The memoir is not just a source for Hague’s history. For the Indigenous and Black residents it documents, it may be the only source in existence.

Sources

The Memoir

• Mrs. Hoyt Johnson, “Early Incidents of Hague,” Ticonderoga Sentinel, August 4, 11, and 25, 1892. Transcribed by Vila (Ackerman) Fitzgerald, 1961; compiled in RootsWeb by Bruce W. De Larm, 2006. Full text: https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~hagueny/genealogy/early_incidents_of_hague.htm

Cemetery Records

• RootsWeb: Hague Heritage Cemetery Inscriptions (compiled by Bruce De Larm). Confirms: Charles Dodd Sr. (d. 1812), Nathan Holman (d. 1835, age 87), Miriam Pratt (d. 1825, age 35), Andrew Bevins (d. 1849, age 74), Elizabeth F. Holman/wife of Thomas Dunn (d. 1876, age 75).
• RootsWeb: Hague Cemetery Inscriptions (compiled by Bruce De Larm). Confirms: Rising, Balcom, Foote, Ackerman family burials.

Census Data

• census_and_demographic_data.md — 1820 population: 514.

Existing Wiki Pages

• wiki/people/johnson_mrs_hoyt.md — existing factual extraction from the memoir
• wiki/people/garfield_nathaniel_sr.md — Revolutionary War veteran, tavern operator
• wiki/people/family_rising.md — Rufus Rising Sr. and descendants
• wiki/people/family_balcom.md — three Balcom brothers and descendants (29 burials)
• wiki/people/family_ackerman.md — Sarah Ackerman and descendants
• wiki/people/family_foote.md — Philo Foote (lived at Thomas Gage’s store site 50+ years)

Other Project Documentation

• history_of_hague_ny.md — “Founding of the Town (1807–1813)”
• economic_history_1807_1950.md — potash production, coopering, logging context
• additional_details.md — school and church founding details
• Civil War Town Clerk Register, 1866 — Henry Forest Phillips (b. Jan 17, 1841, born in Hague), confirming Phillips family settlement. Transcribed by John W. McClanathan.