Advisory: This East Bellmont account includes rumored gunfire, broken brush, shells, dark-coated public business, compass tricks, and the dreadful possibility that one’s firm opinion arrived earlier than the facts, wearing borrowed boots.
SHATAGEE GITASKOG’S INN, UPPER CHATEAUGAY LAKE, N.Y., 14 MAY 1969.
The Cold May Exercises at East Bellmont
I HAVE been asked more than once about the queer doings reported at East Bellmont in May, 1895, near the old mill clearing and the lower road. The matter interested me because my father knew several of the men who spoke of it, and because the story has been improved so much by later talk that a plain account may be useful.
The spring of that year was a backward one. The frost came in May after many gardens had been put in, and I have heard my father say that wash froze on the line as stiff as shingles. Hiram Cooley, who was a good man to sit by a stove with, said this proved that the weather was managed by men who owned more pamphlets than potatoes. He was thawing his boots at the time, which gave his opinion weight.
About then there was talk of teams going by after bedtime with covered boxes, too large for common store goods and not shaped like church repairs. Several men in dark coats were seen about the clearing. They had the appearance of being engaged in public business, though nobody could learn what public it belonged to. It was given out that some sort of official exercise was being held there.
Young Ezra Pike, who had a talent for being where older people wished him not to be, claimed he saw part of it. He said there was shouting, running, falling down, and what sounded like gunfire, but everything happened so regular that it lacked the natural disorder of trouble. One man fell before Ezra thought he had reason to, and even a loose horse, according to Ezra, behaved as though it had been rehearsed.
My father said the old folks at the store were divided about it. Some thought it a trap for lawbreakers. Some said it was a demonstration of new methods. Others, who had more imagination than rest, believed the whole thing was arranged so that honest witnesses would later swear it happened of itself. This made conversation careful for a spell, for a man does not like to find that his own opinion may have been brought in with the freight.
Deacon Wells gave the best judgment I ever heard on such matters. He said a man had better look at what is before him and not go hunting for what he has already made up his mind to find. That saying should have been painted over several doors in this county. Many a fellow has found evidence in his own pocket and then blamed Providence for putting it there.
There was also some talk that compasses behaved poorly around the clearing. The guides said paths doubled back, bearings repeated, and a man walking straight might come again to the same leaning birch. Silas Drown, who had guided more summer men than most of us have had Sunday dinners, said the woods always told little lies, but in those days they seemed to be lying with a purpose. Silas was not a man to dress a tale for company.
After another night’s disturbance, there were many marks on the ground: tracks, broken brush, shells, and places where men had stood or fallen. Some thought there were too many signs, as though whoever made them feared one good sign would not convince the neighborhood. When inquiry was made, the answer was that all was under control. That phrase never comforted country people much, for a thing under control may be made to look like some other thing.
Mrs. Eliza Pritchard said afterward that the strangest part was not what she saw but what she felt. She said certain conclusions seemed to be waiting for her before she had heard enough to reach them. That is a sharp observation for any age. I have known men to be persuaded first and informed afterward, and they were the last to notice it.
Lights were seen beyond the ridge for several nights, steady and then shifting, though no one admitted sending or receiving them. The guides would not follow them. One of them said they did not belong to any road that brought a man home, and such remarks from woodsmen are worth preserving.
I do not pretend to solve the East Bellmont affair. It may have been official practice, a foolish alarm, a trap, or only a piece of county mystery with frost on it. I only know that in May, 1895, the gardens waited, the store stove was busy, and the old mill clearing gave the people more to think about than was good for sleep.
Mordecai Vilecreek
Route 2
Chateaugay, N. Y. 12920
Lil’ Nippers’ Lake Traditions
Spring, 1969, 6-7.
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What mysteries of Chateaugay Lake haunt you?