Suicide at City Hall Jan. 29 1902

 One of the many stories this town's history holds, is a morbid tale of local politicians and their politics, that ended in suicide at City Hall.

From Nellie Bly's "The Wickedest Summer Resort"

Caleb Mitchell, who went by Cale, was a man of many trades. In 1880, he patented a liquor serving table. 

photo from US Patent Archive

Cale along with his brother, ran the Glen Mitchell Hotel, just north of North Broadway. I have photos of the ruins of that hotel, ruins that I remember from my old stomping grounds growing up on Rt. 9 near Loughberry Lake, and the ruins are still there, and I will post soon. 
 *(Side Note) The Glen Mitchell Hotel later became St. Clement's College, and a shrine was built in 1898, of "The Lady Of Lourds." The Lady is a statue depiction of one of the Marian apparitions, a story, from the mid 1800's where Mary appeared in a cave and basically provided a spring that had healing waters flowing from it. This statue is now on Lake Ave. in front of St. Clements. 
postcard 1934                                                          

 Cale was elected village president (mayor), in 1894. At the time, he was also the proprietor of Mitchell's Tavern, located opposite Division st. on Broadway. Like most other storefronts on Broadway, it featured a gambling room in the back. These gambling rooms catered to local residents, unlike Canfield's Casino, whom only catered to high stakes bettors from out of state.

Just prior to the turn of the century saw the Temperance Movement (religious and anti-alcohol) in the US gaining more and more traction. Also, at the time, a journalist named Elizabeth Cochran, pen name Nellie Bly, became a top journalist, after faking insanity to get an inside look on life in the asylums. She soon after garnered worldwide attention by traveling around the world in a record setting 72 days. 
Now at her peak in her career, she came to Saratoga, and saw man, woman, and child, participating in gambling and drinking, it was enough fodder to make her next article. 
 Mind you, this was a time when the Saratoga Racetrack was owned by a guy named "Dutch Fred" Walbaum, who made his money from a gambling/brothel house on the Bowery in NYC, and a racetrack in New Jersey. The NJ track was known for drugged horses, jockeys with battery stingers, and winter racing.

photo from Daily Racing Form

Saratoga was full bore, then, Nellie Bly released a bombshell hit piece called "Our Wickedest Summer Resort." In the article, she interviews Cale Mitchell, and, pertaining to Saratoga history, this interview is one some old West sounding stuff for sure. Anyway, this article put Saratoga Springs under the microscope. http://www.nellieblyonline.com/images/uploads/1894-08-19_Our_Wickedest_Summer_Resort.pdf

 NY Senator Edgar Brackett, from Wilton, who lived in Saratoga, shared City Hall with Cale Mitchell. But, that's about all they shared, for Brackett, now under fire from the press and public, again went after Caleb. Brackett had held office a few years before the gambler turned mayor. Brackett, prior to Cale Mitchell's election, tried to get Mitchell and gambling out of Saratoga. 

Now, Brackett, was determined as Senator, to clean up his town. Graft and vice, ballot stuffing and whatnot at the Democratic club Tammany Hall (another topic I write about soon) in NYC was recently highly publicized, and with that frame of mind, he passed a bill, making the town board of trustees the only ones eligible to vote for the mayor. Cale fought back, and lost. 

Senator Brackett, made it illegal to own a gambling establishment in Saratoga, except for Richard Canfield, and the Saratoga Club, for they catered to high society out of towners. Cale's Broadway spot was shut down, he opened a pool hall next to the racetrack, only to be shut down again. Caleb fought in court to disrupt the gambling and power monopoly Brackett had established with Canfield. 

Caleb Mitchell now without a store front/gambling establishment, no longer mayor, was at an all time low. On January 29th, 1902, Caleb Mitchell, got a gun, went to City Hall, and barged Sen. Edgar Brackett's office. Brackett was not there, Brackett was on a train to Albany, to present his anti-gambling bill. Caleb Mitchell then turned the gun on himself, and shot himself in the head, in the doorway of Brackett's office. He was the 5th in his family to take his own life. 

from the SF Call Jan.30 1902

NY Times article below

http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9A0DE7DA1F3CEF33A25753C3A9679C946397D6CF

I'll save it for another story post on Richard Canfield, but, this suicide, along with other events, made things harder for Canfield to operate his casino monopoly in Saratoga. 

One Foggy Christmas Eve Eve at the Spa State Park

The weather outside is delightful, may not be holiday season weather, but, I'll take it. The fog rolled in over night and hung around all morning, which made for some good photos, check it out!

                                        SPAC's lawn is looking quite amazing!!!

                         
                                                            Geyser Creek is flowing fierce!

         
                                                      Beech Constrictor

                                                       RB2 quitely sits and waits........

                    ALL PHOTOS BY GEORGE DEMERS

                                        Thanks for taking time to read my blog!

One big family

 Judge Henry Walton moved to Saratoga Springs in 1790, buying up large parcels of land, two years after he studied law under Aaron Burr, vice president to Thomas Jefferson. Aaron Burr is most famous for his duel with Alexander Hamilton, the man on your ten dollar bill, who Burr shot over politics and slander in 1804. 

 In 1833 Burr married Madam Jumel, who soon after divorced him in 1836, spitefully using Hamilton's son as her lawyer.

Jumel's personal cook was Anne Northup, wife of Solomon Northup, a black man kidnapped and sold as a slave in 1841. He was taken  at Mongomery Hall, bar front later to be a part of the Grand Union Hotel. Both Anne and Solomon worked at the hotel.

 Judge Walton sold the property now known as Skidmore College to A.T. Stewart, who willed it to the attorney who produced the will (?) Judge Henry Hilton in 1879.

Judge Henry Hilton established it as ''Woodlawn Estates'' adorned with statues and winding trolley paths. 

Judge Henry Hilton at the time, through the will deal, also managed/owned the Grand Union Hotel, and was part of a national controversy in 1877, after not allowing Jews to stay at the 1,000 room hotel, which, at the time, is was the largest in the world.

 So, basically, a judge sold property now known as Skidmore College, to a bigot judge, who also owned a hotel that used to employ a couple, where the wife, also worked for a wife, of a guy who taught law to the judge who sold property now known as Skidmore College.

Notice, the stone fence is the only thing left from the old property!

High Rock Spring Water Color

 The mother of all springs in Saratoga Springs is the High Rock Spring. It was highly regarded and known by the Native Americans of the area as healing waters, or the ''Medicine Spring of the Great Spirit.'' So, here's the recipe for "God's elixir."

 The first white person to come to this area, was Sir William Johnson, a wounded soldier brought here in 1767 by the Mohawks. Wounded in the Battle at Lake George, during the French and Indian War, Johnson was Superintendent of Indian Affairs with the British Colonies, and husband of a Mohawk. After his wound healed up, he went and claimed to the world that the water is what got him back on his feet. 
 Once word got out, many wounded soldiers would make the trek to the healing waters. General George Washington visited the spring, led there by General Schuyler, and even attempted to buy the land. 
 In 1771 or 2 or 3 Dirck Scowton cut down some trees and built a hut on the hill above the spring. Obviously, it was a misunderstanding with the local natives, he soon was pressured to leave the area, only to be taken over and improved by a man from Rhode Island. This man, armed with liquor to trade with the natives, was named John Arnold. He opened an inn on the property, the first of it's kind in this North America. This blurry screen snap is  from a 1938 Brooklyn newspaper…..

 He then later abandoned it, then, taken over by a person named Sam Norton. 
 Soon after the Revolutionary war, an American spy named Alexander Bryant bought the inn. Bryant also owned the eyes and ears that spied on Burgoyne, helping foil his campaign at Saratoga. Bryant expanded on the inn to be his house/inn. 
 Fast forward a couple hundred years and now, the Olde Bryan Inn stands at the same location . Here's a photo I took a few weeks ago of the stairway that runs from High Rock Spring to the Olde Bryan Inn. Foliage on the ground currently peaking! hahahaha

 On the wall at the City Council of Saratoga Springs, on the patches on the shoulders of city cops, and used to be on the doors of the cop cars, is this city seal, featuring this old painting depicting High Rock, with half naked natives milling about. This photo below is from an old postcard. The only problem is, tipis/teepees were used by the Plains Indian tribes. Iroquois made longhouses. I also heard this is a Rockwell of the Veitch's. Or that tipi was the first Roohan property. Or the tipi is the first OBI. Yeah, I got jokes.

The spring over time, stopped flowing, and it was very telling of the condition and life's blood of the town. Though I'm just being poetic and corny, it really was due to the pumping of gas out of the adjoining branch springs in the underground chain of springs. There were hundreds in this area, we are down to 17. It was recently drilled and revamped to flow again, and here is part of the dedication ceremony by a Mohawk elder named Tom Porter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qbhgWyJcFeA

Here's an old photo….

C.S. Sterry photo 1870

So, here's the scoop, the spring never rose too tall, you have to pay a young lad to scoop it out...

from the Saratoga Library

(oof, pre child labor laws?)

I went there, dipped my cup, and made a water color, cheers to High Rock flowing again! I hope you like it! Check back for more, soon!!!!!

Keller Roohan for Mayor of Timesharatoga Springs

 Last week featured a Sunday phone call from Keller Williams Realty,​ (according to my caller ID) which puzzled me, so I answered, and it was the local Democrat volunteer team, asking me if they can count on my vote for Mayor Joanne Yepsen​ for Saratoga Springs Mayor. 
This Sunday featured a call by Roohan Realty​ (according to my caller ID) and I answered thinking, I have a good idea who this is, and sure enough, it's the local Republicans asking me if they can count on my vote for John Safford for Saratoga Springs Mayor​.
 Ok, this approach, is both collectively by all parties involved, a terrible look to have, and by all means, no thanks.
 I'm sure the rest of this town is getting these calls, or maybe they are too busy with things like constructing solar panel and panhandler ordinances, too much to be bothered by a nagging phone. Not to mention all the while, unbeknownst former residents drive on their respective Rt 9's back to their former town to go digging through candy bars looking for money. 

Saratoga Springs, NY Year 2030

Can we count on your vote?

Halloween Haunted History!!!!

It's been a while since I posted on this here blog, but, it's too cold to risk a damn hemorrhoid or whatever for a painting, I'm already turning into a bitter old man. So, the tired olde man I am, I'll tell you all some local creepy stories, being that it is Halloween today! American Pharoah lost at the track last time we spoke, and today he takes his final jaunt around the track, it's been a hell of a run!
  Anyway, have you heard of the Saratoga Witch? Her name was Angeline Tubb, a British soldier's girlfriend, abandoned here after the Revolutionary War. So, back in the late 1800's a strange story about her emerged from papers found on the person of a decaying body, found kinda near where she inhabited, north of Saratoga Springs, about the wilderness area west of Rt. 9 and Northern Pines Rd. Old maps show it as "Devil's Den" Here is an excerpt from the Saratogian 1869

There's this story about someone keeping a piece of Gen. Grant's skin, for keepsake!

Strange side note to the fact that Holmes was deemed to drunk to embalm Gen Grant. You might know Holmes' family brownstones,  the Woodlawn brownstones that are being rebuilt after a devastating fire a few years ago. Word is, the houses were built as additions on the north side, the original house, being Holmes' embalming chamber.

Then, there's the Sadler Burying Ground, a graveyard that once existed near High Rock and Nelson Ave!

(from https://archive.org/details/reminiscencessa00dawsgoog)

Most of the graves were moved to the Greenridge cemetery on Lincoln Ave. I said, most.

Creepy, eh?

Oh yeah, I did paint a spring, near the ol' Sadler, I'll tell ya about it soon!