We continue in this week’s column the March 1927 Franklin County Grand Jury case of the People of New York State vs. Clayton Elliot. Mr. Elliot had been arrested on Feb. 16, 1927, for the crime of public nuisance under section 1530, paragraph 2, of the penal code (closing a public highway with his log loader).
Appearing before local justice John N. Chalmers, Elliot waived immunity and was held for the March term of the Grand Jury and released on $1,000 bail, a vast sum of money that remains a tantalizing mystery of why it was so high. The bail money was provided by William McCarthy, who listed his total assets at $2,000.
William McCarthy’s name in the files provides this column an opportunity to detail some local history. Even though I was very young, I remember Mr. McCarthy. He was a large man, impressive in stature, almost intimidating in his bearing. He had a decided limp, a result of a childhood injury, but this didn’t in the least slow him down. For over 39 years, he was the leader of the local Democratic Party and influential at the county and state levels. Part of that tenure was when that party ruled mightily with Franklin Roosevelt as governor of New York State and his four White House victories unmatched in American history.
Imagine the patronage that existed in assigning employment politically in those job-related programs as the nation sought to recover from the Depression that paralyzed the country and this area.
Mr. McCarthy came to Tupper Lake in the late 1800s, and together with his brother, Patrick, ran a successful wholesale grocery store that supplied most of the many, many lumber camps in this area. That store was destroyed in the 1899 fire. Almost before the ashes cooled in that disaster, the McCarthy brothers, along with Dave Deneshaw, built one of the community’s first modern brick buildings on the corner of Park and Mill streets as the town struggled to rebuild its business section. Today that building houses the Sorting Gap store and the offices of the Woodmen of the World firm, and it has apartments on the second floor. It is owned by Don and Jean Ann Donah.
In addition to the store, the McCarthys also acted as important lumber brokers for the St. Regis Paper Company in Deferiet. If that didn’t keep them busy enough, they also erected a massive 100- x 38-foot barn on High Street with stalls for over 50 horses.
Lou Simmons in Mostly Spruce and Hemlock tells us that over 1,500 to 2,000 horses were traded there yearly. An indication, he noted, of how important of a role horses played in the lumbering business at that time.
That horse sale operation ceased in the middle 1930s, probably due to the mechanized logging techniques and the introduction of high-powered trucks. The vacant barn became the favorite playground for us neighboring kids on High Street. Here we would scramble, climb and swing among the many rafters in the high-ceilinged, cavernous, two-story building. No one was more agile, daring and acrobatic than the late Eddie Martin, who could easily have been hired as a double for, or played the part of, Tarzan, the movie hero of that day.
Later, the floor was covered with cement, and an enterprising fellow from Norwood opened a popular, well-attended roller-skating rink with dance music and a drink bar. The place, as I remember, only rocked for a few years before it closed, a victim, perhaps, of the Depression.
Incidentally, the rink floor can still be seen behind a row of cedar trees on the vacant lot between the former Potvin residence (now Frenette) and Mrs. King’s Tea Room (now Eisler) on High Street. The barn was torn down in 1938.
Let’s return to the Elliot file. Following the arrest of Mr. Elliot, Lt. Garenflo of the NYS Police then sought out witnesses to the charges that the highway was obstructed in violation of the law. As might be expected, because there were frequent users of Rte. 3, many of those witnesses were residents from the Long Lake area.
Readers familiar with Long Lake will recognize many of the names still prominent in that neighboring village, so I will list them here: Oakam Helms, Edward Shappe, Charles Hammer, William Helms, John Fry, Harrison Jennings, Howe Stanton and George Stanton. From Tupper Lake: John Trainer, Albert Deshaw and Alaide Belair.
Thirty-six jurors were then selected from throughout the county. Local residents drawn to serve were Albert Hosley, George Bristol and John Villnave. The file contains only four items that pertain to witness testimony.
Charles Hammer stated that “he was held up for 20 minutes in a funeral procession.” Other times, often accompanied by his wife, he was held up for 15 minutes. O.H. Helms testified that often “he was held up for seven minutes and other times a shorter period.” Lt. Garenflo noted that the loading operation lasted from early morning to 5 p.m., and that between those hours, the road was completely blocked to travel for up to 15 minutes and did “interfere with, block and render dangerous for public travel without authority.”
John Frye, in his testimony, stated that he was employed as a mechanic at T.K. Somers Garage in Tupper Lake, and that at least six times in traveling to Long Lake West (Sabbatis) and returning, he was held up. Also on one occasion, as he was passing the loader, it turned. Then he said, “If deponent had not been on the alert and applied the brakes, said loading machine would have hit deponent’s car and caused serious damage and possibly killed deponent.”
Meanwhile, the local chamber of commerce, under the signature of John Twohey, secretary, sent a letter to Harold Main, district attorney: “We are not asking you to do what is impossible but do ask that you do what you legally can so that Mr. Elliot may be as little inconvenienced as possible.”
Enclosed with the letter was a petition, written on impressive legal stationary, with plenty of “whereas” and “wherefores.” The petition noted that Elliot was a highly respected citizen who employed over a hundred men, with a early payroll of over $100,000, and the withdrawal of that business would do “irreparable harm and injury to the town.”
The petition further noted that “the loading operation had ceased and was innocent and unintentional.” It ended with a “respectful request and urgent recommendation that the D.A. use his influence and the power at his command to dismiss the charge against C.H. Elliot.”
Next Transitions: Prominent local citizens who signed the petition to the district attorney. Will Elliot be found innocent or guilty?