There was a spirited and interesting response to our last column — the discussion of the name of the large hill west of the village (Raymo or Raymond). Space precludes recounting all of the calls and letters, but I’ll mention a few.

Jack Fuller called to say he has always known it as Raymo Hill. He suggest people might be confusing it with Raymond’s Restaurant located at the bottom of the hill (Pine Grove). Jack has a point. I remember as a boy helping to deliver huge wooden barrels of beer to Mrs. Raymond, where the feature was a large mug for five cents. Jack also good humoredly noted that people from uptown couldn’t be expected to know the proper name. (The Fuller family produced many outstanding athletes and their supporters and fans never let you forget they were from the Junction.)

A very warm letter from Elizabeth Denis of Piercefield was especially interesting. Mrs. Denis writes that her 98-year-old aunt, Dorothy Proulx Redinger, often talks about Raymond Hill. “She has told me often times, and again today, that the hill was named after her uncle, George Raymond. Although they refer to her uncle as Raymo, she calls the hill where that family lived Raymond Hill!”

Another pertinent letter from Piercefield resident Dick Buckley was written from his winter home in Florida before the article appeared. He writes of his interest in the settlement of the paper mill at Piercefield and noted that in 1892, when the Piercefield Paper and Mining Company was formed, there did not seem to be any road to connection to Tupper Lake. Dick went on to write: “My files indicate that Nov. 4, 1894, the Tupper Lake Town Board voted to appropriate $100 to buy a right-of-way four rods wide from the Adirondack Land Corp. for the purpose of building a road to Piercefield. In 1897 the Racquette River was bridged and road connections completed linking Piercefield to Tupper Lake.” Wow!

History tells us that the first national census was in 1790, ordered by George Washington for the purpose of taxing his fellow countrymen to pay for the Revolutionary War. Temporary U.S. Marshalls rode hundreds of miles to count heads, not arriving in Tupper Lake until 1860. That federal list contained only 30 names, with no Raymo or Raymond among them.

An informal census takin in 1892 by Will LaFountain, a local surveyor, was more helpful. Among the 1,051 citizens enumerated that year were two Raymos. Antoine Raymo (Raymond as it is now spelled), whose occupation was listed as mason, would be the great-grandfather of outstanding educator and coach John Raymond (always a Tupper Laker who only lives in Saranac Lake) and Jane Raymond Cole.

The other Raymo in the census was George Raymo, legally spelled Raymond in the property deeds. His occupation was listed as Teamster. George owned the entire hill all the way to the Haymeadow entrance. In 1902, when $100 was a lot of money, George paid Pat Moynehan $2,400 for 80 acres of land, including the hill. It would appear that he kept a portion of that land to build a house, held the balance of the 80 acres until 1903 and sold it to Firman Ouderkirk for $5,000 to almost triple in investment in one year! Firman held the property for six years. A succession of familiar names, including Barney Propp, John D’Avignon and Mary Jardine, owned the land until 1947, when it went to Amos LaBarge.

Raymo or Raymond? Lois Brosseau, who lies on Raymond Hill and to whom I owe thanks for much of the data presented here, sums it up best: “Raymond is English. If you want to call it by the French pronunciation, it is Raymo. Your choice.”