Tom Tillott. 1880 - 1966


Mr. Tillott was a lawyer who lived in Schenectady.  In 1910, at the age of 29, he married Anne Orton, daughter of Dr. Darius Orton.  Dr. Orton came to Fish House after the Civil War.  His doctor’s office was a small brick building that had been a tailor shop before the war.  This brick house is now part of my home.  It is because of this house, built in 1805, that I became interested in the history of Fish House. 
  In 1888,, Dr. Orton purchased the old Grinnell  house up on Shew Hill.  He built a small cottage close by that served as his office.  He gave the brick house to his daughter, Ann.       Dr. Orton died in 1918 and Ann and Tom Tillott inherited the house up on the hill.  Ann died in 1928, leaving her husband with both the small brick house and the large house.  
     By1928 the Sacandaga Valley was being transformed in preparation for the closing of the Conklingville Dam in 1930.   Trees were cut down, brush was burned.  Houses were torn down, or burned, or moved to a higher elevation. Families were moving away from the only homes they knew. Tremendous changes were happening in the area, but there are very few articles in the local newspapers that reported on this.  
   How is this related to Tom Tillott?  Tillott loved photography.  He traveled around the Sacandaga Valley from 1928-1930 and took photos. Those photos were saved over the years as the big house changed owners. I was fortunate to see the photos several years ago.  I have brightened them up but left the writing on them.
     So thank you, Tom Tillott, for taking the time to record history.  I am forever grateful.

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Almost half of the gravestones of the old Presbyterian Church Cemetery are for children who died under the age of six. One such gravestone is Lucius Spalding who was born in 1837 and died in 1839. A bio on a two year old is really not possible, so I like to research the family history. Usually I go further back in time but for this “bio” I also went forward . As always, I am amazed at how connected this little hamlet of Fish House is to history.
So I will start before Lucius Spalding was born in 1837. His grandfather, Edmund Spalding was born in Plainfield CT. He married Mary Chandler in 1809. They had three sons, Alva, Andrew and a Lucius. That Lucius died in 1819 at the age of three. Several days later, Edmund’s wife, Mary died. Two months later, Edmund remarried, packed their bags and moved his new wife and his two sons west to Northampton, NY. where he became a farmer. His son, Andrew, at the age of 20, married Emmeline Hamilton in 1834. In 1837, Emmeline gave birth to a son, whom they named Lucius Spalding, after Andrew’s brother who died at the age of three. If one were to believe in bad luck, then they shouldn’t have named him Lucius. This second Lucius Spalding died at the age of two and is buried in the Presbyterian Church Cemetery. Andrew, like his father Edmund after the death of his young son, also packed up their bags and he and his wife, Emmeline, moved west to Buffalo NY. In 1840 Emmeline gave birth to a daughter,Mary Spalding.
In Buffalo, Andrew found work as a harbor dredger. The Erie Canal had been finished in 1825 and the city of Buffalo was very busy in improving its Black Rock Harbor, which meant a lot of dredging. Sometime in that decade, however, Andrew, Emmeline and Mary moved back to this area, to the town of Glen. According to the 1850 and 1860 census Andrew's occupation was listed as a carpenter.
Now, bear with me as I jump to a totally different family line.
In 1833, in Duanesburg, NY a Lewis Jackson Bennett was born to William and Elma Bennett. He was the oldest of several children. He was not physically able to be a farmer, the word “delicate” was used to describe him, so he began his work career as a clerk in a grocery store in Fultonville, New York. Eventually he became a partner in a grocery firm ,but at the age of 33, his health failed him and he had to retire. He decided to travel across the country for several months. He returned to Fultonville and established his own grocery company in 1856. Less than a year later, he married Mary Spalding (the daughter of Andrew and Emmeline and the sister of Lucius). The wedding was in Johnstown, NY. In the 1860 census, Lewis and Mary were living in the town of Glen and Lewis’ occupation was listed as a grocer. In the 1865 census, they are listed as living with Mary’s parents, Andrew and Emmeline Spalding.  
In 1866 the whole family, Bennett’s and Spalding’s moved to Buffalo where both Andrew and Lewis were listed as harbor dredgers. In 1868 they start a company called Spalding & Bennett. This company contracted harbor work and also built the first iron bridges for small towns in Erie County. In 1877 Lewis started the Buffalo Cement Company, a major industry at that time. The Spaldings and Bennetts were still living under the same roof up through the 1880 census.  
In 1889, Lewis Bennett became interested in real estate. He was responsible for the development of the neighborhood known as Central Park in Buffalo. Big beautiful homes were built there all following the zoning ordinances established by Bennett. His own home was built there at 354 Depew Street (see photo below). It was a 24 room house, not bad for a “delicate” grocery clerk from Duanesburg, NY. Lewis Bennett also donated land for a high school, it still stands today and is called Bennett High School. 
So this small gravestone of Lucius Spalding, in a small, almost forgotten cemetery of Fish House, has a connection to the major development of Buffalo, NY 

Standing near the back of the Presbyterian Church is a headstone that says: 
David H. Smith
only 
son of 
David R. Smith 
died June 24, 
1844, 
aged 1 year &
1 month
According to cemetery records made in the 1930’s , not only was there a headstone for David H. Smith but there was supposed to be a headstone for David R. Smith. I then went to the records made in the 1990’s by Davis Bixby. He did list David R. Smith, but he had no location for him. I love a mystery!
Just to the right of David H. Smith’s headstone, there was an empty space. With my new found knowledge of foot stones, I noticed a small stone back a ways with the initials D.R.S. Bingo! Perhaps David R.’s stone fell over and was covered with sod. So I started digging test holes,,and found nothing. Then I went back to the cemetery and dug deeper, right where I thought the base of the headstone should be located. I met with success! I found a vertical stone, deeply buried in the ground. But where was the rest of the headstone? Which way did it fall? I took a chance and started digging,,,another success! I found the top of the headstone and a triangular piece. And it was inscribed with the name David R. Smith! So I decided to dig out the vertical piece, thinking it was the rest of the headstone,,,it took quite a while,,,but once it was out, there were no inscriptions,,,so this was the base and I have yet to find the rest of the headstone. But I hope to be successful. You can see the pieces in the photos. Now for some background information, if you are not into genealogy, you can stop reading here. 🙂
David R. Smith died in 1842 at the young age of 31. He was married to Sarah Dunnell Pitman and they had one son, called Henry, aka..David H. Smith. After David R. Smith died in 1842, Sarah married Jabez Gibbs. If that name sounds familiar, it is. Mariah Gibbs is also buried in this cemetery, I did a post about her a while back. She was Jabez Gib’s first wife. She died the same year David R. Smith died, 1842. She was also 31 when she died. Sarah and Jabez didn’t waste much time, they got married just a year later. They stayed married until 1857. They had a son, Edward Stanhope Gibbs who died in Louisiana in 1863 during the Civil War. Edward never met David H. Smith, but they were half brothers. Jabez and Edward are buried in Prospect Cemetery in Albany. Sarah married one more time, to William C. Isley. In 1870, they were living in New York City. I have not found out where she is buried or what year she died.
WOW, long post! Photos in this post show the intact and upright headstone of David H. Smith and also the pieces of the headstone that I have dug up so far for David R. Smith.

This beautiful headstone marks the resting place of Helen Jackson, just six years old when she died.  At first glance, I felt certain that she was from the Jackson family who lived in the area.  Stephen and Rhuama Jackson had two boys, Stephen B., born in 1816 and Reuben, born in 1820.  So I assumed that Helen was their third child. But this is impossible.  You see, Stephen Jackson, died December 17, 1825 and this little child, Helen, was born around March of 1827.  So no matter how I stretch the months out, Helen cannot be the daughter of Stephen and Rhuama Jackson.  This Jackson family is the only one I can find in this area.  
   So here is this lone grave.  Someone loved her. Someone had a beautiful stone engraved for her. Someone picked out a poem for her.  I wish I knew who her parents were.
The stone reads:
    In
Memory of
Helen Jackson
Who died
May 15, 1833
Aged 6 years
2 mos. & 18 days.


Below that is a poem.  After cleaning the stone I was able to figure out most of the words.  Then I looked for a similar poem and found one in a German book by Dr. Eduard Young.
The poem on the grave reads as follows:
Early bright transient
Like the morning dew
She sparkled was ex
Haled & went to Heaven


The original reads:
Early, Bright, Transient
Chaste as Morning Dew
She sparkled, was exhaled, and went to Heaven 

I posted this on Facebook in hopes that someone could help.  I also wrote to my friend, Pete Shew, as he knows so much about people from this area.  He came up with some great suggestions.  I haven't been able to prove anything yet,,,so if you read below please know that it is conjecture:
   Zardus and Laura Jackson are old enough to be Helen and Huyne's parents.  Huyne (or maybe Hayne) had Z. for a middle initial...probably for Zardus.  They used to live in Northampton, but then in 1838, they transferred ownership to their nephew Stephen B. Jackson. and moved to nearby Broadalbin.  When their daughter, Helen died, they came back to Northampton to bury her.  They did the same for their son, Huyne. All is conjecture, I have found no family trees to back this up.  But I live in a 200 year old house in Northampton,  that used to be the tailor shop for Stephen B. Jackson.  Zardus was a tailor and trained Stephen B. Jackson after Stephen's father died when he was a child.  The deed records show Zardus transferring this to Stephen. I also found a guardianship document for Stephen B. and his younger brother, Reuben, and it names Zardus and Chester Jackson...maybe another uncle to Stephen.  I know that is a lot of information, but the pieces seem to fit.

So my cemetery project continues.  Just before the weather turned cold, I cleaned two more graves.  Deacon Abraham Beecher's and his wife, Lydia's.  I used a mild cleaner, Simple Green,but it has it's limits. Thankfully, the town of Northampton has backed me financially in purchasing the D2, Biologic Solution, that is used specifically for cleaning gravestones. Hopefully I will get another warm day in this crazy fall, so I can clean more of  this beautiful gravestone.
   If you go to the Cemetery Bios page in this website, you will see that I am researching every "resident' of this graveyard, as I clean each stone. 
   I started concentrating on Deacon Beecher's life and as always, it is fascinating to me.  Abraham was born in Connecticut, but for some reason, he and three of his brothers (Ely, Isaac and Amos) ended up in this region of New York.  Ely started in Fish House but then moved up into Edinburg where he started many businesses.  Beecher's Creek and Beecher Hollow are named after this brother.  Isaac farmed up in Edinburg, as did Amos.  Abraham had a farm just over the town border from Fish House.  He referred to it as the Sheffield Farm. His farmhouse, that he built in 1803, no longer stands.  But it was located on Sinclair Point, near the Roslyn House, which was built in 1919 by the Sinclair's. The chimney of the Roslyn House, has two bricks from the original fireplace of Abraham Beecher's house.  One has A.B. on it and the other has 1803.
    Abraham, along with Isaac Noyes, were responsible for the construction of a wooden Presbyterian Church in 1814. Abraham was Deacon of this church. The present brick church was built on the same site, in 1860, 15 years after the death of Abraham.  
   There is a house across the street from the Presbyterian Church, that I refer to as the Beecher House.  It was not built by Beechers, but in 1880 it was purchased by the Beecher line.  James Fuller Beecher, grandson of Abraham and Lydia Beecher, lived there with his wife Elizabeth and their three daughters.  Sadly, just  this past summer, a tree fell on the house and I fear it is beyond repair.
   The Beecher family has many connections to American history, one main one is Harriet Beecher Stowe, who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin in 1852..  Abraham Beecher's grandfather, Isaac (1716-1801) was Harriet Beecher Stowe's great grandfather.  
    
   

    Truman B. Shew was the son of Elizabeth Beecher and Godfrey I. Shew, a cousin of Godfrey Shew Jr., the first settler of Fish House.  Truman was one of six brothers.  Two became doctors.  Truman and his other three brothers (William, Myron, and Jacob) became photographers. They were trained in 1841 by Samuel T, B. Morse (the telegraph inventor) in the art of daguerrotype. Samuel Morse had been in Paris in 1839 , when Louis Daguerre had demonstrated this process of photography for the first time. It was the first form of photography and it was the primary form from 1839  to 1859.  
   The four brothers, after being trained,  first traveled in upstate New York doing their own daguerrotype photography.  Eventually they settled in different east coast cities and ran photography studios for John Plumbe Jr.  Truman ran a studio on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia.
    “[Daguerreotype] creates a silver image on a silver surface using some of the more dangerous chemicals like mercury and iodide, and that’s why a lot of early photographers, especially daguerreotypists, didn’t lead the longest lives.” – Arthur Kaplan of the Getty Conservation Institute.
 Truman Shew became very ill.  His brother, Joel, was a doctor in New York  City and tried to cure him, but to no avail. Truman died in 1848  at the age of 31. He was buried next to his maternal grandparents in the Fish House cemetery next to the Presbyterian church where his grandfather had been a deacon.  Myron and Jacob bought Truman’s Philadelphia studio, but a year after Truman’s death,  Jacob joined the gold rush of 1849 and went to California.  William and Myron headed to California a short time later.  All three brothers continued in the photography business but it was William who became well known.  William died in 1903 and unfortunately most of his work was destroyed in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire.  Some of his works can still be found in history books and also in the Smithsonian.    
     The above information on Truman Shew is also found in the bios of the cemetery residents on a different page on this website.  I have just started this project of learning everything that I can about the people who are buried in the cemetery by the Presbyterian Church here in the hamlet of Fish House.  Fish House was first settled in 1762 and it slowly grew into a beautiful little town that included humble people making a living here as well as wealthy people who were summer residents.  What has surprised me in my research are the connections to the "big" names in history.  Truman Shew, was trained by Samuel Morse, the inventor of the telegraph.  Truman then worked for John Plumbe Jr. who is the photographer that took the very first photo of the White House.  Truman's brother, William, became a noted photographer and some of his photos are in the Smithsonian.  Truman's mother, Elizabeth Beecher, was related to Harriet Beecher Stowe.  So how is it that residents in such a little town, such as Fish House,
​ intersected with famous people in our American history?  

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This is the earliest known photograph of the White House.  It was taken in January of 1846 by John Plumbe Jr.  It is a daguerreotype.  
Plumb took several photographs of government buildings that year.  But the photographs were lost until 1972 when they were discovered  in a flea market in Alameda, California , The  six daguerreotypes were cleaned up and are now at the Library of Congress.