The Town of Champlain's 225th Anniversary (1788 - 2013)

GPS Location: 44.95867553290001, -73.44294690383417

During the Revolutionary War, the State of New York raised militias by offering bounties of land to soldiers who enlisted.  A young soldier named Pliny Moore, who lived in Kinderhook, N.Y., was awarded a 11,600-acre grant on the Canadian border.  Moore surveyed the land for the first time in March of 1785 and laid out 119 lots in October of 1786 during a second survey.  In February of 1787, the lots were balloted to Moore and 17 other soldiers.  Moore called his new settlement “Moorsfield on the River Chazy.”  The Village of Champlain lies entirely in the Moorsfield Grant. 

Shortly before Pliny Moore moved to the area, he encouraged the state legislature to divide Washington County (which extended from Albany to Canada).  On March 7, 1788, the legislature created Clinton County and the Town of Champlain as one of four towns in the county.  Moore traveled back on May 23 that year to build a sawmill near Perry's Mills.  He came back in February of 1789 with his wife and child to live here permanently in what was called “Champlain Town.”

The State of New York also awarded land to Canadians who had fought for the American cause during the Revolution.  The state created the “Canadian and Nova Scotia Refugee Tract” which included lands in Rouses Point and Mooers and extended south towards Plattsburgh.  These soldiers and their families, who were refugees living on the lakeshore near the mouth of the Great Chazy River, settled on their new land or sold it and moved back to Canada.

1938 Plaque GPS Location: 44.98644768558771, -73.44583643634374

The Pliny Moore House, Village of Champlain

GPS Location: 44.98674448288278, -73.44518258545456

Caption on the panel:

In 1789, Revolutionary War veteran Pliny Moore (1759-1822) settled Champlain after being awarded land by the State of New York.  In 1801 he built a Federal-style frame house similar to the one standing today.  Moore was the first judge and postmaster of the town. 

During the War of 1812, the border became a revolving door for the American and British armies and militias.  Moore’s house played a key role in the military events and he was in contact with the commanders on both sides of the conflict.

In November of 1812, American General Henry Dearborn used Moore’s house as his headquarters when his army camped nearby on their way to Lacolle, Quebec.  

In October of 1813, British Major J. Perreault threatened Moore and the village inhabitants after an attack at the border.  His troops later pillaged the village.  In June of 1814, Colonel Benjamin Forsyth was killed on the road to Lacolle (NY Rt. 276).  Two months later, his death was avenged by the ambush of British Captain St. Valier Mailloux (Mahew) who had commanded the militia and Indians who killed Forsyth.  Mailloux died in the basement of Moore’s house.  In the spring of 1814, prisoner-of-war negotiations took place at Elias Dewey’s house (Dewey’s Tavern).

The Washington, D.C. based newspaper, Niles Weekly Register, published news on the war.   In October of 1813, the paper published a public threat made to Judge Pliny Moore by Canadian militia commander J. Perreault:

A British major. — The following gasconading notice was sent out to judge Moore, of Champlain, by major Perreault, who commands about sixty Canadians and indians at Odletown.  A few nights previous to the promulgation of this petty mandate, our militia had attacked a picket near the lines which so excited the ire of the British major, that he issued, without delay, the following “humane advertisement.”

                                        LA COLE, 10th October.

    “Citizens of Champlain!  — I am happy that humanity should still have so much power over me so as to inform you that should any of the militia of Champlain, be found hovering this side of the line, I will let loose upon your village and inhabitants, the Canadian and indian force under my command.    But your cowardly attack at midnight, of a small picket of ours, has torn asunder the veil which hid you from them — So beware!
       J. PERREAULT,   major commanding ad. post.
    You are probably aware that it has been with greatest difficulty I have till now withheld them.
“P. S. Major Perreault would be obliged to the honorable judge Moore, to acquaint the citizens of Champlain of the tenor of the above humane advertisement.

Pliny Moore’s house is shown in an 1829 painting on the interpretive panel.  The house burned down on April 27, 1912 and was rebuilt in 1913 to the same exterior specifications.  The McLellan family lived in the house from 1883 to 1983 and were descendants of Pliny Moore.  The original watercolor painting on the interpretive panel is from the collections of the Clinton County Historical Association.

Click to see Interactive Maps

North Countryman Newspaper Article

The Pliny Moore Stone Farm House, Village of Champlain
(War of 1812)

GPS Location: 44.988542419754076, -73.44069284558442

Caption on the panel:

In 1808, Pliny Moore built a stone farm house on the Great Northern Turnpike (part of today’s Prospect Street).  Today, this is the oldest house in the village. 

At the outbreak of the War of 1812, the citizens of Champlain were uneasy about incursions from Canada.  A Committee of Safety persuaded the army to build two blockhouses in nearby fields.  The structures were used by visiting New York and Vermont militia.

In the summer of 1813, British Colonel John Murray burned public property in Burlington, Plattsburgh, Swanton, Chazy and Champlain in what was called “Murray’s Raid”.  On the way back to Canada, a detachment of Murray’s troops rowed up the Great Chazy River and burned the two blockhouses. 

The armies of American General Henry Dearborn and James Wilkinson camped nearby.  During the summer of 1814, militia skirmished at the top of the hill, in the fields off upper Prospect Street as well as along the road to Lacolle, Quebec (NY Route 276) north of Dewey’s Tavern. 

In September of 1814, half of British General George Prevost’s army camped nearby and used the unoccupied house as a commissary.   It took this half of the army 12 hours to march down this road and over the Great Chazy River bridge on their way to Plattsburgh. 

The stone farm house was given to Pliny’s daughter Matilda who married Rev. Abraham Brinkerhoff. By the 1840s, the house and farm were owned by Freeman and Bartlett Nye.  Donat Guay owned the farm in the early 1900s and sold it to the Racine family in 1942. In August of 1938, a NYS historic marker was dedicated by Oscar Bredenberg during Champlain Town’s 150th Anniversary. 

Click to see Interactive Maps 

North Countryman Newspaper Article

LE 4 JUILLET, 1907. À LA MÉMOIRE DE

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN

PAR LES FRANCO-AMÉRICANS.

SAMUEL DE CHAMPLAIN,

NÉ À BROUAGE, FRANCE, EN 1567, FONDATEUR DE QUÉBEC, EN 1608.

DÉCOUVREUR DU LAC CHAMPLAIN, 6 JUILLET, 1609.

MORT À QUEBEC AN 1635.

HE VALUED THE SALVATION OF A SOUL MORE THAN THE

CONQUEST OF A KINGDOM.

BEHOLD: A FERVENT CHRISTIAN; AN INTREPID NAVIGATOR;

A MAN OF LETTERS AND THE DISCOVERER OF THE GEM

OF THE LAKES OF AMERICA.

LE SALUT D’UNE ÂME VAUT PLUS QUE LA CONQUÊTE D’UN ROYAUME.

SA MÉMOIRE EST UNE INSPIRATION QUI NOUS PORTE VERS LE VRAI,

LE BIEN ET LE BEAU!

COMME NOTRE PATRON, ST. JEAN BAPTISTE;

IL “PRÉPARA LES VOIES” SUR CE CONTINENT.

IL FÛT UN FERVENT CHRÉTIEN: UN INTREPIDE NAVIGATEUR:

UN SAVANT, ET LE DÉCOUVREUR DU PLUS BEAU LAC DE L’AMÉRIQUE.

Point au Fer Historic Site, Town of Champlain
(Dedicated Memorial Day, Quadricentennial in 2009)  

GPS Location: 44.94414386966011, -73.35242289615549

Caption on the panel:
 
          Prior to 1763, the northern half of Lake Champlain was controlled by the French.  On June 6, 1760, during the French and Indian War (1754-1763), British  Army major  Robert Rogers and his Rangers engaged the French near here at Scales Point and pushed them into Canada.  Britain was now in control of Point au Fer.

            In 1774, the British built a garrison known as the “White House”.  In May of 1775, a small American force gained control of the fort and in June of 1776 American General John Sullivan added an entrenchment around the fort (the creek at the corner) and a 12 foot tall wooden stockade that was lined with cannon.  It was during this time that Benjamin Franklin landed here on his way to Montreal.  Benedict Arnold, Charles Carroll and Ethan Allen also stopped here. 

            After the Battle of Valcour in October of 1776, the Americans lost control of Point au Fer.  Half of General John Burgoyne’s British army camped here in June of 1777 on their way to Saratoga where they were defeated.

            After the Revolutionary War, the British occupied the garrison for 20 more years.  British Captain John Steel used his gunboat “Maria” to patrol the lake off of Point au Fer.  He built a small garden at Stony Point that for 90 years was referred to as “Steel’s Garden”.  At the enactment of Jay’s Treaty on June 1, 1796, the British left Point au Fer and the United States. 

            In 1805, a French refugee burned down the fort.  American soldiers during the War of 1812 (1812-14) camped around the ruins while watching for British naval activities in the northern part of the lake. 

            In 1809, Point au Fer was surveyed into three lots and auctioned off by the State of New York.  In 1839, George Rochester bought some property at the tip of the Point from John Walker and his descendants still live in the area.  Around 1870, Richard Scales purchased Lot No. 2 and built his house on the ruins of the old garrison.  The cellar was made of the stonework of the fort.  The house is still standing today.

            The land within the White House’s stockade is probably the most historic site in all of Clinton County.  Except for the plow, the fields and forests around this site have remained largely untouched.  Few sites in Clinton County can attest to this.  Let this area remain sacred.

THE “WHITE HOUSE”

IN 1774, A TWO-STORY WHITE STONE

GARRISON WAS BUILT HERE BY THE BRITISH,

FORTIFIED BY AMERICAN GEN. JOHN SULLIVAN

WITH ENTRENCHMENT AND STOCKADE IN 1776

AND DESTROYED BY FIRE IN 1805.

BRITISH OCCUPATION 1774-1775 AND 1776-1796.

AMERICAN OCCUPATION MAY 1775-OCT. 1776.

ENCAMPMENT OF THE BRITISH ARMY JUNE 1777

DURING BURGOYNE’S CAMPAIGN TO SARATOGA.

ALSO NEAR HERE AT SCALES POINT WAS

ROGERS’ RANGERS BATTLE OF JUNE 6, 1760.

FRIENDS OF CHAMPLAIN

2009