Dave Waite

With a lifelong interest in upstate New York history, Dave Waite has researched and written about topics ranging from hermits in the Adirondacks to stage coaching in the Mohawk Valley. He has had over forty articles published by a wide range of organizations including the New York State Archives, St. Lawrence County Historical Society, Saratoga County History Roundtable, and Warren County Historical Society.

Ben Brotherson’s Bank Scheme

February 1, 2023 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

Around 1800, Philip and Catharine Brotherson arrived in Blue Corners on the western edge of Charlton in Saratoga County. Over the next 40 years, their five children grew to maturity, the last being Benjamin Kissam Brotherson, born in 1819.

At the age of sixteen, Benjamin was hired as a clerk for the dry goods merchant James Winne in Albany, New York. During his time in Albany, he was known as an upstanding young man of good moral character. Three years later, in 1838, he moved to the city of New York and took a job at Union Bank, where he would work for the next twenty years. [Read more…] about Ben Brotherson’s Bank Scheme

Woodsman Willard Howland and his Amazing Critters

January 28, 2023 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

“Lotsa Screes in here tonight,” Willard spoke low. “Puts me in mind of a he-scree I see up in Hawk’s Nest one fall when I was trappin’.”

And so began a story that would enliven the trailside or campsite for those who had the privilege to spend time with Willard Howland. Little has been written about the life of this woodsman beyond bits and pieces of the stories he told. It could even be said that his tales, everything from experiences in the woods, to amazing fantasy creatures that inhabited his wilderness, tell more of who Willard was than anything a written history could reveal. [Read more…] about Woodsman Willard Howland and his Amazing Critters

‘Ever & Affectionally your Daughter’: The Flora Jewett Letters

December 22, 2022 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

Over 200 years ago a young woman picked up a quill and wrote of her happiness, success, sadness, and loss as she embarked on a new life far from family and friends. The woman was 24-year-old Flora Jewett and the place was Galway, a small community in rural Saratoga County, New York.

Flora Baldwin had married Thaddeus Jewett in early 1807 and soon after they left Newtown, Connecticut for Galway where Thaddeus’ family resided. It was shortly after arriving in Galway that the letters begin. [Read more…] about ‘Ever & Affectionally your Daughter’: The Flora Jewett Letters

Northville Vigilantes & The Murder at Johnnycake Hollow

December 18, 2022 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

It is strange how a seemingly innocent event can set into motion something that grows to engulf a whole town and change forever the lives of untold numbers of people.

In this case, the event was a man, who in hopes of bettering himself brought his family to live in the hamlet of Johnnycake Hollow in rural Fulton County. [Read more…] about Northville Vigilantes & The Murder at Johnnycake Hollow

A Place Called Pauley: An Adirondack History

November 27, 2022 by Dave Waite 2 Comments

In the autumn of 1917, the well-known hotel and sportsman’s lodge Pauley Place was torn down as part of New York’s pursuit to bring her wilderness back on the path to being forever wild. The hotel was in Arietta, one of the most remote sections of the southern Adirondacks.

This town in Hamilton County spans sixty miles of wilderness, with Caroga Lake to the south and Tupper Lake to the north. The town was so sparsely populated during those years that the 1915 census listed less than four hundred permanent residents, only one physician, and more wilderness guides than farmers. [Read more…] about A Place Called Pauley: An Adirondack History

Werner Brewery of Saratoga County: Some History

November 20, 2022 by Dave Waite 1 Comment

Today there are at least two breweries along the Route 9 corridor in Eastern Saratoga County, each offering their own brand of unique microbrews. Looking back in county history, we find that the commercial production of ale can trace its roots to well before the Civil War, with one of the earliest being the Werner family brewery in the town of Halfmoon. [Read more…] about Werner Brewery of Saratoga County: Some History

Bobcat Ranney: The Hermit of Dogtown

October 27, 2022 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

According to “A Who’s Who of Adirondack Hermits,” in the Fiftieth Anniversary edition of Adirondack Life magazine there were only two in Warren County: artist John Henry Hill at Phantom Island on Lake George and Archie “Bobcat” Ranney of Baker’s Mills.

Hill only lasted six years, from 1870 until 1876: the year he was picked up and sent to an asylum, never to return to the county. Archie, on the other hand, made his mark in Adirondack history and lore by “hermiting” for twenty years in Baker’s Mills, a hamlet in the town of Johnsburg. [Read more…] about Bobcat Ranney: The Hermit of Dogtown

Edward Eddy Was Murdered! A Saratoga County Crime Story

October 13, 2022 by Dave Waite Leave a Comment

When the readers of the Gloversville Daily Leader turned to page eight on the morning of January 7th, 1901, they were confronted with the news that 70-year-old Hiram Van Buren had shot and killed Edward Eddy in the hamlet of Trevett in Providence, Saratoga County.

For weeks afterward details continued to emerge that told a story of jealousy, revenge, and obsession. [Read more…] about Edward Eddy Was Murdered! A Saratoga County Crime Story

Joe Gingras: A Major League Baseball Career Thwarted By War

October 2, 2022 by Dave Waite 4 Comments

In 1870 Francois Dieudonné Gingras left his native Canada for Manhattan where he met and married Mary Roohan. By 1896, now with three children and another on the way, this couple had settled in Saratoga Springs where they opened a grocery store.

Their oldest son, Frank, was soon brought into the family business and the store was renamed, F. D. Gingras & Son. Their youngest son, whom they had named Joseph Elzead John Gingras, was looking to pursue a far different life: baseball. [Read more…] about Joe Gingras: A Major League Baseball Career Thwarted By War

The Silk Train That Killed Financier Spencer Trask

September 13, 2022 by Dave Waite 8 Comments

On the morning of December 31, 1909, Saratoga Springs philanthropist and financier Spencer Trask was just waking up after a night in a railroad sleeping car at the rear of the Montreal Express. The night before this southbound train had picked up Trask in Saratoga as it made its way toward New York City.

At 8:03 am, only moments after the express train had stopped unexpectedly on the mainline near Croton, Westchester County, New York, a train transporting bales of raw silk crashed into its rear, killing Trask, the porter in his sleeping car, and injuring several other of the passengers. While the direct cause of this deadly wreck pointed to a failure of signal equipment and railroad personnel, events leading up to the tragedy had been put into motion six thousand miles to the west seventeen days earlier. [Read more…] about The Silk Train That Killed Financier Spencer Trask