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THE NORTH FAMILY

 

By MRS. HELEN NORTH DILL

Tennyson in "In memorium" speaks of "the eternal landscape of the past."

In reviving the memories of "Old Chazy, " I have been asked to write a short article on the North family and the part they took in the early settlement of Chazy. In order to do so I must go back to the Hon. Abijah North and his younger brother Lemuel North who, though the former accumulated " (to quote the History of Clinton county p. 261). "A good property in Chazy" to quote more at length "among the representative families of Champlain none are more deserving of an honorable place upon the pages of history than this family."

Hon. Abijah North is of Scottish origin his ancestors having come to this country previous to the revolutionary war and settled in New England. Abijah, son of John North, was born in Shoreham, Vt., Feb. 26tb, 1772. He was the oldest of three sons, Abijah, Lemuel and Nathaniel. He received a common school education, but by reading and reflection he acquired a good practical education. He taught school a few terms in Vermont before his marriage. He was reared a farmer, which honorable business he followed through life. He commenced life poor but by his indomitable energy combined with economy he became in time one of the influential men and farmers of Clinton county. He worked upon the farm by the month and year until the year 1799, when he came to Champlain and purchased the firm since known as the A. B. Stetson property. He returned to Vermont and spent the following winter and in 1800, returned with his brother Lemuel. These brothers worked together until they had purchased seven hundred and twenty acres of the finest farming land in Champlain, besides having accumulated a good property in Chazy. Abijah was a successful farmer and was known far and near as a fine breeder of horses and cattle. He was a jeffersonian Democrat, a leader of his party in his town; held various town offices such is magistrate, supervisor and loan commissioner, and in 1838-39, re-presented his constituents in the legislature. His younger brother, Capt. Lemuel North, commander of a company of cavalry in the war of 1812, took up his residence on the Chazy purchase of their extensive property. The house stood on the road half-way between the village and the Cummings' corner on the left, near the bank of the stream. Later he moved into the brick house just across the bridge lately purchased by S. S. White, known as the " Douglass Mansion." Capt. Lemuel North, according to history, was an enterprising, industrious and frugal farmer of quick perceptions and great decision of character. Russel North, son of Abijah, settled also in this village and carried on business in the store and on the property where Mr. Richards now resides.

Capt. Lemuel North had four children, two daughters, Lucy and Maria, two sons, John and Alexander. John was the older son. Soon after his marriage to Leviah Fillmore, daughter of Septa Fillmore, who was an own cousin to Millard Fillmore, Vice President and President of the United States in 1849-53, moved into a house, the ruins of which are now standing on the north bank of the river and on the west side of the highway, then leading from near his father's house to near the Guy Ransom place. He afterwards built and his son, Mr. Fayette North, occupies the house at the present time.

Alexander married Mary Luther and lived end died in the brick house opposite Mr. Richards. Maria married Dr. Fiske and lived in the house which stood in the ' Fiske Grove" opposite the schoolhouse. Lucy married Dean DeLance who formerly resided in Whitehall. After his death she resided with Alexander to advanced years. John, the elder son of Lemuel, to "quote the county history for the last time," inherited much of the spirit and enterprise of his father and was for many years one of the leading business men of the town. In connection with his sons, P. F. North and F. C. North, purchased all the mill sites in Chazy village which are still I owned by the latter. I have thus brought the family down to present times and to the lives whose influence is still being exerted and are well-known to you all.

Father says his grandfather and mother frequently went on horseback to visit in Connecticut, and it was not uncommon at that time for one to take on horse-back a big of corn to Middlebury, Vt., to get it ground.

One of the industries of that day was making potash out of wood-ashes and taking it to Montreal to sell.

The good housewives of that day when the berry season was over beguiled their husbands' appetites with sorrel pies. ]low they succeeded in making them sweet we can only conjecture.

"Our rural ancestors with little blest
Patient of labor when the end was rest,
Indulged the say that housed their annual grain
With feasts and offerings and a thankful strain
are words that apply to the times of which we write, as well as to the days of their author, Pope.

"0, there are voices of the past
Links of a broken chain,
Wings that can bear me back to times
Which can not come again
Yet God forbid that I should lose
The echoes that remain

Adelaide Anne Proctor.-Voices of the Past.
These beautiful words of Adelaide Anne Proctor awakening the "echoes" of the "Voices of the Past", only enforce our duty to the present and I am sure we all agree with Emerson that "We cannot overstate our debt to the Past, but the moment has the supreme claim, the Past is for us but the sole terms on which it can become ours are its subordination to the present." In no way can we honor ourselves more than by honoring our ancestors.

"Honor thy father and thy mother that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."

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last edited 10 Sep 2018

 

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