No. 112.] 723 



While almost the whole timber land in the county has been ex- 

 hausted, this has been preserved, for a field of future enterprise, 

 by its sequestered and inaccessible position. 



The great beauty of this town, its agricultural capabilities, and 

 its peculiar history as well as the general absence of information 

 relative to its character and importance, seem to require a some- 

 what extended view of its progress and condition.* 



A few pioneers, near the commencement of this century, with 

 their families, entered into this remote and deeply secluded re- 

 gion. They seem to have encountered severer hardships and 

 trials than the ordinary privations incident to a frontier life. 

 Divided from civilized society by a chain of almost impenetrable 

 mountains, they probably reached the place then known as the 

 Plains of Abraham, by the circuitous route, now traversed by a 

 road, along the course of the Saranac. While they waited in ex- 

 pectation of the scanty harvest yielded by their improvident ag- 

 riculture, they subsisted by fishing and hunting, and from sup- 

 plies transported by their own labor from the nearest settlements. 

 The numerous beaver meadows furnished an abundant supply of 

 fodder and grazing for the cattle. Until 1810 little progress was 

 made either in the agiicultural or social condition of tliis remote 

 colony. The construction about that period of the " Elba Iron 

 Works," by Archibald Mclntyre and his associates, gave a new as- 

 pect to the aSairs of this region. The history of that enterprise 

 I shall narrate in another place. The requirements of these works 

 created occupation for all the population in the vicinity, formed 

 a domestic market, and attracted numerous settlers. Schools 

 were established, religious ordinances observed, and an efficient 

 and benign influence exerted by the benevolent proprietors. 

 Unhappily for the progress and permanent prosperity of the dis- 

 trict, nearly all the land in the township at this period was held 



• The vestiges of Inflian occupation in North Elba, ami tlic territory around tho interior 

 lakes which remain, leave no doubt that at Home former pcrio<l thoy congregated there in great 

 cambers. I found in the county a ob»:urc tradition that the partizan Rogers attacked and 

 destroyed a village in the absence of the warriors, situated on tho " Plains of Abraham;'' that 

 ho was pursued and overtaken, and a battle fought on the banks of the Boquet, just below th« 

 Tillage of Pleasant Valley. Relics of both European and savage weapona of war found on th« 

 Eccno of the supposed conQict, seem to corroborate the legend, or at least indicate the probabil- 

 ity of ajcn£a^cn.eDt bctvcen Europeans and IndionB having occurred at that place. 



