Hollywood Comes to Plattsburgh: The Filming of Janice Meredith

“Marion Davies Edition” of Janice Meredith

On February 26, 1924, readers of the Plattsburgh Sentinel opened their morning papers to find some exciting news: the movies were coming to town! Cosmopolitan Pictures, William Randolph Hearst’s film production company, had chosen Plattsburgh as the location for the filming of Janice Meredith, with Marion Davies in the title role. Two years earlier, Davies had appeared to great acclaim in When Knighthood Was in Flower, a romantic drama set in Tudor England and based on a bestselling book by Charles Major. Janice Meredith, a romantic drama set during the Revolutionary War and based on the 1899 bestseller by Paul Leicester Ford, seemed guaranteed to enjoy box-office success and to cement Davies’s reputation as the top female film star of the day. The setting would capitalize on a growing interest in American history as the sesquicentennial approached, and would allow the filmmakers to claim that the movie had educational as well as entertainment value.

Front page of the San Francisco Examiner, February 3, 1922,
reporting on the trial of Roscoe Arbuckle and the murder of
William Desmond Taylor

This was important, because in 1924, the American movie industry was struggling to recover its reputation after a series of recent scandals. These included the mysterious death of director William Desmond Taylor, the trials of actor Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle for the rape and manslaughter of actress Virginia Rappe, and the drug-related death of leading man Wallace Reid. Nationwide, there were calls for a boycott of Hollywood films, and there must have been many people in Plattsburgh who questioned the wisdom of inviting “motion picture people” of doubtful morals to their city. The Sentinel hoped to reassure concerned readers that Cosmopolitan Pictures was not like other film companies. It had, the paper reported on February 29, an “editorial policy of choosing historical plays to the exclusion of sex or questionable subjects....Their pictures are always received with enthusiasm by the most discriminating audiences.” The company also “maintain[s] an efficient research department whose duty it is to carefully plan and check every scene in order to picture it historically correct.” 

Less than two weeks later, carpenters were already putting the finishing touches on their version of the city of Trenton, which had been constructed near the rifle range at the Plattsburgh Barracks. A writer for the Daily Republican marveled at the realism of the set: “From a distance it is very hard for an onlooker to distinguish whether of not it is a reality.” In fact, what appeared to be buildings of brick and stone were “nothing more than heavy cardboard, molded and painted and nailed to the framework in such a way that the onlookers are led to believe that it is a reality.” Crews were also hard at work opening up the Saranac River so that it could play the role of the Delaware in a pivotal scene. The enlisted men of the 26th Infantry, stationed at the Plattsburgh Barracks, had been recruited to fill the roles of Continental, British, and Hessian soldiers, and would be joined by an additional 400 men from Fort Ethan Allen in Vermont.

Filming the Battle of Trenton at the Plattsburgh Barracks

By that time, many of the professional actors had arrived in Plattsburgh to begin filming some of the incidental scenes. Marion Davies herself arrived on March 10, along with her “secretaries, scenario editors and other staff men,” and took up residence at the Witherill Hotel. On the afternoon of March 13, Davies visited the barracks and was made Honorary Colonel of the regiment and reviewed a parade led by the regimental band. Meanwhile, cameramen were shooting scenes at the Booth estate on the Lake Shore Road. All of this activity was leading up to the day when the Battle of Trenton would be filmed, which happened on March 15. Marion Davies did not appear, but Joseph Kilgour—playing George Washington for the fourth time in his career—“took a prominent part in the battle scene and was mounted on a white charger.” Along with the soldiers, several wives of officers at the barracks took part in this scene.

By March 26, production had largely wrapped up and the Daily Press took this time to reflect upon the experience. If Cosmopolitan Pictures had hoped to change the attitudes of ordinary Americans toward the film industry, it certainly seemed to have succeeded in this case. “It is a matter of regret to everyone in Plattsburgh that the stay of these motion picture people has not been longer. It has been long enough, however, to give the residents of this city an insight to the type of men and women engaged in the industry and it may be said at once that this insight has revealed nothing that was not favorable to the artists and artisans connected with this great motion picture enterprise.” The writer of the editorial observed that people tended to think that they knew movie stars, because they read and heard so much about them, but now the people of Plattsburgh would be able to base their opinions on what they actually knew. They had seen that the cast and crew “conducted themselves as ladies and gentlemen at all times,” from the leading actors and actresses “down to the humblest workman.” They had attended “strictly to their own affairs” and done their jobs with “concentrated energy, enthusiasm and singleness of purpose.” 

Lobby Card for Janice Meredith

Normally, movies were not shown outside major cities until several months after their release. But since Plattsburgh had played such an important part in Janice Meredith, it was given the privilege of being the first place to show the film, less than two weeks after its premiere at the Cosmopolitan Theatre in New York. R.J. Henry, manager of the Clinton Theater, cancelled all other bookings for four days and put his orchestra to work rehearsing the musical score. To drum up additional interest in the film, “Mr. Henry is placing on display in his lobby and in several stores throughout the city photographic representations of many of the scenes in the picture, where they will be on view for the next week.” (He also had to quell rumors that moviegoers would be charged “New York prices” for the film, instead of the usual fifty cents.)

Ad for Janice Meredith from the Plattsburgh
Daily Republican, August 29, 1924

Janice Meredith received a rave review from the Daily Republican. Not only was it a marvelous piece of entertainment, anchored by a brilliant performance by Marion Davies, but it was filled with “the spirit of unmistakable and sincere Americanism” that produced “a frenzy of patriotism that was positively thrilling. Cheer after cheer followed each valorous deed of the Minute Men and each bold movement for freedom. One feels after seeing Janice Meredith one has seen the most enlightening picture of American history yet produced.” With responses like this, the motion picture industry must have felt it was on the right track toward repairing its reputation. Despite the acclaim her performance received, however, Marion Davies never quite reached the level of stardom she hoped for. If she’s remembered at all today, it’s probably as the aggressively untalented opera singer loosely based on her in Citizen Kane. You’ll have the opportunity to see Davies on screen and judge for yourself at our free showing of Janice Meredith this Thursday, September 19, starting at 7:00 p.m. The movie is approximately 2 and a half hours long; there will be an intermission and ample snacks will be provided!

New York State History Month: Loren Bundy’s World War I Uniform

Each November, we mark New York State History Month with a series of blog posts on items from the Alice’s collection that have a connection to the state. In 2014, we looked at early-19th century transferware depicting scenes from locations in New York State, and in 2015, our theme was items made in New York. This year, we will be featuring items associated with the military service of three New York men.

The Bundys’ cottage in Chazy
Photo from Miner Institute Archives

We begin with a uniform worn by Loren S. Bundy of Chazy during World War I. The son of Leon and Kate Bundy, Loren was born in Vermont in 1896. Around 1910, the family moved to Chazy, where Leon Bundy became the head of the construction department at Heart’s Delight Farm. Loren Bundy (then working as a bookkeeper in Hudson Falls, NY) registered for the draft in 1917 and was inducted into the army at Plattsburgh in September of that year. He then went to Camp Devens in Massachusetts for training, and arrived in France in late July 1918—just a little over three months before the end of the war. He returned to the United States in June 1919. 

Coat, breeches, puttees, and overseas cap

Service coat. Red chevron indicates honorable
discharge; lower chevron is for overseas service.

The basic components of the uniform issued to Loren Bundy and other men who served in the US Army during World War I had been developed in the early 20th century in response to changing needs and conditions that had become evident during the Spanish-American War. New materials—khaki cotton for summer and olive drab wool for winter—were introduced as well as new styles of clothing. The museum holds four pieces of Bundy’s uniform: a khaki service coat or blouse, olive drab breeches, puttees (strips of cloth that were wrapped around the lower legs), and an overseas cap. The complete uniform also would have included a shirt, campaign hat (worn in the United States but replaced in France by the overseas cap), steel helmet, trench coat, and hobnailed shoes. In addition, Bundy would have carried a haversack to hold his tent, blanket, canteen, mess kit, entrenching tool (i.e., a shovel) and other equipment. He also would have been issued a gas mask in its own bag.

Bundy would have learned how to use all this equipment, as well as his weapons, during training at Camp Devens in eastern Massachusetts. Established in 1917, Camp Devens was the primary training center for the northeast region during World War I—over 100,000 men were trained there, and another 150,000 passed through when the camp became a separation center in 1918. Camp Devens was the home of the 76th Division, made up of troops drafted mainly from New England; the division consisted of two infantry brigades, one field artillery brigade, engineers regiments, signal battalions, field hospital units, and Loren Bundy’s unit, the 301st Supply Train. He was assigned to Company B, under the command of Lieutenant John L. Fox.

Souvenir postcard folder from Camp Devens

Sylvester Benjamin Butler, a captain in the 301st, kept a scrapbook of his WWI experiences, and his family has put some of his letters and other mementos online, giving us a glimpse into life at Camp Devens and in France. (Butler also did his officer’s training at Plattsburgh.) Upon their arrival in France, the 301st was stationed in the village of St. Armand-Montrond. Butler wrote of it, “All the houses are of stone or cement, & those not right in town are of one story only beside the attic. They seem located in such higglety-pigglety fashion, which the prevalence of high walls only serves to accentuate. The people are most cordial and welcome the American troops into their homes & buildings. The men are all trying hard to get the language. We fortunately have quite a few French speakers. The little French children are delightful; they are all learning the American salute and they do like to be noticed.” Censorship regulations prevented him from describing the unit’s military activities,  but as he reminded his mother, “I don’t want you to forget if I write all about people & scenery & white cows that I’m not on a Cook’s Tour or an Agricultural Experimentation Board.”

Loren Bundy’s overseas cap with MTC insignia

Butler reported that in March 1919, part of Company B had been “sent up to Vendonne [Vendôme] on special duty as a MTC detachment with the 6th Cavalry.” The MTC, or Motor Transport Corps, was established in August 1918 to procure, record, and maintain all motorized transport for the armed forces. Loren Bundy must have been part of this group, because the insignia on his collar and overseas cap is the winged helmet of the MTC, rather than the “T” of the Artillery and Supply Trains.

By the summer of 1919, Loren Bundy and many of his fellow Clinton County servicemen were back in New York. Tucked into the pocket of his uniform was the ticket for a “Mother’s Seat” at the county’s Welcome Home Celebration, issued to Kate Bundy. This extravaganza, held in Plattsburgh on August 5, deserves a post of its own. It started with a parade in which more than 1500 returned Clinton County soldiers, marines, and sailors marched, along with Civil War and Spanish-American War veterans. They were followed by some three dozen floats constructed by towns, businesses, and organizations, which depicted everything from a Red Cross tent to a model of a NC-4 airplane large enough to hold the entire Lynch-Bourdeau Orchestra.

Advertisement from the Adirondack Record
August 1, 1919

The parade ended at the Normal School campus, where everyone assembled and local lawyer Charles J. Vert gave an address. Afterwards, the “doughboys” were served a turkey dinner, and then the crowd shifted to the barracks, where spectators had the opportunity to see several boxing and wrestling matches, as well as a baseball game between the Post team and Port Henry. In the evening, there were two concerts in downtown Plattsburgh, followed by a fireworks display and finally dancing on Clinton Street until midnight. As the Daily Press concluded its coverage, “THUS ENDED A PERFECT DAY.”

For Loren Bundy, life seemed to return to normal after the excitement of the Welcome Home Celebration. He went to live in Poughkeepsie and married Violet Mandeville, a teacher originally from Lockport, NY, and they had a son, Leon Meade Bundy. In 1931 the family returned to Clinton County, eventually settling in Plattsburgh, where Loren worked as a teller for the Plattsburgh National Bank for thirty years. In 1942, he once again registered for the draft, though at the age of 46 he was unlikely to be called into service. This time, it was his son who joined the US Navy. Loren died in 1974 at the age of 77; he and Violet are buried in Riverview Cemetery in Chazy.

Although the United States’ involvement in World War I was relatively brief, it had a lasting effect on the men who served in the military. New York sent more soldiers to fight in WWI than any other state; New Yorkers represented about 10% of all US troops. Then there were the thousands of New Yorkers who worked as nurses, as members of voluntary associations, and at home on the farms and in the factories. The many new agencies created within the federal government to address the demands of wartime would change Americans’ relationship with the state; the suffrage movement received new impetus from the involvement of women in the war; and the Great Migration of African-Americans from the south to the urban centers of the north would produce new cultural and political movements. New York State—from the city to small towns like Chazy—would play an important role in all of these changes.

Webbs, Morgans, Delords, and Halls: The Family Story of a Sampler

Lavinia Morgan’s sampler

In my earlier post on samplers, I noted that it was often difficult to uncover much information about the lives of the girls and young women who made these pieces. Most women left little mark on the official historical record. However, if a woman has a connection to a “notable” person or family, that makes it more likely that something about her will be preserved. That turns out to be the case for Lavinia Morgan, whose sampler, stitched in 1806 in Wethersfield, Connecticut, is in the Alice’s collection.

Lavinia Morgan (1798-1874) was the first cousin of Frances Webb Hall, daughter of Henry Livingston Webb and Frances Delord, and the last member of the Delord family to live in the Kent-Delord House in Plattsburgh. Lavinia’s mother, Sarah Webb Morgan, was Henry Webb’s sister. Sarah and Henry were two of the ten children of Joseph Webb, Jr., and Abigail Chester Webb, prominent and well-to-do citizens of Hartford, Connecticut. The Webb home (built in 1752 by Joseph Webb, Sr.) was known as “Hospitality Hall,” and on one memorable occasion hosted George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau, who met there to plan the Yorktown campaign in 1781. (The house later became one of the sites in Wallace Nutting’s “Chain of Colonial Picture Houses,” and is now run as a museum by the Colonial Dames of America.)

Bowl from the Elias Morgan dinner service, now in
the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sally Webb (1775-1805) married Elias Morgan (1770-1812) in 1796. This was Morgan’s third attempt at marriage; his previous two wives (who also happened to be sisters) had both died within a year of their weddings. Sally and Elias had five children, of whom three—Lavinia, Mary Ann, and Henry—survived to adulthood. Although we don’t know much about Lavinia’s childhood, it seems safe to assume that she enjoyed the advantages of growing up in a wealthy and well-connected family. Elias Morgan was a merchant, and evidence of his success can be found in the large set of Chinese export porcelain dinnerware featuring the family coat of arms that he had made ca. 1785-90. A 19th-century family history noted that Lavinia and Mary Ann were still using the set; a number of pieces are now in museum collections and occasionally turn up at auctions.

Photo of the Elias Morgan house, ca. 1900
Courtesy of the Connecticut Historical Society

A photograph of a building identified as the “Elias Morgan House” in the collection of the Connecticut Historical Society is another hint at the family’s wealth. Although it isn’t clear whether Elias Morgan actually lived in this house or just built it, the large, fashionable home suggests prosperity and refinement.

Lavinia lost both of her parents when she was quite young—her mother died when she was about 8 years old, right around the time when she was making her sampler, and her father seven years later. It is likely that her Webb aunts and uncles then became her guardians. Elizabeth, Frances, and Amelia Webb never married, and they would have been the obvious choices to look out for their teenaged niece. Lavinia, too, would remain unmarried, and when young Frances Delord Webb came to live with her aunts after Henry’s death, Lavinia was living with them as well. Although Lavinia and Frances were first cousins, Lavinia was so much older that she was probably more like another aunt to Fanny.

Check for $89.50 paid to Lavinia Morgan from
the bequest of Henry L. Webb

A woman who did not marry often found herself in a precarious position in an era when there were few economic opportunities for women. Fortunately for Lavinia, her family’s wealth assured that she would be able to enjoy some financial independence, although she always lived with either her aunts or her married sister. In addition to whatever money she inherited from her parents, her Webb relatives made sure she was provided for. Both Henry Webb and Frances Webb made wills in the 1840s that included bequests providing Lavinia with a regular income. Aunt Frances’s will, made shortly before her death in 1844, left the three Morgan siblings with $1000 each to be invested on their behalf. Henry Webb, making his will in 1845, left $500 to Lavinia, and instructed his executors to make investments that would provide her with an income of $200 per year for the rest of her life. (As a point of comparison, a woman working in one of the Lowell mills at that time made about $1.75 per week.)

Abigail Chester Webb, grandmother of
Lavinia Morgan and Fanny Webb Hall

Both of these wills are part of the Kent-Delord Collection held at SUNY Plattsburgh’s Feinberg Library. The collection also includes letters written from Lavinia Morgan to her Uncle Henry, checks and other financial documents related to the money left to her by Henry Webb, and documents connected with Lavinia’s estate at the time of her death in 1874. Thanks to Lavinia’s connection with the Delord/Webb/Hall family, we have these items to fill out the story behind the sampler. Exactly how the sampler ended up at the Alice T. Miner Museum is not known. We can guess that Lavinia bequeathed the sampler to her cousin Fanny Webb Hall, and that after Fanny’s death in 1913 her personal belongings were scattered. Documents in the museum archives suggest that Fanny’s sister-in-law, Frances Hall Sargent, donated a number of Webb family items to Alice, which may have included the sampler. 

Lavinia’s sampler is currently on loan to the Kent-Delord House, where you can see it along with many other artifacts from the Delord, Webb, and Hall families. The Kent-Delord House will be kicking off its season with Museum Weekend, June 4 and 5, and will be offering guided tours all summer long, Tuesday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Place is the Hero: Plattsburgh’s Historical Pageant of the Champlain Valley

The early 20th century was the great age of historical pageantry. In communities all over the United States, and especially in the northeast, people came together to portray their towns’ histories in elaborate performances combining drama, music, and dance. Like proponents of the Colonial Revival movement, pageant organizers and creators hoped to use history as a tool for understanding the present. Pageants were usually held to mark an anniversary of the town’s founding or a significant event. And in doing so, pageants attempted to present a community’s past, present, and future as a coherent whole.

Official Program of the Centennial Celebration

Residents of Plattsburgh and surrounding areas participated in this trend when they performed the “Historical Pageant of the Champlain Valley” in September, 1914, as part of the Centennial Celebration of the Battle of Plattsburgh. This was an enormous undertaking, involving 1,200 performers, a chorus of 400 voices, and a 40-piece band. The Plattsburgh Sentinel estimated that about 5,000 people braved the chilly fall weather to attend the first performance (one of four), which was held on the parade grounds at the Plattsburgh Barracks.

Program for Margaret MacLaren Eager's Pageant of Utica

The Centenary Commission hired Margaret MacLaren Eager, a professional pageant director, to create and organize the pageant. Eager was at the peak of her career in 1914 and very well known in New York; she had directed the Pageant of Saratoga in 1913, the Pageant of Utica in the Mohawk Valley earlier in the summer of 1914, and would go on to direct the “Historical Pageant of Newburgh-on-Hudson: A Pageant of Peace and True Patriotism” the next year.

While Eager’s pageant incorporated people and events specific to the Champlain Valley, the general structure of the program would already have been familiar to audiences. The pageant was organized around a series of episodes depicting key historical moments, performed in pantomime, interspersed with symbolic interludes of music and dance. For example, in the “Pageant of the Champlain Valley,” Episode 8, depicting “The Coming of the First Settlers to Plattsburgh” was followed by an Interlude in which “the little wood creatures”—children dressed as butterflies, frogs, and crickets—“come out from among the trees, and glide stealthily about.”

In the northeast, the historical episodes tended to follow the same pattern, regardless of town: Indian life, discovery/exploration, early settlers, the Revolutionary War, 19th-century life, the Civil War. The “Pageant of the Champlain Valley” generally followed this model, though it was unusual in that concentrated on early history and skipped entirely over the 100 years between the battle and the present day—not surprising, however, given that the larger purpose of the celebration was to commemorate the Battle of Plattsburgh.

Ross Platt Lobdell as Judge Levi Platt

When casting roles in pageants, organizers loved to have descendants of key historical figures play their ancestors. This was thought to heighten the realism of the portrayal as well as make clear the connection between past and present. As an article in the Plattsburgh Sentinel reviewing the pageant put it, “The history of Plattsburgh and Clinton county is no longer comprised, limited, to the printed sheet. It is real and living and the grand-children of the grandparents have enacted the story.”

George MacDonough and his wife as
Commodore and Mrs. MacDonough

The Finale of the Champlain Valley pageant brought together past, present, and future. All of the actors from the historical episodes returned to the stage, and then were joined by residents of the towns of the Champlain Valley. “People of different and groups enter[ed], representing the various activities for good in the valley today.” Finally, the Spirit of the Mountains and the Spirit of the Valleys and the Waters entered, “form[ing] an aisle through which the Standing Army of the Future rides, led by the Angel of Peace.”

In September 1914, the war that had just begun in Europe was very much on people’s minds. Though the United States would not enter the war until 1917, Americans were concerned about the possibility, and Plattsburgh would soon become the center of the Preparedness Movement. While some Americans thought that pageants could act as a substitute for war, by providing a peaceful way of satisfying people’s needs for excitement and drama, others saw pageantry as an extension of military preparedness. Historian David Glassberg thinks that pageants “implicitly ‘prepared’ Americans for war through scenes that depicted past generations as at their best during wartime, exhibiting ingenuity, courage, solidarity, and a spirit of self-sacrifice.” This was certainly true in the 1914 pageant, with its emphasis on the Revolutionary War and, of course, the War of 1812.

Benjamin Mooers as General Mooers

We don’t know for sure if Alice Miner attended the pageant, but I like to think that she did. Certainly the ideas about history, community, and patriotism expressed in the performance aligned quite closely with her own values—the values she would express ten years later with the opening of her Colonial Collection.


Brief Outline of the Program for the Historical Pageant of the Champlain Valley

Prelude: The Face of the Waters and The First Indian
Episode 1: Discovery and Naming of Lake Champlain
Episode 2: A Party of French Soldiers and Long Sault Indians on an Exploring Expedition are attacked by Abenakis and Algonquin Indians
Episode 3: The Coming of William Gilliland’s artisans to Make a Clearing at Willsboro, May 10, 1765
Interlude: The Appeal of the Pines
Episode 4(a): The Coming of the Gilliland Family
Interlude: The Spirit of War
Episode 4(b): The Forming of the First Company in the Valley before the Revolution—Visit of General Gates and Benedict Arnold
Episode 4(c): The Arrest
Episode 5: Battle of Valcour
Episode 6: General Burgoyne Addresses Indian Tribes at the Falls of Boquet
Episode 7: The Court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette—Departure of Peter Sailly for the United States
Episode 8: The Coming of the First Settlers to Plattsburgh
Interlude: The Creatures of the Wood
Episode 9: The Building of the First Sawmill, called “The Glory of the Saranac”
Episode 10: Market Place on Court Day—Peter Sailly appointed Collector of Customs for the District of Champlain—The First Trip of the Steamboat Vermont
Episode 11: The War of 1812—Arrival of Courier Announcing the Declaration of War—The Essex Company
Episode 12: Murray’s Raid
Episode 13: Macdonough and his Bride on their way to Burlington
Episode 14(a): The Approach of the British
Episode 14(b): The Town of Plattsburgh Honors Commodore Macdonough
Finale: Enter Heralds of the Past, Present and Future on Horseback

First Impressions

before

after - including the settee and barometer

Every winter we keep our maintenance man Steve busy by renovating a room in the museum. In all of the rooms and halls, with the exception of the third floor ballroom, the wallpaper dates to some time in the 1950s or 60s - it is dingy and repaired in places. The tired old wallpaper does nothing to accent the collection or the wonderful building details and construction. So we remove the paper and choose an appropriate paint color - and then move objects around to fit the space and the theme of the room or hall better. Often the pictures on the walls seem haphazardly hung so this is our opportunity to bring an aesthetic eye to the walls and to create a more inviting and lovely room.

looking north - before

after... this little south hall holds the Battle of Plattsburgh exhibit

After finishing renovation of the third floor last winter, this winter we moved to the first floor hall and Steve renovated this very important space over the months of January, February and March. The results are stunning. The collection shines and the hall is so inviting now! I have taken the liberty of placing the wall objects so they relate better to the furniture and themes. I have also moved a few pieces that were easily overlooked in their previous homes, such as the handsome barometer.

below the stairs - before

after

Along with new paint and a fresh view, we have the newly conserved settee back from Williamstown Art Conservation Center. It is a George III carved mahogany settee from 1820 that has received a new show cover of crisp black hair cloth. You can read about the process and what the conservators discovered in my Wednesday, October 2, 2013 post, ‘Touring the Settee’. Stay tuned for a post about the completed settee. And come in for a tour! We are open Tuesday - Saturday with tours at 10am, Noon and 2pm.

look at the lovely settee!

A Man Named Zebulon

Last December some intrepid souls braved frigid temperatures to mark the 200 year anniversary of Pike's Cantonment in Plattsburgh, New York. Re-enactors held skirmishes and placed a wreath at the old post cemetery. Although the day was cold it was broken up by breaks inside warm buildings to listen to lectures and enjoy refreshments.

Warmth was generally not available to the original soldiers who camped out with Colonel Zebulon Pike in the winter of 1812. No winter preparations had been made for these men and they were forced to live in canvas tents with just blankets, small fires and cut pine boughs to keep them alive in the cold until they finished building shelters.

Outside of the Plattsburgh area most people know Zebulon Pike (January 5, 1779 - April 27, 1813) for the exploration he led of southern portions of the Louisiana Purchase in 1806-1807. In their reconnaissance Pike's Expedition discovered Pike's Peak in Colorado, the headwaters of the Rio Grande River, crossed over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in New Mexico, and were even arrested by Spanish troops in what is now Colorado and brought to either Chihuahua or Santa Fe (depending on your source) for questioning by the Governor.

But it was during the War of 1812 that Pike made his mark here in the north country. He commanded between 2,000-3,000 men as they built winter quarters - not completed until December. It is said that over 10% of soldiers under his command died during the first winter in the cantonment. They quartered in Plattsburgh until spring of 1813, and the British later burned the cantonment down. It's location was subsequently forgotten, until recently. In the last few years, through the dogged research of local historian, Keith Herkalo, the site has been rediscovered and archaeological digs have been undertaken.

On January 12, 1813 Zebulon Pike wrote a letter from Plattsburgh sent to Colonel Learned reporting on the state of military affairs in Plattsburgh and asserting that he had collected all available men and taken possession of all public property. This letter is in the collection here at The Alice T. Miner Museum.

Just three months after this letter was written newly promoted Brigadier General Zebulon Pike lost his life in the successful attack on York, Canada (now Toronto). He was just 34 years old - but you wouldn't guess it by reading his impressive resume!