“Writing with Scissors”: The Scrapbooks of Alice Miner

A page from one of Alice’s scrapbooks

In the years after the Civil War, the American reading public found itself nearly overwhelmed by a flood of inexpensive printed matter. Daily newspapers, weekly journals, and monthly magazines constantly rolled off the printing presses and could be purchased for as little as a penny each. These publications were cheap and disposable, yet they contained much valuable information. The problem was, how to keep up with all this information and be able to find it again when you needed it? Anyone who’s ever found, then lost, a bit of information on the internet will sympathize with this problem. Just as we use bookmarks, RSS feeds, Pinterest, and Tumblr to organize digital information, nineteenth-century readers came up with their own solution to information overload: the scrapbook.

Just about everyone made scrapbooks—men and women, young and old, black and white, rich and poor—and Alice Miner was no exception. The museum’s archives hold three handsome cloth and leather-bound scrapbooks full of articles dating from the 1880s to the early 1900s. Alice saved articles and illustrations from Chicago’s daily papers and from monthly magazines like The Century, Scribner’s, The Critic, and Review of Reviews. Most of the items she collected related to the world of fine art, literature, and history, with occasional forays into religion and current events—thus giving us some useful insight into Alice’s interests in the years before she began the Colonial Collection.

A commonplace book kept by the Rev. Thomas
Austen in the 1770s, in the collection of the
Harvard University Library

The post-Civil War scrapbook has its antecedents in two earlier forms: the commonplace book and the friendship album. Commonplace books were used by seventeenth- and eighteenth-century readers to keep a record of their reading by copying out passages of texts; the technique of keeping a commonplace book was part of the curriculum at many colleges into the nineteenth century. Friendship albums, popular in the early nineteenth century, were portfolios of drawings, prints, verses, and signatures that circulated among friends.

As printed matter became more widely available in the second half of the nineteenth century, clipping and saving pieces of text emerged as an alternative to copying them out by hand. Many Americans began making scrapbooks during the Civil War, as a way of keeping a record of the momentous historical event they were living through. In the 1880s, technological changes in printing, paper-making, and transportation vastly increased the number and geographical range of newspapers and magazines. In 1880, there were 850 English-language daily papers; by 1900 there were 1,967. The large city daily papers might easily have half a million readers each.

An Agricultural Report repurposed as a scrapbook

“Many beautiful, interesting, and useful thoughts come to us through the newspapers, that are never seen in books, where they can be referred to when wanted. When they are gone they are lost.” So wrote E.W. Gurley, the author of Scrap-books and How to Make Them, a comprehensive guide to scrapbooking published in 1880. Gurley gave detailed instructions for choosing a book (he recommended repurposing old U.S. Patent Office Reports), finding and sorting articles, making one’s own glues, and finally pasting the clippings into the scrapbook (“Some will think that anyone can paste a slip of paper in a book, but every one can’t do it properly until they have learned how”). Once the scrapbook was completed, it could be used like any other book: “Read and re-read the best of them; study them and memorize their useful and pleasant thoughts, and you will never regret the time occupied in making your SCRAP-BOOKS.”

Page from Alice’s scrapbook with written
notation added

Historian Ellen Gruber Garvey notes that scrapbooks played an important role for “people in positions of relative powerlessness,” who used their books “to make a place for themselves and their communities by finding, sifting, analyzing, and recirculating writing that mattered to them.” For example, “African-Americans wrote histories unavailable in books by making scrapbooks of clippings from both the black and the white press....In massive compilations—dozens or even hundreds of volumes, in some cases—black people asserted ownership of news and culture.”

For people who, for whatever reason, did not express themselves in their own writing, scrapbooks became a way of “writing with scissors.” Though Alice Miner obviously was highly literate and did write letters and diaries, most of them have not survived to the present day. Her scrapbooks, then, are an important piece of “writing” that helps to fill in our knowledge of her early life. The magazines she read, the articles she saved, and the ways she chose to organize them, all tell us something about her inner life, as well as the way she wished to present herself to the world. In future posts, we’ll take a closer look at Alice’s books.

Sources:

E.W. Gurley, Scrap-books and How to Make Them: Containing Full Instructions for Making a Complete and Systematic Set of Useful Books (Author’s Publishing Company, 1880).

Susan Tucker, Catherine Ott, and Patricia P. Buckler, eds., The Scrapbook in American Life (Temple University Press, 2006).

Carl F. Kaestle and Janice A. Radway, eds., A History of the Book in America, vol. 4 (University of North Carolina Press, 2009).

Ellen Gruber Garvey, Writing with Scissors: American Scrapbooks from the Civil War to the Harlem Renaissance (Oxford University Press, 2013).

A Visit to the Archives: Census Records

Headquarters of Library and Archives Canada
photo by Padraic Ryan

I recently had the opportunity to visit Ottawa, and while I was there, I spent some time at Library and Archives Canada, looking for information about Alice’s early life in Goderich. As anyone who’s done genealogical research knows, censuses, birth and baptismal records, city directories, and newspapers are all good ways to find information about people, but they all have their downsides. Just finding the document you need can be tricky, though digitization is making things easier. And any data collected by human beings—especially on a large scale like a national census—is bound to contain some errors. 

Alice’s brother James Saunders Trainer

In doing my research, I began by examining the records of the 1861 census of Canada West (what’s now Ontario), the 1871 and 1881 Canadian national censuses, the United States censuses of 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940 (unfortunately, almost all the records of the 1890 census were destroyed in a fire), and the 1925 New York State census. I found some curious discrepancies among these records which raise some questions. 

One of the things I wanted to find out is when the various members of the Trainer family emigrated from Canada to the United States. We can say with some certainty that the three oldest brothers (Ephraim, James, and Bernard) had left by 1881, because they don't appear in that year’s Canadian census. One of the questions on the U.S. census is the year that non-native-born residents arrived in the United States. In 1900, James Trainer’s year of arrival is listed as 1880; in 1910 it’s 1879; and in 1920, 1885! So what caused this discrepancy? Did James forget or misstate the year? Did the census enumerator write down the wrong number? Was there some miscommunication at work or just simple human error? It’s impossible to say at this distance.

Bernard “Barney” Trainer and his wife,
Grace Scoresby Trainer

Another curious thing came up regarding Alice’s brother Bernard. The Canadian censuses as well as the 1910 U.S. census indicate that he, like the rest of the siblings, was born in Ontario. However, on the 1925 New York State census form, “Canada” has been crossed out and corrected to read “U.S.” as his place of birth. Then in the 1930 census, he gives his place of birth as Michigan. Did Bernard deliberately mislead the census enumerator, and if so, why? Bernard was born in 1859 but Canada did not require municipalities to record births until 1869, so until we can find some other record (perhaps a baptismal register) to confirm his place of birth, that will remain a mystery.

Alice’s youngest brother,
 William Edwin Trainer

Census records are a snapshot of a specific moment in time. For example, when we look at the 1881 Canadian census, we see that only five Trainer siblings remain in Goderich. Matilda, Bertha, and Louisa are all working as teachers, William is attending school, and Alice is at home. We know that their parents, Bernard and Louisa Saunders Trainer, have both died, and the three oldest boys have gone off to Chicago, but of course that information isn’t recorded in the census. Other sources are needed to fill in the details, and it would also be helpful to know something about what was happening in Goderich more broadly during that time.

In my next post I’ll tell you what I found out about the Trainer family during a particularly important period in the late 1860s and early 1870s. It’s a very sad story, but one that I think gives us some valuable insight into the later lives of Alice and her siblings.


The Trainer family photos in this post were donated to the museum by Helen Highley Matel, James Trainer’s granddaughter.

A Carpet Bag's Story

I recently came across this accounting of one of the objects in the museum collection. This carpet bag belonged to William Miner's uncle John, and is now safely tucked away in storage. Its history teaches us of Uncle John and Aunt Huldah's lives as well... John and Huldah raised two orphans - Dora and their nephew William. I hope you enjoy the tale. To read more about Eva and Dora see my blog post from September 12, 2008, or click this link http://minermuseum.blogspot.com/2008/09/family-returns.html

"Written by Eva Simonds Vincent, daughter of Dora LaPorte Simonds, in her late eighties. She donated the carpet bag to the Alice T. Miner Museum.

After Eva's death in February of 1983, her sister Anna had Eva's story typed and gave it, too, to the Alice T. Miner Museum.

As we grow older our memory wanders back to days of long ago. I opened my closet door one day and found my old - but not quite forgotten - carpet bag hanging there. That old bag seemed to be trying to tell me a story, so I listened to what it had to say.

A Carpet Bag's Story

Many things have happened to me in my life - me, an old carpet bag! Did you know that Eva you are the third girl to care for me?

But my story begins with a very young man. Oh, he was tall, handsome, and very anxious for travel and adventure. He came into the store in this very small settlement in Northern New York State and bought me. My colors were bright, and fine leather handles had I then. I was very excited, for he packed me with what clothes he had and we headed for the west coast! a far place from my little settlement home.

It was 1849, and many times I heard men whispering the words "Gold in California!" The trip was not easy, but my new master, John Miner and I were young and eager for adventure.

While we were prospecting, a different kind of fever than the one that brought us out there broke out in camp. John, only 20 years old, came down with yellow fever. The Doctor did all he could for him, but John was very bad. Water was forbidden to the sick, but that was what he craved.

Now young Master John had a belt around his middle. In it he kept the gold nuggets that he had collected. Even while he was so sick, he bribed a small boy who ran errands for the men to bring him a watermelon. He hid that watermelon under his cot with me. He would suck on it piece by piece for the water that he craved.

When the Doctor visited again, Master John's condition was very much changed! The Doctor claimed that John had 'fever-eating watermelon', and that's the reason he lived to bring me back to the east and my home again.

When we returned, John decided to take part of the homestead and marry. He found a pretty young girl named Huldah. She was very young - yes, twenty years younger than John. Huldah was the first girl to love and care for me, and she layed (sic) me safely away with the belt in which my master had carried his California gold. The gold was gone now. Some of it John used to buy gold banded dishes for his bride.

When John and Huldah had been married for three years, Dora, a child whose mother had died, came to live with them. She became the second girl to love and care for me. When she was old enough to play dress-up, she carried me everywhere!

Dora, Uncle John, and Aunt Huldah, ca. 1867

Many happy years passed and before I knew it, it was time for Dora to be married. She was married in John and Huldah's home, but afterwards I lost sight of her for awhile. It was a very lonely time for me.

Before I knew it though, Dora's children came, and I was happy again! Her little girl came to visit Aunt Huldah and Uncle John and to play with me. What happy years those were!

Then came a time when Master John grew sick. He had no 'fever-eating watermelon' this time. It was very sad for me when my young Master John died.

Dora is the woman seated on the left... and could that be Aunt Huldah next to her?

Dora and her family came to live again in Master John's house with Huldah. We were to have a happy time again. My first and second little girls were together again. Dora's child, Eva, was the third little girl to love and cherish me.

Eva and Anna Simonds

As time goes by, those we love pass away. Huldah, my first little girl, went to be with my Master John. 

Dora packed me away for a long time in her closet. When she went to live with her daughter, my third little girl, I was happy once again. Eva took very loving care of me for I was nearly one hundred years old! Many happy years passed.

My Dora is long gone now, but I am still with old friends. Eva has no little girls to pass me on to, but she has arranged it to return me to the very spot where I was bought so many years ago by my young Master John! Where the old store stood, there is now a very fancy stone museum! It will be wonderful to be loved and at rest - and home!"

Europe With Alice

On March 9, 1929 Alice T. Miner and three friends embarked on a journey to Europe. Alice wrote about the trip in a small black leather travel journal given to her as a Valentine's Day gift by Will. In addition, she bought numerous postcards in the places they visited and wrote dates on each one to record when they experienced these cities, sites and landmarks. This post is a continuation of their journey, to read earlier installments you can go to the first article, the second article, or the third article by clicking the words. You can also just scroll down the home page of the blog to get to the earlier installments.

When we left Alice and her friends they had just spent the day with a guide named Mr. Gallo who showed them around Ravello, Amalfi and Sorrento. Alice writes,

"Mar 27th

Got up early. I will never forget our lovely rooms in the Tramontano Hotel We overlooked Bay of Naples & it was lovely. We shopped and bought shawls, inlaid boxes & lace table cloths. Started for Pompeii at 11AM. Had an interesting drive to Pompeii. Had same guide and chauffer. The drive was lovely. Lunched at Grand Hotel where manager recognized me, having spent years in the Waldorf. Spent two hours seeing the excavations. Returned to Hotel Vesuve feeling very tired."

Tramontano Hotel

Pompeii - artists rendition on the top half and photograph of the same spot below - very interesting!

Mar 28th

Naples, Hotel Vesuve

Took motor to National Museum. Had guide for two hours. Saw Pompeiian relics, statuary, jewels, mosaics and spent a short time in the Art Gallery.

Went & had lunch at Belolino. Beautiful view of Naples & the Bay. Delicious food and we all felt like a million dollars. Enjoyed everything. Went to the Am. Ex. & shopped near by. Bought hand colored photos of Naples, Sorrento and Ravello from Bowinkle's Art Store. Also two silhouettes. Bought antique pin, Mother of pearl & small turquoises. Had fun. 

Pompeii Anglo American Hotel - says "Mar 29 lunched..." on back

Mar 29th

Naples

Went to Am. Ex. Bought nothing. Walked through principal street. Saw narrow Italian flower market & also regular market street. Had luncheon Via Roma. The food tasted good but restaurant not very inviting. We wished to go to the ladies room, young man took us across the way & down stairs to a barber shop. Paid 4 Lira. Had a good laugh. Walked down Via Roma met man who had been in America. Also another who wished to go. Talked with them. Went to Sapios (?), Mrs. H bought necklace.

Mar 30th

En route from Naples to Rome

Left Naples at 9:10 arrived Rome at 12:15. It was a lovely ride through rich cultivated country. Many sheep & long horned cattle. Mts in distance. Stopped at Hotel de Russi, the best yet. We were treated like Queens. After a delicious luncheon we walked over to Am. Ex. where I got a long letter from Lou (her sister Louisa). Then drove to St. Peters and certainly was awed by the magnificent edifice. Talked with verger who told me, in French, that he would have seats in the chancel for four of us & to be there at 9:30. Had pleasant visit with two Chicago girls. Saw much of interest. Drove back in carriage. 

(At this point there is a gap in post cards so I will borrow from other sources for the purpose of illustration.)

St. Peter's

Mar 31st

Easter Sun. in Rome

Rec'd cable from Will. Arrived at St Peters at 9:30. Vast crowds were gathering. Had no difficulty in finding verger who gave us good seats in front. The pomp & display was wonderful to see. Cardinal Merry de Val celebrated Mass and the music was lovely. It was a beautiful warm day. We had luncheon at Fagians on Piazza Collona. Walked to Scala Spagna & mounted stairs to Pincio gardens where we sat, rested & enjoyed watching the people. In looking over the paraphet from the top of the hillwe found ourselves looking into the garden of our hotel. Birds were singing. Visited Santa Marie del Popolo. 

Santa Maria del Popolo

Apr 1st

Rome

Am. Ex. guide met us at 9:30 (Achille Renzi). Fine auto took us to Vatican. Saw the beautiful marble statues, Nero's dining room with marble fountain. Sistine Chapel. Bought 2 pictures. Bought rosary & had it blessed by Pope Pius 11th for Mrs. Jeffery. Returned to hotel for lunch & rested. At 2:30 started with guide visited the coliseum & down the Appian Way to church of Saint Sebastian & Catacombs. Back to hotel & had tea. Wrote letter to Lou. Had fine dinner. All well.

Alice T. Miner. Sylvia Silver, Laura Haynes, Jessica Johnson 

and the guide Achille Renzi in Rome

We will leave Alice and her companions enjoying their stay in Rome. 

Exploring the Old World

As Alice Miner and her friends neared the European continent their comfort and excitement grew. Soon they would be off the Laurentic and exploring ancient cities through the assistance of skilled guides. The temperatures also were warming and everyone was feeling well and happy, including Jessica Johnson, who had experienced so much sea sickness on the trip across the Atlantic.

Alice writes, "Mar 18th
It rained and was quite cool. Wrote letters and sent postal cards. Met an interesting lady who told us about Paris & London. Jessie is feeling fine & we are having lots of fun. Had loquats for dinner. They grow at Madeira Island. Went to bed early. There was a fancy dress party and some of the costumes were fine. (can't read words) dressed as children, their costumes made out of newspapers won first prize. Slept well"

Gibraltar

Alice does not seem to have brought along a camera on her trip abroad in 1929. In order to remember the places visited she purchased postal cards and assiduously wrote the dates on the backs of each city or site she visited.

"Mar 19th
We awakened to find ourselves nearing Gibraltar. Had an early breakfast. Bought extra tickets to go over by tender to Algeciras, Spain - where we spent the morning and had lunch at the Reina Christina. Did not like the Spanish cooking. Met ... West's friends. The streets were made of cobble stones & there was poverty everywhere. Went over to Gibraltar & took auto to galleries where we climbed 500 feet to see the view. It was wonderful. Saw public gardens. Shopped. Bought kimona & perfume. Returned to ship tired and slept like a top."

Algeciras

"Mar 20th

The morning was lovely & the Mediterranean looked very blue. I wrote letters for an hour. Walked on deck with Jessie. Afternoon rested in deck chairs. In the Eve had a game of bridge & at 9 o'clock went down to listen to Mr. Spellman give a splendid lecture on the interesting cities we were to visit. We are all keen over the prospect of seeing Algiers in the morning. Slept fairly well."

Algiers

Hotel St. George, Algiers

"Mar 21st
Awakened to find ourselves entering the harbour of Algiers. The city is very oriental in appearance. The city is built on a hill site & the buildings are white with red tiled roofs. Dirt predominates. I saw Arabs, Bedouins & Jews & French all huddled together. The poorer section has very narrow streets & they are very steep. The poor are lying in the streets. We visited a weaving establishment, saw little girls 5 yrs old at work. Had dinner at the St. George Hotel, very fine. Beautiful gardens. Had special guide for the day, the weather was pleasant. Bought nothing, everybody well.

Mar 22nd
Had lovely quiet day on shipboard. The Mediterranean Sea was shafire (sic) blue & very beautiful. The sunset was magnificent and at night there was a full moon. Have met some charming people on board. Many are on a long cruise to Egypt & the Holy Land."

Monaco

Monte Carlo

"Mar 23rd

Monaco & Monte Carlo

It was a beautiful day. We landed on Monaco by tender where autos were on hand to take us on the Corniche Dr. A most beautiful roadway built by Napoleon - Fruit trees were in bloom & the view was very wonderful. We drove to Nice where we had luncheon at the Majestic Hotel. Very fine. Mrs. Silver unexpectedly met a friend (Miss Murray) on the street. We returned to Monte Carlo & visited the Casino where we tried our luck & lost. We all had a lovely day.

Mar 24th

On board the Laurentic

A lovely bright warm day and so calm. Passed Elba Island, Monte Cristo & Corsica.

Attended Episcopal service in Lounge Room. Captain French & Mr. Parton read the service & orchestra did the music. Lounged in the aft. Packed our bags & had a great time settling our tips. For a time thought I had lost some Am. Ex. checks. It was only a scare. Talked with Mrs. Curtis of St. Louis, Mrs. Tucker of Witchaws (hard to read) & Mrs. Treadwell of Chicago. They are all continuing the cruise to the H. Land."

Naples

"Mar 25th

Naples

Arrived at 7am. Left ship at 9 o'clock. Am. Ex. man took charge of baggage & soon we arrived at Hotel Vesuve. Had large spacious rooms over looking the quay. First walked to Am. Ex. office . No letter no cable. Returned via the park & visited the Aquarium & saw octopus & every kind of sea life. Was amused watching children & nurse maids. Had luncheon at Hotel & shopped. Called on Mr. Sapio. Bought tortoise shell vanity box. Had lots of fun on the street with natives. Came back to hotel for dinner."

Ravello

Amalfi

Sorrento

"Mar 26th

Left at 9AM in auto with private guide Mr. Gallo. He was patient, attentive & kind. Drove through the valley & up the mountains 3,000 feet to Revello (sic) for lunch at Carrisos Hotel. Met travellers from the Laurentic. Had clear day and saw the Mediterranean in all its beauty. Drove in sight of it all aft. visiting Amalfi & arrived at Sorrento at 3:30. Visited some shops & bought dress for Nancy. When at Revello we went into the old church & saw the wonderful mosaic pulpit. Arrived at Hotel Vesuve in time for dinner. Saw Judge Clark & where we had lunch the manager recognized me having seen me at the Waldorf. He was in the Palm Room for years."

We'll leave Alice and her friends in Sorrento... next stop Pompeii!

A Journey With Alice

In honor of the 150th year since Alice T. Miner's birth I will take you along on her trip to Europe... Embarked upon on March 9, 1929 and recorded in a pocket-sized leather journal with "My Trip Abroad" and "A.T.M." embossed on the cover. Tucked in the journal is a small envelope (about 1.5 x 2.5 inches) with "Valentine Greetings" in gold, gothic font on the front... Inside the envelope is William's calling card... Perhaps the journal was his Valentine's Day gift to his Heart's Delight?

Alice and three friends traveled from New York City on the White Star Line for a Mediterranean cruise. Their ship was the S.S. Laurentic - an 18,000 ton ocean liner built in 1927 and powered by coal. Alice writes,
"Mar 9, 1929
Left New York in company with Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Haynes & Mrs. Silver for cruise on Mediterranean. The day was fine but cold. We met in the Waldorf Fri & sailed Sat. Mar. 9 having spent a very happy time in the City together. Will, Mr. Johnson & Mrs. Clapp were on hand to see us off. Flowers, fruit, telegrams & letters kept us busy for a long time. We were a happy crowd."

Not long after she took this trip Alice experienced great tragedy and change in her life, and in the lives of those she knew. October 1929 the stock market crash occurred... and in April 1930 her husband Will died suddenly while undergoing elective surgery at Physicians' Hospital in Plattsburgh. For these three months on her journey she experienced no hardship, but for missing her dear Will.

Mar 9th 1929

Left New York at noon in company with Mrs. Johnson, Haynes and Silver. Will was at boat to see us off. The day was clear but cold. Our flowers were beautiful. The Am. Ex. Co. had reserved nice table in dining room. Service fine - had brisk walk on deck in aft - Wrote letters & retired early Slept well.

The Waldorf in New York City

The ladies apparently did most (if not all) of their planning through the American Express Company, including reservations for lodging and even tour guides in the various sites they visited. Alice was 65 years old and interested in objects to collect for her museum, and in the historical sites and churches they would visit. This was not her first trip to Europe as evidenced by her comments later in the journal.

The White Star Line docks in New York City

The Plattsburgh Republican reports, "A party of North Country people, consisting of Mrs. Corydon S. Johnson, Mrs. Cassius D. Silver and Mrs. Irving S. Haynes of Plattsburgh, and Mrs. W.H. Miner of Chazy and Chicago, are leaving today for New York whence they will sail tomorrow on the S.S. Berengaria for France. They will be gone for two months." These ladies were all prominent local citizens married to - Dr. Cassius Silver... the beloved doctor of Alice and William Miner and the man who inspired them to build Physicians' Hospital... Corydon Johnson - a local politician and Irving Haynes - also a Plattsburgh doctor. Clearly the newspaper did not have the right ship name.

Mar 10th
Awakened feeling quite refreshed. All four ladies enjoyed the morning on deck - It is bitter cold. Arrived in Boston at 1:30 P.M. - Took passengers aboard stayed an hour and then started on our long voyage - Wrote and mailed Jim (perhaps her brother) a letter in Boston. The quartette had our first pleasant, chatty aft together. Retired at 9 P.M.

We'll catch up with Alice and her friends in a later post...

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!