The Peru Gazette

On August 7th, 2009 Peru Town Historian Ron Allen and his wife Carol presided over the dedication of historical markers for Peru Landing and Port Jackson. The dedication ceremonies at the Valcour Conference Center took place at the exact place where Port Jackson was located. It was the point where many of our ancestors arrived in the North Country and it became their economic link to the outside world. The remarks Ron Allen made that August day taught a valuable historical lesson and should be preserved. Therefore, the Peru Gazette asked his permission to publish them online.

PORT JACKSON

Port Jackson was founded by Robert Platt in 1820. Robert was the son of Zephenia Platt.  Robert owned about 700 acres in this area. His stone house still stands just a stone’s throw south on the right side of the highway (Route 9). Robert Platt’s house eventually became the home of George and Dr. Ruth Copeland who raised their family there.  Their youngest daughter Nancy still resides in the house with her husband Robert Hughes.

It is not entirely clear how this port came to be called Port Jackson. Jim Bailey, City of Plattsburgh historian, did extensive research thinking that perhaps it was named after James Jackson who was a descendant of Samuel Jackson, one of Peru’s earliest settlers.  However, Jim found no conclusive evidence that the port was named after him. 

Dr. David S. Kellog, who compiled many historical notes on this area, believed that the port was named after President Andrew Jackson who was inaugurated right around the time this port was being built. 

I personally tend to lean toward this theory as Andrew Jackson, or Old Hickory as he was called, was very well known and was very popular even before he became president. So it seems quite logical that the port was named after him, but again there is no conclusive evidence.

So, the question is—why is this area not still called Port Jackson?  Well, it probably would have been except for the fact that the port and the area surrounding it grew to the point that it needed its own post office.

By the 1850’s, the Port Jackson community had grown to include a church, a schoolhouse which still stands (both the church & the school were built on land donated by Robert Platt), a blacksmith shop , a tavern, several residences and other buildings. 

When this Port Jackson community applied for a post office they were told that another community near Amsterdam, N.Y. was also called Port Jackson. That post office had been in operation since 1835. 

So another name for this post office had to be selected.  And how easy it must have been. All they had to do was look out their windows and there it was–Valcour Island.  This area’s proximity to the island and Benedict Arnold’s historic 1776 Naval battle made it a logical choice.  Valcour it was.

For awhile both the names Port Jackson and Valcour Post Office appeared on maps (Beers, 1869).  Gradually, however, the name changed to Valcour. The Valcour Post Office remained operational into the early 1940’s.

In 2005, the Association of Public Historians of N.Y.S. held their State Conference in Amsterdam and Jim Bailey and Addie Shields visited the Port Jackson there, located right across the Mohawk River from the conference hotel.  Addie and Jim had several pictures taken in front of the boat launch located there.  That Port Jackson is now called South Amsterdam.

I can’t begin to tell you just how busy and active this port was during the 1800’s.  All types of vessels, sail boats, canal boats and steamboats could be seen coming and going from the wharf.  There were long lines of horse drawn wagons waiting to load or be unloaded with all types of local goods and produce—lumber, iron from Arnold Hill, all kinds of agricultural products including tons and tons of potatoes. 

The port was so busy, in fact, that in 1857 when St. Peter’s, the area’s oldest Catholic Church, took their first census, they conducted a good portion of it right here at Port Jackson.  In addition to the residents already living here on a permanent basis, people from the surrounding countryside used to come and live in tents during the summer to work at the dock loading and unloading ships.

We have no actual photograph of Port Jackson.  If anyone knows of one I would be very interested in seeing it and possibly obtaining a copy.  But we do have this marvelous reprint of a woodcut which appeared in Ballou’s Photographic Journal of May 5, 1857.  It is the one on the front of your program. There is a description on the reverse side of the woodcut which reads and I quote, “PORT JACKSON , CLINTON COUNTY, N.Y. The picturesque rural scene presented in our engraving was drawn for us on the spot by Mr. Gilburn.  Port Jackson is located on the western side of Lake Champlain and is the outlet to the interior towns of the county.  The mineral and agricultural products of this part of the State are shipped hence to Albany and New York in exchange for the various necessaries and luxuries of life.  It is a landing place for steamboats and, though small, is an enterprising and lively place.  The Green Mountains are seen in the distance.”

In 1876, the railroad line was finally completed from Plattsburgh to Albany and that spelled the beginning of the end for this busy port as goods could now be shipped by rail faster and cheaper than by steamship. 

The transition of activity from Peru Landing to Port Jackson was a very gradual process taking several years. Likewise the transition from sea shipments to rail shipments was a very gradual process taking many years to complete.

With the completion of the railroad line, Valcour got its own railroad station located approximately 300 yards south of Laphams Mills railroad  crossing. Laphams Mills Road at that time continued right across Route 9 and ended right here at the wharf.   So, while the shipment of goods decreased with the arrival of the railroad, transportation of people actually increased.

Port Jackson and the Valcour area actually became a transportation hub for both goods and people as there was still no way to cross or travel up and down the lake other than by steamboat.  So with the railroad station and highway right near the wharf, transfers from steamboat to stagecoach or train was an easy process,

Judge Charles Lewis, who lived in one of the nearby houses, relayed a story to Jim Bailey as it was told to him by a lady who lived in his house at the turn of the century. She said she could board the steamer Ticonderoga here and ride to Plattsburgh for 18 cents.  If she walked over to the train station and raised a flag there as a signal, she could ride the train to Plattsburgh for the same 18 cent fare.

Port Jackson and its surrounding property were eventually sold to Bissell and Morgan and then to a William Reed. Reed sold the property to Joseph Sibley for $8,000 in 1897.  Joseph Sibley was a U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania  and quite well to do.  He bought up adjacent land including the stone Methodist Church.  Sibley made many improvements to the property and dock and built this large boathouse in which we sit today.  The main house was destroyed by fire in 1926 and rebuilt the same year.

Joseph Sibley died in 1915 and left the estate to his sister Celia Sibley Wilson who was the wife of a successful New York banker.

Celia Wilson died in 1944 and left the estate to her sister Josephine Sibley Heathcote.  Josephine died in 1951.  She had two daughters but neither wanted the property so it was auctioned off by Paul Calkins at the request of the estate trustee James A. Fitzpatrick.

Coastland Development Corp. bought the property for $124,000 and in 1963 sold it to Plattsburgh State Teachers College Benevolent and Educational Association which later became known as College Auxiliary Services (C.A.S.).  The property has since been renovated, restored and maintained by C.A.S. and used for various conferences and celebrations such as ours today.

And that concludes the history of Port Jackson—

Just to add a personal note— During the 1944-1951 period when the estate was owned by Josephine Sibley Heathcote, her chauffeur, Robert Hartmann, and his wife used to stay in one of my grandparents’ summer cottages.  We got to know them quite well and they became good friends of my family and remained so for many years.

I again, would like to publically thank Jim Bailey for his extensive research on Port Jackson and his willingness to share it.  And I also would like to thank  Billie Reid for bringing Jim’s work to my attention.