History as I Know It

Most of the history that I "know" about Campbell's Point comes from many years of sitting, watching sunsets and listening to the tall tales and stories that the older generations told on those balmy summer evenings. 

Over the years, I have from time to time double checked a few facts that seemed a little far fetched with the newspaper accounts of the episodes in question.Hopefully what I end up with is - as close to the truth as it can be...without being boring....

Maureen McGowan Breen

Before Campbells Point Belonged to Archibald Campbell

Archibald Campbell married Sarah Holden. Sarah Holdens family lived on Chestnut Ridge Road - the road that is right infront of the Campbells Point gates. In 1853 Archibald Campbell purchased the property across the street from his In-Laws Timothy and Elizabeth Ellis Holden.The 1860 and 1870 census lists Archibalds  occupation as a farmer. But local newspapers have another story to tell.

The Legend of Jim Crow

Thursday Sept 1, 1927 Cape Vincent Eagle "Buried Treasure Along the NNY Boarder"

A recent issue of the Syracuse  Post-Standard contained the following  interesting article from its Watertown  correspondent:  Stories of buried wealth, secreted  in some obscure cache on the border  line of Northern New York have  within the last two weeks aroused  the spirit of treasure trove in many  North Country youth. It matters not  that the hidden wealth is purported to  represent loot from a church robbed  by a thief 'who is claimed to have  maltreated its custodian, for even the  long sought chests of Captain Kidd  lost nothing of their value from the  bloodshed in their taking. 

This upstate region, and particularly  Jefferson county, has its legends  of unrecovered treasure, golden coins  that would be far more valuable today  than when left to mould under  sod or water by their former owners,  through the additional worth of raity  and the romantic story that would  attach to them. For, if the tales of  lost wealth are to be credited, all  could not be recovered with pick and  spade, submarine salvage being required  for no small part.  Not all of those stories are to be  substantiated with documentary records,  although many historical facts  fit together to support the traditions.  With few exceptions, the testimony  is in the form of legends, handed  down in the communities concerned,  often presenting detailed advice upon  which no few have .sought reward but,'  thus far, failed of realization. 

The first white settler within the region knew Jefferson county is identified  with buried treasure, although  increasing popularity and settlement  at the Campbell's Point home of the  Lakeside Country Club has failed to  yield British pouna or pence or even  currency of the youthful United  States to substantiate the theory.     Legend of Jim Crow, Trapper.  First known white inhabitant to  take up what might be termed permanent  residence here was Jim Crow,  a trapper, who established a cabin  on what now is known as Campbell's  Point. He is reported to have come  here shortly before the conclusion of  the revolution, about 1780, and more  than 10 years preceding the arrival  of the pioneer band of permanent  settlers to establish themselves in  Ellisburg.  Knowledge of Crow is meager, but  it is supposed that he was a tory,  who participated with Iroquois war  parties and their tory associates in  raids upon the Mohawk, locating on  the Lake Ontario shore about the  time the first United Empire loyalists  were making their way through, this  wilderness to Canada. He erected  for himself a log hut or dugout supposedly on the point terminating the  sand beach south of the Lakeside  Country club house, and there dwelt  for a number of years, pursuing his"  avocation of a trapper, and disposing  of his pelts each season by hauling  them overland on the snow during  the winter, aided by friendly Indians  of the Onondaga tribe.  Settlers came and cleared spots in  the virgin forest, the habitations  about Ellisburg being augmented by  other settlements at Brownville,  Champion and in the Hodman hills,  but Crow seems to have continued  his usual routine of trapping and  trading, mingling little with the citizens  of the new republic. 

It is believed to have been during  17915 that a party of hunters calling  at the Campbell's point dugout found  the aged man dead upon the floor,  having, as far as has been established,  passed away from natural causes*  He is said to have been lying amidst  many furs of animals now rare in  this state, whose pelts he had collected  during the season. The visitors  gave him burial in the woods near his  home, and eventually, after a descent  lapse of time and endeavor to locate  relatives, divided the small properties  contained in the cabin, including the  furs.  Gold Eludes All Searchers.  Crow bad derived a considerable  revenue from his trapping, according  to the few residents of this locality,  and belief persisted that the cabin  did not faithfully present the worldly  wealth of the old man. It was believed  quite generally in that day and  among members of the succeeding  generation, that Jim Crow had buried  much of the proceeds of his trade,  and for a long period inquisitive,  people at intervals searched the fields  about for the trapper's horde of golden  coins, which to this day have  eluded all seekers.  Antedating Crow's coming as the  first habitation of English speaking  people in what now is Jefferson county,  was the British post, Port Haldimand,  on Carleton Island in the St.  Lawrence, whose history was fittingly  commemorated this summer in association  with the one hundred and  fiftieth anniversary of St. Leger's expedition  against Fort Stanwix. 

No spot in this region, south of  Ogdensburg, has attached to it the  romance connected with this site,  many of the incidents reported, shown  of all semblance of poetic imagination  in the terse reports and orders  from the garrison commandants. Unfortunately  the tales of hidden treasure  on Carleton Island have no supporting  evidence in the official records  of British or Canadian military  archives.  Known facts belie the legend that  French forces buried on the island  kegs of doubloons and jeweled  swords, for it is known that Carleton  •Island never was occupied by any  large body of French troops, although  voyaging parties undoubtedly camped  there and during the latter stages of  the French and English wars an outpost  was maintained on the head of  the island.  Tales have come down, too, of valuables  buried in what was known as  the "King's Garden," outside the fortifications  by members of the British  garrison. These reports seem more  creditable, as raiding parties, both  British and Indians, returning to the  post from the Mohawk settlements,  undoubtedly brought considerable  loot and may have desired to conceal  their valuables from their fellows,  but although treasure hunters have  dug over large portions of the "Kings  Garden," no record is known of any  considerable reward coming to them.  Visitor Credited With Disco-very.  However, as there are exceptions to  all statements, it is related that the  late Cononel- Austin Hoor, of Cape  Vincent often detailed an experience  of rowing a stranger to the island,  who, on his return, brought away a  decayed iron-bound box, still earthencrusted,  so heavy that the boatman  was called upon to aid in transferring  it to the train on the Cape Vincent  wharf, when the visitor left the same  night for an unknown destination. 

There are yarns, too, of sunken  treasure of a more perishable nature,  represented in fine silks, laces and  brandies, besides sums of money, lost  by smugglers endeavoring to land  their wares on United States soil.  The brandies, if recovered, doubtless  would be worth more to-day than the  gold. Concerned in these smuggling  endeavors was another romantic but  unestablished phase of Carleton Is  land, the yarn of a subterranean passage  claimed once to have connected  the island with the mainland, through  which prisoners were said to have  escaped during the war, and smugglers  to have plied their trade after  peace had been established.  Two treasure traditions of far more  likely realization also concern British  occupancy during revolutionary and  pre-revolutionary days. According to  a tradition still well recalled by residents  residents  of the lake front in the townships  of Lyme and Cape Vincent, a  British paymaster placed the coin entrusted  to him in the barrel of a  cannon sealed it and buried it in a  field between Chaumont bay (then  known as Hungry bay) and the lake  shore.  This treasure is believed to repose  near the old Indian carry, extending  from the southwestern extremity of  Chaumont bay to the lake. Along  this route many buttons of French  and British uniforms have been' exposed  by cultivation, with countless  Indian relics, but neither chance nor  the sporadic searches conducted from  time to time have revealed the old  brass cannon and its horde of British  money.  

When the retreating forces from  St. Leger's expedition against Fort  Stanwix were wrecked on the isthmus  connecting Point Peninsula with the  mainland, late in the fall of 1777, the  quartermaster buried- near their  bivouac the military chests and'other  properties under his care which he  could not carry away in the canoes  of-the rescuing Indians.  This episode is a matter of history,  although there is no direct evidence  to connect army funds with  the property secreted. Legend, however,  has supplied this deficiency. It  appears that St. Leger was well  backed with money, but it is equally  certain that none of the high officers  of the command accompanied the  troops who were shipwrecked on the  Jefferson- county.shore, St. Leger and  his principal officers taking schooner  from Oswego to Kingston, while a  considerable portion of the forces  moved west to Fort Niagara. 

The Story of Jim Crow and the Old Homestead

One of the stories that would always get me going as a kid is the story of Jim Crow. Jim in our house was an American Indian and trapper who chose to live all by himself on the physcial "point" of Campbell's Point in a octaganal shack that he had built himself sometime as early 1780 and prior to 1850. Rumor had it that Old Jim died in that shack and was found a few days later by fellow trappers and buried in a shallow grave on the point.

Imagine my disappointment in American History class when I finally realized that in the pre civil war age "Jim Crow" meant anyone of color. It just took some of the glamour and romance right out of the story to realize that they never even bothered to remember the poor mans real name!

As with all  tales there is always an element of truth....many things point to a trapper, who was a man of color and built himself a small shack on the "point" and lived there year round. Around 1855 Archibald Campbell has a record of having a hunting camp in the same location and in 1877 Lyman Howard rebuilt the structure around the original fireplace.

Over the years the structure would be left unattended, suffer through winters and ultimately be cobbled back together. Eventually in the late 1970's the structure was deemed a hazard and was taken down by the Association. There had been several small fires and it was feared that another fire at the Old Homestead might spread to cottage 23.

With the structure gone, the Jim Crow tales are rarely heard here at Campbell's Point anymore. Tales of underground escape tunnels and buried treasure ...conjecture that "Jim" was a British spy who chose his location on the point to watch the comings and goings of the American ships during the War of 1812...tales that made summer nights full of fireflies and speculation  ... treasure tales and wonder...that every Campbell's Kid should experience!

No one knows Jim's real name, or when he lived on the point. He left a shack... and a lot of delightful  rumors!

The Old Homestead in the late 1800's this is purported to be a picture of Lyman Howard who rebuilt the structure in 1877