The school of Sugar Loaf village in the past century has educated
many bright boys and girls. The old school-house stood on the road
that leads from the village to the northwest. The house was on the
westerly side of the road. Reeder Feagles and Lieutenant Wood were
among the teachers in the early part of the nineteenth century.
The fact that men with patriotic zeal have been identified with
Sugar Loaf may be summarized by the statement that in the home of
Mrs. H. C. Baker are mementos of her husband's service in the Civil
War, Jesse H. Knapp, who was an officer in the second war with
England, and Caleb Knapp, who served in the American Revolution.
The Committee of Safety during the Revolutionary War included other
patriots like Jacobus and Gillion Bertholf, David Rumsey, father of
Royal Rumsey, and Captain Henry Wisner. Jacob, John and Josiah
Feagles were patriotic citizens of this section during these times.
The interesting story is told of Hugh Dobbin, the pioneer of Sugar
Loaf, that during the Revolution he was exempt from service, but
pointed with pride to the fact that in 1757, in the struggle with
the French and Indians, he assisted the Government by pasturing one
hundred and fifteen horses belonging to Captain John Wisner's
company.
We cannot turn from the story of this section without alluding to
the loss of one of its interesting objects, now only a tradition. Mr.
Thomas Burt, of Warwick, at the age of eighty-seven, remembers the
time when on the side of Sugar Loaf Mountain there was an eminence
upon which was the profile of a man with broad shoulders, narrow neck
and enlarged head with hat on. This was called the "Old Giant," and
near it was a fissure in the rock called the "Giant's Cellar."
Tradition says that Claudius Smith, after his depredations through
the county, hid in this cleft of the rock.
[Illustration: George E. Brink.]
CHAPTER XIII.
TOWN OF CORNWALL.
By E. M. V. McClean.
The first view of Cornwall is not attractive. Two rugged hills rise
before us, their sides not even clothed with virgin soil, for the
loose soil sends down sand and boulders to the street below. They are
separated by a rocky ravine, at the bottom of which runs a brook,
scarcely visible in summer's drought, but fed in the spring by the
melting snow from the hills, becomes a torrent that sweeps away
bridges and roads that form its banks. A narrow highway has been cut
at the base of each hill, but merges into one road just where the
stream is spanned by a pretty stone bridge.
The landing itself is simply a business place without any pretense of
beauty. Nathan Clark's store stands as it did in 1824. Some small
houses shelter a few families, storehouses line the docks. Taft,
Howell & Company's mill has only the attractiveness of utility if we
except the emerald velvet robe of Ampelopsis, which almost covers the
entire front. The West Shore depot is a more modern structure and
past this the black rails sweep north and south.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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