HISTORY OF FRANKLIN COUNTY

The time when cases of tuberculosis, even in the incipiency of the disease, were deemed incurable and hopeless is not far in the past; but, praise be to Dr. Loomis, Dr. Edward L. Trudeau and others who gave their lives to a study of the scourge and to devising measures for its prevention and treatment, that view no longer holds, or at least not as to tuberculosis in its early stages. And the wilderness of Northern New York has had no insignificant part in establishing the new gospel that dry mountain air, the balsamic fragrance of the forests, with nutritious food, due care, rest, proper sanitation and observance of well established rules for bodily care and prevention of infection, may even stamp out the disease utterly.

Actuated by the proof afforded in a multitude of individual instances and by the cumulative results realized at the Adirondack Cottage Sanatorium at Trudeau, near Saranac Lake, that life in the region, with proper care and treatment, held the promise of arresting the affliction even in advanced cases, and of effecting a positive cure if taken in time, a considerable number of philanthropic men and women - most of them residents of the city of New York, many of them wealthy, and all prominent socially - determined some fifteen years ago to found an institution for the treatment of incipient tuberculosis in working women and children, which should be non-sectarian, and which, while receiving patients who are able to pay, should be open also, and without charge, to those who have no means. The names Of these deserve a place in this sketch. They are: Robert Collyer, Henry B. Barnes, Jas. E. Newcomb, Geo. F. Shrady, Chas. M. Qauldwell, Chas. H. Knight, R. Maclay Bull, Frederic B. Jennings, Edgar L. Marston, , Jacob H. Schiff, Robert W. de Forest, Robert Stuart MacArthur, Felix Adler, Lelia Howard Webb, Robert P. Cornell, Emile R. Rogers, Elizabeth W. Newcomb, Hester E. Shrady, Gertrude Shipman Burr, Edith M. Phelps Stokes, Alice Brevoort Bull, Pauline Scholle Bier, Elizabeth M. Cauldwell, Mary Potter Geer, Rose McAllister Coleman, Caroline Starin Carroll, Luck MacKenzie Knight, Caroline S. Spencer and Louise Pierpont Satterlee.

The name chosen for the institution was Stony Wold Sanatorium. The date of incorporation was April 10, 1901, and eight months later property consisting of twelve hundred and fifty acres, situate near Lake Kushaqua, in the town of Franklin, and having an elevation of over seventeen hundred feet above sea level, was purchased. Building operations were begun as soon afterward as practicable, and the institution was formally opened August 15, 1903.

Where there had been only an unbroken forest there have risen an administrative building with dormitory adjoining; Stony Wold Hall, a building for purposes of worship and for entertainments; a dormitory for the help; a woodworking shop; a store and post-office; five rest shacks; one industrial settlement house; seven cottages; a power house for generating electricity for lighting the institution; an outdoor school; and a model cow barn, stable and piggery. A farm has also been developed.

The administration building alone cost eighty-four thousand dollars, and the entire property is valued at $302,435.16, and is not mortgaged . The institution has, besides, an endowment fund of $64,258.75.

The corporation has fifteen auxiliaries with a total membership of nineteen hundred. In the beginning each auxiliary contributed six hundred dollars to build and equip a room, and pledged itself to support thereafter an occupant, the charge for which is fourteen dollars per week. Further funds for building, equipment and maintenance were realized from subscriptions, and also considerable amounts from fairs and entertainments given at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and other places in New York and at the institution itself.

Mrs. James Edward Newcomb is the president of the board of trustees, and has served in that capacity from the beginning. She was the originator of the enterprise, and devised the plan of organization. She spends a good dea1 of time at Lake Kushaqua, and is constant and untiring in effort on its behalf.

Stony Wold has a capacity for twenty children and ninety-three adults and is practically always full. No children under the age of six years are admitted. The staff includes the physician in charge (who is at present Dr. Malcolm D. Lent), an assistant physician (Dr. W. G. Milan), a number of nurses, a dietician, a storekeeper, an outside superintendent (Albert E. Paye), and other workers averaging between ninety and one hundred in number. Stony Wold Hall is used by the Episcopalian, the Catholic and the Jewish denominations, though none of them has a resident preacher. The Episcopalians and the Jews use one room in common, and the Catholics have a part of the structure separately. When the hall is wanted for a card party or for a dance, the seats are removed, and a room nicely adapted to the purpose is available. The institution is doing a magnificent work, and hundreds who have enjoyed care in it, gaining strength and vigor, and enabled to return.

To life's duties and labors with new hope and courage, bless daily the philanthropists who have given so fine an institution to the world, and who cause it to be managed with such care and loving kindness. Paul O. Ransom, a graduate of Williams College, having been compelled by failing health to relinquish the practice of law in Buffalo, turned in 1897 to the work of fitting boys for college, and in 1903 established the Adirondack-Florida School, which holds its spring and autumn terms on Rainbow lake, near Onchiota, and a winter term at Cocoanut Grove, Florida.

A school building or lodge was erected at the former place in 1906 at a cost of $15,000, and a number of cabins and other structures have been added since. Mr. Ransom died in 1907, when Mrs. Ransom assumed charge, and has since conducted the school, with L. H. Somers, a Yale man, as headmaster. Of Mr. Ransom it is said that his quiet influence over boys was wonderful, and that he was "a rare master, and a rarer friend."

Originally the school was planned to accommodate twenty pupils, but now has a capacity for thirty; and inasmuch as it is believed that the best results are attainable only with a small enrollment no effort is likely to be made for further enlargement. The Rainbow Lake branch is called Meenahga Lodge. The school is intended to give boys the best advantages attainable in the way of individual attention and wholesome surroundings, the opportunity to pursue a course of study in preparation for college, and at the same time the benefit of outdoor life under the most favorable climatic conditions. Invalid boys or those suffering from any organic disease are not received. A chief aim of the school is the cultivation of character, and particular attention is given also to outdoor sports and physical training. The charge for tuition and care is $1,600 per pupil per year, which does not include traveling expenses, textbooks or stationery, and no deductions are allowed for absence, withdrawal or dismissal.

The naked statement of terms is evidence that only the sons or wards of wealthy people are included among the pupils, who come from all parts of the United States. The school's standing is very high, and it has the unqualified endorsement of eminent educators and of many distinguished men whose sons have been among its pupils.

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(HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF FRANKLIN COUNTY AND ITS SEVERAL TOWNS WITH MANY SHORT BIOGRAPHIES BY FREDERICK J. SEAVER

MALONE, NEW YORK, ALBANY, J. B. LYON COMPANY. PRINTERS, 1918, Chapter XVI)

submitted by Ralph Bennett