History of Saratoga Springs, (Saratoga County) New York United States of America

Our database does not include an historic photo for Saratoga Springs, (Saratoga County) New York, do you have one you would like to contribute? Contact Us!

Local History Notes:

The 1854 Gazetteer of the United States by Thomas Baldwin shows:

SARATOGA SPRINGS, situated in Saratoga township, Saratoga county, New York, 38 miles by railroad N. of Albany, and 32 N. of Troy. This is the most fashionable watering-place on the American continent, as well as the most in repute for the medical virtues of its waters. Here assemble from every quarter of the Union the devotees of pleasure and the victims of disease; the passé belle, bedecked in jewellery and artificials, the wornout rou�, in search of an heiress--the gambler, seeking his prey, and the brainless, bedizened fop, his easy victim, all are here. The visitors, however, are not confined to these extremes of society; the merchant, the statesman, the divine, and the man of letters, here seek health or recreation, and the pleasures of mutual intercourse. Here are formed acquaintances by persons, from different portions of the Union, that tend to obliterate sectional prejudices, and cement the bonds of our political, by strengthening those of our social union.

Saratoga owes its celebrity almost solely to its mineral springs, the surrounding scenery possessing few, if any, extraordinary attractions. Saratoga lake, however, a beautiful sheet of water, is within a pleasant morning's or evening's drive; and Glen's falls, in the Hudson, and Lake George, are within two or three hours' travel by railway and plank-road. In the vicinity of the springs were fought the battles of Saratoga and Stillwater, in 1777; and near Lake George occurred the massacre of Fort William Henry, in 1757. The village itself consists mainly of a single street, lined with spacious hotels, boarding houses, some stores, and the private residences of the stationary population. Among the most fashionable hotels are 'the United States,' an immense building, with finely ornamented grounds, and capable of lodging 300 or 400 persons; Congress Hall, near Congress spring, with a spacious piazza the length of the building; and Union Hall, opposite the latter, the resort of those who prefer quiet and retirement. Most of the hotels have spacious grounds, tastefully laid out. Beside these, there are a number of smaller hotels and boarding houses, all of which are thronged to overflowing in the months of July and August, with visitors from every part of the Union, and some from Canada, Europe, Mexico, South America, and the West Indies. It is stated that in the present season, (1853,) before the end of August, more than 30,000 strangers had already visited these springs.

This spot is said to have been visited by invalids as early as 1773, but Congress spring, whose waters are now in the greatest request, was not discovered till 1792. High rock, a conical deposite of limestone, in the shape and about the size of a haycock, with a cylindrical opening down the middle, from which issues water strongly charged with carbonic acid gas, and Flat rock, another limestone deposite, naturally attracted the attention of the first settlers, and these springs were for a period the only ones known. Among the more recently discovered springs are the Empire and Iodine springs. The following results were obtained from an analysis of the waters of three of the principal springs. According to Dr. Chilton, a gallon of Congress spring water, in 1843, yielded chloride of sodium, 363.83 grains; carbonate of soda, 7.20; carbonate of lime, 86.14+; carbonate of magnesia, 78.62; carbonate of iron, .84; sulphate of soda, .65; iodide of sodium and bromide of potassium, 5.92; silica, 47+; alumina, .32. Total, 544 grains. Carbonic acid, 284.65; atmospheric air, 5.41=290.06 inches of gaseous contents. Professor Emmons' analysis of a gallon of the Empire water yielded chloride of sodium, 209.69+; bicarbonate of lime, 141.82+; bicarbonate of magnesia, 41.98+; bicarbonate of soda, 30.85; hydriodate of soda or iodine, 12.00; solid contents of a gallon, 496.35 grains. Dr. Allen's analysis of a gallon of the water of the Iodine spring, gave 147.66+ grains chloride of sodium; 73.35 carbonate of magnesia; 28.95+ carbonate of lime; 3.00 carbonate of soda; .90 carbonate of iron; 3.56+ hydriodate of soda; solid contents, 257.43+; carbonic acid gas, 344.30; atmospheric air, 2.50 cubic inches; total gaseous contents, 346.5 inches. The springs are readily reached by railway from all the great cities and towns of the North and West, and from most at the South. These waters have been found very beneficial in affections of the liver, in some cases of chronic dyspepsia and chronic diseases of the bowels. Besides other qualities, they appear to possess the virtues of a tonic united with those of a gentle cathartic.. Great quantities of the waters are bottled, especially of the Congress and Empire springs, and exported. The village has a bank and 2 newspaper offices.

Biographies:

John Whitten Ehninger, artist, was born in New York city, July 22, 1827. He was graduated from Columbia in 1847 and the following year went to Paris, France, where he became a pupil of Couture. In 1849 he returned to New York and his first painting, "Peter Stuyvesant" (1850), was immediately successful. He again visited Europe in 1851-52. He was elected a member of the National academy of design in 1860 and was one of the founders of the Cooper union art school. His work included book illustrations, engravings, etchings and some portrait busts. Among his paintings are: New England Farm Yard; Yankee Peddler; Love Me, Love My Horse; The Foray; The Sword; Lady Jane Grey; Christ Healing the Sick; Death and the Gambler ; Autumnal Landscape (1867); A Monk (1871); Vintage in the Vatella, Italy (1877); and Twilight from the Bridge of Pau (1878). He died at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Jan. 22, 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

William Leete Stone, journalist and author, was born in New Paltz, N.Y., April 20, 1792; son of the Rev. William and Tamson (Graves) Stone; grandson of Seth, Jr., and Anna (Evarts) Stone; and a descendant of William Leete (about 1603-1683), who emigrated from England in 1639; settled in New Haven, Conn.; was the founder of Guilford, Conn., and governor of the state, 1661-65 and 1676-83, and of John Stone (about 1610-87). William L. Stone removed with his parents to Sodus, N.Y., in 1808, where he worked on the farm and studied Latin and Greek evenings under his father. In 1809 he was apprenticed as a printer in Cooperstown, N.Y., in connection with the Federalist. He was proprietor and editor of the American, Herkimer, N.Y., 1813-14; editor of the Hudson Northern Whig, Spirit of the Forum and The Lounger, 1814-16; of the Albany Daily Advertiser, 1816-18, and of the Mirror, Hartford, Conn., 1819-21, where he was also associate editor of The Knights of the Round Table. He was editor and proprietor of the New York Commercial Advertiser, 1821-44, through the medium of whose columns he promulgated his antislavery principles; was actively interested, in 1824, in the revolution of the Greek patriots, accompanying Dr. Samuel G. Howe on a tour up the Hudson river on "a crusade for the relief of Greece;" was a member of the antislavery convention at Baltimore, Md., 1825, where he drafted a plan for emancipation to be submitted to congress, and during the same year traveled through the states with General Lafayette. For his championship of the Erie canal he received a silver medal and box from the common council, New York city, together with the thanks of that body in 1825. He served as colonel on the staff of Gov. De Witt Clinton, 1824-26, whose reputation he subsequently did much to free from calumny by the able yet unprejudiced contributions of his pen. In 1838 he presented to the New York Historical society a course of lectures which resulted in 1841 in the appointment by Gov. William H. Seward of John Romeyn Brodhead as collector of European historical data pertaining to the state, which data became known as the "New York Colonial Documents." He was appointed U.S. minister to the Hague by President William Henry Harrison in 1841, but recalled by President Tyler. He was the first superintendent of schools in New York city, 1843-44; school commissioner for many years; director of the Institution for Deaf and Dumb in 1833; member of the Society for the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, and projector of the New York State Historical agency. He was also an honorary member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities of Copenhagen, and elected a chief of the Senecas. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Brown university in 1825. He was married, Jan. 31, 1817, to Susannah Pritchard, daughter of the Rev. Francis and Susannah (Pritchard) Wayland of Guilford, England, and a sister of Francis Wayland , president of Brown university. They had one son, William Leete Stone, Jr. . William Leete Stone is the author of: Narrative of the Grand Erie Casal Celebration (1825); Letters on Masonry and Anti-Masonry (1839); Matthias and His Impostures (1833); Tales and Sketches (1834); Maria Monk and the Nunnery of the Hotel Dieu (1836); Ups and Downs in the Life of a Distressed Gentleman (1836); Border Wars of the American Revolution (1837); Letters on Animal Magnetism (1838); Life of Joseph Brant (1838); Poetry and History of Wyoming (1841); Lives of Red Jacket and Corn-planter (1843, new ed. with memoir of the author by his son, 1866); Life of Uncas and Miantonomoh (1842); Life and Times of Sir William Johnson, Bart. (completed by his son, 1865). He died at Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Aug. 15, 1844.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Dickerson Burchard, clergyman, was born at Steuben, N. Y., Sept. 6, 1812. He was educated at an academy in his native state, and on the removal of his parents to Kentucky in 1830 he entered Centre college, Danville, and was graduated in 1837. His lectures at this time on temperance, abolition, and religious questions made him widely known throughout his state. In 1837, when Kentucky was smitten with an epidemic of cholera, he volunteered as a nurse, and won much gratitude for his kindly services. He was licensed to preach in 1838, and for seven years was pastor of the Houston street Presbyterian church, New York; the church then moved to Thirteenth street, and after serving this congregation for nearly forty years, he became pastor of the Murray Hill Presbyterian church. Dr. Burchard was the originator of the phrase, "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion," an alliteration with which he stigmatized the Democratic party near the end of the Blaine-Cleveland campaign in 1884, and which was supposed to have cost Mr. Blaine the presidency. Dr. Burchard was chancellor of the Ingham university, and president of Rutgers female college. His churches were noted for the amount of support which they gave to the various enterprises of the Presbyterian church. This feature was especially conspicuous in relation to the work of the Presbyterian Bible society and the educational enterprises of the denomination, and in furthering the Sunday school work of the communion. He died at Saratoga, N. Y., Sept. 25, 1891.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

John William Casilear, landscape painter, was born in New York city, June 25, 1811. He developed a fondness for art at a very early age. At the age of sixteen he began the study of engraving with Peter Maverick, with whom he remained four years, when, upon the death of Maverick, he became a pupil of Asher B. Durrand, who was then engaged in banknote engraving. In 1832 he went into the same business on his own account, and continued in it until 1854, when he devoted himself to the more congenial pursuit of landscape painting. During this period he engraved only a single plate of any importance, The Head of a Sibyl, his time being chiefly occupied in designing and engraving banknote vignettes. For the purpose of study he visited Europe in 1840. and again in 1857. He was elected an associate of the national academy in 1835, and a full academician in 1851. Among his important pictures are: Genesee Meadows (1871); September Afternoon (1874); View of the Rocky Mountains (1881); Genesee River (1887); Landscape with Cattle (1888); Roger's Slide, Lake George (1891), and Ullswater (1892). He died suddenly while on a pleasure tour, and left, besides numerous examples of his own work, a valuable collection of foreign arts. His only son, John William Casilear, studied art and became a prominent marine painter and illustrator. He died at Saratoga Springs, N. Y., Aug. 17, 1893.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor