"A statement having appeared in your paper, purporting to be the substance of a declaration made by Col Thorn, that 'two or three thousand barrels of provisions have been deposited within a mile and a half of the Canada line.' As that statement may mislead the public and invite the enemy to encroachments, I beg leave to state thro your paper, that there is not more provisions deposited or left near the line than is sufficient for the subsistence of the men there stationed for the winter: the surplus being removed, to my certain knowledge, to Burlington, and other places of presumed safety, and I believe the same care and prudent precaution has been taken as respects the munitions of war that were at Champlain.
"ELBERT ANDERSON, Jun.
Army Contractor."
"Albany, Dec. 19, 1812.
[96]This statement is made in J. B. Hill's History of Mason (1858), p. 209; but there is no record of his birth in the Vital Records of Arlington (1904).
[97] Lucy Francis was born March 12, 1738-39 (Vital Records of Medford, 1907, p. 60), and died at Mason, December 8, 1835.
[98] For the Wilsons, see, besides the books by Mr. Weise cited above, Hill's History of Mason, p. 209; Cutter's History of Arlington (1880), p. 323; Vital Records of Arlington, pp. 47, 157. Edward and Lucy Wilson had thirteen children.
[99] Northern Budget, September 17, 1805, p. 3-4; September 24, p. 4-1; October 1, p. 4-2. The same advertisement, except that the date was changed to September 24, appeared in the Troy Gazette of September 24, 1805, p. 3-4.
[100] The notice was repeated in the Troy Post of October 12, 19, and 26. The business of the firm was dry goods and groceries. In spite of the dissolution of partnership, the advertisement of Wilson, Mann & Co., dated May 7, 1813, appeared in the Troy Post of October 12, 1813.
James Mann, who continued the business, was a son of Benjamin Mann of Keene, New Hampshire. Several years ago I had a correspondence with Mrs. Louise Benson, a descendant of Benjamin Mann. Mrs. Benson merely spoke of the existence in her family of the tradition about the Wilson story, but was unable to give me any new facts.
[101] The Troy Post of June 17, 1817, (p. 3-3), contained a notice of the marriage on June 9 of Elizabeth Wilson, a daughter of Ebenezer Wilson, and the Rev. James Ogilvie of New York.