Some time between 1759 and 1762, at the period following the conquest of Canada, General Amherst granted a permit to one Geoffrey "Cooper," or Cowper, as his name is spelled in Colonel Montresor's Journal, to whom he was a sort of messenger or servant, to occupy the small post at "Half-Way Brook," between Fort Edward and Lake George, for the preservation of the barracks, etc., that had been erected there, and for the convenience of travelers. General Amherst, according to his despatches, deemed it unnecessary after the reduction of Canada, to leave a garrison at that post. This Cowper was probably the first white inhabitant of the town of Queensbury. According to tradition, he was originally a seafaring man. He resided here several years, and, in the town records, his name appears as having been elected to the office of Assessor at the first town meeting held 1766.
Hardly had the sounds of warfare died away, than the pioneer's ax and saw were heard resounding among the yellow pines in this vicinity, as clearings were made and homesteads started.
In September, 1759, James DeLancey, Governor of the Colony of New York, issued a proclamation calling attention to the availability for settlers of "three Several Spotts of cleared Ground, two of them capable of containing half a dozen Families each and the other not less than twelve." These clearings were located on the site of the picket forts at Green's Bridge, where the Imperial Wall Paper Mill now stands, at the "Half-Way Brook," which was the largest one, and near the Half-Way House, French Mountain (site of old Fort Williams).
In response to this invitation to settle in the northern wilderness, on May 20, 1762, the Patent of Queensbury was granted to Daniel Prindle and others, consisting of a township of twenty-three thousand acres of land lying on the Hudson River and taking in the three clearings heretofore mentioned. Part of this property was acquired by certain Quakers or Friends, living at the Oblong, in Dutchess County, New York.
On August 28, 1762, Abraham Wing, the founder of the town of Queensbury, accompanied by a surveyor, Zaccheus Towner, made his first visit to the place which was thereafter to become the scene of his life work. He stopped at the "Half-Way Brook" post with Jeffrey Cowper. At this time "The Town Plot," in the center of which the memorial marker now stands, was surveyed and laid out. This consisted of a plot of forty-four ten acre lots, six lots deep from north to south, and eight lots deep from east to west, forming an oblong square, intersected by central highways and necessary roads. The center lots being reserved for public buildings. Here, the village was to have been located, but it had been ordained otherwise. The settlement was made at "The Falls," and nothing but the name in legal papers now survives to show that this was once intended to be the center of local population.
In 1763 the first attempt was made towards the permanent settlement of the Town of Queensbury; later on the first religious structure in the town, the original Friends' church, was erected of logs on the lot standing on the southwesterly side of the "Half-Way Brook," on the Bay road, and here, also, was located the first burial place in Queensbury. Here the founders and earliest settlers of the town were laid to rest, their place of sepulture being to-day unmarked and unknown.
During the Revolution the name of the "Half-Way Brook" appears in the lime-light of history but a few times, although the buildings still standing there were doubtless used by the troops passing to and fro between Lake George and Fort Edward, till the time of the Burgoyne Campaign. There, too, was located a ford for watering horses and cattle, which was in use up to the present century.
According to William L. Stone, the well-known historical writer and authority, General Burgoyne detached Baron Riedesel with three battalions to "John's Farm between Forts George and Edward," in order to keep open the roadway between the two places, and also to look after and progress the provisions, stores and supplies from Lake George to Fort Edward, preparatory to Burgoyne's advance south. In Baron Riedesel's Memoirs, he states that "in that place he was completely cut off from the army, so he entrenched himself in a strongly fortified camp so that he might be able to defend himself to the last man."
The place of his encampment has been quite definitely fixed by Dr. Holden, Mr. Stone and the late Judge William Hay, one of the best of authorities on local matters, as having been on the site of the old "Half-Way" block house, heretofore spoken of, on the north of the brook and the fortified camp at the "Garrison Grounds" on the opposite or south side of the stream. Here they remained until the 11th of September, when the camp was broken up and the march southward begun.
After the seizure of Fort Edward by General Stark and his command, a fortified camp commanding the Lake George road was constructed by the Americans in the vicinity of Glens Falls, cutting off the possibility of a retreat by Burgoyne to the northward. William L. Stone, in his "Burgoyne's Campaign," says: "This was located on the site of Fort Amherst." The Marquis de Chastelleux in his travels also speaks of this camp as follows: "On leaving the valley and pursuing the road to Lake George is a tolerable military position which was occupied in the war before last. It is a sort of an entrenched camp, adapted to abatis, guarding the passage from the woods and commanding the valleys." [FN]