Bessboro - A History of Westport, Essex Co;, N. Y #227660

At the Centennial Celebration of the formation of the county of Essex, N. Y., held in June of 1899 at the Court House in Elizabethtown, preparation was made for the presentation of the history of each town in the county. The choice of the authors of these histories was left with the supervisors of the several towns. In the case of Westport the writer was requested to per form this task, which was accordingly attempted, with very little knowledge of its requirements, and no more than ageneral interest in the subject. There were two months in which to write the history. As for mater ial, there was the History of Essex County, by 'winslow C. Watson admirable in every way, but with little bearw ing directly upon the story of Westport, and the later history, published in 1885 by Smith, with several pages of rather incoherent information upon the subject. Then there was the fine Atlas of Essex County, pub lished in 1876, and a friend lent me the New York Gazetteer of 1860. I went to look at Miss Alice Lee s first map of the village, made in 1800, and copied the letter which she had carefully framed, written by Judge Charles Hatch in 1842 in regard to the early settlement of the town. Mrs. Francis L. Lee lent me Palmer's History of Lake Champlain, and one day I went into the Town Clerk's office and took a hasty look at the old book of the town records, copying the first entry. Tith this equipment I went to work, and what I put together was read at the Centennial.