My family has been coming to Lake George here on vacation for five generations now, starting with my grandmother and her mother, on the Vickers side, which has had no mention thus far on this particular blog, being a Baldwin blog. This year as I noted my niece and nephew will be joining us for a day, making them the fifth generation in a row. There are many things that I personally enjoy here, which keep me coming here year after year, and I name merely a few of them here as follows, in no particular order:
1) House of Frankenstein Wax Museum!
This is a wax museum that looks like it has not been updated since the 1980s when they added Freddy and Jason, although there is that swanky new attic ghost exhibit, now that I think of it. If you like your horror Classic, as I do, and you should, then I strongly encourage you to get up here for a quick visit to this place. Just... hop on a plane, drive potentially hours and hours to Lake George village, and spend about an hour at this particular place. Do it!
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| Spoopy! |
More abstractly, there are some horror displays dedicated to "The Vengeful Housewife" which entails the husband opening a serving tray that had concealed the severed head of the maid, with whom the husband has had an affair, you see. A few booths down you may find a "Murder in the Bathtub", resplendent with plenty of red gore. A man covered in ants follows, and a seance scene is set up behind another glass pane. A table floats around the room.
The House finishes with some gory displays of medieval torture, including a guy on the rack, a long-forgotten prisoner which will convulse at the press of a convenient button, and an electric chair execution, which may be initiated as you will by activation of the lit button in front of the display.
Fun for the kids!
I used to go through it as a kid all the time, and I turned out fine!
Really!
House of Frankenstein's website is located here: http://www.frankensteinwaxmuseum.com/
2) The Lake George Village!
It's a little seedy and run down, although not as bad as it was in the late-nineties to early 2000s. For instance, there once existed what I like to call "the filthiest bathroom in the world". It smelled terrible. I bet you could have scraped the walls of the place with a chisel and made urine-soap from the caked up shavings. My, what a graphic description. The city must have recognized its poor condition as well, and so replaced it with a nice visitor's center.
There are also (too) many places to buy T-shirts or poor, poor doomed hermit crabs. As of late many of the things which I used to enjoy are no longer here. However, there's usually a new gem or two hidden among these shirt outlets. Lately there has been a lovely selection of discount manga, for example, piled annually in an unassuming discount clearance bookstore. In years past one could visit The Wizard's Den, which featured a seven foot tall wizard statue made of wood, with the red light-up eyes. It burned down, for some reason... Then there was the nostalgia store "Nostalgic Soul", where I was fortunate enough to run into various halloween-themed Smurfs, as well as a wind-up sparking nun "Nunzilla" and an extendable fork, which can be used to steal food at Thanksgiving. The one time when there is absolutely no reason to steal anybody's food.
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| Fun! |
3) The Boats!
Located on the Lake itself, naturally, are the Lake George Steamboat Company steamboats. The three vessels are, in order of average size and cruise length, Minnie-Ha-Ha, Mohican, and Lac du Saint Sacrement. I have taken rides on all three my entire life, and I have many memories associated with them. There are other boats, but these are the ones I like.
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| The Sagamore, from bygone days |
Baldwin Landing
Located at the opposite end of the Lake (relative to the village) is a place called Ticonderoga. At Ticonderoga there is a dock which bears the name of Baldwin Dock. Also known as Baldwin Landing, it was named after a certain William G. Baldwin.
As it so often happens when I am researching a Baldwin these days, it turns out that this William G. Baldwin seems indeed to be my own cousin, with one caveat which I will mention once only, here. I have not yet found positive proof that:
1) The William Guy Baldwin, who operated a stagecoach at Ticonderoga NY, in 1875, near the area which contains both Baldwin and Delano roads near its coastline,
is, indeed the same person as:
2) William Guy Baldwin, who is listed in Charles Candee Baldwin's Genealogy as the son of Guy Carlton Baldwin, who settled in Ticonderoga, and who himself is found married and living in Ticonderoga in 1876, and whose mother was Olive Delano, and whose ancestry can be traced back to my common ancestors Sylvester Baldwin and Jane Wells.
Given the super heavy circumstantial evidence, I am prepared to accept that they are both one and the same. Either that, or there were two William Guy Baldwins living in the same area back in 1875, and Charles Candee missed one in his genealogy. No way!
So who was William G. Baldwin?
William Guy Baldwin operated a stagecoach service, which would take people to and from nearby Lake Champlain in about 35 minutes. He was very well known to those living in the area at the time, and appeared to be quite popular, according to the Ticonderoga Historical Society.
In 1873, an article was published about William Baldwin by S. R. Stoddard. It can be read by following the link given above. Stoddard describes this William in the following excerpt:
"Five great box-like stages, one baggage wagon, twenty-two horses and six drivers waited for us at the foot of Lake George, as the little steamer came to rest against the dock, and we passed out over the plank to the clay-bespattered platform, where stood the driver-in- chief, with always a pleasant word or a happy retort at his tongue’s end, and a fund of information at the disposal of any who might take the trouble to ask for it; a genial, obliging, gentlemanly man; the joy of seekers after knowledge; the terror of those who know too much, and the admiration of unprotected females, who, blessed with a multitude of years and bundles, have been robbed and execrated everywhere else in consequence thereof; one who transports his passengers with safety and wit, and actually seems to think them possessed of privileges which a stage driver is bound to respect. In short, it is (William) “Baldwin,” and that tells it all, for everybody knows him."
So it seems that William G. Baldwin was quite a witty and nice guy. A man who enjoyed educating people during his stagecoach trips, turning them into a sort of guided tour. He would give passengers information on interesting things you could see along the way, such as "an oak and elm growing from one stump, you can see by the bark and by the leaves that there is no mistake about it ... what God has joined together let not man put asunder; drive on your horses.” He was characterized at the time as a joker; passengers would frequently try to match wits with him.
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| Baldwin Stages, 1874. Picture from article linked above. |
As I hinted at above, I found William G. Baldwin in Charles Candee's Genealogy, fortunately, which traces him back to John Baldwin of Billerica. Further research places John's father to be, most likely, Richard the son of Sylvester. This Richard would have been a brother of the Sylvester, my 10th great-grandfather, who came over on the ship Martin. I say likely, because there is apparently a little uncertainty that John is the son of this Richard, but although the paper trail has been lost, old family tradition and "as far as we can tell" places them as father and son.
With this in mind, the descent from Sylvester Baldwin to William G. Baldwin is, then, as follows:
Sylvester Baldwin (1571 - 1632) - Jane Wells
Richard Baldwin (1597-1665) - Phillippa Corbman (1603-1641)
John Baldwin (1615-1687) - Mary Richardson (1638-1694)
John Baldwin (1665-1736) - Sarah Heywood (1666-1741)
Lt. Thomas Baldwin (1697-1750) - Dorothy Kidder (b.1696)
Benjamin Baldwin (1743-1830) - Ruth Paddock (1745-1810)
Guy Carlton Baldwin (1776-1847) - Olive Delano (b. 1795)
William Guy Baldwin (1822-1889)
Sylvester is the 5th great-grandfather of William G. Baldwin. Sylvester is also the 11th great-grandfather of me, William P. Baldwin. Therefore, William G. is my 6th cousin 6 times removed.
It's funny (in a cosmic sense) how I've been hearing about Baldwin Landing on the boat tours my whole life, without knowing that the Baldwin it was named for was a relative who lived there over a hundred years ago. Who knows? Bolton Landing may be named for a relative as well. Never rule anything out, until you've done the research.
I will endeavor to further investigate other Baldwins I have seen listed on plaques in Lake George, and I intend to report on these in the future! We have made some new plans to make a trip up to Ticonderoga itself on Saturday before we get home. I may be able to find some information up there at the museum.
Until then...
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