19th Century Fort Ann — Farming technology

State-of-the art — for its time — farm machinery technology made its debut in Fort Ann.

“Charles C. Smith and C. T. Wright, two of our successful farmers, have each bought a McCormick corn harvesting machine, which, drawn by two horses, cuts standing corn, binds it in bundles and drops it on the ground after the manner of wheat harvesting machines,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Morning Star of Glens Falls on Sept. 5, 1895.

“Fred Alexander is threshing oats with his new steam thresher for Mr. Cook on the Shipman farm at the rate of nearly one hundred bushels per hour,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported on Oct. 9.

In other 1895 Fort Ann news collected from historic newspapers of the region:

• “Captain Van Shaik took a party of duck hunters down Lake Champlain last week, but they returned without securing all they were after,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 30. “The campaign is making good progress in the construction of his new fifty-foot, double hull steamboat, and will have it ready for use when navigation opens for the season.”
• “Fort Ann people, young and old, are very much gratified at the success of our school in winning the first prize at the Sandy Hill fair in competition with the larger schools of other towns which competed,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Sept. 19.
• “Frear’s and other advertising wagons from Troy that have been to the Sandy Hill fair passed through here Saturday,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Sept. 20.
• “The telephone polls set last week through this place on the line from Glens Falls to Whitehall,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Sept. 27.
• “Wire for the new telephone line are being strung. The Fort Ann office will be in Leonard Cummings’ drug store,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Morning Star on Oct. 9.
• “E. L. Ashley has a gang of men employed building a dam across the creek, below the Hadlock Pond,” The Morning Star reported on Oct. 5.
• “Moses Barnum, who is now past 90 years of age, was in attendance at the Baptist church on Sunday, where he has been a member for about 60 years, being the oldest member of the church,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported in The Granville Sentinel on Oct. 11.
• “Charles Curtis is in Vermont selling overcoats and other clothing at auction,” the Fort Ann correspondent reported on Oct. 18.

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