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BLAST FROM THE PAST – Nestled in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains, Fulton County was a popular summer vacation spot in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It boasted small resorts and hotels, fine dining and entertainment, and — as most guests hoped — a respite from the hot, crowded cities, where they could relax in the shade of pine trees, refreshed by a cool breeze off of the surface of one of the county’s many lakes. The Jackson Hotel (also called the Jackson House) in Mayfield was one of these popular spots. Located along the stagecoach road from Gloversville to Northville, it was convenient to get to and centrally located in the village’s downtown.
According to Albert Niles, who published a “Memories of Mayfield” series in the Leader-Herald in the fall of 1970, the site was originally the location of the Pioneer Tavern, run by Parris G. Clark. The tavern’s upstairs ballroom was used for religious meetings before the building of local churches, and a liberty pole stood in the side yard. It was located on the corner of North Main and North School Streets, which later became known as Hollenbeck Park and today is a small parking lot.
It eventually became the Jackson Hotel in the 1860s, operated by William Jackson. Born in Mayfield in 1826, Jackson worked in the tanning business at Jackson Summit before going into the hotel and stagecoach business. He started the first mail route from Gloversville to Northville. The censuses of 1850 and 1860 also listed him as a farmer. Jackson held the offices of Commissioner of Highways and Justice of the Peace. He was very interested in fish propagation; in 1865 he took 6,500 trout to Lake Pleasant, Round Lake, and Piseco. In 1877, he took another 165,000.
In 1874, Jackson was reported to have resumed the Gloversville and Northville stage. This was welcome news due to his “good reputation heretofore, in his attention to the comfort of those who have traveled over this route.” How convenient to have the operation of the stagecoach that stopped right at your hotel! In the late 1880s, Jackson built an addition that housed a “spacious dancing hall.” The newspaper reported on one such event held here: the “elite” from Cranberry Creek, Careyville, Jackson Summit, Riceville, Red Bunch and Munsonville, “together with the gilt edged ladies and gentlemen of our village [Mayfield],” went to the hotel for an evening of violin music, dancing, and refreshments.
A fire was discovered bursting out of the roof of the hotel on a Friday night in 1887, supposedly originating with a defective chimney. It raged for three hours, causing $30,000 in damage. Losses included the Close and Christie Store, Charles E. Childs furniture, PW Gould furniture, John Titcomb’s store and glove factory, and David Getman’s house, barn, and outbuildings. The Methodist church was saved by tearing down surrounding sheds.
Eventually, the hotel was taken over by William’s son, Charles. From newspaper reports of the time, Charles seemed to have a bit of a temper. James Canfield charged him with assault and battery and “brought a badly abused nose into court to sustain his allegations.” The fight happened at the hotel. In the early 1890s, the paper reported a “free fight at Charles Jackson’s,” apparently between him and Charles Childs, whose furniture business was located next door. In 1896, Jackson and WR Cochran had words that almost ended in a gunfight. Cochran was a competitor, also in the hotel business. He reported that while walking to the meat market, Jackson spotted him out the window and was “making remarks.” After finishing his business, Cochran stopped into Jackson’s “and asked him why he can’t mind his own business.” After arguing for a while, Jackson went behind the bar and got his revolver, at which time “Cochran concluded it was time to leave.” Jackson insisted that Cochran came in and grabbed him by the throat, and he only got his gun as a means of self-defense. Cochran purchased the Jackson House within a year.
The hotel didn’t last much longer after this incident. Another “disastrous conflagration” began in the back of the hotel in September 1897, where no fires had recently been lit “and which was given up to deposits of rubbish.” Marvin Chase, serving as landlord at the time, stated that kerosene was stored there but felt “confident that the fire was the work of incendiaries.” Chase discovered the fire around 2 a.m. Having no fire department or other methods for combating flames, a bucket brigade was formed. “The work accomplished by the citizens of Mayfield was something marvelous,” the Daily Leader reported. Fighting fires in the village “depends solely upon the convenience of its wells and good will and endurance of its bucket brigade.” A phone call was made to Gloversville for help. Alarm box 26 alerted firemen and citizens, many of whom went to help, taken by a “special train promptly ordered to the rescue” by Superintendent McKeever. The fire was out by the time they arrived, but their quick response was appreciated by the village.
Losses from this fire included Abram Close’s grocery store; Caleb Tucker’s store and apartments; John Titcomb’s building housing his store, BD Brown’s drug store, Kilts’ hardware store, the village clerk’s office, and the Oddfellows hall; a box factory owned by Charles Wilkins; David Getman, Sr.’s office building; the Odells’ house; and Fred Van DerPool’s building. The Close and Christie glove factory was saved by recently-installed iron shutters. The blaze was so hot that some of them were warped and the window frames scorched. Some glove stock was destroyed by water but the building was mostly untouched. Once again, the Methodist church was saved by tearing down sheds, and the citizens managed to rescue all of the horses in the stables.
A building adjoining Van Derpool’s was occupied by Mr. and Mrs. John VanDenburg, Mr. and Mrs. Charlies Wilkins, and their families. Lillia Wilkins was ill and confined to her bed at the time of the fire. When the families evacuated the house in case the fire spread, Lillia was carried, bed and all, to the home of a nearby neighbor. Lillia’s father owned the Jackson House during the Civil War and she was married there in 1875; she lived well into her 90s.
The hotel was totally destroyed and never rebuilt. The fire was one of the most destructive in the history of the village and was still being recounted in the newspaper in the 1930s. As mentioned above, today the lot serves as a small parking area on the corners of North Main and North School Streets, across from Kessler Brewing Co. Unfortunately, the Jackson House was just one of many victims of fire over the years in Fulton County. Luckily, though, no one was hurt or injured in the blaze.
