Pastors

Deacon Herbert and Harriet Manley Howard Estes

Herbert Estes was a machinist in Boston on January 1, 1872, when he married Harriet M. Howard of West Bridgewater. He was 29; she was 22.

That same year he moved to Montreal, Canada, where he was employed for several years at the first horse shoe nail works in Canada operated by the Canada Horse Shoe Nail company.

Five years later the company sent him to Ausable Chasm to take charge of the mechanical department of the Ausable Horse Nail Works. He was promoted to superintendent and spent 20 years with the company, until ill health force him to retire. He was an expert machinist.

Source: Speech written for the 2020 dedication of the Herbert Estes, William G. Pomeroy Foundation Historic Marker by Jacqueline Madison, President of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association, which operates the North Star Museum, the former Estes residence located at 1131 Mace Chasm Road, AuSable Chasm, Essex County, New York. www.northcountryundergroundrailroad.com

Image Courtesy Rev. David Ralph Estes

Deacon Herbert Estes reads the Bible with grandsons, Ralph and Harry Estes, in his parlor at his Mace Chasm Road residence in 1914.

In September 1886, Herbert Estes was among the Delegates -- Mrs. E.K. Baber, Mrs. R.J. Romeyn, Mrs. L.A.Baber, Mr. Mark McKenzie -- who attended an Association Meeting in Westport.

Wednesday, Ev'g. May 11, 1887.

At the close of the Prayer Meeting, N.C. Boynton, Herbert Estes and W. W. Rowe were elected deacons. Upon refusal of N.C. Boynton to accept the office of deacon, Edwin McAllister was elected in his stead. These three deacons were to take the place of Deacons Jas. Hindes and Dan'l Dodge who resigned. E.K. Romeyn was elected as church clerk, in the place of Luther B. Rowe.

1916

We have lost one by death, Deacon Herbert Estes, one who had made a large place in our affections..

Source: A History of the First Baptist Church of Keeseville, N.Y. 1788-1968 by Eleanor Spaulding, Church Historian, Under the Auspices of the Baptist Ladies Guild, January 1, 1959. Archives of Keeseville Free Library. www.cefls,org

Mr. Estes was a devout Christian, and a treasured image in the possession of descendants is a photograph of him reading the Bible to his grandsons in the parlor of his home.

His great-grandson, retired Lutheran minister, Rev. David Ralph Estes, recalled in 2005 that Herbert was born into a Quaker family. “Herbert was a staunch Baptist,” David said. “How he became a Baptist from his Quaker background, I don’t know. Most Estes are Quakers or Episcopalians.” Great-grandson David Estes was told that, “Herbert was antislavery…My grandmother (Florence) thought the world revolved around him. She told me a lot about his philosophies on life.”

When he died in 1916, the Grange was in charge of the funeral services, which was held in his home.

Image Courtesy North Star Underground Railroad Museum

19th century Potsdam Sandstone residence of Herbert Estes on Mace Chasm Road, AuSable Chasm, Essex County, New York

At one time the Estes home had 3 additional buildings around it that were used to house employees of the Horse Nail Works factory. The employees were mostly women, so I’m assuming that Harriet Estes may have been responsible for providing meals and maintaining those buildings. A foundation of one of the buildings was discovered when they were laying the driveway. In 1885, he entered into an agreement with the Mooney Company to purchase the parcel of land on which he built this house. After his retirement from the Horse Nail factory, he purchased the paper mill business at the Chasm which he operated with the assistance of his son Alfred, until about 1914, when he retired permanently.

Robin Michel Caudell/Photograph

Herbert Estes, William G. Pomeroy Foundation Marker

Herbert Estes was a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, local Masonic Lodge, of the Ausable Valley Grange, and an Officer of the Day during Keeseville’s 1915 Memorial Day Ceremonies.

When he died in 1916, the Grange was in charge of the funeral services, which was held in his home.

Robin Michel Caudell/Photograph

Pastors of First Baptist Church of Christ of Peru, First Baptist Church of Keeseville

1791-1793
The Rev. Solomon Brown, Granville, Washington Co.

1793-1795
The Rev. Parker Reynolds, Granville Washington Co.

1795-1818
Itinerant Traveling Preachers, Appointed Brethren

1818-1821
The Rev. Parker Reynolds, Granville, Washington Co.

1824-1827
The Rev. Ebeneezer Mott, Crown Point, Essex Co.

1828-1830
The Rev. Conant Sawyer of Westport, N.Y.

1831-1833
The Rev. Robert Bryant of Philadelphia, Pa.

1833-1834
The Rev. Robert Brisbane of Fabius, N.Y.

1835-1835
The Rev. Henry Green, Cornwall, Vt.

1835-1840
The Rev. Hiram Safford, Covington, N.Y.

1840-1844
The Rev. Conant Sawyer

1845-1847
The Rev. Charles Nichols

1847-1848
The Rev. L. Fletcher

1849-1849
The Rev. Washington Kingsley

1850
Alfred Baber, Layman

1851-1855
The Rev. Joseph W. Eaton

1855-1859
The Rev. John E. Cheshire of Wickfield, R.I.

1859-1864
The Rev. J. F. Bigelow

1865-1867
No Pastor

1868-1876
The Rev. S. D. Moxley

1876-1883
The Rev. John Matthews

1883-1886
The Rev. Evan Davis

1886
The Rev. Gibbs Braislin

1891-1893
The Rev. H. A. Cornell, Athens, N.Y.

1893-1909
The Rev. W. E. Millington, Cambridge, N.Y.

1909-1919
The Rev. R. S. O’Dell, Delhi, N.Y.

1920
Supply Minister
The Rev. Wm. Wyeth

1922-1952
The Rev. R. S. O’Dell

1953
Mr. Robert Hughes, New York State Baptist Mission Conference Representative

1953-1954
Mrs. Margaret Turner, wife of the Rev. Ralph Turner, Baptist Church of Plattsburgh

1954-1955
The Rev. Sherwood Becker

1955-1957
Mr. Charles Scott

1957
Mr. Gaylord Dubois, Westport, N.Y.

1958-1964
Rev. Robert W. Thurston of Rutland, Vt.

1964-1966
The Rev. Roderick D. LaWall, former of Janner Baptist Church, Boswell, Pa.

1967
The Rev. Robert W. Thurston

1967-1968
Supply Ministers
The Rev. Albert Babcock, Wilmington, N.Y. (4 Sundays)

The Rev. Edwin Keeler, Westport, N.Y. (11 Sundays)

Plattsburgh Air Force Base Chaplain M. A. McEnterfer (2 Sundays).

Sources: History of Clinton and Franklin Counties, New York: With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of its Prominent Men and Pioneers by Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) 1n; Lewis, J. W. & Co., Philadelphia 1880. www.archive.org; The History of the Baptist Church of Christ in Old Peru, Transcribed by Eleanor A. Spaulding, Church Historian: Three Centuries in Champlain Valley: A Collection of Historical Facts and Incidents by Mrs. George Fuller, Regent of Saranac Chapter D.A.R. 1909. www.archive.org

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