Its development has been wonderful, and puts, as it were,
in large italics, the prosperity of our country. The first white man
to visit the place was Sir William Johnson, who, in 1767, was conveyed
there by his Mohawk friends, in the hope that the waters might afford
relief from the serious effects of a gunshot wound in the thigh,
received eight years before in the battle of Lake George, at which
time his army defeated the French legions under Baron Dieskau. It was
not until the year 1773, six years after Sir William Johnson's initial
visit, that the first clearing was made and the first cabin erected
by Derick Scowten. Owing, however, to misunderstandings with his red
neighbors, he shortly afterwards left. A year later, George Arnold,
from Rhode Island, took possession of the vacated Scowten House, and
conducted it with some degree of success for about two years. Arnold
was in turn followed by Samuel Norton, who failed to make the venture
successful, owing to the outbreak of the Revolution. Norton was
succeeded in 1783 by his son, who sold out in 1787 to Gideon Morgan,
who, in the same year, made the property over to Alexander Bryan.
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