The Truth about "Wild Jess" Elliott

Jessie Elliott was a unique figure in the history of the Beaver River country. People who visit the tiny settlement of Beaver River, NY these days are still told she went to prison for her role in the bootlegging that was rampant in the lumberjack days of the early 1920s. She is listed among the “lawless ladies” in Niki Kourofsky’s 2015 book, Adirondack Outlaws. Pat Thompson’s memoir about life in Beaver River claims Jessie rode her steed through the settlement with her long hair flowing and a pistol in a holster on her belt. More fantastic stories about Jessie are found in Bill Donnelly’s Short History of Beaver River where she is described, among other things, as a good-looking Calamity Jane, a bootlegger and a prostitute. The truth underlying the legends reveals a much more complex and interesting wilderness woman.

Jessie E. Elliott was born in April of 1885 at her parent’s home at Chase’s Lake, Town of Watson, Lewis County, NY. She was the youngest child and only daughter of Chester “Chet” and Adeline “Addie” Odett Elliott. She had two older brothers, William and Joseph. Little is known of Jessie’s early life. Presumably, she attended primary school and learned to read and write. In 1894, when she was only nine years old, her parents built and started to operate a sportsman’s camp on the south bank of the Beaver River near the newly opened railroad station [see my post of 05/06/21].

All three of the Elliott children spent their summers at the Elliott Camp. Once the children completed school, the family moved to Beaver River full-time. As could easily have been predicted, the Elliott children grew up experienced in the ways of the wilderness. As soon as they were old enough the boys began to work part-time as guides for guests and Jessie helped her mother with the meals. By 1903 at the age of 18 Jessie was not only doing household chores at the camp but also guiding visiting sports. A first-person account of teenaged Jessie working as an accomplished Adirondack guide appeared in the St. Lawrence Republican and Ogdensburg Weekly Journal on Dec. 9, 1903.

In 1909, when she was 24, Jessie married William A. Yaker of Oneida, NY. Most likely she met him when he was a guest at the Elliott Camp. She moved away from Beaver River briefly, but the marriage did not last and the couple divorced. She was back at the Elliott Camp in less than a year.

 

In the spring of 1912, the Elliotts sold their camp to W.H. and C.B. Johnson. Jessie and her parents moved to Carter Station, a small community along the railroad closer to Old Forge, and took over management of a substantial hotel called the Clearwater House. In those days Carter was a busy place because it was at the junction with an important spur line that led to Raquette Lake. At Carter Jessie met and soon married the Carter station agent, Budd Delong.

Jessie and her parents apparently operated the Clearwater House together until about 1918. Jessie’s mother Addie died in 1917 and her father Chet died in 1918. Sometime before 1920 Jessie split up with Budd Delong, moved away from Carter Station and married a man named Harry Smith.

 

Harry Smith loved the backwoods as much as Jessie. The couple initially worked as the cooks at George Bushey’s lumber camp at Woods Lake not far from Beaver River Station. After Bushey’s camp burned in 1921, Jessie and Harry bought a small house at Beaver River on the shore of Norridgewock Lake.

Beaver River was by all accounts a pretty wild place during the early 1920s. Between 1922 and 1924 it was host to a large number of loggers who were working to clear trees from the 4000 acres that would soon be flooded to create the Stillwater Reservoir. Most of these loggers lived in and around Beaver River Station. Some lived in lumber camps, some in boarding houses, some at the Norridgewock Hotel and many lived in shanties. The Utica Observer Dispatch of October 8, 1923 described the scene as more like the Wild West than New York State “with its rough, crude surroundings and several hundred French Canadian huskies living in tumble down shacks – or some of them with bare ground for a bed and the sky for a roof.”

 

Although Prohibition became the law of the land in 1920, it took quite a while for this news reach Beaver River. Several small “lunchrooms” serving illegal booze sprang up to cater to thirsty loggers. Things got so rough and rowdy that the New York State police stationed three troopers there to keep law and order. 

 

Jessie’s husband, Harry Smith, operated one of the infamous Beaver River lunchrooms. In October 1923 federal agents staged a prohibition raid and arrested Harry Smith after he sold one of them a shot of illegal whiskey for $1. Harry Smith pled innocent and must have been let off with just a fine because in 1924 he was arrested again for the same offense. His second offense probably drew a stiffer penalty because there is no record of Harry ever appearing in Beaver River or Jessie’s life again.

 

Some of the legends surrounding Jessie’s life appear to have originated from the sensational newspaper article about the 1923 prohibition raid. Even though the article makes it clear that Jessie was not arrested, she was featured in the description of the raid. The two brave federal agents are imagined to have barely escaped from hundreds of rampaging drunken lumberjacks at Beaver River. In this chaos, “Mrs. Smith, girl rough rider, known as ‘Jess,’ was the queen of the camp.” The imaginative account continued, “Attired in her riding breeches, in which she appears most of the time, Mrs. Smith always has her pony nearby and her six-shooter is fastened to her belt where she can whip it out on a moment’s notice. Needless to say, the prohibition men let her alone.”

 

There might be some truth to Jessie being called queen of the camp, but there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever that Jessie was a prostitute. She was married three times in the course of twelve years and had no children. In a time when divorce was rare and considered morally questionable, this record alone would subject a woman to malicious rumor. Having grown up working in a wilderness hotel, Jessie felt comfortable socializing with loggers, railroad men and sporting tourists. Because Jessie was too independent a soul to fulfill the role of a traditional wife, local men jumped to their own conclusions about her morals and the rumors spread.

 

After Harry Smith disappeared, Jessie remained for a time in Beaver River then moved to the Town of Grieg where she lived alone except for her three dogs. In June 1928 she contracted pneumonia and died. Her body was found when the barking of her dogs alerted the neighbors. She was only 43.

 

Looking at all the evidence available, it’s fair to conclude that Jessie Elliott lived up to her nickname, but not to all the stories told by the Beaver River old timers. Wild Jess lived a wilderness life on her own terms. The real Jessie Elliott was wild in the same way the great northern forest of the Beaver River country was wild: beautiful, enduring and untamed.

 

A more detailed version of this post appeared in the Adirondack Almanack on April 15, 2018.

Photograph of Jessie's camp as it appears today by Meredith Leonard