Chicken Island

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No one can say for certain why the one-acre island in the Stillwater Reservoir with a cabin on the highest ground is called Chicken Island. I consulted the Geographic Names Information System [GNIS] maintained by the US Board of Geographic Names in hopes of finding out why it has that name, but no luck. Although there are a few places scattered around the country called Chicken Island, none are in New York. In fact, the GNIS does not list any name for the island. The maps issued by the US Geological Survey have also never included a name for the island. 

Even so, I suspected that local property tax maps might contain a name. Bingo. The tax map issued by Herkimer County and the Town of Webb designate the island as Griffin Island. This name was bestowed on the island when New York State briefly acquired the property in 1924 just prior to the flooding of the Stillwater Reservoir. That name was selected because the last owners of the property before the flooding were named Griffin. Griffin Island remains its name for tax purposes, although no one ever calls it that.

 

Searching through the historical record, the first reference I can find to Chicken Island is on the property description provided to the Rap-Shaw Club when it was in the process of acquiring the island in 1939 - 1940. Because the island was owned by the Williams family continuously from 1924 until 1940, the Williams family must have given it that name. Unfortunately, the Williams family left no record of why they chose the name. 

 

While I pondered this question, I turned my attention to another issue. The 1939 property description notes that the island included an unfurnished camp building of three fairly large rooms that already existed when the Williams family bought the island in 1924. The description also states that the cabin had once been used as a guide’s house. This raises the question of who built that original cabin. 

 

I started my search for an answer to that question by looking for any indication of a building at the relevant location on the early maps of the Stillwater area. The first map to show a building is the 1912 USGS survey map. All subsequent maps consistently show a building there. So, the original camp building must have been built by someone who occupied the property before 1912.

 

In the years between 1893 and 1912, the property that would one day be called Chicken Island was just a high hill on a 200-acre parcel owned by the Beaver River Club. The hill was heavily wooded and had a good view of the Beaver River Flow. The Carthage to Lake Champlain Road ran along the west side of the hill. Some of the Beaver River Club property had been divided into seventy-two cottage lots for sale exclusively to club members. The property now known as Chicken Island was included in lots #58 and #59. These two lots were purchased in 1908 by Arthur B. Belden of Syracuse, NY.

 

Arthur Belden was only 21 years old in 1908 when he bought those lots and became a member of the Beaver River Club. He must have already become familiar with the charms of the club since two of his uncles had been members for quite some time. His uncle James M. Belden, a member of the club since 1902, had a fine cottage near the clubhouse. Another uncle, Alvin J. Belden, was still a club member at the time of his death in 1918.

 

At the turn of the century the Belden family was one of the most prominent in Syracuse. One of his great uncles, James J. Belden, had served two years as mayor of the city and several terms in the US House of Representatives. At the time of his death in 1904 James J. Belden was considered the richest man in Syracuse. Another great uncle, Augustus Caldwell Belden, was a leading building contractor as were Augustus’s children Alvin J. Belden, James M. Belden and Charles G. Belden, Arthur’s father. All five of these Belden men have listings in Notable Men of Central New York (1904).

 

Arthur Bevan Belden was born on July 23, 1897, the son of Charles G. and Mary Bevan Belden. Arthur’s father and his great uncle James J. Belden both died in 1904 when he was only 17 years old. As a result, Arthur was left with a sizable inheritance, but it was held in trust until his 21st birthday. On reaching his majority in 1908 he immediately joined the Beaver River Club and bought lots #58 and #59. 

 

Arthur Belden had to have built the original cabin. On his early visits to the club, he would have stayed in the clubhouse or with one of his uncles, but the only reason for him to buy a cottage lot was so he could build his own cabin. He clearly had adequate money from his inheritance. Although his cabin on top of the hill does not appear on the USGS map until 1912, Belden probably built it in 1908 or 1909. The original one-room cottage with a view would have been perfect for a young, single man looking for a headquarters from which to enjoy the outdoors. 

 

Arthur Belden married Natalie R. Kerman in December 1913. To make the camp more comfortable for use by the young couple, it appears that Arthur added two rooms to the original cabin. The Beldens continued to own the cabin until at least 1916. In 1917 Arthur Belden volunteered to serve in the ambulance corps in the First World War and shipped out to France. When he returned to Syracuse, he was suffering with severe shell shock. There is no evidence that he ever returned to the Beaver River Club.

 


Bert Dobson, a well-established outdoor guide from Wanakena in nearby St. Lawrence County, bought the cabin and lots #58 and #59 from Arthur and Natalie Belden in 1916 or 1917. At that time Dobson was operating a sporting tourist resort called Beaver Island Camps headquartered at the clubhouse of the Beaver River Club. By 1916 the club was in decline and desperately seeking new sources of income. Renting part of the property to Dobson was one such effort. Dobson circulated an advertising booklet for “Dobson’s Beaver Island Camps” that offered rooms in the clubhouse to the public for $20 per week including meals. 

 


Dobson’s Beaver Island Camps probably only operated for two or three seasons. It could not have survived past 1919 because that year the Beaver River Clubhouse was sold to Henry Wetmore. According to the 1920 US Census, Dobson was then living with his wife and children in the Town of New Bremen, and working at a Stillwater lumber camp. Despite his short residency, the mere fact of Dobson’s ownership was enough to give the hilltop cabin an identity as a guide’s house.

 

In 1920 Dobson sold the property destined to soon become Chicken Island to James C. and Helen S. Griffin of Erie, PA. J. C. Griffin was a wealthy factory owner. It seems likely that Griffin was a sportsman who had been guided by Dobson at his Beaver Island Camps and he became enamored with the area. When Dobson ended his guiding business at Stillwater after the 1919 season, it seems probable that he offered the property to Griffin at a bargain price. Griffin used the camp only for a few years. In 1924, as the time for filling the expanded reservoir approached, Griffin sold the property to New York State. The State sold it to Roger B. Williams, Jr. later the same year.

 

To recap – This title research has uncovered the fact that Arthur B. Belden built the original cabin that still sits on Chicken Island in 1908 or 1909. That camp became known as a guide’s house because Bert Dobson owned it from 1917 until 1919. The island became known as Griffin Island when J. C. Griffin sold it to the state in 1924.

 

While my research has settled some of the questions about Chicken Island, no chickens have made an appearance so far. The chickens, if there ever were any, must have taken up residence sometime after Williams acquired the island in 1924 and before they sold it to the Rap-Shaw Club in 1940. The Rap-Shaw archive contains no mention of whether the island had a chicken yard, chicken house, shed or barn before the club assumed ownership in 1940. It is clear, however, that for whatever reason the club collectively decided to continue to call it Chicken Island, although there are some early photographs in the club archive labeled “the small island.”   

 

I have considered a number of other possibilities for the name, but none seem as plausible as the assumption that at some point Williams must have kept a small flock of chickens, and possibly other farm animals, on the island to supply the kitchen. Williams employed a caretaker and a cook who could have tended the chickens, collected the eggs, removed the birds during the winter and reestablished the flock the next spring. So, based on all of the above, Chicken Island it will remain.

Sources


Interviews with Rap-Shaw Club members Russ Hyde and Glenn Ostrander


Deed research with the assistance of Toria Lynch of the Herkimer County Clerk’s Office

 

Information on Belden, Dobson and Griffin from Ancestry.com and historic newspapers

 

1939 Property description from the Rap-Shaw Club archive

 

For more on the Beaver River Club, see my post of 5/3/21 https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2021/05/the-beaver-river-club.html

 

More on Roger B. Williams, Jr., can be found in my post of 9/5/21 https://beaverriverhistory.blogspot.com/2021/09/roger-butler-williams-jr.html

 

Photo credits


Photo of Chicken Island in 1940 from James Mullen photo collection

 

Portraits of Belden and Dobson from Ancestry.com

 

Beach RPPC of Dobson’s Beaver Island Camps from the collection of Frank Carey


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