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With the following persons subscribers, and the number of shares (at $10) taken by each: Samuel Brown, Jr., 20; Jacob Brown, 35; Micah Sterling, 10; Benjamin Skinner, 10; John Brown, 20; Wm. M. Lord, 20; Judah Williams, 10; Samuel Starr, 20; Joseph Sterling, 10; Wm. Hunter, 10; Richard M. Esselstyn, 10; James Shields, 5; Gershom Tuttle, 5; Thomas S. Converse, 5; Amasa Trowbridge, 10. The commissioners were Ethel Bronson, John Brown, Wm. M. Lord, Thos. S. Converse. March 8, 1811, the company received an amendment of their charter by which the president and directors were to appoint a collector, who should receive for every boat of five tons or over twenty-five cents per ton, small boats fifty cents per ton, for going and returning, provided the receipts should not exceed fourteen percent, of he capital invested. The company was to finish its work in three years. The time was afterwards extended, and in 1815 wooden locks were built, of capacity sufficient to allow the passage of Durham boats; and by an advertisement in the Sacket’s Harbor Gazette of May 1, 1817, the highest toll for passing the locks was fixed at fifty cents.
About the year 1828 these wooden locks having decayed, they were replaced by stone locks, and in the summer of 1827, the steamer Brownville was built by a company, among whom were Turner and Dodd, Wm. S. Ely, Wm. Lord, Hoel Lawrence, and Edmund Kirby, of this place, with others in Oswego and Ogdensburgh. This boat had a keel of 80 feet beam 20 feet; depth of hold 6-1/2 feet, 100 tons burden; and engines of 35 to 40 horsepower. She was burned to the water’s edge on her first trip to Ogdensburgh, but her crew was saved. The hull was towed to Brownville, rebuilt by Captain E. B. Dodd, and soon after sold at Sacket’s Harbor, and her name changed to Wm. Avery. Dexter, three and a half miles below Brownville, is now the head of navigation.
Transcribed by Holice B. Young from Jefferson Co. History by L. H. Everts.
Copyright January 2000 by Sherrye Luther Woodworth