Re: George Sherwood 1883 Fort Ann NY
-
In reply to:
Re: George Sherwood 1883 Fort Ann NY
Kimberley Coryell-Conley 12/12/01
I found this in our local newspaper. It is about Adiel Sherwood and his tavern.
County court dispute goes way back
Over My Shoulder
Published on 1/19/2002
By Joseph Cutshall King
When does it pay to shut your mouth?
The "courthouse caper" of Adiel Sherwood is a case in point.
We need a bit of background. I take you back to the late 1790s, those days when Washington County included all of Warren County.
A power struggle over the placement of courts had been ongoing since the county had changed its name to honor Washington in 1784. Since 1772, the courts had been in Fort Edward at the home and courthouse of Justice Patrick Smyth, now the Old Fort House
Museum.
The courts ceased during the war, but were resurrected in the same place by 1786. By that time, the place was a tavern owned by Adiel Sherwood, a colonel in the County Militia who had been commanding Fort Ann when Carlton's troops had captured it in 1780. Sherwood was a hero.
Folks in Salem agitated for the courts being placed there. This was understandable as so much power was represented in the community, especially with the presence of Gen. John Williams.
Williams, a physician who had led that Militia, was himself a hero of the Revolution, a member of the legislature and of Congress among his other accomplishments. He was also very rich, which didn't hurt.
In 1791, Williams and others succeeded in getting Salem appointed the county seat. Citizens of Fort Edward, then a part of the Town of Argyle, were incensed. They managed to get the state to allow courts to be held in Fort Edward, too. So, in effect, a dual
county seat existed. As far as I know, today the only other place with this oddity of having two county courts in two separate towns exists in Bennington County, Vermont.
Now to the courthouse caper. As Crisfield Johnson so beautifully wrote in his county history, in 1796, Sherwood "now united the glittering dignity of a lieutenant-colonel of militia with the humble duties of a village tavern-keeper."
Evidently the tavern's well-being took precedent. The court was held in the dining room. One day as the sessions had droned on, it apparently looked to Sherwood as if court were going to encroach upon the dinner-hour, impeding service to the taverns' regulars.
Hell knows no fury like a restaurateur kept from serving customers. Sherwood entered the courtroom and ordered the judges to leave. Forthwith!
However, an innkeeper's wrath is nothing compared to that of a judge, especially these judges, three of whom happened to be state senators. As Johnson wrote, that the judges "should be thus dictatorially ordered out of it, even by a lieutenant-colonel of militia, was almost enough to paralyze them with horror and indignation." Perhaps at that moment, but not at the next session.
Sherwood had actually succeeded in shutting down the court to get his food and beverage service going, his motto probably being, "Don't let the ale fail."
However, at the next session the judges retaliated against the insolent innkeeper. Let the court record speak for itself: "Adiel Sherwood, having been guilty of contempt, it is ordered that the said Adiel Sherwood be committed to the common jail of Washington county for the space of fifteen days."
Fifteen days in the poky for one late dinner-hour. Adding monetary insult to civil injury, the offended jurists yanked the court out of Sherwood's tavern and changed the venue to the "hotel of Mary Dean, in Sandy Hill" (now Hudson Falls). Apparently Mary could juggle serving both judges and tankards of ale.
The change, however, still left the whole issue of the dual court and dual county seat intact, with courthouses in both Salem and Hudson Falls. It would not be until 1991 that the county courts would again be centralized in just one town.
In which town? Ah, yes, in Fort Edward.
It had taken nearly two centuries, but Adiel Sherwood got the last laugh.