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COURIER & FREEMAN, POTSDAM, N.Y.—TUESDAY, JANUARY 8,1980—PAGE 5 PIERREPONT HISTORY: Cheese Factories Editor's Note; The following is sixth in a serialized version of the history ot Pierrepont being printed In the Courier and Freeman. The history was researched and written by Betty B. Newton. With no refrigeration, and only plodding teams for transportation, cheese factories were a necessary part of the early economy. Nearly every brook had one to make it convenient for farmers to dispose of their surplus milk. Very often they separated the cream from the milk, feeding the skim milk to their pigs and taking just the cream to the factory. At our place, there was originally a room lined with shelves. On those shelves, shallow pans were set and then skimmed. These were about the size of a small round dishpan. Later long narrow cans with a faucet in the bottom with a glass insert just above were used. They were set in cold water to cool the milk faster. Then of course, came mechanical separators. As the automobile developed, the small cheese factory disappeared. The only one I found noted on any map was the one on the Butternut Ridge Road near the Carrow place. It was located on the right hand side of the road. Dad or his brothers used to take the milk to the factory there regularly. As I look back, I believe it was this building that burned one scorching hot summer\ day when everything was tinder dry. Another cheese factory was located in Crary's Mills. The stones and foundation can still be seen on the left side as you journey down thePost Road. I think that this one probably opera ted either before or after the one on the Ridge Road, for my father seemed to always have an awful lot of memories and tales about Crary's Mills and when I worked there as a teenager, I met several people who knew him well. Lee Forbes ran this for many years. When he quit, the patrons banded together and ran it on a cooperative basis. Sunday rides used to often take us to West Pierrepont, where some kin* hearted soul produced cheese curd for us to buy. Originally built on the other corner, milk was only separated thereat that time and then transported to Pierrepont Center for processing. John Coon was one of the early operators. At one time, under new management, the milk was sold to Knox and Lewis at Langdon's Corners. Bill Heffron and Christopher McNiel started making cheese during their periods of operation. When Montroy bought the property he rebuilt up on the hill. This was prior to the McNiel operation at least Only a foundation remains of this once thriving business. The Pierrepont Center factory was probably in operation the longest Long after it had served its intended purpose, it was used as a dwelling. On that spot beside the old Mill Stream there is now located a beautifully landscaped trailer- owned by DeShanes. Pierrepont also once had a creamery. Presumably, it was located in the same area, but nobody seems to know just where. At Cook's Corners there was another cheese factory. The first was located near Maurice Roach's place It was rebuilt on the knoll somewhere between Jack Vaughn's and the cemetery. This was still in operation in the late '20s or early '30s, as some of my contemporaries remember going for cheese curd there. On what is known as the Allen Factory Road, there was also another cheese factory, run by Aliens. Most interesting is the production of limburger cheese by the Caswell men on the old Coon place. There may have been others, as it was hard to get milk or cream delivered to any great distance and still have it fresh. However, no present day residents seem to know about them. BURNING WOOD: Air Pollution CLARKSON PRESENTS CHECKS — Potsdam Mayor Ruth F. Garner and Acting Clarkson College President Herman L. Shulman are shown in front of the Village's new fire station annex. Clarkson College recently donated $10,000 to the Village as part of its yearly program of contributions to local governing bodies. The College also made gifts of $2,500 apiece to the Town of Potsdam and Potsdam Central School District. 'COOL' SOUNDS — How can musicians test the effects of ' sub-zero weather on their instruments during an unusually warm winter? How about the freezer at the local super-, market? That's what's happening here as student Jeff Broils of Amityville and professors Rebecca Covell, Richard Cryder and John Schorge see how well a new valve oil will work when State University College at Potsdam's Crane School of Music provides all ceremonial music for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid in February. The Potsdam P & C emptied its meat cooler and dropped the temperature to minus 10 degrees to facilitate the test. The valve oil, In- cidentally, was found to work. Fireplaces and wood-burning stoves are everywhere these days. And the pollution they create is now being measured One of the first studies on the subject, done in Portland, Oregon, found that pollutants from wood-burning accounted for more than one-third of the. particulates in the air on a cold winter day. This high level, say the OF INTEREST: • Troops Overthrew Amin, But Slaughtered Game In a bloody 3'A-month sequel to the Ugandan-Tanzanian war of early 1979, Tanzanian soldiers slaughtered nearly 14,000 wild animals in Uganda- including thousands of hippopotamuses, and scores of lions and elephants— International Wildlife magazine reports in its current issue. Using machine guns and even hand grenades, the undisciplined Tanzanian troops, occupying Uganda as a \security\ force following dictator Idi Amin's overthrow, wiped out about one third of all large mammals in Uganda's huge Ruwenzori National Park, according to the National Wildlife Federation's bimonthly publication In a signed story titled \I Witnessed a Massacre,\ Karl G. Van Orsdol, a Palo Alto, Cal. wildlife biologist, tells of seeing one section of the park turned into \a graveyard of dead and dying animals,\ with soldiers earning as much as $1,000 a day for killing ten hippos. Ugandan merchants then sold the meat off the carcasses for as much as $2,000 per animal, according to Van Orsdol's account, although there was no acute shortage of food in the country at the time. Van Orsdol, who went to Africa in 1976 to study lions at the Uganda Institute of. Ecology, first saw wildlife killed by soldiers in March of 1979, when Idi Amin's troops,.camping in Ruwenzori, started shooting animals for food. They THE WINNERS — Sister Loretta, principal of St. Mary's School in Potsdam, congratulates Tom Wangler and Mary Ellen Logan, winners of the Spring ABC of Industry contest. Their teacher, Miss Terri King, looks on. Tom graduated in June and won a four year scholarship to Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. Mary Ellen is presently an eighth grade student at the school. hadn't been paid in months, they explained. The Institute staff was relieved when Tanzanian troops \liberated\ the park, but within a few weeks \more animals were being killed than the (Tanzanian) troops could possibly eat,\[he reports. In mid-June, Van Orsdol traveled 100 miles south to Ishasha, an isolated section of the park. At first, it seemed that area had been spared, and he resumed his study of lions, i \Then he writes,' 'while sitting out on the plains in the hot midday sun, I heard a loud rumble in the distance About three miles south, I saw a large, open-backed truck moving straight toward a herd of resting buffalo. When it approached to SLU President Elected To Augsbury Board Frank A. Augsbury Jr., chairman of the board, has announced the election of Frank P. Piskor as a director of The Augsbury Organization, Inc. Dr. Piskor, who is currently* the president of St. Lawrence University in Canton, was elected at the annual meeting of the organization which was held on December 14,1979.. Piskor, who resides with his wife Anne at 54 East Main St., Canton, was Educated at Middlebury College and Syracuse University. He served in several posts, including vice chancellor and provost, at Syracuse before being named president of St. Lawrence in September, 1968. Among his many directorships and memberships, Piskor serves as a trustee of the Syracuse Savings Bank, director of the St. Lawrence National Bank and a director of the Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. within 400 feet of the herd, about ten! Tanzanian soldiers standing in the back opened fire with their machine guns. The truck chased the fleeing herd for | more than a mile as the soldiers continued to fire. Many buffalo fell to the ground dead or dying, while others limped away to die slowly later.\ Attempts to reason with the troops proved fruitless. In answer to his pleas, one soldier pointed a gun at Van Orsdol's head. \He informed me that he could execute anyone who stood in his way,\ Van Orsdol recalls in International Wildlife. \Besides the soldier continued, \if you don't let us kill the animals, then we will rob the people\ The soldier said he hadn't been paid for six months. In July, after deciding he must leave Uganda, the California scientist made a final heartbreaking trip along the shore of the Park's Lake Edward. \Wepassed carcass after carcass of hippo, sun- bleached, with legs pointed skyward,\ he writes. \After a three-hour trip, our notebook carried grim statistics: 82 hippos seen alive on the trip, 75 dead.\ In August, the day before Van Orsdol left the country, he and a Ugandan colleague reviewed their figures on the number of animals killed in the past 3>A- months. Their tally: 6,000 hippopotamuses out of a total park population of 14,000; 5,000 Uganda kob, an orange-red antelope; 2,000 buffalo; 400 topi, another species of antelope; 100 elephants; and 70 lions. That's nearly 14,000 animals out of a total park populajtion of 46,000 large mammals. Some-of the lions were killed by hand grenades'. The new Ugandan government imposed a five-year ban on hunting a few days after Van Orsdol's departure. According to Van Orsdol, the Ugandan parks are now being administered by a team of biologists that is initiating an ambitious recovery program. \Moral and financial support is crucial,\ Van Orsdol emphasizes. \With aid from the rest of the world, there's a good chance these Ugandans can succeed.\ County Pursues Rail Line Condemnation CANTON—The St. Lawrence County Board of Legislators voted 17 to 5 Wednesday to allow County Attorney Charles Palm to begin condemnation proceedings against Penn Central for the Ogdensburg-Dekalb rail line, The county is currently leasing the line from Penn Central and has been negotiating to buy the rail spur. The county, however, has been unable' to reach a satisfactory 1 agreement for the rail line's purchase. County Administrative Assistant William Collins said that during the negotiations \we couldn't get together on a price which was satisfactory to both sides.\ Legislators Charles Turcotte, Rosemary Sanford, Betty Bradley, Stanley Morrill, and William Sheridan voted not to initiate the condemnation proceedings for the rail line County Attorney Palm may now begin to declare the line convertible for public use under the right of eminent domain, or he can continue to confer with Penn Central in attempts to work out an agreement. Collins said that the county attorney \may need outside legal help.\ researchers, may be typical of many areas where wood is being used as a residential energy source. \The findings are of particular concern because emissions from these sources are inhaled deeply into the lungs, contain carcinogenic compounds, and significantly reduce visibility,\ says Professor John A. Cooper at the Oregon Graduate Center in Beaverton \Wood smoke contributions to air pollution are likely to increase rapidly over the next few years as costs of alternate energy forms increase, and the use of wood is encouraged by federal and state governments. In addition, exposure to wood smoke is expected to increase as the use of wood is extended to include both water and space heating over a greater portion of the heating season.\ Although coal emits more sulfur and cancer-causing agents, a radioactive element is present in wood smoke- radiocarbon—that is not present in smoke from fossil fuel sources. If allowed to grow uncontrolled, emission from burning wood could become a significant health hazard, Dr. Cooper says. DEMOLITION COMPLETE — This is all that remains of the Conrail freight house that was torn down by Potsdam Village crews last week. Baker photo) The freight house burned in 1977. (Betsy C-P School's Energy Plan Is Approved COLTON — Voters in the Colton- Pierrepont Central School District approved a $244,000 energy saving package in voting Monday, with a final tally of 105 'yes' votes and 72 'no's.' Superintendent of Schools Thomas Sheeran said Tuesday morning that he is \pleased with the results\ of the vote, despite the low voter turnout. The energy saving plan has two major parts, according to Sheeran. The first part involves changing the existing incandescent lighting in the school building to fluorescent lighting, while the second part involves changing glass window walls to insulated masonry. The school, built in the 1950s, has a large number of floor-to-ceiling win- dows, Sheeran said. Also included in the plan are some minor structural changes to bring the building into conformance with updated state codes, he noted. Now that the plan has been approved by the district's voters the architectural firm of Sargent, Webster, Crenshaw and Foley, Watertown, will prepare specifications. Bids for the project should be ready to go out in a month or two, Sheeran said. Work is expected to begin in the summer of 1980, with all work expected to be completed by January of next year. Some work will begin as soon as school is closed in June, and bid specifications will stipulate that work is to be \non-interruptive\ of school sessions, according to Sheeran.. Village Begins Talks On Employees' Contract Potsdam Village officials met in executive session last Friday afternoon in the first of a series of meetings on a new contract for the village's approximately 60 full time Civil Service employees. The employees' two year contract expires May 31 this year. Meeting with the mayor, trustees and village administrator was consultant Richard Wyssling, who is handling the negotiations for the village. Wyssling was also the village's negotiator in the police department contract talks last year. Just prior to Friday's meeting Wyssling told the Courier and Freeman that this first session was planned to discuss the village's position in the negotiations. Civil service employees are expected to meet shortly with their CSEA representative!, village sources said Wyssling, who has a contract with the village, is paid on an \as needed\ basis for his services at the rate of $55 per hour plus expenses, Air pollution may be entering the farthest reaches of our atmosphere far faster than anyone suspected. • The effects, still largely unknown, are concerning scientists and citizens. The air we breathe is limited. The earth's atmosphere is several hundred miles high. Then air gradually becomes, less dense until it finally merges into empty space. Most of th e air mass is concentrated in a layer about 12 miles thick around the earth's crust, no deeper, proportionately, than the skin of an apple to the apple itself. Every day we dump thousands of tons of pollution into the lower part of this layer, the troposphere. Until recently, scientists believed that it took several weeks for air from the troposphere to penetrate up into the higher levels in the stratosphere. Now new research by Dr. Melvyn Shapiro at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado indicates that it can happen in hours. Clear air turbulence, says Dr. Shaprino, can cause the air from the troposphere to fold into the stratosphere, in much the same ways as egg whites are folded into a souffle. The pollutants, says Dr. Shapiro, can have a significant impact on the global atmosphere once they reach the stratosphere, by reducing our protective ozone layer and changing the amount of solar radiation which reaches the earth's surface Additions To Restaurant, Frat Being Considered Should Chris Fay's' restaurant be allowed to add a steel Butler building to the front of its Market Street location and should fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon be allowed to ha ve an addition to its Elm Street house?- • Those two local zoning questions are due to come before the St. Lawrence County Planning Board at its January meeting this Thursday night. Potsdam village planning agencies are currently in theprocess of reviewing the two requests. The county planning board also has a chance to comment on the projects since they are located along state rights-of-way. Acting County Planner Mary Burns Verlaque said Monday that she did not have recommendations on the projects at that point. She expected to do more review this week prior to the Thursday meeting, she said At the village level, the request by Chris Fay's was passed by the village planning board without prejudice. It must be acted upon by the village Zoning Board of Appeals. The village planning board has voted against allowing the fraternity to have a 2,400 square foot, two-story addition At a recent meeting, . there was considerable objection from the public. Fire Loss Is Near $30,000 PIERREPONT—Fire destroyed a storage building and its contents Monday night, resulting In an estimated $30,000 in damages. St. Lawrence County Sheriff's Deputies said the cause of the fire was unknown, but the blaze completely destroyed the 50-by 120-foot metal and wood frame building on the Tucker Road, owned by Ted Walrich, Sturdevant Road. Walrich told deputies he lost sixi snowmobiles, two tractors, a two-ton farm truck, and numerous shop tools and equipment in the fire. There was no insurance on the building, he said Hannawa Falls fire department battled the blaze, assisted by fire departments from Colton, South Colton, Pierrepont and Potsdam, beginning about 7:20 p.m. Monday,
