Fairweather Corners
This might be somewhat late for commenting, but in case anyone is interested in the area discussed in this forum, I believe the location of the houses/manor is due West of the Village of Galway, at the top of the hill and at an intersection of two cross roads. Maps give a name for it of "Fairweather Corners", although I've never seen any signs in the area with that posted. I'd always known it as "Boshart's Hill", from the name of the family who lived in the large house just to the south of the Manor/Salt Hill buildings. In the early 1950's, (IIRC) a Mrs. Folster lived there and my family would visit on occasion - have some b/w photos from that long-ago time.
One item correcting a reference to Lafayette - there were stories/legends of Lafayette visting that area as part of his tour of the young United States in 1824. He (being born 1757) was never involved in the French and Indian Wars. He was an officer in the American Revolution (a generation after the F&I) and a close friend of Gen. George Washington. Although he was French, besides the impossibility of dates, he would not have been involved in planning any F&I activities. The area was not settled by Europeans in the 1750s. Galway received its first settlers in 1774 - a group of seven Scottish families, who then had to abandon the area during the turmoil of the Rev. War; returning after it ended.
There is a nearby spring named "Lafayette Spring" from which it was said he visited and drank. It may have been what feeds the small pond visible from the road going east down the hill towards the village. - Or it may be the spring found on private property south of Jersey Hill road and to the immediate west of Consaul Road - about 3/4 of a mile south of this Fairweather Corners. Or he might never have come to the area and his famous trip simply adopted to become a local legend. Solid evidence would be welcome.
There does appear to have been an Indian connection through that place. One can trace the country roads and lanes south to Wolf's Hollow, an interesting and deep ravine, just on the north edge of the Mohawk River, through the farm country leading eventually past that "ski pond" - variously known as "Cummings Pond" (former owners who left or died out mid-1950s or thereabouts) or as "Glowegee Pond", being the headwaters of the Glowegee Creek, which winds through most of the Town of Galway, passing north of the Village and eventually into the town of Milton (eventually reaching the Hudson.) It has been said that this trail was the foot path taken by Native Indians to travel from the Mohawk to/from the high country of the Adirondacks. Examining the topo maps and knowing where the swamps are, this does seem to be the only good route to travel; the modern Route 147 needed a 19th century project to fill in the road through the Glowegee swamp. Such did not exist in the 1600/1700s.
Following the road from Fairweather Corners, to the north, one passes by Galway Lake, then an abandoned path leads to the road going to Route 29 and thence continues to Fish House on (now) Sacandaga Lake.
This would likely have been the trail taken by the St. Regis Indians, who were said to have come in 1782 to the farm of the one settler in Charleton (the next town to the south of Galway), a Mr. Gonzalez, said to be a descendant of a Spaniard who came to the New World to escape religious presecution in Europe. The story (there is a NY State history sign) is that he and one of his sons were killed by these Indians (with the assumed encouragement of the British) while one son, along with a farm servant, was forced by them to walk to Canada, where he was involuntarily drafted into the British army. This incident was said to be one of the last massacres in NY of that War. This son was finally released two years after the War and immediately returned home to find his remaining family dispersed. (Descendants of sister still reside in the area.) His name in British records was morphed from Gonzalez to Consalus, which is the origin for the Consaul Road name, which starts at that aforementioned pond, a half-mile south of this hill, and winds to Route 67 over the town line in Charlton, within sight of Scotch Church corner (church and cemetery.)
I would imagine that the "haunted" stories may have come from this 226 year old massacre. I just recently heard that an old Dutch (New York first being New Holland - 1600s) family who lived near the Consalus Vly remembered Indians camping in nearby fields while traveling on foot to annual gatherings. (This would have been early 20th century - that family died out with two sisters in their 70s or 80s in the 1960s - their house since decayed into the ground and no one who had not seen it would know there was once a large stately wooden frame house there. Don't bother building there - the mosquitos are fierce and very hungry...)
One extra piece of trivia - I heard that the name "Salt Hill" was derived from a somewhat famous Irish hotel/spa. The people who set this one up as a private bed and breakfast supposedly thought that "Galway" was an Irish name - although it was named for the home town of Galloway in Scotland from whence those seven Scottish families settled. Details, details.
If it were not for the long brutal winters, I'd be very tempted to retire back to the "Shire" - Galway can be a charming pleasant place to live. If anyone wants to get the flavor of the place, pick up a copy of the "Story Quilt" put out by the local village library. A series of narrative poems 'by the people who live here'.
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