Born: 1843 in Vermont
Died: October, 1916 in Tupper Lake, NY
Married: Elizabeth (Libbie) Fayzette in 1871
Children: daughter Nellie (born c. 1873), Gertrude (born c. 1878), Percy (born c. 1885)
Jabez D. Alexander of Vermontville built a hotel called Alexander's on a commanding eminence on the shoreline of Lower Saranac Lake in 1884. He sold it to John Harding in 1890, who renamed it the Hotel Algonquin. It is now the site of the Trudeau Institute. Alexander subsequently opened a hotel on Tupper Lake called the Waukesha, which the family operated for more than fifty years. He is buried in Pine Ridge Cemetery.
He was born in Vermont, a child of Josiah Jones Alexander and wife Clarissa Delano Alexander (both born c. 1803). Josiah had moved his family to Vermontville by 1850 where he ran a large farm. By the 1870 Census, Josiah held land valued at $2500, and Jabez, then 28, held land valued at $1300 or $1500. Jabez married wife Elizabeth (Libbie) Fayzette in 1871. By 1880 he appears to have been living in the lower Lake Street/Algonquin Avenue area. 1 His son Percy was born in Saranac Lake in 1885, probably when he was living at or near the hotel.
There is a deed to Jabez D. Alexander from Gordon C. Adams for 160 acres dated May 16, 1878 (liber 60, p.409) which conveys 160 acres of land bordered by the line between Twp. 21 and Twp. 24,( in Twp. 24) for $900. This land was conveyed to Gordon C. Adams by the executor of the estate of Robert C. Gilchrist. This 160 acres included the property for the Algonquin Hotel and also several pieces of property which Jabez sold, including to Fanny Dunning, Nathan Straus, Walter Berg, and Fred Rice. The deed is in the property records of Trudeau Institute. Before purchasing this land, Jabez sold at least two pieces of farmland in Vermontville, one of which was 100 acres to John Norman , in 1878 and 1879, to earn the money with which to buy land in Harrietstown.
He built the Alexander House hotel in 1884 and sold it to John Harding in 1890. He moved to Tupper Lake when Percy was ten (1895) and worked at a hotel until he bought a hotel in the Town of Altamont, the Waukesha, built by Mart Moody. Jabez was an invalid for the last fourteen years of his life, and his son Percy took over the management of the hotel in 1910 . Percy ran it until the onset of WW II when it was forced to close in 1941. It never reopened and was torn down in 1946.
Percy Alexander was married to Aurore M. Henault, and they had one son, John Alexander. Percy died May 14, 1957. He was survived by his wife and son. He had built the Waukesha Grill, which he sold, and later the Waukesha Cabins.
Sources:
- Research by Bobbie Leamer based on Census records and deed records. The obituaries for Jabez D. Alexander and Percy Alexander are in the Adirondack Room of the Saranac Lake Free Library.
1. He is listed on the same page as Fred Rice, age 28, boat builder, and W.F. Martin, farmer and hotel keeper, in Harrietstown.
