From the Company Album…
The Christmas holiday season is always a time for reminiscing. At this time of the year, folks like to hearken back to pleasant times of other years, to renew old acquaintances and to give a moment's thought to people, places and things from out of the past.
An old-timer in the Paul Smith's Electric Company's album is the Keeses Mills power plant noted in the Christmas card setting above.
Formerly a sawmill operated by Keese and Tomlinson, it was purchased by Mr. Paul Smith in 1890. Later, at the turn of the century, it was remodeled to become the source of power to light the famous Paul Smith's Hotel on St. Regis Lake.
This building holds a sentimental niche in company annals as the birthplace of Paul Smith's endeavors in the electric utility field.
Today the Paul Smith's Electric Company serves four counties in the Adirondack area . . . and although now playing a minor role in the company operation, the generator still spins at Keese Mills.
PAUL SMITH'S ELECTRIC CO.
Courtesy of Jayne Muncil Boehringer
Keese Mill was a Mill on the St. Regis River built by Oliver Keese and Thomas A. Tomlinson in 1851. It was later run by William McLean, who had earlier been involved in the mill at Franklin Falls. 1 It became the site of the hamlet of Keese Mills.
Comments
Footnotes
1. Seaver, Frederick J., Historical Sketches of Franklin County, Albany: J.B. Lyon & Co., 1918, p. 206 (see Ray's Place)
