Birth: July 1 1771
Death: May 7, 1849
Married: Esther Hawley
Children: Samuel Meacham, Amanda Brownell
Thomas Meacham
Lake Placid News, November 17, 1933
TOM MEACHAM OF LAST CENTURY GREAT HUNTER
Paid for Lands with Bounties from Wolves and Bears
Probably the greatest hunter that ever pulled a trigger in the North Country was Thomas Meacham, a Vermonter, who must have arrived in this section in the early part of the nineteenth century, as it appears in the proceedings of the Franklin county board of supervisors of the year 1808 that he had been paid $50 as bounties on wolves he had killed.
He first settled in the town of Hopkinton, St. Lawrence county, but a little later on moved over the county line into Franklin county and into what is now the town of Waverly where he purchased 50 acres of land and built a home on the old North-West Bay Road where he spent the remainder of his life. The deed conveying this property was dated November 10, 1810, and was recorded in Liber No, 1 of the deed records of Franklin county, it being the first tract of land sold by the executors of the will of William Constable in what is now the town of Waverly, to a settler. He subsequently purchased three other 50-acre tracts between 1810 and 1828 all of which it is said, were paid for with wolf bounties. He died in 1849.
Frederick J. Seaver has this to say of him in his history of Franklin county: "It was he who gave the name to Meacham Lake, a beautiful body of water in the Adirondacks lying 25 miles south of Malone, (now owned by the state of New York).
His earnings in bounties for noxious animals in the forty years of his activities must have aggregated thousands of dollars, as his obituary, written by a towns man, states that he kept accurate account of the number of the larger animals trapped or shot by him, and that the totals were: Wolves, 214; bears, 210; catamounts, 77; and deer, 2,550. Bounties were payable for all these except deer and if we average the amount at only ten dollars each, his revenue from this source would be over $5,000. Once he trapped or shot three wolves in one day for which he received one hundred and eighty dollars—the bounty at the time having been sixty dollars per head..”
His land or a part of it has been occupied by his descendants continuously since his death.
He had a son, Samuel Meacham, who was a noted hunter and trapper. He wore his hair long, down to his shoulders, curling up gently at the ends, giving him the appearance of the true frontiersman that he was.
A story is told of him, which, considering the superstitions of the time, is probably true. He hunted with an old long Kentucky rifle, weighing about fourteen pounds, with an octagon barrel and a bore that could admit a man's finger tip and when "Uncle Sam" stood up and rested the stock on the ground, with his hands over the muzzle, it was just the right height to rest his chin on.
He was a dead shot and could cut a partridge's head off with at thirty paces, four times out of five, but as the story goes, when the hunting season opened one fall, he went out to hunt and had three fair shots at deer and missed all of them. A day or two later he tried again and had two fair shots and missed both. He was nonplussed. He examined his rifle carefully, tested the sights, cleaned it thoroughly but could find nothing wrong with it, so about a week after he went out again, and again missed every deer he shot at, so he came home, hung up his rifle and quit hunting for that season. Later on an old friend, also a hunter, made him a visit and among other things, Meacham told him of his experience. "I had the same experience once, myself,’ said the friend; "the trouble is that your rifle is bewitched, and you will never be able to hit another deer with it until you have ran a silver bullet and killed a deer with it and then the spell will be broken. This was right after the close of the Civil War and silver was mighty scarce, but Meacham found a silver half-dollar somewhere, meIted it up and made a bullet of it and loaded his rifle with it and the first deer he shot at fell dead the and presto! thereafter the deer fell before his shots like grain before a sickle and he was never again bothered with witches.
—Massena Observer.
Malone Farmer, November 27, 1901
Thomas Meacham, the greatest of Adirondack Hunters
…He died in a poor log cabin, situate up the North West Bay road on south side of river above Nicholville, just over the line in Franklin county. With all his success in hunting he got along but poorly, living a hard. lonely life. Zebina Coolidge was at his cabin several times while Meacham was living there and he tells me the following story of the man as it was current in boyhood days. He says that at first Meacham lived only a short distance up the North West Bay road; that after parting with his wife he went down to Essex county and returned with the wife of Eben Call: that she got on the horse behind Mr. Meacham and as they started off Mr. Call came to the door with their child in his arms crying and entreating her not to leave him: that she called out to him, "Go back in the house and not stand there like a fool." When he reached Hopkinton the people were so indignant that he had to move up the road across East Brook in Franklin county where he built a log house in the woods, in which they lived till the end. she dying a few years prior to his decease. After her death he lived there alone. While thus situated Mr. Coolidge made his last call at the cabin. He was in the neighborhood fishing and as the premises looked deserted he went into the cabin. After he had entered he still thought they were deserted but presently Mr. Meacham came feebly and totteringly out of what was called a bedroom to see who had entered. He was then gray and grizzled and just able to get about the house and yet all alone. From the diary it seems he thus died. He had one or two children by the wife and two or three by the second union...
