Grace Davies

Howard Davies, Grace Giffiths Davies, Sherwood Davies

Born:

1891

Died: 1980

Married: Howard Davies

Children: Sherwood Davies

Grace Griffiths Davies was the third and last postmaster of Stony Wold, Lake Kushaqua, New York, 1924 to 1958.

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STONY WOLD, LAKE KUSHAQUA, FRANKLIN COUNTY, NEW YORK

By Grace Griffiths Davies

good friends, 1909

There seems to be nothing written about Lake Kushaqua. It is not too surprising because Stony Wold Sanatorium was all that was there and sanatoriums in the Adirondacks were quite unpopular. Two reasons for that. They were built for tubercular patients and they paid very small taxes. One thing to their credit should not be overlooked. These sanatoriums gave a world of business to the North Country.

The idea of Stony Wold was Mrs. Elizabeth Newcomb’s. She was the wife of Dr. Edward Newcomb, a nose and throat specialist of New York City.

Grace Davies and her son Sherwood, Kushaqua train station in background.

Having had tuberculosis herself but having been fortunate in making a remarkable recovery by having spent two summers at a hotel in Kushaqua, she became interested in working women who had the disease. She asked the late Dr. Trudeau for his advice about building a sanatorium. He tried to discourage her saying no woman could undertake such a responsibility. He did not know Mrs. Newcomb’s ability.

With the help of her college classmates, she raised enough money to buy two houses in Santa Clara, N.Y. where many young women regained their health. Two years later she bought 1800 acres of land from Leonard of Onchiota on which Stony Wold was built on a lavish scale. She had collected plenty of money. Among the donors were John D. Rockefeller, N.H. Rogers, Benjamin Stern, Henry Segal, Anne Morgan and many more wealthy people. [Gould] built the nurses’ home. A handsome chapel was given by Martha and Blanche Potter along with employees’ dormitory, power house and several other buildings.

May Bierne, Sue Cavanaugh, Grace Davies, Nancy Lightbody - Stony Wold Staff

Women and children were admitted in 1905. Most of them came from New York City. The capacity was about one hundred patients and forty in help. There were two doctors and four nurses.

In 1928 an infirmary was built. The capacity for patients then was about 160. There were then four doctors, a dentist, and twenty nurses.

Grace Griffiths Davies, 1911

Train service was excellent until 1950. The New York Central ran three trains north and three trains south each day with dining cars and sleepers. The Delaware and Hudson ran two trains south and two north each day but they discontinued that service about 1930. The New York Central station was 200 feet from the sanatorium and the D&H on the other side of the lake which was 1/2 mile wide. Until 1914 milk was shipped from Bloomingdale on the D&H and on arrival at Kushaqua station, the baggage men would ring a bell and someone would go after it in the launch.

The International Paper Company owned a tract of land near Stony Wold and brought their lumber down the corduroy road by sleigh, several logs chained together and would unload it in the lake. In the spring, when the ice melted, the loggers rode them down Saranac River to Plattsburg.

For many years the sanatorium was heated by coal. Lights were candles, lamps and lanterns. There were nine huge fire places in the main building and logs burning most of the time.

Grace Davies (undated)

Refrigeration was from ice cut from the lake with saws borrowed from Paul and Phelps Smith who were always Mrs. Newcomb’s good friends.

The charge per patient was one dollar a day which included room and board, medicine, doctor’s examination etc. Of course, the Board of Directors had no trouble raising money in those years and some of them spent weekends at Kushaqua.

There was no problem in finding domestic help as there was plenty of entertainment for young people, such as dancing, swimming, ice skating, sleigh rides, etc. Plenty of romance, too, and many of the couples who met there and married are still living in Franklin County along with their third and fourth generations.

A one-room school house was built in 1915 for employees’ children. Some of them are now doctors, nurses, professional engineers and a singer and a dancer.

Grace Griffith Davies, Sarah Griffith, 1914

The rates, naturally, had to be raised over the years but the last charge in 1955 was $8.00 per day. Men were admitted in 1936.

Stony Wold was sold to the White Fathers Catholic missionaries for a seminary in 1957, but it never materialized. It is now for sale.

, 1955

The beautiful place with its lovely buildings and cottages looks sad to those who knew it in the past.

Mrs. Newcomb died in 1935. She never had children. She was happy because she knew she had done a great work for humanity.

 

All photographs courtesy of Sherwood Davies.

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