Slideshow explaining John S. Apperson Jr.'s early conservation efforts.

1. John S. Apperson, Jr. (1878-1963)
Protecting the Islands of Lake George: One Rock at a Time…
by Ellen Apperson Brown
Photo circa 1910…of Apperson, folding his tent at the Dollar Islands at Lake
George

2. Telling his remarkable story: one photograph at a time
Photo taken from scrap book of camping trip in 1906

3. Credits
• Adirondack Research Library (Apperson correspondence – Schenectady)
• Apperson Family Archives (Ellen Apperson Brown, and Barbara Rennie); Apperson
Family website (www.vahistoryexchange.com)
• Douglas Langdon – Preservationist Community (January 2011) – (see Ellen’s
website)
• Adirondack Museum – Apperson films
• Apperson “Associates” – Bill White, Phil Ham, & Art Newkirk
• Chester Sims, Richard Tucker

4. Youthful motivation: Love of exercise, rigorous sports, and the out-of-doors…
• Hiking in all seasons (climbing Mount Marcy on
skis!)
• Skate sailing, skate skiing, and iceboating
• Canoeing (Morris canoe purchased 1907)
• Motor boats (barge, motor boats, Chris Craft –
1927)
Appy – figure on the right?

5. Thinking globally…
acting locally
Young Apperson committed himself
to the protection of the islands in the
Narrows, and developed a variety of
creative ways to do so…
Major Causes and Projects
• Rip-rapping shores
• Evicting squatters from state land
• Photography and Publications (Warwick Carpenter) (Public Education)
• Mastering the legislative process (partnering with Al Smith)
• Watchdog…grass roots organizing - legislation that might endanger Art. 7, Sec. 7
• Advocating for a Lake George Park (Tongue Mountain and Narrows)
• Creating a “Preservationist Community” in Huddle Bay (see Doug Langdon’s paper)
• Erosion; Lake George as a Mill Pond…

6. Schenectady…1900
Boston?
This picture of a beached whale
hints at a possible trip to a New
England port…
Brothers… Hull Apperson, John’s older
brother, came to Schenectady first, in 1899,
and John soon followed, about six months
later. Here they are, seated on railroad ties,
along the Mohawk River…looking a little
overdressed for the occasion…

7. Dan Wadsworth
In 1907, Apperson befriended an old man who lived in the
Benson Tract, and took an interest in helping him find a
suitable place to live. He wrote persistent letters about
him to the Conservation Department, and
eventually purchased him a small piece of land…

8. Exploring, weekend adventures

9. Transportation, Circa 1910…
What were the modes of transportation available?
Where could he stow his canoe, tents and other camping gear?
Did he bring his camping equipment on the train? (The D&H
Railroad was unwilling to allow campers and outdoorsmen to
check their camping gear and skis, etc.)

10. Becoming a tour guide…offering friends, family, and even international
visitors advice and hospitality in the North Country
Scene: summer camping trip with his sister Nancy - 1906

11. Home grown industry: Something to do on week nights in Schenectady
Skate sails..he and his friends manufactured them…and sleeping bags, too

12. The Narrows, Dollar Islands

13. Ongoing interest in photography and films

14. A serious photographer, he had an eye for beauty, but also wanted to educate and
provide documentation…Many of his photos were used in early publications.
“A barge named after the Constitution hauls
rocks to protect Lake George Islands”
(brochure by Warwick Carpenter, and the
New York Department of Conservation, in
1917)

15. A bad case of Influenza, in
1918, put him into Ellis
Hospital for a few days, but
he “escaped” and went hiking
until he recovered. Not long
afterward, he purchased
property in Huddle Bay and
on Tongue Mountain.

16. Lake George Park: Persuading landowners to give or sell their land
to the State…before the price of land climbed out of reach…
Ironically, just when Apperson became a land-owner, he also began
trying to convince others to relinquish their land ownership. This
effort brought him into a confrontation with Robert Moses
concerning the proposed road over Tongue mountain.

17. Almost like family…Mrs. Mary Loines, and daughters (Hilda and Sylvia)
Mary Loines’ gift to the state:

18. Dream of a Lake George Park: Finding Friends Who Shared the Dream
The Loines family
William K. Bixby

19. “Associates” who became his neighbors at Lake George:
see Preservationist Community, by Douglas Langdon
(www.vahistoryexchange.com)
• Florence Christie
• Katherine Blodgett
• Edith Clark
• Ellsworth Langdon
• Irving Langmuir
• Art Newkirk
Other “associates”:
• Bill White
• Phil Ham
• Jim Cawley
• Hilda Loines
• Paul Schaefer
Two GE scientists who agreed to purchase the Lake View Hotel property, sold out by
1928: G. Hall Roosevelt (Eleanor’s brother) and William N. Dalton

20. Political action through letter writing…
see… Becoming a Conservationist..One Letter at a Time
(www.vahistoryexchange.com)
“I have to confess to great astonishment and even more to
being shocked at the language used and the temper of
your editorial reply to Miss Loines. I have to admit that as
a former stockholder in the Mirror, who surrendered his
stock for the benefit of the community, I feel personally
grieved that such language should appear in the editorial
with reference to anyone. It seems to indicate a very
different quality from the general temper of the
constituency which formerly supported your paper…
George Foster Peabody July 29, 1925
(Letter to the Editor, the Lake George Mirror)

21. • After twenty years with GE, and Reorganization at GE - 1921
advancing to the #2 position in
Power and Mining…JSA lost his job.
After about six months, he emerged
in a new position with Engineering
General, where he served until his
retirement in 1947…
• Imagine how hard it would have
been for him to move to some other
part of the country…

22. Joining, testing the waters, and often deserting various organizations
• Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks
• Lake George Association
• American Canoe Association
• New York Conservation Commission
• NY Fish and Game Commission
• Lake George Protective Association

23. Practical Education
• Railroad – worked as foreman
directing the construction of a
branch railroad: engineering,
surveying, lumbering, laying rocks
(rip-rapping)
• Carpentry – toboggan, book shelf
• Engines, motors, inventions,
turbines, patents, general science
• Year in the student course at GE (on
Test)
• Chemistry, Calculus, etc. (he owned
books, was either self-taught, or
studied them in courses at VPI in
1898-99)
• Engineer’s concern for accuracy and
attention to detail

24. Civic and Political Education – back in Virginia
• Thomas Thomas Hull (grandfather)
– often quoted for his opinions
about agricultural education
(1850’s)
• Dr. John Apperson (father) - a
doctor and entrepreneur who
managed a branch railroad, a
foundry, and a mining company.
He was also Commissioner to the
Chicago World’s Fair (1893)
• David Denton Hull (uncle) – wrote
in a letter about “rolling up our
sleeves” after the Civil War.
• Abijah Thomas (great uncle) –
developed several industries, but
was taken to court repeatedly for
bad debts…

25. Growing up in Southwest Virginia
Dr. John S. Apperson
(1837-1908)
Ellen Victoria
Hull Apperson
(1840-1887)

26. Move from Chilhowie to Marion

27. Southwest Lunatic Asylum – 1887
John (age nine) is #1; Dr. Apperson #2; sister Nancy #3; sister Nell #5

28. Death of his sister, Mary, soon followed by the death of his mother…

29. Young John, between age nine and sixteen…learned to love the land

30. Family Culture
• Abigail Hull & David Denton …Aunt Abigail raised
her nephew, and then raised her seven great
nieces and nephews…
• Abijah Thomas – octagonal house…woolen mills…
slaves…bad debts
• Hull family – from Ulster County, New York…
Puritan ancestors came over in 1630
• Thomas family; Bowen family – Welsh (ap Owen)
• Apperson family – several generations in New
Kent County, Virginia…traces back to d’Epernon…
Normandy, and the French Alps…

31. Off to College…at age sixteen

32. Stepmother…and new set of siblings

33. Dr. Apperson with oldest set of children: John,
Georgia, Nancy, Nell and Sallie. (c. 1899)
Hull (not pictured) may have already moved away to
Schenectady, where he worked from 1899-1905.
Georgia married Lacy Tynes in 1905 and moved to
Tazewell; Sallie married Carleton Gibbons, moved to
Baltimore..and died in 1908; Nell was a school teacher
for her entire life, living in South Carolina and Florida;
Nancy married Capt. Ralph Dickenson and lived on
army bases; Dr. Apperson died in 1908…
Finding clues to explain John’s ideas
about logging, forestry practices, and
erosion…Here is a picture from 1935
showing what happened to forests in
Virginia…

34. Uncle John
Venturing onto black ice at the lake with nephews John and Jim, c. 1925

35. Nieces and nephews
Nephew James W. Apperson

36. Great Nieces and Nephews

37. Main Camp - Chilhowie

38. Maintaining ties to family

39. Friendships that spanned the decades (just one example…)
Ethel Dreier to JSA… March 11, 1931
“Did you see the Times article today alluding only to Mr. Morgenthau’s speech at the
Albany Club? …That does not seem fair reporting. Did not Mr. Smoot speak
there?”
JSA to Ethel Dreier… Dec. 8, 1951
“The various commercial interests trying to break down Section 7 could hardly wish
for any better helpers than Mr. Hicks of the Lake Placid Club; Mr. Carson at Glens
Falls, President of the Adirondack Mountain Club; and the acting President, Judge
Ordway; and Secretary Torrey of the Association for the Protection of the
Adirondacks. These three front door contacts certainly would give the appearance
of respectability to almost anything the crowd would wish to put over.

40. Quotes:
• December 1931… Commercialization of our State Parks… Bulletin #3
If we honestly claim these lands are a “priceless treasure” we
should prove our sincerity by continuing to protect them in our
Constitution and help to defeat this proposed amendment that would
remove that protection.
Signed by:
John S. Apperson
Irving Langmuir
E. Mac. D. Stanton
Richmond D. Moot

41. Letter to the Editor… New York Times January 27, 1931
“The Conservation Commission…has more than it can do if it confines its activities
to those purposes – but it may be tired of its job. It may want a new toy – cutting
trees – deforestation rather than reforestation. But that is no reason for
amending the constitution…” Richmond D. Moot
Letter to Mrs. Henry (Belle) Moskowitz… December 23, 1931
“Some of my conservation crusaders succeeded in finding six copies of the
paper, which I mailed to you yesterday – first class…I am sorry they were all
marked, but I hope they will serve your purpose. I am leaving this afternoon
for my annual visit to Virginia, returning Monday… John S. Apperson

42. Paul Schaefer, the Adirondack Club, and the Schenectady group…
Letter to Paul Schaefer June 30, 1931
“There is much interesting and important work for a
group able and willing to give sufficient time to
understand true conservation, particularly as
applied to the Adirondacks, and there are, of course,
no people who frequent these mountains at all
times of the year as do our Schenectadians…. They
would, of course, have to be willing to take friendly
issue with the group that have for several years
dominated the parent organization. The Adirondack
Club is sometimes referred to as a subsidiary of the
Conservation Commission, and while there are
certain advantages in such a close relationship, the
Club is at a decided disadvantage when basic
principles are being violated by the Commission.
Being a charter member…my impression of the
administrative possibilities of the Club for true
conservation are not very good.”
John S. Apperson

43. Legacy – Almost Fifty Years after his Death, in 1963
Lake George Reflections, by Frank Leonbrunno… lists details of the many islands
saved…. One rock at a time!
Leonbrunno also tells the
story of Apperson’s gift of
Dome Island to the
Eastern Chapter of the
Nature Conservancy –
1956. Often called the
centerpiece of Lake
George, Dome Island
offers a lasting tribute to
a lifetime of devotion…
If you would like to help carry on JSA’s impressive legacy, please read more about him on my website, the
Virginia History Exchange (www.vahistoryexchange.com) and contact me if you have stories to share!

44. Key events in the life of John S. Apperson, Jr.
• 1878…born in Chilhowie, Virginia
• 1887…death of his mother (Ellen Victoria Hull Apperson)
• 1888…father (Dr. John S. Apperson) married Elizabeth Black
• 1894… enrolled in Virginia Polytechnic Institute…in Blacksburg
• 1897…Left school to work for the Marion and Rye Valley Railroad
• 1900…Moved to Schenectady to seek employment with General Electric
• 1908…Death of his father
• 1915…worked with Al Smith to pass legislation (rip-rapping shores of islands)
• 1918…Influenza (Ellis Hospital)
• 1920…all-out effort to create a Lake George Park (protecting Tongue Mountain
and the Narrows); purchased Lake View Hotel Property with G. Hall Roosevelt and
William Dalton
• 1922…Transfer from Power and Mining to Engineering General
• 1927…purchased Chris Craft Cadet
• 1940s…gave testimony in ”Trespass Case” (Lake George as a Mill Pond)
• 1956…gift of Dome Island to the Nature Conservancy (Eastern Chapter)
• 1963…JSA death…buried in Marion, Virginia