Town of Jay

Home of the Covered Bridge

Welcome!

    When the town filed application to be set off from Willsborough in 1797, it was known as Mallory's Bush for one of its earliest permanent settlers, Nathaniel Mallory.  Settlements grew quickly along the river and on the plateaus.  Lumber was plentiful, iron was available in the ground, and the soil was "vigorous and fertile."  The hamelt of Jay was the first to be settled.  It is here that Mallory built his forge. By 1812, Jay had a school, its own doctors, and a man on horseback who brought in the daily paper.  Early forges, gristmills and sawmills, were constructed.

   

       The earliest successful business was lumbering.  Huge spars were taken from the Jay forests and dragged by oxen or floated on the river to Lake Champlain and sold to the English market in Canada for the War of 1812.  By 1820 the lumber in the Upper Jay market was exhausted by commercial harvesting and settlers clearing land.

     

       As lumbering flourished in the forests, industrial development was growning in Au Sable Forks.  An entire town began to develop in Au Sable Forks around the lumber and forging business.  The brothers Rogers acquired ownership in 1846 and bought Purmont's forge in Jay, the original  Mallory's forge.

   

      Jay has broad fields, and open vistas.  The pastoral landscape was first developed as an iron ore processing community.  The ore came from the Arnold Bed and the Palmer Hill mines.  When the mining industry closed, the J. & J. Rogers company converted its machinery to process wood and pulp.  Au Sable Forks, where the two branches of the river converge, was a large and thriving community, but a one industry town.  Though not at the levels of the past, Jay continues to house one of the largest private employers in the county in the Ward Lumber Company.

   

     The first image of Jay is often a view of the river running through the landscape.  Out of the High Peaks the AuSable River tumbles through Keene, and is joined by numerous streams and freshets as it spreads itself out over the Jay fields.  Early annual log drives scoured its bottom and cleared its banks.  Now the rver becomes wider and shallower each year.  The river empties into Lake Champlain at Plattsburgh.  It was once the principle highway and power source for the communities along its banks.  Changing times and needs, the continuing problems of transportation and the opening of miles in the west, have all affected Au Sable Forks industry.

      

       The tremendous floods that wiped out all of the bridges at on time or another, still occur.  Ice jams form at bends in the river.  The jams release like a breaking dam, causing the river to pour through houses, over roads, carrying huge chunks of ice with it.  In 1999, an entire section of Au Sable Forks, known as The Grove, was bought out with money from the Federal Emergency Management Act, due to the entensive flood damage.  The river, which has had its role in the successes and disasters that have struck the town, demolished Jay's most unusual attraction, The Land Of Make Believe.  The theme park with miniature houses that illustrated specific professions, was situated on a curve in the river in Upper Jay.  Floods tore away at the park, three floods in its last year of operation.  Opened in 1954, it gave up its fight against the river and closed in 1980.  Buildings by Arto Monaco, its talanted designer, remain at Storytown and Santa's Workshop.

Town of Jay Supervisors

 

          1800              Ezekiel Lockwood                                             1862                George S. Potter

          1801-1802     John Cochrane                                                 1863-1867      Gardner Pohe

          1803              John Douglass                                                                   1868-1869       Henry Smith

          1804-1805     Robert Otis                                                      1870-1872      Henry D. Graves  

          1806-1807     Ely Stone                                                         1873               Gardner Pohe

          1808-1811     Joseph Storrs                                                   1874-1875     Henry M. Prime

          1812              Jonas B. Wood                                                  1876              Richard D. Mc Intyre

          1813-1815    Joseph Storrs                                                    1877               Henry Smith

          1816             William Finch                                                   1878                A.S. Prime 

          1817-1818    Reuben Sanford                                                1879-1880     Amos Bosley

          1819             Joseph Storrs                                                    1881              Spencer G. Prime 

          1820             Reuben Sanford                                                1882              John C. DeKalb

          1821-1826    Joseph Storrs                                                    1883-1884     Silas W. Prime

          1827            William Wells                                                    1885              Fred E. Trumbull

          1828            Joseph Storrs                                                     1886-1888     Louis F. Robare

          1829            William Wells                                                   1889-1890     Eugene S. Parmerter  

          1830-1831   Isaac Vanderwarker                                          1891-1892     F.O. Bartlett   

          1832-1836    Joseph Storrs                                                   1893              Fred C. Mihill 

          1837            Thomas Brewster                                              1894-1895      Richard L. Trumbull 

          1838             Joseph Storrs                                                   1896-1897      Amos Bosley 

          1839             Josiah W. Hewitt                                              1898               E.W. Featherston  

          1840             John Purmort                                                   1899-1908     Charles H. Cutler

          1841             Jesse Tobey, Jr.                                                 1909-1913      Raymond T. Kenyon 

          1842-1843    Benjamin Wells                                               1914-1935      Fred A. Torrance

          1844             Josiah W. Hewitt                                              1936-1952      Dr. J.D. Smith

          1845-1846    William H. Butrick                                           1953-1965      Dr. J.W. Scott 

          1847-1848    Daniel Blish                                                    1966-1972      Arthur J. Douglas

          1849             Thomas D. Trumbull                                        1973-1980      Thomas A. Douglas 

          1850             Samuel West                                                   1980-1991      Paul Savage 

          1851             Thomas D. Trumbull                                        1992-1997      Vern McDonald  

          1852             Daniel Blish                                                     1998-1999      Thomas A. Douglas

          1853            Monroe Hall                                                     2000         Dorothy E.Madden              

          1854             Herman G. Powers                                           2001-2003      Thomas A. O'Neill

          1855             Jermiah B. Briggs                                              2004-Present   Randall T. Douglas

          1856             Samuel West

          1857-1859    Nathaniel C. Boynton

          1860             Henry D. Graves

          1861             Nathaniel C. Boynton

 

 

 

 

                                          The Jay Website is dedicated In Memory of :

Supervisor Thomas Douglas 1972-1980 & 1998-2000  (Whose Original Encouragment and Vision Helped Make This Website Project  A Reality For The Townspeople of Jay) & Special Thanks To Terry Young, Original  Town of Jay Web Designer  & Counciperson Amy Shalton  for making Former Supervisor Thomas Douglas' Website Exis

Special Thanks to Jaime Rose Douglass, Susan Richards and Carol Hackel for   Enhancing the "New Face" of the Town of Jay Website