Applejack Farm


Harvest, in the early 1940's. Reuben is atop the hay wagon. Aunt Mabel, Audrey Kinney, and Aunt Anne are tossing up the hay.	The main house in 1950. Pappy and Cousin Bevie are sitting alongside the dining hall.

Applejack Farm, Lake Clear, New York

Kenyon Bronson Conger Jr and Mabel Bouden Conger owned Applejack Farm from 1937 to 1955. It was a gentleman’s farm, principally a second home, where the produce was intended for consumption by the Conger family and their constant stream of guests.

The family - Kenyon, Mabel, Mabel’s mother Emma Serena Ramacciotti Bouden, their three daughters, and Jerry the dog - would come from Ardsley-on-Hudson, New York to stay from June to September, and Kenyon would return for occasional hunting weekends in the fall. There would also be a family visit to the farm for a week or ten days after Christmas for skiing, skijoring, and ice hockey games in Lake Placid.

The cook, a local woman, was Francis Strack. Reuben Struck (sp?) and his wife, “The Woman”, were the caretakers for the numerous critters and crops. They lived in the outbuilding to the right of the driveway as one enters the 74-acre property. The farm was home to four cows, a few pigs, two horses, lots of cats, and chickens. Hay, apples, corn, and strawberries grew for the pleasure of the four- and two-legged animals.

There were fewer buildings than there are today. The main house was redone when the farm was purchased. The exterior was changed from rough-hewn shingles to the still-extant red clapboard. There was a paint-and-tool house with garage, a barn, a chicken coop, an icehouse (later converted to a bunkhouse for gentlemen guests), a pre-fabricated guest house with three bedrooms, the caretaker’s house, a lean-to overlooking McCauley Pond, and a two-seater outhouse on the hill, complete with a Montgomery Ward catalog. Water was drawn up, bucket by bucket, from a well between the bunkhouse and the paint-house. Ice was cut from McCauley Pond in the winter and stored in the icehouse. Washing took place down at the pond with a bar of soap and a towel.

Kenyon and Mabel bought the farm because many of their friends had second homes in the area. They were close to the Richardsons, the Kinney’s, and the Altemuses, who owned Saranac Inn and a nearby property known as Land’s End. Indeed, summers at Applejack were very social. There was square dancing in Bloomingdale on Saturday nights with strong woodsmen to fling the young Conger daughters around, teas and costume parades at Saranac Inn, big barbeques with a band on Applejack’s rolling lawn, and all the healthy outdoor activities one would imagine. Hiking, swimming, fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, and blueberry picking were all regular outings. Traditional trips were clambering up Saint Regis Mountain and the Seven-Carry Canoe Trip from Upper Saint Regis to the Adirondack Fish Hatchery. It was not uncommon to have twenty people eating at the long dinner table. (At a rental property before buying Applejack, Kenyon once spent the night in the bathtub so that his guests would have proper beds.)

Mabel was raised in New Orleans and was Queen of the “Osiris Krewe” of the 1920 Mardi Gras. Southern hospitality permeated Applejack Farm. Guests who helped with reaping hay, moving sand, and other blister-producing projects were rewarded with a white “A” sewn onto the back of a red flannel shirt, along with a song and smiles around the supper table.

The warm memories that the surviving descendents of Applejack Farm have for the Adirondacks no doubt stem from the hospitality and generosity of Kenyon and Mabel. For example, in the late 1930’s, Kenyon went into a drugstore and found a young man whom he knew, about 16 or 17 years of age, despairing at the counter. He asked him what was wrong and Tot B. Daniel said that his family didn’t want him anymore. Immediately, Kenyon said “That’s OK, you can come and stay with us.” Tot lived with the Congers for a few years before joining the Army in World War II.

Important romantic moments took place at Applejack. The youngest daughter, Anne, watched her sister Mabel being courted by numerous young men. My father, Dwight Burnham, proposed to Anne at the lean-to overlooking McCauley Pond in the summer of 1946.

Originally, the farm didn’t have a name. After purchasing the property, Kenyon and Mabel were served hard cider at a party and they decided to name their new home “Applejack Farm”. It is likely that the name appealed to a couple who had made bathtub gin during Prohibition.

THE PROGENITORS:

Kenyon Bronson Conger (1865-1939) and Anna Sanford Ganter (1866-1936) married on 7 September 1893 and had an only child, Kenyon Bronson Conger Jr (7 May 1897 – 25 October 1977, “Pappy”). Kenyon Sr and Anna are probably buried in Akron, Ohio.

Milton Bouden (1870-1938) married Emma Serena Ramacciotti (1869-1963, “Big Granny”) and had an only child, Mabel Sanford Bouden (9 September 1899 - 19 January 1981, “Grammo”). Milton and Emma are buried in the Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla NY.

Kenyon attended the Hackley School, was a pilot during World War I, and graduated from Princeton in 1920. Mabel attended Newcomb College in New Orleans during 1918-19. Mabel and Kenyon met at a fraternity lawn party at Princeton. They married quietly on 14 February 1920 in New Orleans, a few days later than expected, due to an enthusiastic drinking contest between the Northern and Southern gentlemen attendees the night before the planned elaborate society wedding. They are both buried in Natchez City Cemetery in Mississippi.

Mabel and Kenyon Conger

Daughters, all born in Ardsley-on-Hudson NY:

+ Barbara Bouden Conger (3 December 1921 - 13 December 1968, Kensico Cemetery, Valhalla NY) “Aunt Bobby”
+ Mabel Bouden Conger (5 January 1925 - 30 December 2003, Natchez City Cemetery, Natchez MS) “Aunt Mabel”
+ Anne Ganter Conger (14 May 1927) “Aunt Anne”

The Congers in 1950. Bobby with Karl III, Karl Jr, Big Granny, Grammo, Pappy, Barbie, Bevie, Mabel, Anne with Dianne, Dee, Jerry

The family details of the current generations have been removed and will eventually appear at a password-protected site.

Picture gallery:

Click on the pictures above and below in order to see the original sizes. Do you have an image that you would like included? Please send it to me if its size is smaller than 100 kB.


Engraving of Kenyon Bronson Conger Sr as a young man, found on the web by Kenyon Zimmerman.	Kenyon Bronson Conger Jr was an avid fisherman and would waken the family before dawn to go fishing at McCauley Pond or over on Saint Regis.	Costume parade at the Saranac Inn, about 1937. Aunt Anne and Aunt Mabel are wearing dresses made by Grammo from the local newspaper. Mrs Kinney is seated next to Grammo.	Mabel and Anne, and everyone else, got along very well with Reuben the caretaker.

Aunt Anne and Aunt Mabel climbing Mount Ampersand, 1945. Anne's sweater, from the Hackley School, belonged to Pappy.	The Conger grandchildren in 1954. From left to right, Cousins Bevie, Barbie, Dianne, Karl, Mike, Ken, and Mae.	The main farm house before renovation, late 1930's; Matt Otis, the renovator, Grammo, Francis Strack, the cook, Mel Dietz, a family friend and the children's ski instructor, and Reuben.	After the renovation, possibly late 1930's. Does anyone recognize the model and year of the car?

After the renovation and after the Hudson house, a prefab, was moved on site as the first guest house. Early 1940's.	Camp Applejack in 1959. Photo taken from the Adirondack Museum's website.	Camp Applejack and McCauley Pond in 1959. Photo taken from the Adirondack Museum's website.	La Vida in 2003, thanks to pilot Mike Barclay and his seaplane. Trees grow!

Applejack Farm was sold to Camp Regis, which used it as their teen camp. After a few years, they consolidated their operations on Upper Saint Regis Lake, still calling the upper-level program Applejack Teen Camp. From 1959 to 1990, the farm served developmentally disabled youth as Camp Triangle. Since 1995 the property has been owned by Gordon College, which uses it as a base for their outdoor education program, La Vida.

Do you know of other sites that should be included? Please send the links to me.

Maps to Conger Family Reunion:

To view and print maps of the location of the Marlborough Club on Upper Saranac Lake, where we will have our Conger Family Reunion from Sunday 10 July to Sunday 17 July 2005, click here and here. For high-resolution versions (18 MB) of the same maps, click here and here.

Nancy Anne Burnham, nab@wpi.edu, January 2005