We continue this week with part two of the Orlando Dexter murder. Today’s column is a “behind the scenes” excerpt from the Old Timers Column as it appeared in the April 20, 1933 edition of the Tupper Lake Free Press. I’ve labeled it the Tupper Lake Connection.
In those early days, there were many old-time guides, hunters, and residents in the St. Regis Falls and Santa Clara sector who had always been accustomed to freely roaming over the vast woodlands, lakes and streams in that portion of the forest and they resented their exclusion from the old familiar haunts.
Poaching was often attempted, and many arrests for trespass were made and fines imposed because the owner was determined to preserve the integrity of his rights and title as landlord.
Ill feelings were engendered, which developed into hatred in many instances where the older settlers could not accept the curtailing of their divine rights of freedom to the forests and streams.
In the late ‘90s Warren Joseph Alfred, owner of the famous Waverly Hotel in St. Regis Falls when that village was at the apex of its financial and business importance, engaged in a large lumbering project near the Dexter Park property.
At that time St. Regis Falls had a large tannery, a saw mill, a stave mill, an electric lighting plant, several hotels and the place was listed among the “boom towns” of the Adirondacks.
W.J. Alfred was always known to his intimate friends as “Joe.” When he undertook the lumbering project, he had no trouble in hiring a large force of lumberjacks and he “put up a big job.”
And then the trouble started to brew. “Joe” had negotiated a large loan from the Farmers National Bank at Malone to carry on his extensive lumbering operations.
When it came to building, it was found that in order to make the job a financial success, the logs had to be hauled over the shortest possible route, part of which had to cross a portion of the Dexter estate.
Mr. Dexter was obdurate and refused permission to cross his land. “Joe” was desperate because his bank notes would soon be due and he didn’t intend to repudiate an obligation as he had never done.
He assumed the aggressive and hauled logs day and night over the forbidden route. Dexter built fences across the roads and detailed guards to watch, but “Joe” and his men tore down the obstructions as fast as they were erected, and the entire logging job was completed under semi-warfare conditions, but at a financial gain for the operator who met all obligations on time.
“Joe” was arrested on damage and trespass charges and, after long litigations, was heavily fined, which he refused to pay. He was turned over to the sheriff at Malone for an extended period, but “Joe” didn’t care so long as he was able to pay the bank notes.
A man named Chambers, who operated a mill on the St. Regis Falls River, also had similar trouble with Mr. Dexter regarding logging operations and his difficulties attracted much attention for a long period among lumbermen and saw mill owners along the river.
Those troubles and the feeling of unrest among the old guides and hunters led people in those days to ask, “How will it all end/”
In 1901, “Joe” Alfred came to Tupper Lake and bought the Hotel Altamont from Thomas L. Weir, still retaining ownership of the Waverly Hotel at St. Regis Falls, which was not sold till several years later.
In 1903 came the tragic murder of Orlando P. Dexter on a beautiful summer day when he was driving over the five-mile course to his camps.
He was riding alone in a carriage at the time. The horse ran to the camp where members of the family and workers found the dead man in the bottom of the vehicle.
Mr. Dexter had been shot through the back, evidently by a high-powered rifle, and the coroner and police officials declared that death must have been instantaneous.
The course of the bullet through the body indicated that the shot must have come from an elevated position. The spot was located later by officers at the point in the road where the horse had apparently become frightened and started into a mad gallop.
For months every possible clue was followed by a large number of officers and detectives. Scores of suspects were held and examined as “material witnesses,” but no definite information was obtained.
On the day that the murder was perpetrated, an excursion train ran over the New York and Ottawa line from Tupper Lake to the Ottawa fair and horse show. Crowds from Tupper Lake went on the trip. Among them were Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Alfred. “Joe” had planned to leave the train at St. Regis Falls to look after business interests, but Mrs. Alfred finally persuaded her husband to complete the trip with her.
That afternoon Mr. dexter was murdered while the excursionists were in Ottawa.
Knowing the previous ill-feeling that had existed between Mr. Dexter and Mr. Alfred, scores of the latter’s friends were firm in their belief that he had left the train that day and been unable to produce a perfect alibi as to his whereabouts that afternoon, he might have been charged with murder.
As it was, he was under suspicion with scores of others during the long investigation which followed.
The murdered man’s father offered a $30,000 reward, which was later increased to $50,000, but no tangible results were ever obtained.
A few months after the tragedy, a man from New York City arrived at Hotel Altamont and engaged board for an extended period, as he wished to stay in the mountains “for his health.”
He made frequent trips down the N.Y. and O. line and interviewed many people with reference to “habits and doings” of old settlers and others who were well acquainted with the North Country.
He kept this up for a month and half, spent money lavishly, averaged $20 a day at the bar and plied everyone about him with questions in a subtle manner.
He finally paid his bill and told Mr. Alfred that he was a Pinkerton detective from New York, one of several who had been hired by the elder Mr. Dexter in an effort to trace the murderer or the leading spirit in the slaying of his son.
The detective stated that his exhaustive search and questioning had produced no definite results and that he was personally satisfied that Mr. Alfred had nothing to do with the murder, either directly or indirectly.
The elder Mr. Dexter left a clause in his will when he died, providing for $50,000 reward for the conviction of his son’s slayer.
Mr. Alfred died early in December 1907, and many of the St. Regis Falls, Santa Clara and Nicholville suspects have also long since “passed on.”