During its glory years of operation, the first two decades of the 20th century, the J.E. Sexton Boat Shop, located in Hague, was one of the most respected boat-building businesses on Lake George.
Years later however, the decaying wooden structure where Jesse Sexton and his colleagues built many excellent vessels, finally tumbled to the ground.
The J. E. Sexton Boat Shop was in many respects, a landmark in Hague. On the evening of February 27, 1936 however, the once sturdy maritime warehouse collapsed under the massive weight of heavy snow and ice.
Jesse Sexton’s workshop was located near the Wesleyan Methodist church. Born in 1869, his father Wildman Sexton (1839-1903) was a blacksmith and also a boat-builder.
Among the more notable launches constructed by Jesse Sexton was the 50-foot long 30-passenger Uncas, assembled for his cousin Smith Sexton in 1910.
Smith Sexton (1866-1935) had built the The Mohican House in Hague in about 1908; it burned in 1954.
(Photographs of the Uncas can be viewed in Betty Ahearn Buckell’s 1990 book, Lake George Boats, and William Preston Gates’s 2003 book, Lake George Boats and Steamboats.)
According to the Ticonderoga Sentinel, two Sexton-built excursion boats, the Gypsy – also about 50-feet long – and the 34-foot Ella, operated primarily from the Alexandria Hotel dock at the north end of Lake George.
The Sexton launches ferried passengers to the Alexandria Hotel wharf from other inns where the sightseers took a coach to the restored Fort Ticonderoga, formerly known as Fort Carillon.
Following an outing around the former French & Indian War and Revolutionary War fortification, tourists returned to the Sexton boats for the trip back to their lodges around Lake George.
Jesse Sexton not only constructed rowboats, canoes, naphtha-powered vessels, and motor launches, he also had a side business in the mid-1910s.
At his boat works, he had a camera shop where he developed and printed Eastman camera film, and sold cameras and photography supplies.
His cousins Flora Sexton (1878 – 1943) and Theresa Sexton (1860-1941) were expert photographers who had a photography tent in Hague where the former firehouse (and Firehouse Restaurant) stands.
In 1916, Jesse Sexton purchased a new automobile, and he carried passengers from Hague, north to Ticonderoga. A round trip in the car cost one dollar.
One of the most popular auto trips was on Saturday night that transported people to the “picture show” in Ticonderoga. Sexton also leased his motor vehicle by the hour or day.
Dr. Russell P. Bellico, lake historian and author whose summer residence is in Hague, summed up Jesse Sexton’s legacy:
“He was characteristic of the 20th-century lake entrepreneurs who were not afraid to try new projects. He expanded his family’s rowboat business to include constructing excursion and personal launches such as the Cecilia, Ella, Gypsy, Idler, Mohawk, Passaic, Saunterer, and Uncas. Many of these watercrafts, some up to 50-feet long, plied the waterway for years.”
With the death of Jesse Sexton on December 22, 1927 (his funeral was held on Christmas Day), the former boat-building structure began deteriorating.
In 1936, the last vestige of this era of Hague boat-building ended with the wintertime destruction of Jesse’s workshop.
A version of this article first appeared on the Lake George Mirror, America’s oldest resort paper, covering Lake George and its surrounding environs. You can subscribe to the Mirror HERE.
Illustrations, from above: The Uncas near Hague on Lake George (courtesy Hague Historical Society); a postcard showing the Jesse Sexton-built launch Gypsy, at the Adirondack Camp near the north end of Lake George (courtesy Dr. Russell P. Bellico); and a J.E. Sexton advertisement in the Ticonderoga Sentinel newspaper, July 15, 1915.
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