Joe Call, the "Lewis Giant"

Legendary characters are part of our nation’s history. Many of us have heard  or read about Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox, Pecos Bill, Mike Fink, the Headless Horseman and John Henry.

Some real people have also had stories created about them that have become legends. No fact-checking in the 19^th Century. Some of those are: George Washington, Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, John Chapman (Johnny Appleseed) and Casey Jones.

         Right here in Essex County, we have our own legend; one Joseph ’Joe’ Call. He was real and his feats of strength are legendary. Who was this man who is known as the “Modern Hercules” or the “Lewis Giant”?

          When Joe Call died September 20, 1834 at age 53. It didn’t take long for a written word of his fabled feats made it to the public.

          Sometime in 1836 the Keeseville Herald published an article about Call’s exploits  So the legend was born and continued over the years, even becoming a book. Separating fact from fiction became challenging.

          Joseph Call was born two miles outside of Woodstock, VT on March 31, 1781 to James and Anne Call. For James, this was his third marriage. For the younger Call, he had sixteen siblings. James Call served for several enlistments during the American Revolution from Vermont.

          The article provided a brief summary of Call’s upbringing, but then focused on two tales.

          The first occurred when Call was in a room when a man boasted loudly that he had “thrown Joe Call!” This amused Call as the stranger failed to recognize the man he said to have conquered. Call challenged the braggart to a match making the request that he “would promise not to hurt me.” The challenge was accepted eagerly.

          As they started the match Call took the man “with scarcely an effort [&] raised him from the floor.” The story continued that Call questioned the squirming man, “there wrestle!” The loud-mouthed wrestler cried out “Who – who –the devil are you?” “The man you threw; Joe Call, at your service, sir!”

Call's response to hearing a man bragged about throwing him.

          Let’s fast forward to 1814 during the British campaign against Plattsburgh when the next story supposedly happened. It, of course, involved a wrestling match.

          In the British force there apparently was a soldier, “a celebrated English bully,” who had established a reputation as the “terror and the champion of the army.” For some unknown, Call, who might having been serving in the militia, gained access to the enemy’s camp. Some British officers heard of his arrival and his feats of strengths and concocted the idea of a wrestling match. The English soldier agreed, as did Call, although he confessed that he lacked wrestling skills.

         Hearing those words the “bully” declared “he could not only throw him, but any other d___d Yankee.” This riled Call and made his blood boil.

The match started and Call soon found himself on one knee, rather surprised at his foe’s strength.

Call suggested a “back hold,” a traditional Scottish wrestling hold. The Englishman agreed and the match continued.

Loaded with adrenalin, Call squeezed the soldier to his chest and the crowd heard the soldier shriek, release his arms and watched his body quiver and go limp. Call freed his grasp and the soldier fell to the ground with blood “gushing from his nostrils. The strength of Joe Call has crushed the man’s ribs and so died the English bully.

Though Call had killed his adversary, those present declared it a fair fight and the victor departed the British camp and recrossed the Saranac River to rejoin his comrades.

There still begs an answer to the question; how did Call, supposedly on militia duty, cross the Saranac, enter the English camp without any difficulty?

Legend, legend, legend.

Now after this first article appeared in 1836 in the Keeseville Herald and subsequently that same year the Geneva Gazette and Long Island Farmer. It was re-published in 1849 and other the years other newspapers commence publishing additional articles about Call’s exploits. The interesting part was all these stories were brand new.

Here is a short synopsis:

At a militia training day, Call single handedly picked up a cannon barrel weighing

 1,800 pounds.

  While plowing a field, a fellow asked for directions. Call casually picked up the

 plow and pointed it in the right direction.

If a loaded wagon became stuck in the mud, he would get beneath it, raise the

wagon bed up and shift it to dry land.

         One day on a narrow road, Call encountered a number of teamsters blocking his way. Calmly walking forward he picked up each teamster and threw them into an adjacent ravine. As one another stated in a article and those that followed, “Joe’s right of way was seldom disputed.”

And the list of escapades goes on and on.

But through all the embellishment, Joe Call was a good, worthy man.

Twice married, he raised four sons and a daughter, teaching them family values.

Call moved to Essex County, NY about 1808 and proved versatile and possessed a good business sense.

         Call and family first purchased property in the wilderness community of Jay. He commenced harvesting lumber and worked as a contractor in hauling out logs and running sawmills. He saved money and expanded his businesses; learned to be a millwright, building and establishing partnerships with other businessmen in the area.

          After service in the Essex County Militia during the War of 1812 where he saw action at the 1814 engagements at the Boquet River and Plattsburgh, Call decided to move from Jay. He acquired the Donagny Mill on Trout Brook (now known as the North Branch of the Boquet River) in Lewis.

           From 1814 and for the next twenty years, this was home and because of all the development around his property, the area became known as Callsville. Call became quite a landowner. By 1819 he owned 447 acres and by 1829 the landholdings had grown to 2,139; all in Lewis. By the time his twenty years of residency concluded Call had a substantial home and barn, two working mills, a forge, store, schoolhouse and workers’ housing.

           The longer Call resided in Lewis he became more civically involved in town. He filled roles as an assessor, poundkeeper, Justice of the Peace and town auditor.

           After twenty years of dwelling in Lewis, Call decided to move. He selected Westport as it provided a better educational opportunity and in a daring real estate transaction acquired a substantial, rather new house opposite the Federated Church in exchange for a portion of his Lewis property.

           Unfortunately, Call did not get to enjoy his newly acquired property long.

           During the early summer of 1834 Call and his sons worked at lumbering land around Loon Lake north of Bloomingdale/Vermontville. But, in late July/early August he returned to Westport extremely ill. Apparently Call had developed a carbuncle (a cluster of boils) on his neck and it developed into a serious infection. Normally, early care cured the ailment, but in this case, the infection spread and sepsis (blood poisoning) set in. In the 19^th Century no antibiotics were yet available and the doctors could do little except watch Call wither away.

            Knowing the end of his life was near, Call reached out to several local citizens to assist in drawing up a will.

Call's "mark" on his will

            Call looked after his wife Clarinda by giving here $500, all household furnishings, her clothes and parcels of real estate. After the payment of bills, the remaining real estate was to be equally divided up among his five children.        

            With the will drafted, Call proved so weak he was unable to sign the document. He simply scribed an “X” between the words “his mark.”

            A day later, Call died, and the family buried him in Westport’s Hillside Cemetery. For Memorial Day an American flag stands next to his simple gravestone indicating his military service.

            There’s no mention on the stone of his strength or nickname as the “Lewis Giant.”

            But the legend prevails.

Why? Perhaps it comes down to a well-known quote from the 1962 movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence starring John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin.  After the lead character explains the true story of Valence’s shooting that contradicted the alleged tale, a reporter responded, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.”

Joe Call's grave in Hillside Cemetery, Westport