Mining for Souls

Page 31
Blue Gray Line
NOTED CITIZENS of Lyon Mountain page 4.
 
 
Dr. P. Sheridan Keysor- Our Native Son.
 
     Dr. P. Sheridan Keysor was born on May 18, 1903 in the hamlet of Standish. He is the son of George Keysor and Minnie Morgan Keysor.  At this time in Standish was located the smelting plant where iron ore was reduced to pig iron.  It was a busy place.  Here, George Keysor was manager of the Company store in a town of approximately 500 inhabitants.
     Dr. Sheridan Keysor, as a boy, attended the elementary school in his native village. In 1922 he graduated from the Plattsburgh High School. Later, he attended the McGill Medical University in Montreal, P.Q. Canada. He completed his internship at the Royal Victoria Hospital and became an accredited medical Doctor in 1930. For two years he practiced medicine in the city of Plattsburgh, N.Y.  However, in 1932 he returned to Standish. Here he set up his office and has lived to
the present time.  It was also at this time that he was chosen by the Chateaugay Ore & Iron Co. as their attending physician. In 1939 he also became the attending physician of the Republic Steel Co. of Lyon Mountain  and Standish. On October 31, 1942, he married Mae Chellis, a native of Plattsburgh, N.Y
     Both together, down through the years, have earned the love and respect of so very many people - far and near. This was proven so well in 1957 on the occasion of Dr. Keysor's 25th Anniversary of service to the people of these communities. Hundreds turned out - young and old - presenting him with thefr gifts, one of which was a new car.

Joseph R. Linney
 
     Mr. Linney, was widely known in the mining industry and whose abilities were recognized internationally, was for many years superintendent of the operation of the Chateaugay Ore and Iron Company's operations at Lyon Mountain and Mineville, and when those operations were taken over by the Republic Steel Corporation, he remained with that corporation until his retirement on February 17, 1944.
     Mr. Linney was a native of Old Forge, Pa., where he was born on May 7, 1888.  He atended elementary school there until the age of nine years, leaving studies to enter work in the coal mines at Taylor, Pa. There he toiled a dozen hours each day, availing himself of opportunities to read books and study mining. Despite adversities, he found time to extend his studies to music, in which he became proficient, especially on the organ, in which instrument he found a distinct hobby.
     On April 2, 1907, in Old Forge he married Elizabeth Davis. There followed a period during which Mr. Linney followed a correspondence courbe in mine engineering.  Applying himself to these studies, he took and successfully passed Pennsylvania State examinations and received a mine managerial license. On February 17, 1919, the Delaware and Hudson Company, then owners of the mining operations at Lyon Mountain, employed Mr. Linney to take over the superintendency of the mines. Mr. and Mrs. Linney came North and there followed a period of much progress in the community. In those days, there were no sanitary facilities, no electricity, no running water in the community.  Mr. and Mrs. Linney collaborated with a village program to
establish these facilities and the program grew into the establishment of the present Lyon Mountain High School and its Linney Auditorium, the swimming pool, the paved highways, the housing project that meant improved living conditions, and other developments that were of material benefits to the community.
     On February 17, 1944, Mr. Linney retired from the active direction of the mining development of Republic Steel and was accorded the tribute of the company as well as its employees. In retirement, he resided in Plattsburgh as a mining consultant.
    In 1949, Mr. Linney, a Republican, ran for mayor of Plattsburgh on an independent ticket. He lost to Mayor John Tyrell by a small margin. In his retirement, Mr. Linney devoted his time to many hobbies, including authorship of a novel, "The Touch of Human Hands," published in 1947 by Dorranse & Co., Philadelphia. The book, devoted to life in a mining community in upstate New York, enjoyed a sale of several thousand copies and was described by its publisher as a "promising first novel."
     Joseph R. Linney, of Plattsburgh, consulting mining engineer, died February 20, 1952 in Lima, Peru, South America, while on an inspection tour of that continent's mining projects. He succumbed to an attack of coronary thrombosis. He was 63 years old.  (It is a coincidence that his death at 5:15 A.M., Eastern Standard Time, occurred on the first anrnverbary date of the death of Mrs. Linney, who passed away in Plattsburgh on February 19, 1951 at 7:15 A.M.)
     In Plattsburgh, Mayor John Tyrell described Mr. Linney's death as marking "a distinct loss to our community where he had made his home, and to the mining industry loss to our community where he had made his home, and to the mining industry which he had served with great credit for so many years." His was the type of service above self which has marked the lines of our outstanding men, without whose devotion many of our achievements still would be unaccomplished.  His loss will be felt not only by his cherished family, but as well by the community and in the professional circles where he earned and deserved the highest regard.


Sources:
Adirondack Museum photos, Blue Mountain Lake, NY;
History of Clinton County, New York;
Go to Page 1 of The History of Lyon Mountain.
Go to Page 3 of The History of Lyon Mountain.
Go to Mining History for The History of Mining in the North Country.
Go to Page 5 of The History of Lyon Mountain.(for article on Lyon Mt. and Mineville)

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Go to Page 1 of Mining for Souls.(cover page)
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Rod Bigelow
Box 13  Chazy Lake
Dannemora, N.Y. 12929
  rodbigelow@netzero.net
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