In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Adirondack Mountains of northern New York remained one of the last great wilderness regions of the eastern United States. Vast forests stretched across the High Peaks country, broken by cold lakes, winding rivers, and narrow trails known only to woodsmen. For travelers arriving by rail from distant cities, this region around Saranac Lake and Lake Placid felt like a frontier; beautiful, untamed, and often unforgiving.
In this landscape, the Adirondack guide became an essential figure. Guides were more than companions for visiting hunters and fishermen. They were navigators, camp builders, woodsmen, storytellers, and protectors for those who ventured into this “last frontier of the East.” A good guide needed strength, endurance, and an intimate understanding of the land; knowledge gained through years of living and working in the rugged wilderness.
Among the most respected of these woodsmen was Thomas Peacock, remembered as one of the legendary guides of the northern Adirondacks. He was an incredible man who blazed trails, guided Presidents, and served as an active participant in the history and preservation of the region.
To understand Peacock’s life and legacy, it’s first necessary to understand the wild Adirondack frontier to which he was born, and the remarkable skills and proficiency needed to guide visiting adventurers safely through it.
Pioneer Life in The High Peaks
Thomas Peacock was born on March 5, 1853, in the young settlement of North Elba, the son of pioneer farmers William Peacock and Louisa Herring. His parents had emigrated from England just a few years earlier, arriving in 1847 to carve out a life in the Adirondack wilderness.
Life in the High Peaks region of the Adirondacks at this time was defined by isolation, grit, and hard physical work. Communities around Saranac Lake, North Elba, and the surrounding mountains were little more than small settlements scattered along lakes, rivers, and rough wagon roads.
Much of the region remained thick forest used primarily for logging, and families who lived there were often separated by miles of wilderness. Winters were long and severe, with deep snow and bitter cold that could isolate families for weeks at a time. Even basic errands, like supplies, mail delivery, and medical care, could become serious undertakings.
In spring and early summer, swarms of black flies and mosquitoes could make life miserable. Sudden storms, rough water, and the ever-present possibility of getting lost in the woods made the wilderness both beautiful and dangerous.
Farming in the Adirondack interior was difficult and uncertain. The thin, rocky soil of the mountain valleys and the region’s short growing season made it hard to produce reliable crops. As a result, families like the Peacocks relied on a mix of seasonal work, including farming, laboring, and logging.
With little infrastructure, life in the High Peaks demanded resilience and resourcefulness. Children growing up in the region learned early how to work the land, read the weather, and navigate the surrounding wilderness that shaped their daily lives.
Like many children of the region, Thomas’ education was divided between a small rural schoolhouse and the steady demands of farm work. His father worked shares on the nearby farm of abolitionist John Brown, and young Thomas often helped him in the fields. One summer evening in 1859, that ordinary routine would give the 6-year-old boy a front-row seat to American history.
The John Brown Incident
It had been a typical Summer day for young Thomas, spent on the Brown farm planting potatoes with his father. As the sun began to set, the two began their regular walk home, passing the Henry Thompson house on their way. However, this evening, something felt different, as they noticed unusual activity around the house. Men with concerned looks had gathered and were talking in small groups, so the curious Peacocks walked over to see what the excitement was about.
Soon, an imposing, bearded figure approached on horseback in the distance, thundering up to the house on the dusty road. The men stopped talking and turned to watch John Brown’s dramatic arrival.
For young Thomas, the moment was unforgettable. He had never seen a horse before and was awestruck by the large, imposing animal, as horses were rare in North Elba at the time, with oxen doing most of the work on the farms. Years later, Peacock still recalled small details of the moment, including Brown’s gaunt face and the bright red bandana that he carried, which stood out against the earthy colors of the mountain farm at dusk.
The tall and lanky John Brown dismounted his horse and led the group of anxious men into the house. As young Thomas entered behind his father, he was told to sit quietly in the corner of the room, where he watched the men talk with furrowed brows and subdued tones.
Decades later, Thomas would recall Brown that evening as a “commanding figure with a powerful frame, upright bristling hair, a square white beard, and eyes that glittered wildly in the lamplight.”
According to Thomas, the assembled men then deliberated for about 15 minutes before Brown shook hands with each of them and said a solemn goodbye. One or two men followed Brown outside and helped him unhitch his horse while the others watched silently from the doorway as their old friend mounted his horse and left North Elba for the last time.
That night, John Brown began the long, 400+ mile journey South, where he would prepare to lead 21 other men in the ill-fated raid on the federal armory at Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. John and two of his three sons would be among the 17 men who would be killed or executed as a result of the failed slave revolt, which began on October 16th, 1859.
“When we heard about the raid on Harper’s Ferry and that Brown had been hanged, my father was greatly upset and didn’t eat or sleep well for several weeks. He again cautioned me to say nothing about what I had seen that evening at the Brown farm.”‡
Peacock would later recall that surviving members of the failed Harper’s Ferry insurrection furtively returned to North Elba, nervously dodging from house to house and barn to barn to escape detection and possible capture, including several men who came to the Peacock house asking for food.
On that summer evening, Young Thomas Peacock and his father had unknowingly witnessed the early planning for an event of profound historical significance that would lead to the start of the American Civil War.
After their shared traumatic experience, Thomas would continue to correspond with John Brown’s eldest daughter, Ruth Brown Thompson, for many years.
Thomas Peacock contributed historical local details of John Brown to Alfred Donaldson’s landmark 1921 book, “A History of the Adirondacks,” which is “recognized as the major work about the entire region and as such remains unsurpassed.” (Source) He is also a featured part of the first chapter of Volume II and cited in the index.
Legendary Adirondack Guide & Hunter
Thomas Peacock killed his first deer at age 13 with a flint-lock musket owned by Ruth’s husband, Henry Thompson. He would later recall that this was the first of the “at least 89” deer, elk, bear, wolves, and mountain lions that he would hunt and kill.
As a teenager, Peacock worked for his father, who had a contract to supply lumber camps near Tupper Lake. Each delivery required young Thomas to load the horse-drawn lumber sled with “25 to 30 bushels of potatoes and two or three quarters of beef,” weighing nearly a ton, before setting out from North Elba before 3 a.m. on his 40-mile trek across the rugged terrain to Tupper Lake, where he would arrive around 9 a.m. Thomas later recalled how the hungry lumberjacks would greet him enthusiastically upon his arrival with food and mail delivery.
Soon, the arrival of railroads began bringing visitors to the region in increasing numbers. Sportsmen from cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia came north seeking adventure, creating a seasonal opportunity for skilled local woodsmen, like Thomas Peacock.
By age 17, Thomas was already guiding parties through Indian Pass, down to the deserted village of Tahawus, and through the Saranacs. At 18, Peacock was credited with blazing the first trail from Middle Saranac Lake to Ampersand Mountain.
Well regarded among the region’s woodsmen, Peacock moved to Saranac Lake as a young man, married Harriet Stearns, and built a reputation as one of the Adirondacks’ most dependable guides and best storytellers. He frequently took parties out from Martin’s (Saranac Lake House) as well as from Paul Smith’s Hotel, the grand wilderness resort that drew wealthy sportsmen and prominent visitors from across the country.
Peacock’s strength was once put to the test in a “hefting” contest with the strapping Rev. William H. “Adirondack” Murray. A small crowd gathered to watch and place their bets as:
“Each man was required to lift a heavy packbasket loaded with rocks from a sitting position on the ground. Murray tried, but supposedly only halfheartedly, because he was fully aware of the hernia possibility. Peacock, with a prodigious effort, managed to lift it by rolling against a log and grasping a protruding stub.” †
Peacock’s strength, skill, and knowledge of the wilderness would earn him notoriety and distinguished clients, including Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, and Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone.
In the off-season, his adventures would extend well beyond the Adirondacks, as he hunted moose in northern Quebec and Ontario for fifty years, and took several trips out West, and to Texas, and Arizona.
He also visited Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch near Medora, North Dakota, and once supplied a Denver and Rio Grande railroad construction gang in Colorado with elk and deer meat; reportedly shooting as many as nine elk in one afternoon.
One of Peacock’s most significant contributions came as a guide to the acclaimed surveyor and explorer Verplanck Colvin, whose work would play a crucial role in preserving the Adirondacks.
Guide to Verplank Colvin
Verplanck Colvin was an esteemed lawyer, author, illustrator, and surveyor with a deep appreciation for the Adirondacks.
During a climb of Seward Mountain in 1869, Colvin was shocked to observe the extensive damage being done by lumbermen and their clear-cutting of Adirondack forests, and it would become his life mission to preserve them.
He wrote an alarming report on the deforestation that he observed and its environmental impact, which garnered the attention of New York state officials. Colvin reportedly drew a blue line around the region’s borders on a map and envisioned a massive protected wilderness. As the first step in his monumental preservation effort, he applied for and was granted a $1000 stipend to survey the region.
Such a herculean effort would take years and require the help of several crews of men who would be separated and tasked with surveying the vast and difficult terrain with little communication. To make this possible, Colvin enlisted the help of expert guides, including Thomas Peacock, in the Saranac region.
The ambitious surveying project would be an astounding success with profound significance. In the first year, with the help of skilled guides like Peacock, Colvin discovered Lake Tear of the Clouds, the highest point of the Adirondacks, and the source of the Hudson River. He was also able to determine the precise elevation of most of the highest peaks in the Adirondacks, including Mount Marcy at 5344 feet, to an incredible precision of less than an inch! (source)
His commendation report to the New York State legislature (which specifically mentions Peacock) would directly lead to the creation of the 6 million-acre Adirondack Park in 1892, and two years later, the state constitution would declare the public Forest Preserve “forever wild.”
Adirondack Park is roughly the size of Vermont, and bigger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks combined!
Colvin had great respect and admiration for his skilled guides, including Thomas Peacock. While conducting his Adirondack survey, he wrote the following about them:
“Being generally skillful hunters and trappers, their pursuits had led them along the streams and lakes where their game most abounded; and their natural skill as woodsmen made their assistance valuable, even in those sections with which they were unacquainted.
Each carried upon his back a load of provisions, blankets and camp equipage weighing from fifty to sixty pounds. It was their duty also to build huts or shanties for the survey party, cut timber, build and keep up campfires during the night, act as cooks and perform such other labor as was necessary. It is not too much to say that almost all of them were faithful, intelligent and skilled men, ready to labor night and day for the success of the survey.” †
Colvin would continue his tireless work for a total of 28 years to complete his survey of the Adirondacks. One of the 46 High Peaks was renamed Mount Colvin in his honor.
Years later, Thomas Peacock would find himself back on Mount Marcy, this time as an unexpected participant in American history.
Peacock & Roosevelt’s Midnight Ride
Thomas Peacock would cross paths with Theodore Roosevelt more than once in his life, but their most significant shared experience is known as “Roosevelt’s Midnight Ride.”
On September 6, 1901, President William McKinley was shot in Buffalo, NY, while shaking hands with members of the public. McKinley survived the initial assassination attempt, and Vice President Roosevelt traveled to Buffalo to be with him. After a few days, his condition stabilized, and doctors were optimistic about his recovery. It was thought that Roosevelt’s continued presence in Buffalo would cause public concern, so he was encouraged to leave the area.
On September 10, Vice President Roosevelt retreated to the Adirondack High Peaks to unwind and hike, staying at the remote Tahawus Club, a sprawling 6700-acre private preserve at the foot of Mount Marcy.
Of course, in 1901, the Adirondacks were mostly a vast, rugged backwoods of dense wilderness with no telephones and few reliable telegraph lines or roads. When McKinley’s condition suddenly worsened, officials in Buffalo desperately contacted the Tahawus Club, who sent guide Harrison Hall into the mountains to find the Vice President.
He finally located Roosevelt hiking Mount Marcy, and relayed the urgent message that President McKinley was dying and that he was needed immediately in Buffalo.
Roosevelt began the long descent out of the mountains, guided along the darkening trails by seasoned Adirondack guides, including Thomas Peacock. They pushed down steep, muddy paths through the forest back to the Tahawus Club. From there, Roosevelt began a relentless overnight journey by carriage and train toward Buffalo.
By the time he arrived, McKinley was dead. Within hours, Roosevelt, still wearing the fatigue and dust of the Adirondack wilderness, was sworn in as the twenty-sixth president of the United States.
43 Miles to Deliver a Letter? “I’ll Take It”
Thomas Peacock was the subject of more than a few Adirondack tales, but the most enduring may be the time he simply volunteered to deliver a letter.
In those days, there was no formal mail service in the rugged and vast Adirondack wilderness. Letters and urgent messages were simply entrusted to whatever reliable woodsman happened to be heading in the right direction. Peacock was not a man given to boasting, but on more than one occasion, he proved what he was capable of.
One evening, while sitting in the guide room at Martin’s (the Saranac Lake House), the hotel’s owner stepped in with an urgent request: A message needed to be carried to Big Tupper Lake immediately. The men knew that would mean a long, arduous journey of over 20 miles each way through the wilderness, at night… for very little pay.
The room fell quiet. None of the seasoned woodsmen volunteered. It was complete insanity, even for them.
After a long pause, Peacock finally spoke up: “I’ll take it.”
Jaws dropped. The perilous trip required passing through the Seven Pole Rapids, and word had just come in that a dam upstream had swollen the Raquette River, raising the water in places by as much as fifteen feet.
Still, Peacock set out that night in his guideboat to deliver the message. Years later, he recalled how he made it to Bartlett’s hotel while the lights were still on, crossed to Upper Saranac Lake, rowed steadily across the dark water, carried his guideboat over the Sweeney Carry, then pushed on through the Oxbow and down into Big Tupper Lake. By the time dawn broke, he had completed the journey of over forty-three miles in a single night, much of it in deep darkness.
Peacock’s unbelievable feat was an instant legend, and the story would be told and retold in the High Peaks for generations.
A Dependable Friend and Family Man
Thomas Peacock was known to be friends with area luminaries, including Paul Smith, owner of the famed Paul Smith’s Hotel, and Dr. Edward L. Trudeau, founder of the Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium and the Saranac Laboratory, which would help make Saranac Lake a world-renowned center for treatment of tuberculosis.
Thomas would later use his carpentry skills to build several cure cottages of his own just down Church Street from Trudeau’s laboratory to help treat patients in the fresh mountain air.
“Old Tom was tall, very powerful, tender and determined, an active church-goer and officer, and a person who, unlike most men who had led the rough and tough life of a guide and logger, never drank, smoked or swore”†
Although Thomas Peacock is best known for his achievements as an Adirondack guide, his most important duty may have been closer to home. When his daughter and her husband died and left behind three young children, Tom, Florence, and Virginia, some urged that the children be put up for adoption. Peacock would have none of it. He took the children in and raised them as his own.
Grandson Tom Stainbeck would go on to serve with distinction in World War II and attend the first class of nearby Paul Smith’s College. Years later, he would return to serve as the school’s President, and the President of the NY Chamber of Commerce.
Another of Peacock’s amazing adventures occured when he was unexpectedly invited to tell a story to his largest audience ever, in an unfamiliar terrain.
“We the People” – America Hears Thomas Peacock
“We the People” was a popular show that aired on CBS during radio’s golden age from the 1930s through the 1950s, and was famously sponsored by Sanka Coffee.
During the Great Depression, the popular show offered listeners what they called, “real life appeal,” featuring a mix of everyday Americans with extraordinary stories and well-known public figures, including Jack Dempsey, Helen Keller, (NYC Mayor) Fiorello La Guardia, and James Naismith.
We the People was recorded in CBS Radio Theater in NYC with a studio audience of 2800 people and broadcast over 117 CBS stations to a listening audience of over 10 million.
In their 1939 search for unique “microphone debuts,” they discovered Thomas Peacock. When host Harry Von Zell invited the 74 year-old storyteller to be on the program, Thomas replied that he would accept with one condition: that his grandson, Tom Stainback, join him on air.
It was arranged that the two men would be featured guests on the Tuesday night episode on February 7, 1939.
The routine for guests was outlined in this May, 1940 issue of Radio Varieties Magazine:
“When a person is lucky enough to be selected for a “We, the People” broadcast, he can look forward to a wonderful and hectic time in New York. He arrives on Sunday after having been sent a round-trip ticket from his home town. When he arrives, two members of the “We, the People” staff show him the town, after depositing his bags at the Commodore Hotel.
On Sunday, there is an hour’s conference to get the facts of his story and have his voice checked for quality. Then two writers sit down to write the script, and the guest checks it for accuracy.
On Monday, there is a rehearsal and at 5:15 in the afternoon all of the guests get together for a timing rehearsal with-out the orchestra. After this, they have Monday evening to themselves and are usually shown Times Square in all its glory and the town’s night clubs.
On Tuesday, there is another rehearsal, and after the dress rehearsal guests are free until air time. After the broadcasting some more sightseeing and back home on Wednesday. While in New York, guests are afforded the opportunity to visit the Empire State Building, the theatres, and other interesting places. In addition to hotel and transportation, each guest is given $5 a day for taxi fare and food.” (source)
It’s pretty amazing to imagine Thomas Peacock and his grandson, Tom Stainback, taking a southbound train from the Saranac Lake Union Depot on the Adirondack line to Grand Central Station in NYC for their big moment! While numerous “everyday people” were known to suffer from stage fright while telling their story in front of such a huge audience, things seemed to go swimmingly for them.
“The two made an exciting experience for the national audience. While waiting to go on Tom Stainback was overheard practicing his part. He made a strong enough impression on Von Zell that the latter suggested that the teenager go into radio seriously, which he did on the local Saranac Lake station.”†
While we can’t find a recording of their episode archived online, Peacock surely would have told a story from his many Adirondack adventures.
Thomas Peacock Never Slowed Down
“We don’t stop moving because we get old; we get old because we stop moving.”
Peacock continued to hunt, fish, and guide well into his 80s, and younger guides often recounted how the old woodsman could outwalk men half his age. On long treks through the Adirondack forests, he was known to keep up a steady pace for hours, leaving younger men struggling to keep up behind him.
His grandson, Tom, later fondly recalled hunting parties at Slang and Long Ponds, and “unforgettable days hunting and evenings of poker, whose ground rules changed according to the contents of Peacock’s hands.”
“On one memorable hunting trip at Turtle Pond, near Hoel, the party became befuddled and started a heated argument over their location and return directions. Since old Tom was well up into the 80’s at the time, they felt that they were better woodsmen in spite of his insistence that he knew the exact whereabouts of the correct trail. Nevertheless, he was overruled volubly, and time was lost floundering around in the tall shrubbery and they ran out of daylight.
That long night they burned a complete tree as a campfire and sweated out the dark hours until daybreak. They decided to take Peacock’s advice, and found that he was absolutely right. In spite of that reassurance he felt greatly humiliated that such a thing would happen. Bill Green, another frequent member of the hunting expeditions, recalled that even in his 80’s the old guide could walk the legs off his juniors for half a day.”†
Peacock’s incredible longevity was featured in an article published in the Highland Recorder newspaper in March, 1940, entitled, “87-Year-Old Deer Hunter.”
“Eighty-seven-year-old Tom Peacock, of Saranac Lake, N.Y., went deer hunting last year as usual. He carried his own pack basket and rifle, as he has for about 75 years. He hiked into the forest with the heavy load on his back and kept apace with companions one-quarter his age. The leathery, white-thatched Adirondack guide didn’t get a shot.
Tom Peacock has hunted almost every kind of wild game in North America since as a boy he bowled over himself and a deer at opposite ends of a kicking flintlock musket. He likes to recall times past when he hunted elk to feed railroad work gangs in the West, moose in Canada, bear and mountain lions in the Rockies, or deer in his home country. He once killed four Colorado elk with three shots.”
At 89 years old, Peacock’s detailed stories of trout fishing, hiking trails, and guiding in the High Peaks were also published in the Oct. 23, 1941, edition of the Tupper Lake Free Press and Herald, with the column entitled, “Old Guide Recalls Hauling Supplies to Logging Camps on Big and Little Wolf Ponds Near Tupper Over 70 Years Ago.”
In the interview, he fondly remembered small details, like how “Supper at Mother Johnson’s consisted chiefly of her famous Injun wheat pancakes… made with sourdough, and were darker than buckwheat and a little bitter,” and how there was nothing in the Adirondacks like Dawson Pond, which was “very cold and used to be alive with little trout. You could get three at almost every cast.” (source)
Peacock’s last interview was with Bill Burger, who wrote a column called “The Adirondacker” in the Adirondack Record-Elizabethtown Post. Burger had previously met Peacock’s grandson, Tom Stainbeck, who had “described him in such glowing terms that the young writer felt that he just had to meet the man who could generate so much affection.”†
During the interview, Peacock told his amusing story of Ike the moose, which was later published in the newspaper on June 25, 1942, 11 days after his passing. That day, Burger’s column began with the following tribute to Peacock:
“Since the following was written, my friend, Thomas L. Peacock has died. Although I had known him less than two years, I admired him greatly. I wish I had met him much earlier. From now on his spirit will be with me — through all the Saranacs, up the Raquette River to Long-Lake and beyond, and about North Elba. He will be especially close at Raquette Falls.” – (source)
“Grand Old Man of Saranac Lake”
Thomas Peacock’s life unfolded across the forests, lakes, and mountains of the Adirondacks, a life marked by endurance, adventure, and an intimate knowledge of the wild High Peaks country he called home. His strength, skills, and storytelling were legendary, earning him the respect of fellow guides and distinguished clients, including American presidents.
From a young age, Peacock stood close to the currents of history, sometimes as a witness, and other times as an active participant.
Peacock was a loyal friend, father, and a steadfast guardian to his three grandchildren. In both wilderness and family life, he carried the same defining qualities of strength, reliability, and an unshakeable sense of duty.
Later in life, he moved to a house on Lake Street, which is still there, along with his old workshop, tools, and some of his markings in one of the century-old cupboards.
Thomas Peacock was more than a guide; he was part of the living history of the Adirondacks. He reached the end of his trail on June 14, 1942, and is buried at Pine Ridge Cemetery in Saranac Lake, NY.
Sources
- † DeSormo, Maitland C. Summers on the Saranacs.
- North Country Life, Winter 1953 interview with Thomas Peacock by W. H. Burger.
- Historic Saranac Lake Wiki. “Tom Peacock.” https://wiki.historicsaranaclake.org/
- ‡ Donaldson, Alfred L. A History of the Adirondacks
- Brumley, Charles Guides of the Adirondacks: A History
- Thomas Peacock photo from: https://adirondack.pastperfectonline.com/Photo