(from a scrapbook)
(no main title - year unknown)

Theresa Residents Recall Days
When Lake Was “Quite a Body of Water”
-- Much of the Lake Is Now a Swampy Section.

Theresa, Feb. 16. -- The pioneers of the town of Alexandria, which in those days included the present town of Theresa, used to speak of Spruce lake, but for the past 40 or 50 years, it is seldom referred to and few people of today know of its location. Miss Helen Bearup of this village, whose father, the late David Bearup, builder of the railroad through this section and owner of much land near Plessis, recalls quite a little about Spruce lake and some of the stories connected with the place.

“When I was a little girl,” she stated, “father used to tell about this rather strange lake which had no visible inlet or outlet, and yet was very deep in the center. It seemed to keep about the same level as if fed by springs. Today I guess there is not much left of this once quite talked about pond of water.”

The lake is located near the Alexandria -Theresa township line near what is the Creek road and the Hyde lake swamp. It is a mile and a half from Plessis village and in a rather swampy section of land much given to blueberry bushes and at times cranberries.

“When I was a boy,” said Walter C. June, West Theresa, “our farm was located near this lost lake. Our people used to speak of it as a spot where there were probably in the days of the Indians quite a body of water, but with the timber cut off and the sun shining through the long summer days, the water had evaporated until the one time lake was just a pond. Heavy bushes grew down on its edge and in the water. Little by little this had filled the lake until it had grown smaller and smaller in size. If it did have a deep place in its center, it would probably be because there was an opening between two ledges at this point which could not be seen from the surface of the water. A year ago, I was in that region after berries and took a look at the lake. At that time it was much smaller than in my childhood. Today, it is hardly an acre in size, but probably much larger in the spring and fall.”

According to Miss Bearup and others, one of the interesting features about this lake is the building of “Clark’s Ditch,” or as some termed it in pioneer days, “Clark’s Folly”. In the early days of Plessis village, Mr. LeRay caused a grist mill to be built on Plessis creek so the settlers in Alexandria would have a place to have their grain ground. This was in 1817. Later Jason Clark and William Shurtleff formed a partnership to buy the mill. Mr. Clark became one of the leading men in the north country and his mill did a steady amount of business.

Plessis creek would hardly afford enough power to operate the mill in dry seasons. Making a survey of the conditions at the source of the creek, Mr. Clark figured that by some labor a ditch could be dug from Spruce lake to carry the waters of the lake into the creek and give an added water supply. By putting a gate in the head of the ditch, he could control the water supply so as to get more power for his grist mill. He started the work but for some reason, it was never completed. Mr. Clark died about 70 years ago. People today think the waters from this lake would have helped his mill very much although at the time there may have been a greater flow.

Today the lake is all but forgotten. Many years with timber cut from its shores has caused the waters to recede. If any person would ask for the location of Spruce lake today, they would not get a correct answer from the younger generation who have never heard of the spot.

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