Abstract
John Samuel Apperson, Jr. (Apperson) (1878-1963), known to his friends as “Appy”, was born to Dr. John Samuel Apperson (1837-1908) and Ellen Victoria Hull Apperson (1840-1887) on April 6, 1878 in Chilhowie, Virginia. In 1900 Apperson left Virginia for Schenectady, New York, where he would live for the rest of his life. For his first four years in Schenectady Apperson worked as an electrician before being hired as an engineer by General Electric in 1904, despite his unfinished degree and lack of license. Apperson worked for General Electric until his retirement in 1947. Apperson’s activities as an avid sportsman and fiery conservationist gathered together a large group of likeminded and influential men and women. His sphere included engineers, scientists, artists, authors, politicians, professors, lawyers, and many others. Apperson’s associates and close friends included Nobel Prize winner Irving Langmuir, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and Eleanor Roosevelt. It was Apperson’s outdoor recreation that lead to his fervent conservation activism. As early as 1907 Apperson fought to protect Lake George. First he personally evicted “island squatters” in a relentless battle to enforce the 1885 law limiting or abolishing the use of state land by squatters. These “island squatters” crossed all echelons of society from the poor mountain men in shacks to General Electric executives in stately homes. In 1909 Apperson began his fight to protect the fragile shorelines of Lake George’s islands by rip-rapping (placing rock barriers against) the shorelines. Apperson’s fight to protect the shorelines led to his popular and successful 1915 pamphlet which garnered state-funded aid in 1917 to continue the struggle to preserve the disappearing islands. Over the next 40 years Apperson continued to support rip-rapping on Lake George by gathering volunteers to carry boulders and topsoil across the lake year-round. Over the next 50 years Apperson battled lumber and logging companies, paper mills, campers, New York State, and many others in the fight to protect Lake George and the Adirondacks from being exploited for commercial gain. His legacy contains a long list of achievements and victories, which include the fathering of multiple successful grass roots activism organizations; the inclusion of Lake George in the Adirondack State Park in 1931; multiple conservation pamphlets of national impact; a Supreme Court victory over International Paper Company removing control over the water levels in Lake George from the hands of industry; and the protection of Dome Island as “forever wild”.
Type of Resource
Collection