Born: May 30, 1849 in Jay, a son of Andrew Jackson Slater and Mary Dudley b ~1812 (daughter of Levi Dudley of Keene)
Died: March 8, 1921
Married: Sarah A. Moody in the early 1870's; after her death Warren married Emma L. Washer in 1876; after Emma's death in 1901 he married Lyla Mills in 1904
Children: By Emma: Francis H. Slater b ~ 1879, Tilson Moss Slayter was shot and died October 1885 age 3 years 9 months, and Isabel G. Slater (1889 - 1903) died of typhoid
He was a Civil War Veteran, having enlisted at age 18 in the 118th New York, the Adirondack Regiment, at Plattsburgh, to serve one year. He was mustered in as private, Co. E on February 6, 1865, and transferred to the 96th Infantry on June 13, 1865.
The Tupper Lake Herald, Friday, March 18, 1921
WARREN J. SLATER, VETERAN, PASSES ON
ADIRONDACK PIONEER AND GUIDE ENTERS INTO REST
With the passing on of Warren J. Slater on Tuesday, March 8, another of the pioneer guides of the old Adirondacks and a veteran of the Civil War has been called from earthly labors............died very suddenly on the Barbour estate on Big Tupper Lake on his way to the farm house to answer a telephone call during the afternoon of March 8. His body was found in the path by the wife of the assistant at the estate. During the forenoon of Tuesday he had assisted in handling firewood and his death came as he would have desired, with the least possible trouble to others. A man with a stern sense of duty, as he saw it, deeply religious in his beliefs, his mistakes when he saw them were always corrected in so far as he could correct them, even though the correction required that he "cut off his right hand or pluck out his eye."
Warren Jackson Slater was born at Jay, Essex county, on May 30, 1849, the son of parents of decidedly Puritanical ideas, and the youngest of seven boys. His parents both died before he was six years of age and his boyhood was in the home of an uncle who believed most heartily that "to spare the rod would spoil the child," so that flogging was not unusual to the boy while tied up by the thumbs. In February, 1864, he ran away from his uncle's home and enlisted at Plattsburg, being assigned to the 118th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry. On account of his being small of stature he was later transferred to the 96th Regiment, New York Volunteer Infantry, and detailed as a doctor's orderly. He participated in the battles of Chapin's Farm, Va., and of Fort Harrison, in which latter engagement he was wounded in the foot by a minnie ball. He was mustered out with his regiment in 1865, and returned to this section of New York state, locating at Saranac Lake, where he took up the business of carpenter and builder, after spending three years apprenticeship in Manchester, N. H., in learning the carpenter's and cabinet maker's trades.
Always a great lover of the out of doors, he spent much of the time in summers in guiding with sportsmen who desired such assistance, and was probably as familiar with every trail and carry in the Adirondacks as any living man. In the first general survey of the Adirondacks, made by the Hon. Verplanck Colvin, Mr. Slater acted as his guide and personal assistant for several seasons, and in that capacity visited the summit of practically every well-known peak in the mountains, putting in copper markers in the highest points in the rocks and cutting survey lines from one section to another. For several years he was guide to E. A. Hoffman, Jr., son of Dean Hoffman of New York, at Paul Smiths; for more than twenty years he guided Mrs. Quincy A. Shaw of Brookline, Mass., daughter of Prof. Aggasiz, and previous to taking charge of the Paradise Park of Colonel William Barbour on Big Tupper Lake, he had for seven years been caretaker of the property of R. D. Douglas of the R. G. Dun company, on Upper Saranac Lake.
For twenty-five years Warren Slater was a justice of the peace at Saranac Lake, and during several years acted as deputy sheriff for Harrietstown. Because his own opportunities for an education had been limited to a few weeks of school after he grew to man's estate, he well knew the great value of an education and during long service on the Board of Education, from the time when Saranac Lake boasted one teacher for the entire district until a complete high school came into being, he enjoyed giving his time and efforts to learning ways and urging methods of school betterment in the town. During his service on the Board of Education he was president of the board several terms. Since his location at Tupper Lake, Moody postoffice, in 1905, Mr. Slater also served on the Board of Education of Altamont and was on the building committee of the board for the construction of the high school building.
In his religious beliefs he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and for a long period served as one of the deacons of the church at Saranac Lake. He argued that a man's religion should be evidenced, by his deeds, rather than his professions, and endeavored to make his life square with his beliefs. He had no patience with those who insisted that the "old time religion" was not sufficiently up-to-date as he felt that to live up to the old time religion would require all of a mans...............and also a charter member of ...Chapter, Royal Arch Masons. He was a member of Franklin Commandery No. 60, of Malone, Media Temple Mystic Shrine, Watertown, St. Lawrence Lodge of Perfection, Norwood, Eatertown Princeses of Jerusalem, and Rose Croix, Central City Consistory, 32 degrees, A. A. S. R. He also belonged to Altamont Lodge, I. O. O. F., and to the F. M. Bull Post, Grand Army of the Republic.
His first marriage, in the early seventies, was to Sarah Moody of Saranac Lake, who died in 1875. In 1876 he married Emma L. Washer, and to them were born three children, only one of whom survives, Francis H. Slater of Tupper Lake. Mrs. Emma Slater died in 1901. In 1904 he married Lyla Mills, who is still living.
The funeral took place on Thursday, March 10, 1921, prayer at 11 o'clock being given by Rev. Aaron W. Maddox at the dwelling of the deceased at Moody, and the funeral was from the Methodist church at Saranac Lake, at 2 o'clock, burial being with full military honors, Rev. E. B. Brownell being the officiating clergyman.
