for twenty years—­is filed among the Comstock records; it can only be surmised that at this time Comstock and White were again on good terms, the memories of lawsuits, arrests, and prosecutions long since forgotten, and Comstock either ordered a machine in behalf of White or perhaps agreed to take one off his hands.  At the time of this expansion, certain outbuildings and a dock for the unloading of coal were erected adjoining the lower building.  During 1881 an underwater telegraph cable was laid between Morristown and Brockville, allowing immediate communication between the two Comstock factories.

With the advent of the electrical age, around the turn of the century, the Comstock factory also installed a generator to supply lighting, the first in the locality to introduce this amenity.  The wires were also extended to the four or five company-owned houses in the village, and then to other houses, so that the company functioned as a miniature public utility.  Its electric lines in the village were eventually sold to the Central New York Power Corporation and incorporated into that system.  Steam heat was also supplied to the railroad station and the customs house, and the company pumped water out of the river to the water tower on the hill above Pine Hill Cemetery, following the installation of the public water system.

In 1908, Comstock built a large hotel across the street from the upper factory; sitting part way up the hill and surrounded by a wide veranda, it represented a conspicuous feature in the village and dominated the waterfront scene until its destruction by fire in 1925.  The Comstock family, in 1910, also built a town hall and social center for the village.  Adjacent to the lower shop a large boathouse was erected to shelter Mr. Comstock’s yacht, the Maga Doma, a familiar sight on the river for many years.

[Illustration:  FIGURE 15.—­The village of Morristown from the waterfront.  Railroad depot, Comstock Hotel, and pill-factory buildings located left of center.]

In any large city, of course, a factory employing, at most, forty or fifty workers would have passed unnoticed, and its owner could hardly expect to wield any great social or political influence.  In a remote village like Morristown, things are quite different; a regular employer of forty persons creates a considerable economic impact.  For two generations the Indian Root Pill factory supplied jobs, in an area where they were always scarce, and at a time when the old forest and dairy industries were already beginning to decline.  But the recital of its close associations with the village makes it clear that the pill factory was more than a mere employer; for ninety years it provided a spirit that animated Morristown, pioneered in the introduction of utilities and certain social services, linked the village directly with the great outside world of drug stores and hypochondriacs, and distinguished it sharply from other, languishing St. Lawrence County villages.  One may wonder whether Dr. Morse’s Indian Root Pills really did anyone any good.  They certainly did heap many benefits upon all citizens of Morristown.