Kudos for Chris Morris’s Viewpoint “The man who loved Newcomb” [November/December 2015]. Like many people of the Adirondacks, the subject of this article, Marvin Bissell, was one of a kind. As owner of Bissell’s Store in Newcomb, Marvin affected thousands of people in a very positive way.
I first met Marvin in 1962 when going to our hunting camp in Newcomb. After my retirement in 1998, Holly and I moved to Newcomb as full-time residents. Marvin and I got to know each other well in the next fifteen years, and we shared a love of historical people and events. I still have much of Marvin’s research and documents about the one hundred Adirondack guides of Newcomb, both past and present, as well as their final resting places.
In October 2005, I wrote an article for a national magazine about Marvin’s ancestor, titled “Daniel Bissell—Unsung Hero of the American Revolution.” A soldier with a Connecticut regiment who served as a spy under orders from George Washington, Daniel Bissell received the Order of Merit and the award known today as the Purple Heart. He is buried in Ontario County, New York. The inscription on his tombstone reads, “In Memory of Daniel Bissell, Esq., Who died August 5, 1824. He had the confidence of Washington from who he received a Badge of Merit.”
Bob Bearor, Schroon Lake
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