Bronder's Hollow and Muller Hill

 Syracuse Post-Standard

July 1, 1934

Forgotten Villages

Mysterious Refugee’s Village Long Vanished

                            ____

Muller’s Stores and Mill Gone from Bronder’s Hollow

                            ____

By Elizabeth Pyke

   Seeking refuge from his enemies in the forest recess of hills above Chenango valley in what is now Madison county, did a future king of France , exiled from his native land during the reign of Napoleon, dwell incognito for several years in a mansion hewn from sturdy cherry trees. In a “hollow” among those hills he founded a settlement which after a brief colorful existence crumble back into forest wilds to become one of the forgotten villages of Central New York.

   History records no such interlude in the life of the 19th century French monarchs who sought haven in other lands during the supremacy of Napoleon. But history is sufficiently vague about the details of French royalty in exile to leave a tempting loophole for romantic surmises of Central New Yorkers who’s imagination has been stimulated by accounts of the mysterious French refugee. He secreted himself in a fortress-like dwelling in the inaccessible hills near Slab City, now Georgetown a century and a quarter ago. He lived there like a feudal lord of old France, although he called himself plain Louis Anathe Muller.*

                            Bullet-Proof Chateau

   This story had its beginning in 1808, when a Frenchman who never ventured forth without an armed bodyguard, purchased 2,700 acres of land in this isolated region, and employed 160 men, whom he paid in gold and silver, to construct a palatial, bullet-proof chateau on the summit of the highest hill on his estate.

   Beside a stream a mile southeast of his homestead, in a valley known to this day as Bronder’s Hollow after John Passon Bronder, one of the men who had accompanied him this country, the Frenchman who called himself Muller, established a village which contained two stores, a mill and a storehouse, as well as numerous dwellings.  

   During the half dozen years that he lived in this forest mansion, Muller’s reticence and eccentric conduct greatly stirred  the curiosity of his neighbors and gave rise to many wild rumors as to this identity, But never by an idle word did he betray his real story,  and then when after hearing of the collapse of Napoleon’s fortunes he departed jubilant to France , he left in his wake  a mystery which never has been explained  to the full satisfaction of his Central New York acquaintances or their descendants.

                                Home Burned

   The modern visitor to the site of the old Muller house, which was leveled by fire in 1907, must stretch his imagination to believe  that this was once the estate of a French nobleman. If he drives along the narrow country road that winds across the hills towards Bronder’s Hollow, he will pass densely wooded stretches that look as if they never had known the pioneer’s axe.

   A few bleak gray farmhouses with desolation staring through their painless windows, decrepit barns with doors that creak on rusty hinges,  and the shapeless frames of occasional abandoned automobiles  along the way are the only evidence that man ever conquered or cultivated this isolated territory. The stream beside which Muller established his settlement still meanders through Bronder’s Hollow, and in the picturesque old house  once run as a hotel by John Passon Bronder, Frank Stone today lives alone and raises crops on the site of the old vanished village. 

                               Village Gone

   There is left, however, no vestige of the stores, the mill, the storehouse, or the dwellings which once stood in Bronder’s Hollow. Mr. Stone recalls that his father, Samuel Stone  years ago tore down the remnants of one of the old stores and erected in its place a horse-barn which now in turn is falling onto decay. Mr. Stone’s farmhouse, the former hotel, is the only landmark which remains.

   Yet back in the days when Syracuse was just a “corners” in a dismal swamp, there was on the top of Muller Hill a clearing of several hundred acres where avenues of fine shade trees led up to an imposing mansion. Waters of an artificial pond sparkled in the sunlight, a strong high fence enclosed a park where deer, rabbits and other game roamed at leisure, and statuary embellished grounds which had been tastefully laid out with walks and shrubbery.  Here, in the heart of precipitous holland tangled forests was an estate quite befitting a nobleman whom rumor identified as a member of the royal family of France.

                                                            Muller Unhappy

    Bur despite the wild beauty of his forest retreat, despite the protection of his retinue of French servants, two of whom, armed and liveried, formed his body guard whoever he road abroad, and despite the companionship of his American wife and his two small children, Louis Anathe Muller was not a happy man. 

   Perhaps he was haunted by memories of a harrowing escape from the guillotine which had spilt so much aristocratic blood in France Unquestionably, he feared the vengeance of Napoleon and trembled lest some spy should penetrate his seclusion.

   When Muller departed for France after the downfall of Napoleon, he left his Central New York property  in the hands of an agent who proved untrustworthy , and two years later, in 1816, he returned to find his house stripped of its rich furniture, his garden covered with weeds, and his village forsaken.

   After viewing the wreck, he sold the land to Abijah Weston, a New York City merchant, for the sum of $10,500; and then went back to France, where no doubt he reclaimed a prouder name than plain Louis Anathe Muller, and calmly wiped out this American chapter  off the slate of his life with never a qualm for the throes of curiosity which were bound torture posterity when it encountered the mystery of Muller Hill.

                                                      Notes

*Louis Anathe Muller was a wealthy French émigré who in 1808 purchased 2,700 acres of land in what is now known as Muller Hill in Georgetown, New York. He lived on Payne Street in Hamilton, New York for a year with his wife and son while 300 acres of densely forested land was cleared by 150 men for a lavishly furnished fortress of a house measuring 70 feet by 30 with thick walls made of black cherry wood. Also on the property were a saw mill, several out buildings, fish pond and a game reserve enclosed by a stout palisade.

   Louis Muller lived on this estate from 1809 through 1814. In the wake of Napoleon’s defeat, he left his property in the hands of a caretaker and temporarily packed the family off to New York City while he returned to France. Returning in 1816, he found the house picked clean and the caretaker long gone. Shortly thereafter he sold the property and left for parts unknown. In 1905 the house burned to the ground. 

   Many articles have been written on the mysterious identity of Louis A. Muller. There were rumors he was French royalty fleeing from the wrath of Napoleon but there is no evidence to support that claim. Samuel Buell Sisson (1883-1947), Colgate Class of 1905 and Colgate University trustee (1938-1945) extensively researched Muller’s identity in the 1930’s and 1940’s. Sisson’s father, Eugene Pardon Sisson, was born in the Muller house in January 1845. Eugene Sisson was principal of the Colgate Academy from 1888 to 1889 and 1895 to 1896 and taught Mathematics at Colgate from 1912 to 1921.

   Samuel Sisson research led him to believe that Muller was a General in the King Louis XVI of France’s Life Guards. After the royal family were captured, Muller and Angel De Ferriere, another officer in the same unit fled and eventually came to New York and purchased land in Madison county. Historical marker for Muller house on Muller Hill Road in Georgetown one mile or so west of the intersection with Chapin Road. An extensive collection of Muller’s  is in Special Collections (M2044) at Colgate University Archives.

Muller's Estate Sale

The sale of Muller's estate to Abijah Weston can be found in book of deeds L beginning at page 515. Altogether the deed conveys 1,628.5 acres of land, the house, barns, grist mill, saw mill and other improvements for the sum of $10,500. It was commonly thought that Muller was French royalty living under an assumed identity; some even voice the possibility that he was the Comte d'Artois who later became Charles X, King of France. Others have said he was Charles Ferdinand, the Duc de Berry son of King Charles X. Only two things will ever truly be known about the man on Muller Hill. First he was French, and second we will never know who the mysterious man truly was.