McCoy Lance was a farmer in Poland, a soldier in Russia, a prisoner in Spain, and at the end of his life, the oldest man in Jefferson County. He spoke seven languages, fought in Napoleon’s army for eight years, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean in a cattle boat. His life began unremarkably in his native Poland. After marrying at 21, he began farming. At the time, Poland was partitioned between Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Polish nationalists yearned for a re-unified Poland; theycourted Napoleon as an ally, hoping that the new French Emperor would help re-establish their nation. However, this hope would be exploited for the Emperor’s own purposes. In 1812, when Napoleon needed more infantry en route to an invasion of Russia, many Polish men were forcibly conscripted to fight alongside the French. McCoy Lance was kidnapped from his farm and pressed into service; he never saw his family in Poland again. On June 24, 1812 Bonaparte ordered his enormous army of over 500,000 men to invade Russia. The campaign was one of the great disasters of military history. When the retreat began on December 14th, only 22,000 soldiers remained with the French forces. One of them was McCoy Lance. Lance was essentially a slave soldier. In 1872 the Watertown Daily Times wrote an article about his life, for which they presumably interviewed him. The article says that after the retreat from Russia, France sent Lance to fight in Spain, as Britain, France and Portugal fought for control of the region. When the opportunity presented itself, he deserted the French and joined the Spaniards to fight against Bonaparte. Apparently his allegiance meant little to the Spaniards, who sold him to a British Officer. The British sent him to Quebec, via cattle boat, to fight against the Americans in the War of 1812. By 1813 he was stationed among British soldiers on an island in the St. Lawrence near Montreal. At that time, he and a Polish compatriot decided to make their escape to New York. Lance family lore varies from the events mentioned in the 1872 article. Jennifer Lance of Point Peninsula, the great-great-great granddaughter of McCoy Lance, says her understanding was that the British captured her ancestor and a friend directly from the French. Her family believed that Lance and this friend (whose name is unknown) were sent to Quebec as prisoners, not as conscripted soldiers. In any case, after he and his friend escaped from Quebec, Lance made his way to the Mohawk Valley. He settled there, and in 1820 he married Polly (or Mary) Jeffers, who at 25 was apparently already a widow. He and Polly had eight children. “McCoy Lance” is clearly not a Polish name. Jennifer Lance says that a schoolteacher in New York gave the name to him; apparently the teacher was trying to write out the name that Lance gave her verbally. Most likely his actual name was phonetically similar, such as such as Mikolaj Lentz (Mikolaj is the Polish variant of Nicholas). Lance didn’t move to Lyme until he was an older man. He first appears here in the 1850 census, living with his son, Peter Lance, at a farm at Toad Hole (now Luff Shores) on Point Peninsula. In his golden years he continued to lead a remarkable life. He was an ardent Catholic and would walk every Sunday from Point Peninsula to Rosiere to attend mass. He spoke (at least partially) seven languages. At the age of 100 he rode on horseback ten miles from Point Peninsula to Chaumont to vote in the election of Town of Lyme officers. Even his death was notable. In an article on July 9, 1875 the Watertown Daily Times reported that only oneperson had died in the town of Lyme in the prior year –McCoy Lance, age 106. He is buried in the Fox Creek Cemetery. Sources
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