Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 73

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452

USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations > Part 73

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Helaire Latromouille, indicted for murder in the first degree by stabbing with a knife Cath- erine Dunsbach. Tried. Verdict: guilty of mur- der in the first degree. Sentence: death by hanging. Executed August 20, 1879.

Thomas Mallon, indicted for murder in the first degree by shooting his wife, Ann, with a gun.

Tried and convicted of manslaughter in the fourth degree. Sentence: State Prison for two years.

Person unknown murdered Stephen Dugan.

1880 .- William McNeal, indicted for murder in the first degree, by stabbing with a knife, his wife Catharine. Tried. Verdict: murder in the second degree. Sentence: State Prison for life.

Hiram G. Briggs, indicted for murder in the first degree by shooting Erskine Wood. On motion, the indictment was quashed. The prisoner was arraigned on a new indictment similar to the former. Pleaded guilty of manslaughter in the third degree. Sentenced to the Penitentiary for two years.

Charles Burt killed, by shooting with a pistol, Catharine Smith. He immediately shot and killed himself.

1883 .- William Dyer, indicted for manslaughter in the second degree by carelessly driving a two- horse team attached to a truck wagon, and running over a small boy named Charles Cook, causing his death. Tried and convicted. Sentenced to the Penitentiary for one year.

Person or persons unknown killed Michael Bio- fore.

1884 .- Peter Edwards killed his wife, Cornelia, by beating her with a hammer and stabbing her with a butcher's knife. He inflicted injuries upon himself of which he died.

Catharine Schreiver, wife of Christopher Schreiver, in one night killed four of her children by cutting their throats. She then caused her remaining child, a daughter nine years of age, to accompany her to a place half a mile distant on the New York Central Railroad, known as Black Rock, where the affrighted child, in obedience to the stern command of her crazed mother, sat upon the rail, while the mother prostrated herself across the rail- road track. Soon the down train came rapidly, decapitating the mother and so mangling the child that she too was soon numbered with the dead.

Michael Downey, indicted for murder in the first degree by shooting with a pistol, Dennis Des- mond. Arraigned. Pleaded guilty of murder in the second degree, and was sentenced to State Prison for life.

Ah Kay, indicted for murder in the first degree by shooting Wee Kee. Both were Chinese. Ar- raigned and tried. Convicted for murder in the second degree. Sentenced to State Prison for twenty years.

Mrs. Margaret Ahern, indicted for murder in the second degree by maliciously pushing Peter Clark off a stoop, causing instant death. Tried.

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Verdict: manslaughter in the second degree. Sen- tence: Penitentiary for three years.

Assassin unknown killed James Larrison.

ELISHA MACK, who industriously and conscientiously compiled this paper on "Homicides in Albany Co.," is able to give a more extended history of most of them. He has also written out, very fully, the history of otber noted criminals in this city and county, many of whom were brought to justice by his own detective skill, while he was (for nearly twenty years) on the Police force. No man ever held this trust with more integrity, and few with more acceptance. The Police records, kept by those high - minded Police Magistrates-Cole, Kane, Comstock and Loveridge-

testify to his sagacity and skill in making important arrests, and bringing to light cunningly hidden iniquity. Want of space prevents us from inserting some of his marvelous de- tails, told, as he tells them, with remarkable clearness and delicacy. If they could be printed in book form the record would be valuable to the police, the lawyer and the Courts everywhere. Mr. Mack was born in Windsor, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, February 7, 1811. He came to Albany in 1816, and still lives among us, active and highly respected, in his 75th year.

It is worthy of note that the number of murders is very small for a county so old, and with so large a population made up of people of such varied nationality and pursuit. The number convicted, sentenced, and punished with the extreme penalty, is also remarkably small.

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION IN ALBANY COUNTY.

THE native Indian, in his journeyings, had mark- ed out his paths by the courses of the streams, by the peaks of the hills, and observations of the sun, moon and stars. We have named them Indian trails, and early European hunters, trappers and settlers found them very useful. When the Indian came to navigable waters he paddled his light canoe, which he took up when he came to dangerous rapids or wished to cross from one water to another, and launched in the desired place in his route.

When the early immigrants from Holland came to this country, they came up the Hudson in the sailing craft of their time. The Dutch knew how to construct and navigate ships. The water-way between New Amsterdam and Fort Orange, after- wards New York and Albany, was much traveled by the early adventurers in the fur trade; by colonial farmers, settlers, and speculators of every name; by curious travelers; and by public functionaries of the Patroons, of the Dutch West India Company, and of the English crown. All came and went in canoes, batteaux, rafts, or some kind of ship. Trade was carried on in the same way ; and the trade, of bring- ing supplies for a people whose chief business was hunting and trading, whose manufactures and farming were of the most simple kind, was large. It took in return, to the New York, West India and European marts, furs, peltries, and, after a time, the surplus products of the forest and farms. In all the years from the discovery of the Hudson to the war for American independence, the carriages and the carrying, both by land and water, were essentially the same. Most of the settlements here- abouts were from the Atlantic waters along up the

Hudson River and the Mohawk. Those few who dwelt a little way off from them or other waters, got to them, when necessity or profit impelled, either on foot, bearing their bearable burdens on their backs, or using the rudest conveyances that ox or horse ever dragged or drew.

Some improvements in carriages were introduced by the English in the later colonial period and especially by those who came from New England. But the best of these, rude as they were compared with those of to-day, were few and owned only by the wealthy. The enormous carts or wagons which the early immigrants from New England used in which to bring their families and their household goods, created amazement and amusement to the natives along the Hudson and the Mohawk. But these moving Saxons from "the Eastern States " brought ideas with them and cute ways of doing things. Heavy wagons were used for transporta- tion in this vicinity during the revolutionary war; but the lighter travel was pursued on horseback or on foot, for long journeys. For some years after the dawning of the present century, there were no light wagons in the new settlements and no roads for them. The dominie made his parish visits on horseback; the doctor visited his distant patients on horseback, carrying his medicines in saddle-bags; and the lawyer, taking his green bag, rode to court on horseback. Social visits were interchanged between friends residing at remote distances in this same way. Church-goers in neighboring towns came on horseback, several miles, to attend service in Albany, taking all day and often spend- ing the night with friends. The same horse carried

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the wife, sitting on the pillion behind the husband, and frequently an infant for baptism. When they could not ride, parents and older sons and daugh- ters often walked long distances to do an important errand, to visit friends, or to listen to their pastor's Sabbath instructions. In one or the other of these ways the grist was taken to mill, the fleece to the wool-carder and clothier, and the little surplus produce to the city merchant.

Time makes many changes to meet the require- ments and necessities of mankind. New inven- tions to economize domestic affairs and to lighten the burdens of toil were sought; many rude im- provements were the result. New and better con- veyances, first used by the more prosperous citizen, were introduced, while the laborer back in the forest long continued to ride in his rudely con- structed cart, often drawn by a yoke of oxen.

When the carriage and coach made their appear- ance for the aristocracy, the farmer was usually content in the comfort he realized from the rude wagon, the workmanship of home skill. All these vehicles were improved to meet the demand of progress. The years that followed the first quarter of this century witnessed rapid strides in better facilities for intercommunication and the convey- ances for travel and transportation.

Travel from Albany to distant points began to assume considerable proportions as new fields of enterprise were opened. Increase of population, the multiplied demands of agriculture, manufac- tures and home industries, brought a corresponding increase in travel, trade, and other branches of business which contribute to prosperity. Among the first considerations of a practical kind was to find a market for surplus agricultural products and manufactures. These found a natural outlet by the river, and commodities were usually shipped upon it by sloops or schooners. Trade was open- ing beyond Albany westward, along the Mohawk valley to Johnstown and even to Cherry Valley. Roads must be made. At first they naturally followed the Indian trails. Those from the north and west were by five routes centering in Albany. In time they were improved and used as wagon roads by early travelers, and served during the revolution for transporting supplies and for other military purposes.

The earliest traveled route, as has been said, between Albany and New York was by the Hudson River. In 1785, the Legislature granted to Isaac Van Wyck, Talmage Hall and John Kinney, the exclusive right to drive stage wagons on the east side of the river for the term of ten years.

The fare was fixed at four-pence a mile. A year later, communication with Springfield, Mass., was opened, and in 1789 a stage commenced running to Lansingburgh.

Public wagon roads, about 1790, were opened for travel east ; also to Whitestown on the west, which soon extended to the Genesee country. Thus was a new idea suddenly brought to the no- tice of active men, from which they hoped to realize success in new enterprises. Among the first was a line of stages by way of Schenectady to Johns- town, Canajoharie, Fort Plain and Warrensbush. In 1790, the Legislature granted to Ananias Platt the exclusive right to run a stage between Albany and Lansingburgh. In 1791, a stage route was ex- tended by the Legislature to Bennington, Vt. In 1792, a line of stages was established from Albany to Whitestown, performing the journey once in two weeks. In the spring of 1793, Moses Beal carried passengers from Albany to Canajoharie once a week ; the fare was three cents a mile. About this time John Hudson established an opposition line to Schenectady ; fare, four shillings. A line connecting Albany with the Connecticut River Val- ley was soon started. In 1794, Mr. Platt ran his stage between Lansingburgh and Albany twice a day. So great was the increase in travel, that in the winter of 1795 the number of daily trips was six ; and in the summer of 1796, it was necessary to employ twenty stages daily between Waterford, Lansingburgh, Troy and Albany, averaging more than one hundred and fifty passengers daily. The mails in 1796, were carried between Albany and Philadelphia in three days. This year there were five post routes centering in Albany. The fare to New York was reduced from ten to eight dollars.

After the war of the revolution, there was general activity in the direction of internal improvements. The great object was to connect existing highways with the Mohawk River, extend trade to other places, and bring the products west of Schenectady to Albany, and thence to New York for a market. The Mohawk not affording a continuous route, on account of the Cohoes Falls, to obviate this ob- struction, and to secure a more economical and expeditious method, the Northern Inland Lock and Navigation Company was organized as early as 1790, followed in 1792 by the Western Inland Lock Navigation Company, to connect the central lakes with the Mohawk. Philip Schuyler was president, and Barent Bleecker was treasurer ; Elkanah Watson and Stephen Van Rensselaer were active in the enterprise. In 1796, $40,000 worth

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of furs and peltries were received by one Albany house from Western companies, and trade was in- creasing rapidly. The heavy lumbering wagons with their four and six horses, loaded with tons of produce and merchandise, formed a line on this road not unlike an Eastern caravan. It is recorded that, in the winter of 1795, one thousand two hundred sleighs passed through this city in three days with emigrants to the Genesee Valley. They were from New England-ancestors of the prosperous citizens of the farms and shops of West- ern New York. They soon had abundant products to sell and demanded a highway of trade. It was for the interest of Albany and New York that it be made. Following the enterprise of a few public benefactors, improved facilities for transportation on the Mohawk to Schenectady were undertaken. In 1797, was incorporated the Albany and Sche- nectady Turnpike, then one of the most important roads in the State. It became the leading highway for travel and traffic connected with the wonderful progress then developing in the western part of the State, opening lateral outlets of vast importance. This road continued to be profitably patronized until the opening of the Erie Canal in 1823, when its usefulness and profit were diminished. The Hudson and Mohawk Railroad in 1832 was a great competitor. Turnpikes became an enterprise in which capitalists eagerly invested. They were a great improvement upon the old roads; but few of them proved profitable to the stockholder, and several of them are now abandoned.

The trade that centered in Schenectady was a source of rivalry. To obtain a share of the business and to secure a portion of this coveted treasure, the Troy and Schenectady Turnpike was incorpo- rated in 1806, which, after a few years of successful operation, shared the fate of other similar roads. Travel and freight have been diverted to other methods, and are now conveyed by the agency of steam.

In 1798, the Legislature chartered the Lebanon and Albany Turnpike; in 1799 the first company of the Great Western Turnpike was chartered; in 1804 the Bethlehem Turnpike; and in 1805 the Albany and Delaware Turnpike. A turnpike on the west side of the river to Catskill was chartered about this time. All these roads had in view the concentration of travel to Albany, and for many. years Albany was the starting point of a score of stage lines, and mail routes diverged in all direc- tions, extending west as far as Buffalo.

After 1800, until the completion of the canal, travel and transportation to Buffalo and other points

were exclusively performed by heavy wagons drawn by four or six horses.

After the completion of the canal, Albany became a great highway for travel; for many years the packet boats were well patronized, as they offered the passengers many comforts, and facilitated social enjoyment. The first packet boat on the canal, direct from Albany, that visited Buffalo was the Benjamin Wright, which arrived October 29, 1825. The event was duly celebrated in that village. In 1811, a line of stages was started from Albany to reach Niagara Falls in three days, thence to Buffalo. The fare to Canandaigua was $16.25.

The old swinging stage coach rumbled over these roads, and its departure or arrival was hailed with interest by the villagers, who gathered at the taverns to gossip, to hear the news and to see the sights.

The stage owners located at Albany were Thorp & Spragne, Rice & Baker, Baker & Waldridge, Hal- sted, and some others. These parties owned a good number of horses; but upon the completion of the railroads, the glory and usefulness of their business departed, and the iron horse now super- sedes the weary men and jaded horses.

The year 1807 marked a new era and introduced a new power in the economy of travel. From that year to the present, steam has wrought wonderful changes, and the Hudson River claims the honor of the first successful steamboat enterprise. Since the establishment of this mode of travel on the Hudson River, steamboats have been improved, from the simple craft of Fulton-which left New York on September 5, 1807, with twenty-seven pas- sengers, and October 7th with one hundred pas- sengers, taking from 24 to 36 hours time to make the trip-to the gorgeous and spacious floating palaces of the present, which make the trip in nine hours or less, and have accommodation for 6co to 800 passengers, and often carry a larger number. The fare on Fulton's boat was seven dollars, now it is from one dollar to one dollar and fifty cents.

In 1811 there were two steamboats carrying pas- sengers to New York, the Hope and North River. In 1836 there were twelve steamboats and seven towing boats. The steamboat travel on the river in past years has been immense, but the railroads on either side of the river have become formidable rivals to the once monopolized privileges of the passenger boats, so that the number has somewhat diminished as compared with former years. We have space to give the names only of a few of the principal steamboats that have ploughed the Hud- son River.

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF ALBANY.

In 1820, the Chancellor Livingston, 175 x 50 feet. Had beds for 160 passengers and settees for 40. Fare, eight dollars.

In 1823, the Constitution, Constellation, Swift- sure and Saratoga began to run

In 1828, the North America, "the most beautiful and swift of the floating palaces on the Hudson; or, as I believe, I may add with truth, in the world," says Dr. Charles Stuart.

In 1835, the Champlain followed by the Dia- mond, Swallow, Reindeer, Henry Clay, Hope and Columbia. After 1850, by the Alida, New World, Francis Skiddy, Empire City, Jonas C. Heart.

After 1860, came the Armenia, Daniel Drew, Isaac Newton, Mary Powell, St. John, Chauncey Vibbard, Vanderbilt, Dean Richmond, and the Albany.

Many of these recent steamboats have made the trip between New York and Albany in seven hours forty-five minutes, and sometimes in six hours forty- two minutes.

In the words of Lossing: " The steamboat itself is a romance of the Hudson. Its birth was on its waters, where the rude conceptions of Evans and Fitch were perfected by Fulton and his successors. How strange is the story of its advent, growth and achievements! Living men remember when the idea of steam navigation was ridiculed. They re- member, too, that when the Clermont went from New York to Albany without the use of sails, against wind and tide, in thirty-two hours, ridicule was changed to amazement. The steamboat was an awful revelation to the fishermen, the farmers, and the villagers. It seemed like a weird craft from Pluto's realm, -a transfiguration of Charon's boat into a living fiend from the infernal regions. Its huge black pipe vomiting fire and smoke, the hoarse breathing of its engine, and the great splash of its uncovered paddle-wheels filled the imagina- tion with all the dark pictures of goblins that ro- mancers have invented since the foundation of the world. Some thought it was an unheard of mon- ster of the sea ravaging the fresh waters; others re- garded it as a herald of the final conflagration at the day of doom. Some prayed for deliverance; some fled in terror to the shore and hid in the re- cesses of the rocks; and some crouched in mortal dread of the fiery demon.

" The Clermont was a small thing compared with the great river steamers of the present time. Ful- ton did not comprehend the majesty and capacity of his invention. He regarded the Richmond (the finest steamboat at the time of his death) as the per- fection of that class of architecture. She was a

little more than 100 feet in length, with a low, dingy cabin, partly below the water-line, dimly lighted by tallow candles, in which passengers ate and slept in stifling air, and her highest rate of speed was nine miles an hour. Could Fulton re- visit the earth and be placed on one of the great river steamboats of our time, he would imagine himself to be in some magical structure of fairy- land, or of forming a part of a strange romance; for it is a magnificent floating hotel, over four hundred feet in length, and capable of carrying a thousand guests by night or by day at the rate of twenty miles an hour. Its gorgeously furnished parlors, lighted with gas, and garnished with rich curtains, mirrors and clegant furniture; its cheerful and well- ventilated dining-room; and its airy bedrooms, high above the water, compose a whole more grand and beautiful than any palace dreamed of by the Ara- bian story-tellers. It is the perfected growth of the Indian's bark canoe."

For a few years, about 1850, plank roads were chartered, and five were constructed in the county. These for a time were a novel enterprise, and com- manded a large share of local travel; but now they are mostly abandoned, except on short lines, the travel having been diverted to lateral railroads.

Since the first railroad - the Mohawk and Hudson-was built, and began to be operated in this county in 1832 with its open coaches, a new system of journeying began at once to be intro- duced.

The facilities centered at Albany, by railroad and steamboat, for reaching any given point, will com- pare favorably with any city in the State. Roads center here from all points, and connections are made with other and continuous lines leading to everywhere.

The New York Central and Hudson River Rail- road, with its consolidated branches from New York to Buffalo, makes Albany a great thorough- fare. During the year 1883 this road carried on its several branches nearly eleven million passen- gers. During the month of May, 1885, there were sold at the Union Depot, Albany, 53, 228 passen- ger tickets. In the same month sixty-five passenger trains were dispatched daily. The fare on this road averages about 2.05 cents per mile.

The Delaware and Hudson Canal Company's Railroads are of immense utility to this County. This great corporation leases and operates, among other roads, the Albany and Susquehanna, the Rensselaer and Saratoga, and the New York and Canada, which start from Albany. The number of passengers carried on these roads in 1884 was

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2, 622, 174, and for the month of May, 1885, there were sold at the Albany office 56,823 passenger tickets, and seventeen regular passenger trains were sent out daily. The fare on this road is three cents per mile.

The Boston and Albany Railroad has its station in the Union Depot. This road carried in 1883 over eight million passengers; and in the month of May, 1885, sold at the Albany office 37,099 pas- senger tickets, and despatched seven regular pas- senger trains daily.

The New York, West Shore and Buffalo Rail- road was opened to Albany in 1883. There were sold from the Albany offices for the month of May, 1885. 9,095 passenger tickets, and eleven trains were sent out daily with passengers. The fare is three cents per mile.

The Troy and Boston Railroad sends six daily trains. It passes through Hoosac tunnel.

The several railroads that center at Albany sent out for the month of May from this city about 105 passenger trains daily, and the same number arrived daily. The total number of passenger tickets sold at the Albany offices for the same month was 156, 243.

The whole number of passengers carried on the several steamboats from Albany for the season of 1884 was about 1, 500,000.

Stages run daily from the city to New Scotland, New Salem and Berne; also to Clarksville, Westerlo and Rensselaerville, via Bethlehem Centre; to Guilderland Centre every afternoon; to New- tonville, Nassau and East Schodack daily; and to Greenbush every fifteen minutes.

RAILROADS IN ALBANY COUNTY.

A LBANY has become a very important railroad center. It was one of the earliest points of rail- road interest in the United States. The construc- tion of a railroad parallel with the Hudson River, connecting the City of New York with the City of Albany, affording a communication between the two cities at all seasons, was considered an object of so much importance, that, in 1832, a number of enterprising citizens obtained from the Legislature a charter with a capital of $3,000,000, and powers to construct the same. But a sufficient amount of the capital stock was not subscribed, and the project was abandoned for about twenty years. The then estimated cost of the road for a single track was $12,000 per mile, which would amount to nearly $2,000,000 for the whole line. It was believed that branches of this road might easily be constructed to Hartford and New Haven, and a large amount of business might be expected, not only from the eastern counties of this State, but from Berkshire County, Mass., and Litchfield and Fairfield Counties, Conn. The railroad com- missioners of 1833 have this curious speculation concerning the profits of the proposed road: That it would accommodate a large number of the pop- ulation in the vicinity of the route; that the amount of transportation which would be paid to the road by this population, on produce, minerals, manufac- tures and merchandise would amount to $350, 000, to which was added a larger amount to be ob-

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Bi-centennial history of Albany. History of the county of Albany, N. Y., from 1609 to 1886. With portraits, biographies and illustrations, Part 73

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888 Publication date: 1886 Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co. Number of Pages: 1452

Author: Howell, George Rogers, 1833-1899; Tenney, Jonathan, 1817-1888
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: New York, W. W. Munsell & Co.
Number of Pages: 1452