History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 51

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868

USA > New York > Dutchess County > History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 51

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Philip P. Schuyler married Rosanna, daughter to Abraham Livingston, and great-granddaughter to Robert, the nephew, and a distant relative of the late Hon. Peter R. Livingston, of this town. He died May 6, 1822, aged thirty-three years.

John Rutsen Schuyler died, unmarried, June 22, 1813, at the age of twenty-two. Catharine Schuy- ler married Samuel Jones. She died November 20, 1829, at the age of thirty-six. Robert Schuyler was distinguished as a railroad operator and officer. The date of his death is unknown. Stephen Schuy- ler married Catharine M. Morris. He was born April 18, 1801. He was a local Methodist preach- er, and was at one time the owner of the farm now in the possession of John H. Lambert. He was highly respected, and died in Livingston street, Rhinebeck, Nov. 1, 1859, in a house now owned by Henry Clay Williams. Thus far is traced the descendants of Catharine Beekman, daughter of Henry Beekman, the patentee.

Henry Beekman, son of Henry, the patentee, and Janet Livingston had two children : Henry, baptized May 13, 1722, died young; Margaret, baptized March 1, 1724, married Robert R. Liv- ingston, the grandson of Robert, the lord of the manor. Janet Livingston, the wife of Henry Beek- man, born in 1703, died in 1724, at the age of twenty-one. Born in 1688, Henry Beekman was fifteen years her senior when he married her, and thirty-six years old when she died. His second wife was Gertrude Van Cortlandt, by whom he had no children. He became a resident of Rhinebeck after 1728, and probably not until after his second marriage. The old Kip house, of which he became the owner in 1726, was in the meantime, greatly enlarged, and became his residence when he came to Rhinebeck as a dweller. He died January 3, 1776, aged eighty-eight years. It is not known where he was buried. There is a tradition here that he died in Rhinebeck and was buried under the old edifice of the Reformed Dutch Church.

According to another tradition, (in which he is sometimes confused with Henry Beekman, the

elder,) he was buried in the cemetery of the old Reformed Dutch Church at Pink's Corner, now known as Monterey. But if he was buried there his grave has been ploughed up, and there is no stone to mark the spot. His first wife was cer- tainly not buried in Rhinebeck, and if his second wife was, tliere is no existing knowledge of the fact. His sisters, Catherine and Cornelia, so far as can be learned were not buried in this town. There is also a tradition that he had a residence in Kingston as well as in Rhinebeck, and that in the former place he passed his winters. In the absence of evidence, it is fair to presume that, as his ancestors' home was in Kingston where the family place of interment probably was, he was taken there for burial. If he was buried under the Rhinebeck church or in the cemetery at Pink's Corner, there would probably have been in the former a tablet stating the fact, and in the latter a monument of some kind whose memory would have reached the present day. It is not known who be- came the occupant of the Rhinebeck mansion im- mediately after Henry Beekman's death. Pierre Van Cortlandt, in 1778, was road-master "from the Hog Bridge to Beekman's Mills, and from thence to Kip's Ferry." It is assumed that he was a relative if not a brother, of Mrs. Henry Beekman, and that he was living at this date in the Rhinebeck mansion in charge of her affairs. Colonel Henry Beekman Livingston, a grandson to Henry Beekman, was road-master from the Hog Bridge to Livingston's Mills, and from thence to the river, in 1786, and it is supposed that from this date to that of his death he was the oc- cupant of the Beekman mansion, and the owner of the Beekman mills. The lands attached to the mills, embracing about forty acres, were surveyed and laid out for him in 1796.

It is not definitely known in what year or at what date Margaret Beekman was born. She was baptized March 1, 1724, and, her mother dying in that year at the age of twenty-one, it would seem probable that she was born in that year. Left without a mother, she found a parent in her maternal aunt, Angelica, and another home in Flatbush. Robert R. Livingston, her husband, whom, it is said, she married at the age of eighteen, was the grandson of the elder Robert, and the only child of his father. He and his father died in the same year, 1775. His father, born in 1688, attained the age of eighty-seven; he, born in 1719, attained the age of fifty-six years. By the death of his father, he became the owner of all the

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TOWN OF RHINEBECK.

land of Clermont, and of " one-fifth of the great Hardenburgh patent." He was a Justice of the Su- preme Court of the Colony, and a member of the Stamp Act Congress, and in his day was a man of prominence and influence in the affairs of State. Having espoused the cause of the people against the Government, he was greatly distressed at the loss sustained by the patriots at Bunker Hill, receiving a shock which carried him to his grave.

Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman had ten children : Janet, born in 1774, died November 6, 1828; Robert R., born in 1747, died February 25, 1813 ; Margaret, born in 1749, died March 19, 1823 ; Henry B., born in 1750, died in 1831 ; Catharine, born October 14, 1752, died July 14, 1849 ; John R., born in 1754, died in 1851; Gertrude, born in 1757, died in 1833 ; Joanna, born September 17, 1759, died March I, 1829 ; Alida, born in 1760, died December 25, 1822 ; Edward, born in 1764, died May 23, 1836.

Janet Livingston, the first of these children, married General Richard Montgomery in July, 1773. Soon after their marriage they moved to Rhinebeck Flats, on the domain of her grand- father, Henry Beekman, and occupied the house on the premises of Thomas Edgerley, which he took down and re-erected on East Livingston street, in 1860. This was their residence when General Montgomery took command of the expedition against Canada, in which he lost his life in the as- sault on Quebec, December 31, 1775; and this is why the part of the post-road on which this house stood is now Montgomery street in the village of Rhinebeck.

Before the war, General Montgomery had begun the erection of a mansion on the premises now in the possession of Lewis Livingston, south of the village. This was on the property now known as "Grasmere," which originally formed part of the Beekman patent, and which was included in that part of it which fell to Henry Beekman, Jr., when, after his father's death, the property was divided between him and his two sisters. Through what hands the property passed before it is found in the possession of a descendant of Col. Beekman is not known. The first that is definitely learned of it is in 1773, when General Montgomery was in posses- sion, and built mills upon it. The house, planned and begun under the General's auspices, was not completed until after his death.

After his death, the house was occupied by Mrs. Montgomery, who was accustomed to walk around the farm with the seeds of the locust, then a new

tree in this country, in her pocket, and strew them along the fences. From these seeds have come the numerous fine locusts now on the place. After a time she desired a house on the banks of the Hudson, and built the house known as " Mont- gomery Place," above Barrytown, where she resided until her death. Grasmere, then called Rhinebeck House, was rented to Lady Kitty Duer (Lord Sterling's daughter) and her family. After that it was rented to Mrs. Montgomery's brother- in-law, General Morgan Lewis, who occupied it nine years. After the expiration of General Lewis' lease, Mrs. Montgomery sold the property to her sister Joanna, wife of Peter R. Livingston, who lived there twenty-five years. In 1828, during their occupancy, the house burned down. It was rebuilt, but Mrs Peter R. Livingston died before the new building was finished.

Peter R. Livingston died here in 1847, and, having no children, bequeathed all his property to his brother, Maturin, who, dying the following year, left it to his wife, Margaret Lewis Livingston, who gave the Grasmere estate to her son, Lewis Livings- ton, who has lived on it since 1850. In 1861-2 the house was rebuilt, enlarged, and a third story added .*

Peter R. Livingston was prominent in his day as a politician, and, if not a statesman, he had taken an active part in State affairs. He was a State Senator from Duchess in 1820-'21-'22, and again in 1826-'27-'28-'29. He is named as a Member of Assembly in 1823, in the civil list of the State. He was president of the Whig National Conven- tion which nominated General Harrison for Presi- dent in 1840. He died in 1847, and was buried in the vault in the rear of the Reformed Dutch Church in the village of Rhinebeck.

Margaret Livingston, the third child of Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman, was mar- ried to Dr. Thomas Tillotson, of Maryland, a surgeon in the Revolutionary Army, by Rev. Stephanus Van Voorhees, of the Rhinebeck Re- formed Dutch Church, February 22, 1779. Thomas Tillotson was a prominent man in the politics of the State, soon after the close of the war. He was State Senator from 1791 to 1800, when he became Secretary of State, and Robert Sands was elected Senator in his place. He retained the office of Secretary of State until 1805, and held it again in 1807. He died in May, 1832. Mrs. Tillotson was the best known, and is the best remembered of all Margaret Beekman's

* Martha J. Lamb's "Homes of America."

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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

children by the old people of Rhinebeck. Her funeral sermon was preached by Rev. David Par- ker. It was printed in pamphlet form, and copies of it are still preserved among things cherished by families in the town. Her body and that of her husband, were laid in the vault in the rear of the Dutch Reformed Church in Rhinebeck village.

Their children were :- Jannette, born in 1786, married Judge James Lynch, died August 26, 1866, and was buried in Rhinebeck ; Robert L., born in 1788, died in Rhinebeck July 22, 1877, was buried in New York ; John C., born May 16, 1791, died in New York, December 18, 1867, was buried in Rhinebeck ; Howard, the youngest son, entered the navy as a midshipman, and was killed in battle on Lake Erie, in the war of 1812.

Henry B. Livingston, the fourth child of Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman, was the first Livingston in what is now the town of Rhine- beck. Among the warrants issued by the Provin- cial Congress in June, 1775, to persons in Duchess County to recruit for the Revolutionary Army, is found the name of Henry B. Livingston as Cap- tain, with Jacob Thomas as First Lieutenant, and Roswell Wilcox as Second Lieutenant.

In Holgate's genealogy of Leonard Bleeker, we are informed that on the first of January, 1777, the army being newly organized, he was appointed First Lieutenant in the Fourth New York Regi- ment, under Col. Henry B. Livingston. He mar- ried Miss Ann Horn Shippen, niece to Henry Lee, president of the First Congress. Colonel Harry, as he was called, was the owner, from 1796, of the two grist-mills in the south of the village, and also of an oil-mill on the site of the grist-mill below the "Sand Hill, " now in the possession of P. Fritz.

Catharine Livingston, fifth child of Judge Robert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman, married in 1793, the Rev. Freeborn Garrettson, celebrated in his day as an earnest preacher in the Methodist Church. It is said that he came to Rhinebeck, on the invitation of Dr. Thomas Tillotson, who had known him in their native state of Maryland, and that while a guest at the Doctor's house he preached to the people of the neighborhood in the stone house on the post-road, now the property of Mrs. Ann O'Brien. It was on the occasion of this visit that he made the acquaintance of Catharine Livingston. They began their married life on a farm which was a gift from her mother, east of Mrs. Mary R. Mil- ler's. Here they remained four or five years, and having built a small Methodist Church on the main

road, near their residence, they exchanged farms with Johannes Van Wagenen, father of Captain William Van Wagenen, of Rhinebeck village, whose farm was on the patent of Artsen, Rosa and Elton, and thus with a frontage on the Hudson River. They at once built a new, large and hand- some house on this property, into which they moved in October, 1799. This is now " Wildercliff," on the banks of the Hudson, one of the celebrated country seats in the town of Rhinebeck.

They had but one child-the late Miss Mary Garrettson, who was born September 8, 1794, and died March 6, 1879, and who was buried with her father and mother in a vault attached to the Meth- odist Episcopal Church in the village of Rhinebeck.

Gertrude Livingston, the seventh child of Rob- ert R. Livingston and Margaret Beekman, married Morgan Lewis in May, 1779. They had one child, Margaret, born February 5, 1780. This was Mar- garet Beekman's first grandchild. She married Maturin Livingston, May 29, 1798.

Morgan Lewis was the son of Francis Lewis, a member of the Continental Congress, in 1776, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was Aide to General Gates and Quartermaster- General of the Northern Army in the Revolution. He received a thorough education, and became a lawyer. In 1789-'90-'92, he was a member from New York city of the lower house in the State Legislature, Attorney-General in 1791, and in 1801, Chief Justice from Rhinebeck. In 1804, he was elected Governor over Aaron Burr, and in 1807 was defeated by Daniel D. Tompkins. In 1811-'12-'13-'14, he was State Senator for the Middle District, which included Duchess County. He was made Quartermaster-General of the United States Army in 1812, by President Madison, which office he resigned in March 1813, accepted that of Major-General, and served honorably in the war then being waged with England. Margaret Beek- man gave to her daughter Gertrude, a deed, bear- ing date January 5, 1790, for the Rhinebeck lands, which covered nearly, if not entirely, all the lands deeded to Henry Beekman by his father in 1713. In that same year, Morgan Lewis bought from Johannes Van Wagenen, for five dollars, the privilege to build a dam in the creek where it ran against his premises. He did not build the mill at once and probably not before 1800. The road through Fox Hollow was not in existence in 1798, and there was no mill there at that date. The road to Governor Lewis' landing is first named in the old town records in 1806. Several miles south of his

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wife's Rhinebeck lands, in the town of Clinton, which became Hyde Park in 1821, Governor Lewis built a mansion, on lands which he purchased from the executor of Mrs. Lewis Morris, of Morrisania, in 1792. In what year he built this house is not known, but it is learned that it was destroyed by fire in 1832. Governor Lewis died in New York, April, 7, 1844, aged ninety, and his remains were interred in the Episcopal cemetery at Hyde Park.

Edward Livingston married twice : first Mary Mc Evers, in April, 1798 ; second Louise Moreau de Lassy, in June, 1805 .* He had three children by the first wife and one by the second. Those by the first were, Charles Edward, born in 1790; Julia Eliza Montgomery, born in 1794; Lewis, born in 1798. All of these died young and un- married. The child by the second wife was Cora L., who married Thomas P. Barton, of Philadel- phia, in April, 1833. They had no children. Mary Mc Evers, the first wife, died in March, 1801. The second wife died in October, 1860. Thomas P. Barton died in April, 1869. Cora Livingston Barton died in May, 1873, and thus passed away the family of Edward Livingston, the tenth and last child of Margaret Beekman.

Edward Livingston was one of the most promi- nent men of his day. He was Member of Congress from the City of New York in 1794, re-elected in 1796-'98, and appointed Attorney-General of the United States for the district of New York, in the same year, and filled both offices. He was Mayor of New York in 1798. He moved to New Orleans, from whence he was elected to Congress in 1822, and re-elected twice thereafter. In 1829 he was State Senator for Louisiana; Secretary of State for the United States in May, 1831 ; resigned the office on the 29th of May, 1833, and on the same day was appointed Minister to France. This office he retained until 1835, when he re- turned to America and retired to Montgomery Place, in Red Hook, where he purposed to pass the remnant of his life in the pursuit of agriculture, and died, as before stated, May 23, 1836.

On the Ist of October, 1836, Mrs. Louise Liv- ingston sold all the lands in the village of Rhine- beck, which became hers by the will of her hus- band, to William B. Platt, John T. Schryver, Free- born Garrettson, Rutsen Suckley,¿John Armstrong and Walter Cunningham, for $ 19,600.

Of the Kips who were the first to settle in what is now the town of Rhinebeck, John, the eldest

son of Hendrick Kip,* was baptized at Kingston, March 31, 1678. He married Lysbet Van Kleeck, at Kingston, September 28, 1703. They had chil- dren baptized at Kingston as follows : Hendri- cus, September 3, 1704 ; Baltus, March 17, 1706; Baltus, May 23, 1707 ; Matthew, October 31, 1708; Tryntje, May 7, 1710; Barent, January 27, 1712 ; Annatje, January 24, 1714 ; Baltus, September 4, 1715 ; Jacob, January 12, 1718.

Jacob Kip, the patentee, died in 1733. He had nine children as follows :- Isaac, baptized Febru- ary 9, 1696, married Cornelia Lewis, January 7, 1720 ; Roeloff, born October 31, 1697 ; Jacobus, born November 26, 1699; Rachel, twin sister to Jacobus ; Eva, born April 15, 1707; Catalyntie, baptized at Albany, February 18, 1705 ; Johannes ; Maria, born February 18, 1709; Abraham, born January 24, 1714.

The landed estate of Jacob Kip was divided among these nine children at his death. The chil- dren all married, and the five sons all had families, and gave a large infusion of Kips to the early pop- ulation, and yet the name, like that of nearly all of the old Holland settlers, has nearly died out. There is but one of the name left on the territory of ancient Kipsbergen, nearly all of whose lands have come to him by right of inheritance from his ancestors.

Isaac Kip's wife, Cornelia Lewis, was the daugh- ter of Leonard Lewis and Elizabeth Hardenburgh, his wife, born November 9, 1692. He died July 2, 1762 ; she July 10, 1772. Their children were : Elizabeth, born April 9, 1721; Leonard, 1725; Rachel, 1726; Elizabeth, 1728; Isaac, 1732; Abraham ; Jacobus. Of these, Leonard, married Elizabeth Marschalk, April 11, 1763. He died in 1804; she in 1818. Their son, Leonard, married Maria Ingraham. He was born in 1774, she in 1784. Their son, William Ingraham, married Elizabeth Lawrence, and became Bishop of Cali- fornia. Their son, Isaac, married Sarah Smith. Rev. Dr. Francis M. Kip was their son, and Sarah Smith Kip, wife of William C. Miller, of Albany, their daughter. The latter were the parents of William A. Miller, at one time pastor of the Re- formed Dutch Church of Rhinebeck.

Roeloff, the second son of Jacob Kip, the patentee, married Zara, daughter of John the Baptist Du Mont, of Kingston, February 9, 1721. They had ten children, of whom John the Baptist

* In Col. Hist. Vol. 1, p. 432, in the "Remonstrance from New Netherland," we find this regarding him : "Hendrick Kip is a tailor, and has never suffered anything in New Netherland to our knowledge." It is not known when he died ; but he was dead in 1719.

. This was the young widow of a gentleman from Jamaica, whose maiden name was D'Avezac.

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HISTORY OF DUCHESS COUNTY.

Kip, baptized February 28, 1 725, married Catha- rine, probably the daughter of Andries Heermance and Neeltje Van Wagenen, baptized April 14, 1728. They had seven children. Of these seven, Andrew, born 1761, married Sarah, daughter of Jacobus Kip, born 1772, and had children as follows: Clarissa, John, James, Catharine, Andrew, Sarah and Jane. Of these there are no descendants. Gerritt, son of John the Baptist Kip, baptized June 12, 1767, married Clarissa, daughter of Jacobus Kip, and had as children : Catharine, Henry James, Clarissa and William. Of these, Henry James, born June 15, 1805, alone had a descendant- William Bergh Kip, born October 14, 1846. Will- iam Bergh Kip is, therefore, a lineal descendant from Jacob, the patentee, in the sixth generation. He is the possessor of nearly two hundred of the ancestral acres, and a fine country seat on the Hudson, which he has named " Ankony," in honor of the Indian chief from whom the land was originally purchased. He is the present supervisor [1881,] of the town, and is an intelligent, public- spirited man.

Gerrit Artsen, the patentee, married Clara, daughter of Evert Pels and Jannetje Symens, who was baptized in New York September 10, 1651, and became a member of the Kingston church in 1666. He had ten children who took Van Wagenen for a family name, after the Dutch custom, because his father came from a place in Holland called Wageninge, in Gilderland, ten miles west of Arnheim. Of these ten children, four, (Evert, Barent, Annatje and Goosen Van- Wagenen) are known to have become the owners and settlers upon the Artsen, and the larger part of the Elton share of the patent.

Of these four, Annatje Van Wagenen married Hendricus Heermance, who bought and settled on lot number three, the original Ellerslie farm. In his will, dated March 23, 1750, he gave to his wife during her widowhood, the use of one-half of the farm, and to his son, Hendricus, "all that whole piece of land or farm whereon we now at present are both residing, with all that depends thereon." How long Hendricus Heermance, Jr., continued in the possession of the property after the death of his father, in 1750, is not learned.

In 1789 the property is found in the possession of Jacobus Kip, the grandson of Jacob Kip, the patentee. From him, after his death in 1795, this property passed to his son-in-law, Major Andrew Kip, who retained it until 1814, when he sold it to

Maturin Livingston,* the son-in-law of Governor Morgan Lewis, for $5,000. Maturin Livingston retained the property two years, and built the present Kelly mansion. In 1816, the Ellerslie farm was sold to James Thompson, who retained it until his death, when it became the property of his son James. In his possession it remained until 1837, when he sold it to James Warwick, who retained it three years, when becoming pecuniarily embarrassed, he made an assignment to William B. Platt, of Rhinebeck village. In 1841, Mr. Platt sold the estate to William Kelly, of New York, for $42,000. The property at this time embraced four hundred acres, Mr. Thompson having added one hundred acres to his original purchase. Mr. Kelly, by additional purchases, in- creased the estate to seven or eight hundred acres. He must, therefore, have become the owner of lots three and four of the original division.

Mr. Kelly not only multiplied his acres, but he did what money, taste and enterprise could do to adorn them and increase their fertility. The man- sion, though of an ancient type, is stately and ca- pacious, and commands a river and mountain view of great extent and beauty. It stands in the borders of a park of five hundred fenceless acres, embracing wood and meadow land, lakes and streams, and every variety of natural and charming scenery. There is nothing for which Rhinebeck is so widely and favorably known as the presence within its borders of the Ellerslie park and gardens.

Among the earliest settlers of Rhinebeck was a branch of the Benner family, of which the descend- ants in this County are somewhat limited. This was perhaps one of the largest German families, and in the early baronial times had a remarkable history. The first family of this name in the town of Rhinebeck, of which there is any tradition, was that of Valentyn Bender f and Margaret, his wife, who, with their two sons, Johannes and Henrich, came to Rhinebeck from Upper Bavaria, in the beginning of the eighteenth century. He obtained of Col. Henry Beekman the usual life-lease of a farm on the Hudson River, about three miles north of Rhinebeck Landing, being that farm after- wards the residence of Gen. Armstrong, and now owned by the heirs of his son-in-law, William B. Astor. Col. Beekman and his family wishing to possess this, the finest situation on the banks of

* A map of the farm when it was sold to Maturin Livingston, in 1814, made in 1795, shows an oil-mill on the site of the present grist-mill. This is the only grist-mill left on the creek, and the only one in the town of Rhinebeck.

t This name was indifferently written Benner or Bender.

ANK

RESIDENCE OF WM. BERGH

KONY.

I IP, ESQ., RHINEBECK, N. Y.

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TOWN OF RHINEBECK.

the river, gave him in exchange for it a deed* for a piece of land about one mile southwest of Lower Red Hook village, which forms a part of the farm that became the Benner homestead, and which, from the time Valentyn Bender took possession, under his deed, until about four years since, was uninterruptedly owned and occupied by the Ben- ner family. Valentyn Bender died soon after taking possession of this farm. He left two sons and two daughters. One of the daughters, Anna Maria Bender, married Zacharias Schmidt, the an- cestor of Edward M. Smith, of Rhinebeck village. The last Benner owner and occupant of the home- stead in Red Hook was Jacob Benner, who died November 5, 1869. He was Supervisor and Jus- tice of the Peace of his town, and for several years was Justice of the County Court of Sessions.

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History of Duchess county, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 51

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co. Number of Pages: 868

Author: Smith, James H. (James Hadden); Cale, Hume H; Roscoe, William E
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason & Co.
Number of Pages: 868