Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume I, Part 76

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 656

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(II ) Wolston (2), son of Wolston (I) and Hannah (Briggs) Brockway, was born at Lyme, Connecticut, February 7. 1667-8: mar- ried, December 4, 1688, Margaret - -. He died at Lyme early in 1707. Letters of ad- ministration on his estate were granted to his widow. June 4, 1707, and the estate was dis- tributed March 17. 1713-14. She married (second) at Lyme, February 7, 1710-1I, Thomas Ennis, and died there January 17, 1738-39, aged seventy-three years. By her second marriage she had one son, Thomas Ennis, born at Lyme, May 28, 1712.

(III) Samuel, eldest son of Wolston (2) and Margaret Brockway, was born at Lyme, February 11, 1691-2. He settled in Branford, Connecticut, before January 21, 1734-5, when he joined his brothers Edward and Ephraim

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and his sisters Deborah Champion and Mar- garet Smith in selling a part of their heri- tage in Lyme to Samuel Segden. The land lay at Fishing Cove.

(IV) Wolston (3), son of Samuel Brock- way, was born in Branford, Connecticut. He married, in 1744, Dorcas Weeden, or Whe- den, of Branford, and settled in Sharon, Con- necticut, about 1750. Their homestead is still occupied by their descendants. It lies in the southi part of the town, bordering on Kent, about one mile from the west line of Connecti- cut. A Congregational church was formed at what is now called Amenia Union in the fall of 1759, and in this church he and his children were publicly baptized on November 16, 1760. (V) Joseph, son of Wolston (3) and Dor- cas (Weeden) Brockway, was born at Sharon, Connecticut, about 1755, baptized there in the Knibloe church, December 28, 1760 ; married, January 19, 1775, Jane Doty, born November 27, 1756.

(VI) Artemas, son of Joseph and Jane (Doty) Brockway, was born at Sharon, Con- necticut, December 16, 1789. He married, November 2, 1809, Desire Dillay, born May 7, 1787, died April 18, 1841. He died July 26, 1857.

(VII) Emma, daughter of Artemas and Desire (Dillay) Brockway, was born March 20, 1823 ; married Henry L. Browne.

(VIII) William Henry, son of Henry L. and Emma (Brockway) Browne, was born May 25, 1843: married, June, 1867, Acelia Bertrand Cramer. He enlisted in the civil war in October, 1863, in the 8th New York Light Artillery, October 9, 1864, detailed by order of Brigadier-General I. Bodges as hos- pital steward, Battery B, 2d United States Light Artillery ; assigned to duty as hospital · steward of artillery brigade, 25th Army Corps, by order of Captain L. L. Langdon, command- ing brigade artillery; was in active service continuously from time of enlistment; from May, 1864, was in active hospital field service in General Grant's Peninsula campaign to the surrender, April 9, 1865 ; ordered ou detached service as hospital steward on expedition to Mexico, June, 1865. August 4, 1865, ordered to report for muster out at New York City; mustered out August 14, 1865.

(IX) Grace Emma, daughter of William Henry and Acelia Bertrand ( Cramer ) Browne, born at Troy, New York, October 29, 1870; married Thomas Edward Finegan.

The name Potts is to be found POTTS in isolated instances in different parts of Great Britain at a very early period, but it was not until the reign of

Queen Elizabeth that it became of special so- cial importance and well seated in any par- ticular locality. An important branch of the family settled in Wales, another in southern Scotland, and they are found in nearly every county in the north and east of Ireland, all of whom are believed to be of English descent.

The branch herein recorded, of wliom Jesse Walker Potts, of Albany, is a representative, descends from the Welsh family, although all had a common origin no doubt. At the mid- dle of the seventeenth century a family of Pott or Potts was settled in Montgomery- shire, Wales, and believed to have been of the Cheshire family. The principal seat of the family was in the parish of Llangirrig, where Thomas Potts was an old man in 1654. He had many descendants. Some or all of the family became members of the Society of Friends and suffered much persecution for their peculiar belief. From the year 1683 to 1700 and later, several persons appear about Germantown, in Philadelphia county, Penn- sylvania, bearing the name of Potts, who were closely associated and evidently related.

(I) Among these was David Potts, born in Montgomeryshire, Wales, died in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, Monday, November 16, 1730. The date of his coming to Pennsyl- vania is not recorded, but the first mention of him is in 1692 when he became a bondsman. In 1695 he purchased one hundred and fifty acres of land in Bristol township, Philadel- phia county, in the vicinity of Germantown, where he seems to have settled and spent the remainder of his life. In 1716 he had a grant of one hundred acres in the manor of Spring- field, but it does not appear that he lived there. He was a member of the Society of Friends, belonging to the Germantown Preparative Meeting, under the care of Abington Monthly Meeting. His name frequently appears on the minutes, and he was often appointed to attend quarterly meeting. When a Friends' meeting was established at Germantown he was trans- ferred to it, and in 1712 was appointed one of the two overseers of the newer congregation. Ile was a man of good standing in the com- munity, and the confidence reposed in him by his neighbors is evidenced by their choice of him to represent Philadelphia county in the provincial assembly for the years 1728-29-30. He married, in Friends' Meeting, Alice Croas- dale, youngest daughter of Thomas and Ag- nes (Hathernthwaite) Croasdale, of York- shire, England, and Bucks county, Pennsyl- vania, who came to America in the ship "Wel- come" with William Penn. Alice Croasdale was born in England, 8 mo. 3. 1673; their in- tentions of marriage were declared before the

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Philadelphia Meeting, 10 mo. 29, 1693, passed the meeting the following month, and a cer- tificate granted to marry under the care of Middletown Monthly Meeting in Bucks coun- ty, where the ceremony was performed "in an orderly manner." March 22, 1694. David and Alice Potts had ten children.

(II) Daniel, third son of David and Alice (Croasdale) Potts, was born in Bristol town- ship. Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, 2 mo. 10, 1698. Very little seems to be known of him, as he died when quite a young man, prior to 1729. In 1722 he was a signer to a marriage certificate, and in 1725 his name ap- pears as a contributor to the fund for building a stone wall around Upper Germantown Burv- ing Ground. He married Sarah, eldest daugh- ter of Peter J. and Margaret (Opden Graeff) Shoemaker. They passed the Abington Monthly Meeting the second time, 10 mo. 25, 1695, and were doubtless married very soon after. Peter J. Shoemaker came from Kris- heim, in the German Palatinate, to Penn- sylvania, in 1685, settled in Germantown, bringing with him his son Peter, and three daughters. Sarah Potts survived her hus- band and married James Dilworth. She was living in 1765.

(III) Samuel, eldest of the three children of Daniel and Sarah ( Shoemaker) Potts, was born in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, August 12, 1723. He was a blacksmith by trade and a resident of Germantown until 1755, when he removed to a "plantation upon Scholkill, on the west side of the Great Road called Wissahickon Road in the Northern Liberties" (now Philadelphia), which he leased from Thomas Hood for a term of five years. He built a smith shop on the premises and carried on smithing in connection with keeping a public house. He was subsequently proprietor of the "Rising Sun" and "Wheat Sheaff," noted hostelries above Philadelphia during colonial and revolutionary times. He was a member of Society of Friends, German- town Meeting, but in 1757 a complaint was made against him for being concerned in mili- tary service and neglecting attendance at Friends' meetings. He was eventually dis- owned. He married (first) in 1751, Mrs. Ann Ashmead, widow of John Ashmead and daughter of James and Rachel (Peart) Rush. She was born October 25, 1716, died August 16. 1760. He married ( second) October 20, 1772, Sarah Fritz. Samuel Potts died Octo- ber 13, 1784, at the Falls of Schuylkill. Sar- ah. his widow, survived him until October 23. 1808. dying at Frankford, Pennsylvania.

(IV) Jesse, eldest of the three children of Samuel and Sarah ( Fritz) Potts, was born in

1774, in Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, died in Albany, New York, December 21, 1811. Hle removed from Pennsylvania to Al- bany in 1790. He was a tailor by trade, and carried on business until his death. He was a Friend, or Quaker, a member of the Masonic order, and stood high in his community. He married, in 1796, Elizabeth Duns, born in Glasgow, Scotland, died in Albany in 1852. Although she was left a widow with six small children and limited means, through thrift and energy she supported them and brought them up in respectability.

(\') Jesse Charles, youngest of the six chil- dren of Jesse and Elizabeth (Duns) Potts, was born in Albany, New York, September 30, 1811, died there February 2, 1891. He was educated in Albany, attending the old Lancaster school on the corner of .Chapel and Columbia streets, and later on the site of the present Albany Medical College. At the age of thirteen he became self-supporting, work- ing at various occupations until he reached the age of seventeen, when he began an appren- ticeship at the molder's trade with Corning & Norton, owners of the Eagle Foundry. In 1830 this firm sold their business to Many & Ward, and he finished his apprenticeship with Francis Low at the Clinton Foundry in 1832. He worked as a journeyman molder in Al- bany until 1835, when he formed a partner- ship with Benjamin Thomas for the manufac- ture of stove castings, under the firm name of Thomas & Potts, afterwards Thomas, Potts & Wells, their foundry being located on the site of the First Baptist Church. After continu- ing in the business a short time he disposed of his interest to his partners and took a posi- tion as foreman of the De Graff Foundry. In 1837 he formed a partnership with Levi S. Hoffman, and as Hoffman & Potts began the manufacture of stove castings in May of that year. This firm continued in successful oper- ation until 1846, when he bought Mr. Hoff- man's interest and for the succeeding four years conducted the business alone, when he sold it to Shear & Packard. In 1852, with Jacob H. Shear and Joseph Packard, he formed the firm of Shear, Packard & Com- pany, and built the foundry on Grand street, at the head of Arch, and continued the manu- facture of stoves. The firm did an extensive business and contributed largely to the fame Albany then enjoyed as the great stove manu- facturing center of the world. In February, 1857, at the expiration of their partnership agreement, Mr. Potts sold his interest to his partners and retired from active business life.

In 1850 and 1851 he became interested in Albany real estate, and from that time until

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1860 was engaged in the improvement of parcels of land he had acquired in different parts of the city. In 1851 he made a tour of Europe in company with his friend George Dawson. of the Albany Evening Journal. His activities were not confined to his private business, but included all departments of city life. He was one of the organizers of the Commerce Insurance Company in 1859, and a director from that time : he was also a director of the First National Bank. He served his time in the volunteer fire department and was foreman of truck No. I, enlisting in that com- pany August 1, 1835. In 1852 he represented the old third ward in the board of supervisors. being elected as a Whig. He continued a Whig until 1856, when he transferred his al- legiance to the Republican party. He took a deep interest in American coins and medals, and had a fine collection. He belonged to Fireman's Lodge. Independent Order of Odd Fellows, being one of the charter members at the institution of that lodge, March 10, 1837. For half a century or more he had been a member of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, and was for many years a vestryman, and in 1860 was one of the committee that had charge of the erection of the present sightly building. His career demonstrates what pluck, energy, brains, and clean living can accomplish. Start- ing in life a poor boy, he became one of Al- bany's influential, prosperous, and most hon- ored citizens.

He married, December 22, 1835, Eunice U. Walker, born in 1812, died June 23, 1890. daughter of Ashbel Walker. Children : Sarah Benham: Jesse Walker, of further mention.

(VI) Jesse Walker, son of Jesse Charles and Eunice U. (Walker ) Potts, was born in Albany. November 4, 1843. After preparing at private schools and the Albany Boys' Acad- emy, he entered Harvard University and was graduated in the class of 1865 with the degree of A.B., later receiving that of A.M. He is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society. A man of cultivated tastes and tendencies, his life has been spent in the management of his private estate and in the service of institu- tions, philanthropic, charitable, religious and educational. He is a governor of Albany Hos- pital ; a trustee of Albany Medical College ; a trustee and vice-president of the Home for Aged Men : a director of the Albany Institute and Historical and Art Society; a life-fellow of the American Geographical Society; a member of the American Museum of Natural History : a life member of the American Nu- mismatic Society, and a member of the Amer- ican Numismatic Association. Mr. Potts is greatly interested in American coins and med-

als, of which he has a valuable collection. He- is a member of the Circle of Friends of the- Medallion. In 1895 he and his sister, Miss Sarah B. Potts, gave to St. Peter's Church the rectory as a memorial to their father and' mother. He is devoted to the interests of St. Peter's Episcopal Church, of which he is a vestryman. His clubs are the Fort Orange and University of Albany, and the Harvard of New York City. In politics he is a Repub- lican. He resides at No. 342 State street, Al- bany.

VANDER VEER (VI) John G. Vander

Veer, son of Garret (q. v.)* and Rachel (Couwenhoven ) Vander Veer, was born in Florida, Montgomery county, New York, May 10, 1798, died July 7, 1813. Shortly after the close of the revolution an exodus of farmers began from New Jersey to New York state. Among the many who settled in Mont- gomery county were the parents of John G. Vander Veer. He became a successful farm- er of the town of Glen, in his native county. He secured a large tract of unbroken land which he improved and cultivated. A part of this farm is now owned by his grandson,. Ira Vanderveer, and is known as "Willow- dale" stock farm. John G. died on his farm at the age of seventy-two years. He mar- ried, in Glen, Ann Voorhees, born in Florida. Montgomery county, in 1790, died in Glen about 1852. John G. and Ann Vander Veer were prominent in the church and social life- of Glen, where their upright, conscientious lives gained for them the highest regard. Children: 1. Tunis, boru December 8, 1822, see forward. 2. James, died at Benton Har- bor. Michigan, where he settled shortly after his marriage to Nancy -- , whom he mar- ried in Michigan : children: i. John, a farmer of Watervliet, Michigan: ii. William MI., of Benton Harbor, Michigan : iii. Elizabeth, mar- ried John Downing, whom she survives; iv. Ernest, of Benton Harbor, Michigan. 3. John traveled to California with Jacob End- ers who died there: John returned to Mis- souri, where he died : the party traveled across the Isthmus of Panama, following the Nic- aragua route; he left a wife but no chil- dren. 4. William B., died in Glen, his native town: he married Elizabeth Putman, of the- carly Montgomery family of that name : chil- dren: i. John, of the state of California: ii. Mary, born June 1. 1848, died April 1. 1909; married J. S. Glen Edwards, of Glen Vil- lage, and left Florence, married Guy Moore,

*Various family lines used various forms of the. family name.

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of Glen ; Deborah, married Charles J. Nietsch. 5. Newton, late in life removed to Benton Harbor, Michigan, and engaged in mercantile business ; was a director in the First National Bank of Benton Harbor, which he helped to organize and establish, and where he died ; he married, in Glen, Jane Edwards, born July 9, 1833; they had three daughters: Fannie, Grace, Jennie. 6. Ruth, married David End- ers, of Glen, whom she survives, a resident of Benton Harbor. Michigan ; children: i. Wil- liam, of Boise City, Idaho ; ii. Arthur, D.D.S., of Benton Harbor; iii. Sheldon, of Cali- fornia.

(\'HI) General Tunis Vanderveer, eldest son of John G. and Ann (Voorhees) Vander Veer, was born December 8, 1822, in Glen, Montgomery county, New York, where he lived his entire life, dying September 30, 1898. He occupied the Enders homestead farm near Glen Village and was a successful farmer, a man of high principle, strict in- tegrity, public spirit, unstinted liberality, and universally loved and respected. He was a member and a leader of the Reformed church and contributed greatly to its temporal and spiritual prosperity. He married, in Glen, Nellie Enders, born October 9, 1821, died on the Enders homestead. February 1, 1899. daughter of Peter and Eleanor (Newkirk) Enders. Peter Enders was born in Glen, Oc- tober 7, 1786, died May 29, 1869: married Eleanor Newkirk, born March 19, 1788, died September 23, 1854. Their children: 1. Cath- erine, born July 17, 1807, died January 11, 1891 ; married William Enders, her cousin. 2. Garrett. born June 11, 1809, died in Am- sterdam, New York, having passed his nine- tieth year : married - Phillips. 3. Jacob, died on his way to California in 1849; un- married. 4. Samuel, born May 12, 1813, lived and died in Glen ; married Hester Per- rine. who died very old in Oneonta. New York. 5. Rachel, married (first ) Preacher Van Buren : married (second) Peter Van Ant- werp : left a son John H. Van Antwerp, post- master of Fultonville, New York, who mar- ried Lina Hubbs, of Florida ; has a daughter Ethel Van Antwerp, who married Heath

White, and resides in Philadelphia. 6. Chris- tina, born July 24, 1819, died in Glen ; mar- ried - Eckerson, a millwright, who died in Brazil, South America. 7. Nellie, mar- ried General Tunis Vanderveer. 8. Eliza- beth, died young. 9. John E., died young. 10. Cornelius, died young. Children of Tunis and Nellie ( Enders ) Vanderveer: 1. Henriette, born December 22. 1846, died March 29, 1848. 2. Ira, see forward. 3. Vir- ginia, born September 4. 1855, resides in

Glen, unmarried. 4. John E., born October 22, 1859: married Elizabeth Van Horne, of Amsterdam, no issue; he is a merchant of Amsterdam and interested with his brother Ira in "Willowdale" stock farm.

(VIII) General Ira Vanderveer, eldest son of Tunis and Nellie ( Enders ) Vanderveer, was born on the Enders homestead in Glen, November 7, 1850. His birthplace is part of the original Enders homestead, which he now owns and operates as a stock farm known far and wide as "Willowdale." He carries on the business of a general farmer in con- nection with stock raising. His specialty is Percheron horses and Guernsey cattle, and he owns some of the finest specimens of these breeds in the state. He is a constant and win- ning exhibitor at the state and county fairs, and has a wide reputation as an authority on the breeding and care of fine stock. His farm, lying in the beautiful Mohawk Valley, is one of the best in that fertile region, and as shown has been in the family three male generations, nearly or quite a full century. He is interested in the prosperity of the Reformed church. His political preference is for the men and measures of the Republican party. He married, in Johnstown, New York, June 25, 1890, Cora E. Lewis, born in the state of Iowa, where she was reared and educated. She is a daughter of John Lewis, born in Canajoharie, Montgomery county, New York, in October. 1858, and is now a resident of Johnstown, New York. He married Sarah Stokes, born in England, June 7, 1859, daugh- ter of John and Sarah Stokes, of England, who came to the United States in 1860. John Stokes died in Canajoharie. Sarah Stokes clied in Gloversville, New York, after passing her eightieth year. Children of John and Sarah (Stokes) Lewis: 1. Cora E., married Ira Vanderveer. 2. Ray Lewis, married Mamie Ecker, and has a son Clarence W. 3. Gertrude, married Jacob Burton, of Johns- town, foreman for the Decker Manufacturing Company, and has Emily, Jacob, Catherine and Clayton Burton. Mrs. Ira Vanderveer is a member of the Reformed church, with her husband, and equally interested in its welfare. They have no children.

The coat-of-arms of the Douw DOUT' family, as it was depicted upon the window of the old Dutch church in Albany, New York, and as was borne by Volckert Jansen Douw, is as follows: Field : Argent, on a fess azure a demi-female robed gules, holding in her dexter hand a bird sable. behind an anchor sable. In chief on dex- ter a tree proper, and on sinister a mountain:

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proper. In base a bird sejant, with wings dis- played sable. Lambrequin crimson, lining white. Crest: Over an esquire's helmet a wreath azure, surmounted by a cross-crosslet with a ring azure. Motto: Cruci dum fido spiro.

The family descent is traced to Jan Douw, of Leuwarden, province of Friesland, Holland, who was a burgher. He had, besides other children, the following: 1. Volckert, married Dorothe Janse Van Breestede while in Hol- land; came to America and settled in the Rensselaerwyck colony in 1638; died 1681 (see forward). 2. Neeltje, married (first) Jan Jansen Van Ditmarsen, ancestor of the Ditmars family: (second) Louis Joriszen Van Der Veer, in Teal't, January 9, 1650. 3. Andries, who came to this country, married, and settled in New York City. 4. Lysbeth, married Johannes Van Eps, one of the earli- est settlers of Schenectady.

(II) Volckert Jansen Douw, son of Jan Douw, of Holland, was a captain in the Dutch army when driven from his home in Leuwar- den by the persecutions waged against the Mennonites. He fled to Friedrichstadt, Den- mark, taking his family along, and intent upon finding a place to live where religious liberty was accorded every one. When the same feeling began to make headway there as had been experienced by him in his former home, he set sail for America. He settled first at Catskill, but remained only a short time, when he decided to join those who were planting the colony of Rensselaerwyck. The exact date of his reaching there is not known, but he is mentioned in 1638 as a prominent member of the little settlement, and it was not long before he became an extensive land- holder. He owned more than one brewery. and had a house-lot on the southwest corner of Broadway and State street. It has been said that he procured this site, still in the fam- ily in 1911, in a peculiar manner. The story is that, living on Papsknae Island, on the east . bank of the Hudson, below Albany, he came to town regularly to attend service at the Dutch church, located in the middle of the street where Broadway now intersects State street, and he required a place of shelter be- tween the morning and afternoon services and a shed for his horse. He therefore acquired the place adjoining the smithy, standing on the corner, and although it was but a trivial sum to pay for the object in those days, it is now the center of the business section of the Capital City, and a most prominent corner. This seems hardly true, without knowing other particulars, in the light of the record that he bought the corner, known to-day as

the Douw building, directly from the Indians in 1640, which conveyance he confirmed to his widow in 1693, for the corner-stone of the first of two churches erected on that site was laid on June 2, 1656. However, he was dea- con of that church, and much concerned in its affairs, especially in the work of erecting the new edifice, after the one established in 1642 near Fort Orange (Steamboat Square) be- came too congested as the population grew. His brewery was diagonally opposite the site of the present post-office, and the lot extended for several hundred feet to the Hudson river. This property was sold in 1675 to his nephew, Harman Rutgers. His other, or summer home, was on Papsknae Island. This was a decidedly disadvantageous location for a house, for in 1666 there was an extraordinary flood, causing the island where he dwelt to be completely inundated, and sweeping away houses, breweries (of which he had two im- mense ones), cattle, and all his personal prop- erty. In this way many of the valued family records were lost, but the inmates managed to escape. The only property rescued was a small round table and his colt, which were carried by the swift current through the hoist-door of his home into the second story. It was in this year that he bought a tract on the mainland, situated on the east bank of the Hudson, and to this day known to boat- men as Douw's Point. It is a locality where there has been considerable trouble yearly in the spring when on the breaking up of the ice, crowded by that forcing its way from the Mohawk, ice gorges have been wont to form at the bar thus created, known as the Over- slaugh. Douw's Point, in changing the course of the current, was responsible for these con- ditions, and necessitated dredging the channel nearly every year.

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Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume I, Part 76

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934, ed Publication date: 1911 Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company Number of Pages: 656

Author: Reynolds, Cuyler, 1866-1934, ed
Publication date: 1911
Publisher: New York, Lewis historical publishing company
Number of Pages: 656