USA > New York > Hudson-Mohawk genealogical and family memoirs, Volume II > Part 58
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(VIII) Edwin, youngest son of Erastus (2) and Mary (Parker) Corning, was born in Albany, New York, September 30, 1883. He was educated at Albany Boys' Academy and at Groton, Massachusetts, preparatory to his admission to Yale University, where he was graduated, class of 1906. He is engaged in business as secretary and treasurer of the
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Ludlum Steel and Spring Company, of Water- vliet. He married Louise, daughter of James Allen and Ellen ( Blackmar) Maxwell. Child, Erastus, born October 7, 1909.
This family is native to the county MOIR of Stirling, Scotland, where they are numbered among the landed gentry. The family estates lie in Lecke, Stir- ling county. The name is a noted one in both Scotland and England, especially in the learned professions. Dr. David MacBeth Moir was a famous physician and the author of many essays and serious verse. He wrote a history of medicine and did a great deal of important literary and scientific work in addition. He died in 1851, and has a statue erected to his memory in Musselburg. George Moir was professor of belles lettres in the University of Edinburgh, 1835-40; professor of Scots Law, 1864-65 ; sheriff of Ross and Cromarty, 1855-58; sheriff of Stirlingshire, 1858-68. He was the author of "The Appellate Jurisdiction of Scotch Appeals," 1851; "Magic and Witch- craft," 1852; and "Principles of the Law of Scotland." John Macrae Moir, educated at Aberdeen University, was famous in London journalism. He edited the Illustrated Times three years, and was secretary of the Scottish Corporation. He was first editor of the Peo- ple's Magazine, and a non-conformist minis- ter, Barrister M. T., and often acted as deputy judge in the lord mayor's court, and figured largely in public life and in letters. The foun- der of the family was Robert Moir, of Lecke, Stirling county, who married, in 1769, Ann, daughter of Charles Stewart, Esquire. The intermarriages of the Moirs in the United States show that the result is a blending of the blood of many of the oldest families of the state, representing England, Scotland, Hol- land and France. The Lansings, Schermer- horns, Winnes and De Forrests are all names that liave an early and lasting connection with the founding and development of the Hudson- Mohawk Valleys. With the De Forrests is added the strain of much-prized Huguenot blood from France, while the Moirs furnish the Scotch-English strain that always makes for thrift, energy and progress. The Dutch families mentioned have left records in every generation that are the proud inheritance of their twentieth-century descendants.
(I) John Moir was born in Alva, Stirling county, Scotland. He came from a family of intellectual, educated men and women, and from his early school days showed that he possessed the family talents. He entered the University of Glasgow, where he had the ad- vantage of being associated in class with a
number of brilliant men who later became famous, notably among them Dr. Eadie, of the Presbyterian church. He took high rank in his class and was graduated with honor. He adopted teaching as his profession and be- came well known and highly esteemed as an educator, a man of deep learning, and a public speaker. His scholarly, highly-cultured mind seemed above the sordid consideration of money getting, and despite his good positions the rearing of a family exhausted his re- sources. When his children grew up and married, some of them emigrated to the Uni- ted States, where he resolved to join them. He had all the honors of his profession and stood in the highest rank, and had been hon- ored by his fellows with the degree of F. E. I. S. He was an elder of the Presbyterian church, and was prominent in the councils of that denomination. He enjoyed the personal friendship of one of the most eminent divines, Rev. Dr. Thomas Chalmers, and treasured an autograph letter, written about 1842, from the doctor expressing his appreciation of an ad- dress of welcome delivered by Mr. Moir at a reception tendered Dr. Chalmers. He mar- ried, in Scotland, Celia Murray Thompson, of Stirling, and had seven children. To be with them, and largely for their sakes, he broke the ties that held him to his native land, and with his wife and the youngest child sailed for the United States on the ship "Caledon- ian," afterward wrecked on Cape Cod. They settled in Schenectady, New York, in 1862, where the father, John Moir, died in 1873, followed three days later by his pious and de- voted wife, Celia. Children, all born in Scot- land: 1. John (2), settled in Liverpool, Eng- land, where he died ; he learned the trade of a foundryman, and became an iron master of that city ; he married and had issue. 2. Mary, married Robert McLean, who after the death of his wife came to the United States and settled in Schenectady, where he died. 3. Lillias, married, in Scotland, Robert Riddle; they came to Schenectady in 1854, where Robert became superintendent of the Roy Shawl factory, then a very prosperous line of manufacturing ; they both died in Schenec- tady, leaving issue. 4. James, settled in Waterford, Ireland, where he established an iron foundry and business; he mar- ried there, and died leaving a large family. 5. Jane, came to the United States and lived for a time in Massachusetts; she died in Schenectady ; she married John Jarvie, a wool- en manufacturer of that city. 6. David, was the first of the family to come to the United States; he learned the trade of foundryman in Scotland, and prior to 1850 came to the
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United States and settled in Newark, New Jersey, where he established a foundry and after a prosperous business career died leav- ing a wife and children. 7. Robert Thomp- son, see forward.
(II) Robert Thompson, youngest child of Professor John and Celia Murray (Thomp- son) Moir, was born in Scotland, and in 1862 was brought by his parents to the United States. He was well educated in his native land, and in the United States took a course at Eastman's Business College, Poughkeepsie, New York, where he fitted for practical busi- ness. In Schenectady, he began his mercantile life in company with C. N. Yates, purchasing from John Gilmore a book and stationery establishment, which they carried on three years, when Mr. Yates retired. Mr. Moir con- tinued to successfully conduct the business un- til 1899, when he retired. His keen, appre- ciative mind is richly stored with the lore of books and memories of foreign travel, to which he has devoted several years. He has visited nearly all the countries of the world, not as a sight-seeing tourist, but as a serious investigator and traveler. He is a lover of books, and as much at home in the world of literature as in the world of travel and adven- ture. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, which he served as deacon and trustee for many years. He is a Republican in poli- tics, and a member of the Masonic order, affil- iated with St. George's lodge. His social clubs are the Mohawk and Golf. He married, in 1878, at Schenectady, Catherine De Forest, born in Schenectady, daughter of Martin and granddaughter of Jacob De Forest, of Rotter- dam, Schenectady county, New York. Martin De Forest, born 1811, died 1889, was for many years agent for Hon. D. D. Campbell, of Rot- terdam. He married Elizabeth Margaret, daughter of Bartholomew Schermerhorn. She- was born on the homestead in Rotterdam, where she resided until her marriage. She died in Schenectady, in 1897, in her eighty- fifth year. She was a member of the Re- formed church. Of their five children, two only grew to maturity: Mary, married Charles N. Yates, whom she survives; and Catherine, married Robert Thompson Moir.
Jacob De Forest, grandfather of Mrs. Moir, was born in Greenbush, Rensselaer county, New York, May 28, 1771, died in Rotterdam, June, 1854. He married Anna Lansing, Feb- ruary 2, 1784 ; children : Cornelia, Jacob, Ten- netta, Sarah and Obadiah L. They removed to Rotterdam in 1807, and soon after his wife died. He married (second) Mary Wiley, July 30, 1808; children: Anna, John, Martin and James. The De Forest family, who were of
Huguenot descent, came to America in 1620 and settled on Long Island. The founder of the family in America was Jesse De Forest, a grandson of Melchior and Katherine (Ros- tiau) De Forest of Avesnes, France. Jesse De Forest, after an adventurous career, sailed with an expedition to plant a colony in South America, and was never again heard from. He left in Leyden, Holland, where they had been driven by persecution, a wife, Marie (Du Cloux) De Forest, and two sons. Isaac De Forest, younger of the two sons of Jesse, is the common ancestor. He emigrated to Amer- ica in 1636. He was born at Leyden, Hol- land, in 1616, and after his arrival in New Amsterdam he married, in 1641, Sarah, daughter of Philippe Du Trieux (Truax). The same year Isaac built a dwelling and to- bacco house on his plantation at Harlem. In 1643 he opened a tobacco wareroom on the "Strand," now Pearl street. He became a "Great Beugher" of the city, and a man of wealth and influence. He had ten children, three of whom died young. Philip De Forest, the seventh child, married, January 5, 1676, Tryntje, daughter of Isaac Kip, and removed to Albany, New York. He served as high- sheriff, and died 1727, having sons Isaac, Jesse, Johannes, David and Abraham. David, fourth son of Philip De Forest, was born Sep- tember 8, 1700. He married Abigail Van Aal- steyn, November 8, 1718. He had sons Philip, Martin and Jacob, who had adjoining farms at North Greenbush, Rensselaer county, oppo- site Albany. Martin, the second son, baptized May 14, 1724, married Tanneke Winne, and had eleven children, of whom Jacob De For- est, grandfather of Mrs. Robert Thompson (De Forest) Moir, was the tenth. With Jacob De Forest the family became seated in the town of Rotterdam, Schenectady county, from whence the parents of Mrs. Moir removed to the city of Schenectady, where she was edu- cated, married, and now resides. Robert T. and Catherine (De Forest) Moir have no chil- dren.
There is no definite informa- PIERSON tion as to when or in what vessels the ancestors of the Piersons of America came to this country. They were from Yorkshire, England, but whether they sailed direct from England, or, after taking refuge in Holland, took ship from there, is not known. There is a well-believed tradition that the first Pierson came over in the "Mayflower" as ship's carpenter, not as a passenger. Two John Piersons came in 1637- 1640 and settled in Massachusetts; Rev. Abra- ham came in 1639; Henry, 1640, was on Long
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Island. The spelling of the name varies, but the best authority sanctions Pierson, derived from the French Pierre, from the original Danish Peterson. The family tradition is that they were established in an honorable, inde- pendent condition in the East Riding of the County of York, England, from a very early period. Rev. Abraham Pierson had a son, Rev. Abraham (2), who was first president of Yale College, of whom Trumbull says, "He had the character of a hard student, a good scholar and a great divine." A fine monument to him stands on the ground of Yale Univer- sity at New Haven, and another in Old Kil- lingworth, where he was pastor many years. The history of the Johnstown branch of the family in New York state begins with Eli Pierson, of the sixth generation.
(I) Henry Pierson, progenitor of the Pier- son family of Johnstown and Fulton counties, New York, is first recorded at Southampton, Long Island. He was one of the first and leading settlers of that town in 1640. As the town was settled by a colony of some forty families from Lynn, Massachusetts, and as he married Mary Cooper, of Lynn, it is evident that he came to Long Island from that town. In the same colony and as its pastor came also Rev. Abraham Pierson, born in Yorkshire, England, came to America in 1639. He was first minister to the Southampton colony ; founder and first minister of the town of Bran- ford, Connecticut, where he remained twenty years as pastor. In 1666, with most of his Branford congregation, he settled on the banks of the Passaic river, New Jersey, and laid the foundations of the present city of Newark, and organized the First Church of Newark. It is probable that Rev. Abraham and Henry Pier- son were brothers or other near kinsmen, and men of the same mould of character. They lived and labored together in Southampton un- til 1647, when Rev. Abraham joined the New Haven colony at Branford, Connecticut. Henry remained at Southampton and became the progenitor of a large family whose de- scendants are yet found in that vicinity. In 1669 he was elected clerk of Suffold county, holding that position until 1680. He died in 1680-81. He married Mary Cooper, of Lynn, Massachusetts, daughter of John. Children: Joseph, see forward; Henry (2), born 1652; Benjamin; Theodore, born 1659; Sarah, 1660. (II) Lieutenant Joseph, son of Henry and Mary (Cooper) Pierson, was born at South- ampton, Long Island, where he was an active citizen of the town. He was known as "Lieu- tenant" Joseph. He married, November 17, 1675, Amy Barnes, died 1692. Children : Amy, born 1676; Henry, see forward; Mary,
1680, married Jeremiah Culver, 1700; Joseph (2), 1682; Ephrahim, 1687; Samuel, 1690.
(III) Henry, son of Lieutenant Joseph and Amy (Barnes) Pierson, was born at South- ampton, Long Island, in 1678. He married Abigail Ludlow. Children: Henry, born 1704; William, 1706; Azel, 1708; John, 1710; Eli, 1712; Abigail, 1714; Amy, 1716; Samuel, see forward.
(IV) Samuel, son of Henry and Abigail (Ludlow) Pierson, was born in 1721. The name of his wife is not recorded in family records. He had two sons, Timothy and Samuel.
(V) Timothy, son of Samuel Pierson, mar- ried Mollie Culier; children : Timothy ; Charles; Eli, see forward; James; Ruth; Mary ; Deborah; Betsey and Phebe.
(VI) Eli, son of Timothy and Mollie (Cu- lier) Pierson, was the first of the family to settle in Johnstown, New York. He married Mary Veghte (see Veghte) ; children : James; Mary, married William Richardson; Polly, married Conrad Becker; Eli (2), see forward ; Nellie, married Philip Argersinger (see Ar- gersinger) ; Timothy, see forward; Eliza, married Lewis Dorn; William, died young.
(VII) Timothy, sixth child of Eli and Mary (Veghte) Pierson, married Eleanor V. Dake; children : John McArthur, died young; Phi- letus, died in infancy ; Jennie ; Julia B., mar- ried Stephen Wemple; Kate M .; Benjamin, died in infancy ; Amanda W., married
Sutliff; Hattie B .; Winfield Scott, see for- ward.
(VIII) Winfield Scott, youngest child of Timothy and Eleanor (Dake) Pierson, was born in Fulton county, New York. He is a farmer of Fulton county. He married Mag- gie Cornell. Children: Eleanor, deceased : John Fremont, deceased; Earl Winfield ; Paul .Revere; Mildred Wicks, deceased; Theodore Roosevelt.
(VII) Eli (2), son of Eli and Mary (Veglite) Pierson, was born in Fulton county, New York. He was a farmer and a tanner, continuing actively in the tannery until 1870, when he retired. He married Amanda Mason; children: Caroline; William; Alice; Abra- ham Veghte, see forward; John M .; Emily A., married Daniel Yost of Fonda; Charles and Marcus.
(VIII) Abraham Veghte, son of Eli and Amanda (Mason) Pierson, was born August 10, 1835, died in Johnstown, January 26, 1892. He was educated in the public schools, and after completing his studies worked with his father in the tannery until 1870, in which year Eli Pierson retired from business. In 1871 he joined with his brothers Charles and
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John M. Pierson in the business of glove- making, and carried this on for some time when they dissolved. He then associated with James Dunn, who had been engaged in glove manufacturing in Johnstown since 1860. The firm of Dunn & Pierson continued a successful business career until 1888, when Mr. Pierson withdrew and retired from active business. The plant continued in operation until Mr. Dunn's death in 1889, and since that date by James D. Pierson. Abraham V. Pierson was a member of the Presbyterian church, and a Democrat. He married, October 26, 1858, Jane Dunn, born December 30, 1837, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Cuyler) Dunn, who were the parents of nine children: John (2) ; Daniel; James; Johnson; Jane; Margaret ; Catherine ; Elizabeth ; and Mary, married An- drew Crowell, and had Sanford, Marian and Emma. Children of Abraham V. and Jane (Dunn) Pierson: I. Elizabeth, married Da- vid Ireland (see Ireland). 2. James D., see forward. 3. Amanda, born July 31, 1868; married, October, 1893 John R. Russell; chil- dren : Elizabeth, born May 29, 1895; Cath- erine, December 2, 1898. 4. Charles, born July 21, 1871. 5. Eli, born October 28, 1872; partner of firm of Pierson Brothers, glove makers, Johnstown; member of the Odd Fel- lows, and the Colonial Club; is a Democrat in politics ; married, September 5, 1898, Nora E. Dement, born September 5, 1871, and has a son James A., born November 7, 1901.
(IX) James D., eldest son of Abraham (Veghte) and Jane (Dunn) Pierson, was born in Johnstown, New York, March 16, 1864. He was educated in the public school and at Johnstown Academy. On reaching a suitable age he was taken in with his father and taught the business of glove making. He was asso- ciated with Mr. Dunn after the death of his father. In 1889 Mr. Dunn died, and he has since continued business with Eli Pierson as a partner, they forming the firm of Pierson Brothers. Their line of manufacture is a me- dium grade of ladies' and childrens' gloves and mittens. Mr. Pierson is a director'of the Johnstown Bank, and is an active, alert busi- ness man. He is a Democrat in politics, and a member of the Automobile and Colonial clubs of Johnstown.
The Burdens of Troy descend BURDEN from Scotch ancestors. While little more than a century has elapsed since the first of their line arrived in the United States, the history of Troy would lose some of its most interesting and valuable pages should the achievements of the Burdens be omitted or stricken out. Hen-
ry Burden was a wonderful genius, and prob- ably the industry he founded has added more material wealth to the city than any other that is confined to one family. His sons, equally talented and enterprising, carried along the work begun by the father, to whose memory the huge mills by the side of the Hudson stand as enduring monuments. Among the hills stands a beautiful stone church, and on a tablet set in the interior is displayed the following inscription : "Wood- side Memorial Church, dedicated to the ser- vice of the Triune God, has been erected to the memory of Helen Burden by her husband Henry Burden, in accordance with her long cherished and earnest desire, 1869." After the death of Henry Burden, the generous giver of the church, his surviving children erected to his memory the attractive manse on the west side of the church. They also built the stone chapel on the east side, used by the Sunday school, which bears a tablet inscribed : "Woodside Chapel erected A. D. 1833 by Margaret E. Proudfit, James A. Bur- den, I. Townsend Burden, in memory of their children." Thus the Burden memory is en- shrined amid the beautiful hills and along the great river near Troy by blazing furnace and smoking shaft, and by temple of wor- ship and hymn of praise. Silent today and motionless hangs the great "Burden wheel," but the wheels it caused to revolve set in motion still other wheels, and gave impetus to Troy industries that will forever endure. (I) Peter Burden was born in Rotharm, Scotland, in 1721, died there in 1778. He married Anne Clow, born 1719, died 1771.
(II) Peter (2), son of Peter (1) and Anne (Clow.) Burden, was born at Roth- arm, Scotland, and settled at Dunblaine, Scot- land, where he died. He married Janet Ab- ercrombie, and had several children, among them being: Peter, born December 17, 1788; Henry, see forward : James, see forward.
(III) Henry, son of Peter (2) and Janet (Abercrombie) Burden, was born near Dun- blaine, Scotland, April 22, 1791. He was reared on his father's farm, and educated in a school of engineering. He was of an in- ventive and mechanical nature, and some of his earlier inventions were for improved agri- cultural implements, and were used on his father's farm, also a water wheel. He came to the United States in 1810, with letters of introduction to Stephen Van Rensselaer, John C. Calhoun, William C. Preston and Thomas H. Benton. He settled in Albany, where he had a foundry and built a flouring mill. In 1822 he became superintendent of the Troy Iron & Nail Factory Company, and henceforth
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Troy was his home and the seat of his won- derful activity. He patented, in 1825, a ma- chine for making wrought iron nails and spikes, and in 1836 a machine for making horse shoes. These inventions largely in- creased the production of his company. In 1834 he modified his first patent, and secured another to make counter sunk spikes to fas- ten flat rails of iron to wooden ones, then forming the tracks for the first railroads of the United States. In 1835 his wonderful machine for making horse shoes was put in operation. By changing some of the parts of the counter sunk spike machine he secured a machine for making hook-headed spikes to fasten "T" and "H" rails together, then be- ginning to supersede flat rails for railroad tracks. In 1839 he devised the celebrated "Burden's rotary concentric squeezer" for the compression of balls of puddled iron into blooms, which the United States commission- er of patents declared was the first truly ori- ginal and most important invention affecting the manufacture of iron up to that time. This machine came into general use in Europe and America. In 1843 he constructed a machine that in two movements shaped into horse shoes bar iron delivered from the rolls with- out heating. In 1835 he became half owner of the company's stock, and in 1848 became sole owner and proprietor of the Troy Iron & Nail Factory Company. In 1851 he con- structed the inimense over-shot water wheel, figuratively called the "Niagara of water wheels," sixty feet in diameter and twenty- two feet wide, which furnished the power of twelve hundred horses to that part of his plant called the "upper works." This wheel is yet preserved at Froy, although not in use, and is one of the points of interest daily visited by tourists. In 1857 he so im- proved the horse shoe machine that it cut, bent and forged each piece into a perfectly shaped shoe in one movement. During the civil war the government took possession of the Burden Works, retaining Mr. Burden in the management. Although it taxed his every resource, he kept the horses of the United States army supplied with shoes, and it may be said that the Confederate cavalry made frequent raids on the Union army wagon trains, and secured vast quantities of the Bur- den horse shoes. The right to use these valuable machines has been purchased by the governments of England, France, Germany and Russia, who thus supply their cavalry horses with shoes. The firm of H. Burden & Sons was formed in 1864, after the death of Henry Burden, the two brothers, James Abercrombie and I. Townsend, conducting it
under that name until June 30, 1881, when the Burden Iron Company was incorporated. These works are still in successful opera- tion, and constitute one of Troy's most im- portant industries. Henry Burden was great- ly interested in steam navigation, and at one time contemplated the formation of a company to navigate the Atlantic with vessels of a tonnage and speed then unheard of, but "Bur- den's Atlantic Steam Fury," as named in the prospectus, did not materialize. He was in- terested in all worthy enterprises, gave free- ly to charity, and was one of Troy's most valued citizens. He died in Troy, January 19, 1871.
He married Helen McQuit, a most devoted Christian woman to whose memory he erected Woodside Memorial Presbyterian Church. Children: 1. Peter A., born February 6, 1822, died in Troy, February 16, 1866; married, September 14, 1846, Abbie Shepard, of New Bedford; children: i. Mary, born Novem- ber 12, 1847; died in infancy; ii. Mary Shep- ard; iii. Henry, born March 1, 1850; grad- uate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 1869, degree of M. E .; he at once entered the Bur- den Iron Works, where after a service of two years he became superintendent of both the plant by the river and the mill on the hill; he was an efficient manager and thoroughly understood his business; he retired in 1870; he was appointed fish and game commissioner by Governor David B. Hill; served three years, then resigned; he is a member of Woodside Presbyterian church, and worships in the beautiful stone church erected by his grandfather, Henry Burden, to which his sons added the handsome chapel manse and grounds: he is a member of Delta Phi, the Troy Club of Troy, and the University Club of New York City ; iv. Abbie, married George Thompson, of Hoosick, New York ; children : Joseph, Chester Griswold and Lelia: v. Jo- seph Warren. 2. Margaret E., born February 2, 1824 ; married Ebenezer Proudfit, a whole- sale dry goods merchant; he was born in Sa- lem county. New York: children: Margaret and Helen, died in infancy and Williams, who died, aged nineteen. 3. Helen, born June 27, 1826, died December 17, 1891, in New York City; married General Irving McDow- ell, a famous major-general of the civil war, and commander of the Army of the Potomac ; they had two sons and two daughters. 4. Henry James, born February 22, 1828. died August 30, 1845. 5. William F., born 1830. died December 6, 1867 ; married Julia, daugh- ter of Richard P. Hart, of Troy. 6. James Abercrombie, born January 6, 1833, died in New York, September 23, 1906; married
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