Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 66

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374

USA > New York > Albany County > Landmarks of Albany County, New York > Part 66

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In 1883 Mr. Hale was the Republican candidate for justice of the Supreme Court and in that year the University of Vermont conferred upon him the honorary de- gree of LL.D. He is a distinguished writer and speaker and eminent lawyer, and was one of the organizers of the New York State Bar Association, of which he has been president.

He has been counsel in many important cases, and within the last year has suc. cessfully argued in the Court of Appeals a case involving the effect of the civil serv- ice provision in the Constitution of 1894, in which he obtained a decision giving full force and effect to such provision as against an attack made by the superintend- ent of Public Works; also a case in favor of the Adelphi Club of Albany, in which it was held that the license law of 1892 did not apply to social clubs; also the Albany Police case, in which an act, passed by the Legislature in 1895 making a total change of the Albany police force, was held to be unconstitutional and void.

He was a charter member and trustee of the Fort Orange Club, is a trustee and vice-president of the Albany Savings Bank, member of the Reform Club of New York city, and at one time was vice-president of the Commonwealth Club of New York and president of the United Chapters of the Phi Beta Kappa. In politics he is Independent and has been for many years. He is one of the executive committee of the National Municipal League, is president of the Citizens' Association of Al- bany: president of the Albany Vigilance League; president of the New York State Civil Service Reform League and of the Albany Association on the same subject.

In 1856 he married Ellen S., daughter of Hon. A. C. Hand. She died in 1867, and in 1877 he married, second, Mary, daughter of Col. Francis L. Lee, of Boston, Mass., by whom he has three daughters and two sons,

HUGH HASTINGS.

HUGH HASTINGS, State Historian, third son of Col. John Hastings was born in Al- bany, July 22, 1856. Colonel Hastings was born in Ireland in 1824, came with his parents to Albany in 1831 and died here June 3, 1887. At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he was engaged in the job printing business in the old Museum building. April 19, 1861, he organized Co. B, 18th N. Y. Vols., was commissioned its captain April 24, was promoted lieutenant-colonel of the 7th N. Y. H. A., Septem- ber 8, 1862, and was honorably discharged July 29, 1864. Afterward he was editor of the Albany Knickerbocker until August, 1877, when he retired. He married Mar- garet, daughter of Henry L Jewell, of Albany, and their children were John, Hugh, David, Warren, Mary (widow of Lewis H. Van Antwerp), and Jennie, who survive, and Henry J., William, Frank and Margaret, deceased.

Hugh Hastings was educated in the Albany public and High School and the Cass Academy, and began journalistic work on the old Knickerbocker, founded by his unele, Hugh J. Hastings, September 3, 1843. In 1874 he joined the staff of the New York Commercial Advertiser, of which he became city and financial editor and where he began his career as a writer on political subjects. In October, 1885, he joined the World's staff, and in 1886 became its Albany correspondent, but in 1887 was placed in charge of its Washington bureau. In 1888 he was placed in charge of the New York State Political Department of the New York Times, for which he described the Johnstown flood of 1889 and the Homestead and Buffalo strikes of 1892.

On the creation of the office of State Historian, he was appointed and entered upon his duties April 30, 1895, and has ably organized that department. His first report, transmitted to the Legislature March 3, 1896, clearly shows the work he has in view, the permanent preservation of New York's most important war records, covering a period of 125 years. Excepting those of 1884 he has attended every na- tional and New York State political convention since 1878. April 5, 1883, he mar- ried Elizabeth Rehrer Dock of Harrisburg, Pa,

REV. WILLIAM GRIFFIN, D. D.

Few men have been more deservedly prominent and popular in the work and his- tory of the Troy Conference of the Methodist Episcopal church than Dr. Griffin. He was well educated and endowed with a clear and logical brain, possessed broad sym- pathies and positive convictions and he was perforce of his mental and moral or- ganization a man of action as well as ideas, early attaining prominence as a leader among his brethren.

Three times he was placed in charge of districts and four times elected to repre- sent his conference in the General Conference. Though retired from the active work of the ministry several years ago, he has always kept in touch with the needs of the world and the work of the church, and no worthy object ever appealed to him in vain when it was in his power to grant the desired assistance.

To the cause of education he has always been a ardent friend and liberal supporter. J

Wesleyan University at Middletown, Conn., credits him with the endowment of its "Chair of Philosophy " and Syracuse University with having endowed its professor- ship of " History and Political Science."

Cazenovia Seminary, where Mrs. Griffin had been both pupil and preceptress, was made the recipient of $25,000, to endow the chair once occupied by her and to per- petuate the memory of the place where she had passed not a few of the sunniest days of her life. Generous contributions have been made to other educational institutions.

But history will undoubtedly show that at Round Lake he has accomplished the crowning work of his life.

In 1886 he was elected president of the association, and most worthily has he filled the position for more than a decade and most generously has he contributed to the development of its growing educational work. Here he has had ample field for his versatile genius, broad sympathies and indomitable perseverance. Up as by magic have sprung a summer school with its varied departments of music, art, archaeology, oratory, modern and ancient languages, theology, and a popular assembly of wide range in up to date subjects.

Here, also, has been established a flourishing academy and an exceptionally fine museum of art and archaeology.

Though eighty years have rolled past him, time has dealt most kindly with his vigorous physique and left little impression save in his whitened locks. Living roy- ally in years and deeds and memories, he is yet planning larger things in the inter- ests of his beloved Round Lake.

JOHN H. VAN ANTWERP.

JOHN HENRY VAN ANTWERP is a lineal descendant of Daniel Janse Van Antwerp (married Maritie, daughter of Simon Groot), of Holland, who settled in Beverwyck in 1661. Daniel J. Van Antwerp was a proprietary settler of Schenectady, where several of his children were killed or taken prisoners to Montreal when that town was burned by the French and Indians. He was a fur trader and a member of the Dutch church, giving on June 23, 1715, the land on which the Reformed church of Schenectady now stands. Mr. Van Antwerp's grandfather, Daniel Lewis Van Antwerp, 1771-1832, of Schenectady and later of Albany, was a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1801, member of the Legislature for Saratoga in 1808-10, and district attorney in 1811 for the counties of Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga, Montgomery and Schoharie, being appointed March 9, 1811, by Gov. Daniel D. Tompkins. When Albany county was erected into a separate district, April 21, 1818, he was reap- pointed by Gov. De Witt Clinton, June 11, 1811, his commissions in each case being unlimited, but continuous during the pleasure of the Governor and Council. He was brigade quartermaster in the war of 1812, member of the Legislature for Sche- nectady in 1818, and judge of the Court of Justices in 1820. His son, William Van Antwerp, 1799-1829, was a prominent lawyer of Albany, married Sarah Meadon, and had four children: John Henry, William Meadon, Daniel Lewis, and one, a daughter, deceased.

John H. Van Antwerp, born in Albany, October 12, 1823, received a private school

education and began his business life as a clerk. He was one of the founders and original trustees of the National Savings Bank of Albany, and has been its president since May, 1872, shortly after its organization. He has also been connected with the New York State National Bank since July 17, 1847, first as corresponding clerk, and from January 1, 1856, as cashier, until 1880, when he resigned to become first vice- president, which position he now holds.

John H. Van Antwerp married Martha Wiswall in August, 1842. They have two children living, Kate Josephine, wife of J. R. Stanton, paymaster United States Navy, and Henrietta W., wife of Major J. W. MacMurray of the U. S. Army; and one son and daughter deceased. Mrs. Van Antwerp died in August, 1880. Mr. Van Antwerp and wife early became members of St. Paul's Episcopal church of Albany, of which for many years he has been and is senior warden. He was one of the originators of the scheme for the creation of Washington Park, Albany, and one of the commissioners named in the act of the Legislature creating it ; was the first pres- ident for thirteen years of the board during the formative period of the park, and subsequently declined a reappointment by the mayor at the expiration of his last term of service.

Socially he is a member of the Manhattan and St. Nicholas Clubs of New York city, Fort Orange Club, and the Country Club, city of Albany ; also a member of the Holland Society, Sons of the Revolution, Fellow of the American Geographical So- ciety of the city of New York. and the Albany Institute. As a financier he has for half a century been connected with the banking interests of Albany, and has shown himself to be of acknowledged ability, which is indicated by the standing of the institutions with which he has been connected in his official capacity as director or officer, and the length of time he has remained in connection with them.

He was a member of the New York State Board of Charities for over eighteen years; it being an unsalaried office. Often when duties in other directions claimed his time he cheerfully devoted it to the interest of the State and early called atten- tion to the necessity of some restriction by the government of unsupervised emigration from Europe to this country.

LUCY ANN PLYMPTON.

MISS LUCY ANN PLYMPTON, since 1879 principal of the Albany Female Academy, is of English descent, both her paternal and maternal ancestors coming to Medfield, Mass., in 1639. In each case the original estates in that town have never been owned outside the family. She was born in Shrewsbury, Mass., May 6, 1834, and spent her earlier years in her native village, attending the public and private schools and the academy and developing a natural talent for study. She finished a course at the New Hampshire Conference Seminary, taught for two years in grammar and private schools, took the degree of Mistress of Liberal Arts at the New Hampshire Female College, and became a teacher in the Newbury (Vt.) Seminary. When the Rebellion broke out she returned home, but soon took charge of the girls' department in the Troy Conference Academy for one year, when she became lady principal of Ripley College, which position she resigned in 1867. In 1869 she was elected principal of

Wilson College at Chambersburg, Pa., where she spent six years, coming thence to Albany, where she has since resided. Here she started a private enterprise known as Miss Plympton's School for Young Ladies, which in 1879 was merged into the Albany Female Academy, over which she has since presided as principal. (A de- tailed sketch of this historic institution appears elsewhere in this volume.) Miss Plympton's long and faithful service in the academy has placed her among the fore- most educators of the time. She represented as a delegate the Dana Natural History Society of Albany in the International Geological Congress at London in 1888, was an early officer and has continuously been chairman of the educational committee of the Young Woman's Christian Association, and is actively interested in all move- ments which tend to advance and educate not only her sex, but mankind.

CHARLES J. BUCHANAN.

CHARLES J. BUCHANAN was born of Scoth-Irish ancestry in New Berlin, Chenango county, N. Y., December 27, 1843, and received his preliminary education in the common schools and academy of his native town. Of studious habits he was ambi- tious to acquire the benefits of a college course, but the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion fired his youthful ardor and patriotism and caused him to enlist in the Union cause. In the autumn of 1861 he enlisted as a volunteer in the 1st Regiment of U. S. (Berdan's) Sharpshooters and joined the army of the Potomac, in which he served with distinguished gallantry for three years, rising to the rank of first lieu- tenant and acting adjutant. He participated in many battles and skirmishes, from Yorktown in 1862 to Appomattox in 1865, among them Hanover Court House, the Seven Days' Fight before Richmond, Antietam, Wapping Heights, Fredericksburgh, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania Court House, Cold Har- bor, Deep Bottom, the mine explosion at Petersburgh, Weldon Railroad, the siege of Petersburgh, etc. He was never away from his regiment until his final discharge and was never sick nor wounded while in the service. At the close of the war in 1865 he accepted an appointment as clerk in the Quartermaster-General's office at Washington and for a time was stationed at Fort Snelling, Minn. After about a year he resigned this position to complete his academic studies, which his enlistment had interrupted. In 1867 General Hancock offered him a lieutenancy in the regular army, which he declined, and this same year he was appointed by President Johnson a cadet to the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where he made valuable use of his time. In October, 1870, he resigned his cadetship to study law, which he had contemplated for several years. Entering the offices of Smith, Bancroft & Moak, one of the ablest law firms ever known in Albany, he was admitted to the bar at the January General Term, 1874, and the next year became a partner in this firm.

This partnership continued until the death of Mr. Bancroft in January, 1880, when the firm became Smith, Moak & Buchanan. Upon the death of Mr. Smith in Decem- ber, 1884, the firm of Moak & Buchanan was formed. These several firms enjoyed large and successful practices, having important and intricate cases in the various courts. Mr. Moak died September 17, 1892, since which time Mr. Buchanan has con-

ROBERT H. MCCORMIC, JR.

tinued the practice of the law at the same offices occupied by his former partner- ships.

Mr. Buchanan has always taken great interest in military affairs. On July 2, 1889, he delivered the oration at Gettysburg on the dedication of the monument to the 1st Regiment of U. S. Sharpshooters, which was subsequently issued in pam- phlet form and is replete with interesting historical facts and reminiscences. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic; has been first vice-president and a member of the board of managers of the Young Men's Association (a literary insti- tution founded by Amos Dean); is a life trustee of the Young Men's Association ; is a trustee and secretary of the board of trustees of the Albany Law School; is a trustee of the National Savings Bank of Albany ; has been for several years a member and treasurer of the board of commissioners of Washington Park; is a member of the Fort Orange and Albany Clubs; and of the St. Andrew's Society ; and of the Albany Burns Club (of which last named club he has been president); and the Buchanan Society of Scotland. He is judge advocate, with the rank of major, of the 3d Brigade, N. G. N. Y. He was active in raising the Harmanus Bleecker Hall fund, and has always taken a keen interest in the advancement of the city of Albany, with so many of whose institutions he is so prominently identified. In politics he is a staunch Repub- lican. He is public spirited, patriotic and progressive, and liberally encourages all worthy public movements. Mr. Buchanan is a member of the first class of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, which, as is well known, is composed of those who were commissioned officers in the war of the Rebellion.

In October, 1875, Mr. Buchanan was married to Miss Caroline Van Valkenburg, daughter of the late Isaac Van Valkenburg, of Northville, Fulton county, N. Y.

ROBERT H. McCORMIC, JR.

ROBERT H. MCCORMIC, JR., was born January 30, 1870, in the city of Albany, N. Y. In the line of the paternal ancestry he represents the seventh generation of his fam- ily in America, in each of which the eldest son bore the name of Robert, he being the seventh Robert in direct line. His ancestor who immigrated to America was born of Scotch-Irish parentage in Londonderry, Ireland, and immigrated to America in 1725 in company with john Woodburn, the great-grandfather of Horace Greeley. They were among the original settlers of Londonderry, N. H., from whence the MeCormic family moved and settled the town of Londonderry, Vt. Mr. McCormic's great great-grandfather served in the Revolution and was one of the participants in the battle of Bennington under Stark. On his mother's side he represents the twelfth generation of his family in America. His maternal ancestor, Cornelius Van Ness, was born of Dutch parentage upon the Havendyck in Holland and came to America in 1642 and settled at Greenbush, N. Y. The family spread rapidly and later generations settled upon large tracts of land in Columbia county, near Kinder- hook. The family contained many lawyers, some of whom became noted.

Mr. McCormic's great-great-grandfather, John P. Van Ness, was born in the Clav- erack district in 1770, was educated at Columbia College and was subsequently ad- mitted to the bar. He was elected to Congress in 1801, and afterward became

mayor of Washington, D. C., and president of the Bank of the Metropolis. He had two brothers, William P. and Cornelius P. Van Ness, who were also distinguished lawyers and jurists. Cornelius P. was admitted to the bar in 1804. Later he moved to Vermont, became United States district attorney, collector of customs, member of assembly, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Vermont, twice governor of Ver- mont and finally minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary to the court of Spain. William P. was one of the leading lawyers of his time and became judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. He was one of the seconds for Burr in the famous Hamilton and Burr duel. He owned " Lindenwald" at Kinderhook, N. Y., which he afterward sold to Martin Van Buren, who read law in his office. He was also a colonel in the war of 1812 and a member of the Constitutional Convention of 1821.

Mr. MeCormic's great-grandfather, Jesse Van Ness, was a farmer and served as a captain in the war of 1812. He owned a large tract of land between Castleton and Muitseskill in Rensselaer and Columbia counties, portions of which remained in the possession of the family until quite recently.

Mr. McCormic's father, Robert H. McCormic, was born at Coxsackie, N. Y., but passed the days of his youth near Windham, Vt., graduating from Burr Seminary at Manchester, Vt. He served as a captain in the late Civil war on the Union side. He is living and is now and for some time past has been engaged in the insurance business. Mr. McCormic's mother, Carrie Van Ness, was born at Stuyvesant, N. Y., and graduated from Coeymans Academy at Coeymans, N. Y. She died August 20, 1875, and her mother, Amanda Van Ness, immediately removed to Albany, N. Y., and assumed the responsibility of caring for the two motherless children, Mr. Mc- Cormic, then but five years old, and his sister Grace E., then three years old, who is now a teacher in one of the public schools at Yonkers, N. Y. At the age of seven years young McCormic entered public school No. 12 of Albany and graduated with honors, receiving a graduation diploma, scholarship diploma, and Regents' certifi- cate. He entered the Albany High School, chose the classical course and graduated therefrom in 1888. He was a member of the Philologian Society and held several important offices therein. After graduating from the High School he entered the insurance office of his father. He left this employment for a brief period in 1888 to accept the position of bookkeeper in closing up the business of the clothing house of Joseph Gardner in Albany, and then returned again to his father's office. While with his father he began to read law and on the first day of September, 1889, en- tered upon a regular clerkship under the instruction of the late William A. Allen, who occupied the same offices. On the 18th of April, 1891, he entered the law office of County Judge J. H. Clute as a minor clerk. His progress there was rapid and he was soon made managing clerk of the office and on the 15th of September, 1892, was admitted to practice law. He continued to occupy his position of managing clerk after his admission to the bar and also practiced law himself, and in a short time had acquired a very fair practice. On the first of April, 1896, just subsequently to the retirement of Judge Clute from the bench, he entered into a partnership with the judge under the firm name of Clute & McCormic, with offices at 5-15 Tweddle building, Albany. This partnership has since continued.

Mr. McCormic takes an active interest in politics and is at present the secretary

and treasurer of the Second Assembly District Committee of the Republican organ- ization of Albany county.

He early became affiliated with secret societies and is now the sitting vice-grand of Clinton Lodge, No. 7, I. O. O. F., and the junior seneschal of Albany Senate No. 641, Knights of the Ancient Essenie Order, of which senate he is a charter member. He is also a past captain of Frederick Townsend Camp No. 1, Sons of Veterans, and has held nearly all the important positions in the State body of that organization and has been a delegate to the national body.

On October 31, 1894, he married Estelle N., daughter of Horace R. Lockwood of South Westerlo, N. Y., who was educated in Greenville Academy, located at Green- ville, N. Y., and the State Normal and Training School at Oswego, N. Y. He has no children.

CHARLES F. STOWELL.

CHARLES FREDERICK STOWELL, son of Thomas P. and Henrietta (Fowler) Stowell, was born in Owego, N. Y., February 28, 1853, and descends from an English family who emigrated to New England in the early history of this country. Thomas P. Stowell was prominent in the fire insurance business, being connected with the Ætna Fire Insurance Company for about twenty years; he lived in Rochester, N. Y., where he died in February, 1896.

Charles F. Stowell was educated in the public schools and Free Academy of Roch- ester, was graduated as a civil engineer from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at Troy in 1879, and for five years thereafter was associated in a professional capac- ity with Charles Hilton and the Hilton Bridge Construction Company, bridge build- ers. In 1884 he was appointed as bridge engineer of the New York State Board of Railroad Commissioners and held the position until 1892. His duties consisted ot examining plans and strains of all railroad bridges in the State and reporting as to their safety. The results of his valuable labors were published by the board in 1891, in a volume of 1,880 pages, and covers outline sketches of every railroad bridge then in the State, with the strains of each member of the bridge, a tabulation of sizes of each member and recommendations for strengthening where weakness was found. As a result of that report probably one-half of the railroad bridges in the State were strengthened or rebuilt, and since then no railway bridge in New York has broken down.

Since 1892 Mr. Stowell has been a consulting bridge engineer and is now a mem- ber of the firm of Stowell & Cunningham. He is a member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. October 10, 1882, he married Emily A., daughter of Thomas Blossom, of Canandaigua, N. Y., a prominent railroad man and identified with the Rochester Water Works. They have two children: Grace Elizabeth and Thomas Charles. Mrs. Stowell's family were early Puritan settlers of Massachusetts and prominent in public life. Her grandfather, Col. William Blossom, was a noted hotel keeper in Canandaigua.

HOWARD VAN RENSSELAER, M. D.

HOWARD VAN RENSSELAER, M. D., son of Bayard Van Rensselaer, was born in Albany on the 26th of June, 1858, and descends from one of the oldest and most re- spected families in Eastern New York. Killian Van Rensselaer, the original ances- tor, a merchant in Amsterdam, Holland, and a member of the Dutch West India Company, availed himself, about the year 1630, of the privileges offered by the As- sembly of XIX and the commissioners of the States-General, passed in 1629, by which all members of the company who planted a colony of fifty souls over fifteen years of age were to be acknowledged patroons of the New Netherlands. He further perfected his title to the lands thus granted by purchasing them from the Indians. These purchases embraced a territory extending along the Hudson River, for twenty-four miles back on each side, from Baeren Island to Cohoes Falls, Fort Orange only being reserved by the West India Company. Killian Van Rensselaer died in 1648, and his son Johannes succeeded him. The latter is believed to have come here, and in 1642 to have built the mansion at Greenbush, which is still stand- ing. His son Killian and the son of his brother Jeremiah, also named Killian, set- tled here, and to these two Killians were given the English patents in trust for their grandfather Killian. Killian the son of Johannes died without issue and the grant was confirmed to Killian the son of Jeremiah, who was succeeded by his son Stephen, whose eldest son Stephen became the seventh patroon, or lord of the manor, and died in 1769, just after the completion of the present manor house in North Broad- way. Stephen Van Rensselaer, son of the last named Stephen, was born in New York city in 1764, his mother being Catharine, daughter of Philip Livingston, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. General Ten Broeck, his uncle, had the management of the estate until he attained the age of twenty-one. Mr. Van Rensselaer attended school in Albany, the Kingston Academy, and Princeton College in 1782, and in 1783 married Margaret, daughter of Gen. Philip J. Schuyler, who died in 1801, leaving a son Stephen. His second wife was a daughter of Judge Patterson, of New Jersey, of the U. S. Supreme Court. He was member of assembly in 1789, 1808, 1810, and 1816, State senator from 1791 to 1795, lieutenant-governor from 1795 to 1801, colonel of State cavalry in the war of 1812, member of Congress from 1822 to 1829, chancellor of the university in 1835, and for twenty-two years a canal commissioner and for fifteen years president of the board. He died in the manor house January 26, 1839. His son Stephen married Harriet Bayard, of New York, and died in 1868. Their son Bayard, who died in 1859, married Laura, daugh- ter of Marcus Tullius Reynolds, who survives him. Both were natives of Albany, and the parents of the subject of this sketch.

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Landmarks of Albany County, New York, Part 66

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason Number of Pages: 1374

Author: Parker, Amasa Junius, 1843-1938, ed
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y. : D. Mason
Number of Pages: 1374