USA > New York > Rensselaer County > Landmarks of Rensselaer county, New York, pt 1 > Part 24
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A. M. Twirem ....
Many other events of interest have occurred during the career of the company, but those enumerated are the most noteworthy. Since Cap- tain Lloyd assumed command the organization has become recognized as one of the most proficient in the New York National Guard. The ranks have been filled the past eight years and a waiting list is always ready to fill any vacancy.
THIRTY SECOND SEPARATE COMPANY.
The Thirty-second Separate company, N. G. N. Y., of Hoosick Falls, was mustered into the National Guard March 20, 1885, largely through the persistent efforts of Hon, S. D. Locke. The first muster-roll was signed by Brigadier General Philip H. Briggs, inspector general, and included sixty-five men. The company has maintained about the same standard of enrollment since its organization. During 1890, for a time, the enrollment included ninety-seven men. The first captain was
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Charles W. Eddy, who was a model disciplinarian and who was so rec- ognized by the most competent military authorities of the State. The first first lieutenant was Frank L. Stevens, also a thorough disciplinarian, and the first seeond lieutenant was Geo. L. Walden, now deecased. The first surgeon was Dr. Lurie Ashton, appointed August 20, 1887; died November 5, 1889; sneceeded by Dr. Frederick R. Hudson, Feb- ruary 26, 1890, who also has the rank of first lieutenant. The first sergeant was William 11. Parsons, sr., who was sueceeded by Yates Van Evera, who served in that capacity from April 24, 1886, to Feb- ruary 12, 1896. The first quartermaster sergeant was John M. Closson, who served from April 10, 1885, to December 30, 1892. He was suc- ceeded by Richard L. Perry, appointed Deeember 30, 1892, who served until March 23, 1896. Captain Eddy maintained the command of the company from the date of its organization until he resigned February 23, 1894.
The appearance and drilling of the company at the New York State encampment in 1888 and 1890 commanded the highest praise from Gen. R. H. Jackson of the United States Army, who inspected the troops. His opinion is contained in the following extract of his report :
The 32d Separate Company, from Hoosick Falls, was without doubt the best drilled company in camp this year; its manual of arms, marching, etc., were as near per- fection as possible. It was a pleasure to see it on the drill ground and to observe how well, and without noise, the guides and file closers performed their duties.
Connected with a company is a splendid Citizen Corps band of thirty pieces under the leadership of Henderson S. Surdam. The armory, the building and site costing $32,000, is an ornament to the village, located at the corner of Church and Elm streets. The site was purchased by Rensselaer county at a cost of $6, 000, and the build- ing was erected by the State, The company expended about $3, 000 in fittings and furnishings, thus making the armory and appurtenanees eost $40,000. The building is 154 by 75 feet in dimensions.
FOURTH BATTERY.
The Fourth Battery, which for at least three-quarters of a century had been one of Troy's leading military companies, was mustered out of service February 25, 1887. It was the outgrowth of the Troy City Artillery, popularly known as the Flying Artillery, which, in 1812, had as officers Captain Ruggles Hubbard, First Lieutenant Richi-
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ard M. Livingston, and Second Lientenant William McManus. The latter was then a part of the First Battalion of Artillery of the New York State Militia. In 1828 it was incorporated with the Fifth Regiment of the New York State Militia. For many years the company was located in a building on the site of what is now the en- trance to the railroad bridge. Subsequently it was in a building opposite the First Particular Baptist church, and then in the State company on River street, which was built in 1860. In 1867 the com- pany, as Battery B, became a part of the Twenty-fourth Regiment of the State Militia. In 1828 it was called Battery F and in 1882 the Fourth Battery.
THE ARMORY.
The armory devoted to the uses of the three separate companies of the New York National Guard was built in 1884. March 15, 1883, the State Legislature having appropriated $75,000 for the purpose, the International hotel property on the southeast corner of Ferry and River streets was purchased. The lot and building adjoining it on the south were purchased the following month and the work begun. The corner stone of the armory was laid July 4, 1884, by Major-General Joseph B. Carr, commanding the Third division of the National Guard. The principal address was delivered by the Hon. Martin I. Townsend. The building was occupied in March, 1886. Its total cost was $85, 000, the Legislature having made an additional appropriation of $10,000. The county appropriated $7,000 towards the purchase of the site, and the different companies contributed about $10,000 for furnishing their quarters. The Fourth Battery occupied rooms in the armory for about a year, or until it was disbanded.
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TROY AS A VILLAGE.
CHAPTER XV.
TROY AS A VILLAGE.
When the first white men, from Holland, sailed up the Hudson river and landed upon its shore with the intention of making settlements and engaging in trade with the Indians, the site of the present city of Troy was the home of the Mohegan or Mohican Indians, whose chief was Uncas, made immortal in name by the novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, in the "Last of the Mohicans." It has been shown that the daring navigator, Sir Henry Hudson, made a landing on the east bank of the river which bears his name during his voyage up that stream, but there is no record that he set foot upon any of the soil of Rensselaer county north of a spot between Schodack and Castleton.
Just who the first settler on the east bank of the river was probably never will be known. Jacob Janse Stoll (or Hap) came to Beverwyck in 1630 and succeeded Henry Albertsen as ferrymaster. He removed to Esopus about 1657. Capt. Volkert Janse Douw came to Beverwyck as early as 1638. In 1664 he and Jan Tomase Mingael received a con- veyance from the Indians of a tract of land in Schodac. He died in 1686. Ile first located on Papsknae island and had three houses and a brewery there about 1666, when a freshet swept everything away, in- cluding his papers and records.
In the year 1642 a ferry was established across the Hudson near the month of Beaver's kill. As early as 1648 Teunis Dirkse Van Vechten, who came over from Holland with his wife and child in the Arms of Norway in 1638, had a farm at Greenbush occupied by Teunis Cornelise Van Vechten, and how much earlier than that he built his house there is purely a matter of conjecture. He is referred to in 1663 as "an old inhabitant here." lle died in 1700, leaving four children. Gerrit Teunis De Reue also had a farm there, probably as early as 1631 and possibly even before traders had settled at Fort Orange. There conse- quently is reason for the belief that the Van Vechtens had neighbors who had settled there before they are recorded as owning property there. Evert Pels Van Steltyn, a brewer, and his wife lived, at the 28
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mill creek in Greenbush as late as 1658 They came to New Nether. land in 1642 with Dr. Megapolensis.
Jan Barentsen Wemp (or Wamp) arrived in Beverwyck in the year 1644. He was a farmer of the first class: that isto say, he paid his own ex- penses to this country and came prepared to do business with his own capital. He prospered, and in the spring of 1659, with the consent of Arendt Van Corlaer and Jan Baptiste Van Rensselaer, agents of the first patroon, he negotiated with the Mahikander ( Mohican) Indians for a traet of land on the east side of the river, about seven miles north of Beverwyck, known as the "Great Meadow Ground." This he secured and at once began the work of building a house and laying ont a farm. The exact limits of the "Great Meadow Ground" have never been de- fined so that they may be recognized to-day, but from subsequent transfers of his property it is known that it covered a considerable por- tion of the present site of Troy. Unfortunately the records for the period between December 17, 1657, and November 12, 1664, during which period Wemp purchased the " Great Meadow Ground," are missing.
From all that can be gleaned from the records kept during the early days of Fort Orange or Beverwyck, all of which have been translated into English, Jan Barentsen Wemp was the first white man to make a permanent settlement above the Wynants kill. Wemp was a shrewd Dutchman. He had amassed wealth by trading in furs with the In- dians, and when he let it be understood among the other traders at Fort Orange that he intended removing to the wilderness farther north and across the river it was generally believed among them that they were about to get rid of a rival who was securing the cream of the traffic with the wild men. Wemp located at the " Great Meadow Ground" ostensibly for the purpose of cultivating the soil; but this move on his part was merely a pretext. It is true that he did lay ont a large farm on land as fertile as any which the inhabitants at Fort Orange had heard of, but while he was doing this he craftily sent out word to the Indians that he would pay the highest prices for their furs and that by dealing with him they would not only secure better bargains but be saved the trouble of traveling through to the fort. The traders of Fort Orange soon found that their rival, of whom they had expected to be relieved, had found a location where he could intercept a large number of the Indians on their way to the original post, and they immediately began to make complaints to the agents of the patroon. Wemp, indif-
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ferent to the wishes of the other colonists, continued to secure the best of the skins which came his way. Two years after locating at the Great Meadow Ground he and several other enterprising colonists purchased of the Mohawks a second large tract of land called "Groote Vlacht," or Great Plain, the site of the lower part of the city of Schenectady.
The demand of the colonists that Wemp and his associates should proceed no further in their intended monopoly of the best trade on the east and west of the complainants was based on the general ground that in so doing the spirit of the rule governing the colonists in this respect was being violated. The protesting colonists presented to the di- rectors of the West India company a petition which, after reciting the facts in the case, requested the company to direct Wemp and his asso- ciates to discontinue their trade with the red men. To this the com- pany consented, but Wemp and the others who had established a fine, wealth-producing business with the Indians, denied that the company had any right to interfere with their plans. The result of the contro- versy is not positively known, but from subsequent occurrences it is doubtful if Wemp paid any further attention to the wishes of the com- pany, and he and those associated with him, both on the Great Meadow Ground and on the Great Plain, continued to trade at pleasure with the Indians. Jan Barentsen Wemp died in June, 1663. His large estate was left to his widow, two sons and three daughters, the eldest daughter being the wife of Jan Cornelis van der leyden. The farm later be- came the Vanderheyden farm, which was the site of nearly the entire business portion of the city of Troy.
Sweer Teunise Van Velsen having married Marytie Mynderse, widow of Wemp, and thereby coming into possession of his estate, his tenure became secure, April 13, 1607, when Richard Nicholls, the English gov- ernor of the province of New York, granted to him a patent covering the entire estate, three morgens of land, which is described as "a certain parcel of land, lying near Albany, on the other side of the creek or kill, beginning from the mill on the creek and to go on over the said creek into the Great Meadow Ground, whereabout sixty-six paces the trees are marked." The site of the mill mentioned in the patent was probably a saw mill built on the bank of the Poesten kill below the falls. The name of Wemp is found written as Jan Barentsen Poest in the early records of the colony. Ilis mill appears to have been a starting point for many land measurements in early days, and was one of the most important of the early landmarks of Rensselaer county. North'of this
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creek, the site of a part of the city of Troy, was a portion of land called Pafraets Dacl (meaning Pafraet's part), named in honor of Maria Pa- fraets, the mother of Killiaen Van Rensselaer, the first patroon. The name was also a synonym of Luylekkerland, meaning "The paradise of a lazy man."
In the days of which we are writing the tract of land lying between the Poesten kill and the Wynants kill was known commonly as Lub- berdeland. This section, originally called the tenth part of Rensselaer- wyck, was a part of the original estate of Johannes De Laet, one of the partners of Killiaen Van Rensselaer. It descended by inheritance to his daughter, Johanna Ebbingh, who afterward leased a portion of it to Sweer Teunise Van Velsen, and in June, 1669, sold it to him outright. In the same year Van Velsen removed to Schenectady and took pos- session of the former estate of Jan Barentsen Wemp. His property at Lubberdeland he left to the management of Jacob Heven. Later on Pieter Pieterse Van Woggelum purchased a farm in Lubberdeland.
The records of the manor of Rensselaerwyck show that on the 18th day of October, 1674, Geertruyt Pieterse Vosburgh, widow of Abraham Pieterse Vosburgh, transferred to Wynant Gerritse Vanderpoel her half of a saw mill on the creek south of the farm of Johanna Ebbingh. The creek on which the mill was located soon became known as Wynants kill, after Wynant Gerritse Vanderpoel, which name it has ever since borne. June 25 of the following year Jan Cornelise Vyse- laer (or Gow) and Lucas Pieterse (or Cocymans) bought of Sweer Teunise Van Velsen about four acres of land and the Poesten mill, located on the Poesten kill. 1 It is described in the deed as " two mor- gens of arable land, lying in the colony of Rensselaerwyck, up the |Hudson | river, on the east bank over against Stoney Point, before this called Poesten mill, together with free egress and a road along the hill, by Pieter Pieterse Van Woggelum's, " to the shore." May 6, 1699, Van Velsen sold to Pieter Pieterse Van Woggelum the entire estate known as the Great Meadow Ground. September 19, 1681, Van Woggelnm purchased of Robert Saunders a tract of land south of the Piscawen kill, called by the Indians Passquassick. Saunders had obtained the land, most of which was covered with forest, through a patent granted
I The norm posten, in Dutch, signifies bellows; the verb presten, to pull or blow.
2 Pieter Pieterse Van Woggelum was probably a son of Pieter Adriaense Van Woggelum; alias Sorgemackelvek, one of the hrst proprietors of Schenectady.
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by Sir Edmund Andros, then the English governor of the province of New York.
July 7, 1676, Madam Johanna Ebbingh sold to Juriaen Teunise Tappen the big farm between the Poesten kill and the Wynants kill. Novem . ber 7, 1677. Tappen mortgaged it to Captain Philip Schuyler, who owned the extensive farm on the opposite side of the Hudson, the site of the present Port Schuyler. It was described in the deed which was given by the patroon of Rensselaerwyck in 1689 as Poesten Bouwery, "bouwery " being the old Dutch term which was synonymous with the word " farm." This bouwery contained about 400 acres of land and was described in the deed as being bounded on the north by a certain mill creek commonly known as the Poesten kill, "now or late in the tenure or occupation of Johannes Wendell;" on the south by a certain mill creek in the tenure or occupation of Wynants Gerrits (Wynants kill); and on the east by the hills. The western boundary of this bouwery was the Hudson river. Most of the site is now occupied by that por- tion of the city of Troy known as South Troy. The northern portion of the estate consisted of hills which broke on the north in bluffs, and in the colonial time it formed one of the most sightly spots in the colony. Thirty-four years after its sale to Captain Philip Schuyler, his heirs transferred it to Stephanis Groesbeek of Albany for 1,241 pounds English money. Ten days afterward, on May 3, 1611, Groesbeek sold the farm to Myndert Schuyler and Peter Van Brugh, receiving there- for the sum of 1, 241 pounds. Four years later these two owners di- vided the farm, Sehuyler retaining the southern part and Van Brugh the northern part. This division occurred December 29, 1715. June 19, 1730, Schuyler sold his farm to Henderick Oothout for 900 pounds, and June 22, 1232, the latter sold it to Edward Collins for 1, 160 pounds. These transactions illustrate the rapid increase in the value of land in these times. The farm was then considered one of the best pieces of property in that part of the manor. Perhaps the only farm which was its superior was the farm on the north which for many years was in the possession of the Van Der Heyden family.
Edward Collins, the last purchaser of the southern half of the farm south of the Poesten kill referred to, was a grandson of Philip Pieterse Schuyler. November 30, 1748, this farm was purchased of Collins by Jan Van Buren. March 5, 1795, Van Buren bequeathed half of it to Sarah Van Buren, his wife, and the remaining portion he divided among Catharine, Sarah and Hannah Visscher, daughters of his deceased
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daughter, Agnietje Visscher. Van Buren died August 15, 1795, and his widow occupied the farm until her death, which occurred in the early part of the nineteenth century. May 28, 1971, Stephen J. Schuyler purchased of Sarah, widow of Teddy McGinnis, and William McGinnis, her son, who had come into possession of the northern half of the Poes- ten Bouwery, their property, paying therefor 1,800 pounds. Stephen J. Sehuyler and his family lived on this farm for many years, occupy. ing a large brick house which occupied the site at the southwest corner of Madison and First streets. Schuyler's death occurred there Decem- ber 14, 1820, at the age of eighty-three, and his body was interred in the burial ground a short distance north of the homestead.
Sales of farms and divisions of homesteads were common in those days. New settlers came rapidly into the manor, and at the end of the seventeenth century the lowlands and hills were dotted with honses. As far as can be learned from existing records there were at least seven separate families residing north of the Wynants kill. There may have been more, but it is practically certain that there were at least seven families owning the land which they occupied. These were the families of Philip Pieterse Schuyler, Pieter Pieterse Van Woggelum, Wynant Gerritse Van Der Poel, Lneas Pieterse (Coeymans), Barent Pieterse (Coeymans), Jacob leven and Jan Cornelis Vyselaer.
These people were of the sturdiest Dutch stock which immigrated to Rensselaerwyek in the seventeenth century. They attended strictly to the business of tilling the soiling and trading with the Indians, taking no active part in the government of the colony of Rensselaerwyck. They ground their own grain, utilizing the power generated by the waterfalls in the Poesten kill and the other creeks near them. They treated the Indians with great hospitality and consequently were but little annoyed by the red men of the forest. The Indians liked to trade with them when possible, for the prices they paid for furs, it is believed, were generally higher than those paid at Fort Orange. Little by little, however, the traffic in furs grew smaller and the rate at which the farming lands were developed increased. The soil was productive and crops were bountiful. New settlers arrived every season, and before the eighteenth century was far advanced the colony numbered not less than a hundred souls, all industrious, prosperous, fearless, contented and happy.
Direk Van der Heyden, son of Jacob Tysse Van der Heyden, who came to New Amsterdam from Holland in 1652 or 1653, purchased of
B
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Pieter Pieterse Van Woggelum, June 2, 1707, his farm, extending from the Piscawen kill to the Poesten kill. It was more than thirteen years later, however, or December 15, 1720, before the title to the farm was confirmed by Maria and Hendrick Van Rensselaer. The terms of the sale were that the purchaser should pay to the patroon an annual rental amounting to three and three quarters bushels of wheat and two fat hens or capons. The homestead of Van der Heyden was located not far from the centre of that part of the farm bordering on the Hudson river, and not more than five or six hundred feet south of the point opposite the southern extremity of Green island. This farm remained in possession of the Vanderheyden family for many years thereafter and included the site of nearly the entire business portion of the pres- ent city of Troy. In November, 1731, he deeded the property to his three sons, Jacob, David and Mattys. March 2, 1732, David conveyed his interest therein to his brother Jacob. April 3, 1639, Jacob and Mattys caused to be executed a partition deed by which the farm was divided into three parts, the former retaining the northern and middle sections and the latter the southern section. Jacob died April 18, 1216, having bequeathed to his son Dirck his two sections of the original farm. July 2, 1746, Direk conveyed half the property to his brother Jacob. March 1, 1270, Mattys Vanderheyden willed his farm on the north side of the Poesten kill to his sons Dirck and John and their sons, but afterwards, June 21, 1221, he mortgaged the entire property for 300 pounds to Lucas Van Vechten. Jacob 1., son of Jacob, became owner of the farm on the south side of the Piseawen kill May 11, 12-1, by a deed of release. Dirck Vanderheyden died in 1945 and his soul Jacob D. inherited the middle farm. The northern farm was then owned by Jacob Hand the southern by Mattys Vanderheyden.
Upon the breaking out of the War of the Revolution the inhabitants of the colony which subsequently became known as Vanderheyden and later as Troy were quick to respond to the call for protection against the invaders who were sent by England to enforce its demands upon all the colonists. It is not known that there was a regular company of patriot militia in Troy, but that there was in the county of Albany is a matter of record. Early in the war many of the settlers living on or near the site of Troy enlisted in the patriot army, and some of them also doubtless were numbered among the Tories. As early as July 30, 1722, Governor Tryon issued the following commission, evidently with the intention of keeping in the royalist ranks one whom he supposed to be in sympathy with the crown:
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Jacob Van der Heyden, gentleman, of the county of Albany, appointed by his ex- celleney, William Tryon, Esq., Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Province of New York, and the territories depending thereon in America, Chan- cellor and Vice Admiral of the same: First Lieutenant of Captain Henry H. Gar- denier's Company of Foot in the Second Battalion in the Regiment of Militia in the manor of Rensselaerwyck. Given under my hand and seal at arms, at Fort George, in the city of New York, the thirtyeth day of July, in the twelfth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, Anno Domini, 1772.
Three years later this company, which was composed in part, at least, of the inhabitants of what is now Troy, had these officers: Captain, Henry II. Gardenier or Gordinier; first lieutenant, Jacob Van der Iley- den; second-lieutenant, Adam Beam; ensign, Henry Tincker. The regimental officers then commissioned, residing in the same locality, were: Colonel, Stephen J. Schuyler; lieutenant-colonel, Henry K. Van Rensselaer; majors, Philip De Freest and John J. Fonda; adjutant, Volkert Oothoudt; quartermaster Jacob Van Alstyne.
Despite the attempt to keep this company in the ranks of the royal- ists it proved to be patriotic to the core when the crisis arrived, and in the summer of 1477 it marched with the Army of the North, under command of General Philip Schuyler, to meet the army of Burgoyne, as related in a previous chapter. When the army fell back they as- sisted in preparing for the defense of the Hudson and wielded the spade in the construction of the earthworks on Haver island, under the direc- tion of Thaddeus Kosciusko. Fortunately for the peace of Rensselaer county the defeat of Burgoyne practically ended the war in this vicinity and the whilom militiamen were left to pursue their vocations without being in constant fear of an approaching enemy.
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