USA > New York > Schenectady County > Schenectady County, New York : its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 12
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" And such was the progress of the new country and the call for facilities, that in 1794, there were five great post routes centering in Albany : The first, to New York; the second, to Burlington, Ver- mont ; the third to Brookfield, Massachusetts ; the fourth to Spring- field, Massachusetts.' On each of these routes the mail was carried once a week. The fifth route was via Schenectady, Johnstown, Canajoharie, German Flats, Whitestown, Old Fort Schuyler, Onon- daga, Aurora, Scipio, Geneva, Canandaigua, and subsequently extended to Buffalo. The mail on this route was carried once in two weeks by Thomas Powell, Aaron Thorpe, Asa Sprague and others in partnership with them, west of Utica, were the leading pro- prietors of this last route, under whose management its business became simply immense, so much so, that during the War of 1812, it was no uncommon scene to witness from eight to twelve stages on the Scotia dyke, leaving or entering Schenectady at one time ; and in one instance, as inany as fourteen were counted in a continuous line."
Meanwhile the burgh grew from hamlet to village, and from vil- lage to city, harrassed with politics and political dissension. Primo- geniture, inherited authority, was the curse of New York politics in the eighteenth century, as the Erie canal is the slack rope on which
I31
POLITICAL HISTORY.
politicians have danced with the balance pole of patronage in the nineteenth. Judge Sanders has admirably condensed the record of the growth to cityhood and to him history is indebted for the briefest, truest account possible.
Let us now return to Schenectady's earlier days.
CHAPTER XI.
POLITICAL HISTORY OF SCHENECTADY.
Swear Teunis Van Velsen was the only son of the old proprietor who was killed at the burning of Schenectady in 1690, twenty-eight years after its first settlement. William Teller, another proprietor, had a short time previously removed to New York, leaving his son John in charge of his interest, and Jacques Cornelise Van Slyck, also a proprietor, although he escaped the massacre, died of pulmonary disease a few months afterwards. All the remaining or other pro- prietors were resting, after the struggles of pioneer life, under the green sods of their own loved valley.
The original proprietors had divided the first grant among thein- selves ; but as emigration population increased, sales and transfers to new comers and divisions to descendants, as usual in all new settle- ments, necessarily took place, and then came a cry for a pasture land and a little more tillage ground. The village and vicinity had increased rapidly, and to breathe more freely, these sagacious and earnest frontiersmen, for comfort's sake, required more room. Con- sequently, confidently backing up their application with an unusu- ally valuable consideration, they applied to their friends, the gallant and generous Mohawks, and these noblemen of the woods, hills, streams and valleys of this beautiful region, being thereunto moved somewhat by affection, and other valid considerations, certain of their chiefs, the representatives of the four Mohawk castles, for them-
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
selves and the true and lawful owners of the land in their deed inen- tioned, by their certain writing of sale, dated the 3d day of July, 1672, gave and granted unto Sander Leenderse Glen, Jan Van Eps and Swear Teunise Van Velsen, as being empowered by the inhabi- tants of the town or village of Schenectady and places adjacent, for that purpose, a certain tract or parcel of land, beginning at the Mauquas river, by the town of Schenectady, and from thence runs westerly, on both sides of the river, to a certain place called by the Indians " Canaquariseny," being reputed to be three Dutch or Eng- lish miles ; and from said town of Schenectady, down the river, one Dutch or four English miles to a kill or creek called " Ael Plass," and from the said Mauquas river into the woods, south towards Albany to the Sand Kil, one Dutch mile, and as much on the other side of the river north, being one Dutch inile more. This Indian title was confirmed by Governor Dongan in 1684, in which confirm- ation all the recitals of the Indian title are contained, and gives, grants and confirms unto Williamn Teller, Ryer Schermerhorn, Swear Teunise Van Velsen, Jan Van Eps and Myndert Wemp, on behalf of the inhabitants of the town of Schenectady and places adjacent thereto, their associates, heirs, successors and assigns, the before- recited tract and tracts, etc., as therein contained, reserving as a quit- rent, for the use of his Royal Highness, forty bushels of good winter wheat, to be paid at Albany on the 25th day of March in each year thereafter. This is the true boundary of the original town- ship and subsequent city of Schenectady, and represents the present city and the towns of Rotterdam and Glenville, as they now exist.
Of these five trustees, three, Swear Teunise Van Velsen, Jan Van Eps and Myndert Wemp, were killed at the burning of Schenectady in 1690. William Teller had removed to New York in 1692, leav- ing Ryer Schermerhorn, the only surviving actor of the trust. He being such surviving trustee in 1705, was complained of by a large number of the citizens for exercising arbitrary power over the town affairs, and rendering no account of his proceedings. These discon- tents resulted in an application to Lord Cornbury, governor in chief, who, by a new patent dated April 16th, 1705, appointed Peter Schuyler, John Alexander Glen, Adam Vrooman, Daniel Johnson
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FIRST TRUSTEES.
and John Baptist Van Eps, new trustees, with full powers to call Ryer Schermerhorn, the old trustee, to account, etc. It will be observed that, in this grant, Ryer Schermerhorn being the party to account, his name was omitted as a trustee, and that of Peter Schuy- ler, a new resident, introduced.
But to quiet angry dissensions among the citizens, and for other sufficient reasons, another patent was issued by Honorable Robert Hunter, then governor, on the 6th day of November, 1714, super- seding the trustees appointed in 1705, and appointed in their stead, Ryer Schermerhorn, Jan Wemp, Johannis Teller, Arent Bradt and Baret Wemnp, as trustees.
Of those trustees, Ryer Schermerhorn died February 19th, 1719; Jolın Teller died May 28th, 1725; Barent Wemp died in 1748, and Jan Wemp died October 11th, 1749, leaving Arent Bradt as the sole surviving trustee in 1749. This Arent Bradt was the individual who built the ancient house, No. 7 State street, and, after being a trustee for fifty-two consecutive years, dying in 1767, left a will appointing his successors.
The persons so named in this will, or their successors, continued as such trustees until the city charter was granted March 26th, 1798, when all their power passed into the hands of the inayor, aldermen and Commonalty of the city of Schenectady.
Previous to this, (23d October, 1765), Schenectady was created a . borough, with the rights and immunities incident to such corpora- tions, contained in an exceedingly detailed charter of forty-eight pages, now treasured among the archives of the Common Council ; and under that charter Isaac Vrooman, Esq., (a grandson of the gal- lant Adam Vrooman, our hero of 1690), was the first mayor, and John Duncan, Esq., (our distinguished trader), the first recorder, and Schenectady was entitled to send a member to the Provincial Legis- lature. Westchester was the only other borough town in the colony entitled to like privileges.
At this point, it seems fitting to make mention of some old resi- dents, who honorably held office in early days. It certainly is inter- esting to some of their descendants. No note is made subsequent to
IO
I 34
SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
the time of the adoption of the second New York State Constitution in February, 1822, of the convention that formed which John San- ders, Judge Sanders and Henry Yates, Jr., were inembers, for all after that period belongs to Schenectady's later days.
Martin Krigier was a delegate the 26th of November, 1653, to the first convention ever held in the New Netherlands.
Ludovicus Cobes was Sheriff of Albany county (Schenectady forming a part), 1679.
Ludovicus Cobes was County Clerk of Albany county (Schenec- tady forming a part), 1669.
Jan Janse Schermerhorn was member of Leisler's Assembly in 1690.
Karl Hansen Toll was member of the General Assembly in 1615, 1626.
Jacob Glen was member of General Assembly in 1726, 1727, 1728, 1737, 1748, 1750.
Arent Bradt was member of the General Assembly in 1737, 1743, 1745, 1748.
Abraham Glen was member of the General Assembly in 1743, 1745.
Nicholas Schuyler was member of the General Assembly in 1727, 1728.
Jacob Van Slyck was member of the General Assembly in 1750, 1752.
Isaac Vrooman was member of the General Assembly in 1759, 1761.
Ryer Schermerhorn was member of the General Assembly in 1761.
Jacobus Mynderse was member of the General Assembly in 1752, 1759, 1768, 1775-
Nicholas Groot was member of the General Assembly in 1761, 1768.
Henry Glen was member of the First, Second and Third Provin- cial Congresses in 1775, 1776.
Henry Glen was member of Assembly in 1786, 1787 and 1810.
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MEMBERS OF ASSEMBLY
Henry Glen was member of the Third, Fourth and Sixth Con- gresses of the United States from 1793 to 1802.
Harmanus Peek was member of the Sixteenth Congress of the United States from 1819 to 1821.
William North was member of Assembly, 1792, 1794, 1795, 1796 and 1810, and several times speaker of that body. In 1798, during a recess of the legislature, he was appointed a Senator of the United States by Governor John Jay, to fill a vacancy occasioned by the res- ignation of John Closs Hoburt, appointed Judge of the United States District Court, New York. During the Revolutionary War General North was the aide of Baron Steuben.
Joseplı Shurtliff was member of Assembly, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1802, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807 and 1813.
James Boyd was member of Assembly, 1811, 1812.
John Young was member of Assembly, 1811, 1812.
Alexander Combs was member of Assembly, 1812, 1813.
Abraham Van Ingen was member of Assembly, 1814.
Lawrence Vroomnan was member of Assembly, 1814, 1815. John Victory was member of Assembly, 1815, 1817. Harmanus Peek was member of Assembly, 1816. Harry Fryer was member of Assembly, 1816.
Harmanus Van Slyck was member of Assenibly, 1817.
Daniel L. Van Antwerp was member of Assembly, 1818.
Simon A. Veeder was member of Assembly, 1818.
James Frost was member of Assembly, 1819.
Simon Groot ·was member of Assembly, 1819. Christian Haverly was member of Assembly, 1820. Marinus Willet was member of Assembly, 1820. Richard McMichael was member of Assembly, 1821.
Gerrit Veeder was member of Assembly, 1821.
James Walker was member of Assembly, 1822. John F. D. Veeder was member of Assembly, 1822.
Robert Yates was a lawyer of eminence. He was a member of the first, second, third and fourth Provisional Congresses of New York; was member of the first Convention of New York, in 1777,
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY
to form a constitution, and a member of the committee to draft it ; was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of New York, and finally its Chief Justice ; his terin expired by the constitutional limit of sixty years. He was a member of the Convention of 1788 to ratify the Federal constitution.
Rinier Mynderse was Senator of the first Constitution, 1777 to 1781.
John Sanders was a Senator under the first Constitution, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, and member of the Council of Appointment in 1800. His associates were DeWitt Clinton, Ambrose Spencer and John Roseboom. John Jay was then Governor and presiding officer.
Simon Veeder was a Senator under the first Constitution from 1804 to 1806.
Joseph C. Yates was Senator under the first Constitution from 1806 to 1808, when his seat became vacant by accepting a seat of Judge of the Supreme Court of the State of New York. He became Governor of the State in 1822.
Henry Yates, Jr., was a Senator under the first Constitution from 1810 to 1814 and from 1818 to 1822. He was also a member of the Council of Appointment in 1812, 1818, when Daniel D. Tompkins was Governor.
Gerrit S. Veeder was the first Judge of the Schenectady Court of Common Pleas, appointed soon after the organization of the county in 1809.
William James Teller was the first Surrogate appointed in 1809.
Henry Yates, Jr., and John Sanders were the first members from Schenectady county to the convention to forin the second Constitu- tion for New York, and after its adoption in February, 1822. Offi- cers belong to the history of Schenectady's latter days.
As already stated, Schenectady was chartered as a city, March 26, 1798, and its corporate title was " the Mayor, Aldermen and Com- inonalty of the city of Schenectady," and its area was one of the largest cities known to any age-twelve miles in length, by eight in breadth. The first ward embraced all that compact part of it lying between Union street and the Mohawk river ; the second ward, that part lying south of Union street and extending a short distance upon
I37
MAYORS OF CITY.
the Bouwlandt ; the third ward, what is now the town of Rotterdam and the fourth ward, what is now the town of Glenville.
By the charter, the mayor was to be appointed by the governor and council, and each ward was entitled to elect two aldermen and two assistants. Hon. Joseph C. Yates was the first mayor, a man then noted for legal ability, and subsequently more distinguished as a Supreme Court Judge and Governor of the State of New York. The names and the period of service of those who have filled the dignified office of mayor since the city charter was granted, are as follows :
1798 .- Joseph C. Yates. 1808 .- John Yates.
1810 .- Abraham Oothout.
1858 .- Alexander M. Vedder.
18II .- John Yates.
1859 .- David P. Forest.
1813 .- Maus Schermerhorn. 1860 .-- Benjamin F. Potter.
1817 .- Henry Yates, Jr.
1825 .- Isaac M. Schermerhorn.
1826 .- David Boyd.
1828 .- Isaac Schermerhorn. 1831 .- Archibald L. Linn.
1832 .- John J. Degraff.
1837 .- Samuel W. Jones.
1839 .- Archibald L. Linn.
1840 .- Alexander C. Gibson.
1881 .- Abraham A. Van Vorst.
1842 .- John J. DeGraff.
1883 .- John Young.
1843 .- Alexander C. Gibson.
1845 .- John J. DeGraff.
1887 .- T. Low Barhydt.
1889 .- H. S. DeForest.
1891 .- Everett Smith.
1893 .- Jacob W. Clute.
1898 .- Charles C. Duryee.
1852 .- Abraham A. Van Vorst.
1853 .- Mordecai Myers.
1855 .- Abel Smith.
1857 .- Benjamin V. S. Vedder.
1861 .- Arthur W. Hunter.
1865 .- Andrew McMullen.
1869 .- Abraham A. Van Vorst.
1871 .- William J. Van Horne.
1873 .- Arthur W. Hunter. 1875 .- Peter B. Yates.
1876 .- William Howes Smith.
1879 .- Joseplı B. Graham.
1885 .- H. S. DeForest.
1846 .- Peter Rowe. 1848 .- James E. Van Horne. 1850 .- Peter Rowe.
1851 .- Mordecai Myers.
1900 .- John H. White
1902 .- Horace E. Van Voast.
Princetown was formed March 20th, 1798, from a portion of the patents of Schenectady, which had been ceded to the Reform Dutch
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
Church of that city, and from lands originally patented to George Ingoldsby and Aaron Bradt in 1737, and subsequently sold to Wil- liam Corry, who formed a settlement there "which was long known as Corrysbush," who sold his interest to John Duncan. The town itself was named after John Prince, of Schenectady, who was then in the Assembly as a member from Albany County, and resided at Schenectady.
Duanesburgh was erected as a township by patent March 13th, 1765, but was first recognized as a town March 22d, 1788. It was named after the Hon. James Duane. Large tracts, in what is now this town, were purchased by different parties, to-wit : by Timothy Bagley in 1737, A. P. and William Crosby in 1738, Walter Butler in 1739 and Jonathan Brewster in 1770. The tract embraced about 60,000 acres, and of this whole tract Judge Duane became the pro- prietor, either by inheritance from his father or purchase, except 1,000 acres known as Braine's patent; but no active measures of settlement were taken until about the time of its organization in 1765. During that year Judge Duane made a permanent settlement. The lands were rented at the rate of fifteen dollars per annum on each one hundred acres on perpetual leases, payable in gold or silver.
CHAPTER XII.
THE CLOSE OF THE CENTURY.
Schenectady was not only bright with business but was socially brilliant. Officers and men of the Revolution had returned from the war to the sweet peace of home in the quiet evening of the century. They were honored, feted and toasted as the old boys of the G. A. R. are now. They were carried in carriages at the close of the century in every Fourth of July procession, and one by one they dwindled away until the last survivor, Nicholas Veeder, a centenarian, will be remembered by many under half a century in age.
I39
CHANGE OF DRESS.
The aspect of the town changed rapidly. In architecture the gambrel roof of which some have survived the terrible fire of 1819, supplanted the old Holland peaked roof style. The city took on municipal airs and graces, Union College was founded, located in a building less than the size of the Classical, and planted on the corner where Mr. Howland Barney now lives. The style of dress was sobering down. The gorgeous colors, the silks and satins, laced wrist bands, gorgeously flowered vest and the gold trimmed cocked hat and clocked silk stocking gave way to more sombre hues. Still that grand traditional humbug, the "gentleman of the old school " was still a gorgeous sight in his wide-skirted, flaring tailed coat, his black cocked hat, silver-buckled shoes and stockings neatly tied with a ribbon at the knee. The powdered wig had just gone out, the hair was banged in front and tied with a queue. So grandly garbed, the prosperous merchant, doctor, lawyer and divine strutted with a stately elegance at which one would smile in these practical days. With uplifted hat and teetering heels he would fire double-barrelled compliments at women in starched petticoats and balloon hoops, talk in Johnsonian stilted sentences, and swinging his gold-headed cane with which Sir William Blackstone had just said he might and did lawfully correct a wayward wife. A great sight Schenectady must have been in the babyhood of the cityhood.
The great resorts were Hudson's tavern (Anthony Hall), Church's where now is the Myers Block and No. 7 State street, the old Bradt House, recently torn down by its owner, Mr. Lyon. The old and young beaux, the swells of that day, gathered mostly at Hudson's, and high rollers they were, those gentlemen of the old school.
The headquarters of politics, which ran high and were very bitter, was in the Ellice mansion and the little office on the corner of Gov- ernor's Lane. There Chief Justice Robert Yates and Joseph, his cousin, the future governor of New York, with kindred Democrats plotted and planned as now, running the political machine for this whole section of country. Thither came that wily Mephistopheles, who in the morning of the nineteenth century, shot Alexander Hamilton, the fascinating rascal at whose coming all our great grandmothers and grand aunts were sent up into the garret out of
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
harın's way, of whom in his old age, old Madain Juinel said that the clasp of his hand would thrill any woman, the wicked Aaron Burr.
But there were others and an emigration that Schenectady did not covet. They settled on Albany Hill in the region where is now the East Avenue Presbyterian church, and eastward in the sand in which they burrowed like human coyotes. A dark, swarthy race, with straight hair, high cheek bones and copper complexion. They were called " Yanses," why none can positively say, but the generally adopted theory of their origin was undoubtedly the nearest to cor- rectness. Janse is Dutch for John's son. It was asserted that they were the descendants of the renowned Sir William, His Majesty George III's satrap, the great Morinon of the northern wilderness and his Indian wives.
They were a violent contrast to the grand gentlemen of the city beneath. They burrowed in the earth, lived in sand caves, wove baskets and did odd jobs, any old thing for a living. There was no rose lane that led to their doorways, though there was an avenue there, not of " Araby the Blest," but of Stone Arabia, the squaw land up the Mohawk, from which they came. They bore, some of them, good old Dutchi names, traces of their gypsy-like hue and fea- tures are recognizable to old inhabitants now and stand out in hair and complexion among some of our respectable and respected citi- zens. Let none have the heart or courage to call a man a " Yanse" now. The question was put by a venomous client into the inouth of an eminent lawyer from abroad and was, in his innocence addressed to a copper colored witness. "Are you a Janse ?" The county judge promptly called down the counsel and compelled him to apol- ogise. It was promptly done and well it was, for a pair of swarthy hands would have been at the lawyer's throat the moment he got into the street.
The race is fading out into the white man's skin and the darkest brave died long ago. A couple of decades inore and there will not be a trace of this Indian gypsy people.
On the alluvial banks of the river, all was totally different. There was no sand to burrow in but the grandest soil for cultivation. It had been superb territory for corn, long before the footstep of the
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INCREASE OF POPULATION.
coming citizen had placed its imprint upon it. The Mohawk farmer utilized it industriously and successfully, not only for the food pro- ducts of life, but established a broom making industry that in the coming century supplied almost all of the United States. Factories were built all around the outskirts of the city, Rotterdam and Glen- ville had scores of them. Large fortunes were made in the business. Most of the labor saving machinery was invented here. But we built the Erie Canal, giving the city a short and evanescent boom. Rail- roads gave freight facilities. The rapidly increasing population in the west, which, in after years with its marvelous soil that, "when you tickled it with a hoe it laughed with a thousand flowers," picked up the industry from the eastern emigrant. In the middle of the 19th century, the business was knocked out of sight. There is but little left of it. What there is, still demonstrates that Schenectady county makes the best brooms on earth.
So in 1798, the young city soon came to be known as the "Ancient," by the reason of its early incorporation by the State and was born on a soil already replete with the solid basis of actual and thrilling history, with the charin of interesting tradition, with the reputation of its merchants for integrity and financial stability, un- surpassed in the young land. Fringed on the sandy east by the nar- row belt of the squalid "Janse," bordered on every point of the compass by the independent well-to-do, the honest and respected farmer, she left the village life and entered on a municipal career that was destined a hundred years later to change her naine from the " Ancient " to the " Electric City " and to attract the attention and admiration of the scientific and inventive world.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE FIRST SEMI-CENTENNIAL OF THE NEW CITY.
Joseph C. Yates was the first mayor. He was the eldest son of Col. Stoeffel Yates of the colonial wars and of the Revolution, the
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
assistant deputy quartermaster general under Philip Schuyler, and as the letters of the latter show, his warin personal friend. The Colo- nel was also, as appears from the documents left behind him, Pur- veyor General to the purse of the extravagant and reckless Arnold whom he evidently loved and admired until the day of his treason. General Fuller, who managed the family estates of his son, says that it was said of him, that after Arnold's treason, he never spoke his name and would turn away with evident grief when it was inen- tioned.
A moment's digression will, it is hoped, be pardoned. It is taken now, as before, in these pages to do justice to a woman of the nobil- ity and character of Catharine Vrooman and other of the sturdy brave stock of the Mohawk burghers.
Stoeffel returned from the wars to become an importer. He had been a civil engineer. He had married Jane Bradt, daughter of Captain Andrease. It is of this plain Jane Bradt, the descendant of the half breed wife of Jacques Cornelise Van Slyck, this sketch is written to illustrate what force of character and self-reliant purpose can do.
Stoeffel died in 1785, only forty-eight years of age. Jellis, his brother, a hard fighting young officer. who was living on the family plantation, was made executor and Jane, the widow, executrix of the Colonel's will. Jellis was a farmer, plain and simple. When he died, his brother was enlarging and rebuilding the house No. 28 Front street, now owned by Mr. Richard Walton. He left a decent competence but a large family. Jellis insisted that four children, Joseph C., Henry, John B., and Andrew, should go to work at trades or back to the Glenville farm and the niggers. Jane Bradt insisted that the children should be educated and she was by long odds the best insistor.
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