USA > New York > Schenectady County > Schenectady County, New York : its history to the close of the nineteenth century > Part 19
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No trace of the works can be found.
E LE & Williams & Bro 35
George . Ingersoll
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FIGHT FOR WATER.
Subsequently, about the year 1836, Jabez Ward, a well known and inuch respected citizen, established a system of water delivery by tapping springs along Veeder avenue and the base of the hills there. The water was conducted by the gravity system through wooden logs which were of white pine and about one foot in diameter. The water was conveyed through a bore of not much inore than two or three inches in diameter. It went to State street, down through State to Washington avenue with a branch at Ferry street, thence into Union. It seems also to have been made from Ferry to Front. Any quantity of these logs were taken up at the building of the water works by the Stanford Company in 1885. The tubes or logs were connected by cylinders of iron of an ingenious construction ; plenty of them are in possession of many citizens now. It was a very scant supply and accommodated but a sinall territory. It was a private enterprise and probably abandoned because it did not pay. Many of the logs are in use in the cemetery to hold the bank where support is needed. The work about the Potter tomb is uphield by them.
No other efforts seem, from all we can learn, to have been inade for a regular city supply, until the late Senator Stanford organized a company to supply the city with water. He began operations in 1872. His plan was to take water directly from the river, not a good source then, but far better than now, when the river, in open and flagrant violation of the law, is an open sewer for all the manu- factories from Utica down. He built the present power house at the foot of Front street, supplying it by the use of Holly engines. The city was piped, hydrants established at the corners of the streets and the water began to flow. But the Senator had trouble from the start. Sand, silt and grit of all kinds cut the machinery, causing stoppages, delays and 110 end of trouble. So an intake was built at the east end of the second pier of the old bridge. The water there is very deep, about twenty-six feet. The pipes leaked, and, still persevering, a new intake was built on piles where it now remains in use in times of emergency in front of Mr. Yates' boat house. Schenectady, meanwhile, had obtained possession of the plant.
15
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
But the water was foul, in freshets too muddy even for the bath, and the city frantically struggled for pure water. For years, Cow- horn Creek, running from the cemetery westward under Lafayette, Barrett and White (now Clinton), and under State, through the lower bouwery to the river, had been a horror. Investigation had long shown that a dead line ran along its bank, within which pesti- lence did its fiercest work, and where typhoid fever held a terrible dominion. All efforts to prevent sewage into its open stream failed, and the city began to get a bad name. On the flats, south of the city, it was joined by the creeks from Schermerhorn's and Veeder's ponds. The culvert under the canal became clogged. `Assembly- man Yates succeeded in passing a bill in the legislature by which the state opened the culvert and diverged the streamns in a direct line to the Mohawk. It was a tremendous relief, but the malarious swamps still existed south of the city along between the banks of the D. & H., and the N. Y. C. R. R.
Meanwhile, the sewage of the city increased, and the mains lead- ing to the Mohawk below the " poor pasture " were built in a day when no such monstrous growth was expected, and the town had to be dug up again.
The chemists and doctors were getting in fine work all these years and sounding the tocsin of alarm. And they were right. Less than a quarter of a century ago this city was in a deplorable condition. Rigid ordinances were passed compelling connection with the city mains in all new buildings, removing all pestiferous outhouses, closing up bacterial and baccilic wells. And all united in denouncing the vileness of the water supply.
The " city fathers " did their best. They inade every effort to obey the demands of the Board of Health, of which the late Dr. Van Zandt, the present Dr. W. T. Clute and Livingston Swits were and are such efficient members.
The search for better water began. An attempt had been inade by Senator Stanford to build wells at the foot of Ferry street, under the power house. It failed. Then great wells were dug opposite on the Glenville side. These were abandoned because the water was not there.
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FIGHT FOR WATER.
Then the city went to the liead of Van Slyck's Island at the con- fluence of the Frog Alley and the main river, and began a plan of building wells there and established the power station on the south side of the canal. The wells were dug and the water tested. The water supply was still insufficient and the beautiful pond in Scotia, known as Sander's Lake, was harnessed into service to see if it could not help the town, which began by this time to be pretty dry. The water was known to be of exceeding purity, in fact one vast spring, and fed by others all around its edge. A damn was built across its outlet and a steam pump set at work to test the capacity of the sup- ply. After two weeks' steady pumping, the lake was reduced three feet in depth and the surrounding springs were rivulets of magni- ficent, but insufficient water pouring from an elevation where the receding waters had left thein, and despair began to settle down on the hydraulic engineers. The people were getting fretful and impa_ tient with what was called a monstrous waste of money in inere experiments. Thompson Lake, Warner's Lake in the Heidleberghs, Marie Lake and Mariaville Pond in Duanesburgh and even Ballston Lake were suggested and measurements and estimates inade. The streams running out from every one of the sources of supply were found inadequate.
All this time the Hon. Simon Schermerhorn and other prominent citizens of Rotterdam, who knew the lay of the land and the waters under the earth, had been insisting that the hillside back of the first and second locks No. 21,622 was a watershed of sufficient volmine to supply all the city needed and give as good and pure water as could be found on earth.
So wells were dug and relief came at last. Magnificent water in abundance, from a source that seemed to be an underground river, was discovered by George Ingersol, the present superintendent. To his indefatigable efforts Schenectady owes as much as to any other man. He was in the business of discovery from the very beginning, and was given charge of the work. The present water station and power house in Rotterdam were built, water led two and one-half iniles into town and the first power house retained for an emergency.
The creeks have been arched and culverted, the New York Cen-
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
tral completing the work by burying them beneath its new freight houses. Schenectady is to-day one of the healthiest cities in the state. It is an astonishing fact, but absolutely true, that while we use the water of Rotterdam, the city is positively free from typhoid fever. When an emergency arising from accident, drives us to a few hours use of the river water, typhoid appears. In every instance, and they have been very few, this fact has been demonstrated.
The water is of surpassing clearness and purity, decidedly blue in shade, while the river water is yellow. Its temperature is 46° Fahr. all the year around, a trifle hard for the toilet and laundry but fully available, and the finest table water east of the Alleghanies.
Its present supply is 8,826,000 gallons per twenty-four hours. Our needs and use at present are five and one-half million gallons in twenty-four hours. It will not adınit of wasteful use with our increasing population. It is believed that the supply exists for miles east and west, and that a greater demand can be inet without impov- erishing the present wells.
It has cost $400,000 to find a well, half a million to get rid of the river water, but no one now begrudges the money.
CHAPTER XXIV.
GENEALOGY.
The full credit for all the wonderful research of this chapter must be accorded to Professor Pearson; to the aid of the distinguished archivist, the Hon. John Sanders has added his valuable contribution derived from research, personal knowledge and the history that comnes reliably down from father to son. Wherever a family has died out and their blood no longer flows here, its name has been left out. It is intended in this chapter to give those families only whose blood still runs in the veins of descendants.
First we give the descendants of the original proprietors.
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GENEALOGY.
The Van Curler blood is no longer in Schenectady. Brouer left 110 children. Van Velsen's whole family was massacred. There is 110 trace of any descendant of Peter Adrian. De Winter left no children. Catalina Bradt, widow of Arent Andrias Bradt, for whom he was attorney, was the real owner of the premises held in his name, and her genealogy can be easily traced in these pages. The Schermerhorns, one of the oldest and certainly the most eminent of the early settlers, is mingled with the name of hier well known husband.
The descendants of Glen are as follows :
Jacob Alexander Glen, the eldest, of Albany, born in 1645, died October 2d, 1685, aged forty years ; he died a little more than one month previous to the death of his father. He left surviving him three sons and two daughters, viz :
John Glen, born 1675, who inarried Jane Bleecker of Albany, December 11th, 1698, and died in 1707, leaving two sons and one daughter, viz: Jacob Alexander, Jolın Alexander and Catharine Glen.
Jacob Alexander Glen, Jr., was born October 7th, 1703, and mar- ried Elizabeth Cuyler, December 29th, 1732 ; died April 16th, 1746. This was the father of our distinguished citizen, John Glen, who was quartermaster during the French and Revolutionary wars, sta- tioned at Schenectady, and who built and occupied the venerable mansion situated on Washington avenue, now modernized. He was born in July, 1735, and died in Greenbush at the residence of his son-in-law, John J. Van Rensselaer, September 23d, 1828, aged ninety- three years. Jacob A. Glen was also the father of Col. Henry Glen of Schenectady, who was member of Congress from this, then Albany district, from 1794 to 1802. Colonel Glen was born July 13th, 1739, and died January 6th, 1814, aged nearly seventy-five years.
Both of these Glens were ardent and stirring patriots of the Revo- lution and highly esteemed personal friends of General Washington. On all occasions, when the older brother was quartermaster, the younger brother was his deputy.
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY
Anna, the eldest daughter of Jacob Alexander Glen, Sr., born in 1677, married Harmanus Wandell.
Jacob, the second son of Jacob Alexander Glen, Sr., born in 1679, and Helena, his youngest daughter, born November 21st, 1683, mar- ried Jacob G. Lansing in 1710.
Alexander Glen, the third youngest son of Jacob Alexander Glen, Sr., was born November 15th, 1685, removed to Schenectady, and on the 18th of December, 1714, married Rebecca, daughter of Isaac Swits. He died November 2d, 1763, and was buried in the old Dutch church cemetery at Schenectady. He had several children, and is represented in this community by many lineal descendants. His son Jacob Glen, born December 8th, 1717, married Folica, daughter of Jan Barentse Wemple, and widow of Barent H. Vroo- man. She died April 16th, 1749. His daughter, Susanna, born August 4th, 1722, married Abraham Fonda, February 22d, 1755, and died March 21st, 1773. Abraham Fonda owned and lived in the house No. 27 Front street in 1752 and now occupied by Mr. Hansen V. Yates.
Alexander Glen, the second son of Alexander Lindsey Glen (com- monly called Captain Glen), born in 1647, lived in the village of Schenectady, and married Anna, daughter of Jan Barentse Wemp, (now called Wemple), who received, in 1662, in company with Jacques Cornelise Van Slyck, the Indian title for the great island lying immediately west of Schenectady, and owned a house and lot in the village, on the west side of Washington street, a little north of State street. He owned a large bouwery (farm) at Lubbude's land (Troy), but was never called a proprietor of Schenectady, not being one of the original petitioners. He died soon after 1662, and his widow, Maritie Mynderse, in 1664, inarried Swear Teunise Van Velsen, one of the original proprietors.
Captain Alexander Glen was a justice of the peace for the county of Albany ; but in the troublesome times of 1689, when most of the citizens of Schenectady belonged to, or sided with, the Leslerian faction, Jacob Lesler appointed Myndert Barentse Wemp, a brother- in-law of the Captain, a justice in his stead. Wemp was killed at the burning of Schenectady in 1690, and his son John, with two of his
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GENEALOGY.
negro men, carried into captivity. John subsequently returned, mar- ried a daughter of Ryer Schermerhorn, June 15th, 1700, and became one of the trustees of the Schenectady patent.
Mr. Glen died in 1695, aged about thirty-eight years, leaving his widow Anna, surviving him, but no children.
John Alexander Glen, the third and youngest son of Alexander Lindsey Glen, (commonly called Major Coudre, his designation by the French and Indians), was born November 5th, 1648, and died November 6th, 1731, at the advanced age of eighty-three years. Mr. Glen was twice married. First, on the 2d day of May, 1667, to Anna, the daughter of John Peek, an early settler of New Amster- damn, and from whom the creek at Peekskill takes its name. He was living at Scotia when Schenectady was burned in 1690. She died on the 19th day of December in that year. On the 21st of June, 1691, he married Deborah, the daughter of Evert Jans Wen- dell, and widow of Myndert Wemp, a justice of the peace, appointed by Liesler, who was killed at the massacre of 1690. So it will be seen that Captain Alexander Glen and Major John A. Glen, his brother, married sisters-in-law.
From his two marriages, John Alexander Glen had thirteen child- ren, some of whom died in infancy, and are not particularly noticed here.
Catharine, his eldest child, born March 23d, 1672, on March 10th, 1698, married Gerrit Lansing, Jr., died, February 15th, 1731.
Jemima, his second child, born May 9th, 1674, married November 9th, 1694, James Van Dyck, a physician of Schenectady, where he practiced until his death. He is the ancestor of the gallant Col. Cornelius Van Dyck, who was lieutenant-colonel of the First Vete- ran New York regiment in the Revolutionary War, commanded by Colonel Goosen Van Shaick, and after Van Shaick's promotion, became its colonel during the remainder of the war. Mrs. Van Dyck died February 6th, 1731.
Alexander, his third child, born November 30th, 1676, died off the island of Madagascar, December 17th, 1696, as surgeon on board a ship of war, aged about twenty years.
Maria, his fourth child, born March 21st, 1678, married Albert
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
Vedder, December 17th, 1699. He was carried away captive by the French and Indians, February 9th, 1690. She died March 13th, 1753, aged nearly seventy-four years. Her husband died August Ist, 1753, aged eighty-two years, two months and twenty-one days.
Helena, his fifth child, born November 2d, 1681, married July 9th, 1699, John Baptist Van Eps. He, too, was carried away captive to Montreal by the French and Indians, in 1690, but, after a bondage of three years, made his escape.
John, his sixth child, born November 28th, 1683, died December 5th, 1709, unmarried.
Jacob Glen, his eighth child (commonly called Colonel Glen), was born December 29th, 1690, and on December 15th, 1717, married Sarah Wendell, daughter of Captain Johannes Wendell of Albany. He inherited from his father the Scotia mansion and a considerable portion of his original estate, but added largely to his possessions before his decease, which occurred at his residence, in Scotia, Aug- ust 15th, 1762. His wife died three days afterwards, both from malignant ship fever, contracted through some emigrants whom they had charitably housed a short time previous. At the time of his decease Colonel Glen was aged seventy years, eight months and four- teen days ; at his wife's decease she was aged seventy-three years, nine months and eleven days.
Colonel Glen was a man of much influence in the community ; an extensive agriculturalist, a noted surveyor, had been several times a member of the provincial legislature, and held the command of all the militia forces west of Albany, constituting a regiment at one time numbering 3,000 men.
The Veeder lineage is as follows :
Peter Veeder, on the 9th day of June, 1704, married Naeltie, daughter of Class Van Der Volgen ; left three sons and one daughter surviving him, but was not living, June 26th, 1709, when his youngest son, Peter, was born. His father gave him lands on the Norman's Kil.
Gerrit Veeder, second son of Simon Volkertse, married, October 3d, 1690, Tryntje (Catharine), daughter of Helmer (William) Otten. She was the only child of Otten, who died in 1676. His widow,
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GENEALOGY.
Ariantie (Harriet), daughter of Arent Andreas Bradt, called the Norman, subsequently, about nine months after his decease, married Ryer Schermerhorn. Gerrit Veeder died in 1755, and left surviving him five sons, respectively named Helmers, Wilhelmus, Hendricus, Simons and Cornelis ; and four daughters, named Engletie, inarried to Johannes Vedder; Ariantje, married to Daniel Danielse Van Ant- werpen ; Annatie, married to William Bancker, and Hellena, ınar- ried to John Bancker.
Gerrit owned the land about Veeder's mill, early in the eighteenth century, and had lease from the Church of the inill privilege, in 1718. Through his wife, Catharine, he obtained possession of lots in the village, on the north and west corners of Union and Church streets, which she inherited from her father, Otten.
Otten had, in 1670, purchased from Peter Adriance, called Soge- makelyk, also as original proprietor, twenty-six morgans of land, which afterwards became the old Schermerhorn mill farm, now in Rotterdam ; also a village lot, two hundred feet square, located on the southwest corner of Union and Church streets. These his daughter Catharine did not inherit, for it seems at his death John Van Eps owned and occupied the village lot, and Ryer Schermer- horn, who married his widow, as stated, owned the twenty-six morgans.
Mr. Schermerhorn was always a prominent actor in the early days of Schenectady. He was the oldest son of Jacob Janse Scheriner- horn, who was the ancestor of all the Schermerhorns in this country, born at Waterland, Holland, in 1622. We find Jacob, Janse a pros- perous brewer and trader at Beverwyck, as early as 1648.
In that year he was arrested at Fort Orange, by Governor Stuyve- sant's order, on a charge of selling arms and ammunition to the Indians. His books and papers were siezed, and himself removed a prisoner to Fort Amsterdamn, where he was sentenced to banishment for five years, with the confiscation of all his property.
Jacob Janse made his will, May 26th, 1688, and soon after died at Schenectady. Notwithstanding his losses by confiscation in 1648, his estate, amounting to 56,882 guilders, was large for the times.
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY : ITS HISTORY.
He left surviving him five sons, named Ryer, Symon, Jacob, Corne- lius and Lucas ; also three daughters, named Machtelt, Jannette and Neeltie.
Ryer Schermerhorn, this oldest and remarkable son of Jacob Janse, in July, 1676, married Ariantje, daughter of Arent Arentse Bradt, and widow of Helmer Otten, of Albany ; immediately after marriage Ryer settled in Schenectady, upon bouwery No. 4, on the flats, heretofore known as " Schermerhorn's Mill," which, after being in possession of the family for two hundred years, has lately passed to other owners. This property came to Ryer through his wife, Ariantje, whose first husband, Otten, purchased it of the original proprietor, Peter Adrianse (Sogemakelyk).
Ryer Schermerhorn was one of the first patentees of the town- ship of Schenectady, granted in 1684, and was the sole surviving patentee of the township in 1705, when he was complained of as exercising arbitrary power over the town affairs, and rendering 110 account of his proceedings. Of this more will be subsequently written. In 1690, he was a member of the Provincial Assembly from Albany county, and also a justice of the peace. In 1700 he was appointed an associate judge of the Court of Common Pleas. He made his will April 5th, 1717, and died February 19th, 1719. His wife, Ariantje, died in 1717. He left surviving him three sons, John, Jacob and Arent ; also two daughters, Catalina, wife of Johan -. nes Wemp, and Janneke, wife of Volkert Simonse Veeder.
The writer, for the present, would have continued the Schermer- horn line no further, except to correct impressions held by somne, confounding the two Ryers, grandfather and grandson, both shrewd and remarkable men.
John, the eldest son of Ryer Schermerhorn, inherited the home- stead farm at the "Schuylenberg " Mills, etc., and on the 8th of April, 1711, married Engeltie, daughter of Jan Hendrickse Vrooman. He died in 1752, and his wife in 1754. He left surviving him six sons, Ryer, the eldest, born September 24th, 1716, so often in tra- ditional data confounded with his distinguished grandfather. Of this grandson Ryer, more will be written hereafter. The other sons, brothers of Ryer, were named John, Simon, Bartholomew, Jacob and
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GENEALOGY.
Bernhardus Freeman. John also left six daughters; Ariantje, mar- ried to Nicholas DeGraff; Gezina, married to Phillip Van Patten ; Catalina, married to John Dodds; Neeltje, married to Class Viele ; Magdalena, died unmarried, and Jannetje, married Barent Veeder.
After this, as it is claimed, justifiable digression, we return to Simon Volckertse Veeder's line.
John Veeder, his third son, on the 19th of November, 1697, mar- ried Susanna, daughter of Myndert Wemp, and for his second wife, June 3d, 1718, married Susanna Wendell of Albany. He died in 1746, and left surviving him two sons, named respectively, Myndert and Simon ; also three daughters, Engeltie, married to Jacobus La Grange, Maria and Debora, married first to Ryer Wemp, secondly to Dowe Fonda.
Volckert, his fourth son, August 6th, 1693, married Jannitie, daughter of the elder Ryer Schermerhorn. By his father's will he inherited farın No. 9 on the bouwelandt (flats).
He died August 12th, 1733, and left surviving him four sons, respectively namned Simon, Ryer, John and Hendricus, and three daughters, Ariantje, married to Williamn Daasen; Susanna, married to Harmanus Vedder, and Catalyntje, married to Simon Veeder.
Folica, a daughter of Simon Volkertse, married Barent Janse Wemp, (Wemple), who was appointed captain of a company of foot by Jacob Leisler in 1690.
Gertrude, also a daughter, July 4th, 1680, married John Hendrickse Vrooman. They left many descendants, and their son Peter, born October 2d, 1688, was killed at the Buekendahl massacre, three miles northwest of Schenectady in 1748.
Magdalena, another daughter, married William Appel, who was severely wounded at the burning of Schenectady in 1690, as was. also his brother, John Appel.
The Van Slyck lineage is as follows :
Hillitie, the eldest daughter of Cornelis Antonisen Van Slyck, married Peter Danielse Van Olinda of Niskayuna. She was for many years employed as provincial interpreter with the Indians by the government at $50 per annum. The Mohawk sachems in 1667, gave her the great island in the Mohawk river at Niskayuna. She
.
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SCHENECTADY COUNTY: ITS HISTORY.
and her husband sold the island in 1669 to Captain Johannes Clute. The sachems also gave to her land at the Willow Flat, below Port Jackson ; and at the boght on the Mohawk in Watervliet. She died February Ioth, 1707, leaving three sons, Daniel, Jacob and Matthew. The last died unmarried.
Daniel, the oldest son, June 11th, 1696, married Lysbeth Krigier, a granddaughter of the old burgomaster Martinus Krigier, and left surviving him three sons, Peter, John and Martin.
Jacob, the second son, married Eva, daughter of Class DeGraff, and left four sons, named Peter, William, Martin and Nicholas; also one daughter, Helena, who on the 16th of June, 1723, married Johannes Quackenbos.
Leah, the youngest daughter of Cornelis Antonisen, married, first, Class Willemse Van Coppernol, who hired the farm of William Teller at Schenectady, and subsequently settled on land of his wife at the Willegen, below Port Jackson. He died in 1692, leaving one son named William. She subsequently, July 24th, 1693, inarried Jonathan Stevens, who had leased Lysbeth Brower's farin at the Hoeck in Scotia, in 1697. He came from New England, and was born in 1675. Before his death he owned a home lot in Schenec- tady, and a farm about four miles northeast of the town, on the north side of the Mohawk river. At his death he left surviving two sons, named Hendricus and Arent, also two daughters, named Annatje and Dina.
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