USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. I > Part 33
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Kalm's Visit to Albany in 1749.
and milk and bread They sometimes eat cheese at breakfast, and at dinner : it is not in slices, but scraped or rasped, so as to resemble coarse flour, which they pretend adds to the good taste of cheese. They com. monly drink very small beer, or pure water.
The governor of New York often confers at Albany with the Indians of the Five Nations, or the Iroquese ( Mohawks, Senekas, Cayugaws, Onondagoes and Onidoes), especially when they intend either to make war upon, or to continue a war against the French. Sometimes their deliberations likewise turn upon their conversion to the christian reli- gion ; and it appears by the answer of one of the Indian chiefs, or sa- chems, to Gov. Hunter, at a conference in this town, that the English do not pay so much attention to a work of so much consequence, as the French do; and that they do not send such able men to instruct the Indians, as they ought to do. For after Gov. Hunter had presented these Indians, by order of Queen Anne, with many clothes and other presents, of which they were fond, he intended to convince them still more of her Majesty's good will and care for them, by adding, " that their good mother, the Queen, had not only generously provided them with fine clothes for their bodies, but likewise intended to adorn their souls, by the preaching of the gospel; and that to this purpose, some ministers should be sent to them to instruct them "' The governor had scarce ended, when one of the oldest sachems got up and answered, " that in the name of all the Indians, he thanked their gracious good queen and mother for the fine clothes she had sent them ; but that in regard to the ministers, they had already had some among them (whom he likewise named), who. instead of preaching the holy gospel to them, had taught them to drink to excess, to cheat, and to quarrel among themselves." He then entreated the governor to take from them these preachers, and a number of Europeans who resided amongst them ; for before they were come among them, the Indians had been an honest, sober and innocent people, but most of them became rogues now ; that they had formerly had the fear of God, but that they hardly believed his existence at present ; that if he (the governor) would do them any favor, he should send two or three blacksmiths amongst them, to teach them to forge iron, in which they were unexperienced. The governor could not forbear laughing at this extraordinary speech. I think the words of St. Paul not wholly inapplicable on this occasion : "For the name of God is blasphemed amongst the Gentiles, through you."- Rom. ii. 24.
JUNE the 21st. About five o'clock in the afternoon we left Albany, and proceeded towards Canada. We had two men with us, who were to accompany us to the first French place, which is Fort St. Frederick, or, as the English call it, Crown Point. For this service each of them was to receive five pounds of New- York currency, besides which I was to provide them with victuals. This is the common price here ; and he that does not choose to conform to it, is obliged to travel alone. We were forced to take up with a canoe, as we could get neither battoes nor boats of bark ; and as there was a good road along the west side of the river Hudson, we left the men to row forwards in the canoe, and we went along it on the shore, that we might be better able to examine it and its curiosities with greater accuracy. It is very incommodious to row in these canoes; for one stands at each end, and pushes the boat forwards. They commonly keep close to the shore, that they may be
275
Kalm's Visit to Albany in 1749.
able to reach the ground easily. Thus the rowers are forced to stand upright, whilst they row in a canoe. We kept along the shore all the evening : towards the river it consisted of great hills, and next to the water grew the trees, which I have before mentioned, and which like- wise are to be met with on the shores of the isle in the river situate below Albany. The easterly shore of the river is uncultivated, woody and hily; but the western is flat, cultivated, and chiefly turned into corn-fields, which had no drains, though they wanted them in some places. It appeared very plainly here that the river had formerly been broader ; for there is a sloping bank on the corn fields, at about thirty yards distance from the river. with which it always runs parallel. From this it sufficiently appears that the rising ground formerly was the shore of the river, and the corn fields its bed. As a further proof, it may be added that the same shells which abound on the present shore of the river, and are not applied to any use by the inhabitants, lie plentifully scattered on these fields. I cannot say whether this change was occa- sioned by the diminishing of the water in the river, or by its washing some earth down the river and carrying it to its sides, or by the river's cutting deeper in on the sides.
THE FAR WEST OF 1795.
A treaty of peace and friendship was concluded at Canandaigua, in 1794, between the United States and the Six Nations, by which the danger of depredations upon settlers was removed, and a large and fertile region opened to the surplus population of the New England States. The Genesee Valley immediately became an El Dorado to the people of those states. The want of roads, and better means of con- veyance, in many cases, than ox sleds, rendered it a far off country ; but the fame of its wheat fields induced multitudes to brave every hardship in subduing the wilderness. The principal avenue to that country lay through the city of Albany, and the tide of emigration in the winter of 1795 was a great phenomenon to its inhabitants. It was estimated that 1200 sleighs, freighted with men, women, children and furniture, passed through the city in three days of the month of February. On the 28th of that month, a citizen undertook to ascertain the amount of a single day's travel, and counted 500 sleighs from sunrise to sunset - those passing in the night not being enumerated.
A RARE BIRD.
The citizens of Albany were entertained, in November 1788, with the extraordinary sight of an "uncommon bird," killed at Saratoga and sent down as a rarity. " The distance from the tip of one wing to the other, when both were extended, was 9 feet 2 inches ; the mouth was large enough to contain the head of a boy ten years old, and the throat so capacious as to admit the foot and leg of a man, boot and all," No one could decide what species the stranger belonged to, till, the counsel of Dr. Mitchell of New-York being called in, it was decided to be a pelican-perhaps the only one that ever extended his discoveries to this region
276
Biographical Notice of Harmanus Bleecker.
HARMANUS BLEECKER.
Mr. Bleecker was a descendant of the celebrated Jan Jansen Bleecker, the ancestor, it is believed, of all who bear that name in this State. Jacob Bleecker, the father of Harmanus, was a merchant and a much esteemed citizen. After having received a classical education, Mr. Bleecker entered upon the study of the law in the office of John V. Henry and James Emott, who were eminent counsellors of the day ; and was admitted to practice at the bar of this State in 1801, in the 22d year of his age. He entered into partnership with Theodore Sedgwick, late of Stockbridge; which connection endured for many years, and proved honorable and lucrative to both. Mr. Bleecker in particular became known throughout the State as an eminent advocate, and his name is frequently to be found on the pazes of the reports of the days when Kent, and Spencer, and Thompson, and Van Ness, were the great luminaries of the science .*
He was also successful in his political career. Having been several years a member of assembly for this county, he was in 1810 elected to Congress, where he served during the stormy period of the last war with Great Britain, and acting with the federal party, was one of those who opposed the war. At various times he was honored with other impor- tant trusts. indicative of the high opinion entertained of him. His name is found in the first board of managers of the Albany Bible Society, in- corporated in 1811 He was a regent of the University for several years; a commissioner on the part of this state, for settling the boundary between New- York and New-Jersey. Gov. Clinton, to whom he had been actively opposed for many years previous, offered him the post of adjutant general, which he declined, while he appreciated the magnani- mity that dictated the proposal. On the accession of Mr. Van Buren to the presidency, Mr. Bleecker was sent to the Hague as the American minister, where he made an impression that will not be effaced in our generation. It was during his residence at the Hague that he married a lady of the country, Miss Sebastiana Cornelia Mentz, with whom he visited Holland once after the close of his mission.
* It will be seen, in the following list of students who acquired their profession in his office, that it includes many who have, by their talents and worth, risen to places of eminence and distinction.
Henry D. Sedgwick, Robert Sedgwick. Solomon Southwick, John W. Taylor (Speaker of the House of Representatives, 1825-26). David Rust, Henry Jones, Abra- ham Holdridge, Cornelius R. D Lansing. Jacob Dox, Peter P. J. Kean, Jacob Suther- land (Judge of old Supreme Court), Henry W. Channing, John Rodman, Thomas D. Higgins. Sterling Goodenow, Isaac Truax. Gideon Hawley, Peter Gansevoort, Henry Starr. David Raymond, Ebenezer Baldwin, William Darling, Abraham Schuyler, Henry H Fuller, John Porter, E. P. Storrs, James Dexter, Gilbert L Thompson, James C. Bloodgood. John D. Crocker, Cornelius Gates. Frederick Matthews, Bargood E Hand. Richard V. De Witt, Frederick Whittlesey (Judge of Supreme Court), N N. Hall, Henry J. Linn. C. V. S. Kane. Metcalf Yates, Hamilton Bogart, John B. Van Schaick. Augustus Beardslee, Henry G. Wheaton, S V. R. Bleecker, W. Duer Hen -. derson, Charles Fenno Hoffman, Bradford R. Wood, David Dudley Field, D A Noble, Philip S. Van Rensselaer. Harvey Hyde. Charles Walsh, S. Cook, P. V. S. Wendover, E T. T. Martin. Israel T. Hatch, Leonard Bement, W. H. Bogart, John B. Luce, Charlemagne Tower, John James Kane, Henry H. Martin, Charles N. Rowley, Cam- bridge Livingston, John W. Bradford, Francis Randall.
Biographical Notice of Harmanus Bleecker. 277
Mr. Bleecker was one of the most cultivated gentlemen in the state. After his return from Holland, he continued the study of literature in all its varied departments. and paid much attention to theology. Though by association, and by family and inherited sympathies, identified with the older times and people of this country, no man entered more zea- lously into every progress of the times, and rejoiced that for the great multitude of the people the advancing years were, more and more, years of education and comfort and prosperity. A truer republican our coun- try did not possess ; and he carried with him in his diplomatic career, and in his residence abroad, the dignity and the simplicity of an Ameri- can, never ceasing in every proper and courteous way to commend his country and his country's institutions to the respect of the European. He spoke and wrote the Dutch language with perfect purity and ele- gance; which, united to his engaging manners and irresistible dignity, procured for him, on retiring from his mission at the Hague, an official expression of regret at his departure from the Dutch government, a compliment the more flattering as it is almost without a precedent.
The Hon. Harmanus Bleecker died at his residence on the corner of Chapel and Steuben streets, on the 19th of July, at the age of seventy years. The ancient house in which he was born on the 19th of October, 1779, stood upon the next lot south, and was taken down a few years ago, when he erected the block which now occupies its site. He was possessed of an ample fortune, which enabled him to consult his taste in the occupation of his time during the latter years of his life, a privi- lege of which he availed himself wisely.
The pedigree of his branch of the family is as follows :
I. JAN JANSEN BLEECKER, a native of Meppel, in the province of Overyssel, Holland, came to New- Amsterdam in 1658, and subsequently settled at Albany. He was one of the first aldermen named in the charter of Albany, 1636 ; was recorder from 1696 to 1699, and mayor in 1700. Died Nov 21, 1732, aged 91. In 1667 he married Margaret, daughter of Rutger Jacob-en. His children were JOHANNES, Rutger (recorder 1725, mayor 1726 to 1728), Nicholas, Hendrick, Catharine, Jane, Margaret, Rachel.
II. JOHANNES, born 1668 ; married Anna Koster 1693 ; succeeded his father as recorder of Albany 1700, and as mayor 1701; member of the general assembly 1701 and 1702; died Dec. 20, 1738, aged 70. His children were, Johannes, Gertrude, Nicholas, Hendrick, Margaretta, Anna, JACOB, Anthony.
III. JACOB, born March 1, 1715 ; married Margaret Ten Eyck ; died 1747, leaving one son, JACOB.
IV. JACOB, born July 22, 1747 ; married Elizabeth Wendell 1776. He left two sons, Jacob I. (died unmarried), and HARMANUS.
V. HARMANUS, born Oct. 9, 1779 ; married Sebastiana Cornelia Mentz, daughter of Dirk Mientz and Immetje Keyser of Holland; died, July 19, 1849, without iss e.
The armorial ensigns of the family are thus described :
Arms, az., two embattled chevrons or, empaling, arg. a rose branch ppr. Crest, a phæon, or.
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278
Vanderheyden Palace.
VANDERHEYDEN PALACE. ERECTED, 1725; DEMOLISHED, 1833.
This venerated edifice was situated in North Pearl street, the second lot below the corner of Maiden lane, on the site now occupied by the Baptist church. It was built in 1725 by Johannes Beekman, a worthy burgher of the day. The bricks were imported from Holland, as were those of many of the houses erected at that time ; and it is supposed to have been, at the time of its demolition, one of the best specimens of the ancient Dutch architecture remaining in the state. It was occupied by Mr. Beekman as his family residence until his death in 1756, after which his two daughters continued to reside in it until their marriage, a short time previous to the war of the revolution. The eldest connect- ed herself with a gentleman of the name of Bain, belonging to the Eng- The former moving
lish army, and the youngest to Mr John McCrea. shortly after her marriage to the West Indes, McCrea and his wife con- tinued to occupy the mansion as their place of abode until after the war commenced, when they removed from the city, and the house was rented. It was afterwards occupied by Mr. George Merchant as an academy ; and some eminent professional men are still left to relate the interesting events of many happy hours they spent under his tuition. In 1773 the mansion was purchased by Mr. Jacob Vanderheyden, for the consideration of £1153, lawful money of New York ($2395,) and it was from this gentleman that it received the appellation by which it has since been familiarly known, that of the Vanderheyden Palace. It continued to be used as an academy until the great fire of 1797, when the dwelling in which Mr. Vanderheyden lived being consumed, he took up his residence in this house, and continued to occupy it till his death, which occurred in 1820. His family remained there but a few years beyond that event, after which the tenants became as various as they were numerous. The site having been selected by the Baptist society for the location of a new church. this venerable edifice, having stood one hundred and eight years, bowed to the spirit of improvement. Its dimensions were 50 feet front by 20 in depth, having a hall and two rooms on a floor. Although it had been somewhat modernized inter- nally, the massive beams and braces projecting into the rooms, the an- cient wainscoting, and the iron figures on the gable ends, involuntarily carried the mind back to dwell upon the days of old. It arrested the antiquarian fancy of Washington Irving, and is described by him in the story of Dolph Heyliger, in Bracebridge Hall, as the residence of Heer Antony Vanderheyden. The weatherfane, a horse under great stress of speed, now glitters above the peaked turret of the portal at Sunny Side, Mr. Irving having secured that relic from the hands of the destroyer, to adorn his unique country seat.
Of the gable en lers that graced Pearl street in the palmy days of the Vanderheyden Palace, when the street was yet carpeted with verdure, instead of paving stones, but two remain on the same side of the way, another on the corner of Columbia, and one on the corner of State street, about which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter.
2
ERVIL PEASE SE
---
VANDERHEYDEN PALACE.
280
Wendell House.
1415
+
THE WENDELL HOUSE, No. 98 STATE STREET : ERECTED 1716; DEMOLISHED 1841.
This ancient edifice stood on the south side of State street, the easterly line being a little over one hundred feet west of the westerly line of South Pearl street. It was built and occupied by Harmanus Wendell, in the year 1716, as was indicated by the iron figures upon its front, after the manner of the day. The figures are barely observable in the woodcut on close inspection ; the engraver not having given them sufficient prominence. Mr. Wendell was engaged in the fur trade, and no doubt many a curious and characteristic scene of Dutch and Indian traffic was carried on within its walls. The building was torn down on the sixth day of September, 1841, for the purpose of erecting a four story brick store on its site, by Messrs. John V. L. Pruyn and Henry H. Martin, the present owners of the property. The door and bow win- dows in the first story, and the steps in front exhibit the lower portion of the building in its original situation, as ascertained from persons who
281
Wendell House.
occupied it long since. Some years before its demolition, the steps were removed, and the doors and windows lengthened so as to conform to the level of the street; previously to which, a covered passage way had been constructed for the side entrance, with a door in front, which was its situation when it was taken down. The Stevenson House, described on a subsequent page, and razed at the same time, adjoined the lot on the east, with the passage way referred to between. This relic of the olden time had become so dilapidated by its great age, and the walls so impaired by the excavations made around them, as to render its removal necessary. The editor of the Albany Argus alluded to the subject at the time, and made the following retrospective observations in connection with the event :
" What changes has it not witnessed in its life of one hundred and twenty-five years! Then, the great and far west, save the French posts at Detroit, Michilimackinac, Chicago and Du Quesne (Pittsburgh), the French settlements at New Orleans and at Natchez, and a few scattered hamlets or posts on the Ohio and Illinois, was inhabited solely by the nations and tribes of Indians, from the Six Nations of our own colony and region, to the more remote Ottawas, Wyandots, Ottagamies, Hurons, Chippewas, &c. Only thirty-five years before, the adventurous La Salle had launched the first vessel on the great lakes, had reached the Mis- sissippi, and traced it to its mouth. It was only a few years after the first great council of all the distinguished chiefs of the various tribes from Quebec to the Mississippi had been convened at Montreal, with barbaric pomp and imposing ceremonial, and the power of New France strengthened by new alliances with the natives. It was fifteen years after the expedition under M. Cadillac had established the post at De- troit. It was only three years after the chiefs of the Ottawas, having been invited to Albany, returned, disaffected to the French, and at once commenced the siege of Detroit. It was nearly half a century before the English conquest of New-France and the Pontiac war, or gigantic confederation of that remarkable chief. The principal seats of the fur trade were Michilimackinac, Montreal and Albany ; and the traffic be. tween the two latter places was as active and prosperous as it could be, in the hands of the subjects of rival powers.
"The city (ancient Beverwyck) and the manorial settlement, including Fort Orange, were little else than a fortified village, with the old church at the foot and in the middle of State street, a few stores and trading places in Chapel street (then Barrack street), and scattered residences on the margin of the river and in the vicinity of Fort Orange, afterwards called Court, now Market street. The city charter had then been granted about thirty years ; end the appearance of the city is described as being that of a small town, with two principal streets crossing each other, in one of which (State street) were all the public buildings, viz., the town- house, two churches (English and Dutch), guard-house, market, &c. There were three docks : lower, or king's dock, middle and upper , and vessels were unloaded by the aid of canoes lashed together, on which a platform was built and the goods placed. The population may have numbered 1000 : it was 3506 seventy-four years afterwards (in 1790).
" In the progress of improvement, these two buildings are soon to give place to a spacious structure, for stores, public rooms, &c. &c. We confess that we regret the disappearance of these antique remains of the
282
United States Creditors.
early history of our city. Upon the demolition of the ancient tenement of the fur dealer, which will quickly follow its associate at the corner of North Pearl and Steuben streets*, not more than one of that age will re main in State street, and scarcely another in the city ; although a few in North Pearl street and in the Colonie, of an uncertain age, but full a century in years, will continue to present their gables to the eyes of the curious. We regret it, because, go where you will in this new country, you see only the impress and handiwork of the present age. Even in places the earliest settled in the country-and where the trace and fashion of its dawn exist if any where-every thing ancient, every thing vene- rable, every memorial of other times, is swept away, or carefully con- cealed under modern alterations or thick strata of paint and whitewash; as if it were a sin to recal old things and scenes, or a duty to dwell only among the very latest devices of the architect and the calculator of rents and profits."
MEETING OF UNITED STATES CREDITORS.
On the 30th September, 1782, a meeting of the creditors of the United States, in the state of New York, was held in the City Hall in Albany, Philip Schuyler, chairman; the object of which was to lay their claims before the public, in an address, and to suggest a general convention of deputies from the public creditors of each state, to devise ways and means of payment. Philip Schuyler, Abraham Ten Broeck, Leonard Gansevoort, John N. Bleecker, Robert McClallen, and Lucas Van Vegh- ten were appointed to receive communications and correspond with other committees. Alluding to the successive violations of the public engage- ments, and a recent and aggravating one, the withholding the interest hitherto paid by bills on France, upon the moneys loaned previous to March 1st, 1778, they observe, "that its weight is most oppressively felt by those whose zeal in the cause, and confidence in their country have been most conspicuous ; who in times of danger have demonstrated their concern for the common safety, by voluntary deposits, in some in- stances of the whole, in others of a large part of their fortunes, in the public funds, and who now, many of them at least, feel themselves reduced from affluence to indigence, from circumstances of ease and plenty to penury and unaffected distress. They can not but add that there are others, not less meritorious, who have experienced perhaps even a worse fate ; those who having made subsequent loans, have long since seen the payment of interest cease; and those, who, when the distresses of the army have had no resource but in the patriotism of individuals, have cheerfully parted with the fruits of their industry, scarcely reserv- ing a sufficiency for the subsistence of their own families, without any compensation since, besides the consciousness of having been the bene- factors of their country."
A
* Now occupied by the stately residence of Dr. Barent P. Staats.
293
Stevenson House.
THE STEVENSON HOUSE. ERECTED 1780; DEMOLISHED 1841.
The above engraving will be recognized by many as an old acquain- tance. It was a massy and spacious edifice, commenced by the late John Stevenson, Esq., at the time of the breaking out of the American re- volution, and finished about 1780, fifteen years after the completion of the present Mansion House of Stephen Van Rensselaer. For nearly half a century it was the mansion of the Stevenson family, and was occupied by Mr. Van Buren during the period he held the office of governor of this state. It was afterwards rented as a hotel, and finally became the headquarters or committee rooms of the democratic party of the city, when its walls resounded to the eloquence of Counsellor Gaffney, and other favorite orators of the day. Its architecture was of a style that became popular at a period subsequent to that of the erection of its neighbor ; a few specimens of which still remain in different parts of the city.
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