USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol IX > Part 25
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All these naturally resulted from the growth and ad- vancement of the city, and were accompanied by corres- ponding changes in commerce and mechanic arts. For some years past nearly every arrival in New York from foreign ports has brought large amounts of every species of merchandise for importers in this city, and thus the country merchants are enabled to purchase goods to as good advantage here as in New York, without the time, trouble and expense of a steamboat trip.
The manufacture of household furniture has been brought to a great degree of excellence in this city, and there no longer exists any other than an imaginary neces- sity for incipient housekeepers to resort to New York to make their purchases.
Ten years ago there were not four families in the city
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who used grates and burned coal fires-their winter fuel was laid in at a high price and procured at great trouble in New York. Now there is a manufactory here which turns out beautiful grates of every variety of patterns, and all kinds of coals can be bought in the city at any season of the year-consequently a great number of families consume coals, as more comfortable, safe and economical than wood.
Increased attention has been paid, to education for some years past; a new seminary for females has been erected in the south part of the town, for the greater convenience of the enlarged population of that vicinity; this institution, and the female academy, managed by judicious trustees, and under the care of competent in- structors, deserve and doubtless will receive their fair proportions of encouragement.
The guardians of the city academy have reason to con- gratulate themselves on the success of the extended and liberal plan which they adopted some years since. They have enlarged the circle of studies and added to the pro- fessorships, and may anticipate an improving reputation so long as the institution remains under the supervision of the present principal, whose good sense, attainments. and fine literary taste, have contributed materially to its present standing and welfare.
Albany generally strikes a stranger unfavorably, on account of the miserable state of pavements, which un- like every thing else have not improved, but remain a constant theme of complaint and execration. If the pavements were once put in good repair (not laid down with a view to a good job in a year afterwards), they might be kept in first rate condition, with very little trouble and expense. It was a maxim of Dr. Franklin that a tile in time saves nine, and it is equally true that a stone in time will save a whole street. A hole that might be repaired by one man in half an hour, if left for a month, will take five men as many days. We are sorry to say that true policy in paving appears to be ter- ribly misunderstood in this city.
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City of Albany, 1823.
We can not close these remarks with adverting to the commendable spirit and enterprise displayed by the pro- prietors of the building now going up at the corner of State and Market streets; it will be, when completed, an exceedingly fine specimen of tasteful architecture and beautiful American marble. We anticipate the time when the opposite corner at the intersection of South Market street, shall be improved in some similar manner, that part of the city will then be very handsome and of striking effect. [This is in allusion to the corner now known as Douw's Building, which was then occu- pied by low two story buildings.]
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ANNALS OF THE YEAR 1857.
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JANUARY.
1. Gov. King was escorted from Congress Hall to the Capitol by the Burgesses Corps, where he was sworn into office by the Secretary of State ..... Patrick Kelly died, aged 60 ..... Mrs. Mary McNulty died, aged 50.
2. Mrs. Judith, widow of George Pearson, died, aged 80 ..... Michael Sullivan died, aged 57.
4. J. B. Palmer died, aged 50 ..... Miss Elizabeth Eights died, aged 75; daughter of the late Abraham Eights.
5. Eliza S., wife of Charles T. Smyth, died, aged 49.
6. Edward Brinckerhoff died, aged 48. Magdalen, widow of Wm. H. Bradstreet, died.
7. George W. Scott was killed by the accidental dis- charge of a gun; age 23 .. .. O. H. Chittenden, formerly surrogate of the county, died, aged 37 .. Louisa Ball died. aged 21.
8. Thermometer 10° below 0. The roads leading to the city were blocked up with snow, the drifts in some places being ten feet high. In consequence the State street market was lean and bare, being supplied almost entirely by the city farmers.
11. James Gardener died, aged 74 ..... Margaret, wife of David Terry died, aged 68 Mary Ann, wife of Robert Horner, died, aged 20.
14. A fire damaged the saw factory of Gregory & Co., in Liberty street.
15. There were 520 persons in the Alms House, of which 84 were insane.
16. A fire in Weil & Allen's clothing establishment; loss, $300.
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18. Thermometer 21 deg. below zero .. . James D. Burt died, aged 35.
19. Extremely cold, with much snow and wind ..... Railway trains delayed on all the roads ..... Mrs. D. Bundy died, aged 29.
20. Nathaniel Davis died, aged 77. He came to this city early in life, and was at first engaged in navigating a sloop on the river, and afterwards, from 1811 to 1830 composed one of the firm of Davis & Center, doing a large forwarding business. He was an upright merchant and an amiable and popular man. He was one of the original board of trustees of the Second Presbyterian Church, with which he had been connected about forty years.
The delegates of the Sabbath School Convention of the State of New York, met at the Hudson Street Methodist Episcopal Church, of which Hon. John O. Cole was elected president ..... The rail roads being blocked with snow in almost every direction, prevented so full an at- tendance as was expected.
21. Jeremiah C. Mahoney, aged 25, died at the Hospital of injuries received by a rail road accident ..... Mrs. Ann Cameron died, aged 65 ..... John Collins died, aged 25.
22. John G. Gill died, aged 59 ..... Thermometer at 4 o'clock p. m. 4 deg. below zero; at 9 o'clock 10 deg. below zero.
23. Thermometers at different points indicated 20 to 26 deg. below zero in the morning. At 3 p. m. 4 deg. below zero. The winter had scarcely a parallel in the annals of temperature ... . John Hartness died, aged 43.
24. The thermometers ranged from 21 to 28 deg. in the morning ..... George W. Hosford, formerly of Albany, died at San Francisco, aged 24.
27. Richard E. Street died, aged 23. Samuel J. Rose died, aged 27.
28. Henry Lewis died, aged 79 Dr. Charles F. Goss died, aged 41.
29. A fire at 2 o'clock in the morning destroyed the carriage factory of Long & Silsby in South Pearl street. Another fire at 10'clock at night destroyed G. O. Shaw's [Annals, ix.] 29
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tailor shop in South Pearl street, and a milliner's shop. Elizabeth C. Hance, sometime an efficient teacher of the State Normal School, died at Porterage, Ohio.
30. Giles Sanford died, aged 59.
FEBRUARY.
2. Jasper Moore. died, aged 65.
3. The New York State Medical Society had its 50th Anniversary meeting, at the City Hall. It is the oldest medical society in the United States.
4. Mrs. Sarah Wright died, aged 54 ..... The State Medical Society had a semi-centennial supper at the Delavan House.
5. A fire slightly damaged a house on the corner of Hawk and Washington streets ... .. The election for offi- cers of the Young Men's Association, resulted in the choice of Clinton Cassidy as president.
6. Richard Cramer died, aged 52.
8. The river was so much swollen by the rain which fell during the day, and the breaking up of the upper rivers, that the ice started about half past 10 in the evening, and choking up below the water set back, rising so rapidly as to submerge stores and dwellings, causing an unprecedented amount of suffering and loss. Three establishments in which lime was stored were set on fire by the slacking of the lime, and being surrounded by water so as to be unapproachable by the fire com- panies, were consumed.
9. At 8 o'clock in the morning the water covered Broadway above Maiden lane, and entered the stores on the west side which were a foot above the side walks, where water had never been seen before. It was full three feet higher than the great deluge of 1839, which was higher than had been remembered before. . Corne- lia Groesbeeck died, aged 90.
10. William Merrifield died, aged 33 ..... The State Agricultural Society held its annual meeting at their rooms, in the Geological Hall.
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Annals of the Year 1857.
11. William Murdock died, aged 28 ..... Charles Davis died, aged 52.
12. Mary, wife of P. McIntyre, died, aged 31 .... . Up- wards of $5100 had been subscribed for the sufferers by the flood ..... The State Agricultural Rooms were dedi- cated by the governor ..... Wm. Forby died, aged 62.
13. John S. Walsh died, aged 62, formerly a hardware merchant, son of Dudley Walsh, an eminent merchant of the last century.
14. Andrew S. Huxley died, aged 25 ..... William K. Cole, formerly of Albany, died at Jacksonville, Florida.
17. The ice which had formed in the river immediately after the late freshet, again broke away, and the water began to rise ..... A man on board the Hudson River Rail Road ferry boat jumped into the river and was drowned.
18. Melandea Deuel, wife of Ph. Snyder, died, aged 27.
19. Elizabeth Morehead died, aged 20 ..... Mrs. John S. Mulligan died, aged 40 ..... Wm. Daum died, aged 27.
20. A convention of abolitionists met at the Young Men's Association Rooms, at which William H. Topp, a colored gentleman, presided, and Miss Susan B. Anthony, a white woman, officiated as secretary ..... At 8 o'clock in the evening, during a hail storm there was a flash of lightning and heavy thunder.
21. A committee of the Board of Trade visited the barrier of ice below the city, and found it to extend from Van Wie's point to Castleton, and so thick and solid, as to defy any attempt to open the channel while the ice re- mained firm below. .. Charles Galpin, the originator of the Albany Microscope, died, aged 57.
22. Samuel Lee, formerly of Albany, died in New York, aged 77.
23. The military celebrated the day. The custom- ary oration was delivered by W. S. Heavenor ... The members of Fire King Engine No. 11, had a trial of the machine at the City Hall, and succeeded in throwing water to the top of the flag staff, a hight of 152 feet.
24. The water had receded so far that the pier was
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approachable by pedestrians for the first time since the 8th inst ..... Four wagon loads of provisions and other necessaries, were contributed by the Shakers to the suf- ferers by the high water.
25. During the early hours of the day the ice dam disappeared in the gorge below the city, and the entire channel was found to be unobstructed, except by floating masses. The retiring water disclosed the unshapen mass which remained of the State street bridge.
26. Martha, wife of John Rea, died ..... William Wat- son owner of the Unadilla Bank, died at his residence in Columbia street, aged 53.
27. The steamboat Hendrick Hudson reached the landing from New York at an early hour in the morning, being the first boat up.
28. Capt. Barnum Whipple died on Staten Island, aged 77. His remains were removed to the family burying ground in this city.
Commodore Whipple was born at Sunderland, in Ver- mont; but for nearly 60 years was a resident of Albany. He was engaged in the commercial marine, on the river and coast, and was captain of a vessel upon the Hudson before the age of steam, and when that river was the great avenue of commerce and travel. He thus became acquainted with most of the distinguished men of the age, and in after life his reminiscences of early times were in- teresting and instructive.
While thus engaged, he directed his efforts and suc- ceeded in calling the attention of the U. S. government to a system of light-houses upon the river for the protection of vessels. With the same eye to the interests of the commerce, in which he had been engaged, he projected the system of dykes, by which the waters of the river were concentrated, and the channel at the Overslaugh deepened. His experience in the navigation of the river, and his strength and clearness of observation, gave great weight to his recommendations.
He retired from active business with a sufficient for- tune; but though he was not destined to retain this, he
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Annals of the Year 1857.
was active in the promotion of schemes for the improve- ment of the city. The project of supplying the whole city with an adequate supply of water was first actively agitated by him, and he succeeded by appeals through the press, and calls of public meetings, in forcing public attention to the subject.
He was appointed by President Van Buren, inspector of customs, was harbor master under the city government, and held other offices of trust and honor.
He was a man of great native force of intellect-eccen- tric in opinions, and hearty in their utterance-but of a fine gentlemanly presence and interesting conversation. He had been a partial invalid for many years ; but his death at last was quiet and serene .- Atlas and Argus.
MARCH.
1. William Thompson died, aged 78.
2. Winter returned, covering the earth with snow again, and closing the river so that no boat arrived from New York; three boats left the docks here, but got aground at Castleton, and remained there all the next day ..... A fire took place in a Washington street bakery.
3. Thermometer 2 deg. below 0, in the morning, and the steam boats were frozen in at various places in the river above Poughkeepsie.
4. The Board of Trade held a meeting to consider the state of the sand bar at Castleton. They resolved to ap- ply to the legislature for $100,000 to remove it.
5. A fire occurred about 1 o'clock a. m., which de- stroyed a carpenter's shop and dwelling house on Arbor hill ..... Elizabeth, wife of John Halferty, died, aged 34.
6. Catharina Aloysius, wife of Cornelius Droogan, died, aged 31 .. -. Elizabeth A., wife of Michael Pettingill, died ..... George Waugh died, aged 40 .-... The steam boats which had recently visited Albany, were laid up till the river should be clear of ice, except the Isaac Newton, which attempted the passage with a heavy load of freight.
7. The Burgesses Corps returned from Washington,
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where they were the guests of Cornelius Wendell, form- erly a member of the corps ... . The steam boat Isaac Newton, left New York at 3 o'clock Friday morning, but did not reach Albany till Saturday afternoon.
8. An alarm of fire in the morning, at a house in South Pearl street; damage trifling, Another alarm in the evening, caused by the burning of a chimney ..... The river was closed over with ice again for 130 miles below this city.
9. A fire in the morning at a bone factory in the lower part of the city ; damage light.
11. James Leonard died, aged 33 ..... L. A. Chase died at Charleston, S. C., whither he had gone for the recovery of his health.
13. Jane McBride died, aged 50 ..... Eliza A., wife of G. W. Ryckman, died at San Francisco, aged 54.
15. Anna S. Wendell, daughter of the late Harmanus Wendell, died, aged 59 ..... John I. Godfrey, formerly an Albany merchant, died at Sandlake.
17. Services in all the Catholic churches, and a pane- gyric upon St. Patrick was pronounced at the Cathedral by the bishop of Louisville, Ky.
18. The steam boat Oregon arrived from New York during the forenoon, reporting the channel free from ice, and the Isaac Newton, which had been ice bound since the 7th, proceeded to New York ..... George Wood died, aged 61; formerly of the firm of Webster & Wood, print- ers. Charity Weaver died, aged 92 ..... Inquests were held on the bodies of John Naughton of Washington street, and James Sanders in State street, both of whom died of disease of the lungs very suddenly ..... Dr. Henry S. Steele died at Roxbury, Mass., aged 29.
19. Mrs. Elizabeth Ann, widow of Leverett Crutten- den, died, aged 82 ..... Edward Everett repeated his eulogy on Washington in the Second Presbyterian Church, realizing by both readings about $1500.
20. William Jones died, aged 69.
21. Peter Conine died at Lexington, Ky., aged 43 ..... A man named Grady was killed by the falling in of the sides of a pit in which he stood.
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Annals of the Year 1857.
22. Charles Blackall died, aged 62.
23. William Pine died, aged 24.
24. Benjamin Westervelt died in Watervliet, aged 75; sometime since a resident of Albany.
25. The steam boat Isaac Newton, on her way up the river from New York, ran on a rock in a fog, and sunk after her passengers and cargo were removed ..... James Luther Spencer died, aged 27.
26. Anna M. Bridgen died in New York, aged 69. She was born in Albany, and is recollected as a person of extraordinary intellectual faculties.
27. A fire in South Broadway destroyed a junk shop and plumbing establishment of Chauncey Whitney & Son. Loss about $4000 .. .. Mrs. Mary H. Haskell died, aged 63.
30. A match between two horses, $2500 stakes, from Albany to Whitesboro, 100 miles. One of them gave out at Frankfort, the other reached Whitesboro in 122 hours, performing the greatest feat on record. Of the distance 82 miles were made in. 7h. 50m. But we understand a Mr. Brown once drove a horse from Utica to Albany between sun and sun, and drove the same horse back the next day between sun and sun; and he drove the same horse the same season to Sackett's Harbor and back on successive days, from sunrise to sunset. It is on re- cord also that a hack team has been driven from Utica to Albany in a single day ..... Jonathan Wood died in New York, aged 62; for 30 years connected with the Swiftsure line of tow boats at Albany.
APRIL.
1. The felly manufactory of Winne, Link & Co. was partially burnt; loss small.
2. The grocery of Henry Hendler, 221 South Pearl street was burnt.
3. An Albanian, named Charles Wilson, was found dead in his bed at a hotel in New York, supposed to have taken poison .. - . Henry Laney died aged 20.
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Annals of the Year 1857.
4. A fire occurred in the Yellow Block, on South Broadway; damage slight ..... Frederick H. Mayer died, aged 39 ..... Hosea Knowlton died ...... A merchant named Glickstone fell dead in South Pearl street.
8. Mrs. Elizabeth Goodland died, aged 65 years.
9. John Sheridan died, aged 48 .- .. William Kings- bury died, aged 33.
11. William McMurdy died, aged 29 .. Mrs. Mary, wife of William Mayell, died, aged 53.
12. William Shey died, aged 48 .. ... An alarm of fire, caused by the burning of a dwelling in Dallius street, which was extinguished without much damage ..... The old depot of the Mohawk and Hudson rail road, at the southern extremity of the city, fell down from decay .... James S. Brown, died, aged 57.
13. Dr. H. A. Edmonds died ..... Mrs. Anna, wife of Walter Van Vechten, and daughter of Abram Van Vech- ten, died at Schuylerville.
14. Mrs. Ann Vaughan, wife of Alexander Nicholl, died, aged 24 ..... Mrs. Mary, wife of John Relyea, died, aged 24.
18. Eleanor Peterson died, aged 75 ..... Robert W. Dunbar, died, aged 84 ..... Thos. A. Moore died, aged 26. 20. Extensive snow storm .. . .
William Mayell died, aged 57. (See p. 172, vol. 3.)
21. Mrs. Frederic W. Hoffman died, aged 22.
23. John Bussy died, aged 64.
24. Edward T. Bedell died, aged 27. Wm. Gaston Costigan died, aged 22.
25. David Kay died, aged 82.
26. Mrs. Thomas Ranney, formerly of Albany, died at Burmah.
27. Hugh Gillespie died, aged 78 .. Owen Rodgers died, aged 82.
29. Hannah Leedings died, aged 25.
30. A fire in Lydius street damaged the house of J. N. Keeler ..... Mrs. Henrietta, wife of Martin Deahl, died, aged 21 ..... Asa H. Centre, formerly an Albany mer- chant, died in New York, aged 79. (See p. 333.)
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Annals of the Year 1857.
MAY.
1. The sheds on the west side of Townsend's furnace were destroyed by fire. Another fire damaged but too slightly an old building in Green street.
4. The Albany Morning Express was issued by Stone & Henly who formerly published a paper under the same title ..... Bridget. wife of John Butler, died, aged 28 .. Harriet, wife of Charles H. Radcliffe, died, aged 35. The common council resolved to pay the interest on the Northern Rail Road bonds, which at a previous meeting it was determined to suspend the payment of. They also increased the pay of laborers in their employ to $1.12} a day.
5. John Carson died, aged 44. George B. Thomp- son died, aged 28.
6. The heavy rains and melting of the snow at the west and north swelled the river so as to inundate the pier and docks. The tillers of the, island lost all their labor in preparing their gardens, and farmers in the up- lands were still unable to prepare their grounds for sow- ing and planting ..... In taking down the building in South Pearl street, formerly occupied by Ezra Ames as a portrait gallery, a part of the wall fell, injuring several persons, among whom was a lad named Roseboom, who died in consequence.
7. Mrs. Catharine Metz died, aged 66 ..... The steam boat Baltic caught fire at an early hour in the morning, but was soon extinguished.
9. Mrs. Mary Gleason died, aged 46.
11. Elizabeth Janes died, aged 83 ..... John Webster died at Detroit ; son of the late George Webster of Albany.
12. Thermometer at 34 degrees on Arbor hill ..... Wil- liam Maxwell died, aged 55.
13. Mrs. Abby, wife of Elihu Russell, died, aged 71. Barbary Luscom died, aged 21 ..... Wm. Edward Hickcox died, aged 38 .. .. Thomas Mallen died, aged 60.
14. Erastus R. Phelps died, aged 36 ..... John Steven- son died, aged 80.
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Annals of the Year 1857.
15. The Mansion House, kept for several years by William Griffin, was suddenly closed, by the failure of the proprietor.
16. The newly appointed governor of Kansas, Robert J. Walker, and his suite, arrived in this city, on his route to that territory ..... George Harrison died, aged 37.
17. Horace B. Day died, aged 21 .. Thomas Walker died, aged 30.
May 19. The Bank of Albany was removed from its old banking house, 44 State street, to the new one in Broad- way, above State.
21. Rebecca Fredendall died, aged 70.
23. Mary Shultz died, aged 83.
24. The news rooms, which had always been open on Sunday since their establishment, were closed by unani- mous consent of all the dealers in newspapers and maga- zines.
25. Mrs. Mary, wife of Robert Boyd, died, aged 74 .. .. E. S. Bliss died, aged 60.
26. Mrs. Phebe King died, aged 60.
27. Christopher Shultz died, aged 84 ..... A fire de- stroyed a wooden dwelling in the south part of the city, known as Groesbeckville, from John Groesbeck, who built the village.
29. A fire damaged the dry goods store of McMichael, Gordon & Co., to the amount of several thousand dol- lars ..... Isaac Thayer, formerly a resident of Albany, died at Cincinatti, aged 65.
30. A fire was discovered in the bedstead factory, cor- ner of James street and Maiden lane; damage slight.
31. Laura H., wife of George W. Beardslee, died, aged 41.
JUNE.
1. Gansevoort Quackenbush died, aged 56 ..... Patrick Hopkins died, aged 85 ..... Simon V. Olney, a native of Albany, died at Utica, aged 56. He removed to that city in 1823, and became one of its wealthiest and most respected citizens.
y
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Annals of the Year 1857.
3. J. E. H. Moore died, aged 30.
6. Fanny Chollar, wife of Henry Richmond, died, aged 66.
9. Abraham R. Ten Eyck died, aged 82. He came to this city in 1796, a protegé of Hugh Gaine, the noted New York bookseller, and opened a book store in Broad- way, under the firm name of Gaine & Ten Eyck. He retired from business in 1820. At the time of his death he was the oldest resident in Broadway. He died in the same house in which he commenced business 61 years before.
10. Mrs. P. Cunningham died, aged 36 ..... Charlotte A., wife of Thomas Goldwaite, died, aged 22.
11. Patrick Brennan died, aged 47. .
12. Catharine Roach died, aged 73.
13. Nelson Salisbury died, aged 46.
14. A new Baptist mission chapel was dedicated in North Pearl street, between Wilson and Lumber, sermon by Rev. Dr. Hague ..... A society termed the Ranters, worshiping in Philip street, were so noisy as to disturb the services in the First Presbyterian Church, and the police were called upon to restore order. The society was not an offshoot of any one church, but was made up of members from every methodist church in the city. It numbered eighty members, and was known as the Free Central Methodist Episcopal Church. The new church was started for the purpose of affording citizens one church, besides the Bethel, where seats in all parts of the edifice could be had without money and without price.
15. Louisa, wife of Dr. Albert Ritchie, and daughter of the late Benj. D. Packard, died at Frederick, Md.
16. Richard Farley, aged 32, fell into the canal and was drowned ..... The semi-annual convention of the State Temperance Society was held at the capitol, E. C. Delavan, president.
17. The new chapel attached to the First Presbyterian Church was dedicated in the evening ..... Lynot Blood- good died at Enfield, Ct., aged 76. He was born in
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