USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. X > Part 15
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Thirteen thousand pounds were voted for the defence of the province.
The borders of the province, notwithstanding the mea- sures adopted by government for their defence, continued to be exposed to all the horrors of savage warfare. In May, several persons were murdered hard by Schenecta- dy, and some buildings burnt.
The border inhabitants were filled with consternation. In general, the settlements were deserted, the people having retired to the block-houses, and other places of security. To guard against the inroads and attacks of the enemy, was impracticable, on account of the extent and insular positions of the settlements. All the men in the province would have been inadequate to have completely protected the county of Albany.
Those of Schenectady, Caughnawaga, Esopus, and Minisink, were nearly in a like condition. Even Kinder- hook, Claverack, and Poughkeepsie, although on the east side of the Hudson, were not exempt from danger. A thick forest extended all the way from Kinderhook to the St. Lawrence. The forsaken settlement at Hoosack, scarcely formed a highway across it.
. An idea may be formed of the feebleness of the settle- ments of Claverack and Kinderhook, from the considera- tion that there was only one block-house at each place. Under these alarming circumstances, when destruction menaced the interior and remote parts of the province; several spirited individuals came forward and volunteered their services. Among these was a Mr. Abraham Glen of Schenectady, who headed one hundred volunteers.
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The assembly, among the laws which it enacted, passed one whereby ship carpenters, house carpenters, joiners, sawyers, and all artificers, and laborers, were arbitrarily pressed into the public service; and also horses, wagons, and all other things which could tend to the invasion, were placed at the discretion of the officers entrusted with the management of the enterprise. The county of Albany alone had to furnish three hundred men.
The city of Albany in the summer of this year, was visited by a contagious disease, which swept away no inconsiderable number of its inhabitants. The Agonea- seah then encamped in its environs, were not exempt from the same disease, which proved fatal to many, and occasioned the governor to send the survivors home.
In 1747, some differences occurred between the assem- bly and the governor in respect to the provincial troops. From it, we learn that there were four companies of men stationed at Halfmoon; two at Schaghtikoke; three at Saratoga; three at Connestigune ; two at Schenectady; one at fort Hunter; and one between that place and Schenectady. In addition to these, there were men sta- tioned at Kinderhook, Schoharie, Caughnawaga, Stone Arabia, Canojoharie, and Germanflats; Ulster and Or- ange had also some small garrisons. The main body of the provincial forces was stationed at Albany.
The Indians of the enemy, this year, waylaid a party of men belonging to Schenectady, who went out for tim- ber, and killed thirty-nine. The place where these men fell, is about four miles north-north-west of the city, in the town of Glenville.
On the eighth of April, 1748, the assembly passed a law, which authorized the inhabitants of Schenectady, to construct two block-houses for its defence.
The treaty of peace concluded between Great Britain and France, on the seventh of October, 1747, put an end to the war; but the Indians did not cease their hos- tilities till some time in the year 1749.
Albany was settled in the year 1614, by some Holland- ers, and very soon after New York, but it was not erect-
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ed into a county till the first of November, 1683. It is bounded eastwardly by the Hudson, southwardly by Greene, westwardly by Schoharie, and northwardly by Schenectady and Saratoga; the outlines of this county have enough of uniformity. Its greatest Jength from east to west is about twenty-four miles, and its greatest breadth from north to south is twenty-two. After mak- ing some small deductions from its length and breadth, as given, it will be found to contain about three hundred and nine thousand seven hundred and sixty acres of land, or four hundred and eighty-four square miles. The number of acres under improvement, in 1825, was one hundred and ninety thousand five hundred, very nearly two-thirds of the whole. The county, exclusive of the city of Albany, is subdivided into eight towns. Its popu- lation is forty-two thousand eight hundred and twenty- one, which gives rather over eighty-eight to every square mile
Albany displays almost every variety of aspect and soil. On the east are extensive sandy plains, interspersed with tolerably productive spots; in the middle are cham- paigns, beautified with gentle swells, while in the west and south-west there are hills, and the precipitous and craggy Helderberg. The lands along the bank of the Hudson are rich. Those of the champaigns and hills are middling, and very improvable. Most of the plains, which were formerly considered mere barrens, are suscep- tible of cultivation, and under good husbandry may be made to yield abundant crops. The plains are from five to eleven miles broad, and stretch from north to south nearly through the county.
Exclusive of the Hudson and Mohawk, which wash the county on the east and north as far as the county of Schenectady, there are the Norman's kill, Cat's kill, Fox creek, and some other smaller streams. Norman's kill en- ters from Duanesburg, and flows south-easterly eighteen miles, and mingles with the waters of the Hudson. Cat's- kill crosses the south-westerly corner of the county from Schoharie into Greene. Several branches of this creek
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rise in the county of Albany. Fox creek descends west- wardly into the Schoharie.
Albany,* the second city in the state in population, commerce, and wealth, is situated on the west side of the Hudson, about one hundred and forty-five miles north- wardly of the city of New York, in north latitude forty- two degrees and thirty-nine minutes. It is built partly on a flat, and partly on the side of a hill. The streets are generally crooked and narrow. The hill rises with a pretty steep acclivity, and has an elevation of about one hundred and fifty feet at the distance of half a mile from the river, and two hundred and ten at the distance of one mile ; here the plain, spreading westwardly, begins. From the border of this plain there is an extensive view eastwardly, and south-eastwardly.t
Albany in 1825 contained about sixteen thousand in- habitants, and three thousand dwelling houses and stores, twelve houses for public worship, a state-house, three banks, the capitol, a court-house and jail, an academy, theatre, museum, and an arsenal. Its population at pre- sent (1829) is about twenty thousand.
The academy is constructed of red sandstone. It is ninety feet square, and three stories high, apart from its basement. The Albany Lyceum is kept in it. It is the handsomest edifice in the city.
* The spot where this city now stands was at first called by the Dutch Aurania; then Beverwyck, till 1625; then Fort Orange, till 1647, and Williamstadt, till 1664. All this time it had also the name of the Fuyck. Fort Orange was built in 1623, and Williamstadt, in 1647. At first a hamlet, then a village, and afterwards a town, and lastly a city. For a long time after its foundation it was enclosed with pickets (palisadoes.)
¡ By a late survey the distance between New York and Albany, by the road on the west side of the river, has been found only 145 miles. According to the latitudes the distance is still less, being only one hundred and thirty-five miles and a half, and eight rods. The re- ceived distances of all the intermediate towns and villages on and near the river from these two cities are incorrect. Hudson, for instance, is about one hundred and eight miles by its latitude from the city of New York. By the river the distance does not exceed one hundred and sixteen miles. The latitudinal distance from Hudson to Albany is about twenty-five miles.
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The Capitol, or State-House, stands at the head of State street; its base is about one hundred and thirty feet above the Hudson; the structure is brick faced with red sandstone. It is one hundred and fifteen feet long, nine- ty broad, and fifty high, exclusive of the basement story and the roof. The legislature of the state, the supreme and county courts sit in it. In the structure of this edi- fice the rules of architecture, whether Egyptian, Hindoo, Chinese, Grecian, Roman, Saracenic, Gothic, or compos- ite, have been violated.
The Erie and Champlain canals terminate at the city in a spacious basin. Sloops carrying from ninety to one hundred and fifty tons come up to the city. The bars below are serious impediments to the navigation of the river; these might be obviated by a canal ten or twelve miles long, and then vessels of two or three hundred tons might make their way up.
Albany was incorporated in the year 1686, by Colonel Dongan, governor of the colony. In 1750 it contained three hundred and fifty houses. From its foundation till the close of the revolution it was palisadoed and fortified. Here all the treaties with the Agoneaseah, and other Indians, were concluded. It used to be a great mart for fur.
The exact time when Albany was founded is not known. In 1614 the Dutch erected a small fort and a trading house, on an island half a mile below the site of the present city. In 1623 they built fort Orange on the west side of the river, within the bounds of the present city. Some have alleged that they made the latter fort in 1614. If this be true, Albany is the oldest town in the United States, but if the preceding, then New York, Esopus, and Schenectady take precedence. Not- withstanding the allegation, we have no doubt New York is the oldest of the two. A village sprung up near the fort, which was afterwards enlarged and be- came a city.
Mr. Stuyvesant, the governor of the New Netherlands, in a letter to Col. Nicolls, September 2d, 1664, says, that
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the Dutch came up the North River, in the years 1614, 1615, and 1616, near fort Orange, where to hinder the invasions and massacres commonly committed by the savages, they built a small fort. A little before in the same letter he says, we have enjoyed fort Orange about forty-eight or fifty years, and the Manhattans about forty- one or forty-two years. See Smith's Hist. p. 28. Alba- ny was called Schau-naugh-ta-da, by the Agoneaseah. The definition of which is, over the pine plains, or across the pine plains, on the Cahohatatea (Hudson's River). The Dutch in after times applied it to the place where Schenectady now stands, as being over the plains from Albany. Hence the radical of Schenectady.
Greenbush is on the east side of the Hudson, over against the lower part of the city of Albany. It is built on the river bottom, and has about one hundred houses. The present village was founded in 1812.
Troy was also situated on the east side of the Hudson, at the head of sloop navigation. It is six miles north of Albany, and one hundred and fifty-one north of New York. The Erie and Champlain canals are joined to the Hudson by side cuts, and locks, so as to benefit this place. Troy is built on a handsome plain, of several miles ex- tent, lying between the river and hill; and contains about eleven thousand inhabitants. There are here two banks, and six or seven houses for public worship; also a court house and jail. After Albany, Troy is the most wealthy, commercial and populous city on the Hudson. It was founded between 1787, and 1790; incorporated as a vil- lage in 1801, and as a city in 1816. In point of location, it nearly equals Albany. It is the shire town of the county of Rensselaer. The tide ascends to this place.
Gibbonsville in the county of Albany, west of Troy, contains about eighty houses. There are two large basins here appended to the Erie canal. The one is connected with the Hudson by a side cut, and two locks. There is an arsenal at this place.
( 189 ) RANDOM RECOLLECTIONS.
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[The following reminiscences were written by GORHAM A. WORTH, Esq., who was sometime Cashier of the Mechanics and Farmers' Bank in this city, and afterwards president of the City Bank in New York. He died in that city in 1856, aged 73. Like all other Recol- lections they are occasionally discrepant. An octogenarian, on the publication of Mr. Worth's pamphlet, wrote some strictures upon it for the newspapers, which are appended as notes with his initials. The last one is by another hand.]
In commencing these reminiscences, I prefer to say that my first visit to Albany was just before the election of Mr. Jefferson, or the Great Apostle as he is sometimes called. Not that the visit had any thing to do, either with the election of Mr. Jefferson or the fortunes of his followers, but because it was an epoch in my own personal history, as the election of Mr. Jefferson was, in the history of the country.
I had then just launched my " light untimbered bark" upon the ocean of life; with no guide but Providence, and with no hand but my own to direct its course. Never shall I forget the deep feeling of loneliness that came over me when the receding headlands of my native bay disappeared in the distance, and I found myself, for the first time in my life, alone on the waters.
It was at the age of eighteen, and in the autumn of the year eighteen hundred, that I first set my foot within the precincts of the ancient and far-famed city of Albany. It is true, I had passed through the city some ten or twelve years before, but 'twas on a rainy day, and in a covered wagon; and as the only glimpse I had of the town, was obtained through a hole in the canvas, I set it down as nothing, since, in reality, it amounted to nothing.
I am, however, well aware that an intelligent, sharp- sighted English traveler, such for instance, as Fearon, Hall, or Marryat, would have seen, even through a [Annals, x.] 17
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smaller aperture, and under less favorable circumstances, enough to have enabled him to have given you, not only the exact topography of the town and its localities, but a full and accurate account of its different religious deno- minations, the state of its society, the number of its slaves and the character of its inns; together with many sage reflections upon the demoralizing tendency of republican governments !
But this faculty of taking in all things at a single glance ; this ability to see more than is to be seen, is one of the many advantages which the English traveler pos- sesses over all others, and which in fact distinguishes him from the traveler of every other country on the face of the globe-the land of Munchausen not excepted ! I mention these things merely to satisfy the reader that I might have made something out of the affair of the covered wagon, had I been so disposed. But 'tis not my intention, nor was it when I commenced these reminis- cences, to draw upon my imagination for a single fact. I have materials in abundance, and can not, therefore, be tempted to go out of my way to recollect incidents which never happened, or to describe things which I never saw.
The city of Albany, in 1800, though the capital of the state, and occupying a commanding position, was, never- theless, in point of size, commercial importance, and architectural dignity, but a third or fourth rate town. It was not, in some respects, what it might have been; but it was, in all respects, unlike what it now is. Its popu- lation could not, I think, have exceeded some seven or eight thousand.
Albany has probably undergone a greater change, nót only in its physical aspect, but in the habits and cha- racter of its population, than any other city in the United States. It was, even in 1800, an old town (with one exception, I believe, the oldest in the country), but the face of nature in and around it had been but little dis- turbed. Old as it was, it still retained its primitive aspect, and still stood in all its original simplicity ; main- taining its quaint and quiescent character, unchanged,
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unmodified, unimproved; still pertinaciously adhering, in all its walks, to the old track and the old form.
The rude hand of innovation, however, was then just beginning to be felt; and slight as was the touch, it was felt as an injury, or resented as an insult.
Nothing could be more unique or picturesque to the eye, than Albany in its primitive days. Even at the period above mentioned, it struck me as peculiarly naive and beautiful. All was antique, clean and quiet. There was no noise, no hurry, no confusion. There was no putting up, nor pulling down; no ill-looking excavations, no leveling of hills, no filling up of valleys: in short, none of those villainous improvements, which disfigure the face of nature, and exhibit the restless spirit of the Anglo-Saxon race. The stinted pines still covered the hills to the very edge of the city, and the ravines and valleys were clothed with evergreens, intermixed with briars, and spangled with the wild rose.
The margin of the river, with the exception of an opening at the foot of State street, extending down to the ferry, was overhung with willows, and shaded by the wide spreading elm .* The little islands below the town were feathered with foliage down to the very water's edge, and bordered with stately trees, whose forms were mirrored in the stream below. As far as the eye could
[It is said that there were dock's at this time from Maiden lane to the Watering place, as it was called, now the Steamboat landing. At the latter place was Hodge's dock, and above it the State dock, built in the French war. ] At the foot of Maiden lane was Fish slip, where the sturgeon were sold. On Quay street were stores and dwelling houses, and a tavern. If our author, when he first set his foot in this "jewel of antiquity," had taken a walk to this world- renowned sturgeon slip, "a little after sun rise," he would have witnessed a scene that would have cast the willows and elm trees into the deep shade of a forgotten past. There was the quiet ancient burger, elbowed aside by his Old and New England, Scotch and Irish brethren, more clamorous and eager for Albany beef than him- self. If he had not beforehand entered into a confederacy with the Etsbergers and Reckhows, lords of the slip, he must infallibly have gone home dinnerless and desponding. J. Q. W.
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extend, up and down the river, all remained compara- tively wild and beautiful, while the city itself was a cu- riosity; nay, a perfect jewel of antiquity, particularly to the eye of one who had been accustomed to the " white house, green door, and brass knocker," of the towns and villages of New England. Nothing, indeed, could be more picturesque than the view of North Pearl street, from the old elm at Webster's corner, up to the new two steepled church. Pearl street, it must be remembered, was in those days, the west end of the town; for there the town ended, and there resided some of the most aristocratic of the ancient burgers. There, a little after sun rise, in a mild spring morning, might be seen, sitting by the side of their doors, the ancient and venerable mynheers; with their little sharp cocked hats, or red-ringed worsted caps, (as the case might be), drawn tight over their heads .* There they sat, like monuments of a former age, still lingering on the verge of time; or like milestones upon a turnpike road, solus in solo ! or, in simple English, un- like any thing I had ever seen before. But there they sat, smoking their pipes, in that dignified silence, and with that phlegmatic gravity, which would have done honor to Sir Walter Van Twiller, or even to Puffendorf himself. The whole line of the street, on either side, was dotted by the little clouds of smoke, that, issuing from their pipes, and, curling round their noddles, rose slowly up the antique gables, and mingled with the morn- ing air ; giving beauty to the scene, and adding an air of
* If the seer had looked a second time, he would have seen the simple side hill street, the grass covering the east half of it. He would have seen the quiet citizens returning from their business or their morning walk-but he would not have seen a single cocked hat, nor red ringed worsted cap, upon the head of one of them, except may be that of the venerable Dr. Stringer on his professional morning tour. He would have seen the upper half of each front door open, and here and there a neat and thrifty house-wife, bending forward over the closed lower half, watching for her husband or her sons, as they came home to breakfast. He might have seen that brass knocker, in the form of a dog, on the door of Lafayette's head-quarters, unlike any " knocker" on any "green door" in New England. J. Q. w.
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life to the picture. But the great charm was in the no- velty of the thing. I had seen a Dutch house before, but never till then had I seen a row of Dutchmen, smoking in a Dutch city .*
Albany was indeed Dutch, in all its moods and tenses; thoroughly and inveterately Dutch. The buildings were Dutch-Dutch in style, in position, attitude and aspect. The people were Dutch, the horses were Dutch, and even the dogs were Dutch. If any confirmation were wanting, as to the origin and character of the place, it might be found in the old Dutch church, which was itself always to be found in the middle of State street, looking as if it had been wheeled out of line by the giants of old, and there left; or had dropped down from the clouds in a dark night, and had stuck fast where it fell.}
* Shade of the immortal Diederick! and shall he not smoke? When one of these "ancient and venerable Mynheers," who was coeval with those willows and elms, looked back to the many times when, in his canoe, he breasted the downward and devious current of the Mohawk, with its rifts, falls, and portages, descended into Oneida lake; followed its outlet to Oswego; coursed along the winding shores of Ontario and Erie to Detroit, up that river to the St. Clair, and along the shores of Huron, crossing Saganaw bay to Macinac, where he traded with the Indian for his furs, and of his returns thence to his family in Pearl street, laden with the riches so hardly earned, the labor of which has reduced him to early decrepitude, shall he be jeered at for his apathy? Shall he not smoke, and rejoice to see his quiet and contemplative neighbor, who has been in another way equally prosperous, do so likewise-without being ridiculed for his grave dullness ? J. Q. W.
t. It is now more than forty years since this old edifice was removed, and the only thing left to mark the place where it stood, is a long flag-stone a few feet from the cross-walk between Douw's building and the Exchange, on the north side [since removed by some modern Vandal]. There are very few of the present generation left who remember the position and appearance of this antique but vene- rable building, and fewer still who can realize the interesting recol- lections which from tradition cluster around it The first church was built at a very early day, and of much smaller dimensions. It was placed in the position where it stood, at the intersection of what is now State street and Broadway, as a security against Indian at-
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All the old buildings in the city-and they constituted a large majority-were but one story high, with sharp peaked roofs, surmounted by a rooster, vulgarly called a weathercock. Every house, having any pretensions to dignity, was placed with its gable end to the street, and was ornamented with huge iron numericals, announcing the date of its erection; while from its eaves long wooden
tacks, commanding Broadway north and south, and State street, east and west. The windows were high from the ground, to guard against an escalade, as it was too far north to be protected by the guns of Fort Orange. It was a little fortress within itself. In those days all the men went armed to church. The young men were seated in the galleries, that they might be ready in case of an attack to sweep the street either way by their fire from the windows. The old men were seated on a raised platform along the walls, and the women were in the slips in the centre and out of the way of any danger.
Those therefore who have been unwise enough to ridicule the position of the church, have done so in their ignorance of the reasons for its location. The condition of these Dutchmen and the Pilgrims of New England were alike; both worshiped their Maker with arms in their hands. The tradition goes that when this old church was to be replaced by a new one, the same spot was selected for it, and the new church was built round the old one, and that during the time the new one was building, public service was regularly carried on in the old one, which was interrupted but one sabbath. The new church was like the old one, and did not differ from it, except in size. The same high windows, the same arrangement of seats, and the same separation of the sexes. There was one striking difference, however. The congregation had become more numerous and wealthy, and each window bore the escutcheon of the several families who were dispose to pay for it, in colored glass. Each window had an outside shutter, which was fastened by a latch. These shutters were never opened, except on Sunday. Such was this church, with its steep roof, uniting in the centre, and surmounted with a belfry and a weathercock. Here in this church, and perhaps also in the old one, the dead of distinguished families were buried. Here Lord Howe, who was killed near Ticonderoga, in the French war, found a resting place, till his remains were removed to England. Here preached " Our Westerlo, " by which endearing appellation the old members of the flock used to designate their minister, which in the Dutch lan- guage, and from the lips of an aged matron (Elsie Fonda), had an affectionate softness about it which the English translation can not convey. Is it strange that a church from its commencement so an- cient, and from its position so interesting, should be dear to the hearts
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