USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The annals of Albany, Vol. X > Part 31
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27. James Mahon died, aged 34.
28. Jane, widow of Obadiah Lansing, died, aged 70. .. John Jones died, 88.
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MARCH.
1. Julia Ann, wife of E. C. Warner, died, aged 46.
2. William Leslie died, aged 35 ..... Charles Richard Meade, formerly of Albany, died in New Orleans, aged 35.
4. Dennis Shevlin died, aged 38 .... Thermometer 3 deg. below 0, at an early hour.
5. A fire at 4 o'clock in the morning burnt a frame building in North Broadway, occupied by a shoe dealer. Thermometer 4 deg. below 0, at an early hour.
6. Jeremiah Luther died, aged 75 .... Thermometer 3 deg. below 0, at an early hour.
7. Gertrude, widow of James A. Coughtry, died, aged 58.
8. Edward W. Netterville died, aged 26.
9. Mary E., wife of Alexander Marvin, died, aged 57. The old scheme of a ship canal was revived in the legis- lature, by which it was proposed by the aid of $1,500,000 to unite Albany and New Baltimore, and thus circumvent the overslaugh.
10. William Masten died, aged 54.
12. Zara Wilber died, aged 88.
13. Charlotte M., wife of George Nash, died, aged 53.
14. Mrs. Mary Roark died, aged 88.
15. William Matthews died, aged 42 Margaret, wife of Richard Rhatigan, died, aged 22.
16. Mrs. Elizabeth Myron died, aged 27 ..
17. Mrs. Elizabeth Kidd died, aged 28 .... Jane Ken- nedy, widow of Joseph P. Briare, died, aged 38 .... The ice in the river moved down at night, and left an open area for home navigation .... Robert Blake died, aged 66. Joseph Kane died, aged 87.
18. David McIntosh, formerly of this city, died at Aberfeldy, Scotland.
19. James McCaffery died, aged 64. Douglass For- syth died, aged 41.
20. The New World steam boat arrived from New York, the first boat of the season .... Jacob Lansing died, aged 68. He was born December 17th, 1782, in the old
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Dutch house on the north-east corner of North Pearl and Columbia streets. He was descended from a long line of Holland ancestry His grandfathers, Colonel Henry Quackenbush and Colonel Jacob J. Lansing, were patri- ots in the Revolution, and commanded regiments at the battles of Stillwater and Saratoga, which resulted in the capture of Burgoyne. Col. Quackenbush was also at one time chairman of the Albany committee of safety. during the Revolutionary war. Judge Lansing received the first rudiments of his education at the Granville academy, Washington county, in this state, and afterwards entered Middlebury college, Vt., where he graduated with dis- tinguished honors. Shortly after his return to the resi- dence of his grandfather-it being the present ancient Dutch mansion still standing at the corner of Broadway and Quackenbush street in this city-the war of 1812 broke out with Great Britain, and he was commis- sioned, by Governor Daniel D. Tompkins, as quarter- master of the 12th regiment, New York state troops, commanded by Col. John T. Van Dalson. He proceeded with his regiment to Sackett's Harbor, and continued in the service until it was disbanded. On his return to this city, he commenced the study of the law in the office of Philip S. Parker, in Lion street, now Washington ave- nue, and was afterwards duly admitted to practice. He took an active part in politics, on the democratic side, in the great political contests of those days. In 1828 he was appointed judge of the Albany common pleas, and continued in the office until 1838, when he was appointed first judge of said court. During his term of office, the decisions of that court were highly respected. As a pre- siding magistrate, he was impartial, honest and capable, and gave character to the bench. Early in life he be- came a professor of religion, and united himself with the Middle Dutch church, and to the time of his death was always noted as being a most devoted follower of Christ. In all the relations of life he was highly honored and respected, and very few men indeed, could claim the respect of so wide a circle of acquaintances and friends.
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20. R. M. Condon died, aged 54.
21. Harperd V. D. Van Epps died, aged 47.
22. Francis Donnelly died, aged 70.
23. Joachim Bernard Garling died, aged 84.
24. Caroline M., wife of Henry J. Wells, died, aged 24.
26. A high wind unroofed and otherwise damaged buildings.
27. Judith Hotchkiss died, aged 80.
28. Mary, wife of John Campbell, died, aged 65.
30. Charles Sharts died at St. Louis, aged 40, formerly of Albany.
31. Nancy, widow of Wm. McBride, died.
APRIL.
3. The exhibition of paintings and sculpture from the collections of our citizens and artists, generously loaned for the benefit of the poor, and opened in January, was closed on this day. The receipts were $1,093.50; ex- penses $392.93; net proceeds $700-57. The distribution afforded relief by provisions, coal, clothing and money to 290 families and in 850 instances, which was disbursed by the hand of the Rev. David Dyer.
4. Charles Gay died, aged 44 ____ Cornelius H. Dubois died, aged 46 .... Catharine Elizabeth, wife of Robert Emmet, Jr., and daughter of Augustus James, late of Albany, died at Rhinebeck.
5. Charlotte Seton, wife of John Tayler Cooper, and daughter of the late John V. Henry, died.
7. A fire was discovered and subdued in Hamilton street above Dove .... McKinney Conger died.
10. Sarah A. E , wife of Thomas Morton, died, aged 39.
11. Charlotte Elizabeth Andrews, wife of John P. Jones, died at Monticello, N. Y., aged 66. She was three years a teacher in the Albany Female Seminary, and eleven years in the Female Academy, and was one of the three ladies who were principally instrumental in laying the foundation of the Orphan Asylum.
12. John Kilbourne died, aged 33. . .. Peter Evers died, aged 41 .... Margaret Payden died, aged 75.
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13. Mariette Fenouelle died, aged 60. ... At the annual charter election Eli Perry was elected mayor, by a vote of 4,699; Dr. J. P. Quackenbush received 4,601.
14. Mrs. Mary Woods died, aged 64.
16. John Ogden Dey died .... James M. Hunt died at Santa Fe, said to have been a resident of this city.
17. Laura A., wife of Thos. J. Brown, and daughter of Edwin Croswell, died in New York, aged 32.
19. Edward Storey died, aged 21 .... Francis P. Dix died, aged 27 .... Daniel Sayre died, aged 39.
21. Thomas McGuire died, aged 32. ... John T. Pruyn died.
23. Cornelius Carroll died, aged 77.
25. The hay scales corner of Plain and Philip streets were burnt .... Augustus J. Tiffany, who kept what was called the City Hotel, died, aged 84 .... George W. Palmer died, aged 34 .. A fire was discovered on the roof of a house in Van Schaick street; damage slight.
27. William McMullen died, aged 38 .... A formal transfer of the Arsenal property was made by the state to the city in exchange for the lot corner of Eagle and Hudson streets, where it was proposed to erect an arsenal.
28. John Van Zandt died, aged 91. He was a native of Albany, and in his boyhood heard the firing of cannon at Saratoga from the walls of Fort Frederick in State street. He was a trusty clerk in the store of James Caldwell for a number of years. In 1804 he entered the Bank of Albany as a clerk; in 1814 he became cashier, which office he held until 1838, when he resigned with a competency, but continued in the directory of the bank till his death. From newspaper notices we gather the following facts in relation to his personal history: Mr. Van Zandt was born in 1767, and his retentive memory brought down to this day reminiscences of the revolu- tionary age, and of the troubled times that preceded it, that were full of interest. He was one of the old Holland race-though his father and grandfather were both born in Albany-whose language and customs prevailed here
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long after the revolutionary era, and are only now be- coming extinct. His father, John Van Zandt, resided on the east side of Union street-Hudson street park. His mother, Mary Brooks, was of highly respectable English family, well known in this city. In youth, Mr. Van Zandt was for a short time in a banking house in New York, before the first bank was incorporated. While there he often saw Washington and his associates. After this (in the year of Shays's war) James Caldwell put him and another young man, Mr. Mynderse, in charge of a country retail store, at Bennington, Vt. At that time, Troy was scarcely a village, and the way to Bennington was mostly through an unbroken forest. While residing at Bennington, he became acquainted with and married Mehetabel Jones, of Williamstown, Mass., a most estima- ble lady, and again became a resident of Albany, With her he enjoyed domestic happiness and tranquillity, in an eminent degree, till by her death they were separated, when he was about 74 years of age. To these habits of life, and being strictly temperate, he always attributed his good health and contented, happy old age-not con- scious of having harmed any man in life. He retained, till a great age, an accurate memory of the events of his early life. He well remembered hearing the signal gun fired from the top of the old Schuyler mansion, when the Indians in the night came in the rear way, through the corn field and garden, entering the back door and sur- prising General Schuyler and a few friends who were spending the evening with him. The signal gun rallied the people and frightened the Indians, causing them to make their retreat with but little booty. He was walking on the ramparts of Fort Frederick (which reared its de- fence in State street, just south of St. Peter's church) at the very time of the battle of Saratoga, and heard the noise of the cannonade. He asked a soldier, who was with him, if this could be so, and the soldier confirmed it, as they were at a height where the strong north-east wind, then blowing, could bear the sound uninterrupted. Here- membered also the surrender of Burgoyne and the march-
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ing of the captured Hessians through Albany, and was a witness of the most memorable journey ever made into the old war. worn city of Albany. He was a boy, engaged at play on the wharf which-one of the few that existed- was built out at the foot of the present State street. The boys were told that a company of horsemen were coming down Market street, and that one of them was General Schuyler. He ran up to the street to see the group. There rode a company of gentlemen on horseback, in an easy, familiar, companionable way, one of whom was Philip Schuyler, and another John Burgoyne. He saw the Indians gathered in State street above the old Dutch church, to receive their annuity, and exhibiting their dances, and meeting in a desultory council, to the edifi. cation of the Albanians. They were seated for the pur- pose of enumeration on the sidewalk, and the line extended from the church to the present locality of Pearl street, and it was a policy greatly wondered at by the multitude, that the distribution was made per capita, the little strapped-up papoose receiving as much as the old war- chief who, probably, could have entertained the Albanians with curious statistics concerning the scalps of many of their ancestors. He recollected that from the wagons pressed into the service, as they were engaged in trans- porting ammunition, which had been landed from the sloops at King's wharf, the cannon balls dropped into the wretched roadway, and men engaged under impressment did not pause to gather up their work. He repeatedly saw men executed in Albany, under the decision and direction of the committee of safety, for being tories or cow boys, or highway robbers; and for the lighter offences the whipping post was resorted to. He had the habits of the race. Integrity, resoluteness, economy, aversion to change and to show, and strong local attachment. Tranquil, unambitious, devoid of care, he prolonged his life, without disease, his faculties unclouded, until the few last days of his life.
30. William N. Staats died, aged 78 .. . William Good- son died, aged 27.
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MAY.
1. The steam boat New World brought up from New York 500 tons of freight, the charges on which, with the passage money, &c., was over $2,200. This is believed to have been the largest freight ever brought up at one trip .... James Baker died, aged 33 .... Erastus Perry died, aged 72.
2. James Dey Ermand died, aged 55.
3. Elizabeth Capron died, aged 50 .... Elizabeth, wife of William Wareing died, aged 56 .... The old vegetable market, an unsightly range of sheds, was pulled down, attracting a good deal of observation. (See next page.)
4. Mrs. Catharine McHarg died, aged 78 .... Peter Murphy died, aged 33.
5. Archibald McIntyre died, aged 56. He came to this city at an early age from Scotland, and from 1798 to 1802 was a member of Assembly from Montgomery county. In 1806 he was appointed comptroller of the state, an office which he filled with ability and integrity until 1821, when he was removed in consequence of his refusal to pay claims rendered by Gov. Tompkins for services and disbursements during the war, without the proper vouchers. He was soon after elected to the senate for six years. He then became associated with John B. Yates in the management of the state lotteries, in which he continued till the lotteries were abolished. This firm was also largely interested in the Welland canal. Ata later period Mr. McIntyre purchased a large tract of land in the northern part of the state, and gave much atten- tion to its improvement .... Harriet G., wife of J. C. Rob- inson, died at Springfield, Mass., aged 53.
6. Eliza A., wife of Caleb Weaver, died, aged 33. James Turner died, aged 42.
7. William White died, aged 45.
8. William Lyman died, aged 52 .... Samuel F. Follett was drowned, aged 28.
9. Elizabeth, wife of Alex. Reid, died, aged 23.
11. William J. Hardy died, aged 54 .... Isaac Lansing died, aged 71.
ECEFAB
KARKET
C.BATES.
CIRCUS
HOFFMAN-CO-ALBANY-N_Y _:
Old Vegetable Market, demolished May, 1858.
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13. Martha, widow of John Meacham, died, aged 67.
15. Anthony Gould died, aged 56. Mr. Gould came to this city in 1821, and after several years of clerkship in the law bookstore of his uncle William Gould, he became a partner in the business. He had retired from active pursuits but a short time, with an ample fortune, when he was overtaken by death suddenly. He was one of the founders of the Congregational church, to which he con- tributed with great liberality.
16. Sarah, widow of Nicholas Efner and daughter of Sybrant Kittle, died, aged 50.
19. Mrs. Catharine Landers died, aged 62.
20. Joel White died, aged 46 .___ Matthew A. Russell died, aged 28. Morris Labascheiner was drowned at the ferry.
21. The Cathedral was robbed of the money in the poor boxes and of several costly prayer books .... A circus made a procession through the streets preceded by a car drawn by six elephants, and containing a steam organ, termed a calliope.
22. Derike, wife of Dier Newton, died, aged 72.
25. Mary, wife of Robert Hutchison, died, aged 49. Thomas McElroy, formerly of Albany, died at New Scotland, aged 56.
26. Granville Slack died, aged 59.
27. Washington G. Gibson, confined in the station house for abuse of his wife, committed suicide, aged 48.
28. Sarah Ann, wife of Henry Mattice, died.
31. Titus Norton died, aged 64 .... William A. Duer, formerly of Albany, died in New York. Mr. Duer was a grandson of Lord Stirling, and claimed the title. He was for several years a distinguished member of the legislature of New York, representing Dutchess county, and was a leader in the old federal party. In 1818 he removed to Albany, where he was again elected to repre- sent this county in the state legislature. He joined the democratic party in 1818, and took ground against Gov. ernor Clinton. In 1823, he was appointed circuit judge for the circuit embracing Albany, Columbia, Rensselaer, [ Annals, x.] 36
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and some other counties. After filling this office for several years, he removed to the city of New York, and was appointed president of Columbia college. He was the author of a life of his ancestor, Lord Stirling, and of a work on constitutional jurisprudence. It was Judge Duer who presided at the trial of Jesse Strang, indicted for the murder of Whipple at Cherry Hill, in the spring of 1827 .... Benjamin C. Brainard died, aged 50 .... Philo C. Hackley died, aged 76.
JUNE.
1. John Woodworth died, aged 89. He was a native of Columbia county, and received an education in Albany under John Lovett. In 1791, immediately after his ad- mission to the bar of the supreme court, he settled in Troy in the practice of the law. In that year the county of Rensselaer was taken from Albany and erected into a new county, and the little village of Troy, which had received its name only the year before, began to make some pretensions to rivalry with Lansingburgh, and con- tended with her for the courthouse, successfully, which was built in 1794. He was the first postmaster in Troy, and held the office about five years, until 1798 or 1799. In 1802 he was elected a member of the legislature, and in 1806 removed to Albany. In 1800 he was an elector of president and vice president, and was associated with William P. Van Ness in a revision of the laws of the state. In March, 1819, he was appointed by Gov. Clinton a judge of the supreme court, and remained on the bench until 1828, when it was assumed that he had reached the period in life at which the constitution interposed a dis- qualification; in reality he was but 57 instead of 60. He resisted this assumption, and a suit was pending at the time of his death to recover three years' salary. He had recently prepared an argument in an important case at law which had elicited the admiration of the whole bar. His active habits and temperate mode of life contributed to his good health, cheerfulness and longevity. Until a few weeks before his death his erect form and agile step
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indicated a person but little past the middle age rather than one who had lived almost through a whole century.
Mrs. Susan Peterson died, aged 86. She was an aged colored woman, who for the past twenty-seven years had lived in the family of Mr. Rufus H. King of this city. Aunt Susan, as she was called by her many friends, was born in 1772. Her mother was a slave in the family of General Ten Broeck of this city, where the subject of this notice was born. As a little girl she remembered waiting upon General Washington at the house of General Ten Broeck, and retained a vivid recollection of the father of his country. At the age of 17, Aunt Susan became a member of the North Dutch church, then under the pas- toral charge of Domine Westerlo. Of this church she remained a consistent and exemplary member during her long life. It was supposed that, at the time of her death, she was the oldest member of that congregation. Aunt Susan was once married. She raised a large family of children, but one of whom, however, a daughter, survived her. She was a woman possessing many virtues, and her memory will long live with those who visited the house of Mr. King .... A fire in First street, Arbor hill, destroyed a cabinet shop and the dwelling of Mrs. Gries- man, who with her children narrowly escaped with their lives. Loss $1500; no insurance.
2. Janc C., wife of Nelson Bailey, died, aged 47.
3. Mrs. Mary Youds died, aged 47.
9. Benjamin Gibson died, aged 67. Mrs. Hannah Slingerland died, aged 47.
10. Azor Taber, a distinguished counselor at law, dicd, aged 60. He came to this city in 1824, and was some time a law partner of Jabez D. Hammond. In 1827 he took an active part in the reelection of John Quincy Adams to the office of president, and wrote for the Albany Morning Chronicle. He was senator in 1852 and 1853, which were the only civil offices he filled; but was noted for his industry and ability as a legal practitioner, during a residence of nearly a quarter of a century. In 1854 he retired from business and resided in Knox, the town of
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his birth. He took an active part in the temperance movement.
11. Jane, widow of Joseph T. Rice, died, aged 64 .... Lawrence Dowd died, aged 59.
15. Isabella, wife of John N. Mckaig, died, aged 28. John Hermans died. aged 79.
16. Mrs. Neal McCotter died, aged 72. In a fit of in- sanity she put an end to her existence.
17. A fire at the corner of Franklin and Bassett streets destroyed several wooden tenements and a grocery ; loss $10,000.
18. John Beetham died, aged 49.
20. Harriet K., wife of Edmund Burdick, died.
23. Dr. Nanning Visscher Winne died. aged 52 .... A fire broke out at the corner of Orange and Water streets, which destroyed several buildings, and much lumber in the yard of Messrs. Bullock & Many; also swept away the machine shop of Mellen Battel. Loss about $20,000.
24. Mary, wife of John Hurdis, died, aged 57.
25. John Bantham died, aged 89.
27. Thomas P. Waters died, aged 45.
28. Festival of the Turnverein, which continued two days, at Blackman's bush, on the border of Bethlehem.
29. John Cassidy died, aged 29.
30. A building in Arch street west of Grand, used for preparing patent roofing material, was burnt. Loss about $250; no insurance ... . The chief engineer of the fire de- partment reported 37 fires during the year, 21 alarms, and 7 false alarms; making 65 times that the department had been called out during the year. The amount of property destroyed was $45,064, of which $34,149 was insured, leaving $11,015 loss to the owners.
JULY.
1. Alarms of fire, real and false, were of unusually frequent occurrence.
2. Powers L. Green died, aged 34 .... A fire in Sand street destroyed several wooden sheds of little value.
3. Catharine, wife of Thurlow Weed, died, aged 61.
1
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7. Thomas Bowen died, aged 65 .... Mrs. Margaret Flansburgh died, aged 79.
10. John Calhoun died, aged 29.
11. Charles A. Vedder died, aged 22 .... A warm and sultry morning was followed by a tremendous tempest, which spent its utmost fury north of the city, and a fall of 35 deg. in the temperature of the atmosphere succeeded.
13. Joel Courtney died, aged 29 ... .. A tempest of rain deluged the city.
15. John N. Wilder died, aged 44. He was a native of New Braintree, Mass., and came to this city in 1828. He commenced active life as a clerk in the dry goods establishment of Wilder & Hastings, corner of State and Green streets, of which firm Ephraim Wilder, his uncle, was chief partner, and at his death left him the principal part of his fortune. He began business for himself in con- nection with Mr. Wm. E. Bleecker, in the wholesale dry goods business, and was afterwards connected with two or three other establishments; and although a prudent and capable business man, did not give his whole ener- gies to those enterprises, but took a deep interest in civil, religious and educational institutions. He made a dona- tion of ten thousand dollars to the Rochester university, and by public addresses in different parts of the state, and by personal appeals, he procured tens of thousands from others. More than any other man he was regarded as the founder of that institution, and was president of the board of trustees at the time of his death.
16. A fire at 1 o'clock in the morning destroyed a car- penter's shop in Clinton avenue .... Oliver Mills died, aged 36.
18. Henry S. Pemberton died, aged 53.
19. Dr. Seymour W. Simpson, died.
20. Preston Flagg died, aged 20.
21. Alexander Stewart died, aged 49.
22. Eliza Mclaughlin died, aged 52.
26. James Stack died, aged 47.
27. The steam canal boat Charles Wack, from Buffalo, arrived in six days, intended as an experiment of steam
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navigation on the Erie canal .... John V. James died in New York, aged 20.
30. D. D. T. Moore died, aged 47. Michael Caddey died, aged 53.
- 31. Cortland Schuyler died, aged 72, and was buried from his residence in Tivoli hollow. - Sarah A., wife of John Gordon, died, aged 39.
AUGUST.
1. Joseph J. Wright died, aged 62.
2. The iron bridge over the canal at the foot of Law- rence street, while a drove of cattle were crossing, gave way and fell into the canal, carrying down a hundred cattle. The water was drawn off, and the cattle rescued.
5. News received of the successful laying of the At- lantic telegraph wire .... Calvert Comstock, editor of the Atlas & Argus assumed the duties of postmaster.
6. The telegraph office illuminated in honor of the completion of the Atlantic telegraph. Every office in the United States from Maine to California was illumin- ated at the same time.
7. A fire in Rotten row, Hamilton street, between Green and Liberty ; damage slight.
8. An alarm of fire in Elk street; roof damaged.
9. The common council and others visited the brewery of John Taylor & Sons in the evening to inspect the new clock and bell erected in that establishment. The dial plates of the clock are six feet in diameter, and the bell weighs 1200 pounds. They are elevated nearly 100 feet from the street, and cost $4000. The clock is illuminated by gas burners and reflectors, and the time may be dis- tinguished at considerable distance. After examining the clock, the company was invited into the library, for the purpose of partaking of a collation. Mr. Taylor's library consists of about 10,000 volumes. After several speeches and sentiments were got off, the party dispersed, highly pleased with the entertainment.
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