USA > New York > Albany County > Albany > The history of the city of Albany, New York : from the discovery of the great river in 1524, by Verrazzano, to the present time > Part 31
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" And I flatter myself I am not too sanguine, when I indulge the idea, that I shall live to see the day when this city, adorned with every necessary public building, and other improvements, will become the fixed seat of government of the Legislature ; shipping of considerable bulk, owned by our own merchants, opening their canvas before our wharves, and wafting the produce of our country to distant quarters of the globe."
Ananias Platt, a Lansingburgh inn-keeper, on Tues- day, the twenty-first of April, 1789, began to run a stage daily from his inn to Robert Lewis's tavern, in Albany. Passengers were charged four shillings for the round trip. The legislature, on the first of February, granted the proprietor of the line the exclusive right to run stages between Albany and Lansingburgh. In 1796, twenty coaches were running daily on this route, the river being crossed at the ferry at Troy.
On Monday, the twenty fifth of May, 1789, the Al- bany Gazette began to be published on every Monday and Thursday of each week. The publication of the Albany Journal, or, Montgomery, Washington & Colum- bia Intelligencer, which had been begun in connection with the Gazette, on Saturday, the twenty-sixth of
1 These mills are described as "situated about one mile from the centre of the city, and 400 yards west from the mansion house of Stephen Van Rensselaer, Esq., at the entrance of a delightful valley, through which a never failing stream passes, that turns a number of other mills within sight of'each other." On the twelfth of July, 1794, Caldwell's mills were burned ; the loss was estimated at £13,000. The mills were shortly afterwards re- built.
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
January, 1788, being issued on Mondays and Saturdays, was discontinued after the twenty-fifth of May, 1789. Charles R. and George Webster & Company were its publishers. The Albany Register, first issued in May, 1788, was published by Robert Barber.
To obtain a plat of ground more suitable for the burial of the dead than the grave-yards in the city, the common council, in 1789, appointed Thomas Hun and T. V. W. Graham a committee to select a common burying-ground for the city. At this time the Episcopal grave-yard ex- tended from State Street across Maiden Lane ; the Lu- theran was at the intersection of Washington and Beaver streets, south of the church ; the Presbyterian near the corner of Hudson and Grand streets, on the east side of the church ; the new burying-ground of the Reformed Protestant Dutch church was on the south side of Beaver Street, a short distance west of Green Street ; the Ger- man Reformed was near the church, west of Pearl Street, near the north bounds of the city. On the nineteenth of September, the committee reported that a suitable five- acre lot for a common burial place was on the east side of the plat of ground which had been the site of the barracks which had been burned and on which a burial- vault had been constructed. They suggested that the most eastern acre should be granted to the corporation of the Presbyterian church, the next one on the west side to the Episcopal church, the next to the Lutheran church, and the east half of the third acre to the Reformed High Dutch (the German Reformed) church, and the most western acre and the remaining half-acre to the Dutch church. On the map of the plan of the city made in 1794, this burial-ground is conspicuously delineated.
The Protestant Episcopal Church had become inde- pendent of the established church of England, and the
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congregation of St. Peter's church, which had, under the seal of the province of New York, on the twenty-fifth of April, 1769, been erected into a corporation by the name of " the Rector and Inhabitants of the City of Albany, in the county of Albany, in communion of the church of England," petitioned the legislature to change this to "the Rector and Inhabitants of the City of Albany, in communion of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the State of New York." Conformable to this prayer, an act to enable the corporation of St. Peter's church to assume this name was passed on the third of March, 1789. The patent of 1714, granted by Governor Hunter, and the charter of 1769, granted by Governor Moore, are preserved in the vault of the church. The silver communion-service, two chalices, two flagons, and two patens, and an alms basin, which, in 1710, were intended by Queen Anne as a present to the congregation that was to be organized among the Onondagas but never was, are now the property of St. Peter's church. The plate bears this inscription : "The gift of Her Majesty Ann, by the Grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, and of Her Planta- tions, in North America, Queen, to Her Indian Chappel of the Onondawgus." Within the encircling inscriptions are the royal ensignia and the letters, A. R.
Although the society was without a rector during the revolutionary war services were from time to time conducted in the church. Lieutenant Ebenezer Elmer, who passed through Albany on his way to Canada, "attended the English church in the forenoon," on Sunday, the twenty-sixth of May, 1776. On the first of May, 1787, the Rev. Thomas Ellison was appointed rector of St Peter's church.
About the year 1789, a small number of Methodists organized a society in Albany, holding their meetings in
St.Peter'S Church PHOTO ENG CO N.Y.
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the dwellings of the members. In 1790, this congrega- tion was included in the circuit of the Rev. James Camp- bell. Shortly afterward the society erected a chapel on the southeast corner of Orange and Pearl streets. In the little building, on the twenty-second of June, 1792, John Blood- good, Abraham Ellison, Isaac Lawson, Elisha Johnson, William Fredenbourgh, Nathanael Arms, and Calvin Chisman were elected trustees of the Methodist Episco- pal church of the city and county of Albany.
To establish a public library in the city, a number of the citizens, in December, 1791, formed an association, and petitioned the legislature to be made a corporate body known by the name of "The trustees of the Al- bany Library." An act was passed on the twenty-fourth of February, 1792, incorporating the trustees of the Albany Library ; Abraham Ten Broeck, John Lansing, jr., Philip Schuyler, Stephen van Rensselaer, Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Thomas Ellison, John McDonald, James Fairlie, Daniel Hale, Hunloke Woodruff, Goldsbrow Banyar, and Stephen Lush, being constituted the first trustees. Abraham Ten Broeck was named by the act the president of the association, and James van Ingen, treasurer and librarian.
"As the bank-fever has passed itself in this country of an epedemic nature," wrote a citizen of Albany, in the Gazette of Thursday, the second of February, 1792, " and as it rages with the greatest violence in the city of New York, it is shrewdly suspected the contagion has reached this northern part of the state; which is strongly indicated by some evident symptoms which have lately been discovered among several of our fellow citizens."
In the same number of the Gazette, the following paragraph appears : "The establishment of a bank,
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having been the subject of conversation for some time past in this city, and as there are many who think that such an institution will be proper ; all those who are of that opinion are requested to meet at Lewis's, at 4 o'clock, to-morrow afternoon, to consider the subject."
This invitation as it will be seen in the following information, contained in the Gazette, on Monday, the sixth of February, induced a number of capitalists, in- terested in the establishment of a bank, to assemble at the inn of Robert Lewis, on the southeast corner of Washington and State streets : "A respectable number of gentlemen collected at the city-tavern on Friday evening last, agreeable to notification, to discuss the important sub- ject of establishing a bank in this city-and we are happy to add, there appeared an unanimous wish to forward the establishment. Jeremiah Van Rensselaer, esq., being placed in the chair, a candid and impartial investigation of the subject took place ; after which a committee was chosen for the purpose of reporting a plan for the establish- ment of a bank in this city, to be laid before a meeting of the citizens, on Friday evening next, at the city tav- ern, to which time the meeting stands adjourned. A punctual and general attendance is requested at 5 o'clock P. M. on that day. The gentlemen who compose the committee are Cornelius Glen, John Tayler, Daniel Hale, Gerrit W. Van Schaick, Abraham Van Vechten, esqrs."
The committee, at the next meeting at the city-tavern, reported a plan for the establishment of a bank in the city. The institution was to be called "The Albany Bank," the capital to be seventy-five thousand dollars, to be divided into five hundred shares of one hundred and fifty dollars each. Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Jacob van der Heyden and Barent Bleecker were appointed a com- mittee to open the books at the city-tavern on Friday,
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THE HISTORY OF ALBANY.
the seventeenth of February, at two o'clock, and to re- ceive subscriptions with deposits of fifteen dollars on each share.
The committee, on the sixteenth of February, inserted the following notification in the Gazette : "All persons intending to become stockholders to the bank of Albany, are hereby notified, that a subscription will be opened at the city-tavern, precisely at 2 o'clock to-morrow, to re- main open till 5 o'clock ; at which time the books will be closed. Should the number of shares exceed 500, such excess to be reduced to that number, in equal proportions. And on Tuesday following, between the hours of 10 and 12 o'clock, and from 3 to 5, we shall meet at the store of Messrs. Glen and Bleeckers, for the sole purpose of re- ceiving 15 dollars on each share subscribed, and deliver- ing receipts for the same."
Under the heading "Albany Bank Script," in the Gazette of Monday, the twentieth of February, the fol- lowing paragraphs appear :
"On Friday last, the subscriptions to the bank, in this city, were over-run, in less than three hours, by which means the association is now completely organized, and will go immediately into operation."
Stock was "sold on Friday, after the books were closed, at 10 per cent. advance ; and on Saturday, at 100 per cent. in cash.
"Stockholders are advised, notwithstanding the pre- sent advanced price of Script not to sell out-as every measure has been taken to obtain an incorporation & the number of shares being small their value will necessarily increase."
At a meeting of the stockholders, held on Monday, the twenty-seventh of February, Philip Schuyler, Abra- ham Ten Broeck, Stephen van Rensselaer, Goldsbrow
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Banyar, Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Cornelius Glen, Daniel Hale, John Maley, James Caldwell, John Stevenson, Stephen Lush, Albert Pawling, and John Sanders were elected directors.
A petition having been presented to the legislature on Saturday, the twenty-fifth of February for the incor- poration of the stockholders of the Bank of Albany, an act was passed on the tenth of April, 1792, incorporating all such persons as were or should thereafter be stock- holders of the bank under the name of "The president, directors, and company of the Bank of Albany." The act designated the persons previously elected as the first directors of the institution, who were to hold their offices until the second Tuesday of May following, and thereafter annually on that day thirteen directors were to be chosen. The stock, estate, and property, were never to exceed in value the sum of two hundred and sixty thousand dollars. A share in the stock of the said bank was to "be four hundred Spanish milled dollars, or the equivalent thereof in specie;" the share not to exceed at any time six hundred, exclusive of any share that the state might subscribe. The directors were required to make half-yearly dividends of the profits of the bank, and not to demand more than six per cent. for discounts.
The following persons were elected directors of the bank on the twelfth of June : Abraham Ten Broeck, Cornelius Glen, Stephen van Rensselaer, John Maley, Jeremiah van Rensselaer, Abraham van Vechten, Henry Cuyler, John Stevenson, James Caldwell, Jacob van der Hayden, Goldsbrow Banyar, Daniel Hale, and Elkanah Watson. Abrahan Ten Broeck was elected president. On the sixteenth of July, the bank began business, in a building on the east side of Pearl Street, now numbered
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11; Gerrit W. van Schaick being cashier. The new banking-house, on the west side of Market Street, the sixth building north of State Street, was first opened for business on the twentieth of July, 1795. On the third of February, 1810, the bank was removed to a building on the site of the Government Building, on the northeast corner of Broadway and State Street.
One of the largest conflagrations that ever occurred in the city was the great fire of Sunday night, the seven- teenth of November, 1793. About half past ten o'clock that night the stable of Leonard Gansevoort, in Middle Lane, as James Street was then called, was discovered to be on fire. The breeze soon carried the fire to the ad- jacent structures, and in a short time, the buildings on the west side of Market Street, from Maiden Lane to the building on the northwest corner of Market and State streets, were burned to the ground. On the north side of State Street, east of Middle Lane, six buildings were con- sumed. All the stables and barns on Middle Lane, between State Street and Maiden Lane, were burned, and two buildings in Maiden Lane. The Gazette printing office, No. 36 State Street, was also burned. The property destroyed was highly valued.
In December, 1792, the project of running a line of stages between Albany and Whitestown, in Oneida County, one hundred miles west of the city, was favored by a number of capitalists. "Such an idea a few years ago," says the editor of the Gazette, " would have been ridiculed ; but from the great intercourse with the west through this city, we have every reason to suppose it will answer a valuable purpose, both to the public and the proprietors ; especially if the proprietors should succeed in contracting for the mail, of which there can be little doubt." In May, 1793, Moses Beal "erected a stage " to
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carry passengers from Albany to Schenectady, Johns- town, and Canajoharie, once a week. The coach left the city on Friday mornings and returned on Tuesdays. The fare was three cents a mile. A line of stages began to run in November, 1793, between Albany and North- ampton, Massachusetts. A stage departed on Tuesdays and Fridays from each of these two places and arrived in the evenings of those days at Pittsfield. In the adver- tisement of the enterprise, "the proprietors of this new line beg leave to observe that the difficulty of extending a line of stages from Northhampton to Albany (across the mountains), has heretofore been supposed insur- mountable-but considering this establishment forms an expeditious and sure communication from Portland in the province of Maine through a rich and flourishing country to Whitestown, in the western part of the State of New York, a distance of upwards of four hundred miles, they have determined to make the experiment." The fare was four pence a mile. In January, 1796, John Clark and Reuben King advertised that they had con- tracted to carry the mail by a line of stages to run twice a week between Albany and Boston.
At a meeting of the mechanics in the city on the tenth of January, 1793, a committee was appointed to prepare a constitution of an association for the laudable purpose of protecting and supporting such of their brethren who by sickness or accident might need assis- tance, and of relieving the widows and orphans of the members who might die in indigent circumstances, and also of providing the means of instruction for their children. The first officers of the society were : John W. Wendell, president, Charles R. Webster, first vice- president, Bernardus Evertsen, second, Isaac Hutton, treasurer, and John Barber, secretary. It was incor-
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porated the sixth of March, 1801, to continue an organi- zation until the twenty-fifth of November, 1823.
Reviewing the business-transactions of the eighth of February, 1794, the editor of the Gazette thus refers to what had been done in the city on that day : "On a moderate estimate it is presumed the purchases and sales of produce and merchandise exceeded $50,000. Of the article of wheat, between 25 and 30,000 bushels were brought to this market ; a quantity far exceeding the receipts of any one day since the settlement of this coun- try. The price of wheat rose during the day from 7s. 2d. to 8s., or the highest price between this and the first of March. This last mode of purchase is truly novel, and must be convincing to the farmer that the merchants of this city are too independent to form combinations."
The tide of emigration toward the western part of the state apparently was at its greatest height in February, 1795. Winter it seems was a more favorable season for travelling than any other part of the year. The rough roads, frozen and covered with snow, were more easily passed over with sleds than with heavy wagons, which only a few possessed ; and it was more advantageous for the settlers to reach the land they were to cultivate, be- fore spring-time, when their labor was to be wholly bestowed upon the tillage of the virgin soil. A citizen of Albany, counted one day, from sun-rise to sun-set, five hundred sleighs of emigrants going through the city. It was estimated that twelve hundred sleighs burdened with families and household goods had passed through the streets in three days, coming from the New England towns and going to the fertile valley of the Genesee River. Upon one of the sledges a printing press was seen, an indispensable instrument for the cultivation of ennobling enterprise and industry.
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In the summer of 1795, the eminent French officer, Francois Alexandre Frederic, duc de la Rochefoucault- Liancourt, visited Albany, and gave the following des- cription of the city in his work, Voyage dans les États- Unis : "It is seated one-hundred and fifty miles from New York, has a harbor, and a very extensive trade. Ships of eighty tons burthen sail up to the town ; and the trade is carried on in vessels of this size. A sort of sand-bank, [the Overslaugh,] three miles below Al- bany, renders the navigation rather difficult ; yet it is easily cleared with the assistance of pilots acquainted with it, and no ship arrives without one of them on board. This impediment, it is asserted, might easily be removed at a trifling expense ; and ships of a much larger size might then anchor near the city. The navigation of the river from the north country is open from the middle of April until the middle of November.
"The trade of Albany is chiefly carried on with the produce of the Mohawk country, and extends eastward as far as cultivated lands expand. The State of Vermont, and a part of New Hampshire furnish also many articles of trade ; and the exports chiefly consist in timber and lumber of every sort and description, potatoes, potash and pearl ashes, all species of grain, and lastly in manu- factured goods. These articles are, most of them, trans- ported to Albany in winter on sledges, housed by the merchants, and by them successivelly transmitted to New York, where they are either sold for bills on Eng- land, or exchanged for English goods, which are in re- turn sent from Albany to the provinces, whence the articles for transportation were drawn. Business is, therefore, carried on entirely with ready money, and especially in regard to pot-ash ; not even the most substantial bills are accepted in payment.
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" The trade of Albany is carried on in ninety vessels, forty-five of which belong to the inhabitants of the town, and the rest to New York or other places. They are in in general of seventy tons burthen, and make upon the average ten voyages a year, which on computing the freights outwards and homewards, produce a total of one hundred and twenty-six thousands tons of shipping for the trade of Albany. Every ship is navigated by four men ; the master is paid twenty dollars a month, if he have no share in the ship, the mate fifteen and a sea- man nine. There is generally a cabin-boy on board, or more frequently a cook, as few ships have less than eight passengers on board, either coming up or going down. The freight of goods is usually one shilling a hundred weight ; but this varies according to their value, or the room they occupy.
" The trade of Albany is very safe, but seems not to be very profitable. The net proceeds of a voyage amount upon an average to about one hundred dollars, which make for the whole year one thousand dollars for a ship, a profit by no means considerable. If you add to this the money paid by passengers for their passage, which amounts to ten shillings a head, making from seventeen to twenty dollars a voyage, and from one hundred and seventy to two hundred dollars for the ten voyages, which are made in the course of the year, the whole yields but a very moderate profit, which is however in- creased by the sale of goods. This is as yet the usual way in which trade is carried on by this city ; it deprives the merchants of Albany of a considerable profit, and throws it into the hands of those of New York. Some of the former undertake indeed voyages to England, Holland and other countries ; but, for this purpose, they charter New York vessels. These are the bolder people ; 27
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and are called men of the new notions, but their number is small.
"The ancient customs and confined views of the timid yet covetous Dutchmen, have carefully been pre- served in this city. No ship sails from Albany directly to Europe ; and yet provision is sent thither from this place. It is evident that, if the inhabitants would take themselves the trouble of exporting their produce, they would save useless interest, the return freight, and double commission, and would obtain employment for their ships during the time when the navigation to the north is shut up by ice. Ideas of this complexion begin to dawn upon the minds of some merchants, and will, no doubt, produce advantageous changes. From the same habitual apathy, the merchants of Albany relinquish the trade in horses and mules, great numbers of which are reared in the neighborhood, to the Connecticut mer- chants, who purchase and export them with considerable profit, to the Antilles.
"The building of ships costs in Albany about twenty seven dollars and a half per ton. The ships are all fir built, and last about ten years. Experiments have been made, which prove, that ships built of dry and well seasoned timber, last thirty years and upwards. The trade of Albany grows daily more extensive ; and the number of shops and ships is increasing fast.
" Two new towns, built five or six years ago, a few miles above Albany, on the northern [eastern ?] bank o the river, share in this trade. These two towns, which have rapidly raised themselves to a considerable degre of importance, and are but three or four miles distan from each other, carry on the same trade as Albany with about twenty- five or thirty vessels, which belong to them drawn from the back country the productions of thes
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fruitful provinces, transmit them to New York, take in return European goods, and supply with them those parts, which were formerly supplied from Albany. The greater distance, however, and less depth of water, are circumstances unfavorable to these new towns. The freight thence to Albany is two pence per barrel ; their largest ships are only of sixty tons burthen, and generally can not take on board more than half their cargo, the remainder of which they receive from lighters, which at- tend them for that purpose in the vicinity of Albany. Yet, they continue their trade, increase daily, and will probably animate Albany to greater boldness and ac- tivity. New City 1 [Lansingburgh] contains about sixty or seventy stores or shops, and Troy fifty or sixty. These new-settled merchants all prosper, and their number is daily increasing.
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