Monday, April 29, 2024

Her name is Mary!

 We are going to dive deep into the archives of this blog for today's post.  

I'm freshening up my walk at Bethlehem Cemetery and decided to include this row of tombstones. "The McHargs," I thought. "I know them!"

That is husband John Peter McHarg on the right and to his left is wife Catherine Campbell. To the left of Catherine are stones for three of their children, Andrew, Margaret and Elizabeth (l to r).  And I'm pretty sure the one laying down to the left is James.  James and Andrew were twins who died with days of each other, just shy of their first birth day.

The McHargs lived over on Feura Bush Road. Pop over to my 2016 blog post now to read more. Then come back.  I'll wait.


So today's research answered my question from 2016 - John Peter McHarg's mother's name is Mary McKie!  And I know that because someone has put a ton of information about the McHarg's up on Findagrave. It wasn't there 8 years ago, I swear!  

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Thinking about Mary Selkirk Frederick

Yesterday while walking about Elmwood Cemetery, this stone caught my eye. First the lovely clasped hands.  Then the inscription - Mary Selkirck. Can that be right? What is that extra "c" doing in there. I had to do some research.
 

A clearer picture I took back in 2018.


The Coeymans Herald, December 21, 1887


The death notice from the Coeymans Herald reads: 

Frederick - At Selkirk, Dec. 15. Mary Selkirk, wife of Barney Frederick, ages 43 years.  

The stone says Died Dec. 15, 1887 Aged  42 years, 2 months, 6 days. 

And according to a nifty tombstone birthday calculator on the internet, she was born October 9, 1845.

But the book Records of the People of the Town of Bethlehem has a slightly different story to tell. 

First, Mary is clearly identified in a 1869 listing of members of the First Reformed Church of Bethlehem, and I quote, James Mull Selkirk (and wife) Maria Selkirk (nee Wolfe) Mary Selkirk (their daughter) Mrs. Fredericks.  She is also listed as member in 1873. Going back some pages brings one to to an entry about baptisms at the church. There we have Mary and her brother John being baptized in 1848.  Her birthday is listed as September 21, 1845. Which is not what is on her tombstone, at least according to the calculator.  Her death is recorded in the listing for Elmwood Cemetery with the dates from her tombstone. Barney Frederick (or Fredericks) is only listed in the book as Mary's husband. 

I first find Barney in Guilderland in the 1850 US census when he is two years old living with his widowed mother Barbara who is just 21. 1855 and 1860 he is still in Guilderland, but in 1865 he turns up in Bethlehem in the household of Henry and Sarah Westfall as a servant. 

Mary Selkirk, clearly turns up in her parents household in the 1870 census in Bethlehem. In 1875, Mary and Barney are married and living with her parents in Bethlehem. Same in 1880. Then Mary dies in 1887 and I can't find anything else about Barney. (There is one promising death notice for a Barney in Ohio but probably not our guy) Where did he go? What did he do? No idea. 

Which brings me back to the tombstone with the miss-spelled Selkirck (and maybe the wrong age and birthday too).  What happened there?  Who actually purchased the stone? Barney or maybe Mary's parents? Didn't they notice the typo and couldn't they send it back? Was it already paid for? Were they just stuck with it to they put it up anyway.  I have questions!!!! 

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

Turnips and Judge Leonard/Learned

 Google “record breaking turnip” and you turn up plenty of references to Canadian Damien Allard’s 29-kilogram monster that he grew in 2021. That’s 63.9 pounds and the heaviest turnip according to Guinness World Records. Meanwhile, according to Guinness, the longest turnip is just over 15 feet, a record growth achieved by Joe Atherton of the UK in 2022.

Those are some big turnips. But why, you ask, are you writing about turnips?

It all goes back to why I haven’t posted much here lately. Not to worry, I am still doing plenty of history stuff with the Bethlehem Historical Association. But what’s really got me going lately is writing short stories that are inspired by strange little newspaper clippings, like this one about Judge Leonard’s turnip.



“Large Turnip – We have had brought to our office a turnip raised on the farm of Judge Leonard, of Bethlehem, which we think, for size, will be difficult to beat at this time. It measured 17 inches in circumference, and weighed 5 lbs. 6 oz. The seed was sown May 10th. Who can turn-up a larger turnip that this?” The Coeymans Herald, August 11, 1875

Clips like this often catch my eye while I am researching completely unrelated topics (this time it happened to be Nellie Bly.)

Now, I know who Judge Leonard was. I know where his house and farm were. I know all kinds of interesting tidbits about him and his family, and even some of the tenant farmers that worked his land. Because you know the Judge himself is not out there tilling the fields.*

But I don’t know anything about this turnip situation. And I have questions that will never be answered factually.

Why did someone show up at the newspaper office with a really big vegetable? Was it a dare? A challenge? Was this someone just passing by with said turnip, maybe on the way to market or something, and they thought the editor would like to look at it?

Can you imagine a rustic farmer marching in and plunking a big turnip down on the editor’s desk? I’m thinking about a grumpy Lou Grant character sitting at a plain wooden desk that has lots of handwritten papers all over the top of it. There’s an ink well and a steel nibbed pen on the desk. Maybe there’s a printing press clunking in the background and another desk where a clerk is hunched over a tray of type setting individual letters for the next day’s newspaper.

Maybe the turnip lands hard and spills the ink all over the papers obliterating something important. Maybe the rustic farmer and the Lou Grant editor get into a big argument. Maybe they have a big laugh. Maybe the encounter starts a big turnip growing competition that all the local farmers get in on. Maybe the farmer is a woman who had been told she didn’t know anything about turnip farming. Maybe she’s an aspiring journalist and her name is Mary Tyler Moore.

Ok, you see how this goes. It is so much fun to imagine the “real story.”

Here are a couple of examples of ones I’ve tackled so far.

A female blacksmith arrived last week. Charley Brust is responsible and happy.”

This clip was published November 29, 1884 in the Altamont Enterprise under the Guilderland Center section. A female blacksmith! In my story, I named her Maisie Baxter.

“Mr. Garrett Hotaling is having hard luck, having recently lost a horse and a hog. Its an old saying, “Those that have must lose.” Blessed be nothing, Garry.”

This one was published in the November 18, 1892 issue of the Altamont Enterprise in the Voorheesville Section. “Blessed be nothing.” That’s harsh. What does it even mean? Poor Garry! My Garry encounters a lady reporter who shouts that at him after getting knocked down by Garry’s runaway horse.

Maybe one of these days I’ll get these stories together and share them with all of you.

This picture of William Law Learned is from Howell & Tenny's Bicentennial History of
Albany County by way of the Find a Grave website.

* The article refers to Judge Leonard. I am very confident that this is actually Judge William Law Learned. Spelling was not anyone’s specialty in the 1800s.

While there are plenty of references to the Leonard family in Bethlehem, none of them, as far as I can tell, were judges. In an 1870 gazetteer (basically a phone directory without the phone) for Bethlehem, Southwick Leonard was the proprietor of the Bethlehem Hotel at Adams Station. Isaac was a farmer, also at Adams Station. And William L. Learned of Cedar Hill was a lawyer and farmer.

Now, pop over here and take a look at a very long and flowery biography of Judge Learned.

https://accessgenealogy.com/connecticut/biography-of-william-l-learned.htm

Buried in there, you can see where he was first appointed, then elected for a 14 year term, as a Justice of the Supreme Court in 1870. This bio specifically references the case of a Mr. Lowenstein who murdered a Mr. Weston. Well, there is an article in the February 26, 1874 Coeymans Herald detailing the Verdict handed down by Judge Leonard in the Lowenstein case. It’s got to be the same judge.

One little tidbit, while looking at the 1870 Agriculture Census, Ancestry interpreted the handwriting as W. L. Leonard. When you go to the actual page, the handwriting clearly says Learned. Learned (Leonard) by the way, had 200 acres and reported on his Irish potatoes, butter and hay. No turnips listed.

And after all this writing about turnips, and as your reward for reading this far down on the blog, as a kid, I found it hilarious when mom would joke that her New Hampshire farming ancestors grew “lettuce, turnip and pea.” 



Thursday, February 1, 2024

Hessburg Estate - Update to an update

 Wow - it is not often I have an update to an update - how fun!



 I first wrote about the Hessburg Estate in connection with the house's architect Marcus Reynolds way back in 2016.

Pop over here and give it a read:

https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/10/architect-marcus-t-reynolds-work-in.html

Then read the follow up where I literally say there is a photo but I don't have it.

https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/2016/11/marcus-reynolds-hessberg-house-mystery.html

And now, 7+ years later, the photos!

Many thanks to Town Historian Bill Ketzer who recently did an oral history with Bill and Doug Weisheit.  And many many thanks to Bill and Doug for sharing their family's history and memorabilia.

Now to the pictures!







And briefly if you don't want to read the other blog posts, the grand house was torn down to make way for the Our Lady of Angels Seminary (now the Job Corps property on River Road.)

And if you want to know more about Reynolds, here's a link to an event coming up in a couple of weeks put on by the Historic Albany Foundation.

Saturday, January 27, 2024

Bill Ketzer - TOB Historian

Wow - it has been a while since I posted here!

I am still doing history things and am president of the Bethlehem Historical Association. Pop over here for a recent Spotlight article on the doings at the Cedar Hill School House Museum. 

https://spotlightnews.com/towns/bethlehem/2023/12/27/items-from-1940s-bethlehem-on-display-at-bha-museum/

Today's post is to encourage you to follow Bethlehem's current historian, Bill Ketzer, on his Facebook account. Search for Bill Ketzer, Town of Bethlehem Historian and give him a follow. 

He is writing and posting some really marvelous stuff.

Here's a screenshot of today's post.


(Sorry, I know it is blurry.) He is writing about a visit to the former Heath Dairy Farm.  You can read his article over here in BHA's recent newsletter.

BHA Fall 2023 Newsletter

Also, he writes often for the BHA newsletter, so browse around the other issue here:

https://www.bethlehemhistorical.org/newsletters 

Below is one of the pictures from the Facebook post with Bill's caption.

Yours truly, talking Heath history with Trevor Heath Thayer (great-grandson and Rick Thayer (grandson). It's truly a gift when you can walk an historic property with those who worked, played and hunted on it. Pictures: Lauren Chiyoko Axford





Friday, August 4, 2023

Alfred Webster's photo album

Don't you just love these old photo albums? The embossed surface? The fancy clasps holding it shut? The sheer, weighty heft of them? 



And then, if you're lucky, you open it up and low and behold, the pictures are labeled with names.  Amazing. Now to figure out who these people are and if they have a Bethlehem connection.*
Alfred Webster
The first photo is an older gentleman named Alfred Webster.  We'll get to him in a minute because the real key to figuring out the album are the next two pictures.


It's labeled Alfred Webster father of Olive, Floyd, Raymond & Harold.


On the opposite page is this picture labeled Helen Florine Olmstead m. Alfred Cutler Webster.

A quick hop over to Findagrave and things begin to fall into place. 

Alfred Cutler Webster, 1870-1956, is buried in the Acra (Greene County) Village Cemetery along with his spouse Helen Florine Olmstead Webster, 1870-1942.  Finda lists their children as Floyd James (1896-1982), Raymond Willis (1899-1970) and Harold (1905-1928).  Finda does not have their daughter Olive here. According to the photo album, she married someone named Simpson or Simpkins and I haven't tracked her down. 




Finda lists Alfred's parents as James Leander Webster (1824-1905) and Maria Kniskern Webster (1828-1907).  When I looked up James on Finda, it lists his father as Russel Webster (1783-1870). This is most likely the old man pictured at the front of the album.  I'm thinking the photo was taken near the time of his death in 1870.




Also in the album are Jarvis Webster and The Rev. Erastus Webster. I found an interesting newspaper clipping in the legal case of Erastus Webster vs. Jarvis H. Webster in the case of land owned in Cairo by Russell Webster, deceased.  (Cairo by the way is right next door to Acra - Catskill Recorder Nov. 20, 1874)  I'm thinking these two are sons of Russell.  Check out the family resemblance.


In the album too is this picture of Maria Kniskern - might that be Alfred's mother who was born in 1828 and died in 1907? Probably. 




There are a bunch more labeled pictures in the album related to the Webster and Olmstead family.  But there are two of a man named Oscar Oatman.  In an admittedly quick look, I couldn't find anything about him.  And he looks so handsome in his uniform and with his bowler hat. 


So there you have it, a little exploration of what you can (sometimes!) find out if the pictures have names on them. 



*This little research project happened because I was helping out the registrar of the Bethlehem Historical Association figure out if this album should be accessioned into the BHA collection. I'm the new BHA president in case you didn't know and am officially retired as Town of Bethlehem Historian.


Thursday, June 22, 2023

Charlotte and John Van Allen

 Recently I’ve been doing some research about 1940s Bethlehem, especially the development of the zoning code and planning board.  Any thinking about zoning in Bethlehem must include Howard P. Paddock, real estate developer and planning board chairman. He lived for many years at 420 Delaware Avenue, a lovely brick home built about 1852 for Dr. John Van Allen. According to Allison Bennett, Van Allen was “one of our town’s ‘horse and buggy’ doctors.”

In another post, I’ll get back to Paddock.  For now, I want to tell you about the Van Allens.

Heres' the house in 2012

This is one of my favorites houses on Delaware Avenue with its brick stylings, front porch, hip roof, carriage barn and four-acre setting, I always seem to fall into the trap of referring to it as the “Dr. Van Allen House” without thinking too much about it. But Dr. Van Allen didn’t live there nearly as long as his wife Charlotte or son Theodore. So down the history rabbit hole I went.

Backing up in time from when the house was built in 1852, the land was part of a 275-acre parcel that was leased by Stephen Van Rensselaer to James McKee in 1803. In the ensuing years, the land was divided up and parcels sold to various Bethlehem families with familiar names like Adams, Hallenback and Winne.  Dr. John Van Allen acquired about 14 acres in the 1850s and he is probably the one who had the house built.  

Van Allen is also a familiar Bethlehem name. But, there are so many John Van Allens I gave up after finding the 1850 Census which clearly has my John Van Allen. He is age 39, a physician with real estate property valued at $4000.  Interestingly, his spouse is Lucy, age 36. The only other person in the household is Elsa Sager, age 30, who is likely a servant.

Now skip forward to the 1860 U.S. Census.  Here is John G. Van Allen, age 49, physician, with real estate valued at $5000 and personal property valued at $5000.  Quite well off were the Van Allens.  Next is his wife Charlotte, age 39, born in New Jersey. Lucy age 9/12, and two servants Elsie Sager and Eleanor Cook. I am assuming the Lucy in the 1850 census was his first wife, although I could not find a death record on her. Did you notice little Lucy, only 9 months old? Maybe she was named after wife #1.  And how about Elsie Sager? Looks like she worked for the family for at least ten years.   

John and Charlotte were married in 1858. They had 3 children together, Louisa, who died at age 16 in 1876 (the Lucy listed in 1860), baby James who only lived a year and a half and Theodore born in 1861 who went on to be a physician like his father. Dr. John died in 1879 when he was about 68, so he and Charlotte were married about 20 years.

I could find little info about how Dr. John was related to the many other Van Allens that lived in Bethlehem. But, Googling around on Charlotte turned up all kinds of interesting facts about her family in New Jersey.

Charlotte Mercer Cornell was the daughter of the Rev. John Cornell and Maria Frelinghuysen.  The Frelinghuyens were a big deal in New Jersey politics and society. Her grandfather was Frederick Frelinghuysen (1753-1804) a Revolutionary War General and U. S. Senator from New Jersey. By the way, her grandmother, General Fred’s wife, was Gertrude Schneck (1753-1794).  Charlotte’s uncle Theodore Frelinghuysen (1787-1862) was one of several New Jersey political bigwigs named Frelinghuysen. Both her father and her brother were Reverends.

 My big question is how did Charlotte meet John Van Allen? A mystery.

After her husband’s death Charlotte lived in the Bethlehem house while her son Theodore was studying medicine.  He graduated from Albany Medical College in 1883. Follow the link below to a very nice write up about him published after his death in 1902.  My favorite quote “At times apparently brusque and unsympathetic, he was ever generous to a fault and loyal beyond measure.”  By 1900, mother and son were living at 48 Eagle Street in Albany. The census page caught my eye because there were four physicians living right next to each other at 42, 44, 46 and 48 Eagle Street. That would be George Lempe, Arthur Sautter, Arthur Root and Theodore Van Allen.  

Charlotte Van Allen, born April 13, 1822, died September 12, 1903. Shortly after that her Bethlehem property was sold and eventually came into the hands of George and Belle Paddock who in turn sold it to Howard P. Paddock.

General Frelinghuysen

Theodore Frelinghuysen

Theodore F. C. Van Allen, M.D.


LINKS in no particular order...

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7474887/theodore-frelinghuysen

https://sparedandshared.wordpress.com/letters/1839-charlotte-mercer-cornell-to-rev-frederick-frelinghuysen-cornell/

https://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/dutch_americans/frederick-frelinghuysen/

https://books.google.com/books?id=4TZYAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA672&dq=Theodore+Van+Allen&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiLyvSaotX_AhVzFlkFHez8Cu8Q#v=onepage&q=Theodore%20Van%20Allen&f=false

https://knowingnewark.npl.org/the-frelinghuysens-when-jerseys-imperial-family-reigned/


And finally, in case you are curious like me, here is a Street View photo of #42 Eagle Street. Charlotte and Theodore probably lived in a similar looking house - now the parking lot on the left.