Our Towne Bethlehem March 2021: Catherine and Elisha Hurlbut

This essay started out as an introduction to Elisha P. Hurlbut, New York Supreme Court Judge, accomplished lawyer, staunch advocate for the woman’s rights and abolition movements, and resident of Glenmont for almost 30 years. Chris Philippo of the Bethlehem Historical Association has done extensive research on the Judge and is in the process of securing a grant for a historic marker recognizing Hurlbut’s contributions to the Woman Suffrage Movement.  

 You can go online and find the masters thesis of Hurlbut descendant Jeffrey Dunnington entitled A Study of the Journal of Elisha P. Hurlbut, American Social Reformer, 1858-1887. Dunnington’s inspiration are the many journals that Hurlbut kept while residing at Glenmont. Hurlbut writes of his activities, his family, and his many opinions on the state of society. (Note the journals are dated 1858-1887. Hurlburt himself lived from 1807-1889.)

Elisha P. Hurlbut borrowed from Dunnington's work. 

 In amongst all of the masculine Hurlbut information, you will usually find a side note to the affect that Hurlbut married Catherine Van Vechten from the prominent Albany family. But what if the Hurlbut story were told from Catherine’s point of view? Shall we give it a try?

 Catherine Van Vechten was born June 8, 1826, the daughter of Teunis Van Vechten and Catherine Gansevoort. She had at least nine brothers and sisters. When she was 11 years old, her father was appointed Mayor of the City of Albany. He was a graduate of Union College and a prominent lawyer for the Van Rensselaer family. The Van Vechtens lived in Albany on Montgomery Street, around the corner from her father’s law office on Maiden Lane.

Catherine’s mother, Catherine Gansevoort, likely grew up at the famous Whitehall mansion. Her father Leonard purchased it, and about 1000 acres, in 1789, the same year she was born. (Modern day Whitehall Road is its namesake. The house was near where Whitehall, Delaware and Ten Eyck come together. Until 1916 this area was in the Town of Bethlehem.) One wonders if she heard the story growing up of how her aunt Magdalene Gansevoort’s thwarted suitor, a man named Sanders, instigated the terrible fire of 1793 that destroyed much of Albany. The family moved out to Whitehall after their city home burned down in the fire. After Leonard’s death in 1810, Whitehall came to Magdalene and her husband Jacob Ten Eyck.

For a time located in Bethlehem, the Whitehall Mansion was originally built in the 1760s, thought to be a Loyalist hideout during the Revolution and extensively rebuilt by Leonard Ganesevoort, Catherine Hurlbut’s grandfather. The image here is from Allison Bennett’s book The People’s Choice and is a mourning sampler made by Hester Gansevoort Ten Eyck in 1810. Bennett suggests that the two women in the portrait are Leonard’s daughters Magdalena and Catherine. 

One wonders if Catherine Van Vechten spent time at the elegant mansion, both before and after her marriage to Elisha Hurlbut. It would have belonged to her aunt and uncle. And how did Catherine meet Elisha? Probably through the interconnected social circles of those practicing law in Albany and New York City.  

Elisha was born in Herkimer County, New York on October 15, 1807, attended the Fairfield Academy and studied law under Arfaxus Loomis. In 1835 he moved to New York City. Dunnington summarizes well, “ As a young lawyer, Hurlbut enjoyed tremendous success, becoming well known across the state, and in law circles around the country. In one particular case, Bailey vs. The Mayor, he earned the largest fee ever obtained by a lawyer in New York City at the time. After a successful, lucrative, and brief law career, Hurlbut was elected to be a judge on the New York Supreme Court in 1847, the youngest person to achieve the honor.”  

 On the day her fiancée was nominated to the court, January 8, 1847, Catherine married Elisha. She was just 20 years old. Her new husband was 39.

 The Hurlbuts lived in New York City for few years before Elisha’s ill health prompted them to retire to the country. While Dunnington states they moved to Newport in Herkimer county and lived there for eight years, the 1850 U.S. Census captures them at Albany. The 1860 has them in Bethlehem. Catherine had four children: Jeanette born 1851, Bertha 1853, Gansevoort 1857 and Ernest 1863.

 While we have no words of Catherine’s own, Dunnington provides this description gleaned from Elisha’s journals:

While Mrs. Hurlbut was not afraid to voice her opinion on both political and family matters, she habitually deferred to her husband, following the era’s customs. Upon her death, Hurlbut wrote:

  "All her conduct shows that her family was her world—her children her jewels—and her husband her protector and unfailing reliance. She was not learned as a scholar—her headaches in youth having prevented study—but she had remarkable sense—great household economy—and was wholly devoted to her husband and children. She retained the simplicity of childhood through life. Her father called her “a child of nature” truly—and she lived and died uncorrupted by society.”

 Hurlbut claimed she brought order to his life by balancing out his negative attributes. Where Hurlbut was prone to fits of anger, Mrs. Hurlbut conveyed a calm and soothing temperament. She died of breast cancer November 13, 1880, at the age of fifty-five.

 

The Hurlbut Mansion in Glenmont was located at the end of modern-day Halter Road off of River Road. Surely Catherine influenced the elegant design decisions that are apparent in this photo. The house is seen here when it was owned by John Eddy (you might remember him from last month’s article.) It is no longer standing, having burned down in 1915, as this headline from the Albany Evening Journal announces: Old Hurlbut Manion Destroyed by Fire. Crowd Attracted by Spectacular Blaze at Glenmont – House Was Owned by John Eddy.

The Hurlbuts were a wealthy family. They owned the 12-acre estate in Glenmont. Inspired by the landscape marked by a hill and a glen, Hurlbut named it Glenmont on the Hudson. He also desired to distinguish the property, the former Abbey Farm, from the nearby, and rowdy, Abbey Hotel. 

The Hurlbuts also owned property in Albany.  I wonder if these Albany acres, which were across Delaware Avenue from the Whitehall mansion, were part of Catherine’s inheritance from her grandfather Leonard Gansevoort. As the crow flies, they are only a few miles from their Glenmont home. The Hurlbuts are remembered today in the names of Albany streets between Second Avenue and Delaware: Jeanette, Bertha, Van Vechten and of course Hurlbut.

1891 Beers map - the cross roads in the middle are modern day Whitehall Road, Delaware Avenue,
and Second Avenue.  On the green side of the line is Bethlehem, on the yellow Albany.

While I tried to highlight Catherine here, her husband Elisha P. Hurlbut truly was a fascinating character. You are encouraged to read more about him and his thoughts on civil rights, religion and phrenology in Dunnington’s work.   https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/51290226.pdf

And that fire in 1793? The story is disturbing on many levels, from the catastrophic fire to the eventual death of two slaves, Bet and Dinah, charged with arson. Curious? Start with this page from the People of Colonial Albany Project:https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov//albany/doc/fire1793.html#scandal

Flashes and Dashes

I am getting back to walking and talking history with a series of Second Saturday events. First up on Saturday, March 13 is a walkabout in historic Slingerlands. Find more information at the Bethlehem Historical Association’s website and Bethlehem Parks & Recreation’s Seasonal Brochures.

http://www.townofbethlehem.org/295/Seasonal-Brochures