Cornelius Glen - It's complicated

With the sesquicentennial of the American Revolution underway, I plan to post more often about the untold stories of Bethlehem people impacted by the war. 

Conveniently, Revolutionary War veteran Cornelius Glen has a write up with the People of Colonial Albany project.  Pop over here and read it.  I'll wait...

https://exhibitions.nysm.nysed.gov/albany/bios/g/coglen4920.html

There are some interesting points made in this biography. Cornelius was born in 1741 and baptized November 1 of that year at the Dutch Reformed Church, Albany (Side note, today the church is known as The First Church in Albany because they were, quite literally, the first one, established in 1642). He was the son of Jacob Glen and Elizabeth Cuyler. The Glens and Cuylers were well connected families, the Glens being particular famous in the Schenectady/Scotia area -you might have heard of the Glen Sanders Mansion.  Click thru some of the links on the People biography for interesting bits of info on the families, including a picture of where Cornelis likely grew up at the corner of Steuben Street and Chapel Street in Albany. 

Cornelius married Elizabeth Nicoll in 1764, also at the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany.  Elizabeth, daughter of Rensselaer and Elizabeth (Salisbury) Nicoll, grew up in Bethlehem House, the old (circa 1730) brick home that still stands across the street from the cemetery where she and her husband Cornelis were laid to rest. The Nicolls were also prosperous and well connected. 

The plaque at the Nicoll Sill Cemetery that lists Revolutionary War Veterans buried there.  

The view of Bethlehem House taken from the cemetery. 

Cornelius and Elizabeth made their home in Albany and its nearby environs. The 1790 census had them in Albany, Ward 3 while the 1800 has them in Watervliet, Albany. (Side note: remember Bethlehem as an official town was erected out of the town of Watervliet in 1793. Watervliet was basically all of modern Albany County that was not the actual city. Another example is the town of Guilderland was erected in 1803 from Watervliet). It does not appear that they had any children.

What they did have were slaves. The 1790 and 1800 Census confirm that the Glen's enslaved people during those years, six in 1790 and eight in 1800. One wonders about that 1800 Census. There are 12 people in the household, four were white people over the age of 45 (Cornelius and Elizabeth plus two others.) and eight slaves. Ancestry notes that the number of household over the age of 25 is four. That would mean that all of the enslaved people are aged 25 and younger.  The 1810 census captures Elizabeth when she is head of household (Cornelius had died in March 1810) enslaving five people. 

I easily found Elizabeth's will from 1812 on Ancestry (still looking for Cornelius'). She left a variety of assets to her niece Elizabeth Nicoll Sill Ludlow (daughter of her brother Francis) and various other nephews on her Nicoll family side.  Assets included shares of the Albany & Bethlehem Turnpike and the Bethlehem & Green Turnpike, stock in the Albany Bank, her pew at the "North Dutch Church" and her plate and household furniture. After a long list of bequeaths, this phrase stopped me cold

"And I hereby charge my said Nephews with the payment of five dollars, each on the fifteenth days of May and November yearly & every year for the purchase of Clothing for my old black woman during her natural life."

This person, an old Black woman who was important enough to have been given a bequest, is not even named. 

Slavery was very much a fact of life for people living in Bethlehem in those early days. New York's Gradual Emancipation Act was not enacted until July 4, 1799, and due to its gradual nature, Black people were still enslaved in New York until 1827.

Back to Cornelius and his Revolutionary War service.  As everyone did, Cornelius had to make a choice, Loyalist or Patriot?  As noted in the People of Colonial Albany biography, in July of 1778 he refused to sign an oath of allegiance to the Patriot cause which resulted in his arrest and being threatened with banishment behind British lines. However, he later did take the oath and served with a city regiment of the Albany County militia and was granted land bounty rights.

What is interesting to me is his waffling given the position of his brothers, John Glen (1735-1828) and Col. Henry Glen (1739-1814). A Schenectady County history book that includes a genealogy of the Glen family describes these two as follows: Both of these Glens were ardent and stirring patriots of the Revolution and highly esteemed personal friends of General Washington. On all occasions, when the older brother was quartermaster, the younger brother was his deputy.

Pop over here to read the whole page, which starts with his parents but does not include any mention of our Cornelius. 

https://www.schenectadyhistory.org/resources/yates/gen-glen.html

Photo from the Historical Marker Database, taken in 2006

I am so curious, did Cornelius and Elizabeth meet George Washington at his brother's home?

Cornelius Glenn (1741-1810) image from Findagrave

Elizabeth Nicoll Glen (1747-1812) image from Findagrave

Caleb Smith we have a math problem

 With the sesquicentennial of the American Revolution underway, I plan to post more often about the untold stories of Bethlehem people impacted by the war.

Down at the Nicoll Sill Cemetery there is a plaque that the women of the DAR installed. It lists those remembered in the cemetery who were veterans of the Revolutionary War. One of those is 

CALEB SMITH
2ND REGT. WESTCHESTER CO. MILITIA

Unlike other names on the plaque (Jolly, Nicoll, Selkirk, Sill and Van Wie), Caleb Smith is not one that I think of as a familiar Bethlehem name. 

What could I find out about him? 

I soon ran into a math problem.  In the cemetery there is defiantly is a stone for Caleb Smith. It reads that he died September 13, 1833 in his 63rd year.  Did you do that math? That means he was born about 1770.  The years of the American Revolution are defined as 1775 to 1783. I don't think litttle Caleb was off fighting the Red Coats, but maybe as a drummer boy late in the war - he would have been 13 in 1783.

Caleb Smith's stone - picture from Find A Grave

The book New York in the Revolution has six entries for Caleb Smith, including Caleb Smith and Caleb Smith, Jr. in the Westchester County Militia Second Regiment under Col. Thomas Thomas. Those two are also found in Westchester County's Fourth Regiment under Col. Thaddeus Crane. 

Is that Caleb Smith Junior our Caleb?  Further research is needed to find out what records the local DAR chapter used to connect the Caleb buried in Bethlehem with the Caleb who served in the militia. All the looking I did on line did not turn up a definitive connection. 

I did turn up some interesting items about our Caleb, at least I think it is our Caleb as the name Caleb Smith is more common than I thought it would be.  

In the 1790 census, there is a Caleb Smith living in Rensselaerwick (the precursor to Bethlehem) and also one living in nearby Coxsackie. (And a Senior and Junior in North Salem in Westchester County which might be those Revolutionary War veterans.) 

Caleb Smith is clearly in Bethlehem in the 1810 and 1830 census.

Church records indicate Caleb Smith and Magdalen Fleman had one son, Bartholomew, baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church of Coeymans on July 30, 1797.  

Two children of Caleb Smith and Magdalen Flemming were baptized at the First Reformed Church of Bethlehem, Francis Nicoll on June 3, 1810 and Catharine Tiny on August 28, 1812. Catharine died December 13, 1829 aged 17 years, 3 months and 18 days and is buried near her father at the Nicoll Sill Cemetery. Daughter Jane Ann is also buried there. She died July 4, 1823, aged 15 years and 8 months. I couldn't find a record of her baptism. 

And just to spice things up, records indicate that Caleb Smith and Magdalen Frothingham  had a son Bartholomew baptized at Albany's First Presbyterian church on July 5, 1801. 

Really, how many Bartholomew Smiths can there be? Maybe the first one died young and they re-used the name? And the spelling of Magdalen's last name is all over the place (Flehman, Flemming, Hemming, probably Frothingham too)

I did turn up an obituary for the Reverend William I. Smith published in 1896 that read he was "the son of Bartholomew Smith of Bethlehem and Margret Witbeck. When yet a boy his parents moved to Castleton".  Reverend Will was born about 1840, so at least that math adds up.

Oh, and Bartholomew Smith is listed as a member of the First Reformed Church of Bethlehem on June 22, 1822. 

And that's all I've got about Caleb Smith of Bethlehem, Revolutionary War veteran, or not, as the case may by.

Zimri Murdock

With the sesquicentennial of the American Revolution underway, I plan to post more often about the untold stories of Bethlehem people impacted by the war.

Today's story is about Revolutionary War veteran Zimri Murdock who is remembered at the Nicoll Sill Cemetery in the Cedar Hill section of Bethlehem. 

In 1778, he served in the 5th Regiment of the Duchess County Militia. 

Zimri was born in 1760, the son of John Murdock and Jerusha Hatch. John and Jerusha married in Preston, Connecticut on Janaury 20, 1757. We know Zimri's parentage because, conveniently, there is a book entitled Murdock Genealogy: Robert Murdock of Roxbury Massachusetts and Some of his Descendants compiled by Joseph P. Murdock in 1925. While it not for certain that Zimri is a direct descendant of said Robert, he is listed in a section called Other Lines.

The book also lists his siblings, all 12 of them, including brothers Zerah and Seymour who both served in Dutchess County militia regiments during the Revolution. 

I couldn't find any documentation that Zimri had a wife or children, or even how he ended up in Bethlehem. Sadly the early censuses do not provide that level of detail.  In the 1790 census he is living at Pawling, New York in a house hold of five including 3 males over 16 and 2 females. In 1800 he is in Brooklyn, Windham County, Connecticut, in a household of 6 people. 

In 1810 he is in Bethlehem in a household of 13 as follows: 3 males under 10, 2 males ages 16-25, 1 male 26-44, 2 males over age 45, 1 female under age 10, 2 females aged 16-25, 1 female aged 26-44 and 1 female over 45.  Since Zimri is listed individually, we know he is the head of household, but how all of these people are related is a mystery.  

At the cemetery in Cedar Hill, Zimri is the only Murdock buried there. His stone is very nice and inscribed "In Memory of Zimri Murdock who departed this life February 15, 1813 in his 53rd year of age" followed by a poem. I did find his brother Zerah (thank you distinctive names!).  He died in 1822 and is now interred at Albany Rural Cemetery in the First Universal Church Plot. 

A few more tidbits about Zimri. 

He ran the Union Store at Poughkeepsie in 1794 that had a large load of rock salt to sell.

In 1802,  he was enough in debt that his creditors ran ads in the Poughkeepsie newspapers.

In 1803 he was an investor in the Norwich and Woodstock Turnpike Company (Connecticut)

In the book Records of the People of the Town of Bethlehem there is an entry recording the December 31, 1812 marriage of Ebenezer Murdock [Moordock] to Polly Dobbs at the First Reformed Church of Bethlehem.  The name Ebenezer turns up often in the Murdock genealogy book.  I am thinking he must be related to either Zimri or Zerah. 

Zimri's name and death date is listed in  a record of New York Wills and Probate Records. A trip to the Albany County Hall of Records should turn up more details on that, plus maybe land records.

 

Those Z names,  Zimri and Zerah had a sister named Zerviah, are old Hebrew names. 

And finally, Zimri and his family are very very distant cousins of mine - really!

In that same Murdock genealogy book, there is an entry for Elisha Murdock (1765-1826) and Martha Perkins (1767-1835) of Carver, Massachusetts.  These good folks are my 5th great grand parents.

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