With the sesquicentennial of the American Revolution underway, I am posting about the untold stories of Bethlehem people impacted by the war.
This is a series about Bethlehem's Revolutionary War veterans and Bethlehem folks during the Revolutionary War era.
And Arie Van Wie is recognized as one of them having served with Quakenbo's Regiment of the Albany County Militia (also known as the Third Regiment). He was baptized at First Church in Albany on December 14, 1760, the son of Henrick Van Wie and Johanna Gardenier. You might be familiar with Bethlehem's Van Wies Point area. The large Van Wie family have been out and about here for generations. Just in Quakenbo's Regiment alone, there are 10 different Van Wie men listed.
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| Van Wies Point boasts two historic markers dedicated to its eponymous family. |
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| Interestingly Van Wie's service in the Albany County Militia was in 1786, the Treaty of Paris that ended the war was signed September 3, 1783. Also of interest, some documents list him as a sergeant, like this one, others a lieutenant, and another as a quartermaster. |
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| Mr. Van Wie's name is spelled many ways across the historic record including Arie, Aurie, Aurey, Ary and Andries. |
The 1799 assessment role for Bethlehem lists Arie and Henrick Van Wie (probably his father) with a house and farm worth $5,716 and personal property of $1,015. Those are pretty high numbers for Bethlehem in 1799. Sadly, the Van Wie's were products of their time. The 1800 U.S. census indicates Arie had a household of 17, 14 of whom were enslaved people.
But I got intrigued by Eunice Walden, who married Arie Van Wie at the First Reformed Church of Bethlehem in July 1800.
According to several sources, like Find a Grave and Ancestry, and our very own book Records of the People of the Town of Bethlehem, Eunice is the daughter of Nathen and Patience Walden. Those internet references also assert the family is from Nantucket. In Nantucket the last name is spelled Waldron, in New York its Walden. From the sources I can find from the comfort of my couch, things are a bit murky, but plausible about Eunice being from Nantucket.
The Nantucket Historical Association has a database called the Barney Genealogical Record and there are no Waldens in it, but there are plenty of Waldrons including Nathan and his second wife Patience Russell and their daughter Eunice.
(Side note: Nathan's first wife was Eunice Russell. Were the wives siblings? Cousins? Was daughter Eunice named after his first wife?)
It reports that Eunice was born September 16, 1775 and that she first married a Mr. Rich and then a Mr.
Le Van and they lived in Bethlehem.
This is the same information on an 1800 Census transcription that says Eunice (Lee Van) was 25
years old, born September 16 and lived in Bethlehem (with the word Baltimore
crossed out). I also found a copy of Nathan's will on Ancestry from 1798 that lists daughter Eunice, and his beloved wife Patience.
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| (sorry I couldn't get a better image off of Ancestry) |
Lee Van
Van Wie
I guess those names are close.
A sticking point is the birth date, September 16, 1775.
The gravestone transcription in the Records of the People of Bethlehem was taken in the 1950s by the Thayers (back when you think the stone would be more readable than today) and it says Eunice died March 22, 1807 aged 52 years, 6 months, 7 days. When I saw the stone a few days ago it certainly looked like age 52. Using a handy gravestone birth day calculator, that makes Eunice birthday September 15, 1754 which is about 20 years off the other reported birthday. Maybe the stonecutter made a mistake? Was she only 32-ish when she died? That would also mean that when they got married in 1800, Arie was 40 and she was 25. (And she had a first husband back on Nantucket if those records are to be believed).
Now my other bit of speculation is that I found Eunice's brother Robert buried in Hudson, New York.
And Hudson and Nantucket have strong ties going back generations in the whaling industry. Read more here https://www.hrmm.org/history-blog/whaling-on-the-hudson
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Eunice and Arie Van Wie's double marker at the Nicoll Sill Burial Ground, June 12, 2025.
They died just three months apart in 1807.
The inscriptions are now barely legible. |
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| Nathen Walden's stone is right next to his daughter Eunice's. |
Now the story I like to tell myself, and I am completely making this up, is that Eunice traveled from Nantucket to Hudson to spend some time with her brother, maybe after the tragic death of her first husband. There she met a charming older man named Arie. They, of course, fell in love and got married at his home located on the river just north of Hudson in the little town of Bethlehem. They had a few happy years together but were not blessed with children. Eunice's parents Patience and Nathan, came to visit in the fall of 1806, but there was much sickness going around. Her father died that September and they buried him in the local cemetery. Patience returned to Nantucket. That winter, in March 1807, Eunice died followed by her beloved Arie that June. Word reached her mother and brothers and sisters in Nantucket, where they remembered Eunice fondly, but having never met Aire, they often got his name wrong.
Anyway, like any good family story, there is probably much more to it than my simple imaginings.
