The Revolutionary War story of Elizabeth Becker Soop

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

Which brings me to Elizabeth Becker Soop (born about 1754, died 1842) and her husband Conradt Soop (1745 to1847 - and yes you read that right - he was 102 when he died).

Both Elizabeth and Conradt's ancestors were part of the German Palatine movement of immigrants from Germany to the Schoharie Valley in the early 1700s.  It is there that they met and married in May of 1774. Not long after the wedding, the couple acquired land in Bethlehem and began to establish the family farm.  While the Schoharie Valley was practically "wilderness" back then, Bethlehem at least had close proximity to Albany so was a bit more "settled", but farmsteads were still few and far between in 1774. (Bethlehem itself would not become a town until 1793.)

And then, in 1776, as one biography put it, Conradt "and his young wife had scarcely become settled here [Bethlehem] when he was called to shoulder his musket to fight in that war which “tried men’s souls.”

There is a good bit of information out there about Conrad's Revolutionary War service.   He served several tours as a private between 1776 and 1780 in the New York Militia under various officers including Capt. Jurian Hogan and Colonel Vandenburgh. 

One can even read Conradt's own words in his war pension application. In his initial tour in 1776 he wrote "I was enrolled as a private in a militia Company in whereof Albert VanDerZee was Captain and Gerrit Vandenburgh was Colonel of the regiment, at Bethlehem and in the year 1776 I marched under Capt. VanDerZee from Bethlehem to Saratoga, where I was employed in assisting to erect barracks for the troops that were there." He then describes other terms of service including time in Schenectady and  Schoharie.

While Conradt was serving his deployments, away for weeks and months at a time, Elizabeth was home in Bethlehem keeping up the farm. 

Conradt's biography in Landmarks of Albany County (published by Amasa Parker in 1897) was written by a grandson. He wrote glowingly about the couple's life summing up with "They lived eventful and Christian lives, and died honored and respected by their neighbors." The grandson heard many reminiscences , but the one he chose to publish was about his grandmother and her time in Bethlehem during the Revolution, home on an isolated farm. Let me just quote him.

"When he [Conradt] was away in the army his wife [Elizabeth], wishing to visit her parents in Schoharie, saddled her horse with a sheep-skin, and made the journey through an almost unbroken wilderness, where Brant and Butler, with their band of Tories and Indians were on the warpath, pillaging, burning and often murdering. She quite frequently made this journey of over eighty miles, unprotected and was never harmed. Who is the dame of the present day who would undertake a similar journey?"

Riding alone to visit her parents, or perhaps even her husband during one of his assignments to the garrison at Schoharie, shows an admirable determination on Elizabeth's part.  While sounding exaggerated in the writer's late 19th century tone (was it really 80 miles???), it was a dangerous journey.

Indeed, who is the dame?   

+++

You can read more about the loyalist regiment of Butler's Rangers on their wiki page. They were certainly known for their violent raids in the Schoharie and Mohawk Valleys.

Other information we know about Elizabeth is that she had at least four children beginning with Mary (1782-1861), then Jacob (1786-1868), Frederick (1790-1876) and John (1793-1874) all of whom lived in and around Bethlehem. She is part of the Becker family known for the naming of Becker's Corners. The Soop family was long connected to Bethlehem history turning up in all sorts of documentary evidence including census reports, tax rolls and newspaper clippings. 

Above is the 1866 Beers map with Soop family properties circled.  We believe that the one on left, F. Soop, is Elizabeth and Conradt's original farm. A farm house, barn and various outbuildings are still there.

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.

https://bethlehemnyhistory.blogspot.com/search?q=McHarg

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!  

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/111786354/john-peter-mcharg

A history mystery answered!

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!!!! 

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 10^th. 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.” 

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.

https://www.historic-albany.org/calendar/2024/2/15/decrypting-marcus-an-intimate-evening-with-marcus-t-reynolds

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

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.