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Home , Abraham Ten Broeck, Albany Regency, Ambrose Spencer, Council of Appointment, Erastus Corning, Gentry

Though Albany is the oldest city in the original IJnited time on, some families withdrew from States, and has been significant for many reasons commerceto live on their incomes from investments in throughout its 350 years, nearly all the histories written banking or the trading ventures of others, and devoted about it concentrate on the period before 1800. These their leisure to public service, scholarship, or the arts. works depend heavily on published primary sources- Dutch patricians, unlike successfulEnglish merchants, Joel Munsell’s collections of local materials, who frequently bought country estates and joined the colonial and Revolutionary archives edited by Edmund , usually remained in the city for several B, O’Callaghan and others, and A. J. F. van Laer’s generations, and led their fellow citizens in intense translations of Dutch court minutes.The wealth of public loyalty to their local community. archives, diaries, and personal correspondence, newspapers,maps, pictures, and other materialsfrom the The first settlers at Albany were fur traders and nineteenth and twentieth centuries which have been Walloon farmerssent by the accumulating in local repositories, have remained in 1624, while in 1629, wealthy merchant Kiliaen van largely unexplored. There have been a few biographies Rensselaerbegan to sendfarmers to his “patroonship” of of civic leaders, of men prominent in state politics and Rensselaerswijck.This frontier community acquired the of artists, some articles and unpublished theses on status of a formally organized town in 1652, when various ethnic groups,and recently, considerableinterest Governor Petrus Stuyvesantgranted “” civic in genealogy,material culture, and historic preservation. privileges, to curb the pretensionsof the Since 1986 marked the tricentennial of the city charter, family to quasi-feudal powers over the entire region. The it is time now to learn more about Albany in the last two most prosperoustraders were appointed magistrates,and hundred years,and to tell the full story of its long, unique after the English conquest, these leading citizens heritage. This paperwill suggestone possible framework purchased from Governor Thomas Dongan, in 1686, a for the story by showing how the Dutch-descended city charter providing for an appointed lvIayor and an patrician social order of colonial Albany was trans- elected Common Council. The charter also granted formed by the growth of the city between the Revolution Albany a monopoly over the fur trade, which was and the Civil War. dominated by Dutch families such as the Schuylers, Cuylers, Bleeckers, and Wendels, who were rapidly First, it is necessary to define the term “patrician”, becoming wealthy and whose children were inter- which originated in ancient Rome, where it denoted the marrying. For many years, mayors and common council group of long-established families who governed the members came almost exclusively from fur-trading city. In the medieval ,the wealthy merchants families, whose combination of economic and political who controlled the commerce of each town, grouped power marked them as patricians in the Dutch tradition, together to purchase privileges of self-, or within their English form of government. Though the “liberties”, from their feudal overlord. These patrician Albany monopoly, challenged by other communities, families dominated the city councils which, though they was overthrown by a 1726 court decision, and in the were not elected by the people, found that politics eighteenth century the Indians moved farther west, the promoting the prosperity of the entire community usually fur-trading patricians remained civic leaders until after resulted in larger profits for their businesses.Nor was the Revolution. membershipin this ruling classstatic, for craftsmenwho became wealthy could encourage their sons and As the upper filled with farmers,a new daughters to marry into patrician families, and their group of merchantsand craftsmen,also descendedfrom grandchildren would be acceptedas born patricians. As seventeenth-century Dutch settlers, became wealthy

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selling the farmers’ produce and supplying them with The Albany patricians remained Dutch at heart manufactured goods..Members of such families as the through most of the eighteenth century, using the Dutch Douws and Gansevoorts began to be elected to the language at home and in church services, though the common council in the 173Os,and silversmith Jacob C. generation became bilingual to deal with Ten Eyck’s appointment asmayor in 1748indicates their English-speaking officials-and customers. Though attainmentof full patrician status.Though fur trading and they bitterly resentedBritish speculatorswho flocked in mercantile patricians differed over some civic issues, during the , anid sometimes their children soon intermarried, and theyjoined together harassedthem with “nuisance” taxes and legal actions, to win all possible profit from the British armies most Albany patricians scented profit in working with stationed in Albany during the French and Indian English civil and authorities. But with the out- WarThere were also in Albany from the time of the break of the Revolution, most of the Dutch patricians conquesta number of English military and civil officials, roseabove former differences and rivalries #amongthem- some of whom consolidated their position by marrying selves to unite solidly behind the Patriot cause and into Dutch families, particularly the landed Van expelling asLoyalists many of t$e intrusive British new- Rensselaers.Others, often Scats,cameas merchants, like comers.A conspicuous exception was Mayor Abraham Robert Livingston and later James Stevenson, who C. Cuyler, of an old fur-trading family, who led the city’s married respectively a Schuyler daughter and a Cuyler Loyalists until he was arrested and exiled, but other granddaughter,and whose children participated in civic branchesof the Cuyler clan becamededicated and active affairs asborn patricians. Someof these,like Livingston, Patriots. The patrician statusof General , followed their wives into the dominant Dutch Reformed though resentedby egalitarian New England militiamen, congregation,but others, like Stevenson,became leaders helped him greatly in securing supplies frolm the people in St. Peter’s Anglican church, established by the of the upper Hudson Valley to sustain the army which governor in 1715,despite vigorous protestsfrom thecity eventually defeated Burgoyne. Long-standing English government. residents who chose to become Patriots were accepted on equal terms, like John Barclay, grandson of the fist The built environment of colonial Albany began with Anglican rector, who in 1778 became Albany’s first Fort Orange,on which construction startedin 1624at the Mayor under the new state government. mouth of the Ruttenkill (present Hudson Avenue) on a site now covered by approachesto the Dunn Memorial After theRevolution, in Albany aselsewhiere, the men Bridge. The center of Beverwijck was its blockhouse who had worked together to win the war continued to church, constructedin 1656at the presentintersection of work together to repair the damage, a new nation, State Street and Broadway, and soon surrounded by and exploit the advantages of independerrce. General Dutch- houses,one of which remaineda StateStreet Philip Schuyler servedin several stateoffices and finally landmark until the 1880s.In 1676, during Philip’s as U.S. senator, and worked with his son-in-law War, Governor Edmund Andros ordered a new fort built to secure ratification of the Con- on the hill, at the present intersection of Stateand Eagle stitution and organize the in the upper Streets, near which soldiers and small craftsmen soon Hudson region. General held the built houses.A palisade from the fort to the river, along office of mayor for ten years,while the creeks which flowed down the present Hudson and served several terms in the state Senateand his brother Columbia Street ravines, was maintained cooperatively General becameU.S. military agent, by the burghers during the late 17-century French and forwarding supplies to forts in the Northwest Territory. Indian wars. Within it clustered Dutch houses, side by Public service became a route to patrician status for side with their steppedor straight gablesto the street,but several of plebeian origin, like Abraham and each with an ample garden behind, and a post in front Robert Yates and John Lansing, Jr., who won election to where the family cow was tetheredat night, after grazing Revolutionary committees, held various states offices, in the common pasture south of the site of Fort Orange. and becameleading Anti-Federalists. Close associatesof Patricians and thus lived side by side in a town Governor George Clinton, both Lansing anld Abraham like those of the medieval Netherlands, where, though Yates,were appointed mayor in the 1780sand. 179Os, and patricians enjoyed more luxuries like fine silverware and despite their political differences with other civic family portraits, all produced locally, their way of life leaders, they and their families were thenceforth was not essentially different. acceptedas patricians. The roster of the common council, THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ALBANY PATRICIANS 9% which remained almost exclusively Dutch until after were vigorous and even violent, as in 1807, when he and 1800, likewise reveals a mixture of formerly patrician Lieutenant-Governor caned each other on and plebeian families, now united by Revolutionary State Street, and in 1822, when President Monroe service, and increasingly by intermarriage. unleasheda storm by appointing him postmasterwithout consulting Senator . The Van The trend of immigration from Great Britain which Rensselaers, especially the and the mayor, had begun before the Revolution also continued to bring contributed in many ways to the betterment of Albany, to Albany young men who sought to make their fortunes but they always retained the broader outlook of landed as merchants by participating in the patrician system. aristocrats,rather than the intense, parochial communal Irish emigrant Dudley Walsh, for example, went into loyalty of city patricians. partnership with Barent Staats,allied himself with both Dutch and English patricians by marrying a daughter of Even before the Revolution, patricians with John and Magdalena Douw Stevenson,and became a aristocratic ambitions began to surround Albany with respectedcivic leader.William James,also from Ireland, gracious Georgian country houses-General Schuyler’s married Catherine Barbour, sister of a local editor from “The Pastures,”General John Bradstreet’s “Whitehall,” an OrangeCounty family closely associatedwith Gover- later owned by Leonard Gansevoort, the Van Rensse- nor George Hamilton, and prospered in trade and land laers’ Manor House and Cherry Hill. After the war, speculation in developing . In 1825, merchant like James Kane and political Jameswas secondonly to John Jacob Astor among the patricians like the Yates built suburban mansionson the wealthiest merchantsin New York State,and most of his edges of the city, of which General Abraham Ten eleven surviving children married into patrician families Broeck’s beautiful Federal-style home survives today as in Albany and . James Kane, though a historic housemuseum. Within the city, the old fort was unmarried, had brothers in several New York com- soon demolished,along with French and Indian War and munities, who could support each other’s credit in Revolutionary barracksnorth of the fort and storehouses periods of stress,but he eventually failed and spent his along the river; the palisadessurrounding the town had declining years in restricted circumstances, still re- long since disappeared. The colonial StuBt %pnyson spectedby his many friends. Making their fortunes by Broadway and the Dutch Reformed and Anglican selling imported goods wholesale to country store- churchesin StateStreet were outgrown, and replacedby keepers and by land speculation, these merchants had new churches on their present sites and a combination ample leisure for genial coffeehouse society, comfort- City Hall-State Capitol on the former fort paradeground. able family life in their beautiful homes, and genteel As some-though by no meansall-patrician families literary pursuits. moved to fashionable suburbanhomes, they rented their old Dutch houses for shops, many of which went up in Nor is it possible to overlook the Van Rensselaer flames in seven disastrous fims in the 1790s.The sub- family, which owed its position to inheritance of the stantial Federal residenceswhich replaced them, where Manor of Rensselaerswijckcomprising most of present- patrician families still in the city collected fine furniture day Albany and RensselaerCounties, as well as large and cherished inherited portraits and silverware, along tmcts in Claverack in Columbia County. At the end of with some surviving Dutch houses,are shown in paint- the eighteenth century, the manor had descended to ings by JamesEights of Albany in 1805. Stephenvan Rensselaer,called “The Last Patroon,” who supervised his tenants from his manor house just north Between the Revolution and the Civil War, Albany of the city near present-day Broadway. His younger lived through a continuous population explosion, tre- brother Philip, whose gracious federal style home be- bling from 3,506 in 1870 to 10,762 in 1810, more than came a State Street landmark, served several terms on redoubling to 24,238 in 1830, doubling again to 50,763 the common council before his nineteen years as Mayor, in 1850, and rising more slowly to 63,367 in 1860. 1799-1816and 1819-21.Another Philip van Rensselaer, Important reasons for this were the city’s crossroads of the younger Claverack branch of the family, moved to location on major routes to the west, its designation as Cherry Hill in 1768, and bequeathedthe present home, the state capital after 1797, and the leading part played which he built in 1787,to his daughterHarriet, who lived by its banks in the development of western New York. there with her husbandand cousin, General Solomon van Albany’s Dutch patricians, building in generations of Rensselaer.Solomon’s occasional forays into city affairs experience in sophisticated mercantile activities, were 96 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS

Fig. 17. JamesEights, 1789-1882.“East Side Market Street, from Maiden Lane South, Albany 1805.” Collection of Albany Institute of History and Art, Bequestof Ledyard Cogswell, Jr. quick to follow the example of General Schuyler’s son- WestIndies, and after independence,voyaged asfar from in-law Alexander Hamilton, who established the First home as China. After ’s Clermwnt, steam- Bank of the United Statesin 1791.In 1792,they founded boats, mostly owned in New York, made travel to that the Bank of Albany, with General Abraham Ten Broeck city quick and easy, but the slower sloops were cheaper as its first president, oversubscribed its shares in two and more reliable for much heavy freight until the Civil hours, and continued to control it until 1861, when it War. Post-Revolutionary migration from New England succumbed to the financial uncertainties of the Civil to western lands brought many transients to Albany, War. Another group of patricians with Jeffersonianlean- especially in the winter when travel was easier; in the ings, including General Peter Gansevoort, incorporated 179Os,five hundred sleighs a day often passedthrough the Bank of New York in 1803,and thesebanks, and later the city. It was not long before patricians were investing others, madeloans and acquired assetsall over northern in improved roads, such as the Great Western and and western New York. Through thesebanks, as well as Delaware Turnpikes, and encouraging the use of the through commerceand land speculation, many patrician latest plank and macadam(gravel) surfaces,,They also families acquired interest and influence in frontier com- patronized the makersof coaches,wagons, and sleighs- munities, where their children often went to live and particularly “Albany cutters”-who made the city a married, sometimesreturning to Albany in later life. center of vehicle manufacturing as well as of freight and passengertransportation. Albany had beenrecognized as a crossroadsever since the Dutch had settled at the head of navigation of the Possibly with some memory of an important Nether- Hudson, and French and English armies had made it an lands tradition, probably from practical knowledge of the objective during the colonial wars and the Revolution. difficulties of repeatedly unloading boats to carry car- The Hudson was its highway, as sturdy sloops owned by goes between waterways, Albany patricians were early Albany patricians provided local transportation and advocates for canals in America. General Philip communication, carried colonial farmers’ produce to the Schuyler, with much experience transporting military THE TRANSFORivlATlON OF THE ALBANY PATRICIANS 97 supplies in the upper Hudson and Mohawk Valleys, in Another Yankee, architect , transformed 1792 organized the Northern and Western Inland Lock Albany’s built environment by designing public build- Navigation Companies,to connect theserivers by short ings in the Federal style, including the new Dutch canals with Lakes Champlain and Ontario. These com- Reformed, Episcopal, and Resbyterian churches, two panies in fact completedall-water routesto the lakes,but banks, the state capitol (1804-09), and the city hall it was still necessaryto pole heavily freighted “Schencc- (1829). The original Albany Academy building (18 14), tady boats” upstream against swift currents by brute reflecting the patricians’ dedication to superior school- manpower,and to cart cargoesgoing further westaround ing for their sons,is now preservedin Academy Park, as Niagara Falls. A local Yankee journalist, EllcanahWat- the headquartersof the city Board of Education. Hooker son, first published the idea of a canal to Lake Erie, but also designedtown housesfor such patricians asGeneral the Albany patricians eagerly seized upon it, and en- Peter Gansevoort and , and thusiastically supported Dewitt Clinton’s efforts to probably constructed someof the comfortable homesin finance and construct it. At the gala opening celebration the new “Pastures” district south of Madison Avenue, in 1825, Albany reaped rich profits, as canal boats where he himself lived. He participated extensively in freighted with the produce of the entire Great Lakes civic affairs, being elected alderman in IS 17-I9 during region passedthrough its basin on their way to New York a brief plebeian revolt against patrician domination, and City. The canal also made moving west easier and was active in several mechanics organizations, but he cheaperfor migrants from Blew England and immigrants apparently left no children to intermarry with patricians. from , while promoting travel by tourists seeking His successorI-Ienry Rector, about whose life little is pleasureor health and improving communication among known, brought the Greek Revival style to the city with membersof families in different communities. the Albany Female Academy (1834) and State I-Iall (1835-42). now the Court of Appeals Building. Rector As great numbers of New Englanderspassed through Jso designed Albany’s first gothic revival church, First Albany, some of them settled down there, bringing an Presbyterian(I g49), and probably two monumentsto the energetic enthusiasm for civic improvement, which the patrician businesstradition, Stanwix Hall, on the Broad- Dutch patricians, quite satisfied with their city as it was, way lot inherited by six generations of the Gansevoon called the “Yankee invasion.” Elkanah Watson, for family, and Douw Buildings on State Street. example, was attacked with brooms by irate Dutch housewives after he campaigned against the long The patrician systemdeveloped within the framework waterspoutson their houses,which admittedly impeded of Albany’s colonial charter, as the few freeholders vehicular traffic, but once cut off, spilled rain water back qualified to vote for the common council elected and unto their cellars. Other Yankees made themselves He-elected,often for many terms, sonsand sons-in-law of welcome by their industry and ingenuity, like Ezra the leading Dutch families. Though craftsmeneligible to Ames, who earneda fortune, local respect,and a national vote customarily followed patrician leaders, there were reputation painting portraits of patricians, and whose fierce contests when patricians disagreed, as in 1773, daughter married a son of William James.Ames, and when investigation of the disputed poll for third ward many others like him, certainly advancedtheir careersby alderman revealed several electors who had accepted participation in Albany’s Ivlasonic lodges, where substantial bribes. In 1778, the legislature restored the patricians, plebeians, and newcomers mingled frater- charter, vesting the choice of the mayor in the Council nally, and many important business,political, and per- of Appointment, which meant that a local leader of the sonal friendships were formed. Yankees also got party in power in the state would be chosen. Those acquainted with their neighbors in existing churches, appointed were all patricians, with one brief exception, primarily the Presbyterian, founded by Scatsbefore the until X2%, when a new state constitution abolished the Revolution, though some became Dutch Reformed or , and the election of the mayor Episcopalian, but the small Congregational meeting- devolved upon the common council. At the sametime, house never attracted many families. Depending for the base of the electorate was expanding, the state advancementprimarily on their own ingenious, bustling, adopted universal manhood in IS26 and in hard-driving pursuit of the main chance,Yankees formed 1840a new charter provid& for election of the mayor by families among themselvesand made fortunes for their the people, and the common council was growing, from children, leaving it to the next generation to intermarry two aldermenand two assistantsfor each of three wards with earlier patricians. in 1778to two aldermenapiece from two wards in 1860. 98 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS

Throughout this period, the mayors continued to be supported the congressional aspirations of Daniel D. patricians or from families on the verge of becoming so, Barbard, a Yankee from Rochester who had while thecommon council, at first also patrician, increas- entered the patriciate by marrying a daughlterof Dudley ingly reflected the population of the wardsit represented. Walsh. The Anti-Rent issue, the question and other reform movements placed great stmin on both During these years, Albany was participating in, and parties, for while patricians often favored considered, sometimes leading, the development of the American gradual change, many plebeians urged immediate, dras- political systemfrom factions of independentgentlemen tic action with little thought of its unintended consequen- to parties with mass electorates organized by profes- ces. In these ,Albany’s Yankees clebatedmany sional politicians rewarded by . Differences issuesvigorously in the pressand on the hustings, and as among colonial patricians recurred in divisions between their leaders worked into the existing paniciate, they Federalists and Anti-Federalists and dissensionsamong gave the city its one period of strong two-party govem- groups of followers of Thomas Jefferson, while sup- ment. porters of Governor George Clinton and his nephew Dewitt Clinton sought local allies. Loyalties within and As the Albany patricians extended their social order antagonismsbetween these groups were highly personal, to include families of British and Yankee as well as and individual quarrels could inflame public feeling, as Dutch extraction, they shifted the base of their political in 1807, when the -JohnTayler power to the American foundation of popular election. caning incident set off a major riot in State Street.With Entering the era of the common man, they recognized the adoption of expandedsuffrage, Martin van Buren and that if they were to continue to rule, their conception of moved to Albany from Columbia the best interests of the community must articulate the County and, with their associates,developed the system wishes of all the people. “All the people,” furthermore, of party organization which cameto be called the Albany were becoming increasingly heterogeneous, as large Regency. This system, which marshalled masses of numbersof Irish and other immigrants flocked in to work voters through professional politicians disciplined by in the port and lumber districts and in factories. Like patronage,required experienced and thoughtful, as well political leaders in other cities, the Albany patricians as adroit leadership, and Van Buren and Spencerrecog- began to organize these immigrants to support their nized the importance of securing the support of influen- candidates,in a manner which adaptedthe family-based tial patricians. Their successis indicated by Spencer’s structure of Irish rural communities to American city election asmayor in 1824,by the marriageof children of wards. By 1860 a considerable proportion of nameson both into patrician families, as well as the firm estab- the common council roster were Irish, and most of them lishment of the Democratic party’s domination of city were Democrats, perhaps because that party con- affairs, except for periods when Democrats divided centratedon practical politics or organization more than among themselves. abstract issues of reform which meant little to new citizens. Eventually, these two systemsproved to be so But though many older patricians becameDemocrats compatible with eachother that there developedwhat has and many newcomers aspiring to become patricians been called a “dyarchy” in which Dutch, Yankee, and gravitated into that party, their personalities, policies, Irish families worked together to perpetuate patrician and party organization often provoked vigorous and community organization. well-organized opposition, especially in the mid- nineteenth century. In 1831, the Workingman’s Party, a The effects of Albany’s political position on its built plebeian protest group, joined with opponents of Presi- environment appearedprimarily in the district around dent Jacksonand, locally, of the to win Philip Hooker’s State Capitol in present-day Capitol control of the common council and choose patrician Park, which housedseasonal meetings of

End, changing the nature of theseneighborhoods drasti- question is how this and a nearby Townsend iron works cally in only a few years.Philip Hooker’s Greek Revival brought in their heavy raw materials and fuel when even St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at South Ferry and Dellius passengerhorse cars required four to eight horses to Streets in the fashionable “Pastures” district, for climb steepState Street hill. Joel Rathbone was so suc- example, was dedicated in 1829, and sold to a Catholic cessful in manufacturing and selling stoves that in 1841, congregation only ten years later. The Catholics were at thirty-five, he had accumulateda sufficient fortune to keenly aware that impressive church buildings would retire to his beautiful gothic revival country estate,“Ken- heighten the self-respectof their people, rebuilding and wood”, later a Catholic convent and girls’ school. The enlarging St. Mary’s behind City Hall, and erecting a Rathbonesfrequently intermarried with other families in beautiful new structure for St. Joseph’son Arbor Hill. In the iron trade; Joel married a cousin of Mrs. Erastus 1852, they dedicated the city’s first important gothic Coming, and his daughter and niece married sons of monument, the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception Isaiah and John Townsend respectively. His nephew on Madison Avenue, in a fashionable new suburb, but John F. Rathbonealso went into the stove businessand, only a few blocks from its people in the crowded river in partnership with Grange Sard, manufactured the wards. famous Rathbone-Sard “Acorn” stoves which were marketedwell into the twentieth century. Another source of wealth for nineteenth-century Albany patricians was the manufactureof iron, brought The most successful of Albany’s ironmasters was from the Adirondacks by the Champlain Canal, smelted certainly ErastusComing, who after beginning his career and fabricated with locally produced lime and charcoal, in Troy, where he married, moved to Albany and became and shipped to market over the waterways. Several a partner in a store which sold ironware. He soon moved ingenious Yankee families madefortunes and joined the into manufacturing, establishing the Albany Iron Works patriciate on the basis of this industry, which spreadover on the Wynantskill near Troy, which began by making both sides of the Hudson from furnaces in Troy to nails and then branchedintoother lines, particularly rails foundries and machine shopsin Albany. John and Isaiah for the newly-introduced railroads. Later, Coming Townsend, whose family operated an iron works in invested in iron furnaces in other states, and while in Orange County before the Revolution, became iron- Congressduring the Civil War, securedfor the Albany masters in Albany early in the nineteenth century and Iron Works the contract to make the armor plates for the lived side by side onthe site of the Dewitt Clinton Hotel. pioneer ironclad Monitor. He was also active in banking, They were also active in banking and insurance,and John being chosen first president of the Albany City Bank madean advantageousmarriage with a daughterof Chief when it was charteredin 1834,during the first of his four Justice and Mayor Ambrose Spencer, and served as terms as mayor. But his interests ranged far beyond the mayor himself in 1829-30 and 1832. John’s son city, including many investmentsin the west,particularly Theodore, a lawyer, and Isaiah’s grandsons , Michigan, where he played a leading part in the constmc- Howard, and Frederick all married daughtersof patrician tion of the “Soo” Canal around the rapids at the entrance families and lived in the sameblock on Elk Street,across to . He lived across State Street from St. Academy Park from their childhood home.Franklin was Peter’s Church, of which he was a generous supporter, elected mayor in 1850, Howard becamea physician but and formed important alliances with patrician families died early in his career, and Frederick, after serving in through the marriagesof his two sonsand his wife’s four the Civil War, roseto the rank of general in the New York nieces, who were in effect adopteddaughters. State National Guard. Coming’s most significant accomplishment was the Throughout the nineteenth century, Albany and Troy 1853 consolidation of several shorter railroads into the were a national center for the manufacture of cast-iron New York Central System,spanning the stateand creat- stoves, with elaborate decorations made possible by ing a $30 million corporation at a time when most exceptionally fine molding sand securedfrom the banks enterprises were capitalized at about $5 million. His of the . EliphaletNott, during his sixty-four associate 9. V. L. Pruyn, a patrician lawyer deeply year tenure as president of in Schenec- conscious of Albany’s Dutch heritage, had married tady, invented a stove capable of burning anthracite, Coming’s niece, Harriet Turner. and was in the middle which his son produced at a factory in Albany where of a distinguished tamer in Democratic politics and civic Central and Washington Avenues meet.An unanswered service. Long an advocateof a new capitol reflecting the 100 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS wealth and dignity of the Empire State, he chaired the man, many of whose studentsin turn becameornament Senate committee which advertised for plans in 1863 of the bar. Severaldescendants of Revolutionary heroes, and, ascongressman, helped lay the cornerstonein 1869. including General Solomon van Rensselaer and four But the New York Central was only the greatestof the grandsons of General Peter Gansevoort, continued railroads that fannedout from Albany after the successful family tradition by pursuing careers as officers in the run of the pioneer “Dewitt Clinton” on the Hudson and army or tivy. Some went into medicine, notably Dr. Mohawk line to Schenectadyin 1831. Among thesewas ThomasHun, his two sonsand his grandson,all of whom the Albany and West Stockbridge (later incorporated in were distinguished practitioners and leaders on the the and Albany), in which Marcus Tullius faculty of the . Patricians Reynolds, a leading lawyer before the Supreme Court generally supported education on all levels, founding and Court of Appeals, was a prime mover. Reynolds’ academies,endowing colleges, establishing schools of children intermarried with the Cuyler, Hun, and Van law and medicine, and encouraging such scientific Rensselaerfamilies, and two of his grandsons,historian researchas the electrical investigations of JosephHenry Cuyler Reynolds and architect Marcus Reynolds, led and astronomicaldiscoveries at the Dudley Observatory. early twentieth century efforts to preserve records and And, two of America’s greatest authors, Herman Mel- relics of Albany’s patrician heritage. ville and Henry James, were grandsons of Albany patrician families who spentpart of their youth in the city Albany’s built environment at the outbreakof the Civil and depicted the patrician tradition in some of their War included some patrician homes downtown and works. others near City Hall-a few still survive in the Elk- Columbia StreetNational Register historic district. New By the mid-nineteenth century, Albany patricians homes were going up around the Cathedral of the Im- were beginning to become conscious of their city’s maculateConception, overlooking what was still beauti- antiquity, its important place in the history of the state ful Beaver Falls in present-dayLincoln Park; the home and the nation, and its unique Dutch heritage. The Dutch which is now the Governors’ Mansion wasbuilt in 1850. patricians already had a vigorous St. Nicholas Society The Ruttenkill ravine separatingthat ridge from Capitol when ’s long and successful career Hill was filled in 1848, and the houses on Hudson in law and Democratic politics was crowned by his Avenue and adjoining streets restored by the Historic appointment as char& d’uffuaires to the Nletherlandsby Albany Foundation in the 1980s date from the years President van Buren in 1839. In this position he which followed. But city and country were still close, as reestablishedcontact with the Dutch patricians--one of the farmers’ market was held in the middle of State whom he married and brought home to Albany-and Street, the citizens’ hogs roamed the streetsuntil 1853, encouraged his secretary, John Romeyn B&head, to and Elk Streetpatricians owned cows which pasturedin collect source materials for New York colonial history Sheridan Hollow. But the more magnificent, more his- from the Netherlands archives. These documents,trans- torically conscious Albany of the later nineteenth cen- lated by Edmund B. O’Callaghan, were published by the tury was heralded by the new French Gothic St. Peter’s state about the same time that Joel Munsell, a Yankee Church designed by Richard Upjohn, which replaced editor with deep antiquarian interests, was bringing out Philip Hooker’s modest edifice in 1859. The newest his Annals and Collections illustrating Albany’s local patricians wanted their city’s architecture to display its history. These books told Albanians about the colorful newly-won wealth-though unexpected local and na- characterswho had lived in such landmarks as the old tional financial crises caught someof them so short that Schuyler houseon the southeastcomer of Stateand Pearl local wags dubbed St. Peter’s “The Church of the Holy Streets,built in 1667, which stood until 1887. Patricians Bankrupts.” such as Peter Gansevoort and 3. V. L. Pruyn made systematicefforts to investigate their family genealogy, While these bustling newcomers developed various maintain traditions such as Dutch Christmas customs, ways of making fortunes, some older patricians carried and pass on relics, records, and traditional folktales to the tradition one step farther by retiring from commerce their children. and devoting themselvesto the professions. In the state capital law and government were particularly attractive, In the mid-nineteenth century, the Albany patricians, and Harmanus Bleecker, descendedfrom a fur-trading old and new, developed a taste for foreign travel on patrician family, was a distinguished lawyer and states- business or public service, in search of adventure, as THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ALBANY PATRICIANS 504 missionaries, for health, pleasure, or the education of organizationsand controversies,banking, insurance,and their children. Somewent to seafor their livelihood, like the Port of Albany, the contributions of churches, social Herman IvIelville, who spent several years as a common and fraternal organizations and educational and cultural sailor, while others engagedin commercein Europe, or institutions, and life among the Irish and other ethnic in more distant countries such as Peru and China. groups, especially black. There have been a few Patrician political leaders received diplomatic appoint- specialized studies in these areas,but by and large the ments from various parties; the Democrats commis- spadework,requiring many different handsand points of sioned HarmanusBleeclcer to the Hague, the Whigs sent view, for a comprehensivehistory of nineteenth century Daniel D. Barnard to Berlin, and the Republicans Albany remains to be done. Anyone interested in these appointed Robert C. Pruyn the fiist U.S. lkfinister to subjects, or in a position to suggest research topics to Japan.General Solomon van Rensselaer’sson, who went others,should be aware of the rich bodies of information to Columbia in 1827 as a diplomatic attache, became awaiting investigation in local repositories. involved in a revolution and, with the rest of the American legation, was expelled from the country. His What, then, is the significance of the transformation sister, Catherine van Rensselaer Bonney, married a of the Albany patricians between the Revolution and the missionary and went with him to China, returning there Civil War? The most obvious, and perhaps the most alone after his death to continue their work until she too fundamental answer, is that they continued to exist in a was expelled, along with other foreign missionaries, period when the American nation in general replaced during the Tai-Ping Rebellion, J. V. L. Pruyn took his government by the few with government by the many. ailing first wife to Europe repeatedly in the 1850’s, and Continuing families maintaining wealth and power over when Peter Gansevoort and his family toured the several generations are rare in American history, and continent in 1860, they met twenty other Albanians communities governed by coherent groups of such spending the winter in Rome. families, and choosing to continue to be so governed,are rarer still. That a city like Albany, growing so rapidly in The limits of this paper permit only this brief sketch population and changing so much in function, could of the transformation of the Albany patricians, which retain its patrician social structure and adapt it to raisesfar more questionsthan it answersand emphasizes changing needs and circumstances is a remarkable the urgent need for further research. The only book phenomenon.It is a tribute to the versatility, adaptability, covering the entire period in any detail is Cuyler and vision, as well as to the practical common sense,of Reynolds’ Albany Chronicles, which is often inaccurate9 the Albany patricians, ‘that they were able to maintain and now seventy-five years out of date. In addition to their local identity while rising to state and regional existing lives of Erastus Corning and Harmanus responsibilities. Like the patricians of the Netherlands, Bleeclcer,there is great need for a biography of J. V. L. they directed the orderly growth of their community in Pruyn, a study of the later Van Rensselaerfamily: and the best interests of all its citizens, and so created a histories of the iron and lumber industries and the city’s unique continuity between Albany’s historic heritage built environment. There are many important subjects and its presentposition. beyond the scope of this article-local political 102 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS

A Note On Sources

The patrician social structure of colonial Albany is political realities. William E. Rowley, “The Irish discussed in Alice P. Kenney, “Dutch Patricians in Aristocrat in Albany, 17981878”, New York History. Colonial Albany”, New York History, July, 1968, and 1971, describes the development of an Irish family The Gansevoorts of Albany (Syracuse,N.Y.: Syracuse system analogous to the Dutch-Yankee patrician social University Press, 1969). Cuyler Reynolds, Albany order, and introduces the term “dyarchy” to denote the Chronicles (Albany, 1906) is a chronology of important symbiotic political relationship between them. local events from 1609 to 1906. Gorham A. Worth, Random Recollections of Albany, reprinted in Joel An important nineteenth-century businlessand polit- Munsell, Annals of Albany (Albany, 1850-60, 10 ~01s; ical leader is presentedin Irene D. Neu, Erastus Corning: X: 189-218) presentsmany colorful vignettes of Albany Merchant and Financier (Ithaca: society in the first decade of the nineteenth century. Press, 1960). Genealogies of the Corning, Pruyn, Munsell’s invaluable notesto the secondedition identify Reynolds and many other families may be found in many membersof the merchant community. Theodore Cuyler Reynolds, Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Bolton and Erwin F. Cortelyou, Ezra Ames of Albany: Family Memoirs (New York, 1911)4 ~01s.I am indebted Portrait Painter, Craftsman, Royal Arch Mason, Banker, to Martha D. Noble for original research reconstructing 1768-1826 (New York: New York Historical Society, relationships in the Rathbone and Townsend families. 1955) describes the work and gives details about the There is a tantalizing brief account of the Albany stove civic, fraternal, and economic activities of this versatile industry in Tammis Groft, Cast With St,yle (Albany: Yankee. Comelia Brooks Gilder, ed.,Albany Archifects: Albany Institute of History and Art, 1980). Valuable The Present Looks at the Past (Albany: Historic Albany insights into the patrician way of life: have been Foundation, 1978)introduces and cataloguesthe work of contributed by students of and Henry Philip Hooker, Henry Rector and their successors. James,notably William H. Gilman, Melville’s EarlyLife and Redburn (New York: Press, Very little work has been done on the origin and 1951) and Henry James,A Small Boy and Others (New development of Albany’s Democratic organization.. York, 1914). Harriet L. P. Rice, Hurmunus Bleecker: Studies of Martin van Buren and other Albany Regency Albany Dutchman (Albany, 1924) makesclear why this leaders concentrate on their contributions to state and many-sided civic benefactor was commemoratedby a national politics, and hardly mention city affairs. Sherry lecture hall, public library, and a sports . Albany Penney, Patrician in Politics: Daniel Dewey Barnard of patricians abroad are described in Catherine van New York (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, Rensselaer Bonney, Legacy of Historical Gleanings 1974) presents a self-made Yankee patrician who was (New York, 1876), and Alice P. Kenney, “Kate more conscious of having attained status than most Gansevoort’s Grand Tour” New York History, October, Albany patricians allowed themselvesto be, and there- 1966. fore eventually lost touch with the people and with