To the Editor:

This summer, Altamont Archives volunteers began searching for photos and information on the founders of our village for a Founders Day exhibit in October. Though Lucie Cassidy wasn’t an elected board member, we felt that she deserved a place in the exhibit. Though we uncovered an oil portrait painted by her son, Edward, our search for family photos and mementoes was fruitless.

Expanding our quest beyond the archives, we used genealogy, probate, and newspaper accounts to search for living descendants — but again to no avail. What we found, however, was a fascinating Gilded Age family saga with outsized characters, lost fortunes, political corruption, and philanthropy.

Lucie Rochefort Cassidy

Lucie, or Mrs. William Cassidy as she was known in the press, plays an outsized role in Altamont history. She is reputed to be the reason our village name was changed from Knowersville to Altamont. She also purchased the land and financed the construction of the Catholic chapel in Altamont, which is now called St. Lucy’s.

Born on Nov. 21, 1830, Lucie was the daughter of Bartholomew Rochefort, a successful French upholsterer in New York City. Her uncle, Peter Morange of Albany, was an important lay member of the Catholic Church in Albany and was friends with her future father-in-law, John Cassidy, an influential Irish powerbroker who was involved in religious philanthropy and machine politics. Lucie married John’s son, William, in 1856 in St. Anne’s Church in New York City.

William Cassidy had attended Albany Academy and graduated from Union College in 1833. He studied law in the Albany offices of Judge McKown and John Van Buren (son of the eighth United States president, Martin Van Buren). Although he passed the bar, he never practiced law. He was named New York State Librarian in 1842 and served until 1844. However, he loved journalism and politics and by the time he and Lucie were married, he was part owner and editor of the Albany Argus.

As a descendent of the “Albany Regency,” a group of influential politicians who ruled the destiny of the Democratic party in New York and beyond in the 1820s, Cassidy became secretary of the Democratic State Committee in 1868. Though he never held political office, he had an important influence on policy. This position, combined with his role at the Argus, made Cassidy a rich man. It was the time of “Boss” Tweed, and the Tweed Ring found ways to pay newspapers to promote their agenda. In New York City, they paid huge sums out of the city treasury for advertising. In Albany, they used the state treasury to pay for printing session laws, known as “State Printing.”

In his 1931 book, “‘Boss’ Tweed,” Denis Tilden Lynch wrote that in 1868 the state paid The Argus $5,000 for State Printing. In 1869, Tweed increased this payment to $80,000 and then doubled it to $176,000 in 1870. In 1871, the figure grew to $207,900, dropping to $138,850 in 1873. After The New York Times began exposing the Tweed Ring, the figure dropped to normal levels. Lynch also cites correspondence between the former Governor Horatio Seymour to Samuel Tilden [Both Democrats, Semour was governor from 1853 to 1854 and Tilden was governor from 1875 to 1876] regarding Cassidy’s opposition to Tilden in his fight against Tweed:

“It is not in my heart to say an unkind word of Cassidy. In many ways he has had a hard time. His fine mind has been used by others while he was left poor. It was the strange policy of the New York Central Railroad men to give wealth to [Thurlow] Weed and others, who fought them if they did not, while Cassidy was helped to live by loans and in other ways which kept him poor. When Tweed went to Albany he turned a stream of patronage into the Argus office which made it strong and rich. I think Cassidy means, in the main, to stand up for the right, but it is hard for him to strike men who have lifted him into wealth and when all about him shrink back.”

William Cassidy died in January 1873 and he left the bulk of his now-considerable fortune to his wife, Lucie Rochefort Cassidy. This fortune was augmented by inheritance from the Rochefort side. She and her three living children resided in a brownstone on S. Hawk Street near the old Albany Academy.

We know from her passport application in 1875, at the age of 45, that Lucie was 5 foot, 3 inches tall, had an oval face with a high forehead, brown eyes, straight nose, dark brown hair, and a dark complexion. In 1876, she went with her family on an extended tour of Europe.

She was active socially and appeared in the Albany papers frequently in connection with clubs, benefits, and fundraisers. In the ’80s and ’90s, she seems to be often at parties, and hosted a dinner party for Governor Grover Cleveland. In addition to Catholic causes, she was mentioned in connection with the Crescendo Club, the Albani Club, the Anti-Suffrage organizing committee, and fundraisers for the Hospital for the Incurables. 

Three sons

The Cassidys had three sons who grew to adulthood: William, Edward, and John.

The eldest son, William R. Cassidy, enlisted in the National Guard in 1883 and was honorably discharged as Colonel — a title he used all his life. After his father’s death, he took over management of the family affairs and became an editor and shareholder of the Argus and became embroiled in a legal battle over ownership in 1897. He lived with his mother until her death in 1902 and then in hotels in Albany and Montreal. He died in a luxury hotel in Brighton, England in 1916 at the age of 56.

Edward R. Cassidy had a colorful life that might have been the subject of an Edith Wharton novel. After attending the Naval Academy, he traveled frequently to France and kept an art studio in Albany while living with his mother on South Hawk Street.

In 1892, Edward met the red-headed Marie Helene Malaine Sylvanie Dornay de Casteau, daughter of a Belgian nobleman, Sieur Charles Gaston Sylvanie Dornay de Casteau, and his wife, Marie Louise Clothllde Puysoneault. Sylvanie (or Helene as she was called in the U.S.) had been educated in convents in Belgium and England.

They fell in love and married in 1893. Lucie settled $70,000 ($182,000 in today’s money) on her son with an annuity of $1,000. The countess received an annuity of $2,000 francs from her family. The couple spent most of their time in Altamont, but their marriage was troubled and marked by domestic violence.

In May 1898, Edward enlisted in the navy to fight in the Spanish American War and in July Helene Cassidy entered an action for separation from her husband, alleging cruel treatment. According to the brief notice in The New York Times (July 16, 1898), “The proposed step of Mrs. Cassidy has been discussed in society for some months.” At the time of her divorce, Helene was living and working as a nurse at the Hospital for the Incurables in Albany, one of Lucie Cassidy’s charities.

With the probate of his mother’s will in 1903, Edward moved to Philadelphia, where he continued to work as an artist. In 1904, he purchased the sloop yacht Nirvana, which he planned to transform into a floating studio for marine paintings, according to a Feb. 2, 1904 New York times article.

It was there he must have met his second wife, Nelle, who was born in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. He was 41 and she was 22 when they married in 1910 and traveled to France. Their son Robert was born on the Isle of Guernsey, England, at the end of 1910.

The family lived in France until 1916, where Edward was involved in war work. He returned home in 1916 to supervise the settlement of his brother William’s estate. Over the years, they split their time between their farm in Knox and a home in in Port Blanc, Morbihan, France, near the expatriate artist colony at Pont Aven in Brittany. It seems that Edward and Nelle retired there in the 1930s and Edward became too infirm to return, even as war threatened. He died behind enemy lines in 1943 at the age of 82.

Robert I. Cassidy, the only son of Edward and Nelle, spoke French before he spoke English and didn’t see the U.S. before he was 6. He attended the prestigious Tome prep school in Maryland and was a veteran of World War II.

The Altamont Enterprise on Nov. 17, 1944 carried a gripping account of his efforts to locate his parents behind enemy lines in occupied France. After serving with the U.S.Army in North Africa and Italy, Sergeant Cassidy was part of the invasion of Southern France.

As he recounted, “My one hope was that our advance would take me close to my mother. I didn’t know if she was alive, in an internment camp, in Port Blanc, or where.”

Through the Army’s public relations office, he connected with a reporter from The New York Times who made inquiries in Paris. From there, he learned that his mother was still in Port Blanc.

He was able to obtain a jeep, a pass, and rations and traveled 400 miles to Brittany. Though the area was still under German control, he found a way to get into the small village, where he found his mother and learned that his father was dead. Robert was able to get his mother to Paris to stay with friends.

After his father died, Robert began a protracted legal battle over his trust. The bank claimed there was insufficient proof that Edward was dead. Communication was difficult for Nelle since she was behind enemy lines.

It is through letters found in the Surrogate’s Court that we learn of Nelle’s life behind the lines in France. When the estate was finally settled, a fraction of Edward’s wealth remained.

Once the war ended, Nelle returned home to Altamont and lived with her sister Dorothy “Dot” Styer. She traveled occasionally to France and was mentioned occasionally in The Enterprise in connection with the Veterans of Foreign Wars. She died in Albany in 1979 at the age of 90.

Robert became a landscape gardener and plantsman in civilian life. He settled in Knox and later Albany, where he died in 1996.

John P. Cassidy was Lucie’s youngest son. He was born in 1866. He studied at the Stonyhurst School in England and spent a term at Harvard.

He married Juliette Bernard of Montreal. Their son was born in France in 1893 and their daughter was born in Canada in 1895. In 1897, John was declared incompetent due to insanity and spent several years in the Asile-Benoit, St. Joseph in Longue Point, Quebec.

It appears that his brother William and mother spent much time in Montreal after his commitment. At some point, John moved with Juliette and their two children to New York, where he was also institutionalized. John died in 1918.

The Cassidy Era in Altamont

Lucie and her family would have been socializing with other prominent Albany families who were building elegant homes on the Helderberg escarpment above Altamont in the 1880s. Lucie moved into her own home, which she called The Farm, in the summer of 1885 — the year Grover Cleveland entered the White House. Her sons were living with her in Albany and stayed at The Farm when they were not traveling to Europe.

Mrs. Cassidy would have been like many forgotten summer visitors, but she chose to leave a lasting legacy in the village. Perhaps moved by the patronage of her sisters-in-law who helped endow St. Mary’s Church in Albany and St. Peter’s Hospital, Lucie began searching for a place to build a Catholic chapel in Altamont soon after she finished her house on the hill.

In 1886, she secured a lot and got approval from the diocese. The chapel was dedicated in 1888 to St. Anthony of Padua. After her death, the name was changed to St. Lucy’s in her honor.

Mrs. Cassidy’s other contribution to the village was its name. According to historian Arthur Gregg, the village has gone by many names: Helleburg, West Manor, West Guilderland, and finally in 1840, Knowersville in honor of Benjamin Knower who died in 1839.

Longtime residents thought the name was just fine, but a group of villagers petitioned the post office to change the name to Altamont. They argued that Knowersville was too close to Knowlesville in western New York. But their suggestion showed that they wanted something more “elevated.”

A competition ensued, which was duly reported in The Enterprise. In August 1887, the assistant postmaster general directed the name to be changed to Altamont. There was another round of petitions and that order was rescinded. The new name would be Knower.

Then finally, on Nov. 26, 1887, Postmaster Pangburn received a notice revoking the Knower name and reinstating Altamont. According to Gregg, the real story was told to him by Frank Lape “who knew the situation intimately.”

Lucie’s husband had been closely associated in the Argus Co. with Daniel Manning, the man who was responsible for the nomination to the presidency in 1884 of Grover Cleveland and who became Cleveland’s first Secretary of the Treasury. Her influence with him from political and personal reasons can well be understood. There came a hurried request to the President from Mrs. Cassidy. Said Grover Cleveland: “If Mrs. Cassidy is interested in having that post-office named Altamont, Altamont it shall be.” And the order went forth.

Though William R. Cassidy visited Altamont in the summer, it was Edward who made the bigger impact on the village. In 1888, Edward left for Paris to pursue his art studies but returned after a few months due to illness.

At the time, The Enterprise reported that he had a picture in the Paris Salon but this researcher was unable to find a record of that. It was soon reported that Edward was buying land to create an estate near High Point.

He returned to Europe and began importing animals for a game park and then shipped five race horses from Philadelphia. In 1889, he purchased the farm of Mrs. John Thierolf and land from John Keenholts. His land was more than 190 acres and extended to the top of the High Point The Enterprise reported on Dec. 14 and Oct. 19, 1889.

In the same issue, The Enterprise reported that he was having stone drawn for the foundation with the expectation of beginning work in the spring. In 1891, he erected a riding shed and began purchasing thoroughbred horses for breeding.

During his short residence, he tried to create a game park, a golf club, and horse-boarding facility. “It is told by some of the older Albanians who also had summer homes ‘on the hill,’ that the lord of the Cassidy manor used to stage some pretty exciting cock fights in the ‘castle’ which attracted a great number of sporting men from Albany,” according to a 1944 Times Union article.

In 1893, Edward brought his countess to his castle. At the same time, Lucie was involved in a whirl of social activities and was successfully challenging an ownership struggle at the Argus newspaper.

Things were to change dramatically in just five years. Edward and Helene’s divorce, with its attendant gossip must have been a titanic shock to the devoutly Catholic Lucie. With her youngest son committed to an asylum in Montreal, and Edward fighting in the Spanish American War, Lucie rented out her Altamont home during the summer of 1898 and moved to Montreal for the season. In 1902, she died unexpectedly during a visit to a Canadian spa for her health.

In 1907, Edward sold what was known as Cassidy’s Castle to the Young Women’s Summer Camp Association along with a large barn and 30 acres of land. Edward returned from France to settle his brother’s estate in 1916 and for the rest of his life he bounced back and forth between France and Altamont.

While in Altamont, Edward dabbled in farming and even placed display ads in The Enterprise for sales of his livestock. But he never stayed for long and finally retired to France in the 1930s when his farm was foreclosed.

Despite his spectacular ambition and vast sums expended, he left very little behind. Cassidy Castle was eventually sold to the Salvation Army as a summer recreation center and burned down in 1949. His grandson, Robert, donated an oil portrait of Lucie, which Edward had painted. Robert specified that the label read: Portrait of Lucy Cassidy, Donated by Robert I. Cassidy, In memory of my Mother, Mrs. Edward Rochefort Cassidy.

Laura Shore

Altamont

Editor’s note Laura Shore is president of Altamont Community Tradition. On Columbus Day weekend, Altamont is hosting its first Founders Day. See related editorial and information in the Community Calendar.