The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Papers from the 1800s shed light on Guilderland’s past.
More historic yellowed papers keep finding their way to this historian's desk to keep her busy in the snowless winter we are having. Aged documents, much different than the 2016 modern computerized tax forms, reveal the lifestyle of early Guilderland officers and residents before the multi-group operations of government of today.
Evert Van Aernum “Solemnly and Sincerely swore that in all things in the best of knowledge and ability,” he would “faithfully and impartially execute and perform the Trust imposed” on him as an overseer of the highways of the town in April 1812.
Previously, on Dec. 23, 1809, the same Evert Van Aernum had called a special town meeting at the home of Henry Apple for the purpose of electing a new town clerk since the former town clerk had removed himself out of town and county. Eleven town officials — with the last names of Sharp, Featherly, Clark, Van Patten, Wergann, Ogsbury, Jacobson, Bogardus, Apple, Combs, and McGinn — voted to make Peter Van Patten the new town clerk that year.
In 1868, in Knowersville, which is what Altamont was then called, Supervisor Hiram Griggs authorized paying Ambrose Saddlemire $40 for services as a qualified teacher in District 1 of Guilderland from Dec. 2, 1867 to January 1868.
In November 16, 1892, W.B. Mynderse, the town clerk, filed an act to prevent the spread of a disease known as the “black knot” in plum, cherry, and other trees. “I hereby appoint Loring W. Osborn, Joseph Roe, and William Brinkman as Commissioners to carry out the provisions of said act in the Town of Guilderland, Albany County, given under my name on November 1892. Howard Foster, Supervisor.
At a meeting of Guilderland’s supervisor and clerk on March 3, 1810, for the purpose of making out a jury list for the town, they accordingly report that the following persons are qualified to serve as jurors since last year: Jeremiah VanAuken, Matthias Hallenbeck, Henry W. Stern, Wihelmas Becker, Jacob Phele, Thomas Olsaver, Adam I. Syver, John Van Waggoner, Frederick Wormer, Noah Wood, Samuel Carmull, Andrew Ostrander, Andrew Scrafford, and Markus Sytle.
Persons not qualified were listed as: John Vine, Henry Van Wormer, James Shard, Garit G. Van Zant, William Wagoner, John Douglas, John Sharp, Phillip Sharp, Matthew Van Drubuch, David Wormer, Loyal Dave Runor, Thomas Mesich, Christian Scafford, and Ludwick Featherly.
“We the Supervisor and Town Clerk do certify that the above is a free list of the persons Qualified and disqualified in the Town of Guilderland to perform as Jurors since the previous year. Given under our hand this 3rd day of March 1810,” reads the document signed by Supervisor Conrad Crounse, Assessor Henry Shaver, and Town Clerk Peter Van Patten.
This historian believes that persons were not qualified as a juror for reasons such as not being a landowner or a homeowner, for having been a juror in a previous year, or for not being a valid town resident.
All of the above official acts were handwritten on special papers. There were no typewritten or computer-written papers. And no secretary to write them.
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With the Christmas season and all its tinsel, lights, and greenery upon us, the mail also brings letters sometimes like gifts – like the following letter that this historian hopes will turn into a gift of sorts.
The letter from Barbara Havey begins, "Hi Alice, I am great-great-granddaughter of Caroline Cornellia and Dr. Beattie. (Caroline was Congressman Schoolcraft's wife). My grandfather inherited a painting that I believe may have been a part of the Schoolcraft collection. It subsequently passed to my mother and now to me.
“I am most anxious to try to identify the artist. I will be ordering your book and, next time I'm up your way, I plan on visiting Guilderland. I live in Florida now, but grew up in Yonkers. Any info you could tell me about the painting would be greatly appreciated....."
This historian wonders if the painting is one that John Schoolcraft bought in Europe and brought home to Guilderland. The writer tells me that the painting is "a neoclassical style Italian looking landscape with castles in the background.” It measures about 56 by 42 inches.
This historian is anxious to see the painting to try to identify it with Congresssman John Schoolcraft who built the Schoolcraft House on Guilderland’s Great Western turnpike, now Route 20.
Another letter arrived from Chris Philippo of Glenmont after he read my column on restoring of the Dunn cemetery on Bill Bennett's property in Dunnsville. Abigal Gaskin's burial stone was the only female stone in the Dunn cemetery. Abigal was the daughter of Charles Dunn.
Chris Philippo surmised that Abigal Gaskin was married to the postmaster John Gaskin and quoted from a list of “animals exhibited at the Fair...by John Gaskin of Guilderland — a superior stud horse. (At the Albany Cattle Fair Daily Albany Argus.) November 6th 1833."
He also referred to this: “Catalogues stating pedigrees will be ready on the day before and on the day of the sale, which may be had by application...at John Gaskin's, innkeeper in the Town of Guilderland."
Another letter from Barbara Havey about her painting was on my desk at Town Hall Tuesday morning, Dec. 15. Barbara sent a picture of the painting she inherited from the Schoolcraft relatives.
The painting is dark and as yet I am unable to identify it or the artist who painted it. But I do believe it is from the Schoolcraft ancestry.
Barbara also reveals that it came from "Mr. Schoolcraft's estate in 1860. That is the year he died. Caroline Schoolcraft married Dr. Beattie about two years after Schoolcraft died. He became ill at the Republican Convention when Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President.
Caroline moved to Richmond, Virginia and took the paintings with her. She outlived her daughter, who was Barbara Havey's great-grandmother, Agnes Jennings Beattie Stuart. The paintings passed to her grandchildren, including Barbara's grandfather, Robert McAllister Stuart, born in 1903.
The frame had been cut to fit a wall in 1965 in Yonkers, New York. The history of the painting passed along with it is that it was done by an artist who also painted a portrait of George Washington for the White House. We are both working on that and will let you know!
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The Enterprise — Michael Koff
Standing up for history: Bill Bennett, left, and Bill Donato stand on wither said of the 1803 gravestone marking the grave of Christopher Dunn.
Bill Donato has restored the cemetery Bill Bennett uncovered on land he purchased in Dunnsville.
The old wrought-iron fence with its beautiful decorative pieces on the holding posts are in place. They were most-likely made in the iron foundry on Foundry Road in Guilderland almost two centuries ago.
Six headstones, once cracked and fallen over, are now repaired with braces; they stand slim and tall. They tell of the Dunn family of that era whose name tags the area on Route 20 in town.
Christopher Dunn, head of the family, was born in 1763 and died in 1830 at age 67. He operated a tavern on the corner of the Great Western Turnpike and Route 397 called the Grange.
Other stones tell of John Dunn, who died in 1803 at age 35 years; James Dunn, who died in 1813 at 43 years; Richard Dunn, the son of John, who died in 1822 at 20 years; and James Dunn, the son of Christopher, who died in 1829 at 33 years.
The sixth stone marks the grave of Abigail (née Dunn) who died in 1825 at the age of 36. She had married John Gaskin and she is the only female we noted who was buried in the Dunn cemetery.
On her lovely decorated stone is a poem that reads:
She cometh forth like a flower
and is cut down
She fleeith like a dandelion
and continuith not!
Abigail's stone is the only one carved with flowers and ribbons.
More research needs to be completed on the Dunn cemetery. For instance, although Christopher had a son, there is now grave to mark the son’s mother as Abigail is the only female noted.
Bill Donato of Altamont receives the credit for restoring the historic cemetery on Bennett's acres. He is to be applauded for saving that important piece of Guilderland's history.
Donato has been busy with in his retirement years, documenting cemetery stones and putting them on the Internet for those trying to find their ancestors. Anyone who has more information on the Dunn family history is welcome to call this historian at 518-456-3032.
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The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
The history of Guilderland’s roads is recorded in elegant handwriting. The document at left lays out the road through Guilderland Center that is now Route 146, according to Town Historian Alice Begley. The document with the seal, at center, is an 1873 indenture between Guilderland and Albany, signed by Albany’s mayor, Geo. H. Thacher. The 1812 notice over that verifies the road that runs by the “tavern house now occupied by the Widow Eve Apple” — currently the site of the Appel Inn. And, finally, the 1868 document with the engraved county seal and 2-cent postage stamp says that the Guilderland highway commissioners paid “Two thousand dollars in full on contract for building new road in said town.”
It is interesting to think that, back in time, the town of Guilderland didn't have defined roads. In fact, in 1812, the recently named commissioners of the town highway department were just beginning the plan to turn horse-and-carriage ruts from farmhouse to farmhouse into more navigable roads.
A. Grote and David Ogsbury were the new "subscriber commissioners" of the highway department in and for the town of Guilderland organized in 1803.
The accompanying form certifies "that we have layed [sic] out a Public Highway from a point on the northerly side of the Schoharie Road opposite the Tavern House now occupied by the widow Eve Apple and from thence on a course South Eighty degrees East Eighty chains to the public highway leading from Barent Myderse to French And Campbells Mills near a house owned by French Campbell now occupied by Charles VanOstrander agreeable to the request of the hereunto annexed petition we also direct that the same be recorded — Guilderland the 29th Day of December 1812."
Those directions were recording what we know today as Route 146.
Again in 1833, an old yellowed document in town files records this: "We the undersigned being inhabitants of the Town of Guilderland, and owners or occupants of the land through which the saim [sic] rout or privet road here unto answer, doth set forth and describe, that we have hereby bind ourselves, our heirs forever hereafter, that this shall be for the proper use of a privet road to all those who may choose to use it as such, and further that our signatures here unto shall forever hereafter shall preclude the saim owners or occupants there of, their heirs from all further clame [sic] for damages for saim road. Whereunto we have interchangeably set our hand this 4th Day of March in 1833."
This document was signed by Henry Lanehart and Wm. Merrifield. Witnesses were Elizah Chesbro and Simon Lanehart.
In addition, on Nov. 18, 1818, a notice by Mathew Y. Chesebro written to Highway Commissioners Garret Ostrander, John Moak, and Peter Crounse for an application for a "Private road to be laid out for my use commencing at the Eastern gate porte on the course North 68 de East 60, from Elm Tree in MJ Chesebro's field thence North to the lands of Able French and along lands which belong to OL Davis to the Great Western Turnpike.”
The turnpike had been finished in 1799. The paper was signed by Crounse and Ostrander.
A more notable "Indenture" dated Oct. 15, 1870 signed by the City of Albany's Mayor George H. Thacher and sealed with a very large green stamp to the town of Guilderland "assigns forever" all that plot of ground beginning at a point at or near the center of the public highway from McKowns Hotel to west Albany which point bears north 18 degrees, east 41 links from a marked white pine tree on the south side of said road, runs from said point as the magnetic needle pointed A.D. 1872 north 48 degrees 30 minutes east 19.70."
These directions go on and on until at last the indenture reads "from the northeast corner of burying ground to a point near the center of the road commonly called Washington Ave."
It ends up mentioning William Fuller’s Farm, and stating that the "object of this conveyance being to vest the title of said described property for highway purposes & no other."
This, of course, is the property along Fuller Road conjoining with Washington Avenue.
It amazes this historian to read that this piece of land in Guilderland, which once housed and fed William Fuller’s horses and other animals, now holds a huge and growing group of modern buildings that house SUNY Poly.
I'm sure Mayor Thacher didn't foresee that in his wildest dreams.
The town of Guilderland's archives has reams of antique information on the town that captures untold pictures of yesteryear. This historian remembers William Fuller’s riding stable!
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The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
In the mail from Oklahoma, Guilderland historian Alice Begley received, among other treasures, a rose rock, at lower left, a natural crystal of barite and sand; according to Cherokee legend, the crystal was formed by the blood and tears of a young Cherokee woman on the Trail of Tears, a forced relocation following the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
A very interesting message from a telephone correspondent near Kiowa, Oklahoma caught this historian's attention this week with a call from that state. A 45-minute conversation was filled with surprising connections of Guilderland and Kiowa.
Sherrill Wilkins, born in California, has lived in Oklahoma for about 25 years and is married to a Chickasaw Indian. She notes that Oklahoma was "Indian Territory" before statehood in 1907.
Sherrill is a former schoolteacher. She has no computer service in her home because the nearest hookup for service is 30 miles away. She is seven-and-a-half miles from the nearest store, called a "Double Quick" like a 7-11 store here.
A pharmacy is 26 miles away. Medicines are obtained by mail. Their house and her husband's father's land total 250 acres.
Sherrill says proudly that an Indian family with children will not have to pay for college. Many other benefits are available. There are food benefits in the grocery store, and fuel for heating a home is free. She said tribal members’ needs are met by the tribe
Our conversation covered names of early Kiowa residents like Veeder and Grote and Lainhart, which belong in both Kiowa and Guilderland history. It is known that long ago Indians sometimes took the family name of English soldiers who had befriended them.
This historian informed Mrs. Wilkins of the Mohican Indians that lived near the Waldehaus Creek at Dunnsville in Guilderland. Those Mohican Indians did the job of weaving basketry around demi-john bottles made in the glassworks factory in our town.
She also now knows that our town park has the Indian name of "Tawasentha," meaning "Hill of the Dead," and that Red Man's Wigwam on Route 20, an important building in Guilderland's history, is now gone.
There is an Indian Cemetery near Sherrill Wilkins’s country home. She has promised to climb a few fences to get pictures of the place. She also mentioned the huge casino gambling places in the state that are owned by Indian tribes.
Four days after I first talked by phone to Sherrill Wilkins, a large white envelope from Oklahoma arrived in the mail; it held a July 2015 issue of the Chickasaw Times, the official publication of the Chickasaw Nation.
Front-page stories told of the Chickasaw Nation's 2015 Hall of Fame Ceremony to be held July 21, and another front-page story and picture revealed that a new van was to be used to deliver preventative health-care services to young Chickasaws in small-town and rural areas.
The 20-page large-size newspaper carried community and society news of the area. The paper wrote of how a Chickasaw Lighthorse Police Force had helped rescue eight people in a flooding incident in Pickett, Oklahoma.
The inside pages were filled with pictures of Chickasaw graduates from many local high schools and colleges, a remembrance of a Chickasaw Woman Aviatrix, agendas of the Chickasaw Nation Tribal Legislation, and a story about Chickasaw quarterback Bruce Petty who had been drafted by the New York Jets filled. Petty had led his Baylor University Bears team to a conference championship last year.
An Indian arrowhead, a roserock from their soil, and pictures of Indian burial grounds were included in the mailing. In addition, a book titled "Oklahoma Indian Country Guide: One State — Many Nations,” told about the 39 Indian Tribal Nations.
A handmade "dream catcher" was enclosed. The legend tells that the air is filled with both good and bad dreams. The good dreams will pass through the center hole to the sleeper while the bad dreams are trapped in the web and perish with the light of day. I do hope it works!
A great breath of history washed over the conversations with my new Oklahoma friend. I will tell her of the Veeders and Grotes and Lainharts of Guilderland.
I hope to share more with you.
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The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer
Chits covered expenses for Guilderland’s poor, including for coal, boots and shoes, hospital stays, telephone messages, horse keeping, doctor’s services, and coffins.
GUILDERLAND — In the beginning days of the town of Guilderland, there was no Medicare or Medicaid for the ill, poor, or elderly. Individuals had to rely on their neighbors or persons cited by the town as "Overseers of the Poor" to perform such duties.
Early documents also reveal that the town's "poor" residents received medical attention from doctors who lived in Guilderland, and the services of those doctors were paid by the town. Listed as doctors who were given a $12 annual fee for attending to the sick residents were: Thomas Helme M.D., Abram DeGraff M.D., George Squire M.D., R I Barton M.D., Jesse Crounse M.D. and Frederick Crounse M.D.
In addition, several residents also performed such services. Town archives hold many receipts of the handling of those cases.
In March of 1893, Albany Hospital presented a bill for two weeks’ board at $5 a week for a Guilderland resident that included the "washing of a dozen pieces at $1.00 per dozen,” services of a special nurse, medicine, and extras.
In May of 1898, another chit was received from H.A. Vosburgh, Overseer of the Poor, for 12 weeks’ board for a child. In that same year, in November, a bill was presented to the town for $3.50 for a coffin for Mary Bent's child. And later still, Prospect Hill Cemetery was paid $1.50 for the internment of that child.
In 1896, Mr Vosburgh presented a bill for $10.25 for 41 pounds of coal for a poor family.
Chits were turned in by "Overseers of the Poor" in 1897 for "horse keeping $.65 and for "horse hire" in regards to Jacob Smith's mule for $1.20.
Dr. Thomas Helme turned in a receipt for professional services up to the date of Jan. 12, 1896 for $25. “Boots & Shoes” cost $4 and were purchased at M. Mandelbaum at Washington Avenue, a wholesale and retail dealer of footwear, for a needy Guilderland resident.
Many groceries were listed next to Guilderland residents’ names as the "Overseers of the Guilderland Poor" took good care of buying food for the medically ill and the needy in the town. It was a far simpler method than today apparently.
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— Photo by Mark Huggins
Feathery grain: Panels under each Gothic window at the Schoolcraft Mansion have a delicate etching.
In dealing with the Schoolhouse Mansion restoration, this historian has learned many new things about that subject and new words concerning it.
"Plinth" is this week's new word. Webster's dictionary calls it "the slab at the base of a column or pedestal."
I call it a six- or eight-sided beautifully carved piece of wood that terminates window or door moldings at their base, enhancing the structure. Pictures accompanying this article will attest to that.
Mark Huggins, a Guilderland town employee who has been "enhancing" the Schoolcraft House for some time, has been instrumental in designing the Gothic-style interior woodwork. He has carved about 18 plinths that adorn the windows and door moldings in the two front rooms of the house.
They are beautiful and show the house in its rightful aspect of time. Baseboards are also being installed with a Gothic-era flair, adding to the grandeur of the house.
This work is time-consuming, producing outstanding features that will bring the restoration work to a fine conclusion.
Do visit the Schoolcraft Art Fair on Saturday, June 6, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., and check out the finishing plinths.
There will be artwork to view and purchase if you like, chamber music by guitarist Marcello Iaia and flutist Caitlin Ippolito to appreciate, and a cool beverage and sweets to enjoy. See you there!
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— Photo from Polly Schoolcraft
The Portsmouth Naval Memorial was built after World War I to commemorate members of the British Royal Navy who had no grave. Oliver J. Schoolcraft, a wireman aboard the HMS North Star, is listed on one of the memorial’s plaques: Oliver J. Schoolcraft — the son of Oliver J. Schoolcraft and the grandson of John Lawrence Schoolcraft of Guilderland — was born on Feb. 19, 1895 and died at sea on April 23, 1918, at the age of 23.
GUILDERLAND — The Schoolcraft House is coming into its own! Many residents that attended the Holiday Event at the House in December checked out the restoration of the historic Gothic mansion. The house is becoming beautiful and usable. Now we have another facet of its history.
A week ago, this historian received an email from Southhampton, Hampshire in England. An email from Mrs. Polly Schoolcraft Bell, a direct descendent of Congressman John L. Schoolcraft! She is also the great-granddaughter of Oliver J. Schoolcraft, Congressman Schoolcraft's first son.
What a surprise that was.
Polly Schoolcraft Bell and family have been searching their ancestors online and found the Altamont Enterprise story written by Melissa Hale-Spencer, editor, telling of this historian's book called "Congressman John L. Schoolcraft...and his House." It has become a small world through the Internet.
We were able to fill Polly Schoolcraft in on some of the history of Oliver J. Schoolcraft, her ancestor. We will fill in readers also.
Oliver J. Schoolcraft was born in 1854 to John and Caroline Schoolcraft whose house we know in Guilderland. Congressman John Schoolcraft died in 1860 upon returning home from a Chicago convention where Abraham Lincoln had won the presidential nomination over William Seward, Schoolcraft's best friend.
Two years later, Caroline Schoolcraft sold the house and moved to Richmond, Virginia with her three children. She then married Dr. Joseph Gilmore Beattie.
Oliver J. Schoolcraft grew up in Richmond after his mother married and became an editor of that city's paper. He married Mattie Ould in Salem, Virginia in 1876.
The "Famous Belles" magazine profile of Mattie Ould Schoolcraft states that she sang for guests at her wedding in her father's house. "Under the Daisies" was a melody with prophetic lyrics, a sad forecast of events to come.
Mattie died in childbirth in 1877, and the sad lyrics, "She lies through all spring and summer beneath a bed of daisies, and near sleeps the infant whose life closed her own," formed her epitaph.
Oliver, after a short attempt in the United States Navy, went to England in 1880. After several years, he became a priest in the Church of England, married, and had five children. In his later years, he returned to the United States and died of paralysis in Lexington, Virginia in 1911 at the age of 58.
The obituary in the Virginia paper mentions that Oliver was the son of John L. Schoolcraft, of Albany N.Y., "prominent banker and man of large business interests.
Polly Schoolcraft Bell of England sent this historian the photos that accompany the article. Filling out part of the legacy of Guilderland's Gothic mansion on the Western Turnpike is of premier importance to this historian.
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— From the Bethlehem 1976 Bicentennial Calendar
The Nicoll-Sill House, representative of post-Revolutionary architecture, was built around 1736. It was built by Rensselaer Nicoll for his bride, Elizabeth Salisbury of Catskill
The Sill Coat of Arms includes a Latin motto, which translates as “Equally faithful as steadfast.”
A one-time landmark at the corner of South Pearl Street and Norton Street in Albany held the law offices of Aaron Burr and Richard Sill in the rear of the building where Burr started a practice in the fall of 1781. Sill joined him the following year. The old two-story Dutch era building had a tiled roof. Several residences and businesses were in the site. It was demolished when the Benson Building was erected.
This entry was written 30 years ago in this author's journal of Sept. 6, 1984.
"I would never have believed I could spend so many hours going through old micro-filmed letters at the archives in the New York State Library. When I found a connection between Aaron Burr and a great-great (seven times) grandfather of mine it was like being handed a million dollars.”
Aaron Burr had a brilliant career as an officer in the Continental Army as a lieutenant colonel and made a name for himself engineering several battles. Later, he was in the New York State Legislature and lived in Albany on “Washington Street” near the State Capitol where the Fort Orange Club is today.
Major Richard Sill was from Lyme, Connecticut. Sill delivered the valedictory oration when he graduated from Yale University in 1774. Six months later, he joined the Connecticut Regiment of the Continental Army.
Sill's reports concerning events of several Revolutionary battles, the siege at Boston, and the disastrous winter at Valley Forge are on file in federal records.
After his military career, Sill lived in Cedar Hill, Bethlehem just outside of Albany after his marriage on May 2, 1785 to Elizabeth Nicoll, daughter of Colonel Francis Nicoll of that place. From that wedding, he became the seven-times great-grandfather of this author.
It was in the capacity as Army officers that Sill met Burr. Though in different regiments, they were both present at the Battle of Monmouth and the Battle of Long Island in 1776. Major Sill became a law partner with Aaron Burr in the 1780s.
The following letter, on file in the New York State Library Archives dated April 1785 written by Aaron Burr to his wife, Theodosia Provost Burr, tells of one of his visits to the Nicoll homestead on the outskirts of Albany:
"I arrived here on Tuesday evening very late, though little fatigued. Wednesday afternoon I went with Sill to Bethlehem (Nichols) sic, drank tea, supped and breakfasted. I am pleased with our friend’s choice, of which more next Tuesday evening... Affectionately adieu, A. Burr.”
Research finds a letter written by Major Sill to Aaron Burr telling him of his marriage to Elizabeth Nicoll that had taken place at the Cedar Hill mansion of her father in Bethlehem. "Only family in attendance," the letter stated.
Yet, that wasn't quite accurate as the wedding list showed many important people from Albany and surrounding cities had attended. General Phillip Schuyler, his wife, Catherine, and their daughters were among local notables at the wedding. Schuyler was Elizabeth Nicoll's uncle. His daughters, Margarette, Angela, and Betsy were Elizabeth's cousins and close friends.
Yet, a deciding factor in Burr not being invited to the wedding was that Burr had defeated "Uncle" Phillip in a close election for State Senator the previous year. Elizabeth's family —Sills, Nicolls, and Schuylers — were not pleased with Aaron Burr.
Five days after his wedding to Elizabeth Nicoll, Major Sill apparently felt obliged to inform his law colleague of the event.
In a letter dated May 7, 1785, Sill wrote, “My dear Sir, Before this letter will reach you, you will undoubtedly have been informed that I have ventured into the world of the unknown; last Monday, (Rev.) M. Westerlo united our hands but made no addition to the union of our hearts...
“I know you and Mrs. Burr will join with us in the sincerest joy of this occasion — My dear Betsy proposes me in this first instance to tender to you her warmest affections, she has for a long time been acquainted with the intimacy of our friendship — and will now meet you as a sister.
“You will congratulate Mrs. DeVisme on this occasion, and tell her that I think I have at length obtained as good a wife as she kindly has wished me...our little family arrangements are not yet made out, however I fancy we do not go to housekeeping before next Fall or Winter — until which time Betsy will divide her time between Town and Bethlehem. She is now in Town receiving her company. No one present at the ceremony but the family.
“Here I have given you a short history of the most material (sic) event which can ever befall me, as the step has been taken upon the fullest conviction of its propriety and what is infinitely more from the completest unions of heart. I have no doubt you will agree with me that our prospects for happiness are promising — your prayers will I am sure join ours when happiness is the theme.
“I was very unhappy at not seeing you at court, my heart was full of everything kind and clever. It would have been a luxury to spend an hour with you, which would have been exceeded only by the society of one person.
“The friends are as well united with us in sentiment as could be expected considering there is no royal blood on the one side. The parents receive me with all the affection and tenderness which the connection warrants — and in all stages of the acquaintance have treated the subject with all that candor and frankness which ever flows from honest hearts.
“I am with the finest affection, Richard Sill.”
A postscript refers to a business matter of bankbooks and laws. Then Sill thanked Burr for his previous letter and writes that he and Elizabeth would like to "come down" in summer or fall if it didn't interfere with a proposed visit to New England.
Aaron Burr and Richard Sill remained law partners until Major Sill died of consumption in June of 1792 after a short marriage of seven years to Elizabeth. They had two sons, William and John.
Burr left Albany and moved to an estate on the Hudson River in Richmond Hill, New York with his wife and daughter, both named Theodosia. He became vice president of the United States under President Thomas Jefferson in 1801.
Historian's note: There are many more interesting tales that can be written from the history archives on these historical figures. Is that this historian's fortune?
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John Lawrence Schoolcraft was president of the National Commercial Bank from 1854 until his death in 1860. This portrait, by Augusta Dudley, was donated by the bank to the town of Guilderland and the Friends of the Schoolcraft House. It hangs in Town Hall and will be moved to Schoolcraft’s home once it is restored.
Castle-like, the Schoolcraft Cultural Center glows in the evening from its luminous Gothic windows. Restoration efforts are bringing the 1840s mansion back to its original beauty. Watch The Altamont Enterprise for coming events.
The "Holiday Event" at the Schoolcraft Cultural Center in December was a huge success as almost 200 visitors enjoyed the festive Gothic mansion with the fresh Christmas tree and the Musicians of Ma'alwyck playing seasonal songs from all over the world.
Perhaps a recap of the history of the original builder and owner of the Guilderland architectural gem on the Western Turnpike is in order. The 15-room house has six fireplaces; one very large brick fireplace in the basement has a baking oven on the side of it.
Plaster crown decorative molding adorns the ceiling in what was originally called the “ballroom.” Appropriate chandeliers and sconces have replaced original candle lighting.
The kitchen is workable with handmade cabinets and a farm type of sink. Tall Gothic ceiling-to-floor windows with sliding indoor shutters have been sanded and are ready to be finished this year. The house is a remarkable and wonderfully beautiful structure of Guilderland's history.
In a small pamphlet titled "Portraits of Presidents," published by the National Commercial Bank and Trust Company in 1970, John Lawrence Schoolcraft is listed as the third president of that institution, serving from 1854 to1860.
The pamphlet also has this information on him.
“John Lawrence Schoolcraft was one of Albany's most substantial businessmen and a noted figure in Albany County politics first as a Whig and later as a Republican. He was a close personal friend of Thurlow Weed and William H. Seward, the Civil War Secretary of State, and represented the Albany district in Congress from1849 to March 1853, defeating Erastus Corning in one of the most hotly contested congressional fights in the history of the county.
“He attended the Republican National Convention in 1860 at which Abraham Lincoln was nominated for the presidency but was taken ill on his way home and died at St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.
“He began mercantile life in Albany with W. and H.B. Cook and subsequently became a partner in the distinguished firms of Cook and Schoolcraft, and Schoolcraft, Raymond & Company. He was a director of the Albany, Bennington, and Rutland Railroad Company and also served as a director of the Albany City Bank. He became president of Commercial Bank in 1854, holding office until his death in 1860."
Schoolcraft's portrait was painted posthumously by artist Augusta Dudley. It now hangs in the office of Guilderland town Supervisor Kenneth Runion. It was donated by KeyBank (formerly the National Commercial Bank) to the town and the Friends of the Schoolcraft House. The portrait will be moved to Schoolcraft's home in the Schoolcraft Cultural Center in the near future.