The parsonage between two manors; annals of Clover-Reach

Foreword

It is unusual for one clergyman to serve a congregation for fifty years, but it is still more exceptional that those fifty years should have begun contemporaneously with the birth of a nation, and continued over the first half century of its founding and growth.

The position of the church which the Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard served was unique, it being within the bounds of one Manor and almost on the border of a second. The Manor life for a hundred years or more before the Revolution, and for many years afterward, possessed features, political and social, which give it special interest. The Lower Van Rensselaer Manor at Claverack, and the original Livingston Manor on its southern boundary, have had few chroniclers outside of magazine articles treating of individual homes or persons. It has been said that we are a generation too late for the Manor stories, but hidden in by-ways, treasured by lovers of the past, to be read between the lines of sober facts and records, are still

IX.

FOREWORD golden threads of incident and romance, and the aim of the compiler and writer of this volume has been to gather together these tales of a by-gone day, before they have slipped away forever.

A net-work of accurate historical fact lies under this story of fifty years of parsonage and Manor life. Beyond that are the stories passed down through pictures and letters and family possessions, which being dumb yet speak a language of their own ; and more than all, the stories told at the fire-side, and in the twilight, and along the country roads, of the men and women and children of the long ago, who were our next of kin, and whose lives bear a special interest for their descendants.

There is still one more point which makes the Claverack Church and parsonage life important in itself. Though the parish of the Claverack Church covered miles of territory, and though the Church exerted an influence over a wide sweep of country, and was the mother of many churches, its early history is only recorded in its own parchment-bound books of record, for through almost a hundred years of its existence it was an independent organization.

FOREWORD

It is the hope of the author, that these stories of parsonage and Manors, the sweet and uplifting memories of the past, may be like a cluster of clover-blossoms from the old homes of Clover-reach, to the men and women of to-day whose ancestors called Claverack home.

The information contained in this volume has been gathered from many sources, that relating to the Gebhard family coming through the inheritance of letters and pictures, books and valuable papers, by various descendants of Dr. Gebhard. Thanks are due to Mr. M. D. Raymond for data pertaining to the records of the Collegiate Dutch Reformed Church of New York, and the unpublished correspondence of George Washington ; also to Rev. Herman Hageman, Mrs. Anna Van Rensselaer Barnard, Mrs. Caroline Van Rensselaer Hall, Mr. Stephen Van Cortlandt Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Harold Wilson, Mr. R. Fulton Ludlow, Mrs. Arthur T. Sutcliffe, Mrs. Edward Hoffman Lynes, and Miss Georgina Schuyler, through whose generous co-operation, records and stories of the Van Rensselaers, Livingstons, Fultons, and various Claverack families have been obtained.

zi.

FOREWORD

The books I have consulted are : Histories of Columbia, Greene, and Dutchess Counties; Historical Sketches of Hudson, Documents relating to the Colonial History of New York, Ecclesiastical Records of the State of New York, Albany Chronicles, Magazine of American History, Spark's Life of Gouverneur Morris, Bacon's Hudson River from Ocean to Source, Theodore Roosevelt's New York, Memoir of Rev. Richard Sluyter, Life of Washington Irving, Higginson's History of the United States, Manual of the Reformed Church in America, Claverack Old and New, by F. H. Webb; the Claverack Centennial, Documentary History of New York, Annals of the Van Rensselaers, Clarkson's Clermont or Livingston Manor, Church Records of Claverack, Livingston Manor, and the German Reformed Church of New York ; Catalogue of Washington Seminary, The Posthumous Works of Ann Eliza Bleecker, Some Colonial Homesteads, Catherine Schuyler, by Mary Gay Humphreys, the Goede Vrouw of Mana-ha-ha, Mrs. Ellet's Women of the Revolution, Sketches of Catskill, and The Early History of Saugerties.

I-FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS

Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard, a native of Waldorf, Germany- Sailed for America — Pastor of the Churches of Whitpain and Worcester, Pennsylvania — Married in Philadelphia — Called to tha German Reformed Church of New York — Pronounced patriotic utterances — Driven to Esopus through New York's occupation by the British — Called to Claverack 1

II—CLAVERACKINTHELOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR

Moving to Claverack — Situation of Church and parsonage — Hendrick Van Rensselaer and the Lower Manor of Rensselaerwick — Fort Crailo— First settlers of the Lower Manor — Building a Church — Pastorless years — Hendrick Van Rensselaer's death ^Uolonel Johannes Van Rensselaer the Patroon — Erecting Claverack into a Manor — Colone' Johannes instrumental in building a second Church — The Dominie— The Dominie's wife ... 8

///— THE FIRST SER VICE— THE FIRST SUMMER

The Church — The " voorleser " — The singing of the Dominie's wife — The sermon — The first baptism — The baptisms and marriages which followed — Life in the parsonage 18

IV— WAR STORIES A T HOME

Signers of the Declaration of Independence — Committee of Safety — The burning of Kingston and the Livingston houses — General Burgoyne'a surrender — Margaret Livingston's wager— Tradition of Washington's camp — Captain Conyn — The Dominie's patriotic 6«rmon— The killing of John Van Ness 37

XV.

V— WASHING TON SEMINAR Y

Youths sent to the parsonage for higher education — Records of first years of the Seminary — Old school books — Teachers of Washinsrton Seminary — Letters of recommendation for students leaving Claverack— The educators of the early days of the Republic S5

VI-THE MINISTRY TO THE WILDER- NESS

Fear of Indians andl^Tories — An extensive imstorate — Dangerous journeys — Description of Ghent and Schoharie Churches — Baptisms and marriages in the wilderness— Judge Brown the " foresinger " — Courage in all walks of life 48

VII— WAR HEROES OF THE MANORS AND THE IN A UG URA TION OF GEORGE WASHINGTON

Public appeal for funds from Governor Clinton— Colonel Jeremiah Hogeboom's regiment — Captain John McKinstry's narrow escape from death by torture — Captain Brant's visit to the Free Masons of Hudson — The Tories imprisoned in a cellar — Brigadier-General Henry B. Livingston and the capture of Andre — Marriage of Richard Montgomery and Janet Livingston— Death of General Montgomery — Surrender of Comwallis — Treaty of Peace with England — The Morrises and the celebration on "Bob Hill" — Dominie Gebhard's letter to Washington— Inaiiguration of George Washington 66

VIII— THE MANORS ON EITHER SIDE

Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer's visits to Claverack— First Manor House in Claverack — Colonel Robert Rutsen Van Rensselaer's home — Henry I. Van Rensselaer's home — The Mills on the Manors— The quit-rent for the Patroon's domain— Killian Van Rensselaer — Leases of land— Rent days — Angelica Livingston, Colonel Johannes Van Rensselaer's wife — Chancellor Livingston's ', home at Clermont— Last Lord reigning on the Livingston Manor

— Homes of the Livingston Manor 67

XVI.

IX— LIFE ON THE MANORS »•*«

Continuous building — Stocking the farm — Docks and sloops — Many exports and imports — Guests of the Manors — Costly plate and rich furnishing — Scripture tiles — Lady of the Manor — Alternate residence in ciiy and country 7T

X— VISITING SPONSORS

Sailing "ventures" — Travelers by stage — Catherine Schuyler as sponsor — Parsonage relatives from Philadelphia — John Barker Church and Angelica Schuyler as sponsors — Baptism spoons . 8S

XI-STORIES OF THE POST ROAD

Montgomery Place — Edward Livingston — Burning of Livingston homes — Brave Margaret Beekman — The " Hermitage " — " Teviotdale " — Original Livingston Manor House — Its children and grandchildren — The Palatines — Flower-lined roads to Claverack 92

XII- VISITSFROM JOHN JACOB ASTOR

Dominie Gebhard recalled to the New York Church — The call declined — Tablet to Baron Steuben — Letter from Germany — John Jacob Astor's visits to Claverack — His start in the fur business- Tales of journeys after pelts^History of his early life — Voyage to America — A member of the Consistory of the German Reformed Church of New York . 100

XIII-CHURCH CUSTOMS ONE HUN- DRED YEARS AGO

Record Books of the Claverack Church— Building the Church — Renting seats— Minister's salaries — Dominie Gebhard preaches in throe languages — A divided Church united — Lists of members- Election of Consistory— Baptisms through the week— William Van Ness leader of singing— Church heating— Ministerial calls 112

XIV- LIFE A T THE PARSONAGE

Time after 1800— Letter from Jacob Gebhard— The Dominie's daughter— Samplers— The parsonage parlor— Boy's work— Sunday morning at the parsonage— The slaves in the congregation 121

XVII.

XV— LOVER'S LANES AND PARSON- AGE WEDDINGS

Sunday afternoon marriages— Refractory brides— China seta as grifts- Hudson Assemblies— The race on General Training Day 131

XVI— DIVIDING THE MANORS AND THE CLA VERA CK COURT HOUSE

Columbia County— Dividing the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor- Dividing Livingston Manor— Trials held in tlie Claverack Court House— Alexander Hamilton at Claverack — His first speech in New York— Aaron Burr at Claverack— After occupants of the Court House 138

XVII— HOMES OE THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR AT CLAVERACK

Intermarriages with colonial families— Visiting relatives during the war— Family treasures buried at Greenbush— Furnishings of the homes of the Lower Van Rensselaer Manor— China and silver —Adam and Eve table-cloth— Family gatherings— Manor funerals 147

XVIII— THE SCHUYLER ROMANCES

Homes of Catherine Schuyler's girlhood — Description of Mrs. Philip Schuyler— Schuyler Bible records— Nursing during the war— Building the Schuyler Mansion— Visits to Claverack of the Schuyler boys and girls- Schuyler elopements— Letter of Ann Eliza Bleecker 169

XIX— ANTI-RENT TROUBLES

Troubles over payment of rent— Boundary line between New York and Massachusetts— Lords of Livingston and Van Rensselaer Manors threatened— Boundary line settled— Sheriff Cornelius Hogeboom shot by Anti-rent leader— Uprising of 1840- "Big Thunder "and " Little Thunder " arrested— Victory of the Anti-renters under leadership of Governor Young in 1852— War of 1812 171

XVIII.

XX— THE NE W C/T} ' OE HUDSON

Presidential Electors at Hudson 1796-1813— Hudson became a city in 1785— Owned many vessels— Shipyards— Exports and imports- Contributions to useful arts— John Jay's visit to Hudson— Death of General Washington 182

XXI— THE MARRIAGE OE ALEXAN- DER HA MIL TON AND ELIZA- BETH SCHUYLER

Claverack wedding outfits— Tories and Indians attack General Schuyler's house at Albany— Rescue of baby— Marriage of Alexander Hamilton and Elizabeth Schuyler— Child of Philip Jeremiah Schuyler brought t, Claverack for baptism— Return of children to old Claverack homes— Dutch toys 189

XXII— ROBERT EULTON AND THE EIRST STEAMBOA T

Robert Fulton and Chancellor Livingston— First trip of the Clermont— Invited guests— Astonishment of sailors— Announcements of Chancellor Livingston— Youngest passenger aboard— Time from New York to Albany— First voyage with passengers— Thurlow Weed on Bompie's Hook— Rebuilding Clermont— The "North River "—Robert Fulton's marriage to Miss Harriet Livingston- Fulton's home— His art— His death— His wife's death , . . 196

XXIII— THE LEGEND OE^'SPOOK ROCK''

Hudson marriages at the Claverack Parsonage— Changes in the parsonage family— Marriages of sons and daughters— The Ghent Church— The Hogeboom Bible— Claverack Church independent — Methods of raising Church support — Parents sponsors in baptism —No death records— Legend of "Spook Rock" .... 210

XXIV- HIS ''HUIS VROUWE"

The Dominie's wife— The tailoress and the shoemaker — New Year's day and St. Nicholas — Paas and Paas cakes — Nursing the sick — Philadelphia wives — The first linen-damask — City philanthropy and country neighborliness 221

XIX.

PAca

XXV— CALLING AN ENGLISH COL- LEAGUE

Change of language among the Claverack people — Calling an English associate — The Claverack Church joins the Classis of Rensselaer and Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church — Rev. Mr. Sluyter accepts call to Claverack — Dutch call remains unaltered — Dominie Gebhard's sons — Painting of the 17th Congress — Divided ministerial labors — Grandchildren at the parsonage- Monday mo)-ning ministerial meetings 229

XXVI— THE EIRST ROBERT LIVING- STONS CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN

Diary describing the upper Hudson in 1769 — Price paid Indians for Livingston Manor — Size of Grant— Boundaries — First Lord of the Manor — Building a Church— Livingston family at the Manor — Manor Houses — The second Lord of the Manor and his children — The third Lord of the Manor — Visiting relatives — Governor William Livingston of New Jersey and his daughters — Liberty Hall— Letters from Miss Kitty Livingston — Order from Nantes— General Washington's letter to Miss Kitty Livingston- Livingston Manor Houses— Marriage of John Livingston and Mrs. Catherine Ridley 236

XX VII— MANOR JUNKETINGS

Building of Oak Hill — Furnishings of Livingston homes — Pen portrait of John Livingston — Winter on the Manor— Sloop journeys — Washington Irving's visit to Livingston Manor— '' Widow Mary " Livingston — The " Widow Mary's " snap dragon and Colonel Henry I. Van Rensselaer's buggy— Livingston funerals— Livingstons who belonged to the first fifty years of the Republic .... 257

XXVIII-.CHANCELLOR LIVINGSTON

Chancellor Livingston's marriage— Offices held— State Convention to consider Constitution— Rejoicing over the ratification of New York— Constitution drafted by Alexander Hamilton— Illumination of Schuyler mansion— Chancellor Livingston appointed ambassador to France— Negotiated purchase of Louisiana— Partnership with Robert Fulton in the Clermont— Chancellor Livingston's country life— Death 268

XX.

PAGB

XXIX-EARLY RESIDENTS OF CLA V- ERACK

The Ludlows-Old portraits— The Mulders and the Court Martial House-The Miller store— The family of Killian Hogeboom- Daughter married General Samuel Webb— Old Webb house—" The Night Before Christmas "—The Esselstyn family-The Van . Nesses- Samuel Ten Broeck and Maria Van Rensselaer and the first Manor House— Fitz Muzigh of Livingston— Tobias Van Deusen and his son James— Intermarriages between Dutch and Quakers— The women of Claverack— Dominie Gebhard's life in Claverack 274

XXX-MONTGOMERY, LAFA YET T E, AND THE ERIE CANAL

Removing General Montgomery's body to New York— His monument—Visit of Lafayette— Entertainment at Clermont— At Hudson—Governor Clinton and the Erie Canal— Its opening — Its success 288

XXXI-SHADOWS ACROSS THE SUN- SHINE

The Dominie'8 youngest daughter— Her engagement— The lost gold piece— Her death 298

XXXII— THE CRO WN OF LIFE

President John Adams' call to fasting and prayei^Governor Clinton's first proclamation for the observance of a public thanksgiving—Withdrawal of Hillsdale from the Claverack Church- Resignation of Dominie Gebhard— Final baptisms and marriages- Dr. Currie's description of Dominie Gebhard's last Church service — Death of Dominie Gebhard— Numbers of those baptized and married — Records in family Bibles 302

XXXIII~IN BLOSSOM TIME

Mr. Richard Morse's visit to Claverack— Interest in the old Dominie's library— Meeting with the Dominie's granddaughter — Engagement — Marriage 308

XXI.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGB

Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard, V. D. M Frontispiece

University of Utrecht — An Unchanged Corner .... 4

Crailo 10

Court Martial House 28

Claverack College 44

Old Church and Parsonage and Washington Seminary . 52

Schoharie Church 52

First Van Rensselaer Manor House in Claverack ... 68

Catherine Van Rensselaer Schuyler 86

Van Ness-Livingston House 116

Claverack Church — " Van Rensselaer Kirk " 128

Court House 140

Jacob Rutsen Van Rensselaer Manor House 148

Henry I. Van Rensselaer Manor House 164

The " Widow Mary " Livingston Manor House .... 164

"Spook Rock" 216

Mrs. John Gabriel Gebhard— The Dominie's Wife ... 220

Robert Livingston, 3rd Lord of Livingston Manor . • . 246

Chancellor Livingston's Home 262

Margaret Beekman Livingston Manor House 262

Ludlow Mansion 274

Bay House 298

Mrs. Richard C. Morse, and Two of Her Children . . , 308

XXIII.

The Parsonage Between Two Manors.

Chapter I. From Waldorf To Esopus

In one of the colonial houses of Esopus, sat a young clergyman in his middle twenties, with his face bowed in his hands in deep thought. The question before him was a momentous one. Five years before he had left his native home in Waldorf, Germany, and started as many of the young men in that day did, for the new land of opportunity across the sea.

It was the eventful year of 1776, and Esopus (Kingston) was full of refugees from New York, which city being invested by the British, many of her residents had fled to the smaller towns and villages further up the Hudson, that they might at least find safety for their families in the dangers which threatened. In the

X 2

THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS.

fatherland young John Gabriel Gebhard had been trained for his life work in the best educational institutions of the day. He had received his earlier university education at Heidelberg, and after a further course of theological study at Utrecht, had been licensed to preach by the Refomed Church of Holland. A son of a minister of the Gospel, it would seem that he brought with him to America special fitness for his calling, and a pfomise of good things to come. In the five years that he had been on American shores, this was the second time he had been called to change his home, and this time he had a wife still under twenty, and two small children to consider.

The young clergyman, after his month-long voyage froiri Germany, during which storms had swept the little vessel into the hollows of the sea and upon the crests of the billows, washed her decks, and even found the freight and luggage stored away in cabins and holds of the ship, at last landed, it is believed, at Philadelphia. For three years he had served the two congregations of Whitpain and Worcester, among the German portion of the population of Montgomery county, Pennsylvania. Here in the first year of his

FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS.

pastorate, he met and loved Anna Maria Magdalene Carver, a descendant of some of the early settlers of Philadelphia. She was a charming girl of fifteen, and the customs of the time tending toward early maturity, in June of the following year they were married. Succeeding years proved the choice of the girl wife to have been one of the wisest steps of the young man's life.

They had been married only a year when a call came to Mr. Gebhard to become the pastor of the German Reformed Church of New York. This church had been formed a few years earlier from a small body of the German-speaking members of the Collegiate Reformed Dutch Church in Nassau St., who wished to hear the Gospel preached in the High-Dutch tongue with which they were familiar. In this desire they had the full consent of the mother church. Indeed she ever gave her offspring a fostering care, the pastors of the German Church meeting in consistorial and classical gatherings with the ministers of the Collegiate Church, and being installed by the ministers of the older organization ; while the members who had gone out to form the new church, also showed their attachment for

THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS.

their previous place of worship, by requesting the privilege of returning to the old fold in case their enterprise should fail, and to be allowed to bury their dead with the Collegiate Church as formerly.

The call to the New York church had been accepted, and the young couple had taken up their abode in the city, the German Church being situated at that time in Nassau St. between John St. and Maiden Lane. Here two boys, Jacob and Philip, came to bless the minister's home, and the two years of his pastorate were full of activity in the growing town and congregation, and rich in friendships with men who like himself had left their old home and friends, to make a new home and life on American shores. Rev. Frederick Muhlenberg was at this time in charge of the only German Lutheran Church in the city, and the two young clergymen were fast friends. Later Mr. Gebhard named a third son for the friend from whom he was parted when New York became no longer a safe place of residence for either of them, for both were patriotic and devoted already to this new country for which they had dared so much. Neither of them was bound by ties of kindred to the British, who claimed the righi of taxing

A corner which has remaine<l unchanged since Dr. Gebhard. ami Ur. Livingston

were students of the University.

FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS.

the American people, so their loyalty to the Colonies knew no hindrance, and their words were frank and warmly patriotic, their strictures on English interference bearing no uncertain sound, and it came to pass that the English felt that these young German patriots would better magnify their calling in some other town than one invested by the British, and they were fortunate that they made their escape in safety. Frederick Muhlenberg retired from the ministry a Tew years later, and returning to Philadelphia, became a member of the Continental Congress of 1779.

The roads about New York looked at this time like a perpetual moving day, for the active patriots among the townspeople left the city, many of them having already suffered from the confiscation of much of their property, through the hands of the Tory soldiers who plundered on every side. Every horse and cart, sloop and sailing vessel, which could be procured was pressed into service, many of them carrying women and children, as well as furniture, out of the city whose churches were soon to be used as riding academies and prisons by the British, and whose congregations were already scattered. It was estimated that one third of

THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS.

the residents of New York left the city at this time.

It was thus that the Rev. John Gabriel Gebhard had come to Esopus. After a short time it became known where the popular young German minister from New York was to be found, and since the supply of clergymen was not great in the new country, even though outside of the cities they usually served three or four congregations, the New York minister received at this time three calls to vacant churches. It was over these calls that he was thinking so profoundly. There was much to be considered, possible war behind them cutting them off not only from the home across the sea, but also from the only homes he and his wife had known in the new land. There were the children to be thought of, and deepest of all, was the seeking after Divine guidance as he went forward like Abraham of old, " not knowing whither he went."

The call from the Claverack church covered much territory, and there was also another feature, — this was a call to preach in the Dutch tongue. Mr. Gebhard's university training at Utrecht had somewhat familized him with the Low Dutch as it was called, but Latin was so universally used in the universities of the

FROM WALDORF TO ESOPUS.

old world, that the other languages did not hold an even chance. Still the young man was a linguist by education and inheritance, and he answered to the question of the committee from Claverack, as to how long it would take him to learn the Dutch language sufficiently well to preach in it, that he would do it in three months, which promise was kept to the letter. This settled the matter, and the Claverack call was given and accepted. Once more the young minister went forth into a strange land, a land which most surely the Lord had given him for ministerial labors, as he gave the broad acres of Canaan to Abraham for a possession. The fifty year's pastorate which followed was the proof and fulfillment of the wisdom of the choice made in the fear of the Lord, in the tarrying-place of Esopus, in the eventful year of '76, and to the young minister's inalienable right to the V. D. M. (Minister or Servant of the Word of God) which always followed the signing of his name in the early days, as it did that of many of the clergymen which the Old World sent to the New.

Chapter II. Claverack In The Lower Van Rensselaer Manor

A sloop carried the family and their belongings from Esopus to Claverack Landing, for the town of Hudson did not exist at that time, a hamlet at the river connecting the great water-way with the growing settlement of Claverack further inland. The road from Claverack Landing to the parsonage lay through a most beautiful and fertile tract of country. There is a tradition that the name Claverack, which is a Dutch term signifying clover reach or field, was first applied to this country by Henry Hudson and his followers, when they sailed up the beautiful river which bears Hudson's name, in the good ship, the "Half Moon." All along the eastern bank of the river for miles, white clover sprang up spontaneously, covering bare tracts of land which had been burned over by the Indians, and giving the whole section the appearance of blos-

THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR.

soming fields.

The name Claverack was first given to the stretch of the river inchiding Kinderhook, Claverack Landing, and Livingston Manor, a flowering land of clover blossoms, covering three quarters of what is now Columbia county. At a later date Kinderhook and Livingston Manor were not included in the district going under this name.

The wagon-road lay along Claverack creek which was bordered by fertile flats. On either side of the road were nut trees and wild plums, with wild grape vines festooning the tree trunks, while stretches of fields between were dyed red with wild strawberries. Set down in the midst of these beauties and gifts of nature, were farms and homesteads, and great tracts of woodland inviting the settler with their abundance of timber for building purposes.

The sight of the red brick parsonage with its gambrel roof behind the pear trees, must have been a pleasant one to the little family driven out from their late home. The parsonage was built near the church and on the post-road, both church and parsonage overlooking a wide sweep of valley and upland, to the

THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS.

Hudson river and the Catskill mountains beyond. Doubtless the extended view differed from that of to-day, in that much of the present cleared land and cultivated farms was then woodland, but the stretch of woods and river, mountains and blue sky and magnificent sunsets, held that day as now, a grandeur seldom equaled in the location of our early churches. But this was no ordinary church situated in a convenient spot in a rural community. No general was ever placed at a more strategic point for wide-sweeping influence, than this young city Dominie, undertaking a country charge. The church property of Claverack lay within the Lower Manor of Rensselaerwick, and near the border of Livingston Manor.

This district was a part of the great purchase of land made by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer in 1630, and was subject to the rule of the Lord of the Manor. But the Patroon of that day found it difficult to control matters in this distant corner of his vast estate, so in 1704, he conveyed to his younger brother Hendrick, a large tract of land in the southern part of the Manor known by the name of Claverack, which covered one hundred and seventy thousand acres, and also one thousand

FORT CRAILO

Erected in 1612 by Kiliaen Van Rensselaer.

The home of the Patroons of the Lower Manor of Rensselaerwick,

THE LOWER VAN RENSSELAER MANOR.

acres of the Upper Manor on the east side of the river, including the site of Greenbush.

Hendrick removed to Claverack with such of his friends from the older community of Albany as he could induce to join him, spending his time between the Lower Manor and Fort Crailo, which stood on the northern portion of his domain.

Fort Crailo, which was named after the family estate near Amsterdam, Holland, had been built in 1642, a stone in the cellar wall containing the inscription "K. V. R. 1642 Anno Domini." The initials stand for the first Patroon, and mark the date of the arrival of the first Dutch minister. It was a strongly built house with timbers eighteen inches square, and a chimney so constructed that nothing could be thrown down, and no one descend, a protection called for against the torches of the savages. As it was intended originally for purposes of defense, it contained nine musket or port-holes through which to project a rifle.

There is a tradition that the Ten Broecks, Mulders, Hogebooms, Bensons, and Van Cortlandts came with the Van Rensselaers from Holland, as neighbors, not tenants, since they are not in the list of those who

THE PARSONAGE BETWEEN TWO MANORS.

took the oath of allegiance to the first Patroon. That their children were named for the Van Rensselaers who were their sponsors in baptism, proves the friendly feeling existing between the families, and that Cornelis Stephense Mulder purchased of Hendrick Van Rensselaer one thousand acres in the town of Claverack as early as 17 18, would make it appear that this family might have been among the Albany friends whom he persuaded to settle in his " Lower Manor." The greater part of the early settlers of Claverack brought some pecuniary means with them from Holland, and often were accompanied by servants. These first comers also brought with them, household articles familiar in the home-land, " waffle-tongs, pewter platters, high back settles, long stemmed pipes, punch bowls, many utensils in brass and copper, and Dutch Bibles. In some instances they brought whole shiploads of bricks to build houses after the pattern of those left behind," but this latter feature of home reproduction does not seem to have obtained at Claverack, where there were brick kilns at a very early date, from the product of which the brick houses in the vicinity were built. The home-made bricks were