Not The Right Stones

 

The Lake House is Washington Park has a series of panels which illustrate the Park's history.  They're generally excellent, include a number of vintage photos and maps, and are definitely worth stepping inside to view.

The panel which interests me the most is, not surprisingly, the one which notes the history of the Park's location as a municipal cemetery.  The State Street Burying Grounds served as the not-so-final resting place for thousands of local residents until it closed in 1868 and the remains moved to the Church Grounds section at the Albany Rural Cemetery.

The panel in question includes a detail of an antique map of Albany showing the position of the Burying Grounds and its divisions among various congregations.  Two headstones are included as representing the various graves at the Burying Grounds and therein lies an inaccuracy.

It is very unlikely that either gravestone shown on the panel was ever in the State Street Burying Grounds.

The upper stone shown on the right is one of the most distinctive gravestones in the Church Grounds.  Though it has eroded badly in recent years, it is an incredible example of a colonial headstone carved with a winged skull;  an "momento mori" intended to remind the living of their own eventual death.  The inscription is framed with heavy vines and the lettering is finely carved.  It was carved for the grave of Elyse Gansevoort Winne who died in 1728 and was laid to rest in the graveyard of the Dutch Reformed Church which was then on South Pearl Street near Hudson Avenue. When that graveyard was eventually removed, a number of its oldest stones and remains were placed in a special vault beneath the tower of the Middle Dutch Church which was erected nearby on South Pearl Street.  These same headstones and remains were later placed in a vault beneath the Madison Avenue Reformed Church, as noted in this article by John Walcott.  Those stones and remains  - including Elyse Winne's - were eventually placed in the Church Grounds at the Albany Rural Cemetery, but did not spend time in the State Street Burying Grounds and was therefore not included in the Common Council inventory of the Burying Grounds.

The lower stone depicted is a plain brown sandstone marker from the grave of Dick who is identified in the inscription as a slave of John F. Pruyn who died in 1799.  This stone now rests in the African Methodist Episcopal section of the Church Grounds.  Dick may or may not have been originally buried in the State Street Burying Grounds.  He does not appear in the massive list of graves inventoried by the Albany Common Council prior to the removal to the Rural Cemetery.  However, that list is not complete.  There are quite a few graves now in the Church Grounds that were not printed in the inventory, perhaps omitted by mistake as the stones were transcribed.  He may have originally been buried in the previous municipal cemetery which stood just off Eagle Street south of the State Capitol.  This cemetery received burials from around 1789 to 1799, the same year Dick died.  He may have been buried in one of the small graveyards identified on period maps as "Negro Burying Grounds".

Or it's very possible the young man was buried in the same graveyard as Elyse Winne.  Dick's master was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church and may have arranged for Dick to be interred in a family plot in the congregation's churchyard.  This would account for why Dick's name also does not appear on Common Council inventory.  Like Elyse Winne, Dick and his gravestone would have lain in the vault beneath the Madison Avenue Reformed Church before being eventually brought to the Rural Cemetery.

In that case, neither stone is representative of the graves cleared from the State Street Burying Grounds.  Also, the caption identifies the skull stone as belonging to Elyse Wenne Huys.  The word "huys" is not part of her surname, but part of the old phrase "huys vrouw" or "housewife."

See also:  Jeremiah Field and The Headstone That Was Not Lost, The Oldest Stones (includes a larger photo of the Elyse Winne stone),and Dick.

The Tory Execution Place

The above is an excerpt taken from Part 2 of Joel Munsell's The Albany Annual Register for 1849-1850 which, according to the description on its title page, served not only as a city directory, but also contained "contributions to the history and antiquities of the city and other matters of interests."  Among other things, the volume contains lists of 18th-century Dutch Reformed Church burials, a biographical sketch of General Philip Schuyler, various statistics relating to city commerce, an account of the China voyage of the sloop Experiment, engravings of notable houses already demolished at the time of printing, and this reminiscence  about the execution of Tories during the Revolutionary War.

The Willett Stone

This boulder at the corner of Willett and State Streets honors the namesake of the former, General Marinus Willett.

The plaque features a profile of Willett and the following inscription:

In Grateful Memory of General Marinus Willett
1740 - 1836
For His Gallant and Patriotic Services In
Defense of Albany And The People of
The Mohawk Valley Against Tory And Indian
Foes During The Years of The War For
Independence, This Stone, Brought From The
Scenes of Conflict And Typical of His Rugged Character,
Has Been Placed Here Under The Auspices of The
Sons of The Revolution
In The State of New York

By The Philip Livingston Chapter
A.D. 1907

This memorial was originally located a few yards deeper in the park, but was moved to its present location several years ago as it was struck several times by cars missing a sharp turn.

It's interesting to note that the Willett Street might not have been named for the General in the first place. It was originally Willet Street and probably followed the pattern of naming the north-south streets in this area after birds - Eagle, Swan, Dove, Lark, Willet, and Snipe (the last of these no longer exists). At some point, the extra "t" was added and the association with General Willett began, making it a logical place for his memorial.

Update On The Reburial of the Schuyler Flatts Slaves

This afternoon, an informational meeting was held at the Albany Public Library to discuss the reburial of skeletons discovered near the Schuyler Flatts. The remains are of fourteen people who were undoubtedly slaves owned by the Schuyler family from the early 18^th to early 19^th centuries. The speaker was Paul Stewart of the Underground Railroad History Project; representatives from the New York State Museum, St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Cemetery, and Albany Rural Cemetery were present, along with the Town of Colonie's historian.

Some background information on the discovery of the skeletons and proposals for reburial were discussed.

In the past, the need for a suitable burial container had been mentioned as a concern; some sort of casket that would preserve the remains in the event of a future exhumation (presumably for scientific or educational purposes). However, this is no longer considered an issue and, in my opinion, there should not be any future exhumation of these skeletons. Their next resting place should be their final resting place and they should be allowed to lie in peace there. I would assume that reasonable samples from the bones could and would be retained by the NYS Museum for additional research as technology in that field advances.

A suitable burial container is still an issue, though. The discussion included modern-style burial vaults, simple wooden boxes in a manner similar to the original white pine coffins, cardboard boxes which have been used in previous reburials of historic remains, or merely wrapping the bodies in muslin winding sheets and laying them to rest in the earth. The issue of burying the remains separately or in a mass grave was also mentioned. All of these options are, of course, dependent on cost and available funds.

On the subject of funding, while the expenses have not yet been determined, I would suggest that donations could be solicited from individuals, businesses, and organizations with an interest in assisting with the cost of reburial and the placement of a suitable memorial or marker.

Several locations for reburial were mentioned. One early proposal put forward not long after the bones were discovered was to rebury them at the same privately owned site where they were discovered, along with an appropriate marker. There are at least two more undisturbed burials there and it is believed there may be others. However, there would be little protection for the remains if, in the future, construction or development affects the property. The parcel would have to be rezoned as a cemetery to be protected under the New York State Cemetery Laws and this, no doubt, would involve quite a bit of legal paperwork. Also, St. Agnes' Roman Catholic Cemetery – which is located just south of the original grave site and adjacent to the Albany Rural Cemetery – has offered to donate a suitable plot in a section called Founder's Hill, not far from the remains which were transferred to St. Agnes' from the Catholic lot in the State Street Burying Grounds during the mass removal of graves in 1868.

Another proposed site was the Church Grounds of Albany Rural Cemetery. It is my opinion, based on the history of the Church Grounds and the information presented at this meeting, that this is the most appropriate place for the reburial of the Schuyler Flatts skeletons.

First, there is strong precedent for such a reburial. In the past, when historic graves have been uncovered by construction or development, they have often been re-interred at the Church Grounds or other suitable areas of the Rural Cemetery. These reburials include the graves exhumed from the Alms House site along New Scotland Avenue, children from the Albany Orphanage, and Pearl (the name give to a woman whose grave was discovered along South Pearl Street, formerly the site of an early Lutheran burial ground). Also, the Rural Cemetery is closest to the place that these people knew as home, though not by choice, and where they were laid to rest without the expectation of future generations disturbing their graves.

Second, as the religious beliefs of these Schuyler slaves are unknown to modern scholars and historians, it would be appropriate to bury them in a secular cemetery – such as the Rural Cemetery – which has allowed for the burial of people of any race or religion. Also, the Church Grounds includes the African Methodist Episcopal burials moved from the State Street Burying Grounds. While this church did not exist during the lives of the Schuyler Flatts slaves, it is not impossible (thought completely unprovable) some of the individuals could possibly be direct descendents or other kin.

Today's meeting was, of course, very preliminary. There will be future meetings to further address the subject and to form a committee to handle the arrangements. A town hall meeting will also be held to get further input from the public. It is hoped that a reburial – with a fitting ceremony – can be held sometime in the warmer months.