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Image provided by: Guilderland Public Library
<\. > o / Tfa Altamont-EMerpri»e — Thurudaf,August 28, 199% • .> y A ^ ; Editorial ;. \« %v\ Grasp local history Local history is important because fc it js~co.ncrctc. It's not someone else % far-off jjbstraction—-'it's ours. V- v • «. Alice Begley held apiece of local history miner hand recently. She ' fc Guilderland *s indefatigable town histoi lan. She helped spearhead the movement to save and restore the SchoglcraffcHouse on Western Avenue. ' \ \ .' .. * Recently, she visited John L. Schoolcraft Ygrave at the Albany' Rural Cemetery. She had to hunt to find the grave -First inquiry at the.cemetery snowed ljt had no record of Schoolcraft Begley, who' igrew up in a nearby ^ighbo^hood, knew th^fduring the 1860\s graves at the WashingtorTPark burial grounds were disassembM- and bodies were moved ( to the,Rural Cemetery $ ' She kept at it, doing re'search at the State Library. 6/he.ie she lound records that show Schoolcraft did, indeed, have a lot at the Rural Cemetery, a very laigc one Begley ofte/i acts ,likc a detective, piecmgthc past together b> puisuing lcads'and small clues She has a sense of mission about her work, and takes it personally As she touted the Rural Cemetery, she called out,with glee. •\There's Thurlow Weed'\ Wc thought she had spoyted an old l[iend In a way. she had She had spotted Weed's monument He was a nmeteenth-eentur\ fuend o( Schuolcialt s whom she d re- searched cxiensnely She e\utedl\ told M»ut his uoik a> a lournalist and his political hie as spokesman loi the Whig pait\ and also shared some Conjectures on the personal life ol his, daughter Part of Begley \s mission is shai ing what she has teamed with the ' public Aside horn exploring histoiv m'hei columns, she has detailed on our pages the 34 state historical markers in town —all recently restored ' l Weiemembei in June being tailed out b\ Begley to photograph « town workers installing a once-lost marker b\ the Vale pi' \TawasenihJ The \fact ihliui was pouiing rain didn't discourage -Beale\, she caserlv iccounted the hibtOi\ of the area and explained the meaning of the Iroquois word Tawasentha— /'hill ol the dead ' She handed her \umbrella tolthe town super\ isoi., who used it to shieljf the woikers fiom the deluge Begley was disturbed on her recent visit the Albany Rural Cemetery to see pieces of the wrought iron fence around Schoolcraft's monument were fallen or missing She picked up a fallen, rus,ted chunLof fence top Begley admired its Gothic detail, which matched the monument and the Guilderland mansion. In her column, she suggests that Schoolcraft's love of Gothic architecture may have grown J/om the sights he saw on a , European tour in 1843 She reports that his n avel journal focuses on k the Cathedrals of St John de Baptist and Notre Dame Begley was troubledjby the condition ol the fence, and brought the fallen chunk with Her She showed it to a cemetery overseer. He explained that there are no funds to rcstoic'crumbling monuments, commemorating'those whose families are long since gone. Begley asked to borrow the piece, and has since checked into foundries that /can reproduce the ironwork Her persistence has paid off in the salvation of the Schoolcraft House as well. Bgley wrote in our pages in May 1994, when the house was threatened with destruction or relocation, \The beauty of the house is unmatched for its style?, it has been featured in nationally known, architectural volumes \ •/ Typical of hjer style, Begley talked with people whose memories formed a living link to the house's past Kathenne McGill Weeks, a former Albany school teacher, recalled' visiting relatives there as a houseguest \We ate well Aunts Edi>i, Nellie, Alice, and Carrie were excellent gardeners and had a huge garden out back of the house* Thanksgiving was a great feast, and following dinner there was always a 'rest hour'\ So besides being a beautiful part of our landscape, the Schoolcraft House is part of our heritage We're glad it's being saved. In July 1994, the Guilderland Historical'Society received a $70,000 state grant which the town matched to buy the house, and in 1997, another $29,000 wa/awarded by the state for restoration The latest fund drive is a \Buy a Brick\ campaign where residents or businesses can contribute money to have their name engraved on abnek to form a walk, which replicates the old carriage road leading to the frontdoor of the Schoolcraft House^ndividuals pay $75 and small businesses pay $ 150, The Enterprise has bought such a b^ick, and we suggest you do, too. It's a concrete w<fy to help preserve something important. l / Old'buildings remind'a community of its history In an era when, more and more, our towns look like every place else, old buildings 'give us an identity We're pleased,'too, that the town's Planning Task-Fo'rec, ap- pointed by the supervisor, has a committee looking into historical and cultural resources That group is, not surprising|y,,headed by Begley Among its early initiatives are promoting to^n history and • .culture 1 for economic development and.tounsm, pushing historic preservation legislation; and inventorying all historic buildings, .cemeteries, landscapes, and preserves in Guilderland. Wesuggested in u this-space back in 1994 that the town draft a plan naming its important sites,'to avoid a situation like the one that almost saw the Schoolcraft House disappear. We wrote then, and we still believe now: Guilderland should take a good hard look ail itself to see what's worth preserving. The o town should develop a plan in which owneVs df historic properties could enlist. The transforma-' / tion could take years, but it would be worth the perseverance... With . a carefully considered plan/to preserve what's left of its past, Guilderland can move with pride to its future. The Schoolcraft House could have become nothing more than a roadside marker and another fading memory. We're glad people like Alice Begley kept that from happening. We can learn from her persistence — all of us—-to hold on tight to what matters, Grab a piece of local history; make it last. • From the historian's dejsk ^ . • • «« Viewing a grave, reviewing a Me **&«?• 0 «f l<y,' , »' \ J By Alice Begley A 25 : foot-high, slender gran- ' ite monument in Albany Rural Cemetery rtfaVks the resting place of John L. Schoolcraft. It is as uniquely elegant as the house in Guilderland in which helped. ' , Ao Denoting the stafettS|7o|pt&e man, the beautiful tall spofie ste- in the center of a sixty-plot en- closure confined by wrought - iron and stone pillared fenc- ing. Entrance steps lead frpm the north .side of the burial plot to an original carl path where a woods creates a mid-ninefoenth century Victoiian a urn The Scjhoolci aft name carved on the monument ES as simple as the sLone't, purity and jichness John L Schoolcraft's house in Guildeiland has i revived much notoiiety iccenUv as il stands as n bastion against time, the elements, and modern-day progress that sought to demolish it In June 199 1, through,the ef- forts of concerned citizens and the Guilderland Historic Society, New 'Yojk State awarded a $70,000 Historic Preservation Giant ( With additional matching funds ' from the Town of Guilderland, efforts began to ^protect and restore the historic house to its original grandeur. i Queries arose concerning the man whose house had caused such a stif iqne hundred'and sixty years sifter it was built, John L. Scrjoolcraft's wealth and industry were obvious in his house and his land holdings in the town of Guilderland and the nearby city of Albany, His large, ornate house on the Great Western Turnpike stands out amid the modest bungalows of the mid-1840's His perspanJ and family information^ wpra more obscure and more diTfK^ cult to document. Even, finding \ his grave was a difficult task. The Schoolcrafts who mi- grated to Guilderland from Schoharie were the grandsons and great-grandsons of James Calcraft. The name was later Americanized tq Schoolcraft Calcraft emigrated from England to America and Schoharie County. The history of the Schoolcraft men and their families who settled in Guilderland is detailed and complex. Three of the four Schoolcraft men — John Sr., his son John L-, and J his brother, Lawrence — were all actively involved in governmental, ed- ucational, business and reli- gious affairs of the town. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Lawrence's' 1 - son, became famous a!§ a glassmaker and writer. John L. Schoolcraft, accord- ing to'the bicentennial edition \ of The Biographical Directory ' of the United States Congress 1774-1989, was born in Albany County (Guilderland) in°1804. (Other records list his birthdate as 1806). His limited Schooling did not deter his rise as a sub- stantial businessman in the city of Albany nor as a conspic- , uous t figure in Albany politics in the mid-nineteenth century. Schoolcraft was a close per- sonal friend of Thurlow Weed, noted journalist, political • spokesman of the Whig party, and publisher of the Albany Evening Journal. & In , 1820, when John L. Schoolcraft, was 16 years old, his elder cousin Henry Rowe SchoolcrafWrote a letter at the request of / the younger Schoolcraft's widowed mother, to Captain David B. Douglass seeking an -appointment to West Point for the boy, Douglass was a mathematics ascriptions of,the Gothiccatlie- and military professor at the ,, drals and architecture, the United * States Military , rivers, and the ancient cities, Academy. - , He ^escribed and compared the J 1 ' The Enterprise — Melissa Hale-Spencer With an aged oak behind it, the Gothic monument in the Albany Rural Cemetery marking the grave of Guilderland's native^ son, John L. Schoolcraft, is echoed by the column from a gate, where visitors / used to approach by foot and horse. The monument's^ Gothic style and detail is similar to that of Schoolcraft's mansion on Western Aveneuc u\ Guilderland, now being restored. Young John L. Schoolcraft did not receive the appointment. A rejecting letjter from. Secretary of War John C. Cafhoun replied, \Though it* would have given me great pleasure to have appointed your relative, John L Schoolcraft, Cadet, with a full complement already, it is not^ih my power, which I regret\ / Instead, Schoolcraft began a, profitable mercantile business in Albany and launched his po- litical 1 career A close friendship with New York Governor William H. Seward (1839-1843), recognized Rhine and the Rhone nveis and gave picturesque accounts of the streets of Pans and Naples. , But Schoolcraft's mam fpcus appeared to be the architecture of the Cathedrals of St John deBaptist and Notre Dame and others described but npt named. From his writings, it is possible to understand his Gothic choice of architecture for his mansion in Guilderland and the mOfiu- . merit over his grave at Albany Rural Cemetery. A^^rare -personal remark* c by ' Schoolcraft in his journal re- ports that \The women (of as,a leader of'the anti-slavery Marseilles) are more beautiful Schoolcraft's^ than any other city in France.\ ' WhigS, helped political career. . t^d^eed, Schoolcraft defeated Eralfirs Corning/ the elder of a renowned New York State,poht- lcal family, m one of the most hotly contested Congressional* fights in the history of Albany County. any It was only later in his letters to Thurlow Weed that the true purpose of his European trip was divulged. Numerous\letters to' Weed in America gave clear- indications of Schoolcraft's po- litical leanings and of other personal activities during his Albany City\ Directories from stay in Europe. He wrote also o( the mid-1800's list Schoolcraft 'his anticipated business deal- as owning a wholesale grocery, business at W Hudson Avenue and boarding at the City Hotel. ings in the New York State V banking community. He was, - at the time, a vice president-at His numerous business ven- t the Albany Commercial Bank, tures are listed: 1833, Cook & the bank that was' to become Key Schoolcraft; 1836, Schoolcraft & B/ank, a century later.- > - - Raymond; 1842 t Sclmolcraa & / The extension ' of slavery, Hall; 1846^ .Schoolcraft, anti-rentism, nativ'ism' and< Raymond & Johnson; 185# Schoolcraft. In 184.3, .Schoolcraft embarked on an extended tour of Europe accompanied by his friend, Thurlow Weed, Weed left the t'Hp in December of 1843 due to ill health and returned to his Albany home after only/ three vjeeks abroad, ' Schoolcraft's * handwritten journal of the trip begins* in Paris pn December 2^/1843. The pages are filled with\de- canal improvements^ were im.- 0 - portant political \issues upon Schoolcraft's return from Europe.'He built his, Gothic house and; became,more deeply, irjvolved in the political affairs < of Albany and New .York State. Albany was ravaged by a large fire in -the\ summer of 1848. But, it continued to grow. The city that had been served by two* steamboats on the Hudson River and, three or four daily stagecoaches to Buffalo, was, now serviced by railroad,lines and by crowded whtfrves; han- dling the heavy traffic of the a (Continued on Page 8)
