The Samuel Richards Headstone

The marble headstone of one Samuel Richards of Canandaigua, Ontario County, New York. Richards, a clerk in a mercantile company in Canandaigua, died in Albany on August 2, 1804. He was only twenty-eight and remembered as "a talented young man."

Richards was first buried in the Presbyterian section of the municipal burial ground near Eagle Street and State Street (just south of the modern East Capitol Park). It's likely that his grave was moved further uptown to the State Street Burying Ground when that replaced the old downtown graveyards and, finally, his remains and headstone were moved to the Rural Cemetery in 1868.

Richards' white marble stone is beautifully carved with two urns, a symbol of mortality that replaced the winged skulls and cherubic soul effigies popular on headstones in previous generations.

The covered upper urn is framed by an elegant arch. A stylized flower and delicately carved vines which spread out over the monument rise from the lower urn. The surface of the stone is also carved with a cross-hatched pattern giving it an almost woven texture. It's difficult to tell if this stone was signed by its carver as the lower portion is embedded in the earth, but it's one of the finest markers in the Church Grounds and shows a great deal of skill and care.

Palmer's Angel

In his novel, "The Flaming Corsage," noted Albany author William Kennedy has two of his characters rendezvous in the Rural Cemetery. They arrange to meet by Erastus Dow Palmer's Angel At The Sepulchre, calling the heroic white marble statue "the one landmark of whose location everyone was certain" and “the best-known resident of the cemetery, eclipsing magnates and governors, even heroes of the Revolution.”

The larger-than-life Angel was commissioned to mark the grave of Emma Rathbone Turner in 1868 and is the sole monument in a large circular plot on the South Ridge. It is one of several works by Palmer found in the Cemetery and certainly the most striking.

Admired by many and criticized by some, the Angel inspired at least one imitation; I've recently come across photos of a marble statue in a California cemetery that is clearly a copy of the Angel, though the features are much softer and it lacks both the imposing grace and meticulous detail of Palmer's funerary masterpiece.

People often questioned Palmer as to whom he used as a model the Angel's features, but Palmer is said to have denied using a model for the face at all. I have a few ideas as to who inspired the statue's face, but I've save that story for now.

The Angel is one of the reasons I fell in love with the Albany Rural Cemetery. I was quite young when the movie Ironweed was filmed in various locations in and around Albany, including the Rural Cemetery. Area televisions stations did some stories on the filming locations. During one such news piece, I caught a glimpse of Palmer's Angel and just had to see it in person. I've enjoyed exploring the Cemetery ever since.

To see what Palmer's Angel looked like before the elements and lichen eroded its features, visit the Albany Institute of History and Art. Palmer's original plaster cast of the Angel At The Sepulchre forms the centerpiece of a wonderful gallery highlighting his works.

More about The Angel of The Sepulchre
More about Erastus Dow Palmer

Celtic Cross With Roses

Exceptionally pretty roses cover this Celtic-style cross on the Middle Ridge overlooking the Cemetery's chapel.

A Hidden Gem

This lovely old statue of a classically-gowned maiden holding a wreath is quite easy to miss. It's located high on the eastern end of the North Ridge, just behind the Soldiers Lot and not easily visible from the main road. It once overlooked scenic paths that ran along the shoulder of the North Ridge and it has a fine view of the Kromme Kill ravine with the Middle Ridge visible on the other side. The paths are unused now, but looking across, you can glimpse monuments like the Burden crypt.

Enclosed in a small fenced lot, this pretty monument marks the grave of 21-year old Charles E. Alvord who passed away on November 17, 1851. Also buried here is his sister, Emma, who was less than two years old when she passed away on July 23, 1836. Near the monument, there is a small headstone lying on the grass which reads "Charles and his sister Emma." Like the base of the larger monument, this little one is also trimmed with carved ivy. A broken piece of the lot's ornate gate is propped against the statue's pedestal which is carved with the following:

The Trumpet Shall Sound And The Dead Shall Arise
I Am The Resurrection And The Life

Though it an older burial in a secluded section, someone must visit from time to time. The rusted gate is carefully secured with a twist of wire and there were silk lilies tucked into the piece of gate resting at the statue's feet.

Unknown Soldiers

Walking through the rows in Soldiers Lot yesterday, I came across two headstones - Number 42 (shown above) and Number 63 - marking the graves of Unknown Soldiers of the Civil War.

Elsie Cuyler Ten Eyck

One of the loveliest soul effigies I've encountered in the Church Grounds. This simple, serene face does not feature the wings commonly found on such carvings, but is fully enclosed in what resembles a sort of halo (or even an old-fashioned ladies cap) and surrounded by delicate flowers.

This sandstone slab marked the grave of Elsie Cuyler, wife of Barent Ten Eyck. Elsie was born in 1728 to merchant Johannes Cuyler, Jr. and his wife, Catharine Glen. Her husband, whom she married in 1756, was an Albany silversmith. Elsie died in 1791. Barent outlived her by four years. I have not yet located or identified his headstone.

Captain John Bogart - The Last of The Dutch Skippers

The grave of Captain John Bogart (also spelled Bogert) on the Middle Ridge.

The anchor that adorns this monument is a fitting symbol of sentiment carved below it (Hope Is The Anchor of Soul) and of the man who rests here.

John Bogart was born in Albany in 1761, the son of Hendrick Bogart, a surveyor and Hudson River skipper. Fifteen when Revolutionary War began, he joined the Albany militia, took part in the escort of British prisoners, and served on his father's sloop, Madeleine, transporting supplies for the Continental Army. By the age of seventeen, he was skipper of the sloop.

After the Revolution, young Bogart continued on in his father's profession. He was a respected skipper on the Hudson River and, in the 1790s, was appointed the city surveyor. He served in a number of other civic positions during his life, including alderman, fireman, and treasurer.

When he died in 1855, he was known as "the last of the Dutch skippers." The last line carved on his monument reads, An Old Man and Full of Years; at ninety-two, Bogart was reportedly the oldest man in the Albany at the time of his death.

His monument is located on the Rural Cemetery's Middle Ridge. The white marble is flanked by two smaller headstones marking the graves of his wives, Catherine Ten Broeck (d. 1792) and Christina Vought (d. 1836). Both women were originally buried elsewhere and transferred to the Rural Cemetery to rest beside the Captain's monument. Catherine appears in the list of interments in the Dutch Reformed section of the old State Street Burying Grounds.

A closer look at the monument shows a small broken shot glass resting on the ledge near the anchor. Perhaps someone stopped to drink a toast to the Old Dutch Skipper.

Major Lewis N. Morris

It's said that the funeral of Major Lewis N. Morris was the longest in Albany's history, stretching all the way from downtown to the high and scenic Middle Ridge of the Rural Cemetery nearly three miles away.

The son of Col. Staats Morris (who served under "Mad Anthony" Wayne during the Revolution) and grandson of a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, Lewis N. Morris graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1820.

Morris served in the Mexican War and took part in the Battles of Palo Alto and Resace de la Palma, earning recognition for his "gallant and meritorious conduct." On September 21, 1846, he was killed by a shot to the heart during the American victory at Monterey.

The following year, the citizens of Albany erected a massive sandstone monument on his grave "to commemorate the gallantry of the soldier, the worth of the man."

The monument which features a soldier's cap and a large cannon barrel draped with a wreath and a flag, was reportedly the prototype for many of the Cemetery's Civil War monuments a generation later.

(Major Morris' son, Lewis O. Morris, followed in his footsteps. During the public memorials for Major Lewis, a sword commissioned for the father was presented to the son. Lewis O. Morris received an Army commission the following year and was killed at Cold Harbor during the Civil War)

A Little Angel

There are many children's graves throughout the Albany Rural Cemetery. They are often marked with such symbols of youth and innocence as lambs or doves or angels. Some, like Georgie, a touching portraits of the deceased child. Others show idealized sleeping infants or the accessories of childhood (tiny carved boots, a little girl's hat, tiny empty chairs). They are sad, but sweet reminders of the higher children's mortality rate of previous eras.

This small monument on the Middle Ridge (just a stone's throw from the Burden vault with its majestic dogs) has one of the most adorable cherubs I've seen in the Rural Cemetery and marks the grave of one Robert J.Rose, Jr. who died in 1910 at the tender age of eight.

Robert Seymour

In contrast with humble slab-style gravestone of Violet in the Church Grounds, the white marble monument of Robert Seymour on the South Ridge is quite ornate. A draped casket sits on a pedestal beneath an elegant Gothic baldachin. Seymour died in 1849.

Violet

Located in the Church Grounds, this simple stone was moved from the African Methodist Episcopal Church's section of the State Street Burying Grounds. Violet was born in 1745 and died at the age of 100 in 1845. She is believed to have spent large part of her life as a slave before slavery was abolished in New York State in 1827. She is one of at least three slaves known to be buried at the Rural Cemetery.

The Church Grounds Project

The Battersby Monument

On the Battersby monument, an angel leads a young soul towards Heaven. This monument overlooks the curving road where Lizzie Calhoun who was killed in 1877 while on a weekend drive through the Cemetery with friend. The horses drawing the carriage bolted and 19-year old Lizzie was thrown.  She is buried nearby.

Captain Cooke

Located in one of the older sections of the South Ridge, this small monument reminds me of an old-fashioned tea chest. In his history of the Cemetery, Henry P. Phelps describes it only as a "queer little sandstone" and gives no information on who this Captain J. Cooke was. The inscription on the monument is almost completely eroded and not at all legible.

Zerubbabel Collins

Among the many monuments in the quiet field of the Church Grounds is a white marble marker signed Z. Collins.

This stone features a winged, moon-like face - one of several soul effigies found in this section - surrounded by a stylized floral design. The inscription notes that this stone was erected in memory of Femmitie Snyder, wife of Nicholas Snyder and daughter of the Reverend Ulpianus Van Sinderen. Femmitie died at the age of 37 on October 14, 1789. Her father, Reverend Van Sinderen, had come from Holland in 1746 to preach in Dutch Reformed Churches in what is now Brooklyn.


Zerubbabel Collins was one of his era's most respected stonecarvers. Like his father, Benjamin Collins, he specialized in gravestones embellished with soul effigies. Examples of his work can be found in Vermont and Connecticut graveyards.

Several rows away from Femmitie Snyder's stone, the stone of William Woods bears a very similar soul effigy, but with very different downswept wings and less ornate designs around the face. This monument, which is not signed, is dated two years after Collins' death.


More on Zerubbabel Collins
The Church Grounds Project

The Soldiers Lot

In honor of Veterans Day...

The Albany Rural Cemetery is the final resting place of veterans from all eras of American history, from the Revolutionary War (and prior) to Iraq.

Consecrated less than twenty years before the Civil War, it would naturally become the burial ground for scores of Union soldiers. Nearly 159 of them are buried in the Soldiers Lot on the North Ridge.

This large lot was donated to the federal government in 1862 by the Albany Cemetery Association which resolved that “a sufficient and suitable ground be set apart to inter the remains of officers and soldiers who have fallen or may fall in endeavoring to suppress the present rebellion.”

Many of the soldiers buried here came from local military hospitals, though some had been transferred from graves in the South. Some were provided for soldiers whose families could not afford to bury them in private plots.

The orderly rows of white marble stones face a fine monument of a solider at parade rest. The granite pedestal bears plaques (cast from captured cannons) with the names of over six hundred local men who fought in the Union army and an oval relief of Abraham Lincoln (the laurel wreath surrounding President Lincoln has vanished and is presumed stolen).

2014 Update:  Restoration work on the headstones is nearly completed 
The Soldiers Monument ca 1900

Ezra Ames, Painter

Located on the high Middle Ridge, this monument marks the grave of Ezra Ames (1768-1836).

A native of Massachusetts, Ames moved to Albany where he quickly earned a reputation as a popular portrait painter. His subjects included many prominent figures of the early 19th-century, including Joseph Brant, Alexander Hamilton, Governor DeWitt Clinton, and numerous local person of note. He produced some 700 known paintings. In addition to portraits, Ames also painted such varied objects as mirror frames, signs, carriages, and fire buckets. He was an active member of the Albany Masonic Lodge and also served as a director and, later, president of the Mechanics and Farmers Bank.

Time Flies

A winged hourglass on the McIntosh vault illustrates the old saying, Tempis fugit.

This vault was built for Ezekiel McIntosh, a wealth merchant from Troy who once owned one of Albany's most famous homes, the Schuyler Mansion. After his death, his widow married former President Millard Filmore at the Mansion.

This vault is now one of the most secluded in the Rural Cemetery, located in a wooded ravine between below the Middle and South Ridges. When the crypt was first erected, though, this area was one of the most scenic and popular areas of the Cemetery and overlooked a stone bridge at the head of the lovely Consecration Lake.

A Soul Effigy

A wonderfully detailed and expressive "soul effigy" on an old gravestone in the Church Grounds section of Albany Rural Cemetery.

The Church Grounds Project

The Church Grounds

A row of ancient headstones in the Church Grounds section. Most of the graves in this lot were moved to the Albany Rural Cemetery from the State Street Burying Grounds (now Washington Park).

More on the State Street Burying Grounds

The Church Grounds Project

Governor William L. Marcy

Grave of William Learned Marcy, 11th Governor of New York (and namesake of the state's highest mountain). Located on the Middle Ridge, Marcy's monument is attributed to sculptor Erastus Dow Palmer (best known for the Cemetery's Angel At The Sepulchre).

The Mills Monument

The monument of Colonel John Mills who was killed at the Battle of Sacketts Harbor during the War of 1812. Mills body was buried with honors on the grounds of the Old New York State Capitol, but later transferred to the Rural Cemetery. It is located close to the Soldiers' Lot on the North Ridge.

Egyptian Influence

Built into a hillside, the Brinckerhoff-Pumpelly vault brings a bit of Ancient Egypt to a secluded path in the Albany Rural Cemetery.

A Faithful Family Friend

One of a pair of beautiful dogs keeps watch over the crypt of the Burden family.

The vault was built for Henry Burden, a prominent Troy industrialist whose ironworks were powered by one of the largest waterwheels ever built. The open marble book seen in the background of this photo bears long epitaphs honoring Henry and his wife, Helen. It's said that Helen Burden designed this elegant vault herself and that the female face above its door is her likeness.

The Burden crypt is set into a slope of the Cemetery's Middle Ridge and overlooks the Chapel. It's also said that the Burdens chose this location for their tomb because of its view across the Hudson River where the Burden Ironworks could be seen on clear days.

The dogs, a pair of retrievers, were no doubt based on family pets. While they may seem identical when viewed from the ground, each one is slightly different when seen up close.

Wooster's Hope

Standing atop an ivy-carved octagonal pedestal, this figure - representing "Hope" with a finger pointed toward Heaven and an anchor at her side - marks the family plot of Benjamin W. Wooster.

Wooster's handsome mansion at 1 Englewood Place (the northwest corner of Washington Park at State Street) recently sold at auction.

The Angel Is In The Details

I've passed this monument many times in the past. Located in a high plot overlooking the stream that divides the South and Middle Ridges, its ornate white marble design catches one's eye.

However, until recently, I'd never climbed the dilapidated marble steps nearby to take a close look and I simply didn't realize just how detailed this headstone is. It features inverted torches embellished with stylized floral bands, garlands of roses, clasped hands, classical columns, a Sacred Heart motif on the back, and a Gothic quatrefoil.

But my favorite detail is definitely the angel leaning gracefully - almost casually - against the top of the monument.

This monument marks the graves of Jacob Henry, a partner in a local stoneware pottery business, and his wife, Mary Ann.

A Cameo Role

Fans of actor Jack Nicholson may recognize this vault from the film Ironweed. Part of the movie was filmed in both the Rural Cemetery and neighboring Saint Agnes Cemetery. Though the scene is actually set in the latter, the two cemeteries are used interchangeably.

This vault is set into a hillside just below the western end of the Middle Ridge and overlooks the Townsend family plot along the creek known as Moordenaer's Kill. The vault's carved sandstone cross was dislodged from the roof years ago and the broken remnants of it rest on the vault's steps now. Originally, the vault was guarded by a pair of cast iron lions, but these are long vanished. It was built for John De Peyster Douw.

Samuel One-Armed Berry

Among the hundreds of Civil War soldiers interred at the Albany Rural Cemetery are the remains of three Confederates, including Private Abasalom Bainbridge, one of the men who encountered John Wilkes Booth on the night before Lincoln's assassin was himself killed at Garrett's farm.

The headstone of Samuel O. Berry stands alone in an open meadow on the North Ridge, giving no hint of his violent history.

A schoolteacher and ordained minister from Kentucky, he served in the Confederate Army with Company G of the 6^th Kentucky Calvary.

Following the death of his commanding officer, General John Hunt Morgan, Berry joined Henry Magruder's guerilla band in attacks on Union troops and supplies. It isn't clear whether he lost an arm in battle or in these raids, but he had become known as "One-Armed" Berry.

He soon allied himself with Marcellus Jerome Clark, a fellow Kentucky soldier who gained notoriety for dressing as a woman and using the alias Sue Mundy.

Together, Samuel “One-Armed” Berry and Sue Mundy took part in a series of bloody crimes across Kentucky as a member of a band that, at times, included Frank James, Bill Marion, Jim Davis, James Younger, and William Quantrill. The brutal spree included the gunpoint robbery of survivors after a train derailment, pistol-whipping the clerk of a drugstore during a robbery, the killing of a hostage during a bank robbery, and the murder of innocent civilians during violent robberies.

After Sue Mundy was captured, tried and hanged in early 1865, One-Armed Berry continued his vicious attacks for several more months before his own capture. When he was brought to trial in 1866, he face twelve counts of murder, six counts of robbery, and two counts of rape. Convicted, he was originally sentenced to hang, but his sentence was commuted to ten years of hard labor at the Albany Penitentiary. The old Penitentiary stood just off modern-day Delaware Avenue near the present sites of the Stratton V.A. Hospital and Hackett Middle School.

Berry served seven and a half years of his sentence before dying of tuberculosis at the age of thirty-four.

The Inverted Torch

Inverted torches can be found on many older monuments throughout the Albany Rural Cemetery. A sentimental and popular symbol of mortality, some are shown extinguished. Others, like this very fine example, are shown still aflame.

The Broken Eagle

When I first encountered this monument, it was a January day in the early 90s and I'd been exploring the Rural Cemetery with a good friend. Snow had buried the little flag beside the headstone and was piled in the vee of the eagle's broken wings.

The monument marks the grave of Colonel Edward Frisby, commander of the 30th New York Volunteer Infantry.

Born in Trenton Fall, Oneida County in 1809, Frisby was killed in action at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 29, 1862.

Originally buried at the battlefield four days after his death, Frisby's remains were located and transferred to Albany (where he had moved at the age of seventeen).

He was re-interred at the Rural Cemetery on September 11, 1862.

The Vaults

Photo taken from the door of the now-unused receiving vaults at the Albany Rural Cemetery. The pair of large crypts are set into the hillside opposite the Cemetery's chapel. The gray stone vaults were constructed in the late 1850s and the exteriors are patterned after Egyptian mastabas. The Cemetery's original receiving vaults had been deemed inadequate and were demolished in 1858.

Philip Hooker, Architect

Grave of noted architect Philip Hooker. When I first found this monument in a section known as The Church Grounds, it was in poor condition. Several of the broken pieces were propped against a nearby tree. I was happy to see that it has since been assembled and placed upright.

Hooker was one of Albany's leading architects of the early 19th-century whose surviving designs include the former Albany Academy building between Lafayette and Academy Parks and a wonderful facade on State Street just below North Pearl Street (currently Bank of America).

The Church Grounds section in the Rural Cemetery has become one of my favorites. Expect more about this fascinating and very historic part in the near future.

The Church Grounds Project

The Star Gazer

This monument, located at the base of the North Ridge's east slope, is quite weathered and much of its inscription is impossible to read. The name appears to be Hollam, followed by the initials or abbreviation L.C.E.. But, while the epitaph is obscured, the carved telescope makes it clear that whomever is buried here had more than a passing interest in astronomy.

Lilies & Cypress Trees

An exquisite stained glass window (possibly Tiffany) in a private mausoleum.

Cascade

A refreshing sight on a hot day; one of the streams which traverse the Rural Cemetery. This one is near the main road running between the Lodge and the Chapel.

William Paterson, Signer of the Constitution

In addition to a President, Governors, and scores of other prominent statesmen, the Albany Rural Cemetery is also the final resting place of a Signer of the United States Constitution.

Buried in the Van Rensselaer family plot along the Cemetery's South Ridge Road, William Paterson also served as first Attorney General of New Jersey, Governor of New Jersey and as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.

The namesake of Paterson, New Jersey, he died at the age of sixty in Albany while en route to Ballston Spa where he meant to visit the mineral springs in the hope of easing his recovery from injuries caused by a carriage accident. Paterson's daughter, Cornelia, had married General Stephan Van Rensselaer in 1802 and it was at the Van Rensselaer Manor that Justice William Paterson passed away on September 9, 1806.

Originally buried in the private family cemetery at the Manor, Paterson was reburied in the Rural Cemetery when the remains of the Van Rensselaer family were transferred there.

Walter Whitney, Revolutionary War Soldier

Hidden in almost knee-deep clover and grass on the North Ridge is a white marble monument to one Walter Whitney. The monument tilts forward so much that you may need to kneel in order to see the carved eagle and cannons above the inscription. A small metal marker from the Sons of the American Revolution is staked into the ground next to it.

Walter Whitney was born in Fairfield, Connecticut on January 23, 1760 to Samuel Whitney and Amy Northrup. Revolutionary War pension rolls list him as having served as a private and corporal in the Connecticut militia. After the War, he married Anah Wells and eventually relocated to the Albany area. Genealogical records give his occupation as both a farmer and a school teacher. He died "of a fall" in Albany on July 18, 1846. At the time of his death, his residence was listed as 26 DeWitt Street (now a very small cul-de-sac between Broadway and Erie Boulevard). Walter was the father of six children; Amy, Mary, Hezekiah, Charles, Betsey, and Nehemiah.

The North Ridge

The Albany Rural Cemetery is divided into three sections - the North, Middle, and South Ridges - with two deep ravines separating them.

The vast North Ridge section contains some of the Cemetery's oldest graves. When the Cemetery first offered lots for sale, this area was the least expensive and, as a result, it lacks the grander monuments of the other sections. There are, of course, exceptions such as the massive Winslow family vault at the foot of North Ridge Road, the majestic eagle-topped column of Colonel Mills who fell at Sacketts Harbor, and the Civil War monument watching over the Soldiers Plot.

For the most part, though, this area is filled with smaller monuments and simpler headstones compared to the South and Middle Ridges. This statue is one of the fancier monuments on the North Ridge and is quite easy to miss as it is set back from the main road and faces the heavily wooded gully that cuts between the North and Middle Ridges.

Little Georgie

One of the first monuments to make a strong impression on me when I first began exploring the Albany Rural Cemetery some twenty years ago was Georgie.

A small white marble stone, it's not hard to spot it along the main road curving up the South Ridge from the main entrance. The monument depicts a well-dress boy with schoolbooks in one hand. The other hand rests on morning glories, a symbol of a brief life. There is also a butterfly by his hand, but the monument has eroded and it's not so easy to see now. The back of the monument is very eroded and is carved with the boy's date of death and family name.

There are many lovely children's monuments throughout the cemetery, but this one is among the most memorable. For a time, I would see a tiny pot of flowers - marigolds or pansies, usually - planted at its base, but I haven't seen those in a long time.

The Rural Cemetery

I have so many photos of the Albany Rural Cemetery that they are nearly taking over my laptop and, if I posted even half of them, they'd certainly take over my two existing blogs, Albany NY Photo Daily and Albany History. So, the obvious thing to do is to create another blog just for them.

Located just north of the City of Albany in Menands, the Rural Cemetery covers nearly 500 acres and it includes the graves of a President, a Signer of the Declaration of Independence, over fifty of Albany's mayors, artists, solders, and scores of other historic and cultural figures. Given how much I love local history, it's no surprise that I'm very fond of this place. It's also wonderfully scenic with rolling meadows and curving paths cut by deep ravines (with hidden waterfalls, too).

The above photo shows one of the main drives along the section called the South Ridge.

I should mention now that I'm also working on a book about the Cemetery and I'll update its progress towards completion (and, hopefully, publication) here, too.

In the meantime, please take a look at some of my previous posts about the Cemetery:

The Angel At The Sepulchre
Elsie's Grave
Wacheka Albanya
A Little Iron Angel
Eroded Grace
From My Personal Archive
Looking Inside
Broken Fences
Detailed Door Knob
Eternal Sleep
President Arthur's Grave
Happy Halloween
Sinister Grafitti
Contrasting Monuments
Stained Glass Angel
The Lathrop Angel
Fallen Tree