Friend Humphrey

This marble monument on the South Ridge (not far from the Strong lot and what's left of Catharine Hamilton's vault) has weathered to gray and its ornamental finials have broken off (parts of them are stacked on top on the stone).  It marks the grave of Friend Humphrey who served two terms as Mayor of Albany and held that office at the time of the Rural Cemetery's consecration.

Born in Simsbury, Connecticut in 1787, he came to Albany in the early 1800s and was a successful leather merchant.  According to the "Bicentennial History of The County of Albany," Humphrey was "especially known in all the movements for the advancement of learning and sound morals" and that Albany "never had a Mayor better understood or more popular."

Friend Humphrey, as Mayor, took place in the Cemetery's consecration ceremonies in 1844 and was buried there a decade later.