The Old Arsenal Burying Ground

Near the western end of the North Ridge, there is a large corner lot filled with headstones which predate the Rural Cemetery's consecration in 1844.  Unlike many of the Cemetery's oldest stones which were transferred here from the State Street Burying Grounds (now Albany's Washington Park), these graves were relocated from the old Arsenal Burying Grounds in nearby Watervliet (formerly known as Gibbonsville and West Troy). 

As the name indicates, the Arsenal Burying Grounds stood near the south side of the Watervliet Arsenal.  This graveyard originally belonged to the Gibbonsville Reformed Church which was established in 1815.  A little less than a century later, this little cemetery (which contained between 275 and 300 graves) was all but abandoned and the Reverend C.P. Evans of Watervliet undertook to copy the inscriptions from the neglected gravestones in 1913.  Not long after Reverand Evans' transcription was compiled, the graves and headstones were removed from the Watervliet site and transferred to this lot in the Rural Cemetery. 

Among the relocated burials was that of Benjamin Hanks, a veteran of the Revolutionary War and a key figure in the area's bell-making industry.

The stones in the photo above belong to Washington J. Gilbert (died in 1838 at the age of 26), Mary Clinton (the daughter of John and Effy Clinton, died at the age of 11 in 1813), and Almira (wife of Daniel Carthy, died in 1829 at the age of 40).   Almira's stone features a very nice willow-and-urn motif.

The simple, pretty stone below, which also features an urn flanked by a pair of graceful willows, is that of Elizabeth Dyer.  The wife of William Dyer, she died in 1841 at the age 30.

One interesting occupant of the Arsenal Burying Ground who was not reburied at the Rural Cemetery was Doctor Nelson L. Hungerford.  On May 27, 1839, he was killed by a falling rock in the Cave of the Winds at Niagara Falls.  Originally buried at the Arsenal, he was later re-interred in Connecticut.

Benjamin Hanks, Bell-Maker

Near the western edge of the Cemetery (where some of the North Ridge's older lots lie adjacent to some of its most modern sections) is the grave of Colonel Benjamin Hanks.

Born in Mansfield, Connecticut in 1755, Benjamin Hanks served as a drummer during the Revolution and, in that role, took part in the march to Lexington in response to Paul Revere's alarm and later as a drummer with General Israel Putnam's Third Connecticut Regiment. He worked as an apprentice to Thomas Harland, a noted Norwich clockmaker, and he is said to have spent time working in a foundry owned by Paul Revere. During and after the war, he continued in the metal-smith’s trade making (according to an advertisement from the late 1770s) spurs, buckles, beads, hilts, clocks and watches, as well as general silver and gold work. Around 1780, he established a bell and cannon foundry in Mansfield.

Later, with his son Julius, he established a brass foundry in Gibbonsville, New York (now Watervliet). This new foundry, which began advertising its goods in 1808, was located in a hamlet just north of the future Rural Cemetery and later called West Troy, now part of the city of Watervliet. The foundry made an assortment of items, including tower clocks, surveying tools, and church bells.

One young man apprenticed at the Hanks' West Troy foundry was Andrew Meneely who would later establish his own foundry in Troy and become one of America's leading bell-makers.   Meneely is also buried in the Rural Cemetery in a family lot on the Middle Ridge.

Colonel Hanks died at Troy in 1824 and buried Gibbonsville, just to the southwest of the current Watervliet Arsenal. His original grave site was badly neglected until it was removed to the Rural Cemetery through the efforts of the Daughters of the American Revolution in 1918.  (See also The Old Arsenal Burying Grounds)

Colonel Benjamin Hanks, drummer of the Revolution and bell-maker, was said have been related to Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln.