The Cemetery Springs

Some recent discussions on little known mineral springs in my favorite Facebook group (Albany...the way it was) reminded me of the presence of the springs on the grounds of the Cemetery.  Long forgotten, these springs are indicated on several maps of the Cemetery.

The excerpt above is from an 1871 map of the grounds that appeared in Edward Fitzgerald's Handbook For The Albany Rural Cemetery.  The red markings indicate a suggested tour route for visitors and the map uses the romantic old names for the various paths, hills, and valleys (a subject for a future post or two).

Just to the right of Consecration Lake, there is a label reading Sulphur Sp.;  I've made a couple of attempts to pin down the exact spot of this spring, but it appears to have been somewhere near the Cutler plot.

The same map also shows two more springs;  there is a High Rock Spring just across the creek from the Townsend-Spencer lot and a Maple Spring somewhat to the southwest of President Arthur's grave.

There were, of course other springs.  Fitzgerald notes that a number of springs contribute to the formation of Cypress Water, the man-made pond and fountain on the South Ridge.

Springs were also the sources for other ornamental ponds that once dotted the ground, but have long since been removed.  One such pond was a small, round pool called Highland Water on the South Ridge roughly between Sections 15 and 16.

Another small pond on the North Ridge called Arbor Water.  Last summer, I spotted a small, muddy sinkhole just off the paved road.  At one edge of the eighteen-inch hole, there was a steady flow of very clear water which may have been from such a spring and may have once been the source for Arbor Water.

On the South Ridge , there is also Cold Spring Dell, a narrow little gully with a stream flowing through it from a source near the fence separating Albany Rural and St. Agnes Cemeteries.  This stream flows into the above-mentioned Cypress Water.

Simeon DeWitt

This small marble headstone marking the grave of Simeon DeWitt, who served as both Surveyor General of New York State and of the United States, sits in a little hollow just above the low path which runs along the south shoulder of the Middle Ridge. 

A native of Warswarsing, New York, Simeon DeWitt was educated at Queens College and served in the Revolutionary War, including at the Battle of Saratoga.  He would later describe the surrender of the British troops under General John Burgoyne as "the most glorious, grandest sight America ever held."  During the War, DeWitt also served as an assistant geographer to Robert Erkine, the U.S. Army's first surveyor.  When Erkine died in 1780, DeWitt was chosen by General Washington as his replacement.

In 1784, DeWitt was appointed Surveyor General of New York State, a post he would hold for over fifty years.  He would map almost the entire state, giving names to counties and towns established after the war.  At the same time, he settled in Albany and his 1790 map of the city is a valuable record of the city's early development and geological features long since lost to progress.  Many streets in Albany were given names by DeWitt which are still in use today;  among them are Elk, Beaver, Eagle, Hawk, Swan, Dove, Lark, Robin, Quail.

In 1794, DeWitt acquired land along Market Street (Broadway); the property included the ruins of Albany's first permanent European settlement, Fort Orange.  He built a brick home on the land and resided there until around 1810 when he relocated to Ithaca, one of the towns he'd named in Central New York.

He died in 1834 and was originally buried in Ithaca.  A decade later, his body was returned to Albany and reburied, first in the vault of the Middle Dutch Church and then, in 1854, to this quiet spot in the Rural Cemetery.  A metal marker from the Daughters of the American Revolution was added to the gravesite to recall his service.