Cretia Jackson

 There are two Boyd family lots near the western terminus of the Middle Ridge;  the lot of James and Peter Boyd marked with a large, simple marble obelisk and the lot of Robert Boyd is marked with a towering and elaborate monument which features a sarcophagus, a winged hourglass, and heavy lions' feet. 

In the latter lot, in the shadow of that elaborate memorial, there is a marble headstone with the following inscription:

Cretia Jackson died April 4, 1855.  For more than fifty years, a most faithful and respected servant of the family.

Her burial record indicates the Cretia (which was short for Lucretia) died of congestion of the lungs at the age of fifty-seven, meaning she would have started her service to the Boyd family while still a child.  Records such as the 1800 census show that members of the Boyd family owned slaves and she may have been the daughter of one of these slaves.  She was born during New York's gradual emancipation;  the law at the time of her birth granted freedom to children born after 1799, but they were to serve an indenture until they came of age.  This would explain why she would have served the family from the young age of seven.

She appears in the 1850 census as "mulatto."  Her name doesn't appear in previous census years. 

Cretia is one of several servants interred in the plots of the families which they worked for, ranging from a faithful slave of the Quackenbush family to the Swiss-born butler of the Barnes family.

In Search of Dianna Mingo

Several months ago, while transcribing this 1873 newspaper article about the Albany Rural Cemetery, a reference to an 1872 interment certainly stood out.

An unusual record appears upon the register of interments for last year – that of the burial of Diana Mingo, a colored lady aged 106 years. She was the oldest person ever buried in the cemetery.

A further search of the Albany Evening Journal turned up a very detailed article on this centenarian which was published on July 30, 1872.

The Funeral of A Centenarian - Albany's “Oldest Inhabitant” - A Life Begun In The “Good Old Colony Times” - A Remarkable Old Woman and a Veritable “Mother in Israel”

On Sunday afternoon, one of the rarest of events occurred at the African Methodist church on Hamilton street, near Lark, in the celebration of the funeral services of one whose life had exceeded a full century, who died at last with mental faculties unimpaired and whose clear remembrance extended to early childhood, thus covering the entire history of a great nation.

A Colonel and A Faithful Slave

This tall, lichen-spotted sandstone with an urn and flame atop it stands on the old South Ridge within sight of the Ann Elizabeth Brown Wiles cross and the McIntyre lot.

Sandstone likes this tends to weather quite poorly, but this one is in fairly good condition and much of its lettering is still quite legible.

The Relatives and Descendants of Henry Quackenbush 
Whose remains are deposited here, to wit: 
Elizabeth Rosebone, his widow
Catherine and Catalina, his daughters
Jacob J. Lansing, his son in law
Jacob J. Lansing
Jacob Lansing and Susan Benedict, children of his grandson
Jacob Lansing,
John Quackenbush and Catherine, his wife
And Nancy, his servant.  A faithful slave.

Sacred to the memory of Col. Henry Quackenbush
Who having lived the life, died the death
Of the righteous on the 2d February 1813
Aged 76 years.
Co. Quackenbish was with Lord Amherst at
Ticonderoga, with Gen. Gates at Saratoga,
"In the days that tried mens soulds."
Chairman of the Committee of Safety, member
Of the Colonie Legislature, Elector of President
and Vice-President
In all the relations of life virtuous.
In all the stations which he filled faithful,
Respected and honored in life lamented
In death.
His POSTERITY as a memento of their regard
For his memory, have erected this monument.

Born in  1737, he was the son of Peter Quackenbush and Anna Oothout.  His family built the Quackenbush House, the city's second oldest building which now houses the Olde English Pub & Pantry.  Hendrick married Margaritta Oouthout in 1764, but she passed away in 1764* leaving him a widower with five children.  He married Elizabeth Roseboom six years later.

More details on his life can be found at the People of Colonial Albany site.

Given the date of his death, Quackenbush would likely have been interred in the Dutch Reformed lot at the State Street Burying Grounds and removed to this lot at the Rural Cemetery prior to 1868.

Census records indicate that Quackenbush owned nine slaves and this woman was likely one of them.  Unfortunately, there is almost no other information about her beyond these carved lines and one is simply left to wonder about her relationship with the Quackenbush family.  She was evidently valued enough to be buried with the family, but not enough to be given her freedom.

*In 1882, excavations in the area of the old Dutch Reformed burial ground near Beaver and South Pearl Streets uncovered several graves and headstones.  Among them was that of Margaritta Oothout.