Prominent Residents
Benjamin Franklin Butler
Twelfth Attorney General 1833-1838 [buried in a tiny cemetery in Stuyvesant Landing]
Benjamin Franklin Butler was born in Kinderhook Landing, New York, on December 17, 1795. His father, Medad Butler operated a tavern and inn in the lower landing. When the course of the ruler changed in 1800, a hotel was established in the upper landing and operated by Peter Ackers. Peter Ackers sold to Gilbert Clapp. The hotel was moved to its current location, and a large extension was added in 1873. Benjamin Franklin Butler studied at the Academy in Hudson, New York, read law with Martin Van Buren, and when admitted to the bar in 1817, became his partner. Butler was district attorney of Albany County from 1821 to 1824. He was appointed one of the three commissioners to revise the State statutes in 1825. Butler was a member of the State legislature from 1827 to 1833. In 1833, he served as Commissioner for the State of New York to adjust the New Jersey boundary line.
On November 15, 1833, President Jackson appointed Butler Attorney General of the United States from which office he resigned in 1838. From that year until 1841 he was United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York. Butler was made principal professor at the University of New York in 1837. On November 8, 1858, he died in Paris, France.
Henry Van Schaack
[The two Historic Residences referenced in this account still stand and they have been fully restored; They are located in Stuyvesant Landing]
On the walls of the white paneled hall, in the mansion built by Henry Van Schaack, are most interesting mementos. One portrait in "Broad Hall," which attracts eye, is explained in Dr. Holmes' inimitable way to Judge Barker of Pittsfield.
"My DEAR JUDGE,
I understand this to be a portrait of Jacob Wendell, one of the original owners of Pittsfield. The portrait was owned by Wendell Phillips and I believe that when a boy he practiced at it with bows and arrows, and damaged one eye.
Sincerely yours,
O. W. HOLMES.
To JAMES M. BARKER."
|
Here is framed a portrait of Henry Van Schaack I also his encomium on the charms of Pittsfield, which he refused to leave, when entreated by General Schuyler and other patriots to return to Albany, from whence as a neutral he was banished. Henry Van Schaack was Postmaster at the time of the furor over the Stamp Act, and falling under suspicion of the Sons of Liberty his house was mobbed, in spite of previous services of the Van Schaacks to the country. He fought as Lieutenant under Captain Philip Schuyler in the Crown Point expedition, and was one who went to the rescue of Colonel Ephraim Williams's regiment.
Henry Van Schaack was born in the historic mansion at Kinderhook, N. Y., of Colonel Cornelius Van Schaack, spoken of by John Jay as "the hospitable house on the hill." In those days, Kinderhook was a most important point between New York and Berkshire, by the usual route of the Hudson. Mrs. Quincy, the wife of President Edward Quincy of Harvard, paid a visit in the company of the wife of Brigadier-General Dwight at the younger Van Schaack house in 1774. Madam Dwight describes Mrs. Quincy-then Miss Morton-as "a very young lady of high spirit." They left New York in a sloop and in the course of a week arrived at Kinderhook's Landing, thence overland to Kinderhook, spending several pleasant days at the Van Schaack house, thence on to Stockbridge."
In 1808, Mr. Van Schaack removed from Pittsfield to Kinderhook Landing, where he passed the residue of his life in comparative retirement. Some of his old surviving friends, however, followed him to his new abode; among whom were Judge Oliver Wendell, of Boston, grandfather of the poet O. W. Holmes, and his particular friend, Judge Egbert Benson, of New York. In the "History of Pittsfield," recently published, a prominent and honored place is justly given to the name of Henry Van Schaack.
About seven miles below Schodack is Stuyvesant Landing, the "port" of Kinderhook (Kinders Hoeck), the Dutch name for "children's point, or corner." It is derived, as tradition asserts, from the fact that a Swede, the first settler at the point at Upper Kinderhook Landing, had a numerous progeny. The village, which was settled by Dutch and Swedes at an early period, is upon a plain five miles from the river, with most attractive rural surroundings. There, for more than twenty years after his retirement from public life, the late Honourable Martin Van Buren, a descendant of one of the early settlers, and the eighth president of the United States, resided. His pleasant seat, embowered in lindens, is called "Lindenwold," and there, in delightful quietude, the retired chief magistrate of the republic spent the evening of his days.
|
