Albany Rural Cemetery

The Lost Photograph. This little headstone, tucked away in a corner of the North Ridge that would have held a small daguerreotype image of twelve year old Mary Eliza Hagadorn who died on Christmas Eve 1856. Lot 27, Section 73. #albanyruralcemetery #northridge #lostportrait #daguerreotype

A touch of humor for #throwbackthursday; the caption on the back of this photo taken on November 10, 1986 reads simply: The sign tells it as it is. The picture was taken near the western end of Section 18.

According to the always entertaining @natdaycal , it’s #nationalhousewivesday and tucked in the far corner of Lot 1, Section 49 are two very old stones which identified the deceased as huys vrouw. Dutch for housewife, its inclusion on these headstones from 1728 and 1756 was meant to convey respectability within the community, to inform the curious stranger that this family was well established in their own home. These stones marked the graves of Catharina Van Vechten and Wendell and Elyse Gansevoort Wenne at the Dutch burial ground near Beaver Street. They have been at the Cemetery since 1931. #albanyruralcemetery #churchgrounds #albanyhistory #historicheadstones

FROM THE VAULTS This handwritten form dated 1849 is an extremely rare glimpse of how the Cemetery kept records in its earliest years. Before the present system of filing burial information on typed or printed index cards (not unlike an old-fashioned library catalogue), interments were recorded by hand in large ledgers. The information entered into those ledgers came from forms submitted to the Superintendent by the family of the deceased or the undertaker. Once the inform...ation was copied to the interment ledger, the forms were most likely discarded. This form is one of the very few to survive. Dated November 24, 1849, it does not record a new burial, but the transfer of four graves from the Dutch Reformed Church section of the State Street Burying Grounds to the Rural Cemetery. Those to be reburied were: Gerrit Groesbeck who died at Albany on February 17, 1807 at the age of 64 years, 11 months, and 21 days. Cause of death was bilious cholic. Jane Pruyn, wife of Cornelius W. Groesbeck, who died at Albany on January 22, 1830 at the age of 42 years, 4 months, and 26 day. Cause of death was concussion of the brain caused by a fall. Maria Pruyn, sister of Jane, who died at Albany on December 22, 1816 at the age of 25 years. Cause of death was consumption. Rynier Pruyn, father of Jane and Maria, who died at Albany on February 16, 1792 at the age of 36 years. Cause of death was also consumption. (Rynier was a veteran of the Revolutionary who served with the 1st Regiment of the Albany Militia under Colonel Jacob Lansing, Jr.) At the time these remains were reburied at the Rural Cemetery, the numbered system of sections and lots was not yet in use. When that numbering system was implemented some time after 1860, no plot and lot number was assigned to their entries in the ledger. As a result, no location is listed on their cards. The form was signed by Stephen Groesbeck, the son of Jane Pruyn Groesbeck, and it's very likely the four were buried in the plot he had purchased on October 5, 1849. That was located on the Middle Ridge and is now Lot 27, Section 55. At the time, this area was called Bower Hill and the plot was just east of Maple Copse Road. Later, this area was called Beminden Hill and overlooked the waters of Indian Lake. Unfortunately, their original headstones were not relocated with their remains and there is no visible trace of their graves. - Paula Lemire Historian, Friends of The Albany Rural Cemetery

Who was the aanspreecker? The aanspreecker, literally translated from Dutch as approacher or addresser, was the locally designated funeral-inviter, a tradit...ion carried over to New York from the Netherlands.He (for it was always a man) would have been a schoolmaster, a chorister, a bell-ringer, or a grave-digger, and was oftentimes a combination of all four, in addition to being a walking obituary. As the church bells tolled, the aanspreecker would leave his house, dressed in all black from his cloak to his knee breeches, complete with a cocked hat from which streamers of black, thin fabric hung. He would go knocking from door to door, informing relatives and friends of the deceased of the day and time of the funeral and thereby extending a formal invitation. According to historian Alice Morse Earle, this inviting was a matter of most rigid etiquette; no one in these Dutch-American communities of slightest dignity or regard for social proprieties would attend a funeral unbidden. This invite-only etiquette is still regularly seen in Dutch funerary tradition today. The aanspreecker’s job was not yet finished after delivering the news. He also organized the funeral procession, in which he participated by leading the coffin’s underbearers and pallbearers, and occasionally officiated over the deceased’s grave. The aanspreecker would have been paid at regular rates for his service, which would depend on the distance travelled and the time spent imparting the news. By 1691, the aanspreeker was a licensed public official. A law was passed in New York in 1731 codifying the inviter’s pay; for the funeral of a person 20 years of age or older, the pay was 18 shillings, or about $137 today; for the funeral of a person aged 12 to 20, 12 shillings ($91); and for the funeral of a person under the age of 12 the aanspreecker would have been paid 8 shillings ($61). The difference in pay for these three age categories reflects the frequency of deaths in younger populations, and also may have been a way of lessening the financial burden on a grieving family.

THE CHERRY HILL GHOST The weathered marble monument isn't particularly distinctive from a distance. It's darkened to deep gray by the elements and the style - loosely patterned on ancient Hebrew altars - can be found repeated several times throughout the Cemetery. Take a closer look, though, and the inscription reveals a name connected to one of Albany's most famous crimes (and ghost stories). "John Whipple Born at Sunderland, Vermont August 11, 1793. Father Was An Officer...Continue reading

Happy Halloween! Later, we just might revisit a few of the historic haunting sites at the Cemetery!