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Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs:
Easton

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[This information is from Vol. I, pp. 440-447 of Hudson-Mohawk Genealogical and Family Memoirs, edited by Cuyler Reynolds (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1911). It is in the Reference collection of the Schenectady County Public Library at R 929.1 R45. Some of the formatting of the original, especially in lists of descendants, may have been altered slightly for ease of reading.]

Robert Easton, the emigrant ancestor and founder of the Albany, New York, family herein recorded, came to this country from the north of Ireland in 1818. He was of Scotch origin; his father, James Easton, is supposed to have been of the Fifeshire (Scotland) family. It is not known positively when Robert Easton was born, but probably about 1775, at Carnmoneytown, near Belfast, county Antrim. He is designated there as a "small farmer," working leased land on the domain of the Marquis of Donegal, the family all being Scotch Presbyterians. He married and his children were born at this place. He was in comfortable circumstances until two rainy seasons in succession destroyed the crops (1816-17). To avoid going in debt for seed, wheat, and potatoes for another season, he decided to sell out his stock and emigrate. In 1818, with his wife and eight children, he sailed from Belfast, Ireland, for Montreal, Canada. Soon after his arrival at that city he died suddenly of an illness contracted while in search of suitable land on which to locate. His wife survived him but a few months. He married, in Ireland, Eliza, daughter of Ephraim Craig, of Carrickfurgus. Tradition places the Craigs among the Covenanters in the early part of the seventeenth century, when a company of these persecuted people left Scotland and colonized in the north of Ireland. Children: Jane, James, Ephraim (of further mention), Eliza, Charles, Margaret, Matilda, and Robert. Of these only four married:

  1. Jane, born 1797, married Robert Stewart, July, 1823, at Montreal, later locating in Albany, New York; children: Robert, James, Ephraim, Eliza, all died unmarried.
  2. Eliza, born 1808, died December 10, 1883; came to Albany in 1823, later removing to New York City, where she married Andrew Mills; children:
    1. Anna, married Orville Bennett;
    2. Fannie, married C. M. Mather;
    3. John;
    4. Isabel and
    5. Andrew (2).

    Andrew Mills (1), born in New York City, 1806, died there, June 23, 1879. He was extensively engaged in shipbuilding for many years, and at the time of his death was president of the Dry Dock Savings Bank, being succeeded by his son Andrew (2).

  3. Charles, died July 4, 1869; followed the other members of the family to Albany, later settling in New York City, where he became prominent as a very wealthy cotton broker. He married Deborah ————, who died July 1, 1879, aged eighty-one years; children:
    1. Charles (2) married ———— Taber, of Albany;
    2. Louisa;
    3. Henry;
    4. Walter, unmarried;
    5. Mary E., married Edward Fuller;
    6. Alfred, married ———— Ford (had Anna, married Charles Lane Poor);
    7. Frederick, married ———— Williams (had Charles Philip, Walter, and Isabel).
  4. Ephraim, through whom the line continues.

(II) Ephraim, son of Robert and Elizabeth (Craig) Easton, was born in county Antrim, Ireland, in Carnmoneytown, about 1801, died July 2, 1879. He accompanied the family emigration to Canada, residing in Montreal until his marriage in 1824, when with his bride he came to Albany, making the journey (which consumed two weeks) in a sleigh, bringing with them all their belongings. In 1833 he became a naturalized citizen, and the sameyear bought his first piece of property, and until his death always owned the home he occupied. He married, in Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal, Canada, January 24, 1824, Eliza Patterson, widow of John Walker. She was born, June, 1796, in the parish of Kiltart, situated on Lake Allen, county Leitrim, Ireland, eldest child of William and Nancy (Trimble) Patterson. William Patterson owned or had a life lease of a large farm on the Whitlaw (or Whitan) domain, of which his father, Mark Patterson, was the agent. Mark had two sons, William and John, and four daughters. William died at Kiltart, January 14, 1803, comparatively a young man, and is buried in the Louders family vault within four miles of Ballinamore. At his death the farm reverted to his brother John, the widow and seven children going to live among her own people, the Trimbles, of Manor Hamilton, Leitrim county. Nancy was a daughter of James Trimble, a native of Fermanagh county, and his wife Dorothy James, who had other children — Mary, Betty, Dolly, James, John, William — the latter having been educated for the ministry. In 1812 Nancy Trimble Patterson died, and her children, Eliza, John, and Jane, were taken by relatives. Eliza went to live with her Aunt Betty Algoe, and in 1818 married John Walker, son of a well-to-do farmer. In the fall of 1819 they left Belfast for Montreal, Canada, accompanied by her sister Jane and brother John Patterson. In March, 1820, her daughter Eliza (2) was born, and in April of that year her husband, John Walker, died in Montreal. Eliza Walker (2) married in Albany, New York, December 27, 1838, George Ovens, born in Wiltshire, England. Eliza (Patterson) Walker married (second) January 24, 1824, Ephraim Easton, and died on Christmas day, 1886, at Albany, in her ninety-first year. She was a woman of strong character, staunch and steadfast, a loyal adherent of the Church of England, as were her ancestors. At the time of her death she was the oldest communicant of the Church of the Holy Innocents, and it seemed especially fitting that she was laid to rest on Holy Innocents Day.

(III) Charles Patterson Easton, only child of Ephraim and Eliza (Patterson) Easton, was born at Albany; New York, October 10, 1824, and died at St. Augustine, Florida, March 3, 1885. He received his education in private schools and at the Albany Academy. In 1838 he started his business career as a tally boy in the Albany lumber district; from this subordinate position he rose to the highest. In 1847 he engaged in the retail lumber trade on his own account with more pluck and energy than cash capital. In 1857 he established himself in the wholesale lumber business and became one of the largest dealers. As his sons grew up to manhood they were admitted as partners in the business, and the firm of C. P. Easton & Company was recognized as one of the most sagacious and reliable in the district, maintaining a credit and an integrity unsullied. In religious and charitable undertakings Mr. Easton was very prominent, being a faithful working Christian; he was zealous in Sunday school work of the Methodist Episcopal church, which he joined at the age of eighteen, although he had been brought up in the Episcopal church. Mr. Easton was a Republican in politics, having joined that party at its formation. He was for several years member of the Republican general committee, and its president for one year. He was candidate for member of assembly in 1872, and for state senator in 1873, but in both instances was defeated. He had never sought political distinction and in both cases the nomination sought the man. He was frequently a delegate to the Republican state conventions; in 1872 was an alternate and in 1880 a delegate to the national convention. He was one of the renowned three hundred and six that stood by General Grant to the last ballot, and received one of the bronze medals commemorating that struggle. In 1878 Mr. Easton was appointed by the legislature one of the commissioners to enlarge Clinton prison, and in 1880 he was appointed by the same authority a member of the commission to erect the new city hall at Albany. Governor A. B. Cornell appointed Mr. Easton, January, 1890, on his military staff as quartermaster-general, with rank of brigadier-general. In 1865 Mr. Easton was elected a member of the Board of Public Instruction, and was successively re-elected for a period of sixteen years, seven of which he was president of the board. All of these years he devoted himself untiringly to the educational interests of the community, especially to the advancement of public school methods. He was the author of the preamble and resolution providing for the organization of the Albany Free Academy, afterwards called High School, which was adopted by the board in July, 1867. When opposition became most positive and powerful, when others faltered and despaired, his faith and determination never wavered, and finally he succeeded in securing an appropriation for a high school. When its rapid growth made enlargement and better accommodation necessary, he became the leader ofthe public sentiment which demanded and secured the new building. This building has for some years been inadequate and now (1911) it is about to be abandoned as a high school for a new and modern building in the West End of Albany. In the Albany high school, founded largely through his agency, Mr. Easton achieved the greatest success of his public life, and as long or wherever the institution exists in Albany it will be a monument to his labor and public spirit. At the time of his death, he was a director of the National Exchange Bank; a trustee of the Albany Orphan Asylum; manager of the Albany County Bible Society; an ex-president of the Young Men's Association, and a charter member and trustee of the Fort Orange Club. In everyone of the many positions Mr. Easton was called on to fill, he displayed marked executive ability, sound judgment, strict fidelity, and the plainest common sense.

Charles Patterson Easton married Mary J. Boyd, at Albany, New York, January 26, 1847, the daughter of Jesse Condé and Elcy (Noble) Boyd (see Boyd), born August 9, 1827, in the fourteenth township of Warren county, New York, near Johnsburgh, where her father was engaged in the manufacture of lumber, having a saw-mill at that place. When she was four years old the family removed to Albany, where she grew to womanhood, for some years attended the Albany Female Academy, and married before she was twenty years old. Hers was a beautiful Christian character, her life spent in quiet, loving devotion and willing service to her family and home, in which she found her greatest happiness. She died October 30, 1903, in her seventy-seventh year. Nine children were born to Charles P. and Mary Boyd Easton:

  1. William, born January 23, 1848. He began his education at the early age of five years, attending a small private school, then a public school, then Professor Charles Anthony's Classical Institute, afterward finishing with a course at Bryant & Stratton's Commercial College. In 1863, when fifteen years of age, he started as tally boy in his father's lumber yard, and in 1869 became a partner in,the business, which was carried on successfully until 1902. In that year the business was closed out; this was thought advisable because the wholesale lumber trade had become in a measure diverted from Albany. In 1902 William Easton, with his brothers, Frederick and Irving B., bought a large tract of timber in Canada, and as soon as the mill was built began the manufacture of lumber. The firm was changed in 1904 to a corporation of the same name, and in 1906 the brothers retired from the business. Mr. Easton was prominent in Masonry, being a Knight Templar and thirty-second degree Mason. He has several times held office on the Board of Lumber Dealers and Young Men's Association; was trustee, 1890-93, of the Fort Orange Club; was one of the founders and a trustee of the National Wholesale Lumber Dealers' Association, and a trustee of the First Reformed Church. In 1896 he was presidential elector. William Easton married, February 21, 1882, Caroline Allen Newton. Her father was John Milton Newton, who through his mother, Martha Whiting, was a descendant of Governor William Bradford. Her mother, Jane Pierson Allen, was a descendant of several of the founders of Hartford, Connecticut. Their children:
    1. Helen Newton, born March 10, 1883;
    2. Mary Boyd, born November 6, 1886.
  2. Charles P., Jr., born December 22, 1849; died April 23, 1858.
  3. Mary Boyd, born September 28, 1851; died September 21, 1858.
  4. Edward Easton, born April 17, 1854 (see forward).
  5. Alice Easton, born January 13, 1857. A graduate of the Albany Female Academy, several times an officer of the Alumni Association, identified from its beginning with the work of the Young Women's Christian Association; a charter member of Gansevoort Chapter, D. A. R.; married, February 4, 1880, Arthur W. Pray, born at Dorchester, Massachusetts, June 8, 1855, died at Albany, New York, July 21, 1898, son of William Hanum Pray and Elizabeth Sawin Bird, grandson of John Hancock Pray, the founder of the well-known carpet business in Boston, Massachusetts, 1817, and ninth in descent from Quinton Pray, the first of the name to come to New England in 1639. Mr. Pray came to Albany in 1877 as salesman for the firm of A. B. Van Gaasbeek & Co., carpet dealers, where he remained until his death in 1898. In 1874 Mr. Pray enlisted as a private in the Massachusetts volunteer militia; in 1875 he received his first commission as second lieutenant; in September, 1876, he was commissioned first lieutenant, and in November, 1876, was honorably discharged. Very soon after locating in Albany he enlisted as a private in Company A, Tenth Battalion, N. G., State of New York, and was successively elected sergeant, second and first lieutenant. Resigning from the Guard, December, 1892, he became an active member of the Old Guard, Albany Zouave Cadets. Mr. Pray ranked high as a soldier and a gentleman. He will always be remembered for his genial companionship and as a generous host.
  6. Frederick Easton, born January 5, 1859, in Albany, has spent his life in the immediate vicinity of his birthplace. He received his early education in the public schools and attended the Delaware Institute at Franklin, New York. On the death of his father he became a partner with his brothers William and Edward in the lumber business. For nearly ten years he was a prominent member of Company A, Tenth Battalion, and is now an active member of the Old Guard, Albany Zouave Cadets. He has been an active member of the Capital City Republican Club since 1872, having held the office of president, chief of staff, and lieutenant. He is also active in Masonic circles, being a member of Temple Commandery, and a thirty-second degree Mason. He was twice elected secretary and treasurer of the Board of Lumber Dealers; was manager three years and vice-president one term of the Young Men's Association, of Albany. In politics Mr. Easton has always been an ardent Republican, displaying deep interest in party affairs. On January 22, 1895, Governor Levi P. Morton appointed him superintendent of public buildings of the state of New York, which position he held for four years. Frederick Easton married, June 13, 1883, Mary Young, daughter of John C. Young and Mary Sigourney. The latter is a lineal descendant of Andrew Sigourney, the Huguenot refugee, who came to Boston, Massachusetts, in 1686. Their only child, Alice Easton, born March 5, 1884.
  7. Isabel Easton, born August 19, 1860; died May 17, 1864.
  8. Howard Easton, born February 2, 1863; died June 30, 1864.
  9. Irving Boyd Easton, born November 22, 1868. Early in life he first attended Miss Shank's private school, afterward the public school; in 1882 entered the class of 1888, Albany Academy, and was graduated from Cornell University in 1891 with degree B. L. While a pupil at the academy he was president of the Beck Literary Society, 1887, first lieutenant of the Academy Battalion, and an editor of The Cue. In 1897 he was a member of the committee that organized the Alumni Association, was its second president, and in 1899 an alumni trustee of the academy. On entering Cornell he became a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity; was editor-in-chief of the Cornell Daily Sun, 1890-91; manager of the Cornell football team in 1890-91; and of the Glee, Banjo, and Mandolin Club. Following his graduation in 1891, Mr. Easton and his mother spent one year traveling in Europe, then he entered the Albany Lumber District. After some time spent there he went to Boston, Massachusetts, and later to New York as the local representative of C. P. Easton & Company. From there he went to Canada, where the firm bought a large tract of timber and entered upon the manufacture of lumber. In May, 1907, Mr. Easton went to New York as manager of the Robinson & Edwards Lumber Company, of Burlington, Vermont, and in April, 1909, engaged on his own account in the wholesale lumber business in New York City. Mr. Easton is a member of the Fort Orange and University clubs at Albany, having been secretary 1897-99, and trustee, 1899-1902, of the former. While residing in Quebec, Canada, he was a member of the Garrison Club, Quebec Yacht Club, Snowshoe Club, and an honorary member of the Royal Canadian Artillery Mess. In New York, Mr. Easton is one of the governors of the Alpha Delta Phi Club; a member of Cornell University Club; the Lumberman's Club, and the Society of Colonial Wars.

(IV) Edward Easton, born April 17, 1854. He attended for a while the Albany Academy, then became a pupil in the public school, and in 1868 entered the Albany Free Academy, graduating at the end of a four-years course with the class of 1872. As a business man, Mr. Easton's whole career has been identified with the Albany lumber district, where he started first as a tally boy, then as clerk and bookkeeper, and in 1876 as a partner in the firm of C. P. Easton & Company. In 1902 he retired from that firm and established a business under his own name, dealing exclusively in cypress lumber. In 1906 the Easton Cypress Company was established, of which Mr. Easton is president and treasurer. In 1884 he removed to Loudonville, a suburb of Albany, where he now resides, and where he has proved himself most efficient as school commissioner and in Sunday school work. Mr. Easton is a member of the Friendly Few, the Fort Orange Club, the Lumberman's Club of New York; he has held office in the Board of Lumber Dealers, and has been a director of the National Exchange Bank (now the First National) since 1886, when he took his father's place on the board. Edward Easton married, January 25, 1876, Sarah Frances Jones. Her father, Isaac Jones, is the son of Abraham and Jane Jones, who was the daughter of Roland Jones and Margaret Davies, all natives of Wales, and early settlers of Albany. Her mother, Elizabeth Poinier, is the daughter of Thomas Jefferson Poinier and Jemima Paris, a descendant of the Schenectady family of that name. Children of Edward and Sarah (Jones) Easton:

  1. Charles P. (3), born January 8, 1877, died July 2, 1888.
  2. Edith, born July 3, 1878, married October 15, 1902, Ernest Livingston Miller, son of Ernest J. Miller, and Jessie McNaughton, daughter of Dr. Peter and Jane Guest McNaughton; their children:
    1. Jane Guest Miller, born May 5, 1905, and
    2. Edith Easton Miller, June 18, 1908.
  3. Edward, Jr., born April 1, 1880, of whom further.
  4. Mary Boyd, born January 17, 1882, married, January 25, 1908, Andrew Thompson, son of David A. and Margaret McNaughton, daughter of Dr. James and Caroline (McIntyre) McNaughton; their children:
    1. David A. Thompson, born November 18, 1908, and
    2. Margaret McNaughton Thompson, March, 1910. (See Thompson family).

    James and Peter McNaughton were brothers.

  5. Roland Jones, born August 26, 1884; educated at public school in Loudonville, and Boys' Academy in Albany, is associated with his father in lumber business in Albany lumber district, is a member of Troop B., N. G. S. N. Y.; married, July 2, 1909, Ellen M. May; their child, Elizabeth Easton, born April, 1910.
  6. Elcy Noble, born October 29, 1886, died February 29, 1897.
  7. Arthur Boyd, born October 5, 1888.
  8. Robert Poinier, born June 23, 1890.
  9. William Easton, born July 10, 1892.
  10. Lillian Alice, born March 15, 1894.
  11. Condé Philip, born December 5, 1896.
  12. Adrian Noble, born May 14, 1898; died January 14, 1899.

(V) Edward (2), son of Edward (1) and Sarah Frances (Jones) Easton, was born in Albany, April 1, 1880. He was educated in the public schools of Loudonville; prepared at Albany Boys' Academy; entered Yale University, whence he was graduated A. B., class of 1902. Having decided upon the profession of law, he entered Albany Law School, being graduated LL. B., class of 1904. He at once began the practice of his profession in Albany, continuing alone until 1909, when he formed a law partnership with Ellis J. Staley, under the firm name of Easton & Staley, with offices at 83 State street. He was clerk of the Municipal Civil Service Commission in 1906-07, and second assistant corporation counsel of the city of Albany two years, 1907 to 1909. Mr. Easton is a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church, and of the Albany Young Men's Christian Association. His college fraternity is Alpha Delta Phi, of Yale. His fraternal orders are the Masonic and the Elks. His social clubs are the Fort Orange, Albany, University and Country, of Albany, and the Alpha Delta Phi, of New York City. His political clubs are the Unconditional and the Young Men's Republican, both of Albany. Edward Easton (2) married, June 8, 1904, Martha (Van Antwerp) Stanton, only child of Josiah R. and Kate (Van Antwerp) Stanton, the latter daughter of John Van Antwerp. (See Van Antwerp and Stanton). Children of Edward and Martha Easton: Kate Van Antwerp, Edward (3), John Van Antwerp, Mary Boyd.

(The Boyd Line)

Alan, First Lord High Steward of Scotland, married Margaret, daughter of Fergus, Earl of Galloway, and had five children, the third being Simon, progenitor of the Boyds. Alan died in 1153, and Simon, his third son, became the second Lord High Steward of Scotland. Robert, son of Simon, being of fair complexion, was called "Boidle" or "Boidel" in Gaelic, meaning Boyt or Bo — "fair or beautiful." This became a surname, and Robert Boyd, "the Fair," is the common ancestor of all of the name Boyd. He died prior to 1240 A. D., and left a son, Sir Robert Boyd. Dean Castle, long the residence of the ancient family of Boyd, stands about a mile from Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, on the west coast of Scotland. The descent to the American Boyds during the centuries has been in many instances through younger sons of whom no record has been kept in the register's office of Scotland. They are first on record in America at Londonderry, where Boyds settled in 1718. They were Scotch-Irish who had gone into northern Ireland from Scotland about 1688, there married, and bred the hardy pioneer Scotch-Irish who perpetuated their home names in the new towns they created. The name is next found in New York City and Pennsylvania, where they settled prior to the revolution. There was also an early settlement in Virginia. The Boyds, like all the Scotch-Irish, were hardy, energetic, desirable citizens, and in settling in a new country usually chose the rugged country instead of the more fertile river bottoms, as did the Dutch. This was due to their early environment, as each chose location in accordance with youthful surroundings.

(I) John Boyd was born in the year 1725, of Scotch parentage, and as conclusive evidence shows, was of the Kilmarnock family, some of whom settled in the north of Ireland, county Antrim, where he was either born or taken by his parents at an early age. He married, in 1757, in Ireland, Ann Logan, born 1739, and with his wife and three children arrived at New York in 1762. With John Boyd was his brother-in-law, John Rogers, who married Agnes Logan just before the party started for America. John Boyd resided at Albany until 1793, when, as appears on the sessions record of the First Presbyterian church, of which he was an elder, he removed to the country with his family, meaning Johnstown, New York. John Rogers, who was a wheelwright, accompanied him and there they erected saw mills, and there John Boyd died, July 6, 1799. His wife, Ann (Logan) Boyd, survived him, dying in Albany, New York, February 9, 1815, aged seventy-six years. They are both buried in Johnstown, New York. Children:

  1. John Logan Boyd, or John Jr., as he was usually called (eldest child of John Boyd (I)), was born October 8, 1758, in Ireland, and came to Albany with his parents in 1762. He was a millwright and farmer in Ballston, now Charlton, Saratoga County. Was first supervisor of Charlton, 1791, and later a justice of the peace; was therefore of good standing and repute. In politics he was undoubtedly a moderate Royalist, or "Tory"; was once arrested on suspicion, by the commissioner of conspiracies of Albany county, and his father was one of his bondsmen in the sum of 200 pounds. He was driven from home, however, by Burgoyne's approach, and with his neighbors petitioned the authorities for better military protection. He maried Anna Northrop, March 25, 1779. They had twelve children, ten of whom were born in Charlton, one, Polly, in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, 1782, and the youngest child was born in Newark, now Niagara, Ontario, Canada, to which place the family removed about 1799; there they probably died and were buried.
  2. Nancy (Agnes), born February 26, 1760, died February, 1851; married Peter McHench, May 11, 1786; had five children including William, who married Margaret, daughter of David and Margaret (Maxwell) Boyd.
  3. James Boyd (see forward).
  4. Alexander, the first born in America, September 14, 1764, died 1854. He was a prosperous farmer of Schoharie county, New York, owning much land and many slaves. In 1813 he was elected to congress as a Whig. He was a deacon of the Dutch Reformed church for many years. He married Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Becker. Children:
    1. John, born July 29, 1784, married Kate Van Epps; no issue.
    2. Helen, born December 10, 1785, married James Van Gaasbeck, M. D., of Schoharie county; seven children.
    3. David, born November 3, 1788, married Nancy Van Derzee; nine children.
    4. Ann Boyd, born March 7, 1791, married George Dial; had issue.
    5. Albert, born March 1, 1793, married Ann Heron; seven children.
    6. Peter, born August 25, 1795, married Laney or Helen De Voe; four children.
    7. James, born December 6, 1797, married Emily Stimpson; two children.
    8. Margaret, born February 10, 1800, married John C. Van Vechten; nine children.
    9. William A., born September 13, 1802, married Margaret Dougherty, who died 1830; two children; married (second), Sarah M. Sternberg; five children.
    10. Nancy, born February 2, 1805, married Daniel Larkin; four children.
    11. Alexander (2), born February 26, 1807.
    12. Hugh, died young.
    13. Delia, born July 15, 1812, married Jehiel Larkin; no issue.
  5. Hugh, born January 25, 1767, died December 29, 1816; married January 14, 1796, Catherine Staats.
  6. David, born December 4, 1770, died November 3, 1834, at Schenectady. He was a prominent man of Schenectady, and one of the organizers of the Mohawk Bank, one of the oldest banking institutions of the state. For a great many years he held the position of cashier. February 5, 1823, he was elected county judge, serving until January 31, 1825. In 1826 he was elected mayor of Schenectady. In 1812 he was presidential elector. He married, March 7, 1793, Margaret Maxwell, born December 29, 1772, died October 14, 1856. Children:
    1. Euphemia, born January 24, 1794, died March 15, 1851, unmarried.
    2. Hugh M., born December 8, 1795, died May 7, 1847, married Mary Dow.
    3. Margaret, born December 16, 1797, died October 18, 1852, married William McHench.
    4. David M., died in infancy.
    5. Ann, born August 30, 1802, unmarried.
    6. John H., born ———— 9, 1805.
    7. Ursula Jane, died in childhood.
    8. Ursula Jane (2), born September 24, 1811, died 1877, married George H. Thacher (see Thacher).
    9. David, born December 4, 1815; graduate of Union College; died unmarried, December 12, 1865.
  7. Dr. Thomas, born April 19, 1772, died in New York City, March 18, 1856. He practiced medicine over sixty years, fifty of them in New York City, and at the time of his death was the oldest physician in the city. The press of the city spoke of him in most complimentary terms at the time of his death. He married, October 22, 1793, Sarah Graham, daughter of Rev. Chauncey and Elizabeth (Van Wyck) Graham. She was born January 11, 1770, died August 16, 1844. Children:
    1. Elizabeth; married John H. McCall, died February 12, 1881.
    2. John Thomas, born July 4, 1797, died June 8, 1859, married Hannah Agnes Shea. (The founder of Boyd's City Express, New York City).
    3. Theodore C., born September, 1799, died August 7, 1843, married Sarah P. Cummings.
    4. Margaret A., died February 27, 1841, married Alexander Chalmers.
    5. William H., a physician, died September 6, 1837, at New Orleans.
    6. Maria, died October 21, 1879.
    7. Sarah Matilda, died June 6, 1881.
  8. William, born September 14, 1775, died April 24, 1840; was captain of a passenger sloop running between Albany and New York for a number of years; then engaged in the jewelry business with William Shephard, continuing later under the firm name of Boyd & Mumford; he married, May 29, 1809, Hannah Hook, born 1783, died February, 1856; children:
    1. Catherine Hook, died in infancy.
    2. John, died in childhood.
    3. Thomas Hook, died in infancy.
    4. Thomas Hook, died in childhood.
    5. William, born 1817, died April 6, 1895.
    6. Howard, born May, 1819, died July 27, 1889, married Mary A. Morrow.
    7. Catherine (2), born September, 1821, died November 22, 1880, married Stephen R. Schuyler.
    8. Anna Mary, died in childhood.
  9. Hamilton, born February 17, 1778, died September 20, 1820. In association with his brother, Captain Hugh Boyd, he operated a line of river sloops with headquarters at Troy, New York. Tradition says Hugh and Hamilton Boyd were pilots on the first steamboat that ever came to Albany from New York. Hamilton Boyd married (first) Ann Bradshaw, (second) Eliza Kirby, who died January 15, 1824; children:
    1. James Hamilton, died young.
    2. Mary Ann, born 1804, died March 3, 1878, married James Peter Boyd, a grandson of James and Jane Boyd, who emigrated from Scotland to America in 1774.
    3. Edward Hugh, born May, 1815, died 1884.

(II) James, second son and third child of John and Ann (Logan) Boyd, was born in county Antrim, Ireland, February 2, 1762, died at Albany, New York, February 22, 1839. He was an infant in arms when his parents came to Albany. He grew up and was educated in that city and became a well-known public man and prosperous farmer of the town of Glenville, Schenectady county. He served in the revolutionary war as private under Colonel Philip Schuyler from October 28, 1779, to November 4, 1781. He owned a fine farm in Glenville, but through endorsement of notes lost it, and removed to Johnsburg, Warren county, New York, where he operated a saw mill. He later removed to Albany, New York, where he was public weighmaster many years. For fourteen years he represented Glenville on the Schenectady county board of supervisors; was elected to the state legislature in 1811, reelected in 1812, and held other offices of trust. He married, at Schenectady, January 16, 1783, Alida Condé, of Charlton, Saratoga county, New York, granddaughter of Adam Condé, constable of Albany, New York, in 1724, and high constable in 1725. He removed to Schenectady, where he was killed in the Buelkendal [i.e., Beukendaal] Indian massacre in 1748. He was called a "Hollander," but there is a well-founded belief in the family that he was a Huguenot descendant of the French Condé family, who fled from France to Holland to escape persecution. He married, November 30, 1736, Catherine DeGraaf, daughter of Jesse and Aaltie (Hennion) Ackerman, of New York, and granddaughter of Claas Andriesse De Graaf, born 1628, the early settler of Schenectady, who married Elizabeth, daughter of William Brouwer, of Albany. Jesse De Graaf was his oldest son, and was for a time held captive in Canada by the French and Indians. Adam Condé and Catherine De Graaf had Johannes, Susannah, Alida, Jesse (see forward), Eva and Adam (2). Jesse Condé was born in Schenectady, March 13, 1743, died 1818. He settled in the town of Charlton, Saratoga county, New York, in 1775, where he died. He married, July 5, 1762, Parthenia Ogden, born July 14, 1744, died December 11, 1817, daughter of Jonathan Ogden, of Westchester county, New York. Jesse and Parthenia (Ogden) Condé had twelve children, Alida, Jonathan, Jonathan (2), Adam, Albert, John, Wilmot, Jesse, Susannah, Nicholas De Graaf, Isaac and Jesse (2). Alida, eldest of these children, born June 16, 1763, at Schenectady, died at Albany, August 4, 1838. Tradition says she received from her parents a peck of gold (which may be a fable) and a family of negro slaves (which is a fact) as a marriage portion. She married James Boyd, January 16, 1784. Children:

  1. Catherine, born November 17, 1785, married Jacob Viele.
  2. John, born February 12, 1787, died January 21, 1887, lacking a month of completing a full century of years; he was a captain in the war of 1812, and married Maria Vedder.
  3. Ann, born 1792, died at New Orleans, March, 1830; married Charles Vedder, and had James, Catherine, and other children.
  4. Parthenia, born November 29, 1794, married, February 18, 1813, Christopher Whittaker.
  5. Wilmot, born December 29, 1796, died March 20, 1877; married Charles Taylor Brown, July 21, 1814, and died March 20, 1877.
  6. Margaret, born October 25, 1800, died June 4, 1878; married Frederick N. Clute, 1819.
  7. Susan, born December 18, 1801, died August 9, 1895; married Nathaniel Griffing, July 20, 1823.
  8. Jesse Condé (see forward).
  9. Nancy McHench, born November 5, 1807, died May 18, 1883; married Jesse Martin Van Slyck.

James and Alida Boyd were buried in the Dutch Reformed church cemetery, Albany; later they were removed to Rural Cemetery, when the former was taken for Washington Park.

(III) Jesse Condé, son of James and Alida (Condé) Boyd, was born in Schenectady, New York, June 5, 1803, and died at Montague, Michigan, June 6, 1891. He was a farmer of Johnsburg, then weighmaster of Erie canal freight; later a lumber dealer of Albany. He removed to the west and engaged in the manufacture of furniture at Chicago; leaving there, he resided on a farm five miles north of Dixon, Illinois. He was of Grand Detour, Michigan, and Aurora, Illinois, and after losing his wife returned to Chicago, where he lived with his children until 1889, when he exchanged some city property for a farm near Montague, Michigan, where he moved at the age of eighty-four years, again began farming, and there died. He is buried in Graceland cemetery, Chicago, Illinois. He married, January 15, 1824, Elcy Noble, born in Johnsburg, New York, January 8, 1805, died at Aurora, Illinois, July, 1872, daughter of Edward and Mary (Leach) Noble. Edward was born in Ireland, October 12, 1772, died in Johnsburg, March 12, 1857. He came to the United States in 1795. He was a member of the Methodist church, and his home in Johnsburg was noted for its hospitable entertainment of the ministers of that denomination. He married, April 23, 1801, Mary Leach, born in Westchester county, New York, February 5, 1782, died October 5, 1849, daughter of William and Elcy (Ward) Leach. Children:

  1. Margaret, died 1852, unmarried.
  2. Jane, married John Fuller.
  3. Elcy, born January 8, 1805, married Jesse Condé Boyd.
  4. John, married Ellen Armstrong.
  5. Sally, married Joseph Leach.
  6. Mary, married William A. Potter.
  7. William, married Caroline Stewart.
  8. Edward, married Eunice Fish.
  9. Orrilla, married Harvey Schermerhorn.

David Noble, grandfather of Elcy (Noble) Boyd, was born at Terrahen, Ireland, died at Arlington, Vermont, July 14, 1807. In 1795 he came to the United States. He was a local preacher of the Methodist Episcopal church, and eminent for his piety and many virtues. He died in the pulpit at the close of a sermon. He married, in 1768, Margaret Caruthers, born in Holywood, Fermanagh county, Ireland, about 1752, daughter of William. She died in Ireland, February 28, 1790, aged thirty-eight years. They had seven children, of whom Edward was the second. Archibald Noble, great-grandfather of Elcy (Noble) Boyd, was born in Terrahen, Fermanagh county, Ireland. The family were noted for great strength and moral integrity. They were originally members of the Church of England, but later became followers of John Wesley, a faith their descendants in the United States have adhered to with great uniformity. He married Eleanor Jamison, who died in Ireland. They had eight children, of whom David was the third.

Children of Jesse Condé and Elcy (Noble) Boyd:

  1. Alida, born January 25, 1826, married Hiram Burton, born at East Greenbush, New York.
  2. Mary J., born August 9, 1827, married Charles P. Easton (see Easton).
  3. Margaret, born December 22, 1828, married Thomas R. Ferris.
  4. James, born June 22, 1831, married Sarah J. Locke, Chicago, Illinois.
  5. Edward.
  6. John.
  7. William, died in infancy.
  8. David, born July 4, 1839.
  9. Robert, born in Albany, July 13, 1841; married (first) Celia Stowe, (second) Helen Pitcher.
  10. Charles Lansing, born in Albany, May 11, 1843, married Melvina Locke, Chicago, Illinois.
  11. and 12. Catherine, Caroline (twins), born and died November 23, 1845.

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