CONTENTS. THE FAMILY.-AN EXTRACT FROM A LECTURE-By Rev. E. W. Andrews,.... REMINISCENSES OF REMARKABLE PERSONS-By PAGE. 175 51 9 TROY FOR FIFTY YEARS-By David Buel, jun.,.. 69 72 THE PERCEPTION OF BEAUTY-By Rev. R. B. Fairbairn, 76 82 LEGEND OF THE POESTENKILL-By Miss A. A. Goddard, 87 TROJAN SCENERY-By X. Haywood,...... 99 OUR RIVER-By Miss A. H. Mosher,...... 97. NOVEL READING-By Alexander McCall,. 103 THE CONNECTION BETWEEN LITERATURE AND THE TEM PERANCE ENTERPRISE-By Rev. Uriah Marvin,...... 109 "HIGHER STILL"-By Miss L. B. Marble,.......... 119 TO THE SHADE OF A LOVED AND MUCH RESPECTED SISTER -By Mrs. A. M. Nelson,...... 123 HYMN FOR FEMALE PENITENTS-By Rev. J. Pierpont,. 125 THE TROJAN SKETCH BOOK. TROY FOR FIFTY YEARS. BY DAVID BUEL, JUN. It seems to be an instinct of our nature to look back upon the scenes of our earlier life, and retrace the steps by which our bodies and minds have advanced to maturity, from the period of infancy and childhood. A kindred feeling leads us very naturally to trace from their small beginnings, the places in which our lot has been cast. Our country furnishes more instances than any other of towns and cities springing into existence, and attaining great importance within the generation of their founders. Our highest antiquity in this great Republic, reaches back but little more than two centuries. The cities which can claim even that relative antiquity, are very few. Among the number, is the neighboring city of Albany. History informs us, "that (perhaps) in 1614 the first rude fort was erected (probably) on the southern point of Manhattan Island," and "that in the next year (1615) the settlement at Albany began on an island just below the present city." There is some reason to believe that the beautiful plateau which now forms the site of our own city, was explored in 1609 by the great Navigator, who, first of Europeans, discovered the noble River whose silvery stream will waft his name to unborn ages. We learn from the authentic records of his voyage, that Hudson "went sounding his way above the Highlands, till at last the Crescent, (the ship in which he made his voyage,) had sailed some miles beyond the city of Hudson, and a boat had advanced a little beyond Albany." This boat probably ascended to the rapids which commenced at the northerly bounds of this city, where ordinary tides spent their force and the navigation was interrupted. For above a century after Hudson's memorable voyage, the territory now embracing the site of the city, probably formed part of the hunting grounds of the Mohawk Indians. In the year 1720, a grant of 490 acres, extending along the Hudson from the Poestenkill to Meadow Creek, and comprehending the original allotments of the city, was made in fee by the proprietor of the Manor of Rensselaerwyck to Derick Van Derheyden at the annual rent of three bushels and three pecks of wheat and four fat fowls. It does not appear that this spot had attracted much attention until three or four years after the termination of the Revolutionary War, when one or two individuals from the Eastern States, observing its favorable situation, persuaded the Dutch proprietors of the soil to lay out a portion of their lands into town lots. When the first surveys were made, the place was not known by any fixed name. A letter written by one of the earliest adventurers* in the fall of 1786, is dated at "Ferry Hook." Several letters written by the same person between the months of April and September, in the year 1787, are dated at "Rensselaerwyck," a town which embraced one third of the whole county. In the fall of 1787, the name "Van Derheyden," as a designation of the embryo village, began to be used by the settlers; and that name is found in the leases of lots granted at that period. At the period when the settlement of Troy commenced, the population of Albany probably did not amount to 4000; although it had been incorporated as a city more than a century. But the establishment of our Federal Government in 1789, gave a new impulse to the country. The spirit of enterprise spread rapidly over our land. The "New State," as Vermont was then called, was speedily occupied by imigrants from the older *Mr. Benjamin Covell. |