Throwback 2019-2020 Lecture Series - Part 2

Hudson Mohawk Industrial Gateway Executive Director, Michael Barrett, shared a presentation on the Trans-Continental Railroad. A transportation feat that was a monumental undertaking in its time, it had some local names attached to its creation as these families expanded west with the country. Built between 1863 and 1869, it connected existing train lines to the Pacific Coast.  

Some familiar names tied to this project that have some local significance (or at least well recognized as influential in New York history) are Charles Crocker, Theodore Judah, Leland Stanford, Brigham Young  and Thomas C. Durant. Many others were involved in this venture, with fortunes made through investments - some more honest than others. Another local note: the engines used in the ceremonial opening of the lines had parts with iron from the Burden Iron Works. 

Thea brought several resources that attendees could look over
 before and after her presentation. There was a great level of
 audience engagement with her lecture as well!

Thea Hotaling, owner and historian of Brookwood Historic Building presented her extensive research on the history of the Peebles family for our lecture at the start of 2020. It was a full house - we even had to drag a few tables over to include everyone who wanted to hear about this prominent family with ties to Waterford, Halfmoon, and Albany. Of course, there is some obvious name recognition with Peebles Island State Park as well, as the family did own this island in the Mohawk River delta that now serves as a New York State Park and site of the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

The original owners of the property that is now referred to as Brookwood, were the Peebles family. It was a lucrative piece of property even its early days, being ~15,000 acres beside the Hudson River and having its own freshwater, as well as being situated alongside the Great Highway from Albany to Canada. Thomas Peebles married Elizabeth Bradt of Albany, from one of the early Dutch families of Albany - her father was Gerrit Bradt (son of Daniel Bradt and Elizabeth Lansing) and her mother was Maria ten Eyck. Those are all some recognizable local names- Oh, and her grandmother is Geeritjia Van Schaick...so essentially relatives were everywhere in the neighboring communities. Which might've influenced the decision to brave the then frontier-like area of this this estate. The Peebles manor was constructed in 1763, becoming one of the 12 founding families of the Waterford/Halfmoon (Halve Maen). 

Thomas had been  appointed by the royal authority in 1770 as a Justice of the Peace for "the territory consisting of Saratoga County". After he passed in 1774, he was buried on a small knoll on the property by "Brookwood Creek" that began the family cemetery. Elizabeth had five children to support, which she did by transforming her manor into an inn and tavern that became known as the Widow Peebles’ place. It was marked as such on maps like the 1779 Isaac Vrooman map commissioned by George Washington.  . 

In 1783, when notable figures like Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Governor Clinton were on route to see the battlefields at Bemis Heights, they stayed at this inn, referencing it in letters. This likely contributed to Elizabeth's mention in the 1788 list of innkeepers - the only woman to be included. The tavern continued to host notable figures, like James Madison and Thomas Jefferson who were also touring the revolutionary battlefields in 1791. The tavern was turned over in 1795 to her sons, being known as “The Child’ Place” before it eventually become known as Brookwood. The children became involved with the business, civic, political and religious development of the local area. 

Edward Lamson Henry's "Early Days of Rapid Transit". Albany Institute of History and Art

The property was well known locally but also was featured in “A Pocket Guide for the Tourist and Traveler along the line of the Canals and the interior Commerce of the state of New York”.  Tourism on the canal brought many to areas that otherwise would not have been traversed - Waterford had been at the height of sloop navigation on the Hudson River, but like today, many toured the route to see the engineering marvel and the sights of New York State. Packetboats like the one in this painting at the Albany Institute of History and Art were used frequently, waning in 1853 when railroads were completed around the state.

Hugh Peebles, the eldest child and to whom the inn's ownership and operation passed, served during the Revolutionary war in some significant positions, including as private secretary and Quartermaster for Colonel Jacobus Van Schoonhoven, the Saratoga Campaign, and likely one of the first companies to defend Bemis Heights under Gen. William Alexander.  In 1784, as the military representative, he signed the Treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix (and again in 1789 in Albany). He became an influential figure locally by serving as: Member of the Masonic Lodge in Albany (Master's Lodge No. 2), Queensbury Pay Master (military appointment 1786), an original board member of the first local public school system (1796), Justice of the Peace for Half-Moon (1797;1800), Halfmoon Commissioner of Taxes and Superintendents of Highways (1799) and even campaigned to become an Assemblyman for Saratoga County in 1799 (finished #7). Brookwood was passed along to his eldest child, Abbie, after his death in 1840.

His sister and the eldest daughter, Maria, married Abraham Livingston and settled in Stillwater. Livingston served in the 1st Canadian Regiment and was present at both battles of Saratoga, later serving as Captain in the New York Levies. The Peebles' third child, Rosanna(h) married John Welch, who also served in the Revolutionary Way in Col. Sheldon's Dragoons and was a part of the Burgoyne Campaign. They relocate to Welch's hometown of Litchfield, CT where they are buried. 

Peebles Island Cultural Resources Map 2000 depicting the boundary of the
NYS Park along with existing buildings and earthworks and the
 sites of former buildings and earthworks. 

Gerrit Peebles, was appointed Captain in the NY Militia in 1789 and married Elizabeth Survatt in 1799. He entered into the merchant business, becoming highly successful and influential in the local area. He moves to the growing Lansingburgh village in 1800 with his family, his wife and youngest son he tragically loses in 1811. He is elected Sheriff of Rensselaer ounty in 1813, remarrying in 1818 Maria Van Schaick (cousin to Maria Gansevoort Melville, mother of Herman Melville - again, some pretty recognizable names here). 

Gerrit purchased Haver (Oats) Island from the Van Schaick Family, after which the island took  the family name. By 1862, his son Anthony Augustus owns the entirety of the island. Gerrit died in 1841 and was buried on the family property, but later re-interred at Troy's Oakwood Cemetery.

The youngest, Gertrude Peebles, spent most of her childhood as her mother's right-hand person, sometimes being referenced in letters from travelers to the inn like Venezuelan Revolutionary, Fransico de Miranda . She married Benjamin Tibbits, the brother and partner of  the very successful mercantile firm G. & B. Tibbits Company, in 1793.  They had one son together before Benjamin met an untimely early death in 1802. She remarried in 1807 the widower Rev. Dr. Eliphalet Nott, clergyman, education, scientists/inventor of over 30 patents, and business (he also became nationally known in 1804 for his sermon on the "Death of Alexander Hamilton"). She moved to Schenectady with Nott and they have a son in 1809 - it is largely with Gertrude's assets that Nott buys substantial land here and laid the foundation for the expansion and growth of Union College, of which he was also president (and RPI too).

A connection to the White family: Gerrit Peebles, was a trustee of the Cohoes Manufacturing Company (incorporated 1811), which later sold the property to the Cohoes Company, which Hugh White was one of the incorporators and served as its president.

Photo from the Library of Congress taken 1969 by Jack Boucher. There are a few more worth checking out that show water still in the Cohoes Power Canal at this point, which is now the Power Canal Park by the Harmony Mill Lofts.