Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 37, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 May 1905 — Mrs. Van Rensselaer Strong Rescues Historic Building. [ARTICLE]

Mrs. Van Rensselaer Strong Rescues Historic Building.

A ftritil articlfshave been published in the Sunday Magazine tinder Ihe title of “Historic Houses Preserved by Scc'eties of American Women.” One of these sketches is of special interest to Jasper oaunty readers, fir it cmeerns a house built by the ancestor of the same Van Rensselaer family Whioh founded and named oar oity and its rescue from dea+rnotion by Mrs. Susan 0. Van Rensselaer Strong, only living ohild of John 0 Van Rensselaer, and herself known to many of our citizens. This particular sketch is also of great general as well as of looal interest, and is therefore herewith oopied:

Finally, there is a “Yankee Doodle” House, one qf thehistorio structures saved by an individual woman. wh : ch stands on the e>st bank of the Hudson River, op polite Albany, presenting the same imposing front as in the 1642 days when built by Killian Van Bensselaer, the first “patroon,”who oaived this inscription on the cel* lar wall: “K. V. R. 1642 Anno Domini.” The bronze tablet placed outside the house by the city of Albany oontains this: “Supposed to be the oldest building in the U* S. and to have been erected in 1642 as a manor-home and place of defense, known as Fort Orailo, General Abercrombie’s while marohing to attack Fort Tioondercga in 1758, when it is said th-it at the cantonment east of the house, near the old well, the army surgeon, R, Bhuokberg, composed the popular song of “Yankee D odle.” As the story goes ia detail, this yr nng surgeon was greatly amused al the sight of the raw American recruits straggling in from the or untry-side. One day, when the queer garb of these country bum* kins exoited his derision as well as his mirtb. he seated himself by the w»4l to write the doggerel about “Yankee Diodle Dandy,” Curious ly enough, in 1775, almost a quarter of a oentury later, with the despised “Yankee Doolies” in the C ulinenlal Army held cantonment baok cf this same manorhouse before goiog on to the same Ti 'onderoga to whip the British. This massive three-story house, ■til pieroed with port-holes in mute evkbnoe of days of defense, eventually drifted|into the patriotic hands of Mrs, Van Rensselaer Strong of New-Brunswiok, New Jersey, descendant of the first Patr»on Van Rensselaer. As it has withstood the devasla’ion of nearly three centuries, she purposes, wi'h money oolleoted largely by h ree'f, to .make it permanent headquarters for patriotic work, probably under anspices of an agio nation representing various patriotic societies, 'having in the meantime promised two rooms to obapters of Daughters of the American Revolution in Albany. Aside from its sge, the manor is m >st interesting for its historic associations, as such notables as George Washington, Lafayette, Daniel Webster and Alexander Hamilton often were enteitahied under its roof. R /’ wrtK.*.-'