Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 38, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1906 — OBITUARY. [ARTICLE]

OBITUARY.

It has been desired that more extended reference be made to.the life and character of Miss Cornelia Rutsen Van Rensselaer who died at an early hour on Wednesday morning, January 10th, 1906, <> after an illness of more than thnJp months, at the residence of her niece Mrs. Alan Hartwell Strong, with whom she had made her home for many years. ~ ——- 1 :- 1 v. r ' Miss Van Rensselaer was the eldest daughter of James Van Rensselaer, Esq, formerly of Utica, N. Y., the founder of Rensselaer, Indiana, and the grand daughter of Brigader-General Robert Van Rensselaer, who commanded the Second Brigade Of the Albany Co, Militia ■ during the Revolutionary War and represented the Eastern! Manor in the New York Provincial ? Congress from 1775-77. -

, Mr. James Van Rensselaer went to Indiana in 1835 for the purpose of purchasing and settling government land. The town of Rensselaer was located in 1838, and so named by Act of Legislature, Feb. 18, 1840. In response to numerous queries, it may be mentioned that the names of certain of the streets of the present-city arA_of family origin. Susan and Cullen Streets

were named after the founder’s wife whose maiden name was Susan de Lancey Cullen, Cornelia and Rutsen Streets preserve the name of the founder’s mother who was the daughter and grand-daughter of two Colonels Jacob Rutsen, men of wealth and importance living in Kingston, N. Y., before the Revolutionary period and distinguished in the Colonial Wais. Angelica Street is in honor of the founder’s grandmother Angelica Livingston, daughter of Robert Livingston Mayor of Albany from 1710 to 1719. Her mother was Margarets Schuy ler, daughter of the renowned Col. Pieter Schuyler, first Mayor of Albany and also deputy royal governor of New York. In the name of his youngest daughter, Angelica Schuyler, Mr. Van Rensselaer embodied the recollection of this descent.

There was much to interest and attract in those early days on the Indian prairies. Miss Van Rensselaer often mentioned the wonderful beauty and luxuriant growth of the wild flowers and the abundance of game which became almost monotonous as an article of food. The title to the land along the falls of the Iroquois was acquired by Mr. Van Rensselaer on June 14, 1836 and very shortly afterwards the first log cabin was built by Joseph D. Yeoman on what is now the south-west corner of Washington and Front Streets. It was bought by Mr, Van Rensselaer and enlarged and ’subsequently occupied bj T himself for a short time and for some years by his sen-in-law Henry Weston, Esq., the donor to the town ofWeston’ftr Cemetery. One of Mr. Yeomauls children was later named after Miss Van Rensselaer, the subject qf this sketch. Mrs. Cornelia V. R. Adams is now residing at Winfield, Kansas and has for many years been a frequent correspondent ami valued friend of er revered god mother. The founder 8 family joined him in Rensselaer in 1840 and remained there until the early summer of 1847, his death having occurred on the 18th of the previous March. The family returned to Mew York ’ aad continued to reside in that city

and in Newport, R. £ until 1862, when they .finally settled in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Mrs. Van Rensselaer dying there on June 23, 1863. Mr. Weston married Miss Susan Van Rensselaer, another daughter, had established his home in New Brunswick and was Vice' President of the Washington Insurance Co., in New York.

Miss Van Rensselaer was for over forty years a member of the Second Reform Church of New Brunswick. She was a woman of rare qualities of mind and heart, beauty of person and grace of manner. Her noble and u nsel fish charact cr. displayed throughout her long and useful life, endeared her to a large circle of relatives and friends who will cherish her memory as that of a faithful and exemplary Christian. Born in Utica, on the 24th July, 1823, in the palmy days of that old city, in her passes a link with the early history of manorial life along the Hudson. She vividly remembered life at Claverack Manor as early as 1825, and her unerring memory and great story telling talent have preserved many facts of interest and value relating to the social intercourse among the closely allied families of the great Manors during the early part of the nineteenth century.

S. de L. R. S.