History of Rensselaerville, (Albany County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Mortimer Melville Jackson, jurist, was born at Rensselaerville, N.Y., March 5, 1814; son of Jeremiah and Martha (Keyes) Jackson. Both his parents were of Puritan descent; his father was a farmer, and died while Mortimer was a boy. He was educated at the district school, at Lindley Murray Morris's school, Flushing, L. I., and in the collegiate school of Boreland & Forrest, New York city, where he was graduated and awarded the prize as the best English scholar. He began business life in New York, where he also studied law with David Graham. He was an active member of the Mercantile Library association, becoming director and later vice-president of the association. In 1834 he was a delegate from New York city to the Whig State convention at Syracuse, which nominated William H. Seward for governor. In 1838 he was married to Catharine, daughter of Andrew S. Garr, of New York city, and removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin Territory, settling at Mineral Point in 1839, where he was admitted to the bar, was a member of the territorial convention of 1840, and helped to organize the Whig party in the territory and to oppose the extension of slavery. He was attorney-general of the territory by appointment of Governor Doty, 1842-47. As chairman of the committee appointed in 1846 to plan for better educational advantages, he wrote the report to the legislature. He was the first circuit judge for the fifth judicial circuit of the state during the existence of the court, 1848-53, and was elected chief justice of the court, but declined to serve. He practised law in Madison, Wis., 1853-61, and was the defeated Republican candidate for attorney-general of the state in 1856 and for U.S. senator in 1857. In 1861 President Lincoln appointed him U.S. consul at Halifax, N.S., where during the civil war he rendered the country valuable service in causing the seizure of Confederate munitions of war valued at over $2,000,000, and in 1870 in protecting the rights of fishing vessels and in making to the government a valuable and exhaustive report on the fisheries and fishery laws of Canada. He was U.S. consul-general to the British maritime provinces, 1880-82, having declined the post of U.S. consul-general at Melbourne, Australia. In 1882 he resigned and returned to Madison, Wis., alone, his wife having died in Halifax, Aug. 16, 1875. He published a number of articles intended to attract emigration to Michigan and to encourage the development of mineral lands within the territory. He died in Madison, Wis., Oct. 13, 1889.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Samuel Luckey, educator, was born in Rensselaerville, N.Y., April 4, 1791. He became a Methodist itinerant preacher in Ottawa, Canada, 1811, and served the Oneida conference, N.Y., 1812-21. He was president of the Genesee Wesleyan seminary, 1822-26; was stationed at New Haven, Brooklyn and Albany, and served as presiding elder of the New Haven district, New York East conference, 1826-36; was editor of the publications of the Methodist publishing society, New York city, 1836-40; presiding elder of the Rochester, N.Y., circuit, 1842-69, during which time he was chaplain of the Monroe county penitentiary nine years and regent of the University of the State of New York, 1847-69. He received the honorary degree of A.M. from Union in 1824. He is the author of: Treaties on the Sacrament (1859); Hymns and Lessons for Children, and sermons. He died in Rochester, N.Y., Oct. 11, 1869.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Rufus Wheeler Peckham, jurist, was born in Rensselaerville, N.Y., Dec. 20, 1809; son of Peleg and Desire (Watson) Peckham; and grandson of Benjamin, Jr., and Mary (Hazard) Peckham. His parents removed to Cooperstown, N.Y., where he was prepared for college. He was graduated from Union in 1827: studied law; was admitted to the bar, and in 1830 established himself in practice in Albany, N.Y. He was appointed district attorney of Albany county, 1838; was a Democratic representative in the 33d congress, 1853-55, and in June, 1855, resumed his law practice in partnership with Judge Lyman Tremain. He was a justice of the New York supreme court, 1859-70, and a judge of the court of appeals, 1870-73. The honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Union college in 1870. He married in 1832, Isabella, daughter of the Rev. William B. and Hannah Lacey of Albany, N.Y. She died April 4, 1848, and in February, 1862, he married Mary E. Foote of Brooklyn, N.Y. His health failing, he sailed for France with his wife, and both perished in the wreck of the Ville du Havre, Nov. 22, 1873.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

Eliza Woodson (Burhans) Farnham, philanthropist, was born in Rensselaerville, N.Y, Nov. 17, 1815. She went to Illinois in 1835, where she met Thomas Jefferson Farnham, a native of Vermont and a lawyer, to whom she was married in 1836. In 1839 her husband took command of an expedition to Oregon and in 1841 she returned to her native state, Mr. Farnham remaining on the Pacific coast, where he wrote "Travels in Oregon Territory" (1844); "Adventures in California" (1846); and "Mexico, its Geography, People and Institutions" (1846). He died in California in 1848. Mrs. Faruham in 1844 became matron of the Woman's prison, Sing Sing, N.Y., and there instituted a government of the department by kindness, which was a revelation in the line of prison discipline. In 1848 she gave up her position to accept one in the Institution for the blind, Boston, Mass. In September, 1848, she went to California in order to settle up the estate of her deceased husband. She returned to New York in 1856, studied medicine in 1857-58, and in 1859 organized an emigration society to provide homes in the west for destitute women. She is the author of Life in Prairie Land (1846); California Indoors and Out (1856); and My Early Days (1859). She also edited Sampson's Criminal Jurisprudence, and wrote Ideal Attained (1865), and Woman and Her Era (2 vols., 1864). She died in New York city, Dec. 15, 1864.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor