History of Kinderhook, (Columbia County) New York United States of America

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Biographies:

Martin Van buren, eighth President of the United States, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y., Dec. 5, 1782, son of Abraham and Mary (Hoes) Van Buren. His father was a farmer and tavern-keeper, and Martin attended the district schools and Kinderhook academy; entered the law office of Francis Sylvester in 1796, and in 1802 removed to New York city, where he completed his law studies under William P. Van Ness. He was admitted to the bar in 1803, and joined James J. Van Alen in a law partnership at Kinderhook in 1803. He was married in February, 1807, to Hannah Hoes, a relative on his mother's side, who died in Albany, N.Y., Feb. 5, 1819. He succeeded James J. Van Alen as surrogate of Columbia county, Feb. 20, 1808, and was reelected in 1815. In 1809 he removed to Hudson, N.Y., was elected to the state senate in 1813, and became a member of the court for the correction of errors, which court was composed of the chancellor, judges of the supreme court, lieutenant governor and thirty-two senators. He succeeded Abraham Van Vechten as attorney-general of the state in February, 1815, and held the office until July, 1819. He removed to Albany in 1816, and took into partnership Benjamin F. Butler. He was one of the original members of the "Albany regency" which exercised a controlling influence on state politics; opposed the policy of Gov. DeWitt Clinton, and in consequence was removed from the office of attorney-general by the Albany council, acting in Clinton's interest, in 1819. In 1820 he opposed the re-election of Clinton and was tendered the office of attorney-general, which he declined. He was an adroit party manager, being popularly styled the "Little Magician," and was instrumental in securing the re-election of Rufus King as U.S. senator from New York, in 1820. In February, 1821, he was elected to the U.S. senate over Nathan Sanford, and took his seat, Dec. 3, 1821, his term expiring March 3, 1827. He was a member of the committee on the judiciary and finance, and chairman of the former for several years. He was opposed to the law of imprisonment for debt, and advocated its abolition; voted for the protective tariff of 1824; advocated a constitutional amendment, touching the election of the President, under which, if there were no majority choice of the electors, the choice should not rest with the house, but that the electors should be reconvened, and themselves choose between the two highest candidates, but the amendment was not passed. In 1828 he was elected governor of the state of New York, and opposed the free banking system; and recommended the separation of the Federal from state elections. In 1829, on the election of Andrew Jackson to the Presidency, he was appointed secretary of state in Jackson's cabinet. He terminated the controversy between the United States and England in regard to the West India trade. On April 11, 1831, he resigned the portfolio and was appointed U.S. minister to England, but returned to the United States after the senate refused to confirm his nomination in 1832. He was elected Vice-President of the United States on the ticket with Andrew Jackson for President in 1832; was nominated for President, May 20, 1835, by the Democratic national convention at Baltimore, with Richard M. Johnson for Vice-President, and was elected in 1836, over William H. Harrison, Daniel Webster, Hugh L. White and Willie P. Mangum by a plurality of 24, 893 popular votes, and 57 electoral votes. In making up his cabinet he retained John Forsyth of Georgia as secretary of state; Levi Woodbury of New Hampshire as secretary of the treasury; Mahlon Dickerson of New Jersey as secretary of war, all of whom remained during the entire administration; Amos Kendall of Kentucky as postmaster-general, succeeded in 1840 by John M. Niles of Connecticut; Joel R. Poinsett of South Carolina as secretary of war, and Benjamin F. Butler of New York was continued as attorney-general, being succeeded in 1838 by Felix Grundy of Tennessee, who was in turn succeeded by Henry D. Gilpin of Pennsylvania, in 1840. The President appointed Lewis Cass of Michigan as minister to France; Henry A. Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania as minister to Austria and Austria-Hungary, and on his resignation in 1840, J. R. Clay of Pennsylvania, as charg?-d'affaires; George M. Dallas of Pennsylvania, as minister to Russia, who was succeeded in 1839 by W. W. Chew of Pennsylvania as charg?-d'affaires until the appointment of Churchill C. Cambreleng of New York, in 1840, and John H. Eaton of Tennessee as minister to Spain, who was succeeded in 1840 by Aaron Vail, of New York, charg?-d'affaires. The administration of President Jackson had been one of wild speculation and inflation, and the disastrous panic of 1837, and the depression which necessarily followed, occupied the whole attention of Van Buren's administration. He held to a policy of non-interference until the inflated values had found their level, and urged congress to pass the sub-treasury bill, under which the government was to keep and circulate its revenues without the agency of any bank. He was re-nominated at the Democratic national convention, May 5, 1840, which met at Baltimore, but was defeated in the election by Gen. William Henry Harrison, receiving only 60 electoral votes to 234 awarded Harrison, the latter's popular plurality being 146,315. Van Buren retired to his country seat, [p.234] "Lindenwald," Columbia county, N.Y., and was nominated for President by a "Barnburner" convention held at Utica, N.Y., in June, 1848, which nomination was confirmed by the Free-Soil national convention of Buffalo, Aug. 9, 1848. He received 291,262 popular votes against 1,360,101 for Zachary Taylor, but his candidacy caused the defeat of Gen. Lewis Cass, who was opposed to the Wilmot proviso. Van Buren supported Franklin Pierce and James Buchanan in 1852 and 1856, and although opposed to President Lincoln, he gave the administration his hearty support during the civil war. He is the author of: Inquiry into the Origin and Course of Political Parties in the United States (1867). He died in Kinderhook, N.Y., July 24, 1862.

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

Benjamin Franklin Butler, statesman, was born at Kinderhook Landing, N. Y., Dec. 17, 1795; son of Medad Butler and a descendant of Jonathan Butler of Ireland, who settled in Saybrook, Conn., in 1724. He studied law in the office of Martin Van Buren; was admitted to the bar in 1817, and practised with Mr. Van Buren at Albany, N. Y., 1817-21. He became district attorney of Albany county in 1821; a member of the state assembly in 1828, and a commissioner to fix the boundary between New York and New Jersey in 1838. He was U.S. attorney-general under President Jackson, 1833-37, and under President Van Buren, 1837-38, and U.S. secretary of war in 1837. He was U. S. district attorney for the southern district of New York, 1838-41; organized the law department of the University of the City of New York in 1835, where he served as chief instructor several years. He was married in 1824 to Harriet Allen of Albany, N. Y. He died in Paris, France, Nov. 8, 1858.

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

John F. Driggs, representative, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y., March 3, 1813. He became a master mechanic, was superintendent of the New York penitentiary in 1844-45, and worked in New York city until 1856, when he removed to East Saginaw, Mich. In 1858 he was chosen president of the village and served in the lower house of the state legislature in 1859. He was a representative in the 38th, 39th and 40th congresses, 1863-69. He was a delegate to the Loyalist convention in Philadelphia in 1866. He died at East Saginaw, Mich., Dec. 17, 1877.

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