died at his seat, on the Hudson river, in the original town of
Kinderhook (now Stuveysant), on the 18th day of July, 1823, in the
ninety-first year of his age. He was a native of Kinderhook village,
having been born at that place in 1733. The events of his life, with
cover nine decades of a century, were not without interest. For about
forty years he was in public employ or official station under the crown
and province of New York before the Revolution, and in the commonwealth
of Massachusetts after that event. He was on terms of intimacy with Sir
William Johnson, and corresponded with him on colonial affairs. He
served under Sir William, then Major-General, Johnson, in the expedition
against Crown Point in 1755, being at that time lieutenant of a company
of which Philip, afterwards the famous General, Schuyler, was captain.
The accounts published at the time of one of the engagements between the
English and French troops near Lake George, in September, 1755, speak of
Lieutenant Van Schaack as having “distinguished himself in that
action.” He was then twenty-two years old. He served in the campaign
against Niagara, and was then a major. He was at one time paymaster to
the “New York Regiment,” and afterwards held a special commission from
the governor of the province as “Paymaster and Commissary of the
Musters.” And was obliged, in the performance of the duties of the
latter office, to visit the military posts on the frontiers, where the
troops were stationed.
It was in this old French war, as it was called, that Mr. Van Schaack
formed an interesting acquaintance with the then captain, and afterwards
brigadier-general, Richard Montgomery. On his way to Canada, in 1775,
Montgomery visited his early friend at Kinderhook, and left with him
some tokens of remembrance.
Mr. Van Schaack was postmaster at Albany from 1757 to 1771, a period of
fourteen years. During the greater part of this time he was engaged in
the Indian and fur trade, extending his operations, upon the conquest of
Canada, to Detroit and Mackinaw, which then remote places he repeatedly
visited at that early day. When at Detroit, on one occasion, he
redeemed a white boy from captivity among the Indians by giving a silver
tankard for him. The boy grew up to manhood, was established in
business by Mr. Van Schaack, and was known through life by the name of
Tankard.
In 1769, Mr. Van Schaack removed from Albany to Kinderhook village. He
was soon after appointed a justice of the peace, and one of the quorum,
upon the recommendation of his friend, Sir William Johnson. He was also
chosen supervisor of his native town at this period, and was continued
in that office by annual re-election, and he also held the office of
magistrate until the administration of the laws was interrupted by the
Revolution. He was a member of the Albany county committee of safety in
1774; and he, together with Robert Yates and Peter Silvester, were by
that body nominated delegates to the memorable Continental Congress,
which met in Philadelphia in September of that year. The committee
afterwards determined to send only one delegate, and General Schuyler
was selected, but failing to attend, the New York city delegates were
finally empowered to represent Albany county in that great Congress.
Soon after this, Mr. Van Schaack ceased to take part in Revolutionary
measures, having come to the conclusions (as he quaintly expressed
himself in a letter to a relative) that “people had got to that pass
that they did not consider the qualifications of a king, for that they
would have no king.”
At the close of the war Mr. Van Schaack became a citizen of
Massachusetts, and fixed his residence at Pittsfield, in Berkshire
county, where he erected a very substantial and tasty house, in an
interesting position near that village, and devoted himself to
agricultural pursuits. He was soon after called from a purposed
retirement, becoming a decided “Government-man” in Shay’s rebellion.
This doubtless led to his being chosen, in 1786, a member of the
Legislature of Massachusetts, known as “The General Court.”
He took an early and decided stand in support of the Federal
constitution, employing his pen, and addressing his fellow-citizens, in
favor of its adoption. For fourteen years he was a magistrate in
Massachusetts by successive appointments, made by Governors John Hancock
and Caleb Strong. At an early day he became a member of the
Massachusetts Society or Promoting Agriculture, and he was a member of
the first board of trustees of Williams College, which latter position
he occupied for about twenty years.
The good sense, strength of mind, intelligence, high integrity, courage,
and decision of character, for all of which he was distinguished,
admirably fitted him for the various positions in which he was placed;
while his urbane and jovial disposition, and extensive information, gave
him, at all times, a welcome place in the social circle. His
associates, from an early day, were men of mark; and his own commanding
good qualities are abundantly evidenced by the large number of eminent
men who were visitors at his house during his twenty-four years’
residence in Pittsfield, embracing in the list many of the most eminent
characters in Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York. Prominent among
those names (not to designate others) were Fisher Ames and Alexander
Hamilton. Chief-Justice John Jay and Judge Bushrod Washington, of the
Supreme Court of the United States, used to call on the Pittsfield
farmer, when on their way to Vermont to perform their judicial duties.
Distinguished foreigners were also among those visitors, including the
ambassadors from Holland and England. Lebanon Springs, originally known
as “The Pool, “ was then rapidly becoming the Bath of America; and many
of its frequenters found their way to the mansion at Pittsfield famed or
its hospitality.
In 1808, Mr. Van Schaack removed from Pittsfield to Kinderhook Landing,
where he passed the residue of his life in comparative retirement. Some
of his old surviving friends, however, followed him to his new abode;
among whom were Judge Oliver Wendell, of Boston, grandfather of the poet
O. W. Holmes, and his particular friend, Judge Egbert Benson, of New
York. In the “History of Pittsfield,” recently published, a prominent
and honored place is justly given to the name of Henry Van Schaack.
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