Chapter 1



Albany County almost always has been an important center providing 
goods and services, and has exercised an importance in state and 
national affairs beyond all proportion to its size.  In this grantfunded 
project, "World Our Fathers Made", can be seen our local 
manifestations of the concerns for human services and public needs 
not too different from those shared by Albany County today. 
In this case, shown in this guide to the public records of our 
communities, the past is truly prologue.          

James J. Coyne
Albany County Executive
1988

Over the past three centuries and more, several dozen people 
have served as Albany County Clerk, the clerk of record for one 
of America's oldest communities, in one of New York's original 
Charter counties.  While these people helped to shape the region's 
history, and often were important functionaries, it was the records 
themselves which provided the continuity.  In a time of great flux 
and change such as the Constitutional Era, this records-keeping 
function creates the administrative portrait of the times, showing 
why decisions were made and who our people were.  To the all but 
anonymous County and Town Clerks of two hundred years ago, 
we owe a great debt.  Their safeguarding of these documents 
allows us to see the Albany County of their time once again.  
To this guide, "World Our Fathers Made", the scholars and 
educators of tomorrow will owe a debt nearly as great, 
as we seek to understand the turbulent birth of our nation 
as it was felt in the County of Albany two centuries ago.

Hon.  Thomas G. Clingan
Albany County Clerk

First and foremost I would like to thank Bob Arnold, former Executive 
Director of the Albany County Hall of Records, former County Historian, 
and director of this project.  His enthusiasm boosted my own when 
obstacles were encountered; his reading and rereading of drafts along 
with his knowledge of the area's local history, saved this guide from 
efforts otherwise overlooked.  I would also like to thank the Hall of 
Record's present Executive Director, Mary F. Vines, for her patient 
editing and her direction in preparing this guide for publication.  
To the archives staff at the Hall of Records - Meredith 
Cherven-Holland, Cari R. Palmer, Jeanenne Paquin, and Helen 
Chmielewski - I owe a great debt for familiarizing me with their 
archival policies and for their assistance in organizing the records 
survey. I would like to express my gratitude to the participants of the 
"World Our Father's Made" conference.  Their intellect and concerns 
served as a guide for the direction this survey would follow.  Those 
participants were Dr. Thomas Burke, Hon.  Robert J. Bums, Ms. 
Meredith Cherven-HoUand, Dr. James Folts, Dr. Maryanne Malecki, 
Mrs. Rose-Marie Manory, Hon.  Edita Probst, Hon.  Herbert Reilly, Ms. 
Valerie J. Restifo, Hon. Jane Springer, Mr. John Tmvis, and Ms. 
Cari R. Palmer.  I would like to single out Dr. James Folts of the New 
York State Archives and express thanks for his invaluable guidance 
and review of the Court Records section.  I would like to thank Mrs.
 Marie Wiedeman of the Bethlehem Historical Society for taking an 
afternoon and introducing me to the society's collection of local history.  
I would also like to- extend appreciation to Ms. Jane Springer, 
Guilderland Town Clerk; Mr. Paul S. Murphy, City Clerk of Watervliet; 
Ms. Carolyn M. Lyons, Bethlehem Town Clerk; and Ms. Kathleen Newkirk 
and Ms. Gloria Johnson of the Bethlehem Town Clerk's office for their 
time and efforts in making available their 
respective town records.

Tracy B. Grimm

WHO WERE WE THEN?

Who were the people of Albany County during the nation's infancy.  
How did they make their livings, indeed, where did they live, 
what services did they require, what alterations in their environment 
did they make?  What chattels or real properties did they own?  
How do we know the rise or decline of their fortunes, the nature and 
result of their adversities, the roads they walked, the oxen they drove, 
the feral hogs they ran unringed?  The flavor of their lives is in 
the public records of the era, now two centuries remote.  
While we cannot imagine the relative silence or comparative isolation 
of their world, or fully understand the cultures in which they were 
formed, their public records reflect their needs, their hopes, and their 
reality; these records reflect the world our fathers made. A guide to 
the public records of the Constitutional Era - here defined as 1783-1815 
- has not been attempted on the local level before; these records are 
broad strokes on the canvas eventually depicting that time and give rise 
to our present. With funding from the New York State Commission on the 
Bicentennial of the United States Constitution, with the support of County 
Executive James J. Coyne, the Albany County Committee on the 
Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, the Hudson-Mohawk Institute 
of the College of Saint Rose, the Albany County Hall of Records, the 
Albany County Historian's Office, and, of course, Albany's County Clerks, 
past and present, Guy Paquin and Thomas G.. Clingan, this guide was 
created.  Special accolade is also due to Tracy Grimm, an intern from 
the College of Saint Rose hired with State Bicentennial commission 
funds to produce this guide.  Its high quality is all but entirely due to 
her.

Robert W. Arnold III
Project Director
November 17, 1988

While the nation's leaders were occupied with adjusting to the 
new Constitution, the government of the County of Albany and the 
local governments of its municipalities were occupied with meeting 
the growing needs of their citizens.  The Constitutional Era was a time 
of expansion and internal development for the County of Albany.  
As the population of the county increased, so did the partitioning of its 
townships.  The formation of townships and their local governments 
provided organization to allow these communities to develop 
accommodations for their individual, local needs.  Roads and highways 
were planned and built in response to the petitions of groups of citizens 
to their local boards of Highway Commissioners.  The rural communities 
of Albany County as well as the city of Albany were dependent upon 
their local governments for organization and implementation of their 
civil futures.  The existing records of this period in the County's history 
are today held by the Albany County Hall of Records,the County Clerk, 
Town Clerks, local historical societies, the Office of Public Records of 
the City of Albany, and the New York State Archives and Records 
Administration.  It is from the collections of these repositories that this
survey was compiled.    As with any historical study or survey,, limitations 
to the scope of this study were established due to restrictions of budget, 
time and focus.  "World Our Fathers Made" is a survey of public records, 
records which a government unit generates or keeps, created during 
the Constitutional Era.  The era has been defined as the period of 
1783-1815.  In accordance with this limitation, only those towns of 
Albany County whose dates of establishment precede 1815 have 
been included in this guide.

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