New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

Roscoe Conkling

An Albany Gravestone Goes Home

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Mary McConnell gravestone being movedOn August 25th, 1823, Mary McConnell, wife of Teunis Vandeveer, died at the age of 28. Her body was laid to rest in the Second Presbyterian Church’s lot at the State Street Burying Grounds in Albany, NY. Laid to rest until 1868, that is.

When the City closed the old Burying Grounds to make way for Washington Park to be developed, her grave was one of 14,000 transferred to the Albany Rural Cemetery, which had been established in 1844.

Her headstone did not make the journey with her coffin until last fall. [Read more…] about An Albany Gravestone Goes Home

Trust Busting: William Jennings Bryan & Theodore Roosevelt

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Corner of Wall Street and Broad Street in New York City, ca 1900 (Library of Congress)As control of the American economy became increasingly centralized in trusts located on Wall Street after the Civil War, and the wealth of men like J.P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller grew exponentially, there developed an increasing backlash against such concentrations of wealth. In the 1880s, through an investigation by a committee of the New York State Legislature, Americans became aware that Standard Oil secretly controlled a number of supposedly competing oil companies. By 1910 almost 90% of the world’s oil supply was controlled from the company’s headquarters at 26 Broadway in Manhattan. [Read more…] about Trust Busting: William Jennings Bryan & Theodore Roosevelt

Stewart-Cousins to be Latest Historic State Senate Leader

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Senator RF Wagner Andrea Stewart-Cousins is positioned to become the first woman and first African-American state senate majority leader in New York state history after the New Year. Ms. Stewart-Cousins, a Yonkers resident, is currently the Democratic leader in the senate, a chamber her party will now control, with 39 seats out of 63, following the November elections.

It’s the first time Democrats will control the body in almost a decade, and their largest majority ever. (In fact, Democrats have only controlled the upper chamber for three years since World War II).

A few of Ms. Stewart-Cousins’ predecessors have also achieved prominence: [Read more…] about Stewart-Cousins to be Latest Historic State Senate Leader