On 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

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.