ERNEST J. ECKER, LOT 401, ENOS WRIGHT HOUSE

I have just finished the weekly update to Albany Hilltowns main pages. It summarizes changes made this past week and gives links to them: Civil War soldier biographies, Lot numers, farm houses, farm activites, ideas for farmers, and much more.

Here are a few of the new pages added this past week:

• A biography page has been started for Ernest J. Ecker who died on Sunday, Jan. 17, 2010, in Delray Beach, Fla., where he had lived in his later years. He was 87.

 

•  The Enos Wright House, 1560 Helderberg Trail, Berne, was built 1891 by Charles Willsey for Enos J. Wright (1837- 1905). Wright was a 49 year old farmer, single, and living at home when his mother died in 1885. A few months later he married 27 year old Ida Mae Schoonmaker, who had been a domestic in the home of his parents’ home for a number of years. The house was a major addition to the small, earlier house which is now the east wing kitchen. 

Lot 401 situated on West Mountain at the intersection of Bradt Hollow Road and Peasley Road.

• The earliest settler on was John Crosby (1758 - 1803), who settled here with his family in 1795. During the Rev. War he was in the militia in Dutchess Co. The family was originally from Harwich, Barstable Co., Mass. Crosby was undoubtedly one of the founders of the the Baptist Church that was on his lot. 
• 1797 - The Rensselaerville and Berne Baptist Church was built at the intersection of Bradt Hollow Road and Peasley Road. It was in existence until late in the 19th C. Now only the cemetery remains. The records were stored in a barn and were lost when the barn burned.
• 1800 - The earliest burial in the Baptist Church Burying Ground was 1800. It remained in active use until 1901. Seven Revolutionary War soldiers and a daughter of a Lord Mayor of London are buried here.
  
• Site of School House No. 3, (the Peasley School).
• 1866 Beers map of Berne shows J. Crosby, the Baptist Church, and School House No. 2 (actually No. 3). John Crosby Jr. (1793 - 1869), born in Dutchess Co. came with his family to West Mt. when he was two years old. He was raised and lived on the family farm until his death in 1869 when he was buried in the Baptist Church Cemetery
• Crosby Farm - Grass-fed, beef, produced with heritage breed, dexter cattle, sides, custom butchering, all natural. Timothy Lippert; 30 Bradt Hollow Rd., Berne; - Tel. (518) 797 3610 or Email tlippert@starband.net