Conrad Gansevoort

Just fourteen at the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, he soon found himself a member of the Albany militia. He rose through the ranks to sergeant. We seek more detailed information on his wartime activities.

However, it appears that he remained close to home for a good portion of the wartime years. In May 1778, he was among those Albany people who signed a petition asking for the release of a convicted horse thief. By 1783, he had joined an Albany Masonic lodge.

In May 1780, he was made an ensign in the first regiment of the Albany County militia and promoted to second lieutenant that June. Afterwards, he received a land bounty right in conjunction with the Albany militia regiment.

With the end of the war, he took up residence in the Market Street home of his uncle Peter Gansevoort to further prepare him for his own future business in the west.

He is said to have married Elizabeth Roseboom in December 1791. By 1810, the marriage had produced at least five children - none of whom seem to have been christened at Albany churches.

In December 1795, he was named co-executor of the will of his wife's bachelor uncle who probably was his business associate in the Mohawk valley.

In 1786, he was among those who contributed to the salary of a second minister at the Albany Dutch church. In 1825, he was among the Albany members who subscribed $250 to endowing a professorship at the New Brunswick Theological Seminary. Otherwise, his name appears to be absent from the extant church records.

Family-based resources tell us that he was determined to open his own store rather than take over his father's milling enterprises. After the war, he is said to have built a house and store at Minden in new Montgomery, County. During the early 1800s, he appears to have operated a store "at Abeel's" near Fort Plain.

However, after a successful two decades in the Mohawk Valley, in 1808 Conrad turned his business over to Albany native Henry N. Bleecker. These Gansevoorts relocated, first to Schenectady (Elizabeth's birthplace), and then to Albany - the place of Conrad's birth. Beginning in 1815, his address was given in the city directory as 15 Montgomery Street.

Even as he aged through his fifties, "Coenrad's" household/family continued to grow. In 1820, ten or eleven people were living in his home located on the corner of Columbia and Montgomery Streets.

In 1826, he was mentioned in the will filed by his brother-in-law. At that time, Conrad was identified as "of Albany city, Esquire."

Conrad Gansevoort died in August 1829 while visiting family in Bath, Steuben County. His son, Peter C. Gansevoort, had died there earlier in June. Conrad's will passed probate in Albany later in the month. He was buried in the Dutch church plot of the Washington Park cemetery. The graves of several members of his family later were relocated to Albany Rural Cemetery. Widow Elizabeth died in New Jersey in 1850.

Sources: The life of Conrad Gansevoort is CAP biography number 4683. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. He was profiled in a Roseboom family history. Efficient online family information.

From Roseboom, (comp. by Catherine Roseboom & others), p. 43. "Conrad Gansevoort was a member of Isaac DeForeest's company, in the regiment of Col. Jacob Lansing, Jr, first Albany County militia, raised in the city and commissioned Oct. 20, 1775. On Mar. 3, 1780, he was made ensign of the company, Garrit Groesbeck becoming captain in place of DeForrest, and on June 20, he was made second lieutenant. After the close of the war, he established himself in the mercantile business in the town of Minden, Montgomery county, and erected a dwelling with a store in it on a knoll at the foot of Sand Hill. He was a man much respected, and after years of successful trading he retired from business and returned to Schenectady about 1812, and subsequently to Albany - probably about 1816."