Ephraim Van Vechten

by


Ephraim Van Vechten was born in April 1743. He was the son of Johannes and Neeltie Beekman Van Vechten. He grew up in a comfortable first ward home but lost his father at age three when Johannes Van Vechten, Jr. died in December 1746. In May 1762, he was named an heir in the will filed by his mother.

February 1767,he married Anna Wendell at the Albany Dutch church. Their only child was born the following March. After Anna's death, he married the widow Susanna Hogan De Garmo in November 1774. In 1779, their daughter was christened in the church where Ephraim was a member and pewholder.

During the early 1760s, Ephraim Van Vechten was a trader operating out of Niagara. He also was beginning to establish a permanent identity in Albany by acquiring land and serving as firemaster in the first ward - first in 1763. Beginning in 1766, his first ward home was valued on city assessment rolls.

At the outbreak of hostilities in 1775, he began to build a record of support by accepting the commission as Quartermaster of the city militia regiment. He later served as Deputy Wagon Master General. He also lent financial support and was paid by the Albany Committees. Afterwards, he was accorded a land bounty right for service in conjunction with the Albany regiment.

With the coming of peace, this forty-year-old sought to establish himself as a skipper or mariner as his home on Court and Hudson Streets became an Albany landmark. In 1800, his household included only his wife and a younger female.

In 1787, he was empowered to administer the estate of his younger brother who was recently deceased and probably a bachelor.

Ephraim Van Vechten died in November 1802 and was buried from his church. He was a few months shy of his sixtieth birthday.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Ephraim Van Vechten is CAP biography number 2454. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.




first posted 3/25/07; updated 1/20/13