Lewis Benedict

by


Lewis Benedict is said to have been born in November 1785. He was the first son born to the marriage of Uriah and Ruth Rockwell Benedict who had migrated west from Fairfield County, Connecticut. By 1790, his father had settled their budding family in Ballstown.

In January 1812, Lewis married Albany native Susan Stafford. By 1830, the marriage had produced at least eight children.

Beginning with the first issue in 1813, the Albany city directories listed his residence at 51 Lydius Street and his store at 3 State Street. At the same time, the "widow of Uriah" Benedict (probably his sister-in-law) was listed nearby at 38 Dock Street.

This individual was a merchant in partnership with his in-laws, the Staffords, until 1825 when finally he left that business. He was months shy of his fortieth birthday. We must summarize his subsequent life and career after that time.

This Lewis Benedict bought and sold real property alone and with others in the first ward but also along what became Washington Avenue in the newly opened western part of the city.

He is said to have been the Albany postmaster during most of the 1850s.

Lewis Benedict is said to have died in July 1862 and was buried at the Albany Rural Cemetery - his grave marked by a substantial monument. His widow survived until 1869.


biography in-progress


notes

the people of colonial Albany Sources: The life of Lewis Benedict is CAP biography number 7306. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources. The basic family-based resource is Henry Marvin Benedict, The Genealogy of the Benedicts in America (Albany, NY, 1870).
An unsubstantiated source holds that he was born in Saratoga County which would place his parents there by 1785. No supporting evidence has been uncovered at this time. However, the Ballstown households of two Uriah Benedicts were configured on the census 1n 1790. In 1800, the first ward household of a "Benedict Lewis" was included on the Albany census when the subject of this sketch would have been about fifteen.

Confusion abounds in the assignment of information between this individual who died in 1862 and a much younger but same-named Union army officer who was killed in Louisiana in 1864.





first posted: 10/30/11