Catherine Hogstrasser Ram

Catherine Hogstrasser was born about 1736. She most likely was the sister or other kin of Albany mainstay, German-ancestry emigre, Paul Hogstrasser.

In March 1765, she would have been approaching thirty when she married newcomer baker Johan Otto Rham at the Albany Dutch church. By 1779, a number of their children had been christened in Albany.

These Rams were mainstays of Albany's German- ancestry community that emerged after the end of the colonial wars. John was a notable baker who supported his family in their modest home on lower Columbia Street in a marriage that lasted forty years. In 1800, their household also included a young man and four girls in addition to the aging parents.

John Ram died in 1805. Beginning in 1813, her home was listed in city directories at 31 Columbia. In 1820 and afterwards, she was identified as a "mantuamaker." Catherine Hogstrasser Ram died in February 1826. The newspaper obituary noted that she was ninety years old.

Sources: The life of Catherine Hogstrasser Ram is CAP biography number 8493. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.