Catherine Van Benthuysen Wendell

Catherine Van Benthuysen appears to have been born in January 1761. She was the eldest daughter of Jacob and Rachel Van Vredenburgh Van Benthuysen. She grew up in a smallish mid-Hudson valley family and was noted as an heir in the will filed by her Rhinebeck resident father in March 1767. By that time, her mother had passed on.

Probably in 1784, Catalyntie married thirty-two-year-old former Revolutionary war officer John H. Wendell. By 1804, the marriage had produced ten children who were christened at the Albany Dutch church.

She raised her large family on Market and then Columbia Streets in the old Dutch house that was Wendell's childhood home. He operated a store and was a prominent Albany and state official. In 1813, their home address was 27 Columbia Street.

Catherine Van Benthuysen Wendell died in January 1817 at age fifty-five. She was buried in the Dutch church plot. Her husband survived until 1832.

Sources: The life of Catherine Van Benthuysen Wendell is CAP biography number 5404. This sketch is derived chiefly from family and community-based resources.