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Johannes
Gansevoort
Johannes Gansevoort was born in April 1721. He was the middle son of Leendert and Catharina De Wandelaer Gansevoort. He grew up learning brewing and business at the family property facing Market Street and along the Albany waterfront.
Johannes
followed his father in the family brewery. He made
an important business connection in 1750 when he
married Maria Douw. The marriage produced only four
children before her death in 1759. In 1764, he married
Eva Beekman - the mother of two more Gansevoort children.
Although his children with Maria Douw were baptized
in the Albany Dutch church and he was married and
witnessed baptisms there, later Johannes may have
been more comfortable at St. Peter's Anglican church
where his servant, Hendrick, received services in
1768.
Johannes
Gansevoort lived in the third ward and took over
the brewery with the death of Leendert Gansevoort
in 1762. In 1764, he was identified as an Albany
merchant. A few years later, his property was assessed
with the most valuable Albany real estate. After
serving as constable and firemaster, he was elected
assistant alderman in the third ward in 1762 and
'63. He also was paid in wheat for services to the
city government.
He
stood with other Albany mainstays in oppostion to
the Stamp Act when he signed the constitution of
the Albany Sons of Liberty in 1766. A decade later,
he was in his mid-fifties and appeared to not be
involved in the crusade for American liberties except
to store the "goods and effects" of
refugees from Orange County in 1777.
This
mainline member of early Albany's "historically mute majority" died in November
1781 at the age of sixty!
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Sources:
The life of Johannes Gansevoort is CAP biography
number 4665. This profile is derived chiefly from
family and community-based resources. Unlike the
more high-profile members of his family, at this
point we still seek literary sources for his life!
By Stefan Bielinski, Colonial Albany Social History Project [http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/albany]
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