David Strain (1823-1844) [Section 76 Lot 46]
The first interment in Albany Rural Cemetery
David Strain was born in Albany on October 27, 1823. He is the son of Joseph Strain and Elizabeth White who both emigrated from Omagh, Ireland, eventually settling in Albany. Joseph was a manufacturer of soap and candles and held a shop at 54 Church Street. The family home was down the street at 63 Church Street. The success of Joseph’s business allowed for the family to have a summer home, which still stands at the corner of Broadway and McDonald Circle in Menands. For many years, it served as the Home For Aged Men.
David died on October 24, 1844, of consumption a few days shy of his 21st birthday. A poem in the Albany Argus suggests that he may have traveled abroad to treatment as fresh air and sunshine were treatments for the disease; “Sleep on, it seems but yesterday, Thou wert in foreign lands, Where thou wert met by glowing hearts, And more than friendly hands. When all the spells their love had tried Could not thy health restore, Weary and faint, you dared the sea To reach thy home once more.”
Though the cemetery had been dedicated when he died it was not yet completed, there was still landscaping required, new paths to be laid out, and other improvements to be made. David’s remains were most likely placed in one of the public receiving vaults still in use at the old State Street Burying Grounds, at what is today Washington Park. In May of 1845 his body, his infant sister Rebecca who died in 1828, and Isabelle, possibly his paternal aunt who dies of in 1819, were interred at Alba in the Joseph Strain family plot.
The Strain family plot is located on what was originally called Kennisau Hill and later renamed Landscape Hill. A monument was erected for the Strain family plot by John Dixon, an Albany marble cutter, who worked on many building in Albany including the State Capitol. Doing the work by hammer and chisel, the monument reads “first internment and monument in this cemetary” (note the incorrect spelling of cemetery). However, a July 22, 1845 account in the Albany Argus by “The Boston Traveller” mentions that there was no monument in the cemetery at this time, which suggest that the memorial came later on.