The Unique Foundation
of Rensselaer County
Frank DelBene
Edited by Kaitlyn Walsh
Foundation of the county
• Kiliaen van Rensselaer
• Dutch West India Company
• New Netherlands
• Patroonship set up
• Owner of the patroon and other top positions passed down
through blood lines.
• Rensselaer County was a part of Albany County until 1791
Rensselaerwyck
• Tenants were assigned positions on the manor
• Contracts were signed tenants
• Always favored patroon
• Contracts always were impossible to pay and made the
immigrants be stuck on the land in order to pay it off
• No fur trade without consulting the patroon
• Trade was always to go through New York City first
• Dutch West India Company rules
• Then trade could go anywhere else
Fall of Rensselaerwyck
• Primogeniture passed,
stopping the family from
passing the manor down to
the next generation
• Stephen van Rensselaer III
(The “Good Patroon”)
• Left behind debt when he died
• Anti-Rent movement begins
• Tenants did not want to pay the
difference
• Patroons in Hudson Valley
were going away
• Rennselaerwyck one of the
last ones
Anti-Rent Movement
• Started in 1840’s and lasted until the fall of the manor
• Tenants were stuck to land
• Their leases were unfair and payments could never be met
• Tried multiple ways to get freedom:
• Suing the patroons, but the law prevented that
• Titles
• Violence but most were arrested
• Legislation to pass laws in their favor
• This action was the route they took and succeeded in gaining their
freedom from the Rensserlaerwyck Manor
Economy of Rensselaer County
• Major industries
• Textiles
• Iron
• Pharmaceuticals
• Iron industry was best at making horseshoes
• Needed for Midwest railroad expansion
• Bayer Co., a German company, invested in the area
• Dye industry created jobs and produced things for WWII effort
Iron Business
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Founded in 1824
• Oldest technical school in United States
• 1850 expansion
• Benjamin Franklin Greene
• Three year university with six colleges
• Rensselaer Plan
• More money towards student research
• One of best technical schools in the country
• Top 50 university overall
Progression of Rensselaer
County in History
• Rensselaer patroonship established in 1630
• Last over two centuries
• Last patroonship in Hudson River Valley
• Family owned entire area for that period
• Anti-Rent movement
• Tenants finally get their freedom after legislation is passed
• Iron, textile, and pharmaceuticals were largest businesses to
comes into the area
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute opened in 1824
• One of best technical schools currently in the country
Further Investigation
• Rensselaer County Tourism  Historic Sites:
http://www.renscotourism.com/historic_sites.aspx
• Historic Sites in Rensselaer County:
http://www.nationalregisterofhistoricplaces.com/ny/rensselaer/state.html
• Rensselaer Demographics:
http://www.renscochamber.com/resources/relocation/demographics
• Rensselaer Chamber of Commerce: http://www.renscochamber.com/
• Towns and Villages of Rensselaer County Links:
http://www.rensselaercounty.org/Cities%20Towns%20Villages.htm
• Rensselaer County Interactive Access: http://www.rensco.com
• Rensselaer County Historical Society: http://www.rchsonline.org/
Bibliography
• Cannon, Nancy S. “Voice of the People: Life in the Antebellum
Rural Delaware County New York Area,” www.Oneonta.edu
http://www.oneonta.edu/library/dailylife/protest/http://www
.colorantshistory.org/RensselaerDyeIndustry.html
• Cheyney, Edward Potts. The Anti-rent Agitation in the State of
New York, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press,
1887
Bibliography Continued
• Jacobs Jaap. “Dutch Proprietary Manors in America: the
Patroonships in New Netherland,” in Louis H. Roper, Bertrand
Van Ruymbeke, ed., Constructing Early Modern Empires:
Proprietary Ventures in the Atlantic World, 1500 – 1750,
Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2007.
• Lewis Tom. The Hudson: A History. Connecticut: Yale University
Press, 2007.
• McCurdy, Charles W. The Anti-Rent Era in New York Law and
Politics, 1839-1865. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Press.
Bibliography Continued
• O’Callaghan, E. B.“The Last Patroon,”
www.Newnetherlandinstitute.org,
http://www.newnetherlandinstitute.org/history-and-heritage/morehistorical-fun/dutch-treats/the-last-patroon/Edward Potts Cheyney.
The anti-rent agitation in the state of New York. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 1887.
• Ricard, Leander. “A History of the Dye Producing Industry in
Rensselaer, New York.” www.Colorantshistory.org
http://www.colorantshistory.org/RensselaerDyeIndustry.html
• “Timeline of Rensselaer History,” www.Rpi.edu
http://www.lib.rpi.edu/archives/timeline/1859.html