1 798 i8t
ny Naturalist
Antarctic
His Life • His Times
His Work By Daniel L. McKinley
New York State Museum
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2017 with funding from IMLS LG-70-15-0138-15
https://archive.org/details/jameseights179815052mcki
JAMES EIGHTS 1798-1882
James Eights in 1870. Oil portrait by Asa W. Twitchell (1820-1904). New York State Museum, Accession No. 41.5.2, Division of Research and Collections. Photo courtesy R.T. Burch.
JAMES EIGHTS 1798-1882
Antarctic Explorer, Albany Naturalist, His Life, His Times, His Works
Daniel L. McKinley
New York State Museum Bulletin 505 2005
rhe University of the State of New York Hie State Education Department!! Albany, New York 12230
THE UNIVERSITY OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
Regents of The University
Robert M. Bennett, Chancellor, B.A., M.S . Tonawanda
Adelaide L. Sanford, Vice Chancellor, B.A., M.A., P.D . Hollis
Saul B. Cohen, B.A., M.A., Ph.D . New Rochelle
James C. Dawson, A. A., B.A., M.S., Ph.D . Peru
Anthony S. Bottar, B.A., J.D . North Syracuse
Merryl H. Tisch, B.A., M.A . New York
Geraldine D. Chapey, B.A., M.A., Ed.D . Belle Harbor
Arnold B. Gardner, B.A., LL.B . Buffalo
Harry Phillips, 3rd, B.A., M.S.F.S . Hartsdale
Joseph E. Bowman, Jr., B.A., M.L.S., M.A., M.Ed., Ed.D . Albany
Lorraine A. Cortes- VAzquez, B.A., M.P.A . Bronx
James R. Tallon, Jr., B.A., M.A . Binghamton
Milton L. Cofield, B.S., M.B.A., Ph.D . Rochester
John Brademas, B.A., Ph.D . New York
C^rol Bellamy, A.B., J.D . Brooklyn
Roger B. Tilles, B.A., J.D . Great Neck
President of The University and Commissioner of Education
Richard P. Mills
Chief of Staff
Counsel and Deputy Commissioner for Legal Affairs
Kathy A. Ahearn
Chief Operating Officer
Deputy Commissioner for the Office of Management Services
Theresa E. Savo
Deputy Commissioner for Cultural Education
Carole F. Huxley
Director of the New York State Museum
Clifford A. Siegfried
Director, Research and Collections Division
John P. Hart
MERTZ U3RARY NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
The State Education Department does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, religion, creed, disability, marital status, veteran status, national origin, race, gender, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or sexual orientation in its educational programs, services and activities. Portions of this publication can be made avail¬ able in a variety of formats, including braille, large print or audio tape, upon request. Inquiries concerning this policy of nondiscrimination should be directed to the Departments Office for Diversity, Ethics, and Access, Room 530, Education Building, Albany, NY 12234. Requests for additional copies of this publication may be made by contacting the Publications Sales, Room 3140, Cultural Education Center, Albany, NY 12230.
© The New York State Education Department, Albany, New York 12230
Published 2005
Printed in the United States of America
Copies may be ordered from:
Publication Sales 3140 CEC
New York State Museum Albany, New York 12230 Phone: (518) 402-5344 FAX: (518)474-2033
Web address: http: / / www.nysm.nysed.yov. / publications.html
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005926866
ISBN: 1-55557-223-5 ISSN: 0278-3355
v
DEDICATED TO
Margaret McKinley, for many reasons, not least, having borne with me and James Eights these many years; and
Margaret Stewart, whose faith
has removed mountains.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication .
List of Figures .
A Note of Gratitude .
Permission to Publish .
Sponsors .
Chapter
1. Why Bother About James Eights? — The Eights Family — Dr. Jonathan Eights .
2. James Eights Finds Elis Legs: From Birth to the Erie Canal Years .
3. The Young Naturalist: From Albany to the City of New York .
4. James Eights in the Antarctic, Getting Started, 1828-1829 .
5. James Eights in the Antarctic: The Southward Trip, 1829 .
6. James Eights in the Antarctic: Farthest South, 1830 .
7. James Eights: Chile and the Return from the South .
8. Southern and Antarctic Plants of James Eights .
9. Southern and Antarctic Biology: Mollusks .
10. Antarctic Biology: Crustacea — Brougniartia: Sphaeroma: Glyptonotus .
11. Who Wanted to See a Ten-legged Sea-spider? James Eights's strange PvcnogOnid,
Decolopoda australis .
12. Eights in Albany: The Zodiac Years, 1830-1836 -
(I): "The Naturalist's Every Da}' Book" .
13. Eights in Albany: The later Zodiac Years, 1830-1836 — (II): Pedestrian, Geologist,
Entomologist, Historian .
14. The New York Natural History Survey, 1836 .
15. The Great South Sea Bubble .
vi
ix
xi
xiii
xv
1
17
31
39
51
73
109
123
139
145
159
165
205
231
TABLE OF CONTENTS VII
16. Remonstrances, Reactions, and the 1840s . 255
17. Albany in the Early 1850s . 269
18. The 1850s: The Gold Fields of North Carolina . 295
19. The 1850s: James Eights as Artist . 311
20. Catalogue of the Drawings of James Eights . 317
21. Eights in Panama and Texas? The End of the 1850s . 329
22. James Eights in the 1860s . 335
23. Pinksterfest, Pennsylvania Coal: The End to the 1860s . 353
24. James Eights: The Decline, 1870-1900 . 365
25. The Road Back: 1900 to 1920 . 373
26. Twentieth Century: The 1920s and Early 1930s . 381
27. Fame Claims James Eights, 1933-1960 . 385
28. James Eights: The End of a Second Century . 391
29. James Eights as Others Saw Him: The Portraits with an Appendix on
Ebenezer Emmons, Jr . 401
30. James Eights: Published and Manuscript Works . 411
31. James Eights, a Bibliography of Cited and Consulted Works . 419
viii
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 The LaFayette Canal Passage Boat Company .
2.2 Entrance into the Erie Canal near Albany .
2.3 View of the Aqueduct Bridge at Little Falls .
2.4 View of the Aqueduct Bridge at Rochester .
3.1 James Eights perhaps about 1825 .
5.1 Nataniel Palmer (1799-1877), captain of the brig Annawan .
6.1 The track of the schooner Penguin in Antarctic waters, 1829-1830 .
6.2 The South Sheland Islands, with special reference to King George Island .
8.1 Aim Antarctica VV.J. Hooker, 1837 .
8.2 Floral details of Frankenia patagonica Spegazzini, 1897 .
8.3 Distribution of Frankenia patagonica .
9.1 Nucula cightsi Couthouy, in Jay, 1839 .
10.1 Brongniartia trilobitoidcs Eights, 1833, dorsal and ventral views .
10.2 Major figure shows a long-extinct trilobite. Paradoxus .
10.3 Exosphacroma gigas, a living crustacean .
10.4 Dorsal view of Glyptonotus antarctica .
10.5 Glyptonotus antarctica, ventral view .
11.1 Dccolopoda australis, a ten-legged pycnogonid (sea spider) .
12.1 Tiger salamander (now Ambystoma tigrinuiu) .
13.1 James Eights's drawing to show arrangement of strata of Carboniferous age
13.2 James Eights, "Notes of a pedestrian," number 2, The Zodiac .
13.3 J.E.'s "Notes of a pedestrian," number 7, The Zodiac .
17.1 Sketches by James Eights (original unknown) of rock strata near Albany .
19
20
25
26 31
57
74
88
131
133
133
141
145
746
153
754
155
160
210
274
220
LIST OF FIGURES ix
19.1 Vanderheyden Palace, drawing by James Eights . 312
21.1 Unio eightsii, Isaac Lea, 1860 . 331
23.1 Decolopoda australis, drawn from a specimen collected by T.V. Hodgson . 374
26.1 Memorial tablet, installed by the Tawasentha Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, in 1933 . 382
x
A NOTE OF GRATITUDE TO INSTITUTIONS AND INDIVIDUALS
Some people who have helped me may not find their names in the list below. Should you be among that number, 1 acknowledge my haphazard practices and suggest that 1 have recorded my obligations to you in the main body of my study. Since provenance of mate¬ rial has often been noticed elsewhere, this list is unadorned. While I am grateful to both institutions and workers, in the final analysis, no institution replied to my queries: It was an individual and, very often, one who cared deeply. 1 am delighted to have encountered so many people who cared whether a person they did not know and probably would never see was well served. That, to my mind, is what scholarly functions are about.
Adams, Harriet Dyer; Aldrich, Michele; Alexander, Robert S.; Anderson, Kathy; Anderson, Robert.
Baatz, Simon; Balia, Wesley G.; Barmes, Jeffrey K.; Barnsley, Barbara; Beauregard, Christine M.; Boewe, Charles; Bogan, Arthur E.; Bowser, Sam; Breisch, Alvin; Bronson, Kelli Ann; Buszta, John W.
Cadbury, Warder H.; Callow, James T.; Calvin, Lynn E.; Cameron, David; Campola, Karen U.; Cohn, Alan J.
Dance, S. Peter; Daniels, Robert A.; Dean, Kenneth; Deiber, Gwen; Deiss, William A.; Dorman, Kathleen W.
Emerson, William K.; Ewan, Joseph. Fagan, Christine; Fais, Jennifer G.;
Fallon, Ellen; Fisher, Dana A.; Fisher, Donald W.; Friedman, Gerald M.; Fri is, Herman R.
George, Carl J.; Giddings, Edward D.; Goldsmith, Naomi; Grimm, Tracy; Gross,
Marsha.
Haggarty, Ann; Haller, Jerome; Hart, C. William, Jr.; Hedgpeth, Joel W.; Higginson, Ian N.; Hobin, James R.
llnicki, Henry; Irving, Suzanne.
Johnson, David; Johnson, Markes E.; Johnston, Ardis; Johnstone, R. Shawn.
Kearns, Jerry L.; Kennedy, Ruth S.; Kennick, Sylvia B.; Kirdahy, Carolyn; Kohn, Alan J.; Krause, David J.
Landing, Ed; Landrum, Bettv J.; Larsen, Anne; Leitch, Alae Risse B.; Levin, Janice; Loos, William H.
XI
Margolis, Carolyn; Mascarenhas, Joseph P.; McKinley, Paul; Messinger, Louise S.; Miller, Frank Char; Mitchell, Richard S.; Morris, Solene; Mrom, Judy.
Owens, James K.
Perkins, Lona C.; Pietrzyk, Gail M.
Rice, Norman; Richter, William H.; Robinson, Christine; Rothenberg, Marc.
Sanders, Albert E.; Sawtell, Shirley; Shapiro, Martin; Sheviak, Charles; Skiba, John B.; Speckhardt, Barbara A.; Spragg, Ed; Stein, Douglas L.; Stevenson, Sally; Stewart, Margaret M.
Teichroew, Alan; Thackray, J.C.; Thynne, Brian Duncan; Travis, Jeffrey L.; Travis, John N.
Underwood, Sally.
VanDereedt, Angie; Viola, Herman.
Walker, Charles A., Jr.; Weimerskirch, Philip J.; Wigdor, David; Williams, Geoffrey; Wingfield, Valerie.
Yochelson, Ellis L.; Young, Robert.
XII
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS FOR PERMISSIONS
TO PUBLISH
These paragraphs attempt to record my indebtedness to institutions, especially when material was provided for which permission to publish is required. Needless to say, my gratitude extends beyond this hare-bones list. 1 have no way to record the hundreds of libraries that have served my needs through interlibrary loan facilities. Aside from a few librarians, not otherwise identified, I have recorded nothing of my immense debt to the Library of the State University of New York at Albany. Many documents in the National Archives and in the New York State Archives have been used. They have been account¬ ed for at appropriate points in the text and are not listed here.
ALBANY COUNTY HALL OF RECORDS. License of Jonathan Eights to practice as a physician & surgeon, filed 27 Mar 1799; letters signed by Hunloke Woodruff, John Lansing.
ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY AND ART, including McKINNEY LIBRARY. I am grateful for a host of courtesies. For use of specific items requiring permission for pub¬ lication, arrangements have been made individually.
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, LIBRARY. Thanks are due for photo¬ copies of documents, none of them manuscript, notably a copy of Eights's "Report upon the mines and railroad owned by the Sullivan and Erie Coal and Railroad Com¬ pany of Pennsylvania," 1869 (James Hall Papers).
AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LIBRARY. Eights, letter to Charles Ridgley,
10 Feb 1838.
BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY. Letter, Lardner Vanuxem to William L. Marcy, 5 Sep 1836. Chamberlain Papers, CH.E.G.14.
DAUGHTERS OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, TAWASENTHA CHAPTER. Min¬ utes, 16 May and 21 Nov 1933.
GRAY HERBARIUM, LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. (1) Letter, Eights to Asa Gray, 17 Sep 1838. (2) Letter, John Torrey to Joseph Henry, 2 Aug 1838. Historic Letter File. (Used from copy in the Joseph Henry Papers, 4: 83-85.)
HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA. (1) Letter, Eights to Amos Eaton, 22 Jan 1823. Gratz Collection. (2) Letter, Charles Wilkes to Joel R. Poinsett, 1 May 1838. Poin¬ sett Papers.
HUNTINGTON LIBRARY. Letter, Eights to Benson John Lossing, 15 Jun 1856. Lossing Papers, LS624.
xiii
KANSAS, UNIVERSITY OF, KENNETH SPENCER RESEARCH LIBRARY. Constantine Samuel Rafinesque, Journal, 1833-1834. Rafinesque Collection, MS 13:1:5.
MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY, LIBRARY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. Letter, Eights to Amos Binney, 9 Aug 1834.
NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN, LIBRARY. Letter, Eights to John Torrey, 8 Aug 1838. Torrey Papers (previously. Herbarium, Columbia University).
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY. (1) Letter, T.R. Beck to Amos Eaton, 10 Sep 1822. T.R. Beck Papers. (2) Letter, Jacob Green to T. Romevn Beck, June 1832. Same. (3) Letter, Jonathan Eights to T.R. Beck. Same.
NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY. (1) Letter, George W. Clinton and James Eights, to Amos Eaton, 6 Jul 1826. (2) Letter, Eights to James Hall, 17 Feb 1858. James Hall Papers, PG 16478, folder 613.
NORTH CAROLINA STATE ARCHIVES. Letter, Ebenezer Emmons to John Gray Bynum, 12 Nov 1850. Private Manuscript Collection.
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, LIBRARY. Letter, Eights to Samuel Southard, 15 Dec 1840. Samuel Southard Papers, Box 65, folder 13.
SCOTT POLAR RESEARCH INSTITUTE, ARCHIVES. I am grateful for use of photo¬ copy of the Antarctic journal of Midshipman Joseph Henry Kay, from which a few entries have been quoted. MS. 894.
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, ARCHIVES. (1) Letter, from Eights to Joseph Henry, undated. Record Unit 305, U.S. National Museum Registrar, 1834-1958. Accession Records 1850/ James Eights / Accession no. 712. (2) Letter, Richard Varick DeWitt, to Joseph Henry, 12 Apr 1849. Joseph Henry Papers, RU 7001, Box 10. (3) Letter, DeWitt to Henry, 19 Feb 1850. Same. (4) Letter, DeWitt to Henry, 1 Jul 1850. Same. (5) Letter, DeWitt to Henry, 19 Aug 1850. Same. (6) Letter, DeVVitt to Henry, 7 Sep 1850. Same. (7) Letter, Abraham Eights Williams to Joseph Henry, 8 Jun 1849. RU 7001, Box 9.
U.S. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Journal of the Schooner Penguin bound to Falkland Islands & Cape Horn. Palmer-Loper Family Papers. Microfilm, Container 9, Reel 5.
XIV
SPONSORS
1 record here my special gratitude to sponsors whose contributions to a publication fund at the New York State Museum have made possible the financial support of the material costs of producing this book.
Harriet Dyer Adams Basic Biosciences Minigrants Samuel S. Bowser Carl J. George Helen Ghiradella
Brian and Hilla Kelly (illustration fund)
George E. Martin Margaret M. Stewart Henry Tedeschi
In addition, I am greatly indebted to salaried personnel at the Office of Cartography and Publications of the New York State Museum, for whose expert help and advice I have every reason to be thankful.
xv
Chapter 1
WHY BOTHER ABOUT JAMES EIGHTS? — THE EIGHTS FAMILY — DR. JONATHAN EIGHTS
JAMES EIGHTS: REFURBISHING A REPUTATION
It God helps those who help themselves, we can expect little assistance from the Almighty in regard to James Eights. He left a poor record of his life and work.
While James Eights published rather widely, some of his work being of a real pioneering nature, few of his letters survive. He left no diaries or journals or even detailed records of scientific work that today would gain him worldwide honor. Such specimens as now exist are minimally documented.1
Although much happened that was no fault of his, he spent the greater part of a long life paying little attention to the very substantial value of the specimens that he did gather, notably those connected with his pioneering work in the Antarctic. These w'ere poorly curat¬ ed, frittered away as duplicates by museum curators, and lost in mass transfers from the Albany Institute. If any went to the Lyceum of Natural History of New York, they were lost in an arson fire, unrecorded and unstudied.
He alluded in one place to a floral calendar of 30 years' duration he had kept. That, if detailed, would be of immense value to Albany Pinebush biologists today, but it seems not to have survived. A trace of it can perhaps be pre¬ cariously gleaned from various popular articles. Letters to and from him, manuscripts, full accounts of any of his many forays in lands ranging from the fringes of the Antarctic to
Tierra del Fuego and Chile, to Michigan, North Carolina, Panama, Mexico and, possibly, the American Southwest: All is most sparingly doc¬ umented, rarely ever by any effort of himself. Today's Antarctic scientists would dance in the streets if they could see Eights's very first fossil plant specimen from King George Island in the South Shetlands. Although he realized some¬ thing of the value of that fossil, you cannot be sure from published remarks if he actually had a specimen in hand or had been forced to leave it where he found it.2
Can he have failed to keep records out of a youthful vanity that his accomplishments would be visible in his published work and known ft) the world in general by his good repute among scientists? Did he, as a result of disappointments, then suffer a sea change and cease to care if his history died with his lonely, unsung self?
As will be seen, there was substance to James Eights. The purpose of my work is to document his accomplishments in various fields of natural history. This is a big undertak¬ ing for, by the year 1900, he was all but unknown to the world at large, even though there were then people alive who had known him intimately.
One would be justified in dismissing Eights, judging from references to him in many stan¬ dard works on the history of natural history and its specialized fields. Agassiz's bibliogra¬ phy of zoology ignored him. He got no room in George Brown Goode's history of the begin-
Chapter 1 1
nings of American science, even though Amos Eaton, with whom Eights collaborated out of the early Rensselaer school at Troy, and Stephen Van Rensselaer, certainly no more than a patron of science, were treated at length by Goode. Maybe he did not belong in the Fentons' Giants of Geology but he certainly ought to have been in Merrill's The First Hundred Years of American Geology. George W. White, a historian of Ameri¬ can geology devoted to overlooked contribu¬ tors, never noticed Eights, and Mary Ellis's extensive bibliography of science in New York State in 1903 gave him short shrift, despite his contributions to New York geology and, at least incidentally, to its botany and various fields of zoology.3
And yet, James Eights lived and worked and left a few marks by which we can trace his path, with some degree of confidence most of the time. It becomes evident that Eights knew many of the famous of his day. Maybe he knew too many of the wrong sort — artists, declaim¬ ing poets, editors, a few politicians. Ele also must have had some acquaintances who joined him in his occasional (perhaps sometimes sus¬ tained) alcoholic binges, when Demon Rum, at least in the eyes of concerned friends, threat¬ ened to put a premature end to his life's work. His father ultimately disinherited him, after a long period of what looks like a cossetted exis¬ tence. Whether he was dominated by his father or pampered by his mother (or both) is not known, but it all ended abruptly with their deaths, leaving him for a while as a ship with¬ out a rudder.
So, James Eights lived and worked. We even know something of what he looked like, although some mystery surrounds two of the three portraits of him. One portrait is a late por¬ trayal in oil by Albany's accomplished painter, Asa W. Twitchell — surely, indicative of Eights's high standing among at least certain of his Albany fellows.4
Nothing is known of Eights's education. Perhaps he was tutored privately. There is no indication that he was ever connected with the Albany Academy (founded 1813), although a later brother (one of three 'Abrahams' among his siblings) was schooled there.
Just as mysterious is the title of "Doctor"
frequently found associated with his name. He himself often added the term "M.D." to his sig¬ nature. He did, in one place, state that he was naturalist and surgeon on the exploring expedi¬ tion to the Antarctic that is his major claim to fame, and such may have been the case. There is no record of how much doctoring he did on the trip, for the log of his brig has been lost. He was briefly "Hospital Surgeon" in the Third Brigade Horse Artillery of the State military establishment, 1831-1836; but there is no indica¬ tion that he ever had an office or practiced his profession. Despite his evident long-term inter¬ est in medicinal plants, he must have been more naturalist than surgeon: In both fields, his expertise was practical, not academic. He may have gained his medical certification the way his father got his: by serving a period of intern¬ ship in a doctor's office (perhaps his father's?) and then being declared fit to practice. By the time of our concern, this would have been a decidedly uncommon way to gain certification.
As mysterious as his claim to being an "M.D.," there was the title of "Professor" a few times attached to his name. The nearest I can come to documenting the "professor" title is that McAllister's biography of Amos Eaton notices that "Dr. Eights" had been an invited "Examiner" at the Rensselaer School (now Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute), but the refer¬ ence is very likely to his father. Eaton wrote somewhat ambiguously on the subject, claiming that Eights had assisted him in teaching natural history to Rensselear School students, in a letter to Secretary of the Navy Southard, when Eaton was promoting Eights for the job of naturalist with the Antarctic exploring expedition.5
While no prodigy. Eights was a competent artist, especially in the field of biological illus¬ tration, and more especially in the case of inver¬ tebrates and fossils. But he produced acceptable landscapes and would ultimately be known locally more for his reconstructions of early Albany street scenes than for any other reason.
However unjust it would have been, we should still have heard next to nothing of James Eights today but for his early (and long neglect¬ ed) account of a mysterious Antarctic sea-spider with ten legs.6 Early in twentieth the century, a bright young zoologist, Leon J. Cole, recognized
2 james Eights, 1798-1882, Antarctic Explorer
Eights's worth and had the temerity to dig for news of him. By that time, Albany was not the place to find out much about one of its famous sons, but Cole hit pay dirt. He wrote to John Mason Clarke, who had come to New York too late to know Eights but found a few people who had known him. Clarke's mission then became rescuing Eights from oblivion. Clarke's work, published in 1916, triggered the "reincar¬ nation" that he realized to be long overdue.
THE EIGHTS FAMILY IN AMERICA, THROUGH THE TIMES OF ABRAHAM EIGHTS, WHARFMASTER
As is clear from a cursory encounter with the "begat" chapters of the Bible, a genealogical account does not provide exciting reading. Yet, at the risk of boring readers, 1 present what I have found out about James Eights's family. Some of this has been summarized in a well- researched account by Char Miller and Naomi Goldsmith. To it, I add previously unpublished information courteously supplied me by Miller (some of which must have come through efforts of Goldsmith). In addition, a few obituaries, some primary records, and a modest number of neglected accounts are brought together for the first time.8
The family name was of Dutch origin. Early spellings may have varied. John Mason Clarke was apparently correct to infer that the name first appeared in Manhattan as Eght or Echt, for the 1699 Dutch Reformed Church marriage records state that on 10 December, Willem Echt of Rotterdam and Marritje (Marie) Van Dyck of Amsterdam were married by Dominie Gualtherus Dubois (courtesy of Roger McNair, an Eights descendent, who has kindly shared this early family history with me). Heretofore, the earliest record has stated that these two, their names already anglicized to William Eights and Mary Van Dyck, emigrated to New York (City) in the late seventeenth century. In church records, however, it appears they were still called by the surname Echt. Clearly, the precise date of their emigration needs to be determined, given the date of their marriage. 1
have no further dates for their lives. Their first child, Catalina, was baptized 26 May 1701, hav¬ ing been born in 1700. Their son, later known as Captain Abraham Eights, was baptized 12 Nov 1701, as Abraham Echt; he later married Catharine (or Catherine) Benson (born in 1714). A second daughter, Maritie, born in 1703, was baptized 4 August 1703.
After Captain Eights died (date unknown; he participated in a New York City election in 1761), his widow removed to Albany in 1769 with their children, who included our own "Father" Abraham (10 May 1746-10 January 1820), grandfather of James Eights. Other chil¬ dren were: Marie, Elizabeth and Catharine. Marie (d. 1783/1784) married Hendricus Bratt on 9 May or 25 March 1776. There was one child, Anthony, born 12 October 1783, of whom no more is known. Elizabeth (ca. 1748-31 March 1838, aged 90; not previously reported) married Peter Hilton of Guilderland, New York, whom she long outlived. Children were Richard and others unnamed. Catharine (1751-3 October 1825) married Hendrik van Woert on 5 August 1773. They had seven children, listed but not further treated here: Abraham (born 13 Febru¬ ary 1777), Elizabeth (21 Aug 1779), Elizabeth (14 February 1782), Hendrick (3 April 1784),
William (7 September 1786), Catharina (29 April 1788) and Catharina (19 October 1791)/'
Just why the widowed family of Captain Eights moved to Albany is not clear. That it was an outpost with marine connections (a matter of concern to a family with shipping interests) and long, close connections to the Dutch may have some relevance. Possibly more to the point, the widow, Catharine Benson, was the daughter of Dirck Benson (1677-1725) and Elizabeth Rad- cliff. Dirck was the son of Samson Benson and Tryntje Van Deusen. Samson was the son of an earlier Dirck Benson, who came out from Ams¬ terdam about 1648; he married Catalina Berck and was living in Beverwyck (Albany) in 1.654.
While this Dirck Benson was a wealthy New York (City) merchant, he had Albany con¬ nections. In addition to Catharine Benson Eights, Dirck was also father of Eve, who was the first wife of Anthony Duane (1682-1747), born in Galway, Ireland. Anthony Duane
Chapter 1 3
bought an estate of 6,000 acres in the vicinity of modern Duanesburg in 1741. 10
True, while James Duane (1733-1797) and later Duanes were not related to the Eights fam¬ ily (they were products of Anthony Duane's second marriage, to Althea Keteltes), it is possi¬ ble that Catharine had maintained friendly con¬ tact with the Duane family.
Our Abraham Eights — Father Abraham — was a young man when his father died. Father Abraham (it is recorded that he did not early on deserve so saintly a title) received the "rudiments of a good English education." He was also made an apprentice to a sailmaker. It was in this trade that young Abraham got what Char Miller refers to as "a different sort of education," being exposed to "loose and profane company," as Abraham's memorialist put it. In any event, the Eights family quickly settled into life in the Albany area. Young Abraham married Catharine Broecks (Brooks) of Albany on 16 June 1770. His sister Catharine married within three years of that time; in another three years, Marie had mar¬ ried. 1 do not know when Elizabeth married Peter Hilton of Guilderland.11
Young Abraham, as might be expected of a Dutchman, stoutly defended the Colonial side in the Revolution. He served first as 2nd Lieu¬ tenant in the 2nd Company of the 1st Regi¬ ment of the City of Albany and then as Lieu¬ tenant, when he was transferred to the 3rd Company. He fought in battles around Lake George, the Mohawk River, and in northern Pennsylvania.
As Char Miller tells it, Abraham also fought the Devil, for he had undergone a conversion under the influence of the Reverend Gano, a Baptist preacher. He gained a faith that carried him unscathed through "'the dissipation and bustle'" of the Revolution. Upon his return to civil life, he became a member of the First Pres¬ byterian Church in Albany and was associated with it the rest of his long life. There he was called "Father Abraham" — partly, a reference to his upright life, partly a commentary on his stout service to the church, of which he was a trustee from 1788 to 1799 and a deacon from 1795 until his death in 1820.
Father Abraham stood high in Albany's business and civic communities in post-Revolu- tionary America. His mercantile business on Water Street was a bustling concern by 1784, where he sold everything from Mucavado sugar by the barrel to windmills for cleaning wheat. His long-time home was 28 Dock Street. In 1894, he joined with other proprietors (the Albany Wharf Association) in building a dock that ran from Maiden Lane to State Street. A year later, he was made "wharfinger" (dock- master), a position he held until his death. (Merchant though he was, he was consistently listed as a sail-maker in records kept by the First Presbyterian Church in entries for bap¬ tisms of his children.) Abraham also owned numerous parcels of land in the city.12
Abraham and Catharine (Brooks) Eights had 11 children. Sons were Abraham (1771-1798), Jonathan (1773-1848), and Max- inius (or, according to church records, "Mari- nus") (b. 1792; may have died young). Daugh¬ ters were Catharine (1775-1845), who married (1795) John Burton (born 1764); Rebecca (17767-1852), unmarried; Mary (Maria) (1780-1848), unmarried; Elizabeth (1782-1857), unmarried; Rachel (1787-1857), married (1814) Israel Williams (1786-1840); Phebe (1790-1869), married (1812) James Cobb (1788-1872); Ami (Anna)(l 788-1869), married (1813) Joseph Boies (1783-1866); Jane CJatharine?] (1796-1828), unmarried.13
Father Abraham ran a tight ship with his family, as he must have done with his business. Four of his daughters became members of the Presbyterian Church; he stipulated in his will that married daughters were to receive $500 each from his estate, with the same amount to go to those not yet married but who did so before their mother's death. Since Jonathan's medical education had been subsidized by loans from Father Abraham, his share of the inheritance was diminished by the amount still owing (in 1820! — clearly, Jonathan had been in no in hurry to settle that debt).
Father Abraham's funeral was preached by the influential orator, the Reverend Arthur J. Stansbury, on 30 January 1820, and was printed as "Mourning for the Righteous."
4 lames Eights, 1798-1882, Antarctic Explorer
DOCTOR JONATHAN EIGHTS, FATHER OF JAMES
Jonathan — the Doctor Eights, in spite of pretensions of James — was born in Albany 26 November 1773 and died there 10 August 1848. He married Alida Wynkoop (Wyncoop) (1773- 15 May 1849), of Dutch stock from near Coey- mans, on the Hudson south of Albany — just when, has not been established. Several dates in his life have not been determined with certain¬ ty. The record is only partly clarified by his own brief memoir written hastily and late in life (1847) and lapses by various biographers add to the tangle.14
It appears that Jonathan Eights was an enter¬ prising young man. He determined upon a career in medicine and, as was done in those days, he gained certification by working in the office of an established doctor, who then certified him as fit to practice. The Albany Hall of Records has this document. It is labeled: "License of Jonathan Eights to Practice as a Physician & Sur¬ geon — filed March 27, 1799." It bears quoting in full, quaint reminder of a simpler age.ls
"Albany March 22, 1799
" This is to certify that Mr Jonathan Eights was a student of medicine under my care & that of Doct Wilhelmus Mancius, with whom I was then connected in Business, from the month of October 1790 until sometime in April in the year 1794. That from his attention to his Studies and the opportunities he had of seeing many different cases both in Physic & Surgery, induced me at that time to give him a Recom¬ mendation, as a Person well qualifyed [sic] to practice Physic & Surgery, and I have under¬ stood from different persons where he has prac¬ tised, That he has been a successful & useful Practitioner since he left my care until the year 1798 about which time he left this State.
"Hunloke Woodruff
"The above named Hunloke Woodruff of the City of Albany Physician & Surgeon made oath that the preceding certificate is true before March 26, 1799
"John Lansing Jun. [end of page 1 1
"To all whom it may concern 1 John Lansing Junr Chief Justice ot the Supreme Court of Judi¬ cature of the State of State of New York do certi¬ fy that Jonathan Eights hath produced satisfac¬ tory evidence to me that he hath studied physic & surgery with Doctors Wilhelmus Mancius & Hunloke Woodruff two respectable physicians & surgeons of the City of Albany for the Term of two years & upwards & that in conformity to a Statute of this State entitled!?] 'An act to regu¬ late the practice of Physic & Surgery in this State' he is licensed to practice in both capaci¬ ties, his said Term of study having been com¬ pleted before the passing of the Act aforesaid.
"In Testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand & seal, at the City of Albany, the 26th Day of March 1799.
"John Lansing Jun."
There are apparent ambiguities in the record. Jonathan (with his wife Alida, it is said) departed Albany for the community of Canajo- harie, apparently in 1795. There, it is agreed, he set up the practice of physic and surgery. It appears that he remained only a short time in that position. His medical biographer, Sylvester D. Willard, intimated that he had "his certificate from the Medical Society of the County of Montgomery," in which Canajoharie is located; but this was clearly a certification issued later, after an absence from Canajoharie and later return there, and after his certification by the State, cited above.16
By Jonathan's own account, we learn that the initial residence in Canajoharie was a short one. It is now time to quote in full Jonathan's memoir of 1847, both to correct that important document where necessary and to introduce its several important facts.
When Jonathan was ill with what was to prove his final illness, he wrote at length on 27 March 1847, in reply to an invitation to a testi¬ monial dinner upon the fiftieth year of service of Jonathan's close associate. Dr. William Bay, at Congress Hall, Tuesday, 30 March. His replv, written partly to outline his own life's work, partly to correct an assumption on the part of the hosts that Bav was his superior in years of service, was as follows:
Chapter 1 5
"To Drs. Beck, Hun, Cogswell, P. McNaughton and James F. Boyd:
"Gentlemen — Your polite invitation to attend the complimentary dinner to my old and bosom friend. Dr. W. Bay, I have received, and I can assure you nothing would gratify me so much as to be present and join with you in ren¬ dering this mark of respect to that venerable and able physician. But I am compelled to forego that pleasure. — My long and continued illness will prevent my attendance, which you will accept as my apology.
"1 have known Dr. Bay since our school-boy days; but since 1810, when he removed to this city, a pure friendship has existed, which 1 hope will only terminate with life.
"I wish, however, in this connection, to cor¬ rect an error, which, if not noticed at present, might be recorded as a fact. I do this not to injure my friend — I would not pluck a single laurel from his brow — but in justification of mvself.
J
"I send you a short synopsis of my medical career, which you are at liberty to dispose of as you think proper.
"I was born in this city on the 26th of Nov. 1773, and received my classical education under the tuition of the late George Merchant, under whose care I was nearly three years.
"In the year of 1790, 1 commenced the study of medicine, under the late Drs. Wilhelmus Mancius and Hunloke Woodruff, with whom 1 remained until April, 1795. I was then examined by them in the presence of two physicians, then of this city, and received their certificate of com¬ petency, which, I believe, is on file in the Clerk's office in this city. Shortly after, I was solicited to go to the town of Coxsackie, then in Albany county. A severe bilious, remittent and intermit¬ tent fever was raging with great violence. I remained there until late in the fall, intending to make it my permanent residence; but a severe family affliction induced me to return to Albany, where I remained until the ensuing spring. I was then solicited to settle in the town of Canajoharie, county of Montgomery, where 1 remained until Nov., 1797, when I went to Philadelphia for medical improvement, espe¬ cially in surgery. My limited means, however.
prevented me from improving every opportuni¬ ty. I was kindly treated by several respectable physicians and surgeons, and every opportuni¬ ty offered to me for improvement. I remained in Philadelphia until July ensuing [that is, 1798, if his dates are correct], when I returned to this city, and the following spring returned to Mont- go mery county, and became engaged in an extensive and laborious practice until 1810. In May [of the latter year] 1 removed to this city, where I have been engaged in practice ever since.
"Dr. Bay is my senior in years one or two months; but from the above statement, which is perfectly correct, you will perceive I am his sen¬ ior in practice. The Doctor came into this city after I had settled here.
"I am, gentlemen, very respectfully, yours, &c. &c.
"27th March, 1847 Jon. Eights."17
A close examination will reveal inconsisten¬ cies in accounts of Jonathan's career in this let¬ ter and in the certification signed by Dr. Woodruff. Both accounts were written