Vieles and Harps

Two imposing portraits hung in our dining room all the years I was growing up in Troy, NY. On my father's end of the dining room hung the portrait of Ludovicus Viele. And on my mother's end, Hannah Viele. Hannah and Ludovicus were a severe-looking, middle-aged, 18th-century couple in formal black attire set against a studio backdrop of red velvet drapery. I never thought twice about WHY we had those portraits or who came to paint them or why they were even painted in the first place. My friends always got freaked out however by the way their eyes followed you as you passed through the dining room. Only recently, maybe in the last five years, have I been interested in genealogy enough to pursue any of these questions. Perhaps the trigger was a folded piece of paper I came across while purging my 'documents files,' which had gotten totally out of hand due to my habit of saving all my old mail rather than deal with it. The piece of paper had been typed by my father. It was a transcription of the label on the back of one of the two portraits documenting who was portrayed and who their children were. the label reads:

Ludowecus Viele and Hannah Pruyn
Ludowecus    Born           Mar 30, 1783
                      Married      Dec. 21, 1806     22 years
                      Died           Sept 23, 1850      66 years
Born, died and buried at Buskirk's Bridge, New York

Children:
1) Stephen                Apr 9, 1808          Oct 5, 1873           65 years
2) Magdalena           Feb 18, 1810        March 26, 1859     49 years
3) Francis Pruyn       Feb 13, 1812        March 15, 1857    45 years
4) Sarah Toll            March 10, 1814    Oct 9, 1895           81 years
5) Lewis Fort           Feb 18, 1816         Oct 19, 1820          4 years
6) Abraham Pruyn   Feb 13, 1818         Dec 25, 1819         1 year
7) Ellen Marie          Feb 6, 1820          April 12, 1898      78 years

I also know this about Hannah:

Hannah Francis Pruyn
b: Mar 9, 1791
d: Aug 8, 1874


When I came across this typed family history, I got to wondering. I sent an e-mail message to my whole family saying, "Check this out! All of the children of Hannah and Ludovicus were born two years apart, most of them in the month of February. What kind of birth control do you think they were using? Or was Ludovicus a traveling salesman, home only every other year?" Curiously, I got no responses.

To the best of my ability, I have made some guesses as to how the portraits of Ludovicus and Hannah have been passed down thru the years. Ludovicus and Hannah gave the portraits to Stephen Viele, their eldest son. Then they went to Margaret Jane (Jennie) Viele, daughter of Stephen Viele. She gave them to her son, Stephen Viele Lewis. As SVL was father of my paternal grandfather, William M J Lewis, he got them next and gave them to SVL II, my father.

Hannah and Ludovicus both came from old Dutch families. Ancestors of both families emigrated to New Netherland in the first half of the 17th century (1624 for Cornelis Volkertsen Viele and Johannes Pruyn, before 1657). Hannah's family was quite wealthy and owned a large amount of property on the north side of the Hoosick River, where Hannah and Ludovicus lived (at Buskirk Bridge). I have wondered why they had portraits painted. That they did suggests that they were people of means and social connections.

On the Viele line, I have run the genealogy back to Holland in the 1500s. The Vieles were some of the earliest settlers of Schenectady arriving around 1634.  The Pruyns were some of the earliest settlers of Albany and had an important presence there in the 17th and 18th centuries, living and running businesses in the North Pearl St and State St area.

On the Lewis line, I have gotten back to England or maybe Wales in the 1600s. John Lewis was one of the original settlers of Rhode Island, arriving in 1631.  He came from England. About four generations later, a Lewis moved to the Saratoga area and married someone from Albany.

I found some interesting information on the Harps, my paternal great-grandparents. Henry J Harp, father of Herbert S Harp (father of Madeleine Harp Lewis, my maternal grandmother), was postmaster in Green Island. Herbert was assistant postmaster when he was young. Then he started a gelatin factory in 1909, which continues in business today, selling a different product, as Ready Fund Raising Co. He also owned an ice house on the Erie Canal-Hudson River, which was destroyed in a storm in 1893, a loss of $5000. That is the equivalent of $850,000 today.

I have wondered about the wealth of the Harps, the parents of my paternal grandmother. Obviously they were people of substantial means. They owned Koonataha, a magnificent home on Lake George, and sleek wooden speed boat. I wondered if maybe Jennie Miller brought wealth to the family, but I found out a fair bit about her family that suggests she did not. She was one of 12 children. Her parents immigrated from Scotland. They lived on Hudson Av in Green Island, nearby to the Harps, who also lived on Hudson Av. Jennie's father worked as a molder, presumably in an iron works, either making molds for casting iron or pouring iron into molds. This may be a trade he came with from Scotland, as this was an important trade there as well. He was paralyzed before the age of 50 (as shown in census data). All the children of working age did something to make money. Sons worked as moulders or as laborers. Daughters worked in collar shops.

Here is a really interesting link to information on Troy iron works (with map and photo) and the job that molders did. Curiously, the article talks about the Duffy and Reardon families, likely the ancestors of the Duffy and Reardon families we know. They have iron molders among their ancestors too.

Also, here's a link to the Burden Iron Works Museum, which looks really interesting. 

Here's a link to an article on Troy's collar shops.

One more link to a fascinating article on labor and industry in Troy and Cohoes.