Albany County Timeline

1800–1899

1800	Census fixes city population at 5,349.
1800	Register of Manumitted Slaves. The Albany County Hall of Records currently stores a volume of manumitted slaves and their owners from 1800-1828.
1803	Town of Guilderland is established.
1806	Cornerstone of old capitol is designed by Phillip Hooker and laid by Philip S. Van Rensselaer. Old Dutch Reformed Church at State and Broadway is demolished.
1807	Robert Fulton's steamboat Clermont makes successful run from New York to Albany in less than 29 hours, ushering in the age of steam and a transformation of American industry and life.
1812	War of 1812, or Second War of Independence. Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer leads attack on Queenstown Heights. Commodore Perry is presented with Freedom of the City Award in 1813 after Battle of Lake Erie.
1813	The Watervliet Arsenal is established out of fear of attack from England via Canada during the War of 1812. Battle of Plattsburgh turns back British invasion.
1815	Town of Westerlo is established. Battle of New Orleans makes Andrew Jackson a national hero. Treaty of Ghent ends War of 1812.
1817	Lancaster School is built in Albany. Work begins on Erie Canal.
1822	Town of Knox is established.
1823	Funding is appropriated for the creation of an Albany Basin, the interface between the Erie Canal's traffic and the Hudson River.
1824	Lafayette is welcomed to Albany on his tour.
1825	City celebrates opening of Erie Canal. A huge pier and basin for canal vessels is opened. The Seneca Chief is the first boat to negotiate the full length of the Canal.
1828	DeWitt Clinton, builder of Erie Canal, dies at his residence on southeast corner of North Pearl and Steuben Streets.
1831	Mohawk & Hudson Railroad makes its run from Albany to Schenectady Fifteen thousand canal boats and 500 sailing vessels arrive and depart.
1832	Town of New Scotland is established.
1832	The Novelty, first steamboat to burn coal, is built at Albany. Albany Orphan Asylum is built. Cholera epidemic takes 500 lives.
1836	Village of West Troy is established (will later become the city of Watervliet).
1839	General Stephen Van Rensselaer dies, he was the last Patroon and founded Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Helderbergs anti-rent war breaks out.
1841	First railroad to Boston opens. Albany Gas Light Company is formed.
1845	Second telegraph station in nation opens in Albany, line extends to Buffalo.
1846	New state constitution ends feudal tenure. Mexican War begins.
1848	Albany Penitentiary construction is completed.
1853	Erastus Corning becomes president of New York Central Railroad, with Commodore Vanderbilt consolidating several smaller railroad lines.
1861	Slavery, States' rights and Lincoln's bitter election split the nation. Reception in Old Capital for president-elect Abraham Lincoln. Regiments leave for Civil War. New York State promises to raise 200 infantry regiments. Over the next four years Albany loses an average of 15 men per week.
1862	Leland Stanford becomes the 8th Governor of the State of California. Governor Stanford was born in Watervliet in 1824. In 1861, he was a cofounder of the Central Pacific Railroad. Governor Stanford and his wife Jane would found Stanford University in 1885 following the death of his only child Leland Stanford Jr. in 1884, at the age of 15. Governor Stanford will state that the children of California would now be his children.
1865	Midnight celebration on word of Lee's surrender at Appomattox, VA. Lincoln's body lies in state at Capital, April 25-26. Conspirators in Lincoln's assassination are held in Albany Penitentiary while awaiting trial.
1866	First railroad bridge over Hudson River opens. The bridge had been opposed by watermen. Albany's horse-drawn street railroad in operation. The city of Albany spreads west and north.
1867	Work begins on present State Capital. Albany resident John Wesley Hyatt discovers celluloid, the first commercial plastic.
1870	City of Cohoes is established.
1881	Electricity lights the city of Albany. Work on present Albany City Hall begins, replacing the one destroyed by fire.
1882 - 1917	Albany County Jail uses the Bertillon criminal identification system, identifying multiple offenders by noting head and body measurements and personality characteristics.
1885	Albany banker Daniel Manning is named U.S. Secretary of the Treasury. General Ulysses S. Grant dies in Saratoga County, lies in state at Capitol.
1886	Bicentennial of Albany's City Charter is observed.
1890	Electric trolleys begin operating.
1893	Locomotive engine 999, built at West Albany Shops, sets world speed record of 112.5 miles per hour. King Fountain is dedicated in Washington Park. Van Rensselaer Manor House is taken down and rebuilt in Williamstown, Massachusetts.
1895	Town of Colonie is established.
1896	Town of Green Island is established.
1896	City of Watervliet replaces village of West Troy.
1898	Battleship Maine, commanded by Albany native Captain Charles D. Sigsbee, is blown up in Havana Harbor. Albany troops leave for Spanish American War. Cruiser Albany is named for city.

Sources:

• Kimball, Francis P. Knickerbocker News, September 18, 1959
• Internet Time Line for Albany, NY
• Hislop, Codman Albany: Dutch, English, and American, The Argus Press, Publishers, Albany, New York, 1936.
• McEneny, John J. Albany, Capital City on the Hudson, An Illustrated History, c. 2006 (with special material, “Albany Time Line,” by Robert W. Arnold III)
• Roseberry, C. R. Albany: Three Centuries A County, The Argus Press, Publishers, Albany, New York, 1983.