Skip the ‘state of the union’ on Tuesday, January 23rd,
and join the ‘state of Niskayuna’ rally and gathering
at 7 p.m. Town Hall, Niskayuna, where the action is.

Urge a NO vote on the Special Use Permit.
The vote is close.

One swing vote could save us from a Mall
at Ingersoll/Duncan/Schuyler/Stanford lands.

Parents: Bring your children.
It is their future, as well as our past, we speak out about.

Thanks, Carole, for more information about our Captain Richard Duncan. We share his history with our Canadian neighbors.

We wonder if this Mary buried in Schenectady is his only wife. And we’re very curious about the children. I hope we will eventually find answers to all of these questions, new to us, but may have been well researched by the folks in Canada. I am delighted that we have opened up our connections with people who are both connected and active in a history we have long neglected.

This research is certainly to be continued………..

We had a very warm response to a Canadian Loyalist educational visit, from a teacher at Paige elementary school today and hope all can be arranged for a visit on Monday or Tuesday. Other possible sites being explored. Since Shaun Wallace is bringing smaller size clothes of Captain Duncan’s era, that can be tried by young children, it will be fun for them to have this touch with a history they don’t know much about, either.

Saving this historical site is a challenge at this point, but is so important. I hope we do have a media event at the Public Hearing. Ernie Tetrault has ensured the Channel 16 public access team, who are set to video tape it. Selling copies of the taping will help cover the costs of our professional videographers, with some donations, we hope. It will be able to be viewed over the month between the public hearing on Tuesday and the vote on the Special Use Permit in February.

I got a call today from a woman who is a shut-in on Balltown Road, in her home. She regretted not being able to attend the meeting and said that many other older friends are in the same situation. But she has followed the mall vs. history issue, and called me because of the ad and articles in today’s Niskayuna Spotlight. She also had seen the television coverage and the interview Ernie Tetrault did of me some months ago.

She asked me to write up some of her statements and present them for her, as she has an injured hand as well as being on oxygen. I assured her that I’d do that. All over this area are people who are just enraged at the thought of losing that land to stores that would destroy the beauty of whatever piece of the building allowed to stand. The developer/construction maven, John Roth, plans to make rubble of the 1840 section as well as the very useful mid-20th Century section.

We do have legal plans if the Town Board votes to let this special use permit go ahead. A few people are involved in the data that will support our moves in this regard. But, we may get the members of the Town Board to recognize that we have every right as a town, to follow the many laws that lend themselves to protection of a cultural heritage of this quality. The State laws even allow for the town to purchase important edifices for historical preservation.

Linda Champagne
346-8316
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 11:58 PM
Subject: Captain Richard Duncan’s burial site?

> Dear Linda and John,
>
> You might already have answered Shaun’s question regarding Captain Richard
> Duncan’s burial site but in case you haven’t here is what I found at the
> SCHIST last Thursday. In the Duncan file and in the record notebooks for
> deaths, births and marriages, I found that Captain Richard Duncan died
> January 30 1819. Since he was born in 1749 he was 70yrs old when he died. I
> didn’t see any mention of where he was buried but I would guess he was
> buried at the Presbyterian Church Cemetery (I am assuming in Schenectady)
> since his wife Mary was buried there in 1815 (b.1770) Anyone know where the
> Presbyterian Church is in Schenectady? Is there a cemetery there also?
> Carole