The Philip & Maria Van Rensselaer Collection
First Generation 1747-1830
Philip Van Rensselaer (1747-1798) was a wealthy merchant and sloop owner and a member of the illustrious Van Rensselaer family. Maria Sanders (1749-1830), his wife, herself brought a share of wealth and clout into the marital partnership, as the daughter of one of Albany’s mayors and leading businessmen. Cherry Hill, the substantial “mansion-house” built for the couple and filled by them with fine textiles and furnishings, bears witness to Philip’s business success and the couple’s status among the Albany elite.
1747-1830 Highlights
The Solomon & Arriet Van Rensselaer Collection
Second Generation: 1774-1852
Arriet Van Rensselaer (1775-1840), daughter of Cherry Hill’s original master and mistress (Philip and Maria Van Rensselaer), married her first cousin, Solomon Van Rensselaer (1774-1852) in 1797. The couple at first split their residence between an Albany townhouse and a property called “Mount Hope,” which was broken off from the original 900-acre Cherry Hill estate. After the deaths of both of Arriet’s parents around 1830, she and Solomon came into ownership of Cherry Hill itself.
1774-1852 Highlights
The Elmendorf Household Collection
Third & Fourth Generations: 1814-1920
With no surviving male heirs, Solomon and Arriet Van Rensselaer’s Cherry Hill descended to their daughter, Harriet Maria Van Rensselaer Elmendorf (1816-1897), after Solomon’s death in 1852. The Elmendorfs lived at Cherry Hill from the 1850s through the 1880s. There, Harriet Maria’s husband, Dr. Peter Elmendorf, operated a medical office and managed the Cherry Hill farm, and the couple raised a daughter, also named Harriet Maria, but most often called “Hattie” (1844-1920). The family was joined in 1860 by three-year-old Catherine Bogart Putman (1857-1948), the daughter of (the elder) Harriet Maria’s close cousin who died that year.
1814-1920 Elmendorf Highlights
The Knapp Family Collection
Third & Fourth Generations: 1814-1920
The Knapps — William James (1843-1885), Jane Amelia (1845-1898), Richard H. (c.1850-1907), and Harriet Maria (Minnie) Elmendorf (1852-1903) — were siblings raised as servants and wards of the extended Van Rensselaer family. According to Cherry Hill family genealogy, the children were of African American and Native American descent. Recent research has supported the long-held theory that their mother- Jane Jackson Knapp- was the granddaughter of Dinah Jackson, who was the last person enslaved at Cherry Hill.
1814-1920: Knapp Highlights
The Catherine Van Rensselaer Bonney Collection
Third Generation: 1817-1890
Catherine Van Rensselaer was the youngest child of Solomon and Arriet Van Rensselaer, and the granddaughter of Philip and Maria, Cherry Hill’s original occupants. In 1856, Catherine married Reverend Samuel Bonney, and the couple traveled to China—to Canton and Macao—as missionaries. Under their sponsoring organization, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM), Catherine served as a “help mate” to her husband—but against their will and independent of their support, she implemented an initiative of her own, opening a school for girls. Catherine Bonney’s papers and collections reveal a life of devotion to her faith and to her Chinese pupils, an experience of physical hardship and illness, and an attitude of sometimes critical fascination with Chinese culture.
1817-1890 Highlights
The Rankin Collection
Fourth & Fifth Generations: 1850-1963
Catherine Bogart Rankin (1857-1948) was the great-granddaughter of Cherry Hill’s first occupants, Philip (1747-1798) and Maria (1749-1830) Van Rensselaer. Rendered a “half orphan” upon the death of her mother in 1860 and essentially abandoned by her father, Catherine was raised at Cherry Hill, per her mother’s dying wish, by her older cousin, Harriet Maria Van Rensselaer Elmendorf (1816-1896)..
1850-1963 Highlights
