Stephen Van Rensselaer
(1764-1839)
BIRTH
November 1, 1764
PLACE
Manhattan, New York
DEATH
January 26, 1839
PLACE
Manhattan, New York
FAMILY
WIFE
Peggy Schuyler
(1758-1801)
HOMES
NICKNAMES
the Good Patroon
RELIGIOUS VIEWS
CHRISTIAN
DUTCH REFORMED
MEMBERSHIPS
RENSSELAER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE FOUNDER
AWARDS
Stephen Van Rensselaer III (1764–1839) inherited Rensselaerswyck, a New York estate, as a child. Educated at Harvard, he became lieutenant governor, a militia general, and a congressman, serving from 1822 to 1829. He supported the Erie Canal and founded the Rensselaer School with Amos Eaton in 1824 to teach practical science. Thousands of tenants farmed his lands. His public career combined political office, educational philanthropy, and landlord power.
EARLY LIFE
Stephen Van Rensselaer was born on Nov 1, 1764 in Manhattan, New York. The surviving biographical summary provides only limited evidence about childhood, schooling, and the daily circumstances of the household, so those details are not reconstructed here without documentation. What can be stated securely is that this person belonged to the interconnected family world from which HistoryGPS traces participants, relatives, and later descendants of the Revolutionary generation.
The available biographical record identifies Stephen Van Rensselaer with work or public activity as a soldier, statesman. Those roles provide the clearest documented basis for including this person in the database and should be read in the political, military, professional, or household context of the period. Stephen Van Rensselaer died on Jan 26, 1839 in Manhattan, New York. Additional claims about employment, public service, or accomplishments have been omitted where the consulted source did not support them.
CAREER
DEATH
Stephen Van Rensselaer III inherited Rensselaerswyck, a New York estate, as a child. Educated at Harvard, he became lieutenant governor, a militia general, and a congressman, serving from 1822 to 1829. Thousands of tenants farmed his lands. When the New York Life Insurance and Trust Company received its corporate charter from the State of New York in 1830, Van Rensselaer was an original incorporator, and he went on to serve as a member of the company's board of directors. Stephen Van Rensselaer died on Jan 26, 1839 in Manhattan, New York. The available biographical account does not describe a continuous final medical course. It gives no dependable sequence of treatment and last symptoms from which to reconstruct a more detailed bedside narrative.
Albany Rural Cemetery
3 Cemetery Ave, Albany, NY 12204
GRAVE
POPULAR BIOGRAPHIES
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