Monday, July 4, 2016

On July 3, 2016 the Syracuse Chapter ESSAR, the Thousand Island Chapter ESSAR, Kayendaysyona-Fort Orange Chapter NSDAR, the Ontario Chapter NSDAR, and the Sons of the American Legion, Post 418, Phonix, NY held marked the grave of Patriot Elias Cady in Merrett Cemeery, Granby, NY. Below are som pictures of the event.


Left to Right: Parks Honeywell, President TI Chapter, ESSAR, Bob Gang, with rifle, President Syracuse Chapter, ESSAR , Bruce Coyne, behind the flag, Registrar, T I Chapter, ESSAR .  The rifle salute squad.


Grave Dedication of Private Elias Cady
Merritt Cemetery
Granby, New York
July 3, 2016


The only debt that we can never repay is that which is owed to our brave military veterans. Today we pay our respects and mark the grave of Private Elias Cady who served in the Revolutionary war. Elias along with his brothers Elijah, Elisha, & David served in Capt. John Davis’s company of Whiting’s regiment as a Private in the 17th Albany County Militia during the Revolutionary War.  Elias’s oldest brother Ebenezer, also served as a Captain in the 17th Albany County Militia and brothers Eleazer, Elias, and John are also known to have served.  From various pension application records it appears that Capt. John Davis’ Company served doing guard duty primarily in the frontier area along the Mohawk River in upper New York State. 

In May or June, 1778, the company commanded by Capt. John Davis defended the Cherry Valley frontier and marched in a Regiment commanded by Colonel Waterman accompanied by another Regiment under Col. Van Alstyne to Albany where after remaining a few days. They then proceeded to Johnstown where they were stationed about a month and thence were ordered to Cherry Valley where they erected a picket fort and remained until they were relieved by other troops a few weeks previous to the Destruction of Cherry valley by the British and Indians under Brant and Butler.

On or about the 1st of May, 1780 the company of Captain John Davis served at New Concord, Albany County and thence marched by the way of Albany to Schoharie where men were billeted out on various scouts in different places. At the end of this service they marched back to Albany where they were dismissed and returned home on or about the 13th of June.

May 8, 1780 - Elias Cady was one of 19 men named in a document entitled “Marching Orders, May 8, 1780”.  This document was addressed to Capt. John Davis and signed by Col. W. B. WHITING, of the 17th Albany County Militia.  Elias Cady is identified as one of those militiamen ordered to march to Johnstown [NY] and there await further orders

Elias was born 7 November, 1752 and lived in what is now Columbia County [then Albany] county] where he & his six brothers and sister grew up.  He farmed in the  New Concord area from about 1762 to 1809   He then moved to Charleston / Burtonville, Montgomery County and lived there until about 1837 when he apparently moved to Granby, Oswego County, New York where he died November 10, 1838, age 86. 

Posterity can never estimate the sacrifice and sufferings of the patriots of the Revolution who are deserving of our thanks. Joseph Plumb Martin, a private in the 8th Connecticut Continental Line wrote of his experiences. In one passage he tells of marching for many long miles in the cold and rain with a sprained ankle. “When the column finally turned into a wood for the night it was so wet that he was unable to light a fire. He and his companions were “forced by necessity, to lay down and sleep if we could with three others of our constant companions, Fatigue Hunger and Cold”. Like Joseph Plumb Martin, men like Elias Cady also suffered great hardships so that we can live today in freedom. It is said that we die three times; first when our body expires, next when we are buried and finally when our names are last spoken. We therefore place this Sons of the American Revolution marker to thank, remember and honor Elias Cady for his service and for his sacrifice and for all that he gave to a grateful nation so that his memory can live on.

Robert J. Gang III
President Syracuse Chapter ESSSAR

Friday, April 1, 2016

Back at Last.

Sorry for the long absence. Last winter, if it's still snowing is it really over, was a busy one. As registrar for the Thousand Islands chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, I had several applications to work on. That's a good thing but it did take up a lot of the time available for genealogy. Ancestry announced it would no longer support Family Tree Maker which touched off a search for a replacement for FTM and Ancestry. FTM was sold to a third arty and they have updated it once so it looks like crisis averted.

Rootsweb blew up for about 6 weeks and when it came back up, it had lost about that much of the members sites.  The lists were also down.  Thankfully, I had the web site in a folder and was able to put it back to where it was before the crash.  When it went down I had around 11K hits and when it came back up, 5K.  After the update, the hits came back.

The Northern NY Genealogy site went down and was not expected back.  Thankfully we were wrong.  At a meeting of the Jefferson County NY Genealogical  Society, I learned that the Jefferson county Genweb site needed help so I'm writing code for it. 

I guess the bad weather gives me a chance to work on genealogy but it would be nice to see  the sun.