A Walk through the History
of Valatie, New York

A Tour of Prospect Hill Cemetery with Dominick Lizzi

October 5, 2003 - An eager group of area residents and tourists joined Valatie Village Historian Dominick Lizzi for a stroll today. In the pleasant surroundings of Valatie's Prospect Hill Cemetery, participants ambled through two hours of a spectacular autumn afternoon and two hundred years of fascinating local history. At left, Dominick welcomes the crowd of nearly fifty.

One of the first monuments to catch the eye upon entering Prospect Hill Cemetery, the obelisk shown at the right marks the graves of Bliss (d.1847) and Lucinda (d.1821) Corning, parents of Erastus Corning, the famous industrialist, railroad magnate and political leader, whose great grandson, Erastus Corning II, was in turn the longtime mayor of modern Albany (served 1942-1983).

Historian Lizzi points out that the Corning family played a prominent role in Valatie's early history. John H. Corning, younger brother of Erastus, served as Valatie postmaster and was a member of the village's first board of trustees in 1856.

The sign in the foreground of the photo above marks the site of the burial plots dedicated to Valatie veterans by the John W. McConnell American Legion Post. A graduate of Valatie High School, Middlebury College and Albany Law School, John W. McConnell was the first of three Valatie men killed in World War I. He is buried where he died, on a battlefield in France.

Left, Dominick points to the inscription on the monument of Nathan Wild. An immigrant from Manchester, England, Wild was a pioneer in the then-emerging American textile industry. After stints in Rhode Island and in Columbiaville, NY (where he operated a mill with his brother), he came to Valatie in 1817. Eventually owning two mills on the Kinderhook Creek and the Valatie Kill, Wild introduced the first power loom in New York state. He remained in the business until 1858, and died in 1867. His mills, along with several others in the village, played an important role in the life of the community.

Morgan Chrysler entered the Union army a private and left, four years later, a general. Historian Dominick Lizzi reports that he was one of only four men to attain that distinction.

Called an excellent "citizen soldier" by students of the American Civil War, General Chrysler returned to his farm after four years of distinguished service. He died in 1890.

The photos above represent but a few of more than thirty grave sites visited during the history walk. After the tour - over cider and doughnuts served by Valatie Library trustees - many participants expressed their appreciation and voiced their anticipation for the upcoming publication of historian Lizzi's book on the "Forgotten History" of Valatie. Trustee Clair Renn encouraged everyone with an interest in local history to get involved in the library's Local History Interest Group. Contact the library for more information.

The Prospect Hill Cemetery Tour was jointly sponsored by
the Valatie Free Library, the Village of Valatie,
and the Prospect Hill Cemetery Association

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