Men and Things in Albany Two Centuries Ago. 



49 



base coin. A sad fatality awaited the last relic of the old 

 collection implements. An officer of the church, having 

 only a practical appreciation for relics, cut the rod in two, 

 and acquired a portion of it for a walking stick ! 



Bodies were allowed to be buried under the church in 

 consideration of the payment of a sum for the privilege. 

 There was at first a grave-yard in the street, adjoining 

 the church on the west, and when the lot on which the 

 Middle Dutch church now stands was appropriated for a 

 cemetery, the bodies under the church were not all re- 

 moved, it may be inferred, for in digging a trench on the 

 north side of State street last year, it perforated the old 

 foundation still remaining there, and human bones were 

 thrown out. The dead were borne on the shoulders of 

 men from the church to the cemetery on Beaver street. 

 Although a trite sunject to many of you, I wall venture to 

 mention that in process of time this ground on Beaver 

 street was completely buried over, when a foot of sand 

 was added to the surface, and a new tier of coffins placed 

 upon the first, each coffin required to be square, and to be 

 placed against the previous one. The ancient denizens 

 of the city still repose there in three layers, and I wish 

 every one of their descendants could be thoroughly im- 

 bued with a filial sentiment of the impropriety, to say the 

 least, of ever parting with that ground ; but that the church 

 edifice now standing upon it might be preserved as a 

 monument to the venerated dead beneath. The bones of 

 Anneke Janse being supposed to rest there, and so great 

 a multitude claiming descent from her, and large expecta- 

 tions from her estate being so general, what adverse influ- 

 ence might arise from a mercenary alienation of those 

 bones, should give us pause ! 



Leaving this theme, we pass on to the place of the resi- 

 dence of the famous Anneke Jans or in the pronunciation 

 of the vernacular, Onneke Yonse, which was the corner of 

 State and James streets, the present site of the Mechanics 

 Trans, ix.'] 7 



