This blog post was written by library volunteer Erin Hill-Burns.
Editorial note: Every once in a while, a historian or historical society will find items that are not their scope and send them on to a more fitting repository. This recently happened when Saratoga County Historian Lauren Roberts sent us a family history book titled Happenings in Our Home that was kept by the Blakeslee family of Schenectady. Library volunteer Erin Hill-Burns did some extensive genealogical research on the Blakeslee family and found a very interesting connection between the Blakeslees and the Schenectady County Historical Society. Read more about the family below. - Librarian, Mike Maloney
On 17 April 1909, John Roy Blakeslee and Mabel Mary Shea, both
graduates of Cornell University, were married in Syracuse, New York. After a
honeymoon, the couple began their life together in Schenectady, where John had
a job at General Electric.
[1]
John was born 6 April 1878 in Whitehall, New York.[2] He grew up in Whitehall, likely
the son of John Blakeslee, a dry goods merchant, and Elizabeth (Spooner)
Blakeslee. The elder John died in 1892, Elizabeth died in 1912, and both were
buried in Whitehall.[3]
Mabel was born 21 February 1880 in Pulaski, New York and later
moved to Syracuse; she was the daughter of John W. Shea, a lawyer, and Sylvia L
(Cross) Shea.[4] John died in 1925, Sylvia died in 1943, and both were buried in Syracuse.
[5]
Shortly after their marriage, John and Mabel began keeping
notes of family events, gatherings, milestones, and more in a diary/scrapbook
titled Happenings in Our Home. This
book gives information and clues about their family history as it happened,
including some insights into everyday life in early 20th century
Schenectady.[6]
 |
2210
The Plaza, Schenectady (as of 2011). From Google Maps.
|
John and Mabel had one daughter, Sylvia Elizabeth, born 27
September 1913.[7] The family lived in rented homes in Schenectady until 1921,[8] when they bought their own house on
The Plaza in Niskayuna; “No more rent. No more flats,” they commented.[9] The house, at 2210 The
Plaza, was built the year they moved in, and still stands today.
[10]
By April 1928, John had worked at G.E. for twenty-five
years, joining the “Quarter Century Club.”[11] As of the 1940 census,
John had no occupation listed, suggesting that he had retired from G.E. before
then.[12] In the mid-1940s, John
served as Deputy Town Clerk in Niskayuna.[13]
In 1930, John and Mabel’s daughter Sylvia graduated from
Schenectady High School.[14] In her high school
yearbook, Sylvia was (self?) described as, “Sphere: Being quiet; Hope: To be
able to wisecrack; Sin: Studying.” Despite her apparently quiet tendencies,
that same yearbook listed her as a part of Glee Club, debating clubs, Le Cercle
Français, and the National Honor Society.[15] She attended Syracuse
University where she graduated with a degree in Library Science in 1934, and
then returned home and began working at the Schenectady County Public Library.[16]
Sylvia joined the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR)
in 1934,[17] and was regularly involved in DAR events in Schenectady over the years.[18] She was also active with
other social groups and happenings around town. [19]
As a member of the library staff, Sylvia was a fixture in
the community. She held discussions on recently published books.[20] She and others worked to
answer many diverse questions from library patrons; for example: “Amount of the
tuition to the University of Georgia. A student wanted to know how much money
to take with him;” “the burying place of Benedict Arnold;” “the correct formation
of the wedding procession;” and “dimensions of the court of the women in the
temple of Herod.”[21]
 |
| Newspaper clipping showing Sylvia Blakeslee (possibly in the middle) at the Schenectady County Historical Society. |
Sylvia was also involved with the Schenectady County
Historical Society throughout the years.[22] One notable contribution
was that, in a collaboration between the Schenectady County Public Library and
the Historical Society, Sylvia cataloged the 1,400 volumes of the Historical
Society library, which had never been cataloged. This required the
classification of all of the books, numbering them according to the Dewey
decimal system, and typing cards for a card catalog.[23]
On 7 February 1955, John Blakeslee died at age 76.[24] Less than two years
later, on 20 October 1956, Mabel died, also at age 76.[25] Both were buried at Park
View Cemetery, in Schenectady.[26] After her parents’
deaths, Sylvia, who was unmarried, remained living in the family home at 2210
The Plaza, and still worked at the library.
[27]
Around 1959, Sylvia married Howard Rowback.[28] After they were married, Howard
worked for the County Sheriff’s Office, Sylvia continued working for the
library, and they lived at the Blakeslee house, 2210 The Plaza.[29] Howard died about ten
years later, on 23 April 1968, and he was buried at Park View Cemetery, near
Sylvia’s parents.
[30]
Sylvia worked at the library until her retirement in 1971,
after thirty-seven years of service – apparently “the longest service record of
any staff member of the library.”[31]
In 2001, Sylvia sold the house at 2210 The Plaza, the home
that her parents purchased eighty years earlier.[32] Around that time, she
moved to Tinton Falls, New Jersey (a town where her cousin lived); she died
there on 15 April 2008, at age 94, “after a long battle with Alzheimer’s
disease.” No descendants were named in her obituary. She was buried back in
Schenectady, in Park View Cemetery, near her parents and husband.
[33]
Images from the Blakeslee's
Happenings in our Home can be seen below:
 |
| This page documents the Blakeslees vacation to Green Lake near Gloversville. |
 |
| Thanksgiving 1918 included "Carnations from Mildred". |
 |
| Sylvia "Betty" Blakeslee was a suffragette in the making, asking her mother why she doesn't get to vote when her father can. |
 |
| Mabel Blakeslee documents many events throughout the 1910s including the United States joining the Allies during World War I. |
“New York, Death Index, 1852-1956,” database with
images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/nystatedeathindex/), entry for John R. Blakeslee, died 7 February 1955. Death
Notices: Blakeslee, Schenectady (New
York) Gazette, month and date unknown, 1955, p. 27, col. 7; accessed in “Go
and Search My Archives,” searchable images, Old
Fulton New York Postcards (http://fultonhistory.com/).
“New York, Death Index, 1852-1956,” entry for Mabel
M. Blakeslee, died 20 October 1956. “Blakeslee Funeral to Be Private,” Schenectady (New York) Gazette, 22
October 1956, page number not shown, col. 3; accessed in “Go and Search My
Archives,” searchable images, Old Fulton
New York Postcards (http://fultonhistory.com/).
Find A Grave,
memorial 166123199, John R Blakeslee (died 7 February 1955), and memorial 166123200,
Mable Blakeslee (died 23 Oct 1956), Park View Cemetery, Schenectady,
Schenectady County, New York, Section D Lot 191; no gravestone photographs.
