The Luke Family in Troy, New York
The City of Troy, New York is situated
on the eastern shore of the Hudson River,
eight miles north of the City of Albany.
Troy City was formed in the late 1780’s and is part of Rensselaer County. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 made Troy and important Industrial/Port city. Troy would become famous for its Iron Works and
Collar Factories. What Troy offered most was jobs. Job’s for immigrants and jobs for farmers who
could no longer scrape a living from the Earth.
By the 1840’s the farmlands of Albany County could no longer sustain the growing population.
The sons and
daughters of Henry Luke, a farmer born in Albany County in 1776 needed to consider looking elsewhere for farmlands or find
another way to earn a living to support their families. Some would move West, others would try their
hands at business in the City of Albany, while others would manage to find or marry-in
to local farms. In the 1860’s, Frederick
Luke, son of Philip and Grandson of Henry Luke would try his hand at farming in the
neighboring town of Berne, New York. With
young children, no help, and no steady income on leased land, Frederick Luke
found himself in a position where he could not compete. In the early 1870’s Frederick Luke would move
his family to Troy, New York, where he would for the first time, work for a
wage. In Troy, Frederick would work along side the many immigrants, in
particular the Irish. Along with the
immigrants there were many native New Yorkers, who like himself, could no
longer support their families by farming.
Frederick would one day leave Troy to return to a life on the farm. He would leave behind his sons Charles and Ira,
who would remain in Troy for the remainder of their lives.
The 1840’s also brought the Potato
famine to Ireland. This in
turn brought the Irish to Troy, New York. What in
fact brought the Irish, where jobs, jobs in the many mills and factories. William and Ellen Pickett and Michael and
Bridget O’Connor came to Troy and West Troy (Green Island) from Ireland.
Along with the Irish and the native New
Yorker’s, there were immigrants from other nations that would settle in Troy, New York. In Troy, the Luke’s, Pickett’s, O’Connor’s and
LaBoissiere’s would meet. The Luke’s
would meet and marry into other families, the Kennedy’s, Smith’s, Bain’s,
Shackett’s, Wager’s, Clickner’s, Freije’s and Ferris’s just to name a few.
There have been Luke family members
living in Troy, New York for the last 135 years.
click on the
following link to go to THE LUKE FAMILY HISTORY home page http://lukefamilyhistory.150m.com/