The writer is the great grandnephew of John Boyd Thacher.
John Boyd Thacher is the namesake of the New York state park in which the geologic wonders, fossil record, and
scenic beauty of the Helderberg Escarpment are preserved for all time. The preservation of the area for scientific value and public use was a logical culmination of the life of a man dedicated to exploration, preservation and the public good.
The Formative Years
Thacher was born at Ballston Spa, Sept. 11, 1847 to George Hornell Thacher and Ursula Boyd Thacher. He was their second child, his sister Maggie preceding him by two years. His brother George Hornell Jr. came along four years later.
At the time of JBT’s birth, his father had recently left the Presbyterian ministry to begin a life as a manufacturer. In 1852, he established the Thacher Car Works, a foundry that manufactured railroad car wheels and parts for most of the railroads in the Northeast. The family business soon made the Thachers one of the wealthiest families in Albany.
JBT’s formal education began at Albany Academy, and later he studied under private tutors in Albany and in Frederick, Md. In 1865 he entered Williams College, graduating cum laude in 1869.
For two years at Albany Academy, he shared a classroom with a boy named Verplanck Colvin. Colvin later became the Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey from 1872-1900. His lifelong friend Colvin came to influence JBT’s love for the Adirondacks and the Helderberg Escarpment.
In 1867, JBT travelled to the Adirondacks during the summer after his sophomore college year. It could be that Colvin’s tales of his travels to the region the previous two summers had motivated JBT. His father had also explored the Adirondacks in 1862.
After graduating from Williams, JBT went to work in his father’s business becoming a partner in the firm on Jan. 1, 1873.
One year prior, on his 25th birthday, he married Emma Treadwell, the daughter of George Curtis Treadwell, Esq., of Albany.
The Politician
John Boyd Thacher was raised with an ethic of public service. He did not enter politics for money or power, as his family fortune afforded him both. In fact, each year he donated more to charity than he drew in salary from any of his public offices.
JBT’s entry into public service continued his family’s legacy. His father, a prominent Democrat, had served as the Mayor of Albany for four two-year terms between 1860 and 1872. JBT’s first public service was as a member of the Albany Board of Health. The tragedy of his sister’s death likely influenced his interest in public health. He was only eleven years old when his sister Maggie died at the age of 13 from the 1858 typhus epidemic.
Senator Thacher
JBT served as a Democrat, representing the Albany District in the New York State Senate from 1883-1886. His legislative efforts focused on improving the lives of the common person.
As state senator, he successfully abolished the system of contract work by inmates in the prison system. This was not for the benefit of inmates; rather, the free prison labor was in direct competition with and drove down wages for private sector workers. He also created a Senate commission, which pushed through major reforms to tenement-housing regulations to alleviate squalid living conditions in New York City and Albany.
In 1885, he was part of the unanimous vote that created the Adirondack Forest Preserve, precursor to today’s constitutional protections. He fought hard for appropriations to fund and expand Verplanck Colvin’s work on the State Survey of the Adirondacks.
JBT was proudest of one legislative accomplishment that preserved the honor of a great man. In 1885, General Ulysses S. Grant was slowly dying and financially destitute due to multiple business failures. The U.S. Congress bitterly debated placing Grant on the retired list of generals of the Army, which would award him a pension. The Democratic Party in control of Congress was not in favor of this act of justice. Against the opposition of the three most prominent Democrats in the nation, Thacher succeeded in passing a concurrent resolution in the NY Senate urging the NY congressional delegation to immediately act in favor of pensioning the General. He then travelled to Washington and lobbied hard to turn the opposition of his party, achieving passage of the act. General Grant died within six months of receiving this honor.
Mayor Thacher
At the end of JBT’s second Senate term, he was elected Mayor of Albany and served from 1886-1888. His term was noted for the organization of the Albany Bicentennial which celebrated the chartering of the city in 1686. During the four days of the celebration Mayor Thacher made nearly a dozen addresses on as many different subjects, orations published in a book called “Little Speeches.”
After leaving office, JBT was chosen president of the state league of democratic clubs – becoming a prominent leader of the Democratic Party in New York State.
A decade after JBT’s first term, he once again became Mayor in 1896. His second administration constructed Albany’s Union Station. Early in his second term, the New York Democratic Party nominated Thacher for Governor, but when William Jennings Bryan was nominated as the Democratic Presidential candidate on a Free Silver platform, JBT, an advocate of the Gold Standard, declined the nomination for Governor.
The Historian
JBT was an avid collector of early writings of Christopher Columbus and other explorers of the Americas. At the request of President Harrison, he became Chairman of the Executive Committee on Awards for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition to mark the 400th anniversary of Columbus’ discovery.
JBT was not only a Columbian scholar. He understood the value of preserving historical writings. The journal The Nation in 1903 wrote of his 41,000-item library:
“Mr. Thacher has attained to an eminent rank in the annals of book collecting in this country, as an exemplar of the true bibliophile, sharply contrasted with the mere lover of rare and costly possessions.”
In the last 30 years of his life, John and Emma travelled extensively in Europe and the Middle East in search of incunabula – rare 15th century manuscripts printed by the earliest printing presses.
He had an autograph collection of over 25,000 signatures, including a complete compilation of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. His collections included a Goddard broadside publication of the Declaration of Independence (one of only nine in existence), the original 1630 deed of sale of Manhattan Island by the Indians to the Dutch, four priceless Wampum Belts of the Iroquois Confederacy, and a pristine printing of the 1623 First Folio of Shakespeare.
The majority of his library collections now reside in the Library of Congress, a donation by his wife, Emma, and the Thacher family after his death.
John Boyd Thacher State Park
The protection of the Helderberg Escarpment for its scientific value and scenic beauty is a fitting tribute to John Boyd Thacher and Emma Treadwell Thacher’s lifelong love of exploration, preservation and the public good. As their vast library preserves invaluable written heritage, their park protects a unique geologic and fossil record.
In the late 1890s, Emma persuaded John to establish a summer home in Altamont — a sprawling country villa on a high ledge with expansive views to the east across the Hudson River Valley. From 1903 to 1907, JBT made it his mission to purchase farmland along the Helderberg Escarpment.
His desire to preserve the unique geology and rare fossil deposits of the escarpment was influenced by colleagues near and far. On one of his many research trips, the European intelligentsia educated him about the extraordinary scientific value of the famous cliff in his own backyard.
His childhood friend Verplanck Colvin had remained a close acquaintance throughout his life. Colvin had been one of the first to attract national attention to the escarpment. In 1869, at the age of 22, Colvin used the escarpment as his training ground to develop the surveying techniques he would use in the Adirondack Survey. Colvin’s detailed description of the area with his own illustrations was published in Harper’s Monthly Magazine. Colvin was part of a small group of dignitaries invited to a private luncheon with Emma Treadwell Thacher at the Thacher Mansion prior to the dedication ceremony for the park in 1914.
In the 1890s, the Thachers also became acquainted with Andrew Green, the founder of The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, and Professor Theodore C. Hailes, for whom Hailes Cavern is named. John and Emma believed in the mission of “American Scenic”, which warned, “Areas of primitive natural beauty are being seized upon for private uses and for profitable enterprises that are [likely] to exclude the public from their enjoyment.”
JBT purchased 350 acres surrounding the historic Indian Ladder on the Helderberg Escarpment to ensure public enjoyment of its wonders. After his death in 1909, Emma carried out his final wishes when she donated the property in 1913. The lands are preserved for the use and benefit of the People of the State of New York, to be forever known as John Boyd Thacher State Park.
