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HISTORY of FEURA BUSH

EARLY HISTORY OF THE CAPITAL DISTRICT

The original inhabitants of the New York Capital District Area came around 1000 A.D. They were Algonkian-speaking people known as the Mahikan and were followed by the Iroquois and Mohawks. Many arrowheads have been found in the Feura Bush area to remind us of this. Henry Hudson arrived in 1609. The Dutch West India Company gave a charter to Kiliaen Van Rensselaer to establish a patroonship that extended along the Hudson River from Cohoes to Coeymans, and twenty-four miles to the east and twenty-four miles to the west on each side of the river. Teunis Cornelis Slingerland and Johannes Appel purchased an additional 10,000 acres of land near Feura Bush, not owned by the Van Rensselaer family, from the Indians in 1685.[i]

NAME OF FEURA BUSH

On early maps of the area, the word Moakville is found, between Unionville and Feura Bush. Later, the current Feura Bush was called Jerusalem after the church. When the post office arrived, it required the name be changed because there were other towns named Jerusalem in New York State. The name Feura Bush was chosen. The oral tradition in Feura Bush says that the name of the town is an old native word that means “fire bush.” It is said that the natives saw the many pine trees with fading sunlight on their needles and felt the hills looked like they were on fire.

According to Howell and Tenney's History of Albany County 1609-1886, some of the earliest settlers were named Moak, Brate, Bradt, Sager, Creble and Bogardus. In 1886, there was a Reformed Church, schoolhouse, store, tavern, wheelwright, blacksmith shop, a dozen homes and fifty inhabitants. There must have also been a place to pick up mail, because the postmaster's name was J.M. Peck.

[i] John J. McEneny, Albany : Capital City on the Hudson: An Illustrated History. (Sun Valley, Calif.: American Historical Press, 1998), 6-7, 33-34.

JERUSALEM REFORMED CHURCH

In 1825, the present Jerusalem Reformed Church was built in Feura Bush on what was then called the Plank Road. The church was designed by Philip Ogsbury, and the dedication for the new building was held in February of 1826.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE RAIL YARDS AND THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

In 1913 the New York Central built the Selkirk Rail Road Yards to replace the outdated West Albany Yards. Feura Bush is at the West End of the Yard and some of the people who worked in the Yards began to settle here.

In 1968 the New York Central reconstructed the Yard . The updated yard had 133 miles of rail and 400 switches on 633 acres. The new switching yard was computerized and can handle 2300 cars per day. To see a more complete history see Selkirk Super Facts A Web page of the Mohawk and Hudson Chapter of the National Railway Hisorical Society

When the reconstructed yard was completed , industry , transportation , and warehousing businesses were attracted to the area because of the ease of shipping by rail. General Electric built a large plastics plant and Owens Corning insulation and other industries followed.

Much more information about Feura Bush available in : A Short History of Feura Bush by Judith Wing , available from the New Scotland Historical Association.