Alonzo C. Paige

Alonzo Christopher Paige (July 31, 1797 — March 31, 1868) was an American lawyer and politician from New York.

Life

He was born on July 31, 1797, in Schaghticoke, Rensselaer County, New York, the son of Rev. Winslow Paige and Clarissa (Keyes) Paige. He graduated from Williams College in 1812. Then he was sent by his father to Montgomery County to study theology, but after some time abandoned this, and studied law instead in Schenectady. He was admitted to the bar in 1819.

He was a member of the New York State Assembly (Schenectady Co.) in 1827, 1828, 1829 and 1830. In 1828, he was appointed as Reporter of the New York Court of Chancery, and published 11 volumes of chancery cases until 1845. On July 11, 1832, he married Harriet Bowers Mumford, and they had three children.

He was a member of the New York State Senate (3rd D.) in 1837, and from 1839 to 1842, sitting in the 60th, 62nd, 63rd, 64th and 65th New York State Legislatures. He was a justice of the New York Supreme Court (4th D.) from 1847 to 1851, and from 1856 to 1857, and a delegate to the New York State Constitutional Convention of 1867–68.

To undertake real estate development on Hamilton Hill, where the original African Cemetery was located, Paige purchased land for an African Section at Vale Cemetery. He had the burials re-interred in Vale Cemetery at his expense. This protected the graves, as others had disturbed them on the hill in seeking sandy soil for cement making.^[1]

He died on March 31, 1868, in Schenectady, New York; and was buried at the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery in Schenectady.

Mayor of Albany John Keyes Paige (1788–1857) was his brother.

Sources

1. Katherine Olney Delain, et al. (2005). Biographies of Notables at Vale Cemetery. Schenectady: Friends of Vale

• The New York Civil List compiled by Franklin Benjamin Hough (pages 131ff, 144, 206ff, 210, 295, 351 and 353; Weed, Parsons and Co., 1858)
• The American Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events of the Year 1868 (Appleton's, 1869; pg. 608)
• History of the Reed Family in Europe and America by Jacob Whittemore Reed (Boston, 1861; pg. 120f)

External links

• Alonzo C. Paige at Find a Grave