The Hatcher Family

George Edwin Hatcher was born in August 1865 in Canada, and was the youngest of seven children. The family later resettled in Bath-on-the-Hudson in Rensselaer County, New York. (Bath, East Albany, and Greenbush merged to form the city of Rensselaer in 1897. )

At the time of the 1910 census, George and his wife Cynthia lived at 23 Chestnut St. in Rensselaer with their three children, aged 12 to 18 years old. A housekeeper and her daughter also lived with them - seven people in a three-bedroom, half-duplex house in Rensselaer:

George E Hatcher; Born abt 1853; Canada English; Head
Cynthia H Hatcher; Born 1871; New York; Wife
Lester C Hatcher; Born 1892; New York; Son
Harriot C Hatcher; Born 1896; New York; Daughter
Melville G Hatcher; Born 1898; New York; Son
Georgiana C Rote; Born 1853; New York; Servant
Elma R Rote; Born 1880; New York; Boarder

George and his son Lester Calvin Hatcher were both listed as carpenters in the 1910 census, working for an unspecified builder, and carpenters were profiting from Rensselaer's building boom. In 1911, George bought several building lots in “Little Farms”, a new neighborhood on land that was once part of the old Forbes Manor. (Washington Avenue, a road which dates back to the colonial era, was known as Forbes Avenue at that time.)

Rensselaer city directories continued to list the Hatchers on Chestnut Street until 1914, so this house was built between 1911 and 1914. Between 1915 and 1917, the Hatchers don’t appear in the Rensselaer city directory, because this house was then outside the city limits.)

Son Melville George Hatcher graduated from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1915 and got a job as a clerk for the superintendent of the county poor (Mar. 8, 1916, Albany Evening Journal). Melville became a Baptist minister (eventually, so did his son, Rev. Melville G. Hatcher, Jr.).

Lester Calvin Hatcher enlisted in the Army and got married to Louise Gates, giving Rensselaer its “first war bride” (Jun. 27, 1916, Albany Evening Journal). Lester went on to serve in WWII as well.

By 1918, the Hatchers had moved back to their old address on Chestnut Street. By 1920, they’d “removed to Brooklyn”, according to the city directory.

In 1919, George sold Hatcher House to Alice Slidders (Jun. 6, 1919, Albany Evening Journal). Alice’s husband Robert G. Slidders was a commercial traveler (traveling salesman) for the John L. Thompson Sons & Co., wholesale drugs and chemicals, in Troy, NY. The Slidders family occupied the home for over 25 years.