Mundy Family
The
following was found in the Brief Personals in the last section of the 1885 History
of Warren County, New York, written by H. P. Smith.
“Mundy,
William, p. o. Chester, was born in Wiltshire, England June 19, 1823. Was
reared and educated in Wiltshire and learned the tanner’s trade, serving an
apprenticeship of six years. He came to America in 1843, settled in Hudson and
in 1848 was married to Angelina Reynolds. They have six children: Fred,
William, Robert, Sarah, Andrew, and Jessie. Mr. Mundy located in Chester in
1859, and established his present business, building 70 by 40 feet, with a capacity
for turning out 3,000 hides per year.”
The 1876
Beers Atlas shows W Mundy, Tannery, on the Friends Lake Road.
William
was the first Mundy in Chester on the 1860 census. Sarah Mundy, who married
Samuel Bowyer, was probably William Mundy’s sister. The 1850 census is the
first to show Samuel and Sarah Bowyer in Chester.
In the
1861 assessment records William Mundy owns 6 acres. In the 1862 assessment
records those 6 acres is now listed as a tannery.
Another
Mundy researcher found the following listing while searching for information
about William Mundy. He tried to contact the woman but was not successful:
“I bought a desk in New York 35 years ago, and discovered a secret
drawer with the U.S. citizenship papers of
William Mundy dated Oct. 10, 1857 in New York, NY. Allen Reynolds sponsored
William Mundy for citizenship. Other document is notice of Allen Reynolds will
listing Angeline Mundy as wife of William, residing in Chestertown, NY.”
This same
researcher says that he knows that William’s parents were Samuel Mundy and Ann Linch, and the Ann Linch is
buried in Chestertown. This researcher is: Bradford Mundy email
– btmundy@colby.edu
562 Belgrade Rd. phone –
207-564-3044
Oakland, ME 04963
I last
corresponded with him in 2013. He is the one who sent me the information on
Angeline Reynolds Mundy and her parent’s pictures.
William
Mundy operated a tannery on Friend’s Lake Rd. in the Town of Chester. He
employed about 20 men. His house was very nice and built like an English
cottage.
The
following is from a 1963 special sesquicentennial edition of The Glens Falls
Times celebrating Warren County’s 150th year. It
was written by Dr. John Magee, who tells about the part of the Town of Chester
clustered around the intersection of Route 9 and Friends Lake Rd.
Mundy Tannery
North of
the Culver mill on Friends Lake Brook was the Mundy Tannery. Will Mundy had
first located on the road to Loon Lake (Route 9) in a gully between the
entrance of the road to Palmer Rd. and where Olden’s
residence now stands. The water supply proving inadequate, he moved to Friends
Lake Brook. He enlarged a pond and built a tannery. It was in this tannery that
he and Andrew Thurston used the method of tanning sheepskin with the wool left
on. Moccasins made from these skins were manufactured for many a winter in the
extension at the Thurston house on North St. (Landon Hill Rd.) in the
village by Gorham May and later by his son Earl. The moccasins with the wool in
the inside were greatly prized by men working in the limber woods. They were
used by Thurston men when he lumbered the Lake Pleasant tract.