Taking the Census: Another Hudson Connection

Yesterday, Gossips published the information about the opening reception on Thursday of the exhibit The History of the Census in Hudson. The post was accompanied by this image, which was provided with the press release about the event.

Taking the Census, Francis William Edmonds, 1854, Metropolitan Museum of Art

What the press release didn't mention, but I'm sure the folks in the History Room know, is that Francis William Edmonds, the artist who painted Taking the Census, was born in Hudson. 

The biography of Francis William Edmonds found on the National Gallery of Art website says he was "born in 1806 into a large family in Hudson, New York, where he received a Quaker education. . . ." Evidence suggests that "large family in Hudson" was the family of Samuel Edmonds and Lydia Worth, the daughter of Thomas Worth. Samuel Edmonds was not one of the Proprietors, but he was here when the Proprietors arrived in 1783. Franklin Ellis, in his History of Columbia County, tells us this about Samuel Edmonds:

In the employ of Colonel Van Alen, at the time of the proprietors' arrival, was a young man not yet twenty-four years of age, who afterwards became well known in the annals of Hudson and of the county. This was Samuel Edmonds. He was born in New York city in 1760; entered the Revolutionary army when but a youth; served through the war, and became a commissioned officer; was present at Monmouth and Yorktown; and, on the close of hostilities, started out to seek his fortune, being then the possessor of a horse, saddle, bridle, two blankets, and a little Continental money.

If Francis William Edmonds was one of Samuel and Lydia's children, he was a younger brother of John Worth Edmonds, for whom Hudson's first fire company, founded in 1794, was renamed in the mid-19th century.

His biography on the National Gallery website calls Francis William Edmonds "one of the few mid-nineteenth-century painters to pursue a dual career in art and business." As a boy, he was introduced to outdoor sketching by the painter William Dunlap, who was one of his father's associates. He was to apprentice with an engraver, but that proved too costly, so instead, at the age of 17, he entered the banking business, becoming a clerk in the Tradesmen's Bank of New York City, a job secured for him by his uncle Gorham A. Worth. Throughout his career in finance, most of his positions were with banks in New York City, but in 1830 he was appointed cashier of the Hudson River Bank here in Hudson.

Two years later, he returned to New York to take a position with the Leather Manufacturers' Bank. He continued pursuing his art. In 1836, one of his paintings was exhibited at the National Academy, under an assumed name. "Sammy the Tailor." In 1854, the year he painted Taking the Census, Edmonds was appointed New York City Chamberlain, a patronage position that gave him some control of municipal funds. A year later, he resigned from all his financial positions when he was publicly accused of embezzlement. He retired to his country estate in Bronxville and established a bank-note engraving company. Edmonds died at his estate in 1863, at the age of 56. 

Biographies of Francis William Edmonds can be found here and here.
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