12 across the river to New Windsor for use in the construction of St. Thomas’s, a Gothic church being built there for the Episcopalian gentry. 15 As a consequence of this destruction, Isaac Brinkerhoff closed his brickyard, temporarily discouraging area residents from continuing to live near the railroad, which had seemed to violate their peace. 16 In these years of uncertainty, Margaretta evidently sold her interest in the inherited portion of the Van Amburgh farm to her brother-in-law, James Wade, in a sale managed by her trustee, David H. Van Amburgh. The transfers made January 19, 1850 indicate Margaretta’s sale of interest in the farming property, for which Wade paid $1,200. 17 Like her sister, Jemima Louisa had no intention of living her early married life in Fishkill, and with her husband James Wade, they abandoned the village for New York City and later Burlington, Vermont, by spring 1850. James and George Wade were nearly a decade apart in age, as were their wives. Jemima Louisa, who only used her first name in legal situations, must have met James in New York in the late 1830s, introducing herself by her first name. Throughout her life, Louisa manipulated her age, but she seems to have been born between 1821–1825 as the last of her father’s heirs. In 1838–39, the name James Wade, merchant, of 10 Dominick Street appeared briefly in the New York City directory, as it would for a single year, 1846, when George Wade resided in Boston. It would appear that James, born about 1818, took after his brother and followed his movements. The brothers’ birthplace in Massachusetts and parentage is unclear, but a large branch of the Wade family lived for generations in Ipswich, 30 miles north of Boston, perhaps prompting George to move there out of familiarity. Mercantile pursuits were the agenda of the Wade brothers, but not of the Van Amburgh family, whose industry, still primarily agricultural, required them to stay put.
