Joseph Henry Hidley "Noah's Ark"
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Framed Size : 28" x 27"
Hanging hardware included on back of frame
Framed in the USA
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Old Testament theme
 
JOSEPH HENRY HIDLEY (1830-1872), folk artist and landscape painter, though successful, never reaped much financial reward from his paintings during his short life. He could not have known that his paintings would be offered for sale on the Internet some 140 years later for US$3,800 or that over 160 of his paintings would hang in the Smithsonian Institution. For those of us who are interested in the Rensselaer County our ancestors knew, Joseph Hidley leaves us a pictorial record of the world in which he - and our ancestors - lived their daily lives.
Joseph Henry Hidley was born 23 March 1830 in Greenbush, the part that later became North Greenbush, Rensselaer County, NY. He was baptised 11 July 1830 at Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church in the village of West Sand Lake, in the town of Sand Lake, Rensselaer County. Joseph's family had close ties to this church through several generations.
His parents were George M. Hidley (1806-1834) and Hannah Susannah Simmons, who had been married on 24 March 1827 at the bride's father's home, as recorded in the marriage register of Zion Lutheran. Joseph's elder brother, James Henry Hidley, had died in infancy. Joseph had two younger sisters, Elizabeth Ann Hidley, born 27 March 1832, and Gitty Ann Hidley, born 11 September 1833; they, too, were baptised at Zion Lutheran. It is said that George M. Hidley died when Joseph was only four years old. George's parents were Michael Hidley (1772-1858) and Gertrude Cipperly (1731-1834). Joseph lost his grandmother within a year of losing his father, but he would have remembered his grandfather Michael Hidley, as well as Michael's last wife, Lydia. Joseph would have known his many Hidley cousins who all lived near each other in North Greenbush.
In about 1854, Joseph Hidley married an innkeeper's daughter, Caroline M. Danforth (1837-1870) of Poestenkill, Rensselaer County, NY, and settled in Poestenkill permanently. Caroline was a daughter of Lyman Danforth (1786-1863) and his wife Emeline (1803-1886), who had both been born in Massachusetts. Newlyweds Joseph and Caroline Hidley lived with her parents in the 1855 NY State Census (if you want to see their entry, click on this link, use your browser's "Find on this page" function, and search for "Heidley"). They had six children, of whom only three survived beyond early childhood. The six children are these:
Mary Hidley (1859-1863), who died at age four years;
Pamelia Hidley, born in about 1858 (and surely named after Caroline's younger sister, Pamelia Danforth Place, 1842-1929);
Joseph Lyman Hidley*, born in about 1861;
Carrie E. Hidley, born in 1863, died in 1864;
Emeline Hidley*, born in about 1865 (and undoubtedly named after Caroline's mother), died in 1954, married Edmund Hunt; and
Delpha D. Hidley, born in about 1867.
The 1865 NY State Census states that this marriage was the first both for Joseph and for Caroline and that Caroline at this time was the mother of five children, of whom only Pamelia, Joseph Jr and the unnamed Emeline were present in their household in 1865. Mary and Carrie would have been the missing two children; Delpha was not born yet in 1865 and would have been their sixth child.